Plugging Away on the Yard

This has been a week of business and fun activities and some not soo fun.

Monday morning I left home early enough to swing by Winco for a refund. Their Kleenex was marked $1.47  for a 3 pack which was an amazing deal so along with my coupon and rebate I was getting them for next to nothing. I had initially bought one a couple of weeks ago and then noticed they were still marked $1.47 when I was there on Saturday.  Having the kids with me usually means I can not watch the prices ring up as closely as I need to so I have been known to look in the store or after I get home. Upon looking at the receipt at home I discovered I was charged $3.74 for the Kleenex. I put it and the receipt back in a bag. I then thought I should recheck the last receipt and sure enough I was overcharged then also. Anyway Monday I had left home early enough that I had time to swing by for a refund.

Winco Trip:
refund         ($4.32)

After Winco I made it into work still early which was unusual for me but a great chance to read before the day really started. On the way home after work I called home only to find out that we needed milk. So on the way home I went by Albertson's to pick up the milk and ended up with a couple of other items.

Albertson's Trip:
2 boxes of egg rolls
2 cans biscuits
1 lb peaches
1 loaf bread
1 fruit pie ( I totally regretted this one)
1 lb dried navy beans
2 gallons milk

Total: $10.73 Cash

 Once home I got the items put up and my clothes changed. Logan and I went to work on the back yard getting it cleaned up and some more of the monkey grass planted. I started work on another section of the flower bed and under the bird feeders. Clark was hanging out talking to us from his stroller. Logan played for a little while and then he was on watering duty. This is usually a process in which everything except what I asked him to water ends up soaked. I am really working on my patience while he is "helping" me with anything.

Area Before

Area After

Another Friend

Out of everything Logan was most excited about the lady bug. Keeping the yard organic has not helped with appearances yet but it has increased the amount of wildlife we have to watch.
After working in the yard for about an hour we headed inside for baths and then dinner. Dinner was short cut chicken pot pie. I chopped up some leftover grilled chicken, mixed that and a can of cream of mushroom soup with some steamed mixed vegetables. I put this in a stone casserole dish and covered it with the dough from some prepackaged crescent rolls. They make a great crust when laid flat and the seams pushed together. Clark especially liked the soft veggies out of the pot pie. There really was just a smidge left over to put up. By this point it was fairly late and I tried to get Clark to go to bed but he wanted to play a little longer. I let him while I picked up some stuff and got things ready for Tuesday. Once I was done I got him to bed and then went to read to Logan. Logan wanted a book on Meteorites read to him so that is what we did.

Tuesday the kids went to the sitter so I picked them up and then headed home. Once home I immediately changed clothes and put Clark in the stroller. Logan and I got to work on another section of the yard while Clark talked. Phillip ended up coming out and pushing Clark around in the stroller as well as helping direct Logan's watering efforts. We all still ended up being watered as well as the grass I was putting out.

This was the before of the area we worked on. I neglected to take an after....may do that tonight after I get home. The back corner of this area is where I was to try to recreate this which is pictured on http://www.letthechildrenplay.net/2014/07/these-are-few-of-my-favourite-found.html. 

I posted on my trade group and will be picking up tires over the next couple of days so we can get this recreated. After working in the yard though for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half we went in for baths and then dinner. I had put on navy beans with some leftover ham in the crockpot that morning. We ate that with the extra corn bread from the corn dog meal. After a couple of days of yard work and playing at the sitter the boys were easier to get to sleep.

Wednesday I ran by library to turn in some books on CD that I was finished with as well as the meteorite book Logan and I had read. CVS is right across the street so I swing in to pick up some baby powder for my shoes. The tiny one kept hiding my old one but now it is officially empty so I picked up a new one. I learned a lesson though, in the baby section the exact same baby powder was $1.99 compared to the .99 it was marked in the travel section. So needless to say I bought the one from the travel section. It rained that morning so Logan's plans for the day were delayed. He ended up going later with his friend Loralee and her dad to the water park. The night before he went here is the conversation we had with him
 Phillip: tons of info on being safe and staying with Loralee and Mike.
Logan: I will be safe, I will not get drowned
Me: Thank you, because I love you and I would really miss you.
Logan: I will not get drowned, you do not have to be sad. If I get dead you could born another Logan.
Me: No I can not born another Logan, that is not how it works. You are the only Logan for me ever.
They were not sure when they were going to come home so Phillip and I played it by ear on picking him up. The park closed at 6 and since I get off at 5:30 I told Phillip I could try to meet them and get Logan. He was worried I would not get to the meeting spot in time so I called him once I was on the highway and their ETA looked to be 6:45pm. Originally I was going to go home and wait them out but decided to complete a pick up of donated items for this month's family. The person donating items was close to the pick up spot so I just went to meet her. Mike ended up calling when I was exiting the highway and said he was 10 minutes away from the pick up spot. I tried to complete the donation pick up in that time and the person who was supposed to be home turned out to not be so I picked up Logan first. We stopped at the gas station and picked up a blue drink (powerade) for him and then went back to do the donation pick up. He told me all about the water park as he had an amazing time. His face concerned me a little and still does. 

 I at first thought it was a sunburn but it is only on his face, it is in a pattern, not hot to the touch, does not bother him and it was scaley in appearance. We just contemplated it for a while on Wednesday evening while he told us all about the fun he had. We had eggrolls for dinner and then baths. Logan was in the bathtub for a long time getting the chlorine off and playing, mainly playing. Once baths were done we rubbed his face down with beeswax cream and headed to bed. 

Thursday morning the redness appeared better and it still was not bothering him so I took him to the sitter and headed into work. I had to be here early for a meeting and then stayed late for inventory. Phillip picked up Logan and took him to his meet the teacher night. He starts Kindergarten on Monday, I can not figure out where this summer went. They also went to visit his teacher from last year while they were there so he was excited. After inventory my coworkers and I got a bite to eat and then I completed a trade on the way home. I traded some cranberry liqueur I made and a can of refried beans for 5 bars of soap and a bunch of building blocks and cars for the boys. Logan was asleep when I got home so I snuck in a gave him a kiss and then held Clark while Phillip and I caught up. He had an appointment about his VA claim yesterday and got a call about an interview for a job he applied for. This is actually the next step interview as in his field there are many steps to getting a job. It was a little bit before Clark went to sleep and then I tried to read but was just worn out. 

Friday morning, which was this morning is the last day of summer break! It was the last morning anyway that I get to sleep a little later since I do not have to take the kids anywhere before I go to work. The boys were up before I left this morning so I gave them the building blocks and they started playing. Logan's eye is swollen so I am a bit more worried about the reaction to whatever. Phillip was going to give him some benadryl and see how it works and then we will dose him as normal with some zyrtec tonight. 

Hoping he feels better by the time I get home. I was hoping to work some more in the back yard tonight and still have no ideas for dinner since I did not pull anything out this morning.