Some Good News!

Yes, we finally have a tiny bit of good news. I checked right away this morning and what do you know? We finally got the gov money in our account! Now just waiting still to hear if we will get the small business loan/grant??

Steve got a text last night, a customer referral. Might be some work? This does mean going on an estimate Monday night, meeting people face to face and having to pick up supplies at the Big box stores. It's some income and maybe he will let me help?

I also have one more customer starting up in June, that has been away all winter. It's just a one time monthly job, but some added income.

I probably should start wearing make up again. I have just been using some under my eyes for my dark circles and that's about it. I also told Steve tonight with or without you, I'm coloring my hair. We can easily share the box of hair color as I only need around my hair line or at least that's what I think. 

I kind of spent my day on Wednesday doing this. Just looking out the window.. too chilly to go outside. I did spend time cleaning our house. I do every day but yesterday I even washed the kids white shower curtain, rug and towels.  I added a bit of hydrogen peroxide to the wash and all came out nice and bright white again! 

I'm excited to have some work today. Just two hours but it's something! After work, I'll have to wash my work clothes, dry them and disinfect my car. It's a process but well worth it to not bring in germs. I'm still disinfecting our house surfaces every morning with a bleach solution. I mostly do the main level, but need to start doing this upstairs too. It doesn't take long and I do feel better for having cleaned everything off. I even alcohol my cell phone, glasses and keys. 

It's a 70*F sunny, no wind kind of Thursday! This afternoon, I need to go for a bike ride, a run, a walk and sit out in the sun. It's time to do a little self care even if I don't want to. I'll feel better than sitting around worrying about the what if's that I can not control. All I can do is make the most out of today! 

What's on for dinner tonight? Leftovers! We have pasta, chicken lettuce wraps from last night and what ever else. I'm probably going to make more fried rice since I love it for breakfast! We are running low on soy sauce so it's on my shopping list! We might be doing more meatless Mondays in the coming future. We already figured out that meatless chicken lettuce wraps will be on the rotation! 

A full day of baking and cooking!

I had the entire day on Tuesday to bake and cook. It was a cold, rainy day, so why not spend the day in the kitchen!

I started my day making fried rice. I chopped up the carrots, onion and garlic. Added all those to the wok, then added in the garlic and ginger with a little pepper. The frozen peas and corn with the egg are added last along with the rice and soy sauce. 

 My fried rice makes a delicious breakfast! 

I made ravioli yesterday and it turned out just okay. I should have added more garlic powder to the ricotta cheese. They tasted a bit bland with the home made red tomato sauce. They both could have been kicked up a notch! I made everyone a garden salad too along with my French bread. 

I always try and rush the last rise of the bread baking process. This time I let it fully rise the whole hour as suggested. Steve said it was my best French bread yet! I have to agree! We have one left over which will make good French toast or just toast! 

 I tippled my pasta recipe to make the ravioli. It also took a full  2-16oz containers of ricotta cheese. I used my melon scoop to put the exact amount of cheese in each ravioli. My grandmother would make tables full of pasta when I was little. She would spend all day in the kitchen making them by hand. 

It's a good thing my kitchen aid mixer has pasta making attachments. 

Fresh pasta cooks so fast. It was about 3 to 4 minutes and they were done! 

I didn't cook all the pasta. I put the left over pasta in the freezer on parchment paper to cook up later on for lunches. We still have plenty of left over red sauce. 

I wasn't done baking. I made more of my crackers, but this time I used the pasta attachments on my mixer to roll out the dough. It was so much quicker making the crackers and they were all the same thickness which helps a ton in baking, since they all cook at the same rate, or mostly they do. I had some still burn on the edge of the baking tray. My cracker making is still a work in progress. I did find out that we all like olive oil on top to keep the toppings sticking during baking. Also, garlic powder and salt is a must on all! I still like rosemary but we are getting low on that too. I've been picking the rosemary off our plant and it's looking kind of bare. I don't want to take it all or we won't have any left! 

