I'm almost ready

I have presents under the tree, and that tree is fully up and decorated. 

I have the stockings filled and ready to set out tomorrow night after my company has left. 

I baked my Jewel cookies and packed a few different cookies away in the freezer for gifting. I have also delivered most of my  gifts to friends/neighbours. 

I peeled and cooked my sweet potatoes and turnip ahead of time. They are waiting to be reheated tomorrow night for dinner. I made a list of last minute items that need to be picked up tomorrow for the menu. I will get a good night's sleep so I can make a mad dash tomorrow morning  to .....

At least in the public rooms where my company will be seated and or walking around. Mind you, they all know that the last three weeks have been difficult for me to get everything done that I would like to do. My Sweetie is very tired and sore, but is doing much better. We are more than happy to have him home for Christmas.

And so it is Christmas. Tomorrow I will have 8 people around the dining room table who are near and dear to us. On Christmas Day, we will travel to Smith Falls to my Brother's house and celebrate Christmas dinner with his family. On Boxing Day, we may have my daughter and her family with us here, or I may be in Cobourg at my mom's Retirement Home in discussion with staff there. I just found out there is a new development there that has come up this week. So far, my sister and her husband have been dealing with everything by themselves this week because I had been dealing with my own issues. In any event, we will see my daughter and the grandkids sometime over the holiday season. I will be exceptionally busy over the next few days as you can see, so I will extend my warmest wishes to you and yours over this festive season. I will get back to you next week sometime. 

Sweetie Pie is home

The tree is up and decorated.

My hubby is home. He is feeling so much better. I know that I said a blog post was coming, but I am drained. I am turning in early tonight. It was a long day in the hospital and suddenly I am feeling very tired. I will catch you up tomorrow morning....sometime. 

A quick update

This is not a regular blog post. I hope to be back on here later today with any news. I am off to the hospital now to see my Sweetie Pie. I am hoping there will be test results. They kept him in hospital over the weekend to take the fluid off, and come up with a regular low dosage that he can take regularly. The fluid in his lungs MAY be the result of his weakening heart. He sounds so much better on the phone and is looking to come home today. We shall see. In any event, I will have more news later.

A Quiet Day at Home

Walnut marmalade mini loaves cooling

I have been a little worried this past week about my Sweetie Pie. He has been coughing. He has shortness of breath. He has been feverish and not sleeping very  well. He has talked to the Transplant team and he saw his family doctor this past Monday, but no one has been able to help. Finally, this morning he called a friend to take him into the Emergency Department at Kingston General Hospital. He didn't want me to drive him because as he explained. "You have enough to worry about." He never seems to realize that sitting at home not knowing anything is a thousand times worse. I certainly didn't feel like baking. I had a doctor's appointment myself early this afternoon, so he told me I could swing by the hospital afterwards to bring him home or find out what is going on with him. 

Well, I am relieved to report that they admitted him. They now know that he has been battling a lung infection and they are dealing with it. This has taken a load off my mind. 

So later today  (since I had the Jeep), I decided that I was going to run some errands and do some last minute shopping  that I have been holding off on because my Sweetie wasn't well enough to run me around town. Not that he needs to drive me. He wants to take me around to my errands and shopping because it is one of the few ways he feels like he is helping out. He really does not have much stamina to help me out at home. He cannot stand for long, or walk very far, but he can drive. Usually, I could give him a list and off he went. But lately, that has been problematic. So he now takes me where I need to go. I picked up more baking supplies, so tomorrow I should be able to get back at it. Photos and news of my hubbie to follow.  

Baking Day

Oatmeal raisin cookies....not very Christmas-y,  just plain good. 

No tree yet

Oh Christmas tree!Oh Christmas tree! You will be the death of me.

I don't have photos for you today because I have nothing to show for the work I did.  I vacuumed half the living room today and started to set up the Christmas tree. As I added each section of tree and "fluffed out" the branches, I would test the lights. When I got to the top of the tree, the lights did not work. Now I have to go out and buy a string of 70 lights to restring the top third of the tree. Darn it all. I have the worst luck with Christmas lights. Have I mentioned that I lost half of my stars that I hung out across the porch last week? I am not happy about it. They are not cheap. 

Well, I guess I do have one photo for you. 

Another week closer to Christmas

Backyard lamp post

I use to paint my windows when I had kids at home. Nowadays, I just hang  lights up....so much easier.

Christmas update

Cards for my littlest ones.

