Category: Home life

A Little Update

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

This weekend the weather was just awful. It was cold, windy and rainy. We ended up staying inside almost the whole time. The most exercise I got was changing into my chicken boots about 10 times a day to go out into our water logged yard. One morning last week, it was about 5:30 in the morning, I heard the chickens getting very restless. That’s unusual for them when it’s still dark outside. I was walking into the backyard when I saw this giant owl perched on the roof of the coop. When it heard me it flew away. We make sure that the coop is completely secured when it gets dark because there is always something trying to get to them.

We have 8 hens and they have finally started laying again, which is great with the price of eggs now.

The city is replacing the water and sewage lines in our neighborhood so our street is getting ready to get torn up. It’s going to be a pain for a while, but will be so worth it once it’s finished.

They are just about ready to be digging in front of our house. What started off as a very foggy wet day turned out to be just gorgeous.

I finally got all of the donations bagged up. There were piles sitting in our living room for weeks. Jackson and I took them to the thrift store. We decided to go inside and see if we could find any treasures. I found this planter that still had the original makers sticker on it. Even though it was completely and horribly tarnished, it was marked solid brass so I picked it up.

I started working on it when we got home.

After a lot of elbow grease mixed in with some vinegar, salt, ketchup, toothpaste and finally some brasso that I picked up at the grocery, it turned out pretty good.

Speaking of thrifting, about a week ago I picked up this little table to use as a plant stand. Who would have thought that it’s the perfect table for Donny to use while he is healing. He still has a hard time putting weight on his knee, but he finally has an appointment with a rheumatologist on Thursday. I feel so bad for him because he still goes to work and uses all of his energy there so he is wiped when he gets home. Because he becomes a stomach sleeper during the night, he’s been sleeping on the couch so that he can keep his knee from moving. I am just praying the this doctor can give him something that will help him out.

I Feel Seen

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home life, thriftingLeave a comment

If you read here you know how much I love our backyard, especially the tree line that acts as a natural privacy fence. It is lush and the trees curl over making a great hiding place/chill out place for our chickens. It’s like you are in a little forest.

We had to disconnect part of the lights because of the chickens heat lamp that is in their coop.

Yesterday I was at the kitchen window and looked out. I thought our yard looked different, then my brain registered what I was seeing. The tree line was disappearing.

I immediately called our landlord. She doesn’t own the house directly behind us, but owns the white house next to it. We are friendly with the neighbor who lives there. Our landlord had no idea what was going on. I told her that I had seen a dumpster in their driveway so maybe they had moved. She didn’t think so, but something was going on. I walked over to the house and knocked, but no one was there. I opened the door to the dumpster and there was a lot of household things in it. As I was walked over to the white house to find out if that neighbor knew anything Trent, the neighbor saw me and came out. I asked him if he knew what was going on and he told me that the neighbor had died and that the daughter now owned the house. He gave me her cell number.

I took pictures for Donny because when they were cutting everything down they were just leaving it in our yard.

Today it got worse. The lawn crew was out there bright and early this morning and Donny went to tell them to get all of the branches out of our yard. They did but not before cutting every single bush, plant and tree down. It’s awful. Our whole backyard is now exposed. Before it was so nice to not have to look at the neighbors behind us. Now the whole fence is naked. When I went out to feed the chickens her two young girls were leaning over the back fence just staring into our yard. Not only is their no privacy now, but we are going to have to put up more chicken wire along the back fence so the chickens won’t jump over.

While I was out there I noticed my string lights that I had attached to our tree were down.

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They had cut right through the wires. I did call the owner and tell her what had happened. I also asked her why she had everything cut down. She just said, Oh, it had gotten overgrown. No shit, It’s a natural privacy fence. Donny assures me it will grow back some and we are planning on planting a new fence in the spring, but until then we’ll just have to grin and bear it.

Jackson asked if we could go to the thrift store today so I figured some second hand retail therapy might help. We went to Goodwill first. Ours is not that great, but I did find these plant stands for $1.99 each that I’m going to use out on the patio when it warms up and we can plant again.

