The Lawn Mower Saga

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

I have mentioned before how we were loaning our lawn mower to Jimmy because his broke and he walks around mowing lawns in the neighborhoods around our house. Almost daily during the summer he would knock on our door asking to borrow our mower. We thought it was a little weird when he started coming back the beginning of January to borrow it again. We were leaving our lawn dormant until the weather started heating up again and Jimmy would ask time and time again if we wanted him to mow our yard.

Anyway, Donny went to get the mower out of the shed so he could mow inside our greenhouse. He came in and asked me where the mower was. I told him Jimmy borrowed it about a week ago. He normally just puts it back in the shed when he’s finished. A couple of days later Jimmy knocked on our door and told me that he had it at his friend’s house and it was “taken”. Hannah and I were walking out the door because she was late for work so I couldn’t talk to him very long, but he told me that he would buy us a new one. I was not a happy camper and I’m pretty sure he waited so long to tell me because he sold it.

A few weeks ago I saw him walking down the side street by my house PUSHING A LAWN MOWER! By the time I had run into the house to tell the kids I was going to find him, grab my keys, he was GONE. I drove around looking for him, but he must have seen me and took off.

I saw him about a week after that cutting through the neighbor’s house two doors down and across the street. I tried to find him again with no luck.

My landlords called me to find out how the plumbers did and I told them that I was sorry that our yard was not mowed and then told them why. It turns out they know Jimmy and said that he’s homeless. He had lied and said that he lived with his mother. He had been staying at this homeless camp and with some unsavory people a few streets over. My landlord said that if she sees him she’s going to text me so I can find out just what happened.

It sucks when you think you are doing a good thing by helping someone and they completely screw you over.

Anyway, Tuesday we got a delivery.

I loved out old mower. It was a better one than this one, but we don’t have an extra $600 dollars to buy another Troy-bilt. This one cost half that and it’s going to take some getting used to because it has rear wheel propulsion instead of front and it’s so fast. It’s like walking a great Dane that isn’t leash trained. I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

Here’s the before of our poor lawn.

We have so much work to do on it this Spring. It used to be beautiful St. Augustine. Not so much anymore.

It does look a lot better after I mowed.

And after being sick for almost 2 weeks I’m finally feeling like myself. I had enough energy to deep clean the house and that in itself makes me feel so much better. I love to open up the curtains and let the natural light in.

New Virus?

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve been well enough to even think about writing anything. Hannah was sick first. We’re pretty sure that she brought this sickness home from work. After Hannah had it Jackson got it. They both missed a few days of school and then seemed to get better. Then I got it. It started last Thursday with me feeling “off”. Then I woke up Friday morning with a fever and sore throat. Later in the day I started getting really stopped up and all of my joints were aching. It just kept getting worse. I took a Covid test that came back negative. Hannah had been tested for Covid, strep and the flu, all negative.

I’m assuming this is the new virus everyone has been talking about. Today is my 9th day with it and I’m finally starting to feel better. I think I would have felt better on the 7th day, but I was folding laundry and heard our toilet start to bubble then a flood of liquid hit the floor. I ran in and raw sewage was flowing over the toilet and coming up into the bathtub. I was cleaning that up for over an hour before the plumbers got there and it zapped any strength I might have stored up. It’s finally fixed after a visit from the city and another visit from the plumbers.

We’ve had to start wrangling the chickens because the newest 4 are rebels and will end up down and across the street. We found their new nest in the pampas grass that luckily was cut down right after with gathered the 13 eggs in it.

This is Penelope, one of the original hens. She likes to jump on my lap and hang out.

The cats are afraid of the chickens so I’ve been giving the cats catnip to calm them down. Milo was out. I don’t know if you can tell, but his front legs are up in the air.

And because I don’t consider this social media I am allowed to post my kids pictures. My daughter and her boyfriend finally got to have their Valentines dinner at Sushi Shimo.

That’s about all the news here. I did make my first Dutch Baby and it turned out really good. I’ve still been cooking, even through sickness, but nothing exciting. After the toilet incident Donny picked up Zaxby’s because Jack has been wanting to try it. It was awful and tasted like a salt lick. I don’t recommend it.

