Everybody Needs a Giggle

 

    

   I know, it has been about three months since I last posted here on my blog.  Life has been busy as usual, and to be perfectly honest, I have been dealing with some rather heavy things emotionally and just have not had it in me to post anything here.  I try to keep my spirits up, but there are some days when it is hard.  This time of year can be especially hard for those of us who are dealing with the loss of loved ones whom we have passed within the past year or even longer ago than that.  It is also hard knowing that this may be the last Christmas you have with someone you love.  And while typing this, I just got a phone call from a dear friend who is in the ER.  Depending on how things are looking, I may be heading in to see her as soon as Jeff gets home from watching our Isaiah sing at church this morning.  I did not go because I am having a Fibromyalgia flare and I knew that sitting in the hard pews or standing up for any length of time was just not possible today.  Please pray for my friend, she is dealing with so much and we love her dearly.

   Now you understand why I needed a giggle, and I found it in Mortimer, or Morty for short.  Morty is my "emotional support snail". ;)  As soon as I saw Morty in the making, I knew he must be mine.  Morty is part of a family of snails that our Heather's father Bruce carved and painted.  He is a very talented man who has rediscovered his love of carving and does amazing work.  You can see some of it on his Facebook page Gods Country Art (10) Facebook   If the link does not work, you can find it on Facebook by doing a search.  Bruce was selling some of his carvings at a local Christmas Craft Fair and I was so relieved to see my Morty still there.  No, Bruce had not named, him, but I sure did!  Some of Morty's siblings had already been sold, but there on the table was my buck toothed boy just waiting to bring me immense joy, and lots of giggles.  So yes, I happily bought him and brought him home with me.  Morty is the second carving that I have that Bruce has done.  The first one was a custom-made gift from Chris, Heather and the boys.  It is a honu (turtle) with special meaning to me.  I wish I could share it here, but there are personal reasons that I cannot.  So, everyone meet my Morty and may he bring you giggles too!

   And not to be outshone by Morty, it is our grandson Tate's birthday today.  He is now five years old!  He is our bundle of energy and way too smart for his own good at times who also has us in giggles.  One of Tate's latest escapades was when he loaded up his golf club set in the back of his little battery powered truck and drove across the cul-de-sac to the play park, unload his golf clubs, pick out just the right one and proceed to smack the golf ball hard with his driver. That kid has quite the golf swing and his accuracy rate at putting is amazing for his age.  Since his daddy is overseas at the moment, our Tate is practicing so that he can beat him when Josh gets home and takes him golfing at the course at Hill AFB.  Tate loves golfing there with his mom and dad.  Peyton likes the snacks at the snack bar.  LOL!

   Wishing you all a holiday season filled with love, joy and yes, lots of giggles too!

   

   

Spring has Sprung and Catching Up

   

   No, I did not fall off the face of the earth, even if it might seem that way. 😉  I have been spending more and more time off the computer and outside enjoying the nicer weather.  As I am typing this, I am glad I did because we are looking at rain for the next 7 or more days starting later tonight.  Today however, I got out with Caesar for a much needed walk, pulled all the old sunflower stalks out of the garden, played with my youngest grandson and enjoyed some time out on the back porch reading.  Yes, I may be paying for doing all that but it just felt good to be out in this glorious Spring weather after a long stretch of cold and snow.  

   I have been spending much of the past month with my kids and grandkids that live close to us and going through jewelry for my cousin's store.  Oh how I love them all!  I have also been doing a lot of reading and tackling some small projects around the house.  My sleep patterns are so "off" that I may find myself cleaning out a cabinet at 10:30 at night, but hey, at least I am getting something done.  Of course when I do feel like I have a bit of extra energy, I push myself too hard and end up in a flare.  Let's just say I have had many occasions where I have ended up in bed in the afternoon straight through onto bedtime and have also been taking more naps lately.  It's like I hit a wall and just collapse.

   Last month Jeff and I celebrated our 34 wedding anniversary with a nice lunch out compliments of our son Josh.  We tried out a new to us Greek restaurant and will definitely being going back there again.  Our oldest grandson Bradley turned 7 and has a very fun Spy and Secret Agent themed birthday party.  His mother made him the most amazing cake!  There has been lots of cuddle time with the grandkids, and Isaiah even made me some new earrings.  He loves to paint and create with his mother and I am the lucky recipient of some of his beautiful creations!

