A Plethora of Strawberries!

If you are a local reader then you know that life in Rochester lately has been rain, rain and more rain. I am not sure even Seattle is getting the rain we are! The boys had final exams last week and since both Greg and I were working, they often had to ride their bikes to school in the rain. It was either that or ride the bus and stay all day and neither one of them wanted to do that. Roads and parking lots are flooding. The sump pump runs almost non-stop since the ground is so saturated. The dog doesn't even want to go outside, lol.

Saturday we actually had a break from the rain so we all set out to a local farm to pick strawberries. The picking was great, we were given our own section to pick and it was loaded with berries. In no time at all we had picked 20 pounds of strawberries!! Plus the *?* pounds we ate as we went. We made the boys pose for a photo op...

We really should have thought through how many pounds we needed. Really?? 20 lbs??? What we were thinking? 

Because of all the rain, many of the berries were very juicy and I knew they wouldn't last long. The first order of business was strawberry shortcake with freshly whipped cream. Oh my! We all ate ourselves silly. 

Sadly, we hadn't even made a dent in the 20 pounds so I made 6 batches of jam. I haven't canned anything in 2 years because of our move last year and I have been looking forward to strawberry season so I could make some jam. I don't think freezer jam actually counts as canning but I was ready to replenish the stash of homemade jams. The jam is in canning jars, so it looks like I canned, right?! I had to resort to store bought jams and jellies in recent months and they just are not the same! 

I love the taste of strawberry freezer jam. It tastes so fresh. And I love the bright red color. Yes, there is enough sugar in the recipe to send a diabetic into shock but the taste is so awesome.

Even after all of that we still had tons of berries. We enjoyed some dipped in chocolate today for dessert and the rest is being frozen to use later in smoothies.

Note to my 2014 self....10 pounds will do just fine!

Creating Joy

Hello friends and family! I am back and guess what? This post has nothing to do with cereal, lol! 

Now that winter really is behind us I think spring is springing up inside of me as well as outside. I finally got tired of being inside, doing not-so-much. Don't get me wrong, I am usually doing something...cooking, cleaning, laundry, couponing, carting the boys places. It's not like there is an indent of my behind on the sofa from being glued to the TV. My creative juices have just been frozen since our whole move process began last summer. There was no room, or time, or funds or whatever to do much creatively. All my stamping supplies are still in boxes in the basement. I did not realize how much it was affecting me to not have a creative outlet. Mama has been a bit unhappy of late. And you know how the saying goes..."If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!"

It has helped to just get outside and do some things around the house. We cleaned up the flower beds, planted some new Hosta's and several Impatiens, hung some hanging baskets on the back porch, got some tomato plants going in 5 gallon buckets and various other projects. The yard is looking nice, now if the rain would just go away so we might be able to enjoy it!

One of my winter addictions was and still is browsing Pinterest. Oh the things you never knew you needed or wanted!! I have a new list of places in the world I want to visit some day thanks to Pinterest. I also have loads  of new recipes to experiment with, hobbies to try out, and so much more.  

One of the bugs I got in my head was to make homemade bread. The problem is all that kneading and work for something that gets gobbled up in seconds. I found this wonderful blog post, via Pinterest of course, that shared a bread recipe that starts out in a bread maker. Genius! Except for the part where I realize I don't have a bread maker.I told you Pinterest makes you want/need things. Buying one new was just not in the budget so I have been patiently searching out thrift stores for a couple of months. Nothing. At least nothing that I thought I could work with. Two weekends ago I got up early and went to a local neighborhood garage sale. Bingo, there was a barely used bread maker in perfect condition calling my name. Really...it was calling "Tracy....buy me, together we will make fabulous bread". After a bit of wheeling and dealing with the seller, the bread maker was mine.  Here is the lovely Breadman Ultimate Plus herself...

It was so clean inside and out all it needed was a wipe down and for me to download instructions since the seller didn't have those.

The next day I tried it out using the recipe and instructions from that blog. I love it when something comes out just like it is supposed to! That night we enjoyed warm slices with bread and jam, mmmmmm. 

The boys even wanted their school lunches made with the homemade bread. When I was a kid I was always embarrassed to take homemade items in my lunch. I know...what a silly girl I was. I tell you though, the dark German rye bread sandwich and a side of apple paled in comparison to the peanut butter and banana sandwiches and Twinkies my friends had. No one ever traded with me. Never. I am glad my boys know that homemade=better most of the time. 

We ate that loaf up so fast there was no time to take photos. So here is a shot of loaf #2. I let it rise a tad too high but no harm done. It tasted delicious. I am just giddy over the whole process. The bread maker makes the prep so easy it is sure to be repeated often. Baking the bread in the oven gives it better taste I think and lets me control the loaf shape. The loaf looks normal, not bread maker shaped.

