A Quick Look Back!

Happy New Year! It’s always fun to take a quick look back at the past year and with social media and digital photos it only takes a few minutes to revisit an entire year of living. My family is just like yours and we had our ups and downs over the past year but overall it was a great year!

 

One really big change in our life is hubby Tom’s retirement! We have had the party and celebrated but he is still working on all those loose ends. At this point he is mostly retired and we are hopeful that all of his work will soon be completed and the business calls will come to an end.

He worked for the same company for nearly 40 years and they gave him a lovely retirement party with so many wonderful business friends in attendance as well as our immediate family. People ask me what it’s like to have him home all the time and I have to admit that I really like it! We are finally getting around to some household projects that have been on the back burner for years.

At the top of hubby Tom’s list of things to get done was having his Retirement Shop built.  Now he has a place to work on projects and brew his own beer – another retirement hobby. Now that he has proven he can read a recipe (for a beer brew) I think he needs to practice that in the kitchen with some plant based recipes!

One of the food/blogging highlights for me was being a recipe tester for a new vegan cookbook author. I met Somer McCowan on Instagram and we became friends when she invited people to join her on a Green Smoothie Weight Loss Challenge that was then posted on her blog Vedged Out. The information has since been removed from her blog as it will all be included in her new book The Abundance Diet. When Somer announced she was looking for recipe testers for her first cookbook  I eagerly raised my hand to be a part of it.  It was fun to see how the recipes changed after all the testers gave them a try and shared their views. We also got to see the amazing photographs that will be included in the book. Friendships were formed and we are all excited to see the cookbook when it comes out in June. The recipes are amazing – low calorie and easy to make. The plant based food plan will help you lose weight and eat a healthy balanced diet all the while keeping you feeling full and satisfied. In fact you will most likely have trouble eating all the food you are allowed! It truly is a diet of abundance.

 

 

You can pre-order  the book now on Amazon using my affiliate link and I do get a tiny little bit of compensation for that which helps to keep this blog up and running.

It was a lot of fun to be a part of the test group and from that I made some wonderful internet friends who share the same food philosophy and passion for living a healthy lifestyle. I even had the opportunity to meet up with some of the other recipe testers when Jenn (on the right) invited us to come over to Walnut Creek to have a lovely vegan/plant based pot luck at her house with Eve from San Francisco and Poppy who came all the way from England! We were all recipe testers for the cookbook and had become friends on line before we ever met in person. We had a wonderful lunch and managed to talk for hours.

We spent a great deal of time this past fall working on our daughter and son in law’s first home. We painted and helped with all kinds of household chores to get the house ready for them to move in. They turned a house into a home and are so happy to be living there.

We celebrated 35 years of marriage with a trip to Monterey and Big Sur area with a nice little side trip to the Hearst Castle. Over the past year we also managed to get out on the trail quite a few times for some amazing hikes.

In November I was able to go to Nebraska to visit my family and friends. A good time was had by all. It was great to go home and spend quality time with everyone.

We had the most delightful thing happen in December when I parents decided to come and stay with us over the holiday!

We went so many fun places and created wonderful memories that will keep us feeling warm and fuzzy for months to come!

The year was ushered out in grand style with a lovely get together at our son in laws parents home. It’s always a good time when we can get both sides of the family together. We enjoyed amazing food like vegan tamales, played games and laughed together!

We have been so busy I haven’t had much time to reflect on my goals for the new year. I do think they will include more working out with weights, planning fun adventures more frequently and of course continuing to improve on our healthy lifestyle.

Wishing you all the best in health and happiness in 2015!

Tami