Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Sometimes We All Need a Break

      


   I know that I have not been online much visiting my blogging friends.  The hot weather has my sleep cycle messing up big time.  Yes, it was screwed up before, but now it is even worse.  Instead of fighting it, I've just been going with the flow.  I've been getting to sleep about 4 in the morning and sleeping until 10 a.m. for the most part.  Some days it is more, some days it is less.  It is not restful sleep by any means, but I'll take what I can get. 😉

   I will totally admit that when the temperatures heat up, my motivation to do much of anything goes straight out the window.  I used to feel terribly guilty about that, but have learned that all that does is stress me out even more.  I'm giving myself the gift of just taking a break from almost everything and just doing whatever my body and mind feel like and can actually do for the day.

   Yesterday was actually a "good day" and I made the last minute decision to drive Rachel and Steven in to drop off the keys to one of their vehicles that was having trouble at the repair shop instead of just loaning her my car.  Since it was Monday, we decided to stop at the Goodwill also to find Steven some more clothes.  They had just changed over the half off color tag of the week the day before and we could also use my 20% off senior discount.  We found him some cute shirts and shorts, Rachel found some Lularoe things for her and I found a dvd series set, a beautiful Brighton wallet and a night light thing for Steven.  While in town, we also stopped at Winco to pick up a few groceries before heading home.  

   Today is a slow day...one where my mind is not clear like it was yesterday.  This is a day where I would not trust myself to drive my car, even just a few blocks.  We have high heat outside along with haze from the fires burning south of us.  The swamp cooler is going and keeping us cool inside though.  I am so thankful that we cannot smell the smoke or I would not be able to use the swamp cooler and that would make it miserably stuffy, hot and uncomfortable in here.  I'm staying inside until later this evening when things cool down and then I will go out and water the gardens.  

   Sometimes we all just need a break.  It is good for us to give ourselves permission to take some time to just go with the flow and not feel guilty about it.  It is a time of refreshing, healing and practicing "self care".  I used to be such a "Type A" person and had a hard time now learning to accept my limitations without feeling guilty about it.  I still have my moments of self doubt, anger and mourning the "old me", but for the most part, I am learning to just go with the flow because there are so many things that are beyond my control.  Life for me is better this way and one that my doctor has been advising me to live for quite awhile now.  I feel calmer and actually more in control of my life this way if that makes any sense at all.  

   Jeff should be getting up here soon so I will end this post so I can spend time with him before he has to head back out into this heat wave again tonight for work.  God bless that man of mine for being so hard working, caring, protective and supportive of me.  He fully encourages me to do whatever I need to do to be the best me I can be on any given day or even moment to moment.  Yesterday he was excited for me that I was having such a rare good day where I had energy and a clear head and that I could go and spend the afternoon with Rachel and Steven running errands.  He also understood when I got home and it had all caught up with me and I needed to rest.  I am blessed!

   

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Happy 5th Birthday to our Grandson Isaiah!





     Happy Birthday to our amazing middle grandson Isaiah!  



    Isaiah is kind, loving, goofy and looks up to his big brother Bradley.  He loves his baby cousin Steven beyond words and is so good with him.  He still enjoys cuddling with Grammie and G-pa, something that thrills us to no end and has lots of questions that he talks over with us.  



   This boy loves pancakes, raspberries, dressing up as his favorite superheros, building with Legos, going on hikes, hunting with his daddy, cooking with his mom, swimming, and riding his bike.  He is also a very good fisherman who usually out catches everyone else in the family. We think he takes after his great grandpa Fred with his love of fishing.


   Happy Birthday Isaiah!  Grammie and G-pa are so proud of you and love you beyond words!

Monday, July 23, 2018

Frugal Friday Wrap Up 7/14-7/20 2018




~Saturday we had Isaiah spend the night with us.  We picked raspberries, made pizza for dinner, watched a movie and he hot tubbed with G-pa.  It was so much fun to have him here with us!
~Sunday morning, Isaiah and I picked more raspberries and Jeff made us pancakes for breakfast.  Isaiah took the raspberries he picked home to share.
~Jeff and I went to Goodwill and got the following for $16.00.  A bottle of Shea Moisture body wash (all organic and fair trade for) retails for $5.99, 2 J Jill shirts retails for $69 and $50 each, 2 Scentsy plug in wall units retail for $20 each, and a cookbook that retails for $9.99.  Total cost retail would have been $174.98 for all that!


