Girls and Green Things: Money and Weeds

     The economy has affected our family as well. After about 17 years of working almost every summer, Tim is "unemployed" at the moment. Add in furlough days at the end of June, and we've made some adjustments to our budget. The first thing to be eliminated was the girls' allowances. All of them were pretty understanding, but broke. Elena and Camille have gotten some babysitting jobs that have paid for a fancy movie premier, "Eclipse," but are otherwise needing some green backs for other "frills" purchases (translation: clothes shopping at the mall.)

 So, as I looked around at all the yard projects I had to do, I hired them to help me with weeding my butterfly and hummingbird habitat garden and putting weed cloth down. The total hours spent with both of them working has been about 4. So, I paid them each $4 an hour. I already had the weed block covering, so my only expense was their labor and 16 bags of bark chips at $3.88 each and 2 boxes of fabric pins to secure the weed block down at $12 each. So, the total cost of the project was just over $100 and two  happy girls that are a little greener in the wallet and the thumb. I'm ecstatic because I've just eliminated hours of back breaking weeding. Plus, in addition to water saving mulch for my plants, I've created a much nicer looking habitat for my butterflies, hummingbirds and humans to enjoy gazing upon.

At the beginning of the project...

At the end of the project

Project Nightstand

Before and after pictures say it all! This was my nightstand several months ago. 

 

And today.... I'd like to think that my sleep is less "cluttered," but that's not really true. I'm just much less discouraged when I wake up and I don't have a pile of books spilling off my night stand. It's easier to find my current book, too.

The truth of the matter is that my cozy, inviting bed is hard to sleep in sometimes. See the picture below? Notice how much room there is for me to sleep in my own bed?  But, I have to admit, my last two girlies are really cuddlers and I love it! (most of the time...)

Home Grown Pizza

From my garden:

From my kitchen:

Pizza dough: Courtesy of Allrecipes.com

Recipe Photos

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Pizza Dough I

By: Gudny Bjorg Kjaerbo 

Prep Time:
10 Min

Cook Time:
25 Min

Ready In:
35 Min

Servings  (Help)

US Metric Calculate  
Original Recipe Yield 1 pizza

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

Directions

1. Combine flour, salt, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl. Mix in oil and warm water. Spread out on a large pizza pan. Top as desired.
2. Bake at 375 degrees C (190 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 112 | Total Fat: 2.1g | Cholesterol: 0mg

Grilled vegetables:

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes:

Grate with Parmesan cheese:

Consume with delight!