Frugal Friday Week #10
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I always feel like I post many how-to’s and not many “real lifes”. Although I do try and incorporate that into my newer posts, I’ve often thought that it might be even more helpful for my readership to get a better glimpse inside of what our simple/homestead/from scratch/frugal life really looks like.
Frugal Friday Week 10
So I’ve started a new series called Frugal Friday and need your help. My idea for this series is to share some of the projects/recipes/things we worked on this week and, in general, just what life looks like.
I need your help because I’ve tried something similar before, and I gave up after a while. I got bored, felt like no one was reading it or cared, and I moved on to other projects. So what I need you to do each week is to share what your week looked like in the comments section. I think it could keep us ALL accountable and may serve as an encouragement to others!
So let’s dive right into this week!
Meals We Ate
Breakfast –
Breakfast Cookies
Griddlecakes
Yogurt and Granola
Waffles (x2)
Egg Sandwiches
Scrambled Eggs
Lunch –
Big Plate (unfancy charcuterie)
Mac and Cheese
Leftovers
Loaded Baked Potatoes
Nacho Sheet Pan
Ham and Fruit
Supper –
Tacos with Spanish Rice
Hamburger Casserole
Chef Salads
Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs
Chicken Noodle Soup and Dinner Rolls
Leftovers
Shopping I Did
I was home (and snowed in) for almost the whole week so I didn’t do much for shopping! I will have my coop food again tomorrow and will be doing meal prep this weekend with it.
I did buy a few more things for school for this fall. I like to get an early jumpstart on things because in the last few years, many school curriculums and books sell out early and are back-ordered.
For my youngest, we will be doing Wee Folk Art’s Seasonal Curriculum. I did it with my boys and they really enjoyed it. All of the reading, baking, and play fits our style for the early years well. For the boys, I was given almost a full set of Sonlight Core D. This week, I ordered a few more books to go with it that I was missing, and I also ordered Apologia Botany for our science as we haven’t been big fans of the science that comes with Sonlight. It feels great o have everything we need for another year!
Outside Projects We Worked On
The only thing we could do outside was shovel snow, so that’s mostly what we did! Taking care of animals in 2 feet of snow is hard and exhausting. It’s supposed to be in the 50s and maybe even 60 this weekend, so we hope it melts quickly.
We had twin Nubian goats born on Saturday, right before the snowstorm hit. They seem to be doing well so far.
Inside Projects We Worked On
I worked on creating a new daily routine schedule this week (it was about time!). Everything will change again in a month when we finish school for the summer, but it still helps to have a better plan.
I had to re-pot several plants again, like tomatoes and peppers. Everything seems to be still doing well and getting bigger. I’m hoping for good healthy, happy plants that will be ready to go in the ground in another 4-6 weeks. The cabbage is ready to go, but with all the snow, it will have to wait another week.
We were expecting our incubator to start hatching chicks on Saturday, but they started yesterday. We are up to 20 hatched so far (out of 41), and I’m guessing we will see quite a few more today.
Books I’m Reading
No extra reading this week as I worked on other projects.
Blog Posts I Wrote
- What to Do With Eggshells – I really dislike waste so this post features all kinds of ways you can use up eggshells without throwing them away.
- 10 Hard-Boiled Egg Recipes – I was on a roll with the egg-themed posts so I updated my post with hard-boiled egg recipes this week. If you are making hard-boiled eggs this weekend, be sure and check out this post on what to do with them!
- 2 Ingredient Chocolate Truffles – This recipe is SO good and we used to make it all the time! These are so easy and simple to make and put together.
- Chocolate Muffin Mix – This is another great recipe to prepare and have stored in your pantry for quick muffins. These are so good and moist. I used to make this recipe for our coffee shop when we owned it.
- Long-Term Food Storage – So many have asked me about our long-term food storage that I decided to update this post this week. It has all the info on what to store, how to package it, and where to get it from.
Looking Ahead to Next Week
We are really hoping that the snow melts quickly so that we can get back outside! We have an excavator rented for the next week, so we plan on doing quite a bit of dirt work and are planning (for the hundredth time, it feels like) to finish that tunnel greenhouse to get the cabbage in.
So tell me….what did life look like for you this week? What did you do, make, or plan to do?
Merissa has been blogging about and living the simple life since 2009 and has internationally published 2 books on the topic. You can read about Merissa’s journey from penniless to the 100-acre farm and ministry on the About Page. You can send her a message any time from the Contact Page.
What a productive week! The truffles look fantastic.
I baked for my neighbors and worked overtime at my job. Not a lot of adventures but a good week just the same.
