Category Archives: swimming

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.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cooking, Pantry, swimming by

It’s that time of year for our annual fall bills to come in so our savings are taking a hit. Fortunately, our AAA house insurance and California Fair plan only increased about $10o+. I can’t pay the whole thing at once so part will go on the cc till next month. Then Allstate was due and that went up over +$300. WoW!! Next will be property tax and which also went up but we can hold off on that till early Dec. And Barclay’s Triumph motorcycle insurance too.

So lots of BIG bills and it’s definitely stretching our limited finances.

In other areas though, groceries have only been about $160 and the $60 was splurging at Nugget market for fancy lunch stuff after my Velcade shot. I wanted to have some deli things available on Thursday and Friday so I didn’t need to think about lunches. Oh, and a piece of chocolate cake was involved too!!

Last night we had the leftover loaded baked potato soup and a salad for dinner. Tonight is going to be a homemade pizza.

I plan to swim tomorrow and then when I get home I’m going to pressure can Lentil soup. It should be an easy recipe as you don’t have to presoak the lentils or cook for 30 minutes.

This coming week I plan to try do these dinners;

*freezer spanakopita

*spaghetti sauce meat/ marinara sauce ( I want to make a big batch of meat sauce to freeze).

*panko shrimp and jasmine rice with veggies

*chicken noodle soup from the pantry( the soup base is pressure canned with out noodles, you add the noodles later)

*tofu something, maybe burgers or scramble or tacos

*mushroom frittata with salad

*falafel with tahini dressing and sourcream in pita bread

I think having a meal plan helps with keeping things running simply and smoothly. I don’t set a particular night for each meal, just when it fits in.

I still need to forage around the chest freezer and see what else needs to be used.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgets, California, camping, cancer, cooking, freezer cooking, husband, Myeloma, Pantry, swimming, Walking by

It was a frugalish week. After swimming on Tuesday I stopped at TJs for a few things like eggs, sandwich bread, odds and ends, and wine. I need to go there tomorrow and pick up some stuff to take camping. There’s not a TJs in the whole of Lake Tahoe. There is a Grocery Outlet though. I spent just over $100. Other than that no grocery shopping. I think the way to save money(and it is working) on groceries is to stay out of Safeway, or even our Holiday Market is pretty high priced. Of course, sometimes I need something and it makes sense to get it here rather than driving out to get it. So I think I’m going to plan regular TJs, Winco, and then Costco for the bigger bulk items like coffee.

Today is B’s birthday so we’ll all celebrate with some cake and take out pizza. Another turn around the sun!! Happy Birthday to the love of my life.

We had a nice walk with only a few people there. It does really bug me though when people do not use a flashlight when it’s still dark-ish out.

Then I came home and made a loaf of pumpkin bread to freeze. I had enough pureed pumpkin left to make a batch of pumpkin muffins too.

Later I’m heading into town to go to CVS to hopefully pick up my dexamethasone. There’s been some confusion about where to send it and now I’m not sure if it’ll be there. I figured I’d better go in and check rather than call. The infusion center called and I have all my October dates scheduled. He wants 4 weeks on and 1 week off. Not sure why but in the long run it probably doesn’t matter. We canceled our mid October camping trip because we were going to leave the day I have an appt with the Dr. and then infusion after. There’s no sense going if I’ll have just gotten the shot and then Dex. We had a reservation for 4 nights so 3 of those days wouldn’t really make sense as those are the days I’m not 100%. That’s ok. We’re keeping the Napa reservation in November. I’ll start my next cycle that week so it’ll just need to be later in the week as we’re booked Sun- Thurs. Although, I think we’ll probably leave Wednesday so I can get the appt on Thursday.

Our fall weather is definitely here. Very cool mornings, nice days with warmish temperatures.

Here’s how the pantry is looking. I haven’t done another pressure canned meal as I don’t have a lot of room. When we get back I’ll make something to add. just look at the color of those tomatoes!!! The applesauce is from our tree this year. I still have half a box to do. All the rest of the tomatoes even the green ones I’m putting in a box in the closet to ripen. As they ripen I’m just bagging them and putting them in the freezer to process at a later date.

