The Week Behind: Spending Sunshine

Saturday:  I knew we'd be walking about in town this morning and I needed a more substantial breakfast under my belt than our usual toast or bagel for a Saturday morning.  I  opted to make those 'McBreakfast' sandwiches we've spoken of.  I used toast but it serves just as well as an English muffin and it's quite a filling little breakfast.



I took cash to the festival.  Bess mentioned wanting local honey, and I did as well. I bought two tall bottles which is produced not more than 8 miles from us.  I also got a clamshell of local strawberries and we picked up sandwiches for our lunch and t-shirts for the three grands that live local.  Josh and Isaac were not well enough to attend...I avoided the old book sale.  That saved me having to find bookshelf space.  I couldn't help but think of what I was missing in not going in and what I was saving myself in not going in, too!  It's not the cost but the fact of having more books to store and until I have more bookshelves there's simply no point in buying more books.  It was a good bit of spending but the honey shall last us quite a long while and the children will wear those t-shirts for a few years to come I think.  They are good thick heavy cotton.  I expect those shirts will eventually be passed down to other children.

Taylor and Katie came out later and Katie brought strawberry ice cream with her.  I was pleased to discover that Breyers is carrageenan free.  That means I can buy ice cream in our hometown this summer and not have to worry about ice cream melting on the way home from our usual grocery shopping areas.    Katie's reason for buying strawberry ice cream at the grocery store?  8 ounce cups were going for $3.50 a cup.  She bought a half gallon for $5.   It was mine and Taylor's treat as John dislikes strawberry ice cream and Katie is allergic to strawberries.

We had a thrown together sort of supper meal, eating together but in shifts...Meaning someone was eating at the table and others were sitting with them as they ate but no one really ate a meal together. Taylor had a cheese sandwich and a salad.  John opted to have a couple of sandwiches.  Katie and I each ate a salad.

Bess and River walked over to fetch Rufus for a play date.  Maddie doesn't care for River but she went along anyway.   Rufus tolerates River, who forgets she is three times his size and probably 5 times his weight but he enjoys being companionable.  I was surprised at how closely Rufus stuck to me this evening.  He can be protective but he made it clear I was his human this afternoon.  Maddie typically does that anyway but Rufus doesn't generally show another dog that I'm his.

It's been a very full day and a beautiful one.

Sunday:  John off to work with coffee, breakfast and lunch.

I put on the bedskirt I made Friday.  It was a bit of work even though the compressed mattress we bought is much lighter than a standard mattress set.  The bed skirt looks lovely and I'm anxious to get busy making the accent pillow to go with the bedding set.

I took a package of sirloin (1 1/4 pounds) and 2 chicken breast halves from the freezer to thaw to make dishes for the freezer this week as well as a couple of our meals.

Washed a full load of sheets and towels.  I do find the hot water and bleach with soap is working wonders at keeping the sheets white.  I let the bleach fully dilute before I put the clothes into the machine.  This keeps the towels from being bleached out.   Hung all the clothes to dry in the sunshine which also has a natural bleaching effect.

I found it interesting to read about linen care in one of the vintage magazines.  They suggested you avoid folding along the same crease lines repeatedly and to insure when you hang them on the line that you fold them OVER the line rather than crease them.  Use plenty of clothespins to bear the weight and I'll add this little caveat from my own experiences.  If the wind is seriously heavy, don't hang them on the line to dry.  As good as they may smell after blowing in the wind, heavy wind is rough and strains the fibers.  As well the wind can cause the sheets to snag on line or pole (or in my case along the roof edge! Yep...My clothesline is strung about the front porch.  John did that years ago to save my clumsy climbing up and down stairs with a full basket of clothes and though it's no longer necessary there the clothesline stays).

I vacuumed the house and that was about it for me.  I was tired and not feeling well.  I lay it at the feet of the very busy week behind me and decided that rest was the best I could offer myself.

Katie came by before taking Taylor back to her Daddy.  That little girl climbed right up in my lap and cuddled without any coaxing on my part at all.  I sat and simply enjoyed the pure sweetness of that moment.  I'm so sorry that things have come about as they have for Katie and Matt but I confess the better part of the bitterness is that I see more of this darling girl and of Katie, too.

