I got 3 cups of blueberries off the 2 bushes at my new house.  They are nearing the end of their crop, but I loved getting what I did.

We did 2 days of work on the new house, in preparation for refinishing the hardwood floors.  By the front door, there were 2 layers.  Layer #1 came up easily.  Layer #2—Yikes!  They had glued linoleum to the hardwood, probably in the 60’s (?)  The heat gun was useless.  The tool (above) that we borrowed worked the best.  We had to use several blades.  That white glue is very hard to remove without gouging the actual floor.  We are still not quite finished, but will finish that soon.  The work we did ourselves saved us a bundle.

I made pico de gallo from peppers, cilantro, onion and tomatoes from the garden.  I was also able to make a lot of meals at home this week, and was able to take food down to Salem when we were working on the new house.

I was able to weed a bit, and harvest a lot from the garden.  I was also able to help out with my sister’s u-pick peach business a couple of days.  It’s fun and I enjoy doing it and it helps them out during their busy time.  When they are really busy, sometimes I get to cook for everyone–super fun!  I love cooking for a crowd.

I’ve recently realized that you can buy a large cup of ice for 25c at McDonald’s.   I often take a child in and use the facilities when we are out and about, and always buy a small item, figuring that that is only fair.  I love eating a cup of ice when I’m hot, so have been getting that for my “treat.”  (I just can’t make or store much ice in the camper and it’s much better for me than the other options)  And, don’t worry, the company will never go out of business because of us–my children love those french fries way too much!  It is much less expensive to buy one large fry and have them share than 3 small ones when we do make that choice.

Here’s hoping your week went well, also…

We got quite a bit of entertainment out of a 99c box of cherry tomatoes one evening.  I joked that this was Rob’s mug shot:)  The kids were in stitches over his “eyeballs.”

I did not do this post last week because we were without internet for the entire week while we cooked at high school camp.

Before we disappeared into the hills, we bought quite a few things at Grocery Outlet.  The tomatoes were one of them.  I took quite a few snacks, drinks, and a few other foods.  They were very reasonable because I was not picky as to what kind I bought, as long as it was inexpensive.   The kids , us and J’s friends who were campers took care of the drinks.  The granola bars, etc., were used by the cousins and friends.  The Lucky Charms I got for 99c per box were enjoyed by Jake and Michaela (niece and nephew) on mornings they did not get up in time.  There were a few occasions where I needed to get some food at the camper for myself, a niece or nephew, or my aunt, but for the most part, our entire family ate with the camp.  I had taken fruits and vegetables, but have most of them left because there was plenty of that kind of thing served.  The food was excellent (I helped finish it up, but the lady who did the planning was amazing and had much of it prepared ahead of time.)  Rob grilled.  So, we did not consume our usual amount of grocery money last week.  We used it up Saturday and Sunday, though when we got back.  It was nice to have extra to eat out, guilt-free, and nice to restock our groceries in the camper.

The night we returned  to home base I stir-fried vegetables with 2 pieces of chicken and cooked rice for a quick meal.

We had our usual family Sunday dinner today.  We ate some leftovers from camp as well as some chicken we bought, along with garden beans.

We enjoyed the lake and wild flowers.  I got to go on a boat ride, the first I’ve had in years.

My sister gave me some apples and pears.  I picked veggies from the garden.  My sister and I also weeded a bunch last evening, while we visited.  She canned about 60 more jars of beans while I was gone!  That makes around 150 quarts off those bushes so far, between the ones she did and her mother-in-law did.

I read “A Girl of the Limberlost.”  Patsy is trying to read it and ran into a few things she did not quite understand, so I read it and am discussing it as we go along.  It’s an old favorite, but I had not read it for years, so enjoyed it once again.

Tomorrow we get back to real life!  We have a plumber coming to look over the house we are hoping to buy.  Wednesday, we have an electrician coming.  After those 2 inspections, we should know a whole lot more.  I’m excited!