My refrigerator called out in agony

All my BC gifts were shipped out yesterday and they are no longer in my house. Yay! That is a big job done. It will take any where from 5 to 8 days, so lots of time. I also ordered  a birthday gift for one of my granddaughters from Amazon a week ago and it is expected out west today. I didn't get her birthday card mailed though. Just like I didn't get the kids' Hallowe'en cards out this year. I made them. I just didn't get them in the mail. Everything seems to take up more time this year. Do you think it might be because I am getting older? Say it isn't so. The good news is....all the cards are made early for next year. 

Mashed turnip for supper tonight

Priorities

Baked apple crisp

Oh my gosh people......I am so sorry that I haven't written in a week. I have been so focused on getting all these Advent presents bought, wrapped and shipped out for this week, that there are days when I scarcely have time to change my clothes. Ewwwww  gross. This morning I got up and made a different kind of priorities list. Remember back a few weeks ago when I got four huge bags of apples for free. I did up two right away. I made pies, apple sauce and sliced apples for the freezer . The other two bags of McIntosh I left for later. Well, since returning from Cobden,  I baked up three apple crisps which we ate right away. Last night I noticed that I have lost most of the apples that were left . I managed to bake up another apple crumble, and put enough sliced apple in the freezer for baking later. Usually I peel and slice 4 large apples for a crisp, but these apples are so tiny and damaged, that one pan takes about 12-14  of these smaller apples by the time I cut away the bad parts. I feel really badly about all these apples going into the compost bin, but I did manage to save some of them. I just did not have time to process them all. I love getting free apples, but they arrive in the Fall when I am busy trying to get other things accomplished. 

Other things on my priority list today included cleaning out the cat litter bin. We use the clumping litter which makes daily cleaning up very easy; but every once in a while, you have to dump everything out and fill up with fresh litter. So that is done. 

I picked off the rest of the chicken meat from the thighs that I cooked yesterday. I used some of it last night to make a chicken stir fry over rice noodles. The rest of it is in the freezer to make a chicken pot pie sometime this week. And the bones have been simmering in the crock pot to make a chicken soup for this week's lunches. 

I had to wash a load of towels this morning. I also had a couple of laundry baskets of clothes that needed  folding. I still have some items that need to be done, but I may carry them over to tomorrow morning when I will have more energy. I haven't vacuumed in a week, which you can't ignore when you have both a cat and a dog. I have six very large butternut squash that I have to prepare for a Special Meal the last Sunday in November for our street people who come to St. Andrew's Church. I will cook and mash them for the freezer, so that they will only need to be reheated in the crock pot later. I also put writing a blog post on my list of priorities. 

Last Sunday, I went to Belleville with a friend for a day of shopping. I processed all the photos that I had taken in Cobden so that they could be put into a photo album. I also found a few more items for the kids' Advent calendars. I can report that I have 144 little presents wrapped and ready to pack for shipping. Here are examples of two that are going to University students. . I have to put those 24 little presents into that photo box that I picked up at Michael's. I buy a few when they go on sale  "5 for $10". When Christmas is done, they have a box to keep things in. After a little creative packing, everything fits. 

For my oldest granddaughter. Her stuff fit much more easily. 

The things I pack for the youngest children will not fit inside a shoe box. Their gifts tend to be bigger and bulkier, so they will go into bags for delivering. Also, the "stockings" that I send to my kids, their spouses and my parents must also fit inside these boxes for mailing.  

On the weekend, a group of us went over to Amherst Island for our annual Christmas Craft day and potluck supper. It is always so much fun and we accomplished a lot. We made several different types of crafts for the Christmas Craft and Bake sale which will take place this coming weekend on the Island. I will show some examples next time. Have a great evening. 

More photos of my trip away

Little park in Eganville

We did spend a couple of days driving into surrounding towns Eganville and Renfrew to do a little shopping and visiting the small gift shops to see what they had to offer for sale. I did buy some items in the gift shops, but my shop of choice was a Main Street Dollar Store in Renfrew (not a chain store like Dollar Tree or Dollarama), so I was able to find a few different items I hadn't seen before. These are already wrapped up and recorded for my Advent calendars. After a morning of shopping, we stopped into this little tea shop where I ordered a hot homemade beef barley soup and a Chai Vanilla tea for lunch. It sure hit the spot. 

Tea Shop in Renfrew

A group of women had just left when we arrived. They had been celebrating a special occasion like a birthday or shower. I loved the lace curtains, wainscotting, tiny wallpaper print and all the lovely paintings on the walls. It reminded me of  Grandma's House. I also loved that we got to choose our china teacup from the buffet. 

