The weather changed for the better this week. Rob was able to take his saw on a long pole and attack the apple tree.

It was so tall from years of not being pruned that most of the apples were unreachable last year. He stood in one place and severely pruned it while I hauled the branches away into the garden where they will be further broken down and removed over time.

You can see that most of the tree ended up in the garden. Now, it has a chance to re-grow. We did notice that the trunk itself is quite rotten, so we are not sure it it will live for long anyway, but it now has a chance to be useful for a few more years.

I will admit that I was a bit stiff this morning, but it feels so good to get stage 1 of a big project done.

Rob found more free boards and we cut them up for fire-starting. It’s nice to not have to skimp on the boards because they get the fire going so easily each morning. Today was the first day since last fall that we did not build a fire as it was quite warm here. I know we have many more “fire-building” days this spring though, so it’s great to have more kindling.

I received the southwestern beans and the oat milk for free when I did my shopping. All of the gluten-free products were a gift from friends. Wow! It was so nice of them to think of us. We really appreciate it.

I did quite a bit of grocery shopping this week. I am getting the camper ready for camping, as we will go later in the month. I always keep a good pantry out there, but there are always things I’ve completely cleaned out at the end of camping season that need to be replenished every spring. There are also things I’ve “robbed” throughout the year when I run out of an item in the house. One thing I did was empty the little freezer out there, and used a bunch of the items that had been in there since October. We save a lot of money by stocking the camper well. Little stores in small towns are usually what are found near campgrounds, and are generally much more expensive than what I can buy food for on sale at my regular stores around here, so we just buy a few items if we really need them while we are camping.

I got 2-lb bags of shredded cheese for $3.99 using a digital coupon. I bought 5.

The biggest bargain was some Tyson frozen chicken breasts Rob scored. I had been to Fred Meyers looking for the 5-lb bags that were in the ad for $9.99. I had a $2.50 Ibotta rebate on them, which would have made them $1.50/lb, a really good price around here. They didn’t have any. Rob called around, found some at a different location, and went to get them for me. When he got there, the meat manager said she had WAY too many and was going to mark them down for him. To his amazement, she marked them down to $4.99/bag, and said he could take all he wanted, she needed to reduce her inventory! He took 12. I could do the rebate on 5. When all was said and done, it worked out to about 79c/lb. Amazing! We are going to can some, as we’ve used a lot of what we canned last summer. We are also on the schedule to feed the college group at church in early April. They will get chicken! Their group has a budget for these meals, and we will certainly be able to stay under it this month for them:).

I used our YMCA membership 2 times this week. I got lots of free exercise working in the yard.

We wanted to do something special with Patsy on Friday after school, since we’ve been spending so much time with my niece and nephew. We didn’t want to break the bank, but still wanted it to feel special for her. So, first we took her for a haircut at Supercuts (one of those walk-in inexpensive salons). I have many talents, haircutting is not one of them. Ask any of the 8 children. Then, we took her to Safeway, where I got round 1 of my groceries and we bought chips. We also let her have all of the Monopoly tickets, as she likes opening them and putting them on the board. While at Safeway, we bought some nail polish remover and a new bottle of polish and rented 2 Redbox movies. At home, we watched the movies, painted our nails (except Rob, who declined the offer), and ate chips (except Rob, who declined that offer, too). Then, I let her enter all the Monopoly 2nd chance codes into my phone, something I’ve never wanted to do before, but she did, so it was a simple fun activity for her. She earned some reward points, which didn’t amount to much, but I’m glad she had fun. The next morning we took her swimming for a little bit, and when Rob went for the chicken, she went too, and he got her some ice cream. I think she enjoyed her weekend.

Some weeks, I feel like these crocus–trying to keep my self blooming in the snow! This week was a bit like that. We were so very busy, I hardly had time to breathe. It was also a bit difficult.

This morning, I got up reluctantly. I was tired from a week that was busier than usual, and it was compounded by the time change. I sleepy stumbled into the kitchen, and started my morning routine–food, meds, shower—you get the idea. I put on a warm sweater and some pants, as it was very cold and frosty outside and it takes a long time for the van to warm up. As I was gathering myself up, Rob mentioned that my hair was sticking up. I smoothed it down with my hand, and encouraged the girls to get into the van. Michaela spent a couple of nights here, so she was needing to gather her things as well.

