Monthly Goals: May 2017

When it came to goals for last month, with everything else going on, really I think I did pretty well.  I didn't get as much cleaning done as I would have liked, but between life in general and how hectic it has been, being sick and then adding in a bad arm on top of it, I would say I did half decent.  The arm has its good days and its bad days, still, and after being to three doctors I just keep hearing, "It will improve in it's own time and the only thing you can do to maybe help it along is physical therapy".  Well, since I can't afford the aforementioned physical therapy, I just tough it out and the arm gets slowly better little bit by little bit.  Too slowly for my "I was not born with patience" self, but at least it is improving.  Taking care of the chickens everyday has actually been really good for the arm as doing things like reaching to grab an egg that was knocked into an odd location in the nesting boxes or broadcasting some scratch grain out into the coop has helped to get more mobility back.  Chicken exercises...it's a new thing *laugh*.

I organized my seeds earlier in the month and have reorganized my garden plan about four times since then as the weather just doesn't get warm enough to thoroughly defrost the ground enough to plant things.  I keep looking at seeds that require the ground to be at a certain temperature for germination and go, "No.  Next."  Rinse, lather, repeat.  I think I at least have a plan to get some seeds in the ground that go in as soon as the ground can be worked and I figure if I throw some type of cover over young seedlings for things like lettuce at night I SHOULD be okay planting those in the garden.  I can't afford row covers right now as I'm reserving every available cent I can squeeze out of the budget to sock into the "don't know what the future holds in the way of pay" fund, so I am going to have to scramble and see what I can dig up around here to use as a row cover for the garden.  At least the small garden I have, some of the garden is protected a bit by the eaves of the house and the overall garden isn't that big, so at least I have that going for me.

My husband and I walked the property, made easier by the electric company cutting a swathe out of the back of our property, along the side that borders the highway and the front of it to clear their pole lines last year.  We lost at least two decently big trees over the last few wind storms we've had, luckily one of them being one of the smaller pines on the side of our barn so it didn't take out our neighbor's shed or something on their property.  Overall, we'll wait to cut up the tree along the property line between us and our neighbor until my husband's schedule gets worked out a bit better at work and call it good I think.  Our next door neighbors are nice, so we haven't even heard a peep out of them about the tree potentially crossing their property line or anything.  We're lucky that way :).

Spring cleaning...well I seem to get a start and wash a wall or something only to have my son run in with really nasty dirty hands and immediately smear them on the wall, so it's a ongoing battle, but I'm really determined to persevere here.  Today I had both kids home.  One with a cycling stomach (end of the year excitement an trying out for the talent show next week) and the other one is getting used to being on his new medicine from the doctor.

Speaking of the son, we went to the doctor yesterday.  The doctor put him on an ADHD med because she thinks that is where a lot of his problems are lying and a side benefit of the drug he is on is that it helps to calm you down, so she wants to try that first and then if that doesn't work there are a few more drugs that we can try before going at things with the "heavy guns".  A big step up from the anti-psychotics that I was worried about that can be prescribed for violent behaviors (which the idea of him being on those was eating my stomach lining as those things are a real nightmare to get dialed in right and can do damage to the body...I have heard horror stories), so here's hoping once it regulates out it works for him.  Right now he's just groggy AND crankier than he has been before and it can take a good week before his body regulates and then we HOPE that the dosage isn't too low...I might commit seppuku by the time this is over.  Ever try training an autistic kid to take a pill for the first time (which we still need to get him to take a pill whole, but after five pills we got one down him last night) and then trying to get him to not smack things when he doesn't feel right?  Not fun.

Anyway, overall when it came to getting things done, somehow over the last month I did get some things done, so yay!  And now onto this month's goals!

Sewing Goals:

• Mend, mend and mend some more (lots of holes and things to fix in clothing and comforters)
• Work on embroidery projects (I think I'm holding a record for most consecutive months of having something as a goal and NOT getting it accomplished *laugh*).

General Goals:

• Work on garden. Plant seeds.
• Conserve every penny possible.
• Use recipes that use more eggs (making progress there)
• Spring clean some more
• Work on getting budget dialed in as new pay rate and things come more into focus.
• Finish up the lettuce plants in hydroponic garden (at least one of them is starting on the downturn when it comes to growing a lot, so I'm THINKING I will be able to replace it anyway here soon) and plant herb pods in the lettuce's place.
• Get kids through the end of school and hopefully find ways for them to enjoy their summer break without spending money.

And there you are folks.  My goals for this month, such as they are.  How about you?  Up to anything this month?

Frugal Friday: Money Saving Weekly Recap

It was a kind of hectic week around here, so anyone who e-mailed me and I didn't respond, please be assured that I'll respond to you here soon.  I just haven't had the energy to really even CHECK my e-mail, so replying just wasn't in the cards much.

