A Crystal Heritage

Meal Plan

2022-05-09T09:13:00.002-05:00

I had a calm and pleasant Mother's Day yesterday. I hope you all did as well.

I started the day making oatmeal cookies with cranberries and dates. I wanted to take some when we went to the nursing home later to visit my mother in law.

For supper my daughter and a family friend barbecued pork chops and sausage and served that with corn on the cob, potato salad and beans. It was a wonderful supper and I appreciate all their hard work. We had plenty of leftovers so I will use them up during this week's meal plan.

Meal Plan for the week

Monday - ham and asparagus quiche- easy to put together with my canned ham, asparagus I got on sale and pre-made pie crust

Tuesday - left over barbecue - heat and eat

Wednesday - Soup (either beef stew or chicken noodle - havent decided yet)

Thursday - Chicken Tacos

Friday - Baked Fish (dipped in green goddess dressing and coated with panko bread crumbs), coleslaw and beans

Saturday - Crockpot BBQ Pork sandwiches (made from slow cooked pork roast, shredded and bbq sauce added)

Have a blessed week!

Avoiding Food Waste

2022-05-06T13:41:00.006-05:00

Today was clean the fridge day. Not one of my favorite jobs, but it sure helps to prevent waste and remind me of what I need to use soon.

I had made baked fish a couple nights ago so today I crumbled the fish up and added about 1/4 cup cornmeal, 1 Tbs flour and an egg and made patties to fry. We had them for lunch along with some leftover baked beans and it was a really good lunch.

I can't say that I always get everything used in our meals, but I at least will make sure the dogs get some leftovers so the food doesn't go to waste.

As far as other things to use up, I have some carrots I will probably put in a soup, some asparagus that I think would be good wrapped in crescent rolls with a little ham and cheese and some eggs I saved that broke but were still in the carton, that I am thinking of using the eggs in a quiche.

I have read that there may be an upcoming wheat shortage due to the Russia/Ukraine war so I have been thinking about ways to use less wheat. I found some old Depression era recipes where they too were using less wheat. There are a few recipes I copied that I am planning to try. I will let y'all know how they work out.

Our Depression era ancestors knew how to not waste. They did not overload recipes with ingredients. If a recipe called for onion, they would use about a Tablespoon; if the recipe called for cheese they used it but not excessively. So much of the way we cook today can really be over the top with ingredients and it is really just a waste.

Waste is never good, but in these days where there are food shortages, we need to think smarter about what we make and use and be flexible in our meal plans.

Steak and Potato Casserole for Supper

2022-04-30T10:31:00.001-05:00

We don't have a lot of steak these days but hubby found some round steak on sale and picked up a package so for supper last night we had what my Mom called Steak and Potato supper. It's a simple recipe and the great thing is you don't have to stand in the kitchen and watch over it constantly. I heated up a couple cans of peas towards the end of the casserole cooking time and served some sourdough bread I had made with it and we had a meal.

Steak and Potato Supper

Round Steak

2 Tbs parsley

1/8 tsp pepper

4 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

½ tsp salt

2 eight ounce cans tomato sauce

* I added a couple TBS Sriracha sauce to this recipe because we like food pretty spicy.

Cut steak into serving pieces. Dredge in flour and brown on both sides in hot oil in skillet. Place meat and potatoes in a casserole dish. Pour fat out of skillet and add brown drippings to casserole. Add other ingredients and bake at 350*F 1 ½ hours.

Sunday and Beef Enchiladas

2022-04-24T17:47:00.002-05:00

It's a rainy Sunday and I haven't done much all day. It's one of those days where you just want to nap and so that's what I have been doing.

I feel so blessed because hubby took up the slack for me today and he has been working on supper. He made beans and enchiladas and I know they will be good. He and I make enchiladas a little different. He buys enchilada sauce for his and uses Velveeta cheese. I make my own sauce and most of the time, I use Velveeta, but growing up when we made my families' enchiladas we used longhorn cheese or what my Dad used to call "rat cheese".