Tall pines on one of the many walking trails on the resort. 

Not all the trees had lost their leaves

Love the orange against the clear blue of the sky

This particular day the water was as still and clear as glass.

One of the zip lines cross over the lake. 

We spent the last day enjoying the scenery and the walking trails on the Resort property. It was very quiet and a time of rest and reflection. It was a perfect way to end our girls' week away. Lots of pictures and memories to fill our growing stack of albums of all the trips we have spent together. 

Algonquin Park

We spent an entire day driving to Algonquin Park and then through the park from end to end, always hopeful that we would catch a glimpse of bears or moose just off the highway. There are a lot of different trails to walk throughout Algonquin, which is where you are more likely to spot wildlife, but we didn't have time to do that since this was only a day trip. The only stop we made was at the Visitors' Station. We had a picnic in the car, since we found it too cool to eat outside. (braver people than us were eating at the picnic tables.) We had a cup of hot tea in the restaurant before visiting the indoor wildlife displays, the movie theatre and the gift shop.There was lots to see and do during the couple of hours we spent here.

We traveled through the park under a very gray and overcast sky. 

Most of the leaves here were finished, but the scenery was still very lovely. 

A spruce bog

Tree shape and leaf identification

Black bear exhibit at the Visitor Centre

The only moose we saw this day were in this exhibit

It was after 7:30 by the time we made it back. After driving almost 200 kms, it wasn't until we were in the driveway of our resort, that we met a large doe......the only live animal that we saw all day. We got back in time to see the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Kansas City Royals.

Our time share in Cobden

Coming down the drive to our villa on the far left.

I am back and ready to start Christmas

It's free. What can I say?

Hello Girls' Week-end

Tomorrow at noon, 5 of us women are leaving for Cobden. Three of us will stay on for the whole week. The car I will be travelling in will take the longer scenic route and picnic on the way. The other car will stop for shopping along the way. The timeshare that we are renting won't be available until 4 o'clock in the afternoon. So this morning after the Costco pickup, I headed to WalMart where I figured I could pick up everything on my list . I needed some toiletries, groceries, dog food and wine. Where else but WalMart sells all of the above. Let me tell you about my best find in groceries. 

Four red peppers and four green peppers for $1

Frugal happenings today and weekend update.

Shopper's Drug Mart  Gift card balance is $22.58

On Saturday we picked up 6 bunches of broccoli from Food Basics at 88 cents each for a total of $5.28. I don't have a photo because I processed the vegetables right away. I took some to my brother's house and the rest is already chopped and frozen. Total grocery spend to date is $198.91
We also made a shopping trip to Shopper's and used our gift certificate to buy 4 litres of skim milk, four litres of 2%, 2 loaves of bread and 2 dozen eggs.

 I also cut my husband's hair with the clippers, saving us the cost of a visit to the salon.

Mince with brown gravy, chili con carne and shepherd's pie

Today, I made freezer meals for the boys to have next week. There are roasts in the freezer, as well as pork chops and leftover turkey, so they won't starve. Tonight I have made a chicken stir fry over ramen noodles.

I picked up the garbage from all the bedrooms and put just one garbage bag at the curb this week. I also put out the Blue Box (cans, glass and plastic containers)

I took the kitchen compost out to the compost bin beside the garden.

I folded yesterday's laundry. I washed a super load of dark clothing and hung them outside on the line. I also stripped the beds and washed the sheets to put in the dryer tonight after 7 P.M. 

I forgot to mention that my Dad was released from hospital on Sunday. It was a case of severe gastro enteritis, but he is feeling so much better. And so am I, knowing that it wasn't more serious than it was. Have a great evening. 

Busy weekend

The weather this past weekend was absolutely gorgeous. Silly me, I spent most of it indoors. Saturday I should have been outside because there was no where that I was expected to be. I was finishing up my stash of Thanksgiving cards. I didn't mail any out this year like I usually do, so I wanted to make sure I had enough with me to bring to friends and family I would be visiting with this weekend. Below is the stash I made.

Handmade cards

My son and his GF, with my husband's help, pulled the  trailer bed up closer to the back of the house.It used to be a 16 foot travel trailer, but they spent many weekends demolishing it down to the floor frame. 

Exterior

They ripped everything out of the aluminum trailer and decided if there was anything worth keeping. I think they saved the old hardware and hinges from the kitchen cabinet doors and the aluminum itself to cash in at the recycling plant.

This is all that is left to start building their Tiny House. Have you heard of them? 

 

One of our fabulous Thanksgiving meals. 

