Project 52 Update- Week 35 September 28, 2011

I haven’t done an update since week 17, but that doesn’t mean I’ve been slacking!  I have got quite a bit crossed off!

1.  Try 1 new main dish recipe a month.  (This month I made Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole- yummy!)

2.  Try 1 new dessert a month.  (My guys are always complaining I don’t bake enough)  This month I made Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies)

3.  Make a crockpot meal once a week (It’s such a timesaver!)   Missed a few weeks but otherwise have been doing well on this one.

4.  Stick to my weekly grocery budget (I’m trying the new cash envelope system for this)   Been too busy to organize my coupons for the last couple of weeks so my grocery budget  is being overspent

5.  Add to my savings monthly  -Adding!  Slowly, but still adding!

6.  Pay off all hospital/doctor bills by April 1st   Didn’t make the April 1st deadline, but they were paid off the week before Zach had his accident and had surgery on the same knee again.  I think I will have to make this a goal on next year’s Project 52 again!

7.  Take an outdoor walk weekly (Even in this cold Minnesota weather) NOPE!

8.  Do the 50 mile bike ride with Zach.  NOPE!  My knee is healed, but Zach recently had surgery again so I have a feeling this one will not be crossed off this year 

9.  Do a girl’s camping trip or weekend with Janeen.  (We’ve been planning this for years and never do it)   Yay!  We did this one.  We went to Granite Falls and stayed at the casino there in May.  AND, we did a camping trip last weekend as well!

10.  Take mom out for margaritas.  (Can you say “happy hour”, mom?)

11.  Host a Bunco night

12.  Wash the outside of my house 

13.  Lose 20 pounds  (I must have read this wrong.  I thought it said gain 20 pounds.  My bad.)

14.  Go ice fishing with my hubby (He likes to fish- I don’t.  and I HATE the cold!)  I went summer fishing with him last week do I get half a point for that?

15.  Shoot bow with my hubby  (He really wants me to do this so I will)

16.  Do 1 date night a month with my hubby.  (I’m hearing all the time on Facebook how all my friends have such a good time on their weekly date nights.  I’m so jealous!)    

17.  Read 100 books.  (Last year I read 86 I KNOW I can hit 100 this year)    Book 47/100 read.  I better get busy!

18.  Do an independent Bible study.  (Started this but it’s a loooonnnngggg one)

19.  Read 1 inspirational book a month. 

20.  Pull 1 book a month off my personal bookshelf and place it in my TBR pile.  (I have a lot of books I’ve purchased because I sincerely want to read them, so why do I keep checking out stacks from the library?) 

21.  Go through clothes in closet and give to charity.  (I’m not a clothes horse but I have run out of room)  I brought home boxes.  Half a point?  Maybe?

22.  Blog on book blog once a week.  (I enjoyed book blogging but I quit when life got crazy and I just haven’t gotten back to it)  

23.  Plan at least 2 meals a week from my pantry. 

24.  Add $5.00 to my Christmas fund weekly  (doesn’t sound like much but it will add up, trust me) 

25.  Find new website for Boy Scouts (the one I have been using now wants to charge us so I’m shopping for a new free one)

26.  Update the new website for Boy Scouts once a week during school year

27.  Paint my living room  (I’m afraid of color.  I like open, clean white but I’m ready to stretch)

28.  Redo wiring/cabling on my TV/home theater/ DVD recorder/satellite.

29.  Install new garbage can roller system under sink

30.  Fill in potholes in driveway (it’s like riding a bucking bronco all the way up to my garage)

31.  Go to 3 movies at theater this year.  We went to Super 8 this summer, but have 2 more to go.

32.  Get flower beds cleaned out by June 1st 

33.  Get flag back up on flagpole.  (pulley system broke- I miss it)

34.  Get back to weekly training topic at work.    This has not been happening.  Since I inherited a third department I feel like I have no extra time for anything 

35.  Hold 2 training meetings at work this year  (see #34)

36.  Go on 1 pilgrimage with my church  (I’ve missed some good ones due to expense or having to take time off from work.  One of the day trip pilgrimages would be fun.  Walmart will not close down if I ask for the day off!)

