What’s for Supper? 04.12.21

Published on April 13, 2021 by TracieLeave a comment

04.12.21 ~ What’s for supper at your house this week?

Hello friends! I’m finally back at this weekly update for what we eat in a week. I have these moments where I am totally not happy with the way I’m doing things and I want to completely change everything up. BUT, I don’t know exactly what I want to change it to and it becomes a vicious cycle in my brain. Can you relate? I drive Denton absolutely bonkers. For someone who resisted change for so long, the older I get I seem to swing from one thing to the next very quickly now, hahahaha.

Anyhoo, I have decided that I am going to post my picture of what we eat each day on my Instagram and I’ll use this space to link the recipes. Basically nothing will change on the blog, but I’m trying to keep up some momentum for myself and the crazy town that my brain lives in believes that posting to Instagram each day will give that momentum to me. Yes, I know there is probably a disorder or something along those lines that I fit into, so don’t mention it, okay? Okay.

After all of that hullabaloo, here’s what we ate last week: P.S. thanks for hanging around!

Tuna sandwiches with TWO kinds of chips and pickles. Fancy. Actually I like the chips at the bottom of the bag. You know the ones, the ones that no one in your family will eat and they get thrown away. Well, I actually like those because they are already broken up for me. If I have whole chips, I break them before I eat them. Yes, I know I am a weirdo. I am completely fine with that.

Roast beef with potatoes and carrots, green beans, corn bread and coleslaw.Chinese food. My favorite.

Soup beans, salmon, roasted potatoes, onions and asparagus.

A giant salad, garlic bread and spaghetti with an enormous glass of water. I always forget to include my water with my pictures.

Ham, mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus and carrots, with crescent rolls and perfect eggs.

Even though you can’t see it, there is Taco Pie under that mound of lettuce. With tortilla chips and salsa on the side.

Groceries

April 3: Walmart $152.42

April 6: Food Lion $17.41

April 9: Food Lion $122.25

I didn’t keep up with my grocery totals – at all – while I was taking my hiatus from this page. I am very surprised that the total for March wasn’t worse. I know that it isn’t because I have been deliberately eating from our garage freezer for the last month and half. All of the meals that you see above, the meats came directly from my freezer. I haven’t been buying meat lately so my grocery total is directly from fresh fruits and vegetables and all of the miscellaneous things that get thrown into the cart, like potato chips.

Once we eat everything down in the freezer, I’ll slowly start adding to it again from all of the clearance deals I find later in the summer.

April ~ So far: $292.08

March $524.80

February $547.53

January: $485.88

Fetch: if you use my referral code QF4TJ, you’ll get 2,000 points when you sign up.

How did your grocery shopping go for the past couple of months?

That’s it for us. I hope that you ate something delicious this past week. If you did, let me know in the comments down below. I am always looking for a tried and true recipe to spring on my family.

What did you eat last week? What are you planning to eat this week? You can see all of my other What’s for supper? plans here.

TV Time: Away

Published on April 11, 2021 by TracieLeave a comment

TV Time: Away. Have you seen it?

Away follows the first crewed expedition to Mars, the Mars Joint Initiative. It features an international crew: a Chinese chemist, a world-leading British botanist with no previous experience in space, a Russian cosmonaut with the most experience in space, an Indian medical officer who is second in command, and American commander Emma Green. Emma’s husband trained as an astronaut along with her, and might have commanded the mission but for a medical condition.

The three-year mission launches from the Moon; however, several crew members do not trust Emma’s ability to command because of her response to a crisis situation at the very beginning of the mission.

The series is described as being “about hope, humanity and how ultimately, we need one another if we are to achieve impossible things.” via

Okay. I have to be honest right up front about this show. Yes you should definitely go watch it. Sadly, Netflix has already cancelled it. Yes. I know. Denton and I loved this show and to read that they cancelled it one month after they released it is super weird and maddening. I’ve read many articles after we finished it to try and comprehend why on earth a streaming service would axe a show that stayed in the number one spot for weeks, and from what I’ve read it comes down to money. It cost Netflix approximately $6 million dollars an episode to make it.

