Sunday Ramblings

 

Strange weather today we started off at 10C, fell to 8C and rose again to 10C all within a few hours. The wind is howling and leaves are blowing all over the place. Inside the furnace has not cut in since early this morning, with the sun shining in our south facing picture window it is almost 24C inside the front half of our home. 

Harvey made us brunch today after Mass and it was wonderful, even if I had to do the clean up. Got that done quickly and actually pretty easily. 

I have been adding to the grocery list. I really have let the pantry go down over the last while. I have also let our meat go way down in some regards. The next while I will be looking for sales on beef as we have very little of that left in the meat freezer. Still have lots of chicken and pork, but I know Harvey will be wanting beef. Over the last few months I have been well under budget for groceries so I think a bit of a splurge will be okay this time around. 

Staying home more is enabling me to get things finished and work on those little things that will enable us to live a simple and organized life. It will allow me to work on things I enjoy that make our home one we are proud of. Fixing the little things so that selling when the time comes will be easy. I do know that eventually we will need to move and so downsizing and using up what we have is becoming so much more important.  I turn 70 in December and Harvey is already 75. Time is becoming a challenge to our staying in our home. 

More of a challenge than I would like as I once again fell today. This time in my home stepping down from the dining room. Nothing broken, and nothing bruised (or just a bit bruised) but something I need to watch out for. 

Off to get the table set, then visit a few of you before peeling potatoes and carrots to put in with the chicken. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Lovely Weather, Working On The House

 

So my challenge over the next few weeks is to get the house spring cleaned. This olden body is having trouble keeping going. Today I managed the bathroom and hallway. Tomorrow I plan on getting the spare bedroom done, and our room as well. Then I will take Sunday off and just get ready for the next week. Monday I will work on the living room, and Tuesday the dining room. Wednesday will be a baking and cooking day. Thursday I will work on the stairwell to the basement. Friday, Saturday and Sunday I will be busy at church and visiting with Kris. Hoping to get anything not completed done the week of the 21st. 

Then I will move outside and get things cleaned up out there. Lots of small sticks to pick up, stones to pull out of the front yard, and a clothesline to clean. I might even get the furniture set up on the deck by the end of the month.

Rising costs are another challenge I am going to meet head on. There always seems to be something that jumps in price, so to meet that I have been looking up bean and lentil meals. Time to work on eating a bit less meat, and planning a garden that helps cover prices that are getting ridiculous. I do love me a challenge. One thing I have noticed is we are having a bit more waste for some reason. So in order to combat this after having a couple of meals from something I am going to freeze most of the leftovers just leaving a bit for a lunch or two. Then perhaps in a few weeks I could pull out a smorg type meal.

I haven't really done much shopping at either of our two Dollar type stores, but I went to see if I could find some replacement spice jars and was very surprised at the items we can get at a really reduced price. I will be shopping those a bit more often. Perhaps even for some food items. Our stores here in Saskatchewan are not like the stores in the U.S. There is no fresh or frozen items and many a time the dates of use by are way out. 

While some of this is necessary (our investments are really taking a beating), I think I can make this fun and something Harvey can get behind as well. Must get him involved or my ideas will probably fail. 

Off to visit you all as supper is cooking in the oven.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Tuesday Tidbits and Stuff

 

My supper out last night was wonderful, I really enjoyed not having to cook and clean up after. Today, however it is back to normal. No real cooking I just need to warmup the leftover meal from Monday and slice up some cucumber and wash some cherry tomatoes as our side. 

As the weather is supposed to change with drastically reduced temperatures overnight, I decided to go shopping today. I am going to cheat a bit and use this shopping trip as a January one. Only out by a day really. 

My cart was not very full at all and for meat all I purchased was a 1 kilogram package of bacon, and a smallish beef roast. Both of which were on sale. In fact most items I purchased were on sale, and yet my total cost was outrageous. I did not cut down the grocery line on the new budget, but there will be lots of me trying to get under budget this coming year.

There are a number of ways I am going to try and get our spending under control. These are my challenges for the upcoming year.

The first challenge to myself is No Waste. Everything will be used up food, fabric, yarn, paper, and clothing.

The second challenge is a bit different than most bloggers and YouTubers. I will keep track of no spend days. I think that even spending on food, bills, and such is still spending. Money is leaving the account. So I am going to count no spend days and hope I have lots of them each and every month.

The third challenge is I am going to continue to shop at home first. This is really helping me clear things out of my various stashes and make good use of what I have. Cooking wise this has taught me a great deal about substitutions. It will also help me to perhaps learn some new skills, like making yogurt or puff pastry. 

The fourth challenge is I am going to declutter 500 items this year. Yarn or fabric can only be counted in this if the item is actually leaving the house.

The fifth challenge is to start exercising more and having some look after Jackie time. You know facials, perhaps even giving myself a pedicure. I have very dry heals. I always put this down and by March I  have completely forgotten to follow through on this. 

I think that these will keep me plenty busy over 2025.

Before I leave I want to thank all of you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to read my ramblings.

I also want to wish you all

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Tuesday Tidbits

 

It has been cloudy all day, but no storm as of yet. A few flakes fell earlier but nothing that amounted to much of anything. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we don't get the amount of snow that the weather pundits are predicting. 

Kris sent me a picture of the hanging strawberry plant he brought in. Seems that this morning it decided to blossom. I told him that at least he knows it is still alive and perhaps able to survive until he puts it out next spring. 

I am working away on the quilt and things are moving right along. My decision not to jump between projects seems to be working so far. I am hopeful that the binding will be on and finished by Friday. 

Baking in earnest will begin once the quilt is done. I may have to cut back a little, but I still should get a good selection of treats made. 

My back feels pretty good right now. It only bothers me if I sit for an extended period of time. That means I get up and move around quite often even if it is only for a few minutes.

I have decided to try something next year. I have always been frugal, sometimes more than others, but this coming year I am going to see how well I can do on a Buy Nothing New challenge. The only new items I will allow myself are flowers for the garden (don't count veggies as that is Harv's baby), new runners/sneakers, and any item I might need to make a gift. I may add fabric for clothing in as I need to make some capris and shorts for the summer and I am not sure if I have enough to do so. Could be lucky and able to pick up what I need second hand or at a garage sale.  I am calling it my "Frugal Like Never Before" challenge. 

Off to get supper on the table and perhaps visit a few of you before I do so.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

A Bit of An Update

I managed to get Kris's apartment trip free while up there, did some more grocery shopping for him, laundry was done, and things made a little bit easier for him. It really is strange to see my active and youngest child so incapacitated. 

The trip home was not easy for him, but we made it back here. The pain seemed to intensify the longer he had to sit in the car. I am hoping the trip back to the city to see his specialist on Thursday is a bit easier on him. I also hope that I can manage to fit in the backseat of the car. 

We had one day where he took very little pain medication, but he is still in a bit of pain and those pills are running very low. I am hoping that he does not need more of these as morphine is not the best thing to take for a long period of time.

I am sewing some items that will make his life a bit easier. His microwave makes everything really hot (like unbearable to touch, need an oven mitt hot) so I am making some bowl cozies and a plate cozy for him. I plan on getting those partially sewn today and finished tomorrow (I have prayer shawls today). 

Wednesday I will take him to the bank, get what little he has worn here at our place washed, and start packing once again. I think that perhaps Harvey and I should take turns going up to the city over the next few weeks. Once we learn about the physio and when that will occur, we will make arrangements and decide what and how we will do this. 

My posting could be off and on over the next little while, so please forgive me.

Everybody have a wonderful day. 

God bless.

More Challenges

I have noticed more and more challenges here on blogland and while some of them catch my eye, others make me ponder how on earth I could fit them into my life.

The one that seems to be taking blogland by storm is the Plastics Challenge.

I quite agree with this one. If we want to save our oceans and waterways we need to be ever vigilant over our plastic use.

We have always recycled plastic containers, single use plastic bottles are taken to the recycling depot, the plastic grocery bags I get are reused for pet waste, plastic utensils have always been washed and reused until they are no longer able to be, plastic straws have been washed out and used numerous times much to the chagrin of our sons, and any plastic Tupperware or such is used until it is no longer suitable to store or heat anything up. This is something I more or less learned at my mother's knee.

That being said I am going to really try and use as little as possible of the one use plastics. When I do I am going to try and figure out a way to use them at least once more.

So while I probably will not be able to go totally plastic free, I am going to try my best to cut down on plastic usage.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Once Again Playing Catch Up

I am going to start this post with my weekly menu plans.

Monday

Since we will be out in the city for an appointment we will be eating out.

Tuesday

Leftover pork roast from the fridge freezer made into a really large stir fry, served over rice. The extra stir fry has been put into a container, and will be kept in the freezer downstairs until needed.

Wednesday

Soup and Sandwiches. I will probably make a veggie soup and serve salmon sandwiches with it.

Thursday

Leftover ham made into a casserole. Served with coleslaw. 

Friday

Eggplant Parma.

Saturday

Depending on when Kris has to leave to head back to the city this will either be our Easter supper which means turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, salad, a veggie, gravy, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. 

Sunday

Homemade pizza. 

Saturday and Sunday are able to be changed at the drop of a hat.

Lunches will be sandwiches or leftovers.

Now on to Tuesdays regularly scheduled post.

I have tried to be as thrifty as possible this week, but things were a bit confused.

I didn't go to Walmart this week as I managed to buy enough of what we needed there for a full two weeks (hope to do the same this week).

Grocery bills were down. I actually managed to save another $9.76 and got my turkey for 99 cents a pound. Pretty happy about that purchase.

Couldn't hang clothes outside on the lines, but I am hopeful that I will be able to do so this week. Instead I hung as much as I could on the downstairs lines.

I used up more of the strips of fabric to fashion another 2 quilt tops.

Altered 4 skirts to fit now and tried on a few that were tight last year. Those tight skirts now fit nicely. I shouldn't need to buy any dressy clothes at all for spring and summer.

My monthly challenge is finished!!! I got that 3 drawer plastic storage case out of my sewing/craft room and hopefully next month I can pick another challenge in that room and get it completed as well. I am thinking something to do with yarn this time. My stash of this seems to have grown by leaps and bounds.

Tomorrow I will share how I am doing on my monthly goals, and fill all of you in on what has been happening around here to cause me to play catch up once again.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Decluttering and Using Up Some of the Stash My Challenge For April

This is the area that I am working on decluttering and using up.

I want this set of storage drawers gone, or at least move them to take the place of one set that is broken. I also want the single storage drawers and one box out as well. They are full of yarn, full skeins and balls as well as partial leftover yarn balls.

This is just a portion of the 4" squares I have collected from worn out clothing and scrap fabric. Heaven help me I may be sewing quilts and making shopping bags (only from the denim) for quite awhile.

This is mostly 2" strips. I have actually used quite a bit of this up as I have finished two quilt tops and have started a third. However it looks like there might even be 4th to be made.

The bottom drawer with still more balls of leftover yarn. And what seems to be some interfacing that needs to be put with the other interfacing.

I think I might actually have bitten off more than I can chew this month. However, I will soldier forward and get done what I can. I have many more storage drawers that need to be cleaned out so a good effort is needed over the next few months. Especially if I want to move a proper desk into the room.

I will share pictures at the end of the month to show how far I managed to get.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Thrifty Tuesday

This has been a week of small thrifty moves. Nothing on a really big scale, but as we all know small moves can add up really quickly.

I am stretching smaller amounts of meat in our meals. I doubt very much that Harvey even realized all I had was 1 cup of diced meat in our supper tonight (of course it was whizzed through the food processor along with veggies so it seemed like much more). So when packaging up leftover roasts, chicken, turkey and pork I am going to have to make the packages smaller yet. That means more meals for the two of us.

I also bought a flannel nighty last week for $5.00 (regularly $20.00) and noticed that part of the seam on the yoke was coming apart. A quick little job on the sewing machine today and it is as good as new. 

The frame for my cross stitch picture was some plastic edging Harvey had in his work room downstairs.

