I was grateful to get to the gym on Monday and the library. I truly appreciate both facilities and that they are right next to each other. I picked up 3 cookbooks none of which had any recipes I was interested in.
I’m always thankful to be able to walk even if it is half of what I was doing since my knee mishap. 😦 We’ve mostly had the park to ourselves and yesterday and today the 2 nice ladies that used to walk were there again.
I’m grateful my Velcad shot went easy and I’m on shot 1 cycle 3. Today I see Dr. L so it’ll be interesting to get his take on when we will go to maintenance. Barclay is driving as I never drive on Dex. Some people have wondered why. It’s because on Dex your sense of judgment( like car distances) etc is off. Plus you’re very hyped up on Dex for the first few days and jittery too.
I had to go into Costco to return an online order and get some vitamins for my daughter. I was in and out very quickly. I used the self-checkout for the first time, which was easy and quick.
Tomorrow is a home day and I’ll probably just do some tidying and read.
We were both on Reserve America at 6:59 to get a spot in Tahoe. Barclay won the lottery and got spot 12 which has a nice view of Lake Tahoe!!! I didn’t get the one I wanted but since we got one, it’s all good. That takes care of June camping. We might still try for something else but not Tahoe. Tahoe in July and August is not where I want to be. Too many people!!!
My swim yesterday was really nice. The pool was surprisingly empty and I got the lane near the steps, which right now with my knee is good. The water was also really nice. I may have overdone it as I felt pretty wiped out when I got home. 😦
On the agenda for today is cooking up some baby potatoes I have(from Costco), baking a sweet potato, and making some brown rice for the week. I still plan on using pantry items this week. Last night we had one of the quarts of the lentil soup I pressure canned and it was delicious. I’m also thawing the Diestal turkey I have from last year and I will roast that in a few days. I wanted that out of the freezer and cooked. Dinners will be sliced turkey, leftovers, soup and then I’ll make some broth.
Overall, it was a low-spend week. Yesterday, I went into Target( the first time in quite a while) as I was looking for extra lights. They had zip. All sold out. I did pick up a few ugly ornaments to add to the ugly ornament tree. I picked up a few kitchen items to give as a Christmas gift for my son’s friend. They like to cook so I thought a few kitchen items would be nice.
Then, before I met my friends for coffee, I went into Safeway as I needed a couple more russets for the latkes. Also, I wanted to get our garbage guy a bottle of wine to add to his gift bag. We don’t do many gifts but I feel he works all year in rain, snow, etc, and deserves a little appreciation. Other than that, Christmas is done.
Today, I’m making a big batch of pizza dough to freeze and then use one for dinner tonight. The recipe I have makes 4 balls of dough and it’s been working out well this way.
I’ll be continuing the low spend into next week too and just do the one Winco shop for the Christmas lasagna ingredients. I’ve stayed off Amazon and that’s saying something!!!
I certainly am feeling better each day but next week starts Cycle 3. The great news is though, my numbers just hit normal. 19.0 . High normal is 19.4. My ratio between kappa and lambda is still a little high but that will eventually drop. In spite of some aspects being harder than I thought it would be( or maybe I just forgot from last time), it’s worth it if Velcade/Dex is doing the work.
Today, we’re going to go out for a while and maybe get lunch out. We’ll see:)
Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah and we shall light the menorah. I am making laktes and we will have homemade applesauce and sour cream too. I’m not sure what main dish I’ll serve. I grilled some chicken yesterday so I may do something with that. This year I’m not doing the small gift /money exchanges. I think I just need to move on from that at least this year.
In remembrance of Pearl Harbor too and the men and women who died in the attack and of course, entering World War II. It doesn’t seem we’re that much farther ahead at least globally with war, killing, bombings, etc. sigh:(
On the Thankful note,
It was a busy but nice week. Busy for me is more than one appt. I had my dental appt and since we’re paying OOP, I rescheduled films till next time. I’m grateful that my dental hygienist is competent and funny too! She’s been through a lot as her daughter died around 2 years ago at age 25 from some undiagnosed illness. What a thing to go through.
I’m thankful our house is warm and cozy. B does all the firewood and keeps it going. Next year, we will need to buy wood for now we have all we need.
The poang chair is the ‘cat chair’, hence the fuzzy orange blanket. Plus their cat beds in front of the wood stove. 🙂
I’m grateful my daughter decorated a second tree( live potted) with the ugly ornaments and it looks cute. I wasn’t going to bother so she did it. The
I am so grateful for this week off from chemo. I am feeling better every day and that probably means the chemo is kicking my ass more than I thought. I’m sleeping better overall.