I have another non-working day! It's at least not going to rain! The temps are going to get back up in the the low 60's. This means we can go outside and enjoy some of the day. I don't have any big plans for my Wednesday. I'm making chicken lettuce wraps with Szechuan green beans for dinner. That doesn't take all day, just an hour. We also have Wednesday night Survior to watch on TV. My one night a week I look forward to watching TV. I should go for a run or bike. Probably will walk the dog and then figure out what to do with the rest of my day. 

Ups and downs

We had a really nice weather day on Monday. Perfect conditions, 70 little wind and partly cloudy. If only it could last more than one short day. Back to a Tuesday rain filled day and colder in the 50's. I at least have indoor plans for the day. No work, but plenty of baking! I have to make ravioli, French bread, and crackers on my schedule. Since it's not nice out, makes for the perfect day to spend in the kitchen. 

Getting back to Monday, I used my time sitting outside, working for an hour and going for a ride to Hastings with Steve to sit at the park by the water and play cribbage. I also re-arranged our dinner to include burgers instead of my pasta. Steve made mini slider burgers on the stove top grill. We tried to make the burgers like the food net work show we watched. They smashed onions on the burger while cooking, put the toasted buns on top and added cheese. Small burgers just cook quicker and don't dry out like the big ones. I think home made sliders are the way to go! I should have taken a photo!! I also made some roasted sweet potato fries in the oven and of course we had other veggie leftovers. 

 The water receded from the last time we were at this park in Hastings. We set up our table, chairs and played two games of cribbage by the waters edge. Made for a nice afternoon! We also treated ourselves to some IPA beers. I went into the liquor store and grabbed a case. We splurged because we needed to do a little self care. We just bring our cups and split 3 beers. You are not suppose to drink liquor at the park, so we bring a bag/cooler. It beats staying home.  It makes us feel like we are getting out in the world. On weekends we would go to restaurants or breweries and have drinks and play cribbage. The park drinking and cribbage, kind of feels like the same thing of us going out, just minus the service, bathrooms and hot food. We do have better scenery being at the park! We are in the hunt to find more less busy places to sit, have a drink and play cribbage. We have better luck during the week day. Weekends will be far too busy to try and visit any kind of park! We will have to get creative to find less busy places to go on the weekend! 

What's keeping me up at night?

Times are so uncertain. I sleep good some nights and others, like last night I was up for hours. I try to reassure my mind that we have money in the bank, we have till July to pay the mortgage and truck loan. We still are all healthy and living. We have food, shelter and are fine right now for at least a few months. No need to panic now! I've also mapped our our expenses and how long we can last once we have to pay all our mortgage back and start up the truck loan. Can we make it a year? That is to be determined...

I'm trying to stay positive. Checked the IRS web site and yes, our money arrives April 30th. It will go right into savings for the time being. Still no unemployment pay news for us self contractors. Although, the Governor did say, some of us are being paid. I still see Zero's in our accounts. The site does say the end of April. Are we there yet? April ends on the 30th.. Hello, it's the 27th! Does this mean we get a big fat Zero?

That Customer I was waiting to hear back from, decided to wait two more weeks to see if things change? At least its potential money earning? I'm staying hopeful.

This is what I was up to on Sunday. Let me just say, Sunday was boring for a few hours. We had some rain and couldn't figure out what to do with ourselves. 

I started the day spray painting this little plastic outside table gray. It was aqua and chipping. Just a quick spray paint and it was looking good again. We keep it out by the fire to set our drinks on.

Steve washed the windows with my help. He just got the big porch windows and cleaned the lower level windows. They look a lot better. I also used the brush to scrub some of the dirt off the 20 year old siding. It still needs a lot more cleaning but at least I got under the deck and porch. 

Steve made some chicken legs last night and I cooked up some naan bread pizzas. We had another leftover night to eat up what was in the frig. I'm still planning on making ravoli but not on a nice day outside. I think Tuesday it's going to rain, so that's my plan for dinner

My little garden is doing okay. It's mostly chives, but I did transplant my radishes and planted lettuce,  and basil with some flowers. We will see what grows?? I'm hoping the rabbits don't eat everything. I only have tomato wire to put up and that's to keep the dog from walking all over my plants. It's also pretty shaded in our yard. Not sure if my garden will get enough sunlight. Might as well try since I have seeds. I still have my front yard pots I planted and am watering daily to see if anything grows. We have a bit more sun in the front yard. 

