My shot went well yesterday, and afterwards I went to WinCo. I spent $83 on food and paid in cash. I specifically wanted Taco sauce and a small jar of peanut butter. I don’t think buying the 2-pack at Costco is worth it for just the two of us.
Today is my dex day, and so far I feel pretty good, not too crazy:) I’m still a little sinus-y, but that’s it.
Some Christmas stuff and a totally funny New Yorker comic. B and I would always joke about this from “What About Bob ” and Siggy saying that.
I’m off to Sacramento this morning. After my appointment, I plan on going to Costco and picking up a few things. I need coffee, maple syrup, and some other random things. I just love not doing huge shops, it makes it so much easier for me. Plus I’m in and out in half an hour.
Our weather has been picture perfect for August. It’s been a little warm in the afternoons but with the angle of the sun it isn’t as intense. And by evening it cools way down. The garden is almost done. I have another box of tomatoes to process and I think that’s probably it. We had a great crop. Our peppers did not do well which is unusual.
Yesterday, we went to the nursery and I picked up some pots to split a very big spider plant. I also picked a larger pot for my ficus. Pots are expensive which seems weird. We also filled the VW with gas. Then we went to Panera for a snack but it was almost 11am so I had my favorite broccoli cheddar soup. Yumm
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.
The trip to Costco ended up $150 for food and $100 for alcohol/non food including a very fancy bottle of Veuve Clicquot at $55.00 and B bought beer and then the rest was nonfood.
We haven’t opened it yet since we had the Taittinger champagne.
Our lunch out was a splurge at $80 including tip. At the nursery, I bought an Eucalyptus tree in a 5-gallon pot for $15 and a very large fiddle Leaf fig at half price of $18 which is an incredible price. I’m not sure what like it likes yet but I have it by this window.
I also bought some plastic pots to repot 2 of my indoor plants.
Overall, all of it was worth the splurge. Next week, I probably don’t need anything from the store and I’ll try and keep it a no spend week.
I’ve ordered some fat quarters of Japanese fabric to make a small lap quilt. Actually, I’m not sure I’ll quilt it but will probably do some Sashiko embroidery on it.
This was my latest Sashiko. I like how meditative it is but my stitches have a long way to go. Oops looks like I got some dinner on the upper corner. 🙂 I also didn’t do the outside stitching right as you’re supposed to iron the seams first and then sew thru both pieces of fabric.
Orchids are one of my favorite flowers because they last so long. B got this one for an anniversary present.
This is a Swedish Dala meant to bring good luck. This was an ‘our’ gift even though I’ve wanted one for a while. Actually, I’ve been looking for a white and blue one but they are hard to find.
Some of the last sunflowers from the garden.
I’m hoping to walk at least one round tomorrow. I’ll use my walking stick.
Tonight is homemade pizza. Yesterday I made another salsa but this one I roasted the tomatoes, peppers onions, and garlic. The skins come right off the tomatoes. I then whizzed the peppers,onions and garlic in the food processor but not the tomatoes. I ended up with 4 pints. The flavor was excellent.
So next week, no falling off step stools, and getting back to my regular routine albeit slowly. I will not do any leg stuff with the weights until my knee feels 100% better. i can do all the arm stuff though.
This is one of the original Camilla bushes that were here when we moved here. The other, a red one, was cut down as it was too near the house. This one is really a tree now.
This is a redbud which is native, I think, to California.
This was just a twig when we planted it( first in a pot). It was one of those free trees from the Arbor foundation. BTW, the Ponderosa tree you see in the background in the middle is the one we’re taking down as we can barely squeeze Rubi through. When we first moved here those trees were half this size.
Here are the ruffled daffodils out front.
The Flylady zone is the living room and I did that this week. Actually, there’s never much to do as it stays tidy and uncluttered generally. But I decided to add the kitchen zone as I skipped it last month when we were in Napa. The other regular zone is the entry ways since April 1st is Friday. We got the flowers all planted in pots out there this week so that’s done except for just a tidy up.
Here’s the first Ooni pizza of the year. The leopard spotting( the charred part) was perfect. I didn’t get a picture of the sausage one as it got eaten quickly.
There’s not a lot this week on the table and I’m glad of that. I’ll swim 2x and I might go down to the library one day too. Tonight I’m making a recipe from the youtuber’ Rachel cooks with love’. She’s hispanic and a terrific cook. She has a pretty big following too. I’m making her latest recipe, crispy chicken tacos. I’ll make a crispy bean for Barclay. Well, that wraps up things for me this week.
It’s been a really nice week for me. Mellow and I feel like I got a lot done.
Walking has been really great and two people that used to walk at the same time showed up. They are friendly and always use headlamps. It’s been about 6 months since we’ve seen them so who knows why. I have to say not having the dog walker there has made the park mellow and pleasant. But if he comes back, we’ll deal with it.
I have another sourdough loaf of jalapeno cheddar ready to go. It’s so delicious and really quite easy. You just need the starter feed and then the recipe is basically no-knead and does a slow rise in the refrigerator. If you’re interested it’s King Arthur’s no-knead sourdough recipe and then I just added about a cup of cheddar and a few tablespoons of chopped jalapenos. I didn’t alter the recipe, just added it. I plan on trying an olive one and a walnut one.
Here’s another amaryllis bulb blooming. This one is called Minerva.
Today I might go to the pet bookstore but I’ll do my morning reset first and then see. I also have a load to go to the Goodwill. As usual, it’s in the back of buggie(my 2000 VW) and has been for a few weeks.
