Wordless Wednesday: More Birds on My Porch

 

New Washing Machine and My 6 goals for 2021: Week 8 of 52

Happy Monday everyone! How was your weekend? Mine was crazy, as usual. Saturday, I was up early and out the house with Rebecca as she had her "Power of the Pen" tournament. They are doing districts and regionals virtual this year so I just had to take her to her school. One downside is that they won't find out results for 2 weeks. 

In other news our washing machine decided to break down AGAIN on Thursday (as I was washing Rebecca's Power of the Pen shirt!). It was acting similar to the issue that we had in December. Instead of calling the repairman and being told it would be another $400 to fix (that was for the part that he told me would probably go out next), we decided that we would just get a new washer. (We have put over $700 in repairs on the washer in the last year.) I found one that had good reviews and was on sale at Lowes.com. When I looked at it on Friday they said delivery would be middle of this coming week. Ok. Well, when I ordered it on Saturday they said they could deliver it on Sunday between 3:15 and 7:00PM. Even better. However, we needed laundry done and I already had asked my mom if I could come out and do laundry so Rebecca and I headed out there. We spent the day out there doing laundry and looking at Genealogy stuff for my mom's side of the family. While we were out there, I got a call at 12:45 from Lowes saying that their delivery drivers were ahead of schedule and could they deliver around 1:15-1:30. I called Bill and after telling him, he said he had to go because they were there at 12:50. LOL So we now have a new washer. I went with a very basic washer. I did 2 loads this morning and it seems to work great. Hopefully it last longer than our last washer. 

 

Today, I have been puttering around the house. I got a tutoring lesson ready for tonight and then thought I had better text the mom to make sure and her response was "I forgot. We are on a family vacation." URGGGGHHHH!!!! This is not a new client. It irritates me to no end. I need to go do dishes and fold some laundry before picking kids up from school, but I wanted to get my goals update post up for the week first since I didn't do that yesterday. 

So my 6 goals for 2021 were: 

Lose weight. 

I plan on achieving this by making a monthly goal to help. January's goals are to limit myself to one pop a day and to exercise/ walk 4 times a week. Ideally I would like to walk, however it is January in Ohio so weather will be a factor. 

I didn't have a good week. We will just leave it at that.      

Declutter our house. 

It has become messy and full of stuff again. I am not sure how it got so full of stuff again. I am going to follow along with a 52 week decluttering challenge from "Snail Pace Transformations" blog. The author also has a Facebook page that is offering the challenge titled "Snail Pace Clutter Removers." 

I didn't do much of anything for this this week. However, Bill cleaned out several huge trash bags of stuff out of the basement and he threw away an old computer (after smashing in the motherboard). So I am proud of him for getting rid of some things in his domain.  

Menu Plan, follow it, and blog about it. 

This month I am doing a low spend challenge and am pledging to use up what we have in our big freezer so that I can defrost it. I also made up a monthly meal plan and will blog about it this week. I want to make this a weekly post.

I did okay with the goal this week. I continued with my food posting on Friday:  "Foodie Friday: What are we eating around here?" where I post about what we have been eating. This past week was an okay week.  

Be more creative. 

I am wanting to do this for a stress relief more than anything. I got 2 sloth coloring books for Christmas and would like to get in the habit of coloring. I also would like to get back into painting a bit. This could also look like making new recipes in the kitchen, etc. 

I colored a page in my sloth coloring book one night. 

Be Grateful.

I love Anne's postings of her daily joys that she was doing weekly on her blog "Cooking and All that Jazz." I have a dollar store planner that I plan on putting by my bed and each night recording at least 1 things each day that I am grateful for.

I wasn't very grateful this week. I was and am in a pretty bad mood most of the weekend and I know I should be grateful. Just so hard to do when all I seem to face are uphill battles ALL THE TIME. 

Show Grace. 

And finally, I have chosen a word for the year....GRACE.  I would like to offer grace to others and to myself. I find at times I have a temper and get annoyed at little things. I would like to take a step back, offer grace to others and move on. I have tried to put this into practice the last 2 weeks and I have noticed a difference in my mental state. 

I am trying. 

So there you have it--the update on my goals. 

How was your weekend? Anyone else feeling depressed/grumpy lately? What do you do when you feel grumpy or stressed out or depressed?    

 

Random post about food, boots and pets

Happy Saturday. How about a bunch of randomness about food and boots and pets...

I tried a new cereal. I love Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies. Well my mom texted me a picture of a new cereal that she saw at Walmart. I texted back that it looked good. Well she dropped off a box to me. LOL I tried some the other morning and while they are good, they are not the same as the actual Oatmeal Creme Pies. The kids will probably end up eating most of the box.

 

Our cats love to lay on our clothes... it doesn't matter if they are clean or dirty. Gronk especially loves to lay on Bill's pants...even if his pants are laid on our bed. Silly kitty. 