I really enjoy reading your posts. I would have loved to homeschool, but in “my day” it was frowned on, and those parents who did, had “weird” children. (1980’s) I also would have loved to homestead, but it wasn’t in the books. (One of my grown daughters did, totally off grid in Alberta for a short time, but there was no water on their property so they gave up.) So I really enjoy reading about your experiences. Keep it up please. Happy Easter to you and your family.
We are on Spring Break from school here in Utah, and we also received a lot of snow at the beginning of the week. Not quite as much as you! Wow!!
We mostly stayed inside but did manage to get out and build a large snowman on Wednesday!
We started homeschooling in 1983. Mostly what it was was scary since parents were being arrested and put in jail. We had a buddy family, as did most, that we would take their kids and they ours if one of us was arrested. It never happened and all our kids were homeschooled all the way through. Four out of our five had full tuition scholarships to college. It was a lot of work but I would not change a thing. We graduated our youngest 14 years ago. Some have gone on for their master’s degree.
I had thought about homeschooling as well because of bussing issues. I also had my kids in the 80’s and 90’s and yeah there was a lot of controversy around it back then. I changed my mind about homeschooling when my oldest was ready to start school because I needed to go back to work and there weren’t any work from home options open to me. Given how challenging it turned out raising my 4 boys, I do not regret my choice to send them to school. I admire the folks that make it work. I dreamed of living off grid but since my hubby’s career was in oil and gas it required us to remain urbanites. He is a city boy anyhow and would not be happy living out in the country. My second son is working on saving money for rural property to be able to grow his own food. I can see him working on getting into the homesteading lifestyle and getting off grid eventually.
Wow, you received quite a bit of snow.. We have been just cold, rainy and it trying to snow here in Western Colorado. The Mountains here have gotten hammered with snow.
Thank you for going back to the Frugal Friday; its very nice and love the recipes !
Love the snow! We didn’t really get any snow this year, maybe next year. Also the baby goats are sweet. When our kids were younger we had a small farmette with Pygmy goats sheep and chickens. It was always cold when the baby kids and lambs were born. But find memories. Did some canning last year and used the labels you offered. Thank you. It was fun ; and this week we made pizza from the canned sauce. Also this week I started helping with baby care for our 3 month grandbaby. I do work providing home care 3 overnights as my job. And now looking forward to remembering Good Friday and celebrating Easter. Be Blessed.
Hi Merissa, We do had winter storms this week, causing me to cancel appointments on two days. I think Spring will finally arrive this week though, and melt it all away. Highlights of what I made to eat this week: I made low carb blueberry pancakes one morning. We had enough for breakfast the next morning too. Then for supper one night I made enchilada hot dish. That just means I layered the “tortillas” in the pan on the bottom and the top, rather than making individual rolled up enchiladas. These too were low carb using these egg wraps I found at Aldi. They work great for that and I don’t even notice they’re low carb. We were still eating on the soup I made last week too. I probably mentioned it….chicken/wild rice/mushroom soup. It is so delicious. Our breakfasts are commonly scrambled eggs and blueberries & cream. We went to a large home show over the weekend. We bought a couple small things but then ended up making a LARGE purchase. We bought an adjustable split king bed. We probably didn’t use good judgement….but I hope we love it. Our neighbors are going to help us get it in on Saturday and get the old one out, so we shall see how it goes. At the home show, we also listened to a presentation about growing mushrooms at home. That was fairly interesting and something I’d like to try. So this week, I finally got my Christmas tree down to the basement and the rest of our decorations packed away as well. Lots of cleaning and vacuuming going on too. I got a new wool rug just before Christmas and I filled the canister on my vacuum twice vacuuming it! I could tell it was wool fiber….not dog hair! I hope it doesn’t continue shedding like that or there soon won’t be anything left! Have a good week!
Wow!!! Sounds like you had a very busy week despite the snow!! The snow looks beautiful but must put you so behind in your Spring chores and gardening. You won’t need to worry about draughts…but do you worry about floods with that much snow?
You must feel so accomplished with all that you did this week!!! great to get ahead for Fall schooling…now don’t forget where you put your new books! 😉 Your soup looks delicious!
I love this time of year with all the new farm animals to see! Enjoy your life and keep posting as it is fun to see all that you do with a happy smile!! Keep up the great work!!
Happy Easter!!
I love reading your posts and learning how to be more frugal. At 72, I still enjoy learning and your ideas and recipes help make vit easier to live on a retirement budget. I recently made your homemade lip balm and Shea body butter. It was a fun project. I’m surprised at how much smoother and rosier my lips are. I’m looking forward to making more beauty and household products from your book.
Merissa, I really enjoy your posts too. I live in a city, in a tropical country and I have a cooking instagram (@spo.cooking ) and prefer healthy and nutritious recipes. This week I did for the first time, a Swedish bread. Happy Easter to you and your family!