My son has been keeping me busy lately and not in a good way, unfortunately.  He's been going through this phase where the self-injury behaviors have been getting worse and worse and now he's also branching out into starting with self-injury (usually smacking himself in the face...he's got a welt on the bridge of his nose right now from doing it) and then just randomly going into full blown temper tantrums, completely with hitting others, on top of it with no reason that can be discerned for the behavior at the time.  I finally had enough after his allergist appointment early in the week because he gets to stay home that day and he freaked out ALL DAY over a plastic shopping bag ripping on him wrong (he likes to tear bits of plastic off and float them on his breath).  After about the fifteenth time he smacked himself in the nose and hour three of screaming and hitting the walls and things, I'd had enough and called the pediatrician for a referral to a mental health professional at the end of my wits on how to help him.  We go in on Monday to see a person who specializes in autism behaviors and things.  I'm hoping that maybe that they'll be able to fix this through behavioral therapy instead of medication, but I'm not sure at this point.  We've managed to avoid all medicines, with the exception of allergy meds, for nearly nine years, and I do feel good about that, but it might be time to consider putting him on some.  We'll see how the appointment goes.  My anxiety level is at about 11 right now...this doesn't help it.

Shani has been going from one hospital to another looking for anyone who would take up her case to fight her cancer and hasn't had much luck finding one and she found out today that she has four tumors in her liver.  I'm trying to convince her that at this point if there is one thing that God has given her with this diagnosis, it was the gift of time.  My dad had heart problems for years, but seemed to be doing pretty well after getting a pace maker put in and then one day he was just gone in an instant.  So, at least she has an opportunity to pack some bags, go down south and be with her daughter and grand children, no matter the outcome and to just seek out treatment down South, if she is determined to fight the cancer.  I'm spoiling the chickens a bit with visits and things and I know it's because I can make them comfortable and happy where I can't do that for Shani.  It's the least I can do for her.

The husband started his new job this week as after he got through his class and passed it on Monday they told him he could set his start date for the new job.  Work was kind of non-existent on the old job front so my father-in-law told him to start Wednesday on the new job.  He really seems to like the new job, and the people he works with seem really nice...they even let him have Saturdays off until the Special Olympics swimming is over with, where normally he will have to work Saturdays.

There are some definitely worrisome disadvantages, though.  The biggest one being that the benefits at the new job go on a 12 month cycle, period, and so if you get hired during that 12 month period you have to make up the months you weren't working so your bulk benefits are right at the end of the year.  Confusing?  You bet.  So, basically, we have four months of benefit payments to make up...not an upper when your husband is taking a nearly ten dollar an hour pay cut to begin with.

He's also going to be on a twice a month payment schedule, so once I found out when he'd get paid, I went and arranged budget billing on the utilities and changed our due dates to accommodate the fact that I'm going to have to pay utilities in the middle of the month because the first pay period of the month we're going to have to use to pay the mortgage (and I pray we can do it that way).  Hopefully once the beginning bumps work themselves out (I pray with every fiber of my being we can make enough to live on until the benefits sort themselves out) we'll be able to start socking money away to move. 

So, anyway, let's get to the money saving things that happened this week, shall we?

1.  The chickens have been very, very happy in their new home and have gifted me with eggs...one of the hens, not sure which one, has even laid double eggs a couple of days the last couple of weeks.  Which means I've been having eggs to spare lately (some of them seen up top there).   I was even able to trade some eggs with a friend of mine as she knew I had chickens (I asked her for advice when I first got the chickens and was trying to figure things out a bit) and offered to buy some eggs off of me if I had extra.  I gave her a dozen eggs (for free as I just had the extra and I knew she's on a budget too) and she surprised me by giving me a jar of goat's milk from her goats in return (she was insistent I take at least that as I turned down money).  I was impressed that the milk actually doesn't taste gamey at all and is actually really rich and creamy, as  I'd always heard goat's milk was really strong tasting compared to cow's milk.  I've been enjoying it in my coffee for the most part (seen up top in one of my "pretty" jars), which saved me from having to buy 1/2 and 1/2 for the next couple of weeks and my friend enjoyed her dozen eggs as did her kids, so win-win.

2.  I want to thank the people who suggested I use the dough cycle on the bread machine to mix up and get whole grain breads through the first rise cycle.  BOY does that work better than baking the bread in the bread machine.  I made some nine grain bread and it came out fabulously by using the dough cycle and then putting the dough into a loaf pan and letting it do it's second rise in there (seen up top in it's first-slice-taken-off glory).  Thanks again for the tip, all!

3.  I harvested lettuce not once, but twice from the hydroponic garden this week (the second harvest seen up top as well).  I can't believe how fast the lettuce recoups on the hydroponic garden.  I have to say I'm impressed and happy as the weather outside hasn't been really adequate to plant seeds yet (ground still really cold and we had rain showers all week), so I'm happy being able to harvest something from somewhere at this point.  Here's hoping I can get some seeds in tomorrow or something.  I'm hoping to at least get peas and some root vegetables started this week as they need so long to grow.

