What I Read in December

December was a busy month, but I got in some reading to relax and continue learning.

1. Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport; Interesting, engaging and informative book about scaling back on using social media, the internet, and other electronic means of communication or relaxing. I read it to see if it would be beneficial to my children and I highly recommend it!

2. Nothing to Make a Shadow by Faye Cashett Lewis; Memoir of a homesteading family in South Dakota in the first quarter of the 20th century. I read it to remind myself of my many blessings, and to help me through the dark and cold of winter.

3. Christmas at the Amish Bakeshop, a collection of novellas by Shellay Shepard Gray, Rachel J. Good,  Loree Lough. Light and sweet as a cinnamon roll, three little romances to lift the spirit.

4. Joseph Smith, the Prophet by Truman G. Madsen; A great read during the prophet's birthday month. I learned some things I hadn't known before, and felt a greater gratitude and love for the prophet of the restoration. Highly recommend!

5. The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer; A Hanukkah romance written by a Jewish woman, as delightful as it was unrealistic, but that's why we love romances.

6. Skipping Christmas by John Grisham; an old favorite. I also watched the film based on the book, "Christmas with the Kranks." Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis are fabulous in the comedy with a heart.

7. Christmas Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella; what would a month be without reading something of Sophie's. Becky is quite the character and she comes through delightfully in this Christmas story.

8. A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote; I remember hearing an audio version of this on the radio years ago and always loved it. Finally bought a copy for my library. I think it will be an annual delight.

9. Precious & Grace by Alexander McCall Smith; another installment in the ongoing series of The No. 1 Detective Agency. Grace can sometimes drive me crazy, but Precious is always able to see the good in her.

10. The Washington Hypothesis by Timothy Ballard; Fascinating look at the role George Washington played in the founding of the United States, and what he understood about a national covenant with God similar to the one ancient Israel had. Highly recommend. 

I read a total of 120 books in 2021. Thirty-eight were non-fiction; twenty-six were new to me fiction; and fifty-six were old friends. 

My goal for 2022 is to read all the books on my "to be read" shelf (25 books) and double the number of non-fiction I read last year.  

What interesting books have you read?

Monday's Motivation

From Vince Lombardi:

Once you have established the goals you want and the price you're willing to pay for success, you can ignore the minor hurts, the opponent's pressure and the temporary failures.

Fortunes

The most recent from our cookies at Panda Express:

TopDad - Adjust finances: make budgets to improve your financial standing

PFCMom - A thrilling time in in your immediate future 

A rather profound thought from another cookie I got at a local Chinese buffet:

Not having a goal is more to be feared than not reaching one. 

Last Two Things

Day Thirty of Count Your Blessings 2013

First thing today is that I finished NaNoWriMo and am a WINNER!! It feels really good to reach a goal.

Second thing is a huge THANK YOU to Noble for encouraging me and pushing me and making writing fun.

We had a great Thanksgiving. Very quiet but so fun to have JET here with us. Lots of good food left over and I haven't had to cook all weekend.

Miss Alaineus

Miss Alaineus is a delightful children's book about a missed vocabulary assignment. (I love children's books.) Anyway, today's post is a bunch of stuff.

A friend gave me a bag of plum tomatoes from her garden. I ate as many as I could in salads (tomato, garbanzo beans, feta cheese) and then made the rest into some delicious soup. I made up the recipe and it turned out fabulous. I chopped up some onion and slowly cooked it in some olive oil (I don't use exact measurements) while I chopped up the tomatoes. Then I added them along with some basil and simmered it for an hour. I mashed it with a potato masher but that wasn't fine enough and I couldn't find my "ricer" so I put it by cupfuls through the blender and that worked great. It was DELICIOUS! Sprinkled a bit of Parmesan cheese on top, dipped in toasted homemade french bread and was in heaven.

The other day I cooked up some chicken quarters, de-boned it all, and put it into containers for the freezer, except one portion for dinner. After some pondering I decided to make a soup. This time Cream of Chicken and Vegetables. I chopped up a carrot, onion, two ribs of celery, and a few potatoes, added some frozen peas, a little bit of thyme and parsley, covered it all with water, brought it to a boil, turned the heat down and simmered it while I made the cream sauce (flour, butter, milk). When the veggies were done along with the sauce I added the chopped chicken, and the white sauce to the veggies, stirred it up and set the table while it was heating through. HEAVENLY! Even Dandylion liked it. Autumn and soup just go together.

We are moved into our new-to-us house. It has many advantages, one of which is the spacious kitchen and working oven. It has fewer rooms but they are larger. Still some work to be done but it's good to be in here before the snow flies. Next projects will be new curtains for my bedroom, the kitchen, and living room.

