Summer Goal Update

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Today is Monday and I attempt to post a menu plan most Mondays. However this week we have VBS at church and are provided dinner every evening. A whole week of not having to decide what is for dinner is so heavenly! The focus for lunches this week will be to clean out the refrigerator. With the traveling I will be doing in the next couple of weeks, I like to not come home to science experiments.  I decided this would be a good time to update on my Summer goals.

1. Make and order 8 photo books. 2 have been printed and have arrived!  I have a third that I am working on. This is a long process. 
2.  Read a total of 8 books. I have read 1 book this summer but I have the other 7 in the camper for our beach trip.  
3. Make and freeze 12 baked ziti’s. Completed 7/9/2026
4. Make and freeze 6 million dollar spaghetti pies. This may actually not happen this summer due to we only have 1 jar of spaghetti sauce left after I made the baked zitis.  I am hopefully that we will have a giant tomato harvest if not I will start purchasing canner boxes of tomato and make both spaghetti and salsa after returning to work. 
5. Make and freeze 6 pans of chicken enchiladas. Goal met 6/19/2026.
6. Either walk or exercise 3 times a week for at least 8 weeks. I am struggling with this goal as my knee is really bothering me. I have walked at least 6 times this summer but not anywhere near my goal. 
7. Make and freeze 6 taco pastas. goal met 6/19/2026
8. Make and freeze 6 chicken, broccoli rice casseroles. goal met 6/19/2026
9. Changing this to make it fit the overall purpose.  Have 100 ready to heat meals in the freezer.   We currently have 75 prepared dinner meals with additional breakfasts already in the freezer so I am hopeful to complete this before September.

5 Things Friday

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  1. Found Money- I think that I am usually really good at keeping track of my money.  I usually try not to let anybody keep my money without interest.  However this week, I have discovered that two separate business, held my money for over a year. First is the dentist office.  All three kids had dentist appointments two weeks ago. They are all old enough to go without me. Zach did call me and say that he needed more fluoride toothpaste and then text to say that I did not need to pay because he had a credit on his account. When I got time I called and this week they called me back.  Not only does he have a credit but Lily also has a credit from 2024. In thirty days I am expecting a check for $681.99.  The second found money is from a car service plan.  We purchased several service plans when I bought my car.  When reviewing one we realized that I paid for a battery in November 2025 that was covered under a service plan. I made Several phone calls and should receive $299 back in a matter of weeks. $980 found this week.
  2. I am trying an experiment. Our clothes have gotten increasingly wrinkled to the point I really need to iron even the t-shirts.  I hate ironing!  So instead I am currently hanging our outer clothes on the line to dry. If this works, I will do the last several times we wash clothes this summer. It will be hard to do when I go back to work but I am hoping it works well enough to stop or eliminate the need to iron right now.
  3. This summer has been extremely hot and dry!  We have been struggling to keep up with the demand of water.  After seeing the dead and sun burnt plants, I made the decision to pull out all my squash and green beans and replant.   We have gotten very little from these plants and I had the extra seeds. I am hoping that this works if not then I really have only just wasted time!
  4. We are starting to get some cherry tomatoes from the garden!  They are small but good!
  5. I ended up going to Cherry hill farm to purchase a box of canning tomatoes to make Baked Ziti with. My summer break going so fast that I realized that if I did not get the ziti made this week it probably would not get done. $15 for the tomatoes was cheaper and better than buying jarred sauce.

Monday Menu Post

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I am officially half way finished with my summer break. I have 5 weeks left until I return to work full time. The exciting part is that I am actually going to be out of town for three of those five weeks. Another “change” is that next week, our church will provide dinner each night as part as VBS. I will likely cook some type of lunch but maybe night just depends on the mood I am in.  I really want to get at least half of my summer goals completed this week but I am not even sure if that is possible. I have to keep reminding myself that some progress is better than no progress.

Breakfast- Saturday- Matt and I worked on getting 12 batches of biscuits in the freezer. I also made some homemade gravy to go with our biscuits that morning. Sunday-I had cereal.  Monday- Tuesday, Wednesday,  Thursday   and Friday– find it (oatmeal, omelets, cereal and milk, sausage, pop-tarts ,cereal bars, pancakes and eggs). We also have some French toast and Dutch boy pancakes in the freezer.

Lunch- Saturday- Gyros.  Sunday Olive Garden for Kendall’s birthday. Monday-  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday- I want to keep on top of the left-overs but sandwiches are always a choice as well. We also have some left-over pizza that needs to be eaten as well.

