Month: June 2024

Surreal

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn JournalLeave a comment

Today is the first day that I’ve actually felt like myself. This last week I’ve felt awful. My hand is still hurting and I still have numb ultra sensitive fingers on that hand, but I felt pretty good today. Hannah had a class that she had to go to from 9:30-3:30 so that gave me a chance to go in and clean her room. Really deep clean it. She gets overwhelmed when it gets bad and I honestly don’t mind doing it.

Since I haven’t really been able to use my arm until today, I had this mountain of laundry to tackle. I’m almost finished with it, thank goodness.

Yep, I just piled it all up in the living room so that way I’d HAVE to do it.

What made this day surreal is it was day of the funeral for my ex husband. A lot of people don’t know this, but I was married twice before I met Donny. This was only a 6 year marriage, we had no kids together and I haven’t seen or spoken to him in 20 years, but I still feel very bad for his family. He passed away in a motorcycle accident. A lot of people might find this strange, but I am good friends with ex wife #2 and #4. (I was #3) They are such wonderful women and I’m so thankful I have them in my life.

While I was waiting for Hannah to get out of class I was to scrolling on Facebook and just happened to see a post that shook me. A woman I worked with in Baton Rouge, that was a one of the best people I have ever met, was killed in a motorcycle crash on Memorial Day weekend. She and her husband were so in love, she had such wonderful kids, her son was engaged, everyone loved her and she is now gone. It’s so hard for me to wrap my head around. I can’t even imagine the pain her husband is going through. I will miss her and have such fond memories of the time i lived in Baton Rouge. She was one of the very, very good ones.

I Messed Up

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

Last Monday I had decided that, since it wasn’t going to rain, I would do extensive yard work. On Monday I mowed and did some random yard work.

I was tired, but not too terribly. Tuesday I when I edged around and weeded the flower bed. I did that with my garden weasel and the weed digger hand held.

Again, I was tired and sore, but nothing too bad. Wednesday is when I washed the outside of the house and according to my fitbit, I spent like 2.3 hours in my fitness zone. Thursday is when I messed up. It was HOT outside. Like fry and egg on the sidewalk hot. I had wanted to get all of the Johnson Grass from around the backside of the house. Johnson Grass is a bitch to dig up because you have to dig down deep to get those darn bulbs out or else it will grow back. I thought I was taking enough breaks. Donny even came out and told me to just finish it later. I only had 1/3 left and being super stubborn and needing to always finish what I start, I just kept going.

The grass was about a foot high and several inches deep when I started and I ended up filling 2 of the paper lawn bags. Then I told Donny that I needed to mow the yard. Clearly I was delusional at that moment and I must have looked really bad because he told me to go inside and rest. Turns out that I used my hand WAY to much and we think I might have permanent nerve damage. I was in so much pain from my shoulder down that I literally stayed in bed on a heating pad.

Bailey liked the heating pad also.

We were planning on going to the balloon festival that Friday, but Donny had mowed the yard and gotten a heat headache that was really bad.

I did appreciate him mowing the yard though.

Saturday I was still having issues with my arm and hand, but we had tickets to the festival and I’m really glad we went even though it was SO hot.

The balloon glow is my favorite part. The balloons light up to music.

This year there was a drone show that was amazing.

We grabbed sno cones and finished up the night with the Mark Wills concert that was so good.

It was a good family outing.

I don’t know why we all have weird shadows on our faces, but oh well.

As of today, I still don’t have feeling in 3 of my fingers. My had is super sensitive and I randomly get stingers. Donny got me what I used to call an air cast because it used to have a little air pillow, but now it’s just a foam piece. I’m hoping that will help.

This injury is not going to stop me from doing yard work, just not as strenuously as I have been. This has not been a fun week.

Green House

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

Every Spring, especially if we get a lot of rain like we have been, we get a green algae on the front of our house. Because of all the rain the last few weeks it had gotten really bad. It was driving me crazy so today I decided to turn our green house white again.

I used a squirt of dish soap with water in a spray bottle and a brush. It took a little bit of elbow grease, but I got it off.

It looks so much better. Now I just need to repaint the pavers. Hopefully I won’t have to scrub the house again until next Spring.

Donny had to get up super early because he had a meeting in Dallas this morning. For some reason I woke up at 3:30 and could not go back to sleep. I did get to see the most beautiful sunrise though.

The Great Texas Balloon Race is this weekend so I’ve started seeing the balloons flying overhead practicing for the race.

