Honestly, this isn’t just some New Year’s Resolution — it just happens to fall into that time frame. Jen’s got to lose some pounds. I’m about to say something I thought I’d never say, but I had gotten too thin. So, I put on fifteen pounds — really without meaning to but everyone told me how much better I looked so I thought, “this is cool.” But then I rolled with too much of a good thing and packed on another fifteen. Let me do that math for you — uh, that’s thirty. If it doesn’t have elastic in the waist, it’s not fitting, and even that’s a stretch — no pun intended.

It ain’t pretty. But I’m determined to take those last fifteen really ugly pounds off. Four down, eleven to go. Actually, I may have to round it up to twenty.

But the whole point is not how fat I’ve gotten but rather the process to take it off and not let it happen again. I can’t do a diet. It makes me crazy to count calories or fat grams or points.

The deal is I like good food, I’d just gotten into some very sloppy eating habits. Chips, fries, sausage biscuits, beer, wings, just about any kind of cheese. See, it’s no real mystery where that weight came from. I am, however, not one for munching rice cakes or celery sticks. So, at the height of my unhappiness with myself a good friend sent me Tosca Reno’s new book (published by none other than Harlequin ) YOUR BEST BODY NOW.

Great information, very user friendly and it got me back on track and inspired. I eat about 5 or 6 times a day. I haven’t been hungry and I haven’t had any cravings. Woot!

So, I think sometimes eating healthy comes with a connotation of eating boring or deprivation. Far from it. I thought I’d share this recipe I found on the ‘Net and made for lunch the other day. It was quick, easy and truly delicious. Just a note, I used a frozen salmon filet and subbed water/chicken broth for the white wine. Served it over a bed of mixed greens and it was yummy!

Here’s the link for roasted salmon with carmelized onions and figs:

http://www.inmamaskitchen.com/RECIPES/RECIPES/Fish/salmon_fig.html

I got a food processor for Christmas and plan to try my hand at making hummus in the next few weeks.

I’m fully convinced healthy eating need not be boring or limiting. If you have a healthy, tasty recipe you’d like to share, I’m all for it!

Santa’s always been one of my favorite parts of Christmas. As a kid growing up we exchanged gifts on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning was all about what Santa had left the night before. And while getting presents from my family was fun, it was the anticipation of what SC had brought that was exciting! (G) It was a tradition I continued when I started my own family.

I would say at sixteen that my daughter is long past the age when she believed…er, not really. I think she was about twelve when she asked was Santa really, really real. We were at Home Depot of all places. She said she wanted the truth. I can’t remember exactly what I said but the girl got upset and I did some fast backtrack talking. She obviously wasn’t ready to give up the idea of Santa. The kid was thirteen, in middle school, and arguing with the other kids that there really was a Santa Clause. I guess that was the year that she finally couldn’t deny the hard, cold truth anymore.

However, we still put out the milk and cookies and there are still gifts from Santa under the tree come Christmas morning.

I think I was about eleven when I begged for the truth from my mom and promptly cried when she told me. I checked with a friend the other day and he said he was thirteen when he found out.;-(

One of my good friends has a daughter close to my daughter’s age. They never “did” Santa Clause. She felt it was lying to her child. Personally, I never had any problem perpetuating the myth. Somewhere in my disorganized paperwork there are letters to Santa my child wrote over the years. I have to say, she never asked for outrageous things and it wasn’t ever a long list. However, the year she asked for a baby brother or sister — “request denied!”

In my December Alaskan Heat book, NORTHERN ESCAPE, the entire town celebrates the holiday season with a Chrismoose festival. Chrismoose began years ago when a hermit named Chris rode his pet moose into the town of Good Riddance to pass out toys to all the kids in case Santa couldn’t find the little bush community. See, those kids in Good Riddance, Alaska were double-whammied with both Santa Clause and Chrismoose.

What about you? How old were you when you got the cold dash of reality? Do you have any fun Santa traditions you’d like to share or any alternatives similiar to Chrismoose?:-)

This month is the second book in my Alaskan Heat series, Northern Encounter. This is the story of native guide Clint Sisnukett and videographer Tessa Bellingham.

Clint’s mother was a Canadian filmmaker and he knows from bitter experience how she didn’t fit into the Alaskan wilds and how he never fit into her world in Montreal.

Tessa Bellingham has felt displaced in the world ever since her parents died when she was young. She’s enchanted with Clint and his world, but can she ever truly belong there?