Speaking of the cats, they have gotten in to the bad habit of getting up on my nightstand around 5:45/6 in the morning and meowing for me to get up. Gus even has taken to sniffing my nose and batting my nose. They are stinkers. This photo was taken on Valentine's Day when I refused to get up. 

I love getting incentives in my email. I got an email from Panera for a free Salad and took advantage of it on Saturday as Rebecca and I were going to be right next door shopping. It was very yummy and the price of FREE was great too!

I broke down and ordered Bill and I new snow boots. I have been putting it off, but since this year seems to be a year of snow I had to. Thankfully I found some on Amazon for less than $40 each. We wore them on a hike and they kept our feet warm and dry so a win in our book. 

The kids and I have become obsessed with the treat Pocky! The boys love the chocolate dipped ones; Rebecca and I love the cookies and cream ones. 

I have also become obsessed with anise flavored pizzelle waffle cookies. They are so yummy and remind me of my grandma. 

Have I made you hungry yet? LOL Okay enough randomness for today. LOL 

Have you tried any new treats lately? Do your pets do silly things? Hope everyone has a good day!  

Foodie Friday: What are we eating around here?

Happy Friday everyone! Thank you for the kind words on my post yesterday. My hubby surprised me with flowers yesterday when he came home from work. He said he knew that I had a bad day and he wanted to make me smile. I thanked him and then dropped the bombshell that our washer is broke AGAIN. I am such a great wife! LOL 

I am still feeling "off" today, not really able to focus on much of anything. In fact, I zoned in front of the TV for most of the morning watching the series "Sweet Magnolias" on Netflix. I just can't seem to focus. It is really hard to explain how I am feeling today. However, focus I must. I started dishes and now am going to do my foodie post before I have to go pick up kids from school. I hope everyone in staying warm! 

So now, let's talk about food! As I mentioned in my New Year's Goal post, I want to menu plan, stick to it and blog about it each week. Well, I thought about what day of the week to post these menu highlights. A lot of people post on Sunday or Monday as that is the days that their menus start. However, that really doesn't work for me. So, I have decided to post on Fridays. I am doing this because Thursdays are days that I try to go to the grocery store for the following week and it is when I really finalize my menu plan for the next week. Therefore, "Foodie Friday: What are we eating around here?" came to mind.

I am going to be doing 2 things with these posts. First I will highlight what we ate the previous week, whether we followed the plan, etc. Then I will post what the plan is for the next week. If you feel inclined to follow along, please do. I get inspiration from blogs and postings online for new recipes to try, things to add to my menus, etc. So without further ado, let's get this Foodie Friday: What are we eating around here? started. 

What did we eat these past two weeks? 

Friday 2-12-21: Pizza and fruit

Saturday 2-13-21: Mississippi Pot Roast, Mashed Potatoes, green beans

Sunday 2-14-21: Valentine's Day so not sure what hubby and I will be eating or what we are feeding the kids. LOL The kids had dinosaur chicken nuggets, lima beans, and pineapple. Bill and I had Mexican take-out. 

Monday 2-15-21: White Chicken Chili in the crockpot (this is new recipe. We are supposed to get the winter storm with 6-12 inches of snow so this seems perfect to try.) Honestly I was disappointed in this recipe... there was so much spicey heat that it was too spicy to eat. It also wasn't very creamy, so I will be continuing to be on the lookout for a different recipe. 

Tuesday 2-16-21: Pancakes, bacon and fruit

Wednesday 2-17-21: Macaroni and cheese and peas

Thursday 2-18-21: Baked Denver omelet, hash browns (which cooked in the air fryer were PERFECTION!), fruit-- we also had banana bread that my nephew and I made while he and my niece were here during their snow day. 

 

What are we planning to eat this coming week?

Friday 2-19-21: Cheese pizza and fruit

Saturday 2-20-21: BBQ pork sandwiches, cole slaw, chips

Sunday 2-21-21: Chicken pot pie turnovers and salad

Monday 2-22-21: ???    

Tuesday 2-23-21: ???

Wednesday 2-24-21: ???

Thursday 2-25-21: ???

I have no clue what to make next week. I am not feeling making out a menu and I just have no inspiration. The kids have a lot of things going on next week and I just don't know. 

What have you been eating or cooking lately? Share your menu ideas in the comments! Anyone have any good ideas for me to make next week? 

Winter Walk = Good for my soul and a heavy heart today

Happy Thursday! 

Yesterday, I decided to take a little bit of "me" time. It was super cold out when I got up yesterday morning; when I left to take Rebecca to school my van said -2. I went to the grocery store yesterday and then decided to take a walk. The sun was out and it was just calling me to walk. When I left to go walk around 12:50 my van said it was 27 degrees.

