animalhaus

2011==Holy Smokes!!

2011-01-07T07:13:00.000-08:00

2010 was a big year for changes and growing..I am back in school to work on an art degree and decided that in 2011, I am going to work towards less clutter in my life, both physically in my body / environment and in my mind. I stumbled on a couple blogs about the minimalist lifestyle and while I am not sure I am a formal minimalist, I really hung on the concept of LESS. So the first week of 2011 was spent going through mounds on unfinished projects, unread books and magazines and just generally clearing out. I had not realized just how much I had accumulated. We sent a LOT to recycling and a lot to the trash can that couldn't be recycled or donated, and did a lot of cleaning. I hate to say it, but we are far from done. I will continue to work on this over the next month...or seven...

My goal is to completely ride myself of all the old baggage that keeps me tired and jumbled. I am changing the way we eat, little by little, since the reality is I am not getting younger and need to take serious steps to change my lifestyle before it turns bad. We are going to move our food choices more towards grains and whole foods, and away from processed foods and meats. This is a big step for someone who was raised in a meat and potatoes home. The teenagers are Ok with this since they are both in sports and tend to prefer a healthier menu. My oldest son is going to have a little trouble with it, I'm afraid. When he lived on his own, he lived on a steady diet of boxed mac/cheese and frozen pizzas, capped off with huge amounts of pop. We don't serve any of that here. I will work throughout 2011 to convert him slowly. I'm pretty sure this is a shock to his system! LoL!

New Post

2010-04-18T17:23:00.000-07:00

Yep--that's all I could think of to call it since I seem to have completely faded away from this sight lately. Life has this silly way of not slowing down...

So here is what has been happening: I went back to school to work on an art degree, hubby is graduating with an engineering masters degree in May, kids are busy in every sport and school activity known to man, and I have been the taxi...How's that in a nutshell? LOL.

Plus, the chickens have morphed into super big girls seemingly overnight and the outside coop is still not built. I am starting to get a little aggressive about that since they really need to be outside eating bugs in my yard and enjoying being chickens! Word of advice: no matter how tiny and cute they are, DO NOT bring chicks home until the coop is built and ready to function! That said, chickens are probably the most entertaining creatures you will run across! I love my chickens. And the eggs a wonderful too!

We have been really busy putting in raised beds in the backyard since we have such uneven and poor soil. Raised beds allow us to level out the soil and not have to till. We did have them come out and mark the underground power lines, and were really surprised at the odd layout of criss-crossing lines across the yard. Raised beds will alleviate that too. We have 4' by 8' bed already filled with rhubarb, strawberries, asparagus, and tomatoes. Another one is waiting to be filled. We used cinder blocks and made some smaller raised beds along the fences that hold 4 boysenberries, 4 fall gold raspberry, 2 loganberry and 3 regular blackberry bushes. It is my goal to be able to grow enough produce that we do not have to buy it at the store, plus grow it organically. I am also hoping to have enough at the end of the summer to be able to can quite a bit for the winter months. It would be great if the only thing we have to buy is meat, dairy and some of the fruits, veggies and mushrooms that we can't grow. Wish us luck. This will hopefully bring the food bills more in line with my goals of cutting them in half or more. The initial outlay of the gardens is a little bit more than I had hoped (wood and cinder blocks for the beds, topsoil and bags of peat...etc), but I am confident it will even out over the next season or two and pay for itself. Especially with the berries. The price per pound at the store is usually pretty darned expensive.

In keeping with the hopes of lowering food costs, I am happy to say we have been really good at eating meals cooked at home. I am learning to make ravioli lately. Sometime this week I will try my hand at making fresh pasta, then move on to the ravioli. One of the twins and I are going to take a sushi class this summer. I had the opportunity to learn to make homemade crescent rolls recently at a cooking class and the boys absolutely love them. The premise behind the class is that you make them and can freeze them for later. I'll post the recipe later. It makes a huge amount and the recipe can easily be cut in half. However, these freeze beautifully and taste wonderful!! Well worth the effort of making them homemade and with the bonus of being able to stash some away in the freezer for later. It's a win/win situation!

Turning Around

2010-01-19T15:54:00.000-08:00

So it seems like it has been forever since I posted to this blog, and guess what? It has.

I have been trying to decide what the focus of this blog is going to be and how it will have relevance to my life lately. I had considered focusing on frugal stuff, but seriously, while important, it is not enough to get me excited about showing up to the page. I am going to change the focus to include my craft, art and all my creative pursuits. There will be frugal and cooking mixed in, but the main focus is going to be the creative act and the end result.

2010 is the year I will participate in the Craft or Bust 2010 challenge. Each week I will work on an ongoing project and record the progress with pictures, or I will do something that can be completed during the week and write a little about that. I intend to use this to help me jump start my creative process and keep me accountable for actually showing up to do the work.. Tomorrow will be the first post of the year, although for everyone else in the challenge it has been going on for a few weeks longer. My formal goal is to craft at least one new piece of jewelry or adornment each month whether in metal, fiber or any other medium, including painting and drawing.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-10-19T16:22:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been writing out menu plans for two week periods in an effort to help my house run a little smoother at meal times. There are several bloggers out there that are part of Meal Plan Monday web ring and the idea has appealed to me for quite some time. I will post my meal plans on Monday, although I usually make out menus that run Sunday to Saturday. For some reason this cycle of days just works better for me. Plus I make up menus for two weeks at a time, which covers from pay period to pay period.

The advantages of meal planning are many:
1. The kids know what is going to be served by looking at the list on the bulletin board.
2. I know what is going to be served so there is no standing in front of the freezer and trying to put together combinations that sound good.
3. It helps immensely when grocery shopping. I have my list of meals and write the grocery list from there. It also allows me to shop the sales and plan menus based on what is on sale. Big $$$$ saver!
4. It saves money. Since I shop for the ingredients of each menu, I know I have them on hand and will not have to run to the store. Running to the store for one items usually ends with 20 in the cart when it is time to checkout.
5. I have time to think out the menu, find recipes and try new recipes as desired. For example, this month I am cooking from the Once A Month Cooking book and have found 3 recipes that sound good. I've had this book for a while but am finally getting around to making dinners from it. I will try one recipe and if it is a success with the men in the house, I will double it for freezing.

