Category Archives: DITL

5 Things Friday!

Posted on by
Reply

Bonus this is my 4th BLOG post this week!  Maybe I can continue!

1. The list of home renovations/updates is shrinking but it feels like we will never finish!   Left to finish
1. paint master bathroom
2.. build shelves in the master bathroom, move items to shelves and relocate metal shelves from the bedroom.
3..Electrical wiring for both front and back
4. After the deck is rebuilt, purchase a new grill.
5. built a covered area to run the generator from.

2. I really enjoyed getting the extra help with the cleaning last week. I am planning to hire another cleaner once the master bathroom is complete. My goal is that this will put me back on a level field and I will be able to maintain the house. This is likely going to become a treat for me maybe every 3 or 6 months depending on my own schedule.

3.  The weather is absolutely gorgeous!  I will likely be opening the window probably during the next week or so.

4. We are heavily into football season.  Zach is currently playing JV, his games are on Thursday night.  Matt, Kendall and Zach are all enjoying attending home varsity games as well.

5. Next week is full of new adventures, the plan is for Kendall to take her driving test and get her provisional license. Zach to get his driving permit!  We also will be traveling to Alabama to attend our niece’s wedding.

 

5 Things Friday

Posted on by
Reply

  1. One of the areas that I have been struggling with getting and keeping the house clean. For the past many years, I have been paying different kids to complete cleaning around the house. But currently, both the girls are working pretty much every day, so no time for cleaning.  One purchase we have made is robot vacuums’. One for the upstairs, main area of the house and a second for the living room which is down a set of steps.  Matt is in charge of emptying these. It is getting easier to remember to turn them on and I think we have been able to remove all the things that they get caught on.
  2. Our house projects are getting completed. The bathroom and deck should be completed before the end of August. We have decided that we need to have a couple of additional electrical outlets installed including one dedicated for the camper. We still need to order and install a new front door.  One last project will be once the bathroom is done, we are planning to build shelves in the closet area.
  3. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed today. We are heading to me returning to work full time and I still have several things on my personal list that I want to tackle this summer.  I am waking up without an alarm and trying just to do the next right thing. I am actually looking forward to the trip to take Lily as this will force me to just stop and enjoy the ride.
  4. My garden has been so crazy this year.  I have been able to harvest and preserve many items but June was extremely dry and July has been the wettest on record.  I am planning to post pictures because I think my garden looks more like beginning of July instead of the beginning of August. That is not a bad think but may mean lots of preserving even after I return to work.
  5. I had not planned to participate in August in the “Every Bit Challenge”  I return to work in the middle of the month and with our trip at the first of the month I did not think I would be able to preserve much at all. However, that has not been the case so far. Yesterday, I made 3 bags of grilled chicken, 5 bags of cubed chicken and 6 bags of shredded chicken. Today, I canned 5 quarts of broth and made 6 bags of tomato sauce.

Bonus List of Every Bit Counts Challenge list:
3 chicken and broccoli casseroles
20 pints of salsa
45 quarts and 12 pints of spaghetti sauce
4 quarts of baked beans
4 cheeseburger pizza bags and dough
3 cheeseburger Pies
30 omelet bags
chicken spinach lasagna
2 million Dollar Spaghetti Pies
6 bags of squash casserole mix
Frozen blueberries
Frozen bananas
4 pints of strawberry syrup
15 quarts and 3 pints of beef broth
21# of canned shelf stable ground beef. These are in pint jars so approximately 1# per jar.
4 meals of Sloppy Joes canned in addition to our lunch for Saturday as well.
30 Salisbury steaks cooked and vacuum sealed in the freezer.
30 Cheddar Bacon Hamburger patties
38 Regular plain Hamburger patties!

Saving on Saturday

Posted on by
Reply

Finally an entire day at home to focus on not only cleaning and finding my house again but on preserving and preparing food.

The first way I saved today is that I have managed to plan and cook three meals for today and breakfast for tomorrow.  We also did some refrigerator clean out and that saves us food for the chickens.

Next I focused on chopping a bunch of veggies. These will be used for salads for lunches next week as well as in preparation for my preservation project of the week.

