Sam Squared

           I can't tell anymore. The variety of sunflowers I planted in a pot the middle of May finally flowered. I've got new growth on my tomato and pepper plant. Temperatures were so high last week I turned the AC on again, and heard the neighbor kids splashing in their pool yesterday.  And, by 7:15 it's so dark I need my headlamp to walk the dog.       I picked the apples from the trees my daughter planted two years ago. We'd have had more but the storm in July caused damage and I lost a few branches. The shear weight of the apples probably didn't help either. Last year just one tiny apple grew.  I'll need her help figuring out where to prune and fingers crossed they survive the winter even though beat up. These are liberty apples. I wasn't familiar with them but Google says they are "fresh eating, with a crisp, sweet-tart flavor and firm texture, as well as for cooking and baking, retaining their shape in pies, muffins, an...

                                                    For Friday Fiscal Wellness Check,  I copy the previous week, delete the old and updated as I go along the week as a way even when busy and not in a blogging mindset, I'm accountable to myself.  Here's my recap of Friday, September 19 to Thursday, September 25. I just sort of list things as they come up, then edit before publishing.  Avoiding Spending/ Saving on Needs With Labor Day and a old neighborhood picnic splurges, I realized I had pushed my grocery target this month, so determined to still cut HH&G by 10-15%, I did a serious inventory and meal plan to the end of the month, and made shopping list for both this past and upcoming with only necessary items. Opportunities to add Funds/Windfalls  Entered Fetch receipts and MS Reward.   It was a busy week...

      Picture at  Pexel.com      Or is tomorrow officially fall? I never remember if the seasons change on the 20th or 21st, but my weather alert text said today's the last day of summer.  " Last day of summer! Increased sunshine with warmer highs in the mid-70s, isolated severe storms possible. Pleasant weather this week."      It's a perfect morning sitting outside while the dogs play and I have my coffee. I've had a good weekend so far and am ok with getting some rain. Though, my daughter is working a festival and rain could keep crowds away. She's helping her friend in the food truck, but was hopeful she'd see some good return on her time in tips. Yesterday I met her  roommate at the finish line of younger daughters 1/2 Marathon.  Her time was not unexpected as she really paced herself at a slow steady run. We had a nice lunch after. Later I joined family for a perfect night for a fire at my sister's. My BIL grilled bu...

                                                  For Friday Fiscal Wellness Check,  I copy the previous week, delete the old and updated as I go along the week as a way even when busy and not in a blogging mindset, I'm accountable to myself.  Here's my recap of Friday, September 12 to Thursday, September 18. I just sort of list things as they come up, then edit before publishing.  Avoiding Spending/ Saving on Needs My brother is in town and we met for dinner Friday night. My sister insisted on paying for my meal as thank you for feeding her cats. I tried to insist it was not necessary but she won and we decided to call it good for the next year of cat care. I'll make sure remembers.  I returned for refund or replacement the portable monitor, just under the wire. Suddenly on Monday it no longer was linking to my computer and...

           Wednesday I wrote, published, then unpublished a clearing my head kind of post. This may be longer. In short, it was about "moving on" though really about deciding I need to establish a new, yet still positive and caring relationship with my in-laws, in ways that work for me. Thirty months into this phase of life called widowhood started my determination to really figure out how I wanted to live my life. That was in July when due to a sleepless night, I spontaneously booked a trip to Greece, alone. I've since had a travel companion commit to joining, but none the less, it was an aha moment. I didn't talk to anyone before booking...I just did.      I won't be doing much as spontaneous as that, however I've officially adopted the mindset that I am the sole decision maker of everything in my life. While I may consult my kids, my siblings, friends, even in-laws, the buck starts and stops with me. It's not a good feeling but a pragmatic...

      I was worrying with Siobhan on Sunday about her dear sweet kitty. He wasn't eating and drinking. She says he feels better and vet found no issues. We love our pets like family. They're with us with our sadness, give love in our joy so I'm happy for her and him he's more himself. I'm writing this as I have grandpup at my feet, Little Miss purring from her tree, and pup snoring alongside me on his floor pillow. Today's is officially Little Miss's Gotcha Day! She had some Churu last night and will get the rest today. Two years ago the closest thing I had to cats was feeding my sister's and the wandering neighborhood cats. Now, there's three in my family. Saturday, changing the channel as she didn't want soccer on the TV.  The day after she joined us, weighing just under 4 pounds, but already the boss.      The week ahead looks more my speed, but also busy. I think my sister and I are going to see Downton Abbey tomorrow night at Tuesday night p...

