Comments On Article: Life Is All About Home

GDonna Best wishes and a speedy recovery for Charles and strength for you. I will keep you both in my thoughts and prayers. Breakfast is usually oatmeal with blueberries or eggs and toast. Lunch is usually something light like sandwiches , soup, cheese, crackers and fruit. Dinner is our main meal and we eat earlier than most so the body has time to digest before bedtime. Pasta, loaded baked potatoes, casseroles and hearty soups are some of the things we eat. We also enjoy breakfast for dinner, blueberry pancakes or waffles with maple syrup, bacon and fresh fruit is one of our favorite meals. 

Thank you for sharing the link to your bread recipe. I recently purchased a very nice stoneware Dutch oven and 2 mixing bowls from a local thrift store. The total price for all 3 was $25 which I consider a bargain. The name on the bottom is Monmouth.  I'm not familiar with this pottery so will research it. I have enjoyed reading everyone's comments.

Angela   

I also loved the cat photos. They look well cared for and happy.

Everyone, thank you for the continued well wishes.  I am enjoying your comments and your photos have been wonderful. Breakfast is an interesting meal as we can see in these comments. 

Welcome to the forum Kerry P, Long time reader but first time commenting.   We are happy you took the plunge to the conversations.  :)

Kim w_2, Rhonda simply retired, she did not want to leave her blog up for someone to take her work.  She knows other bloggers that have had their work stolen due to AI.   Rhonda just wanted to retire and work in her garden and enjoy her home and family.

Also to some of the new commenters.  Sometimes I miss the first comment of someone new and may not greet you properly and then several comments later I wonder did I welcome her?  Trying to find that comment later is difficult, but know I am interested in all of your comments.  Welcome hugs to everyone.  Grandma Donna

My evening meal tends to be my main meal.  I usually have a smoothie (almond milk with either fruit or peanut butter).  Sometimes soaked oatmeal.  I've been eating a lot of eggs for supper lately as they are on the cheaper end for protein.  

Good luck to Charles on his surgery.... PT will be tough for awhile but will make a huge difference in recovery

I pray Charles will have a successful surgery and swift recovery, and that you will have the strength and energy GDonna, to care for him and do what is necessary around the home until he regains strength.

As to your questions. I'm in South Gippsland, Victoria, Australia where it is currently freezing and the middle of winter. Today the highest it got was 10 degrees (Centigrade) and the wind was so icy, due to it blowing off the mountains where there is snow a couple of hours drive away. At this time of year, for breakfast we either have porridge, or bacon & eggs.

Lunch is generally leftovers or a sandwich & fruit, that I take to work with me and eat in the library on my lunchbreak.

Dinner is our main meal but is usually something very simple. Right now in winter on weeknights, very often it's generally a soup, or stew with some sourdough bread, but tonight it's shepherd's pie made from leftover roast lamb and some veggies that needed using up.

My favourite easy go-to meal would be some kind of "fry-up" which means just using whatever leftover meat and veggies I have in the fridge and frying it a skillet (often with a freshly sliced onion). I'll usually add a little garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and vinegar/lemon juice for flavouring and some fresh herbs from the garden. If there's no leftover rice to use up, I'll often cook some rice noodles to bulk it out a bit, which only take a few minutes sitting in boiling water until they're ready to use. If there's not enough veg, I'll add a handful of frozen stirfry veg, and if there's not any leftover meat, I'll use a little chorizo sausage sliced up - both of which I keep on hand for just this purpose. My son and I both love it, it's quick and easy, and I can have it on the table ready to eat within 20mins of walking in the door from work, which is a bonus if I haven't been prepared enough in the morning to get anything planned or started before work.

We adopted three young ducks from a charity back in March and they started laying eggs about six or eight weeks later, and that is now what I like to eat for breakfast:  two duck eggs, plus homemade kimchi, bacon optional.  My six year old and I particularly like them boiled and eaten out of an egg cup when we have the time.  We have five old hens too, but none of them lay eggs any more.

We are making alterations to our house in anticipation for ageing in place (I'm in my 40s and husband in 50s), and our new downstairs toilet is now almost complete, finally!  We have a full bathroom upstairs but wanted a second toilet on the ground floor;  the interior walls have been finished today, and husband is tiling the floor at the weekend, and hopefully the plumbing done next week.  We could have really done with it when husband broke his leg back in March;  he's just given up his walking stick this week.  

