I have been playing “catch-up” at home this week. One of Jake’s big sisters took him to Disneyland, so we hung around with Michaela and I cleaned the house at every opportunity between things. I folded SO much laundry yesterday, but….what do you know? There’s more today:).

One day, we went on an excursion to a museum, as a special treat for Michaela. We had randomly come across this museum a while back when we had Jake out for a drive, and thought of how much Michaela would enjoy it, because she loves trains so much. We mistakenly assumed it was all about trains, since it was in an old depot, and had numerous boxcars.

In fact, it had a small section about trains and a lot of history about the surrounding area. We loved it! There was an actual covered wagon that had survived crossing the Oregon Trail, and the true story of the people who had traveled on it. There was a lot about the African-American influence and early settlers in the area, which of course interested me because 2 of my daughters are black. One section told of the Native American from the surrounding area, and Michaela seemed to really enjoy that section–we read and discussed every picture and signboard. She was especially interested in the picture and story of a modern-day man, who was keeping the traditions alive for his people—she just loved knowing he was still alive today–she was fascinated.

If you even get a chance to visit the museum in teeny-tiny Brownsville, Oregon, it’s worth your time. The cost is minimal–donation only–and there is a little gift shop where Michaela bought herself a t-shirt (with permission from her Mama) and Patsy got an adult coloring book. Rob dropped a few dollars in the container provided, and we enjoyed our drive home.

We had a 4H meeting, even though Jake was gone. It was a gorgeous day, and we concentrated on Outdoor Cooking.

Rob built a fire, lit the BBQ and unearthed his Dutch Ovens. The kids chopped and chopped and we made….

foil dinners,

a chili-cheese dip and then…

the kids roasted every single hot dog we could find in the freezers and fridge! They had so much fun last time we did that, they wanted to do it again. Rob said, ” Why not?” and started the great hot dog search. It WAS fun:). Next time we will have to buy some S’More ingredients, and a big package of hot dogs. This time, I put out a big bowl of oranges and bananas. Everyone ate like the ravenous children they were, and Rob hauled the older ones off to Wednesday night church, while I tidied up in the almost loud silence that remained!

All of this fun was very inexpensive–the sausage was on super sale for $1.99/package, the potatoes, carrots and onions were on hand, and the peppers were inexpensive, too. Next time, it will be even more inexpensive, because I find that this crew isn’t fond of peppers, so we will not buy them again for this purpose:)

More flowers bloom each week. I love looking at them. I was able to do a couple of hours of yard work this week.

I made some lemon-poppyseed muffins. I froze a bunch and shared a bunch. Rob made waffles and froze what the girls didn’t eat for lunch today. He made spaghetti sauce and spaghetti pie. I made some soup and we bought a Costco chicken. Those are sure worth the $5 in my opinion. There have been lots of salads in our meal plan lately, since Rob is trying to maintain his weight and even lower it a bit in light of his upcoming surgery.

He’s been going to the pool quite a bit and using the water weights to pull himself around the lazy river to try to get a little exercise. He cannot use his legs to swim, due to his hip issue, but this seems to work. Patsy and I go along when we can.

Patsy and I have been really cracking the books, getting large amounts of schoolwork done. There have been a few things that have been neglected a bit over the past few weeks because I’ve been so busy, but it’s only a matter of a few hours to get things back on track. It gives me great satisfaction to know we are where I want to be on school.

We had a 4H meeting this week. Rob worked with the kids on knife skills. He had them practice one at a time as they chopped ingredients for the chili.

I was so glad he could be here to help. Lots of little kids + knives = scary!

Our original plan was to have some outdoor cooking, but it was COLD. So, we made chili in a pot on the stove, baked beans which actually did not bake in time, and a simple yellow cake. So, everyone feasted on chili and cake, and I opened some jars of home-canned fruit to fill in the gaps.

Jake got to crack eggs, which made him happy.

We also worked on nutrition, and focused on making “My Plates” from construction paper and old magazine pictures of healthy food. I really saved some money on this project, by default. My printer ran out of ink, and it could not be ordered in time for the meeting, so Patsy just drew circle shapes on the paper, and I didn’t run out and buy ink at a higher price.

