Sunday Ramblings

This is the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time in the Church calendar.

Today the readings were all about listening for the Lord. Sort of, as Father Brian said, becoming introduced to God. Samuel heard God's voice and thought it was the voice of his master Eli. However Eli realized it was the voice of the Lord and told Samuel just to say "Here I am Lord, I'm listening." In a way Eli introduced God to Samuel.

Father Brian likened this to introducing our family to those we might know and they not know. It shows how important our family is. In this way God wishes to be introduced to us.

As usual Father Brian ended with a question. Today's question was "Who introduced you to God?" Very good question. I have been thinking about this most of the day and my answer would have to be my Mom first, my husband next and then of course the priests that I have worked with over the years. Truth be told almost everyone I have met in my life have introduced me to various aspects of God and our Savior. After all we are made in the image and likeness of God.

We taped the crown molding, chair rail, base board, windows and door today. Hopefully painting will continue tomorrow. I do have to work so I am not sure how much painting I will be able to do. Harvey will more than likely leave the chair rail for me.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Saturday Project Update

I am surprised, though I shouldn't be I guess. With the house being in such disarray I couldn't do much in the area of cleaning so I sat and worked on my various projects.

Look at how much of my cross stitch has been accomplished over the last week or two.

I am working on the wings right now, but once they are done I can back stitch the bird and the angel's face. An end is in sight!

I got a message on Facebook from a good friend asking me if I could knit her daughter a scarf. G is barely a year old, and such a sweetie I could not refuse. J sent me pictures of the winter snow suit she would like me to match and I came up with this.

I am perhaps half way done and if I work very hard I could be finished it by tomorrow night.

Then I sat and sewed a few seams on items I want to put up for sale.

These were made from some of the yarn I bought at our church rummage sale. A pair of pink mohair mittens, a head band and some fingerless mittens.

I had an extra ball of cream roving left after knitting a scarf (which still needs a bit of work) so I made this.

A hooded cowl suitable for a child from 2 to 3 years.

All these have been made with leftover skeins and balls of yarn. Boy am I glad that I save my leftovers from other projects!! Cost to make is minimal this way.

I am still working on a few items that I will hopefully finish this week. Now just to figure out prices.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Friday Frugalities

The end of a week, the beginning of a weekend. It is time to go over the frugal things I did this week. Some things worked and of course some things didn't.

The usual frugalities happened this week. I have stayed out of the stores, but will have to go out shopping tomorrow. I do find that staying out of malls, and our small Super Walmart saves me the most cash.  I try for at least 20 no spend days a month, and that is exactly no spend. Nothing, but nothing gets spent. In order to do this I combine my errands so that I do more than one thing on a specific spend day. Take for instance yesterday. I paid bills, bought gas, did some postal things, and got Harv's and my biweekly allowance out of the bank. That was my first spend day since Sunday. I really should have gone shopping, but starting tomorrow there are great sales so I put it off. This means 2 spend days this week, however out of the 16 days this month I will only have spent 4 so I am sitting at 12 no spend days. Pretty darn good.

I find it amazing how our south facing windows keep the house so warm during sunny winter days. Since noon today our furnace has only run  0 minutes. Yes that is right the furnace has not turned on since noon. It is now after 7 at night and still no gas is being consumed and no electricity being used to run the furnace. Great savings!!

I always wash and rinse what I can in cold water. All of my cold water wash is hung on the lines in the basement. This usually means I only have to run the dryer for two or three loads in a week.

All meals were made from items at home, in fact we actually used leftovers for two dinners and two lunches this week. Looking in the fridge tonight I can foresee another leftover meal tomorrow.

Harvey does most if not all of our maintenance around the house and yard. It was time to paint the living and dining rooms (we have an open concept home), and of course we are doing it all ourselves.

The paint was bought with a gift card and only cost us a few dollars over the amount on the gift card.

There is only one problem with doing things ourselves.....

I get to live with this.

Hmmm, this is causing me to panic a little bit and my OCD tendencies are starting to kick in. I keep telling myself that I can handle this for the next week or so (we will be moving some items back and others away from the wall as we make our way around the room). I don't think it is helping much, but I will handle it for as long as possible, reminding myself that the cost of doing this could be triple what we are paying.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Mid Month Update

Well it is time to update all of you on how my monthly goals are moving along.


1.     Organize kitchen. I have to move things around to have room to store my new appliances. Well, I have made a start on this. But it is a slowly moving process.

2.     Work on unfinished projects (this seems to be a reoccurring theme). Working on the unfinished cross stitch and I can actually see an end in sight. Perhaps not as soon as I would like but definitely in the near future.

