Monthly Archives: September 2025

September in Review

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September was a busy month.  My work has been a struggle to balance and life is busy with teenagers and grands!

Emergency Fund- Goal is $1000- $250. One word School!

Groceries- Goal $820 per month.  Goal not met with $907.36 We made a Costco trip on Saturday which pushed us way over.

Gas- Goal is $500. August  total is $34155. Not bad for a whole month of driving!

Blogging- For 2025- the goal will be 10 posts per month. This is actually post number 10. This was a real struggle for the month. I am hoping to keep this up and even improve as I find that I can settle in a routine.

Debit- Goal is 200000 total debit for the end of the year!  Slow progress and we might be making some significant changes but I will let you know as things progress.

Health/Exercise- Yuck yuck yuck… no time no time no time.

Reading through the Bible this year-Still on track! I am so excited and proud of myself because we finished the Old Testament today!  I am 3/4 of the way through!

Monday Menu Plan

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It has been a while since I have posted a menu  plan for the week. At least 6 weeks and maybe more. Mondays are a hard day at work for me. I am super busy and my caseload is heavy and hard and exhausting. I am struggling to keep up but I know that my attitude makes a difference.  Therefore this week, I choose joy!    I have been reading online that October is “Crockpot month”  . I am always up for a good challenge, however I am sure that I would face a revolt if I attempted to use the crock pot every day of the week. So for now I am going to attempt to use it 2x a week. We have some favorites but I also am wanting to try new things to see if they work.  My ultimate goal would be to include at least one meal a week in the crockpot. This is much easier in the cooler month but again it is great to have goals.

Breakfast- Saturday-I made myself some fried eggs   Sunday- Bagels from Costco  Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday Friday– find it (oatmeal, omelets, cereal and milk,sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs) We need to finish up the bagels and my goal is to make a hot breakfast two days a week but this has yet to happen. But it is a great goal to have.

Lunch- Saturday- Rotisserie Chicken, stuffing and cranberry sauce Sunday- East Coast wings.  Left-overs are always great for lunches and I have a stash of crackers and other snack items as well.

Dinner- Saturday-Kids all ate out for Homecoming, Matt and I found left-overs or something.  Sunday- Potato Soup (one meal in the freezer and 5 lunches for this week.) Monday-Stuffed pepper and broccoli cornbread. Tuesday- Taco Pasta  Wednesday-Beef Raman in Crockpot (new)Thursday- Baked Ziti  Friday- new crockpot meal-

Small steps = progress!

Home Coming Week Fun

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Lots of school and friend fun made Home Coming week fun for both Kendall and Zach!

Zach nailed the BBQ Dad Day!

 

Kendall worked hard on her jeans for Friday! The only day she actually went to school during Home Coming week.

Zach left really early (before 7am) on Friday morning to be part of “Dudes at the door” as Southwood.

Both enjoyed being part of the Homecoming Parade!

 

Pantry Challenge/ Saving Money

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Yes I am writing this on a Sunday. I did most of the work for this on Saturday. But I wanted to share about the building that feels like it is sucking up most if not all of our time.

I work all summer long to get easy to prepare meals in the freezer to make the school year go easier. I also wanted to start using up alot of the food we have here so that I can reduce the food bill for the rest of the year.  I have  not been to Costco since the first of August before school started.  I am picking up items that we are completely out of but I am making a conscience effort not to buy items unless absolutely needed.  We are about 6 weeks in and at the point where our convivence foods are gone. Yesterday we finished up both the chicken nuggets and bagel bites. One of the items that I have the most of is ground beef. When we purchase a whole cow, we get alot of ground beef and I know we can eat it. I am thinking that at this point we have almost 50 # left in the freezer.   We used up the last of the Costco meatball about a week ago.

On Friday, I took a pound of ground beef and decided to make some meatballs to go with our spaghetti.  They turned awesome, so good in fact that I decided to go ahead and make a huge batch. I turned 5 pounds of ground beef into 96 meatballs that can be used for spaghetti, meatball subs and even Swedish meatballs.

While the last batch of these were baking yesterday, I ended up gathering up all the ingredients for Taco Soup. I decided to make a double batch so that I could can up some for quick and easy lunches.  We are eating the soup for dinner this evening and I will have 5 half pints and 12 pints of taco soup to use for lunches or even future meal!  I am excited to have these convivence items instead of purchasing.

Replacing a Building

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The second thing we decided to accomplish on our vacation was converting the metal building from the fabric and metal tubs to a wooden structure.  We knew it would be a process but I did not realize it would take over a month.  We started with this

We removed the metal to expose the fabric

The fabric was easy to remove but the pole took a little bit more effort.

By the end of the first weekend of at least 15 or more hours of work we were down to the floor.

We used the leftovers/remnant from the kitchen floor to make it harder to lose screws and easier to clean.

We were able to get up most of the walls on that same day but it was another long long day!

Weekend 3 complete and not on to the fourth in the next update!

 

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  1. We have been extremely busy the last several weeks. We are in the process of converting the fabric metal pole structure that covered the beetle (Matt’s Volkswagen) to a  wooden structure covered in metal.  I knew it would be a process but did not think it would take over a month.  We really focused on getting it under roof.  Last Saturday we spent close to 8 hours solid on it and I made the decision that it was not a worth to try and continue at that pace to get it under roof. The current plan is to get a door on tomorrow. A tarp is currently over the roof and  it will likely be a month before we work on the roof.  My current plan is to start sharing pictures tomorrow.
  2. Zach’s truck broke down in the school parking lot on Monday. We had it towed home and then after some working and investigation, it appears that the fuel pump is part or all of the problem. The goal is to get that replaced tomorrow however the part was delayed so it may take a little bit on Sunday as well.
  3. Working has been a bit much. I am struggling to get in a routine. But I am hopeful that things will start to improve.
  4. Next week Braxton’s baseball starts which means that we have at least 3 evening of games.
  5. I am planning to do some big meal preparation over the weekend. The current plan is to make a double batch of taco soup with half or more canned for convivence. The second big preparation is meatball. The Costco meatball are all gone and we have lots of ground beef that can be used.

5 Things Friday

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1. The school year is in full swing and I am busy. One of the main reasons I am busy is the major overhaul project of rebuilding/making useable the metal building at the end of our driveway. We took down the entire structure which was a metal tube frame and are working on rebuilding.  I am hopefully that by this time next week, the project will be complete and I have been taking pictures to share at the end.
2. Zach’s JV football team is currently 2-0. Yesterday, his game was cancelled because of storms. Unfortunately, we had driven an hour, and sat in the parking lot an hour before it was cancelled.
3. Zach was able to get his driver’s license this week.  Our driveway is getting crowded. But it is nice to not have to drive someone everywhere every day. I am excited and looking forward to this new chapter/season of life.
4. I am happy to report that all my meal preparation over the summer is working.   We are also working hard to use up items before purchasing. I was able to reduce our grocery budget for August by $300 and plan to reduce more in $400.
5. We have planned Kendall’s graduation cruise. This is an item she has talked about for several years.  We will be cruising in April.  I hope it will be all she wants!