Monthly Archives: December 2023

End of a year…

Posted in books, California, camping, cancer, cooking, Gardening, travel, Uncategorized by

2023 is almost over.

Overall, I think we had a good year.

We had lots of RV adventures in Rubi and even went to The Westin in Napa(points used) for an overnight.

Everyone’s health is good and except for my knee still acting up and being on Velcade this fall, I think my health is good. This week is my last weekly shot of Velcade/Dex so I will be ready for a break. I’m not anemic or having any serious issues with Velcade just the normal stuff that’s to be expected. Still, I will be glad to switch to the monthly.

I did a lot of pressure canning and water bath canning this spring, summer, and fall. At this point, I’d say I’ve used maybe 1/3 of my pantry. I’ve learned a lot about food storage and it’s been fun. The all-American canner is a dream to work with. But as I get older, I may switch to the electric canner because the all-American is super heavy and difficult to move around. The electric one does have limits to how many you can do but that wouldn’t be a problem for me as I’m trying to can for a family with kids.

We were fortunate not to have to have any trees taken down this year but if we can afford it next year we should move ahead and do at least one. By my last count, we have about 10 more trees that should come down. But that’s A LOT of money we do not have.

We had a great garden this year too thanks to my daughter. I’m hoping next year is good too. Probably lots of tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, etc. Of course, crops should be rotated so that might affect where things go and how much we can plant.

The library has been wonderful and after reading over 100 books, I stopped counting because …why? Also, having the gym and library next to each other is awesome.

We do live a simple life.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgets, California, cooking, frugalism, minimalism, swimming by

I think we’re on track with no spend/low spend even with groceries. With me not going out 3 days a week, it cuts down on driving/gas and I don’t go to the store.

I know we bought some wine for Christmas but I think that was it. B went into Target to buy 4 different sliced cheeses as we were out and Target’s brand is quite good and the price very good. Plus I needed Weimans stainless steel wipes too. I think that added up to $42. Since those are essentials they don’t count as extra buying.

I added a few more dollars to some cash envelopes, like $20 for car maintenance, $50 for DMV registration, and some other misc. ones. So I’m quite pleased with how it’s going. It may take a while to fully load these as our income is limited so no extra is coming in.

I wrote up as I always do our Minimalist Christmas dinner and gifts. I think I did really well not overdoing anything. Each person got 4-5 gifts and nothing too expensive. B got his garden Berkies and my daughter got a nice organic cotton PJ set from Garnet Hill. I got my son a Burberry scarf from eBay. I was concerned it was a knockoff but it’s pretty nice and doesn’t have any of the telltale signs of a fake. ( I guess the red stripe is blurry on the fakes.)

Today is another home day on Dex for me. I’ve done my morning routine, swish and swipe the bathroom, LR zone with windows washed, everything tidy and I’m making an apple pie filling crumble with oats so S can have it instead ofminimal pastry. The apple pie filling is what I made at the beginning of the month with apples a friend of my son gave us from their trees.

Tomorrow I plan to swim although it will be shortened as I don’t want to be set back again with my leg. I need to get gas at Costco and then stop in TJ’s for gluten-free bread for S. I had bought her the gluten-free madeleines and she said they were very good so I’ll get them again too.

Gus sitting in the cat tower on the winter solstice.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in California, cash envelopes, cooking, decluttering, Gratitude, ikea, Walking by

Very grateful to do 1/2 mile this morning and did ok. Part of the reason is now dex is masking some knee pain but I did go to the gym yesterday and my knee was ok, not great but ok. I think I just need to scale back the swimming. Even though you’re in the water, you’re still using the leg muscles. So I did almost 40 minutes last Saturday and that'(what I think) caused the relapse. I guess if it continues, I’ll need to get the MRI and see the doctor and maybe that will be the surgery:( I’m a waiter on things so I’ll go a little while longer.

I’m grateful that my schedule isn’t fixed with anything that I have to do and I can have these down/up dex days.

I’m very glad I took all the Christmas stuff down and is all put away. There wasn’t much to declutter. I put a string of lights in the donation bag and I have two tins to give to.

I moved the plant stand from my office to the LR to put plants on. I still plan on buying the Ivar cabinet for my office, maybe next week. This is a closed cabinet with a shelf on the bottom where I plan to put my printer. It’s made of pine and I may or may not paint it white.

