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Home > Archive: April, 2018

Archive for April, 2018

Sunny Spring Sunday

April 29th, 2018 at 08:34 pm

It finally is starting to look and feel like spring around here. We did have a frost last night, but hopefully that is the last one. I don't think it harmed DH's garden. So far it seems like only the onions are starting to peep through so that might be a good thing.

We have an Aristocrat Pear in our front yard and it is simply stunning. This is the best it has ever been as far as flowering.



I've been on a tangent lately about trying to get things straightened up and cleaned up. DH is never on this page. Well, rarely if he is. He surprised me the other day and said he would like to get rid of a lawn mower we've had for over 20 years. It had been a nice mower and we've spent money in the past making sure it would work, but he hasn't used it for at least 5 years. He was going to just put it out for the garbage collector, but I suggested we offer it to a very handy guy we know. So, about 30 minutes ago he walked over, and took it home. DH had hosed it off because it was dusty, but hadn't tried to start it. He told the new owner he didn't think it would start. Well, the fellow put a little gas in it and it started right off. Amazing! So there are two happy people -- the guy with the new to him mower that needs a little fix up and me, because that is one less thing to stumble over in the garden shed.

DH is happy because he's out puttering in the yard. I've trying to get bills paid, the church Facebook and webpages updated as well as some other paperwork. Not a bad afternoon overall since we are not rushed having to do things.

Next item on the agenda -- go through receipts and shred those that have been paid on the credit card. After that, maybe a nice relaxing read of a murder mystery.

I hate shopping

April 22nd, 2018 at 08:36 pm

It seems like I've been spending a lot lately. Well, more than seems. I have.

As I blogged before, we bought a new fridge and new freezer. We had the money so no biggie there.

Yesterday I bought clothes. A lot of clothes. And normally I wait for big mark downs, but I bought them anyway. The store is going out of business and although I supposedly got 20% off, I don't even know if that is true. But the reason I bought them is I struggle finding clothes that fit that aren't too young for me or too wild. At Christmas I picked out some clothes and DH bought them at this store -- they were on sale and they are conservative. I'm overweight and the last thing I want is something that is super wild or bright or shows more skin than I care to show. Lately, this is the only local store I have found clothes that fit that category. I don't go for huge wild patterns or neon colors. And I want stuff I can wash, not dry clean. I don't like buying stuff online because I want to try it on. So, I was trying to buy local, even if it was chain.

We used to watch "What Not to Wear" and every time they had an overweight gal on there, she would try to shop and wind up in tears. I felt her pain because that is often how I feel when clothes shopping.

So yesterday, I bought some slacks and some blouses. Mostly to fill in for the summer since so many of my summer outfits are worn.

I just hate clothes shopping. So, if I find something, I usually wear it until it is so disgustingly worn. I spent a lot of money. I normally feel really guilty over it, but not this time. I won't be buying clothes for a long time between what DH got me for Christmas and what I purchased yesterday. So, that is good.

As well as hating shopping, I also hate hemming. Being short means I hem just about every pair of pants. I was pontificating to my husband how unfair it is men can buy pants to basically match their inseam, but not so with women. It's funny -- I enjoy embroidery and cross stitch, but despise hemming. Go figure.

In other news, we are having vegetable soup I pulled from the freezer this morning and put in a Crockpot to heat. I really, really like our new freezer. It has a light and it is a little bigger so things are easier to see.

Last night I tried making shrimp and grits. I love this when we in Savannah and Charleston and I was thinking, this is silly. I can make this. And I did. I will admit the shrimp wasn't as good as the shrimp I had out there, but I think it was freshly caught shrimp and mine wasn't. But overall, it was pretty good. And I will try it again.

Back to normalcy around here and no more shopping for awhile!


Wednesday, Weather, and What Not

April 18th, 2018 at 07:49 pm

Here it is Wednesday. It's gloomy. The thermometer says 57, but it is a chilly 57 with the wind. Winter just doesn't want to give way it seems. We had snow Sunday night/Monday morning. Yesterday it was at least sunny.

The past couple of weeks have kept me busy. We received our tax refund and decided to use it to replace our freezer that is in our garage and our refrigerator. They were to deliver them both a week ago last Sunday so we left church early to make sure we were home.

They called to say they would be there between 10:30 and noon. Guess 1 p.m. was close enough for them because that is when they arrived. The freezer was fine, but the fridge had a wavy side panel and was dented. I said I didn't want it. The delivery guy said they would probably give me some money off and I said I didn't buy a new fridge to have it dented and I refused it. I called the store and talked to the manager and explained why I felt the way I did and how I wanted to make sure the next one would be dent free. The earliest we could come to a delivery date was Friday. And then we weren't guaranteed anytime which makes DH froth since he hates having to stay home and wait. Add that to forecasted heavy rain.

Well, they delivered it by 11 and beat the rain. No dents, no wavy side, no scratches. So, I am very pleased. I really like the freezer as well. It is a little larger than our old one. They no longer handle the kind we had before in the size we had that is frost free. I have no desire to defrost a freezer. So, I feel that was a good use of our tax refund. Since last year was our first year of us both being retired, it was tough gauging what we needed to have taken out.

Other than that, I've been busy working around the house. Since we had to move furniture twice for the fridge, it meant cleaning under and behind stuff. I then cleaned out the shelves in the Hoosier cabinet (far easier to move if it doesn't have stuff in it. I went through the spices and herbs I have in there and got rid of some stuff that was way beyond its freshness date. For years I had used a lazy Susan two tiered shelf in there and I thought since I'm going to take everything out, I wondered if I needed it anymore. I had a hard time finding stuff on it. Well, I don't need it. I washed it and it went in the pile for the church rummage sale along with a couple of other items.

