How to be a (retired) Housewife

Tis the Season - December 1

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Thu, 01 Dec 2016 15:29:00 +0000

WHAT'S HAPPENING: I am happy to say my son and his family will be flying in from Dallas the day after Christmas, and we will have family Christmas with ALL the grandchildren on the 27th! I am so excited, and, of course, I want to make this an extra special Christmas, because we aren't always together.

I'm a little reluctant to admit that I'm done with my Christmas shopping, with the exception of my husband's stocking - which I like shopping for just a week or so before Christmas simply to take in the Christmas shopping ambience. I do a lot of my shopping online, but also hit some local artisan stores for gifts.

So while the shopping is done, that still leaves so much to do!! For some strange reason, I have decided now is a good time to completely re-arrange our downstairs. I don't just mean move Chair A to the left of the sofa, I mean we are switching entire rooms around! What is now our dining room - previously the formal living room - and the adjoining room that we now call "The Den" - will all become one big living room. What was our family room - adjacent to the kitchen - will become the new dining room, complete with cozy fireplace and built in cupboards and shelves for dish storage. Switching these rooms will give us so much more room when all the family is here, plus it just makes sense to have the dining room closer to the kitchen. I'll take some before and after photos to post once we're done.

And yes, I want to paint all the rooms while we're at it. I'm not sure that's going to happen, but it needs to be done desperately!

And then there's the wrapping and baking and cooking and decorating inside and out to be done.

So... it's time for a plan! (betcha didn't see that one coming)

WHAT'S THE PLAN: Here it is - My Plan for the month of December.

Mondays - Big Cleaning Day (as always)
Tuesdays - Sewing days (I have some small gifts and decorations to sew)
Wednesdays - Baking and cooking for the week and for the freezer
Thursdays - Shopping - grocery and gifts, as needed. Also Errand Day (post office, bank, etc.)
Fridays - Minor cleaning, wrapping gifts
Saturdays - Put up tree, decorating inside and out (a little at a time is fine!)
Sundays - OFF - That's right. A day off. No cooking, cleaning, baking, wrapping or stressing. Everyone needs a day off each week.

The exception to the above is THIS weekend, when we will be moving all the furniture around. Hopefully, we can do it in one day, but we do have a lot to move.

And of course, it being the busiest season of the year, my husband will be going back to work for the next two weeks. (He's retired, but works for the same company in the same job when they need him.)

The Wednesday baking will include Christmas cookies and bars that I can freeze, extra bread for the freezer, and some freezer meals for easy dinners on the busiest of days. I will also be making a few quiches and lasagnas for the freezer, to feed us during the actual holiday when we have family here.

If I stick to the plan, everything will get done and there will be no reason to get stressed. I probably will stress out anyway, but there's no reason for it!

THINGS I LOVE:

This little frame sits in my kitchen near my phone. It reminds me of every one of my grandchildren.

Leftovers Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 16:19:00 +0000

WHAT'S COOKING: Every year I make Turkey Soup from the turkey carcass. It's usually a simple vegetable based soup - celery, onion, garlic, carrots - cooked in turkey broth and with bits of turkey meat added. But this year simply by a chance leftover cup of sweet potatoes from making a sweet potato pie, I came up with what may well be the best soup I've ever made. Warm, hearty, rich but still light in calories. And, of course, with a twist!

HARDY WINTER SOUP WITH A TWIST(serves 4)

8 cups turkey broth
1/2 onion, diced
2 large carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup mashed sweet potatoes (plain)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp Thyme (I used fresh)
1/2 tsp Poultry Seasoning
1/2 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper to taste

Put olive oil in a large pot and add vegetables, cook until onion is translucent.

Add turkey broth, thyme, poultry seasoning. Bring to a simmer and simmer for a few hours until carrots are soft and tender.

Add mashed sweet potatoes (I think pumpkin puree would work here too). Using blender (hold cloth over top when blending hot ingredients!) or immersion blender, blend soup mixture until smooth. Add heavy cream, cumin, cayenne, salt and pepper, and stir well.

Now here's the twist (optional, but we really enjoyed the addition). I added about 8 frozen ravioli (2 per serving). I cooked them in boiling water per bag instructions, drained, then added them directly to the soup. I happened to use beef, but either beef or cheese would be great. You could also use a cheese stuffed tortellini, or any other stuffed pasta you have.

I'm so sorry there's no picture but it wasn't until we sat down to eat that I realized how extraordinary this soup is! It was gone before I thought to take pictures. I'll be making it again soon and will add pics then!

If you make turkey broth from your turkey carcass, this soup is truly frugal. I estimate the cost to be about $1.75 for the entire pot of soup, including ravioli! That's about .44 cents per serving! Serve it with either a batch of cornbread or a pan of biscuits, and it's a wonderful, hardy cold weather meal.

WHAT'S THE PLAN: Well, whatever the plan was this week has gone down the tubes with the arrival of a serious winter cold. I'll be down and out for at least two days (that's probably wishful thinking but that's what I'm hoping for). Since it's Cyber Monday, I'll spend the day on the computer seeing what deals are out there. I only have a few things left to get, so it would be nice to find deals on those items. I also want to get to a few local stores this week to do some shopping.

WHAT I LOVE: I mentioned an Immersion Blender or Hand Blender in my soup recipe above. Do you have one of these? I absolutely love mine! I use it mostly for soups - to make them smooth and creamy just using vegetables. We eat a LOT of soup here in the winter so I use this hand blender frequently. I've also used it to make baby food, to smooth out applesauce, in ham and lentil soup, for a quick small amount of whipped cream, and more. It's really a handy gadget! Here's the one I have:

Thanksgiving Planning

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 15:52:00 +0000

This is a busy week for me with Thanksgiving preparation going on all week. Our Thanksgiving table will be blessed with our daughter and her family - for a total of seven people. Every year I wish more of our family could be here with us, but that's the drawback to living so far from where you grew up and having family spread out all over the country.

WHAT'S THE PLAN: Of course there's a plan!! I don't know how people get everything done without lists!

My first list is our Thanksgiving Menu. We do a very traditional Thanksgiving meal - turkey and all the trimmings.

Thanksgiving Menu

Roast Turkey

Stuffing (in bird and extra dish)

Mashed potatoes

Gravy

Oven-Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Fried Corn

Pearl Onions in Cream Sauce

Green Bean Casserole

Cranberry Sauce

Rolls, butter

Dessert

Apple Pie

Sweet Potato Pie

Vanilla Ice Cream

Drinks

Coffee, Tea

Box drinks or juice for kids

Diet Coke, Iced Tea

Next list is what I need to prep the house and the food for Thanksgiving.

THANKSGIVING WEEK TO DO LIST

Monday

Create menu, print
Grocery list
Clean out fridge
Wash dining table linens and napkins
Wash holiday dishes, silverware, serving utensils
Match serving dishes/utensils to food list
Clean guest bathroom
Insert dining room table extension
Open up kitchen table

Tuesday

Pick up turkey
Grocery shopping
Cook sweet potatoes
From basement: Cranberry sauce, turkey broth
From the basement: crock pots, turkey roaster, turkey platter
From basement: High chair
Remove pans from warming drawer, wipe

Wednesday

Make pies – apple, sweet potato
Make vanilla ice cream
Peel, cook and mash potatoes
Make rolls
Make stuffing
Cranberry sauce to serving dish, fridge
Drinks into fridge

Thanksgiving Day

Prepare turkey, in oven around 10am
Extra dish of stuffing into oven around 12:00

Vac downstairs (Jeff)
Make onions in cream sauce
Potatoes into crock pot
wrap rolls, put in warming drawer around 1pm
Make fried corn, warming drawer
Make pot of coffee
Make gravy

Baby, it's cold outside/this week's menu

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 17:05:00 +0000

Here in southwest Ohio, we've gone from a bright sunny 78 degree day yesterday, to 39 degrees and sleet and freezing rain today. I guess cold weather had to happen sooner or later, but it would have been nice for Mother Nature to give us a bit of segue between the two!

WHAT'S THE PLAN: My thoughts this morning are on cold weather meals, Thanksgiving preparation and Christmas. I have been collecting Christmas presents all year long and stashing them away in an upstairs closet. It's time to break open the vault and see what is in there and plan what else I need to buy. I'm pretty sure the grandchildren are all done, but this year I'm finding it extremely difficult to think of gifts for the adult kids and husband. Plenty of time for that after Thanksgiving.

I did end up buying a few groceries last week. $52 in all. I bought orange juice and box drinks (grandkid drinks - flavored water). Butter was on sale (finally!) for $1.99 a pound (it's been $3.49 - $4.29 for at least six months)! I bought 15 pounds of butter, brought it home and put 12 of them in the freezer. That should last us between 3 and 4 months. Sweet potatoes and acorn squash were on sale for $.49 lb, so I bought some of each. I also had to buy nutmeg for upcoming holiday baking. And I bought a pound of American Cheese.

My Menu for the Week:

Saturday
Chicken Noodle Soup (c)

Note: Noodles are added when heating. It's unsafe to can noodles.
Grilled Cheese sandwiches w/
homemade bread (h/m)

Sunday
Breakfast for Dinner
Pancakes (h/m)
Bacon
Peaches (c) in Yogurt

Monday
Oven-baked Cod (f)
w/pesto/bread crumb topping
Fried Potatoes (c)
Swiss Chard (g)

Tuesday
Beef Stew (c)
Biscuits (h/m)

Wednesday
Jeff cooks or Take Out

Thursday
Thanksgiving Dinner

Friday
Turkey and
leftovers

(c)= Home Canned
(f) = Freezer
(h/m) = home made or made from scratch

(g) = fresh from the garden

WHAT I LOVE: Grandchild #3, 2 1/2 year old Riley, spent the day with me on Thursday this week. What a precious child he is! This guy is willing to do ANYTHING you ask of him. Want to bake? Sure! Want to help stack wood? Sure! Want to do a craft? Sure! Want to go grocery shopping? Sure! From what I'm told, he can be a real active little hellion at home, but not here. He's sweet, quiet, well behaved and cooperative. Truly one of the benefits of being a grandmother. We made banana bread (he follows instructions beautifully), and once it was baked and he had a sample, I asked him how he liked it. This is his "thumbs up"! LOL

Big Cleaning Day

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 17:40:00 +0000

WHAT'S THE PLAN: A benefit of being "all grown up" and not having kids in the house anymore is that you can clean your house and it actually stays that way! So I do one big cleaning a week, top to bottom. When Jeff is not working (he's retired but still goes back to his job when they need him), he is in charge of cleaning the upstairs, minus the master bathroom (AKA "my bathroom". His bathroom is the second full bathroom upstairs.) It's such a huge help to not have to clean both stories on the same day.

