Coming out of the fog . . .

I started being weaned off Paxil last week and today I noticed that I am thinking more clearly, have more energy and I feel as if I am getting my old self back.  That is good. 

I took a couple more days off from blogging as I was experiencing some side effects of withdrawal.  It wasn't really that bad, but I was glad to be home so that I could nap whenever I needed to. 

Yesterday I had a major cooking disaster.  I baked 8 dozen homemade blueberry muffins for my husband's cross country team.  My recipe calls for 1 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries per dozen.  I was in the kitchen happily baking these muffins, sprinkling the tops with a cinnamon sugar mixture and then baking them.  By the time I was ready to make supper, the muffins were done and cooling on the counter.

I'm not sure why, but I decided to take a couple of muffins and set them on the table for supper.  It is a good thing I did as I measured the wrong amount of baking powder for those muffins - by the wrong amount, I put in too much.  Those were the worst tasting muffins I have ever put in my mouth.  As soon as I bit into the muffins it tasted like a mouthful of baking powder and they sucked my mouth dry.  I couldn't even swallow them. 

So, 8 dozen beautiful looking bursting with blueberries muffins were dumped in a garbage bag and put in the trash.  There was no way to resurrect anything like that.  Ugh, I can still taste those muffins just thinking about them.

After supper I baked 8 dozen more blueberry muffins and they turned out fine.  I think I went wrong with the first 8 dozen by trying to watch a movie while I was measuring.  Next time, I will definitely be more careful as this was an expensive mistake. 

The weather has already turned cold and we have had frost warnings.  On Monday I had the air conditioning on and last night I turned on my electric blanket to get the bed warm.  This weather is ridiculous but it does put you in the mood for homemade soup or chili. 

The economic news has not been good for a long time.  It's starting to wear on me.  The only good thing has been that in our area they have really been running a lot of sales to get people into the stores.  For the past 3 months I have received a coupon from JC Penney for $10 off an item valued at $10 or more.  I have been using these coupons to buy anything that is close to $10 so I am not spending extra money.  I can always find something on clearance that I can use or buy for a present for someone else.

Other things that have been going on in my life is that I've been planning the meals that I help cook for our youth group when they meet on Sunday evenings.  We have to keep our costs down as much as possible and so far we have been doing pretty good. It can be a challenge but the one thing that I am finding out, is that these kids like home cooked food.  In a couple of weeks my helper, Marcia, and I are going to make homemade baked mac and cheese.  Velveeta has been on sale for only $3.99 for a 2 lb. block and macaroni was on sale this week for only 66 cents for a 1 lb. package.  We are cooking for around 60 (hopefully the numbers will increase) so that is going to be a cheap main dish for us.

I like when the weather turns cool, but it is about a month early for us.  So, what has the weather been like "in your neck of the woods?"