Tag Archives: Flylady

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, camping, cancer, cooking, Pantry, simplicity, swimming, Walking by

Wow, did we get a lot of rain yesterday!! It was pouring all day with quite a bit of wind too. Fortunately, no trees went down. We still need to figure out money for getting at least 2 more trees down. Maybe in 2025, we can do at least one. I was very glad we didn’t need to go out anywhere.

This morning though is nice and clear with a beautiful full moon. We walked and it was quite misty in the park. After we got back, we got right on the computers to try and book Nevada Beach for June. Since we don’t know what the situation will be, I figured to book it because otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to get in. Both of us tried and B got a spot. Tomorrow one of our favorite spots opens up so I’ll try for that but it’s definitely a lottery.

Today, I plan on going to the Auburn gym and then coming home to do some house stuff. It’s the bathroom zone this week so I’ll do that and add in the bedroom as both are quite simple to do. My desk area needs some attention so I’ll tidy that up.

The coming week looks good weatherwise and only one appt for B but that’s his video visit. I plan on swimming and going to Maheny gym and the library. I don’t have any holds available so I want to look at the catalog and see what I can put on hold.

I’ve made my through some freezer stuff this past week and will continue to do that this week. I’m planning on falafels tonight and I’ll work on the rest of the menu later.

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, cancer, cooking, Flylady, husband, simple foods by

HAPPY FALL EQUINOX

Happy Birthday to B!!!! 74 years young today!!

Happy birthday to Bilbo and Frodo too!!

My son came over yesterday and we had a birthday dinner of tofu burgers and fries. Quite yummy. Then we watched Shrek 2. That’s my favorite with Puss in Boots.

Then this morning he made a huge brunch, also delicious.

I headed to the gym for a quick workout. I plan on making some brown rice for dinner and to use tomorrow too. I think I’ll also do some salmon. Then I have some salad stuff to use up.

Tomorrow I plan on going to the Roseville gym but I might wait till Tuesday. It depends on how much I get done today.

I think the Flylady zone is the bedroom so I usually do that and the Living zone together. Both don’t really require a lot: just dusting, watering plants, mirrors, and vacuuming. Plus just a general tidy up and putting things away that need to go elsewhere.

Simple Sunday

Posted in books, California, Flylady, home improvement, home stuff, Uncategorized by

Another cloudy day but not too cold at least. I think next week is looking sunnier and warmer.

We’re watching Season 4 of Longmire and it’s a great show. When I went to the library Season 6 was there so I picked that up. I have 5 already checked out. I picked up 6 books and finished 2. One was # 29 of the Stephanie Plum series. Always good for a laugh. I have the latest on hold at the library and I think it just came in. Two were cookbooks so I looked through them and they can go back.

I’m in the bathroom zone this week so I’ll do that after I finish this blog. We have gone back and forth on the bathroom to either buy a shower unit or try and tile the whole area. Personally, I don’t care which, I just want it done by the end of June. After that, we’re going to pull out the kitchen counter and at least put in a new sink and counter of some sort. It may not be done professionally but it’ll at least be a start. If anything I’ll go with butcher block as that is somewhat affordable. If we had the money, I’d just hire someone to do it. We still need to go to Ikea and see their counters and make a decision. But first the bathroom.

Tomorrow, I see the eye doctor for the 6-month macular scan. After that, I may go down to the Roseville gym. It depends on how long the appt goes. I might go on Tuesday after my other doctor’s appt which is earlier.

If you want a good laugh go to YouTube and put in SNL and the spoof on the GOP’s rebuttal with the woman in the kitchen. It is pretty hilarious. Also, her facts were completely wrong about the sex trafficking of the young girl. Wrong president, wrong year, wrong everything. Why?? is all I have to say. Fact check, please. I guess they’re not interested in that, just misleading lies to put fear in people about undocumented workers or illegals.

Dinner is going to be simple, soup and biscuit sandwiches. That’s it.

