I'm Still Here!

I know that its been a little bit quiet around here lately....more like dead silence.  I know I have a few faithful followers and relatives who might be wondering what is going on.  I just wanted to reassure you that I'm ok! ;)

I have begun tutoring again in order to try and prevent my husband from having to continue working a second job.   It is going well, and I had completely forgotten how much I enjoy helping students understand the things that they are struggling with.

Right now, it's still very part time.   I have found a handful of students that I am meeting with weekly, and I'm also in the process of getting set back up to work with an online tutoring company that I worked with a few years back before my second daughter was born.

All that being said, I haven't had a whole lot of extra time for blogging lately, and as I spend more of my online time tutoring, I likely will have even less time in the coming weeks.

I do not foresee myself completely putting a halt to my blogging because it is something that I enjoy and have spent the last 2+ years doing, but my posts will be much more sporadic.

I will continue to share my shopping trips with you, although I must admit that I have been doing a lot less couponing lately.  This is honestly due to more of a change in cooking style than to time constraints.   I have been cutting back on much of the processed foods in our diet and buying ingredients and cooking from scratch.  The main reason for this has been that I have seen a HUGE difference in the hyperactivity levels of my children because of it!  I have been scouring Pinterest for "Make Your Own" versions of many things that we used to buy, and we have been very pleased with the outcomes as well as the savings in most cases.

I also recently (just yesterday in fact), began purchasing a produce basket from Bountiful Baskets.   A friend of mine was posting about this on facebook and I had never heard of it, so I decided to check it out.  For $15 (plus $1.50 processing fee each week and a $3 one time fee for new customers), and a short drive out to the pick up site on a brisk Saturday morning, I came home with all of this:

That is brussel sprouts in the brown bag, butter lettuce, cauliflower, lots of broccoli, yellow squash, onions, cucumbers, blackberries, pears, pomegranates, and bananas.  They were all so fresh and beautiful, too!

I'm very, very new to this, so I am trying to see if I think it is a savings over grocery store prices.   My husband and I were chatting about it, and he thought that the savings wasn't all that great, but I told him that I *may* be able to get this stuff for around $15, but I would have to visit multiple stores so that would take time and gas.  Plus, I kinda of like the challenge to plan my menus around all this great produce, and never knowing exactly what you will end up with each week.   Its kind of funny the sort of things that excite you when you've been a SAHM for this long!  LOL

Anyway, we agreed to give it at least a 1 month trial run and see how it goes, so I am currently trying to construct a menu plan around this stuff.   With me being a freezer cook-er, I'm not quite sure how this will all play out yet because I still have a lot of pre-cooked meals in my freezer (and I haven't cooked in about 3 weeks!) but, we are all getting a little bit bored of the same meals that I normally cook and freeze, so I think this will be something we all enjoy.   I was pleased to see how excited my girls were when we were picking the stuff up.  I nearly had to fight them off the blackberries!  LOL

I intend to try to share as much of this new journey of mine with you as time permits.  I've also made my very first over Halloween costume, so I will post about that soon, and I planted a fall garden for the first time this year, and it seems to be doing better than any of my spring/summer garden's ever have, so I will be sharing about that soon as well.  Nothing is producing veggies yet, but the green stuff looks promising!

I am going to stop posting all of the grocery deals each week, but I will share some sale prices in my menu posts, which I am going to try to have up on Sunday's with a list prepared so that I can shop on Mondays.   If I'm going to be doing tutoring work in the evenings and on weekends, I am really going to have to be more intentional about the use of my time during the day and that is going to require more planning and organization than I am accustomed to, and I think that might be the most difficult thing that I am up against during this time of transition in my life.

I would appreciate all of your prayers and well wishes for a steady stream of tutoring work to help keep up with the bills, and also for a little self confidence too, because even though I've taught these subjects in the past, Dora has been leaching my brain cells for the past 4 years.   It's all coming back to me quickly, thank goodness, but I know I've still got some studying up to do!


One more thing before I wrap this up....facebook.....*glare*.   I have a love/hate relationship with facebook right now.   For personal use, I love it since I'm isolated from all of my family up here in the Dallas area, but it has become a real pain in the blogging world.   Seriously.....I have over 7200 fans, and my posts are getting seen by about 125 of you, on average.   I find this to be ridiculous, and as I no longer will have the time to put into building up the types of interactions which would make that number increase, I would ask that if you are interested in following me on my new produce-filled journey, would you please subscribe to Saving Myself Silly by Email.