Use It Up

Posted on by Laura & Brett

Brett and I have started the process of using up food items that have been hanging out in our pantry as well as many of Japanese ingredients I brought back from Tokyo last summer.

We have five and a half months remaining to use everything up. That feels like plenty of time, but experience has taught me we may end up cutting it closer than we’d like.

Some things I made this month and what they used up: the gingerbread used up molasses; Chinese 3-color salad used up rice noodles; fluffy pancakes finished a box of Japanese pancake mix; and pasta with Alfredo sauce & ham used up a jar of Alfredo sauce and some leftover ham. I also made a loaf of apricot nut bread with the last of some dried apricots, coconut flakes, and walnuts.

Things like pasta and sauces will be easy to use, but five cans of tuna? For some that might be easy, but for us . . . not so much. Twenty packages of CookDo sauces . . . we might get through half to two-thirds of those but thankfully they’re light and travel well. Bread and eggs . . a piece of cake. But four boxes of pancake mix? I don’t know. , , , ,

The key, I think, is going to be narrowing our monthly food budget even more between now and when we move out of the apartment and concentrating more instead on using what we already have. Time seems to finally be picking up speed, and this small dilemma of emptying our pantry and fridge is one more thing that will hopefully make our remaining time go more quickly. Other tasks will soon be popping up, so this is one thing I want to have a good handle on before everything else starts getting crazy.

Good Things Continue to Happen

Posted on by Laura & Brett

photo credit: unsplash/Jess Bailey

These days it feels at times like we’re all being made to sit through a horror film we not only never wanted to see, but one we can’t believe anyone ever imagined or wanted to make. There is real evil in the air and yet nothing seems to happen to the perpetrators.

I could keep lists of and dwell on all the horrible things going on, but I try to think more about the good things that continue to happen in my life. They usually come in small doses but they do keep coming, and I try to take note of them every day. Instead of the bad, awful, and horrific, I keep a mental list of the good things going on around us or to us, to remind myself that not everything is a negative.

Here are some of the good things that have happened to us recently:

  • We received a tax refund this year, the first since 2017. We used to file right before the deadline in April, but this year we filed in early February and our refund was in the bank in a week.
  • YaYu passed her mental health therapist licensing exam on the first try! She will graduate in May and hang her shingle.
  • We changed all our billing due dates in January so that everything arrives at the same time as our social security payments. I have no idea why we didn’t do this earlier, but we’re finding bigger chunks of $$$ to move into our savings accounts.
  • I lost my beloved silver Hawaii bracelet late last year somewhere in the apartment. Brett and I searched for it for a few days, but never could find it. But in my heart I felt it would just show up one day, and it did last month, no worse for the wear! It had apparently fallen off in our closet and had been hiding in a back corner.
  • I got a wonderful surprise in the mail today: a dear friend sent me two pairs of my favorite pajamas! To say I’m beyond grateful would be a gross understatement, especially since I was struggling to find anything else.
  • I purchased a new sundress I found on sale at J. Jill with an additional 30% off the already great sale price. We’re very close to a decision about where we’re going next but a linen sundress will be appropriate clothing at any of the three locations.
  • Brett and I are in a comfortable rut these days. We have schedules to keep, but we’re sleeping well, eating well, and things that need to be done are getting done.

While things feel bleak at times, or occasionally frustrating beyond measure, I know that bad times don’t last forever, just like good times don’t last forever either. I encourage you to take the time to find and recognize the good things that continue to happen in your life, the little moments that bring you joy, and give them their due. It’s good daily medicine.

Some Goals For March

Posted on by Laura & Brett

photo credit: pixels

I am trying hard not to push myself this year like I have in the past, and less is more has become my mantra. Still, I like to have a few goals lined up each month, and this year I want them to mostly be things that will move us forward in our remaining six months in Tennessee. The goal is to get out of here with as little stress and as much money as possible.

One of the goals this month is a big one, the others are small:

  • Set up a spreadsheet to evaluate where to go next. We have narrowed future locations down to three (Tucson, SoCal, or Mexico), but Brett and I need to get into the weeds of what will best suit us and our future. Vibes are just not going to cut it – we need to evaluate the realities and make the best decision possible.
  • Spend $300 or less on food for the month (if possible). We are enjoying the new menu plan, and the repetition is making it easier to create a shopping list as well as use up what we have on hand. With prices continuing to rise though even the smaller amount we buy now is right at the $300 barrier.
  • Buy some new pajamas. My favorites are organic cotton Asian wrap pajamas from Garnet Hill because they’re super comfortable, cute, and a pair lasts around three years. However, they’re also expensive. Costco currently is selling two pairs of GAP cotton pajama pants for $16, and with a couple of t-shirts I already have on hand I would be set at a much lower cost.
  • Read two books. My desire to read comes and goes but I think I can finish two books this month. They’ll probably be mysteries because that’s all that seems to catch my attention for now.

