The Weekend Happenings So Far

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

I finally made it to the community garden plot to do some weeding and some harvesting.  But I only made it there very late in the day and it was cloudy, a bit cold and threatening rain so I didn't stay long. 

Sadly, I didn't get any photos at the park. I'd forgotten my phone when I left the house. It's the second time I've done that in as many weeks.  I always feel a bit lost when I've forgotten the phone because I rely on it for all kinds of things like checking store hours and locations, testing my blood glucose, checking the transit schedules and taking photos of my outings to name a few tasks.

At the garden I plucked out quite a lot of weeds and harvested a bit of purple Kale and Swiss Chard. I hope to make juice later on and add it to some ginger and lemons.  I'm hoping to get back to the garden soon to finish the weeding and harvest more Kale and Swiss Chard since that is mostly what I'm growing. Last time I picked some strawberries, chives and sweet peas but the chives are well past their best and the sweet pea plants withered and died. I'm not sure why. DH is in charge of the watering and I think the soil seems a bit too sandy. The compost we were provided at the beginning of the season seemed like it was mostly sand.

Anyway, I'm glad I made it to the garden because I've been trying to get there all week.  I only did about half of the weeding that needs to be done. Hopefully I can make it to the garden again before Tuesday to continue the work.

I need to be home on Tuesday for various reasons, mainly because I'm expecting an Amazon delivery of a replacement bathroom fan.  I think mine stopped working when we had the water leak a few weeks ago. So much water came down and I heard that moisture can affect the fan. It only makes sense. I can see all the rust in different areas of the fan and box from the different leaks coming from upstairs over the years.

It might have been cheaper to go to Home Depot and get a fan but then I need to expend the energy to get there and back,  find the time to actually go there and then find someone to help me once there.  I've got too many things to do this week.  I've saved myself some time if it fits.  If it doesn't I'll send it back and go to Home Depot next weekend.

Bathroom exhaust needs replacing.

I also have a parcel to pick up at the post office.  If the Amazon delivery gets here early, I'd like to pick up my parcel.  I'm hoping that something I ordered fits and is comfortable enough to wear to the  Rolling Stones concert on Friday.  Otherwise I'll have to dig in my suitcases and see what I have.  I'm still camped out in the living room and most of my clothing is not accessible as it's in storage.

The decluttering continues this weekend. I've got most of one big box from the master bedroom cleared out and I have one more to sort.  In the meantime, I decluttered a few more items from the bathroom counter.  Every little bit helps.

Last, but not least, I completed the novel, The Victory Garden. It's about a young woman from a posh family who decides to volunteer for the war effort during WW1. Her fiance dies in battle but she discovers she's with child. She decides not to tell her parents and sets out to find a way to survive. In the end, she is reunited with her parents.  The story by Rhys Bowen is poignant and sensitively written. I recommend it.

Well that's my weekend so far. How is your weekend going?

Weekend Plans & Books

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

I hope you are well and enjoying the weekend so far.

It's a long weekend here but I'm going to have a quiet, relaxing one. I did the Weekly Home Blessing (vacuuming, sweeping, washing floors and tidying) and all the laundry (4 loads washed, dried and folded). 

The rest of the weekend I'll be buying a new bathroom fan for the master bathroom, more decluttering, weeding the garden and relaxing.

I picked up these new library books for my relaxing time.

These books were selected at random from the shelves as I often do. I hope they're interesting.

What are your weekend plans? Anything exciting or interesting?

Weekend Gone By

 Friday skies

Saturday skies

I spent both evenings running errands and tiring myself out. I spent Sunday resting but also managed to dust my bookshelves and get rid of a few things. I spent a bit of time transferring things into the new containers I purchased on Saturday. I still need to get rid of a lot of things but for now I'm organizing things so I can better find and use what I need for crafting. My theme word for the year 2024 is 'create'. I need to crack on with it or the year will be gone before you know it and I won't have created some of the things I want to create.

I'll make some ground beef soup tonight because it's so easy to make. Last night I made some beef stir fried with capsicums and onions and a side dish of a wide variety of vegetables. 

