November in Review

Posted on November 30, 2025 by Sheila

In full transparency, I am writing this long past the actual date but hey I needed to get it in. We left for Florida on November 25th and did not return until December 6th, late so I was a little behind. I am very hopeful to get a post up about the financial decision that we made and completed in November before the Christmas holiday but for now I am struggling to get back in the grove.

Emergency Fund- Goal is $1000- $250. I am very doubtful that we meet this goal this year. However stay tuned for some big financial update that will happen this month. Promise to get more information on this very soon!

Groceries- Goal $820 per month. Goal not met with $1020.67. I am looking at a full on pantry challenge for January and February. I also need to get an idea of what we have spent for the year. Another promise of a detailed post with my ideas and goals should happen in December

Gas- Goal is $500. November total is $623.15. This does include half of our trip. Gas mileage was around 9 miles to the gallon. December will also be expensive because of the return trip.

Blogging- For 2025- the goal will be 10 posts per month. This is actually post number 6 for the month. I have been struggling but am hoping to get myself back in a better routine.

Debit- Goal is 200000 total debit for the end of the year! Huge update and changes coming soon. See above!

Health/Exercise- I am continuing to slowly lose weight. This morning showed 179. For a total of 46 pounds of weight loss. Ideally I would like to hit 50 but we shall see. I actually gained 3-4 pounds during the trip but also walked at least 5 miles a day for at least 5 of the days.

Reading through the Bible this year-Still on track! I am going to finish the year strong! One thing that I am staying on track with is good!

5 Things Friday

Posted on November 14, 2025 by Sheila

This is the first week in the entire school year that I feel like I am finally able to balance work and life. Work is still super busy and next week is going to be wrong and even today I have more to do than i am able but I feel like I can handle it or rather God is going to provide peace and security for me.
The Central Davidson varsity football team are the conference champions, first time since 1946. Zach has started on JV most of the season. And he was pulled up to varsity for the play offs. There is a slim chance that he will actually get to play but we are all going to the game just in case it happens. Kendall is likely going to watch another player but so is life.
My snow village and the new “Disney” village have both been completed this week. I am planning to make a full blog post on them for next week
We are headed to Florida for Thanksgiving! I am not responsible for any cooking! On black Friday, we are all headed to Disney. David and Haley and the kids are coming up with us. Lily and Braxton are flying in as well! The kids and I will miss an extra week of school. I am super excited!
I am going to assume that probably 2 of the 4 new chickens we purchased at the end of the summer have started laying. We went the entire month of October without a single egg. I actually purchased 6 dozen eggs from a coworker. This past week we started getting 1 and 2 large brown eggs! Even more exciting is the fact that we also got 1 green egg this week which means at least one of the older chickens probably the white one is laying as well.

Wordless Wednesday- Kendall Edition

Posted on November 12, 2025 by Sheila

Kendall had a really busy week last week. She actually worked at one job or the other all five days. But the highlights included Swim pictures and National Honor Society Induction where she did her first official duty as an officer.

Monday Menu Planning

Posted on November 10, 2025 by Sheila

The weather is making a dramatic change it is going to cold for a couple of days this week. For us that means that we need some soup!

Breakfast- Saturday- Grits or oatmeal . Sunday- Left-overs, Tuesday- Bakery treats for Veteran’s Day Monday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday– find it (oatmeal, omelets, cereal and milk, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs)

Lunch- Saturday- Leftovers Sunday-Christos . Left-overs are always great for lunches and I have a stash of crackers and other snack items as well.

Dinner- Saturday-Hamburgers on Sour Dough Buns with chili and slaw Sunday- Left-overs Monday-Chili cheese and corn chips Tuesday- Broccoli Cheese soup and fresh bread. Wednesday-Eggroll in a bowl Thursday- KFC bowls Friday- not sure yet. Might be a eat out night?

Building Update

Posted on November 9, 2025 by Sheila

A short recap…. while on vacation, after discovering we have a new fence right on our property line, one of the things we talked about doing was replacing this building.

Initially we were thinking that we would need to move it to allow for clearance to the back of the yard. Luckily that was not the case. We started the process on August 31st. You can see the first section of progress here

This ended up being a longer and more expensive project than was expected! But I am super excited to say that we have officially completed the project and it turned out amazing!