Happy New Year's Eve

I have had a busy week with one thing and another.  I am glad it's New Year's Eve, as I am hoping to have a couple of restful days.  It's not even 10am, but I have supper all prepared/cooking.  Got some chicken breasts on clearance yesterday, so have them in the slow cooker covered in Oregano and Feta salad dressing, they smell yummy.  There is enough for a couple of days, plus I chopped off some "bits" from the chicken breasts and will cook them and put them in hubby lunch.  Made a garden salad, again will last us a couple of days, so easy meals sorted.

I have a couple of cross stitch projects on the go at the moment.  Now I don't normally like to start one without finishing another, but I am making a weather temperature chart cross stitch for 2024, so it will be an ongoing project.

 I purchased a pattern for the Weather temperature cross stitch chart from Little Side Stitches on Etsy.  I have made a start, and as I said before I cannot do it all at once, as I need to check the weather temperature every day.  Though there are a few things I can get done before hand.

I am also stitching a Wrendale Robin from the calendar that was included in the December issue of "The World of Cross Stitching."

I haven't got too much done yet, as despite how little it looks that I have done, there are so many colour changes just in that little bit. It looks as though I have only used 4 colours at the most, but there are many more in that little bit, all very slight colour variations.  It will be lovely when done, but I am finding it hard going.

So a Happy New Years Eve, from our house to yours and I will talk to you in 2024!

Busy day

I hadn't planned on doing much on Wednesday as I was really tired on Tuesday for some reason, but I ended up doing a few bits and bobs.

I put away all my Christmas decorations, other than these two miniature trees.  They will stay out until the 12th night.

I made a big pan of turkey soup.  I just added some soup mix (grains), an onion, carrots, tin of Italian diced tomatoes, can of coconut milk, turkey and turkey stock from yesterday.  It was lovely, very tasty and very filling.

A couple of you mentioned you liked my little man.  I think I got it from Kitchen Stuff Plus, here in Canada.  However there are plenty to choose from on Amazon.  They are called Silicone Pot Lid Lifters, you can see some here.  As I said yesterday, they work really well.

Before Christmas I was busy cleaning out my kitchen drawers.  I had cleaned out my cutlery drawer, but wasn't happy with it.  I think Christmas Eve I went to HomeSense and picked up some storage bins for the kitchen drawer.  I quickly put them all in my drawer and it has tidied it up.  Not 100% sure whether I like the layout yet.  I have put my larger spoons, masher, ladle etc on the counter top in a utensil container.  I am not a fan of those, but it makes more space in my drawer.

The knives are in a Joseph & Joseph knife holder.  Love the bottom layer, but the top layer doesn't work well.  I have our steak knives in there.  I lined the bottom of the drawer with contact paper.  I either got it from the dollar store, or Canadian Tire, I don't remember which.

Considering I hadn't planned on doing much I got a lot done.

By the way is your house like ours, covered in glitter?  Everywhere I turn, there are sparkles....LOL  And I have dusted, swiffered and hoovered.......

Lunch

pDh takes a packed lunch every day when he works.

This is what I packed for him for today's lunch.  Now to be fair, this is his breakfast and lunch.

Those crackers from Zehrs are a first time buy for me, but hubby likes a little spice so I know he will like those.  The turkey sticks are a buy from Costco, hubby told me not to buy them again as they are tasteless.  In the mini container with the tomatoes is ranch dressing.

I prefer to cut up a block of cheese, rather than use those cheese strings which are tasteless and more expensive.

As he leaves the house by 4:30 am he doesn't have breakfast, just takes a coffee with him.  He has another coffee and his yogurt at coffee time.  He also takes a large stainless steel water jug with him to drink from throughout the day.

I really enjoy those compartment type lunch boxes.  I am even thinking of buying one for myself and using it for my lunch, even though I do not work outside of the home.

Now you see it......

 Now you don't........

I had a couple of jobs to do on Boxing Day and one was to dismantle the tree.  Hubby wasn't working and I knew I would struggle to carry that tree downstairs, so I wanted that put away while he was home.  The rest of the decorations will be taken down through the rest of the week.

Another job was to strip the turkey and make stock.  We had our Christmas meal at our son's house.  I always bring the turkey carcass home with us, as they would just throw it out.

The little red man really works, it saves the pan from boiling over.

I plan on doing diddly squat now for the rest of the day!!

Thank you all for the Christmas wishes and I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

Merry Christmas............

From our house to yours!

Don't hate me......BUT

🤶I started Christmas shopping on Thursday for 2024.  Now to be fair, it was such a good deal; I just couldn't pass it up!!

