March came in like a lion

4 inches of new snow, on top of the last snow that hadn't melted yet. Most everything is cancelled for today. No church, no Easter cantata practice, etc.

Our little Chirstmas - 2014

So most everyone has other plans for today. . . so we just had our usual dinner, and Jake come over for a few minutes and ate lunch with us.

Wow -- what a roller coaster

My little sister had a heart attack (major one) last Friday. Wasn't sure she would make, several times over the last few days. Been a whirl wind of tests, travel and emotions.

Ugh - I'm so done with renters.

This is the mess the last set of renters left for us to clean. Once I get it cleared out, the trailer goes away. No more renters and the headaches to go along with them.

Final food stamp challenge update

$155.92 for the month -- including the disastrous meal out, and the trip to the river. . . we also bought a huge bag of candy for trick -or-treaters, some things for Marty's mom, and have some foods left to carry over until next month. We were fortunate to have some very good sales this month on various things. . . I know that many could not travel to the city to get the deals - but I work there, and the stores are all on my route home. Generally I also supplement our meals with items that I've home canned. . . and many of our items this month were from our garden, but I figured the costs at the supermarket rates. Our target amount to stay under was $278.90 -so $122.98 left of our amount. Food stamps are being cut for recipients in November - if we were truly getting food stamps, we'd lose another $36 of that amount.

Food Stamp Challenge -- day 25

We are still staying well below our daily amount of $8.99 Today's supper was cooked in the crock pot while I slept. Meatloaf in the bottom of the crock, and diced sweet potatoes , wrapped in foil - cooked on top of the meatloaf. Yummy.

Belated food stamp challenge update

I've been feeling puny - got a TDaP booster and it made me feel really wiped out. That said, we have maintained on the challenge. We've not resorted to beans/rice, nor have we varied too much from our usual meals. We have cut out most desserts (not a bad thing) other than fruits. Marty did get a craving and baked a pineapple upside down cake yesterday. . . total for the cake $2.27 - we ate about 1/4 of it last night, since we had the girls. Supper last night was baked pork chops in a homemade breading, and roasted broccoli/cauliflower mix. . with garlic and Parmesan cheese sprinkled on at the end. .97 for each pork chop, we ate 3. . . $2.78 for broccoli and cauliflower but we only used half the cauliflower and then only ate 1/2 the total we cooked. . . add in 2 T.olive oil and a sprinkle of cheese the pan cost approx. $2 and we ate 1/2 so $1 - kids drank water (flavored with some left over Mio that Marty used on his colon prep drink) I had tea and Marty had soda. . . .55 for drinks. . . $4.46 for supper.

I promise it tasted better than the picture looks . . my pork chop folded up on itself when I took it off the pan, so the edges look like fat, when in fact it's just where it tore/folded. I did an Aldi's shop on Tuesday for bread, milk, lunch meat, chips, flour, cereal, a bit of meat, fruits and veggies-- spent $61.78, we still have almost $80 left from our allotted amount, and we should not have to shop again before the end of the month.