Last Day of November!

I haven't posted much lately because I've been super busy with transcription work until late last night. I ended up having several long breaks where I was cleaning and getting everything ready for Thanksgiving...and I didn't work at all ON Thanksgiving. 

And now this week I'm taking a break from transcription and getting some sublimation designs done! I planned to have a Black Friday sale in my Etsy shop with a lot more holiday designs available, but then I was just too busy with my transcription work to get it done. So that's what I'm going to focus on right now. I also need to get started on making Christmas gifts for everyone. :) But...I'm still having a hard time finding the blanks I need. So I'll be trying to get all that figured out too. 

We had a really nice Thanksgiving! My mom wasn't able to make it since she's been sick for the last week or so...but my grandma and my sister and her family came to have dinner with us. My sister brought deviled eggs and some desserts. As always, we had a lot of food! :) My sister packed some to-go helpings to drop off at my parents' house for them and we've been having leftovers for dinner every night. :) I'll be sad when the leftovers are gone and I have to figure out what to make for dinner again. And it appears that's going to be, like, tomorrow. :P Dang it! I don't mind cooking dinner...it's the figuring out what to cook every single night that is exhausting. lol

I didn't do any Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping for Christmas gifts this year. However, I did take advantage of some sales for CandiMaker stuff. I was able to get 50% off the annual subscription for the website that I use to make my mock-ups. And then one of the graphic sites had a $1 event and I found quite a few bundles that I liked. So that was the only money I spent during Black Friday...and it'll be written off as business expenses when I do my taxes. :)

Well...I'm gonna get back to working on designs. :)

Thanksgiving 2021

This year we hosted Thanksgiving at our house for my family. My mom has been sick so she wasn't able to come, but my grandma and my sister and her family joined us for dinner. I made basically the same things as last year, except I doubled the green bean casserole and candied yams recipes (probably didn't actually need to), and then I added a couple more recipes. Johnny made a whole turkey in the oven this year, so I made a spiral cut ham in the pressure cooker. And instead of buying Stouffer's Mac n Cheese, this year I made the Crockpot recipe from my grandma. It was delicious and we had plenty of leftovers! :) 

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Pressure Cooker: Spiral-Cut Ham

Ingredients:

5 lb spiral-cut ham
1 1/2 cups water 

1/2 cup honey 

3 tbs brown sugar 

1 can sliced pineapple 

Heavy-duty aluminum foil

Directions: 

1. Cut a very large piece of aluminum foil (enough to cover the ham completely) and spread it out on the counter. Remove ham from the packaging and place in the middle of the aluminum foil. Fold up the sides around the ham so it will hold liquid.  

2. Open the can of sliced pineapple. Drain the pineapple juice into a bowl. Set pineapple aside. Stir in the honey and brown sugar.

3. Pour about 1/3 of the glaze over the ham. Then carefully pour a little glaze in between each cut of the ham. 

4. Place the pineapple slices on top of the ham then wrap the foil around the ham.  

5. Pour water into the bottom of the pressure cooker. Place the foil-wrapped ham on a trivet in the pressure cooker and lock the lid. 

6. The spiral-cut ham is precooked, so it only needs to be heated. Cook the ham on high pressure for 2 minutes per pound plus 10 minutes to account for the aluminum foil. Then let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes before releasing the rest of the pressure. 

OPTIONS: You can reduce the remaining liquid to further glaze the ham after it has cooked. You can also broil the ham after cooking for a crust. You can also fancy it up by preparing it with cloves, apricot jelly, etc. 
(this was made in an 8qt oval pressure cooker) 

Creamy Crockpot Mac N Cheese

Ingredients:

1 16 oz package of elbow macaroni, cooked for 6 minutes and drained  
1/2 lb Velveeta, cubed

1/2 stick of butter, sliced 

1 can cheddar cheese soup 

2 cups milk

Directions: 

1. Combine all ingredients in the Crockpot.   
2. Heat on high for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  

Just a few more days!

Today I got the last things that we'll need for Thanksgiving dinner. :) Over the weekend I talked to my mom and sister (and later my grandma) about dinner at our house this year. So they'll be coming over to have dinner with us Thursday evening. :) I'm changing up the menu from last year a little bit to accommodate a larger number of people. 

Johnny is making a turkey and I'm going to make a spiral ham in my pressure cooker (which is a first for me because I don't personally like ham). He'll start the turkey in the morning sometime and then I'll start the ham around 2:30 pm or so. 

Then I'm going to make a double helping of the green bean casserole, cornbread casserole, and candied yams in the toaster oven while the turkey breast and ham are cooking. I'll also make a double helping of the turkey stuffing and noodles on the stovetop. Instead of just heating up Stouffers macaroni and cheese like I did last year, I'm going to make the slow cooker creamy macaroni and cheese recipe from my grandma. It only takes about an hour in the crockpot so it'll be super easy. 

The night before I plan on cleaning house and making the banana cake bread, strawberry whip dream, and the pumpkin pie. I'll wait to vacuum Thursday morning because otherwise it'll look like I didn't vacuum at all with the large amount of pet hair we have around here. :P 

But for now...I need to get back to work! I still have a lot of minutes to transcribe! 

The year will be over before we know it!

