Bringing Back an Old Fashioned Summer - Water Fun

Going to the pool was great fun, but Granny could only take all seven of us grandkids for about 2 weeks maximum.  I'm sure she was quite insane to hold out that long, lol...

And so we'd return home.  We missed the water fun we'd been having, and though Daddy kept at least one or two rooms cool in our home, we were kids.  We wanted to be outside.  Outside was hot.  We learned to 'make do' as so many other kids did: the sprinkler to the rescue.

I can't find an image that is like the sprinkler we had.  We hooked the water hose to it, and the water moved from side to side, unlike the one above which rotates water, but it was effective in allowing us to get good and soaking wet.  Our water was well water and plenty cold, guaranteed to cool us off to the point of feeling shivery.  We played games: race the water meant we ran from one side of the sprinkler to the other to insure we were in the water each time it moved to a new location.  We also played 'jump the sprinkler' and it was always a matter of great laughter when one of us jumped just as the water was coming straight up from the sprinkler. 

We kept a sprinkler all through the growing up years for the children, not to water the lawn.  For less than $5 we provided an hour of fun on those days when the temperature peaked above 100F and the kids (and the lawn) seemed to appreciate the watering they all got.

I love the sprinkler that friend Tammy's husband made for the children to play under...You can see it here:  http://playforamoment.blogspot.com/2011/06/fun-in-sun-toddler-style.html

Honestly, I'm tempted to go out and get a sprinkler and one of these hot days just go out and play for awhile...

Homemaking 101: Home Economics

While I shared the economies I employed  furnishing my home in our last post, the truth is that home economics is far, far more detailed than simply furnishing the home.  People live in the home and must be fed and clothed and cared for.  Furnishings and appliances must be bought and maintained.  Food must be prepared and preserved.  The economics of home reaches far.  It extends to our vehicles, gardens, yards.  How well we manage our income and use it to increase the quality of life in the home is truly the economy of the home.

The Bible is a great instruction manual in many ways and I find it especially so in Proverbs where mention is often made of good stewardship of the things we own.  Just this morning I read a passage from Proverbs 27:23-27:
Take care to know the condition of your flocks, and pay attention to your herds.  For wealth doesn't last forever, neither does a crown through all generations.  When the hay has been mown, and the new grass appears, and the mountain greens have been gathered; the lambs will provide your clothing, the goats will sell for enough to buy a field, and there will be enough goat's milk to {buy} food for you and your household and maintenance for your servant-girls.

Certainly this passage is meant for the farmer/shepherd but it applies to the home as well, for if we take good care of what we have, we might well increase it's value, save money and reap the benefits of ownership.

A few years ago I began to avidly read appliance manuals for different items in my home.  What an eye opener!  Even though the label on the dishwasher told me one thing, the manual made it quite plain that someone had not been paying attention when that label was printed!  The drying agent needed to be replaced about once a month, not once a year as the label directed. 

I learned to clean my washing machine, discovered another appliance had multiple uses besides the only one I thought it had, and more about all my appliances than I thought possible.  So find the manuals for your appliances and read them.  You'll be surprised how many little problems you can solve on your own with the troubleshooting guides, how to properly clean them and just good general tips that will save you money.

Learning basic skills can increase the economy of the home.  Gardening will extend your fresh food supply. If you don't have the room to garden (and even the smallest plot may indeed produce a bit of food), foraging might be something you'd want to look into.  Growing up there were large gardens owned by most of the family and nearly all had fruit trees as well.  That did not however keep my family from foraging.  Grandmama often foraged for greens in the spring months and she enjoyed a Poke Salad made from a common weed, as well as Dandelion greens, sorrel and a few others.  Granny foraged for wild blueberries, plums, blackberries, scuppernongs, muscadines...Canning and freezing the surplus whether from a garden or an in season special from the grocery can give you savings all year round.    Baking goodies for your family will help the grocery budget and if you care to really work at it might become an occasional earning outlet as well. 

Learning to sew a basic straight seam and hand mending can be very helpful for maintaining soft furnishings and clothes. Learning to sew more extensively can not only beautify your home, but help you to make your own wardrobe and perhaps bring in a little extra income. Basic upholstery skills can transform yard sale and thrift store furniture into beautiful unique finds for your home. 

