Still Procrastinating

It is Tuesday, and I finally got started on cleaning and decorating. It will take me all week.  Yesterday I did none of that. I ran some errands and picked up a few things in the morning, and for the rest of the afternoon I found yet some more wrapping to do. Ugh!

I left the house shortly after 10 AM to visit the Post Office and mail out another parcel of gifts. I then went to Shoppers Drug Mart in the next town over to buy my eggs and dairy because they have the best price anywhere.

We pay a lot for eggs, but our best price is $1.99 for a dozen. The butter was $3.49 a pound and each tub of cottage cheese was on sale for $1.99  I picked up some more items for Christmas stockings, so I paid over $38

At No-Frills, I paid $30, but again it was because I picked up more items to gift. I bought a large container of "imperfect" mushrooms, 2 cauliflower for $5, a 4 lb. bag of apples from the clearance bin for 50% off, more zucchini, onion powder to make more of my spice mixes that I have run low on, and some garlic. When I got home, I emptied the bag of apples into the crisper of the fridge, after I removed one bad apple. The others are fine.

My intention was to pick up enough to last two weeks, but once I arrived at the grocery store, I didn't feel like spending much time there shopping. So I will probably need to go back for more this weekend. Right now it is more important to get the decorating done.

Daybook: Monday, Dec. 4/17

Outside my window.....it is gray and overcast. It looks cold but we are still experiencing a "mild" temperature of 6 or 7 degrees Celsius. The colder weather and snow will start moving in by the end of this week.

I am thinking.....that I have been procrastinating this morning about getting started on my housecleaning.

I am thankful for.....my good health and the ability to get things done in time for Christmas. I have a friend who recently broke her arm and required surgery to have it set. I went over on Saturday to pull her boxes of decorations down from the closet and do up her apartment with a few lights and garlands and tabletop decorations. She is unable to send Christmas cards, shop for and wrap presents, or even to open up a tin of soup. If you think about it, there isn't very much anyone can do with just one arm.

From the kitchen.....I baked another batch of dog treats, I roasted 5 chicken breasts yesterday to be eaten over the next few days (or to take off the meat and freeze) and I made a big pot of beef and veggie soup.

I am wearing.....jeans, a long sleeved printed ivory coloured T-shirt, black socks. (my working uniform)

I am creating..... 2 more boxes to gift my two sets of birthday greeting cards, and then nothing for a while. I have spent days and weeks making cards and gift boxes, so I don't expect to pull out my supplies again until after Christmas.

I am going.....grocery shopping this morning for some eggs, butter  and fresh veggies for the next two weeks. Then I will drop in on my friend with the broken arm to address (and maybe even sign) some medical forms that need to be mailed out.

I am hoping.....that I won't need to spend much more money on finishing up my shopping for gift baskets I am making up for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

I am hearing.....traffic noises and the hum of my freezer behind me.

Around the house.....I have work to do. Ha.

One of my favourite things.....right now, is the spiralizer that my daughter gifted me with a few months ago but that I just used for the first time on Saturday. I used my last two small zucchini to make zoodles, which I sauteed in butter with garlic, leeks, and the last of my mushrooms. So, so good.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....include an appointment on Wednesday to get my snow tires put on.

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

From "The Best of Aruba" on the Norwegian Dawn itinerary website. I don't have any pictures of my own to share this week, so I am using one of my favourite shots of the upcoming Southern cruise I will be taking mid-January. Why not, eh?

