I was scheduled for a 3-day weekend off; Fri/Sat/Sun this past week. Plan was to pick up youngest grandson and keep him overnight on Friday so middle grandson and daughter could go to a movie - but MGS decided he'd rather go to Grandma's instead. Daughter's plan to babysit her step-sister's children Saturday night had been cancelled; and she'd been offered tickets to a 'Dessert Theater' production at the high school on Saturday night, so both boys came home with me for the afternoon on Friday, while daughter took the opportunity to grab a friend and go walk the trails at the park as the weather was starting to warm up. A family friend came out and visited while the boys were there and stayed to have supper with us. Daughter came to pick the boys up and stayed for supper as well. The boys had a great time running and playing outside - and fell asleep in the van on the way home; sleeping through being changed into pjs and tucked into bed, and slept clear through 'til morning. I think I was probably in bed by the same time they were - and also slept clear through 'til morning
Hubby had a competition shoot Saturday morning so I took the opportunity to sneak out to the local consignment shop's 'Bag Sale' - anything you could stuff in a a bag for $3. I was so busy choosing things for the boys that I forgot to look for anything for myself! Ended up with 5 fully stuffed bags - a total of 218 items (less than 7 cents each!) - up to kid's size 10 for the boys including not only shirts, sweaters, sweatshirts, pants/jeans; but also several coats & snow pants; and boots, sneakers, and dress shoes several sizes up as well. One pair of the shoes were nearly new Nike's in boys size 4 that I'm pretty sure will fit me - if they are comfy, they may end up being my new walking shoes! Also brought home some cargo pants and long sleeve thermal henley style shirts for Hubby to wear to work, and a couple of fleece baby blankets to use to make covers for my dust mop.
Daughter brought the boys back out Saturday afternoon and we again went outside to play; the little one conked out on us by 8:30 and the bigger one wasn't far behind - I managed to last until 9:30, but it was a challenge! Little one got up early Sunday morning, so he and I had eggs and toast for breakfast; MGS managed to con Papaw into making pancakes when they finally got up, so LGS and I had a second breakfast lol! After that, I tossed a load of blankets into the washer and took the boys outside with me to hang them on the line once they were done; daughter called while we were still outside and said the time of SIL's family dinner had been moved up an hour so she'd be out to pick the boys up an hour early, which meant we had to hustle the boys in the house and get them bathed and dressed in pretty short order.
Once they left, Hubby and I went out and picked up all the downed branches in the yard, cleaned a bit in the machine shed, fixed the boy's playhouse that had gotten tumbled across the yard in a windstorm; then took a walk around the farm. We were just sitting down to a lunch of smoked sausage, cabbage and potatoes cooked in the pressure cooker when the phone rang - I ended up agreeing to cover for a call in a work; splitting the 12 hour shift with a co-worker 6/6; but ended up working 7 hours rather than the 6 I agreed to but that was okay - we were just all talking at work about how we were ready for the vacation season to start so we'd get some overtime... I really DON'T like driving home at 2 am though - especially since Hubby put his foot down and demanded I not stop anywhere on my way home - like CVS or Walgreen's lol! And after my co-worker buddy had brought in the coupon inserts from the Sunday papers he'd picked up for me!!
I got home and managed to settle down enought to fall asleep by 3:45am; slept til 9am; then started in with laundry again. One load to the dryer to tumble for just a bit to get the wrinkles out, then hung to dry inside; 3 loads hung on the line outside. We did a little minor house cleaning, then Hubby fixed beef stew in the pressure cooker while I pulled a set of sheets off the line and made up my bed. After lunch, I went over and walked with the neighbor lady - we managed to get in two miles; down from our usual 3, but it had been a long winter lol! Then it was back home to take a shower and crawl in between those wonderful line dried sheets for a nap before work. Up at 4:30; got the rest of the clothes off the line and put away; then sat down to assorted left-overs for supper. I headed to town by 5:30 as I wanted to make a couple of stops on the way - not that I've found very many good deals so far this week. Stopped first at CVS and bought:
Lancaster caramels; 8 oz bag, $3.99 - $2 scanner coupon - $1.50/1 manufacturer's coupon = 49 cents. Not much to bother stopping for, but I wanted to scan my card to get scanner coupons for the following weeks.
