Littlesister

My GS is the same way.  He switches from cigarettes to vaping. Right now, he is on vaping again. You don't want to be around him when he can't get his nicotine.  I won't let him smoke in house. He has to take his butt outside to smoke. He knows that is what his father has to do as his mother won't let him smoke in house either. So, I have never had a problem with that.

Got most of the bathroom cleaned before leaving for GD's house. Baby was fussy when I got there. But quieted down.  I will be doing a lot of babysitting in the next few weeks as her DH is now on a 3 week leave and takes care of the baby while she works. So, when he goes back to work, I will be keeping the baby for her and alternating with her DH's mother. 

I went ahead and ordered a play pen to keep here at the house. Been meaning to buy one and kept putting it off. So now that is done and will be here on Sunday. 

Now I am just tired and ready for a nap but need to finish the bathroom.

My GD just bought a small chest freezer, and they went to the commissary and bought meat to fill it up. Said it was cheaper than any of the stores. 

When I go to Kroger, I have to be very careful as if you don't stick to the sales, you are in deep trouble at the registers. Guess that is why I don't go there often. I usually go to Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Lidi's and Aldi's for grocery shopping. But right now, I am not doing much shopping. Will be picking up some things at Harris Teeter when they call me to pick up RX. Then I will wait till Thursday to go for the senior discount and use my $10.00 coupon. 

18.3 miles. Not walking in this cold weather. So also down a bit. 

My plans for today have changed.  DD is coming in to town by 11:00 today and we are all going to DGD's house for a while. DD is going to babysit the GGD this evening and they are staying till tomorrow. So, I will be at DGD house for a while today.  

Sunday is church and then home in which case DD and SIL will be coming here before leaving to head back to NC. 

My list of things I need to get done around the house is growing.  Painting, new storm doors, all the lights replaced outside, garage sink which will be done as soon as my plumber can get here. But right now, it has a very slow drip which is good in this weather. So far nothing has frozen. Running electric to the one shed, replace some ceiling lights in house, etc. So much to get done and to many interruptions. But it will get done. Just hoping sooner than later. 

Told GS to sleep in house tonight and he said he sleeps better in car. It is freezing outside. He will get his car really hot while he is in the car. And then turn the engine off and crawl in back seat and go to sleep. He does have 3 really warm blankets but still that's cold. I think he likes that back seat car mattress I got him. Told his mother to get him to stay in house as I was afraid, he would get sick again.  She texted him and told him he needed to stay in house in these temps and he said no. He liked to sleep in car. She told him his p---s get frostbite and fall off. I couldn't believe she told him that.  No wonder the kid is like he is. She says all kinds of things to him she shouldn't be doing. She did it with the girls, but they put a stop to her.  He will sometimes play along with her or ignore her. So, she still keeps doing it. I am just afraid he will get sick again and then give his mess to me. I got lucky this last time. Only a slight cold but then I was using Lysol everywhere. He doesn't wash his hands unless you stand there and tell him to wash them. And that spreads germ. 

They are trying to get people used to using apps as a way to get you hooked on the digital dollar. I don't do fast food if I can help it. Only if I am out with a friend or something will I do it and then I have to be careful with being diabetic. I do still get some coupons for specials in the mail but only Burger king, KFC and Subway. All the rest are apps. And I don't do them either.  Won't do online banking either. 

Momo, with BJ's they send you a coupon book in the mail. And you can get one in the store as well.  Plus, you can use any other coupon for an item you are buying to go with the BJ's coupons. They will take both for that item. They have specials on gas if yours has a gas station. You can get gas cheaper there. Also, propane is cheaper there or was the last time I got a tank filled. They cater more to families on the food rather than those big cans like Cosco and Sam's. Though I think Sam's is selling the regular size cans on a lot of things now. Been over 3 years since I have been there. I was going to renew it as before the Bennett's Creek market paid for my membership and now with them being closed down, I need to pay to join. So being just me I don't know that I need to do both BJ's and Sam's club.

Momo, please be careful if you have to go out on that metal ramp. Those things are very slick with ice and snow on them. And you can't see the ice with snow on top. Don't want you to be falling down and getting injured. 

I know we have had cold weather like this before, but don't remember it lasting this long. I wish it would just hurry up and move out of here. 

I like BJ's for the same reason. I really need to make a trip over there at some point soon. I want to pick up another propane tank and get that filled. And a few other things. Too soon for garden items yet. But I think they will be putting that out in the next couple of months. I need to get topsoil, raised bed garden soil and a few other things in the garden line. But need to check Lowes and Home Depot's sales against BJ's sales when they start selling.  I am going to need a lot of garden soil for those raised beds. So, this year will be an expensive year for the garden but then it will settle down. Those raised beds are big. 