I’m grateful that I chose a minimalist Christmas and it keeps it simple and doesn’t stress me out. I still need to go over to Winco and get the stuff for our traditional Christmas lasagna and plan a salad, garlic bread and maybe a small ham. I usually have one extra thing besides the lasagna. We’ll see. We’re not big dessert people so I’ll have to think about that or not.
I’m grateful our 23 yo VW bug is still going strong and just keeps on keeping on. That’s our around town car and it suits us. As long as nothing mechanical goes wrong, we’ll keep buggie!!! This was the car we bought our daughter at 18.
A nice walk this morning with fairly warm temperatures. My knee has flared up again so I took it slow. Somehow I think the flare ups are corresponding to after I take dex for some reason as this happened a while back too. It seems I’m just about done with it and then there’s a back step and it bothers me again. I’ve never had a knee injury so maybe it will come and go for a while yet. The cortisone shot did really help and I suppose if in 2 more months I need another one I’ll go back to the doctor.
Yesterday B peeled apples and I sliced them and canned them for apple pie filling. A fairly easy process. This morning I pulled a package of puff pastry out of the freezer to make apple turnovers. For dinner, I made turkey wild rice soup. There’s enough for lunch today. For dinner tonight…??? not sure but probably a freezer meal of some sort.
I did weights this morning. Tomorrow I have my labs and plan to go down to Roseville afterwards. We’ll see. I know I want to swim on Tuesday because I have the dentist on Wednesday.
On Thursday, some of the women from the old FOL are getting together for coffee so I’ll join them. They are always fun to get together with. One of the women’s husband was diagnosed this summer with myeloma. He’s in his 80’s and it’s been rough. Because of other issues, he’s in an assisted living home so that makes it even harder to keep track of how he’s doing.
Well, we made it to December!! Hopefully, the month goes smoothly with no upsets. In the past, December has had both my back fracture T 10 in 2003 and B’s MDS diagnosis in 2019. So I often have anxiety about December probably remembering the emotions at those times.
On the frugal things.
I’m planning to do a No Spend/low spend December. I have bought enough from Amazon over the last month so I want to scale back that spending. Besides Christmas things, I bought Simple Human garbage bags, beeswax candles, and ??? I don’t include food or gas or other necessities but no extra things.
B got the oil changed in the Santa Fe, it needed some new filters so that added to the cost. I’ll up the cash envelope so it can fully cover those things.
We had the propane filled and that was $259 so really not bad at all. This is a quarterly bill and I plan to start and envelope for that. I’ve been watching some Youtubers cash envelopes and most fill the envelopes and then take to the bank. I was curious if that’s what they did because some of their envelopes were quite large. One woman had $600 in one for daycare and then moved that over when it was due. So I like that idea and it will keep me accountable. I like the cash envelope system and it’s working very well really.
I didn’t go to the grocery store this week, except I sent B to go down to the Holiday Market for sour cream and buttermilk I needed for recipe which I haven’t made yet.
Today is still a Dex/ no drive day for me so I’m going to make some cookies and plan next week’s menu. This week we had 3 freezer meals including stuffed peppers last night. So that really helps the budget. I also used the last pressure canned split pea soup and that was delicious.
Tonight we’re ordering pizza. I need to do an order from Central Milling for my 00 pizza flour. I think I missed their Cyber Monday sale but that’s ok.
Tomorrow, I’m planning on going to the pool and then to Trader Joe’s so money will be spent there. I don’t need a whole lot but TJ’s always has something interesting.
Here’s a look at our BIG BUCKIE. He’s circling our hilltop looking for girls. I hope he stays safe and out of the road. Last week on the freeway I counted 4 dead deer. On our main road, I saw 2 deer hit by cars. People drive too fast thru town here where the speed limit is posted at 25mph.
I’m pretty sure he’s limping on that leg in the back. I hope he’s safe. I would love if an antler fell off though since I collect them.
I've been married for nearly 20 years to a wonderful husband and I'm a mom to three great kids ages 17, 16 and 14. Oh, and I just happen to have cancer. Multiple Myeloma is a cancer of the blood that is currently incurable but IS considered highly treatable! My goal is to make people laugh, cry or feel a little less alone whether you are a mom, cancer patient or BOTH!
Tahoe Girl 