Monday is the Big Cleaning Day. It's a good day to wake up with a "Git 'er done" attitude! And if I don't? Well, I put on my "as if" attitude instead - I act "as if" I woke up with a Git 'er Done attitude, because the cleaning has got to get done.

First thing, I put on music. A little Classic Rock on Pandora, and a bluetooth speaker lightens up the atmosphere immediately. It's hard not to have energy if you have the right music playing! This is the speaker I have and love. It's easy to connect and has a reasonably really good sound quality.

Then I pull up my Google Keep App. I love love love this app. It keeps my days (and me) organized.
Here's a screen shop of my Monday To Do List:

As you can see, Monday Cleaning Day is quite thorough. Without Jeff home, cleaning day takes me about 8 hours. With him home, it takes 4-5 hours.

The (w) next to "Clean Oven" means I do it only when the weather is cool enough. Needless to say, my oven doesn't get cleaned much in the Summer months!

I know, this is a lot of cleaning in just one day. But long ago I watched a video by Don Aslett on how to thoroughly clean the house. Here are the basics:

-- You Can't Clean Clutter. It's that easy. When you see my Daily Chores List, you'll see I do a good general pick up every day. I literally walk around the entire house and put things away that aren't where they belong. I might have knitting out. The 9 million TV and DVD controllers have escaped their basket. Dog toys belong back in their basket. Shoes left by the door go on the stairs to be taken upstairs the next time I go. "A place for everything and everything in it's place" rings true with me.

-- Gather your supplies. I keep my supplies in this handled container, and it stays under my kitchen sink. In this basket are: Comet with scrubby sponge, Windex, paper towels, Lysol wipes (for door knobs, tv controllers, phones and other germy things that the grandchildren have sneezed on), Pledge furniture polish and dusting rag, an extra cloth, and a toothbrush style scrubbing brush and a plastic scraper, for those hard to get splotches that don't wipe away easily. I also have the vacuum, a mop, and a long handled cleaning brush.

-- Start at the door, go top to bottom, left to right. Because I have my basket with me, I can grab what I need. For example, in my family room, I grab the long handled cleaning brush and dust along the crown molding along the ceiling, any art work on the wall, down to the baseboard along the floor. Next I come to the TV stand, and I have the windex and paper towels to clean the TV, the Pledge and rag to dust the entertainment cabinet. I move on to the bookcases and fireplace, use the long handled brush to wipe crown molding and along the top of books on the highest shelf I can't reach, then a quick swipe with that brush along the bottom of the cabinets for cobwebs. I get my dust cloth for the books and shelves I can reach. Next comes a big picture window, and I'm ready with Windex and paper towel. Then comes the end tables and lamp, so I grab the Pledge and cloth and wipe those down, top to bottom. Lysol Wipe for the phone and TV Controller. On to the patio sliding doors with same. I do step outside and do the exterior of the sliding doors as well. I use Lysol wipes on the door handles.

Aslett does say to do the vac'ing and mopping at the same time, but I wait until all rooms are dusted and cleaned, then go through with the vac, and then mop all the hardwood floors at once.

-- Don't clean what isn't dirty. If I get to the picture window and see no fingerprint smudges or dog nose prints, I move on. There's just no reason to clean it if it's not dirty, simply because it's on my list.

I use this cleaning "theory" in every room, whether it's the more involved kitchen and bathrooms, or the easier dining room and den.

WHAT I LOVE:
This is the long-handled duster I use. I do NOT like microfiber dusters, and this one is hard to find. Luckily, when I bought it several years ago, I bought an additional "head" for it, so they haven't worn out yet. I use it for SO many things! I dust along the top of doorways, light fixtures, ceiling fan, bookshelves or other shelving I can't reach. I use it to run along the baseboards, along curtain rods, between the refrigerator and cabinets and between the stove and cabinets. The end has a button you push to change the angle of the brush, which makes cleaning the tops of books and the ceiling fan really easy. The brush itself unsnaps and is machine washable. This brush is worth it's weight in gold!

WHAT'S HAPPENING: You just don't know what life is going to bring you each day when you wake up. It could be a great day, it could be a terrible day. Yesterday we received some life changing news. My baby sister, Sarah, age 47, went to the Emergency Room two days ago with what was eventually diagnosed as a hernia in her abdomen, apparently caused by terrible coughing the week before. Some of the tests revealed some very troubling spots on her lungs. She went back yesterday to a specialist and had more testing, and they have found more spots on her lungs and diagnosed her with lung cancer. Before you jump to conclusions, she has never smoked, nor, as far as I know, does anyone in her household. We are waiting for more testing and a biopsy to find out what Stage she is in and what the treatment will be. Sarah is one of the most generous, loving, calm peope I know. Life can be so unfair. I am not the religious person that Sarah is, but I have prayed often in the past 24 hours and will continue to do so on her behalf. Love you, Sarah.

WHAT'S COOKING: After a long day of cleaning and then the emotions of hearing the news about my sister's health, my husband whispered those three little words I needed to hear: "Let's Order Chinese". There was no cooking.

"Health is not valued till sickness comes."

- Thomas Fuller

This Week's Menu and Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Sun, 13 Nov 2016 17:25:00 +0000

WHAT'S COOKING - On Sunday I sit down and make my menus for the week. I am so lost without a pre-planned menu! For me, it saves money and time. If I have fresh foods that need to be used up, they're top priority in the menu. Every morning I look at the menu (it hangs on the fridge) and know what I have to take out of the freezer or get from the canning pantry for dinner that night.

As I write my menu for the week, I also add any necessary items to my week's grocery shopping list. When I shop, I actually stick to my list. I used to ramble down the aisles, throwing "this looks good" items in my cart, getting home, putting them away, then forgetting about them. Now that I make out my menu before going shopping, food gets used up and almost never wasted.

This week, everything is from the freezer and the pantry. There is no grocery shopping to do. Yay!

Here is this week's Menu.

Sunday

Spaghetti (c)

Meatballs (f)

Garlic bread (h/m)

Monday

Meatball subs

(leftover meatballs from Sunday)

on h/m sub rolls

Green salad

Tuesday

Out to Eat

Wednesday

Pesto-glazed Baked Chicken (f)

Rice (f)

Honey-glazed Carrots (c)(g)

Thursday

Oven Baked Cod (f)
Hot Cabbage Slaw
Green beans (c)(g)

Friday

Breakfast for Dinner

Pancakes (h/m)

Bacon

Fried Egg

Saturday
Turkey Noodle Soup (c)
Grilled cheese sandwiches

(f) = freezer (c) = home canned (h/m) = made from scratch (g) = from the garden

WHAT'S THE PLAN: Sunday is our "day off". Only daily chores (make bed, put dishes away, quick clean bathrooms) are done. This morning we both decided to have an easy stay-home day. I'll be up in my sewing room, Jeff will probably watch a video and "putter" in his office. We're NASCAR fans, and we'll sit and watch the race later today, and then move on to watch a Football game. I like to have some kind of handwork while I watch TV, so I'll be finishing up a pair of socks, and probably starting another. Wonderful, restful kind of day.

Jeff and I sat over coffee this morning and discussed the upcoming week. I don't always know when he's going to work. (He's retired, but goes back to the company and works his same job whenever they need him.) I was happy to find he's not planning on working this week. Here is our plan for the week:

Monday - Thorough house cleaning. Vac, dust, cobwebs, clean bathrooms, mop all hardwood floors.
Tuesday - I have 30 lbs of cod fish in my freezer. I need to can fish chowder.
Wednesday - Riley (grandchild #3) day! Go pick him up and take him to Jungle Jim's, then home to do some yard work.
Thursday - Laundry, vac, empty all trash
Friday - Baking day - bread, dessert for the week, pizza dough for freezer
Saturday and Sunday - Free days. Often Grandchild #1 comes to spend the night.

I have a self-imposed deadline this week. By Friday, I WILL choose a paint color(s) and get some painter estimates. We are going to paint the entire interior - upstairs and down. Normally we hire painters to do it all, but to save some money, we're going to hire them to come in and just do the ceilings and stairwell. We'll do the trim and walls ourselves. The hardest part is choosing paint colors! And.. we have some BIG changes to our house to make.. stay tuned on that one. I want to get the painting done and the changes made in time for Christmas, so I need to focus on getting things done.
WHAT I LOVE: This wonderful vintage piece hangs in my downstairs bathroom. It makes me smile every time I see it.


Happy as a Lark!

Catching up in the Kitchen - Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 20:46:00 +0000

WHAT'S HAPPENING: Without going into a lot of details, the past few days have been really emotionally tough for me. Every election has to have a winner and a loser - that's how our system works. In my world, winners shouldn't gloat, and losers shouldn't be hateful and vindictive. If you're on FaceBook, you know both happened to the Nth degree. About the 10th time I had to read one of many "friends'" post how Republican voters are stupid, ignorant, un-educated, racist, woman-haters, and worse, I lost it. I actually cried. To think that any of my friends could think these things of ME (not a closet Republican by any means) - well, it just broke my heart and, for a bit, my spirit. They didn't seem to understand that while they were making these generic comments - aimed at Republicans in general - that many of their friends, family and neighbors are, indeed, Republicans!! And these mean-spirited posts really hurt.

