Oh my it is down right frigid -6!!! I don't remember the last time we were in the negatives. My poor old house just can't keep the heat in. The poor old pups are not liking this at all. Even my older guy who braves the cold and snow is feeling it. I ran the fireplace all day just to keep the house above 70. We are supposed to warm up to 22 lol heat wave.

Today I am going up to Joe's while DS is at work. We are going to take down the tree and get his house in order. Neither of us feel great so we are keeping it simple. I am bringing soup with me for lunch. I doubled the recipe yesterday so there is enough for an army. I've been in the mood to watch Forest Gump. Dare I say it, Joe has never seen it. Definitely in my top 5 favorite movies of all time.

What does everyone have planned? Coffee is hot and reach whenever you are

Mmmmmm! Hot coffee is priority today. I wish I could give the dogs some but ... Our cold snap is relenting a bit - it's actually above 0ºF right now and we will see a balmy 36 tomorrow with another dump of snow. Enough already!

Not sure what the day will bring as I'm still nursing the dregs of this cold. I did get out of the house yesterday to pick up the mail and buy dogfood. I also bought a very off-program frozen lasagna as I'm getting pretty tired of soup. I'm trying not to feel too guilty about that. Pasta is such comfort food.

More de-Christmassing will happen today. I wish I had started an amaryllis or paperwhites before Christmas as the house always seems so bare when the tree is down.

Stay safe and warm as we head into the real winter month.

Jennifer - I need to take down the tree as well. I'm trying to remember if you mentioned in another thread what soup you made? (and I haven't braved to look at the temp yet....)

Ruth - paperwhites are so pretty. I wonder if my cats would eat them (wanna take any bets?). That's the joy of dieting....forgive yourself, have the occasional indulgence, and move on.

For me - I slept until 7:30?! Coffee is about done...and the house is starting to stir. I need to take down all the Christmas stuff, and think about my food plan for next week.

On the SBD aspect of things, I've been doing well on sticking to phase I items, but need to stop nibbling, and to drink more water. Little steps, little steps.

Good morning. We are expecting snow tonight but the frigid cold is coming tomorrow. I'm working the closing shift so will be watching the snow come down and thinking about getting out at 9:30 and having to clean off my car. Oh well.

DS and his friend decided to hit the road after dinner last night to get ahead of weather on the road. We convinced him to go the southern route; he really wanted to go through Colorado but that was right into the weather. The drove until 3am and are in the TX panhandle. He should be clear for weather now.

I've been cleaning this morning - returning my once again empty nest to some semblance of order.

Have a great weekend.

Good morning. The temperature has climbed to 14 this morning after a high of -6 yesterday. Turned out I got some exercise yesterday after all- it had snowed enough overnight that DH and I did quite a bit of shoveling. The bad thing is the layer of ice underneath everything from the big storm the weekend before Christmas. It will probably be there until spring.

Today I must do the cleaning I ignored yesterday and do some schoolwork. I also need to go to the other grocery store in town to pick up a few items I can only find there.

As Tammy said, I am taking baby steps towards getting my eating back over. I am having a hard time being patient; I have this vision of weight falling off practically overnight when I first started SB but I've down P1 for 2 days and the scale hasn't budged! Guess I might have to stick with it a few more days. Bad habits are so hard to break.

I usually leave my tree up until Epiphany but I must get things back up in the attic before DS1 leaves next weekend. I need his help to get the boxes up the stairs. I like the idea of looking for some bulbs to force to perk things up when the decorations come down.

Have a great day everyone.

Good morning I am so glad we set-up the coffee maker last night. We woke to no water. Apparently the pipe to the water tank froze. That should make for a fun morning. Oh well, hope that's cleared soon and we can get on with the day. I think it will be a another soup/stew night!

Oh Cyndi, horrible!

Beth, we're in the same boat, eh?

I had to write - I remembered egg foo young (why this popped into my head, I dunno). So, I just made some for breakfast, without the bean sprouts (LOL...that's 1/2 of the point of egg foo young, but oh well), and it is DELISH!!! I'm amazed...I'm enjoying eggs *without* cheese!


If someone's not had it, here's a recipe...
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Egg-Foo-Young-2/?prop31=2

I basically did it with ham, celery, onion, garlic, ginger (used powdered, couldn't find my root), and soy sauce with 2 eggs.

Good morning!