It's in the Mail

Well, all of my out-of-town cards are mailed out. I held back the in-town cards and one parcel of gifts until this coming week. Before I sat down to write this post, I had to go back and read what I accomplished last week. The days are so much the same, I don't know whether I am coming or going. I wanted to get all my cards made and mailed, so I am very happy that the job is done. I made 48 cards. I used card stock and decorative paper I had on hand. I did buy some in the after Xmas sales at Michael's on Boxing Week last year, and I bought some Christmas sentiment stamps from Amazon when they had a summer sale, but besides tape, glue  and more blades, I used what I had already.  I re-used Amazon boxes and brown packing paper to pack up the mailed gifts. I didn't have any brown paper rolls for wrapping the boxes, so I used old rolls of wrapping paper with the patterned side inside and the plain white backing exposed. One box was old wedding gift wrapping paper, which probably won't even get a glance. But another one is a very bright pink Disney Princess birthday wrap which will never go unnoticed. It should be good for a chuckle though. I was hoping to have everything wrapped this weekend, but some of the gift baskets will have to wait until closer to Christmas Eve. Those will be for local delivery...by yours truly.

I hung my outdoor lights as you know, but did not turn on the timers until today. I may have saved a little electricity. I received a notice from Hydro saying I am doing better than my most efficient neighbours. I would like to keep that up.

My son and his fiancee did not come for dinner this weekend. They will be very busy with preparations as well. I was going to cook up a tray of chicken breasts with  10 Things Chicken spice mix that Nathalie has provided a link to in her blog, some mashed turnip and broccoli. Since they are defrosted, I will still cook them all up, cut up the meat and freeze some of it. The turnip I will gladly eat over the next few days. I took one of the steaks I bought at the last grocery shop and simmered it into a nice meaty soup broth, which will be lunches  this week. I still have meat in the freezer, but the fresh veggies are pretty much finished. That means a grocery shop tomorrow, I suspect. Last night I took the last two remaining zucchini and put it through the spiralizer my daughter ordered for me. I sauteed the zoodles in butter, leeks, the last of the mushrooms and garlic. So, so yummy! I will definitely be making more of those.

This week my goal is to clean house and decorate inside. I will get my tree put up. My appointment for having my snow tires put on is this Wednesday afternoon. I will pick up the last items I need to wrap up the Christmas baskets, hopefully, and I may get a few things baked for giving away. Fingers crossed. I would love to have a few days where I can relax before the Big Day. No photos today. I made all those cards and didn't think to take any pictures. AGAIN.

End of a Busy Week

I have just finished making a batch of dog biscuits. Again, I will be moving half of the batch into doggie paw print gift bags destined for the freezer to be given out closer to Christmas.

Yesterday I went into Napanee and hit a couple of stores to finish up Christmas shopping. I have wrapped the stocking stuffers for my daughter and her husband and will be taking them with me when I go to Cobourg tomorrow morning to drop off the Advent Calendar gifts to my grand children. While shopping for others, I picked up for myself a 4x6 area rug for $10 to place at the door where people enter with their snowy boots. We will have snow that stays very soon. I also had to buy a new battery for my van. That was NOT on sale.  They never are. On the way home, I stopped at the local Christmas Tree farm and bought a mixture of evergreen boughs for my 3 front yard planters. It is much cheaper to buy them here by weight than going to Home Depot and paying for prepared bunches. I used the yellow twigged Dogwood in my own backyard for the centre height, and also I pruned some smaller branches from my Juniper bushes to fill in the gaps left by the larger branches.

This is one of my planters at the entrance to my verandah. The second is off to the other side. The third is in the background by the downspout. I only added a solar light and a gold star (from the Dollar Store). I may add some more red and gold with a ribbon or something.

This week I did not make ANY Christmas cards at all. I have been shopping, wrapping, cooking or chopping and freezing food I bought in abundance on Tuesday, cleaning out the basement and dealing with all the stuff I have been bringing upstairs. I have thrown out a lot of JUNK and I have been moving stuff out of the house and into the shed (where it may eventually get tossed in the Spring). I have NOT been doing any housework except to sweep up all the grit that is coming upstairs from the cellar. I will thoroughly clean each room before I decorate. I did however clean my fridge by removing everything and washing all the shelves before I went grocery shopping on Tuesday. And I removed everything from under my sink and thoroughly scrubbed under there....just because it needed it badly and I couldn't stand it any longer. I made a lovely chicken vegetable soup that has given me lunches all week.