I was able to fry up 4 # of sausage, one pound is for breakfast in the morning and the other was used in the 20 omelet bags that I prepared. I also made 10 bags using bacon crumbles.  I decided to use up the Nutrional yeast I purchased several years ago by placing a tablespoon in each of the omelet bags. This should add cheese flavor without the diary in addition to just clearing out my pantry.

We were able to wash and hang out our bed sheets between Friday and today which saved money on the electricity bill. It also eliminates the need for fabric softener or scent beads as well.

I made a menu plan for next week that I will share on Monday as well as just generally straighten and clean parts of the kitchen.

I caught up on the laundry which is a major accomplishment.

Matt with help from Zach did some auto repair which did not save me money but did save both Kendall and Zach money.

The kids were able to use our shredded paper in the chicken coop which will become compost as well as reduces the smell.

Not bad for a Saturday spent in my nightgown!

5 Things Friday

Posted on by
Reply

  1. The past two weeks have been stressful and exhausting.  Exhausting both mentally and physically exhausting.  I am looking forward to a slower pace next week.
  2. We have been working on doing some remodeling in preparation for new flooring to be installed this week. The install is still not complete!   I will be so happy and pleased once this process has finished but currently it is one of my main stressors.
  3.  We have painted the hall, hall bathroom, kitchen, dining room, and laundry room.   The doors are the last on the list to be painted. Hopefully that occurs tomorrow.
  4.  Today we had the septic tank pumped. This should help with drying up our yard!
  5.  We have been eating out ALOT over these last two week just to survive. I am hopeful that staring today, we can get back on track for eating and I can get back to sticking to a budget!

Granny’s Surgery Journey

Posted on by
Reply

I have debated on what and how much to share about this but have decided I will share my facts and experience just for a record.

On Monday June 10th, my mother had an elective mastectomy of her left breast.  This was also the day that Kendall left for camp for a week.

After discussion, praying and planning. I had taken the entire day off on Monday. The rest of the week, I worked and then headed straight to the hospital to spend some time with Mom and to give my sister-in-law and brother a chance to go home. We had discussed beforehand that no one would be spending the night as mom is normally alone at night. Surgery went well but, in the recovery room, she went into A-fib.  The result was a cardioversion that occurred on Thursday.  I don’t function well on little sleep and each evening up to Wednesday was long and I got home much later than anticipated.  Most nights I talked a few minutes to Matt, Lily and Zach before heading to bed.

Mom was up and walking Thursday evening!

She was able to come home on Friday!

Summer Goal!

Posted on by
Reply

I finally feel like an adult!  Yes I am 52 years old with 5 kids and grandkids but I finally did something that is very adult. We purchased a new car without a hassle or worry about whether we can afford it?

Let me give you the back story.   Lily was accepted into the Disney College Program. She will be at Disney working and taking college classes from Aug to January 2nd.  She purchased her 2007 PT Cruiser about 5 years ago. It is a cute little car and perfect for driving around in Lexington and the surrounding area.   I would not feel comfortable with her driving even 30 minutes to and from work each day. Kendall is turning 16 this summer and will need a car to drive in Lexington and the surrounding area.  So after some prayer and discussion, between Matt and I we decided that it would work best if I purchased a new car.  Kendall purchased Lily’s car for fair market value, this money became a down payment for my Equinox .  LIly will be paying $50 a month for the Equinox until she gets a real job and can make a real car payment.

I have known about the need to purchase a new car for several months and even put it on my list of goals for the summer.

But life happens and the timeline to purchase a car has become very urgent.    On Monday, I found and purchased a 2022 Nissan Rogue.  This was a fairly easy process.

Second goal for the summer has been met.

Thursday Thoughts

Posted on by
Reply

One of the big things happening this summer is home repair and renovation. Because I am available during the day to watch and move things, it makes sense for most of this to occur in the summer. We started a line of credit this Spring to help make this easier and more efficient.   So far we have painted the hall bathroom and hallway and installed a new shower rod. We have purchased a new cabinet and faucet with a plan to install this week.  A new toilet will be installed when the floor is replaced.  The floor in the hall, dining room, kitchen and laundry room is scheduled to be replaced on June 18th.  The goal is to repaint the kitchen and dining room prior to the flooring just for convenience sake.  We already have the paint for this but I don’t think it will happen this weekend. We also have received a quote to have our shower room fixed and expanded. This is likely going to occur in June as well. We will be having our old deck replaced as well.   We have scheduled to have the septic tank pumped on June 20th.  The next item on the list is to replace the front door.   I am not sure if there is anything else we will tackle as this is most of our “dream” items.  Except for a “garage” on the front.