It occurred to me that the Liberals are the folks who are the first to proclaim that all people should be treated equally, and with respect and dignity (which I agree with, by the way). Apparently, voicing it and practicing it are two different things.

A sewing day!

Enough politics. I put FaceBook down and walked away. I can't prevent people from thinking what they want to think, but I don't have to read it. There's enough Evil in the world without actually inviting it into your life, so FaceBook is gone for a few days until the hatred dies down. A few "friends" are gone permanently, but it is what it is.

Meanwhile.... there is much more to life than FaceBook! Once I put it down, I found I had time on my hands! Imagine that. I spent the afternoon yesterday (Thursday) working on a quilt. I put Project Runway DVD's on my player in the background, and sewed, sewed, sewed. It was great. For those who quilt, you know how you truly have to focus your mind on what you're doing. Great way to get the BAD stuff out, and the GOOD stuff in :)

WHAT'S COOKING: Today I had to spend some time catching up in the kitchen. We needed bread. I'd promised my husband cinnamon rolls. I had 5 lbs of organic lemons to process before they went bad. We needed some kind of healthy snack in the house.

I make a very basic white bread (which you can easily replace half the white flour with whole wheat flour). It consists simply of yeast, water, sugar or honey, a bit of salt, and flour. I always make enough for two loaves, but usually make only one, and use the other half of the dough for something else -- pizza dough for dinner that night, cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls, sandwich rolls, hot dog or sub rolls, or, if I happen to have leftover roast and veggies of some kind, I'll make meat turnovers.

Today the extra dough became cinnamon rolls. All I do is roll the bread dough out into a rectangle, brush all but one long edge with butter, sprinkle on cinnamon sugar rather heavily, sometimes add nuts or raisins, roll it up, seal with water along the non-butter edge, cut into 9-12 pieces, let raise until doubled, bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes, and cover with a white frosting glaze. I use Paula Deen's Cinnamon Roll recipe - not for the rolls, but for the glaze. I'm sure the rolls are good too, I just find it easy to use my white bread dough instead. Less mixing, less mess, less work.


Ready for Winter coughs!

I picked up 5 lbs of organic lemons for .99 the last time I went to the store, so needed to process those. I sliced them, put the ends aside, and filled a pint mason jar with the lemon slices, then added 1/4 tsp of cinnamon (for it's anti-inflammatory properties), then covered it all in honey. Once the honey settled, I put more slices of lemon in the jar, covered with honey again. I let that sit on the counter and added honey as needed until the lemons were completely submerged in honey. I keep this in the fridge to use for coughs and sore throats in the winter. Plop one or two of these honey-laden lemons in a cup of tea, and you have almost instant relief.

With the rest of the lemons, I sliced, saved the ends, and put the slices in my dehydrator for the day. I use dehydrated lemon slices in both hot and iced tea. Plus they look pretty in a jar on my kitchen counter.

All the lemon ends I saved? I slice them into thin strips, and put them in the dehydrator (with an added screen so they don't fall through). Once dried, I will use my spice mill to grind them up and add to my jar of Lemon Zest, which I use in cooking and baking. I have also run them through the mill with black peppercorns for really yummy Lemon Pepper, which I love on chicken and fish.

Lastly, I made our favorite "Granola Bar". It's a No-Cook Oatmeal bar that goes so well with an afternoon cup of coffee or an evening cup of tea.

The basic recipe is:
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
3 cups of oatmeal

To that, add what you like. Today I chopped up some dehydrated mango, craisins, and added coconut, cinnamon, and some chocolate chips. Add no more than 1/4 cup of whatever ingredients you want.

Mix well. And that's the hardest part! I take my rings off and mix by hand. If you mix by spoon, make sure it's a really sturdy spoon. Lay a sheet of aluminum foil down in a 9 x 11 baking pan, then spray lightly with Pam. Put your bar ingredients in and use a piece of plastic wrap to push it all down firmly and evenly. I mean - REALLY push. Push down along the edges, too. Put this in the fridge for about two hours, then cut into 1 x 3 inch bars. Wrap individually in plastic wrap, so your family can just grab a "granola bar" and go. Good stuff.

WHAT'S THE PLAN: My To Do List today was just basic daily cleaning tasks, and the baking I discussed above. I put dishes away, then fed the dishwasher all day as I baked. I swept the kitchen floor first thing this morning, but had to do it again after baking! I did a good all over general "pick up" first thing this morning -- just walking around my house putting things back where they belong. Jeff made the bed, and I did a quick clean of all bathrooms, put new towels in his bathroom and wiped down both sinks. Right after lunch I drove Jeff to our mechanic's to pick up my car, and took Sophie with us. Silly dog just loves riding in the car. That was pretty much it, besides the baking I discussed already.

WHAT I LOVE: My daughter-in-law is so wonderful about sending me photos of my sweet 5 year old granddaughter, Miss Aimee. It's hard when 3 grandchildren live nearby, and one lives so far away. I always appreciate her taking the time to send me a photo.

This morning's photo arrived just as I was getting up - and it started my day in such a wonderful, positive way! This child smiles from the inside out :) She is this happy because both her Mommy and her Daddy walked her to school today. Notice she is all dressed in red, white and blue for Veteran's Day!


Miss Aimee

That's it for today. Please - be kind to each other.

Monday Monday... can't stay away

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 20:46:00 +0000

WHAT'S COOKING -
Several months ago, I found boneless pork roasts on sale for $1.69 a pound. I bought 5 of them. Three of them were sliced in 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch slices for boneless pork chops and vac sealed 3 per bag (Jeff eats 2, I eat one), then frozen. One pork roast we've already eaten as a roast when we had company for dinner. Today I've gotten the last one out of the freezer to have for dinner tonight. We will be having Pork Roast with fresh Rosemary and Garlic, baked acorn squash (on sale last week), home canned green beans (from the garden), and home canned applesauce. Sounds like a Fall Feast to me!

We had a large jack-o-lantern pumpkin out on our front porch for a Halloween decoration. I brought it in today, opened it up, removed the seeds, and popped it in the oven where it's cooking as I write this. My house smells like Fall :) Once it's fork-tender I will take it out, remove the skin, process in the blender and freeze for pumpkin puree. I use pumpkin or sweet potato puree in the dog food I make for Sophie. I also found what looks like a good recipe for a yeast pumpkin bread that I'll try in the next week to see if it might be good for the Thanksgiving dinner table, perhaps as rolls. Depending on how much pumpkin puree I get, I might make some pumpkin butter. And of course, there's always pumpkin pie! Here's the link I used on how to make Pumpkin Puree.

WHAT'S THE PLAN - Normally Monday is my "Big Cleaning Day" but I had a mid-morning doctor's appointment, and have a visiting grandchild tomorrow, so Big Cleaning Day will be on Wednesday this week. More details then.

This is what my Week Schedule looks like. I'll provide more details as each day arrives, but this gives you an idea:
Monday - 8 hour Cleaning Day, Menu for the Week
Tuesday - Do something from the Master List (more on that later), decluttering, organizing
Wednesday - Baking, canning, freezer meals, laundry
Thursday - 4 hour cleaning, sewing or free afternoon
Friday - Errands, grocery shopping, sewing
Saturday - Free Day, try and do something fun
Sunday - Free Day, laundry if we stay home

My Daily Chores List is completed every day, no matter what else is going on. I get all these done first thing in the morning. It takes about 30-45 minutes.
-- Make bed
-- Trash Out if needed
-- Quick Clean bathrooms, check bathroom supplies
-- Sweep or vac kitchen floor
-- Good general pick up
-- Food from freezer for dinner if necessary
-- Fresh Kitchen linens
-- Wipe counters
-- Dishes out of dishwasher and put away
-- Clean kitchen sink

So Today's To Do List is relatively easy:
-- Daily Chores (see above)
-- Doctor's appointment
-- Quick grocery shopping (I actually only went to see if I could get more pumpkins, hopefully for free. Unfortunately, they'd already thrown out their leftovers. I put a notice on my Calendar app for next year to call the Produce Department right before Halloween and ask them to save me some!)
-- Windex the deck table and deck patio doors
-- Call the Groomer. Sophie needs a spa day
-- Cut herbs in garden and dehydrate. (Oregano, lemon balm, sage, basil, mint). Pack in jars and vac seal.
-- Pick Swiss Chard from the garden. Process for freezing.
-- Sew loose yarn ends and finish up socks, package to mail.
-- Make bread
-- Bake pumpkin and freeze puree

WHAT'S HAPPENING - It's such a beautiful Fall day! I decided to save working in my sewing room for tomorrow (rain is forecast), and deal with my herb garden today. I popped out a nice little dill plant that had re-sprouted on its own, and put it in a pot, as well as some Rosemary. I cut basil cuttings and put them in water to root and plant later. I picked oregano (lots!!), lemon grass, sage and mint. The oregano and mint are in the dehydrator and making my house smell SOO good!!! The lemon grass will be washed and cut into 3-4 inch strips and put in the freezer for future chicken dishes.

WHAT I LOVE -There's something so calming about picking herbs I've grown in the garden, then sitting on the deck and plucking the leaves from the stems. It's so "hands on" and the smells that come from those leaves... oh my. And for months and months, I can reach up into my spice cabinet and pick up a jar of those same herbs and use them to flavor our food in the nicest way. I think if I had to choose to grow either herbs or vegetables, I would choose herbs. I look forward to having pots of fresh herbs growing on my kitchen windowsill all winter.

It's been a long time!