Last night it was down to -3 before bed, but it's a bright and sunny 8 degrees now! I think I will do some inside things today. Maybe I will follow Ruth's plan and start to de-Christmas the house, and or at least put away all the Christmas dishes.

Cyndi, I hope things work out with the water at your house! Thank goodness you have the coffee.

I am going to be sticking close to phase one for the next couple weeks or so...1 pound to go to reach my pre-holiday-season weight, and then hopefully I will begin losing for the New Year!

Stay warm today!

Where is everyone this AM? Too cold to get out of bed, I'd bet!

Yesterday was a good day, both diet and otherwise. Went on the dreadmill a while, took down the Christmas stuff, got some cleaning done, and watched a couple of star wars movies with the kids . My DD said Princess Leia wasn't very pretty...

Today I'm not sure what's on tap. Unfortunately they're saying all that precipitation we're getting may be ice (or rain, I'd rather have rain, but I really want SNOW!). That may cancel our evening class, we'll see!

I'm enjoying the menu threads...I'll look thru there while planning my menu today!

Tammy, I was just wondering the same thing: am I the only one awake? (and did you purposely say "dreadmill"?) My kids always loved Star Wars and can recite whole sections of the dialogue.

Just enjoyed a couple of "high protein breakfast cheesecakes"; I will certainly make that recipe again! Now I'm sipping my coffee and mentally planning my to do list. Yesterday was quite productive running errands and such but there's always more to do. This is the end of my vacation but I am keeping it in perspective: if Christmas break doesn't end spring will never come right?

I found an amaryllis on the 75% off shelf at Lowe's yesterday. Whoohoo! I figure if I put it in the dirt today I may have blooms around Valentine's Day. Looks like DH is covered for giving me flowers.

Have a great day everyone!

Good morning. Snowy and collllld here. Fortunately I have nowhere I need to be so I'll hang out at home and put soup in the crockpot. DS made it safely back to LA. I admit it - I missed having his dog here to greet me when I got back from work last night.

Keep warm.

Good morning. Believe it or not, I have started sleeping later. I think this cold/flu thing has wrecked my internal morning alarm. I sure hope so because there is no need for me to leap out of bed just after five!

A light snow is sifting down which is supposed to end up as 20 cms or 8". We surely don't really need it. Usually I manage to keep the dog yard deck cleared but it's sure not cleared this year. At least we don't have that marrow-freezing cold this morning - 26ºF feels absolutely balmy.

I'm still dealing with the dregs of this cold but am starting to feel better. Maybe I'll get dressed before noon today! Just kidding because I need to get at it and fill the darned bird feeders. The juncos and sparrows are waiting patiently but the blue jay is getting very annoyed that there's no suet. I sure don't want to get the jays and woodpeckers mad at me.

Have a good day and stay safe in the storm if it hits you today and tomorrow. I see school closures already.

OK - coffee and then outta here.

Good Morning

I've been up...just dealing with niggles. I'm going to switch over all my files in the office to 2014 before heading up to the project. I already have unfileable paperwork stacking up. It never ends!

Cyndi, It seems from your FB photo that you have water again. I went up and checked the vacant rental last night....just because!

everyone else!

Happy Wintery Sunday!

Ruth your comments about the the blue jays and wood peckers made me laugh. Joe is still sick with his cold. I didn't wait and started myself on antibiotics huge difference for me. My Dr warned me I was going to have a rough winter with sinus infections, so I am not taking my usual "wait and see approach."

Beth lucky find at Lowes. Hope your bloom is gorgeous whenever it maybe.

Tammy last night when I got home I went right upstairs and did something I normally don't do.....used my iPad in bed. Too darn cold downstairs. Next thing I realized it was 1am. So yup I stayed under the covers a wee bit longer today.

Karen I think I am staying put today. I may venture to Pet a Smart for a new doggie bed. My old guy decided it was way too cold and used it for a wee wee pad. Fortunately the part where they sleep is not affected, but the darn thing needs to go anyway. Guess he just helped speed up the process.

Cooking, cleaning and cycling are on the agenda. DS goes back to school finally tomorrow. DS GF is coming by to do her laundry later. I couldn't imagine not having a washer and dryer at home.

Ok time to check the recipes and plan my grocery list for Tuesday.

Well, I braved the snow and refilled the tall seed feeder and put out more suet for the peckerheads. When I had the door open, one brassy little chickadee came right into the back room. I guess he wanted to peck me too for neglecting the small birds. Disney held her ground but wimpy Jazz ran into the kitchen.