Daybook: Monday, Nov. 26/18

Outside my window.....the snow is all gone, again. It has been raining the last 3 days and the grass is back to looking very green. I turned the timers on the outdoor Xmas lights for my grand kids coming this past weekend and have not turned them off yet. I will do that today when I go out.

I am thinking.....of the very short but wonderful visit I had with my daughter and SIL and the two grands on Friday night and Saturday.

I am thankful for.....their safe return home as they were driving in the rain that had the potential to become an ice storm.

From the kitchen.....there isn't a lot going on these days. I have been eating the leftovers up from the turkey roast and vegetables left over from Friday night.

I am wearing.....black jeans, black socks and a dark gray thin knit sweater.

I am creating.....nothing crafty this past week, save for a couple of note cards. I do have to make packages to hold the card sets I made for gifting, and I need to write and address the Christmas cards to go out at the end of this week. I am still trying to be optimistic about the mail getting through despite the postal workers grievances. I hope for a resolution soon.

I am going.....to pick up a friend tonight after work and take her over to another friend's house to pick up a cedar chest and bring it back to her place. I will probably take the opportunity to stop at No-Frills to pick up this week's specials and to the drug store to pick up a prescription that I am phoning in. 

I am hoping.....to accomplish most of the items on my To-Do list this week.

I am hearing.....the sound of tires on wet pavement outside. 
Around the house..... I need to start making some detailed to-do lists each day this week. I want to continue the deep clean of each room in the house, but mainly the kitchen.  I will bring in the tree and decorate this week, so I can wash the floors afterwards. I have to do my Christmas cards (and maybe a newsletter to include inside?)

One of my favourite things.....is my brand new keyboard that was gifted to me by my daughter and SIL.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....include another birthday dinner for one of my girls' weekend ladies, tomorrow night. I was also scheduled to attend a follow-up meeting of the cravings workshop this week, but it has been postponed until January. So far, this coming weekend has not been booked for anything yet. I had something going on every weekend during the month of November.

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

 Christmas poinsetta I bought for $3 at Freshco this past Thursday.

My Christmas cactus is starting to get blooms. A Norfolk pine is in the foreground. I will put bird ornaments on it this week.

Week-end Afternoon

I hate when I have not posted in so long that I have to spend so much time trying to recount the missing days. First of all, I got too busy to write and then I didn't have a working computer. But here I am at long last. I am feeling very tired today and I will probably have myself an afternoon nap, but I will post this blog first.

At the beginning of this week, I had many invites presented to me....lots of people to see and places to go. There was another Christmas Craft sale at my friend's church, which I could not attend. My brother and SIL who live in Smiths Falls were hosting their annual "come over and decorate and have dinner" event. I turned down that invite. After all, I have my own house to clean and decorate. For a while I considered going to Collingwood. My Dad and "Dee" , my sister and BIL rented a time share for the week and asked me to go and stay with them for a few days. I would go past my daughter's place on the way there, or the trip home, and I could stay overnight and we could exchange Christmas presents and the kids would be sure to get their Advent calendars before the end of the month. But as the week progressed, my cleaning at home was getting underway and the highway conditions were not great for me traveling.  By Wednesday I decided that I would not do the traveling, knowing that the weather was looking better for this weekend and my daughter, my SIL,  and two grand kids could drive here to my house instead. At the very least, we could do as we have done in the past, and both travel as far as Cobourg and have lunch together at the Swiss Chalet.

With that in mind, I decided to just finish up cleaning the computer room by doing a damp dusting and doing a thorough clean of my computer, including my keyboard. I removed all the keys, and cleaned out the dust and grime with  q-tips  moistened with rubbing alcohol, as I have done so often in the past. However, this time I couldn't have been as careful as I usually am. Later that night when I tried to use my computer, I discovered that I'd lost function in my asdf keys. I tried rebooting the system, but no go. I spent all of Thursday, after going for groceries in the morning, putting up as many lights and decorations as possible  inside the house. Friday was spent with damp dusting and vacuuming all through the house, cleaning bathrooms and readying the bedrooms for my guests.  Traffic outside of Toronto was particularly bad, so they didn't arrive until closer to 6 PM, so dinner was ready for them. And when they drove up, my whole house was lit up with lights both indoors and out.

