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.

Ongoing Challenge #3 Moey -- Bed by Eleven, Up by Seven

Yeah, okay, I realize that to most people living in the "real world" -- who have to get up and be out the door by 7am and are dropping like flies well before 11pm, this sounds like some sort of holiday. Yeah, but. I'm not going to make excuses or anything, but I have never, ever, ever, ever been an early-to-bed, early-to-rise person. I've been early-to-rise when I had to (school, work, taking kids to school, etc.) but even then: bedtime, I struggle with. I just seem to be constructed for third shift. LOL. And, I am nursing a baby, who I have to wake up to feed, or I lose my milk (already lost it, went to formula, baby got diaper rash, went back to nursing and trying to feed more often during the night.)

All that to say, that for me, the getting up is not the hard part -- the going to bed is the difficult bit. There is always the "one last thing" that needs done, or it is finally QUIET in the house (six kids, homeschooled, home all day every day, hello), or I am in the middle of a book or whatever. Whatever.

The thing is, I keep totally screwing up my plans with either being exhausted from not enough sleep, or not getting the stuff done that I need to, before I am buried under the stuff that I have to do when the kids are up and about. Today was a day like that. I got up early, but I was so tired, I just felt horrible, so I handed the baby over for some big-kid babysitting and went back to bed for a bit. We had planned to go to the library, but after my nap, by the time we got out the door, it was almost lunch time and nothing on my list had been done yet. So today, besides all the normal kid care, the only things on my list for today that got done, were: go to Aldi, and go to the library. BUMMER!

I had gardening to do, needed to clean out the fridge, cook up a few more aging items, clean the kitchen windows (trust me, this needs done), and other junk like that. But all my time was taken up just putting out fires all day long, and I was behind all day. I hate that!

So, I will be in bed by 11. Every night. I will get up by 7. Every morning. I will need some kind of motivation and help to do that. LOL.

I mentioned that I went to Aldi: I bought $16.89 worth of groceries: 10lbs flour, 5 gall milk, 4lbs bananas, 3lbs onions, hamburger buns, and a very nice cantaloupe. With only $25/wk to spend at the store (the rest coming from the pantry/freezer), that was a big chunk of change for not very much stuff. I will try to post the figuring I did to come up with those amounts, tomorrow; I just wanted to be sure to write down that I spent $$ and what I bought today.

Now I have 10 minutes before bed, and have a couple more things to do, so good night!