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Summer Reading List
With the beginning of summer upon us I am looking at it as a great opportunity to catch up on my reading. I am an avid reader and unfortunately lately I have been finding it difficult to find time to devote to reading. I am not sure why, I just can’t seem to pick up a book and become completely engrossed in it like I love to do. I have a list of books that I had been looking forward to reading and maybe if I write them down here it will make me more accountable to devoting the time to do it. I am also looking at a trip to Michigan within the next couple of weeks and while I am there I won’t have internet connection unless I find somewhere that has free wifi, as my elderly Mother doesn’t have internet and has never even owned a computer of any kind. So I will be unplugged for about 2 weeks or so. I am hoping to get a good amount of reading done in between my projects that i have to work on at my Mom’s house.
Summer Reading List
War Storm: Victoria Aveyard
Shelter In Place: Nora Roberts
High Voltage: Karen Marie Moning
The Cast: Danielle Steel
The Fates Divide: Veronica Roth
Off Kilter: Hannah Reed
Hooked on Ewe: Hannah Reed
Blueberry Muffin Murder: Joanne Fluke
Lemon Meringue Pie Murder: Joanne Fluke
I know this is a big list, and I know I haven’t been able to get into reading lately. But I love reading and I really hope that once I am in Michigan and I get my Mother settled my mind will relax a bit and I will be able to finally enjoy a book or 2.
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To Do List This Week
I am feeling pretty overwhelmed right now. I have so much going on that I feel there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. I have started working every other weekend at the request of the owner of the company that I work for. That means one week I will be working 6 days and the next I should be working 4 with a 3 day weekend. Well right now because of the trip I am planning to Michigan next month I have to work the next 3 weekends in a row so that I can have the time off in July. I am not going to lie I am not looking forward to it. So while I am working more hours the next 3 weeks, I still have to find time to get everything done in my life that needs done. Nope not enough time in the day.
I am going to have to make a list of priorities and hopefully I can get to many of them and still find time to rest. My boss is thinking of changing the office hours a little with summer upon us and starting the technicians out a little earlier in the morning and getting them in earlier in the afternoon before the worst heat of the day sets in. I am all for it. Starting an hour earlier at 7 a.m. means I will get out at 3 p.m. I could go to the gym in the afternoon now and start building up my stamina for a Walt Disney World that we are planning for next May. We’ll see. I could use the additional hour a day every afternoon outside of work so I am really hoping that they decide to do it.
This week I really have to get to the following things:
Give both dogs a bath
Make liquid hand soap (I need to make 4 bottles)
Menu plan meals for the week
Chop several of the heads of romaine lettuce that I got in our produce share this weekend
Make several salads for the week for my lunches (using the cleaned romaine)
Cut up the last canteloupe from our produce share
Make chunky cinnamon applesauce (I have alot of apples from my produce co op from the past couple of weeks)
Boil a dozen eggs
Make meatballs and stick in the freezer for later in the week
Pick up milk and dog food later in the week (my Smiths grocery store was out of fat free milk yesterday when I was there)
Make a large pitcher of sun tea
Make a large pitcher of water and slice lemon and cucumber to put into it and store it in the refrigerator
Research freezer meals (prep for whe I got to Michigan I have to make a bunch of meals for my mom’s freezer)
Research containers on amazon that can be used in the freezer and also in the microwave for my Mom
Decide on exact dates for my trip to Michigan
Research plane tickets
Research rental car prices
Figure out which airport I will fly into
Research diets and dietary restrictions for my Mother’s health problems so I can make sure she has healthy meals that are appropriate for her health needs.
Call my brother after he takes my Mom to her heart doctor appt this week then call my other brother and his wife for translation (she is a nurse)
Find time to do some reading (for relaxation)
Catch up on the laundry (towels and blankets, etc)
Start writing down recipes for Michigan
Address Katie’s announcements and get them into the mail
Make several blog posts
Get the oil changed in my car
Place my order for our share of produce on Monday
Start figuring out what home items my Mother still needs so I can get them on order from Amazon and have them start being delivered before I get there.
Figure out why I haven’t received our health insurance bill yet for this quarter
That probably is enough for this week. Hopefully I can cross off a bulk of the items before next Sunday. I hope if you are reading this and have any tips for me, please share them. I would welcome any tips or advice.