Merissa! This is a WONDERFUL post! I am overwhelmed and bewildered by all that you do and seeing your wonderful livestock come to life!! The goats are so sweet and I am so thankful God makes them the way he does!! The chicks are adorably cute too, can’t wait till we can have some of our own. Maybe someday! Sonlight is my favorite and our kids have been doing their school at home and absolutely loving learning. Amazing. Also, my sons strawberries grew and our kids got to try them this week!! It was magical!! 🙂 Definitely going to be a tradition for us here. I’ve been listening a lot to JJ Heller, especially her I Dream of You albums. So peaceful and my kids sing along. Highly recommend. Stay warm and thank you for all you do!!! Appreciate you so much!! Also, tried making your homemade bagels last week and they were phenomenal!! 🙂 so much fun. Thank you, again. Appreciate you so much, Daisy.
Awesome!!
I have animals too. Got blessed with a kid goat yesterday evening. More to come as well. We had snow that big too back in March up in the northern part of Arizona. My hens are starting to lay too. Excited for that as well.
Happy Easter
This week I almost made a phone call to Noah asking him to use his ark. We had 2.5 days of rain. Between winter and rain, I’m pretty done with both. All of my 72 pepper plants have popped up, which is a blessing in itself, and my 24 tomato plants are looking really good. This year I am planning on starting an herb garden I always had one, but it was in containers. But this year I want them in my big vegetable garden. I’m also started my cleaning schedule for Easter, and I finished up my menu plan for Easter. This weekend I have to scrub my carpets, make 2 desserts, and color my Easter eggs. Ok, can I done ask for vacation?
Oh, I wanted to tell you thank you for giving us a tip of prep meals for dinner. I did that on Palm Sunday, and it made me feel good and more prepare for cooking dinners up. I’m sorry I talk too much. Have a blessed Easter!
I do enjoy your posts. I homeschooled my children through high school. They are now in their 30’s and very successful.
Wow! Talk about snow. Hope it melts for you soon so you can move around easier and get your dirt work done. How fun that you got to see Mercy Me!! I would love that!! They are so good!!
Not much going on here. It’s very cold. I did purchase a present for myself this week and was excited to try it last night. We have used a Cuisinart food processor that I purchased at a garage sale years ago for $10. It only has a pulse function and you have to stand and hold the lever down to make it work. Things at the bottom become mush unless you stop and stir. I purchased a Magiccos Food Processor FP408 that makes french fries, and it has multiple blades that store under the unit plus a really, really large bowl and large multi-sectioned shoot. I saved $40.00 on this purchase with a coupon online. I am so excited to have something that will be used often. I rarely purchase new items, but I am glad I bought this new. I did an online grocery order that saved us $90 by buying online. It actually saved our family more, because of the costs of our local grocery store. The prices are almost double on most items here. Moved some of my canned goods around and did an inventory. We still have a lot on hand. Made a burrito bowl for dinner one night. Those are always a hit at our house and can be made with whatever you have on hand. We did canned chicken that was seasoned with a ton of spices from our teenager (who loves to cook and likes it spicy), seasoned black beans, seasoned refried beans, a can of corn, black olives, spanish rice, avocado, butter lettuce and topped with our favorite dressings. My husband has a bunch of old albums that he isn’t using, so he is taking them in to town and doing a trade or sale with a music store owner. Nothing too exciting here. Waiting for the weather to change so we can get out and do some outdoor work. Hope everyone has a blessed Easter.
Hi, I follow your blog from Northern BC, Canada. I understand you totally! We live off grid/ homestead. We are finally starting to see the snow melt and pussy willows pop. The birds are so happy singing their beautiful songs around here. I truly can’t wait to get outside and do things on the property. I enjoy your Frugal Friday blog and knowing that others are doing the same things on their property,helps me know we are on the right path.
Have a fantastic weekend and hope the snow melts fast!
Take care.
New here – I actually found your blog because I borrowed your book from the library (always a frugal win). This week I went to my local indie bookshop and they found a used copy for me – I plan to make great use of the mix recipes in it!
My other frugal things were a big Azure order – investing upfront, but with grocery prices these days, I think Future Me will be quite happy we did it. This order should take us through to fall, but I’ve marked the arrival date on things so I can track how long each case lasts us. (I haven’t been using them long.)
I love that you’re bringing Frugal Friday back. When more people were blogging, it was one of my favorite “go rounds” – please keep it up!
hi! I use azure too, but I admit, I have never thought of ordering things to last6+ months. How do you plan for that? I have still been in the mindset of shifting from weekly to monthly shopping; how to shift for quarterly or less for certain ingredients? I could use a primer!
Hi Sonrie,
It helps a lot that I have a small family at this season of life – one teen left at home.