We also went to the big thrift store where I found one of the two cookbooks that have been forever on my wish list. Yes, I know I could buy it new, but finding it secondhand is so much better. Plus it was only 50 cents.

I also found this 1979 bread cookbook that I am going to love cooking out of. The Julia Child book is the one I was the most excited about though. Now if I could only find the Jacques Pepin’s Le Technique. One day.

I also picked up this vintage whisk. I use a whisk everyday and I just loved this little guy.

Cooking is definitely my therapy.

Arctic Blast

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Yesterday the wind was howling. Things were flying all around the patio, all around the yards, it was a mess. This morning we woke up to temperatures in the 20’s. I realize it’s nothing like the more northern states, but for us, it was COLD. Once I get cold it takes forever for my body to warm up. In fact, this is how I walked around the house until Donny left for work and I actually got dressed for the day.

I had no plans to leave the house today. I still had laundry and some baking to do. I had cooked and mashed some sweet potatoes so I decided to make some spiced muffins.

I’m still not sure how I feel about having to take care of a sourdough starter. I have moved it to a larger container and fed it again.. Maybe, if some bread turns out okay, I will feel more confident about it. I don’t know why I feel intimidated by some dough in a jar.

I am almost through all of my meal plans for the week. Tonight was meatballs, mashed potatoes and gravy. I did not serve a vegetable because no one seemed particularly hungry and I knew it would just get shoved back into the fridge.

I don’t know if anyone else does this, but when I’m cooking I always wear an apron. I end up just leaving it on, sometimes just taking it off when I’m ready to get dressed for bed. I was telling Donny that things were made so much better decades ago. This apron was from when I was 18 years old and working at Catfish Charlies in Corpus Christi. I worked there for 3 years and this is the only apron I have left from that time, but even the name is still legible. How crazy is that?

Yep, I’m wearing a turtle neck and a heavy sweater. I’m telling ya, I get cold easily.

Now I’m going to go ready the Daily Bible book. I’m still in Genesis, but I’m learning a lot. Especially learning that the very early biblical names are very hard to pronounce.

Rip Van Winkle

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This afternoon I went into our bedroom to plug in my phone. I was sleepy and decided to just lay down for a few minutes. The next thing I know I’m waking up looking at my phone and seeing that its 5:19. There was still light in the window and my brain could not figure out why it was light so early in the morning when it’s normally still dark. I also could not register why I still had my shoes on. I thought to myself, well since my alarm isn’t going off until 6 I can go back to sleep for a little while. That’s when my brain woke up and realized that it was 5:19 in the evening and I still needed to run to the grocery and I hadn’t even started dinner.

I cannot even begin to explain how groggy I was at the grocery store. Donny was at the self checkout and I walked over to look at a display that was at the end of the checkout lanes. I went to tell Donny something and was literally talking to another man, that was obviously not my husband, and was extremely embarrassed. I think that I’ve had too many late nights and early mornings and everything just caught up with me. I definitely needed that nap.

Luckily, I had taken a pork roast out of the freezer yesterday. I got the pre-seasoned BBQ one from Aldi. Before we left to go the store I put it in the Insta-Pot and set it on manual for 60 minutes. We found some Hawaiian Bread sub rolls that I thought would be perfect for the meal. By the time we got home It was almost ready.

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The meat was so tender. I just put out different condiments and let everyone fix it how they wanted it. Super 1 was having a sale on Sun Harvest chips so if anyone wanted those they could just grab some.

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I added some coleslaw that I didn’t eat from LJS last night. Perfect simple meal. (and incredibly easy too)

P.S.

The scarecrow barrier must be working because no chickens came near the gate today

Reinforcement + LJS

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Lately some of our chickens have been very bad. There are 3 ring leaders that insist on flying over the gate and running amok in our yard and all of the neighbors’ yards. I spend a lot of time during my day herding chickens back to their yard. Donny and I spent a lot of the day outside. I was taking down the Christmas lights and he was adding more insulation to the coop because we are supposed to be getting some colder weather later this week. Those 3 chickens plus some other followers in the group kept getting over the gate. Donny realized what a pain it was to be wrangling chickens multiple times. He brought out more chicken wire to raise the gate area even more. We thought that worked until one of the chickens flew right over it. I had had enough. I decided to do whatever it took to keep them in our backyard.Donny told me, “you can be serious?’. Oh, but I was. All it took were 2 brooms and a rake plus several zip ties. I also got our scarecrow out of the shed and made sure to chase the chickens around waving it and growling loudly. I figured if they were scared of it they wouldn’t come near it. This is how it turned out.

