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Archive for November, 2015

Black Friday Doings

November 27th, 2015 at 04:16 pm

After a wonderful Thanksgiving, it is now Black Friday. We had stores open yesterday and last night and again early this morning. I guess I am not much of a shopper because I can't see missing out on Thanksgiving to go and buy more stuff. I have no desire to fight crowds and I'm not sure the "deals" really are deals. I think our society has become so skewed that we put shopping ahead of other things.

It's rainy, windy, and the temperature is dropping here. I'm glad it is just rain. We plan to do our weekly grocery shopping today. Normally DH does the Aldi run when I'm at work, but since I'm blessed with the day off, I get to go and then we go to the other grocery store to get the things we can't get at Aldi.

I have almost all of my Christmas shopping finished. I have one more thing to get and two packages to mail, but other than that, I think I'm good. I have either made or purchased things throughout the year when I found them on sale. DH picks out the majority of the stuff and we have a Christmas club account so what he picks out is within my budget. I also have addressed all of our Christmas cards and I purchased stamps on Wednesday. I did cut back on the cards this year. It is getting pretty expensive to send them anymore although I did find cards throughout the year more reasonably priced.

Lunch is leftovers. Not Thanksgiving, but from the other night.

I have some baking to do for our church's Christmas bazaar, but I bought the baking stuff when it was on sale.

So, did you face the crowds and the chaos to shop?

Bread and Joy

November 22nd, 2015 at 07:45 pm

Bread...not the cold green stuff, but the stuff you eat. This is the time of the year I bake it with some kindergarten classes and it's funny to hear the reactions from not only the little ones.

I was wheeling a cart with a mixing bowl, flour, and other things and staff members would comment, "If you have extra, I'd like a piece."

Amazing that homemade bread is such a commodity! The custodian after eating a slice told me if I opened a bakery when I retired, he would be a loyal customer. Through the years it has been interesting to hear people talk about the family members who baked bread and what glorious memories it hearkened. The class I worked with Friday gave me a thumbs up after they ate some warm, buttered slices. Hopefully tomorrow will also be successful.

I wrote the last check for my Roth today and I'm fully funded for 2015. Now I need to save up to start for 2016. Yay!

My pastor today was doing a children's moment and he asked the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up. One said he wanted to babysit puppies which was a cute answer and the congregation chuckled. He then commented about Jesus being a carpenter before starting His ministry. I know this next thought wasn't what he intended, but I was thinking how pleasing it is to make something with your hands and see the progress. I'm sure a carpenter has that sheer joy. I was crocheting Christmas star ornaments last night and thinking the same thing. I might be an educator, but sometimes it is fulfilling to make something and see a finished product. It's even better when it is a gift and the person receiving it appreciates it. Just a simple joy, but a joy nonetheless.

As we gear up for Thanksgiving here in the U.S., hope you have plenty for which to be thankful and plenty of joy in your life.

Catching up

November 15th, 2015 at 10:53 pm

It's been awhile since I've posted. Wish it was because I was so busy doing so many exciting things, but alas, it wasn't. The past few weeks have been a struggle because with my allergies and asthma, I've been not feeling the best. I think the worst of it is over and I feel better.

It seems like we've been spending a lot lately and I think we have. Granted, most of it was planned. We put away money all year in a Christmas account and last weekend we journeyed to a large mall where DH picked out what he wanted for Christmas. This past year we lost both our Penney's and our Sears so other than Kohls, we don't have many stores that have good bargain prices. I also bought a few things for other presents and have the majority of my shopping finished. I am planning on getting the envelopes addressed for Christmas cards, and in the next couple of weeks, will need to be doing some baking for our church's Christmas bazaar. We sell cookies by the pound so we need a lot of different types of cookies. It is a major fundraiser for our women's group and they give part of the money to missions and use the remainder for projects they have locally.

We did splurge and buy some new towels. I haven't had new towels in about a decade so that was a nice treat.

I wasn't happy that my router is going out. But, after 6 years, I guess I'm lucky it lasted this long.

I have a family night this week so I had to plan a meal that I could eat early and DH could heat up on his own. I made a huge pot of soup yesterday for tonight's supper and there should be plenty for at least one more meal and maybe a could of lunches.

Last night I made something I hadn't tried before. There is probably a recipe for it somewhere, but I was trying to chop vegetables for the soup, so I chopped onion, bell pepper, and mushrooms and sauted them in a little olive oil. Then I cut up some boneless, skinless chicken breasts and sauted them. I added a can of cream of chicken soup. While I was doing this, I was boiling spaghetti. I used some of the pasta water to add to the soup/meat mixture and let it cook down, then added a little more and added the spaghetti and let it cook together for a couple of minutes. I added some shredded cheese, mixed it all together and served it in a bowl. DH loved it. We also had enough leftover for two lunches after he had four helpings. Smile Cheap meal and basically I was already chopping vegetables and I only used spaghetti because I had some left in a box. I could have used any pasta I think.

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving. I have been posting on Facebook something I'm grateful every day, many so I think about how good my life is. I am grateful for my SA friends because I feel we help each other and support each other.