I'm trying hard not to let food go to waste so I've tried cutting way back on buying food.  I still manage to let fresh vegetables and fruits spoil and that's a hard one to take given the current prices and the fact that people go hungry around the world and even here at home. The best I can do is keep trying.

My nephew's girlfriend called to say she'd been to the community plot to weed her garden and she reported that my garden was looking great. Dear hubby told me last week that the peas are ready for harvesting. I really need to get over to the plot and see what I can pick for cooking This year I'm  determined to harvest and use what I can from our small plot.

My View on a Saturday Walk

Hello friends and fellow bloggers, 

I hope you had a great Saturday.  I had a busy one. 

I spent several hours shopping on Friday night. I was able to get most of what I wanted but I was not able to buy 2 seemingly simple items:  Brasso for cleaning and shining metals and neutral coloured (clear) shoe polish. 

After doing the housework and laundry on Saturday, I decided to try again to look for these two items.  I never buy these things but how hard could it be?  I know I've seen them around in several stores on more than one occasion over the past many years. 

It turns out that the local grocer doesn't carry these items anymore and and the supervisor on duty doesn't know why. This was the 2nd place I checked in at. No worries I thought, since I was sure to find them. Hours and 4 stores later, I still hadn't found either item until I got to the very last place, a pharmacy, where I finally found shoe polish but not in the colour I needed. 

I think I could find one or two items at a pharmacy called London Drugs but they have been non-operational for 7 days due to a cyber hacking incident of major proportions. I heard on Saturday's late news that they will now start reopening but I am not sure when they'll be fully up and running. I think I might also find these items at Canadian Tire and Wal-Mart but I don't get to these places often. I can either make a plan to go to these places or I can simply order them from Amazon which has better prices on both items and the convenience of having the items shipped to me at no additional cost.

When I was out at a small mall several days ago I saw a lovely jade plant for $10.00 (Canadian) and thought of buying it. When I was out last night I found a jade plant and an aloe vera plant for $10.00 total so I bought those instead.  They have been transplanted and I hope they'll do well. I think they'll need new, larger pots before the summer is over.  I love plants.

I did so much walking on Friday and Saturday and now I'm exhausted. I plan to take it easy for the rest of the weekend. 

Thanks for stopping by!

The Weekend

I don't know where the weekend went. I thought I would have a lot of time to do things because I precooked meals on Thursday for the weekend and did a lot of housework as well. There are some household  jobs I dislike and I tackled 3 of them this weekend. I guess I must be in spring cleaning mode.

The range hood, filter and back of the stove were cleaned. I see I missed a few spots.

The vacuum canister was emptied and washed.

Sunday I also tackled cleaning part of the refrigerator. I dealt with spoiled items in one refrigerator crisper and rearranged things. I need to do another session perhaps later this week to bring everything up to par. The refrigerator is one thing I really don't look after too well. It's because I tend to overbuy and then don't make time to clean things out before hand. I also like a bargain so when I go grocery shopping I over buy. I'm trying to stop these bad habits by doing more meal planning and am having limited success. Eventually I may hit on the right balance.

Friday I stayed up far too late.  I was pleased with myself for getting so much done and decided to take advantage of that by staying up to watch television and read. To be honest, I didn't really enjoy myself because I was too tired.  My fatigue bled into Saturday and I did nothing except read a book. Thankfully today was back to a more or less normal.  I was able to do my daily Bible reading, lots of dishes, cleaned out a good part of the refrigerator, did a load of laundry and made some chicken-rice stew for Monday's meals. I also finished reading one of the books on my stack.  Soon the library will be letting me know that another 2 books are ready and after that I'll probably slow down in the reading department.  The days are getting lighter and brighter as long as it isn't raining.  I'm hoping to tackle some long awaited projects when the weather warms up and the light in the day starts earlier. I'm like a turtle when it comes to household or crafting projects but I enjoy the process.

One of the things I did on Friday was wait for my meat delivery. The ranch that delivered the meat is located almost 3 hours north of me and they delivered right to my front door. It's my first delivery from them and I was only able to get ground beef because that was all they had left besides ground pork.  I am pleased with the process so I'll see whether I'm able to order different cuts next time. It will really depend on cost, timing and room in the freezer. My freezer space is limited and it would need to be emptied to get one of their 'packages'. That makes it very tricky right now so we shall see how it goes.