Donny’s first reaction when I was finished was, “what are the neighbors going to think?’. I told him I didn’t care because I was sick of chasing chickens. Let’s cross our fingers that this works. Let’s hope the HOA is okay with it. Ha had, just kidding, we could never live with an HOA because I’m pretty sure we would get fined every day and/or kicked out.

Hannah treated her boyfriend to dinner since tomorrow is his birthday and she has to work tomorrow night. Since they were already going to eat we decided to try out our new Long John Silver’s. I know, I know, most people think it’s gross, but it has a special place in our hearts here in Longview. You see almost 2 years ago it was not doing so well and they were going to shut it down. That’s when our Facebook group “All Things Longview” went on a mission to save it. And save it we did. Several months ago they completely tore it down so they could build a new store that wasn’t grimy and greasy like the old one. The brand spanking new LJS opened a few days ago and I’m happy to say that we had to wait in the to-go line for quite a while. Even the inside was full and there was a line in there also.

The food was actually SO good. Everything tasted so fresh and it wasn’t overly greasy. I was quite pleased. They also got the order 100% correct. Go LJS! I hope you stay this busy.

Shrimp Po Boys + Ambien Chair

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Sundays are short days for me. Donny works from 1-5. This Sunday Hannah worked from 8-1:30, but ended up getting out closer to 2. After I made everyone breakfast I ran to Aldi to do a food shop for the week. I had been wanting a shrimp Po boy so that’s what I decided to make for dinner.

Every time I buy bakery bread I’m never quite satisfied with the quality so I decided to make the sandwich buns myself. I had pinned a recipe on Pinterest ages ago.

This was one of the quicker bread recipes. The dough only needed to rest on the board for 10 minutes. After that you just make loaves and let them rise for 30-40 minutes on the baking sheets.

I just egg washed and popped them into the oven for 22 minutes and they turned out great.

I’ll be using the larger loafs for garlic bread in recipes coming up.

You can’t have a shrimp Po boy without remoulade sauce so I whipped that up. I’ve been making my own sauces for a while. They just taste better than anything that comes out of a bottle.

It was a build your own with the sauce, popcorn shrimp from Aldi (seriously so good) and lettuce, tomatoes, onions and pickles. I served a fruit salad on the side. Everyone in the family loved it because it really doesn’t get much better than warm bread right out of the oven.

This morning, though, I woke up not feeling well. I am super congested with body aches. I hope I’m not getting the mysterious virus that is going around. I decided to take it easy and have been in the Ambien chair binge watching Fear Thy Neighbor. It’s actually pretty good if you like true crime.

This is the Ambien chair. We call it that because every single time I sit in it I fall asleep. It doesn’t matter if I’m not even one bit tired, BOOM, I’m asleep. I think it’s just because it’s so comfortable. I got it super cheap on the last day of an estate sale (50% off) when we first moved here. One of my best purchases ever. So I think I’ll just take a little nap now and try to sleep off this sickness.

Breaking It In

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Today we woke up to fog rolling in. It was just a foggy muggy start to the day.

We hadn’t planned on really doing anything, Donny and Hannah were both off. We decided, at almost 1:00, that we should make breakfast. I decided to try out the big griddle for bacon and sausage and the smaller round griddle for french toast.

I think I may have had the heat up too high because the house filled with smoke from the bacon although it turned out good. I love the smaller griddle to make french toast. We kind of had a mess everywhere. One thing I love about cast iron is that the clean up is pretty easy. Just scrub, scrub, scrub and if something is stuck on, use salt.

Donny and I had to run to Drug Emporium and when we got home Hannah was outside drawing on the chalkboard. We have now made her the official chalkboard artist and she will now be handling what goes on it.