After dinner we took Zoey on her now daily walk. We just go to a local soccer park and walk the undeveloped area. This way she can hunt! I extended her leash by adding two together. She was much happier have more distance to roam. 

Steve and I had company walking the dog last night. Everyone now likes to go for a ride and a quick mile walk just to get out of the house. 

The sprinklers were on the fields last night around 7pm. We got there late yesterday, so now we know to go earlier before they start watering. 

We are back to Monday! I have a tiny bit of work at noon. Which I am grateful. It's not nearly what I use to work, but what ever work I get is good. It also helps to fill up my day and makes me feel useful. I'm still trying to figure out what to do next for a job? Do I go back to formulation chemist jobs, do I still work for myself, do I try to go back to school for something else? Try selling some things we no longer use?

It's going to be 74 degrees today. I plan to go for a run, walk the dog, wash my car, sit outside. Maybe clean my side of the garage. It's a start!

I'm getting good at this!

I'm getting good at a few things! I pretty much make crackers every day. I also made more fried rice this morning. I really need to take a photo of my rice! Its delicious!

My next big baking project is to make home made ravioli for dinner tonight. Steve is making more home made sauce with his frozen tomatoes. We also have a bunch of veggies to roast.

Early Saturday Pick up

Steve and I went to Home Depot this morning at 6:30am. I wanted him to go to the store right at 6am when they opened. I figure the less people, the better! I went for the ride and waited in the car. It's nice just to go out some where even if I stay in the car. There were a few cars in the parking lot, mostly employees. He said maybe 5 people were shopping. He grabbed the sheetrock and was out of there in record time. Unfortunately, he said no employees were wearing masks and he only saw a few including himself with a mask on. I am at least glad he wore a mask and only took in his credit card, not the whole wallet. Plus, we have hand sanitizer in the truck.

While Steve works at his parents this morning. I'm not sure what I'll do. I have a list but I'm not really feeling like doing much of it. I did start some country style ribs in the crock pot that will be made Mexican style. I added a can of tomatoes, some garlic cloves, oj and salt, pepper. After not making dinner two nights in a row, I figured better to have some food cooked tonight!

I really slept great from 9pm to 11pm. I never slept much after that. I just tossed and turned, looked at my cell for hours and tried to sleep again from 3 to 6am. Awful night and I have no idea why I couldn't sleep!

We are set with our loan to maybe have a chance at getting the small business loan. There are many before us as I've read. Not sure we will make the cut, but all the paper work is done and ready to go. Fingers crossed it comes through! I also heard MN is now paying out self emp people. Nothing yet for us and no other info has been requested. Still no news of our government check? We usually get a check in the mail for tax refunds.  I did go to the website and give the IRS our bank info right when that opened up. I was hoping to see a direct deposit, but nope. Nothing.. still waiting and it's felt like forever! Not that we plan to spend any of it right away. It's just a better feeling having more money in the bank when needed.

Another sunny day and high around 66*F. We will take it! I might plant some seeds in our shaded garden just to see if any thing grows? I planted all our pots out front with herb seeds and flowers. I'm hoping something starts to grow! At least those are in the sun. I just have to remember to water them every day.

Friday Fun!

Did you hear that right? I said Friday fun. What fun you ask? 

Well, I'm working for a tiny bit today. Yes, that's fun because its some where to go, something to do and I earn some money. I'm also waiting to hear back from another customer to see if I still can get work form her too. Fingers crossed! I need to fill up my next week with working at least 3 days! 

It's also sunny and going to be 62*F today! That's fun for me! Nice weather is always great on any day of the week! 

My indoor radishes are growing so good. I'm moving them outside to the garden and will start more from seed inside. I also have flower seeds to plant in some pots. It's been fun seeing my seeds growing. Just wish all would grow. My seeds are pretty old so I'll take what does grow! 