My grocery shopping expedition on Thursday morning yielded plenty of bargains.  Meat cost me $32.71  The ground chicken listed at $10 for 4 lb. chubs, was actually only $8. The bacon was only $3.47 per pkg., so I bought two. The 500 gm pkg. of Pillars pepperoni (17 meat sticks) was on sale also for only $4.77, the kielbasa cost $3, and the butterball turkey roll was only $10. I saved $22 .79 off the regular price of the meat alone.  I roasted the turkey roll for dinner on Friday and there was lots leftover. I also served bacon for breakfast the next morning.

Dairy cost $17.52, saving me  $8.09 off the regular prices.

Cereals and breads cost $4.99, $2 off. The bagels were eaten at breakfast. The holiday Rice Krispies I  bought because if I do no other baking, I have to make marshmallow rice krispie treats for Xmas.

Produce cost $7.47 The grapes went home with the kids, as well as a lunch mate snack pack for each of them that only cost $1 each. (Not pictured) I cooked and served the two yams for dinner and we had blueberries and blackberries with breakfast the next morning.

I bought a few other items that I have not taken a photo of and spent a total of $97.40 at two grocery stores. I saved a total of $28.57 at one store and $24.90 at the other. I took advantage of a lot of sale items.

I have not been able to watch Netflix or Amazon Prime on my television lately. In fact, over the past couple of weeks, it has been increasingly frustrating trying to watch anything on my tablet. The signal from my router has just been getting increasingly weaker. So I had ordered a new, stronger router from Amazon waiting for my son to come over to install it. My SIL offered to install it for me, and so they discovered that was an impossibility with no asdf keys working on my keyboard. Ha, ha. So off he went to the local WalMart,  the same evening he arrived , and bought me a brand new keyboard. Within half an hour, I had a working computer and television. I was feeling so blessed. They left earlier yesterday than they had intended because the road conditions in Bradford (where they live) showed freezing drizzle had arrived,  and was moving east towards Kingston. They hoped to get home before conditions got worse. They had rain for most of the trip home. Rain did not arrive here until the afternoon and then it did not freeze, fortunately. They messaged me when they got home safely.

So yesterday and today, I have been having a restful weekend recuperating and watching Christmas movies on the big screen. How was your weekend?

Decluttering

On Sunday, we had temperatures of -7 C degrees, so in the end I decided NOT to start hanging my outdoor Christmas decorations. Instead I made up some more Miracle cleaner to replenish my spray bottles. I disinfected my kitchen counters. I made up another batch of homemade Taco seasoning and my Ten Things Farm chicken seasoning because I was out of both. I did two loads of laundry and hung them up inside to dry. They have since been put away. And then, even though I told you I finished the twelve Christmas projects that I set out to do....I  finished another one.

Yesterday's temperatures were mild, so I took advantage and went outside to string up my lights. I have them on timers and I checked them last night to make sure they are all working, but I won't turn them on until after the first of December. I have far fewer decorations than past years because I got rid of a lot of them after Christmas last year. I also sold some at the yard sale this year. I did put out my little fake evergreen tree (made by wrapping a rope light and garland around a tomato cage). I have that up on the "table" on my front verandah. I didn't want to put hooks into my brand new front stoop, so I just wrapped the Christmas lights around and through the railings. Since I do have hooks on my fence and my front verandah, I strung both garland and lights from those. I took night-time photos, but they really did not turn out. I will have to take daytime pictures, I guess.  In the afternoon, I made up a "Thinking of you"  card and wrote a message inside. I wrote birthday wishes in another card for  one of my grand daughters, and I wrote another notecard for my mother. I walked them to the post office and picked up my mail. There was another card from my 7 year old grandson. I was going to make up the packaging for the card sets I made a few weeks back, only to discover that I had not put any birthday sentiments inside the cards. Fortunately, I keep a binder of card designs and stock sentiments on hand, so it was just a matter of printing them out on a sheet of printer paper and inserting them inside the cards.

 My verandah. This is the entrance people use to my house.

My new front stoop and the front of the house. The milder temperatures took away most of the snow

Today I planned to clean my computer room.The big job was to dust off the desk and the book shelves on the wall above the desk. At the end of the night, neither is done. It took me HOURS to file everything away in their designated locations. (I am thinking of you Bless)  I shredded 5 grocery bags of papers so far. I decided not to open the proverbial can of worms and just get all the rest into my filing box to take care of in January. I have manuals for appliances I know longer own. But I remembered that last year when I started in this same room, I spent days sorting through tools and hardware and organizing the lot so I would know where to find stuff. I did not want to fall into that trap again. Tomorrow, when I have natural daylight again, I will tackle the dusting and washing. At least the big job of putting things away where they belong, is finally done.