I just made the pizza dough for tonight and the oven is coming up to temperature for the bread. ( which takes forever to get to 500 degrees). After it comes up to temp. you drop it back down to 475 or 450 depending on what kind of bread you’re baking.
I plan on swimming tomorrow which I’m looking forward to.
Another great walk this morning with a pretty sunrise. Nobody else there, not even the AH which we’re not sure why or what’s up with that but still it’s great not to have him stomping by us.
It looks like a cloudy day but the temperatures are really ok with high @ 60-65. Not bad for this time of year at all. The next 10 days actually look quite nice and I think we’re going to plan a drive up to Tahoe.
This week is the bedroom zone. I’ll wash the windows and tidy up but most of it is already done as this room is very minimal. I did wash the linen cover the other day. I may or may not iron it. I do like the look of linen without ironing it. The only thing I’ll probably do is tidy the closet some.
I made some sourdough pancakes this morning from the discarded sourdough and I have a batch ready to go for bread. The pancakes were good. I’ll bake the bread tomorrow after letting it do a slow rise in the refrigerator.
Just look at that beautiful starter. Except for it sort of exploded.
Here’s one of the amyrillys blooming. I bought the 4 pack of bulbs(Costco) and one didn’t come up. The other 2 have buds and this one is blooming. They are strange plants and I don’t think I will do them again. I love orchids though and usually buy one every time I go to Trader Joes.
This week is quiet for me but B has 3 appts. , two dentist and his port flush and blood draw. I plan on swimming at least 2x but that’s about it.
My second favorite Youtube vlogger, Beneta Larsson, has a 6 part series on decluttering if you’re interested. She is a minimalist that walks the talk. Her apartment is a beautiful example of minimalism and I love her cats. I’ve definitely been inspired by her.
I made a quick batch of pickled jalapenos this morning.
We use these all winter. They are not canned but just refrigerator jalapenos. It says they are good for 2 months in the fridge but we are just finishing ajar from last fall so I’m guessing they last a lot longer than what the recipe says because it’s just vinegar and water and some sugar.
Also, at Winco we SCORED gamma lids and some buckets. These are seriously expensive on Amazon. They’re probably not quite as good as the Amazon ones but they’ll do the job of sealing the buckets.
I have the black beans and points to put in the 5 gallon buckets but I’m waiting on the mylar bags to separate the beans. I could vacuum seal them so I might do that but the mylar I guess are better for longer term storage. The mylar bags are not coming in till the first week of August so I’ll have to see what I want to do.
I rearranged the prepper pantry in the barn and moved all the non food( well almost) to other shelves that used to hold all my magazines. It looks good and based on what’s there I’d say I have almost a year for some things and 6 months for others( TP).
I was watching a few youtubers who are preppers and the recommendation was a cooler dark place. We do not have a closet to use in the house as there is only one real designated closet albeit that it is large. So I got to thinking maybe we should build a closed in cabinet in the barn. I’m not sure since the barn does not get any direct sunlight in there and is generally on the cooler side. I don’t know, I’ll have to think on that too.
I tell you though, some of these preppers are really out there with survivalist stuff. I sorta ignore all that and just try and glean some ideas about storage.
Some of my orchids are reblooming which I’ve never had happen. It must be they like where I put them which was actually an accident. I had put them on B’s to get them out of the way and sure enough the morning light and then the coolness from the windows at night must be the right condition. Excited to see if it happens again.
Spring is in the air. Although it would look like we’re headed for another drought so that’s not good. The daffodils are up and there are violets in the yard. I like violets as they will spread and pop up in the most unlikely spots.
I finished the living room zone already. Since there’s not a lot to do in there it goes fairly quick.
Yesterday, I potted 4 starter plants and today I have 2 more to do. Mostly pothos and Monstera and
Syngonium podophyllum. I have at least 2 more of these.
I also decided to repurpose a little table my daughter took out of her room to put the plants on since now I have at least 4 more to put somewhere. I’m painting it white so it’ll blend in more.
We’re looking at stove hoods and found one on amazon we like so we’re going to order that. This begins the very minor kitchen remodel. We can’t change the configuration of the kitchen due to walls and doors so we just have to make do with the way it is. I suppose if we had money, a contractor could do it but we don’t so that’s that.
I’m also going to get a new kitchen island in stainless. Basically, the same as we have that’s from Ikea but they don’t carry this one anymore and the one I found ( AMazon)has the shelf straight across whereas the one I have it’s split.
We’re trying to prioritize what we can do and how much we can spend as there is no more ‘extra ‘ money coming in. That SDI was pretty great.:) 😦 sad it’s over…..
I can’t hardly imagine being anywhere else, well maybe Hawaii! Next week looks lovely as well with day time temperatures in the 70’s. We do need the rain though:(
We had a fun time at Ikea this week. I got the new Poang chair covers(2) that I’d been waiting till they were in stock. I really would have liked the more expensive ones but they weren’t in stock till the end of November plus they were kinda pricey. I love their storage jars and always buy one or two. I’m liking the smaller ones to use in the fridge.
We also picked up the plant stand I’ve been eyeing so I can put 3 plants together.
I really like the bamboo wood legs and it holds 3 plants. I’m still experimenting with which ones to use.
I also gave some plants a shower this week and they’re happier.
This morning I made banana bread as we had 4 ripe bananas that needed using.
I always add pecans/walnuts and choc chips.
This morning I’m planning on going into town for just a brief stop at the bank to get a copy of a transaction and then down to our local bagel store.
We haven’t heard from the tree guy so maybe next week. Since they did the other tree last Saturday I thought they might be back today but we had no call.
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 