Here is my recipe:

ENCHILADAS

(my family recipe)

1 ½ pound ground beef

10-12 ounce velveeta cheese

one large onion, chopped (1 cup)

2 Tbs chili powder

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1 tsp garlic

1 tsp comino

2 cans tomato sauce

1 can tomato sauce can water

2 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1/8 cup cold water

15 corn tortillas

oil for tortillas about 1/2 cup

Grate cheese and set aside, chop onion and set aside. Dip corn tortillas in skillet of ¼ cup hot oil to soften and set aside (drain on paper towels). Brown ground beef, drain and set aside. In skillet mix chili powder, salt, pepper, garlic powder, comino, tomato sauce and water. Stir and add cornstarch mixture and meat. Stir. To each tortilla place some cheese, onion and chili mixture. Roll, then put in pan seam side down. Sprinkle top with cheese. Heat through in 375*F oven.

____________

My shoulder problem was a lot worse last night after chopping up two hams for canning. I'm going to have to see the doctor next week and hope it is not too soon for another shot for the pain.

Mountain Men is on TV right now and it is a favorite show of mine. The oldest guy, the trapper, Tom Orr, is in his seventies and is a big inspiration as far as reminding us that age doesn't have to be a deterrent to things you want to.

Canning, My Dad's Legacy

2022-04-22T10:57:00.004-05:00

My Dad lived through the Great Depression and because of that he was determined to be ready if another one every occurred.

Canning food and gardening was a big part of my childhood, so I guess it got passed on to me.

I remember helping with some of the canning when I was a kid. I only helped when my parents were making jelly. My job was to pick fruit and stir the pot waiting for a rolling boil. My siblings helped too of course.

I remember one particular time when we were making grape jelly and my hands got stained purple from working with the grapes. At school, a classmate noticed my purple hands and got so curious about our jelly making that she came over to help. I rememb
er that she wanted to know how many grapes it took to make a jar of jelly. I had no idea.

I have since made prickly pear and other jellies but the one thing I never did was pressure canning. I remember Mom telling stories that she'd heard of pressure cookers "blowing up". All these years I have been afraid to even try.

Yesterday I tried pressure canning for the first time and even though I was pretty nervous about doing something wrong, everything was fine. I know it's not a big deal for most but it was for me.

Learning to pressure can opens a whole new world, especially as far as canning meat. We all remember power outages during past winter storms. An outage of any length of time can ruin everything in the freezer. Have some canned meat helps to minimize this.

There are tons of videos on You Tube about canning and they were a big help. I would also recommend the Ball canning book for instructions as well as of course your pressure cooker's manual.

Groceries and Meal Plans

2022-04-19T07:18:00.004-05:00

I've been doing more cooking from scratch these days due to rising grocery prices. Grocery shopping over the weekend, I was stunned to see the 60 count boxes of eggs anywhere from $14 to $20! I also saw that the big canister of Quaker Oats was $6. I buy the store brand which saves a couple bucks but it is still high. Everything is high. We all know that but I can't help but have a little sticker shock whenever I go to the store these days. One big find however was turkey for 49 cents a pound! That was an awesome deal!

I have started making sourdough bread and honestly once you get into the groove of it, it is really not all that time consuming or hard. I have been baking bread once a week for I guess about two months now.

Since turkey was the star of the week, I cooked one over the weekend. Getting several meals from them is worth the effort of de-boning. We had turkey breast sandwiches the first night, and tonight I'll make turkey and dumplings.

I made tamale pie last night and instead of beef, I used ground pork and also a can of chili beans. It turned out great and every bit as good as when I made it with 100% beef.

Meal plans for the rest of the week include:

Tuesday - Turkey and Dumplings

Wednesday - Beef and Potato Croquettes

Thursday - Turkey Tacos, salad, refried beans

Friday - Split Pea and Ham soup

Saturday - Beef and Mushroom Stroganoff, Broccoli

Sunday - Chicken and Rice Casserole

Pet Birds and Wild Birds

2022-04-18T06:56:00.005-05:00

Well I got up this morning and started my coffee and then was going to feed our two parakeets and finch next, only to realize that we were out of their birdseed. I thought "What about the wild bird food? I wonder if I can use that?" I looked it up on the internet and it said yes they can but it's not really nutritious enough for daily feeding. "Ok, well it will work until I get to the store today."

Before feeding Maya, our finch, I separated out the big seeds and just gave her the small seeds left. I fed Kiwi and Skye the regular mix. I am watching their reactions now and Maya has her big girl pants on and she is eating, but the parakeets are just chirping back and forth (complaining to each other, I'm sure) and refusing to touch the stuff.

