Gratitude, Day 25

Thank you, Lord, for days like today when I have customers that restore my faith in humanity.  Customers who understand that I'm there to help them and that I will do everything I can to make things work properly for them.  Customers who appreciate that I'm not the queen of the company and that there are rules to which I must adhere.  Customers who are so pleased to have someone actively listen to them and then take action to improve their situations that they want to take action themselves.  (One of my customers wants to send me a Christmas card.)

Most days it's very easy to lose sight of why I do what I do ... when people are cursing me and cussing me and threatening me and yelling directly into my ear (or flushing their toilets in it) ... when people immediately ask to speak to my supervisor without ever giving me an opportunity to assist them (though 98% of the time, I could have taken care of the issue in less time).  Days like today help to bring balance to the chaos that is customer service.

If I may take advantage of the fact that you're still reading this ... When you call in to customer service, whatever company you may be calling, the person to whom you speak is not the one who makes policy decisions.  That person likely doesn't make nearly as much money as the person who does make the policy decisions.  That person, in fact, is your biggest ally in your quest to get something done.  He or she would much prefer to assist you and know they've made a difference for someone than to end up in a contest of wills.  They know you've had to go through an automated menu you don't like.  They know you wouldn't be calling if there wasn't something you wanted to change.  The easiest way for you both to make it through the phone call without anyone being hurt/angered/annoyed is to go into the call with the assumption that the person who answers your call will assist you.  Save being upset for those (hopefully) rare occasions when that doesn't happen.  Don't punish someone for simply answering your call.  You don't want to be that caller any more than the person answering wants you to think of them as that customer service person.

Off my soapbox now. (;

Gratitude, Day 24

Today, I am truly grateful to have older children.  We ran out of gas on the way home tonight.  The little light never came on ... not even after the gas was gone.  My son pushed the car while I steered and while we waited for my daughter to arrive with a gas can.  Could have been a much different tale if the children were still younger, especially since not one motorist stopped to see if I needed assistance ... not that I blame them in this day and age.  Crisis averted, and I now know that the gas light doesn't work and that I need to gas up before it gets iffy. (;

Gratitude, Day 23

I spent today chilling out at home ... the first time I haven't gone Black Friday shopping in years.  In fact, I never even changed out of my jammies.  Gasp!  It was a glorious day! (=

I'm thankful today for online bill payment.  No stamps, no running to the mailbox, no hassle.  Got the bills all taken care of and went back to playing Farkle with the kids.

Yesterday, when it was time to put the turkey in, my son requested that we wait to have it today, because he was still stuffed from our larger-than-life breakfast.  So, we had turkey and mashed taters and gravy tonight.

Tomorrow, it's back to the grind.  I'll be heading back to work after three marvelous days of being home with my children and our pets.  It's been peaceful.  And it was a much needed respite from the norm.

Gratitude, Day 22

Today, I am thankful for the opportunity to enjoy time with my family.  We started off with a yummy breakfast.  I was up at 8:30 this morning (sleeping in for me) and lined a jelly roll pan with foil,

laid out what was left of the bacon (after making a pound and a half to use in my breakfast burritos),

 

and placed it in the cold oven.  Then I set the oven to 350-degrees Fahrenheit

and set the timer for 20 minutes.

Once that was set, I pulled out my largest pan.  Remember the sausage I made in the microwave Stack Cooker the other day for my burritos?  Well, I saved the grease to use today.  I heated it in the pan to use as the base for my homemade sausage gravy.

While the grease was heating, I mixed flour into hot tap water with my wire whisk. 

 

This is a trick i learned a few years ago for making the gravy smooth.  Always mix the flour into liquid before adding it to the pan.  It's been working for me. (=  The only lumps in my gravy this morning were the bits of sausage (that extra pound I cooked the other day).  I added the sausage (and a bit of pepper) once the base was at the consistency that we like.

About the time I finished up the sausage gravy, the oven timer started dinging.  So I pulled out the bacon and set it on trivets to cool.  Once I could touch it, I layered it on paper towels to drain away the grease.  Doesn't that look yummy!  And not a single grease pop on me!

One of the best parts of making the bacon this way is that cleanup was simply folding the tin foil in on itself and moving it to the trash can.  Viola!  Clean jelly roll pan!  Once I'd taken care of that, I bumped the oven temperature up to 400 and moved out of the way, so my daughter could make biscuits.  Our recipe for drop biscuits requires using baking mix, but she said we were out.  So she looked online and found a recipe for baking mix using flour, sugar, salt, baking power, and butter.

Once that was made, it was on to biscuits!  Here's our recipe:

• 2 cups baking mix
• 2/3 cup milk

Combine baking mix and milk.  Drop onto baking stone.  Bake at 400-degrees Fahrenheit for 10-12 minutes.

When they're done, they should look something like this:

We don't go all out with the rolling and cutting, mostly because they taste just as wonderful without all the extra work.  Besides which, making them this way was a really easy way to allow the kids to help in the kitchen when they were little.  We just never changed it when they got older. (;

Oh, and when I went to put the flour away, look what I found in the pantry:

If you guessed "a huge canister of baking mix," you were right!  That's okay, though.  It'll be used.  We'll just need to use the homemade stuff first, since it was made with butter.

