Monday, October 19, 2026

October Groceries - Part 4

October 19 Groceries

I ordered groceries on Sunday evening and they were delivered on Monday morning.  I mostly needed fresh half and half for my daughter and more bananas.  But, I also bought some stock up items including non-grocery household items (facial tissues) to take advantage of sales.  The facial tissues are regularly priced $7.49 for a 4-pack, but, they were on a special "pick up and delivery only" sale for $5 per 4-pack.  I could have purchased up to five of the 4-packs, but, I thought that two would be plenty.  

The individual packages of tuna salad and crackers are more than a convenient snack; they are part of my emergency preparedness.  They are shelf stable, easy to pack and carry, don't require a can opener, ready to eat, and each package comes with its own spoon.  Plus, they were on sale, this week, so it was a good time to stock up on them. 

This time, I received everything I ordered; nothing was out of stock and there was no need for substitutions. 

Here's my receipt:

Order Summary

Original Item Total$59.25
Item Coupons/Sales-$20.07
Fulfillment Fee+$0.00
Other Fees+$0.60
Sales Tax+$1.03
Order Total$40.81

Item Details

16 Items

Fresh Bunch of Bananas – 5-7 Bananas, 1 bunch
$1.80
2.61 lbs x $0.68 each (approx.)
Hillshire Farm® Polska Kielbasa Smoked Sausage, 14 oz
$5.98
2 x $2.99 $6.99 each
Kroger® Easy Care Everyday Tissues, 4 ct
$10.00
2 x $5.00 $7.49 each
Kroger® Half and Half Half Gallon, 1/2 gal
$5.49
1 x $5.49 each
Kroger® Saltine Crackers Unsalted Tops, 16 oz
$2.00
1 x $2.00 $2.19 each
StarKist® Snack-To-Go™ Ready-to-Eat Tuna Salad Kit, 3.6 oz
$11.92
8 x $1.49 $2.19 each
Western Hearth® 12 Grain Bread, 24 oz
$1.99
1 x $1.99 $3.29 each

Other Fees

$0.60

Bag Fee$0.60
6 x $0.10 each


I spent a total of  $40.81, of which, $11.03 were for non-grocery items (facial tissues plus sales tax), and not part of my grocery budget.

Boxes of Facial Tissues


Total spent on groceries (food items only) = $40.81 - $11.03 = $29.78

My October grocery budget is $250.

Spent to date:  $43.94 + $68.71+ $19.31 + $29.78 = $161.74

Balance left: $88.26

Even though there are still two weeks left in the month, I am feeling good about the amount left in the budget.  

As always, I am grateful for:

- The availability of groceries
- Being able to order online and have groceries delivered
- Sales, weekly specials, and coupons
- Shelf-stable, ready to eat meals and snacks
- Being able to stock up

How are you coming along with your grocery shopping?  Are you staying on budget?

Sunday, October 18, 2026

My Mother's Rickshaw

 

Mother, aged 85, in 2005
(one of the last photos of her)

Today is the anniversary of my mother's birthday.  She was born in 1920, the sixth child in a family of nine children; five boys and four girls.

I have shared bits and pieces about her in various previous posts as I remembered her on her birthdays, on Mothers' Day, and her death anniversary.  But, reading "Running in the Family", a book about family anecdotes, I was reminded of a story that my mother's older sister and my mother had told me about how she came to become the proud owner of a rickshaw when she had been about 7 or 8 years old!

My mother, along with all three of her sisters, attended a Catholic school as a child.  While a number of nuns taught at the school, there were lay teachers, too.  When my mother was in Second Grade, her class teacher had decided to raffle off a rickshaw she had acquired (I'm not sure how the teacher came to own a rickshaw or why she was raffling it off; I don't remember that part of the story being told to me; maybe my mother and her sister didn't know it, either).  The teacher had told all the students in her class to bring 25 cents for a raffle ticket which would be put into a box and she would select the winning ticket the following week.

Personally, I don't know how common (or ethical) it was for a teacher to tell her class students to bring money to buy a raffle ticket for a chance to win her rickshaw or any other personal belonging, for that matter!  Not very, I should think!  Or if the raffle had been approved by the school administrators, or even if they knew of it!

But, the long and short of it was that my mother knew she had to take 25 cents to school, the next day and she didn't have 25 cents of her own to take.  She would have to ask her parents for it.   Back then, 25 cents was a big amount. And, apparently, she believed that her father wouldn't give the money for a raffle ticket for a rickshaw!  Or, maybe he would have, but, she didn't think so and didn't want to risk it.  Instead, she concocted a story as to why she needed to take 25 cents to school the next day.

