BRR....

I know so many of us in the United States are freezing right now and I hope and pray everyone is staying warm.  Right now in our part of Michigan it's 1 degrees with a wind chill of -11.  It will get worse they say. Record breaking cold.... Brr.

Some of the ways that we prepared last night for the cold were:  we dripped water in our bathtub last night to prevent frozen pipes. Prevention is key.

The puff is there so we won't hear it drip.   Also there is a small electric heater running in there as well.

We also kept the cabinet under the kitchen sink and dishwasher door open.  

What do you do when there is nothing to do but stare at the snow?  You crochet and sew or do other crafts (like reading).    I started crocheting these hats for charity using this tutorial on youtube.

I bought the snap button puffs she showed here.

I guess you could also start Spring Cleaning but I'm not in the mood right now...

If your in the path of this storm ...try to stay warm.  Some of my suggestions are have plenty of blankets, wear long johns (layer up), flannel nightgowns, keep your head warm with hats, wear gloves, and go to a warming shelter if you need to.

After what I seen on t.v. about the stores, good luck if you need milk and bread.  

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Keep Moving Forward: Progress is Slow Sometimes

 

On Monday I started putting up my Christmas decorations and making fabric Christmas bags for next year.  This momentum didn't last as long as I would have liked ...Christmas is stored away but I didn't finish the bags yet.  They are waiting for me by the sewing machine.

We went to the Michigan State Spartans game last night (Thursday) ...this was a birthday present to my husband.  First of all I climbed up all these steps...then I decided I wouldn't throw up...then I went down those steps after the game was almost over (we determined they would win)....then I walked back 1/2 mile to the parking garage.   I could have never done this a couple of years ago.  Progress for me is slow but I keep moving forward as best as I can.

By the way:  I love these kind of presents the best..destination presents are fun!  

Today after I determine that I can move again ..I'm cleaning out the chicken coop ..what a better way to spend a 55 degree day LOL.  Hopefully I can report more to you next week. 

How's it going at your home?

**Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden! As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  

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How I'm Going to Make My Life Easier (It will take work)!

 

                        

I'm going to do it different this year ...yep 2026  will be different.  I'm going to be more ahead of the game so I can smile more, love God more, and just be more joyful than ever before.  None of this is means I'm going to sit around and do nothing.  It actually takes work to be restful but for years to come I know I'm going to thank myself.

Things I'm going to do to make that happen:

Sewing:

January is for sewing and I making cloth reusable Christmas bags. The material is all cut up and I'm ready to get sewing.

You know, I'm getting too old to wrap up all these presents.  Don't worry I have lots of wrapping paper I bought at estate sales for those big presents, but for all the smaller ones, in a reusable cloth bag it goes. Easy peasy, no wrapping paper needed.

                                                    a elephant baby bib I made this last week

I want to also make more baby shower gifts ahead of time in the off months of gardening.  I've done this some in years past but I need to step up my game and have those presents ready.  A gift closet for babies.

At the same time I want to make hats and gloves for giving to the needy.  All this making will make winter go by fast and I'll feel accomplished...I hope.

The Garage:

Organize the garage more...it's too cold to start now but I have ideas.  This will be more for me so I can find my chicken stuff, my picnic stuff, and my canning jars.  No basement here but that side of the garage is mine.  

I got a taste of just how great garage organizing can be after this past Thanksgiving.  You see last summer I put my Christmas stuff by the door so it would be within easy reach in the cold and believe me it was cold this past November.  It was so easy to just grab and go.  I was happy, he was happy.... everybody was happy.

Garden:

Come Spring, we need to fill the raised beds with soil to get them ready for the planting season.  The lower half of the garden is in raised beds now and we are excited to cut down on bending down to weed and as a added benefit we will not worry as much about the flooding back there.    Over the years I know we will thank ourselves for the extra work we are going to put in this Spring to make this happen.

I would also like to plant concord grapes behind the chicken coop run. This of course will happen in the Spring too but I will need to get ahead start and research how to trellis them this winter (youtube).  When I told husband what I wanted to do he rolled his eyes and said there was no room until I mentioned that very spot in the yard.  He became quiet and he knew there was nothing he could say.  The lawnmower doesn't even fit there.  Ha ha.

You know, I felt something years ago when I started requesting fruit trees for every Mother's Day .. something told me to start planting what we now call our little orchard.   The grocery store is so handy but I realize now we must learn to depend on ourselves as much as we can. 

What are your goals this year?

**Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden! As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  

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Miss Eisenhower's Million Dollar Fudge Recipe

 

Today I'm making Miss Eisenhower's million dollar fudge.  There are so many different ways to make this recipe but to me this is the best one.   It's easy and you can just make half if you want.  Since I only have 5 bars, I think I'll do that today!  

Miss Eisenhower's Fudge

1 tbsp plus 1/2 cup of butter divided

3 Hershey bars (2 -7oz bars plus one reg. 1.55 oz) or approximately 10 reg. sized  1.55 oz. bars

4 cups of semi-sweet choc. chips

1 jar of marshmallow creme

1 can of evaporated milk

4 1/2 cups of sugar

2 cups of chopped walnuts or pecans

1.  Prepare a 13 by 9 inch pan with foil and then spread the 1 tbsp. of butter on the foil.

2.  In a large bowl combine the bars, chips, and marshmallow cream.

3. Over medium heat stirl in the milk, sugar, and remaining butter in a large saucepan.  Boil for 4 1/2 minutes.  Pour over chocolate mixture in bowl and stir until everything is melted.   Lastly stir in nuts and then pour into the pan lined with foil.  Cover and refrigeratate until firm.

4.  When firm get the fudge out of the pan using the foil and slice into pieces.

Delicious!  

**Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden! As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  

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Surviving the Cold and Saving a Few Dollars!

 You know it's cold when the husband's shoes froze to the floor in the little unheated porch we have.  BRR!!!  It's a good place though to keep things cold when you run out of space in the refrigerator (there is a gallon of is milk out there now).  LOL

You need a purpose to go outside in this cold-my chickens and shopping (christmas and food shopping) are my two main reasons why I do.  It's quite dangerous here now to walk around, there is ice everywhere.  We even stop in the car to check our mailbox that sits  on the road.   

Before the ice came and the weather was a little more bearable we went to our local historical village one night.   We enjoyed singing Christmas songs as we went around the village in the tractor drawn carriage.  We also listened to the choir from a local school in the chapel.  I was impressed with the boys in the choir...they were so good and not afraid to raise their voices.  Sometimes you don't hear the boys.    

Do you shop early or right on time?

We finished up shopping for our out of town relatives. The boxes are packed and ready to be shipped this morning. Yeah!

I know some people shop earlier in the year and get it all done but find I'm a mixture of both... I like the sales that come later in the month just before Christmas.  Which one do you do?

Great Coupons I've used this week:

50% off JCPenny (it came in the mail)

$10 reward off JCPenny

Free pizza coupon for my birthday.  I've gotten this for the last several years, I must have signed up for something. I gave it to the grandkids and it was gone in no time.

Meijer 5% off total purchase for my birthday this month.

Fixing the house:

We  have a problem in the living room:

Husband went and bought the wood and screws to brace the couch back up next week.  It's been like this for a while but this is what you do when you can't work outside.  You fix the inside! 

This couch is so heavy it takes a army to move it so you wouldn't believe what was under there. 

**Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden! As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.

Ice Age 2 -Protecting the Tree, and Christmas Decorating

I'm up and the degree this morning  close to 2 a.m. is 4  feels like -4 brr...

I told my daughter that I feel like it's the Ice Age.  She said Mom that has already happened ...I promptly said this was Ice Age 2.

Before the cold came the snow just after Thanksgiving (hope you had a great one) and the minute I heard about it coming I did something I should have already done.  I rushed out to get a tomato cage and a tree trunk wrapper to protect Japanese Maple in the side yard and it's a good thing I did.  He came pretty close with his snow plow!   I try to always protect the trees from snow plows and lawnmowers (and rabbits).  Oh I miss lawnmowers...

It seemed like it was just two weeks ago when it became a little colder that I changed the cotton sheets to flannel.  Yesterday I changed them to fleece.  So nice warm and instant sleep.  Love them.  We also turned the mattess around.  Well, we did that before we changed the sheets...

While I was at it I got out the humdifiers..with the heat going more it's very dry in here.  I have two, maybe I'd better do both of them.

I retrieved the Christmas decorations from the garage.  Now that was a cold job.  This year though it was easier because I made sure to put them right by the door.  No more climbing over everything in the freezing cold to reach them.   

I made sure to tell husband there is a space there now where the decorations used to be ...make sure in January there is still a space there to put them back.  LOL.  

Now to decorate...the snow made it brighter outside but the Christmas lights help make it brighter on the inside. This is my fun job for the weekend.

So far I decorated my mantle with the garland I got at Costco for $10 yesterday.  The lights change colors and twinkle if you want.  Apparently it was the last one so they marked it down.  I also put my little tree by the fireplace.   I'm slow but I'll get it.

**Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden! As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!