I was going to go walk at Ariel park however the parking lots were not plowed so I decided to head back home. However, as I was passing the local softball fields park, I saw that their parking lots WERE plowed so I pulled in there. Not only was their parking lot plowed, but someone had plowed and shoveled the walking path sidewalk.

I never take time to walk there, however I will be taking more time as I really love the walk as it runs by the river. 

I was able to see several types of birds including a heron, geese, ducks, a cardinal, and others.

I ended up walking 2.25 miles.

As I was leaving I texted Bill this picture of me and he texted back that I was insane! LOL

It felt really good though and was a good thing for my soul. Have you done anything recently that has been good for your soul?

I am glad that I did this yesterday as today my heart is heavy. These last few days have been weighing heavy on my mind. The weather is crappy-- it is snowing, cold and grey again today. There is so much anger and hate in the world. Yesterday, Bill witnessed a young guy (he said he was around 19-20) cuss out an older gentleman (age 70ish) at the gas station all because the old guy asked the young kid to shut his truck off while he was pumping gas. Also yesterday, I helped a neighbor get their car unstuck in the snow and not only did I not get a thank you, but she acted ticked off when I told her I was NOT backing my van up the street so she could get out. (I asked her to go to the next driveway in our dead in street and pull in there so I could pass. The snow plow has made it so 1 car can go up or down our street at one time.) Rebecca confided in me that she thinks her best friend has an eating disorder. So I had to make that difficult call this morning to reach out to her friend's mom and trying to navigate that situation for and with Rebecca. I am praying for comfort for a fellow blogger whose husband passed away very unexpectedly Monday night. All of it just makes my heart heavy.   

Wordless Wednesday: How much is that robin in the window??

 

Valentine's Weekend 2021

Happy Tuesday everyone! Hope everyone survived their Monday. It seems like Mondays in the winter are the hardest for me to get through. Maybe that is because the weekends are usually good and I don't want them to end. 😂 

This past weekend was no exception. Being a holiday weekend always adds a little something extra to the feeling. After a crazy week of babysitting, we started our weekend on Friday afternoon with a nice walk in the snow. I NEEDED to get out of the house and since the temperature wasn't horribly cold (it was around 27 degrees) we took a walk on the bike path. We only went about a mile but that was in snow and I felt it in my lower calf muscles. The scenery though was beautiful! 

Then it was home where I ordered Dominoes pizza for dinner since I survived the long week! 

Saturday, Rebecca and I ran some errands, including to Big Lots where I was looking for a couple fake succulents for a mantle display I want to do. I also wanted to get an over the door coat hanger. I had a rewards coupon for $5 off a $15 purchase so that paid for the coat hanger and I got 3 fake succulents for a future project. When we got home, I decided to give the boys haircuts. They were LONG overdue. I was waiting to give Ben's head time to heal from his staples. 

Before dinner, I went to pick up a Valentine's Day treat that I ordered from a local businesswoman who sells baked goods out of her home. I am trying to support local as one of my unnamed goals for this year. The chocolate covered strawberries were a hit and were so gorgeous! (We were supposed to go have dinner with friends which is why there are so many, however their heat went out and they had some other issues going on so we couldn't get together with them.) 

Valentine's Day, I woke up to a chocolate candy bouquet from Bill. While I was showering, he fixed me breakfast, which was very sweet. We just hung out at home in the morning. 

After lunch, we decided to head out to Goodwill to drop off some donations and to take a peak to see what they had in store. Rebecca found 2 shirts, I got 2 shirts, a pair of pants for one of the boys, Bill found some Super Bowl magazines for his collection and the boys found some WWE wrestlers they didn't have. AND we got 50% off all the clothing so that saved us $10. 

Then we went over a park that is near Goodwill that has hiking paths. We walked almost a mile in the snow to the pond and back. It was neat seeing the animal tracks in the snow and across the frozen pond. We think we saw some coyote tracks among them, so that was neat to see.

 

When we got home the kids ate their Valentine's Day chocolate and Bill ended up going down to work on his area of the basement that he is trying to declutter and organize. 

The boys played on the Wii and I ended up napping on the couch. For dinner, I made the kids dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets, lima beans and pineapple. Bill went and got us super yummy Mexican food from Fiesta Mexicana and we had date night at home while the kids watched TV.

Overall, it was a very nice Valentine's Day and a nice weekend.  

Yesterday, it snowed off and on all day. Thankfully the kids were already scheduled to have the day off since it was President's Day so that helped. Today the kids are off school again due to the ice and snow. They have to do remote learning though as they have already used all the allotted snow days. Rebecca and Jacob have online work to do and Benjamin has a paper packet to complete. So I need to get them started.

How was your Valentine's Day weekend? Did you get snow/ice/cold weather where you are?