37.  Have Janeen and Al over for a card night.

38.  Have Janeen and Al over for a BBQ

39.  Treat mom & dad to a Dutch Oven meal.

40.  Hold a coupon class for the Janeen, Lori & Janelle (they’ve been begging!)

41.  Bring treats to work for the holidays to thank my associates and show them they are appreciated (I’m thinking Valentines, St Patricks Day, Easter, Independence Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, & Christmas.  I used to do this several years.)  I did Valentines but forgot St Patrick’s day and Easter

42.  Visit Papa twice a  week.  (This has been about a once a week thing.  He’s in the nursing home now and sleeps most of the time)

43.  Get Kevin started on religious emblem.  I not only started with Kevin, I have another boy starting too!

44.  Do the Safety merit badge with our patrol.

45.  Get Christmas shopping done early.  Done by December 1st.  (I hated all the last minute scrambling this year.  So stressful!)

46.  Do 1 freezer meal a month  Did a whole bunch of them earlier this month.  LOVED it!

47.  Keep up with the Motivated Mom’s chore list.  (It’s been helping me break down my duties so housework doesn’t seem so overwhelming) 

48.  Donate to one new charity this year.  Donated my weekly lunch budget to Feed the Poor.  I fed 420 children and it felt great!

49.  Participate in the March of Dimes Walkathon (I have only missed 1 in the last 21 years!)  Janeen and I did this together on April 30th!

50.  Have 3 Tyler days this year  (a day with just my firstborn.  I never get to spend time with him)

51.  Have 3 Zach days this year  (can’t leave out my youngest)

52.  Have a Pamper Me day  (I need a day for just me.  Just one.  That’s all I ask!)

All in all, I still feel good that I have been able to cross some of it off my list.  I’m glad I’m doing this even though I’m not always successful!

Highlight Reel September 17th-23rd, 2011 September 22, 2011

Saturday-  Zach and I spent the afternoon at Huntersville.  Tyler was home for supper for a change.  We got into a half hour discussion about which of our movies still unseen we would watch together tonight.  We finally found one we could all agree on and Tyler watched it for all of about 10 minutes before taking off with friends.  Typical!

Sunday- Church this morning-I was lector and then home for eggs & hash. Jeff watched the football game while I went shopping for shoes at Kohl’s with my 30% off coupon.  Picked up a few Christmas presents too.

Monday- Scouts tonight.  The boys moved the sheds at the church and then worked on their fitness testing.

Tuesday-Monica & Gracie came over for supper and then I watched Gracie until Monica was finished with her RCIA class.  Today was Gracie’s first day of preschool!

Wednesday-  Zach started confirmation tonight.  They requested the parents come for the kick off.  I wasn’t expecting a band and root beer floats when we got there.  It was kind of fun, but different then what we were used to!

Thursday- I started my 10 week Bible study on Revelation tonight.  I was excited to have 8 people there! It’s been four years since I started this with 2 people and now I have 10 registered.  Maybe God is   rewarding my patience like Deacon Marks said!

Friday-  Cars all packed, Zach is heading to Huntersville camping for the weekend and Janeen and I are going camping as well-to Rock Lake.  The guys might be joining us Saturday night, they haven’t decided yet.  If they don’t I say pfffftttt to them.  We’ll have fun without them!

Huntersville Part Deux September 18, 2011

I loved my first experience at Huntersville so much (after we got it cleaned up) that I talked Zachary into heading up there again without breaking his arm as I twisted it.  Actually, he beat me to the car, he’s always up for doing anything crazy like this!

We had talked it over on the ride back last week and we had discussed a few more improvements we could make so we decided to spend the afternoon doing just that.  I packed a lunch and we followed horse trailer after horse trailer to Huntersville.  It seems they had a big trail ride in the area this weekend.  Dodging horse apples on the road with my car (seriously they were all over the place!) we drove in and got right to work. 

Zach installed a handle on the outside of the outhouse, and a lock inside.  He made three more raised benches and I made posters for the cabin, cleaned the coals out of the dutch oven pad, raked the fire pit area, and restacked the wood pile that had collapsed on one side.

We stopped for lunch then finished up our jobs before heading for home.  Even the boys who joined us last week will be surprised with the new changes when they come up here next weekend!  It looks great!

