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It is possible that I will be back. Possible, possibly even probable.

Taking a look at the challenges: hm, will have to rethink some of these and adapt, most likely. The way food prices have risen, I doubt very very much that I could possibly feed all 8 of us on eight dollars a day. But I might be able to do it on sixteen dollars. It isn't worth getting all perfectionistic on things and then throwing in the towel, so that nothing gets done, is it?

Today is Mothers Day. I slept in, then I read most of a book called Made From Scratch , which is a sort-of memoir, sort-of how-to. I am enjoying it and finding it motivating, even though I find that her fairly simple ways of providing for one person, would be fairly overwhelming when stretched to provide for eight people, while also taking care of the daily needs of those same eight people. But again...I do not need to be perfectionistic, I do not need to say "it is impossible" when some of it may be possible, that something may be learned, grown, established, improved, or even -gasp- perfected :-)

After my sleeping-in and reading, I went to the dining room for brunch made by my children -- a healthy baked oatmeal not too much like the sweet, buttery version I normally make; fresh strawberries and cool whip. Coffee. Mmm, coffee. Decaf. Trying to get off my recently-aquired caffeine addiction. Must remember to sleep. :-)

Since then, I have spent the afternoon catching up on many, many, many blogs I haven't looked at for aaaaaaages (still 3817 posts to go, but I don't think I will make it through them all!) and enjoying my new tablecloth, one I really really wanted! and watching the hatching of zillions of baby praying-mantises in my Japanese maple; and rescuing some passionflower seeds from my hubby who had planted them in the vegetable garden; and admiring the two-dozen paper flowers my six-year-old made for me; and drinking a whole pot of tea from my little yellow teapot in my china teacup, even with REAL milk, because today, I will risk the tummy-ache. It is Mothers Day, a special day.

We are about to make up some Easy-Bake mixes for an oven my sister and I found in a yard sale in Holmes County recently (ever yard-saled with Amish? Fun!) and bake with the littles. They are getting a little naggy, so I will have to run...but before I go, I will promise to come back with some recent thoughts and something of a bloggy resurrection post. I will try not to ramble like I have here. Happy Mothers Day, mommies!

Ongoing Challenge #5 Moey -- Get Back On the Horse

Oh, I did have a week last week! It was just a sucky week, won't go into too many of the details, but the long and short of it is that I flunked on ALL the goals last week. So my new ongoing challenge to add today is, Get Back On the Horse.

Something is better than nothing, right? Keep on keeping on, and don't give up.

A brief update is that the garden is producing nicely for us at the moment in spite of borers and raccoons. My potato plants have made an appearance, so I need to learn to care for them so they will produce potatoes, and hope that it doesn't get too hot for them. It is definitely a much warmer summer than it was last summer, which is good in a way, because the heat is reducing the fungal problems we had last year (which killed the tomatoes and would affect my little potato plants too.)

I have borrowed more interesting books from the library, some of which I would like to share in a future post. Seems like the library is getting in JUST the books I am wanting to read lately, so I am sure to check the "New Books" section every time I go. I can not keep up with all the reading I am wanting to do.

As far as the Dollar-a-Day challenge, due to a few extenuating circumstances (needing some extra TLC in the form of ginger ale and sprite and easy-to-digest foods,) plus a general meltdown of the system, I have spent about twice what I had budgeted for on groceries over this past week. It is still a good total, but I can do better if I refocus.

I plan to go through the stock and pull together as many recipes as I can, using what we have on hand and utilizing what is currently ready for harvest. I really don't want to waste anything, because it does make a huge difference in a small budget. When I wasn't watching the budget so closely, it didn't really matter that much.