Brenda said in her blog post at the first of the month that this was her favorite of the Alaskan Heat series. That’s because Brenda shares my love of animals, totems, and native cultures. You’ll find all of the above in this book. Eagles, wolves, and my favorite, a malamute named Kobuk. Kobuk is actually based on a dog I knew and was quite fond of. He belonged to my college roommate’s parents and was named after Kobuk Valley National Park in AK.

Today I’ll be giving away a copy of Northern Encounter. Just post the name and any tidbits you want about your favorite pet — hey, it can even be one that belongs/belonged to a friend.

I’m so excited!! This month launches my Alaskan Heat miniseries with NORTHERN EXPOSURE which means I get to welcome you to Good Riddance, Alaska…where you get to leave behind whatever troubles you. (H)

If I was really computer savvy I’d upload the cover copy here, but I’m not so you’ll have to look at the covers on the side of the page.

Years ago I was lucky enough to spend some time in Alaska and I fell in love with the place. It was like no place I’d ever been before and I’ve never been anywhere quite like it since. I was thrilled to get to create my own little town in such a unique area. Founded by a transplanted Southern belle, Merrilee Danville Weatherspoon, Good Riddance is home to a quirky assortment of folks from all over…and the perfect place to fall in love.

I have had so much fun working on these books and I simply adore the town and all the people. I love Good Riddance and I hope you will as well. Wanting to share the love, I’m giving away a copy of the book today. Leave a comment and Monday I’ll post a winner!

Okay, Autumn doesn’t officially begin until September 23 and I know I’m rushing it…but I’m so ready. It’s not just the cooler weather, but for me one of my favorite things about Fall are all the festivals. Labor Day weekend kicked off Art in the Park. There will be art festivals galore and apple festivals and then later pumpkin patch festivals. I could easily do a festival/weekend between now and when it’s simply too cold.

What about you? Are you into festivals? What’s your favorite thing about Autumn? (And yes, we’re still hitting 90′s here in Georgia but I’m still rolling with the notion of Autumn. :-))

I have been wrestling with reading glasses for the last couple of years. It’s a real pain in the behonkus. I can’t read directions in the car without them or even idenify an incoming cell phone call, but then again, I can’t wear my reading glasses and sunglasses at the same time either. Grocery shopping, clothes shopping, etc. — better have those reading glasses but it’s awkward walking around in magnifiers. So…I went for my first eye exam in about four years. The eyes are good, except for needing those magnifiers. I decided I wanted to try contact lens.

Talk about teaching an old dog new tricks. Wow, they know me intimately at Lens Crafters now. The first night I couldn’t get it out of my right eye, so I had to drive over the next morning and have the Lens Crafters folks get it out. I let my eyes rest that day. The next morning I got myself set up…and spent the next hour putting in two contacts. I had a headache all day — I think I’d traumatized myself and my eyes. The following day I got the right in — with the contact the wrong way — three times. I just resorted to glasses that day. Next day I went back for a lesson in how to put them in. Seems the key is to do it BEFORE you put any moisturizer on your face. Okay. Then I had an issue with my right eye — well, I’ll spare you the details but it turns out it wasn’t an eye infection — just the eye unhappy with all the trauma but the doctor told me to check the contact for any small tears. No need, when I started to put them in the next morning, it was obviously torn almost in half. That meant another trip there to pick up another pair. Saturday and yesterday went well…until I couldn’t get the left eye out last night.

Let me just go on record as saying that I hate everyone, especially small children, who can pop their contacts in and out at will.:-[ I am also determined to master this. In the meantime, I am undoing years of Oil of Olay Regenerist cream as I tug bags I could use at the grocery store beneath my eyes in an attempt to get these suckers in and out.

And thus concludes my ongoing saga of contact lens wear…or the pathetic attempt. I suppose outside of just wanting to whine about it, I need encouragement that I too will one day manage to pop these in and out without it being an ordeal and without tugging ten years worth of lines around my eyes.:-S

No…I’m not talking about my kid, I’m talking about my car. I love my kid, but I love that car too. I used to be ashamed to admit how attached I was to four wheels and some metal/plastic combo, but now I just own it. I love my car. I was proud as punch when I paid it off in March and the title came in the mail. It was truly mine, no longer mine and the bank’s.

Can you imagine my dismay when my transmission went in May at 107K miles? Getting any kind of mechanical repair done as a single woman is intimidating…but a transmission? We’re talking high, high dollar repair. We are talking Jen on a tight budget. We’re talking about if I make a mistake it’s going to be very costly.