We've been able to save up since paying off our mortgage early a couple of years ago;  we have a list of upgrades we want to complete in the next eight or so years, and have been saving up and ticking off each, one by one.  After we save up a bit more, it's the kitchen next, as the new toilet has taken away most of our dining area--we need to transform into a kitchen/diner.

Well I hardly ever reply to these posts, but do always read the comments.  It's so interesting the things that all of you are doing and the amount of savings and satisfaction you derive from those efforts.

I do want to send good thoughts to both Donna and Charles regarding his coming surgery.  It's true that hip replacement is extremely common these days and a wonderful boon to those who need it.  I'm hoping that the surgery goes well and that his recuperation time is short and not too onerous.

Donna, take care and don't extend yourself too much  while Charles is recuperating.  Remember that you will need to be strong and well rested in order to help him during that time. So cut yourself some slack and take things as easy as you can. 

@kellie O   Sending a thank you for the idea of adding grated ginger to my morning oatmeal.... I have been trying to find a way to add some fresh ginger to my daily diet and that seemed a very good way.  Bought some a few days ago and now I guess it will be a staple of my breakfast along with the flax seed, nuts and seeds, and fruit.   A lovely addition and I never would have thought of it!

It's always such a joy to receive a new post from you and to read all of the comments.  Prayers for you and Charles concerning his upcoming surgery.  

It's been very hot here the past few weeks with sometimes a thunderstorm in the afternoon which cools things  off beautifully.  I heard this morning that there are currently 12 wildfires going in the state.  Thousands of acres burned as well as many homes and buildings.  My heart goes out to those who had to evacuate with little more than the shirt on their back then to find out that they have no home to go back to.  It's just awful.  

I've never enjoyed gardening although I have attempted it many times over the years.  I've done fairly well with green beans and one year had a bumper crop of pumpkins!  Now I live in a 3rd floor apartment with no balcony or garden space.  I'm growing a few herbs and some spinach in containers.  I can keep up with that.  Haha!  

About breakfast and other meals of the day - since I've been living alone these past 13 years I've gotten into the habit of just "scrounging" for my meals. ( We used the term "scrounging" when my kids were at home meaning that it was every man for himself to find and fix something to eat.). I don't cook many meals anymore.  I've never been a fan of breakfast because my body isn't ready for food before 10am and often I wait and have brunch closer to noon.  I will eat toast with peanut butter, sometimes yogurt and if I feel like it, maybe eggs and bacon or sausage.  I often skip breakfast altogether and have a sandwich and chips.  My later or big meal of the day is a bit trickier to plan.  The local electricity company has adopted the plan of charging more than double the regular rate for electricity used between 5 and 9pm.  So I will try to have my main meal before 5 or a sandwich or something later.  I turn off my air conditioning between those hours and try to use as little electricity as possible, turning off /unplugging anything not needed.  Just this month my internet carrier raised my rates more than double!  I can't afford that!  I went to talk to them and they worked out a better deal.  It's still higher than it was but not as much and the rate is locked in for 5 years.  These times we are living in!  Everything just goes up and up, except for income.  
Thanks again, Donna for your encouraging words.  God bless you both. 

Something I'm doing next week is help my daughter set up a simple meal plan. I asked her what her 10 favorite foods/meals are. She actually only needs to cook 3 nights a week as the 4th night is always homemade pizza (with purchased ingredients) and the other 3 nights she's away. She's stressed by work and other things and said to me she didn't want to keep getting takeout but she was too overwhelmed to meal plan & prep foods.

So with knowing the 10 meals I can show her how she won't repeat for 3 weeks. The key part is showing her how to prep for several meals at once.

I'm actually going to set up the weekly menu for the 3 weeks of 3 days, prep schedule and grocery list. I figure after the 1st 3 weeks she'll get it and can use the same recipes/menu or come up with her own.

Margaret p, this is a wonderful thing you are doing helping your daughter with a meal plan.  When people get stressed with too much work to do, it can turn into a snowball going down hill and such a relief when someone can step in and help to make things make sense.  You are doing the time consuming work that she does not have time for that will help put her back on her own track.  Sometime people will have a mentor to can help, I had a few of those in my lifetime.  Many years ago when my children were young and in elementary school and I started working a job outside of my home, my neighbor Sally was a very routine and made casseroles.  She had her meals on the table at 5:00 P.M. she also only shopped once a month.  She helped me figure out what I needed to do and that helped me so very much.  Grandma Donna