Ramblings May 5th

As much as we love for our friends and family to visit, afterwards we always have that sigh of relief that we have our home to ourselves again.  We are hermits somewhat in this aspect.  My Mom was visiting the past week from Pennsylvania where she is living now.  It was a nice visit and hopefully she enjoyed it.  Thankfully I was able to take time off and spend with her this visit.  She definitely got a dose of North Dakota weather while she was here with everything from snow to rain to a day or 2 of sunny weather in the 60's.

Matt thankfully was able to get the flooring done a couple days before she arrived.  Matt thought I did an excellent job on the room redecorating it, he called it Comfortable Country.  I found the comforter and throw at a thrift shop.  I put the green rug I'd crocheted on the new floor next to the bed. and I also replaced the sheer valance with thermal curtains.  Matt's sister, Bee, gave us the Bentwood rocker several years ago.  With my new desk set up in my office area there was no room for it so I decided it would make a nice addition to the guest room.  The walls will be our next major upgrade once we get a home improvement store in town.  We plan on taking out all the paneling and replacing it with drywall throughout the trailer. Once I get the nasty wallpaper taken down and the drywall up I think I'll do this room possibly in a cream color or a maybe a light green.  I need to get some decorations for the walls now.

Before

After

Matt's birthday was Friday so I took the whole day off.  We had planned initially to go to Valley City antiquing and thrift shopping but the weather was forecast better for Thursday so we went Thursday instead and stayed home on Friday.  I found a really nice top at one of the thrift stores for $1.  Mom had asked for me to make meatloaf while she was here but then changed her mind and wanted a spaghetti dinner so that was her supper the last night.  She enjoys home cooking so we mostly stayed in although we did take her out a couple times.  Friday I sat and watched movies with her and crocheted a jute rug.  It worked up really quickly and is so nice.  I have it outside at our entry door.

Saturday we took a road trip and met one of my sisters in Minnesota so Mom could stay with her for the rest of the time she's visiting.  I'll give more details on that trip in another post.  We met her in Alexandria, Minnesota which is about 3 hours from our home.  It made for a little bit of a long day but the weather was beautiful and sunny although winds were gusting and the temp was only in the 40's so it felt a bit chilly.  I had taken a light sweater with and realized by the time we arrived in Alexandria that it wasn't heavy enough for me to be outside much so we stopped at Fleet Farm and I was able to pick up a fleece lined zip-up sweatshirt.

Sunday was catching up on cleaning and laundry and then kicking back relaxing.  We prefer to do our birthdays privately so we waited until Sunday to celebrate Matt's birthday.  He requested my homemade pizza (no surprise there) and a cake so I made a dark chocolate bundt cake with coconut almond frosting.  I always have a fear when I make bundt cakes that they'll stick to the pan and not come out.  I thoroughly coated my ceramic pan with coconut oil before pouring the batter in.  I forgot to flour it as the instructions called for but it came out great.

Weekend Ramblings Easter Weekend

EASTER MENU:

Ham
Scalloped potatoes
Green beans

We had awesome weather this weekend with temps in the 60's and they said 70's, although it didn't feel quite that warm.  The sun was beautiful and the wind was on the calmer side.  We had some windy weather earlier in the week with gusts over 40 mph for several days.  Oreo was insistent that she wanted to be outside even with the winds.  Poor thing had to brace herself or the winds might have blown her away like Toto.  We really need to come up with some type of fence so they can hang outside without me being with them.

Oreo bracing against the wind with her ears flying

The pups and I went out for a walk Saturday evening. We live close to the entrance of the White Cloud Trail.  Amazingly enough I've never tried hiking any of it before.  The trail loops throughout the city and is approximately 10 miles long.  We aren't quite up to that long of a hike yet but I decided we'd try a mile or so of it from the entrance.  It follows a dirt road along the James River to start.  There was a drop in the river which created a nice little rapid. It was nice and peaceful even though there were houses on the other side of the river.  It would probably be a good place to fish once I get my license.  I realized that I need to get some flea preventative immediately and I need to see what the vet suggests about ticks as I'm sure they'll be coming out soon.  There were mosquitoes out in full force along the river so I'll need to remember to use or bring bug spray/deterrent.  I used my pedometer and we walked 2.28 miles.

