Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions-March 14, 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

These oranges were good.

The bag of oranges we got this week came with a rotting one. :( However, I cut the rotten part off and cut the rest up for the critters. The birds and squirrels seemed to enjoy it. Otherwise, we did pretty well.

This Week's True Food Confessions

 We had a good week with cooking and eating our meals. However, we had a bad week with picture taking of our meals. Nevertheless, here are a few pictures from last week.

I Spy

 Can you find...

1. A chicken casserole? This was made to use up extra noodles that were found during a pantry clean up. We also had a chili casserole made from leftover chili. Both were tasty and easy to make.

2. Cucumbers? These cucumbers provided a nice counterpoint to the heavier casseroles. They were also a refreshing snack.

3. Roasted broccoli? We also had roasted brussel sprouts. We had been wanting more of these since we bought some very expensive ones at the grocery store a few weeks ago. Brussel sprouts were on sale, so it seemed like the perfect idea. And it was.

4. Juicy fruit? Besides these oranges, we also enjoyed fresh pineapple and apples. The apples were the Pink variety and were a nice combination of sweetness and tartness. They were pretty good for an out-of-season fruit.

5. Walnuts? Even though the squirrels are snatching food from the bird feeders, they are still enjoying nuts from the walnut trees in the back yard.


 

Today...

Today, I'm going to go with the flow and embrace change. 

Adjusting to change is not always easy for me in both little and big ways. Yesterday, the weather reminded me once again that change can be a good thing. It went from cloudy, to rainy, to a rainbow all in a matter of minutes. Each stage was spectacular to see.

Cloudy

Rainy

Rainbow

A Second Look--March 11, 2014

Spring is finally here. Some days are cold and some days are warm. The snow is melting and I found my first crocus. :)

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

I was very excited to find this crocus blooming.

However, all of the other crocus that I found were leaves just emerging from the ground.

Something has started to build a nest in this box.

The snow has been melting and now is left only where there were big piles.

The daffodils are also coming up but no sign of a bloom yet.

Although, I'm not finding as many as last year, I still find a bone on most of my walks. I don't know what this one is.

And the earliest of all, the snowdrops are blooming in full force.

The Empty Nest

As I have mentioned before, the nest is empty here. Wally and Theodore are now living on their own.

Wally and Theo long before they left the nest.

This is not the first time that Wally and Theo have been gone. At various times they have both been away at college at the same time. But this time is different. This time I think it's going to take. Wally has a job good enough to support himself and Theo is making plans for when he finishes school that don't involve coming back home.

And what do Ward and I think about this? We're glad because it looks like we've succeeded in raising independent, responsible, contributing members of society. Sometimes we weren't so sure this would happen. Like the time Theo refused to go to school because he thought he already knew it all. Or the time Wally flooded the house with the garden hose. Or the time when Theo started a fire at school during the electricity unit. Or the time Wally wouldn't do his homework because he thought it was too boring. Or the time the teacher called. Or the time the other teacher called. Or the next time another teacher called... But you know what? Just like all of the older and wiser people told us, it will work out. And it did. Thank goodness.

After a few tears on my part, we are adjusting to a quieter house. We're enjoying not having to figure out a schedule with the cars. We like it that now we can keep food in the house. (In case you haven't heard, young males eat a LOT.) We are also trying to keep quiet as Wally and Theo are figuring out things in the big world by themselves. I'm having a hard time with not offering too many opinions (some would call it nagging, I call it being a mother), but I'm working on it.

We know that there are ups and downs to everyone's life and Wally or Theodore may boomerang right back here. But for now both parents and children are enjoying the right of passage that is the empty nest.

In the essence of Full Disclosure, the nest is not really empty if you count our four needy (kneady - get it?) cats. :)

Thankful Sunday--March 9, 2014

I am thankful that days are getting longer.

Even though I lost an hour of sleep last night because of the time change, I am very happy that the days are getting longer.