Monthly Archives: March 2021

Spring Refresh

Posted in California, cooking, Flylady, home stuff, husband by

Another beautiful day.

Today’s our no walk day so I’m going to get started with my Monday reset. Dust, windex mirrors, vacuum, and do a general tidy up.

I used feta which is traditional. But I did like the addition of pine nuts so I added those. I also did more layers than she called for.

A few of my Vintage Easter cards

When I did the Antique Flea markets many years ago I love selling these old post cards. many of them had the original stamps and were written to people.

Here’s the Simply White trim on the door and today I’ll work on this part of the wall. As you can see this was the outside wall that was all rebuilt when we remodeled 26 years ago. I plan on switching out the light for one of those gooseneck industrial lights which I think will work there.

A couple of more bunnies. That marble eggs is something that came from Barclay’s mother. I think probably from when she was a girl. We have never kept much from her as, well, besides she never sent us much, we just didn’t get along. Or I should say she didn’t get along with her son,B, or me for that matter. She was raised very wealthy, on a sugar plantation in Haiti early on and then they moved to NY. Later her mother, moved to Sarasota Florida. Very wealthy. I guess the hippy, alternative son was too much for her. This was from the woman, who with her second husband, BArclays step father, had houses moved because she didn’t like them so close to the road,. Then later they bought a maple syrup farm in Vermont. That was the one place they lived that I did love but the one time we went to visit, it had to be 1980, they also had raised a herd of some kind of small black cow for meat. She named the cows after her kids. Weird ?? Huh?? She joked ‘Barclay ‘was in the freezer. Good thing we were vegetarians.

Well, enough down memory lane. I need to go do the living room zone. BTW, Thursday starts the entryway zone as April 1 is Thursday.

Simple Sunday and Not much happening post.

Posted in Blood test, California, seasonal things, Uncategorized by

Beautiful weather going on in Northern CA right now. We hit 72 degrees yesterday. Just lovely.

Our Japanese maples are all leafing out but not the oaks. Too early for them.

Today, I plan on painting the board for the shelf as the bracketts showed up yesterday. It’ll take at least 2 coats of paint. I haven’t started the entry way yet but did do the trim the other day. Maybe tomorrow.

This is my week off from Velcade but I still need to go to Sacramento to see the doctor. My labs should be there by Wednesday. I’m still guessing that we do Round 4 and 5 and skip 6. At that point, it may not be relevant to do another round. Since I’m not a doctor, I’ll leave that up to him.

I put out my vintage Easter cards and a few little ceramic chicks I have. I’ve got rid of most seasonal decor but do keep a few little things. Of course, we don’t celebrate Easter anyway but the decorations can be cute!

This week is the Living room zone for Flylady so I’ll do a tidy up there later. As the title of the post suggests, not much going on here although B is knee(shoulder?) something deep trying to get the garden shed put together. It looks like a giant jigsaw puzzle to me and definitely not my thing. I’d give up in a second and hire someone.

We had a huge cobb type salad for dinner last night and tonight I plan on another big salad with a piece of Ahi tuna grilled. I don’t think I’ll fire up the Weber since the Ahi would only take a few minutes on each side. So ,not worth the charcoals. I bought some feta so I think I’ll make a spanakopita this week too. In one of the Ina Garten books I saw a recipe looked good. In my monthly rotation I keep 2 slots open for a new recipe. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t. I also saw a recipe for Spanish tortilla which is not a tortilla but thin potato slices then a layer of chorizo( I was going to use soy chorizo) and then beaten eggs and I think cheese was in there too. It was a NYT recipe.

Velcade, Round 3, shot #3.

Posted in Blood test, books, cancer, meal planning, Multiple myeloma, Myeloma, Uncategorized, Walking by

So this finishes Round 3 and I get labs tomorrow so I should know by next Wednesday how it all looks. I will start Round 4 April 7th.

It was a quick trip down to Rocklin. All went smooth and I got my shot and was out by 10:15. I’m having some eye issues like I did before with watering eyes and getting some styes. I have an ophthalmic prescription ointment but it’s 6 years old at least. the nurse said still use it but it may not have quite the efficacy. Then get Dr. L to prescribe a new one. It is interesting how you ‘forget’ certain things with chemo and then it’s like ” wait , didn’t this happen before”.?

I decided to stop at the Humane society bookstore in Auburn and was glad I did.

Everyone has to wear a mask and everyone did.It was somewhat busy but I found a good stack of cookbooks to read and then more of the Sue Grafton. They actually had an ‘A is for Alibi”, her first, which is pretty hard to find. It was only released in paperback. So I’m set for books for a while.

