Thankful Sunday--December 30, 2012

I am thankful for a simple green salad.

With all of the delicious, but rich, food I've been eating this holiday season, I am happy for a simple green salad.

Christmas Sales

or I Had Self Control (this time).

We usually travel after Christmas to visit family, but this year we stayed put. Do you know what that meant? I was able to take advantage of post Christmas sales. I got up early Wednesday morning hoping to get a good deal on a few Christmas things we were getting low on. I left the house with a certain excitement at the prospect of finding some really good bargins. The first store was crowded, but the selection was good. I found some suitable wrapping paper and a couple of other things we could use. I also managed to remember to buy the toothpaste that we were almost out of. However there was no Christmas stationery we needed, so onto the next store.

By this time, I was starting to get pressed for time since I had to be at work soon. Also, it had started to snow and I didn't want to be out on slippery roads. I hurried into the store and went straight for the cards and stationery. I found some paper that would work and proceeded to the checkout. While waiting in line, I noticed what the woman in front of me was buying. She had several rolls of aluminum foil, many boxes of zip lock bags, and lots of Goldfish among other things. She said she was a teacher and could use all of these things in her classroom and they were all 50% off. Another thrill of excitement swept over me. Should go back and try to find more of the practical items she was buying and be a little late for work and risk the roads? Or should I stick with what I had? What to do? What to do?

I'm proud to say that I have a plan for each of these items.

In the end, I stayed in line and just bought what I had in hand. I reasoned that we had foil and bags at home and didn't need anymore right now. And if I went back to find them, I would certainly buy something I didn't need but looked good. Then, where would be the savings? But, boy, I did miss the thrill of the hunt and the satisfaction of the capture I would have had if I'd gone back.

 

___________________________________________________________________________________

But Wait, There's More:

--Most of my decision not to go back was based on my favorite way to save money—stay out of the stores.

--The roads were slick when I left the store. I slipped a couple of times, but luckily I was not held up by any fender benders.

--We don't use much wrapping paper around here as we reuse a lot of gift bags. The family joke is that we look for a bag that already has the right tag on it from years past. However, we like to have some paper on hand for special gifts.

Merry Christmas

 ^"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill towards men.^"

"...And that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown." 

 "A Charlie Brown Christmas" 

Ponderings of Theodore--The Young Years

Theo's Thoughts about Reindeer and Santa
(when he was in 2nd or 3rd grade)

The reindeer that pull Santa's sled,

Are nothing but a bluff.

No reindeer live that far north, 

The weather's too cold and tough.

And if no one sees Santa,

How does he get his food?

Because way up at the North Pole,

Growing will do no good.

The only picture I could find with Wally and Theo visiting Santa.

Thankful Sunday--December 23, 2012

I am thankful the days are now getting longer.

Today...

Today, I'm going to take a little time to enjoy

 some quiet Christmas fun.

What are you going to do for a break 

during this busy time?

Thanks to Miss Landers for the coloring book. She knows what I like.

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Dec. 21, 2012

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions. (Thanks to Simply Being Mom for hosting Food Waste Friday this week.)

This Week's Food Waste

I had no waste this week, but to be honest, I didn't look very hard to find any. But I'm still going to go with no waste. Yea!

I saved some oranges by making Christmas ornaments out of them.

____________________________________________________________________________________

This Week's True Food Confessions

Some of the food that graced our table this week.

Let's see. We had two work luncheons and a Christmas party this week where we took our new favorite thing--seven layer dip with tortilla chips. Wally took some to a party last week and it seemed like a good idea to take everywhere else we've gone. I think we're going to add a meat layer to it and have it for supper next week.

And speaking of Wally, he made his "famous" Ramon noodle dish which has spicy tomatoes, ground meat, and noodles in it. He has a complicated way of making it, or so it seems to me the simple cook, but it pleases every time. I made one of my favorites, spinach pie. It's very simple and is essentially spinach and cheese between two pie crusts. I got the recipe from a friend at work and I'll be sharing it soon in another post. We also had pizza and salad one night and chicken and cauliflower another. In addition, we filled up with cookies during the week from holiday baking and sharing.

I can't recall that we had any takeout this week, but just as I didn't search too hard for waste, I'm not going to think too hard about it. I'm declaring this week a success. Yea!

