The day is over??

I've still got ants in my pants!  I still feel like there's so much to get done!  OH NO!

The morning started out with me having to fill up my meds container.  You know you're old when you do two weeks worth of medication in those daily dose containers.  I also have two weeks backups of just the meds and none of the supplements.  I try to keep a month's worth done up "just in case."  Just in case what?  I'm not sure.  I know that if we would get called somewhere and have to leave quickly and stay a few days, I've got it!  I also carry an older C-Pap with me in the van at all times.  I was a girl scout.  I'm prepared.  What else can I say?  lol

Kennedy started breakfast this morning.  She made up some scrambled eggs with peppers.  Smelled so good.  There wasn't enough left for all of us, so I cooked up some sausage and onions with it, added a few more eggs and we had tacos.  With cheese and salsa for good measure.  Should have added sour cream too but I didn't think about it.

After I picked up from breakfast, I started getting things ready for our stir fry supper.  We had a lot going on and I wanted to be able to walk in the door and start cooking when we got home from our running.

Soon as we got organized and had visited with Corry a little bit, we headed out to pick up Missy.  She wanted to go with us to my mother-in-law's.  She had leftover ice cream cake from Mike's birthday and some brownies to share with Gramma Sage.

After picking her and Melanie up we started towards Streetsboro.  We had to drop off some party things a friend of mine was borrowing for her daughter's baby shower.  We live about 30 minutes apart but she's close to Cliff's mom, so since we were out that way, I dropped them off.  LOVE her home, by the way.  Gorgeous oak interior.  Love, love, love it. 

Mom Sage really enjoyed her "treat" even though hers was a small piece.  We all know if we don't treat her now and again, she'll just make her own sugary goodies.  And sure enough, when Missy went into the kitchen to divide up what she'd brought, she found a pan of brownies Mom had made on the counter.  What I found was a little more...shocking?  lol  To her, it was perfect.  To me?  Disgusting!  She wanted to make really good pie crust and she had out a block of lard!  ewwwww!  Whatever she wants to do is fine though.  She's 90.  She should be allowed to live her life the way she wants.  

While we were there, I used the scanner on my phone, cam scan, to copy an article about our nephew.  His girlfriend saved his life, quite literally, recently.  They were eating at a restaurant, he had wings, and he started choking.  He used the choking sign and his girlfriend recognized he was in trouble.  She jumped to action, grabbed him and did the Heimlich maneuver on him.  Thank goodness her mom had taught her how.  And thank goodness she hadn't been a typical teen and she'd actually listened!!  He was 90 pounds bigger than her and she did just fine!  They still had to transport him to the hospital, but in the end, he's alive and well thanks to her.

Our trip home included a stop at the local Walgreen's, then dropping Missy and the baby off at home.  We were hungry but were good and didn't stop for any food.  I had that stir fry waiting to be made.  Lots of fresh veggies and marinated chicken.

~~~~~

TODAY'S STIR FRY

    chicken, drizzled a fresh squeezed lime over it

    zucchini

    yellow squash

    yellow and red sweet peppers

    bell pepper

    carrots

    mushrooms

    celery

    broccoli

I did one veggie addition at a time.  The pan had a dose of olive oil in the bottom and about halfway through, I put a couple slugs of soy sauce in.  We had teriyaki noodles from a package I got at Aldi's.  It was actually very good.  The sodium content wasn't good, but not too bad.  And the taste?  Fantastic!  If I could find a really good sauce recipe, or make one up, I'd do my own though with broken spaghetti for the noodles.

~~~~~

I was needing to clean up the kitchen, but wanted a little break.  I decided to get the table area ready to do my mending tomorrow.  I hope tomorrow.  I started out getting down on the floor and making some changes.  I had a big basket that had old music albums in it.  I took them out and moved them and also moved the music recorders and song books.  Those actually should go down the basement to my wreck of a rec room, but later.  Not today.  The basket then became my new home for the kids' puzzles.  Then I went through all the mending projects to see just what I have to do.  I moved my sewing machine into place.  I'll need to get my other sewing box out probably but for now, it's good. 

Once I had that done, I figured since I was on the floor, I'd start some of the "real" filing.  I started at the back of the double file drawer and did the left side up through "M."  That's enough.  I'm under no time restraint and every step toward the goal is great. 

Next came the kitchen clean-up.  Empty the clean dishes, load the dirty, clean what doesn't go in the dishwasher, clean the counter...  Normal drill. 

I went into the freezer and got out meats out for tomorrow.  One will actually be for a meal on Tuesday or Wednesday.  It's one of my multi-day make its. 