~We also stopped at the Dollar Tree to get a few things and got 15% off since it was their customer appreciation day.
~Jeff found a new series to watch on Netflix that we are enjoying.
~Dinner was leftovers.
~Monday we had to run and get Jeff's paycheck, deposit it, pay bills and do some shopping.  We went to the Dollar Tree in that town (had been at the one in the other town we shop in also the day before) and found that they had pickle relish with 45% more in the jars than I can get at other stores.  I picked up 2 jars and that should last us for the rest of the year. They also had their garden seeds for .10 each pack.  I picked up some peas and radishes for our Fall garden.


~Thank you to Anne from Flathead Lake  for suggesting the Elete electrolyte drops instead of drinking Gatorade.  I ordered some online through Swanson Vitamins and used a 10% discount code.  My son Jaysn and I are both going to use it and see if it works for us.  I did buy the "refill" bottle because it came out way cheaper per use that way.
~We also picked up some cheap gin so I was able to start a large jar of raspberry gin again using fresh raspberries from our garden.  That stuff is soooooo good!
~Walmart had more of their deli lunch meat marked down so I grabbed another package of turkey an threw it in the freezer one I got home.  I am trying to stock up when it is on sale and take a package out a week to use.  When it is hot outside like it is right now I tend to not cook as much.


~I got some raspberry juice on one of my favorite shirts and quickly washed the spot with Dawn dishwashing soap and it came right out.
~Swagbucks has been running in the background (the encraves) whenever they are available and I think about it.  It's an easy way to get more points.
~The library finally got the movie "I Can Only Imagine" in for me.
~Our oldest son Jaysn came up and did some trouble shooting on my cell phone for me.  It has been using all my data up even though I have not been accessing anything.  He has it straightened out now and even set up my voice mail for me.  He can figure just about anything out if it has to do with computers, cell phones, etc..  Thank you Jaysn!


~I made au gratin potatoes with smoked turkey that I had cubed up and froze at Christmas.  The smoked turkey was a gift from one of the people my husband delivers to on his route and who he also happened to grow up with.
~Tuesday I harvested a bunch of lettuce from the garden before it went to bolt and got that washed up and put in the fridge.
~I mended my favorite pair of soft black athletic pants.


~Jeff had been requesting that I make his favorite tuna pasta salad so I did make that in the afternoon before retreating once again to my recliner.
~I had too many noodles for the salad alone so I made a quick cheese sauce and made homemade mac and cheese with the excess noodles, topped that with some Panko breadcrumbs and stuck it in the oven to be ready when Jeff got up in the afternoon.
~I watched a bunch of videos on Youtube about saving money and learned some new skills in the process.  I love building up different skills and learning new ways to do things.
~I read a short story online.


~Swagbucks was run in the background once again so I could earn points there and I tried to catch as many of the special codes available also.
~Jeff picked up some bread, cheese and chicken that was on sale at the grocery store that he drives by daily.  The chicken was .99 a pound for chicken thighs, $4.49 for a 2 pound block of cheese and .89 for bread.  I'll be making baked chicken later in the week for dinner when Chris comes over for dinner and to do a ride along with his dad one night.
~Wednesday I borrowed 2 more movies from the library.
~I harvested a large mixing bowl full of raspberries along with some blueberries and strawberries.


~We had leftovers for dinner.
~Thursday we checked and found out my health insurance was going up to $600 a month.  OUCH!  We had to figure out a way to pay for the extra expense so we dropped our home phone line (we do have cell phones but our reception can be spotty) and had Jaysn come over and sinc our phones up with our internet in the house.
~We also are dropping one of Jeff's lower payout life insurance policies (he still has his high payout one).
~I took advantage of a free magazine offer that I can donate to the library.
~Our son Chris came over for dinner so I made elk meatloaf with Yoshida's sauce, rice and a salad (lettuce from our garden).  We had poundcake with the choice of chocolate sauce or berry sauce (that I made from our raspberries and strawberries). I cooked extra rice for a few more meals.


