Another Grocery Shopping Trip

I went out to No Frills this morning to pick up some canned tomatoes and ended up spending another $63.70 on food. While I was out, I decided to put $50 worth of gas in the van.

 Produce (fresh and frozen) cost $29.92  I bought two eggplant, mushrooms and 4 sweet peppers. I bought another 2 kg bag of frozen blueberries, 3 bags of stir fry veggies and one of cut green beans.

 Dairy cost $7.92

 Pork ribs were only $1.98/lb, so I bought this package for $7.25

I spent $18.61 on pantry items, almond butter being my largest expense at $8.97  I am hoping I will not have to do another shopping trip next week, but we will see.

I dropped in on my Dad and "Dee" once again and took over three Rubbermaid  bins from my basement for "Dee" to use on her decluttering mission. She gave me some cheese and garlic biscuits she made (they're keto), and they were really tasty. I will have to get her recipe for those and also for a dry rub she makes for her spareribs. I am not a very adventurous cook for just myself. But she and my sister have found some great keto recipes on Pinterest, and I get the benefit of their experiments.

When I got home I made grilled cheese for myself and then sat on the computer for the rest of the day. I did absolutely nothing this afternoon. I'm so upset with myself. I feel bone weary, so I should have just gone to bed for a nap, since I accomplished nothing anyway. Tomorrow is a new day and a fresh start.

Daybook: Monday, February 10/20

I had a busy start to my day. It is currently 8:20 in the evening and I am just now starting my daybook post. I am writing this just before getting ready for bed.

Outside my window.....it is pitch dark. I can see lights on in the townhouses across the street and the snow is glistening under the streetlights. The snowbanks are a little bit higher tonight because people were out today shovelling their driveways.

I am thinking.....that must be why I am feeling so tired this evening. I went outside around 9 AM to clear my drive.

I am thankful for.....another visit from my friend and her dog. We have decided to make Monday mornings a regular visit. We have a hot cup of tea and a really good visit. I think her dog was glad to see me this morning. (I hand out doggie treats). I also received two cards in the mail today and a lovely long email from a SIL who I haven't seen in quite a while. At lunchtime, my sister arrived for an afternoon in the craft room.

From the kitchen.....I roasted some chicken legs for dinner and ate them with some garlic green beans. I had blueberries and yoghurt for dessert.

I am wearing.....blue jeans, a pink striped button down shirt and striped socks.

I am creating.....another mini album, this time decorated with some masculine print papers.

I am going.....to bed, shortly.

I am hoping.....to accomplish some deep cleaning this week. I have started my Spring cleaning but it is progressing very slow-ow-ow-ly.

I am hearing.....the blower of my furnace. At 10 PM, it will automatically turn the temperature down to 62 degrees. I like sleeping in cooler temperatures.

Around the house.....I have a box of books in the living room that "Dee" delivered to me today. I have a casserole dish on the kitchen counter that needs putting in the fridge. I was waiting for it to cool down. I have some papers left on the dining table that I haven't put away yet from working on my mini albums.

One of my favourite things.....is the wing chair I am sitting in right now. It is the chair that everyone gravitates to when they come to visit. It is situated right in front of the big living room window and has a great view of the street outside. From here I can rule over my kingdom.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....include some cleaning, a tiny bit of shopping, and some more writing and crafting.

Here's the picture I am sharing.....

 The front of my place... taken before I moved in.

 The back taken from the lower decking. Yes, it has a wheelchair ramp.

The side yard, where I will be putting in a flower bed in the Spring.

Snowy Sunday

Today was a lazy, snowy day. I didn't feel like doing much. I will probably have to shovel the drive tomorrow morning, but today I just wanted to stay indoors and work a little on a mini scrapbook I started yesterday at the craft group. It is made with 5x7 black envelopes and prefolded cards that can be picked up at Michael's. Other than that, 3 12x12 inch black card stock sheets are needed as well as some coordinating decorative card stock for decorating the pages. I have created 3 page assemblies which will hold 56 (plus) photos and journaling cards. I haven't figured out what to do with it yet, but it will likely be a gift for someone when it is finished. There is still a lot to do before it is complete. Other than that, I have washed a load of dishes, washed my scoring board and made a keto loaf.

