Sunday

 At Publix, we meet all sorts of people who work there. Sometimes, when I ask the office for an electric cart, the person comes out, parks the cart, turns away from me and walks away. Other guys ask if the location is okay, do I need help, all sorts of niceties. 

One guy is so friendly all the time, helpful, asking if there is anything else. Well, I heard him saying something loudly as he walked out of the store with me. He went to car the car and was trying to get Tommy's attention. When I got to the car, I asked what happened. He said three guys were standing in front of the car, facing it along with some women, all looking at Tommy. As it turned out, Tommy was asleep and had no idea what happened. One of the men took out his phone and took a picture of Tommy sleeping. 

The guy told me that he did not know what the guys were going to do. So, he was looking out for Tommy's safety. The guy runs to help people up who fall. He is a class act. I will make sure management knows this. 

Today, I awoke in a fog and was tired all day long. However, I did go back to Publix to get milk for Tommy, bread, things I did not buy even though it was on the list. We took a tiny drive around the neighborhood again. It is still there...lol.

I received a new set of three deer from Amazon for free by using my points. I ordered and we received a set of two pee bottles for Tommy. Taking a diuretic means he has to go now and often. He said I could tell this. He had to use a Planters plastic bottle the other day in the car when we were parked. Plus, I got him a 7" tv so he can watch games when he waits in the car. If he likes it, it will be his birthday present Dec 9. He has a habit of throwing things I give him as a gift into the corner. I let him pick out an Auburn shirt at the Auburn store, and he refuses to wear it!

For dinner, I had three eggs, two sausage patties, and milk. Salad and fruits were separate. Plus, I made the same to eat on the ride to doctor.

Monday morning, I have to be in dr office at 9 am. I am dying already. The next appointment is in late January. 

Tomorrow, I will wear a summer outfit that works all year--sleeveless black blouse, black and white striped pants. Since I may need something warmer early, I add a red sweater. This is the South. One day this week it will be near 80, so things have to be flexible to wear all year. Of course, I will wear sandals.

Maybe I can get a few hours' sleep. 

 

This and That

 Wednesday night, after dinner, we cooked the pork loin, bag of Brussels sprouts, bag of cauliflower, bag of broccoli. I could not get all the vegetables out of the pan because of my back, so Tommy did that. I cooked kale. The frozen strawberries were whole, so he chopped them because of the standing. 

I was going to put them in pint jars, but lost my mojo. So, he put them back into the refrigerator. I always warn him to put any frozen item in a plastic bag to thaw or put the bag in a bowl or on a baking sheet. We do have tiny ones. Well, I showed him why. He always objects, saying it is a plastic bag anyway. There was strawberry juice all in the plastic bag. 

I took all the dishes from their boxes and made a few discoveries. None of the dinner plates were the monarch butterfly plate. They were all Flutter/bird plates. So, it appears that I have 8 plates to sell. And, it's okay. I can get more from them than the cost of both boxes of Butterfly Meadow. Quite frankly, these were my least favorite pattern. 

While sitting in the car on Wednesday, I made two phone calls on my list. I also marked off a few things that we no longer need to do. Of course, I added more phone calls and a few more items to do. Does it ever end? 

A couple of days ago when I decided Tommy could brown the flour for gravy, I told him. He said, "I do an awful lot of stuff around here already!" He sounded a bit peeved but did not say NO. Today, I reminded him of the statement. I told him that is what women go through their whole lives. He said, "Yes, but when I retired, I did not want to do stuff."  "Oh, you wanted to just stagnate?" "Yes, I want to stagnate." So, he knows he will make gravy for me. Actually, he is just browning the flour. The rest I will do. 

I was going to make a pumpkin without a crust and in a casserole. He objected, saying he wants a crust. So, I will make one with a crust and the other will not have a crust. I will start talking about green bean casserole so he will be happy when he browns flour. 

There is a new time-saver in place. I like potatoes with skin and he prefers them skinless. Now, I have him peel half of the potatoes. He is happy to have his chore lightened...lol. Then, I remove the eyes and slice the potatoes in half. 

