We had a nice Sunday walk in the park. Quiet with only the Canada Geese families around. I think we counted 6 families.
I went to the Auburn gym for a bit and then when I got home sliced up the jalapenos for refrigerator jalapenos. It’s an easy recipe of 1 cup white vinegar 1 cup water, tsp of pickling salt, and 1 Tsp of sugar. Boil that and then pour over the jalapenos in the jars. Cool and then refrigerate.
I labeled the Chicken Chili Verde pressure canned jars and put them in the pantry. I plan on trying a few other of the Ball meal-in-a-jar recipes. There’s a chipotle taco meat one that sounded good. There’s also a chickpea stew one that’s vegetarian I want to try as well.
B cleaned out the inside of the fridge and freezer while I was gone so that chore is done. I plan on doing the kitchen zone tomorrow. Monday is usually my home reset day. I do the little things that need doing and the zone cleaning.
I made a quiche crust to make a spinach quiche for tonight. ( not anything to do with the coronation, just part of my meal rotation.) I had preordered the new Magnolia cookbook and will look thru that today too. I like her recipes and find them to be very good most of the time.
This is a quiet week with only one appt. I have an appt to get my booster. Other than that, just normal stuff. Next week we’re in New Brighton for the week. Hopefully, the AC charge they did works. I still think there’s probably a leak but at least for now, it’s working.
Our beautiful spring weather of sunshine and warmer temperatures is back. It’s so nice to go out into the yard and see spring popping up everywhere. Greengrass, trees budding, the flowering cherry tree is still beautiful despite losing those branches.
Yesterday, I didn’t swim because I had an allergy attack and didn’t feel great. Also, it seems after I swim more vigorously like I did on Thursday, I get a ‘lactic acid’ attack the next day so that may have been some of it. Since I’ve increased my weights to 15-20 lbs, I am definitely swimming harder. Yay to that but then I get the downtime too.
Today, we’ll walk and then I plan on going into the Auburn gym for a bit. Tomorrow, I have labs and then I will go down to the Roseville gym. I have books to drop off. I’ve been reading the Dales Detective series( which is fun reading) and had gotten the 4th one in the series as a zip book. I plan on doing the 5th one as a zip too, but you can only have one at a time.
Yesterday, I washed the Ikea couch covers. I had checked about getting a new set but lo and behold, they don’t make the Ektorp couch anymore. I was kind of shocked. It’s been replaced by the Uppland. So I guess until I plan on getting a new couch, I’ll be washing these covers. BTW, they do wash up very nicely and I love having a white couch. The next couch though I think I want is a bit more modern looking and I think it only comes in a grey color which I do love also. The covers on our Poang chairs are a beautiful grey and look good with the white.
I plan on making up the week’s menu plan this morning. So far I have:
chicken pot pie (shelf stable that I canned) and tofu pot pie with green beans
pizza night
Taco night or Mexican night, BTW, the pressure canned pintos came out delicious.
A stir fry night with the veggies from Costco probably with tofu and rice
I have some cheese ravioli to use from the freezer so I might do that
,???
I have some tilapia to use too, so I’ll pan-fry that with asparagus and potatoes on the side
This week is the kitchen zone so I’ll start that this morning. I’ve been doing a little every day but still I like to do it one fell swoop so it’s all clean and shining.
B went back down to Costco to buy another pear tree because you need 2 to pollinate. They’re good sized trees so we might get some pears in 3 years. I wish we had planted more fruit trees over the years but we never did. Our apple tree was planted when we first moved here so it is over 25 years old and in a good year produces tons of apples. Last year, sadly, all the blossoms got killed by that very late frost and all the orchard around here lost entire crops of apples.
We lost power for about an hour last night but I’m surprised it wasn’t more. It’s still raining so we decided not to walk this morning. I actually like walking in the rain as long as the wind isn’t blowing and today it is still windy. It looks like we’re in for rain all week. There have been many trees down so I hope ours can hold on. Even along I -80 I saw some pines that had fallen over.
I did go swimming yesterday and got a lane fairly quickly but by the time I was done lots of ‘new ‘ faces were showing up and the high school team again. I imagine it’ll slow down after a while with NY resolutions fading away.
