It’s that time again–my sister’s birthday and Valentine’s Day. So, I made a cake that will celebrate both. It’s chocolate, festive, and most importantly, gluten-free! I couldn’t wait to eat it today at Family Sunday Dinner. Lovana insisted on counting out the candles to the exact number for this birthday and putting them all on the cake! Pretty scary when you consider she is my LITTLE sister!!!!! We also had a wonderful time with my niece, Rachel, who has now returned from her year in Ireland. It was so good to see her again.
I used the flowers I was given, plus a few more to brighten up the flowerbed by the front porch. I also have little tiny early daffodils blooming. It’s been very spring-like around here! The daffodils Patsy planted when we first moved here are sending up buds. We will get more blooms this year than we did last year, and each year they should continue to multiply. Since they were all extras from my sister’s flowerbeds, we are going to get a lot of beauty for free for many years.
I froze bananas. They were 39c/lb. We drop them into smoothies, still frozen, to make the smoothies icy and thick.
I did some shopping and got my free items from Fred Meyers. I picked up my sports water and candy hearts. They were out of the foil cookie pans. I got some great bargains they had as well, including $1.99/lb butter (5 boxes), 99c peanut butter (5 containers), and some other things. I didn’t buy many groceries to use for meals this week, as I am still well-stocked, but mostly concentrated on pantry-building items. Pantry-building is important to me, as I like to buy everything at the lowest possible price, and then, hopefully, not run out until the price drops again. I also grabbed candy for the cake and Valentine’s Day.
We ate lots of chili leftover from last weekend, sandwiches, leftover chicken and steak from last weekend, baked potatoes several times, and used some frozen salmon twice. We also had Eritrean food that my friend, Harnet, made and brought to my house. There was also a jumbo package of turkey dogs in the fridge and many were consumed. Now, the fridge is finally empty from the Super Bowl leftovers and I can think about making some new items for the week ahead.
Rob noticed his breakfast looked happy (?) one morning. I think it looked scary:). Either way, home-canned peaches, cottage cheese and bacon made a great breakfast for him before a long day at school. Bacon has been very reasonable at Safeway the last couple of weeks. That was another item I “pantry-stocked.” The bacon was around $3/lb, in a 3-lb package. So, I divided it up into meal-sized portions and froze most of them. It’s often more than $3 for 12 oz packages, so that was a stock-up price for me. When Jake spends the night…..it’s bacon, bacon, bacon! He loves it!! I’m glad to have a bunch in the freezer now.
I took Danait, Harnet, and Patsy swimming at the YMCA. She had a blast. So did her mama. Patsy always does. She loves the pool. I continued doing my Pilates class. It is each Tuesday and Thursday. I still stink at it, but the teacher says I’m getting stronger, so that’s good.
Danait has decided that Rob is her uncle. After all, if he’s Jake’s uncle……. How sweet. So, Uncle Rob took her and Patsy down to the Dollar Store, and she chose Valentines for her class at preschool and Patsy chose some for her friends. He also got some candy, and she had a busy time taping the candy to the little cards. Her mama and I helped write her name on the cards, and taped some chocolate to the ones for the teachers. We got a lot of bang out of our buck there….she worked on them for at least an hour:). During this time, we had the Olympics on, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching what I could between the commotion. I’ve always loved the Olympics, especially the ice skating, and I was lucky enough that there was some on. I was even happier to figure out how to record the rest of it when the hour grew quite late, and it was still going on. I’ll find out tonight if I did it right!!! Here’s hoping:)
I downloaded and read a book for free on my Kindle, using the Prime Kindle Lending Library. I had forgotten I can have one free book each month using that benefit of Prime.
I continued reading Little House on the Prairie to my nephew and played many, many games of Yahtzee with my niece. When Harnet was visiting, we all 3 played. We also played with a friend of Michaela’s on Monday, when he and his mom came to visit. He hadn’t played before, and Harnet is new to Yahtzee as well. It is good for Michaela to be the teacher occasionally. She loved it both times!
We also enjoyed some time at a park, with Danait and Patsy. While they were playing, we finished up the last of Harnet’s homework for the weekend, so she could rest for the remaining part of the weekend, if you call doing laundry, taking care of Danait and cooking resting:). The weather has just been so nice!
How did your week go?
Oh my! I thought the round circles on top of the cottage cheese were egg yolks. I was trying to think how they stayed that perfectly round when the egg whites were not there. Then…I was thinking they might be frozen! Thanks for telling us they were peaches….I would have been trying to figure that out all day…sigh…this is my brain at 6 am with no coffee
That would have been quite a trick–getting egg yokes to sit on the cottage cheese!
