Vacation Week

Posted on July 15, 2023 by Sheila

We have returned home from our annual family beach trip to Oak Island NC. It was an awesome relaxing week with lots of fun! My current plan is to post some pictures today and then some each Wednesday for the next couple of weeks.

Braxton went down with us on Saturday and came home with his mom on Wednesday! We spent lots of time just hanging out on the beach!

Everyone enjoyed reading books and eating candy!

Walking on the beach was also fun!

The weather was awesome with Monday being our only rainy day. We shopped most of that day!

We managed to eat out only 4 times 1. Fishy Fishy on Monday 2. Olivers on Tuesday 3. Pops in Carolina Beach on Friday and our favorite 4.Old Bridge Dinner on Saturday morning!

We spent all day Friday at Fort Fisher touring the fort and the aquarium. I will do a whole separate post on that one!

Wordless Wednesday- Garden Update

Posted on July 5, 2023 by Sheila

The garden looks awesome and is the size that I remember. Given that information, this is likely the last picture update for the year.

The sunflowers are taller than the tomatoes. We are starting to see lots and lots of little tomatoes. Which is so exciting, in reality we are probably 3 or more weeks behind where we normally are. I am hoping we get lots and lots of tomatoes!

The plants behind the greenhouse are starting to look better. I have planted a variety of vegetables. We are going to decide if this is a good spot to leave this or if we need to move to a different spot next year.

Watermelon and cantaloupes.

Both of the Green stalks have filled out nicely. I definitely like them for flowers, herbs and strawberries!

We are finding 2-4 cucumbers a day right now! YAY YAY YAY!

Cucumbers

This week I have harvested and frozen 4 quart bags of green beans. This is the first of 3 plantings! I am so excited for these!

We are also starting to find small peppers!

We are harvesting squash and zucchini on a regular basis but they are small! We also have a spaghetti squash and a butternut squash!

Love Love Love summer produce!

Tuesday Project

Posted on July 4, 2023 by Sheila

This building was here when I first purchased the house in 1992. It already was insulated and had electricity with it’s own breaker box. Matt has re stained it once.

It contains both freezers and our riding lawn. The only problem is that is collects things. For example, left-over work items from Matt losing his job in 2010 and everything we brought home when we cleaned out the buildings at my parent’s house after my Dad died in 2017. It has become rather full and dirty!

With barely room to walk and there is no way we know what is actually in here! So the first big family project was to clean out and organize this building.

2 large trash cans
4 hours
2 showers later we discovered enough nails to build a house and we now can locate most items we need.

We will need to pull out and toss alot of items from the ceiling of the building but decided to wait for another empty trash can before attempting that task.

But man Happy 4th of July!

Change

Posted on July 2, 2023 by Sheila

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
⁹“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9

Change is never easy and unexpected change makes for really difficult situations. Friday afternoon brought one sudden unexpected and difficult changes to our lives. Matt was told during a meeting that he was no longer employed. The company provided one week of severance but that was the end.

The verse above from Isaiah has been my montage since he texted me to let me know. This change will affect almost every aspect of our lives for the next few months.

Here are the things that we know. Next week, we are going to work on some projects and pack for the beach. We will enjoy our vacation and re-assess and make any needed changes after we return from the beach.

Isaiah 55:8-9

June In Review

Posted on July 2, 2023 by Sheila

June the month of freedom! Summer break has officially started, and we are enjoying. This month is a pretty typical month if there is one. The focus has been on the garden and starting to get things in the freezer.

Groceries- Budget = $975. $1222.18 Goal not met! I knew this was coming. We did stock up on some things, I ordered my first Azure Standard order and we needed chicken and pork.

Auto/ Gas. Goal -= $600. Goal Met! We have spent $491 this month. I did have 2 weeks of no driving to work. It will be interesting to see what July’s spend is!

Blogging- 15 post per month. 13 post this month. I do know that my end of year work was much more than I anticipated. Hopefully back on track for July.

Exercise- 5 days of water exercise makes this the best month this year!

Expenses: Usually month.

July is our summer vacation and Kendall’s birthday so I expect some extra expenses!

Summer Goals

Posted on June 29, 2023 by Sheila

I wanted to be able to share and remember what I spent my summer doing. I feel like the last several years have been a bust. 2022 was the Summer of being sick and Haley’s wedding. Between my car breaking down and my surgery the summer was not alot of fun! 2021- was a year of trying to catch up. Things had not returned to “normal” yet from COVID and it was just different. 2020- COVID.