 

 

 

Highlight Reel September 10th-16th, 2011 September 17, 2011

Saturday- At Huntersville

Sunday- Still at Huntersville.  Had our own 9/11 Memorial Service at camp and then packed up and were home by 2pm.  Exhausted, we didn’t accomplish much else the rest of the day.

Monday- Our fist day of the Scouting year.  The boys played a mixer game so the new kids could learn everybody.

Tuesday-  Book club at Sheila’s.  We discussed the book The Postmistress.  Boring!  We had 1940s war-time food, which was fun.  I made Macaroni & Tomatoes which is a favorite of Papa’s.  We also had our charity book sale and we decided the money this year would go to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library which provides an age appropriate new book  every month until a child turns five years old.

Wednesday-  Tyler had t call in to work today.  After a doctor’s appointment it was determined he had sprained his foot.  What is it with my kids?  It’s a good thing we have several pairs of crutches in the house!

Thursday- I picked Zach up after school today and we visited with Papa, Bonnie & Candy before heading to the doctor to get his stitches out.  I wish I would have had a camcorder to record all the funny faces he made while the doctor was pulling them out!

Friday-  My Dad and Zach went on a launch for church and only caught 1 walleye between them.  Oh well, sounds like they had a good time anyway.  Jeff & I stopped at a garage sale and ending up picking up a couch & a rocker/recliner.  It’s not really my style and we really couldn’t afford it, but we couldn’t afford not to either.  My company has to have someplace to sit, and trust me, my old set was not sittable anymore.

Huntersville Clean Up Weekend September 14, 2011

The next time you go to Huntersville, shout a big “Thank You” to the Mighty Eagles patrol, Assistant Scoutmaster Mark & Committee Members Jim and Angie.  They spent the entire weekend cutting down brush, dangerous dead trees, hauling and stacking wood, making raised log benches,  and cleaning the fire pit, cabin, and outhouse.

I’ll have to admit, never having been to Huntersville before, I did not know what to expect when I drove in.  At first I was horrified!  I like rustic camping, but this place looked run down and choked with brush.  To start with, three trees had to be cut & cleared off the road before we got to the campsite.

Then the fire ring area had to be tended to before we could even start to think about roasting wieners for supper.

And the outhouse?  When I finally did find it was filled with leaves and the dirt on the seats was THICK!  Everyone got right to work.  We worked until dark Friday night.  We started at 6 am Saturday morning and we were finally able to relax before our Dutch Oven supper.  Then we worked up until the time we left Sunday afternoon.  Everyone was hot, sweaty and tired but also happy and proud of our accomplishments. 

And doesn’t it look much better now?

Andrew, Austin & Zach paused in front of one  of the woodpiles for a picture before we left.  What a fantastic group of young men these are- of course, I may be a little partial !

Highlight Reel September 3rd-9th, 2011 September 14, 2011

Saturday-  Zach’s accident (see previous post)

Sunday- Everyone’s sleepy today after the late night last night.  Zach has a hard time getting comfortable because the leg with the road rash keeps oozing and sticking to everything.

Monday-Labor Day!  Jeff goes fishing and I stay home with Zach who is still confined to the couch.

Tuesday- Zach hobbling around without his crutches today.  Jeff & I are back to work.

Wednesday- Zach’s first day of his junior year.  After school we go to Mom’s for our traditional first day of school meal of homemade noodle soup.  After supper we head in to the nursing home to visit Papa for a while and then down to Mary & Jerry’s to check out their garage sale before it opens to the public.

Thursday-Zach opted for shorts for school today.  Yesterday he wore jeans and just wrapped his road rash.  Not a good idea since the ace bandage stuck to his road rash.  Ouch!

Friday- I picked up Zach after school and we head to Huntersville for a working/camping weekend with our Boy Scout Patrol.

 

Zach’s Giving Me Gray Hair Again! September 14, 2011

Saturday Jeff and I were sitting in the living room enjoying a quiet evening when Zach came in the house and said in a somewhat wavery voice “Mom, I need to go to the hospital.”  I turned to look at him and I saw blood running down his leg and so I jumped up and got changed and grabbed a dish towel, dampened it and headed out to the car where he was waiting for me.  I opened his door to wrap the towel around his leg and he said “Don’t look at it mom, don’t look at it.”  Well, I did.  And I almost fainted!  It was bad and I knew I needed to get him to the hospital right away.

