Seven random thoughts on the 7th...

1.  Is anyone besides me thinking about unplugging till the election is over?  At least I'm not working much these days, so don't have to worry about accidentally rolling my eyes at client comments.  :)

2.  I had to cancel attending quilting at the library tomorrow.  Friday I got a call from someone at another local branch that needed to take a day off unexpectedly.  I love this branch and the people there, and I kind of owe them a favor, so was happy to do it.

3.  Cleaned out the freezer yesterday, and found I had what was needed to make a favorite dessert for granddaughter who is home from college.  Thought I would make it for Sunday family supper before she heads back to school.

4.  Rudy is loving the new sofa...and he's crowding me.  This is how I'm typing trying to type at the moment.  It's sweet and all, but in the summer, it will be too hot!  

5.  My Christmas present from Kasey in 2022 was an Aura picture frame.  It is digital and SO awesome.  She gave one to my mother-in-law a year or two before that, and I hinted heavily that I would like one.  I don't frame a lot of photos to display.  Now I just need the one.

With this one, you can send photos straight from your phone to the frame.  And not just that, but you can invite others to send photos from their phones to the frame too.  You can set the time for each photo to stay on screen, I think I have mine set for 15 minutes, then it switches to the next one.  It's really cool, and you can do all the setting of controls from an app on your phone.

Sounds like an add, it's not.  Oh, and if you are wondering why I am just now mentioning it when I've had it for over a year.  I just got around to setting it up.  It was really easy, so I have no excuse for putting it off so long.

6. Whoopee!  Tonight is Sunday night!.  Such a good night for PBS programs.

7.  I'm probably the last woman on the planet to know this, but I recently found a little sticky sleeve that sticks on the back of my phone. I keep my drivers license and my debit card in there, and now I don't have to carry a purse.  I always wear slacks with pockets, so I don't lay it down anywhere.  I'm going to have to add my food-expense credit card to it, and I hope it won't be too tight.

Impromptu food prep...

I was too hungry to bother with getting a beautiful photo, but this salad was delicious!  I'm trying not to grocery shop while waiting for new designated food-expense credit card to arrive.  And besides, I had perfectly edible and combinable things in the fridge.

I started with the bundle of kale I had left in fridge.  I washed it and removed stems, then rolled the leaves and cut the roll into narrow strips and placed those into a large bowl.  I made a dressing by combining 1/4 c apple cider vinegar, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 Tbsp honey, 1 Tbsp Teriyaki marinade, and 1 tsp red pepper flakes in a saucepan and heated over medium heat for a few minutes.  I poured the hot dressing over the kale and mixed thoroughly.

I had cooked quinoa that needed to be used up, some hard-boiled eggs, one very small sweet potato, one avocado, a few mushrooms that didn't get used in roasted veg earlier in week, and pecans in the freezer.  

I didn't want to take the time or trouble to roast the sweet potato (though that would have been very yummy), so I just popped it in the microwave for a couple of minutes.  I let it cool just enough to handle, and then peeled and diced it into bite-sized pieces.  I divided the kale onto two plates and topped each with half of the quinoa, and then divvied up everything else pretty evenly on top.  I poured the small amount of dressing left in pan over the top of the added toppings.

The improvised part was the hodge-podge of lonely ingredients I had, but also the dressing.  I had intended to use a dressing recipe from a favorite restaurant, the ingredients for which were apple cider vinegar, canola oil, brown sugar, soy sauce, and red pepper flakes.  I knew olive oil would be fine.  I was out of brown sugar, so thought I'd use regular sugar and a little molasses...but I was out of molasses so I used honey.  I was, quite shockingly, also out of soy sauce, so used the closest thing I had...some teriyaki marinade from a bottle in the fridge.  

My point is, that I am never afraid to play fast and loose with ingredients.  I try to keep close to the intended flavors, and it almost always works out.  Don't be afraid to improvise!

Frugal Friday File 2024, January 5...

