Tuesday Thoughts

Posted on June 20, 2023 by Sheila

The weather this year has been all out strange. We had none, zero, nada weather delays or cancellations during the school year, The first time in at least five years if not more. The spring was cool, we had only 1 80 degree day in May. And now this week, is expected to be rainy and 70 for the entire week! I am really disappointed since this is my first week off work but I am working on things inside so hopefully I can spend more time outside very soon!
My biggest goal for the summer was to get at least 100 dinner meals in the freezer, I have made a start with 4 taco pastas and 3 pizza crust from yesterday.
Today, I went to the local Food Lion to find meat on sale because the sale ad changes tomorrow. I am happy to say that I succeeded! I was able to purchase the meat for at least 14 meals for $63 or $4.5 each! This is huge when you are feeding 6 people.
I picked up a free 8×10 at CVS today!
I have been working on getting some financial things in order for Lily’s college and I am happy to say that the hardest part is done!
Yesterday, I booked our Disney trip for Spring 2024 and took advantage of a no interest offer for six months from the credit card.
The next thing to tackle is Lily graduation pictures. Hopefully I will get some posted tomorrow as well!
Dinner tonight is “beer can chicken in the insta pot” with modifications.

Garden Update

Posted on June 19, 2023 by Sheila

Last week ended up being rather busy as my last week of work. I was actually surprised at how busy it was. I did not post an update even though I had the pictures on my phone. At least I am off to a better start this week.

I mentioned before that I am slightly disappointed in how the garden is looking and growing. So I decided to try an get a better result. First, I used the some miracle grow water can fertilizer on Wednesday of this week. I added one pack to each water can so everything go a dose of it. I really did not notice much of a difference, so I continue to do some research and order “Blood Meal” from Amazon. This is a appears to be a game changer. Matt and I added it last night and this morning I am telling a difference in the coloring of the leaves and the size of the blooms. The instructions say that I can add one time a month. We will definitely add again in the middle of July. Now to the proof. The squash is the biggest so far!

I can spot a difference in the cucumbers as well. We are starting to see lots of little cucumbers form!

Beans and watermelon are starting to grow! I did replant a section of beans this week as well.

I did not add the Blood meal to the tomatoes because they appear to be doing fine! Even seeing some tiny ones

And last but certainly not least we are picking blueberries so far we have brought in the house a quart and a pint!

Five Things Friday

Posted on June 16, 2023 by Sheila

Today is my first day of Summer break! I have exactly 9 weeks to enjoy some downtime, catch up on cooking, preparing meals for next school year and getting the house back in order.
This past week has been extremely fast and more busy than I imagined. Zach and Kendall are both at camp. Lily has worked every day multiple shift and we had our first swim meet. My work was overloaded so I did not get to catch up on the things I had on my list including posting pictures from Lily’s graduation and party. These should appear next week!
We harvested a quart of blueberries from our bush today! This is so exciting because I should say that a quart made it inside.
The garden is not doing as well as I had hoped. We already have an attack of squash bugs! We did spray for bugs and fertilize on Wednesday. I am planning to pull out the yellow green bean plants as it appears either this was not a variety that grows well or the whole pack was bad. I will try another pack of seeds because I really really want green beans to grow!
The chickens are fully intergraded. They are all going into the coop at night before the door shuts!! We are consistently getting 5 eggs a day! But we are still attempting to trap both racoons and at least one possum that continue to visit!

Saving on Saturday

Posted on June 10, 2023 by Sheila

When our old rain barrel was cracked and we decided to replace it. Matt and I both had the idea to build a small gardening shed to store some things in. I am so excited at how well it turned out and we actually spent nothing on it!

We had to empty and remove the old barrel but used the wood we had attached the barrels to the house with.

Matt recycled all the word and screws. He was able to locate some old shingles under the house. I am super excited at how it turned out!

Garden Update

Posted on June 6, 2023 by Sheila

Garden is not a fast process. I know in my head that it will be toward the middle or end of June before I start harvesting. But when I read on Facebook, that I have harvested squash or peppers I get disappointed. By taking a picture each week, I am able to really tell a difference!

This week I am most excited about the height of the tomatoes! All the plants have reached the top of the boxes. I also spent a little bit of time pruning some of the leaves and stems from the bottom of each plant.

We are still waiting on blueberries.
We have harvested a small squash and we have several more coming up. They are tiny but still good!

I have been disappointed in my zucchini plants but we do have at least one small zucchini that is forming.

I was hoping for much more growth from cucumbers but they are growing and we have small ones.

Small growth on the beans and other varieties of squash

Peppers are looking better

Sadly the Cherokee purple tomatoes just are not doing good.

Although the watermelon and cantaloupe have survived I don’t see alot of growth.