I finally made a decision on where to have the work done. It was a good decision as it turned out that mine was one of the most complicated transmissions they’d worked on, but this company had GREAT reviews, specialized in transmissions, and were good to work with, returning calls promptly and keeping me informed every step of the way. Yesterday I picked my baby up and brought it home. It was so nice to drive my car again.

You know what was even better? I now know more about a transmission than I ever wanted to know. Thanks to an online tutelage, I knew EXACTLY what the repair guy was talking about when he called. Am I a transmission specialist? Not hardly, but I can now carry on a semi-intelligent conversation about it. I am also determined to take a class on under-the-hood basics.

I know how to check my oil, tire pressure, and coolant. It’s not enough. I need to know how to intelligently converse about what’s going on under the hood of my car. This is not particularly information that I want to know but it is stuff that I need to know.

I know that the mechanics of car care is not a particularly glamorous post. That’s okay. Those that know me know I’m not particularly glamorous. I’m a down-to-earth, pragmatic, romantic dreamer. But, as women, we need to be aware of what we’re dealing with. And if you want to tell me that your husband always handles that…I’ll caution you that he might not always be there to do so.

So, my ending comment is part question/part challenge. How much do you know about your car? How much are you willing to learn? And in a weird way, this totally fits in with the Blaze sentiment. The Blaze heroine loves her man but she can take care of her own.

So, I challenge you today to become a Blaze heroine –a woman who knows her car underneath the hood and can follow a mechanics discussion.

I am so proud of myself. Historically, I don’t have much of a green thumb. I don’t know that I’ve magically developed one as much as I now live with great lighting. My loft apartment boasts enormous 7 X 8 foot windows. In a fit of optimism this spring, I planted some window boxes with herbs. Basil, dill, oregano, tarragon, chives, cilantro, rosemary, and parsley.

I’m tickled. My herbs are so happy, which means I’m happy.

It’s truly delightful to cook with fresh herbs right on hand. Breakfast yesterday was a slice of fresh tomato topped with fresh basil and chives, a poached egg, and feta cheese all stacked atop one another. Lunch? Angel hair pasta tossed with olive oil, sea salt, pepper, basil, dill, oregano, chives, tarragon, and gorgonzola. Nothing tastes quite the same as tossing in fresh herbs.

I am somewhat confounded, however. My parsely isn’t happy. I mean it’s seriously unhappy as in I’m not sure it’s going to make it. I don’t get it. It’s the most common herb. It should be the easiest to grow. Anyone got any suggestions as to what it takes to grow happy parsley?

Anyone got a favorite recipe/use for fresh herbs? Is herb a friend of yours?

This is a shout-out to all the mother’s out there whether your ‘babies’ be two-legged or four-legged or any other variety. Motherhood isn’t a biological state, in my opinion, it’s an attitude and a caring. And oftentimes it comes with a craziness all its own.

When my daughter was in kindergarten she said to me, “Mom, you’re not like all the other mothers.”

I’ve never been one to follow the crowd so I had to preen a bit when I asked, “Oh, in what way, honey?”

“You’re more like a witch,” she said very sincerely and as if it was a great thing.

Maybe she meant I was kind of magical. I dunno. I thought it was terribly funny at the time and nine years later it still makes me smile.

So, Happy Mother’s Day and if you’ve got any goofy mother’s day tales to share, let’s hear’em.

It’s true, I’m afraid. I am living in the technological Dark Ages. Prepare yourselves, people, for some frightening lack of electronic sophistication.

I have the world’s oldest, ugliest cell phone on the planet. It doesn’t flip or slide or any of that cool stuff — it’s just one of those oldies with the screen right above the keypad. Ring tones? Bwahahahaha. I think not. Camera? Nope. Whilst the rest of the world is clicking photos left and right and sending them hither and yon on their cellular contact list, yours truly doesn’t have that capability.

Over dinner the other night a friend was telling the rest of us how she has to “toss off” with her new cell phone. Not wanting to look any more pathetic than I already do, I said nothing but I was lost. I have no clue what “tossing off” is. Actually, it sounds like something…never mind, probably best not to go there.

Yet another friend was talking about setting the alarm on her phone rather than the alarm on her bedroom clock. I…uh, am pretty sure my cell phone doesn’t have an alarm. If it does I am dead certain I don’t know where/how to find it.

Bluetooth? Hands free chatting? Y’all know, I don’t even have to say it. (H)

Okay, so let’s hear it. Where do you fall on the technological spectrum?