A few days ago I was looking on offerup for a desk chair. Jack broke the one he was using. We replaced it with the only extra chair we had, which was a living room chair. He broke that too. He likes to lean back and it snapped one of the legs off.

I didn’t find a desk chair, but I did find this awesome cabinet. It had only been listed for 5 minutes. I messaged the seller and told her we could be there in a few minutes. That’s one of the perks of living in a small town, you can pretty much go from one side to the other in about 10 minutes.

We have little to no storage in our home and we can’t have anything too big because there is just no room. I thought I would repaint it and it would go in our bedroom, but the colors are perfect in our living room.

I was able to move the candles out of the tv stand and actually put the electronics back in the drawers.

Now it’s decked out for Halloween.

We did end up finding a desk chair for Jack. Not the $300 one he was looking at. We bought it at Wal-Mart and like my friend Cindy always said, “don’t buy the cheapest or the most expensive. Just get the one in the middle and it will work out just fine”. That’s exactly what we did and it has.

Well, we signed the lease last night. Although we haven’t gotten the moving van yet, we started taking what we could over in Felix our Flex.

The hardest thing about this move is not the downsizing, it’s that every donation place is still closed. We can’t even have a garage sale. I’m sure we’ll figure it out, but in the meantime, this is what our day looked like.

A lot of the kitchen stuff.

The kitchen is small but functional.

There is a small dining area that just barely fits our dining room table.

It’s just shoved up against the wall right now so we can move stuff in.

There is carpet in the living room and bedrooms. Not my favorite thing, but it’s clean and in good shape and we’ll make the best of it.

When I start to get overwhelmed, I just keep in mind the reasons we are doing this. We are going to be saving a lot of money each month. We love this neighborhood because it is so family friendly. We are going to be able to slow our life down. If those aren’t the best reasons ever, I don’t know what is. ❤

We took a break from packing today since it was Jack’s 13th birthday. It really bites to have a milestone birthday when your in quarantine, but we made the best out of it.

He doesn’t really like sweets, so he asked for a chicken nugget “cake” with lots if sweet and sour sauce.

He also got a newer and better phone. The one he had he’s had for 3 years and just recently locked himself out of it. We just got back from a 2 mile walk playing Pokemon Go. Whatever it takes to get him out of the house. For being quarantined, it was a fun birthday.

We’re going to sign the lease on the new house tonight. 3 more sleeps in this house then it’s go time!

One week from today we are moving. Thankfully it’s only 3 miles from where we live now, but the kicker is, the new house is half the size of the one we live in now. That means that we are going to have to purge 50% of our stuff. Yikes!

We have lived in our present house for 2 years. We made a decision as a family to find a place that was much cheaper so we could save money and pay off some debt. When we started looking there were only a little more than a dozen houses for rent and only a very few in the kids school district.

We had driven by the new one and thought that there was no way we could downsize this much, but the more we discussed it, the more it made sense. Saving $600 a month in rent, not to mention the savings in utilities, pretty much sealed the deal.

Is it scary? Yes. Is it exciting? Yes. It’s going to allow us to slow down. Spend time on things that matter. Live more intentionally.

I can’t wait to be settled in and see how this goes. Now to just get everything packed up. Wish us luck

I have a confession to make. Cast iron pots and pans intimidate me. I bought one a couple of years ago to try what was suppose to be the best way to cook a steak in the world. Well, I smoked my whole house up and burned the outside, leaving the inside still mooing. I never used it again and it just sat there rusting away. Well now I’m trying a new recipe and it calls for a cast iron skillet. Okay, gotta get back on the horse.

When I cleaned out the garage I found that skillet and my husband’s grandmother’s cast iron lidded chicken fryer. They were not pretty. They were just covered in nasty rusty yuckiness. I didn’t know what to do. I had tried to clean my skillet once by some weird way where you put it in a garbage bag with cleaners. Did not work. At. All.

I was willing to give it one more shot. I found this pin on pinterest.

https://beforeitsnews.com/v3/survival/2013/2493846.html

Okay, first of all, I need to let you know that it’s easy, but has some drawbacks. You just scrub up your pots with a brush to get as much rust off as you can.