All the way in he was moaning in pain, but it wasn’t from the big gash in his leg, it was from the road rash on the other leg and pain in his side and his back.

We got to the hospital and they took him right in.  They called the orthopedic surgeon in to take a look at it and did some ultrasounds on his kidneys and tummy area looking for internal bleeding.

By 9pm they had him in the operating room.  They had to power wash him and do some debritment before they stitched him up.  He came out of the OR around 10pm and that’s when the doc came out to let us know everything had went well.  Luckily, he had no major nerve damage, and no major muscle damage.  AND, he hadn’t screwed up the area where his operation was.  Yeah, that’s right, where he gashed his leg was right below the kneecap he had surgery on!

By the time he got out of recovery and up to a regular room it was getting late and Jeff, who had been up since 3am that morning was falling asleep in every chair he sat in.  After the nurse had hooked up another IV drip, got Zach a box lunch and watched his vitals for a while we were almost ready to go.  We got home at 2 in the morning!

It’s been a couple of days now and he’s still in a lot of pain.  The doctor said he should only be on crutches for a day or two but his muscles and surgery area are still so sore I don’t think he will be off them for another few days.  He’s not a baby when it comes to pain so I know he’s really hurting.  When he had his knee surgery last year, he was off the crutches a lot earlier than he was supposed to.  Even though I could strangle the kid for getting himself in all these jams, I feel so bad for all he’s gone through.  Darn kid!

WARNING!!  EXPLICIT PHOTOS BELOW!  IF YOU GET QUEASY DO NOT SCROLL DOWN!!

 

 

I WARNED YOU!

 

 

OKAY, HERE IT IS!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And after surgery

 

My First Freezer Cooking Foray September 3, 2011

Hamburger Soup, Chicken Wild Rice Soup, Lasagna

I tried freezer cooking for the first time today.  I have been reading so much about it on the net, about how it saves so much time, so I thought I’d give it a whirl since it was supposed to be a cool weekend and all.  I made quite a lofty list for my first effort.  I really wanted to see if I could do it and accomplish it all before noon.

I started at 7 am and I would have been done well before noon if I hadn’t run up across a few obstacles.  The first thing I did was mix up the ingredients for 2 meatloaves while I started the ground beef for the Taco Bundles.  Assembling the bundles worked out okay after I found the best way to “push together” the perforations in the crescent rolls.  The recipe said to put a half cup of taco meat on each crescent roll rectangle.  After I had assembled about half of them I could tell I wasn’t going to have enough meat left if I continued to use a half cup so I cut it down to a third of a cup for the rest of them.

While those were baking I fried up the other four pounds of beef to be used in the tator tot hotdish and the hamburger soup.  While that was cooking I assembled the Chicken Cordon Bleu Casseroles and started the chicken wild rice soup.  At this point everything was still running along smoothly.  Then I started the lasagna.  I cooked up the ground beef, added my sauce, boiled the noodles and got all the rest of the ingredients out of the fridge to assemble it.  I took off the cover of the cottage cheese and went to stick my spoon in and that’s when I realized I had grabbed a large sour cream instead of a cottage cheese.  Doh! 

Disgusted, I knew I had to put everything else on hold until I ran to town to get some cottage cheese.  I grabbed the 4 cup bag of shredded cheese to put it back in the refrigerator unitl I got back and dumped half of it on the floor.  I forgot I had opened it!  Doh! Doh!