While I was sitting in the car in front of Macy's, a woman came walking by--blue dress, hot pink purse, pearl necklace, updo, AND black, fuzzy house slippers. She is my hero. Now, I want black fuzzy slippers to wear out. And, I am not kidding or mocking her. Of course, I will need to get pearls and an updo to pull off the black, fuzzy, house slippers in an upscale store like Macy's. I think it has been twenty years since I was in there. 

A man from California wanted me to wear a certain perfume because he loved it. Now, we had never met and never would. He sent me the cologne without even mentioning it to me. So, I took it to Macy's to get something else. No problem for them. A guy I dated briefly and tragically took me, and his teen daughter came along. 

I got a pair of pretty earrings and had about $2.35 left over and on a gift card. I stopped for one of the over-priced boxes of candy that were $5 for 4 pieces of candy, essentially four bites. His daughter was appalled that anyone would spend that much money for so little candy. She kept talking about it even though I kept telling her I was not coming back to Macy's to spend a few dollars on something. I don't think she ever got it. Twenty years before, I did shop there and judiciously and on clearance. 

Speaking of candy, all the stores have Halloween candy on display. I had no Halloween candy last year and planned on eating none this year. One day, when Tommy shopped, he came in, put the groceries in the refrigerator and came back in the living room with one bag. He pulled out a small bag of Brach's candy corn and put it down by me. He said he remembered how much I like it. This was the first of September. I put it down and he sat down with a huge bag of chips. He said he remembered how much I said I like candy corn. 

Four or five days later, he asked me if I finished the candy corn. "No." "Can I have some of it?" I tossed it to him and he was surprised I had not opened it. A few days later, I asked him where it was. He ATE IT ALL. It was certainly okay with me. But, he has never done anything like that before. Someone put a spell on me so I don't buy candy corn! Please!

Onto Thursday

During the five hours, maybe four, that I slept, I slept fitfully. It was hard to go to sleep since I got up twice an hour to go to the bathroom. It had nothing to do with what I drank. My stomach hurt from lack of pill taken for my stomach. My feet were cold from a breeze. Don't ask me where was that breeze. I have no idea. 

I think I woke about 1 pm and soon discovered Belk's had a sale on something I want and had them in store or online, pickup or delivery. I decided I was going to get them in person. We left soon. 

Tommy went into Belk's with details from internet, a check from Belk's sent to me for cc perks, a store gift card, and my cc for Belk's. He came back with 8 gifts, cleaning out this category, and a diamond bracelet worth $225 for $49.32. I am happy with 9 gifts for some gift-giving occasion. It is done and cheaply done. Of course, the diamonds are just diamond dust--1/10th carat. So, nine gifts for $93.32. 

I was utterly drained before we left. My gastrointestinal tract was so unhappy and in pain. I wanted to throw up, too. But, I managed. My chest was throbbing, face tingling. It was a horrible feeling, and the vibration of the car did not help. 

Chicken Salad Chick was next. I could eat it or bring it home, whatever my body dictated. We sat in the car and ate the soup, saving the salad for home. I ordered potato soup and Classic Carol scoop of chicken salad. Tommy ordered Chicken and Dumplings ad chicken salad with lots of pineapple in it. So, that was one of the meals I wanted for my birthday. 

My only goal tonight is to make slaw and eat that to hike my vegetable intake. Tuna salad at lunch was chock full of celery. Tommy washed the Styrofoam takeout plates and is watering the flowers. The weather was hot today. I need to find some black, fuzzy house slippers for later to wear going out. 

My goal for later is to find something to watch on tv or take a nap. Hopefully, I can sleep better tonight. Plus, my innards need to settle down! 

My plan is usually to make a gift. For a few years that plan has changed. I buy deep discount or clearance and still buy nice gifts. These are for Christmas or during the year. I did have a big gift drawer, so maybe I will stock up once again. 

My best friend's favorite gift was food--deviled eggs, chocolate pound cake, all sorts of things he could not make. I always gave him a huge bag of food, frozen food, jellies. He was a happy man for days. I even decorated a tiny Christmas tree for him.

A three-hour nap left me feeling more rested.

Are you buying things on sale for Christmas yet? Have you finished your shopping? Or, are you smart and ambitious and able to make gifts still? Do you make food for gifts? 

Monday Christmas Talk, Sales & Next Year

 Christmas Day went well! I knew it would. However, due to sleep issues and dogs barking for a long time well before 6 am and right outside my window, I did not go to sleep until 8 am. So, it was about 2 pm or later when I got up, finally. 