 

1.  I was cleaning my glasses the other day, and they snapped in half at the nose piece.  I had seen the optometrist at the end of August (I did not get new glasses at that time as there was only minimal change in prescription from previous year), so I called their office and asked them to email me my current prescription.  My daughter has used Zenni Optical (.com), and recommended that I give them a try.  I picked out frames, sent an image of my prescription, entered my pupil location (that Kasey measured with a card for that purpose that she had received from them with her previous order), and clicked 'submit order.'  Total was $166, which I believe was about half of what I paid for my last pair purchased locally.  I'll let you know how they work out after they arrive.

Oh, and I'm wearing an old pair in the meantime.  Things are a little fuzzy, but I can read and get along.

2.  I applied for a credit card through our grocery store.  It will be solely dedicated to use for groceries and eating out.  I just need a simpler way to track our food spending.  It has no annual fees, and pays 5% back for store-brand purchases and 1.5% back for all other purchases.  Like our other card, this one will also be paid off monthly and not carry a balance.

3.  We've been sticking close to home this week.  I went to Wal-Mart on Sunday (5-ish miles) to get eggs, some composition books, and shampoo; to Kasey's (1 mile) for our New Year's black-eyed peas supper, and I drove to the office (2 miles) yesterday.  I think that is the extent of my outings this week.

4.  Have done well with using up things in the refrigerator.  Roasted vegetables used up a lot from the vegetable drawer.  I had made too much quinoa late last week for a salad, used the remainder in kale salad yesterday.  Ate leftovers for lunches and one dinner.

Also peeled a garlic bulb and separated and peeled all cloves and added to the jar of same that was already in the freezer.  I've always stored garlic bulbs at room temperature, but often they went unused before too late.  I find keeping them in olive oil too messy for me, so when I read that the peeled cloves could be frozen and taken out individually as needed and take just a few minutes to thaw enough to dice, I was all over that.

5.  We haven't been out to eat or picked up take-out.

On the menu this week: 

Saturday:  Spanish Rice

**Sunday:  Roasted Vegetable Pasta (meatless)

Monday:  New Year's supper at Kasey & Beau's

Tuesday:  leftovers

Wednesday:  Mexican Cornbread

**Thursday:  Kale Salad Bowl (with quinoa, hard-boiled egg, pecans, sweet potato, avocado, and mushrooms) 

Friday: home cooked meal from freezer

Books read in 2023...

 

Twenty twenty-three was not a banner year for my reading.  I've had a hard time since retirement with time management...getting a layout to my days that keep me productive.  Way too much time spent mindlessly on phone apps.

The images above are the 23 books that I read this year.  When I do make time to read, I am not concentrating.  About eight of the books pictured above were not really to my liking, so I would let them lie for several days or a week without picking them back up.  

I remember when a former co-worker announced that she would no longer continue reading books that she didn't enjoy, she would just stop reading them, because life was too short to read bad books.  I think she was about my current age when she decided that, and I'm about ready to follow her example.

One thing I did this year was read the Bible through chronologically (by order in which the recorded events occurred).  I had planned to read the One Year Bible again as I have done several times before.  Then a friend mentioned in late 2022 that her cousin was just finishing up reading the Bible chronologically.  I found a reading plan on line, and we discussed it a bit.  Then, thankfully, my friend agreed to commit to also do the daily readings.  We both say we wouldn't have kept at it without the other.  It seemed very difficult for some reason.  I'm glad to have done it, but I'm also glad to have it done.

Frugal Friday File 2023, December 29...

 

1.  Here we are at the last Friday of 2023.  Oh, my!  Over November and December we have spent money on new furniture and rug for the living room.  I can't remember how much of this I have mentioned, so forgive me if I repeat myself.  I sincerely hate shopping with its traffic, stops and starts, browsing, salespeople.  Hate it.  So I searched furniture styles online pretty exhaustively, then once options pared down went to a few stores for test drives.  We purchased the sofa in the city and had it delivered and set up.  Since it is made up of sectional components and has power recliners at each end, I wanted to make sure that it was set up correctly.  

