Home is Where The Monkey Lives

On Tuesdays, when I actually remember it is Tuesday I follow Annie @Tuesday 4. This weeks questions are all about home. Come on and play along.

1.What makes a house a home? 

Mainly the people in it, though I will have to admit familiar things make my house my home. Sneaky Jorge (the chimpanzee butler) at my front door says home to me along with a few other treasured items. (My piano, my pillows, my favorite knife. . .things that are not easily replaced.)

2. How to you keep your house neat , tidy and clean?  My house has not been neat and tidy in over a year. I am still overwhelmed by things from the lake and also excess from Mom's house. We close on her house Friday and after that I am starting in earnest on mine, including giving away at least 100 things from the house this month.

Do you find it difficult?

I don't find it hard, but I detest housework. There are just so many other things I had rather be doing.

3.Are plants important in your home.. or collections.. or wall art?  I am a serial plant killer without meaning to be. I can keep outdoor plants alive all year, but give me an indoor plant and I am guilty of involuntary herbicide.

I am very picky about what I hang in my house. I love faces and music related art and have it throughout the house. I do have an unintentional monkey collection that I am slowly and surely paring down.

Is there a theme you like to create? 

It is not so much of a theme as it is just things that make me happy and smile.

4.What is a typical day/evening like in your home? 

I am not sure I have a typical day. The past three or four years have been driven by seeing about Mom or taking care of her house. Ask me the week after the house sale closes, then I will have a better idea of what my new normal is.

Our Covid inspired evenings are pretty much the same. We watch either an episode from a series or we watch a movie. Then we read. 

I have found a new guilty pleasure. I have been watching old YouTube videos of What's My Line and I've Got A Secret. I have no idea why or how I stumbled onto them but it is like wandering through a television museum.

That Time I Forgot

Somehow during the monthly freezer meal planning I forgot to plan meals around TheHub's scheduled  surgery. Obviously I knew the procedure was planned and did not forget about it, except for the actual time I was thinking about the meal plan. 

Adjustments were made this week to accommodate him, and since there was no way I would make what he wanted and fix something different for myself, I had a couple of really crappy not what I wanted to eat meals.

 1.  Spaghetti with meat sauce, tossed salad (frozen meat sauce)

 2.  Hamburgers with fixings, corn, cream cheese and jalapeño side dish  (frozen patties, frozen veggies) 

 3.  Bbq ribs, caulitato salad, baked beans (Labor Day meal will buy the ribs already cooked)

 4.  Veggie meal, cornbread TBD based on produce stand and garden availability

 5.  Veggie meal, cornbread TBD based on produce stand and garden availability

 6.  Hamburgers with fixings (frozen patties)

 7.  Taco salad (frozen taco seasoned ground chuck)

 8.  Taco salad (frozen taco seasoned ground chuck)

 9.  Chopped salad with chicken (frozen cooked and seasoned chicken)

10. Pizza, tossed salad (frozen mini pizza crusts, frozen pepperoni)

11. Grilled chicken, brussels sprouts, garlic bread  (frozen boneless, skinless chicken thighs)

12. Stuffed bell peppers, hash browns, coleslaw, green beans (frozen uncooked ground chuck)

13. Fajita baked chicken (thanks Belinda) (frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts)

14. Grilled steak, baked potato, tossed salad, (frozen  steak)

15. Garden salad, grilled cheese sandwich (lots of cheeses in the fridge)

16. Buffalo chicken, celery sticks, crudités with dip, fruit (frozen chicken tenders)

17. Butter chicken, rice, green vegetable (frozen boneless skinless thighs)

18. Peruvian chicken, mashed potatoes, green vegetable (Frozen boneless skinless thighs)

19. Cedar planked salmon,  mashed potatoes, some green veggie (frozen salmon) 

20. BLT, cucumber onion and tomato salad (frozen cooked bacon)

21. Grilled lamb chops, rice pilaf, green beans, side salad ( frozen rack of lamb)

22. Lamb leftovers 

23. Corned beef, cabbage, potatoes (frozen corned beef)

24. Corned beef leftovers

25. Philly cheesesteak casserole, salad (frozen browned ground chuck)

26. Philly cheesesteak casserole leftovers 

27. Soup and cornbread (frozen chicken broth)

Monday: TheHub bought the ribs and I made the rest of the meal. It was a little lackluster, but tasty nonetheless.