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I Bought A Set Of Dishes For Katie
I stopped at Target the other day to pick up a few things I needed and while I was there I thought I would look at crock pots to see the sizes available and see how heavy the smaller ones were. I was thinking about buying one for my Mom. As I walked down the aisle I saw that they had a set of dishes that Katie likes that we were waiting to get when they went on sale. The dishes were on clearance for $13.98 and I couldn’t pass them up, they were the last set and I snatched them right up.
When I brought them home I started thinking of what buying that set of dishes means for me. Katie just graduated college and she already has her teaching job lined up and now she is trying thinking about all of the items that she needs to purchase for her first apartment. This set of dishes reminded me how soon she will be moving out.
I am not unfamiliar to having her move out, she did live in the dorms her first few years of college. The first year was very difficult for me. Katie is my companion, my partner in crime and my up for anything girl as long as she is home by 2 p.m. on Saturday so she can have the rest of the day to relax and to prepare for her job on Sunday. She loves movies and I alway have a movie buddy as long as I am paying. She loves to shop for clothes, makeup and even groceries. She is the first one to say, for example, “Mom Jessica Jones starts soon, looks like we need to binge watch it on Netflix”. She looks forward to watching sappy Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel with me. And she is always ready to go out to eat, doesn’t matter if it is breakfast, lunch or dinner.
My husband and son are very quiet men and even though they are pretty different, they both absolutely hate going to the movies, The Hallmark Channel, clothes & make up shopping. They tend to let Katie and I do whatever we want without them unless it has to do with a meal. They will tag along for a meal out.
When Katie moves out she won’t be far, but still it won’t be the same. Even though her apartment will most likely be within 1o or 15 minutes of our home, it won’t be the same. She jokes that she will be here every day so that we can babysit her dog for her while she works, it still won’t be the same.
Even though I joke with her that she should consider moving out sooner, and even though I joke that she is my tornado. I will miss her. She is a wonderful companion. It’s funny that the older she gets we have many of the same mannerisms, the same expressions, the same personality and we laugh at the same jokes. We can be watching a movie and at the same time we both shout out the same thing, or look up at each other and have the same expression on our faces. It is so funny to us both. When she was little she and I couldn’t have been more different except for in looks. But now that she is grown we find that we are so very similiar…
I know that I will have an adjustment time for a little while and then I will be fine. But thinking about it right now all I can think of is all the things that I will be doing without her. Being a Mom is hard, especially when one of your babies is finally ready to start her life.
No matter how sad I may feel at times, I am so happy that she is ready to start her life. It is so exciting to watch her walk through Ikea and say I love this couch, I love this duvet cover, I love these curtains, I love this dining room table, etc…
She is ready to take the next step in life and she is so happy about it. It’s hard to believe she once was that little baby who arrived 2 weeks early and came into the world screaming her head off.
She learned her ABC’s before she was 8 months old by watching Wheel Of Fortune reruns when we lived in Iceland (simply because there really wasn’t anything else on tv) and spoke sentences before she was 1 year old.
She was and is an amazing big sister and she loved her baby brother more than anything else in the entire world.
She loved school from her very first day. She cried when her very first day of preschool ended when her friends told her they would be there tomorrow and she wouldn’t (she was enrolled 3 days a week and the other kids were 5 days a week, we had to sign her up for 5 days because the other kids would be doing things without her), she used to cry when she was sick and had to miss a day, she loved Dr. Who and she absolutely adored Harry Potter (she still loves Harry Potter, she will never outgrow that).
Where does the time go? Now she is a college graduate and this fall will be teaching 9th grade Algebra at the high school that she graduated from.
I will be taking advantage of these next 6 months. I will help her shop for all the items she needs to set up her first apartment. I will try to enjoy every minute even the ones where she is makes me crazy.
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Bountiful Baskets June 16, 2018
What a wonderful day to spend a couple of hours at the park volunteering at our Bountiful Baskets produce co op. The sun was shining, we had a nice breeze and thankfully our Las Vegas summertime temperatures were kind to us. We were lucky enough to have a temperature in the upper 70’s when we first arrived at the park.+
As usual we were blessed with an abundance of amazing items. Keep in mind that the pictures that I share are for one share of produce. A share consists of one basket of fruit and one basket of vegetables. For my family I typically purchase 2 baskets. My family goes through alot of produce each day. My husband has had some health concerns this past year and as a result we eat mainly fresh produce and lean meats. So when you look at the pictures imagine the items doubled.
