What do you do after a couple of weeks like I’ve had lately?  You head for the beach–that’s what!!  You don’t even go shopping.  You just throw a bunch of food that you have on hand into the camper, along with some clothes, and you drive away–right out of the heat wave and into the cool, marine air.

You go fishing in a lake that is in the campground.  You catch 0 fish.  Patsy and Rob do quite well.

You go crabbing off a bridge for hours and hours.

Thanks to a kind man who drove by, and offered  old clams and clam guts from his freezer that he was cleaning, and a little luck, you catch 2 keepers (males over a certain length) when most others on the bridge are not getting any.

You watch elk wander through the town when you are driving around.  You sit and stare at boats coming into the mouth of the Columbia River from the Pacific Ocean, and, you sleep and sleep and sleep–9 hours one night, a 2 hour nap, and……

Then—1/2 way through the week—THE BOY arrives!  Nap time is over:)

Uncle Rob takes him fishing. “How long do we have to sit here until we get the fish to get on our pole?”

“Not long, if Uncle has anything to do with it!”  The little bass was not big enough to keep, but it was super fun for Jake to catch.  Then he was done.  He went to draw with Patsy.

Sidewalk chalk is fun and frugal, and safe parts of parking lots are a wonderful place to create.

We were at Ft. Steven’s State Park, which is at the upper, left-hand tip of Oregon.  There are a lot of things to do there.  Camping is an economical way for us to get away.  We use our park pass, which we have because we have adopted children from the State of Oregon.  We only have to pay the reservation fee ($6) and gas.  This campground was farther away than sometimes, but we had hoped to clam.  We didn’t get to, but we still had a blast.  The clams were suffering from a kind of toxicity, so no one could dig for them at this time.

There is always food in the camper–I organized the food last spring, and I had stuffed a bit more into the cupboards a couple of weeks ago because I knew we were going to be so busy right before we went this time.  I added some garden produce and frozen items, bought a few items down at the coast, and fed the kids McDonald’s food at times.  We never go through a drive-through in the camper, however, so often pack food for the journey, or drive between meal times.  Sometimes, we can park near a restaurant, but usually we pack food on travel days.

Our fishing and crabbing equipment has been gathered over the years.  We were able to buy another crab trap at the rummage sale, so that was nice.  Rob picks up extra fishing poles and reels at yard sales, or on sale at Bi-Mart or wherever (rarely), and usually gets fishing tackle and bait for birthdays and Father’s Day.  The only thing we had to buy for fishing this week was 1 carton of worms.  We bought some chicken (cheap–88c/lb drumsticks) for crab bait and used the clams from the nice freezer-cleaning man who drove by.

Ja’Ana was busy.  She stayed with her cousin, Alissa, and both girls were junior counsellors at a day camp all week.  Lovana is still working at her job, so she was unavailable.  Patsy was the only child for the first half of the week, and then Jake’s daddy brought him down for the second half of the week.  His family doesn’t usually camp or engage in the same outdoor activities we do, and so our goal was to give him some experiences he does not usually get.  We succeeded.

We went to Battery Russell and  Ft. Stevens itself, which included a military museum. A lot of the historic area had information about WWII, as that was a time when they were really geared up and ready to go in this area.  After the Pearl Harbor attack, there was a real danger that the Japanese would attach the coast, and in fact, there was one time when they did shell a part of the coastline.

We did not do any of the Lewis and Clark activities this trip, although the area is loaded with historic sites.  The famous explorers spent their winter near that area when they were on their epic trip, so there are many things to see.  I’ve been to them before, but they never get boring to me.

We cooked over the fire once or twice and used the stove we got at the rummage sale a couple of times.  The camper is very adequate for cooking, and it got us away from the mosquitoes.  The meals were very simple.  We were not in the mood for elaborate cooking projects this trip.

We were able to use the same old sand toys we’ve had for years.  I added a few digging tools, bought at the Dollar Tree for a total of…..you guessed it…$1.  The historic places were free with the tag that said we were camping at the state park.    Rob took the vacuum sealer and froze the 5 (total) fish.  We ate the crab.

We tried out the propane stove we got at the rummage sale.  It works great!  We used it for frying potatoes and for cooking the crab. I think we paid around $5 or $10–not sure–we got quite a few items, and the prices have blurred together in my mind.   It has been used, but is still in great condition.  Rob is going to set it up in the outdoor room/enclosed porch at our house and I’m going to can on it, since there is only a flat-topped stove at this house and that is not recommended for canning on.

During the evenings, we watched C.D.’s., the kids built Legos, and read books.  We listened to Audio Books on the drives.  A lot of the materials were from the library. Both kids are working toward summer reading prizes.