I made myself a quick lunch after the girls left.  Then I sat down in my chair and took a long nap...I won't tell you I felt any better but I did at least have a little oomph to me.   I got up and folded the laundry and cleared up the kitchen, the last tasks on my list of must do items for the day.  I won't even pretend I did much more after that, though.

Monday:  As usual on a long work day, I go to bed early and go to sleep early and sleep heavily.  I don't even recall waking once I went to sleep last night.  I feel much more bright and perky today.

I find that now the daylight begins earlier, I wake naturally along about 6:45 which is a lovely hour to get up to me.  I can't explain why but it's just such a summer-y sort of rising time.

I had the housework pretty much attended to by the time John came in from work.  He was a little early this morning.  I think he's liking these early morning daylight hours, too.

I made blackberry muffins for our breakfast.  The leftovers were put into storage container for snacking or another breakfast.   I find that adding the hemp hearts and flax seed to breads really does help the protein content and allows me to enjoy them without having blood sugars jumping too high.

I went right out to the yard and began to spread mulch.  It took absolutely no time to use up the six bags.  I finished the rose bed, put mulch about the rosemary (though not right up under it just about the edges to control weeds.  Rosemary does not like to keep damp feet), and then spread some mulch about the edges of the Gingko tree bed.  Again not towards the middle where the iris are planted.  They want bare toes.  I spread the last bags under the Sweet Gum and Persimmon that sit at the end of the back of the house.  I am not done with that area.  I need more weed mat and cardboard to go there as well as mulch.  I noted that despite that thorough weeding just a bit over a week ago there were new bits of privet coming up.  Ugh....I want to get that area fixed up so that I do not have to be at that weeding task daily!

I came indoors and tackled a big kitchen cooking session.  I had noted several items that were about to be lost...and I wanted to put a few extra items in the freezer that were heat and eat sorts of things.  I didn't do all I wanted to do today but I got quite a lot of stuff done.  Here's my list:

I put the two chicken breast halves in the oven to bake.  I seasoned with seasoning salt only.

I cut up half an apple and a bunch of grapes.  I sectioned four oranges.  The apple and grapes were made into a Chicken Salad for one of our meals this week.  I used about 3/4 of a chicken breast for this.

I put half the packet of sirloin in a pan to brown.

I chopped the last of the bag of green onions, four stalks celery, 3/4 of a large onion, 8 ounces bella mushrooms, grated a large carrot, cut the stalks off the heads of broccoli and grated them.

I cut up a big bag of bread end pieces into cubes.  I set aside some larger slices to save for making French toast.  Those went back into the freezer.

The second half of the sirloin was mixed with some of the carrots, some of the regular onions, some of the mushrooms, bread crumbs, an egg and the last 1/3 cup of spaghetti sauce from a jar I'd had in the fridge.  I put that meatloaf in the oven to bake along with the bulk of the bread cubes and the two chicken breasts.

I cooked onion, mushrooms and garlic together in a frying pan.  I added a can of tomatoes and seasoning.  This plus 1/2 chicken breast (about 1 cup of meat total) and the spaghetti made up two pans of Spaghetti di Able for the freezer.

The last of the chicken breast was sliced and dressed with Hoison sauce and put back in the oven for a few minutes.  This was part of our lunch today.

I had yellow rice and a few black beans in the fridge.  These plus broccoli, carrot, green onions, were all made into fried rice.  That and Hoison chicken slices were our lunch.  I made Ambrosia from the oranges that were getting old and wrinkly looking to go with our lunch today.

I put water on to boil for pasta.  Once it had come to a boil,  I put 8 ounces spaghetti in the pan, then set a strainer that fit in the pan down into the water atop the spaghetti and added a packet of dried cheese tortellini.   The two pastas have the same cooking time.  The spaghetti was used in the Spaghetti di Able dish (chicken spaghetti).   The cheese tortellini was mixed with the browned ground beef and some onions and a can of tomato soup.  This made up Beefy Pasta Bake.  I'll add cheese later and bake it when I'm ready to serve.   In the meantime it's gone into the freezer.

I put the remaining bread cubes into a buttered pan.  I haven't finished with that yet but it will be a breakfast casserole for the weekend ahead.