Amherst Island

I arrived dockside to catch the 9:30 AM ferry. I left my car on this side and traveled over with the other 3 women in one car. We arrived at 10 AM just as the elementary school/community centre was opening. Stella is a very small but well-knit community. Inside,  the vendors were setting up tables for the Silent Auction, crafts, Amherst Island t-shirt and fleece jacket sales, books, photography, baking, and the ever popular (and my personal favourite)  white elephant table. I had to keep reminding myself that I was purging stuff from my own house and I didn't need to pick up anything at all. There are some lovely treasures to be found on these tables and "purchases"  are made by way of a donation. Despite my restraint (and I really, really mean that), I picked up a couple of small items.

I bought this brand-new, never been used Christmas wine bag. I like to use these cloth bags as gift bags to hold " difficult to wrap" Christmas gifts. This one has a pocket in front to hold a little extra something, like candy or maybe a gift card.  I love that red winter mug. I had my coffee in it this morning. In front of it is a gorgeous little gold pin of a Xmas tree in red and green enamel. I couldn't resist the bird. It is a Styrofoam base covered in plant material. At Christmas, I decorate my fireplace mantel with an evergreen bough with birds and rustic decorations made of natural materials. This satisfies both requirements. In the centre is a jumbled pile of wine charms. I bought those to repurpose the beads and charms into my card making.  Charms are generally very expensive to purchase from a hobby store. One's cast-offs are definitely another's treasure.

Admission is free, but I usually pay $10 at the door....$5 for lunch, and $5 for 3 raffle tickets on a huge basket full of goodies that I never win, but it is fun to wish. All the proceeds from this Craft and Bake sale go to the Church renovation fund.  Lunch is chili or a variety of soups with buns and dessert, and of course coffee or tea. I can't have the buns or dessert, but the bowl of chili was more than enough. We also went to the Island gift shop which features arts and crafts from the Islanders (lots of extremely talented artists reside here) and we dropped in at the studio of one of the portrait painters on the Island, since he was having a Studio tour. Then we set off in the car to find a Snowy Owl, since the Island is famous for them. Amherst Island is on a migratory path and is renowned to birders from all over the world. We didn't find the elusive Snowy, but we saw dozens of red-tailed hawks and as many deer, up close and personal. Not one of us thought to bring a camera because we were only going to come to the sale and lunch.

After coming back to the mainland, I drove one of the ladies with me to No Frills to pick up a few groceries and I took her home. I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up my prescription I phoned in the day before, and I stopped to pick up my Avon order that arrived Friday afternoon. It had some last minute stocking stuffers.

 I spent $22.72 on produce. I cleaned out all 5 remaining bags of winter vegetables that were left, and 2 bags of oriental mix, 3 zucchini, 1 red onion and cabbage.

 I spent $13.67 on meat....loin pork chops and chicken legs with backs attached.

Dairy cost $15.07
I spent a total of $51.70 and earned only 700 points, but I will take them. Every little bit helps. I don't think I am finished grocery shopping yet. It seems to me that cheese is on sale somewhere else this week for a really great price and I could pick up another variety of meat if I find a sale price.

I had planned to put up my outdoor decorations today. It is currently -7C, so I don't know if it will happen today or not, but perhaps I can get a start at it. Others on my street have theirs up already. Not to worry. I have lots of dusting and vacuuming that I can accomplish. How is your weekend stacking up?

Winter Has Arrived

We have snow......lots and lotsa snow. It started early last evening and has been coming down all day. I wish I had gone grocery shopping yesterday, but instead I was busy crafting. I don't have a radio or television on during the day, so I miss out on all of the news and forecasts. I didn't know this was coming. Otherwise, I would have taken a break from Christmas prep to go to a grocery store like I had thought about. Anyways, today I will make do. I used my last cup of milk yesterday making up some cream cheese sauce, so I made a small batch of instant powdered milk to have today for my coffee and tea. I am going into my pantry tonight for some tinned salmon which I will eat with creamed veggies. I do have a small roast of beef and lots of mashed turnip in the freezer, but I will put that in the crock pot tomorrow while I am over on Amherst Island for the day. The snow isn't that bad, but why go out on the snow covered roads if you don't have to?

