I went out to the garden and was amazed to pick these items!  Since most of the garden has been pulled out, and there are only a few bushes left, AND the weather has been so rainy, AND it was Nov. 2, I was amazed and happy!

I made a stir-fry with some marked down mushrooms, an onion and the boc choi.  It was great!

Thought I was done canning?  So did I.  Until, Rob realized how fast he was scarfing down the tuna, and we decided to go back down to the docks and get some more and can it.  We did that Wednesday.  The tuna season is almost over, so it was now or never.  We had a date day, but Patsy had an orthodontist appointment right after school, so it was a quick trip.  We did get to go out for lunch, though:). It was a great day.  Then, I filled the jars and Rob sat by the canner all evening, with me spelling him to drive Patsy back and forth to church for her event, and for me to hand out candy to the handful of trick-or-treaters we got at our door.  My 2 small bags of sale candy were more than enough and I was glad I had put them away in the shop so they were still there on Halloween night.

Michaela spent the day on Saturday.  She helped me make apple-blackberry crisp for Sunday Family Dinner.

Then Rob took her to the horse ranch where she volunteers, and then rides.  The horse was dressed in a costume of a blue cheetah for Halloween week.

Jake had been with us since Friday morning.  We did quite a few things, including a science experiment, making Krispie treats, jello, and watching the Lego Star Wars movie twice.

Rob and Patsy worked in the shop for a while.  She has a project she has been wanting to do.

I put on a huge pot of beans to make refried beans.  We have eaten most of what I had frozen.   Patsy loves, loves, loves beans.  I also am going to make a nacho for a party this coming week.  We will use what we can, and I will freeze the rest for later when I’m in a hurry.

Another thing we finished this week were the little baggies of cooked brown rice I had frozen for quick meals.  Hopefully, I will get another batch cooked this week.  Making things ahead in large batches and freezing them in smaller portions saves me time and money.  Rob boiled a ham bone, and has broth and bits to freeze and make ham and beans from sometime in the next few days.

We have spent quite a bit of energy this week, getting our daughter, Lovana, off on her next big adventure.  She has flown away to Hawaii, and plans to live and work there for a while.  This opportunity has come up for her, a job was offered, and a couple of girls were available to share an apartment with.  While I will miss her, I am super happy for her. This is a time in her life where she is free to do something like this.  She has been planning and organizing for quite a while now, and it was finally time for her to go.  She had a friend travel with her (bless you Michelle) and they each checked 2 huge suitcases, plus the carry-ons they took.  That’s what she has from here.  She ordered some things from Amazon already, and found a store and bought basic groceries.  They even tried out a new church this morning already.

I have spent some time gathering some things she forgot, or needed, and have already sent one package, and another one goes out tomorrow.  I saved a lot of money by using a flat-rate box and stuffing it very full.

One thing I sent in the box that went out Friday was spices.  I buy them in bulk from Azure Standard or bulk bins mostly, and they are very inexpensive.  Rob had these little plastic bottles.  It is worth the postage for her to have them, since she plans to cook her meals and not eat out.  Since she eats vegetarian for the most part, but adds seafood as well at times, spices will really make her lentils and beans and rice taste better.

They are settled into their apartment, as of last night, but have quite a few things to gather up, yet.  I’m very excited for her, and so proud of her bravery in trying a new thing like this!

We decided on Tuesday that this weekend would be the perfect time to take the kids down to the beach for one last “hurrah” of the season.   We had mistakenly made reservations weeks ago, thinking there was no school on Thursday, then cancelled the trip when we found there was actually school for Jake.  But, we hadn’t cancelled the reservations, we realized, and worked out a plan so we could still go.  It was a little complicated, and involved 2 vehicles, with me driving down Thursday evening with Jake, but Rob and 2 of the girls drove down in the afternoon after he finished up working with Michaela, got all set up in the daylight, and were ready and waiting for us when we finally arrived.  Jake was thrilled.  He has been asking and asking to go camping again.  He loves it so much.  You can imagine we hustled around to get ready, but we made it simple this time.  We always leave the camper packed and ready with pantry foods, toiletries, bedding, etc. so all we had to do was grab the food that was in the fridge already, our current clothing, library books and movies, pillows and Jake’s suitcase, of course.