Like my high-tech labeling?  And on vintage Tupperware no less. (;

While the biscuits were baking, I made grits, to which we added cheddar and Parmesan cheese and all the bacon.  Then I made over-easy eggs for each of us.  It was a very filling, homey, southern-style breakfast.  Though I admit I never had biscuits and gravy and eggs and grits with bacon at the same breakfast when I was growing up ... But when the kids are more interested in Thanksgiving breakfast than they are in Thanksgiving dinner, I'm more than willing to make it happen.

And after that meal, the other thing I'm thankful for today ... Naps! (;

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family, fun, and time to reflect on all those things in your life for which you have reason to be thankful.

Gratitude, Day 21

Had a lovely day today that was packed with comfort foods.  Soooo thankful for comfort foods!  For brunch, we had eggs, over easy, with cheesy grits.  For dinner, it was broccoli cheddar soup.  Mmmm ...

Tomorrow, being Thanksgiving, is traditionally a day of digestive overindulgence, but today proved that any old day can be a make-you-feel-good food day. (=

Gratitude, Day 20

Today, I want to give a shout-out to all the friends I've made along the way.  You know who you are.  You've dragged me out for girl time when I was blinded to the fact that I needed it.  You've hugged me when I was down, made me laugh when I didn't think I could, called me unspeakable names in public places just to make me smile, and reassured me when I've felt woefully incapable of bearing the cross that has been handed to me.

I am thankful for each and every one of you, all the time.  You have no idea how much you all mean to me.

Gratitude, Day 19

I am thankful for YouTube ... I spent a very relaxing evening doing a whole lot of nothing while watching a variety of programming, starting with the 2012 People's Choice Awards and bouncing to the 2012 Tony Awards and then a few NPH videos which led to a whole slew of "Big Bang Theory" clips.  Lots of laughs to be had on the internet, and I certainly needed them.  Good stuff.

Gratitude, Day 18

I am thankful for my Tupperware Stack Cooker.  I did all the prep work to make frozen breakfast burritos tonight.  I cooked my bacon in the oven, following a method I found online.  While it was cooking, I broke up a pound of sausage into the colander of my Stack Cooker (with the cone in the center).  With the colander in the larger piece of the Stack Cooker, I put on the lid and microwaved it for 2 minutes.  Then, I broke up the sausage a bit and cooked it for 2 more minutes.  Done!  No muss, no fuss!  And the grease dripped down through the colander into the larger casserole dish, which meant no draining to do.  When it had cooled a little, I put the sausage into my chopper and gave it a few spins to make it easier to distribute when it's time to add it to the burritos.

My burritos are a little different from the recipe on the site above.  I didn't use the hash browns for starters.  Instead of spinach, I chopped half a vidalia onion and a whole red bell pepper (after removing the stem, ribs, and seeds).  And obviously, I've added sausage to the mix.  I'll let you know how they are. (=

Gratitude, Day 17

Today, it was my extreme pleasure to watch as my son marched in a Santa Claus parade.  It was televised, so after watching him perform live, I was able to watch from a different perspective when we got home.  It was a long day, but a fabulous one.  And I am so incredibly grateful that I had benefit time available so that I could be there.

Gratitude, Day 16

Today, I am grateful for the sarcastic silliness of a select few of my coworkers.  If you're reading this, you know who you are. (;

Gratitude, Day 15

With my work schedule, I'm usually up no later than 5 o'clock each morning.  Then I end up staying up until after 10 each night.  Today, I slept until almost 11!  It was amazing!  I felt fabulous all day.  So today, I'm grateful for the restorative properties of a good night's sleep. (=

Gratitude, Day 14

I took my son to the orthodontist this morning for a consultation regarding his second set of braces.  He had the first set a few years ago, complete with expanders for both his top and bottom jaws.  (They're those miniature torture devices that get cemented in and require that you turn a wire key in them at least once daily in order to manually widen the jaw.)  Due to economic concessions, we had to postpone his second set.  The hard times aren't over, but the waiting has to be.  He only has so long before the work necessary to correct his overcrowding and narrow jaw will end up including oral surgery.  So, since I don't want that to be part of the process, we're moving forward.

I made the appointment for today, because it was the earliest available appointment that would allow me to get the pricing information and still be within the open enrollment period for my insurance (so I could adjust how much to have deducted from each check for my Flexible Spending Account).  For those who don't know how all this orthodontic insurance stuff works (like me a few hours ago), my provider covers 50% of orthodontia with a lifetime cap of $1500.  Yes, you read that right, only fifteen hundred.  With the first set, we had two insurance providers.  Since my birthday falls earlier in the year (April versus November), mine was the primary last time, covering 50% of set 1, while my husband's policy covered 50% of the remainder (or 25% of the overall cost), leaving us with 25% to cover out of pocket.  This time, mine is the only coverage.  So, while they cover 50%, they'll only cover up to whatever is left of the $1500.  The good news?  They apparently overpaid a little over $600 last time.  The gal at the orthodontist's office said they had tried to get in touch with us to let us know, but they couldn't reach us.  (I blame the unreliable voice mail we had at the time.).  So, they're crediting that toward this set, along with the remainder of the $1500.  That leaves just over $3100 for me to pay out of pocket.