4.  I was able to pick up freebies at the store this week while shopping.  Shopping ended up being 100.00 this week, unfortunately, but we were out of a lot and the cats were out of dried food and the chickens were nearly out of their food as well (I learned that I needed to up their protein since they were older birds, which is probably why they were blowing through their feed so quickly, so I got a higher level of protein feed and that seems to be cutting down on the amount of feed they are blowing through, so yay for that).  The biggest purchases this week on the human food front were getting seedless watermelon for 2.50 a piece (Carrs has them on sale this week) and getting gold potatoes for .88 a pound (also on sale at Carrs).  I got enough potatoes to last for a while and we've enjoyed the watermelon the last few days with dinner and for snacks.

5.  Freebies at the store this week included a free thing of salt, a free loaf of french bread from the store bakery (which my husband likes to eat for snacks and things, so it's definitely getting eaten), a free thing of sparkling lemonade, a free thing of powdered gravy mix, a free thing of hot dog buns and a free doughnut.  The doughnut  and the lemonade I had for lunch after shopping as I was starving by the time I got done running to the feed store and everything else (not an ideal lunch on the nutrition side, but it worked).   The Monopoly game is going to be ending soon and I am going to miss it as the free product coupons I've won have been really nice to get.

6.  I mended a zipper that was coming apart at the seam on my son's back pack.  I am determined to get the backpack to make it through the rest of the school year.  The zipper is separating slowly but surely and things, but so far, so good and luckily with the snow gear no longer in the back pack the load on the back pack is pretty much non-existent so I'm pretty confident the backpack will make it.

7.  A benefit to the husband's new job is that my husband found that the airport is a REALLY expensive place to eat and packing lunch is really easy there as they have an actual break room with a fridge and things.  So, I'm thrilled that I'll be able to pack him lunch on a regular basis, which will not only benefit his general diet, but also will help us save money.

So, it's been...years, since I really thought of packing lunch on a daily basis where you can reheat food and things being an option.  Anyone got some good recommendations and things to make/pack to help add some variety to my husband's lunches?

8.  I made up a batch of onion soup mix and put it into the cupboard to use later on.  I've found that having that stuff home made...you can't tell the difference between the store bought stuff and the home made stuff in a recipe and making it at home is a lot cheaper than buying a box of the stuff!  And since I use it a lot in crock pot meals, it is so worth making it in decent quantities.

9.  I was actually able to pull out the grill this week!  I cut up one of the lamb roasts I got for cheap into rib loin chops and grilled them.  They came out yummy and made enough for two meals!  Not bad for a 2.00 roast :).

10.  I used up a bunch of carrots that were getting a bit old, some old potatoes from the fridge and some turnips from the freezer, along with one of the few corned beef briskets I had in the freezer and made a corned beef dinner earlier in the week.  I pulled out 1/2 of a loaf of home made bread that I had thrown in the freezer earlier after I defrosted it on the counter for a while and voila!  A meal of essentially left overs and castaways that filled us up and tasted good.

And there you go folks.  Some of my adventures this week.  How did you do?

Monthly Goals Update and This Week's Goals

Well when it comes to the goals for this month, I didn't do too shabby all things considered I think.  The chickens are settled into their new home and seem very content, I went through my seeds and planned the garden, only to change my mind about five times as the weather isn't cooperating with the idea of decently early planting, although I at least got the garden turned over and ready to plant some seeds hopefully this week (we're expecting rain so that is a bit iffy).  Menu planning has been kind of on the fly, but I've been doing OKAY on that front overall.  I finally decided this last week that the best thing I can do for myself to make my life easier when it comes to menu planning is to do it on a Wednesday to Tuesday schedule instead of a Monday to Sunday because of the way I end up doing grocery shopping.  So, I'm going to give that a shot and see how everything goes for a while (so be prepared for the menu plan to be posted on Wednesday instead of Monday, basically :).

Spring cleaning has been a start and stop affair, but I'm hoping to be able to hit it harder this week, after Wednesday anyway (appointments for the kids took up today and will take up tomorrow as well).   I'm making slow, ever so slow, of progress in that area anyway.

So, onto the goals for this week!

General Goals:

• Call speech therapist "list" again and stalk voice mails about possible openings (done)
• Bring some of the masses of cardboard to the recycling center
• Mend son's favorite comforter so it's at least in one piece again
• Spring clean some more
• Fold and put away laundry
• Harvest lettuce from hydroponics garden again (done)
• Pull out seeds that need to be worked as soon as the soil is defrosted enough and plant them in the protected part of the garden (under the eaves).
• Put ring of DE around the house.

And there you go folks.  My goals for this week.  How about you?  Up to anything interesting this week?

Frugal Friday: Money Saving Weekly Recap and Garden Update (as it is)

So, good news.  The reason that I didn't blog last week wasn't because of something terrible happening.  Nothing catastrophic happened.  No bad surprises.  No unexpected plagues or other medical things hit.  Nothing earth shaking BAD.  Thank the Good Lord!

Nope, this last week it's just been super busy.  The snow is finally melting, although we're still getting hard frosts at night and the ground in the yard is actually still really frozen underneath the grass.  It's really setting any garden expansion plans I had back a lot, but I'm starting to think that might not be a bad thing as I'd rather save the money from renting a tiller and just put that money toward moving costs later but another part of me keeps saying that if I don't expand the garden then we won't move because of Murphy's Law coming into play...ahh indecision, my old friend ;). 