Thursday afternoon, Steve and I took the drive to Northfield, through Welch and home. We stopped to have drinks along the river at a park. No one was there which was nice. We did have a goose that kept us company down the river a little ways away. 

We opened our two beers and had some wine with smoked almonds. A good hour just to sit and relax. It was good weather timing as it started raining right after we left. 

We will probably be doing more of these mid week picnics just to get out of the house and have some where to go. Makes life feel a little more normal or distracts us from the news. 

I'm not sure what I'm doing with the rest of my Fun Friday. Steve will be at his parents painting some trim in a bedroom. I should go to the park and run at least a mile or two. I have my car to wash. My seeds to plant and some sun to soak up! 

Since we never made dinner last night. We all had some form of leftovers. We all decided to have pizza Friday night. Easy to do! Just requires me to make some pizza dough and we do have some naan bread. A bonfire also sounds like a good plan. 

Random Thursday, is that a thing?

I'm doing a random Thursday post, which is my normal random-ness.

We had a great weather Wednesday. A bit chilly still but in the 60's! We will take it for mid April! The nice weather kind of got wrecked by an email on our drive down south for a little road trip 30 minutes from home. I found out that I don't qualify for the PP small bus loan, but Steve does so that was bad news/good news. I was still bummed and of course we had more paperwork to get into the loan asap. So we turned around and drove home. I quickly got the paperwork fixed for Steve's loan and sent off to the bank. At least they are on top of it and hopefully, Steve will still get his loan. Makes me nervous about getting unemployment for myself, if I couldn't even get a loan? Now that's also in question! Not a good feeling at all.

I made another ham, spinach quiche yesterday using the cracker crust (olive oil). The crust needed to be pre-cooked a little longer because the bottom was under baked and the side crust is too hard. 

I'll just stick with a regular crust from now on or no-crust. It was still good. I just used the left over ham, some of the frozen spinach thawed and some Swiss cheese. I'm now almost out of my big wedge of cheese! 

Logan made the best fried"Canes" Type chicken tenders last night. I had purchased some steak fries so we baked those up too. I should have taken a photo of the food! 

Food is the one thing to look forward to every night. What are we eating for dinner? We still have left over ham, quiche, chicken tenders and some turkey soup with rice. Time to just eat up what we have. I also bought some more hamburger meat, and some country style ribs and we have those chicken brats to eat this week/weekend. It will be another trip to the store Tuesday. Unless I try to get delivery or curb side pick up! I really need to figure that out asap! There is always an issue. Long time to pick up, days out or now I can't get my credit card information on the app. Ugh!! Difficult! If I do go to the store, I wear a mask. I clean every thing!! 

I did go to the liquor store yesterday. Thought we'd go to one that isn't busy down the road. I had never been in there before. Steve wanted some IPA beers for our 30 mile down the road trip to North field. So, I went in with a mask. The guy working asked if I felt okay. I'm like yeah. Steve said the guys that were in the store checking out before me, were laughing coming out of the store. Laughing at me for wearing a mask. Ugh!!! Everyone needs one all the time to keep everyone safe. Dumb Guys!! Guess that's the last time I'll go there! It was a splurge anyway. We really shouldn't spend any extra money on drinks! 

Time goes by no matter what!

I think we all want to just skip ahead and be done and over with this virus. What year, month, day will that be? Its depressing to think ahead of just tomorrow.

I got this face mask from Kendra. She had some extra's. I still wear the construction grade mask when I work or go to the store. I decided yesterday, that I would go to the store right away when they opened up. I was not alone but very few people at the store. Made for easier shopping not having to dodge people. It sure is a process. When I get home, that's when the disinfecting happens. I lay a towel down and wash all the food in soapy water, minus the veggies. We will just run those under water. I discard the bags, and then wipe down my car and trunk, wash my hands put away the food and then go around and bleach./alcohol everything, spray my shoes and change my clothes. It would be nice to get some help but then again, I need to control the germs into the house and it's easier for one person to do all.

When you stop outside, and the world seems to be going on like there was zero virus. 