Mother's story was, there had been a lot of petty theft in the classroom, recently, with supplies going missing.  The teacher wanted to buy a statue of Our Lady to place in the classroom, with a note about the sins of stealing, as a deterrent.  And the teacher wanted every student to contribute 25 cents towards the price of the statue and she, herself, will put in the rest of the money required to purchase it.  That sounded like a very plausible story for a second grader to come up with, didn't it?

I don't know if her parents believed her story or not, but, apparently, it worked!  She was given the money she needed!  The next day, she took the money to school, bought a raffle ticket, and forgot all about it.  She was probably very relieved that she was able to get the money she needed and was happy that it was all over!

Until, several days later, when it was announced that she had the winning raffle ticket and was now the new owner of a rickshaw, which will be delivered to her house, later!  How was she going to explain that to her parents?  It meant that she had to tell her parents that she had made up a story about the reason for wanting the 25 cents in the first place!

Neither my mother, nor her sister, said anything about what their parents had to say about her fabricated story or if she was punished for making up a story, in anyway.  Maybe they were secretly amused by their daughter's creative story telling! Or, maybe they were just bemused by the whole situation.  Just what were they going to do with a rickshaw?  

According to my mother, the rickshaw was sold off and the money from the sale was placed in a post office savings account that her father opened for her!  I've no idea what she did with the money, later.  Maybe she used it to pay for expenses as she put herself through teacher training school.

But, that was was how my mother came to own a rickshaw, at the age of 7 or 8, when she was still in second grade. 

Two of my cousins called me, this morning, to let me know that they were thinking of me and remembering my mother on her birthday.

Happy birthday, Amma.  Thank you for blessing me with the stories and the memories.  

On Saturday

 

The Stumpery

The stumpery in the front garden has become part of the landscape, now, but, I still love looking at it.

On Saturday, daughter and I woke up early and we were on the road by 6:30 a.m.  The mobile spay and neuter clinic was being held at a church parking lot and they were just setting up when we pulled in.  The person running the cat rescue organization met up and daughter filled out the paperwork, then, we left the cat with them and came home.

I fed the chickens after we came home and as usual, they both ran out of the coop enclosure and ran around in the garden while I filled the feeder.  I had to bribe them with dried meal worms to get them back inside!  Henny Penny came running when I called her, but, Niwatori needed a bit of coaxing.

I spent the morning sewing on my hexagon quilt top and watching news videos of our wildfires.  I ate two of the blueberry muffins I made on Friday for my breakfast.  

Then, at noon, we went to pick up Tora, who, as we had suspected, was a boy.  He was very quiet in the car both going and coming back.  He had to stay in the trap for a few hours and, even when we opened the trap for him to leave, he stayed inside the trap for a little while.  But, eventually, he left the trap and joined the other kitties to have dinner.

After we came home with Tora, I made us some lunch and decided to try the can of breadfruit curry I had bought from the Sri Lankan store:

Canned Breadfruit Curry

It was the first time I've tried the canned breadfruit curry and it was very good.  I had fried karawala (salted dry fish) with it:

Saturday Lunch: Rice, Breadfruit Curry, Karawala

Later in the afternoon, I had a nap while daughter did a load of laundry.  It was another warm day with a high of 91F.  But, the forecast says it will cool back down to a high of 67F by Thursday.

Saturday Dinner: Tortilla Coated with Eggs
Chicken Curry


For dinner, I cooked tortillas coated with beaten eggs and served them with chicken curry I had cooked and frozen earlier.  Afterwards, I ran the dishwasher.

On Saturday, I was grateful for:
- Getting the last of the garden cats neutered
- The cat rescue group who helped us with getting it done
- A safe drive to the spay/neuter clinic and back
- Another warm day
- Afternoon naps

Saturday's joyful activity was getting the last cat fixed!

Plans for Sunday include dropping daughter off at her friend's house in the early afternoon for a get together, doing some laundry, and maybe getting some vacuuming done.

How was your Saturday?  What are your plans for Sunday?



Friday, October 16, 2026

Friday Catch Up

 

Wilting Rose

We had a cool day, temperature wise, on Monday with the daytime high being only 65F.  It was quite a change from the previous week's highs of upper 90s and triple digits.  Since I didn't want to turn on the gas heater without it being checked, I scheduled a safety check for later in the week.  Then, I thought that I'd bake a batch of muffins as having the oven on will help warm up the house a bit.  Except, when I went to preheat the oven, it didn't work!  The oven is a gas oven, but, it doesn't have a pilot light; there's an electric ignition instead.  And the ignition mechanism didn't work. The oven worked perfectly well when my daughter baked the pan of brownies towards the end of September, which was the last time we used the oven.  So, I don't know quite what happened between then and now for the oven to stop working.  Anyway, I was able to add the oven to the service request.  But, first, I had to cancel the earlier service request and submit a new one for both the heater and the oven to be checked.  Later in the evening, we took the trash cans to the curb for pick up in the morning.