With the snow melting, things start to get busy around here as there's a very slim window to get some things done before summer is quickly upon us.  We ran and got some diatomaceous earth at the store this week and I've been checking for the first little signs of spider mites climbing up the house before I put the "ring of protection" around the house to keep the blighters out of the house and away from my garden.

I am kind of a neat freak when it comes to keeping animal areas decently clean, so I wanted to muck out the chicken coop this week.  One of the poultry groups I'm part of on Facebook, everyone was talking about how awesome wood pellets were for chicken coops instead of pine shavings as it was a lot cheaper and easier to clean and things.  Since a 40 lb bag of pellets ran 5.49 vs about 19.00 for a 40 lb bag of pine shavings,  I decided to give the pellets a shot and I mucked out the chicken run area of the coop and put down the pellets earlier this week (the nesting boxes I'm keeping with shavings and straw mixed as I want the chickens to be comfortable when they bed down at night). The pro of the pellets I've found is that they ARE cheap.  And honestly that's about the only benefit I have found.  The chickens hated the pellets as soon as they walked on them and they took a good day to break down the pellets where they didn't mind being on them.  I hate the pellets because they don't do much for making cleaning up after the chickens easier.  Pine shavings I liked because they adhere to things and make it easier to scoop things up and out...the pellets don't do that at all so the poor chickens are just moving through a mess constantly.  I'm definitely going to spend the money on some pine shavings next time and forgo the pellets although I'll save what I have left and use them as a base layer under the pine shavings to help the pine shavings to go further.

Quick garden update (or should I say "dirt piles update" *laugh*)  is I did manage to work the soil in the garden area this week and hopefully managed to expose any slug eggs to the birds and the wonderful drying forces of the sun to kill them all *evil laugh*.  Ahem.  I can hope anyway (seen up top in all of it's soil exposed glory).  Bright side is that at least the small beds, being on the sunny side of the house, managed to defrost down far enough for me to turn the garden over, although I noticed that the ground is still pretty cold.  I'm hoping to get some of my seeds in this week, though, like turnips and things as those need longer to grow and don't mind the colder weather.

Past that a lot of the week was my husband and I figuring out the logistics of moving, what needed to be done (with me making one list after another to try and stay organized on my end) and things as well as my husband getting ready to start his new job at the airport soon.  He's got to attend a class on airport security on Monday and then basically he can start whenever he wants (which will be soon as work is kind of sparse at the moment on the old job front).  We're hoping that after six months he can go the union, tell them that he's going to give them at least a year up here and see if they could help him transfer to where we want to go or something next year.  Here's hoping.

So, yeah, onto the money saving things that happened this week!

1.  I was able to harvest lettuce a couple of times from my little hydroponics garden and ate some salads for lunch when it was just me home.

2.  I was able to gift some eggs from the chickens this week.  Turns out that once I got their diet on track and made sure they were getting some air and more protein all three hens are now laying every day.  So I'm getting nearly two dozen eggs a week right now.  Which is a bit much for us to go through around here.  I did a bunch of baking last weekend (made brownies and spice cake for Easter) and we had Eggs Benedict for dinner one night as well as eggs, waffles and bacon for dinner another night, and yet we were still drowning in eggs between what the chickens were laying and the ones that I had left over in the fridge that I had gotten before we got the chickens.  I was gifted some egg cartons in return, though, which will come in handy the way the chickens are going ;).

It's nice having fresh eggs around, I have to admit.  It's nice basically needing a jack hammer to get through a shell and you crack it into a bowl knowing exactly that that chicken was eating to create that egg.  I'm weird, what can I say *laugh*.

3.  I was finally able to get some of my freebies from Carrs this week with my Monopoly tickets.  I got two free boxes of pasta this week, a free container of salt, a free box of organic whole wheat water crackers and a free five pound bag of flour.  And in my tickets today I got coupons for a free envelope of gravy mix, a free sparkling water and a free thing of hot dog buns.  If I win nothing else, I'm loving on the amount of free products that they are giving away with this year's monopoly game!

The biggest "woohoos" when it came to shopping this week was getting sparkling juice on Amazon for about 10.00 for a case of 24 (I got a variety pack of different flavors for like 10.46 after a coupon code and another case of orange for about 10.87 after coupon), which I got in this week (they were on subscribe and save) and getting string cheese for .99 for a bag of them after I combined a one time use E-Coupon special they had and stacked it with a 1.00/1 manufacturer coupon.  

4.  I took advantage of a sale that Rifftrax was having to purchase one of their live performances, which includes a movie and three "shorts" (kind of like educational mini movies of old) they riffed for less than five dollars.  I didn't download it or anything and will save it for when we really need something neat to watch (like when the kiddos are sick or are bored this summer and need something different to do).  I used what I had left of a gift card they gave me a while back to get the movie for 2.00 and some change after sale and giftcard.

5.  I checked the bank and found that Netflix had charged us 14.00 a pop for two movies when they cancelled the account, but I knew I had returned the last two movies I had, so I dug up the confirmation e-mail from them where they had gotten them, called them and got the money refunded to me (it was something screwy in the way the movies were logged into the system that did it).  Always good to keep on top of the checking account as things like that add up quickly.

