I made 3 batches of jam this week.  One was peach, from some frozen peaches I wanted to use up.  We were out of peach jam, and that is Rob’s favorite, so I just made it when I made the other kinds.

The second kind was strawberry.  Rob bought me a flat of strawberries and I was also able to throw a small handful in the jam from our bushes.

The third kind was berry-rhubarb.  I used the remaining strawberries, rhubarb and about 1 cup of raspberries from our bushes.  It is great.  We got that recipe from the internet ( I just added raspberries to use them and get enough mashed berries), but it’s pretty typical–4 cups berries, 4 cups rhubarb, sugar, and 1 box Sure-Jell pectin.  It turned out really tasty, and I was glad to use those raspberries, rhubarb and every berry from the flat of berries.  I am hoping that as the new strawberry bushes grow throughout the summer, I will get some to freeze by the end of the summer.  It’s easy to put even a small handful in a carton and add to it as berries ripen.

We enjoyed the company of the nieces and nephew for 4 days and nights while their parents went to an out-of-town wedding.  We went to a park, drove the big girls around to activities they were signed up for or wanted to attend, and spent hours helping with a huge rummage sale at the church.  We had many more frugal, fun activities planned, but ran out of time.

The rummage sale occupied much of our time during the last few days.  Items were collected over the past few weeks by the youth pastor and his various crews, including Ja’Ana and Alissa.  Those 2 spent all day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday helping out.  We were more limited in our time, as we had the younger ones to care for, but did spend significant time each day helping out.  The weather cooperated.  It was sunny, which was far better than rainy.  In fact, it almost went overboard:) Every day was warmer and warmer, and by Saturday, the weather was actually super hot (around 100), which made the last day and clean-up a bit difficult.  There were so many donated items that the gym was full of tables, and an area about as large was full in the parking lot.  So, as you can imagine, there were thousands of items to sort, price, set out, and much to clean up in the end.  Then there were the workers (mostly teens) to feed, direct and keep hydrated. Thankfully, it was well organized and there were many adult leaders who were helping out in various ways.   There were cases of water which we constantly pressed on the kids.  One day, Rob went down to Taco Bell during the afternoon hours and grabbed a whole box of the $1 (super Happy Hour sale) slushies and handed them out.  We sure didn’t want any teens or adults getting sick from the heat.  By Saturday night, I’ll admit, I was pretty tired!  But, those teens!  There was a group that stayed until the bitter end yesterday afternoon, and they decided to go swimming.  So, they rounded up a place to go, and cooled off for a couple of hours.  Got to love that energy:)

The kids have been earning money in various ways so they can go to Mexico on a mission trip in August.  This was a big project, and I haven’t heard the final word on how much money they earned at this sale, but at last count, it was over $6,000.  I’m excited to hear the final count!

In the meanwhile, the garden continues to grow nicely.  Rob did get in there and till one morning, and we put up a little trellis for the pole beans to climb.  Half of these are Purple-podded pole beans and the other half are Blue Lake.  Pole beans will produce until frost, which will mean we will have fresh beans for a long time and I won’t have to can as many.

We’ve been eating lettuce frequently and I picked a gallon of snow peas.  I harvested a little broccoli and made broccoli soup.  There have been a few raspberries each day.

Throughout the busy, busy week, we were able to pack picnics and cook at home.  I used my Instant Pot to make spaghetti sauce from scratch one busy night and we ate that and the soup several times.  We also had sandwiches frequently.  By Saturday night, Rob grabbed a little Chinese food for me, and Taco Bell for the others.  I was too tired to cook. I was even too tired to cut the crust off of Michaela’s peanut butter sandwich.  I cut it into quarters and I told her she had to bite out the middle and get rid of the crust herself.  (You have to understand autism to understand that that is a big deal to her–but I was proud of her–she went with the flow)  We got back to our house around 10, and I then slept like a rock and am now cheerful and ready for a new day!  It was a good week.

I harvested more lettuce, green onions, a little broccoli and quite a few snow peas this week.  I was able to use some of the produce at the 2 parties we had, as well as in meals and was able to share lettuce.

Jake and Patsy both got signed up for summer reading at the library.  We checked out lots of books and they’ve already started reading towards prizes, tickets for a drawing and an end-of-the summer party.

I took Ja’Ana shopping for clothes for her birthday.  We though she would enjoy picking things out for herself.  We hit an amazing sale.  Things were 60% off, with an additional 20% off coupon, and a $10 off 50.  So, she got a pair of shorts, a pair of capris, 2 tops and a dress for a little over $40 (after coupons, etc.)