I've kind of been lazy lately. I haven't been running or doing my exercise. I just feel lazy, but doing more yoga and just relaxing. Today, is going to be warm around 70*F. We will go for a walk and bike, maybe even to the park and go for a ride somewhere and have a picnic. I need to stop looking at my cell phone to get updated news. There is nothing happy going on right now. 

I made crepes over the weekend. They sure were good. I finally bought some vanilla extra today. $23 dollars for pure vanilla in a big bottle. It was either that or nothing. They did have a tiny 4oz bottle for $5 so I just figured might as well by the big bottle. I never did find any cinnamon. Well, that had that too but $8 for a small jar. I'll wait and find it later! 

Bigger issues than helicopters landing!

Yes, we have bigger issues to worry about than the noise from helicopters landing at a cabin. This is the third world problem a neighbor is having right now. Don't mind us, no money coming in, not sure if we will have a roof over our heads. Go and worry about that helicopter! While we worry about life and just getting by. Am I bitter because no one cares what the unemployed are going through? Yes! Life is not normal for us and its not business as usual. I get it, its not normal for anyone but some of us lost everything and will be losing over and over. So, go complain about your helicopter problem to us. We are not going to cry for you ever!

Glad I got that out. I did work for a whole hour today. Earned a tiny bit of money and than turned around and paid a utility bill. I did find out that the utilities are not going to charge extra for not paying in full right now. I'm sure once this is over they will want all their money! I'm just hoping to delay until we get unemployment or the sm bus loan. (soon to be round 2 of stimulus money). The new normal, get farther behind every day. Just don't pay, delay, delay, delay to keep all our money in the bank for now.

This is what life is like during Covid 19 for some of us.

On a brighter note.. we got a college tax credit in our account today. It's sunny outside, but still chilly 40 degrees in Minnesota.

My plans for this Tuesday include the following:

Make more crackers, We are out, yet again! 

Color my gray hairs

play cribbage

Wrote up a business quote for Steve - done

Blog -in process

 Make fried chicken for dinner _ Per Logan's request, he might make this?? 

Paid utility bills - done

email a friend 

That's my Tuesday! 

There goes more money!

It's bill paying day without income. Yeah, that's fun, NOT! Good thing it wasn't much money. I had planned to pay off my new laptop by June and now, I'm making the minimum payment. Something I didn't think I'd ever do. I'm hoping the next round of small business loans will come through or self employed unemployment money. Something to help us out when we are unable to work! More bigger bills are due this week, our utilities, and cell phone.  Something we need to keep going. We have the money right now, but not if this lasts for months and months. The future is so uncertain and I'm at a loss as to what to do. I hate sitting round not being able to do anything about our situation. Just a wait and see and don't think to far ahead. One day at a time, one hour, one minute, one second. Time is ticking.

We are back to Monday. Steve is still finishing up on Kendra's house. He has to install a new microwave and finish some trim, hang curtains and I think that's it. He does have a new customer estimate today, so that's a little bit of work. Plus, he has his brother's house, two showers to install and another room in his parents house to re-do.  I just need to figure out what I can do?

After, my bill paying this morning. I have 1 client at 10am. A tiny bit of work for the day. I also want to make some Kettle Popcorn. Maybe go for a run before it rains today from 1 to 5pm?

Last night, I made a ham from Easter. We have plenty of leftovers, so that's what's for dinner tonight and probably tomorrow too.

I need to go to the store again or figure out the online pick up. I got my order and then the credit card info would not take. Ugh!!! I probably should try doing it from my computer instead of my phone. Just annoying why it won't work!!!!  I could have done curb side pick up yesterday!

What we are up to this Sunday!

What am I up to this Sunday? I got up and made some crepes! Unfortunately, we were out of Vanilla. I looked at the store yesterday but the only bottle was really small for $9 at Target. I'll wait and see if I can find a bigger bottle! So we did without, which was fine. They still tasted good. We are also low and now out of raspberry jelly.  As soon as I got home from the store, I already had another shopping list going with things I didn't get and other things I didn't know we needed. I did score a big supply of  Paper towels so that was nice. We were almost out and I was overly conserving what I used.

