Journal of the Second Week of December

 

Dec. 7, Saturday:  It was a very relaxed day overall.  Just what I wanted and needed.   But do you know I spent most of the morning out of sorts and irritable.  Working on genealogy took me out of myself and my overall dissatisfaction with life.  I had absolutely no reason to feel as I did except that I very much didn't want to be at home today.  Yet I do not care in the least for crowds and hustle and bustle on weekends and most especially not in December!  There was no reasoning with myself, so I gave up and did something productive.

Something I've promised myself was to work on genealogy.  Knowing we'd be busy tomorrow afternoon; I determined I'd work on things today.  I was so pleased with all the information I was able to add to my pages.  Quite a lot more than I'd anticipated. That's twice now I've had a most excellent day of research.

Meals: Bagels and Croissants

Butternut Squash with Creamy Sausage and Spinach

Chicken Nuggets, French Fries, Hush puppies

Dec. 8, Sunday:  We went to early service today.  And we were quite late getting there.  I guess we'd better stick to second service from here on.  John really missed it anyway.

Then we headed over to Katie's.  Cody made us brunch.  We didn't mean to eat with them today, but we ended up eating and it was quite good.  

We had a lovely time visiting with the children.  Henry is now cooing and smiling and spends far more time awake and looking about.  I enjoyed watching him with Taylor.  He did his utmost to charm her with coos and smiles and when she'd say "Hi!" he'd try hard to make the same "Hi!" right back.  

Caleb was not much for me today.  He was all about Grampa.  He needed new shoes having finally grown out of his boots and he asked specifically if his Mama would buy him black boots like Grampa's.  Well, he ended the day with a new pair of black boots, which made him super happy.

Meals:  Breakfast Sandwiches

Brunch at Katie's

cannot remember...

Dec. 10, Monday: I got the tree decorated today.  The colors work all right together but it's not quite right yet.  What I would do if I had the funds!  Never mind.  It won't be any more Christmas if I have more to decorate with, nor any less if I don't.  And that's the thing I truly need to keep in mind!  But I would like a tree topper.  I have absolutely nothing that will go on the top of my tree.  That I think I can certainly manage to get that this year.  Personally, I'm partial to a gold star on top of a tree...

I put the new floor mat down in the entryway at the front door and it works just fine.  The backdoor doesn't sit as high somehow so that mat didn't work inside, but it works fine outside the door.  Rufus likes his new 'bed' just fine....In the meantime we continue to sport pumpkins on the mat inside the backdoor.

I don't even really recall what I did do today.  I think I spent it working on more of the Advent posts.  I asked the pastor to pray with me that God would help me finish this series and when we got home yesterday, I tapped out something 7 posts just quick as anything.  I have one more to go.  So I worked on editing and checking those and adding to the ones I'd written as well as beginning work on this last one.  I was glad to get that work under my belt.   

It was a tremendous help that I had a good long spell of quiet time this morning, because John didn't awaken until nearly 9:30.  I'd been up a good two hours by then.  

In the late afternoon, John wanted to place an order for something Caleb had specifically requested, a harmonica.  He ordered through a place he'd ordered from before and used PayPal to check out.  For whatever reason our bank declined the transaction, twice!  It was only a $14 charge, but they refused it because they didn't recognize the dealer... This led to more upset and fussing and strife than you'd think possible.  I began to get very anxious myself over the agony going on and tried to help John sort it out.  I'm telling you he has the worst technical woes.  

This year alone he's been refused access to Facebook three times and has had to change his emails to get in.  It's not an offense he's committed at Facebook that got him banned either.  It's just that suddenly they don't recognize his sign-in information.  Ditto with his email account.  He's gone along just fine and suddenly this email or that won't allow him to sign in, saying it doesn't recognize his username or password.  

Well yesterday's debacle wasn't John's fault.  But in trying to get him to check his email to see if the company had sent a note to him there, it apparently went to an old account he no longer uses because it was the last email the company had on file.  He couldn't remember his password, nor find it in his information.  

