2025 Frugal Friday File, July 11...

 

1.  My first grandson's birthday was this week, and we celebrated it on Saturday night at Kasey and Beau's.  I made him a card, a batch of Snack Crackers, and a pair of funny socks I had put back for him.  He works with special-needs kids, and him wearing funny socks is one way to engage them.

2.  Drove 500 miles to spend my sister's birthday with her.  She broke her wrist a couple of weeks ago, so I was hoping I could be helpful to her, but she didn't let me do much.  It was very nice to visit with her, and I loved getting to see her grandson (whom I hadn't seen since he was a little guy) and got to meet his wife and kiddoes.

    My sister had supper planned for all of us, and only needed a little help in the kitchen.  I had baked a cake at home before we left, and took it to have.  I also took a couple of homecooked meals from our freezer, so she could take a couple of nights off from cooking when she wants to.  Went back to see sis again, and got in another afternoon visit before heading back home.

3.  A great friend of mine lives near my sister, so we got to meet for lunch while I was there, and talked non-stop.

4.  While we were gone, Jared took care of Rudy for us.  

5.  Picked up sewing machines (2) from repairman yesterday.  Not cheap, but worth it; and I'm really pleased to have found a good repair option.  I have a backlog of projects to get going on.

What we ate this week:

Saturday:  Family supper at Kasey & Beau's

Sunday:  leftovers

Monday:  supper at my sister's house

Tuesday:  big lunch out w/ friend, so skipped supper

Wednesday:  Tuna Salad Sandwiches

Thursday:  Tuna Salad Sandwiches again (we love them)

Friday:  Green Salad w/ remainders of vegetable tray I took to book club today.

**designates meatless meal

What I'm reading Wednesday...

 

Fortieth challenge finish of the year.

Has been on my Kindle since 2019.  I'm not sure how to describe this one.  I did enjoy it, because the four main characters were so entirely likable.  Well, one of the four might not have been entirely likable, but his relationship with his dog kept him in the likable category for me.  :)

The title character was terribly injured in a fire when he was sixteen years old.  The relationships around him deal a lot with loneliness, grief, and self-imposed solitude; and yet it is told with humor.  Since one of the main characters is a nurse (as was the author), there are some stories of strange hospital/patient happenings.

Forty-first challenge finish of the year.

I read somewhere recently about how much someone (I can't even remember who it was) loved Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell, so I looked to see if it was available through our library, and it was available, so I decided to fit it into the challenge reads.  I enjoyed it.  I've read some of Shakespeare's sonnets and a few of his plays, but didn't really know much about about him or his family.

This is a work of fiction, but was engaging and made me think about the life (and times) of Shakespeare the man.  The author did a good job of presenting him in an interesting and entertaining way, as long as one remembers that it is not necessarily all fact.

2025 Frugal Friday File, July 4...

 

Happy 4th of July!  Hope everyone has a fun and safe long weekend.

1.  I've mentioned before that our phone/internet/cable are provided by a co-op which we have belonged to since 1999.  They just had their annual meeting, and released their/our capital credits which they apply to our account.  Last year the capital credits paid for all but $10 of our June 2024 bill.  This year it paid for ALL of our June bill ($236.22), and carries forward a credit of  $28+/- to pay toward next month's bill.  It's not all rainbows and sunshine with this co-op, but it's the only game in town, so I'm always glad to get credits applied to the bill.  Husband insists on keeping cable, and I'm keeping landline, just because who knows what is going to happen these days.

2.  Speaking of phone bills...back in the day, my sister and I would have to try to never let our husbands get the mail for fear they would see our phone bills.  Those were some big phone bills.  In the past week, I have talked to her for about three hours (combined total), and to the other Kathleen for about an hour and a half (combined total).  I am SO very happy we have unlimited talk and text nowadays. 

     I don't care that Carey gets the mail these days.  Because not only are the phone bills lower now than they used to be, the bills come to my email inbox not the post box.  LOL

3.  There wasn't anything on the calendar this week, so mostly hung around the house; read,  laundry, repeat.

4.  I've been using the dregs of a bottle of shower gel (diluted) to clean the toilet.  I don't do that if the toilet gets really dirty, but as per my FlyLady days, if you 'swish and swipe' the toilet daily, it never gets really dirty, and she also said "Soap is soap, so use up what you have."

5.  I've kept the houseplants that I bought in spring 2024 alive for over a year now.  My son thought all this time that the large monsteras (2) in the living room were artificial!  He has not paid attention to how much they've grown!  I saw a really large monstera either on the web or tv recently, and it scared me how big they get!  If mine get much bigger, I may have to adopt them out to new homes before we have to carry machetes to hack our way through the jungle.  :)

What we ate this week:

Saturday:  Family supper at Kasey & Beau's

Sunday:  Tortilla Soup

Monday:  leftovers

Tuesday:  takeout fried chicken

Wednesday:  leftover Tortilla Soup

Thursday:  takeout sandwiches

Friday:  Chicken Curry

**designates meatless meal

What I'm reading Wednesday...

Thirty-eighth challenge finish of the year.