So a case of, say, 1lb chicken breasts (quantity 12) is twelve meals for us; I would only need one-1lb package to slow cook in a jar of BBQ sauce and 1c of rice to make a meal for the three of us. So I break down how many meals that case of chicken equals (12) and then if I did that once a week, I’ve got 12 “weeks” of chicken breast, or if I did that twice a week (say, baked the chicken in spices and served it with veggies & then did the slow cooker another day) I’d have 6 “weeks” of chicken breasts.
Another example, I ordered a case of ground turkey, which is 8 packages of 12oz. I would use that in a pasta dish like baked ziti, or in a big casserole-dish crustless quiche, so one pack per meal would be a meal – making that case 8 dinners. (And in the case of a big quiche, it would actually double, because we have it two nights in a row, whereas some families it would only feed one night.) So that’s eight “weeks” of ground turkey.
If you were feeding a family or six or eight, you’d end up with half the “weeks” per case that I do because you’d need twice the packages (e.g. 2x 1lb chicken breast vs my 1lb), or if it were a single person or a couple with no kids, maybe you’d get 1.5 or 2x the “weeks” that I do. So the big thing for me is knowing how much of a case I’d use at any given time, and that tells me how long it will *probably* last.
That’s just the bigger things I can divide mentally like that so far, though! 😀 I’m still figuring how many packages of things like shredded cheese I use from them, because we used to buy bigger packs of a different brand at our military grocer – the cases from Azure are handy, but I use more of the packs of cheese, for example, so I go through them faster than I expected to initially. We couldn’t stock too much before because we moved frequently. (My spouse has now retired and we get to stay in one place.)
Hence my comment that it “should” last til fall – I’m still getting some things figured out myself. LOL I hope that gives you a starting point. If you jot some dates on the items on your next order and keep an eye on how long they last you, cooking like you normally do, it will start giving you an idea of how much you might want to put down for say, a three month supply or six month supply to order in the future. I hope that helps!
Yes, your explanation was very helpful, thank you! It is 3 of us, husband and I and a toddler. It is a new way of thinking for sure. I ordered 12 boxes of gf pasta noodles because the price per oz was better than with buying 1 box, and it obviously will last a long time, but it was a good first practice I think in considering how long that will last.
I couldn’t imagine having that much snow! This week I mixed up a LOT of dirt, compost and sand to make potting soil, transplanted blueberry seedlings, made batches of laundry and dish soaps & fabric softener, filled about 100 seedling bags and did yard cleanup after high winds and storms. I also made casseroles to freeze for the week. Stay busy!!!
I love reading your posts about your homesteading activities. My eldest daughter (she is 52) and I live in southeastern Louisiana, so we have been having warm weather, some rain, but mostly dry for us this time of year. Last weekend we spent all day Saturday planting veggie and herbal seeds (tomato, cukes, bush beans, banana peppers, okra, lettuce, arugula, chili peppers, green bell peppers, oregano, thyme, basil). We’re getting started a little late for our growing zone (we could have started in February), but my eldest daughter works 2 jobs, so barely has time at home to do almost anything, and I am not that ambulatory any longer, so I have to wait for her to have the time to wash out the pots and fill them with soil. I then put the seeds in. We have a greenhouse for them since it will still get below 55 at night at times, though not this week. The greenhouse keeps the seedlings warm enough to germinate. We use containers, but my youngest daughter (she is 42) (she has her own place – my eldest daughter and I live together – we are a family of generations living together – my eldest daughter, her son, and I – however, right now my youngest daughter is staying with us while she fixes her house which was damaged by last year’s hurricane – she goes to her house on her days off to work on it, plus she is putting in her gardens) planted her seeds in the ground in late February, and already has harvested her radishes, which we are using now. Her greens are coming up also. My youngest daughter also has chickens, so we use a lot of our leftover greens for them. Other than that, we compost. We also save our egg shells, crush them, and place them at the base of our pine and oak trees, and our rose and azalea bushes. We have just started chopping up our banana peels for the plants. Because it is spring here, things are moving rapidly now for us to get everything planted before the summer heat starts and the hurricane season starts. We’re hoping for a light hurricane season this year and the weather people are forecasting that we may not have that many due to the changing conditions in the Pacific Ocean (La Nina moving into El Nino). Other than that, we also have between all of us 4 dogs, and 7 cats, 4 of the cats live at my youngest daughter’s house. She had brought them over when she first moved in last year, but her cats are so used to their own neighborhood that we were afraid they would run away, so she brought them back to her house. They are like little dragons strutting around the yard, keeping out strangers. They are watch cats! They run up to you if they don’t know you, and glare at you! Like who are you and what do you want? Our dogs are