6.  I managed to get some Spring Cleaning done around here this week, which was nice (and nearly free as all it costed was my labor to get it done and some soap and water).  Hopefully I can get more done in the next couple of weeks as school lets out the middle of next month, so time is ticking away here.

7.  When going to make dinner earlier in the week I wasn't feeling great and just quickly looked around and pulled anything that would cook decently quickly to make a quick dinner.  It actually turned out so well my husband asked me to put it into dinner rotations in the future.  I'll share the recipe a bit later as I'm hoping to make it again soon :).

8.  Easter was a pretty laid back event.  I was gifted a bunch of Easter things that I then gave to the kids in their basket, along with a few things I'd remembered to pick up in the way of candy and things...which in itself was a miracle really as everything was so insane the last couple of months it's a miracle I remembered what month it was let alone when Easter was.  We colored a bunch of eggs with different types of food coloring (I still really love the look that the gel food coloring gives to eggs when you color them...you should really give it a shot sometime!) and enjoyed a ham I pulled from the freezer at the last minute but put into the oven with some water in the pan and steamed it for three or so hours.  It was an uneventful and decently peaceful holiday.  I hope you all had a nice holiday too!

9.  I took advantage of an opportunity to read a book in exchange for my review.  I've been reading it along with some free magazine subscriptions I've gotten when I go to the school to wait for when I go in to pick up the kids for the day (I am OCD about getting to the school early so I don't have to worry about being late...I have nightmares of the kids not knowing where I am and freaking out and worried, so I try to make sure that doesn't happen if I can help it).  I've really been enjoying the quiet time as it's one of those opportunities where you get to do something for yourself, in my case read while listening to the radio, and not feeling guilty that you should be doing something else.  It's a nice, peaceful bit of time.

10.  The daughter FINALLY got to the point where she'll eat apples with the peel on!  It's been so wonderful just being able to put an apple in her lunch instead of trying to stop apple slices from browning and things and also just being able to point her toward the fridge when she wants a snack and say, "apples and cheese sticks are in the fridge" instead of trying to figure out something else to make for her and combine that with sparkling juice and you've got a decent snack nutrition-wise.  Love it when things like that happen.  And I've been able to guilt her...errr...convince her...to eat eggs and things more often as all I have to say is, "Hey, those peas were grown in our garden!  You helped to pick them remember?"  or, "Hey, those are the eggs we gathered from the coop today.  A lot of work went into those eggs.  Eat them!"   Bwahahahaha!!!  Guilt as a parenting tool.  Working for parents since the beginning of time ;).

And there you are folks.  Some of my adventures this week.  How did you all do?

Frugal Friday: Money Saving Weekly Recap

This is the week that my husband and I decided we're moving.  Out of state, preferably.  We're thinking Northern Iowa.  My husband's father's family is from that area and was in that area for generations before his grandfather met up with a woman whose family had been homsteading in Alaska for a generation and moved up here eventually.  My husband was there as a kid briefly and really liked it and we've talked about going there from time to time over the years.  We called the Chamber of Commerce down there and found them friendly, kind and generous with the information and I was even able to get in contact with a couple that runs a therapy place down there for special needs kids and found out that Iowa seems to be an excellent state to be in if you have an autistic child when it comes to resources (and the couple was from Wasilla too, which I found really funny and took as pretty much a sign).  We're aiming for a year before we move as we have to get the house fixed up to sell, get my husband some experience under his belt with the airport job (which will look good on a resume), get my daughter through elementary school and get my son to a point where he'd be graduating out of the elementary ABA program and into regular special ed up here as well (which another thing in Iowa's favor is that their autism programs go longer in school).

If anyone is from around that area, drop me a line and if you've moved from Alaska to another state (it complicates things being this far North), please e-mail me at makedohomemaker (at) gmail (dot) com and give me some tips.

The straw that broke our backs this week was an incident that happened when we went to the store on Tuesday to get milk (the store was out of whole milk when I'd gone to get milk on earlier) and we had an incident in the parking lot with an unhinged lady...long story, but to skip to the ending the cops got involved when the lady called and started yelling at the 911 operator because we parked our cart in the wrong spot and offended her sensibilities (like I said...unhinged) and she was blocking our car so we couldn't pull out until the cops came and arrested us for cart mis-parking.  The cops agreed the lady was nuts and after telling her that what we had done was far from illegal, wasn't hurting anyone and that the store didn't care if someone parked their cart somewhere other than the inside of the store, stayed with us until she was out of sight for a good five minutes or so to avoid her following us home and starting something.  She was that nuts.  Basically the lady was either on drugs or she needed to be.

