Monday Menu Planning

Posted on April 20, 2026 by Sheila

This is shaping up to be one of the busiest weeks this Spring with baseball games four night, court and Matt’s birthday. We did make the trip to Costco yesterday (Sunday) so I am a little bit more confident in our ability to start eating at home more next week. As for this week, we ate out twice on Saturday due to two baseball games, Matt’s birthday is this week and we have a double header ballgame in Mocksville on Thursday so there is no escaping the reality of fast food.

Breakfast- Saturday- Bacon and eggs and toast. Sunday- Grits with egg and a Dutch boy pancake. Monday-Muffins purchased at Costco, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday– find it (oatmeal, omelets, cereal and milk, sausage, pop-tarts ,cereal bars, pancakes and eggs)My goal is to make a baked oatmeal for one morning this week but we will see.

Lunch- Saturday- Dario’s after ballgame Sunday- East Coast Wings Left-overs are always great for lunches. I also purchased two loaves of bread for use this week due to the schedule.

Dinner- Saturday- Chinese take out Sunday- Chicken and stuffing Monday-Chicken Stew from the freezer Tuesday- Bad Daddy’s for Matt’s birthday. Wednesday-Chicken Enchilada Thursday- Eating out around ballgame Friday- Grilled Chicken

Square Foot Garden Update

Posted on April 19, 2026 by Sheila

The weather in NC continues to be wild and is throwing everything in a tail spin for planting. The good news is that I have been stalking the weather and trying to make the most informed decision I can.

I currently have 47 pepper plants, 44 tomato plants, several loofas and several Pettie marigolds plant starts in the greenhouse. I did make the right decisions for these plants. The predicted low for both Monday and Tuesday mornings are around freezing. I decided to keep these plants in the greenhouse with extra water for at least another week. I will keep looking at the weather to determine just how long they will be living in there. Both peppers and tomatoes like temperatures above 50 so I am hoping to keep them in the greenhouse until I see 10 days with temperatures above 50. But in reality it is not unusual for us to get a late frost in May. I am also using a window to vent the greenhouse with temperatures hitting 90 on other days.

I did go ahead and plant out both watermelon and cantaloupe seeds last week. My thought was they will take 7-10 days to germinate and this way the temperature will be warmer by then. This will also allow me enough time to replant depending on what seeds germinate as well. I am using older seeds to I am planting heavy in hopes for 50% germination. I have also planted out all my bush green beans, yellow squash, zucchini and cucumbers. I will buy plant starts if I do no have enough germination around Mother’s day. I was given a bunch of okra seeds which also were planted.

Now is a couple of weeks of watching and waiting and likely replanting and watching and waiting.

I have some potatoes growing and sugar snap peas. The peas are not doing well because of the heat.

I still need to purchase basil seeds, hoping to find pimento plant (as NONE of the seed pack I purchased germinated) and dill after the cucumbers have started to flower.

Hopefully I will have some pictures to add next week.

Wordless Wednesday – Royal Caribbean Cruise

Posted on April 15, 2026 by Sheila

Wordless Wednesday- Easter

Posted on April 8, 2026 by Sheila

We did get some Easter Pictures today!

Sunday Garden Update

Posted on April 5, 2026 by Sheila

It is still really early in the gardening season for us but with the use of the greenhouse I am really encouraged about what I am seeing. I actually looked back at last year and my plants are not nearly as large but I am still hopefully! We are heading out of town so I wanted to heavily water in the greenhouse and decided to take a detailed inventory as well.

I have 23 Amish paste tomato plants, 6 German Johnson tomato plants, 6 plants from seeds I saved from Cherry Hill farm and 8 plants from a packet that says tomato. For a total of 44 tomato plants.

14 Sweet California peppers, 6 Anaheim, 2 rainbow mini peppers, 2 monster yellow peppers and 20 Lunch box pepper plants. A total of 44 pepper plants as well.

1 loofa gord, and 7 pettie Marigold plants.

i am not going to start cucumber or squash plants in the green house this year, I did not find it was worth the effort to have to transplant.

I might be most excited by this bed, it is a potato bed. we will be adding dirt this evening!

Asparagus bed

Snap peas are growing.

One small lettuce plant

Garlic plants are surviving as well!

Saving on Saturday – Hair

Posted on April 4, 2026 by Sheila

Beauty cost! And the cost of beauty is rising. One of the few things that I am absolutely afraid to do myself is my hair. I can not cut straight and if I mess up my hair then I am going to have to pay so I chose to pay up front.