Maya, our finch, was brought home with us one day from the Pet Store when we saw that she was the only bird left in the store and it was because she had "splay leg". Fearing they would feed her to the snakes we brought her home and had her checked out by a Vet that specialized in birds. He just suggested that we wrap all her perches with coach wrap so that she can get a better grip on them. We asked if she needed another finch for company, and he said that no, with us and the other birds she would be fine on her own. Her cage is in the dining room and we talk to her when we are at the table and she can hear and see the other two birds.

Skye is a female parakeet, white mostly, with a little blue on her back. She belongs to my daughter and is very sweet and trusting. She likes to knock things down in her cage. It doesn't matter what toy I put in there, it will end up picked apart and on the floor!

Kiwi is my green and yellow male parakeet. It was a little harder to gain his trust, but he is very sweet natured now. His thing is trying to keep all the little bells going in his cage at once. There is one bell in particular, a red one, that I think he is in love with. He talks to it and kisses it all the time.

I enjoy birds a lot. As a child I had a parakeet, and Gene and I had a Macaw for quite a few years.

I also enjoy bird watching outdoors. We have a resident woodpecker in the trees out back, an owl, that I haven't yet seen, and a plethora of nuthatches, as well as some big ol' crows and Canadian Geese that visit regularly. I haven't seen any robins yet this year but am sure they will show up soon. I also see cardinals and red winged blackbirds from time to time here.

Happy Monday yall!

Planning Meals - Cookbooks and Note Apps

2022-04-16T06:52:00.005-05:00

Cookbooks; I have a lot of them. In spite of all the recipes online, I do use my cookbooks.

I keep a couple of cookbooks and a large pad of sticky notes near my chair and when I have a little free time I will look through one and write down the recipe and page number of anything I want to try on the sticky note. I then put the sticky note inside the book's cover and that way I have a short list when I am looking for a quick idea or two.

I also have an entire copy of my own recipes stored in a note-taking app called Evernote on my phone (you could also do this with Google drive). When I worked, this was especially helpful so that I could check and see if there were any recipe ingredients I needed to pick up at the store on the way home. I still use the app even now that I am retired.

My grocery list also lives on my phone, and if someone is going to the store besides me, I just text the list to them.

When it comes to trying new recipes, you don't necessarily want to try something new every night but a new recipe a few times a month can help keep things interesting and expand your skills.

This Week's Meals

2022-04-13T10:05:00.007-05:00

I made pork ribs in the crockpot Monday as well as a pot of beans for supper. When it was time to serve supper I served the ribs and beans with corn.

The ribs were really good and literally fell off the bone, so Tuesday night I chopped up the left over rib meat and we had barbecue rib sandwiches on submarine rolls with pickle and onion and potato salad for the side.

I went to the grocery store yesterday. My Walmart does a good job of keeping things stocked; so far at least. The prices are really climbing though. It was really hard to pay $14.94 for a 60 count box of eggs!

When I buy groceries I try to stick to basic ingredients ...vegetables, flour, sugar, oats, dry beans etc. Meat purchases are pretty much limited to chicken and pork and some ground beef. Yesterday I got a ham, some chicken, ground beef and then I found London Broil marked down and some of the really thin beef also at a reduced price. I will use the thin beef for rouladen.

As careful as I am buying groceries, yesterday was still a bit of a sticker shock. Still, I think what I got will be good for at least a couple of weeks worth of meals.

I have a cookbook called "Depression Era Recipes" by Patricia R. Wagner. I tried the Quick Cake recipe that called for some dates that I needed to use. It was a heavier cake, kind of like banana bread, and was really good. There is an eggless cake recipe that I want to try next week.

Meal Plans through Saturday

Wednesday (Today) - Ham and Potato casserole, Salad

Thursday - Beef Rouladen, Noodles, Saurkraut

Friday - Turkey, Green Bean Casserole

Saturday - Tamale Pie and Salad

In closing, I just want t say that though we face higher prices at the grocery store, I am thankful we have access to food and am trying to look at it as an opportunity to try new things and be more creative. We are blessed.

Spring Time, or Is It?

2022-04-08T13:58:00.003-05:00

Growing up in Crystal City near the Mexican border can mess with your concept of the weather seasons.

I remember as a kid looking through the Sears Spring catalog and wondering why on earth anyone would need a "Spring jacket". Spring was very warm and sometimes downright hot. Spring meant that the mesquite trees had leafed out.

Summer; well that just meant hot and that was the way it was for most of the year. If you were barefoot outside you were always thankful for walking on grassy yards rather than hot sidewalk. You spent as much time as you could at the river or city pool.