BBQ ribs, caulitato salad, baked beans

Tuesday: This was the surgery day and if he had not needed to take the pain meds with food, I am pretty sure TheHub would have slept from the time he got home until the next morning.

Mashed potatoes (it was the only thing he said he felt like eating, so I had them too)

Wednesday: TheHub was still a little off his norm and did not want anything strong tasting, so I went with exactly what he asked for.

Mac and cheese, leftover crowder peas (not good at all)

Thursday:  By Thursday he was feeling better and wanted "real" food. He did pass on the salad, but I am not his momma and he can eat what he wants.

Spaghetti with meat sauce, tossed salad 

Friday: We had a lot of okra from the garden in, and some squash I had cooked for a casserole earlier in the week. Then, of course, the gift that will not quit giving.

Squash casserole, okra, green beans

Saturday: We had a ball game afternoon that turned into a ball game evening. I just did not want to cook and TheHub decided a stuffed poblano sounded good to him.

Take out Mexican

Sunday: TheHub decided he felt normal, so I cooked without asking him at all. (I normally make dinner without his input anyway, but I have been trying to be nice to him as he mends.) I had planned on making a full recipe of this which would leave leftovers for another meal, but I only cooked enough for one meal. Oh well.

Philly cheesesteak casserole

Used from the freezer:

• Spaghetti sauce
• 1 pack of ground chuck

Put into the freezer

• Medium size bag of sliced bell peppers (I had about 15 from the garden)
• 1 small pack of stewed tomatoes (had 3 tomatoes about to become overripe
• Bag of cooked mushrooms in Burgundy sauce (mushrooms were bought on sale, cooked and  individually frozen in 1/2 cup portions then stored in a freezer bag for later)

If I continue like this I am never going to use the contents of the freezer!

Have a great week staying on plan, going off plan, or with no plan at all!

It's a New Day, It's a New Week

If you read my blog you know I keep a list of daily joys. I will reread all of these on New Year's Eve just to remind myself that there are wonderful things that happen even on the most ordinary day. This week I had some things happen that were thrilling along with some of the little day to day joys.  Every day is a new day waiting for me to find them.

Friday: TheHub actually got home for work early. Whoo hoo! That rarely happens. We decided to run to the fish market and pick up some shrimp for dinner, but in the process passed a newly opened ice cream shop run by the participants of Unless U. 

Unless U is a facility for the educational, social and emotional development of differently abled adults. About a year ago they developed plans for an ice cream shop, which could be run by some of the participants with just a little help from some typically abled adults. 

After we picked up the shrimp we went back to "Scoops" for a delicious buttermilk peach ice cream cone. And what a smart set up they have. They only use credit cards so there is no physical money transactions but they also have the tip as level 1, 2 or 3. Now who is going to go into the store without leaving a level 3 tip? I have no idea how much we actually tipped them, but whatever it was, it is worth every penny to help these folks with their earnings and self esteem. I will be going back. Who doesn't want to try "The Unicorn"?

Later, we watched a movie on Netflix, Midnight Run, with Robert, Deniro, Charles Grodin and Yaphet Kotto. We enjoyed it but it does have some spicy language.

Saturday: We started our drop dead gorgeous Saturday with our usual trip to the produce stand, but then we went rogue and headed to Dunkin' Doughnuts for "coffee." That's my story and I am sticking to it. Afterward we ran by Publix when I got a call that the couple who we really wanted to have Mom's house had increased their offer and added a little perk. They obviously wanted  the house because they said they would beat whatever the highest offer we received was. It is kind of funny since they were the couple we really wanted to have the house from the get-go. 

Later DIL2 and Son2 came to watch the game and eat with us. Roll Tide Roll, Alabama won!

Sunday: I woke and streamed our church service then did some food salvaging (peaches that needed to be frozen, mushrooms the had to be prepped for dehydrating, squash cooked for the upcoming week, and sides for our Labor Day mini celebration.

In the late afternoon I met my cousin's husband at Mom's house. Their daughter decided she wanted the kitchen table and Mom's china cabinet. The table was my grandmother's and is over 100 years old. I am overjoyed KK wanted them. 

Monday: TheHub and I had a relaxed Labor Day. We had intended to go to the zoo or the botanical gardens, but the weather had other ideas. Instead of wandering about looking at animals or flowers we got in the car and just rode around a little while, talking and looking at green stuff while we drove. August and September are usually dry months when things turn brown and crunchy. This year we have had so much rain that everything is still bright green and lush. I hope all this rain will give us some beautiful fall colors. I guess time will tell.