There's a Mouse in the House

or Caution: This involves dead mouse talk 

 'Tis the season for field mice to come into our house seeking warmth.  This is an occurrence we have every year and we've gotten used to. We usually find them in the same place--between a couple of studs in our coat closet. Apparently, they enter from somewhere above and fall into this area. Then, they are the ultimate, "I've fallen and can't get up" victims.  We finally figured this out after Ward followed his nose and cut a couple of holes in the wall where he eventually found a stinky mouse graveyard. After that, he put a plate over the hole so it could be opened and he could rescue any fallen mice.*

This seemed to work pretty well until this week. Then we got a smart and determined mouse. This one chewed it's way out of the graveyard and has been able to elude our four cats for a couple of days--an unheard of feat until now. The longest any creature (bugs, mice, moles, voles) lasts in our house is a couple hours before the cats have taken care of it. Just when we think that this mouse has escaped or is dead, we see the cats very attentively watching under a door or a piece of furniture. And there's only one thing that that can mean--there's still a mouse in the house. And as much as I hate to admit it, I'm scared of this little mouse. So wish me luck that today will be the day that this smart and determined mouse will be gone.



Update: I found the mouse and I think the cats won. Now to put on some gloves and toss it outside.


*We have an ongoing discussion about rescuing the mice or if we should let nature take its course between the cats and the mice. I vote for the cats because one, it is very natural and two, I don't want to handle the mice.

A Second Look--December 19, 2012

Here's what I saw this week during a Second Look.

Scraggly mum

This is a very light weight bone fragment. Not sure what that means or where it came from.

Male downy woodpecker

As evidenced by the sticks and leaves around this groundhog hole, the groundhog is in hibernation. When it is in an active stage, the hole has fresh dirt around its entrance.

I found several tufts of fur like this, but I'm not sure what it's from. (I vote for rabbit.) I looked for more signs of the animal, but didn't find any.

The forsythia tried to bloom during a couple of our warm days. However, they didn't last for long.

Blue jay feather

Squirrel's nest in sweet gum tree

Dried Orange Slices

or It Should Have Been Really Simple

A few weeks ago, we bought a big bag of Cara Cara oranges that I think were picked too soon--meaning they were tasteless. I mean the only taste they had was from the floss you used after you ate one. So after three oranges in a row like this, the family decided they weren't going to eat anymore. What were we going to do with the rest of the bag? Let it sit in the fruit drawer until the oranges rotted? Certainly that was going to be the default plan, but I was hoping for something better. Then I remembered lovely dried orange slices I had seen as Christmas ornaments. That's what I'd do, I dry them for decorations.

After a little Googling, I found several instructions on how to dry them, and they were all basically the same. Cut the orange into thin slices. Place them on a lined cookie sheet and dry them in a 200 F oven for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Easy. My kind of craft.

 However, all didn't go as planned. On my first attempt, the slices were rather uneven, but I thought this shouldn't matter much. I put them in the oven and checked them occasionally. Every time I checked, they were still wet. After 5 hours of this (2x longer that it should have taken) and not much progress, I turned the oven up to 250 F. Some instructions listed this as a drying temperature, so I thought it would be okay. And you know what happend? When I checked them 1/2 hour later. They were burnt.
 
On my next attempt, I made the slices thinner, but they were still rather uneven. This time I never turned the temperature above 200 F and turned the slices occasionally for even drying. After a few hours, I started removing the thinner slices that were almost dry and left the moist ones. All was in line for success. And you know what happened?  They burned again. It seemed to happen quickly between two of my frequent checks.

Now I was getting a little worried. In the many instructions I had read about drying orange slices, no one had indicated that they had had any problems. I could soon see myself in a joke like the one about being such a bad cook they couldn't even boil water. I was going to be such a bad crafter, I couldn't even dry orange slices.

But I tried again. I had Ward slice the orange for me this time and I put the slices in our dehydrator. I dried them for several hours until I had beautiful dried slices. Hooray! Maybe there was hope for me after all because I did it my way. (Cue Elvis.)

Gingerbread Cookies

Wally and Theodore decided to bake gingerbread cookies this weekend to share with their friends and coworkers. They asked Uncle Billy and Aunt Martha for a recipe since they bake a lot of cookies this time of year. The recipe they sent was a really good one. It adds orange zest and lemon juice along with a nice balance of ginger and other spices.  I think it's the hint of citrus flavor you taste when you eat the cookies that makes them stand out above others I have tried.

The recipe is from the Food Network's Alex Guarnaschelli. Wally and Theo didn't make the orange icing part of it (too much fuss for them icing or decorating cookies), but I can imagine that this would be a very tasty addition. If you are interested in trying them, here's the link: gingerbread cookies.

_________________________________________________________________________________

But Wait, There's more:

I mentioned that Wally and Theo didn't want to fuss with icing or decorating their cookies. Well, I didn't even want to cut out the batch I made. I just rolled out the dough and put the entire rolled sheet of dough on the pan and baked it. And you know what, my pan tasted just as good as the ones they cut out and baked. Have I mentioned that I don't like to spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking or baking?

