Month: July 2025

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Every Day

A Fantastic Time

Sorry that I haven’t been on here in a while. Chris, who I met online at the beginning of my first blog way back in AZ many years ago, came to visit with her husband. They came last summer too and we just loved both of them. So we invited them again. They are quite a bit younger than us so they drove to us again.

They arrived on Sunday and we stayed in because it was so hot outside. Every day they were here it was the hottest it had been here all summer. On Sunday evening, my Hubby made his famous onion soup(he won a contest many years ago in a competition with it). They loved it as we did too. Then I made a very large Caesar Salad with chicken strips. It was the perfect dinner for such a hot humid day. For dessert we had carrot cake. We stayed up until midnight chatting. We have so much in common. Chris and I like the same things and our husbands are both engineers. So they get along so well.

They again brought us gifts: different beers made in her state, a bottle of blueberry moscato wine, a homemade rub that her husband made for us to put on chicken, many cheeses and many chocolates that they got at a big market in Cleveland on the way here, a large bag of vidalia onions that I have trouble finding here, another pretty grocery bag, a toy for Eloise, and 2 toys for my Hubby that her Hubby made on his 3D printer, etc. I told her not to bring anything but she didn’t listen. She says she enjoys doing it.

After a good night’s sleep. I made breakfast: scrambled eggs, sausage, avocado, and English muffins with my homemade peach jam. Then we left to go to Seneca Falls( 2 and 1/2 hour drive one way) to the Women’s Rights National Park. The first convention for women’s rights was held in the Wesleyan Chapel next door. We were happy that we didn’t live back then. But very thankful to those women for fighting for our rights that we enjoy today.

After we spent a couple of hours in the museum and the chapel, we walked down the main street in Seneca Falls(cute town with many little shops) to:

https://parkers-on-fall.res-menu.com

The name of the restaurant is Parker’s on Fall. The food and service was very good. I was happy that they had a Beef on a Weck which is a WNY specialty. Chris’s Hubby tried one and liked it too.

It was a full day for us because we didn’t get home until almost 5pm. Since we were stuffed from lunch, we had a late dinner. I made a charcuterie board of the cheeses that they brought, some of my cheeses, pepperoni, olives, turkey and ham, and French bread, etc. That way we could just pick what we wanted according to how hungry we were. Then we had some of the chocolates for dessert. It was off to bed early because we were so tired. Heat and humidity just wears us out.

We decided we would have a lazy day when we got up. Hubby made blueberry pancakes and I cooked a pound of bacon for breakfast. I took Chris and her Hubby to my Niagara Produce market. They were surprised at all they had in there. Chris picked up some chocolates for her grandchildren and a couple of other things. I grabbed some chuck eye steaks. I had been looking for months and was quite surprised that they are butchering them now. They are just one step below ribeyes and sit right next to them on the cow. Since ribeyes are now $20. a lb. here, I want to see if these will be as good. I also got two big beefsteak tomatoes and picked up 2 containers of Hershey’s ice cream.

We ate turkey and ham sandwiches for lunch with chips and pickles.

We chatted all afternoon until we went to dinner at:

It is our newest brewery in the city north of us. Hubby and I went there a few weeks ago and wanted to take Chris and her Hubby because he likes beer too. We had the best service and the food was so delicious. They make the best fries in the city or the town. Their smash burgers are to die for.

The four of us from the left: Chris’s Hubby, Chris, Me, and My Hubby.

Chris and I, windblown hair and all, before we dig in. When we got home, we dug into that ice cream that I bought earlier in the day.

After we got home, we again chatted the evening away. By 10pm, we went to bed so they could get a good sleep to leave after breakfast in the morning.

Eloise hid from both of them the first day or so that they were here. But finally on Tuesday, she came out to greet them and even let them pet her. She was very happy with the cute mouse toy they brought her. After they left she was in the guest bedroom they stayed in looking for them.

I made eggs, sausage, and English muffins with my homemade peach jam for breakfast before they left. I also sent them on their way with turkey sandwiches, chips, and bottles of water for lunch. We miss them already and can’t wait to see them again. I am going to have to check out plane tickets. Don’t worry Chris. that won’t be anytime soon.