Tuesday: TheHub had to have some minor outpatient surgery so I spent the morning getting our bed linens changed and the room nice and clean, then took him to have his procedure. They are still under Covid protocol so I sat in the car waiting. It was hot and I guess I could have turned the car on and run it, but I could not justify using that much gas just to keep me cool. Instead I opened all the windows and read. Fortunately there we a breeze and every 15 or so minutes I would get out of the car and walk around the parking lot a bit.

The joys were twofold. His procedure was successful, plus I got to laugh at all the things he was saying on the drive home. At the house I fixed him a bowl of ice cream so he would have something on his stomach to take his meds, then watched him sleep until it was time for another round of meds. Lather, rinse and repeat!

Wednesday: I met My Beloved Sister at Mom's so we could start gathering the last few things left in the basement, along with the few items we had used to stage the house. We had left all the garden and yard chemicals, along with many tins and cans of paints, stains and varnishes. Fortunately for us, Saturday is our community hazardous waste recycling day, so we boxed up all of those and I will grab them Saturday morning for disposal. 

Thursday: Thursday was a blissfully boring day. I stayed at home, posted a few things we had at Mom's that we do not want, and fingers crossed, they have been claimed and hopefully will be removed removed this weekend. If not I will have to find others to give them to because we are set to close on the house at the end of next week.

Now go find your own joys! They are out there waiting for you!

Tales From the Freezer

This week I did not do as well managing the freezer surplus as I had hoped. I blame ThePig and Aldi. 

I went to ThePig Tuesday afternoon with a short list of things I needed, to spend just enough to qualify for the free jar of Prego sauce. While I was walking down the meat aisle, I noticed some of their reduced stickers on some items, so naturally I had to swing by and take a look. I was able to resist until I spied the country style ribs marked down to .99 a pound. Yeah, I bought some brought them home, stuck them in the fridge to freeze later in the day, then promptly forgot about them. By Thursday morning, when I remembered them I had to cook them immediately. One rib apiece became our dinner and the others were packaged and put in the freezer for later.

The same thing happened at Aldi. I went to get 5 packs of mushrooms to dehydrate for winter soups and stews, when two packs of WahlBurgers  (game day meal) hopped into my buggy. Of course some Cuban style potato chips might have jumped in there too.

And speaking of game day

Yes, it is that time of year again!

 

This is what I thought might happen for the month. 

 1.  Spaghetti with meat sauce, tossed salad (frozen meat sauce)

 2.  Hamburgers with fixings, corn, cream cheese and jalapeño side dish  (frozen patties, frozen veggies) 

 3.  Bbq ribs, caulitato salad, baked beans (Labor Day meal will buy the ribs already cooked)

 4.  Veggie meal, cornbread TBD based on produce stand and garden availability

 5.  Veggie meal, cornbread TBD based on produce stand and garden availability

 6.  Hamburgers with fixings (frozen patties)

 7.  Taco salad (frozen taco seasoned ground chuck)

 8.  Taco salad (frozen taco seasoned ground chuck)

 9.  Chopped salad with chicken (frozen cooked and seasoned chicken)

10. Pizza, tossed salad (frozen mini pizza crusts, frozen pepperoni)

11. Grilled chicken, brussels sprouts, garlic bread  (frozen boneless, skinless chicken thighs)

12. Stuffed bell peppers, hash browns, coleslaw, green beans (frozen uncooked ground chuck)

13. Fajita baked chicken (thanks Belinda) (frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts)

14. Grilled steak, baked potato, tossed salad, (frozen steak)

15. Garden salad, grilled cheese sandwich (lots of cheeses in the fridge)

16. Buffalo chicken, celery sticks, crudités with dip, fruit (frozen chicken tenders)

17. Butter chicken, rice, green vegetable (frozen boneless skinless thighs)

18. Peruvian chicken, mashed potatoes, green vegetable (Frozen boneless skinless thighs)

19. Cedar planked salmon,  mashed potatoes, some green veggie (frozen salmon) 

20. BLT, cucumber onion and tomato salad (frozen cooked bacon)

21. Grilled lamb chops, rice pilaf, green beans, side salad ( frozen rack of lamb)

22. Lamb leftovers 

23. Corned beef, cabbage, potatoes (frozen corned beef)

24. Corned beef leftovers

25. Philly cheesesteak casserole, salad (frozen browned ground chuck)

26. Philly cheesesteak casserole leftovers 

27. Soup and cornbread (frozen chicken broth)

What we really and truly ate this week

Monday: I had everything on hand for a quick veggie dinner.

