Grocery Expenses, Week of 6/23-6/29

This was a pretty light week as far as groceries went.

Youngest child took a 4 day trip with her Dad down to her new college.  They stayed overnight in the dorms and got to eat dorm food for the duration.  (I DON'T miss dining hall food!)

Middle child went back to work at camp, so he was gone, and won't return home for a break until next Monday night.

So, this left oldest child and me for a large chunk of the week.

We made Vegetable Soup with leftovers from the food pantry distribution, and other odds and ends of vegetables we had laying around the fridge.  (Including my can of V-8 juice.  I keep those on hand!)  The Veggie Soup was dinner one night for me and oldest child, and then Sunday lunch, served with sandwiches.

We raided the freezer for a crock pot meal that lasted us two nights.  We also pulled out some fish, and had that with roasted potatoes and green beans.

We made tuna salad, and then we hit up the farmer's market on Sunday morning and picked up fresh fruit, some of which went into a very large fruit and chicken salad.  (The chicken was the last of the leftover chicken from the crock pot meal.  If we'd had more than 2 people eating, that never would have stretched out over 3 meals.)

Last night, we had hamburgers that I picked up at the butcher last week, along with mandarin oranges.  (That weird choice is due to the FUN AND GAMES I am having on Thursday morning.  NO more high fiber or raw fruits and veggies until Friday.)

Since we pulled a lot of food out of the freezer, we didn't spend a lot of money at the grocery store this week.

Farmer's Market:  $28
Grocery Store:      $25

Total:                    $53


Hey?  Did you notice?  No Chick Fil A this past week!  (But I do see a Starbucks Run in the works for Thursday afternoon....)

A Tale of Woe... Pinterest strikes again....

One of my resolutions this year was to craft more.  I have a Pinterest Board filled with fun crafts and projects, just waiting for me to find the time to work some magic on these ordinary objects and make them into something magical.

So, over the past few months, I've gone through my boards and pulled out a few things that I felt like following through with.  They were quick and easy, and I thought for sure I had the skill level to pull these little gems off.

So, without further ado, here is the update on my Pinterest Projects of the year.

Glitter Dipped Mugs

My original post about the glitter dipped mugs was here: Glitter Dipped Mugs.   The original directions I followed were posted on White House Black Shutters. 

The appeal of these mugs to me was that they were supposed to be dishwasher safe.  We have a space challenged kitchen, and I hate hand washing anything, so there was definite appeal to me for a dishwasher safe version of this.  

These purple beauties were my original mugs.

The cheap knock off sealant.

If you read through my original post, I talk about a 3 layer mug that I had to redo.  I had also run out of the dishwasher safe Mod Podge I originally used.  So, I went  to my local craft store and bought a different brand of decoupage sealant that claimed to be dishwasher safe.   Moral of the story here, not every sealant is equal.  It's worth tracking down the "official" dishwasher safe Mod-Podge brand sealant from the store. I ran both cups through the dishwasher on the same day.  (I labeled the bottoms with a sharpie with the initials of the product because I was curious if they would hold up in the dishwasher.)  Imagine my utter frustration when I opened up the dishwasher and found that ALL of my dishes, silverware, everything - was coated with a fine layer of purple glitter....

A disaapointing result.  HOW am I going to get the rest of the glitter off of that cup?

Coke Can Succulent Garden

I found this totally adorable garden, along with instructions on Polka Dot Chair.

Cute beyond words, isn't it?

Alas, my black thumb struck again.  Less than a month later, THIS is all that is left of the garden:

And here I thought cacti and succulents could withstand even ME?

Kitchen Organization

We have been challenged for space in this kitchen since we moved into this house 10 years ago.  We don't have the money set aside for a kitchen remodel, so we've been trying to find space within the existing cabinets.  I found this little trick on Pinterest, and it was awesome!  I found some vertical dividers, specifically for pans at a home improvement store.  They are screwed into the bottom and the back of the cabinet.  Voila!  Look at this!  Space!  The cabinet is not wide enough to hold ANYTHING horizontally - pans, pots, etc.  With this one, wonderful little trick, we now have more than enough space to hold the large, long cookie sheets, pans, and cutting boards!  They're no longer sitting on top of the toaster oven! 

Vertical Pans!  Everything fits!

I'm curious.  What Pinterest projects have you tackled, and how did they turn out?

Book Review: The Wrong Man

White, Kate.  The Wrong Man.  2015.  Harper.  New York.

Kit Finn, an Interior Designer from New York is on vacation in the Florida Keys when she decides to make a bold and risky move and take a chance on love with a stranger she meets on the beach.

After a magical night together, Kit makes plans with the stranger to get together for dinner back in New York.  When Kit shows up at his door, she finds a different man - with the same name - looking askance at her as he claims that he has been a victim of identity theft.

Things take a wild and unexpected turn when Kit discovers that the man she met at the door in New York has been killed in a hit and run in the Florida Keys.  The police call her for help because the man has no identification on her, but has only her business card in his pocket.

Kit suddenly finds herself embroiled in a situation beyond her control, with her life threatened and one of her clients killed - all because of a one night stand in the Florida Keys.

