Monday Menu Planning

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This week I am going to admit that menu planning has been a struggle. I know one of the reason is that I don’t have any “Convivence” freezer meal and I also don’t have time to add in. I am also trying to be mindful of using up items we have purchased such as salad supplies but I really am tired and don’t want to cook. I have  three weeks before my summer break so I have to finish strong even with Kendall’s graduation, foster care pressures and just life.  I finally made a menu plan and my goal is to stick to it!
This week we started with graduation activities for Kendall on Thursday, she will receive her associates degree from Davidson Davie Community College.  I am also going on a field trip with E and we have two additional appointments related to foster care.

Breakfast- Saturday- pancakes made by Matt. Sunday- I had peanut butter and jelly on a toasted hot dog bun.(yeap this is honest)    Monday-Cereal bar Tuesday- strawberry baked oatmeal, Thursday- I plan to make mini muffins for everyone   Wednesday and Friday– find it (oatmeal, omelets, cereal and milk, sausage, pop-tarts ,cereal bars, pancakes and eggs).

Lunch- Saturday- Chicken tacos from the freezer  Sunday- Steak and baked potatoes.  Monday- Friday- I want to make at least one salad and use left-overs but I also know I will be eating out on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday due to a busy week of “fun” stuff.

Dinner- Saturday-  Chinese from Panda Panda Sunday- Dinner at Cracker Barrel  Monday-Dorito Chicken Casserole  Tuesday-  Grilled chicken salad Wednesday-Sloppy joes and french fries Thursday-  Spaghetti   Friday- Insta pot hamburger helper.

Sunday Garden Update- Spring planting complete!

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Saturday we spent most of the day working outside. I managed to weed a couple of the flower beds, and we ended up planting out all the peppers in 2 and half green stalks. After a stop at a local farm stand and an additional trip to Lowes, we also finished filling all three green stalks.  We planted out green beans and seeds to replace the loofa gourds that the frost killed.   My plan was to go outside today and take lots of pictures to share like this one.
I was so excited to share that we have squash plants, cantaloupe and more watermelon plants and zucchini plants that have germinated as well.  The only sad news was that multiple tomato plants were damaged and lost from the frost  this week.  I was actually taking pictures when I discovered this…
Yes something has decided to start using my garden and hard work as a snack buffet. Matt and I scrambled around to try and put up some barriers to stop the attack before it gets worse.  We added a pallet to the only entrance to these plants as well as some wire fencing on one side.
I am hoping this works otherwise we have to figure out what and how to barricade the side closest to the house as well. I re aimed the camera in hopes that if the critter is coming in from the house side the cameras will capture.  I will definitely keep posting about this.
Maybe next week a picture heavy post with lots of sprouts and things!

Summer Goals

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It occurred to me that I need to start planning or at least thinking about the summer and what goals I want to work toward.  I counted up, I will have 10 weeks this summer.  I know that for at least 2 of those weeks we are on vacations so I am going to set goals based on 8 weeks.
1. Make and order 8 photo books.
2.  Read a total of 8 books.
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.
6. Either walk or exercise 3 times a week for at least 8 weeks
7. Make and freeze 6 taco pastas
8. Make and freeze 6 chicken, broccoli rice casseroles.
9. Make at least 50 meatballs and freeze
The one sad thing about this list is it is going to be expensive to purchase the ingredients but I know how the convivence makes it so nice. Now that this is written out  I am accountable.

Monday Menu Planning

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I am divided, I do not know or feel like the first of May on one hand but on the other side, I feel like I am starting to get into a better routine and catch up with my life. May has been called “Miss it May” and this is true for my work schedule but we have lots of different things happening around here. Braxton has ballgames, E has appointments and Kendall is graduating both Community College and High School this month.   So my brain and body need to get together and make it happen. This week we have lots of appointments and both ballgames are at 6pm which means we likely will not make it to either but we will try.

Breakfast- Saturday- Jimmy Dean Croissants . Sunday- I had gravy toast.    Monday-Sausage biscuits homemade, 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- Lunch at the Zoo  Sunday- Christos   Left-overs are always great for lunches.

Dinner- Saturday- Mexican Truck at Campground Sunday- Homemade biscuits   Monday-Hot Dogs and Chips  Tuesday-  Salsa Chicken and Mexican rice Wednesday-Ham and Broccoli casserole Thursday-  KFC bowls  Friday-  Left-overs.