Later he decided to sign up for an app Katie had suggested he get on his phone.  Agony.  A-G-O-N-Y.  I took over and entered the necessary info, then later it prompted me to re-enter it and then when we went to use the app, it said, "That information is not in the system you need to enter it."  ARGH!  Honestly, I do not understand why so much drama has to occur with this stuff.  And yes, it's mostly John who must deal with it.  I struggle much as anyone does, but John's transactions with anything to do with technology is ridiculous to an extreme.  And again, I assure you it is not his fault!  He's not pushing buttons he shouldn't or anything like that.  It just acts up whenever he gets near it!

Meals: Cereal and toast for John, Granola and Yogurt with chopped fruit for me

Sub Chopped Salads

Pot Roast with Vegetables, Green Beans, Mashed Potatoes

Dec 10, Tuesday:  I do not know why things have to be difficult.... I really don't.  This morning, we got up reasonably early, and while I was waiting on my coffee to brew, I started breakfast.  I was clearing up when John apparently decided to tackle that app again.  We ended up having a major argument.  He is always super anxious when he's doing this sort of thing and yes, he's prone to get upset and fuss at me.  I had no idea what he was doing.  If I had, I wouldn't have bothered to answer him, I'd just have stepped out the backdoor as though I hadn't heard him at all.  Wish I had done so!  

I hated it twice over because we were both upset, and he was planning to leave home to lunch with his friend and who wants to argue before having a day out?  Neither of us, I assure you.  In the meantime, it began to pour with rain.  

I had planned to go out myself while he was gone but nothing like looking over bank statements to give you pause and say, "Well, maybe not..."  I'd planned to go pick up a few items at the discount store, had determined I'd run by the dollar store and perhaps to Hobby Lobby to look for a couple of items that should have been relatively inexpensive.  But in the pouring rain?  Blech.  

After John left, I went over the checkbook one more time and decided absolutely no to going out.  Then I went out to the shed when it stopped raining to see if I had any ribbon out there.  I did.  Not the sort I wanted but it's worked out quite well enough to finish off the tree, along with a handful more of blue ornaments I rounded up.  Mind you it's not the right shade of blue at all, but it's fine, it's all dark blue enough to pass.  Now I do need a tree topper, still.  I'd hoped to make a big bow from the ribbon, but they were dollar store rolls of ribbon and barely had a yard on each, so not enough to make a garland for the tree and make a bow, too.  

I'd rather have a star...so that's okay.

Due to the rain, I didn't dare cut cedar to bring indoors to decorate the tops of bookcases, mantle, buffet and table.  I knew everything would be too wet and messy to work with.  Floral foam was something else I was hoping to pick up at Hobby Lobby...Oh well.

I received a coupon from Chewy the other day.  I knew I was about to restock cat food and it wouldn't be nearly enough to come up to the dollar amount required ($49) to use the $20 coupon.  As I sat at the desk this morning, I was fretting because I have asked at least three times when we were out to run by Tractor Supply, or Publix, or anywhere to buy bird seed.  It occurred to me to look at Chewy to see if I could buy wild bird seed.  Oh yes, I can!  I went through Swagbucks (earn 6%), which also had a $10 off coupon, used the Microsoft Cashback app to earn another 6%, and Rakuten to earn yet another 5% back.   Altogether, with cashback earnings and coupons I managed to shave the bill in half.  And then Swagbucks sent me a reminder that I could load my e-receipts up to their app to earn still more Swagbuck rewards.  And I haven't even entered my receipts into Fetch yet.  

I wish I could get Ibotta to work well for me, but I've had far more success with these four programs: Swagbucks, Microsoft Cashback, Rakuten and Fetch.  

While John was gone, I wasted my time by putting on a movie.  I found an old film called "Holiday" with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn on Amazon Prime, free with ads.  I'd never seen or heard of this film before, but it was quite good.  A drawing room comedy, definitely taken from the stage to the movie screen, I think.  It begins just around the Christmas holiday and finished up shortly after New Year, but it has nothing to do with either of those holidays...  Watch the movie if you can and you'll discover how the title comes into play.  

It's raining again.  John is home from his lunch out and brought in ice cream to have as a treat for us.  I have an entree pulled from the freezer for supper.  It's about 5pm, raining and looks dark outdoors...I missed going out today, but I wouldn't have been happy in rain with traffic all about and likely wouldn't have found any of the things I wanted anyway.  I seldom do.  I have these ideas in mind, but they never come to fruition because about the time I'm thinking of them we're smack in the holidays, and they are sold out or not in stock to order...And as I said yesterday.  It won't be more or less Christmas if I don't have exactly what I want.  