I called in a prescription and will pick it up tomorrow when I do go out for groceries after the Christmas Craft and Bake sale on the Island. I was able to complete the last one of 12 Christmas gifts today. I have materials to make another two, but I have accomplished what I set out to do. I still have the month of December if I decide to work on the last two. Starting on Sunday, I will be ready to start cleaning and putting up decorations. I will probably put up the outdoor lights first before the snow gets too deep to get at the areas I want to work. I have a feeling that this snow is here to stay. There was enough snow to shovel out of the driveway, but I didn't feel like it. I have a one track mind when it comes to crafting. As long as we don't get more of the white stuff overnight, I should be okay to back out of the driveway.

Perhaps next week I will have some photos to share. As I clean up areas and put up my lights and garland, I will take pictures that I can post. It seems everything I am working on right now cannot be shared yet. But I have been very, very busy. Have a great stress-free weekend everyone. Stay warm and stay safe.

Sunny and Crisp

I use the word "crisp" to mean "pretty damn cold", and so the weather today was a crisp autumn day. It was minus 11 C (or 12 F), but the sunshine was wonderful. I worked on another Christmas project while enjoying the sunshine streaming through the living room window.

Yesterday I took a break from crafting to wrap everything I have so far (gifts and stocking stuffers). I decided to take a chance on the mail and shipped a large box out to Vancouver. I will keep my fingers crossed that it isn't slowed down too much by the postal workers' rotating strikes. I also bought another roll of 100 stamps because I knew I wouldn't have enough for all the cards I plan to send out. I also like to include stamps with my card sets that I gift. I gathered the gifts going to different families into bags and boxes to keep organized until it is time to deliver. I have finished 10 homemade gifts and would really like to do at least 2 more. That will leave me supplies for two more IF I still feel like working on those. I will probably not do more, but just in case. I really want to start on the cleaning, so I can bring out the decorations....preferably before Christmas Eve. Ha.

I started my day yesterday by washing, seeding and slicing those 8 rainbow peppers I bought the day before. I had some last night with whole green beans and Italian sausage done in the oven. Tonight I will have some dirty rice made with some cauliflower rice from the freezer, some fried ground beef and half a jar of my sister's tomato sauce that she gave me during my last visit. (She gave me 6 quarts) She used to do a lot of canning and preserving. I never learned how to, so I am grateful for the fact that she likes to share the bounty. Lucky me.

Two quart bags of sweet pepper slices for the freezer. 

Daybook: Monday, Nov. 12/18

Outside my window.....it is dark at 5:40 PM.

I am thinking.....that perhaps if I sat down tonight to do a Daybook post, perhaps I would get into the spirit of writing. I have not been in the mood the last few days. My friend with brain cancer is in Palliative Care now. My next door neighbour had a heart attack last weekend and needed triple bypass surgery. My daughter's FIL had surgery recently for removing a cancerous tumour. There has been  so much illness and hardship around me lately, that sometimes I just want a break. But I will continue sending out cards of encouragement and hope some of that positivism will rub off on me.

I am thankful for.....having started my Christmas shopping and wrapping all those weeks ago.

From the kitchen.....my supper is in the oven. I am having a mix of stir fry vegetables (peppers, broccoli, peppers, mushrooms, green beans, etc.) topped with cooked ground meat in a cream cheese sauce.

I am wearing.....blue denim jeans, a royal blue long sleeved v-neck t-shirt, and black socks.

I am creating.....a few gag gifts and I am continuing to produced more handmade Christmas gifts. I am taking photos so I can share after the holidays.

I am going.....nowhere tonight. I was out shopping today at Walmart, the Dollar Store and No-Frills grocery store.

I am hoping.....that I won't need to go out shopping in the stores again for Christmas stuff. I am so DONE with spending money. I just want to be able to clean my house and enjoy the decorating and the entertainment.

One of my favourite things.....is being able to relax in the evenings and watch some early Christmas movies that are starting to come out already.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....include mailing out the shipping box that is ready to go to BC. I can start putting up my outdoor decorations, while it is still relatively "warm". (I won't be turning on the lights until after December 1st). I want to finish wrapping up ALL the presents and stocking stuffers this week. This weekend is the Amherst Island Christmas Craft sale, where we will buy back all the crafts we made last weekend. Ha,ha.

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

Today I spent $35.60 on some groceries. The rainbow peppers were only $1.97 for four, so I bought 2 packages. I paid only $2.47 for each tub of cream cheese, which was cheaper than no-name brands. The beef roast was on sale, so I picked it up for Christmas Eve dinner. My usual frozen veggies were sold out. Oh no! So I bought spinach (for my omelets), cut green beans and whole green beans. As a treat for myself I bought more frozen blueberries. I earned 4000 points with the frozen berries, frozen beans and roast beef.  That is $4 to add to my growing total.