Lester

I think God knows we can't have a cat in our apartment, because He has brought a couple of cats around our back door just for fun. Here is "my" cat. His name is Lester. He is a big grey tabby cat who has a very laid-back attitude. So far, he hasn't come out of this box outside by our car. It gets nice and sunny in there, and it keeps off the rain. This morning he gave me quite a "look" when I tried to coax him out. So far, I've kept my distance, just said here kitty-kitty and looked at him, because I don't know if he's a stray (wild) or if he's tame. So it's safer to just look at him. :) I think he appreciates that way!

Works For Me...

This is my new recipe book......I love it.
I have many different recipe cards, print-outs, hand scribbles etc that had piled up in my cupboard for a long time. Finally I decided to do something about it. I went through them all, throwing away the ones I no longer would use or never would use, keeping my favorites and some new ones. I used a 3 ring binder, some scrap paper, and some clear plastic page protectors. I taped the recipes to the scrap paper, both sides, and inserted it in the plastic page protector. Voila!
I also did some cutting and pasting to maked more recipes fit on one page.

In the back of the book, I put my weekly and bi-weekly menus. That way, I can look back and see what we've eaten recently, and what we liked or didn't like (I make a note of that on the menu). It also gives me ideas of suppers when I draw a blank. Works for Me! For more handy ideas, go see this blog!

Piano Tuning

Monday night we had the Piano Tuner come over to tune our new/used piano. It was quite an adventure!!! First of all, he tightened some pins and screws and fixed my damper pedal. Then, as he was testing the keys, a little brown knob fell out from among the hammer heads and rolled across the keys. Mathew & I thought it was a piece of wood, but the tuner said "Well, that's as far as we'll go here. Time to take it apart!" It turned out, it was a piece of DOG FOOD! So he pried off all the keys from the keyboard and laid them out on a towel! I had never seen that done before! Turns out, it's quite common he said.

Look at all that dog food! We got out our vaccuum and proceeded to vaccuum up all that dog food and straw (the people from whom we bought the piano have two house dogs, so that's where the dog food came from)


This is how much we got (about 5 cups I suppose). Turns out, a mouse had made his house in our piano before we bought it, and carried the dog food up piece by piece by piece. (Along with a little straw) There were some chew marks on the inside wood, but not enough to harm anything. Thankfully, we didn't find the mouse!!! ha ha He was long gone with all the moving, and it was nice to know we don't have any in our house now (otherwise we would've found him) I guess it's rather common for him to find piano-mouse houses. But it was quite hilarious!

After putting the piano all back together again, he tuned it. It hasn't been tuned in about 6 years, so was a 1/2 step out of tune (that is ALOT in piano terms). Since it was so out of whack, he only tuned it up part of the way (A330) so as to not break the strings. Then, we will get it re-tuned in a couple months to bring it up farther....eventually being in tune (A440). Hopefully we don't find another mouse house!!!!! The piano sounds so much better now! It's lovely!

Spring

It's lovely weather outside! Sunny....fresh....puddles on the ground....mud....how can it get better than this right now! I love the seasons God has made, and it's always wonderful when spring comes. I've seen pots of daffodils and boquets of tulips in windows and on counters....makes me think that my flowers will come up soon.

We are getting ready for our Winter Retreat at church, and we've been brainstorming on decorating ideas. Here is a neat list of ideas I found while browsing around....

1. Lighten Up!Do you have velvet drapes or a heavy corduroy sofa? Spring is the time to change them out for lighter looking alternatives. Remove the drapes and replace them with airy sheers. Slipcover the sofa or chairs with paler tones or florals.
2. Rethink the RugsWonderfully cozy area rugs look just right in winter. But when the temperature rises it may be time to roll them up and replace them for summer with sisal or cotton rugs in light, cool colors. (Summer is also be a good time to have heavy rugs cleaned or repaired.)
3. Orient Toward a View If your furniture is centered in front of a fireplace, think about ways to rearrange the look for summer. Change the focal point away from the mantel to a view of a garden, placing the conversation grouping to take advantage of the garden scene just outside.
4. Create an Inviting PorchSummer living often moves out to a porch or deck, but even if your home does not have these amenities you can get the look and feel of a porch inside. Introduce a few garden chairs, accessories, and floral fabrics into a family room, for example. You’ll get the feel of the outdoors every time you’re in the room.
5. Store the SilksRemove dusty silk flower arrangements from your rooms and store them away for a few months. Instead, bring in fresh green plants, flowering pots, or elegant orchids. These lively touches can breathe life into winter-weary spaces.
6. Re-Accessorize Time to rework your accessories and makeover your shelves. Clean winter dust off the shelves and begin to replace objects with an eye toward keeping the look light. Bring out your floral china or white ironstone, set up a collection of pitchers or glass, and include plants and picture frames as well.
7. Think Sheer Sheer curtains, sheer tablecloths, sheer bedskirts, and pillows – all of these say “summer” louder than almost any other element. Look for plain, embroidered, or printed sheer designs that complement your interiors.
8. De-Clutter Now Look for organizing solutions for your home. Any spot that is overcrowded or unorganized can drain your energies as it swallows objects and fill your life with clutter. A visit to a home store can yield products to contain clutter wherever it exists.
9. Clean out the Fireplace Now is the perfect time to sweep away the ashes of winter fires and start fresh. Fill your firebox with silk plants, an arrangement of candles, or an attractive display of beautiful birch logs. Or, cover the box with an attractive folding screen decoupaged with summer florals.
10. Sweep Off the Steps Bring the look of summer to your front door by cleaning up the area. Wash the door and windows and touch up the paint if needed. Hang a silk flower wreath on the front door too. If you have a large porch you may also have room for pots of colorful spring flowers.

Just Tickeled My Funny Bone....

Why is it called lipstick if you can still move your lips?

Deals of the Day

Well, I took the time to do my grochery shopping a bit earlier this week. In fact, I was hunting for deals at Walgreens (as seen on MoneySavingMom), and I knew that the last couple of weeks they were sold out of items by mid-week. Sadly, I missed out on the deals again.....and it's only Tuesday! We must have other deal hunters in Bemidji to be sure! Anyway, I did end up stopping at Target, MarketPlace, and Luekens....here is some of what I got (our 2 week grocheries):

My most exciting deals were the string cheese: free at Target after coupon, and the tomato sauce: free at Luekens after coupon. The celery, marshmallows, cool whip, and Ravioli were all 88 cents... I had been watching for ravoili to try a new recipie someday. The chicken was in the reduced meat section and the canteloupe was a great deal too. Normally we get bananas for the week, but this week we will eat oranges! The Pizza Rolls were a splurge...at 25 cents I thought I'd have them on hand. :) Juice was on sale for 99 cents which is pretty good for us, so I stocked up on that and then got powdered milk, which is expensive, but was on sale for $13 and I had been putting it off for a long time! So, after adding it all up, I spent about $70......$35 for two weeks. (I got milk and eggs too which are not in the picture). It was so much fun! I was all chatty and bubbly when Mathew got home to show him all our "deals!"

It's a Yungle!

This weekend my mom and I took a trip to Minneapolis for a teacher's convention. We stayed at my sister's house....this is what it looked like!
Almost as soon as we were inside, Sammi pulled on our hands and wanted to show us "Upstairs!" So we went upstairs and there were MORE trees! She snuck inside, turned around and with big eyes and mysterious voice said, "It's a Yungle!"

I'm even more excited because I got to take one home!