Working around the house...

I spent a good part of the day Tuesday measuring, cutting, and assembling these ornament trays for this bin.  I looked at pre-made dividers, but I since I wanted to use this precise bin with others like it that stack very well, and since (goodness knows) we had plenty of boxes to reduce/reuse/recycle, I just did it myself.  It made a good project to do while I watched a series of videos (which I can't even remember the name of at the moment).

Christmas decorations are all down, but I haven't gotten everything packed away yet, as I wanted to rearrange the closet they go in a bit.

I also washed (and hung to dry) all the bath mats.  And before putting them all back down, I cleaned the floors in the master and guest bathrooms.  I had ordered a new rug to use as a bath mat in the guest bath, so I put that down in there.  The laundered bath mats are very thick, and so they will need to continue hanging to dry overnight.

Feeling good about making some progress on this week's to-do list.

I still have some mending that I promised to do, so I will try to get that done before I call it a night.  Tomorrow I have an appointment with the chiropractor.

A lovely visit and back home...

 

I was gone last week to visit my friend Debbie.  We laughed, and made cards, and laughed, and ate, and laughed.  I was able to attend a book group with her, and also tour the inside of their beautiful Orthodox Church.  

The photo above is of me and her cat...talk about a balancing act!  I bent over to get some stamp supplies out of my case, and he jumped up on my shoulders.  :)  I would have shown a photo of Debbie and I together, but since I didn't ask permission, I figured I'd stick with the cat.

We worked on Christmas cards.  I made five or so prototypes, but haven't settled on one that I will mass produce to send out.  Debbie is aiming to make one hundred cards to mail out!  I will be making well less than that (if I get them done at all).  I've got to decide and get busy, as I want to mail them the end of November.

I made my menu for the week, and ordered and picked up my groceries.  The tab was high, but there are planned overs included into the menu plan, so will restock the freezer with homecooked meals.   My order included a turkey since they were on sale; it is in the freezer to use later.  I also bought a large package of beef boneless shoulder ribs, which I cubed for stew meat.  I put half into the crock pot with vegetables, and at six o'clock tonight I will be thanking myself for the supper already being done.  The other half of the cubed meat I vacuum sealed and put in the freezer for another future meal.

The girls will be home this weekend, and we will be making pizza together.  They are both good cooks, but haven't tried their hand at pizza dough yet, so I thought I'd share the quick and easy method I've been using for awhile now.

I put up the Christmas tree on Tuesday.  I don't like to do it before Thanksgiving, but with Thanksgiving late this year, and me having to work all of Thanksgiving week, I wanted to get it done.  I haven't added the ornaments yet, but hoping to later today.  I have presents to wrap and get under it too.

So that's what I've been doing.  How 'bout you?

2024 Frugal Friday File, September 20...

 

1.  It hasn't been a particularly thrifty week.  I've picked up takeout rather than cooking after days spent sweating in the garage.  I haven't weighed lately, but there should be about a stone of water weight lost due to the sweat of my brow (and neck, shoulders, back, and legs) over the past week.

2.  Free shredding:  I went through thirty years of my parents' financial paperwork (that has filled a 30 gallon storage bin for twenty-five years without being opened).  It was so heavy it could not be moved by me.  I had to sit down beside it where it was and just go through it.  It took two full afternoons.  I don't know that it needed to be shredded...all of the bank accounts have been closed for years, and the owners of the Social Security numbers have been deceased for decades...but I just couldn't put it in the trash.  For one thing, we would not have had room for our household trash if it went into our weekly pick up; also I think there is a weight limit for our pick up which would have been gone over.  I removed things like documents from things like envelopes, and put everything I knew was harmless into the trash.  Anything with personal info, etc. went into bags.  I took those to my old office, and was allowed to put them in their locked bins which a shredding service picks up and shreds on site.  The office never comes close to filling their bins, and we've accepted documents for shredding from clients over the years.  That felt SO good to get that done and gone!  

I did keep maybe a half dozen documents, some of which will be shredded at home at a later time.  I just couldn't do it at present.  My parents rarely put things in writing unless work related.  Seeing their signatures exactly as I remember them just makes me feel a little emotional.