Then you put them on the lowest rack in your oven upside down. Now for the drawback. You use the self clean mode and just let those suckers cook. It will smell. Like your house is on fire. It also takes a little over 4 hours.

Next just let them cool for about an hour because they will be VERY hot. Now you wash them off again with a metal brush or scrubber. Make sure you get in all the crevices.

After you scrub all the rust off, you grease it down really good. I used vegetable shortening. Put them back in the oven upside down. Put one rack on the very bottom and line it with foil. I would make a lip all the way around with the foil because the grease dripped off and now I have a grease stain in my previously clean oven.

Bake in a 350 oven for an hour. Let cool for about an hour then pull them out and grease the insides one more time.

That’s it. I was floored, shocked, knock me over with a feather surprised by how they turned out.

Y’all, look at this skillet!!!!! It looks brand spanking new!

Like I said before, this was my husband’s grandmother’s. She will be 101 this year. We googled the brand. It’s Griswold and they ceased production in the mid 1950’s. This skillet is probably about 60 years old!!! It looks like we just bought it. I couldn’t be more pleased.

So, if you have cast iron that you don’t know what to do with because it’s a rusty mess, you have got to try this method. Seriously.

I’m also giving a shout out to The Carbonaro Effect. I watched it this morning and it had me laughing so hard. Nothing better than a really good magician with a sense of humor.

Stacy

It’s almost Christmas! I can’t believe how fast December has flown by. I would like to say that I’m 100% ready, but that would be a lie. I decided not to stress out this year and just take my time and enjoy whatever happens.

I normally get our decorations up before Thanksgiving. Well, that didn’t happen this year, but I was okay with it. We actually have two trees up. I have never been the type to have more than one tree, but there’s a reason that has changed. Donny and my first Christmas together was 2004. We were both working 6 days a week, open to close at the Harley dealership in Oklahoma. It was crazy and we had decided to not put up a tree. I couldn’t do it. I caved. We were living in a townhouse that wasn’t very big, so I went to Big Lots and found a $10 tree that was maybe 6 feet tall. It was perfect for what we needed and we just figured we’d get a new, bigger the next year.

And here it is 15 Christmases later. I CANNOT get rid of it. It was our first tree and I have a weird attachment to it. It is the only tree my kids knew. They used to think it was HUGE. Not so much now, since they are almost as tall as the tree itself, but, if you think about it, it really has earned it’s keep at less than a dollar a year for all the  years we’ve used it. It may not be the most beautiful tree in the world, but there’s more to my sweet little tree than how it looks. It’s the memory that is attached to each skinny limb. One year I even lost one of the feet and had to anchor it to the wall to keep it from leaning. Now that’s love. For the record, my husband thought I was crazy to keep it. I found the missing foot after Christmas.

It makes our seldom used living room much cozier.

I absolutely love our little tree, but summer before last big brother tree came to live at our home. I was at Goodwill and there in the corner was a huge box. Of course I had to see what it was. Of course. It was a 7 1/2 foot Christmas tree for $4.99. I knew there was a chance that it wouldn’t have all the pieces, but I was will to take the chance. I mean, what frugal person wouldn’t.

Well, not only did it have all the pieces, it had the directions and extra pieces.

Does it fit? Yes, if you shift everything around. I just love that it has found a new home with us. When I look on instagram I see all the homes that have the perfect tree. Everything is coordinated and magazine perfect. My home will never be like that. I obviously never “stage” pictures. What you see is how it is, but I like that better. It’s real life and my hodge podge tree is definitely real life.

It was an ugly Christmas sweater party.

A santa I got in a secret santa exchange MANY years ago hangs next to a stick reindeer.

Our tin bear in the box that Donny brought home from work years ago.

So try not to stress out this Christmas. Looking back to our first Christmas together, I don’t even remember the presents. All I remember is the feelings of love and thankfulness. Things do not have to cost a lot of money to bring happiness.

 

Merry Christmas,

Stacy

We slept in, well until 8, which is sleeping in for us. Our hotel, the Historic Kahn Saloon, has a great little coffee shop downstairs that serves homemade muffins and gourmet coffee.