As we drove down the road towards church, on time, but not early, voices from the backseat informed me that my hair was STILL sticking up, and they thought I should do something about it. Hmmm. I thought I already did, but a glance in the mirror showed how ineffective my previous efforts were. What to do? My eyes lit on Rob’s water container from the previous day. It was almost empty, but I only needed a tiny bit on my hand to smooth that hair down with, right?

Let me say right now that pouring water from a Hydroflask onto your hand in a moving van is not the best idea. At all! Much to my shock, icy cold water rushed out of the bottle, quickly overflowed my hand and poured onto my pants, giving my quite a shock! I now had a soaking wet, icy-cold leg. The van heater was still ineffectually heating up the interior after the frosty, cold night, so it did not dry my leg. The little blanket we call “Car Blankie” since it has lived in the van for many years, did a little better, as I sopped up the ice water the best I could. Of course, Rob offered to take me home to change, but I figured my long outer sweater would cover the wet place until it dried, and we were none too early:). I will say, I did smooth down my hair and it stayed put during church. I also will say that I was no longer sleepy and I likely got more out of church than I might have otherwise! Still, I would not recommend the experience to anyone:). I’d say some hot tea, Diet Coke, or coffee would be a much more pleasant way to get the morning going. I did have one of the more memorable rides to church I’ve had in a while, but I’ll happily forgo that and have a nice, boring ride next week!

So, what did we do to keep thrifty and thrive this week?

Rob cleaned out the greenhouse and set up the heat mat. I hope to plant seeds soon. It’s been so cold that I feel like I would have had to spend a fortune on electricity to run space heaters to warm it enough to grow plants, but now I need to start things or there won’t be time for them to grow. I ordered from both Pinetree Garden Seeds and Territorial Seed Company a little while back and both orders arrived. I had a lot left over from last year, because I purposely only used 1/2 packets of things like peppers and tomatoes, and will start the other 1/2 packets this year.

Rob and I cooked over at my sister’s house 2 evenings. One night, he made a panko/parmesan crusted chicken. Some ate it with noodles, some with pasta sauce, some plain. We had salad, and beans as well. Another night, we made tacos. We used food from there and here to make up the meals we shared. We were over there much more than normal, as they were working/had appointments more than usual, and we needed to build up extra hours for when they are gone at the end of the month. We are so grateful that we could do that, as it would have been very difficult to go without that income! They were grateful, too, as it helped their week out as well.

One night at home, I made a quinoa pilaf and a stir-fry. I used up a can of baby corn that has been lurking in the pantry for literally years. It was time, and was fun to eat something different.

I made a recipe from a magazine, but changed things up so much that it was a whole new recipe. It tasted a lot like Pad Thai when I got done. It was really, really good, and loaded with all kinds of veggies.

I took Michaela swimming once, and Rob took her twice, using our YMCA membership. In the beginning, they allowed us to put her on our membership because the kids are with us so much, which was really nice of them. She wanted to watch a movie, so Rob took her. She has money for things she does, and Rob got in for free as her Personal Support Worker. That theater does that for special needs kids, which is very nice of them, I think. Patsy had a gift card from Christmas and used that for her ticket, and used both girls used their own money for their snacks. So, all Rob had to pay for was a little popcorn, which he shared with them, but he almost had a heart attack at how much that cost! (Good thing his heart is so healthy!). Another thing he did to keep her occupied this weekend was to take her out to lunch. At Costco. It didn’t cost much, and she loves to eat there. She had a hot dog.

On Friday, Jake had oral surgery to remove 7 teeth. There simply wasn’t room in there for them all. Some were baby teeth, but some were too-crowded permanent ones. He didn’t want any pictures taken the day of the surgery, or afterwards, so I honored that request. He is miserable. I helped his Dad take care of him all day Friday, and we brought Michaela home for the last 2 nights, and kept her busy. She can’t handle him being upset or crying. The plan was originally for me to bring him home this afternoon, but quickly determined when we stopped by for him after church that he is not up for it. I will go over there after while and see if he will let his Mama have a little break. I can fetch things for him, or read, or whatever. They’ve all been up over there for most of the last 2 nights. He’s been crying a lot. We are all in distress over it. He is not able to reason his way through the fact that it does hurt, but it will feel better each day. He just knows it hurts. In the meanwhile, he is not eating much at all–just a few bites of Jello and some egg flower soup from their favorite Chinese restaurant. I know this, too, shall pass. It’s just hard to watch for all of us who love him so much.

