The more you know......................

Did you eat your black-eyed peas today?

We ate ours for sure! You are supposed to eat at least one pea for each day of the year. So of course this year we had to eat an extra pea (for Leap Day)! As you can see, I have big 'ole chunks of ham I cook with my peas. It could be a meal of its own.   I remember when we first moved to Kansas and I went to the store to buy black-eyed peas for New Year's Day. I was use to the stores having big displays of them, whether it was in the canned section, dry section or frozen section. I did find some, but I could tell it must not be a big tradition there. I asked someone about it and they gave me this funny look and said, "Well we feed black-eyed peas to our cattle, but it's not people food!"

Ha! I still laugh about that!

I love the month of January.

It is my birthday month.

It is a month where we have the wonderful opportunity of

new beginnings.

We are like a blank piece of paper, just waiting to be filled.

I make a habit of not making resolutions.

I think it is just a way of setting myself up

for failure.

So I don't resolute.

But this year I did.

I have three resolutions.....which I will share.

(As you wait with baited breath at the sheer anticipation!)

Number 1: I will wrap the Christmas packages this year.
I can hear you all scoffing right now. What a stupid resolution you think, right?  Well, really it is not. Every year I am up all night, or most of it, on Christmas Eve trying to get my presents wrapped. The last several years I have built up quite an inventory of gift bags, that I hurriedly stuff everything into. I am tired of that. I want to have presents under the tree throughout the Christmas season. I want to see boxes and bows and cute little tags. I own ALL the things to make this happen. In fact the stuff is probably about to rot while it waits. And this year I am going to do it. Really. You will see...........in 11 months. But notice, me who does not resolute has made it my Numero Uno. (I have no idea if that is written correctly).

Number 2: I will make decisions. In the moment. Instantly. And live with them.
Once again, you probably are scoffing. But I made myself mad over the Christmas break and I said right then, "I am making a resolution this year to "do it if I want to" and to quite mulling it over." Wow. That could be taken SO many ways. Well here's the deal. I was out Christmas shopping on the 23rd and I found this fabulous rug that I just loved. I loved the color, the pile, the design, and (kinda) the size. But as I told my Hubby, since it was not quite big enough for our den, I could put our big jute rug in the den, put the den rug in the living room (still following?) and layer this oh-so-perfect-rug on top of the jute rug. That was fine with him and he told me to get it. But I humhawed around and kept telling myself that I really should not be buying a rug smack dab in the middle of buying Christmas presents. Hubby kept telling me to buy. I kept convincing myself I could wait. Hubby said it could be my birthday present. I was tempted, but walked away. So, on the 27th (a meer four days after I had seen the rug and one of those days was Christmas and one was a barely-opened Christmas Eve), we go back to get the rug that I had talked myself into. And it was gone. I scoured the store. I made Hubby scour the store. I made my daughter go to another like-store and scour it. All to no avail. Dang. I was mad. AND this is the second time I let this happen. I found the perfect rug for my living room this summer and did the same thing. What does it take for me to learn????  So, right then and there in the middle of the store I announced to Hubby, "This year is going to be different. If I want it, I will get it. No more thinking about it." I know that sounds a  little selfish, but nine times out of ten, the "something" I want will apply to the house (therefore the family). (Do you like how I justify?)  That's my resolution and I'm sticking to it!!
And finally,
Number 3: I will be a better blogger.
I have resolved to either do it right or quit doing it. It is ridiculous that I do not post on a regular basis. I have no excuses. I do make excuses though! So this year I am going to be a better blogger or quit blogging. I was making a list earlier of things I could blog about. It hit me that my life is boring. And ordinary. So, if you choose to read you will read about a boring, ordinary life!  And I would love to hear about your own boring, ordinary life! .....Or your not-so-boring life....if you are lucky enough!

One more thing before I finish up on this first day of the new year. Hubby and I were taking down the outside Christmas stuff today. He went upstairs to get the (electric) candles we had in the windows (something everyone in this town does...(oh so cool).
He never came back down with the candles. I (wrongly) assumed he had turned the TV on in our bedroom and was watching the football games. So I kept putting stuff up. After a little while, I went out the front door to get one of our storage tubs from the garage. And I heard a "Lori".
I looked up..........

He was stuck out on the balcony. Do you remember when I did that?  Read here if you don't remember. It was in the summer. I was out there for hours. In the heat. And the Hubster had no sympathy. I am pretty sure he thought it was one of my dumb blonde moves. Well look who is laughing now. (That would be ME!!) I looked up and let out a big 'ole whoop!  Then I went back in to get my camera. And he hid. (That is why his back is to us in the picture.) But you really can't hide when you can't get off a balcony. I mean you can turn around, like he did, but you can't hide.  OR

....you can throw greenery down on your wife, trying to sabotage the picture, but she'll just snap the pic as the greenery flies by! Anyway, it was a great start to my new year just to have him at my mercy. And yes, I finally did go upstairs and let him back in!

I saw this great quote yesterday and said it would be my motto for 2012.
"The more you know, the more you know you don't know."     

 Well isn't that the truth?

Happy New Year friends. See you tomorrow. Really!!