Dear Hubby HiJacks Crazed Mind

I insist that my lovely wife stay in bed and rest her knee.  She is doing much better but will be house/pet sitting again this week.  And I know she pushes it when I am not watching.  So today I am hijacking her blog and doing the post/review for her.  Hope you can bear with me.  By the way....if I like this I may be here more often!

Dear Hubby's review of Probiotics for Dummies by Dr. Shekhar K. Challa, Board Certified Gastroenterologist

This was my first experience with dummies books and was really surprised.  It was in a format that I did not have to read the whole book but it was so interesting I read the whole thing anyway.  Learned quite a bit.  Educational and interesting both at the same time.  Not only did I learn that Probiotics was helpful for my immune system but also for Crazed Mind's R.A.

The goal when I was reading was to learn how Probiotics could help us as we are entering our Golden Years.  Found out as we age we lose bacteria in our digestive system.  Probiotics can help replenish those so that we will not be so apt to have some of the diseases that seniors face.  Our immune system deteriates as we age.  There are supplements that are available over the counter.

By the way, Probiotic is a good bacteria.  It is needed to help maintain good health.  You ladies may want to know that Probiotics also help with yeast infections and UTI's.  Hey, a guy trys to keep his lady healthy.  Cheeses, yogurts, sauerkraut are a few of the foods that can help you gain the Probiotics that you need.  I know that Crazed Mind is pushing a yogurt a day at me now.   It is the fermention that helps create the good bacteria.   I especially like that there were recipes that Crazed Mind could make here at home.

This is the one that I want her to try first.  Well at least to make for me.  It sounds perfect.  The Grilled Gruyere Sandwich with Sauerkraut.  Now that is something I could really sink my teeth into!

Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Sauerkraut on Rye

Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Sauerkraut on Rye Recipe

INGREDIENTS

• 2 slices dark rye bread
• Several thin slices of aged, Gruyere Swiss cheese
• 1/3 cup drained and heated sauerkraut
• 2 teaspoons of butter

METHOD

1 Heat a frying pan to medium high heat. For each slice of bread, butter one side and place slice butter side down on the hot pan.

2 Add a layer of cheese to one of the slices. As the bread begins to toast just slightly, and the cheese begins to soften, spread the heated sauerkraut over the slice of bread with cheese. Using a spatula, flip the cheese-less bread slice over on top of the slice with cheese and sauerkraut.

3 After 30 sec or so, check to see if the cheese is just beginning to melt. If it is, flip the whole sandwich over onto the other side. Toast a minute more or less on that side until the cheese has melted, but isn't runny. Remove the sandwich from the pan. Slice in half.

Serves one.

Busy as a Bee

Another busy day as usual.  Well I did get off to a very slow start.  Yet have accomplished what I wanted to do before 5 p.m.  So what did I do?

Started off by putting up books I have reviewed on PaperBackBookSwap.com.  Love that site.  As much as I read and am sent books there are still those I want that are not here as of yet.  So I troll PBBS for them.  Also I list the books I have reviewed but are not in my keeper shelf.  (Hint:  Authors all signed books are always kept!)  This is a great way to keep from having too many yet getting what I really want.  Currently I am waiting on another Jerome Charyn book, Citizen Sidel.  It is a continuation of Blue Eyes that I had told you about!  I also packaged up 6 of the books I listed today to mail out.  Did not take 5 minutes from listing them to having notices popping up for request.  What a great mail out I will have tomorrow.

Next I had JDL (aka College Girl) help me rearrange the office.  Dear Hubby has always wanted a piano to tinkle away on.  Lucky us, we were offered one from a friend for FREE!  Yes, you heard me right.  So we needed to make room for it in our home.  I am going to add it to our office/private suite.  Moved around 4 bookcases (unloading and reloading), file cabinet, storage boxes, chairs and wooden cabinets.  But over all we made room and have a space cleared for the piano.  Dear Hubby will be ever so pleased.  Now he just has to have the guys help him pick it up and move it in!

