Simple Living, Simplifying My Life

 

I often wonder how and why it takes so long to get to simple living. It seems like I have been working towards this for a number of years. 

I am hoping that each year I get just a bit closer to my goal. Pretty sure the more I declutter and get back to living the way my ancestors did is doing just that. I don't mean hitting my clothes on rocks by the river, but I do mean growing more of my own food, finding ways to make my own cleaning products, and just relying a bit less on what advertising tells me I need. 

Decluttering makes space for canning, dehydrating, storing garden produce and in my mind peace. This is probably one reason I am using my Kobo more than heading out and purchasing reading material. I know I could use the library, but I love owning the book I am reading. My husband often says that I am the only person he knows that will re-read a book numerous times.

With prices on the rise once again, and the scare of tariffs across the world getting ever closer, one does need to rethink what one purchases. A person needs to make good choices when shopping and really plan ahead. 

Life is full of choices and I hope all of us make the right choices in the coming months.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

 

Thrifty and Frugal Thursdays

 Thrifty and Frugal

A cooler day today, one that was perfect to stay in and do a bit of baking or candy making. Also a great day to do a bit of extra cleaning (not done yet, but I am going to do that very soon). 

There have been a few thrifty and frugal happenings here on the old homestead. 

I fixed the hem on a couple of pairs of my pants (trousers for you readers across the pond). 

Baked 4 loaves of bread.

Using up all leftovers in the fridge for lunches or suppers.

Saved the elastics and twist ties from various packages.

No spending on 5 days this past week.

Put $70.00 in the savings envelope. I need to build this up once again in order to be able to purchase craft supplies in the new year.

Hung two loads of clothing on the lines downstairs.

Drinking lots of water (decided I needed to do this for my own health). 

Only used the vehicle once this week when I took it in for an oil change and a tire swap. 

Walking in the house for daily exercise.

Cutting open tubes to get the last bit of toothpaste or lotion.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Midweek

 Today was a baking day, or rather a stay in and get some baking and some stovetop Christmas things completed. Bread was baked, some marshmallow squares made and I am still waiting for the pumpkin puree to thaw so I can make two pies for our Christmas meals. 

Since tomorrow is supposed to be very cold, staying home and getting more baking prepared for Christmas. Hopefully I remember to take pictures. There are not a great many eggs in the house so tomorrow will be a no using eggs baking day. Whipped shortbread cookies, a recipe of what is called English Shortbread, and some Chocolate Drops. Must remember to get the butter out to soften overnight.

Knitting will continue and I am very hopeful that this blanket will be finished before the end of the month. Then I will start another as well as toques and mittens for Kurt and Kris. I think I will start the ornaments for the family that will be visiting at Christmas as well. I should be able to get the first step done easily tomorrow between baking/cooking sprees. It really is getting down to the knitty gritty, must be prepared for Christmas. Right now I feel very unprepared. 

Using another batch cooked item tonight. I am making spaghetti and meat sauce. Warming up the spaghetti sauce, getting the water to the point where I can add the pasta, and the salad is made and in the fridge. A very easy meal. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Tuesday Tidbits and Stuff

 

I am surprised that I have managed to get all my daily tasks done already as well as a few extra cleaning/decluttering tasks as well. I have even knit a bit while waiting for my vehicle to have its oil change and tire swap. 

It is snowing, blowing and icy out so I am certainly glad that the winter tires are now on the SUV. The drive home from the dealer while not relaxing was much less white knuckled than the drive to the dealership.

Nesting will be beginning very soon. When winter draws in I seem to be happiest staying close to home and getting on with projects, baking and cooking. Mostly a homebody here and am quite content to be so. 

Once the snow stops a bit (well that will not happen until late tonight or early tomorrow morning) we will head out and do a bit of shoveling. This is heavy, wet snow so it will be fun to move.

Looking online I have found a place that I can purchase more batting for the potato bags. Thoughts are running through my head that I could perhaps make some and sell them online. Many other people do not too badly selling their craft items. These would not be overly costly to make or for people to purchase. Just something to be considered. I might even try some other small crafts and see how they go. 

Since I found the batting I am going to see if I can find the embroidery thread for my machine. To my dismay I found out that Fabricland no longer carried it. While there is lots in the case, there are a few colours that will need replacing very soon. Amazon is a big rabbit hole where one could disappear for days and spend oodles of cash without leaving the comfort of your home.

