I Do Not Have Time For My Life!

This past weekend was a 3 day one for me and the older munchkin so needless to say there was a bunch on the list to get done. Friday night I headed home to cook dinner and hopefully start on my list. I went with grilled pork loin using these great instructions. This has really made grilling pork loin easy for me. It turned out to be 2 smallish loins in the package so I set one aside after I grilled them and we ate part of one for dinner. I served this with a salad and the leftover garlic bread from earlier in the week. After dinner we lazed around a little bit, took baths and got stuff together for all the errands I needed to run on Saturday. Phillip headed out on his errands early and so the kids went with me. First thing was getting our produce from the co-op pickup which is next to a playground so Logan took the time to play while Clark and I executed the pick up. I started chatting with a couple of people who helped me load the car and it turns out 1 of them works for the same "company" I do and knows a couple of my friends who work/used to work in the same department. I have decided the 6 degrees of separation is actually only about 2 degrees. Anyway this was the produce I picked up

It worked out to $61.00 of our grocery budget this month and although there were more options I wanted I narrowed it down to these items. I did sell off $6 worth of produce we were not going to eat so took the total down a little. I also realized after I took the pictures that I had already put the mushrooms and lettuce in the fridge. Anyway, all this produce had to sit in the front passenger seat because my trunk was full of donations for this month's family. After picking up the produce we set up at the appointed site for an hour allowing people to come by and add to the donation. The next stop after that hour had to be home to get the produce unloaded while I sent the family a message to see when we could meet. I got that arranged and left Logan at home so he could watch TV and took Clark with me to meet the family. The donation was handed off and then Clark and I headed by Home Depot to price gravel and pick up some soil for the tires. We found some open bags of gravel which they had discounted so I picked those up as well as the soil. We left there and headed to the garden store which I like. It is locally owned and they grow some of their own plants. Because of the season change coming they were a little low but I found enough to fill in where I wanted at good prices. After leaving there I went through a drive thru for a snack and then on to the library where I just dropped the items in the outside drop box. I have so much at home to catch up on that I did not want to go in and Logan was not with me so no need to head in. Clark was asleep in the car by this point so I thought I would push my luck and head to Winco but of course he woke up as soon as I pulled into a parking place. I went ahead and did my shopping with him since he likes to ride around in the cart. On to the house we went to get started on other items on the list. I originally wanted to start on the carrots but figured they would hold on longer than the strawberries so I went ahead and cut them up. I froze many of them for later use in smoothies and desserts. I did put some up in the fridge for Phillip to snack on and Clark to eat. I ended  up bringing some to work with me for lunches. While I was working at this Clark really wanted a carrot so I peeled one for him and this is the scene that ensued.

Between he and Turbo the carrot was shared. I can not answer who ate more of it as Clark really does like raw carrots and they are not Turbo's favorite. Turbo only feigns interest I think because the tiny one has some and if he is eating something it must be good right? After I got the strawberries cut up and some laundry on the line I started working on cleaning up my crafting/dining room table. I did not get very far before it was time to work on the backyard. I wanted to let it get a little cooler but it was never really going to be totally cool. Logan and I headed out to get as much as we could stand to done. I was able to use the composted dirt I had in barrels near the site to fill up the 3 tires I had already picked up and get them planted. I had a bag of mulch in the garage from a previous project so I hauled that out to top off the plantings. There were also a ton of boxes in the garage so I hauled them out and collapsed them to make a thick ground cover to go under the gravel. I totally lucked out and someone in my BBT group has a ton of pea gravel she wanted to trade...more on that later. I did what I had supplies for on the boy's area and then planted my beds with stuff from the nursery. Then I started working on the next section for the boys since it is going to require a ton of clean out. Once I reached a point of wanting to quit I started watering because Logan was still working on moving the gravel we had from his old play area to the new. It is going to take a while since he is using the play front end loader to load his dump truck and then moving that small amount over. He wanted me to soak him with the water hose so I did and then worked on getting my new plants a good drink. I think the area is shaping up nicely.