For the first package of ground beef I made some roasted veggies, ground beef patties and salad. It's also the first time I've used rainbow carrots. Altogether it was a satisfying meal and the beef patty was filling so I only had one. The other one was saved for the next day lunch/snack.

I do have a sweet tooth so I made these blueberry muffins with a mix of unbleached flour and spelt flour. They are dark from spelt four but also because I accidentally dumped a lot of cinnamon in the batter. No worries though. The cinnamon spice is well past it's prime and the taste is quite weak. The muffins were just right.

If you have done the FlyLady system before and want to try it again I thought I'd provide a summary chart for you.  This might save you having to go look for it. Click on it to enlarge.

Thanks for stopping by!

Weekend

For those of you who do the majority of the cooking in your household, do you ever get tired of it or not feel up to making the meal? I've found I've cooked a lot more than ever during the pandemic and unlike some folks I have barely ordered food from anywhere to eat in or have it delivered. 

It hasn't been easy as many of you will already know to dine in at most places. Additionally I always think I can make dinner in the time it takes to place an order and have it delivered.  But every now and then I need a change. 

The dinner in the photo below was what we had on Friday. It is a Vietnamese dish of Lemon Grass chicken and rice noodles, salad and a roll dip with vinegar sauce. It was so delicious. I've yet to try making anything other than salad rolls (made with rice paper) and I know and I keep telling myself to get started learning how to at least make some lemon grass chicken and Pad Thai noodles.

 

Saturday night I made stir fried noodles with vegetables and spices (sweet chili sauce, garlic, onions, carrots, zucchini and bell peppers).  I made stir fried beef with onions in soya sauce to go along with it.It was quite nice too. Sunday dinner will be some roasted steak meat along with some roasted vegetables and salad. An easy dinner in the oven and a bag kit for the salad.

I had a bit of a sweet craving and I decided to use up a can of blueberry pie filling. I made a lazy pie with store bought dough, a can of blueberry pie filling to which I added some frozen berries. It was okay but I didn't much like the taste of the pie crust. I will have to make my own next time but I wanted to at least see how the ready made tastes.

 

Have any of you seen the Netflix series called The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window?  What did you think of it?  I watched all 7 episodes over Friday and Saturday. It's a dark comedy/thriller/mystery and "borrows heavily" from the movie The Woman in the Window starring Amy Adams. Overall it was okay but a bit hokey in parts and there was some weak writing here and there.  One such example is the overuse of the word "bingo" uttered by Kristen Bell who plays the series lead. This might not have been that noticeable except that it was used only in the last 1.5 hours of the series so came across as overused.

I also watched Room 2806:  The Accusation a documentary film following events arising from the 2011 sexual assault case involving French politician, Dominique Strauss-Khan (DSK). I had heard about the sexual assault allegation on the news but had not followed the case or known exactly what happened to DSK. Some of you might remember that he was head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the time of the charges against him and a very powerful person in the world's system.  He was heavily favoured to become the next Prime Minister of France after Sarkozy before the accusation ended his career and political aspirations.

Two books I picked up from the library on Friday are underway.  They are rather different from one another. The Lemon Tree Hotel is about a family run hotel located in the Cinque Terra region of Italy. It's a pleasant, romantic novel which makes for some lighter subject matter.  Not a Happy Family is a murder mystery of an elderly, wealthy couple whose offspring all have reason to come under suspicion for the demise of their parents. I haven't gotten far enough along to see what the details are as of yet but the author, Shari Lapena is Canadian and I've read another of her books, The Couple Next Door which I enjoyed.

I've had a good weekend so far.  On Sunday I have a lot of little administrative and paperwork tasks to do and I also hope to do some reading. Lest you think I only cooked and ate and watched television, I did manage to do some errands and wash and fold some laundry. 