Last week was busy and fun.  We traded kids out one day and left Ja’Ana with the cousins and brought Michaela home with us for 1 night.  On the way home, we stopped at historic Butteville store and enjoyed some ice cream.  Michaela and Patsy enjoyed playing checkers on the checkerboard that the store set up on the table.  They played for quite a while.

Patsy pulled up some unwanted plants in the garden to earn money for camp, and Michaela enjoyed watching her dramatically hit the ground with the plants, huff and puff, and put on quite a show.  So, Patsy got some attention, Michaela was entertained, and I got those plants pulled!  Win, win, win!!

Then they played Yahtzee for several rounds and cheerfully  ate up the odds and ends of my hamburger buns with peanut butter spread on them.  (No jam for Michaela–she doesn’t like it-Patsy will always eat double–she loves it).  The girls had a frugal, fun evening!

The next day, Rob swapped the girls back when he took Patsy to catch the bus for church camp.  Things went well until Wednesday…….

On Wednesday, I was just lallygagging around.  I had 1 thing planned for the day–lunch with 2 of my friends.  So, I let myself sleep in a bit.  But then…the phone rang.  It was the youth leader at camp and there was a problem.  I could hear Patsy dramatically carrying on in the background and many adult voices.  The leader informs me that Patsy’s front tooth is gone and all she has left is her braces and the chain and bracket where a tooth should be.  He’s never seen anything like it.  He can’t figure out where the tooth went.  As far as he knew, she went to bed with a tooth…..now there is no tooth….and so forth.

I have a vision of Patsy with 2 front teeth gone, since I knew that we had been working on getting the other one to come down for a year and a half, with oral surgery, orthodontics, etc.  I was feeling pretty worried, when it suddenly clicked.  He did not know that the other tooth had never been there.  With her sobbing “my tooth broke off” and things like that, he was assuming that her tooth had broken somehow in the night.  I quickly set him straight, saying  “it’s ok.” and things like that.  He put her on the phone, and I found out that, indeed, it was the bracket that had broken off and there was a small white thing attached to it, which she was convinced was part of the tooth (that is still up in her gums).

So, after a call to the ortho, we quickly started out for camp.  We had never been there, but are signed up to volunteer there next week for high school camp.  We went to camp, picked her up, used the interim time to do a little laundry, had an appointment at the ortho, had a meeting about camp, and then took her back.  It is a distance away, so we were gone for about 12+ hours.  They removed the dangling chain, assured us all it was just bonding material, no teeth were broken and put her back together.  We will still need to address the situation later, but for now, it’s fine.  Nothing is broken, except some hardware in her mouth.  Whew!!!  So, this was the NOT frugal day.  We used lots of gas and ate out twice, since we just jumped in the car and took off as quickly as we could.  The main thing is that she’s all right!  I will say that the counselors and leaders deserve high praise.  They handled it well.

We went house hunting again Friday.   This time, I knew I was leaving and packed a nice picnic lunch.  After viewing 5 houses and picking Patsy up from the church parking lot (back from camp), we went to a place called Sunset Park in Keizer, Oregon, and ate our packed lunch.  I’m not sure if you can see the hawk soaring over the Willamette, but there were several that we enjoyed watching.  Rob and Lovana saw a bald eagle, too.

These potatoes are from the garden.  I made potato salad for our family Sunday dinner today.  Rob b-b-qued chicken, and we had salad from garden lettuce.  My aunt brought rolls and ice cream.  It was great and so awesome to have so much of it come from things we’ve grown.  The chickens will run out before long, and we have no way to grow more, but we are enjoying them until that happens.

I cooked many, many meals at home this week, other than that one day.  I used so much garden produce.  It’s really helping with the grocery budget.

My sister and I canned 35 quarts of green beans during 2 pleasant mornings.  Rob and I spent quite a bit of time helping sell peaches at the u-pick stand Monday and Tuesday.  We enjoyed quite a few peaches, and wild blackberries.

