Menu Monday

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I did well last week with most of my food planning. So this week, I’ll look at what food items need to be used up.

I took some ravioli and the sauce out of the freezer. I think we’ll do that tonight.

I have some pulled pork I froze from last time, so I’ll take that out to use tomorrow. I have beans frozen as well. The refrigerator freezer is looking better.

I still have quite a few tomatoes from Costco, so BLTs might be on the menu board again. Plus, I do have romaine lettuce to use.

I plan on making some brown rice and will grill up some tofu and make a bit of a rice bowl with whatever I can find: green onions, cucumbers, and radishes.

I have a turkey roast in the freezer, and I’m thinking of doing that in the crock pot. I’d like to get that out of the chest freezer. I have some frozen peas and instant potatoes I can use with it. It would be easy.

Always a TBD, based on what I feel like.

I’ve been going down the rabbit hole trying to figure out my CPAP and SP 02. It’s still dipping at night below 90, and it needs to get sorted. Reddit has a dedicated CPAP group, and it’s been helpful to read there. I see the sleep doctor in a few weeks, so I want as much information as possible to present to him. I’m still waiting to hear about the overnight test. sigh:( It’s definitely stressing me out.

It’s always something.

Simple Sunday

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A cool morning. Temperatures dropped quite a bit and it’s only 63 out right now. There is also a delta breeze which makes it feel cooler.

I went to the Auburn gym, stopped at Goodwill to look around, and then came home.

Most things are tidy around the house, so not a lot to do, which is nice. I might do some ‘extra things’ I don’t normally get to, like dusting baseboards.

Last night I made spanakopita, but modified it to use cream cheese mixed with the feta cheese. I’m still trying to recreate a spinach pie my mother made. I’m pretty sure it had cream cheese mixed in with the spinach. Anyway, this one came out excellent. I also used frozen spinach and I don’t normally do that, so that may have made a difference in the texture as well.

My daughter has been mowing ‘the south forty today’. There’s still a lot to do. Hopefully, my son can pitch in and do some weed eating.

WE might do a day trip again tomorrow, but I think I want to wake up and see how I feel. I still want to get up to Donner Lake and walk that trail, so I might do that. Once my daughter finishes the semester, she’ll have more days when we can go do things.

Other than that, not much is going on.

Friday Things

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cooking, swimming by

A good furgal week overall.

I got gas at Costco, which was $5.65 a gallon, so it ended up at $40.( I usually fill up at half a tank).

On Monday, we took a fun day trip to Empire State Mine to walk the grounds. I wanted to use my Poppy Pass, but since it is a historical mine, they didn’t take that. So it was $5 for each of us to get in, and worth it. We stopped at Taco Tree for lunch, and that ended up $18. It wasn’t very good this time. Taco Tree is definitely a hit or miss.

Tuesday, I went down to Holiday Market here for romaine as I planned a grilled chicken Caesar salad. I also got some ham for sandwiches and sliced cheese. I spent $36, I think. I also went to the pet bookstore as I had books to donate. Then I found some books and a Poirot(DVD) set unopened. Total was $23.

I went down to the pool on Wednesday and then straight home.

Yesterday was a no spend/no drive day.

Today, I’m undecided if I’ll go to the pool. It’s only 6:30 right now, so I’ll think about it.

So, I’m pleased with the low spend week overall.

These are some pictures from the Empire Mine. This is the mansion; the mine area is in a different area. There is the shaft opening you can see, and the equipment. It’s amazing to see it and think men went down there to work. A bit of a dichotomy between the mansion life and where the miners were working.

The rose campion is in our yard.

Thankful Thursday

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I’m very glad the temperatures are lower than last week. High 80’s is crazy for this time of year. We’re back in the 70s and low 80’s for a while. My daughter put in the LR cooler just so we have it when needed. But our PGE bill has been so great, I hate to start using coolers.

I’m grateful for my daughter who does so much around here and actually likes doing all that stuff.

I’m grateful for the beautiful flowers in our yard. The poppies are so colorful and I love how they’ve spread. The rose campion is spreading everywhere too.

I’m grateful for my CPAP machine that has virtually cured my sleep apnea. Unfortunately, I still have some blood oxygen issues. The BO is still hitting a low in the 80’s, probably during REM sleep, from what I’ve read. So that is going to need to be addressed. sigh???

I’m actually grateful to AI Gemini for giving me some really valuable information about the blood oxygen levels and the appropriate tests to ask for.

I’m grateful as always for the pool and being able to swim. With gas prices so high, I am adjusting how often I go down to Roseville, but still, I love it when I’m there.

