Less Hustle More Coffee

Recipes that Were Requested

So here is the recipe above that I use for the 24 hour salad… that you saw in the Less Hustle More Coffee YouTube Christmas Crunch video (video embed is a couple of entries a go if you wanna “look see”). I make this around the holidays and sometimes in the spring around spring or summer if we are having company. ***But I don’t use water chestnuts, and I prefer scallions to red onions, but pretty much everything else is spot on. Thanks to Twilla Brazelton, who I believe was the mother of someone I rode the bus with in elementary school. 😉 I have used this recipe since I was in my 20’s – it’s vintage as I’m 59 currently! :-O

As for the Pumpkin Bread Recipe…

I used this one from NatashasKitchen.com —-> Pumpkin Bread Recipe

Both are tried and true and delicious.

Weekly Update

So I had my physical Wed morning at 7:00 a.m. The good thing about that is that no one else is there. It’s the top of the day and so not eating since ten the night before is no issue. The physical takes over an hour though and then I went through Chick-Fil-A drive through because I’m still a kid at heart and my reward was breakfast. 😉 I was at work around 9 a.m. since the school zones were done my commute was only 30 min. Otherwise this week the commutes are 45 to 50 minutes to get home, and even longer as I’ve had errands to run after. The days have been busy and fast and not a lot of down time.

As for quarter end and work? Well I only have 1 return left to file for Oregon on the STT tax for Transport and I am willing to bet that even after asking twice for the data, that it is probably not in my stack of data. I could be wrong. I haven’t had time to look. But I will likely have to ask again for it. We’ll see. I don’t recall seeing it in there.

We’ve had a 401k audit and so while I have been trying to file returns and pay this week’s payroll taxes, I have had to pull numerous 2020, 2021, and 2022 records. You get one set pulled and here comes another request. So it’s a wonder I am sane at all between all that, the dentist, the physical, leaving early one day for Mom, running her errands and trying to find her shoes to wear (had to go back and swap sizes). I’m surprised I’ve made any progress at all but I’ve tried to rush through everything.

I have not had time to work on Month End at all. It all has to be done by the 15th. There is still time but I’m picked to death every few minutes, even that will be difficult. But what can you do? lol

We’ve eaten pretty good this week. This kale salad was delicious. And that is pork chop with it with a sauce and carrots on top.

Dexter has been a little wild man. He misses us during the day/the week so bad. The only thing messed up is his pee pad paper. He had two but he at least only tears up one. He sometimes breaks out but he hasn’t bothered anything when he does. Sometimes it’s the humans that forget and leave a door open. I feel so bad he’s at home by himself for a while.

Video Editing

If I had 10 or 15 minutes here or there I’ve worked in Final Cut Pro on the videos. I’ve picked out music, edited some clips, resized photos, and last night I was surprised to find myself with some quiet time while George fixed dinner. I used my camera to film some introduction to the next video talking about the new year and our going to Texas and “looking back” upon the first of the year. I decided to film the next video as a “look back” from the current time because I had very little footage of either us. We were just in critical mode almost as the month was so busy and I had very little time to video anything, but I had some pretty good pics to share and also some instagram stories. So I’m pulling it all together in a Jan 2022 video. And I’ve also promised myself to begin doing the videos a little differently as I work to “catch up”. I want to morph into more current time frames, update the intro with Dexter, and then begin introducing some new intentional segments in there, that will actually be useful, and still a part of my life. I will always share our life and I want to get better at that too.

You will have to let me know if there is anything you want to see or want me to share, or do a video on. I’ll take some requests, lol. An example is “what kind of toys to buy a puppy/dog that is going to grow big in size”. I could do a segment on what we bought to keep him entertained that has worked. Or my make up routine. How I stay Organized. These are just a few of the thoughts I had. I also thought about doing a behind the scenes “here’s how I edit videos” on Final Cut Pro. I’m not a genius but I could share how I do it and the order in which I do it. I could share my Amazon Wish List, lol. There’s all kinds of ideas I’m developing. I could do one on Christmas Ideas. How I decorate my table. How I get so much done in a week. How I use my phone to organize my life. All kinds of ideas floating around in there. When I retire I can go hog wild into filming intentional videos. I’m trying to morph into it if I can catch up.

