Another Week of Work

 Monday:

Dear hubby put supper in the crockpot while I was busy doing something else. 

Roughly $15.50 Meal For Two Nights:

2 1/2 lbs chuck roast for $4.47 a lb. ($11.17)

1/2 lb bag Carrots for $.98 lb ($.50)

8 oz package of mushrooms for $1.12 

1 lb bag of small red potatoes for $1.99 bag. ($2). 

SHOP THE SALES!!!!!

I have been kind of emotional today because all I could do during this whole process is pray, "Dear Lord, don't let the mess these up!". If you know what this is , then you know. I am making Nannys Christmas Candy. 🎄  After tasting some, a few, ok, several, I was transported back in time when she made them. It is Heavenly.  They turned out good and I could have shouted from the roof top. If David had not have been here I probably would. I still have more to make.

Low to no sugar peanut butter balls, because everybody deserves some Christmas candy.

Worked on some more sweet potatoes. Dear hubby went and bought some more stuff on sale. He bought some blocks of mozzarella cheese so we could shred it and package it. He bought some mushrooms and we repackaged those too.  He bought some beef roasts and we took out 2 1/2 lbs for supper as seen above. He got a few 1lb bags of little red potatoes.  We used one bag for supper and the rest I will can. 

We were so exhausted by night. We rested and watched TV until bedtime. 

Tuesday:

I got up and made me a little breakfast. He just needed a few more minutes to sleep. 

My day was full of still canning and making Christmas candy so I need a good quick breakfast full of protein. This is my go to sometimes and it literally takes around 5 minutes. 

Take 1 egg and add a splash of milk and beat real good. At this point, you can add anything you want to to make it even better. I chose cheese 🧀 You can add greens like finely chopped spinach, kale, arugula etc. You can add a finely chopped vegetable like onion, pepper, pimento etc. You can add a meat for extra protein. Finely chopped cooked sausage, bacon, diced ham, etc. Put in the microwave, be sure to cover with something like a paper towel, cook for 1 to 1 minute 30 seconds. (You want the middle done). Then gently scrape out of the bowl onto bread, bagel, English muffin, biscuit or even a Hamburger bun. 🍔 Viola' enjoy. No messy Frying pan or messy kitchen. You're welcome . 😊

I got busy finishing the sweet potatoes and working on more candy. 

Dear hubby Worked on the cheese and mushrooms. 

After naptime, we were finishing up potatoes and got them all done.  Phew, 100lbs put up.  

Then I got a phone call. 

Posted with permission. I would covet your prayers for my sweet little momma who is my best friend. We received word that she has three blood clots in her chest and her dr has put her on complete rest. He has already started a blood thinner regiment immediately and in hopes this medication will dissolve them. If she notices any change or has any trouble, she is to go straight to the ER. 

I am a little mentally numb at the moment but my momma is the strong one as she always has been. Right now she needs some rest. 

We finished supper, cleaned the kitchen and I just needed to sit down and clear my head and pray. 

Wednesday:

First thing I did when I woke up was call my momma and check on her. She is doing good. She is resting but it's driving her crazy already.  She's doing things slowly. My daddy is taking good care of her. The dr is going to keep her on these blood thinners for a while. 

Thursday:

I had to run errands and then I went to our Son and Daughter in Laws place. She wanted me to help her clean because they want to host a Christmas get together there. This is my Mother in Laws home and this will be the first time we have gathered there since her passing. She wanted it to be really nice and she wanted me to help her go through some things in the house. I was so exhausted and sore when I got home, could hardly move or walk. But she was happy and relieved. 

Friday:

Rested and cleaned up a little 

Saturday: 

Hunted most of the day. I made up a jingle:

Sitting in my deer blind

As toasty as can be,

Drinking my coffee

In hopes that I don't have to pee. 

I also canned some red new potatoes that dear hubby brought home from the store. 

Sunday:

Went to church and then hunted again the rest of the day. 

My mother is doing pretty good except for being bored to death.  We are hoping the blood thinners dissolves the blood clots. 

Weekly Productivity

 

We have been working since 7:00 this morning.  We have done 25 one cup packages of cheese from 2lb blocks of cheese on sale that we brought home and shredded.  2 10lb bags of potatoes that was on sale for $4.99 a bag, made probably another 17 to 18 qts of potatoes. I turned a 10lb bag into 4 bags of French fries, and 4 bags of scalloped potatoes. That's 25 meals with just potatoes. Then we worked on two more pineapples that were one sale and I got 2 more qts of pineapple, some fresh pineapple to eat for breakfast and lunch and 2 more jars of juice to use in anything I want to. 😋 

Then we turned a chub of Bologna that was on sale and made several days worth of Bologna slices for lunches. 

Not to mention rotating 3 loads of laundry and letting Caroline wash dishes. Now we are taking a much needed break.