I “Shopped” in our storage Conex.  I pulled out items worth at least $40 to use in the next 2 weeks.  I also shopped at the store, and bought things that we absolutely needed or were a great deal.

Rob earned some money this week and used some of it to stock up at Grocery Outlet on items that we will use, and are a great deal.  So, that was extra, above and beyond our usual grocery budget.  So, that was nice.  There are just a few things that we consistently buy there and there are always “surprises” so we do have to be careful to only buy a few of those each time.  You never know what they will have from time to time, but they usually have inexpensive drinks for lunches, lunchmeat that is close to its pull date, but still good, etc.

Rob taught Ja’Ana how to replace the inner tube in her bike tire.  We’ve been giving the bikes a real workout lately on all our camping trips and she ran over something.  We spent 4 nights at Champoeg State Park.  It’s near my sister’s, so were able to do our regular things, while enjoying the park in between activities.

July the 5th is BOTH of our mothers’ birthdays!  So, on the 4th, we had a double birthday party.

Rob barbecued, my sister made lemon meringue pies for everyone (mine has no crust–it was great!), we used lots of garden produce, and we had a great time while celebrating the 4th of July, plus birthdays.

We drove past this flower seed field one evening.  It was so beautiful!

We are enjoying lots of baby kitties right now.   We need to tame some of them down because we have people who would like to have them.

We are eating peaches like crazy.  I helped sell u-pick peaches Saturday, and will do so on Monday and Tuesday, as well as help can beans.  I made peach upside down cake, gluten free bread from a mix, sweet and sour pork, chicken soup, coleslaw, lots of sandwiches and salads, Rob b-b-qued burgers, steak, chicken and the last of the trout for the 4th and other meals.  We are eating lots of lettuce, zucchini, onions, carrots, green onions, and just started getting beans from the garden.  We will can a load in the morning.  Wild blackberries are also ripe on the bushes here on the property.

We did quite a bit of work in the garden this evening.  We pulled out old lettuce, spinach and the broccoli plants, which turned out to be a very strange variety that was very odd and did not taste good.  We were so happy that it wasn’t the tomatoes that failed!  Usually, I carefully choose all of the varieties from seed catalogs and grow my own starts.  This year I was at the mercy of the stores for starts because of the move.  If broccoli was my greatest casualty, I’m relieved.

Patsy and I went with my sister to pick blueberries.  They were so delicious, only $1.25/lb, and are all gone now:)

I picked wild blackberries and made a crisp to take over to our friends’ house when we went for dinner.

I made pinto beans in the crock pot, lots of salads from garden lettuce, sandwiches, packed lunches, enchiladas, omelets from eggs we got for 88c/dozen, and numerous quesidillas.  I am trying to keep meals simple.  We got invited to my sister’s one morning for pancakes, a friend’s for dinner, a potluck for the last night of J’s camp where she was a junior counsellor (I took watermelon, cheese slices and crackers), and my aunt took us out for lunch after church today.

We did not get the house we bid on last week, and in fact got outbid by $15,000 (over the asking price).  So, you could say we saved $15,000:(  I spent 4-6 hours looking on the computer, have sent the real estate agent a list of properties we would like to see, and will go at it again this coming week.

Patsy and I went for a bike ride at Champoeg State Park.  I am happy to report I did not fall off of the bike, or have any other catastrophes.  (I would pretend I am teasing, but have done some crazy stuff on (off) of a bike in the past, so am trying to build myself up again after several years of not riding since we all have talents and that’s not one of mine!!!!)  We rode over 5 miles.  We packed a lunch, and got ice cream at the historic store that was the 1/2 way point of the ride.  We also played a game of checkers they had on the table while we ate our ice cream.  Cute and quaint.

I visited with a friend while Patsy and her daughter swam at a local pool.

