Things are coming together

Well, nervous as I am, things seem to be coming together. My procedure is set for Monday afternoon. It will be fine, it's just never fun facing this kind of thing.

I feel as though I have left my colleagues in a good place with what I accomplished this week at work. At home, I'm caught up on laundry and almost caught up on the dishes (and I still have all day tomorrow).

I have a meal plan made up that is full of easy options that my husband will have no problem pulling together himself until I'm back in the saddle.

I've done a little extra decluttering and cleaning this week, not as much as I should in a 'normal' week, but this week was not normal.

I'm even all caught up recording our receipts in my budgeting system and we have cash on hand to cover the ridiculous parking fees at the hospital.

All that's really left to do is to pack. I've been thinking about it a little and I believe I have a good idea of the bare essentials that I want to bring. I'll take care of that tomorrow.

Praying for peace and a speedy recovery.

Thank you for joining me on my journey as a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva

Thinking About Christmas?

First off, I have to tell you, yes, in my opinion, it is still way too early for Christmas decorations and music. But, now is the perfect time to plan!

It's mid-November, craft shows are in high gear and we're starting to get into make-ahead season. Now is the time to set aside some extra time and some extra money (if you haven't already) to make sure that Christmas doesn't surprise you.

I encourage you to spend some time thinking about what you are going to do this year. Just ask yourself some questions and write down the answers:

• Who is on your gift list?
• How much money do you plan on spending on gifts?
• What might you get for each person?
• Are there any crafts you need to get going on?
• How many get-togethers do you want to go to?
• Are you hosting any of these get-togethers?
• What goodies are you going to bake?
• What baking can be made ahead?
• And don't forget your family traditions!

November is a great time to get started on crafts and baking. A friend of mine has a craft show every year with her mother and one or two other vendors. I always go and usually get all my stocking-stuffers there.

My sister and I bake together, and we had our first session on Saturday. It was extra fun this year because now my seven-year-old niece is old enough to help (not just busy-work 'help' but actually help). We make our list, pick our dates and split the groceries. It's always a lot of fun.

If you start planning now, you can beat the rush and avoid the malls on crazy December Saturdays. If you can swing it, try going on a weekday-day during November to get a head start on your gift buying.

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva or by email at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Countdown to the Holidays! - Use it or Lose it!

OK Canadians!

If you still have turkey dinner leftovers in your fridge, this is your warning. You want to finish up what you can for dinner tonight and then freeze or throw out the rest. Tomorrow is officially cootie-ville! :)

I had turkey dinner leftovers for lunch, and we'll be having some more for dinner. I've asked my husband to 'do' the turkey today (get the meat off the bones) and I'll be starting bone broth in the crock cooker when he's done and chopping the meat and freezing in baggies for other meals.

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva or by email at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Countdown to the Holidays! The Turkey Hunt

 It's October! Can you believe it? Neither can I! But it is, nonetheless.

October is time to officially kick off your holiday planning. And I'm not just talking about Christmas. There's Thanksgiving (and even Halloween) thrown into the mix, too. (Plus Hanukkah, or whatever else you celebrate at the end of the year.)

Head's up, Canadians! You have just one week until Thanksgiving! Turkeys are on sale, pick one up ASAP. Ninety-nine cents a pound for a frozen turkey is a good price. If you can afford it, pick up two and you have Christmas dinner handled also! That's my plan. I'm heading to town tonight. There are two stores that have turkeys on for ninety-seven cents a pound, so I'm picking up two turkeys. One for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas.

Later this week, I'll do the rest of the groceries. But I don't want to be going to 7 grocery stores the last weekday before Christmas hunting for turkeys EVER again! (That's what happened last year - boo!)

I like to keep my holiday meals simple and make up a 5-day plan (or so) I just recycle and tweak the last one, most of the time. I spread the meal prep and house cleaning over 5 days and then I only have a little bit to do each day. That'll be the job for tomorrow.

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

 Please comment here or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Losing It With Leanne Challenge Day 10 - Baking Cookies?!?!

January 21, 2011

I was out at my sister's all day, today. I packed some Kashi, my soup, and a tuna sandwich, so I had my mid-morning snack and lunch covered, but I should have packed two Kashi so I'd have one for my mid-afternoon snack - oops.

I'm not sure if you remember, but I've been a double-double girl for-ever, and today when I bought coffee I got just milk in mine, not a huge delight, but I survived.

It was a PA day, so my niece was home from school and she wanted to bake. (Ahh!!! ) We baked cookies and I used pretty good self-control. I only had a tiny piece of dough (way less than normal) and one cookie, and they are small cookies. Plus I didn't bring any home. I think that is a major victory, not a small failure. Seriously. On a 'normal day' I would have been sneaking bits of dough here and there the whole time plus I would have had 4-5 of the cookies there (they are small cookies, about 1 Tbsp of dough each...) and then maybe taken a bunch home for me and DH for the week. I think I did well.


No wii today, but keeping my nephew out of stuff is a full-time job ;)

Dinner was leftover meatloaf with steamed mixed veggies (lots for me) and DH had my restaurant garlic bread also.  Have I mentioned that I'm loving making dinner for four the first night and then not making anything the next night? This should be my new plan!!

Oh! And I got all four bottles of water in! :D

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D

Losing It With Leanne Challenge Day 6

January 17th, 2010

Last night shift! YAY!! Wait... that means I have to switch back to days... ouch, that's hard. Switching from days to nights is much easier. Oh well, I'll survive. :D

Let's see... I'm drinking my water! I finished my fourth bottle early and actually drank about a third of the 5th bottle! Wow. That was easy! Leftover shredded beef today...mmmm! Plus I finished the egg salad for lunch, maybe I'll switch to tuna tomorrow.

No wii-ing today again, but shoveling definitely counts as my exercise for the day! Plus I went to the grocery store. I'm not done the stuff I bought for my suppers, but I was out of milk (and you need milk on this plan) and both Kashi and chicken breasts were on sale so.... :D I was a very good girl and I didn't buy any more cream for my coffee even though I'm almost out. I'll switch to milk and see how that goes. Hey, if I can cut sugar out of my coffee, I can handle anything! ;) Because of night shift I got to the store an hour before closing, it was nice and quiet, but they were almost all out of chicken... I only got one club pack... and I was going to get three since they don't go on sale too often... oh well. Days off coming up, so maybe I can go again before the sale ends :D

I really like that I'm cooking 4 portions, then every other day, I don't have to cook! Even though I do like cooking, I'm pretty busy, so it's good.

I can't believe tomorrow is day 7 already! I'll have to do a weigh in and see how I'm doing. (Since I've been doing 'alternative exercising' I haven't weighed myself on the wii for a bit.) I know I do feel a lot better. I'm on a crazy schedule, and I had to get up at 11am (after going to bed at 7am) for a meeting. I was really surprised at how easy that was to do. I don't know if I could have pulled that off before. (And yes, I did go back to bed after the meeting.) It's the end of the day and I felt no side effects from that.

OK people, potty talk! If you don't want to hear about it, you can go read something else now ;) I just want to say that DH and I have only been switching between nights and days for a little over a month, and my body was rebelling. I had some constipation issues a couple of times already, but since starting the Losing It With Leanne plan, I haven't had any problems! In fact, I think I'm getting better quality out than I was before-before (when I was on a normal schedule, but not on the LWL plan). OK, I'm done. No worries, I won't do that often!

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D