Picnic on the Square

Every Wednesday at noon during the summer BG has a Concert on the Square. Today we packed up a picnic and met Bryan for lunch so that we could enjoy the cooler weather and some festive music.

During our lunch Seth tried eating blueberries as a finger food.

He has had blueberries pureed but eating them whole was a first.

I think he was trying to decide if he liked them, which he did after a few bites...except they made him extra thirsty.

Then a kind lady offered us a balloon.

Seth didn't know what to think about it at first...

but it ended up being the highlight of the picnic.

Seth and I posed for a picture before daddy had to go back to work.

The No Spend Month Challenge

It's a couple days before the No Spend Month Challenge begins, but I thought I would share a little bit about it just in case you were interested or perhaps you might even want to do it too. A couple years ago I came across a blog called Small Notebook, the same blog that I learned how to compost with worms, add clear pictures to Craig's List, and the reason I bought the space saving booster seat as opposed to a high chair and Bryan's french press. It is one of my favorite blogs to read! I am not sure how I found it in the first place, but I started reading it just after Rachel's second annual No Spend Month. I found the idea of only spending $250.00 on anything they would buy for themselves intriguing. Then last year the time came around for No Spend Month again. I considered trying, but to be honest, I was probably just too greedy. This year though, I wanted to give it a try.

Here's the details:

Our family is going to try to spend less than $250 for 31 days. We (meaning mostly me, but Bryan is somewhat willingly going along with it) want to be more mindful and disciplined about the money we spend. We are going to only spend money for basic essentials this month.

Rachel, from Small Notebook, said it perfectly last year, "We’re constantly told about things that will make our lives better, and yes, sometimes they do. But that daily message to buy, have, and make things nicer never stops, it consumes our time, and it can make us not see what we already have. We’ll take a break from trying to add more."

Our typical monthly food/Wal-mart (since I usually buy everything at Wal-mart) budget is $300.00. That includes all soap, shampoo, paper towels, cleaners, food, etc. We usually have a separate allotment for eating out ($50.00) and then a miscellaneous allotment ($85.00) for things that come up like home repairs, flea medicine (ugggghhhhh, they are horrible this year), co-payments at the doctor, etc. Here is the kicker though, we only budget from Bryan's paycheck, so that means all that I make from tutoring is pretty much fair game to use as we please or used for extra savings. My tutoring money goes to support things bought at the farmer's market, additional meals eaten out which still is not many at all, and other luxuries. So the $250.00 tight budget is going to be tough but hopefully it will keep us accountable. Already we know of a few events we would like to attend this month, but we might just have to do some sacrificing.

Our $250.00 will be going toward anything we would buy for ourselves which include:

• Groceries
  
• Eating out
• Clothing
• Household items
• Entertainment

Areas of expenses NOT included:

• Mortgage, insurance, and bills
• Health expenses
• Work expenses (if any)
  
• Savings and investments
• Tithes and gifts
• Gas expenses

Here's our refrigerator/freezer and our food cabinets:


We are starting the month off with a pretty good supply of food because I had to go to the grocery store today, but it was not a grocery trip that was out of the ordinary. I spent $102.00 today. We do a great job of eating up almost everything before restocking the fridge and the two cabinets of food, but I think we might have to do some major stretching this month. We'll see. I plan to update often about where our money is spent. So stay tuned to our attempt to hopefully learn to appreciate what we do have.

