Mission Accomplished

Five years ago, I began to work on my Master's Degree.  I've been sidetracked by family illnesses, death of loved ones and life in general.  Over a year ago, I made a promise to myself.  I was going to finish my Masters Degree.  Come hell or highwater, I was going to finish this degree and get it done.

I had a child go off to college.  The last one started high school.  And I kept plugging on along.  College applications for the middle child have gone out, and a college has been chosen.  And through it all, I've been plugging and chugging, working on my Master's degree.  The papers have been steadily written.  My laptop has  gone on vacations with me, and I've been reading papers and writing papers and completing projects on the side of sports fields, in hotels around the country, and in libraries around the area. 

And the perserverance has paid off.  Last night, I submitted my final posts on Blackboard.  I submitted my last project.  Everything is finally finished.

I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry with relief.

My kids were thrilled beyond words for me.  They have sat with me while I've worked on papers.  We've gone to Wi-Fi hot spots and bitched about our homework together.  I've maintained a straight-A average, and the kids have seen the amount of work and dedication that has gone into keeping those grades up where they belong.

This last class has been the most frustrating of them all.  I loved the class before this one.  This class was not a good match for my personality.  It has been a struggle for me to slog my way through these classes, assignments, and readings.  As of now, I have an A in the class, but there are still 3 papers that I have submitted that have not yet been graded.  As long as I get a C in the class, I will graduate.
HOWEVER, I would really, really like to keep my A average at this point.  I'm patiently waiting to see what will happen next.

It is a strange sensation.  Earning my Master's Degree has been a goal of mine since I graduated from high school.  25 years after I graduated from College with my Bachelor's Degree, I will be graduating with my Master's Degree.  I've accomplished a major life goal.  Knocked a major tick off of my bucket list. 

Within 10 crazy days this summer, my middle son will graduate from high school, and I will walk across the stage and receive my diploma.

I love the feeling when you accomplish a dream.

I had posted this on the old blog on March 8, 2013.  This seems like a great Throwback Thursday!
 This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all! 

2015 Resolutions

There's nothing like public accountability to keep you honest about your resolutions.

Without any further ado, here are my 2015 resolutions:

1) Exercise More/Walk 500 miles
I began the month of June barely able to walk.  I could put pressure on my knee, but I was so out of shape, it's not even funny.  I've been slowly building my stamina back up, walking in the parking lot at work if I have extra time.  Those short little distances are the little hops.   They do add up, but I really need to pick up the pace this month!

Total walked in June: 13.7 miles.  Total walked in 2015: 32.73.

June totals walked: 13.7 miles

2) Lose 10 pounds
No weight loss this month, sad to say. Gotta pick up the pace on the walks.

3) Remodel the Hall Bathroom
The money in the savings account is getting closer to the target for this.

4) Finish Oldest Child's Quilt 
I have just 4 blocks left to quilt, the outer border to finish, and then bind it off.  The deadline for this is Aug. 12. I WILL have this finished on time!


5) Clean and Organize the Family Room in the Basement.
Done and done.  I'm working on the big messy room in the basement.  I'm trying to decide if some of this stuff is worth selling, or if I should just give it all to the White Elephant Sale at the church?  I'm also surprised at how much of this is just going straight into the trash.  OK, maybe not THAT surprised.  There is a lot of useless crap down there.


6) Cut Back on the Time I Spend on Social Media.
I took the apps off of my phone.  Without access on my phone, I access social media once a day, in the afternoon when I have my downtime.  (Some of us call it nap time, but hey, whatever floats your boat!)  You know, I spent the first 40 something years of my life without social media.  I really don't need to spend that much time on it now, either.  Most of what I'm getting in my feed is advertisements, and I really don't like the fact that Zuckerburg is mining my data for his own personal gain.  (targeted advertising)

7) Read 75 books this year.
I am making excellent progress towards this goal this year!  I'm already past the halfway point, and there are still 6 more months to go!  You can see the books I've read, and find links to the ones I've written reviews on here: 75 Book Challenge 

8) Get out of debt/Pay college tuitions without going deeper into debt
The kids have scholarships, but there's still a balance that has to be covered.  Oldest child is on his own for Graduate School, but the two youngest children still have tuition that needs to be paid. We refuse to allow our children to graduate from school with debt.  This month is a challenge.  There are 2 tuition payments that need to be made.  (I've written at length about this in the past, and will do so again next week.)

9) Spend More Time With My Family
This will most likely be the last summer all of my kids are home for the entire summer.  Believe me when I tell you I plan to enjoy every single moment of it. 

10) 365 Grateful
You can find me on Flickr:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/librarynut/
I've recently added a few more pictures.  I do keep the ones with my kids and their friends private, however, so I think there's probably a lot of pictures on Flickr that you are not able to see.

11) Replace the car that was totaled.
This ties in with #8... those tuition payments are looming..... I'm holding off on purchasing anything until we make the tuition payments.

12) I will maintain my friendships.
This one is a great joy!  I love connecting with my friends!
(I just wish I hadn't had to write it down in order to make it a priority.)

13) I will have more adventures.
I'm having a colonoscopy tomorrow.  Does that count?  How about the mammogram I had 2 weeks ago?  Maybe you don't count them as adventures, but give me a break here.  I've got to find a fun way to think about this.

14) Craft More
All of my efforts this past month have gone into finishing oldest child's quilt.  No dilly dallying on other projects this month!

How are you doing on your resolutions for the year? 

2015 Resolutions

We had a massive, swirling thunderstorm here last night.  Most of the night, lightning and thunder boomed and roared, and the sound of hail hitting the house woke me up several times.  We slept with the weather radio on alert status - and were so glad that the only alerts we received were for flash flood warnings, and nothing more severe.

I woke up at one point to find the cat curled up under my arm, as close to me as he could possibly get. I'm sure he wasn't scared - he was just reassuring me that everything was fine!

Unfortunately, the news this morning was filled with stories of houses that were struck by lightning last night - several of them burned to the ground.  I didn't hear of any injuries or deaths in those fires, but the loss of a home is heartbreaking.  I feel for everyone who is affected.

Resolutions-
At the beginning of the year, I made a list of resolutions for the new year.  At the beginning of each month, I review my resolutions for the year, as well as the progress I have made towards keeping those goals!

I find it interesting to see how I am doing on meeting my goals, and making this list public keeps me honest and on track.

Without further ado, here we go!

1) Exercise More/ Walk 500 Miles
My knee is finally better, and I am slowly beginning to walk greater distances and get more exercise. FINALLY.  Slowly, slowly, and oh, does it feel good to move again!  On Saturday, I issued myself a challenge to walk 500 miles between June 1 and December 31.  I'm hoping that somebody out there who reads this will join me!  You can see Saturday's post here: http://mini-van-mom.blogspot.com/2015/05/walk-1000-miles-in-2015.html.  


2) Lose 10 pounds
So, for the two months since I hurt my knee, I haven't been able to move, and I've been afraid to weigh myself.  I stepped on the scale this morning, and it turns out..... I weigh exactly what I did in April.  I am amazed, considering that I haven't been moving much - if at all - over the last 8 weeks.  I guess only eating green stuff that was healthy for me made a difference!

3) Remodel the Hall Bathroom
Ugh.  I need to just light a match and set fire to that bathroom. Too bad it's attached to the rest of the house.