Caring for the sick in your family is home economy, too.  Recognizing when to call a doctor and when to doctor at home is a huge budget help.  Learn to use over the counter medicines properly or choose to learn all about herbal and holistic methods of dealing with illness.  Either will be beneficial to the family.  Basic first aid skills can save a huge ER bill for a minor injury.  When I worked at the hospital the basic cost of items was marked up 200%.  That meant that a patient paid as much for a single band aid as he could have spent buying a box of 100 at the drugstore and applying it himself!   It also meant a common cold could cost as much as $400 for the ER visit and a dose of cough medicine that might have been bought over the counter for a mere $6.

Often the woman of the house is the main economist in the home.  She should know how to effectively run and maintain most of the items within it, especially if she is a full time homemaker.  Laundry, food preparation, storage and preservation, maintaining appliances, cleaning upholstery and carpets, gardening, basic nursing, basic cleaning...Well it's a lot of work!  However, a wise economist plays on the strengths of the family at large to keep things going.  We used to joke about how each child in our household fulfilled a need.  Doug was a whiz at repairing electronic items.  Alan is the best shade tree mechanic we know.  Susan had a real knack for knowing how and when to nurse an ailing pet.  Kay was our go to person for pinch hitting when the head chef ailed (that would have been me, lol), and she was most definitely the head Tech geek in our household. The truth is that simply by paying attention to the strengths of each family member we were able to benefit the whole family and the economy of the household remained intact.  I was a whiz at pinching pennies, but Chance had the head for stretching the dollars, so we played on each other's strengths to make sure our money went as far as possible. 

The wonderful thing about home economy is that every one living in the home has the opportunity to learn by example.  Chance taught Doug to do basic locksmith work, Kay learned to cook by standing at my side in the kitchen and how to do maintenance on her car from sticking close to Alan's side when he changed oil and such.  I've learned more about how to maintain cash flow from Chance than I learned in the 35 years before I met him.

In my early homemaking days most of my knowledge was gleaned from books borrowed from the library but these days with internet we have opportunity to literally have knowledge at our fingertips.  I am continually amazed and blessed by the internet and the information I can find.  "How to:" instructions abound, as do photo tutorials, YouTube demonstrations etc.  There are product reviews, recipes, money saving tips, repair manuals and so much more available to help the home owner and the Homemaker to become more proficient.  I can't name the number of times in the past year Chance has used the internet to discover the underlying mechanical problem with one of our vehicles, bought parts, and then replaced it himself simply because he'd watched the video showing how to do it. 

One of the better economies is recognizing when expert help is needed. I've known many who failed to be good stewards because they insisted on doing jobs themselves that were too far out of their realm of knowledge. Oh my! By all means, know your limitations. It's all fine and well to continue to grow your knowledge but for goodness sake, don't try to do jobs that are far beyond your skill. You may find that the final cost for a repair is doubled or even tripled.  And sometimes we can learn a thing or two just by standing near as these experts make a repair.  When Alan broke the door off the new dryer, I didn't have a clue how to fix it.  Watching the repairman was well worth the $65 it cost to have him fix it, because the next time the door was broken, I repaired it myself!

Home Economics...It's all about learning to run our homes as efficiently and well as possible while creating the cozy comforts of home.

Bringing Back an Old Fashioned Summer - Water Fun

Water fun and summer just go hand in hand.  Nothing feels better than a lovely swim on a hot summer's day does it?    Growing up we had a funny sort of relationship with water.  You see Daddy was afraid of water and worried incessantly over us.  Granny and Grandaddy thought nothing of spending entire weekends camping at the river and letting us paddle about in shallow water off the sandbar where they camped, but Daddy's nervousness soon ended that. 

Granny got around Daddy's fear by enrolling all 7 of us grandkids (my four cousins were included) in swimming lessons.  She'd spend hours on end at the pool watching us swim.  There was  a sheltered area and Granny sat in the shade with her book in hand, scanning over the pool periodically to see where each of us was (usually we were all pretty near one another). 

I think Daddy reconciled himself to the idea of us in water after the lessons though he never completely lost his fear.  One of my last teen memories of swimming took place in a rather nicely built pond.  It had a nice sandy bottom and was only about five and half feet deep.  Daddy went with us into the water that particular time, which is why it's so memorable. 

I remember paddling away and suddenly hearing a high pitched little scream...Turns out the pond also had fish and Daddy standing still in the water made them curious so they'd swim up to him and test this still item by touching their mouths to his legs, lol.  Oh we had the best fun with Daddy and he finally was completely unnerved by fishy curiosity and got out of the water.