     The chairs, rug, end tables, and floor lamps were all ordered online after much research and price comparisons.  They were all ordered without paying extra for assembly, so we saved a decent amount by assembling them ourselves.  We are very happy with the room now.  We are still waiting for the delivery of the area rug.  After it arrives I will take photos of the room and post.

2.  All furniture and Christmas spending has been paid without incurring interest on cards.

3.  I worked two days this week.  Money in.

4.  Carey went to visit his mom and be on hand in case of emergency while his sister was out of town for Christmas.  He stayed at sister and b-i-l's house while they were gone, so no hotel bill's this time.  (When I go we always stay at a hotel since I have back pain and headaches when sleeping on too-firm-for-me mattresses that s-i-l and b-i-l prefer.)

5.  A little late, but I did mail out a number of Christmas cards.  I found a box that I had purchased on sale after Christmas in a previous year, so no outlay for cards.  I plan on making and sending out a few more New Year cards in the next week or so.  The postage was purchased months ago.

On the menu this week:

Saturday:  homecooked freezer meal

Sunday:  Christmas supper at Kasey & Beau's

Monday:  homecooked freezer meal

Tuesday:  Campbell's soup

Wednesday:  takeout

Thursday:  Southwest Quinoa and Bean Salad

Friday:  Dublin Coddle

2024 New Year's bucket list...

 

I follow the BetterFoodGuru on Instagram.  Everything she makes looks so good; and I'm not even vegan!

Today I made this Southwest Quinoa & Bean Salad and loved it.  The dressing is heavy on cilantro, so if you hate it (did you know that there is actually a gene that makes it taste repellent to some people?) I think this would also be great with something like a Honey Mustard dressing instead.  

But I digress.  Recently the BetterFoodGuru (Sara) mentioned that instead of making New Year resolutions, to make a New Year bucket list instead.  I liked that.  It reminded me of Juhli (at The Boomer Girl's Guide) and her list of 2024 Hopes...such a good list!

So here's my own 2024 Bucket List of Hopes:

1.  Eat meatless twice a month...if we can do once a week, so much the better.

2.  Find a volunteer opportunity.

3.  Send 52 letters in 52 weeks.

4.  Read The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and perhaps work on the daily journaling.

5.  Visit at least one friend I haven't seen in years.

Merry Christmas 2023...

Merry Christmas, friends!  We had a wonderful family gathering at Kasey and Beau's  yesterday (Christmas Eve).  

Our tree has given me a lot of joy this year.  Retirement gave me more time to decorate than I've had for awhile.  And the new living room furniture, that we've been acquiring and arranging over the past month or so, makes things feel light and free.  (Not that IT was free, hence the absence of Frugal Friday's lately.  😂)

The top photo shows the 'C' and 'K' (our initials) that I made for our very first Christmas tree in 1976.  There are a lot of handmade ornaments on the tree, and the other ornaments are full of memories.  There's a helicopter to commemorate when Carey was back to working on land again, and never had to make another offshore trip in helicopters.  There's a shamrock teapot from a trip to Ireland.  

The disco ball is always on for my little disco baby (Kasey, born in 1977) and the drummer is always on for Jared since he played in the drumline.  Lots of candy and sweets are represented (visions of sugar-plums).

And now that the grandkids are mostly grown and into places of their own, I'm starting to make ornaments for them to hang on their own trees.  

 Carey was cleaning up some trees in the yard and trimming branches last year.  I asked him if he could cut some of the larger ones into disks and drill a hole for hanging them.  A few days ago I used a wood burner to  add Christmas-y designs, and I burned our names and the year onto the back.  Later I wrote the kids' names on them, and they served as their package tags.

I wish I could send one to each person who reads this!  Wishing you all the best!