Monthly Archives: July 2018

Saturday roundup

Posted in budgeting, simple foods, Uncategorized by

So, my son couldn’t quite figure out the WordPress issue. We fixed the cookies but the other things to do were complicated, so he said for now just use Google chrome which, he says, is better anyway.  All my other things on Safari are working just not WordPress.  I guess I’ll just use this till I feel up to checking it out again. What a PITA!

So yesterday:

Frugal Friday:

Not so much overall. I’m not spending any money really except for groceries. I think groceries are our biggest variable.

I did buy another boot for my other foot but when it arrived today, it’s too big so that’s got to go back.

The budget is okay. Most of the first of the month bills are done and then later in the month it’s just Verizon and the water bill.  I’m still using YNAB and it is a good program. I’m not sure it’s helping to save money but it does track money so that’s good.

It’s super hot and just not pleasant to be outside. I go out to do a few chores and then come back in. I’m going out to the pool around 3;30 and that’s nice to cool off in.

Last night I cooked the pizza on the BBQ and it came out good. I burnt the bottom just a little so perhaps a minute or two less would be good. I made a greek pizza with spinach, kalamata olives, feta, a little goat cheese, and some mushrooms. It was good. Then I made a chicken sausage one with peppers and onions.  I didn’t taste that one but it looked good.

I also went to the gym but didn’t go check the other gym yet. I will soon but I wouldn’t do anything right now anyway, so I guess there’s time to check it out.

Well,  I’m off to read a book.

I’ve made hardboiled eggs, chicken salad, and chopped lettuce for dinner with some avocado and some garden tomatoes.

 

Midweek…..

Posted in cooking, Uncategorized by

Monday ended up very traumatic but at least it ended on an up note. Ollie our 15-year-old cat has thyroid cancer and a large tumor. He is my daughters first love. 🙂

So Monday morning he had a breathing attack and we thought he was a goner. He wasn’t able to really breathe in as he had saliva in his throat.  It looked like he was going to kitty heaven. We called the mobile vet and said it was an emergency and we needed him euthanized.  She arrived in about 30 minutes. Ollie was breathing better and up an moving a little bit.  We then were unsure what to do. He seemed ok. Should we still put him down?? We just couldn’t decide. In the meanwhile the dogs needed their heartworm tests, so she did that. By that point, Ollie came outside although he was still wobbly.  so in the end, we decided NOT to do it.

I’m glad as it seems he’s back to eating and so forth. We know it’s going to happen at some point again but for now, it just wasn’t the right moment.

It was very traumatic though and we were crying. But for now, it’s good.

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This is Ollie and Rocky( the rescue Border Collie)!!!

Ollie came from the rescue place too. He was maybe 8 weeks old and a snotty little thing. He grew up to be almost 20 pounds. He’s part Maine coon. Now he’s pretty skinny but he’s still a love boy!!

Over the years, we have had many pets and have had to put down many pets. I have learned about love, healing, death, the circle of life and much more from our pets and I’m grateful to them for that.

I’m not sure I want any more pets at this point. But they do bring joy. I’m just not sure I want the heartache when they’re gone. I’ve been thru it so many times.  I still miss Tucker, Blackie, Princess, Jason, Papillion( my first true love), Coyote( who in fact was part coyote and we found in New Mexico out in the desert abandoned), and so many more.

So Tuesday was a better day and we went to the gym. B is off to Eureka for the week. I wanted to go but someone needs to be on pet sitting so I guess that’s me. That’s okay. Last night we had a yummy zoodle dinner with one of the yellow zucchini from the garden.

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Then I topped it with some organic beef sauce basil from the garden. Pretty yummy. I’m enjoying the zoodles.

Today is another hot one so I’m heading into Auburn to drop off a thrift store load and then back home. Not sure what I’m doing for dinner. Something easy.

 

Simple Sunday on Monday???

Posted in cooking, Flylady, Gardening, simple foods, simplicity, Uncategorized by

Nah…. I just didn’t blog yesterday for some reason or another.

It was hot and I was uninspired. I went to the gym and that’s about all I did productively.