Gardening Update

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I am so glad I decided to leave the peppers in the greenhouse. We have had two nights of frost this week.  Luckily most of our tomatoes are still protected by the beds but other plants are not as lucky.  I am going to list each plant and then tell you plus or minus from last week. But first I did go ahead and put in the effort to replant some things with poor germinations rates. We planted more Anaheim peppers, only one survived my watering failure.  I also planted a whole row of cantaloupe (only 1 germinated). I also heavily seeded the watermelon (again only 1 germinated).  I replanted with double seeds the yellow summer squash as none had germinated. I also planted an additional 5 seeds for the zucchini. 4 zucchini germinated but the last couple of frost have damaged at least 2.

We have two additional days of temperatures dropping into the forties at night in the next week so I am glad I have decided to hold off planting out the pepper plants they appear to be thriving in the greenhouse and so far I am keeping up with the watering.  We still have 40 pepper plants!  I am on the lookout for a couple of Ashe county pimento plants as well.
Monster yellow- 2
Jalapenos- 3
Lunch box 17 (minus 1)
Rainbow minis 2
Sweet California 15 (plus 1)

We did lose quite a few tomato plants however Zach brought 6 plants home from the school greenhouse so the total only decreased by 1 to 47.
Amish Paste 19 (plus 1)
Tomato ( from seed packet and I will add the free tomato here next time) 13
Cherry Hill 3 (minus 3)
Germain Johnson 5 (minus 4)
Free from school greenhouse 6
Volunteer plants found 3

Green beans we have 26 that germinated but I am thinking that we will lose 4-6 from the frost.
Potatoes 18
Okra 2 (up from none last week)
I had purchased 2 basil plants and both are still alive and it appears I also have germination of basil seeds in my container

Cucumber 2 with one that was killed with the frost. I need to buy a seed packet to replace these.

April in Review

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April was a whirlwind month. We definitely enjoyed our Spring Break trip, the cruise and the couple of days of Disney.  As we approach the end of the year, things are very busy! May is going to be exciting and busy.  The focus of this month is making it to end of the year and preparing for summer.

Groceries- Goal $800 per month.  We spent $1161.27  for the month of April.  We have been able to put three gallons of strawberries in the freezer. We also made a major chicken purchase which was a first in several years.

Gas- Goal is $400.  Total spent was $456.74 for gas at home this month. Our trip was $221.53.  Gas prices continue to increase in fact, I will be paying over $4 a gallon on my next fill up. We also will have to buy gas for the mower.

Blogging-The goal will be 11 posts per month.  I am actually really proud to say that this is post 10 for the month. With our vacation and busy baseball season this is actually a huge win.

Debit-   The goal for 2026 will be to pay off the Home Depot Credit card without interest.  We have several months with large credit card payments now thur September. I am working on paying this off and not adding to our overall debit.  I will be sharing how things are going at the end of the summer.

No Spend Days- Goal for 10 no spend days a month. Not even going to suggest that I have a clue about this.

Health/Exercise-I am no hanging out between 171 and 175.  Still here, still the same.

Foster Care- We actually completed all of our portion of the licensure process before March 31,  as of today our licensure paperwork is suppose to be submitted.  We also had a court date this month. I did have to speak but am glad to report that visit have been reduced to every other week.  We will not have another court date until July. We are moving forward with plans to continue as long as God has planned. This summer is going to be fun and busy.

Sunday Garden Update

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My original thought was to call this a Garden show and tell. As I have a lot of pictures to help document what is actually going on in the garden.  I was thinking I was way ahead with planting this year but to look back, I realized that I am not as far ahead as I thought. This is actually about the same time that I try to get things moved out of the greenhouse.  At first I was a bit upset but then I realized that I am learning that a frost in May is not impossible and is more likely than not. I do know that we have had some of the warmest weather this April so I am hoping the soil is warm enough to support the growth.

As you can probably tell the pepper plants are still in the greenhouse this is definitely a change from the past. Peppers are a hot weather plant. They like temperatures above 50* always. When I checked the weather app this week, 5 of the next 10 days have  lows in the forties. So I talked and thought and decided to leave the peppers in the greenhouse until the second weekend of May. My goal is to check the water at least every other day so that we don’t lose anymore. Here is the current list: 18 lunch box peppers,3 Jalopies (purchased from Zach’s school), 2 monster yellow, 1 great Anaheim and 5 that have been affected by too little water, 2 rainbow minis and 14 sweet California peppers for a . total of 40 definite plants with a possible 5 more. 