3.  Free drop-off unloading:  So far I have taken two FULL carloads (SUV) to Goodwill, and the third load is ready to be  Ioaded.  I could have had a garage sale, but in past experience, they are a lot of work for very little reward.  I have a busy couple of months coming up, and I just want this stuff GONE!  I suppose I could ask Kasey to list a few things on FB Marketplace or Nextdoor, but I haven't come across anything yet that even made me think about doing that.

4.  Not so free entertainment:  I've been listening to the Audible book I wrote about previously.  I listened all Wednesday afternoon...all Thursday afternoon...in the bathtub at night...and some Friday morning.    I still have twelve hours of listening to go (even though the speed setting has been set to an accelerated speed).  SO glad to have taken this method of keeping myself working and 'reading' at the same time.

5.  Free help:  Friday Jared helped me by sweeping cobwebs off of everything before I loaded it into the car.  He is kind and patient and does whatever I ask.  Today (Saturday) his sister {Kasey) came over and she is a MEAN OVERLORD!  She has worked me non-stop.  She has given me a short break presently, then she is coming back and assures me we WILL be getting done tonight!  Help!  (But seriously, we have made amazing progress that would not have been accomplished without her.  Now I will post this before she comes back and chains me up again to finish sorting donations from keeps.  

I have brought a few things in the house to find a place for...some old towels and bedspreads that will be washed before taking them to the animal shelter....and also some framed artwork and photos.  I have been pretty ruthless about donations and discards.  I may make my goal of not over filling the shelf I purchased for the garage.

On the menu this past week:

Saturday:  Omelette

Sunday:  Sunday family supper at Kasey & Beau's

Monday:  Late takeout lunch, skipped supper

Tuesday:  Late takeout lunch, skipped supper

Wednesday:  Late takeout lunch, skipped supper

Thursday:  Late takeout lunch, skipped supper

Friday:  Late takeout lunch, skipped supper

**designates meatless meal

Garage...found some surprises...

So far I have found...

My original Ken and Barbie!  I gave all of their wardrobes to a niece along with Midge and Skipper, etc.  I thought these went along with the rest, but I guess not.  

Barbie is wearing a classic little vintage handmade number, but Ken appears to have become a nudist in his dotage.

Three hanging bags of jewelry.  Lots of my mom's. Lots from the 80s (buh-bye!)  Most will go, but I'm waiting to go through later.

But I was happy to find these special ones.  The pendant of the one on the left was my high-school-graduation gift from my first grade teacher.💝  I added the cord and beads.  I'll be taking the pendant off, shine it up, and put it on a chain.

The two on the right are hand carvings by the father of a dear friend.  He was a sweet and talented man.

These are crocheted bead necklaces.  My mother made the one on the right.  The left and middle ones were given to me by a former brother-in-law.  I believe he said his grandmother made them.  My impression of them from the beads themselves used in the strands is that they could be from the 1920s or 30s.  I have texted my niece a photo and stated my intent to give them to her.  I also asked her to talk to her father about who exactly made them and when (if he knows) so she has that information.

This little pin measures about one inch square.  I'm pretty sure it was a birthday gift to my mother since she was born on St. Patrick's Day.  I've always loved it...even though it is a four-leaf clover and not a shamrock.

Garage clean out...

 

This is my parking spot in our garage.  I have been parking outside for years because of this mess.  Carey parks in his spot, and in bad weather he moves my car into his workshop, but my clutter remains where I should be parking my car.

A lot of these things are from my mother's house.  When we lived in the country, we had storage buildings it could stay out of sight and out of mind.  When we moved here, we rented storage for awhile...too long.  Carey finally put it where he thought I would have to deal with it.    Over the years I have let go of some things, but as you can see there's a lot I haven't.  This week I am making another go of it...GO being the operative word here.

I bought a metal shelving unit.  I am determined to ONLY keep what will fit on the shelves.  I spent today assembling them and putting them into place (though the unit rolls, and Carey can move it later if he wants to).  I moved some chairs and some other large-ish things from the edges of the stash;  I am ready to let them go, so I dusted them off and they will be taken to Goodwill.