 I cut up the four bags of broccoli and placed the florets into a large freezer bag, and I peeled the stalks and sliced for the medium sized freezer bag.

 I shredded one of 3 heads of cabbage and sauteed in butter.

I used two bags of frozen tomatoes (from last summer's garden) to make a tomato sauce for tonight's moussaka when my son and his fiancee come for dinner.

Yes, I am still following my Doctor's recommended diet to control my blood sugar. It is a lot of work, but it is getting easier. I don't see her again until January.  This week's goal is to buckle down and get those Christmas cards made and sent off in the mail. How are your Christmas preparations going?

No Card Making Today

Today was a lovely day, weather-wise. It was sunny and warm-ish and presented itself as the perfect day to get outdoors and get some errands run. I left this morning to pick up groceries after I went to the Post Office. I had intended to hit a couple of grocery stores, but I found so many of my list items on sale at the first store, that I decided to go home straight afterwards. I arrived home just before  noon and remembered that I hadn't eaten breakfast yet. So I ate a mushroom and zucchini omelet for lunch and then I brought down the Rubbermaid bin of outdoor Christmas lights from one of the spare bedrooms. It took several hours, but I have the lights put up. I will wait until December before I turn them on in the evenings. I only have evergreen garland across the railing on the front verandah. I am trying to make things easier on myself by just hanging lights where I used to place both. The fake evergreen gets weakened and damaged with exposure to the elements, and I don't feel like replacing them anymore. My decorating could use a little understatement anyways. I picked up a multi coloured rope light at the hardware store when it went on sale a couple of weeks ago. I really don't like, nor can I afford,  the new outdoor decorations that have come on the market the last few years. So today I made a Christmas tree for the front garden by turning a tomato cage upside down and wrapping the 15 foot rope light and some old evergreen garland around the form.

My DIY Christmas tree from an upside down tomato cage.

I have taken pictures of today's grocery shop, but tomorrow I will have to slice and dice everything up and get it into the freezer.

 Meat cost a total of $56.42

Chicken breasts were $2 a pound and the cap off rib steaks were on sale for $3.49 a pound. I also picked up 3 lbs. of lean ground beef for $10, salami, Italian sausage and kielbasa

 Dairy cost $28.07  The blocks of cheese were only $4 each

 The produce was where I did very well. I bought so much, I made it into two photos for a total of $36.19
I bought zucchini, peppers, mushrooms, spinach, avocados, apples and blackberries.

 I bought 4 bags of broccoli at $1 a bag, 3 cabbages, a turnip and 2 eggplants to make more yummy moussaka.

My only pantry item was a bottle of olive oil for $ 7.99 which brought my total grocery bill to $129

I have yet to pump water out of the basement, but I did return some emails and phone calls that were pending. I am going now to eat a chicken stir fry for dinner.

Daybook: Monday, Nov. 20/17

It is 6 o'clock Monday evening. I have decided I am going to post my Daybook before I sit down for dinner, or I will never get it done. I was thrilled to see that my blogging friend Nathalie posted something this morning, and also relieved that she took off the comment section. I try really hard to read blog posts, but I just haven't had time to comment on anyone's. Maybe I will do the same thing. At this time of year, no one has time to "fritter" on the computer. After all, I started this blog only to keep friends and family informed of my daily activities.

Outside my window.....there is snow on the ground. It started Saturday night, so that Sunday morning we woke up to our first snowfall of the season. A lot of it melted away, but then again this morning, it began snowing again. It is dark outside and has been for a couple of hours.

I am thankful for.....on-line shopping. I am buying a lot of my stocking stuffers from Amazon and loving it. It is worth it to me to have stuff delivered right to my door, in all kinds of weather.

From the kitchen.....this weekend, I baked a batch of doggie biscuits and immediately put half of them away in the freezer for all my doggie friends at Christmas. That means I will have to bake another batch this weekend and again put half of them away. I have them wrapped up in paw print bags. I made a chicken broth this afternoon and another Tex Mex casserole for dinner tonight.