getting old, and now need a lot of TLC. My eldest daughter has received her certification in Bowen Therapy and in Reiki (both are energetic healing methodologies), so she uses it on the dogs and cats as well as us. Our dogs are 14, 12, 11, and 6, and our cats are 9, 5, and 4 years of age. So, we have a household full of old people and old pets. Takes a lot of work to keep us all healthy. We thought our middle-aged dog had hip dysplasia (he is a shepherd-timber wolf mix), but it turned out luckily for him that it was a sore paw pad. That is why he was limping and why it was difficult for him to jump into the truck to go to work with my youngest daughter who owns her own business. Now that the inflammation has gone down, he walks normally and can jump and run like he is a 2 year old again! My youngest daughter is a glass artist, blows her own glass pieces, and gives classes. She takes both her dogs to work at her gallery and studio every day with her and they both go with her to their house to feed the cats and check on everything (turn off the lights in the day and turn the lights back on at night so it looks like someone is staying there – well, she does the lights while the dogs run the yard and check on it – the middle-aged dog finds turtles all the time in the yard and brings them to my youngest daughter to put back in the bayou at the back of her yard). So, lots of gardening going on now what with the weather turning so warm. We also have many houseplants that need transplanting, but that will have to wait until the summer when my eldest daughter, who is a teacher in the daytime and a Starbucks barrister in the nighttime, will have the time to replant them into smaller or bigger pots. She spent last summer doing this, but was not able to finish. We have so many my youngest daughter at one time was able to sell a truckload of aloe vera plants (we inherited them from my younger brother when he had to move, and they grew like crazy) to a local nursery. We weren’t growing them to sell them, but there were just hundreds of them. For some reason, the succulents and cacti we have seem to love this very humid atmosphere down here and grow crazy. Go figure. I always thought they did better in dry climates. So we have a whole bunch of century plants, and other cacti, plus aloes, and spider plants to replant. Not to mention we are thinking about planting our blueberries and olive trees in the ground. We also have 2 pomegranate bushes to plant into the ground. And we have so many pine seedlings and oak seedlings coming up in our azalea bushes (it’s springtime), that we are thinking about putting them in pots for future planting somewhere. Not sure where, but my youngest daughter does have the land for it, so we may plant them there. We also have a few lemon trees we want to plant into the ground. They are in containers right now. I like reading your posts because I have been interested in homesteading since the 1960s. I worked on an organic farm in 1970-1971 (my brother-in-law’s 250-acre farm in southern Wisconsin). It was a lot of fun (and yes, a lot of work! but I was young then and able to do the work). He had about 30 milking cows that we would milk and take out to pasture in the summer and keep in the barn in the frigid winter, plus we planted and harvested corn, rye, wheat for the cows and us. We also canned the veggies from the family garden we put in on a 1/4-acre. It was enough for all of us. My sister-in-law made cheese by letting the raw milk sit in a container out in the air (there is a lot of yeast in the air). He also had horses, chickens, and pigs we had to take care of. I no longer live on a farm, but have kept up trying at least to grow our own food and compost and can our veggies, dry our herbs (my youngest daughter dehydrates a lot of food, plus she likes to make roll-ups using her strawberries she harvests). Keep up the great work you do! I love what you and your family are doing, and I love reading about how you are working your homestead. Happy Easter!
That is a lot of snow. We did get some freezing rain and lots of rain. I’m worried that my garlic might now come up this year. The garden bed is flooded where the bulbs are. Fingers crossed that it all works out. We are just getting over 11 days of being sick with colds and flu. It was rough but we made it threw. It was so nice to be able to get out and get some fresh vegetables and fruits. There wasn’t much left in that category. We ate mostly soups that were frozen from last summer. No one really wanted to eat. Last night we did have sweet and sour meat balls with rice and yellow beans. On todays agenda is to repot my tomatoes and plant the different squashes and cucumbers. I can’t wait to be able to get in the garden again. We should be able to plant our potatoes in the next two or three weeks.
Thank you for sharing. I always look forward to your post.
Chantal
Dear Merissa,
Happy Good Friday to you! I wanted to share with you just how much I appreciate Frugal Fridays, it’s obvious how much work and dedication is involved. It’s inspiring to me! God Bless you and your family and Happy Easter! Keep it up! 🙂
You sure got a lot of snow!! I guess everyone is getting good muscles after that dig out! Not much on my home front this week but I do plan to clean my windows this week if the warmer weather holds. I did manage to buying some more potting soil on sale and will be doing some transplanting over the weekend. I managed to collect some marigold, pansy and petunia seeds last year from the bedding out plants that I bought. I planted some back in February and they are growing well and should be big enough to go outside mid-late May.
