5 thing Friday - beans, walking, habits, speaker, junk

 I rediscovered a couple of recipes that call for black beans and decided to cook my own because I can make them low salt with no additives, and they are cheaper than canned.

Also, its easy to soak them during the day, let them cook in the crockpot at night, then cool and bag them for the freezer in the morning.

One $1.50 bag of beans = 5 cans of cooked beans, more or less.

This is the view as I trudge along on my daily walks.  It takes me 15 minutes to get to the end of the street and back.  The road is nice and wide and has minimal traffic.  I have made a commitment to myself to walk four times a week for a minimum of 15 minutes and its kicking my rear, but these are early days.  Years ago I walked an hour at a time several days a week.  It will take me time to build back up to that, and its only going to get hotter so I have to get started on this.

I'm also dropping some bad habits I had started for no good reason.  You know the ones?  One day you wake up and think "why am I doing that?".  Chips with lunches, soda too often, white bread, eating late, yada yada.  Habits aren't preferences so I am changing it up.

I bought a neat doo-dad that makes the Google speaker into a plug-in basically.  No cord!  I tested it in the kitchen, but this one is for the back patio.  I may order another one of them, but at $16 they weren't super cheap.  Still, I rely on the Google Lady to give me the forecast, news, and muzak and this saves space.

A reminder of where I started in the garage.

Scout was out in there with me last week and I was explaining to him why the garage was such a bone of contention between Mark and I, and why it always made me stressed.  This is why.

Therefore, every bit of progress made out here I credit myself for and I am very pleased with myself.  I know it is a job that seems to drag on forever.  But it won't.  Its taking me just the right amount of time to resolve, considering where I started.  When he and Bubbie move out, one day, it will

be even emptier.

We pulled things out of the attic that I forgot I had.

Some of them I have no idea what to do with.  Does this machine work?  Who knows.  But I have another one to get rid of, too. 

Some of it I can keep, some of it must go.  I pulled out Mark's hiking pack and emptied it of expired meds and hand gels and such.  Found $10 cash.  Donated some tent stakes.  Tossed old Boy Scout handbooks into the recycle bin. Divied up the useable stuff to Scout and Bubbie's packs.  Gave away the extra charcoal bin and two mats on the Buy Nothing page.  Left to decide: the wine fridge, a camp kitchen, the pizza oven.  Scout and I will recycle that big steel cabinet soon.

And some of the collection of cast iron was passed on to a co-worker who likes to cook outdoors, because I don't want to store these things forever and at least I know they can bless someone else.

Gina