I got 1/2 of my house chore list done yesterday. It’s better than none.

Needless to say, I didn’t get much done on my quilt. I did, however, pass a few levels on my Farm Heroes Saga game on my I-Pad while waiting for Jake to come out of surgery. Not much of an accomplishment, but some weeks, you take what you get!

I have been working on quilt squares. Some were blocks from the shop hop, and some are ones I made from extra fabric we bought. I owned one fat quarter of batik fabric before this shop hop, and am incorporating it into the blocks. I decided I wanted 20 squares. I’ve completed 12 or 14 so far and have a couple in progress.

We spent time with both Jake and Michaela. I took them to the library and got a book about science experiments. Uncle helped Jake figure out how to make an “airplane” from straws and loops of paper.

It flew well!

I took Michaela shopping for personal hygiene supplies. Her mom sent a list, and we got all of the things. We absolutely took our time, and I was very pleased with how she did. She thought about each item and looked at many, many choices and decided which kind or smell she wanted of things like deodorant or toothpaste. Then, I took her for a milkshake. We had a good time. It was a good outing, even though it doesn’t sound glamerous.

This week, all the kids missed 2 days of school, due to snow, and Rob was down for a couple of days after a medical test. (He’s great, by the way!). Everyone was getting a little stir-crazy. On Saturday, Rob and I took Patsy and Jake for a long drive. Michaela had other things to do that day with her Dad. We found a town where the snow was still on the ground and Jake enjoyed getting out of the car and throwing some, throwing sticks into this little creek, and generally running around for a bit.

The sunny, but chilly, day was so nice after the snow.

We happened upon a railroad museum on our drive. I let Jake climb on the railroad cars. He really enjoyed it. We didn’t actually go inside the museum. We might do that another day.

Rob picked up some more boards from the free piles at the wood places. We spent some time chopping them up and now our containers are full again. They work so great to start fires.

In the next 2 weeks to come, we will be working many, many hours with the kids. Their parents are working extra this week and next, and have some appointments. Therefore, we will work extra this week and next. This is good timing, as we can clock in extra hours now to make up for when they are gone over spring break later in the month. I can’t say I’ll have much time for quilting this week, but I will say life is never boring around here!

After one of the mildest winters we’ve had for a while, February is breaking records for being cold and wet! We woke up to snow falling this morning. My brave crocuses are still blooming, through it all. The schools are closed today, but I can tell it’s melting already.

It’s so beautiful, I get a lot of free entertainment just looking out the window.

The birds are happily eating the food Rob put out for them. It’s fun to watch them, too. As silly as it sounds, we got a few minutes of pure entertainment the other morning watching a squirrel who had somehow dropped down onto the top of one of those birdhouses pictured in the snow picture above. We watched him for a good 10 minutes while he figured how to get down off of there, taking flying leaps back and forth between the birdhouses, and them finally leaping down to the little awning roof and at last jumping down to the garden, where he grabbed a quick snack of compost and ran off.

We went to a couple of yard sales this week. Rob got a tool he needed for very little money, and I got a bunch of quilt shop fat quarters for 50c each, as well as a several-yard piece of muslin for $1.00. At the one he went to, he found a container of embroidery floss for $5. There must be 75-100 skeins in there. Patsy’s already been working on her towels with some of it.

I sewed all the blocks I got for free at the shop hop, except for one that I simply don’t know how to do. I also am using the extra fabric we bought to make some additional blocks, since I didn’t go to all the shops. I have a good plan for how I want to finish the quilt, and got fabric to make the strips between the blocks.

We had a simple family birthday party for our son, consisting of cupcakes, ice cream and home-make hamburgers. We did it over at my sister’s house as part of our normal family Sunday dinner, and kept it very small and simple. He was pleased.

We got a chicken at Costco, ate it, and made broth from the bones. We used some of our tax return to really stock up on things like Ziplock bags, vitamins, and some food items. We also bought a new blanket for our bed. We had been commenting that one of ours was literally in tatters after 36 years of using it. When we found a blanket for $17 at Costco, we grabbed it and simply asked each other why it had taken us so long to replace the other one!

I made gluten-free pizza. It did not rise as it should. We ate it anyway, but it wasn’t stellar. Rather than throwing out my yeast and buying fresh, I put some in a measuring cup with warm water and a little honey and proofed it. It was fine. As I suspected, I clearly killed my yeast the first time by using water that was too hot.