We used our zoo pass one time last week, and plan to use it again tomorrow.  We had 2 birthday parties, and kept them simple and reasonable.  You can read about the tea party here and the BBQ and sugar donut birthday party here.

We all finished school this week, except the homeschoolers who still have to do math during the summer and take a test in July.  Now, I will be working more hours with Jake and Michaela since it’s summer.  This is Rob’s summer job, so he will be taking his turn often, and at times, we will both work at the same time–one of us will work with Jake and one with Michaela.  We will be doing some overnights as well, when their parents are out of town.  So, we are planning lots of summer fun for all the kids.  We will be doing lots of frugal activities such as Kids Bowl Free, going to the park, the library summer reading, hikes, swimming at the YMCA, the zoo with our pass, picnics, etc.  When we add in church activities, camps, volunteering and more that the big girls are signed up for…..whew!  Patsy is getting a little older, so she has a few of those kinds of activities as well.  Rob may be glad when his “vacation” is over–we’ll see:)  It’s shaping up to be a fun summer.

Patsy’s Sunday School class/mid-high youth group had a luau.  They got to dress up for the fun party.  We wanted her to get to dress up without spending a fortune for a 1-night event. She had started sewing this skirt a while back and so I finished it up today.  While not quite Hawaiian, exactly, there were large flowers, right?  So, we started with that.  When paired with a top that she got for Christmas a while ago and last summer’s flip flops, she was well on her way.  She used a large flower in her hair from a couple of summer’s ago, and we made a trip to the Dollar Tree for the lei and the fancy tropical cup.  Total out-of-pocket for costume=$2.

She had a really good time, and was also thinking of her cousin, Rachel.  They both have the same top, and wearing it made her think of Rachel tonight.  Since Rachel is in Ireland right now, and has been for almost 6 months, Patsy was glad to think of her today!  She misses her, as we all do, but we are all glad she is getting this experience.

Lots of frugal fun!

Jake:   “Help, help, doctor, I’ve got these things sticking out of my head!  I need car surgery.”

Auntie:  “Do you mean surgery on cars, or with cars?”

Jake:  “Both.”

Dr. Patsy:  “I’ll rescue you!”

Looks pretty sick, huh?

She proceeded to drive cars up and down his leg, and he was cured!  Amazing!

The patient was in high spirits and recovering rapidly when we left on Friday:)  And the bill?  Definitely frugal!  Dr. Patsy didn’t charge a dime for her “car surgery.”

I happily destroyed my lettuce row today!  I cut 4-5 large Tupperware bowl-fulls of lettuce from this row.  Although it looks pretty bad, there is still a lot of lettuce left, especially on the far end.  Tomorrow, I am making a lettuce platter for a barbecue the youth group is having, and then torn lettuce for a parents’ meeting/taco feed. So, I have 2 gallon Ziplocks of lettuce leaves for burgers and 4 gallon bags of torn pieces in the fridge for tomorrow.  Any leftover meant-for-burger leaves will be torn and added to the taco lettuce, if needed.   I also sent a huge bag to my sister, and have lots for myself in the fridge.  I have 2 more plantings of lettuce in various stages growing nicely in other parts of the garden, and I made sure to plant another row to the right of this one today, so the goodness will just keep coming all summer long.  The other thing that often happens is that this lettuce will sprout new leaves where I gave it a haircut.  So, I was delighted to find a good use for so much of it, since it is growing so rapidly!

I made a lot of refried beans.  Some of them are for the taco feed tomorrow.  The rest are for later in the week.  I plan to make a nacho for J’s party.  I also cooked white rice, spaghetti, double chocolate loaf cake, zucchini bread, salads, baked chicken and more.  We often eat the same thing for dinner more than one time in a week–I always make big batches of everything with that in mind.  We also ate chicken-rice soup, and sausage and beans that I cooked last weekend.

We are having 2 parties during this coming week.  On Wednesday, Patsy has invited a few girls in after school to celebrate her birthday, which was last Wednesday.  That one will be a tea party.  I have already begun preparing things so I won’t have too much work to do on that day.  I’ve even dug out some of my nice dishes to make sure they could be found on the big day.

The second one will be next Saturday.  Ja’Ana’s birthday is next Thursday, and she has invited some friends over to celebrate with her.  That one will be a barbecue, with home-made donuts, courtesy of a couple of her aunties.  There, again, I’ve begun preparations.

