Titus 2 Homemakers
The Hearth => Managing a Household => : Cheryl October 06, 2014, 07:18:35 AM
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Good morning! :)
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I feel like I'm running behind today. I was up early, about 4 a.m., but decided to go back to bed until it was time to fix a bottle for the kitten. I overslept until 7 a.m. I guess I needed the sleep.
The weather has turned cooler, but I don't expect it to last. I think we even have some rain in the forecast. It would be a perfect day for doing nothing, except maybe reading. I'm looking forward to having a day like that soon.
I need to get all the animals fed and start school with Emily. I heard my washer stop, so I need to hang out that load of laundry and start another. Other than that, it's business as usual around here and that's perfectly fine with me. I don't like surprises or excitement! :D
Hope you all have a great day!
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Good Morning Cheryl and all who will follow. :)
I am up waiting on DH to get back with the food order. Up is about all I am right now. Between the littles being up off and on last night and this neck pain that I have been having, I need a nap.....and that soooo will not happen. After we get most of the months worth of groceries but away, we will eat and finish school. After what I thought was careful inventory and planning of my food order, I went and left off two important staples. How does that happen? ??? Now I will have to figure out a way to get by without them until some extra rent money we are owed shows up. Funny how I remembered items that I normally forget, and forgot a couple I never forget. :P Other than that, I have 4 or 5 loads of laundry to do, some ironing and laying out clothes for appointments tomorrow morning.
I did try and bake some bread yesterday, again. This time......perfecto! Janice was right, it was the flour. I just kept adding more until there was no stickiness to the dough at all. Oh, and I put it in the older oven. Now, if one of the items I forgot wasn't flour (yes, flour!), I'd be golden. ;) The kids are getting spoiled and say they don't like store bought bread anymore. ;)
Cheryl, how was that ghost walk Saturday evening? Did Emily see anything "spooky"? :)
Lindsay
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Good morning Cheryl, Rooney and everyone else :D
My morning started a lot like Cheryl's. I slept until 8:00!!! I have been dealing with a Crohns flare off and on all weekend and the medicine I take for intestinal cramping knocks me on my hiney. I had to take another dose around 4:am so I slept until 8 and I have been playing catch-up ever since. Whew!!
Let's see if I can give everyone a nutshell version of my summer since I've been MIA.
Caylon~~She has been involved with custody issues all summer with Evan's father. They have FINALLY got the custody decided with Caylon having Evan around 80% of the time. Now they're beginning the child support stuff and it's probably going to get ugly. Ugh. On a more positive note, Caylon bought a house and she and her two moved into it around late July. It is a really cute house and it's about 5 minutes from my house, 2 blocks up from my parents. It was a really good move for her and she loves having her own space.
Aaron~~Aaron has been awarded sole custody of Holden and Holden's mother has no visitation rights whatsoever. She has some mental issues that prohibit her from seeing Holden and hasn't seen him in a year. Holden is thriving with us full time and is the sweetest little 2 year old....if there is such a thing. :o Whew, he's all boy and wears this Nan out. Aaron is also in the process of buying a house 5 mins from us in the other direction. They've hit a bump though, the house he is wanting to buy was deeded to 5 siblings when the parents died. One of the siblings has had liens filed against her by about 6 different companies and that wasn't known until the lawyer did the deed search. Now the siblings are working with the lawyer to get the liens lifted so the house can be sold but it is a very slow process. Aaron is kind of in limbo at the moment until all the legalities are figured out. My house looks like a storage unit because Aaron had started accumulating things for his house but now has no where to put them. They were suppose to close on the house Sept 15 but here we are...still waiting.
My mother had a total knee replacement mid July and then August 1 she was in a car accident and broke her neck. She has no paralysis thank heavens but has to wear a cervical collar for 3 months and has very strict limitations on what she can do so I've been helping her with chores and errands. Between her knee and her neck, it's been a very long summer for her.
Sam has taken on a second job of being a bail bondsman. He passed his classes and state licensing test and has gone into business with a veteran bondsman that we've known for years. He is still working at his factory job on second shift and is doing bonding in the morning. The plan is for the bonding to replace his factory job in about 18 months and he just work from home. That will be sooo nice!!! That will be a dream come true. We joke and say that Aaron puts people in jail and Sam gets the out...we've got it wrapped up. ;D
I think that about wraps up our summer with the normal gardening, canning, animal chores (we've added a few turkeys to the cast of characters in the barn) thrown in.
