Catching up!

First off I wanted to say thank you for all your well wishes for Bill. He is doing 100% better. He had a follow up with his gastroentrologist and was given the all clear to resume work and normal activities. His numbers are down to near normal and Bill says he feels pain free for the first time in a really long time. So YAY! 

So what else has been going on? 

We celebrated my dad's 60th birthday. He said all he wanted was a cookout with his favorite people--- his kids and grandkids there. We made that happen. My youngest brother and my sister were even able to surprise my dad by coming home from college and grad school respectfully for that night. 

The kids began another year of Trail Life USA and American Heritage Girls. 

At their first meeting the AHG girls were learning about the program theme for the year-- the chrysalis-- and they each got to take a monarch caterpillar home. Rebecca gave hers to the boys and they named the caterpillar "Ric Flair Jr." About a week after we got it, it turned into a cocoon, so we are on butterfly watch. (We had to keep it outside in the window as GusGus likes to eat bugs and we didn't want him to try to get at the caterpillar.) 

This past week I have been busy getting my tutoring ramped up for the school year. Also helping Rebecca with a fundraiser for her "Principles of Food" class-- they were selling candy bars and chocolate covered almonds. Thankfully she sold her goal of 2 boxes so we are done with that.

I did a bunch of cooking this week. I made a homemade fried rice that was super yummy and used up some stuff in the fridge. Saturday I made a homemade chicken avocado salad after being inspired by a post on Facebook from a local restaurant about their new salad item. It was tasty. I also made 2 loaves of pumpkin bread (we only have 1/2 of one left as of Sunday night!) and a batch of buckeye brownies using ingredients in my pantry.

I am trying to do a low spend month on groceries/household items since Bill missed a week of pay when he was in the hospital. I am trying to use what we have here. I am also trying to only go grocery shopping on Friday. This past Friday I only spent $63 on groceries!  That is about half what I typically spend. 

This coming week gets even busier... the boys are joining a youth choir that practice on Monday nights. I have more tutoring scheduled. Rebecca starts back to her book club after school and has an extra AHG meeting. We have a service day project to do next weekend with both AHG and TL. It is a busy time that is for sure. I hope to get back to blogging more as I enjoy having this space as a recap of our life, but I make no promises! LOL  

Have a great week everyone!