The Shopping Challenge

Apr 182011
 

A month ago I made a decision. (Seems like I’m having to do a lot of this lately.)

Only this decision was not earth shattering, did not require a whole lot of thought, nor did it require a pros and cons list.

This decision was strictly one of my own personal choice, and one that would be for the good of saving money.

Because with the way the economy is currently swirling down the turlet, that penny that I save may be worth something someday.

There is only one downside:  it requires a list.

Raise your hand if you remember why I use lists.

But for this challenge to work, I am not only resigned to making and using them,  I am also requiring myself to stick to them.

My Mondays off are my shopping days, specifically groceries and the occasional non-food items that are needed around the house.  (OK, maybe a little something for myself too.)  One day the light bulb above my head went on and I realized how much money I was wasting by running to town every week.  It’s just Rick & I (and the cats), so it’s not like I’m still feeding a houseful of kids anymore.

So from now own, the jaunt to town will occur biweekly.

I also resurrected the ever-popular “hang on the outside of the refrigerator grocery list.”  This way even Rick can add something to it when he notices we are low/out of something.

The biggest part of this challenge is going to be curtailing from the impulse items.  You know the ones:  the pasta we really don’t need but is too good of a buy to pass up; the package of doughnuts at the bakery that just screams to me because I didn’t eat anything before I left home.  Never a good thing to shop on an empty stomach.

There is an exception to the “only buy what is on the list” rule.  If I see an item that I know we are low on or out of, but forgot to put it on the list (hey, it happens), it may be purchased.  BUT, I must also bare my indiscretion to you, my friends, and justify said purchase(s).  You will can then condemn or approve as you see fit.

Sounds fun, don’t it?

OK, I’ve scoured the local sales flyers and made my list.  Time to head to town.

Wish me luck!

They’re Here

Apr 142011
 

A couple days ago I posted about the first real signs of Spring with the emergence of the flowers in my rock garden, and waiting for my crocuses to peek through.

Well, I’m muckin’ around the yard the other day and I happened to see that they have indeed decided to join us this year.

A few patches have come up here and there outside my window and was I ever glad to see them!

Not only that, but the grape hyacinths are bringing themselves out of hibernation too!

I have a couple other varieties that are planted in this area outside my bedroom window, but for the life of  me I can’t remember what they are.  When they bloom, I will make an effort to photograph them and hopefully that will trigger my memory (if not,  a Google search might help to).

I’ve got to say, Google is a darn good tool when it comes to identifying things.  Their images gallery has helped me with flowers and birds in the past.  Sometimes though, you get the random picture that has absolutely nothing to do with your search phrase (and can actually turn out to be X-Rated), but that’s the risk you run asking a computer database to find what you want.

OH!  AND my wonderful Mother-in-Law, Georgia, brought me 2 more geranium plants to put on my deck this year!  This will add to the 4 from last year (that hopefully over-wintered successfully in the attic of the garage) so we should have some beautiful flowers that greet people when they come to the door.  Unfortunately, I can’t put them out just yet as the nighttime temps are still hovering around the freezing mark, and the Weather Channel is predicting the “S” word to show up over the next couple days.

This is one of the times that I would like them to be VERY wrong!  Yeah, I know that it won’t stick around for more than a couple hours with the little bit that they are calling for.

It’s just the principal of the thing.

Ask And You Shall Receive

Apr 132011
 

Rick and I always seem to come up with various items that we could use but are not generally easy to find at the local store.

But it has become quiet evident that Rick’s Mom has a unique talent for locating these items.

The most recent confirmation of this happened last weekend when his folks came up to help us with Sugarbush.

Flashback to the beginning.

It started a few weeks ago when they were visiting and we were sitting down to supper.  Rick made them some tea to drink and I’m not sure how this came about, but I had made mention that we had wanted to make sun tea last summer, but the only containers that I could find for this were plastic.  (You do know what happens to plastic when it is out in the blazing sun for long periods of time with liquid in them, right?  The chemicals in the plastic leach into the liquid… yuck!!)

This was just a casual conversation, no deep dialogue went into it and I didn’t think twice about it.  Actually, I forgot about it.

Until one day Rick comes home and tells me that his Mom found us a glass sun tea container.

She said that they stopped at, oh, I don’t remember how many second hand and antique stores…6?… 7?… 10?… and finally found it at a Goodwill Store.

I asked her why she went to all that trouble, and she responded “It was fun.  What else do we have to do?”

She cracks me up!!

As I said, this isn’t the first time this has happened.

Previous finds have been (these were on separate occasions):

  • Large metal washtubs that could be used to parch wild rice;
  • Old restaurant chairs that could be ripped apart and cut down to be used as a holder for the metal washtubs.

I really have to be careful what I say around this woman.

I may end up with that horse I always wanted as a child!*

 

* Just kidding Georgia…we don’t have room for the horse.

Well, Hello There

Apr 112011
 

On Saturday, Rick chose to set up the equipment to boil sap inside my rock garden.  It made sense since there were some trees that were close together that we could use to anchor a tarp in case of rain.

We have a table and chairs set up there so we can enjoy the warmer seasons of the year in our own little corner of the northwoods.

I have several varieties of plants and flowers in this garden, and each one will bloom at a different time of year.

So I was poking around while tending my fires on that day and lo and behold, lookie what I found.

Do you see them?

3 little clusters of flowers were poking their heads up.

These are my Naked Ladies (Amaryllis belladonna) telling me that Spring was officially here!

I love these flowers because they are so unique (well, to me anyway).

In late spring, their leaves will die back to the bulb.  Then in mid-summer and fall the bulb will produce 4-inch clusters of  flowers.

Aren’t they pretty? (photo courtesy of Google Images).

It’s little things like this that bring a smile to my face.

Usually my crocuses are the first to bloom, but up until this last weekend, they were still covered under 6 inches of snow.

So I will be patiently waiting and watching for those outside my window.

Sooooo Close!

Apr 032011
 

As I reported last week, this was going to be the weekend that the kitchen ceiling was finished.

Yay!

But if you look closely, you can see that we ran out of materials.

Yep, 3 rows left and we had to stop.

And we couldn’t call up the store where we bought it from to get more because:

1.  By the time we got this far they were closed; and

2.  It was a special order.

But there is some good news to all of this.

We were able to install the much awaited lights above the counter area!

And let me tell ya, this was no easy task.  This was a completely new wiring install, with the addition of a new circuit to carry the lights and new outlets that we desperately needed.

Not only is Rick a master carpenter, but a pretty darn good electrician too!

Even though the ceiling isn’t finished, we are tickled pink at what we did get accomplished.  And do we ever love having lights back over the counter!!

If all goes as planned, we will have this done in a couple weeks when the rest of the materials show up.

So what will we be doing next weekend?

Boiling sap and making maple syrup. I can hardly wait!

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