I also did the usual dishes, laundry, sweeping, mopping and all that comes with daily house work.  Dogs cared for and lunch served.  Thankfully I have my ever trusty helper, JDL, here for now.  I know it will not be long though.  She has had 3 job offers in the area and is taking up two of them.  So it will be a work-a-day world for her in no time at all.  Actually she just walked in and told me she starts one job tomorrow morning.  Yippee!  I know these are not the jobs she wants but are able to help her start getting those first steps on getting out on her own.

The Lipton Ice Tea logo as used in many markets (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Oh and with all the work that was done we were very hot and tired.  The best part was that Klout sent me a Perk today too!  I have the new Lipton Tea & Honey instant drink mixes.  You know the lil packs you pour into a water bottle, shake and drink.  The flavor we have is Mango Pineapple.  Yum!  Also only 5 calories so that works well for me.  I love their slogan, Drink Positive.  What a great way to look at your day.  JDL is looking forward to trying out the Blackberry Pomegranate.  Since we also received .50 cent off coupons with our samples then I can get her that flavor quite soon.  Dear Hubby will steal all he can since he drinks water non stop at work with the drink mixes in them.

Also I had this pop up in my mail today.  I knew you would want to look it over and hopefully try them out.  You know that I am a big Disney Movie fan and BRAVE now opening in less than a month (June 22^nd) I wanted to share some delicious Scottish recipes in the theme of the film!

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• Movie Night Classic Giveaway

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Remembering

Memorial Day is about remembering.

Not remembering the sales at the stores.

Not remembering the bar-b-que with family and friends.

Not remembering it as a day off work.

But it is about remembering those who choose to fight for our nation.

Remembering those who gave their lives to keep freedom the top priority.

Remembering their families left behind.

Remembering why we are so honored to be a United States Citizen.

Help Me Rename My Daughter

I need help in renaming College Girl.  You know she has graduated.  Yipee!  So calling her College Girl just does not seem right.  And you know I do not use real names on here to protect the innocent, namely my family.  Now I am at a lost for her new 'handle'.  Maybe you can help me out.  In doing so I am going to share a bit about her and her upbringing.  You know that means a story line through books too.  I never stop reading.

So we start at the beginning.  CG (for we do not know her new name) was born 3 months early.  Yes, she was a Preemie.  There was so much I did not know.  What risks she was facing.  What health concerns she may have in life.  How and if she would grow.  And what was all these tubes attached to her were for.  It was a very scary time of life.  Yes, she did grow....slowly.  She did have some health concerns but none were long lasting. Thank God!  And she gave me a life time of happiness to say the least.  I wish I had read the book Preemie by Kasey Mathews at that time.  It is her memoir of the tenacious struggle for her baby as well as the ride they were on through out her life.  I know that like Kasey I did not understand why my girl was in such a rush to get here.  But she too has accomplished so much in her time and I know there are amazing things still to come.

From there we moved on to the let's grow up stage of life.  It was not one of ribbons and lace but more of books and imagination.  CG enjoyed being an only child and shared our love of reading.  We would spend evenings curled up with a book and imagine the worlds within.  The we took in a friend and her 3 sons.  Life was a lil different having to look at things from a boys side.  Of course we adjusted.  My friend helped me with CG just as much.  She too had to learn to look at things from a different viewpoint.  I would have loved to share Darlene Brock's book Help Wanted: Moms Raising Daughters.  It is so helpful in learning all the jobs you take on.  Each section addresses how you can be the Media Director or the Sex Ed Teacher or even the In-Home Demonstrator.  There are so many things to teach your child and do so with honesty and grace.  Through it all CG grew into an amazing woman.  On to challenge College and now her next step in life.

I also have my next step in life.  The dreaded empty nest.  This is so hard for me to do.  I have always had CG here with me.  She will soon have her own home and even be taking her pets!  I love my Dear Hubby and Granny M is a blessing to be here.  But knowing that I will not have anyone to mother seems like the hardest step in life.  Growing up we learned the rhythm of life as we learned how to read with Dick and Jane.  We saw the perfect family always happy and ready to help each other.  Well now Dick and Jane can continue to guide us.  Fun Without Dick and Jane: Your Guide to a Delightful Empty Nest by Christie Mellor is a lark while imputing great wisdom.  Giving great hints on how to get back out into social circles and no that does not mean increasing your Google Friend Connect or Facebook Page.  Also just how fun it is to run away from home yourself since your not tied to it all the time.  To top it off there is good sound advice for when the empty nest all of sudden fills up with the boomerang child or holiday spillover.  I loved the camp style that carried wit and wisdom.