I didn't do a meal plan for this week, either, but, I cooked scrambled eggs and diced fried potatoes for brunch:

Monday Brunch

We had some leftovers for dinner, but, I forgot to write down what we had!

On Tuesday, I brought the emptied trash cans in, tended to the chickens, and spent a good portion of the day sewing on my hexagon quilt border and watching videos.  It was slightly warmer with a high of 72F.  Brunch was leftover pizza from Friday's dinner.  For dinner, we had rice, salmon, canned mixed vegetables, and chili sauce:

Tuesday Dinner

 On Wednesday, I had another dental appointment to have two permanent crowns cemented on and impressions taken for my partial dentures.  It was another two hour appointment, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.  After we came home, I made some French toast for brunch.  I rested in the afternoon and watched some videos while I sewed on my hexagon quilt and waited for M to tend to the garden.  

Daughter and I had a cup noodles soup as a "first course" for dinner, mostly because I was feeling cold and wanted something to warm me up.  That was followed by leftovers for the second course - daughter had leftover salmon and rice; I had leftover chicken curry and half a bread roll.  I had some dates for dessert.

We had a warm day on Thursday, with a high of 90F! Which was lovely!  In the afternoon, the gas company technician came to check on the heater and the oven.  The heater was fine, he said, which was a big relief (long time readers know I've had issues with my heater in previous years). 

The stove, on the other hand, seems to have given up the ghost!  He removed the bottom shelf and tried to remove another cover, underneath, which would not budge!  He attached a meter to detect the current in the wire that ignites the spark at the back of the oven and explained to me how a certain minimum amount of electricity needed to flow in order to heat the element that then caused a spark and how a safety feature prevented the gas from flowing until the element heated to the required temperature.  He said that if there was electricity flowing, he could replace a burned out element but, he didn't detect any electricity flow.  It looks like I might need a new oven.

My stove/oven is a free standing gas appliance with four burners and a 4.4 cubic feet oven.  Two of the burners no longer light on their own (their electric ignitions don't work; I've had them checked by the gas company technicians in years past, but, they can't fix it as the entire top is sealed), but, I am able to light them with a long handled gas lighter (or a lit candle).  We mostly cook on the other two burners.  I am perfectly fine with that, but, daughter prefers to have all four burners available to her when she cooks.  However, I will miss not having an oven as I like to bake.  It looks like I will have to buy myself a new stove/oven to replace my current one, which is 32 years old!  I bought it back in early 1994.  I've looked online and picked out a couple of possible stoves, but, I plan to go in person to see them first before I decide which one to buy.

Thursday afternoon, I went to the pharmacy to pick up one of my medication refills that was ready and bought us some ice cream from the 31 flavors ice cream store as a treat.  

Thursday evening, daughter went out with a few friends of hers to do an escape room.  

I had leftover chicken curry and the other half of my bread roll for brunch and daughter had leftover rice and salmon.  For dinner, I cooked a pot of fresh rice and I added the last three Chinese sausages to the rice cooker along with the last of a bag of frozen green peas.   

Today, Friday, our temperature went up to 95F during the day!  It was lovely!  Once again, I spent a good part of the day sewing and watching videos online.  M was here in the evening to tend to the garden.  I baked some blueberry muffins in the microwave; they turned out okay.  We enjoyed some of them at tea time and M got to try them, too.  Brunch had been the last of the French toast I had made on Wednesday.  For dinner, daughter finished the salmon I had cooked earlier.  I made myself some fried rice for dinner.  

The big accomplishment of the day was trapping the last kitten, Tora.  We had been worried that the other kitties would go into the traps and it would be difficult to catch Tora.  But, in the end, Tora just walked into the trap without any trouble and daughter, who set up the trap, said it was almost anticlimactic!  We have an appointment to take Tora to the neutering clinic at 7:00 a.m., which means an early morning for us.  

Plans for Saturday include taking Tora to the neutering clinic in the morning and picking it up when ready, probably around 1:00 p.m.  

Sunday, daughter has plans to go out with some of her friends.  

How was your week?  What are your plans for the weekend?

Thursday, October 15, 2026

A Book Review

 

Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje

A friend of mine in Canada mentioned reading this book and I checked out a copy from the library.  The author lives in Canada, but, he was born in Sri Lanka when it was still called Ceylon and left the country as a young boy.  But he made two trips back to Sri Lanka as an adult to find out more about his family, especially his father, who, by all accounts, was a very colorful character.  

I enjoyed reading this book,  Partly because I knew all the places he mentioned, not just Colombo, which is the capital, but, also Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Kegalle, and Jaffna.  They were all places I had been in while growing up in Sri Lanka and I had memories of those places.  And partly because I knew people with the same last names as the people he mentioned; maybe not the actual individual that was mentioned, but, I knew people with the same surnames.  

