Monthly Archives: October 2023

Well, I should’ve known something was up…

Posted in California, cancer, Uncategorized by

So, after not feeling great on Saturday and not swimming, I didn’t really think too much about it. Then Sunday, we walked and I went to the gym. My feet were bothering me quite a bit and I still felt kind of off.

By 2pm I was vomiting and feeling absolutely awful. Lots of stomach acid. At first thought it was some flu thing but quickly realized that this was chemo side effects. ugh!!! Sometimes I wonder how I get through a day.:( Fortunately, I stopped vomiting by 5 p.m. and just slept.

So, yes, shot 4 really must have taken me over the top with toxicity.

I canceled my dental appt as I certainly didn’t feel good enough to sit for an hour in a chair. Today, being Tuesday was a swim day and that too is canceled for now. I do feel better overall. I plan on messaging my doctor later and just give a rundown of events.

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, cancer, cooking, garden shed, plants, Uncategorized by

A lovely moonlit walk this morning and a big surprise, no one but us!!! My foot neuropathy is acting up so I made a note to tell Dr.L about it. You really don’t want neuropathy to advance. Right now, it seems worse after Velcade days and then eases up. I’ll keep current notes.

For some reason yesterday I did not feel like going to the pool(very unusual for me). I felt tired. So I decided to can cranberries and bing cherries to use them up. It was easy and it got them out of the freezer.

Cranberry sauce.

Bing cherries!! These are very nice on top of ice cream or cheesecake.

After that, I did a few house chores and tidied up. My daughter got all the geraniums and most of the plants on the patio back in the greenhouse for winter. It looks like we’ll need something else to put the lemon trees in. They are in big pots and need to be covered for winter.

I worked out my schedule for the week as Monday I have a dental cleaning, and then Tuesday swim, Wednesday, labs and rec center, and then Thursday, Friday home or whatever needs doing.

We are headed to Napa next Sunday for 2 nights. We had been scheduled for 4 but that won’t work with getting Velcade on Wednesday. I’ll be glad for the 2 nights and it looks like very nice weather.

I’m back from the gym and Safeway for lettuce and oat milk. I still need to vacuum and tidy up a bit. I think dinner will be a freezer meal.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cancer, cooking, Walking by

Costco was not frugal but necessary. We stocked up on oatmeal, coffee, protein bars, cheese, butter, eggs, and who knows what else. Oh, there was a cheesecake involved:) Still coming in at $400. Yikes. Overall our grocery shopping has been pretty restrained and mostly at Winco or Trader Joe’s which saves a lot of money.

We filled the truck up at Costco and that too saves quite a bit as that is the cheapest gas around.

We had a nice starry walk this morning and only one guy was there. He shows up occasionally. The one older lady who doesn’t use a flashlight( my pet peeve) showed up just as we were almost done. A nice way to start the day.

We’ve had homemade meals all week except the Costco chicken which was still eaten at home for dinner on my infusion night. There are lots of leftovers so I made up one chicken dinner for the freezer and later plan to make chicken enchiladas with the rest. I have my pressure-canned enchilada sauce I made last year so I’ll use that.

Our electricity bill came in at $188 which is the lowest it’ll go. We didn’t need coolers running or heaters so it’s the break before the winter bills start going up. We use the balanced payment plan though that PGE provides so it basically evens out your bills for the year. It works out well.

Next week I have a dentist’s for a cleaning and since we don’t have dental insurance anymore that will be OP. I think cleanings are @ $130 now.

I plan on swimming tomorrow and then at least once next week on my week off from infusion. Plus, I also have labs to do.

Last night I made a quiche with things from the fridge that needed using, mushrooms, peppers, spinach and, some cheese chunks. It came out nice. Tonight I plan on using a frozen pizza I have to get it out of the freezer as I need the room. I’ll make a spinach salad on the side.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in California, cancer, cooking, seasonal things, simple foods by

My 4th shot went well, and now I finished Cycle 1. The nurses are very kind and competent.

I decided to try and swim before my shot so B dropped me off at 7:50 so I could be done by 8:30. The pool was great. I got a lane all to myself and it definitely was not busy which is so nice. I may try and do this again but probably not on Saturdays because there are a few regulars that show up later being, Saturday I suppose.

After infusion, we went over to Costco( which we were supposed to do last week) and it went well. I spent more than I expected but got things that were on coupon and pantry stock-ups, so I’m okay with it. I bought a rotisserie chicken and some of their Yukon gold mashed potatoes so dinner was handled. When we got home I had to do some rearranging in the chest freezer and the refrigerator freezer. It took a while.

I’m grateful I’m handling dex better although I do have some snarky/bitchy moments usually a day or two after. Generally, something very ordinary will just set me off. I’ll try and get a grip on that for my next cycle.

I had some broccoli languishing in the refrigerator so I made a lovely broccoli cheddar soup. The bread is whole wheat sourdough from the bread machine and then baked in the oven.

