One Hundred Dollars a Month

Join Mavis Butterfield for vegetable gardening and canning tips, easy recipes, and saving money strategies (Rug hooking, too!). Simple living at its best!

12 Goals for the New Year

My Big List of Things I’m Going to Do in 2021 – Week 8 of 52

By Mavis Butterfield on - 49 Comments

Hello and Happy Sunday!

It’s a bright and sunny day here in Mid-Coast Maine and with another round of snow in the forecast, I think I’ll bake the ham I’ve had stashed away in the freezer and declare next week ham week. Anyone have any good recipes for using up leftover ham? I feel like the only thing I ever made is ham dinner with all the trimmings, ham and eggs and split pea and ham soup. I would welcome any suggestions. 🙂

Weigh What I Weighed When We Got Married  {128 pounds}

Weigh ins will be on the first Sunday of the month.

  • My February 7th weigh in was 137.3
  • My January 3rd weigh in was 140.7

Keep My Husband Busy 

Well, we’re halfway there with the bathroom remodel. We found a mirror we like yesterday and ordered that, and now all that’s left to do is order a shower curtain and towels. I wish we could install a glass shower door but there just isn’t enough clearance for the door to open properly without it hitting the sink {boooo!}.

The wall and trim has been painted {although I’ll do a little touch up once the HH is done laying the tile} and so my part is done. He laid the orange stuff last night and so he’ll let that sit today and then on Monday he will lay the tile. Wahooo! 

The HH’s Honey Do List {so far} for 2021  🙂

Just a show of hands…. How many people have a woodstove and patio furniture AND a toilet in their family room right now? 

  • Build a new set of stairs down to the water. The old set… it’s not exactly useable.
  • Build a firepit near the edge of the property. {He’s handy, he’ll figure it out}
  • Build a picnic table near the birch trees for summer lunches
  • Build 4 or 6 garden boxes for his little lady
  • Build a boatload of birdhouses for the {soon to be} bird sanctuary 
  • Remodel the bathroom in the hallway {In Progress!}
  • Install some sort of driveway border
  • Install a workspace for me in the basement for dying wool. 

Things We’d Like to Buy

Our new entryway bench arrived and now all that’s left to do in the space is to add a little flair to the wall.

  • A dinghy for zipping around the nearby islands and for summer ice cream runs
  • Archery Set {every camp should have archery!} 
  • Kitchen table and chairs 
  • Sideboard
  • Bench for the entryway 
  • A full size washer and dryer set {the house came with a small stackable w/d set} 
  • Deck chairs and a patio table set 
  • A set of 4 Adirondack chairs for the fire pit area 
  • BBQ {Sayonara smoker?}

Unplug As Much As Possible {but still keep the blog, FB and Instagram}

My phone is still on silent mode. 🙂 Not having to be interrupted by the noise of a ringing phone or text messages is really pretty awesome. 

This past week I’ve been watching Mad Men season 4 in the evenings while I work on my hooking projects. What a show! Also, I am loving the fact that our money isn’t being thrown away on “streaming” services. I mean c’mon, summer is right around the corner and that money could be better spent on ice cream, right? 😉

  • Goodbye Amazon Prime {Done!} 
  • Goodbye Hulu {Done!}
  • Goodbye Netflix {Done!}
  • Goodbye keeping my cell phone in my back pocket and checking it constantly {so far so good}
  • Limit time online to 3 hours a day {for writing, working, and Etsy} {so far so good}

Try 24 New Recipes {and remember to link them here}

New recipes I’ve made this year:

Read {or Listen to} 12 New Books about Maine {or written by Maine Authors}

I had requested My World Is An Island by Elisabeth Ogilvie but when the librarian when to find the book, it was missing. So now I’m on the hunt for another Mainer biography. {I LOVE biographies!} 

Luckily though my issue of Maine Magazine and Maine Home Design arrived this week so I’ve been reading those instead. 

Books about Maine {or written by Maine authors} I’ve read this year:

  1. Christina Olson Her World Beyond the Canvas. 
  2. At First Light: Two Centuries of Maine Artists, Their Homes and Studios
  3. Bernard Langlais at the Colby College Museum of Art

Audiobooks I’ve listened to {or attempted to listen to} this year: 

Get 24 Stories Off My Phone and onto the Blog

It’s been busy around here the last few days, I need to get crackin’ on this one!