Sunday we drove to Charleston Lake for a 2 P.M. dinner for 10 people. My friend always serves a banquet of vegetables with her turkey and dressing. This year was no different ......carrots, corn, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnip, squash, brussel sprouts, and coleslaw. And dinner doesn't start until I arrive to make the gravy. I don't know how many years now I have done this. My friend can make gravy, but it has become my job. For dessert  there were sugar cookies, chocolate chip and gingerbread cookies, apple pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and of course, pumpkin pie.  

Yesterday before we left home  for Smith Falls at 12:30,  we went to vote at the Advance Poll and stood in line for a full hour. I will be away with the girls next Monday on Election Day, so it was imperative that I cast my vote before I leave. My husband decided to vote with me, so he doesn't have to go out next Monday.  It will be very interesting to see what the voter turnout will be this time around. 

 My contribution to the meal was  3 bunches of broccoli with sauteed red, orange and yellow strips of pepper. You can see my dish right behind the two bottles of wine. Behind my dish are two beautiful cauliflower that my brother roasted whole, with a coating of mayonnaise and Parmesan cheese and sitting in a tomato based sauce. Yummy.  There were nine of us for  this late afternoon turkey dinner. We started with a creamy potato and leek soup and ended with apple pie, pumpkin pie, or apple crisp. I got my fill of pumpkin pie over the last two days, which will have to last me until next year.  

This morning I put the other three bunches of broccoli that we bought Sunday morning into freezer bags. I peeled all of the tough broccoli stems, and chopped up the tender broccoli stalks into another freezer bag to use up as veggie sides or to add to soups and stews. I also froze the tough stem peelings to simmer with other peelings to make veggie stock. I had saved the turkey drippings from the roasting pan last weekend, after taking off the fat, and today I made it into a huge pot of turkey vegetable soup. I added some pieces of turkey meat  I had saved in the freezer. The soup was done in time for me to have two servings for my lunch. 

The day had started out with rain, but when the weather cleared, I washed  up a super load of whites and lights and hung them outside. I fried two pounds of ground beef with peppers, celery and onions to make some meals tomorrow for the boys while I am away next week. I am cooking up a third pound of ground beef tonight as a meatloaf for supper. I should be busy in the kitchen for the rest of the week. 

Happy Long Weekend

Homemade pizza last night

Another shopping trip to Food Basics

Meat and proteins.......$26.92

Boneless, skinless chicken was on for $3.44 a lb. I don't usually buy chicken this way because it is expensive, but I decided to splurge. Bacon was 2.88 and the four 1 lb. packages of lean ground beef was $15. The ground beef was not on sale but I am completely out. Omega 3 eggs were on sale for $2.47 a dozen but they were sold out. There will be more tomorrow.

             Produce and juice.........$ 4.34  

Each cauliflower cost  97 cents each. The grapes were on sale for 97 cents a pound.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Dairy........$12.42

Gay Lee whipped cream was on sale for $1.99. The blocks of cheese cost $3.97 each, and the spreadable cream cheese was on for $2.49.

Household cleaners.............$12.99

This dishwasher detergent is usually $4 more. Although I don't need it right now, I took advantage of the price. I have made my own dishwasher detergent in the past, and I will use it in a pinch, but I do not like it as much as this stuff. This comes out of my grocery budget. 

Hallowe'en candy...........$38.97
Miscellaneous.........$13.36

The Hallowe'en candy comes out of my food budget. Do I need so much? Yes I do. Because we live right on the Main street of our village, we often get well over 100 kids. I generally give out 2 bite-sized candy bars or 2 small bags of candy.  If there are any left, I will use them as candy gifts for the Advent calendars. The bandaids and toothpaste would normally come out of the budget as well, but in this case, I will wrap them up as Advent gifts. The money spent on these will come from another source.

Total groceries spent today is $95.64
Total spent to date is $193.63

I also stopped at Michael's with a 50% off coupon to pick up some red tape (super strong adhesive tape) for putting my little boxes and Christmas packages together. I also picked up a couple of items for Advent gifts. I am feeling very tired. I want to lie down for a bit, but I also need to wash, cut up and freeze my three heads of cauliflower. I should also shred my cheese for the freezer. Otherwise, I may discover it gone before I can use it in dinner recipes. I'll sleep first, then work. 

Dinner last night at my friend's house was so delicious. She made a wonderful salad and quiche from which  she shared the leftovers with me at the end of the evening. I had the quiche for lunch today, and there is enough salad for me to share with my guys at dinner.