Just four things to accomplish in March, and nothing too demanding, I think. The first one is the big one and will take the most time, but I’ve got my fingers crossed we can get it done.

We Just Have To Choose

Posted on by Laura & Brett

photo credit: Unsplash/Markus Winkler

With just six months left to go in Tennessee, we have come up with three solid locations that would cover everything we want going forward: bountiful sunshine and no humidity, a cost of living that doesn’t stretch our income, and some opportunities for adventure.

We told our children at Christmas we were not going to relocate back east and why. They were, as expected, disappointed but also understanding of our needs and wants. They know us.

All roads point west for us, the southwest in particular. Tucson is getting a closer look once again. The city has everything we are looking for except for those brutally hot summers. But, there are nice houses and condos in our price range – we could actually buy a home there if we wanted (we don’t). The state of Arizona has lots of beautiful places to check out and New Mexico, Utah, and California are nearby for exploration as well.

Southern California is calling to us as well, and we are currently researching two different locations there. The cost of living in many areas in the state is far higher than we want to deal with but we have found some affordable places. The Coachella Valley (Palm Springs area) looks like it might be a good fit, for example, but it also has those brutal summers. There’s another a place nearer to the ocean that also looks promising. Both places offer 55+ living.

Finally, we have been looking again at the pros and cons of moving to Mexico. The income requirements for resident visas have increased quite a bit since we were there four years ago to the point we’ve wondered at times if we’d even be eligible, but apparently we still qualify. We loved our time in San Miguel de Allende, and know it would be a comfortable and affordable place to live year round. However, Mexico is shaky right now and has both of us nervous about a move there.

Whichever location we ultimately choose we plan to visit family back east in December every year and when babies arrive, and if we end up in Tucson or Palm Springs we would leave during the worst of the summer heat for three or so months in Mexico. The summer months in San Miguel de Allende are quite temperate, warm but not overly hot (May is actually the hottest month) and since it’s “off season” it’s not too crowded.

All three locations have a dry climate along with a cost of living we can afford, and would allow us to enjoy a little bit of travel every year (as long as the U.S. economy remain intact). We’re not signing off on anything yet and know better than to say anything is a done deal for now. But we’ve narrowed our options down and are happy with all of them.

Now we just have to choose.

Pictures Worth a Thousand Words

Posted on by Laura & Brett

I take a lot of pictures, probably at least one every couple of days, if not every day some weeks. I take pictures to preserve a moment, a memory, something funny or cute, or something I might want to include in a blog post or share on Instagram.

Of course, not all pictures I take are worthy of keeping. I’ve gotten pretty good at going through my photos every two or three days and deleting ones that really aren’t very good. I tell myself I could have done better, or ask myself with if this image is something I truly want to remember, and why. I go over with myself why a particular photo is worth keeping and from there sometime it stays and other times it still might get deleted. I go through my entire photo file once a year to see if I still want to keep everything, and because of my earlier culling it’s rare that a photo gets deleted during this process.

Photos of family members and family events usually always make the cut, but not all of them. Pictures from our travels over the years have been gleaned, and I am satisfied with the ones that remain and the memories they provide.

There are a few pictures though I keep for a different reason.

The picture of our living room at the top of the page is one of them. I see this room every day, so why do I keep this picture? It was taken when we returned from our trip up to Massachusetts last September for WenYu’s wedding. We’d been away for seven days, and this was the view that greeting me when I walked in the door of our apartment. Something I’ve seen hundreds of time.

This time though the room spoke to me, and said You’re home! Come be comfortable again.

I took a picture of that moment. And nearly six months later I still feel the warmth of that homecoming whenever I look at the picture. I still feel the welcome and the comfort.

There are a couple of other photos that speak to me, although with emotions deeper than mere memory. I still feel the deep, jumbled emotions I had as we left Kauai in May 2022 in the picture of the coastline, taken from the plane window as we took off. What are we thinking leaving Hawaii? We are so happy there? The green light in the second photo was located by the woods at our first apartment in Tennessee. I saw it every time I went out for a walk and for some reason felt a deep chill every time I walked past it. That light was always on, day and night, and there were no other green lights at the complex. And no one at the complex knew why it was green or why it was there. Just the picture still gives me an unsettled feeling.