I’ve actually read ‘Bella Tuscany’ a few times but it is a great location book about Tuscany, which I’m sure I will never see in my lifetime. And I have read the Berg book too. I really always enjoyed her writing.

Today is a no walk Dex day as I end up having shortness of breath so I’m going to lay low and read. I still need to get out my monthly menu planner sheet and start April.

Monday Musings

Posted in budgeting, budgets, cooking, Flylady, home stuff, Uncategorized by

It’s cloudy today. I guess no BBQ tonight. That’s ok, I have plenty of things I can cook. Because of chickens laying so many eggs, I will make a quiche of some sort. I have the pie crust in the refrigerator chilling. I don’t know why I resist making crusts. In the food processor it took all of 2 minutes to get it to form a ball and then into the fridge.

This morning I have already done the bedroom zone, made the quiche crust, windexed the mirrors and am still needing to vacuum.

I also paid the UCD bill for April by phone. I still need to do Allstate some time this week. That’s not due till April as well but I might as well do it sooner than later. I can remember vividly when we had zero money to pay bills on time and always had to do payments. Even our property taxes we had to arrange. Grocery shopping was limited and there was NO extra money for anything. I am grateful that we can pay what we need to. There’s not a lot left over but to me that’s fine as long as the basics are paid.

My son, who spends money like crazy,:) asked for a special edition Rockstar Pendleton for his birthday so I will do that too. It’s a throw size and quite stunning in reds and blacks with men on horses riding facing forward. I guess it’s from some game he plays.

The kitchen is back together and next we will move on to the entryway and B’s cubby. The one wall was actually an outside wall so it’s the siding on the house. It’s painted in the Navajo White I used originally around the house. We’re planning to use the semi gloss on that and the other siding too. I don’t think we’ll start this week but maybe Saturday. This area was a deck that we built right after we moved and remodeled. So 26 years ago. Then at some point we closed it in as room. At some point we should make the foundation of it up to code as it is only on foundation blocks. i don’t know maybe that would work but I doubt it and it would need concrete. Well, that’s out of my zone of things to think about.

Today is our no walk day and I don’t plan on going anywhere.

Simple Sunday

Posted in Blood test, Uncategorized by

We finished painting the kitchen in the semi gloss Benjamin Moore, Simply White. I thought it had been semi gloss before but it must have just been eggshell. For our kitchen semi gloss is best as our stove hood is not the best and grease does get on surfaces. Even doing the once a month kitchen zone when I wipe all the shelves it still builds up. So that was a good choice. We’re going to add another shelf to the one wall and I just ordered the bracketts. They’re not cheap as they are hand forged but they are nice looking. Then I will put my 1 gallon Ball jars there. Things are still disorganized as a couple of shelves are still drying so I can’t put stuff back yet. But tomorrow I will.

We’re headed for a very nice week so I’m planning on a few BBQ meals on the new Weber. Since I’m doing the freezer challenge, I’ll plan on burgers and chicken at least once. I need to work on the monthly menu plan for April too.

I plan on having labs next Friday since I see my doctor on the following Wednesday. The light chain tests take 3 days minimum so I need to do it earlier than I normally do( which is Mondays). Then April will start Round 4.

B and my daughter haven’t started building the garden shed yet so that will probably be the project for this week. Mavis over at ‘one hundred dollars a month’ blog was writing about what containers to use for gardening and she mentioned the big galvanized bins. A couple of people said they work great and there’s less bending involved. I thought I’d check out how much they are. Most of our raised beds are 2×12 boards and they do break down eventually.

Flylady zone is the bedroom. I’ll do that tomorrow.

This looking down the driveway from the barn. Our neighbors now have their tent trailer up there. The sunroom is where we have our 4pm wine and cheese and listen to jazz or NPR.

Five on Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, cooking, home improvement, meal planning, Walking by

The rug I bought for the entryway/B’s office space is way to big and the door hits it so it needs to go back to Costco. He turned his desk toward the wall so I moved a small rug I have in front of my little Ikea couch to put under his chair. It looks way better. I’m not a big fan of rugs everywhere so this is a good option for now. In the winter we do need small rugs to wipe our feet on but the rest of the time I pull them up.

We had a nice walk with only one other guy who showed up. We see him on a rare occasion but usually he walks on the side of the road. It was supposed to be raining so no one else was there ie; AH!! Or if he was, he was gone by the time we got there. So quite lovely.