Dinner- Saturday- left-over pizza   Sunday- left-over pizza  Monday-French Dip sandwiches  Tuesday- Pasta Salad Wednesday- Honey Garlic Chicken  Thursday- Hot Dogs at the member appreciation day at the pool.  Friday- Spaghetti and meatballs.

Saving on Sunday

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Yes this is definitely a day late post. I had planned to write this yesterday but now I want to include my clothes saving today so it is just a saving on Saturday post a day late!

Groceries remain our highest expenses next to out mortgage.  One of my summer goals is to prepare easy meals to use during the school year. It is one of the ways that i am able to maintain our grocery bill.  We typically only eat out once a week.  However between school and sports this puts a strain on my abilities. By having at least 100 meals in the freezer that can be heated and served this prevents lots of pizza and drive thru runs. This year I am also trying to make a comprehensive list of all the meats/ingredients in the freezers as well. My family LOVES baked ziti’s. I would like to make 8-10 of these and have one a month for the entire school year.  But  Italian sausage is expensive and each one requires a pound.  I was excited  to find  it on sale at $2 off a package. I ended up buying 10 packs so I hope to make these in the next couple of week. I am currently waiting on tomatoes in order to make more sauce as we are down to 5 jars.  We are currently working on the end of the whole cow we purchased two years ago.  I was glad to find some meat on sale as well. But to be honest spending $229.00 at Food Lion was a shock to my system.  However that is meat for 12 meals so at 19.50 a meal to feed 6 people is not horribly bad.  I also purchased alot of ice cream as treats.  I continue to monitor the cost of soda and when I saw that Dollar General was not only placing soda’s on sale but giving two $5 off 25 this week, I had to take advantage of that. I ended up spending $59 for sodas this week but that should last us a while and can were around 37 cent a piece and bottles were 65 cent each.

I took advantage of half price offer on Walmart + this week. This included a peacock tv subscription as well as 10 cent off a gallon for gas at Walmart. I am going to keep up with what I spend this year to see if it is actually worth it.  So far we have saved $9 in delivery fees and I am not going to include the cost of Peacock as we did not need it but it was a nice extra that the kids and Matt have already taken advantage of.

Kendall had requested Olive Garden for lunch today and we ended up shopping at a couple of stores in the same shopping center after eating. My family has discovered that they can eat “lighter fare” which is less than $15 a plate and includes soup, salad and breadsticks as well! Total cost for 7 for lunch today which included 3 additional meals of leftovers weas $120!  Belk’s had a good sale going on as well. We were able to purchase t-shirts for $10 each ! Matt also found  shirt on clearance for $18!  Our final stop of the day was a shoe store where I was able to purchase new tennis shoes for B and E and a new pair of dress shoes for Matt. I count spending $60 for shoes a win as well!

I have said several times today that I buy things on sale so we don’t have to pay full price when we need items!

5 Things Friday

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  1. We are currently experiencing a heat wave with temperatures between 95-100 and feel like temperatures between 105 and 110 degrees. We are also continuing  to experience extreme drought conditions. We have a watering system for most of our square foot gardens but it really cant keep up with the heat and drought conditions. I am not sure how much produce we will be getting.
  2. Matt was able to find a couple of small cherry tomatoes and we have gotten a couple of cucumbers and several squash. I am disappointed but we continue to try and definitely use what we get1
  3. Because of the holiday (fourth of July) occurring on Saturday, Matt and Lily both were off today! Kendall worked today but is off the weekend and so is Zach. We enjoyed a rare treat of pizza for dinner since we were all home for dinner.
  4. Matt and I spent a large part of the day cleaning the house. With all the kids working just about every day, I am struggling to keep up with the daily chores and have not been able to keep the house to a clean level that I wanted. It feels awesome to have the whole house clean!
  5. I am continuing to work on adding food to the freezer!  I was able to make two additional meals of stuffed shells this week.  I have also added several options for breakfast will continuing to use up the eggs!

Another busy but productive week.

Tuesday Thoughts

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Today was unfair and that is the only way I can describe it.  I am always a little hesitant to share about things related to our foster because I want to respect his identify/his story and am also afraid of doing something that may be a reason for his removal from our home.   But today, I am going to share facts and those are just that facts.  Visits are every other week with this being a week I expected a visit however, the visit schedule is usually made monthly so with July 1st on a Wednesday and Friday a holiday I was unsure of what would happen.

Yesterday, Tuesday June 30th at 10:36am, I was informed that a visit was scheduled for today. I was asked if I could provide transportation.   I declined politely because the options for me included driving for 3 hours to drop him off and pick him up or driving 1.5 hours and sitting in a parking lot for 2 hours in a car.   Around 6pm, the timing was confirmed and he would be picked up at 11 am.  I told Easton and we wrote the schedule on the board.