In the Fall when school started, I remember a friend that always got a new Fall wardrobe for starting school. It was too hot to wear the kinds of clothes she was wearing! We just hoped the weather would be cool enough by Halloween so we wouldn't be so hot in our costumes.

With a few exceptions, we made it through what we called Winter with just a sweater. I remember wearing shorts in December and my Dad out barbecuing for Christmas. We grew pansies in our flower garden in Winter and it wasn't until years later my Massachusetts born mother in law informed me that they were a Spring flower.

Living in Oklahoma now, we do have four actual seasons. It's nice, but it still catches me off guard when like today we have another freeze warning and it's April! Fortunately the garden plants I have in the ground so far should weather the weather just fine.....as long as they don't blow away!

Pot Pies and Mandarin Cake

2022-04-07T17:36:00.002-05:00

I had leftover pork roast and leftover chicken today so I chopped each up separately and in two separate pots made fillings for a couple of pot pies.

The chicken pot pie filling I heated with the following

2 cups cooked chicken

1 can cream of chicken soup, undiluted

2 tsp poultry seasoning

1 can mixed vegetables, drained

1/2 can drained peas

1/8 cup powdered Parmesan cheese

2 Tbs dried parsley

1/8 cup water

Once the chicken filling was heated through I poured it into a store bought pie crust (uncooked) I had placed in a pie plate and covered the filling with a top crust. I put slits in the top crust and sealed, trimmed and fluted the edges.

For the pork pot pie filling I heated

2 cups chopped pork roast

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp red pepper flakes

3 Tbs liquid smoke

1 can cream of mushroom soup, undiluted

1 can mixed vegetables, drained

1/2 can drained peas

1/8 cup water

Once the pork pie filling was heated I poured the filling in the uncooked pie crust and topped with pie crust and sealed, trimmed and fluted as with the other pot pie.

I baked both pot pies about 35 minutes at 375*degrees.

Here is the Mandarin Cake recipe:

Mandarin Cake

1 package Golden Butter Cake Mix

4 eggs

1 can (11 oz) Mandarin Oranges (reserve liquid)

¾ cup vegetable oil

Pour 1-cup liquid from mandarin oranges into measuring cup. If there is not enough to make 1 cup, add water. Chop oranges. Mix all remaining ingredients with mandarin liquid. Pour into 9x13 pan sprayed with cooking spray. Bake 20-25 minutes at 350*

Leave cake in pan and cool completely

Mandarin Cake Frosting:

1 can 20 ounce crushed pineapple with juice

1 package (3 ½ oz) Vanilla Pudding Mix

1 carton (12 oz) Cool Whip

Hand stir frosting and spread on cake

Store cake in the refrigerator.

Happy Cooking!

Meal Plans and Meal Log

2022-04-06T11:42:00.006-05:00

I am not disciplined enough to have an exact meal plan for the week. I tried it but sometimes things came up such as for some reason we had to be away and only had time for a quick meal and more often I will base my meal plans on what I can find at the store that is most reasonable. (I won't say a good deal because I haven't seen any truly good deals lately).

Even though I don't have an exact meal plan I keep the following general meal plan that helps guide my week's meals. I only do this for supper because breakfast is easy and lunch is usually sandwiches or leftovers.

GENERAL MEAL PLAN:

Sunday - Roast or Casserole

Monday - Ground Beef

Tuesday - Chicken

Wednesday - Pork

Thursday - Meatless

Friday - Fish

Saturday - Cook's Choice

Additionally I keep a running log of the evening meals we have and by doing so, I can look back on it for inspiration when I can't come up with supper ideas.

Here is an example of my log so far in April

1st - Store bought lasagne, broccoli and cauliflower mix

2nd - Tortilla Soup and BLT sandwiches

3rd - Meatloaf, cabbage, squash

4th - Pork roast, baked potatoes, seasoned collards

5th - Ranch chicken and potatoes, Beer Bread and salad and I made brownies also

6th - Tonight will be leftover pork roast and Ranch chicken

Homemaking and Simple Recipes

2022-04-04T12:40:00.003-05:00

Like many other bloggers, I had stepped away from this blog only to return to it again...and again.

The past year, in addition to Covid, we as a family were dealing with getting one house ready to sell and remodeling and moving into another house. The hubby and I also both had surgeries so we were ready to say goodbye to 2021.