The coffee shop is through the doors to the right. There are tables set up inside and a bar where you can sit and people watch outside. I love the little bookshelf where you can “take a book, leave a book”.  We had an out of this world blueberry muffins. Denise makes everything and she can bake!

I met a friend online in one of my facebook groups, and it just so happened that she and her son were going to be here this weekend also. While Donny and I were outside chatting with another guest, I saw a woman I was sure was Sherri, my FB friend. She was crossing the street and I yelled, “Sherri”. She turned and I yelled it again. Well, it wasn’t her and she looked at me like I had lost my mind. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t done it AGAIN later in the day. Truthfully though, she could have been Sherri’s doppleganger.

The forecast was still calling for 93% rain. We decided to not make any plans, except for the ghost tour later that evening, and just fly by the seat of our pants. We started walking down Austin St and came to a car show.

How cute is this street??? I think if the weather would have been more cooperating there would have been more cars, but the ones there were really cool.

Across the street from the car show was the General Store. This was my favorite store hands down. It was like stepping back in time.

This is what greets you when you walk in. Talk about a trip down memory lane. They carry every kind of candy from my childhood. I wanted one of everything.

More candy!!!! They also had shelf upon shelf of jams, jellies and sauces. I cannot even count all of the samples I tried.

The General Store carries a little bit of everything.

This place is HUGE! I love that they have child sized tables where the kiddos can play with the toys. So stinking cute!

Feeling thirsty? This is only one set of shelves. They have drinks I’ve never even heard of. I really would have thought they had almost every single flavor ever made, except I wanted a Cheerwine and Cindy, there was no Cheerwine! No problem, if you can’t find what you are looking for here, there is always here….

An honest to God old timey soda fountain. They serve their milkshakes in mason jars!!! Ya just know sipping out of a mason jar has got to make them taste even better. What a fun store! We spent over an hour just looking at everything and knowing we didn’t see it all.

Next stop down the road, over the railroad tracks, was The Old Mill Antiques.

While we were in the General Store the skies opened up. You can tell everything is wet. It was over quickly. We wanted to check out some of the antique stores. There are so many within walking distance.

The antique places are so big that you could get lost. See that coffee cup in Donny’s hand. It’s mine from that morning. I asked him to hold it. He said there’s more cup than coffee so I told him to throw it away. He never heard me and had been carrying an empty cup around for over an hour. He’s a keeper.

Anyone need a life size statue of horses and a carriage? How weird is that? If you do, however, need a claw foot bathtub, I can hook you up.

After antique shopping for a few hours, we were burned out. We stalked followed some people who looked like they knew where they were going. Looky what we found.

We came across this cool little cabin. We didn’t see anyone, but there was music playing and a sign that said Cypress Scents. I googled it later and they sell candles, lotions, etc.  It was just out in the middle of nowhere.

The whole trail was just gorgeous. It was long and we definitely got a workout. By this time we were starving. Blueberry muffins only go so far.

Yep, this looked like the place to get your feed on. Just like everything else in this town, it is so cute! If you are reading this, don’t take a shot every time you read the word cute. You’ll get alcohol poisoning for sure.

I’m not a mushy person, but this guy makes life so much more fun!

I’m always behind the camera, so Donny snapped this while we were waiting for our food. I  look like an escaped prisoner, those stripes. LOL

The food!!! Donny had the Texan. It’s chili, cheese, onion on jalapeno cornbread. I had the chicken and dumplings. Oh my Lord, it was good. The cornbread was divine! The prices are SO reasonable. I found that all throughout Jefferson nothing was overpriced. Oh, and you have to have sweet tea with it. All of the desserts sounded so good, but we were stuffed!

On our walk back we found my second favorite store, Blessings. The woman who owns it is so sweet. When we walked in Donny told her how wonderful the store smelled. Well, the only thing she burns is a fragrance called Sweet Grace. With every candle you buy a meal is given to a child in a 3rd world country. Y’all, the smell is just heavenly. Of course, I had to buy and candle. If you are in Jefferson, you MUST go to Blessings. It’s truly a magical place.

