I cut lilacs from my yard to make a huge bouquet for Kaitlyn to give to her teacher as a surprise on May Day… Lilacs are her teacher’s favorite flower. Peonies also made a lovely bouquet to give away a few weeks later.
I purchased Lemonade and Kool Aid Canisters when they went on sale for $1. Usually they are over $3 each. Besides providing a refreshing beverage they make great homemade popsicles for hot afternoons.
I helped my sister make her strawberry jam with Pectin I had purchased last fall for only .50 instead of the normal $2.50. Thankfully I bought all of what they had left since my sister had 5 batches of jam which means I'll probably have between 8 and 10 batches of jam. After picking over 30 pounds of strawberries at Jackson's Farm Market in Xenia I will freeze some of the berries. My sister did not have that luxury being so far from home.
I gave some strawberry jam to teachers as an end of year gift along with a mini loaf of homemade bread wrapped in rafia.
Several teachers also got pots of baby Lilacs to plant in their yard. They were starters I'd dug from the ground in April and were proving a viable after nearly two months in a pot.
Got our first gas and electric bill which dated almost exactly to when I began using the clothesline my husband built in the back yard. I did use my dryer on a few occasions but very little and my grand total savings....... Over $40 in one month!!! Everything else was the same... no heat and no AC plus same number of people in the house that month. I have not had a week of straight rain yet to contend with but watching the weather patterns has allowed me to keep up with the laundry demand. Heat and humidity brings rain in the late afternoon and so most days there is no problem with drying the one needed load outdoors. I have dried up to three loads in one day outdoors and many days I can put two loads outdoors to dry. I never do laundry on Sunday. That is my break. I will say that I rather enjoy hanging laundry outdoors. I am outdoors watching my children play around me or enjoying a sunrise in the cool peaceful mornings. I smell the flowers as I watch the butterflies and bees fluttering in my gardens and listen to birds, crickets and cicadas. My cats come out from their secret hiding places among the lilies to visit and rub around my ankles getting a little one on one time as I pause from my work before they take off after some unsuspecting bird or squirrel and I laugh. I enjoy sunsets as I collect late loads of sunny summer scented sheets crisp from the breezes as the evening cools and the bats and fireflies come out. The fireflies make the yard sparkle as if Cinderella's Fairy Godmother might appear at any moment from thin air. Hanging laundry is not so bad, in case anyone is wondering. And my dryer's life is extended in the process so I always have "the option". I like options.
I bought a pork tenderloin for $1.79 per pound. Actually I bought several because that was a good sale. I put the pork in my crock pot, marinated and eleven of us ate Sunday dinner from that meat. Then I made homemade tortillas for pennies instead of dollars and placed the rest of the pork, shredded into the tortillas with rice and cheese. The seven of us ate half of that a couple days later and the rest of the pork tortillas fed the seven of us for a third time as I made a freezer meal out of the pork tortillas left.
Bought canning lids with a buy 1 get 1 free coupon.
Bought two 25+ pound baskets of peaches for $26; kept some for eating and preserved the rest as slices or spiced peach butter.
And that’s all I’m now remembering for May and June.
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