I can't believe it'll be Thanksgiving next week! I'm not sure exactly what we're doing other than making Thanksgiving dinner here at home. We've had Thanksgiving here at the house every year since 2013. Sometimes we have a house full of people and a couple years it was just the two of us...usually it's somewhere in between. Each year it's mostly just a matter of...we're making dinner so anyone who doesn't have other plans is welcome to join us (except last year before the Covid vaccine was available for everyone). But we generally make a lot of food for Thanksgiving whether we plan to have anyone over or not. We really like leftovers! ;) In fact, I usually wish we had even MORE leftovers after we finish them. :P I already got all the groceries for Thanksgiving except the turkey, strawberries, bananas, and Hawaiian rolls. I'll probably go ahead and get pie crusts too because I don't feel like making them from scratch when I don't even eat pumpkin pie. :P Last year I went ahead and bought a pre-made pie, but I have some pumpkin pie filling in the cabinet that I need to use. Other than that I just plan on making basically the same stuff I did last year.  

I've been working a little bit on some winter/holiday sublimation designs for my Etsy shop. I'm trying to get some Christmas gifts done as well. I have the design done for my mom's Christmas gift but I still need to finish my mother-in-law's design. And then I have a few other gifts I need to make as well. 

I've also been trying to get some transcription files done so we'll have a bit more money for other Christmas gifts. So...I better get back to work! :) 

Definitely a Monday!

I swear...today is the Monday-est Monday of all Mondays. Johnny has been having the same kind of day as well. I assume it's a matter of still getting used to Daylight Savings Time ending again. I wish we'd just switch to Daylight Savings and keep it forever instead of going back and forth. Because who really wants it to start getting dark at 5pm anyway? It just makes winter seem even more gloomy than it already does. :P But on top of today just being BLAH...my transcription headset stopped working so now I have to get a new one. These things are supposed to come with a 1-year warranty but I have never, ever had a pair of these last an entire year. They work great for being able to hear spoken words...when they actually work. :P Hopefully my new headset arrives in time on Wednesday. 

Yesterday was my grandparents' 40th anniversary party with the family. Everyone had a really nice time. My sister did an excellent job with the decorations. I designed the image and printed the sublimation transfers...then my sister was the one who pressed them onto the can coolers that were given out as party favors. :) 

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My mom used my photography equipment to set up a decorated backdrop to take pictures against. She did an amazing job, as always. We haven't had a family photo of the four of us since 2017 so it was really nice to finally take a new one! :) 

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And just to compare, this is the four of us in January 2017...also in similar colors! Oh...and Johnny and I are standing on a higher step...we were not that much taller than the girls in 2017. ;) Actually...I'm pretty sure Aubry and I were the same height by that point. :P 

Turning into cooler weather!

I love fall. I love the colors and the cooler weather. I like it when you can just wear a sweatshirt and still be comfortable. There have been several days when it was a little too cold for just a sweatshirt though. :( I'm really not a fan of winter and fall never seems to last long enough. 

I've been really busy with CandiMaker stuff. I worked on my invoice/order form for my end-product sales and I like how they turned out. I use Excel spreadsheets for everything like that. You can add graphics and change the fonts to make it look nice...but you can also use formulas in the spreadsheet to automatically add up totals, shipping, tax, etc. I have SO many spreadsheets for so many things. Eventually I plan to offer some for sale in my Etsy shop too. :) 

Last weekend Johnny and Ashlyn did a little shopping. I had a pair of jeans that needed to be returned to Kohls for a difference size and Johnny exchanged them for me. :) Then he and Ashlyn looked at some shirts on clearance and found a few that she liked. I always like Kohls clearance. Some of the shirts she got were less than $2! Johnny also found some slippers to replace the ones that had worn out. We love our PJ pants and slippers around here! :) She also tried on a lot of dresses and skirts that she wasn't going to get. :P They have fun shopping around though. Saturday my mom and sister stopped by after they were done running some errands. They tried the cake Johnny made for my birthday and chatted for a little while. So that was a nice visit. :) 

We didn't have any plans for Halloween. Since the kids have gotten older, they make their own plans now. Well...Ashlyn is grounded so she didn't have any plans. :P Aubry was hanging out with a friend of hers that lives near us. She stopped by for a little bit to hang out. Then that evening Johnny, Ashlyn and I met my mom over at my grandparents' house to play the Pegs and Jokers game that my grandpa made. I was dead last the first round but then I came in first during the second round and Johnny came in second! He has only played a couple of times so he's definitely getting the hang of it now! :) We had a lot of fun playing and joking around with everyone. My mom goes over there every Sunday for dinner and to play games. I think we'll have to start making it more of a regular thing for all of us to go over there. :) I think next time that there's an even number of us we're going to play in teams. Since Johnny is getting the hang of it now, we can add another level. ;) 

Tomorrow I plan to clean house and get some laundry done. You know...all the boring stuff. :P We have my grandparents' anniversary party to go to in the afternoon. They've been together for 40 years (it's the second marriage for both of them)! I was two weeks old when they were married. I hope Johnny and I will be able to celebrate 40 years of marriage! We'd have to make it to 2057...so Johnny better live past 89 years old and I'll have to make it to almost 76. Man...that seems so far away! But next year Johnny and I will celebrate 5 years of marriage (and 10 years back together). This is the longest relationship either one of us have had. Johnny was in a relationship with his first wife for 8.5 years, another relationship off and on for 9 years, and then he was with his second wife for about 3.5 years. My relationships before have lasted 3 years, 5 years, and 6 years...so this relationship is by far my longest. And it has definitely been the best relationship I've ever had. :) So...here's to working toward 40 years! :)