I did make a lovely fried potato dinner with potatoes from the garden. There were red ones, purple ones and, yellow ones. Quite nice. I added the Trader Joes soy Italian sausage, quite good by the way, and then grilled TJ’s chicken sausage also quite good. I sprinkled lots of herbs from the garden on top and then a sprinkling of goat cheese.

Here’s some lavender from the garden. I love french lavender and use it year round.

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Here is a sweet morning glory that just popped up on its own.

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Today is the kitchen zone and general home blessing day. I usually dust and do all the mirrors. We vacuumed yesterday so I don’t need to do that.

This week is mellow and I have a food bank drop off and a small thrift store load that’s mostly my son’s stuff.

Other than that, I’m going to add in an extra gym day and then I’m going to go check out the 24-hour fitness down in Roseville. I want to check their pool and see whether I think it’s worth driving 25 minutes 3x a week.  I’m also going to stop in the expensive gym as they do have 3 pools but I think the membership is probably too expensive.  It’s really a snobby gym so I’m not sure I’d like it but my love of swimming may overcome that. We don’t have a YMCA anywhere near here so….

It’s a non-pay week so nothing much to do there.

 

 

 

 

Random thoughts

Posted in Gardening, husband, Uncategorized by

We just went to the dump that is at the end of our road. About 2 miles or so.  We filled the van( well, I watched as B did it), with all kinds of junk and the insulation from under the house. that has been a huge undertaking for my husband and a very messy one. He’s wearing a hazmat suit and air mask thing.  The reason is rats!!!! Why does it have to be rats?  But NO one on our hill has cats anymore. Our 2 cats are inside and only go out when we’re with them.  Blackie our feral turned lovey cat died 2 years ago.  He was a great ratter.  So in the past year, we’ve had the rats coming and going .  We’ve done a lot like keep the chicken food locked at night, put a sonic thing under the house and traps. It has helped a lot but the damage was done to the insulation under the house and it all had to be removed.

Thus, it all went to the dump this morning plus other tidbits.  Yay!!!!  I love dropping stuff off and that much is gone.

Not much frugal happening in our life right now, just keeping the budget going. Our health insurance thru UNFI went up over a 100 a month so that’s a bummer but I’m grateful for the health insurance as it is excellent coverage.  I have my LLS grant so that covers my portion and I am so grateful to the people that donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. If you’re looking to make donations this year consider them as the donations go to research into finding a cure for blood cancers.

Our next set of projects are finishing the fence line along the property line.  This started as our chickens kept going over there and the neighbor was yelling at them. Of course, this is the hoarder who has 6 boats (abandoned), loads of crap everywhere, and then he started a garden in his ”round up” yard.  I certainly wouldn’t eat anything from his garden.  Anyway, B is putting up a fence so they don’t go over there.

Then we need to build a new deck off the studio as that one is rotted thru and dangerous.  It did last 18 years so not bad. But that might end up pricey as my son would like the deck bigger so he can put a few chairs out there.  We’ll start that sometime this month.

No big inside projects.  I had hoped for a minor kitchen redo but that’s not going to happen this year.

I’ve been out to the barn and pulled out most stuff that was in my son’s side so he can organize it.  Also, getting into the back room and taking everything out so it can get cleaned. I started washing some of the windows. The floors are dirt so B has rugs down and they need to be taken up and shook out.  It is looking all way better. B even got rid of an old cabinet and there’s a second to get rid. Hurray!!!! The space is looking much better.  This is old funky barn not a cool one so whatever we do is helpful.  We’d love to pour a concrete floor but that would be too expensive for us.

The temperatures are inching up after some really lovely mid-’80s temperatures.  We are watering quite a bit but it’s nice to have green gardens around the house.  Unfortunately, the water bill is high. $170 is high but what are you going to do. Our water is supplied by the local water company and there’s no way around it.

 

Dinner is BBQ carne asada( I picked it up at Trader Joes) and a salad.  I have some tempeh left so I’ll BBQ that for B.  I also have some garden potatoes so I may roast them up too.  We had lovely roasted veggies last night and they were yummy.