It was in the high 90s again today, and will be in the mid 90s for the rest of the week (forecast to go down by about 1 degree each day).  I know, I know, my mojo shows up at very unexpected times.  I am taking breaks often, and staying hydrated.

If I find anything interesting, I'll share.  If I can park inside by the end of the week (fingers crossed), I'll share that too.

Critical thoughts...

 

I'm still at it.  Today I searched out boxes in the craft room that needed to be emptied and broken down for recycling.  (You know, Rudy is looking forward to the next recycling trip!)

One of the above boxes was the large one that the Ikea shelf came in last week.  I was so proud of myself that I got the shelf picked up from the store, put together, and put into use in the craft room (as well as returning the original shelf back to my closet and put back into use there) all before Carey made it back from his same-day, round-trip to his uncle's funeral.  So it took me a few days to break down the box; I cut myself some slack.

After breaking down the boxes, I put my feet up and checked email.  In my inbox was a message from Julie Hage from whom I receive an email subscription to her website Filling the Jars.  I don't always read the whole thing, but was glad I did today as it resonated with me.

She was discussing decluttering after age 50 (exhaustion, health issues, inherited items from departed family, etc), and boy can I relate!  She suggests being clear with yourself on your reasons for decluttering by writing it into a mission statement.  

That stopped me in my tracks.  I have not been clear with myself about why I'm decluttering.  Yeah, yeah, I want things to be neater, more organized, but I want more than that as well, yet I have never put it into a clear thought.

After mulling it over while I cooked and did a few other chores, I set out to get it down in a honest and concise way that I can refer to when I need a gentle reminder as to why this is important to me and the ones I love.  I've had some experience writing and updating mission statements at work, and know that concise is important, as is clear language that states your intent.  I wasn't as concise as I could have been, but mission statements evolve, and I can declutter IT when the time comes.

My decluttering mission statement:

My critical goal is to decrease the superfluous items in our house, and to live in a home that welcomes us and others with peace;  a home that shows off the objects that are special to us, instead of having them be lost among the crowd of unimportant  possessions; and to live with the knowledge that I have done all I can to make my eventual absence as easy as possible for my loved ones to settle.

I chose the word critical, after referring to a definition to be sure that it imparted what I wanted to say.

Critical : 

• Inclined to express negative or disapproving comments
• A meticulous analysis of literary, music, or artworks
• An extremely close examination of a situation or problem having a high likelihood of becoming dire or turning into a crisis

I liked that the first definition hints at the negative talk that I too often have in my head as I declutter...why did you let this...you're just like...you wasted so much...and that negative talk should be the first thing dispatched!  The second definition reminds me to make an honest and meticulous analysis as to why or why not things should stay or go.  The third is a reminder that the time is now.

As I am focusing mostly on the office/craft room at the moment, I wrote a separate mission statement for it particularly.

My Creative Space Mission Statement:

My aim is to have a safe and peaceful place to create with joy, and where order and beauty reflect my gratitude for the blessings of space, skill, artistry, and satisfaction.

I am curious if others set down the particular reasons for personal action, and if so, in what manner...journaling, mission statement, self-reflection?

Keeping the momentum going...

 
As usual, I forgot to take the before photo till I had already started clearing out.  
Terrible photo, but the hallway is very narrow.

I have gotten so much done during the past few days, and I've taken great pleasure at marking each task off my list as it was completed.  Since my post last Thursday about what I got done in that one day, I have kept at it.  I swear I have done more laundry in the past few days than I have in the past few months...I stopped counting at eleven loads.  And every single load was immediately folded or hung up and put away

I've cleaned out the refrigerator, then refilled it after planning the week's menu and ordering groceries.  

I have cleaned and descaled my countertop ice maker.

Both guest rooms have fresh linen, and are somewhat guest ready...if you consider that anyone who spends the night in my house either loves me enough not to care about a little clutter or can feel free not to return.  :)

I've completed my Cologuard test and shipped it back.

I've filled up the car with gasoline.

I've emptied the linen closet.