Simple Sunday

Posted in Blood test, bread, California, camping, cooking, decluttering, Flylady, freezer cooking, Lake tahoe, minimalism, Sashiko, simplicity, swimming, Uncategorized, Walking by

A lovely walk this morning with a few people there. Sundays are my favorite day to walk as usually there is no one. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when the weather turns.

Yesterday the pool was quite busy and I shared a lane. I noticed more of the ‘regulars’ there so it must be the news is out that the pool is open. It was still great. This week will be different as I have 2 days of doing other things and then next Sunday we’re off to Tahoe for the week. We do plan to use the gym at least 2x and walk when we can.

Here’s a sample of the Sashiko I’m doing on a pair of old jeans.

I got these 2 books from the library. Both are quite good with patterns. I liked the one on the left more.

Working with the denim was more difficult but it’s just a patch so I’m not concerned about even stitching. Just random running stitches.

Here’s a picture of the sourdough rye I made. It had good flavor and it did a fairly nice spring for being rye. Rye is hard to do but I’ll do another loaf eventually.

I’ve been playing around with sourdough focaccia too. I still haven’t gotten the top all crispy like the YouTube channel showed. I’m thinking the oven needed to be hotter?? Not sure, but I’ll keep trying. I wanted to perfect a bread that we could use for sub sandwiches and the focaccia seemed like a good option.

This morning, I plan on going to the gym for just weights, no treadmill as I walked this morning and I don’t want my knee to be overworked. Then I have double-stuffed potatoes to make and freeze. Yesterday PGE had our power off all day so I couldn’t use the oven.

Flylady zone is the bedroom. If you follow along a tip I read from Peter Walsh was ‘ask yourself what the room in question is for’, so like the bedroom is to sleep, rest, etc. So remove anything from the bedroom that doesn’t support that. No electronics for instance. After having done Feng Shui for years, I do think what you have around you does affect you on some level. I don’t do FS anymore but the principles of FS and minimalism are quite similar. Keeping things harmonious and uncluttered is key, along with subdued color palettes.

I get my labs tomorrow so I should know by Friday what we’re going to do with treatment.

Friday things

Posted in Blood test, California, camping, Lake tahoe, swimming, travel, Walking by

I decided to not go down to the gym today and just do home stuff. I do plan on swimming tomorrow though. Next week will be a little different because I have labs on Monday and then my eye doctor appt. That will be dilation so no driving except straight home. Then Tuesday is probably a swim day. Wednesday is lunch out with my daughter at the High Hand Nursery. Then Thursday probably the gym.

We leave for Tahoe next Sunday, the 24th. The weather looks very fall-like. Cool evenings and warmish days, so nice. Barclay got the 2 battery system set up so we’re hoping that will give us the backup we need.

Barclay had to go down to Rocklin so he went to Costco and Winco. Costco ended up $100 and Winco $60 and that included some wine. I think we’re set till we get back from Tahoe. Any groceries we need, we get up there at the Safeway.

We continue to enjoy beautiful fall weather. The mornings are actually not that cold and walking has been nice. I’m a little surprised at the number of people walking early. We get there close to 5:50 and then by 6:15 there were 5 other cars there. Kind of weird. I don’t really remember previous years being quite so busy. Hopefully, most will fall away. There is one lady ( quite nice) who walks very early 5:15-5:30 and uses a headlamp. She’s been very dedicated to her exercise program and walks for over an hour. She does have a walking buddy so she’s not out there alone which is good because we have had homeless people sleeping in cars and vans occasionally. ( That is not a judgment on homeless people at all, it’s just best to be safe). Plus we do have mountain lions in our area too. Best to be careful.

