Sorry for Disappearing

Hey Everyone!

I don’t think I have talked about here on this blog, because this blog has been on the back burner for the past couple of years, but I have been dealing with an autoimmune disease for the past few years. This past year has really been the year that it has been discovered. While I still don’t have definitive answers and I’m still in the “undifferentiated connective tissue disease” stage because there are markers for more than one autoimmune disease but not enough for one or the other really to get a clear diagnosis, I have been able to start a course of treatment and it is helping. For the past two plus years, having the energy to do more than survive hasn’t been there. I have finally started having a bit more energy the past month or so and have started doing things again. I also changed positions at work. Working freight is physically demanding, but where I am at is at least only 8 hour shifts starting late afternoon and going into the wee small hours of the night, so I am still going to bed at night and just sleeping in until late morning. That is at least a slight improvement over Price File where I would have to be at work anywhere between 5 and 7 am. My days off have also changed. So, even though it’s hard work and I am exhausted and more than past my limit by my weekend, when I am on my weekend, I am at least more functional than I have been for the past couple of years. I also have time during the day between when I get up and have to go to work to knit a bit and drink tea which helps me get going during the day and ready for work.

All that out of the way, I am not grocery shopping so much at work anymore. Even with my 30% discount, where I work is still more expensive than your average overpriced grocery store (Safeway, Alberson’s, Fred Meyer / Kroger), so going grocery shopping at Fred Meyer and Safeway feels like a bargain.

My schedule was weird this past week, so I am off today, which I am normally not. I went grocery shopping today to prepare for my work week. I went to Fred Meyer.

In total at Fred Meyer, I spent $150.39. Had I not picked up more of my favorite shampoo, conditioner and dry shampoo, I would have been closer to $100

After I got home, I made myself a pastrami on rye sandwich with mayonnaise, deli mustard and the kind of cheese I can eat. It was very good.

Now that I have come out of being in strictly survival mode a little bit, the desire to be more of a homemaker and live in the country or a small town anyway with enough property to at least have a garden is returning. When all I was able to do was eat, sleep, work and go to the doctor, it was hard and there were no dreams there, and even the desire to cook and bake were gone. Now, I am more like “oooooooh, I want to make this that and the other thing”. Now that I want to make more things, I will be posting and sharing more things again.

Fajitas, Icy Weather, Taking Care of Family

Hey Everyone!

Well, we have had our week of winter weather here in the northern Willamette Valley, freezing rain and all.

I was off work for a couple of days and went back yesterday. I was able to make it safely out of my neighborhood yesterday morning. By the time I left work today, the roads were pretty much fine. Some parking lots and sidewalks were still a bit sketchy, though.

I had spent some time shoveling the driveway Wednesday afternoon so I could get out yesterday morning. Even that little bit of work made me reconsider my dream of modern homesteading on several acres. It would be A LOT of work, and I don’t know if I have the energy and stamina for it, and I don’t expect whoever I marry to shoulder that load. I wouldn’t be adverse to urban homesteading where I could have a decent enough size garden in the backyard, and fill in where I couldn’t and didn’t have the space or energy for, with going to farmers markets, going to the farm stands and being more choosy about where I shop and what I buy.

Areas up closer to the Columbia River definitely got hit harder than where I am at and where my job is located. So they are still dealing with icy roads and stuff.

Since I went back to work yesterday and decided to get the chicken fajita meat mix that we carry in the meat department at work for dinner. Of course, I got enough for my parents to have it for dinner as well. I have been picking up groceries for my parents over the past couple of days since I have been able to get out and I work at the aforementioned grocery store. While they aren’t “ancient,” I still want them to be safe and to not have to deal with the ice if they don’t have to.

So far, we have not lost power at the house, which is a blessing in and of itself. There are many in the area who have lost power and haven’t had heat for a few days. We have had heat and been able to keep food cold, cook food in the kitchen, and have means of entertaining ourselves with electronics.

Learning how to live Again

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As I am sitting here on this frigid, 15° Fahrenheit (real feel of -4°) winter afternoon, there has been a lot on my mind lately about the life I feel compelled to live. It’s been on my heart even more the past couple of years with the health issues I have had and then all the doctors appointments, labs and procedures I have endured the past year and a half or so. I am honestly so over it and all the meds I have had to take, with who knows what side effects. I am honestly wondering if one of the things I am dealing with has been caused by one of my medications. While my condition and symptoms are a “rare” side effect, I am the queen of rare things happening, like having bells palsy twice.

