Monthly Archives: June 2024

June in Review

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This June was one of the busiest months, I can remember. I honestly don’t even feel like I have started my summer break yet. I am also very aware of how little actual time I will have this summer to enjoy the break. But I am reminding myself that each season has positive and negative and God’s plan is much better than my plan.  July is busy but i am hoping to get everything together by the end of July.

Groceries- Budget $975   $ 1437.76 Goal Not Met! This included supplies for Kendall’s birthday party as well as my trying to restock some needed things. I also have seen reports of 50% increase in groceries in the last year.

Auto/ Gas. Goal -= $600.  Goal Met!  We have spent $575.37

Blogging- 15 posts per month. This is post number 9. Busy and I can say I tried!

Exercise- I am having lots of Knee pain…. not sure what to do…

Summer Goals
1. Kitchen Floor- Complete with a nightmare story that I will be sharing including pictures once I have settled with Home Depot.
2. Bathroom Floor (Matt responsible) – We have an estimate and waiting on the installation.
3. New to me car- Purchased and it is the nicest car I have ever owned.
4. Back Deck- We have an estimate and it will be after the Bathroom is completed.
5.  Purchase and process a whole cow including canning broth and ground hamburger. DONE!
6. Restock freezer with 100 meals and at least 50 breakfast burritos and 52 packs of bagels.  This has been the biggest struggle so far. I have about 25 breakfast burritos and one baked ziti in the freezer as of now.

 

5 Things Friday

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  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!

Gardening Update

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As you probably realize I got very little behind last week.  So my plan for this week is to catch up to the point that I am only spending about 15 minutes a day in the garden.  The first thing I wanted to tackle was the blue berries.

I ended up spending over an hour between harvesting and weeding the beds this morning (Monday).  I was rewarded with

I have frozen most of these. But the kids told me they have also really been enjoying eating them fresh off the bushes.

Every Bit Challenge
1. Half a gallon of blueberries frozen.
2  One extra meal in the freezer for next year. I also made two additional meals for this week as well.
3. I was able to make some sautéed zucchini and squash for dinner as well as I added 3 more bags of squash casserole mix to the freezer.

Not a lot but hey EVERY BIT COUNTS!

 

Granny’s Surgery Journey

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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!

Sunday Garden Update

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I had actually debated even doing an update this week, but my excitement changed my mind. We have blueberries!  And I mean I have frozen at over a pint, and we still have some for fresh eating!

In the ugggh department, we are in a battle with the squash bugs already!  I have killed at least 10 and we have thrown every single egg I could find into the chickens,   The other thing we are doing to coffee water.

I spent some time pruning tomatoes, and we are starting to see some small tomatoes. I am so very hopeful for a huge tomato harvest this year.  The pepper plants are growing and we have eaten the one and only pepper we have. I am hoping for lots more in the coming weeks.  We have green bean plants in three separate locations with several blossoms. The cucumber plants are different. Some are growing, others just appear to have stopped. I am losing hope but will continue to wait. .

Every Bit Counts Challenge
Last week was really busy and I have been struggling just to keep up.  But I was able to add a couple of things.
I cooked and froze 3 bags for squash casseroles.
I made and canned a couple of pints of strawberry syrup.
We have at least 4 gallon bags of frozen strawberries.
1 pint of frozen blueberries.

Summer Goal!

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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.

Monday Menu Post

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The countdown is on 2 weeks till Summer Break, although at this point, it appears to be a very busy Summer Break. This week’s menu was on that I wanted to plan with looking at what was in the freezer and anything I could do ahead!  I am actually thinking this is one of the easier weeks schedule wise!

Breakfast- Saturday- Strawberry cream cheese pancakes   Sunday-I had fried eggs.  Monday- Kendall requested Peanut butter and chocolate baked oatmeal, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday- find it (breakfast burritos, muffins, oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs).
Lunch- Saturday-Matt and I tried a new Mexican place in Welcome it was awesome!  .  Sunday- Time Square Pizza.    Monday- left-overs Tuesday, -Wednesday, Thursday- Leftovers or wraps
Dinner- Saturday-Left-overs    Sunday- Breakfast – BBQ chicken legs and sides    Tuesday- Taco Rice    Wednesday- Pulled Pork.  Thursday- Chicken Fried Rice Friday- who knows…. I will figure out when I have to!.