Well I mentioned yesterday that I am starting a grocery challenge today.  I am only going to purchase fresh items and completely necessary items (ie toilet paper) until I can no longer do it.  Last night I worked on my menus for this coming week and then today went grocery shopping.  First the menus:

May 24 - lunch:  hot dogs, potato salad, dinner:  pulled pork, potato salad

May 25- lunch:  baked pasta and salad, dinner:  meatball subs

May 26- lunch:  hot dogs, dinner:  chicken on the grill, corn on the cob and veggie packets

May 27- lunch:  tuna salad sandwiches, dinner:  ham, carrots and peas

May 28- lunch:  pulled pork sandwiches, dinner:  sausage, mashed potatoes and veggie

May 29- lunch:  ham salad sandwiches, dinner:  meatloaf, mashed potatoes and veggie

May 30- lunch:  grilled cheese sandwiches, dinner:  payday !!!! eat out

May 31- lunch:  taco salad,  dinner:  graduation party

So then today I went shopping for what I had to have:

foil - 1 box

razors and candy for dd

tomatoes - 3 equalled .89 lbs

cucumber - 1

2.5 dozen eggs

lettuce mix - 1 bag

4 ears of corn on the cob

bananas - 1.55 lbs (this is four bananas)

Total was $17.41  not bad for a week.

I am feeding four adults who are home most nights.  Dh is home for the summer now.  Ds works full time days and part time nights.  Dd is working part time mainly nights.  Friday and Saturday nights there is typically only dh and I.  I am starting to try to eat more clean though my menu is based on what I have on hand.  I will continue tomorrow I hope.

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Last night was a lovely wedding and this morning was a bridal shower for the next bride.  Her wedding is June 7.  Then we have one in August and one in December.  This has been a very busy year for weddings.  The food last night was wonderful.  They had a mexican nacho bar and fresh fruit.  It was nachos with either cheese sauce or Rotel dip, chicken, black bean, tomatoes, guac, lettuce, olives, salsa.  It was a nice change from the last couple of weddings.  Very simple and elegant.  The shower this morning was a brunch with hash brown casserole, mini quiches, mini sweets and fresh fruit.  Very nice also.

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This past week has been very busy.  Last Saturday my youngest, Rachel, graduated from high school.  We had a big party last Saturday before graduation and my sister-in-law from New Jersey came down to celebrate with us.  She left on Sunday and seemed to enjoy herself.

Rachel has only been able to find part time work so far so she will be helping more around the house then most summers.  This is also the first summer in seven years that we have not had basketball all summer long.  What a relief.  Ian has been able to find full time employment at least for the summer and we are hoping it will last longer than that.  He has decided to not return this fall to school.  We have mixed emotions about that but he is 20 almost 21 and it is time for him to make his own decisions.  He is also working a part time job.  David is almost done teaching for this year and maybe has one or two more days.  He will be taking a workshop or two this summer to bring in some extra money.  I am having a fibro flare up and my CFS is getting bad right now.  Time to take it easy.

This week I have been working at sorting out some of the house.  Rachel and I also went strawberry picking yesterday and got 3 gallons of beautiful berries.  I sold one gallon to my bf and processed the other two.  I made 13 half pints of strawberry jam and got four bags frozen.  We ate the rest.   I will try to get some more next week.

We are struggling financially right now so we have decided to go on a pantry challenge.  I will only buy fresh items until the deep freeze is almost gone.  Actually until I have to buy more than fresh stuff.  I have food, food and more food.  My deep freeze is full to overflowing and my freezer in the kitchen is full also.  I have alot of flour so I am going to restart making bread again.  The garden is in and I think he is afraid that I will not have room for everything once it starts coming in.  I will keep you updated on how I am doing.  Hopefully I can post some pictures if I can figure out how to use the digital camera.

Well we are going to a wedding this evening and it is time to get ready.  I will check back in soon.

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Hello all,

This has been a very busy week.  Not a single at home day.  Today I left the house at 10:30 picked up dd for a doctors appt, ran errands while she was in there, picked her up lunch, ran her back to school, drove home to pick up ds, got gas, ran to the post office, picked him up lunch, dropped him off at school.  He has classes until 9pm tonight.  Came home put dinner in crockpot (taco soup, yummy), worked on my Avon order and I am on the computer for now until dd calls at the school for me to come and get her after basketball practice.  Tonight is parent/teacher conferences and a basketball parent meeting.  That is why I have ds car today.  I am tired just writing about it.  After I pick up dd I need to run by a friend of mine who has baked dh a birthday cake.

Well the phone is ringing I will write more later if I can.

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Hello friends,

Today has been a busy week.  In my last entry I talked about canning beans.  Well I ended up with 28 each of white beans and pinto beans.  I have also canned turkey broth (5 quarts) and tomorrow I will be canning bean soup.

Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving so we had turkey, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, mixed veggies and stuffing.  Yesterday I took what was left of the turkey and picked the bones clean.  The bones went into a stock pot with some peppercorns and vinegar and simmered half a day.  That is where the above mentioned broth comes from.  I figured out today that I will get 11 meals and 3 lunches from my 11.7 pound turkey.  Not bad if I say so.    I had been given four bags of beans for soup so I am soaking two of them right now to make the bean soup tomorrow in the crockpot.  I am the only one that likes it so I am going to can most of it for future meals.  I only have one ham bone or I would do all of the bags.  Plus I am running very low on jars.  3 half pints and 10 quarts and that is it.  I guess I need to see if I can find some marked down. 