So I’ll add my plea to all others on the internet: calling all streaming services, please pick up this absolute gem. I’m ready and waiting to follow this show to your service!

Now that that’s out of the way, you should block out a weekend to binge this one. I love Hilary Swank and she is amazing in this show, but I loved the other cast members more. I won’t tell you my favorites so that I won’t spoil it for you, but I do have them……

You can watch it for free if you have Netflix. So, have you watched Away? Are you super ticked off that they have already cancelled it? Did you love it as much as I did? Let me know what you think!

You can find all of the other shows we’ve watched lately, here if you are interested!

What I’m Reading: The Awakening

Published on April 7, 2021April 5, 2021 by TracieLeave a comment

What I’m reading this week: The Awakening by Nora Roberts

A brand new book and a new series, by Nora Roberts. It was a good weekend. Now I’m very sad because I have to wait for the other two to come out.

I always enjoy reading her books, but I am going to tell you that I particularly LOVED this one. I loved everything about it. I loved the storyline, the setting, her writing as usual and I especially loved the characters.

In the realm of Talamh, a teenage warrior named Keegan emerges from a lake holding a sword—representing both power and the terrifying responsibility to protect the Fey. In another realm known as Philadelphia, a young woman has just discovered she possesses a treasure of her own…via

Just a few words to explain why you should read this book if you aren’t committed to it yet: Dragons, Ireland, Fey, Portals to other worlds, Magic, and there is a puppy. If those words don’t intrigue you enough to want to pick this book up, I don’t know if I can help you. But I’ll try.

Have you read it? I’d loved to know what you thought!

You can find all of the other books I’ve read this year here!

What are you reading right now? I am always looking for another great book to read.

FREE: Amazon First Reads Books for April 2021

Published on April 1, 2021 by TracieLeave a comment

One of the best benefits of having Amazon Prime is that each month I get a free ebook from the Amazon First Reads lineup. These books are offered to Prime members exclusively before they are released the next month. That’s twelve free books a year.

You will find the April pre-release books below. To choose one of the books for free, just click on the book cover.

Suspense

The Next Wife Kindle Edition by Kaira Rouda (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

The Next Wife by Kaira Rouda

Book Club Fiction

ake What You Can Carry: A Novel Kindle Edition by Gian Sardar (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

Take What You Can Carry by Gian Sardar

Contemporary Fiction

I Thought You Said This Would Work by Ann Garvin

Domestic Suspsense

The Watcher Girl by Minka Kent

Womens’s Fiction

An Invincible Summer (Wyndham Beach Book 1) Kindle Edition by Mariah Stewart (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

An Invincible Summer by Mariah Stewart

Literary Fiction

The Secret Talker: A Novel Kindle Edition by Geling Yan (Author), Jeremy Tiang (Translator) Format: Kindle Edition

The Secret Talker by Geling Yan

YA Romance

Only the Pretty Lies Kindle Edition by Rebekah Crane (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

Only The Pretty Lies by Rebekah Crane

Children’s Picture Book

Hudson and Tallulah Take Sides by Anna Kang

Historical Fiction

Tears of Amber by Sofia Segovia

Which book are you going to choose this month? I always have a tough time choosing; I want all the books as usual.

Please note: Kindle Unlimited subscribers can borrow these Kindle First books

when they are officially released next month.

You can see all of the previous months offerings here. I hope that you find an interesting book today!

Quote of the Week: Beverly Cleary

Published on March 27, 2021 by TracieLeave a comment

Quote of the Week: Beverly Cleary

“If you don’t see the book you want on the shelves, write it.”
― Beverly Cleary

If you like this quote, you may like these other things about and by Beverly Cleary.

If you like this quote, you may like all of the other quotes that I have here.

What’s for Supper? 03.15.21

Published on March 15, 2021March 15, 2021 by TracieLeave a comment

03.15.21 ~ What’s for supper at your house this week?

Hello friends! I hope that you are doing well. I missed last week’s post, due to being indisposed. That’s a polite expression for the misery, but I lived through it. I said the older I get the longer it takes to recover from terrible things like a stomach bug. But you are definitely not here to hear about that. In the meantime, we are enjoying spring like weather. We will discuss the fact that we will have freezing rain later this week, and we’ll enjoy the Spring while we have it! Right? Right.