This week, I added more cards to my stash and mailed out all the kids' valentines. I would like to mail out a couple of  birthday cards and "Thinking of You" cards again this week. On the deep cleaning, I would like to empty out all my pantry shelves and scrub them down and organise them a little better before returning all the items. I need to get back downstairs to finish going through my filing bin and shredding more papers. If I can get all of that accomplished, I will be a happy lady.

Main Living Area

There were things that had to get done today, so that is how I started my day. For Christmas, from my brother and his family, I received a vacuum sealer.  I brought that out onto the counter to package up the ground beef I bought this week. Since I cooked some up for dinner last night, I made up seven packages for the freezer with what was remaining. I also chopped up most of a cabbage and sauteed it in butter. I cut up the fresh cauliflower into florets, and  divided it up into two freezer packages. And while my sister came over for a little while to work downstairs, I stayed upstairs to get these things finished.

I have taken some photos to show you the dining room, kitchen and living room.

 I did not bring any of my dining furniture with me. I had decided to leave it for the buyers of my old house when their agent told me that they were just starting out and would appreciate my leaving anything for them (instead of tossing it out or giving it away). I had already had 5 yard sales by this point and had taken van loads of stuff to the Thrift store, so I did decide to leave the dining furniture and all of my everyday dishes. My thinking was that I could buy what I needed from the Thrift Store here. Well my sister bought me my dishes and glassware as a housewarming gift. You can see the pattern hanging on the wall there. She also gave me the table and chairs seen here from her basement. "Dee" found this stunning china cabinet for me in a private sale for only $75.

To the left of the dining table is the hallway down to the bedrooms. To my immediate left is the doorway to the kitchen, which you are unable to see from this photo. The first door on the left off the hallway is the door to downstairs. I brought very little furniture with me, but I made sure to bring most of my crafts, pictures, and sentimental decoration. It is a very good thing that I was ruthless, because I still ended up with a lot.

 Now, when I spin around 180 degrees, we are now looking at the living area at the front of the house. That is my red leather couch, my round table and my wing chair you might recognise from the old house. My coffee table was too big for the space, so "Dee" gave me a glass top table that fits much better.The lamps were bought at a second hand store. I bought the table lamp first. When I saw the floor lamp, I had to get it because they look like they could be a matched set. They are not.

 Across from the couch is an entertainment unit I bought for $50 to hold my TV, CDs and DVDs, some books, games, extra serve ware for the dining room, and other miscellaneous pieces hidden away. I brought with me the green leather chair in the corner, the wooden chair, the area carpet. It seems strange to me now that I brought all manner of decoration, but hardly any furniture. I guess that is because the decoration has meaning for me, whereas I didn't have any idea what kind of place I would be living in. Will my furniture fit the new rooms? Will it fit in the moving truck? Can I buy it cheaply once I find a place?

Now, if I turn 90 degrees to the right, you will see the doorway into the kitchen . The door straight ahead is the side door from the driveway.

 Walk through the doorway and to your right is the eating area of the kitchen. I do not have a table and chairs in here yet. I kind of like the open space right now. I bought a little DIY kitchen cart on wheels where I have set up my coffee station. The shelves underneath hold baskets of stuff. There is also one very narrow drawer (much needed) Look at all the great cupboards against the wall. They hold appliances, paper goods, cleaning supplies and a food pantry.

All those tall cupboards and this stackable laundry unit fill the back wall. There is a large kitchen window here and shelves to hold boots, shoes, and my kitchen compost pail. Those yellow bags hold salt. You cannot run out of salt up north. Very crucial.

 Turn to the left of the side door and you will see the small galley kitchen. There aren't many cupboards, so you understand why I love my wall-to-wall storage in the eating area. That funny little cupboard door that is facing you is a spice cupboard. I love that. There is another kitchen window above the sink. At the end of the counter space is my brand new dishwasher.

 Across from the sink is the stove and fridge and tiny little drawers. That appliance next to the teeny tiny drawers is a useless defunct garbage compactor. The drawers and compactor will be soon replaced by a 30 inch base cabinet (with bigger drawers, hopefully) Right now the top of that counter has a micro wave oven on it (which was one of the first things I bought when I moved in) The kitchen is NOT the best feature of this house, but you will remember that my last kitchen was tiny and there was NO eating area in it. Straight ahead is the front door.