At that point my husband and I were just DONE.  We have come to realize that around here that most people with skills and any ability to get out of the state are leaving in a mass exodus right now (as the state is going to crap due to government mismanagement) and that we were going to be having more incidents like the one in the parking lot if we stayed here.  It's like the insane people running the asylum more and more up here and once the 30% income taxes start hitting on top of sales tax and no PFD, it's going to be impossible for most people to live up here.  And we'd looked at property to move from here to another area and property prices are even higher than when we bought this place, so we can't find anything worth buying for under about 300,000 with any decent amount of land.  Which we can't afford that.  So, leaving state is just the best option.  Scary as I have NO idea HOW we're going to do it, but I'm praying somehow we can save up the money we need and if we sell the house and some other things we might be able to make enough to get out of here.  If for no other reason than for better services for Alvah (still no luck finding him a speech therapist around here yet).  Pray for us, please?  I'm figuring if it's meant to be God will make sure things fall into place, so here's hoping it all works out.

Update on Shani is she still hasn't looked into treatment centers and unfortunately I can't do the last part for her as she needs to coordinate and pay for her travel and make appointments and thigns.  She's kind of acting like she's giving up and is just going to give chemo a shot up here, which from what I've read isn't going to work on her type of cancer.  So, I don't know.

At least the chickens are doing good.  For three year old hens (turns out that is how old they are...between two and three is what Shani was told), I have two hens that are laying one egg consistently a day and they started laying pretty fast...within a few days (the eggs I got this week seen up top).  Which makes me think that they really enjoy their new home, which makes ME happy knowing that.  One hen just randomly is laying one egg a week wherever she seems to be at the time (the other two always lay in the same nesting box so I know it's not them and the eggs she lays are SLIGHTLY bigger and has a slight tan undertone to them).   I'm not too worried about a pretty much freeloading hen at this point.  Since the chickens are all so old, we're probably going to look at culling them all this fall after they molt (thus stop laying) for the winter and starting fresh next year (if we're still here anyway).  I talked to a breeder and he agreed as the hens are getting old enough that they are going to cease to be cost effective to keep soon.  I texted Shani to ask her opinion (I didn't want to just get her chickens, take care of them six months and then slaughter them without asking her about it as it seemed not right to do without her okay) and she said she had gotten them not only for eggs but also for meat so if we felt the need to cull them to do so and enjoy the chicken.  My daughter was even okay once I explained that most times you only keep chickens for a year or so before you turn them into dinner and that it was best to not name them because of that.  She just got all excited over the idea of getting new chickens/chicks later on.  Hopefully wherever we end up we can get some more chickens as I've found I actually do enjoy taking care of them (I know, I'm weird).

So, yeah, onto the other money saving things that went on this week!

1.  I was on Amazon and surfing around looking at stuff (because I'm terrible like that) and found a bunch of stuff that were add on items that I decided I could put into one order and get.  The biggest find was a six pack of Simply Pure (or something similar) Pillsbury frosting mixes were down to a six pack of them for 2.00 and some change.  I ordered four packs as I am hoping that the frosting (which you add butter and things to) would be close enough to the processed crap in taste that my son will eat it, but also get some nutrition in him (and since there is no leavening in it the powdered mix lasts pretty much forever).  Got two of the orders in supposedly yesterday only to find two envelopes in the box, not the 12 I was expecting.  Contacted amazon and the frosting mix is back ordered with their supplier, so I have no idea if and when I'll get my missing envelopes or if I'll get my other orders.  Ugh.  At least it was cheap to begin with, I guess.  I also got a razor with refill cartridges for 2.00 and some change after a 3.00/1 coupon they had.  So, yay for at least getting a cheap razor :).

2.  I went to Fred Meyer yesterday and got the freebies I had saved on my card.  One was the new line of Jell-O that is coming out, which is with simple all natural ingredients and what not.  I checked out the flavors and most of them there was no way my family would like (I mean Strawberry pudding just didn't seem like it would go over well), but I picked chocolate caramel in the hopes it would taste like chocolate.  We shall see.  I also got a free bag of Sour Patch Kids (sour gummy candies) and put those aside for the Easter basket tomorrow, so yay for free Easter candy!

3.  I went to Carrs hoping to get the freebies I had coming there from the Monopoly game.  I had a coupon for free salt, free aspirin and free crackers.  Only to find that Carrs was out of all of them.  Hopefully they'll get them back in before the game is over.  I did get a coupon for a free pound of pasta yesterday, though, so I'll at least be able to redeem THAT one, so yay for free pasta anyway!

4.  I harvested some lettuce from my hydroponic garden this week, which was nice because our winter is definitely holding on this year, although thank goodness things are melting pretty quickly now.  We're about a month behind on Spring compared to the last few years right now, unfortunately, and by the sheer amount of freezing temperatures we're still getting at night, I'm really wondering if the garden is going to do very much this year the way the weather is going.  We shall see.

The hydroponic garden, though, is actually doing really well.  The amount of lettuce I can harvest at one time is just enough for side salads for the family for one night (an average amount is seen in the bowl there), but I have found that the lettuce recoups pretty quickly (seen above a few days after harvesting some for salads).  I doubt I'll regrow lettuce in the garden, though, as I can't see it being cost effective with what I'm paying on power with the light compared to the cost of lettuce at the store.  Next time I'm going to just plant herbs instead as those I can always use and things like Basil don't like to grow outside here, so it'll be nice to have some of that to harvest.  And a box of herb pods came with my aero garden, so my next harvest won't cost me anything to plant.