I moved all of its content to a clean guest bed (and a chair which isn't seen in the photo above), and went through every single item and filled two large boxes with things to donate...mostly sheet sets I didn't remember having and were not needed any longer, a number of sets of pillowcases still in their packages, a factory-made quilt that I only used for a Christmas tree skirt on occasion and even then didn't love, and seasonal kitchen towels that I always forgot to put in the kitchen during those seasons.  I've dropped off the donations at Goodwill.  

While I was there, I picked up five polo shirts for Carey that have front pockets (his preference).  Ones with pockets are hard to find new, but I found five in his size (including one from LL Bean and one from Land's End) that all looked nice and only very lightly worn, and were marked $6.99, but when I got to the register they were each $3.  Yay!  

Oh, from the linen closet I also found three packages of 100% cotton cloth napkins.  When I went to Kasey's for Mother's Day dinner, I took two of them with me, and talked with my grandchildren about how earth friendly cloth is over paper.  These were very well made, can just be tossed in with a load of towels to launder, and will basically last a lifetime.  Both sets were snagged by grandchildren.  

I also found cloth diapers that both of my children wore 40+ years ago, along with a few baby washcloths, and bibs that were my favorites as a mom.  I'll wait a few years before we have another talk about eco-friendly and sustainable products for babies before I offer these up.  :)

As if these items weren't enough, I found one additional item that came as a complete surprise!

We've lived in this house for fourteen years now, and neither Carey nor I had the least memory of there being an electrical outlet at the back of one of the shelves!  As seen above, I plugged in a lamp, and there was power.  I already have a new plan for this shelf.

I only got all of this accomplished, because Carey was away from home.  These are the kinds of projects that I used to do while he was away at work for a week at a time, and so not around to see the "worse before it gets better" parts of the projects.  Though I still have some final work to do in the linen closet, he missed all the chaos.

I'll show the closet 'after' photo eventually.  This week is going to be a very busy one in other ways.

May 13th is International Hummus Day...

Making hummus is something I've been meaning to try for a long time.  I decided International Hummus Day was a good reason to get it done.  

This is my Sunbeam Oscar food processor from the '80s.  It's very small, and just fit this one-can-of-chickpeas recipe.

1 can of chickpeas (aka: garbanzo beans)

3 Tbsp olive oil

3 Tbsp tahini

1 1/2 Tblsp lemon juice

1 clove of garlic

1/2 tsp of salt (or to taste)

1/4tsp of ground black pepper (or to taste)

It was great!  Now I can't wait to make it again and maybe experiment with adding and/or adjusting ingredients.

This project has been waiting for YEARS...

These are the tracings of silver trays, and they are taped to the wall as a template to see if I liked this arrangement.

I've been collecting silver bread trays forever, and always intended to hang them someday.  The impetus, finally, was a few larger additions to the silver collection.  My friend, the other Kathleen, was downsizing, and she was trying to decide what to do with two very large trays, and three medium size trays.  I told her to hang them, that's what I was going to do with mine.  She said, well why don't I just give these to you?  😮

They have literally been on the floor of my craft room/office for a year and a half.  That room has finally reached critical mass (pronounced: MESS), so I figured there was no time like the present to get these hung.  Also the other Kathleen is coming to visit this summer, and I wanted to shock surprise her by having it done!

 I've been polishing and attaching hangers for the better part of a week.  I didn't try to get every bit of tarnish off, as I kind of like them to show a little vintage wear.  (That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.)  Carey put all the holes in the wall this morning...some nails...some screws for the heavier trays.

Once the trays were up, it looked a little top heavy with that largest tray at the top, so I tried switching it out with the round tray in the middle.

Ah...I like this better.  The middle tray overlaps the light switch plate a bit, but the switch that it partially covers controlled an outdoor pond pump that is no longer in use anyway.

There are a couple of trays that I couldn't hang, and one that was just so big and heavy that I put it on a stand on a nearby shelf instead.  Most are silver plated.  One is gold plated; it was a gift to my parents on their 50th anniversary, and I wanted it in the group.  A couple of them are vintage hand-wrought aluminum family pieces.  But taken as a group, I think it looks pretty cohesive.

So what do you think?  I'm just SO glad it is done at long last.  

Coffee table redoux...

