Gratitude, Winter Is Here/Food Preps

Gratitude -

I was going to do a "what I'm thankful for" post but didn't have time to get that done before Thanksgiving. So, while belated, here are some things I am EXTREMELY grateful for:

Surgery: One of the things I'm most grateful for right now is coming through some back surgery, solved a lot of chronic pain issues for the last year. I had two options, got two different opinions. The first doctor barely looked at Dave and I, rattled off a lot of statistics. Not a good fit. Second doctor, at a totally different practice, looked at us, answered Dave and my questions, outlined everything really well. Chose that procedure. Much shorter recovery time, surgery went well, I had immediate pain relief about 90% plus. I'm getting better each day! I've been off work the last two weeks, one more week off work then next week will start working half-time at home. Will gradually increase my hours till the end of the year and then back in the office in January. I am very grateful that I was already set up to work from home! My boss and my co-worker have been really supportive. Dave's such an incredible hard worker, and went above and beyond caring for me the 1st week after surgery. We had our 30th anniversary in this time frame! We were able to go out to dinner and relax.

New Tires: Dave took my Mazda in for a oil change and turned out the tires were really low, which was kind of a shock to us. We had about 20,000 miles onto 70,000 mile tires. Dave talked to them and since that was the place we bought the tires from they gave us a big credit towards new tires. They said they had problems with this make and model. We got brand new tires this weekend, huge discount. We also got a different brand so hopefully we won't go through this again. It was good timing getting the replaced going into WINTER since we're just starting to get some snow in the area. Nothing at our house yet, buT due this week!

Dave's Pal: Dave was thrilled that a longtime childhood friend Bob moved to our area. I had met him before, great guy. I am really happy they can spend some time together and hang out. We had him over for a simple Thanksgiving dinner, since he moved here three days before and didn't know anyone in the area. It was lovely! Really enjoyed my newer "buffet", after removing the computer in the kitchen last year, worked great for serving turkey day foods! Sorry no food shots-

Roasted some leftover pumpkins from the house for the girls-

 

 

Still wondering what they are?

 

 

 

Winter Is Here/Food Preps-

The cold weather has finally come! We had 18° weather last week, with our first snow forecast down in the valley for late this week. This is a time of year I stock up on certain things. We did take down all of the Autumn/Thanksgiving decor this weekend. I don't have any Advent/Christmas stuff up quite yet. I like to take a breather between the two. I did put my first holiday decor up, my favorite vintage jar with a little red berries on the kitchen window. We did make a run to Trader Joe's and I bought one of their nice small fresh candle wreaths that I actually hang on the kitchen wall. Bought some live red berries, some evergreen branches, an amaryllis and a few food items. Before surgery I totally forgot to buy some amaryllis bulbs last month. We went to Costco a while back and I needed some unbleached flour. I do try to do as much whole grain and I have tons of whole wheat/whole wheat pastry flour. At Costco they had a large bag of all purpose flour for eight bucks, much cheaper than at the grocery store so I bought a bag. I think it was 15 lb? 

I bought some wheat berries from the LDS Food Store online.  

Churchofjesuschrist.org/Food Storage Basically you can set up a new account if you are not a member, which I am not, and when you set up your profile there's a checkbox where you CHECK "I am not a member".  I got a really great deal on six cans of hard wheat berries for about $45. I think shipping was about $7? Took about 2 weeks but I'm really happy to have the wheat berries on hand. I think next year is going to be really really ugly for the wheat market in the US for the consumer. Really great thing is berries keep a long time in a cool, dry area in those cans. They do also sell other dehydrated things like carrots, potatoes, onions, beans, oats. I thought they had a really good customer service with shipping in a fairly timely manner. Also went thru my pantry, got out some of my stash of coffee beans. Bought more teas, cereals. Washed and sorted our winter hats and gloves. Using those already!

 

Here's a peek at our garden-random gorgeous fall colors here at our homestead- 

Our Oak Leaf Hydrangea

 

Backyard mound garden

Dave got the sun room up on the coop two weeks ago-

 

 

Bonnie enjoying the winter sun-

 

 

I had some scrap faux Ikea sheepskin (cut out a circle for Bonnie's kitty perch top)-

 

 

I thought I could winterize my little bench!

 

 

Just cut a curve and draped!