10 Things Time

Taken on our Thanksgiving walk this week

What I have been up to this week:


1.  Work work work.  The other girl at my half-time job became ill the Thursday before Thanksgiving.  Rather than working half -time I worked all day Thursday, Friday, (off Monday for Thanksgiving), Tuesday and Wednesday.  She was back Thursday.  This little episode has driven home the fact to the owners that I am a very good employee going above and beyond and that they need to get a third body as have not been this short-staffed in six years and I was really hired for four hours a day.  My work at our Company has gotten behind so I "told" them rather than asked that I was taking Monday off after covering all of their butts in this time of need.  I enjoy the job, like the owners, but really don't want to work there more than I signed up for.  We moved to the Island for lifestyle and I can't let anyone else take that away.

2.  We were supposed to have three days of solid sunshine - instead three days of heavy thick as pea soup fog.  We really haven't had that much fog since we moved here so I can't complain but it does make driving  a bit scary.

3.  I didn't get to forage any apples this season and wasn't given anyone else's bounty.  I see the neighbor has taken all the apples off their tree but left a few hanging over our fence (and dropping in the yard).  I am (quietly)picking those today and will use them for an apple crisp - one of my favorite things to make in the fall.  I don't know this neighbor as it is on the backside of our house and they are never in their yard, or I would have just asked.  They are technically on our property so I am going for it.

4.  Reading.  We went to a gigantic used book sale yesterday which is an annual thing.  100% of the money goes to local charities so I don't mind buying and paying a little bit more than I normally pay for used books as usually only buy them at garage sales for less than .50 cents.  I sometimes take several weeks to read a book so buy them versus getting them from the library. The sale alphabetized all the fiction which makes it super easy to find your favorite authors.  Hubby came with me, and between us we bought 8 books for $14.  A tip when buying used books  - clean them with rubbing alcohol and cotton balls.  It takes off any grime and sanitizes them.  The only kind of books I wouldn't do this on are high value antiquarian books or those with a delicate paper cover, but it works great on any regular paperback or hardcover.  We used to do this in a used bookstore I worked in many years ago and I still do it.  I need to read more and this purchase has gotten the reading bug going.  I am 20 pages away from finishing one of the books already as spent all Friday night reading. What did I buy?  3 Martha Grimes (Richard Jury series), a Nevada Barr, and a James Lee Burke, all mysteries.

5.  I bought no groceries this week except 6 packages of pre-made ribs.  We normally make our own ribs up but these were half-price and we have tried them before - they are yummy and take five minutes on the BBQ just to heat up.  Well worth the $5 per rack price.  Not very frugal but tasty, and much cheaper than eating them in a restaurant.  I need to find a sale on chicken and shrimp.  After thanksgiving I can now see the bottom of the freezer as the turkey is gone so we have been slowly cleaning it out and eating the older packages of meat.  I don't have a very big freezer, just an apartment sized one as our home doesn't have room for a big one so I have to be careful what I stock up on.

6.  I have lost all the weight gained on our holiday.  Once this week I even saw my weight drop to 139.7 which is the lowest weight I have been at in over five years (this morning is 140.5).  I started losing weight in June and now have dropped a full 10 pounds.  I would like to lose 5-7 more and then stabilize.  I am not really actively dieting, just watching what I eat, and yes, we still eat treats like apple crisp.  I have come to understand that a person can gain up to three pounds and lose it quickly so I don't get too upset when it goes up and down, as long as it generally is going in the right direction.   I have not had to purchase any new clothing as a result, which is interesting and likely the reason it is so easy to gain weight over time - if you don't weigh yourself your clothes will just adjust.  There are two roadblocks to losing more weight, Halloween and Christmas.  I do love me some chocolate!

7.  My Mom still has not sold her trailer.  She is discouraged by that as really wants to move to our town and her condo waiting for her.  On the upside, her health has gotten much better after using the BIPAP machine for a month.  Her Doctor thinks her blood pressure will start to go down now which is great as hopefully she can get off her $100 per month blood pressure medication and get more exercise which in turn will equate to weight loss.  She definitely has more energy as we went for a very long walk when she was here for Thanksgiving and she did not get out of breath like she often does.

8.  I am getting ready for Halloween.  Putting up a few decorations and keeping an eye out for cheap candy.  We had 60 kids last year and it was kind of a bad weather night so I am expecting 100.  Is it just me or did the price of candy go up this year?

9.  Christmas.  I almost have enough saved for Christmas 2013 expenses.  Three gifts have been purchased and one cheap bottle of spiced rum saved from our trip to the USA, all tucked away.  Two of the gifts were ordered on amazon.ca using free gift certificates from Swagbucks.  Hubby was a guest speaker at a local business function and they gave him a bottle of red wine (which he drank as I cannot drink as get headaches from it), chocolates (which we shared) and they were wrapped in a gift bag and ribbon. The gift-bag and ribbon were saved for our wrapping stash.  If you have not read about The No More Christmas Crap campaign please do - you will never have to spend money on Christmas wrapping again, or if so, pennies on the dollar only.

10.  I have got the travel bug.  The travel fund is looking healthy and now I am just spending hours planning where we are going  - no firm plans yet but lots of ideas.  We will likely be going to Europe in March or April.  I have been trying to make our hard-earned dollars go as far as possible and am trying to decide if we will only do one country or two.  I love planning holidays.

So that has been my life in a nutshell this week.  Busy but good.  And you, dear reader?