Then I popped into Winco for salad stuff and other veggies. I didn’t buy a lot of anything else as I’m doing the pantry challenge which is to use up what I have. So far it is going splendidly. Last night we had some salmon I had in the freezer so that’s used up and we had a salad with it. I also used my last acorn squash from the farm stand I bought this fall. So overall I’m pleased with the challenge. This week I plan on using 2 pressure-canned soups, and some enchiladas from the freezer, and then see what else needs to be used up.
I just finished reading an excellent book called ” The Longing for Less” by Kyle Chayka. It is quite the essay on minimalism. I’d highly recommend it. I’m not planning on writing down the books I read this year as last year once I hit 150, I didn’t bother anymore.
Today, I plan on doing the Kitchen zone and then read some more. This week is a mellow week, with no appts. Depending on the weather though, I’ll go down to Roseville to swim and to the Rec center at least 1x.
We are getting lots of rain and we need it here in California. There’s a lot of snow in the mountains, which will help the snowpack for spring melt off.
I had a good swim yesterday and the pool was busy but I had a lane to myself for most of my swim and then shared a lane at the end( which is about 45 minutes). Saturdays are hit-and-miss. Sometimes it’s super busy and then sometimes mostly empty. Traffic was light too which was surprising since I thought more snowboarders and skiers would be heading up to Tahoe.
Then when I came home I started the chicken pot pie pressure canned filling. The chicken wasn’t really up to my standards but I thought I was being frugal buying the Safeway deal. I think I’ll skip that next time. It just wasn’t that great. I haven’t tasted the final product but hopefully, it’s ok. But I couldn’t get my pressure canner to not leak (drips) from under the rim and then it wouldn’t come up to pressure. I had to restart 3Xs. Finally, I googled it and someone said to use vegetable oil on the gasket on both sides. That finally did it and the pressure was fine at 15 lbs. It’s quite a learning curve doing this pressure canning. So then this morning I’m pressure-canning organic kidney beans that I got from Azure. I ended up with 7-pint jars. These will be great for soups like minestrone. I did see that All American has the pressure canner that I want back in stock but at $400, I need to wait till January. I just paid the property taxes so we need to regroup from that.
This week it’s the kitchen zone in Flylady and I’ll do that tomorrow or Tuesday. This is a mellow week for me with no appts. I think we’re going to do Costco and get that done well before Christmas. I plan to go to the gym at least once. I wish I could get there more but the cost of gas is an issue with it adding to the cost of the membership.
As usual, Christmas will be minimal with just a few gifts each. We don’t really exchange any gifts with other family members except Heid’s husband which I sent a Point Reyes Cheese selection. Heidi loved charcuterie so I think Richard will like this sampling. Point Reyes cheese is a women-owned cooperative. I’m sure Christmas is going to be difficult for him.
I looked up reservations for Nevada Beach and it looks like this week I’ll try for a spot in early June. Fingers crossed!
I’m about halfway thru reading Gone with the Wind. It’s over 1000 pages. It is so interesting her depiction of the South and life there. It seems it’s very much like looking thru rose-colored glasses that the ‘darkies’ as she calls them, were really people enslaved and owned by other human beings. It’s kind of weird to read it now from a different perspective. So then we watched the first half of the movie last night. It is an amazing cinematography feat especially when Atlanta is burning. I think we’ll watch the other half tonight which picks up after Scarlett is back at Tara.
A lovely Sunday morning walk. They’ve fixed some of the path with new asphalt so it’s much nicer and has fewer cracks to trip on. I use my walking stick in my left hand which does help with stability but mostly I keep it with me so that the AH dog walker moves over when he’s walking in the middle of the path with his dog to his far-left which puts the dog straight in our path. With his passive-aggressiveness, he usually waits till the last second to move over to the side of the path he’s supposed to be walking. Remember driving, bicycles, etc, you stay to your right. Oh well, it was still a very pleasant walk.
I came home and started working on the bedroom closet which is our ONLY closet. I did a little more reorganizing and there’s still some more to do. I’ve decided for the most part to not keep extra pantry stuff in there except for the Costco size cereal boxes. Plus probably the extra coffee bean bags. Last time I went to Ikea I bought a few extra white boxes and now I have all the stuff I use for Easter, Christmas, and Hanukkah in those boxes on the top shelf. I don’t have a lot of clothes so I hang my T-shirts, denim shirts and the 2 sweaters I have. I’m not sure what my end goal is in there but definitely eliminating as much extra stuff as possible.