Get the Photos on My Phone Down to Less Than 1,000 {started the year with 2863 photos}

There are currently 2,377 photos on my phone so I’m making progress!

Clean Out My Closet

I turned all the hangers around in my closet on January 1st and so far 85% of them are still backwards. 

My House Projects For This Year

  • Figure out new window treatments for the back of the house
  • Come up with a game plan for the kitchen remodel {for 2022} 
  • Paint the family room walls and trim
  • Paint the entryway trim and doors {halfway there}
  • Paint the dining room walls and trim
  • Paint the master bedroom walls and trim
  • Paint the barn and add a new fixture {okay, so the HH will be adding the fixture}
  • Paint the hallway bathroom {Done!}

My Garden Projects For This Year

Other than seedlings, the only thing I have growing right now is snow. And apparently MORE snow in the forecast for tomorrow. Yee-Haw! I love an excuse not to go outside when it’s 20 degrees out, don’t you? 🙂 

My List of Garden Projects For This Year I want to Accomplish :

  • Install a simple flower bed border in front of the house 
  • Install a boatload of birdhouses/feeders in the side yard
  • Transplant evergreen saplings to the side of property for a privacy border
  • Clean up and prune the area that faces the road
  • Install a vegetable garden
  • Install a sunflower patch
  • Plant 2,500 flower bulbs {Why 2,500? It seemed like a good number to start with}

Reach 10,000 Sales on Etsy {as of this morning I’ve made 6344 sales on Etsy}

Only 3,656 to go! 

This past week I added a bunch of new rug hooks to my Etsy shop as well as bundles of wool and a few vintage items. 

Create 12 New Rug Hooking Patterns or Kits

I’ve also been designing and hooking up a few things for my next Etsy update for finished pieces on March 5th. I’ll have 2 new patterns to introduce so I’m pretty excited about that. 

Create 12 New Ornaments for 2021

This past week I stamped out a bunch of loons and gingerbread ornaments. The plan is to get all the ornaments bisque fired before the spring gardening season hits. That way as I have extra time, I’ll have a project to work on down in the cool basement this summer. 😉 Thinking ahead… that’s what I’m all about. Ha!

2021 Ornaments I’ve Made So Far

#1 ♥ Ladybug Heart ♥

Discover 12 Made in Maine Products and Share Them on the Blog

Visit 6 Lighthouses in Maine

The HH are planning on visiting a lighthouse for date day this week and the Girl and I have a road trip planned to go WAY up north in early March and lighthouses and bakeries are on our list. 

Other places in Maine We’ve Been to This Year Are:

Lighthouses I’ve Been to in Maine So Far:

So that’s it. That’s my progress report for this past week. How about YOU? Did you make any goals for 2021? Have you checked any of them off your list yet? 

Have a great one, 

~Mavis

SHARE:
OTHER

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.

Comments

  1. Jennifer says

    Potato and ham au graten. Basically slicing potatoes thinly and layering them with cheese, salt and pepper and ham. Pour in a little milk and cover. Bake an hour. The prep does take a long time so I make it about once a year. But the kids love it and it is different.

    Reply

  2. Jeanie says

    Quiche, ham croquettes with creamy peas, ham spinach and cheese puffs, hash made with ham with a soft boiled egg over top. The website Dinner at the Zoo has a lot of really good leftover ham recipes I have defaulted to in the past when faced with overwhelming quantities of ham.

    Reply

    • Karen W says

      I love ham salad. Grind up ham. Dry out on paper towel if wet. Mayo, drained sweet relish ( dry out on paper towel), can also whip in some softened cream cheese…..pepper, little garlic salt. Great on ritz crackers.
      I freeze Han chunks and ground ham for many meals. Ground ham in scrambled eggs, quiche, bean or split pea soup, added to Mac and cheese ( blue box!). Macaroni salad with ham……endless choices!

      Reply

  3. Lynn Culpepper says

    I’m Southern, so our go-to for leftover ham is a big pot of beans. It is perfect bean weather (cold) right now. Just choose your beans (we prefer the dried limas), soak them as per the directions on the bag, cut up some ham chunks and throw in the bone, then let them cook slowly until they’re a consistency you like. We like ours to get really soft. We serve with sliced onion, homemade coleslaw, and sometime something a little hot, like chow chow.

