What a Day!

 Today is a Hurkle-Durkle day.  It is raining on and off and the kind of damp that puts a chill in your bones.  Still not sure what it is?  Maybe this will help.

Isn't that such a great phrase?  Besides that, I was pretty busy the other day.  I was busy enough that I had to write it down to remind me of everything.  So here goes.

   - Did dishes.  Ok.  Not that great of an accomplishment but it was a start.  I do dishes in the morning or when my hands gets cold because the hot water warms them up.  Of course it isn't too bad right now since our temperatures are in the mid 50s.

- Printed up this weeks pattern for Free Peppermint Purple Stitch a Long.  That is my blackwork Stitch a long.  I did finish this weeks pattern which is the fourth for the new one. Where did the time go?  It has been four weeks already?

I have my second one that I am doing but unfortunately it is the third time I am having to unstitch it.  I will get it eventually straightened out.  I just need to sit down and concentrate on it.

- With all of that, it was time to drink coffee with my vanilla caramel coffee creamer in it.  YUMMMM!  That might not seem like something to celebrate (besides getting caffeine in the system) but sometimes we have to remind ourselves to sit and take a break sometimes.

- Looked at new/old recipes.  That is something I am always happy to do and it was good to look for while drinking coffee.  This is the recipe that I decided to make.

Ham and Cheese Pasta Casserole

 

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package elbow macaroni

• 1 (8 ounce) package Cheddar cheese, cubed

• 1 cup cubed, cooked ham

• ½ cup mayonnaise

• 1 cup dry bread crumbs

 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook elbow macaroni in the boiling water, stirring occasionally, until cooked through but firm to the bite, 8 minutes; drain.

3. Combine macaroni, Cheddar cheese, ham, and mayonnaise in a 9x13 baking dish until well mixed.

4. Sprinkle bread crumbs over the macaroni casserole.

5. Bake casserole in the preheated oven until bread crumbs are lightly browned, about 25 minutes.

- Stitched on February 2014 Block Swap.  I now only have the green leaves and vines to do and it will be done with.  I will probably finish it by Monday.

- Brought back garbage container to porch in between rain – so far no leaks (shhh.  You didn’t hear me say that – don’t want to tempt fate).  Another thing that isn't a big deal but it did take up time.  Have you realized that sometimes it is the multiple little things that take up your time.

- Made out two shopping lists – what I want to get and what I NEED to get – and go back to planning meals.  Dan will take me to Walmart for some cat food and caffeine in the next day or two. I need to get my list ready.

- Worked on Words of Wisdom redwork.  I have one of the birds stitched and about 75% of the second bird done.  After that it will go quickly.  This is one of the UFOs that was drawn to work on in January.  I won't get it all finished but it will have at least 2 of the blocks done.  PROGRESS!

- Try to work on Battle HAED Cross stitch.  Ok.  Progress on this means that I too it out and looked at it.  That counts doesn't it?  I will get to it again soon.  It is very bulky and  think that is what is putting me off on it.  I will work on it again.

- Stitched up socks (not darned).  I just hand stitched some small holes in them.  That will hold them for quite awhile.

- Get my YouTube list set up – I always set up my YouTube playlist (all free vids, etc.) before stitching so that it is playing in the background and that I can watch what I want to, save the ones I want to rewatch, etc.  I cannot do stitching in quiet.  All the years of noise from the office, noise at home, etc. says I need it even if it is only in the background.  Sometimes (more than I would normally admit) I have my favorite movies or vids on because when they get to a part I like, I look up and watch it and know exactly where they are at in it.

   

That was all yesterday.  Today hasn't been as productive BUT I did manage to start the day off in a good place.  My milestone today was getting into a pair of jeans that I was wearing when I first moved to Arkansas.  THEN I gained weight.  I am still overweight, and probably will always be overweight, but today I decided to try on the smaller size pair and they fit.  Not only did they fit...but they fit while I was wearing my thermals.  That made my day.   So remember...

What a day!

 Ever had one of those days which was sort of productive but you couldn't way what you really did?  That was the kind of day that I had.  Now that I'm typing it down, I guess I was somewhat productive.

It started out this morning with me making breakfast eggs to freeze.  I did a dozen the other day but only 9 made it as far as the freezer.  That batch I did in a 9 x 9 baking dish and just cut them into 9 squares.  They were a bit uneven since my oven is not level.  I just ate the most uneven first and managed to put 6 in the freezer for when I want them.  Today, however I used my muffin tin and made 12.  They turned out better.  I only used my seasoned salt garlic powder and onion powder.  Once again I kept three out and put the rest in the freezer.  That will keep me stocked up for a bit.

