I took these pictures just a few days ago. Wow, everything is growing so well! We only lost 5 plants, all cucumbers, in the recent late frosts. Other than those, everything is doing just beautifully.



All four planting beds/tables



Tiny Sweet 100 tomatoes, just forming on the vine



Beets, beets, and more beets! I love 'em



Broccoli and beets



Bob helping with the potatoes planted in tires



More tomatoes



Squash plants which now have huge blossoms and squash just starting to turn yellow



And more tomatoes! After all, isn't the growing of tomatoes what a garden is really all about?

Oh yeah, to keep this sort of on a money track, I went to Ace Hardware today and bought a few couplings for an install DH and DSS are doing today. I spent $5.30.

It's 86 outside, 83 in the house. I'm debating turning on the air conditioner. I really want to but it's just the end of April and we can't afford it right now. Of course, it IS 86 degrees. I don't know how long I'll be able to hold off but I'm trying. I really am trying...

Let's see. In the last couple of weeks, I've received the following:

Several deodorant samples, including two of the new Secret Clinical Strength samples - by the way I really love this stuff. It goes on dry, feels great, smells great, and keeps me dry for well over 24 hours.

A very nice package of Sunsilk Thermashine products including the shampoo, conditioner, and detangling shine spray

1.7 oz Garnier Fructis XXL Volume weightless gel

Pantene shampoo and conditioner

Smart Balance popcorn

A package of 3 different post it products, all of which I'll use

Several razors, one that included two extra blades

I really enjoy getting the freebies. So what if the deodorant only contains .5 oz? If I have 20 of them, that's a good amount of deodorant. And I like trying food items before I buy them..who wants to pay $3 for popcorn just to find out the taste is yucky? Not me!

Speaking of those freebies, I keep the health and beauty items in a brightly colored container in my bedroom where I can get to them but the horde can't. Otherwise I'll find out the dog has been bathed with Sunsilk and the cat is munching on salsa made with my sample Ball Salsa Mix....

So it wasn't a no-spend day for us but it was a little-spend day!

DH deposited his check and got $20 cash. I stayed home all day but donated $5 to my favorite online forum. I'd like to give them more but that's all I can afford right now. Maybe I can give a little here and a little there. I know it all adds up.

It's 77 degrees and the AC is on again. I turned it on when it was over 80 but will turn it off right before I go to bed. That seems to help quite a bit.

I don't normally think ahead about what to serve for breakfast or lunch. DH eats the same basic thing every morning and I rarely eat a thing before 11:30 AM or noon. When I do get hungry I either eat leftovers or whip up something quick for myself.

With those things in mind, here's this weeks night time meals in no particular order unless otherwise noted:

April 23rd - Beef and gravy (left over beef chuck roast cut into small pieces and simmered in mushroom gravy) over wild rice served with Normandy style vegetables and tossed salad that includes beet greens and green onions from the garden

Tuna salad sandwiches with chips and salsa

Egg pie with smoked beef sausage and green onions from the garden served with tossed salad and green beans

Stir fried beef over homemade noodles served with spinach and baked cabbage

You're on your own night where we eat leftovers, cereal, soup, or whatever else we can find

Veggie night where we'll have a huge salad with all kinds of vegetables and cheeses in it

Beans and hot water cornbread

It was so hot, still, and humid last night that we turned on the central air conditioner. We'd hoped to wait til May but it was ridiculously miserable so we caved in. However, I did turn it off when I went to bed so it didn't run all night. Self-kudos for not being lazy and letting it run the electric bill up too much.

I watered the container planted vegetables and herbs by the house this morning but I need to water the planting tables and get some leaves that I raked into piles into the wheelbarrow and take them to the leaf pyramid (called that because it's so large) out near the garden. Rain is forecasted, though, so I'm holding off in the hopes that nature will do the watering for me. I also plan to transplant more irises.

DH and DS14 are gone on jobs and they'll be gone most of the day, I think, so I'll vacuum, dust, and work on painting more of the bathroom door and frame around it.

Dinner tonight is plannedovers from last night's beef roast and gravy. There wasn't much left but I'm going to cut the beef into small pieces, make more gravy, season it all well and let it simmer awhile and serve it over wild rice with a salad and some Normandy Style vegetables.

Today should be a no spend day for me though DH will spend something while he's out, I'm sure.

While watering this morning, I thought of what DH says about gardens - their entire purpose is to make his tomato plants look good.

Anyway, here are some pics of our container vegetables, taken just a few minutes ago.



The cauliflower is doing very well in the containers we got for .50 each



And the green pepper and carrots are doing very well, too. I think they will need to be moved to a sunnier spot but so far, so good



More green pepper and some zucchini



An upside down tomato, happily hanging off the front porch



More tomatoes, one planted in an old Macintosh computer case



Yet another tomato plant, this one about to produce fruit



And last but not least, squash plants in buckets

Some of the tomato plants have fruit on them and we should have ripe tomatoes very soon!

Isn't it pretty? Tasty too!!!

It doesn't have a name. For now I'm just calling it Denise's Chocolate Delight Thingie.

The garden is already watered and I'm going to transplant some more iris bulbs today. I have about 50 to go but a few here and a few there will get them all done.

I'm also experimenting with one of my new kitchen toys, the Cook's Choice
Gourmet Bowl Maker found at cookschoice.com. So far I've made breakfast bowls with biscuit dough, eggs, cheese and homemade turkey sausage, enchilada bowls, and some desserts. Everything I've tried has been great but today I'm experimenting with a new dessert recipe I'm creating. Hopefully I'll have it perfected today and if I do, I'll post pictures of it.

I just love this Bowl Maker and really recommend it to anyone who loves to cook, entertains a lot, goes to church dinners, etc. And nope, I don't make a cent if you buy one - I just highly recommend it.

Well, my youngest, aged 22, headed off to truck driving school today. Fortunately, he's only going to Dallas which is about 2 hours from us. I have a sister and nieces and nephews there and most of them aren't far from where he'll be so if he needs some kind of assistance they'll be there for him.
I miss him already, though, and he's only been gone an hour or so...

Today I've washed and hung outside a load of clothes, dug up and replanted 5 cucumber plants that didn't survive the recent frosts, planted more spinach where what was previously planted didn't grow, watered the garden and transplanted some irises. I have about 50 more to move but I'll do a few a day until I have them all where I want them.

Dinner is going to be something with ground beef, though I'm not sure what. It might just be goulash, garlic bread, and green beans. Simple yet tasty and definitely frugal!

Okay, so I've been AWOL for a month. Life got in the way in a big sort of way but things are back to 'normal' now, I believe.

I'm trying to catch up on other people's blogs and respond to some comments left on my entries but I've missed reading every one!

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!