Another week

How is it that time flies so fast? May is half over.

Rain has saturated the ground the past couple days and is still in the forecast till Wednesday. We needed the moisture. I only regret I don't have the rest of the garden planted. I still need to plant more potatoes, cukes, squash, limas, more beans, tomatoes, and peppers. We should have worked up more ground when we did the first garden. But we didn't. Now the roots of the rye are thicker and the ground was dry and rather stony. This rain should help.

We had spread aged combo of horse manure and sawdust on the top garden, which we are convinced loosened the soil. We need another trailer load, but we'll have to wait for another week.

So while the rain and mist fell and the fog prevailed, the children kept up with schooling while I cleaned the stove, washed dishes, burned trash, and the younger boys and I cleaned the garage. It looks tons better and we were able to work outside. I also pulled a few weeds from the lettuce and radishes.

The radishes are a bit wormy. A knife is handy to cut that out. What a lovely meal of radish sandwiches: whole wheat bread, mayo, radishes, and salt! I love spring with the taste of fresh garden veggies. Allison and Zach tried them and are still not sure about radishes because they never ate them much. They are my brave ones for trying new things.

Music lessons continue and the girls are really doing well. They practice every day. Next year they'll finally be able to play some songs together. I'm looking forward to that. Violin is so much prettier with piano.

We went to the grocery store where we saved $70 and spent only $40. Grocery shopping can be fun especially with all the good deals with coupons. I am learning that writing to companies is a great way to collect more coupons. Some companies are very generous.

The way to save is to buy when prices are rock bottom then match them up with a coupon. I still don't have the lowest prices in my head, but a great guide to go by is to make sure you're not spending more than 50% of the regular price. That's not always possible. It's just my general rule of thumb.

Recently Kraft was doing a promotion on Facebook and I was fortunate to get a bar-b-que deal. We received 3 lunch size packs of Wheat thins, 3 maxwell house coffee lattes, a coupon for a free pack of Oscar Mayer hotdogs, and one for a free jar of bbq sauce through the mail. That was a neat gift.

On the way home, Amber spotted this on a church sign:

"Jesus paid the price. We get the change." 

Blessings to you this week.