Prices seem to be going up every week on things. It's hard to keep up. But from what you said about some things going up, I am going to pick up some frozen veggies and a few other things before they go up again. The Dollar Tree is next door to Harris Teeter, so will swing in there also. I really don't need much of anything, but I do want to try to stay ahead of these high prices. 

GS has been promoted to full time even though he was already working full time, he was considered part time.  It also came with a $1.00 raise. These days that doesn't seem like much but a dollar an hour raise does help. He never had training as he already knew how to do the job and he hasn't been there 3 months yet. So, he is doing well with this job so far. But I wish he would let me know when they are about to have a hike in prices. He just doesn't pay attention to that stuff. He buys what he wants and doesn't care what it cost. 

I would rather have Quinoa than brown rice. I do have some Quinoa but not much of it. With what you found out about prices going up in the grocery challenge, I might pick up a few things when they call me to pick up my RX's.  It's at Harris Teeter and Dollar Tree is right next to it. So will look around at the sales and pick up a few things. I would rather pay the price of it now than to wait and it goes up again. I want to pick up a few frozen veggies anyway. So now would be a good time. I also have a $10 coupon off for the total on groceries. Harris Teeter mails those out once a month. So, I can save $20 a month off total grocery bill. Then when I go on Thursday, I get the senior discount on top of that. 

Mommato3boys, I hope it works for me, but I already have my doubts. But will give it a try. If it keeps my A1C down that would be something. I was put on Trulicity about 3 years ago and that caused me to both gain weight and my thyroid levels went off the chart because of it. So, I was put on 2 different meds, one from the Endo doctor and one from the heart doctor. Both made my feet and legs swell up and with the B/P med. I started getting dizzy and other issues. The Actos never did much for the diabetics. The heart doctor took me off of it and put me on the Farxiga so will find out how the Endo doctor fills about that when I see him next month.  I am going to make a few changes on my diet even though I follow a mediterranean diet. I don't eat much beef. Only about once or twice every two weeks. But do eat more chicken and fish. Though fish is starting to get high priced. But I do have plenty in freezer and that when on sell, I buy it. I don't really care for brown rice and do eat white rice about once a week. So just some minor changes. But will see what Farxiga does after a month or so. 

Mommato3boys, you are doing great with your freezer meals. It all sounds good.

Jeepers, seems it is never ending for you. Hope you start feeling better soon. GS just got over bronchitis. He was also on Doxycycline. He got over it in just a few days, so hopefully it will clear you up fast. 

I can see why you love your dining room the best. You have it set up really nice. I love all the furniture and the table turned out really nice and matches well with all the other furniture. 

I agree with Mother, take pictures and tell a story about each item for your son and GS. I think years from now they would enjoy reading about your adventures. 

Went to heart doctor this morning. Both the EKG and the stress test was really good. Only thing was the heart muscle is stiff. But a lot of walking will fix that. But I don't walk in this freezing weather. So, will do some exercises in house and walk on the warmer days. I told him about my shoulder on the left side. It has been very painful right under the shoulder blade. He checked it and said it was muscle to use a heating pad and take Advil or Aleve. I have muscle relaxers so will take one tonight as the pain kept me up all night.  He also changed some of my medications. The Norvasc caused me to gain weight as well as the Actos the endo doctor put me on. So, off the Actos and on Farxiga and on a combination of a fluid pill and blood pressure pill. He wants me to go on a mediterranean diet. I am already using that diet though. I was a little bit mad as I gained over 10lbs due to the Norvasc and Actos. And because of hypothyroid it is hard to get that off. So here I go again. Hopefully the Farxiga will get that weight off like he said it would. 

So just taking it easy today with heating pad for shoulder. Will work on some things later today. Waiting for pharmacy to call to pick up the RX's. 

Jeepers, I really hope there is a solution to that issue.  I know that makes it hard to find food that taste good.  I never got Covid, and I thank the Lord daily for that. Though I don't know how other than the Lord was watching out for me back in 2020.  Hospitals, pharmacies and everywhere else I had to go to get things that were needed for DH. And I never got it. I did follow all the guidelines for flu and took zinc, C and other vitamins as well. So, maybe that helped but I give the credit to the Lord. 

Jeepers are you on any medication that could cause that also. Check online about the issues with any you are on. That might help also.

I love that table. The color is perfect.  But no room for a wood stove in there.  Your foyer is like mine. A closet near the end of it. Only difference is that your dining room would be mine formal living room and on the other end of living room is my dining room. 