Crowder peas, corn on the cob, tomato cucumber onion salad

Tuesday: We are still harvesting bell peppers. Lots and lots of bell peppers. Though I have cut many into strips to freeze there are still many that need to be used.

Stuffed bell peppers, hash browns, green beans

Wednesday: Back to using stuff from the freezer. BTW the free Prego at the pig this week, makes a great pizza sauce. 

Pizza, pear and romaine salad

Thursday:  When I went to The Pig, I found some country style ribs deeply discounted. They needed to be cooked right then and since I was going to have to cook them I figured I might as well use a couple of them for dinner.

Country style ribs covered in Asian chili sauce, tossed salad

Friday: Instead of going out to eat this week, TheHub wanted steamed shrimp. That was perfectly fine with me since I had salad in the fridge from the night before. Snapper Grabber to the rescue. Dinner was done.

Steamed shrimp, tossed salad, rolls

Saturday:  Instead of having dinner we ate a late lunch while watching the ball game. Roll Tide!

Hamburgers with all the fixings, slow cooker corn jalapeño dish, chips, cookies 

Sunday: We messed around the house all day but then I had to go move some stuff from Mom's house. When I got home, TheHub was ready to watch Notre Dame vs. FSU, so I needed to make something really fast.

Grilled chicken with salsa verde, new potatoes, green beans, tomato slices

And what was used from the freezer: August 30- September 5

1 pack uncooked ground chuck

2 hash brown patties

1 pack (2020 garden frozen) green beans

Pack mini pizza crusts

pepperoni

dinner rolls

pack of whole kernel corn

4 frozen jalapeños (I bulk buy them, cut them in half the freeze on a cookie sheet. After they are frozen I put them in a ziplock freezer bag.)

1 pack boneless, skinless, chicken thighs

Not as much as I had hoped, but at least it is a start!

What got put into the freezer ?

4 peaches that were about to become too ripe (Cobbler during the winter?)

Cooked country style ribs

Small pack of bell pepper strips

Hunting for Joys

I try to keep a list of the daily things that bring me joy. Some days are filled with them and some days I have to hunt them down. This week was a mixed week with a few days overflowing and others not so much. No matter what, there are always things that make me happy. And now that the 35th week of the year is in the books here are my joys.

Friday: We had a slightly extended family dinner. Son2 and DIL2 joined us and so did my beloved sister and BIL. Lots of good food with laughs was the perfect end for DIL3’s and Son3’s visit. 

Saturday: I kept Disney+ after we watched Hamilton for the simple reason that Pip and I could watch the same movies and talk about them sometimes. I figure it is a small price to pay each month, especially in these times when we are not traveling to see her in person. I watched Cruella and was very surprised at how much I liked it. The next time I talk/Facetime with Pip I am armed and ready.

Sunday: I am not sure what happened on Sunday. I spent a good deal of time getting the house back in some semblance of order and my sister and I had an accidental open house at Mom's. We had one the previous Sunday and I had not listed the date, but just listed it as open Sunday. I forgot to take the open house notice down and had several calls about it during the week, so we showed the house anyway. Afterward TheHub and I watched the end of the FedEx golf tournament, ate leftovers, then watched The Queen. Wow, Helen Merrin is one fine actress! She definitely gave an Oscar worthy performance!

Monday: I tried to mitigate my joy that Alabama was not severely impacted because so many in its wake are damaged and hurting. But I am glad our coast was spared the brunt of it. 

Tuesday: I began my day with a FaceTime call from Pip. They had opted for her to do 5 year kindergarten in a Montessori school with the plans to begin first grade in public school. By September of 2020  the school was going to be remote learning, so they created a small private school with just 6 students and a teacher. It was a good first grade experience and she learned much more than she would have learned remotely (She is a very social creature and withers when she is not around people). After the FT call I am not sure who looked more nervous for her first day of public school, Pip or her parents!

My sister and I decided to finally list Mom's house with an agent. He has a different structure with his agency which suited us to a T. 

