Learned something new

I learned something new last week that I wanted to share here just in case any of you may be interested in this information. Winco actually sells some veggie food. Some friends had told me about it and told me where to look. I have been shopping at this store for over a year and walked down many different aisle and never had seen them - it may be because they are on the row with the tuna and we don't eat very much tuna.  Plus they are on the top shelve as well. 

This time I knew where to look specifically and I found them. There are not a whole lot of choices but there are a number of items and for a better deal then any other stores in the area. I had found the Morning Star veggie food at the beginning and they run about 1.00 per package cheaper than what they run at Walmart and such.

Winco is a great store and well worth the drive up there. I try my best to get there at least once or twice a month.

There is an awesome bulk section where there are many great deals. And canned olives run 98 cents a can - the best deal around as well. Olives are loved by almost all of my family and it is a staple at every Sabbath dinner so I buy some every time I go to Winco. Paper towels are another thing that I usually buy there.

If you have one nearby - you may want to check it out! It will be well worth your time!!!

God's Provision

Thursday is normally a day that I volunteer at the thrift store, but this past Thursday I found out not too long before the time I normally go in that we would not be working that day. So I needed to figure out something else to do. I decided to check out a couple of Goodwill's and while I was up in that area I thought I would stop by Winco on my way home. 

While I was in the produce department - I noticed a lady looking at the veggie trays - it was really weird because I usually do not buy things like that but for some reason I was drawn to check out what she was looking at. As I stood there trying to figure out if the price that I saw in front was them was actually for them, the lady looking at them said yes - they really are 25 cents! She had worked there that morning and she had marked them down because they would be going out of date the next day. I picked up one and finished my shopping.

By the time I was done shopping I was getting pretty hungry. And I knew once I got home it would be a while before I would be able to eat since I would need to get supper fixed. So I decided to open up the veggie tray and have a snack on the way home. And as I was eating the sugar snap peas and carrots on the way home - I realized that God had taken care of me! He knows that I really like to have fresh fruit or veggies with each meal and I like to have my fresh/raw stuff first. And by having this veggie tray I was able to get my raw veggies on my way home which helped me hold off till supper was ready. What great provision. Oh and the dressing with this tray was very good. I actually served it with some veggies for our Sabbath family meal and every loved it. I got my quarters worth and SO much more. But the best part was knowing that God had provided what I needed before I even realized how much I would need it!! :O)

My Best Deal ....edited

Just noticed the photo was so big that not all was seen so I made photo small. :) 

I am SO very excited about this weeks - Best Deal. It is something I never even imagined I would ever get. So just imagine for a minute how excited with this wonderful thing was donated to the thrift store that I volunteer at!!!!! 

Do you know what this is? 

I only know because my hairdresser has one. It is an automatic vacuum. You can set the controllers to where all you have to do is sweep stuff to right in front of it and it sucks all the stuff in! Since I have 4 cats I will not be leaving mine on auto all the time. I will just turn it on during the time that I am sweeping. You can see where you pull out the portion in order to dump what has been vacuumed up - there below the "EyeVac" 

It still had trash in it and the filter was dirty and smells like dirty dog- I am sure hoping that is what I am smelling because I have read that if it smells like burnt hair that it is probably about gone. The burnt hair smell means that hair has gotten into the motor. Anyway I dumped all the stuff out and I cleaned the filter up the best I could. I also got onto Amazon and got a new filter ordered- I paid more for the filter than I did for this awesome deal.

So brand new these run about $130.

Yes~ I realize there is a $15 sticker on it - but since I volunteer there I get a better deal. So I will just leave it there- I paid less than the $11.95 that I paid for the filter.

I am SO thrilled with my deal!!! You just never know what treasure will show up on your journey through life!! :O) 

In only seconds....

