Wow! I can’t believe that’s it’s already been almost a week since I last posted. Time sure does pass quickly when you are busy, and that is what we have been around here. Here are some of the things that have kept me away from my blog this week:
1- Doing a lot of organizing around the house- the better organized I am, the easier it is for me to think and function. It is also helpful for me to see what we have and what we need so I can make sure that we are staying on track with our preparations as well as with our every day existence and budget.
2- Doing some inventory of what we have in the freezers, stock room, and pantry and still trying to get my household management binder together. (Thanks to Foggy and ThePreppersWife for getting me off on the right foot.)
3- Doing some GREAT coupon match ups for my shopping trip this morning. The ShopRite that I patronize is having their can can sale right now, and I took full advantage of it this morning! I got about 300 dollars worth of groceries for $140. That included 24 cans of veggies and beans- for about 8 dollars, 12 cans of tomato sauce (the big 29oz cans)- for $6.99, 3 (25oz) cans of crushed tomatoes- for $3.00, 8 cans of diced tomatoes- .88 cents each, 4 cans of refried beans- $3, and 4 cans of chili- $2 after coupons and the sale. I also stocked up on Olive Oil- which was only $3 for 16oz after coupons, enough kids shampoo to satisfy my “five-year itch” (what I’m calling my overwhelming desire to have enough to live on for five years), diapers, Cheerios- for about $1.35 after coupons, four FREE tubes of toothpaste, two FREE toothbrushes, and two FREE bottles of mustard. I got a whole bunch more, but those are the highlights of my trip today.
4- Researching and purchasing some items to aid in our stockpiling and self-sufficiency (more info on this to follow in other blogs as I review the items we got.) I’m especially anxious to get my Shelf Reliance rotating can rack that I got when they were having a GREAT sale online. And we are also waiting for an Excalibur Food Dehydrator to come in- my husband’s anniversary gift to me.)
5- Working out in the garden- the tomatoes, squash, and bean plants all look great! All of our herbs are doing really well, and the scallions are absolutely beautiful! The pepper plants, however, look very sad, and I will need to be giving them some TLC in the next few weeks. My only regret about our garden this year is that we should have made it bigger. I didn’t want to take on too much with our first year of really doing a garden, but now I regret it because it is going so well and because we have learned how to can.
6. Canning chicken! That’s right, I said “Canning Chicken!” Although I’m not quite sure how it turned out. We’ve been a little busy, and I’ve been meaning to break open a can and give it a try, but it just hasn’t happened yet. I’m planning to dedicate an entire post to the process we used (and I even made sure my hubby took some pictures while we canned so I can post them as well), but I just don’t like the look of the chicken. It’s a bit dark- which I’m sure you’ll be able to see in the pictures, but I think that’s just from the type of chicken bouillon we used. I don’t know……my husband thinks that we should wait a little longer before opening a can, just so that we’d definitely know by then if it was no good. The jars sealed, and the pressure cooker wasn’t NEARLY as scary as I thought it would be, but I guess I’m still just a little leery about chicken in a can.
7. Swimming and enjoying my kids as we’ve had some very nice summer days.
So, more posts to come. I’m definitely going to do some reviews of the new prepper toys that we got as they come in and we put them to use, and I’m also planning a book review section for my blog. Since I’m an English teacher and a book snob at heart, I thought it might be fun to merge my passion for literature with my love of prepping.
Until the next post, happy prepping!
- A Prepared Mom
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