Exhaustion~~

....It hit me about 1:30 today.  I think it was the 2 days of driving, pre-Christmas, then the actual Christmas Day that caught up to me.  Most of my loved ones gathered all day into my mother's smallish house, then food preparation, fussy baby, food clean up....any of this sound familiar? The stress of just so many personalities in one room?  I think I lost 3 pounds just stressing.  We had 4 generations in one house.  So blessed.  Ever notice "blessed" rhymes with "stressed"?  Just askin'...


Well, our Grand Baby is 2 months and 3 weeks old now.  She is the most beautiful baby ever.....according to her doting Grammy and Grampa. She is laughing and doing some mimmick work now and then.  She is a loyal daughter, too.  So many loving relatives trying to soothe her unhappiness, but at the voice of either Momma or Daddy and she came to silent attention.  This was momentary, but loyal all the same.  It's only fair.  Only he and she who have suffered from sleep depravation deserve that attention....  


I wrote all of the above the day after Christmas.  I am now 4 days out from that, after an 11 hour drive home, I am reminiscing over the past week.  We left our home in Colorado 2 days earlier than planned due to an incoming snow storm, so all of the last minute buying, wrapping, planning was condensed into a 3 hour time span.  Believe me, that was a total record for me.  I am a two-day packer and at that, I leave my toothbrush behind....

I have so many loved ones, friends and memories in my home town.  My wonderful mother and step-dad, my son and his wife and Baby Grand, a sister, life long friends and old neighbors.  Every corner of this town holds a memory of my younger life.  I was born and grew up in the same place and only moved ONCE!  I guess I've made my point about what holidays and visits do to my heart while I'm there. I want everything to be perfect when it comes to our get togethers.  That's unrealistic!  We had a few typical glitches in ours, but it was memorable and nice.  The grandsons had their traditional football toss and we wives and moms laughed and remembered when these were tiny little boys playing this game together.  I always have one missing man in mind while watching these games who never saw even one grandchild.  My father is still very dear to my heart and I see him as I walk through my mother's house.  I see him proudly watching his three big, strapping grandboys play their game for him.  They are good young men....and he is proud.

   

Five More Days Til Christmas!

Good Morning!


Are you finished shopping, wrapping and planning?  I didn't think so and neither am I!  Short blog today!


I am up at 6, having a little quiet time, and when I checked in on my blog, I noticed that the advertisements in the margins had finally arrived!  I did subscribe to general advertising.  I have no idea what will be listed, but I hope they are interesting and of good taste!  Let me know if not.  So far, there have been ads for some local Colorado businesses and WalMart. They should be similar to the advertising you see next to emails and on other blogging sites.  At least they will add more color! :)


That's all for now! Can't wait to get out and about early today for some stocking stuffers and crossing off the LAST items on my list!


Have a Wonderful Christmasy Day!~  

PARTY TIME!

And that means FOOD!


Although the Bronco game ended badly, we still had a marvelous time at a friend's house this afternoon.  I wanted to share some of the recipes I used that turned out very tasty.  I found 2 of them on Allrecipes and 1 on Pinterest.


Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels


Bacon Wrapped Smokies


Cream Cheese Lemon Bars


I microwaved the little Smokies for about 2 minutes on paper towels to get the bacon almost done, then broiled them in the oven at the end to get a little "crispy" going on them.  Only one left at party departure time!  


The Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels were really addicting!  Somehow, I am really loving the sweet~salty thing this year.  I would like to find time to make the New York Times Chocolate Chip cookies.  They have a sprinkle of sea salt on top!  In fact, I'll just see if I can find a link up on that one too.  Hang on....


NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

I guess you could use the Toll House recipe and just add the sea salt. Hey!... slice and bake.....OR, even better, the ones in little squares already cut....place on cookie sheet....Bam! the sea salt on top and done!!  


til Tomorrow!~

A Swedish Shopping Day!

Absolutely fabulous day!  Today was our IKEA trek!  And that's exactly what you had better be prepared for...a trek.  Lace up some Nikes before you embark on it and you'll be fine, though.  My friend and I only had to travel a few miles from my house...IKEA, the new mega store from Sweden, is dangerously close to me...and as we crested the hill, the big blue shopping day awaited us.

Because I had been lost in this place on my last visit, we decided to grab a map...

Oh that looks easy enough, but they don't give you a legend.  Each dot stands for a city block!  Not really, but believe me, it's miles of shopping heaven.  As you enter you can get a cart that looks similar to a Home Depot pallet mover on a slightly smaller scale.  They also have big yellow shopping bags, but the idea is to write down the item number of the big stuff for the warehouse area at the end, and load it right before check out.  There are also many smaller items that you can collect as you go, though.  


As you first walk in, there are little showrooms featuring living rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, dining rooms.  For $6000, you can have this kitchen:

Like I said, you just take the number to the warehouse and pick up everything in BIG, FLAT boxes.  Serious assembly required.