4) Finish Oldest Child's Quilt
Graduation party is over, so I'm back to quilting again.  I hope to have this finished by the end of July. Ten blocks left to quilt, the outside border left to go, and then I need to finish the edges.  I'm shooting for a July 31 completion date!

5) Clean and Organize the Family Room in the Basement.
Who thought it could be done?  BTW, I still haven't finished the big messy room in the basement, but at least the family room is clean!

6) Cut Back on the Time I Spend on Social Media.
Fail, fail, fail.  I'm struggling with this one.

7) Read 75 books this year.
Making excellent progress!  I have read 31 books.  I haven't reviewed the last few books, as they are a continuation of a series.  I reviewed one book in the series, and I don't think I need to review every book, because if you enjoy one book in the series, you're going to enjoy more of them.  I'm currently working my way through a book that I hope to review later this week.  It's a crime thriller - and I don't often read that genre.

8) Get out of debt.
We are working on this.  Just paid cash to fix a car, so we didn't add to the debt load.  We're getting ready to pay tuition for 2 kids this fall - even when you take out the amount of scholarships they've earned, we still have a substantial chunk of change we're going to owe.  At this point in time, we're thinking we might change this goal to "Don't go into MORE debt".  We'll see.

9) Spend More Time With My Family
This will most likely be the last summer all of my kids are home for the entire summer.  Believe me when I tell you I plan to enjoy every single moment of it.

10) 365 Grateful
You can find me on Flickr:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/librarynut/

11) Replace the car that was totaled.
This ties in with #8... those tuition payments are looming..... I'm holding off on purchasing anything until we make the tuition payments.

12) I will maintain my friendships.
This one is a great joy!  I love connecting with my friends!
(I just wish I hadn't had to write it down in order to make it a priority.)

13) I will have more adventures.
Orioles Game.  College Graduation.  Learning to run a class in Adobe Connect. 

14)  Craft More
I accomplished several things this month!

Daughter's Scrapbook, based upon the story "Oh! The Places You'll Go!" by Dr. Seuss.

Dr. Seuss, I am not. Classy stick figure there, isn't it?

This adorable cactus garden.  I found the directions to make it here: http://www.polkadotchair.com/2015/03/diy-coke-can-succulent-planter.html/

I think the garden turned out splendidly!  OK, except for that tiny little can in the very front.  That one is just too small for anything to grow.  Overall, it was REALLY FUN to make this!

I made this beautiful blanket from scraps of yarn for Project Linus

It's more of a "Granny Rectangle" than a "Granny Square".  I love the way the colors play together!

So, what kind of progress are you making on your resolutions?  Don't tell me you've forgotten them?

My Accomplishments

It's been a while since I've written one of these!

A few weeks ago, I made and froze several freezer meals.  Since I hurt my knee over the weekend, we've been hitting up the freezer meals pretty hard.  THIS is why I go ahead and make freezer meals - so that when something unexpected happens, dinner is one of those things that we don't have to worry about!  We haven't had to run out and grab fast food, and we're not depending upon quick and easy food from the grocery store.  ONE less thing to worry about!  I'm counting that as an accomplishment!

I made a HUGE pot of black bean soup from dried beans.  We had the beans for dinner two days.  I took the rest of the soup, and froze it in containers - small containers, each holds 16-20 ounces of beans.  This is the perfect size to me to toss into chili and salads in the future.  Notice, it's about the same size as a can of beans? 

One of our local grocery stores had ham on sale after Easter. I picked up two of them, and cooked them both.  I sliced and diced the ham and portioned them out into single serving sizes and froze them.  These wonderful little bags will help with dinner prep in the future.  I didn't have the time to make bean soup this past week, so I took the ham bones and froze them in gallon size bags.  I'll come back to them later when I have the time to make bean soup.

I replaced the rope in my clothesline.  The old plastic rope had become stretched and worn.  Now that warmer weather is here, I want to get my clothes outside to dry again.  By line drying our clothes, we save a significant amount of money on our electric bill.  When we get to dry them outside, they get that wonderful outdoor smell of sunshine!

I used Kohl's cash that I earned recently, took it to Kohl's and combined it with a sale to pay $9 for a locket that I plan to pull together with some very special goodies.  I'll post more about that later this week.

We combined some hotel bonus points to make reservations for daughter's graduation trip.  We're going some place where we'll be able to take mass transportation the entire time we are there.  NO CAR RENTAL!!

I picked up a bag of lemons on the clearance rack for $1.  First, I zested the lemons and then froze the zest on a cookie sheet.  I then put the zest in a freezer bag.  I juiced the lemons and froze the juice in ice cube trays.  I popped those frozen puppies out and put them in another sandwich bag.  Next time I need lemon juice for fish or cooking, I can just pull out a cube or two, pop it in the microwave and melt it, and then pop it into the recipe.

I was helping clean up after a luncheon last week, and someone handed me the remains of a fruit salad and said "You can work magic with almost anything.  What can you do with this?"  Fortunately, the salad was mixed berries and kiwi.  (It was a goodly sized portion, too.  About 3 cups of mixed fruit!)  I picked out the kiwi and ate that first.  :)  The berries were a little mushy, so I mashed them up and made a batch of gluten free berry muffins. Mmmm..... berry muffins.... they were awesome!

I swear to you, it jumped me!

Saturday was beautiful.  What a gorgeous day!

Daughter and I were on a mission.  We had to find her white shoes to wear to graduation.  Granted, graduation is 7-ish weeks away.  (35 school days, according to daughter.)  We've been having issues finding white shoes.  They just aren't out there.

We had good intel that there were white shoes aplenty at DSW.

And so, we went to DSW.

We had lunch, and we walked around the beautiful little outdoor mall.  We stopped into the little shops, and then we went a little wild in DSW.  We found the white shoes.  We found the purse for prom. I even found a really cute pair of shoes.

As we were walking back to the car, I found myself on the ground, hard.  I don't really know how I got there.  I suspect that the sidewalk jumped me!

Honestly, the sidewalks here have heaved at the joints, and walking can be iffy if you don't keep an eye on your feet. Road repair is the order of the day at this moment in time, and the sidewalks are being ignored.

My foot hit the edge of a sidewalk heave, and I went down like a ton of bricks.  I twisted my right ankle.  I landed hard, oh so hard on my left knee.  I managed to catch myself on my hands.  The force with which I landed on my knee made me naseous.

Several passerby stopped and helped my daughter and I get back to my car.  I hobbled my way back to the car, and daughter drove us to the ER.

After 4 hours, it was determined that I had severe soft tissue damage in my knee.  I'm going to have to stay off of my knee - and on crutches - for a week. If things don't improve by the end of the week, then I can go in for an MRI and see if there are torn muscles or ligaments.

Yuck.

My entire leg is beautiful this morning.  It is swollen from my hip down to my toes.  The swelling has gone down somewhat, but I am still unable to pull my jeans up over my knee.   Not to mention the fact that my shoes aren't really fitting...

Frugal Car Trips

We are a family of 5.  Since I was a Stay At Home Mom for so long, living on a tight budget is second nature to me.  We love to go visit and explore new places.  Travel can be expensive, but we've found a way to cut down on the expenses as much as we possibly can. Since planning for spring break and summer vacation trips has just begun for many people, I thought I would share a few of the things we've learned along the way.

