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