Birthday

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Monday was my birthday. On Sunday Donny asked me what I wanted to do. I told him nothing. It was a holiday so the kids were out of school. They are teenagers. They sleep in. So nothing is absolutely what I did. I sat on the couch and watched movies that I know Donny wouldn’t want to watch. I think I watched 4 movies. It was wonderful. I didn’t do any housework. No wiping down the bathroom. No making beds. Nothing but do what I wanted to do. Hannah did have to be at work at 5:30 so I had to drive her there, but I came home and watched another movie.

When Donny got home he asked what was for dinner. If you’ve ever seen Office Space, you’ll understand when I told him, “yeah, I’m not going to be making anything. Can you go get Jucy’s?”. He called in our order and asked if I wanted to go with him to pick it up. I again said, “no, I’m not going to do that. I’m doing nothing”. Chicken fried steak for the win. Calories don’t count on your birthday.

So, in a nutshell, my birthday was absolutely wonderful. I’m not big on ever being the center of attention. In fact, when I was a little girl, I would hide under the table at my birthday parties because I didn’t like people singing Happy Birthday to me. I also hate opening gifts in front of people. That stems from a birthday party I had where my mom made me open gifts and then pass them around the long table so everyone could see what i received. My friend had bought bikini underwear with zebras on them and, oh yes, those were passed around even though I tried to hide them under the table. I was mortified because there were boys at this party. I think this happened when I was 8 or 9. Yes, I’m still friends with the gift giver.

I did get two of the best gifts ever though. Donny had asked me what I wanted earlier in the week and I didn’t even have to think about it. I want a hand held vacuum. He looked at me strange and said, “like a dust buster?”. Yep, that’s what I really and truly want. I have a full size vacuum, but it’s heavy and cumbersome. It works just fine to do what I need a handheld for, it’s just more difficult to maneuver so I would never actually by myself a hand held. But, as a gift it’s the best. Boy did he come through. This thing is SO amazing!!!! It really sucks, in a good way.

It’s a little more than just a hand held, but I can use it on our woven leather rug that you aren’t suppose to use a regular vacuum on. It also works better than the car wash vacuums. The car wash I go to actually has free vacuums but there is a sign saying you must pay for the self service car wash to use the vacuum. I don’t always need to wash my car, but I do because I feel bad if I don’t, because of, you know, the sign. I have to vacuum my car out at least once a week because our driveway is so narrow and dead grass will start covering the floor boards if I don’t.

I also received a package yesterday that had no card, name, nothing. Donny thought I ordered something. When I opened it I swore that he did it because it was another thing on my wish list that I would never buy myself. Turns out it was from my sister. I must have told her that I had been wanting one, so a big thank you Sissy.

It’s a cheese grater/slicer that suctions on to the counter top. I cannot wait to try it! I have a hand grater, but when I have to grate a lot of cheese this is going to be so wonderful. I don’t know if you know this, but pre-grated cheese has stuff on it that keeps it from sticking together and from melting like grated block cheese. I find that gross.

So that was my birthday. I just might do the same thing next year. We’ll see.

Oh and just to record this for posterity sake, I was FINALLY first in line at school pickup. It only took almost 3 years.

Day Off

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn saving moneyLeave a comment

Donny normally has Thursday and Friday off, but this week he only had Friday off. I guess it was good because I got called into clean this super fun bounce house on Thursday. Kidding about the super fun part because this one is one of the hardest ones to clean because it’s 3 sections and was filled with turf pellets that reminded me of mouse poop. I guess I’m only semi retired from this job now. It did feel good to use muscles I haven’t used in a few months.

Anyway, the kids were out of school. Hannah is sick and didn’t go to school yesterday and since it’s the end of the 6 weeks she missed her Government final, she had to go in and take it at 8:30.One of the perks of being at a small school. It was teachers work day. I had to take my car in at 8. Of course the warranty is almost out and it has a slight vibration at stoplights, so in the shop it goes.