   Taking a month off from blogging has been a good thing for me.  I've spent my evening reading, watching some fun shows and learning new skills.  I've been trying out new recipes, planning out my garden, and working on trying to find more balance in my life.  Jeff and I have worked on purging the big walk in closet, we've gone through clothes and have some to donate and some to take to the consignment store.  We also have lots of other items to donate and some things that will go to my cousin's resale store.

   I made an appointment to have an eye exam and get new glasses this coming Saturday, something that I am way overdue on.  Luckily we do have vision coverage through our health insurance and we are using some of our income tax return money to help cover the rest of the cost.  It will be so nice to have glasses without scratched up lenses again. 😎  I still have other appointments I need to make to get caught up on all those lovely yearly health things that come up.

   Jeff and I are planning a weekend getaway at the end of this month and we are both very much looking forward to that.  It will only be for 2 nights, but it will be nice to just be able to relax and spend time some time near the water again.  We both need some "alone time" together without the daily distractions of projects and fur babies.  

   Be blessed all!

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

Frugal Friday Wrap Up 2/10-2/16 2018

 

   Here it is the end of another frugal week.  That goodness we paid off our home because we have a bill from last January (yes a year ago) from the hospital that finally came in and has to be paid in full now.  That leaves us with under $100 for the next 2 weeks after all the bills are paid.  I am very thankful for a deep pantry and 2 big freezers full of food.  In other news, I got the results of my blood work back and I don't have Lupus or Rheumatoid Arthritis, but did show signs in the high "normal" range of inflammation (due to Fibromyalgia so that was expected) and I am also PreDiabetic.  I have been there before and can get my numbers back down through diet and walking.  Coming off the holidays where I over indulged in way too many sweets and rich foods, this also does not surprise me.  Onto the frugal doings...

Scrapple and apples.

~Saturday morning I really needed to get out of the house for awhile so Jeff and I decided to go and do something on our "bucket list".  He had not been to Palouse Falls before even though he was raised in this area.  We stopped at Subway, bought 2 of their $4.99 footlong sandwiches and headed out.  We had a very cold picnic overlooking the roaring falls and even made friends with a groundhog.
~After being out in the cold, we wanted to get some coffee to warm up so we headed to Dayton, WA to a bakery there.  They closed early so we decided to just head down to Walla Walla, WA and went to the Goodwill store there.  I found another pair of my favorite brand of jeans, 2 shirts, a Wedgewood plate, and Jeff found a shirt and a golf club cover for his driver.
~We stopped at a convenience store on the way back home and grabbed some coffee and something to eat out of the hot deli case.
~Sunday we stayed home for the day and napped...oh it was lovely!
~We watched the movie "Old Dogs" that we already had here on DVD.
~Hot tubbing was a really nice way to round out the night.
~Monday Jeff and I headed into town to buy a new kitchen faucet to replace our's that was leaking.  Jeff found one on sale and got it installed before he had to to to bed in the afternoon.
~I picked up a few items at the Dollar Tree while Jeff went to the pet store to get more cat food for the kitties.
~Caesar and I managed to get a short walk in.
~Jeff was in need of more bread for sandwiches so I made 2 loaves for him.
~Scrapple has been on the menu for weeks now and I finally got around to making some.
~I'm layering up even in the house since the weather has gotten really cold again.
~We had leftover meatloaf and corn bread for dinner.  It really hit the spot and I needed the room in my refrigerator. ;)
~Tuesday started off as a beautiful sunny but cold day.  I got the hot tub maintenance done so that we could enjoy a good long soak later.
~We were running low on my homemade pancake mix so I got more of that made.
~I had not planned on washing all the living room throws, but Patches decided to hack up a rather large hairball on my favorite throw (which I found when I went to cover myself up with it...YUCK) so all the throws went into the washer.

Lamb chops and roasted russet and sweet potatoes.

