Sunday Ramblings

 It has been cloudy for most of the day. In fact the sun just came out from behind dense cloud cover 30 minutes or so ago. I am not sure how long the sun will be out, or if the sun will show its face tomorrow. We could be getting a bit more snow over the next week so it looks as if winter is not really relaxing its grip on the prairies of Canada. I am still hopeful that the weather will be decent for Kris to get home for Easter. 

My back withstood the hard wooden pews at Mass. I am always surprised when we arrive at the church. Lots of vehicles surround it, but upon entering there is hardly anyone there. Come time for Eucharist the line seems to be never ending. Today the school children did the readings, collection, and were the choir. Did an excellent job each and every one of them.

Now in case the lady who asked about a flimsy was and not check my response to her, I am going to answer it here. A flimsy is what quilters call the quilt top before "sandwiching" it with batting and a back and quilting it all together. Not sure why it is called a flimsy, other than in comparison to a quilt, it is flimsy and easily folded and put aside until ready for the next steps.

I am going to pull out some of my frugal books this week and see what else can be added to my frugal habits. I am really happy with how much we are saving by using cleaning rags, cloth napkins and my lady cloths. I am finding that a little bit here and there can add up to big savings over the entire year. Perhaps making some reusable cloth towels for the kitchen would be a great idea. I would still keep some paper towels for messy tasks. 

I am also thinking of making some more of my own cleaners. The orange and vinegar mixture works on a few things, but there are areas that could use a more potent cleaner. I have a book titled Green Up Your Cleanup  and another titled Baking soda, Banana Peels, Baby Oil and Beyond and it is time to make some use of them for cleaning mixtures.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

 

While I am not feeling 100% I am feeling much better. I am not sure what is wrong with me, but perhaps this old body just needs more rest then I have been giving it over the last while. I did sleep very well last night and I hope that the same happens tonight. 

Tomorrow our small visitor arrives. Nancy (my brother-in-law's wife) will be coming over to drop off Bob the cat. This does mean I will need to straighten the hallway before he arrives and once here will need to find a place for his bed, and scratching post. It really will be lovely to have a cat around for a bit. Looking forward to hopefully getting cuddles and pets in. She says he is very affectionate. 

It has been a fairly quiet day. We did go out to church today and I had to go out later and get Harvey's prescriptions filled. Well the ones for his blood pressure and his anti-depressant. The eye drops will last until after his next appointment with the optometrist. 

Other than those few outdoor things (picked up the mail as well) I have stuck close to home and worked on things like to do lists, looking up recipes, working on projects, and taking things fairly easy. 

Spent a bit of time looking up solar generator things on Amazon. Most need to have the purchase of the solar panels separate from the generator. I do think that is how we would go though if we did the generator thing. It is much less expensive than the gas powered and would actually work in the case of a power outage that lasted a great deal of time. I think we would need a couple of them though. One for the fridge and stove upstairs (and perhaps the computer and printer) and one for the basement freezers and washer/dryer. We face south so charging would not be a problem. 

Still working on using more small appliances to do my cooking. The electric bill did go down a tad this month, but I would love it to go down a bit more. 

I removed the buttons from Harvey's shirts.

Cut up the shirts into useable fabric. That will more than likely be used to make some totes eventually. 

I will pull out the pants to have the zippers and buttons removed tomorrow and those cut down into useable fabric as well. Little things being completed each day. 

The first half of the rug is off the loom and I will continue with warping again tomorrow. My back starts to hurt if I work on that phase for too long. I should also perhaps get the last pair of mittens almost completed as well. 

Little by slow little I am getting projects crossed off my list for the month. Of course there will be a few things carried over, but I hope to finish those next month. Will I add things? More than likely.

Today our sermon at church was letting our light shine, that just saying one is Christian is not enough..... 

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

 

The day started off pretty nice really for a January winter day. Then it began to snow a bit, the wind came up and the snow fell for a bit. We did have some sundogs for a bit which probably forecasts the coming cold snap. 

Mass, was the usual mix of understanding Father during the parts and then losing most understanding once he started his sermon. I also got a horrible surprise. One of the students I have known since kindergarten, and who's mother was a teacher in our Catholic schools and I worked with passed away at the age of 26. I cried for awhile a bit ago. This was B and B's only child born to them when B was quite old. Only one was in church this morning and left before Eucharist was handed out. My heart breaks for them.

