Hello again!

 Well it's been a while.  Yep!  I can't say illness was the only culprit.  When your hubby is gone for weeks at a time, when he's home you just want to spend tie with him.  At least I do.  However, while I would prefer flowers, each time he's come hoe since before Christmas, he's brought home to me some type of respiratory illness.  The first was Flu A before Christmas.  The second tie was just a normal seasonal cold, but this last time was RSV!  Luckily no pneumonia or sinus infection, but the worst coughing I've experienced and I've had covid twice!  I ended up pulling an intercostal rib muscle and having a slight amount of bleeding in my eye from coughing!  It hurt every time I had to cough.  Which was often.  

Finally recovered and the plant sale was this past weekend.  I'm happy to say our gardening costs are covered, and a lot of folks got their plants for half of what they would have paid at even Wally world.  We met some wonderful neighbors and had a great time.  Got a little sun, and it was a lot of work, but worth it.  This is the 4th year we've done this and plan on doing it again next year.        

Now to get ours into the ground.  Wasn't planning on having a garden this year, but then realized I needed to at least plant something to having the seeds for next years sale.  Then drought, war, pestilence, etc and I thought it prudent to throw some more things in the garden.  I have a friend who has a little farm stand.  She's offered to let me sell some herbs there from the garden.  So I'm tucking them into any corner I can find.  Every little bit helps!  

Another help is this!  This is my future, sooner rather than later, sewing workshop!  Now full disclosure here.  We had to pull some from our small retirement funds ( but we're retired so...)to buy this but we're cash flowing the inside finish.  That means some tight belts here.  WORTH IT!  Not only will this finally give me a place to work, but it will also add value to our property.  My poor but sweet hubby stood on one too many needles and said YES YOU CAN HAVE A SHE SHED!  Also in a pinch, this, finished, can become living space if needed.  

This workshop will allow me to do things like this:  This is the before and after of a 1967 Little Miss Fussy doll.  The white spots all over her face is from battery corrosion.  She's been cleaned completely and the new outfit she's wearing is made by me.  That's what else I will do in this shop: sew for my Etsy shop and home.  The last doll is an outfit I've made and sold on my shop.

So as a result of cash flowing this and desiring have this done and paid for as fast as possible; I've given myself a pantry challenge.  Right now my grocery list for May is Milk, potatoes, heavy cream, and chicken feed!  I've stepped up my kitchen activities and quit slacking.  Got my pantry organized yesterday and discovered a lot of things I"d forgotten I had.  Need to use those up.  I pulled a large package of chicken thighs and a whole pork loin out of the freezer and put them in the fridge to thaw and use this week.  Those chicken thighs, roasted crisp will be a great alternative to wings with hot sauce and butter to coat them. That pork roast can be ground for ground sausage, or sliced for pork chops or stir fry.  Baking has stepped up as well.  We have strawberries coming in and still have some from last year.  I think we'll eat the fresh ones, and I'm going to make jam from the ones frozen from last year.  I'm excited to face this challenge, and stretch my frugal muscles!