I have been very fortunate to have a good hairdresser for almost 25 years. She has always been reasonable priced. Since 2019, she has decreased her available hours and it has become more and more difficult to get appointments. Fortunately for me, Lily enjoys doing hair especially coloring.

I did have a hair cut appointment on Thursday and the first thing she said to me ” Your girls have not dyed your hair lately and you need it:” A hair cut is still $15 so that was the first step.

I called Lily and she agreed to work on my hair. It cost me $33 for the hair dye and what else she needed. Her words of wisdom were “Trust the process.” I did snap some pictures so share. But I am very pleased with the results for $48, I have an entire new hair style.

First Lily “bleached” to bring out most of the red color. This process took almost an hour.

Yes there were some “orange” streaks but “trust the process.”

This was the look last night when it was still wet.

I am glad I did “trust” the process.

March in Review

Posted on March 31, 2026 by Sheila

March has been a strange month. We are settling into a new routine but everything is still a bit hectic and crazy. Mondays are the hardest! I am hopeful that by the end of April things will be more stable and we can enjoy May and the summer. The weather continues to be bizarre at best and crazy at least. To end the month, we collectively decided to share a cold. I am on the end with just a cough and runny nose, Lily and Matt are starting. April will bring lots of new adventures and hopefully just as many if not more memories!

Groceries- Goal $800 per month. We spent $628.20 for the month of March. This is a huge win for me. We actually cleaned out and turned off the old chest freezer. I also have this week brought the prepared meals in the house. I am very hopefully to stretch our meat and budget until June when we will start the process of restocking. I am also looking forward to the end of April for strawberry season! Part of cleaning out the freezer was taking our remaining 3 gallon bags of strawberries that somehow became a block of red and turning into strawberry jam.

Gas- Goal is $400. Total spent was $562.03 Gas prices have significantly increased due to military operations in Iran. The current price of gas varies between 3.59 and 4.00. I have provided a tank of gas for Kendall this month as well as two tanks in the white civic. Zach is currently driving the white civic so Matt is still driving the Tahoe to work as well. I do not see gas prices decreasing in the near future so this is also a category that may need to be increased in June.

Blogging-The goal will be 11 posts per month. This is actually post number 13 for the month! I am going to count this as a HUGE win! Things are starting to settle down and I am finally feeling like I can juggle a couple of things at a time.

Debit- The goal for 2026 will be to pay off the Home Depot Credit card without interest. This is due in September and is a total of $3380.30 We have been able to completely pay off the new HVAC system. We are working to find the extra money for the Home Depot card. Same for this month. Kendall wants to pay off her car loan by September which would be HUGE and there is a strong possibility that Zach is going to purchase the white car from us which will add that money back in the budget.

No Spend Days- Goal for 10 no spend days a month. This has again been the last thing on mind this month. I have written down 1 for the month of March. I seriously doubt that April is much better!

Health/Exercise-I am no hanging out between 171 and 175. Exercise would be nice but still have not found the time for that one.

Monday Menu Post

Posted on March 30, 2026 by Sheila

This will definitely be one of the slowest weeks of the year! The reason it is the week before Spring Break! We only have 1 baseball game this week. In other exciting news, we have finished our part of the Foster Care licensure process. Now we get to wait!

Breakfast- Saturday- Gravy and Biscuits Sunday- Cereal or Oatmeal , Monday–Baked oatmeal , Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, find it (oatmeal, omelets, cereal and milk, sausage, pop-tarts ,cereal bars, pancakes and eggs)I would like to make some additional muffins this week but I am not going to promise anything quite yet!

Lunch- Saturday-left-overs Sunday- Panda Panda Left-overs are always great for lunches. I am encouraging people to eat out of the fridge this week. We have a ton of food that needs to be eaten.

Dinner- Saturday- Blackstone noodles, zucchini, peppers and onions with skirt steak. Sunday-I had banana muffins and popcorn Monday-Parmesan Chicken Tuesday- Turkey pot pie Wednesday- Ham and broccoli casserole Thursday-Chicken enchiladas Friday- Zach is in charge!

Sunday Garden Update

Posted on March 29, 2026 by Sheila

I have moved all the plant starts from the house to the greenhouse. The reason is that with the wild temperature swings we have been experiencing I wanted to make sure they stay above 50*. I am so pleased with the growth and am hopefully again for a very productive season.

We currently have approximately 50 pepper plants.