Guess I am taking up bowling............

Picked up these from the auction house paid just under $20:

You can buy the same exact pair at Amazon here for $52.31 + 13% taxes = $59.11.  So I saved nearly $40 and I don't have to wear sweaty shoes when I go bowling!!

Hubby and the kids did 5 pin bowling for years, and hubby has his own pair of bowling shoes.  I thought we might try 10 pin bowling; it'll give us something to do.  Just have to look up to see where the closest bowling alley is.a

The audacity of some people........

Just makes you shake your head!!  Good for the guy standing up for himself.

Donating

We're heading to Liam's Christmas Concert at school this evening, and the school is asking for donations of food and/or unwrapped gifts for children.

I decided to find a couple of things for teens as they are hard to buy for.  Went to Michaels and got a couple of painting kits.  Everything is included in the kit, which I liked.

The cashier said, someone else had been in and bought a lot to donate to the Salvation Army.

On reflection though, the painting kits are maybe more for girls than boys?

I bought a couple of things and took some things from my pantry for the food donation

It's not a lot but it's better than nothing.

The saga of the "F" word....

The other night (Friday) Paige rang me to tell me her mother had used the "F" word, and how was I going to punish her!  Now you should know that this isn't the first time she has called me when her mother does something wrong.  Last time it was because of a song on the car radio that was playing that had bad words in it.

Paige loves the idea that I am her mother's, mother and therefore I can punish her.  I play along and "a good time is had by all!"

On Saturday we had our Christmas get together; and when we were driving down to their house, a driver was inconsiderate and hubby also used the "F" word.  So when we got to daughter's house, I told Paige and we decided that both her mother and grandad had to be punished.

So we made them sit on the naughty step, joined by Nora who was wondering what was going on, and Olive the cat who is now 14:

While Paige and I; Nora just stood there confused, decided what we should do.

The normal punishment is to sit on the step for one minute per one year of your age.  However we ran into a problem, while we were discussing this grandad was already whining his back was sore, so the chances of him sitting there for 65 minutes was slim to nil.

Then mammy who is 38, was also preparing lunch, so we couldn't afford to have her sitting there for 38 minutes, as we wouldn't have anything to eat.

So they got let off the hook with a telling off from Nana, to not use the "F" word again.

I am quite sure they were quaking in their boots at that!!

Yes, both girls are growing up so fast, Nora turned 10 last month and Paige was 7 in June.

Thank you Angela!!!

I read this post over on Angela's blog and it took me down a really deep rabbit hole.....LOL  She is talking about Gonk's.  Now it seems there is different variations of Gonks, and what people think they are.  My idea of a Gonk is this:

(image credit)

Other people think they look like this; but I think they are Gnomes:

(image credit)

Regardless, I wasted a half hour of my life thinking about this....LOL 😂  Thank you Angela!!

And just so you don't feel left out and want to wander down that same rabbit hole, what do you think?

Another good job, jobbed!!

 I know odd expression, but one we use.

We are having our family get together this coming weekend, as one family is away on a cruise over Christmas.  It's pot luck, so I am bringing dessert (cookies), sausage rolls and bread rolls.  Plus one of hubby's co-workers loves my cookies??

So Thursday was a morning of baking.

Made 3 types of cookies, Snickerdoodles for the first time ever using this recipe, choc-chip cookies, 100 best cookies (odd name I know) and I have no idea where I got the recipe from.  Candy cane brownies, using this recipe, and Rice Krispie squares.

Choc-chip cookies and Candy Cane Brownies

100 Best cookies and Rice Krispie Squares

Snickerdoodles.  I read that the key to a good snickerdoodle is using cream of tartar in the recipe??

This is what I gave as a gift in a tin for hubby's co-worker.  The Christmas parchment paper is from the Dollar Store.  It's him and his partner, so I gave them four pieces of everything to enjoy.

I ran out of butter and brown sugar (thankfully) so I couldn't bake anything else.  I packed a couple of containers of treats for hubby and his other co-workers to enjoy.  Packed up boxes for the pot luck and the rest went into the freezer.  

All in all a very productive morning.

Do you do Christmas baking?

Only in Canada

do you see a man walking around with winter hat, coat and snow boots, wearing shorts..........I just shook my head as believe me; even I thought it was cold!! 🤷

I will say though I spoke to a mail man once and he said, he made a point of wearing shorts into December!!!