So what is on the menu this week?

Sunday October 18 Roast chicken, mashed potatoes (real potatoes! cheaper and better for you than instant), corn

Strawberry shortcake for dessert using a butter cake recipe that I made and froze to use instead of those weird preservative laden pucks you get at the store.

Monday October 19 Pork Spare ribs (on sale this week) salad and deviled eggs. The original menu was for butter/herb noodles and broccoli. We have a lot of salad that needs to be eaten plus deviled eggs sounded good. dessert is a really easy chocolate peanut butter chip pan cookie I pulled off the Hershey's website.

Even though I had other things planned, I am flexible to a point with the sides. If you have something that needs to be used up like salad greens, you should use them first. Wasted food is wasted money.

Tuesday October 20 Chicken burritos, refried beans, carrot sticks w/ salad dressing to dip.

Wednesday October 21 12 Boy curry (from Once a Month Cooking), rice, canned fruit

Thursday October 22 Baked Jambalya (from Once a Month Cooking), sliced apples

Friday October 23 Homemade Pizza

Saturday October 24 Breakfast : Homemade cinnamon rolls

Lunch: Soup and Sandwiches

Dinner: Leftovers with cookies or canned fruit

Sunday October 25 Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, bacon or sausage (whatever the boys decide they want)

Lunch: Hot dogs and chips

Dinner: Hamburgers and French Fries. Hubby makes killer homemade french fries using real potatoes. There is no comparison! Carrot sticks and apple pie round out the menu.

I have made a big effort to cook from scratch lately since I am able to plan out meals and decide how much time I have. On days there is a lot of activity, the meal is an easy one. I use the crockpot a lot and will be using it more in the future. The chicken that we cooked last night had a lot of meat left, so it will be picked clean and the meat will go into the chicken burritos we are having later. I did buy bagged chicken breasts since they were on sale for a really good price, and will add to the burrito meat, but the carcass will be frozen for bones to make chicken stock later down the line.

Theme for the week...

2009-10-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

is saving money and getting a handle on a little impulse spending that has been a downfall of mine. That said, I have to confess right out of the gate that I blew it today when I got on Amazon.com and ordered 2 books that REALLY sounded good.

Do I already have a house full of books and many of them either unread or partially read? The answer to that would be a definite yes.

So my goal for the next two weeks is to stay off Amazon.com and read at least one book from the pile that is around my house. Is this going to be easy?

Probably not.

As a matter of fact, it is going to be damn hard! However given the fact the economy is in the tank, I feel it is really important to start getting my priorities in line and put money in savings. Experts say you should have 6 months pay in savings for a rainy day, However, lately I have seen experts changing that number to 10-12 months since the job market has tanked.

Here are some things I am working towards making a habit:

1. Staying off Amazon.com. It's just too tempting.

2. Actually planning --and sticking to--planned meals that are made at home from my MANY cookbooks.

3. Only grocery shopping once every two weeks from my meal plans. If I have to have an ingredient, I'll send hubby. He is much better at being able to leave the grocery store with only the items he came in for. If I "run in for one thing", I end up coming out with $50 extra junk minimum. We burn money with that foolishness! '

4. Trying to resist buying new yarn until I have made a sizable dent in my yarn stash. I tend to buy way to much yarn for future projects and should learn to use that up first. Considering I help out at 2 wonderful yarn shops, this is going to be really hard. However, I am going to really make an extra effort to make this work!

5. Be more consistent about the goals and the frequency of posting to this blog. I have been a little chaotic about posting to this blog and a little unclear of it's mission statement. I am going to work towards clarify the theme over the next couple months to reflect my interest in budgeting, cooking and book interests.

I have several really interesting cookbooks that I am going to utilize over the next couple weeks while I am doing all this home cooking. Two that are sitting next to me right now are Quick Fixes with Mixes by Lia Roessner Wilson -- and Make a Mix by Karine Eliason, Nevada Harward and Madeline Westover. I have had both of these for quite some time and figure it is time to use them. The first book uses mixes like cake mix, cookie mix etc. as the base for recipes. In the morning I am trying a cinnamon roll recipe from the book.

The Make A Mix book contains recipes that utilize base mixes that you make from scratch in bulk. For example, tomorrow I am going to make the brownie mix that is the base for brownies, cookies, Texas sheet cake and a Mississippi mud cake. This is a completely from scratch mix, which I find appealing.

However, using convenience products might prove to be useful too. I will let you know what I try and what I think of these recipes as I bake the goodies. As a matter of fact, as I read through the books on my bookshelf, I will be giving my reviews of them. There will be books from all genres since my reading is pretty eclectic.

So those are my goals for now. Check back tomorrow for the recipe reviews. I will not be printing the recipes since they are in the books and the authors need to be able to fairly profit from them if they are good--I will just be giving my opinion of the recipes that I actually make. I'll spend all of October and part of November on these two cookbooks, then move on to the others in my collection and review other types of books as I read them.

Stretching the budget calzones...

2009-09-09T14:12:00.000-07:00

Since it is football season and both my boys play--time is precious here at Animalhaus. Both the boys are on the Junior Varsity and are backup for the Varsity, so that means we have two games a week. That can lead to both a schedule clusterbuff and a menu disaster. If I don't have something prepared when they walk in the door, we sometime opt for fast food. That is OK, but can really bust the budget if we aren't careful. So this month I am going back to the drawing board and trying to get meals prepared ahead of time or at least meals that don't require a lot of prep. For this, I have relied on using up what's in the fridge and cooking out of my community cookbooks. I have a huge collection of cookbooks, but cherish my community cookbooks because they are slices of life from real people across the nation. Tonight I am cooking "Nameless Sweet and Sour Chicken". It uses an 8 oz bottle of Russian dressing (I didn't have a full 8 oz, so I added some Catalina. They do taste slightly different, so I'll have to see), 10 oz jar of Apricot preserves and a packet of dried onion soup mix. I might see if adding half a packet would be better.I did add a squeeze of lime juice since I had lime slices I haven't used up, but that is my twist....the recipe says to pour this over 6 chicken breasts or one whole 2 pound chicken cut up. I used 2 pounds of frozen chicken thighs that I cooked until they thawed out. I them dumped the juices and covered them with the sauce, then cooked completely. I'll serve this with rice rolls and a salad mix that we found marked down at the supermarket.

