Sitching a Bluebird of Happiness

Well, sparrows actually....  two of them.  Right here on my boring black apron.

Thanks, Sublime Stitching for the adorable design! Nothing like a couple of happy little songbirds to brighten up a cold January day!

My Favorite Part of the Ham

My husband is a confirmed carnivore...  so when he saw a spiral sliced ham on sale for $1.29 a pound after the holidays, he could not resist the urge to "stock up."  We are not planning on any major gatherings or celebrations in the near future, so we divided it up for sandwiches and put most of it in the freezer.  I did not object to this purchase, even though I am not even slightly interested in gorging myself on anything, much less ham.  The reason I did not object is because a ham means a ham bone with some meat attached... and that means SOUP!  With a chill in the air and a ham bone beckoning, I cooked up a great big pot of ham and bean soup.  I love this stuff!  There is something comforting and calming about soup, and this is one of my favorite varieties.  Mmmmm.

ALMOST DONE DE-DECORATING

All of our indoor decorations are down, packed and stored in the attic.  There are still a few outdoor decorations left to pack up.  I must say though, the Hubs is a genius.  I was dreading lugging all those heavy boxes and containers up the attic ladder one at a time, when he hands me a rope to hang over an attic beam so we can pulley the stuff up there, me up in the attic, him giving the boxes a boost from below.  Worked like a charm!

DE-DECORATING

That's the word my Dad has given it. "De-decorating." It is so anti-festive.  If it were up to the Hubs, we would leave Christmas up in the house all year long.  I can see his point, after all, Christmas decorations remind you of the Christmas season, and of Joy and Peace, and of families coming together.  The colors and smells, and OH YEAH, tastes... are so mood enhancing!  Then again, leaving Christmas up all year would rob all of life's other celebrations. Besides, one of my little joys in life is opening up the boxes to decorate.  Every little item collected through the years is a memory, and each of them brings a smile to my face - some of them a tear to my eye.  You have to put the stuff away if you want to open it again next year.

And a word about feathered babies

My 3 1/2 year old Timneh African Grey parrot, d'Artagnan, is my baby.  Did I mention that he is 3 1/2 ? He also acts like he is a toddler, because in essence, he is.  This species of bird can easily reach the age of 50, and even up to 70, depending on his health and care taking.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint), his mental age will never surpass about 5.  He is an attention hog.  And he speaks. English. He says the standard parrot stuff....  "hello"  "Hellllloooooo" and he says other stuff.  Incessantly.  "What are you doing?" "What do you want?" "Pick me UP!" "PICK ME UP UP UP" "No BITING!" He says his own name.. I think he thinks it is my name, too.  He says, "Want some?" (His version of begging for table food), and "Sinbad! NO SCREAMING!  I'll spank your butt!" (Sinbad is my DH's yellow collared macaw.)  He will even mimic Sinbad's scream, and then say, "NO SCREAMING!" This is but a sample of d'Artagnan's antics.

Sounds cute, huh?  He is very cute, and I love him to pieces.  Just want you to know, if you are considering adding a long lived bird species to your family, that they require as much attention as a human toddler, and they are toddlers for their entire lives.  You will probably have to will your pet to someone who will properly care for them, because chances are, they will outlive you, especially if you adopt them well into your adult years.

What I did with all those bananas!

My DD gave me a lovely big bunch of bananas from her backyard tree, way more than my DH and I could possibly eat before they would spoil. 

I mashed most of them into two cup portions and put them in the freezer for later baking.  Some of them we ate, and with one two cup portion I tried a new (to me) Banana Bread recipe:

Peanut Butter and Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

I doubled the recipe to make two loaves, but I was not totally satisfied with the results.  Having said that, I should confess that I substituted butter for the vegetable oil, and added more chocolate chips than called for. The resulting loaf is not as pretty as the one at the above link, and it is tasty, but a little heavier than I like. The next use of mashed banana will probably go to regular old banana bread.