I had to laugh when I was taking out my vegetables from our bags and putting them on the table. I didn’t realize that all of our vegetables this week were green! We received romaine lettuce, kale, asparagus, corn on the cob, & cilantro. My daughter was hoping to get the asparagus, she makes a great shrimp, asparagus and carrot stir fry with a lemony sauce. The corn I will cook up for dinner today for Father’s day along with some T-Bone steaks I picked up on sale this morning, potatoes from last week’s baskets and a cesaer salad. I have to figure out what to do with the kale. I love kale but my son doesn’t love it so much so find that I have to hide it in soups or something so that he doesn’t really realize it is in there. I can chop it up really fine and add it to fried rice too and he will eat it that way also. Cilantro, I didn’t always love this herb. A couple of years ago my taste buds changed and now I really love it. I will probably use some of it in a pico de gallo for my husband’s lunches. I will also make some cilantro lime rice with it and some taco’s and I can also serve the pico de gallo with the as well.
We received quite alot of fruit this week. I love summer because that means that our fruit basket over flows with goodness. This week we received ambrosia apples oranges, roma tomatos, bananas, mangos, strawberries and a boat load of limes. The limes will be used in the pico de gallo and cilantro lime rice I mentioned above. I am going to use some of the berries to make strawberry shortcakes for Father’s Day dessert. The bananas, apples and oranges will be eaten with lunches, sliced for dinner, used in fruit salads and for snacking.
Each week when we place our produce basket order we have the opportunity to add on special items like cases of fruit like strawberries, pineapple,apples, etc. Or we can add a special pack to our order. The special packs are usually a themed pack and usually they are amazing. This past week our choices for add on packs were a juice pack that normally consists of items for juicing like green apples, ginger, oranges, cucumber, beets, pineapple, etc. There was also a fajita pack that contained all the veggies needed for fajitas. There was also a mystery pack that was going to be a complete surprise. It was supposed to contain 20 lbs of produce and that was the pack that my daughter and I decided we wanted to try. We were so excited to get the box home and open it up. We safed the surprise for when we got home. Once we opened it up we were a bit dissappointed. The pack was what Bountiful Baskets calls a lunch box pack. It contained items that would be good to add in a lunch box. It contained grape tomatoes, apples, oranges, grapes, baby carrots, small sweet peppers and more bananas. I was really hoping for something new and different. We will use the produce but I really hoped for something different than more apples, oranges and bananas.
Another great produce week. If you are considering trying Bountiful Baskets, what are you waiting for. A share of fruit and vegetables is $18.00. Check them out here.
*this post does not contain affiliate links.
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A Frugal Girls Favorite Souvineer
Pressed Pennies!
We just got back from a trip to Disneyland I remembered how much I love pressed pennies. What could be a more frugal souvineer than a pressed penny. I know, I know, free items would be much more frugal, but remember I went to Disneyland and while it might be known as the second happiest place on earth (Disneyworld is the first), there is nothing free there.
My daughter knows how much I love them so she found a website that would tell her where all the pressed penny machines are throughout Disneyland and California Adventure. She printed out the list and kept it tucked away. See for me Ilove looking for the pressed penny machines. I love wandering through stores and the park and just stumbling across the machines. I am not sure why, but for me stumbling across a machine makes it that much more special to me.
I am not very particular in the design on the pennies, but I do like to get ones that have a special meaning or a fond memory. My favorite Disney character is probably Winnie The Pooh and so naturally I was thrilled to see so many different Winnie The Pooh pennies. They set up a cute little area with a wonderful sign over the penny machines. It was so cute!
Surprisingly though the Winnie The Pooh pennies ended up not being my favorite ones. My daughter and husband found a Beauty And The Beast pressed quarter machine. Normally I am not to thrilled with quarter machines but these were beautiful. I couldn’t pick just one so I splurged and got all 3 of them.
I came home with quite a few pressed pennies and quarters and I also purchased a Disneyland themed pressed penny book so I can keep them together.