Once we headed inside we of course had to get baths! After cleaning up I made BBQ pork served on hamburger buns with corn on the cob. It helped to use up a little more of the pork although there was still a ton left over. The boys spent the rest of the evening playing before collapsing in sleep. I cleaned up and organized my craft table getting the next project ready to start. I have sorted all the pictures and put some in albums so now I have moved on to completing the boys' baby books.

Sunday morning we had to get to church early which was not an issue as both boys woke up before they needed to. I baked us cinnamon rolls and threw on some clothes. Loralee's parents are out of town so we went to lunch with Mimi and Nene after church. They took us to Logan's favorite place Rosa's. On the way home we picked up another tire free from someone in my trade group. Once home Phillip got the tire out and we unloaded everything else. Clark was falling back asleep so I left him home with Phillip while Logan and I headed back to do another trade and go to Home Depot. My trade partner had not put the items out so we just headed on to Home Depot. At home depot they had bags of mulch and pea gravel on the discount table because they were open so I picked those up as well as some leaf bags, a couple of plants and some more gravel. By the time we left there Logan said he was kind of hungry and I was hot so we went through the drive through at McDonald's. He got a small fry and a drink and I got an ice cream cone and a water. I ate the part of my cone that was over the cone and then Logan wanted the rest so I let him have it. Once we were home Logan and I got busy on the yard. We hauled the gravel around and planted the last tire, it did not make as big a dent as we had hoped but it was progress.

Of course we needed baths after working out here in the heat for any amount of time. After baths dinner was baked potatoes and salad. I needed something that did not require a bunch of effort or heat up the house too much. After this I cleaned up the game/coat closet so I could vacuum it out and put away our cart we use for flea markets. Again, there was no trouble getting the boys to sleep as they were beat.

Bonus work at home day Monday!!! The boys slept a little late on Monday morning but I was having trouble sleeping so I was awake waiting on them. I went ahead and fixed us some biscuits for breakfast and we milled around the house for a little while. I had the realization that it was Monday which is half price day at the thrift store and which I am never off work to go to. Logan did not want to go so Clark and I loaded up and went. It ended up taking way longer than it should because an older gentleman started talking to me and after he had caught me up on his life story Clark and I checked out with our purchases. I think the best purchase there was a star projector night light shaped like a turtle. It was 54 cents and I figured that was a small amount to spend in case it did not work. Turned out it works beautifully and Logan is in love with it. He has named it Apollo, Paul for short. Once Clark and I made it home Phillip went out to the gym and Target for something he needed. I used this time to try to work on the house but mainly to peel, slice, and blanch carrots for the freezer. I also started the time consuming project of uploading all our photos to shutterfly so that I could print some for the baby books. They had sent out a postcard with a holiday weekend special of 40% off plus 101 free prints. I went through about 15 pounds of the carrots plus the loose ones that were in the regular basket before I called it quits. I have rough cut blanched ones in the freezer for stews and soups. I have thin rounds blanched and frozen for dinners and sticks cut for snacks in the fridge. My hands were stained and still my nails are discolored.

I found a buyer for the remaining 10 pounds so I will get another $6 back off this produce purchase. After finishing with this Phillip was home and we were just cleaning the house until it was a little bit cooler. Then I decided to work on the front flower bed for a little while and Logan came out to ride his bike around the front while I worked. It ended up being a family affair as Phillip brought Clark out in the stroller and started pushing him around and Logan started riding in circles around them. Logan heard the ice cream truck on another street so he told me "Mama, It is quite hot and a ice cream would cool me down". So I told him the truck came down our street we would get something. Once we realized they were coming down the street I sent him inside for my purse. When the truck got to us Logan and I picked ice cream sandwiches and Phillip got a fudge bomb pop. It was Clark's first time with the ice cream truck and he enjoyed sharing with the rest of us.

After ice cream and a little bit more yard work we quit for the day. Baths were in short order and then dinner of grilled cheese and school/work stuff gathered before bed.