Mr. Rogers

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.”  Fred Rogers

Thankful Sunday--December 16, 2012

I am thankful for my children.

Wally and Theo, the early years

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

There are no words to express the shock and sorrow I feel about the tragedy in Connecticut. My thoughts and prayers go out to all involved. In the meantime, I will march forward, the only way I know how. Writing about simple every day things.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

or How to Make an Easy and Silly Christmas Ornament

When Wally and Theo were little, they made these Rudolph ornaments at a friend's house. We still have several of them many years later. They were easy to make and had just the right difficulty level for two little boys who would rather be running than sitting still for very long to make anything.

They started with a wrapped candy cane and glued two googly eyes and a red pompon on the end of it. They then wrapped a pipe cleaner around the top and twisted it for antlers. Voila! A Rudolph ready to hang on the tree.

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Dec. 14, 2012

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions.

This Week's Food Waste

I meant to get to the rest of this cheese in a timely fashion, I really did. However, when I got it out to put in the lasagne I was making, it had blue mold in it (and not the good blue cheese kind of mold.) Darn. It had to go.
 ________________________________________________________________________________

This Week's True Food Confessions

We had homemade bread and salad most of the week. To go with this was lasagne, vegetable soup, and tuna mac. Perhaps the highlight though was the seven-layer dip that Wally took to a party. Luckily he brought half of it home and we had it for dinner the next day. Depending on your layers, it can actually be pretty healthy and filling.

 
We had a good week and cooked at home most of the time. It was a struggle a couple of nights, but I was able to overcome being tired and distracted to actually fix pretty good meals. 

Okay, if we're really going to have True Food Confessions, Ward is picking up Chinese as I'm typing this and it's going to taste really good.

Walmart

During this season of shopping, I thought I would address something that has been on my mind for a while—Walmart. Walmart is popular to dislike these days for various reasons. A common complaint is that they come into areas and put small businesses out of business. Also there are cries that they don't treat their workers fairly. I think that some of the Walmart bashing comes from the fact that there may be some truth to the common complaints, but I think most of it comes from the fact that the bigger something is, the easier it is to attack.

I don't know about the every Walmart situation, but I can speak about Walmart in the small town that I grew up in and where my parents still live. First let me describe the area. The town is in a rural setting and has a population of a couple of thousand. It is surrounded by farmland and smaller towns. The next town of any size is about an hour and a half away. The unemployment rate is in the double digits.

When Walmart built a store there twelve years ago, it was a godsend. First there were new chances for employment in a place that desperately needed it. And these just weren't jobs, these were good jobs that actually had the possibility of benefits. Next there were new opportunities for shopping that the townspeople didn't have before. Shopping, that previously they had to travel far to do, was now convenient. This was especially important as the price of gas rose. It was also important for people like my parents who don't drive long distances any more.

And did all of the local businesses go out of business when Walmart moved in? No. The local businesses adapted and provided services that Walmart didn't offer. One of the drug stores now has a delivery service. One of the grocery stores is known for having the best meat in town. And sometimes, people just don't want to deal with the size of the Walmart store, and shop in the smaller local stores. But all of these people are very happy to have Walmart available at other times. They appreciate the low prices Walmart can offer because, as you can imagine in this depressed area, there's not much money to go around.

And what's the Walmart shopping experience like in this grateful small town? Wonderful. You can really tell that people like their jobs and are there to help. The staff is friendly, helpful, and pleasant. When I shop there, I sometimes feel as if I'm stepping into a Walmart that I see in commercials. The customers are also friendly and seem happy to be there. And no, I'm not exaggerating.

If Walmart is so wonderful here, why is it not considered wonderful everywhere? My opinion is that in some places it is an extra option and some places it is not. When you live in a place where you have multiple choices of where to shop, or when you have enough income that you can chose to buy something that costs more because it fits better with your life philosophies, you don't need Walmart. But when you don't have those options of convenience and/or a good income, Walmart is truly a godsend.

A Second Look--December 12, 2012

The weather has been cold recently, enough so, that I came in with rosy checks after doing my Second Look. Despite the cold weather, I found a few flowers that were providing color to an otherwise drab landscape and several birds visiting our feeder.

It seems as if you can find the ever-faithful dandelion blooming any time of the year.

You can see all of the way through this knot hole.

These downy(left) and hairy(right) woodpeckers visited the feeder at the same time. Pretty exciting.

There are two squirrel's nests in this tree.

They look more scraggly each week, but these mums are hanging on.

This picture was taken from Wally's and Theo's tree house. It doesn't get much use these days.

Some birds like to eat these nandina berries.

