On Friday, Rob and I spent the evening with 6 adorable children, ranging in age from 5-13. Our 2 youngest went with us, as well.  We took dinner with us and ate.  We also took these board games.  Every one of these games was played by one group of children or another throughout the evening.  The Wheel of Fortune is electronic, and was in high demand, so kids took turns with that one.  At one point, both Rob and I were involved teaching a couple of the youngest ones how to play Rack-o.  I was one team.  Rob was the partner for the 2 little boys.  For that game, you get the cards from smallest to largest and that was a bit of a challenge for some, but everyone had fun!  I played the stacking tower game quite a few times with the 5-year-old.  I also took a Pearler bead craft kit and several kids made a craft.  Then, we ironed them right away so they wouldn’t get bumped. After that, we cut up some apples and added them to some other snacks I brought, and pretty soon it was time to go home.  It was a fun, frugal way to spend an evening.

Patsy played with Legos for quite a while on Saturday.  We don’t buy new toys often. These were the boys’ Legos, years ago.  Although Patsy doesn’t play with these often, she enjoyed them for an entire afternoon. She was pretty tired from a morning of trotting around fetching and carrying things for us and welcomed the chance to sit down.  I have a few well made, durable toys I will keep when we move, including these Legos and a large Thomas the Tank Engine train set.  I also have a Lincoln Log set.

I cooked at home and am making excellent progress on using things from the cupboards and freezers.  I went and got some groceries at Grocery Outlet and got some good deals on tilapia, lunchmeat and a bunch of other things. I easily fed extra people several times this week.  I love being able to offer a good meal to those who come and help us with this huge project of sorting and pre-packing.

All of the piggies went to hog heaven this week, except this one. It was too small.  Rob has a friend who will finish it up.  He just needs to take this one over there within the next couple of days.  So, I will have pork soon.  We chose not to have them make sausage or ham this time and that will save money.  I still have some ham we got for a cheap price and love using the ground meat and roasts plain.

I got busy today and finished using up the turkey bones in my freezer.  Early this morning, I put on 2 huge kettles filled with bones from when we butchered our turkeys last fall.  We had cut a lot of meat off of some of them, and ground it into turkey burger.  I froze many bags of bones, with meat on them.  I let them simmer all day while I sorted, packed and worked on the camper.  Then, after all of our excellent helpers went home, I processed the broth.  I fished out the bones and put them into bowls.  Then, I ladled or poured the broth through a strainer into a large Pyrex measuring pitcher.   I put the broth into jars and canned them  The smaller pressure cooker in the back has 7 quarts in it.  The larger one in the front has 2 layers of pints in it.  There are 10 in there.  More could fit, but that’s the amount of broth I ended up with.  While they were cooking, I picked the meat off of the bones.  I froze 3 bags of good meat, fed the cats lots of “goodies” and had enough broth and meat to make dinner.  I gave my oldest daughter the remaining 2 bags of bones so she could make broth, too, and so that I would be done with that project.

I made turkey a-la-king over rice.  The rice was in the camper and had been for a long time, so I used it up and put fresh out there.

I used some broccoli that was left over from dinner last night.  Rob and I had a delightful evening with some children last evening.  Both of their parents had other places to be, so we spent the evening.  I used every last red potato I had, because I cannot find any baking potatoes around here, although I’m certain I have some. (We are gaining on the project, but the garage is still a train wreck!) I was going to make baked potato bar, but instead, roasted the red potatoes in chunks and served cheese, broccoli, ham (frozen after the last ham we cooked), and sour cream as toppings to put on the chunks.  It worked great, but I overestimated the amount of broccoli.  By far.  I guess the kids have other favorite vegetables.  They were exceedingly polite about it, and probably would have choked some down for my sake, but I told them not to bother.  I was there to spoil them rotten, not insist on them eating broccoli.

Our camper came back on Thursday from being in the shop for 2 months.  There was some warranty work that needed to be done, and a certain part was difficult to obtain, I guess.  We had taken it in right after our camping trip after Christmas when we realized it was leaking (bad seal) into the outdoor kitchen.  I found a large gallon bag of Chex Mix I had made at Christmas time and taken camping.  It was still great and the children polished it off for me as a snack last evening.  There are 6 of them, plus Patsy and Ja’Ana, so it took no time at all to use that up:) They also enjoyed some apples and little cutie oranges and some hazelnuts.  They polished off close to 4 quarts of canned fruit we took, as well.  I love feeding a crowd–very gratifying and fun for me.

Today at noon, I was able to use an enchilada casserole that had been frozen for quite some time, throw away 3 items I found freezer-burned in the freezer, some frozen fruit (peaches, blueberries, wild blackberries, and strawberries) I put frozen into a bowl and let thaw into fruit salad right before lunch so it was still slushy, some ranch dressing mix I made into a dip and served with carrots and celery, and some drinks that had been around a long time when I fed 5 extra men and young adults after they helped all morning.

I used quite a few home-canned items this week, including carrots and green beans I put into a soup when my aunt and sister came to help me Friday.  I also used frozen broth and turkey bits in that soup. I also used some potatoes that had gotten left in the camper since Christmas break and were sprouting. I am using onions almost daily from my garden.  The red ones are starting to want to sprout a bit, but the Copras are still firm as ever, for the most part.  I still have quite a few left out in the shop.