If you are interested in pressed pennies, check out this website. This site has a listing of penny machines throughout the United States. I am definitely going to be using it from now on. I was excited to see that even in the small town that I grew up in they have a couple of pressed penny machines. When I go back to help with my Mom’s care I am going to look for them. I think my daughter would love to see pennies from where I grew up.
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How Do You Help Care For An Elderly Parent From So Far Away?
For just over a month now my elderly Mother in Michigan has been dealing with quite a few health issues. She is also struggling with the loss of some of her independence and as a result she isn’t being completely cooperative. How do you help to care for a family member from so far away? I am lucky, I have 2 brother’s back in Michigan still. My youngest brother takes the bulk of the care and most of the punishment right along with it because he lives in the same town. My other brother and his wife are a great support system for all of us. They call, they keep all of us in the loop with all the different information that her care entails. My sister in law is a nurse and she is a wealth of information with all of the technical terminology that we are faced with. The 2 of them try to visit and help out as they can to relieve some of the burden from my youngest brother and try to do as much as they can. That brings us right back to me. How do I help care for her from so far away?
I know many of you are thinking, just go. I am planning to but sometimes we have to make choices that are right for our immediate family that may not necessarily be what an elderly parent wants to hear. So between now and next month this is my dilemma. What can I do way over here that makes things easier on my youngest brother and also help my other brother and his wife?
Between the 4 of us we have been figuring out what items she needs around the house to make it easier and safe for her, and at the suggestion of my sister in law I contacted her Home Health Care Agency. I was nervous to do it at first because it was an unknown to me. That may sound crazy but I have been away from Michigan for a while and I know what my brother’s and sister in law have been telling me, but it is different when a healthcare professional is confirming everything to you. By speaking to my Mother’s Nurse and her Physical Therapy Assistant I feel I have a better understanding of her limitations and her treatment plan. But I still struggle to try to figure out what more I can do.
Both her Nurse and Physical Therapy Assistant are very concerned by her diet and are afraid she isn’t eating properly. I have to agree with their assessment. I have heard her tell me for the past couple of years what she is eating and I have tried to tell her she needs to do better. I sit here and think what can I say or do that will make her listen. She can be a stubborn woman and really thinks that she knows best simply because she is the Mother. It’s so easy to feel like the roles are now reversed. I find myself telling her “Mom, you have got to eat more vegetables”. It’s funny how I remember telling that to my children when they were small. Who really imagines that they will have to tell their parent that they have to eat more vegetables? Certainly I never thought it would be me and I am sure that neither of my brothers or my sister in law thought it either.
As I plan my trip, I am making list upon list of things that I think I need to do while I am in Michigan. There seems to be so many things in my mind that I really want to help with. I need to do more research on freezer meals that would be good with her medical issues. Homemade meals that she can pull out that would be healthy options for her and also well balanced. I am making lists of groceries that I can purchase both for the freezer and the pantry so that my brother’s and I know she has enough healthy food to eat. I know that she will be open to healthy food and meals and even though she will put up quite a fuss she will accept the groceries. In this day and age of grocery delivery at nearly every store you can imagine. My mother still lives in a small town that doesn’t have this service… How much easier it would make my life if one of her grocery stores would offer this service. How much easier would it make my brother’s life! Someone else could share the burden of helping her with one of her necessary errands. I know that Amazon will ship just about anything anywhere, but unfortunately not fresh meat and produce.
Also going through my mind is how to help unclutter her home without making her feel like we are trying to take everything away from her. This will be our biggest problem and will present quite the challenge for us. My brother’s, sister in law and I all know it has to be done. Her Physical Therapy Assistant has told us that things like her thow rugs are tripping hazzards for her and really need to be put away. She will not like that, she is a woman who loves her throw rugs! Maybe if I come up with some organizational ideas for some of her things we can figure out a way for her to keep a bulk of the items that really have to be put away so that her home is easier for her maneuver through.
