Category Archives: Braxton

5 Things Friday

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  1.  We have been at home for a solid week due to icy roads.  I did venture out yesterday to Mocksville for a quick trip to my office and for E doctor’s appointment.  We have huge areas of ice on the roads. Both school districts were closed on Monday and have had four days of remote work days.  We are expecting a snow storm starting tonight and going through Sunday.  I am anticipating more weather closure and delays through Tuesday of next week. We will see how things go.
  2.  I am starting to feel overwhelmed in the foster care process. Plus definitely overwhelmed with day to day stuff.   Today alone, I talked to E’s guardian ad lieu as did he. I had a lengthy conversation with both his caseworker and the caseworker supervisor.  I also had a text conversation with the social worker who does visitations.  In addition, E  had a virtual speech session as well. I also talked with the person who has one of his siblings. I also received and completed a packet of paperwork from a third social worker this one in charge of the licensure process.
  3. In preparation for the upcoming snow event, I had Matt pick up an order from Walmart on Thursday including milk and I did a Dollar General delivery this morning. I did check prices before ordering from DG, the only item that was more expensive at DG was the coffee  K cups.  We are continuing to eat alot of food from our freezers and pantry but we have spent around $500 this month.
  4. To add to the adventure today, I decided to purchase a used futon. We have placed it in our bedroom and it will be a great place for Braxton to sleep when he decides to hang out with us.  Zach and I went and picked it up, he cleared the driveway of most of the ice
  5. One of my goals for the weekend is to get our taxes for 2025 figured out!

 

5 Things Friday

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  1. This is the first week in the entire school year that I feel like I am finally able to balance work and life.  Work is still super busy and next week is going to be wrong and even today I have more to do than i am able but I feel like I can handle it or rather God is going to provide peace and security for me.
  2. The Central Davidson varsity football team are the conference champions, first time since 1946.  Zach has started on JV most of the season. And he was pulled up to varsity for the play offs. There is a slim chance that he will actually get to play but we are all going to the game just in case it happens. Kendall is likely going to watch another player but so is life.
  3. My snow village and the new “Disney” village have both been completed this week. I am planning to make a full blog post on them for next week
  4. We are headed to Florida for Thanksgiving!  I am not responsible for any cooking! On black Friday, we are all headed to Disney. David and Haley and the kids are coming up with us. Lily and Braxton are flying in as well!  The kids and I will miss an extra week of school. I am super excited!
  5. I am going to assume that probably 2 of the 4 new chickens we purchased at the end of the summer have started laying. We went the entire month of October without a single egg. I actually purchased 6 dozen eggs from a coworker. This past week we started getting 1 and 2 large brown eggs!   Even more exciting is the fact that we also got 1 green egg this week which means at least one of the older chickens probably the white one is laying as well.

5 Things Friday AKA What I did for Spring Break.

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1.We, Lily and I planned a short but packed Disney trip for the end of May, approximately 2 weeks ago.  It is something I am convinced we all need and will enjoy. So, in anticipation of the trip, I am going to save as much money as possible between then and now.  I would love to have $1000 but that is going to be a stretch.  The catch to the saving is that it has to come from extra money, not money that I am budgeting. I have worked out the budget for May already, so this is truly going to be a challenge. One caveat is that money left over from the grocery budget can be counted as savings. In addition, I am also going to say no Amazon buying unless absolutely needed.  I will try and deduct this amount from any savings we get.

2. This is week has been both the kids and I week of Spring Break. I have really really tried to get alot of things caught up and prepared ahead for the next month as well. Which hopefully will help with the goal above. Braxton has been with us for at least half of four out of 5 days this week. He is actually enjoying screen free time!

3. One of the areas I have focused on this week is outside both for gardening and landscaping. I have spent $300ish on additional plants, soil and mulch. This includes paying Zach for lots of hot work applying mulch and helping getting the yard looking it’s best.  I have been able to purchase 2 hydrangeas for $14.00 each on clearance, along with several other “clearance” plants that have helped to completely fill by Greenstalk vertical planters. I found angel trumpet trees on Facebook marketplace. Zach helped me repurpose by painting several older planters with a fresh coat of paint which I think turned out great!

I will give a better garden update on Sunday, but we have not lost any plants from transplanting, and we have a watermelon growing!  I am so pleased. Several hours and bags of dirt went to finishing up the planting space. My goal is to finish all the Spring planting today!  I really only have one area to plant now that the dirt is filled.

4.. The other area that I have worked on this week is cleaning and organizing parts of the house. One was the living room, where we found a 5-gallon bucket of water sealant. Zach used this outside as well. I also moved all the plants outside for the fresh air and sunshine.  The living room is so open now it is amazing!  I also spent time filling and organizing the canning closet. I added 28 jars of beef stock and 8 cans of white beans.

5. I also planned to work on getting our food together for the next 4 to 8 weeks (until Summer break). I actually made multiple trips to Costco and Food lion. I also attempted to use up items in our freezers.  I am proud to say other than 1 lunch at McDonald’s for $10.69 We have eaten at home all week. This is huge! I have made multiple batches of sour dough and frozen some.

Overall this was a great productive week!