Let's see...today I am going to be working on catching up my housework that got pushed aside over the weekend and my Crohns mess, I need to make bread, I also need to make syrup, BBQ sauce and figure out what type of beans to cook. Sam and I are trying to eat whole foods with minimal ingredients so that has added to my kitchen chores. I try to cook a pot of beans on Monday so we can eat on them during the week. I think I'm going to cook Great Northern beans and then use them in some White Chili later on in the week. There's the normal straightening up and laundry to deal with. Aaron has qualifying tonight so I'll have Holden from 12pm-10pm. I think that wraps up the day.
I hope everyone has a blessed Monday and it is really nice to be back. I've missed everyone. :-*
Beth
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Beth ~ that is A LOT!!!!! Goodness gracious no wonder you are a very tired Nana ;) :-* :-* I hope you are feeling better today and your crohns plays nice today ;)
Lindsay ~ the fact that you can even know what you are doing for food for a month is amazing! I wish you luck in planning around the missing items - hate that ;) If I gave you my laundry you wouldn't even notice right away right?!?!? hahahaha :-*
Cheryl ~ enjoy your day - I hope you get some reading in
Well it's Monday so LOTS of laundry of course. I am trying to menu plan just for this week but can't seem to get my act together. I am feeling way frustrated about the costs of things lately :o it's shocking some days
I did go to my friends and we got one more thing planned out for the holidays so that was fun.
I am off to finish laundry, a huge to do list and hopefully some meal planning around what we already have on hand......... I hope ;)
have a great day everyone :-*
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Lindsay ~ If I gave you my laundry you wouldn't even notice right away right?!?!? hahahaha :-
So that was you that hid all that laundry under the pile of peed blankies! ;D ;D
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My goodness, Beth! I'm worn out for you! You' 've been through a lot lately. Hopefully things will settle down now.
Lindsay, Emily didn't see anything spooky on the Ghost Walk, but we really enjoyed it. We plan on doing another later this month. The one we did Saturday was around the district of antebellum homes. Lots of history in those old houses.
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Lindsay ~ If I gave you my laundry you wouldn't even notice right away right?!?!? hahahaha :-
So that was you that hid all that laundry under the pile of peed blankies! ;D ;D
darn you found it ;D ;D ;D
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Cathie,
I am shocked at the price of things every time I go to the store. I am budgeting $150 every 2 weeks for groceries and animal food but it is getting harder and harder. Sam has developed an interest in our food and what we eat and it has been very eye opening for him to go with me to the grocery store.
Right now my plan is to fix a pot of beans and a pot of soup every week. We eat meat on Sunday's and then use the leftover meat to flavor the beans and soup. Last night we smoked some chicken thighs I got on reduced/marked down price. I'm fixing great northern beans today and then Thursday I will fix white chili using the left over chicken and beans.
It's been a constant challenge to provide good food for the least amount of money. >:(
Beth
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Good morning, ladies!
We were out of town all weekend so I have to get up and get lesson planning done. That would have worked out ideally if my 12 year old had not also got up early and wanted to start school. :o So I got him started on math and lesson planned while he did that. Thankfully all the curriculum is easy to plan.
Today is a day general household chores... laundry and the kitchen are going to be the focus today. I have some kitchen organizing that I want to do and I need to make a grocery list so I can go shopping tomorrow. The budget is a bit skinny this week so I need to plan the menu and make a good list.
Trevor swims today (well, he swims almost every day.. LOL) so while he swims I will do a Spin class and then do a Core or Power class.. not sure which yet but I am thinking Core. I am down 12 pounds now and feeling pretty good.
Beth - so good to "see" you and read your updates. I am exhausted just reading about how busy you have been! I will pray for things to ease up a bit for you and for the home for Aaron to come together quickly. :)
Dinner tonight will probably be pork chops in the crockpot.. better get that going too!
Well, the washing machine beeps so I better get the sheets on the line and get the next load in the washer.
Have a great day, everyone!
