Winner of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to:

VAL

Just let me know your address so that I can mail your copy - and if you'd like it personally signed!

I decided to use random.org as I've read others who have used this random number generator. 

And Happy Thirteenth Birthday Logan!!!!

Book Give Away!

Here's your chance to win a free copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Merry Christmas! Christmas will be here before you know it and this would make a nice gift for someone who not only likes to read, but likes Christmas too!

Just leave a comment - even if to just say hi and by November 13th (granddaughter Logan's 13th birthday) I'll announce the winner.

Here's a picture of my family that the story is about! We're older now. :-)

Rita, Norm, Me, Casey, Jessica

And if you don't win, but would like a copy, I can offer you a special deal. Email me at lober13(at)gmail(dot)com. Put FRIDAY13 in the subject line.

Thank you all who have been so supportive in my writing life! XO

And a shout out to Lavender Dreams for the nice shout out!

Chicken Soup for the Soul - Merry Christmas!

Today is the day! It's official, it's here!

Some sneaky chick elf visited my house in the night and left me with a surprising present... and I just love it!

 

Whew....

It's hard to believe that my last post was on the 1st of this month. I just got back from a whirlwind, seven day, round trip road trip from here (St. Louis, MO) to Los Angeles, CA. I rode with my daughter to pick up my son, who's moving... he's been in LA for 12 years now. Well, not any more.

Rita and I had a rooting-tooting good time on the way to LA, hitting weird things to see along the way... the biggest rocking chair (before we even got out of Missouri). We did selfies at every stop. We had her two dogs with us, Computer and Doc.

Here they are in the vehicle. Computer is the black dog. Doc is the pug. They had lots of room on the way to LA, but on the way back that whole area was chuck full and those two pups ended up in between the back seats, close to me. They were so sweet and so good!

All my other photos are on my phone... we'll get to those some time. We had a good time on the way back too. My son Casey indulged Rita and me with some stops along the way. Probably a good thing he was with us on the way back or we might still be on the road.

Writing/Weight - Why Wait?

Okay, writing and weight, what do they have to do with each other? For me, as a writer, I sit a lot. It’s hard to stand and write. Sitting (along with a lot of other things) creates weight gain and I have done plenty of that lately. Of course, then the self-loathing and beating myself up comes into play. Why did you get so lazy, Lynn? Why didn’t you keep that weight off? Why did you eat that cookie? Why, why, why… and well, anyone out there that deals with this, knows exactly what I’m talking about.

I debated for a while to purchase a Garmin Vivofit, but since they were on sale and the cheapest I’ve seen these tools, I decided to get one… however, I may return it (although it has made me move more) just because the universe works in mysterious ways (which I just love) and a few days later a friend sent me her niece’s newsletter: Wise Girl Daily and you can find it at:  RobinBrande.com. There was something in her post that caught my attention… about weight and it led me to The Susceptibility Quiz and to this woman: Susan Pierce Thompson, Ph.D.

I don’t normally blab on about things (hey, wait until I finish because I know what you're thinking...) that I don’t know much about and in this case, Susan Pierce Thompson. But what I’ve discovered… the little I’ve discovered has already changed my life and my thinking.

If my friend (thanks, Leslie) hadn’t shared with me, then I’d still be lost… would still feel hopeless and so I had to share with anyone who might read this.

So, why wait if you want to do something about your weight? And why wait if you want to do something with your writing? I’m doing both. YAY for me.

My Three Children

I have heard some folks read my blog to get updated on what’s going on… and here’s such a blog to let those who are interested know what’s happening with my children.

Casey, my son is 32 today. Happy Birthday Casey! He lives in Los Angeles (has for the past 11/12 years now) and is working on a video game—Hyper Light Drifter—for all you gamers out there. He and his buddies share space where they do their creative work (Glitch City) and every so often they have some kind of open house to share with the public where some of the members will give a little presentation… not necessarily on gaming, but whatever they feel like. Think of it as a mini-Ted talk.

Here’s Casey’s “Oneiros & The Self"

Soon Casey will be leaving L.A. to head to The Netherlands... and then eventually back to St. Louis, MO (his home town).

Jessica, my middle daughter, now 30 recently had a four hour surgery to remove benign fibroid tumors in and around her uterus. Okay, maybe recently is a bit of a stretch… back in July. Oh my. There were eight of them. The MRI showed the biggest one to be the size of a grapefruit and the surgeon thought she’d only be able to remove 5 of the 8, but as it turns out, the biggest one was the size of a volley ball! Then a cantaloupe and two grapefruit is all that could be removed. Four of the 8 were removed. No damage to the uterus. Here she is a bit doped up after the surgery.

Now she’s in an MFA program at SIUE for sculpture… getting her masters…  and here’s some of her work. The first one, she's still working on.