After our break, we had some reading time and then it was time for Daddy and Sissy to come home from school. We had an after school snack and talked with oldest son for a bit before they had to go home. 

After they left, I fixed our supper and we ate. Cleaned everything up so we could process onions. I could not do those while little sissy was here because those things are strong and they kill my eyes. I didn't want them hurting her eyes.  We made the process fast and out of 2 3lb bags of onions that were on sale, I got        1 cup portion bags out of them and vacuum sealed them and put them into freezer for future meals. 

We finally got recleaned and I got to take a shower. We rested the rest of the night and watched baking championships on Food Network and yep, I see alot of things I want to try. Lol. 

Tuesday:

It's time to start canning 20 lbs of potatoes that soaked overnight. I have a video of that on our YouTube channel if you want to see how. I will also start processing some of the 100 lbs of sweet potatoes I have too. Little sister is arriving now so I better be ready to start reading books. 📚 

We read some books and then she started getting hungry so it was breakfast time. 😋 We had some chaffles that we batch cooked last week.  I have a video on that too. You can see it here. 

Batch Cooking Chaffles and Waffles

Then it was time to get started with the potatoes. 

Got breakfast ate, supper in the crock pot, and working on canning these potatoes they peeled yesterday. And he got laundry started, all before 9:30 am. That man said  "Not today, I'm not in the mood for all that!" when I tried to video him so I just snapped a pic smarty pants. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Next, we have to start tackling sweet potatoes. 😋

We got the potatoes finished and added 14 more qts to the pantry.  By then it was time to eat lunch.  We ate, read some books and took a much needed nap. We didn't get to sleep long because storms rolled in and every time it thundered, she got scared. We got up, had some coffee and snacks. We played until it was time for her daddy to come pick her up. They were going to go get big sissy. 

Me and dear hubby ate supper and cleaned the kitchen and we set down to start peeling sweet potatoes and watched a Christmas movie. It was stormy still most of the night and the wind was blowing so hard all night, I barely got any sleep. 

Wednesday:

Kind of sleep deprived this morning but there is still work to be done. I am so sore from peeling so many potatoes last night. I'm trying to drink my coffee this morning and the wind is still blowing so hard outside. My little helper will be here in a bit, so I gotta down the coffee. 😆 

My little buddy arrived and we sit for a few minutes playing a school game on her tablet. Then we ate a bit and I got ready and got busy with the sweet potatoes while she wanted to play. 

She wanted to help peel but they were a little too big for her hands. Poppie wound up helping me and we wound up getting 18 bags of meals for French fried sweet potatoes and 14 qts canned so far. We got those done before it was nap time. 

We read some books and Bible stories and then took a nap. 

After nap we played baby dolls and read some books. Poppie went and picked up sissy from school.  They got back here and I gave them a snack before daddy came to get them. 

Thursday:

No work today. It is a girls day out today. 

We need to head to town and buy ingredients to make my late Mother in Laws Christmas candy. 

Caroline: "I want to be like Gmaw!"

😁😁

Chicky nuggets and French fries makes her happy and since she was such a good helper, I will choke down some rubber fries. 😒🍟

When you're little and everything is a blast. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

We came home exhausted and took a nap. Then it was time to go get sissy from school. We picked her up and got home and got her started with home work. Little sissy wanted to do some too. 

While she was doing her homework, I got lunches fixed for the next day, little sissy didn't want to feel left out. And I got their breakfast fixed for the next morning.  Home lunchables are nutritional, easy and affordable. 

This was their breakfast 

We ate, got kitchen cleaned, played, took showers and got ready for bed. They get to have a sleepover with us. 

Friday:

Had to wake them up to get her ready for school. Those make ahead, easy traveling breakfasts comes in handy for a morning commute,

Business in the front, party in the back. Breakfast of champions and Curious George on the TV. School mornings do not have to be chaotic. Make ahead breakfasts make it easier. It's about planning, organization and time management.

I got her to school and had to paint her nose before she went inside. 

Rockin' Rockin' Rudolph. ♥️

Little sissy wanted one too

Me and Caroline got back home and we did some school and just  playing.  Before we knew it, it was naptime.  After naptime, we employed some more and I started taking down Fall decorations. Sissy came home with Daddy. They all went to feed the cows. 

We started decorating for Christmas 🎄 

This is their favorite thing to do. My little Christmas village. 

That night we watched some Christmas movies with them. 

Deer horns, Rudolph horns, and unicorns kind of night.