Chris and her Hubby took a side trip on the way home so they didn’t get home until late today. That is why I am just posting this today instead of yesterday. I never let anyone know when someone isn’t home.

I am off to catch up on the comments. I should have a small post tomorrow.

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Every Day

This Week’s Meal Plan

I have a busy week. So yesterday I went down to the freezer and brought up all the protein I needed for 7 days. Then I scoured my refrigerator and pantries for the other items that I need for sides. All meals will be eaten at home. Here is my meal plan:

Sunday: Choice of Salmon/or Haddock grilled, applesauce, tossed salad

Monday: Cheeseburgers with sauteed onions, sliced tomatoes, and choice of provolone or pepper jack cheese, strawberries and blackberries for dessert

Tuesday: Homemade chicken soup using chicken and chicken broth that I canned last year

Wednesday: Leftover soup because Hubby needs something soft since he is having an old filling replaced

Thursday: Mojito lime ribeye pork chops, baked potatoes, applesauce and or steamed broccoli

Friday: Shrimp cocktails and tossed salad

Saturday: Grilled chicken on Caesar salad

We will drive to the town south of us twice this week for appointments. Those will be the only days we will use gasoline. I have no intention of grocery shopping this week since we are using up what we have in our home.

Decluttering inside my home is done for now. I do have two very large file drawers in the office that need it. But that will get done in August. We will be getting rid of any papers that we no longer need.

Laundry was done yesterday using cold water and hanging clothes to dry.

Just a quick side note. I have removed a subscriber to my blog. Her negative comments were quite nasty. Since I own my blog, it was easy for me to delete her. A relative said to me she will just use a different e-mail. She can try but she will not get in. Our son has his own server which we use. He has blocked her IP address so the firewall will not let her in. So if you are new here and read comments, I have removed all comments that she has written since the beginning of the blog. If any responses in the comments don’t make sense, just know it was because of the removal. Negativity has no place on this blog. That is all I have to say about it.

Have you made a meal plan this week? I would love to hear what you are having. Sharing helps all of us.

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Every Day

Cutting Costs

Even though we are decluttering. we are still cutting costs when we can.

We have leftovers today from the other night when we had the rotisserie chicken. So I will be using those to make a chicken salad for dinner using some of the green grapes in it along with celery and mayonaise. It will be an easy dinner that I will prepare this morning. Waste not, want not!

I have been going through a lot of garbage bags and they as you know are very expensive. So I have been packing them as full as I can.

A piece of trim had fallen off at the bottom of the cupboards where they meet the hardwood floor. It didn’t take Hubby long to realize that they glued the trim on and didn’t nail it. So hubby used some heavy duty glue that we already had to put it back where it belonged.

Hubby is going to take some time today to fix the button that popped out of our dishwasher panel. This happened a while ago but eventually Hubby gets to things especially when I make him a to do list. It will be time consuming because he has to take the entire panel apart.

Hubby is done going to physical therapy so that will save us $50. in copays a week and gasoline for a 24 mile round trip twice a week . They have done all they can do for him and it has really helped. He will continue to do the exercises at home.

The black plastic part of the top of the key for the riding lawnmower broke. Superglue worked like a charm.

Hubby has been keeping up with all the trimming of flowers and weeding the gardens but we have so many that it is hard for him. So he is looking for a gardener not a landscaper to maintain them all summer. This won’t be cheap but this is why we have been frugal so that we can afford help when we need it.

Hubby wants me to hire a housekeeper to clean our home every two weeks. That won’t work because I am a perfectionist and I will just end up firing them. We have tried this twice before when my sons were babies and when I worked. They did not clean the way I did and I couldn’t stand it. So this is one of the reasons why I am decluttering. It will make it easier for me.

I found a basket in the basement to use to corral all of Eloise’s toys. I pick them up before I go to bed and in the morning I find she has taken a lot of them out overnight and put them under a chair where I sit at my computer in the kitchen. It is her way of telling me she wants to play. I already have a small caddy for things like her brush, nail clippers, and battery chargers for some of her water things and birds and a duck that makes noises.

