What I Find Myself Doing Tonight

Or should I say this early morning it is officially Thursday I guess since it is 12:05 am EST.

I got a message today (when I say message I mean literally through Facebook Messenger app) that my grandmother (my children's great grandmother) passed away a day or so ago from my estranged step sister.  Some of you know the story I don't speak to my biological father but I did have a relationship  as did my children with his mother and his brother.

I know she is free from her earthly burdens and she did believe in Jesus.  She accepted Him as her Saviour many many years ago.  A friend said she was a sweet soul that had been through alot in her lifetime.

My biological father does not acknowledge  me as part of the family and I am ok with that.  I am unable to travel right now anyway for the funeral.  I realized today it makes no difference if they recognize me as part of the family or not.  They will never be able to take away the memories she and I made together.

I find myself unable to sleep tonight.  I have prayed, tried watching movies to no avail.

I decided to put my no sleep time to use and tackled this....

My ever so lovely laundry room.  Our washer and dryer were outside under a carport at our old place. One of the nice things about this place is that the laundry can be done inside.  The appliances needed a good scrubbing.  That is just what they got.  I washed the baseboards, cabinets, and floor.  I may have mentioned it is a very small room but I got something done without waking the house up and it was nice to work without interruption.

Finished it is like this

And I know it may not look different in the photos and my husband will probably never notice.  We are supposed to do our work as unto the Lord anyway right?  Not for man's praises.

There is a chalkboard that hangs over the washer and dryer.  We do pass through this room each day to go out.  Any suggestions on some inspirational quotes I could put on it.  Some days depression is rough and holds on tight, but I won't quit.  Leave your quotes or suggestions in the comments....love to you all!

Ways We Save

Phil 4:6- 7  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

On the 4th of July, my bestie invited us over to her place in the evening (we otherwise stayed home all day) and she grilled hot dogs and we had mac n cheese and watermelon with chips at her place.  Her daughter and son in law brought over fire works and set them off in her drive way. We had alot of fun.  The daughter bought too many hot dogs so we were blessed with an extra pack and some buns.  

I have been trying to track our electric meter and watch the total, and if it looks like we will exceed my budet of $170.00 I look for ways to cut expenses.

I hate line dried crunchy clothes but I was given a tip dry them for only like 5 minutes then they will be softer so I am trying that this week. For the past two months my bill has been right at 170. I unplug things when not in use, and keep the thermostat mostly at 80.

I mentioned a few weeks ago we went to Wisconsin, I collected all the free samples coffee and tea included so I have added the coffee from the hotel to my coffee can....(i have a smorgasbord going on in that can).  I also brought home all the soaps that are free, and Ms. Brown gave us an abundance of little gray shorts for the kids that have been perfect for summer in Florida, as well as swimming, and sleeping in.

We looked on pinterest for DIY mixes for an easy bake oven and were blown away by all the options.  My daughter used her money to buy regular sized bisquick, cake mix, sugars, chocolate chips, and we will be able to bake in that thing quite a bit....it even gave me ideas for her birthday and Christmas....(the easy bake oven was the toy my daughter chose at the church's thrift store while we were at the bread basket.  While not a need and I feel every dollar needs to count...it was just a dollar and she had her own money anyway.)  It has her interested in cooking...and it is teaching her to wait....it takes about 15 mins to bake just one pizza.

Started saving my husband's soda cans again...it will take time to get anything from them...but I use the pop tabs for crafts too.

I have mentioned that I use Swagbucks. I have been working it faithfully, so far blessed to meet daily goals etc.  Well I had signed up or done a survey for Publix and Motts, and won free movie tickets to see the Secret Life of Pets !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We are super excited.  We could use a little break.

We were blessed to recieve some potatoes, a can of tomatoes, two packages of hot dog rolls and spaghetti noodles from a friend going on vacation and would not be able to use the items.

I made an angel food cake from scratch, and sugared down some end of life strawberries from the bread basket.  It actually wasn't bad.

I made body wash using a generic bar of the Dove brand that Dollar general sells......my husband was using my shampoo as body wash as he hates bar soap. I found bar soap in the cabinet. I got more body wash from the generic brand then I do the name brand.

I used empty bottles and jars around the house to bottle it.

We visited the bread basket again...and it was definitely a blessing.  Two answered prayers I desperately needed fresh collard greens and we were soon going to run out of milk.  We got a half gallon of milk!!!!  Allowing me to stretch dollars!  Praise the Lord!.

I continue to use baking soda and a couple drops of Dawn as dishwasher detergent.

We returned a small car part for about $4.00 that we couldn't use.  And scratched up loose change.  We ended up with about $7.00.

