October in Review

Posted on October 31, 2024 by Sheila

Philippians 3:14 “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

The month of October has really just flown by. We were able to get most of our summer projects done. Matt still needs to finish the gazebo but is waiting on the metal that was missed in the initial shipment. And he plans to add permanent lights to the outside of the house as well. He has worked hard at getting new electrical ran to several spots outside already.

Groceries- Budget $975 $ 652.78 Goal Met I am hoping to keep this low for the remainder of the year. I am only purchasing items we are out of so that makes for less trips.

Blogging- 15 posts per month. This is post number 7. I am hopeful that with the end of football season, I will have a couple of more evenings at home to do things like blog.

Exercise- I was able to get over 10 thousand steps a day on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday during our short Disney trip. My knee has now decided it does not like that much walking.

Summer Goals _ all other goals were completed in September!
4. Back Deck-The back deck is complete! Matt is currently working on installing a gazebo to finish this project!
We also put in a new front door, added electrical outlets to both the back deck and to the outside of the house.

November and December are my favorite months so I am hoping to enjoy!

Monday Menu Post

Posted on October 21, 2024 by Sheila

Genesis 9:3 “Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.’

This week’s theme is simple and using what we have. Matt is out of town so this is a good time to simply some things as well.

Breakfast- Saturday- leftovers from Cracker Barrel, Sunday- Costco Muffins Monday- Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday – find it (breakfast burritos, muffins, oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs, Jimmy Dean Croissants and chicken biscuits. Friday- McDonald’s treat.

Lunch- Saturday-left-overs Sunday- Panda Panda Monday- Tuesday, -Left-overs Wednesday- eat out or leftovers Thursday- soup. Friday- eat out.

Dinner- Saturday- Beef Stew Sunday-I made myself an omelet Monday- Chicken, stuffing, squash casserole and cranberry sauce. Tuesday- Soup choice and fresh cheddar bay biscuits . Wednesday- left overs . Thursday- – Left-overs or soup depending

Upcoming Adventures!

Posted on October 20, 2024 by Sheila

I am catching me breath and looking forward to some upcoming adventures.

This week Matt is on a business trip to Austria. Because of the time difference, he is six hours in the future, communication will be very limited. It should be interesting to say the least.

I have 3 trips planned to Florida before the end of the year! Lots of Disney fun!

Zach has three more football games and then will start swimming.

Kendall is working every Saturday and will start swimming October 30th. She has finished her first set of college classes with high A’s and is starting to think about life in the future. She also will be visiting Florida 3 times in three months!

Lily’s current plan is to return home in January and finish her degree and decide her next big adventure.

We were able to finish up several home improvement projects this weekend, but I thought I would share what is next.

First hopefully in the near future, the back deck gazebo will be complete, and we can decide on furniture and start enjoying it more.

Matt is planning to add several additional electrical outlets to add to our home renovations from the summer. After the additional outlets, hopefully permanent lighting on the outside will be the last project of the year.

We are done gardening for the year, I know that we need to fertilize beds, add a couple of arches and a major repair on one bed but that can all wait til the Spring. I am going to do some serious planning this winter and plan to add some landscaping as well.

Matt will likely have at least one additional surgery for skin cancer and Mom has an ablation scheduled as well.

What adventures do you have planned?

A Saturday of Preparation

Posted on October 19, 2024 by Sheila

I am not sure if it was Hurricane Helene or the fact that we had frost two mornings this morning or that our deck is finally complete, but I really feel like I need to get lots of preparation done. It may be preparation for the winter or for life in general I am not sure. But today we were able to mark alot of things off the list.

We did have one big failure; we were not able to finish the gazebo on the deck because we were sent two identical boxes which means we are missing pieces. Matt did contact the company so hopefully it can get finished soon.

Matt did finish painting the shutters black. We pulled out all the remaining tomato and pepper plants from the raised beds. I am not going to cover the beds this year and am hopeful this will kill off some of the bugs. Zach tore apart the bucket garden as it was falling apart.

I was able to can 8 pints of hamburger meat these are nice to have inside and by doing so, it made the freezer work less as it was not over the top full. I made beef stew for dinner in the crockpot which turned out well. Matt also made a gallon of tea.

We continued to battle the racoons. We lost one chicken so have been working to secure the coop as well as try and trap the racoons as there is more than one. Zach added another piece of wood which makes things tight and secure at the moment.

A trip to Costco ended the day. We filled all four of our propane tanks and also filled our last gas can. I purchased paper towels, bath tissue and a stockpile of drinks.

We are officially ready for whatever adventure is ahead!

Monday Menu Plan

Posted on October 14, 2024 by Sheila

Genesis 9:3 “Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.’

As you can probably tell from my lack of posting this month, I am back to our supper busy season. Luckly, on Sunday, I found an extra hour and some extra help to prep ahead all the meals for this week!

Breakfast- Saturday- Bacon and biscuits. Sunday- Grits or Instant Oatmeal. Monday- Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday– find it (breakfast burritos, muffins, oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs, Jimmy Dean Croissants and chicken biscuits. Zach made mini muffins this week as well.

Lunch- Saturday-left-overs Sunday- Mi Cancun (local Mexican Restaurant) Monday- pizza Tuesday, – pasta salad and grilled chicken Wednesday- eat out or leftovers Thursday- soup. Friday- eat out.

Dinner- Saturday- Pizza Sunday-pasta salad and grilled chicken. Monday-Stuffed shells Tuesday- Taco rice bowls. Wednesday- Chicken, broccoli and rice casserole. Thursday- Magnolia Beef and rice Friday- Left-overs or soup depending

Weekend

Posted on October 13, 2024 by Sheila

Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

Last weekend was lots of fun as both Haley and Lily were home. We celebrated Braxton’s birthday, had a family dinner which included a haunted house decorating contest and lots of good conversations.

This weekend was about catching up and getting ahead. Saturday- Matt, Zach and I spent all day outside. Matt focused on getting started on assembling the new gazebo for the back deck. Zach and I tried to catch up on the yard work as well as helping with the gazebo. Unfortunately, we also discovered that one of the chickens was attacked. Which meant we spent about an hour working to repair and strengthen the chicken coop and run. The gazebo will require at least one additional Saturday to complete. I am very hopeful to finish up pulling out the summer garden and possibly throw some seeds in the ground for fall. I am seriously just debating ripping up what is there and calling it quits for the year.

On Sunday, I convinced Matt and Zach to help me tackle food prep for the week. I started a huge pot of rice as well as two boxes of pasta. While these were cooking, I cooked three pounds of ground beef. I combined most of the rice and the meat in the slow cooker to make taco rice. This ended up making 5 meals! The remaining rice will be used for Mongolian beef this week. Matt and Zach both help chop up onions, cucumbers, tomato and pepper for the pasta salad. Matt also grilled chicken. Zach made mini muffins as part of breakfast. I pulled out a dish of stuffed shells and a bag of chicken broccoli casserole for the week as well.

Plans for this week including packing- more details on that adventure soon, removing the rest of the garden, Baseball game for Braxton and Football game for Zach.