Summer House Book Review

I was at the library with my son and he didn't want to leave because he found a graphic novel that he wanted to read.  I went to the free shelf of books and found Summer House: A Novel by Nancy Thayer because I didn't want to search the whole library for a book to read and I had just finished my other book so I didn't have another book in my bag.  I was glad that I looked because it was really good book by an author that I have never read before. 

Thirty-year-old Charlotte Wheelwright seems to have at last found her niche, running an organic gardening business on the island of Nantucket, thanks in large part to her spry grandmother Nona, who donated a portion of land on the family’s seaside compound to get Charlotte started. Though Charlotte’s skill with plants is bringing her success, cultivating something deeper with people—particularly her handsome neighbor Coop—might be more of a challenge.

    Now the entire Wheelwright clan is making its annual summer pilgrimage to the homestead, including Charlotte’s mother, Helen, who brings a heavy heart as she confronts a betrayal that threatens her sense of place and her sense of self. Bringing together three generations of strong-willed women, each wrestling with life-changing decisions, Nancy Thayer’s luminous novel shows that no matter where life’s path may lead, love always finds a way back home.

This book was about a whole family who was traveling to the families summer house and staying all together in the family home.  It is a lot of drama in everyone's lives but I was following Helen who was dealing with discovering a cheating husband but staying with his family in their summer house.  Helen wanted to be there for her kids and each one of them going through their own issues including Charlotte who was running an organic farm and having issues in her personal life, Oliver who was getting married to his gay partner and Teddy who showed up with a pregnant wife.  There was a lot going on with each member of the family and I loved the changes that were made over the story.  There was another side of the family with Grace as the head but the book didn't go into as much detail about them and I didn't connect with them as much.  I hope that you check out this book for yourself and enjoy it as much as did with this crazy family.  If you pick up the book, you will find out lots of family secrets.  I can't wait to see if there are any other books in this series!!

Menu Plan Monday 2/12

Monday- Chicken Fries, Buffalo Chicken Wraps and homemade fries
Tuesday- Chicken or Pancakes
Wednesday- Steak and baked potatoes
Thursday- Pasta
Friday- Leftovers Recreated
Saturday- Lasagna and garlic bread
Sunday- Steak Sandwiches

Last week we did really well with the plan and got every day on the table as written...when does that ever happen.  On Monday, my husband and I had chicken wraps with cheese and lettuce which were super tasty so we will probably do that again this week.  I have been leaving the chicken dish on the meal plan and then trying to figure out what we are in the mood for.  Last week, I got a ton of PF Chang's sauce for $0.29 (and $1.50 rebate made it a money maker).  I decided to make a stir fry so my son was my sous chef and coated the chicken with corn starch and I cooked in toasted sesame and canola oil mixed and tossed with the sauce and served over rice.  We also had edamame on the side which was tasty!!  It was amazing so hoping to have that again soon.

I am not sure what I am going to make for our chicken dish this week but time will tell.  My husband is talking about going out to dinner with work friends so my son and I might have pancakes or some other breakfast for dinner meal if he is going to be out.  I hope that you have a yummy week planned and get everything on the table as planned.  It is going to be a busy week for us so hoping that we make all our plans but I am prepared with backups just in case.

The Beloved Christmas Quilt Book Review

I found this book on the new release section in the library so I brought it home to continue the Christmas stories although this didn't really have anything to do with Christmas except the quilt.  The Beloved Christmas Quilt: Three Stories of Family, Romance, and Amish Faith by Wanda E. Brunstetter was a great story written by three different authors with three different books.

One Quilt Binds Three Generations of Amish Women
Enjoy the gift of a brand new romance from New York Times bestselling author Wanda E. Brunstetter, along with stories by her daughter-in-law, Jean and granddaughter, Richelle.

For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name's sake lead me, and guide me. Psalm 31:3
The scripture embroidered on the back of a beloved quilt brings hope to three generations of Pennsylvania Amish women at Christmastime.

