I finished sewing a dress for Patsy. I’ll try to put up the pattern number and more specifics later in the week, if I get time. I used a thinner cotton from JoAnn’s, purchased on sale several weeks ago. I find the thinner weight of cotton drapes better, and is less expensive for dresses that take over 6 yards like this one. I used a pattern I bought last summer and made a different view than I did last time. Patsy found a belt she rarely wears that looks great with the dress. All told, I spent around $25, and am very pleased with the results.

Rob found a lot of bags of these chocolate chips for 99c/each. He grabbed a bunch, shared a few and we froze the rest. He also got some very inexpensive lunchmeat and cheese. I found gf hot dog buns in the same discount store, and have been using them for sandwich buns. I wish I had bought more than 2 packs, but there weren’t very many, and they were gone when I sent Rob back for more. Gf anything for $2 is a great deal.

I did a lot of large batch cooking. Some was for meals for us, which we ate or I froze. Some items were for others in my life, also either eaten or frozen. The girls and baby came over after church on Sunday, so we ate some then, too. I made meat loaf, mini meatloaves, lentil-potato soup, zucchini muffins, apple crisp, peach crisp, chicken-rice soup, salmon, a huge batch of white rice, potato salad, salads, and a few other things. I was able to use lots of little things that sorely needed using, such as a lot of Granny Smith apples from the school lunches, some sad and sorry celery, some baby carrots from the school lunches, a few peaches that had been lingering too long in the bottom of the freezer from 2018, plus some newer ones, gf rolled oats from a 25-lb bag Rob got for $10 a while back, Jasmine rice, also purchased on clearance in a 50-lb bag, thinly sliced turkey cooked and frozen a while back for sandwiches. I pulled lots of little baggies of various bits from the freezer and used them. I love it when that happens.

Rob was able to deliver tomato plants he grew to lots of friends and family. I planted a few in the garden and Patsy put Walls-o-Water around them. We’ve had 10 of those mini-greenhouses for years and years, but don’t always remember to use them. I’m waiting to plant most of my tomatoes. I have lots of nice plants saved aside for our garden. We need to deeply till most of the garden before I can plant the rest of it. The very small area Rob tilled up was done using the small tiller, and I also dug in there with a shovel to get down deeper. That small tiller doesn’t get deep enough. We will till it all in a couple of weeks or sooner. It’s really early yet, for gardening around here.

I went to Safeway and redeemed a handful of Monopoly prizes and bought groceries. I grabbed the 99c/milk (1/2 gal.) and a few other things to use in all that cooking I’ve been doing. But, for the most part, I was able to draw from the pantry and freezers for most of those items I cooked. Patsy loves playing the Monopoly game from Safeway, but we didn’t shop there very many times during the game. So, we were not wining much, obviously, as we were not getting tickets. However, the game is about to end, and we were given extra tickets when we shopped. Some other shoppers didn’t want their tickets, so we happily accepted them, as well. I took J shopping, and got a handful then, plus some when I shopped. Patsy entered every code into my phone app and actually won enough tokens to add to what we had to get a $25 Safeway gift card! We were so far from having enough before this week, I thought we were not going to win one this year. Free items she won: several bottles of water, vinegar, French bread, lemon juice, 2 gas rewards, $2 off our order, a jar of spaghetti sauce, and some barbecue sauce. Now, she has another group of free items loaded onto my card/phone to get next week. I am very thankful she is willing to do this to stretch our grocery budget.

The baby likes flowers. His Mama took this picture. I watched him several times lately, usually for a short time. On Sunday, I took him home from church and played with him for a little, until the girls got there. I gave him a pansy to touch and hold, since I knew it’s edible. Good thing. He ate an entire petal! Just down the hatch. Boy was I surprised.

I guess he was hot.

I think he would have crawled out of the outfit, if allowed. My sister ordered a bunch of larger clothes for him. Just in time, I think! Rob and I went thought the Union Gospel Thrift Store and found several outfits for the baby, skirts for Patsy and myself and a few baby books. I even found a Land’s End swim suit top in the style I usually buy, in my, that looked like new, for only $4.