This weekend I was looking for ways to use up some leftover baked chicken breast, pepperoni and mozzarella cheese that we needed to consume or lose. I figured a calzone would be an interesting twist. So I found my go to pizza dough recipe--you can find them online or I can email you mine if you leave me a comment--and rolled the dough into a circle. After laying out the ingredients on half the circle, I folded the other half over and crimped the edged. After baking, it was well received by the hungry males in my house. Bellies full and budget saved--GOOD STUFF!

I had enough to make 2 of these. They were really large-you just can't tell it in the picture. Four of us ate well, and there were leftovers for two lunches.
Tonight I am making cinnamon rolls for breakfast tomorrow morning. I'll bake them right before bed and icing them when they come out so the gooey icing melts a little...YUM.

Cleaning House

2009-07-22T09:34:00.000-07:00

As you can see, our back patio has been severely ignored this year. We have a wonderful new deck and potential place to hang out, but nothing has been done with it. So for the next 2 weeks, the boys and I are going to do severe cleaning and I am going to work on making this an outdoor sanctuary. In the picture above, you see the result of dogs that refuse to remember that they are not supposed to use the old rock stairs to get in and out of the yard. The new deck has a much safer landing and solid stairs, but they continue to knock my potted plants down in their attempts to scale the rock steps. So, Wednesday I am going to look for fencing to block their attempts. JoAnn's Crafts store has several really pretty options.

More junk that is slated to be removed. I'll paint pots and put some decorative plants in there. Not sure what else I'll do to the landing, possibly paint a "carpet" on it. What do you think?

More mess. However, there you see the perfect components of a small seating area.

Again, seating and eating area waiting to be unearthed and decorated. Definitely a place for more painted pots and all kinds of goodies waiting to be staged.

This area is a major problem area for us. When it rains, the dirt washes out from between the rocks and end up on our patio, clogging the drains and flooding the whole patio. After it subsides, we end up with a couple inches of sludge on the patio. This is getting old quickly! Any suggestions? I am avoiding filling in the rocks since numerous really cute toads make their home there. We might end up having to make a cement shelf over the top rocks. I'll have to think about this.

Late Night Babbles

2009-07-13T23:13:00.000-07:00

It is past 1 a.m and I am having problems sleeping. Hubby and one of the boys went to Florida for a couple days while I hang out with the other boy and take care of the house and animals. It just seemed easier than hiring someone to watch the house or boarding the animals. However, I am discovering I have a hard time sleeping without my husband. This surprises me because I am usually pretty independent. Not sure what this is about...

Last week a friend and I went to a shop in Wichita to make cold processed soap. I took a class a long time ago on soap making but wanted to refresh the basics since cold process soap uses lye and you definitely have no room for error there! It was a wonderful class (pics will be on my other blog) and I have a 2 pound loaf to show for it. I am going to start making soap again. The friend that went to Texas with me went in on getting the supplies for a soap making business, then we didn't go anywhere with it. I am going to make several batches this summer so that they can cure and be ready to sell in a month. I'll call my friend and let her know we are starting again. She works full time, so I'll make the starting products until she can get time. I am going to look into selling on etsy and local shops. From working crafts fairs, I know they are a lot of work, so I am trying alternate selling choices.

Wish me luck.

I'll post pics pf my first batch when the bars have cured.

Revisiting Frugal

2009-06-06T02:10:00.000-07:00

These are tough economic times full of uncertainty. There used to be a time when a large number of years with a company meant that your job was reasonably safe, or at least you were safer than the guy who hired in at a later date than you.

There are no guarantees anymore in these times.

The news and information agencies have marked unemployment at over 9%--and the bad news is that it really doesn't show signs of getting better. Yesterday the company my hubby works for had another lay off. I was seriously freaking out since there was really no way to know who was going to get the notice. My hubby didn't get a notice, but some close friend of ours did. I was stunned and very sad. We've had bi-weekly dinners with this family for many years and I really didn't even know what to say. And then there was also the looming "there but the grace of God goes thee"--the full realization that this economy means that this may not be the end of layoffs and the realization that having to face a layoff in my house would be a severe blow. Our boys are in high school, we're firmly attached to our little city and house, and I have a comfort zone built up that apparently doesn't like being tinkered with (Hence the reason this is getting written at 4 a.m...can't sleep.).

While waiting for this round of layoffs, I reminded myself that I have fallen off the frugal wagon and need to get back on. I went gung ho for many months, then fell back into my old patterns of buying, storing and not using up what I already have. As a matter of fact, last week I bought $75 worth of yarn that will end up being stored until I actually finish 6 other projects on the needles.

Did I mention that I already have a yarn stash that could very possibly rival many small yarn shops?

What was I thinking?!

So, from here on out, until I finish all my pending projects and make a dent in yarn stash I currently have, yarn buying is getting curbed. Being a realist, I didn't say "completely stopped". That is like cold turkey dieting where you totally cut out something you crave, like chocolate, only to have a weak moment and fall face first into a pile of the stuff.

Another area I've fallen down lately is the meal planning arena. I have a ton of cookbooks, and many "Freezer Cookbooks" that would help me when I am faced with the "it's 5:00 and I really don't feel like cooking, let's do take out" scenario. I want to start cooking at least one meal a week from these books so I can get an idea on which recipes are going to work for my guys, then I'll make multiple servings to freeze. I'll build from there until I can do the once a month cooking. I think that would save our food budget. Months ago, I had "buy a freezer" on our list, we didn't. So it is back on the list of things to do withing the next 3 months. We're buying a small one, not one of the mega freezers. We really don't have the space for anything bigger than 8 cubic feet.