We started our annual LOTR movie marathon. I can only get through about an hour a night so it’ll take a while.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in Blood test, California, cancer, cooking, Gardening, Gratitude, home stuff, husband, Multiple myeloma, Myeloma, swimming, Uncategorized by

I’m glad the doctor app’t went as planned even though he was an hour late:(

I never complain because you never know who before you is in a dire situation. So we agreed that I’ll get my next set of labs before Tahoe and if the rise is 20pts or more , we’ll start in October. He wondered whether I wanted to do a Pet scan/ Ct to look for lytic lesions first. I said I didn’t think at this point it would matter. I do have old lytic lesions where I had rib fractures and on my skull but at this point it’s my numbers that are the indicator and he agreed. He seemed to think Velcade will be effective again so that’s positive. I’m still a little concerned as this will be my third time. He also agreed that we’d know in 3 months whether it’s working or not which is what I wanted to do. He also indicated that this time I could keep up a maintenance schedule when my numbers are backing the normal range. This was something I suggested 3 years ago but at that point, he wasn’t inclined. So maybe now since I am at this stage it would be helpful and I definitely agree.

I’m thankful the weather is now Fall like. Beautiful days, cool evenings! I think there’s 1 day showing 90 but that’s it.

I am so thankful the indoor pool opened and it was not overly crowded. It probably depends on the day and the time. But after 3 months closed, it’s so nice to have it open and my drive time was 15 minutes less each way.

I’m so grateful to my daughter for being a wonderful gardener and planting all the tomatoes. I have another batch ready to go tomorrow. I dropped them in boiling water and took the skins off but I will still run thru the food mill to get the seeds out. She planted some late zucchini and now we’re getting just the right amount. I’ve made 2 more loaves to freeze for this fall/ winter.

As simple as it is, I am grateful for every day. I’m grateful to spend it with my husband and my kids( although my son is working full time and gone a lot, and my daughter writes full time and works at the library part time.) Still they’re around when we need them.

I’m grateful Barclay can do projects and improvements on our little abode.

Oh, that chess looking piece is my daughters anniversary present to us, a Peugot pepper mill. Believe me, if you love pepper you’ll want this. Why did I wait so long. It’s worth every penny.

I’m grateful for being able to make some freezer meals for when I don’t feel like cooking.

Frugal Friday

Posted in Blood test, books, budgets, California, cooking, reading, simple foods, swimming, Walking by

We have another rainy day forecast. It’s very weird for us to have rain in Northern CA this time of year. Usually, it’s around Halloween. But we’ll take it and it will help with fire season.

After overdoing the walking yesterday,:( I re-evalutated. I’ll just do 2 rounds tomorrow and see how that is for a day or two. I did swim this morning and it felt really great. It was raining a little but I’m in the water anyway so…

Well, I ended up going to Winco after the pool and it was not frugal. I spent about $125. But I pretty much got what I needed for the week ahead. Some salad stuff, fruit, almond butter, rye bread, cheese and misc. But other than that, I haven’t bought groceries. I think so far for the September budget I’m at about $275, and that was the Costco trip. I could put that back on August’s budget but I think I’ll leave it in September.

We didn’t have any lunch dates or coffee dates this week. Next week we might do a lunch date but I’ll wait and see how the week shapes up. I have my oncology appt Wednesday so that day is out. I’m hoping we can come up with my chemo plan for October. It depends on my next labs and what he thinks. We’ll see.

Last night I made a yummy chicken parmigania and spaghetti with some of my canned tomato sauce. Boy, was that sauce delicious. I did pick another big bowl of tomatoes so I may have enough to do another batch. I did another jar of refrigerator jalapenos. I must have 6 jars now:) I’m not sure what we’re doing for dinner but it won’t be a pizza. Maybe I’ll pull a jar from the pantry.

I just finished a library book “ The House in the Pines‘ by Ana Reyes. Yikes what a nail biter. Very scary and suspenseful. Not sure about the ending it seemed to unfinished to me and I don’t like that. I picked up 6 books to read, 3 of them are part of the Lincoln Lawyer series. Right now we’re watching the TV show on Prime and it’s very good.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cooking, frugalism, seasonal things, swimming, Uncategorized by

Let’s see, this week was ok. I went to Winco for more Ball jars. They seem more expensive than the last time I bought them, but what isn’t. They were $15 plus change. I bought pint and quart ones. Winco is still the cheapest around for jars.

I used 6 of the pint ones already for the salsa so I’ll need to get another case of those. i like the pints as they are perfect for 2-3 people.