After a couple of adult beverages at Auntie Skinner’s (our favorite hang out place) we decided to go take a quick nap so we would be recharged for the Historic Walking Ghost Tour later that evening.

Stay tuned for Night 2 of our weekend adventure. I hope you are loving Jefferson as much as I do.

Stacy

P.S. I FINALLY get to meet Sherri and her son

For Donny’s birthday this year I planned a weekend in Jefferson, TX. Jefferson is 45 minutes from Longview in east Texas. It was our first vacation without kids in 13 years. Crazy, right? Neither one of us had been here, but we had heard nothing but really good things about it. The weather was suppose to be bad all weekend, but we didn’t care, we were on an adventure.

We got into town about 8:40 Friday night. Found our hotel easily, since it was right in the heart of downtown. We were staying at the Historic Kahn Saloon Hotel.

When we were bringing our bags in I saw a man sitting out front in a really large golf cart. I asked him if he was a taxi. He said, no, but I can take you anywhere you need to go. Turns out, he is the owner of the hotel where we were staying. His name is Eric and it took him 2 years to convert the once dilapidated building into what it is today. We got a little history. In it’s past lives it has been a saloon, complete with a brothel, and a funeral home. He actually found blood stains on the floors upstairs when they pulled them up. Apparently, when the flu epidemic broke out in the late 1800’s there were so many dead that the bodies had to be stored in coffins upstairs. UGH!

A little tidbit about Jefferson, it’s supposedly one of the most haunted towns in Texas. Eric had actually built himself an apartment to live in inside the hotel. He lived there for a while, but the microwave would turn on by itself, the refrigerator door would just open. There was knocking on the door with no one there. The final straw was when he was sitting on his couch and his Amazon Echo flew from the table all the way into the kitchen. He packed his clothes and computer and left. Now he rents it as a hotel room.

He also told us about Andrew. He was a little 7 year old boy that lived upstairs with his mother who was a prostitute. A man broke into their room, killed the mother and drowned Andrew. He likes the female guests and will pull on their shirts and touch their hair. He also gravitates toward bustier ladies. Dang it, I guess I wouldn’t get to experience his presence.

The hotel itself is beautiful and you can tell that a lot of time and money was spent bringing up to present day.

This is the second floor hallway to our room. Our room was the next to last. The floors are the original floors from the 1800’s.

Our room had a king sized four poster bed.

Once we dropped our things off we were starving. Eric had told us about Auntie Skinner’s just a short walk down the street. It looked lively and fun and one of they only places open at that time of night.

The waitress forgot to turn our order in so we were there for quite a while. No worries because their were adult beverages and some pretty good karaoke.  We don’t sing on the stage, but we do a mean table karaoke. Especially after a few of these.

Mine was the Ocean Water which is coconut rum, Blue Curacao and sprite. Donny had the Manhattan. I don’t know what the heck is in, but I took a sip and almost died.  The food was really good. Donny had the junkyard burger and I had a quesadilla. No pic because we stuffed it down like we’d never had a meal before.

I highly recommend Auntie Skinner’s. Even with a guy getting dragged out face first in handcuffs with a big ole sheriff yelling at him it was still very entertaining.

By this time it was 11:30. The weather forecast called for over 90% chance of rain for the remainder of the weekend so we decided to take a little walking tour. It was dark, spooky and fabulous! Across from our hotel was the Thomas Jefferson Park. There is a big bust of Thomas Jefferson and a fountain that is tucked in between buildings in a wonderful little courtyard.

We decided to explore some more since everything is so close.

This is the Sterne Fountain. It is at the intersection of Lafayette and Market Street. It’s beautiful and incredibly spooky at the same time. It was designed to be a drinking fountain with three different levels for humans, dogs and horses. It is made of solid bronze.

On top of the Sterne Fountain is Hebe, the Greek goddess of youth.

There are hitching posts all down Austin St.

Beautiful Catholic church next to a gazebo and park. It’s hard to tell in this picture, but the streets are paved with bricks.

And back to our hotel for the night. By this time it was after midnight and we were tired, but I had fallen in love with this little town. I couldn’t wait to see what tomorrow would bring.

Stacy