To help me regain and retain focus, I am planning to do is take a 3"x5" card, write on it exactly what I want to accomplish by being frugal such as "Save $500 this month", " Build up a 6-9 month income buffer in case of emergencies", "Save for a new couch for the family room" etc and keep it where I can refer to it whenever I get tempted.

I'll let you know how this works. I'm hoping that having these goals so close and written down will give me the proper push and ability to abstain from bad spending choices.

Still Here!

2009-05-24T22:36:00.000-07:00

Yep--it has been over a month since my last post on this blog.

Sorry. It seems as though I turn around and the month has quickly passed. However, I have been pretty busy so I guess it's not too bad.

I went to Amsterdam ---LOVED IT! However, next time I go, I want to take the whole family and I will avoid going during Queen's Day. It was entirely too crowded and crazy. I did come back completely inspired in a lot of areas. I was able to visit the Van Gogh museum---I love Van Gogh and this was a real treat! I learned a lot more about the artist and many styles he experimented with that I had no idea he had even tried. When you think of Van Gogh, you usually think of Sunflowers or "Starry Night", right? Did you know he did a whole series of paintings inspired by Japanese paintings?

I didn't. And these we some of my favorites in the museum. We had a really good lunch at the museum cafe, then went on to explore some more areas in town. I am completely infatuated with Amsterdam and can't wait to get back. Hubby and I are discussing taking the whole family next year when we can take at least a full 7 days to explore the city. I love the architecture and the vibe of the city. It is spectacular!!

Among the many things I loved in Amsterdam, I adored the shawls and scarves the ladies wore. I ended up picking up 6 of these for myself and regret that I did not buy many more. I am going to look at fabric at the craft store this week because I think I'll be able to make several of these from light fabrics and silks.

I came back inspired on many levels.

I got home and promptly ordered watercolors so that I start painting again. In Amsterdam I came across several artist selling their art in little shops and thought " I can do this too". One of my favorites was a print maker--I bought one of his prints and wished I had bought more. He had the copper plates from his prints at the shop and it caught my interest. I want to learn printmaking. Wichita State University has a printmaking major, but I think I saw printmaking classes at Wichita Center for the Arts at one point. I'll have to check it out. If nothing else, maybe I can learn woodcut printing.

On the home front, I did get 11 rose bushes planted around my yard with the help of my hubby and kids. I still have to put in the raised beds SOON and plant flowers around the yard, but that is going slowly since I have my 3 yr old grand nephew staying with us. He is pretty high energy, so we have to really keep up with him. He is learning the rules here at Aunt Rhonda's, so it is getting a little calmer. This is freeing up minutes little by little. So is the arsenal of Dora the Explorer DVDs we've stocked up on.

I will be posting pictures sometime this week. We had to get another computer right before I left for Amsterdam since our computer crashed--the new one was an upgrade, but we assumed an SD card reader came standard, which it didn't. Hubby got a card reader yesterday--I just have to take the time to upload photos. I was discussing this with a girl at the yarn shop and she mention I could just upload directly from the camera using the cable that came with my camera. OMG. I hadn't even thought of that! Now I feel like a dummy!!

Comfort Food--Bread Pudding

2009-04-17T10:40:00.000-07:00

Last night I decided I wanted bread pudding. Good bread pudding--the kind with crushed pineapple and shredded granny smith apples in it to give a little interest to the custard base. I have been seeing it more frequently on menus at some pretty upscale restaurants lately, but all of them seem to be pretty plain jane with an overly boozed sauce on top. A good light bourbon or lemon-vanilla sauce is all that is needed for this dish---it doesn't drown the flavors under heavy booze tones.

I found a recipe online that mimics the one I found (and lost) from Southern Living. It is originally from Dooky Chase--the famed New Orleans shop owner. I'd been making this for a while, then lost the recipe when we moved to the new house. Bread pudding is a great comfort food and a very tasty way to make use of leftover stale bread or french bread loaves that don't get used up. If you don't have enough for the pudding all at once, cube the bread, let it get stale by leaving it out overnight, then put in the freezer. You can keep adding to this bag until you have enough for the dish. YUM.

I am not one to be able to follow a recipe without adding some twist to it, so my addition is a cup of dried cherries or dried cranberries instead of the raisins. I like the better than raisins and they give a little lift to the dish. Feel free to add other dried fruit like chopped apricots or blueberries, if that sounds better to you. Either way, this makes a lot and is the King of comfort foods!

Oh, and I've been known to mix the white bread with a little leftover wheat french loaf. It's all good.

Bread Pudding
5 cups stale white bread (can be french, Italian loaf etc.)
2 (12 oz.) cans evaporated milk
6 eggs beaten
8 oz crushed pineapple (I pour the juice in too)
1 large apple peeled and grated
1 cup raisins (or other dried friut like cranberries, cherries, or diced apricots)
1 1/2 sugar
2-3 tablespoons vanilla
1/4 pound butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350*F.

Mix together the eggs, vanilla, sugar. butter, milk. Mix until smooth. Add the crsuhed pineapple and it's juice, grated apple and dried fruit. Add the bread cubes and toss to mix all ingredients well.

Pour into a greased 9"x13" pan baking dish.

Bake for 30-40 minuted until cooked through (should be firm in the middle)

Let cool and serve with whipped cream, a bourbon sauce (recipe later) or a lemon sauce.

I've seen it drizzled with chocolate syrup too, but I think bread pudding is best when the original flvors are allowed to shine.

The recipe calls for 5 Tablespoons vanilla--that sounded like too much. I don't remember putting that much in the Southern Living version, so I cut that in half. The recipe also called for 1 cup water to be mixed with the milk, but since I was using the juice from the pineapple, I omitted that. It's a recipe--play with it and make it yours!

Well Hello Wind!