The view of our house from the back of the yard.

I've got nothing

or I'm tired of wrapping presents

I didn't do a post yesterday, so I thought I would take a break from wrapping gifts and prepare one for today. But I've got nothing. Not a thing to write about. Some might call it writers block, but I call it, I've got nothing.

First I was going to write about Wally and Theodore and what they remember about Santa Claus when they were young. Upon investigation, Wally told me that he doesn't really remember much and Theo told me he wasn't in a contemplative mood. Next I thought that I would do a recipe and feature the vegetable soup I made this morning that turned out quite good. But I have no idea exactly what I put in it or the amounts. That idea wasn't going to work. I also thought about doing a post about how Annie runs away from Wally even though he's not giving her medicine any more. But all I could think of to say was Annie runs away from Wally these days for no good reason.

So there you've got it. I've got nothing to say except, "May your days be merry and bright and may all of your Christmases be white.” 

But wait, there's more (which is hard to do when you've written about nothing.):

--Ack! Every time I try to get rid of the lines at the bottom of the post, another one appears. They're multiplying!

--I think this may be the ultimate example of me avoiding chores by working on my blog.

--“Merry and bright ….” comes from a movie they play a lot this time of year, White Christmas. I'm going to go see if I can find it on TV somewhere as it is a favorite of mine. Another great way to avoid the work at hand. 

Do you have a favorite Christmas movie?

Thankful Sunday--December 9, 2012

I am thankful for this outdoor timer for our lights.

Several years ago Ward got this outdoor timer that we plug our Christmas lights into. It turns on automatically at dusk and turns off later at a setting we select. It works wonderfully. Before the timer, we had no routine of turning on and off our Christmas lights except whenever we remembered. Now they turn on and off like clockwork. (Pun intended.) The timer is especially nice when we travel at Christmas because our lights still turn on and off as if we were home.

Today...

Today, I'm going to jump right in and have fun.

Miss Lander's dog, Hans, jumped right in the water even though it was cold. He knows how not to worry about things and have fun.

Today...

I'm going to wrap presents without organizing them first.

I'm going to go for a walk even if it's raining.

I'm going to have a peanut butter sandwich with pickles.

I'm going to put up our tree and watch the cats play with it.

I'm going to go shopping and smile.

What are you doing today?

 

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Dec. 7, 2012

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions.

This Week's Food Waste

NONE!

Thanks to Simply Being Mom for hosting Food Waste Friday this week.
_______________________________________

This Week's True Food Confessions

I was determined that this week would be better than the last couple and it was. We had a lovely dinner out one night and ate at home the rest of the time. We made enough each meal to last through lunch and sometimes into dinner the next day. 

Here's what we had.  Thai chicken, fresh broccoli, wild rice, lentil soup, shepherd's pie, homemade bread, and chili. Most nights we had a salad to go with these.

You'd think with this success, I'd be inspired for next week. Wrong. My mind is other places and tired of cooking. However, this is an important priority, so I'm going to give it the old college try.

Bird ID correction

or How to Avoid Work

Do you have a favorite way to avoid chores that you don't want to do? I do. I work on my blog. I think about post ideas. I mess with the margins. I take pictures. I write stories. I read other blogs. Anything to avoid the task at hand. And to make it even harder to do what I need to, I usually have a purring cat on my lap when I'm at the computer. (Can you hear Annie purring now?)

I have several things that should be attended to, especially with Christmas approaching, so today was going to be a no blog day. A day when I focused on what really needed to be done. Wally even suggested that we turn off the internet. He thought it would be more conducive for both of us to accomplish what we needed. He's studying for a test and I am cleaning the guest room.

But then it happened, Aunt Martha, my personal bird expert, told me that the birds I identified as juncos in the last Second Look, are really brown-headed cowbirds. I couldn't let that go by. I had to correct it. I had to do a post today. So here it is.

CORRECTION:
These birds identified as juncos in A Second Look--December 5, 2012 are really brown-headed cowbirds. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Brown-headed cowbirds

 Until tomorrow- unless I get tired of cleaning the guest room.

A Second Look--December 5, 2012

Here's what I saw this week during a Second Look.

Amazingly, these mums are still blooming. They have been well protected against the house.

Each one of the holes on this sweet gum ball was full of seeds about the size of a mustard seed.

This red bellied woodpecker is new to the feeder. Mostly we have downy woodpeckers visit.

We still have several branches brought down by Sandy that have to be cleaned up.

I don't remember our purple sage blooming this late in the season before.

Blue Jays

These brown-headed cowbirds were hanging out below our feeder.

A Second Look at this wreath shows reflections of trees and sky it is framing.