mommato3boys

Oh my stars, how did I do this for 40 something years? I am totally out of "work" mode that is for sure. This past month has been rough. 17 more months to go LOL. I can do this, and I thought chasing a 2 year old and 4 year old was rough. At least they took naps

Didn't Wormy pass away? I thought I read a post from Laurie that said they divorced and after the divorce he passed away. Please tell me I am wrong.

I bad, really bad, I haven't checked my personal email all week. I have popped on Facebook during lunch for a few minutes but that is it.

Many are asking about us since the fire. I sort of went radio silent but not because of the fires. I just started a new job this past Monday 3/4 and I have been off work for a 15 months playing grandma. So I am getting back into the routine of getting up with the chickens and going to bed with the chickens. Becuase this old chickie is worn plum out by 5pm. I will try to do better but with work, garden, baby chicks coming soon I am not sure how often that will be. I think I picked the wrong time to go back to work but this job was a God send and it literally fell into my lap. So I could not turn it down. It is a temp job work for the state. My contract will end 8/31/2025. I am hoping they will extend it two years which will take me up three months shy of retirement age.

We are fine. I think the fires are contained. They have been doing air drops for a few days hitting those hot spots. Right now everyone is in recovery rebuild mode. They are trying to get livestock taken care of and crops in the ground. Plus they are shifting through the ashes and dealing with insurance. I just started my new job this past Monday 3/4 and it is kicking my hiney. Getting back in the routine of sitting all day and the stress of being back the work place I have been coming home and in bed asleep by 8pm. My time is going to limited on here the next few months. I couldn't have picked the worse time to go back to work...it is garden season so I have to get my garden in, hubby said I was going to have to downsize my dream garden this year because there is no way he could take care of it by himself and with me working. I will only have a few hours in the evening and the weekend. So we are doing square foot garden using pallets and I am limiting myself to stuff I know we will eat like lettuce, beans, corn, squash, pappers, tomoates. I am going to try my hand at sweet potatoes and maybe russet potatoes but this will be an experiment with them. A little disappointed I wont have the big garden I was dreaming off but with getting chickens and the garden and working yeah I think I will have to scale back. Thanks for the prayers and thanks for worrying about me. If will try to pop on more often once I get accustomed to getting up at 4:30-5:00 am again. Boy I have been spoiled over the past year. Sleeping to 6:30 or 7:00 or staying up late like 12 or 1 and sleeping in. I keep telling myself that check on the 1st will be worth it for a while.

Today was been a crash and burn day. I did manage to get a load of laundry done but with all the stress and sleepless nights over the past 2 days hubby and I are worn out. We physically hurt from the lack of sleep and lack of humidity. The rapid change of temperature doesn't help either. We had planned on going to vote early today but that didn't happen. Hubby did walk to the post office which is 6 blocks round trip, but that was it. Hopefully tomorrow is better.

I hate WM too but we only have 3 options for groceries in my area unless I want to travel 1 hour to buy groceries and WM is the cheapest of the 3.

If they pass the hubby test I am going to get a few bags and have a friend freeze dry them for me. If they are not huge chunks I may dehydrate some too.

I actually so something at WM today that I have not seen before. It was frozen root vegetables, beets, sweet potatoes, parsnips and carrots. It was $2.68 so I grabbed a bag. I plan on doing an apple pork dish this next week and thought that would be good with it. Crockpot Apple Pork 1 can of apple pie filling thick cut pork chops ( I will actually be using a tiny pork loin) box of stuffing mix ( I use the cornbread stuffing - the is the only recipe that I ever use stuffing with, my family does not like "stuffing and refuses to eat it) Spray crockpot with non stick spray, pour can of pie filling in bottom of crockpot, top with pork chops and then pour stuffing on top of pork chops. I usually put about 4tbsp of butter on top of the stuffing. I am going to put the root veggies on top of the pork chops then top with the stuffing mix.