I couldn't do much cleaning so I crocheted another rag rug and finished it.  This one is a rectangle done in red, white and blue.  Very patriotic.  I used a 1.5" strip instead of a 2" strip so I got the more holey appearance to it then the green one I did.  I did manage to give myself a blood blister on one of my fingers from the scissors.  I would have started another rug Sunday but my finger hurt so bad it will have to wait.

I ordered a deluxe video set from Rag to Rugs by Lora and I can't begin to say how helpful the video was. She starts from how much fabric to use, how to crochet, how to make oval, round, and rectangle rugs, and how to join strips so you don't get a stair step in the row from color to color.  The deluxe set came with the Q hook, patterns, and crochet stitch markers.  The cheat sheets are AWESOME!  I'd initially planned to make another oval but after watching the video I decided to make the red, white and blue rug a rectangle instead.  I thought the rectangles looked pretty neat.

Matt spent the weekend working on the lawn and it looks awesome compared to what it did before. Sunday  evening Matt decided he wanted to do something outside with the pups and I so we went down to the Reservoir and walked along the paved path along the lake.  It was so beautiful out with just a smidge of a breeze.  We both assumed that the bridge to the island would be closed due to flooding but it was open. We'd walked so far by then we knew we couldn't handle crossing the bridge and walking the island as well. I also need to get some needle nosed pliers to pull sand burrs out of the dogs paws when we're walking in that area.  I forgot my pedometer but I'd say we probably walked closer to 3 miles on this hike.

Weekend Ramblings April 13

SUNDAY MENUS:

Brunch:    Oven fried potatoes, bacon, eggs, and toast

Supper:  Homemade pizza

We cannot wait until Menard's builds a store here.  It is horrible not having a home improvement store for supplies.  Matt had gone to Fargo with a buddy Thursday and picked up all the flooring and a roll of underlayment for the hallway and guest room.  We had some items leftover from when he did his office.  When he went to put the underlayment down this morning he discovered he was one length short.  He went to 5 stores locally and nobody had what we needed.  Our choices were to drive 200 miles round trip for one roll of underlayment, buy something in town that's different but "might" work, or order online.  Thankfully Menard's has online ordering so that's what we went with.  Shipping was less than what we'd have paid for gas. Unfortunately they're saying approximately 10 days before we get it.  On a good note, other than that snafu, he was able to get the entire hallway done including door stops and just over half of the guest room.  I am so happy to be getting the carpeting out of here. 

While he was working this morning I made us a huge country style brunch of oven fried potatoes with plenty of onions, crispy bacon, eggs over easy and buttery toast.  He needed a good meal for the work he wanted to get done.  We shared a Butter Beer he'd picked up at the party store last night when he took a break.  Those of you that are Harry Potter fans will have heard of Butter Beer before.  It taste sort of like cream soda, Matt described it as butterscotchy in flavor.  It's good but I don't think good enough to pay $2 a bottle for it. It's a novelty item and I might buy some to send the kids for gifts.

My early morning was spent cleaning and doing laundry.  In the afternoon I continued my work on my cross stitch project and watched The Bletchley Circle on Netflix as well as helping Matt whenever he needed my assistance.  It was a 3 part Masterpiece Theatre drama about a group of women that had worked as code breakers during the war and gather back together to find a killer.  They were living ordinary lives while keeping the work they'd done during the war a secret when one of them starts noticing patterns to a series of killings.  I highly recommend it if you like British dramas or period pieces.  

WEEKEND RAMBLINGS APRIL 12TH

The weather has been beautiful here the past week.  I think the entire week was in the 50's and 60's.  You can only imagine my disappointment when looking at the forecast for the next week to discover temps won't get above 40'!  This is life in North Dakota.

The furkids and I have gotten out for several walks (or wonders as I call them) even on the windier days. The geese are still heading north and honking up a storm as they pass overhead.  It's a beautiful sight to see. I can hear the geese even at night when I take the pups out for their last outing before bed.  I noticed green grass starting to pop up in the yard and the dogs have been after ever bit they can find to graze on. They love eating grass.  We seem to have several crows in the neighborhood that I've been watching from the window during the day as they dash about finding bits for their nests.

