The Green

On February 3, 2019February 3, 2019 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn family, Longview, tx, Things to doLeave a comment

Every time we were heading out of town we would drive by this park. I always wanted to go see what it was all about, but it seemed as though it never worked out. It was either raining or the kids wanted to go to the trails.

FINALLY last weekend we had some beautiful weather and decided to see what it was all about. We were not disappointed.

Hot air balloon statue since we have the balloon races here, in Longview, every year.

The kids were fascinated with the wire sculptures that were all around the park. The first one we came to.

There is a path that runs around and through the park.

A wind chime made of recycled materials.

There is even a little free library. The kids loved this. We even came back later that evening with books to donate. Hannah took a couple she’s reading now.

There is a notebook in the little library that you can draw a picture, write a poem or just leave a message. That’s what Hannah was doing.

Another one of the kids favorite parts was the music area.

There were benches by the music area. How cool is this?

See? Recycling IS important. Thank you, Chick-fil-A.

We found two little snails chilling on a rock.

There really is a whole ecosystem here.

THIS!!!!! There is no typical playground equipment. But that doesn’t mean there is nothing to play on.

Another super cool wire sculpture.

Little surprises in the trees.

I can’t imagine how beautiful the trees will look in the Spring and Summer, but they were still pretty without leaves.

We loved this wire fisherman.

This park opened in March 2018. There is a big pavilion that is used for concerts and can be rented out also.

There are several picnic tables around the park, but there is one designated picnic area. I love the Kansas fence posts that are placed around it.

Just plain good!!!

I cannot wait to go back. It is exactly 10 minutes from our home. Why was I thinking it was so much further???? If you ever come through Longview, I highly suggest taking a break and stopping by The Green. It’s relaxing, informative and just an all around great park. I think it could be my favorite.

I’ll leave you with this.

Namaste,

Stacy

From Bad to Good

On January 24, 2019 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn CBD Oil, Home Stuff, product reviewsLeave a comment

Today did not start out all that great. Donny was out of town for work so I slept horribly. I just cannot sleep well when he’s not home. It’s very rare for us to be apart, so when he has to go out of town it throws everything off balance. We’ve been married 13 years, so I’m thankful that I still feel the same was about him as I did when we first got married.

I had a dentist appointment at 9:00 a.m. to finally get my permanent crown on. About a month ago I woke up at 4 in the morning with something in my mouth. It was part of my tooth!!!! I grind my teeth horribly and have since I was a kid. I have a habit of spitting my night guard out in the middle of the night. I chose not to have numbing shots and although it was uncomfortable my mouth and face wasn’t numb all day. Anyway, it didn’t take all that long and I figured as long as I was right by CBD Express I would run in and grab our CBD oil.

For about 3 months we’ve been using Hemplucid 1000 mg. I like it better than the other brand we used previously. It’s a little stronger so it only takes 1/4 of a dropper to get the dose we need. When I was in the store talking to the owner, Mr. Scott, I realized that my daughter’s face had cleared up almost completely. She is 12 and hitting adolescence. She had started getting acne and since she has been on the oil it has all but completely cleared up. Just another amazing side effect of taking the oil. On a side note, my sciatica is still gone!

I had a few errands to run after that. I have a very favorite cleaning product. The only place I have seen it in the bigger bottles is at Family Dollar. I look everywhere I go and stumbled upon it by accident at this store.

This is the best scent ever!!! Not only does it clean most everything it will make your house smell amazing! I don’t like flowery smelling anything. This is just a very clean smell. I also pick up these cleaning cloths when I pick up my cleaner. There are 3 of them per pack and are only $1.50. They are thick, but not too thick, and clean really well. The cleaner is also less than $3.00. That’s a win for me.

When I got home I finished up a little laundry and as I was putting Jack’s things away, this is what almost gave me a heart attack.

My cat Tommy popped his head out as I was bending down to put some socks in the drawer.

The best parts of my day are as follows. Donny surprised me and got home earlier than I expected so we got to cook dinner together. I love when this gets to happen because it is usually few and far between. We get a chance to spend some time together and he got to fill me in on how everything went on his trip.

I made Garlic Butter Steak and Potato Skillet. I used my newly restored cast iron skillet and am proud to say I’m not intimidated by cast iron anymore. It was really good and super easy to make. I got the recipe off pinterest. Donny made some skillet corn to go with it. Oh my yum!