We’re starting the painting this morning. I took all the jars off my wall shelves. I think we’re going to add another shelf for my larger Ball jars. I’ve been so frustrated with Ikea and them not having ANYTHING IN THE WAY OF PANTRIES FOR ALMOST A YEAR NOW. Next to the fridge is where I want a Sektion freestanding 4 door pantry. I’ve checked every week but still out of stock. I really don’t want to do something else as I like the Ikea line and it works well for us. I’m hoping that we can get down there in the next month and maybe I can speak with one of the kitchen design people and find out when it might be available. In the meanwhile the restaurant shelves will have to do.

I’m planning on starting a freezer/pantry clean out. I’d like to try and make all our meals from either the freezer/pantry for the next 2 weeks. So far I have

  • lamb chops, new spring potatoes, asparagus, and quiche for the veggies( B and whoever else doesn’t want lamb). We actually rarely it but once a year in spring I like to do some.
  • ravioli with Rao sauce
  • burgers on the BBQ both meat and veggie
  • tofu scramble with veggies, nuts, and seeds,
  • breakfast for dinner as we are getting so many eggs:)
  • split pea soup
  • lentil soup
  • turkey chili/vegetarian chili with cornbread
  • pasta night
  • frozen lasagna night
  • Another quiche, probably mushroom/gruyere
  • grilled chicken on the BBQ/tofu on the BBQ
  • polenta with cheese and sauce, salad
  • Thai something with rice, either tofu or chicken or chickpeas. I do have some dry chickpeas I need to use.

I’ve done the budget for April and the extras are Allstate car insurance, DMV for the Santa fe, the UCD extra fucked up bill, and think that’s all.

I was going to go to town but decided to wait till tomorrow and get a few more chores done since Thursday’s really not too productive with the Dex. Today though the energy is there so I might as well use it.

Happy St. Patrick’s day

Posted in California, cancer, cooking, freezer cooking, home stuff, meal planning, Myeloma, reading, Uncategorized by

That really does say it all.

Today is Velcade day. Round 3, shot #2.

This last cycle has been a little tougher. Not sure why. I feel a little more run down even though my labs are ok. My lymphocytes are a little low but not out of normal. Maybe it’s just a build up of stuff in my system.

I had a good drive down to the infusion center. They are very nice and very with it. I decided to go back into Costco before my appt for two reasons. One, they had some sweats on sale for $10 and I bought one the other day and they fit nice and are heavy enough for cold morning walks so I wanted a second pair. Since my wardrobe is very limited and small when I like something I try and buy multiples. The other reason is I had seen a nice rug for B’s office ( our entryway) and it was just $50. That’s for a 5×7 rug which is an excellent price. Costco was very empty even compared to Monday when we went and I was in and out in 15 minutes.

This morning I started chopping vegetables for Tucson stew which we are having tonight. We’ve had this on rotation almost every 2 weeks, it’s that good. My daughter will make some brown rice later. Then after I got home I made up some taco meat( from last night) pintos, cheese burritos to freeze.

Then I had a piece of steak I’d defrosted and needed to use so I cut it up into small pieces and cooked it over high heat. It seared nicely. I’m not sure what I use it for but it’s done. My son was thinking of a beef stew/shepherd’s pie. So now I’m relaxing till I take Dex about 1 or so.

Exciting news!! Our garden shed showed up yesterday. It’s wrapped in plastic so if it rains it should be ok. Plus we got our stimulus money so that amount covers the price of the shed( $999 on sale, plus tax). There’s enough left to save some and maybe start buying what we need for the barn fence.

Well, I’m off to read some before Dex time.:)

Simple Sunday

Posted in books, cooking, covid-19, Flylady, Uncategorized, Walking by

Daylight savings is so weird. I wish they would just pass the law and leave time in the spring alone since both mornings and evenings have plenty of light. I woke up at 4am on clock but it was 5am with the spring ahead. So I got up at 5:30 after I got the coffee going. We went out to walk about 6:10 or so and so really that was 5:10. AH was already there so I guess he’s on the same schedule as us. His dog crapped all over the path right where we walk but he didn’t pick it up. Just left it for someone else to do. Tomorrow is Monday and it’s our no walk day so that will give us another day to adjust.

We’re in for rain mixed with snow tomorrow. We need rain so can’t complain really. I’m planning to go to Costco tomorrow so we’ll see how that shapes up. I can hold off if necessary. Mostly it comes down to needing coffee:)

Flylady zone is the bathroom which I will do a little later.

I’m planning on a stir fry( tofu and veggies) for dinner with some rice. This week I wil BBQ( once the weather is nice again) some steak bits, tofu, and I have some chicken defrosting for a mediterranean dish with artichokes and olives. I also have a cabbage to use for something. We don’t eat the corned beef stuff and cabbage for St Pats day. I may make something similar with tempeh. Tempeh and cabbage and potatoes??? We don’t eat a lot of tempeh but it is good for certain things. I especially like tempeh reubens. You grill the tempeh, mustard,add sauerkraut and cheese. A trick I learned is to slice the tempeh thin and then soak in water for a few minutes as it takes away some of the bitterness that tempeh sometimes has.