We got gorgeous weather.  One morning, Rob took the kids down to the beach to play while I stayed back at the camper and made a taco dinner.  I was delighted to have a little time to myself, and be able to make dinner so we did not have to go out.  We always keep our change jar going between trips to save up for eating out, but decided to build it up a little more for another time.  We chose to get them a few things from a candy store and I got a couple of things for various ones at McDonald’s.  We had to replace our head of lettuce, as it was bad.  We had plenty of food and I actually skipped my weekly Friday shopping trip altogether, except the head of lettuce.  We will just eat what we have on hand this week, as I’m pretty busy, and buy extra next Friday if I need it.

Patsy and I took a hike on a trail around the campground.  We went over 2 miles.  It was fun, and good exercise, as it had quite a few hills to go up and down.  The trees are getting gorgeous color.  We also found lots of wild huckleberries and we ate some.  I wish we had taken a container to pick some in, but we didn’t know we would be finding them.

Jake likes it when we hide things in the camper and play “hot and cold” while he finds them.   He wants brand-new Lego sets for prizes.  That’s not exactly on the shopping list  for us right now to buy.  Thankfully, he had just as much fun finding a couple of simple, inexpensive toys, and one evening, played “hot and cold” for 30 minutes hiding and finding things with different family members.  We have a tradition of having the kids do glow sticks at night, and he loved those, as usual.  He especially enjoyed this little wooden airplane and played with it quite a bit.  We have some Legos that only live in the camper, and he played with those a lot, watched Shirley Temple movies from the library, and also “The Road To Avonlea,” which is an old tv show based off the Anne of Green Gables movie, also from the library.  We also finished an entire Carolyn Haywood book called “Penny Goes to Camp” and worked on “The Long Winter” some more.  He even got Ja’Ana to play a game with him, and played many with Patsy.  I took him on a short walk as part of the Junior Ranger program he was doing, and he has no idea he went over a mile.  He’s a good walker, but doesn’t know it sometimes.

Before we left, we hustled around and finished up several projects.  These are cinnamon-candy apples.  I simply replaced 1/2 cup of sugar with red hot candies in the 4:1 syrup, so they are pretty, but still low-sugar.  (so 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup red hots, 4 cups water) They have a very delicate cinnamon flavor.

The rest of the wood was all stacked.  We kind of had to stack it if we wanted to go.  It was blocking the trailer.

Rob made and canned beef stew with the last of the potatoes and many carrots from the garden.

I finished Patsy’s dress.  I took a couple of pictures, but am not happy with them.  I will take a better one soon and post it.  I am, however, very happy with how the dress turned out and how it fits her.  The homecoming dance is next Saturday, and I am very glad the dress is done.

It was a good, productive week, and I was happy to end it with lots and lots of sleep down at the camp ground.  I was pretty tired, but feel better now.  It’s a good thing–this next week is pretty full, as well!

Last weekend, while we had the camper out, some friends dropped a trailer of wood by.  It was chopped, split, and dry.  We are so thankful and grateful.  I’ve been stacking it in the back shed several times this week, but am not quite done because there’s a lot.  Isn’t that wonderful?    When we got home, Rob backed the camper up as much as he could, but will probably need to hitch it up and back it in a little more once the wood is out of the way.

The canning continued.  I did more tomatoes, pickles, plum sauce, salsa, and froze my unexpected crop of green beans.  I think they ended up yielding around 6-8 pints–tons for bushes that were supposed to be done!  When I did the salsa, I didn’t quite have enough tomatoes for the entire batch, but too many for a 1/2 batch.  So, I added about 5 cups of chocolate cherry tomatoes from the garden, and it worked beautifully.  It has just the right amount of zip, which makes me happy.  It varies so much from the peppers you use.   I’ve been getting a few raspberries every couple of days and have been freezing them as well.