Menu Planning Monday

Posted on June 5, 2023 by Sheila

8 days of work is all I have left. This will be my last menu plan for the summer. Next week, Kendall and Zach are headed to church camp. Lily, Matt and I will be eating for ourselves. This summer, I am planning to stock the freezer and eat not on a schedule. I am going to be a little freer with what I cook each day and include lots of pasta salads, regular salad and veggies hopefully from the garden. I may share a couple of ideas along with what I am cooking but I am not planning.

Breakfast- Saturday- Pancakes and bacon. Sunday-left-overs Monday, Tuesday Wednesday and Friday- find it oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, waffles, French toast sticks, bagels, sausage English muffins and I also have breakfast burritos, breakfast hot pockets.

Lunch- Saturday-Sliders. Sunday East Coast Wings, Monday-pasta salad Tuesday- salad Wednesday-pasta salad Thursday – salad Friday- eat out.

Dinner- Saturday-Dominos Pizza, Sunday-left-overs Monday-sloppy joe sliders Tuesday-Fish Tacos Wednesday- Peanut Chicken Thursday- spaghetti Friday- Cheese Quesadillas and Mexican Rice

5 Things Friday

Posted on June 2, 2023 by Sheila

I have 8 days before my summer break. 4 days both next week and the week after. Lily graduates’ high school in one week and both Kendall and Zach finish next Friday.
Zach has dental work scheduled for next Wednesday and I have taken the whole day off for it. I am really not looking forward to it!
Lily’s car messed up on Monday and we have been sharing a car all week. Hopefully her will be fixed this weekend.
We started swim team practice this week which is fun and exciting for everyone. But we are all most excited for Braxton to swim!
We have eaten our first squash from the garden! It was small but delicious! I am hoping for many many more!

Month in Review

Posted on May 31, 2023 by Sheila

May is always one of the busiest month of the year. This year was no different! The only weird thing has been the weather with only two days above 80 all month. I did end up turning on my air conditioner much earlier than normal due to the high pollen counts. I can’t sleep if I can’t breathe and sleep is very important to me! May was also as expensive as I thought!

Groceries- Budget = $975. Goal Met! $815.14. I am going to plan on the grocery budget being all spent the next couple of months as we stock up for the fall and winter! My goal is to stay at budget while stocking up which is not always an easy thing to do!

Auto/ Gas. Goal -= $600. Goal Met! We have spent $445 this month. YAY!

Blogging- 15 post per month. This is post number 17 WOOHOO I think this is the most post every!

Exercise- one official day and I am dealing with knee pain again. I have a shot the first of June so hopefully this will help!

Expenses: YIKES! Camp for Kendall and Zach as well as swim team . I had to dip into savings.

June is a month of catch up and reset for me as my summer break begins!

Menu Planning Monday

Posted on May 29, 2023 by Sheila

12 days are all that I have left in this school year! I am excited and ready for a break. Today was just a taste of how I want my summer to be. This week brings another change for us. We are starting swim team. I think that all school related activities except for graduation are complete! We are going to be on a different schedule for the next several weeks with dinner time moving between 4:30 and 5:30 in addition to a eat as you can method as well. Today, Memorial Day, we spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen preparing for the week. We were able to get all meals for tomorrow ready and most of the meals for the week will be minimal preparation.

Breakfast- Saturday- Sausage cream cheese crescent rolls. Sunday-French toast leftovers. Monday- Breakfast bowls with fresh sausage, Tuesday Wednesday and Friday- find it oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, waffles, French toast sticks, bagels, sausage English muffins and I also have breakfast burritos, breakfast hot pockets.

Lunch- Saturday-Roasterie chicken from Costco and AU Grant potatoes. Sunday Christos, Monday-left-overs or milk shakes Tuesday- salad Wednesday-pasta salad Thursday – salad Friday- eat out.

Dinner- Saturday-loose meat philly sandwiches, Sunday-Chicken and rice Monday-hamburgers and French fries Tuesday- Stuffed green peppers (just need to be heated) Wednesday- gyros Thursday- fish tacos Friday- Grilled chicken salad.

Only one more week of meal planning!

Garden Update

Posted on May 28, 2023 by Sheila

I really had thought that I was not going to post a garden update this week due to the very limited progress that I was seeing on Friday due to the lack of rain for over a week. However, after 2 days of steady beneficial rain things are definitely looking up! I can tell the biggest difference in the bed in front of my office window. We have been getting a handful of sugar snap peas a couple of times this week but I was getting worried about my zucchini. But now we will at least get a couple of zucchini from this bed! I am still a little concerned about the yellow plants on the end but progress is good!

The cucumbers are hanging on and the transplanted ones have grown another block! I am disappointed that after planting 50 pea seeds. I have one plant.