This Week on the Dining Table

The "Homemade Beans" Edition................

We woke up to this Saturday morning, May 9th.........

So this called for the warming slow cooked dinner above.  I had a "?" for Saturday's meal plan but luckily I had soaked some dried beans the day before just because.  I used a Goya pink bean, the usual to make a Puerto Rican rice and beans dish, but they worked fine in a good old New England Boston Baked Bean dish too.
 It's a tangy version of that stuff from the can with a lot less sugar.  Mostly a meatless meal(if you don't count some strips of bacon lol)and was accompanied by this which is required of any Southerner.........

Cornbread made in a cast iron skillet. nom nom
Kim's Sissie and I were texting each other photos of food on Saturday...I was making dinner and she was making enough carrot cakes and cinnamon rolls to feed her whole neighborhood.  I am still waiting for her to drive up here with my share of those baked goodies. ;-)

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning-

This is what was planned.........

1. Sunday--Cheeseburgers, leftover Veggies
2. Monday--TV dinners
3. Tuesday--leftover Ham Steaks, Asparagus, leftover au gratin Taters reworked

4. Wednesday--Halushki

5. Thursday--Assorted leftovers

6. Friday--Quiche, Salad
7. Saturday--?

And this is what really happened........

1. Sunday--Cheeseburgers, leftover Veggies
2. Monday--Chicken w/Korean Sauce, Green Beans
3. Tuesday--Halushki

4. Wednesday--Fend for Yourself(I ate dirt.)

5. Thursday--TV dinners(Mine was raw weeds undressed.)

6. Friday--Pizza take-out(I had leftover dirt and weeds.)
7. Saturday--Boston Baked Beans, Cornbread

Last week saw 4-5 nights of home cooked dinners(depending if you consider TV dinners home cooking lol),  1 night of leftovers/FFY, and 1 night of Take-Out.
I had picked up tv dinners for nights I didn't feel like cooking and got some frozen chicken apps among the stuff we found at the Amish Surplus Outlet and ate those last week.  The quiche and the ham steaks from the freezer didn't happen so they move to this week.
I didn't feel any cooking inspiration last week, just anxiety over making meals.  With the possible meat shortage I will try to stretch what I have here as much as possible and look to meatless(or mostly meatless dinners-we had two last week)without resorting to dinners with more carbs.

What got put into the freezer last week....
* 3 lbs. of Broccoli
* 1 box Sausage Breakfast Sandwiches
* 2+ lbs. Chicken Tenders
* 1.5 lbs. Haddock Fillets
* 5 TV Dinners
* 2 boxes of Chicken w/Korean Sauce

What got taken out of the freezer and used.....
* 5 TV dinners
* 2 boxes of Chicken w/Korean Sauce

4 trips, 3 a week ago on Thursday but after I closed out the books on May came to $151.55 for Weis, P and R Discounters and Maines restaurant supply, and a trip last Monday to the Amish Surplus Outlet for $77.41 had me spending $228.96 this past week and brings my May Total spending on food to $228.96. 
One third of the week through May and I am over halfway through my monthly food budget.  Not good but I am still trying to find good deals.

I am at .10¢ earned in Ibotta rebates in May. rah.

My savings percentage last week was 36.66%(without Rite-Aid trips)for May and the  monthly savings total comes in at 36.66%(w/out R-A).  The Surplus Outlet trip was 47.01 in savings but the other 3 stores brought my rate way down.

I have 20 more food shopping/spending days in May.

Leftovers going into this week........pierogies, au gratin potatoes, Halushki, chicken w/Korean sauce, baked beans and cornbread.

I have fresh produce of asparagus, lettuces, yellow squash, sweet potatoes, celery, carrots, onions to use this week.

Here is this week's "food plan".....

1. Sunday--Petite Steaks, Sweet Potato Fries, Asparagus
2. Monday--Ham Steaks, Broccoli or Tossed Salad, Baked Potato or reworked au gratin Taters
3. Tuesday--Leftovers

4. Wednesday--Quiche, Salad

5. Thursday--Pork Tenderloin Sammies, Squash and Onions

6. Friday--Hungarian Goulash over Mashed Taters or Noodles
7. Saturday--Leftovers

What needs buying for this menu?
Not a thing.
The quiche will be meatless and the goulash will take a very little bit of beef.

