My Tireless Retirement – Week 103

 

Spring has sprung and I had another great week!  I spent the majority of the St. Patty’s day weekend working on a project that is near and dear to my heart, I’ll be telling you all about it on Wednesday, but the main reason for this was to make sure I sat on my butt and rested a lot.  The culmination of several busy and very full weeks had me pretty much exhausted.  I think I hit the wall on the previous Friday afternoon and I really needed to take a break.  I got some good sleep and ate some great food over that weekend so by this past Monday I was ready to get back to it.

 

I worked a few hours Monday afternoon and on the way home I popped into Trader Joes to pick up a head of lettuce to help me use up the remaining produce I had in the fridge to make fresh green salads throughout the week.  While I was at it I grabbed a couple bananas for only 19¢ each as I’d been craving a banana of late.  I have to hand it to Trader Joes for keeping their prices steady and not doing what all other stores have done.  Since the pandemic I’ve noticed only a small increase on some of their products, but for the most part they’ve kept their prices pretty much the same.  It got me thinking, I really need to do more of my shopping there.

 

On Wednesday I took myself for a walk around our state capitol before having a picnic lunch in the park across the street.  A lady about my age sat with me and we had a wonderful conversation about all kinds of things.  It was unexpected, but so enjoyable.

 

Statues of Lewis & Clark with Nez Perce Chief Twisted Hair

After I got home was able to spend half an hour outside cutting up most of the limbs I’d pruned from the apple tree the week before and loading up my wheelie bin for Thursday pickup.  I also gave a couple of cuttings to the bunny to chew on which she has loved.  This week I’ll be cutting up what is left and getting that to the curb for pickup and that will be the end of this project.

 

As a reward to myself for a week well done I went to the cheap seat movies at 4:00 that afternoon and saw Anyone But You for only $3.  I thoroughly enjoyed that movie and laughed so much.  It has been way too long since I’ve been to a movie and laughed like that.  I definitely hope to do that more often.

 

Ways I Saved $$: 

With the warmer weather I was able to shut off the main heat in my house.  The mornings were a bit chilly, but by late afternoon I was opening windows and doors and letting in the fresh air.  No point to heating the house in the morning just to let all that heat out in the afternoon.  Even if the temperatures dip again my plan is to layer up, only use the fireplace as needed and leave the main heat off.  Can you tell I’m ready for spring? 

A few times last week I picked a pile of milk weeds and gave them to my chickens to supplement their regular feed.  After a long winter they really seem to love the fresh greens.  I also gave them some of the kitchen veggie scraps I had left after preparing sides for my meals.

 

Meals I Prepared: 

I made up a small batch of refried beans using rendered bacon fat I had in my refrigerator and a couple jars of home canned beans, one was pinto beans and the other was half pinto beans and half black beans.  I added a jar of home canned ground turkey to the beans along with a packet of taco seasoning to make burrito filling.  I topped each burrito with some frozen grated Monterey jack cheese I had thawed and some leftover guacamole salsa from the fridge.  I used up the jar of salsa plus the FREE tortillas I had picked up at Fred Meyer a couple weeks ago and made seven burritos.  I ate three of them last week and the others were packaged for the freezer to be eaten another time.

 

In the freezer I had two servings of a chicken and rice with broccoli florets on the side that I had made last month so I removed both of those to thaw and be reheated for two of my meals during the week.  I also had two servings of the chili I had canned the previous week that I ate with a fresh green salad.

 

That pretty much covers how my week went.  How was yours?