I know my current job and urban living are doing me know good, as evident as my resting heart rate going down several points on my weekend and going back up during the work week. We all like having money, but working the retail life isn’t it for me, and I am ready for a change.

I also have come to the point where enough is enough with all the medical appointments and never-ending procedures, and I canceled one I can’t afford financially even with financial assistance and don’t have the time to take off work to rest for a week after, and this is just a more invasive option to the other two lesser invasive options and labs that I have already have done for this doctor for this condition that my insurance and financial assistance covered. I am not willing to dig myself into more debt than I am already in for a more invasive procedure that is “to try to get better answers”, when the other two procedures and labs were to not have to do this. At this point, after I have my follow up with this specialist, I am going to try to find a good naturopathic doctor and see what they can do to help me from a more holistic and lifestyle standpoint. I have already talked to a Dietician, and I am trying to make lifestyle changes.

I would like to get out of retail, and urban living. My goal is to live on some property, have a garden, raise chickens, maybe some goats and pigs. I definitely want to process my own animals, have fresh eggs, and all the things. I know it is a lot of work, but that work would be worth it for my health and wellbeing as well as for the well being of the family I want to have.

If anything, it really is time to be making changed, and getting away from harmful chemicals, and living a more sustainable life.

Sausage & Spinach Egg Bites

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This morning, I made sausage & spinach egg bites with seasoned tomatoes on top for breakfast.

I am trying to eat better this year, for my health.

I picked up the ingredients I needed at work since I work at a grocery store.

I didn’t really use a recipe. I only looked up what temperature I should set the oven to and how long to cook them.

I used:

• 1 dozen vital farms the blues eggs (any eggs will work)
• 1/4 almond breeze almond coconut milk (you can use regular milk or other dairy free milk)
• 1 tsp Jacobson cherrywood smoked sea salt
• 1 lb ground mild pork sausage cooked
• Dried sweet basil to taste
• Pepper to taste
• 1 – 2 cups spinach
• 10 cherry tomatoes diced

I cooked the sausage up in a skillet on the stove while the oven was preheating to 350° Fahrenheit. I also put spinach in the bottom of the muffin tin cups while the sausage was cooking. I mixed up the eggs with the milk (or milk alternative) and added some seasonings – salt, pepper, paprika, dried sweet basil leaves. I also started chopping up the tomatoes and put them in a separate bowl with some salt and dried sweet basil. I would have liked to have used fresh basil, but we were put at work.

When the sausage was done cooking, I drained off the Grease and put the sausage in the muffin tin cups on top of the spinach. I then poured the beaten eggs and milk mixture in over the sausage and spinach and then put it in the preheated oven. I baked them for about 25 or so minutes.

You can put cheese in them if you want, and can have cheese. Since I have to stay away from dairy, I opted to not use dairy free cheese since I have found that the texture of the eggs change when I use it, and I don’t care for it. The diced tomatoes that were set aside are for the top of the egg bites.

I had a raisin English muffin and a bowl of fruit to go with my egg bites.

Still trying to learn to Budget

Hey Everyone!

I hope all of my fellow Americans had a good Thanksgiving!

Budgeting, getting the best deal, and getting more for my money while still eating well has been a struggle. Part of it has been dealing with health issues that have left me exhausted, and I don’t have the energy to do more than shop at work. Let’s be real here, I work at a yuppy hipster over priced grocery store, where, even with a 30% discount, it is still overpriced.

The past couple of months, I have really been thinking about my future and my goals. I don’t want to work at a grocery store forever, my pay in my current position will cap out in about 2.5 years, i have no real desire to move into management, I would like to live somewhere with a lower cost of living, and corporate retail isn’t for me. So, I am trying to figure out what the next move for me is.

I am still learning how to budget, use the apps for stores, clip coupons there, meal plan, meal prep, use the fetch app, and be better about all the things.

I stopped at Fred Meyer today as I was looking for something, but I didn’t find what exactly I was looking for. While I was there I had grabbed a few more things, including some Barilla whole grain pasta, since I knew I would get extra points in the fetch app, and we like Spaghetti and chicken penne at my house. When all was said and done, I had only spent $23 dollars. I was kind of shocked since I have been pretty much doing all my grocery shopping at work because of convenience.

For me personally, learning to budget, living frugally, cooking and baking more from scratch are goals I have for a while, but as time goes by the more I feel as I need to make these things happen than I have before.