~Jeff helped Chris change out a part on his car.
~I watered the gardens in the evening.
~Another gallon ziplock bag full of raspberries were frozen.
~We went over our wants vs our needs clothing wise and both of us are fine for awhile.  We buy most of our things from the thrift store anyway to save money but at this point, we are okay.
~Not much going on Friday...dealing with a flare so I went nowhere.
~I did manage to pick some lettuce and peas from the garden.













Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Prioritizing When You Don't Have Much Oomph



   Today is one of those days when I just don't have much "oomph".  Yesterday I could feel a flare coming on in addition to already battling some other infections at the moment and this morning well...

  I had a long "to do" list for today and was supposed to watch Steven while Jaysn and Rachel went to a movie this afternoon.
I crawled out of bed around 9:30 and knew I was in trouble.  Time to prioritize.

   I got one load of laundry going and found that lifting my arms up straight out in front of me was really painful.  I realized at that moment that taking care of an active toddler was not in the cards today.  I love Steven with all my heart and spending time with him is one of my favorite things in the world, but I just could not do it today.  I called Jaysn to let him know.  By the time I hung up the phone, I was close to tears because I felt so bad for letting the kids down.  Jaysn was great about it but I still felt awful.

   I had lettuce in the garden that needed to be harvested this morning so I got myself dressed in a very soft long sleeveless dress and headed out to the garden.  I harvested 3 kinds of lettuce, got that washed and then put away.  By this time I was spent.  I grabbed a cup of coffee and settled into my recliner after I got the laundry into the dryer (no hanging it out on the line today for me).  And here I sit.

   It's close to noon now and the rest of my day will be spent doing things that keep me pretty much sedentary.  I will be working on my points programs, watching Youtube videos on further ways to build skills and save money, mending my favorite pair of black soft summer pants and doing some reading.  Dinner will be something super easy.  It's going to be close to 100F here today so we will be having either leftovers or a salad for dinner.  I have some precooked chicken in the freezer that would could put on the salad (with the lettuce I picked from the garden this morning) or we could make wraps with them if that is what my hubby wants instead.

   I think all of us have these kinds of day.  Those of us who battle chronic illnesses just have them more often. 😉 We have to prioritize what is the most needful thing or what absolutely has to get done that particular day.  For me, it was the laundry (I needed my super soft clothing washed) and harvesting the lettuce in the garden before it all went to bolt and got bitter.  I have a plan for a super easy dinner that does not require much work or energy and is still healthy.  My hubby can even throw that together if I can't do it.

   One other tip that I really want to pass along is to have easy meals that someone else can make (if you have someone else in the home who can help you) or ones that you can throw together quickly.  I try to have premade (some are homemade and some are bought on sale) meals in the freezer at all times.  This has saved us so much money and time and has been a lifesaver.  

   I'm going to end here and start on my points programs.  I want to earn point that I can cash in for gift cards.  I am hoping that maybe I can accumulate enough to give as gifts for Christmas or can use for us if the need arises.  Be blessed all!

   

   

Friday, July 13, 2018

Frugal Friday Wrap Up 7/7-7/13 2018


95F out on the back porch and this is how I find Doofy!


   It's been heating up around here, literally.  Today we hit the mid 90's.  Luckily, it does cool down well at night for us so far and I am hoping that pattern stays the same.  I'm currently venting the cooler night air into the house so that I can sleep well tonight and have the door to the front bedroom, which holds our pantry, open so that it can cool down in there.  This weeks post is going to be very low on pictures because I honestly have been a bit too hot to even think straight most of the time.  Here we go!