I should start planning my decor in July, like they do at the White House.  Then I'd have months to fret over what I couldn't find or afford, lol.  

Meals:  Smoked Sausage, French Toast

Shrimp.  I keep some frozen fish or shrimp on hand just for me and on the days that John is gone, I indulge in something I like, and he doesn't.

Mexican Lasagna, Corn, Green Salad. 

Dec. 11, Wednesday:  Goodness but it rained and poured and pounded last night!  And this morning when we woke, I could hear the wind blowing hard from the west.  As I expected when I got up, it was colder, and the sky was clear and sunny.

We have had another financial discussion in our household.  Again.  It was necessary to go into our savings account and withdraw money to put in our checking.  We did not argue but John and I have a totally different view of savings.  I believe it is there to help when it's absolutely necessary. He believes it is there for perpetuity, never to be touched. Thankfully he is too well aware that I won't touch savings unless it's a hard necessity.  Come first of the year, we'll be making some changes so that we aren't dipping into savings.  One of those will start today.  John wants to go on vacation, and I've always scraped and scratched to make it happen.  I told him that this year we have to commit to putting aside a portion of our allowance each month.  

The cold windy day made it a prime time to make bread and put that pot of soup on to cook.  The kitchen had steamy windows which is always a sight that makes me feel especially cozy when it's cold.  I used a portion of the roast I cooked for supper last night. I didn't think it was quite enough meat after all when I'd added in all the other ingredients, so I cooked a half pound of hamburger and added to the pot.  When I say that we'll easily get two more meals off that soup you'll see that the additional meat was called for.  I have made all sorts of homemade soups of late but in the end, I truly love good old vegetable beef (or Kitchen Sink) soup best of all.  This was the soup Mama always made.

I loved Granny's Chicken and Rice soup but alas I don't know exactly how she made hers.  It was thick and meaty, but a good proportion of meat.  Mine has always seemed a bit skimpy compared to hers.  The rice was almost creamy.  Granny she likely used nothing but salt and pepper to season it.  I don't recall her ever using anything but salt and pepper in seasoning savory foods.    I suspicion she cooked a whole boiled chicken as the base of her soup, too.  Granny might roast a chicken, but it was rare when she did.  She generally boiled chicken.  She also boiled her ham.  

I sent off my Christmas Card to Josie last week and included the recipe for Carrot Cake as Mama used to make it.  I explained to her that I was included Mama's recipe for the cake (albeit that it's made with cake mix) but what I really wanted to share was the frosting, which has been unique to my family since my childhood.  I don't know anyone who makes the frosting the way that we do.  It seemed fitting to pass that 'secret' on to my granddaughter since she requested cards with recipes in them as part of her Christmas this year.   Well, it turned out that she was thrilled with the recipe because Carrot Cake is her all-time favorite.  

The day has gone on.  Honestly, it's been the speediest day I've had in ages.  Tomorrow will be a busier day.  We'll run errands and get a few groceries, namely I'm going to try to make sure I get all that we need to have on hand for Christmas day.  I always feel I've accomplished something when I have my dinner items tucked away a couple of weeks ahead.

Meals: Toast, Buttered and Cheese

PBJ, Cheetos.  I came mighty close to heating leftovers, but I had some loaf bread in the freezer (homemade bread was still in the process of being made) and realized that John would be thrilled with something simple.  And he was.  

Soup, Cornbread.  When I said simpler meals this month, I truly did mean it. This soup was so so good!  And there was absolutely nothing to making it really, just chop a handful of items and open a few cans and done.

Dec. 12, Thursday:  Yesterday was such a testy sort of day what with conversations we'd rather not have, juggling figures, time jumps that ate the day right up.  So this morning, I was pleased to wake a bit earlier.  I'd told John the plans for the day the afternoon before, so he was well prepared for what we were going to do today.

We left home about the time I figured we would.  If only John were motivated to leave early and get home earlier in the afternoon, but he is not.  He's very leisurely as long as we don't have set times or appointments that we must keep.