We worked in the garden.  We are still eating the same vegetables–snow peas, lettuce, beets, carrots, cilantro, basil, spinich, and the zucchini is just starting.  I am also looking forward to green beans soon.

We got library books, movies and borrowed 2 movies from a friend.  We watched one movie tonight.  It was called “The Finest Hours” and was about a Coast Guard rescue.  It had a little bad language, but kept us riveted to our seats as the men battled the stormy sea.

One of the things we did this past week was visit a fish hatchery.  They didn’t have very many fish right now, since this particular one has more going on when the fish are running in the fall, but we were able to see baby Chinook salmon, and show Patsy how the whole operation works.

We harvested lettuce, basil, cilantro, beets, carrots, spinach, snow peas and green onions from the garden.  I used the produce in salad, marinade, Pico de Gallo, stir fry and to eat.

Rob was fishing for rock fish and caught a crab on accident, instead of any fish.  It was a male, and a keeper, and he has his license to crab, so—Yum!  What a happy surprise!  We ate it:)

We enjoyed some beautiful days down at the coast and watched many boats going in and out of the harbor.

We had to drive a lot, as Ja’Ana had a couple of days of training for her junior counsellor opportunity next week.  Since we were driving anyway, we went house hunting again, used our Kids Bowl Free coupons with Patsy, and enjoyed some sights on the way.   We took food with us in the van a lot, and cooked in the camper most of the time.  We also ate out a little bit on the road, and chose as wisely as we could.  We used a lot of gas, but are so glad to do so for such a good reason.

We put in an offer on a house.  They already have several offers because the market is so strong right now, so we are looking at it again today to see if we want to “up” our offer.  I’m ok either way.  I know we can’t go “up” very much, so it’s in the Lord’s hands.  I know if this isn’t the one, we will find another one with time.  We should find out tomorrow.  They have so much interest, they have been collecting offers since Thursday, and will decide tomorrow.  Even the crummiest houses are getting multiple offers right now.  (Except the one with the broken windows, tremendous patches of mold, doors ajar and unlocked, and the dead rat on the floor–hmmmm–we’ve seen some beauties)

On our recent trip to Ft. Stevens, Patsy and I enjoyed climbing a watchtower in Astoria, and enjoying the view of the big bridge that spans the Columbia River.  Beautiful, and free:)  The girls rode bikes, clammed, fished, read, and I continued to work on school with Ja’Ana.  We are not quite finished, having lost some time with the move.  We had to go over to the valley for a family event, and brought one of the cousins back with us.

We enjoyed roasting marshmallows and hot dogs one night with her.

I sewed Patsy a dress.  I used 50% off patriotic fabric from JoAnn’s, but chose one that was summery enough to go past the 4th of July.

We got the garden in shape before taking off for the beach again.  We were able to harvest veggies to take with us.  We used lettuce in many meals the past few days.  I was able to take a huge salad with us to my sister’s house for our family Sunday meal.

I had not grocery shopped since we moved, except for a few dollars here and there.  This past week, I spent $58 on groceries.  I am finding it do-able with the new $50/week budget I am sticking with.  I “shopped” from my food storage in our storage bins and freezer and used as much garden produce as I could.  I also made another meal from the fish we caught and froze.

We are at Newport, Oregon this week.  We took our bikes.  We took our first family bike ride in years.  Rob wisely bought me a helmet, as bike riding is not my strong suite.  I am happy to report that neither I, nor anyone else, fell off.  We had a great time.

Since we have a foster/adopt park pass, we save around $30/night, every time we camp.  Of course, there are rules about how often you can use it, etc., but they are very generous.  We are really loving having this option during this summer of change.