1) Books on tape are great.  (Play Away, CD, whatever format your car has).  We go to the library before we leave on vacation and check out several books to listen to.  Many of these books are read by some very well known actors, and they outdo themselves when reading these books.  To date, my personal favorite is Dragon Rider, written by Cornelia Funke and read by Brendan Fraser.  Our kids got into these books at a young age.  My Dad lived in Indiana at the time (a 10 hour car ride from home) and I remember them listening to these books when they were preschoolers.

2) Stop every couple of hours and run around.  KEEP A VERY CLOSE EYE ON YOUR KIDS no matter where you stop!  We still stop at rest areas, run around,  and maybe play a little catch or frisbee.  Unless if we're eating a meal, our stops run about 15 minutes.  (Longer when they were younger.)

3) Pack your own meals.  Food on the road is gross and greasy.  For our recent trip to Savannah, we packed bread, peanut butter and jelly, a fruit salad that I made before we left home, and a Quinoa Pilaf - with diced cooked chicken on the side, hummus, and corn chips.  We ate the peanut butter and jelly, along with the fruit salad for lunch.  The quinoa pilaf was for dinner - the non-vegetarians amongst us added the diced cubed chicken.  We had the hummus and corn chips for a late evening snack.  By far, the largest expense was the fruit, but it was well worth it!  (pack your own plates and utensils, too)


4) Drink only water.  We travel with our own bottles, and refill them at every stop.  When we traveled across Kansas several years ago, we took several thermoses of water with us - we were not certain how close together rest stops and gas stations would be.  Excellent forethought on our part.  They are far and few between out there.

5) Stay in a hotel that:
      a) Offers free breakfast.  (These hotels tend to keep fresh fruit out all day, so you can pick up a piece of fruit for a snack on your way in during the afternoon.)
      b) Has a club of some sort that allows you to build up points to earn free stays. 

6) Meals in a different place:
This varies from place to place.  We typically stay in hotels that include refrigerators and microwaves.  If we are going to eat out while we are adventuring somewhere, that meal will be lunch.  Many times, we will make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit, and head out for our adventures of the day.  Depending upon how close we are to home, I will take dinners with us, or we will stop and pick up fixings for a meal or two on our way into town.  Since Savannah was a drive, I packed things in the cooler that would hold for a few days for dinner.  Salmon Pasta Salad is a perennial favorite in our house, and it holds well for a couple of days in the fridge.  I had also made a batch of confetti rice before we left.   Combined with the leftover diced chicken, it was a hearty meal.  The vegetarians in the family added chopped almonds and fake chicken crumbles to theirs.  I had an extra bag of chili in the freezer, so I threw that into the cooler, also.  We reheated that individually in bowls in the microwave, and that made a tasty meal one chilly evening!
*Note- if you bring paper, you don't have to wash it in the hotel sink.  I've tried washing dishes in the hotel sink.  I prefer using paper plates.  (But we travel with our own reusable wooden eating utensils.  I have to draw the line somewhere, and that's the line.  Wooden utensils.  Go figure.)

7) Park your car.
You are in a new location, explore it!  We've used public transportation in cities all over the United States.  It's an interesting way to get to see the new city, and a lot of hotels will provide transportation (or are within walking distance of) metro stations and points of interest.  We stayed in the city of Savannah, and walked everywhere while we were there.  The city is laid out on a grid, and it is much more friendly to pedestrian traffic than automobiles.

8) Camp
We did this more often when the kids were younger.  Camped out to Mount Rushmore, in the Black Hills, the Badlands, Devil's Tower, and home again.  Done it a few times on the beach at Assateague Island, and in several National and State Forests.  It's a great way to get away for very little.  (Meal planning when camping is crucial!  No refrigerators on site, and you're cooking over a camp stove or fire.  It's a blast, but make sure you plan ahead!)  The cost for a night in a tent at most campgrounds in National Forests runs around $20.  No television, no electronics, it's a great way to spend some family time with no distractions!

Traveling can be expensive, but if  you plan ahead, are willing to walk and forgo meals in restaurants, you really can have a great frugal vacation!

Making a Quilt a Quilt

After years of procrastinating, I finally finished piecing oldest child's quilt, pinned it with the batting and backing, and now I'm getting ready to quilt it!  Oldest child is an Eagle Scout.  With this thought in mind, I purchased the fabric for a Boy Scout Quilt online at the Fat Quarter Shop.  (No affiliate link here, I just wanted to let you know where I found the fabric!) 

The pattern included with the fabric was easy to follow.  A four square alternated with a large block.  Everything is joined together with green strips.  This begs the question - Why did I procrastinate so much?

I hand quilt what I make, so I've got to get this mounted into a quilting hoop.  My hoop is big.  I found it about 30 years ago, and I adore it!  The hoop is easy to use, and it screws tightly together to hold the fabric in place.  I've seen floor mounted hoops, but I like this one because it is portable.  I'm not tied down to one location with this hoop.

My quilting hoop.  You see that big wood block on the upper left corner?  That's got the screw and wing nut, where I tighten the hoop once I've placed it securely over the fabric.

A view of the squares.  The blanket is not yet mounted on the hoop.

In the hoop, I've tightened the wing nut to hold the fabric in place.

This is a crucial step.  I pull the fabric from the outside of the hoop.  The fabric needs to be tight so that the stitches and fabric are even and there are no fabric puckers.

Fully loaded and ready to begin!  I'll pull the loose threads off before I begin quilting.  The safety pins hold the layers of fabric together.  As I quilt, I'll remove the safety pins from the area where I am working.

I've had people ask me before how to quilt.  I'll tell you what my husband's grandmother told me when she taught me how to quilt:  You just go up and down and up and down and keep on going until you're done!

Seriously, you just make a series of small stitches.  If you've ever cross stitched or embroidered, you can quilt.

For this quilt, I'm going to outline the big squares, in the green lattice work.  Inside of each square, I'm going to quilt diamonds- much like I did with middle child's t-shirt quilt, only these are smaller squares, so there will be fewer diamonds.  I'll post pictures of the quilting itself in a couple of weeks.

I feel like I should do "something" else in the green lattice work, but I'm not certain what I'll do.  I'll have to outline a few squares first and see how I like this before I decide.

My Resolutions

At the beginning of each year, I like to make a list of resolutions.  I like to post them here, publicly and check back in on them once a month to keep myself on track.  These weren't random resolutions.  I made them for a reason.  By checking back once a month, I am keeping myself honest.  They're written down, and I'm holding myself accountable for them!

1) Exercise More.  
My goal was to get out to exercise for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.  It's been very cold, and the roads have been dangerous out here. If we count shoveling snow, we can say that I've averaged 30 minutes a day, 3 days a week.  Must do better next month.

2) Lose 10 pounds.
2 pounds lost this month! 

3) Remodel the Hall Bathroom.
This is a repeat from last year.

4) Finish oldest child's quilt.
The quilt is pinned!  Who-Hoo!  I'll be putting it into the quilting hoop later on today!

5) Clean and organize the Family Room in the basement.
Bag of trash after bag of trash, after Goodwill Runs.  Most of this room is clean now.  I'm wading my way through papers.  I still have to go through and organize the bookshelves.  It's the librarian in me - I have always kept those books in order by subject.  Now that I can actually get to the shelves, the books will soon be organized.  Unfortunately, it looks as if there's lots of little stuff that needs to be sorted out on the shelves, too.