When I was living in the old railroad foreman's cottage with my first husband, we had no air conditioning and few of the ancient windows could be opened, so it was hot hot hot.  Daytime the children and I lived for noon when the private pool club opened in the next small town.  It was a small pool fed by an artesian well and oh that water was icy cold, so cold it burned the skin when you first slipped in.  I suspect the 100F temperatures is the only thing that made that water bearable at all.  Had we lived in a milder climate we'd never have been able to get into the water at all. 

The children and I thoroughly enjoyed that water and often passed the evening in our stuffy hot house quite comfortably because our bodies were so thoroughly chilled by the hours spent in the water.

Fond memories of summers in the water...and that's just the beginning of the memories.

Coffee Chat - Rain, glorious rain

Come on in!  There's coffee, cookies, iced water, strawberries...something for everyone this evening, I think.

I've been so busy my head spins thinking of it all.    It's hard to believe it's been nearly two weeks since our last visit.  The days have flown by, really they have, and I've flown right along with them.  I can't imagine how I'd have kept up with a garden this year, too, so I suppose the dry weather we've had is a blessing in one way.  Oh but it isn't so terribly dry at the moment.  We've had a whole day nearly of rain this week and it was glorious.  Went to sleep with the sound of raindrops on our metal roof Sunday evening....but I'm ahead of myself.

We survived the birth month of June, thank goodness.  Kay got her card and gift on Thursday and that was the last of the June legion.  Now we've two in July and two in August and then we get a reprieve for a good bit.  The July gifts are pretty much taken care of.  I found something lovely for my oldest step grand daughter and we've picked out our youngest grandson's gift and just need to order it.  So July will be a breeze compared to the end of May and all through June business of birthdays.

Let's see.  I don't think I can remember all I've done.  I do recall that Alan came to visit the day after I last wrote, and then returned again on Father's Day.  And I spent at least one morning in the yard raking up limbs and leaves and putting down mulch and finished painting the glider.  Oh yes...That's the day a big blow came along and blew down more limbs and leaves and flipped the glider before the paint was dry and blew Maddie's wading pool away over the propane tank where it lodged between the house and the tank and filled with water.  The following Sabbath day was an especially long one and it was suppertime when we got in, starving we were that day.

We cooked out Father's Day and visited with Alan.  Kay's present for her dad arrived which pleased him no end as she sent more pajama pants, the soundtrack to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and guitar strings.  I've heard the "Augustus Gloop" song a million times since then, lol.

We went out on the following Tuesday and I got buttons at the thrift shop, which I still haven't put on my pillow shams but fully mean to do so this week.  Oh and the most beautiful glasses for just $.49 each.  Here, look at how pretty they are:

I think they have a sort of art deco era look to them.  I don't know just what drink should go in them but I thought they'd make nice ice cream sundae dishes for us.  Fancy that on the table!

Wednesday I was out with Mama and shopped very carefully.  I bought a new drying rack, some cotton flour sack towels, a 1 cup glass measuring cup.  Nothing fancy and nothing impulsive.

Thursday I cooked until I felt right faint between the heat and the number of recipes being made.  I put three meals into the freezer that day, most of which will appear on this week's table for meals, I think.  I've got a nice stash of leftovers just today from lunch and the frozen pizza, so we'll see how that goes.  And Friday came along and I worked hard in the yard picking up limbs and raking the lawn.  With the dry weather we've got a lot of limbs and leaves on the lawn.  I worked until I couldn't stand working any longer, then came indoors to cool off and tackle the house hard.  I gave it a real good clean and then went about the kitchen decluttering the counter tops. Now it looks neat and pretty and I am enjoying the free space.

The breakfast area all ready for a nice cup of coffee...

I put the dish drainer under the cabinet because, honestly, I only use it for a couple hours of each day.  I think I want to remove the cup rack from this wall.  My brother gave me a tin sign that looks vintage and I think I'd like to have it hanging here on this wall where we make and serve coffee most often.

I hung Grandmama's old rooster cutting board.  I've loved that silly cutting board for more years than I can count and she gave it to me many many years ago.  It took some battering and abuse for a few years, but I cleaned it up really good and found paints that matched the original and went over it.  Now it's all for show and not for use.  And doesn't it look right at home with my paper dispenser?

