Getting Things Done

It's a lot of fun to go out and buy something brand spanking new but, somehow, the thrill and novelty soon wears away and it's just another possession.  But when you use your wits and abilities to make something out of otherwise useless materials, the pleasure and pride lasts a long time.  At least that  is the way it affects me---Dorothy Blake, Woman's Day Magazine, August 194-

new, thrifted, repurposed and family pieces at my desk...

In My Home This Week: Planning Ahead

In my home this week...

...I started planning for Fall.  I wandered about Hobby Lobby looking for autumn floral picks to use in my home.  I tried to choose seasonal things in soft golds and well worn greens and colors similar to what we have most often in autumn here.  I went back to the fabric department to look for velvets to use to make those cute pumpkins on Pinterest.  No pumpkin-ish colors were to be had, but I found two lovely pieces of heavy material that I think will be pretty to use instead.  We'll see how they turn out!

Am I getting ahead of myself in planning for a season that is roughly a month away?  Am I hurrying summer away?  Not at all!  I'm just tired of waiting until Autumn is well underway before I start looking for things to use to decorate my home.  Then I'm stuck with the garish stuff in the dollar stores or what I've got leftover from umpteen years ago.  This year, I'll have something fresh and new.  I'm going to start looking for stuff to do wreaths with, too. I'd thought cotton bolls...but guess what?  NO cotton left at Hobby Lobby and yet I saw just loads of it three weeks or so ago.  And that is why I was out buying autumn floral picks a month early...So I could choose what I wanted instead of returning and finding it was down to the leftovers!

Living Frugally and Well: Over One More Mind Hurdle

Saturday:  Made a Dutch Baby Pancake for our breakfast this morning.  It is not the recipe I used the first time I made this.  I couldn't find that one and so I pulled one from one of my cookbooks.  It tasted just fine.  It did not, however, turn out as it ought to have done.  I shall read through several recipes and try and determine what went amiss.  I did this after I made an Armenian Nutmeg Cake last week and one cook had within her recipe a hint that no others mentioned.  Having looked at all the recipes I am certain it was not mixing nor ingredients that were at fault, but was instead in assembling the cake.  I am sure I can figure out this Dutch Baby failure and will make notes in the book about it.

Cooked a corned beef in the crock pot this morning.  I opted to leave out the pickling spices, rinsed it and then put in the crockpot with water enough to almost cover it.  This resulted in a milder flavored corned beef that I quite liked.  It shrank a great deal in cooking, but I guess I'll have enough for sandwiches off it.

In My Home This Week: Push Push Push

In my home this week...

...We attended a memorial service for nephew Jason this weekend.  It was a quiet, calm, peaceful service.  Though it was a private service meant for close family and friends, the church was filled.  Jason's likeability came across in the wide range of people who were there:  Bikers, cops, business men and their wives, people who were very casual in dress and people who weren't.  There were only a few tears.  Oh he shall be missed!  There is no doubt of that.  But I think by the time the service came around, everyone of us, save his widow and mother, stepfather and brother were beyond that deep shock that shook us all and grateful...YES...Grateful we'd had the opportunity to know him, to be touched in our lives by him.  

It's funny, too, how one views one's own family.  My brother's ex-wife, his ex-girlfriend,  ex-wife's new husband, step-children...Well family just sort of extends into a lot of areas in the end.  Whether we mean to or not, we embrace people in our lives and when they move into a new life often we are still attached in some way.  So Jason's family was part of ours, and Ashley's step dad and his mother, and Phoebe's children from a previous marriage are ours, as well.   We were united through marriage and birth and death and say what we like, they are family and will be.

Living Frugally and Well: Change of Perspective

Saturday:  I made up a batch of beef fajitas for our dinner today.  I used bell pepper strips from the freezer, some thin sliced sirloin I'd cut into strips and an onion.  My seasonings were all from the spice/herb cabinet.  It was tasty and filling.

I made 'yellow' rice, using some ground turmeric.

I used a free can of refried beans as a second side dish.

A Quick Note...

It was brought to my attention yesterday evening that sometimes the ads showing up here on the blog were questionable.  Fortunately Iris had taken a screen shot and could show me just what she meant.  I too found it objectionable.

I want to apologize to any of you who might have seen such ads.  I am not able to see the ads when I'm signed into my account, which is about all the time.  I can't click on any ads with my computer because of the user agreement I have with AdSense.

I would like very much to receive some sort of earnings from the ads, so I won't be cutting them out.  I put a lot of my time into this work and I would like to see some sort of monetary return on it.  That said, until Iris brought it to my attention I was unaware that this sort of thing was showing up on this blog.  I very much believed that the ads reflected content and there was NOTHING in any post to suggest that the content would generate such an ad.

I was able to refine the settings and hopefully this will work to discontinue any such ads showing up.  However, I am going to enlist your aid.  If you see an ad that contains nudity or is suggestive would you please jot down the URL and message it to me?  I can then block that particular seller's ads and prevent further problems and embarrassment.

Thank you ahead of time for helping me in this.

Iced Tea Chat - Eclipse

Hello dears.  Come in and have a glass of tea with me, won't you?  I'd offer to sit outdoors but, sugar, it is like a steam sauna.  I'm not a fan of sauna and cannot imagine ever willingly entering one.  I think it's quite enough to experience the Georgia summers!