After we got all of that situated we decided to go to Sasquatch’s. On the way we saw an estate sale. It was hosted by Perry and Co. Their prices are a little high, but we decided to go see what was left. We really didn’t see anything except this dress that I thought would be perfect for Hannah. Ignore the purse they hung above it. It was a vintage dress with tiny button down the back.

We ended up not buying it, because there was a chance she wouldn’t like it.

Next stop was Sasquatch’s. We always try to go on Fridays because they are closed on Thursdays for restocking. We did find some things that we needed.

A 20 pound bag of flour, a gallon of sugar and a bag of cake mix.

Prosciutto, cheese and a gallon of lemon juice. The lemon juice is a bit excessive, but Jack drinks the Arizona tea Arnold Palmer so I wanted to try to make it myself because he goes through it by the gallon.

I cannot wait to try this black pepper fettuccine.

There was one bag of coffee left so I grabbed it because we’ve really been wanting to try it.

Donny grabbed this at the checkout. It’s a plant based chocolate bar with toffee and sea salt. It was really good. I was shocked.

On the way home, we saw this little car for sale that we thought Hannah might like. Turns out it had too many miles on it, but it was in the price range she’s looking for. She’s been working so hard and saving up her money to buy her own car. We are really proud of her because she’s also making really good grades.

When we got home I showed Hannah a picture of the estate sale dress and she really liked it, so Donny and I headed back to Gladewater to see if it was still there. It was, and when I looked at it more closely I saw that there were holes in the tulle so we decided, once again, not to buy it. I’m kind of kicking myself now because I bet I could have found a seamstress to repair it.

Our last stop was Tractor Supply so I could see if the hack I saw on Tiktok actually works. It’s using pine pellets, used for horse bedding, as cat litter. They were out so we had to run to Jake’s feed store where they had it. I’ll let you know how it works. It’s a lot cheaper than regular cat litter.

By this time we were tired of all the driving around so we went home and I made nachos and we watched The Flight Attendant. It such a good series if you haven’t seen it.

And today I gathered up all of my empty containers and the flour is now put away.

Bring on the weekend!

Mardi Gras

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Not gonna lie, I really miss the Mardi Gras parades in Baton Rouge. To celebrate in our own little way I made Jambalaya. I lucked out and found Cajun sausage on sale. Just the right amount of spice. I also made some bread pudding. It wasn’t from scratch, but Donny had gotten this box mix and with its name you know it had to be good. it was.

I added ice cream to mine. Don’t judge me.

And because it’s Fat Tuesday, here are some throw backs to some of the parades. Our favorites were the Krewe of Orion and the Krewe of Artemis.

We’d always end the night with the best root beer in icy mugs at Frost Top.

Such fun times!

Super Sunday

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We always watch the Super Bowl. Mainly because calories on Super Bowl Sunday don’t count. We didn’t really have a team we were rooting for this year. If we had to pick it would have been the 49ers, oh well. I didn’t really know what food we were going to make until I found this beauty at Sasquatch.

Y’all, it’s a giant bag of Ortega cheese sauce! It was 5 bucks and the cans of cheese sauce are almost that so it was a great deal. It was so good. No we didn’t eat it all and because we don’t have a spigot for it, I just stuck a wine cork in the hole.

Donny got me some baby Coronas because I can never finish a full sized one. Nothing better than nachos and beer.

We were influenced by a super bowl commercial so when Donny went to pick up Hannah from work he grabbed a bag of these on the way home. Completely addicting and that commercial was so cute.

And we cannot forget what month it is. Best dessert ever. We got Bavarian cream this year.

No idea what is up with the purple baby though.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

January

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I’m not the type of person that doesn’t like January, but this one had me in a weird state. It took me longer to recover from the surgery that I had than I thought it would. I don’t work at Funtastic Events in the winter so I missed that. In general I was grumpy, annoyed and had no energy to do anything. It really sucked. I wasn’t depressed or anything like that, I was just in a funk.

Since Hannah had gone off of her meds we had started supplementing magnesium, her folate that she has to take with any supplements or medication and 5-HTP. I had read up on how this supplement boosts your serotonin. Since I was in a not so good place I decided to start taking it also.