Follow up re: hearing test

Hubby went to have his hearing tested and he has worked as an electrician in a factory environment all his working life.  Now due to it being noisy his hearing has been damaged, and if he wants he can wear hearing aids.  Not at work though, with all the noise, but if he is in a crowded environment.  He has decided not to get them and I am in agreement with him, as I don't think he needs them yet.

Interesting though is that he has worked 35 years in Ontario in the same factory, so he can make a claim through Workman's Compensation and may be able to qualify for free hearing aids.  He doesn't have to get them now, but as long as the paperwork is filed he can claim later.  Hubby doesn't want to "bother" anyone and file.

BUT, as the lady at the hearing clinic told him that hearing aids can cost between $2,000 and up to $5,000 a pair, I think it would be a good idea to file the paperwork.  If they say no to his claim, fine, nothing lost, nothing gained.  However, if they accept it, we won't have to fork out all that money when we are retired.

I can't, nor will I force hubby to file the paperwork, but I do think it wouldn't hurt to do so.

Yes, it has happened

 

(photo credit)

It's true when they say things happen in three's.  I wonder who came up with that?

So it started with my dryer.  I have an LG model and as per the specs:

"Each cycle will give you perfect drying results thanks to Sensor Dry technology which constantly analyzes the internal humidity levels and adjusts the drying time accordingly"

Now that part of my dryer seems to have gone kaput, and I am having to use my regular none sensor drying function.  Hubby thankfully is an electrician so he has looked at it and has ordered some part, which will probably total over $250, but which is cheaper than getting someone out to fix it and have to pay for their labour and the parts.

The next thing to happen is my fridge started turning off by itself, for no reason at all!!  Things came to a head last Wednesday when hubby got up to go to work and discovered that the fridge wasn't working and came and told me at 4:30 am in the morning.  Suffice to say I wasn't impressed at being woken up at that time.

It was enough to spur me on to see about someone coming out to look at it.  BUT, we finally had a stroke of luck with this as when I looked at the paperwork, would you believe that the warranty ran out on the 7th of December and I called to set this all up on the 6th.

This is not the first time I have had issues with this fridge, the ice maker rusted out within a couple of years of buying the fridge.  It's a KitchenAid fridge and I spent over $5,000 on it.  Piece of advice to everyone, avoid KitchenAid appliances they are not worth the money.  However the $700 I spent on extending my warranty will be, as I would reckon this repair will cost that and more, as we (hubby!!) are thinking the main circuit board will have to be replaced.

Update on Fridge: the repair guy came on Monday stayed 15 minutes, took photos and said he would order a circuit board that should arrive next week.  There is a leak in the back, took photos of that and said he would ask around to see if anyone had any idea what might be wrong????

So based on that someone will be back next week; so fingers, toes and everything else crossed that the fridge doesn't stop working before then!

Then the third thing happened on Sunday our toaster broke.  Luckily that is only a $25 replacement, as I ordered a cheap Black and Decker model with great reviews off Amazon.  I wanted a Smeg one but couldn't justify paying over $200 for one; been there done that with buying top of the line things😉

So there you go, three annoying and expensive things that have happened to us just recently!

It could be worse I guess, not sure how though?

The Crown: Season 6 | Part 1 Trailer | Netflix

We binge watched this on the weekend.

The one thing that everyone can agree on, Diana loved her boys too the moon and back.  The other thing I think we can all agree on, the way she died affected her boys deeply.

As for the rest of it, who knows.  The whole ghost of Diana was ridiculous, but adds drama to the whole thing.

I will watch the next part of season 6, which comes out on the 15th of this month.  Maybe not right away but at some point.

Have you watched The Crown?

Pardon? What did you Say?

Yep, I have discovered I have been finding it harder to hear, especially when there is a lot of back ground noise.  So figured I would get a hearing test to see what, if anything is going on.  I was told years ago that Northern European women are more susceptible to hearing loss.

Also another reason I made the appointment was to be the first one to go and survive, so there was no excuse for hubby not to go!!!!  This is not the first test I have had to do so that hubby would go........yes I know I am his enabler...LOL  I will say though I did put my foot down when he needed to go for a colonoscopy, and made him go first!

Also another member of the family is dragging their heels about going and so I can give that person another push when I have had mine done.  That person definitely needs hearing aids but is in denial 😕

Update.  Had the test done, and I am perfectly fine for my age and I don't need to go back for another few years, unless I have a problem.

One thing I did find out today; that hearing loss and dementia are linked?  Did not know that, you can read about it here.

Oh and hubby is booked in to go tomorrow.....finger's crossed he survives the test😜

Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday (Official Music Video) [HD]

Blast from the past with this song.  I love the song, BUT the whole video gives me the creeps, with the lead singer dressed up the way he is with those young kids.