Here’s what we ate ~~last week~~:

Over the past two weeks I managed to take seven photos of the food that was eaten at our house. Here is what they were:

Burgers. Burgers with chips and pickles is always a go to when I need something easy.

Alfredo with a giant salad and garlic bread. I used frozen pappardelle pasta. Everyone but me liked it a lot. It may have been because I had been sick, so I’ll definitely try it again.

Chili with grits and raw onions. Comfort food at its finest.Our favorite quick Italian pizza place opened back up. Yay! It was excellent.

Walmarts version of Lasagna with a giant salad and my bread. Its just okay in my opinion. I would much rather have my “fast” version.

Soup beans with salmon, Mac and cheese, and roasted veggies.

McDonalds. What can I say about that? It was fine.

Taco salad with chips and salsa.

Roast with everything, corn muffins and coleslaw. Yum.

Groceries

Since I missed last weeks post, I decided to just list everything below that I spent the first two weeks of March on groceries.

03/13 – Walmart $100.05

03/13 – Food Lion $41.31

03/05 – Walmart $105.67

I didn’t even try to cull out all of the non food items. In the perfect world where I live inside my head, sometimes I do this and keep everything straight. But reality is that I don’t live in a perfect world, so all of the shampoo, face wash, toilet paper and cat litter get lumped in with milk, bread and everything in between.

Are you better at this than I am?

I keep up with this through my Fetch app. I just cashed my money out and I’m buying myself an ice machine that supposedly makes ice like you get from Sonic. I can’t wait to see if it actually does. I’ll let you know! If you don’t already have Fetch, you can use my link below and automatically get at least 2,000 points added to your account. Woohoo!

March ~ so far: $247.03

February $547.53

January: $485.88

Fetch: if you use my referral code QF4TJ, you’ll get 2,000 points when you sign up.

How did your grocery shopping go for the month of March?

That’s it for us. I hope that you ate something delicious this past week. If you did, let me know in the comments down below. I am always looking for a tried and true recipe to spring on my family.

What did you eat last week? What are you planning to eat this week? You can see all of my other What’s for supper? plans here.

The Compendium | March 14

Published on March 15, 2021 by Tracie2 Comments

com·pen·di·um

/kəmˈpendēəm/

1 a brief treatment or account of a subject, especially an extensive subject;

concise treatise: a compendium of medicine.

2 a summary, epitome, or abridgment.

3 a full list or inventory: a compendium of their complaints.

Here is a peek into our week, in no particular order:

“Things That Zack Tried to Eat This Week”

This week I didn’t take a photo of anything that he tried to eat. Not that he didn’t try to eat things other than his food and treats, I just didn’t get a photo of it. However:

I posted this on my instagram. I know, I have no shame. This is what happens when you don’t vacuum for a week and half. I have been vacuuming the den on Mondays and I got a stomach bug last week, so it didn’t get done. Denton told me that I was going to blow up my Dyson. I certainly hope not…..

I said its a good thing he’s so pretty.

Spring is coming!

Our lady was soaking up the sunshine. We are supposed to get freezing rain on Tuesday, so we will enjoy the springtime while we’ve got it. Right Hazel? Right.

Our doorbell has seen better days, so I ordered a replacement and put it in a few days ago.

I was being blinded by the sun scorching my retinas and didn’t notice that it was crooked until I stepped back to take this photo and realized that I would need to take it completely apart and redo it. Sigh.

Much better now. Have you ever noticed that when you finish one project there is another glaring out at you to get onto next? Trim, your time is coming. Not today, but soon. Progress over perfection. I have claimed The Flylady’s moto for my own. Otherwise I would just curl up with a book and never do anything.

So. What happened in your neck of the woods last week? I feel much better this week. I hope none of you end up with whatever I had, it put me in the bed for two days and took me more days than that to recover. I’m glad to be back!