Saturday Menu: 
Lunch: Egg salad on baguette and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Supper:  Out to Eat

The yard sales have started!  Another good indication that summer is on it's way.  We went to two different ones today.  One was more of a farm sale since we had to travel a ways outside of town to get to it but it had the best items.  Matt found a box of tools that he picked up.  He bought a trailer to put the snowmobile on last weekend and needed some wires to hook his harness back up and found what he needed there for $1.  Not surprising with my focus on rag rugs of late that my first item is a chocolate brown colored king size sheet set that I bought for $2.  They had 3 more sets but they were all purple.  I probably should have picked them up for that price.  I also found a multi-level basket for $3, which I plan to use when I start selling my homemade goat's milk soaps.  I need to start getting some of these for displays.  I didn't find anything at the second yard sale but Matt found a leaf blower that he talked her down to $20 on.

After a busy morning I decided to relax and do some cross stitching.  I picked up a kit at an estate sale last fall for a quarter and started working it today.  It's robin eggs in a nest.  I think I've decided to go with a bird theme in the guest room so it will fit in with that.

Matt pulled up carpeting and finished up about 7 pm.  He was very sore afterwards. Since he worked so hard I made him some of his favorite Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe below).  As he says, they have everything in a cookie you could want.

While he was finishing up, Oreo insisted on going for a walk.  The wind had picked up so I wasn't really wanting to take a walk but she was being annoyingly insistent that she wanted a walk.  I wish I could have taken a picture of her.  The wind really picked up about the last half mile and she was literally having to almost muscle her way through it (she only weighs about 18 pounds) and her ears were flying back.  She's spunky for a 14 year old pup.  I'd planned to make shrimp scampi with linguine last night but when I pulled the shrimp out of the freezer I discovered severe freezer burn on them so we ended up going out to eat.

I found this recipe on the Internet but for the life of me I can't remember where so I apologize for not being able to give credit for it.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2/3 cup peanut butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups oatmeal (I use old fashion)
2/3 cup chocolate chips (I used mini chocolate chips)

Turn oven on 350'.  Cream together peanut butter and brown sugar, vanilla and eggs.  Add oatmeal.  Mix in chocolate chips.  Use cookie scoop and drop onto cookie sheet and then use fork to flatten a bit.   I used a 1.5" cookie scoop and this made roughly 18 cookies.  Bake for 12 minutes.  I found with the size scoop I used it took 13 to 14 minutes.

Midweek Ramblings

Since I posted so much about the weekend I thought I'd do another post.  Monday I put a rump roast in the slow cooker and made French Dip sandwiches for supper with my potato salad.  It was a fabulous meal.  I used the leftovers the next day for another sandwich along with a bit of leftover potato salad.  I used frozen mini baguettes for the bread since we don't have any stores that have bread like this fresh.  This received 2 thumbs up from Matt.

Slow Cooker French Dip (from Fix It and Forget It Cookbook)

3 lb rump roast
1 onion, sliced
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 beef bouillon cube (I used 1 tsp of bouillon paste)

Put everything in the slow cooker.  Add water to just cover roast.  I cooked this on high for 2 hours and then low for 4 hours.  I used frozen mini baguettes.  This made enough for 2 meals so I cut the roast in half and put half of the roast and juices in a container in the freezer for a future meal.

We had a quick flurry early in the week and I was blessed to have this wonderful view as I work from home now.  As they're predicting 10-12 inches of snow between tonight and tomorrow morning I will probably be viewing this again as I work.

Weekend Ramblings - March 30th

Saturday Menu: 

Lunch: Cobb Salad
Supper:  Dinner Theater at The Art Center

The morning was disappointing.  With temps being predicted to be well over 50' I had expected to be outside to enjoy the warmth of spring but the winds were 20 mph or higher and it just wasn't the kind of weather to be outside in.

My first stop Saturday when I left for my errands was to stop at Goodwill.  I picked up several more sheets.  I think I have enough to do a red, white and blue rug next or maybe a table runner.  While I was there I noticed a large oak computer desk with hutch for $40.  I mentioned it to Matt when I got home so we ended up going back and he liked it enough to buy it.  He's been wanting a larger desk.