All the photos in my files are memories and moments caught in time. All are beloved, but these other ones are kept because they spoke to me in a different way, in voices I can still hear and feel.

Home Cooking: Cake Delight

Posted on by Laura & Brett

The recipe for this delicious cake was given to me in 1978 by the secretary in Brett’s office when he was an instructor at NAS Millington. Our son had just been born and she took it upon herself to look after us, making sure we and our new baby were doing okay.

Lynn shared several recipes with me, from cookies to casseroles. I kind of laugh now whenever I make this cake because I’m not sure how we could have afforded the ingredients for it back then, but I do remember making it whenever I could because it’s so good. I always made it the “traditional” way too, with three layers, and I remember it barely fitting into my beloved Tupperware Caketaker.

For some reason unknown to me now I stopped making this cake for many, many years. Maybe because we got away from eating things like Cool Whip and instant pudding? Who knows? Anyway, I had totally forgotten about it but found the recipe when I was looking through my collection of recipes last year for something else. I made the cake as a surprise for Brett’s birthday and we fell in love with it all over again. Actually, I have yet to meet anyone who doesn’t fall head over heels in love with Cake Delight. My grandchildren are notoriously picky when it comes to cakes but they gobble this one up and love, love, love the “frosting.”

Cake Delight is meant to be served cold, and needs to be stored in the refrigerator. I make it now in a 9″ X 13″ pan and works out just as well as when I made it with layers.

CAKE DELIGHT

Cake:

  • 1 box yellow cake mix (Duncan Hines golden butter cake mix is recommended)
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 10.5-ounce can of mandarin oranges

Frosting:

  • 1 8-ounce tub of non-dairy whipped cream
  • 1 3.4-ounce package instant vanilla pudding
  • 1 20-ounce can crushed pineapple

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add the eggs and oil to the cake mix and beat well. Add the entire can of mandarin oranges (including the juice) to the batter and beat until the oranges are broken up and incorporated into the batter. Pour the batter into either three buttered 8″ round cake pans or a buttered 9″ x 13″ pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the cake is done.

Cool the cake thoroughly.

When the cake is cool blend together the non-dairy whipped cream with the instant pudding, then fold in the crushed pineapple, including the juice. Let the mixture thicken and then frost the cake, either between the layers and up the sides and on top, or in a thick layer on the 9″ x 13″ cake. Chill the entire cake completely before serving; store leftovers in the refrigerator. 

Too Good To Go

Posted on by Laura & Brett

Would you be interested in adding a little fun and mystery to your usual food shopping at a low price and saving good food from going to waste?

Last month we saved three “bags” of food: one was a $9.99 bag of prepared foods from Whole Foods that contained two curry chicken meals (value: $10.59 each) and two boxes of roasted beets (value: $10.19 and $10.29). We ate the beets right away and put the curry meals into the freezer. Last week we got a $19.50 assorted box of donuts from Krispie Kreme to share with our grandkids for just $6.99.

We have been using Too Good To Go for the past few months (usually around two to three times a month) – our youngest daughter turned us onto the program – and we have been able to add some delicious treats to our usual groceries each month for very little. We love the boxes of Krispie Kreme donuts we can get for $6.99, but we’ve also gotten bakery treats for $6.99 from Whole Foods, and huge steamed bao (three of them: pork, chicken, and beef) for $4.99 from a local Asian restaurant, and a bag with fresh mozzarella cheese, gourmet chocolates, and crackers for $9.99, also from Whole Foods.

A third TooGoodToGo bag this month was from the Whole Foods bakery for $6.99. It contained four giant pretzel butterscotch cookies (value: $6.49), four large orange cranberry muffins (value: $7.49), and an Abe’s vegan coffee cake (value: $8.99).

Too Good To Go partners with food businesses to offer bags of food that are still perfectly good to eat but because of sell-by dating cannot be sold in stores or restaurants the next day. Here’s an example of how it works: I’ll get a notification during the day that Whole Foods will have some bags from their bakery available that evening. I click on the TGTG app, reserve a bag and pay for it, and then Brett and I go pick it up in the evening. We never know what we’re going to get but every bakery bag we’ve bought so far has always contained high quality items, ones that are either at their sell-by date or the day after. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a whole (even a half!) pie from the bakery one of these days, but so far we’ve gotten bagels, cookies, brownies, turnovers, scones, muffins, coffee cake, and other great bakery items. The value of every bag or box we’ve purchased has been worth at least three times what we’ve paid for it.