Can Kit extricate herself from this situation before she becomes the next victim?

A Note from Bettina:
This was an amazing book!  A well written piece, with unexpected plot twists and turns that keep the story moving.  The author does a fantastic job of keeping the story moving, without making it feel rushed.  I love the character development through the story, and enjoyed the development of a love interest.  This fast paced novel will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end!   Loved this book!  (I need to find more of her books.  Seriously.)

Author's Web Site: http://katewhite.com/

Update on the Rant Session

On Monday, I'd had enough and outed my kids and their struggles.  After my venting session, things have worked out for the kids.  While maybe not in the way anyone expected, but that's the way life can be at times.

Oldest child now has housing for next year.  He and two friends have rented a three bedroom furnished townhouse apartment.  The rent is beyond reasonable, and they are on the bus line.  They are about 5 miles from campus, but the bus stop is right across the street from their front door.  Funny note- they can see the football stadium out the back windows.

Middle child has a job.  Monday afternoon, the camp where he used to work called him back.  They were desperate for help this summer, and were wondering if, by any chance, he might be available.  3 hours later, I had him delivered to camp for the week.  Bad news, though.  On Wednesday night, a wicked, wicked storm rolled through and felled trees and power lines.  They were trapped in camp with no power until early Friday morning.  They spent much for Thursday and Friday with chainsaws, cutting up the trees that had fallen, and bringing down trees that were in danger of falling on campers.  He is happy as a clam.  This summer, he'll be working with the kayaks and canoes at the pier, teaching campers how to kayak.

Youngest child has a job.  She signed the paperwork Tuesday, and begins this week.  She had her college orientation this week.  They took the train down to her college.  They thought the overnight train would be a blast.  They were mistaken.  They had a fretful infant in the seat directly behind them for 12 hours, and a pair of hyperactive preschoolers who were bouncing around in front of them.  Even worse, the train was running more than 2 hours behind schedule.  Fortunately, they made it to the orientation welcome speech just as it was beginning.  This is good for us to know, because if the train is going to be consistently late, we don't want to send her back on an overnight train, thinking that she'll be in town by the time classes start.  It might be time to rethink how we're going to get her back and forth this next year.  (We really don't want to drive 12 hours to go get her and another 12 hours to bring her back more than twice - once in the fall, and once in the spring.)  They're coming home this morning, and last I checked in with them, they were more than an hour behind schedule.  Something to think about.

I am having a colonoscopy on Thursday.  I know, you are thrilled to hear this, and you're wondering how you ever managed without knowing this information before?  Rest easy, you know now!  After Mom's colon ruptured in October last year from a blockage caused by colon cancer. (Not once, but twice, and her stoma failed and had to be redone.  AND her fascia tore...The entire wound took 6 months to heal.  SIX FREAKING MONTHS with an open wound on her stomach.) Yeah, a colonoscopy seems like a walk in the park.  I'm going to be reminding myself about that a lot this week.  Especially through the day on Wednesday.  I can afford to lose some weight anyway, so this counts, right? 

Anywho.... thanks to everyone who took the time to read my rant earlier this week. I felt better after writing it, and I feel even better now that things seem to be working out for everyone. 

Shutterfly Deal

This post contains sponsored links from Shutterfly.

I love to scrapbook and paper craft.  I found Shutterfly years ago, and use them extensively.  After a horrific experience where I lost a year's worth of family photos when my phone died, I now back up everything on Shutterfly.

I love how easy it is to upload pictures from my phone.  If I happen to, say, drop my phone in a puddle of water and lose everything stored on the phone itself, I still have all of my pictures.  Because my photos are stored on Shutterfly, I can easily use a computer anywhere to upload and sort my photos.


Yeah, I'm a librarian, so you know my photos are organized.  Not only are they organized by year and month, their organized by event.  (I know, I know, it's more than a little OCD.)

My most recent project, daughter's graduation album entitled Oh, The Places You'll Go was based upon the book of the same name written by Dr. Seuss.  I ordered my pictures for that book from Shutterfly.

Every once in a while, Shutterfly runs a fantastic promotion that is too wonderful to pass by.  This is one of those times. 

Shutterfly is offereing 100 FREE 4 x 6 prints when you follow this link:
http://www.shareasale.com/u.cfm?d=274567&m=12808&u=1027099
and use the code 100FREEPRINTS.  This offer is valid from now until June 30.

Offer expires 6/30/2015 (11:59 P.M. PT). Offer is good for 100 free 4x6 prints through shutterfly.com or our mobile-friendly site. Offer cannot be redeemed more than once per account and/or billing address. Taxes, shipping and handling will apply. Not valid on other sizes, other products, prepaid plans, prior purchases, orders placed for in-store pick up and purchases made on the Shutterfly apps. Cannot be redeemed for cash or combined with other offers or credits. Not valid for resale.

It's really that easy.

What a great opportunity!

This is a sponsored post that contains affiliate links.  I received compensation in exchange for writing this review.  Although this post is sponsored, all opinions are my own. I really do love Shutterfly and have been using their services for years.