If that wasn’t enough birthday fun, we do have a third daughter that had a birthday last Thursday.  I was glad to see her at the dance recital and was able to give her a card and gift then.  Yes, that’s 3 birthdays in 8 days.  Really.  We don’t do birthday parties every year with friends.  In fact, Patsy hasn’t had a “friend” party yet with us.  This is a good year for it, so we are going for it.  I will post how we did it all frugally, kept our sanity (I hope) and made it all work after the parties are over.

The children found a dead dragonfly on the deck.  They enjoyed looking at it for quite a while.  I find that looking at birds, wild flowers/weeds, the river, etc. is a marvelous source of free entertainment that never grows old.

How did your week go?

My mother-in-law made me a pot of sedum plants, using a pot she salvaged from our old house.  Although I did not recognize the frog immediately, Rob informed me it was in our birdbath at the old house.  Who knew?  Anyway, the pot is lovely and I am thankful to have it.

It was dance recital week!  We returned from camping on Monday.  Tuesday, dress rehearsals started.  Patsy needed to go Tuesday and Thursday.  Ja’Ana on Wednesday and Friday.  The show was on Saturday.  It was wonderful.  We loved how tasteful and interesting the dances and costumes were.  When you start at a new studio, you just never know.  Since we have so many daughters, and have moved several times over the years, this is our 7th studio, and our first recital with this group.   Trust me, over the years, we have seen it all!!  So, what a pleasant experience last night’s recital was.

It was especially fun to see Ja’Ana take up tap again this year.  She loved her lyrical class last year, but she really wanted to go back to tap because it is her absolute favorite.  So, when we moved here, tap was an option, and she signed up.  Because it had been a while, she was required to take the very lowest class with little kids in it at first.  After a month or 2, she was moved up with the older class because it came back to her.  We are very thankful to the YMCA for the scholarships they gave the girls for this year.  When we started, Rob did not have a job at all, so our dance payments have been very low for this entire season.  I think that we will still qualify for a scholarship next year, due to the amount we bring in, but it may not be the highest level scholarship like it was this year.  That is fine!  We are so grateful that the girls could dance this year.  It is especially meaningful to Ja’Ana.

During this exceptionally busy week, we were somehow able to cook meals and eat at home for the evening meals.  Now, mind you, it wasn’t really great food sometimes, but still…..think hot dogs and beans, peanut butter sandwiches, etc.    The one day I had to cave in and buy something was at lunch Thursday–I unexpectedly needed to pick Michaela up from school as she wasn’t well, and then drive for a couple of hours to do an errand I was not expecting.  So, the homeschooled girls were good sports and brought their school along and the day wasn’t a total bust.  I grabbed some fast food, and let them eat in a park while working on science.  It worked.

I picked some roses from the yard and have been enjoying them on the table.

We helped today with a fundraiser for the youth group mission trip.  A restaurant owner donated pulled pork sandwiches, bbq-d chicken, and ribs, along with sides.  The teens waited on the church members who chose to eat the meal, took their orders and took away the dirty plates, etc.  The restaurant owner brought a crew who served up the food.  My husband was delighted to be able to help cut up ribs, and otherwise help with that part in the kitchen.  He loves anything to do with barbecue!  He also loved getting to know the restaurant owner during their time in the kitchen.  We are not the main youth workers, but are helping occasionally with events and things.  Last summer, we helped cook at camp, and we have some events lined up to help with this coming summer.  There’s always plenty to do, I’ve noticed!  The teens raised close to $5,000.  Wow!  We were delighted to be a part of such a worthwhile endeavor.

Ja’Ana continued to clean house the past 2 Fridays to continue earning money for camp and the mission trip.  She also went on a hike Monday with the youth group and had earned enough money that her “account” covered her fees for that too–both gas and lunch!  It is sure helping us because she would have to miss activities if we had to pay for it all.  And, she is learning a lot, too.

I also did many normal things that I always do–work on the garden and flowerbeds, work, cook, clean a little bit (not enough at ALL), and I kept my grocery shopping minimal.  I had enough groceries left over from camping that I didn’t even need to buy a thing until yesterday.  I found a $10/off $50 coupon for Safeway, plus loaded some coupons on my Safeway card, and bought the food I needed.  I also bought laundry detergent and razors for Rob to make sure I went over the $50 mark with things I truly needed.  I am feeling like I need to continue cleaning out things from the freezers and pantry.  I have not concentrated on that very hard since January, and feel it’s time for another big push since the garden is growing so nicely.  I’ve got to make room for fresh fruits and veggies!