My husband was finally home after working out of town for quite some time and we decided to watch one of our shows that had been recorded. I had made him spaghetti for supper but I wasn't in the mood for spaghetti so I made myself a bowl of popcorn. Only about 10 minutes into the show something happened and in only seconds - I knew I was in trouble. Something was stuck where it wasn't suppose to be. I stood up and pointed at my back letting him know that I thought I was in trouble. In the moments that passed the thought came to my mind - this could be it. I might die today. It was so scary. Thankfully, only by God's grace was I able to get it dislodged and be able to breath. I did NOT eat the rest of the popcorn. And thinking it might be sometime before I do. And if I do - I will certainly be chewing it up really, really good.

In those few seconds - that felt like forever- when I thought this could be it I felt so helpless. I thought no help could get to our house fast enough. It really shook me. I have felt emotional about it off and on since then. Thinking about the fact that things can change so quickly and scary it is has made me really that we need to live our lives in a way that if our life was over that we would be ready for Jesus' second coming. Because once our life is over - the very next thing we will know will be when Jesus raises us up when He comes again. Those seconds were scary but thankfully they were not my last ones.

A Recap of Present and Past Valentine's

Friday morning as I was having quiet time - I heard a loud noise come from the hallway closet that houses our heating and cooling system- it was loud enough that it caused the doors of the closet to shake and scared my kitties. I didn't think too much about it till about 30 - 45 minutes later as I was about to go take my shower I felt like it was cooler than usual in the house - it was below freezing outside and the temps had dropped a couple degrees lower than I usually run it. So I went to check out the closet. I noticed some breakers and switches on the unit and I turned them off and on. Nothing happened. I looked around more and noticed a couple of breakers on the wall and I went to turn them off and on and noticed one of them felt as if it had been thrown. So when I turned it back on the unit started up again.  I was very proud of myself for getting it going and since my husband was still out of town I called him to let him know what was going on. Well he reminded me that I needed to go check our outside unit to see what it was doing - what ever system we have when it gets cold and wet it is best to run the E-heat because the unit outside can freeze up. Well the unit outside was not going - so I came inside and turned the unit down so it would kick off. Then I went out there and I switched the breakers out there off and on. And something that was done fixed the situation. I was so thankful. It is a bit more stressful to have those kinds of things happen when your husband is out of town....

As you recall Friday was Valentine's Day - how could I forget almost everyone was talking about it on Facebook.... As I went through my memories of past Valentine's Days - I remembered that 6 years ago on Valentine's Day I had been sitting at Texas Oncology having my 3rd chemo out of 6. My Valentine's day might not have been what I would have liked it to be - but at least I wasn't having chemo..... For a break later in the day I caught up on a show I watch and they just happen to have a scene where a lady is celebrating 5 years cancer free - and in the middle of the party she breaks down and cries because of the fear she feels that the cancer could come back. Oh I know the feeling all too well.... For today I have good health and I am thankful for that. I don't know what the future holds but I know Who holds the future and for that I am thankful! :O)

On A Roll

So I have been on a roll lately. On my phone I have an app to help keep up with how many steps I get each day - it just says "Steps" on my phone. This app let me go in and set a goal. Well I can't remember if I sat the goal or if the phone already had it set at 8,000 steps per day. But this month I have been on a roll. I have been working very hard to make sure I get my steps in each day. February the 1st was on a Sabbath. Sometimes I have a hard time getting my 8,000 steps on Sabbath and on the 1st I did not make it. It was closer to 6,000. But every day since then I have reached my goal and many times over 10,000 steps. One day I even made it to 13,489 steps.

Towards the end of the day I look at my phone and see how close I am to my goal and if I have not reached it yet I work in more movement - sometimes it takes a good amount to catch up. This has been very good for me and has helped keep me moving and pushed me to move more when I may not have really felt like it. I am going to do my best to continue this streak. I looked back over last month and it seemed like I would get my steps in 5 of the 7 days of the week. I am hoping to achieve a goal of reaching my goal steps most every day this month.

If you have one of these apps check it out and see if it can help encourage you to move more. You will be glad you did!!

