I am Thankful

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Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

4th-I am thankful for my job; I work for an organization that continues to use the name of Jesus daily. I am so blessed to work with this group of people.

5th- I am thankful for a sunroof in my car. On the days when things are gloomy the extra light always makes me smile.

6th- I am thankful for my mom. She continues to attend events for my kids and even joins us for dinner.

7th- I am thankful for having a well stocked pantry.

8th-I am thankful for being able to go to the grocery store and not need to keep track of every penny I am spending or only buying certain items because I don’t have enough money.

9th- I am grateful for the internet to entertain and educate me

10th. I am grateful for a ‘rest” day!

5 Things Friday

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  1. Matt and Zach are planning to finish up the gazebo on our brand-new back deck tomorrow. We purchased the gazebo back in July during prime days.   When we started to assemble, we realized that. We were missing a box need to finish the top.  It has taken almost a month to get the new material needed. I am very hopeful that this project will be completed tomorrow.
  2.  One of the things that is suggested is to check to see if you can reduce any of your subscriptions/ regular bills. Our internet service has been with Spectrum for more than 10 years, I am thinking it is closer to 20. Our cost increased by $20 in the month of November. Matt was able to locate, and we should be switching to a different provider in the next week. This should save us approximately $20 a month for the next 24 months. The biggest hurdle is that we will loss access to our main email accounts. I am hoping to spend some time tomorrow while the guys are working outside and starting changing emails to a free account, we should have access to forever!
  3. We are continuing to experience the warmest November that I can remember!   The high today was 79 and the low was 64 which is the average high temperature.  I think we will be back to more average temperatures by the end of next week.
  4.  Monday is Veteran’s Day. In the past this has been the day that I start with Christmas decorating specifically my snow village.  Because of our current travel schedule, I don’t think I am going to put the village up this year. My current plan is to put out my Disney village stuff, one large Disney themed tree and the kitchen sink will hold a rod of Christmas ball ornaments.
  5. I dislike daylight saving time. The time change has been difficult for me this year!

Menu Planning Monday

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Genesis 9:3 “Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.’

I was very hopeful that this week was going to slow down.  It appears that I was wrong, but I want to keep at least level with all my list.  We are back to planning meals and trying to stick to it!

Breakfast- Saturday-French toast Sunday- Grits for me Monday- Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday – find it (breakfast burritos, muffins, oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs. I did buy bagels and some English muffins to add to the rotation.

Lunch- Saturday-left-overs Sunday- Cracker Barrel Monday- Tuesday, -Left-overs Wednesday- eat out or leftovers Thursday- soup. Friday- eat out.

Dinner- Saturday-Grilled cheese and turkey sandwiches with chips Sunday-Sausage/potato soup   Monday- Pork chops, macaroni and cheese, peaches and cheddar bay muffins Tuesday- Chicken Enchiladas Wednesday- Hamburger and French fries Thursday- Magnolia Beef and rice Friday- KFC bowls.

Thankfulness

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In this year in particular, I need to “Count my blessings” aka be Thankful. November is an awesome month to focus on this. My goal for this is to add a post every Sunday that includes an entire week of gratitude.

1- I was able to go and vote on November 1st.  I am thankful for the privilege to have a choice and voice in government.

2- I am thankful for my husband who is willing to go along with some crazy ideas and who loves Disney as much as I do!

3. Today I am thankful for all 5 of my children. Each one is unique and special and I am blessed to be their mother through thick and thin!

 

Successful Saturday

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Today was an awesome day!  I have been behind and feeling overwhelmed for a season, so I need to celebrate even small wins!

Today Matt was able to get the new permanent light up and working on the house. He was able to get a couple of new electrical outlets placed last week so that puts up finished up with another one of the projects we have taken on.

I decided that we needed to pull up a flower bed on the side of the house under my office window. We have attempted for at least 5 if not 10 years to get something to grow in this area.  It only gets probably two hours of sunlight a day.  Zach spent a couple of hours removing the bounder and scrapping up the mulch.  I purchased two bags of grass seeds; Zach was also able to get the seed out in the yard and in the area where he removed the “no grow bed”   Hopefully we will get some pretty grass from this attempt.

I was able to get our Halloween box of decorations and outfits packed up and put away as well. I also did some food rotation in order to keep up using what we have and reducing the need to purchase more food.

I got meal prepping done, including our soup for dinner for tomorrow. I also planned the meals for the week.

Amazon returns have been done.

Suitcases have been unpacked and returned.

