To The Love Of My Life

Today makes 365 days that the Love of my Life put down the cigarettes. In his words the decision was because “in 15 years I want to feel good and be able to do the things I’m going to want to do”

My husband, the Z Man is a very active man. He enjoys being busy, whether it is chopping wood, working in the garden, tooling around on an old car or just piddling around the house. Sitting still is something we rarely do because we like to keep busy and trust me there is always something to keep us busy on our little homestead.

Over the years we have both tried to quit smoking and have failed at it. But I can honestly say in my heart that we’ve got it beat this time. I am certain neither of us will pick up the smokes again.

That’s not to say that we don’t have the occasional craving for a cigarette, we do. But the thought of actually smoking one pretty much disgusts us now. You can read more about that here.

I also know in my heart that if the Z Man hadn’t decided to quit, I probably wouldn’t have. Even after he quit, I still continued to smoke for many months.

This is where I need to tell you that my husband is much more patient and gracious than I am. How in the world he managed to stay quit while I was still smoking… I don’t know.

What I do know is one of his greatest strengths is determination. He will figure it out, he will make it work, he will fix it and he will succeed. That’s my husband.

One of his classic Z-isms is “I’m thankful that God gave me the ability to learn how to do many things, sometimes I just wish he wouldn’t test me so often” I last heard that as we were pulling the well pump out of the ground to for repair.

So today (if you will obliged me, please) I want to take time to make sure that my husband knows that he is the best part of my life and every day I thank God for him and for loving us.

To the smartest Man in the world, from the luckiest Woman in the world….

Thank you!

I LOVE YOU FOREVER,

Lori

What’s Cooking 4/19/16?

This week is going to be a use it up week for meals. I noticed this morning that I have 6 dozen eggs in the refrigerator. We need to eat some eggs y’all! I made a batch of deviled eggs this weekend that we really enjoyed with our hamburgers and I think hamburgers has become our new favorite meal. SO GOOD!

Clearly eggs need to also become our favorite meal.

Deviled eggs it shall be….

Several years back I got into grilled cheese sandwiches. I experimented with all different types of cheeses and breads. I think our favorite was a grilled gouda cheese with an awesome fig jam (that was given to us) spread on marble rye bread. I think typing that just made me hungry! Again, SO GOOD!

I’m going to start experimenting with deviled eggs (like I did with grilled cheese) instead of making the same recipe every time. I saw one recipe that included caviar. That is not in the budget, and honestly I’ve had caviar and wasn’t impressed really. What would be fun is for y’all to share your favorite deviled egg recipes with me to try.

What’s Cooking 4/19/16?

Breakfast: Kashi autumn wheat cereal
Lunch: tuna salad with whole grain Wasa crackers, deviled eggs
Dinner: sausage and potato hash with either fried eggs or I’ll make it into a strata with a salad on the side.

Here is a pic of the eggs I boiled this weekend. I heard on some cooking show that the tell tell sign of an over cooked egg is the green ring around the yolk. No green on these eggs.

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I love my chickens, they bless us with the most beautiful eggs every day. Like the Z Man says, “the best eggs you’ll ever eat”

Here is a picture of my favorite crackers that I’m having with my lunch today. They are plain and simple, three ingredients and only 40 calories, and good too.

What do y’all have cooking today?

Have a great day!

Till Next Time,

Lori

It’s Garden Time

The tomato seedlings are doing good. So far so good. In the past we haven’t done well with seedlings and have had to use already established plants from our local nursery. There isn’t anything wrong with that except it’s not as cost effective as starting your own. In a mode of uncertainty I planted extra thinking that if some died off then we still had a chance. Looking at them now, if all of these seedlings make it we are going to be up to our ears in tomatoes this year.

I ordered our seeds from Burpee this year and I got all organic and some heirloom varieties. I got roma, san marzano, heirloom slicers, and black cherry tomato seeds. I’m especially excited about the black cherry tomatoes.

If I’m being honest, I have to admit that in years past I’ve been guilty of not enjoying our gardens. I get so wrapped up in the process of canning and putting up the harvest that I forget to enjoy the seasons of fresh picked, sun kissed, sweet vegetables. Not this year. While I still intend to put up the harvest, more importantly I plan to enjoy all the fruits of the Z Man’s labors to the fullest all summer long, and I can’t wait!

This weekend we planned the layout of the garden and we’ll start putting stuff in the ground this week.

Oh, and on another exciting note we ordered our two piglets this weekend too. They were just born 4 days ago so it’ll be a bit before we get them. I love this time of year and just love our life. 🙂

Have a great day!

Till Next Time,

Lori

Friday’s Frugal Five & A Frugal Fail

Happy Friday Y’all!

I had to change up the dinner plans last night because when I got home the crock pot of bar-b-q pulled pork I had put on before I left for work had burned to a crisp. I’ve made bar-b-q in the crock pot many times, I’m not sure why it burned so bad yesterday. Anyway, breakfast for dinner it was. I whipped up a sausage, sweet pepper, onion and cheese frittata and it was delicious. I love our chickens, I love having pets that feed us 😉

Friday’s Frugal Five:

I completed a CE course I needed for work last Sunday and got paid 7 hours overtime for it.
I finally got our taxes done, and while there is nothing frugal about waiting till the last minute, getting them done and sending the check in is certainly more frugal than not paying your taxes. Uuuugghhh!
I’m seriously contemplating purchasing a desk top computer so I can set my lap top on fire. What’s frugal about this is that I’m doing my research of what we need vs. what we don’t and optional prices. Perhaps I’ll trade our laptop in on a desktop instead of setting it on fire. That of course would be the mature frugal thing to do, but it seriously would give me an abundance of pleasure to watch that POS burn in the front yard.
We use our outdoor clothesline year round but in the winter the clothes just don’t smell as good as they do in the spring and summer. I love clean sheet night with fresh air dried sheets in the spring. Even as busy as I get in the spring and summer, clean sheet night still happens every week.
Checked out several more books and books on cd from the library, made my returns on time = no late fees. All meals came from the freezer and pantry which means no meals eaten out or taken out, bills are paid, money in the pickle jar and still breathing fresh air and loving it.

Frugal Fail: Because I don’t like to put hot foods in the refrigerator I usually let them sit on the counter to cool a bit first. Earlier in the week I put the dinner leftovers on the counter to cool – ALL NIGHT LONG… Not cool! Maybe the food was ok, maybe it wasn’t but I’m sure what isn’t frugal is a hospital visit for food poisoning. No thank you!

Clean sheet night… one of my favorite things