I have been focused on slowly starting to build back up our freezers and pantries. I am trying to complete one item a day.  Sunday- frozen bananas (another 3#), Monday- beef broth (15 quarts and 3 pints), Tuesday and Wednesday- survived life.  My goal is to get a gallon or more of strawberries frozen tonight.
We are starting to get some squash from the garden as well. It is always a good side dish but I would also like to get some bags of squash casserole in the freezer or better, yet I will have to see if I can them!
The summer count down is officially 11 days but I have 9 workdays left!

Five Things Friday

Posted on by
Reply

1. I officially have 3 weeks left of work. However, this is my last 5-day week as I have other things happening that require time away from work during these last three weeks.
2. Every Bit Counts- as school winds down, I am starting to work toward a total restock of our pantries and freezer.  This week, I decided to attempt one item a day.  Tuesday- gallon of Strawberries, Wednesday- 10# of mashed potatoes Thursday- 3 # of bananas frozen for smoothies.
3. We are planning to pick up our cow tomorrow.  It is 350# of meat. I am hoping to get around 100# processed this weekend.  I will keep you posted.
4. May is the most expensive month for us. We have car insurance, pool fees on top of end of the year expenses.  We also added Kendall’s birthday party to this year. I am happy to say. We have survived the month and covered all the expenses.
5. Chicken Drama- Wednesday this week, the door did not open. Lily was going to feed at 2pm and let them out.  We have been monitoring and it has not missed again so who knows what is up.   Then on Thursday evening, a dog that we have not seen before was at the chicken coop and growling at the back corner. “Lucky” the rooster managed to get all the hens in the coop before anything went wrong.  We are also struggling with keeping the coop dry with all the excess rain we have been having.

 

Saving on Saturday

Posted on by
Reply

This weekend we are focusing on saving by using what we have!

One of the projects that I wanted to complete prior to the summer is to empty and clean our large chest freezer that is in the building. This freezer is probably 25-30 years old and was purchased used for $75.  It needs to be de-iced and given a break.  Matt and I have emptied it out except for ice that we need for our upcoming trip. In the process, I needed to do with the two gallon size bags of frozen tomatoes that I have.  I decided to toss them in the crockpot along with a couple of other items and make some more pasta sauce. I typically freeze the sauce but decided to try water bath canning this time.  We ended up with four quarts after dinner so we will try one and see how it taste. I am hoping to be able to can my sauce this year in order to be less dependent on the freezer in the future. It is much easier to store and transport jars than frozen foods.

After taking out my electric canner, I thought I should go ahead and get some beans canned for future use. I ended up running 4 loads of 8 quarts each of beans. This did allow me to use up all the empty pint jars along with all my canning lids that are not on new jars. I had to place an order for more lids.  I also cleaned and organized the canning closet. I am very happy with the contents and have big plans for the summer.

For breakfast this morning, I made French toast using up the last of the sour dough bread that I made this summer along with the remaining heavy whipping cream.   I had about half of the egg mixture left so instead of throwing away, I added hash browns and bacon. It was a hit at lunch with little work and no waste.

For dinner, I made nachos with taco rice that is left-over. The best compliment was from Lily “This is better than I expected.”

I ended up spending a lot of time this afternoon, transplanting tomatoes. More on this tomorrow!

Five Things Friday

Posted on by
Reply

  1. Two years ago, Facebook reminded me that I had COVID for the second time. Today, I hope I am at the end of a stomach virus.
  2. We are in the single digit until our Disney trip. I actually have a long list of items that need to be accomplished before we leave. The goal is to get everything completed this week.
  3. Our grocery budget is currently still under $200 which makes me very happy!
  4. We gathered 7 chicken eggs after getting 4 yesterday which means that all the chicken laid an egg today! This is a first!  One that I hope at least for a week or so continues.
  5. We will be spending some time tommorow up potting our tomato plants.  Another first that I am excited about and can’t wait to share on Sunday with a garden update!.