Taking Shape

Both my sister and my BIL (and little Rocky) came over this morning and headed down to the basement. My sister was going to work on cards and my BIL was installing the shower pan and drain. When they arrived, I was in the process of cutting up that ham I bought yesterday. I put some aside for tonight's dinner and some chunks to use up in my morning omelettes and a few slices to make  ham sandwiches on keto bread for lunches. But the majority of it went into the freezer.

By the time I got dowstairs, my BIL was ready to cut and hang drywall, so I was able to help him out again. It is taking shape very quickly.

After they left, I continued in the kitchen by making a meaty spaghetti sauce with peppers and mushrooms. I will probably use it over zoodles one night and over sauteed shredded cabbage another time. I also made a cream cheese sauce to go over my veggies and ham for tonight's dinner. With all the extra cooking and food prep, I had another full load tonight in the dishwasher.

The only house cleaning item I did on my to-do list was watering the plants. In the back room where I am overwintering some of my garden plants, I was greeted by a gorgeous hibiscus. I guess plants can tell when the seasons are beginning to change. The longer hours of sunlight must be working.

This is only one of the plants that "Dee" gave me in the Fall, so that I would have a few outdoor plants for my deck planters come Spring. I guess this lovely flower didn't hear the weather forecast for more snow today and tomorrow. *sigh*

First Grocery Shop of the Month

I started my morning with two calls--one from my daughter and my scheduled Wednesday morning call from a friend in the Kingston area. I prepared a tray of tea for my friend coming this morning with her dog for a visit. All in all, it was a very social morning. My BIL called to say he would not be coming over this afternoon to work downstairs because he was tired and sore from yesterday. I agreed heartily that we should postpone the work for the day. Ha,ha. Knowing that my afternoon was now mine, I asked my friend to stay for some moussaka for lunch and she agreed.

I knew I should use my "free" time to go out and buy groceries, but I was feeling really tired. I "decided" to just lay down on top of the bed and ponder whether or not I should go out. When I woke up just before 5, I decided it was probably a good time to pick up my sister and go shopping. This is what I picked up today.

 I spent $23.12 on this ham. I still have an assortment of other meat in the freezer.

 Produce, both fresh and frozen, cost me $23.44  They were completely out of frozen blueberries, but I was able to find a bag of frozen mixed berries. Spinach has risen from 97 cents to $1.49 in just a couple of months.

 Dairy cost $41.33 (3 doz. eggs, 5 cottage cheese at $2 each, 4 litres whole milk, 6 plain yoghurt at $1 each, 2 blocks of old cheddar at $3.97 each and 2 pkgs. of cream cheese at $2 each)

My pantry items cost me $20.94, partly because I picked up another almond butter and no sugar added strawberry jam.

I picked up miscellaneous items (non-food) for $6.00  My first bill came to a total of $115.65 and I earned another 3000 points. I now have over $40 in points to spend on groceries if I need to. I still need to buy butter but I need to look for a sale. I refused to pay over $5 for a pound of butter today.

Have a good evening. I'll be back to working on the shower tomorrow and I have a lot of ham to slice and prepare for the freezer. 

Carpenter's Assistant

OMGoodness. Has it really been a week since I last posted? Last Wednesday I was a plumber's assistant, but this week I am using some of my carpentry skills to help out my BIL put in the shower downstairs. Last week was very busy for me, but it went by so quickly I don't remember the order of events. There were two dinners last week at my dad's house. There was my mother's 92nd birthday at the Manor. We phoned ahead to make sure she was in a good mood. Sometimes she is very aggressive and it is very hard on everybody to visit during those times. When we walked in, there was a keyboard player entertaining the residents. My mom really enjoys music, so she was in a great mood. We gave her a robotic therapy cat for her birthday. I don't know if you are aware of these therapy devices, but they are wonderful. The ears twitch, she raises her paw, she opens and closes her eyes, she moves her head, she purrs and meows and generally resembles a real cat. My mom was enthralled and just fell in love with her new pet. Here is a link to a site where you can see them.