Christmas sprinkles on our waffles kind of morning

These girls woke up at 6am on a NON SCHOOL morning 🙄 because they were so excited that today was the day we get to bake Christmas treats and Nannys Christmas candy. 🎄 🍪🎂🍰🧁🍭🍬. They were raring and ready to go and I needed coffee ☕️, lots of coffee and a sugar rush. I think I nailed it. 🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤 That girl took my microphone away from me not just once but twice. 🤣🤣🤣

They didn't even give me time to get ready so you will see bed head. So it's a pj, messy hair don't care, rocking out to Christmas music, dancing, singing, jamming kind of morning.  My living room is a mess and then we cut snowflakes and painted pictures. 🎨 It will get cleaned later. It's the memories and the fun that counts.

Well, we partied til we dropped.

We got to squeeze in a tea party before it was time to go home 

We had such a fun day. They cried because they weren't ready to go home. 😭 But they were going to get to decorate their Christmas tree at home too. 

The rest of the night I just relaxed and rested. This Gmaw was wore out. 

Sunday:

I was suppose to go to church this morning but was having trouble with my RA and was just feeling under the weather. I know I should have just toughed it out and went because I know I would have received a blessing. I was extremely lazy and barely got supper done but I did it. It was an easy supper because we had already slow cooked a pork butt and we had some left overs. I made:

I guess canning all week and then the weekend with the grands wore me out. Time for this ole gal to rest I guess. 

I hope you have enjoyed reading about our week. I hope I didn't bore you. 

Until next week, have a blessed day and week. 

Wonderful Weekend

 We have had a wonderful weekend with family and just relaxing and enjoying what we do. 

We had a great Thanksgiving meal with all my family and my momma and daddy. So thankful everyone was off work. After everyone left, we cleaned up and just rested. More like passed out. Lol. 

I was looking back through pics of the day and saw that I was missing a pic of me and my sweetheart. I was so busy getting pics of everyone else especially Caroline before she jerked her hair down, that I didn't get anyone to take a pic of us. So, I make him put back on his shirt and I put back on mine and we took a quick one. 

Guys, just take the picture ok? Trust me, just take the pictures. 

The next day, I made a trip to local grocery store and bought some meat while it was on sale and I picked up some more pineapples,  potatoes and more sweet potatoes and onions before the sale went off. Needless to say our storage room is a mess but I've got work to do next week. We got all the meat separated and packaged and I uploaded two videos of that. You can see them here.  I break down what I bought,  price and how we put it up. 

Shop The Sales Part 1 

Shop The Sales Part 2

Dear hubby got the gutters all cleaned out and our flough cleaned out to get ready for our first fire 🔥  of the season in the fireplace. 

That evening I got to go hunting while dear hubby made us supper. It was my turn to go. I only saw young ones and a mature doe but they were all together. 

Saturday, we both hunted. I had activity all around me all morning. It was the same group of does. 

Then I had activity behind me. I had some nosey visitors. They finally got tired of waiting so they just layed down in the pasture. Lol. 

He didn't have any activity. 

We came in, ate lunch, took a well deserved nap and just relaxed and enjoyed our evening. I went and got us some supper and he took care of the cows. We ate and watched football the rest of the night. 

Sunday was church and then, we had date day and went to Lowes and out to eat. I picked up 160 bulbs to plant some onions. I have never planted any in the fall but we will see. Dear hubby got to pick up his Christmas present early because they were on sale and didn't want to miss it. 

They've Had A Workout

 My canners have literally got a work out today. Finishing up now. Here is the break down:

20 lbs of potatoes for $11.08 on sale yielded 17 qts of meals. I see fried potatoes, roasted potatoes, potato soup, mashed potatoes, throw in Soups and stews, and potato salad.

16 to 18 lbs of carrots at $1.48 for a 2 lb bag yielded 17 qts and one pint of meals. 

Glazed carrots, steamed carrots, Soups, stews and roasts, roasted carrots. 

One stalk celery for $.98, 2 qts. Stuffing, potatoe salad, cream of celery soup. 

Before the inflation, I have paid better prices. 

I'll show yall later what I did with the rest of the celery. I'm tired.

You can catch our Canning Carrots video and Canning Potatoes Two Ways on our channel. 

Keeper of the Home at 4D Farms

He Outdid Himself

 This man out did himself tonight. Ole Curly's back strap sure was delicious. This is how you make a 5 yr old buck in rutt taste good. 👌 And yall remember those caramelized onions in the gravy I canned? Well that liquid gold made an awesome addition to supper. Along with Nanny's green beans fried in bacon, glazed carrots and baked sweet potatoes. 😋

My sweetheart knows I live to can and preserve. If it can be canned, it's gonna get canned. If it can be froze, it's gonna get frozen. I haven't tried dehydrating yet, but give me time, I just might. 

With his help tonight, we made light work of 20# of potatoes to prep for canning. We have 20 more lbs to go. I will keep a tally and let you know. 

If you want to know how I can my potatoes, check out our video on our YouTube channel 

Canning Potatoes