Goals Update And New Monthly Goals

Firstly the update on my goals from last month.

1.   Finish the sweater I am knitting for Harvey for Christmas. Done, well still have the buttons to sew on but I am calling this done.

2.   Knit 3 hats to add to the gift of mittens for my brother's girls.  Done

4.   Buy my brothers (Jay and Jerry) their Christmas gifts.  Done

5.   Work on my embroidery again. Done

6.   Continue with Project Declutter.  Done

7.   Try for 22 no spend days this month.  Done

8.   Get Christmas cards done and in the mail in a timely fashion.  Done

9.   Mail off the gifts for my brothers and my nieces.  Done

I am totally shocked that I managed to get all these done. No time to spare but done none the less.

 I managed to rid my house of another 22 items, bringing my grand total for the year so far to 711. I am sure I will be adding more this month.

Now the goals for this month.

 December Goals

1.   Get the tree up and decorated.

2.   Make a quilt for the ladies gift for our family party.

3.   Get the Christmas baking done.

4.   Cut out sewing patterns.

5.   Continue decluttering project.

6.   Make up my monthly calendars and daily to do list pages.

7.   Work on embroidery.

8.   Start some of those unfinished sewing projects.

9.  Get the gifts wrapped.

10.  Try for 18 no spend days.

11.  Knit a sweater for me to wear for our family Christmas party.

Keeping my fingers crossed that I manage everything this month. I may be working late into the night sometimes.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

 

Menu Monday

The beginning of the week and tomorrow the beginning of a new month. Days, weeks and months just whizzing by.

Monday

Salmon Casserole and salad.

Tuesday

Honey Garlic Sausage, leftover rice, and green beans (any leftover salad as well).

Wednesday

The last bag of leftover turkey (or chicken I can't tell which it is. Note to self label) made into a casserole.

Thursday

Clean out the fridge night.

Friday

Fish fillet, homemade fries and perhaps a cole slaw.

Saturday

Using up the ham bones making split pea soup. Serving the soup with egg salad sandwiches.

Sunday

Beef roast, roasted potatoes, peas and carrots.

Hopefully I can stick to this menu without too many changes.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

It has been a quiet First Sunday in Advent. I have spent much of the day after Mass thinking about what went on at our monthly Parish Council meeting and wondering if I made a mistake entering church politics once again. I don't like the fact that Father decided that my first meeting back would be where he took everyone to task. This is something that I was happy not to be facing any more and was hoping that all would be running smoothly. Guess that was a false hope on my part. I will see what the next meeting brings.... I may be handing in my resignation if things have not improved.

While thinking and pondering what my thoughts and feelings were I spent time knitting. I have managed to get the band knitted and sewn onto the sweater. I hope to get the sweater sewn up and the buttons on tomorrow, but I am not sure that will happen.

Yesterday, on our big stock up shop we bought lots of deli style sandwich meat and bacon which will need to be packaged up for the freezer. So along with all my normal household chores I will be in charge of vacuum sealing all the meat. Should be a very busy day.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Friday Frugalities

Ahhh, that time of the week when I list some (not all because I have listed them before) of my frugal hits this week.

I have been using up the frozen packages of cooked meat from the fridge freezer to great effect. I almost have one basket in the freezer empty!!! The meals have gone over with Harvey very well and any extra has gone into the fridge (meat wise, cause sometimes I put extra into the bag) to be used for sandwiches at lunch.

I spent sometime cleaning and decluttering the sewing/craft room. I found lots of black 2" strips which means that when I made Kris's purple/black/silver quilt I really did not need to cut more black strips. Now that I know what I have there should be no waste.

Went for my frugal exercise every day this week even though my knee was touchy and the weather had gotten quite chilly.

I am sitting at 20 no spend days for the month, which while not quite at my target yet I am getting pretty darn close.

I will manage to put $40.00 in my savings envelope this month, which is a good thing. I use this to buy gifts for Harvey and sometimes supplies for sewing or knitting.

I found 35 cents on my walks this week and that money went directly into the change jar.

Harvey is remembering to turn down the heat in our bedroom after making the bed most days. A really great thing as he used to forget all the time.

Best yet gas has fallen well below the $1.00 a liter here and I am loving the fact that it will cost even less to fill the vehicles.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Slowly But Surely

Thanks everyone for your wishes for my knee to get better soon. While it is not as painful as yesterday, it still sends shots of pain up my leg when I move it wrong. Did not get much sleep last night either so I will be hitting the bed fairly early today.

To all my American readers Happy Thanksgiving. We all have much to be thankful for.

Since my knee was still causing problems I decided that household chores would be done slowly. Thank heavens today was an easy chore list, however I did not think my knee would take kneeling on the kitchen floor to scrub out the oven. That delightful task was left till early next week.

Instead I decided to tackle a couple of easier tasks that needed to be done.

First off I tackled the closet pantry shelf. Half empty boxes were emptied and the contents placed nicely on the shelf. The boxes themselves were placed in my recycling basket.

Then on to my on going project, the decluttering of the sewing/craft room.

This is one of two boxes of 2" strips that I rolled up and placed neatly into their containers. I can now see what I have to make strip quilts or use for binding. I still have a couple of boxes of strips thrown willy nilly into them that I will be going through and rolling. Much better organized now, and I am hoping to be able to remove a few containers from the room, or repurpose them to hold something else.

Tomorrow I plan on working on some baskets of yarn. I think I will be donating a few partial skeins and balls just so they are out of my house. I am fairly sure some crafty person will be able to use them. I also hope to be able to cut out a few patterns, but we will see how quickly I can get my chores done in the morning.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

I Hurt!!

I don't know what I did in my sleep last night, but this morning (say middle of the night) I woke up with extreme pain in my right knee.

I have spent most of the day with my knee wrapped in a tensor bandage and elevated when possible. Still if I move it the wrong way I get sharp pains..... Not enjoying this at all. I am hoping that by having a nice hot bath things improve. That is if I can get in and out of the tub. If not I guess I will need to take a shower (Boo).

This caused me not to get any extra cleaning or work done today. Oh well I am sure that I can manage a bit more tomorrow. At least I hope so. 

I woke up to things being covered with a fresh white coat.

The snow has been coming down for most of the day and is supposed to continue tomorrow morning. As the song goes, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas." I am slowly getting my Christmas spirit.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thrifty Tuesday

I have been using up items in the fridge freezer, making them into tasty meals. Saved lots of cash by using them up.

I have also been making Christmas gifts using fabric and yarn from my stashes... Harvey figures I have enough of both to open my own shop!! And I kind of do seem to collect on sale fabric and yarn. One never knows when it will come in handy. Like right now getting gifts ready for Christmas at a fraction of the price of buying gifts.

Like these three simple slouch hats (or beanies) I made for my nieces. This project used up four small balls of fluffy pink yarn that I could not figure out what to do with. The hats along with 3 pairs of mitts each make up their Christmas gifts this year. The mitts were made with yarn left from other projects. Total cost was $5.00 each gift compared to $15.00 each.

Kept me out of trouble working on them as well.

Got one of my hats back at church. So I am off to Parish Council tonight. I guess I need to learn how to say no to a priest.............

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.