Thankful Sunday--January 19, 2014

I am thankful for the calmness of my cats.

When things get hectic, there's nothing like a purring cat on your lap to slow everything down. I am thankful that I have four of them so there is always one available for a little calmness when I need it.

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Jan. 17, 2014

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 and True Food Confessions

This past week I was unexpectedly called out of town to be with my mother in the hospital. Consequently, eating and food waste from my refrigerator were off my radar. But yet, food played very much into my week. As is often the case, it was a bonding element among those of us who were spending many long hours in a difficult situation.

Image from food.com

In the beginning of our stay, my sister and I soon got to recognize familiar faces and nodded in recognition. Next, as we were taking a few minutes in the lounge, we had brief discussions about the weather. However, the conversation soon evolved into something that everyone was interested in and something that took our minds off more serious matters--the cafeteria and its food.


Most everyone wanted to know how to get there. Directions were not as easy as they could have been because two of the elevators were broken. This caused lots of silly jokes like how you had to start calling the elevator for lunch as soon as you finished breakfast. Next item for discussion was what was on the menu for the day and what everyone had tried. Roast beef and hot dogs were favorites. (Familiar comfort food played a lot into these choices.)

And the hotdogs bring me to one of the better parts of this difficult experience--getting to meet Hotdog Man. We first met Hotdog Man when he asked where the cafeteria was. This was later followed with a discussion of what he had for lunch which was a hotdog in a square bun. He was none too fond of of this square bun and debating the pros and cons of square vs. round buns led us to more personal discussions. He was 78 and was at the hospital with his wife who had fallen and broken her back. He had seven kids and lots of grandkids. He used to be a coal miner and a truck driver among other things and had a botched hernia operation. We smiled every time we saw each other and chatted like we were old friends. Despite our friendliness, we never got to know Hotdog Man's real name. It's funny how we were so close in many ways, but real names didn't seem necessary. I already miss his smile and have been pondering a question, "If we called him Hotdog Man, I wonder what he called us?"

Life Happens

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." 

This saying was never so true as it has been for me recently. During the last couple of weeks, I have made two trips to the emergency room with two different family members. One was close by and one was several hours away. Subsequently, there was also a lot of time spent in a hospital. Both people are making forward progress, but it will be a long slow road. 

These events have brought a lot of things into focus, the most important being how lucky I am to have supportive family and friends. Also, it reminded me how very grateful I am for the people who have chosen the medical profession as their calling. It is not a job I could do. God Bless all of you.

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Jan. 10, 2014

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 Jo from Simply Being Mum for sponsoring FWF this week.)

This Week's Food Waste

None

We saved an orange this week that was just starting to get a bad place in it. Otherwise things looked pretty good.

This Week's True Food Confessions

I think because we were still reeling from an overabundance of Christmas chocolate, we were motivated to eat reasonably well at home this week. The main features were a roasted chicken and potatoes. To go with the first night of the roasted chicken, we had roasted potatoes and cauliflower. The cauliflower was delicious but the potatoes did not roast so well. We used potatoes I had frozen by the blanching method and the texture was not very good. From the next batch of frozen potatoes, I will try simple boiling and mashing. They should turn out better that way. 

Another night we had baked potatoes from Idaho potatoes that need to be cooked. They were topped with chopped chicken, cheese, and sour cream. Yet another night we had chicken sandwiches and chicken burritos topped with various things including hummus, lettuce, and pepper jack cheese. And guess what, we also had baked potatoes and chicken legs with steamed carrots and apple slices another time. I think that about does it for the chicken and potato combos. I have had many green salads with cottage cheese and believe it or not, among all of the chicken dinners, we had time for one night of fish and and a couple of meals of chili which Miss Landers brought to us. 

A banner week for us, and surprisingly, I didn't feel overwhelmed by putting it all together. I have great skills for planning and cooking, but I don't have the enthusiasm or always have the ability to overcome certain emotional blocks to getting it done. However, one week at a time. Hope next week works as well.

A Second Look--Jan. 8, 2014

It's been a few weeks since I have been to the "back forty" or the lower part of the yard, so I decided it was a time to take a look. I don't want to get out of the habit of taking Second Looks around my yard through all parts of the year. There really is something very refreshing about seeing the changes that take place.

We have had rain, snow, ice, and subzero temperatures over the last week or so. Despite the bad weather, the critters have still been out and about. We spotted a pileated woodpecker this week as well as our old faithfuls of the red-bellied and downy woodpeckers. The deer are ever present and the squirrels are occasionally scurrying about. It seems as if bone season could be starting again like it did last winter. I found a groundhog skull, but it was too cold to do much looking for others.

Here are a few things I saw this week during my Second Look.

Even though we have had a lot of cold weather and snow, a few pansy blossoms are still hanging on. The snow had just melted from around this one.

The skies have been mostly dark this week, but a little sun still managed to peak through the clouds and light up this tree.

Woodpeckers--Pileated on the left, Red-bellied on the top and Downy on the bottom.

Part of a skull--a groundhog, I think.

No snow this day, so a good day for grazing.

We usually only see one or two cardinals, but this week we saw a flock of them pass through.

This squirrel had just had a treat from a suet cake.

We hadn't seen doves for a few months, but we also saw a flock of them this week.

The skies weren't always cloudy. We had a clear night this night.