We stopped in the next town over to drop off mail.  The outdoor mailbox was taped shut on the front and wide open on the back.  John backed up into the proper parking area and I went indoors.  The whole time I was at the counter, a doorbell kept ringing.  I'd noted it had rung when I walked in and I was a little confused when it kept right on.  "Does that ring all day, or..."  

"What's it to you?  I'm here all day!  You aren't."  

"I thought perhaps I'd touched something or not shut the door properly to make it ring." 

At this point the postal worker stares at the ceiling and says, "It's just my flies.  Me and my flies, all day long..." in a dreamy sort of voice.  At that point I just wanted out of there!

We went to Macon to Sam's Club today since I had general needs and there were no sales to mention for the past two weeks.  I did not get everything on my list.  Either I'm missing things entirely due to people being int he same area or there are outages.  Not sure which it is, but it's quite all right.  I got enough of the things I wanted, and in a supply that will last us for quite a bit. I'll go back in February and at that time I'll buy things I didn't buy this time or the tie before.  Most of what I bought today I had recently seen on sales ads and I knew the prices, so I was assured I was paying no more than where I routinely shop, and oftentimes, a bit less.  

I seem to be changing up the way I shop.  I suppose it's mostly the lack of sales that's led me to this place. I bought absolutely nothing last week at all.  The week prior I bought milk on sale and two weeks before that we did a big stock-up.  It's getting to be more of a once-a-month shopping trip. cocktail sausage portion of Christmas morning, but not the orange Danish.  

We were through shopping in under 40 minutes...but we spent nearly that long or longer standing in line waiting to check out!  If I'd had only ten items, I'd have done self-checkout.  As it was our buggy was piled up and I had no desire to plan the scan, scan, scan, error, call a manager, scan, scan, scan, error, calla manager game.  I will say that though the line wound to the back of the store (!), people didn't complain or carp or snap...but they didn't brook a line breaker either!  One poor guy came along and said, I just want to get a gas card...NOBODY said a word, except the one person well behind us who said, "There's the back of the line," and pointed to the back.  

After Sam's we drove down to Publix so that I could pick up prescriptions, lunch of some sort (and as it happens supper) and a couple of really good sales (Marie Callender's Blue Cheese dressing, which is John's favorite and the bacon I couldn't find at Sam's).  We did our banking and then headed home.

John unloaded and brought into the house.  I helped to unload and then unpacked and put away all but the baking items I bought (flour, sugar, brown sugar, confectioner's sugar).  Those all need to go to storage in the back closet.  I keep a bin and my buckets there.  They might fit in the kitchen if I shifted stuff around, but that is not something I want to do at this time.  

I divided the large packages of things that will just clump if frozen so that I can retrieve only what we want.  I'm glad I took time last week to sort out the freezer when I was working on that inventory.  I removed a lot of frozen food from plastic containers and packed it in plastic bags.  That freed up some space, as did getting rid of a few very, very, very old things.  That netted me enough room to put today's purchases without struggling to make room.

After groceries were put away, I had hot tea and John had coffee.  It's just cool enough to make that hot drink mid-afternoon seem especially nice.  Then I went to work with my receipts and checkbook.  I wrote out the funds we spent today.  Entered my receipts at Fetch, Ibotta ($0, as usual), and Swagbucks.  I did rather well with Fetch and Swagbucks. Despite all the shopping, I have a modest amount of grocery money left in the grocery budget.  After that I sorted out our allowance and we made our deposit into the vacation fund.  

It was a full day. Thankful we had an easy supper for tonight.

Meals:  Toast and coffee

We snacked.  Slim Jims, crackers and water brought from home.  Later we shared a container of popcorn chicken we picked up.

Leftover soup, deli case sandwiches. I have enough soup and sandwich left for one more meal.

Just curious if any of you shop just once a month and fill in with the very best sales, or do you shop weekly?  

And just a heads up, come January, I plan to do my annual Pantry/Freezer challenge.  Anyone care to join in?

Dec. 13, Friday:  I have been so busy today.  I got out of bed, dressed and socked right into kitchen work.  I didn't sit down for nearly 2 hours after I got up!  Then I had a brief rest and went off to start my Friday home blessing tasks.  Then I got busy doing something extra, which went right into culling items from the freezer, putting away the baking items we bought, and making lunch.  It's now 1:15 and I've just sat down again.  I don't think I'm going to finish the extra work.  I think once our lunch is finished baking, I'm going to snug into my chair for a long bit.  