2009-04-01T10:18:00.000-07:00

Today is another super windy day in Kansas and that has lead me to contemplate how much I would love to be able to harness some of that and use it to power my house. While that is not financially feasible for us right now, it would still be neat. I am, however, contemplating a couple other small changes here at Animalhaus, hoping that it will motivate me to make bigger changes.

One of these changes is we are going to get a couple backyard feathered friends for eggs. I love the fresh eggs I buy from individual chicken owners when I can find them. However, as more people get the exposure to a real egg from a well raised chicken instead of a supermarket egg, the competition for these little prizes is getting fierce. I'm not seeing them offered for sale along the country roads much anymore. So, we have decided we are going to get our own very small flock. Actually I don't know if 5 chickens qualifies as a flock, but it will be enough to keep us supplied with fresh eggs and possibly have enough to share. Both boys are helping me look at coop plans and it is going to be a whole family project to build the coops and the enclosures. We live in a small town, but there is a limit on how many we can legally have--and no roosters for obvious reasons--so we won't need a really large set up. We will need a secure set up since we have a hound dog that thinks she is a hunting dog and literally grabs birds out of the air mid flight. We also have a couple neighborhood cats that make their way over our fence at night. That may be cured soon since our hound dog caught one last week and almost killed it by the time we pulled her off. The cat got over the fence and I haven't seen him back since. We have indoor cats, which the dogs doesn't bother, but for some odd reason, if a cat is outside, Cocoa goes after it. I'm not sure why. Anyway, I really feel that we need to build a very secure enclosure to keep the girls safe. I think the boys have settled on the chickens that lay the pale colored eggs. I'm getting them from Mypetchicken.com, which sells them as "Easter Eggers". They are not the Ameracuna or the Araucanian chickens, instead they are hybrids (mongrels). Not a problem since we are getting them for the eggs, not for show.

We are also planning to build raised beds for the garden this season. We bought a composter, but so far it has not been filled enough and for long enough to yield any of the black gold, so we will buy composted soil this first season. By next season we should have enough to add to the existing beds.

We planted a cherry tree two years ago when we moved in, and this year it has taken off. Not enough to produce, I'm sure, but possibly by next year. We will be planting a dwarf pear tree and blackberry bushes this year in a effort to grow more of the veggies and fruit we consume. I'd love to get an apple tree, but we don't have a huge yard and I doubt we have room for much more. We'll have to see once the pear tree and the rest of the gardens get built.

Am I the only one to notice gas prices went up by 30 cents? While it is not $3, it does make me aware that we have relaxed our gas economizing a bit by driving a little more and not bundling trips like I used to. I am going to start bundling trips and minimizing unnecessary car trips starting this week. While the prices are not what they were, saving $ on gas gives me money to spend elsewhere in our budget. I'm still doing well with cooking at home more and am looking forward to being able to stretch the budget even more by having our veggie needs supplied in our backyard. Plus we will be growing without chemicals.

When I was in Iowa visiting my son, I got hooked on (flavored) Greek yogurt. Unfortunately, it is pretty expensive in our local grocery stores, so I am thinking about getting a yogurt machine to make my own yogurt. Again, I'll save $ and be in control of what goes into it. Has anyone madetheir own yogurt? Was it any good? I'll share my experiences once I actually get started..

Do One Thing...

2009-03-25T08:09:00.000-07:00

I had to call the trash company today since our guy didn't pick up our trash yesterday. We've been with this company for 11 years, and this rarely happens, so no big deal.

However while I was on the phone with them, I talked to the customer service rep about the recycling program Waste Connections just started offering to customers and it sounded so good that I signed up. The program sounds really easy and there is no presorting, which is a great incentive to do it. Plus they take chipboard, paperboard and corrugated cardboard. Some places don't take this and that has been an issue for me since we end up having a lot of that after trips to Sam's. They don't take plastic shopping bags, which is no surprise, but they do take a really large variety of other materials which makes this worth the $3.75 a month fee that's added to our trash bill. I am working hard to make myself remember to actually carry my reusable shopping bags into the store when I shop, so I am hoping that the huge stash of plastic shopping bags in our house in slowly diminished as we use them for trash bags and other uses. We really have a lot of them--more than we should, but they make GREAT linings for the small wastebaskets in the bathrooms and bedrooms. When I was in Iowa, I picked up some really neat reusable insulated freezer food bags from the Hy-Vee grocery store. I have one from a local grocery store here in town, but it is not as big as these. When I hit Iowa again, I am going to pick up a couple more since I tend to buy all my frozen foods in one shopping trip and have three bags would be beneficial. I have quite a collection of reusable bags AROUND THE HOUSE, so the push is going to be to find all of them and divide them between the two cars so we have them no matter what.

Plus what we recycle is turned back into coupon points we get to use on other products. Yeah!

This weekend is going to be busy--I have a lace class at a yarn shop here in town, Jeremy and I have pottery class plus I want to get some fencing to mark off the section where the chickens will be. I am still looking at chicken coop plans and will be talking with hubby about building a coop. I plan on getting lumber to build some basic raised beds this weekend also. Nothing fancy, just boards nailed together with corner reinforcements to be filled with soil. I may build them at least 2-3 foot high so they don't require as much bending, but I'm still in the planning phase. That height might get raised. I am also making some clay garden markers at the pottery studio. I've seen these in gardening catalogs for a pretty penny. Since I am in pottery, it makes no sense to buy them when I can make them the way I want to for pennies.

My goal this season is to start getting my home in order both outdoors and indoors so I can be satisfied to stay home more often and create here. I tend to run around a lot more than I should, which usually ends with me buying something that I really don't need. This includes groceries. Our pantry and freezer are full, yet I tend to pick up a lot of extras when I run to the grocery store. I am working towards getting a chest freezer for the garage and making the effort to start freezer cooking (also called once a month cooking), plus getting a shelf for the closet under the stairway to keep extra canned goods when I find really great sales. This will allow me to go to the store less often and save $. Once we get the freezer I am going to look into buying half a cow from a meat company, then planning meals around that. I've noticed we are eating less meat lately, which is good. We used to eat really large meat centered meals. The boys have been happy with more green and starch centered meals with smaller servings of meat on the sides. That saves us money. I am going to dust off my cookbooks and start trying different recipes for side dishes -- I'm pretty bored with the current dished and prepared sides I've been serving. I am also going to dive into my "Artisenal Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" cookbook and make up the master dough for the fridge. I bought the storage container for it a couple weeks ago, I just haven't made the dough, which sounds pretty easy.