 

 

 

update on foot stuff

Posted in meal planning, plants, Uncategorized, Walking by

So I finally got in to see a podiatrist. Quite the wait. But he seemed ok, not real personable but ok. Mostly it was stuff I already had read about.  But he did say it wasn’t just a stress fracture that the fracture had gone outside the bone slightly so it was slightly more serious and I should keep wearing the shoe for another month.  And then come back in a month. So no walking except what I do normally around the house etc.

I’m not sure what I’ll do once it’s healed as I never walked for extended periods and was not a speed walker. I guess I’m thinking every other day to start and then do the recumbent at the gym. I’m not crazy about the recumbent bike but I will add it in. Plus I may do elliptical as well as that would put less strain on the foot.

We’ll see as I still have a month to think about it and plan.

For now, it does seem to be getting better and I am wearing the ‘shoe’ thing.

We’ve had a few great days of weather with temps in the ’80’s.  That’s changing over the weekend and we’ll be back up to the mid 90’s.

B is taking a few days off and probably will do a few projects. There’s fencing to be done on one property line and some concrete work too.

I’m going to the thrift store to look for a plant stand for my spider plant that needs to be up on something. I might go to the gym too but haven’t decided yet.

Dinner is tempeh Reubens!

Happy 4th of July

Posted in Political things, Uncategorized by

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There’s a couple of good posts I’d like to share:

https://sporeflections.wordpress.com/ 

Urspo is one of my favorite bloggers!! So smart and writes great posts!

Then over at

Satisfying Retirement Bob has written a superb post on’What have lost’

You should head over and read these 2 posts as they say everything I want to but they say it better!!

 

 

 

Monday….

Posted in cooking, Uncategorized, Walking by

I was getting ready to leave the house when my phone rang and it was the podiatrist office canceling. WTF???

Don’t these doctors work???

So now I need to change my schedule. They wanted me to come at 2pm and I said no, I’m not driving to Roseville when it’s 100 degrees out at 2 in the afternoon.

Anyway, this is so frustrating and I’m going to complain to someone at Sutter.

I then decided to go buy new Arizona soft bed Birkenstocks as it is one of the few shoes I can wear.  My last pair were very worn down and with my feet issues, I figured I’d better go spend the $100 plus for good shoes. I did check out Vionics and they looked good  online but when I saw them at the store they were very lightweight and didn’t feel like they would hold my foot.  So I’m glad to have a new pair and they are very supportive. Does anyone have any other suggestions for orthopedic type shoes?? The guy in the store was not helpful at all. But he did say that a store down the street did do inserts so I stopped in, but they were closed. I will go back later this week I think.

Dinner is a new recipe: Berkeley burger which is beets, brown rice, eggs as a binder, horseradish and some other things. I’ll let you know how it is.

Simple Sunday​

Posted in cooking, simplicity, Uncategorized by

Boy, it is still hot, hot, hot!!!

Actually, it’s only 98 degrees, .maybe 99, so not over 100 but it feels hotter. I’ve been out in the pool daily with my glass of wine and float around for an hour or so. That’s where I’m headed now.

I went to the gym this morning and did weights.

Tomorrow I head down to Roseville to see the podiatrist FINALLY. How ridiculous is waiting 4 weeks and being referred to 4 different ones till finally, this guy could see me?

But my foot is feeling better so that is a good sign. I’m hoping to get back to walking at least .5 mile a day this week.  🙂 We’ll see…..

It’s too hot to do much but the zone this week is entryways and dining room.  We don’t have a dining room per se, just a table and chairs in the living room area.IMG_1432.jpg

So that’s always an easy zone. The entryways have geraniums and both look good so that’s done too.

The entryways have geraniums and both look good so that’s done too.

It is supposed to cool into the 80’s so I’ll probably get out to the barn for some tidying. It is coming along and I think we may get it pretty well sorted out this summer. There’s a back room in the barn and that needs clearing out and I’ll wash the windows. It’s a hot room as there are windows on the one wall.  But I’d like to move all the extra stuff out of there and just start fresh.

Dinner is unknown except for a salad….