I made 2 crusts, par-baked them for 5 minutes, and froze them for quick dinners in the future.

How did your week go?

We have Jake and Michaela all weekend, until Monday night. Their parents are helping at a high school church retreat, which our daughter is attending. I’m sure they are having a good time, and I know we are! Jake brought the Frustration game in from the camper. After roping various ones into playing with him, he then set up his Lego Star Wars guys and played with them for quite a while. He was so cute, counting off their moves and popping the dice popper for each of them.

I had a friend and her daughter stay in the “guesthouse” Saturday night. We save a lot of money by using our camper as a guesthouse. Our out-of-town friends don’t have to pay for hotels, and we get to have them close so we can visit for every possible moment! It was very fun to swap “I remember” stories with her daughter. We have a lot of great memories from when this now-adult young lady was little…lots of fun to reminisce. The kids roped them into playing Yahtzee, we had dinner, and all too soon, they had to head back home very early Sunday morning. This has been my lucky month–this is the 2nd friend I’ve gotten to spend time with that I seldom get to see!

We’ve been reading library books, and books we own. I returned the one that I could not renew only 1 day late, so I will only have to pay for 1 day of being late. I was able to renew the rest in time and did not have to pay.

We watched U-Tube videos of Steve Green’s “Hide Them In My Heart” movies. Jake was trying to remember a verse put to music, and we found several there for free. He sang in church twice yesterday, with the kids’ choir he recently joined, so we were there bright and early. Rob took him back to practice last night. We have been taking turns with his other family members so he can go and hopefully have a good experience. He was very uncertain about going, but seems to be enjoying it now that he is getting used to it.

I finished the baby quilt I started and completed 2 of the 6″ blocks I got for free from the quilt shop hop.

I cooked quite a bit, and devoted one free morning to putting a few things into the freezer for quick meals.

I made Valentine’s treats for the kids that were cute, but inexpensive.

This week was an ordinary week, full of ordinary days. Sometimes those are the best kind. How about yours?

My most excellent bathroom cleaning team was at it again Saturday! Patsy, my daughter, had my nephew help her do her chore. I will mention that my nephew, Jake, and my niece, Michaela, were up earlier than Patsy and did their chores–he just wanted Patsy to play with him, so he helped her finish hers:). Doing chores at my house is part of their routine, I’m glad to say. We started that a couple of summers ago, and I’m so glad we did.

The kids spent from Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning with us, as their parents were out of town. We kept the weekend low-key, frugal, and most of all–fun! There was a special pirate exhibit at the library. Rob took Jake on Thursday after school, but they didn’t get to see it. I took him back Friday morning, because he really, really wanted to see it. The volunteer running it called in sick. So….Rob took him back Saturday morning and he got to go in for 20 minutes before that volunteer said it was the end of her shift. (We had been told it would be open from 10-5 on Saturday, so thought we were safe!). Hmmmmm. At least he got in at for a while. Each time, books, movies and books on DVD were checked out and returned. We still have quite a pile here, and I am now reading “Surprise Island” (a Boxcar Children book) to him. Rob took Michaela to her horse riding at Horses of Hope, her weekly Saturday outing. She had her training program on Friday, so he ferried her back and forth and she also enjoyed the library one of the times her brother went.

Rob’s actual birthday was Saturday. Yes, I know…It feels like we’ve been doing birthdays over and over. ‘Cause we have! With so many family members with January birthdays, we have celebrated many times. Jake was all over it! He and Michaela helped me make cupcakes in the morning. He cracked eggs and she measured and poured. Then, he helped put candles on, light them and helped blow them out. After dinner, he declared that he was going to play a game with Uncle because it was his birthday. So, they sat down to a game of chess. What a blessing those kids are to us!

To decorate the cupcakes, I used some frosting that I mixed up last weekend and hid in the back of the fridge because I knew I would be busy this weekend. I put sprinkles and sugar snowflakes on top that I got on after-Christmas sales. I immediately froze almost all of the cupcakes I made so as to not ruin Rob’s diet. That is also why he chose cupcakes–so the temptation of a huge cake would not be there. We had ice cream that had been out in the shop for literally months, but it was still good.