I have been taking soda and beer cans back when I get one bag’s worth and I am running errands. If I am going to Top’s, I use their new return room. They have 3 machines that take plastic and cans that are super fast and if I go when it opens at 7am there is no one there. This way I don’t have bags of them piling up in our garage. Then I just cash in my receipt for them against my grocery bill.

I continue to scan my receipts into Fetch. I am almost up to where I can get another Walmart gift card which helps defray costs when I get delivery orders.

We still have our A/C on because this summer has been so hot and humid. But we are keeping the temperature at 74 instead of 72. We can’t go any higher because the humidity is so bad here. Our utility company has just asked the state regulating agency for a a 33.5% increase in natural gas delivery rates and a 23.7% increase in electricity delivery rates. As if our bills aren’t high enough now! They say they need it to upgrade critical infrastructure upgrades. They probably do because the grid is aging. But this is going to hurt on top of how high the bills are now. So more cutting is going to be necessary. UGH!

I am already trying to make cold simple meals for dinners as much as possible to keep the costs down this summer. We use the outside grill when we can. If it is really humid outside, we can’t tolerate that so we have used it less than other years.

We were able to not use our sprinkler system until about mid June. But we haven’t had much rain recently so we have had to use it.

I submitted $10. in rebates this week.

Lastly, we had an unexpected savings last night for our anniversary dinner at a local restaurant. It could have been a disaster but they made it right. I almost always order the Queen size prime rib for dinner there. They have always been quite delicious. Not last night. I ordered it done medium and it came well done. Not only that but it was only about 1/2 inch (if that) thick which is extremely unusual. I tried a piece and it was unchewable(so tough). I mentioned it to the waitress and she said I see a little blood on top so try it and walked away. When I realized how tough it was, I pushed the plate off to the side of the table and ate the French fries that came with it. The waitress came back to check on it again. I said to her you know I get prime rib every time we come here for the last 15 years. I told her this is the worst prime rib I have ever had. It has always been fantastic before but this time I don’t even know if it is prime rib. She agreed that I always get it I should know. She took the plate of it and asked me if I would like a 6 oz. filet mignon instead. I said sure. It did not take them very long to cook it to perfection. It was one of the best filets I have had. I realized there was a difference in price. The prime rib was $31.99 and the filet mignon was $27.99. They charged me the filet price and they also took a draft beer off the bill. The draft price was $6.00. So our anniversary could have been a disaster and they would have lost a customer but they did the right thing. Yes, we will go back again because we all make mistakes. But next time, I will order the filet mignon.

I am off to declutter a lot more things because tomorrow is garbage day. You guys have a good day!

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Every Day

Grocery Hauls The Past Two Weeks

Here is last week’s Top’s haul. I needed one more bottle of Italian dressing for my large pasta salad that I took to the 4th of July party. It was $ 2.50. I was almost out of Bubba Burgers and they were on sale for $14.99. I only got one because I am going to a Grocery Outlet soon and they are much cheaper there. The Kraft singles were on sale B1G1F so they were $3.00 each. We only use them for grilled cheese. So one got frozen. The sour cream was on sale for $2.00. My total was $ 25.49.

Today I went and got a rotisserie chicken on sale for $6.99. It is in the crockpot on warm until we have it for dinner. I will serve green beans and salt potatoes that my neighbor gave me with it. All I have to do is warm them. Ignore the large bag of rice. I took it out of the closet when I was decluttering it. I still have to get it into a food grade bucket and put it away.

I purchased tomatoes for $ 2.47, seedless green grapes on sale for $4.50(we love them in chicken salad), and a carrot cake for $12.99 to celebrate our 58th anniversary tomorrow. That is all we needed this week. So I spent a total of $26.95.

The sales have not been remarkable lately so I don’t have much desire to get a bigger shop.

The decluttering is going well. I filled another garbage bag and a 1/2 of a bag with stuff as I continue along this journey. I now have 3 and 1/2 rooms done. I am hoping to have 5 bags worth by garbage day on Thursday. It is also our bulk pickup day so a large artificial plant is going since Eloise keeps knocking it over along with anything else I can find.