I have been able to go from once a month to three weeks. My goal this year was every three at least and I have met that I believe. I have even surpassed and done two weeks a couple of times. I have also done one week back to back ONCE I think. So the timing is improving and that makes me happy.

I’m getting close to having some time to “continue learning” with goals being to integrate more from Canva, learning how to use Tube Buddy to my advantage, continued camera learning and practice (the last video did great – I think- I’ll see what the transfer looked like) with the new settings. I also want to do some blog research on SEO and such. As the goal is to continue growing the blog too. It is growing, slowly and surely so we have more of a community here.

Life has been busy this week and the to do’s are mounting. It’s August you know! And soon it will be the transitional month of September. We will have to get our act together on the Christmas season, start planning our trip to Texas at Thanksgiving, figure out what to do with Dexter (he gets his neutering done this fall – it’s already booked in October), get the house swapped over to fall, clothes swap. I always look forward to these things. I also have to do our fall bucket list and share what we did and didn’t do for summer. And in October it will be quarter end again. Ahhhhhhhhh! lol

We have to give Dexter a bath and I’ve been thinking about buying one of these. lol Do BIG DOGS go and get groomed? Anyway I think we may have to take care of it on our own til he is neutered. And I need to learn how to brush teeth and do ears. So more training to do on that.

So Mom says she is better. I hope she is. We will see her tomorrow and bring her car back and take her the new shoes. I need to see if I can find her some capri lounging pants (jog pant type thing) that are loose and comfy. Amazon was not really pulling up what I need. I may have to go to Walmart or Target and actually look and feel.

I have to wrap George’s birthday gift (even though he knows what it is I feel like I need to wrap it). I have two baby gifts to wrap and I have to go buy paper for that.

I think we are about to place membership with our church and when we do we’ll be spending more time with that I think. So life could get a little bit crazier than it already is.

So I asked my sister if she would help with Mom and she told me how busy they were but agreed to help order her groceries and Amazon orders. I told her she would have to communicate with Mom (it’s not helpful for me to be the go between – if I have to text her what to do every time, it’s just as easy to order it myself if we have to do it that way). After all the internet orders are really nothing and take not much time.

As for groceries Mom doesn’t want to pay for instacart but my sister would have to communicate with her anyway if she ordered her groceries. I’m not texting anyone to order mayo and ketchup on Tuesday. May as well just do it yourself ya know if you have to be the go between? That’s just not helpful and makes more chaos and red tape. But she said she is afraid to communicate with Mom in case the conversation went south. She said she had a lot of healing to do and had come a long way and did not want to slide backward. I didn’t get a text back after I suggested she call her and unblock her if she really truly wanted to help, but I had listed all the ways she could help and the needs Mom had since she said she would be glad to help. I guess time will tell. Til then I guess we can expect to do it all ourselves, George and I. Maybe I’ll be surprised but I’m afraid that Mom’s care will simply be left on my own and we will see if her words of being glad to help will ring true. I hope that they do. Because things will get worse before they get better. Since you can’t always count on many humans for help in a crises, I’ve engaged God daily in the situation. Mom gets a lot of attention from us in our spare time here and there, but we will need to look at options for her to have some daily help until it’s time for assisted living – we are not it – we don’t have time to be “the staff” lol. Mom had previously poo poo’d help from the outside before, but we’ll see. I think she is good for now as long as this gout stays away, but it’s certainly been a wake up call.

Yay it’s Friday! And I need to go and get ready and get to work! Ya’ll take care! What are you doing this weekend? I’ll be back probably Sunday afternoon if I get time. Busy Saturday and then church Sunday. Will do what I can to squeeze it all in. Have to get laundry done, grocery shopping done (need a few things for work – breakfast and lunches), and whatever housework I can fit in. I don’t think it will be a restful weekend with us being gone most of it. We also have to take Mom’s car back and get her shoes to her on the way to Cookeville tomorrow. For the person that says “I only want to go to a grocery store 1 time every week or two- I will have been there at least 4 times within a week, after I go again this weekend. ::sigh:: One time was to swap the shoes, and I was supposed to get cat food and forgot b/c my mission was the shoes til George threw the cat food on me at the last minute but I totally forgot! I can’t remember anything anymore if it’s not on a list. There’s too many other things biding for my time and attention.

Ok I’m not off the hamster wheel yet and need to get ready and get out of here. Take care.