6) Cut back on the time I spend on Social Media.
I'm only looking at social media now first thing in the morning, when I'm waiting for my husband to get through the bathroom, and at lunch time.  Now that I've cut back on how much time I spent on Facebook, I'm realizing just how little people actually have to say. 

7) Read 75 books this year.


I'm making some serious progress on this.  I've been blogging about each of the books I've read in this challenge as I go.  I have a page dedicated to the books I'm reading this year.  You can find it on the right hand side of this page, listed as "2015 Book Challenge".  I have 7 books that I have reviewed in the month of January, with one more that I've completed and need to review next week. I have two more books from work sitting on the kitchen table, ready for me to read next. 

8) Get out of debt.
Working on it. 

9) Spend more time with my family
Always a priority, and it gets harder and harder as the kids go off to college and get lives of their own.  The semester began last weekend, and the boys went back to school.  For most of the month of January, we had a fantastic time together and enjoyed each other's company no end.

10)  365 Grateful
I will continue to find a way to be thankful for the things I have.  There are a lot of awful things that happen, but I will focus on the positive.  You can lose yourself in negativity.  I've been posting pictures on Flickr, and some on here.  Any way I can find to keep myself positive!

11) Replace the car that was totaled.
It needs to be done, even in the midst of paying off loans, a bathroom that needs to be remodeled, and college expenses.  Our Civic has 225,000 miles on it.  It's a great car, and we keep up to date on the maintenance, but by God, do we need to make certain we have a back up plan!  The van doesn't have nearly as many miles on it, but putting gas in that behemoth is expensive. 

12) I will maintain my friendships.
I've done this!  I've had lunch with friends twice, and I got in touch with two other friends- not for good reasons, each of them lost a parent this month.  I called them each after the funeral to talk to them, and took them a gift card for a local restaurant so that they can get out for dinner and get away from home for a while.

13) Have a few more adventures this year.
We went to Savannah earlier this month while the boys were home from school.  Lovely city!

14) Craft More
Finished (more or less, still need to bind the edge) my Christmas Quilt project!
The original idea was to finish 12 projects in 1 year.  One down!

How are you doing on your resolutions this year?

Some Accomplishments

It's been a few days since I've posted.  Sorry about that.  Daughter is busy applying for scholarships left and right - and doing so requires access to the computer.  Since we only have one computer at home, we've been letting her use that one as much as she needs.  Here's hoping that at least one of them comes back with something!

I did manage to get oldest son's quilt pinned last week.  I am working on another project at the moment that I hope to have finished by the end of the week.  His quilt will be the next up.  His graduation from college is in May - 4 years after the date I had intended to finish it.  Even worse?  I still need to make one for daughter and haven't even found the fabric for hers yet.  *sigh*.  I let myself get too far behind on these projects.

I always plan our dinner menu out a week in advance, make a list, and shop accordingly.  Unfortunately, I have not been as diligent about working on lunch and breakfast menus.  I went grocery shopping Saturday evening.  Sunday afternoon, I set about preparing quick, easy, little thought required breakfasts and lunches.

For breakfast, I prepared my favorite oatmeal in single serve size mason jars.  Into each jar, I placed 1/2 cup of oatmeal, brown sugar and cinnamon, chopped pecans, and chopped dried cranberries and dried apples.  It took me 5 minutes- and most of that time was spent in rough chopping the apples and cranberries.

I also cut up veggies to use in scrambled eggs.  Into single serving size containers, I added some baby kale, mushrooms, bell pepper, and red onion.  So, first thing in the morning, all I have to do is add the chopped veggies to a swirl of olive oil and saute them before adding eggs.  An extra serving of veggies with no effort!

Five containers of salad in a jar were made and stored for lunch.  This week's salads feature some baby kale, red onions, corn kernels, and frozen peas.

Since I was in my Martha Stewart mode, I went ahead and made a double batch of granola and peanut butter balls.  Both of these are great snacks, full of protein that will hold me over until meal time without causing a sugar crash.  One of my favorite snacks is granola with yogurt. 

Hopefully, the handy snacks, healthy breakfasts, and the knowledge that I have a prepared lunch on hand will cut down on my fast food and snacking binges when I let myself get too hungry.  That never ends well, as I find myself in a funk of sugar highs and sugar crashes when that happens.

As I write this, the North East Corridor of the United States is under a blizzard warning.  They are expecting up to 36 inches of snow in the next day or so.  If you live in that area, stay safe!
(We are very fortunate to be missing this one- less than 200 miles from the blizzard line to our house.  That's a very close call.)

What to do with all that Ham

We had ham for Christmas dinner.  It was a big ham, and we've had some leftovers.

Besides sandwiches, what have we done with all of that ham?

Western Omelets
Cubed Ham
Diced Onions and Bell Peppers
Eggs
Dash of Milk
Shredded Cheddar Cheese

• Saute the ham, onions, and peppers.  When the onions turn translucent, remove from pan and set aside.  Keep the pan on the burner and keep the burner on.
• In a large bowl, crack the eggs (I use 2 for me), add a dash of milk, and whisk the eggs and milk together until light and fluffy.
• Spray the cooking pan with non-stick spray. 
• Slowly add the eggs to the pan.  Since the pan is already hot, the pan should "grab" the eggs as you add them and they should start to cook quickly.  Using a rubber spatula, pull up the edges of the eggs and allow the raw egg to flow into that portion of the pan.
• When the eggs have set, add the ham mixture and the cheese.  Very gently, fold the omelet in half as you slide the omelet out of the pan and onto a plate.

Stir Fry Rice
3 cups of rice, cooked
Diced Ham
Diced veggies - carrots, bell pepper, celery, onion, etc.
Soy Sauce

• In a skillet over med-high heat, add a chug of olive oil.
• Saute the ham and veggies in the oil until heated through.
• Add rice, stir constantly for 1 minute.
• Remove from heat, add soy sauce to taste.

Note- if you want, you can scramble an egg to add to your stir fry.  Do this first, remove the eggs, and then follow the rest of the directions.  Add the egg back in after you remove the skillet from the heat, but before you add the soy sauce.

Split Pea Soup
6 cups water
4 chicken bullion cubes
(see my recipe for bullion cubes here:http://mini-van-mom.blogspot.com/2013/06/blog-post.html)
2 cups split peas. dried
1 small onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 stalk of celery, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp thyme
1 Bay leaf
1/2 tsp pepper
1 ham bone, make sure it's got meat on it.  If it doesn't have enough meat, chop up some leftover ham and add it.

• In the slow cooker, add all of the ingredients listed above.  Add the split peas, and make sure that the ham bone is snuggled down in the beans.  If the water does not completely cover the soup with two inches to spare, add more water.  For every extra cup of water, add another bullion cube.
• Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.
•  Stir well before serving.

There are those awkward ends and chunks of ham that are too small for sandwiches.  What to do with those?  I diced a lot of ham and froze it in one cup servings in sandwich bags.  1 cup is a perfect size to add to most recipes.  The end of the ham, I chopped in half with the help of a butcher knife.  The ends have been frozen and added to the "stuff" for future soups.  I have bones, ends of meat, etc, that I save in vacuum sealed bags in the freezer.  I label the outside of the bag, because while it's easy to tell what kind of bones I have from the outside, it's very difficult to tell what the contents are when I pull out a frozen mass.  Chicken bones?  Beef Bones?  Two soups I approach very differently!  I actually have a section of my freezer set aside for soup "stuff'.  You know that basket that sits across the top of a chest freezer?  That's where I keep my soup stuff.

