The Deed is Done

My morning started with this

Once I got myself organized things started moving along at a good clip

16 pints of Salsa done with a little extra for hubby to snack on

The good part of putting up this many tomato's is they are done in a day. The bad part was the boxes were full of fruit flies, ewwww. To keep the nasty buggers out of the house I spread the maters out on tables in the garage. I can't begin to tell you how happy I was to have this table cleared off :)

 Men are so funny. When hubby got home from work he offered to lend me a hand, heck yes!! Could you wash up the dishes while the last batch of tomatoes are doing their thing? A few minutes later he yells into the family room where I was sitting for the first time in 10 hours. "Hey this stuff won't fit in the dishwasher". You have got to be kidding. I even went so far as to have the sink of water all ready for him. I love my husband, really I do, I would never really do anything to harm him, I am not a violent person. But at that moment I wanted to throw the canner at him!!

75 pounds of tomato's = 16 pints of Salsa and 20 quarts of tomato's. Total cost $45.00

 

Was all the work worth the trouble?

 

20 (32) ounce cans of grocery tomato's - $49.80

16 (16) ounce jars of store bought Salsa - $53.64

Total Cost - $103.44

 

My cost $45.00 that's a savings of $58.44

 

Not a bad deal but for me the real savings is that I know where this food came from, a local farmer has a little more money in his pocket,  we won't be eating preservatives, and I think they look pretty :)

 

Maters

 

75 pounds of Maters, also known as Tomato's

 

Last week while hubby and I were on the Pre School field trip we wandered around their market with the toddlers. So many yummy veggies to pick from but we passed them all up knowing they wouldn't do well locked in the car most of the day.

 

The one thing that caught both of our eye's were cases of tomato's being brought in from the fields. Be still my heart, 25 pound boxes were $15.00!!!! I so wanted to load a few boxes up but with all the activities we had planned for the week I knew they would just sit in those boxes going bad. Yesterday after my Dr. appointment I thought a nice drive in the country would be just the ticket to get me in a better mood. Don't you know the car headed in the direction of Patterson's farm :)

 

Today will be Mater day Tuesday. Hubby helped me sort the tomatoes after work yesterday to pull the ones who have a few spots out to be worked up first. I also didn't want them piled up on each other for fear they would go bad before I could get to all of them. Goal for today....get as many canned as possible.

 

It's hard to believe but today will be the first day this year that the canner will be put to work. It's just been that sorta year, sigh

 

 

 

 



A New Week

 I am pretty pleased with the progress I made on the stocking challenge last week. I just need to add Kara's name to hers, Karsyn's still needs all of the handwork and sequins added. That will be this weeks evening busy work

 Papaw and I accompanied Karsyn and Mason Man on their Pre school class field trip to the pumpkin farm last week. Holy cow!!! Thousands and thousand of little kids at every turn. We skipped out on the class picnic and opted for a just us picnic with our little guys. People our age can only take so much :)

 Kara finally decided on a Halloween costume from my dress up stash. The girl had come up with crazy idea's for a costume this year. I am thankful that nothing more than a large hem will be needed to have her ready to hit the streets in search of candy!

 Mason Mason's stocking has also be pieced. His stocking is not nearly as involved as the little girls. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel :)

 Family trip to the pumpkin patch Saturday, check.

 Last but not least of our FULL week of activities was Karsyn's 4th Birthday Party at the Spa yesterday. All of the little girls had such a great time.

Even wild child Kara enjoyed relaxing and being pampered.

 

Holy Hannah the week is done!!! We ran ourselves ragged last week with all of the running around to special events along with finishing major yard work on the front yard. Last night we were in the bed with the covers over our head by 9:00 PM. I am on a mini strike for the next few days. Other than a Dr. appointment for me this morning I am staying HOME for the next 3 days.

 

The house needs some major TLC, ditto on just about every other area home related. I started to make a list this morning but gave up, it was getting overwhelming :) Instead I switched to an itinerary.

 

8:00-10:00 Kitchen

10:00-11:00 Dr. appointment

11:00 - 12:00 Downstairs

12:00- 2:00 Upstairs

2:00 - 4:00 Sewing related (organizing more than likely)

Dinner

Stocking work in the evening.