Since stamping is kind of out of the question right now, I am using my creativity in a new way. Stay tuned for more on that!

Cereal Taste Test 2013

I seriously don't know where the year went since our last post. Much has certainly transpired. I guess we were so busy living the craziness that we didn't have time to blog about it. Perhaps some day we will blog about moving, selling our house, resigning jobs, starting in new schools and jobs and various other "are you crazy?" events that we have experienced lately. Honestly, it is all too overwhelming to think about, let alone blog about. So, for now just know we are well. Greg is once again away for school, his last session...praise the Lord!
The boys and I sat down for a cereal taste test and got a laugh when we realized that was the theme of our last post. Must be the time of year companies release new cereals, who knew?! And it means January must be a really slow month with not much to do, lol.
Companies usually make great coupons available when new products are released and this time was no exception. All the General Mills cereals we tested were free after sale and coupon. The Kellogg's were between .60-1.00 a box.
Because inquiring taste buds want to know, here are the results from our new cereal taste test...again we rated them on a scale of 1-10, 10 being best.

Scooby Doo scored 4, 5, 9

Cinnamon Jacks scored 6, 7, 7

Mini Wheats Crunch scored 4, 5, 6

Fiber One Chocolate scored 6, 9, 9

Honey Nut Cheerios Medley scored 7, 7, 9

Peanut Butter Toast Crunch scored 7, 7, 9

Fiber One wins this round. To be fair, I am not really a big cereal fan. The mood has to strike just right for me to eat cereal but the boys practically live on the stuff so they balance me out. My personal fav was the new Honey Nut Cheerios but you can tell by the scores that none of them was a complete bust. That is a good thing since we have a big stash of free/cheap cereal that will be getting us through the winter.

Now that your life is complete with the aforementioned information, we promise to post again before the next release of new cereals hits the store shelves.

Mmmm....Cereal

After more than 6 months of silence here on the family blog, this will seem like an odd post but we have to start somewhere. I hope to catch you up but I have learned to not make promises I may not be able to keep.

One of the things keeping me busy is couponing and trying to do magic with the family food budget. It is a game to see how many food/household/cleaning/toiletry items I can get for the least amount of money out of pocket. Today was a good day at the grocery store. Here is a photo of some of the things we purchased.

Yes, those are 20 boxes of cereal. On http://www.coupons.com/  there are several .75 coupons for new cereals from General Mills. They happen to be on sale this week at Tops for 2.50 a box so after doubling the coupons, they are only $1 a box. That is a stock up price in our house since the 3 guys are rather addicted to cereal. Tops also had 8oz POM juice for $1 a bottle, free after $1 coupons in today's paper (as well as some a few weeks ago and some on-line). I also purchased 14 Hot Pockets Snackers, .50 each (free after $1/2 internet printable coupons) and 4 yogurt packs for lunches.

Total retail of my shopping trip today $142.60 (gulp!!)

Total paid $24.60

83% savings 

I also earned another .40/per gallon off our gas by using so many coupons. We are up to $1.10 off a gallon so far.

I average between 50%-65% off most trips so this was indeed a good day.

Greg left today for another round of classes in Charlotte so the boys and I had a taste test of the 3 new cereals by GM. 

On a scale of 1-10...

Frosted Toast Crunch scored a 5, 7, 7

Dulce de Leche Cheerios scored a 6, 5, 5

Mulitgrain Cheerios with Peanut Butter scored all 8's!

None of them horrible, which is good since we have several boxes of each, lol. The Multigrain Cheerios with PB was by far the favorite. Not a strong PB taste and a nice crunch.

With a new year ahead of us, it is a good time to set some savings goals. I will be trying to tighten our food budget by another $25-$50 a week in the months ahead. I think I can...

Getting to the ROOT of it!

It's always something around here.

For the last month or so it has been septics, pipes and water.

A bit of a sink hole developed in the backyard this spring. Now, we have had a LOT of rain this spring so we weren't sure if we should be concerned or not. Just to be safe we had a septic company come out to advise us. That led to our septic tank getting emptied out. It had apparently been a loooong time since that had been done. How they can tell the age of the contents of a septic tank is both interesting and gross, lol. We wondered how our real estate agent and lawyer dropped that ball since it is a requirement when a house with a septic sells. Hmmmm. Lesson learned, move on.

The septic man was very helpful, spending a good amount of time with Greg trouble shooting the possible issues and offering suggestions for addressing them. He could do the job for a price of course, but I appreciate his honesty in telling Greg that it was probably a job he and the boys could tackle. So began the digging. And more digging. The goal was to expose the entire length of pipe running from the pump to the ditch so we could check for problems. (There really is no "we" in this gig, unless you count documenting it the most I have done is deliver a glass of cold water on occasion.) The whole process was interrupted several times by weather, work, hockey and life in general.