Now that leaves me with....well me!  I still need to think of a new title for CG.  I am not any closer.  Actually I have no idea at all.  How do you find the perfect title for you most beloved gift?  And I do feel like it should be the perfect name.  It would help if I could let go of just that.  Perfect.  I am so OCD about everything all of the time.  Needing to have my home in order, things in their right place, fulfilling people's expectations of me.  Amy Spiegel has words of comfort and harsh realities in addressing just this issue.  Letting Go of Perfect is her look at the image we each have of ourselves and our lives.  Often scared that if we do not get every detail as it should be the image will shatter.  Then we will never be able to put it all back together.  Of course we need to just that.  Shatter those thoughts of having to fit a role for everyone.  Dispel the idea of perfect and come to the realization that we are good enough already.  She knows that we are already perfect in God's eyes.  And if that is the case than who else are we trying to impress.  I, myself, am looking at taking on this new stage of life and experiencing it with gusto.  Embracing that I am a grandmother who is dumpy yet loved for myself.  Gosh what else could I really want?

Yes....your right.....I still want a new title for College Girl who is no longer a College Girl.  Help!

Movie Night Classic Giveaway

Tonight is our traditional movie night.  It is one of the ways we get all together as a family.  Granny M loves the popcorn and Dear Hubby and I love the snuggle time.  Since it has become a smaller group lately we are looking at different movies to watch.  College Girl is here but we are not use to her being around yet.  So she is going to have to go with our choice this week.  Next week she can chime in with her two cents worth.

So it is now time to go back into movie history and really enjoy some of those amazing oldies but goodies.  We have 50 movies from Classic Features with the Timeless Family Classics DVD set.  We are voting on which movie we want to see.  But with 50 to choose from it is pretty hard.  Currently we have gotten it down to one of three.  Tell me which you would choose?

My choice is from one of my favorite childhood books, The Borrowers.  It stars Eddie Albert which you may remember from Green Acres.  Yeah that dates me doesn't it!  The novel was written by Mary Norton and is known these days from the film remake with John Goodman.  Kids will best know this story from The Secret World of Arrietty (Disney).  I had the complete book set all in one that was given to me by my Grandmother.  There were many nights sitting in bed with a flash light as I poured through the pages lost in the world underneath the floorboards.

Dear Hubby has chosen A Farewell to Arms with Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes.  This is the first screen adaptation of the Hemingway novel.  Yes we do tend to read quite a lot and it does effect our choice in movies too.  We love seeing the cross over from printed word to screen. Now we loved the version with Rock Hudson from 1957 and this one predates it by over 20 years.  Either way we have a wonderful leading man to watch.  Dear Hubby likes the story line of World War I more so.

Granny M has us going even farther back with a silent film of The Iron Mask that is from the Alexander Dumas story of The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask.  You have see the adaptation done Leonardo DiCaprio and College Girl loves that movie.   Here we would see Douglas Fairbanks in his last silent film as D'Artagnan.    This is the 1929 sequel to the one he made in 1921 of The Three Musketeers.  

Well that gives us 3 to choose from and 47 more to pick later on.  I am so happy to have this set up from Mill Creek Entertainment.  Our next choice will be to get the Musicals set.  College Girl is drooling over the picture alone!  

Visit this page and use discount code 50PACK25 to save an additional 25% off our incredibly affordable DVD prices!  I am so I can surprise College Girl with the Musicals set!  Shusssh!  Don't tell her! That will drop the cost to only $14.99.  With shipping and handling as media mail adds only $2.97.  What a deal.  That comes to only .35 cents per movie.  Now you beat a deal like that.   NOTE: 25% discount good through May 31, 2012 only.  

If that is not enough then continue on with my giveaway of an identical copy of the Tiimeless Family Classics.  Just enter below with the Rafflecopter form.  So easy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway