Thursday Happenings

I have spent the last two days subbing as an EA at one of the Catholic schools in my city. It has been a long time since I worked with the children in the age group I am with, but I seem to be doing okay.

My Aunt had surgery today and I am still awaiting news on how everything went. Her Pancreatic cancer was in stage 2 so she could under go this surgery with some hope. Since I lost an uncle to this disease (exactly the same type of cancer) all of us are hoping the surgery and what follows is a great success.

Hope to have good news by tomorrow and perhaps a more upbeat post.

Everyone have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Mend and Make Do

Another way I save cash is to mend our clothing.

Today I needed to do a bit of mending on Harvey's favorite pj pants and jeans.

This is what the pj pants looked like before I fixed them.

And this is what they looked like after.

I extended the wear on these by at least another year, perhaps even longer.

The jeans were a bit harder to fix as the tear was very close to the seam and another repair I had made previously.

I cut a small piece of denim from one of the recycled denim squares (I cut up old jeans and such to make quilts), pinned it behind this tear.

Then I continued with my mending by doing a zig zag stitch over and over again across the rip and the backing material.

This is what it ended up looking like

 I noticed that I have to fix a corner of the other pocket yet but I will do that next week. Right now these jeans are good enough to wear around the house.

After I fixed them and showed them to Harvey, he offhandedly mentioned that he was going to throw them out (by that he meant give them to me to recycle). Hmmm, don't think so dear.

Saved a bundle today doing this as new clothing for him to replace these items would have cost close to $40.00. Total cost to mend them was about 30 minutes of my time and some thread that was in my stash.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Menu Monday April 15 to April 21

Here are my menus for the upcoming week. I have found myself changing things around a great deal this month. Lots of leftovers that need to be used up are taking the place of the planned meal sometimes. Not a bad thing, but then I have to rearrange the other meals.

Monday

Harvey gets his own supper as I am in Yorkton working on my Dad's estate with the accountant. There are lots of leftovers so he will not go hungry.

Tuesday

Tonight I pull out leftovers, cleaning out the fridge.

Wednesday

Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and asparagus.

Thursday

Smoked Sausage, onions and peppers, pasta and baked beans (homemade of course).

Friday

Baked Fish, rice, and carrots from the freezer.

Saturday

Leftover Ham made into a casserole with rice, mushrooms, celery, onions, peppers.

Sunday

Roasted Pork Loin, roasted potatoes and carrots.


So there, they are my menus that I really and truly try to follow every week. Things do change though, especially if I forget to take something out of the freezer, or am just too tired to make anything.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.

Simply Sunday

Well today has been much the same as every other Sunday this winter. I answered emails, spent some time on the Frugal Living Forum and got a bit of work done around the house.

I am so tired of the dreary weather that we have been having. It is either cold and windy, sunny and cold, or snowing (more of this is supposed to arrive sometime tonight or tomorrow).

While at Mass today a group of the youth were selling tulips to raise money for a trip. Guess what I brought.

Some lovely yellow to bring a bit of sunshine into the house.

The second bouquet was this lovely creamy white.

They have brightened my day and made me feel that spring is just delayed for a bit.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. God bless.

Saturday and a Great Luncheon Out

Today I met two of my former students for lunch.

Tyler, the young man in the middle, contacted me on Facebook and asked if I would like to go out for lunch with him and 2 other students. Of course I said a resounding yes!!!!

One of the boys was unable to meet as he was busy doing something with the Scout troop here in the city so it was just Tyler and Connor who were there.

Here is Connor.

I spent three years helping out in this class and the class was one of my best overall. All of the students in this class have a big place in my heart.

The lunch was fantastic and I got to catch up on everything that had been happening in their lives.

The rest of the day was spent reading, doing a bit of embroidery and making baked beans. I use my slow cooker for the beans and they turn out every time. These are twice as good as those bought in the store (so Harvey says) and cost much less.

Here they are bubbling away in the slow cooker.

Here they are cooling in freezer containers. I see lots of beans in our future meals.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Cold and Damp

Well today dawned cold and snowy and while the temperature has come up a bit, it is still a miserable day. Just another one of those it is best to stay in and vegetate days.

I have spent some of this morning trying to get my errands done before the so called storm hits, but in doing so have ended up with a chill that I just can not find a cure for. Cups of hot tea and curling up in a blanket are doing no good what so ever. Guess I will just have to suffer the chill for awhile longer.

One of the teachers at the school I subbed at this week mentioned that we have had snow on the ground for 6 months.....I think it might just be the year that spring never arrives, hopefully we will move into summer with a bang as I do not think that my fellow Saskatchewanites are ready for a year round winter as of yet.

While moving around clothing last week I came upon some clothing belonging to our youngest son. I have sent an email off to see if he wants any of it as most of the items are at least 7 or more years old. I may just get the chance to recycle more clothing into usable quilting material. Or at least I hope so.

The tablecloth I am embroidering is moving along slowly but surely. I will post a picture when it is completely finished. It will make a fine addition to my limited amount of table linens.

Earlier this week I cleaned my curio cabinet. Wiped all my angels and rearranged them on the shelves. Thought I would share a picture of them with you all. Each one has a story and holds a special place in my heart.

I have a few others scattered around the house and garden, but these beauties stay inside.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.

Renonovations Starting Up Again

Harvey figures Spring has sprung and it is time to start sprucing up the old homestead once again. This time at least, the project is a bit smaller and more easily managed.

He has decided to spruce up the stairwell into the basement. So for the last two days he has been mudding and sanding the dry wall. Luckily we had all the items he needed to do this.

Once all the mudding and sanding is done we will be painting. I figure we will go with white once again as the lighting is not the best going down the stairs and the white reflects what light we have. By doing all the work himself not only are we saving cold hard cash, but keeping busy and doing something that will add value to our home down the road.

Sure hope that when we move on to putting windows in the family room and installing a new energy efficient furnace (and hopefully the duct work to get rid of the electric heating in the back) this small reno project is not ruined.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.