We cooked up a bunch of meat for the weekend for Rob and I, and fed eggs, eggs, eggs to Jake. (I have no idea why he suddenly wanted so many eggs, but I was delighted!) I had purchased English muffins and Danimals for Michaela so she was happy. Rob made pancakes and bacon one morning. We all ate very well for very little money, as I am still on my “use-it-up” project. I did the math, and I figure I have about $20 left of what I was willing to spend this month for groceries, and only a few days left in which to spend it, so we are going to make it easily. I’ve used a lot of things up, bought a lot of non-food items with the extra money, and suffered for nothing. I even squeezed in a few healthy snacks to give Rob on his actual birthday. (We bought him a used tool off of Craig’s list for his shop for his main gift). Some of the expensive things I got with my remaining grocery budget included melatonin tablets and tumeric capsules. I also bought shampoo, foil, waxed paper, and more. I’m delighted that I got all those things stocked up. I had gone over budget in December. I also made all that money up, and like I said, still have $20 left. I’m pretty happy with me right now:)

Rob’s pretty happy with himself, too, as he had lost another 10 pounds when he got weighed in on Monday. That’s 77 since last May. Go, Rob! He’s working on a list of ways that he has used to keep on track. When he gets it done, I’ll post it!

Today, after church, my sister and brother-in-law took us out to lunch. That was a super nice treat for us, and the icing on the birthday cake, so to speak, for Rob!

How did you save money this week?

This was a crazy week, even for us! After the formal dinner last Saturday night, and cooking for the college-agers on Tuesday night, we had a family gathering at our house yesterday for Rob’s family, and then a birthday party today at Family Sunday Dinner. Rob, Alissa and Jake all have January birthdays, so we have a small family party each year. We had a lot of fun and stayed frugal through it all!

Yesterday, I decorated simply, using some greenery from the yard and a few glittery snowflakes and ribbon purchased on the after-Christmas sales. Patsy made paper snowflakes and we put them under the plastic cover so they stayed put and looked nice.

People brought food. I made some as well. I made sweet and sour meatballs with rice, chicken soup, and cupcakes.

We served water, coffee and tea.

I got this great shot of Patsy and Rob’s mom, Grandma Dee-Dee, as the children call her. It was really good to have those relatives over. Sometimes, it gets way too long between visits.

Rob went and got Anthony and Allison, and they had a good time getting to see these relatives. It’s quite a lot of driving for Rob, but we like them to be included when they can come, so it’s worth it to us. (They live in separate group homes, about 30 minutes from us and each other–so it takes about 1 hour to 1-1/2 hours each way to do the rounds to get them and take them home, unless some of their staff can give them a partial ride.).

Rob’s sister brought us a lot of avocados that she was given by a neighbor. They are “duds” from his work where he sorts avocados as part of his job. They are thrown away if no one wants them, so he brings them to her and all the neighbors. I had at least 3x that many, and shared a bunch of them.

A lot of our canning from last summer became nice little gifts for Rob’s family.

Todays birthday party was nice, too! As you can see, Rob celebrated, but very minimally! We made it very simple, with hamburgers, potato salad, chips, salads and brownies and ice cream.

We did a few other things other than go to parties this week, believe it or not:). We cooked and cooked and cooked, for starters. I finally ran out of a bunch of grocery items, but was able to pull a lot of what we cooked from the pantry, freezers and canning cupboards.

For a while now, we’ve had a problem with our stove burner–it was on high heat all the time. We were able to get it fixed while still under warranty, which is up in early February.

I was able to get a tiny bit of yard work done–a rhododendron removed, some Coral Bell flowers moved, some chrysanthemums put in the ground, and so forth. It was rainy, but I was able to fill the yard debris bin and I’m setting the stage for some landscaping I want to do. I have some Al’s gift cards (a local garden center) and I have plans to spend them in the spring. Inside, my basil is sprouted on my windowsill.

I read half of a library book and made sure the things that were coming close to being due got returned or renewed.

I worked on my blog for hours. I’m trying to do one thing to it each day. Much of the things I’ve done are behind the scenes, such as add the “like” button, the WordPress “Follow” button, and an anti-spam plug-in. I just keep reading articles, sometimes over and over and over, but the new site is coming along.

I exercised at the YMCA on Thursday.

I took some clothes the girls had not wanted to a used clothing store and got 2 new-to-her tops for Patsy and $16. They didn’t want much of it, but hey, anything helps.

I hope your week went as well as mine did. Feel free to share in the comments below, and also let me know if anything is not working correctly on the new blog. Thanks!