Frugal Accomplishments

My brother sent us a beautiful sympathy bouquet that also included a vase that I love. We were given some sliced watermelon and 2 loaves of bread. My mom gave me a pot of white spider mums. I am going to plant it in the front garden. We returned the extra dirt that I purchased…

This is the view from my front door. (There is a pendant light right above this table). The table was free from my mom this week; I have wanted a small round table in this spot since we moved in (my husband would prefer a side table, but I am thrilled!) The sunflowers are from…

I picked apricots, blackberries, Green Gage plums, Dorsett Golden apples, and figs from the garden. I froze some blackberries to use in smoothies later in the year, and I dried figs in the oven on low for fig sauce. (The dried figs will last a few years). I cut chives, green onions, and Swiss chard…

I picked blackberries from the garden. I also cut Swiss chard and green onions from the garden this week. I harvested 2 small Early Girl tomatoes. They are already quite small because of the intense heat. Usually they are bigger at this time of year, so I don’t know if my other ones will be…

I cut roses and larkspur from the garden and brought them in. I made a blue skirt for Wren using fabric from my grandmother’s stash. I gave Elsa a haircut. I bobbed her hair. I picked peaches from our tree. I also harvested the first of the blackberries, Swiss chard, bolted lettuce, green onions, sugar…

We picked peaches from our Desert Gold peach tree. This is a low chill tree that is the second tree to ripen in my garden in the spring (the first is the Dorsett Gold Apple, which will ripen in another 6 weeks or so. My other peach tree, an Early Elberta, ripens in late July)….

Swiss chard from the garden Last week, I made cranberry almond granola, bean burritos, Tuscan Tomato bread soup, lemon poppyseed muffins, French bread, chicken flavored rice, turnip gratin, Swiss chard soup, pasta salad, and Italian dressing. I cooked a chicken and we had chicken for one meal, then I used some in creamy chicken enchiladas…

I picked lettuce, Swiss chard, green onions, snow peas, strawberries, and chives from the garden this week. I made several green salads, and I made a fig vinaigrette dressing with home-canned fig jam. I wasn’t planning on grocery shopping this week, but I found out about some amazing deals on Monday. I bought split (bone-in)…

Larkspur and stock from the garden I cut flowers from the garden and brought them in to enjoy on my table. I printed up seed packets so that I could share extra seeds with a friend. I spent time playing in the backyard with my four youngest daughters, pushing them on our swings (which are…

Elsa is wearing the jumper I bought last week at the garage sale for .50.  She was very excited to see that it has images of the Eiffel Tower on it. She is also wearing the Eiffel Tower necklace that Winter made for her. I sewed grosgrain ribbon to the sweater that I bought for…

We ate salad from the garden every day. Some meals it was the main course with homemade bread of crackers, and sometimes it was the first course in another meal. I  also picked Swiss chard several days, so  we had lots of greens in our meals this week, spinach, green onions, parsley, chives, a couple of stems of asparagus,…