Trader Joe’s

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Life has been constantly busy these past few months. Work keeps me busy, and then I am dealing with some health stuff on top of it all. I have had a lot of doctors appointments and other medical stuff to deal with since this past summer. It has taken a lot out of me.

Part of my treatment is to eat better and get more exercise. I have also started physical therapy, which will hopefully help. I need to work on losing weight and drinking more water.

Today, after my doctor’s appointment, I stopped at Trader Joe’s to pick up a few things. I bought some Pita chips to go with some of the Hummus we have in the house, as well as some beef jerky, banana chips, organic dried cranberries with no added sugar, some flavored almonds, a package of crumpets (because I had been craving them), and a package of whole wheat English muffins. I still have pecan pieces and Macadamia nuts at home for work snacks.

My entire Trader Joe’s haul only cost me $31.72. Had I bought all this at work, it would have been double what I spent today. I buy what I do at work, because work is convenient. I also like the produce and meat departments where I work. That being said, if I didn’t work where I do, I wouldn’t shop there much because of how expensive it is.

I realize that I do live somewhere, where we have several Trader Joe’s stores in the area, and the one I went to today was literally on my way home from my doctor’s appointment. There is another one slightly out of the way of coming home, but not enough that it would have used too much gas to stop there on my way home if the other wasn’t where it was. I also realize that I live in a part of the country where stores like Trader Joe’s, New Seasons, Market of Choice, and Whole Foods are plentiful.

This is one of the reasons I love this part of the country, which is the access to grocery stores we have. Even if I moved further away from the city, I would still be coming into the area for doctor’s appointments and to see my parents and sibling.

In this Season of Life

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It has been a crazy month. It has also been a stressful month. I went to a doctors appointment funeral in the same day almost exactly a month ago. I then got sick (everyone at work got sick around the same time). While I was sick, I also had my rheumatologist appointment. I went back to work for a few days, and then my boss was off for a week and a half, so I ran the entire department on my own. This past week was the monthly sale change, and then had another doctor’s appointment.

There have been a lot of doctors appointments lately, and they are expensive even with good medical insurance.

My grocery and gas budget have definitely been tightened recently because of all the doctors appointments, labs, and procedures trying to figure out what it going on with me. It has definitely been a long year and a half.

Inflation hasn’t helped in trying to buy groceries either.

In this season of my life, even though work leaves me exhausted, the Lord allowed for me to be where I am now in order to have good health insurance and blueslips from work.

Blue slips are a program where I work where we are able to get the slightly expired or “damaged” food that is still good but can’t be sold for free. By damaged it is a carton of eggs where one is broken, or the packaging got damaged somehow but the product is still good, or the seal on the outer packaging didn’t hold, or the bottle leaked and enough product (ie dish washing liquid or vanilla extract) leaked that it can’t be sold, and the like. It gets scanned out as waste and we get to take it for free. I have gotten plenty of free food and necessities that it has definitely helped.

In the last two weeks, I have gotten three packs of bacon, two 18 count cartons of eggs, 2 dozen blue eggs, a ham roast, jello cups, butter, and plant based butter alternative sticks all blueslip.

I don’t eat much dairy because it does bother me, but I live with people who can still have dairy, so when I can get stuff they will eat and enjoy, I grab it too. We are definitely not vegan in this house. We also bake and cook. The eggs definitely get used.

One of the signs that I know I have been accepted at the store I am at is that the boys will bring some of the good blueslips they find while working the product back to the shared office i work in, in the back for us. One of the packs of bacon, got brought to me from the meat assistant manager, the other two came from Wezzies (one of his nicknames), a grocery lead. The eggs were from the PG lead, and today’s haul was brought back by Wezzies. My bosses were the ones who got stuff when I first started at this store. Now that I am getting stuff brought to me as well, I have been accepted.

I do most of my grocery shopping at work, just because it’s convenient, and I get my discount. My discount makes the yuppy hipster groceries pretty much comparable to the other mainstream grocery stores. I still get TP and other things across the road at Fred Meyer, though, because it is cheaper.

Since I work where I do, I do have a rewards account. Every so often, the company runs a deal like “get X amount off when you spend Y” for rewards members. We are able to stack that on top of our discount. This week’s deal was getting $20 off when you spent $80+, which is easy enough to do. Naturally, I added it and used it today.

