Bird Feeder & other mid January Happenings

Greetings

It's been bitter cold most days, though I have to remind myself that it is still the middle of winter.  We got snow flurries but not any accumulations to amount too anything other than what was already on the ground.

We discovered that someone had put up a very nice bird feeder on our property out in the trees near the road.  I remembered seeing a poster about a community bird watching day & talked with Kevin about this feeder probably having something to do with that.  Come to find out.... A friend of ours did put the feeder up for the bird watching participates, thinking the property belonged to the adjoining electric company.  Now we have this nice feeder that is going to be kept filled with bird seed thru the winter.  Too bad we can't see the feeder from our house to do some bird watching out the window.

Grandkids

I asked for snaps of the Grand's smiling faces when they were dressed & ready for church.  These were the 1st couple pictures that came & I love them.

 

He told me he always wears a tie to church.                                                   Nana loves her hair.

Cooking

Our daughter makes a delicious chicken soup & has made it for several of our get togethers, birthdays & whatnot.  I made a crockpot full of soup with ingredients I had on hand, using her recipe as a guide.

• I had 5 chicken bouillon cubes & used 6 cups of water.
• I cubed the chicken & tossed it in salt, pepper & Mrs. Dash garlic & herb seasoning.
• I put in 1 can of cream of chicken soup & 1 can of cream of potato soup.
• I added in about 3 cups of frozen mixed vegetables, put up from out of our garden.
• After about an hour & a half, I added in some egg noodles, probably 5 or 6 ounces.
• The soup simmered about another hour & a half & was ready to eat.

The soup was perfect for the cold snowy day that I made it on along with a grilled cheese sandwich.  One of the Grands once told me I made the best grilled cheese.  Hey, at least I've been told that I can cook something that tastes good.  We ate on the soup for several days for lunch & supper.  We took a thermos full of the soup for a Sunday picnic.

Gardening

I got the seeds ordered for the garden.  Kevin chose R.H. Shumway's to order from.  He ordered from them last year & was pleased.  Kevin commented he had compared prices with other seed catalogs & Shumway's was the cheapest.  Shumway's catalogs don't have colored pictures & their seed packages are plain white.  The seed quality is the same as other popular named companies we have ordered from in the past & the packets have more seeds.  We went ahead & added green beans to the order.  The beans Kevin put in a cup to see if they would grow, did not sprout.

Cleaning

I continued working on organizing Christmas totes.  I sorted through Christmas cards & stationary.  I repurposed old cards by cutting the fronts off.  The backs of those fronts, I plan to use as an activity for the toddler Grands to stamp & stencil on.  Other things I've done in the past for using those fronts for; is making ornaments by cutting out the scenes into shapes, punching holes & stitching yarn around the edges or glittering around the edges.  Also I've made the fronts into postcards by adding a little message on the back, addressing & mailing out for Christmas.  The larger size postcard needs a regular 1st class stamp but it was a very good way to repurpose Christmas cards I already had without having to buy more cards.  

Health & Weight Maintenance

Kevin discovered some Hershey bars & marshmallows in the pantry, left over smore ingredients from when the Grands were visiting.  He made us smores in the microwave a couple of evenings after supper.  The sweets sure were good & tasty but a slip-up for my goal of not eating those such things. I don't like to waste food either, so I happily ate the treats without depriving myself.  I walked & did stretches in the house most every morning.  I walked during breaks at work.  I drank water though I probably need to up the amount a little.  I aim for 90 ounces of water daily. That's about half my body weight in ounces.  Kevin & I took a pleasurable hike in the hills.  Walking in snow counts double or at least it should.

4 layers of hats, 5 layers of tops, 3 layers of pants.

 I had to shed 2 layers of hats & take off my 

gloves several times to get cooled down.

Frugality, Savings & Spending

We continued eating mostly from the pantry & freezer.  I spent $28.50 at the grocery store.  I only got what was on my shopping list.  We needed cooking oil that's not an every week item.  We also needed crackers & pretzels for snacks & lunches.  Our usual go-to snack is graham crackers & peanut butter.  

I walked to work most every day for exercise & gas savings.  I took all the drinks & food I needed while at work.

I hung laundry on the clothesline down stairs instead of using the dryer.  I have to admit, I wanted that hideous thing took off the wall when we 1st moved into the house.  I tried line drying clothes outside in the past & hated it.  I don't like to use the word "hate", though that word best describes my dislike for line dried clothes.  I decided to give this inside clothes line a try back when I was experimenting with ways of lowering some of our bills. My current thoughts on this indoor clothesline is that I don't want to be without one.  Not using the clothes dryer regularly has cut down our electric bill significantly.  The laundry is a little stiff but moments after using, items soften up & are good to go.  

I will say that the electric bill does not care if I use an electric alarm clock or not.  Unplugging the alarm clock in the morning & having to reset the time in the evening when plugging the clock back up, was a hassle.  So, like a mostly normal person,  I decided to leave the alarm clock plugged up all the time.

The Christmas decorations were down stairs out of site & out of mind.  

I kept putting off getting back down there to finish up that organizing project. 

It's cold down there since we're not using that part of the house right now 

& have the heat turned down to save on the electric bill. 

Social & Community Service Activities

Kevin & I took entry money to get into the high school basketball game along with a couple other Lions Club members.  We also helped get people to donate to the Lions Club Super Bowl Board fundraiser while at the game.  We went to the monthly Lions Club community bingo.  Kevin was the number caller.  I helped with snacks. We both helped with cleaning up after bingo was over.  

Other Activities

I finished the puzzle I was working on & started another 500 piece puzzle.  I continued reading in the book On the Banks of Plum Creek.  I searched for words in my giant word search book, read blogs & organized pictures on my computer.  Kevin & I watched some more episodes of Ma & Pa Kettle.  We watched a movie called Up In The Air on Free TV.  We exchanged a couple of DVDs with friends & watched The Man From Snowy River & The Man From Snowy River Returns.

