How do you spend your day?

 Son 2 asked me this last night and I wondered why ...then he mentioned he knows what I do when I start in the gardens... March through November  but not what I do November to March.

I told his this.

I get up between 3 and 8 am. I don't use an alarm unless we have to be some where before 11. That went bye bye when I retired since Hubby worked 3rd he never used an alarm. It is usually between 5 and 6 (sucks retired And I can't sleep in)

I drink 1 cup of coffee, open curtains and turn off night lights.

I drink 2nd cup of coffee and start the laundry and put away the laundry on the drying rack. Hubby usually unloads dishwasher at this time if not then I do.

Then I have my 3rd cup of coffee while waiting for the clothes washer to stop then put clothes on drying rack (clothes line in late spring/summer)

I get dressed, make the bed, straighten the house and walk the perimeter with the Charlotte.

If is is garden season (what my kids call it) I go to the garden. When it's not I get on the computer, email some friends, check Fb for other friends, read blogs, drink hot tea, read some, bake bread etc... if I need to plant seeds in grow cart I do that in the morning. 

I have a snack for bfast at 10. Take another perimeter with Charlotte. 

AT 11:30  I take meds, get more tea. If I didn't eat at 10 I do now. Do what ever needs done for the day. Grab a shower (which I would do at same time in garden season) and then take a nap at Charlotte's insists this is nap time on the bed and I have to be with her. Rascal was the same way. Thirty minutes to an hour later she is up and running and expects me to be also. SO we go for another perimeter.

By two , I am wrapping up any work. by 3:30 I start supper as we try to eat by 4:30 to 5. Hubby is a weather spotter and likes to watch the weather on 2 of our local channels. I clean up the table, set the dishwasher to run when I head for bed.

Five to 6:30 is watching the news. Then in warm weather we go outside, usually another perimeter (she hates winter and won't go as much). 

Around 8 I head to bedroom to get around for bed as Hubby sleeps in the recliner of the front room due to health issues. He usually goes to sleep around 8:30 but if I am there he will try to stay awake. He turns the tv timer on and turns off the light at 8:00 most nights. I read, usually with glass of water. I read my kindle first for 30 minutes so the light from it doesn't mess up my sleep, do my journal next and then read a book until 9:30 then it's lights out also.

I told Son 2 it doesn't matter if it's garden season or not. My routine is pretty much the same. I don't have a cleaning routine *yet, still, some more* so that's more of a I can't stand it anymore and slide it in between other things. I can tell you it takes a solid 60 hrs. to clean this house from top to bottom. The old homestead where I raised the kids took 30 hrs. I think part of the hours now are lack of organization and the other is I AM OLD. LOL

Blessed be 

2021 food costs

 The best thing we changed at the beginning of 2021 was using only one credit card for all food ... groceries, eating out, snack on the road from gas station. Hubby told me more than once he didn't buy a snack due to not wanting to use a credit card for something that small and was not carrying cash on him.

Total for the year  spent on food, groceries, stock up, eating out etc. $4979.73

OF that $1622.95 was eating out, that is about 32.6 % of that total.... I noticed about   1/4th of that amount was during last Feb the two weeks before I was going in for hip replacement and the two weeks after that. Chinese 4 times, 2 pizzas, garlic bread and salads, 1 KFC 12 piece bucket with sides, 1 Ralph's (local sports bar with great food that takes us 3 days to eat) and 2 Arby's.

We have a friend that goes to the store every week for groceries. They kept track of what they spent last year. They pretty much eat the same as us. Do some canning but that is no where near what we can.  She said they spent a month $503.76 on fresh veggies (they do can green beans and beets and freeze corn).They spent $272.94 on fresh fruit (they don't can or freeze any nor eat canned fruit). They average $260 on meat (neither eat much of it nor eat any beans). UNLESS there is a sale on brisket, ribs, spiral ham and turkeys.  But their average grocery bill is $1036.70 a  month. They eat out twice a week and that comes to $200 a month, $250 in a 5 week month. SO that is 1236.70 to $1286.70 a month. SO that is at least $14,804.40. The only reason they tracked it is they want to buy a different home closer to their grandkids and was moaning about how much her meds were and trying to come up with a down payment without pulling more. Their sons asked why they were pulling so much from the retirement and where was it going. 

I thought it was on the strange side when their younger son asked me how much we spent.  I did point out to him that they don't can as much as they could or freeze as much as they could. His dad eats salads every day but always choses the most expensive lettuce there is and refuses to shop at any other store than Kroger's even though Aldi's is right next door and sells the same lettuce for about 2/3rds the price.

It did make me feel better about what we spent for the year and what we are trying to move towards this coming year. I have bought 3 heads of lettuce since end of Nov. Instead of lettuce salad I had carrot salad, canned coleslaw (vinegar base) fresh coleslaw and 3 bean (4 bean) salad.

Blessed Be

In the garden

 Okay Not Really. BUT I do have 2 of the January King Cabbage sprouted. We were going to remove row cover from gardens today but the winds coming in at 20 MPH with gusts over 40 MPH has put that on hold.

I am updating what I keep track of on the "inventory" after noticing that Thomas Jefferson didn't note if his tomatoes were determinate or indeterminate. So I decided to add that information to my seed sheets aka inventory sheets aka plant sheets ... depending on the day of what I call them LOL.

These will go into sheet protectors and then 3 ring binders.... H is heirloom, MD is maturity date, and  GC is grow cart.