What's left on my master list of meals we can make from what's here...........
*Shrimp Tempura
*Roasted Chicken
*Kielbasa sandwiches
*Tuna Casserole
*Hot Dogs, Beans
*Chicken and Dumplings
*Shrimp Ravioli
*Breakfast for Dinner
*Spaghetti and Meatballs
*Stuffed Shells(found in freezer)
*Haddock Fish Dinner  new
*Chicken Tenders  new
*Pasta w/Meat Sauce  new

What is getting fixed and served at your house this week?

Was last week's plan successful, did you go off plan or did you not even plan what was going to be eaten last week?

Any great deals on food at your stores this week?  

Sluggy

My Journey to Motherhood

Every mom has their own unique journey to Motherhood and I am no different.
If you are lucky, you fall in love, get married(or not nowadays), get pregnant right away and have a baby.
That's the easy way.

Well that wasn't my trip.
I didn't plan on being a mom when I was little.  I wanted a career in the entertainment industry.
I was talented(or was often told such), creative and artistic as a kid.  I loved theater and excelled at most of everything involving that world.
I planned to major in theater and go on to a career in it.

But then I fell in love with a Political Science/English major nerd in college during my first semester.
We decided to marry after we finished school.

And after being exposed to what goes on in the real theater world I decided before graduation a career in theater was not for me.
Especially back then in the 1980's making a living in that art field would mean living in/near NYC(a place I hold no love for).  One couldn't make a real living doing Regional theater and it also involved moving around a lot so having a marriage meant a lot of long distance separations and Hubs and I decided we didn't want our marriage to look like that.

Hubs was at this point beginning his Master's degree before going onto a PhD, and then a career as a University professor.  So I was headed for a life as a professor's wife who would support him in that role and have a little hobby on the side.
But before finishing his Master's program Hubs had a change of heart about a career in the Ivory Tower of academia and decided to find a career in the business world.

Our move to Tidewater Virginia didn't bring about  a business job for Hubs so we packed up and moved to New Jersey.  Hubs found work at Prudential after a short term stop gap job working security for Warner-Lambert(the makers of Listerine among other products)at their world HQ. I commuted into Brooklyn working jobs with Theater designers I knew plus a couple other theater jobs and then working as Assistant Manager at a fabric shop and then Caldor Dept. Store while we lived in NJ.
Once we moved to Pennsylvania and bought a tiny house I worked for a few years(first as a CNA in a nursing home in NJ then as a waitress in a long established family restaurant), we paid off Hubs student loans using my various salaries, Hubs climbed the corporate ladder and we decided after 4 years of marriage it was time to have a baby.
But the problem was during our 4 years of marriage we hadn't been using birth control and I never got pregnant. We were both young still(I was 27, Hubs was 28)so we didn't worry about it.  But we had a fertility problem and we didn't even know it at that time.
Then I got pregnant in early 1988.  I found out on a trip to the ER for a pulled muscle that I was 5 weeks pregnant.  Two days later my appendix ruptured and I had emergency surgery, became septic because of the rupture and got pumped full of blood thinning drugs because of my condition.  I spent 5 days in the ICU before I was out of the woods and they transferred me to a regular room at the hospital.  A couple days after moving me I miscarried the baby/fetus.

After 6 weeks home I was cleared/healed up and we tried to conceive.  But it was not happening so we began the process to adopt.  We were accepted by Holt International Adoption Services.  While we completed the dossier we decided to apply to a private foster care agency in our area.  Sometimes these foster care placements became adoption situations and were a lot cheaper than going international.  Besides, fostering would give us practice being good parents.

After having 3 foster care placements(1 was short term until the child had his court hearing, 1 was from NJ for a special needs child which we ended as she was violent and attacked/harmed me, and a set of half siblings-one of which was a sociopath we and the state agreed to have removed from our care(and ended up institutionalized for his/society's own good)and the other was yanked because the state wanted them adopted together(even though they hadn't grown up together and had no relationship).

I started to see a fertility doctor after the 2nd foster placement failed.  It was at this point that Hubs was tested and I realized that the problem was me.  You see, I had gone years since puberty started without having a monthly period, or a sporadic period now and then.  My body wasn't ovulating on a regular basis.  I had undiagnosed Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome or PCOS for short.  This is back when it wasn't a known condition like it is today.  Besides lots of other things it involves a very high testosterone level in the woman.  Woman with these kinds of testosterone levels find it hard to get pregnant. (I also have undiagnosed Hidradenitis Suppurativa which I am sure just added to the difficulties conceiving.)
With the help of the OB/GYN and a couple of courses of Clomid the fertility drug, a somewhat regular menstrual cycle returned and my testosterone levels naturally going down as I aged I was finally able to conceive again at the age of almost 32, which back in the 1990's was considered high risk and a geriatric maternal age. lolz

My eldest was born in 1991, 9 years after Hubs and I married(and 14 years after we were "together").