Thank you to one of my blog readers, Jeanie from The Marmalade Gypsy who helped me figure out a way to leave comments on blogs once again. Saturday was the first time in a very long while that I was able to not only visit several blogs but also leave comments. Thank you too for your visit today. I appreciate you.

The Weekend Was Fruitful

 Hi friends,

I hope you've all had a beautiful and productive or relaxing weekend.

I have certainly been busy with this and that. 

First up is some sad news. Pastor Jonah lost another family member earlier in the week to pneumonia. Please keep a kind thought for him and the family. Also the court hearing for the land grant is scheduled for Wednesday. Hopefully this will be the last item of business before the court rules on the issue.

Friday I spent trying to get my young relative situated for getting the community garden plot weeded and compost added. Surprisingly it took a fair bit of time because I wasn't meeting her at the plot and she needed orientation with everything.  Fortunately I showed her the plot last summer so basically she just needed a refresher. I also spent some time repackaging seeds (I have too many for my small balcony garden) to share with her.

Friday I also went to the library and picked up a few novels and decorating books. I'm really looking forward to reading all of these.  I made a small start today (Sunday). I was going to stop at the grocery store for a few items but had forgotten my phone at home so I decided to wait for the next day. I have a few apps on the phone and I accumulate points based on buying certain things. 

Later that night I had a call from a friend I haven't seen or heard from since the pandemic. It was good to catch up with her. I also binge watched Netflix catching up on the most recent season of  The Crown. I watched so many episodes and by the time I finished I was very sleepy.

Saturday I found myself running more errands. This time I had my phone so I did a small bit of grocery shopping and stopped for coffee afterwards and began reading one of my books. I also stopped in at the pharmacy. Fortunately the owner was in and I was able to discuss various issues related to my latest prescription refill.  He had left me a voice message and I didn't want to call back and talk to one of his staff. It's just easier to question and explain things in person and I'm glad we did since I had misunderstood his voice message. We managed to sort everything out satisfactorily.

One of my brother's called and we had a nice long catch up. He gave me some wonderful person news about his children and a great report about his own health update. It made me realize how much I've been missing hearing good news! 

Afterward I spent a lot of time scouring various websites looking for some home decor items, pricing them and seeing what might work for my needs.  I find this kind of research very time consuming and very tiring.  I didn't make any final decisions about anything. I want to take my time and make the fewest purchases possible to deal with the different areas I want to deal with in my home.  I also watched the movie, The Pianist with Adrian Brody on Netflix. I didn't see the movie when it was released in 2002. It was very well done and heart wrenching.  If you haven't seen it and have Netflix, I would highly recommend it.

It's now Sunday and again it was a busy day. The dishes are done, the kitchen, bathroom and entry way floors are vacuumed and washed, the living room and dining room are vacuumed and all the recycling has been taken to the recycling bins. It feels good to get excess stuff out of the way.  I also managed to get rid of 6 items of clothing (2 old tops and 2 sets of pajamas) that have seen better days. I have a lot more to do but will get to it all in due time.

In the evening I did a few loads of laundry and steam refreshed my pillows. Now I have clean bedding on the bed and ready for a good night's sleep. This will be likely (and hopefully) be the last time I wash and return the blue mink sheets to my bed because the weather has warmed up and the sheets will be too heavy soon.  I'm glad it's finally warming up. I love this time of year when the sun returns on a regular basis, the weather warms up and it is not too hot to get out and enjoy a walk or an outing.

 

In  between cleaning and getting ready for the week ahead, I watched the Oprah interview with Megan and Harry. I was shocked by what I heard from the both of them and my heart went out to them for what they have endured.  I must say, before I heard the interview I was in the camp of thinking they were privileged and spoiled.   I felt they were honest in the interview and tried hard not to say anything negative about the Royals.  However they also tried to speak truth and I cannot understand how Prince Harry could be denied security for himself and I cannot understand how his own father could cut him out of communications. I am honestly stunned because you do not expect a parent to stop talking to you. It must hurt so much after having lost his mother when he was so young. I am glad those two are out of the Royal Family and making their own way in the world. I think they are better off for it and the public can stop complaining about having to pay more members of the Royal Firm. At least their mental health should be much better now that they are 'free'.