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 20:25:00 +0000

Lately, I've been thinking more and more about returning to my blog. The cold months are about to hit here in southwest Ohio, and I'll have plenty of time to share again. But... I want to switch things up a bit. So....

I'm going to divide the blog into sections.

WHAT'S COOKING - I'll list my week's menu plan (yes, I still do that every week), frugal recipes for both cooking and baking, any canning that I'm doing, and maybe cooking tips.

WHAT'S THE PLAN - I'm a To Do List freak. NO day starts without a To Do List here. I'll share my lists, cleaning tips, as well as ways I clean, organize and decorate my home. I'll even share the apps I use to keep myself organized.

WHAT I LOVE - I'll share what my favorite things in life are (besides my family!). It might be something as small as a new quotation I've found, or what appliances I love in my kitchen. It might be a web site I visit often, or a book I've read. And of course, it might be as simple as a photo of one of my adorable grandchildren.

WHAT'S HAPPENING - Everything else will go here. It might be an account of my day, or something crafty I'm working on. It might be a trip we take, or how to save money on grocery shopping. A little of this and that, because that's exactly how my life works.

I've been out of Blog Land so long, I think of this as starting over. Readers (and their comments) will be sparse, I understand. But I'll do what I do, and if you like what you read, I hope you'll come back and visit often.

A Personal Epiphany

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Wed, 27 May 2015 14:31:00 +0000

Wow - it's been a long time since I posted on my blog. I can't promise I'll do better, but I can promise I'm thinking about it!

I'm writing this particular post more for myself than for anyone reading it. It's something I think I'm going to need to come back and read now and then.

I've been busy. Every single day. Busy. Busy. Busy. Between grandkids (sick or just wanting to come stay overnight or just come for a visit), the garden, outdoor work, sewing, keeping my house clean (and fairly organized), making all my foods from scratch now - I've been busy. My Daily To Do List usually contains at least a dozen major items, and that doesn't include all the normal daily stuff that I never write down.

A few days ago I finished planting my vegetable garden -- actually created a new garden to extend my growing room, and planted green beans, zucchini and cucumbers. I got up early so I could get it all done before the temps hit the 80s. Hot weather and I don't mix well. I was done by 11:30 or so.

I came into the house, put away my seed box, and checked everything I'd just done off my To Do List. Left on it were to put dishes away and sweep the kitchen. I got those done and it was then still before Noon.

Here comes the Epiphany.

I had nothing left to do.

My house was clean - upstairs and down. The gardens and containers were all planted and attended to. Annual flowers and flower boxes were all planted and in place.

I was done.

And I thought to myself...

I'm NOT lazy.

What?? A lot of people would be surprised to know that I very very frequently think of myself as "Lazy". I don't remember where this came from. I don't remember my parents calling me lazy as a child. But for at least the past 30+ years, I have labelled myself "lazy". If I was sitting down, that meant I was lazy. If I watched TV or played games on the computer? Sleep late? Lazy lazy lazy.

But I realized in one tiny nano-second, it's not true.

I am not lazy.

I do a LOT. I look at my life as a stay-at-home wife as a job. I work hard to earn my share of the house money. I clean the house, do the gardening, save money at every turn by canning, baking my own breads, shopping sales, hanging out my laundry, shop at thrift stores and yard sales, and generally never, ever spending a penny I don't have to.

You could knock on my door this very second and I could invite you in to sit and have coffee and not be embarassed by what my house looks like. It's fine. It's clean. It's clutter free.

Because I am NOT lazy.

Soooo many of my friends and family right now are saying, "Is she kidding?" But I have to tell you, from my heart, from my brain - I have always, always thought of myself as a lazy person. Always.

But not anymore. I am not lazy.

I AM NOT LAZY!!!

You can't see it, but right now I'm smiling. This silly Epiphany has totally changed the way I look at myself. I got to virtually erase what for years and years I thought of as my biggest character flaw. It's gone. I'm not lazy.

I may, in fact, be a "hard worker". But that's just too much to digest right now.

One Epiphany at a time.

P.S. I feel a need to add something. This is NOT a post about anyone else. This is a post about ME. This is not a judgment on YOU for what you do or don't do. Who knows? You may well do more than me!! You may do less than me and be fine with that. This has nothing to do with you. Just this one time, it's all about ME. So don't read anything into it, OK? Thanks.

Dealing with Thanksgiving Leftovers

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:12:00 +0000

The tradition of "putting up" leftover turkey and all the Thanksgiving trimmings is an annual event here. I like to squeeze every meal I can out of that turkey!

This year I bought a 22 lb. free range, hormone and antibiotic free turkey. This is our third year of having fresh turkey and we will never go back to those chemical-laden Blubberball turkeys again. If you haven't tried a fresh turkey you just won't believe the difference in taste. (My other reason for buying fresh is that for five years in a row I was getting sick right after Thanksgiving. Upset stomach, lethargy, and achy joints -- almost flu-like symptoms. Once I stopped preparing the giant, frozen .99 cent a pound turkeys, the annual Thanksgiving round of illness stopped too.)

A 22 lb turkey for just four adults and two non-turkey-eating children meant a LOT of leftovers. I try and cook enough dinner to have all the side dishes leftover as well.

After dinner, Jeff and I immediately start making "TV Dinners" for the freezer. This year we had enough for 15 dinners. I buy aluminum pie plates, and give each plate a serving of turkey, then divide up the side dishes as evenly as I can. Some may have a roll, some may not. All usually have mashed potatoes and gravy. Each plate will have at least two vegetables, but those vegetables will vary from dinner to dinner. All get stuffing.

These "TV Dinners" are wrapped in aluminum foil and put in the freezer. When we want to use them, I simply put them in a 375 oven for about 45 minutes. They are as good (and sometimes better!) than the original Thanksgiving dinner.

Next, of course, I made Turkey Vegetable Soup and pressure canned 12 quarts, plus we had soup for dinner that night. When we're ready to eat the canned soup, I will add either noodles or rice (you can't can soups with noodles or rice).

From there I made and canned 8 pints of Turkey Broth. This is good for making gravy for future meals.

I still had some leftover mashed potatoes, turkey, gravy and stuffing, and made 8 homemade stuffed hand pies. (Recipe to follow) These were SO good! We had two for dinner last night with a nice green salad, and 6 of these pies went into the freezer for future meals.

I vac sealed three bags of 2-cup portions of turkey for future use. Probably turkey and gravy over rice, and maybe some pot pies when I have leftover veggies to use up.

That's 45 meals from my 22 lb turkey, NOT COUNTING what we ate on Thanksgiving, or what I gave my daughter to take home.

THANKSGIVING LEFTOVERS BAKED HAND PIES

2 pie crusts, store bought or homemade
2 cups of chopped turkey, white and dark meat
1/2 cup mashed potatoes
1/2 cup bread stuffing
1/2 cup gravy
Dash of poultry seasoning or sage
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven at 425.

Roll your pie crusts out to a 12 inch circle. Flour one crust and put the second on top (so they don't stick together). Then use a pizza cutter to cut circle into six portions, like this.

Cut both crusts at once so you get evenly matched pieces to pair together.

In a large bowl, mix your turkey, potatoes, stuffing, gravy and seasonings together. (You could add some chopped onion, maybe some frozen peas or other leftover veggies you have.)

Pull out one stacked pair of pie crust pieces. Using your finger, wet around the edges of both triangle pieces with water. (This will help them stick together.)

Drop 1 -2 tablespoons of your meat mixture in the middle of the crust and place the second crust on top, then seal TWO edges with your fingers or a fork. Pick up those pieces with the open side up, and use a spoon to gently push the filling down and add another spoonful or two. Then seal third edge.

Place sealed triangles on a baking sheet (you may want to Pam spray or use a silicone baking mat), and bake at 425 for 10 minutes, then turn your oven down to 350 and bake until crust is golden brown.

The homemade cranberry sauce and side salad were just perfect with the hand pie. It really was good!

In fact,
LIFE is good!

Thanksgiving Preparation

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Sat, 22 Nov 2014 15:21:00 +0000

Our Thanksgiving table will be small this year, but full of love, nonetheless. It will be my husband, my daughter, my two grandsons, and myself. It doesn't matter to me if we have 30 people at the table or three - Thanksgiving needs to feel like a holiday!

Which means, of course, we eat in the dining room with the good china. LOL

I made up my To Do List today to get everything done for Thursday's big day. Here's how I've planned it:

Saturday (today)
Clean out refrigerator

Sunday
Wash tablecloth and napkins
Iron if needed Make grocery list

Monday
Grocery shopping
Run good china and silverware through dishwasher

Tuesday
Clean house, including
Vac dust downstairs
Clean downstairs bathroom
Put tablecloth on, napkins out Get out serving bowls, platter, serving utensils

Wednesday
Baking day
2 pies - apple and pumpkin
Dinner Rolls
2 loaves bread
Jeff goes to store to pick up fresh turkey
Thursday Thanksgiving Day! Menu: Roast turkey Stuffing Mashed potatoes Gravy Carrots (home canned) Boiled onions in cream sauce Cranberry sauce (home canned) Green Bean Casserole (daughter) Macaroni & Cheese (for B) Rolls Apple and Pumpkin Pie
(home canned apple pie filling)

This week's food money saved

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Sun, 09 Nov 2014 18:18:00 +0000

It's been a great week for both stockpiling and saving money on groceries! November seems to be sale time for pork products.

I purchased two boneless pork roasts, on sale for $1.99 lb. (If I can find meat for under $2 a pound these days, I'm REAL happy!). I kept one roast whole to have in the freezer for a "company" meal. Pork roasts are definitely my "go to" company dinner.

The second roast I had the butcher (in this case, just the guy who happens to work in the meat department - I doubt he's a true butcher) slice it in 3/4 inch slices. The end result is 14 beautiful boneless pork chops at $1.99 a pound instead of $4.19. I used my FoodSaver vacuum sealer to seal up two chops per bag - that's 7 meals in the freezer at a $2.19 lb. savings.

