My new granddaughter Kaylynn was born Monday:

She weighed 6 lbs, 13 ounces and was 19 inches long. She’s spending a little time in the NICU, but her mommy and daddy spend a lot of time in there with her. Kaylynn is doing just fine and should be out of the hospital within a week. Everyone loves her to pieces and we think she’s quite beautiful. Her big sister Michelle (age 6) thinks having a baby sister is pretty cool.

Here’s my son looking pretty darn happy to be holding his baby girl:

Anyway, she’s the reason why you won’t see much of me for the next week or so, but expect to be inundated with lots of pictures soon (apologies in advance :giggle: )

P.S. Riding The Night, the 5th and final Wild Riders book, is finished. I knocked out the last word of the first draft this weekend. Yay! But really, who cares about all that book stuff when there are brand new babies to hold? (More on this later. Honest. Scroll up and look at the baby picture again)

My husband has a cold (he says it’s allergies. I know better.) Anyway, I’m going to make him homemade chicken noodle soup tonight, the kind you make when someone you love has a cold.

A writer friend of mine gave me this recipe many years ago, and I make it every winter. Yes, it’s just fall but oh man are the colds and flu hitting already! So I thought I’d post this because it’s a great chicken soup recipe and it really does make you feel better. I think it’s all the garlic and ginger :giggle:

MAKES YOU BETTER CHICKEN SOUP RECIPE

Ingredients

1 avg fresh chicken or 6 thighs and 2 breasts–with skin, without a lot of fat (honestly, I just buy one of those rotisserie chickens at the grocery store that’s already cooked…because I’m lazy like that and it works just great in this recipe).

6 Garlic cloves, peeled and halved (Or you can use the jars of minced/crushed garlic from the grocery store, which is what I use because, again, I’m lazy. And if you do just spoon up 3 or 4 heaping spoonfuls)

1 1/2-inch piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and chopped. (Or you can use the jars of ginger from the grocery store, which is what I use, because again, I’m lazy. And if you do it this way 3 or 4 heaping spoonfuls will do it)

Celery, chopped. However many stalks you want to use. Personal preference

Carrots, chopped. However many you want to use. Personal preference

Salt to taste (I don’t use salt because I make this with almost all chicken broth instead of water and the chicken broth has plenty of salt in it).

Pepper

Chicken Broth – I use 2 of those cartons of chicken broth, and the rest water

Rigatoni Noodles. 1 lb package.

Recipe:

If you use fresh uncooked chicken then cook your chicken first using any method you prefer. Boiling/crockpot/whatever

Pour chicken broth and water into a big pot (I just guestimate soup quantity volume). Add garlic, ginger, celery and carrots. Bring to boil and throw in 1/2 to 3/4 pkg of rigatoni noodles (depending on how much noodle you like in your soup), cook according to package directions. While noodles are cooking, cut up and shred already cooked chicken from rotisserie chicken. and toss in pot. Season with a little pepper and whatever seasonings blow your skirt up. Heat until warm and serve.

It’s a very easy recipe and so yummy and good for what ails you.

Everyone please wash your hands eleventy million times a day and try to stay healthy this cold and flu season. :heart:

I read this article over the weekend, and got into a Twitter discusison this morning about it.

Basically, the article talks about schools eliminating the teaching of cursive writing to its students because they’re priming students for 21st century schools, i.e. everything via computer, nothing by hand. Really? So writing by hand is being lost? I don’t agree.

My initial reaction was one of shock. And maybe that’s because I’m older and the thought of children not being taught cursive writing means they also won’t be taught to read cursive writing. And the jumping off point of that was allt he historical documents written in cursive. Oh, you know, like this one:

(Courtesy of Archives.gov )

I mean, sure, you can read the printed text of the Declaration of Independence on the computer. But if you’re not taught to write and read cursive, you will never know the thrill of reading the original Declaration of Independence, or scores of other documents of our history that were written back in the day when cursive was all that was used.

It makes me sad to think of the potential loss to our children and grandchildren. Now I’m a big techno geek and I handwrite very little myself these days because I do everything on my laptop. You should see my signature….gah. It’s not pretty. But I do know how to handwrite and I can read in cursive. I will never lose that ability because it was taught to me in school. Our children should at least have the same benefit.

And how the hell will our children be able to sign their names? Will their signatures be printed in the future because it’s the only way they know? Kind of hard to have a unique signatorial identity when all you can do is print your name.