Swedish Meatballs and Hot Flashes

Yup.... they are both here. First, hot flashes. Ok, I often thought I was having "Hot Flashes" in the past. You know, because I am never cold...never. Linda and Cricket both use the little heater when they are working in the same room as I am, and I am rarely cold. Then, this week, I ragged on Terry several times because our furnace is acting wankie.... Fired up to 100 degrees sometimes and freezing at other times.... man.
Then... last night, it dawned on me.... I kicked the covers off of me because my body temperature was burning to touch, and I thought I was going to cook. I reached over to see how hot Terry was. There he lay, covered to his eyeballs in our feather duvet, and he was cool to touch. I was void of covers, almost void of pajamas and my skin was on fire. I got up to check the temperature of the room, since I figured Terry must be sick (still in denial, at this point) and the room was 68 degrees. Then, it started to make sense. I lay on the bed and started to put it all together. A couple of times this week, I striped off the sweater and opened the office windows, while Linda and/0r Cricket sat curled near the space heating blowing into their cold fingers. The crazy furnace in our house, is really the crazy furnace in my body.
And so it begins!!

Last weekend, the family put a real ditch effort into making a menu for last weeks suppers. We are soooo caught in a rut of making the same 10 meals every couple of weeks.... spaghetti, chili, stew.... blah blah blah. With spring here, coupled with the supply of cook books I own, it was time to make the effort. As we went through the week in my day planner, along with flipping through some cookbooks... we came up with several things to try. From that came a list of groceries, and the planning began. We decided to try two different things in the slow cooker this week, which was fun. We had Swiss steak on Tuesday, and then Terry made stew and soup on Tuesday night for future meals. I came across "Swedish Meatballs" in one of my little "crock pot" cookbooks and added it to the menu but actually ran out of days to have it, so I added it on for Sunday (which I don't usually plan in my day planner, Sunday suppers are dreamt up sometime over the weekend). As the week progressed, and all the suppers where successful, I started to plan for the weekend. I needed the recipe book for the Swedish Meatballs, but I couldn't remember which book. I spent literally from Thursday night to Saturday night tearing apart all my cookbooks.... and I have tons. I specifically remember that there was a picture of the finished meal (which I love to see) and that it was both pork and beef in the meatballs. I went through EVER book I own. I searched the Indexes, and scanned pictures.. yesterday afternoon I lamented about how mad I was I couldn't find the book. With both Dad and Terry trying to give me visual help... what did the book look like ( how am I suppose to know), was it a big book, small book (again, who can remember), where were you sitting when you were looking (just about in every spot in the livingroom you can look), did you put the books away (like NOOOO, since they were all over the coffee table)... and then, over on dad's end table, under the magnifying glass and a few bandaids, sat a small little booklet that was from the grocery store checkout section... all folded back to the right page and everything!!! SWEDISH MEATBALLS....
Ya ya ya ya....

Between hot flashes and memory loss, I am going to be a poster child for menopausal symptoms!

Funny thing... at church today, I was sitting next to the same man I have sat next to for the past 6 months. A few weeks ago, I figured out we were neighbours on the same street. Every week we talk about the weather and the flooding and our common complains about Father Tim. So this week, I thought I would be a good neighbour and actually tell him my name, and get his name too. Sooooo, in a quiet moment I turned to him and said "by the way...my name is Donna, and I really would like to know your name." To which he said... " Well, my name is Doug and we did this about 2 weeks ago, don't you remember. He said I told you I wouldn't forget your name, cause its the name of my daughter." Ugh. Then I remembered the conversation, but still didn't remember him telling me his name!... geesh.... How embarrassing. Then 5 minutes later I leaned over to him and said, "Doug, is it hot in here?" He said it was ROASTING in here, and that it was ok, I wasn't Flashing! Thank God.

Anyway, the Swedish Meatballs are brewing upstairs and the sun is shining outside. So I am off to survey the property and see whats growing.