May in Review

Posted on May 31, 2025 by Sheila

May was fast and fun! The Disney trip was fun and a true success! I have 11 days of work before my summer break starts. The kids really only have another week. The garden has started to produce and I am ready for some lazy days but first just got to finish the school year strong!

Emergency Fund- Goal is $1000- $250. Matt received a 3% raise starting this month and starting in June, I am planning to budget $50 a month for this. I know it is small but at least it is a start!

Groceries- Goal $820 per month. We spent $693.55 which includes several bulk strawberry purchases. I anticipate this to remain high over the summer as I am restocking the freezer and taking to get easy meals in the freezer for the school year. This past week has been a reminder of how hard it is to prepare meals from scratch. It feels like as soon as I get home from work I have to start working on dinner. This is no fun but a necessary evil for the last days of school as our freezer is really only ingredients at this point.

Gas- Goal is $500. May total is $540.50. This does include $190 that was spent on our trip to Florida. I know I have several huge expenses coming up in June, tires, tax and tags. So I do expect June to be over budget as well.

Blogging- For 2025- the goal will be 10 posts per month. Woo HOO This is post number 14 for the month! This is a true win as I went almost 10 days without a post!

Debit- Goal is 200000 total debit for the end of the year! I am making small steps to make this happen. I am struggling to stick to a cash budget but honestly things might be easier in the summer when we have less things to go and do so that spending is less as well.

Health/Exercise-I am actually weigh 191. I have walked 8 miles outside of our Disney trip which was a total of around 20 miles. Hopefully I get to walk in the pool some this Summer as well.

Reading through the Bible this year- Our church and myself are following “The Bible Recap” program and I have currently managed to stay on track for 151 days!

5 Things Friday

Posted on May 30, 2025 by Sheila

I have disappeared for a week. We headed to Disney World for a quick 4 day trip last weekend. I am going to share some pictures of course. but we had an awesome time and it was much needed and enjoyed by all!
The weather continues to be so bizarre. We left Florida on Tuesday morning with a temperature of 83 at 9am. We arrived home at 7pm and the temperature here was 55* We have had at least 6.5 inches of rain in the month of May. I am hoping to return to 80 very soon so I can enjoy sitting at the pool.
Before we left for Florida, we decide to try something. We have 2 rain barrels that are filled by rain water. One from the house gutters and the second from a single gutter on the side of a building. Matt had saw and I did some research on adding goldfish to these. We decided that it was worth a try. We headed to Pet Smart and purchased 20 “large” goldfish. My thought was that I wanted the larger fish so they would not accidentally come out a spout. I am so excited to report that we can see a visible difference in the amount of algae on the sides of both barrels. So for $10 we have a renewable algae control. We have only saw the fish one time but we can see the evidence they are working.
Due to the wet weather we have needed to add both pine shavings and lime to the chicken coop. Another “upgrade” is that we are planting mint inside of cement blocks around the sides of the coop. The idea is that the mint can be food for the chickens as well as odor control.
The most disappointing thing that happened this week is that our pool has a motor problem so not only can we not enjoy the pool but both the kids were planning on working this summer as lifeguards. We are all hoping it can open soon!

Spending/Saving

Posted on May 20, 2025 by Sheila

This is definitely a blog post that I did not want to write or post. I spent a lot this week but honestly, I can’t be upset because they were actually needed. I wanted to be honest so in the future I can remember that some things happen and part of the journey is to adjust to things.

Wednesday
$14.41 lunch

Thursday
$31.41 Strawberries, grocery budget

Friday
$53.13 Walmart grocery
$2.66 lunch
$226 Year books and National honor society dues
$354 Belk’s-clothes for Zach
$22.14 Amazon shorts for Zach

Saturday
NO SPEND!

Sunday
$56 lunch
$42 skorts for me
$38 nails

Monday
No Spend

Tuesday
No Spend

Total for the week $801.74 $418 for clothes

Monday Menu Planning

Posted on May 19, 2025 by Sheila

Full Steam Ahead, Summer is almost here. The next couple of weeks are going to move slowly just because I am counting!

Breakfast- Saturday-Pancakes and Bacon Sunday- Breakfast casserole. Monday- , Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday Friday– find it (breakfast burritos,oatmeal, omelets, cereal and milk,sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs.

Lunch- Saturday- Pasta Salad Sunday-Gregg’s Monday- left over pasta salad Tuesday,-left-overs Wednesday- eat out Thursday- left-overs. Friday- eat out.

Dinner- Saturday- Sandwiches or chips and salsa Sunday- Cube steak, rice, creamed corn and sauteed squash Monday- Spaghetti and meatballs Tuesday-Spinach Ravioli Wednesday-Crockpot Hamburger Helper Thursday- Left-overs or you find it Friday- Chicken sandwiches and French fries

Garden Update

Posted on May 18, 2025 by Sheila

Although the weather has been really different and weird, but still are having a lot of growth on our plants and we have started to get some small harvest.

These were sautéed to go with dinner. I honestly think that the wind blew off the tails before they could actually reach any size!

I am excited that a couple of sunflowers are keeping up with the cosmos!

All the Amish paste tomatoes are showing above the bed. We have pruned off the bottom leaves but plan to just let them grow at this point.