Tonight ,I planning on grilling some chicken and tofu and probably a salad. I do have some TJ’sfried rice I could make too. The chest freezer is emptying out nicely and it’s good to get it used down. I’ve started a stock up envelope for Costco so I can get butter, chicken, GF bread, and some other staples.

After Christmas…

Posted in books, California, cancer, cash envelopes, cooking, library, meal planning, seasonal things, Walking by

Today is my 3rd Velcade shot. I have another stye happening from the Velcade so my eyes are bothering me some. No walking this week as I must have overdone the leg muscles on the knee where the torn meniscus muscle is. So, I decided to just call this an ‘inactive ‘week, which drives me crazy because I want to walk and swim.

I’m hoping giving it some rest and stretching will help. Today after the shot, I have to drop books off at the library. I’m not going in because they have holiday hours and don’t open till 10am. Then I need to go over to the bank and then home. I’m considering doing upper body weights but I’ll wait till I’m there( by the library) to decide. ( The gym and library are next to each other).

On the menu plan this week:

breakfast for dinner

quiche with salad

steak bits and broccoli(tofu with broccoli for the veggie)

grilled chicken/ veggie pattie and some sort of veg

soup of some sort

New Year’s Eve will be our traditional sub sandwiches. I’ll get some GF rolls for my daughter. I saw some at Trader Joe’s so I’ll check there first. Her labs came back and she’s not celiac but she says she feels better not eating gluten right now so that’s good.

Our weather has been cloudy and cool. No rain but there might be some this weekend. Typical December/January weather, kind of gloomy and depressing.

Merry Christmas

Posted in Uncategorized by

I hope it’s a Happy Christmas for everyone. Even though the world has many terrible things happening, it’s good to pause for a moment and reflect that there is”still some good in the world’.

I know now folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something. That there’s some good in this world, Mr.Frodo and it’s worth fighting for. Samwise Gamgee

Simple Sunday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cooking, decluttering, seasonal things, simple foods by

It’s Christmas Eve day. We had a nice predawn walk. The sky was quite lovely.

I had a nice swim yesterday and by the time I was leaving it getting crazy busy?? Why?? Anyway, I got there right at 7am and had a lane to myself the whole time. That was nice. Traffic wasn’t too bad on I-80.

I’m not going to the gym this morning even though it’s probably empty but I just don’t feel like it.

Today I’m making the zucchini lasagna and I guess we’ll see how that comes out. Since S is trying a gluten-free diet, I’m trying to do alternative things. So far, it’s not too hard to swap stuff out. The rest of us will have the regular lasagna and the cheese manicotti.

I’ve done a little decluttering before the new year starts. I had a pair of Merrell slip-ons that I loved when I first got them but now every time I wear them my feet don’t like them. Then the only other shoes I have besides my Birkenstocks and Hokas are a pair of Noat shoes that are black slip-ons. I bought them back in 2016 for an event that needed something dressier than Birkies. I’ve only worn them a few times and when I put them on they throw my back off so off they went to Goodwill. There were a few other random things as well. I certainly get ‘clutter blindness’ and just don’t see things that are sometimes just sitting there in plain sight. 😦

Christmas Eve dinner traditionally for us is fondue. So I’m heading down to the Holiday to pick the veggies for that, a baguette, and some other condiment things for a salad tomorrow.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!!!

I may post tomorrow about ending the year but I’ll see how I feel then.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, camping, cash envelopes, simplicity, travel by

Overall, a frugal week. No extra shopping for anything so a low spend week with just groceries I got at Trader Joe’s. I need to go down to the market on Sunday morning to get the veggies for the fondue but that’s all.

I plan on continuing no spend/low spend into January. I do need a few extra things like hand soap but that can wait. Also, I’m trying hard not to buy too much from Amazon. I certainly like the convenience but it adds up pretty quickly.

I have my budget set for January and plan on increasing some cash envelopes for a couple of savings challenges. The big one would be to replace my Louis Vuitton that got stolen. I’ve hemmed and hawed at buying one but decided after 2 years(almost, February), I still want one. So that will be the savings challenge.

Christmas is all sorted so that’s done till next year. I plan on taking down most of the tree ornaments right after Christmas. I think I have the tree ornaments pretty well dialed in as to what I want on the tree. Most of the Hallmark ones we collected for years stayed in the bin( Star Wars, Superheroes, etc), and only a few of those made it to the tree. Most were the special ones like birds and some handmade ones too. So I have one bin in the barn that is all the Hallmark ones and that’s it. What I used I have in 3 Ikea boxes that I keep in the closet on the top shelf. I like Christmas to be as simple as possible and I think I’ve done that now. 