Jeepers, I do agree. It is hard to cook for one. It was hard when the kids all grew up and moved out and then only cooking for 2 was hard. I always had leftovers that I was going to freeze but DH always ate it for his lunch. So never really had much in leftovers. Now I am trying to get leftovers frozen but sometimes GS will come home from work and eat it. So still nothing left to freeze yet. Still working on getting those freezers emptied and then I will start making dinners and put in the kitchen fridge to start. I almost have that one done. 

Sounds like a bit of price hiking going on. It happens here. 

Was talking with my DD a bit ago and she trigeminal neuralgia. It is very painful. It is causing pain in jaw up to her ear.  She's on medication for it now but will be having a CT scan. It is a compression of the nerve by a blood vessel near the brain stem. Hopefully they can do something for it. 

When you see the Amish, you know they have a store somewhere. Wish we had one around here. Stores are rated for whatever area they are in.  If it's an area with high priced houses and such the A stores are there. Bigger and better. My area gets the B stores smaller less choices. And then the C stores which I don't see to many off around here are the ones that are smaller than the B stores but much less product to choose from. When we had the Sears store years ago. We always went to Newport news to that one. It was a two-story huge place. Better sales and much more to choose from. 

Worked on clearing out my closet today.  Trying to organize it better and figure out places to put things other than my closet.  Closet is a small walk in and not a lot of room once clothes are hanging in it. 2 shelves all the way around the closet but doesn't take much to fill those up. And I hate going through clothes to see what fits and what doesn't. It takes time and I am in a hurry to get it all done.  I need to find a good place to put my first aid stuff. It is all together in a huge suitcase. Might change that out and put in rolling bin under the bed. The suitcase will not fit under the bed.  Might be easier to organize it better to find things when needed also. 

I really like the idea of doing this. I need to practice doing some of this stuff. There are things here that I have but never tried them out yet. Some of it is for outdoor cooking and such but I need warmer weather to do it. Can't handle the cold. My bones are screaming. 

That looks great Anarchy. I need to move some pictures off phone to computer. To many baby pictures plus some of what I have canned lately. 

I need to give this a try. But other things going on right now. But I am going to try it out. Just not sure what I will fix to put in it yet. But very much interested in this type of cooking. It seems sort of like a slow cooker with no electricity or stove.  

Right now, it is 38* and sunny and no wind.  It is going to get up to 48* by 2:00. So much better than it has been. Not starting the wood stove up today as I need to clean it out. So figured today would be a good time since the weather is better and a bit warmer. 

Giving kitchen a good cleaning today and getting things ready to start canning again. Need to get out more jars and get them washed and ready to go. The canners are sitting on dining room table. I didn't put those away since I would be using them again. 

Got the fan out of garage and put in the foyer. It did make a difference blowing some of the heat out of den down into the bedrooms more. Bedrooms were still cool enough that I slept good last night. It also kept the den from being too hot. So, works out much better. 

Still working on boxes out of bedroom closet. Lots of stuff going to Good Will. Just don't think I am going to keep all this stuff no matter how hard it might be to get things later down the road. I will be able to make do. 

My GS likes pop tarts. Might try that for him when I get some projects finished. Getting ready to start another week of canning. Had to stop to work on house a bit. Tearing up a house to go through and downsize stuff and get rid of things is really making a mess of the house. So had to work on that for a couple of days. 

I do think we will be going back to the rationing stamps or something if WW3 does break out. Right now, I have enough food to get me through the first few months without rationing stamps. Other than milk, bread and eggs. But I already have powdered milk, eggs, and can make bread.  

I am also a type 2 diabetic, so have to watch what I eat. I try to stock more protein and veggies than anything else. Though for the past year I have been stocking a little for GS as well. He loves chicken and fish more so than beef. He's not much of a beef eater. Big issue is he loves his junk food, and I won't buy much of that. 

My next-door neighbor just did have the funeral for her DH just before this mess happened with the weather. It was cold but not this cold. When my DH passed it was freezing cold and the air felt like ice. We had already had several days of freezing rain and after the funeral it was still a week later before my DH could be buried. The ground at the cemetery had water standing in some areas that covered some of the graves under water. Where my DH was buried it wasn't flooded, but the ground was so wet, and it was so cold they couldn't dig the graves. We had the grave side in the mausoleum instead of at the grave side.

I agree with the substitutes on many things. We need to know how to do that. There will be other things also we will need to learn how to do. I think we will be stretching more food and nonfood items in the near future. Washing our hair only using a dime size amount of shampoo as an example. Many other things as well. We need to not only know how to use substitutes in food but how to stretch all of our nonfood items as well.