I was asked to bring home a couple extra things i wouldn’t otherwise buy for a treat. I also picked up some Christmas cards to make sure that my prediscount total was over $80, which it was. Before my discount and the $20 off, my total would have been $103.39, I only spent $47.39 when all was said and done.

I am very well aware that where I work is not someplace I could shop on the regular if I didn’t work there, and that when I don’t work there anymore, I will be doing most of my grocery shopping elsewhere.

Perogies

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I know it’s been a while since I wrote a post here. I am trying to get back into it as I have the energy. I have been dealing with some health issues that I am still trying to get sorted out.

During the kind of just trying to survive haze of the past couple of years, having a budget and watching money hasn’t really happened. I am working on being better about it, especially with where inflation is at, and all the talk of an impending recession.

That all being said, I finally felt up to making dinner for myself over the weekend. Granted, it wasn’t anything super involved. I had picked up some perogies, ground Italian sausage and pasta sauce at work on Saturday.

I cooked up the perogies and meat, added Rao’s tomato & basil sauce to the meat and put it over the perogies.

Today, I needed to pick up a few things that we got low on over the weekend or were just wanted.

This light haul cost $44.39 with my discount.

I am trying to eat better, which will hopefully help me feel better. I am still trying to get some answers about what is going on with my body. That being said, eating better will help whatever is going on.

One of the biggest changes i have made in the past month and a half is giving up stopping and getting a latte on my way to work. I am now just making myself coffee at work and using dairy free creamer. It’s cheaper, fewer calories and less sugar.

Catch Up With Me

Hey Everyone!

I have no idea what i am going to title this yet, so if you are reading this, I have titled it.

This week has been a long week, and there has been copious amounts of coffee consumed. And yes, I have the pumpkin spice coffee. I keep the pods at work since we have keurigs at work. I also keep a bottle of dairy free coffee creamer in the price file fridge.

My favorite dairy free creamer (since I can’t have the international delight Cinnabon creamer) is the Planet Oat Coffee Cake creamer. It is so good that one of my coworkers who isn’t dairy free loves it too, and I let him use mine.

I am trying to be better about spending, and using coupons when I am able to at work. This past week I was able to use a 25% off supplements coupon, coupled with the fact that the vitamins I take were on sale, plus a $10 off Rockstar coupon (coupons we sometimes get for going above and beyond at work), as well as my discount. I had also picked up a handcream I had been been eyeing. Even with the hand cream I still spent less that the vitamins cost on sale. We have also have a neighbor rewards coupon for $10 off when you spend $50 and that was on top of my discount, so I used it yesterday when I did my grocery shopping after work. I also had earned a $5 off reward for getting enough points based on how much I spend over time. I was able to get a whole roasted chicken, the good bacon, and a half gallon of chocolate oat milk in addition to my normal groceries for $62.08 yesterday. Without my discount and coupons, it would have been $110.09

Part of why I grocery shop where I work is because of being dairy free. The other part is that I am already there for 40 hours a week and don’t have the energy to go somewhere else to go grocery shop.

This week I also tried the salmon jerky we carry at work. It was pretty good.

A couple weeks ago my mom and I canned 7 batches of garlic dill pickles, which made for a long day.

Life has to change

Hey Everyone!

It has been ages since I last posted. I know. A lot has happened since the last time I posted.

The end of march saw me not even two months into my current position at work. So that was also not even two months being back on days after a year and a half working nights.

So, in the last four months, I have been tired and hurting all the time still. My boss had her baby, I have a new / temporary boss who I get along well with.

I had a Dr’s appointment about a week and a half ago, where the whole being tired all the time and hurting thing got brought up. I had a battery of blood tests done, so thank goodness for good health insurance. There is definitely inflammation going on, possibly something autoimmune. I really hope that it’s not celiac. Being dairy free is hard enough. I tried being gluten free, and it was difficult for me, especially since I like wheat based foods. Since I am used to wheat based foods and meals, and the gluten free options just aren’t the same, I would struggle with HAVING to be gluten free. I could handle reducing the amount of gluten I consume though if I had to. I am definitely working on trying to eat better and not grab the day old bakery goods at work that they put out.

A couple of weeks ago, my mom and I made white currant jam because I had found white currants at work. We tried it this morning, and honestly, I was a little disappointed as it was really bland and really had no flavor. We had even added some cinnamon and nutmeg to it when cooking it.

My mom and I still need to can Pickles this year. Store bought just aren’t the same as home canned.