We figured it would take another decade to make another baby so we were quick to try for another baby but this one didn't take long......daughter was born 17 months after her big brother. ;-)

We relaxed a bit(and were exhausted too)after having 2 kids so close in age to care for but when daughter turned 2.5 years we were pregnant again for the last time.

Ex-College Boy came along in early 1996, a month after my 37th birthday.  He was the only C-section(due to his enormous Toddler sized head!).  My OBs advised us to not get pregnant again due to the condition of my uterus, fibroids they discovered while doing the surgery and all the scar tissue they dug out of me from that appendix surgery.  They remarked while I was being put back together like a jigsaw puzzle in the OR that they were amazed I ever got pregnant due to all the scar tissue(not to mention the PCOS).

So we went through a lot to have our 3 children and we ended up being much older than most folks are when they have babies.
Would it have been better to be one of the lucky couples who have children easily(sometimes too easily)?
Maybe.
But having had worked so hard to get them here I hope they know they were very wanted(though they may have tried our patience along the way)and are loved to the moon and back.

Many of my college friends either didn't want kids or never had any.  I don't know all their reasons but I am thankful for mine.

What's your journey to Motherhood story?
Happy Mother's Day to all those readers who chose to take up the challenge of motherhood.


Sluggy

Who Needs a Giveaway? May Needs a Giveaway!

Time for the Seventh  Sluggy's Boring Blog Giveaway for 2020!

As promised I've gotten the May giveaway up a tad earlier than usual.
Go me! ;-)

Let's take a look at what is in the ol' May box o' goodies..............

1 x Suave Shampoo
1 x Soft Soap Body Wash
1 x Skintimate Shave Gel
1 x Crest Toothpaste
1 x Ace Cold Compress
1 x Betadine Antiseptic Cream
1 x Cloth Adjustable Apron(Veggie Design)
1 x 12 Lindt Truffles(Assorted)

Stuff to make you acceptable looking when you get to go out in public again(shampoo, body wash, shave gel, toothpaste)stuff to help you when you get back out to do yard work or garden(antiseptic for boo-boos and a compress for aches and sprains), a cute apron when you fire up the grill for Memorial Day cookouts and 12 chocolate truffles because well.....CHOCOLATE!!!

Close up shots of these goodies..........

Depending on where you shop the winnings have a reg. retail value of approximately $50.00.
Stuff to clean yourself up, stuff to help with the aches and scrapes of working in the yard, something to keep your clothes clean in the kitchen and something to make your tummy happy. 8-)))

From all the VALID entries I receive I'll pick a winner at random.

* This Giveaway Box of goodies is open to all readers! BUT....this month anybody who enters who has not won a Giveaway yet, their enters will count twice.  So all you non-winners yet, be sure and enter this month because you have the advantage here! 8-)

There is a limit of ONE ENTRY PER PERSON PER DAY(but non-winners entries count for 2)for this Giveaway.  Come back every day and enter though!

In your entries I'd like to hear about your plans for May....Can you go out in your state yet?, Are you planning Summer travel this year and where?, Are you tired of your family yet?, Have you contemplated murder?, Anything you still can't find in stores(here it's yeast!), etc.  Stuff like that.

If you are on my Giveaway emails list just leave a comment and your name to enter. If you aren't on the Giveaway emails list make sure you leave your email in your comment OR email me your email privately after you leave a comment(my email is in the side bar area under "About Me").5
I'll leave this giveaway open until Saturday, May 16th  at 11:59 pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time. On May 17th, Sunday, I'll draw the winning entry and post who won.

*Please note these rules*
I'll post the name/ID of the winner on this blog on  and that person has 48 hours from the time stamp on that post to contact me privately via email(my email addy is listed on my "About Me" page, as well as on my side bar).

Disclaimer--This giveaway is open to those with mailing addresses within the US only.  As the cost of postage to foreign countries has gotten too high I am sorry to say I can no longer afford to mail boxes outside the US.  These giveaways are not sponsored by any companies.  I pay for it all(the cost of items given away and the postage to mail it all)out of my own pocket.

***PLEASE NOTE***

Please make sure there is a way for me to contact you in your comment.

