Birthday Cake is Meant to be Worn!

Bring on the cake!  Isaiah enjoyed every single bite and found it was a beauty treatment for his skin too!  LOL!  Happy 1st Birthday baby!  Grammie and G-pa love you!

 

Happy 1st Birthday Isaiah!

Happy 1st Birthday to our grandson Isaiah!  You are such a happy little guy and Grammie and G-pa love you so much.  You have brought so much joy and laughter into our lives. :)  Have a happy day and Grammie and G-pa will see you tomorrow!

A Room With A View

My amazing husband managed to really surprise me this year for my birthday by booking a hotel room down in Clarkston, WA for an overnight getaway.  He knows me well and knew that I needed to be near water again so he booked a hotel room with a river view for us.  We both really enjoyed swimming, taking walks along the river and relaxing.  Thanks honey for blessing me yet again...you rock!

 

Growing Like Weeds!

Life has been busy and I have been enjoying my time with my grandchildren.  I am blessed to live so close to them and to be able to have them stay here with us and take care of them in their own home also when needed.  Bradley is 2 years old and Isaiah will be 1 years old this coming week.  Where has the time gone?    I love these little guys more than words could ever express!

Million Dollar Rain and the Farmers Say Amen!

   I woke up this morning to the soothing sound of rain hitting our metal roof.  I love that sound.  It takes me back to my childhood and the blessing that rain is.  Now that I live in the rural and rich farmlands of the Palouse, I more fully understand why rain is such a blessing.  The acres and acres of rolling hills, planted with wheat, peas, lentils, garbanzos and other crops desperately need the rain.  Our farmers depend on it to water their crops and increase their yields. 

 

   As for me, I am loving the break from watering the garden and taking full advantage of this cooler and wet day.  It is also giving me a break from having to weed the garden. ;)  I know it will still be there for me tomorrow to do.  I pulled some grated zucchini out of the freezer and am going to make zucchini bread to go along with the sandwich bread that I already have going in the bread maker.  While that bakes, I think I will curl up with a good book and read for awhile before it is time to once again go down and do some volunteer work.  Oh how I love the blessing of rainy Summer days. :)

A Bucket a Day or Setting Daily Goals

   Have you ever noticed how quickly things in your home can get messy or the weeds in your garden can take over?  Left unchecked, it can become overwhelming.  I try to set daily goals for myself as a way to keep up with it all.  As I made my "to do" list for the day, I looked out at my garden where the weeds have had a hay day with all our rain and realized that if I did not get out there and do something, my poor plants would perish under all those weeds.  I set a goal for myself to fill one 5 gallon bucket a day with weeds.  Since I tend to get overwhelmed by huge messes, I thought this would be a way to get things done without being discouraged.  Looking out there now, I can see a huge area that is now weeded and looking good and that motivates me to go out again tomorrow and fill yet another bucket.

    
   One of the things that I love about this time of year is being able to line dry my laundry.  It not only saves money, but the smell of freshly air dried clothing and bedding has to be one of my favorite "perfumes" in the world.  I was so blessed to find a old fashioned laundry line set up in our backyard when we moved here 21 years ago.  Getting my laundry going either the night before or early in the morning allows me to get it all hung out in the morning and have it dry by early afternoon at the latest.

 

 

   Baking was on my daily goals list today.  I had some leftover homemade bread that needed to be made into croutons and some over-ripe bananas that needed to be used up.  Homemade croutons are one of the things that my hubby loves most in life and I try to keep him supplied.  The over-ripe bananas were transformed into 3 delicious loaves of banana bread and while they baked, I threw 4 potatoes in the oven with them.  They will be used to make a baked potato salad later.

 

     While getting out ingredients from the refrigerator for the banana bread, I noticed that we were low on syrup.  Jeff and I like to have pancakes on the weekends so a refill of that was in order.  I got a heavy sugar syrup going and let that simmer while I cleaned the kitchen.  When it had reduced down, I added some Maple flavoring and let it cool before I filled our syrup bottle back up.

 

    I checked my list and saw that I had some green onions to plant.  Did you know you can plant the bottom part of the green onions you buy at the store and they will keep producing more and more onions for you?  I have a pot full of them in the backyard and was running out of space there, so these ended up being planted in the freshly weeded area of the garden.  We go through a lot of green onions here during the warmer months in salads and on pizzas and during the colder months in soups and casseroles.

 

    The last goal I set for myself today was to literally stop and smell the roses. ;)  These roses sit right under my living room window and their perfume is so delicate.  Each year I look forward to their blooming and realize that there is just a short time frame to enjoy them.  I don't want to get so caught up in the busy-ness of life that I miss out on one of life's simple pleasures.   What a nice reward they are after a busy day!

Savings and Deconstructing Deli Trays

The school year is over and I am officially on Summer Break.  YAY!!!!  I really enjoy the perks of being a substitute teacher. ;)
I do however really miss the income that my job brings into our household so I really try to concentrate on ways to cut back on our expenses even more during the Summer and early Fall while I wait for my next paycheck to arrive. 

Luckily for us, we live near 2 major college towns and when the students leave for the Summer, great deals can be found in the grocery stores.  The stores need to get rid of excess merchandise and this includes food items.  Two days ago I stumbled on a half off the last clearance price on frozen foods deal at one of the local Walmarts.  I was shocked to see Sara Lee Pumpkin pies marked down to $1 each and even more shocked to realize that it would be even cheaper with 50% off that.  So I spend a whopping .50 on the pie above and made hubby a very happy man. :)

 

Another place I look for mark downs year round is in the meat section.  I found trays of boneless, skinless chicken breasts marked at half off.  I bought 1 tray of them and packaged each breast up in a sandwich sized bag and then put those in a heavy duty freezer ziplock bag.  I would have bought more, but my freezer is pretty packed at the moment.  Jeff and I will use one breast to make meals like Orange Chicken, Lemon Chicken and Pasta, Chicken Kabobs, etc..

 

 

One of the most overlooked areas in the grocery store where I feel you can save the most money is in the deli section.  I have found some great deals there including marked down whole baked chickens, salads, prepared meals like tamales and Chinese style dishes.  Within the past few weeks I have found some amazing deals on prepared deli trays.  Last week I bought 2 Pretzel Pizza trays for $2.49 each.  We had one for dinner when our grandson Bradley spent the night and I froze the other one for a future meal.  This week I found fruit trays and meat and cheese trays marked at half off  their original price.  These I deconstructed and ended up with bags of grapes, fresh pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew, and watermelon for a fraction of the price that I would have paid to by them in the produce section.  I also separated and bagged up the deli dry salami, pepper jack, colby jack, cheddar, and Swiss cheese, the lettuce that was used to line the trays (it was still in great shape and perked back up after a rinse in cool water) and set aside the sleeves of crackers.  These make for great snacking or a quick lunch.  Today I had watermelon, some Swiss cheese and some of the salami for lunch.  It was really good and I loved that I was able to save money and have a delicious and varied lunch.