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, cooking, decluttering, Flylady, freezer cooking, simplicity, swimming, Walking by

I was able to walk the .5 mile today again. So that’s some improvement. I’m taking it slow but still, I am thrilled just to be out there. I hope to get to 3/4 mile this week.

I went and did the Auburn gym this morning for the upper body. I’d like to get to the Roseville gym once this week as the weights are much nicer and there is more variety.

Last night we had a pressure canned vegetable soup with canned kidney beans and some sourdough garlic toast. Quite delicious. I’m planning on pressure canning lentil soup this week as that was one of our favorites. I might try canning French onion soup but not sure yet how much we would use that.

I pulled some random food items from the freezer to use in the next couple of days. There’s 1 ready meal of mushroom crepes, 1 chicken enchiladas, 1 pulled pork, and one rice casserole. So there are some choices for everyone.

We had quite a bit of rain overnight but today is mostly dry till this evening. It’s not that cold though so that’s a plus.

With Monday a holiday, I have PT on Tuesday. I need to figure out how I want to plan the rest of the week. I definitely want 1 swim day, 1 gym day and ? I also need to get to Trader Joe’s for a few things or Winco. I think one of us is going to have to hit Costco because we will need coffee.

My friend suggested watching the Longmire series on Netflix. But we don’t have Netflix so I checked the library and they had all the seasons. So far we really like the characters and the storyline. It’s certainly not a new series but in the same line as Dark Winds ( Hillerman series).

The Flylady zone is the bedroom if you’re keeping track. I just have some dusting to do and that’s about it. I may go through a bin under the bed and see what can be consolidated. Ideally, I’d like just one bin of things to save for the kids if they ever want them down the road. Neither of my children are sentimental about stuff like that but there are a few things I’d like to keep just in case. (haha, just in case).

Simple Sunday

Posted in bread, California, cooking, Gardening by

A nice mellow day with some activity thrown in. We did our predawn walk and it was lovely. I’m having the tiniest feeling of neuropathy in my feet so I’m being super vigilant about what I’m doing. It’s sort of like a fire in your feet feeling. I had some of this before but clearly had forgotten about it till I said ‘Oh, my feet are tingling’. It’s something that will get people off Velcade if it gets too bad. We’ll see.

I didn’t have any big Flylady chores to do this morning as I had done most of them during Dex days. We’re in the bathroom and I do that almost daily except for the shelves and that’s once a Flylady cycle.

I do plan on using the carpet shampooer this week as our weather looks warm and sunny. That’ll be the last time till probably spring. My daughter has cleaned up all the garden beds so the yard looks tidy. I’d like to get some garlic and potatoes in as well as parsley and chives.

I’m reading Kingsolver’s Demon Copperfield. It’s a good story just maybe not my genre. She is a master story teller though.

I started a loaf of the WW honey bread in the breadmaker. ( It showed up this morning).

This is the second rise after the ‘dough’ cycle’. The two specks are herbs from some thing else I was making and flung over to the bread:)

This is the finished product. It’s too hot to cut so I’ll see how it is later.

Simple Sunday

Posted in bread, California, decluttering, Flylady, simple foods, Uncategorized, Walking by

photo from The Nesting Place

I’ve been working a bit on decluttering and changing things up a bit. I decided to iron the linen duvet cover and put the comforter inside. It might be too warm this time of year but I’m trying to keep the comforter clean as it is white. So the big basket I kept that in and our one other blanket I have ready to go to the thrift store or the Pay it Forward group. Honestly, I’ve had very little luck with that group. People say they want something and never show up.

I finally got the second box of peaches from Stackhouse Orchards( Local in the valley), so I waited about 5 days for them to ripen and made a peach pie.

Not the prettiest lattice top but hopefully it tastes good. The peaches were very sweet. update: We had this with vanilla ice cream last night and it was yummy.

We had a nice walk this morning with no one else around except the Canada geese. All the families are grown up and they should start flying lessons soon.:)

I just started the oven to preheat for a loaf of sourdough. I’ll get that going before I go to the gym.