I love it when she takes the time to do her drawings. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

For 2025 I’m going to be doing a whole house clean out which means I shouldn’t have purchased what I did at Drug Emporium, but it smelled so good I couldn’t resist.

It’s a new line they are carrying and this was only the second tester I tried, but I knew right when the fragrance hit my nose that it was the one. It smells so good.

Tomorrow I am going to start the clean out on the kitchen. I need to find a place for the huge pot I just got for Christmas. I figured while I’m doing that I might as well do the whole thing.

Has anyone else started season 2 of Squid Game? We just started episode 4 and so far it’s been really good. I also want to recommend Black Doves. We were really impressed by it.

Rough

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It has been a rough several days. Friday I did way too much lifting when I rearranged the shed, which caused by lower back to spasm up again. I do know better, but when I want something done I want it done right then. Plus, I knew that we were going to have bad weather coming.

My goal on Saturday was to go through my closet and clean out all of the summer clothes, which required more lifting. I did get it done and it feels good, like a weight lifted off my shoulders. Since Donny and I share an extremely small closet I have to be intentional about what goes in. I filled a laundry basket full and then emptied the drawer with my swimsuits, tank tops and cover ups.

These space bags worked so well.

Because our closet is so small I store my jeans and pants in baskets I picked up years ago for $3.99 at a thrift store.

I’m a very casual dresser as you can probably tell.

Sunday was Donny’s day off. He gets every third Sunday off. We were out of milk, which I need for my coffee, so he got up early and came back with cream horns that I happily ate at the patio table. They were so flaky and creamy. It was a decadent breakfast, but it was so good.

It was a very grey day with showers predicted in the afternoon. I don’t mind days like this especially when I’m feeling under the weather. It means true Fall weather is on its way.

Donny was able to clean out one of the gardens. We got a nice little haul.

Donny has lost his glasses months ago. He swore he lost them at work. He looked everywhere and I tore the house up also looking for them. Then lo and behold, look what he found in the garden.

We’re not sure how he dropped them out there, but I think I can straighten them out so he can wear them again.

By Sunday night my back was killing me. The TENS unit gave a bit of relief. I got on our shake machine and it helped.

I took a hot bath with a lot of this in it.

I am NOT a bath person, but I was getting desperate. It made it bearable that I took my laptop into the bathroom and watched Twisters while I soaked. It’s actually a good movie and I would have loved to see it in 4D, but we didn’t have anywhere near us that it was showing with those effects.

The bath, shaker and TENS seemed to have done the trick about 60%. I’m just going to need to be very careful until, hopefully, everything heals.

Hangover

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I don’t know about anyone else, but for the last week I’ve woken up daily feeling like I’ve got a hangover. I think it was the whole election. A week ago I was so anxious. I don’t watch main stream media. I find that I’m in a much better head space if I don’t. Donny, however, loves to watch it. He argues loudly with the television and, at times, it can really stress me out. I didn’t really watch any polls. I held steadfast that the candidate I voted for would win even if I live with a slight pessimist that would tell me not to get my hopes up because of what he would see on the news stations. Tuesday night I couldn’t even make dinner so Jackson and I picked up Wing Stop. Then when Donny got home from work we started watching as the polls closed one by one. Because we use streaming services and our local stations can be somewhat spotty, we ended up on CNN, ABC and NBC. I was watching The Charlie Kirk Show live on TikTok. I had been on a prayer Live for three hours the night before as the prayer wave crossed all of the time zones. I was exhausted from that and it didn’t help the headache I was beginning to get. By 11:00 I was done. I just couldn’t stay up any longer. What happens would happen whether or not I was awake or asleep.

The next morning I actually slept in until almost 7. I had only been getting about 5 hours of sleep per night the last week. Donny was still asleep so I quietly got up to go make coffee. When I unlocked my phone, the first text I saw was from my friend in Oklahoma. I hadn’t turned on the news yet. She sent me a TikTok with the election results. All of the stress that I had felt, but just kept to myself, came flooding out of me. I just started crying. I went into the bedroom to tell Donny the good news but I couldn’t even get the words out. He thought something bad had happened. Then the only words I could squeak out was “he won”.