My sister was over a few times to the craft room to make cards. Twice while she was working, I spent the time sorting, organising and cleaning up. I'm not finished yet, but there is a marked difference in how it looks now. It is feeling much more streamlined. It is also the room where the construction is taking place, so this afternoon I have a bunch of sawdust to sweep up. I also have to start removing the old silicone from the shower pieces before we can put them up on the new walls. (Some homework for me to do in my spare time). Yesterday morning, we went to the lumberyard to pick up the 2x2's, 2x4's, and 1x3's, gyproc, and all the hardware we will need. Today, we put up the walls and started the raised deck for the shower pan. My Monday morning date with my friend has been postponed until tomorrow morning (because of the shopping trip to the lumberyard), so I have asked my BIL not to come until the afternoon. After he left for the day this afternoon, my first priority was to vacuum and wash the main floor (not the bedrooms) because we had to bring in the lumber and drywall into the dining room with our wet and salty boots on yesterday, and I had not had a chance yet to mop it up. I was feeling exhausted but it had to be done. Then I decided to bake a loaf of keto bread and fry up slices of eggplant to make my moussaka. It is now after 7 PM. The moussaka is baking in the oven, the dishwasher is turned on, so I have sat down to write this post. I should sleep tonight.

 Of course, none of these  original walls are straight, level or plumb, so our work was cut out for us.

I think tomorrow we will be going back to plumbing in the drain and the water pipes before the drywall is ready to put up the following day.

Plumber's Assistant

While waiting for my BIL to arrive this morning, I started on the second bag of rutabaga. They were small and unwaxed, so they needed to be processed before they went bad on me. Large rutabaga are very difficult for me to cut into, so I love this size. I peeled, diced, boiled and mashed in my larger pot before transferring them to the freezer in smaller portion sizes.

Five pounds of rutabaga.

I got a call from my sister during this time to inform me that her husband wouldn't be here for another hour because he was taking Rocky into the pet groomer. My first reaction was to leave for the post office to pick up a package that I missed delivery on while I was staying at my dad's house yesterday. I have no idea what the package might be and I am very curious, but then I remembered that Wednesday morning is the time I have put aside to talk with an old friend from Kingston. She would be calling any moment now, so I decided to bake another loaf of almond bread and fried up a package of bacon while I waited. As it turned out, she did not phone until this afternoon.

 When my BIL  arrived I was prepared to help him out the best I could as his unpaid help, ha,ha. I felt like I was in surgery as he called out for tools and supplies and "more light".  I even provided some muscle power as we pulled the shower out of the closet. It did not break and the good news is that we can relocate this shower downstairs to be used along with my second bathroom. Great news. He soldered caps on the hot and cold water pipes inside the wall, cut the drain out and capped the air vent.

 It doesn't look like a closet yet. I will need some drywall around the base of the walls and the cutout where the pipes were capped. I have to remove some latex caulking and sand the walls to remove the glue. There is a hole in the floor that will have to be covered with more laminate flooring, but it is a nice deep closet like all the other closets in the house.

Downstairs I will need to remove some shelving that presently holds all of my coloured card stock, both 12x12 inch and 11x8 1/2 inch, because that is the perfect wall to build the new shower stall into.

After my BIL left for the day, I talked with my friend from Kingston, fried some ground beef and made a cream cheese sauce to make my dinner tonight. My sister came over for a cup of tea and is now downstairs picking up some more supplies to make cards at her house this evening. I will join her now to start removing all of that card stock in order to remove the shelving for next steps.

The mysterious package will have to wait another day before I can pick it up. Have a good evening.

Out on Tuesday

After finishing my post last night in which I stated I had no plans to go out today, my sister phoned. She and "Dee" were both going in to have some lab work done this morning. Would I mind going over to the house and sit with my dad? Of course I would love to go over. Well, for whatever reason, Tuesday morning is very busy for lab work. Who knew? They had to sit and wait for over an hour and a half before they were called in. I'm sure they would have turned around and come home, but knowing I was with my father, they stayed. My dad and I had a great conversation for almost an hour before he got fatigued and fell asleep. I could have kicked myself for not having brought some work with me. When I stayed with my husband, I always had some knitting or my tablet with me so I could be productive. Not today. So I found myself sitting in front of the TV thinking of all the stuff I could be doing.

When I finally got home I decided I had to get started on those 2 bags of rutabaga I bought last week. I peeled, diced, cooked and mashed one bag weighing 5 pounds. I put one portion in the fridge for tomorrow and froze the rest. I still had roasted veggies that I had to use up tonight with my angus burgers with fried mushrooms. Tomorrow I will deal with the other 5 pounds of rutabaga when I'm not helping my BIL remove the shower from the bedroom closet.

Sorry. No photos today. My cell phone is refusing to transfer any pictures to my computer today. I guess one of us is tired.  I've  put the dishwasher on and now I will go to bed.

