Monthly Archives: January 2024

Thankful Thursday and bad news on the knee.

Posted in Blood test, California, cooking, Pantry, Walking by

I’ll start with the update on the knee. It’s a complete ACL tear and will need surgery. There’s nothing to be done by leaving it alone. But at least the MRI gave me the facts and I can go forward. The PC doctor referred me to the ortho surgeons and I’m waiting to get the initial consult. Recovery is 3 -6 months so it’s not quick, jump up and start doing things. Of course, I’m upset by it all but I’d rather know what I’m dealing with and then deal with it. So no walking, swimming, etc. I have to call PT and get that set up too. In the meanwhile, I’m trying to be uber careful and not have my knee buckle again. Certainly depressing but I’ll get thru it.

I haven’t gotten my light chain numbers back but expect them today. That’s the other thing I’ll have to pause the Velcade as I’m certainly not doing surgery, rehab, and Velcade. I’ll message Dr. L tomorrow so he has the updates.

So thankful things are:

The MRI was revealing and now I know what’s wrong with the knee.

B and I went to Louis Vuitton and I got my replacement Neverful. I waited 2 years to do this so I don’t think of this as unfrugal or impulsive. Did I need a LV, no but it was near and dear to me so there’s that.

A delicious soup of all kinds of veggies, broccoli, potatoes, onions, spinach, and carrots all whizzed together and then cheddar cheese added. Yum.

The rain we’ve been getting to help keep California out of a drought.

That I know every day is a gift and that our health is always the most valuable thing we can ever have. Even though the Torn ACL will take a while to heal after surgery, generally it is a complete recovery so that’s what I will look forward to and stay off of step stools.:(

The pantry is getting used up and it’s about half of what it was.

Simple Sunday

Posted in Blood test, books, bread, California, cooking, Flylady, Uncategorized, Walking by

Yesterday we were out the door at 6:20am( unfortunately, not to swim as that is my normal leave time to go the pool), but get the MRI on the knee. It all went very easy and even though it wasn’t an open MRI, my head was outside the tube. I’ll be glad to get the results and then go forward with whatever. For now, I won’t swim or go walking till I know the scoop.

I was done within 1/2 hour so we went to a new to us breakfast place. It’s called Pottery World Cafe. Just over the freeway from the imaging building. It was quite nice and the food was good. From there we drove another 5 minutes up to where Trader Joe’s is and picked up some groceries. All in all, it was a fine morning.

Then the rain came in quite heavy around 12 noon. It pretty much rained all day. Today is very cold but nice and sunny.

I do plan on going to the library Tuesday or Wednesday depending. I have 6 books on hold. At least I’ll have something to read.

I have to call the PT office and schedule seeing someone. I’m not sure how booked they are so that could change the week. If there’s a chance I will go do upper body weights and at least keep something going. 😦

I have a tentative menu plan for the week:

  1. black bean chili and cornbread

2. roast chicken, potatoes, salad and something for the vegetarian.( I have some tempeh to use).

3. lentil soup and homemade bread

4. A freezer meal, maybe cheese tamales

5. pasta with red sauce and salad

6. leftover chicken something, quesadillas? or pot pie?

7. either pizza or something which resembles pizza.

Of course, every day is different so I’ll decide what to cook each day.

We finished the Reacher Amazon Prime series and it was very good. If you like Reacher as a character, the show is well done. Now we need to find something new. We really only watch maybe an hour and a half at night, sometimes less even but it’s nice to have a series where the episodes are 60 minutes or so. I had gotten the Season 10 of Father Brown and that was fun to catch up on. I think we stopped watching back in Season 7 or 8 so there had been changes but still, it was fun to watch and who doesn’t love the Cotswolds.

I’ve already done the kitchen zone for the week, so I don’t have any big house stuff to do. I need to run Bender, dust plus water some plants.

Frugal Friday and other random things.

Posted in Blood test, budgeting, California, cash envelopes, decluttering, Pantry, prepper pantry, Walking by

Another low-spend week. We spent $53 at Holiday Market. It’s way more expensive than TJ’s or Winco but it’s also 1 minute from our house. We used to walk down all the time but now we drive mostly because our driveway is very steep. So going down is fine but coming up is not. After I figure out what’s going on with the knee I may start going up and down to strengthen the muscles. We’ll see, I’ve been saying that for years and haven’t done it yet. ( haha).

We filled up the VW too. And we went on a coffee date.

