The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Hello from My Cozy Corner. Come and sit a spell.
The big project for this week has been staining the new porch rails that our son installed earlier in the year. I’ve been waiting for just the right conditions. It needs to be warm and dry, but not hot. I have never stained with a brush before; I have only stained furniture and used a rag. There was a bit of a learning curve. They look pretty good, but I’m no professional and I’m sure that shows!
I changed my day of rest to Friday, and I’m still learning to live with the change in schedule. I’ll let you know how it goes. The important thing is to maintain that weekly day of rest. I hope you’re doing that for yourself. I made the change because usually, no one is home on Friday afternoon; hence, no interruptions. Additionally, Mr. M and Miss Christy are much more available to help with projects on Saturday.
Facebook has been in the news a lot lately. Like almost every issue these days, it seems to be quite divisive. My thoughts here are not political, so please don’t hesitate to read on. The reason I first went on Facebook in 2009, was to be able to keep in touch with friends and extended family all over the world. Most of them I would have completely lost contact with, without the Facebook option. My children are able to interact with their cousins as never before. We always lived far away from the rest of the family. Almost immediately, I discovered a great platform for spreading positivity. Some may use social media for their own unkind purposes, whether they mean to be mean or not. We all have the opportunity to use it for good.
My Kitchen Table started out as a Facebook blog, before I moved it to its own site. I host a Facebook page (Helen’s World). I have nearly 100 followers, with the whole purpose being to give affirmation and positivity to the world. That is just a small sample of what can be done to make our little corner of the world a happier place.
For my regular friends and family page, I have rules:
- Only look at Facebook once or twice a day.
- I reserve the right (and use it) to block anything I find offensive, even from friends. I don’t usually block friends, unless they are continuously offensive. I do, however, block their sources.
- I use the site to be positive and affirming. I use it to share things from my own life. Once in a while I will complain about something, but I try to keep it to a minimum. I share trials and difficulties with individual friends, but I am not comfortable putting them out for the world to view.
- I have found wonderful pages to follow, and groups with shared interests. In short, you can control Facebook (or any other media). Don’t give your power away.
I have opinions on how I would handle social media if I had kids at home, but I don’t have any; so they are just that, opinions. I will keep them to myself.
Not much creative cooking has taken place at our house this week. I have been busy, and not very motivated. This has been a week of leftovers. If you have family members who say they won’t eat them, you just need to learn to disguise them better! This week’s soup was vegetable beef. I used leftover vegetables that I had frozen (a little of this and a little of that), and leftover roast beef. I added a quart of beef broth and seasoning. It’s all in the seasoning; basil is my best friend. I also made hamburger pie by browning a pound of ground beef, mixing in some catsup and a little cream cheese to moisten it. I added some leftover corn, green beans and carrots (about 1/2 cup each). I used a sheet of puff pastry which was left from an earlier project for the crust. I fit the sheet of pastry into the pan, and poured the meat mixture in. I topped it with shredded cheese, then baked it at 400 degrees until the crust was golden and the cheese melted. It only took about 15 minutes in the oven. I hope you will find some leftovers to enjoy on these chilly evenings.
Thank you for spending a little time with me.
Until next time,
Helen
PS I just bought an Insta Pot. As soon as I figure out how to use it, I’ll share some ideas here.
My Quiet Place 