The house is not dirty but not clean and I am finally starting to feel like we can breathe!

October in Review

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Philippians 3:14  “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

The month of October has really just flown by. We were able to get most of our summer projects done.  Matt still needs to finish the gazebo but is waiting on the metal that was missed in the initial shipment.  And he plans to add permanent lights to the outside of the house as well. He has worked hard at getting new electrical ran to several spots outside already.

Groceries- Budget $975   $ 652.78 Goal  Met I am hoping to keep this low for the remainder of the year. I am only purchasing items we are out of so that makes for less trips.

Blogging- 15 posts per month. This is post number 7. I am hopeful that with the end of football season, I will have a couple of more evenings at home to do things like blog.

Exercise- I was able to get over 10 thousand steps a day on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday during our short Disney trip.   My knee has now decided it does not like that much walking.

Summer Goals _ all other goals were completed in September!
4. Back Deck-The back deck is complete!  Matt is currently working on installing a gazebo to finish this project!
We also put in a new front door, added electrical outlets to both the back deck and to the outside of the house.

November and December are my favorite months so I am hoping to enjoy!

Monday Menu Post

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Genesis 9:3 “Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.’

This week’s theme is simple and using what we have. Matt is out of town so this is a good time to simply some things as well.

Breakfast- Saturday- leftovers from Cracker Barrel, Sunday- Costco Muffins  Monday- Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday – find it (breakfast burritos, muffins, oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs, Jimmy Dean Croissants and chicken biscuits. Friday- McDonald’s treat.

Lunch- Saturday-left-overs Sunday- Panda Panda Monday- Tuesday, -Left-overs Wednesday- eat out or leftovers Thursday- soup. Friday- eat out.

Dinner- Saturday- Beef Stew Sunday-I made myself an omelet   Monday- Chicken, stuffing, squash casserole and cranberry sauce.   Tuesday- Soup choice and fresh cheddar bay biscuits .  Wednesday- left overs .  Thursday- – Left-overs or soup depending

Upcoming Adventures!

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I am catching me breath and looking forward to some upcoming adventures.

This week Matt is on a business trip to Austria.  Because of the time difference, he is six hours in the future, communication will be very limited.  It should be interesting to say the least.

I have 3 trips planned to Florida before the end of the year!  Lots of Disney fun!

Zach has three more football games and then will start swimming.

Kendall is working every Saturday and will start swimming October 30th. She has finished her first set of college classes with high A’s and is starting to think about life in the future. She also will be visiting Florida 3 times in three months!

Lily’s current plan is to return home in January and finish her degree and decide her next big adventure.

We were able to finish up several home improvement projects this weekend, but I thought I would share what is next.

First hopefully in the near future, the back deck gazebo will be complete, and we can decide on furniture and start enjoying it more.

Matt is planning to add several additional electrical outlets to add to our home renovations from the summer. After the additional outlets, hopefully permanent lighting on the outside will be the last project of the year.

We are done gardening for the year, I know that we need to fertilize beds, add a couple of arches and a major repair on one bed but that can all wait til the Spring.  I am going to do some serious planning this winter and plan to add some landscaping as well.

Matt will likely have at least one additional surgery for skin cancer and Mom has an ablation scheduled as well.

What adventures do you have planned?

 

A Saturday of Preparation

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I am not sure if it was Hurricane Helene or the fact that we had frost two mornings this morning or that our deck is finally complete, but I really feel like I need to get lots of preparation done. It may be preparation for the winter or for life in general I am not sure.  But today we were able to mark alot of things off the list.

We did have one big failure; we were not able to finish the gazebo on the deck because we were sent two identical boxes which means we are missing pieces.  Matt did contact the company so hopefully it can get finished soon.

Matt did finish painting the shutters black. We pulled out all the remaining tomato and pepper plants from the raised beds. I am not going to cover the beds this year and am hopeful this will kill off some of the bugs.  Zach tore apart the bucket garden as it was falling apart.

I was able to can 8 pints of hamburger meat these are nice to have inside and by doing so, it made the freezer work less as it was not over the top full.  I made beef stew for dinner in the crockpot which turned out well. Matt also made a gallon of tea.

We continued to battle the racoons. We lost one chicken so have been working to secure the coop as well as try and trap the racoons as there is more than one. Zach added another piece of wood which makes things tight and secure at the moment.

A trip to Costco ended the day. We filled all four of our propane tanks and also filled our last gas can. I purchased paper towels, bath tissue and a stockpile of drinks.

We are officially ready for whatever adventure is ahead!