I'm baaaaaaack....

We are home from our glorious, wonderful vacation!!! YAY!!! I love vacations but after awhile I am ready to be back in my own, familiar surroundings. PLUS, we ALL came home sick! Next time we get the bright idea to bring our grandkids on vacation with us, we will just stay home! I love my granchkins but, honestly, they are little petri dishes brimming with germs. All 3 were sick even though their moms ASSURED us they weren't. Hello, green snot does NOT freely flow from the noses of healthy children! Anywho we are home and back to our routine...sort of. Both of my dogs are sick too. I swear, we need to just stay home from now on because traveling is not good for any of us apparently!
Since I wwwaaaayyyyyy over spent for and on our vacation, we have no money for grocery shopping. We also have no food because we ate it all before we left so I have been very ingenius with our meals. I absolutely LOVE the recipes from the Heavenly Homemaker. I have been making a couple of the recipes that I had the ingredients for and they have been outstanding. Last night I impressed myself with our very first "whole food" only meal. I made pork chops, real hand grated hash browns (I got the scrape on my finger to prove it!) roasted carrots and homemade applesauce. If you have never made your own applesauce and rely on the gunk they sell in the store, you have not lived! It was so good and so yummy that I could not stop myself from eating it! So easy too-Peel, core and chop 3 lbs of apples (I used Gala because they are my favorite apple). Put them in a pot over med-low heat. Add 1/2 c. brown sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon. Cover and cook for about 35-45 minutes, stirring occasionally. The smell filling your house will cause you feelings of euphoria....just go with it....Once the apples are soft, mash them up a little and add 1/2 tsp. of vanilla. I forgot that step and my applesauce was totally divine without it. You now hold in your hands the secret to happiness...You're welcome :)
This morning I made pancake-sausage muffins and they were unbelievable. Then for lunch I made Taco Corn Fritters. Oh the yumminess!!! Only problem is that I have no idea what to make for dinner! I am down to a little ground venison, which will be lunch tomorrow, and a little salmon, which will be dinner tomorrow for me and hubby. Oh lordy, I need some groceries!!!
In other news (dontcha love the segue???) hubby got him a new truck today. Not exactly brand new but new for him. He has been struggling to do the farm chores with his itty bitty Toyota Tacoma but, since we aren't taking on new debt and have NO cash saved up AND his lease was running out in February, we had to do something pretty soon. He has been scouring the internet for a couple of months, searching for the best deal he could get. In our neck of the woods, people hold on to their pickups until there is nothing left to hold on to so finding a decent used one was going to be rough. He found one that seemed really good and he prayed about it until he thought he had his answer. He called the dealership and the salesman told him he was watching that truck drive off the lot as they spoke with its new owner. Not meant to be. However, hubby don't give up easily. He called another dealership on a whim and they had an even better deal on the "truck of his dreams". We went to the bank, got a cashiers check and the dealership delivered the truck this afternoon. They drove that thing 75 miles one way to make a sale. Now THAT is service! Our son pointed out to his dad that we weren't taking on new debt, so why did he borrow money for that truck (He actually paid attention to the financial seminars we are making him and his sister watch with us!!!)Hubby explained to him that he actually lowered his debt because the new truck cost less than the buyout of his leased truck, so, even though we borrowed money, we lowered our debt overall. I wish we could have paid cash for it but that just wasn't possible right now. Remember, I'm broke, no money, no food....but we got a kick butt truck that will do anything on the farm we need it to do!
My chickens seemed to have survived our absence pretty well but the little boogers still aren't laying any eggs. They should have started the week we were gone but nothing. I am about to resort to chickie massage to get them eggs flowing! Every time I have to buy them at the store it makes me want to put the chickens in a stew pot! Ok, not really. I did do that once with a mass killing of roosters (who knew they were so territorial??)It was the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten. Yuck! But the girls really need to start earning their keep! Or no more goodies...I found they LOVE peaches and watermelon. yeah, I will withhold peaches until I see some egg production!
Alright, now I must go and forage for food for dinner. I am so full that even thinking about more food is gross but, alas, the family likes being fed on a continual basis so I'm off to the freezer!!