12-30-13

7:30am

For the last couple of days I've been getting up early

due to a lower backache.

This morning I discovered it wasn't my back but

my tailbone.  If you were to press that area

I'd scream!  I haven't fallen or anything like that

so can't explain why it hurts.

Today hubby returns to work after being off

for most of last week on vacation.

He does get New Year's day off this week though.

Kids don't return back to school til Jan. 6th.

What's on the agenda for today, let's see.

I have laundry to finish up and

leftover ham to dissect up to make

ham and potato soup out of and

I have to figure out what to make for

a potluck at hubby's work.

I guess they are having their Christmas party this week.

Hubby had gotten a box of new work clothes

from his work.  Yesterday I saw that on top of

this open box there was some ink stains on a couple

of the shirts.  I'm not talking a couple of little

spots, I'm talking it looked like someone had

spilled a bottle of ink on the top shirt

and it bled through to the shirt underneath.

So wish I had taken a before picture because

the size of this blue ink stain was bigger than my hand!

I still haven't found the source of the stain.

Hubby told me to throw out the shirts but

I knew he needed them because his other

shirts were stained from paint, caulk and whatever

he works with at work.

I took the shirts and sprayed the stains with a

liquid gel type Oxyclean and scrubbed with

a toothbrush.  Sure it removed a lot of the ink on top

but still left major blue stains.

Next I filled a small trash can with cold water

and dumped a bunch of bleach in it

and let the two shirts soak for the afternoon.

Me and hubby really didn't think the ink stains

would come out it was that bad.

Before bed last night I removed the shirts

from the trash can and the stains were completely gone!!

I nor hubby could believe it.

I still wish I had a before picture to show you.

Anyone else would have thrown out the white

button up work shirts.

Clorox bleach is the greatest!

9:40am

The hams are almost done being tore apart.

It's hard to believe I'll still get 4-5 meals from two hams.

(potato soup, ham & beans, ham omelettes, 

ham & scalloped potatoes and a 

tuna helper made with ham instead of tuna fish)

The one ham we ate for 3 days before Christmas

and it was just the four of us.  The second ham

was made Christmas morning and there was 

6 people making sandwiches out of it.

1:25pm

Getting around to finishing up laundry.

Got a load of whites going.

I took the trash can that had hubby's shirts

in them with bleach water and dumped it into the 

washer when filling it with hot water.

Next I stripped the beds for the next load of laundry.

Earlier I laid down and took a nap.

After sleeping in some this past week

6:30am came too early this morning

to see hubby off to work.

At the moment I have cut up 4 large potatoes

and have them boiling in a pot of leftover

ham broth and more water from this morning where I boiled

up the remaining hams to remove their meat.

I'm hoping to give the potatoes a little more flavor

for our ham and potato soup.

Drain water & broth from potatoes,

in pot add 4 cups milk, 2 packages

of sausage flavored gravy mixes and heat til

thickened.  Add in potatoes and ham.

You can dilute the soup down even more with water

and add instant mashed potatoes for a thicker

and heartier potato soup.

I only was able to find a 5 pound bag of potatoes

at the store so divided the bag in half.

Half for the soup and the other remaining 5 

will be used for baked potatoes.

I got some french onion dip and 

spinach dip that was on sale for a dollar

and plan to use those on top of them

as a side with supper one day this week.


4:40pm


Power company out front and back disconnecting
wires and such.  It would be nice to know that
they were shutting off power this time
of day as I was cutting up ham into cubes for supper
and getting ready to make soup.
Looks like they are replacing the lines on our 
neighbor's house since his old line is hanging
in our yard along along with a new one running from
our front yard, across our fence and into our
backyard to the telephone pole.
I think the neighbor gave up on keeping his
house up to par.  He's had lines from cable and what
not hanging down in his yard into trees for a long time
now.  He's also got a chain link fence tore down and
laying in the alley way he's done nothing with.
We're lucky if he mows his grass.
He does nothing about weeds and leaves
that's why we have to constantly trim
them back off our fence they are so overgrown.
We'd go over there and see if he'd let us cut them
all down along his side of the fence but it does
make for some privacy from his yard.
You ought to see his air conditioning unit.
I don't know how it runs in the hot weather
because it's surrounded by leaf build up
on all sides.  Gutters are falling off the back of his house
and when it rains it kinda floods areas of the yard.
I'm sure that doesn't do any justice for our basement
walls.  In that corner of our basement nearest
his house where the gutters are falling off,
if it rains hard then we start getting water coming
in on our breaker box and leaking into
the basement.