Bone-in ham was also on sale for $1.49 a pound. Again, I had the butcher slice it in 1 inch slices for me. This gave me 7 very large ham "steaks" - each ham steak is two meals for us. I had him leave the end 5-6 inches in one piece, and I'll use this to make ham and bean or ham and lentil soup this winter. I'll add carrots, diced potatoes, onions beans or lentils and hope to get about 16 quarts of soup. Ham steaks currently go for $3.99 lb. and a simple ham hock goes for even more! Those are huge savings for me.

This week I made two loaves of honey wheat bread, and a chocolate sourdough cake - both from scratch, of course. Mr. B took home one loaf of the bread (oh my, he does love my homemade bread!), with a jar of my strawberry jam to go with it. The chocolate sourdough cake - ehhh... I didn't care for it too much, though Jeff loved it. I used a peanut butter frosting with it - thinking chocolate and peanut butter go well -- but the frosting over-powered the cake. The cake on it's own has a rather "flat" taste - perhaps if I make it again I might add a little coffee to it to give it a jolt of flavor.

I went to the grocery store once this week. I bought butter. TWENTY POUNDS of butter! It was on sale for $2.59 a pound, down from $4.19. I've been patiently waiting for butter to go on sale for several weeks. I simply toss the boxes of butter into the freezer - no wrapping, no vac seal bags. They stay just fine. Hopefully this much butter will last until the next sale. Boxes of pasta were also on sale for .49 a box. I picked up 5 boxes of elbow macaroni, 5 boxes of spaghetti, and 5 boxes of miscellaneous other pasta. I had a coupon for $1.00 off, so two of those boxes were free!

Potatoes are always on sale in November and December, so I bought two 8 pound bags of russet potatoes, and canned one bag, resulting in 8 jars of potatoes I can pull out a jar to make mashed potatoes, fried potatoes, or use in soup. I left the other bag as-is and stored them in the dark part of the basement so they will be available for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.

We had sausage and lentil soup for dinner last night. I canned it in December of 2013, so it needed to get eaten (I try and keep to a one year shelf life on all my canned items). Oh my - it was so good! Made with kielbasa sausage, lentils, carrots, potatoes and green beans. I made corn bread to go with it - from my Make Your Own Jiffy Cornbread mix - and they went with the soup perfectly. That was the last of my mix, so today I had to make up more. I haven't found a recipe to make this in "bulk", so came up with my own.

Make Your Own Jiffy Corn Bread Mix

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups yellow corn meal

1/2 cup + 1 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp baking powder

1 tbsp salt

Mix these well and store in an air tight container or jar.

To make cornbread or corn muffins:

1 1/2 cup mix

1/3 cup milk

2 tbsp vegetable oil or melted butter

(I also add: 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp sugar, plus I use 2 eggs instead of 1. We like ours a little "cakier" than standard cornbread.)

Mix ingredients, put in greased muffin tin or square or round cake pan. Bake at 400 for about 15 minutes. (I take them out, brush with butter, and put back in the oven for another 2 mins.) Let cool a few minutes before serving.

So now I have plenty of pork chops, ham, chicken and ground beef in my freezer, along with bacon and pork sausage. I even have about 10 lbs of cod fish frozen from a sale a few weeks ago. I believe I have everything I need to make Thanksgiving dinner except for the turkey, which I'll order fresh. My freezer is quite literally full, and my canning and dehydrating shelves are full as well.

I think it's time for a new grocery challenge - with the exception of coffee, milk, eggs and cheese, I'm challenging myself to NO grocery shopping for the months of November AND December! Oh my! Can I do it!?


Canning pantry


Dehydrated vegetables and fruits

Zaycon Foods - What to do with 40 lbs of chicken breast

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 20:31:00 +0000

I started buying meats in bulk from Zaycon Foods about 18 months ago. Their products are high quality, their prices are competitive, and they sell in bulk - which is perfect for anyone wanting to stock their freezer or add to their canning pantry.

Last week I received 40 lbs of beautiful, plump extra large chicken breasts from Zaycon. They sell these only in 40 lb boxes, so you really have to have a way to preserve all this beautiful chicken. For me, a combination of canning and freezer is the answer.

So what do you do with 40 lbs of chicken?

I'm spoiled by my local grocery store. I like chicken breasts to be tear-dropped shaped and without any back or side meat attached. So I pull these breasts out one by one, trim off any fat (there certainly isn't much, but there is some and if you're canning it's better to have as little as possible), then trim off any side or back meat. Of course I don't waste any of that fat or meat! It all goes into a large bowl to be dealt with later.

I use my vacuum sealer to bag up 6 packages of two breasts each - enough for a nice meal of baked chicken for the two of us. (Actually, these breasts are SO large that we've been dividing one between us!).


32 pints of beautiful chicken

But I don't have much room in my freezer these days, so the remaining chicken will be pressure canned. If you've never had home canned chicken you're missing out - it is so juicy and so tender and flavorful (if you use great chicken to start), and there are so many ways to use it. Along with that, we once lost our power for a full ten days when a severe wind storm hit our area. I never want to be in a position again where we lose a freezer full of meats because of a power outage! With pressure canning, the shelf life of the chicken will be about 1 year, while chicken in the freezer needs to be eaten by 9 months.

Chicken is especially easy to can. I cut all the chicken into large chunks - about 2 inches by 2 inches, packed it into a pint mason jar (you could do quarts), and pressure can according to current tested safety measures (See National Center for Home Food Preservation). I add no water or broth. As the raw chicken is pressure canned, it creates it's own broth.


Trimmings for broth

So, from my trimmed chicken breasts, I canned 32 pint jars of chicken. Each pint jar is more than enough for 2-4 people, especially if you're using it in a soup or casserole or salad.

Once the chicken was canned, it was time to move on with those scraps of meat, fat and skin I kept when trimming the chicken breasts. I chopped up (all measurements approximate) 1 cup of celery (with leaves!), 1 cup of carrots, 1 cup of onions, and 2 cloves of garlic. I put a tablespoon of olive oil in the bottom of my soup stock pot, added the veggies and just cooked until the onions were translucent. Then I added the chicken (meat, skin, fat) and 15 quarts of water. . I brought this to a gentle boil, used a slotted spoon to skim off the top of the broth, then let it simmer all afternoon - about six hours in all. I let the stock cool for a bit, then poured it through a sieve into another large stockpot. I put the stockpot full of broth, covered, out in my garage to cool for the night. I hand picked through the veggies and chicken to find the nice chunks of chicken to use later in soup. I threw out the veggies and chicken skin.

The next morning after the chicken stock had cooled thoroughly, I brought it in and used a spoon to spoon off the chicken fat that had risen to the top and solidified. What was left was 15 quarts of a beautiful golden chicken stock.


Chicken soup, broth and I made 4 qts of grape juice too!

Since I wanted to make and can chicken soup, next I diced up two carrots, two stalks of celery, an onion, and the chicken pulled from yesterday's pot of stock. My pressure canner will fit 7 quart size jars, so that's how many jars of soup I wanted to make. Into each quart jar, I put equal amounts of the carrots, celery, onions and chicken. Plus I added a half-clove of garlic, and 1/4 tsp of salt, pepper, oregano, dried parsley, cumin and poultry seasoning. I also added about 1/8th cup of defrosted frozen corn and frozen peas. Then I filled each jar with the beautiful broth I'd made, and pressure canned it according to directions.

There's still more! After canning the 7 quarts of chicken soup, I still had lots of broth left, and canned 9 pints and 2 quarts.

So, from my 40 lbs of chicken, I made:
6 packages - 2 breasts each - for the freezer
7 quarts of homemade chicken soup
32 pints of canned chicken in broth
9 pints of chicken stock
2 quarts of chicken stock

What will I use all that canned chicken in? Lots of YUMMY dishes! First, anything you use canned tuna in - salad, casseroles, etc - you can substitute the canned chicken. I use it in Chicken Alfredo over spaghetti, or in a yummy Chicken Alfredo and Brocolli Pizza. I combine it with black beans, corn and salsa to make chicken burritos (these freeze well too). And probably my favorite recipe is to make No Butter Butter Chicken (just adjust the recipe to simply reheat your chicken, since you don't have to cook it.). I can make another family favorite, Southern Style Chicken and Dumplings. Mmm. it's all good!

If you're new to pressure canning, here are some links that will help you. It's important to follow strict safety guidelines in canning, especially when canning meat.

Basic pressure canning instructions:

http://www.simplycanning.com/canning-chicken.html

Basic freezing instructions:

http://www.budgetbytes.com/2013/11/divide-freeze-chicken/

How to make chicken broth:
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_chicken_stock/

How to pressure can chicken broth:
http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_05/stock_broth.html

Safe recipe to make chicken soup for pressure canning

http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_04/soups.html

Recipes to use your canned chicken:
http://busycooks.about.com/cs/chickenquick/a/startwithcchix.htm

Other pressure canning recipes for chicken:
http://www.sbcanning.com/search?q=chicken

Here are the exact supplies I use:

Precious time with family

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 14:43:00 +0000

Our three precious grandchildren - Riley (7 mo.), Brayden (8) and Aimee (3)

It was a hectic, but joyful week last week, with my son and his family visiting for a few days. I absolutely loved having my three grandchildren together even for a short time. Three year old Aimee is quite a charmer! She's a little peanut of a girl, has beautiful manners, and loves to help in the kitchen.

We really only had one full day of the grandkids all together, but the weather was cold and rainy, so we couldn't go outside or the playground or the Zoo, which would have been nice. Luckily, I had a great activity for Mr. B (8) and Miss Aimee (3) that I'd picked up on Amazon. It's a cardboard rocket ship that the kids colored before we put it together. It kept them (and some of the adults) busy for quite awhile! (Providing a link in right hand column of the blog.)

