Hi Folks! I bet you've wondered where we've been. It's been busy around here. To sum it up in single word explanations, here's some of what we've been doing: homeschooling, cooking, cleaning, painting, partying, working, crafting, repairing and recovering.
First, about the
homeschooling…
While I plan to continue doing at least some homeschooling throughout the summer, we've slowed the pace, some. We spread things out and made space for fun time with the grandparents, since they decided to come out for Penny's birthday. Just before they arrived, we finished up reading "The Hobbit". This weekend, since they've left we'll begin reading, "The Incredible Journey".
Cooking…
I enjoy cooking and since last December I've been trying to do a better job at doing my meal planning ahead of time. I try to print off a meal planner template I got from a book at the library that I heard about online. A lady who does a blog called Owl Haven has many kids and wrote this book about how to plan ahead and save money with shopping. While I only have one child, I still found a lot of her suggestions helpful. So, using that meal planner template and my Healthy Cookbook, supplemented with other various recipes, I usually sit down and try to plan ahead for the upcoming week or two.
I'm always striving to be more frugal with our budget, so I discovered, recently, that I often have what I need at home and don't necessarily need to run to the grocery store for that one item I accidentally forgot to buy for a particular recipe, like when I forgot to buy hash browns. I rediscovered a tool that I already had and had only partly utilized until now. It was one that my mom gave us, probably years ago for our wedding. It was from Pampered Chef and meant to be used for cutting all sorts of different things. But, I had only been using it for grating cheese. But, much to my delight, I have found out that the other blades work well and have a purpose, too! So, I pulled it out and made my very own real hash browns from potatoes in no time flat.
Cleaning…
With the warmer weather, and before it's too hot, I've been itching to get out in our garage to start organizing it. I also thought it might be best on a day while Jay was still gone to work before his summer break. That way his car would be gone and he wouldn't start hyperventilating when I jump into one of my organizing projects. He actually came home and was glad about what I had done. You see, the work bench had become the place to dump everything when we moved in a year and a half ago. So, I even still found an unopened box of garage-related items in amongst the rest of the pile there. I cleaned off the shelf on the wall, which was VERY dirty. After brushing off all of the dirt off of the old, splintered wood shelves and removing random old rusty nails sticking out with rusty wires attached for who knows for what unknown reason, (known only to the previous owner), I put contact paper down so that we don't get splinters in our hands when pulling down items from the shelves. The only problem, now, is that I've noticed the contact paper isn't sticking to the bottom side of the rough wood shelves. So, I'll problem need to fix it with something like duct tape. I also came up with a rather silly organizational solution for our many cleaning rags, gloves and Jay's caps. I thought, we have so many of these, where could I put them? Of course, it would be nice if I had some pretty baskets or plastic tote boxes to put them in. But, for the sake of immediacy and practicality, I looked around for what we had, at hand. So, what I came up with were some used aluminum turkey broaster pans that I picked up years ago at the Dollar Store. They're just the right size, fit well on the work bench, are lightweight and can easily be transferred to the upper shelves of the garage to be stored away for the graduation party that I'm planning in my head for next year. Unfortunately, I forgot to take before pictures of my garage project, but here are some photos of the finished project.
Painting…
More appropriately, I should have said, "priming", because that is all the farther I got before my parents came out to visit for Penny's birthday. So, my real painting will begin down the road. But, at least now I have finished my prepping and priming of the biggest of the walls in the basement. So, I'm getting one step closer to updating those ugly old dark wood walls. It's already beginning to feel less like going down into a dark cave.
Partying…
Now, on to the really fun part…the partying! Well, I'm not a huge "party-person", because I'm actually more on the introverted side. But, for special occasions, I naturally enjoy a fun little party, usually at home and with family. It's not easy to find chances to do sneaky stuff to plan for Penny's birthday, since she's almost always with me, due to the homeschooling. However, on little shopping trips on my way home from my part-time job, or sometimes on Saturdays, I'd find ways to get out and get a few items to surprise her with. Here are some photos from her fun day. She chose to go to the Aquarium again this year. We were happy to have Jay's mother, my parents and Uncle Rick and Aunt Doreen here for the celebration.
Working…
Unfortunately, Jay couldn't come to the Aquarium during the afternoon, since he was still teaching. In fact, it was his field day, so he was outside, enjoying the 94 degree weather, while we were inside the cool aquarium. But, we had the party at home, afterwards, complete with an ice cream cake, that he got to partake in. He's very excited that he now is officially on summer break. I will continue working part-time at the church. In fact, I'll be filling in extra for our other receptionist during the month of July, so that she can have some vacation time. We're especially thankful that this summer Jay will not have to spend his summer applying and interviewing for a new teaching position.
Crafting…
After all of the partying for Penny's birthday, I had to go back to work. But, my parents stayed for a couple of extra days to hang out with Penny and to do some various projects at our place. Grandma and Penny worked on a craft project. I had seen these cute little table decorations on Pinterest that I thought might be fun for next year's graduation party. Since my mom is a florist and loves doing craft projects with the grandkids, I thought I'd let those two take on the project of making the table decorations. Later, I'll add some sticks with decorative paper, bible verses and pictures. Here are the ladies at work.
Repairing…
There has, unfortunately, been way too much of this happening at our household, lately. First of all, there was the electric nightmare that led to having fix all of the outlets upstairs. Then the AC needed repairing. Well, now we learned that our washer, indeed, was starting to go on the blitz. I paid the Sears repairman $75 just to give us the bad news that the clutch was starting to give out and he was afraid that the transmission would go out next, since they are connected. He said that he could repair them both for $600! At that price, we could buy a new washer for about half the price. So, I called up my handyman dad, knowing that he would soon be coming out for Penny's birthday. I asked him if he could take a look at the parts online and a youtube video on how to repair it yourself, to see if he thought it would be a project that he could take on or not. He said that he thought it definitely looked doable and that we should also throw in a third part, while we were at it, with a grand total price of $200! I thought that sounded much better. So, my dad quickly and easily followed the video step-by-step and had the washer all repaired before 10 a.m.
Recovering…
So, now we're on to the next stage, which is hopefully recovering from all of the excitement around here. In fact, while I type this, Jay and Penny are sleeping in and I'm enjoying this quiet, alone-time without doing projects for a little while. We're even planning a little mountain getaway soon for our anniversary. Until the next time…hope you're all enjoying your summer time!
