We got quite a bit of entertainment out of a 99c box of cherry tomatoes one evening.  I joked that this was Rob’s mug shot:)  The kids were in stitches over his “eyeballs.”

I did not do this post last week because we were without internet for the entire week while we cooked at high school camp.

Before we disappeared into the hills, we bought quite a few things at Grocery Outlet.  The tomatoes were one of them.  I took quite a few snacks, drinks, and a few other foods.  They were very reasonable because I was not picky as to what kind I bought, as long as it was inexpensive.   The kids , us and J’s friends who were campers took care of the drinks.  The granola bars, etc., were used by the cousins and friends.  The Lucky Charms I got for 99c per box were enjoyed by Jake and Michaela (niece and nephew) on mornings they did not get up in time.  There were a few occasions where I needed to get some food at the camper for myself, a niece or nephew, or my aunt, but for the most part, our entire family ate with the camp.  I had taken fruits and vegetables, but have most of them left because there was plenty of that kind of thing served.  The food was excellent (I helped finish it up, but the lady who did the planning was amazing and had much of it prepared ahead of time.)  Rob grilled.  So, we did not consume our usual amount of grocery money last week.  We used it up Saturday and Sunday, though when we got back.  It was nice to have extra to eat out, guilt-free, and nice to restock our groceries in the camper.

The night we returned  to home base I stir-fried vegetables with 2 pieces of chicken and cooked rice for a quick meal.

We had our usual family Sunday dinner today.  We ate some leftovers from camp as well as some chicken we bought, along with garden beans.

We enjoyed the lake and wild flowers.  I got to go on a boat ride, the first I’ve had in years.

My sister gave me some apples and pears.  I picked veggies from the garden.  My sister and I also weeded a bunch last evening, while we visited.  She canned about 60 more jars of beans while I was gone!  That makes around 150 quarts off those bushes so far, between the ones she did and her mother-in-law did.

I read “A Girl of the Limberlost.”  Patsy is trying to read it and ran into a few things she did not quite understand, so I read it and am discussing it as we go along.  It’s an old favorite, but I had not read it for years, so enjoyed it once again.

Tomorrow we get back to real life!  We have a plumber coming to look over the house we are hoping to buy.  Wednesday, we have an electrician coming.  After those 2 inspections, we should know a whole lot more.  I’m excited!

Last week was busy and fun.  We traded kids out one day and left Ja’Ana with the cousins and brought Michaela home with us for 1 night.  On the way home, we stopped at historic Butteville store and enjoyed some ice cream.  Michaela and Patsy enjoyed playing checkers on the checkerboard that the store set up on the table.  They played for quite a while.

Patsy pulled up some unwanted plants in the garden to earn money for camp, and Michaela enjoyed watching her dramatically hit the ground with the plants, huff and puff, and put on quite a show.  So, Patsy got some attention, Michaela was entertained, and I got those plants pulled!  Win, win, win!!

Then they played Yahtzee for several rounds and cheerfully  ate up the odds and ends of my hamburger buns with peanut butter spread on them.  (No jam for Michaela–she doesn’t like it-Patsy will always eat double–she loves it).  The girls had a frugal, fun evening!

The next day, Rob swapped the girls back when he took Patsy to catch the bus for church camp.  Things went well until Wednesday…….

On Wednesday, I was just lallygagging around.  I had 1 thing planned for the day–lunch with 2 of my friends.  So, I let myself sleep in a bit.  But then…the phone rang.  It was the youth leader at camp and there was a problem.  I could hear Patsy dramatically carrying on in the background and many adult voices.  The leader informs me that Patsy’s front tooth is gone and all she has left is her braces and the chain and bracket where a tooth should be.  He’s never seen anything like it.  He can’t figure out where the tooth went.  As far as he knew, she went to bed with a tooth…..now there is no tooth….and so forth.

I have a vision of Patsy with 2 front teeth gone, since I knew that we had been working on getting the other one to come down for a year and a half, with oral surgery, orthodontics, etc.  I was feeling pretty worried, when it suddenly clicked.  He did not know that the other tooth had never been there.  With her sobbing “my tooth broke off” and things like that, he was assuming that her tooth had broken somehow in the night.  I quickly set him straight, saying  “it’s ok.” and things like that.  He put her on the phone, and I found out that, indeed, it was the bracket that had broken off and there was a small white thing attached to it, which she was convinced was part of the tooth (that is still up in her gums).

So, after a call to the ortho, we quickly started out for camp.  We had never been there, but are signed up to volunteer there next week for high school camp.  We went to camp, picked her up, used the interim time to do a little laundry, had an appointment at the ortho, had a meeting about camp, and then took her back.  It is a distance away, so we were gone for about 12+ hours.  They removed the dangling chain, assured us all it was just bonding material, no teeth were broken and put her back together.  We will still need to address the situation later, but for now, it’s fine.  Nothing is broken, except some hardware in her mouth.  Whew!!!  So, this was the NOT frugal day.  We used lots of gas and ate out twice, since we just jumped in the car and took off as quickly as we could.  The main thing is that she’s all right!  I will say that the counselors and leaders deserve high praise.  They handled it well.