Dinner tonight is homemade pizza.  My second batch of dough is in the bread machine right now.  I have some pepperoni, green peppers and onion to put on it this time.

Got to go check on the dough.  God Bless

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Wow has it been a long time since I have posted.  So much to talk about..   I have been home now for a little over a year and boy have I seen the Lord's hand in this past year.

When I first got sick, dh kept talking about when I got better.......well the doctor kept saying no and dh would ask him how long.....I don't know he would say.  Finally in March the doctor said,  David she is not going back.  For the first time dh didn't say when.....he said ok.  It was hard for him because for so many years I was the breadwinner.  He now had to be the sole breadwinner.  I knew we could do it with time.  This summer was awful.......more month than money.  Dh took classes that will eventually mean more money.  My two wonderful children helped pay some of the bills and learned a valuable lesson in the process.  Dd had the water bill and ds the electric bill.  Boy did showers shorten and lights shut off more when they paid the bil.

Dh found a second job at the school that he teaches at.  He is tutoring four days a week after school.  This extra income will help us get caught up and stay ahead at least during the school year.  Between now and the end of May it is my job to make sure we can make it.  I pray daily to God for wisdom in all I do around the house.  When I am sturggling I pray more,  some days it seems I pray all day.  I am also spending more time with both of my children teaching them the skills they will need to live on their own someday.    I am trying new frugal recipes and ways to squeeze my pennies more.   

Today I am canning dry beans so I have shelf ready beans when I need them.  I will have 28 pints of navy beans and I am not sure yet how many pinto bean pints.  We have started eating more beans to help with the grocery budget.  The price of meat has gone right through the roof.  Most times if it is not marted down I can't afford it.  Tonight for dinner we are having taco salad.  We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday and dh took turkey sandwiches on Tuesday but I still have alot of turkey left so I will be freezing left turkey in food saver bags for later meals.  We are looking to replace our chest deep freeze with an upright one so it will be easier for me.  Sometimes I just can't get what I need out of the chest freezer.  My brother in law has an upright we can have in New Jersey so dh is looking to drive up during his fall break to get it then we will sell or freecycle the one we have.  It will give us so much more space for canning jars.  They are all over my house right now.   I'm sure dh would love them centrally located.

Well must go check on the beans.  God bless.

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Good Monday afternoon.  I tried to sleep in this morning but it was not to be.  I wonderful older lady from church called with a $55 Avon order.  I will wake up for that.    Talked with Ian about his day as we are sharing a car right now.  We went to Eckerd -- I picked up a prescription while he filled out a job application and I got a box of popcorn for .19 cants !!!!!  I had a coupon and it was on sale for .50 cents.  Wow I love getting a deal.  Then we went to Kroger for soda and cereal mainly.  Picked up some salad stuff also.  After lunch he is going to put in another application and then will pick up his sister from school.  This is her last full day of school.  She has basketball everyday this week.  it is hard to believe that school is over for another year.

The garden is looking good.  We have some baby peppers right now and a couple of little green tomatoes.  Can't wait to get it going and to start canning agian.

Well must go and call Rachel's work place again.  Catch up with you later.

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Today proved to be a more out of the house day then normal.  Rachel had her physical for basketball ball next year at 8:15am.  This is a free physical that is offered one day only and each school is given a different time to be there.  We still spent an hour plus there.  Most of it was waiting outdoors to be allowed in.  Once inside it is very quick.  After that we went to Kroger to shop.  I had not been seriously food shopping in about six weeks.  We just have not had the food money but I made us have the money because we were so low on food.  Only spent $48 after coupons and instore specials.  The reciept said that I saved 42% -- not bad really.  Next stop after running home and putting away the grcoeries was to Mr. Ben's house.  He and his lovely wife are in Hawaii where is daughter is getting married.  Oh the thought of having to go to Hawaii   Rachel is taking care of their animals and their garden while they are gone.  They have quite a few flowers that all need to be watered also.  Next stop was the bank -- found out she was overdrawn   she was not happy because even after putting her entire paycheck in she is still overdrawn.  This has been a learning experience for her.    Finally home !!   Only to find out that her job did not take her off the schedule like she had requested so  back out to take her to work.  She is working 2- midnight today.  She will be tired for church tomorrow.  Dinner was homemade pizza yummy.

Since being home I have spent a little bit of time in the garden.  It is really looking good.  I had to tie the tomatoes to the stakes -- they are getting that big.  One has a tomato on it.    I love it when the garden gets going.  The bunnies seem to be enjoying my lettuce but oh well.  I have been working on my needlepoint class piece.  I am teaching a "Sweet 16" needlepoint class this summer and I am trying to get the model done.  I will try to post a picture when I am done.  We had the first class yesterday learning how to count the canvas and mount it on stretcher bars.  My student is so excited.  I will be doing a second piece along with her to help her with the stitches. 

Well I must go and debone a chicken for lunch tomorrow and work somemore on my model.  I hope everyone has a blessed day.

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