Simple Sunday

Posted in bread, budgets, California, cooking, Flylady, Halloween, Pantry, seasonal things, Walking by

A rainy simple Sunday. I’m grateful for the rain. Fire season is safely over. It’s hard to sense whether we are in for a hard winter or mild. With global warming, I guess all bets are off. Still, it is such a strange October to have temperatures close to 90 degrees. That’s never happened before.

We started out with our walk and it hadn’t started raining yet. It was quite balmy in fact. A very nice quiet walk. Most of the Canada geese are gone and the 3 little white duckies are gone too.

I came home and got the KBS bread maker going with a whole wheat sourdough. It seemed to not display the menu right and I had to do a reset that B figured out. Not sure what is the problem but I’ll have to check how long before it is that I can return it if necessary. It did go to the dough cycle after the reset. ?? humm, we’ll see. Anyway, it’s doing it’s first rise in the bread pan.

I did some weights at the gym and didn’t stop anywhere except our PO box. I’ve had 2 things lost this week and yesterday a VERY expensive Ebay item(christmas) it said delivered but no one came up to the house. So I’m freaking out a little as to where it is but can’t call the post office till Monday. Our post office has gone down hill this last year with things continually being lost, damaged, put in wrong boxes etc. I’m not sure what their problem is. But also, the person from E bay was not very nice and essentially said too bad. But I will open a dispute if it doesn’t show up. Anyone have an ebay item lost/not show up and get a dispute resolved. If it was just a few bucks I wouldn’t mind but this is in the 100’s. A very specific item.

My house tidying up is almost done. I just need to finish the kitchen. There’s one small load of laundry going. I vacuumed yesterday so that’s done. this week with Flylady, it’s the bedroom zone. I plan on moving all the rest of my canning jars out to the garden shed as I don’t plan on doing anything soon. I know I want do at least one other shelf stable meal, but haven’t decided what yet. We did love the white bean stew. Plus, it was vegetarian so B could have it.

Another blogger was showing some Halloween decorations she had out and I said I’d post a few photos of my 1940’s collection.

This one is probably 1950’s.

Vintage are items are VERY pricey as I’m guessing a lot of it got used and then tossed.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, freezer cooking, home stuff, simple foods, Uncategorized by

I suppose not going to Costco saved us $ because would have been $300 at least. We still need to go since we do need some basics. I have no olive oil, oatmeal, coffee is low, and other basics. I think we’ll try and do a repeat next week and go after infusion. That’ll save gas at least.

B took the truck in yesterday to a garage in Auburn and got the heat sensor fixed. $500. hummm, oh well, we have to have the truck for pulling Rubi and it would have been a bummer to head down to Napa have that happen and have to turn around.

I had a pretty good Dex day overall but by 3 pm was starting to really wilt. But I had marinated some chicken in ginger and tamari and rice vinegar, so B fired up the Weber, and I BBQed that. We had brown rice and salad too. I should have done two packs of chicken so there’d be some left. There were 3 little pieces left. I might have that for lunch with salad. Preplanning meals is definitely the ticket.

With the weather so warm(unseasonably) the carpets dried quickly and look good. I had windows open and that helped. The little Hoover I have is a great investment for carpets or in my case area rugs.

Today, my son is using the Santa Fe to help a friend move something so I’ll be home. I plan on processing all the frozen tomatoes into sauce. I’m not going to can them because I don’t have a lot of room on the Ivar shelving so I’m going to freeze it in meal portions. I have 5 gallon bags to do. It may take a while.

I am really liking the smaller bread maker. KBS. It fits under my stainless steel counter and is light enough to move easily. Although I love Zojurushi, it was very heavy to move and I had to keep it in the closet. So far just using the dough cycle is great and the loaves have been perfect. I’ll still make dutch oven artisan bread but not as often as what really wanted was just sandwich/toast bread. Spending $5 for a loaf of sandwich bread is crazy. Unless it’s a specialty bread like Dave’s Killer Bread, $5 for Orowheat seems high. I think probably Costco has the best prices since they are 2 packs. They have Dave’s there too.

Tonight is a homemade pizza night. I also plan to have B start the Weber again and I’ve taken out a piece of pork for pulled pork. It might take a few hours but the flavor is better. We can have some tomorrow night and then I’ll freeze the rest.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in California, cancer, Gratitude, reading, Walking by

Well, plans do change and I’m thankful we are flexible. Yesterday was infusion and that went fine. This is shot #3 so one more before the week off. But as we pulled into the center the truck’s fan was running high and when B turned off the motor it was still running. uh, oh, somethings wrong. So he sat in the truck and googled it and it seems a heat sensor is out. So we nixed going to Costco because I didn’t want to break down on I-80 with $300 worth of groceries. We made it home safely for which I’m immensely grateful.

I’m grateful the belt I needed for the rug shampooer showed up yesterday and my daughter installed it. Today, I did the 2 area rugs so that’s done.

As always, being able to walk. I remember after my collapsed T 10 in 2003 and not being able to stand up even. It was a long road to heal unbeknownst to me it was really cancer causing the fracture in the bones. sigh….