I do like this wall beside my fridge though. It has my calendar and a white board and acts like my message centre. There is even a place to tuck my kitchen step ladder.

So as you enter the front door, there is a lovely big hallway closet to the left that also holds my two recycling bins. Straight ahead is the kitchen and to the right is the living area. That is the tour of my new living space. Next week I may show you the downstairs. Remember I have two floors of space?

Tomorrow is card-making group from 1-4. Then afterwards, we will go to Dad and "Dee's" house to play TV Bingo and order in some Swiss Chalet. I may not be back on the blog until Sunday. Have a great weekend everyone.

My Three Bedrooms

I have no idea where my day has gone. I know it was busy, but I don't have much to show for it. I thought today would be the day I would take photos of my house to show you, and that is how I started. Don't look too closely. I didn't vacuum or dust. I just made my bed.

 I brought my bed frame and two small bedside units, my pictures and paintings, and the beside lamps with me.  I had to buy the box spring and mattress, window coverings and hardware. My bedside dressers each have 3 drawers, so lots of storage.

 I found this wonderful solid wood dresser and mirror for only $75 in a thrift shop. I sold all my master bedroom furniture before I moved.

One whole wall is closet space. I have my summer wardrobe on the left, my winter wardrobe on the right, and the middle section holds toiletries and all my lotions and potions.

 A second bedroom has a sliding patio door out onto a large deck across the back of the house. On the lower tier of the deck, you can see my shed. Look at all that snow. "Dee" gave me that lovely mural for the wall, and this is where I am overwintering some plants. Besides being able to go to the deck from the yard, this is the only way from inside the house.  I did not want to block access by placing a double bed in this room as a permanent fixture, so  I bought a futon. The solid wood dresser I brought with me.

 I also bought the small 3 drawer end table and lamp for this room. Company has used this spare guest room and has declared the mattress to be very comfortable. The closet in this room is also very big.

Another view from the doorway.

 This is my third and smallest bedroom. I brought these twin beds with me, and right now they are cramped into this tiny space.

 The reason the beds are configured this way is because of the honkin' big wardrobe that is presently in this room. There will be a lot more room when this monstrosity is gone. My sister MAY take it for her spare room in the basement, once the snow goes, but if she doesn't, I will put it on Kijiji for sale. Why is there a wardrobe in this room if all the closets are big? Well, that would be because the closet in this room was plumbed for a ........SHOWER, by the previous owner.

Yes, there is presently a working shower in this bedroom. Come Spring, I am hoping to have this removed by my BIL the plumber and have it put downstairs in the second bathroom. I would much rather have a closet in this room, and a shower in the extra bathroom. I'm just funny that way.

So that is as far as I got with my photos today. I vacuumed my front hall again and emptied my almond flour from my Amazon shipment into mason jars. My sister came over to make cards in the craft room and I left for my eyebrow appointment. When I came back, I put together two cards myself and made a colour chart for the alcohol markers (all 172) that my sister ordered from Amazon. Since she is allowing me to use her markers, it is imperative that someone make up a chart to help distinguish the various shades of markers. It isn't realistic to go by the colour of the caps., so I took on this important job.

I made dinner, wrote a few emails, answered a few calls and now it it already 8:30 and time to prepare my earlier bedtime routine. There is still time to watch a little You Tube tonight. Have a good evening.

An Emotional Time

The day I started back on my blog, on February first, was three years since my Rick passed away. Three years. I can scarcely believe it. It doesn't seem that long, but it also feels like a whole lifetime ago. So much has happened in that time. I mentioned a few days ago that "Dee" asked my sister and I to accompany her and my dad to a consultation with a surgeon about putting in a feeding tube for my father. (He isn't eating). The appointment had been scheduled for 4:30 this afternoon, so when I phoned yesterday to make an appointment to have my eyebrows waxed, I took one for 12 o'clock noon. Then later in the day, the hospital phoned to have the medical appointment moved up to 10:45 this morning. I had to call the salon to reschedule the waxing appointment until tomorrow. My sister picked me up at 9:45 this morning  and off we went. We were in the hospital for several hours waiting before we could sit down with the surgeon to ask questions.