I did order some things from Amazon. A different knee brace, some hangers to add to the ones I got my daughter for Christmas, cream for my knee, and 1 set of candles. The 4pk of candles I usually buy from Blue Corn Beeswax were out of stock. I also ordered the tuna in olive oil in a 12-pack because it’s easier than going to get them at the store. the price is almost the same as Winco, maybe 10 cents more. What I’m doing is using a virtual envelope for Amazon and giving myself $100 a month for household things. I won’t include the tuna as that’s food.

Saturday is my MRI and after that, I plan to go to Trader Joe’s and get a few things. Eggs, bread, cream, bagels, maybe some chips and a few frozen meals to add to the freezer. Last week we had the Kung Pao Chicken and it was very good.

Next week I have my labs and the appt with the PC about the next step with the knee once the MRI comes in. I guess I would hope that it’ll just be PT to help strenghten it but it’s anyone’s guess at this point. That’s it for the week. I doubt I’ll be going to the pool or the gym till I have a plan in place. Although, if the knee brace stabilizes my knee I will go do upper body weights. I’m pretty depressed about it all since I hate not being able to be active. But as always I’ll get through it.

We have a good size load in the back of the VW to drop off at Goodwill and Assistance league. B will do that today. It’s always a good feeling to great rid of stuff. I did put all the Mountain House dehydrated meals in the bag for the food bank and I’ll do that either today or next week. I still have some other food out in the ‘barn prepper pantry’ so I need to get that first. I do not plan on restocking any of that out in the barn. I’m just going to have my pantry boxes and what I have on the Ivar shelving unit. ( That’s for the pressure canned goods and jams, salsas, and tomato sauces.) I’ll always have some stock up pantry because I’ve always bought in bulk starting back in 1975 but I won’t do the same thing as when the pandemic hit. Having bulk rice and beans etc just makes sense for how I cook plus I hate thinking about what I need so I’d rather buy bulk and be done with it for months at a time.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in California, Gratitude, husband, Walking by

I’m thankful this week for :

  1. getting my last Velcade shot in this cycle. Now I will go to monthly. So I have 28 days till my next shot.
  2. good food and enjoying it.
  3. B for getting up part of the new fence that will block the view into our neighbor’s parking area. He hasn’t been there since his father( Leo) died in May? June? But he is going to sell and I just want to have where they park screened from view. I am weird about things like that.
  4. My PC doctor getting back to me about a referral for an MRI. This knee thing has gone on too long so now we need more info so the only way to do that is an MRI. The only other factor I can figure out is Dex is causing my knee muscles to weaken and not get stronger despite walking, swimming, etc. Dex is known to cause muscle issues and it does seem to correspond when I take the dex and the next few days when it wears off. At first with dex, you don’t feel the pain as much as it is a steroid but then as it wears off and I’m still doing my usual stuff the knee buckling, etc starts to happen.
  5. I didn’t walk this morning due to my knee but I hope to start again tomorrow. Walking is one thing that keeps me going and sane.:)

2024

Posted in California, camping, cash envelopes, cooking, decluttering, frugalism, minimalism, Pantry, simplicity, social security, travel, Uncategorized by

I’ve said before that I don’t make resolutions for the new year but I do like to have some goals to work toward. First, be frugal and work within our limited income from SS. We only have so much and although it does cover all our basics including our mortgage it doesn’t leave a lot for projects. I have added cash envelopes that are for projects so that will help when I can add to them.

Second, find a new to us RV resort that we can go to within a 3-hour drive. I think we like Napa so much because it’s close and it’s a beautiful area. There are lots of trails, restaurants, wineries, shops, etc to explore. Plus we like just hanging out in the RV park because we can read, nap, do crafts etc. From the park we an walk to historic Napa and even Oxbow.

Third, besides our regular Rubi trips, we’d like to visit a National Park that we haven’t been to. We’ve been to a lot of National Parks west of the Missisippi but not all. We’d probably keep it in California so that might be Sequoia that we haven’t been too.

Of course, keeping up with healthy eating, walking, doing weights,swimming, all goes without saying as important.

Practice gratitude daily. I think being grateful for whatever it is you have keeps the desires away especially when you realize you have everything to be happy and content right now. We all need shelter, food, warmth, clothing but on what level is for each individual to decide.

Continuing to be minimal and do regular declutterings. Right now I’m going thru each room and deciding what things I want to maintain and take care of. I’ve bagged up 3 grocery bags already. I also decluttered my budget books from 2023 that I don’t need anymore. I’m working on going thru my pantry and getting a bag of things I haven’t used for the food bank. If I haven’t cooked it or have a recipe for it I’ll give it to the food bank.

So a few goals to work toward. What about you? Any ideas?