~Saturday Jeff and I went to the movies.  We saw "Ant Man and Wasp" at a matinee showing.  He got the senior discount also.  If we had waited one more day, I would have gotten the discount also but we really wanted to go on Saturday.
~We also went to Goodwill and found several pink tagged items (half price).  We also had a 20% off one item coupon.  We spent just a smidge over $25 and got 2 sweaters, 1 dressy type shirt (looked it up and it retails for $220 new), 1 loose warm long sleeved shirt for me, a shirt for Jeff, season 1 of "Will and Grace" and 2 cds for Jeff.
~We  shared a .99 junior sized Frosty on the way home.
~We picked raspberries from the garden.
~Sunday Chris and Heather had us, Jaysn, Rachel, Steven and Jeremy over to celebrate the July family birthdays.  My birthday was that day and Rachel's was on Wednesday the 11th.  We both we given such fun gifts!
~We took raspberries and cherries over for them and for Jeremy.
~Jeff made me a wooden pig with a unicorn horn and a tutu after I showed him a picture of an actual pig dressed up like that and said that is what I wanted for my birthday.  We can't have real pigs here so he surprised me by making me a wooden one. 💖
~We watched the movie "Sherlock Gnomes" that we borrowed from the library and had popcorn with it.
~Aunt Norma (our sweet neighbor who now has memory issues) showed up at our door last night with some cherries that she picked, washed and took all the stems out for us.  She got a little disoriented and sat down on our stairs so I helped her up and Jeff walked her back next door to her house and made sure she got in safely.
~Monday I boiled up a dozen eggs for Jeff.
~Chris and Heather and the boys stopped by for a visit.  I had Heather go through my shoes and take what she wanted (we wear the same size) of the ones that I cannot wear anymore.  I sent her home with a bag full.  Bradley's Lego magazine had also come in the mail so he got to take that home with him too.  They picked some more raspberries because the little boys ate all of them that I had taken over yesterday.  I'm glad they like their fruit!
~I got all the sheets and towels washed and hung the sheets out on the line to dry after Jeff got the lawn mowed.


~Tuesday was another day at home for me and one that I both needed and loved.  I finished reading a book from the library.
~I found the old tv series "My Favorite Martian" on YouTube so Jeff and dI are enjoying that.
~Wednesday I got Jeff's laundry hung up on the line to dry along with a few of my things.
~The watering of the gardens was done in the early morning and late evening.
~I borrowed a book and 2 movies from the library.
~While at the library, Jaysn and Rachel's neighbor gave me 2 eggplant plants.  She had planted too many up at another friend's house and was thinning them out.  They are beautiful plants and I do love my eggplant.
~I mixed up some aphid spray and got that on some of the rose bushes and the cauliflower plants.  The aphids are horrible this year.
~Jeff and I have been enjoying watching "Food Mythical Morning" on YouTube.  Those guys are funny!
~My neighbor came over to pick raspberries in the evening and we had a great visit.  She also brought me some really cute containers.
~I froze the raspberries I picked.  I also found one blueberry that was ripe and two strawberries so I ate those.
~Dinner was beer battered fish, roasted potatoes and homemade coleslaw with craisins in it.
~Thursday I got up early and got some laundry done.  I'm glad I did it early because Rachel needed to do some laundry also.  That meant a nice visit with her and Steven too.
~Both Rachel and I picked raspberries.
~Jeff and I ran into town to pick up some cat and dog food and toilet paper that was on sale at Shopko.  We also picked up a prescription for me, kitty litter and some personal care items at Walmart.
~I recently found that if I drank Gatorade or Powerade in the evening, that my legs do not hurt and cramp up at night as much.  They usually cramp up every single night (isn't Fibro fun?). Luckily it has been on sale at Safeway lately so I picked up 8 more today for .59 each and a cheese pizza that we will add pineapple and Canadian bacon to it when Isaiah spends the night this weekend since he wants "Hawaiian Pizza".


~Jeff treated us to Chinese food from the deli since the heat was really getting to me and I was having trouble even walking while we were out shopping.  I am so thankful he did that.  I had my dinner, watched a few shows and then went and laid down for about an hour.
~I got some free coupon inserts from the free midweek ads papers.
~Since our early dinner was the first meal I had all day, I had leftovers around midnight since I could not sleep and was hungry.
~Friday I took leftover cornbread and mixed it with bbq sauce, an egg, some water, onion, salt and some ground venison to make a meatloaf.  It was really good and something I hope to remember how I did it so we can have it again in the future.
~I have been listening to my friend Gary Haleamau, who is a well known Hawaiian music artist, livestream on Facebook.  I grew up with him and we were in the Hawaiian music and dance classes together in high school and also choir and select choir.  I can't wait to see him in October and meet his beautiful family.
~I did the watering at night since it was in the mid 90's here today and it was burning my plants.
~The sunset was absolutely glorious this evening and I tried to soak all the beauty in.