It was a lot of work but in two hours, I turned out lunch for today, a dinner for later this week, four entrees for the freezer, started a breakfast casserole and made croutons.  I also used up mushrooms, green onions and oranges that were going bad, as well as the last of the spaghetti sauce and a lot of dry bread and bread end pieces from the freezer.

I happily spent the rest of the afternoon writing a blog post and researching family history.

The handyman brought out a second contractor and John discussed enlarging the front porch and building out the steps onto the patio.  Right now the steps are inset which eats up about 5 feet of floor space and makes the porch just barely usable.  More money OUT but definitely worth it.   The current set of steps is rotting away from dampness.   The steps built out onto the patio will be of concrete blocks and won't rot and the bonus is I get a larger porch.  Those inset steps were the one thing John insisted upon for this whole house and he very specifically requested them.  I loathed them, but I had gotten the big garden tub I'd wanted and it seemed a small enough concession on my part to give up a bit of porch space to have a feature he liked.  Not his fault but the porch was built facing north.  Rain and damp started damage on the steps long ago and we've had them repaired/replaced twice already.

Tuesday:  I think too much sweating and too much water yesterday depleted my potassium.  I got up in the middle of the night several times with legs cramping.  I happened to have a Powerade in the house and drank about 4 ounces.  I slept like a baby after that.  I need to remember to keep this item on hand for summer.  I like to send a bottle to work with John when the heat amps up to replenish his minerals and electrolytes during the long hot days.  And because I do perspire so heavily and drink so much water in the summer months it's important that I keep it on hand to keep my electrolytes in balance as well.  It's cheap enough to buy come summers and a single bottle serves us many times over.

Simple breakfast of reheated muffins and canned corned beef hash.  I liked that it took minutes to prepare and no great cleanup after.  I'm not as fond of canned corned beef hash as I was in my childhood but it's still convenient to keep a can or two on hand.

Washed a very full load of dishes after breakfast.

John was in the mood to 'go somewhere' today.  So after doing a couple of errands, we headed to the little town in the foothills that we visit on occasion.  There's a Chili's restaurant there which we don't have in our usual shopping area.  We find the food tasty and quite reasonable.  It's a lovely drive over deep rolling hills and the long views are breathtakingly lovely.

I slipped into Cato which is in the shopping center behind the restaurant and bought a kimono and some shirts.  I feel I have quite a wardrobe to work with at this point and won't be buying anything more.  Given my vow to save in the month ahead I shall have to really keep my word!

Ran into Dollar Tree and bought new ear buds for John and I.  We both like to use earbuds (he at work and me at night when I can't sleep) in our phones to listen to music or watch videos.  They break down so quickly that I simply don't see paying a high price for them.  The $1 ones last about as long as the higher priced ones in my opinion and are easily replaced at that cost.

John and I discussed how to finish paying for the work being done.  He suggested we use our line of credit.  I decided that we would not.  The bank recently went up still higher on the interest on that line of credit and I felt we would be better off using the money we'd set aside.  It's maddening to me that they charge us over 10% for the use of a line of credit that we have to cover with a balance in the account but pay us less than .01% on that balance.

John is very concerned about 'replacing' the money we're spending.  I have a differing view point.  We set these funds aside specifically for this purpose.  It was never meant to be part of our long term savings but because we put the funds aside a few years ago, he's come to see it as savings we are spending.   Well I shan't argue with him too much.  If he wants to replace it then I will go to work with a will to replace it, but I do wish he'd see we've plenty of savings and special purpose monies aren't savings and were never meant to be.  That's like saying each time we pay for one of our annual fees from money set aside for just that purpose that we've spent savings.  No.  We spent money especially earmarked for that exact purpose.   The only money pulled from true savings will be the work we're having done on the front porch.  That has been talked about for years and we knew about what we'd pay to do it but we never really set funds aside for it.

We've planned two trips for May.  One to see our southern most grandchildren and one for our anniversary.  We've determined what we shall do and where we shall go .  I have money set aside for the anniversary trip and the visit to our family shouldn't cost us anything.  I think we can stay at the house...but John might prefer a hotel.  Shall have to check on that.  The alternative would be to ask them here for the weekend.   And here at least John can't feel we're spending 'savings' because this money is my personal account which he never even considers as savings.

