Holidays Coffee Chat: Ho Ho Ho, It's Nearly A New Year!

Oh Hello!  Miss me this week?  I missed you, too, but it was nice to take a bit of a break.  I've been UN-decorating the house, taking down and putting away Christmas things.  And then of course, I wanted to refresh the living/dining room/and entry doors but I ran out of steam before I got done.  When I run out of steam, inspiration seems to die down hard as well.  But do come in, don't mind the messy weather and is your weather being seasonal in the least?  Ours isn't.  Normally it doesn't look like the photo above either but it typically doesn't look like this:

Yep.  It's either quite warm and sunny or it's pouring rain.  And I do mean POURING.  We are at flood stages in all the rivers in the mid-state area.  Our yard is so soggy that Blossom walking across it causes a squelching sound.  On the other hand when the floods abate a bit, the heart shaped puddle shows up.  Remember that?

In My Home This Week: Holiday Week

In my home this week, I:

...plan meals

Steak, German Potatoes, Broccoli, Wedge Salads

John was given two extra steaks the other night at the work party.  I'll reheat them but all else was on hand.

On my own

Chili, Cornbread, Orange and Onion Salad

Pot Roast with Vegetables,  Tossed Salad

Chicken Stir Fry, Brown Rice, Oranges

to a friend's home for dinner

Brisket, Corn on the Cob, Coleslaw, Carrot Cake

This Week In My Home: Working to Save

Making do, so I can wear it out...John's repair of the rocker makes it serviceable once again and I'm not at all displeased about that.  We bought a two piece package of chair brackets which cost us a grand total of $2.73.  These rockers (sold at Cracker Barrel) are $160...The math works very well for me!

Saturday:  Our family holiday didn't work out.  Katie's moving this coming week into her very first home of her own.  Overwhelm set in with packing, baby and holidays all crowding in upon her.  With less people here, there was less food needed, so some things went back into pantry/freezer to be used at a later date.

I ran a full load of dishes before going to bed.

John did a late last load of laundry.  He hung many things to dry but did put our company's things in the dryer so they could get them packed up.

Sunday:  We saw our guests off and then, since we were up earlier than usual, we tackled household chores.  This meant we had the whole afternoon free when we returned from church.

Retirement Remedies: Fourth Quarter Report

Despite worries and hefty expenses, this year is actually ending on a better note than it appeared we could possibly hope.  I'm so happy to report that and I feel optimistic about the coming year.

In October, I discovered my lab costs were not being paid by the insurance company.  It seems they were not a preferred provider.  I was shocked.  Six months of labs every other week and sometimes weekly had really added up to a hefty cost.  I'd have loved to have known this information early on, but apparently even the hospital was unaware of it.  I reluctantly changed to the preferred provider and the insurance is now paying all but pennies of each bill.  I haven't yet received billing from the hospital but I did tell you all in late September that bills trickle in.  I'll stand in trust that when the billing arrives we'll be able to pay it.

I'm currently paying down an inpatient bill in increments but each month we've just managed to have a nice sized enough payment to satisfy the billing service and we've not dipped into savings nor increased our loan in order to pay any bills.  I have a small medical bill fund that I add to each month and it's always just enough.

Christmas Decorating 2015

Several years back, John insisted we should put up our Christmas tree on Thanksgiving evening.  Prior to that the tree never went up before December 15 and took a week to put together, string lights and decorate and it came down December 26 and that was the end of that.  Now we put it up Thanksgiving evening and take it down by December 31.  We've really stretched out the enjoyment of the tree in our home and I for one appreciate it a great deal.

All this year I've actually planned how I would like for the house to look in the holidays.  I've been happy with my farmhouse look overall and more and more I'm pulling in vintage elements and rustic pieces.  That's exactly the sort of things I've pinned to my Holiday in the Country and Holiday Table boards, too.

Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, I went out to the shed to fetch my Christmas bins.  I gave a good look around while I was out there and suddenly I had this vision of what my Christmas decor would be this year.  It has nothing to do with vintage.  It has nothing to do with rustic.  It doesn't have anything to do with the green/white/brown colors I'd thought I might use at first, nor the silver and white with emerald I'd been thinking I'd really like to try.  And if we start with the back door where everyone comes in, you'll see the wreath I made on Thanksgiving Day.  It hasn't got a thing to do with what's going on inside of the house either.  Nope.

Coffee Chat: Pre Christmas Lull

Come in and let's sit down with a cup of coffee and a homemade cookie...What will you like best?  I've got Magic Cookie Bars which I made with a bit of a twist this time...Stove top cookies and Sugar cookies as well.  I confess the Sugar Cookies are my absolute favorites.  It's the best recipe for Sugar cookies I've had to date.  The Magic Cookie Bars were made using graham crackers but I didn't quite have enough.  So I crumbled Matzoh crackers and added those to the graham crumbs.  I was a bit nervous about that sleight of hand in using what I had.  These cookies are one of Sam's favorites so I told him right off what I'd done.  He said, "Ooh!  I'll bet that will be good!" And it was.  The slight bit of saltiness, the decreased sweetness of the crust, makes a nice balance with the rich topping.  I'll have to buy Matzoh crackers again next year to make these cookies.

Well the family week/weekend came and went.  I didn't get to see Katie and her family after all and I won't even lie that I wasn't a whole lot disappointed, but I did understand her need to decrease stress in her life...You see she's moving into her first house of her own this week and packing and moving and baby equals a stressful time.  Dear Bess did it during June all on her own with our almost 1 year old grandson, as Katie was busy recovering from surgery and tending to her baby and I was in the hospital and Sam was already working in Florida.  I was, I admit it, rather proud of Katie for being woman enough to see that she had to prioritize.  I'll also own that while I was deeply disappointed my pride nearly busted that all to pieces anyway.  It took me forever (as in until June of this year when I had that little life changing experience!) to learn to say NO and mean it and to omit those people who created the most stress in my life from having too much space in my life.

I have always been a people pleaser of the worst sort, the sort that just went off the deep end and fell apart while trying to spin every single plate I was handed.  And I am the sort who is always left standing about wondering just why, when I've tried so hard to please, no one ends up feeling the least bit pleased with me and I am even less than pleased with how things turn out myself.  No, I'd much rather Katie admitted to overwhelm and prioritize her life needs rather than try and please me and end up being miserably aware of all she might be doing were it not for a four hour road trip and a two hour family visit.

In My Home This Week

In the Blue House this week I...

Have been wishing the weather was more seasonable...  Temperatures have been closer to the 80's than the 50's you'd expect this time of year and the grass is green as summer grass very nearly.  I can plainly see buds on several trees.  I find all this very worrying, as the last time we had out of season buds on a tree in the yard we had a hard cold spell and the tree died.  I'm not keen to lose these big shade giving trees at all.  Still...what can I do?  The weather is very much out of my control!
I confess I was much amused by my Florida family's response to the weather.  Seems compared to their daily temperatures it was cold!  Well all righty then!  At least one set of us was happy with the weather and their much amused dad and I kept quiet and let them enjoy the cooler weather they'd so looked forward to finding, even if we felt it worthwhile to turn on AC in the mid-afternoon hours.

Happily this week it returns to the normal temperatures for this time of year.  I suspect the propane company will be more than relieved.  Usually they've been by to touch up our tank at least once at this time.  I'm sure they need the business...and we can't forget my number one concern for cold days and nights: PEACHES!

Plan meals...