If you're not a registered Blogger User with YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION on your User page, please put your email addy in your comment or email me your email addy privately when you leave a comment so I can get a hold of you. If your Blogger associated user profile is a GOOGLE one make sure your email info is linked to your profile.

If I can't contact you then you can't win.  I am still having to disqualify entries due to this issue and I sure don't like doing that.  Thanks!


So let's get this Giveaway started. Good luck to everyone!!!

Sluggy

Frugal Friday......The May 7th Edition

Not a lot frugal around here this past week if you don't count not going anywhere. lolz  We worked in the yard 2 days and have plans to expand our garden this year....more on that later.
Our county's stay at home order expired so the assholes in charge here extended ours to June 4th.
Because of the moron town South of us in our county(where half of all the county's cases are located) we'll never get the ok to open up again. sigh.
I tell ya there will be both a lot of babies born around the beginning of 2021 and a lot of divorces(plus a few murders sprinkled into the statistics here).  Thank goodness it's not the dead of Winter here so at least folks can get out in their yards and away from their families. lolz

Here's the frugal in my World lately...........

* I got out my leftover seeds and we went to our favorite plant nursery to pick up plants we needed.

We got a few veggie plants(things I won't plant from seeds)plus some ornamental and flowers.

* I found money!
Since we were at the greenhouse near the Amish Surplus Outlet we went there too.

I found this penny by the checkout.

* And speaking of the Surplus Outlet--we got a few things there.  Some of the better deals are pictured below.........

big jar of Yuban coffee $4.99
2 bags of whole bean 8 o'clock coffee for $1.99 each
2 lb. bag of rice for .89¢
3 large cans of tomato paste for .99¢ each
2 cans of tomato soup for .50¢ each
1 loaf of PF bread for $1.00
1 bottle of Kranch(ketchup/ranch)for ExCB $1.19
1 box of Melba Toast for .79¢
1 bottle of veggie oil for $2.99(not a great buy but I was out so yah)

Also bought but not pictured were 4 Oikos yogurt drinks(for ExCB) .25¢ each, a huge bag of frozen Birdseye broccoli florets for $3.19, 2+ lb bag of chicken tenders, haddock fillets at $3.49 lb., a lb. of roast beef deli meat for $3.50, a head of lettuce for .99¢, large clamshell of butter lettuce for $1.49 and a box of 4 Smithfield sausage biscuits for $2.59 for Hubs.

* Hubs "made" dinner on Thursday my shot day when I am not up to cooking meals.  He used a Domino's gift card AND I had enough points to get a free pizza too, so we only used the gift card for 2 of the pies(we each get a med. pizza-so we can get the toppings we each like and then use it for other meals-except Ex-College Boy who usually eats his whole pizza within 24 hours of buying it. lol)

* My specialty pharmacy that my insurance provider forces me to use to fill my Humira Rx screwed up again.
I'm suppose to be charged $5 per Rx w/my co-pay card from the manufacturer but they charged me $50 again, like they screwed it up in March.  I called them right away that day it was ordered and supposedly they fixed it.  Got the Rx in the mail and the paperwork and NOPE!, they took $50 out of our HSA for it.  Which meant another call to the specialty pharmacy and I'm crossing my fingers they actually FIX their screw up this time.
That same day I got a letter that the reg. arm of this mail order pharmacy wants me to transfer my maintenance/regular meds to them to fill.
Um, hell NO!  If you can't fill this one drug and charge me the proper amount why on earth would I want you handling any of my other Rxs??!
Ass hats...


* Our only nephew's birthday was May 4th and I haven't been out to Dollar Tree in ages so I didn't have a card for him.  We had picked up single serve Edward's pies for .50¢ each at Surplus Outlet that day and his fav is Key Lime so I donned a mask, threw Chester in the car and went over to his apartment that evening with a bag of those free grain-free chips(he likes that sort of thing)and a pie.
I stood at his door and sang "Happy Birthday' and handed him the bag of goodies.  We talked while social distancing.  He's an essential worker but it's been hard on him not socializing outside of work and living alone now.  I know he's rather have been chatting with one of his friends instead of his unhip Aunt but it's the best I could do for him. ;-)  And he appreciated the pie as nobody else makes him birthday cakes(usually I make him cupcakes or a cake).

That's about all from here.  No Rite-Aid trips this week. 8-(

What frugal wins did y'all have this week?

Sluggy

They Don't Call Me Annie Oakley for Nothing

Sluggy