After dinner Hannah and I had a 30 minute living room dance party with some heavy hitting 90’s tunes. It was a serious workout that left us sweaty and laughing. I recommend having a dance party whenever you get the chance because, no kidding, I will be sore tomorrow for sure.

Now I’m going to go enjoy my husband being home. I hope everyone is having a great evening,

Stacy

Trail Time

On January 22, 2019 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Longview, txLeave a comment

As I sit here and write this I have a weird concoction of crushed Vitamin C tablets and clarifying shampoo on my head, but that’s a whole other story. I will say there is some fine music in the Bruce house today. I have completely fallen in love with Alexa. So far my favorites are the Jimmy Buffet station, Billy Joe Shaver station and just random 90’s music.

It was such a beautiful day yesterday. A little windy, but the sun was shining at it wasn’t freezing out. The kids and I planned to make a run to Gamestop and Walmart, but once we were in the car we knew we needed to be outside. To the trails it was.

Longview, TX has a series of trails that run throughout our town. It’s a good thing because there are no sidewalks, so if you walk in your neighborhood, you are taking your life into your own hands. Seriously.

There are several parks you can start from. I prefer Rice Park when I’m jogging because there are restrooms and if you’ve had kids you know how important this is.

There are mile markers all the way down. If you don’t have an app to let you know how far you’ve gone, these are pretty handy.

There is a man that walks all over Longview. I always see him walking the 281 Loop that runs around our town. Hot, cold or rainy, it doesn’t stop him. I named him Ric Flair because he looks so much like the wrestler when he was in his prime. I have always wanted to find out his story because he fascinates me. Imagine my surprise when we were at one of the workout stations and he was there. I was about a foot away from him!!! He was exercising and I wanted, so badly, to ask him some questions. I knew this would have mortified my kids, so I just said hi. Lame. I did get a pic of him walking in front of us. One day. One day I WILL get his story.

I should mention that he wears leggings or short shorts and spaghetti strap shirts. I think this is one of the reasons for my fascination.

Something else we have never noticed before today were the locks on the bridge. It’s like we have our own Pont des Arts bridge right here in our little town.

The story is, you are suppose to lock your lock, make a wish and throw your key into the water.

These pictures were taken on two separate bridges. There were more locks, but I only snapped a picture of these. I think it’s such a cool idea. I did find out they all the locks were cut off of the “Love Lock bridge” in Paris because the weight of all the locks made the bridge so heavy it became unsafe. I think the few that are on these will be okay. I think it’s a cool idea anyway.

Hannah and Jack love to race to the workout stations and argue about who gets to do which first.

There are two big awesome dog parks down the way. We always meet some really cool dogs on our walks. The labradoodle was my favorite yesterday. I would have snapped a pic, but I didn’t want to seem creepy asking if I could take a picture of their dog.

We were only going to stay for about 30 minutes, but ended up walking for over an hour.

It was just perfect outside.

Our favorite place to stop and take a break on the way back is the hanging swing.

These kids. Today’s topic was centering around music and some of their favorite bands. Hannah likes The Neighborhood and Jack’s very, very favorite (for now) is Panic at the Disco. I’m always finding little nuggets of information when we take the time to lay down the electronics and get to have these good, non rushed conversations.

That was the favorite part of my day. Hope yours was good.

Stacy

Lazy Sunday

On January 21, 2019 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn WeekendLeave a comment

I enjoy days were there is nothing on the agenda outside of the home. Today was one of those days. Donny and I woke up and watched Pompeii. I can’t believe I had never seen it or even remember it being in the theater. It was really good. It had me googling the real Pompeii facts so I learned something new today in more detail.

Then there was this.

The Saints got robbed by a missed call that would have been a complete game changer. On a side note, I will say that the Rams head coach, Sean McVey, coaches how I would if I were a coach. He takes chances that other coaches just don’t. I admire that.

There was also a lot of this.

Add a nail biter Chiefs/Patriots game. I don’t really care for either team, but I really like that young Chiefs quarterback. He never got visibly rattled which says a lot.

In case you didn’t walk outside last night, the moon was pretty cool.

I think it looks like a toasted marshmallow in this picture.

If you have an echo and haven’t played Fact or Fib with Alexa, you should. It’s fun and the kids actually might have learned something while playing. Win/win.

Hope your Sunday was lazy and relaxing too,

Stacy

Nailed the Casino Party

On January 20, 2019 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn WeekendLeave a comment

Donny and I never really go out, so it was a treat for his workplace to have a casino party. He had to work all day and I was still under the weather with some kind of respiratory issue, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me.