Everybody have a wonderful afternoon or evening.

God bless.

Menu Monday

 

Strange as it seems, I had to redo this weeks menus once again. There is reason behind my madness, it just seems as if I can not for the life of me only cook for two people. So there are lots of leftovers, and probably more before the week is over. I may have to figure out a biweekly making of a menu... Yet I would probably still be changing things around.

Monday

I am using some fake crab and making a quiche. Doing that will give us two more meals, which of course will need eating later this week. I will probably have the leftovers for supper on Thursday and forgo the soup and sandwiches. Serving it both times with a salad. Tonight we will finish off the kale salad and I will be making a tossed salad on Wednesday so will have that again on Thursday.

Tuesday

There is leftover taco meat, so I will be making Nachos for supper using that up as well as the remainder of the toppings I cut up for our soft tacos.

Wednesday

I pulled a container of meaty spaghetti sauce out of the freezer so it will be spaghetti with meat sauce and a tossed salad. This is one of the planned meals for the week.

Thursday

The last of the quiche and the remains of the tossed salad. 

Friday

Back to what I planned, I will be making a salmon casserole and will make corn as the side. There are already peas in the casserole as well as mushrooms.

Saturday

Baked spaghetti, and a side of coleslaw. 

Sunday

The roast chicken that I was going to make a few weeks ago. The bones will be set aside for bone broth. Serving this with roasted potatoes, and the remains of the coleslaw.

Breakfasts will be toast, oatmeal or yogurt. I am pretty much the only breakfast eater in the house. Lunches will be any leftovers, and the usual sandwiches.

I made a spice cake which will be served for dessert. Not sure if I will ice it or make the caramel sauce that my Mom always put on her spice cakes.

Off to get started folding clothes and then preparing the quiche. Then to visit all of you while the quiche is cooking.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

 

I did get out for a bit of a walk today, the ice had mostly melted on our roads due to the sunshine. This isn't going to last too long as snow and clouds will be arriving again tonight and for many days next week. Of course it will be just warm enough for rain to fall first. Things are going to be slushy and icy for the rest of the winter.

Right now I am pretty sure that I have managed to get everything I need on this computer. I do have an error coming up with my "vault", it says I can't use the nomenclature that Kris set up. Hopefully I can figure out " to fix it.... Might need to wait until Kris gets home. However this does mean nothing is being saved to "the cloud" and I just may have to figure this out myself. 

Today is another day of decluttering and downsizing. This time it is mostly my clothing. I have one more drawer that I need to declutter today. Most clothing will be donated, but if there are a few items I can cut down into usable fabric I will stack those in my sewing/craft room to do a bit later. 

This next week I hope to get a good start on the remainders of my projects for this month. I won't be able to do the Christmas cards this year as our postal carrier is on strike. This will mean phone calls or a card on Facebook. 

Harvey will be watching the Grey Cup tonight, but as he really does not care if he misses some of the game supper will be upstairs. It will be tacos so if he decides he needs to watch the game, well this is easily carried to his man cave once made up.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Saturday Roundup

 

It has been snowing and raining here for most of the day. This means I have managed to get some decluttering done, organized the folders containing various recipes and crafts. I actually got everything into one folder and lots of double recipes were tossed. The crafty things were put into plastic sleeves and put in a binder. 

Also, while going through the books on the bookcase to declutter it a bit more, I found the book that I was listing UFP's in. Must at some point figure out if I actually completed any of them and add some new ones that are lying around the house.

Promised you all some pictures of what I have been up to this past week as far as projects are concerned. I will be starting the list from last Wednesday as I did not do a Round-up post last week. 

First off I finished sewing the knit Christmas dress.

I still have to make a belt for this and I think it might just be an I-cord type to use up some sparkly yarn I have.

I finished the knitted blanket for one of Kurt's good friends (another is on my needles right now), the patchwork item beside is going to be used to make a bag front. Got to get using up those 4" squares in something other than a quilt.

These are the microwavable bags for baked potatoes. One each for Kurt and Kris, and I think two for us. I loved making these and I think I will make some more for the silent auction in a year or two. 

These are the hot pads I made for us. The ones I made for Kurt and Kris are identical material but much larger so as to protect their tables or countertops.

I also got three casseroles out of the leftover bags of ham in the fridge freezer. 

All in all a pretty good week of finishes. Hopefully there will be a few more for next week. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.