With just a little pre-planning, you can set yourself up to have things on hand in your freezer that will save you time and money down the line.  Even though you might have to remember to pull stuff out the night before, it's well worth the effort!

What did you do with your leftovers from Christmas?

Resolutions

I will be posting sporadically for the rest of this year.  My kids are home, we've got stuff going with family and friends, and I still need to get the last of the baking done.  Keeping that thought in mind, I wanted to take one last look at my resolutions for 2014.  All in all, I am pleased with the job I have done keeping my promises to myself.  I'll set another round of goals in 2015.  Keeping track of my goals publicly has done a fantastic job of keeping me honest over this past year!  I am wondering what great things I'll be able to tackle next year!

1) 365 Grateful.
2013 was a very stressful year for our family.  I finished graduate school, middle child graduated from college, and DH was in an accident that totaled our car. I had an abnormal mammogram screening, and there were the consultations that surrounded that mammogram.  We still have not replaced that car yet.  That is on the MUST DO list for next year!  At the end of last year, I found myself stressed out about the things that had happened, and the what might have happeneds.  I made a vow to myself to focus on the good, and the positive, and work to find that happy place - even in the midst of tribulations.  It was worth every minute.  While this year has been no less stressful than last, I have found myself searching for the positives in some pretty heinous situations in order to keep myself sane.  Negative: Mother has a colon rupture not once, but twice?  Postive: She's still here.
Negative: It took me a year to find a job after I finished grad. school, and that was only a part time job, with no benefits.  Positive:  It's a job in my field, and I'm gaining some pretty concrete skills.

2) Lose 10 pounds
I lost the original 10, and lost 12 more, for a total of 22 pounds.  For right now, I am attempting to keep those 22 pounds OFF for the holidays.  That is some serious progress!  I can't wait for the results of my blood work to come back after my check up next month!

3) Run/Walk
This was a massive fail.  I am walking, but not a lot.  Running never happened.  I will not cut this goal out next year, but I will find a way to make this goal attainable!

4) Get out of Debt
Working on it.  I even set up a fancy new spreadsheet over this past month that has helped me tremendously.  I now know where my money suckers are coming from! 

5) Finish Cleaning Out the Basement.  BWah-Ha-Ha.  I should just bring a dumpster in and dump it all.  I sent a van load full of stuff to the White Elephant sale at the church, another to Goodwill, and still another to the dump.  I also burned out the motor on my shredder.  I'm going to have to get a new shredder so I can keep going!

6) Finish Oldest Child's Quilt.  The top is finished.  I added a border to it in order to make it long enough to fit him - all 6 feet some inches of him.  I pieced out the back, and purchased the batting to go inside.  I am going to have to find a big space of floor somewhere to pin it all together soon.  I still don't think I'm going to finish this before Christmas. It would take a miracle.  Update: this quilt is currently folded away, in a bag in my closet.  I'll get back to it after the holidays.  I still need to add batting to it, and I need to pin it.  For that, I need a lot of space.  Like a church floor.  I won't have that kind of space available until after New Years.

7)  Spend More Time With my Family
With 2 kids in college, and a Senior in high school, finding time to do this is a priority.

8) Finish that Book I Keep Saying I'm Going to Write.
Done!  I began working on this in 2008, when I was still working in the public library!  Building Blocks for School Success has been released on my Lulu author site.  You can find it here:  http://tinyurl.com/l76245p.  Wow... it was a thought I had one afternoon while working the public information desk in the children's section.  Who would have thought it would take this long to research it?  The first time I finished it, Common Core was introduced, and I needed to go back and revise way more than I care to acknowledge.

9) Finish The Hallway Bathroom.  Okay, this is a post for another day.  I've found the money suckers.  I'm beginning to save money.  It makes me wonder what's going to break next?  Update:  it's been a month since I wrote this post.  Nothing has broken yet.  I'm beginning to get very concerned.

10) Get Back into my Music.  Have done.  I sing Alto, but NO SOLOS!  (Ha... I sing solo no one can hear me! hahaha!   Alto joke...)  Our church has been advertising for a flute choir. I haven't touched my flute since I was in high school.  I've been debating whether or not to even try and join.  They've set the lower age limit at 10.  I wonder what the number of years without practice will be set to?

How have you done with your resolutions over the course of 2014?   Are you ready to join me in setting and KEEPING some resolutions in 2015?

My Resolutions and Accomplishments

Thanksgiving has come and gone.  I had a wonderful 4 days with my kids.  It was so good to have the boys home from school for a few days!  (Even if they did spend the entire time working on final projects, it was wonderful to have them all over the house, with their books and computers spread everywhere!  Their semester ends a week from tomorrow.)

I worked that turkey all weekend.  We never had to go back out for food, and that turkey provided us with multiple meals:

1) Sandwiches.

2) Pulled turkey BBQ sandwiches.  I tore up some of the turkey leftovers, and smothered them in this amazing BBQ sauce that I made with the recipe I found here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/blackberry-bbq-sauce/.

3) Turkey Soup.  After Thanksgiving Dinner was finished, we pulled the rest of the meat off of the carcass.  We then took the carcass, as well as whatever meat we might have missed, and put it into the slow cooker.  We filled the pot with water, and let it cook for about 12 hours on low.  The next morning, I strained the broth out, removing the bones and assorted other stuff and put it into a large pot on the stove.  I added leftover mashed potatoes, leftover carrots, corn, and green beans.  I then cut up and added a potato, onion, and some celery and let it all stew for an hour more. When it was time to serve, I pulled out the wild rice and minced some leftover turkey.  The idea was to put the wild rice and turkey into the bowl, and then cover all with the hot soup.  (An idea I borrowed from the Vietnamese Pho. If you've never tried it, you should.  It is amazing.)

4) Turkey Wreath.  It's an old Pampered Chef recipe.  It requires the use of crescent rolls.  I can't eat it because of the gluten, but I pulled some of the turkey salad out and made my a very tasty panini on gluten free bread.  You can find the recipe here: http://tinyurl.com/mcvvwmg

5) Turkey A La King. The recipe is here: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/turkey-a-la-king-with-rice.  You can serve this over toast, rice, or noodles. 

I've got a very little bit of turkey left today.  I'm debating whether to make it into a casserole or a Chef Salad.  I only have enough to make one, not both.

With the exception of my spectacular pecan pie, Thanksgiving was a wonderful success!

Blackened Pecan Pie! Look at that black crust!

 

 

 

Back in January, I set a list of Resolutions I wanted to keep this year.  I've been checking back on them once a month, just to see how I'm doing.  Since it's the first of the month, here we go!

1) 365 Grateful.  Check out my Blog Post from yesterday: http://mini-van-mom.blogspot.com/2014/11/an-attitude-of-gratitude.html.

 2) Lose 10 pounds.  I've lost a total of 22 pounds.  I had hoped to lose 3 more in order to make it an even 25 pounds, but that just isn't going to happen.  Instead of stressing out about losing the next 3 pounds, I am going to sit back, enjoy the holidays, and strive to maintain the 22 pounds I have lost, so that I'm not going back and re-losing this weight again in January.