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You are very right Beth. I do like your idea of having meat of Sunday and then adding that into the week - perhaps that is a better way for me to menu plan too ;) I am feeling like one frustrated Mama lately :(
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Since Caylon and her two moved out, I don't have to fix the quantity of food I once did. I'm trying to buy better quality of food (more organics, non GMO, etc) and still keep right around the same budget. One way for me to do this is to only buy one better quality of meat for the week and stretch it as farrrrr as I can. :P
Beth
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Since Caylon and her two moved out, I don't have to fix the quantity of food I once did. I'm trying to buy better quality of food (more organics, non GMO, etc) and still keep right around the same budget. One way for me to do this is to only buy one better quality of meat for the week and stretch it as farrrrr as I can. :P
Beth
That's awesome --- I unfortunately can't buy organics right now --- although I'd love too ;D
I do love the idea of how far can I stretch the meat -- that's a great idea :-*
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I understand completely Cathie. I have only started buying non gmo grains and beans in the last month or so. Sam is really trying to loose weight and has been doing a lot of research on how HFCS and MSG along with other synthetic, man made chemicals causes the body to gain weight because the body doesn't know how to metabolize the chemicals so it stores it as fat. We've been trying to eat as "clean" as we can. If I still had Caylon and her two here, there would be no way for me to do this. My motto is " I do the best I can with what I have to work with" :D
BTW, Sam has lost around 30 pounds. ;D ;D
Beth
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This is a picture of my Main Street that was just posted on Facebook. It was taken during the summer Friday night car shows. The building furtherest away on the left is my thrift store. ;D
Beth
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I understand completely Cathie. I have only started buying non gmo grains and beans in the last month or so. Sam is really trying to loose weight and has been doing a lot of research on how HFCS and MSG along with other synthetic, man made chemicals causes the body to gain weight because the body doesn't know how to metabolize the chemicals so it stores it as fat. We've been trying to eat as "clean" as we can. If I still had Caylon and her two here, there would be no way for me to do this. My motto is " I do the best I can with what I have to work with" :D
BTW, Sam has lost around 30 pounds. ;D ;D
Beth
WOW Sam WAY TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that is so awesome!!!!! Congrats!!! i am sure that is all true --- all that bad yucky stuff. I am trying to eat as clean as we can, meat unfortunately can't be organic but hopefully I can find a local person and we can see. My family does not like beans so that is a problem, they are big pasta eaters
ugggggggggggggg I hate being the grown up somedays ;D
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love that picture Beth! So cool!!!
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Meat is my big thing too Cathie. Some weeks I can get the "good" stuff and some weeks I cant. Food Lion has grass fed, no hormones, etc etc hamburger for around $7/lb. Thats not much more per pound than the regular hamburger prices in my area. If I'm going to have spaghetti or chili for our "meat meal" that week, I'll get a pound of the good stuff for just a few more dollars.
Beth
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What an exciting day! Beth is back and EVERYONE is online!! I dont have time to read everything! I will just sum this day up as being a MONDAY! @!! Ugh I have been to town 3 x. 1st Ross and I went in to rent a grain vac as ours was having issues and a guy was coming to load truck at 9 so Ross left me off to drive our jeep home that has been getting fixed on for a month! Came home and we fed calves and got grain vac set up for safflower delivery and then we took hay racks off of trailer to load our red tractor up and I took it to town to be fixed on. I forgot and shut off the truck while they were unloading and I had to be jump started . ugh Down to elevator for a check , up to the school to leave Lanes forgotten football bag. Back home my mom decides of all days to come and clean my kitchen cupboards but I surprised her and left my kitchen a mess this morning :o :-[ ;D as Ross and I where running to town. So Ross and I eat a lunch load green tractor that is also broke down (do you see the trend the repair bills this month is outrageous) and I take it in and get 2 new batteries for truck that we need to change tonight. I need to go fuel up skidsteer and add more creep feed to tub so we can feed calves tonight after I get back from 2 pastures of checking cows and putting out salt and mineral. The worst is I want/need to haul hay and we only have 1 tractor right now and the dealer doesnt have a loader tractor to rent right now. I will wait till tomorrow after school and hopefully get at least a couple hauled when Ashley gets home. So I better head out so I can get back in time to go back to town to get Allison from basketball and Lane from football. Oh my troubles havent ended there. My son updated my phone so my banking app isnt there anymore and so I went to redownload and some kid changed password so I am helpless. Kids are so in trouble. They will get phone and have it fixed in few minutes after I spent time trying to figure it out. UGh Just so it is fixed!! I think I should just write a book only titled Why Farm/Ranch Women Turn Gray Faster!!~!
Janice
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Meat is my big thing too Cathie. Some weeks I can get the "good" stuff and some weeks I cant. Food Lion has grass fed, no hormones, etc etc hamburger for around $7/lb. Thats not much more per pound than the regular hamburger prices in my area. If I'm going to have spaghetti or chili for our "meat meal" that week, I'll get a pound of the good stuff for just a few more dollars.
Beth
thanks Beth - I'll see what I can find ;)