This Week In My Home...Migraine Version

 This week in my home...

Ugh.  I woke with a headache this morning and the thing has stuck with me all day long.  It's a migraine but I don't have the horrid headaches that I used to have with them.  These days the migraine manifests with a very mild headache but a general feeling of malaise, tension in my shoulders and neck, a bit of nausea, a desire for intense quiet (so you know my husband has been super chatty today) and a hypersensitivity to aromas.  I nearly lost it over a bar of Zest soap.  This shall pass, I know and if it's not done with by bedtime I'll drop some lavender oil on a soft cloth and breathe in deep.

Nevertheless, a plan for the week ahead must be tended to and rightly so.  No one wants a free for all week in this house.  Our stores of meat are getting very low and I need to use all my thinking powers to stretch what I have until I can get time and money together to visit the meat market.  Groceries must be bought, bills paid, money saved.  February will be a hard month for us.  Car tags, property taxes and and four birthdays in 29 days.  Yep.

Assigning Value To Our Days Frugal Friday, End of January

A manicure done for me by Katie.  She used gel polish and an LED light to set the coats.  This is one hard wearing manicure.  I'm duly impressed by how well it has held up over the week.  

January 23:  We left home today to visit with Katie.  I knew her planned menu and carried along Parmesan cheese and bread for garlic bread and a peach cobbler I made with peaches I put up two summers ago (still perfectly good), as well as whipped topping from the freezer.  I loved pulling items off my pantry shelf and not having to stop to purchase.  Oh and I can't forget I brought along my own whole wheat pasta  for myself (John ended up eating that, too) to help keep my blood sugars fairly stable.

We stopped and picked up mail on our way out of the drive and I found I'd been chosen to receive a free Wanda Brunstetter book because I'd written her a quick note.  I was very pleased with my new free book!

The visit was lovely.  Katie offered to do my nails and I decided to go daring and chose a color that surprised her.  Pretty teal was my top choice and Katie chose the accent nail color.

I took along the package of items I'd meant to mail off to her...You can tell our trip was last minute can't you if I had a package sealed and ready to mail?  That saved me about $12...which happened to be what it cost us in gasoline.  It was a very worthwhile trade and a prime example of what I mean when I say I saved money to 'use elsewhere'.  I'd much rather have driven up to see Katie and taken the stuff along than send it off and not seen her!

Katie gifted me a plum colored eye liner she didn't care for, which happened to be something I'd put on my mental shopping list.  I love when things work out that way.  Another moment of savings I can use elsewhere.

In My Home This Week...

This week in my home...

Winter has finally arrived here in Georgia.  That means it's cooler, what we'd call cold, but some of you might snicker at our idea of cold.  It's winter because it rains far more often and seldom a week goes by without at least one full day of showers and sometimes more often.  The propane truck came Thursday with a delivery of gas and left black scars on the lawn.  No complaints.  This too is normal for soggy ground this time of year.   The weather men tell us there will be snow, a chance of snow, no snow, well maybe snow...  It is not weather conducive to getting outdoors and doing much. It is perfect weather to rummage through drawers and closets and cupboards and reading good books.  It is weather for hot cocoa and grilled cheese sandwich suppers and pots of popped corn for snack.  It is the right weather to snug into a cozy sweat shirt and pants and a stack of vintage magazines.  It is the right weather to read a big deep book from which you wake with a sense of having been in reality and finding yourself now falling out of it.  I find I'm liking winter rather well at the moment and I mean that sincerely.    We'll see how I feel about it come end of February...

Assigning Value To Our Days on Frugal Friday

Homemade biscuits...Yum.  I learned long ago to add whole wheat flour to my biscuit dough ( you can substitute up to half the flour as whole wheat but remember when you use whole wheat flour to slightly increase the liquid) back in our low carb days so that we can treat ourselves occasionally.  Glad I did, as it's nice for diabetic diet as well.  Sure were good this briskly cold morning with a spoonful of sausage gravy.


January 16:  Kept it simple today.  I couldn't completely prepare our dinner ahead yesterday but it took only minutes this midday to have it all ready.  I made calzone using some meatballs I found in my beef basket in the freezer, some leftover sauce from a spaghetti dinner a couple of weeks ago and variety of cheese from the fridge.  I priced ricotta yesterday ($3.99 for a 1 cup sized container) and cottage cheese (2.99 for a half pint, both at local store).  I opted to not buy those items and used what I had on hand as a substitute, a little dab of Neufchatel cheese which added the creaminess I wanted in the calzone without adding a ton of fat or calories.

Spent the afternoon perusing some of the vintage magazines.

Applied for a free subscription to Family Circle magazine.  That's a savings of $12 at most subscription rates.

It was so nice outdoors that we opened windows and aired the house a little bit.  It kept it from getting stuffy indoors and necessitating use of the air conditioner.  Such weather we have in Georgia!