I recently finished updating my cookbook and I guess it's that as much as anything that has made me want to return to blogging.

I know there are a lot of homemaking blogs out there, but we all have a different take on things and as long as I feel I have something to contribute, then I want to do so on this blog.

I am a big fan of simple recipes. I don't like putting together what seems like a hundred ingredients just to make a meal.

I have collected 5, 4, 3, and 2 ingredient cookbooks over the years. When I brought the last cookbook home, hubby asked me if I would be looking for a zero ingredient cookbook next!

Today's simple recipe is Pork Roast.

I put the roast in the slow cooker and sprinkled the top with kosher salt and then put bay leaves across the top. Done deal.

Tonight I will make up some potatoes; either instant mashed or baked, and cook some peas and call it good.

Alice Morse Earle and Colonial History

2020-05-09T07:58:00.001-05:00

Some years ago I ran across a book by Alice Morse Earle called "Home Life in Colonial Days". I love history so I picked up the book and read it and was delighted with the detail of day to day life of this period that the book described. It covered everything from Colonial courtship to eating practices, to the process of making linen clothing to the "Horn Book", an early primer for childhood education.

Alice Morse Earle is an American Historian who lived from 1851 to 1911. Her books are very detailed historical accounts about life of the Colonial period in America. You can find her books pretty much anywhere. The first book I bought was in a second hand book store. If you use Kindle, there are some of her books that can be found inexpensively there.

I haven't read all of her books; only about five so far, but have liked each one. I am currently reading Colonial Days in Old New York.

Here is a list of some of her books with publishing dates:
The Sabbath in Puritan New England (1891)
China Collecting in America (1892)
Home Life in Colonial Days (1893)
Customs and Fashions in Old New England (1893)
Diary of Anna Green Winslow, A Boston School Girl of 1771 (1894)
Costume of Colonial Times (1894)
Colonial Dames and Goodwives (1895)
Margaret Winthrop (1895)
Colonial Days in Old New York (1896)
Curious Punishments of Bygone Days (1896)
In Old Naragansett: Romances and Realities (1898)
Child Life in Colonial Days (1899)
Stagecoach and Tavern Days (1900)
Old Time Gardens (1901)
Sun Dials and Roses of Yesterday (1902)
Two Centuries of Costume in America 1620-1820 (2 vol.) 1903

Hoarding versus Stocking Up

2020-05-04T15:41:00.000-05:00

I thinking it is important to stock up on food and supplies; and I say "stock up" because there is a big difference between it and hoarding or prepping. Hoarding is typically done when there is an emergency and there is fear of store shelves being empty. Prepping is like stocking up but much more intense.

Preppers I dare say have picked up a reputation as being some sort of extremists but this is not so. Most of our grandmothers and grandfathers that canned food and grew gardens were "preppers".

The government also suggests you make plans including stocking up on food (and other supplies) for emergencies including natural disasters. Food supplies are also helpful in a sudden job loss; something a lot of people have experienced recently.
Here is a link to the government food preparedness page: https://www.ready.gov/food

The time to stock up on food is before disaster hits. You can do it a little at a time so that you are not emptying shelves or emptying your wallet. There should never be any need to panic buy unless you waited too late and you find yourself grabbing for the last of whatever food and supplies are available.

Although Ready.gov suggests storing an extra three day supply, I think that its really kind of a personal thing; something we each have to decide on our own. If you lose your job and THAT ends up being the emergency, chances are you will need more than an extra three day's supply of food. For some it will be a month's extra, others will want six months extra. It's up to you. The key is to get started and get started as soon as possible.

Some things to keep in mind:

1. Think outside of the box on where to store your food. It doesn't have to be in the kitchen but it does have to be the proper temperature. It can be an extra closet or under an end table with a table cloth over it.
2. Buy what you normally eat. Canned goods are easy to store. If you start storing lots of flour and dry products you will need to look into repackaging them with dessicants.
3. Mark the Month/Year on your food. Rotate food so nothing gets old on you. Replenish what you use.

It's Been Awhile

2020-05-04T13:20:00.003-05:00

It's been awhile; over a year in fact. The whole time, I kept thinking I would get back to blogging and I never did. Things got in the way, Facebook got in the way, and to be honest, I just felt like I didn't think I had that much that was reader worthy to say.

I need to be more like my friend Cynthia, over at Life in Merlin who has steadily blogged for years and done a great job of it. Me? All this time I think I have been practicing at it; playing at it.