I had put in my mind several goals for the summer and now that we are almost 2 full weeks in, I am going to share with you. This are in addition to my regular monthly goals.

Get 100 dinner meals and an assortment of other food items prepared for simple cook and eat meals. This is not a new concept for me as I usually have lots of items in my freezer to use but I want something easy and really non-thinking.
I am proud to say that I am making steady progress on this goal. I have 4 Taco rice casseroles, and 3 pizza crust in the freezer. I also canned 22 pints of green beans and 16 pints of black beans. I purchased meat on sale and have 3 meals of pork chops and 2 meals of grilled chicken as well. This morning I put 6 “boxes” of brownie mix in the pantry for easy desserts as well. I honestly under-estimated the time it would take me to work on this goal. First, each new recipe has to be tested. This adds at least one extra day to the process and second my family is picky. They like what they like and to find something that all 5 agree to is getting harder and harder. I am starting to think the hardest part about this goal is finding 20 recipes that we all agree on!
Organize the office and shred any paperwork that is no longer current and relevant.
We are making progress toward this goal as well. I have actually cleaned and shredded two hanging file folders in addition to shredding church paperwork from 2017-2019. An added benefit is that we are using the shredded paper to line our chicken coop. The paper adds an extra layer which is allowing the chickens not to walk in mud continually. In the fall, my plan is to remove the layer and place in our garden beds as free fertilizer.
Redo our master spreadsheet. No progress
Organize and delete pictures from my phone in order to free up space. I must make sure that I have the pictures on my Ipad first. I would also like to order several additional photo books once I get the pictures organized.
Slow progress as I am working to delete first pictures that are not sentimental such as garden pictures and other documents. The next step is to actually compare and delete pictures.
Earn a $50 gift card from Fetch. This basically means I need to scan each of my receipts all summer long one every 24 hours.
I currently have 22,000 out of 53,000 I need.

Wordless Wednesday

Posted on June 28, 2023 by Sheila

One of the huge parts of our summer plans for at least the last 12 years include swim meets! This summer is no different!

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Garden Update/ Tuesday Thoughts

Posted on June 27, 2023 by Sheila

This past weekend ended up being both busy and fun! We had a swim meet on Saturday which really wiped us out for the rest of the day.
On Sunday, after church we spent some much-needed relaxing time at the pool!
Monday, I ran around the world and back. I did manage to pick up half a bushel of green beans from the farm stand I LOVE!

All of this meant that I really have not had time to take pictures to post with the update. But this morning, I headed out to do a little bit of garden work and take pictures but wait of course my phone is dead!

I was SUPER excited to be able to actually harvest several things this morning! So excited I had Kendall take a picture to share!

Chives, lettuce, a handful of green beans, 2 squash, 2 cucumbers, a zucchini and snap peas! It is small but at least we are getting things from the garden!

The other garden news is not nearly as exciting or happy! We found 2 tomato worms on Sunday. Unfortunately, it was after they had stripped at least 2 plants of the leaves and consumed half of my biggest tomato. We fed them to the chickens as protein! I have been keeping a watch on the plants to make sure there are no more and so far so good. Our tomato plants are now taller than me and we are starting to see little tomatoes forming! I really want a good harvest this year but I am going to be contend with what we are given at least that is what I keep telling myself.

Final thought- One of my big goals this summer is to have a year’s supply of food on hand for the next school year. I want to complete this as doing a little each day as long as possible. That is actually my reason for purchasing the green beans. Zach and Kendall have helped with snapping the beans and we have canned 23 pints of green beans. This is one jar every two weeks which is likely what we will use. I am going to use our home grown beans to freeze to make fried beans.

5 Things Friday

Posted on June 23, 2023 by Sheila

This is my first full week of summer break. Unfortunately we have spent more time than usual inside due to the weather. Kendall said it best today after we spent some time at the pool. “It finally feels like summer.”
I don’t know if I mentioned it recently, but I really LOVE my Electric Pressure Canner. This is so simple and easy to use. Canning was not something I would have considered even two years ago but this summer, I want to can at least once a week. I love the convivence of just opening a jar for broth and soups. I can’t wait to can spaghetti sauce and salsa! This week I used it to put away 4 quarts, 7 pints and 9 half pints of chicken broth.
The rain, along with worm casting and blood meal have a HUGE difference in the garden. I can’t wait to post pictures of the changes this week!!
The swim meet that was supposed to occur on Tuesday will be bright and early tomorrow morning. I am excited to watch all three kids compete. In other swimming news, this afternoon Braxton was able to swim without a float!
In not so great news, I have overspent the grocery budget!