Weekend Ramblings

Another busy yet laid back weekend.  I'm enjoying these days off.  The house got cleaned, the laundry got done, and meals were prepared along with plenty of time to relax and take cat naps in the recline and read a good book while watching the Olympics.

Saturday Menu:
Breakfast:  Cheese Danish
Lunch: Italian Pasta Salad
Supper:  Chili Cheese Fries

Saturday Matt had to work.  He has to work Saturdays every 10th week which is really the whole weekend since he has the after hours phone to deal with.  I had great plans to knock out all the cleaning before 9 am (told you it was a great plan) then I'd run my errands to the post office and store before spending the rest of the day watching the Olympics and knitting or reading.  Unfortunately when I woke up I felt like I hadn't slept all night.  I did manage to get a load of laundry going before 9 am.  I think I left about 10:30 to run errands.  After getting back and eating some lunch I finally got a little bit of energy back and got the cleaning done before I had to pick up my Bountiful Basket. I even managed to get a phone call in to my oldest son in Texas.

My Bountiful Basket was wonderful again this week!  So much food, it's amazing.  My regular basket ($15) included:

7 tomatoes
1 head of Romaine lettuce
1 bunch of spinach
1 bunch (3) leeks
1 pound of carrots
4 avocados
2 acorn squash
1 pineapple
8 bananas
2 pounds of Granny Smith apples
10 tangerines (like Cuties or Halos)

I also ordered the Asian baskets which was huge as well.  I'm overflowing with greens that I need to figure out how to use up quickly.  I've come to the conclusion that I can't plan my menus until I get my basket so I can plan my meals around the baskets.  Otherwise, I'm going to end up with wasting good food.

Sunday Menu:
Breakfast: English Muffin bread (last Bountiful Basket delivery) with jam
Lunch: Leftover shepherd's pie for me and a turkey & ham ciabatta sandwich for Matt
Supper:  Chicken Stir-fry (using several items from this week's Asian basket delivery)

We watched a lot of the Olympics again today.  Matt is a HUGE fan of watching them.   He had to field several calls which  started at 8 am on the work phone.  Since I had a ton of bananas leftover from my last basket that I needed to use, I decided to make chocolate covered bananas and freeze them.  They're not pretty but they taste good.  This is the first time I've done this and my chocolate started seizing up on about half way through so I cut the pieces in half and used a knife to slather some chocolate on one and then put another piece on top to make a sandwich. 

Finally managed to get the sheets I bought at Goodwill ripped into 2" strips today. I wound the first sheet into a ball after I made the strips and it took way to long so I threw the rest of the strips into plastic grocery bags.  I'm thinking that some small laundry baskets might be a good way to organize them.  That way I can just grab a strip when I need one instead of having to unroll it first from a ball.  I'm still debating whether to buy a loom or wait and let Matt make me one; although, that will be a while before he can get into the shed to his tools and I'm not sure I want to wait that long.  I need a dark green and a dark blue sheet yet to do the rugs. 

My reading today was What the Amish Can Teach Us About the Simple Life by Georgia Varozza.  Information wise I would say this has been the best of the three books I've read recently on the Amish and simple living.  Some of the ideas she gives are in other sources but she has information that she obtained having grown up with Amish relatives.  I want to get her canning book next. 

Weekend Rambling

Another cold although less windy weekend.  I ended up having something of a long weekend since I had to take Friday off due to Lacey being sick.  She decided to rip open a brand new bag of dog food Thursday while we were at work and gorged herself.  Of course once I got home she proceeded to start vomiting a good portion of it back up all over the carpets.  She is my problem child.  Thankfully when I ordered the bar soap for my laundry soap I decided to buy a bottle of the liquid soap as well (also in peppermint scent) so it masked the smell wonderfully.  I was concerned about diarrhea Friday so I decided to stay home and play it safe because diarrhea and carpets do not go well together.

Lacey the Problem Child

Saturday:
Breakfast: Donuts
Lunch:  I had leftover ravioli and Matt made a PB&J
Dinner:  Brats and coleslaw with cranberries and sunflower seeds

Sunday: 
Breakfast:  Egg in a Hole
Lunch:  Leftover brocolli cheddar soup and roll
Supper:  Chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes (I've been craving this for weeks!)


I got myself motivated early and cleaned the bedroom and bath along with running a couple loads of laundry and working out on the treadmill before I headed out to do some thrift store and grocery shopping.  I'd planned to hit 2 of the thrift stores in town but hit a jackpot at Goodwill so I didn't bother with Salvation Army.  I picked up several queen and king size sheets for a rug project I'm getting ready to start.  I think I paid about $10 for all 4 sheets, which should make a rug from what I've read.  I may go back and pick up the other green striped sheet just in case.  I also picked up 2 Patterson novels for Matt and several books for myself.

My afternoon was spent canning beef & vegetable soup.  I canned 6 quarts of soup.   While the soup base was simmering on the stove I put together a pie using some of the Gala apples and pear apples (asian pears?) from the Bountiful Basket along with some leftover cherry berry smoothie mix I had in the freezer.  It wasn't bad for a thrown together treat especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  I'd planned to can some of the 25 pounds of carrots I bought but Matt doesn't want them "mushy" so I guess I'll have to freeze them instead.

After I got done with that I was ready to kick back and watch the Olympics with Matt.  Matt and I both spent a good portion of the weekend kicking back.  I have been feeling mentally exhausted.  I think all the mandatory overtime is starting to wear on me.  I could use a vacation but since that's not on the calendar any time soon this mini vacation helped.  I really wish I had snowshoes or cross country skis so I could try that and do some skijoring and snowshoeing with the dogs.  I'm sure some good outdoor exercise would do me a world of good.  Hopefully next winter.

My reading for the weekend included a mystery and a romance.  I downloaded a free Kindle book called A Shot in the Bark by C.A. Newsome.  Excellent book and I will definitely be purchasing her next 2 books in the series.  The book centers around a dog park so dog lovers will definitely enjoy this book.  I worked on Mansfield Park.  The movie is not my favorite Austen movie and the book is turning out to be the same which is causing me to not be enthusiastic about finishing it.  Thankfully I have over a month to finish it for the discussion group.  I just keep getting annoyed she doesn't seem to have any backbone and she's so timid.  I also purchased A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg and started that.  For some romance I read One Magic Moment by Lynn Kurland.  I adore Kurland's books about time travel.  I thought I had all them and to discover one at Goodwill that I didn't have was so exciting.   This one is definitely up on my favorites list.