My Best Deal

So this weeks best deal comes from a recent visit to a local antique mall. My husband has been working out of town a lot lately and so on day last week when I got home from volunteering I was lonely so I decided to go check out our local antique mall. Walking around this place seems to be calming and I knew that would be good for me. I am SO happy that I noticed this set of Tupperware measuring cups. The price tag on them said $10.00 and even though that is cheaper than what a lot of places sell these vintage measuring cups for - I felt it was a bit high. And then I noticed the big sign in that booth that said "50% off everything!" Yay! So this set only cost me $5.00 and tax. A great deal!! 

 So I just had to show you something else I saw. This cast iron skillet. Do you see how big it is? 20 inches the tag said!!! I have NEVER seen an iron skillet this big - apparently no many have since the price tag indicates it is VERY valuable......

Just in case you can not see the price it was $1865.00!!!! Oh My!

I had a very nice walk and left the antique mall feeling a bit better. And had a best deal to share with you this week - so a win/win for me! :O)

Happy Valentine's Day

Just wanted to drop in for a minute and say Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you all have a great day and weekend to follow. My husband is out of town working so it will be a quiet day for me. It looks like all this working out of town for him might be coming to an end soon. We shall see....

***By the way on the post about becoming a target I did not put the title of the book we are reading in Sabbath school correctly. The title of the book is actually "Let God Be God" by Ray C. Steadman

An Addition to My Workout

So I have shared how I am going to a strength training class that our church has been having for the past 5 weeks. It has been a real challenge but I have learned so much and it has been so worth my time! 

This is one of the pieces of equipment that we use there and I have learned about 6 different exercises that I can do using this gravity trainer. Some are easier than others - but all beneficial

I found this one at Walmart for $14.92 I believe. And as you can see you put it over your door and close the door securely. My favorite exercises with this is like he is shown - doing pull ups with either your elbows out or by your side- alternating them is great! That is my favorite exercise so far with this band. 

What we learned last night that I enjoy is doing squats holding onto these and then our trainer challenged me to do one legged squats- alternating legs. That was challenging but fun as well. It's need to see what all you can do with just one piece of equipment. 

Now I am wondering what I will learn next week. Hmmmm?!

A Prayer That Could Cause A Target

If any of you have a problem seeing all of this prayer- let me know in comments and I will reduce size of it so it all fits. I am hoping that it is set up to allow the reader to click on the prayer and be able to see it better. 

Anyway this is something that the prayer chain that I am a part of from my old church. Each day the head of the prayer chain sends out a message with the prayer requests and then always adds a family or two to the list for us to pray the Bless prayer over. 

Last Friday just happened to be the day that my family was going to be prayed for- at about 6am I got a text message to let me know. I don't know why for sure...it could be because we are studying a book on the book of Job called "Let God be God" for our Sabbath School or what but all of a sudden I felt a dark cloud over me - like me and my family were in trouble. I guess it was like since our family was being prayed for that it would put a bulls eye on our backs. Anyway I had a bit of a rough day but it was nothing like what would happen over night. At 3am I woke up to my right shoulder hurting and my right hand almost up to my elbow being numb and it just wouldn't come out of it. I was up for a whole hour with this. I googled what could be the problem...it concerned me with a few of the things I read - like precursor to a stoke. Well my husband was out of town and I was home alone. And I decided to just post on Facebook a question asking if it was normal for it to take SO long for the numbness to go away. My thinking was that if there ended up being something serious at least my family would have some idea of what had happened. It was scary being home alone and then concerned that something serious may be going on. I took a baby aspirin because I figured that is what my mother would tell me to do and then I tried to relax and get back to sleep. After and hour I finally got back to sleep. When I woke up a couple of hours later - I again had some numbness. And a really rough morning. I listened to our church service from home and thankfully made it to Sabbath School. One thing that really helped was that my husband got home right as I was fixing to leave for Sabbath School and I was able to get a few good hugs - made a big difference in how I felt. I still had some issues with my arm/hand feeling weird throughout the day. At my strength training class - one of the exercises that I felt might have been causing some pressure on my neck causing the nerve issues was modified so I did the exercise but I did not use the weights - and believe it or not since it is not a move I usually make- it was a good work out even without weights. 