You follow the gray, cement road...following arrows painted on the floors.  Heaven forbid you backtrack!  Actually, the arrows and the signage are very good.  If you can read, you can do IKEA.

The two sections that impressed me the most were the kitchen and the lighting areas.  I fell in LOVE with a butcher block kitchen cart that would fit purrrfect in a nook of my ever-evolving kitchen. 

This is a beautiful, heavy, solid wood island that I cherished, also.  If I had the room, this would be my favorite!

Try making that for $199!  I'd spend that in ibuprofen and Aspercreme alone!


I think we spent the most time in the Lights.  Here are just some of the creative lamps, pendant lights and chandeliers we saw:

The lights pictured above baffled us.  There is a dial on them to gradually change their colors from green, to blue, to red then white.  HOW would you use these?  Are these the 21st century "stobe" lights?  Then to the right of these are some flat screen TVs, and positioned behind them are more of these lights!  Ohhhhhh, THAT explains them!  You light up the back of your flat screen!!!!  What? 


OK....on to things I understand.  Nine dollar lamps that sit by your bed to light up a book!

Before you get to the end of your trek, the cafeteria aromas begin to attract you.  The food is a superior value!  If you get to IKEA before 11, breakfast of eggs, bacon and coffee is free!  Wish we had know THAT!  By this time it was way after our lunchtime!  Each day presents a "special" ranging from 99 cents to $2.99.  In Denver, this usually buys you bottled water :}  We opted for a veggie wrap, chips and a drink, however, and it was $5.  We tried Lingonberry for our beverage.  I guess there are alot of Lingons in Sweden because it was right up there alongside the Pepsi and Tea!  It was very good!


So, because my crockpot chili was probably properly cooked and my friend needed to get to her side of town before the rush hour - oh and did I mention we were dog tired?...we opted to call it a day. Do you believe we got out of there for a $5 meal and that's IT?  Oh, but the ideas I have!  Like that kitchen cart....I can hear it softly calling "lynda....lynda...."

Merry CHRISTMAS to All!!

Greetings and Salutations!!


I haven't written for awhile, and I've missed my little blog!  I'm so sorry I have neglected you!  Christmas Season has had the best of me. However, I have been out and about on the internet and have found some fun websites that I want to share with you!  I'm so excited!!  Read on...


The first one is Pinterest.  It is a bulletin board of ideas that you "pin" to this site under your name.  Sort of an "inspiration" site.  I find crafts, recipes, pictures and other things that interest me and instead of bookmarking the whole site, I "pin" it!  Take a look at the board I have started, and then create one for yourself!  Just click: www.pinterest.com/TomorrowAtTara : Caution! You'll spend hours if you are not careful looking at other boards and all the great inspirational ideas out there! When you find that recipe or craft idea that inspires you, just "repin" to your board!  Oh the joy!!


Another fun place to explore is www.etsy.com.  It's a marketplace of handmade and vintage items. You can even sell your own handmade things if you want!  Etsy is actually an online craft show without the rain, or in my case, the snow!  I found some really cute purses for a very reasonable price there.  The first one was a beautiful shade of blue with a big bow on the front.  However, I saw that it was being shipped from Thailand.  Now... nothing against the Thai, but I'm shopping American Made if at all possible! A few pages more and I found close to the same style made by a girl in St. Louis....now that's American Made, hunny!  Just write me up some Missouri handmade purses!  Again, before you embark on an Etsy journey, you must just march yourself into the kitchen first thing and set your timer or you will be on that site for hours.  Just warnin'.....  


Well, that's all I have for today, just inspiration and art.  What could be better???  Only a snuggle from my most wonderful baby granddaughter, who now has a curly crop of hair right on the top of her little head.  Oh I miss her warm little self all cuddly under my chin.  She smells so sweet and she "squeaks" when she sleeps...like a little kitten. 


How.much.love.can.you.have.for.a.baby?  I haven't found the end yet! ~~or ever, I hope!


Oh, next week, I do have an IKEA excursion planned.  This will be my 2nd time. The first one didn't count because I went by myself "just to do a quick pass through" and got LOST!  Truth!  I had a map, too!  Well, if  you've been to an IKEA you are nodding your head in an understanding way.  It's the Dane's way of messing with us Americans! "Get them lost so as to BUY their way out!!!" In my quest for purchasing only USA goods, I may relent on a few things once I get there.  Well you should SEE the prices!  And for trendy, well made stuff! I promise I won't hurt America too bad.  I have a budget, ya know!


I will post pictures of our trek down the IKEA Lane and let you in on some prices and items that you'll love....but that's for Tomorrow~~~


Good night my sweet friends.  Thanks for reading my blogs and giving me feedback.  I love writing it and I love you!~