~I got the last package of marked down lamb chops out of the big chest freezer to thaw for dinner on Wednesday night.
~With us expecting a big snowstorm to hit in the early morning hours Wednesday, I tried to renew a movie I borrowed from the library (that was due Wednesday) online.  It did not allow me to do that so I threw on a long winter coat over my nightgown, some shoes and drove down the 5 blocks to drop the movie off in the drop box so I did not get any late fines.  Luckily I live in a very small town where the sidewalks roll up early on school nights so no one else was out and about.
~Thursday was Valentine's Day and I wanted to do something special for Jeff.  I got a beautiful card out of my card stash for him and then made a really nice dinner of lamb chops, a Romaine salad (he actually threw that together for me) and roasted garlic russet and sweet potatoes.  Neither one of us likes to go out for Valentine's Day because the restaurants are noisy and packed, and they frequently raise their prices with their "special menus" for that night.  I can make us a really nice dinner that we enjoy for a fraction of the cost and hassle.
~Jeff took my car to work that evening because of the road conditions.  We did not want him to get in an accident or slide off the road.
~I again worked on my points programs.
~Thursday I had the leftover roasted potatoes, along with some cheese for lunch.
~Jeff picked up my thyroid medication and it is finally back down to just $4 for a 1 month supply.  Yay!
~Friday it snowed again so I spent the morning enjoying that and working on laundry and watching videos on YouTube from Our Half Acre Homestead.  Bev has wonderful videos on how to make tons of stuff from scratch, gardening, home butchering, and lots of other ways to live frugally.  She also has Fibromyalgia so I can also relate to her on that level too.
~I went through my piles of free magazines and got caught up on some of my reading.
~One of the Facebook groups that I am on, Fibro Society, recommended a movie on Netflix called "Unrest" that documents the lives of people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.  I could see so much of myself in it and was also very thankful to live in a country where we are not forcefully removed from our homes and put in mental institutions because people mistakenly think it is a mental disorder.

Shrimp Yaki Soba

   Not many pictures this week because I was being very lazy about taking any.  Sorry about that.

Flying Contraptions, End of the Cherry Season and June Grocery Budget Challenge Update

   

   Last night we heard a strange buzzing in the sky and looked up to see a strange flying contraption silhouetted against the evening sunset.  I'm not sure who it was but from what I gather, this is the second night they have been out enjoying themselves so it has to be a local person who got a new toy. :)  As fun as it looks, I don't think I would be brave enough to try it, even though the views of the rolling farm fields and town would be magnificent! 

  The end of a very early cherry season is upon us.  I am so very thankful for that! I'm getting tired of picking, washing and sorting cherries. ;) We have, at last count, taken about 36 gallons of cherries off our tree.  We have 2 large bags full still in our refrigerator.  I want to give some of those to my cousin this weekend since he was not able to make it out here to pick some for himself.  We have given away most of those gallons, froze 2 gallons and I have eaten some.  Sadly, my hubby, who does most of the work picking them, does not like them.

   Our June Grocery Challenge has gone really well.  I have now spent $146.26 on groceries.  We had to buy coffee, bananas, .49 a dozen eggs and a few other things and I stocked up on seltzer water when it was .69 a 2 liter bottle.  My budget for the month was $150.00.  I have a little over $3 left for the 2 days that are left in the month and I see no problem in not meeting my goal at this time.  Woohoo!  I have enjoyed this challenge.  It has forced me to get creative at times but having the garden producing has really helped.  I thought about doing one for July also and am pondering that idea, but I do have some major stocking up on sugar and canning stuff that will take a big chunk of the budget.  We still have lots of cheddar cheese, meats, baking supplies and canned goods so other than the stock up on canning supplies, we will need only some fresh veggies, bagels, some fruit that my hubby loves, lots of coffee ;), and a few other things.

   I do hope that everyone is finding ways to beat the heat.  Thankfully we should be going back down into the 80's by this weekend.  I got a bit of a sunburn yesterday after being outside for just a little while during the peak of the day.  I really should have known better.  I hopefully will not make that mistake again.

   Be blessed!

It's 1:30 a.m. and Sane People are Sleeping

   

   It's 1:30 a.m. and the lights in all the house around me are off. The sane people that live in them are sleeping.  Yes they are. Our house however is still has a soft glow coming from behind the living room curtains due to the lights still burning because although one sane person lives here, the other, not so much! 

   Sane people do the majority of their housework during the day, early evenings or on the weekends.  Me...I do mine late at night.  The reasons are two fold.  First, my hubby works the graveyard shift so he needs to sleep during the day.  I cannot be running a vacuum cleaner in the bedrooms or cleaning our master bathroom.  There is no hanging pictures and pounding nails into the wall.  Big reorganizing projects...well since I tend to drop things and sometimes rather loud and not so pleasant things escape my mouth when the object hits my foot (which I have broken in the past) cannot be tackled during the normal daylight hours.  I am able to do some cooking if I close the bedroom door for a few hours to at least muffle the sounds of the mixer but even that gets me into trouble sometimes.  My hubby, a man who clearly loves good food, frequently wakes up to the aroma of something good baking or cooking in the oven and then has a hard time getting back to sleep himself. Since he drives a long route at night, sleep is kind of an important thing for him.  So I do my stuff late into the night when he is at work.

