In the last few weeks I have sent emails and made phone calls to three Internet gurus—my digital son Ira, my daughter-in-law Maura, and my webmaster Shayne—and with their help and advice I will experiment with posting one or two items on my blog, weekly or bi-weekly. My reason for this change is that I think my blog has too much information and smaller “bytes” might be easier to handle, both for me and for the reader. But your input is valuable, so let me know how you like this new format.

In order to receive notice of when the posting is up, I have asked Shayne to move the subscribe link to the bottom of the Home Page, where it can’t be missed. Please add your name to the list even if you are on my “tickle list.” This will guarantee that you will receive an email automatically when a new posting is ready to read.

Thus, for this first week of the new year, please go to Health Flashes for some thought-provoking ideas or goals that you may want to contemplate for 2009 and Kitchen Nutrition for the recipe of the week. (I usually post four recipes when I do the monthly format, so this works out the same, with one each week.) And don’t forget to sign up for the automatic contact for the next posting later in the week. Scroll all the way to the bottom of this page and click on Subscribe.

Since winter time is not the greatest time to find flowers outdoors, I took pictures of some of our houseplants. My husband Alan, who has a super green thumb, is the indoor gardener and the plants thrive under his tender, loving care. We have one long window-wall that stretches across the living room and dining room (as well as the bedroom) that is perfect for our plants.