Wednesday: Amazing! We had many showings Wednesday and by Wednesday night we had two offers. One was over ask, and  the  other was seriously under. The under was so far under that we were not even willing to counter. 

Also thanks to Lorraine at We Are Clamco for the movie suggestion, I watched 306 Hollywood. I think going though all of Mom's things and dealing with her house, the movie probably spoke louder to me than it would to a lot of people.

Thursday: This was not a particularly exciting day, but even routine days have small joys. I am counting getting all the donations boxed and ready for the Friday pick up as my main joy for the day. Now I just need to start my September decluttering. If I hurry I might be able to add the items for Sept.1, 2, and 3rd to the pile on the front porch. I guess I should close this right now and scoot upstairs. It should be a pretty easy search mission to find a couple of things to give away

So have a great week and go find your joys. They are out there if we just look for them.

August Clutter Challenge

Bless issued a challenge to join her by getting rid of 31 things in August. I am so overloaded with  junk that I joined in quite happily. Now I have to commit to doing it again in September. (And October, and November, and . . .)

Below is a list of my decluttered items.

 Things sold

1.  Corner chair 

Things donated

 2.  Large glass urn with spigot (Used at showers and teas to hold ice water. I had two but only need one)

 3,  Glass juice server

 4.  2 floor pillows

 5.  Full bed comforter (We have only king and queen beds in the house now)

 6.  Full bed mattress pad

 7.  Full bed sheet set

 8.  Another full bed sheet set

 9.  Monkey plant stand

10. 2 glass ice cream bowls

11. Glass serving bowl

12. Box of costume jewelry (20 pieces appx.)

13. 2 hanging votive holders

14. Pedestal cake stand

15. L shaped sofa slipcover

16. Black Dress

17. Navy polka dot dress

18. Black lace up shoes

19. Black booties

20. Some weird little doodad that was at Mom's house

21. 3 flower containers that were deliveries from the florist (They are attractive, but unneeded)

22. Flip flops I bought but never wore

23. Couple of worn towels (going to the Humane society)

24. Dog bed (given to my cousin)

25. Swim suit (never worn tag still on)

26. 4 books

27. Flip Flops tag still on

28. Grandmother shadowbox

29. Cookie tin

30. Men's shirt

31. Men's polo

Woo hoo the Exchange Club is coming to pick everything up tomorrow!

Things thrown out

2 eyeliners

1 concealer that is too light

Old jar of  Mentholatum

Lipstick I will never wear again

Less than stellar acrylic paint(a little on the dryish side)

The sad thing is I never even made it upstairs. I guess that will be September, then the basement October and the holiday closet in November.

Adding the first 3 days of September to the list

Black leather box

Crystal water carafe

2 men's swim suits

Food for Thought from the Freedom Cafe

Though this is not original (I only wish I had authored this brilliance)  I felt compelled to share. 

It was from a shared instagram post and I retyped it because I did not like the format it was in.

This might seem a bit snarky to some of you, but it is something I believe is worth repeating.

Libby@libbyjones715

Welcome to the Freedom Cafe! We trust you to make your own choices if you want to wear a mask. And, in the same spirit of individual liberty, we allow our our staff to make their own choices about the safety procedures they prefer to follow as they prepare and serve your food.

We encourage employees to wash their hands after using the bathroom, but understand that some people may be allergic to certain soaps or may simply prefer not to wash their hands.  It is not our place to tell them what to do.

Some servers may want to touch your food as they serve it. There is no reason that a healthy person with clean hands cannot touch your food. We will take their word for it that they are healthy and clean.

Water temperature and detergent are highly personal choices, and we allow our dishwashing team to choose how they would prefer to wash the utensils you put in your mouth.

Some of our cooks prefer to use the same cooking utensils for multiple ingredients including ingredients some of you may be allergic to. Still, that is a cook's right to do so.

We understand that you may be used to chicken that has been cooked to 165 degrees. We do have to respect that some of our cooks have seen a meme on Facebook or a Youtube video saying 100 degrees is sufficient, and we do not want to encroach on their beliefs.

Some of you may get sick, but almost everyone survives food poisoning. We think you'll agree that it is a small price to pay for the sweet freedom of no one ever being told what to do ---and especially not for the silly reason of keeping strangers healthy.

I debated turning the comments off for this post, but truly believe if I take a stand on something I need to be open to different opinions