First of all, I want to give a shout out to Kiss Nails. I’m not a fan of wearing acrylic nails because I have it in my head that my nails can’t breathe when they are on. So, because I didn’t want to have to take the time to paint my nails I just used the glue on ones and……

I think they turned out pretty good considering they were only 3 bucks at Walmart. I will say this, you have to be pretty careful with the glue. I glued my fingers together, glued the pad of my finger to the top of the nail and got a few air bubbles. I still don’t think they look too bad for my first time. Reviews say they can last as long as 2 weeks. We’ll see.

The night started off really windy and cold. Almost to freezing, which for us is COLD. No problem, the inside of the hotel was warm and we had BBQ catered by Bodacious Barbecue and it was so good. If you ever find yourself in Longview, you really should try it. Only the location on Mobberly Ave. It is the original and the BEST one!

After dinner the gambling tables were open.

I tried craps first. Not my game. I kept losing and didn’t understand it at all.

Donny was having fun at the roulette table. If there is ever a picture that epitomizes him, this one is it. It’s good to married to someone as goofy as I am.

We were all give $3000 in fake money. At the end of the night, for every $1000 you have you get a ticket. There are prizes with cups in front of each one. If you really want a certain prize, you can put all your tickets in that cup or sprinkle them around for a better chance to win.

Our tickets. I think Jazmine, my blackjack dealer, helped me out a little.

Each couple can only win one prize. We really wanted the PS4, but so did a lot of other people. We didn’t win that, but Donny put one of his tickets in a cup with a lot of other tickets already in there and guess what we came home with?

I didn’t think I’d ever want one, but I will have to admit it is really cool and fun to play with.

For the people that didn’t win a prize, there were some leftover so it was rock, paper, scissors to see who would take what home.

Mike won his rock paper scissors.

Donny works with a bunch of good people. If you know any of our story, you know just how thankful we are for this.

And because we seem to never have pictures together I thought I’d include this one. Not too bad, Craig.

Hope you are having a good weekend too,

Stacy

The List

On January 18, 2019 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

Today was one of those perfect days to stay home and get stuff done. It was grey and overcast with a cool breeze. Friday is my day to get everything on my to do list done to get ready for the weekend. Since this is a 3 day weekend for the kids, I didn’t want to have to be finishing up anything, taking away my time to spend with them and the hubs.

My fuel for the day.

Oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins is one of my very favorite breakfasts. It’s a stick to your ribs kind of meal. Also perfect for gloomy gray days.

My OOTD. Baggy pajama bottoms, oversized sweat shirt and slippers. I’m not leaving the house, so it works for me. Complete with chip clip peacock hair.

Do you make lists? I live by lists. For everything. I make a pretty big to do list on Mondays and Fridays. This one was a little ambitious. Seriously wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get it all done.

There was this for every room.

Washed all the family room couch cushion covers. I also washed all of the throw pillows that could be washed and hand washed the ones that couldn’t. This is an ikea olive denim couch. The covers wash up perfectly in the washing machine. Just make sure to get them out of the dryer before they are completely dry because it’s so much easier to get them on. I’ve always washed all of my couch cushion covers. If they can be removed I wash them. They’ve always come out just fine.

You might not be able to tell from this picture, but it is SO much cleaner. Plus I got to fluff up the back pillows so they aren’t floppy.

Woo Hoo! Everything got done and nothing feels better than drawing that line.

I love a clean, smelling good home. Doesn’t it just feel good to cross everything off, be it at your office job or house job. It just feels good.

Now, I’m going to fix dinner and get ready to watch Live PD with Donny tonight. We are party animals over here. We might even throw in a game of Taboo.

Happy Friday,

Stacy

Cast Iron

On January 17, 2019 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

I have a confession to make. Cast iron pots and pans intimidate me. I bought one a couple of years ago to try what was suppose to be the best way to cook a steak in the world. Well, I smoked my whole house up and burned the outside, leaving the inside still mooing. I never used it again and it just sat there rusting away. Well now I’m trying a new recipe and it calls for a cast iron skillet. Okay, gotta get back on the horse.

When I cleaned out the garage I found that skillet and my husband’s grandmother’s cast iron lidded chicken fryer. They were not pretty. They were just covered in nasty rusty yuckiness. I didn’t know what to do. I had tried to clean my skillet once by some weird way where you put it in a garbage bag with cleaners. Did not work. At. All.