A lovely picture of a puzzle being worked on.  This puzzle is holiday postage stamps. 

I brought in the patio table to use as my puzzle working table.  The table has a rim 
around the edge & helps to keep pieces from falling on the floor to hide.

           Sunday afternoon 4-wheeler ride, hike & picnic.

Catch All Chili & other New Year Happenings

Greetings

Kevin & I had a quite Christmas at our house; relaxing, reading, watching Christmas movies & facetimed with the Grands.  It didn't snow on Christmas but we did have snow on the ground.  On New Year's Eve we made it till about 10:30 watching movies before turning off the TV & calling it a night.

Happy New Year

This year will be 35 years married to my high school sweetheart come September.  This brings me to the personal motto I made for myself this year:  1.  Be positive  2.  Make the best of every situation & circumstance  3.  Have a balance of different activities  4. Be thankful for the things I already have.  5.  Age gracefully 

New Year's Resolutions 

My goals are about the same from year to year these days.  Eat more vegetables & fruits.  Eat less sweets.  Drink more water.  Walk more for exercise.  Don't take computer to bed.  Oh, & again this year, don't buy any clothes for myself.

This year I chose a Bible verse.  1 Thessalonians 16-18  Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, In every thing give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.  

I added a prayer walk to my morning routine to get in extra exercise & also to remember to say a daily prayer.  Each morning after I get the bed made & dishes washed; I read the daily devotion from Proverbs 31, walk around in the house, do some stretches & pray.  I started doing this back in December & so far it's working out very good.

I canceled the TV subscriptions I had on my computer, so I wouldn't be tempted to take the computer to bed. We have a TV in the bedroom, so we've been watching the collection of DVDs we already have. Kevin & I have been watching a movie together most every night while relaxing & unwinding.  I saw a post on Facebook that read "The last TV show you watched is now your life story for the next 6 weeks." We've been watching Ma & Pa Kettle.  I have noticed I've been sleeping better through the night since I've not been taking the computer to bed & haven't been waking up tired.

As far as clothes, I have enough. I simply don't need any more right now.  I have uniform clothes I wear to work.  I have clothes for my normal everyday activities & for special occasions that come up, so I'm good on clothes for awhile. 

Grandkids

I mailed out the Grand's Christmas gifts early in December. They had a little Christmas party shortly after all the boxes arrived & opened those gifts from us.

The Grands

Cooking

This month we are eating mostly from our stock-up in the pantry & freezer.  I made a crockpot full of chili to use up leftovers in the refrigerator & canned goods we already had.  The chili turned out surprisingly very tasty considering what was in it. There were 3 meats in the chili; pork chop, deer summer sausage & baked chicken. There were 3 different kinds of beans; pork & beans, pinto beans & great northern beans. I added in a can of whole kernel corn. The chili sauce was canned, made by my Moma using tomatoes out of our garden. We ate on the chili for several days for lunch & supper.  I froze the little amount of remaining chili to have with hotdogs on a picnic later. 

Gardening

I have seeds for our garden ready to order as soon as Kevin decides if we need to get green beans or not.  He saved beans from last year & has a couple planted in a cup to see if they are going to grow.  Kevin mapped out where stuff is going to be planted in the garden.  New things we're going to try this year is a garden blend kale that is free for ordering over $20 & 2 different kinds of winter squash. Kevin will buy tomato & pepper plants from our local hardware store along with onion sets. He always saves us a few tators from the previous year to cut up & plant back.

The garden on January 1st.  The scarecrows dressed in their holiday wears being disregarded by the deer that traveled all around in the garden foraging for food. 

Cleaning

My New Year's cleaning project has been organizing Christmas decorations & sorting through totes to get rid of stuff not used in years.  I've sent 2 boxes to the Give Back Box program so far.  I'm still working on consolidation & down sizing totes.

Health & Weight Maintenance 

I'm trying to be more mindful to eat smaller portions, yet enough food that I won't need a snack in-between meals, though not over eat to have an overfull feeling.  I've been filling my water bottles in the morning with all the water I need to drink during the day.  I walk to work most every day & walk extra some days during lunch.  I cooked up the last box of brownies I got on sale, so now there are no go-to sweets in the house.  When I get a craving for sweets, I'll walk around & drink some water & hopefully that will help stop the craving.

Frugality, Saving & Spending

I bought only the things on my list at the grocery store, spending $18.98 since we're eating our stock-up.  I walked to work most days, not only for the exercise but also for saving gas.  I took all the drinks & food I needed while working, so there was no money spent on eating out.  I already mentioned unsubscribing from TV on my computer to watch DVDs we already have. I've been liking that movie watching time with Kevin.  I ordered several DVDs to go in the Grand's care packages & paid our Lions Club annual dues.

Social & Community Service Activities

Kevin & I attended the regular scheduled meeting of the Lions Club with supper provided. This 1st meeting of the year included an enjoyable & educational presentation by one of the members about his time living in Saudi Arabia being an English teacher. 

Our Lions Club sponsored a community blood drive.  I worked the sign in table & kept up with who's turn it was to go next.  Kevin & I cleaned up after the event was over. The results of the drive were fantastic according to the 3 phlebotomists.  Their goal was to get 14 products. 24 products were collected, including mine. Several donors were able to give double. 

Other Activities

I continued working on a 500 piece puzzle & started reading the 4th book in the Little House book series, On the Banks Of Plum Creek.  I did some word searching in my giant word search book.  I read blogs & organized pictures on my computer.  I also did letter writing, writing each Grand & their parents a letter.

Sunday afternoon drive