 

Hubby was so funny as we drug our old rumps up the stairs last night. He is loving every single minute of being home full time but was ready to get back to the office so he can rest :) Welcome to my world bubba, it never ends.

 

Goals for this week are to finish the little girls stockings, complete a Halloween runner, get the sewing/scrap room back in working order and, prioritize Christmas sewing.  I think I can, I think I can....

 

 

7 Day Christmas Challenge

 I just love fall. What could be better than hanging out with the family watching a Pee Wee football game in the afternoon?

 Sitting on your Papaws lap sharing snacks

 or dancing in the parking lot to tunes on Mommy's phone?

Another wonderful thing that comes along with fall is we are able to have the central air and heat off for awhile. Sitting in the evening doing some hand sewing with the back door open...nothing better :)

Yep I am lovin this fall weather!! It's the perfect time to finish up a few (lots) of UFOs

A GF and I have been working on Christmas stockings for more years than I like to admit. More times than I can count we talk about how we must finish them THIS year!  This one is Kara's, yep it's been 4 years in the making! But this week it will be complete, no ands, ifs, or buts about it. Ditto for Karsyn if I can remember where I put her extra pieces :(. I hope to at least get a good start on Masons Mans, maybe even peak at the instructions for Tater Tots.

I always have the best of intentions each year to get the little kiddo's stockings finished but those intentions fly right out the window when December rolls around. I have even packed these suckers up to take along on our beach trip thinking I would sit in the evening enjoying the ocean breeze while stitching.... never happens :) Our November family Mt trip...forget it. Put all 12 of us in a cabin together and its pandemonium, in a good way of course :)

For the next 7 days my evenings will be devoted to sequins and stitching. Does anyone else have Christmas projects that have been ongoing for years and years? Why not grab that project this week and get to work with us. There is no time to wait, Christmas is getting so close it has me in a sweat! I have sew many more things that I have put aside that must be finished for Christmas gifts that need to get in the mail.

Off to the Dr this morning for some blood work. Why is it when I need blood work and can't eat after 10:00 PM I am hungry as a bear? I mean really, we do not eat at that time of the night!!! Last night I tossed and turned all night, kicking myself for not working in a late night snack before the cut off!!

Simple Saturday

 Love this!! I was trying to get a photo with DD#3's kiddo's and Papaw. Do you think I could get anyone to look at the camera? NO But when I sorted today's shots I found this one. How sweet is this. Everyone kissing Tater Tot, aww

 Kara got me going on Halloween decorations today. She had a blast decorating the house :)

Tater Tot blends in with Papaw's quilt today :) Kara has a fit if I put Nanny's quilt on the floor, it's only for girls. The boys have to use Papaw's quilt. Blake's favorite spot to hang out now days is with his big sister, he LOVES his Kara and she LOVES him right back!

 We kept the wild child busy today!!! She pulled the last of the carrots for me.

 Then scrubbed those babies like there was no tomorrow

We will be all set in the carrot department this winter once I get her haul in the dehydrator :)

It's been a very, very long day today. Keeping up with these little guys was all I could do :) Carry out for supper tonight even though I had a pork loin in the crock pot I couldn't find the energy to make any sides. I did get a bit of energy after resting on the sofa watching our favorite team "Roll Tide" Made some home made ice cream to share with our recovering Harley buddy. That's it, nothing more :)

Early to bed for me tonight. I have been fighting this cold for a solid month now, every day I think this is it but...next thing I know I feel like I am going to pass out if I don't set down. Sure hope this will be my "Cold of the year" Monday morning I will be making a call to our DR, this has gone on way to long!!!

One of the only things I don't like about having this heard of Grands is that they bring every germ in the world to our doorstep :)

A Finish Finally!!

 AJ the Beagle and I got the binding on last night after dinner. No matter how hot it is on any given day AJ thinks each and every quilt is hers :) This quilt will be going to Project Linus for a Teen or Tween girl. Between the quilts I have ready and others some ladies in the area have dropped off we have a nice size donation to make this month. Now to find the time to fight the traffic to get them delivered :)

I have been trying to decide on a quilt to gift to a special lady in our family before the cold weather sets in. I have a whole lot of these kits I picked up for next to nothing, I think one just like this might be perfect for her :)

I feels so GOOD to have a little of the backed up sewing off the sewing counter! I haven't made a dent in what all I need to get too but some done is better than none done don't you think?