Last night I made black bean burgers( my home canned black beans) at the request of B. I used the Pioneer Woman recipe but added some oatmeal since I like that texture. They came out delicious. We had beautiful thick home grown tomatoes and my refrigerator pickles on top.

B and I had a ‘date’ to the new co-op. Wow, sticker shock!!! But I price check some things and also picked up a few things I was looking for. Organic coconut flakes, Redmond salt and some organic pumpkin seeds. It’s a beautiful store and the deli will probably be what brings in the money. Lots of sandwich choices.

I filled up the Santa Fe this week at Costco. That should last me till next week. I do plan to go to the Rec center this morning but I won’t swim tomorrow even though I’d like to. I need to be reasonable about how much I’m driving and the cost of gas.

I don’t need anything from the store till next week and even then it might just be a few things. I plan to keep working on the freezer/ pantry challenge and eat down both till the end of the month. I don’t want to use up my ‘winter’ store but some things need to get used.

I did my budget for September. Fall is when our next annual bills come in and lots of money goes out:( There’s car insurance, house insurance , and property taxes. The house ins. with the California Fair Plan is still an unknown as to how much it’ll go up. Well, not much we can do about it anyway.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in Blood test, books, California, canning tomato salsa, home improvement, home stuff, reading, swimming, Uncategorized, Walking by

That I have the strength to stand and can tomatoes at 70 yo. Really, I’m 70?… That’s just weird.

This a new recipe for me. It’s like Rotel. Very spicy!!

I just read an absolutely fabulous book “ Fellowship Point” by Alice Elliot Dark. It’s a great combination of characters. The main narrator is 80-something and so is her best friend. Then it weaves in lots of Quaker stuff and takes place in Maine. I loved it and I think I’ll look for a used copy. Mine was from the library.

Even though our weather is hot and humid we have window coolers to stay cool in the house. I hate humidity. It reminds me of NY. Growing up in NY I felt I didn’t belong there and left at 18 never to return. But I do have illusions about Maine and Vermont. My father’s family were all Mainers but we never met them or even saw them at all growing up.

That the pool was a lovely temperature even though it was busier than usual. Plus the traffic was crazy with people taking kids to school. The school next to the pool was busy.

My lipid tests did come back high but only slightly out of range and down 20+ points from last year. So I’m ok with that. No results yet for the light chains. My thyroid tests were all in range too.

Our morning walks are always a highlight of my day. Even though there are still more people than ever, I suppose that’s just part of the growth in our area. Although quite a few people drive from other local towns to walk.

The window replacement wall is all done and painted. It looks nice. I’m amazed at how much doing just this little project costs and looking at the COMPLETE remodel of the old hoarders’ house just must be mind-boggling. I’m guessing $200K -$250. easily. It still makes me sad that she had to be evicted and couldn’t find a way around it. I wonder how she’s doing or if she’s even still alive.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in bread, California, canning tomato salsa, Gratitude, swimming, Uncategorized by
  • The competition pool was amazing and the water was perfect. The only downside was it’s deep(7ft) almost all the way around with quite a space between the top of the pool and the water. I jumped in and didn’t like doing that. To get out though, I went under the lap lanes and over to where there are stairs. Tomorrow I’ll get in that way I think. They have us using this pool only this week.
  • I shopped at Winco and am so grateful their prices are below Safeway or Bel Air. I haven’t shopped in Safeway for months now.
  • Our weather continues to be beautiful with highs in the 80s.
  • Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes,…I made my first batch of tomato sauce yesterday. I ended up with 7 pints of beautiful sauce. The hardest part is putting the tomatoes thru the food mill.
  • I had an hour alone this morning as my daughter was at the college and B went to Costco. Hurray for a few moments of alone time.
  • I found a sandwich bread recipe that I think works. The only thing is I did the last rise last night so it overinflated this morning. But I punched it down and still had an ok rise after that and it baked up ok. Good flavor. So I will try again but start the dough in the late afternoon instead of the morning. The recipe has 3 rises but the first one is 8-12 hours so that will be the overnight one. Then in the morning, there are 2 more rises at 2-3 hours each. I’ll link the recipe after I get it done without overinflating the dough.