Then I did the kitchen zone : here’s a few photos.
Someday, we’ll have money to redo the kitchen. Not the lay-out but the counters and the cabinets.
The new sunroom windows are almost in. What happened was the nice old redwood windows had just gotten too water damaged and water was seeping in and getting on the floor when it rained. Granted it is just a porch but we use it a lot for wood, cat litter etc. So now there are windows that will open and that will help with air flow.
Well, the clocks went back an hour so it’s now only 7am and we’ve walked and I’ve done some banking and now I’m eating a bagel.
I’m planning on starting the kitchen zone in a few minutes and getting that done. Then I plan to get a bag ready for the food bank and drop it off in one of the Food for Families bins.
Yesterday, I shopped at the new Trader Joe’s and it’s a lovely store. The layout is different so I had to kind of zig-zag to get stuff but it was fine. I picked up some Thanksgiving things like cornbread stuffing and some premade turkey gravy. Since we will be arriving home the day before Thanksgiving I need things to be as easy as possible. Of course, my son and daughter will be here to keep things running smoothly like letting the chickens out in the morning and in in the evening. They’re both working all the time we’re gone so they can keep up on the chores. It’s a big help really.
I’ve been reorganizing a few drawers of things like tools and will finish that up today too. B is taking a load to Goodwill so a few more misc things out the door.
The week ahead isn’t too busy. I have an annual visit with my PCP which is annoying to me since I see Dr. L every 8 weeks but I guess it’s their policy. Still a PITA. One is Sutter and my oncology is Dignity so I guess they don’t really communicate.
Since we’re having a no-gift/minimalist Christmas it has been very interesting to go into Target and look at all the stuff and realize, I don’t need to buy anything!!! ( well, a candle but that’s all the time). I’m determined to see how this plays out and if I like it or not. We have never had a Christmas with no gifts so this will be a new experience. Besides, we all get what we need/want anyway all year long. I will send my sister something( usually Harry and David’s pears) and my brother I just give cash to. Since we have no other relatives to exchange with I guess it does make it easy.
The laundry room is torn apart and there’s hammering and banging going on. The one window is out and that will need replacing. Realistically if it’s done by next weekend, that’ll be good. The washer is hooked outside to a hose , real Okie( not to be prejudiced) but it does look a bit like, well maybe Appalachia. The freezer is outside too on the dirt:( It is covered and running but the whole effect is, well, Okie like. humm…..
I finished the Kitchen zone which took quite a while. But the floor still needs mopping and I’m too bushed to do it now.
I made some granola this morning for the week ahead. Then I made another Zojirushi pot of brown rice that used up the last of the organic brown from last year. The date on it was still good but best to finish it up.
Yesterday, I did more pickled jalapenos.
Tomorrow I’m planning on doing one last batch of jalapeno pepper jelly and that should do it. What a year for peppers.
My daughter has been busy cleaning out garden beds and surrounding areas of dead stuff. It already looks so much better. I think we’re ready to pull up most everything in the garden beds including the pepper plants:)
Barclays IGIV went well and he has more energy. Next week he gets his Covid booster, so that’s good.
No word from the dealer on the AC in the truck. They looked swamped when we dropped it off so who knows.
Tomorrow I will be modifying our Tahoe trip. The whole Tahoe basin is closed till September 17 so that affects our camping trip. Under these circumstances I’m fine with that and even if it all gets cancelled. Better for less people to be up there so the firefighters can do their job. …sigh…
There are some great articles over at the Washington Post about 4th of July and it’s meaning to Black Americans. Quite fascinating. Plus the whole connection of slavery tied to our independence day. Definitely worth reading. There’s also a couple of good articles on Republican assholes trying to block any Critical theory information being taught in schools. Suppressing knowledge ,it seems, is what Republicans do best. At least most of the Confederate statues have been removed from public lands. Having such constant reminders of slavery and oppression must have been so hard for so long for Black Americans.
anyway,I have the digital subscription and it’s totally worth the price, if you want the news that is informative and FACT based.
We did a nice walk this morning although there were a few clouds so it seemed quite muggy. Generally, our humidity is quite low so the heat isn’t quite as oppressive. Tomorrow is Monday, so it’s a no walk day but being a holiday, we may walk anyway.
