Friday, December 16, 2011

Who in their right mind puts five cookies in a box....

and expects you to seal them up again? So much easier to eat them and be done with it. My biggest mistake. I have been sick all day. I do not understand how people could eat like that on a regular basis. I always pay for my sins, it seems. I hadn't eaten a lot yesterday, and after eating one after supper,  thought, hmmmm what the heck, may as well keep the rest  from going stale. NEVER will I do that again. Cookies are best consumed by 2's. One to taste, and one to enjoy! I have been feeling queasy ever since. I am not good with sweets, and really should know better. But I don't! LOL

So, today, I managed to get a little housework done, and bit of grocery shopping. Having eaten the new Schneider's Naturals hot dogs last week, and watching dear granddaughter consume them with gusto, I bought a pack to have while she is here. I must admit that no matter how complicated I get with my  menu plans sometimes, I do prefer simple meals best of all. Jazzing up tinned beans with various ingredients, and baking them till they are a deep brown, could fool Julia Child, I am sure. But who really cares if it didn't? As the song says "After you've been eatin' steak for awhile? Beans, beans taste fine!"

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Getting ready to start the fiscal new year...

So far, I have transferred a lot of information to the new Polestar calendar. This will be the third year I have bought this style of calendar, and each year, I find better ways to use it!  Keeping it simple seems to work for me these days.  I love everything about this calendar, from the pocket in the back to the useful pages for information.  Check it out if you are tired of trying calendars that just don't work!  Here is a shot of the weekly pages. Lots of room for meal planning, budget reminders, appointments.

And here is a shot of the family profile section, which will go the distance where my memory gets sore feet and sits down to rest!


The family profiles will be filled out by the end of the year, since I will have a captive audience while they are here. And I do think family and friends are tired of receiving the same gifts again and again, because I forgot what I bought them before!

There is also a monthly calendar, that I find invaluable for a "long shot" of the month. I like to know where I will be at any given time, even if I do wake up in strange hotels not knowing exactly which city I may be in!  I have a tendency is to make things far too complicated, so this year, I am going to use this calendar to consolidate  our information into one space. That being said, I also downloaded a program to keep track of our finances more effectively.  It isn't that we have zillions of dollars to keep track of, but if you keep track of the pennies, the dollars look after themselves.

This whole paper game should be done before the new year starts!  I do love playing in my office though, and looking for more efficient ways of recording things can sometimes take several days of online research and general sitting at my desk. I am getting papers organized for income tax, and plan on shredding a good deal of the bills, etc. that I have a tendency to collect. Why, I save them in the first place, |I will never know. I think the habit comes from back in the day when records were not so easily accessible online.  Since we are living in 2011 going on into 2012, I do think it is time to declutter the papers that have attached themselves to me over the years, and start 2012 off lighter than ever. I will still keep the receipts for the furniture we bought in the seventies, though. It has been my habit over the past years to shred through New Years day...literally, but this year, with the kiddo being here, I doubt that I will be hard up for excitement on that day, so better get at it now!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Getting ready for our little visitor....

Over the past few days, and as many visits to the dollar stores, I am finding things to fill a "busy box" for our little guest. We always had a busy box at home...a simple shoe box that my mother tossed odds and ends into, that could easily be transformed into something wonderful with our imaginations, a scrap of fabric,  a piece of string and a bit of glue!  Now, for our dear granddaughter, we have sticky foam sparkly princess things, and foam sheets on which to glue them. There are pom poms, double sided sticky tape, school glue and googly eyes. Glitter is a bit too messy for a three year old, but I was really tempted! Common sense won out, so I settled for a box of Princess  sparkly stickers that will thrill her to no end! I will wander around the house when cleaning this week, with an eye to adding to the odds and sods that will round out the box.  I know I have some buttons and ribbons around here someplace!

Sunday, December 4, 2011

New Shoes and Other Semi-Painful Experiences

Yep. Wore a pair of new shoes out today. They were so cute, but I must admit there will be a bit of a break in period with them.  The big toe nail on my right foot has a bit of a pressure "memory" even as we speak!  New clothes are nice, but you just never know how an item will perform until you actually wear it.

Take, for example, last week, when I wore my lovely new velvet top.  During our nice lunch, I had to keep an eye on  the empire seaming, so it wouldn't strike back....up the way it came on!  I looked down and there it was, all bunched up on TOP of my boobs!  Not a good look.
 You can't really see the under bust seaming but it is there.  It is a combination of the slippery fabric backing, and my boobs being just a little, shall we say, lower than they should be? (Okay, downright droopy.  After sixty one years on the planet, every body part is travelling south. I can accept that fact. Too bad this tunic can't!) Necessity being the mother of invention,  I am thinking of fashioning some sort of ribbon tabs to the seams and then tacking the ribbons to my bra. That ought to hold the top in place! Someone should invent a product like that gooey stuff they stick samples into magazines with, to use on garments.  Until they do, I will have to make do with little gold pins and bits of ribbon.  Life is never simple, is it?


Friday, December 2, 2011

My Little Black Book

Time to break out the new calendar, add the trip dates and appointments that I have for the first few months, make a budget for the coming new year, so basically, I spent a day in the office, tossing, planning, reflecting. 

Yesterday, I went wild and had lunch out. We went to Kelsey's and I had the usual...a baked potato and shrimp skewers. I love restaurants that will let you order sides without the main meal! I don't know what got into me today though...I started out on carbs, and just couldn't leave them alone. There was one lonely little potato in the basket, so it ended up as breakfast fries. When you are by yourself, who's gonna know? Lunch was a salami sandwich - as the years go by, I resemble Dagwood in my sandwich skills. Love to add cucumber and lettuce to just about any protein that I can find in the frig!  Supper was shameful. Two bags of Cheetos (170 calories a bag, but NO nutrition!) and a Fresca.  Yep. I didn't do too well today!  Ah well. The man will be home tonight, and then I will be back on track.

There were a ton of errands I had to do today, but the wind was whistling again, and I just did not want to venture out.  We are back on the road again, for a week, so the cupboard is purposely bare. Meal planning is really working out well because I haven't had to throw out a single thing since I got back on the wagon. Hmmmm. That is what I forgot to do today!  I guess in the back of my mind it isn't necessary to do until we come home. All those hours in the car will give me lots of time to think!

I have reverted to carrying a little notebook with me EVERYWHERE. Just a simple little black book that contains everything from appointments, to wardrobe lists, window dimensions, budgets and spending records.

I kept track of our budget for years with Quicken, but since my computer crashes, I just didn't bother anymore, prefering to go from day to day, knowing we were on track, but not really having a hard record. It is mainly out of curiosity that I keep track.  These days?  I really don't have a clue anymore what we spend on clothing or any other household category. Generally, I guess, there is a figure floating around behind my eyes, but with the need for things like new clothing coming so regularly now, I think it would be interesting to really figure out how much we need for those expenses. We have always operated on the 'squeaky hinge gets the oil' principle. Whoever needed it the most, got it first! At this stage of life, though, we don't seem to need much, and there isn't a wait to fulfil a need!  It kept me busy to keep up with my clothing needs due to weight loss, but now, the man has me back on that hamster wheel more often. He seems to grow out of his wardrobe faster than I can shop for replacements!  I think he will level out soon, as his appetite is coming back, so soon it will once again be all about me!