Baking, Using Up and Cleaning

I think I am a bit worried about my upcoming visit to the dentist tomorrow so I have hardly sat still at all today.

Along with all my regular little Tuesday chores I managed to do a few others.

I painted the stairs to our deck. Harvey did the first coat and I did the second.

Hopefully by the weekend I will be almost back to normal. I can hardly wait to have coffee in my rocker out on the deck each and every morning this summer.

I took all the dried out bits and bobs of bread and made bread crumbs.

I even managed to use all the rhubarb I harvested from the garden yesterday (sure hope there is more) making two rhubarb sponge pies.

I also make a Rhubarb Dump cake that I forgot to take a picture of. As soon as it cooled I put it into the freezer.

I got a picture today from my niece Ashley of  her two little ones.

Rylan Cooper is 3 years old, and Aria Rose is 8 months. Poor Aria got a reflection through her face when I took the picture.... This is the best I could do.

I also did a bit of sewing cord to the rug project and once this post is done will start making more cord.

The item that I am most proud of however is that the insides of my kitchen cupboards are clean and well organized!!! Now just to give the outsides a good cleaning and one of my goals for this month is finished already.

Still trying to simplify my life, and by decluttering my cupboards I am one step closer.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Menu Monday

 A new week and more menus.

Monday

Chicken burgers with mixed veggies.

Tuesday

Baked Spaghetti

Wednesday

Glace and Eggs

Thursday

Clean out the fridge

Friday

Pancakes

Saturday

Hot dogs (hopefully BBQ), along with tinfoil potatoes and carrots.

Sunday

Being it is Father's Day and Harvey loves him some pork chops, especially BBQ, I figure this will make a great meal along with a salad (potato) and pickles.

So here it is and some of you may have noticed that many of these menus are a carry over from last week. I don't know what happened, but having Harvey order pizza and us going away for a day, kinda shifted everything around.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.

End of the Week

Today is Pentecost Sunday and Father Brian gave a wonderful homily. He mentioned how the list of the gifts in the Bible is just a short one, and that there are many more gifts of the spirit that are given to each of us.

We are supposed to use our gifts and talents to help all those around us. The questions we were left with were how do we use our talents in our families, our parish communties, or city or town communities and the world as a whole.

Hmm, as far as the first three go I figure I don't do too badly, but the world...well that needs some work on my part.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

The End Of Another Week and I Have Been Thinking

Wow, almost a full week into June!!! I can hardly believe that May went by so quickly. My Mom always said that life went by quickly as you age. I think she knew what she was talking about.

Harvey is working hard on the deck. He is about half done now and hopefully we will be sitting on it enjoying the summer (if it ever really arrives) very soon. Tonight there is a risk of frost, so I have been running around and covering our tender plants. Sure hope this is the last frost warning until late September.

I have spent the last couple of days seriously contemplating my life and have come up with just one word.... SIMPLIFY. I need to step back and really concentrate on those things that are important to me right now.

Here is my road sign for the rest of the year.

I have some ideas on how to accomplish this over the next few months.

1.     Get off those extra church committees that seem to be heading no where fast. Perhaps I should say those ones where decisions are made without the input of all the members of the committee. I have had enough of being just a body to be used to do all the work.

2.     Keep better track of what is in my cupboards and get rid of extraneous "stuff". I have already started this cleaning out the cupboards in the kitchen. Still have a ways to go, but I am getting there.

3.     While I love working in the schools make sure I do not sub more than 4 or 5 days a pay period. I spend way too much time in that environment some months. I need to learn to say no.

4.     Cut down on decor items. Do I really need 35 doilies even if my Grandmother made them.

I am sure that as the summer goes by I will think of even more ways to simplify my life and in doing so make it more worth while to my family and friends. I will keep everyone informed of decisions I make.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Monthly Goals for June and A Bit Of A Wrap Up On Last Month

Thought I would begin this post with an update of how I did with last months challenges.