   We have Isaiah coming to spend the night with us tomorrow and I am very excited about that!  We try to take the grandkids for special one on one time in addition to having the bigger boys stay with us together also.  I have the hot tub ready, his bed is made and we will be making Canadian Bacon, Pineapple and Cheese pizza for dinner tomorrow night per his request.  He is very easy to please. :)









Saturday, July 7, 2018

Frugal Friday Wrap Up 6/30-7/6 2018

   


   


Another Frugal Friday post!  I've been busy with the garden, the youngest grandson, and trying to deal with the drastic weather changes.  The fur babies seem to be confused by the weather changes also so sleep has been more challenging lately (it's always a challenge but this is getting beyond ridiculous) because they have been restless as well at night.  All this has left me drained and a bit "raw" emotionally.  I tend to withdraw from being social when this is going on and that is what has happened and therefor the lack of posting, replying to comments and even reading emails.  Sorry and please forgive me. Onto the subject that you are here for....frugality!




~Saturday Jeff and I ran into town to deposit his check and get the shopping done.  I only had enough energy to go to 2 grocery stores...Walmart and Safeway.  I had planned my trips carefully and made a list, downloaded coupons and prayed for other bargains.  Well we hit the jackpot!  I was able to get a whole ham for $5, shrimp and cod for 50% off, 2 pound blocks of cheese for $3.99 each, barbeque sauce for .49 each, mayo at half off, Hefty freezer bags for .99 a package, Gatorade for .58 each, and many other deals as well.  We got home and Jeff had me sit down while he unloaded all the groceries and got them put away.
~At Walmart I found 2 shirt on clearance for $1 each.
~That night we watched 2 movies.  I had borrowed "Ferdinand" from the library and we watched the newest Star Wars movie on Netflix.  Jeff baked a pizza for our dinner that night also.



~Sunday I was feeling better so I tried to get more done.  I did laundry, cut up celery and peppers and froze some and set some aside to use in our dinner that night, harvested lettuce from the garden and got that all washed and torn up for salads and picked a bunch of raspberries.
~I gave some of the raspberries to my neighbor who loves them and they are her "comfort food".
~Dinner on Sunday night was homemade Lo Mein using lots of veggies, leftover steaks and whole wheat noodles.



~We watched a Kevin James comedy show on Netflix.
~I cut up a bunch of strawberries from our garden.
~I continued to read a library book when I retired to bed early because I had once again overdone it with my activity level.
~We got more rain and the rain barrel is filling up.
~Monday found me really sore but there were things that needed to get done.  Rachel met us at our house and we headed up to Uncle Bob's farm to pick cherries.  His trees were loaded and did not get hit by the frost like our's did.  Between what Jeff was able to get from way up high in  our trees and in the short time we were picking at Uncle Bob's we got 3 gallons plus 1 quart of cherries.
~I gave the quart bag of cherries to a dear friend for her to have with her dinner while she worked the overnight shift.



~I cut up the big ham I got for $5 into 3 meals of 4 ham steaks per meal and bag of cubed ham for soups and salads.  Jeff usually eats 2 ham steaks and I have one and use the other for yet another meal.  These were smaller ham steaks, not those huge ones you see packaged up separately in the grocery stores.
~Dinner that night was fried ham steaks and mashed red potatoes with parsley from our garden.
~My dessert was fresh raspberries from the garden sprinkled with a little sugar.  So Yummy!
~I listened to sleep and relaxation music later that night to help me unwind and to hopefully help bring down the pain levels I was having.



~Chris and Heather brought back a solar charger to use to plug in Jeff's CPAP machine when we go camping.  My parents gave it to us since they bought it for a camping trip to use for my dad and now they no longer use it.  Chris, Heather and the boys spent the weekend with my parents in Montana.
~I borrowed two more movies from the library.
~Tuesday I watched Steven for awhile.  He was a happy little bug.  We played, watched Baby Einstein on TV and then he fell asleep in my arms. Happy Grammie.




