Gardening Season and New Front Steps Build have been keeping us busy!

 

Happy Frugal Cinco de Mayo!

 

   Happy Cinco de Mayo!  I love this holiday for its traditions and for its delicious foods.  I also really like being able to stock up on staples used in Hispanic cooking.  I found salsa and tortillas on sale at Safeway and got the maximum allowed.  Oh, and I cannot forget the cheese I got on sale too.  One can never have enough cheese in this house.  Jeff eats cheese almost every day so we go through a lot of it.  I only buy cheese when it is on sale. 

   It has been a busy week for me despite having to take time to rest.  I was able to get all the seed potatoes chitted  and they will soon be ready for planting out.  I did some cooking, worked in the garden and got a lot of housework done.  Jeff and I put a shade cloth up over part of the roof of the greenhouse and it has made a huge difference in there.  We have some of the shade cloth left over and will be using that to shade one of the raised garden beds when needed.  I learned how to and gave my hanai sister Shannon's little dog Casey her shots for diabetes since I will be taking care of her and the rest of the fur babies coming up here soon when Shannon goes to her daughter's college graduation. 

   My grandmother's hope chest is now put in a place of honor in the living room.  It is HUGE.  I can only imagine what my sweet Grandma put in there over the years leading up to her getting married.  I am sure there was the beautiful hand crocheted bed coverlet that her mother made for her.  I have that coverlet and it will be making its way back into the hope chest once more.  Also going into the chest will be wool blankets and some precious to me quilts.  I'm still debating about what to do with the rug that my great grandmother designed and made.  My mother had it on top on the cedar chest in her home protecting the top of it.  I remember that rug being on the floor next to my mother's bed in other homes.  If I remember correctly, the rug was made for my mother as part of her wedding gift from her grandmother who passed away before my mother got married.  I have surmised that my great grandmother knew that she would not be around to see my mother get married, so she made the rug years in advance.  My grandmother had a matching one, but sadly it got ruined after my grandmother passed away and was left in her home.  I wish my mother and I had thought about getting it when my mother was advised by one of her new stepbrothers to come and get anything that belonged to my grandmother's side of the family before it was sold off.  We all really liked and respected him.  He was watching out for us and was so good to my grandfather.  

   I've continued to try to stock up on things that we need and food.  I made a trip into Pullman on Thursday to get the sale priced cheese, salsa and tortillas.  After I got those at Safeway, I headed over to Grocery Outlet.  I came upon a awesome sale on canned luncheon meat (think Spam) for .99 a can!  Now Jeff loves this stuff and it stores forever, so I bought a flat of it.  I had not seen that low of a price for about 3 years now.  When deals like this come around, you bet I buy a lot of the item!  I think God was smiling on me because I also found my favorite Ace brand Guava "cider" in the adult beverage section. 😎  I had this down in Las Vegas and feel in love with it.  I had been unable to find it anywhere up here since then, but now Grocery Outlet is carrying it.  They lady I spoke to in charge of the ordering for that section said she just ordered more of it and is looking for different flavors also.  Cue the happy dance on my part.  Yes, it's the little things like that in life that can make me smile.  It reminds me of home in Hawaii and the carefree days on the beaches there where my stress would just melt away while watching the waves in the ocean.

   My son Josh called and told me that he had some news that would make me very happy.  I immediately blurted out "you guys are pregnant", which was then greeted with a chorus of "no" from both Josh and Lauren followed by "why would you even think that?" from Josh.  LOL!  They have both previously said they were done having kids after Peyton was born because they felt their little family was complete.  My reply to Josh was "well you said it was something that would make me very happy and grandbabies make me happy".  Anyway, it was not that, but that Josh was not picked to deploy to a place we had previously invaded.  He really wanted to go and get his deployment done while the kids were little since he had not been eligible to deploy for 8 years based on his previous jobs.  Now that he is eligible once again, he is itching to go.  Now, this is that part where I share with you all that Jeff and I have been praying that he not be deployed, especially with how much of a tinder box our world as a whole is right now.  Jeff has specifically been praying that Josh would be considered "too valuable" to deploy, just as one of his uncles and grandfathers had been.  Apparently, Josh is needed at this new base to get the troops there back in line again and trained well.  They are talking about moving him to a new group to lead them now also.  Thank you God, from a very grateful mom and dad, for your protection over our son.

