My Accomplishments

There is a terrible storm raging across the Eastern half of the United States as I write this.  Homes, lives, and entire towns have been destroyed by the damage from the tornadoes ravaging the country... and there is still more to come.

We in the Mid-Atlantic have not yet been impacted by these storms.  We have the rain, but I believe the unstable air mass is supposed to come into our area tonight.

I hope that those of you who are living in the path of these storms is safe.

If a tornado warning is issued for your area, get to the lowest level of your house.  Move to an interior room with no windows, and make yourself as small as possible.  When I was a child growing up in the Mid-West, we used to shelter in our interior bathroom, in the bathtub, with a mattress over top of the tub.  Now that we live in the Mid-Atlantic, we don't have as many violent storms, however we still have violent storms.  I have a safe area, under the stairs in my house.  We put a sturdy door and drywall under the stairs, and that is our safe area.  I have some water bottles and other emergency supplies stashed down there, along with a couple of blankets.

Stay safe today!


On a more positive note, I did have some pretty phenomenal accomplishments this week:

I made a big pot of soup for dinner last week that provided us with dinner for two nights.

For some reason, I have a plethora of bell peppers.  I flame roasted them over the weekend, skinned them, and froze them in a plastic bag to use them later.

I  found the refrigerator and staff lunch room at work!  I've started taking my lunch to work, and make a point of eating lunch before I leave work each day.

I finished a beautiful infinity cowl that I plan on giving to one of my friends when her husband goes into the hospital later this week for open heart surgery.  It's a big enough cowl that it can be pulled down over her shoulders to be used as a shawl, or wrapped through her arms to use as a shrug. 

We had salmon for Easter dinner.  I used the leftover Salmon to make a batch of gluten free Salmon-Pasta Salad for dinner later in the week.  (And the leftovers from that were my lunch for another day!)

After the Food Pantry distribution at our church on Saturday, the leftover produce was distributed to the volunteers.  We came home with two heads of lettuce, some scallions, and carrots.  Combined with the produce we had sitting in our refrigerator, we had an awesome salad for dinner that night.

I have bought the materials to put together a keyhole garden.  Now, I'm waiting for our weather to clear enough for me to actually put the garden together!

I went to a bingo with a group of friends on Saturday night, and I won a beautiful basket of flowers that we have hung outside on our front porch.  This basket would have cost well over $20 at any of the stores in town.  As a rule, I don't participate in games of chance (the odds always favor the house) however, this Bingo was for a good cause, so I spent $15 on a ticket and enjoyed spending time with my friends and somehow, I managed to walk out with a basket of flowers!  First time I've ever walked out with something!

Our library ran a program last week in their new, sustainable garden.  Sustainable gardening methods were discussed, and we were given a list of native plants that tolerate the really hot, dry summers we have around here.

I had acquired Kohl's cash before Easter when I bought a pair of shoes for Easter.  I took the Kohl's cash back to the store over the weekend, and I was able to buy a professional shirt, and I received $1.11 in credit back on my certificate.  (It turns out that my teaching wardrobe is not quite up to the professional standards of my new job.) 

Our grocery store rewards program offers a cash discount for gas.  We had well over $1/gallon discount for this promotional period, so we took the van and two gas cans to fill up on the last day of the promotional period.

I also found a gas station that offers a discount per gallon when you pay cash for gas.  It's an 8 cent discount, which doesn't seem like much, but if you add that up over 10 gallons, that's 80 cents.  Like Ben Franklin says, a penny saved is a penny earned.  Those nickels, dimes, and pennies really add up over time!

What did you do to save money this week?