I'd like to think this time around I can commit to it. I do have things to say. I just hope people will find them of interest. I need to get my mind off of current affairs and on to other things.

We have lived in Oklahoma for about a year and four months and we are quite happy here. We finally finished renovations on our house in Texas and put it on the market. It was under contract in 3 days and closed weeks later. It's good to have that finalized.

I am gardening a little this year. I planted some vegetables and there are now Irises and Day Lilies in the front flower bed that had formerly been filled filled with nothing but landscaping rocks.

With the Covid thing going on and being quarantined, I decided to try my hand at crochet again and am working on a baby blanket for my great niece that is due in July. It's a mint green color and is coming along well. I am over 2/3's done with it.

I have really gotten into bird watching since retiring. I have about five feeders set up and two hummingbird feeders. So far I don't have just a huge variety but I do have my "frequent flyers" (pun intended) that visit the feeders every day. Mostly I have a couple blue jays, cardinals, doves, robins and some sparrows and a few brown headed cowbirds that just about took over not long ago till I managed to get them to quit coming in such great numbers.

Well the dogs are giving me sad looks through the windows wanting to come in and Daisy, the Great Dane is the biggest baby of all, she is whining, so I guess I will close for now.

Chicken and Dumplings and Updates

2019-01-29T07:34:00.001-06:00

I have been recovering from a bruised rib and sore shoulder and neck. I took a fall about three weeks ago and have really been in a lot of pain but now it is much improved.

We are liking McAlester very much and getting a little more settled in. I even went to church Sunday and that felt really good too, getting out and meeting new people.

We have seen some fairly cold winter temperatures so far and even had a small amount of snow one weekend. I am enjoying it though and prefer to have some actual winter time.

My mother in law is still having some issues resulting from the stroke. I have been setting up and taking her to doctor appointments. She goes to see a neurosurgeon in a couple weeks for a tiny aneurysm they found during an MRI. All things considered though she is doing pretty well.

I picked up an interesting book at the library and have been reading that. It is called "Stories of Old Time Oklahoma" by David Dary and it has been interesting reading about the history of Oklahoma and stories of outlaws and early settlers.

Last night seemed like a good "chicken and dumplings night" so that's what I made. I have to say I have never had much luck with dumplings. It seems like they are always hit or miss. Sometimes I get lucky and the dumplings rise and sometimes they dissolve and I end up with a thick chicken soup.

Last night I combined two recipes for making dumplings and the dumplings were perfect! It seems one of the tricks is to coat the outside of the dumplings with flour before dropping them in the pot of chicken and broth. I don't know why that would make a difference but it seemed to work so I am going to stick with it. Here is the recipe:

Dumplings

2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
black pepper to taste
1 Tbs baking powder
1 egg, well beaten
2 Tbs melted butter
2/3 cup full fat milk

In a bowl, sift together the flour, salt, black pepper and baking powder.

In another bowl, mix the egg with melted butter and add to dry ingredients with enough milk to make a semi-stiff batter. (Do not over mix. You might use a little more or less than 2/3's cup milk)

Make small balls (about pecan sized) and coat with flour. You can just put some flour on a plate and lightly toss flour on them. Shake off excess flour and drop dumplings in boiling chicken/chicken broth mixture to which you have added chopped celery, chopped onion and a little salt and pepper. Do not stir. Cook covered for 20 minutes. No peeking.

The Move to Oklahoma

2018-12-24T08:05:00.000-06:00

We made the move to Oklahoma from Texas on December 14th.
It has not been an easy move. Packing and unpacking boxes is not as easy as it was when I was younger.
We also had an emergency situation 3 days after arriving here, when my mother-in-law, who lives with us, suffered a mild stroke. She had to stay in the hospital over night but fortunately since it was so very mild, a "Transient Ischemic Attack" she suffered no permanent damage and is doing very well.
The house is starting to look like a home. We are not completely unpacked yet but are getting there.
We have no Christmas decorations or tree up but today and tomorrow we will rest and enjoy the holidays as best we can and look forward to getting together soon with the family to celebrate a belated Christmas.
We have only been out exploring a little. Most of our days have been either in the house unpacking or in the hospital.
Yesterday we drove up to Lake Eufaula, which is a nice area. The lake is really big and all this area is hilly, which I like. I look forward to seeing it in the Spring when things are green again.

