Amy Currioman

My horoscope said nothing about how great today was going to be. First, I went to Starbucks and they gave me a free chocolate cherry mocha coffee. They had made one for someone else who decided they didn’t want it and the barrista didn’t want to throw it away, so she asked me if i would like it. Heck, yes!

Then I went to Home Depot to get a couple of rakes for my overdue yard work and went to the self checkout. The rakes both had the bar codes on them, but the second one would not scan. the checkout display said to wait for assistance. I waited and waited and even with 4 idle workers milling about, no one came to help me. So I got a little ticked off and loudly asked “Where’s my assistance?” the clerk came and tried to scan the rake, but it didn’t work. So he went somewhere else and left me standing there along with a growing line of other impatient customers. When he came back he tried to scan it one more time. It still didn’t work. He leaned toward me and said softly, “I’m not going to charge you for this rake. It’s not your fault the scan won’t work and I’m sorry you’ve had to wait so long.” He smiled and handed me the rake – another freebie!

Have you made any New Year’s Resolutions this year? One of mine is to waste less food. I am apalled every week when I get ready to go to the grocery store and I rummage around the refrigerator to see what needs to be thrown out and find so much food that has been there too long to eat!

Part of the problem is that often times when I cook supper the rest of the family decides at the last minute that they aren’t going to eat dinner. Now I know I’m a good cook, but the only time I can count on everyone coming to the table is if it is take-out Chinese Food or take-out Pizza. And I am NOT ordering take-out food every time we need to eat supper! So I think that I will put the rest of the family in charge of the meal planning, the shopping, and the cooking. I’m tired of wasting time, energy, and money on trying to feed this family. As for me, well I can just fix myself a PB&J sandwich or a bowl of soup if no one cooks!

My family asked me to have the big Thanksgiving dinner at my place this year. Well, of course I said yes. I know I’m a good cook, but I happen to have a lot of things that need to get done for other commitments, so I decided to purchase one of those pre-cooked Thanksgiving meals from the local grocery store. I picked it up the day before Thanksgiving and took it home. My hubby carved the turkey – it was a pre-cooked Butterball turkey. It was on the small side, but the meat was juicy and tender. As for the side dishes – they were a complete waste of money. I hope that next year I can just buy a pre-cooked turkey and make my own side dishes!

But everyone that came to the meal enjoyed the food and had a good time. And that is the important part of it all, isn’t it!

I’ve noticed that my pants are starting to get snug already!  And I haven’t even put on my thermal underwear yet!  I’m packing on my winter weight early this year!  I think that I have to blame the economy – money is so tight that I’m falling prey to the temptation of comforting myself with inexpensive food treats!  That is not something that I’ve done before – usually when I am stressed I tend to avoid eating and I lose weight.  Obviously this type of eating is my lame attempt to reward myself for getting through the day!  I fear that I am going to have a struggle on my hands over this one!

Do you ever feel hungry but don’t want to eat anything? That happens to me all the time! My stomach is growling and my hands start to tremble, and I even get a hunger headache! But I don’t want to eat anything – nothing appeals to me! This is a dangerous time because now is the time that I would probably grab some empty-calorie type of snack just to head off the hunger pains! I’d love to be able to grab an apple – we were given a ton of them recently, but for some crazy reason ten minutes after I’ve eaten an apple I feel hungrier than I did before I ate it! Sounds crazy, right?