Also the time change and the dog are kicking my petunia. It doesn’t matter what the clock says, it’s time to get up and go see what we can see, says Zack. I’ve never been a coffee drinker but I think my time has come to start taking it up……

If you are interested in what’s been happening in previous weeks, you can see them all here.

Be the Good ~ Henry Glogau

Published on March 11, 2021 by TracieLeave a comment

Be the Good ~ Henry Glogau

All you have to do is turn on the news for literally 30 seconds to find out all of the terrible, harrowing and disturbing things that are happening in our world. Everyday I try to find something good that someone is doing in our universe to tell my family about. Because we need to hear about the good things to offset all of the bad.

And then I decided to tell you all about it too. Maybe you need a lift in your day, a chuckle that isn’t at anyones expense, or you just need to take a break from the reality that is our everyday lives. I hope that this might make your day a little brighter.

SOLAR DESALINATION SKYLIGHT | Designers: Henry Glogau, New Zealand – Austria

I believe that if every person on our planet spent as much time trying to make our world a better place as they did scrolling the news, or Twitter and Facebook, our world would look a lot different. Case in point: Henry Glogau. He created a solar-powered lighting fixture that desalinates water. I know!

He created it specifically for people living in the towns along Chile’s coast line because they have an abundance of water, but they can’t drink it because of the salt content. Their windows are often boarded up for security reasons which means they may not have light due to the unreliable electricity. This is helpful for both problems.

One of his fixtures can purify 440 milliliters (14.87 ounces) of water a day and the leftover brine will be sifted into a battery which will in turn power an LED strip. That is so cool, useful and amazing.

Before you start pointing out some of the flaws with this system, might I gently suggest that you congratulate him for his amazing invention and look around and see what you can come up with to make someones life better? I’m all for playing devil’s advocate, I do this all the time with my family, sometimes to their dismay, but I also feel like if you’re not helping with a solution you should just step out of the way. Harsh, I know.

You can read the original article here.

And when all else fails……go and watch a couple of cute animal videos. They never fail to bring a smile to my face. I hope you are having an excellent week.

You can find all of the other Be the Good articles that I’ve found here.

What’s for Supper? 03.01.21

Published on March 2, 2021 by TracieLeave a comment

03.01.21 What’s for supper at your house this week?

Hello friends! I hope that you are doing well. I am totally behind, but valiantly trying to get back on track. We shall see. Are you seeing hints of Spring where you are? We woke up to a shivery 28* this morning, but are looking at steadily increasing temperatures for the next little bit. Now that I’ve updated you with our weather, lets get to the food.

Here’s what we ate last week:

Baked chicken with a giant salad, baked potatoes and buttered bread.Soup beans, salmon, roasted veggies and Mac and cheese. My comfort food.

Baked ravioli with a giant salad and garlic bread. YUM.

Chicken fajitas with chips and salsa. These were delicious.

Hot dogs without chili (again) with a variety of chips and broccoli salad. I had another craving.

Hamburgers with onion rings and French fries from a local place in town that opened up recently. They were just okay. I don’t say that lightly. But when EVERYONE’S food is just okay, it’s just okay.

Liv and I did the grocery shopping on Saturday, so Sunday dinner changed when I found ribeyes on the clearance rack. They were divine, with a giant salad, baked potatoes, and garlic bread.

Groceries: I needed to run into our local Food Lion to find chicken nuggets (hopefully) and came out on Wednesday with a total of $54.93. On Saturday Liv and I drove to the next town over to stock up on things that our Kroger had on loss leader and walked out of there with a grand total of $173.71. I had a list and everything! One of the things that went into the cart was the ribeyes, but I’ve already gotten two meals out of those, so my brain is already telling me that they were justified. And delicious.

Grand total for the month of February: $547.53

February 28: $228.64

February 20: $88.93

February 13: $127.09

February 6: $102.87

January: $485.88

Fetch: if you use my referral code QF4TJ, you’ll get 2,000 points when you sign up.

How did your grocery shopping go for the month of February?

That’s it for us. I hope that you ate something delicious this past week. If you did, let me know in the comments down below. I am always looking for a tried and true recipe to spring on my family.

What did you eat last week? What are you planning to eat this week? You can see all of my other What’s for supper? plans here.