Light supper for us tonight of cereal and fruit and toast.  Neither of us wanted a heavier meal after our nice lunch out.

Was asked for an opinion on a door to the underside of the house...and of course, I figured while I was outdoors I might as well do something towards my gardening chores.  So I took a pail of dirt and filled the pot full that holds the little tomato plant and transferred that into deeper soil.  I also planted the basil in with the tomato since they make good companion plants.  I planted the lemon thyme in it's own pot.  Then I watered plants.  I hadn't realized how very dry everything had gotten out there.  I must remember to watch this...and I need to remember to buy one of those misting wands to use, too, so I don't drown plants when I am watering.

The contractor who is applying the cement came out and started work.  It's looking very nice!  He worked until just about dark tonight.

What a lovely day it's been.  John really relaxed and enjoyed the little road trip.  It's amazing that just going a half hour from home in a direction one seldom travels can feel like a mini vacation but it did.  The weather has been lovely and sunny all week long.  I'm glad we're spending sunshine hours enjoying the season.

Wednesday:  John off to work this morning.  He's still talking about replacing these funds we're spending so I tackled the bill box and checkbook and looked ahead at how quickly I can put money back into the account.  I have a certain amount each month I can allocate, and if there's any holiday or overtime or extra funds or extra savings anywhere I'll sock that away too until he's satisfied we're back where we started.

Sent John off in the usual way: kisses, hugs, food, coffee.

Decided that I just needed to get things DONE out of the house...so after quick housework and working on the bills and peering into the future, I gathered things up and headed out.

First stop was Walmart.  Red mulch was $3.33 a bag which seemed high to me.  A better price was to be had on the moisture control enriched potting soil I like.  I find this item is well worth buying each year.  Once a pot is filled with the stuff, I get superior growth for two or three years running from it and can reuse multiple times.

I found lily of the valley and a Stella d'Oro daylily today and bought one of each. I've been wanting Lily of the Valley for the longest time and I mean to create a sort of collection of daylily varieties as well.  I only have ditch lilies at present which are pretty but they seldom bloom more than just in May.  I'd like summer and fall long daylily blooms.  I count these as 'home improvement' today simply because funds are snug and the money needed to come from somewhere.

I walked over to the grocery section and bought: six cans of pear halves, a tomato chicken bouillon product (Coffee With Kate uses it often in her cooking especially in her pinto beans) and two jars of sweet pickle relish.  I've been watching for a sale on the pears and relish with no luck at all and I was out of both.  This will hold me until a good sale does come along.   I also got a big double pack of strawberries (2 pounds), 3 pounds of apples, and a cabbage.  I walked up the meat aisle because I recalled that Nathan hotdogs are sold there in a 16 pack for $8.48.  It's a so so value compared to regular sales price.  Not an item to seek out on it's own but worthwhile when I need hot dogs in the freezer and I'm in Walmart.  As I walked past the meat counter, I found a nice reduced package of sirloin steak pieces which I picked up.  I'll stretch those four pieces into four stir fry meals or fajitas.

I went by Publix and bought two loaves of bakery bread for the freezer to see us through next week.  I bought myself an unsweetened tea and a snack.  I was beyond hungry at that point and feeling like my blood sugar had gone low.   My snack: 2 potato logs and one chicken tenderloin from the deli.  Honestly the price of foods  in the deli is ridiculous. My savings today was getting just enough to tide me until lunch time.   Chicken tenderloins run $7.99 a pound and potato logs $3.99 a pound.  My order came in under $2 but it boggled my mind looking at those per pound costs for common enough food.  I had already eaten the protein bar I try to keep in my purse and had I not been beyond hungry still I'd have skipped that altogether.  Reminder to self: replenish my diabetic pack with nuts and energy bar...

Off to Lowe's to buy mulch.  Arrived to find the mulch locked up tight and no one working in the area at all.   Off to Home Depot who had conveniently stacked mulch at curbside for easy pick up.  Cost $3 per bag.  Not much savings off Walmart's price...Certainly no savings over the gas required to drive to Home Depot.  Lesson learned.