Steve made some bacon and forgot about it. It's really cooked. I always set the timer and he doesn't. Who forgot it? Well, that's what happens, over done burnt food.

What else are we doing this Sunday? Steve is finishing up working on Kendra's Town house to get it ready to sell. He just has to paint some trim and install a bathroom floor, some click tile, oh and install a new toilet in that bathroom. It will probably take all day long! Monday, he has a estimate for another job. Which is good. He is getting a cold, so that's not good. Hopefully, that's all it is. He was around his mother last week, Wednesday/Thursday or was it Thursday/Friday? She was sniffing and touching her nose like crazy! I stayed away from her but he went for drinks with his dad. Standing close to his 80+year old parents. I told him not to do it. Who listens?

I also scored some hair dye. There were three people in that isle at Target looking at hair color. I didn't want to linger, so I just quickly grabbed a box. Golden light brown. Hum.. Usually, I don't get golden but it will be better than nothing at this point. I need to cover the grays. Steve and I will just share the box since I only need a tiny bit around my hair line and he doesn't use much either. The hair coloring will have to take place tonight! A whole 30 minutes of hair color fun. ugh!! 

I'm also making more of my crackers today. I used olive oil in place of butter and they turned out just as good. We've been eating them as fast as I'm making them. I'll need more flour soon. None at Target so I'll have to look next time I'm at the store. 

What a I doing to not catch the Corona Virus? 

I'm not wearing earrings these days. It's metal and I tend to touch them a lot. No need to have germs on my ears transferred to my hands. I also wear a mask when working and going to the store. Other things we do is wash all food packaging when we get home with soapy water and rise. I clean my car after too with soapy water and a micro fiber towel. Inside and car handles and wipe out the trunk where we had the food. I never bring my purse into the store. I just bring in my credit card and that's it. I have shoes I only wear to work and the store. I also disinfect my shoes with lysol spray and the face mask. We hang up the face masks in the garage on a nail hook to dry and have ready to use. Are we going over board? I think not! I also try to disinfect our house every morning. Using soap and water, then using a dilute solution of bleach on door knobs, countertops, light switches etc. I change clothes after I work, right away and wash those items in hot water and dry on high heat. I have yet to do that after going shopping but I might just do that now. Or maybe just pants since touch my pocket to get out my credit card. We all wash our hands any time we are out, for 20 seconds or more. Will we all keep up this until the virus is gone? Or will we start to relax and not do as much? Sometimes I find myself wanting to just not wash all the food when we bring it in. Or not to care so much about touching the mail. I wear gloves for that too and wash them after, taking them off carefully. I was putting the mail on the shelf in the garage for 2 days before opening. It can last on paper for 24 hours.   We should probably do this stuff every flu season to prevent deaths. I do think the stores should keep cleaning carts, have distance in place for shoppers and use the plexy glass to keep cashiers safe. 

Saturday

Saturday is here! I need to start planing an indoor garden to start growing some fresh basil. I saved some egg cartons to plant my seeds. I also am going to try adding crushed egg shells and coffee grounds to the dirt. I heard this is what you do, to make better soil conditions.


After a very lazy Friday which I did nothing but sit around, watch TV, make some fried rice and roasted veggies, I need to get more done today! Which is why I have give Zoey a fur cut. I only have a scissors, no clippers so this won't be easy. I read the next big thing that is going out faster than TP, is hair dye and clippers. Imagine that!

Steve is off to work again today, finishing up Kendra's house painting and floor install. I think he will be working on Sunday too. He's still got a few bedrooms and a bathroom to paint. The floor will probably be done on Sunday, but won't take as long? I got use to him being home with me every day. That's probably why I didn't feel like doing any thing on Friday! 

I also have making dinner tonight on my todo list. We have a ham that need to be cooked. I'm going to make parmesan cheese bread, cheesy potatoes and salad. We have a bunch of frozen meat, so I'll have to take some out and defrost today so we have something to cook next week. I'll also have to make a trip to the store for more food. I'll wait till Monday. I really need to get this order on-line and pick up thing down. I just am not there yet!