I ate a hearty and late meal. Can brunch come after breakfast and lunch? Chicken sandwich on keto bread with MW, lettuce and cheese, chocolates and halo. 

I gave Tommy a tiny flashlight that he seemed to really like and a headlamp and one for me...lol. I still cannot find the other flashlight I want for him. It will sit up and point to the side, so he can see when he puts it down. I had already gotten the first light for me, too, tiny and strong light. 

He gave me a $50 Belk gift card, just what I wanted and a bag of Lindt Lindor Dark Truffles. He knows I love these. 

Christmas Day, we watched The Santa Clause, Santa Clause 2, and Santa Clause 3. I really loved these and had not seen either of them, before. The little boy in the original looked just like my son--his hair facial features, and the fact he had a pretty cry. My son was a pretty crier. Even in the second one, Charlie still looked like my son in that his hair was coarse, shiny, and thick, full lips, heavy brows. It was amazing. All three movies were great! Now, both the Home Alone movies are coming on.  But, since we have seen those, we don't worry about missing a word. We say the lines with the characters often! 

Dinner is almost done. The only thing not done is the gravy, but the hard-boiled eggs are ready for the gravy which will be tomorrow with the leftovers. Dinner: turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potato. Tomorrow, I will make the green bean casserole that I forgot and gravy for the rest of the leftovers.

When I made the cranberry sauce, I used Ocean Spray cranberries, 1c water, and 1/2 cup of sugar. The recipe called for a whole cup, but half a cup was fine. Next time, I might use less than the bag said. 

Christmas Eve, Lynda woke to water in her kitchen, coming from the direction of the refrigerator. After some mopping and many calls to plumbers, she finally found a plumber who insisted on coming out right then, late afternoon, and seeing what was happening. 

He decided he would have to come back Monday, but then took a look at the refrigerator. It was a broken line to the icemaker. She will do without that. But, the problem is solved except for the soaked carpet! It is still wet on Christmas Day, but she used the suction function of the carpet cleaner and got some water from the rug. She has a space heater in there to help dry the carpet. She had to spend $200 on Christmas Eve. 

The wreath never made it to the door because somehow the big red bell fell off and Tommy did not see where it fell when he brought it in. So, it is hanging on the inside of the front door.  Just now, I see the Home Alone house has a wreath on the inside of the door as well as outside. So, maybe that is a thing?  We never found the ornaments for the tree, so it still has only lights. However, that is not a problem. There is lots of light and decoration in the living room. 

Sunday night, once again I could not sleep. I had told Tommy to wake me at 11 am to go out. I normally would have wanted to get out shopping earlier on Christmas day after sales, but we did not want to leave the house before the temperature was at least 32F or above. 

Consequently, the stores were packed and all I might have found was gone. I wanted a few things specifically, like curling ribbon. I did make a few purchases, nothing related to Christmas. A box of 12 wrapped Cella chocolate covered cherries was $1.64--got two boxes. 

Silly me had Tommy return something. I forgot that there would be a long line. But, he said there were only 10 people ahead of him. That was only because it was late in the afternoon. When I went to see what took so long, there were about 15 people behind him. 

Hopefully, I will be able to sleep better tonight. Tomorrow should be warmer, Tommy can take the light out of the washing machine and wash my clothing! I finally have two loads ready. One  "load"is my two red blouses. 

We may have broken out of something, some attitude. I want to invite Tommy's cousin here for lunch and Tommy said, "Yes." So, every day we are improving on the condition of the living room and keeping it uncluttered. There was still a bit of clutter when Lynda came over. His cousin takes us to Bright Star where he loves to eat, but I am not going out to dinner until some of my health problems are resolved. 

I have been thinking about next year. I am not trying to rush 2022 out the door. Mostly, my plans revolve around health. But, I have two larger items I want to buy, so I need a way to fund those. I am working it all out in my head. I will discuss next year later this week.

Dinner: turkey breast, plain baked sweet potato, green bean casserole, halo. Later, I will eat half an apple. 

What did you get at the post-Christmas sales today? Did you look for something and fail to find it? 