I gratefully accepted tomatoes from both my sister and aunt.  All the dribbles and dabs are starting to add up to the 50 pint goal I have.  I’m over 1/2 way there now, and I just picked a large bowlful yesterday evening from my garden, and Rob picked a few from my aunt’s.  Thankfully, they hold for a few days after picking them.  I also picked Italian prunes (plums) from my sister’s house for the plum sauce and she gave me apples and pears for eating while I was there.  I have now robbed all the peppers that were ripe in her garden, and almost all from mine.  I’m glad things are getting used.

I pulled up more carrots. They sure got huge this year.  There is about 2-3 feet of row left to pull, and then we will have eaten them all.  I put them in the crock pot with a roast and some potatoes this time.  We’ve had that twice this week so far.  It is so good–reminds me of my childhood where we had roast almost every Sunday after church.  I also cooked some chicken, we opened some of the soup I canned, plus there was one jar that did not seal from the chicken-rice soup I canned this week.

I have not bought very many groceries for several weeks now.  Today, I made up for it.  I found wonderful sales for Tillamook cheese for $4.99/loaf–must buy 3 (are you kidding?  Thrilled that I could have 3!!!). Eggs for 96c/dozen, cereal for 99c/box, grapes for 96c/lb, several free items like French bread, a lentil pasta kit, some random drinks, a snack bar, and then many, many assorted items I had ran out of or just wanted because they were good deals and we would eat them, such as refried beans for $1/can for really busy nights when I run out of my home-made stash, a little sugar, some brown sugar–mundane, everyday items.  I used a $5 off $50 coupon at Safeway.

People have given us bottles and we drink beverages. Here in Oregon, bottle deposit is 10c/can or bottle.  Over time, we have taken the empty bottles and cans to Bottle Drop and had the money put onto my card.  For the first time, I used my Bottle Drop card in a store.  They have a program where they give you 20% extra at certain stores.  So, I redeemed $50 worth, and got to spend $60.   That was $10 in absolutely free groceries and the $50 felt free, although it wasn’t, as you pay bottle deposit on most beverages you buy, even water, here in Oregon.

These 2 stores (Fred Meyers and Safeway) were my goal for today.  We did Grocery Outlet a few days ago for the few things they had there that we use.  I also did Natural Grocers for a couple of things I needed from there.  But today was the big shopping trip.   I loaded coupons onto my store cards.  I took coupons from the displays when available while shopping.  I loaded Ibotta rebates onto that app. I matched the store coupons to the Ibotta rebates to find items that were very low cost and some were even free.  Then, after shopping, I submitted the receipts to Ibotta, gaining around $17 in rebates and bonuses.  So, today, I paid around $140 for what the receipts say was over $300 in groceries and will have around $17 coming back when I cash out that app.   (Of course, $50 was for returned bottles, but I’m still very pleased.) It did take a long time to do all that, but now I’m set again for most items for quite a while, I think.

We cooked for the college aged kids at church on Tuesday.  We were way, way below the set budget because we made tamale pie and used dried beans that I cooked and froze for this reason ahead of time.  I used our garden cucumbers and cherry tomatoes on salad made from purchased lettuce.  I got another bunch of zucchini, so made a squash/onion medley, which surprisingly got eaten up.   I made a fruit crisp and Rice Krispie treats for dessert. (I only did both because I was using up some frozen fruit that needed to be used and thought I needed more dessert, which I actually did not, but you never know)

We had 6 doctors’ appointments between Rob, myself and Patsy.  We made it to all of them on time, and the insurance covered them, which is a huge blessing to us.  While I was at mine, I got my flu shot and found out that my blood sugars were in a better place than they have been for quite a long while.  I’ve been working hard at it, and can always do better, but was very encouraged by that news.

I did exercise class twice, using our membership at the YMCA.

I bought some items for Patsy that were sorely needed at a sale at Macy’s and saved a large amount from regular prices.  I got myself a few things as well, using a gift card from my birthday.  And, no, we will not be modeling some of these items or showing pictures of them, but, we are still very happy to have them for such a low price.  To get a certain discount, I had to use my Macy’s card, which I promptly paid off then and there to make sure we did not end up with a bill we don’t need right now.