Good Food and Pretty Flowers

Along with spending some good ole quality time with my mom this past weekend, we enjoyed some tasty local foods. Saturday morning I ate the best tasting stuffed french toast ever (and I have even had Lynn's Paradise Cafe french toast). At our local farmer's market, a family has a tent set up where they serve your choice of either pancakes or stuffed french toast covered with your choice of blueberries or cherries. I opted for the cherry covered french toast and my mom had the pancakes which came with the most delicious sausage. You better believe I will be going back every Saturday that I can from now until the end of the farmer's market season to eat breakfast. It was so good and so affordable!
The booth next to the food making station is run by the same family and they sell all kinds of baked goods, breads, and dairy products. I guess I am a sucker for milk, because this week I picked up some local milk. Maybe we should do another taste test. It is the first milk that I have ever had that is non-homogenized so you have to shake it up before you drink it. I think it is just marvelous tasting and I think the glass bottle is super cool.When I go to the farmer's market I carry a small amount of cash from what I have made from tutoring the week before. I usually run out of money before I have bought all that I would like to and I always have to remind myself that fresh food is more important than fresh flowers. Every week the two booths that sell fresh cut flowers beckon me to them. Those flowers are so beautiful, but I have never had enough cash left to buy any. This week though, thanks in part to my own bountiful garden, I had enough to buy a $5.00 bouquet of beautiful flowers. It was such a delightful treat!Since we were on a roll with trying new things and treating ourselves, we stopped by a new chocolate shop that has opened near our house. It's called Mary Jane's Chocolates. The shop itself was absolutely darling and all the treats looked delicious. We were each just going to get a chocolate covered strawberry but we ended up getting a box of samples and we split each piece into three different parts so that my mom, Bryan, and I could try each piece. We tried a peanut butter melt, chocolate covered blueberries, dark chocolate haystacks, a white chocolate strawberry cornflake treat, and a few others. The chocolate covered grapes, yes grapes, and the chocolate covered strawberries were my favorite.
So with good food in our bellies and pretty flowers adorning my table and of course a little bit of shopping thrown in between all the eating, I have to say it was a fantastic day.

Half Price at Dusk

For the past few days we have been enjoying the company of my mom (Nana). She decided she wanted to spend her vacation here so she left poor Pop back at home (he had to work) and she came to enjoy some time with us. On Friday evening we took advantage of the local water park's half price tickets which start after 4 p.m each day. Usually the park closes at 6:30 but it is open until 8:30 on Friday evenings so you really get a great deal for the money. We only stayed about an hour and a half but when Seth gets older this will really be a frugal way to enjoy playing in the water. This was Seth's first time in an actual pool and of course as he is with every new situation he was super stoic. He is our little observer. He takes it all in and he rarely gets upset, but he also rarely smiles until he is extremely comfortable with the situation. Once we had played in the water for a few minutes he started warming up to the idea that this was supposed to be fun and then he started smiling, splashing, and kicking his legs. It was super cute and I think he had a good time. I do know that we wore him out because he was asleep in the car as soon as he was strapped in and the engine started.(We were supposed to wear bracelets the entire time, but we took Seth's off. He kept looking down at his arm, shaking it, and probably wondering what in the world that was on his arm.)

There is nothing really special about this photo, but his eyebrows cracked me up.

Embroidery Hoop Art

A few weeks ago, as I was reading a blog called Making it Lovely, there was a link to an absolutely adorable Venn diagram embroidery hoop clock. Of course, my first thought was how can I make this? I had big elaborate plans to make a Venn diagram with three circles, one for me, one for Bryan, and one for Seth, although mine was not going to be a clock. Instead it was going to be a piece of art for the newly painted hallway leading to our bathroom.
As my mom and I were doing some shopping during our recent trip to Jackson, we found a huge quilting hoop for $3.99 at their local Goodwill. I just knew it was fate. Along with a two dollar pair of shoes, I carried my hoop home in hopes of getting my project started as soon as possible. I scoured the scrap bins at Hancock Fabrics and Hobby Lobby and found all the fabric that I needed and also purchased some embroidery thread all for less than five bucks.

I cut my circles, ironed them, and glued them (like you would with applique) to the white background. I started stitching around my circles with the white thread. Things were going ok at first.
Then the fabric started shredding where I was stitching. So everywhere there was thread the fabric looked like it wasn't attached. I got this far...
and then called it quits. It just wasn't turning out the way that I had envisioned (which happens more often than not in many of my projects). I decided maybe I would just embroider something in the big hoop so I started looking for inspiration on Etsy. I couldn't find anything that looked simple enough for me to do, since I have never embroidered anything.
Just when I was about to give up all hope I stumbled upon a picture of a lot of hoops covered with fabric hanging as a collection (it's the 4th one down if you click on the link) on a wall. It looked kind of Pottery Barnish but super simple to do. I only had one hoop, but I wondered if there might be more at some of the thrift stores/consignment stores around here. Sure enough, after visiting three stores, I had 8 more for less than $5.00. I rummaged through my fabric including some of Bryan's old shirts (which I plan to make into a quilt) and I was able to fill all of my hoops. I came up with this...