I thought they were egg yolks at first glance too! Becky, can you clear something up for me? Patsy lives with you, correct? I thought Michaela did too and then read that’s not the case! I’m confused 😉 – but enjoy reading about your family, wherever they are
Kay, my life even confuses me sometimes:)
Patsy is our granddaughter, whom we have adopted. She has lived with us for the past 4-1/2 years, approximately. So, she is both our granddaughter, and our daughter, and has been referred to by both titles at some point on this blog:) At this time, she attends public school and is in 8th grade. She is the youngest of our 8 adopted children, all of which were adopted from the State of Oregon foster care system, and none of which were babies when we got them.
Michaela is our niece, and she has 3 siblings, Jake, Alissa, and Caitlyn. I homeschool Alissa, so she is at my house several days per week. She is 17. Both Michaela (20) and Jake (10) have developmental disabilities. I spend both “auntie” time and “paid PSW” time with them both. So, I go to their house on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays to get them off the bus, or pick Jake up on Tuesdays from school, to work with them, for money. We do chores, homework, and other things to help them grow and develop as people and to keep their routines going. We occasionally go shopping for items Michaela needs, or I take her to get a hair cut, etc. On the weekends, you will often find one or the other of them over at my house. Some of those hours are paid, some are not. But, the job of Personal Support Worker requires that you do things with them that help them grow as a person. So, I make sure that we do some enriching activities as often as I can, such as visit places, go to the store and shop, exercise, some house chores, etc. along with all the tv watching, wii playing, etc., regardless. If I just let them play all the time, they think it is how it’s going to be, and I’m sunk the next time we are supposed to do chores. They like their routine. They only eat a small, select handful of foods, so I lay in a supply of those for when they are coming over. They don’t like changes, in any form, even good ones sometimes. So, even if my sister doesn’t have to work on any given day, I go anyway, and we still do our routine anyway. We have things we work on, such as Michaela’s new thing is changing laundry loads, and starting the washer and dryer. Jake’s new thing is chapter books…we are on our 4th or 5th now. I go to IEP or DD service meetings on occasion, so I am more in tune with the goals that I need to work on with them. Also, we attend the same church as they do at this time, and every Sunday, we take Michaela after 1st service for some “uncle” time–he gets her a Coke from McDonald’s every week, then we go over to her house and wait for the rest of the family to join us after second service. I put the finishing touches on the Family Sunday Dinner meal that my sister or I have organized and then as many of the extended family as is available joins us for one big mega-meal.
Caitlyn has just finished college and is well into her first job. I do see her quite a bit, but she’s getting pretty busy these days, so I snatch the chance when I can.
My other sister has a son and daughter, who occasionally show up on here. But, since they are older, they are harder to catch:). Their names are Rachel and Steven, and we spent countless hours with them when they were young, and still love them so much!!
You are angels from heaven. Thanks for clearing that up – and neither of you look old enough to be grandparents 😉
How kind of you to say:). I was a very young parent to the older kids, but now…….praise God for His supernatural strength. I need it all every day!!! I’m not as young as I once was:)
Wow those candles are impressive!
We are chilling at the lake house for two weeks. I brought most of the food from my home supplies but butter did not make it into the cooler so we had to buy some. I was pleasantly suprised to find it for 2 pounds for $4.64 at WalMart.
Great price on butter!
Beautiful cake! Thanks for helping clarify who was whom. Names were getting tangled for me.
Like I said….some days it even confuses me!! By the time Rob and I have 8 kids, one sister has 4, the other 2….that’s 14 kids to straighten out and we are or have been very involved with them all, more some times than others as they age:). Large family dynamics are confusing.
One of my favorite stories is when, years ago, we were trying to get together with another large family. After several tries, with one kid or another getting sick, we finally ended up at a park for a BBQ with some of ours and some of theirs—4 adults and 14 children! It was a triumph, and one of my favorite memories!
I love your “fire hazard” birthday cake for your little sister. 😉 What fun! It does look like you have had a very busy and frugal week. What a deal you got on that bacon. I have not seen prices that low around here in ages.
You had to buy a 3-lb package to get that price, but it was well worth a few Ziplocks to freeze the extra in to get that price!
Love the cake! It is going to be in the 70’s here this week. We have had rain…a lot of rain and the rivers are above flood stage, very common for springtime here. Since the land is flat, I have been slogging out to my car every morning trying not to slip in the mud. I showed up for church Sunday, the lady next to me looked so elegant, and had shoes on just like mine. I looked down at mine and they were covered with caked on mud…ooops…lol
Mud is awful! We used to have much more mud to deal with when we lived in the country, but I can still find some around here on occasion!
I’m glad you have warm weather. It was very cold this morning. We had to drag a little heater into the greenhouse, because it was that cold–I thought I might lose my little baby plants!
Happy (belated) birthday to your sister! That’s a pretty impressive cake with all the candles! That was an amazing price for the bacon! Definitely a stock up price! Hope you have a lovely weekend.
Thank you!