We were eating out all the time, and I'm really enjoying cooking again. I've been able to make and take cooked meals to my parents, too. I'm enjoying the break from working at the office, too, and am able to keep up with housework and laundry. Feels more like the homeschool days again. Feeling more relaxed. And finding more time for Bible reading and prayer here, too. I also discovered Youtube instead of Pandora for music, and for some online sermons!

Is there anything they could build out of wood? Tree house, yard chairs made where one piece of wood slides into the other (my boys did those in Scouts), big Jenga pieces, other. If there's plenty of space, a potato launcher. Make marshmallow shooters from pvc pipe. PVC pieces for a DYI building set. Start a new hobby like wood carving. Read/nap in hammocks. Build an obstacle course.

Chicken and barley bake

Kidney beans- chili, or we make a cold kidney bean salad, like potato salad but sub the beans for the potatoes. Black beans- soup (Iowagirleats.com) or cooked with some chili powder and cumin and served over rice, topped with raw onions, tomatoes, crushed taco chips and sour cream. Or in cowboy caviar salad. Navy or other white beans- soup or in calico beans or white chili or baked beans

This. I like to let the mattress air a bit. Often I'll spray it with a lavender oil/tea tree oil/water mix to freshen the bed sometime before putting the sheets back on. Last night the sheets went back on just before bed.

Yeah. We are offered this, but I, too, think of it as nosey. Will live without it.

I'm so sorry! That's the pits! We've had the basement flood twice over the years. So much work, and loss.

https://paolabrown.com/teach-kids-homeopathy-free-lessons/?utm_campaign=Teach-Kids-Health-&-Homeopathy&utm_source=House-List&utm_content=Free-Lesson-Page From the Teach Kids Health & Homeopathy curriculum that's being released soon. Three free lessons.

https://paolabrown.com/teach-kids-homeopathy-free-lessons/?utm_campaign=Teach-Kids-Health-&-Homeopathy&utm_source=House-List&utm_content=Free-Lesson-Page Three free lessons if you're into homeopathy

Ice cream sandwiches, Cheetos, and banana bread. I also have my hidden stash of dark chocolate bars with orange bits. Dh doesn't like those.

Just read today that bungee cords are filled with elastic...

Enjoyed Finding Dorothy, background fact/fiction about Wizard of Oz; didn't want it to end. And my mom couldn't put The Indigo Girl down.

Love this!!

i'm sure you can cook with it, but any nutrients would be long gone

Picked up some onion sets, asparagus, and garlic to start out in the garden while I was out today. Can do those as soon as the ground can be dug up. Also grabbed some herbs to repot-- basil and rosemary. Wish they'd had oregano, too.

So exciting to have time to do things that have been on the back burner! Being self employed, we have to keep working, and we're a service business, too. Luckily? this is a slow time for our business, so the techs aren't visiting too many places. It would be lovely to have the free time!

I love my Pampered Chef stoneware bread pans.

Since going with the bride to be was the only part of prep for the wedding I got to be a part of, I did go ahead and splurge for a big picnic type rehearsal dinner in our garage. MOG was hard for me. lol

Is he self=employed? Otherwise his employer's work comp should be kicking in a portion of lost wages. Or if he has disability insurance...

I bake mine in a small roaster with a cup or so of water in the bottom, or I have a rounded stoneware bowl I cover with foil.

You could freeze meatloaf or pre-slice and brown sliced steak for stir-fry or pepper steak.

The hooks on my side of the closet are for a 6' person, so useless to me. I have a basket of off season clothes topped with a laundry basket where I drape my work tops and jeans. Usually wear the jeans the next day, but rotate the weekly shirt collection between one week and the next--so two wearings before they hit the laundry. Not the best, but it works for now. I used to have a chair I hung them on, but dh now uses his chair and mine.

Veggie pizza, taco dip. Ham lunchmeat spread with cream cheese and rolled around pickles, sliced. Eggrolls.

I have one closet that someone cut the corner area out of the shelf, so I have room for the broom/mop handles.

I usually have extra items for one or two of the kids. I just put them away for the next occasion, be it birthday, Easter or the following Christmas. This year I emptied my extra supply! Time to start picking things up here or there again!