Morning Routines: From Coffee to Chicken Salad
A Very Lazy (and Weirdly Productive) Monday Morning
Up before 6 a.m.
Not because I’m an overachiever—just because my body said, “That’s enough lying there, get up and make coffee.”
So out I went to the deck, cradling my giant mug like a goblet of peace, listening to the birds do their morning gossip. Probably about us.
Chicken Roll Call: One Absent
Mr. Frugalist opened the coop for our teenage chickens (yes, they’re at that age).
Cue the immediate realization:
Someone didn’t come in last night.
We both just kind of stared at each other and shrugged.
“She’s alive and clucking,” he said. “I guess next time she’ll line up with the others.”
Honestly? Probably.
Our old flock had this one matronly hen who literally counted the others every night.
No joke—she’d stand by the ramp like a feathery school bus driver and not budge until everyone was inside. We miss her dearly.
Breakfast and Boiled Poultry
Inside, I made the bed because I’m a responsible adult (who cannot handle a messy-looking room) and set to work making breakfast.
The grandkids helped with theirs, which is always more “collaborative chaos” than anything, but they got fed and no one cried—except maybe the banana that got mashed to death.
Meanwhile, I boiled a chicken breast like a true multitasking legend.
Tuna Salad, Chicken Salad, and the Mayonnaise Crisis of 2025
While the poultry simmered, I chopped onion and celery like I was on a cooking show where the prize is… slightly fewer complaints at lunch.
Made a big container of tuna salad and a small one of chicken salad for my picky granddaughter—who promptly declared that she no longer likes mayonnaise.
Cool cool cool.
I reminded her that her mother went through the same no-mayo phase. It’s a generational rite of passage.
Then I suggested stuffing the chicken salad into those mini sweet peppers her mom bought.
Boom. Innovation.
She was intrigued. I call that a win.
And yes, just for the record I did save my scraps for the soup freezer ziplock bag!
Musical Instruments and Logging for Dollars
In between kitchen negotiations and sandwich diplomacy, I took a picture of that ukulele I won a year and a half ago (and have touched maybe twice) and popped it on Marketplace. Someone else can live their tiny-stringed dream.
It made me think of the time we sold a stand of oak trees on our land. Let a logger come, took down the whole stand, and walked away with some very-much-needed cash.
Life tip: Trees grow, but groceries cost money now.
So Tell Me…
What’s the weirdest or most interesting thing you’ve ever done for a bit of extra cash?
Sold trees? Rented out your yard for goats? Cleaned out your basement and found buried treasure?
Drop it in the comments—I need to know I’m not the only one who’s listed a ukulele and sold a forest before lunchtime.
Happy Monday, frugal friends.
May your chickens all come in at night, and your grandchildren forget their dislike of mayo (again).
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to plot the next thing…have no idea what it will be but it’ll be SOMETHING. I think I promised a recipe for my Hawaiin Banana Bread last week, maybe it will be that. Maybe.