We are also saving money by not having internet, but I must admit it is frustrating to have to drive somewhere to catch wi-fi.  We also have been able to use Rob’s Mom’s garbage can each week, as she does not fill it, so we have no bill for that.  Of course, at campgrounds, you can throw your trash and recycling away there in the proper area.  We don’t have our phone land line anymore.  We have no house payment.  We are still spending money for gas, food, cell phones, the camper, and a few other things.  Overall, though, we have reduced the bills tremendously, and that is helping us get through the summer without feeling any pain at all!  What a blessing!

My sister noticed that we were losing some water where the hoses were connected.  She fixed it so that the watering can now catches the drip.  Patsy has been using that water to pour into her watering can and water the garden.  We have a lot of water in Oregon, but there’s not use wasting it.

We spent a morning fishing in a lake near the campground.  We caught 15 trout, and the man fishing beside us on the dock gave us his 3.  Wow!  So far, we had them for 1 meal, gave a few to the neighbors camping next to us in the campground, and froze some for future meals.  My teeny, tiny camper fridge is extremely full, so we kept 4 out for a meal very soon.  That was fun!

We went clamming again.  We all 4 limited out, catching 60 clams total.  Rob and helpers got them cleaned, and I minced them up in my mini-chop.  Last time, they were quite tough, so I thought mincing them would help, and it did.  I made clam chowder and froze the rest.

We had a really good time.  This time, we tried another place because we did not want to climb over the jetty.  So, we went through the woods, up a sand dune, and straight down the steep side to the beach.   Right as we were finishing, we got to enjoy these parasailers, who were using the wind to power their sails.  It was amazing.  It reminded me of huge kites, catching the wind, and giving them rides.

If you look closely, you can see Rob and Ja’Ana on the top of the “cliff.”  That was no picnic to climb, but it was an adventure:)

This past week was a mixture of very good, and very hard.  Life is like that sometimes, and this was one of those times.

We returned from camping last Monday, and began settling down into camper life pretty well.  I weeded the garden, and Rob tilled it all up.  I planted new plantings of a few things.

On Thursday, we took off for our trip to see our dear friends in Eastern Oregon, and had a wonderful time.  On the trip, we took food along in the cooler, and ate that quite a bit.  We ate out 1 time going over and 1 time coming back.  While there, we ate at our friends’ house the entire time.  I was able to take a few things, including a lot of garden lettuce, which we ate up for the most part.  I have so much growing right now, it was awesome to have a place to share it.

Ja’Ana, Patsy and Abbie (3 of my girls) have birthdays within a 1-week period.  We celebrated them all last evening with a barbecue outside of our camper.  It was awesome.

Yesterday was the bad day.  When we went over to Rob’s mom’s house to get some meat from the freezer, we were dismayed to find that it had broken over the weekend.  Rob had removed some items before we left, and it was fine, but clearly had stopped working sometime since then.  The temperatures have been close to 100 degrees here, and we lost about 3/4 of what was inside.  Fruit, vegetables, and worst of all–a lot of the pig Rob just raised.  Some was still partially frozen or very cold, so we were able to quickly put it in another freezer, but if anything was warm, or questionable, we threw it away.  We cooked up a bunch of it yesterday afternoon to serve over the next couple of days. But still, it was a garbage can full of meat.

I was very upset.  I know that it is not a question of whether or not we will starve, but I was counting on that meat for the next few months. I especially was mourning the amount of time Rob spent raising that pig, and the fact that we are no longer in the position for him to raise another one.   I confess–I had a big “boo-hoo” over the whole thing.  After that was over, I gained some perspective.  We still have beef and poultry in another freezer.  The garden is growing very well.   We caught it in time to save some of it.  And, through my daily Bible reading, I had been reminded just that morning that we are not to put our trust in anything but God, and God alone.  Not a freezer.  Not pork.  Not corn, beans, or blueberries.  Just God.  He is our Provider and He will provide.

I’m feeling much better today.  Rob and I both agree it is a good day.  We don’t understand everything that happens in this life, but we do know that we choose to believe that what God promised, He will do.  So, we are waiting to see what will happen next.  We trust it will be good.