How was your week? I got to admit, emotionally things are stressful. Belinda's funeral was Saturday, we were unable to attend, but our hearts were with everyone.  The finality of her being gone is setting in to know the next time my "dad" comes she won't be with him. Definitely struggling with a little depression. Love you all though.

What we are eating

Matthew 6: 27  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
 
Monday July 4th

Bkfst:  We ate the rest of the scrapple :(  just in slices and plain.  We fried it in a pan. I like mine crispy. You can eat it anyway you want. Alot of people eat scrapple egg and cheese sandwiches.  You can also have it on the side of your plate with eggs over easy and toast.  If you freeze it the texture is crumbly, so we have mixed the crumbles in with scrambled eggs and put it in a wrap before.  Rapa is the best brand in our opinion. We can't really get scrapple where we live.  If you order it in a restaurant, they deep fry it, but it ends up being pretty much too hard to eat.  When we would go out to a place that has it, we would ask for it to be cooked soft on the grill.

Lunch: Easy bake oven Pizza (made from DIY mixes)

Dinner:  Hot dogs, (buns from bb) mac n cheese, and the last of a cucumber smothered in Italian dressing and Parmesan cheese.


and later more hot dogs, mac n cheese, chips, and water melon....

Tuesday July 5th
Bkfst: Bagels and cereal.

Lunch: Left Over Mac n Cheese (at least what didn't get spilled in the floor, it sure made the dog happy)

Dinner: Chicken soup with rice and green beans thrown in....(homemade)


Wednesday July 6th
Bkfst:French toast casserole, made using ingredients on hand, including a loaf of french bread from the bb, and some eggs in the fridge that don't taste so good on their own for some reason but seem to do great in baking.


Lunch : Summer Break Spot lunch at the local park for the kids. I usually glean whatever is left over.


Dinner:  Hot Dogs, Cream Corn and i know its weird but popcorn too....


 Thursday July 7th

Bkfst: Pizza bagel for me made from stuff on hand....kids summer breakspot


Lunch: Summer break spot at local school (getting to hot to eat in the heat at the park.) Me: fried bologna and cheese sandwich


Dinner:  Chicken fajitas-made using a recipe from a friend that involves salsa and taco seasoning, I had to improvise because I didn't have any salsa but I did get canned tomatoes and have onions from an old old grocery store trip in the bin in the fridge.  I used this recipe to create a version of salsa, shredded the chicken and cooked it in it, and made home made tortillas.  I liked the salsa recipe because it readily showed things that could be subsituted for ingredients you may not have on hand.

Friday July 8th
Bkfst : Cereal

Lunch : cinnamon bagels with pb for the kids....bologna and cheese for me and the hubby on choice of bread or bagel from bb

Dinner: Soup: contained elbow macaroni noodles, chicken bouillon, garlic, salt, some bits of celery and carrots gleaned from kids lunches at the park, and a can of peas.  It tasted pretty good.  I also sliced up a loaf of cheese bread from bb and toasted it with butter.

Saturday July 9th

Bkfst: Left over french toast casserole, cereal

Lunch: left over soup from Friday night and onion rings. I found some onions in the bottom drawer 

Dinner:  Spaghetti noodles with olive oil, parmesan cheese, and some shredded chicken.


Snacks/Desserts: Remains of chocolate cake, apple pie, angel food cake with strawberries, bagels.

Sunday July 10th

Bkfst: Fried potatoes with ranch or ketchup if wanted

Lunch: Popcorn and ginerale

Dinner: McDonald's, it was an unexpected treat for my son's birthday which is Friday the 15th.


With the $7.00 we scraped up from loose change and a return we picked up more pepsi (because my husband felt like he had to have it. A really cheap 3 lb bag of cat food and two loaves of bread.  My grocery total is now running 157.30.  I am trying so hard to spend as little as possible.  Gotta make it through until the 28th.  How did you do this week?

Ways we Save

I started making DIY paper logs using the weekly ads that come in the mail to use for our outside fire pit, and hopefully to stock up for winter, since we do have a fire place.

I also have been collected dryer lint and toilet paper rolls (empty) to make fire starters

I returned something at Walmart and it allowed me to pay for toilet paper.

Cashed out another 5.00 in Swagbucks and used it to pay for an item for my son's present for his birthday in two weeks.

I have been working Swagbucks and Bing like a part time job still. (if you sign up using my link, i do get a bonus from your earnings, but it does not take away from your earnings, and it may be something your friends or family might be interested in so you could get referrals as well.) After all pennies turn into dollars!

We signed up for a free month of netflix....we won't have to start paying till end of July. (we don't have cable just antenna tv...so this is a nice change.)

I prayed and I believe the Lord brought to mind this guy we know, and he was able to fix our car....I only had to give him 30.00 to do the labor.  The part was 115.00 but our bank offered a reward of $10.00 cash back on the purchase.(We have to as a friend says "juggle" some things around in order to pay for the part but we will catch up.)