Luella’s Promise
By Wanda E. Brunstetter
Luella Ebersol has been caregiver for a dying woman and her young son. When Dena Lapp gives Luella her favorite quilt, she makes Luella promise to pass it down to her daughter. But Luella isn’t sure she will ever marry if she can’t find someone with maturity and faith like Dena’s husband Atlee Zook.

Karen’s Gift
By Jean Brunstetter
Karen Allgyer and her husband moved to a slow-paced village to raise their children, but Karen longs for the closeness of family to help her through the challenges of managing three girls with one on the way. When life’s pressures rise, will Karen cave to her fears?

Roseanna’s Groom
By Richelle Lynn Brunstetter
When the unexpected happens on the day of her wedding, Roseanna Allgyer can’t help blaming herself, despite not understanding why. Then an old friend returns to town, and she battles feeling for him—afraid of being hurt again.

I didn't know that this was going to be about three different generations of the same family with them handing down the family heirloom of the Christmas Quilt until the second story was part way through.  The first story was Luella was taking care of a dying friend and her child.  This story really felt real to me and I loved how the character developed and things changed through the story.  The second book was about Karen who was Luella's daughter and how hard it is for her to be away from her family.  There are some interesting parts of this that I really liked because of the connection with family.  The third book was about Roseanna dealing with being left on her wedding day and what she is going to do to move forward with her life when her almost husband shows back up at her door.  I hope that you check out this book and enjoy it for yourself.  My favorite was the first and second stories but they all made a great story together with the Christmas Quilt making an important appearance in each one.  Pick up this book and check them out for yourself.

January Reading Review

I used to start the year off with the plan but basically I take it as it comes with some books from the library, some from my shelf and some from different review sites.  I normally just read whatever is next in my pile and don't pay much attention to a plan on what I am going to read or how much I am reading but my goal is to read at least 100 books for the year.

These are all the books that I have read in January. If you click on the title of the book, it will take you back to the original review and summary of the book.  I hope that you add a few of these books to your personal reading list and enjoy them as much as I have.  I love suggestions on things to add to my reading list too because I am always looking for a good book!!!

Last Chance Christmas
by Hope Ramsay

The Christmas Wish
by Richard Siddoway

White Christmas Pie
by Wanda Brunstetter

The Substitute Guest
by Grace Livingston Hill

Welcome to Last Chance

by Hope Ramsay

 Home at Last Chance

by Hope Ramsay

Last Chance Beauty Queen

by Hope Ramsay

Daughters of the Bride
by Susan Mallery

Total Books 2018

January   8

Currently Reading:

Menu Plan Monday 2/5

Monday- Chicken fries, Buffalo Chicken with homemade fries
Tuesday- Chicken (don't know what yet)
Wednesday- Salsa Sloppy Joes
Thursday- Pasta
Friday- Leftovers
Saturday- Philly Cheese Steak Pasta
Sunday- Fried Rice, Edamame and Eggs Rolls

Last week  went pretty much as planned.  We did my son's favorite meal on Monday, Rosemary Chicken and Potatoes Tuesday, Tacos on Wednesday, Pasta on Thursday, and leftovers Friday, Saturday was pizza at a birthday party and Sunday was our Super Bowl Sampler in front of the TV.  I made toasted raviolis, homemade fried cheese, chicken fries, Nathan's french fries and more.  We all ate until we were full and the Super Bowl was underway. 

I have a fairly easy week planned and a fairly easy meal plan so I hope to get ahead with my to do list.  I need to clean the kitchen up and start the week out right.  I am going to try to make chocolate chip cookies, rolls and a few other things.  I have laundry to do again which is crazy because it seems to be less than a week since I did it before.  I know that I can get this house into shape again with a less busy week so I am crossing my fingers that it stays calm.  Hope you have a good week!!

Daughters of the Bride Book Review

I picked up Daughters of the Bride by Susan Mallery from the new release shelf at the library.  It went in my pile to read but there were a few other books on top of it so I had to renew it before I finally got to start reading.  When I got to it, I needed something to throw in my bag and take it with me and this is a big book in hard back with nearly 400 pages so something else got moved to the top of the list because I didn't want to carry it.  Then I finally got to start it and I couldn't believe that I had waited so long.

