Friday, January 4, 2013

Tackling projects long overdue and eating better...


The little recycling center that sits next to the fridge in our kitchen was l-o-n-g overdue for a reorganization and cleaning.

I have a constant tug-of-war going on inside my brain. My desire to be a minimalist and my need to hang onto anything that has a memory (or is cute) are always on a collision course. I do not need one single thing on this shelf. I don't use anything up here. But since I haven't totally embraced minimalism, instead of letting everything go, I just gave it a good cleaning.


The canister set is one thing I won't part with (the other canisters are nested inside this large one). This set belonged to my mom. Also, the green tree. That was made by my oldest daughter, and I love it, so I certainly can't let that go. (That gives you a good idea of how my inner dialogue works)...

I at least got the shelves and baskets organized so I can find things easily. But look at all the crap still on those shelves! Clearly a project that was long overdue, but that still needs a lot of tweaking! (There's cute Mr. J, getting a drink from his water bowl).

Of course after all that organizing, I ended up with piles spread all over the living room - the 'stuff' that had been shoved into/onto the shelves of the recycling center. I'm happy to report that it all got organized, tossed, or recycled, etc., so the piles are now gone!

As I do every January (and this year is no exception), along with trying to tackle all the little house projects that have long been avoided/neglected/overlooked/ignored (any one of those words will do), I also make a promise to myself to try to eat healthier. (We'll see how long it lasts.)

I found a recipe on Weight Watchers for Turkey Sweet Potato Shepherds Pie.

It looked simple enough for even me (I am neither an adventuresome or good cook).

Okay, vegetables and turkey sausage sauteed  and cooked, sweet potatoes cooked and mashed......

Tomato soup then added and cooked to thicken. Turkey/vegetable mixture poured into pie dish...

Mashed sweet potato topping added. Then, into the oven...

... and a short time later, yummy Shepherd's Pie.

That plus a tossed salad made for a nice dinner on this cold winter night.


PHOTO PROBLEM SOLVED 

Regarding yesterday's post, where I was having problems being able to load photos. I'm STILL not able to put up a new post with photos using Internet Explorer, so I tried using Mozilla Foxfire. As you can see, I was able to add photos to this this post without a problem. I've been having a lot of intermittent Internet Explorer problems lately. I use USPS.com to print labels for all our Etsy orders, and about a month or two ago I was no longer able to print my shipping labels using Internet Explorer. Once again, I started using Mozilla Foxfire to print my labels and haven't had a single problem.

I know several of you also had problems or heard of others having problems with pictures on Blogger yesterday. So it seems there is some glitch with Internet Explorer working with Blogger, at least on my end.

I'd encourage anyone else who's having problems to download Mozilla Foxfire and try using that. It might solve your photo/posting problems!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

Donna

11 comments:

Susan said...

The W.W. dinner looks delish, Donna. And good for you cleaning and organizing! I need to do that, too. Susan

Elaine said...

I applaud your quest for minimalism. I am like you, if it has a memory attached to it, I keep it.

I'm joining Weight Watchers again so I am eating healthier too. Lost 18 pounds since Summer. Would like to lose another 25, we'll see.

A Whole Lotta Magic said...

For effortless, healthy and amazingly quick weight loss - go vegan. Your whole being will thank you!

Sue
xo

Claudia said...

My advice: ditch Internet Explorer. It seems to have the most problems of any of the browsers. I've been having problems with Chrome lately, so I've made Firefox my default browser and it's working beautifully!

xo
Claudia

Ruth Kelly said...

I was just thinking that I needed to clean some drawers and closets and get rid of stuff taking up space and downsize. Perhaps, it may become action and not thoughts. Your pie looks very interesting indeed!

Donna said...

That looks very yummy!

I've heard of various people having problems posting lately, but one gal even had problems with Foxfire. I recommend Safari. I use it on my mac, but they have a windows version too. And it's a free download! It's never given me a bit of trouble.

I have trouble parting with treasures too! But I've start doing some clean out. I figure if I do a little bit each day, then it won't seem so overwhelming. Some old sweatshirts got the boot today. Yesterday, it was some magazines sitting in a rack. I was appalled to see that there were some a year old piled in there! Heave ho, out they go!

Sandy aka Doris the Great said...

That pie sure looks good; I'm going to look for it online. Good luck with organization.

Clara said...

I have Firefox and I love it. The Shepherd's pie sounds good. I'll have to try it. Thank you for stopping by. I'm your newest follower.
~Clara

Melanie said...

Hi Donna ~ that Shepherd's Pie looks really good, even though you say you're not much of a cook. Looks like you did just fine! Good job on doing some organizing/throwing out, too. That's what I've been working on lately, also.

I switched from IE to Firefox over a year ago because I was having the same sort of problems that you were. Solved my computer problems, too!

Judy at GoldCountryCottage said...

Hi Donna: Just jumped over after leaving you a thank you from me to see what you are about and noticed that you were having problems sending photos on your blog. I just saw from Bonnie at White Lace and Promises that she is having the same problem. I am on Google Chrome and Picasa and next month will be a year and I haven't had one problem. Don't know why though, maybe ignorance is bliss..Thanks again for visiting the Cottage..Judy

Debra at HOMESPUN: http://www.thehomespun.com said...

Hi there...first, you'd told me to come look at your squirrels ( when you saw my squirrel post ) but I did that ages ago and then looked at all the chips posts and by then I fell in love with your blog and Baby and visit alot, lol

I'd keep all that stuff on the shelf too...it is all so pretty!

As to IE, a few months back mine got a bug and no matter how many times I downloaded the Fix the Bug tool it never did work again so I am using Google Chrome now. I am not on Blogger, though; I use wordpress, but I never could get my IE to work again since the troubles first occurred.