   The second reason, that makes this all possible, is that I have insomnia and strange sleep patterns.  Most of the time, even if I go to bed at what most people would consider a normal time like 10 or 11 p.m., I will lay there and toss and turn for hours. I'm lucky if I can get to sleep before 2 a.m. on any given night and it is frequently much later than that.  Now, I will say this, if I am allowed to (by his highness Rufus the crazy cat or Caesar the needy dog) I will sleep until about 10 a.m.  This is a newer development for me because for years I was still up by 7 or 8 a.m. if I did not have to work and if I did, I was up between 5:30 and 6 a.m..  Do you see how this could pose a problem for me?  

   I blame menopause on all this...yes, things just got worse after I hit menopause.  So throw in the waking up soaked in sweat or throwing covers off and on for hours because one minute you feel like someone cranked up the furnace in your body to the "incinerate heat" setting and the next moment you realize that the temperature in your bedroom is in the low 60's so that you can hopefully sleep and you are grabbing for those blankets again and covering up before you freeze and you have a recipe for little sleep.  And yes, I do take natural supplements to help with the hot flashes...you should have seen how much worse it was before I started taking them.

   So if you have gotten this far you can most likely guess who the sane one in this house is and who the not so sane one is.  My kids always did say I was a bit crazy...well now they can finally justify that sentiment. ;)

   

Summer Bucket List

Have you ever made a Summer Bucket List?  Since I am a substitute teacher, I have my Summers off.  Every year I seem to have a dream list of what I would like to do with my time off but I never seem to get around to it.  It seems like as the years go by, time seems to just speed up.  This year I am determined to take some time to really nurture my soul and do some things that bring me great pleasure.  In order to hold myself accountable and really slow down and do some of these things I have created a Summer Bucket List. Some of these things are just for me and some are things that my husband and I have decided we want to do together. :)

~read the entire Wizard of Oz series of books
~go camping at least once
~work on making one of our guest bedrooms into a retreat and place just for me to escape to
~watch some of the many movies that I have here on DVD or even "gasp" VHS
~ try to spend at least one day a week with my grandson Bradley and my soon to be born newest grandson that is due in July
~plan some fun dates with my husband and actually carry them out (picnics by the lake or river, hikes, sunset dinners, etc.)
~take the dog down to the river and let him run wild and play to his hearts content in the water
~go and pick blackberries
~try at least one new recipe each week (I have a huge cookbook collection)
~try to have a bouquet of fresh flowers in the house each week
~go to the Farmer's Market at least twice a month to get fresh fruit and veggies that I do not grow here at home
~take my camera with me more often to capture those amazing moments that you come upon and want to preserve
~spend more time with my MIL and FIL  
~explore some of the beautiful sites in our area that I have yet to see

How about you?  Do you have a bucket list for the Summer? 

  
 

Sometimes You Need a Good Laugh!

   After dealing with some rather stressful things lately, my husband and I just needed a good laugh last night. :)  Luckily we had just bought the dvd "Meet the Fockers" yesterday at a yard sale.  We already had "Meet the Parents" so last night we popped them in the dvd player and escaped into the craziness of the Burns and Focker families along with a few of their colorful friends thrown in for good measure.  I love curling up with my husband and laughing until it is hard to breath and our stomachs hurt.  We were up until midnight and at the end of the second movie my husband turns to me and says "We need to get the third one too!".  So now I am on the lookout for a good deal on "The Little Fockers" so that we can do a whole "Focker" marathon this Fall.  Sometimes, especially when dealing with lots of stress, you just need a good laugh!

What is your Guilty Viewing Pleasure?

I think most of us have a guilty viewing pleasure on TV or in movies.  No, I am not talking anything X-rated here. ;)  I think I am typical of most women in that I like the funny love stories, the cooking shows, home improvement shows, certain sitcoms, etc..  However, I also have a secret guilty viewing pleasure that only my family knows about. ;)

 

Yes folks, natural disaster movies are my guilty viewing pleasure!  I have always been fascinated by weather and natural events.  I blame growing up in Hawaii with an active volcano and the movies Wizard of Oz and Shangra La for the start of my deep rooted addiction.  Lately I have been staying up late into the night watching these disaster movies before I go to bed.  I get all comfy cozy on the couch, cuddled under a blanket, cat in my lap and I escape into the natural disaster Hollywood style world.  The cats love this but I think the dog is a bit disturbed by my viewing habits and frequently goes into the bedroom to go to sleep without me.  She will come out to check on me periodically and gives me that "seriously mom?" look.  I also think my husband is secretly relieved that I choose to watch most of these movies while he is at work. ;)

So folks, what is your "not have to be censored";) Guilty Viewing Pleasure?