3.     Copy and organize more recipes. Slowly but surely all those binders of recipes is disappearing and a nicely organized recipe shelf or two is evolving. This is actually done. I got through two binders and a soups and stews recipe book that Kurt loaned me to check. I only have a few binders left hopefully I will finish them all up in the next few months.

4.     Work on scanning all those loose pictures in containers and files. Not even close...However I may just be able to start this tomorrow providing Harvey does not need my help with painting. (Keeping my fingers crossed).

5.     Work on at least one quilt. (notice the "at least one", gives you a hint that there could be a few more that need working on.... More of those unfinished projects). Started making blocks for our bedroom quilt. However the sun has been shining and while the sun shines I will be working on my cross stitch.

So there you have it slowly but surely working through my goals.

Sharing a picture of some more items that will be leaving my home shortly. Two bags of books, old binders, and some candle holders.

I am up to just over 200 items, but I am running out of items in my living room and dining room to send bye-bye. Guess I will just have to move to another room or two.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

 

Recipe Wednesday

I thought I would share a couple of recipes with you all today.

The first is my throw together from tonight.

Chicken and Noodle Casserole

1/2 cup sliced celery
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup diced green pepper
1 tbsp butter or margarine
3 cups cooked noodles
1 can of mushroom stems and pieces (or sliced)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
1 1/2 cups cooked leftover chicken, diced
Large sprinkle of paprika (I figure I used about 1/2 tsp)

Cook and drain noodles. Put in a casserole. Saute the celery, onion and green pepper in the butter until the onion is soft. Add to the noodles and mix. Add the mushrooms, the soup and 1 cup cheese. Mix again. Add the diced chicken and mix once more. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and bake in oven at 350 for about 45 minutes.

Harvey really liked it. I think you could add pretty much any veggie you wanted to use up to this as well to stretch it out a bit more.

This is what it looked like going into the oven.

This is what it looked like after cooking.

Served with crusty bread and a tossed salad, it made a wonderful meal.

The second recipe is my no fail Cream of Mushroom Soup which we also had for supper and the leftovers for lunches a couple of days this week. Sorry no photo this time.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 lb fresh mushrooms sliced
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 to 1/2 tsp garlic powder or a minced garlic clove
1 cup beef stock
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream

Put butter, onion and mushrooms in a large pot. Saute onion until soft and clear. Add the flour, salt, pepper, and garlic. Mix in well. Stir in the beef and chicken stock. Stir in the milk. Heat and stir until it boils and thickens. Stir in the cream and bring to boiling temperature (but not boiling). Serve.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Tuesday Thriftiness

I have been buying ice cream in smaller containers lately, after all Harvey and I only eat a bit for desserts now and then. After we are done I have been washing the containers out.

They are made entirely of plastic and the lid fits nice and tight. Perfect for storing those leftovers in. I usually use a piece of masking tape and write what the container holds on it, placing the tape on the lid. These also stack very nicely in the freezer taking up much less room than some of my other recycled plastics. I am also not spending money on containers that have the lids break while residing in the freezer!!! I have discovered a few over the years that are destroyed after a few uses.

Still working on clearing out things we no longer use. Wow, how did I collect so much!! I have another 22 items to take to the Salvation Army thrift store. I go at hours the store is closed so I am not tempted to go in and do any shopping. I will post pictures before I take the next group to donate.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Menu Monday

I am doing not too badly on the cleaning items out of the freezers mode. The fact of the matter is I am not going to make any roasts (beef, pork, chicken or ham) until all the bits and pieces are gone. I think that could be the problem with the overstock of leftover roast meats residing in my fridge freezer. So far I have had no complaints from Harvey over the lack of a large Sunday meal.

Monday

Cream of Mushroom Soup and sandwiches. I have changed my mind a few times over the type of sandwich to have, but I am leaning towards egg salad to use up some older eggs.

Tuesday

Leftover chicken from the fridge freezer made into a lovely filling casserole of some type. I want to try something new here and perhaps share the recipe with you all if it is good. Served along with a salad.

Wednesday

Clean out those leftovers from the fridge!!!! Plan on using more salad to round this out.

Thursday

Hotdogs, salad, and french fries.

Friday

Breakfast for supper. I think I will make Pancakes.

Saturday

Dry ribs, rice and veggies. Perhaps another salad if there are any greens still in the fridge.

Sunday

Leftover Beef Roast from the fridge freezer. Plan on making another filling casserole with this. Perhaps a Pot Pie.......

So there you have it. My cooking for the upcoming week.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.