I began this blog as a way to document my weight loss, but that didn't work and I didn't lose any. In June of this year I joined T.O.P.S. (Taking Off Pounds Sensibly) after reading a piece in the local newspaper about a man who had lost close to 100 pounds. TOPS was touted as encouragement and accountability, which is what I needed. I joined and have lost 15 lbs. so far. There is value in having to weigh in and report each week; not to mention the great women I've met there. I notice a difference in my body, but as I wear loose clothes anyway no one else has noticed. My first goal is another 15 lbs. (Doctor wouldn't approve any more than that) and when I reach that goal I'll set another, 20 lbs. lighter. When I was 42, after having had five children I weighed that much (or little) and looked and felt great. I want to get there again.

I haven't hit the thrift stores for a while, keeping my eyes on the goal of spending less. I did make Noble a cute skirt for her birthday this summer, which she really liked. I promised to make another one in wool for winter. (Still have to set up my sewing room.)

I know I've done some other frugal things, but my mind has gone blank and I don't remember what they were. You understand I'm sure!

Lastly, this Saturday I'm teaching a class at a church women's conference. The class is Cooking with Basic Commodities. I teach three sessions, each 25 minutes long. How am I supposed to cram 30 years of cooking knowledge and experience into 25 minutes? Not going to happen. What I will do is go over reasons why we (well not me) don't cook from scratch, good reasons for doing so, overcoming the obstacles, starting to cook from scratch (The Principles), and then give some resources and recipes to help them on their way. I'm looking forward to it.

Show and Tell

Frugal Friday

This has been a busy and productive week. For a church Young Women's service project we are making pillow cases for a children's hospital in Omaha. I found wonderful instructions at MaryQuilts.com (sending a big thanks to her for her clarity!). Having found the instructions I cut out fabric for six or seven cases. This is the one I sewed with the girls as a demonstration.

Darling Hippos!

These pillowcases are a great way to use up leftovers, reduce your stash, or save money by using thrift store or yard sale sheets or fabric. The best part of sewing them is that it takes only three seams to make them with NO raw edges inside, so they are sturdy and long lasting.

In another area for frugality, I used up a leftover slice of toast and an English muffin to make bread crumbs for Salmon cakes. My goal is to eliminate waste in my kitchen. I do pretty good, but I want to reduce it even more. Here is one of my methods. After a meal I put the leftover toasted whatever into a (used) bread bag to save for processing. When I'm ready I get out my blender and tear the bread into small pieces and grind them in the blender. Maybe you have a food processor which would work also, I don't have one and have always used my blender. The crumbs can be made at the time you have the leftovers and saved in the freezer, or save the leftovers and make the crumbs as you need them. Works both ways.

(We have such lovely walls in our kitchen!)

Crumbs ready for making Salmon cakes (or patties)

Yummy - ready to be turned over to brown the other side.

Salmon Burgers (or cakes, patties, balls)
1 14.75 oz. can Salmon, drained and flaked
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 - 2 cups bread crumbs (amount depends on how many you're feeding)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon dried dillweed
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Combine ingredients, mix well with your hands, then form into patties. Pan fry in small amount of vegetable oil until browned on both sides. Serve as you would any other burger. For patties or cakes just make them smaller (see picture), for balls just make them round (you get the idea).

We enjoyed these the other night with homemade oven fries.

I like making things from scratch so I can control the ingredients. Recently I decided it was time to finally figure out how to make my own "condensed cream of . . ." soups. A google search came up with lots of ideas and recipes but the one I liked best is found at a wonderful site called Salad-In-A-Jar. I tried the recipe and was totally pleased with how fast, easy and tasty it turned out. I used it in a chicken casserole and thought it tasted better than any store bought. The recipe calls for 8 ounces of evaporated milk which is less than a full can so I looked up how to make my own so I wouldn't waste any from a can. Talk about easy! Instead of the liquid milk, just add 2/3 cup dry milk and 3/4 cup water to the blender with the other ingredients for the cream soup. It was fabulous. Also, I used canned mushrooms instead of fresh (easier to store and have on hand) and black pepper instead of white.

I recognized that this recipe was MSG free, very low sodium and easy to make but as I read all the comments on Paula's blog I realized that I needed to share this with my sister whose daughter eats a gluten-free diet. So this is a great recipe for many different applications. Huge thanks to Paula for developing it and sharing. I think this cream soup recipe would work with other things like chicken, celery, broccoli, asparagus, etc. which will make casserole cooking so much more healthy and frugal. It fits with my desire to store basic ingredients that can be used in many different ways.

I Believe in Evolution

No, not THAT kind of evolution, sheesh, what kind of a woman do you think I am?

I'm talking about the kind that happens when I set a goal, begin to pursue it and realize that there are obstacles to reaching that goal that must be removed before I can move forward.

In December I wrote down a wonderful schedule that I wanted to pursue in the new year. Every day of the week would be devoted to a specific activity, such as sewing, photo albumming (I know that's not a real word but humor me), etc. Last week I thought I got everything ready to begin following the schedule this week. Am I making sense? Yesterday I did a big thing on my Monday=de-junking, de-cluttering, and de-filing day. Today I'm supposed to be sewing, but my sewing room is still a mess, and I've been reading blogs about de-junking and minimalist living and the like. This morning as I made my bed and folded a basketful of undies, I evolved a bit and decided that I am really motivated to de-junk and de-clutter and de-file (it has to rhyme and be alliterative so humor me some more here) right now. So will anyone be upset if I work on all the de's while I have the motivation?

