I was able to use my crock pots several times this week.  This was the start of a beef stew.  I used the leftover roast beef from last week, along with the rest of the baby carrots in a bag.  I added onion, celery, potatoes, beef broth, thyme, salt and pepper. I put in a little garlic salt, also.   I can’t find my home-canned tomatoes yet, but thankfully, I was able to find a purchased can on the shelf.  So, I put that in, along with the leftover cooked potatoes and carrots from when I cooked the roast. It came out amazing. I was pleased because it was so tasty, and used up a lot of things out of the fridge.

I made a lot of pinto beans into meals where they will be used (or already got eaten).

We got at least 1/2 of the home-canned jars onto shelves.  We’ve already been into the pears, fruit cocktail, broth and raspberries.

There was a huge thunderstorm, including tons of rain and hail.  The drains filled on the streets on the way home from church and it was wild with the lightening, thunder and standing water.  I wasn’t surprised to see that the small lettuce, boc choi, etc. in the garden were pulverized.  I’m hoping the nice weather we are now having will give the plants  a chance of perk up a bit and that I might still get something.

I emptied an almost empty bottle of ketchup into another one to get every drop.

I filled the compost bucket several times and poured it onto a compost pile we are starting.

Jake and I got a lot of mileage out of a boxed cake and some old candles.  I must point out that it is NO one’s birthday.  He was just in the mood.

I am enjoying my new job very much, because I get to spend so much time with the kids.  On Friday, I took Alissa, Ja’Ana and Michaela  for some French fries Friday after school to
celebrate their hard work in school.  Ja’Ana and I went to an appointment on Thursday, after toiling diligently for weeks, and now she has the grades, credits, etc. properly recorded for last year’s homeschool work.  Alissa and I have worked for hours on her homework after school in the last 2 weeks and she is trying so hard.  I know Michaela is doing what her teachers are asking her to do at school.  So, it was fun to celebrate with all 3 of them in the short time before Jake came home.  Sometimes I know these kids do not always get the credit for how hard they work for everything.  Although school is easier for some than others, it is very hard for all of them.  I want to keep encouraging.

Today, for our family Sunday lunch, my sister asked me to make Caprice salad.  I’ve never made it before, but I get to the house first.  As I was leaving church, she said, “just slice up some tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and basil and put it on a plate.”  I love how it looks.  I couldn’t help snapping a picture.  I put some salt and pepper on top, but have a suspicion that it should have some Italian dressing or something on top.  Thankfully, she will be home soon and can instruct me!

We are having soup and salad bar for lunch today.  I made us each a huge pot of chicken-rice soup this week.  At our house, we’ve had it 3-4 times.  I think they did the same.  Today, we are going to finish up both pots.  It is very yummy and economical.  She boiled last Sunday’s chicken to get her broth, and I used some I had previously frozen for mine. Our meals have at last slipped into the pattern I like–the pattern where I cook each day, or we eat leftovers, but where we are not living on a diet of fast food as we were for a time this past summer while we were in transition.  I still don’t have my freezers at my house, just the little one over the fridge, so Rob keeps doing “meat/frozen veggie” runs for me and we keep refilling it.  I am going to make a menu plan for the first time in a long time this week–it will help so much since I am spending several hours per day homeschooling Ja’Ana, helping Patsy with homework, and have started a new part-time job.

We started doing DD service work for my nephew.  Now that he is back to school, and my sister and brother-in-law are back into the swing of things with their jobs, they need Personal Support Workers to help care for him.  We also do a few hours for my niece, but most of the time needed is for our nephew.   This is a part-time job that involves helping him practice some skills, such as hygiene, safety in crossing parking lots, proper social interaction, and other goals.  I am doing the most hours, because Rob is still hunting for a full-time job.  (Last count, he has applied for over 50, has had 6 interviews, and still…..no job!  We’ve been told over and over that the way to get into this school system is to become a substitute, and so he has signed up for that and is waiting for the training day.  He wants to work in a special needs classroom as he has a lot of experience with children with special needs.  People are being very encouraging to him, so that’s good.)

He is also madly working on any and all projects around our new house, such as building new canning cupboards, since he anticipates his time will become scarce once he gets a job.  We are also spending lots and lots of time with all 3 cousins–might as well get to enjoy them all, instead of only one.  Fun!  I’m happy that we will have a little money coming in.  It will stretch the savings we have a little longer, which is a good thing!  I am still adjusting to the schedule, but this week will be easier since it won’t be new anymore.  I cannot imagine how hard it would be to take on this task for a totally new family–I’m glad we all know and love each other already!

I weeded my little fall garden and we got a good, steady rain.  Those little plants look so much happier.

We are officially living in our house now:)  It’s been a wild week.  We have been working on the house daily, and having the plumbers and electricians work on it, too.  Finally, on Thursday night, we had enough beds up, and the new electrical panel in so it was safe to sleep there, and so we did!

My food storage is set up.  I found–ummm-probably about 50-75 pounds of various dry beans among other things!  So, I promptly made chili for the crew that was bringing more furniture and boxes down on Saturday.  Rob got some hot dogs and we served chili dogs and fruit to the crew for lunch.

We are so grateful to the large group of friends and family who showed up to help.  I’m super excited–the piano is in!  Both Ja’Ana and I have spent quite a bit of time playing–it’s been a long summer without it:)  I know piano movers are very expensive, so we were grateful for all the strong arms.

My little lettuce, onions, spinach, snow peas, beets, carrots and chard all came up.  It took a lot of watering in the heat, but they are starting to grow now. I think since the first is usually around mid-late October, I have a great chance of getting some food.  The Walla Walla onions should winter over, as should some of the other things.  There are a LOT of weeds in the dirt, so I spent some time hoeing yesterday.

I’ve been able to grab lots of ingredients that were in bins since May and work on using them up.  I will keep most of the canning in the shop, and carry more in when I need to.  I’ve been able to use quite a few jars of home-canned things up this week, which makes me happy since it was in boxes all summer.

I am a little late posting this because we have been so busy saving money:)

We have been working early and late to empty the storage unit.  You have to pay for the whole month even if we only stay one day into September, so I am happy to report, it is empty as of noon today.  We piled most of the boxes in the shop.

I found a few tomatoes on the bush at the new house.  We have been eating down there a lot, as we work, and they have come in handy.

My aunt found my crock pot in her garage, so I was able to make some broth with the carcass of a chicken Rob had barbecued.  I froze the broth today, along with a baggie of bits so I can make soup soon.

There was enough chicken to make chicken salad for lunch.  I had planned to grab a can of tuna off of the shelves, as my food storage has been slowy making its way onto the garage shelves, but realized there was no can opener yet!  So, thank goodness for the remaining chicken.  The soup will be a little less meaty, but no one cares:)

My aunt was given more pears, apples and potatoes than she could eat from a friend, so she shared.  We have been eating pears with our lunches for the last 2 days–yum!

My sister is watching Patsy, so Rob and I are off to a date, for the first time in a long time!  Because of where we are in our lives, the first thing we are going to do is unload boxes into the van from his mother’s garage…..but then, probably out to dinner!

I can’t put anything into the main house until the floors are done.  They start that tomorrow.  But, the kitchen, laundry room, and garage are not affected, and the shop is available, also.  So, we are going to keep getting our things from wherever they are and putting them in there.  I have already emptied several boxes into the kitchen and garage and will continue to do so as things surface.  We are busy, but I’m pretty excited to get to move to this phase!