5.  I got eggs to color for Easter (I didn't want to use my first fresh eggs to make Easter eggs, I know I'm bad) for free after spending 25.00 at Carrs with a coupon this week, which was cool.  Now, though, between that and the eggs I got from the chickens and a dozen I dug out of the back of the vegetable drawer I forgot I had (don't ask me why I put my eggs in the veggie drawer...for the life of me I don't know)...I going to be using up eggs in the next few weeks for sure.

6.  I mended a t-shirt that was losing it's arm due to a loose seam. 

7.  We ate at home all week without eating out once, which is rare for us with my son and his "french fry food group" diet.  So, yay for saving money that way!

8.  I enjoyed the free resource of naps this week trying to recoup from my cold.  It's still straggling on a bit, but at least I am starting to feel human again. 

9.  It's been warm enough to open up the deck door and the windows this week to start letting in fresh air.  It's been in the 50's during the day some days, which is wonderful after the long, cold winter we had!  Fresh air is not only free, but definitely welcome.

And there you are folks.  Some of the ways I saved money this week.  How did you do?

Monthly Goals Update and This Week's Goals

So, what happened to Frugal Friday last week you ask?

Well, actually I was really frugal last week.  Mainly because we were all sick and so no money was spent because I didn't go anywhere or do anything but be sick or take care of others who were sick.

We started the week with the daughter catching a cold and that lasted till about mid-week.  Then I started catching said cold, but was holding it off.  And then my son got the stomach flu.  So, after staying up all night taking care of him...well the cold didn't so much hit me as hit me like a truck.  So, I JUST started feeling better today and had to run around like a maniac this morning to get errand running done that I didn't get done last week because of all the sickness.

I also needed to run and get unforeseen chicken supplies.  We finally went and got the chickens yesterday (thank goodness).  The coop isn't QUITE done as we need to put the insulation on the outside of the coop and add a few wood panels on top of it to insulate the nesting box area.  Overall, though, I was impressed with how roomy and comfortable my husband was able to make the coop for the chickens and they are VERY happy by the sounds they are making (a chicken treat brick that I bought at the farm supply store MIGHT have helped a bit).

I was worried when we picked up the chickens though and found that they were completely out of things like chicken grit and things, so I ran to the supply store today and grabbed those things.  It really wasn't too much money overall, but was still more than I was thinking I'd have to spend for start up costs as Shani thought she had plenty of everything (other people were feeding the chickens since she's been sick, so I don't blame her at all), but at least the chickens are settled and hopefully might start laying eggs here soon.  Bright side was I was able to collect seven eggs from Shani's coop and deliver them to her so she can have some farm fresh eggs in her diet here.  It can't do her anything but good at this point.  I'm really worried about her as when I saw her yesterday she seemed like she had some energy, but she's lost an awful lot of weight and she hasn't even started treatment yet. 

The entire cost of the coop was right around 200.00, and of course labor on my husband's part (and it's huge...it takes up an entire bay of my barn pretty much).  I can't imagine how that big of a coop would have cost if I'd bought it somewhere else, so yay for having a mechanically inclined husband!  I just hope the chickens will be happy and content here as I hated the necessity that required me to adopt them.

My husband went to a meeting about the drug treatment center and we came away severely depressed.  Basically, because the center is run by an independent company and not the state there is no special permit that the company would need to open said building, thus nothing that we can even contest.  And we also found out that the borough LOVED the idea of the thing going in, so we weren't going to get anyone on board with the idea of putting the center into a better area.  So, basically, we're screwed.

Basic plan we've come up with is that we're going to go to the bank after we get a accurate survey of our land done (which I need to start looking for someone to do that for a decent price...I hope it doesn't cost much) and then either get a home equity loan or even refinance our mortgage so that we can get the funds to put up a big privacy fence around our entire property, preferably with barbed wire on top so we don't have to worry about fence jumpers getting over very easily.  It's the only protection we can really think to do at this point.  It was a depressing, sick filled week for sure *sigh*.  At least we have property that could go residential or commercial, so we're hoping to get the fence built, get the land cleared and maybe sell it as commercial property.  The governor is determined to push tons of taxes and things through up here, so we're seriously considering relocating in the next few years as our standard of living is so high up here already that if they start putting taxes on top of it, there is going to be no reason to stay as it would start making living here just too expensive to stay.

Bright side to the week was my husband got to go in and start the process to get all of the various security clearances he'll need to work at the airport, so yay for that!

Last week I might not have gotten much done on the money saving front, other than not going anywhere or spending money because I was too busy or not up to do doing much, but we got the coop pretty much done (so one goal nearly accomplished) and I spent a good couple of days researching cancer treatment centers for Shani.  I was trying to find a good place that would have everything she would need to help her hopefully beat this cancer (she asked me as she just wasn't up to concentrating enough to do it).  I think I now know more about her cancer than she does after reading a lot of different sites and sources, and I found a really good cancer center that I'm hoping she can get into.  The head doctor there is the top authority in her type of cancer, they have a special scanner to help detect her cancer cells and figure out where to target them, and they have four research studies going on for her type of cancer right now.  I hope she can get her wound healed up enough to go and at least get the opportunity to fight the cancer with the best tools at hand.  Here's hoping.

