A Journal of My Days 2024: Health Update

I wanted to do a brief update as mine and my hubby's recovery from 'bronchitis' is taking a little longer than expected.

This Rose of Sharon bloom is heavy with the rain we received this afternoon ... isn't it just beautiful!

Hubby and I are making progress and have come a long way, but we're not completely recovered yet, hence my continued silence online.

We're doing a lot of resting and just letting our bodies take the time they need to recover.

Your prayers, thoughts, cards, text messages and phone calls have been and are so appreciated.  

I harvested this bowl of apples while on a short walk and will set to work preserving them a little at a time.  We are so thankful for every bit of bounty that we get!

A little bit of news ...

We went from severe drought conditions to it raining for some part of every day.  We couldn't be happier and are praising God for the rain.

Just a few days ago, this cucumber plant was browning and drying up, literally ... now look at it!

Everything is greening back up and coming alive and those 3 squash plants that I planted in late spring knowing in my heart that it was too late and too dry and too hot for them to produce are outdoing themselves!

The flowers I planted in tractor tires are loving all this rain, they are just beautiful!

I went for a short walk outside after a heavy rain this afternoon and snapped the pictures in this post.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

My plan is to start posting again starting on Monday, I have missed all of you.

Until the next post ... 

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps free up more disposable income in budget which we use to help meet our financial goals for the year.   

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means. 

Hunkering Down 2024: Week #29

No posting this week, hubby and I both are battling bronchitis and some 'rattling in the lungs' for hubby.  I'll be back to posting in a few days.

until next time,

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps free up more disposable income in budget which we use to help meet our financial goals for the year.   

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means. 

A Journal of My Days 2024: 7/15

The theme for this year is “Laser focused, hunkered down and spending as little money as possible.” 

We're talking gardening, bargain shopping and pantry building and how we utilize all three to keep us fed and cared for without breaking the bank!

(picture:  Roma tomatoes from our container garden)

So, how did we do this week?

We got some rain; in fact, it rained all day one day!  We were so thankful even though the humidity was off the charts!  The next day the temps, which had dropped to the upper 80's rebounded back to the upper 90's with feel like temperatures over 100.  We still need more rain but are so thankful for what we got.

(As I was working on this post Sunday evening, a thunderstorm came up and we got another good rain shower!!!  We are so thankful!)

In the garden:  The day it rained all day, before it started, I made a quick trip outside and threw more flower seeds into the tractor tires.  The day after it rained, I planted cabbage seeds in a container outside to grow plants for fall planting.

I'm beginning to have hope that we might be able to have a fall garden!

I harvested some Roma tomatoes and turned them into sauce.  I only had about a third of a 5-gallon bucket, but I was determined they were not going to go to waste.  I washed them, cut them in half, roasted them in the oven for about an hour, then cooked them down in a crockpot.

Roasting the tomatoes brings out a rich tomato flavor.  I also roasted a few pods of cayenne pepper with the four pans I got for added flavor as well.

This was an all-day process, so at the end of the day I let the sauce cool down and refrigerated it for processing later.  (I plan to can the sauce today, on Monday.)

Sometimes breaking a time-consuming project up into manageable parts is needed and for me, this was one of those projects.

In the kitchen:  We've been enjoying bacon and tomato sandwiches this week!  We look forward to having fresh from the garden tomatoes for this purpose every summer.  We've been saving bacon in the freezer waiting for our tomatoes to get ready.  We had them twice this week!  They were soooooooooo good!  Bacon tomato sandwiches are a symbol of summer at our house!

Thrifting, Bargain, and/or Loss Leader Shopping at the Grocery Store, farmers market, etc:  None this week!   

In the Pantry:  I had several small tomatoes and decided to lacto-ferment them.  

For this 2-liter jar, I added 4 tablespoons of non-iodine salt to the jar before adding the tomatoes.  I added enough water to dissolve the salt, added the tomatoes, filled the jar with water and put a fermentation weight on top of the tomatoes.  The weight keeps the tomatoes under the saltwater mixture. 

 After 3 weeks, I'll put them in the refrigerator and use as desired.  They will keep in the refrigerator for several weeks.  I'm working hard to get more fermented food into our diets, and this is another addition.

Since we didn't grow any brussels sprouts in the garden this year, I've started purchasing them, dividing them up into meal size portions and freezing them.  I got two meals out of one package.  I purchased this pack of brussels sprouts a couple of weeks ago and just tossed them in the freezer until I had time to divide and vacuum seal them into meal size portions.

In other news:

Click HERE to read what I've been up to in the sewing/creating world this week!  This week I started a new summer dress for myself.

I continue to cut flowers from my tractor tire flower beds and enjoy them in mason jars throughout our home.

I've spent time the last couple of days praying for our country and the horrific event that occurred on Saturday.  (This is not meant to be political; I will not approve any political comments.)  If you are of a mind, I ask you to join me in praying for our country and those affected by what happened.