Thank you.

Procrastination

I'm working on overcoming a life-long bad habit--procrastination.  This week I decided that I had put off washing the windows for long enough (a whole year!) and would do it.  Do you ever put off something that seems to be overwhelming and then when you buckle down and do it you wonder why?  We have these wonderful tilt-in windows that are so easy to clean!  It took just minutes, not hours.  And the difference in my outlook, literally! The world is a better place with clean windows.  Now I'm encouraged to tackle other seemingly onerous jobs.

This bad habit has been on my list of New Year's resolutions for the past couple of years; and while I make some progress each year it is difficult to overcome all at once.  Small changes are easier than big changes.

By the way, I'm asking Santa for a digital camera this year so I can SHOW as well as TELL with this blog.

Go ahead, brighten your day, wash a window or two.

Change is Constant

When we got home from seeing Noble at Air Force graduation I began making plans for the school year.  It was going to be the first time in twenty-two years for me to be home alone.  Wow!  Plans included walking daily, baking regularly, sewing, de-cluttering, working on long neglected projects, etc.  That all came to a screeching halt when I agreed to look after the neighbors two little boys.  Because my "baby" is thirteen our home and yard are not equipped for child care; no booster seats for the table, few toys, no fenced yard to play in, no playground equipment, and so on.  That made it difficult to "entertain" them and we struggled with balancing my needs to get things done with their needs to play.  All my good intentions and neglected projects were put on hold.  I found it stressful to face the day longing to get things done; things that I had put on hold for my own children for many years.

Last night our lives reversed directions.  The neighbor called with the news that she finally got the boys into a daycare facility that she's been on the waiting list for two years. Halleluia!

Of course there is the financial loss of that little bit of income, which was making our ends meet.  But there are other means to that end.  I made a long list of things I can make and sell.  But first I want to spend a day baking: bread, cookies, muffins, scones, whatever!  I want to turn on some music and dance around the room.  Walk to the library and not worry about little people making a ruckus.  Cut out and sew something new to wear.  Work on those long neglected projects!

There is nothing as constant as change.  Thank goodness.  When we're in a bad situation, just wait, it is not forever.  Patience and prayer accomplish miracles.

The Immutable Law of Gravity

Today is the one month mark so it's time for weigh in and measurements:
Weight - 175 (-3)
Neck - 14" (-1)
Bust - 40" (-1)
Waist - 34" (-1) (I stood up straight!)
Abdomen - 44" (no change)
Hips - 44 1/4" (+3/4)
Thigh - 25" (+1/4)
Calf - 15 3/4" (+1/4)
Ankle - 9" (no change)
Bicep - 13" (-1/4)
Wrist - 6 1/2" (-1/4)

As you can see the changes are mostly due to gravity.  Everything is moving down!!!  And the weight loss is simply water.  I was out and about yesterday and forgot a bottle of water so I am slightly dehydrated.  But truthful, always truthful. 

I didn't get any chocolates (or flowers or cards) for Valentines Day, unless you count the half of a Milky Way bar I shared with Noble while we were out shopping.  I fixed a Chicken Pot Pie for dinner, the top crust covered in little hearts cut from the leftover crust.  It looked really nice and tasted yummy. I used a red damask tablecloth and white linen napkins edged in red; made cranberry juice (from frozen concentrate) and served it is stemware, then we had ice cream with fresh strawberries for dessert.  Also at everyone's place I put a small box of conversation hearts.  And that was our Valentines Day. (My husband has never been big on holidays so I just do my thing and enjoy it with the children.)

So, back to gravity.  To counteract its effect I must strengthen my core muscles and remember what I learned a long time ago from a book called "Set For Life."  The author said "Remember, muscle curves, fat hangs."  And that just about describes me.  All hang.  As soon as the snow is gone I can begin to work in the yard again, which builds muscles; and I can walk, which tightens my tummy and butt better than anything I've tried.  Well, better in a natural and painless way.  I am not into pain, or sweat for that matter.  I've always felt that if I'm sweating I'm either working too hard, or it's too hot, or both.

I set a goal to change my breakfasts--Well, I took smaller portions, does that count?  Still trying to get organized.  Actually I'm very organized, after the sun comes up, it's this getting up in the middle of the night (anytime before the sun is up) that is difficult for me.  But hope, and spring, is on the way.  The days are lengthening and it won't be long before I can be awakened by the sun rather than my alarm.  I'll keep plugging away.  And I'm truly grateful I don't have cows to milk at 4:30 AM.

One last thing; I got a lovely letter from my missionary son in Argentina.  PAYDAY!  He said he'd trade his new hat for a mother's hug!  All the long hours of teaching and training and patience are paying big dividends.  I love being a mother