Today is a home day. I went for a walk and have baked a sourdough loaf. I need to mop the floors at some point.

Menu Monday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cooking, home stuff by

Part of a bouquet of flowers my son got for me. I separated it into 3 vases.

I hope all you moms of either humans or fur babies had a great day. My day was very nice. I went to the gym and did weights and some treadmill. Then popped over to Goodwill and actually found some stuff. Three dot notebooks,2 picture frames, a Starbucks mug, and a sweatshirt for my daughter. When I got home, my daughter made up a brunch for us, and we sat outside on the patio.

For dinner last night, I tried a new recipe for ramen. First, you blend up the veggies (carrots, celery, onion, garlic, and 1/2 apple in the food processor. Stir fry that till it’s soft and then start adding miso, broth, ginger, tofu, and some water. It was quite good, but it seemed to be a lot of work for ramen. I added 1/2 pack of ramen noodles, and we had some white rice on the side. There’s some left over, so I may have that for dinner again.

The rest of the week in no particular order:

I have some hot dogs from Costco I want to use. I’ll do them on the BBQ and have beans and sauerkraut too.

I think I’ll do a BLT night. We’ll see how that goes. I bought some nice tomatoes from Costco that are slicers, hence the BLT.

One night, I think I’ll BBQ some chicken. I used up all the salad stuff I have, so I’ll need to get something. I’ll get some romaine, so I’m thinking a chicken Caesar salad.

We had pizza last week, so I won’t do pizza again, I don’t think. I’m sure something will pop up.

Today is home reset day. So no gym and no pool. I like to take Monday to completely go through the house and make sure it all looks good, and check if any areas need attention. I know I need to water the sunroom plants. I’ll probably dust too. With the windows open now, the pollen is coming in.

I need to look at the week and decide which day to go to the pool and the gym. I don’t have any appointments, which is so nice, so I can just pick when I want to go. With gas prices, I’m intending to go down to Roseville only twice this week.

Saturday Stuff

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I had a nice walk this morning, although the sun was already up and quite bright in the park. I have light sensitivity with my eyes and dry eyes( which means they tear up all the time). So I was there at 6:15 am. I may have to get out earlier or remember my hat.

My son is coming up today to celebrate Mother’s Day. He’s doing a game tomorrow at the gaming store, so he’ll be tied up all day. Actually, he’s running the game and the store is paying him, so a win-win for him.

I’ll see if he wants to do a lunch out or just eat here. I have plenty of stuff to use/make. Tomorrow, my daughter and I will do a brunch here at home and call it good. I think we’ll do waffles and eggs or something like that.

The weather is sure warming up. Looks like 85 on Monday, so warm!! We usually put the coolers in right around Memorial Day, so it seems we’re on target.

I did drop off the stuff at Goodwill yesterday, so that felt good. Honestly, where does it come from?

Frugal Friday

Posted in books, budgeting, budgets, California, cash envelopes, home stuff, Walking by

Mostly a frugal week since I didn’t go anywhere for 4 days due to feeling lousy. Then on Wednesday, I went to the pool. Before that, I got gas, and it had gone up quite a bit from my last fill-up. Costco gas is still the cheapest, but yikes, $5.69!!

After the pool, I went to Costco as I mentioned and spent a little over $200. I took out non-food and wine, so the food cost was around $100. Non food included batteries, an orchid, and I think something else. Wine was my favorite, Kendall Jackson, which is $9.59 at Costco. Oh, and I picked up that Rose for Mother’s Day and the most expensive thing was some steaks for Mother’s Day and for the freezer. I think the pack had 6 pieces of thinly sliced rib-eye. My daughter and I will likely just share a piece, and the other counts as LTF for the freezer.

My food total so far is running around $300, so not too bad. I don’t need anything, so it may just be a small Winco trip or something.

I ordered propane and put that on the CC. I’m slowly getting the card paid off, but then something like this happens, and I need to charge another $257. Oh well, I’ll get there. sigh:(

I haven’t really been doing active cash envelopes. Most of what I get, I just use for groceries. I guess I need to try to do better, especially for annual bills. It does help when I have the envelopes even a bit filled. Well, I have a few months with just a few annual bills. Next month is the truck DMV, but my son will pay for that as he’s the one using the truck, so it may give me a chance to fill some envelopes for fall. Having lost 1/3 of my income after B died is definitely a factor. sigh:(