I did not tell you about this when I was talking about our goal money a few posts ago. Drill Baby Drill! That is what President Trump has been pushing. It is paying off for us because we own property and mineral rights in Texas. This is money we were not expecting. We did well during his first term but then it all dried up during Biden’s term. Now the spigot is open again so we should reach our goal a lot sooner than expected.

That is it for today. I am going to do some more decluttering until dinner and then I will chat with my baby sister for a while tonight.

What are you guys up to?

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Every Day

Back From a Badly Needed Break

Am I the only one who gets overwhelmed sometimes? These past weeks it has hit me hard. I find it hard to run errands, blog, keep the house running, cook. etc. Those who know me will tell you that I am a perfectionist who likes things just so but my body has been telling me to slow down. It is very annoying! I am a planner who starts her day off with a routine and a to do list. Lately I am lucky to get just some of the things done. When I do go out and run errands, I can only do 2-3 things not the 6 that I did a year ago. I come home exhausted and need a nap. I am hoping it is just the heat and humidity. It has been intense.

Not only that but we actually got take out 3 times this week because I just couldn’t get my act together to cook. Shame on me! As a frugal person, I hate it when I spend money on takeout.

After a lot of thought, I finally decided there is just too much stuff in my house getting in my way. I need to make things easier for me. I have always tried to keep the stuff down to a manageable amount by tossing or donating things a couple of times a year and organizing everything. But it isn’t enough. I need to be ruthless and get most of the stuff out of here. I don’t want my children to have to do it when we die. Believe me when I say that your children do not want your stuff. They have enough of their own stuff!

I also need to make simpler, easier meals and prep them in early morning when my energy levels are higher.

I am not doing a lot of shopping because we are trying to eat what we have in the house. But we still need some items like produce and Hubby’s soda which is too heavy for me to carry. So I have decided to get Walmart delivery more often. It is so easy and saves me so much time. I do not buy any meat from Walmart except for bacon and sausage rolls but I need none of that right now. We are well stocked. Every few weeks I will get a $35. order of the things we need. That will be one thing that I can control for a while and it will save me time and gasoline.

That time saving will be useful to declutter. So last week, I started in our third bedroom, hall closet, and guest bathroom. I took 4 garbage bags of stuff out of the closet, end table, drawers in the TV stand, bathroom vanity, and off the shelves in the hall closet. I got rid of exercise equipment and tapes from Richard Simmons. I got rid of an entire collection of motivation tapes from Tony Robbins. All of these tapes were decades old. I decluttered Christmas gifts that I would buy on sale and never use. I threw out most of our wrapping paper since we only give money gifts now. Stamps to make cards and the pads I used with them are no longer here. So many more things went. And you know what, it felt good. I am now on a roll!

I will be working today in the closet in the second bedroom where Chris and her Hubby stay when they visit. As you can see, it is a disaster. Yes, that is a bag of rice. It was 20 lbs. which I cannot carry up from the basement. My pantry is full up here so it had found a temporary home in that closet. UGH! I am going to go through everything in my home. If it doesn’t fit, we don’t like it or we just have no interest in it anymore, it is getting thrown out or donated. We have sterling silver flatware and serving trays. We haven’t used them in decades. Silver prices haves skyrocketed recently so it is the time to sell it and get it out of here.

I thought about quitting blogging because it does take a lot of my time when I post. But that is worth my time because I enjoy it! So that will stay in my schedule.

I hope you all had a great July 4th. We went to a party at one of our neighbors and as usual we had a wonderful time.

I made a large pasta salad to share. This bowl is about 1/2 of what I brought there. People seemed to like it. For the first time in our lives, we had grilled venison and sausage burgers. They were so good. I only had venison one time before many years ago and it was awful. It tasted gamey. Not this burger, it was scrumptious. We came home about 8pm. It is a good thing we did because then all the fireworks in the neighborhood started and they were so loud. Eloise was terrified! My Hubby ended up holding her until midnight, when they stopped, to try to calm her down. She was trembling. I am hoping that no one does anymore this weekend. UGH! My neighbor brought over a container of cooked salt potatoes today. She had too many left. They will be a great side this week.