The kids scattered old pancakes for the seagulls.  We drove out to a place where we could see the boats going in and out of the mouth of the Columbia River.  It was very interesting.  We drove across the bridge between Astoria and Washington state.  It is about 4 miles long and very fun to go across.

I cleaned the outdoor kitchen and did my usual cleaning in the camper at the end of the trip.  I prefer to clean it while it is hooked up to water and sewer, not when I get home.

On Friday morning, we packed it up very early and came home.  Jake was going on vacation with his family, so needed to be back and I had quite a bit to do Friday afternoon.  Rob needed to go up to the camp and get Ja’Ana that evening.

On Saturday, we did a little shopping at Grocery Outlet, I cleaned in the house, worked on laundry and worked in the garden.  I weeded and picked things.  I harvested my first zucchini and my first 2 cherry tomatoes.  They are the Sungold variety and I love them!  I also got lots of lettuce and already ate a salad from it.  I got quite a few raspberries and about a cup of blueberries and a little broccoli.  I harvested quite a few snow peas–a big bag.  I also cut some cilantro. Rob picked a few cherries at my sister’s farm when he went up there on an errand.  My brother-in-law,  Jake’s dad, texted us that he had accidentally forgotten his fruit for their trip on the counter, and asked us to go get it and eat it.  So, now we have some little oranges, a few apples, and some bananas that Rob immediately froze for smoothies.  We are definitely going to get our fruits and veggies this week!  I love this time of year with the garden starting to produce, and fruits growing ripe one by one.  Yum!

It was a week full of simple pleasures, lots of rest, and many fun experiences.  It’s always fun to share something you love with someone you love.  Jake got lots of new experiences and had a ball, as did the rest of us.  And, like always, it did not cost us an arm and a leg.

 

 

 

 

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!

 

 

 

This was indeed a week of simple pleasures.  It was frugal, too.  We started the week by having Rob grill up chicken and pork.  We put it in the fridge to use for the week, and served it plain, with side dishes and also in tacos shells all week long.

On Tuesday,  Ja’Ana made some excellent pork in the crock pot as well.  Alissa made mashed potatoes.  Paired, they made a pretty happy meal:)  The pork was put in the crock pot with apple juice and a little honey, sprinkled with salt and pepper and 1 onion.  That’s it, and it turned out so tender, flavorful, and delicious.

On Wednesday, my mom and aunt came for lunch.  My aunt brought the beautiful and pleasantly scented roses pictured above.  We had pork and chicken, herbed roasted potatoes and Marion berry cobbler.  We used the pre-cooked meat from Sunday, and Alissa made the potatoes and cobbler.

By Thursday, the weather turned sunny and gorgeous.  I took the home-schooled girls on a field trip.  They have a project going for Biology that involves some outdoor work.  We’ve been putting off all the experiments/labs that need to be done outside because it’s been so rainy.  I can see we’ll get them done now!  We went down to a park by the Willamette River.  While we were there, we enjoyed the view of the paddle boat that is docked, and gives tours, at the waterfront park.   There is more than one Sternwheeler boat in Oregon This one is the Willamette Queen.

I was able to do a lot of yard and garden work this week.  I planted flowers, weeded, hoed, planted more veggie starts and seeds, and more.  My mom and aunt liked looking at my yard, and I ended up over at my aunt’s later in the week to see how hers was coming along.  I went shopping a few times, looking for a hanging basket for my Mom that had begonias in it.  I didn’t find one I wanted, but usually found something else that would fit nicely in MY yard:) 🙂    So, I got an empty hanging basket from my aunt that she didn’t need and bought small plants and filled it.  I really like how it came out.  It’s sitting in my yard now, and I’ll get it to her soon.  (She reads this, but is totally in on the plan, so I’m not ruining her surprise!)

One of the most interesting things I have blooming right now is my rhubarb plant.  I never knew they could bloom so largely.  I have always cut off the blooms as recommended before.

I got a bag of Ritz chips/crackers for free from my Friday download from Fred Meyers.  I also bought  a 1/2 price hydrengia.    It is quite small, but it will grow:)  I’ll try to plant it out soon.

We found the orthodontist is ready to put the bottom braces on Patsy’s teeth.  When checked, the insurance is going to cover 80% of them.  Thank you, Auntie Jan, for looking through all those insurance choices for us last fall!  (She helped us sort through SO many choices)  I knew she’d be the first one to be delighted after putting in the effort for us.  I knew we wanted to choose a choice with orthodontics, because I knew this day was coming.  We are going to have them put on in early June.  He had needed to work on the top teeth for a long time (3 years approx), because she had a tooth that had never come in.  There were braces, then there was oral surgery, a chain attached, the tooth pulled down, teeth straightened around the offender, and more.  I’m excited that we can move on with this project while we have dental insurance.