 It's been a quite morning so far. Blake is sound asleep, Kara is playing nicely with the train set and hubby is off on errands. I think hubby being out of the house is key to the quite morning. He gets the kiddo's so wound up its crazy!!!! Every kiddo should have a playful Papaw :)

Once Papaw returns to get the tubs down Kara and I will spend the rest of the day getting our Halloween decorations up. I really would like to skip it this year and just go with fall decorations but....it's a Nanny thing, can't say no where these little guys are concerned :)

Soup, Saving, and Sewing

 We are having some nice fallish sort of weather this week, perfect for a pot of bean soup. I get giddy when pulling together the ingredients from our dehydrated foods :) Quick, easy, and cheap!

 Forgot about the bay leaves our sweet neighbor shares with us each year. Again I dehydrate them.

 On the grocery list this week was eggs. After checking the weekly ad I decided to stock up on canned tomatoes that were on sale, also had one coupon for a pound of butter, and eggs were BOGO. Total spent $36.44, total saved $13.95. Since our garden was a tea total bust this year I need to jump on canned tomato sales when I can

 While the soup was doing its thing I got busy on one of DD#1's pile of sewing. Her patio throw pillows were looking a bit shabby. One down 3 more to go

 Done!!!

 Next up were DD#3's  living, dinning room window treatments. DONE!

Today the plan is to knock out some of my own piled up sewing projects. This quilt has been waiting in the wings since August, sigh The wait is over!! The game plan is to have the quilting done by supper time. After supper I hope to spend the evening working on the binding. Hope to hang her n the clothes line tomorrow morning :)

While I am resting my arms and shoulders from the FMQ figured I would get a quick post off. The crock pot is doing it's thing, the house is as clean as it needs to be (IMO), laundry done, grocery's for the week are in. Its sewing day!! The pile of sewing stuff is so huge it makes me crazy t even go in the room but like eating a watermelon I will get to it one bite at a time :) Is anyone else chasing their tail trying t get on top of things before the holiday's start up?

Stamp Organizing

 I have been going nuts working on the little girls albums when looking for stamps to use on pages and PL cards. I have had to look at tons of sets to find what I was looking for. Another part of the problem is I have maybe a few too many stamp sets :) I spent most of the day yesterday scanning in and printing image's of all of my stamp sets.

 Once each set was scanned in I sorted them into categories that made sense to me. This set is listed under miscellaneous. Each set was assigned a number, example MS 5 for this set. I put a label on the stamp set with the number also listed on the scanned photo, along with the manufacturer and name of the stamp set.

 Many of the stamp sets can be used in more than one category. This set is in the miscellaneous category but it also has stamps that would work for friends and greeting cards so... I made multiple copies of the scanned set, inserted them in page protectors of that category in my master binder with the place the stamp is stored listed on the top.

 For now the stamp sets are stored in these small CTMH containers as well as drawers in my scrapbooking organizing unit. I have placed an order for the large CTMH storage containers so all of the stamps can be stored together in one place

 Now when I want to find a stamp I just have to look through my stamp binder them pull the stamp I want to use.

I don't have much time to work on the Grands scrapbooks. I sure as heck don't have the time to dig around in my stash looking for what I need.

After my girls scrapbook weekend I realized I had a stamp set problem :) Pulling stamps to use for holidays and special events was no big deal but everyday sediments, flowers, birds, butterflies, and such was a  frustrating experience :) Now that I am working more with the PL system I am finding that the cards are not always printed in the orientation I need, ditto with the embellishments that work best with the small cards. I don't need to be wasting money on yet more supplies!!!! Between stamp sets, the Cricut, and what I have on hand I am going to make it work :)

In order to squeeze in time to work on the little kiddo's albums I need to be able to grab and go to complete a page. It feels pretty good to have three major area's where scrapbooking is concerned cleaned up. Photo's, paper, and  now stamps. Next up is stickers, rub-on's, and  other embellishments.

Tomorrow HAS to be a sewing day, DD#1 and DD#3 both have a pile of needs waiting for me to complete. I am ready to get those piles out of the house.