On a non-food note, I threw away a sweater that was worn out.  I also ruined a frying pan by forgetting it on a burner too long and then touched a plastic container with it, melting the plastic onto the bottom of the pan and warping it, so I threw away the pan and the ruined container.  Thankfully, it wasn’t my best one.

I found some zucchini in the freezer, marked ‘9.  I don’t know if it was really that old, or if I was lazy when I froze it, but it was perfectly fine.  I made a batch of brownies from an old mix I had in the pantry and stirred the drained zucchini in.  They turned out good.

The single way we saved the most money this past week was the amount of help we got from friends and family with the sorting and moving.  If we had to hire the amount of help we got, it would have cost us hundreds of dollars.  We were able to move 2 huge loads over to my brother-in-law’s.  When my husband offered the one man, who is a relative stranger to us, gas money, he declined, but agreed to take an old wood splitter Rob did not need anymore.  It needs work, but the man seems delighted.  No one else wanted anything.

I found 8 small glass bowls in the attic.  Why were they there?  What was I ever thinking?  Who knows, but I was planning to buy some for the camper.  Even at the dollar store, they would have been $8.  I also found some glass casserole dishes in the basement that I have not used for a long time.  My mom and I cleaned them all up, and I will choose what will fit into the camper, and donate the rest.  I will need more glass/casserole dishes than I use when camping, since we plan to stay in the camper for a few weeks between houses.  I have many offers from friends and family to come to their houses and cook casseroles, etc., if I want to and then just warm things up in the camper.  I may do some of that.  I also may have Rob barbecue everything outside, or give the kids sticks over the fire, when we are at a campground.  I do have a teeny, tiny oven in there and some burners, so I plan to cook a bit in there, as well.  There is a small microwave, and I prefer glass to warm things in.  I had some very old plastic bowls in there, but now I won’t.

We contacted a realtor, who was highly recommended by a friend.  We will have her out Tuesday to discuss things.  I hope that the immense amount of cleaning and sorting will meet with her satisfaction, but she will probably give us lots of tips to finish up the job.  I hope to get a higher price, obviously:)  We are wanting to get this on the market as soon as we can.  As Brandy, The Prudent Homemaker, pointed out–the sooner it sells, the sooner we can stop paying payments on it.  As the payments are very hefty, that’s what we were thinking, too.

Piles of trash were burned, saving garbage fees.  The red car in the background has been inoperable for quite some time.  Rob and my nephew, Steven, got it going, and Steven took it home on Saturday.  He has the parts, which Rob paid for, and will fix it for free.  The door has been smashed in on the side, and he thinks he will be able to get new doors as well.  One of the girls will probably end up with it for a first car when Steven gets it fixed up.

We sold a few more things on e-bay.  They were not costly, but one interesting one was a cut thunder-egg rock Rob found in the shop.  It sold for around $3, and the buyer paid shipping.  I think sometimes we take things for granted, because we have had them for a while.   I remember my mom had one on a little shelf and I always loved looking at it when I was a child.   Rob and his dad loved rock hunting, and so we do have more of them to enjoy.  I’m glad someone else can enjoy this rock.  He wasn’t sure when he put it up on e-bay if anyone would want it, so it was a nice surprise.

My aunt helped Patsy cover a pillow form I found, while sorting, with flannel for her camper bunk.  I already covered another one for Ja’Ana.  I hope to find another form and make one for Lovana, as well.  I think if they can prop up on their bunks, or have pillows for lounging on the floor while watching tv., they will feel more cozy.  I got some new sheets at Macy’s on a very good sale for the camper.  Ours have holes in them out there, and I am replacing them.

Rob went to get the camper back, but it needs one more thing done, so he came home empty-handed.  Hopefully, it will be done soon.  I’d really like this huge pile of things out of my bedroom.  They belong out there.  Almost all of the work is warranty work, but one thing we will be paying for, because we want it done.  It is less expensive to just leave it there until it’s done completely.  There was a seal that was leaking, and that would be tragic if we didn’t get it promptly fixed.  Water is not our friend in a camper, except in the faucet and bathtub:)  By catching it early, and them fixing it under warranty, we saved thousands of potential dollars worth of damage and repairs.  I’m so glad we are year-round campers and took it out over the Christmas break and found this problem before any significant damage was done.

We were able to clean the basement out and make a place to stack storage bins.  We saved at least $200 by not having to rent a storage unit for those things for another month, at least.  We are finding that storage units are costly.  We have never had to rent one before.  One place, that is less expensive ($189/month for the biggest unit), is full.  Another one is around $229 for a little less space.  Yikes!  That will add up quickly.  All the more reason to be thankful for the things we can store over at my brother-in-law’s.

We had a simple birthday dinner for my sister today.  We spent very little on the food and presents, but enjoyed the time together immensely.

My niece, Alissa, found some candles in the drawer, and lit them up for her mom.

Jake was watching eagerly because he wanted his mom to wish for little toy cars for him when she blew out her candles.  Silly boy!