After finishing the front room , I was pleased that the only thing I decluttered was 3 mini puzzles from so dollar store my son bought us for Christmas. We did them and now they can go to someone else. Other than that not much was deemed unnecessary.

T

The teak book case empty. This was a Salvation army find many years ago when you could still find deals there. I think I paid $20.

Some of the Easton Press Books.

The couch wall done.

More Easton Press and LP’s and photo albums.

It should be a good week. My daughter gets her 2nd covid shot this week. She’s a bit of a hypochondriac so hopefully it all goes well. The first shot did so I don’t expect any problem plus she will take a Tylenol and allergy pill when she gets home.

Frugal Friday

Posted in cooking, frugalism, instant pot recipes, Myeloma, Uncategorized, Walking by

I don’t think there’s much frugal this week except the normal.

We ate all meals at home. I went to Trade Joes on Sunday and spent $200 including wine. So mostly salad stuff, breads( to freeze, like pita and bagels), cheeses, some frozen stir fry veggies, snacks etc. So expensive but lots of stuff to get thru the next week.

Today, I’m making and IP broccoli cheddar soup as I needed to use up a head of broccoli. I may just freeze it or we could have some for lunch with the Tartine Sourdough. I also in the process of making a quiche(trying to use up as many eggs as I can) with mushrooms and gruyere. It’s a recipe from ‘Magnolia Table’. It looks like a good one. So using up some stuff instead of just giving to the chickens or composting.

My son made a delicious chicken parmesan in the cast iron pan last night and also made a tofu parmesan in one of my 6 inch cast iron pans. Both were delicious. It also used things from the freezer so that was a frugal thing.

Friday’s are a more normal day after low Thursdays but it’s also a bit hyper but I feel good so I try and do some extra things.

Barclay is finishing up the front room. I’ve moved some Cathrineholm to the teak bookcase and put most of the red fiesta ware on another shelf or in the cabinet.( closed doors). I’ll have to see whether I like it there as some of the green tones match my Needles and Pine Tepco.

We will start the kitchen next week and again do a wall at a time since there’s so much to move. We’re doing that in a semi gloss. I plan on ordering a new stove hood sometime in the next few months. Nothing too fancy but hopefully one that works a bit better.

We had a good walk this morning even though it was quite cold. I had some shortness of breath but it was impeding as long as I wasn’t trying to talk and walk then I would start huffing some.

We’re not planning on a pizza tonight. Nobody seems to be in the mood so we’ll just eat leftovers or what I made today.

Velcade, round 3, shot #1 or #7 depending on how you’re counting.

Posted in Blood test, cancer, cooking, Myeloma by

It was raining quite a bit driving down to Rocklin.

I needed to have a blood draw as they want CMP and CBC every 2 weeks. So that was fine and then I had my shot. I shared the good news with the nurse that Velvade has dropped my kappa light chains dramatically.

It was still sprinkling on the way home but i wanted to top at the Ace in Auburn as they apparently had the eggshell finish the other Ace did not. So I got 2 gallons of that and then wanted the high gloss in a quart and she said they don’t carry that one. I’m thinking to myself, this is the third Ace I’ve been to and they all have a different story. They are independently owned but sheesh. Get it together. So now I have to go back to the original Ace out at Lake of the PInes and hoe they still have the high gloss. Well, that will have to wait till after dex days.

Here’s a shot my husband took of the living room/dining area getting the paint over. We still need to do the TV wall and that means moving that stuff out so it’ll be another day or so. It looks great though!! I’d like to replace the ceiling fan with a lower profile one eventually.

Today is just do basics day although I do have my Tartine sourdough ready to go in the oven. I started my starter 2 days ago so today will be bake day.

We didnt walk this morning( my decision) because on the morning after Dex I have a lot of shortness of breath walking so I figured I’d skip and maybe walk on our no-walk day which is Monday. We’ll see. It may just be a pass day.

There was a sprinkling of snow yesterday and the yard has still some on it. If I can get a picture soon I’ll post it.

Tonight is my son’s turn to cook since it’s a dex day and I must stay away from sharp objects:)

I know I have some meals I need to do in the next few days including an egg dinner as we are now getting 10 eggs a day from the girls. I’ll either do a frittata or some other baked egg dish. Then I have zucchini I bought to make another Tucson stew with. I may even skip pizza night and do that instead.

Here’s another angle of the front room. B did around the other window wall so that’s done now too.