You may remember that I found this at our library's used book section awhile back.  I don't think the author would necessarily consider himself a celebrity, but he is very well known for an act of heroism one tragic day in Texas, and one of the facts that I learned about in the book is that he and his wife were portrayed in a movie about the event, so I think that counts as enough of a celebrity to use for this prompt (even though he thought the movie was so bad that he and his wife sued over the inaccuracy and the racially stereotyped portrayal of his wife in the movie).

I really enjoyed reading this one!  I knew parts of it from talking to the author.  We met a couple of times years ago and talked about spending time in a common location...him working in the location on a case, and me living nearby...so it was really interesting reading more about his work there.  And I was impressed by how well written it was (unlike my crazy run-on sentences in this post); as I understand it, he did the writing himself.  It was very well organized and presented, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Thirty-ninth challenge finish of the year.

This one has been on my Kindle since 2014.  The first half was good.  The second half I kept rolling my eyes, because these characters never seemed to learn from their experiences!  Then the ending was infuriating.  The main character--The Flyer--was in the middle of an air battle, and it ended.  I'm giving a HUGE spoiler here, but I do NOT recommend anyone read this book, so I just don't care.  He was almost in range of his enemy target--he gripped his trigger--and that is where the damn thing ended!!!  Was he beamed up by aliens?  Geesh!  Then it went to an epilogue where he was just missing, and a couple of othe characters were discussing him.  It did have a slight sense of closing at the end of the epilogue, but what a CHEAT!  

I gave it 2½ stars because I liked the first half, but boy was the second half lame, and I hated the ending.  I will NOT be reading the sequel.

I'm about halfway through my current book, which has also been on my Kindle for years.

Fiddledeedee...let's try this again...grrrr...

Prompts that have been completed are preceded by a black dot.

I did a complete post.  I proofread and made edits several times.  I was sure I saved and posted it.  Then my sister called, and we talked for an hour, and now I can't find the darn post.  Grrrrr!

So here's an abridged version.

Half of the year is over.  The goals this year are pretty ambitious.  This is a difficult year, so I'm giving myself some grace.

The 52 Book Club's 2025 Challenge: 39 books read out of the 52.  Eleven of the ones I've read were previously purchased ebooks on my Kindle, so I'm glad to have them read finally.

Other goals for the year:

Delete time wasters from my phone:  Some are gone, some are back.  I'm a backslider and I don't care...it keeps me from thinking about the news 24/7.

Bake bread at least once a month:  Not killing it.  Only baked twice so far.

Finish two quilts:  Zippo have been completed so far.

Complete the Storyworth project and have printed:  Missed my self-imposed May deadline.

Start volunteering:  Volunteering at library once a week.  Bam!

Find a new reflexologist:  Not yet.

Relearn Canasta:  Not yet.

Get Singer Featherweight up and running:  It and another machine of mine are at the repairman's as of this update.  Due home soon.

Make progress on family trees:  Not much if any.

Check out local Farmer's Market:  Haven't made it yet.

Send 52 cards in 52 weeks:  Behind, but plugging along.

Be more social:  Between volunteering, joining book club, and attending political meetings I've met a lot of people, and have 'clicked' with a few.  Bam!

2025 Frugal Friday File, June 27...

 

1.  Sunday I put four chicken breast halves in the slow cooker with part of a jar of picante sauce and a packet of Italian dressing mix.  After four hours, I shredded two of them and diced two of them.  The diced meat was added to a pasta salad to be eaten through the week.  The shredded meat will be added to quesadillas another night and maybe some soup (which I saved the liquid from the slow cooker for) another night.  I love having a headstart on meals for the week.

2.  Aside from groceries and bills, I only spent $2.15 for a Kindle book.

3.  No takeout or meals out this week.  

4.  I put two birthday cards in the mail this week.  One of them late, but oh well.  

Speaking of mail, the postage rates are going up again on July 13 -- a one ounce letter will go from 73¢ to 78¢.  I still have plenty of forever stamps to last a good while.

5.  I have thought about getting my hair cut every day this week, but I continue to put it off.  It's hot, and all I do is pull it up off my neck anyway.  For sure I'll get it cut sometime before grandson's December's wedding.  :)

This week we ate:

Saturday:  Family dinner at Kasey & Beau's

Sunday:  Summery Pasta Salad w/ Chicken

Monday:  Honey Garlic Chicken

Tuesday:  Quesadillas w/ Guacamole

Wednesday:  leftover pasta salad

Thursday:  Mexican Cornbread Casserole

Friday:  leftovers

**designates meatless meal

What I'm reading Wednesday...

 

Thirty-seventh challenge finish of the year.

I think I've read all of this author's work.  It's been a decade or so I think, and as I started this one, it occurred to me that maybe I've outgrown this type of book.  It was good, but had a slightly insipid start.  I kept reading.  

The characters were likeable, and it definitely finished stronger than it started.  And the author's notes at the end were excellent, discussing how she found a resource book that brought inspiration, and explained some of the history of the Royal Messenger service, couriers of important documents for the monarch.

In case you are not sure what a "sprayed edge" is (I had no idea), it's when the edges of the book are decorated.  This photo doesn't give much of an image of the edge, but hopefully will give you some idea.  I believe only the first run (or some limited number) actually had the edges decorated.