Summer Goals

Posted on June 29, 2023 by Sheila

I wanted to be able to share and remember what I spent my summer doing. I feel like the last several years have been a bust. 2022 was the Summer of being sick and Haley’s wedding. Between my car breaking down and my surgery the summer was not alot of fun! 2021- was a year of trying to catch up. Things had not returned to “normal” yet from COVID and it was just different. 2020- COVID.

I had put in my mind several goals for the summer and now that we are almost 2 full weeks in, I am going to share with you. This are in addition to my regular monthly goals.

Get 100 dinner meals and an assortment of other food items prepared for simple cook and eat meals. This is not a new concept for me as I usually have lots of items in my freezer to use but I want something easy and really non-thinking.
I am proud to say that I am making steady progress on this goal. I have 4 Taco rice casseroles, and 3 pizza crust in the freezer. I also canned 22 pints of green beans and 16 pints of black beans. I purchased meat on sale and have 3 meals of pork chops and 2 meals of grilled chicken as well. This morning I put 6 “boxes” of brownie mix in the pantry for easy desserts as well. I honestly under-estimated the time it would take me to work on this goal. First, each new recipe has to be tested. This adds at least one extra day to the process and second my family is picky. They like what they like and to find something that all 5 agree to is getting harder and harder. I am starting to think the hardest part about this goal is finding 20 recipes that we all agree on!
Organize the office and shred any paperwork that is no longer current and relevant.
We are making progress toward this goal as well. I have actually cleaned and shredded two hanging file folders in addition to shredding church paperwork from 2017-2019. An added benefit is that we are using the shredded paper to line our chicken coop. The paper adds an extra layer which is allowing the chickens not to walk in mud continually. In the fall, my plan is to remove the layer and place in our garden beds as free fertilizer.
Redo our master spreadsheet. No progress
Organize and delete pictures from my phone in order to free up space. I must make sure that I have the pictures on my Ipad first. I would also like to order several additional photo books once I get the pictures organized.
Slow progress as I am working to delete first pictures that are not sentimental such as garden pictures and other documents. The next step is to actually compare and delete pictures.
Earn a $50 gift card from Fetch. This basically means I need to scan each of my receipts all summer long one every 24 hours.
I currently have 22,000 out of 53,000 I need.

Wordless Wednesday

Posted on June 28, 2023 by Sheila

One of the huge parts of our summer plans for at least the last 12 years include swim meets! This summer is no different!

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Garden Update/ Tuesday Thoughts

Posted on June 27, 2023 by Sheila

This past weekend ended up being both busy and fun! We had a swim meet on Saturday which really wiped us out for the rest of the day.
On Sunday, after church we spent some much-needed relaxing time at the pool!
Monday, I ran around the world and back. I did manage to pick up half a bushel of green beans from the farm stand I LOVE!

All of this meant that I really have not had time to take pictures to post with the update. But this morning, I headed out to do a little bit of garden work and take pictures but wait of course my phone is dead!

I was SUPER excited to be able to actually harvest several things this morning! So excited I had Kendall take a picture to share!

Chives, lettuce, a handful of green beans, 2 squash, 2 cucumbers, a zucchini and snap peas! It is small but at least we are getting things from the garden!

The other garden news is not nearly as exciting or happy! We found 2 tomato worms on Sunday. Unfortunately, it was after they had stripped at least 2 plants of the leaves and consumed half of my biggest tomato. We fed them to the chickens as protein! I have been keeping a watch on the plants to make sure there are no more and so far so good. Our tomato plants are now taller than me and we are starting to see little tomatoes forming! I really want a good harvest this year but I am going to be contend with what we are given at least that is what I keep telling myself.

Final thought- One of my big goals this summer is to have a year’s supply of food on hand for the next school year. I want to complete this as doing a little each day as long as possible. That is actually my reason for purchasing the green beans. Zach and Kendall have helped with snapping the beans and we have canned 23 pints of green beans. This is one jar every two weeks which is likely what we will use. I am going to use our home grown beans to freeze to make fried beans.

5 Things Friday

Posted on June 23, 2023 by Sheila

This is my first full week of summer break. Unfortunately we have spent more time than usual inside due to the weather. Kendall said it best today after we spent some time at the pool. “It finally feels like summer.”
I don’t know if I mentioned it recently, but I really LOVE my Electric Pressure Canner. This is so simple and easy to use. Canning was not something I would have considered even two years ago but this summer, I want to can at least once a week. I love the convivence of just opening a jar for broth and soups. I can’t wait to can spaghetti sauce and salsa! This week I used it to put away 4 quarts, 7 pints and 9 half pints of chicken broth.
The rain, along with worm casting and blood meal have a HUGE difference in the garden. I can’t wait to post pictures of the changes this week!!
The swim meet that was supposed to occur on Tuesday will be bright and early tomorrow morning. I am excited to watch all three kids compete. In other swimming news, this afternoon Braxton was able to swim without a float!
In not so great news, I have overspent the grocery budget!