We attended  the dinner theater at The Arts Center.  The play was Relative Values and was about 3 hours long.  They were in the final act when the fire alarm started going off.  Nobody knew why it was going off.  They checked for a fire and found nothing.  They couldn't get the alarm off.  The couple on the stage when it occurred started ad-libbing about the situation.  It was pretty amusing.  Fortunately they found somebody to turn it off.  Since the play was a British comedy they served roast beef, scalloped potatoes, carrots, and a roll.

Sunday Menu:

Breakfast: Easy Cheese Danish
Lunch: Leftover Cobb Salad
Supper:  Italian subs and pasta salad

Temps were wonderful with a high just over 50'.  After my disappointment with the weather Saturday I didn't expect much today.  I did take the furkids out for a wander around the neighborhood.  Matt was outside and he came in and told me to come outside to see something.  It seemed like a million geese in multiple groups flying over head.  They just kept coming.  It's a wonderful sign of spring.

My morning and the early part of the afternoon was spent working on the rag rug.  I ripped it totally out and started over, ripped out part of it again and finally finished it today!  The rug consisted of 4 sheets that I ripped up into 2" strips and crocheted.  I can't wait to for Matt to build my twining frame so I can twine/weave them.  Trying to get the corners right can be difficult.

Since I planned to work on the rug most of the day, I decided to make something for breakfast.  I frequently pick up a package of cheese danish for the weekends. This Easy Cheese Danish was so easy and so good! I found the recipe on Pinterest.  It was super easy to make and I got 2 thumbs up from Matt.

Basically it's just 1 roll of crescent rolls.  Mix 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tsp vanilla with room temp package of cream cheese.  Roll out crescent rolls and smush the lines together so they don't pull apart - so you have a large rectangle.  Cut in lines diagonally about every 1" to fold over.  Smear cheese mixture down center and then pull sections in alternating so they appear to be braided.  I decided to put this on parchment paper on the baking sheet for ease of clean up.  Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes and allow to cool.  Mix 1 cup powdered sugar, 3-4 tablespoons of cream, and 1 tsp vanilla.  Drizzle over.  I was surprised at how much this made.  We have enough left for breakfast tomorrow if he doesn't eat it for a snack tonight.

Midweek Ramblings March 20

Today is the first day of Spring!  The geese have been flying overhead this week honking loudly their return.  Our yard has turned into a mud slide.  The dogs are hunting for the first bits of green grass to eat.  Spring has definitely arrived although I'm sure Winter will try to hold on a bit longer.

I started working from home Monday.  So much sooner than I thought.  It's been wonderful!  So much more relaxing.  I'm still trying to get my routine down.

Weekend Ramblings

Temps are finally coming up.  Today it was in the low 20's and I was outside in just a sweatshirt!  I am so looking forward to warmer temps.  I miss being outside.

I received really good news Friday.  My team leader informed me she's approved me to come home and work.  I do my training this week and hopefully within the next 2 weeks they'll have my computer built so I can come home.  I'm so excited to say the least.  I've never had anxiety issues before but working with that many people has produced feelings of anxiety.  The noise is another issue I'm having problems dealing with and with plans to hire more people it would have only gotten worse.  I think this will be a win-win situation.  I'll be less distracted and will be able to produce more work.

My crochet rug is coming along nicely although I ran out of the solid green before the end of the second row so I'll have to rip back to the start of that row and use another color.  I think the red sheet that I got last weekend will work well so I'll rip that into strips tomorrow and continue.  I'm estimating this rug will be 2 ft x 5 ft when I get it done and the sheets that I used cost me under $20.  I'm still debating if I want it in front of the couch or in the guest room next to the bed.

I ate some of the chow chow I made last weekend and it's pretty good.  A little sweeter than I like so I'll adjust to use less sugar the next time.

Last night we went to the Knights of Columbus for supper.  We've only been there for a wedding so it was our first time there for a regular meal.  We both decided to have fish since it was the special.  He had the beer battered fish and fries and I had the pan fried walleye.  Both were very tasty.  We both had salads and Matt voiced what I'd been thinking, the croutons were no where as good as my homemade ones are.  We've spoiled ourselves for sure.