We still have a few more camping trips to book but I have to check dates on those. We don’t go to Tahoe in July or August because it’s crowded but June is great and we have 2 times already booked. The next would be our September trip. I’d like to book some place in March but that can be iffy with the weather, especially on the coast.

Thankful Thursday

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

I’m glad it’s the Winter Solstice and we can start getting lighter in the afternoons and mornings. It doesn’t really start to turn around much til January but still.

I’m thankful for our walk this morning. Very mild temperature and misty.

I’m grateful my 2nd shot went well and I am now set up for the monthly maintenance starting at the very end of January. I’m still not sure if this is the best course of action as it might lead to getting more resistant to Velcade. I plan on asking in the Facebook group what are people’s experiences on monthly and for how long.

I’m grateful I prepped most of Christmas dinner. I made the cheese spinach manicotis yesterday with home canned tomato sauce. I have a meat lasagna from Costco for meat eaters. We had one a while back and it was surprisingly very good. I went to Trader Joe’s yesterday after infusion and got Christmas specialty foods like the fondue for Christmas eve, a baked brie( something new to try) , some gluten free things for my daughter and whatever jumped in my cart. It came up at $123 so pretty good and that’s all the money spent this week. So no/low spend will continue into next week. Just basics, gas, food, essentials.

Our cash reserves are pretty low so I’m grateful to get SS next week.

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, cooking, Flylady, home stuff, meal planning, Uncategorized, Walking by

A cloudy but not too cold of a morning walk. The park had a few people showing up to do things Christmas related at the community center.

We are expecting quite a bit of rain this week so we’ll see how the driving to Roseville goes. The only day I have to go is Wednesday for infusion. If it’s miserable out, I probably won’t drive down to the gym/library.

On the agenda today is to tidy the house, vacuum, do the bedroom zone(done), and do a meal plan for the week with freezer /pantry meals. So far I have cheese tamales, mushroom spinach crepes, the meatballs from Costco, and baked potatoes. I might do a spaghetti night too.

I plan on doing some decluttering around the house. Mostly, misc stuff that just needs to go or seems to be unneeded. The end of the year is a perfect time to look around at what is being used and what is just in the way. Especially since I’m neurodivergent when it comes to visual clutter or even just visual things around me. I don’t like and/or get stressed at too much color, and patterns or things on the surfaces of things. Right now with Christmas, I’m stressed about the added stuff around which is probably why I put some of it away already. Well, it’s always a good idea to look around our homes with a fresh perspective.

Friday Things

Posted in California, cancer, cooking, freezer cooking, Myeloma by

I’ve put away all the Hanukkha stuff and cleared the table. I still need to clean the menorah of some beeswax that dripped. I actually had enough candles for all 8 nights.

I didn’t walk this morning because I woke up at 2 am and never went back to sleep and that’s after taking an Ativan at 9pm. So I feel pretty wiped out.

Yesterday’s appt went well and we decided after this cycle I’ll go to once-a-month maintenance. Because I’m having such an immediate response he feels once a month should keep my numbers in the normal range. I felt he was looking more at taking a break from it but I feel I’m past that now and don’t want to have to start and stop again if I can help it. I don’t know how long Velcade will work but I think once a month is the best option right now.

After that, B and I went to the new Paris Bakery in Roseville and had yummy croissants and coffee. It’s very noisy in there and next time I think we’d take our stuff to go. It’s the acoustics I guess.

Frugal-wise, the only shopping was Costco for those vitamins for my daughter. She needs to supplement her vitamin D intake. She’s also had an auto-immune flare-up with a pretty bad rash so the doctor has her on prednisone and is testing if she is gluten intolerant. So far, 2 weeks now, she hasn’t had gluten but I haven’t seen that much change in her rash But the doctor said it did look like a gluten rash on one arm. So, better to know than not. Fortunately, this is her month’s break from the library so she has time to adjust.

Saturday, after swimming, I do plan to go to Winco for the lasagna stuff. I looked up a lasagna recipe using zucchini strips so I’ll do that too. Pretty easy overall to swap stuff out to replace wheat.

Today, I plan on prepping mushroom spinach crepes, and a spinach mushroom frittata. The crepes I plan on freezing and I’ll serve the frittata tonight. No pizza night tonight.