Savings and Goals Journal #52

I mentioned in my last post that my daughter and her two children were moving to their own place. That has happened, and I guess we are now “empty nesters.” Not really though. We see at least one of our daughters and their children almost every day since they live nearby, and we also have the daycare kiddos running around during the day. But my goodness, the evenings and early mornings are quiet!

We are adjusting to being a household of two, after being a household of five. Besides being so quiet, the house feels very big with just the two of us here, and I feel like I have more free time. I’m planning to revisit some hobbies that I’ve neglected for a while, do some major decluttering and organizing, and of course continue my budget home makeovers.

In the Kitchen

Freezer Meals

I spent a weekend making a bunch of freezer meals. I’d hoped to document the process for both this blog and my YouTube channel, but I was so focused on just getting it all done, I decided not to do that this time. Hopefully my next freezer cooking adventure will be a little more relaxed.

Because we’ve been busy in the evenings helping my daughter get moved to her new place, freezer meals have been awesome in helping us save money by eating at home. This week, we’ve had Chicken Cacciatore, Green Chile Enchiladas and Herbed Pork Chops, all from the freezer! Having the main dish ready to heat and serve saves tons of time on preparation and cleanup. If you are approaching a busy season of life, I encourage you to give freezer meals a try. There are tons of recipes online.

Setting Up a New Kitchen

We’ve been visiting our local thrift stores to find kitchen and household things for my daughter’s new home. We have saved so much money and have found some things that she really loves! She loves to bake and really wants a KitchenAid mixer, but they are so expensive. I found a nice like-new Sunbeam stand mixer for $5.00 at a yard sale. It will do until she saves up for a KitchenAid. I’ll be sharing a post soon about how we are making her house a home on a budget.

In the Garden

I’ve been spending time almost every evening working outside. I’ve decided to move my daycare playground to a different area of the yard, where it is not in the front yard by the street. I’m working on moving some flowers, rosebushes and landscape stones to a different spot. I’m hoping for some nice weather on the weekend so I can get a lot done at once.

I was so happy to see many of the plants and flowers I moved from our old house return this spring. I have lots of iris and daylilies, catmint, bachelor’s buttons, a currant bush, salvia, Russian sage, lamb’s ear, mums, Maximillian sunflowers and several roses. Some of the bushes I dug up and brought with me from New Mexico did not survive because it was so hot when we moved them. I am extra happy that my peonies survived the move and the winter.

Home and Family

Grampy and I have been talking about painting the exterior of the house and the sheds since last fall. I’ve bought way too many paint samples at the hardware store, but this weekend, we finally agreed on a color combination. Grampy is insisting on some form of green for the trim. I love grey tones… so we’ve decided on Carriage Hill for the trim and accents, and Haven of Coziness (isn’t that a fantastic name?!) for the main color.

We’ll be celebrating our younger daughter’s birthday soon. She’s requested her favorite meal, Beef Nacho Casserole. And we are doing an ice cream sundae bar instead of cake. It should be fun!

See you later!