Finished the Pantry Freezer Challenge for April with more having gone back into the freezer and pantry than we took from it. I spent about the same as usual so no savings there, but everything we ate, except for dairy, bread and produce was from our pantry and freezer. That we ended the month with more stock pleased me. Some of that excess was self produced right here in the house as I made meals and fashioned leftovers into makeover meals, or set aside half recipes of entrees etc.
We bought no luncheon meat at all this month, using what we had on hand to make sandwiches for suppers and work lunches.
All in all, the Pantry Freezer Challenge was a big success.
Other goals I'd made for this past month were semi-successful. I added to the car loan repayment by allocating the portion of money we'd been paying to the Propane company. I won't be able to keep this up much longer since it's quite warm (despite that nice cool lovely week we had two weeks ago) and the AC is running quite a lot. However, until the summer increase in electric rates we can easily manage this portion to go towards the car payment.
I don't think I accomplished a whole lot this past month. I seemed to be caught up with Mama during John's work weeks. Not that she needed me so much, she's quite independent again but the Big Shops with her were so wearying and the catch-up required after John's off weeks kept me fairly busy with routines. I did get the guest and master bedroom set up with a fresh look for the warmer seasons, and managed to move all the bookcases (but have yet to find homes for all the books!). But deeper cleaning pretty much was nil and meeting any goals for household cleaning or improvement was too, except for trimming the trees and cutting back some of the weed growth from last autumn.
I didn't do much reading or watching of movies either this month. In fact, I only watched one Netflix Dvd, and I started two more books that I am still reading bits and pieces of now. These are my recommendations for the movies/books I did complete this month:
"Downtown Abby". Watched the first two episodes this Sunday and I am as smitten as anyone else who has seen the program. Deeply enjoyed it.
"Period of Adjustment" with Jane Fonda, Tony Franciosa and a few other well known actors, written by Tennessee Williams and Isobel Lennart, was a very good film. It's funny and serious and makes you think long and hard about early marriage and love.
"Two for the See Saw" with Shirley Maclaine and Robert Mitchum is also co-written by Isobel Lennart...This is one of those hard to watch but can't turn away films. It's gritty and tough and sweet all at once. About love and marriage and relationships in general and old fashioned values in a new fashioned world. Psst...Old fashioned values win out!
Books were few and far between again. The first two Katie loaned me. The other was a study guide I picked up at the Christian bookstore and enjoyed deeply.
Lily and Looking After Lily by Cynthia Bonner The language is harsh and the story is too. Lily falls in love at 15...But she is no child. She's been caring for her family since her mother's death years before. And of course, she falls in love with a young man from an outlaw family. Unexpected turns and twists all throughout this book. It's poignant with first love and first lust and the forbidden and harsh with reality. The sequel is equally as riveting, equally unexpected and as the novel progresses the nature of the language changes, all part of the transforming of Lily's brother in law. I really enjoyed these two books and couldn't put them down for long.
Romancing the King by Brian Lake was a wonderful study guide. I tried to do a chapter a day because I enjoyed it so much, but a few of the chapters took a bit more than a day to digest. This study leads to a better understanding of how to enter into an intimate relationship with God. It's well written, clear and easy to understand, yet not over simplified. I mean to read back over this one again. If the last study was tedious and required push, this one required me to restrain myself from going too fast so that I didn't miss the full understanding. Really enjoyed it a lot.
So that's pretty much April in a nutshell...
My plans for May are bigger, oddly enough. We'll see how they go but today started off with a bang and a big bang at that! Not one single item off my goal list, lol. However, we'll see how those go this month. There are a lot of home projects long put off on the list, most all of them dealing with paint or planting or decluttering. Mama is driving once more so she'll be doing her own grocery shopping which will free up my time and energy considerably since we won't have to run errands, go to appointments etc. through out this month. I'm looking forward to May!
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