If you want to get in on the savings (and fun), start by downloading the Too Good To Go app to your smartphone. Set your location, and select a few favorite types of food you’d be interested in getting (our favorites are the Whole Foods bakery bags, Whole Foods prepared foods, Krispie Kreme, and a nearby Asian restaurant). Every area is different and has different participating markets, bakeries, and restaurants with different offerings. Setting up favorites and alarms on the app is the best way to find out the minute bags become available, very important as the bags can sell out very, very quickly. It can feel frustrating to lose out on a bag, and it might take a couple of tries to snag one – they’re very popular.

When you do reserve a bag, you’ll need a mobile wallet service to pay before it’s officially yours. Also, be sure to take your phone when collecting the bag – stores will ask to see proof on the Too Good To Go app that you’ve reserved and paid for it.

And then, enjoy!

Sunshine on Our Minds

Posted on by Laura & Brett

photo credit: Mark Neal/unsplash

I spent the first 24 years of my life in Southern California, first in the Los Angeles area and then San Diego, with plenty of time at the beach. The smog in LA was horrific during my childhood, but there was always sunshine and no humidity. Sometimes it turned hot, but usually the climate was warm and pleasant, with the sun almost always shining (we did have rainy days now and again though). I have no bad memories of truly uncomfortable heat, even at my schools, which were not air conditioned. The weather was mild year-round except it seemed for around two weeks in late September/early October when the Santa Ana winds arrived and temperatures would climb to over 100 degrees for about a week or so.

I took all that beautiful California weather for granted.

I like seasons . . . sort of. I like rain . . . for a while. I like cold . . . for a while. Snow is okay as long as I can stay indoors. However, I despise humidity and only tolerate it because I have to. While I don’t care for hot weather as much as I did in the past, I can deal with it as long as humidity isn’t involved.

I am so very, very, very tired of dealing with humidity. Brett and I lived in the east (Florida and Maryland) for years while Brett was in the navy and neither of us could wait to get out from under the humidity in those places (Maryland’s was brutal), but we went to Japan after that and had to continue to deal with it again. I think one of the reasons I loved living in Portland for so many years was because although it was wet, it was never humid. It wasn’t the rain that got me down either; rather, it was the ongoing gloom and overcast that lasted for months. While Hawaii’s almost daily sunshine and warmth was wonderful, the full-time humidity there could be miserable. The trade winds kept humidity levels bearable for most of the time, but the winds stopped during the summer and into the fall and when they were gone temperatures started climbing along with the humidity levels. Life got wet, drippy, and downright uncomfortable. Summers in Japan have become increasingly hot and humid, and there is not enough money in the world to get me to go there again in the summer. It’s been the same in Tennessee. As the temperature and humidity levels (and allergens) start rising each spring I become a different person and I don’t want to be outside for any reason. Fall and spring weather here used to be something to look forward to but these days we seem to segue right from winter into summer, and then stay in summer way too long. We had what seemed like less than a week of crisp, cool fall weather last year, and temperatures were nearly in the 80s for a few days in December.

When we leave Tennessee we will be heading west. That’s all we know for sure now. We have no idea where in the west we’ll go but Brett and I are in agreement that we are going to ditch the humidity for good and embrace a warmer place. Southern California calls to us, but the cost of living is right up there with Hawaii. We have the skills and income to deal with it but don’t think it’s in our best interest to do that at this stage of our lives (which why we have given up on going back to Hawaii). Tucson is once again calling to us, and to our surprise so is Mexico. This country feels too crazy right now though to make any sort of decision about the future but we’re going to (have to) make one fairly soon. Stay tuned!

A New Food Plan for A New Year

Posted on by Laura & Brett

This month’s shopping at Costco, Aldi, and Trader Joe’s. We stocked up on lots of items but still spent less

Let’s not kid ourselves: food is downright expensive these days and prices are continuing to rise.

Last year’s monthly food budget for the two of us worked pretty well; in fact, we usually spent less than we allowed ourselves. Spreading out the Christmas needs over the last four months of 2025 also helped keep our food spending under control. Still, by the end of this year we knew if we didn’t somehow find a way to tighten up our grocery spending things could start spiraling out of control. We needed to come up with a way for the two of us to somehow continue to eat well while spending about the same or less each month for groceries than last year.

