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Taking a break when needed is good.  The October break made me anticipate your return and appreciate it much more.

I just finished reading my third WWII book on I think the title was Our Mother's War.  I found it interesting in that it had many details about all aspects of life during the war years.  One part that caught my attention was on the families living in New Mexico in the town where the atom bomb was developed.  The lady was shocked when she realized that the stove provided was a huge coal fired cookstove and that she bought an electric hot plate and cooked on that.  The same lady complained about the house being cold as the fuel oil heater was inadequate plus there was often no fuel.  If she had just learned to use that coal cookstove, she would have solved both cooking and heating issues.  I think most all of us on this forum would have had the common sense to learn to use the cookstove!

I have one row of potatoes planted and we've been having rain enough to keep me out of the garden since I planted that row.  I had difficulty finding seed potatoes and finally found them at Menards.  They are very nice but not cheap.  

I've also changed menus to keep within my grocery budget.  I've been leaning on my pantry more which is good because I have things that need to be used.  I generally cook two meals each week and eat them every other day until gone.  Leftovers are my best friend!  Six meals from a meatloaf, four from scalloped potatoes with ham, five from chicken noodle soup and then it's time to cook again.

Thanks for keeping the blog and forum going, Grandma Donna. Enjoy a well-earned break from both!

Funnily enough, I decided back in March that I was going to take the month of May to get back to basics,  and I've been preparing the home and family accordingly. I want to declutter, organise, clean and tidy, get up to date on our finances and do a new budget.

Lately my husband has been catching the bus to and from work. It's about a two hour round trip. It saves us money and reduces the demand for fuel. I try not to go into town and if I do, I plan the trip to get most out of it.

We don't eat much meat these days, and I have started making bread at home again. I used to be in the habit but I stopped for a while. It's saving us a lot of money and is much healthier.

We have the wood fire going again, so I need to get in the habit of heating water and cooking on its stovetop.

We are adjusting to our daughter not being home much these days as she has a job about an hour away. She stays in town. This means we often have enough of our main meal to last two nights, as we still cook for three dinners plus leftovers. By bulking up a bit with rice or the like, the meals go much further. I also might add lentils or beans to leftovers if our daughter is home unexpectedly for dinner, before I reheat it.

See you in a month, Grandma Donna. Stay well, and I hope you get good rain.

Such a great idea for you to take a month long break Donna. It will give your brain some rest in a way.

To keep peace in today's world I'm doing a lot more handcraft and different things from gardening or cooking. One project I've nearly finished is I brought 2 hard cover lined page journals and have totally written a new my recipe books into them. This time I categorized each section eg Meat, Desserts, Preserving etc and the 2nd journal was only for baking recipes. I put in all the recipes I always use and got rid of others I never have tried.  

Your bird baths are lovely. Here in NZ where we live the cold came 6 weeks earlier than usual so we've had the fire going.

Kellie O... We have a kettle on top of our fireplace for hot water for drinks and I cooked a beef and veggie stew on it 2 days ago. :-)

With blessing to you and Charles 

It’s been a busy old morning for me, the weather (UK) is sunny with bright blue skies but a keen wind which has kept the temperature down to around 18C. I went through the upstairs of the cottage first thing then took myself off to the garden centre in the village as I needed more horticultural grit, while I was there I picked up three more strawberry plants as last year I gave all my runners to my stepson and then promptly lost every one of the parent plants over winter :(

No matter, the new ones are in and I’ve done another succession sewing of salad leaves plus more carrots and courgettes. Food prices seem to be going up each week so I’m determined that we will be eating just our own fruit & veg all summer. We don’t eat much meat at all and I’ve a good store of pulses etc plus the yard where I keep my horse has started selling their eggs to us livery owners, at £2 for half dozen they are a decent price, so tasty and of course I know how free range they are as I seem them scratching around all day!

Enjoy your break GDonna and see you at the beginning of June

I’m very new to your blog and forum and really enjoy it. Will you leave the forum up so we can read older comments?

thank you. 

And enjoy your break