Frugal Friday Wrap Up 4/21/23

 Saturday:

~I spent the part of the day watching Bradley play baseball.  He had two games and they won both!  Jeff had to work so I went into town with him, dropped him off and then went to the morning game.  Later, I dropped the car off with him and Heather picked me up and took me to the afternoon game.  Jeff joined us there after he got off.

~Heather's parents, whom I love dearly, came to the afternoon game and we had a great visit.  We talked about the state of the world and how we feared it will be for our children and grandchildren.  We realized that we are going to have to be the ones to help teach them the skills they will need to make it through the upcoming very difficult years and that we may also have to help them out in various ways.

~I got part of the shopping done between games.  I picked up some Yukon gold seed potatoes and 2 bunches of Walla Walla sweet onion starts for my garden.  I will pick up some of the Huckleberry Gold seed potatoes on Friday when I go back into town and the new shipment comes in since they were out of them.

~Jeff and I got some of the things on my "stock up" list bought.  More light bulbs, things needed to service our cars, health related items and cleaning supplies are now bought and crossed off my list.  I am trying to purchase some of the needed items each time I go shopping.

~I really did not need much grocery wise but did pick up some extra boxes of snack crackers to have on hand since we will be having my parents and my baby brother's family coming at the end of this week.  I am so very excited to see everyone and watch my nephew Cade perform with his band at the U of I Jazz Festival!

~Jeff and I grabbed a long sandwich from the Winco deli to have for dinner and ate it on the way home from shopping.  It was $4.98 and fed both of us.

~It was a very long and exhausting day for me.  I was in bed by 7:45 pm.  It did not take me long to fall asleep once my head hit the pillow.  Jeff stayed up until about 10:30 p.m. . 

Sunday:

~Jeff got out in the morning and busted up the crumbling cement stairs that leads to our front door.  He broke his sledgehammer  while doing it and then decided to use the back of his axe to finish it.  Hopefully we will be able to find him another good sledgehammer at a yard sale this Summer.

~Jeff replaced the rotting boards in front of our front door entrance...now to get the stairs and decking built.

~I made us a nice comfort meal.  Creamy scalloped potatoes with ham cubes baked together, green beans for Jeff and broiled asparagus for me, and the rest of the fresh pineapple with mandarin oranges as a fruit for me.  Jeff did not want any fruit.

~I switched out the Winter themed pictures for wall hangings that my mother made and a signed print from one of my favorite Hawaiian artists Herb Kane.  I think it is such a little thing to do, switching out decor that is, but it makes such a huge difference to the feel of your home.  I always try to surround myself with pictures and wall hangings that mean something special to me.

Monday:

~I took half of a package of Krab and made a nice Krab salad with it.  This gave me 2 meals.

~Bad pain day and comfort food was needed.  I made meatloaf and rice pilaf for dinner.

~Chris, Heather and Isaiah came over to pick up the freezer that I bought for the kids and a few other items (Bradley was at a horse riding lesson with his Grandma Tammy).  While they were here, I also loaded them up with frozen blackberries and raspberries (grown in our garden) and an onion chopper.  I still have so many bags of the berries for our use also.

~I called my mom and we had a lovely visit.  I can't wait to see her and my dad on Wednesday!  

Tuesday:

~I spent the day cleaning like a mad woman! Yes, I wore myself out.

~Jeff made us grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner since I could barely move.

Wednesday:

~My parents arrived!  Yay!!!!  They came to my house on the way to their hotel.  I had a nice lunch all ready for them and orange juice for my mother, who has a cold.

~Mom and Dad brought me my Grandmother's cedar lined hope chest.  It is HUGE!  They also brought me a wool rug that my great grandmother designed and made herself.  What a treasure.  Inside the chest was my grandfather's christening outfit, my mother's tam-o-sham little hat that was given to her as a child because of her Scottish heritage, some long kid leather gloves of my grandmother's, crocheted lace placemats, and some other wonderful things.

~Jeff went to our bank to straighten out a mess in person.  I had been locked out of my account and his credit card has been declined.  This raised huge red flags for us.  Turns out someone had been trying to drain our account.  They transferred money off our credit card and put it into our checking account, took money out of our savings account and again transferred it into our checking account.  It was just a matter of time before they had that money transferred to their account.  UGH!  The bank got it all straightened out and we now have new security measures in place.  Our son Chris said that this scam is just people using random numbers until they get a hit on someone's account and they will just move onto the next victim now.

Thursday:

~I made a huge pot of cheese sauce for homemade macaroni and cheese.  We had a big family dinner with my parents, Heather's Grandma Sandra, Chris, Heather and my grandsons Isaiah and Bradley.  We were celebrating Isaiah getting his braces off so he got to pick the dinner and he chose Grammie's macaroni and cheese.  I used 1 1/2 pounds of noodles and my biggest baking roasting pan to hold it all!  Isaiah got to keep the leftovers.

~I still had half of a pot of homemade cheese sauce left so I will be making broccoli cheese soup with it.

~I spent the afternoon with my parents at their hotel (they like to stay at hotels where they can spread out).  We shared memories of the resort that my father worked at and was my second home growing up.

~I was able to get more seed potatoes at half the price of where I got my Yukon Golds.  I picked up some all blue potatoes that stay blue inside if you do not overcook them.  They are good for potato salads and I thought they would be a fun addition to family gatherings.  I also got the Huckleberry Golds that are low on the glycemic index.  I thought these might be really good for my father, who is diabetic.  They are also delicious!  I grew some last year and we loved them!  I am tripling my potato growing patch this year.

Friday:

~I was up early as usual.  I tried to track down my FIL, whom we are estranged from, and who had a stroke.  My sons, who live here, wanted to visit him in the hospital, but he is no longer there.  I was unable to find him, so we assume he is home with Jeff's sister again.  We know we will all be blocked from seeing him now.

~I spent the majority of the day just resting.  I am beyond tired and know that I have a very busy weekend ahead.  We will be spending time with family and going to see my nephew Cade perform at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival with his high school jazz band.  Cade's other grandparents will be coming over with my brother and family, and possibly my SIL's brother too.  We have a ALL family pizza party planned for Saturday afternoon at Jaysn and Rachel's.  I really enjoy spending time with my SIL's parents...I have never met her brother, but I am sure we will get along with him too. :)

~I called Jaysn and got permission to pick Steven up from school since he had an early release day so he could spend some time with his great grandparents. He, and they, enjoyed their time together.

~Later we all went over to the hotel my baby brother Eric and his family were staying at.  While there, I got to meet my sister in law Christie's brother Daniel.  We went out to dinner and Rachel joined us.  Jaysn had to work later, so he was unable to come.  Cade, my nephew who was participating in the Jazz Festival, was with his band, so he was staying with them.