This week is the Flylady kitchen zone. I’ll start on that later after breakfast. We’re getting so many eggs from the girls, I can’t give the eggs away quick enough. So this morning I scrambled a dozen but since there’s another 2 dozen in the fridge. It’s still overwhelming. Still, there’s nothing like your own fresh eggs.
I need to do July’s budget. Our water bill came in thru the roof. But hopefully next month will decrease a little. Then I had an unexpected dental copay that I thought I’d paid for. It’s these things that throw my budget. Plus, I had an unauthorized purchase on my Visa so I had to cancel that and I have 2 bills I know of on that card so now I have to call and put them on a different card till I get the replacement which they said would be 10 days or so. What a pain.
No appts this week which is so great!! Last week I had my eye doctor appt and that went well. No change with the macular pucker.
I’ve sold a few more Waldorf toys to the lady who bought the others on Ebay. She has young children and I’m glad they are going to where they will be loved. I also gave my son a whole box of Waldorf toys to give his boss who has a young child. I didn’t want to deal with listing any of those. So more stuff gone that was just in boxes. i don’t have tons of clutter anymore but there seems to always be misc stuff that needs to be dealt with like the Waldorf toys. I am keeping most of the little wood animals as I think they are cute and I do put them out. Right now I have out the 2 bunnies, the frog prince and another frog. Why frogs?? Because right now they are croaking ALL night long in our pond. It’s frog mating time and boy, can they be noisy.
It’s too hot to BBQ so I ‘m not sure what we’ll do for 4th of July celebration. Maybe a big salad.
I leave you with the kitties…
Guster ( Gus) on the left, next is Smudgerton, Bean, and cherry blossom also known as Hissy Princess.
Mamakat is still totally neurotic about yowling at the kitties. I’m ready to give her to the ASPCA.( almost).
I did the kitchen zone this morning. I actually timed it and it took an hour. I still need to water the plants and do the overhead lights but basically it’s all done. The bread stuff usually fits in the one bin but since we’d just been to Costco there was an overflow of ummm, danish things.
The new stove hood is great and I can reach the buttons/functions so that’s a big plus. We’re still hoping we can re do the counters with Ikea cabinets this fall but right now nothing is in stock. When we go in next time I’d like to ask the sales person if we can order and just wait.
This area will stay the same as it’s functional and we don’t need it different.
The top shelves you see will be replaced with boards and the same brackets I bought for the Ball jar shelves. I’ll also have B dropped them a few inches so the tops are more accessible. The shelves will also come all the way to the window.
This area will stay the same too as we just added that bottom shelf.
I wouldn’t mind a bigger window but probably that won’t happen. We will get a window though that opens up instead of sideways.
This is some of my All Clad. Barclay bought me a set when we finished building our house in Foresthill in 1988. If you ever need pans to last a lifetime, All Clad is it. I also have 2 frying pans and large stockpot.
The stove hood is a nice improvement.
As I’ve said the kitchen zone is my biggest zone mostly due to the work area. There’s the stove, hood, shelves, cabinets etc. so it definitely takes some time. I plan on getting a new stove sometime in the next year too.
This was a busy weekend with starting the painting.
I did the area in front of our small bathroom and the book shelves. I’m waiting to put the books back for 24 hours till I’m sure they are quite dry. This morning I did the french door to the bedroom and that’s it.
I usually do most of the zone on Sundays but since painting was involved I didn’t get to it till this morning. It wasn’t the most thorough I’ve ever done but perfectly fine for a zone cleaning. The last thing I want to do with this zone is clean out my wine crate pantry boxes and wipe them and restock. I’ll probably to that tomorrow.
First this morning I had to go get my labs for Wednesday’s shot. He added in the IgG test which can be a myeloma indicator. Last time it came back normal so that’s good. Then my covid shot is Friday so I’ll have a day to recuperate and mostly get thru the dex.
I bought a new cookbook. Mark Bittman’s ‘Dinner for Everyone”. It seems pretty good with each recipe having an easy adaptation, a vegan one, and then a fancy one. I may try something tonight as I try and do 2-3 new recipes in my monthly menu plan.
We’re heading into some very wintery weather by Friday. Rain and lots of snow in the Sierras. We still need so no complaining.
I've been married for nearly 15 years to a wonderful husband and I'm a mom to three great kids ages 12, 11 and 9. 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 