Where to begin. Let's see yesterday we evacuated due to wildfires again. We have about 50mph winds today so it hindering anything progress in getting the fires out. The wind is preventing air drops so they are fighting it on the ground. As of this morning it was only 15% contained and had burned over 30,000 acres. Hubby had a doctor's appointment this morning so he dropped me at WalMart to do the grocery shopping. While in there I ran into on of the local ranchers and he said that several of the hot spots have flared up due to the winds so the ground crews are having to backtrack. It is now south of us. We are praying that nothing comes at us again. We just have to make it to about 9pm when the winds die down. Please keep the 806 (our area code, so that is what we are calling the crews the 806 fire bergrade) fire fighters in your prayers. We have crews from Kansas, OK, and from all over the panhandle of Texas. We have already had a couple of injuries. Now for the good news...I survived the grocery store. It wasn't as bad as I expected. For two weeks I spent $182.86 and that is including stuff I don't normally buy like sandwich meat, loaf bread and chips. Since I start back to work on Monday I will be taking my lunch until I get a feel of the land and see if they have a microwave. Egg salad sandwiches to the rescue. Oh and I did buy English muffins so I can make breakfast sandwiches. The had part was the $64 I spent on non fo od items, like cat littler, cat food, trash bags, dish soap and there was something else but I don't remember right now. What really helped was my bestie's chickens are laying again so she gave me 2 dozen eggs yesterday and a chicken she had processed. So I got to mark off the eggs and half the chicken and that saved me about $20. We will get 3 or 4 meals out of the bird plus I went a head and grabbed a $5 bag of drumsticks. I will use the drumsticks to make BBQ chicken. I was going to pick up a small beef roast but couldn't find one less than $12 so I grab a pack of pork tenderloin for less than $7. It is about about 2 pounds and there was 2 little cuts inside so I separated the two pieces and put both in the freezer for meals later next week and the week after. Now I have to figure out what make in place of the dip sandwiches and beef chips and gravy. I ran into all three of our local grocery stores over the past few days and encountered the same problem at each store. According the shelf tags the items were supposed to weigh more but the cans have shrunk again but the prices stayed the same. Example coffee at WM the shelf tag said it was an 11.5 ounce can for 4.94 but it was actually an 9 ounce can for 4.94. The bin of onions at another store said 2.47 but the shelf tag attached said 2.74. So shoppers beware. The stores are not changing their shelf tags and you think you are getting a good deal but in reality you are not. I did get the onions for 2.47 because I showed the manager the bin. He changed the price while I was standing there. The coffee was not the brand I normally buy but was going to try it since it was actually a better deal until I read the shelf label and questioned the stock guy stocking the coffee. My coffee beans have been delayed and I was wanting a back up plan just in case we ran out.

I went over a little I think the final cost after the milk today was like $193.54 which is $48.38 a week. My actual budget was $175, I gave my self $15 cushion because of the price increase happening weekly, but I am pretty sure that the $193 will be as close as I can get it to an actual cost while using my pantry supplies. The added cost was for fruit and veggies last week and of course the milk this week. This week I will not be buying anything other than the half gallon of milk today since we only have 3 days left. The way I worked it was I used cash. Normally I just swipe my debit card, but I put $175 in an envelope and that was our food money. I only used it for food no other house hold items. The cashier was understanding when I asked her to ring up the food separate from the household items. As for counting cost I factored in a box of WM brand pancake mix for $1.98. I knew it would not cost that since the 5# of flour I buy is $2.43 but it gave me a starting point. Plus the pancake mix was just add water so that covered all the needed ingredients. As for counting the cost of the black beans I just divided the $1.25 by 4 since I used the black beans 4 times, it come out to like 31 cents each. I bought my black beans at Dollar Tree since their bags of beans is still 16 oz and the ones at WM are only 12 oz. When I made taco spaghetti the second week I counted the cost of a pack of taco seasoning even though I made my own. I found the cheapest store brand it was like 48 cents and that is price I used. When I make the taco spaghetti Friday I will not count the cost for any of it except the noodles since I will be using the leftover sauce from when we had it before. It helped that I did the bulk of my shopping at one time. I bought all the meat, frozen items and shelf stable stuff on week one. I only bought milk, eggs and fresh fruit and veggies on week 3. Well and the milk today only because we actually used a whole gallon of milk over two weeks. Hubby has been on a cereal kick since snacks have been limited and will only use fresh milk on his cereal. I am sorry I am not much help when it comes to figuring out cost of vension, rabbit and squirrel. I would say if you paid to have it processed then count the processing fee but if he field dressed it you probably could still count how much it would cost per pound if processed at a slaughter house.

That's $40 for two people. You would only have $20 a week.