 When I walked through the livingroom, I remembered my one fall decoration that's stored in the house and not in totes in the garage.  My partylite candle holder with the magnetic seasonal sides.  I put it on the table/dresser and added the fall leaf sides to it.  I guess I should change the candle from rose to something more fall-ish.  But not today.  Today, I like rose. 

Did I mention I did get the coupons all purged, sorted and filed last night?  I thought I'd have new ones to file today, but for some reason there were no coupon flyers in today's paper.  Odd.

Remind me to put the little bow on the monkey's tail of Emmi's birth sampler.  I have all three for the littlest ones done now except for that bow.  Now I need to start gathering info for the other's I want to get done for Christmas.

I've been busy in between things working on a trip we intend to take in a couple months.  Another free stay.  This time in Pigeon Forge.  I love it there and think fall will be totally wonderful to be in the Smokies.  I can't wait!  I'm spending time now looking for free, big savings, etc.  My goal is to make it a very cheap trip.

 

I needed have something sweet so I made up some tapioca and some cherry jello.  Not the best stuff for you I guess, but not bad.  I could have used soy milk, but I did use skim.  One time I did use soy and it was fine. 

~~~~~

HEY FRIENDS!  I found another fun website!  A crafty site.  craftgawker  Check it out.  A little slower to move than pinterest but it had lots of ideas I hadn't seen anywhere.

~~~~~

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;

an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

- Winston Churchill

~~~~~

Ta-ta for now....

Hugs,

~~Mama Sage

Day four hear me roar!

That would be a roar of victory.  What is it?  Thirty days makes a habit?  I'm already four days in so I'm smelling that rose wreath at the end of my thirty day victory!

The morning started out the usual way.  Got up, took my meds, organized for my day.  Got cleaned up and dressed.  And then downstairs for breakfast.  Nothing fancy most days and today was no exception.  I've been avoiding this cereal we got because I know it has way too much sugar, but today, I ate it anyway.  Blueberry toastie things.  Like cinnamon toast crunch only blueberry.

While piddling in the kitchen, I did a little frig and freezer food shifting.  I wanted to take a look at what I might want to be using up this week.  I took out some sausage, bulk, to make tacos tomorrow or Monday.  Depends on when it thaws.  Took out some marinated chicken to cook up and have on salad for lunch tomorrow.  Then I made sure things were on the right shelves.   

I had to go downstairs and bring up some party equipment that a friend wants to borrow so I figured I might as well start the laundry.  There's never a bad time to do laundry.  I ended up finishing it with all the trips up and down.  I couldn't bring everything up at once.  The doctor warned me not to do heavy lifting.  Not taking any chances. 

I also did a little freezer "shopping" while I was down there.  I had been debating on what I wanted to eat for supper and opening the meat freezer settled it.  A meatloaf.  I had one already mixed up and frozen.  All I had to do was put it in to bake.  Also brought up broccoli for broccoli and cheese sauce.  I thought about a potato too and I thought about heating up the leftover roasted cabbage.  In the end, the meat and broccoli proved to be enough for the meal.  That roasted cabbage is so good though it definitely is shouting for me to eat it. 

~~~~~

Roasted cabbage

2 heads of cabbage cut into wedges

Lay on baking baking sheet.

Mix ½ c. olive oil, ½ c. lemon juice, 2 T worcestershire sauce, sea salt, black pepper.  Drizzle over wedges.  Sprinkle bacon bits (only real) over wedges.  Cover pan with foil tightly and bake at 425 for about 45 min.  If aren’t soft enough at that point, cook longer. 

~~~~~

I inventoried two medium bags and a small bag for charity.  We'll drop it off somewhere one day this week.

Also did the bills.  I think I need a bigger calendar.  I bought school time calendars for babysitting and for bills and now that it's a brand new year, it calls for brand new calendars.  Well they aren't cheap!  But I am!!  So I went to the dollar store and got a pocket calendar.  It should serve the purpose I guess, but I really think I'd be happier with a regular calendar. 

We are being bothered with medical bills that aren't being paid so I had to find out what the heck is going on.  People.  KEEP YOUR MEDICAL E.O.B.'s forever!!!  This is the second time I remember having to dig and dig and prove something was paid, should have been paid, has already been billed for, etc.  Last time it had been 8 years!!!  If I hadn't had the required paperwork, we'd have owed that bill!!

In the evening, we had strawberry shortcake.  Yummy.  After rewarding myself with it, I started the dreaded filing.  I dug up what paperwork we need to fight our current battle and separated all the shredding.  Our shredder is broken so that's a job for another day.  Tomorrow's list says "filing."  Okay.  Maybe. 

I discovered I had three files with pictures from my childhood.  I got on the computer and reorganized the whole group of them.  It's going to make one of my projects, my secret projects, run a little more smoothly. 

Packed lunch, did the dishes, and finished up the samplers for the three youngest.  The it was coupon time.  Purged the old and filed the new. 

I'm whipped.  I've already made my way upstairs for the night.  First thing I did was put away the laundry.  Then it was time to sit and blog with my milk and my water. 

I'm planning another full day tomorrow.  We'll have to see how it goes.  For now, it's night night time. 