I was willing to give it one more shot. I found this pin on pinterest.

https://beforeitsnews.com/v3/survival/2013/2493846.html

Okay, first of all, I need to let you know that it’s easy, but has some drawbacks. You just scrub up your pots with a brush to get as much rust off as you can.

Then you put them on the lowest rack in your oven upside down. Now for the drawback. You use the self clean mode and just let those suckers cook. It will smell. Like your house is on fire. It also takes a little over 4 hours.

This was after. You can see all the rust that was just turned to ash and fell off.

Next just let them cool for about an hour because they will be VERY hot. Now you wash them off again with a metal brush or scrubber. Make sure you get in all the crevices.

I wasn’t lying when I said it was a rusty mess.

After you scrub all the rust off, you grease it down really good. I used vegetable shortening. Put them back in the oven upside down. Put one rack on the very bottom and line it with foil. I would make a lip all the way around with the foil because the grease dripped off and now I have a grease stain in my previously clean oven.

Bake in a 350 oven for an hour. Let cool for about an hour then pull them out and grease the insides one more time.

That’s it. I was floored, shocked, knock me over with a feather surprised by how they turned out.

Y’all, look at this skillet!!!!! It looks brand spanking new!

Like I said before, this was my husband’s grandmother’s. She will be 101 this year. We googled the brand. It’s Griswold and they ceased production in the mid 1950’s. This skillet is probably about 60 years old!!! It looks like we just bought it. I couldn’t be more pleased.

So, if you have cast iron that you don’t know what to do with because it’s a rusty mess, you have got to try this method. Seriously.

I’m also giving a shout out to The Carbonaro Effect. I watched it this morning and it had me laughing so hard. Nothing better than a really good magician with a sense of humor.

Stacy

The Konmari Method – Garage Day

On January 17, 2019January 17, 2019 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn KonmariLeave a comment

I am bone tired. I can’t even remember a time recently when I’ve been this tired. But I’m tired and happy.

Remember the picture I posted of my garage yesterday? Well, if you don’t, let me refresh your memory.

My most embarrassing picture I’ve EVER posted. But wait, you really need to see it from a different angle. It’s much worse.

Most of this is Christmas and Halloween that needs to get up in the attic.

So, where do you start? I called the city to get a bulk garbage pickup scheduled. They could do it on Friday. Perfect.

According to the Konmari Method, you need to organize by category.

Y’all, the holiday stuff is gone! I’m starting to be able to breathe a little bit better. Our plan for the garage was to set up the kids game table so when they have friends over they can just open the door, hang out and play games.

The trash pile. That feels good.

Because the garage is the last room in my home to be treated to the Konmari method ALL of the donations from our decluttering live in the garage right now.

This is our donation pile minus one box in the house I hadn’t brought out yet. I think I’ll have to make a few trips. Totally worth it!

Now for the finished product. Please just pretend like the piles of donations are not there. Pretty soon they won’t be.

The deck box against the bricks holds our folding chairs.

SO much better!!!

My laundry closet even got cleaned out.

In our storage closet I put all of our electric tools together so now they are much easier to find.

The other side of the closet.

We still have the box springs and bed frame, but the fridge is going.

I cannot express enough how relieved I am to have this done. It was like a rain cloud hanging over my head. I know I will be sore tomorrow, but it will be a good sore.

Now for the VERY best part of the day. dscn1619

The BEST homemade Pina Colada EVER!!!! NEVER use a premade mix! This is the only way to go.

4 oz coco Lopez (the secret ingredient)

4 oz pineapple juice

3 oz rum

Ice and a blender

The recipe is actually right on the can. Try it. You can thank me later.

Now I’m going to finish watching The Out of Towners with my husband and maybe have one more pina colada.

Cheers,

Stacy

Change of Plans

On January 16, 2019January 16, 2019 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home Stuff, RecipeLeave a comment

I woke up to this.

I was ready to start my day because I had a plan, an agenda. Today was going to be Garage Day. Our garage had become a catch all ever since Christmas. Ya know all the stuff I had gotten rid of to donate? It is sitting in my garage. Bags of used wrapping paper from Christmas. Yep, in the garage. Halloween and Christmas decor? In the garage waiting to go up into the attic. I don’t even want to post a picture because it is beyond embarrassing. But I always said I’d be honest, so here it is.

