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Managing a Household / Re: Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018

« Last post by greyhoundgirl on October 16, 2018, 11:23:01 AM »

Good morning!

Just home from work having some lunch (homemade Cincinnati style chili with hot dogs, cheese, onions, and mustard). Basically a chili dog without the bun. I've been busy at work running 8 floral or candy deliveries so far. Hope the afternoon is just as busy so it goes by quickly!

Rainy and in the 40's here, though we're supposed to hit 52.

While waiting for lunch to heat, I finished making the potato salad I started yesterday, cutting up the boiled (IP) eggs and adding dill relish and mayo. Earl finely cut some onion both for the potato salad and our chili dogs bowls. We'll have the potato salad along with burgers for dinner tonight as part of our "camping at home" meals.

Not a lot more to report here since what I wrote last night. Hope you all have good days!

Pam, hope you're feeling better. How nice that your future DIL wants you to come to the dress showing and lunch!

Catherine

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Managing a Household / Re: Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018

« Last post by pamgonzo on October 16, 2018, 08:53:12 AM »

Hi Ladies:

Catherine: your hike sounds both fun and a bummer.  Wish the weather would have cooperated with your trip.  Sounds like you managed the best you could.  Hope your fall break turns out to be a fun one. Hope your ankle heals up quickly.

My day is a random low key day.  Not even sure what I am going to do.  I have some research for hubs I can take a stab at.  Nothing major going on here today. 

Tomorrow is my regular WW meeting, and walk with my friend.  After that, instead of lunching with her, my future daughter in law has invited me to come see her try on her wedding dress that has come in and go to lunch.  I am excited that she asked me to come along.

Tonight I am making Goulash for dinner, so I will grab some ground sirloin from the freezer for that. 
Really kind of a nothing day for me. Hopefully I can be some kind of productive!

Hope everyone has a great day.  Would love to hear what you are up to.
Pam

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Managing a Household / Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018

« Last post by pamgonzo on October 16, 2018, 08:42:41 AM »

Hello Friends!

 

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Managing a Household / Re: Monday, Oct. 15, 2018

« Last post by greyhoundgirl on October 15, 2018, 06:07:27 PM »

Good evening!

Just home from Max and Micah's parent-teacher conferences. Both are doing well in school.

This past weekend was my backpacking trip over in SE Oklahoma/Western Arkansas. We mostly had a good time. Cut it a bit short because we were wet and cold after hiking two days in the rain. We stayed in one of the 3-sided shelters both nights (much like AT shelters) to try to dry our clothing rather than setting up our tiny backpacking tents but the air was so damp that we just had to put our cold wet clothing back on in the morning. So we only covered about 20 miles rather than the 27.9 planned. My pack ended up being 40.6 lbs with the bear canister, a warmer sleeping bag, and 3 liters of water.

Add me to the 2 electric pressure cooker club. I have a 6 quart IP brand, and an 8 quart Wise brand. Both gets lots of use. However, having just gone back to work a few weeks ago, I also opted to replace my slow cooker as well (lid broke last year and it was old enough that it wasn't worth buying a new lid for) with an oval 8 quart.

Kids have one more day of school before fall break for the rest of the week. Earl took tomorrow off as well as the rest of the week. He was going to take the boys to their dental appointments tomorrow, but the dentist's office called last minute today and cancelled them. Anyway, we usually camp and had planned to this time, but looks like there will be lots of rain Wednesday night through Friday, so we're talking of staying home instead. I already bought groceries, including some for camping meals, but we can eat that food at home, do s'mores in the fire pit, play board games, and sleep in our own beds! I have to work other than Thursday, anyway, so would have been driving in to shower, check on the cats, and work.

Well, better get off of here. I have injured my Achilles tendon on my left foot somehow and need to soak it.

Pam, hope you continue to improve. The Irish music sounds like fun!

Catherine

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Managing a Household / Re: Monday, Oct. 15, 2018

« Last post by pamgonzo on October 15, 2018, 09:16:41 AM »

Hello to all!

Hope all of you had a lovely weekend.  Mine was pretty low key.  Still getting over this cold.  It has been more of a nuisance than anything else.  Don't really feel that bad or anything, just runny nose and some coughing.  Over the counter meds have pretty much taken care of symptoms.  That, and Saturday instead of doing a heavy cleaning as I had planned, I just stayed on the couch for most of the day.  That really helped.

Friday night we went to a concert.  It was an Irish music show. It was really good, and we enjoyed it even though I wasn't feeling the best.  I guess that took a lot out of me, so that day on the couch was kind of a recovery day for me.

Yesterday our son and his fiancee and our youngest son's gf came over.  We made pizzas, and played games.  It was a fun afternoon. 

So, today I need to get back to business.  I have laundry started.  Dishwasher loaded and ran.  I need to do some menu planning for the week and figure out what I need to grab from the freezer for tonight.  I got a new cookbook from Skinnytaste, so I want to see if I can find something in that to try tonight.

Alice: interesting to hear what you thought about that pressure cooker.  I have 2 as well.  But, because I bought one, and then my Mom gave me one as a Christmas gift.  I use both of them for different things, but have never used both at the same time. 