This week we did a lot of home school. Today starts our spring break. We bought the kids a basketball hoop cheap off of marketplace and hung it on a tree by our sidewalk. We don’t really have a good cement area to play and that’s where they wanted it. 🤷🏻♀️ 😂 I did my normal grocery shopping. I tried a new recipe for rice I saw Guy Fierri make on food network. It was good but very spicy so I froze it. I will use it when I make freezer burritos next time. I found dahlia tubers marked down to 2.49 at aldi so I have been picking one up each week. I have 3 so far, can’t wait to see them grow. I’m going outside to work in my raised beds today. In Michigan you can plant some cold weather crops now. I’m going to do some peas, Swiss chard, spinach, collard greens and kale.
I thought that I would let you know how much I enjoy reading your posts. I live in a senior building in Chicago. We used to have small plots out back that we could grow various things. No longer. Now there is more concrete, no outdoor useable space at all. So, know I’m living vicariously through your posts! Thank you
I enjoy reading what you are up to. I’ve been crafting different things with my friend. we made crosses. busy with church. going to Good Friday Service tonight. we’ve had lots of rain here in Oregon. Our mountain has tons of snow. I want to plant flowers next week, but we’ll see what the weather will be. Have a wonderful Easter. God is so good to us. Darlene
I love reading about your week! So much more productive than mine ;0)
The chicken soup looks sooo good! I’d love to make that as we love soup. The truffles I will have to make as well, they look like a nice treat.
I only canned more chicken broth and then some boneless chicken. Nice to have in the pantry.
We are done with homeschooling as my daughter graduated last year. It feels funny not going through curriculum…
I’m retired & live in FL so not as exciting as your week. My husband takes our Grandkids to school everyday so other than how bad the traffic is was all he had going on. Took the grandson to a Dr appt yesterday & today so this days were over before I knew it. The other days just doing what had to get done, laundry, grocery shopping & such. I did sit for awhile last night with my cats on the porch & watch a flock of Ibis on the golf course behind us. I hope you have a blessed Easter.
As usual I cannot remember what we ate. I have purchased seeds and plan to start the Aero garden again. We are in the worst drought that we have had in over 10 years and no rain in sight. I have been reading a book by ValErie M Bowden. It is very good. I am also reading Little Women again. Wishing you and your family all the blessings of Easter. Thank you for all that you do.
You have so much snow! We did not have any this year except one time. Hello, I am a first time commenter, I think, after reading here about a year.
My week this week: the whole family started the week not feeling well so we took it easy early on. I didn’t get as much done as I had hoped, which included more spring and deep cleaning. The last two weeks I have been able to clean several windows and cook some extra meals. I hope to be able to go through some closets and tubs of children’s clothing next week for keeping and donating. I planned out Easter lunch for my extended family. I made homemade cassava crust pizza with tomatoes and pineapple, corned beef stew (a friend picked up a corned beef for us when she saw it for $1/lb at the store), and baked oatmeal. I was able to thrift some books we will need in a few years and also picked up some books at the library. I am also working on an art piece for a show with some coworkers and I am trying to use what I have instead of buying more art supplies ( I have plenty I think!).
Thanks for another great post My week has not been as busy as yours, but I feel productive none the less. I work as a Carer Support Worker during the week, but my mornings always start with time in the garden. This week I was given some water iris rhizomes, which encouraged me to set up an outdoor fish pond. We have warm summers here in Australia, but the pond is under shade and should cope ok. There is nothing practical about it, but I enjoy it. I have been setting up my garden as I only moved about 7 months ago. I have several tubs of herbs, a stacker pot with strawberries, 2 passionfruit vines, 3 grape vines, 2 rhubarb, a blueberry bush, a pineapple, a banana, as well as an apricot, lime, lemon and 2 apple trees. I call these my long term plants. I also have eggplant, zucchini, Capsicum, Broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, pumpkin and cucumbers still growing. I have been picking tomatoes up until about a week ago, but I have new plants starting to fruit.
Meals this week have been soup, using leftovers from the fridge and herbs, tomatoes, zucchini and eggplant from the garden.
I have also had chicken wings and lamb, both of which I buy in bulk.
Even though I live on my own, I love to generate as much home produce as possible and find new and interesting ways of preserving it. Thanks for all the tips and tricks I find on here. 👋 🇦🇺
We live in southern Mo. and I mowed my yard for the second time already. This week I cold packed and canned potatoes, did some sewing and made cranberry juice from dried cranberries, plus cooking meals and chores. I, also. went to a quilt making get together.
Hoping everyone a Happy Easter and God’s Blessings.
Wow that’s a lot of snow. Love your blogs. Somewhat of a productive week but quite like yours.
Had to do some overtime at work. You are encouraging me to cook and bake more. I am making a carrot cake and blueberry fluff salad for Easter. HAPPY EASTER!!!!!