I was thinking back to routines when my children were younger. Since we did Waldorf schooling there is always a rhythm to the day and week. Rudolf Steiner, although weird, did create an exceptional educational model. Each day had a color, and like wise, each classroom in Waldorf is lazured ,painted, a certain color. For instance kindergarten is an orange pink, all the way to 8th grade which is usually a violet blue.

I think the rhythm of the day and year were important in how my kids developed. We always ate dinner together and often did school craft projects together too. My daughter who is an incredible artist often did watercolor painting with Z.

That’s probably where my love of routines comes in. I didn’t start Fly Lady till later, probably around when my son was in 4th grade. It was an instant fit for me to do the 15 minutes a day and that’s how I started decluttering. Most of the major decluttering is done except for keeping up with what’s relevant now in our lives. Things come and go. But the zone cleaning keeps me on track and even though I know it without even looking at a list, I like to have the lists as reference. What I did eventually was write down each of my zones and what needed to be done according to them. That’s what still use today.

We had a ready made meal last night from the pantry. It was the white bean ragout and then my daughter and I had the chicken chili verde with some of the white beans. It was a hit. I need to write up a menu for the week. I know one night I’m doing a spinach frittata. I also have some ricotta to use so I may make a couple of cheese lasagnas.

Simple Sunday

Posted in Blood test, California, meal planning, swimming, Walking by

Another rainy Sunday. We need all the rain/snow we can get but it does get old after a while. We were able to squeeze in a walk before it start really coming down. After that, I headed into the Auburn gym just to get some weights done. It was busy but I did my round and then left.

Tomorrow I have my monthly labs so I’ll see how much of an increase there is. It’s hard for me to tell if anything is different. The only thing is being slightly more tired. Well, I’ll know by Thursday or Friday.

Tonight we’re having one of the nut loaves I made with leftover brown rice. I have some small potatoes to use up so I’ll either bake them or mash them. Not sure which. Probably whatever is easier. I haven’t put together a menu for the week so I’ll look at what I have in the freezer and pantry. I will go to Winco whenever I swim again ( it’s just across the street from the pool). I thought Tuesday but now the weather is still saying winter storm warning. So I’ll just have to be flexible.{ sigh……}.

Nothing much on the calendar for this week. I have a thrift store load to drop off but can’t do that if it’s raining. Hopefully, we’ll get a few sunny days to do some outside things. 🙂

The Flylady zones are the Living room and the entry ways. It’s split because of the March starting on Wednesday.

another snow picture

That’s all the bamboo leaning over.

Here are a few of my new obsessions with Arhoj pottery

Simple Sunday

Posted in cooking, Flylady, home stuff, meal planning, prepper pantry, Uncategorized by

Well, the HOT weather is back and will be with us for about 10 days. I try and hold off turning on the coolers till about noon. The one we added last year in the entryway/ B’s office space actually helps the house the most as there’s no air circulation there and it gets really warm. The cooler moves the air in there and into the kitchen. I also close all the windows by 8 and close what curtains/blinds we have and that helps.

This week is the Flylady bathroom zone and I just finished that. I tidied the kitchen and other rooms too. I was going to make the bagel dough for tomorrow a little later. ( will see if that happens.)

I’m planning to go in to Auburn to go to Michaels as I need some black embroidery thread. I’ve been having fun doing some embroidery. Usually, I just like to do borders on napkins and things but I found a cute Neko cat one on – line for free and I’ve 2. One is just on a linen bag I have and the other I left in the hoop for my daughter to put in her space. It’s meditative and like knitting is a good mind exercise. I might pick up some cotton to do some wash cloths too. I can only knit so long as my hands have some arthritis and after a while cramp up. Still, it’s fun to do something creative.

I did end up going into Winco yesterday and spent a little over $100. I got a few extra pantry things so that was good. One thing I told B when I got home was all the shelves and bulk sections in Winco were all full. No gaps or empty shelves. So I think this is a good time to look at what I need to restock in my prepper type pantry.

I think dinners this week will be around a salad theme because of the heat. I plan on making a Greek pasta salad for tonight, maybe do a sandwich or wrap night too.