I've been lazy.

It would be nice to have a supply of bread ready when I want it and not have to run to the store for premade french bread or drag out everything to make it myself as I make the meal....

Back.....

2009-03-23T18:58:00.000-07:00

And how have you been?

I'd love to say I have been busy doing awesome budgeting and saving money, but the truth is that hasn't happened. I got off track with spending the past couple months, so I have found myself having to get back in the saddle and rededicating my efforts to pull us back in line.

So here is what is in the works:

1. This month we will start getting the chicken coop put together so we can get a couple chickens. I am looking forward to having fresh eggs.

2.We are also going to get a garden started this year to help ease the food budget. I think it would be great to be able to provide at least 3/4 of our greens this summer. I will be growing tomatoes again this year for both fresh eating and canning. In addition, I am adding peppers to the list so we can have salsa canned for the winter.

3.Getting a freezer: We have been talking about this for a while. I am trying to decide on the model and size, then we will get one. I think this will help save $ by being able to stock up, resulting in less trips to the store, and less impulse purchases.

4.Learning to bake more types of bread at home. When we were in Iowa, we had fresh boule bread and it was amazing. For the first time, I realized just how good well made bread could be. So I am going to brush off my bread cookbooks and start practicing.

5.Clean my house and focus on getting it assembled into a haven. We have a lot of stuff that can be done around the house, so I am starting to work on those projects. In the past I've had a lot of scattered projects that get half done...This season I am going to take one room and stay with it until it's done. This includes dusting off the sewing machine, pulling out the bins of unused patterns and making stuff for our home such as curtains and pillows. I have some great patterns that would be pretty easy to sew--I just have to sit down and cut the patterns and fabric, then sew them. I will probably start by getting the spare bedroom in shape so I can turn it into a guest bedroom and studio for my creative endeavors.

We are also working on getting better at recycling and composting. I found a great deal on a composting bin at Sam's last month and we have been pretty good about adding kitchen scraps and leaves to the bin. I am seriously considering getting a second bin since we filled up the first bin when we cleaned up under some of the trees last week. I know it will break down quickly, but I would like to have a bin to put the chicken coop cleaning into for use around flowers, which would keep the chicken droppings out of the food crop compost.

Thoughts....

2009-02-03T14:36:00.000-08:00

My oldest son recently got an apartment of his own after his ex-girlfriend tried to move back into the house he was renting from her parents---with a new beau in tow.. That was not going to work. Apparently the new beau and son got along well, but the girl was a pain as usual. Let's see. if you live with someone, you will be expected to pay rent. Apparently somehow she thought my son would support her and new boyfriend...I know.

Crazyland.

So son found a place of his own. I am going there Friday to help him get some of the basic such as pots, pans, dishes, etc. Everything to start a new home. I had been looking in thrift stores here hoping to find decent pots and pans, but that did not happen. Today, on a lark, I stopped by a store called Dollar Tree and found great looking stoneware plates and bowls for $1 each, along with a lot of other stuff. After I got home, I hit my cabinets and found more stuff for him such as a hand mixer and blender, a few pots to get him by until we can find more, and other utensils. I was hoping that the car I reserved would be big enough to somehow squeeze a microwave cart into, but since I rented a compact, I wasn't going to hold my breathe. When I got to the counter, the girl said they were short on cars and asked if I'd be upset with a bigger car at the same price. All they had were vans--YES!! Just what I needed! That puppy is totally loaded to the gills!

So the game plan is that I am driving to Iowa to spend time with him and help him get all the basics so he can cook and be comfortable. That made me think: What ARE the basics. And how much is really needed to start out? I started looking around at all the stuff I have and realized that we have a lot of stuff that we don't use or that is just "here". I went through all my stuff to see what I have extras of so we don't end up buying more than needed and as much as I hate to admit it, I had a LOT of extras of the same thing. Much more than I needed! So this was also a good opportunity to relieve myself of some clutter. Once I get there, we will unload and compose a list of what he still needs, THEN we'll go shopping.

I can already tell the budget is going to take a beating this month. But when you have a kid that needs stuff after a difficult situation, you just have to take a deep breath and dive in. I do intend to get him stocked on groceries and spend some time teaching him how to buy in bulk, freeze single portions and plan meals around sales. I've realized I did a poor job teaching the basics to him, and need to make sure I double back while I'm there and help him work out a budget. You can bet I am going to work with the two still at home to make sure they learn this well. My mother and I got into a discussion about meal planning for one. She thinks it'd be cheaper for him to just buy frozen meals like she does. Unfortunately we don't agree on that. First, the amount of preservatives and salt are really not something you should consume regularly. Plus they really aren't that tasty--it is like just eating on auto pilot and not learning to develop a taste. Secondly, I have a problem with the disposable packaging. That's a pretty heavy load on the ecosystem if everyone did this. My mom uses a lot of paper plates and cups, which I stay away from if we are eating at home.

So, I will be traveling to Iowa again--I am looking forward to it, but the weather is a bit wild in that area, so I am hoping it behaves both while I'm there and when it is time for me to come home. Put in a prayer for me? I'm hoping I won't need it, but it's always nice to have backup!

Good coffee and great friends to you and yours!

Use it up, Make do, or do without..

