Frugal "Friday" - Week of April 26, 2020

My rhododendron this spring - I see this out my kitchen window every morning and I love it!

We have had lovely, lovely weather this week and I have been so enjoying getting out in the yard and doing yard work.  I always love yard work and this year it is even better as it is so very different from the rest of our live; a little bit of spring normal.  I sat on the patio Thursday evening and listened to a very buzzy bee flitting around the couple of dandelions that were flowering in the yard.  Most of our flowers are not to the bud stage yet, much less blooming, but the dandelions seem to be doing well.

I was able to pick up my seedlings from the green house at work this week.  They make me SO happy!  Now I have to "harden them off" before planting them outside in about two weeks.  I have 8 tomato plants, 6 peppers, 4 eggplant, a zucchini, rosemary and a couple of perennial flowers - a coneflower and 2 foxglove, as well as milkweed for the monarch butterfly nursery down the road from us.  I have to pick up 6 zinnia plants later as they were not quite big enough to bring home.

Here are some other frugal things we did this week:

* We made pizza, waffles, stuffed acorn squash, chicken fajitas, pasta with vegetables, pasta with meatballs and sauce, blueberry cheesecake bars (my Grandma's no-bake recipe!) and bread this week.

* I mended a zipper.  The pull had broken off and I made a new one out of ribbon and then I re-tacked the bottom of the zipper, as it had pulled out of where it was sewn. 

* I also mended the corner seam on a fitted sheet.

* Our daughter packaged up some of her unwanted American Girl Doll accessories for the little girl she babysits.  This little girl is turning 6 and is receiving an American Girl Doll for her birthday.  The clothes and other items our daughter wants to get rid of will make a lovely gift!  No shopping necessary. (Note: The 6-year-old's parents purchased her doll at a yard sale, so second hand gifts are just fine with this family.)

* We spent a lot of time on yard work again this week.  I am so enjoying how lovely my yard is looking!  We completely finished our fire pit area (we needed another two bags of rock) and we celebrated by having S'more's by the fire one night.  Such a nice way to end the day!   I have one more project for that area but it is a "want to have" for some added glamour rather than anything else.

* John brought home two questionable red sweet peppers and four leftover (huge!) mushrooms from food shelf distribution.  We used them immediately for fajitas - they were delicious.  The peppers were soft but not bad, and worked just fine for cooking.

* I continued working on homemade birthday gifts for our children and a baby gift.

* I spent time working on a couple of embroidery projects I've had partially done for a long time.  I love embroidery and rarely make time for it.  Now that we are home so much, I have  little more time.

* We used a sale and ordered graduation gifts for our nephew and our children's friends.  I am so sad that graduation ceremonies are canceled this year - it is such a milestone here in the US.  Our children's school has some really neat ways of recognizing the graduates this year and I am grateful.  Every graduate deserves to be honored!

* John and I both used stationary we already owned to write notes to mail to a few family and friends.  He has a goal of writing one note per day to a parishioner, particularly those who are alone and has been corresponding regularly with two autistic parishioners who use writing as their primary means of communication.

* Our weekend project this week was deep cleaning the kitchen: scrubbing the cabinets, hardware, appliances, and floor.  Removing everything from each cabinet and drawer, getting rid of unneeded items, wiping down the surfaces and replacing shelf paper.  Everything is so clean now!  I appreciate having everything so clean.   Many hands do make light work and it took about 2 hours do complete our little kitchen with all four of us working. 

What have you done this week that was frugal?

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