WHO said New Years Resolution??? MOI?

well, so much for the New Years resolution, huh? What a whirlwind life has been these past 2 months or so. Re-entering the full-time work force again, was much more difficult than i'd have thought it would be. Although, today is the first of 2 days off this week and im not going to spend anymore time talking about work.

As I'd wondered around the house this morning after talking to a friend on the phone for quite some time, I pondered at the question of "What should i do with my time today? Do I want to clean and do things that need done? Or do I want to play today and do chores on Wednesday?" I'd decided it was chores today and playtime on wednesday. But then, i thought why cant it be both on both days? Why cant i do chores this morning and have playtime this afternoon and repeat the same again on Wednesday? It was my ticket to fame. I'd made myself more happy in that compromise than i've been in quite some time! lol

Soooooooooooo, afternoon arrives about an hour ago, I wrapped up doing chores for the most part (at least ones that i could put off until Wednesday) and wondered aimlessly about for awhile wondering what i'd do for playtime today? Lordy, cant life just be simple when it comes to deciding how to spend a few hours of free time?

I could sew? Well, technically I guess I could. If, i'd have the energy to clean up my sewing room first! That idea was tossed aside as soon as the word "clean" entered my mind. Onto 2nd choice.....take a nap? Well, that lasted about 10 minutes until I decided i was wasting much needed alone time. How dumb can i be? Alone and taking a nap was wasting time? Sheesh, sometimes i need to give myself the credit i deserve for being so dizzy at times. :) Anyways...... As im lying there, im looking at the laptop lying beside my bed. It was screaming "Holllllllyyyyyyyyyyyy, I need your Electric Quilt program installed on me. I need the blog updated that you promised on New Years Day that you'd be keeping up with, etc etc. The computer won the playtime for today and here I am!

But, what was with the post on New Years day and alll those New Years Resolutions? Well, ummmmmmmm, i think they now must be converted to "end of tax season April 15th resolutions" =)

At the end of the post, I seen i promised I'd blog about how to stretch a Holiday or anyday Ham into 4 different meals. I hear people grumping about how expensive Hams can be on the Holidays and im always like "are you kidding me? They are one of the cheapest meats there is too cook if you so know how to utilize them! So here's the promise and the 4 meals along with some tips.

Tips first:

~always, always, always buy your ham with a bone in it! No it's not a waste of money, the bone is what you will need to stretch the meals to 4 instead of just 1.
~do buy a Ham that has SOME fat on it! Just because it has fat, doesnt mean you have to eat the fat. You will need fat (as well as the bone) for flavor after your initial meal.
~dont buy the smallest or biggest ham in the store. But DO buy a decent sized ham that you know will give you some leftovers.

Meals:

#1 - Your traditional holiday or dinner meal with all the fixings. When this meal is over, take all leftovers of what you dont use (meat, bone, juice, etc) and throw it in some sort of container or gallon zip loc bags. Either refridgerate or freeze the leftovers, depending on how soon you plan to do up your 2nd meal. If you have any leftover gravy, also throw it in with this package of goodies. I sometimes will divide the leftover meat into 2,3 or 4 quart size freezer bags so that i dont have to keep thawing and refreezing. The bone and other stuff goes into a seperate gallon size bag.

#2 - Pull out a few chunks of the leftover meat and also the bone. Put it in some salt water and and chopped onions (if desired). Strain and divide the juice to make SPLIT PEA SOUP!
Freeze the remainder of the juice, as you wont need to make juice for your next meal.

#3 - Using another bag of meat, put it into a meat roasting pan or slow cooker, reserved juice from meal #2, diced potatoes
and green beans for some wonderful HAM STEW!

#4 - You should now be down to just a bag or so meat leftover in your freezer. On those evenings when cooking just seems to much to even think about, grab that last bag of Ham from the freezer, fry up some eggs and ham .....color your eggs with green food coloring like I do and make Dr Suess's Green Eggs and Ham for your family. The kids love it! And men just dont seem to care a whole lot about the green eggs after you reassure them that the eggs are still edible! ;)

AND there you have it, 4 meals from one Ham! Do you still think Ham for a Holiday dinner is so expensive afterall?

I wanted to have 2 different tips today. But after rethinking my 2nd tip ...... which is actually a website link, i thought it might be best to first ask the owner of the site if i may link to her blog. It's an awesome site with tons and tons of household decorating tips that are done on a budget but suffer none of the usual "cheap" effects that sometimes reasonable budgets seem to portray. I hope to maybe hear back from her in a day or 2..... after I request her permission, that is. lol

Anyways, one last thought for the day and if you stumble across this blog, perhaps you could maybe give me your opinion. Im a quilter and would also love to blog about quilting what-nots. Shall I blog about quilting here or make another blog and do 2 blogs instead of just one? And yes, this blog is still a WIP, i do plan to get some of my links added to it and such........after april 15th lol. Ok, ok, maybe a few before then. Perhaps later today if im lucky.

Have a great day
Holly

A Look Forward to 2009

So long 2008, Hello 2009! The tree is down, decorations that adorned the house are safely packed away. It's goodbye 2008 holiday season and hello 2009.

SOooooooo, what's your plans? I have a few and I think or at least hope, they are the things that should be on ones high list of priorities. First is trying to be a better Mom and Wife. Even those that have this task nearly mastered, im sure could find more ways to step up to the next level.

2nd, on my list is to spend more time with my friends. As I get older, i realize just how important these relationships contribute to everday happiness.

3rd, I'd really like to get serious about sewing. Ya I sew, I havent really covered that area in this blog, but beware, it's coming.

4th, To keep up with this blog and try to be a source to help people understand that living on a shoestring budget can be fun, as well friendly to finances.

5th, Spend a little less time online playing games and do things that matter in life.

6th, Explore my new relationship with the work force and possibly, finally at 40 years old find something to do in life that I enjoy waking up and look forward to "work".

7th, Exercise, exercise, exercise. I guess we could also label this as being a little more health conscious in other areas such as food and such.

8th, Find time that I can spend alone that truly enhance my character and personify who and what i am.

9th, Spend far less time worrying about things that I have no control over.

10th, welll ummmmmmm, right off the top of my head, i cant think of the 10th goal. I guess we can let that be the big surprise for another day.

And there I laid out my life for 2009. I hope that all who have a plan for the New Year, reach high for those goals and accomplish them.

Stay tuned for tomorrows post. Im going to post how I stretched the ham that we cooked for Christmas eve dinner into 4 different days of feasting. ;)