Next stop was Walgreen's:
Bic razors; Buy one; get one for 50% off
2 Soleil razor 4 pks; $6.49 + $3.25 = $9.74 - 2, $3/1 coupons ($6) = $3.74 or $1.87 per pkg.
This morning on my way home, I will stop at one of the local rocery stores and pick up:
12 jars Ragu pasta sauce @ 3/$4 = $16 - 6, $1/2 coupons ($6) = $10 or 83.3 cents/jar
6 boxes assorted Cheerios cereal 9-14 oz @ $1.97= $11.82 - 3, $1/2 coupons ($3) = $8.82 or $1.47/box
12 pkg assorted frozen veggies 16 oz @ 79 cents = $9.48
10 bottles Red Gold catsup 24 oz @ 77 cents each = $7.70 - we're running low on homemade so this will get us through until tomato harvest (I hope!)
Yes, homemade pasta sauce is cheaper and tastes better than commercial but it is good to have something on hand that can be briefly heated rather than homemade that requires lengthy cooking - whether the reason is a power outage or a sudden invasion of starving teen boys lol!. Ditto the Cheerios vs Oatmeal - and they travel a lot better as a snack for little ones than a blob of oatmeal in a baggie
Freezer space is pretty well maxed out at the moment, so 7 bags of the veggies will go in the dehydrator; 5 will be used in canning 3 canner loads (27 pints) of soup for Hubby to take in his lunches.
5 oz cans of Starkist tuna are on sale for 69 cents each but we are fairly well stocked up on tuna for now; I may pick up a dozen cans although the last I purchased seemed 'mushy' or waterlogged. I really prefer the foil envelopes even though they are more expensive.
I found one more Buy one get one free dog food coupon so will also be stopping at Dollar General on my way home from or back in to work today to pick up 2 cans. This purchase will most likely generate a $5/$25 purchase coupon good on Sat 3/15. If so, Hefty brand zipper storage and freezer bags are on sale for $2.50/pkg, and I have $1/2 coupons so will stop in on my way to work Saturday evening and purchase 10 boxes = $25 - 5, $1/2 coupons ($5) - $5/$25 purchasecoupon = $15, or $1.50/box, which will be added to the stockpile.
I have another 3 days off work after tonight (if no one calls in!) - Wed/Thu/Fri. The neighbor lady works Thu/Fri/Sat days, so I promised her I will try to crawl out of bed no later than 2pm on Wednesday so that we can walk again - although I'm hoping she backs out as we're likely to be walking in snow! We're supposed to have a high of 70*F today; freezing rain/sleet overnight, then snow and a drop down to 17*F by Wednesday night! I'm thinking I might take advantage of the high temps today to shut off the furnace and open a couple of upstairs windows to air out the house a bit while I am sleeping. I'm a little leery of doing so as we had a break in about 2 miles away, but the dog will let me know if anyone is on the place; and her barking is enough to wake the dead - or even a nightwalker
I will have the boys overnight Thursday until sometime Friday evening - hopefully the forecast of 54*F on Friday is correct so that I can get the boys outside again. Oldest grandson (will be17) and Son-in-law have birthdays this week; Friday and Saturday respectively, so we may end up doing a pizza dinner on Saturday before I go in to work. OGS will get a metal ammo can filled with treats that I've made or purchased using coupons/bought on sale/traded for such as M&Ms, deer jerky, protein bars, peanut butter cookies & gum. He will also receive a Real Tree camo T-shirt that I bought on clearance after hunting season for $4.99, BBs for his air pistol, and a Silver Eagle. SIL will receive 2 boxes of .22 ammo, 2 bags of Starbucks coffee that he likes (purchased using coupons), M&Ms (ditto), homemade cookies, and a Silver Eagle. I don't think there will be any complaints