We ate well while the family was here. For lunch, I made homemade pizza - a simple bread dough crust, home canned tomato sauce, sausage and cheese. Brayden and Aimee made their own small sized pizzas - Brayden is a pro in the kitchen because he's been cooking with me since he was two. It was my first time cooking with Aimee, and she knew just what to do! It was fun.

Dinner for all seven was a boneless pork roast cooked with garlic and rosemary, mashed maple sweet potatoes, and home canned green beans cooked with onions, bacon and garlic (southern-style). I also made some homemade wheat rolls and an apple syrup gravy for the pork roast.


Aimee loves Elmo

My house was a mess for the entire time company was here, with coffee cups and drink cups, bags and suitcases, toys everywhere. And I loved it. That mess meant my family was home and comfortable. That mess meant my house was filled with kids. I picked up after myself and attempted to keep the kitchen clean, but other than that I'd rather sit down and watch the kids have fun than be cleaning up behind them all the time. I knew my time with everyone was temporary - the mess could wait.

I love my family. They mean the world to me. Life is always good - but it's especially sweet when my family is sitting together at the kitchen table, and I have those three little faces smiling at me.

Make Up Day

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 21:56:00 +0000

This week was topsy-turvy and it seems no schedule was adhered to, but on the same hand, everything got done that needed to get done. Today was my make-up housework day, because of canning on Monday and running errands on Thursday.

I have dark hardwood floors in my house and I love them. However, the one thing about dark hardwood floors? They get dusty! Just like furniture, about once a week you need to dust them. I use a rag mop that I dampen with water and white vinegar (1 gallon water and 1-2 tbsp vinegar). I like a rag mop because it can get around the legs of furniture and into hard to reach corners with ease, as opposed to a stiff sponge mop.

Dusting for me is not just wiping off the top of furniture with a rag and some Pledge. I use a long-handled dust mop to get the tops of doors and window trim, the corners of the rooms where cob webs have a tendency to develop overnight, to wipe down blinds and shades, to wipe curtain rods and high shelves, and to reach down and wipe the baseboards. I first spray the dust mop with Pledge All-Purpose Cleaner, then start in the corner of the room and move left to right, top to bottom. I also use regular Pledge on table tops and legs, and any wooden furniture. Again, I start in one corner of the room and work my way around until I'm back where I started.

My To Do List for today looks fairly quick, but was actually made up of multiple larger jobs.

Daily Chores
Dust downstairs
Damp mop all hardwood floors
Vac rugs
Clean downstairs bathroom
Put clean linens on guest bed
Vacuum out car
Finish sorting boys clothes, put larger sizes in basement for future use
Replenish mixes*
Windex patio door
Put last batch of dehydrated lemons in jar
Wrap and freeze sliced cheese purchased yesterday

*Save Money - Make Your Own Mixes!

One of the (many) ways I save on our grocery bill and cut back on the amount of preservatives and chemicals in our foods is to make our own mixes. Today I made:

Bisquick Mix
Cream of Chicken Soup Mix
Cream of Mushroom Soup Mix
Jiffy Cornbread Mix

I particularly like the Bisquick Mix, because it actually produces a softer, fluffier biscuits and pancakes than the store bought mix. The savings is huge on this one.

9 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/3 cups powdered milk
1 tablespoon salt
1/3 cup baking powder
2 cups shortening

In a large pan, stir the dry milk, baking powder, sugar and salt into the flour; mix thoroughly. Cut the shortening into the dry ingredients until the MIX is the consistency of corn meal. Place the mix in a covered glass or plastic container and keep in a cool, dry place.

I use the end of a metal whisk to cut the shortening into the dry ingredients. You can also use a pastry blender or two knives. I have tried using my blender, but this recipe calls for such large quantities it was difficult to get everything blended equally.

If you're interested in recipes for the other mixes I made today, I have links on my Pinterest page.

I also highly recommend a book called The DIY Pantry: 30 Minutes to Healthy, Homemade Food by Kresha Faber. This book has everything! Pasta, yogurt, peanut butter, ketchup, spices mixes and more. It's a well-used book in my kitchen!

These are products I've mentioned in today's blog post. They are an affiliation link.

Prepping for company

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 14:37:00 +0000

Yesterday on FaceBook, someone asked the question: "Do you like having friends stop by unannounced?" Ninety percent of the responders didn't just say, "No" - they went on to state how stressful having company is, and how they truly disliked having company of any kind.

I think it's safe to say those 90% negative responders have a disorganized house and would be embarrassed to have anyone see it. I remember those days.

I once had a family friend, an older lady, write to me weeks in advance to tell me she would be driving through our area and would love to stop in, visit, and spend the night. I had weeks to prepare my guest room and house for company, so of course, I agreed.

And then I forgot she was coming... Didn't write it on my calender, didn't plan a meal, didn't make sure she had a calm, loving home to visit, or a warm, comfortable place to sleep...

On the day she was due to arrive, she phoned to say she was an hour away. Huh? You're what? But but but...

Talk about stressful. Talk about a family scramble. Talk about me screaming at my husband and kids to start picking up, start cleaning, DO SOMETHING! If I remember correctly, I instructed everyone to grab "stuff" (clutter) and throw it (literally) into the guest room/office. Yes, I'd even forgotten she wanted to spend the night.

A stressed out family can get a lot done in an hour, so the downstairs was "presentable" (which, at the time, meant you could sit down on the furniture and actually see the kitchen counters and table), but the family was stressed out, angry, tearful and embarrassed. Stressed out people do not make good hosts, believe me.

It wasn't until she arrived that I realized that she intended to spend the night. There was no way to even attempt to get all the junk (clutter) piled to near ceiling height, out of the guest room and give her a clean, comfortable place to sleep.

So I had to say no.

I've never forgotten how bad I felt, how embarrassed I was, and how mortified I was at my lack of housekeeping skills. I felt bad for my husband and kids, I felt bad for our friend that had driven for 6 hours and was tired, I felt like I was just the worst person ever...

Fast forward twenty-five years...

Last week we had wonderful friends come stay with us for two nights. Well in advance, the dates were written on my calender. All I needed to do in the guest room was put on clean sheets and take out two empty laundry baskets that I store in there. I didn't have to dust or vac, because that's done on a weekly basis. I planned meals ahead of time, but didn't even have to go grocery shopping because everything I needed for the meals was canned or in the freezer. I wasn't stressed out about their visit and enjoyed their time here more than I can tell you. And I believe they were comfortable here and felt welcome.

In a few days, my son and his family arrive for a quick visit. And here I am again - all I need to do is put clean sheets on the bed. I planned out meals and some activities to do with the grandchildren a few days ago. I can't wait to see them. I can't wait to have all my family here under my roof. I don't have to spend the next few days cleaning or cooking or decluttering. I will just open my door to them and enjoy their company.

"Home" is a place where all friends and family should feel comfortable and welcome. Twenty-five years ago I had a dirty, cluttered, disorganized house (and life) where even my own family didn't feel comfortable or welcome. Now, I am proud of my home and work steadily to maintain it so anyone can stop in any time without me being mortified and embarassed.

Until you get there, it's hard to understand how much easier and less stressful life is if your home is always organized, clean, inviting and comfortable. It takes a lot of hard work to get it to that point, but once you do - life just gets easier!

Life is good. Stop in and have a cup o' coffee anytime!

Topsy Turvy Week, Schedule-wise

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 01:23:00 +0000

Today is Thursday and supposed to be a light cleaning day (a simple dust, vac, clean bathrooms), but of course, life happens, and it's now errand day.

Errands included:
Walgreens
Car to mechanic's for oil change
Sam's Club
CVS

It's a beautiful day outside, so I certainly didn't mind running errands! I'd much rather spend these beautiful Fall days outside as much as I can. However, some days you just have things to do inside that can't wait.

Here is my To Do List for today:


mmmm... can you smell them?

Put Dishes Away
Windex appliances
Wash/Dry area rugs
Slice and dehydrate last 5 lbs of lemons
Call Doctor for prescription change
Wash Kitchen, laundry room and hallway floors
Put the flag out
Collect all trash, upstairs and down (Jeff)
Go through fridge and check for food that needs to be thrown out
Wipe up any spills in fridge
Good all over general pick up
Move canning jars to new laundry room cabinet
Jeff is also in charge of cooking dinner tonight. Yay!

I have three totes of boys' clothing that my daughter cleaned out of her house. I need to sort by size, take photos, and sell on a local "yard sale" group on FaceBook. My daughter could use the money but doesn't have time to do it, so I volunteered. (Added later: I got all the clothes sorted by size, three photos taken and the pictures posted to the Facebook group. Lots more to go, but I hope to finish tomorrow.)

I will be picking Grandson Riley up today at 5:00 at daycare. He's going to spend a few hours with us, including dinner. I need to pick some carrots from the garden and cook them up for his dinner.

As I write this, everything but sorting the kids clothes and picking and cooking carrots is done. I may just pick Riley up early and get outside for a walk today!

Until then, though, I just pulled up an old season of Survivor on the TV (Roku) and I'll sit here and sort clothes for awhile.

I will say that the smell of dehydrating lemons beats any air freshener you can buy in the store. My house smells so good right now!

Canning Day not Cleaning Day

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 22:53:00 +0000

Monday is supposed to be the "big" cleaning day around here, but I had some canning I needed to do, so Cleaning Day this week will be Thursday. This works well because we have company arriving on Sunday and the house will stay nice and clean for just those few days between Thursday and Sunday. How's that for logic? LOL Jeff did go ahead and do the "big cleaning" upstairs today because we had company last week and the guest room needed clean sheets and to be vac'd, the guest bathroom needed scrubbing. So that's all done and he'll just have to do a light re-cleaning on Thursday.