Out of my six challenges I can honestly say I have diligently been working on 4 of them and partially working on number 5.

It has been so rainy, cold. and I have been working so much that the walking and adding a couple of blocks a week did not happen. I walked whenever I could. I had hoped to be up to 22 blocks by the end of the month, but I am stuck on 16.

I also did not sew the jacket. Two reasons for this, it's summer and somehow sewing a long sleeved jacket just doesn't fit somehow. I also have run out of fusible interfacing so I hope to pick some up this weekend when we head to Regina for some shopping and a visit with Kris.

I still feel pretty good about accomplishing what I have on the remainder of the goals.

My goals for this month are as follows:

1.     Continue with the rug project.
2.     Continue with the Angel cross stitch I started oh so many years ago.
3.     Continue with my daily early morning walks and try oh so hard to add a block or two each week.
4.     Clean and organize the kitchen cupboards. I really do not know how they get so messed up with only two of us at home most of the time.
5.     Sew the patterns I cut out last month and perhaps get that jacket sewn as well.

Once my subbing at the schools is over with July should be a breeze for the goals I have in mind.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Menu Monday

Upcoming weeks menus, here we go!!!!

Monday

Leftover pork roast made into a stir fry....mushrooms will be used up here. Serving this over some leftover rice. Kind of like another clean out the fridge supper.

Tuesday

Cabbage Bread. We are getting very close to having the chest freezer cleared out. Then comes the defrosting and repacking of all of this years harvest.

Wednesday

Leftover Beef Roast. I plan on making a gravy and using the strips of beef I cut and packaged along with some thinly sliced onions and making open faced hot beef sandwiches.

Thursday

Chicken Burgers and perhaps some fries...That is if we don't take off for our Regina shopping trip. The same goes for the next few days. Depending on when we go menus from here to the end of the week could change a bit.

Friday

Glace and eggs

Saturday

Spaghetti and meat sauce perhaps a lovely side salad.

Sunday

Roast Chicken and mashed potatoes. Lots of veggies in the freezer to use up so I will pick something.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.

I Thought I Was Done......

Mass today was beautiful, we celebrated another baptism and that ceremony always fills me with hope for the future of my church. Parents, trying to bring up their child in their faith always fills me and I feel the Holy Spirit reaching out to embrace those involved. Heck, the whole church for that matter.

This is the first Mass we have attended in our church since we have reduced the number of Masses on a Sunday. The church was packed, something the likes of which I have not seen in awhile.

Father Brian gave a sermon on how we need to be uncomfortable, not stagnate or go backwards in our faith to the way things have always been done. Certain traditions and teachings will never change (they have been the foundation of our faith for over 2000 years), but the way we practice them could. We need to embrace the changes and move forward.

Then this afternoon I traveled to a small town called Redvers for our Deanery Pastoral Council. I was finally going to get rid of one of my many hats (I have been divesting myself of these hats for the past 2 years), that of Chairperson of the Deanery Council. I did succeed in doing so but..........

No one would step forward to become the Vice Chairperson and I was nominated.......I should have done this.

However my Catholic guilt stepped forward and made me say yes. I did warn them that I would be missing meetings...quite a few meetings. That still did not make anyone step up to the plate. However my acceptance made 2 priests very happy, whereas my not taking the Chairperson position made them very sad. Foreign priests do not like change very much, they like what they know.

When I gave my report on what has been happening in Estevan I said the dogmatic theology course was done, and one of the foreign priests got on my case. Finally, filled with frustration I told him that the course was okayed by our Archbishop, the Bishops of Canada and my parish priest and chosen it as an adult faith formation. I think he knew I was getting a bit peeved, but the eye rolling by said priest when I mentioned that I was the person giving the course was the last straw.

It has been raining since late last night. Harvey says we have an inch already and it is still coming down in fits and starts. The rest of the upcoming week is not going to be much better either. We won't get much work done on the deck, but we should be able to make a trip to Regina to do some stock up shopping. I get to see Kris and make sure he is okay.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.