Wednesday Snap Shot

-



Wednesday Snap Shot is a quick peek into my week.

If you'd like to join in on my Wednesday Snap Shot.. copy and paste my post, add your answers (you can also copy the pic..BUT Please download the picture to your computer first.. do not just directly copy and paste.. otherwise you are using my bandwidth..thank you! :).. link your post to my blog and then come back and let me know you shared your week. I'll come and visit you and read about your homemaking week!! :)



So Far This Week
It's been a good week so far. I'm focusing on more indoor projects now that the rainy season has started. I purchased some new knives and measuring cups and was motivated to clean out the drawers I store them in. I was able to also get rid of bad knives, and broken measuring cups (the handles had broken off years ago). I had a few that were plastic and the measurement on the cups were worn off. Not usually a big problem other then occasionally trying to figure out if a cup is 1/4 or 1/3.. :). But I now have new ones in clean drawers.

That clean up job led me to give my kitchen counters a good cleaning, clean out the toaster of its crumbs, move the microwave and clean behind it and go through some things in one over crowded cupboard and toss a few items.

Funny how the small things in life can be motivating.

Yesterday hubby and I took our oldest son out to dinner for his birthday. His birthday is in a couple days, so we celebrated early due to schedules. We let him choose his favorite restaurant and enjoyed some yummy Chinese food.  We both find it hard to believe that we are old enough to have a 35 year old son!   :)




With my hubby's help we did the yearly name drawing for Christmas. With a family as large as ours it's not practical for everyone to buy everyone gifts. That is a financial burden that I would never want to put on my children. So for years the kids would draw names when we'd meet at Thanksgiving. Now that I have children living in other areas and we can't always be together on Thanksgiving so hubby and I draw names for them. I put all the names in a basket and then hubby draws each one and I write them down so I have the master list for them in case anyone looses or forgets their name (which has happened :)

After we were done, I messaged each of them and told them their name. They keep their chosen name a secret until Christmas. I set a reasonable dollar limit on the gifts as well. The whole idea is to have some family fun for the holiday.



On My To-Do List
Today I need to do some basic chores around the house..
~clean the bathroom
~sweep/vacuum floors
~sort recycling
~one load of laundry
I'm also going to spend a little extra time in the kitchen doing some meal preps for the rest of the week.


Projects I'm Working On
Planning our Thanksgiving Dinner. Actually we are having our family dinner on the Sunday after Thanksgiving day. For the last several years I have had our meal on a different day due to schedules and the fact that I like to give my children options for that day. They can cook their own meals with their own family or spend the day with their spouses family and don't have to choose one or the other each year. This year my youngest daughter's birthday is on Thanksgiving day so we will spend the day with her and her boyfriend making a birthday dinner instead.



Today's Weather
Well, I think the day can be best described with.. yuck! It is just rainy, rainy and very wet outside. It's actually been raining, almost, non stop for a few weeks now. We get a break here and there (yesterday was a mostly dry day).. One thing is for sure, the rainy season has started!

While I might not care too much for the rain, I find it amusing that my duck, Ping, loves it. When I was taking my picture for today's post, I zoomed in on Ping, swimming around the pond without a care in the world. :) I now can personally see where the saying “like water off a ducks back” came from! :) 
Today's High, 48 Low, 42 and no end in sight to the rain

The View from my Deck (or window)
It was raining pretty hard when I took this picture.  It's hard to actually capture rain in a photo.





What I'm Reading
I finished reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and loved it. Actually my memory of some of the older renditions of the movie are pretty much true to the book.  I now have started reading the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I'm currently reading the book of Matthew in my Bible reading. I found a Kindle freebie that I also started. It's called, The Stranger on the Road to Emmas. I know the book has been out for some time, but I've never read it. It's a Bible study giving an overview of the Bible tying the Old and New Testaments together. I'm loving it so far. And seems to fit right in with my goal to read the whole Bible, in order, this year.



What I'm Listening To
The rain falling, my clocks ticking, and my hubby restocking our firewood.