I know the crock pot looks odd atop the microwave, but there's a plug there and it never has to be unplugged so it works for me.  In an ideal world, I'd wall mount the microwave, but I've yet to have the ideal world in my home, lol.  I suppose I should move the big container of rice, too.  It won't fit in the cabinet, but it's awfully handy.  I'll move that into the pantry cupboard.  And it's high time to go through my utensils once more.  The toaster could go under the cabinet but I left it handy for Chance... These of course, are little things that I see in the photo now of course.   I think I want to paint the tea stand a bright shiny red...What do you think? By the way, in that tea stand note that the first ring holds a bowl...It's perfectly handy for nuts and a nutcracker. 

Not a good shot of this area...It's so hard to take photos near windows this time of year.  The little shelf had a whole row of tea cups, salt cellars, cuttings I was rooting.  I neatened that space up considerably.

Now I also cleaned the baking center, but there's no place to put all the stuff I keep on that counter at the moment.  It just has to stay as is, but it's clean, if not neat.  So no photos of that today.

These two days, Thursday and Friday of working hard back to back wore me out.  I was quite happy to come into Shabbat rest Friday at sundown and I didn't do much at all beyond going to synagogue.  I'd meant to go to the library and turned down not one but two invitations just so I could go, but the silly county changed their hours for the summer months and are now closed on Saturdays.  I came right home, though I was terribly tempted to stop here and there and everywhere for a bite to eat.  I had food aplenty in the fridge from my marathon session on Thursday.  I did make some homemade biscuits.  I felt the strong need of comfort food that day and biscuits are a 'safe' treat for me.  One or two and I'm done, unlike say Oreos or BBQ potato chips!  We just don't do those two except on rare occasions.

I was still feeling pretty drained Sunday, but got up and went outdoors to the yard because if I do don't it, it's not ever going to get done.  Oh that was HOT work!  I came indoors and did some light housework, and then I went back outdoors and painted the cafe table and one chair.  I ran out of paint, didn't much like the color and still don't.  It's just this side of the color it was, which isn't the color it was supposed to turn out to be.  I'll be looking for new paint this week and I'll get two cans this time. 

I did remember to stay out of the wind direction that day, but Maddie...Well Maddie got a good snoutful of paint.  I heard her make a funny sound, looked up just in time to see her eyes cross and she dropped to the ground and rubbed her face and rubbed her face and stood up and looked dizzy and dropped to the ground and rubbed her face on the other side.  She wasn't in deep distress, but she was definitely NOT liking the paint.  After she stood up and sneezed mightily four or five times she went off somewhere well out of the way.  I couldn't help but laugh at her and how silly she looked.

I went indoors and got all cleaned up and ready to go into town.  I'd planned to visit Granny, get a paper, perhaps buy peaches at the peach shed.  However, as I put my hand on the doorknob, someone knocked on the other side.  Mama had come by to invite me to go to lunch with her.  She told me she'd just left Granny and she'd been sound asleep.  I was tired, and oh I so wanted to say no thanks, but somehow I felt I ought to go with Mama.  We had a nice, but quiet lunch.  We talked a bit on the ride over to the restaurant and Mama said the Assisted Living Center has suggested calling in hospice for Granny.  I wasn't shocked or upset at the news.  I've been expecting it really, but I think Mama needed to be with someone while she absorbed the news.  By the time I was back home again, I was wiped out physically.  I put on my Netflix movie, Nanny McPhee Returns, and lost myself in the lovely setting for an hour and half.  It was a rather good sequel to Nanny McPhee really with a surprise at the very end.

And so Sunday slipped away from me.  I guess much as I might have expected the news the reality of it really hit me once I was away from Mama.  No weeping or gnashing of teeth but I found myself reading July blog entries from years ago and Granny was very much a part of most of my mornings.  I really miss her a great deal, as she was...

That evening the wind picked up and the clouds gathered and the wind blew for all it was worth.  I sat at the window and watched the storm come in until I heard Chance coming up the drive.  We had rain when he came in and it was raining still when we went to bed that night and it was sprinkling when we said goodbye Monday morning. It rained all morning long and into the afternoon yesterday. 

The rain was most welcome, truly it was, but I worried just a bit.  You see my friend V took off to Texas to meet up with her husband B.  He's coming home from Afghanistan and her excitement was so great it got me all excited too, lol. 

 I went to work on various tasks including a marathon baking session, and a marathon grocery list making session.  Keeping busy was needed this day.   I wore myself out and that's the truth. I should've worked on a portion of my lists over the latter part of last week but I didn't and so I paid for it yesterday.  We had Harvest Night in our home yesterday evening and shortly after Chance practiced his songs for Saturday service, then I crept quietly off to bed to read.  I don't think I read two words and I was so nearly finished with the book, the same one I mentioned two weeks ago, Austen in Boca. 