When the meeting was over, Rob needed to take Jake home and drop Patsy off at youth group. Several of the other kids clamored to go, too, so Rob loaded up the van as full as it could be, and hauled the lot of them off to church. The Mom that remained and I were laughing about the fact that it was so quiet with “only” 3 little kids left! (And, just for those who “love to know”…..Jake has a special class on Sundays he attends, and Rob accompanies him to his choir/class on Sunday nights, but there’s not a “special” class for him on Wednesdays. So, he stays at his home on Wednesday nights)

Rob and Jake found a couple of games at a garage sale. They played this one called, The Allowance Game, and Rob said it was a great way for Jake to work on money skills. It must have been fun because Jake and Patsy played it several more times. They also played Monopoly Jr. and regular Monopoly. Jake spent a couple of nights this week, and is begging to spend 10 nights soon. I said, well….no:). Not that many! But, another night soon, Jake, soon!

We cooked a lot of food, mostly from our freezers, canning cupboards, and pantry. Rob picked up a few items from the store, but kept it under $20.

When I empty a home-canning jar, I put it in a basket on the dryer. I always feel like I’m being successful in using my resources wisely when I need to take the basket of “empties” out to the main shelves in the shop. I emptied the basket this weekend, and already have it almost full today. Success! This is the time of year when I like to use many, many jars and frozen items, since during the summer I enjoy eating as much fresh garden produce as possible.

I cut out a top for Patsy from some fabric I purchased for $2 last fall. Now to find time to sew it……

I went to a local high school to watch the musical “Hello, Dolly.” I really enjoyed watching it. It was so well done, and there were a few kids from church in it that I knew. My sister took Patsy and I. She wanted us to see it, badly. She watched it 4 times, herself. It was that good, and they are close family friends with the young lady that played the character Dolly.

Rob finally got an appointment to see the surgeon. It’s in a couple of weeks. They should set a surgery date at that time. I sure hope they do.

I exercised quite a few times, in various ways, including taking the dog on a long walk and taking aquatic classes at the Kroc center.

We ordered our seeds, and they have already arrived. I received an e-mail from Territorial one day about a 20% off sale, ending that day. I quickly finished sorting my seeds, finished my partially-finished list, and ordered. I sent Rob to the Dollar Store for things I use from there, such as pickling cucumbers, then ordered our more-expensive, but desired, seeds from Territorial and then finished up with my Pinetree order, since we were at it. I need disease-resistant tomatoes, lots of bean seeds with high-yield, and crops that ripen in short time periods to have a successful garden, so I’m picky about some varieties.

The next step is to get the greenhouse up and running–junk out, lights set up, and a few seeds started. It’s not too early to plant peppers, onions, and a few other things. Some things need to wait a bit longer.

January has been pretty calm. I think things are going to heat up in February, so I’m going to enjoy one more week of calm. Ahhh….

When I returned from Hawaii mid-week, I was struck by the amount of fall changes that occurred while I was gone. Trees had turned scarlet, yellow and orange, leaves dropped all over and the weather turned windy and rainy. I felt like I was truly home again.

These pumpkins and squash are from my garden. We got a freeze warning while in Hawaii, so I expected everything to be dead. Instead, I see that there are a few stragglers still alive in my garden area. I will go check them out this week to see if there’s anything usable still out there.

I picked the remaining few green tomatoes before I left on my trip. Upon returning, several of those had ripened and we’ve had tomatoes on our salads all week.

I did a fairly large shopping trip, since I had emptied the fridge quite well before I left. I focused on the sales, things I was out of, and was able to do some Ibotta rebates. I ended up qualifying for several bonuses, as well.

On Saturday, there was a county-wide 4H event. We have not had much of a club since we moved, but are excited to now have another family that wants to join. We rounded them up, along with Jake, our nephew, and Patsy, our daughter and took them all to the event. We are sticking to our old county, since we know them there, and know what to do, about events, etc., so we had to drive little bit, but it’s worth it to us. It was a bake sale. We took caramel corn to donate. Patsy and I made it, as we often do. While there, our clubbers made brownies and Chex Muddy Buddie Mix to send good smells through out the building, in hopes of building sales, and those were sold, too. There were lot of other clubs that donated and helped, and it was a success.

After we did our part there, we took our new club to Champoeg State Park and Rob had them do a scavenger hunt. He talked to them about identifying the native plants and objects, such as acorns, and rewarded them with little candies when they found them. We had a picnic and then all went up to the visitors’ center where the volunteers had another scavenger hunt for them to do about the history of the area, a movie to watch about helping the bluebird population and plied them with stickers for their efforts. They were super nice and helpful to us.

It was the first 4H experience for most of the kids, and it was very successful. I’m sure we will have many more fun times in the future. This year, we are going to concentrate on Cooking and Outdoors as our main projects. Once we get started, we can always add more projects if there’s an interest. Patsy’s super excited, since she’s been longing for other friends to do 4H with.