There are so many people devastated by what I consider one of my best mornings ever. I don’t hate them and I don’t blame them for feeling like they do. I did go back to see some of the the highlights of the propaganda they were being sold. It was disgraceful. They were lied to and I can’t even put into words the fear mongering they were subjected to. The main stream media should be ashamed of themselves and I do believe they should be held accountable.

I was raised in a home that openly talked about politics. My dad was a democrat and my mother was a republican. I have voted both ways. I vote for the candidate that I think will do the best job and I think that Trump, with his amazing team, will do just that. No matter what side you are on, pray for unity in our country because it really needs it right now.

My 2016 voting sticker. I loved that it had Blue Dog on it. A blue dog exhibit just opened here and I can’t wait to go see it.

My 2024 sticker.

Now to get on a less serious subject. Donny and I went to Home Goods the other day to pick up some more glass food storage containers. They had just put out carts of 50% off items and I found the best candle ever.

The lid looks just like Milo!

Not only am I having that hangover feeling, but I also hurt my back again. It hasn’t been the same since I face planted on the bounce house slide. Donny picked up this TENS unit from Walgreen’s and boy has it helped. It’s much fancier than the one I used to have because it has so many different modes. I highly recommend getting one if you have any pain.

We’ve been having so much rain these past few days that it has really caused my allergies to flair up. I saw this trend online where you put garlic cloves up you nose. Even though Donny thought I was nuts, it did make my nose run A LOT when I took them out.

And last, but not least, I’m still feeding our little crew of animals. The skunks are definitely the alphas of the group. The other raccoons won’t even come out if the skunks are there. I also found that we have a little mouse living in the coop with the chickens. They aren’t bothered by it. I guess the little guy just snuggles up with them at night.

New Month

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October was a challenging month. Donny’s shoulder got a little better and then it moved to his elbow. He went to the doctor and they ran a complete blood panel and everything came back good. They have no idea what is causing this migratory joint swelling. We went to his family reunion and one of his cousins has the exact same thing and they doctors can’t figure out what causes his symptoms either. Well, since last Sunday, it has left his shoulder and moved into his knee. It’s so painful that he is having a hard time walking. This has been happening since the kids were little. It only happens in either October or November, but it has usually only affected his foot and ankle. The big thrift store is having a 5 cent book sale the month of November. I found this book today. I’m hoping I can find something in it to help him. He does have a follow up appointment on Thursday.

There is a mama cat and her two kittens that hang out across the street. The, what I’m assuming is the dad, has been hanging out on our driveway and patio. I have been putting food and water out for them in our ditch because they feel safer eating where they can’t be seen and have the storm drain to run into if they feel threatened. The neighbor across the street on the corner has set a live trap to try to catch them. Luckily I was notified of this by my other neighbor so I can keep an eye on it. So far she has only trapped a possum. I’m hoping it’s not one of the ones that I feed. I’ve seen the larger possum and thought I saw the smaller one, but I only saw its face so I can’t be sure which one it was. The skunks are getting along with the possum(s) now and I’m still feeding the 3 raccoons. I came out tonight and the largest raccoon was stuffing his mouth with marshmallows like a little kid gorging on candy. Raccoons have a huge sweet tooth.

All of our cats have a 10 o’clock curfew now. I always make coffee and then let our cats outside. I go with them and have my coffee on the patio. The other morning after I let them out they went into the front yard and then bolted past me onto the grill. I stood up to see what was going on and I saw this HUGE coyote coming across my yard. I immediately started yelling at it and chased it down the street. I’m worried about the mama cat, kittens and Mr. Whiskers, the dad. So far everyone is still doing good.

Mr. Whiskers just chilling.

I’m going to be trying to keep up with my blog this month. Donny has been having to sleep on the couch so he doesn’t roll over on his elbow, shoulder and knee which means I’m not sleeping well. I used to think I wanted land to live on, but taking care of the animals we have and everything else while Donny is incapacitated has made me change my mind.

We did early voting last Friday. I think I’m getting election fatigue. I am very ready for November 5th to roll around. Only 4 more days!

And yes, I went to the polls with no makeup and needing to shower but we just wanted to get it over with and avoid the lines on election day.