I love changing things up and this is such an easy inexpensive way to do that. I can change a few pieces of fabric and have a whole new look. I also think I might keep looking for a few more hoops to add to the collection. So a failed project turned into something that I love even more. I love it when that happens!

Spring Harvest

It's the first day of summer and already we have had a plentiful bounty from our garden beyond our first harvest. I can't wait to see what the summer season brings. Here is what we have harvested during the Spring season:

lots of green beans (I have to pick daily)

the okra is starting to become plentiful
and we had our first batch of fried okra
the other night with our chicken pot pie

so many green beans I have started to freeze batches

this past week our first zucchini was ready to harvest

more squash,
green beans (did I mention there are a lot of green beans?),
and some snow peas

and then last night,
our first tiny bell pepper (it fell off the plant, so I guess it was ready?),
more green beans, snow peas,
and I trimmed some of my herbs (rosemary and sage)

I have two eggplants growing and almost 15 tomatoes although none are ripe yet. Once I have harvested a tomato, even if nothing else grew, I could call this year's garden a success. I did have to remove half of my zucchini and squash plants because they were growing so well they were smothering some of my other plants. Now I am down to just two squash and two zucchini plants and I think that will still be plenty.

Gardening is so rewarding!

Occupied Time

You would think that I would have all the time in the world to blog, seeing how I stay at home all day, but this week I have been occupied by so many other things. A few things I will go into specifics about later, but for now here's a recap of some of the major things.

• Still selling stuff on Craig's List (I've made $135.00 so far, yay!)
• Revamping the blog
  
• Harvesting quite a bit of vegetables from the garden
• Reorganizing and redecorating the office
• Cleaning out stuff from the basement
• Chasing a very mobile and teething baby boy
• Tutoring (back up to 5 hours a week)
  
• Trying to find the perfect fabric to make curtains for the office (more on that later for sure)

and last but definitely not least

• enjoying time with such a wonderful daddy and husband (who prefers being behind the camera instead of in front)
  

9 Months Old

Seth is 9 months old today! I know I have said it before but he truly is a happy and healthy baby boy. He weighs 19.10 lbs. He is 28 inches long, and the doctor was thoroughly impressed by his size. He is nearing the top of the growth chart apparently. It must be all that homemade baby food. :)

*We finally captured Seth's adorable, scrunchy face with our camera, thus the photo.

Weekend Fun

This past weekend we made our way back to Jackson again and thankfully there were no floods in the forecast. A friend of mine, that happened to be a server at my wedding, was getting married and I wanted to be there for her special day. Bryan kept Seth all day Saturday with his Granna and Papa while my mom and I spent the day shopping, going to the wedding,and eating at a dainty, kind of girly restaurant. We had so much fun! It was actually my first day where I was away for the ENTIRE day from Seth. We all survived just fine and it made me feel a little better about my upcoming two and half days that I am going to have to be away from Seth in July. Here are a few pics from the visit:

Mom and Me

Uncle Michael and SethGranna and Seth

Nana loving on Seth

Pop and Seth (my favorite)

and finally an updated family photo. Yay!

Other Moments During the Day

When we haven't been chasing after the little one who is into EVERYTHING,

we have been busy tending to the yard/garden...

turning our front porch into a painting station because

we are in the process of painting all the interior doors...

selling lots and lots of stuff on Craig's List in hopes
of selling enough to buy a bed,
thus turning our dining room into mess..

dabbling in some wide angle photography

and enjoying life all along the way.

Mr. Investigating EVERYTHING!

This little guy is investigating EVERYTHING! Like...

anything within reach ...

tennis shoes and shoelaces...

anything that was placed on the floor, this case a plastic drop cloth...

the inside of the refrigerator

the dishwasher including the silverware compartment...

Bella's box

cabinet doors
(thankfully nothing inside yet, but I have a feeling
we are days or maybe even hours away)...

door stops...

Mommy's tutoring stuff...

and the list and pictures could go on and on and on.

Splishing and a Splashing

Seth experienced his first time playing in his inflatable kiddie pool today! As always when he is outside he was very stoic, but he seemed to enjoy playing in the water. We got a few grins here and there, but for the most part he was just enjoying the water.

Seth sporting his adorable board shorts.

For a few minutes, I poured water out of a cup.
Seth liked to try and grab the water.Seth's stoic look

Splish, Splash