I had such a great visit with my dad while he was here. We went to see some family that lives nearby and had a blast! They have an orange tree and Caitlin decided she wanted to pick all the oranges. Needless to say, I had better learn to make orange jam and marmalade! She must have picked 20 pounds!
Yesterday we were without power for a good chunk of the day. Our upstairs neighbor has a HUGE fish tank and it decided to leak… into our house… and onto our breaker box. Can you say fried! Yeah… salt water and electricity DO NOT mix. :)
Since it was so late when we got our power back on, I took the girls out to eat. Zaxby’s! I love that place.
I totally forgot my menu this week. I have 2 freezers, 2 pantries and a fridge full of food so it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out a plan. I keep telling myself I can’t slack on the menu plan… it keeps me sane!
We are loading up and heading to my dad’s this weekend. Gosh I haven’t been over there in nearly a year. I’m a bad, bad daughter. Caitlin is going to miss 2 whole days of school! She is excited.
OOOOoooo I got a new CAMERA! I am so excited! I have been using a little ol’ point and shoot Kodak. Bleh… It took awful pictures. So I bought this. Night and day I tell ya! Now to just sew myself one of those cute little camera strap covers.
And because I am sooooo excited about my new camera… I’m gonna post some pics I took this weekend of Sophie. Let me just tell you this. She NEVER lets me take her picture. She ALWAYS runs from the camera. Well, yesterday she sat still for me and these are the results.
This week has been hard. It was my birthday and my husband is not here to celebrate with me. That’s a first.
I have had a short fuse with my kids all week.
This thing about hubby being gone for weeks on end is a lot harder than I thought it would be and it’s only the 2nd week.
I met a lady yesterday while in Chick Fil A. She was there for a get together with other mommies or something. She asked where I lived and then the zip code. Figures… I have the wrong zip code to be in that group.
That’s how I have been feeling lately. Rejected.
I have been thinking about doing another blog. One where I can just blurt it all out. I don’t feel like I can do that on here. It’s really supposed to be my grocery savings blog, but I have been slacking on that.
I have receipts up to my ears that I need to sort out.
My dad is coming in today. I really needed this break. I think the kids are getting tired of being around just me all the time. They sure love their Gramps!
This blog post makes no sense what so ever… but it made me stop crying at least. Just blurting it out.
As much I as complain about living here, it really is a gorgeous city. There is water all around us. Beach to the East, rivers to the North and West. Heck we even have a pond out in the back yard.
Before my husband left to go on the road, he went downtown. We don’t normally go downtown. It’s just not convenient. We have everything we need within a 5 mile radius of our house.
He went for a meeting but while waiting for it to start, he took a few shots of the downtown overlooking the St. Johns River.
Gorgeous colors.
I love all the different things in this picture. Love it!
Here is another sunset we saw. This one was coming back from grocery shopping one evening. It was so pretty. The pictures just do not do it justice. We actually pulled over to watch it! Now that’s a pretty sunset.
Since Chris has been gone I have been on a serious organizing kick. I have become more organized in the last few days than I have in a year!
Sunday I made a list of dinners I would make for the entire month he was gone. Went to the store and bought most everything. Went to 2 more stores and now I am done.
I have cooked and prepared and portioned and froze nearly EVERYTHING to get me through the month.
And you know, it really hasn’t taken that much longer.
I had dinner ready at 5:30 on Wednesday, 6:00 on Tuesday. That’s EARLY for us. I like it too!
The babies are not so grouchy and are willing to try new things. That makes everyone happier.
The girls are getting into the swing of things. Remember, Caitlin just went back to public school 3 weeks ago so we are kinda still trying to get into the groove. Homeschooling for nearly 3 years made me VERY lazy when it comes to getting up early. Chris was always the early riser.
Speaking of Chris, I miss him dearly. I have talked to him a lot so that helps.
2 years ago he lost his wedding band while cleaning out our gutter during a hurricane (don’t ask) and he never replaced it. I wanted to get him one for Christmas, but decided not to. Getting things for the kids was WAY more important.
He bought one tonight and sent me a picture message of his hand and his new band. Sweet. I love it.
Can’t wait to see it in person.
He asked me how the coupon organizing was going. Ha! I had to tell him I haven’t even started on that yet. One thing at a time.
I’m getting there… I am on a roll!
Do y’all know about this.
Does anyone else even have Winn Dixie around? They must be a southern grocery chain.
Anyway… they have a customer reward card that you scan just like any other store. You get the discounts at the store but get this, you also get a $.05 reduction per gallon of gas for every $50 you buy in groceries.
You need groceries.
You need gas.
You need to reduce the price of gas.
I needed to use up my discount before I lost it. I had ’til the 30th. (You have to use it or lose it in a certain amount of time)
Wanna know how much I saved at the pump yesterday?
$0.75 per gallon. I know!
And for those not living near here, our gas is $2.73 per gallon. For regular unleaded! Crazy right?
I paid $1.98.
I was actually excited to pay for it. Well sort of…
:)
Check our more money saving ideas at Life as a Mom. She has great money saving tips and ideas!
I don’t can. Not yet anyways. I have the book and I have the tools, but I haven’t learned to can.
I was cooking up a big ol’ batch of ground beef today, to put away in the freezer, and had an idea! Since I was cooking 6 lbs and I had to put all that beef into ziploc baggies, I needed an easy way to do it.
Something that I can put into the bag and then just funnel the beef in there.
My canning funnel! That would be perfect!
And I am here to tell you… it was just perfect! I didn’t drop not one morsel of beefy goodness.
Try it next time! I bet you will love it!