After this experience I have learned that when I pray this prayer for anyone I am quite serious about praying for protection for them as well since fiery darts will probably assail them. Anyway I wanted to share this prayer just in case anyone was interested in it. :O) 

Finally

Two babies were born to our family - well to my husband's brothers anyway. Both of his brothers became grandparents - finally. I say finally because our granddaughter just turned 10. 10 years of being grandparents! Anyway so even though the babies - both boys were born the end of August- I am just now finishing the quilts that I made for them. And in order to do that I had to make my self do it. I had to put it on my list and give myself a dead line. And Sunday evening I finally finished the last one. And got them washed up on Monday. I had worked on them a little here and a little there and then they just sat waiting for me to get the next thing done. 

It feels good to finally have them done. I opens a lot of possibilities of things I can start working on now. 

Ok - so I am still noticing the spell check thing gone - anyone know why they took it out? It just seems weird to me that they would take something so helpful away.....ugh..... Please overlook any mistakes. I have been very busy and when I get a chance to get on here and get posts typed up - I have time to get them typed up - but I don't always have time to go back through and proof read them to make sure there are no mistakes. 

The Makings of a Hoarder

So last week I got one of my best deals lately, but by the time you get to the end of this post you will understand why I chose to title this post the way I have.... lol 

So I got this awesome - what is a vintage karaoke machine - but that is NOT why I bought it- in fact it wasn't until later that I discovered what it really was. The reason I bought this is because I have some cassette tapes with sermons on them that I would really like to make copies of because several of my friends would like copies of the sermons that I have. Anyway when I saw this I thought that it was a machine specifically to copy tapes.  

It wasn't until several hours later when I was showing it to my son that I noticed a black cover on the back of this that said "open" and when I opened it I found a mic and cord. Apparently this can be powered by batteries or a cord. And it works great. I have already copied one sermon. 

So about 6 months ago I went through my room and got rid of some things that I did not think I needed any more. I wanted my room to be less cluttery. Well I got rid of several brand new cassette takes - like about 4-6 of them. And I got rid of 2 very nice cases that held a dozen cassette. At the time I was proud of myself for finally letting go of these things that I did not think I would need. Once I got this great machine I remembered about the cassette tapes - but at that point I did not remember that they were part of the things that I had gotten rid of. So imagine my disappointment when I went to look in the place I had kept those things only to find them gone and be reminded that I had just recently gotten rid of them. Oh man.... I was upset. That is when I thought about how this is usually what happens - I hold onto things and hold onto them and then not too long after I get rid of said item - I need it. I was even more upset when my husband told me that the cassette would be expensive - especially at the current prices plus the fact that I want to make the sets of sermons for several people. I was tempted to become a hoarder after that experience. 

Then this past week end my oldest son and his daughter and I went to an antique mall and my son found this great deal for me!!! 

I am SO glad he was with me - because where he found this package I would have never been looking and I would have missed this blessing. I will be keeping an eye out for cassettes when I go to antique malls from now on. I have a local one I need to check out soon. Maybe next weekend! 

So my best deal this week - $4.00 Karaoke Machine - which is actually a cassette recorder machine for me. So thankful for great deals like this!!! 

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So I just finished with this post and was looking to spell check and that button is missing. I sure hope they have not taken it away. 

My Most Recent Painting

Just wanted to take a few minutes to share with you my most recent painting.
This is when I go to the Masterpiece program that my church has. 

Every time it is challenging. 

Sometimes I go and I really like what they have picked out and other times not so much. 

But after all the work I put into the painting - by the end I love them all.