So, yeah, anyway onto this week's goals!

General Goals:

• Harvest some lettuce from hydroponics garden (I can't BELIEVE how quick the lettuce grew the last 10 days.  I'll have to take a pic of it so you can see it later!).
• Finish up meal plan for the week (I got it like 98% done, but need to finish it tomorrow).
• Recover house from being sick (this is taking a LOT longer than I thought because I am still wearing out easily from this cold).
• Clean car (this needs it bad)
• Look in closet and see if I have a pair of sneakers for the son in the next size up (found out when I checked his shoes today that his toes are at the end of his sneakers...here's hoping).
• Get some baking done (hopefully tomorrow) to get school treats, bread and some muffins done for the week.
• Fold and put away laundry.
• Mend bathing suit 
• Mend comforters (again)
• Get well (this is definitely a hope on my part as I'm SO tired right now)

And there you go folks.  My goals for this week.  How about you?

Monthly Goals: April, 2017

You know, I felt like I got like nothing accomplished on my goals for last month, but looking at the list I had I actually got a good portion of it done.  Which is impressive when I look at my cell phone for last month as pretty much every day with the exception of Spring Break (since I was busy with the kids that week) had appointments and stuff going on.  I'm actually kind of surprised and pleased that I got anything done last month considering the month we had.

First, the good news.  My husband heard from the airport today and Juneau okayed his position!!!  He's actually got another job interview for another job tomorrow through the state as well, so he's going to see if the second job can give him a better deal or not.  I'm glad the husband is finally realizing his worth.

Shani was actually in decent spirits when I visited her today as they might have found a research study in Texas for her to be in on with her cancer and so her treatment would be free.  The best part about it, though, is that it is a new type of cancer treatment that would bypass chemo, which would enable her to keep her strength up while they fought the cancer.  If nothing else, I'm really happy that she might get to avoid chemo.  She's got a terrible wound in her gut right now from the surgeries she had done, so hopefully that will heal enough for her to fly and pretty quickly as time isn't on her side with this cancer.

So far with the heroin treatment center situation, I've been on the news getting interviewed about it and my husband is hopefully going to get to speak at an assembly meeting tomorrow to see if we can get this thing shut down quick.  I'm hoping this just goes well, for a change, so please please if you have a moment send up a prayer for us.  I can't really afford to move and I sure don't want something like that next door to me...the entire situation is just making my husband and I ill.

My theme song this week has been, "It's Gonna Be OKAY" by the Piano Guys.  Got a moment, take a listen and get inspired.  The song has helped me out a lot lately...

It has kind of become my theme song.  It definitely speaks to my fighting spirit.

When it comes to goals this month, a lot of it depends.  On the weather.  On how the situation with the heroin treatment center goes, how the new job goes.  So, so many factors at work right now.  But, I'm still hoping to get some stuff done, so let's get to those goals shall we?

Goals for Month:

• Organize seeds and start planning garden (I barely got them taken out and put into one box this week with everything that was going on...seen up top...but I still need to figure out EXACTLY what and where to plant...if we're not moving before property values crash...ugh...life is driving crazy right now).  Plant seeds that need to be started indoors (and pray cats are nice to them).
• Finish chicken coop.  Pick up chickens and get them settled into new home (getting there on the coop...the husband has been distracted so it's been taking a while).
• Walk property and assess damage from last big wind storm (we lost at least a couple of trees, so I want to make sure nothing scary could be on the verge of going down somewhere).
•  Spring Clean.  Wash walls, windows, clean under beds thoroughly, vacuum mattresses and dust thoroughly.  No matter what happens with the drug treatment center, this needs to be done, so I'm hoping to focus on cleaning up and things as much as I can.
• Take care of Shani as much as I can.  I cleaned her vehicles for her today, which allowed me to visit with her at the hospital.  It felt good to help her out and also was nice to visit with her.
• Start embroidery projects (one of these days...)
• Start to harvest lettuce from hydroponics garden (seen above in the beginning stages)
• Continue to catch up on mending, especially of the comforters before they find a way to fall apart completely.
• Get back on track with the menu plan, baking and more domestic things.  I've been so super busy it's amazing that I remember my head is attached lately, so I really need to work on the home front...it helps me feel more grounded in turbulent situations, which is REALLY needed right now and benefits the entire family, which is a double benefit.

And there you are folks.  My hopeful goals for this month.  How about you?  Got anything you are up to this month?

Side Note:

I just wanted to share this link with you.

Shani's daughter is trying to raise money through GoFundMe so she can fly her and her kids to help with Shani's care.  You can find more information on that HERE.  If you can help, please do.  I would have given anything to have had a few more moments with my father before he went to the other side.  I'd like to at least give Shani's daughter that if the worst case scenario plays out, and if it doesn't Shani could certainly use the help and support.