~~~~~

A friend is a hand that is always holding yours,

no matter how close or far apart you may be. 

A friend is someone who is always there

and will always, always care. 

A friend is a feeling of forever in the heart.

~~~~~

Hugs, my friends...

~~Mama Sage

Well happy day!

And good morning to me!  What an uncalled for awakening.  I had JUST fallen asleep and my phone rang.  Now I don't mind if it's someone who needs me for something but this one was just ridiculous!  My caller ID said "SUMMA registration."  I looked at the clock and it said it was 5:30am!  My mind raced.  Who in the?  What the?  Was someone?  Before I could react and get enough saliva in my mouth to talk (it was a bad night for dryness), it hit voice mail.  I shook my head a bit, raised up on my good elbow and called my voice mail.  "Hi.  I hate to wake you, but we need coverage on your floor from blah blah to blah blah and just wanted to know if you want to pick up a few hours.  Can you call me back at blah blah blah?"  NOOOOOOO!  BECAUSE YOU DIALED THE WRONG NUMBER!!!  Not happy.  And I bet they were still short staffed today!

I tried to go back to sleep and just ended up dozing mostly.  Never did fall totally asleep.  I knew we were having at least one of the little girls here today and I always want to be chipper when they're here.  Two year olds can really keep you busy!

I got up, got dressed and headed downstairs, let the dog out and got a little something to eat.  Can't take some of the morning meds without food.  I guess that's a good thing because it makes me eat breakfast even when I don't want to.  When Cliff and Missy both got here with the girls, they wanted to play outside.  I went out and sat on the picnic table with Missy while they jumped on the little trampoline and swang on the swings. 

Soon Cait came to pick up Emmi.  Cliff went on up to sleep a while and Missy and I headed out for some groceries.  We started out at the meat market Missy shops at, Pressler's.  I walked in and was totally sucked in with the wonderful smell of fresh homemade Polish sausage.  They sold me.  Left with a big bag of it along with some fresh ground beef. 

We had planned to go to Hartville for produce but were short on time.  Instead we stopped at the Aldi store on the way home.  Their produce was actually very good.  It's one of he newer, cleaner stores.  I picked up Romaine 3 heads for 1.99, big peppers for 2/$1, mushrooms, sweet peppers, strawberries, grape tomatoes...can't think what else right now.  Enough to get by. 

I had planned on getting in the pool today, but it was a tad cold.  Yep even with the temperature today at 92, the pool was chilly.  I was pretty disappointed.  I had so been looking forward to it.  I'm thinking about braving it tomorrow anyhow unless we get hit with storms from Isaac. 

When Cliff got up and we got Emmi back again, we headed up to North Olmsted to pick up Kennedy.  The trip was good, but the whole way up, I was antsy.  You know when you get a bug you want something and it just won't get away?  I wanted ice cream.  I rarely crave anything sweet but it just wouldn't quit!  lol  So after we got her in the car, I very quickly said we HAD TO stop at the ice cream store at the end of her street.  Mmmm good!  A hot fudge Sunday more than hit the spot.

When we got home, I made Tortellini.  Three cheese.  I made a sort of sauce with diced tomatoes, onion, pepper, mushrooms and spices.  A little Italian seasoning, fennel and pepper.  It was very good.  And not bad for me either.  Made me feel better about eating that ice cream to eat something semi-healthy!

Emmi wanted to watch her "princess movie" so we put Tangled in the DVR.  She loves that thing.  I guess all or most kids have their favorite movie.  My kids wore out Willy Wonka and Kennedy wore out Tom and Jerry.  She knew it by heart!  Now Emmi is doing the same with Tangled.  Hey.  At least it's a good movie!

I also headed downstairs to grab things a friend thought she might want for her daughter's baby shower and took pictures.  We'll be taking them to her on Sunday.  I'm so glad I have so many serving things to share.  When I got them, the cost was justified and seeing them used over and over just makes it even better. 

I've finished Melanie and Emmi's birth samplers (Christmas gifts) and am nearly done with CJ's.  Just wish I could find more patterns.  I'd like to make sure everyone in the family had one for Christmas but I don't want them all the same.  They shouldn't cost more than two or three, maybe four dollars.  If you see any anywhere, let me know!

I got to foolin' around on my computer a bit tonight, my laptop, and realized one of my files had duplicate pictures.  Now if I was the average person, that wouldn't be much of a problem.  But...I'm Mama Sage.  And Mama Sage likes her camera.  I like pictures, old and new.  THIS was a problem for me.  Storage.  I have to organize!  Caution:  big job ahead!

The weekend is here.  I supposedly have time to accomplish things.  I need to work on computer files, regular files, do laundry, and fill a few bags for charity.  We shall see.  Cross your fingers for me.