Tonight they finally exposed the entire length of pipe. Yep, the entire channel of dirt and stone was dug by hand. More of the "man training" as Greg calls it.

You can tell by the tall grass how long they have been working at this "little" project. The water at the end shows you just how high the water table is at the moment. It's even gone down some.

They pulled out all the sections of pipe and sure enough, just as we expected...they were stuffed like a sausage. A sausage of roots. Ick!!

At least the roots were easily pulled from the pipes. That will save a few more dollars since we can use the same pipes. Greg has a few new items to purchase before the pipes can be reassembled and put back into place and the channel covered back up. The end is in sight now.

Where did all those roots come from?? The HUGE willow tree that we had cut down a couple of years ago. Well, mostly cut down. The trunk is so big around that we don't know of anyone with a chainsaw long enough to take down what is left. The boys have fun climbing it. Any guesses on how many years it will take to rot?? This whole process confirms it was the right move to cut it down.

I am out numbered in our house. Living with boys makes for interesting conversations and eventually they all come back to bodily functions. So, what do you think they thought of the root sausage??? I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count!

Yep, that is the father of my children. Pastor. Leader. Nut job!!

That is all for now. Tune in again for more trials, tribulations and other generally odd bits of news from the Ransomville Harps.

Harp Update

We are half way through May already, where does time go?? As usual things around our house have been going pretty much at warp speed. Try as I might, I can't seem to find the slow-down lever, I think it has been disabled. So, here is a bit of what we have been up to since February.

-Kaleb became a teenager in April. He is doing really well in school although math and science still aren't his friends. He is mid way through his hockey season. Wilson School is now into it's third year of having a hockey program and the best that they have been able to do is tie one game. So far it hasn't been a matter of losing but rather by how many goals. They have a mercy rule where they stop displaying goals beyond 8. We were thrilled last game when the scoreboard reflected the actual score, lol. Character building, yeah, that's it. Kaleb calls it something else. But I can say all the kids look better on the ice so they have learned some things and improved their skills.

-Josh did get accepted to the SCA for this summer. He will spend 3 weeks in August in the Delaware River Gap (in PA) doing conservation projects. We are still waiting for final details but he is very excited.

-Greg is now just a few weeks away from his third trip to Charlotte for school. His kidney stone was finally blasted and removed and we are praying for a less eventful trip this time around.

-I hosted the 4th annual Spring Fest 2 weeks ago. We had 85 stampers from 3 states and Canada attend a day of stamping. This may have been the best one yet. It just happened to be that April was the most stressful month I have experienced in years. My job has about pushed me over the edge but thankfully at the moment, things are improving. My caseload is now near 60 and some days I feel like I am paddling like a mad woman and yet the stream is still washing me away.

Here is a family photo taken at Easter.

There is more to say but I am late for work. Until next time!!

Mark the Calendar!

I am posting 2 days in a row! My dad would always say "mark the calendar" whenever we did something remarkable. Sadly, it was usually something like taking out the trash without reminders, lol.

Yesterday I told you about my little shopping obsession. I am not sure you can call it "shopping" if I don't spend money, or very little money. Not only am I saving lots of money and filling up the pantry but there is plenty of man training going on too. The boys are helping me clip and organize my coupons and I take them along occasionally so they can see the pay-off. They have become tough critics lately. If I spend more than $5 out of pocket they call me a slacker!

If you know anything at all about Greg and the boys, then you know they LOVE cereal. We go through some serious cereal and at $4-$5 a box, it could quickly put us in the poor house. When I find a good deal I stock up. This is part of our stash at the moment....

Yep, 30 boxes! None more than $1/box. I give it a month, maybe less, before it is all eaten.

This basket of snacks was completely free. Somehow they taste better than usual ;).

Over the last month I have stocked up a years worth of dish washer detergent, loads of body wash, deodorant, toothpaste and shampoo. Most of it free. You can't be brand picky if you want the best deals. Lucky for me, Greg and the boys eat or use just about anything.

This is my freebie basket I told you about. It is time to empty it out so I can start again.

It is a bit time consuming but so worth it. The lessons the boys are learning are priceless. Kaleb asked me the other day why I give stuff away rather than sell it to make money. We had a great conversation about using our gifts/talents/resources to bless others. We have taught them to tithe but giving goes beyond that. And giving isn't just about $.

We have gotten some good laughs from talking about the trunk of treasures I will gather for them when they go off to college. I hope I am that mom that other boys in the dorm love because of all the cool care packages.

Their only complaint is that they can't score these kinds of deals at Dick's or Gander Mountain.

Until next time...