~Jeff and I ran into town in the afternoon to finish our grocery shopping.
~Dinner was leftovers.
~Wednesday was the 4th of July.  Rachel came over to do laundry and we both picked a lot of raspberries.
~I made two loaves of whole wheat bread.
~Jeff, Rachel, Jaysn and Steven went down to a community wide BBQ and potluck.  I was not able to make it because the change in weather (getting way hotter) sent me into a flare.  I turned on the swamp cooler and spent the afternoon in my recliner.
~I planted more pole bean seeds in an area where the ground cherry plants never came up.
~Jeff pulled out all the lupine plants since they were attracting aphids that were trying to destroy my garden.



~Thursday was a hot day so we took advantage of it to hang Jeff's laundry out to dry on the laundry line.
~I used the enclosed hot tub area to dry some of our house slippers that I had washed.
~The Instant Pot is a life saver when it is hot.  I cooked up 2 frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts and used them to make chicken salad with.
~Lunch was chicken salad wraps with lettuce from our garden.  I added sliced grapes to mine since I love that combination.
~Jeff picked the remaining cherries from our tree and packaged them up to give to some of his coworkers.  We still have a few large bags of them in the refrigerator for our own use.
~I cut a box of fabric softener sheets in half.  I only use 1 half sheet per dryer load.
~The gardens were watered in the morning.  I will be switching to evening watering now that the nights will be hotter again.



~By keeping the house pretty much closed up during the day after running the swamp cooler on vent until about 3 a.m., I was able to keep it in the lower 70's even when it hit 90F outside for most of the day but had to finally turn the swamp cooler on around 4 p.m. when the house started to heat up.
~I did not feel like cooking so frozen burritos were heated up and eaten with a garden salad.
~Friday I harvested strawberries and lettuce,and Rachel and I harvest raspberries from the garden.  I shared them all with Rachel.
~Lunch was leftover chicken salad, crackers and grapes.  Quick, easy and yummy!



~I spent a lot of time reading books from the library.
~Dinner was baked lemon dill cod that I had previously bought at half price and frozen, cornbread with a can of drained corn mixed in (both the mix and the canned corn was previously bought on sale), applesauce, and a green salad from our garden. 
~The garden was watered in the evening when it got cooler.
~I watched a show on YouTube about America's Princess marrying into British aristocracy.  It was was really interesting.






  Blessings to all!











Monday, July 2, 2018

Frugal Friday Wrap Up 6/23 - 6/29 2018

   
Meal ideas with what we have in the pantry, fridge, freezer and garden.



    Late again...busy weekend and another flare hit...oh joy....NOT!  All the weather changes have been wreaking havoc on my body.  Such is life.

Made more homemade syrup.


~Saturday I cooked up 2 pork roasts in the crockpot with half a can of leftover beer.  I then shredded the pork roasts.  Some we will eat plain as is, and the rest will later be mixed with BBQ sauce or Yoshida's sauce to make sandwiches with later.  This will make several meals.  I froze most of the meat mixtures for future meals.  I'm trying to stock my freezer with homemade precooked meals to get us through the hot days of Summer when I am sick from the heat and the last thing I want to do is heat up the house cooking anyway.
~Jeff and I made a list of meals that we could make with what we have in our freezers.  There is a lot of meat in there along with some prepackaged meals, veggies and frozen bread and fruit.
~All the laundry was hung out of the line to dry since it was such a breezy day.
~Jeff made pancakes for breakfast from my homemade pancake mix.
~I made some more homemade pancake mix.
~We saved the eggshells from making the pancakes and will crush them up when they are dry to put around some of the more tender plants in the garden.

Cutting up rhubarb from our garden to freeze. 