Got up this morning before the alarm went off at 7:30. Love that. Hate alarms. (They alarm me!) Had lots of energy and got up, dressed and got going right away. Of course, I do my Daily Chores first. I had dishes to put away and a couple of tea cups from last night to put in the dishwasher. I wiped down the counters and stove top, cleaned the sink and threw a load of kitchen linens (cloth napkins, kitchen utility towels, table cloth, dish cloths) into the washing machine and got it going. Then I swept the kitchen floor, straightened up the family room and was done.

I have a thing about canning and sanitation. A bit of a fanatic that everything is extra clean before I start food prep for canning. So I wiped down all the counters, my work table, and the sink with a bit of household bleach. You can't be too careful.

I store all my jars in the basement, so went down and got three boxes of jars - 1 of quart size and 2 of pints. UNfortunately, I should have done that last night because they were new jars and needed to be washed in the dishwasher. While I was waiting for jars I got the pressure canner out, all my utensils ready, pulled the appropriate jar lids and rings, got last night's soup heated up, got the two roasts cut into 1.5 to 2 inch chunks and popped half in a dutch oven and put it in the oven (for shredded beef), and put the other half in a pan of seasoned water (for plain beef chunks).

I spent the day canning. I was disappointed that I'd figured quantities wrong, and my final tally was only 8 quarts of Beef Vegetable Soup, 6 quarts and 6 pints of beef chunks in broth, 3 pints of shredded beef in BBQ sauce, 4 pints of Mexican-seasoned shredded beef (for tacos and burritos), and 4 pints of broth. I still can't figure out where I went wrong in my calculations, so I'll have to figure that out for the future. From my 20 lbs of beef purchased at $2 a pound, we will get 34 meals (pint jars of shredded beef are good for two meals for us) plus the beef broth, plus the soup we ate last night, plus a container of soup in the fridge for tomorrow night. 36+ meals. Good, but not great.

The one thing about canning is you spend a lot of time waiting. Waiting for jars to wash, waiting for the canner to come to boil, waiting 10 minutes while the canner vents, and then meat products, depending on the size of the jar, take 75 to 90 minutes in the canner and you have to be attentive to the canner during that time. Then you have to wait 15-30 minutes for the pressure to come down, 10 minutes for the jars to cool in the canner before taking them out... and then repeat it all over again for the next batch.

Today while I was waiting, I finished the load of laundry (wash, dry, fold, put away!), wrote a blog post, cruised FaceBook several times, printed out some medical forms I need, caught up on my Amazon reviews, read some of a book I need to review, re-organized the contents of the refrigerator (am I the only person that likes the contents of the fridge to be organized?! No one else seems to get my "like with like" theory when it comes to the refrigerator!), and played a game on my Kindle. Oh, and watched a taped episode of Project Runway while putting my feet up and having a cup of coffee this afternoon.

The canner is still huffing and puffing as I write this, but it's the last batch and will be done shortly. I've got all the canning stuff washed and put away, jars not used put back in the basement, counters wiped down (again with bleach - it was meat!) and the kitchen straightened up -- just in time to cook an easy dinner (scrambled eggs, bacon and toast for Jeff - leftover soup for me).

Getting things DONE

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 17:12:00 +0000

In the past, I was the world's worst procrastinator. Why do it today when it will be there to do tomorrow? No more. I thought I'd share how I push through and just "get 'er done", after seeing Sarah post on FaceBook today: "My biggest obstacle...getting off this stupid computer so I can get stuff done!" Been there.

First, we have a weekly schedule that let's me see how much free time I actually have (a lot!). When creating a schedule, it's always important to give yourself time to do the things you really want to do - computer time, sewing time, playing with the grandchildren time, etc. Here's what our schedule looks like:

Monday: Big Cleaning Day (4-6 hours)
-- Jeff: Clean upstairs (dust, vac, clean bathroom, empty all trash, change sheets)
-- Me: Clean downstairs (dust, vac, mop floors, clean bathroom, empty all trash)

Tuesday: Daily chores, grocery shopping or errands if needed, then Free Day

Wednesday: Baking, canning, laundry, daily chores
-- Jeff: Plan and cook dinner

Thursday: Good general pickup and light cleaning (1-2 hours) then Free Day
-- Jeff: Upstairs
-- Me: Downstairs, vac kitchen and family room, clean guest bathroom
The afternoon is designated to get out of the house - walk, park, movie, whatever we feel like.

Friday: Daily chores, free day

Saturday: Laundry, outside work, garden, clean and vac out car

Sunday: Out to do something fun, family day or Free Day.

With the exception of the Daily Chores - which MUST be done every day (no excuses!), our days are flexible. We can swap a Monday for a Tuesday if the weather is nicer on Monday and we want to go out. We can swap Saturday for Sunday if grandkids want to come over. It's flexible BUT it all needs to get done.

If you are organizing and decluttering (which, believe me, I had to do once my kids were out of the house), you can schedule in a half a day a few days a week for doing that chore. And understand, once you get through it all, it will STAY done if you stick to your schedule!

Daily Chores List:
Dishes out of dishwasher, dirty dishes in
Wipe down stove top, counters
Sweep kitchen floor
Trash out
Clean kitchen sink
Wipe down bathrooms, check supplies and towels
Good general pick up - put things away if needed
Vac kitchen area rug if needed
-- Jeff: Make bed, straighten his bathroom

So use schedules and lists, but understand if you don't schedule in time to do the things you want to do (vs the things you need to do to maintain a clean and organized home), you'll burn yourself out in no time. Set short term goals for big projects -- instead of "I need to clean and organize my entire house!" try "Today I will clean out two junk drawers and find 20 items to donate." Think in small chunks, rather than huge, overwhelming projects.

It's so important to think in small steps and not get overwhelmed with the larger task at hand. If you get overwhelmed, you will put it off. If you put it off, it will NEVER get done.


Don't let this be you!

Back to Basics

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 02:53:00 +0000

My younger sister, Sarah, recently joined the world of the unemployed. Scary stuff when it's not what you planned to do, but exciting for her because she's wanted to be a stay-at-home wife (her kids are grown) for awhile now. She and I both wish we lived closer so I could help her through this transition time. I am budget-conscious (AKA cheap) to a fault. I have developed routines that keep my house clean and organized. My husband recently retired, so I now make foods from scratch, grow what I can, buy in bulk, buy multiple meat items when I find a good sale, have a fully stocked pantry and freezer, dehydrate, grow my own herbs, and, with all these combined, currently spend about $100-$150 a month on food (as opposed to my old $160-$200 a week).

So how can I share my techniques with Sarah when she lives 1100 miles away?

Right here, right now - by blogging about my daily routines and life.

So this is my gift to you, Sarah -- and to anyone else that is undergoing a major change in their lives and are just starting to focus on home and budget.

I'm not going to tell YOU how to do it all -- you have to find what works for you. What I'm going to write about is what works for ME, and you can take from it what helps you with your own personal goals.

SO.... This is how my day went.

Today was a pretty average day for me. We have a "Schedule" on our refrigerator, and Sunday is listed as "Laundry, Family, or Go Out". Well, laundry was done on Friday, Mr. B spent the day with us on Saturday, and after a hectic week, neither of us felt like going out. So today was up for grabs.

Up, dressed (including shoes, which works best for me), coffee and downstairs by 8 a.m. I'm a morning person, energy-wise, and I dislike sleeping past 7:30. Makes my day too short.

Once downstairs, I do my daily routine.
-- Empty dishwasher
-- Put any dirty dishes into dishwasher
-- Clean sink
-- Wipe down counters
-- Sweep kitchen floor
-- Check family room and straighten if necessary
-- Check downstairs bathroom, straighten, clean up if needed
-- Quick walk around the downstairs and see if anything needs to be put away

Next I sat down with a cup of coffee to figure out what's for dinner and what to put on my To Do List for the day. It's Sunday. I didn't really want to do much!

TO DO LIST
Take meat out of freezer for canning on Monday
Make beef vegetable soup for dinner
Dehydrate lemons
Clean out and organize storage unit in kitchen

Ready to make soup!

I took two 10 pound Eye of Round roasts out of the freezer so they could defrost for tomorrow (Monday) when I will pressure can them in various forms (more about that tomorrow). I decided to cut off about 3 pounds of one of the roasts to make a very large pot of beef vegetable soup for dinner tonight, with extra to pressure can tomorrow.

The roasts, by the way, were on sale a few weeks ago. Normally $5.99 a pound, they went on sale for $3.99 a pound, but shortly after went on sale for Buy One Get One Free, which brings it down to $2 a pound! At that price, I bought 20 pounds - that's an $80 saving for one of my favorite cuts of meats.

So, I made a large pot - about 15 quarts - of beef vegetable soup today. Tomatoes and carrots from the garden, an onion, garlic, leftover peas and carrots, celery, bags from the freezer containing bits of vegetables and leftover meats and juices from past meals. All went in the pot, simmered all afternoon and we had some very tasty soup for dinner tonight, plus I have soup to can tomorrow.

BASIC 101 - When you're cooking, in many cases it takes no longer to cook extra meals. I could have cooked just one pot of soup for dinner tonight with some left over for lunch tomorrow. But it didn't take much longer to cut extra beef, onions, celery, garlic, etc for 15 quarts of soup to eat later, than it did for just one meal. Whenever possible, double or triple what you're cooking for dinner and put the extra in the freezer or preserve it by canning.

A few days ago, I also picked up two five pound bags of fresh lemons. I use a lot of lemons and lemon peels in cooking and in iced tea, and lemons can be quite expensive. I normally pay $4.99 for a bag of lemons, and these were on sale at 2 for $5. As winter approaches, the price of lemons will go up so I stocked up. I "preserve" them by dehydrating them. I cut them into thin slices and then I cut the peel off the ends to have dehydrated peels as well. These took about six hours to dehydrate, then I stored the slices and the peels in two separate mason jars, sealed with my vac sealer.

