Winter Brings Comfort Food

Steel-Cut Oatmeal

There's something about winter that makes us think about comfort foods.  Comfort foods that make you feel toasty warm and satisfied.  I do have to admit to you however, that some comfort foods are not totally healthy and are loaded with fat and sugar.  But don't feel sad, because I'm telling you that I have a comfort food recipe that will make you smile and feel happy.....it will actually make you excited about waking up in the morning!

So what is my comfort food?  Steel-cut oatmeal cooked with love and happiness.....plus my little secret ingredient too.  Well, actually there's several secret ingredients thanks to Bike man's wisdom and ability to change a simple recipe!

Are you just a little curious?  Want my recipe?  Checkout the Turtle Recipes in my top menu.

Enjoying Winter

Galloway Creek, Menomonie Wisconsin

For about 5 or 6 years now, my hubby has been monitoring the salt levels in the creeks around the city of Menomonie Wisconsin.  With winter upon us once more in the Midwest, our city and county crews either brine the roads/streets or use salt to help melt the snow and ice.  Unfortunately, the high levels of salt run-off can be very devastating to the little creatures that live in those waters.  The health of a stream, creek or river is so important.  So, that's why Bike man volunteers his time to monitor the creeks for the DNR.  He's a true environmentalist.  

And guess who accompanies Bike man on these salt monitoring trips?  Yup, ME!!!

It usually takes about 2 1/2 hours to complete all the creeks and involves lots of walking since you have to hike down to the creeks. For me, it's just about the exercise, fresh air, peace and quiet and moving my body!

Oh, and I'm the official photographer too......

A Little Snowshoeing

I've been talking and planning about this for months, but the lack of snow goofed up my plans.  I told a couple friends that I wanted to go snowshoeing after I retired from my job, but since we've had a lack of precipitation, my snowshoeing excursions had to wait until today.  With several new inches of snow last night, plus the snow we received a couple days ago, we could finally strap on the snowshoes and go for a walk. 

We went for a wonderful walk on Caryn's wooded land just northwest of where Bike man and I live.  With several trails to choose from, we chose the trail that led to the mouth of the Hay River.  

Our tour guide, Caryn, is very knowledgeable about her land.  She knows every ravine, hill, trail, trees and best mushroom spots! 

Reaching the water via hiking/snowshoeing is my favorite thing to do.  As soon as we arrived near the Hay River, we spotted open water and lots of geese.  We looked for the Tundra Swans, but they have finally left the area.

Today was perfect for snowshoeing with temperatures around 35 degrees, light snow and no wind.  Someone asked me last night, "so are you traveling south for the winter now that you are retired"?  I said, NO!  I love winter and look forward to snowshoeing, cross country skiing and ice fishing.  What a silly question......

Exercise Comes in All Forms

It was a whopping 24 degrees this morning, which was absolutely perfect for running!  I can't even tell you how excited I am to be back to running mornings in full sunshine.  I've waited 15 years to return back to daytime running.  No more 6 pm dark winter runs on icy roads.

So, I couldn't just stop moving after I completed my run....felt energized ya know?  When the temperatures are mild in January, I need, to take advantage of being outdoors, so I decided to clean off the stairs going down to the lake.  I'm talking 50 wooden steps!

  

And yes, I cleaned off ALL the steps in no time flat.  It's amazing what you can do on two cups of french press coffee.  My little shoveling tip; start at the bottom and shovel up the steps.  Well, my clean steps won't last long.  Snow is in the forecast for tomorrow.  Loving my new exercise routine.

I Really Did It

Red Cedar Trail - along the Red Cedar River, Dunnsville Bottoms

I had been planning and plotting it for many years, but something always got in my way and I would changed my mind.  Well, as of January 1, 2016, I am starting a new phase in my life.  It's called "retirement" and yes, it can be scary, especially if you had a career that you loved and you could never imagine resigning your position at age 55.  So, as I write this post I actually took the plunge and now I sit here a free woman, who's enjoying her second cup of coffee.

As you can imagine, I continually had people asking me questions.  "So what are you going to do now?"  "Are you moving on to another job"?  "Are you going to be off traveling the world"?  "Why are you leaving us"???????

I think the hardest thing about leaving my Library Director position after 15+ years, was saying good-bye to the many library patrons that had come to know me over the years.  My colleagues even seemed shocked or sad when I made my resignation announcement.  I just told everyone that it was my time to go....period.  I believe I was actually the 12th Director in our library system in 2015 that was leaving her position due to retirement or just moving on to a different career.  So many of us are at the tail end of the baby boomer era.