And then, he mentioned someone whom I actually knew!  A former statesman who had known the author's father very well as they worked together.  Not only did I know this person as a former statesman, he was also distantly related to my father and a very good friend of my stepfather's!  The author described going to breakfast with his sister at this gentleman's home on one of  his visits to Sri Lanka, and it was something I had done, as a pre-teen and a teenager with my stepfather and my mother!  When the author described the pre-breakfast ritual of feeding the animals in the menagerie on the grounds of this former statesman's home, I remembered doing the same!  There were deer and at least two, maybe three, elephants, during my visits, plus peacocks and geese.  I don't remember what other animals there were, other than squirrels that seemed to have the run of the house.

For the most part, this was a book about family anecdotes and recollections of the author's grandparents and parents as he tried to learn more about who his father was.  But, we all have our own family anecdotes, don't we?  I used to love it when my Aunt D (mother's older sister) used to visit us and they would talk about their childhood and various family members and the things they used to do.  How my maternal grandmother, as the eldest of 14 children, drew water from the well to bathe her younger siblings, how one uncle used to come home drunk and set his children on top of the almirah (a free standing wardrobe), how my mother won a rickshaw in a raffle at school after making up a long story about why she needed the money to buy the raffle ticket (she had to come clean once she won the raffle), etc.  I think that is something we all have in common, no matter where our families originated, no matter where we currently live - old family stories which tend to be forgotten as the older generations pass away.  

I really did enjoy reading this book and now I want to read a more famous book he had written, earlier.  

There's a New Buffet in Town!

 

The Chickens Invite Themselves to the Cats' Kibble!

The chickens have discovered that there is a new buffet in town!  After several weeks of being out in the garden, they made if up the back steps, earlier in the week, and helped themselves to the cats' kibble!  

The Cats Waiting for Their Turns at the Buffet

The next day, they made a bee line to the cats' food and Mochi was the only kitten who was brave enough to eat from the second bowl while the chickens were there.  The other two kittens just watched.   Fluffy was no where to be seen.

The traps are still there because we are hopping to trap Tora (sitting near the traps) this Friday; we have an appointment with the neutering clinic for Saturday.

The sight of the chickens eating with the cats reminded me of Chicken Little and Mama Cat: 


Chicken Little and Mama Cat

The chickens have established the pecking order when it comes to the garden cats!

Tuesday, October 13, 2026

Yet Another Grocery Delivery!

October Groceries Part 3:  10/11/26

Yes!  I ordered more groceries on Saturday evening to be delivered on Sunday morning.  Mostly because I wanted to buy more sugar at the  "pick up and delivery only" sale price of $1.99/4 lb. package.  This time, however, several of the items I ordered were out of stock.  The out of stock items included store brand vanilla ice cream, store brand cranberry juice, and the sugar.  There was no indication, at the time of ordering, that any of these items were low in stock as sometimes happens when I order.  But, I guess in the time between ordering and shopping, these items were sold out!  I watched a video someone had posted online about empty shelves at their Kroger store in a Midwestern state and I wondered if our store shelves were empty, too.  Anyway, I am thankful I received the items I did receive!

Here's the receipt:

Order Summary

Original Item Total$44.91
Item Coupons/Sales-$26.00
Fulfillment Fee+$0.00
Other Fees+$0.40
Sales Tax$0.00
Order Total$19.31

Item Details

10 Items

Ensure Max Protein Shake, 42g High Protein, French Vanilla, 14 fl oz, 14 fl oz
$7.94
6 x $1.32 $4.49 each (approx.)
Kroger® Original Pancake Syrup, 24 fl oz
$2.49
1 x $2.49 $2.99 each
Nature Valley™ Oats 'n Honey Crunchy Granola Bars, 6 ct / 1.49 oz
$3.48
2 x $1.74 $4.99 each
Smart Way™ Fresh Uncooked Chicken Drumsticks, 4.5 lb
$5.00
1 x $5.00 each

Other Fees

$0.40

Bag Fee$0.40
4 x $0.10 each

My total came to $19.31

Going through the receipt, I noticed that I had not been charged for the package of bacon, which was on sale for $3.99 for 12 oz.  I knew from past experiences that the store would simply say to keep the bacon.  So, that's what I'm doing!  

My October grocery budget is $250.

Spent to date:  $43.94 + $68.71+ $19.31 = $131.96

Balance left: $118.04

I am honestly not planning to order any more groceries in the next couple of days! 

I cooked a curry with the tray of chicken I purchased in this order and froze some of it for later.  The bacon has been frozen, too.  

Are you noticing any empty shelves in your grocery store?