Wordless Wednesday – Lily Graduation

Posted on June 21, 2023 by Sheila

Tuesday Thoughts

Posted on June 20, 2023 by Sheila

The weather this year has been all out strange. We had none, zero, nada weather delays or cancellations during the school year, The first time in at least five years if not more. The spring was cool, we had only 1 80 degree day in May. And now this week, is expected to be rainy and 70 for the entire week! I am really disappointed since this is my first week off work but I am working on things inside so hopefully I can spend more time outside very soon!
My biggest goal for the summer was to get at least 100 dinner meals in the freezer, I have made a start with 4 taco pastas and 3 pizza crust from yesterday.
Today, I went to the local Food Lion to find meat on sale because the sale ad changes tomorrow. I am happy to say that I succeeded! I was able to purchase the meat for at least 14 meals for $63 or $4.5 each! This is huge when you are feeding 6 people.
I picked up a free 8×10 at CVS today!
I have been working on getting some financial things in order for Lily’s college and I am happy to say that the hardest part is done!
Yesterday, I booked our Disney trip for Spring 2024 and took advantage of a no interest offer for six months from the credit card.
The next thing to tackle is Lily graduation pictures. Hopefully I will get some posted tomorrow as well!
Dinner tonight is “beer can chicken in the insta pot” with modifications.

Garden Update

Posted on June 19, 2023 by Sheila

Last week ended up being rather busy as my last week of work. I was actually surprised at how busy it was. I did not post an update even though I had the pictures on my phone. At least I am off to a better start this week.

I mentioned before that I am slightly disappointed in how the garden is looking and growing. So I decided to try an get a better result. First, I used the some miracle grow water can fertilizer on Wednesday of this week. I added one pack to each water can so everything go a dose of it. I really did not notice much of a difference, so I continue to do some research and order “Blood Meal” from Amazon. This is a appears to be a game changer. Matt and I added it last night and this morning I am telling a difference in the coloring of the leaves and the size of the blooms. The instructions say that I can add one time a month. We will definitely add again in the middle of July. Now to the proof. The squash is the biggest so far!

I can spot a difference in the cucumbers as well. We are starting to see lots of little cucumbers form!

Beans and watermelon are starting to grow! I did replant a section of beans this week as well.

I did not add the Blood meal to the tomatoes because they appear to be doing fine! Even seeing some tiny ones

And last but certainly not least we are picking blueberries so far we have brought in the house a quart and a pint!

Five Things Friday

Posted on June 16, 2023 by Sheila

Today is my first day of Summer break! I have exactly 9 weeks to enjoy some downtime, catch up on cooking, preparing meals for next school year and getting the house back in order.
This past week has been extremely fast and more busy than I imagined. Zach and Kendall are both at camp. Lily has worked every day multiple shift and we had our first swim meet. My work was overloaded so I did not get to catch up on the things I had on my list including posting pictures from Lily’s graduation and party. These should appear next week!
We harvested a quart of blueberries from our bush today! This is so exciting because I should say that a quart made it inside.
The garden is not doing as well as I had hoped. We already have an attack of squash bugs! We did spray for bugs and fertilize on Wednesday. I am planning to pull out the yellow green bean plants as it appears either this was not a variety that grows well or the whole pack was bad. I will try another pack of seeds because I really really want green beans to grow!
The chickens are fully intergraded. They are all going into the coop at night before the door shuts!! We are consistently getting 5 eggs a day! But we are still attempting to trap both racoons and at least one possum that continue to visit!

Saving on Saturday

Posted on June 10, 2023 by Sheila

When our old rain barrel was cracked and we decided to replace it. Matt and I both had the idea to build a small gardening shed to store some things in. I am so excited at how well it turned out and we actually spent nothing on it!

We had to empty and remove the old barrel but used the wood we had attached the barrels to the house with.

Matt recycled all the word and screws. He was able to locate some old shingles under the house. I am super excited at how it turned out!

Garden Update

Posted on June 6, 2023 by Sheila

Garden is not a fast process. I know in my head that it will be toward the middle or end of June before I start harvesting. But when I read on Facebook, that I have harvested squash or peppers I get disappointed. By taking a picture each week, I am able to really tell a difference!

This week I am most excited about the height of the tomatoes! All the plants have reached the top of the boxes. I also spent a little bit of time pruning some of the leaves and stems from the bottom of each plant.