We tried to add some nutrients to our Amish paste tomato plants this year by placing a cracked egg in the bottom of each hole.  IF this works I will use for all tomato plants next year. We have also added the automatic watering system. i am optimistic for a huge tomato harvest. We currently have 18 Amish Paste plants (1 questionable), 15 tomato plants from a packet of seeds called tomato.(2 questionable)6 plants from seeds I saved from a tomato from Cherry Hill Farm last year (2 questionable), 9 German Johnson,(3 questionable).. For a total of 48 plants with 8 that will likely not survive.

I directed sowed zucchini plants, so far we have 4 plants that have germinated.

I planted close to 20 watermelon seeds about 10 days ago and this is the one that has emerged. I am planning to replant mother’s day weekend if nothing else starts.

Our potatoes are starting to show some stress because of no rain but we currently have 16 potato plants.

Only four of the 24 green bean seeds have germinated.

Not pictured are 2 basil plants I purchased in addition to the packet of seeds that I have planted. 3 loofas have started as well.

Now for the seeds that have been planted but have no germination, cucumbers, cantaloupe and yellow squash.

I am planning a short update next week as we have special plans but a longer full update will be two weeks out.

Saving on Saturday

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To be honest most of the time, saving money takes time and/or effort. There are, have been and will be times that I do not have the mental capacity to even attempt to add one single thing to my schedule. This week have been mentally and physically exhausting.  And I knew that we needed to get some major things checked off the list as we have a fun outing planned for next weekend.  My major goal for today was to get the tomatoes planted. I am happy to say that I accomplished that goal and will hopefully share more about it tomorrow.  And I definitely did not think I had time to save money but I decided that sometime you just have to go ahead with your plan.

We worked or should I say Matt worked adding automatic watering systems to the gardens last night. He focused on getting both our tomato beds set up to water at least daily.  We have been slowly working on this project and it was crunch time as I could not plant the tomatoes until it was complete. While we did end up purchasing a new solar pump and drip line, I am happy to say we re used both the solar pumps and now successfully have a watering system on all the bed. We also had enough of the drip line to not only complete both the tomato beds but also the front bed which this year contains watermelon. After some thought, we ended up using a food grade bucket as the source of the water.

Basically the watering system for this bed was free as we purchased nothing.

I have been watching the sales especially at Dollar General because they have been the cheapest place to purchase soda’s.   Today, I ended up going to two separate stores as the first store did not have enough pack for me to complete the deal. I was able to purchase two small plastic bags/containers for ninety cents each. My plan is that one is a spare bath basket and one is a good way to transport sunscreen.  I was able to purchase 6 twelve pack of soda and some chocolate bars for next weeks adventure for $31, which makes the cans around thirty-seven cent each.

While waiting for CVS to open, I was scrolling Facebook and noticed that the local farm was running a buy two get one free special on strawberries today.  I knew we needed the strawberries and this made them $14 a gallon or $3.50 a quart, this is half price and very similar to what you can purchase in the grocery store. I debated grabbing these as it meant that we would have to spend some time and effort in capping and flash freezing most of them.  I am so glad I did . The strawberries are juicy and delicious and we have frozen three gallon which means that I should be able to grab another two gallons and have enough for the next 12 months.

 

Friday Night Garden Prep

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I have talked about how strange the weather is and it continues. We have a couple of “normal” weather day with highs in the high sixty or low seventy then 85 and 90.  I have been trying to keep a check on the weather to make sure I am plant with the best opportunity for growth and no frost. I checked again today and it appears that things are going to settle down. We don’t have any lows in the 30’s but we do have some 40’s in the next 10 days. I am hoping we get lots of rain as my rain barrels are 1/4 or less. My plan is to get the 100 plus plants out of the greenhouse and into the ground tomorrow.

BUT before we could plant, I really wanted to get all of our watering system in place.  Matt worked hard to get a new solar pump hooked up. We ended up moving one of the pumps to the front bed which I am excited about.  The tomato beds now have a drip line that should keep everything growing!

Here is the watermelon bed. I planted this a week ago but with no rain, I am going to give this bed another two weeks before I replant.

While Matt was working on the water systems, I worked and struggled and finally got the blueberry bed weeded!  This was a long and labor intensive project but I am proud of the results and hope it last.

Yes we have blueberries!

 

I am planning to share again on Sunday when we get everything planted.