Something Frugal I've Done This Week
This is a frugal tip (so to speak) that goes along with Fitness & Health for the week.. exercise for free. I have no issues with the gym or gym memberships as I know people who have them and benefit from them a lot.

But, I also know they are not for everyone, and they can be expensive. There are so many options for free exercise. The simplest one is walking. If the weather or other reasons prevent you from walking outside, there is walking to a variety of walk videos all free on YouTube. Running is also free, as is doing basic exercises in your own home.

What I love about this modern day is the ability to find a huge variety of options on the internet. You can find (aside from walking videos) yoga, dance, working with weights, daily exercises and so much more, all for free. A quick search of YouTube will show you more then you can believe.


Fitness and Health for the Week
I'm excited to share my progress with you. I've made it to or above 10,000 steps 5 of the last 7 days. I feel like it won't be long and I'll be back to where I was before my health issues set me back. I've been doing 2, 3 or 4 mile walking workouts and it feels amazing. I'm back to my goal of “Getting fit in my 50”s” and moving forward.



That is all for this week!

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 16, 2017 at 2:43 PM

    Hello, I enjoy reading through your post. I wanted to write a little comment to support you.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

All messages are moderated. After approval your message will be posted. Thank you for your comments!! Crystal :)

Popular posts from this blog

Canning Chicken Noodle-less Soup

-
Image
Today was one of those busy days that it seemed I was moving from the time my feet hit the floor until this evening.. But, I got so much done and that is a great feeling! :) One of my accomplishments today was canning 14 jars of chicken noodle-less soup. I call it “noodle-less” because you can’t can noodles. They end up falling apart. So I canned the chicken, veggies and broth. When I go to use the soup I will bring it to a boil and then add a handful of noodles (any type of pasta will work) and cook it until the noodles are done. Because I plan to add the pasta after the fact I wanted to make sure there was enough chicken broth to do this. So I only filled my jars about half to two thirds with chicken and veggies and then filled with chicken broth. Here is how I did this…. I started off with 2 chickens that were a total weight of about 10lbs. I put them in my 14 quart stock pot… I then added 2 gallons of water.. And 3 tablespoons salt.. I brought this ...
Read more

Canning Cabbage

-
Image
I had 4 large heads of cabbage that weighted about 25 pounds. We had some really hot days and I figured I better get the last of them picked soon. My daughter Sierra and I ended up processing 3 of them yesterday and I have one left for a meal on my menu this week. I made pickled cabbage and then canned up the last of the cabbage. Here is the recipe for the pickled cabbage (according to how I made it)… 8 pounds cabbage 1 large onion 1 ½ red peppers 1 lb carrots ¾ cup salt 9 cups water 12 cups white vinegar 10 cups sugar 1t mustard seed 1t celery seed Slice cabbage thinly. Slice onion and peppers. Grate carrots. Mix all veggies together in a very large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and mix in well. Let sit for 2 hours to soften veggies. Rinse veggies well.  In a large stock pot (mine was 14 quarts) combine water, vinegar, sugar, spices. Bring to a boil. Add cabbage/veggies. Bring to a boil. Fill hot pint jars with veggies using a slotted spoon. Fill jar with brine...
Read more

Canning Beef Stew

-
Image
In my last blog post I shared that I had bought 10 pounds of beef roast. I cut it all up and used 4 pounds in 2 crockpot freezer meals ( http://homesteadinghomemaker.blogspot.com/2012/02/two-more-crockpot-meals-for-freezer.html ) . I used the other 6 pounds of meat along with potatoes, carrots, onions and celery to can beef stew. Here were the general proportions I used in canning 7 quarts of beef stew.. 6# beef 2# potatoes 2# carrots 1# onions 1# celery After I cut up the meat and got the freezer meals done I moved to the beef stew. I peeled and cut up the potatoes and carrots. I chopped up the onions and sliced the celery. I pulled out 3 quarts of veggie stock from my freezer to use for liquid in the stew. You can use beef or chicken stock or you can use water. I did not add anything to thicken the liquid as usually thickeners don’t hold up in canning. You can thicken the broth after it is opened if you would like. I added 1 teaspoon salt to each of my ...
Read more