I have always prided myself on creating affordable, healthy menu plans each month with lots of variety. However, that has meant we were always spending on the various ingredients needed to do that. I also wanted to keep a backup pantry stocked. Most evenings for me were spent in front of the stove and I found myself very, very tired of doing that. I just don’t enjoy cooking much any more. So, the goal for this year became twofold: 1) cut back as much as possible on how much we spend on food each month, and 2) come up with a monthly menu plan that focused on easy-to-prepare meals we could enjoy more than once.

Menu planning this year is focusing on repetition and includes the meals we currently enjoy the most and don’t mind repeating while allowing enough variety to stave off boredom. Our weekly meals are ones that besides being easy don’t have me having to follow a recipe, doing a ton of prep work, or getting a lot of dishes dirty.

At the beginning of this month we started rotating through seven different meals that we’ll eat this month. They’re not followed in any sort of order each week but we decide each morning or the day ahead which of them we want to have. All the meals are very easy to fix, we have many of the ingredients already on hand, and they’re tasty, fairly low cost, and often provide leftovers for lunch the next day.

Here are the evening meals in rotation this month:

  • Spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic toast: I made a big batch of sauce at Christmas and portioned some for the freezer.
  • CookDo pork stir fry & rice: I use a different variety from my CookDo stash each week; the pork is already in the freezer
  • Naan bread pizzas: we have a different one every week, from pepperoni to Thai chicken
  • Breakfast for dinner: eggs with bacon or sausage, pancakes with bacon, or biscuits with sausage gravy
  • Fried rice or Madras lentils with rice
  • Macaroni & cheese
  • Tuna or chicken salad sandwiches with soup: we change up the soup every week, which we purchased from Costco and Trader Joe’s.

We included in our budget one takeout meal in the month, and this month we got a big pizza from Costco to share with the grandkids. I also plan one “substitute” dish to slip during the month – this month that meal was Hawaiian chicken along leftover fried rice. Neither of us is very interested in dessert these days.

Ideas for February include some repeats: macaroni & cheese, naan bread pizzas, and breakfast for dinner will continue. We’re also going to have either beef stew or beef curry (made with sauce mixes I brought from Japan), barbecue pork sandwiches with coleslaw, pasta with red pesto and meatballs, and potstickers or spring rolls with rice and vegetables. (Many of the ingredients are already in the freezer and pantry, and we did our Big Shop yesterday because of an expected BIG snowstorm this weekend.)

Will this new approach work? I don’t know yet but our grocery lists have been shorter than they were last year and we spent nearly $200 less on our first big shop of the year. I’m hoping this new way will remain sustainable: having less variety than before but still enjoying tasty meals at a lower cost, along with less cooking and clean-up for me.

Some Goals For the New Year

Posted on by Laura & Brett

I actually accomplished most of my 2025 goals, although I definitely did not lose any weight (but didn’t gain any either). Neither Brett nor I bought any new clothes during the year but gave each other one wanted piece at Christmas. We did not set foot in Target, Home Depot, or Walmart, or use Amazon for the entire year and saved a lot. WenYu had a beautiful, fun wedding in September with our whole family together, and we had a nice trip up to Massachusetts and back, including a national park visit along the way (and a t-shirt for Brett, of course). We downsized some more even though we didn’t think we had anything left to get rid of.

I wouldn’t be me though if I didn’t have some goals to accomplish in the coming year. I came up with a short list of just five goals:

  1. Get the heck out of Tennessee. Our lease expires over Labor Day weekend, and the day after that holiday we are out. of. here. Tennessee is an extremely beautiful state, but has a dark undercurrent that we will be glad to be away from. It hasn’t turned out to be all that affordable either.
  2. Prepare for a big move. We haven’t decided yet whether we’ll go full service or do the packing ourselves.
  3. Embrace our new location. We are confident we will find the right place for us and truly make it home.
  4. Spend less time on the computer and more time reading. A genuine challenge, but I’m trying.
  5. Stay healthy. Keep up with medical appointments, watch what and how much I eat, and get some exercise every day!

I decided not to set any sort of reading goal this year, and am not going to even keep a list of the books I read. I want to keep my reading enjoyable and relaxing rather than try to finish a race. I’m pretty sure there will be lots of mysteries/thrillers, which are my favorite genre. I’m hoping to reread the entire Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny – we’ll see how that goes.

Here’s to looking forward, staying positive, and making this a great year for change!