That's it for me this week, what has your week looked like?

until next time,

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps keep in sewing supplies.

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means. 

Hunkering Down in 2024: Week #28

The big news this week is that everything went according to plan!

We were able to meet all of our financial obligations and make a double payment on our targeted debt!

That felt really good!

For the rest of this month, I'm going to try to squeeze out another extra payment for our targeted debt.  I don't know if we can, but we won't know if we don't try.

We have to try, don't we?

If we give up and throw in the towel because we're not achieving what we want, we lose the game the minute we admit defeat.  And isn't throwing in the towel admitting defeat?

This week's post is short and sweet, but I hope you'll recognize the message ... we must keep trying to do what we can to reach our financial goals ... we just must!

That's it for this week, what about you, how did your week go and what financial goals are you working toward?

until next time,

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps free up more disposable income in budget which we use to help meet our financial goals for the year.   

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means. 

A Journal of My Days 2024: 7/8/24

The theme for this year is “Laser focused, hunkered down and spending as little money as possible.” 

We're talking gardening, bargain shopping and pantry building and how we utilize all three to keep us fed and cared for without breaking the bank!

(picture:  plums from our plum trees)

So, how did we do this week?

I have been so busy that I didn't know whether I was coming or going at times ...

In the garden:  Another week of oppressive heat with heat indexes hitting a high of 110 degrees several days in a row and no rain has added another strike against my little garden.  I wasn't able to harvest anything this week!

In the kitchen:  our kitchen has been a beehive of activity all week long.  So much preserving along with preparing our daily meals.

Here are some of the meals we enjoyed this week:

shrimp, French fries and cucumber salad

homemade chef salads

leftovers (buffet style)

Thrifting, Bargain, and/or Loss Leader Shopping at the Grocery Store, farmers market, etc:  We spent about $65 dollars at the grocery store for some basics including salad fixings and about $30 at a farmstand.  Read on to find out about our trip to the farmstand ...

In the Pantry:  The bulk of my week was spent juicing and canning plum juice (the plums came from our tree).  Using the juicing pot shown in the picture makes extracting juice from fruit so easy!

We also preserved cucumbers in the form of sweet pickle relish and sweet pickles.  

The sweet pickles were the ones that take 7 days to make.  With the amount we were working with, we really had a lot of pickling going on all week long!!!  

The recipe for the sweet pickles we used came from the Ball Canning Book as did the recipe for making the sweet pickle relish.

Where did the cucumbers we preserved come from?

We know a family that runs a farmstand and we had asked them about cucumbers.  We ended up helping pick from their field for the stand as well as purchasing a few items.  We were given the majority of the cucumbers in the picture below for helping harvest for the stand. (The ones we were given were culled according to what they could sell.  The culled cucumbers worked just fine for what we wanted them for, and we were thankful to have had this opportunity.)  The okra was half price as it was larger than their customers would buy.  The most of it was perfect for slicing and freezing, which is what we did!  We ended up paying less than half of what the full price on all the items together would have been (excluding the cucumbers we harvested, they were free).  We left feeling very blessed!

In other news:

The farmers in our area are facing great loss with their crops if we don't get some relief from the heat and drought conditions we've been in for several weeks.  For some, it is already too late!

You know it's bad when a chance of rain, no matter how small is forecast and you camp out watching the radar to see if it's going to come to your area!  Yes ma'am, that's where we're at ... praying for rain and watching the radar at the mere mention of the possibility!

Click HERE to read what I've been up to in the sewing/creating world this week!  This week I did some upcycling and I love the end results!  It is soft and quite comfortable!

My granddaughter and I finished reading book 2, The Reptile room in the Series of Unfortunate Events and have started book 3, The Wide Window.   We've had to have a few discussions over some words in the books of this series that we've read thus far about the way they use God's name.  My precious little granddaughter has been receptive to hearing grandma's heart and reason for the discussions.  On Saturday, when we ran across similar wording, she skipped over it when it was her turn to read.  When I thanked her for honoring me and my desire not to use God's name in the way it was used, she understood my stand.   As grandparents, we may not have the ability to shield them from things such as this, but it does give us an opportunity to plant a seed for our Heavenly Father.

Libby the library app notified me that The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom I had requested was available.  I started reading it over the weekend.

(picture:  sweet pickles)

My teaching notes on Lesson 3 from the 'Three Self's' series I'm teaching to a young wives Bible class has been posted over on From This Heart of Mine for any ladies who would like to follow along.

I also posted a lesson on Phoebe, another lady in the Bible in our series of studies on women in the Bible.

If you are suffering under this intense heat as we are, I pray you are being careful and are staying safe.

That's it for me this week, what has your week looked like?

(pictured:  sweet pickle relish)

until next time,

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps keep in sewing supplies.

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.