The holidays bring plenty of food to our house. We seem to buy too much to feed guests and must eat leftovers for a week. Gifts from friends include candies, fruitcake, and nuts. We do our best to eat most of it before the new year so we can begin our resolution to lose weight in January.

This year was no different. We are still eating ham sandwiches, and desserts are slowly disappearing. But one gift we received was consumed quickly, and I found myself searching online to buy more—butter toffee cashews! I must thank my sister for this decadent gift.

On Christmas Day, we opened the bag of cashews to share with our company, and we could not stop munching on them. The sweet, salty cashews were addictive. But these nuts were more than a sinful holiday treat.

I discovered that Walter loves them so much that they have become a reward for doing work around the house. Ladies, if you want your husband to give you a hand with daily chores, keep a bag of these cashews in the pantry. Better yet, keep some in your pocket to reward him. If Walter washes the dishes for me, he gets a handful of butter toffee cashews as a treat. When he takes out the trash, he gets a few more cashews. Ever since Christmas morning, Walter has kept the house tidy with a few of the delicious nuts throughout the day. It works!

The bag of cashews is now empty, and my order won’t arrive until next week, but that’s okay. He can rest for a few days. I realize our resolution to lose weight might be slow starting, but a clean house is worth it. I’ve got plenty of other resolutions I can work on first.

My List
by Dee Bowlin

On New Year’s Eve,
I roll up my sleeves
and make a list
that looks like this:

Lose some weight
Don’t procrastinate
Start eating right
Don’t stay up all night
Get out of debt
Don’t get upset
Write thank you notes
Be sure to vote
Call up my friends
Don’t overspend
Fight off the blues
Don’t buy more shoes

I think it’s clear,
again this year,
I need more days
to change my ways.