A couple of months ago I hit the jackpot on some material at a thrift store. I found 8 yards for $5. My goal was to make some table runners for the dining room table, the island, and the shelf of the Hoosier cabinet. I made those as well as 4 napkins. I think there is enough to recover a pillow. I have a pillow we have for years and I no longer like the covering on it. It was bought to match a couch we no longer own (and haven't owned for years). So, I'm going to remove the cover, wash the pillow, and then use some extra filling to plump it up before I make the pillow covering. I think little changes like this make other things look different. I finished the pillowcases I worked on and they are now on my pillows on my bed. I've two photos, one of the pillowcases after I ironed them and one of the table runners on our island.










Our knitting group met last Thursday at church. Our new total is 320 hats. We are a third of the way to our goal of 1000! I have since completed 3 more hats. I like to make at least 5 hats every weeks. Last time I made 7 full size hats and 5 baby hats to donate to a local nonprofit that works with mothers and babies. I don't count the baby hats as far as the total.

For the past few years I have corresponded with a friend of my mom's. She is close to 90 and her health continues to fail. I know mail is a day brightener. So, I dug around the garage to find a small box and sent her an Amish fictional book, a devotional book, 5 dish cloths (I use the leftover yarn from the hats for these) a bar of natural soap, and some flavored tea bags. I received a note today exclaiming how much she appreciated everything. Her daughters come in and clean her house for her so I suggested she share the dish cloths with them. She said she really enjoyed finding everything in the box. I am going to have to do this more often if it brings such joy to her. I guess we should all remember how a simple card or letter can brighten the day of a shut in.

Sorry this entry is all over the place. Just a catch up, I guess.

Playing the Game....Grocery Game that is

April 5th, 2018 at 04:28 pm

Each Wednesday and Thursday is what I call the Grocery Game. The Aldi ad comes out on Wednesday and then on Thursday the Kroger ad comes out. I make my lists so we can grocery shop. Kroger sent an email saying I could download a coupon to my loyalty card to save 5% on my total bill this week. You bet I did that! It's not a whole lot, but 5% is 5% off.

We get the local Sunday paper and the coupons are pathetic. Every so often there are a few coupons so I did get a couple of them for my grocery shop today. I also did the digital coupons. I know that today's two grocery bills will be substantial compared to what we have bought recently (we were using stuff up from freezer and pantry), but I'm looking at it a way to restock my shelves. We eat at home quite a bit and I figure in the long run it saves me money.

A little over a month ago I started using Ibotta. I finally got to the $20 savings. The problem is so much of the stuff they offer rebates back on is stuff we don't buy. We buy an awful lot of fresh fruits and vegetables. For awhile they were offering 25 cents on bananas, but that was short lived. There's another app called Saving Star that I looked into, but have yet to find anything that we buy that is eligible.

Kroger often has a free Friday download and you can get a free item from it. A lot of it we don't want, but if it is nonperishable, I get it anyway and donate it to the basket we have at church to donate to the food pantry. A couple of weeks ago it was the new Hershey bar with chocolate and peanut butter. I'm sure it is good, but I figure someone might like as a treat at the food pantry. Another week is was a Larabar.

In other happenings a few weeks ago we were perusing one of our favorite thrift stores and I saw a package of pillow cases you embroider upon. They were still in the package except there was a opening in the package where the person had bought the embroidery floss. The package was 69 cents. I walked by it at first thinking I didn't need to buy another project since I had other projects to do. But I went back and figured for 69 cents, I couldn't get hurt too badly.

I set a goal of knitting 5 hats every two weeks for my knitting group at church. Then, I feel I can work on other stuff. I use the leftover yarn from the hats that there isn't enough to make another hat from to crochet dish cloths which I either give to others or I donated a huge stack for our church's rummage sale. So, I decided since I had my five hats done and I have crocheted dish cloths with the leftover yarn, I could start on the pillowcases. It took me over a week to finish both of them since I didn't work on them 24/7, but I completed them yesterday. They are washed and I need to iron them. I still have a bunch of embroidery floss left over so I can use it for something else at some point, but I think I got a good deal on these pillowcases for 69 cents.

One of my mom's friends is a shut in and she enjoys getting mail. Her daughters come in and help her so I'm going to mail her some of the dish cloths for them to share. I also am sending her some tea bags with different flavors. I figure a nice package should brighten her day.

The big news around here is snow is predicted for tomorrow and Sunday. Measurable snow. We are sick of winter and especially any chance of snow. We received some Sunday. Fortunately not a lot and it melted by Monday afternoon.

Spring in the Arctic

April 1st, 2018 at 10:45 pm

No, we don't live in the Arctic, but it sure feels like it. I'm sitting here in Central Illinois watching it snow. Some April Fool's joke! Our temps have been below normal and to be honest, we are all ready for some real spring weather.

DH is chomping at the bit to start his garden. It's too cold to plant the cooler stuff like lettuce and onions.

We were supposed to join friends at their home for Easter dinner, but illness changed those plans. Fortunately I have food here. I bought turkey breasts at Aldi between Thanksgiving and Christmas and we had one of those with mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, biscuits, and a blueberry crisp. Fortunately I didn't have to go the store to get any of these items. I detest shopping during holiday grocery shoppers are out. Funny thing, this was the menu I had planned before we were invited out.

It's spring break for the school district I used to work for. I'm finding it very interesting that two couples I know who have pleaded poverty are both vacationing during spring break many hundreds of miles away and no, they don't have relatives they are staying with. So, they either aren't as broke as they let on or they are just adding to their debt.

We have a lovely church service for Easter with some fabulous music. Now, we get to revisit winter with a wet, sloppy snow. As long as it isn't too deep, I guess I won't be to upset.

Happy Easter everyone! Hope you had a lovely day.