Yes, it's bittersweet, but I know in my heart that I made the right decision.  I can't explain my feelings right now, but maybe someday I can explain the knocking at my door kind of feelings I felt many, many times.  Or, the little "God winks" I kept receiving from time to time.  It's true what I read, you will know in your heart when it's time to retire and say good bye to that 40+ hour work week.

So, I do want to tell you that being a librarian taught me to do some research.  Yes, I actually read some books about retirement before I made my decision!!!  They weren't the books regarding the financial side of retirement, but more the psychological side......like how to set yourself free and make a positive change in your life.  My favorite book I really enjoyed was, How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free; Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get From Your Financial Advisory by Ernie Zelinski.  Such a great book and I highly recommend reading it, even if you are years from retirement, it's worth reading.  Everyone can still dream about retiring right?

As I move into the next phase of my life, I will be blogging about my experiences and writing about my ordinary life with my hubby, Bike man.  Bike man's been retired for eleven years now, so I have a good teacher to show me the ropes!!!

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post.  Come and join me on the ups and downs of retirement....the good and the bad, hee, hee!

Christmas Highlights From Wisconsin

A Christmas cannot go by without my traditional gingerbread boys.  Oh yes, I love many different Christmas cookies, but the gingerbread cookies are my favorite and my mother's favorite too.

I can't tell you how many family conversations we've had in grandma and grandpa's kitchen.  It's true, the kitchen is the most important room in the house.....do you agree?

Such a nice surprise to have our son and his new wife Trisha join us for Christmas Eve at grandma and grandpa's house in southern Wisconsin.  My hubby Bike man is off to the right!  Long story short, our son met a wonderful girl in college, who just happened to grow up 15 miles from where I grew in in southern Wisconsin.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think our son would have a connection between northern Wisconsin and Richland Center/Muscoda!!!  I promise to blog later on about our son's beautiful wedding back in August 2015. 

Awwwh, and here's my Mom Moo, she's so happy to be with her family.

And lastly, I'm sharing a photo of my our daughter Becca (from Minneapolis)....I'm so proud of her.  Becca is a fun-loving and hard working young lady that loves to cook and bake like her grandma, momma and dad too.

We might be lacking snow for Christmas this year, but our family found plenty of great togetherness in meaningful conversations and LOTS of good cooking.  Merry Christmas to all my blog friends past and current.

Counting the Days

As my retirement creeps closer now.....only five working days left, I reaffirm my decision to leave my library job by going back and re-reading the best retirement book ever.  "How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free" by Ernie J. Zelinski.  The author stresses to think of retirement as a reorientation of living.  In other words, think of yourself as soaring to a new phase in your life, both outward and inward.

So, today I got a little taste of what retirement will be like.  As I inch closer to the end of 2015, I still have unused vacation time, so I decided to take the day off from work and join Bike man on a work day.  I mean a physical work day.  

It all started by leaving home at 7 am this morning and driving southwest towards the Pepin/Stockholm, WI area along the Mississippi River.  We arrived at the Maiden Rock Bluff Nature area, owned by the Wisconsin DNR.  This particular land was acquired by DNR back in 2010 and their intentions were to restore the bluff back to a natural prairie, however, it's been a slow process so they need help.  The DNR and the Pepin County Land Conservation planned a work day today and asked for volunteers to help cut woody invasive vegetation like buckthorn, prickly ash, sumac and small cedar trees.  Yup, it was a very physical job today....we worked for almost thee hours cutting vegetation along the bluff, but it was also gratifying work.  A type if work that you can be proud of through all the sweat and muscle aches.  At times I would just stop working and admire the beautiful view of the Mississippi River.  

To get a better prospective of where we were working this morning, we drove down to HWY 35 along the Mississippi River, between Maiden Rock and Stockholm, and took this photo looking up at the bluff where we were clearing vegetation.   The bluff is actually 400 ft higher elevation than the highway in this picture.  Was I scared to be working on the bluff?  At first yes, but then my nerves calmed down after I got busy cutting the woody brush.  Nothing like sweat and hard work to keep your mind from wondering too far!  Occasionally, I saw an Eagle flying nearby, but it wasn't close enough to get a good photograph, darn.   

After a good day's work, you gotta treat yourself right?  Since it was a cold and breezy day, my first thought was, I need COFFEE.  We found this great coffee and homemade pie shop in Stockholm, so Bike man and I shared a big piece of pecan pie and we each ordered our favorite coffee.  It's the little things like this in life that keep me smiling.  December 31st can't come soon enough.........