Shopping trip!

DH and I finally realized that we could postpone our mortgage payments until the 16th if we pay a fee of $6 - meaning we will get another paycheck first. I put enough money into savings to get us through September (since our income will be going entirely to the next two mortgage payments), and the remainder is more than enough to get us through August with a little left over for much-needed "large item" purchases.

Our first "large purchase" was a shopping trip to Cash 'n' Carry. We spent a lot - over $200 - but walked out with soooo much meat. I broke all the pieces of meat up into sandwich bags - some diced for soups, some sliced for "snacks", some cut into "coins" of sausage, some cut into "steaks" of ham and turkey. In my experience, that is just the right amount of meat to use for one meal (which usually lasts us for dinner and lunch the next day, since we usually make soup or stir-fry or something with it). We have thirty bags from today's trip alone! Add in the meat we already have, and we have about 2 months of meat now in our freezer :-) Plus we have some cheese, condiments, spices . . . I'm happy.

I'm working to organize a get-together with a couple of friends to make a bunch of freezer meals together in a couple of days, as well. I'm also going to mix up some bags of dry spices, beans, grains, veggies, and mushrooms to make crockpot soups and chiles - just add meat! All in all, I'm feeling pretty good about the food situation when I go back to work.

I've set aside Tuesday to Thursday to just focus on food preperation - Bjorn has agreed to take the girls out while I work. Right now, we're actually focusing on laundry and clothes - getting everything washed and put away, and figuring out what the "right place" is for everything. Then we'll go to San Juan Island to visit Bjorn's parents for the weekend. Once we get back, we'll focus on unpacking all of the boxes in the garage and getting things in general organized and put away around the house for a week - and then the last week, I get to focus on the garden (which is fun, but hard work), and will return to work on Friday, September 5th.

I'm hoping that we can start pretending I'm "going to work" as the date draws closer - having me work outside for most of the day, just coming in for lunch, while Bjorn handles everything he'll be handling once I return to my real work, and keeping an early schedule - getting up at 5 AM, and going to bed right after the girls.