I am wearing.....black leggings (SURPRISE!), black button down shirt, black socks, and a red sweater with white polka dots. 

I am creating.....more Christmas cards. I wanted to make 15-20 last week, but only accomplished  ten. I need to speed things up. I also put together quickly an easy beading project.

I am going.....to have supper, watch the news, and then some Netflix for the rest of the night.

I am hoping.....I can finish cleaning up the cellar this week and also get out my outside Christmas decorations.

I am hearing.....the furnace coming on.

Around the house.....there is so much to do, it is beginning to affect my sleep. My mind is racing in the early morning hours with everything that needs doing. "Dee" reminded me this morning that to eat an elephant, you need to take one bite at a time.

One of my favourite things.....I don't know. I don't want to think right now.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....include wrapping all the stocking stuffers for my daughter and my SIL. The Advent calendars are finished and I will have to arrange meeting my daughter in Cobourg (which is halfway for each of us) and have lunch somewhere and I can give the kids their Advent gifts for the first of December. I want to finish up as many Christmas cards as I can so that I can mail them out at the end of November. I NEED to do some grocery shopping. I want to start putting up some outdoor decorations and lights. I have to call and arrange an appointment to have my winter tires put on. I want to finish up the cellar so I can call someone in to find the source of the water that is still on the basement floor. My son and I replaced the eaves trough and downspout, but I am having to pump water out of the basement every single day. My plan is to bring up all the bins and boxes and "deal" with them up here. I have thrown things out. I have found storage for some things up here on the main living area or out in the shed. But nothing is going back down into the cellar. Period.

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

.....some Christmas cards...

Daybook: Monday, Nov. 13/17

Outside my window.....it is gray and cold looking. It was actually snowing earlier, but none of it stuck on the ground.

I am thinking.....of all I need to accomplish this week. On Saturday, as I was in a rush to get out the door for the day, I realized that the furnace had stopped and that the house was getting colder. It turns out there was water in my cellar. I won't go into the gory details right now (that is for another post), but my temporary solution worked and I do now have heat. BUT, this week I need to wet vacuum up the rest of the water off the floor and see about fixing or replacing my eaves trough (gutter) in the back of the house. That, and work at trying to get prepared for Christmas.

I am thankful for.....friends and family.

From the kitchen.....I have a large pot of homemade beef and vegetable soup simmering on the stove.

I am wearing.....a purple and white polka dotted  top with denims and mostly gray Canadian themed socks.

I am creating..... another mini album (it just needs the covers made and the binding done) and more Christmas cards. My goal for this week is 25 or 30 handmade cards.

I am going.....nowhere today. I was in the hardware store earlier this morning to pick up an order.  I also worked outside a bit taking some items into the shed for winter storage. I hunted down my wet/dry shop vac to vacuum up the basement floor, only to discover that mine is missing some key components (like the hose), and I have no idea where they have gone. I will ask my son if I can borrow his. I also unearthed the missing pieces of the eaves trough and downspout that came down as a result of ice. I will have to buy more eaves trough hangers.

I am hoping.....that I will be able to put up the eaves trough on my own because the professionals are now booking into next year. It seems they are swamped.

I am hearing.....occasional traffic outside, still more blasting going on, and the furnace coming on (thankfully)

Around the house.....there is so much housework that needs doing, but it will have to wait, as I need to complete my cards and Advent calendars and stocking stuffers that need to be delivered by months end.

One of my favourite things.....is a working furnace. Funny how these things gain more value and prominence when you no longer have them.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....have already been spelled out. I have no appointments or places that I need to be. I would like very much to attend the Christmas bazaar on Amherst Island this Saturday.

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

That's right. My Dad and "Dee" are taking me and one of my sisters-in-law on a Caribbean Cruise mid January. Am I spoiled, or what?