 3) Run/Walk. I'm walking long distances on weekends with my hubby.  In addition to parking on the far side of the lot from my office building, I am taking a complete turn around the lot before going in and after I finish for the day.  I'm not sure how many steps I'm adding, but that does add 5 minutes of walking both before and after my shift is finished.  (Even when it's raining/snowing, I'm still walking around the lot.)

4) Get out of debt.  Working on it.

5) Finish Cleaning Out the Basement.  BWah-Ha-Ha.  I should just bring a dumpster in and dump it all.  I sent a van load full of stuff to the White Elephant sale at the church, another to Goodwill, and still another to the dump.  I also burned out the motor on my shredder.  I'm going to have to get a new shredder so I can keep going!

6) Finish Oldest Child's Quilt.  The top is finished.  I added a border to it in order to make it long enough to fit him - all 6 feet some inches of him.  I pieced out the back, and purchased the batting to go inside.  I am going to have to find a big space of floor somewhere to pin it all together soon.  I still don't think I'm going to finish this before Christmas. It would take a miracle.

7) Spend More Time With My Family.  This month, I have spent time, a lot of time, with my kids, and I have loved every minute of it!

8) Finish the Book I Keep Saying I'm Going to Write.  Done!  I have it uploaded to Lulu, and I'm waiting for my copy to arrive - so I can make certain that the formatting is right and that I didn't miss anything in the way of spelling and grammar before I let it go public.  My goal is to release it no later than Dec. 15.

9) Finish The Hallway Bathroom.  Okay, this is a post for another day.  I've found the money suckers.  I'm beginning to save money.  It makes me wonder what's going to break next?

10) Get Back into my Music.  Have done.  The Christmas Cantata is two weeks from tomorrow.  I'll be singing Alto, but NO SOLOS!  (Ha... I sing solo no one can hear me! hahaha!   Alto joke...)

Lots and lots of progress is being made.  We have one credit card that should be completely paid off this month. More money to add to the "finish the yellow bathroom in the hallway" fund!

My Resolutions

Back in January, I made a list of 10 resolutions that I wanted to keep this year.  At the end of each month, I've been going back to take a look at my resolutions.  On some, I've made fantastic progress.  On others, I seem to have stalled out completely.  I really need to make a push to work on some of them.

1) 365 Grateful
I have been journaling occasionally.  I've been taking pictures almost daily.  It's been nice to focus on the positive things I have to be thankful for each day!

2) Lose 10 Pounds
Done!  Who-Hoo!  11 pounds down from January!  Can you believe it?

I decided to go ahead and work on the next ten pounds.  I'm down 2 more pounds this month, for a total of 13 pounds.  Slow and steady progress, sustainable changes to my eating habits.  It would be fantastic to see a loss of 20 pounds before the end of the year!

3) Run
I haven't actually been running, but I have been walking more.  I park at the far side of the parking lot at work, and on nice days, I walk around the business park before I go home.

I still have this elusive vision of myself running a 5K and finishing in the middle of the pack, or maybe even running a marathon.  But, the more I actually look at how much I despise running, the more I don't think I'm actually ever going to begin running.  But, I am getting more exercise every single day!  On the whole, that's more important than running.

4) Get Out of Debt
Making progress.  We are paying cash for everything now except for gas. 

I've been setting aside money for the boys textbooks this fall.  I have a goal of paying cash for those books! 

5) Finish Cleaning Out the Basement
I spent some time down here last weekend.  I can walk around the room, but there is still a lot of work to be done.  I have some serious sifting and sorting to do. I'm aiming for another garage sale come August/September.  We have plans to spend more time down there this weekend.

6) Finish Oldest Child's Quilt
Last month, I had begun piecing the quilt blocks together.  I haven't made any more progress on this project this month.  I was zipping along when the needle broke on my machine.  It took me two weeks to find a replacement needle.  I have the needle - I just need to figure out how to put it into the machine to make it work.  I lost the instruction manual long ago, and I can't find instructions for this 30 year old machine anywhere on the web.

7) Spend More Time With My Family
With an almost empty nest, I treasure every moment I get with the kids.  We had all of Memorial Day weekend together, and moved oldest child into his apartment Monday afternoon.  Relay for Life is this weekend, and we will ALL be spending the night together with friends and family. 

8)  Finish the Book I Keep Saying I'm Going to Write
No progress AGAIN this month.  Starting a new job has kind of put a cramp in that. I really need to push to get this started again.

9) Finish the hallway bathroom
Still saving for this.  We want to pay cash for this, there's no way it's going on a credit card.  The problem is, we're also saving for the fall textbook purchase, too.

10) Get Back Into My Music
Done and done.

How are you doing on your resolutions?

My Accomplishments

This past week was the week I've been both looking forward to and dreading for six months now.  My mammogram.

Six months ago, I went in and was astounded to find out that I had over 300 cysts.  Several of them were determined to be "suspicious", and I was put on a six month call back.

Over the last six moths, I've changed my diet.  No more caffeine.  No highly processed sugars.  Doctor's orders. 

I have been doing some research of my own since then about nutrition and cancer and breast health.  Long story short- more veggies, and eat as organically as possible.

I've had mixed success with sticking to this plan over the last six months.  But, the moment of truth came last week.

One mammogram and one ultrasound later, the number of cysts has been cut in half.  The "area of concern" is gone.  Most of the cysts have shrunk.  Two have grown a little larger, but they were able see them with the ultrasound and determine that they are smooth - nothing to worry about.  I've been put back onto a one year call back.

I am fortunate - so very fortunate.  Breast cancer has affected many of the women in my family.  I'm glad to know that, for now, I have nothing to worry about.

When you think about it - preventative medicine- getting mammograms early, so that cancers can be detected early and treated early - while they are still treatable - is probably one of the best investments you can make.

My Other Accomplishments:

Oldest child is living in an apartment this summer with friends.  All of them are working full time on campus for the summer, but will be moving back on campus in the fall.  Between the three of them, they were able to provide furniture from parents' houses without anyone having to go shopping.

We attended the Empty Bowls dinner at the high school.  For $5, we had a fantastic bowl of soup, great converstion, and we received a bowl made by one of the students.  (I chose the one made by my daughter!)  All of the money collected went to our local soup kitchen.

I hit up the discount rack at my favorite produce stand.  For 50 cents, I picked up a 5 pound bag of sweet peppers that were "on the edge".  The peppers all went into a stir fry that same night.  At the same stand, I also picked up a head of cabbage for $1.

The discount rack at my grocery store had a plethora of dried beans.  I picked up 10 one pound bags of black beans for 33 cents each.  The same rack also had CFL bulbs for $1.50.  I picked up 5.

After the food bank distribution on Saturday, there was a lot of leftover produce.  It was given away to the volunteers since it would go bad before the next distribution.  We were gifted wit 5 pounds of onions and 5 of spinach.  (5 pounds of spinach is a lot of spinach!)

The shrubbery in front of our house is way overgrown.  There were several bushes that were as high as the roof on our one story ranch house.  We pulled out the two biggest bushes, and really opened up the front of our house.  One of the shutters had pulled off of the house several years back.  With the bushes gone, DH was able to get back there and replace the shutters on that window.