Later in the day I made left over taco mash up.  Ok so it is not an original name.  It is basically a layered tortilla wrap casserole made with leftovers.  This one had a layer of pizza sauce on the bottom, then a large tortilla, some salsa/pizza sauce mixture, some cooked ground turkey, and cheese.  Put another layer of the same on top and the final layer was a tortilla, sauce, cheese, garlic powder, and onion powder (since I left it out in the other layers.  Baked for around 10-12 minutes and all done.  It turned pretty good.  I have half of it left.

I pulled out Pop of Poinsettia table runner which was one of my UFO projects to work on.,  Does it count as working on it if I pulled everything out, read the directions and put it back in its bag?  I think it should.  I didn't work on it because I wasn't in the mood to make bias vines and I can't decide on what fabric to fuse everything on.  I'm trying not to buy more fabric so this might be saved for 2025.  

I was productive enough to <cough> need <cough> to take a couple of naps.  I was in my second hour of napping when Shalom called and said he was headed to Walmart if I wanted a ride.  So, obviously, I went.  WOW!  There were a lot of empty shelves.  I managed to get a 3 pound bag of cat food, and feel lucky I got that.  I could only get 2 two liters of soda because they were all out.  I wasn't going to spend the money on the cans and even then they were low.  They were low on margarine/butter and eggs.  Fumingly enough the milk was stocked.  The creamers and iced coffee were almost out.  Shredded cheese was ok but Buddig meats and that type was almost non existent.  No evaporated milk.  They only had sweetened condensed milk.  Bread was low and tortillas were getting low.  No bags of onions nor did they have bags of  potatoes.  Oops. T hat isn't totally true.  They had 2 bags of potatoes.  Almost all of the fresh produce was gone although the organic produce was still stocked but starting to run low.  I can see that my menu will be changed with this news.

With that news, I will mix in my 3 pounds of cat food with what I have left in the bucket and hope that they will have more when I get more money.

That is what I did today.  What did you do?  Keeping warm?  Baking anything?  Sewing anything?  Curious minds would like to know.

Oops. Forgot something

 Actually I forgot to post some things.  The first is what a newspaper article thought a 2 week food emergency supply of food should be.  This was put out by an unknown person on Pinterest.  It is from the Mid 60s and the author was stationed at Wurtsmith AFB with Strategic Air Command.

The other thing that I wanted to share came from a YouTube video that I was watching.  It was a statement that I had to write down and share.    It is:

It does not do to swell on dreams and forget to live.

Isn't that a great statement?  Here are a couple more.

Also remember:

Have a great evening/morning everybody.  Now I have to get back to some stitching.  :)

Happy New Year and Progress Report

 Happy New Year?  Yeah I know...I'm a little late.  Better late than never?  At least that is my story this time and I'm sort of sticking to it.  

You might have wondered...or not...what I've been up to.  Good question.  I'm not sure.  I get through each day and still wonder what I've done that day.  I thought that retirement was supposed to be a time when I got to relax and take it easy.  I guess that I sort of am relaxing and taking it easy?  January, at least how I experience it and have experienced it, is a time for stress.  Many think that December is stressful and so do I, to a certain extent.  For me, January is more stressful.

I try not to think I am so predictable or fall into the same pattern all the time.  I am human so of course I am just deluding myself.  Every January everybody is expected to make New Years Resolutions.  What they expect to accomplish or change in the upcoming year.  I usually say the same things.  The same things haven't changed.  What am I going to do THIS year?  Good question.  I made my list but only recently although it has been rattling around in the empty space I call my head.  So this year I am going to make a list, probably multiple ones, and then try to knock off at least one thing on the list.  THAT will be breaking the cycle of giving up on the list.  How am I going to do that?

 I think that I am starting off in the same way.  Make a list and I'll be checking it twice.  Oh wait.  Wrong season.  That's Christmas.  I will still make a list or 10 but this time the list will be more reasonable.  My list so far is:

Work on UFOs

Work on not collecting too many more new projects

Try to keep my sanity.

See?  Nice and simple.  First up is working on UFOs.  In my Our Time To Quilt group we are doing a UFO challenge.  How doe it work?  You pick 12 UFOs that you want to work on.  It would be great if you could finish it but it is more about the progress.  So this month I am working on a table runner called Pop of Poinsettia.  I have my applique pieces cut out but need to put it together.  I'm not stopping there though.  A couple of friends of mine are joining me and I am doing something similar with them.  So what I am working on with them is Words to Live By.  That is a wall hanging.  I won't finish it this month but I at least I am working on it.  That isn't all I am working on though.

I am still doing my blackwork.  In fact I will be doing at least two blackwork pieces this year.  One is the Peppermint Purple SAL.  The other one is another one of their patterns.  I also want to work on a couple more things but I will tell you about them later.

Now for some pictures.

I have been receiving some blocks from my block swaps and here they are.

Then we have my blackwork.  This is actually two weeks from the SAL.

And this is the first block from Words to Live By.

I hope you have enjoyed what I plan to work on.  What are your plans for 2024?