Jeff was busy down in our basement all day, and came upstairs with some sheets and blankets he'd found and wanted to use for various storage items, but needed them washed. So I did two loads of laundry.

BASIC 101 - "Doing the Laundry" should mean only ONE thing - wash, dry, fold AND put away. Never leave a load in the washer - they'll smell. Never leave a load in the dryer - they will be too wrinkled! Never leave clothes in a pile or laundry basket to be put away later. Later never comes. Do it now. Stop allowing yourself to think you "did laundry" if there's still laundry in the dryer or in a pile or in a laundry basket. You should not consider it done until you wash, dry, fold and put away.

I have a storage unit in my kitchen that was actually once a pulpit. Weird, I know. But I like weird things and I needed a place to park my laptop and to store supplies like envelopes, notebooks, extra cords for the camera, etc. Non-kitchen stuff that I wanted handy in the kitchen. I'd cleaned out the entire unit a few weeks ago, but forgot about the drawer, so wanted to get that done. There wasn't much in there, but I did pull out two manuals (printer and virus software) that needed to go in our manuals binders, so I gave those to Jeff to put away. Threw out a lot of paperwork and receipts I needed to keep for just a little while, but now could be thrown out. Found two birthday cards I'd bought but forgot to send, so put them back in the drawer - so I can forget to send them again next year. Sigh...

Reverse Menu Planning - (or: What We Ate Last Week)

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 15:45:00 +0000

A big trend amongst bloggers is to post their menus for the upcoming week. I've done it myself many times. That said, I've also strayed from the planned menu many times (!) and we end up eating something totally different than what I planned. So what good, really, did it do to post a planned menu if I'm not sticking to it?

So now, here's what we REALLY ate last week! On a side note, I am trying to eliminate as many processed foods from our daily menu as I can. Sometimes it's just not possible and sometimes (hot dog rolls) it's just not convenient. But in my book, "Some is better than none" so I just do the best I can.

If you try nothing else in this list, try the STRAWBERRY PINEAPPLE SALAD WITH PINEAPPLE RANCH DRESSING. Oh my. Quite possibly the best salad I've eaten in many, many years.

SUNDAY

Homemade sour dough bread French Toast

Bacon

Sunny-side up egg

Homemade apple syrup

Sunday - Breakfast for dinner!

MONDAY

Grilled Extra Lean Hamburger, topped with

Homemade Guacamole/Salsa (*recipe) and

Homemade Pickled Onions on

Homemade sandwich rolls

Roasted Red Pepper Hummas

Garden Fresh Gourmet Salt-free Tortilla Chips


Monday

TUESDAY

Oven-baked Buffalo Chicken Wings

Onion Rings (used this batter recipe)

Apple Coleslaw


Tuesday

WEDNESDAY

Grilled Chicken Thighs with BBQ sauce

Half a baked potato

Strawberry/Pineapple salad with Pineapple Ranch Dressing

THURSDAY

Grilled Extra Lean Hamburgers (again!)

Topped with pickled red onions

Leftover Apple Coleslaw

Fermented asparagus

(fermented with garlic and lemon grass)

Fermented ginger carrots

(ended up mixing them in coleslaw - yum!)


Thursday

FRIDAY

Hot dogs (Boar's Head - no nitrates, no fillers)

Tomato, lettuce salad topped with leftover guacamole/salsa

Potato Gnocchi with garlic and Parmesan cheese

(

Friday

Saturday - no picture - take out Chinese Food!

*Recipe - Guacamole Salsa

I know there's a million guacamole recipes on the Internet, so you probably don't need one more. But mine is SO easy and tastes SO fresh and bright. It's kind of like guacamole, and kind of like Salsa. We use it on burgers, to dip tortilla chips, or as a salad dressing. Here's what I do:

2 Roma Tomatoes
1/2 large green pepper
1/2 medium yellow onion
2 jalapeno peppers (take out seeds if you don't like heat)
1 tbsp of cilantro paste (or use a 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro)
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
Salt to taste (I don't add any)

Chop and mix all these up real quick in a food processor.

Take the pits out of 2 avacados, scoop out the flesh, place in a bowl and mash well. Add the above ingredients from the food processor. Add 1 tbsp of lime (or lemon) juice. Stir well. That's it!

Home Sweet Home

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Sun, 25 May 2014 19:05:00 +0000

We just returned home after putting on another few thousand miles on our car, another series of great visits with friends and family, and another reminder just how much we love to be HOME! Jeff and I have both agreed - that's enough traveling at least until Fall. Summer is going to be time for getting home projects done, spending time with our grandchildren, and generally relaxing and just enjoying life.

I've got a Want To Do List a mile long, mostly to do with gardening and some home decorating. Every room in the house needs to be painted. We have new Anderson windows being installed in the next few weeks. I've got a kitchen table that needs to be refinished. And I have so many sewing ideas swimming around in my head I don't know where to start!

Jeff and I have also agreed to take our TWO grandsons - Mr. B, now age 8, and the newly minted Mr. R, age 3 months - every other Friday throughout the summer. I'm actually excited about it. One of us will do a fun activity with Mr. B - geocaching, metal detecting, fishing, visiting local museums, etc. - and the other will have some major bonding time with Mr. R. I can't wait!

And speaking of Mr. R - I have not posted his pic here on my blog yet!! He is a precious little guy and a seemingly super-happy baby. At 3 months, he is sleeping 6 hours a night already, and lots more nap time during the day. So - Introducing my newest little heart-grabber - Mr. Riley Jay Bolden.

Oh yeah, I can spend some time with that smiley little face!!!

Life is good - and then you get one more precious grandchild added to your family to make it even better.

Our new way of traveling -- on a budget!

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 14:41:00 +0000

Jeff and I have just returned from a rather long road trip - Cincinnati to Dallas and back. We went out to visit my son, his wife, and our sweet, sweet granddaughter, Aimee. It's an 2200 mile trip both ways, and about 14 hours one way.

In our pre-Retirement/pension days, we normally looked for hotels as we needed them, and found gas stations along the highway as we traveled. Of course, the closer any gas station or hotel is to the highway, the more expensive it is. This time I wanted to cut down the cost of the trip (but not stay in fleabag hotels) so I used two apps on my (Android) phone to help.

Hotels.com app - This is a great app! You can use it ahead of time if you know where you want to stay or, as we did, pull out the app when you find you're getting tired and want to find a hotel. I like this app because it will show all hotels on a map of the area you're in, and it can list hotels by reviews or by cost. My biggest suggestion if you're trying to cut down on costs is to READ THE REVIEWS! Yes, you can find a $35 hotel, but if the reviews say things like "I stayed here for six months and even though it ain't real clean the folks who werk there are just like family to me"... you know it might not be the right spot for you. It seems to $65 to $80 range is where you can find the best bang for your money, but you still need to read the reviews. Often people who have stayed in the hotels will be brutally honest about cleanliness, staff, and location of the hotel. If you don't feel safe leaving your car in the parking lot overnight, it's not a good choice.

Often Hotels.com will also offer an online discount. If the hotel rate is $90, hotels.com might offer it for $65. And for every 10 nights of reservations you make through the app, you get one night free. FREE is good! We'll be using our free night in an upcoming trip.

The second app I used was GasBuddy. I use this at home all the time to find out which local gas station has the best prices, but it's also very useful on road trips! Make sure your GPS feature is turned on, and GasBuddy will show you either via map or in a list, where the nearest gas stations are and the gas prices for each station. Once you choose which gas station you want, you can click on DIRECTIONS and your GPS will guide you to that station. You don't have to travel far off the highway to save .20 and .30 a gallon from highway gas prices.

We also saved money on food for this trip. First, I packed up a cooler at home. It contained:

Bottled Water (all but a few frozen to serve as the ice in the cooler)
Iced Tea
A loaf of bread
A bag of small bagels
A container of cream cheese
Two resealable containers of lunch meats
Six containers of yogurt
Mustard
Cheese sticks
Fresh apples and pears

And in a separate bag, we carried

Crackers
Banana muffins
Peanut Butter
Granola Bars
A ziploc bag of trail mix (nuts, raisins, dried fruits, M&Ms, Cheerios)
Napkins, paper plates, plastic cutlery
Coffee maker, coffee, sweetener, Cremora
Thermos filled with hot coffee (made each morning in the hotel)

When I searched for hotels with the Hotels.com app, I always searched for ones that had free breakfast and free high-speed Internet. So on the trip, breakfast was always taken care of. When we had long driving days (2 days on each end of the trip), we would stop at rest areas that had picnic tables and make sandwiches and have lunch.

If we saw a restaurant we wanted to stop at for lunch, we stopped. Then that evening we would have sandwiches and fruit and crackers for our dinner in the hotel room.

With this bit of pre-planning and packing, we paid for just one meal a day.

I will write more soon about the actual trip itself -- we had FUN and it was a joy to have time with our family!

Life is good!

Budget Garden Stakes

noreply@blogger.com (Joan J) — Sat, 26 Apr 2014 21:32:00 +0000

I'm not sure why, but I've been saving the Styrofoam trays that veggies come in. And today I'm glad I did! I needed garden markers for spinach, lettuce, kale and radishes.

I simply cut the bottom out of the tray, and then cut it into strips. I eventually cut down the sides and got four strips from each side as well.

I cut one end to a point, and used a black Sharpie marker to write down the name of the vegetable I was planting.

Excuse my dirty hands - I was in the middle of gardening when I realized I needed the labels. Out of the one tray, I got 22 plant labels!

There are some SUPER cute plant labels on Pinterest, but I needed them FAST and I needed them to be EASY, and I needed to make them from materials I had on hand. I'm happy with them because they'll do what they need to do.

Life is Good!