If I didn’t love Amazon Prime before, I surely do now. Our Amazon Prime account has enabled us to send many items to my mother that she needs and she receives them within 2 days. When she was in the nursing home receiving physical therapy it enabled us to purchase a shower chair, rails for her toilet and helped me to research suction shower rails (though I ended up purchasing them through Walmart instead for a cheaper price). It has also helped me to send her multivitamins and some Glucerna nutritional shakes this week. I have alot more research and planning to do before I leave for Michigan next month. I can only guess that I will be doing alot more shopping on Amazon and having it shipped to Michigan to wait for me to use it.
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My Magazine Sharing Network: Simple Truth® Mega Mission Level 2
This Simple Truth box is another sample box I have received recently from My Magazine Sharing Network. These items were sent to me free of charge in exchange for me trying the items and leaving an honest review of the products in the box. This program is through my local Kroger affiliate store. This program is amazing. I receive many full sized and sample sized items as well as money off coupons for the products in the box in case I love them enough to want to continue to purchase them.
The first item in the box is a Simple Truth paper towel roll. I was pretty impressed with this paper towel. I have always found that environmentally friendly paper products are generally thin and really can’t hold up compared to a few of the name brand products like Bounty, Brawny or Viva. I hate when I use a paper towel to wipe up a spill or clean up spray cleaner from my counter tops and my hand goes right through the towel. This product was fairly good in this respect. I did find that the sheets are a little smaller than other towels, which really isn’t a game changer.
What I found a bit irritating was that the perforation isn’t great. I have to hold the roll with one hand and then tear with the other otherwise the towel rips into pieces and doesn’t follow the perforation. Again, it isn’t a big deal but you can’t put the roll on your paper towel holder and tear it one handed with good results.
The second full sized item was a dispenser of Simple Truth all purpose cleaning wipes. The wipes in my opinion are just like any other all purpose cleaning wipes on the market only these ones are made with safer ingredients. The scent is a little strong, but I always think that all cleaning wipes have a strong scent. All in all these wipes were great. They are a safer alternative to conventional wipes and I will purchase them in the future.
Along with the paper towel and the cleaning wipes the box included a package of money saving coupons for Simple Truth cleaning items. I will be redeeming the coupons and trying several other items. I have found that the Simple Truth brand has amazing quality and I haven’t been dissappointed in any of the items that I have purchased whether it is food or household items.
* This post does not contain affiliate links.
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My Magazine Sharing Network: Anything For your Pet Mission
In my recent blog post about My Magazine Sharing Network I mentioned that I had been receiving multiple boxes from them of items to try for review. One of my boxes was a Pet box filled with alot of amazing coupons and products to try.
I was happy to receive many of the items in this box. I couldn’t believe that I got a sample of Blue Buffulo dog food. This is the dry food I already give my dogs, but in a different flavor. My dogs loved this sample. I will absolutely be purchasing this chicken variety next time I need dog food.
My dog loves the Nature’s Recipe wet food. I have an older dog that needs a little something canned in the morning. I regularly purchase this food for her. It is shredded chicken and carrot in a broth. It is a small serving and is just the perfect size for my dog Maggie.
I am going to be completely honest with you all, just as I was when I gave my review to My Magazine Sharing Network. I chose not to give my dogs the pupperoni. I haven’t heard many good things about Pupperoni and so I elected to not give it to my dogs. I did however give the sample to a co worker and she gave them to her dogs.
My favorite items from the box werre all the coupons that I received. I received multiple coupons for Blue Buffulo dog food and Nature’s Recipe wet dog food. I will be using them. I also received coupons for a free bag of Beneful dog food, Nudges, Purina One treats, and Pupperoni dog treats. I will use the Blue Buffulo and Nature’s Recipe dog foods. I am so very thankful to have gotten them. The other coupons, especially the Beneful dog food and the Pupperoni are items I will never use and I have given them to co workers who can use them. Just like with the Pupperoni, in my review I did state that I will not give my dogs the Beneful dog food but I would share the coupons with people who could use them.
If you have a local Kroger affiliate store in your area, you should really consider signing up with My Magazine Sharing Network. I receive many items from them for free (alot of the items are full size items not just a sample size) just to try and leave honest feedback on what I thought of the item. They are looking for your real opinion not a sugar coated one. All I have to do is share my opinion and pictures on places like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and leave a comment on their community forum. It is so simple and easy and I have gotten to try many items that I may not have thought to purchase myself.
Check them out here. What do you have to lose?
*This post does not contain affiliate links.