~I got the hot tub maintenance done and we hot tubbed later in the evening.
~Jeff got the rain barrel set up and we used the rain water that had collected in a bucket already to water one of the pear trees.
~I looked up the recipes for homemade weed killer for the driveway and homemade aphid spray.  I'll get them mixed up and applied later in the week since it looked like we were going to get rain.
~Jeff and I finally got the harvested rhubarb cut up and frozen.
~I fixed myself a raspberry gin (homemade) fizzy drink as a treat.  I plan on making more of the raspberry gin again this year since the plants are loaded with berries.  This is one of my favorite drinks ever.
~I got some cooked rice that I had previously frozen, warmed that up and served it with pulled pork and cabbage for dinner.  Yum!
~Sunday Jeff and I celebrated Father's Day a week late.  We went out to lunch (way cheaper than going out to dinner) at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants and then went to the bowling alley so he could bowl 3 games.  We got the league rate so that saved money right there also.
~We stopped at Goodwill to donate some things and found some treasures there as well.  We spent a little over $11 since we had a return item, had an item with a half price colored tag and a 20% off the highest priced item coupon.  Steven loved the little shoes we got him. 😁

Raspberry Gin Fizz with homemade raspberry infused gin.

~Monday Jeff and I went down to the park with Rachel and Steven for a bit and took Caesar with us.  The Avista guy was reading meters and Caesar was on instant alert and protection mode.  This is the same guy who kept lunging at him trying to provoke him and get him to bite in our own yard.  We finally got a meter that they can read remotely installed so we don't have to deal with him at home.  Well the idiot decided to try and provoke Caesar again with us standing right there.  He had to go out of his way to even come near us since we were at the park and on the basketball court.  Caesar positioned himself between the baby and that awful man and we had to hold Caesar back and get him calmed down.  Caesar rarely gets upset, but if someone is a threat to his "pack", he will protect them.
~I borrowed some movies from the library.
~We washed the shower curtain and towels from the master bathroom and Jeff gave the whole bathroom a good cleaning.  The towels were hung out on the lawn to dry.
~I harvested some raspberries and strawberries from the garden today and gave most of them to Rachel.
~A whole package of bacon that I had previously found on clearance and then froze was cooked up in the oven so we could use some of it for BLT sandwiches for dinner using lettuce from our garden also.
~I saved the bacon grease to use to fry potatoes in at a future time.
~We had a power surge which caused the hot tub to reset itself up to 99F.  I redid the settings to take it back down to 85F and in economy mode when we were not using it but also took advantage of the hot water to have a nice soak in.  Jeff joined me once he got up from his afternoon nap.
~I ran a load of laundry late at night so that I could dry it in the morning before Rachel needed to use the washer, dryer and laundry line to do their laundry.

BLT sandwiches with lettuce from our garden.

~Tuesday was spent at home.  I did some laundry, picked some raspberries and cherries, along with 1 lonely strawberry, watered the gardens and did some reading.
~Dinner was leftovers.
~My allergies were acting up and that made me miserable and really nervous for some reason.  I ended up going to bed around 6:15 p.m.,took a sleeping pill to help calm me down, got up at midnight to have a yogurt and then slept until 7 the next morning.  I still only got 15 minutes of deep sleep though.  Is it any wonder that U have major brain fog? 😠
~Wednesday morning found me up earlier than my normal, which is a good thing.  I had coffee out on the back porch and nibbled on some more raspberries and cherries that I picked while wandering around the garden.
~I was having a rough day and skipped my oldest grandson's T-ball game.  Jeff went to it and brought me home a Snickers candy bar to help cheer me up.
~I did make 2 more loaves of bread.
~Thursday I harvested more cherries and raspberries from the garden.
~It rained so our rain barrel got some much needed water in it and our gardens got a good soaking.
~I have been trying to work my points programs as much as possible this week.
~Thursday I made Jeff and I a nice dinner of elk steaks, broccoli cheese rice and green beans for him and tomatoes for me.

Thursday night's dinner.

~Jeff picked some cherries before the birds got the rest of them.
~Friday Steven came over to spend the afternoon and early evening with us.  We had a nice snack of cheddar cheese and crackers.
~I harvested more cherries, raspberries and strawberries from the garden.
~I got my shopping list done for my Safeway cherry picked deals.
~I went through the deals at Rosauers and circled what I wanted to get there also.

Rosauers ad.




   Hope you are all doing well!