The Kroc Center (Salvation Army) gym and pool is open. We took Michaela down there today for the first time in over a year. I took an exercise class and walked in the “Lazy River.” Although I do a lot of walking with Rob, I am sore tonight in different muscles. It’s good to work different parts of my body. Good thing we went. It sounds like the Governor will be closing things down on Friday again, due to the rise of Covid in Oregon. We will keep walking when we can.

This was a week of projects.  We were able to get a ton of them done, as we did not need to watch the kids.  One day, we worked together all morning to cut kindling from a large pile of boards we had picked up for free during the past few months.  I held the long boards and Rob ran them through his saw.  We got several large garbage cans full and several cardboard boxes, which we stacked in the greenhouse to keep them dry.

All the wood our friends brought us is now stacked in the woodshed.  There are just about 5 pieces that need to be trimmed to fit our stove, and that project will be finished.  There is another load, though, and we are super excited to know it’s on its way one of these days–that will give us enough for the winter.

Rob repaired the roof of the greenhouse.  He built it last year for me and used some plastic he had on hand.  It wasn’t the correct plastic and it disintegrated during the past few months.  He ordered the correct one, and installed it this week.  It was still great to get a season out of some plastic that was otherwise not being used.

I got some peppers from the mark-down bin at Fred Meyers and cut them up to freeze.  I added some peppers I picked in the garden as well.  My peppers have not done great this year, but I will pick a few more before this season is over.

I also canned more tomato products this week, and another small batch of pear butter with the last of the pears from the tree that fell.

The zinnias are blooming in several places in the yard.  I love them.  I found a few places where I may be able to save some seeds from them.  I’m wondering if the clove pinks below them will come back–or if they will die this winter.  Sometimes the dianthus family is quite hardy.  Time will tell.  They are from seeds my sister brought my mother from England, and I grew them in the greenhouse.  We got so many, my mother shared with me, and my sister, and now we have them in several places.

I enjoyed looking at the flowers that are still blooming, despite the dry weather.  We did get a little rain this week, and I’m sure they all relaxed a bit!  The nasturtiums came up volunteer this year, and it looks like they are dropping some seeds.  Maybe next year, I’ll have more!

There have sure been large bees on my flowers this year.

My niece brought over a large box of apples from her mother.  I’m excited.  They look and taste great.  The family has already been munching away on them.  I probably will preserve a few if it seems like we won’t eat them all fresh.  Fun!

We cashed out part of the Ibotta account and used the money for an order from Azure Standard.  I ordered some cleaning supplies and soap for Rob since he doesn’t handle many soaps, but the goat milk one agrees with him.  I got bulk gf oatmeal, a lot of spices, salt and pepper, and more.  It was great to use rebate money for basic items I needed.   I shopped the sales and purchased some things like sugar, produce, milk, etc.  I got several free things such as French bread, several drinks, and a ready-to-eat dinner.

I had a very nice visit with Harnet and Danait.  We just hung around their place, ate, visited, drank coffee and took Danait out for some air.  It was good to catch up with them as I’ve been pretty busy this summer, and haven’t gone up there as much as I wished to do.  Because I went alone this time, Danait thought I should play with her as there were none of the girls to play with.  Thankfully, her mom had a meeting with a lady there at the house, and Danait and I played and played, satisfying her, at least for a little while.  We fed the dolls, played “Baby Jesus in a manger”, took all the dolls to the hospital and fixed them up, she found broken toys to send home to “Uncle Rob” because he fixes things, and put blankets over our heads and howled like ghosts for a while.  It was truly entertaining, the things she thinks up!  Thank goodness for Harnet’s nice, strong coffee!

We ended the week feeling quite good about what we got accomplished, and are now ready for a busy, busy week watching the kids and keeping life going.  How about you?