After "Dee" got my dad settled at home, we drove back into town while my sister stayed with my Dad. It was my sister's intention to let "Dee" and myself have lunch and private conversation. Instead, we ran a few errands. "Dee" does not like to stay away from my Dad for very long. He is very frail.

I got back to my place in time to make another appointment. I had arranged to have John from Alternative Funeral Services come here around 4 PM to pick up a cheque from me and then I could sign the final papers to register my account. I have prepaid my cremation costs. I decided to do this just after I arrived here and before Christmas, and now it was important to pay up. The money is locked into an account and no matter how much costs MAY go up, my cremation costs are guaranteed. I don't want my children to go through that, so I am looking after it myself. Not a conversation, or a blog post, that make people comfortable.....but that was my day. It was kind of emotional and especially draining, and I feel I could go to bed now and sleep for days, except for the fact that I have rescheduled my eyebrows for tomorrow. Later this week, I will try to take some photos of my new place. At least that way, I will be forced to tidy up a little bit. Ha!

First Grocery Shop in February

Lately I have found that by the time I start getting ready for bed, I am too tired to do much more than fall into bed. Last night I decided to prepare myself around 8:30 in the evening. After a nice soak in the bath tub, I put moisturiser on after I towelled off, and then applied a night cream to my face. Then I was able to relax on the computer before feeling tired enough to go to bed. I am hoping I can keep this up for a while.

I left the house early this morning (after I put the garbage can out at the end of the driveway) and went to the bank first to withdraw my $360 for the month. This is $300 for household expenses and $60 for gas. This is what I used to budget with and hopefully I can continue with these amounts. Here are my grocery purchases.

 Dairy cost $31.14  Whole milk is $5.37, no-name cottage cheese is always $3.97 each, yoghurt was on sale at $1.97 each, cream cheese cost only $2 each and I paid $2.64 for each of 3 doz. large eggs.

 Lean ground beef was on sale, so I grabbed two large trays for $22.78  My brother gave me a food saver for Christmas, so this afternoon I will freeze this meat in one pound packages. I still have pork, beef roasts and chicken legs in the refrigerator freezer. I sold my chest freezer before I moved.

Produce (both fresh and frozen) cost $21.18  I bought 2 bags of avocados (6 count) at only $1.87 each. What a great price! The cauliflower cost $2.97 a head. The rest is frozen, but the offerings were meagre. My No-Frills store does not offer winter vegetables any more (broccoli and cauliflower mix). They were completely sold out of No-name oriental mix and there was only one remaining package of California mix. The frozen spinach has jumped in price from 97 cents to $1.47. Wow! I like to add frozen spinach to my omelets in the morning. Fortunately I still have a head of cabbage, some mushrooms,  and 2 zucchini in the crisper, canned asparagas, and frozen cauliflower and brussel sprouts for this week. I grabbed the second last bag of blueberries from the freezer. I will have to make a note not to shop on a Tuesday morning from now on.

 I didn't need TP this week, but it was on sale for $3.77, so I took advantage.
My almond flour that arrived yesterday is part of my grocery budget. I didn't take a photo but it (and some replacement blades for my paper slicer) came to a total of $44.74  So far I have spent $124.38 (incl. taxes) from my February household budget of $300, leaving me $175.62 for the month.
I also went to the drug store to pick up my two prescriptions (no charge there) and there are no costs here for buying garbage tags....yet.

Before returning home, I dropped in on my Dad and "Dee" for a cup of tea and a wee visit. I was gifted with a "new-to-me" black billfold and a treat container with a music box inside. I'm so spoiled.
I came home to take photos and put away the groceries, made a loaf of keto bread and warmed up some keto chili for lunch. I will phone some places this afternoon to make some appointments for me. I don't feel like cleaning, so may just write out some notecards for the mail.

My keto bread uses 1 1/2 cups of almond flour and SIX eggs. I try not to make it too often because I usually devour this whole thing in about two days. But it tastes so darn good.  

It is a beautiful bright and sunny winter's day here in Elliot Lake. I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful afternoon.