I stopped at Aldi to see if there were any meat mark downs in the meat case.  I'd told John several times that I wanted to see if they had any of those standing rib roasts with dollars off coupons on them.  No meat in meat case at all.  None.  Apparently they were cleaning it out and meat was not to be had by anyone.   I picked up some items in the produce department and seat cushions for my patio and front porch chairs.

Headed back to the town between home and the shopping area.  I stopped and made the deposit to our new savings account.  I've held onto that money all last month and since I don't know that I'll have such a nice deposit anytime until the other money is replaced as John requests, I wanted to at least have the pleasure of knowing I'd at least gotten that one big  chunk added to it.

Came home.  I picked up credit card bill from mail box and while I knew the balance on the thing for this month, I was still shocked when I saw where I'd spent the money.  No more personal shopping for this girl!  I've filled my closet with new items and I'll just wear what I've bought and no complaints about it!  I had also forgotten another bit of 'help' given but it's the personal spending on self that I had forgotten.  Enough is enough.  Time to be strict!

Divided the meat into serving packets.  Four hot dogs to a packet nets me four packets for meals for John and I.   Sirloin steak each went into a separate packet.  Each of those four steaks will be used as a stretcher meal of stir fry or fajitas.

Made myself a big taco salad for my lunch.  I bought avocado and cilantro at Aldi to use on the salad.  I put the cilantro in a tall jar of water so it will stay fresh longer.  I've been eating more avocados as they are apparently in season at present and so cheap at Aldi.  John doesn't care for them but I like them very well and feel I get good fiber and healthy fats that satisfy me longer.

I bought flea/tick collars for the pets. I got them on this evening.  I'm purely ashamed of how Maddie and Misu both acted.  You'd think they were going to a hangman's noose, both of them.  Utterly ridiculous.  Rufus just stood by and let me do what must be done and then went on about his business.

Thursday:  I was on the back porch this morning for a moment when Sam pulled in and asked if I might keep Isaac for an hour or so.  No problem with that at all.   Isaac was thrilled to arrive and find Grampa coming in from work.  Those two do enjoy one another's company.

I didn't feel well today...I'd really been looking for a good excuse not to work in the yard if you want to know the truth, so keeping Isaac was a really good one in my opinion.   

After Isaac left, I managed to mop the floors but after I knew I was indeed not well.    I didn't eat the rest of the day.  I took a nap and drank lots of water and just generally took it easy.   Not what I planned for the day but so be it.

Our new steps were built this evening.  I am so excited over the porch, even though there is a lot of work to be done yet.

Friday:  Not well but not as ill as yesterday.  I went out after our breakfast and laid six bags of mulch.  I walked about the edges of the house and cleaned up bits of wood and roots and such that had been dug out.    I am so pleased at how all of the work, mine and the hired out stuff, is coming together.  

Yesterday River stayed here all day long.  I was so disappointed to find she'd torn out some lattice under the back porch.  No big harm done really as I'd already mentioned it looked shoddy with all the new going in and that I thought I'd like to replace it.  John and I looked over several options online today and at his urging went off to Lowe's to look at a product he thought would be nice.  I agreed that it did look nice but in the end...we decided that we'd just put up a hardware type cloth and staple it to the porch posts.  In the end, the whole area will effectively block the animals and pests from getting under the porch and plantings or pots will mask it as well.  We may change our mind later and put up something more decorative but for now this will do fine.

John wanted to stop at Publix to pick up dishwasher detergent, since I'd made the statement that I felt that was what was wrong with my machine (and I do).  I ended up buying a powdered detergent from Publix because  they no longer sell their own store brand of liquid detergent.  Ack...We'll see how this works.

We picked up a lunch sandwich while we were at the grocery.  Even with my adding in cookies and chips it was far less than take out anywhere would have been.  My excuse is that it was nearly 2pm and I was quite hungry.   Fortunately I kept my thinking in line with lunch and didn't pick up a lot of random items that had nothing to do with any meal at all.  I'd also looked over the sales paper on Wednesday and noted there weren't any sales I really wanted to stock up on except the usual soda sale.

It's been a beautiful week with a lot of things happening at our home.  We've spent money but it's lasting sort of spending, not something we'll forget we've spent in a week or even a year.  This is lifetime work we're having done on our home.

How did you invest in your life this week?