This is the coffee table last week.  It was purchased about twenty years ago from an ad on Craigslist.  I'm sure I didn't pay more than $50 for it.  It was exactly what we needed at the time, and it was then in pristine condition.  It has suffered a lot of wear since it came to our house.

When we were ready to begin, Carey removed all the drawers and lifted the wooden part of the table off of it's metal base, and he took it to the workshop.  He then removed the drawer hardware and sanded all surfaces.  You may recall, from a previous post, that we tried three different stain colors on it, but it didn't take any of them well, so we chose a paint color that appeared to be a base tone of the new furniture in the room, and Carey painted all of the table's exterior surfaces.  

I then mixed a little of the base color with a little of the darkest stain (they were both latex) and added a little water to thin it out.  (Instructions said not to thin with water, but I had very little to lose, and so far it seems to have worked acceptably.)

The three tools above are what are used to apply a faux wood grain.  I tested using them on a piece of scrap wood that had been painted the base color.  You use a pulling and rocking motion with the handled semi-round tool.  When I felt comfortable using them on the scrap wood, I began on the actual table.

With the paint/stain mix, I painted each side of the table, one at a time, and used the tools to add the 'wood' texture.  Then I did the same to the drawer fronts.  Once I had gained some confidence on the smaller areas of sides and drawers, I painted and fauxed a strip running the length of the table.  I then painted a strip next to the first and repeated the process until the top was finished.  The picture above was taken after I completed all table surfaces.  I have no idea why the side at the bottom right corner of the photo looks so much lighter than the top; it must have had to do with the lighting in the workshop.  Carey was happy with it the way it was at this point, but I didn't like the distinct light and dark of the two colors.  We left it overnight to dry thoroughly.

In the morning I used a cloth to rub the surfaces, a section at a time, with the dark stain in the direction of the 'grain' then used a clean cloth to remove the extra stain until the light color was toned down somewhat.

In case you can't see the differences, here's a close up before and after this step.  The arrows point to  the same spot (a faux knot if you will) before and after applying the stain to blend the colors a little.  It's subtle, but I think it definitely makes a difference, but maybe it's an IRL thing.

These are the drawers, and again, the lighting in the workshop makes them look different than the table top, but they are very close in reality.

After letting everything dry overnight, we added a coat of polyurethane, and let it dry overnight again before bringing it in and putting it all back together.

Here is the before:

And here is the after:

Here is a different angle closer up, so you can see more of how the faux grain turned out:

We'll leave it for awhile to cure before setting anything on it.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  It's not perfect, but it blends much better in the room now, and it still holds all my memories of the kiddoes visits when they were little.  (Background story linked here if you missed it.)

Highs and Lows...

The hardest things for me to do with my bad knees and shoulder are climb up high on a ladder, and kneel or sit on the floor, to do cleaning tasks.  This week I have had a wonderful gift!

Caitlyn is home from school for Spring Break.  She had been hoping to work for her previous employer while she is home to bulk up her savings that have been helping pay for school expenses.  During Christmas break she was able to work quite a bit for them, but when she called before Spring Break to see if she could pick up some shifts, she was told that they had everything covered.

I told her I could use her help, and would be happy to gift her school money when she heads back after her break.  She was willing, and far more able than I, to do some of the jobs that I had put on the list I made recently of things I wanted to accomplish at home over the next few months.  

Things like emptying bookshelves, dusting them top to bottom, and helping me downsize the contents before refilling the shelves.  These days my knees just don't hold out for long when the job at hand calls for multiple trips up and down a ladder, so jobs take me longer. 

On Saturday she started in the playroom which contained the few toys and many, many books I've kept since my kids were little and the grandkids came along.  I texted all the kids and grandkids to ask if there were any books they especially remembered and would like to have.  Kasey took some that were favorites and that she will save for her future grandchildren.  Caitlyn took a few as she was working.  Bobby came and packed a boxful to use in his work with special-needs children.  The rest of the books are now boxed up to donate.

Once Caitlyn had those first shelves spic and span, she moved to the guest room and did the same in a similar sized bookshelf in there.  I didn't have a huge amount of books in that one, as they have been culled before, but there were quite a few photos and decorative items, and the tops and high shelves hadn't been dusted for far too long.  That was true of all the open shelving units in our house.  

