Happy New Year (a week later!)

Happy New Year! I hope that 2010 will be your best year ever!

The first week of the new year has been a great one for us. It's been filled with a little of this and a little of that, so this post may be all over the place!

New Year's Day we had Mama and Tracy's parents over for lunch. However, for the last several years, we have totally broken the Southern New Year's traditions of blackeyed peas, greens, and ham. We really don't care for blackeyed peas, so a few years ago, we decided why not start the new year off with food we actually enjoy! So, that year, we decided to grill steaks, and since then, we've made it our new tradition that we always grill on New Year's Day. This year, we had grilled chicken, hashbrown casserole, pinkeye peas (at least they're dark peas!) and creamed corn. I also tried a new dish this year. One of my favorite Christmas gifts this year was this...

If you are local, I'm sure you remember the Garland House. It was one of my favorite treats for lunch. The day they closed was my birthday a few years ago, and Mama and I went there for lunch. The place was packed, and everybody was taking pictures, both in the dining room, with the cooks, you name it! Made me teary-eyed! This cookbook has just been published and Mama got it for me for Christmas. I decided to make the strawberry congealed salad, and it was delicious...exactly like Garland House made it, except I didn't make mine in the individual molds. I can't wait to try the Chicken Divan, the yeast rolls, the Peanut Paradise Pie...well, you get the idea!

Since New Year's Day, we have gone back to school...without the heat working properly, but I won't go there. We've also managed to spend our fair share of time doing this...

I've also been busy just trying to be better organized in the new year. While I don't make resolutions, I do enjoy getting a fresh start and trying to just generally do things better! So far, we've managed to cook supper at home every night for the past week....a MAJOR accomplishment for us. We eat out way too much! I've also worked on just keeping up with things around the house better...the laundry, the ironing, keeping the house cleaner, etc. I just hope I can keep it up, because even though it means I'm working harder, I'm much more relaxed and happier when everything is organized!

We have also been blessed by Tracy's workload picking up drastically. As I mentioned in my last post, things have been pretty slow for the last couple of months, but we were hoping that it would pick up after the first of the year. I figured it would take several weeks. Praise the Lord, it has just exploded here in this first week! He probably has three weeks worth of work already lined up. I'm so thankful for the Lord's provisions.

Finally, I forgot to mention this in my last post, but I had a really neat surprise on my birthday. I met someone who reads my blog! This is the first time I've ever met one of my readers! Most of the people who read (or at least who comment) are people I either know in real life or who I've gotten to know by reading their blogs. She works at Matthew's dentist office, but she just found my blog on her own. I thought it was so cool! So Jessica, thanks for reading, and hello to everyone at Dr. White's office!