Now, if you're anything like me, you probably just choked a little when you read that last dollar figure.  Here's where the Flexible Spending Account comes in ... The federal government has capped FSA's to $2500 per year, so the max I can put into my FSA is $96.15 per pay period (which is a lot of money, to my way of thinking).  Still, $2500 doesn't cover the cost.  Ready for more good news?  She told me that, if I can pay the initial $2500 with my FSA card, she'll carry over the remainder til next year.  So, I can use my FSA again instead of having to scrape together the balance before he can get started.

So, today, I'm thankful for insurance and the people who understand how it works.

Gratitude, Day 13

Today, I spent hours online trying to locate a photo that I'm almost certain I have saved to the hard drive of the desktop computer we do not currently use due to the disgustingly high number of viruses with which it is infected.  I was talking on the phone with my mother while I was doing so.  Though she had her own to-do list, she got up and went to her computer and began searching as well.  We didn't find the photo in question (I was able to work something else out.), but we had a few laughs.  And it really meant a lot to me that she took the time out of her day to help me.

So, I'm grateful for my mom.  We've had our share of hard times, periods when we didn't even speak to each other, but through thick and thin, we've always loved each other, no matter what.  I hope that when my own children are older, they'll love me at least half as much as I love her.

Love you, mom! <3 br="br">

Gratitude, Day 12

I just realized that I never posted yesterday.  It's been an emotional few days here and it's likely to be more emotional before things settle.  I got caught up in my emotions yesterday evening and lost track of not only the time, but also of my to-do list.  Sorry about that.

Yesterday, I had a wonderful chat with my son.  I know I already have been thankful for him in a previous post, but I am sincerely grateful for his maturity level and his insight.  He has a unique perspective that often helps me to see things in a much better way.

Gratitude, Day 11

It may seem the pat response, given that today is Veteran's Day, but I am thankful for all those who have served and all those who are serving in the armed forces.  I am very proud and thankful to have been raised a "military brat," and I'm proud and thankful that my brother chose to follow in his father's footsteps by joining the Corps (Semper Fi!) when he finished high school.  I'm proud of and thankful for the years my husband served in the Navy, the years his brother and sister-in-law served in the Army, and those my stepson and his wife are currently serving in the Air Force.  I'm also extremely grateful that they all came home from their respective "ports of call" safely; I know not all do.  For those who did not, I tip my hat and say a special prayer of thanks for the sacrifices each made.  Thank you to each and every one of you.

Gratitude, Day 10

Today I am grateful for the accumulation of sick time. I didn't feel good when I got up this morning, but I felt good enough to drag myself out of bed and into work. Nibbling on pretzels and sipping on Sprite made me feel better, so I made a stupid move and had pizza (delicious BBQ chicken pizza) late in the day and sent myself spiraling downward. Thankfully, I work for an employer that grants sick time based on the hours you've already worked. So I was able to come home early, kick back in my recliner, nibble on pretzels, sip sweet tea, and nap until about 4 o'clock in the morning, when my alarm dragged me to my bed for another hour of snooze-button sleep. Feeling fabulous now!

Gratitude, Day 9

Today I am grateful for being able to hear God's voice through others.  It's absolutely amazing to be speaking with a complete stranger and hear something that confirms in your spirit something you had been wondering.  How blessed are we to have Him speak to us so plainly?  How many years did I travel through my life with my ears plugged, not even trying to listen?  Thank you, Lord, for caring enough about me that you would put words into someone else's mouth to comfort me without them even knowing what they were doing.

Gratitude, Day 8

Today, I'd like to give thanks for the telephone. I received two calls out of the blue today. Each of them brought me joy in their own way. It's a wonderful thing to have someone reach out from miles away and bring a smile to your face. Thank you. (=

Gratitude, Day 7

With my work schedule currently, I have Wednesdays and Thursdays as my "weekends."  Of course, this means I am generally home alone on my days off from work.  My daughter is at work, and my son is at school.  I have the dog and the cats here still, but they're not much for conversations (great for snuggling down for a nap, though).

Today, being the first day of my weekend this week, I am thankful for bright, sunshiny, lazily productive days off from work.  I'm not winning any domesticity awards today, but I'm enjoying the sunshine, and I'm very slowly working my way through my to-do list.

I got dressed, made my bed, drove my son to school (missed the bus), made a new batch of fabric softener, washed and dried 2 loads of laundry, took care of some correspondence, and caught up on some of my saved programs on the DVR.  All-in-all, not a bed day. (=

Gratitude, Day 6

I am thankful today to be living in a country where I am free to think and believe whatsoever I choose and to have the honor and privilege to put my thoughts and beliefs into action in a process in which many in this world cannot participate.  I hope those of you who read this who have the opportunity to cast a vote for the issues that concern you and the potential leaders you feel are most worthy of the jobs do so.