From Instagram
I’ve always been a Do It Myself kind of gal. Then I married a Do It Yourself kind of guy. So then we were a DIY couple.
Let’s not discuss the fact that Do It Myself = DIM. K?
But lately I’ve been wondering just how much DIY we can fit into our lives.
I cook from scratch. Nearly always. And especially on holidays. But this year for Easter in stead of a huge giant meal that takes HOURS to prepare and clean up, we decided as a family, to simply cook out. We thought it would be a great way to get rid of many of the dead fall tree limbs as well as celebrating the arrival of spring. FINALLY!
So not only did I skate on the whole big meal thing but then I farmed out drinks to one kid and dessert to another kid and then, believe it or not, I had my husband pick up store-bought potato salad and store-bought baked beans.
I decided that the convenience of store-bought food far out weighed the cost this time since I’ve been struggling to keep up with some of my work here lately.
If you’ve been around a while you know that Warren lost his job last year and that we are both running our own businesses from home. So the DIY lifestyle has served us very well these past months. We DIY whenever possible. Not only because we are used to it but because, financially it has been a MUST.
The past several months though our schedules have gotten a wee bit crazy and we’ve even had to hire help for various jobs. But we still try to DIY as much as we can for our home.
So the question is. How do we decided when to not worry so much about the cost and give in to convenience when we are super duper busy?
How would, or do, YOU decide?
PS. Those cards in the image are from a recent game of LIFE after family dinner. They are the career and payday cards I randomly chose. Pretty cool!
It’s just my husband and I. People sometimes invite us over by his nieces but I still cook because we must have something to get at home. My stepson has his own family spread out and never him from him. We are good with that. We got a honey baked ham, I made lima beans, potatoe salad, and a sweet potato casserole , and dressing from scratch this Easter. The pretzel rolls I got from Aldi’s and are delicious. I do not mind but my beading and sewing business is going. I do bake but I got my husband a chocolate cake from Aldi’s also. It worked out just grand.
For Memorial Day, we will feast on italian sausage, ribs, baked beans, chicken, and corn, all on the grill the day before the holiday.
Last year, we wanted to Barbeque on Memorial Day and it rained all day. We had to got to McDonalds to get food.
Sometimes, we get bologna sandwiches, and soup and just are happen because we are so tired, the weather is terrible or we just didn’t go shopping for the foods we want and just eat what we have. Either way, we are all blessed and do the best we can. I am still working to get our business off the ground too.
I agree Vee. We just do the best we can. 🙂
We have cut down a few homemade things, like homemade pie. After my daughter got it through my head that we don’t have to spend the whole day in the kitchen working on something that is going to be consumed in 15 minutes. Do things easier and spend more time together but not slaving away in the kitchen. I have to admit I like the simpler better 🙂
I get that Norene. I bought pie two years ago for Thanksgiving and wondered why I hadn’t been doing it all along. Our little local bakery makes pie that tastes very close to mine. The only thing I didn’t like were their dinner rolls. No more pie baking for me unless I really want to. 🙂
We usually hire someone when the job is really more than we care to tackle and that usually means that it would end up costing us more to do it ourselves. LOL We have a house that was built in the 1800’s so a job that would normally take 1 hour, for us, turns into a weekend job just because 10 things break while trying to fix the original issue.
I would go get things for dinner when I am just too tuckered out from all the other chores. Yes, there is a trade off but sometimes the benefits just out weigh the work. I prefer home cooked meals and so does he, but there are just times when it isn’t feasible. Then there are the times when we are both too tired to cook, but don’t have the cash for fast food, so we open a can of soup and make a sandwich. Gets the job done. We always say ‘you’ve got to do what you can with what you have to work with’. Hope this year is a better one for you both.
Oh my gosh, Penny. I know JUST what you mean. You got to fix one thing and nine others break or are broken.
We do the super easy dinners when we are both tired too. I’d be happy having oatmeal when I’m that tired! 🙂
It wasn’t a bad year, just some adjustments to make.