It is HORRIBLE!!! After I took this I grabbed two of the big black garbage bags and filled them up. I even found a bag of stocking stuffers that I had forgotten to put out in the stockings. Want to hear the worst part? I cleaned it out right after Halloween. Between decluttering the inside and holiday throwing up all over it, I look like an episode of Hoarders. It gives my anxiety just to step foot in it. My laundry closet is out there. I do not want to even go out there to do laundry.

Which explains this.

This is the laundry that I haven’t wanted to do because of the anxiety I get in the garage, but the laundry gives me anxiety too, so all it is, is one big vicious circle.

I decided that I could kill two birds with one stone. I’d do the laundry while I sorted through the garage. All I needed to do was get all the empty boxes together to break down and recycle. Put all the holiday decor tubs in one place so Donny could help me get them back up in the attic. Put all the donations in one place so I could load them in the car and get them to the thrift store. Easy, right? Wrong. It was freezing and I got overwhelmed. I needed Donny’s input on some of the things out there. He’s off tomorrow. Perfect.

I decided to do something that I like to do.

It was a cold day and what’s one of the best thing for cold days? Soup. French Onion soup. Which is just about my favorite soup in the whole world. I had found a recipe for my Instant Pot on pinterest. I would post the link, but I changed some of the ingredients and added others to make it the way I liked it.

I have never made French Onion soup in my Instant Pot before. Melt butter and oil on the saute setting. It’s 3 T butter and 1 T olive oil.

Add 4 thinly sliced onions and saute until they are brown. This part takes the longest because you want to get the brown “crust” on the bottom. Don’t rush it. This can make or break your soup. I would pat them all down, let them cook for a few minutes then move them around and pat them down again.

These still needed to cook a while longer, but you can see they are starting to brown.

After the onions are browned, scrape the brown crust off the bottom and mix it with the onions then add 5 cups beef broth, 1 tsp salt, 2 bay leaves and pepper to taste. Put the lid on and use the manual setting for 10 minutes. Do a natural release.

After it’s released, slice french bread and toast on both sides in the oven. Spoon your soup in an oven safe dish, put the toasted bread on and place the cheese on top.

I get this cheese at Aldi. I love that it’s round and fits perfectly on my bowl. You can use whatever cheese you like best. I normally use provolone or swiss.

Place your bowl on a baking tray and put it under the broiler until it’s nice and bubbly. That’s it! Super easy and just as good as any fine dining restaurant.

I normally let my cheese brown more, but I was starving and couldn’t wait. This will definitely be my go to French Onion soup recipe from now on. I ate this whole bowl and probably could have eaten two more. It’s that good.

Nothing is better than hot soup on a cold day. Especially when your plans don’t go exactly as planned. Comfort food at it’s finest!

Tomorrow we storm the garage!

Wish us luck. You saw it, we need it.

P.S. I did get all of the laundry washed, dried and put away, so there’s that.

Car Convos

On January 15, 2019January 15, 2019 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn family, Home lifeLeave a comment

I think some of the best conversations we have in our family takes place in our car.

We only own one car. That is pretty shocking to most people. We just don’t need/want two vehicles. It doesn’t make sense for us to have 2 car payments when we live in a small town and my husband works 7 minutes from our home. If one of us has to go out of town, we just rent a car. Much cheaper than a monthly car payment on a car we would never drive except maybe once or twice a week.

Three times a week our daughter has before school workouts. It’s amazing when you have your child one on one, the good conversations you can have. On the days that she has workouts I drive our son to school. Not having to compete for attention and having a parent completely to yourself seems to just let them open up about what’s going on in their lives more so than if we were at home just sitting around.

I also love the time with my husband to and from his job. Nothing is distracting us and we are able to have some mighty fine conversations together.

Three separate trips. Three good talks. That is what made this day start off in such a good way.

Well, there’s also this.Hoosiers might be an old movie, but it’s still such a good movie. I am a sucker for feel good sports movies.

I’m also happy to say that I’m getting back on schedule from the holidays. I don’t know why it seems to take me a few weeks. Normally Monday is deep clean the house day. That’s it. But since I hadn’t done a big grocery haul in quite a while, if we wanted to actually have normal meals, I had to add that to my day.

I’m very happy to say I got the shopping done and the house done. My fitbit did not have to vibrate once to remind me to take steps.

Nothing beats fresh sheets and a shiny house.

It was a good Monday.

I hope yours was too.