A Day Late And A Dollar Short!

 Here are my goals for this week. I figure if I write them down, they might get done! lol!

1. Make sausage

2. Get craft table set up (some of this requires work to be done by DH)

3. Work on junk journal

4. Make cake for DDalmost16's birthday

5. Preserve potatoes

6. Cut up cantaloupe before it goes bad

7. Put DE on tomato plants

8. Harvest cherry tomatoes and eggplant

9. Clean up squash bed

10. Inventory hurricane supplies

Meet me back here on Sunday to see how I did!

Menu Plan Monday (January 20-26)

It is hard to believe that we are already in the middle of January! We've had such a mild winter this year (temps in the 50s-60's...even a couple of 70s!), but Winter arrived today with a high of 35. A friend and I had made plans to go out today, but after talking we agreed to stay in. Neither of us relished going out in the cold! I know for some of you, 30 degree weather is mild, but it is downright cold here!

I have been working part time since November and I am still trying to get used to my weekends being Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. When you have lived with the standard weekend for over 40 years, it is hard to wrap your mind around something new. DH also started a new job at the beginning of the year and is being paid on Monday now instead of Friday, so that changes things a bit too.

This week I am trying to eat as much as possible from the pantry and freezer. Both because I haven't had a chance to go to the grocery store and because I don't have grocery money from DH yet. I think I am going to try and start doing my shopping on Wednesdays. We'll see how it works out. Enough rambling from me. Here's the menu for the week:


Monday- Chicken noodle soup with homemade bread.   Pudding

Tuesday- American goulash with leftover bread. Chocolate chip bars

Wednesday- Pork roast with fried cabbage and mashed potatoes. No bake chocolate cheesecake

Thursday- Teriyaki chicken with rice and steamed broccoli. Brownies

Friday- going out to eat with in laws

Saturday-something in the crock pot...just not sure what!

Sunday- Ham, roasted potatoes, green beans, corn bread. Apple crisp






For more menu inspiration, check out orgjunkie.com!

Scatterbrained

Today was chilly and rainy. Not a very good day for taking pictures, which is what I had planned to do, in order to do a follow up post from yesterday. It will have to wait until tomorrow. This works out fine because I should have posted this first. I've just been so scatterbrained. I hope the rest of the year won't be like this!

One thing I don't do is make resolutions. I know there are many people out there that don't make resolutions either. They tend to make goals. Well, I sort of make goals, but they are very loose. If you hold them too tightly, they become resolutions, don't they? :) What I like to do is learn. This year, these are the things I would like to learn:

1. how to have a wardrobe for all seasons where I will wear the clothes

2. how to effectively take advantage of sales and preserve what I buy

3. how to garden in my zone for optimal results

4. expand my knowledge of knitting

5. expand my knowledge of embroidery

6. expand my knowledge of sewing



I will be expanding on these in future posts, so stay tuned there. And now, I am cold and tired and I am off to bed!

A Capsule Wardrobe

Capsule wardrobes are not new. They have been floating around for awhile, but I didn't catch wind of them until maybe 2018. I instantly fell in love with the concept, but I didn't know where to start. Sure there were lots of ideas for garments on blogs and tons of pictures on Pinterest showing chic outfits, but both only gave bare bone instructions. Purge your closet. Buy this. Buy that. It also didn't help that at the time I was leaning to a vintage vibe. I adore vintage (even if I have come to the conclusion that it doesn't love me back), but I digress. Then I found theviviennefiles.com. What a wealth of information! And so easy to follow. She has several different concepts, but my favorite by far is the 4x4.

The 4x4 is so simple. You pick a dark neutral color and you pick two tops and two bottoms in that color. You now have four outfits. Pretty cool, huh? Then you pick a light neutral that coordinates with your dark one and again pick two tops and two bottoms in that color. The next four items combine your two neutral colors, and should be tops, but there is a lot of leeway here. It doesn't have to be exact! And finally, four pieces (tops) in accent colors. You can also add four (or more!) accessory pieces that coordinate with all of your pieces to really pull your look together.

My mind is already swimming with ideas of what I can do to make something of "wardrobe for all seasons", but currently I am pulling together a winter wardrobe for right now. I consistently pull out a denim skirt to wear almost daily. It was getting old. In fact, I'm wearing a denim skirt right now! While looking at the site recently, I came across a 4x4 that was inspired by the cardinal. Black, grey, red. Perfect! I have black, I have grey, I have red.  There are a few gaps, but those will easily (I hope!) be fixed by a trip to the thrift.

More on this tomorrow!

Just To Add

I realized I forgot to expand on the gardening as I said I would.

I have always wanted a garden for as long as I can remember. While we do have room to put in a decent garden, my husband has been dragging his toes. I keep asking and he keeps making excuses. His main concern is that I will not tend to it like I should.

Admittedly, he has a point. I've been known to be a bit flighty in some cases and it wouldn't do to put in the time, money, and work for a garden, just to have me ruin everything by not doing what I need to do. However, I've changed quite a bit over the past year or so. I've been researching, listening to those wiser than I, and following my intuition. I wholeheartedly believe that growing food for my family is a path I need to follow and in order to follow it, I need to do it right.

I have decided then, that this year I will have a container garden. Thankfully, I have a part time job which means that I have a little spending money. Some of that will be put towards containers, seeds, and such. I've been busy making a list of foods I want to try and grow and preserve (all foods that we will eat!) Perhaps if I can show that I am serious about this, a larger garden will be in my future!

I'll be making posts here when I start my little garden and updating throughout the summer.

Happy New Year!

I had meant to get on and post yesterday, too, but the day got away from me.

Surprisingly for the very beginning of January we've had very mild weather. In fact, tomorrow we are supposed to have weather in the 60's with a high chance of rain. Because it's been so pleasant, I've been dreaming about a garden, but I'll get into that a bit later in the post.

Yesterday we had the required pork, sauerkraut, and Hopping John (a black eyed pea dish), along with mashed potatoes. Everything was delicious! I also made a black bean cake with peanut butter frosting for dessert. I read something interesting the other day about why people eat collard greens, black eyed peas, and cornbread for New Year's. They all represent money and eating them is supposed to bring you prosperity. You're not supposed to eat beef or chicken. Why? Because cattle stand still when they eat and eating them means you will be stagnant in the new year and chickens scratch backwards to get their food, meaning you will move backwards in the new year.

Usually I keep my tree up until January  6, but this year it was down the Friday after Christmas. I was just ready for a fresh house. So the tree has been put away, my little vintage village that was a gift from a dear friend has been put away, and the snowmen are still out, ready to bring a cheery note to January. The house has been tidied (mostly...there are a few big projects on the horizon) and I'm ready to jump into the new year! Are you?

Yesterday I spent a little time doing two things. The first was making my yearly gift list. I made a list of the people I buy gifts for during the year and the occasion (birthday, Valentine's, ect). Some of the list is already filled in (there is an upcoming January birthday that I'm currently working on) and I will fill in the rest as I find gifts during the year. The second thing I did was tweak my cleaning routine. I admit, I have been fairly lazy with my housekeeping. I've been keeping up with general cleaning such as dusting, vacuuming, laundry, ect, but it is the little things that I've been neglecting. I'm hoping to keep the house spic and span with my new schedule.


I hope you've had a wonderful start to January!