Loving Home

Now, I don't claim to be an expert by any stretch of the imagination.  However, I have seen more then my fair share of lean months.  Back when dh worked at a private school his paycheck would only cover the mortgage, the car insurance and the life insurance.  I had to make everything else and if I had been sick or one of the children sick then my paycheck would be short.  In recent memory, I have had to feed four adults (my children are 19 and 21 now) on $50 a week.  Like everyone else, who has been to the supermarket recently, I have been concerned up the steady climb of prices and the smaller packaging attached to those price tags.  Most women, through choice or necessity, work outside the home now and don't have time for "cooking from scratch".  At church on Sunday I heard, "well of course you can do that (I don't remember what now) you stay home all day."  Now I am a SAHM due to my disability and in that I do have more time than some folks but there ...

Okay, our weather is finally going to feel like fall after today so I just changed the menu I had planned a bit.  Time for more soups.  Yeah !!!!!  I love fall. Sunday, September 28 - flounder, asparagus, potatoes Monday, September 29 - veggie lasagna Tuesday, September 30 - potato soup with sausage Wednesday, October 1 - taco soup Thursday, October 2 - spaghetti Friday, October 3 - shake and bake chicken, potatoes and veggie Saturday, October 4 - chili Breakfasts will consist of cereal, oatmeal or muffins.  I only have less than a dozen eggs left and payday is Friday.  Lunches will be sandwiches, leftovers or tuna.  Monday I am going out for lunch with ds' girlfriend's mother.

This weekend my dh and four of his friends are going camping.  Of course, the camp site they choose is next to a golf course.  ~smile~  Well, it was my responsibility to make sure no one starves this weekend so I thought I would share my menu for the guys. Friday night - they decided to eat out Saturday morning - eggs, bacon, orange juice Saturday lunch (after golf) - hamburgers, corn on the cob, pear crisp (homemade) Saturday dinner - teriayki chicken, veggie packets for the grill, any leftover pear crisp Sunday morning - french toast, bacon and orange juice Sunday lunch - sandwiches, chips For beverages they have case of water and a gallon of sweet tea.  It came to $40 counting plates, napkins, plastic ware, condiments, etc.  Note bad I thought.  Dh was impressed.  Hopefully the other guys will give dh some money to help out.  

Katie Rose Martin Posted: Monday, September 22, 2008 11:37 am  Email    Print Katie Rose Martin Katie Rose Martin, age 18, of Murfreesboro and Rockvale , passed away Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008.  She was a native and life-long resident of RutherfordCounty . Katie was a graduate of Riverdale High School and attended MTSU and Salon Professional Academy in Nashville. She was a member of the World Outreach Church. Ms. Martin is survived by her parents, Robert and Debbie Lundeen Martin; two brothers Robert and Anthony Martin also of Murfreesboro ; and grandparents, Hilda and Bob Molter, Robert Martin, and David Lundeen . She is preceded in death by her grandmother, Patricia Lundeen . Funeral services for Ms. Martin will be 11 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008, at Jennings and Ayers with Bro. Tony Anderson officiating. Burial will follow at Cothran Cemetery. Family and friends will serve as pallbearers. . Visitation will be from 4-8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008, at Jennings and Ayers 820 South...

Okay here is my next attempt at meal planning. Sunday, September 21 - lunch:   sandwiches,  dinner:  spicy chicken with orzo Monday, September 22 - sausage, potatoes and veggies Tuesday, September 23 - veggie lasagna Wednesday, September 24 - chicken stroganoff (I am determined to make this) Thursday, September 25 - meatloaf, mashed potatoes and veggie Friday, September 26 - mac and cheese and hot dogs or leftovers Saturday, September 27 - attending a wedding will eat at reception Dh goes out of town Friday night so it will just be ds and I so that is why we have a funky Friday night meal.  I need to plan a camping meal for dh and his friends.  Guess who got volunteered to plan the menu and get the food?  You guessed it -- ME !!  I have most if not all the food here at the house in my pantry and deep freeze but I don't know yet how many men I will be feeding.  I am to find out tonight.

Sometimes I wonder why I try to plan our meals.  Something happens and half of it we don't even do and then I feel like I shopped in vain for those meals.  Tonight we are having chicken instead of salmon because I have tried to fix it twice this week already.  I was not excepting ds to be home and he will be so I needed to change what I fixed to accommodate the need for more food.    After canning all day (since 7 am) all I want to do is eat out.  We have to stop doing that.  We got dh's first regular paycheck for the new school year and it is lower than I was excepting.  Not good.  I spent yesterday redoing the budget.  It is a good thing I have alot of food in the house because all I could pull for food was $23 for the next two weeks.  Ugh !!!!!!!!!!!  sometimes dh vetoes what I had planned to cook and that is frustrating or the weather doesn't cooperate.  I know blame nature ~smile~.  I know I need sugar now.  I thought I had another 20 pounds but it is not there now so ...

...canning jars that is.  This week has finally seen the end of the pears.  I still have some put I am going to save them for eating.  I went out and found a case of pint jars on Wednesday but went back today and they had nothing but quarts.  I don't want quart jars right now.  So I looked high and low and have now used EVERY canning jar that I have in the house.  I even emptied the salsa in the fridge into a bowl to have that jar.  So today I have canned:  4 quarts, 19 pints, 12 jelly jars and 5 half pints of pears.  I have no jars left until we empty some more. I thought I would list what I have processed from the harvest this summer:   12 quarts and 1 pint of diced tomatoes 11 quarts and 13 pints of spaghetti sauce 2 quarts and 2 pints of beets 9 pints of tomato juice 6 pints of V8 juice 6 pints of sauerkraut 11 pints of applesauce 3 pints of zucchini relish 24 pints of dilled pickles 15 pints of bread and butter pickles 15 pints of pepper relish 53 pints of salsa (we have eaten...