I spent a couple of hours in the basement with the kids, cleaning up the big, messy room.   It's slowly improving.  It's by no means finished, but it is better.  Still not good enough for me to post a picture on here!

What wonderful things did you accomplish this week?

My Accomplishments this Week

What a week this has been!

We moved one boy's stuff home from college.  They will both be home for a week.  Oldest child will then be moving in with friends for the summer, and he will continue working with his research job on campus.  I still thank God every day that he found this job.  The research he has done has translated into published research, that he has presented at a National Conference.  This is, in turn, helping his in his quest to go to Grad. School.

Middle Child will be home for 3 weeks, until he returns to the camp where he works for the summer.

We cleaned out the carport.  The wood has all been stacked up into the log rack.  From the tree branches that came down over the winter, we have a half cord of wood to start this fall.  The snow shovels were put away, and the rock salt was covered tightly and moved back into the shed.  We got a van load full of trash together off of the carport that went to the dump.

I cleaned out the boys' room.  I am packing up oldest child's stuff.  This week, I put together a box with all of his yearbooks and photo albums.  I found a whole bunch of middle child's paperwork lying on his book shelves and in his drawers.  I took the best of his submitted papers, and put them in plastic page protectors and put them in a binder.  I had a hoot looking at the papers from his Excellence Folder from Middle School!  The work just captured the essence of the boy that he was.  I still see vestiges of that boy in the man he has become, but some of that playfulness hides a little deeper than it used to.

I had some dental work done yesterday.  Ouch.  I had a crown put on.  Not a root canal - thank heavens - just a crown.  My jaw is still sore, but I haven't had any Motrin since early this morning.

We packed several hundred pounds of topsoil up next to the foundation of the house.  Over the 40 years since this house was built, it's settled.  As a result, water is draining towards the house - and into our basement.  We built up the foundation around the house more.  Husband would put down a bag of topsoil, then pound it down again and again until it was as hard as he could pack it.  We're still looking at putting a front porch on the house in order to put the water further away from our house, but we hope we've put that time off a little bit longer, so that we can do it on our terms, not as a knee jerk reaction to the situation.

I knitted a blanket/shawl for my niece for her high school graduation.  I went to my mother's house the Friday before Mother's Day, and left it with my Mom.  She is going to give it to my niece at her graduation party.

I have one other blanket/shawl that I made for one of my kids' friends who is graduating later this month.  I am planning on dropping off her blanket next weekend, just before her graduation party.

I hit up the local thrift stores, in my continuing to search for professional summer clothing.  I found a couple of very nice shirts, but I am still searching for capris.

I managed to lose enough weight that I have gone down one size.  The upside of this is that I have been able to pull out the clothes I had saved "in case" if I managed to lose the weight.  So, a few more shirts have been added back into my wardrobe, as well as one more pair of capris.

We cooked every meal from scratch over this past week.  Have you checked out the prices of a pound of meat lately?  Many of our meals over the last week were vegetarian.  It's great to be able to put together a meal for less than $5 for all of us.

What did you do to save money this week?

My Resolutions

I'm still keeping track of my resolutions.  It's been 4 completed months now....

1) 365 Grateful
I'm not journaling every single day.  I am still making a point of listing something different that I am thankful for every couple of days.  I might have to begin doing my gratitude journal on here...

2) Lose 10 Pounds
Done!  Who-Hoo!  11 pounds down from January!  Can you believe it?
I'm going to work on the next 11 pounds, but this isn't one of my resolutions.  I'm going to keep going while I've got the momentum.

3) Run
I haven't actually been running, but I have been walking more.  I park at the far side of the parking lot at work, and on nice days, I walk around the business park before I go home.

4) Get Out of Debt
Making progress.  We are paying cash for everything now except for gas.  I pay about $35 to fill the Civic with gas, about once every 5 days.  The van costs well over $50.  I'm not sure how much since the husband drives the van and I don't.  He carpools with several other people in our neighborhood in the van down to the Park and Ride, where they catch a van pool.  He fills the van once every 10 days or so, but I have no idea how much it costs him to fill it completely.

5) Finish Cleaning Out the Basement
No progress made this month.  It's just such a mess, and just so darn discouraging.  Maybe this month....

6) Finish Oldest Child's Quilt
I've pieced it, and I've begun sewing the blocks together.  Progress!

7) Spend More Time With My Family
The boys will be home from college this weekend.  I have cleared the calendar so that I can sit around with them and catch up.

8)  Finish the Book I Keep Saying I'm Going to Write
No progress this month.  Starting a new job has kind of put a cramp in that.

9) Finish the hallway bathroom
Still saving for this.  We want to pay cash for this, there's no way it's going on a credit card.

10) Get Back Into My Music
Done and done. 

How are you doing on your resolutions?

My Accomplishments

I wish I could say I had accomplished something this past week.  I really wish I could.

I started a new job, working in an academic library last week.  It's a great job.  It's part time.  I work in the morning only, and I'm finished by noon every day.

The problem is getting used to a different schedule.

I have yet to get myself organized enough.  I finally figured out how much food I need to eat for breakfast in order to see myself through the morning.  (I don't have any breaks, and I'm not allowed to eat while on duty.)  My next challenge is to figure out something quick to take for lunch, and to find out where the staff lunch room is located.

I also need to figure out how to work in exercise.  I'm used to doing it first thing in the morning right after I drop daughter off at school.  As of now, I'm driving to work as soon as I drop her off at school. 

It's a change in routine.  It's always harder than you think it's going to be.

I have still managed to cook dinner from scratch every night this week.  Actually, now that I'm done by noon, dinner is much less frantic than it has been in the past!  I can stop on the way home and pick something up if I need to, and I'm able to plan meals out and prepare meals without feeling rushed.

And so, having said that, I have my goals for this next week:
1) Find the staff lunch room.
2) Take my lunch every day and eat before I leave the premises.
3) Make a point to get exercise every day.

Resolutions

3 months into the New Year, and I hate to admit, I've kind of forgotten about some of this.

Good thing I've got the blog to keep track of what I said I'd do!

1) 365 Grateful
I am keeping a daily journal now.  Every day, one entry of what I am thankful for.

2) Lose 10 Pounds
Shut the front door!  After a stellar loss of 1 pound in January, and 3 pounds in February, I am proud to announce that I lost 5 pounds last month!  9 pounds total!  WHO-HOO!!

3) Run
I've been out a few times.  Not running, but walking.  I've got my 3 mile course mapped out, and I'm walking it.  My time is down under an hour.  I wish I could say it was under 45 minutes, but it's not.

4) Get Out of Debt
We're getting there. 

5) Finish Cleaning Out the Basement
Husband and I have been working on the basement recently.  We've taken a van load of trash to the dump recently, and even better, we've set aside a lot of stuff to sell at a yard sale later this month.

6) Finish Oldest Child's Quilt
I've got the pieces out of the bag, and back upstairs.  Next step is to get the sewing machine up here, so I can get started on it.

7) Spend More Time With My Family
It's been a great winter for family time.  The boys were home on their spring break over the last month, and we had a great time cooking, laughing, and joking around together.

8) Finish Writing the Book I Keep Saying I'm Going to Write
Another month, 3 more chapters edited.  I still have some pictures that I need to take to add to the most recent chapter.  So, I'm halfway finished now.  6 more chapters to go!