Saturday Menu:

Lunch:  Taco Bell

Supper:  Turkey and bacon on ciabbata rolls, chips & dip

I woke up somewhat sluggish so I got a later than planned start to my errands.  Mailed a book out for my PaperBackBookExchange.  I also stopped at both Goodwill and Salvation Army and found some good buys.  I bought a suede purse and a teal tote for $2.50 each, some clothes, 3 books, a large throw and another sheet.  The throw I plan to use for a blanket on the bed in the guest room.  It's super soft and fluffy.

Once we ate lunch I got to work making some laundry detergent and then got started on the laundry.  Matt was enjoying an afternoon kicked back watching TV so I entertained myself looking at Pinterest and getting recipe ideas.  

Weekend Ramblings - March 2nd

We've plunged back into arctic temps again with last night hitting -26 (-50 windchill) and a high today of -12.  My home is feeling a bit chillier than normal but I guess that's to be expected considering the temps outside.  We're running over 40 degrees below the average temp for this time of year.  Hopefully by Thursday we'll be back up close to 30's again where we should be.  Many in our surrounding area are hitting all time records of days with temps below zero degrees.  It's too cold to snow and we haven't had a good snowfall since December.  I'm not sure how that will play out for the farmers this summer.

Saturday Menu:
Breakfast:  Cheese danish
Lunch: Babbs Coffee House
Supper:  Cube steaks, mashed potatoes, tomato gravy, and broccoli

To get out of the house this weekend we went to the Holistic Healing and Psychic Fair Saturday.  It was extremely small to what I'm use to in Michigan but it's the first year they've had one here in town.  Matt purchased a pair of dowsing rods to try working with.  They're pretty neat and I almost bought a pair myself.  I purchased a beautiful metal bowl to burn loose incense in.  We both had readings done; I had a palm reading and he had a tarot reading.  I'm always somewhat skeptical of readings but she hit her description of me pretty accurately including that someone who died when I was about 20 was one of my guardians.  I've always maintained that my Grandmother, who died when I was 20, was my guardian so it was neat to hear it from somebody else.  It actually brought tears to my eyes as she talked about her.  Parts of his reading were right on and other parts appeared to be way off.

Matt's been wanting to take me to Babb's since he was there this summer when his sister was visiting so we finally went for lunch.  It's a nice cafe/coffee house.  They had a cool table set up with high backed chairs with a HUGE chess board and pieces for people to use.  I wish I'd had my camera with me.  It will be a nice place to take a book or a tablet and kick back and read for a part of the afternoon or evening.  I'll definitely have to take my mom there when she visits next month.

While we were out I decided to stop at Goodwill and see what types of sheets they had and picked up 3 more (dark red, blue, and green).  We both found a couple books.  Matt was able to get the third book in a trilogy to finish off a set he'd bought the first two books of last weekend from another thrift store.  I found two beautiful boxes.  I'm not sure what I'll do with the wood one which is just beautiful but the embossed metal one I'm using on my desk to put my ear plugs and IPod cord in so Moo won't drop them off the table and drag them around the house (and yes she has done this).  We also stopped at another thrift store and Matt found the top of a butter dish with an owl on it for me.  I collect owls so I'm always on the lookout for one to add to my collection.

Sunday Menu:
Breakfast:  Fried eggs on English muffin bread (Bountiful Basket)
Lunch:  English muffin bread with jam (neither of us was super hungry)
Supper:  Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches with Bleu Cheese Dressing and steak fries

Today I worked on laundry and cleaned.  Once that was done I ripped up the green sheet and started crocheting a rag rug.  Matt has promised me he'll build me a loom to make twined rugs on once the ice melts so he can get into the shed to his tools so for now I'll have to be content to crochet if I want to make one.  This one will be a oval runner.  It's working up pretty quick.  I also made some Amish Chow Chow.  Chow Chow is a relish.  You can use pretty much any vegetable but I used the standard carrots, cauliflower, green beans, kidney beans, red pepper, and red onion for mine and then you store it in a sugar and vinegar mixture until it's pickled I guess would be the best way to describe it.  I filled a 2 qt jar and a pint jar.  The Amish eat it as a side to just about everything.  It can also be canned.  If I like it I will can some so when I get a pickled craving I can just pop a jar open.  I miss the wonderful pickled vegetables at the Indian restaurants. 

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.