2009-01-25T14:07:00.000-08:00

This month I have tried to practice a little old fashioned thriftiness and make a real effort to use up what I have, make do or do without. I've got a lot of sock yarn in my stash, so this month I have concentrated on getting a sock made for my cute husband. I did blow it earlier in the month when I bought a load of Paton's sock yarn that was on sale at half price from Michael's Craft store, so I figured I'd better use it. That is the first time I've been in Michael's in months. I used to go in there every time they had a 40% off coupon in the paper, but since they have quit letting us use the coupons on books, I have pretty much ignored the coupons. I guess that's a good thing since I usually ended up getting other stuff ( impulse) while I was there to "save money with a 40% coupon". However, half price on this particular sock yarn was worth the splurge. I've been working from a pattern book in my stash and will make a few more pairs in the upcoming months from both the yarn that I bought and the yarn that is in my stash.

This winter, since I have to be indoors (I really am not a cold weather person!), I am concentrating on "domestic arts" such as knitting, decorating and cooking. I have recently revived the urge to put together a quilt, so that is what I will be doing over the next couple months also. I have wanted to learn to weave for quite sometime and recently got the class schedule from Yarn Barn in Lawrence, Kansas that offers classes in just about everything fiber. They have an upcoming rigid heddle weaving class that sounds perfect! I don't have the space or $ for a standard loom and was not really sure if that is the direction I wanted to go anyway, but the rigid heddle is portable and not a huge investment, so I am taking a class to learn it in April. Cute man and I love going to Lawrence. We go there and eat Indian at India Palace (swoon!!!) and if we are in town for dinner too, we eat at the Greek restaurant on Massachusetts street (I can't remember the name, but the food is GOOD). Hubby likes to wander in and out of the different shops in Lawrence while I am taking classes at Yarn Barn, so there is always something for both of us to do that we enjoy.

Speaking of "domestic arts", I made a pie! Yep--from scratch, crust and filling! It is the first one I've ever made so I think it turned out pretty darn good if I don't say so myself! I am going to make a couple more pies over the next couple months since I think I need more practice on getting my crust thinner. The filling worked out really well though.

Yum. I like pie!

Tonight I am going to make the dough for three loaves of white bread using the starter that I've been cultivating the past 20 days. I will make one to use tonight and two will be frozen for later. If I have time, cinnamon rolls are on the agenda too. I am going to try to get as much baking done this week as I can so that when I go to Iowa to visit my son, I have stuff in the freezer for the kids if they want it. Hubby is an accomplished cook, so it's not like they starve when I'm gone, but it would be nice for them to have cookie dough and some snack ready if they want to snack. I have been trying to do more cooking from scratch and buying pre-made stuff lately. It is easier to control the preservatives and you know exactly what is going into your body. Plus, it is cheaper per portion most of the time. I am not against buying convenience foods when our schedule is crazy, but when I have the time to cook, I'd prefer we eat stuff made from scratch. We are really trying to get our budget under control and unfortunately, food seems to be where we go over. It may be that my desired goal amount is to low, but I don't thing so. I'll give it a couple more months and see how close we come.

As My World Turns

2009-01-16T13:57:00.000-08:00

Got to get up and go to the high school at 5:30 IN THE EVER LOVIN' MORNING this morning so that one of the boys could do a hydration test and weigh in for wrestling. Apparently he got there and was .2 lbs over his weight bracket, so he had to run a while to lose that .2 pounds so that he could pee in a cup to make sure he was hydrated. Something about wrestling smacks of insanity to me.

But then, I'm just the mom waiting in the 10 degree weather outside in the car for 45 minutes AT 5:30 IN THE MORNING....

I had brought along a knitting project to keep me busy, but guess what?

It is pitch dark at 5:30 in the morning. Yes, I could have turned on the overhead light, but when you are working in size 3 needles and knitting a sock, the light from above does not cut it. So, next time I will make sure I have a book and a good book light.

The kids are out of school today for teacher in-service, but we have just been hanging around the house and relaxing. It's been nice. Eventually I am going to meander into the kitchen to try a molasses cookie recipe from a cookbook I picked up at the thrift shop in Newton, Kansas. When I go up every Wednesday to help at the yarn shop there, I always stop in at the thrift shop next door that is run by the Mennonite Church. I ALWAYS find good bargains. This time I found a great coat for myself that only cost $8, a copy of Mrs. Field's Great American Desserts for $3.50 and a 2003 copy of America's Test Kitchen cookbook for $3.50. I love the magazine that is based on this show and the recipes in this book are spectacular. I also like that they talk about the hows and whys of perfecting the recipes, then give their recipe. They have a molasses cookie that is going to grace our table tonight, along with a blondie recipe from the Mrs. Field's book. I love blondies--and it is hard to find the right recipe.

Just a quick post

2009-01-13T16:42:00.000-08:00

I really couldn't think of a catchy post title, so what you see is what you get.

Several of the goals I set for myself in 2009 were a carry over from 2008. Since I had not mastered them in 2008, I thought I'd give them more attention in 2009. Sometimes a habit takes a while to catch on. So, here are more goals from my list for 2009. Several of these might be in prior posts..sorry..not a big news day today.

1. Save at least 10% of our paycheck EVERY paycheck .

I had been doing this in 2008, but found that due to overspending, I'd dip into the savings and spend that--and sometimes more. Not good. I know it is just the first two weeks of 2009, but I am going to pat myself on the back for not overspending and dipping into savings. I put 10% away and have been very careful with the budget that I have outlined for myself. Not that I haven't been tempted--I did slip on a pretty big yarn sale splurge, but I've been really careful to curb any other spending that I usually do since I did go a little off track.

I am going to work on the 10% goal for the next two months, with the goal of increasing this to 20% each check. That will get us on the path to having the suggested emergency fund as per Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover.

2. Make 2 week meal plans and stick to them.

I follow a couple bloggers who faithfully write out and follow meal plans, so I know they work.

The advantages of a meal plan is that I have a chance to look at our weekly grocery sale ads, find any matching coupons and can save money by planning my menus around the sale ads. Although the ads come out weekly, I plan 2 weeks at a time off one ad. If I see anything that is too good to pass up in the next week's ad, I purchase it. However, I have found that the advantage of doing a two week meal plan and doing the two weeks shopping on one or two days is that I do not go to the store as often and that cuts out the possibility of impulse buys.

