The Sewing Mom

This little dog is so worn out from yesterday it’s funny.  There was so much going on yesterday with house cleaning and final Halloween decorations going up, I don’t think Plinko ever did get her naps in.  She usually takes at least two good naps a day.  Last night, just as she’d get comfortable and start to drift off the doorbell would ring with trick-or-treaters awaiting their treats and she’d get all excited again.  I can tell today that she’s not sick, just very tired.  She’s been playing, but whenever I sit down for any amount of time she lays down by my feet and tries to go to sleep.  Once, she even snuck off into my daughter’s t.v. room and found her way into the big fuzzy chair.  She looked so sweet and tired I just had to let her stay there!

I am getting older, there is no way around it. Since the day I turned 40 I have discovered that doctors of all types want to run additional testing whenever you go in for what used to be a simple check up. If it’s the eye doctor he begins looking for cataracts. If it’s the dentist, he looks at removing antiquated fillings. The family physician wants to do so many things with scopes I can’t even remember them all.

Alas, therein lies my problem, my memory. Getting older brings with it the challenge of remembering day to day things, something I’ve always had trouble with my memory even before age was factored in. It’s important for me to write things down on a calendar and keep the calendar where I can see it frequently to help me remember everything from school meetings to bill due dates. If the time comes when I don’t remember to write things down, I will be in trouble.

I believe that as we get older it is important to take care of ourselves and have certain additional health screenings completed to ensure we live longer, healthier lives. I think that memory screening for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease falls into this category. Memory screenings are done around the country and it’s simple to find one that is done locally.

There are also successful aging tips that I try to follow. Even something like doing a crossword puzzle, anything that uses brain power, is good exercise for the brain. I want to ensure that while researchers are doing what they can to find a cure for Alzheimer’s, I’m doing what I can to prevent it from happening to me. If it should be in my future, I would hope that my family could get me quality care and one way to do this is by making a contribution now to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America.

 National Memory Screening Day is scheduled for November 13, 2007.  I highly recommend checking it out and getting your own memory tested.

I think I’m going to make a beef stew for dinner tonight.  We’re experiencing our coolest day so far this Fall, high of 68, and it just feels like stew weather to me.  This is a recipe I have for the crockpot:

1 c. sun-dried tomatoes

1 1/2 lbs. beef stew meat

1 1/2 lbs. medium new potatoes (about 12), cut in half

1 bag baby-cut carrots

2 c. water

1 1/2 tsp. seasoned salt

1 bay leaf

1/4 c. cold water

2 T flour

Soak tomatoes in water, drain and chop.  Mix tomatoes and remaining ingredients (except for 1/4 c. water and the flour) in slow cooker.  Cover and cook on low heat setting for 8-9 hours  (high heat 3-5 hours) or until beef and vegetables are tender.

Mix 1/4 c. water with flour and gradually stir into beef mixture.  Cover and cook on high heat 10-15 minutes or until slightly thickened.  Remove the bay leaf before serving.  I like to serve this over rice.

Enjoy! 

It seems that all I do lately is print off forms, documents, and fliers for Destination Imagination. Mind you, I don’t mind doing all this work or I wouldn’t have volunteered, but it doesn’t come cheap when I have to print everything on my home printer. When we registered with the National DI organization, as school coordinator I received one book with all of the rules, challenges, forms and general information in it. Well, I am not the only team manager and every adult that is involved in this process needs to have copies of this information.

I could use a copy machine to copy the book, but that is awfully time consuming. The quicker way is to go directly to the National website and download the documentation in PDF format, then print it. This is what I’ve been doing. Some of these packets are close to 50 pages long, so it is using up my ink pretty quickly and replacing those ink cartridges can be expensive.

I did some research and found I can get a Cheap Inkjet Cartridge by purchasing them online. In addition to shopping at discounted ink cartridge sites I can use discount coupons to buy them even cheaper. Sometimes I can even find free shipping offers, saving me even more. I have to keep my costs down and don’t let them get out of control.  Getting good deals on the inkjet cartridges will definitely help. 

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This is a day late, but I did want to post a picture of the costume I made for my daughter, it’s a bag of Sugar Babies.  I have no idea where she got this idea, but it was a difficult costume to find.  She did find one costume online, but I wasn’t happy with the price for such a simple costume, so I told her I would make it for her.  It is made completely out of felt with a little fabric paint on the large letters.  The small letters were done by hand with a fabric marker.  She looked really cute last night and I’ll try to post pictures of her in the costume later.