On Sunday afternoon she took the ladder and vacuum to the laundry room.  I had already dusted and reorganized the shelves over the washer and dryer, but forgot to clean the top of the cabinet.  Caitlyn had that done in no time.  Then she moved on to floor-to-ceiling shelves that house bins of dog food, Rudy's replacement toys (I order some of his favorites in multiples so as his current ones wear out they can be quickly and easily replaced), tools, batteries, and cleaning supplies, etc.  She also cleaned out Rudy's kennel and his feeding mat.

Monday she started on the dining room's built-in shelves, and then emptied and dusted my great-grandmother's china cabinet.  Between the dining room and kitchen we have a large antique kitchen cabinet (bottom photo) that had originally been built into the kitchen of the house I grew up in.  Caitlyn cleaned it top to bottom, inside and out.  And finally the open shelving (top photo) on both sides of the window in the kitchen was also thoroughly dusted and restocked.

 

This has ticked lots of boxes from my to-do list, and jobs that would have taken me weeks have been done in a long weekend thanks to young muscles, joints, and energy! Now Caitlyn is off to the beach for a few days.  She has promised to come back for one more day of cleaning before she heads back to school.  Now that the hard jobs of ladder climbing and floor-level deep cleaning are done, my job is to get as much done as I can in the next few days to ready more projects that she can help me with.

I'm a lucky grandma.  I miss them being little, but I'm reaping the rewards of them being grown!

Freezer clean out...

 I cleaned out the freezer on Saturday.  I won't say there was no food waste.  But everything discarded had been way outdated and/or was freezer burnt.  Now instead of a jumble, I have an easy map to what's in there.

Top drawer left to right:  reusable ice packs, nuts (plus my little jar of garlic), frozen mashed bananas, ice cream

Bottom drawer left to right: fruit, onion rings/french fries, vegetables

Now, when meal planning, I can see what needs to be used up before buying something.  When I saw how much fruit I have, I decided that I need to have smoothies for breakfast every day this month!  I'm sipping today's as I type.  😋

Kitchen reorganization, part 1...

 

I really should have taken a before shot of the kitchen, but when the mood strikes to get going I'd better not get distracted.  I am tired of the cluttered countertops.  The cooking utensils above have been on the countertop in containers, and this drawer was previously used for spices.  (But the knife holder on the right has always been in this drawer.  I hate leaving knives visible on the countertops.  I watch too much scary television.)

Can I just say that the bamboo spring-loaded adjustable dividers above are ones I got from the Container Store years ago.  They are absolutely my favorite things; so easy to use and easy to reconfigure.  When the spices were in this drawer, I had a fifth divider in there.  I will use it in another drawer now.  I also got a new set of spring loaded dividers that can have perpendicular dividers that fit in slots.

I really liked this cupboard as I had been using it before, but since I had to make room for the spices, I had to change things up.  I may redo it again after living with it for a little while.

The upper shelf seen here is quite a stretch, and there's one above it that is unreachable without a step stool.  I should donate everything that is out of reach, because I haven't used any of them in years.  

Carey walked in the kitchen for supper, and said, "Uh-oh."  He is really good about unloading the dishwasher, so now he has to get used to new locations for things.  :)

I'll share updates as they come...

Kitchen reorganization, Part 2...

                             

Two more drawers today.  These are just to the right of the sink, and are the most accessible with wet hands, but are really too small for kitchen towels.  Hence, I previously had the towels in a container on the island.  But again, I am so tired of too much stuff on the counters that I decided that the one nearest the sink could hold at least a few towels.  I guess I'll keep the extra towels in the pantry or laundry room.

These two drawers both previously held a bit of a mishmash.  The one on the left had dishcloths and sponges along with matches and a couple of other things.  The one on the right had the kitchen scissors, tape, Sharpies & pencils, the lids to cover cans of dog food.  With the dividers, I managed to combine both drawers' contents into this one.

When I finished these, I took a minute to take a before photo of what I want to tackle next.  :)

If this is boring, I'm really sorry.  Sharing my progress gives me something to look back on later and kind of analyze the success (or lack thereof).

The Fixer...