The weekend and nice weather ahead!

Friday.. just another day in quarantine around here. No big deal it's the weekend other than the weather is going to be a lot nicer in the 60's. It's something to look forward to because this week was COLD! Too cold to be outside for very long. 

I actually feel like I've lost weight. My waist is a lot thinner, losing any fat around. I have been eating more around 1500 calories for the day. Yesterday, I even ate some jelly beans and had one of Logan's chi tea cupcakes filled with caramel and topped with cream cheese/butter and vanilla pudding. Really sweet but good. I also had my fill of turkey leftovers. 

Steve worked all day painting Kendra's house. She is getting ready to sell and wants everything done by Monday, so they can take photos. He has to paint everything, install a bathroom floor and put up trim around her cabinets. He painted yesterday for 11 hours just to finish her big room with tall ceilings. It's a whole weekend project. It's good he is working to give him something to do and earn a little bit of money. 

I have nothing to do this Friday. Well, I might have an interview form a head hunter. It's a go to work place job. A formulation chemist position doing OTC sunscreens. Sounds like my old company that I used to be the director for. Not sure they'd hire me back since I left after a year to a higher paying job. Plus, it's not what I want to do any more. I figured the interview experience would be good for me. We'll see if they call today after 10:30am. 

I'm also making more crackers without butter today. Maybe trying to make kettle popcorn and will be roasting some of our veggies. Sounds like a Friday kind of plan! 

Gathering Documents and all that fun stuff

I have spent lots of time gathering up documents to get our small business loans. This morning we had to drive to the bank and have them make copies of our tax records and loan forms. I was having more then a few issues copying all so it was just easier to go to the teller and have them do the copies. The last part I was missing is the assumed name of Steve's business. Wow, I searched through everything and found it! I hope they take the very old orig copy and not a more updated one because it will be at least 7 days to get it emailed and I don't want to hold up our loan that much longer! Just a tiny bit of extra anxiety. Yikes!

On a more positive note for today.. I tried on all my old jeans and what do you know!!! They fit and fit nice again! Wish I hadn't broken my zipper on my favorite pair of jeans. Maybe I can still fix them? Or just have the zipper replaced? Felt good to get back into my jeans but I took them off and are back in my black workout leggings. Comfy is the name of the game always.

I ate more yesterday than I have in 34 days. I had corn salad for lunch, some home made crackers for a snack, a tiny slice of key lime pie after dinner and stuffing, 1 slice of turkey, 1 slice of ham and a salad with a slice of bread and butter. Wow.. lots more food! I'll be scaling back again today to just one meal.

What am I doing on my Wednesday?
Bank - done
Yoga- in process
Planks and weights - need to do
G-shop for food at 8:30am - done (spent $97.00)
Make crackers
Disinfect our house - done in a.m
Blog - inprocess
paint doors - ?
Make kettle popcorn - ?

We had a little scare yesterday with Celina. She was exercising with a band, doing her arms and it snapped back out of her hand hitting her across her face and eye. It was a loud slap and multiple screams from her. I wasn't sure what happened since she was in the basement. Thankfully, she didn't get it in her eye. Wow, never use a band!! They are dangerous!!!

Almost Mid April and where are we?

Tomorrow we are at April 15th, half way through the month. It's also going to be the first time ever in almost 20 years of living in this house that I won't be paying the mortgage. That feels awful, weird and scary. I also got a reminder that tomorrow is tax paying day. Although, that has been delayed till July 15th. Everything comes due in July, the truck payment, the mortgage and taxes we owe. I doubt this virus will be gone and we won't be in any better situation as a country or world. I would like to hope we will be semi back to normal. All you can do is hope and not think to far off of the what if..

 This was 2018 in July, Grand Marais MN.. back in normal times.

Monday, Steve got to work on painting our doors. He just painted our bathroom door and closet. It still needs the other side done but at least its a start on what I started a year ago. Many more door to paint white. I'm at least happy its getting done. I went around the kitchen and touched up the white cabinet doors and chairs, looking for tiny chips and realizing I need to clean the cabinets too. They are getting a little dirty in spots.

