Cold and Windy Weekend Ramblings Part II

Our lazy winter weekend continued today.  I woke up to blowing snow with winds gusting to over 50 mph.  The roads were not plowed and there was a "No Travel Advisory" out due to ground blizzard conditions.  Matt ventured out and got stuck twice trying to get to the end of the road.  Good day to stay home as far as I'm concerned.  Unfortunately the dogs are starting to get cabin fever.

Lazy Day Menu 2:
Breakfast: Cheerios (Matt didn't want anything so I'm trying to use them before they go stale)
Lunch: Taco salad
Supper:  Homemade pizza.

Supper was supposed to have been Pho soup but I realized while I was explaining what it was to Matt's sister this afternoon that I'd forgotten to get the bok choy for it.  As I wasn't going out in this miserable weather to try to find some I had to come up with an alternative plan.  Matt offered to brave the roads for a pizza which was when I explained I had all the makings for one here since he prefers homemade anyway.  It's a great reason to have extra food in the pantry.  Continuation of cleaning and my house smells wonderfully of Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Magic Soap.  Final loads of laundry were done.

Today I started reading Money Secrets of the Amish - Finding True Abundance in Simplicity, Sharing, and Saving by Lorilee Craker.  I had bought another book to read for today but this came up as a suggestion and after reading about it I decided to buy it and read it today.  Lorilee is a modern Mennonite.  A modern Mennonite is one that you wouldn't know is Mennonite from their clothes or anything else.  The women don't wear coverings and wear pants and they can drive cars.  I'm only about 40% of the way through the book.  Her concept is to figure out how the Amish can live abundantly even in rough financial times and still thrive and figure out how to use those concepts in our modern lives.  She was able to speak with different Amish people; an Amish Bishop, a family that saved $400,000 over 20 years to buy a farm of their own while renting a farm and raising 14 children, and a banker that serves mostly Amish to name a few.  One of the conclusions is that you have to have a goal such as a farm to work towards.  It's got me rethinking ways I can tighten my belt so we can get a camper and make a trip to Mount Rushmore this summer.  This will be another book I'll reread to catch things I missed during the first reading.  Some of the usual things like shopping thrift stores and such are included but she's coming from nearly a shopaholic starting point.  I'm curious to see how the rest of the book is.

Cold and Windy Weekend Ramblings

Friday night I went to bed singing "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas".  When I let the dogs out before heading for bed it had started snowing and the song popped into my head.  Needless to say I don't think Matt was too impressed when I walked into the bedroom singing it.  With forecasts of plunging temps, blizzard conditions, and just plain nasty weather I decided I wasn't leaving the house this weekend unless it was an emergency and fortunately none occurred.

After watching the news Thursday night I decided to go grocery shopping Friday after work so it would be done.  When I got home Friday I was amazed to find a box from Amazon with my soap bars in it I'd ordered. They said it would be here Friday but rarely does anything arrive when they tell me it will especially in this type of weather.  My first project for Saturday was laundry soap making.

Matt and I both sort of agreed it was a kick back and read type of day so that's what we did along with watching a Harry Potter marathon.  Sometimes you need to take a vacation even at home for mental health.  I did manage to get some cleaning and vacuuming done along with several loads of laundry and I baked cookies in between chapters.   

Lazy Day Menu for Saturday:
Breakfast:  Donuts - Matt had a craving for some so he did a store trip to get some
Lunch: Turkey and Bacon with Provolone on ciabatta bread and chips and dip
Supper:  Chicken stir-fry and rice

These cookies I found on Pinterest and they are wonderful.  I used 1 cup M&M's and 1 cup mini chocolate chips.

My reading choices this weekend have been Amish based.  I've been reading 50 Shades of Gray and I think I needed a mental cleansing.  I grew up near the large Bremen / Nappanee Amish community and they've always fascinated me.  Amish Acres was one of my favorite places to visit.  There use to be several Amish run family style restaurants that were my absolute favorite place to eat but they've unfortunately closed.  I've always said I was born in the wrong era.  I get angry with all the Amish bashing shows on of late.  Just like any religious community it has it's good and bad eggs in it.  From my experience with the Amish they are a good group of people. 

Today I read Almost Amish by Nancy Sleeth.  Her and her husband have a ministry called Blessed Earth  and speak about living more simply.  During one of their discussions someone asked "What, are you Amish?" which sparked thought for her and ultimately the book.  It's all about living more simply and she uses the examples of the Amish to show it can be done.  This is a Christian book so she also uses lots of biblical references to go along with the Amish examples.  It's an interesting book.  I doubt they would have been able to have done all they did if her husband hadn't been a doctor making a nice income before he decided to leave medicine to focus on their simple living ministry.  Granted they were wise with the money he made but they probably would not have been able to do many of the things they've done if they hadn't been able to build up that nest egg.  There are a lot of good ideas though and it's a good book to get ideas from. I will reread this again.