That glam rock look was all the fashion back in the 70's and no one thought anything about it; now though, it gives me the shivers/creeps!!!

Favourite Things Gift Exchange

One of the things we do is a gift exchange at our get togethers.  We give everyone a gift of our favourite things, with a dollar value of no more than $20 each.  Now you can spend $5 if you want, it isn't a hard and fast rule.

This year I gave everyone the following:

A Wrendale Tea Towel, as I love the Wrendale range by Hannah Dale.  Also I love a good tea towel, as I rarely use our dishwasher.  Now I did pick mine up from Zulily.  I have the matching placemats.

I knit everyone a dish cloth, as I love my hand knitted dish clothes.

I am also a fan of the Swedish dish clothes, so got everyone three of those as well.

Mine was a practical, useful gift.

The other ladies gave us the following:

2 ladies gifted us velour throws.  I got a red one and a blue one.

1 lady gave us a pair of Crocs slides; I love wearing Croc sandals.

1 lady gave us a "12 days of face masks, gift pack."  A mug with our initial on it and a candle.

1 lady gave us a nightie/sleep shirt.

1 lady gave us a pair of Norwex clothes like these;

I have never used any Norwex products, but some people swear by them?

So as you can tell by those gifts other than probably me, no one else stuck to the $20 limit!!!  I now have to think of what I am going to buy for next year!!

Next year's get together is the first Saturday in December in Midland, Ontario and the grandkids are invited!!  So choas will reign.  This year I said no grandkids, which was easy for me to say as I was hosting!!!

The craft we did at our Christmas get together

I decided that we would be a simple craft and I started buying the things for it in the January sales.  I thought decorating our own miniature Christmas trees would be fun.

I picked up the trees from Bouclair, and got the mini lights from Amazon.

All the decorations were from Dollarama, Michaels, or were things I had on hand.

I decided to put everything in aluminum pie plates and everyone's glue guns were to be placed on the pie plates as well.

I think I probably spent less than $10 per person for this craft.

So fast forward now to the actual day, and we had fun.  This was how we set it all up:

Here are all the trees finished.  Everyone had a super time and what was interesting was how different each one of our trees were.

There were two sizes of trees.  Mine is the one in the middle.

Everyone was very creative, with the supplies.

I would think we probably spent a good hour doing this.

I have one tree leftover.  Will get Liam to decorate it and he can have that in his bedroom.  The rest of the supplies I will donate to a school or daycare.

2023 Christmas Get Together; Food Edition

Every year a group of ladies get together for a Christmas catch up /get together.  I hosted this year and today I will focus on the food.  I put out snacks for all of us to nibble on, the cashews proved to be popular!!!

DD provided the veggie tray, the dips and a fruit tray (not pictured).  One lady was vegan and another vegetarian.

My usual garden salad, with the added "fru-fru" of micro greens, which I must say I do enjoy, I provided ranch dressing and balsamic dressing for the salad.

The back tray contains vegetable samosa's that "R's" mother always make and they are so good, plus they are Vegan.  I did roasted mini potatoes (vegan), a small ham, homemade sausage rolls, and a variety of cheeses.

In the slow cooker was sweet and sour meatballs.  I then bought some "finish baking in your own oven," Brioche rolls from Ace Bakery.  They were on sale for $5.99, so a bit of a splurge, but they were really nice. 

I totally forgot to take photos of dessert, however we have leftovers, so will take photos to give you an idea what we had.

Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

The Pogues - Fairytale Of New York (Official Video)

Well Shane MacGowan has passed away at the age of 65.  Honestly I am shocked he lived as long as he did.  He had a very "active" life with the drink and drugs.  Such a shame.  Love this song, one of my favourite Christmas songs.

Rest in peace Shane, and  hopefully you're out of pain and at peace.

What the heck?

Not sure what happened to me on Wednesday morning but I had a burst of energy and cleaned out some kitchen cupboards?????  I have been thinking about doing this for a while.  So after I had blown out the bottom of the driveway I set about doing them.

Got rid of some instant coffee with a 2014 (???) expiry date on it, that I found wwwwaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy back in the cupboard.  Seriously, how did I miss that?  

I now have some bags of things to donate to the charity shop.  Threw out numerous plastic lids that didn't belong to anything. I mean it's like having numerous socks with no partners, right?

I still have more to do, but this was a great start.  I need to be more aggressive with; "If you haven't used it in ages, get rid of it."

Still puzzled though where this burst of energy came from....😄