    Reply

    • Julie says

      I’m very NOT Southern….. but ham and beans and cornbread baked in the cast iron skillet, with lots of butter and honey…..oh my!!! Can’t be beat!!!

      Reply

  5. Mel says

    I second the idea for ham and potato au gratin. I also like adding ham to baked potato soup or twice baked potato casserole, and ham pot pie is one of our favorites. We also discovered Monte Cristo sandwiches with leftover turkey and cranberry sauce after Thanksgiving, so I bet there are great ham variations of that.

    It’s been an action-packed week here. We had to rush our cat to the vet twice because he had a fever and was having trouble breathing (turns out he has bronchitis, so he finally seems to be doing better after a steroid injection). In between vet trips, he just wanted to be held and was very weak, so we were carrying him everywhere. I also had to teach two extra classes this week (sometimes still holding the cat), so it’s been crazy.

    BUT in the midst of all that, I was miraculously able to get my first dose of vaccine this week. I’m hoping to get back to some of my regularly scheduled goals this week, but getting vaccinated was sort of a separate kind of goal, so I’m very grateful for that and also amazed I was able to get an appointment. I hope the vaccine rollout picks up soon so that it’s easier for people to access.

    Reply

    • Mavis Butterfield says

      We had wanted a glass door but there is not enough space to fully open the shower door without it hitting the sink area.

      You’d only be able to open the shower door about halfway {2/3rds max} and if the bathroom door was closed {and it would be closed if someone was taking a shower in there, especially a guest} it would be incredibly uncomfortable to have to shimmy your way out of a partially open shower door and then have your back right up against the bathroom door and then try and close the shower door.

      Reply

  12. Nancy says

    Would a bi-fold glass shower door work? Alfredo pasta with ham, peas, mushrooms, carrots is a good way to use up some of the ham.

    Reply

  13. Tristen says

    I grew up eating a ham and noodle casserole almost weekly. Ham, egg noodles and cheese (among other things). I think back then my mom used cream of cheddar soup, but a lot of recipes now use actual cheddar cheese

    Reply

    • Nancy says

      This one looks good-warming on winter days and I have leeks from garden in the freezer. Thanks for posting this Holley.

      Reply

  15. Laura says

    We just finished our ham last night. I made a family favorite: Buckwheat crepes with ham and gruyere (and spinach leaves for mom and dad). The other big winner is croquet monsieur which is Ham and gruyere with a bechamel sauce. Very cheap trip to Paris ❤️

    Reply

  16. Julie says

    +1 for the quiche! You’ve already got a great recipe and extra portions can be frozen for future meals. My family recipe uses a crust made from hash browns instead of a flour/butter.

    Reply

  18. Jamie N. says

    I second the comment above about a half glass shower door. I hope it could work!

    I love to put leftover chopped up ham in ziploc bags in the freezer. Then I make a variation of your ham and potato soup. So good!

    If I remember correctly you plan to move the laundry into the basement. Since this is your forever home, I wonder if there is room to keep the laundry where it is, so your future self or children don’t worry about you tumbling down the stairs with a load of laundry?
    I wanted more room in my laundry room, so I researched about stacking machines. They don’t advertise it, but most regular front loaders can be stacked with just a “stacking kit”. It costs less than $40 from the manufacturer when you order the machines. When you install them, you have the dryer door taken apart and flipped the other way, so both doors open in the same direction. It makes it so easy to switch a load. I always have let my washer air out instead of closing it after every load and never have had the stinky washer either people complain about with front loaders. I have huge frontloaders and they are solidly not going anywhere when they spin. I’ve had them stacked this way for 4 years and love it. If you decide you don’t like them stacked, they can easily be taken apart again and put in your basement. Just a thought!

    Reply

    • Mavis Butterfield says

      The stackable unit will remain upstairs, but yes, we are planning on putting a full-size set in the basement.

      When we’re old {and presumable have less clothes to wash} and don’t want to venture down to the basement, we’ll use the w/d upstairs. 🙂

      Reply

  21. Kathy says

    We use leftover ham to make ham and string beans. (Pennsylvania Dutch style.) We cut up pieces of ham, string beans and small potatoes and cook them in ham broth. We usually have coleslaw or chow chow on the side. This is great on a cold winter day!