Well for my week it has been hot and dry I planted seeds in the garden and herbs also. We dug a couple plants of potatoes they are really getting big, still weeding and transplanting some plants into bigger pots for my front porch.
Got 12 pullets{ sex links chicks ) from Tractor supply they are so cute.
From my sourdough starter I made several batches of english muffins, along with some crackers from the discard they are so good. I have been using recipes that involves my food storage every meal and it has been a good thing to get creative with meals. I have really tried to get clutter out still working on that issue. Well thats about it I think, have a great week!
Hi Merissa!
I follow you from Italy! I live in a town but love nature and the simple healthy life and cooking. I admire your energy and how much you love your family. Please go on with Frugal Fridays: it’s so interesting and motivating for me!
Best wishes for a Holy Eastern!
All of your snow looks so pretty. Unfortunately, I live in the area that is getting all of the strong winds and tornados. Our fence was broken apart again by the strong winds. This is the second time in two weeks. My husband has been on repair duty.
The bad weather has stalled my outside work. I was able to finish my herb garden remake on one sunny day, and my husband got the garden tilled once. It was a little muddy, but we managed.
I made a new vegetable soup. I actually combined about three recipes together. It was good, and I made enough to put in the freezer.
I hope everyone has a nice Easter.
Here in Bermuda we have had a week of mostly sunny weather, and my pots of
Vegetables are growing like mad. I can see tiny flower buds on my tomato plant and
Have been harvesting lettuce, chives, and Kale. Perfect for cooking for one.
Bought a big chicken and made stock for the freezer, picked the carcass and froze the
Meat in packets for future use after using some to make a curried chicken pasta salad.
All the trash bits went into a container for my dogs, and the bones were frozen to
Chuck into the next stock pot, with the next chicken. Got my food bill down slightly
Each week in March, so feel very good. I am using many of your ideas and am very glad
To be part of your blogging group!!!! All the best, Sue in Bermuda.
Hi Merissa!
Congratulations on the twin goats and baby chicks. Aside from the snow (oh my goodness!) a perfect way to welcome spring.
After much rain the sun came out and I’m able to use my retractable clothesline. Even better hanging things with clothespins with all our family-members names my granddaughter gave me for Christmas❣️
This week I made “pancakes”. Using a mini food chopper I purchased from a rummage sale, I ground 3 handfuls of organic walnuts (set aside a couple of spoonfuls) mixed in 2 eggs, banana & cinnamon and cooked. I served with organic honey, berries & sprinkle of ground walnuts but there are many options. Yummy & sustaining.
Thank you again for taking time to share all you are doing and for inspiring all of us. Wishing you and your family a blessed Easter.
Leslie
You guys kept busy even tho you couldn’t do alot outside with the snow. It does feel good to get things bought and prepared ahead of time. That good feeling of accomplishment! Good luck with the new babies and I hope you get all hens! See you next week!
It was a busy week but not very productive at all. We have been waiting for seedlings to pop up and were not disappointed. We gifted some chickens to a friend from our church family. We are still struggling with deciding whether to sell our property and move to another state or stay put a little longer. The drought here is no fun at all, but the tornados and severe weather in other states isn’t appealing either. It looks like it will be container gardening this summer. We deal with the special needs of Autism and FASD and ADHD between two children and it is generally an adventure Every. Single. Day. ADHD on its own is a challenge but add in FASD and it is totally different than ADHD without the “special sauce”! Hopefully this next week we will get everything organized for the taxes and get glasses ordered for those that need them. We are working on sign language and logic in our homeschooling adventure. Our chickens have started their spring laying spree, so we have an abundance of eggs to share. Not sure how to sell the excess here. We had planned to start embroidery projects with the girls for Christmas gifts for others, but we have yet to start that. Life is constantly throwing us curve balls and derailing our good intentions. 😉 My biggest plan next week is to get the youngest child’s things back into her room as she thinks EVERY room is just for her toys.
Hi, Robin. I’m Melissa from Ohio. I thought I might share this with you in reference to you mentioning you have an abundance of eggs – don’t know if this idea would appeal to you any – I know that probably your people around you also have chickens & eggs – but we are having success with selling eggs by the dozen in subscriptions. We sell 26 dozen contracts, but it could be a smaller quantity of dozens. People pay upfront for a set number of egg dozens, & I check in with them each week to get a dozen eggs to them, & I do that weekly for the number of weeks they have paid us for, until I have filled all the dozens they paid for. It is alot of work keeping track of dozens filled & owed. I have some extra time spent on it each week, but we have had a great response to it, & I know the eggs have a buyer to go to. I do just set aside the money customers pay upfront & keep it held back & we then “pay” ourselves out of it by the dozen each time we fill the egg orders for the customers. I feel like then if any something crazy happened, I would be able to readily refund my customers for any unfilled dozens if I need to, like if something happens to our hens. Also, I let customers skip any week if they need to; I just keep track of that for them, & I still provide eggs until the agreed amount of egg dozens is reached. Hope it’s ok with you I shared that idea. Just a thought.