9) Finish the Hallway Bathroom
Still saving money for this.  The goal is to start working on this in June.

10) Get Back Into my Music
Done and done.  We're practicing for Easter and Palm Sunday now.  Love the music for Palm Sunday - a fantastic gospel piece!

How are you doing on your resolutions?

My Accomplishments

It's the winter that never wanted to quit.  Have you ever read The Chronicles of Narnia?  In the book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the kingdom of Narnia is suffering through the eternal winter that never ends because of the influence of the evil white witch.

This winter has felt a little like that.

Middle son had a planning weekend at the summer camp where he works this past weekend.  I drove up to pick him up yesterday.  I drove through a torrential, blinding downpour with a 6 foot visibility in front of my car.

I pulled off at my exit, and started winding my way through the back roads up to the camp.  There are two very low spots along that road that cross bridges over creeks.  Yesterday, these creeks were raging rivers.  I hit one low spot and for one heart stopping moment, I felt the car begin to float - the water was so much deeper than I had anticipated.  The thought "Oh sh*t, I'm going to be on the news because I was stupid enough to drive into standing water" crossed my head before the wheels on the other side touched pavement and my little car roared up out of the water. 

Picked up son and we drove back a different way, avoiding the standing water.

We came back through more torrential rain, and he decided he wanted to come home for a little while as he had a load of laundry he wanted to do.  No sooner did we pull into the driveway than it started to sleet.  For the next 2 hours, it sleeted.  Then, it shifted to snow for the next 2 hours, then back to sleet for 2 hours before turning back to torrential rain again.  He spent the night with us last night, and drove him back to school early this morning.  Glad he's going to school close to home!

Today, it's supposed to get up to 60*, and it's opening day for baseball.  The Orioles are playing the Red Sox, and I really wish I could be there.  Maybe next year!

Anyway, my accomplishments for this past week:

I've gotten some major cleaning done down in the basement this past week.  Husband and I decided that we are going to participate in the community yard sale next month.  We're going to sell some of the things in our basement.  (I can almost knock that one off of my long term list!)

As of today, all of the heat in the house is turned off.  If we have an exceptionally chilly day, we can light a fire in the wood stove to take the chill out of the house.

I switched out the emergency kit in the back of the car.  I switched the shoes out for a comfortable pair of sneakers, extra pairs of socks, a rain poncho, a lighter jacket, a change of clothes, and extra food that will be able to handle the warmer weather better.  Among the items I put in there are nuts, a tuna salad kit, and a couple of power bars.  I also checked the spare tire to make sure it is inflated and that all of the tools are there, as well as checked the fluids, and I changed out the batteries on the flashlight.  I shook out the blanket, and folded it back up again.  I'm keeping it in the trunk, just in case if I ever need it.

I cooked every meal from scratch, and husband and I both took our lunches to work every day this week.

I attempted another gluten free pizza crust.  This one turned out well, and I'll post more about it later this week.

I've staked out the new area for the strawberry patch.  I hope to have the beds put in place and the plants moved this week.

I found 20 Meyer Lemons on the discount rack at the grocery store for $1.50.  I zested all of them, and then I juiced them. In an ice cube tray, I put the juice from the lemons along with a little zest.  Everything was frozen.  The juice cubes are in a plastic bag.  The extra zest was frozen flat on a cookie sheet, and is now in a separate baggie, ready to be used.

I'm getting ready to start a new job tomorrow.  So, today I'm making a pot of veggie stock to make into broth cubes.  Hopefully, this will help cut down on my prep time in the future.

My Accomplishments

We took a chance and drove down to my Mother's house yesterday.  We live west of Baltimore, and she lives south of Quantico in Virginia.  Her part of Virginia was supposed to receive more snow than we were.  After taking a good, long look at the forecast, we decided that we could risk a trip down there and back up again.  We left immediately after the first church service, and left at 4.

It didn't start snowing until we hit the MD/VA line.  And then, it kept snowing.  Fortunately, it didn't stick to the road while we were driving home last night.

The view we had coming home. 
It's a little before 6 here, and the visibility is horrible. 

This is the view out of our front windows this morning.
There is a street on the other side of those trees.
Guess what?  No school again today!

So, I was planning on planting peas in the garden today.  According to folk lore, the peas should go into the garden as close to St. Patrick's Day as possible.  They will not be going into the ground today!  (Probably not tomorrow, either.)

My accomplishments this week:

The new floor is down in the hallway and entryway.  All that is left to be done is the closet floors.  Since husband has today off work due to the snow, hopefully he'll be able to finish one of the closets!

I found a sale on the little cans of tomato sauce for 25 cents each.  I picked up 15 cans of sauce over the course of the week.  (I don't like to buy all of the sauce at once, I like to leave some for other people to pick up.  On the down side, I went to the store on the last day of the sale, after 9 pm, hoping to pick up a rain check, and they still had sauce on the shelves. I picked up the last of the sauce while I was there.)

I made a huge pot of bean soup last night in the slow cooker.  Soaked the dried beans overnight, added onions, celery and spices before we left to go to Mom's house.  I was honestly thinking I'd have beans left over to mash and use in taco salad on Tuesday night.  Unfortunately, I neglected to take into account the fact that the boys are home from school.  We went through the entire pot of soup last night.  On the plus side, the ingredients for that pot of soup cost me less than $2.  Not bad for feeding five people.

I can't eat gluten anymore, but I've been making gluten filled bread in the bread maker since the boys got home from school.  They've been going through a loaf a day.  So glad I have a bread maker to help me out, especially since I don't want the flour (read gluten) all over my hands.

I picked up a large honey baked ham at Aldi's last week.  We've been using that for sandwiches since the boys got home.  The entire ham cost the same as two pounds of lunch meat from the grocery store.  Even better, I'll have a bonus ham bone for bean soup when we're finished.

Husband is taking oldest child to look at a graduate school later this week.  They are going to drive up on Thursday night, speak with the Physics department on Friday, and then head home.  We cashed in some honor points to pay for the hotel on Thursday night.

We used our bonus points from the grocery store to take 40 cents a gallon off the price of gas to fill the van.  Nice little bonus considering the drive down to Virginia and back yesterday!

Husband van pools into work.  I can't even begin to tell you how much money we save on gas since he only drives the 5 miles to the park and ride every day.

The thermostats in the house have all been moved down to 60*.  We've had a fire in the wood stove twice this past week - one really cold day earlier in the week, and again today.  It does make the house so much warmer than the electric heat does!

Oldest child will be living in an apartment again this summer.  (He lives on campus during the school year.)  Since he spent last summer eating nothing but what I sent home with him and peanut butter sandwiches, I have made it my mission to teach him how to cook 5 easy, healthy things while he is home this week.  Last night, husband taught him to make yogurt parfaits.  That's one.  (He already knows how to make oatmeal, but I'm not counting that.)  Okay, honestly, I'm leery of teaching him to use the stove too much since he's been known to read a book and forget about whatever it is he has cooking on the stove until the smoke detectors go off, so we're going for easy, healthy, and microwaveable. 

We made a trip to the library on Saturday afternoon.  The kids checked out the episodes of Dr. Who that they haven't seen yet, and I have the first season of Downton Abbey.

What did you accomplish this past week?