We went house hunting again Friday.   This time, I knew I was leaving and packed a nice picnic lunch.  After viewing 5 houses and picking Patsy up from the church parking lot (back from camp), we went to a place called Sunset Park in Keizer, Oregon, and ate our packed lunch.  I’m not sure if you can see the hawk soaring over the Willamette, but there were several that we enjoyed watching.  Rob and Lovana saw a bald eagle, too.

These potatoes are from the garden.  I made potato salad for our family Sunday dinner today.  Rob b-b-qued chicken, and we had salad from garden lettuce.  My aunt brought rolls and ice cream.  It was great and so awesome to have so much of it come from things we’ve grown.  The chickens will run out before long, and we have no way to grow more, but we are enjoying them until that happens.

I cooked many, many meals at home this week, other than that one day.  I used so much garden produce.  It’s really helping with the grocery budget.

My sister and I canned 35 quarts of green beans during 2 pleasant mornings.  Rob and I spent quite a bit of time helping sell peaches at the u-pick stand Monday and Tuesday.  We enjoyed quite a few peaches, and wild blackberries.

I “Shopped” in our storage Conex.  I pulled out items worth at least $40 to use in the next 2 weeks.  I also shopped at the store, and bought things that we absolutely needed or were a great deal.

Rob earned some money this week and used some of it to stock up at Grocery Outlet on items that we will use, and are a great deal.  So, that was extra, above and beyond our usual grocery budget.  So, that was nice.  There are just a few things that we consistently buy there and there are always “surprises” so we do have to be careful to only buy a few of those each time.  You never know what they will have from time to time, but they usually have inexpensive drinks for lunches, lunchmeat that is close to its pull date, but still good, etc.

Rob taught Ja’Ana how to replace the inner tube in her bike tire.  We’ve been giving the bikes a real workout lately on all our camping trips and she ran over something.  We spent 4 nights at Champoeg State Park.  It’s near my sister’s, so were able to do our regular things, while enjoying the park in between activities.

July the 5th is BOTH of our mothers’ birthdays!  So, on the 4th, we had a double birthday party.

Rob barbecued, my sister made lemon meringue pies for everyone (mine has no crust–it was great!), we used lots of garden produce, and we had a great time while celebrating the 4th of July, plus birthdays.

We drove past this flower seed field one evening.  It was so beautiful!

We are enjoying lots of baby kitties right now.   We need to tame some of them down because we have people who would like to have them.

We are eating peaches like crazy.  I helped sell u-pick peaches Saturday, and will do so on Monday and Tuesday, as well as help can beans.  I made peach upside down cake, gluten free bread from a mix, sweet and sour pork, chicken soup, coleslaw, lots of sandwiches and salads, Rob b-b-qued burgers, steak, chicken and the last of the trout for the 4th and other meals.  We are eating lots of lettuce, zucchini, onions, carrots, green onions, and just started getting beans from the garden.  We will can a load in the morning.  Wild blackberries are also ripe on the bushes here on the property.

We did quite a bit of work in the garden this evening.  We pulled out old lettuce, spinach and the broccoli plants, which turned out to be a very strange variety that was very odd and did not taste good.  We were so happy that it wasn’t the tomatoes that failed!  Usually, I carefully choose all of the varieties from seed catalogs and grow my own starts.  This year I was at the mercy of the stores for starts because of the move.  If broccoli was my greatest casualty, I’m relieved.

Patsy and I went with my sister to pick blueberries.  They were so delicious, only $1.25/lb, and are all gone now:)

I picked wild blackberries and made a crisp to take over to our friends’ house when we went for dinner.

I made pinto beans in the crock pot, lots of salads from garden lettuce, sandwiches, packed lunches, enchiladas, omelets from eggs we got for 88c/dozen, and numerous quesidillas.  I am trying to keep meals simple.  We got invited to my sister’s one morning for pancakes, a friend’s for dinner, a potluck for the last night of J’s camp where she was a junior counsellor (I took watermelon, cheese slices and crackers), and my aunt took us out for lunch after church today.

We did not get the house we bid on last week, and in fact got outbid by $15,000 (over the asking price).  So, you could say we saved $15,000:(  I spent 4-6 hours looking on the computer, have sent the real estate agent a list of properties we would like to see, and will go at it again this coming week.

Patsy and I went for a bike ride at Champoeg State Park.  I am happy to report I did not fall off of the bike, or have any other catastrophes.  (I would pretend I am teasing, but have done some crazy stuff on (off) of a bike in the past, so am trying to build myself up again after several years of not riding since we all have talents and that’s not one of mine!!!!)  We rode over 5 miles.  We packed a lunch, and got ice cream at the historic store that was the 1/2 way point of the ride.  We also played a game of checkers they had on the table while we ate our ice cream.  Cute and quaint.

I visited with a friend while Patsy and her daughter swam at a local pool.

We worked in the garden.  We are still eating the same vegetables–snow peas, lettuce, beets, carrots, cilantro, basil, spinich, and the zucchini is just starting.  I am also looking forward to green beans soon.

We got library books, movies and borrowed 2 movies from a friend.  We watched one movie tonight.  It was called “The Finest Hours” and was about a Coast Guard rescue.  It had a little bad language, but kept us riveted to our seats as the men battled the stormy sea.