Courtney ~ The Misfit 
As the awkward one, Courtney Watson may not be as together as her sisters, but she excels at one thing—keeping secrets, including the white-hot affair she's having with a sexy music producer.
Sienna ~ The Free Spirit 
When Sienna's boyfriend proposes, he takes her by surprise. She already has two broken engagements under her belt. Should she say "I do" even if she's not sure she does?
Rachel ~ The Cynic 
Rachel thought love would last forever…right up until her divorce. With Mom's wedding day imminent and her ex begging for a second chance, she'll have to decide if she'll let pride stand in the way of her own happily-ever-after.

It took me a little bit to figure out that the mom was getting married but the book was also about the three daughters she had and their lives.  I know that it shouldn't have been hard if I read the title but I guess I didn't do a great job remembering after starting it.  I was learning about each sister and trying to remember which was which but it didn't take long because they are all different.  They also all came out of their childhood with different scars because of loosing their father at a young age and the rest of their lives were shaped by that loss.  I liked reading about Courtney because she was really the underdog and she was trying to make the most of her life to prove that she was better then people thought of her.  I understand having something to prove and I really related most to her.  I hope that you check out this book and others by the author because she has some great writing and characters that make you feel like you are part of the family.  I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did!!

January End of the Month Shopping and Eating Out Review

The first half of the month had me over half my $160 monthly budget for our family of three so I was luckily staying out of the stores for a long time and then I jumped back at the end of the month.  Although I was a little worried where I was after spending for the second part of the month not adding up any receipts, I quickly added on the 28th and was luckily still under budget!!  I still had $25.59 left in the month for the last three days!  I knew that super doubles was coming so I was saving to get some deals but I normally grab all the free stuff on the first few days so I figured that I would be doing really well!!  Check out how it ended up below.

Below are all the amounts and pictures of the items that I got.  If you are looking for the descriptions of the beginning of the month, they can be found here.  All of the prices and pictures are shown below.  The descriptions are included for all of the trips after the first half of the month.

Giant $0.16

Target $0

Harris Teeter $14.61

Harris Teeter $22.08

Aldi $6.71

Harris Teeter $21.07

Harris Teeter $0.42

Harris Teeter $0.37

Harris Teeter $1.96

Trader Joes and Aldi (I think those are the only places) $0

Purchased by my dad when he was visiting.

Harris Teeter $17.67-$5.00= $12.67

Harris Teeter $0.10

Harris Teeter $10.82- $1.03= $9.79

Harris Teeter $4.47

Harris Teeter $0.03

Harris Teeter $2.50- $3.00 cash back= -$0.50

Harris Teeter $4.13

Harris Teeter $0.67

Aldi $4.52 

I sent my husband to the store to get milk and eggs to fill what we were out of.  He decided that we needed pretzels and wheat crackers which we served at the birthday party.

Safeway $2.53

I went to get brown paper bags because my son's birthday party was the next day and we totally needed them for the goody bags to send home the cookies, minecraft blocks, minecraft scrolls, minecraft masks and other goodies.  I decided to bend to my son's wishes and grab white cake mix and frosting because we were down to the wire for finishing the birthday party as it was and he didn't want chocolate which was all I had at home.  After I made them, he said chocolate would have been fine!!  Cupcakes were amazing!  We really like box cake mix and I wish that I could get homemade stuff to be as light and fluffy!!

Safeway $1.51 

I ran back literally on the way to the party to get icing for the decorate your own cookies because I used yesterday's icing on the cupcakes.  I ended up in three different registers trying to check out so I was sweating by the time that I got back to the car but with icing in hand.

Aldi $9.28

We were running low on a few more things including rice, stick margarine and vegetable shortening.  Being totally out of turkey for my husband's lunch was a surprise because he didn't tell me he used up the last of the other turkey so I had to go since he had a homemade lunchable with crackers, pepperoni and cheese one day and soup the other day.

Target $6.80

I went to the store to use up the rest of my gift card to get a few things and for my son to get a video game with his birthday money and gift cards.  I was going to order the vitamins online so that I could pay with pay pal but I thought that I had more money on the gift card then I did and I really didn't want to keep the gift card any longer.  Rookie mistake not checking before I went :(  We ended up buying a birthday gift anyway so I would have used it up on that regardless.