The rolls by the chicken noodle soup look so good. I love homemade rolls they taste so much better. We have this grass that’s called cat tails m
When the grass top grow they dry out and can stuck in the dogs nose or paws. In the nose they can swell up, get infected and cause breathing problems. In the paws they get stuck, swell up and get infected. Today I started to rake up the grass up and mow over them. They grow yeah so low to ground the lawn mower doesn’t pick them up. All take weed eater to take the rest of the out. Nothing new in the food department.
HI Merissa,
Here in Lancashire, England we’ve also been hatching chicks, – my husband is a retired Church of England minister and likes to take newborn chicks along to Church on Easter Sunday to show the children and illustrate the empty tomb and new life, so everyone always enjoys that. We had six marans and one little partridge wyandotte hatch Saturday so they went along yesterday. I have a greenhouse full of seeds bursting through. Thankfully we have no snow and I’m hoping no more frosts, as my early potatoes are just appearing above the soil . I sowed all my root crops earlier last year. I put radish seed in with the parsnips as they come up really early and mark the row. They’ll be eaten before the parsnips get going. If anyone can get over here I have twenty spare tomato plants and twenty bell pepper plants growing up. I’ve also started my broad bean and pea seeds inside, and they will be big enough to transplant outside this week.. My son’s partner is Ukrainian, so we have a multilingual family. Five of them came for Sunday lunch with us yesterday. Slow cooker chicken just fell off the bone, along with my pan roast veggie medley, and a mixture of kale and cabbage dish. followed by english trifle. Slow cooker meals are proving great for most things. Much cheaper than using the main oven, We are finding the steep rise in all prices hard to deal with, as we live mainly on quite frugal pensions, but I have opened our house as an Airbnb, and enjoy welcoming people from all over the world. We have a charming mother, son and little dog staying for the easter weekend.
Leaving my “Frugal Friday” on this lovely Monday morning. Last week flew by; it was filled with little “catching up” chores, doctor appointments, and leftovers.
The first anniversary of my beloved sister-in-law’s death is in two weeks and we are all a little off, especially my in-laws, so I am spending extra with them. She was wonderful and funny and spiritual and my complete opposite in lifestyle. She was designer shoes and I am a nature girl; we couldn’t have been closer or loved each other more. What laughs we had!
Merissa, your easy 2-ingredient truffles recipe was a huge help for Easter. I made chocolate truffles with a white chocolate coating and put them out chilled as a dessert; I also made a special batch using white chocolate for both the filling and coating as a present for my mother-in-law. She is usually generous, but when she tasted one she told my father-in-law to keep away from them or suffer dire consequences!
Today is a designated garden day. Looking forward to it
I’m way behind everyone else this week, so I’m playing catchup. It doesn’t help that I’m one of those people who leave everything to the last minute!
I love reading about your week! I’m almost a week later reading about & commenting on it this time, though. I’ve been trying to keep up with our family goals, while healing some collarbone & shoulder pain, & it’s taken all my energy. I hope your weather gets milder & lightens the work with your animals some. It is a big task to manage animals in harsh weather!
We’ve had all simple meals the last 2 weeks, & alot of things that we could prep part ahead of time & reheat/assemble the rest at mealtime.
We took one flock of 87 meat chickens to the USDA processor we use in Baltic, Ohio, during last week; that meat should be ready to get from our processor in the next day or two. We also are halfway through raising a 230 bird flock, & we have 230 more arriving in about 5 days, so we’re planning for the minor adjustments that need made to be prepared for that next group of chickens. I did manage to get all of our “eggs by the dozen” subscription offers sold, I have managed to keep on schedule with egg sales & meat pre-order reservations, as well as all the content plans & video uploads we have wanted to add to our YouTube channel called Twin Oaks Farm Poultry.
I am still reading The Last Act. My sons are staying very busy with the oldest in college & the 2 youngest in homeschool. Also, our 2 oldest sons are working full time, & our youngest son is working part-time hours.
This week I was able to get most of our flower beds trimmed & Spring Cleaned. I enjoyed that & it’s cheerful to see them tidied up. Our youngest son took a ton of initiative this week cleaning our garage & washing vehicles.
Now we are looking forward to going to see a live music show on Saturday evening at a local historic theater. The show is a performance of The Ohio Valley Opry. It is performed at Twin City Opera House. It will be fun.
I am looking forward to your Friday update tomorrow. I am feeling alot better now & hope to be able to read it promptly this week!