Rita, my baby, 28, recently purchased her own home. All on her own. She got to learn all about negotiating, the ins and outs of buying a home, how people cover up certain things, the cost involved, how painting isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. But she loves, loves, loves having her very own home. Because she’s so creative, her home reflects that. One evening while walking her dogs, she carried home a tree limb that she thought would be perfect as a curtain rod for her living room window—and by golly, it is. She’s already put in some flowers and has big plans for a vegetable garden in the future. And in her spare time, you can catch her spinning, dying, carting, and knitting her own yarn.

Quite honestly, I'm pretty blown away by the creativeness and talent of all three of my children. Maybe it's a mom thing, but I never had half the wits about me when I was their age.

Cooking Lesson Seven and Final - Chicken Parmesan

I have to confess, I had been writing things down after I would do a cooking lesson, but I neglected to do so with this last lesson. There had been so many things going on, I didn’t know if I was coming or going. As a matter of fact, this lesson was a whirlwind in that the girls didn’t spend the night and we had crammed everything all in one day and I forgot to take pictures of the final outcome. Wah.

Along with the chicken parmesan, the girls wanted pesto spaghetti, and garlic bread. I had grown some basil in a big pot out back, which needed to be picked, but it was too soon for the recipe. I picked it anyway and made the pesto sauce ahead of time.

I baked the cupcakes ahead of time too, so that the girls could get right into decorating. They made their own fondant. We did the dessert first because the dinner was something that would need to be prepared right before the guests (all the family) would be coming.

Princess Flame and Princess Frost decided the week prior that this would be a ghost theme party… and they made invitations to give to the guests (Princess Flame’s mom, Robyn, Princess Frost’s dad Todd, and two brothers, Jack and Lucas and my daughter Jessica and her boyfriend, Patrick and my other daughter, Rita. Of course, Grandpa and myself. Dress code: wear something red and make yourself look like a ghost or a ghoul.

Oh, also invited was Earl (the ghost in our house).

We found a recipe for Chicken Parmesan that you would bake. I always thought it was fried and then baked, but this called for all baking. We made the sauce from scratch that would cover the Chicken Parmesan. While the chicken baked, we got dressed for the occasion. Besides some extra powder on my face, I didn’t feel like I looked much different than when I wake up in the morning. You’ll see…

Since the dress code was red, the girls set the table in red. Red, I guess, for blood. We all had a bloody good time and the girls did a fantastic job to end their cooking lesson.

 I hope we can continue this tradition… we’ll see what next summer brings.

Cooking Lesson Six - Sesame Chicken & Stir Fried Vegetables

As we always do before we begin, we figure out our schedule. Their families couldn’t make it to come and eat, so the three of us had dinner by ourselves… and we figured we’d eat around 6, but it didn’t really matter since it was just us anyway.

We started with cooking the rice as we’d need the pans for other things. While the rice was cooking, we washed and chopped the vegetables… don’t they look just beautiful and so colorful. Makes me want to have stir fried veggies every day.

After the vegetables, we made the coating for the chicken, cut up the chicken and allowed it to refrigerate until time to fry.

Last week, they wanted to do some exotic drinks, but we ran out of time, so we made sure to squeeze that in this time. Non-alcoholic of course, but this was a Blue Hawaiian. When we were at the grocery store last week, they wanted those little umbrellas to put in the drink. I told them I had some already. They thought I was lying since I told them the answer was “no” to anything else they wanted in the store that day. When I pulled out the umbrellas, I said, “You thought I lied to you, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Well, Grandma-ma Purple Plum doesn’t lie.” And you can see the cute umbrellas in their drinks.

After the Blue Hawaiian’s, believe it or not, it was time to start the sauce that would go over the chicken. It was relatively quick and once we added the mixture of the cornstarch, the sauce thickened up lickety-split.

Then on to frying the chicken pieces in olive oil. The girls started acting silly (gosh, can you believe that?) and I had to get firm and tell them, oil can be extremely dangerous and I don’t want you getting burned, so you are going to have to pay attention and settle down. They soon found out what I was talking about when the oil popped and hit them. I asked if they could imagine having a whole pot of oil splashed on them. No way! They had a bit more respect for the hot oil after that.

My brother-in-law Bud stopped in to pick up some Superfood and as he watched the girls fry chicken, it made him nervous, so he was anxious to get his goods and split.

After the chicken, we started stir frying the vegetables. I told the girls they could put in whatever they wanted to eat… but soon, every kind of vegetable ended up in the pan.

Once we finished cooking, we sat down with our plate of food to chow down. Even the picky eater, Princes Flame, ate more than I’ve ever seen her eat. She wasn’t sure if she was going to like it, but clearly she did!

I love how Princess Frost exclaims her food, “It’s delicious!” If you hear the way she says ‘delicious” you’d know what I was talking about.

Later that evening, they were on the prowl for ghosts for next cooking lesson/dinner.

Before they left, Princess Frost decided to dress herself up...

Sadly, next lesson will be our last…