The foam board that I used to mount said picture had some left over. This will be used to mount some smaller cross stitch pictures and some old frames will be used as well.

I found a dresser scarf I had embroidered awhile ago. Hemmed it up today and it fits perfectly in the window well of the basement bedroom/library. It will protect the surface of the sheetrock nicely.

Now on to the challenge I completed (well to the best of my ability) last month.

This is what my small chest freezer looked like at the beginning of this challenge.

And these two pictures show what it looks like now.

So very much better.

I have started this month's challenge of using up as much of the scrap fabric and 2" strips as I can. I foresee some new lap quilts coming up.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Menu Monday

So here we are at the beginning of a brand new month, full of new opportunities. I am hoping that this month is just as wonderful as the last.

I did my monthly menu up the middle of last week. I hope to stick to it as much as possible. Things do come up which cause me to change things around (such as too many leftovers in the fridge), but I am hoping to continue using things up in both my freezers this month.

Monday

Hamburgers with lots of toppings, baked beans.

Tuesday

The leftover beef roast made into a casserole or perhaps a pasta dish that uses up some of my cherry tomatoes in the fridge.

Wednesday

Porkchops, the leftover potatoes fried up with some onion, corn and a salad.

Thursday

The leftover beef concoction (since I can't decide what I am making) along with the leftover salad. If there is no leftovers (doubtful) I will make some kind of soup to use up some of the turkey stock in the freezer.

Friday

Lazy Perogie casserole and a salad (probably kale).

Saturday

Hotdogs, pasta, and leftover salad.

Sunday 

Pork roast, and a tray of roasted veggies.

Now some updates on my various monthly projects and my new challenge for this month.

So far this year I have removed 141 more items from the house. Not bad, but I am sure I can do much better.

My challenge this month is to use up the scrap fabric I have collected over the years into useable quilts or perhaps even bags. I also want to try and use my  stash up more. All this will lead to me being able to rid the sewing/craft room of some boxes and storage drawers in preparation of moving this computer desk set up into the room.

Tomorrow I will update you on how the chest freezer challenge went. Before and after pictures will be posted.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.

Saturday Roundup

Well, this week is drawing to a close and the weather has turned cold once again. Heck one could say we are back in the Polar Vortex once again. Supposedly these temperatures will only last a few days and then perhaps a bit of a warm up is to occur. We shall see.

I have managed to notify most of the family (the ones I feel are important at any rate) that my next tests will be on the 15th of this month. I am hopeful that we will have an answer quickly on whether or not I have cervical cancer. If I do things should move along very quickly after the diagnosis.

Now on to showing you how last months challenge went. I do think I managed to make some headway on getting the fridge freezer in line and I promise myself to never let it get that unorganized again.

Top shelf before:

Top shelf after:

Bottom shelf before:

Bottom shelf after:

Really quite a difference. I can actually see what I have in both drawers as of today.

Now on to this months challenge. 

I have two freezers downstairs in the basement. The one upright that I keep meat in (which is actually pretty darn neat right now), and an old chest freezer that holds veggies from the garden, frozen fruits, baked goods and meats that don't fit in the other freezer easily.

It is very hard for me to share how messy I have allowed the chest freezer to become and so my challenge this month is to use up what I can during the month and try to get some semblance of neat going on.

Here is the before picture...

Today I pulled out some frozen onions and some apple pie filling. The pie filling was used to make a crumb topped pie and the onions put into the fridge to be used making supper on Monday. I am really going to make an effort to get this mess under control this month. It will be a challenge, but one I think I might just enjoy.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

My Techie Skills

Today my shipment from Amazon arrived. Surprisingly, even with the holidays it came a day earlier then we were given to believe it would.

So far my skills with technology have not been too taxed. Well, perhaps a bit with the plug and play features of the Slim Line external hard drive.

How hard could it be to attach something this small and innocent looking to a computer. Right????

Well, the first time trying to download and install the program that runs this tiny little thing didn't take. So I had to do it all over a second time, restart the computer and cross anything that I possibly could. This time I got the program installed.