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, decluttering, Flylady, minimalism, swimming, Uncategorized, Walking by

A very pretty morning in the park and no one there but us and the Canada Geese.

Today I plan to do some reorganizing in the pantry, closet, and the Heywood in the kitchen. There’s not a great deal to do but a few things I want to rearrange. The closet( our only closet and my nemesis) is almost where I want it. I don’t want food storage in there anymore just clothes and seasonal things. So I know there’s a bag of coffee to move out and a bag of flour. Otherwise, I’m finally getting the closet to a space that’s not so crowded with EVERYTHING.

B got the patio shade cover up and it’s very nice and really covers the whole area. It’s 13×13 so bigger than most patio shade covers. We had some serious wind the other day and it was well anchored.

This week is quiet with not much going on except the normal things like swimming, walking, some grocery shopping( not much), and just house stuff. I’d like to do a library run maybe Thursday. Next Sunday is my darling daughter’s birthday so I need to ask her(again) what she wants to do. It’s hard to believe she is 37 YO and 37 years ago we were waiting for her to arrive. It was one of the happiest times of my life. I loved being pregnant both times. I did have a miscarriage 2 years after she was born as we were trying to have another baby. I was 16 weeks. That didn’t work out and after that, we just gave up on any infertility treatment. But of course, then the miracle child(my son) showed up 9 years later.

This week is Flylady bedroom zone but I did that this week as I had B move the bed and I vacuumed and cleaned under and around the bed. This week I’d like to change the curtains out to some light fabric but I’m not sure what I have around. I might need to go down for a quick trip to Ikea.

Simple Sunday

Posted in books, budgeting, budgets, California, camping, cooking, Flylady, reading, simple foods, swimming, travel, Uncategorized by

It’s been a productive week with taking down the tree, shopping at Costco, swimming, the library and lots of cooking.

Out of the Le Creuset book, I made both the French onion soup and the cheese souffle. The french onion soup used a chicken broth as a base and I don’t think it had enough rich flavor. Next time I would do a homemade vegetable stock and/or a beef bouillon cube. Yesterday, my son surprised me after I got home from swimming by starting the Lodge and making biscuits and sausage gravy. We had fun together and he really likes Lodge cooking. I’ve actually never had biscuits and gravy and it was delicious.

Today is a home day with cleaning the living room zone and probably I’ll add the sunporch in. Actually, I think this week, which is a light week with no appts, I’ll do a whole house zone cleaning. I’ve done this a few times and I like it. I don’t do it all in one morning but 2-3 mornings.

I read Greg Mckeon’s book Essentialism this week and am finishing his latest book, Effortless. I liked them both and felt he has some really good thoughts on living simply and with your best intentions. I also read “Oh, William” by Elizabeth Strout. Very thought provoking, and written in a clever narrative.

Budget wise everything is paid for the month and the ginormous check for the tree is cashed. So it’s all good. I do hope the neighbor doesn’t decide to change his mind about the logs because then we’d be on the hook for them.

Our weather looks lovely and sunny for the next 10 days and then we leave Mother’s day morning to go down to Capitola. I still haven’t booked anything at Refugio and in October after were back at Capitola we are going to stay 3 nights in Napa at the Expo RV place we stayed in before and really liked. So I’m not sure at this point if Refugio is going to happen. I almost think I’d rather try and plan our trip to San Diego early next year. I’m not sure we could afford Refugio and San Diego. The camping spots are not expensive it would be the gas.

Update: I just got spot 35 which is on the beach and next to the one we had last year. It’s just as nice a spot as 34 although 34 is the best. Now we just have to figure out do we still go to Capitola and then Refugio or skip one. I think since we have both booked I’ll just wait on it and think about it. We would need a stop over going down and back.

I can’t quite remember when we got his poster but I’m guessing in the early 1970’s as the VietNam war was happening. Somehow this poster survived all our moves and was hanging out in the barn till recently. I asked B to bring it in so I could frame it. Right now it’s just on a bull clip.