When I was a kid, and anything needed untangling, my mother always recruited me.  She had poor eyesight, and she and my dad were both over forty when I was born, so my young eyes were a distinct advantage. Necklace chains.  Knitting yarn.  Fishing line.  Once we were visiting a cousin of hers when I was a young teen.  My mother noticed a puka shell plant hanger lying on a side table and asked about it.  Her cousin, embarrassed, admitted it was completely tangled, and should have been thrown away long before.  My mother told her I would untangle it.  The pressure was on.  It was quite the chore, but before we left a couple of hours later it was a usable plant hanger once again.  Ugly, but usable.  :)

There were other things I fixed (repaired) as well.  Broken ceramics. Picture frames.  My parents lived through the Great Depression, so everything was repaired if at all possible.  It was a challenge to figure out the best way to do things, and I enjoyed it.

So here's my latest fix.  Remember this?

 I was so disappointed that there were three missing pieces.  So ever since the last piece went in, I've been contemplating how I could camouflage the empty spots.  Today I decided to tackle it and make our dining room table usable once again.

I gathered some supplies.  

• Top left:  Some tagboard, scissors, exacto knife, and glue.  
• Bottom left: I took a sheet of paper and slid it under the puzzle and traced the empty spots.  
• Top right: I carefully removed a 6- to 8-piece section near each of the empty spot that seemed to have similar colors/patterns.  (I used Post-It tape on the back of these sections to hold them together during the process.  It was safely and easily removed when I was ready to reinsert them into the puzzle.)
• Bottom right: I made color copies of the puzzle sections.

I cut the missing pieces out of tagboard (twice each as it took two layers of tagboard to equal the thickness of the puzzle pieces).  I fitted these new pieces into the empty spaces by shaving off edges where needed.  I traced these onto the color copies, cut out, and glued together to complete the new pieces.

Et voila!

My plan is to apply Mod-Podge to the front and back of the puzzle, and frame it to bring out anually with the autumn decorations.  The tagboard is not acid free, so those pieces may discolor over time, but I don't foresee it being considered an heirloom, so I can live with the risk.  :)

Sunday roast...

 

A month or so ago, my first grandson (not to be confused with my oldest grandson) said that he had made chicken and dumplings, and was very happy with the result.  (Oh the shock of realizing that my sweet little baby was old enough to live on his own and cook real meals for himself!)  We were talking about dumpling recipes, and how I had to try a lot of recipes before I found one that worked every time.  He asked me to share that one with him, so I made him a recipe card of it to pop in the mail.  

Of course I had to decorate the card.  I think the original recipe came from a Better Homes & Garden cookbook that had a red gingham cover, so I used that as the card background.  And yes I know that he may have preferred a digital copy of the recipe, but maybe this will be a keepsake.

I like dumplings, not only with chicken, but also with a roast beef.  I've been hungry for beef and dumplings ever since I sent him the recipe, so I added a roast to the grocery order this week, and put it in the slow cooker today.  After it cooked all afternoon, I removed the roast and carrots from the pot, and added the dumplings to cook.

It was exactly as yummy as I hoped for.  I texted him this photo with a note that dumplings are not only for chicken.  

The cooler temps that we enjoyed earlier this week also made me want oatmeal in the morning.  So today I made a batch of Oatmeal To Go.  Nice to have that done to take to work with me.

Speaking of work... Last week I worked from home a couple of days.  Carey came home from work a little early due to a co-worker testing positive for Covid.  Carey's brother, who works with him too has now tested positive, and his wife is now symptomatic too.  Carey is feeling fine, but he is going to be tested just to make sure he isn't positive and asymptomatic.  After his test results, my boss and I will decide if I should continue to work from home for awhile.

What I'm reading Wednesday...

 

Little Comfort by Edwin Hill

I started this book Tuesday.  The cover looks a lot like my yard (minus the blood trail), and this is south Texas.  I understand from friends that the cold weather we are having this week, along with the problems it has caused, has made the national news.  I wouldn't know; no TV.