This morning, he was up bright and early!  He even finished his school work before 8am. Today I 10:03 am, I received a text that the visits had been cancelled and would be rescheduled.

As a grown adult who has been a mother for over 30 years, I was in tears, how unfair this feels.  I asked for an explanation to give to him but never received any response.  I am left to explain to a six year old things I don’t understand!  This is unfair and one of the concrete examples as to what is wrong with the Foster Care system!

June In Review

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June was a month, probably one of the busiest months this year if not ever.  June included 2 weekend trips to Disney, one just Matt and I.  We have had 3 cars for repair work.  Three full swim meets and lots of swim practices. Lily is working an internship at Egger with Matt, Kendall and Zach both are working at the pool and coaching swim team.  I have been trying to catch up with my life and to get things organized. Things are busy but we are going to enjoy as much summer as possible!

Groceries- Goal $800 per month.  We spent $1095.93 for the month of June.  I will “justify” this with I purchased multiple items on sale from Amazon to be used for several months.

Gas- Goal is $400.  Total spent was $479.30 for gas  this month. This included to trips back and forth to Disney World this month. I am actually amazed it stayed so low.  As i mentioned above cars have been a major issue this month. Fortunately, our car repairs have been covered under warrantees or recalls.

Blogging-The goal will be 15 posts per month.  This is post 11 for me. But with all of our happenings and trips this is a win!

Debit-   The goal for 2026 will be to pay off the Home Depot Credit card without interest. The first large payment has been made!   I also have made a debt snowball list that I want to start tackling after the Home Depot payment is made in September. We also are spending significant time on trips this summer as well as we need to install a new electric line to run the camper on.

No Spend Days- Goal for 10 no spend days a month. Not even going to suggest that I have a clue about this. I will try very hard to keep up with this! Did not happen at all this month. I did however do an entire trip on cash so that is a plus

Health/Exercise-I am no hanging out between 171 and 175.  This is unchanged but we will see at the end of the summer. I do have an appointment for getting a shot in my knee.

Foster Care- Matt and I completed everything needed for our application on March 31, the actual application was not submitted until May 5 or 6th as of last Wednesday May 27th, we have been approved as licensed foster parents in the state of North Carolina. Unfortunately we did not receive our June stipend nor have we received a  portion of the May stipend.  Foster care is honestly the hardest thing I have ever done.  I knew what E would need but I had not a clue about the other half of my life that involves paperwork and phone calls and the constant questions are we doing the best things and why does this have to be so hard.

I am going to include my weekly update of Summer Goals here as well. It just makes sense.

1. Make and order 8 photo books. I have placed the order for 2 of the books today. I am going to plan to work again on these this week. It is a long and delicate process. 

2.  Read a total of 8 books. I have finished one book!  slow but progress is progress
3. Make and freeze 12 baked ziti’s
4. Make and freeze 6 million dollar spaghetti pies
5. Make and freeze 6 pans of chicken enchiladas. Goal met 6/19/2026.
6. Either walk or exercise 3 times a week for at least 8 weeks. Walking at Disney is always considered exercise! 
7. Make and freeze 6 taco pastas.   goal met 6/19/2026
8. Make and freeze 6 chicken, broccoli rice casseroles. 6/19/2026
9. Make at least 50 meatballs and freeze.  I have not made any progress this week with making food ahead. I did pull out Canadian bacon to make and freeze some egg cups this week. 

MONDAY Menu Post

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Week three of summer break starts today. It promises to be much busier than last week with several appointments this week. We are also heading on a short but exciting trip at the end of the week.  I don’t plan on getting alot of extra food prep done this week but need to focus on cleaning.

Breakfast- Saturday- I made a breakfast casserole and actually froze a second one Sunday-Breakfast bar..  Monday- Tuesday, Wednesday,  Thursday   and Friday– find it (oatmeal, omelets, cereal and milk, sausage, pop-tarts ,cereal bars, pancakes and eggs). We also have some French toast in the freezer, left-over Dutch boy pancakes as well as grilled cheese sandwiches.

Lunch- Saturday-Sandwiches.  Sunday-Gregg’s   Monday-  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday- I want to keep on top of the left-overs but sandwiches are always a choice as well. Easton has started enjoying a pack of crackers and a pack of gushers.

Dinner- Saturday- Olive Garden    Sunday- Matt and Lily made sushi  Monday-Pork Chops and mac n cheese Tuesday- Pasta Salad Wednesday- Chicken Enchaladias   Thursday- Fish Sticks with French Fries Friday- Eat on the road.