I’ve only been on it a little over 2 weeks, but the difference in my mood is incredible. I take it at night with my magnesium and these are the changes that I’ve noticed. I sleep like a log. I have energy during the day. Even if I don’t feel like doing something that needs to be done I do it anyway. I’m a nicer person to be around. I make sure I get up, do my hair, put on makeup and get dressed every day.

Since we had the snow/ice weather my car was awful. I had enough energy to take it to the car wash and now it’s clean as a whistle.

Our home had gotten cluttered with things that needed to go back out to the shed. It bothered me so much but I just didn’t feel like doing anything about it. Now everything is back in order.

My daughter’s boyfriend bought her this

Seriously????? a 6 foot tall teddy bear that weighed as much as a toddler. It drove me nuts, and her too, because it took up almost her entire bedroom. I finally did something about it.

So if you are having any of these issues, I highly recommend this supplement.

On a different note, two nights in a row we’ve had a chicken that wouldn’t return to the coop. Since chickens are blind at night, she’d come to the side door and cackle. She just made herself at home in the kitchen, eating honeydew and listening to jazz while I cooked.

My cat is not impressed.

Now I’m going to go finish an episode of Black Mirror I’ve been watching. If you have never watched it, it reminds me so much of the Twilight Zone.

Knives Out

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn product reviewsLeave a comment

The other night I was hand washing some dishes when I heard a POP. I had no idea what it was until I went to put a knife in my bristle knife holder. The whole side had just broken apart.

I couldn’t really do anything with the bristle part so we had to come up with another solution.

Donny had a great idea to get a magnetic holder that we could mount to the wall. We had one in our home in Baton Rouge and I really liked it. He Google searched and found one at IKEA and one at Home Depot. They were both $20 and, being, frugal, I thought that was really too much to pay. I did a Google search and found a magnetic tool holder at Harbor Freight for $2.99.

It’s super sturdy and holds all of our knives. Plus it gives us more counter space.

I 100% recommend this if you don’t have a lot of storage or counter space.

Quick and Easy Dessert

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn BakingLeave a comment

I have tried not to buy any pre packaged cookies, cakes, etc. So when last night I realized we didn’t have any dessert, I remembered seeing this recipe on my social media ages ago. It’s fast and really good.

Turn on oven to 350°. Put a little over half a stick of salted butter in a 9×9 baking dish and put it on the oven to melt.

Once it’s melted, put on Graham crackers. Just line the bottom. It didn’t have to be perfect. On to of crackers, sprinkle chocolate chips and coconut flakes. Pop that back into the over for about 10 minutes. Just keep an eye on it.

This is all that’s left, but I wanted to include a picture. Y’all, it’s so good.

Ice Ice Baby

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It’s cold here in East Texas. We knew it was headed our way so we were able to prepare a little bit. My neighbor across the street took this picture of our house. The streets and roads are nothing but ice.

We have many stray cats in our neighborhood. Our laundry room is outside so we set up a heat lamp and beds. We brought Milo inside. He meowed a lot, but eventually did fine.

Milo went out with Donny to check on the chickens. We have to make sure that their water doesn’t freeze. We do have a heat source out in the coop and we crack the door because sometimes a cat or two will go out there to bed down.

What I do when we are iced in is cook. Today I felt like a short order cook in a busy diner. Since the kids didn’t have school they straggled in at different times. Our staple for breakfast is my breakfast sandwich. We changed it up today with pretzel buns.

We always loved the Whataburger Breakfast on a Bun, but these are so much cheaper to make and are actually better.

I have wanted to make corn chowder since we got the big bag from Sasquatch Trading Post. So that’s what I did. I would have liked to have added sausage, but I used ours for gumbo the other night. I decided on slab bacon and shrimp. Chowder is the best thing on a cold day.

For dinner Donny and Jack wanted big burgers, Hannah wanted a gouda grilled cheese and chowder and I just had the chowder. Ding, order up.

I had to finish off the day with, what I call, Diversity Cookies. They are just cookies with semi sweet and white chocolate chips. I could have made Mega Diversity ones by adding butterscotch chips. Maybe next time.

Tomorrow is supposed to be even colder so no school or work for anyone. Hmmmm, wonder what I can cook tomorrow.