Weekend Ramblings

It was a beautiful weekend with temps in the 30's.  It feels absolutely balmy! The snow is melting and everything just looks dirty.  I prefer the look of pristine snow after a fresh snowfall.  I'd planned on taking the dogs out for a walk but Saturday morning I woke up with my plantar fasciitis starting to flare in my left foot and by Sunday it was full blown.  I was not happy to say the least at not being able to go out and enjoy the weather.

Our weekend started out a bit different then we anticipated.  We were kicked back watching TV after supper when the texts started.  After several texts and phone calls Matt ended up having to go help his buddy out.  The guy had tried to save a few bucks on his dish installation.  When he went to drill a hole he hit something (big blue flash) and then half his house was without electricity.  It was something of a drama trying to find somebody that had the gauge wire he needed for repairs and to find an electrician.  Good news is he has electricity again!  While Matt was out I decided to watch a chic flick movie and started watching the Downton Abbey season 1 while knitting on my sock.

Saturday was a sleep in day for a change.  Woke up about 5 and let the dogs out and fed everybody and went back to bed.  Unbelievably the crew let me sleep until 8!  Pretty boring stuff, basically just cleaning and laundry.  When I had kids around I swear I spent more time picking up their toys to be able to vacuum then I spent vacuuming.  Now I spend my time picking up dog bones and toys before I vacuum.  Am I the only one that has this problem?

 Matt spent the day cleaning out the drain in the spare bathroom shower, installing a new shower head, and putting a new toilet seat on.  As I said, boring stuff.

 This is what my mudroom pantry area looked like this morning (Sunday).  Pretty messy to say the least.  I will say I'm not the sole reason this area is so messy as there were several things that were put in this area that didn't belong there.  This was my project while Matt was out ice fishing.  Unfortunately no fish were brought home.

 This is the same area with all my wonderful beans added.  I put all my empty jars in the boxes underneath the shelving.  Bottom shelf is drinks; water, case of wine, and pop.  Second shelf up has my potatoes, onions, and acorn squash on it.  Third shelf up has my dill pickles and salsa I canned in the fall along with the chickpeas that I canned last weekend.  I may move the cans of applesauce I have left to this shelf too.  Fourth shelf up has my kidney beans, pinto bean mix, and Great Northern beans.  Top shelf has my pressure canner and one of my large pots for canning.

Before putting everything on the shelves I bought rolls of plastic Contact shelf liners and cut them to the length of the shelves.  Basically a roll did one shelf with a bit left over.  I decided on the plastic since it was 1) thin and 2) easy to clean.  Matt wanted to put plywood on the shelves I didn't want that thickness added and if any of the jars broke for any reason we'd probably have to pitch the plywood and get new since it would damage the wood.

 Matt gifted me with a second set of shelves.  For now it's stuck in length-wise by the freezer.  I'm not liking this arrangements so this will most likely be moved once I figure out how to move things around in that room.  I plan on canning some ham & bean soup and vegetable soup so the shelves on this unit will hold those and any other items I decide to can.

Apparently all the work I did wore Moo out.  Doesn't she look exhausted laying there!

New Year's Ramblings

Happy New Years!  I hope everybody has an awesome and blessed year.  2013 was a wild year for us to say the least.  Hopefully the blessings we've had follow us into the New Year and continue to grow and expand for us.  I have high hopes for this coming year!

After being sick for the past 2 weeks I'm finally starting to feel a smidge better.  It's just not fair to be sick for not just 1 but 2 holidays!  I've got a cough that is typically not too bad in the morning, but gets progressively worse through the day and just drains me.  I've started applying eucalyptus oil at night, which might be why it's lighter in the morning. 

We barely made it to see the New Year last night.  Matt fell asleep in his chair about 10 and woke up just before midnight so he could open the champagne.  After we drank our champagne it was off to bed for us. I know we're dull.  I did offer to take Matt out for supper if he wanted but he decided he'd rather stay in so I went ahead with the taco salad I had on the menu.  When I made the menu up for the week I'd forgotten it was New Year's. 

The pups actually let us sleep in until nearly 8 this morning! Considering it was -22 out, I can't blame them for not wanting to venture out.  When I opened the door to let them out it was lightly snowing. I was surprised as cold as it was.  We've gotten maybe an inch over the past 2 days.  Matt was happy because a lot of our snow had melted a couple days ago when we had a heatwave of 36' and he's been wanting to take the snowmobile out so any snow is a good news to him.

It just hasn't felt like Christmas this year for me so I decided to take down the tree today and put everything away.  It went pretty quickly too.  What a mess the needles made though.  Even though Matt made sure it was watered the needles dried out and they were as sharp as a sewing needle.  I don't think we'll go with this type of tree next year.  It was pretty though.  As you can see the cats pulled down the lights and branches on the bottom of the tree.  I'm glad we put the tree on the linoleum entry way in front of the door.  Trying to get all those needles up off the carpet would have been a nightmare.  I had a heaping dustpan full of needles. 