Returns and Recycling

 Monday night, I was so tired  that I went to bed at midnight. I slept well, waking at least five times to go to the bathroom, but went sound asleep after coming back to bed each time. I awoke about 8:30 am feeling like I had been beat up. However, we were out the door for chores by 10 or so.  That means I did get my required 7.5 hours of sleep. 

A call from my gastroenterologist was comforting. My liver enzymes are right. I got no report about spleen, pancreas, or gall bladder even though they were studied. I suppose that is good news. The liver is not in the best shape but no worse than five years ago. I have all the symptoms of gall bladder disease. Over my objections, I have had all sorts of tests, and nothing shows up. I do not encourage these tests. 

We had one thing to do in the morning and one thing in the afternoon. I took back a jacket of sweatsuit fabric and got the right size.  When I bought it, a woman was standing in front of the rack. Instead of asking her to move as she had offered, I asked her to hand me a certain size. She did and I left. Well, I put it on at home and it was tight. She had handed me a jacket two sizes too small.  Today, I could not find my size and just one a size larger. It may or may not work. I bought smaller stemless wine glasses.

We took the recycling to Publix--paper, plastic bags, plastic bottles. We will give soup/tuna cans to someone else to recycle and recycle coke type cans ourselves. I returned the larger wine glasses. 

I mailed a few cards yesterday and have one to mail right now. I no longer hold cards until I get them all ready for the mail, now trying to beat the rush of cards and packages as I can at least for a few of them. It is after 5 pm and dark, yet we have to get my med that I need for my heart health. So, I suppose we will go out again. 

Today has been chilly, dry and very dreary! But, it has not dampened my spirit. IT'S CHRISTMAS! I am not in a buying frenzy, cleaning frenzy, or cooking frenzy, just have heightened feelings right now. 

Today, I bought low carb bread that might help with weight loss or at least weight gain. A comment from another blogger made me think twice--she loves a sandwich for lunch. I do too. I don't need so many carbs since I have diabetes. 

Okay, I took a bite of the keto bread. It is the best I have tasted. I tasted two other keto breads in the past. Miracle Whip will jazz it up. This is from Sprouts--Live Carb Smart, only 1 net carb per slice. Is that good? 

We drove the few blocks in the neighborhood to find a pink bag of ads and coupons. See, we did little today. We did offer a ride to a woman on a bike with too many, too heavy boxes and bags. A woman who knows her stopped and with a car more suited to her load and she went with her. We did try. 

Tommy's flashlight and headlamp are on the way. Lynda's Kiss has fairy lights and Hershey's kisses in it and needs to be wrapped. My grandchildren will get Amazon e-gift cards. Things are coming along. A cash donation to one very worth person needs to be delivered. I am set! 

Tonight's dinner--chicken, green beans, slaw, leftover sweet potatoes. I will bake the whole green beans in the tasty juice from the pork loin. The sweet potatoes had cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg in them, but NO sugar. Green beans were not cooked, so he ate chicken, sweet potatoes, and slaw. 

We have everything we need for any possibility, anything I might fancy to cook, bake. There may even be enough milk until after Christmas. The only thing I might hurry out to get is a loss leader that might disappear like the cheap turkey breasts did.

The Tabernacle Choir is wonderful tonight!

Tomorrow should be torrential rains, maybe flooding, and high winds. We will stay in! We do need to put a plastic over the sewing machine, but nothing else right now.

Are plans at your house better formulated? Is everything coming together for you? Do you have snow or rain?

Laptop Charger, Gifts, Toaster

 Sunday, I got a new cord for recharging/using my laptop. It was an ordeal and cost $93. I managed to wrap one present, the only one I have to wrap.

Russell's and Whitman's chocolates are $9.99 each for a small box. I only buy them when they are bogo, which they were this week, so $5/box. I had coupons for $1 off one box. That made each of them $4. That is a good price for a gift. Then, I wrapped one for a friend and put a hummingbird on top. I used the $0.50 blue foil wrapping paper and the bird was the same deep blue. So, I combined several bargains for one beautiful gift. 

I bought six of the boxes of chocolates, and we ate the Whitman's sugar free box. I now have 4 more gifts left. I may or may not put an ornament on top. It depends. 

Did I say?--I put my red hummingbird on top of the tree in place of a star or angel. Tommy really liked it and suggested how to make it look prettier. 