   Speaking of kids and grandkids, I finally got some prints ordered from Walgreens of all the grandkids and kids.  I found a half off digital coupon code that really brought the price down.  I have a large collage frame that I will be putting the pictures in. I really wanted some updated pictures of the family to look at. Now to find the walls space for it! 

   Oh, I finally got the results of my echocardiogram.  It showed no abnormalities!  Another answer to prayer.  I was amazed at how much stress left my body when, after months of trying to figure out if I had a leaking heart valve, I finally have my answer and it was such good news!  My PTSD related to all things medical, had reared its ugly head during this time as I thought back to my childhood with heart issues and all the tests, blood draws, and painful shots I had for years, most of it done alone.  Despite having gone through therapy, I don't think that fear will ever leave me.  Some things go so deep and there are still others, that are yet to be dealt with as they are much too painful.  Those things are kept in a sealed up "boxes" in my mind.  Anyway, I don't want to dwell on those painful things, I just want to celebrate the prayers that have been answered and God's provision for our family. 😊

   

   

   

   

   

Lists...

 

   Some days my "want to do" list has to be replaced with my more realistic "what I can do" list.  Some days, like yesterday, my list consists of making a quick dinner and throwing the rest of the roasted chicken carcus into the crockpot to cook on low overnight to be made into bone broth.  It was a very high pain day and took all my energy just to move.  I finally started coming out of my flare in the early evening and was able to help Jeff get some shade cloth up over part of the greenhouse roof.  It was getting way too hot in there and literally "cooked" my Walla Walla Sweet onion starts.  Jeff is getting me some more starts today on his way home.

   My list today consisted of potting up my rosemary plants, repotting some tomato plants that I bought over the weekend, into bigger pots, and potting up some pretty Hulahoop petunias into two different pretty planters.  Also on the list was turning that delicious bone broth into some chicken noodle soup.  I threw in some of the mixed veggies that I had dehydrated to see if they would rehydrate well and they did!  Yay!  I had some of the soup for lunch and we will most likely have some for dinner tonight.  It is so good that I really don't mind having it again so soon. 😉

   I already have my list for tomorrow started.  I want to get my stacking planter filled and then seed in lettuce seeds of all kinds of varieties.  I'm thinking that I may keep this more in a partially shaded area because the weather here is very strange right now.  We have been having summer like temperatures, but it will be doing a drastic drop by this Thursday and then stay there for a bit.  I held off planting the lettuce because I did not want it to bolt in the heat. I did however put my spinach, bok choi, napa cabbage, and radish seed in because by the time they germinate and start coming up, the weather will be more Spring like.

   Jeff has been working on the front porch and steps that he is building, but took a break last night from it.  I think it was well needed.  He had been overthinking how to build it and was getting really frustrated with himself.  I went out there Sunday afternoon, looked at it, and came up with a easy building plan based on math for the rise on the steps.  Usually Jeff is the math guy, but in his desire to adjust the rise to work better for me, he got into his head way too much.  He was also exhausted and hot by this time, so he was not thinking clearly.  Monday was a long and tiring day at work for him and he was still exhausted from the weekend working out in the hot sun.  Yes, my man needed the break.  I am sure he will be back at it again after he comes home from work.  I will give credit where credit is due though, it was Jeff who originally taught me how to measure for and build steps.  Those years of him being a carpenter had me learning a lot from him.

   My neighbor with the little yappy and annoying dog is out looking for and yelling for him.  I am praying she finds him.  We have a rather large fox that has been making the rounds and hunting up here.  I have seen it right in the road in front of my house and it was stalking my other neighbor's dog also.  Luckily, they came out and say what was happening so now their dogs do not go out without them.  I worry about my Ginny cat, but she seems to stick to the backyard here, unless we are out in the front yard, and I keep the gates closed to deter the fox.

   Well, I was up by 5:45 this morning, so I think I am going to go and have a bit of a rest for awhile.  Be blessed my friends!