We tag teamed the kitchen this evening.  John made supper of pan fried hot dogs (reheating leftovers) and I made his work lunch sandwiches.

I Wonder As I Wander, Winter 2016

A fat yellow bud is dangling on one of the daffodils.  It is in a spot where by rights it should be the last to bloom as it's facing due north and is in a shaded spot.  But no...it's getting ready to burst forth in joyfulness, not at all caring that it is far and ahead of the other daffodils who only this week sent up stems with gently swelling heads.  Watching it there in that spot, in that shaded, cold spot that rarely gets sun, makes me wonder why I have struggled so with blooming where I am.

My growing conditions are hardly difficult...well there are worries here and there but you know what I mean.  I have a decent home and have been blessed to make it as beautiful and lovely as I might with my limitations.  I have a loving husband and altogether a happy abiding place.  And I'll grant you I'm about 90 times happier where I am today but two years ago?  In this exact same place?  Grumble, grouse, weep and gnash teeth, complain complain complain...

What changed?  I decided to bloom where I'm planted.  I was always waiting for the next move, a move that hasn't come in 20 years and from all appearances may never come.   I'm not sure why I was so certain that this was not a forever place.

Oh maybe it's because I had such high hopes and dreams when I moved here.  It wasn't just about giving my children the land to play on as I'd had as a child.  It wasn't just about being nearer Granny.  I'd thought, I'd hoped, I'd reconnect with my brothers.  I'd hoped to resolve the stony (because rocky hardly begins to describe it) relationship with my mother.  The children grew quickly, oh too quickly!, and moved away and Chuck took his life, Mama and I continued to struggle, and my younger brother made it more than plain that he had no need of me in his life, not even as a distant acquaintance.  Grandchildren were born and lived far away.  No third generation to run and play and imagine here as I'd dreamed.  And Granny died.  So many dreams gone kaplooey.

We went to the mountains on vacation about two years ago.  While we were weaving our way around a stony old mountain face, I spied a wildflower growing out of the face of the rock.  Just that one flower, right smack in the middle of heaven knows how many tons of granite.  How that seed lodged there and found enough nutrient to bloom is only God's knowledge because it is beyond mine.  That was the vacation I spent weeping and moaning and being angry about how disappointed I was to find myself in this place in my life.  That flower brought me up short and it made me determined to find my own way to get my roots down into where I am and bloom for all I was worth despite the disappointments and losses and hurts.  It made me determined to make my house a home and to stop treating it like a temporary lodging place, putting off doing those things that would make my soul sing simply because I might move off and leave them one day.  Like planting daffodils...

Waste Not...Frugal Lessons

This photo from some time back but I've just heard on "The Kitchen" on FoodTV that you can freeze whole lemons, limes and oranges.  They said just to thaw in the fridge, or if you want to zest them, do so while frozen.  You can also microwave for about 15 seconds if you want to thaw quickly so that you can juice them.  And here I'd thought I'd had such a great idea freezing lemon juice in cubes and slices of lemons.  To be sure they took up a lot less room...And can you imagine getting bonked by a frozen orange that rolls out of the freezer?  ouch!

 I really enjoy "The Kitchen".  I like the pace of the program which is a bit quicker than most food shows and I like the chattiness of it.  I also love the quick hints given here and there.  This week's program was called The Savings Show, so you know I had to tune in to hear that one.  I do look for new ways to save on an almost daily basis because honestly being frugal is my nature but it's also my hobby in a way.

In today's episode it was stated that the average American wastes 20 pounds of food a year.  Now I'm personally sure that you, like myself, have worked pretty hard to lose nowhere near 20 pounds of the foodstuffs in your home, but remember that figure is an average.  However, having just tossed about a half pound of Brussels Sprouts due to their extreme bitterness and unpleasant texture after freezing, I can tell you that I am not immune to wasting food here and there. It happens to all of us.

Retirement Remedies: Winter Wardrobe Options

                                                     
It's time for a seasonal change and time I pieced together a few things for real winter weather just in case we actually have some.  Mind you, here in the deep South we don't get the negative readings friends further north get, nor do we very often find ourselves in snow, so my wardrobe is naturally a little lighter than some of you might wear but it's definitely 'bundle up' sort of wear for me.

I'll start with the camel wool coat Mama gave me which fits me just so.

It will be especially nice over these next two outfits I think:

The one above is meant for a dressier outfit.  I paired my own short sleeved sweater vest with along sleeved shirt Virginia gave me (more terracotta and less peach than the photo makes it appear) and a vintage crocodile handbag.  The pants are a plaid lined wool pant that Mama gave me as a pants suit.  The jacket does nothing at all for me, being both boxy and collarless and I've skipped it entirely. You can get a better idea of the pants below.