Well, today I plan to go to the gym and the library. I have a book to return. I don’t have any holds, so I may just browse the new items. I want to keep up with my weights as I feel they really do help. I’d like to find a new walking path for when I’m down there, so I may look at RPR (Roseville Parks and Rec) trail maps to see what is close to the gym. Sadly, the only paved trail up here is the park I walk at. Auburn has another paved trail at a park, but it’s not in my normal route. The MV park is so well used by so many people, and they come from all over because it is paved. I’m at the stage of life where I’d be concerned for my stability on an unpaved path unless I used my walking sticks. I have been taking them with me even to this park because they give me an added sense of security. It’s tough getting older.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in Blood test, budgeting, budgets, California, cancer, decluttering, Gratitude, Uncategorized by

I’m very thankful to feel ok again. Whatever it was, I’d prefer it not to happen again. Next time, I will be sure to drink some electrolytes. AI seemed to think that the need for them was contributing to my overall yucky feeling.

My labs came in at 30.4, so up from 29.1, but not too bad. .7 increase, and my ratio came down to 2.65 from 2.95, so that was positive. Another month of just keeping on.

I’m thankful for a day with nothing planned. I don’t have any plans for the day, so I’ll see what I get up to. I’ve been decluttering a few random items that I’m not using and will take to Goodwill once I have a few bags.

Today, I plan on making a chicken salad with leftover Costco chicken. The rest I’ll just freeze. Plus, at some point, make some chicken broth. I think this time I’ll pressure can it, so I don’t take up so much room in the freezer. But that’s not today.

We had a dead deer in our upper yard near the pond. We’re not sure if it got hit by a car or what. My daughter called animal control, and usually, if it’s on private property, they won’t get it. But since we said we had no way to move it, they took it. Why couldn’t it die on our neighbor’s property? I’m thankful they took it, though, as a number of years ago we had a dead deer down in the woods, and it just decomposed and certainly smelled for a while. We think that one, though, was a mountain lion kill, as there were only pieces left. Anyway, it’s gone.

Midweek musings

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I think I’m almost back to normal. I feel good enough to try the pool so, I’ll report back and update.

Update: The pool was relatively empty (no coast guard). I got a lane and did about 25 minutes, and then felt done.

I need to stop for gas at Costco first. Then I’ll only try to swim for 20 minutes at most. Definitely don’t want to overdo it and feel lousy again. I will mention what happened to Dr. Laptalo when I see him next month and see what he thinks. Food has been off, and that’s not fun for me, as I love cooking, food, and eating. Maybe today my taste will come back for something. I did have a salad last night, which was the first since last Friday, so that was positive.

I got gas at Costco, and it’s up to 5.69, so up quite a bit. After the pool, I went to Costco for coffee(always), a roast chicken, eggs, WW bread, some steak seasoning, chips, and wine. I picked up a rosé brut for Mother’s Day.

Now I’m home and will chill for a bit and then see what I get up to. I’ve been doing some embroidery, which I really like doing. Very relaxing.

A rough one.

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MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU

AND HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO

Wowza, did I get knocked out by this chemo or what? Usually Dex does me in for a day or so, but then I move past it. This time by Saturday, I was feeling a bit off but didn’t really think much about it. I was very tired, very achy, and definitely had the old chemo headache. It was awful, and I’m not sure WHY? Why would this cycle be any different? I have no idea. Today I felt somewhat better, although still a little lightheaded. I did feel like a walk, so I did that. It’s strange that I didn’t connect how I was feeling with chemo because that’s exactly what it feels like. Flu-type symptoms. Well, I’ll be better prepared next month. Well, at least I will figure it out instead of thinking I had caught a cold/flu.

UPDATE: I’M STILL NOT FEELING GREAT, SO MY DAUGHTER THINKS IT’S MOLD SPORE ALLERGIES DUE TO ALL THE RAIN. She’s probably right, the chemo effect wouldn’t be this long, at least it never has been and I am sensitive to mold spores.

UPDATE 2 Gemini Ai thinks it’s more like a dex crash and I’m getting hit a little harder than I usually do. And the mold sensitivity could be a factor.

So with that, I plan on trying to catch up on the house chores and not go to Roseville. I’d love to just drive down to the pool and swim, but I will err on the side of caution and rest more. I didn’t feel like eating much or cooking. I had some soup from the freezer. I don’t think I’ll do up a menu until I can look in the fridge/freezer and see what needs using. I think we have two salad packs.

The rain has stopped for now, and we are heading into warm weather with temperatures in the 80s. Wild weather.

Since today is Cinco de Mayo, I may see what I have for tacos or something like that. I always have beans, so I could do nachos.

I’ve been watching Star Wars, of course, and that’s always fun. No new shows yet.

Well, that wraps it up for now. Hopefully, back to a normal schedule tomorrow.