I can’t wait to go to the Balloon Glow and see all the different hot air balloons. We haven’t been since we moved here.

The Coop

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

Day 3 of working on the yard I decided to tackle the very overgrown weeds around our chicken coop. I didn’t want to use the weed eater because they grow so fast and I just wanted them gone. What I thought would be a quick task turned into 3 hours. I didn’t know much about Johnson Grass before I started, heck I didn’t even know the name of this atrocious weed, but I know much more now. The roots are very long with a bulb like structure at the end that resembles peas stuck together. You cannot just pull them up with your hands either. I had to use this garden weasel thing that has prongs on the end that you push into the ground and twist. That only loosens the roots. I then had to use my weed shovel to really go underneath and pry it up.

If you don’t like insects, earthworms or spiders this isn’t a job for you. I thought my chickens would like the earthworms, but they turned up their noses at them. They do however like baby snakes but I didn’t run into any of those today.

The weeds were so thick.

You can see where I had finished on side of the door. I ended up finishing the whole perimeter. It was really hard and there were many times I wanted to stop, but with a lot of water and determination, I finished.

I still need to go inside and get the weeds out of there, but they are only on the side and aren’t Johnson Grass, thank goodness.

The chickens had a ball on the pulled up weeds before I bagged them up for the trash tomorrow. They were digging around for bugs, but making a mess.

I still need to weed around the outside of the house in the backyard, dig up the grass in the fire pit and weed around the a/c unit. I decided to do one project a day so I don’t stroke out in this heat. Tomorrow I think I’m going to wash the front of the house and maybe also my car. I think I need a day break from weeds.

Yard Work x 2

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

I am beat. Yesterday I mowed the yard, the thorough kind of mowing where I moved everything out of the way even all the garden pots out by the shed that had so much grass growing through them. It was hot. I was tired. So tired that I was making tea and fell asleep waiting for it to steep.

Today I started on edging the flower bed, patio and front stoop. We have these weird weeds that look like something that should be growing in a pond. I finally got them all out. Now I just need to get some gravel to fill in where it used to be.

The flower bed had grass and weeds growing up to the landscape timbers so I dug a trench to try and keep those at bay. I also weeded. I need to get more mulch and wipe down the house because of the algae. For some reason houses that face a certain way tend to get this green algae on them

There’s so much more that needs to be done in the front and back. We really need to get the power washer out. I also cleaned up around the grill and the garden and swept out and cleaned off the patio. It’s been a long two day, but the weather has cooperated. One step at a time and hopefully one day everything will be finished. Maybe.

Pack It Up

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Frugal LifeLeave a comment

Donny and I have a pretty traditional marriage. He works full time and I am a housewife. It wasn’t always like that. We both used to work very long hours at the same place. We realized the kids needed me home so in 2016 I became a stay at home mom. We make one income work by being frugal and not living beyond our means. Since I was a little girl I have always been frugal. I think I took after my dad in that aspect. I have love thrifting and antiquing since I can remember. My mom always told everyone that if it looks old and weird, give it to Stacy because she’ll love it.

One way we save a lot of money is having Donny take his breakfast and lunch to work. It saves about 75 dollars a week, plus it’s healthier. Today for example I made him a breakfast scramble with bacon, eggs, red pepper, onions and hot sauce.

For lunch he had left over spaghetti and meatballs for the night before and a spinach salad. Luckily he’s not very picky and will eat leftovers. I always try to cook extra so that he can have it for lunch.

And some random things. I thought I was going to have to throw away our side door mat. With all the rain we’ve had the patio flooded and this things was soaked. It was so wet it turned almost black. I threw it out into the yard so it would get some sun and dry out and it seemed to have worked.

Mylo is still living his best life. He sleeps in the house, wants to be held all the time and had his first kitty snack today, which he loved.

It’s hard to believe that I took over a year for him to not be afraid of us.

When Jackson and I had to run to Walmart today I couldn’t resist getting Wrigley, the neglected dog next door, some treats. That poor sweet dog gets NO attention from his owners. He hasn’t had a bath in 4 years and they never brush him. I’m going to try to brush him from over the fence tomorrow. He’s going to be so excited for his new bone.

I have one more load of laundry to fold and then I’m going to bed. Tomorrow I need to mow and do some yard work and it’s going to be HOT!

Sauced

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Easy mealsLeave a comment

I needed to use our tomatoes from our garden before they went bad. I like making pasta sauce, but couldn’t find the recipe I had used before. I found a recipe on Pinterest that uses the instapot so I thought I’d try it. There are only a few ingredients, so it’s super easy.

