Lentil Results, Some Upholstery, and a Rooster

Hello, friends.  When we got our couch reupholstered last year, I got more of the fabric, to redo the bar stools in the kitchen, and finally got that done.  The chair below is the first one you come to, when you come in the door, and all manner of things get set upon it... baskets from the garden and other outings, purchases other than groceries, etc.  The second pic was as good as I could get it with upholstery cleaner.  It was time.  The ends of GF bread were added to a pan in the oven, to dry for bread crumbs.  I mulched the new flower bed with hay we got last year, and harvested lambs quarter, lemon balm, thyme, nettles, parsley, oregano, asparagus, kale, and peas.  The lemon balm, thyme, nettles, and some of the oregano were dried.  I made suet for the birds.  Our granddaughter was in a choral concert, and we enjoyed seeing that.  I made sloppy joes with some of the lentils I recently canned, and couldn't tell any difference from cooking them from scratch in the recipe.  The only difference was there were noticeably less, as a pint jar doesn't end up with 2C, with all the liquid, but the texture of them seemed no different.  

before

All the bedding, and pillow and mattress covers were washed, and dried on the line, in anticipation of changing from winter flannel to summer cotton sheets.  I've mended our mattress cover before, and the cover again disintegrated in places in the wash, allowing some of the wool to escape.  It was far enough along this time that J suggested I cover that side with a sheet.  I found a sheet that had been thrifted, and we worked together sizing, cutting and sewing it to the mattress cover.  We'll have to replace it, but it should do us at least one more season.  There's a new skoolie post up, prior to this one, if you are following that adventure.  My warm weather clothes were brought down from the attic, along with some summer sheets.  I was greeted by this visitor on the way to the clothesline one day.

After an appt, I went by Hallmark, where I got a free card and used a $4 off coupon.  I also submitted the receipt through Swagbucks, giving me the equivalent of $7 back.  So, for just over $9, I was able to get six high quality cards, most for upcoming birthdays.  I was very happy to find the organic celery price lowered at Harris Teeter, from $2.99 to $2.69.  It wasn't a sale, just the current marked price, and I'm hoping it will last a while.   Just the celery purchase alone saved me over $37 for the week, over Food Lion prices, plus I got an additional 5% off my order for seniors day.  It really does pay to know your prices.  I then did a stock up at Dollar Tree, finding toothbrushes, cotton swabs, scrubby sponges, lentils, and parchment paper. I heard from a Youtuber I follow that DT had shrunk the lentil size from 16 oz. to 12 oz, and they had at this store too, but I was still thankful to get them.

This may be TMI for those with gentle inclinations.  The bantam rooster has been acting like a randy teenager, and mounted one hen so often, he caused a wound in her side, so he's gone to time out.  I've got some chicken aprons on the way.  Though I've made some aprons in the past, I found some for a price that I felt my time was worth more elsewhere, these spring days.  We've had some warmer days.  Even with closing the house up in the morning, it was pretty hot inside, 79 degrees when dinner was ready on Friday.  J suggested we eat on the porch, which turned out to be a wonderful idea.  Even though the temp was supposedly still 80 outdoors, there was a lovely breeze, and it was so enjoyable to hear the birds and see all the blooming things while we ate and talked.  We enjoyed it so much, we did it again on Sunday, after J grilled us a lovely dinner.  Wishing you a wonderfully healthy and happy week.