Productivity

This was my productive "task" today:

That is pear sauce for Brianna (once we get to fruits)! Each cube is one tablespoon worth of food, which is what she's eating at one meal now, so one tray equals 14 meals! I got more than this out of the pears mom graciously gave to me but this is just one tray of them. Now I will freeze them, and once they're cubed, be able to thaw them anytime for her to eat. So far she's only eaten rice cereal and peas, and next on the agenda is PRUNES! But soon enough she'll be eating fruits.

I have to tell you how much mom and dad have BLESSED us recently. Well, they always do, but it seems like God is really using them lately! Stephen had been talking about getting car ramps or a new car jack for my car. He always changes the brakes for me (savings = $400!) and our little dinky jack isn't cutting it anymore. It's really unsafe. I gave him the green light on spending whatever he needed to on a new jack. Well, then just a few days ago, dad sent me an email saying he had found two "barely used" car ramps (as if we care!) that he thought Stephen might be interested in. When I asked Stephen, his reply was, "Heck yes!" That was such a huge blessing!!

Well then Brianna and I went to their house for lunch yesterday as we always do, and got another huge blessing! Mom just out of the blue said, "Do you need any onions?" Boy did I! I needed onions for two recipes I am making in November (I like to plan ahead!) and I only had about 1/2 cup left in the freezer. I am going to freeze most of the onions but use one to step outside of my box and make onion rings. So that was a blessing because it saved me money! Then she offered me apples and pears! As you know, I used the pears for baby food which saves a TON of money! The apples I am either going to make applesauce or apple fritters. I have to find my fritters recipe so if I can't find it within a couple of days I'll make applesauce for Brianna and freeze it. Mom and dad also gave me two ice cube trays so I didn't have to buy any! Although I did end up getting three more from Family Dollar today for $1.50 because it'll never hurt to have more on hand. ALSO, while I was at mom and dad's, my great-aunt Elsie called telling mom she had a bucket full of grapes that she needed someone to take off her hand. Mom refused, but I said I would take them! They were just going to go bad. I'll make jelly and try to find people who need some! I love making jelly and haven't done it in a couple of years. Then I was telling mom how I needed to get some bleach so I could bleach the spoon I got for Bri at Myrtle Beach and I couldn't believe we had run out! Well, she ran right down to the basement and got me a whole thing of bleach! I just couldn't believe it. Of course she wouldn't let me pay anything for all this. It took all my strength to pay her $1. Then I was telling her about this stain in a shirt I found and she knows a frugal recipe for a stain remover. We had one ingredient (powdered Cascade) but not the other (powdered Clorox II) so I volunteered to purchase that and we can share those ingredients. So that will kind of pay her back for all the stuff they've given us. I know they don't care about being paid back but it makes me feel guilty. I'm sure I've forgotten something they've given us, this is all just from the past few days so you see we are never without anything with mom and dad nearby! So thank you so much to mom and dad! They have saved us money and we feel so blessed because like everyone else, money is tight for us! But it is cool because like, today I saw soups on sale at the store and I was able to buy some for around $0.39 with coupons and I am just going to hand those off to someone else who needs them. So I love to pay it forward!! And I love being blessed by someone because then I get a chance to bless someone else!

Long post over! Baby is crying, chicken's on the grill, and I gotta GO!!