Farewell to 2019

The remnants of Christmas are disappearing, though there always seems to be that one ornament that hangs around unseen until spring...I haven't found it yet.  Most of the clean-up is normal housekeeping with a few surprises.  I've washed all the floors on the main level of the house, and as I've swept/vacuumed before mopping I've found a few toys, a pair of little boy's underwear, and various crushed cookies and a candy cane.  Then there are those spills that seem to appear out of nowhere.  I can't blame them all on the young one as I know he doesn't drink coffee or diet Coke.  

I spent a good part of one day this week organizing my new laptop.  By setting up the two laptops on the table side by side, I was able to replicate the same folders and ensure I had the links I wanted.  I'm still getting accustomed to it, the keyboard has a calculator keypad on the right, so I tend to position my fingers in the wrong spot and end up with stuff I didn't mean to have happen.  But it's getting easier everyday.  It's basically just a newer model of what I had.  Best of all it has a larger screen making it easier to see my mistakes. :p

On Saturday I spent much of the day in the kitchen.  Another batch of buns was made, with half put in the freezer for later.  I started a jigsaw puzzle that I bought last summer - it has rows of various fabrics with sewing notions scattered about.  By Sunday I realized the puzzle is far too big for my small table!  I can't do it on the floor so all my work was tucked back in the box and I'll hold off until I have room for it.  A bit disappointing, as I was hoping to finish and frame it to hang in my craft room.  

I also played with the Instant pot.  Please bear with me as I've never owned a pressure cooker and this is rather interesting to me.  After reading the manual, I cleaned the various part and ran the first test, a water test.  I'd read a hack the night before that suggesting putting a few eggs in while doing the test.  The author said one might as well get something out of it.  In went four eggs and with a three minute cook and a natural release I had perfectly hard boiled eggs.  I had one for my breakfast and the other three were made up into egg salad for sandwiches.  Definitely no faster than on the stove but a good use of the test.

Later I pulled some chicken breasts from the freezer and partially defrosted them.  I cut the meat into smaller cubes, sauteed the meat for about 5 minutes (in the Instant pot), then added a bit of water and some BBQ sauce.  (Next time I'd reduce the water and make my own sauce but I wanted a simple recipe for my first attempt).  It took about 6 minutes on the pressure cook setting to finish.  Meanwhile I made Minute rice on the stove, and heated up some mixed veg.  In total it took 20 minutes from when I started the prep to when we were sitting down to eat.  Could I have done this on the stove in a similar amount of time?  Probably since I had cut up the meat and it was already partially defrosted  I suspect it's first real test will come when I forget to take something out for supper and need to get it cooked in a hurry.  The Instant pot also works as a slow cooker so I'll give that a try next as that is one appliance I use frequently.  If the Instant pot works well I'll give my slow cooker to D.  


Sunday I continued my housecleaning, then worked on the baby blanket and watched the international junior hockey.  Our Canadian team had a horrid loss to the Russians the other day, 6 to 0, as well as losing one of their top players to injury. In their game against the USA, Canada was down 5-1 at one point and came and won the game.  So I watched the Russia - USA game with interest.  I figured it would be a close game and it was, with USA coming out on top 3-1.  Canada played Germany this morning and came out on the winning side with a 3-1 score. 

 I managed to finish the baby blanket while I watched Sunday night football.  While I prefer our Canadian football (not soccer), at this time of the year I do pay some attention to the NFL.  A few years ago I was on a cruise ship in the Caribbean a week prior to the Super Bowl.  I recall laying out on the upper deck watching the playoffs on the big screen under the night sky.  That sure won't be happening in 2020.

The blanket turned out nicely though it sure didn't start that way!  This is a tiny piece of the yarn that it was knit with - each stitch is knit in between the little puffs of yarn.  Casting on wasn't too difficult but the first few rows were a bit of a nightmare.  I frogged it at least twice before I was satisfied with how it looked.  There were still bits of, what I'm calling, string on the edges so I crocheted a border using a similar yarn but without the strings.  Much easier!