So much on my mind and heart these days.  I'd meant to take time out to sort out my head and then was thrown a complete horseshoe curve with Jason's death.  That opened another whole set of thoughts.   My head feels crammed full of unopened mail, all just stuffed in and crumpled and too tight to fit another thing.

In My Home This Week: We Go On

In my home this week:

...Sometimes the hardest thing is to go on.  We had a tragic loss in our family last week.  My niece's husband died.  He turned 26 the same day and leaves a 3 and 4 year old daughter.  The disbelief melted into shock, the shock into grief for such a young life lost and as the weekend went on, acceptance slowly sank in.  This morning, I woke with gratitude that I'd been allowed to be a tiny part of a brief life.  It will be a longer time before his mother and dad, his brother and sister in law, his wife and family, can come to that place.  

I don't normally share this sort of thing but if you're on Facebook there is a Go Fund Me set up for Ashley and the girls.  This I is a young mom and the family had no insurance for final expenses, nothing set aside for the future.  Katie set up the fund to benefit the little girls really and I would so appreciate it if you'd contribute to it.  Just message me on Facebook (Terri Cheney) and I'll send you the information link, if you'd like to contribute. 

Living Frugally and Well: Rainy Day Savings

Saturday:  Katie texted that she'd be down to visit today and I wracked my brain trying to decide what to have for dinner.  I took some things from the deep freeze last night.  I finally decided on a new to us recipe and sending the frozen Pineapple Sweet Chili Chicken home with her for her supper.

My dinner was from Pinterest and now I can't find the recipe anywhere.  It was breaded chicken breasts that were pan fried and then a lemon and cream sauce was made and served over pasta.  It was pretty good!  The chicken breasts were thick  heavy things, so I filleted them and set some aside for later in the week.  We just didn't need that much meat...Though after watching Taylor reach over and take her mom's I might have served that little eater a bit more.

Made up a big bowl of salad and put toppings in smaller covered bowls.  We should be good for a couple or three salads.  I took a hint from Rhonda at If You Do Stuff with making the salad and toppings ahead.  I have found I will eat a salad when I'm on my own if the lettuce and toppings are all ready in the fridge.

August: Slowing Down for a Bit

I may slow down with posts for a little while.  I am just not bouncing back after I get tired these days and I am sure it's a combination of being busy in home, busy with family and the new schedule.  I hate to admit that it's knocked me for a loop this getting up twice a week early but combined with poor sleep, it's just hard and that's truth.   I find the older I get the less able to sleep I am especially if I know that an alarm is going to sound off.  As well, the lack of proper time alone to restore has been of consequence.  I am grasping at family times as often as I can because I know this is a very short season.  After all, I have three children starting school this year and two starting school next year.  Childhood is a fleeting time anyway, and when it comes to grandchildren it seems to go four times as fast.

In My Home This Week: Wet Dog Days

In my home this week:

...I have finally gotten near the finish line for July goals.  I haven't forgotten all about August, though.  I did make some headway on the next area of the yard this past week, since I hadn't materials to finish off the Faith tree bed.  What is my next area?  It's two areas actually. 

One is the long bed in front of the back porch.  Maddie dug quite a deep hole at one end which is filling with rain water like nobody's business. It's muddy and mucky and some of the bordering rocks and iris that were there fell into the hole.  I noted last week that weeds were taking over that bed rapidly.  I didn't put down a thick layer of mulch last year.  I got all of the weeds up and next I plan to plant the iris I took up from the Faith tree bed at one end.  This will mirror the opposite end of the bed.  

Living Frugally and Well:

Saturday:  Bess brought in a bag of peaches the other evening when she returned which she wanted to share with us.  This morning they were nicely ripe for eating. I made peach pancakes for breakfast.  That is a summertime treat for us.

Bess and boys left later than planned.  I had never done anything about dinner yesterday and didn't feel at all up to going into town to purchase food.  John was too tired, as well.  Fortunately I had those pre-formed burgers in the freezer which thawed quickly.  I cooked German potatoes to go with the burgers.  It was simple and easy and required little clearing up.

Both beds got stripped and linens were washed.  We used the dryer today.  We had a crazy weather day with lots of heavy rain, then sun, then more rain and more sun and heat and then more rain.  It was less stressful to use the dryer!

Closed curtains on the sunny side of the house to keep heat outdoors as much as possible.

Iced Tea Chat: Just Peachy

Hello dears.  There's peaches.  Try a few slices in your tea.  I think you'll find it very refreshing!

That's my second gift of peaches in two weeks.  God knew I just needed some sweet nearly  local Georgia peaches.   Bess brought in a bag last week from Dickey Farms in Musella and Mama purchased these to give me on Monday when I took her to her favorite farm stand in Montezuma.  Both places are within 30 miles of home, so I think that qualifies as 'local' peaches.  I sure do mis my own Taylor County peaches though...Anybody interested in buying a peach shed and orchards?  It's up for sale...

I had a cup of peach ice cream at Brown's and I must say I don't really care who makes it, peach ice cream is GOOD.  This one had tiny little chunks of peaches and the cup from Dickie's had peach puree mixed in the cream base.