I used ebates to purchase the part we need for our weed eater through ebay so there should be some cash back there.  We borrowed my friends electric weed eater and my husband spent an hour and a half one day clearing part of the yard.

Since the car is running again, we were able to go to the bread basket and we got several loaves of bread, a couple containers of cookies, an apple pie, chocolate donuts, and a chocolate cake. I am excited because that takes a little baking out of my week.

While at the bread basket we went to the church's thrift store, and you can fill a bag for a dollar. I found 3 pieces of clothing for my daughter that I will put away for back to school. (i doubt we will be doing regular back to school shopping at least not for clothes this year.) Each child also picked one toy and I got a very large picture frame that I will paint and redo as a special project for my son for Christmas.

I have been using baking soda and two drops of Dawn dish detergent as cleaner in the dishwasher.

That is about all I can think of. We are doing all we can to make it stretch. I still haven't gotten around to sharing our complete story from our trip but I am working on it. (it explains how we ended up in a hole again)  When I first started blogging I thought we would be in such a different place by now, but I suppose you all get to see real life.  How was your week? I am running behind with the holiday and my husband having a three day weekend I lost track of which day it is.

What we are eating

  Matthew 6:25  Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?


Monday 27th
Bkfst:  Pb and J sandwiches

Lunch: got a ride to the park...they have a summer break spot there where the kids had ham,cheese, turkey  sandwiches with apple sauce and chips.

 Dinner:  refried beans, from scratch and home made tortillas.(first time I made either from scratch...beans good...did crock pot method....tortillas i need some practice but edible.

Tuesday 28th
Bkfst: Cereal and milk

Lunch: Leftovers (one had left over rice peas and ground beef, another ate a tuna sandwich, and I made a pizza bagel with stuff i found in the freezer)

Dinner: Home made chicken soup with pasta (elbow noodles) (veggies and noodles pp) shredded one leg quarter and used stock from the chicken when i baked it)

Wednesday29th:
Bkfst: Eggs...over easy with toast for one...scrambled for another and I threw tomatoes and salsa in mine with a little cheddar. (trying to use tomatoes before they go bad....pretty tasty...eggs were pp)

Lunch:  again, everyone had something different, one had cup of soup, another cereal, and I had a bagel that I baked with ranch dressing and cheese on it.  (bagels were something i found in the freezer.)


Dinner: cheap macaroni and cheese with ground beef and whatever seasonings I could find.

Thursday 30th
Bkfst: cereal with milk

Lunch: bagel with cheese
(it was just me for these two kids had a sleep over)

Dinner: Tortillas, with left over refried beans, cheddar cheese and ground beef.

Friday July 1st
 Bkfst: cinnamon raisin bagels with peanut butter and jelly, cereal

Lunch:  Little Ceasar's pizza.  We got a chance to go swimming and I took it, and I sprang for the pizza since my friend was kind enough to take us to my daughter's appointment(the insurance transportation never showed either day) and she paid for milkshakes cause she had 4 kids waiting with her.

Dinner:  Spaghetti noodles covered in olive oil and parmesan cheese with rest of ground beef seasoned with oregano, garlic powder, and seasoned salt.  I also found onion bagels in the freezer (must have been left over from a previous trip to the bread basket) I covered them with butter and garlic powder

Saturday July 2nd
Bkfst:  Scrapple and Eggs with Cheese on bread for those that wanted it.

Lunch: Smorgasboard: Melted cheese sandwiches for one, bagel with ranch and cheese for me, cereal for another, and my son ate the rest of the garlic bagels from dinner with refried beans.

Dinner: Tomato and mayo sandwiches for the hubby and I, peanut butter and jelly or syrup for the kids.

Sunday July 3rd
Bkfst: Chocolate donuts (from bb) and milk, coffee, or tea

Lunch: skipped

Dinner: Chicken and Dumplings (made dumplings from scratch they turned out soo good this time!) with sweet Hawaiian rolls (from the bb)

Desserts and snack:  homemade chocolate chip cookies,popcorn,blueberry muffins (pp),other chocolate chip cookies, and apple pie from the bread basket.

Drinks: Iced tea, hot tea, iced coffee(made myself), Pepsi, pink lemonade, and water.  (We are blessed to have an artesian well, the water tastes awesome!)


(My husband does pack his lunch each day usually cheese sandwiches, i need to make some more home made things so he can have more to eat then just a couple sandwiches and a cookie.)



I did have to buy more bread and decided to get milk because alot of recipes call for it....grocery budget is up to 136.30.  I also went to Walmart and picked up hot dogs, garlic powder, bologna, sliced cheese and a tiny 4 lb bag of dog food, and yet another gallon of milk...spent about $10.00 so $146.30 is new total.