I hope all of you have a wonderful week ahead and that you too enjoy better mental health as we seem to be getting closer to having restrictions lifted off of us all with the mass vaccinations now taking place.

Tomorrow, Monday, March 8 is International Women's Day. To all the women reading this, may you have a positive day where you feel loved, supported and respected not just on this one day but in each and every day.

Weekend Plans

Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don't wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether it's at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored. Earl Nightingale 

So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun. Ecclesiastes 8:15

It's Saturday today and I'm looking forward to it. It's been raining a lot over the past two weeks.  Not every day but almost every day and I've been spending a lot of time indoors.  It works out perfectly because it gives me a chance to make a lot of hats.  Some of you know that I'm planning to sell them to raise funds for my favourite charity, Missions of Hope (MOH, see button link on side bar).  I think I'll have enough inventory soon to sell and hope to spend some time in the near future to write up the descriptions and describe each hat/beanie and size, etc.  I'm hoping to make a badge too (just thought of that) and if you want to support the MOH, you can place the badge on your own blog. It will link to my Etsy shop for those that want to purchase.  Not only will a person be buying a hat but they will also support the needs of poor villagers in Kenya.

So far I've got 2 berets, 1 tam and 2 beanies for a woman, 3 beanies for toddlers and 3 for babies. I will be adding more colours and sizes but am also trying to use up what I already have.

Even though I was busy, I did manage to get out for coffee with a new friend.  We both had a good laugh when we realized that our paths almost crossed many years ago through mutual friends but we didn't meet until decades later!   At the Diabetes Clinic I attend, I was finally able to get some help with my broken glucometer.  Now I can start testing myself more consistently.  I need to monitor the blood sugars consistently to see if the new medicine I've been given will help my sugar levels which are still too high despite all my best efforts.  I do hope it works.

Last week,  I purchased alpaca yarn at the yarn store and mother of pearl buttons at the bead store. I need to go back to both of these stores to purchase another skein or two of yarn, as well as exchange some of mother of pearl buttons.

A few of the buttons are too thin on one side (see lower right of photo).  Buttons are so expensive these days with these ones being $4. (Canadian) a piece.  The owner let me have them for $2. each and about 4 of them are not of good quality.  I've never had this problem with a button before.

I've always loved mother of pearl buttons.  Do you like them too? 

These buttons are quite large.  I'm thinking of using them for embellishment on cowls and hats, or perhaps on a sweater.

Once the errands are done, I 'm heading out for dinner with my nephew and his girlfriend.  It will be the first time I've seen their new apartment so I will take them a draceana plant as a house warming.  I checked with them first if they wanted it.  I thought they might be too busy to care for a plant or not that interested but they seemed eager to have it.  I think they like the fact that it will grow quite high over time.

After my dinner, I am meeting up with a Ph.D. student from Kenya.  He also teaches and tutors in the Swahili language and I'm thinking of hiring him as my tutor.  This might work out better better than taking classes once a year.  The classes don't always fit into my schedule and the sessions are so short that one can't learn a whole lot before the sessions are all over.

Sunday I am hoping to hear from a new Brazilian friend, Maria, whom I met here last week when I went for a foot reflexology session (heaven).  Maria is a psychologist and she will be returning briefly to Vancouver after a tour to the Rocky Mountains.

I hope you all have plans for a good meal and or joining up with friends. Enjoy!

A Colourful Respite

The summer here is fading fast. We have had beautiful weather in the month of August and though my garden didn't do very well this year, I have enjoyed the beauty of other gardens.

Here are some photos I took when I went to my acupuncture doctor yesterday. This community garden was near to her parking lot and I went over after my treatment and snapped these photos. I couldn't resist.

The colourful flowers stood tall and were beckoning me come and stay awhile. Although the sky had been overcast, the sun peeked out as if to say it wanted me to see the garden in all it's splendour. 

(You can click on the photos to enlarge).

If you missed my update on food relief in the Horn of Africa, please read my previous post. Also consider leaving a word of encouragement for Jonah. Thank you so much!

Join Tina and Maia for Weekend Flowers and Macro Flowers

and experience some awesome flowers.