German Johnson tomatoes (slicing)

This bed will be the most work in the next couple of weeks. Broccli does not like heat and as you can see is starting to wilt. I will also need to pull out the snap peas and plant some green beans in their place.

The zucchini bed with sone lots of blooms this week!

The squash are huge and they taste wonderful!

I am concerned about this bed as it is just not doing as well as the one on the opposite side. I have been using Epsom salt on the peppers to try and help.

My prettiest bed EVER! It is so full and makes me happy!

The tunnel is starting to fill in!

Okra, dill , marigold . it also is staring to expand!

The banana peppers that I purchased are looking great, only one of these cantaloupe plants germinated in the front bed.

Excited that the Waxman peppers are looking much more alive!

Officially 6 watermelon plants I want to see this area full! You can also see a couple of volunteer tomato plants.

Watching for the potato plants to get taller than the sign!

5 Things Friday

Posted on May 16, 2025 by Sheila

1. We are entering a different season of life, one that i often dreamed about but never realized how quickly it would come. And to be honest, I am not entirely sure how I feel about it. All the kids have current jobs and are at home less than me. Lily just graduated from college and is working a full time job and also many side hustles, Kendall is a junior, who works during the school year one day a week at the YMCA as a lifeguard. Zach started taking classes for his lifeguard training and is already employed as a lifeguard for the summer.

2. Lily graduated from Liberty University some time last Friday. This is a campus that none of us have seen. She did not choose to walk across the stage because of the cost involved. I actually encouraged her in this decision. The only tough part is now she is unsure at 19 what she really wants to do in life or even a course to head to get there. This summer is going to be tough and likely life changing for her. I am praying for peace and wisdom.

3. I am finishing up my final weeks of treatment for the school year. I will have a couple of weeks of paperwork, meetings and office cleaning but the end is in sight.

4. The weather this year is the strangest ever in my book, after running the air conditioner for most of the month of April, we did not need it for the first two plus weeks of May. However, on Wednesday the humidity and heat forced the air back on. I assumed it would be for the remainder of the summer but it now appears we may get another week in the 70s. Strange and strange. The other issue is that we have been receiving a bunch of rain, the 5th wettest on record.

5. Kendall is rank 5th in her junior class. This was one thing that she was focused on achieving as this allows her to be a junior marshal. We are extremely proud of her!

Wordless Wednesday- Lily’s Graduation

Posted on May 14, 2025 by Sheila

Spending/Saving Report

Posted on May 13, 2025 by Sheila

I am hoping that we have less of a total this week as compared to last. I have been very good about recording everything in my phone but I have seriously not added the totals up yet. Yay for 2 full days of NO SPENDING this is a huge accomplishment for us!

Wednesday 5/7
$4.89 breakfast
$25 medical copay
$13.33 Lunch
$15 ballgame

Thursday 5/8
no spending!

Friday 5/9
$13.71 lunch

Saturday
$17.28 (family as this was Matt and I)
$48.25 gas in Tahoe
$217.72 groceries from Costco
$18.99 Groceries from Food Lion

Sunday
No spending!

Monday
$39 gas in Rogue
$50 from hair fund to Lily for hair color

Tuesday
$2.64 Breakfast

Total
My spending $34.57
Family Spending $57.26
Gas $87.25
Groceries $236.71

total overall spending $465.79!

Yes! Spending is down $210 from last week!

Monday Menu Post

Posted on May 12, 2025 by Sheila

I can see the end of the school year but it feels especially today like I have to just hang on and survive one day at a time. We have a fairly busy schedule this week with multiple people going to different events although looking ahead it is much busier next week. Anyway I am going basic and easy for the next couple of weeks!

Breakfast- Saturday-Gregg’s (a local place for Matt and I) Sunday-Omelet Monday- Pear Sauce bread, Tuesday,, Thursday Friday– find it (breakfast burritos,oatmeal, omelets, cereal and milk,sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs. Wednesday-Apple cinnamon baked oatmeal.

Lunch- Saturday- Rotisserie chicken, stuffing and cranberry sauce. Sunday-Steaks for Mothers Day Monday- left over spaghetti salad Tuesday,-salads Wednesday- eat out Thursday- left-overs. Friday- eat out.

Dinner- Saturday- Rotisserie chicken, stuffing and cranberry sauce.(yeap we made this two full meals) Sunday- Steak sandwich or other left-overs. Monday- Spaghetti and meatballs Tuesday-Taco Pasta Wednesday- Chicken pot pie (using home canned base), Thursday- Matt is in charge Friday- Chicken enchiladas

Sunday Garden Update

Posted on May 11, 2025 by Sheila

The weather has been so crazy, today we had a high temperature of 68* with highs of 90 expected by the end of the week. Lots of things are growing with blooms and there are even some small zucchini and squash!

Zucchini bed

Squash bed

This bed is mostly pepper with green beans and cucumbers on the back side. I did end up using Epsom salt to try and get some healthier looking plants

This side has a true mix with green beans loofa and cucumbers

Waxman peppers for Salsa

The bed in front of my office has broccoli, spinach(we are getting a weekly harvest) along with sugar snap peas

Front view of Roma tomato bed, this is cosmos flowers with sunflowers in the back.Roma tomatos are growing well all are finally visible at the top of the bed. I did tie up most of these this weekend so that should be the key to seeing them grow.