      A few people asked me my thoughts. I'm probably a marketers dream. Sometimes hearing the benefits over and over on something, even when my gut tells me I don't need this, I cave. Feeling in a meal rut as we are in this hybrid summer but maybe fall time of year, I wanted new to me meals. My YouTube mom viewing addiction has me seeing every meal kit from now until Tuesday marketed with great offers. I succumbed and tried EveryPlate, just a small three meal, two servings commitment.       The verdict...quality was ok, recipes easy, results, tasty, but without that $1.99 per serving introductory price, which really was closer to $3, just too expensive for what they were considering I'm doing better at stocking up on loss leaders for my pantry and freezer. They'll come to $7.50 a meal once the promotion is done. Compared to a restaurant meals or take out, that's not bad, but there was no time savings other than shopping. I had to do all the prep just the s...

                                                For Friday Fiscal Wellness Check,  I copy the previous week, delete the old and updated as I go along the week as a way even when busy and not in a blogging mindset, I'm accountable to myself.  Here's my recap of Friday, September 5 to Thursday, September 11. I just sort of list things as they come up, then edit before publishing.  Avoiding Spending/ Saving on Needs The crisper ended up with an abundant of odds and ends carrots so made a creamy carrot soup. That was supper Saturday night with hot hoagie sandwiches made on 64¢ clearance bread. Free extra Kitty love as I both fed sister's cats and she has neighbors with outdoor cats that she regularly feeds. They come running when I pulled into her driveway.  Papa, on the right, calico mama, and the   last kitten who is a ri...

      This just working part time is more than enough when my week feels busy. I don't recall the last time I had so much in a short period of time. I also have cat duty for my sister morning and evenings until Thursday. She and another sister joined Memphis commuter sister on her work trip.  Monday: Besides a few meetings and adding more to the project documents I have two personal tasks. One is picking up my daughter's bike from the repair guy. Her car is too little, and I might keep as she looks for a more road worthy version. I'm not opposed to a couple useable bikes here. I also have an appointment to get a copy of my marriage license. I have one, but not sure if I'll need to send anything for social security so wanted a second. If timing works, I am going to try to get to at least the second half of my great nieces first highschool soccer game. The Minnesota Vikings season starts tonight.  Tuesday: I have the AAUW Knowledge and Nibbles event. I joined out ...

                                               For Friday Fiscal Wellness Check,  I copy the previous week, delete the old and updated as I go along the week as a way even when busy and not in a blogging mindset, I'm accountable to myself.  Here's my recap of Friday, August 29 to Thursday, September 5. I just sort of list things as they come up, then edit before publishing.  Avoiding Spending/ Saving on Needs Used points to save a few pennies per gallon of a fill up. Gas hit $3.19 again locally. Fortunately rescheduling flight to Greece didn't incur any price increase even though I could see had I cancelled and rebooked which was an option, the flight I ended up with was $72 more My son found the same wet dog food price that was just $1 a can and stocked up for September.  Bought loss leaders at my daughter's town grocery store includ...

      I still cannot seem to get the right ratio of ingredients to form nice thick zucchini fritters. I think I'm over processing the zucchini, so will attempt hand shredding next. My last attempt ended up so loose, I decided to just make as savory mini breads. Heck, yeah. These were delicious! Now to remember what I did to recreate. I made some bruschetta topping with the last handful of grape tomatoes from my plant and a few from the farmers market, and put dollops on individual slices as part of a simple supper. Two little savory loaves.  With a little bruschetta topping. With cucumber.               Besides the savory loaves, I baked four more sweet quick breads. I was running out of a lot of seasonings and extracts so used pumpkin pie spice and loads of cinnamon. Zucchini and pumpkin are in the same family, right? It worked and now I know another combination when I thaw the tub of blitzed zucchini from the freezer later th...

      Twice Friday I was notified of cancellations. First, my original flight to Athens in March was cancelled and they rescheduled...two days later!What for the sake of Pete is that crappy rescheduling?  Sure, I want to fly  and sit in layovers for 17 hours just to lose two days of my vacation. I rejected that reschedule obviously my. Lots of back and forth with options presented with multiple four+ hour layovers, and eventually landed on one that diggers by about four hours total from the original, but is a 2-stop. I kept reminding myself the journey is part of the opportunity and round trip tickets to Greece from Minnesota for $600 are about as low as a person can find. This was why I bought my Kindle as to do more and frequent travel, I'll have to exchange time, lots of layover time, for money.      Then, several hours later, as I'm checking for updates on the flight, I got notification of another cancellation. This one was for that bloggers c...