~~~~~

“You never know what's around the corner.

It could be everything.

Or it could be nothing.

You keep putting one foot in front of the other,

and then one day you look back and you've climbed a mountain.”

~~Tom Hiddleston

 

~~~~~

Hugs,

~~Mama Sage

It's not Wednesday anymore but, it's a Wednesday blog

I told myself I'd do this every night again. I do want to. I just got out of the habit. So here I am at almost 4 in the morning writing my blog! And I do have to be up for Emmi in the morning. Not quite as early tomorrow, but still, morning is morning and it's almost here!!

 

 

This morning I had to be up at what is an early hour for me. I'm that night owl you heard stories about. NOW is perfect for me to be up and doing. When I have to get up early though I try to sleep early. Doesn't always work. Rarely does in fact. But anyhow, back to today.

 

 

I got up early knowing that it was about time for Emmi to get here. I was smelling my chicken bones a-cookin' away in the crockpot. Mmmmm such an awesome smell. When I got downstairs I turned it off and let the dog out.

 

 

If you haven't learned to crock through the night or while you're at work, you're missing out. It's a great way to get a good, good meal going when you can't slave over a hot stove. Especially during times I know my sleep will be short, I try to crock the next day's meal. When I don't get enough sleep, I ache ache ache. Can't describe how bad it is. Right now, because I'm off my body's rhythm, even my wrists and shoulders and upper arms hurt. And across the middle of my shoulder blades and my face. Don't laugh. The same tissues and connective gloop are in my face that are in the rest of my body. It can hurt. And it does.

 

 

When I got done with the little routine things and turned off the crock pot, I went through the livingroom turning all the toys on. Mimi doesn't mind noisemakers and musicmakers so we have LOTS! And of course they all have buttons to turn on and off and batteries. sigh

 

 

I decided to knit a bit while I waited. Still working on the Browns scarves. And Penny and Kelley and a few others out there, I do still hope to have the others online and ready to go this weekend. I know some of you Christmas shop this early and have been poked in the side to get a hitch in my get-along. Okay. I'm listening. Any particular color preferences? I have three totes full.

 

 

When Emmi got there, Nelly was so excited to see her. She jumped up to give her a kiss and knocked her on her butt. I hollered BAD GIRL! Meaning the dog, of course. Then I tried to console Emmi and she's hollering at me and pointing and telling me NO! Rusty said she thought I was telling her SHE was a bad girl. lol Took me quite a while to convince her it was Nelly who was bad and that she was good. Gotta watch what you say when little ones are abound.

 

 

When Cliff got back from the early part of his run (second job) Emmi and I packed up and road along with him a while. We had some things that we'd forgotten to give Missy the day before and decided to find her and run them to her.

 

 

After we were done with that, we stopped in at Wendy's, I was craving meat so I concentrated on that. Ten french fries and my burger. With cheese. And veggies. Lots.

 

 

We came back home, Cliff went up to sleep and I played with Emmi until Cait got here. She got here a little early today. You never know.

 

 

We visited a while and then after they left, I finished up the soup. I strained the bones from juice, picked the meat from bones, and added lots of veggies. Yellow squash, onion, sweet red pepper, carrots, mushrooms, baby green limas, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, and peas. Then, to enhance the flavor some, I added some garlic, a little chicken soup base, and pepper. It was set to cook slow through the evening and set to auto until tomorrow. We'll have it for lunch with garlic bread. Maybe garlic cheese bread.

 

 

I know. I'd planned it for today's supper. It's going to take a little time to get into the swing of a working schedule with Cliff doing both these jobs and our changing schedule with Em. But I will. Somehow.

Next I cleaned the frig. I needed room for the soup. And while there, I decided to go ahead and pack Cliff's lunch a little early. Wouldn't hurt.

 

 

The rest of the evening, I knit and caught up on shows, cleaned up the toys and planned menus and to-do's for the rest of the week and weekend.

 

 

I was glad for the winner on America's Got Talent, but thought all four should have a show and a million bucks. I would have been happy with any of them as the grand prize winner.

 

 

After eating a couple egg rolls for my supper, and playing that addictive Angry Birds a little bit, I came upstairs and put away the towels. Then into the window with the fan, take my meds, blog this and then zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

 

night all :-)

 

 

Sorry no pictures or quotes. I'll get better. I promise