Rob made bird house kits for the 4H club to hammer together at their meeting this week. All the boards were donated to him for this purpose by one of his friends who owns a small sawmill, so our project was very inexpensive.
The kids had so much fun. Jake was very happy because his daddy agreed to come and help the kids with the hammering. Even I got roped in, although I’m not very good at using a hammer.
Patsy, on the other hand, is very good with a hammer and so she made her birdhouse the day before and helped the younger kids on the day of the meeting. Ones who knew how partially hammered some nails in and let the younger builders hammer away, driving the nails the rest of the way in.
Some didn’t need much help, others lots of help.
Then, we all went back into the house and made little baggies of home-made hot chocolate mix and ate dinner. Then Rob hauled whoever wanted to go down to the church for the youth/childrens’ activities and I cleaned up the mess. It comes in handy to have a 15-passenger van–no one has to feel left out. There’s room for them all!
I finally got the blouse sewed for Patsy, just in time for her to wear to a wedding.
The wedding was beautiful, and so tastefully decorated. I wish I had taken pictures of the decor. They used a woodland theme, and sticks were cut from friends’ property and little lights were put all over them. There were large branches for a backdrop and small ones for centerpieces for the tables. The way I’m describing it does not do it justice, but it was absolutely gorgeous. There were candles in the shapes of birch logs, and circular wood chips sprinkled around the main table. It was lovely and elegant. The family catered the reception themselves and the food looked amazing and was displayed in dishes surrounded by wooden boxes they had built to add to the woodland theme.
One of Jake’s best friends, Willow, is one of the bride’s sisters, and he loved sitting by her at the reception after she finished her bridesmaid’s duties. As you can see, they had donuts as one of the main desserts. They were on plates and on dowels on a rack that hung on the wall behind the table. You could take one with a tong. Jake and Michaela ate 2 each!
The bride and her family are close friends of my sister and brother-in-law, so they helped out most of the day, while we kept Jake busy at our house.
We really enjoyed the ceremony and reception. We didn’t stay late, but instead came home and got some rest.
We cooked many items over the weekend in preparation for a busy week ahead. They are in the fridge to grab in a hurry– soups, BBQ’d pork, thinly sliced turkey breast and chicken and other goodies. We don’t have a meat slicer, but have been having a lot of success with Rob-sharpened knives. We have been making our own less-salty and less-processed lunchmeat this way lately.
Rob made me a crate and I filled it with a few goodies for a bridal shower I actually could not attend, since I was at wedding No. 1. It’s crazy that we’ve not had a wedding for a long time, and this month, there are 2.
I put in jam, salsa, measuring cups and spoons, a set of pillowcases I made, and a cute towel plus a bundle of dish cloths. This gift was for the shower I could not attend, so I had Rob drop the gift off at the young lady’s house ahead of time. For the wedding itself, Rob made a wooden cutting board and will pair it with 2 super good knives. He did the same for the bride and groom for the wedding we just attended.
Recently, Rob picked up 3 bags of “Unicorn” white chocolate chips–they had rainbow colors on them. They were on the clearance rack for 99c/bag. When we tasted them, they were very bitter. I wasn’t worried about it because they were so cheap, but I did e-mail Nestle to let them know the red food coloring taste was coming through loud and clear, and not in a good way. I threw them away. I was very happy and surprised when the man I was live-chatting with wanted to send me free coupons for more chocolate chips. I explained they were on clearance, but he insisted, so I said “thank you.” I dug the bags out of the trash, sent him the barcode numbers as requested, and I got these coupons in the mail this week. There are 3 free bags of Nestle chips of any flavor and one $1/off coupon.
We have a very busy week ahead, and it feels good to be as prepared as we can be so we can get through it all, and still stay frugal! At least that’s the plan:). I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Patsy looks lovely in the blouse and the wedding decor sounds magical!
I am going to have to remember to speak up if l get a poor-quality product in the future. All of those coupons were a score.?
I’m wondering if Rob got a date for surgery yet? I’m impressed with how much he continues to get done in the face of constant pain.
Have a great week!
Wednesday is his appointment to discuss surgery dates. Of course, last time, there was a mix-up and the appointment never happened, but I have high hopes for Wednesday. So, he’s having to be SO diligent in his diet, to make sure he is below the magic number when he steps onto those scales!
Rob is doing so well; praying he gets the date set! I love that idea for a bridal shower or wedding gift! It’s so thoughtful, personal, yet not expensive.
Thank you. I was surprised with a baby shower this week, as well! Yikes! I was not able to be as creative for that because I didn’t know in time, so I used some items from a bin where I keep those kinds of things and had Rob buy some diapers and a few other items to add to what I had on hand.
Fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly for you on Wednesday!
Thank you. It did go well. We thought they were setting a date, but then one of the tests he had run caused him to want another test….you see how it went. So, we have another delay while those tests are done.
Haven’t commented in awhile but have been reading your blog posts. Today is cold and dreary here in S. CO – after a high of over 70 on Sunday! We’re to have snow tonight and into tomorrow. I hope we do as we need some moisture.
I love Patsy’s blouse! She looks so lovely, and very grownup! Jake and his friend Willow are so cute – his smile says just how much she means to him.
We’re eating down our pantry, freezer and food storage. I’ve found canned tomatoes on sale so have replenished the one big hole in my pantry. I am committed to slashing our grocery budget (which includes cleaning products, paper supplies and some pet items like cat litter). If all goes as planned we’ll need not much other than milk and some fresh stuff this month.
Congrats to Rob on his amazing weight loss! That is really an accomplishment.
SO is supposed to have low acid coffee and the one most recommended for instant is Kava. Something really weird is going on as it is no longer in stores, if you go to their website they send to you Smucker’s where it is out of stock and on Amazon it has gone from $8.00 a jar to $12.00 a jar and now is $26.00 a jar! So I am looking into alternatives for low acid coffee. I have one cup in the a.m. as I prefer tea throughout the day and into evening when I switch to green tea or decaf tea. But as a hot cup of coffee is one of SO favorite treats it is frustrating to have something just disappear!
Next year we are putting in a raised bed garden. We have the perfect spot for it and will be making the sides out of pallets and lining with heavy duty black plastic left from the corn maze haunted walk. We live near fields that are sown with “roundup ready” corn and hay grazer so they are sprayed with Roundup – all, and I mean all, the bugs leave those fields and come to our yard and garden! This way we can keep the weeds down and manage the insects without having to resort to nasty chemicals. The one crop I really want to focus on is tomatoes. I would like to can a lot of those, including a version of Rotel.
Hope you are getting some rest with all of the activity!
Mary
Well, I’ve finally come up for air this morning–sorry for the delay in replying to all the comments.
It sounds like you have a lot of great plans for this spring. I hope your garden does well. Gardening is one of my favorite things in the world, so of course I want everyone to enjoy having one as well:)
I hope you can find the coffee you need at a good price. We’ve never used low-acid coffee, so thankfully have been spared the agony of finding it!
I LOVE Patsy’s blouse!!! It is so beautiful! Is it linen? You are such a great seamstress! She looks so grown up in this picture! Sounds like a beautiful and fun wedding! When my second daughter got married within a year of our first daughter, we had to pull out all the frugal tricks we could find. Her wedding sounds a lot like the wedding you went to. We even catered it ourselves. It wasn’t easy, but it was so beautiful and memorable! I wouldn’t change a thing! Good luck and prayers this week. Sounds like you’ve done everything you could have done ahead of time to ease the pressure. I hope everything turns out great!
Thank you. The cloth is not linen. I think it’s a polyester or polyester blend, but it didn’t say. I was in Walmart last fall and found this piece wrapped in paper–a 2-yard length–for either $2 or $4, my mind forgets. I do know it was incredibly inexpensive and has quite a bit of texture. So, I wanted to turn it into a nice blouse for her. I used the same pattern that I had used last fall to make her a blouse, and just changed the sleeves significantly to make it look like a whole new style. I’m pleased.
Good morning Becky,
Patsy looks lovely in her new blouse!!!! I hope all goes well with the appointments today. It is a beautiful sunny, but very cold day, here. I soo needed a day of sunshine. Winter can get long and dreary here in NW PA.
The gift baskets are awesome!!! I enjoy shopping and picking up good little deals to gather together for a gift in a bag or basket. Hobby Lobby had 90% off clearance household items yesterday. Everything was pretty picked over but still a few good finds left.
Again, God bless you and your hubby for your dedication to these children.
Thank you! I hope you got your sunshine! We live in Oregon, so it is not too much of a surprise that it’s raining again this morning.
I’ve been gone from home this week a great deal of the time, visiting the hospital. I’m quite hopeful that my loved one will be released today. The doctors are letting her out in record time–5 days instead of 6 or 7, if they follow the plan they set up yesterday. She’s going to need a long recovery time, but I’m delighted she’s starting to mend.
I would love to have a little more time to shop around to get ahead on gifts for this coming year, but that’s not happening right now. But, Rob did find a great bargain on some paper plates down at Fred Meyers on the Whoo-Hoo rack, and snatched them up. I’m going to use them for 4H when we all eat dinner, since I don’t have a dish washer. Sounds fun to me!