I took Jake to a park one afternoon for fresh air and exercise.  It was a LOT longer walk then he led me to believe, and I ended up carrying his scooter a long ways.  Thankfully, Rob was in the neighborhood (sort of) and came and got us when we were done, scooter and all, and hauled us home.

The girls are getting dance pictures done this week.  They looked great in their costumes for the upcoming recital!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

It’s all about flowers for me at this time of year!  We bought those flowers for his mom.  This way, she can plant them wherever,   I hope your week went as well as mine did. What did you do?

Jake wore his firefighter suit to school Friday.  He said it was super-hero day, and chose the fireman.  He knew it wasn’t Superman, and asked if a fireman was a super-hero.  I said they were to me.  (He really, really wanted to wear that costume)  He changed during the day, but I thought it was adorable.

We had a crazy, wild week.  If you’ve been reading this blog for any time, you know that we are quite busy and active all the time.  This week made those weeks look calm and boring!  But, I’m here to say, we we able to keep it quite frugal throughout it all, while having lots of fun in the meanwhile.  I mean, how could I NOT have fun with such a cute fireman?

Monday, I did homeschool then went to work, as usual.  I made Sloppy Joes in the Crockpot, and left them cooking on the counter for the family.  I got home around 6:45, as usual, and gobbled some up, too.  One fun, frugal activity from Monday was taking Jake down to the river to throw rocks into the water.  I could not have paid any amount of money for the amount of fun he had doing that!  I’ve never met a little boy who doesn’t like throwing rocks into rivers:)

Where Jake is concerned, the bigger rocks were better!

On Tuesday, we went to visit Harnet and Danite with my sister Rosalie.  This time, we met at a park on the Willamette River.  There were ducks and geese to feed, playground equipment, a picnic area, and more.  We kept it frugal by bringing food.  Each one of us 3 ladies brought enough for all of us–we had to chuckle at the amount of food there was!

 

The girls are really loving getting to know Dinuite.  She, in turn, is loving them and often insists that they are coming, even on days they aren’t.  Her mother, Harnet, is taking classes at community college, working on English and citizenship.  She is getting better and better at English each month and we can really tell a difference when we see her.

We kept it frugal and fun by taking a picnic, old bread for the geese and ducks, and simple, inexpensive toys to keep little Danuite busy.

I started planting a few seeds on Tuesday night, but couldn’t start until 7 because I was at work, so I had much more to do.  By Wednesday, I was getting nervous.  Rob had spent hours tilling it up and getting the dirt into good shape over the weekend and Monday evening,  and it was going to rain on Thursday.  The girls and I did some crucial bookwork and then ran to Wilco for some starts of both veggies and flowers.  I purchased only what I thought I could get planted before the rain.  The girls helped me and we got the garden planted, and even 1 flowerbed.  I finished late afternoon/evening once they had moved on to other activities.  I was so glad I did.  Once it started raining, it poured, and hasn’t stopped since.

On Thursday, Gail and Ron took off for a few days to see their oldest daughter, our niece, Caitlyn, graduate from USC.  We took care of the kids.  I’m happy to say that we had a good weekend.

We are so proud of her.  Her degree from USC is bio-chemical engeneering–whew!  She graduates again at Biola University in a few days–she was in a special program between the 2 schools.  She will have 2 degrees now, one from each school.  Although I’m not exactly sure of the names of all her degrees, I am supremely sure that it was extremely difficult, and I’m so glad she’s made it through.

I will say the weekend was a blur of cooking and cleaning.  Rob and I divided and conquered, and I slept over there 2 nights, and brought Michaela over here 1 night. She doesn’t like to be away from home, so that was a stretch for her.  Jake slept at my house with uncle and cousins 2 nights.

Overall, I was pleased with the amount of cooking I did for everyone, and the lack of  eating out.  It did take a fair bit of planning to make sure we had everything we wanted at the whichever house we were at, but we stayed within our budget with the few items that were eaten out and used a lot of food from the grocery store to keep everyone fed and happy.  I feel like we had a good balance.  We did not pay for entertainment this time–no movies, etc.  We were just too busy with scheduled activities, chores and cooking.   It went well, and the children were terrific!  Now it’s off to bed with me…I’m wiped out!  Fun, but tiring–that’s for sure.

 

 

Alissa has a strawberry bed at her house.  We cleaned it out, put in some new dirt, and transplanted a runner that had grown into a pot nearby into the big box.  She plans to put some herbs and possibly flowers into the other half.

Menu planning was very simple this week.  Last weekend, I grabbed some food at Winco, and thawed some from the freezers, and wrote down some meals I could cook from those foods.  Then, I cooked a bunch of them up, and made the rest as needed throughout the week.  I just erased the meal once I had made it.