I also spent a good chunk of the day, scanning and emailing documents to the bank for our small bus loan application. I hope I got all of them. It's a bit confusing trying to figure out this new apple computer and where they get stored, how to move them and all. I need to get the kids to show me how to do this as I'm kind of lost. It's not the same as my Microsoft and I'm lost!

Today, we are helping Kendra move more things to her storage unit. This way she can clear out stuff out of her T.H. and get ready to sell. It's a weird time to sell, but she wants to move to a larger house and now is the time for their family. We should be getting rid of 20 years of stuff in our house too. I just don't know what we will do with it. Goodwill isn't open. Most of the stuff would just be thrown into the trash. We do need to get started on this process as it will take a long time.

6 inches of snow on Easter!

Wow did we get a lot of snow on Easter! Thankfully, it mostly melted off the driveway and roads. I only had to shovel our deck and push the snow off the cars. It was a heavy wet snow. 

Our Easter dinner almost didn't happen. The circuit blew and the roaster pan with the turkey wasn't on for a few hours, until we noticed it wasn't cooking. Instead of dinner being around 5:30/6pm it was more like 7:30/8pm. Steve turned up the temp to cook the turkey faster. Our neighbors that own a restaurant asked if they could drop off food for us. They came to the rescue! They brought ham, salad, a whole chicken and 6 rolls. So nice of them to do this for us. It was a very nice Easter surprise! 

We did end up eating around 7pm and it was really good. Steve used our homemade bread to make the stuffing this year. Makes all the difference! I cooked some wild rice and he added carrots/celery and crasins into the stuffing. Best recipe ever! I made gravy and we had a really good meal!

I made more of my homemade butter crackers! I forgot the table spoon of  sugar, but they still turned out good, just a bit more salty. 

I also need to start making them on the parchment paper, instead of transferring one by one. 

Butter Crackers

4 tablespoons butter

1-1/4 cups flour

1Tbsp Kosher Sea Salt

1 tbsp Sugar

1/3 cup water

Blend all dry ingredients in a food processor, add in water slowly to make a ball. Roll out thin, cut  and cut, top with sea salt and rosemary. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes till golden. 

After dinner we play our nightly cribbage game. Usually everyone plays. If that's the case we use two  boards since there is 5 of us. It goes quicker and everyone can play. 

It's always hard to not drink and play cribbage. Last night we had champagne instead of beer. Got to use up what we have around the house. 

Our Saturday night bonfire before the big snow storm. It's always really nice in the 60's the day before and then the next day, we get slammed with snow or cold weather. The sun is out, so I'm sure all the snow will be melted pretty quickly. By Friday, the prediction is that we will be back into the 60's! 

It's Monday. My weight in day. Lost 1 pound last week. I ate all that turkey last night so I'm sure that didn't help my weight loss. I did go down a little on my hip measurement. So that's a plus!

I only ran 2 miles last week, helped move some heavy boxes and shoveled snow and went on a few dog walks for the week and worked 6 hours for my exercise. 

I called the bank again today to find out if there is still money for the payment protection loans for small businesses. Yes, there is still money and my bank answered right away, the person directing the Loan advisors called back right away. I got the applications emailed out right away and now we have to wait for a call back and then in 1 to 3 days the money will be in our hands. Will it be that simple? Not sure as part of the form I wasn't sure how to fill out. I'm sure they will help with this process. Fingers crossed we will get the loan and some money soon! I'm also checking today to see if the Feds made any updates on unemployment for us self employed people. Seems the states are waiting for the rules to give out money. We sure could use some! It would help me sleep at night. 

This week bills are starting to come due on Wednesday. Next week we have more and so on...I usually want to pay the bills right away, but I'm holding out for the loan money. I will have to pay one bill this week. At least it's not much money since our big bills are on hold for three months, Truck loan, and mortgage. That takes out a huge chunk we pay. It will all be due in three months so we need to have money coming in to pay.