Otherwise our day was pretty laid back.  I finally got my new Garmin Nuvi that Matt got me for Christmas out and uploaded the updates to it so it's ready to go.  I also did a couple posts for the blog and caught up reading some blogs.  Matt offered to go out and pick something up for supper after I had several coughing attacks, which was sweet of him, but I wanted to have a nice meal for our first day of the New Year so I prepared meatloaf, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and gravy.  It was very filling and comforting.  I've read that you should start the New Year like you want it to progress and I feel cooking food ourselves instead of eating out so much, especially since we have such limited options, is very important.  We also were able to watch the Red Wings play today even if they did lose.  Our channels rarely have their games on so it's a special treat when we can watch them.  I washed the bedding and vacuumed all the rooms.  Boring, but it's what I needed.

I walked into the bedroom to put away some laundry and found Moo trying to take over one of the dog blankets for a catnap.  Lacey decided to join her and you can see her glaring at me like it's my fault. 

Wedding Ramblings

I've been sick for the past two weeks and just haven't had any energy to get anything posted so I apologize for this being so tardy.

I traveled to Houston, Texas, the beginning of December for my son's wedding.  What a wonderful time!  There just wasn't enough time to spend with the kids.  The rehearsal was Thursday night and the wedding Friday so it was pretty busy.  The food was delicious!  I'd hoped to explore Saturday but honestly couldn't get up the drive to go anywhere.  I berated myself over not having a very gypsy spirit but the desire just wasn't there. The weather was cold, about 38', so outdoor venues would have not been enjoyable and outdoor venues are typically the ones I like best.  I'd decided to watch some Netflix on my tablet and knit for the day until I was blessed to be invited to spend the day with the bride's family.  I told them I wanted them to adopt me!  Saturday night Jordon and I went to the Alamo Drafthouse to watch Catching Fire.  I wish we had theaters like that here.  There are tables in front of your seats and you can place orders throughout the movie for food and drinks.  Jordon and I ordered chili fries and a pizza and split them.  It was really nice being able to sip on a glass of wine while watching the movie.

Aren't they a beautiful couple! 

I found it amusing that the first thing my son Jordon said was that Texas disappointed him as we were driving from the airport to the hotel.  He wanted to know where all the ranches were and where the horses were.  I found it amusing.  Houston looked like every other metropolis area I've been to.  We really need to go back and explore outside of Houston.  Although, I understand Houston does have some wonderful museums downtown.  To be honest, I was feeling slightly claustrophobic with so many buildings and people.  It's amazing how fast I've acclimated to living in small town America.

My travels were anything but smooth.  We were expected bad weather  the night before I flow out so I left early that afternoon to stay ahead of the storm arriving.  Matt got me a hotel for the night so I wouldn't have to get up in the wee hours and travel in nasty weather.  Our favorite hotel in Fargo when we need to stay is the Best Western Kelly Inn.  It has the most beautiful decor with an outdoor nature theme.  Even the ceramic tiles in the hall have wild animals etched into them.  They have a fabulous kids' pool area and a wonderful hot tub for the adults.  One thing we both love is their happy hour.  You could eat and drink there for free and not have to go out for dinner if you wanted.  On my arrival I went and got a plate of cheeses and a glass of wine to hold me over until I decided where I wanted to have dinner.

  Distressed leather and tapestry chair that was super comfortable to sit in.

 Beautiful valance boxes over curtains.

Super comfortable bed with adorable throw on it.  There are 6 pillows on the bed!

Travel to the Fargo airport early Wednesday morning was a nightmare with ice slick roads but I was not going to let anything prevent me from getting on that plane!  Due to the weather our flight was delayed getting into Denver and I missed my next plane.  I sat and watched beautiful downy snowflakes fall so thickly I couldn't see the buildings across the runway and wondered if I would get out of Denver.  Fortunately I was able to get the next flight out with roughly a 3 hour delay.  I was very happy to land in Houston on the day I was supposed to.  I normally don't buy food on planes but got a bit hungry on the flight to Houston so I decided to try one of the Tapas Snack Boxes (about $8.50).  This was delicious and very filling for the price.  It had a tube of hummus and a bag of pita chips, a container of a cream type cheese and a package of crackers, a container of roasted red pepper bruschetta and a package of cream crackers along with a bag of marinated herbed olives and a bag of almonds.

On my return trip weather was once again a factor.  My flight was from Houston to Chicago then to Fargo.  It was a weird route to say the least.  The weather was so bad that they didn't have anybody to get our plane out of the hanger and after 3 hours finally switched us to another plane.  I landed in Fargo at 11 pm, 6 hours after I was supposed to.  While we were waiting for our luggage the security guard told us that we were lucky we got there and that our flight had been the last plane out of Chicago before they closed the airport down.  I was just too exhausted to drive home on nasty roads so I ended up staying in Fargo at the hotel again.  I could have really of used the hot tube after getting there but unfortunately the pool area was closed.  I was just happy to be back in North Dakota.