We had quite a few sick kids during the week, and I ended up being busier than normal.  I didn’t even need to cook everything on the list, but it gave me ideas of what to cook, or warm up, with what I had when I was in a super big hurry, which was Every. Single. Day.

Thankfully, they got better and we were able to take off for our planned 2-family weekend.  We spent the weekend up near Seattle, Washington, and enjoyed our field trip to Camlann Medieval Village, and the rest of the things we did.  Traveling is rarely frugal, and we happily spent some money.  However, we were able to pinch a few pennies along the way.  The main way we saved money was to not eat out for every single meal.  I bought some foods and packed a picnic for the first night’s meal, which we ate at a rest stop.  I also purchased, and packed,  a few of those pre-packaged lunch/snack packs (various brands–like Lunchables), and some of us ate some of those Saturday for lunch.  I rarely buy those, because they don’t have much in them and my crew wants more, but they worked this time.  Since they were from Grocery Outlet, they were really inexpensive.  Breakfasts were a mix between food we took with us, food the hotel provided,  and food we bought, which also kept the price down.  We took tons of snacks and drinks, which kept everyone out of convenience stores at gas stations, etc.  Lunch today was DQ $5 lunch.  We splurged at a nice pizza parlor Saturday night.  I wanted a salad badly, and was pleased to get one there, along with gf pizza for Gail and I, and regular for the others.  It turned out to be a nice balance.  We had a really good time.

 

The rain has continued to pour down around here.  Once in a while, it stops, and I am able to squish and slosh my way out to the back yard.  I love how pretty the apple tree looks, blooming cheerily through all the sogginess! We will see if we get apples.

Lots of cooking got done this week.  Alissa and Ja’Ana made baked gluten-free cinnamon sugar donuts.  They were so good.  There recipe was from the Gluten Free and More Magazine. Yum!  I had gotten 2 donut pans around Christmas time, using a gift card I had, and had not used them yet, so I was glad they used them.  We will make them again.

These meatballs were a group project.  The girls started them, and I finished.  The carrots were supposed to be grated, but they worked this way.  There are lots of veggies in them (onions, carrots, celery), along with turkey burger, and a little beef burger that was left over from another project.  They were bulked up with gf bread crumbs and 2 eggs.  Then I baked them.  I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, using all odds and ends of tomato products in the fridge along with some marinara sauce I had on hand.  Then, I froze the rest for easy meals later.

I cooked for the week ahead.  I made chili and cornbread, cookies, and enchilada casserole.  I have plans and ingredients for more.

We took the kids bowling.  We took Alissa, Ja’Ana, Ja’Ana’s friend, Patsy, Jake, and Michaela.  We used the Kids Bowl Free tickets.  I did not know it was started already, but once I figured it out, we signed ours up and my sister signed hers up, and Rob and I took them bowling.  You still need to pay for shoe rental, but it’s a good deal and a great way to spend a day off of school.   Some of the crew went to the YMCA afterwards.   We also accomplished a couple of errands, and I took Jake to the library.  I was sure glad Rob did not have school Friday.  It took us both!

I used my new white board to keep it all straight, although changes were made as the day went along.  I am so happy Rob finally found one that would work and ordered it.  It’s magnetic.

Of course, there were french fries involved.  When do we go anywhere with this crew without french fries?  One day those children will turn into french fries:)

My aunt and I, along with a couple of friends, took our kids to the Northwest Children’s Theater production of Robin Hood.  We did the school performance, so the tickets were very reasonable, and we loved the play.  It was a great field trip.

This has been a strange couple of weeks in some ways, mixed with all the fun memories.  It seems like almost everyone is getting sick.  Some people have gotten sick more than once.  Both my aunt and brother-in-law ended up on antibiotics.  Rob’s been crawling out of bed each day and heading to work, then crashing on the couch as soon as he gets home.  Ja’Ana ended up getting a fever at the bowling alley.  We had to take her friend home, and since she had been fighting a bad cold for 2 weeks, I ran her to the doctor. We thought she was better, and I was not excited when that fever showed up.   She now has a virus.  The doctor says she probably has had 3 different things in 2 weeks.  Yikes!  Yesterday, Jake popped a fever.  And, he’s already had the cold for a week.  I had to pick Michaela up from school Wednesday.  She’s been sick for a couple of weeks, and couldn’t make it through her first day back.  Alissa is toughing it out.  Lovana has a headache today.  Patsy had it, but feels good now.  My sister can barely talk, she’s so hoarse from her awful cold.  Do you notice whose name has not been mentioned?  Yep.  Mine.  I’m kind of worried, to be sure, but I’m sure I’ll have enough healthy people to take care of me when its my turn.  Or, maybe I can skip my turn…….

I hope to work in the garden a bit this week.  I’m hoping it dries up enough to do that.  I do have little seeds up, and bought 3 herbs I want to plant.  Fun!