Clearing Out for The Move

2018-12-06T07:31:00.001-06:00

As I sort through and pack belongings for our move, I have to decide which things I can do without and which needs to go. Most of the items that end up on the "has to go" list I am donating or giving to family members that can use them.

The hardest part for me personally is that there are a lot of things that, if up to me only, I would get rid of, but I have to consider other family members too. What is extra baggage to me is important to someone else in the family.

I was in the kitchen this morning making what I call "frying pan toast" and as I looked around, critically eyeing all that was in the kitchen, I thought to myself, "We could toss the toaster. It just takes up counter space."

I really have no use for toasters, they are just a container for collecting crumbs in the bottom that have to be cleaned.

As a kid, we did not even have a toaster. We always made our toast either in the frying pan as I did this morning or if making a lot for the family, we put buttered bread on a cookie sheet and toasted it in the oven. Any leftovers were eaten as snacks during the day. I don't think we even got a toaster till I was in high school.

Still, I guess we will keep the toaster because even though I don't use it much, others do. There are however extra plastic containers and a few extra pans etc. that are definitely going into the give pile.

I still have some packing left to do but am making good progress.

Our current plan is to move next week but will have to make some trips back and forth for awhile to attend our granddaughter's birthday and to get the house here ready to put on the market.

Retirement And What It Looks Like For Me

2018-12-01T06:09:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was my last day at work. I am now officially retired from the county position I held for a little over a decade. My coworkers gave me a wonderful send off! It was a great party and a great time with coworkers from all over the building stopping by to visit.

I was given, among other things, an engraved clock and a quilt with signatures and best wishes from coworkers written all over it.

A question asked of me several times has been "What's next?" Well life as we know holds a lot of surprises but the plans so far are to finish packing the house up for our mid-December move to Oklahoma and then in and among unpacking, have Christmas time with family.

Once we are settled there will be no problem for me to keep busy. I have always had lots of hobbies and lots of books to read. I can honestly say I am never bored. There is always something to do.

The things I hope most to do to begin with are:

Getting familiar with our new surroundings - the town, nature walks, photographing plants I see, and checking things out while I am taking the dogs for their walks.
working on my genealogy
working on my scrapbook
getting into a bible study group
sewing
reading
getting familiar with the best plants for our new area and doing some gardening
and taking lots of road trips with hubby to explore Oklahoma and surrounding states

I think just this list alone should keep me busy for quite awhile!

By The Way, Lets Have an Audit Before You Go...

2018-11-16T17:37:00.000-06:00

I got an email this week at work notifying me of the new audit we are now required to do and that it had a 10 day deadline.

I thought I was going to cry! Here I am trying to train my replacement and we now have to drop everything and do a new audit.

Add that to the fact that I am trying to take belongings and boxes home from work and get things wound down for my last day of work on the 30th. What timing!

After I had my own little inward temper tantrum, I started going through the audit instructions and checklist and mentally checked things off. "I have that". "I know where to get that". "I need that from county purchasing". I felt a little better.

I gathered documents yesterday and made cover sheets and scanned everything (we are talking close to 500 pages) and now I only lack one thing and that is for the county attorney to release one document. Depending on when I get her official "ok", I should have everything uploaded by Monday or Tuesday.

I feel better. No more tantrum or panic attack.

Packing Progress

2018-11-12T07:37:00.000-06:00

It's a county holiday today and I am planning to use the time packing for our move.

I wish I could get back in the garage to work and sort there but it is raining yet again so that project will have to be delayed for now.

In the meantime, other than house clean up and some laundry, I think I will tackle closets. I am sorting, and eliminating stuff I don't want to move and boxing things up we can do without till we do move.

We had one other move that took place in December some years ago. It was when we first came to Georgetown and we had "professional movers" moving us.

I was pretty disappointed with how the professionals do things. I had a lot of dings and scratches on furniture and I had stuff boxed together that should have never gone in the same box, such as the bread I discovered in a box marked for dishes. Being that I thought it was the set of china I only use at holidays, I felt no rush to unpack them right away and when I did, yep, moldy bread.

I have moved quite a few times in my adult life. The number of moves is in the dozens, so I guess that qualifies me as a professional. I have learned I prefer to pack and mark the boxes myself and then let whoever we hire to load the moving truck, do the lifting and loading. That is my plan this time.

I can't help but think of some of the moves we have made over the years. Despite my best plans, something always happens.