The End Is Near!!! So this is the last week of the challenge, we just have to make it through Saturday. I am going to have to get creative . Today was cowboy casserole. Tomorrow's big meal is chicken pot pie and then taco spaghetti Friday. I think Saturday will be pot luck in other words clean the refrigerator out and eat any the leftovers. I had to give in and buy a half of gallon of milk today. The fresh milk was gone and hubby finished off the boxed milk today. He refuses to use powdered milk, well he will take it in his coffee but not over cereal no matter how I doctor it up. What I have learned from this? Well we won't starve on $40 a week, but we won't be eating high on the hog either. It forced me back to making our bread and other goodies from scratch. Hubby really likes the sourdough pizza crust. However, I am tired of pasta, rice and beans. Those have been the fillers for the past month. I now know what is meant by food fatigue. Last night I couldn't take it any more and used the last two chicken thighs and made fried chicken. The the last two potatoes were pitful looking but I peeled them and we had fries to go with our chicken. To tell you how much I was ready to throw it all out the window and go out and eat...we don't eat fried foods EVER! Nope, not even our fries are fried. Everything is baked or cooked in the airfryer. But last night I pulled out the dutch oven and oil and we had good ole fashion greasy fried chicken and fries. It was good, but I paid big time for all the grease. The indigestion was horrible. It gave me something to think about, especially since we didn't have anything for indigestion in the house, we haven't needed it in a LONG time and I didn't realize we were out. What would happen if our diet changed drastically without warning, how would it affect our body? Reality Check! If it had not been for well stocked staples like flour, sugar, and seasonings this challenge probably would not have been easy as it has been, not saying it was easy. I am just saying if I had to buy staples $40 a week would have gone out the window. To be honest it was a struggle at times. There were many times we wanted to run to the store for fresh fruit, something extra or just snack food. Or even better, just go out and eat, but we prevailed and I have to give it to hubby he has been a champ through all of this. I have started a shopping list of stuff I need to restock. When I opened the pantry door we both chuckled and said it is a good thing I accepted the contract job with HHS. We are going to need it to fill the pantry again. Yep it will probably take three carts to restock the pantry LOL. Four weeks of no grocery shopping has put a major dent in the pantry. The sad part is none of the grocery stores have good sales this week. Hopefully next week will be a good sales week. Now to come up with some meals for the next few weeks that do not include pasta, rice or beans. I foresee lots of salads, fresh fruits and veggies on our plates for the next couple of weeks. Oh and lunch Sunday is sushi bowls, avocado, cucumbers, shrimp, and cauliflower rice maybe even egg rolls.

That is what I was thinking too. I thought hey maybe if I have to cook SPAM this might be good, that was until I got to the chocolate and that is when I said nope not happening.

Well it is official, I passed the background check and have been officially offered the contract job with the Department of Health and Human Services. Because of the federal holiday I won't start until March 4th. They only start new people on the 1st & 3rd Mondays. Oh well it will give me time to get my ducks corralled in the same pond maybe. It will also give me time to get my starter trays going and to plan out a 2 week menu at least. Maybe do up some freezer meals to make it easier for hubby to cook dinner. I need to go through my clothes and put together a work wardrobe. Why oh why did I do a closet purge when I quit work a year ago. Oh well I needed to replace some of those pieces anyways. Then I will enjoy my last 2 weeks of freedom before I return to the workforce. At least it is just for 18 months. I am not complaining the extra income will help us plug some holes faster. I guess this means I can mark some stuff off my wish list like a freeze dryer, oh and my dream equalizer

Well we got about 2 1/2 -3 inches of the white stuff. Thank goodness the sun is out and we are rapidly thawing. We are supposed to be in the upper 40s to mid 50s all week.

Well we are at an inch and a half and it is still coming down. Because we have been warm the past few days it is not sticking to the roads. HOWEVER, the roads are slick. Se we have stayed in today and watched the church service online. Miss our church family when we are not there but this is the next best thing. Still tired today but did sleep pretty good last night even with a 3 hour nap yesterday. Today is a do nothing day. I just don't have the energy. I do need to drag out the menu for this next week. It is the last week of our $40 a week meals. So far we have stayed on track. We down to the nitty gritty though so the meals will be interesting. This is the leftover week.

Oh my, I can now add another reason to my "Why I don't ski" list.

Well today goes down as one of the worst days in history. A dear, dear friend of mine, she is my sister by another mother - grandson took his life the weekend of 1/28. He was only 19. Today was his memorial service. To say it has been a tough day is an understatement. The memorial service was at 10 this morning then helped with the lunch for the family. Got home around 1:00, made it to about 3:30 but then I crashed and burned. I slept for 3 hours, feel like I could go back to bed and sleep the entire night. Now we are waiting for the snow to arrive. Not sure which report to believe the one that says we are expecting one inch of snow or the one saying we are expecting 6-8 inches. Who knows, I just know it is supposed cold and snow until around noon tomorrow. We are not supposed to get above freezing until Monday afternoon. Poor old achy bones are so ready for Spring.

I love the tomato bullion. It has saved several of my recipes. There is also a shrimp bullion. It is awesome in fried rice.

Don't forget: Chinese 5 Spice Old Bay Seasoning File'

Well today I am making a list of meals that I can put in the freezer. I was offered a contract job with the Department of Health and Human Services yesterday. It is about an 18 month contract so we will be eating a lot of freezer meals. I am trying to come up with 30 ground beef, 30 chicken, 30 pork and 30 seafood recipes.

Snapshotmiki, hubby's card was always getting hacked and we were told they were getting it from gas stations. He never orders anything online. We always use my card if we order online. Now hubby doesn't pay at the pump he goes inside. We also have it set up through the bank we are notified via text when our cards are being charged. We were told by the Fraud department that they do little charges for several months and if nothing happens they hit the account with a large charge.

He was one of my favorite country singers. You are correct he will be missed by many.

Oh No! I hope you are ok. At least it was up the stairs and not down.