This week for me will be back to a more normal schedule.  In that we don't have any events or travels this week.  Hubs has one night away, but other than that, pretty much an at home week.  I think that will feel good to me.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend, and will look forward to hearing what all of you are up to this week.
Pam

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Managing a Household / Monday, Oct. 15, 2018

« Last post by pamgonzo on October 15, 2018, 09:03:21 AM »

Good Morning Ladies!

 

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Managing a Household / Thursday, October 11, 2018

« Last post by Alice on October 11, 2018, 01:02:56 PM »

Brrrr...Hmm, the temps have taken a nose-dive and it's pretty chilly here in West Michigan.  Windy, overcast, chilly, and perhaps even some frost this weekend. Not liking this at all.

I have a big crock pot of apples cooking down into applesauce today. Last night's meal plan was a disaster. I had a few unexpected things at work that I got home much later than normal and the though our meat was thawed, it wasn't being cooked. So I ended up using two pressure cookers (that's a story on why and how I have two of them!!!). Once was for corned beef and the other ended up with chicken legs and thighs. I was going to have corned beef but that takes 90 minutes to cook and the chicken was supposed to be for the weekend. But, I had to change it to chicken last night since the cooking time was only 15 minutes. But since I also cooked the corned beef, I made a corned beef/noodle casserole which we'll eat tonight. And now the weekend plans have to revised. Ahhhh, shucks.

I watch a few youtube vlogs on frugal families, cooking vlogs and that sort of thing. I see a few gals are sent products to review. So I contacted Cosori and asked if I could review a pressure cooker. Sure! But then they wanted to know what kind of social media I used--youtube, facebook, blog, vlog, etc. Hmm, I don't so a single one of those. Well, she said, "those are our rules". So I thanked her and went on my way. I guess a review is really a means of marketing their product. She emailed me back later and said the management would make an exception and send me one to review. But I don't know how to get my review back to them because they didn't have a set of reguirements for me to follow.

I decided to do my own review and you ladies are my audience! It's actually a very comparative product to IP but it has a few better things. It's cheaper, it comes with an extra seal and a crock pot lid whereas IP you have to buy the extra items. I can even get you all a discount on a Cosori 9 in 1 which is the top of the line right now. I was pleasantly surprised at the extras and my testing last night was a quicker come up to pressure than the IP. It also has a red pin and it sticks up higher when it is up to pressure which is nice. But overall, they function the same way. If I were going to buy one today, I might just get the Cosori.  I'll be doing a side by side test with chicken this weekend to see how they compare.

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to send it back once I am done with the review but I'll contact the gal.

Other than all this excitement, we've had power outages Sat. evening and then again on Tuesday evening for several hours each time. Not sure what was going on. I have my volunteer night tonight so the week has really turned out to be a very busy one. I sure need a weekend!

Alice

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Managing a Household / Re: Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018

« Last post by greyhoundgirl on October 09, 2018, 08:11:12 PM »

Hello!

Worked 9-5 today so just checking in. We had rain off and on all day and finally got some cooler temps, in the 60's. Supposed to be mid-60's to low 70's over in eastern Oklahoma/western Arkansas for our backpacking trip this weekend. I'm only working 12-5 tomorrow but have several errands to run beforehand. I'm mostly packed, and we'll leave at 9 on Thursday to drive over and begin.

Mallory had her first JROTC promotion board last week. She scored 100 percent and got promoted from no rank to private first class (skipping private because she scored over a 95). She is also now the assistant squad leader and pretty excited about that.

I've been trying to teach Morgan to crochet this evening (her request). Somehow she either pulls it too tight or twists the chain. I have suggested she put it up and try again tomorrow.

Well, better head off to bed, pretty tired.

It was good to read what y'all have been up to. Pam and Cheryl, hope you get to feeling better.

Catherine

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Managing a Household / Re: Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018

« Last post by Cheryl on October 09, 2018, 11:09:58 AM »

Hello Pam and Alice.

I wanted to check in here before the day gets away from me.

It’s still hot down here, but I think it’s supposed to be cooling off next week.  It is very breezy today and slightly overcast.  Our leaves are just turning brown and crunchy.  I haven’t seen any pretty fall colors yet, but hopefully soon.

The allergies or cold I am battling is hanging on.  I still can’t smell or taste anything.  I am hungry, but nothing is appealing at the moment. Oh well, maybe I will be back to normal tomorrow.

Emily is taking it easy today.  She has a stomachache so I told her to lie down and try to take a nap.  Hopefully she will feel better soon and won’t pass it on to me.

I guess that’s about it for me.  Hope you all have a good day!

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Managing a Household / Re: Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018

« Last post by Alice on October 09, 2018, 10:34:59 AM »

Pam,

A good remedy is filling a pint mason jar with layers of thinly sliced lemon, thinly sliced ginger root and just pack it in making sure to alternate the layers. Then fill the jar with honey. Let it sit in the fridge overnight. Take a teaspoon full during the day as often as you want. Put some in your hot tea. When the level of honey goes down, fill it up with more. I think this can sit in the fridge for quite a while. We've had one in there for about 6 weeks already.

I am so glad to have a few more days of warmth and even some sunshine!  When it's over, then I think fall will hit us hard. The trees are turning color very quickly and falling leaves are really happening although it has been a little breezy.

Alice