I went shopping and managed to pick up most of what I needed at our Co-op as I did not want to go to Walmart. We will make do with what we have for this shopping period. Things were a bit higher in cost but whatever.

This is what I managed to get for the pantry for $10.00. It isn't very much.

Some salad dressings, Turtle beans, and Navy beans. Every little bit adds to what we can use if times get tough.

I also bought dried Kidney beans but the cost would have put me over the $10.00 mark so it went in my regular purchases. 

Meat was even higher than usual so the only meat purchased was a chicken and that was a bit expensive as well. Good thing that my meat freezer is fairly full. Hopefully I can purchase a beef roast next time around, and some chicken breasts as well. Times are getting pretty tough for people.

I now have the loom set up and ready to be warped. I think I have decided to do two sections of this rug and sew them together to make the rug. The warp will be dark brown and light brown and the weft will be grey and I think brown and smaller strips of green. We shall see. 

Working on knitting today, I hope to get the second pair completed. I have pulled the leftover yarn to make two more I hope. Thus getting the stockpile of leftover yarn down a bit more and make something useful for others. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

It is the end of a weekend here. A nice quiet, get a few things done weekend. Always the best thing in my books. 

I have done embroidery, read pattern notes over, cleaned out most of the plastic containers in the hall cupboard making room for my silicone freezer molds. There are still more in use, but those will be gotten rid of as the contents are used up. It will be room saving to be able to use the molds, pop out the frozen item, perhaps wrap and store in a bag. That should take up less room in the freezer than lots of containers one would think. 

I think I have narrowed down cruises to two that interest me. Both are river cruises so only have to unpack once rather than live out of a suitcase. I believe we will make a trip to the travel agents early next week and finish making our plans. 

As my friend will be gone starting tomorrow for two weeks I will be home and doing small things up until my dentist visit on Friday. It should be just a cleaning, or at least that is what I hope. I plan on getting my prescriptions that day and getting our allowances as well. 

My days at home will be spent doing all those little tasks I have been putting off, planning ways to use up food, and make new things from scratch. As I have said over the past few years I have gotten pretty darn lazy purchasing things like cake mixes, pie crust, spice/herb mixes and now it is the time to go back to the older way I had of cooking. I will probably slip back every once in awhile, especially if I see a really good sale. 

I am up to having decluttered 94 items so far this year. Things are looking pretty good to be able to reach the 500 item mark at this point. Pretty pumped at being able to perhaps reach that when I didn't even get close last year. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

 I woke up to a lovely rain falling. The rain barrel must be almost full again, which is wonderful. Using city water just does not help the plants along as nicely, especially the flowers and veggies. Heck, it barely keeps the grass green in blotches. 

At Mass today, I think we ended up in the most condensed pew available in the church. Pretty sure that when they took the chairs out to redo the floors they put the side ones in wrong and kind of stuck this one in a tiny space really unsuitable for a person with back and hip problems.

It was a very strange sermon today. I sat in pretty much disbelief as Father Thuy spoke. 

I have been trying to simplify my life and move towards peace and living a life of abundance. Guess what Father spoke about. Yep, realizing that we live lives of abundance already and how lucky we are to live in a place where there is really very little violent crime, and have a community that cares and watches out for each other. 

I do know that when we have missed in person Mass it is noticed, and when we get back people ask how my back is and if my cancer has returned (they figure the last one is what is keeping us from attending Mass as often as we should). In a way the concern of others is touching, but in another way I almost wish that this small city, was not quite as small. Or perhaps I am too well known in the parish community due to my years as Youth Coordinator, Lector, Extraordinary Minister of Communion, and Parish Council Chairperson. I had hoped that my drawing back from those areas would mean I would not be in the community's eye as much. Not going to happen I suppose. 

My menu has changed once again for today. We went out for brunch after Mass and I did not feel like making a roast. So I have pulled out a container of Sweet and Sour Ribs, put on some potatoes to boil and mash, and have some frozen peas as our vegetable side. This does change the menu for the week a bit as well, but there is an abundance of food in the fridge and freezer so this will give me a chance to use things up a little before adding more to the mix. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

 

I have been a bit ill over the last couple of days. One day, it was more not enough sleep, but I actually think that was leading up to today. 