I remember one move when hubby accidentally broke the oven door and I had to run out and buy an electric skillet and rely on it and the microwave for cooking, till we got the oven repaired.

I also remember the time we moved to the Rio Grande Valley and it had rained so much on the way, that by the time we drove the 6 hours there and started to unload, we were literally unloading in the rain, in water above our ankles!

I hope that whatever adventure happens with this move will be a minor one!

Old Fashioned Education Resources

2018-11-11T12:17:00.000-06:00

I am fond of old fashioned things. I have always been a traditionalist at heart and I guess that is part of why the website below appeals to me. The other part of it though is that it is a wealth of resources and online books.

I see this website both as a great help for home-schoolers and also a great source of reading for anyone of any age.

The owner of this site put a lot of work into this and I feel more should know about it and use it.

http://oldfashionededucation.com/

Make Your Day Extraordinary!

2018-11-10T08:39:00.000-06:00

I believe we always have an opportunity to make a bad day better and a good day great.

We can live consciously, and with purpose, doing the things that keep us positive and choosing how we let circumstances affect us. It's the conscious daily choices that improve our lives and the lives of others.

This link, "64 Ways To Turn An Ordinary Day into an Extraordinary One" is a very good start:

64 Ways to Turn an Ordinary Day into an Extraordinary One

Dog rescues

2018-11-10T06:16:00.002-06:00

You never know what you are going to get when you rescue a dog. To be sure, they are always a blessing, but they also have all their own personalities and situations that affect their behavior.

We got Bow in 2015. Bow, a Pyrenees/Golden Retriever mix, showed up on a friend's door step with an arrow in his hip. Apparently from things people heard that live in the area, a hunter was trying to get a shot at a deer, Bow scared the deer off and so the frustrated hunter shot Bow instead. My friend, could not keep him and he was too heavy for her to lift so we decided we would take him. He was not in very good shape when we picked him up. We took him to the Vet and got some immediate care for him and then began the work of trying to get his hip wound to heal and then the damaged sciatic nerve in his leg to heal. The tingling of the sciatic nerve caused Bow to keep chewing on his foot and the Vet wanted to amputate Bow's leg. I refused, and instead, I kept Bow's foot bandaged in the day and uncovered at night and had him wear a muzzle to sleep so he couldn't chew his foot. Three years later, and it took every bit of that time, Bow's sciatic nerve has healed, his foot is healed and he can run and play normally just like every other dog!

Our Great Dane, Daisy came to us through another friend who rescues Great Danes. She was in need of a home for the third time in her young life and so we picked her up and brought her home. She seemed depressed when we first got her and that is to be understood. She was getting used to us and trying to figure things out. As she learned about us, we learned about her and discovered her quirky and very Princess and childlike personality. Sometimes she acts like a spoiled toddler and other times more like a Princess but she is very very affectionate. She learned to get along with Bow and that she couldn't always have her way and now they are the best of friends.

Boss, came to us as a result of Hurricane Harvey. My son and daughter in law owned him but since they were evacuees and staying in a motel for such a long time, they could not keep him. We got Boss and he just has stayed with us. A Pug and Boston Terrier mix, he is quirky and funny and always on the go. I wish I had his energy! We also call him a "shopper" because he will grab anything you leave out that will fit in his mouth.

Last but not least, (except maybe in size) is our five pound black Pomeranian, Kona. I brought Kona home from the animal shelter in 2012. When the shelter picked him up he and his brother had been out on their own for some time and both had their fur so matted, that they had to be shaved to not only clean them up but find out if they were male or female. They had only a few rotten teeth left and had to have the remaining teeth pulled. The two dogs we were told, were about 12 years old. We brought home Kona and his brother, but the brother, Coffee, who had his side stitched up from a big dog bite wound, came down with pneumonia and died. Kona made it though and we still have him. If their age estimates were right, Kona is now 18 years old. He is totally blind and though he eats good, he mostly sleeps and then gets up a couple times a day and walks around in the room.

All four dogs, despite their quirks have been an immense blessing to me. I would not trade them for anything in the world, but keeping them has not been without its challenges. Bow ate one of my chairs, Boss tore up a pair of glasses, a flash drive and numerous other things, Daisy decided to chew on a couch, and Kona, as long as we have had him is still just a little bit un-trusting and has never been very affectionate. Even so, they all have permanent homes here and they have been more blessings than problems.

Daisy

Kona

Bow


Boss