So here we are at today.  I shopped, I stopped before I was finished because it was getting hot, I was hungry and frustrated at how quickly the money seemed to be going out of my hands, so I came home.  I have enough money left to buy more milk,bread,produce before next pay period and perhaps anything else we find we need.  I did have the pleasure of a 'find' today and I'm adding it to my project list for July/August...I can't wait to see how it turns out.  But that is a story for another day...I should wind up here and have my evening cup of milk.  Time for early rising girls to start the bedtime routine.

I promise, I promise to try really hard not to let but one week go by before we have coffee again, okay?  I have a Homemaking 101 post in the works and an idea for this week's Bringing Back An Old Fashioned Summer posts, so stay tuned and good night!

Make Do and Mend Mondays

Welcome to another Make do and Mend Monday!  Heidi has her post up over on her blog, http://thecranberrychronicle.blogspot.com  (and one of these days I'll really take time to learn to do tinyurls).  Heidi's make do is super fun this week and she used a forum that I hadn't thought to consider as a 'make do' area.

http://playforamoment.blogspot.com  has a post that wowed me today, too, and inspired me to change something in my kitchen.  Go on over to Heidi's and see who all links up and by all means feel free to link here or to Heidi, but leave us a comment so we can see what you did for Make do and Mend.

My project was done last week but I saved it to show until today.  I was cleaning out the dresser last week when I came across this little notebook.  I bought it at the dollar store several years ago but never used it due to the seasonal nature of the cover.  Check out the photos of how I transformed it into a pretty 'new' notebook, using what I had on hand. 

I had the idea to use scrapbook paper to recover the hard covers of the notebook.

Didn't much care that the inside clashed so with the scrap paper....

That's the inside of the front cover...don't seem to have a photo of the inside back cover but it's just as pretty.
But the front should be the prettiest of all, right?

Now I have a lovely notebook to use for sermon notes or as a journal and won't be staring at Christmas wreaths year round!

Grocery Challenge - $25 week per person Week II

Week II started out nicely.  Let's see how well I've done.

Monday: Chance made breakfast: Fried Eggs, Hashbrown potatoes, *Turkey sausage
                                       lunch:  Steak Salad, shared a *candy bar
                                       supper: Chicken Rice, Watermelon

Chance used the leftover baked potato from Sunday dinner to make hashbrown potatoes.  We discovered two broken eggs in this carton, too.  I'm thinking of taking bubble wrap with me next time I market!

The steak was leftover from Sunday dinner.  My salad used Romaine, tomato, *cucumber, sweet onion, radishes, homemade croutons and feta cheese.  We used the last of two different jars Blue Cheese dressing.  I took one candy bar and halved it between us.

Our supper was very economical.  Two chicken carcasses boiled with onion tops and root ends, celery leaves and root ends I'd saved in the freezer.  After picking over the carcasses and straining the broth, I added rice and 2 cups chicken pieces, setting one cup aside for another recipe.  I'd meant this for Tuesday dinner, but Chance thought this smelled so good cooking that I served it Monday evening.

Tuesday:  Breakfast:  Peanut butter *toast.

We were out this morning running errands.  I'd planned a quick fix meal but Chance stopped in town to purchase burgers at the local diner.  I paid for these from my allowance, not my grocery budget.  I added chips and drinks when we got home to round out the meal. 

We had a honey bun and coffee mid afternoon.

Supper:  Egg Salad Sandwiches, Ice cream 
The eggs were cooked last week and included in that week's budget.

Wednesday:  *Eggs and Toast for breakfast
                     I ate out with Mama.  Chance had chicken salad sandwiches, chips, lemonade for his lunch.  The chicken salad was made last Friday and leftover from our Saturday lunch.  The lemonade and chips also were leftovers from Friday, so no expense for this meal.
                     My supper was soda crackers and peanut butter.  These items were already on hand.  I had a small bowl of watermelon chunks.