Now it was time to backup the computer. Hmmm, did the backup twice and nothing, no files at all were backed up. So after a bit of fooling around I managed to at least backup important files, and set the backup of said files to occur every Tuesday (I will probably change this eventually).

Then I decided it was time to update and sync my ereader. I couldn't eject it as some how it was being read by the external hard drive as well as my computer. What to do? I ended up ejecting the external drive (I will plug it in again next Tuesday morning) and then I could do what I wanted to do with my ereader.

So far the only item that I received today

the USB hub is the only thing that is not causing me undue problems.

Tomorrow I tackle learning how to use the micro SD cards in my tablet and ereader. And since I am busy being techie, perhaps I will save the holiday pictures to CD and clean up the picture files.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Mixing It Up

While I am not a bad cook, I think I just might have fallen into a rut. As a family we have our favorites, and those old home style recipes serve me well.

However, I have lots and lots of cookbooks and more recipes than I can try with what probably remains of my cooking life.

So today I climbed up and pulled down 6 of my Company's Coming Cookbooks (I already had two down when I was cooking up those leftovers). So I have a new challenge to myself.

I will be going through these 8 cookbooks and searching for new ways to tantalize our taste buds. I am hoping to add some new favorites to our menu and perhaps even find some new ones to share with all of you.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

Kurt left for his friends early this afternoon. I got a phone call when he arrived which was great. What was not great was learning he hit a deer 5 minutes from his destination. He wasn't hurt and overall the damage to his vehicle is not bad.

As you can see he just clipped the deer, and the damage is mostly cosmetic. At least we hope, mostly cosmetic.

I thought I might share my Rhubarb Sponge Pie recipe with you all. Especially as I have another two in the oven right now.

Rhubarb Sponge Pie

3 tbsp butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, separated
2 heaping tbsp flour
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups thinly sliced or chopped rhubarb

Soften butter and stir with sugar, egg yolks, flour and salt (I use my mixer). Beat whites until stiff. Add rhubarb to first mixture and stir well. Fold in stiff egg whites. Fill pie shell and bake at 400 F about 45 min or until top browns.

This picture is from last night as the other two pies are still in the oven.

I also managed to finish the closet declutter. Feeling good about most of what is in there now, though that could change as the season progresses. I hope to start on the drawers during the upcoming week.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Week In Review

This week has passed by very quickly. I am amazed at how quickly looking back.

Trying for zero waste this year and today was one of getting that started.

I had 4 over ripe bananas that neither Hubby or I would touch so I decided to make Banana Bread for the freezer.

Now there was a time that I would have said.... "Ewww," and just thrown them out. What a waste of good food. I don't know when we will consume this loaf, but I do know that well wrapped and in the freezer it will keep for a long time.

I also had one apple that had been in the crisper for a bit of time (probably a month). I checked it out and the apple was still firm. What to do...... I cut the apple in half, cored it and sliced thinly. Pulled out the trusty dehydrator and......

Voila, now that they are dry I have a nice small bag of apple chips to have as a snack some evening. Once again there was a time I would have thought to myself that it was only one apple and chucked it in the garbage bin.

I spent part of this week (the cloudy days) working on my new quilt. I now have 6 blocks done and almost a 7th. Hoping to get more done in the coming week. I will share pictures as they are completed.

Today for the first time in a bit I pulled out this.

I worked on it for about an hour as the sun was shining in the front south facing window. I will more then likely be working on this project anytime the sun shines, saving the quilt for those cloudy days.

I have also been busy knitting during our long winter evenings. I want to start a blog showing my handicrafts and perhaps listing them for sale.

These are the projects that I have mostly completed this week. They do need to be sewn, and the ends woven in.

I have the start of a pair of mittens on my needles right now. I so wish I could knit on double pointed needles, but I need loads of practice.

The good thing about knitting small items to sell is that it is using up all the odd leftover balls of yarn from previous projects. Keeping my no waste year going in all areas of my life.

I have also been busy with one of my monthly goals.

Busy copying recipes from one of the many binders of saved recipes..... Almost finished another binder. I am not sure I like these bright pink index cards, and the pen I have been using is blue so I do not for the life of me know why it is showing up red!! I would go blind trying to read them if that was so.