After an exhausting day looking for and driving to look for the charger/power card, I came home, cooked spaghetti, opened a jar of sauce and took meatballs from the freezer. It was delicious. I forgot to steam the broccoli!

I bought a toaster, cheap one, nothing fancy. When I came here, I think I had a piece of toast. Then, I realized the extent of the roaches. About a year later, after telling him roaches were probably dead in the crumb tray, I picked up the toaster by the top with two fingers and asked him what he wanted me to do with it. He said, "Drop it in the trash." I did. 

We now also have a plastic box that seals. After toast, the toaster goes into the box and is sealed with locking handles. The top has gaskets, seals, and locks. I rarely eat toast, but occasionally I do want a piece! I had once piece today for a scrambled egg sandwich. 

Sunday was bright, clear, and only a small breeze and in the 50sF. It was a good day, a very good day. 

Monday, Tommy cancelled an appoint for me since I had a fever the night before. My head and ears are suffering since I ran out of one of my meds. Sometimes, missing one day makes me ill. 

We went to get water at The Pig, and I got other things. I also needed batteries so bought them at Publix since I needed bananas, too. As is my wont, I asked Tommy what we needed or wanted. "Maybe ice cream." I laughed loudly. And, ice cream came home with us. 

I love Cella chocolate covered cherries. Even better is dark chocolate covered cherries. I found those and will wrap them in anything, maybe newspaper, and put them in a bedroom, not mine, where they are almost inaccessible to me. The wrapping cannot be pretty enough to put in here or I will decide to eat the candy. 

Okay, time to cook dinner--chicken breast for me and thigh for Tommy, steamed broccoli, purple hull peas. 

Do you eat the goodies too soon? Do you have to hide them from anyone? 

New Utensil, Missing, Gifts, Kidnapped by a Nap

Browning ground meat was always time consuming since I had to stand at the stove and chop and break up the chunk of ground meat with an egg turner/spatula. Now, it is more difficult. I was looking through a Rada catalogue and found the perfect tool. This is a meat chopper. I used it for the first time for the ground pork on Monday.

I used it with the head straight onto the meat, not at an angle as in the picture above. I love this utensil. I showed Tommy how to use it and he chopped most of the ground pork. This is not for pounding, just cutting and separating the ground meat. It is certainly a time-saver. I have seen a similar tool from some other company. Have you ever used one of these? 

Monday afternoon, we washed and dried most of the dirty dishes while the ground pork cooked and browned some. With a fever, dishwashing was so difficult! So, I started the taco casserole in the crock pot which will be more like taco soup. One by one, Tommy opened cans and dumped the contents  into the crock pot. We tracked down one of my five-pound bags of Uncle Ben's par-boiled brown rice. Finally, I needed one last ingredient. But I could not find it. Remember, it is dark as night in kitchen and living room!

Tommy looked for canned, diced tomatoes, too. None! None were in the stash in the bedroom. On the new shelves I finally found a 29 oz. jar of Hunt's tomato sauce! That would do. Diced tomatoes are better, but this is fine. 

If I had not found this can of tomato sauce, I would have had to run to The Pig to get it. I did contemplate putting a jar of spaghetti sauce in the taco salad. I doubt it would have mattered once I put in the taco seasoning. What do you think? Would a jar of spaghetti work for this spicy dish?

I questioned why I had no tomato sauce or bits, well, beyond one can. I know why. I had plans for frozen or canned tomatoes so did not stock up. I will solve this hole in food stocks by the end of the week! 

Tuesday morning

I slept better than I have in a week and awoke with temp of 98F. Remember, this is still fever area for me. Yesterday, I decided we would stay home instead of going for my mail. 

Gifts

For Tommy, I gave him four books, one on birds, a book on insects, a book on wildflowers, and a Field Guide to Tree of North America. He spent hours reading. For his birthday, I gave him a book about birds and the accompanying cd. 

One day, we had several stops to make. We did all of them with time to spare and had to wait for an hour for the next stop. Since it is too far to go home, we just sat in the shade and listened to the bird cd. Finally, I leaned my seat back and was kidnapped by a nap. This was such a pleasant experience since I was just going to rest my back.

Speaking of resting, I need to do that right now.

Santa--wrapped gifts or unwrapped?