Thursday:  Breakfast: Turkey sausage and waffles, homemade maple syrup
                   Dinner:  *Chicken Parmigiana with Spaghetti
                   Supper:  Nachoes with lettuce, *avocado, salsa, sour cream
                   Chance's lunch:  Grilled burger, peanut butter and crackers, cottage cheese pineapple

Friday:  Breakfast:  Peach smoothie for me, waffles/sausage for Chance
              Lunch: (Chance) Turkey and *Provolone sandwiches, applesauce, celery stuffed with cream cheese
              I had the sandwich with the last of the water melon and a honey bun
              Supper: Cheese toast, Brownie and coffee

Saturday:  Breakfast:  Peanut Butter Toast, Coffee
Chance had: Tuna Salad Boats, chips, peanut butter crackers, brownies
                  Dinner:  Breast Fillet, Potato Salad, homemade biscuits
Last of the chicken I cooked earlier this week...This was a late late dinner for me, so I had no supper.

Sunday:  Toasted Cheese Biscuits
                Dinner:  Out with Mama
Skipped Supper again this day.  I hadn't planned to eat out, but I ran into Mama and she wanted to have company.

*Items bought for this week.  Everything else was from food storage, freezer, or leftover from last week. 
Groceries bought for this week:  Ice cream            $2.00
                                                     peaches               $3.71
                                                     18 eggs                $2.25
                                                     2 loaves bread     $4
                                                     1 pkg bnls chkn   $4.48
                                                     Parm/Rom blend  $2.84
                                                      Turkey sausage   $1.99
                                                      Tortilla Chips     $1.99
                                                      1 cucumber           $.35
                                                      Nestle candy bar   $.26
                                                      Soda                    $1.20
                                                      yogurt as starter  $1
                                                      Swiss cheese       $4.89
                                                      Cheddar cheese   $2.75/16 ounces
                                                       1/2 1/2                  $.80
                                                      Avocado              $1.99
                                                      1 can coffee         $3.79
                                                                                 $35.81

YES!  I think that helps pull the balance back in my favor don't you?  I should thank Mama as well because taking me out to eat on Sunday was a nice bonus for the week and I brought home enough leftovers to make a meal for Chance's work lunch today.

Menu Monday: The All You Grocery Challenge

Gracious!  I am here to tell you that being a bona fide member of The Bonbon Club is very hard work!  Here it is time for supper and I'm still plugging away at housework and making work lunch and writing and wishing I could do it all at once.  Where IS that Good Housekeeping Fairy when you need her?!

Yes, it has been a busy day.  One reason why I'm so behind is my sheer determination to stay within budget this pay period with groceries and stay within the challenge limits as well.  I'm not quite sure how my figures for this week stack up.  I've been working on that post but haven't quite finished it. I have worked on my grocery list for the coming pay period but the majority of what is on there is for pantry stock-up per Chance's request.    Let's see what I can cook up this week...

Monday:  Burgers with Homemade Buns, Potato Salad, Sliced Tomatoes, Lemonade
I hope some Prairie Housewife is paying attention to the fact that I made my own buns for this meal.  I used Rhonda's Grandpa's bread recipe, got two nice loaves and 6 lovely rolls.  I had the runt for snack this afternoon, two lovely buns went into Chance's work lunch for tomorrow (he has the same menu as above), 1 bun for my burger and two leftover to make a nice sandwich with for our supper later in the week.

Tuesday:  Pizza, Wings, Salad
Frozen pizza/wings combo for supper, along with a homemade salad.  If I hadn't been so busy today I could've made pizza dough and topped it today, but I just didn't.  There's a rather good sale on pizza and I have a coupon so I'll take advantage of that sale and bring home my supper.  It will cost less than my usual deli selections for supper and I'll count it as part of this week's grocery budget.

Wednesday: Corn Cheese Enchiladas, Salad, Brownies
I made these the other day and put in the freezer.  I need only to make the enchilada sauce to go over them.  Brownies were a treat baked for this past weekend and I saved a few back.

Thursday:  Spaghetti Diable, Sauteed Zucchini, Garlic Bread, Tiramisu for two
Another of my 'make ahead' meals that incorporated leftovers from last week.  I've only to put the food in a casserole dish, top with grated cheese and slip into the oven. 

Friday:  Dinner out
Chance is working and I plan to take my allowance out and do some returns, errands and thrift shop hops.

Saturday: BBQ chicken, Coleslaw, Corn on Cob, Mexican Corn Muffins
Think I'd never cook my own meal this week? lol...That's the luxury of having the freezer full and needing to empty it out.

Sunday:  Steak, Hash Brown Casserole, Sliced Tomatoes, Bread and Butter
Meat and Potatoes for the man of the house, who is, blissfully, home this day.