Hello Everyone!
How was your week??? Our weather was beautiful again, for which I was very thankful. It allowed me to get out a bit into the garden, which is super important this time of year. It seems like I am waiting, waiting, waiting for it to be time to plant, and then all of a sudden it is time and EVERYTHING needs to go in and my time is limited! But I do what I can, and I remind myself that our garden for us is more for mental health as well as healthy physical things to eat--but fortunately I am not going to starve if I cannot grow a huge garden, so I need to keep it in perspective and not let it become a stresser in my life. That being said, I AM always trying to squeeze in a bit more here and there, or learn how to grow more things in our small space. I actually "could" grow much more food in the space we have--except that I plant plenty of flowers to feed the soul, so not everything I grow is for consumption! But on to my week!
*I planted tomatoes along two of the "A frames" that we made from recycling our outdoor dog kennel, and then planted two different kinds of climbing beans along the third "A frame." I also squeezed in a few cucumber seeds on the very ends of the bean frame. We will see if any actually grow for me or not, as last year the cute little chipmunks dug up all my bean seeds and my cucumbers as well. So we will see! Usually I plant, they dig up, I plant again, they dig up again, etc. Sometimes I finally get one or two plants to grow, I think simply because I outlast them!
On one side I planted Kentucky Wonder been seeds, on the opposite side I planted what is called Christmas Limas. You can see them in the photo above. They are large and speckled.
*I pulled the rest of my collards that were bolting in one garden bed, and washed and froze all the leaves chopped up and ready to be added to different soups. I still have another garden bed where I left just a few plants to go to seed, so I can add to my seed collection fresh seed from this year. I do still have quite a bit of kale and collard seeds though, so I didn't really need many and wanted to use the space for planting tomatoes instead.
*I used a free $5.00 coupon from Michaels to purchase a large two quart size mason jar. Michaels is not exactly the least expensive place to purchase Mason jars, but if you are getting the jar completely free like I was, well, free is always good!
I use these jars to store different things in, mainly oats for oatmeal and different muesli that I make up for breakfast. I copied my muesli from some I saw being sold in our health food grocery store, and just mix up things like oats, nine grain cereal flakes, nuts, dates, dried apples or cranberries, ground flax seed, etc. I have made several different "flavors," including "Date," "Apple," and "Cranberry."These can be mixed with water and cooked like you would cook oatmeal, though truth be told my hubby and teen daughter munch on them raw like a horse! ;) I prefer cooking them and adding a chopped banana or chopped apple on top.
*My daughter received her second vaccine. It was given in a local park which has been closed down for the vaccine site to be set up. After receiving her shot, we had to park in a parking lot and wait 20 minutes just in case she had a bad reaction to it. Well, we decided we would walk near the car for our 20 minutes, and greatly enjoyed being able to spend a little time in the park, even with it being officially closed. We were wearing masks, but did slip them off long enough for a picture to celebrate being on THIS side of the vaccine!
At the park, we discovered a new to us memorial, which was built to remember five local service men who were killed by a gunman while they were working in a recruiting office in Chattanooga. If I remember correctly, I believe it was in 2015. It was so very, very sad, and I was happy to see that this memorial had been made to remember their lives.
*We read on my daughter in law's blog once again. This week she wrote about another Medal of Honor recipient, Henry Erwin. I had never heard of this remarkable man. So very brave! If you would enjoy reading about him as well, you can find this week's post here:
*We received our daughter's ACT test scores. This will probably be the very largest "savings" that will ever happen to our family, as our daughter learned that she scored high enough to qualify for a full tuition scholarship at the Christian university she is wanting to attend. There will still be expenses not covered, of course, as there are books to purchase and various general fees as well as lab fees that are not included in this scholarship (neither are room and board, but we live locally so she can live at home), but the scholarship WILL cover her tuition for four years, as long as she keeps her GPA above a 2.0 which should NOT be a problem for her. SO, according to the college website, her score will earn her a scholarship valued "over $80,000." When I look at the tuition costs on the web site, full tuition for four years at today's tuition prices add up to over $89,000. Not a bad return on the investment of studying for the test and applying yourself to your studies. We are thankful for God's abundant blessing in all things, and especially in this area.
WELL, that was my excitement for this past week! Have you ever had any large savings happen to you? Most of the time, savings are simply the day to day small things, such as not wasting food and turning off unused lights, etc. But this was one week we really did have one huge savings item!
I would love to hear about your week! Hope your May is starting out well!
~Susan