My next project will be on the needles later today.  I'm planning on knitting a sweater for Eli for the spring.  While I'm working on that, the Instant pot is working on chili on the slow cooker mode.  Only time will tell how that works out.

I won't be going out this New Year's Eve. In the past Ial would have been at C & N's, but as they separated there will be no celebration this year.  Even if they were, I suspect it would have been suspended, as N's mom passed away this weekend.  It was a bit unexpected though she's been in and out of the hospital for nearly 6 weeks.  Thankfully, N was able to spend some time with his mom before Christmas.

I'll be back in 2020!  Have a great week everyone.

My new toy

No news to share regarding the house, other than I did go ahead with a price reduction with the hope it might spur some interest.  But I've gone as far as I'll go - if it sells, it sells, if not I'll stay here a while longer.

What is new, is my recent acquisition... a Fitbit, an Alta HR to be exact...like I'd know the difference between it and another.  What convinced me to purchase this new toy was a friend who showed me the data on her recent sleep patterns.  I was intrigued as I've wondered what my sleep is like.  I usually go to bed about 10 p.m., watch the news for 10-15 minutes and usually fall asleep relatively soon after lights are out.  Typically I sleep until around 6 or 6:30 though can be up a couple of times during the night and the cats will wake me earlier.  

What I have learned is that I spend most of the night in light sleep.  Most nights I'm awake more often than I recall, and I spend very little time in deep sleep.  Most information I've read indicates 20% of a night's sleep should be deep sleep, I rarely get more than 10-15% a night.  An article I read indicates, "deep sleep is crucial for physical renewal, hormonal regulation, and growth.  Without deep sleep, you're more likely to get sick, feel depressed, and gain and unhealthy amount of weight."  Ah ha, now I can blame lack of sleep for my weight gain...or not.  I suspect it has a lot more about what goes in than how  much or how little sleep I get.  

When I told my daughter that I've learned I'm a light sleeper, her response was, "that explains why I couldn't move at night without you hearing me".  Hmmm, perhaps being a single mom all those years caused this pattern.  

In any event, I'm finding other benefits to the Fitbit.  For example, on a normal day of doing housework and yard work, I can easily reach 7-8 thousand steps.  However, housework is rarely recognized by the app as "active minutes", with the exception of vacuuming.  Gardening, on the other hand does count.  I believe it determines the activity level by heart rate.  I'm still not at 10,000 steps a day every day but my average for the last two weeks is over that number.  All it takes to reach the target is a walk around the neighbourhood.  I just have to get more regular with these walks.

There is also an option to track what one eats and drinks, calculate the calories and pointing when one has over eaten (only once in 14 days).  What I have learned is I have far too much sodium in my diet.  This is a concern because of my family history of heart and stroke so I'll definitely need to work on that.  For example, for dinner this evening I had chicken strips with a side salad at the local Denny's restaurant.  According to the app that meal contained almost 1200 mg of sodium!  The daily recommendation is 2300 mg.  Once I added in the cheese and salad dressing I had in my salad at lunch (nearly 600 mg), and the sausage with cheese on an English muffin for breakfast (760 mg) and I'm well over the daily limit.  I understand sodium is used as a preservative, hence there are high amounts of it in salad dressing, in processed meats, and cheese.  I do take some of the numbers less seriously as, for example, grilled chicken is shown as high sodium.  I don't salt my meat that I grill but rather use a Mrs. Dash, a non-salt added spice mixture, however I usually marinate the meat in a oil based salad dressing.  I'm definitely going to have to start reading labels more closely and try to find options that will be a little more heart healthy.

Do you have a Fitbit (or some other tracking device)?  It's relatively new to me so I'm quite fascinated, is there something you've learned with the device that you can share?  

Speaking of sleep, it's time to head to bed.  Have a good weekend everyone!