I woke up with a major sinus headache, leaning towards a migraine type. I spent much of the morning leaning over the toilet bowl (if you know what I mean). I ended up in our bedroom with a cold compress on my forehead and drapes fully closed. 

Things are better now, but I am being very careful on what I do. Once I started feeling slightly better I did work on a few things. I managed to get some more done on the weaving, got my lists made for next week, brought up the food for next week, and did a tiny bit of journaling. 

Did a tiny bit of work on projects as well once the headache totally disappeared. Still not as much completed as I would have liked.

Sandy asked about my tinkle cloths. Yes Sandy I have cut some lovely soft fabric to use as toilet paper when I tinkle (the rest is regular toilet paper). I probably save at leas two rolls of toilet paper a week doing this.

Harvey has decided to phone and cancel the appointment with our dealership service department over his truck. Things seem to be working perfectly now. A bit of a savings there.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

 

The temperatures are rising, but that will be bringing snow and cloudy sky. I was hoping to be able to finish my rose quilt square this month and start on another, but that might not happen. Still I have things on my project/goals list that I can work on and perhaps even complete. I really should post my goals here at some point, perhaps on Tuesday.

I have also been tidying the sewing/craft room and making an inventory of various craft supplies. There are very few items I need, but there are some that would be very nice to have. I might continue to save in order to purchase some of those "nice to have" items at some point this year. I would love a heat press and mat for Cricut t-shirts and things of that nature. A mug press would be lovely as well. I do have aida cloth and linen for cross stitch but could always use some more in different stitch sizes. 

Yarn, well I am good for probably the next 4 or 5 years as people keep gifting me yarn that they are not using. Fabric, probably enough to last at least a year for myself, but if I want to make anything for Harvey, Kurt or Kris, I will need to purchase. Still I will use up what I have and of course, since I am on a no waste year, the scraps will be used as well for quilts, runners and perhaps even a bag or three. 

I will need to inventory my lotions and potions next. Not that I have that much in the potion category, but I need to take a closer look at those cleansers, masks and facial things. My skin is really drying out this winter so I am using much more hand and body lotion than usual for me. 

There are certain areas of the meat freezer that need a bit of restocking so I am really hoping for some great sales on beef and pork over the coming months. 

Harvey almost has my table ready to put back in the dining room, and I think I will make a few more table cloths and placemats to protect the surface. I believe that was the problem to begin with. He will also need to fix a few things on the cabinet and the buffet. 

As far as books for my other hobby, I will continue to download as many free ones as possible, though there are a few of my favourite authors that I will need to purchase. Still it is less expensive to purchase the ebook, and so I will continue to do this.

So far this year (of course it is only 5 days into the year) I have used appliances to cook dinner 3 of those days and expect to do so much more often. In fact this upcoming week I will be appliance cooking most days, and only using the oven to bake some pies and bread all on the same day and filling the oven. 

So enough of my rambling thoughts, and off to make our supper which will consist of stuffed chicken breasts done in the toaster oven, the leftover rice and noodles, and the leftover salad.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

 

This is the First Sunday of Advent and we lit the candle of Hope in the wreath at Mass today. 

While Advent is our waiting for the birth of Christ, it is also the time when we prepare for his coming. We open our hearts to hope.

Hope for world peace, hope for our friends and loved ones, hope for all who surround us and hope that we can truly open our hearts to the wonder of faith. 

This is the beginning of Blogmas as well. I am really going to try and make a post every day up until the New Year. Interesting idea as many a day I actually have nothing to say or write about. Life gets a bit complicated at this time of year as well as very busy. Still if others can find time to post during the month, I should be able to slow down and do the same. 

This month I plan to do one small project a day until I reach the end of the easy ones. I do have a couple of longer projects that I want to get close to being completed, therefore getting the easier projects out of the way will perhaps give me a bit more time to work on those longer ones. 

Todays projects were decorating the living room, decorating the tree downstairs, and decorating the small front deck. We went out to brunch after Mass and that cut out some decorating time. I did get the Christmas decor out in the living room as well as the tree set up, the small front deck done (though I need to purchase another fake garland or two to finish up) and most of the tree done downstairs (one more hour tomorrow morning should see that completed).

Tomorrows small project will be getting those recipe cards done for our sons Christmas baskets. As well as working on the mitts to add to those baskets and decorating the upstairs tree.... Keep your fingers crossed for me as with the usual Monday household tasks this could mean me moving a bit more than I usually do.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.