I’m grateful I can meal plan especially for my off dex days. Last night was a simple Tillamook mac and cheese, the hatch chile one, which I would give high marks for, a simple green salad. I’m going out to the freezer to check what I might do tonight.

Today, I have some basil to turn into pesto, finish tidying, and then do some Sashiko.

I’m very grateful to have a husband who is healthy and always willing to go the extra mile to help out. He’s surveyed under the house with the foundation stuff( this is not an easy thing as it’s really a crawl space). The good news he said it looks pretty good for the most part and added 2 more supports. I’m very thankful for that.

this was the linen project bag in a Sashiko pattern. I may try and redo the stars, they look a little wonky although honestly I probably don’t care enough.

Simple Sunday

Posted in bread, California, cooking, Gardening by

A nice mellow day with some activity thrown in. We did our predawn walk and it was lovely. I’m having the tiniest feeling of neuropathy in my feet so I’m being super vigilant about what I’m doing. It’s sort of like a fire in your feet feeling. I had some of this before but clearly had forgotten about it till I said ‘Oh, my feet are tingling’. It’s something that will get people off Velcade if it gets too bad. We’ll see.

I didn’t have any big Flylady chores to do this morning as I had done most of them during Dex days. We’re in the bathroom and I do that almost daily except for the shelves and that’s once a Flylady cycle.

I do plan on using the carpet shampooer this week as our weather looks warm and sunny. That’ll be the last time till probably spring. My daughter has cleaned up all the garden beds so the yard looks tidy. I’d like to get some garlic and potatoes in as well as parsley and chives.

I’m reading Kingsolver’s Demon Copperfield. It’s a good story just maybe not my genre. She is a master story teller though.

I started a loaf of the WW honey bread in the breadmaker. ( It showed up this morning).

This is the second rise after the ‘dough’ cycle’. The two specks are herbs from some thing else I was making and flung over to the bread:)

This is the finished product. It’s too hot to cut so I’ll see how it is later.

Frugal Friday/ or is the world devolving into violence and killing of innocent people.

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cash envelopes, frugalism, meal planning, swimming by

First, I’m not an expert on Middle East politics but what Hamas has done is unconscionable and cruel. How someone can just kill children, women, babies, anyone is just beyond my mental capabilities. It is horrible and I do hope that some resolve can occur. Will it ever change the minds of men in Hamas? No, I don’t think so. What is the answer? I have no idea.

Onward to my little corner of the planet. This was Prime Days week and I bought some things I needed. Two pillow forms for covers that didn’t have pillows, on sale. Thermacell refills on sale. ( for mosquito repellent). Not on sale were plastic slips to put recipes in and clear plastic envelopes for cash savings. I also bought the breadmaker,KBS not the Zojurushi as it was 35% off and came in at $135. so It was reasonable for me to get and I think it’ll work well for the dough cycle for both regular bread and sourdough. So not a frugal week in terms of Amazon but most were necessary.

I haven’t been to the store this week except into Nugget for a sandwich after seeing Dr. L . Then just this morning I put in a small food order at Tartget that Barclay will pick up. Why? Tillamook has just released a new mac and cheese and Target is carrying it. Plus Momofuku noodle packs are also new there. So I ordered 2 of each and 2 Target frozen pizzas as back up food.

I decided to skip the gym this morning as I still had some dex effects ( red face) and a little jittery. I rarely deviate from my schedule so there’s that. I will swim tomorrow though and then go into Winco. At Winco, I need salad stuff, veg oil, oat milk, eggs, and I wanted to get some bulk spices. I’ll bring cash fro that. The Target food I’ll use a virtual cash envelope so that I get the 5% discount.

Other than that, not much new. I did make some yummy spinach crepes for dinner yesterday. There’s a little left over for lunch. We always try and eat last nights dinner as lunch the next day.

I’m working on a new recipe binder with my most used recipes on rotation. Rhonda over at Down to Earth blog was writing about just that. She says she always works from her rotation meals and I do too but I haven’t organized it the way she recommended so that’s what I plan on working on today.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in cancer, Gratitude, Myeloma, Walking by

We had quite a bit of rain the other night and I’m pretty sure that ends fire season. So that’s a huge relief.

Our walks have been starlite and so beautiful. I walked this morning and had some Dex breathing issues. It makes lung capacity a bit of a struggle but it does pass. Also, my heart rate is up some from Dex so that’s something to watch. I usually have a higher heart rate but this was a little more elevated.

Yesterday’s appointments went well and I left the infusion center by 12. I left Sacramento by 10:15 so I got up to Roseville with plenty of time to get a sandwich at Nugget. Traffic also wasn’t too bad.

I’m grateful for all the meal prep I do, so last night’s dinner was ready, and my daughter just had to put together the salad and boil some egg noodles. I had made honey mustard chicken the day before, so it was ready.

Tonight, I’m making crepes with spinach and mushrooms I need to use up. I’ll make a mornay sauce to cover. I’ll have it prepped so someone can just heat it up.

I’m so grateful for my LLS grant. My UHC premium was paid and it helps a lot.

Anyone have some thankfuls to share?