In to town Zach and I went.  As long as we were in town, we stopped at the nursing home to visit Papa.  He said “Hi Angie” and fell asleep.  He was so tired, and he had finally got his comfy chair from the apartment and all he really wanted to do is snuggle in his chair with his quilt and take a nap!  After Zach & I left there we stopped at Hardees for lunch, then got our groceries and went home.  By this time I had decided I had had enough freezer cooking for one day so I assembled the lasagna and quit.  The only two things I didn’t get done were the bluberry pancakes and the Peanut Butter & Jelly waffles.  Maybe I’ll feel ambitious tonight or tomorrow and whip these up or maybe they’ll just wait for next time.  Even with the trip into town, I still finished at a little after noon.  This was definitely quicker then making all these meals seperately and I think I would like to try this again in a 3-4 weeks.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casseroles, Tator Tot Hotdish, Taco Bundles, Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Highlight Reel August 27th-September 2nd September 2, 2011

Friday- When we got home from camping and had showered we headed to the George Tautges Memorial Fundraiser sponsored by our church’s Knights of Columbus.  My dad roasts the pork every year and there is a band and raffle prizes that are drawn for including a grand prize of $1,000 cash and other prizes such as 4 different guns.   Alas, nobody in our family won this year.

Saturday- Jeff & Zach went fishing all day and I spent the entire day catching up on all three of my blogs and even scheduling posts on one of them a month in advance!

Sunday- We did some grocery shopping, yard work and visiting with family.  Papa ended up going in the hospital after taking three falls during the day.

Monday- Back to work…On my lunch break I went to the hospital to visit Papa and see what the test results were.  It was determined he had a stroke on the left side of his brain and rehab in a nursing home would be needed.  Then after work Zach and I headed into town for the Boy Scout annual fall planning meeting.  We got he schedule set in stone for September and October and tentative outdoor activities and campouts scheduled for the rest of the year.

Tuesday- I spent my first break filling out a bulletin submission form that I had to get to the church before the Wednesday noon deadline.  I finished it and on lunch I headed over to the church to find…I had left it in my locker instead of putting it in my purse.  Grrr!  After work I went to an Adult Faith Formation meeting at the church and- you guessed it!  Forgot the form again!  After the meeting I stopped to visit Janeen and we solidified the date of our September camping trip.

Wednesday- Got the bulletin submission form to the church at 11:55…not kidding!  Whew!  Zach got his hair cut and then him & Jeff went fishing.  They came home with some fish walleye that I fried up for supper. Papa transferred over to the nursing home today.

Thursday-Finally getting  caught up at work after vacation last week.  Zach is staying over at Eli’s house tonight so I spent the evening talking to Mom.  It sounds like things are going a little better today after the shock of putting Papa in Bethany yesterday.  It was quite an emotional experience for Mom. 

Friday-  Nice (dare I say) fall day.  I did some power shopping for tomorrows first venture at freezer cooking.  I am planning on making several meals in advance so they will be ready once the busy school year/scouts/Bible study/committee meeting time starts.  This is what I am planning on making: two meatloaves, Taco Bundles, Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake, Tator Tot Hotdish, Lasagna, Bluberry Pancakes, Peanut Butter & Jelly Waffles, Hamburger Soup, Chicken Wild Rice Soup, & Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies.  I will let you know what I actually accomplish!

North Shore Travelogue Day 5 September 2, 2011

Finally, on Day 5 of our North Shore camping trip, the guys had a perfect day for fishing.  They headed off early for Boulder Lake while I stayed back at the campsite by myself.  They left around 7 am and didn’t get back until almost 6:30.  Almost 12 hours of solitude!  What a blessed day!

I read, I walked, I read, I took a nap, I had lunch, and then finally…I took my chair down by the lake and read!

When the guys came back they cleaned the fish and as soon as they were filleted and washed up they were battered and in the pan.  We ate the fish along with some fried potatoes and sat by the campfire. 

I had listened to the weather radio earlier in the day and knew there were showers and thunderstorms coming in.  We kind of figured we would be packing up the next morning but considering we had prepared for a storm earlier in the week that never came we were going to wait to make out final decision.

Around 4 am we started seeing lightning across the lake and could hear thunder rumbling in the distance.  Jeff and I got up about 4:30 and started packing up what we could in the dark.  I really hate packing in the rain so I figured the more we could get done now the less wet I would get.  We woke Zach up at 6 am and got the rest of the stuff packed up.  By this time it was starting to sprinkle and as we were getting the last of the gear hauled up to the car it started to POUR.  All in all we didn’t get too wet but you know what the kicker was?  Not even two miles down the road the rain had stopped and the sun came out!    Oh well, it was a beautiful week and we must have been wearing out our welcome there.  It was definitely one of my favorite camping trips!