Sunday Dinner, October 5, 2008

Somehow another week has passed without a post from me since last Sunday's entry. This week has been extra busy for me and I wasn't feeling my best, but hopefully that's changing for the better.

The feeling better, not the busy part.

Anyway, on to my Sunday Dinner for this week.

My nephew Danny and his wife, Mikki, have invited me, Lamar, Jessica and her family, my sister Ducky (Danny's Mom) and my sister Cecil to eat Sunday Dinner with them.

For long time readers, you may recall that Danny and Mikki have a 20-month old son, Seth. Emmy and Seth will have a grand ol' time, and so will the rest of us as we play with them.

There was some mention of homemade rotisserie chicken and potatoes cooked on the grill. That's all I know about the menu, and that's enough for me right there. I'm sure Mikki will prepare some other sides to go with the meal and possibly dessert, and I've offered to pick up something else to go with the meal if needed.

What are your plans or your menu for Sunday Dinner this week? Expound in the comments if you'd like to participate this week.On the health front, I have some cautious good news.

I'm feeling better most of the time now, though I'm still experiencing a bad day here and there. Mostly now if I do have a bad spell it only lasts for a few hours rather than days or weeks. My sugar is coming down slowly, though it has been higher than it should be several times over the last week. I doubled my dosage yesterday, so I'm now taking 500 mg of metformin twice a day.

The reason for the caution is that I've started having some of those digestive issues associated with the metformin. So far nothing too severe, so hopefully I'll adjust to it and the side effects will resolve themselves soon.

Overall, I'm feeling much better, praise the Lord!I did my monthly shopping for household supplies on Wednesday and my monthly grocery shopping on Friday. Jessica and Emmy chauffeured me and Lamar for both trips, so we sprang for lunch both days.

Wednesday we went to my favorite catfish buffet in Jonesboro for lunch and it did not disappoint. It was great, as usual. I don't care how the rest of the food is, as long as the catfish and the breaded fried shrimp is good, Diane is a happy camper.

Emmy loves catfish and chicken, but she was on a dill pickle kick Wednesday. She ate some fish, but pickles were her main course.

Friday we went to Ta*Molly's for Mexican food. It was delicious, and satisfied a craving I've had for Mexican. I always get a combination platter that has a beef burrito, a cheese enchilada, chicken enchilada with sour cream sauce, and a tacquito, plus refried beans, Mexican rice and a guacamole salad. I have them give me all beans and no rice.

I do like rice, but it tends to raise my sugar a lot more than the beans, plus the beans do have the redeeming factor of having a lot of fiber, which I can subtract from my carb grams.

Maybe not the healthiest meal, but I only eat there once every couple of months, and I didn't eat any supper that night, only a few slices of cheese and a slice of light wheat bread. Again, I can subtract the fiber grams from the carbs for the bread. On a related but different subject, I was aghast (did you like how I worked that important word in there?) at how much prices have gone up in just a month. On groceries, especially, although the 12-roll package of the brand of toilet tissue that I use went up over $2 just since I did my September shopping.

Prices have gone up across the board. I bought 54 items (I shopped at Wal*mart and the item count is listed at the bottom of the receipt) and the total was just over $200 before taxes. I didn't buy anything extravagant. No steak, no seafood, not even any pork chops.

I bought one beef chuck roast to serve for a Sunday Dinner and it was $11.94. I got a couple of whole chickens and they were both over $6 each. I always buy whole chickens because they're usually cheaper than the pre-cut and packaged chicken parts, and also because I often bake a whole chicken for Sunday Dinner or when we have company.

I got a couple of packages of baked ham lunch meat, a family pack of ground beef ($11.98) and some chili seasoning mix. That was all the meat I bought.

The rest of the ticket consists of flour, cornmeal, oil, sugar, canned goods, raw potatoes, onions, ground coffee, a half gallon of buttermilk and a half gallon of soy milk for me. I also got some sugar free Jel*lo and some sugar free light yogurt for me.

And it all totalled up to over $200. I knew since I needed a lot of staples this month that my grocery bill would be a little more than usual, but I was a little shocked that it was that much more than I had anticipated. (And I just realized that I forgot to buy cornstarch. Eh.)

I usually spend an average of about $125 a month for groceries, sometimes a little more, often less, depending on what I need to restock and what deals I can take advantage of to stock up.

I know I'm not the only one feeling the pinch. I've already cut back in a lot of areas, and it looks like I'll be examining other areas where I can be more thrifty and cut more corners. I'm sure glad I have some garden stuff I tucked away in the freezer. Every little bit of free food helps.It's nearly 10 pm and I want to put clean sheets on my bed. I've already had a haircut (Thanks, Jessica!) and my second shower of the day. Now I want to get my bed changed so I can lie down on fresh, smooth, clean sheets tonight. It doesn't get much better than to be freshly showered and then climb into a freshly made bed.

May God bless you by meeting all your needs, and may you have enough to share.

Y'all have a great Sunday!