    Reply

  27. Sheila says

    This is everything I use left-over ham for: Cheesy ham & potato casserole (or au gratin)
    Scalloped potatoes & ham, Ham & navy beans, Ham, green bean & potato stew,
    Ham primavera, Ham & fried cabbage (I throw potatoes in this one too)
    Ham, asparagus or broccoli & cheese frittata or casserole, Ham & cheese omelet, Ham & pea salad, Chef salad (ham, cheese of choice, boiled eggs, tomatoes, croutons & anything else you like), Split pea soup, Ham sliced thin for grilled ham & cheese sandwiches, Deviled ham (also called ham salad) sandwiches, Ham & cheese chunks for pickity dinner. This reminds me that I have a huge ham in the freezer I need to be cooking up.

    Reply

  29. Chris M says

    I just made a ham chowder and it was quite good. Just subbed the ham in for bacon and used chopped onion, potatoes, and corn. I don’t really have a recipe … just wing it. I thicken it and use about half stock and half non-dairy milk plus some “flour” to thicken it. Add in grated cheese. I served it with cornbread. Very yummy!

    Reply

  30. Christy Rose says

    One of my favorite ways to “recycle” ham is to cube a cup or so of ham, chop about the same amount of broccoli and set aside. I will cook some noodles (any kind) and when they are done put the broccoli into the pot with the boiling noodles, just long enough for the broccoli to change color . (Yeah, I hate mushy broccoli). I make a white sauce, adding around a teaspoon or more of garlic powder, and when it is cooked I dump in the ham, noodles and broccoli. You can substitute peas if there is no broccoli. Sorry there is no real recipe, I just put things together, but the white sauce is 2 tbsp of butter, 2 tbsp of flour to a cup of milk and the powdered garlic, not garlic salt. I probably make about a batch and a half of white sauce, depending on how much of the other stuff I have. We eat low sodium so regular eaters might like to add a bit of salt.

    Reply

  31. Patti says

    A book I read last year about Maine was “We Took to the Woods” by LouiseDickinson Rich. It was really good and detailed life in the backwoods of Maine.

    I like ham in omelettes or scrambled eggs.

    Reply

  32. Natali says

    One of my favorite recipes to make with ham is, ham, potato, and corn chowder. There are a lot of recipes online. I hope you like it.

    Reply

  34. Stephanie in Utah says

    One dinner I make that I didn’t see anyone else mention: Broccoli And Cheesy Ham, or BACH for short. Make a white sauce, melt in some cheddar, stir in diced ham. Slice cornbread In half, top with steamed broccoli and cheese sauce.

    Reply

  35. Katie says

    I spent last week mostly without power – Yay winter storm in Texas! The snow killed almost all (I think) of my tulips that had decided January was the new Spring. But I never lost water and my house only got below 60 once, thank the Lord for good insulation. I made great headway on my reading goal for the year, there wasn’t much else to do. But I am behind on an online photo storage system. I want to start making yearly family photo albums and put all the pictures I have on my phone to good use. I was planning to transfer photos once a month and pick out the ones I wanted to use. That way at the end of the year I would just need to print and it wouldn’t be a HUGE project. I’m still trying to figure out a storage system that my husband can upload to as well (he does not have an iphone like me).

    Reply

  36. Carolina Cooper says

    I laughed out loud at your photo & comment about what is in your living room (wood stove, toilet, etc). And I read through all the comments, and no one raised their “yeah, me too” hand. Mavis, you are one of a kind and I mean that in the very best way. Also, want to thank you for your great recipes over the years. I am loving making Mississippi pot roast and your recipe for chicken chili. Great comfort food for these cold days here in the “south.”

    Reply

  37. Beverly says

    Our favorite is ham, potatoes and onions. Peel and cube potatoes and onions and fry in a small amount of oil until browned. Add the cubed ham and heat til hot. Drain, add salt and pepper. This is good with any kind of vegetable on the plate.

    Reply

  38. Christie says

    Hamloaf! It’s kind of like meatloaf. My aunt used to make it when I was a kid so it’s a nostalgic meal for me.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Mavis Butterfield
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: No feed found.

Please go to the Instagram Feed settings page to create a feed.