Cleaning and the usual chores have taken up the rest of my days. In cleaning I set up a donation box and today two items reside in it. Hopefully more will join as I am going to try and divest this house of at least 500 items this year. Perhaps more if I am very diligent.

I am also trying my best to get through the book "Eat, Pray, Love". It just is not catching my fancy right now. Thank heavens the chapters are short!!!

So that has been my week. How are you all doing?

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

My Version of The Sealed Pot

A friend of mine mentioned the sealed pot challenge she was taking part in a few years ago. As you may have guessed my friend lives in the UK and since I had no idea what so ever about a sealed pot, I decided to do a bit of research into this challenge....

Well it slipped my mind for the first year that my friend mentioned it, but then she was doing the same challenge the next year!! This time I got off my butt and did the research, which consisted mainly of reading UK frugal blogs....

I decided at the beginning of this year to give it a bit of a go. We had always saved our pocket change, but this time I added two other coins to the pot. Our Canadian one and two dollar coins, after all they are change as well. I do most of the coin saving as Harvey usually uses his spare change to pay for car and truck washes. No biggie as sometimes there is enough leftover to add to the collection.

So here is my version of the Sealed Pot.

Each coin has its own jar. It makes it much easier to count and roll when the jars get full. I notice the dimes are not moving up as quickly as the other two coins.

And this container holds the 1 and 2 dollar coins.

Perhaps you will also notice that none of these containers are really sealed.... I was worried that I would break any container that wasn't easy to add to, or to count when the time came.

I still need to count this all up but I do know I have $160.00 in the bucket.... I have a feeling that there will be close to $260.00 once I add everything up.

Am I going to do this again next year? You bet I am. It is a very easy way to save a bit of cash, and everyone could use some extra savings.

Everyone have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Home And Just In Time

We made it home yesterday, just before temperatures plummeted. I even managed to get out and do some needed grocery shopping as the temperature has dropped steadily throughout the day. It looks as if the cold spell will be with us for awhile, so I am glad I managed to get everything done that needed to be done.

Thought I would share a picture or two with all of you.

This is the crystal angel that Kurt bought me for Christmas. A new piece for my angel collection.

These Victorian Sterling Silver thimbles were bought by Kurt as part of my birthday gift. They are now on display in the thimble cabinet that Harvey made me.

 

Kurt added this container of loose leaf tea to my birthday gift, along with a floating tea infuser. I am going to make a pot tomorrow.

These three books traveled with us and were left with Kurt to use in his class. They were the last of the give something away every day in Advent challenge. The books were given away to me from one of the librarians at the school I sub at, I read them and passed them on.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Sparkling Saturday

Once again we awoke to a morning full of ice fog. The one really great thing about this is the trees, bushes and cars were once again sparkling with frost.

The trees and bushes around and in the small nook in the valley just down the road from us.

The large Manitoba Maple in our back yard.

Even the plant hanger by our front door had it's own coating of frost. I just love the way the frost sticks out like little icicles.....

My give away for today were these.

My skates. It has been a long time since I have used them and I am not getting any younger. If I fell now I would probably break something. They deserve to be used so I donated them to a group that collects skates for underprivileged children in the area. I am sure some teenager will be whizzing around on them in no time.

There is another pair of figure skates still in the house. Those belonged to our daughter and I am just not ready to give them up as of yet. Perhaps next year.

Tomorrow I will be on the hunt for another 4 items to give away.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Friday!!!!

Not too much longer and our small family will be together for the holiday. I am so looking forward to having both our sons in the same place, at the same time. I miss them both terribly at this time of year.

Today I took a short walk in a winter wonderland.

There wasn't a breath of wind and all the trees and bushes were covered in a lovely frost. I really enjoy having my daily walk on winter days like this.

At home I gathered my Christmas fabric left in the fabric stash.

And made up some more reusable gift bags.

Six more bags for Christmas next year!!!

I even managed to get in some reading and knitting today (one this post is done it will be back to knitting).

Today my give away for the Advent season is this mug.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.