*My mother/Santa always put our gifts under the tree without any evidence they were a commercial product, no boxes, no labels, nothing. They came straight from Santa's workshop. I did the same for my children. 

I had friends who insisted Santa's gifts should be wrapped as gifts with paper and ribbons. 

The whole scene with tree and gifts looked so much more festive without gift wrap. 

How Santa put the gifts under the tree at your house?

*My daughter once asked me when she was a teen where we hid the Santa gifts. When they were preschool, they never thought to look or I could put them in the top of a closet. When they were about ten, they could climb on a chair and look. Around Christmastime, they were always willing to stay home while I drove a few blocks to get bread or that one or two items I needed. Then, they looked everywhere.

Later, I realized they might go on a Santa search. Before I actually knew for sure they tried to find gifts, I decided they might look. So, one Christmas, I put everything in the trunk of the car. When the children complained they could barely sit in the back seat with a dozen groceries bags under their feet and in their laps, I told them Daddy had left lawn chairs in the trunk. 

This went on for several weeks. Finally, my son told me to give him the keys and he would put the lawn chairs in the basement himself. They also complained mightily to him and he just took it...lol. 

I don't think they ever found gifts due to my leaving them around or by their searches. 

My younger daughter, more than the older son and daughter, had what we called "a guilty look." We could read her face. One Christmas morning, I had my son go and get her so we could all go in to the lit tree at one time. As he brought her back, he told me she was smiling as her picked her up from her bed, probably the baby bed. She had seen and played with her toys. 

Did any of your children or siblings get up and play with or look at their toys before everyone else was up?

Christmas Card Problems and Fantastical Gift Wrapping

 Today, it is dreary and coolish, 41F. Plus, it is cloudy and there is a slight breeze after a rainy night. Alltogether, a good day for a nap which I won't get. 

I managed to finish half my Christmas cards, not without pain. I bought gel pens, thinking I also was getting a green. No. In the package was red, gold, silver, and white. What is more, the red is rather pale on envelopes. On the card, the red pen is a bright red. So, I am hoping machines can read the pale red on the envelopes. 

Once I found the envelopes on Saturday, I put them back in the box and put it away until Sunday. Something happened. All the envelopes were wrinkled like they had gotten damp. 

Using the gel pens was slow-going since they smudged easily. I had to let envelopes and cards opened wide lie around to dry the ink. So, the smudgy ones were the first ones addressed. 

Sure, these are first-world problems, annoying but not life affecting happenings!  Have you finished your Christmas cards yet?

Many years ago, at the same time I was a vendor at craft shows, I also bought wholesale and sold retail picture frames. Since I always helped my best friend buy gifts for his family, I offered this deal to him--only pay wholesale + tax. He did not like the idea since I would be "making money off him."  This idea would be so much easier than helping him buy. 

He finally got it that I made no money from this sale. I ordered dozens of frames and we chose his from the order that came in a week later. He thought maybe buying frames for everyone was not creative and showed no thought. Well, this floozy who helped him buy one year thought a platter with a turkey on it was perfect for his wealthy cousin. I was appalled at the things she picked out. Oh well. 

On to the gift wrapping.

All the picture frames were white and from different manufacturers. I chose white boxes and red tissue paper to go inside around the frames. Then, I wrapped the white boxes in red glossy paper. 

The "bow" was the stunner. 

I used all white: 3 kinds of curling ribbon, lace in two widths, lace with wire in the edges, strings of pearls, feathers, charms. A glue gun brought it all together. The lace with wire in the edges was spiraled around a pencil for a fanciful shape. Each of these were fashioned on a piece of white board from a shirt box and then glued onto the package. 

When held up, the curling ribbon extended from my chest to the floor. Each completed topper was over six inches in diameter. John reported how much everyone (15 people) loved them. After gifts were opened and paper thrown out, various family members were trying to get others to trade them their white fantasy topped. I called them toppers because they were more than a bow. 

Through the year various family members I happened to meet out and about mentioned the wrapping. The funny part was that John thought giving frames two years in a row was too much, that everyone would not have anything to put into another frame. I questioned a few family members who confirmed my thought that two frames was NOT too many.  They loved the second round, too. 

I love to wrap gifts! 

Do you like or love to wrap gifts, no matter whose gifts they are? Have you pulled off spectacular gift wrap?