Last night I decided to make my mom’s beef stew for supper tonight so on my way to bed I sat some stewing beef out of the freezer. This morning I browned the meat, chopped the veggies, and threw it all in the slow cooker. I didn’t have a can of soup on hand so I used a small can of tomato paste instead and roughly 1/3 to 1/2 cup of Diana Sauce brand barbeque sauce. I had planned to have my boyfriend and his daughter over for supper but his parents came into town today to do a bit of shopping and my mom was over here painting baseboards (thanks, Mom!) so I had my boyfriend pick up some cobs of corn and a salad and we all sat down to a dinner of stew, corn, salad, fresh bread (we ate the entire loaf), and some wonderful-good blueberry-cherry cobbler (I traded the raspberries for cherries) made with fresh fruit. I was quite the little Suzy Homemaker today.

Photo recycled from a previous post

After preparing the cherries for the cobbler, I kept going while waiting for the corn to cook and chopped up the rest of the cherries in preparation for a small batch of Cherry-Raspberry Jam. The recipe says it yields eight jars but I only ended up with five and one that isn’t quite full. The part jar will go in my fridge tonight to be tested out at breakfast.

As I was posting today on Facebook, a friend commented that my food posts always make her hungry and "I love your lifestyle". She’s previously commented similarly on my "lifestyle" and it made me wonder today, along with feeling very good and very humbled, what exactly is my lifestyle. There are definitely people that I admire who practice or aspire to practice frugality, simplicity, and responsibility with the things around them in their journey here on earth but  to have someone comment on me and say that they admire my lifestyle… It rather blows my mind. I’m nowhere near where I’d like to be or where I feel I should be.

This week’s contribution to Quotable Sunday (hosted over at Toni’s blog) relates to having an impression on others:

"Sometimes one creates a dynamic impression by saying something, and sometimes one creates as significant an impression by remaining silent."
     — the Dalai Lama

"A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed."
     — Henrik Ibsen

"Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like."
     — Will Smith

"I’ve reached a point in life where it’s no longer necessary to try to impress. If they like me the way I am, that’s good. If they don’t, that’s too bad."
     — Corazon Aquino

"There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no one independence quite so important, as living within your means."
     — Calvin Coolidge