Each year I post my top 10 books that I read and my coupon savings for that year. I also post our garden harvest totals. So here is the year in review for 2014 at our house:
Top 10 Books of 2014
Fiction
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes
The Bees by Laline Paull
Stella Bain by Anita Shreve
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
Non-Fiction
The Mushroom Hunters by Langdon Cook
Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good by Kathleen Flinn
A Wolf Called Romeo by Nick Jans
The Meat Racket by Christopher Leonard
Pandora's Lunchbox by Melanie Warner
I read 85 books and 32 cookbooks in 2014.
Coupon Savings
In 2014 I saved $2127.55 with coupons. It was $143 less than 2013, but in my defense when we were in Hawaii for two weeks I didn't use any coupons and I didn't get any coupons. That's my excuse for not saving more. I did average over $40 per week in savings.
Garden Harvest
This year because we took some trees down we had a LOT better garden production. But, we were also gone for 2 weeks on vacation during peak garden time. Chad's sister took care of our garden while we were gone, but I really missed being there during peak season. Here are our harvest totals:
Zucchini - 32
Squash - 44
Cucumbers - 117 --> 18 pints of pickles made
Tomatoes - 123
Okra - 863 --> 40 bags of processed frozen okra
Pie Pumpkins - 9 --> 8 1/3 cups pumpkin puree
We also bought 2 boxes of tomatoes from the farmer's market to can. From the 2 boxes we canned 14 quarts of tomatoes and 18 pints of tomato sauce.
This year with our garden I was most happy about the successful pumpkins and making homemade tomato sauce. The sauce was so simple and easy to make, but tastes SO much better than any store bought sauce! I can't wait to see what 2015 holds for our garden.
Tuesday, February 03, 2015
Christmas 2014
We had a very busy Christmas this year! Here are pictures of all our Christmas activities this year:
Here are our Christmas decorations and the requisite pictures of the cats under the tree.
This was the 10th year the Behold the Lamb concert came to our church. We've been there every year to see it too! At the concert they said that due to the rising demand for tickets (it usually sells out the first day they go on sale!) next year they will have to find a larger venue. While I'm glad there's so much interest in the concert, I hate that it won't be at our church anymore. After the concert this year we got to meet Andrew Peterson and he signed a book for us too. This is my favorite Christmas tradition!
Another one of our favorite Christmas traditions is our friends Christmas party. It started when we were all in a small group together and has continued for probably 8 or more years now. We always do a potluck dinner and an ornament exchange. Here are pictures from the party this year:
This year we went to Wilmington the weekend before Christmas to see my Dad, his mother and my other Grandmother. My Dad's mom, Nana, has dementia and has really gone downhill. I'm glad we were able to see her before Christmas this year. We were also able to see my other grandmother and open gifts with her too. We also were able to go to the Ft. Fisher Aquarium and see all the Christmas decorations there. Here are the pictures from the aquarium and the other beach Christmas decorations:
Here are some pictures from our Christmas at home. Chad surprised me with a Le Creuset dutch oven! It was EXACTLY what I would have picked out for myself and he chose it completely on his own. I am very excited to cook with it soon! We also got the cats a remote controlled mouse which they LOVED, but it broke after the first time we played with it.
Here is a video we made of the cats playing with their remote controlled mouse. Unfortunately the mouse quit working after this one time playing with it, but it's still a good video of them having a great time!
Our final Christmas celebration was with Chad's family. Because Chad's grandmother hadn't been feeling great we celebrated at Chad's parent's house. Here are the pictures from Christmas with Chad's family:
Here are our Christmas decorations and the requisite pictures of the cats under the tree.
This was the 10th year the Behold the Lamb concert came to our church. We've been there every year to see it too! At the concert they said that due to the rising demand for tickets (it usually sells out the first day they go on sale!) next year they will have to find a larger venue. While I'm glad there's so much interest in the concert, I hate that it won't be at our church anymore. After the concert this year we got to meet Andrew Peterson and he signed a book for us too. This is my favorite Christmas tradition!
Another one of our favorite Christmas traditions is our friends Christmas party. It started when we were all in a small group together and has continued for probably 8 or more years now. We always do a potluck dinner and an ornament exchange. Here are pictures from the party this year:
This year we went to Wilmington the weekend before Christmas to see my Dad, his mother and my other Grandmother. My Dad's mom, Nana, has dementia and has really gone downhill. I'm glad we were able to see her before Christmas this year. We were also able to see my other grandmother and open gifts with her too. We also were able to go to the Ft. Fisher Aquarium and see all the Christmas decorations there. Here are the pictures from the aquarium and the other beach Christmas decorations:
Here are some pictures from our Christmas at home. Chad surprised me with a Le Creuset dutch oven! It was EXACTLY what I would have picked out for myself and he chose it completely on his own. I am very excited to cook with it soon! We also got the cats a remote controlled mouse which they LOVED, but it broke after the first time we played with it.
Here is a video we made of the cats playing with their remote controlled mouse. Unfortunately the mouse quit working after this one time playing with it, but it's still a good video of them having a great time!
Our final Christmas celebration was with Chad's family. Because Chad's grandmother hadn't been feeling great we celebrated at Chad's parent's house. Here are the pictures from Christmas with Chad's family:
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