Birthday Fun

 I took a day off for my Birthday this year :) One of the many things on my wish list was to start working on Karsyn's scrapbook. Sorting Karsyn's photo's and getting them in containers took up most of the day.

 DD#1 had the whole family over for my Birthday dinner Thursday night, yummm. The little kiddo's reminded me we needed plates, hats, and cupcakes. Crowns for the girls. pirate hats for the boys.

 Poor Blake...one of the toddlers placed a hat on Tater Tot when we weren't looking :)

 My BIG Birthday gift was a trip out of town for a scrapbooking crop!! YAAA How do you like my fancy cropping luggage? I have so many cute scrapbooking travel bags but....One they are in the attic and Two I end up packing WAY more than I can ever use. My new packing boundaries are that if it won't fit in a laundry basket it ain't going in the car :)

What a fun day filled with so many laughs my sides hurt. Lots and lots Karsyn's photo's loaded in pages and a countdown to Christmas mini album for DD#1 family completed.

You know you had a good time on vacation when you need to get home so you can rest!! I haven't been to a crop in years and years. Crops are a whole lot of work. Controlling yourself when packing so you don't take so much, packing the car, unloading the car, repacking after the crop,  then loading the car for the return trip home and of course unpacking once your back. I hit the sofa yesterday afternoon never to rise again until bedtime :)

I was a nervous wreck leaving town Friday afternoon knowing hubby was going to have to take over DD#3's kiddo's while I was gone. He had them for almost 2 hours Friday afternoon which I knew wouldn't be too bad. Saturday he got lucky since SIL#2 didn't have to work. Instead he took Tyler to a corn maze for the day and lunch of course. Sunday he requested Kara as his play date.

I think he should be up for Papaw of the year award. He took Kara out for breakfast, over to the park to play, grocery store to purchase fruit (and snacks of course), then home to play games and puzzles since it began to rain. Not too many fella's would consider that a fun filled day!!! He is some kinda special :)

Knocking Out Task's

 I forgot to take a before shot of our messy condiments door, also the waste :( It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but I still had to pitch a few things. Task one is complete!

 Next spot for the day was our desk. I hadn't done any filing for month's and month's. After that was complete I moved on to the little drawer in the desk.

 I can't blame anyone but myself for that mess :) When I needed a card of some sort I would turn everything upside down as I am always in too big a hurry. All the cards are sorted now by events/theme's. Sympathy, Birthday, Thinking of you, and Thank you notes, held together with binder clips. I love binder clips :)

 They are all organized neatly in this tiny little drawer for now :)

 I remembered once I started filing as to why I didn't want to keep up with files. The filing drawer is OVERLOADED!!!! That clean up will have to wait for another day.

 I have no idea what I did wrong that this photo showed up twice :) No time to start the post over as my day is already full to overflowing.

 After my sorting of piles morning it was time to hit the grocery for some stocking up. We love to throw these little pork loins on the grill for a quick easy meal but at $10.99@ they are not cheap enough to suit me. We were down to one in the freezer. I added 10 more yesterday!

 Regular price for the loins is $10.99 sale price $5.00 each!!! That's a savings of $69.90!! This is how we stock the freezer :)

Another stock up item was a couple of spices. I keep my stock up list in the car right now as I never know when I might need to make a quick stop at the store. I found 2 spices we were running low on at $1.60 off each. DD#3 had called while I was out and about yesterday complaining that formula had jumped in price from $24.99 a tub to $29.99!! That was in just 2 weeks. Holy cow!! I wasn't far from the store I had just been at so I turned around to check their prices. Sure enough they too had jumped up in price, however they had a $5.00 off sale going on so I picked up 2 for her. Today I will run back for 3 more as I have coupons for and additional $5.00 off.

It seems prices on all grocery's are just creeping up every week but some sky rocket! Formula is an example. Formula has been on my grocery list for many years, just as one grand comes off from it another goes on. I'm not complaining by any means, I wouldn't mind a dozen more grands :) The price of a tub of formula for Mason Man just 2 years ago was $19.99. In just 2 years it's gone up $10.00 stinkin dollars!!! what the heck is that all about?

Off to tackle another pile of should have done a long time ago task's for the day followed by Birthday dinner for ME tonight at DD#1's home. The grands insist we all have party hats, Dollar store here I come!