The house is looking well, and I'm sort of somewhat aware of what we might have for supper...Vague, aren't I?  I don't know what I might actually want this evening. 

Yesterday, we looked for some things for Christmas.  I wanted the tree topper; there's a couple of sweets we like this time of year...Sam's Club didn't have a single tree, wreath or anything of the sort.  They had half an aisle of ornament sets, a few boxes of garland and that was all.  We didn't see either of the seasonal items I thought we'd get.  

Then I found one on Kohls' website. To be honest, it was not my favorite, just something I settled for.  Cheap and not too garish but definitely not what I wanted.  I was stumped though because shipping was more than the star.  Mind you shipping was $9, and I actually caught myself in a rather silly debate.  I needed to spend 'only' $39 more to get free shipping.  For half a second I seriously considered looking to see what else was on sale.  Truthfully stupid on my part, to think spending $39 more would offset the $9 shipping costs.  Equally as silly as the fact that the star I really wanted was $50 and would have been 'free' shipping, lol.  I talked myself down off the cliff of overspending and emptied the cart and went away.

So later last night I went to Amazon and ordered a soft peppermint sticks, a tree topper similar to one I really wanted at Kohls for the same price as the one I was going to settle for, along with two navy velvet pillow covers to replace the rust velvet ones I've had in the living room for fall and some other item we needed.  I had a gift card from September (Thank you very much to those who use my Amazon link!), and I paid less for all of it in the end than I'd have spent on the star I was going to settle for and shipping at Kohls.  Everything was in stock, all said they'd arrive in the next week. I was happy.   Later I got my order confirmation, and the tree topper suddenly wasn't available for shipping until after Christmas!  I cancelled the order for that item.  

I haven't found stockings (none at Sam's Club) and when I woke in the wee hours last night with an aching knee, I debated what I'd feel stockings with.  I'm at the point where if I don't get stockings or a tree topper, I'm fine with it.  I'll keep looking and if it's later in the month, I'll just try to find things and tuck away for next year.

It's not that I don't want those things, but I meant it truly when I said I wasn't going to be fussed about things this month.  I don't want to waste energy over things that don't really matter and ultimately no star on the tree or a lack of stockings to hang will ruin our season.  Nice to have but not necessary.  The hours of enjoyment brought by the lighted tree, and the glitter of the ornaments has been such a pleasure.  

I'm going to work my way slowly through getting the bread sorted out for the freezer.  Though I make homemade bread, and we eat it about 85% of the time, we like to keep a couple of loaves in the freezer in case we are short on homemade, or the end of the homemade loaf has gotten a bit dry for sandwich slices.  I put a short sheet of waxed paper between every four slices (two slices for John, two for me) and then I can pull out just that little when we want it.  The last I bought has kept very well in the freezer over the last two months, but I knew I had less than half a loaf left.

In order to make room for all the fresh bread I did something I will rarely do but I'm sort of preparing myself for a fresh start of sorts for 2025.  I threw out the old broth the other day.  Today I pulled out all the end pieces and unused partial loaves of rye and such and tossed them.  I also emptied the basket of the remaining bananas I'd frozen.  I'd realized this morning as I looked at that basket that those bananas were nearly 18 months old.  Obviously, I am not going to use them, so they are going into the compost. Taking at both those items freed up all the space I'll need to get the bread safely stowed in the freezers.

I've had a nice hour or so rest, so I shall go get the breads separated and into the freezer, then I'll finish at least half of that project I started this morning, which basically involves loading up the wagon with things to go out to the shed, but I doubt I go to the shed today.  I've just told John we'll have leftovers for supper tonight.  There are plenty of those in the fridge.  I need to figure out meals for the weekend ahead and then I'll get to work on my plans for next week's meals and work.

This week went by as quickly as the first week of December did.  I hope that the third week will slow down just a bit.  I feel like this month is going so fast that it will be gone before I blink twice.  

Meals:  Gingerbread Waffles, Bacon

Homemade Pizza

Leftovers (a variety) and possibly a salad

Have a lovely weekend.

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