I doubled the recipe because I had 12 cups of tomatoes. Here’s the recipe if you want to try it. It turned out so go. I froze two bags and then put the rest in a jar that we’ll use later in the week.

Just don’t pull the immersion blender to far up because it will spray you with boiling hot sauce. Not that I did that. No, not at all. LOL

Annie + Art Walk

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn familyLeave a comment

We decided at the last minute to go to the Art Walk downtown. The last time we went I found Annie, this precious little girl who makes the best jellies. We were leaving the Fine Arts Museum and there she was selling her jellies and jams. I had gotten in touch with her mom when I ran out of my orange jelly, but life got busy so I was never able to meet her to buy more. I had also been thinking about her lemon jelly which I was told “packed a punch”. Well tonight I was able to buy both the orange and the lemon and let me tell you that lemon jelly is SO delicious. I love lemon anything so it is right up my alley.

I cannot wait to make toast in the morning.

We walked in one of the buildings and found another one of my favorite vendors. I had been to another craft show and had bought 2 of her bracelets. Tonight I picked up the cutest pair of earrings. Her prices are so good and she hand makes all of her jewelry.

We have a really good fine arts museum that I always love walking through. I really liked the exhibit they had on display tonight.

The accordion players made for good background music.

While we were walking to our car we saw this cool mural down a random alley.

It was so good to actually have a sunny day for a change.

Jackson got his driving permit today. He doesn’t want to do his actual driving part at a driving school, but wants me to be his instructor. I registered and downloaded the driving book. If you think about it, please say a little prayer for both of us because I’m not the most patient person and he really doesn’t want to drive. I know we can do this though.

P.S.

He refused to smile for his permit license so it looks like a mug shot. I swear he does actually smile and laughs in real life.

Making Faces

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn CraftingLeave a comment

Today, because I was running on about 4 hours sleep, I decided I just wanted to do something crafty. I couldn’t leave the house because I had to sign for Donny’s father’s day gift that was arriving today. He actually ordered it himself and it ended up coming after he got home. I wanted to try to make some faces with the face mold I picked up at the thrift store the other day. The only bake clay I had was some that the kiddos have had for a few years, but I just wanted to see how easy it would be so that’s what I used until I can actually go get some fresh clay.

I didn’t care if the colors were all mixed together because I wanted to paint the faces once they had baked.

Here is the first batch I made and painted.

I made a few more and even tried to make a sun. It’s kind of wonky, but I really used these as test faces.

I can’t wait to get some different clay and mess around with it again.

I don’t know if your Burger king has whopper meals on Wednesdays for $4.99, but that’s what we had for dinner because I was wiped out from lack of sleep. It’s after midnight now and I should be deep asleep but Donny and I started watching Expedition to Hell and are now hooked. It’s a crazy documentary about this 5000 mile trek across the Amazon. It’s nuts! (On Prime)

Rinse Repeat

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Day TripLeave a comment

This morning started off with another bad thunderstorm. The rain was coming down so hard I could barely see across the street. Everything was blowing around the patio and trees were bending in ways they shouldn’t be. Donny came home from work because they lost power. We’re pretty sure they are on the same power grid as our old house was because if the wind blew at all we would always lose power. Luckily we didn’t lose it here. Donny had to run to Tyler to pick up some tags because they had run out at his store, so he asked me if I wanted to take the drive with him. It’s not bad, only about 45 minutes.

Tyler had gotten hit hard by the storm Monday night and also by the one today. There was a tree that had fallen over into the highway.

When we got into Tyler there were trees down everywhere, either completely uprooted or snapped in half. We decided that Tyler should be renamed Little Dallas because the traffic was awful for it just being a Tuesday afternoon. It really makes me appreciate Longview even more.

It was a quick trip, just picking up the tags and heading back. We were going to grab lunch but, of course, it was a struggle to figure out where to eat so we just got rolling food at 7-11 and I got the best thing of the day, a frozen Dr. Pepper slurpee.

I really miss picking Donny up from work because we had the best talks, so this was a fun day. Although because I have what we call Carcolepsy (I basically fall asleep on any trip over 10 miles) I took a nice little nap for about 30 minutes when I got back to the house since I didn’t get my car nap. And it’s suppose to rain again tomorrow. I seem to write about the weather a lot, but there has been some serious storming going on around here lately.