All the things that I had planned to get done on the long weekend ground to a screeching halt when our power went out .  No cooking, no baking, no sewing.  And unfortunately no laundry.  Nothing that required electricity.  And since our house is all electric, that meant the heat also ground to a halt.  The temperature has been in the 40s inside our house.  Carey and Rudy and I all just stayed under the covers.   And since we have a water well, for which the pump runs on electricity, we have no water either.  Without the pump running the pipes between water storage tank, pump, and house have frozen underground.

Electricity was out for something like 38 hours.  As of now it is back on, but I am writing this Tuesday night, and from what I understand we are expecting more sleet, snow, and ice tonight, so I would not be surprised if the power goes out again.  As for the water, it could still be days before we know for sure if it will be a major problem.  I am very thankful that Carey was home, so all the preparations were done properly (draining water lines in the house etc before those froze).

I know how easy we have it.  I am sick thinking of people that are homeless, and worried about linemen that have been out working on power lines.

None of us have been able to go to work.  I'm not sure when I will get to go back...going to have to figure out a way to get a bath before then!

Monday...

This is my normal view on a Monday through Friday afternoon, but I am not there today.  I took Friday and today off in order to travel to visit Carey's sister and b-i-l about 7 hours away by car.

They recently took Carey's mom home with them from her assisted living facility for a break from the monotony of her facility's lockdown during these pandemic days.  We so enjoyed seeing all of them, but the best part was just getting to hug my mother-in-law.  It has been hard to think of her alone and lonely since this started.  She will have to endure two weeks of quarantine in her room when they return her in a day or so, but she deemed it was worth it.

We came home yesterday, and today we had a WebEx appointment.  The person with whom we were speaking via WebEx has been to my office, and mentioned today that I had the most gorgeous view from my work window of anyone in town.  He's right!  And that reminded me that I had just taken this photo a few days ago, so I thought I would share it here.  It really is gorgeous.  The upper right section of the photo shows part of the golf course that we enjoy having so near.  Some days it is hard not to just sit and enjoy the view.

That is a crepe myrtle blooming outside the window.  This one bloom reaches up to my second story window. 

Today has been very relaxing...reading mostly...but I should go unpack and do a load of laundry to get ready for the rest of the week.

This pandemic thing...

Today the news reported that there is a 9th Covid-19 victim in our county, and she is in our little community.  She shopped recently at the same grocery store that we do.

Now it seems real to me.

In the county seat about 20 miles away, yesterday saw the first Covid-19 fatality in the county.  It was a 44-year-old man who had no known underlying health conditions.  Scary stuff.

I had previously scheduled a vacation day for today.  We were meant to be going out of town for my mother-in-law's 90th birthday party.  But her assisted living community is on lock down.  Her children will be having a Zoom gathering with her instead.  So I found myself at home with no particular chores planned.

The most productive, and calming, thing I could think of to do was bake bread.  That felt good.  And though we have plenty of food in the house, there were a few things that needed to be used while they were still usable.  So I thought I would use as many of them as I could to pull together our evening meal.  There were about 5 smallish potatoes that had sprouted and were slightly wrinkly, a few slices of bacon, a few links of sausage.  I knew I had onions, so I thought these might make a tasty hash.  While wishing I had some cabbage to add to it, I remembered that I had a bag of coleslaw mix...well it IS mostly cabbage...so it went into the pan too.

 A hearty hash and a slice of homemade bread made a homey supper on a rather unsettling day.

Weekend goal...

In yesterday's 7 Random Thoughts on the 7th post, I stated that my goal for this weekend was to get rid of all the cardboard boxes that have accumulated.  First thing I did was gather ALL of them from their hiding places around the house into one place.  Shame on me for letting it get this out of hand! 

Okay, as you can see, I do a lot of online shopping.  In my defense, these are probably from the past year...of course it's not much of a defense that I've let them pile up instead of disposing of them immediately...but it's a lot of work.

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What takes the longest is redacting private information (call me paranoid, it's a compulsion)...

...and letting the air out of packing materials so they take up as little space as possible...

...and tending injuries.  Man, I hate cardboard-caused paper cuts.

Ta-Da!  I kept two boxes to use for putting donations in.  Donations will be taken to Goodwill, and all of this cardboard will be dropped off at recycling this week!

Whew!  Patting myself on the back for completing this goal.