Daybook: Monday, Feb. 24/20

Outside my window.....well, I'll have to get up and have a look-see. I already have the drapes drawn because it is 7 PM, and I am  just now getting around to writing. It is pitch dark. The street lights are bright enough though to see that the pavement is still wet with snow run off. The temperatures have been very mild the last few days causing a lot of melting. There's still LOTS of snow however.

I am thinking..... that I was busy enough today but I don't know that I accomplished a whole lot.

I am thankful for.....my good health that allows me to still do the things I want to do.

From the kitchen.....I warmed up leftovers for dinner tonight from the cooking I did over the weekend. I sauteed some shredded cabbage. I roasted some chicken breast and sausage with vegetables and baked another keto loaf of bread.

I am wearing.....black jeans, gray socks and a gray knit sweater with flutter sleeves.

I am creating.....some Easter and Springtime cards. I also made two more cards this morning specifically for two of my grand kids and a birthday card for a third grand child. I also mailed out 3 birthday cards I made for adult family members.

I am going.....nowhere planned for tomorrow. Today I accompanied my sister to No-Frills where I bought another 2 kg bag of frozen blueberries. We also picked up a prescription that I phoned in this morning.

I am hoping..... to prepare an end-of-month financial statement to show where I went over budget and how to avoid it in the future.

I am hearing.....songs from Abba that Alexa is playing in the background. I am listening to "Fernando" this very moment.

Around the house.....I have too many things strewn about. I need to do a tidy-up when I finish this post. Tomorrow is garbage and recycling day. We cannot put anything outside until tomorrow morning because of the wildlife. Garbage attracts crows, raccoons and bears.

One of my favourite things.....is Face Time with the grand kids.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....include removing the shower from the bedroom closet and finally finishing up my lower kitchen cabinets.

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

Two Easter cards for kids. Both have grass and cloudy sky backgrounds that I inked in with my new makeup brushes. The cute little critters are made with my Cricut machine.

Here I am Again

 If you came here to find out how I spent the last few days in the Big City, you came to the wrong place. If you thought I hadn't been posting because I was having too great a time shopping and dining, I am sorry to disappoint. We ended up NOT going after all. The main reason we were going to the Sault, was to drive "Dee's" brother back home. He had surgery on his hand for carpal tunnel last week. He couldn't drive but he had the opportunity to get a ride to Elliot Lake and stay here for a week to recuperate. We were going to drive him back; but in the end, he was able to get a ride back with someone else. That was very fortunate because my dad is not very well lately, and he was feeling particularly rough that day and not up to travelling at all. We were all relieved. And since I had nothing else planned for the day, after my tea with a friend at the local tea shop, I used those few hours to catch an afternoon nap. That evening, I caught up with lots of well wishes from friends and family by phone, email and face-time. I received a lot of cards and e-cards, and felt especially blessed.

Friday morning started early with a trip to a local thrift store because my sister had some "inside information" about a lot of crafting and card-making supplies having arrived for donation. They were already out on the floor, but we were there bright and early for first pickings and got some great deals on stuff we use. While we were down there, I went next door to the deli where I still had some money left on a gift card. I bought 4 chicken breasts, 4 hot Italian sausages, and four sausages with jalapeno.
I also picked up two packages of pepperoni marked down to $5 each, to use up the last bit of the gc. Then we went back to my place to hold a marathon card-making day to start our Easter cards. I also stamped a few images on card stock so I would have some colouring to do for yesterday's card-making club. I ate supper late and then answered some more emails and phone messages before falling into bed.

Here is the card I made for my sister. I love  "house mouse"  designs for stamping and colouring.

Yesterday morning I drove over to my dad's house for 8:30. My dad had decided he wanted to go out for coffee and breakfast with the members of his ham radio club, but by the time I got there, he had changed his mind. He thinks he really wants to do things, but the body is weak. "Dee" needed a break, so we went out anyway. After breakfast, she went to her bank while I went to Rexall for the weekend specials. (eggs for $1.99 a doz., Black Diamond cheese for only $3.99, and Greek yoghurt reduced to $2 for each container) I also picked up 2 9-volt batteries for the smoke detectors. The one outside my bedroom began its annoying "beep" because the battery was low. And yes, I am over my monthly budget.

Yesterday was card-making and scrap-booking club, and it was a full house. The nice sunny "spring-like" weather brought everyone out in droves. All those people who spend their winters inside hibernating have begun to stir, ha,ha. It's a false alarm, however. There are still two more months of snow. Last night I just relaxed and unwound by playing solitaire and had Alexa play some Abba songs. I like to play solitaire when I feel too tired to do anything else. I haven't made any plans yet for today. I only have one more week remaining in the month of February. Gotta get 'er done.