Giant $1.21

I went to get the freebies that I had just added to my card including the Lara Bar, Sabara Snack Cup and Campbell's Maxx Soup before they expired.  I added the two boxes of Kellogg's Corn Pops because I had an electronic coupon and printed coupon to use so that they would be cheaper plus in case there was overage from the freebies, I would have it covered.  Lucky I did because the total order ended up making the cereal $0.50 a box plus tax.

Harris Teeter $9.84

I went to Harris Teeter to get the weekend freebies which included another Lara Bar and the Light and Fit Yogurt.  I got the Honey Nut Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch for $0.52 per box.  The Pringles were on sale but rang up funny so I went to customer service and they credited back some money and gave me one free for the price ringing up wrong.  I had a coupon for the Old El Paso and I thought that we needed one for the coming menu plan so $0.15 seemed like a good enough deal but when I looked at home, we had one that came in a kit in a white bag that I scribbled that it was Old El Paso taco seasoning at the top so I could have been more patient.  The Cran Grape was $1.99 per bottle so I grabbed four more since we were very close to out of them.

Harris Teeter $24.20

It was the first day of super doubles and I decided that I had to go and grab the deals.  I knew that I didn't have that much left for the month so I added it up on the paper before checking out to make sure that I knew what I was going to add up under budget.  I grabbed my free Texas Pete Hot Sauce and Finish (I thought it was going to be $1.29 so it was nice when I saw a sale that made them free).  The pasta was $0.14 per box which was higher then the last sale but still a good enough deal for me to grab a bunch.  The Edamame was $0.39 per bag.  The Nathan's fries were the only ones left in the store so I got them for $0.74 per bag.  The Tums were $1.99.  The Mahatma Organic Rice was $1.49.  The Newman's Salad Dressing which was $1.99 after coupon and I turned them in for $1 rebate from Ibotta so I paid $0.99 each after rebate.  The Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet bowl cleaner was on clearance so I used a coupon and got it for $3.49 instead of $9.99.  I thought that the Old El Paso Kit was going to be $0.74 but it was $0.99 but I didn't return it.  I got The Cheez Its were $1.49 per box and the Town House Crackers were $0.99 per box.  I turned it in for $0.25 Ibotta cracker rebate.  I also got another $0.25 any item rebate.

Total Retail $948.60

Total Savings $789.99

Total OOP $158.61

I got $9.80 so far in my Saving Star account with who knows how much more coming because they are so slow.  I got $13.00 in my Ibotta account and $10.60 in my Checkout 51 account.  I turned in a bunch of receipts for Fetch but I am not sure that it is a super great rebate app because it is slow going to get one reward but I will keep at it.

Eating Out or Take Out

Our normal budget for a month for eating out is $40 and we try to fit everything into that except one week vacation in the summer which we might go above and beyond.  We had saved all of our take out money for my son's birthday party because we knew that we were going to have pizza for the kids.  We decided on 3 pepperoni and 3 cheese pizzas ordered from my son's favorite place, Little Caesars.  Then more people RSVPed and we added another cheese pizza.  My husband called in the order which they didn't tell him the total but we thought it was going to be $35 plus tax so we would totally be under our total.  Well, Little Caesar's changed their menu and now they "normally" serve the higher priced pizza unless you ask for the Classic pizza.  My husband didn't want to fight with the women because he pre-ordered and we ended up spending $46.25 which was over budget and not even planned.  Sadly, we also had two extra pizzas when it was all said and done but better safe then sorry.  Not too over budget but we had many long conversations of our disappointment with the new "policy" at Little Caesar's that put us there.  

Happy to be under the grocery budget to make up for the a little of the difference in price so only $4.86 over both budgets together.  When I look back at the things that I bought, the only thing that I was sad about was the pizza so it will be awhile before we are buying that and I know that everything that I bought at the grocery store was an amazing savings although I know that I could have passed on some of the items like additional toilet paper or the frozen pizza.  

How did your month go?  Were you under budget or over budget?