I love knowing exactly what I am going to prepare that day. No standing in front of the fridge trying to put together a meal when I am tired and not thinking clearly. That's how we end up with the ingredients for soup getting used up for a side dish, then having to go to the store..Before I leave the house in the morning, I look at the menu and pull out anything that has to thaw. Easy. I can also look at the next day to see if there is anything that can be done towards prep work for the next day's meal. We're having chili tomorrow, so I will be cooking the meat and making the chili in the crockpot after I finish posting this. Tomorrow the pot gets pulled from the fridge and we take out what we need.

Eventually I will start doing once a month cooking to have prepared entrees waiting in the fridge at least part of the month. I figure if we have even 15 meals made ahead of time and frozen, that is 15 meals for days that might be too busy for regular cooking. No fast food has to be bought if there is something more nutritious in the freezer.

Another aspect to saving faithfully is that we are looking into getting a freezer in the next month. We did get some Christmas $ from my in-laws, and put that towards the freezer, so we are closer.

The savings goal goes hand in hand with the meal planning goal.

3. Lose weight.

I know, I could have picked a more original goal, but this one is a real need. Let's just say I have a significant amount of weight that I need to lose. I have lost about 6 pounds to date, but am working on more aggressive weight loss. I am a snacker and that needs to change, or my activity level needs to get bumped up. Probably both. We recently bought a resistance weight station from a friend that was not using her station and I am going to make time at least 30 minutes a day to do a resistance workout. This will start Friday night. I figure I can keep up a 30 minute workout.

4. Get my house decorated.

We brought a couple new pieces of furniture into the house over the past couple weeks, and they are basically just sitting in the middle of the room obstructing traffic. I also have dining room chairs to recover soon. I will purchase the batting that goes under the chairs next payday since I did blow a little on my impulse yarn purchase. Hopefully this will remind me of what impulsive purchases mean- that something else has to be delayed if that money is blown.

At this point, there are only 4 really big and important goals I am working on, but they are significant goals that will definitely help our house run smoother. I know we are hearing a lot about the recession and the impact it is having on everyone's household, so I am trying to get to the point I should have already been at. As bad as this sounds, the recession has been a long time coming. Again we Americans got too "spend friendly", and as history shows, all good things bottom out eventually. I saw this in the 80's when the bottom fell out of the oil market. I lived in Enid, Oklahoma at the time and everything revolved around oil. Overnight the bottom fell out and businesses closed. Since the money from oil had stopped coming in, people lost jobs, houses were foreclosed on...pretty much the same thing that is happening now. It is scarier now since I am older and the reality is that now we have a house payment. I am thankful that we bought a house below what is "normal" (3 times your annual income was "suggested as normal") and we don't have any car payments at this point. Still, it is scary since one business failure can have a domino effect on others.

What are you doing in your household to weather the storm?

Additional Goal for 2009

2009-01-05T08:41:00.000-08:00

This morning Hubby went out the door to go to work and discovered the center console light in his car had been left on (possibly by oldest who borrowed car while here?) and the battery was dead. He had to take the Neon. Normally we have three cars up and running, so that is not an issue. However, my van has been out of commission so now we are not exactly free wheeling. My van goes in the shop this week--I am really looking forward to getting that car back! This has left me thinking that we really need a newer and more dependable car.

We rented a Kia Rondo from Dollar recently to go to Iowa and I really enjoyed driving it, so that is what we are considering. We're considering ways to cut extras in the budget so we can just buy a newer car outright. I really don't want to be bogged down with a car payment right now.

However, we also have to get a couple other cars in the next two years (one for oldest so he has something there in Iowa and a car for the twins to share), so this is going to be interesting. One of the kids is going to end up driving the van, I'm sure.

My goals for 2009 are not set in stone at this point. There are a couple things I am looking at doing for myself, my family and our finances. I am reading all the finance and money management books I can get my hands on lately so that I can come up with something that fits our family and our needs.

I have started cutting out extras and trying to build up the $1,000 small emergency fund that is suggested by Dave Ramsey and am taking inventory of things we have here at the house that I can use to refresh and redecorate. I realized this week that we have a couple wood bookshelves in the garage that can be stripped and refinished for use in my bedroom along with a really neat chair that I picked up in Stillwater for free. Students living next door to my mother had thrown this heavy wood chair out when they moved. The cushions and support straps were completely gone, but the wood structure of the chair was perfect and all it will take is to strip the wood, prime it and a coat pf black enamel. There is a wood lip all around the seat of the chair, so I am going to either fit it with a wood piece to hold the new cushion, or I might even re-strap the chair like it was before. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. This month I am planning to start getting the stuff in our garage taken out of boxes and either put in the proper place or donated. The idea doe this is twofold: To get the garage cleaned out so we can put the cars in it and to be able to take stock of what we already have so we are not buying doubles.

This past week and the upcoming week we have had my grand nephew here. We are taking him for a little while to give my niece a break since she is having trouble with her third pregnancy. We take him back this weekend for at least a week, but will probably come get him after that if she needs more rest. I had forgotten what it takes to have a little one around the house! I also realize that I have gotten used to having a lot of independence, which is really curbed with little ones.

Well, lunch time beckons!

Good coffee and great friends to you and yours!

Christmas Trip to Tipton, Iowa

2009-01-03T11:56:00.000-08:00

This Christmas I drove to Tipton, Iowa to pick up my oldest son and bring him back to Kansas for the Christmas holidays. As far as the budget, the costs involved pretty much sank it. After renting a car to go up and back twice, food, gas etc--it was pretty much a budget buster. However, I did get to go outside my comfort zone and got to see some pretty scenery. The town my son lives in is a small town with a lot of wonderful Victorian houses, which I will post pictures of later, and a wonderful downtown full of architectural charm. A lot of the stores are vacant, but the town is still charming, with very friendly residents. The building above was the City Hall at one time--I'm not sure of what it's original function was, but can't you just see a shop on the bottom level and lofts on the top floors? I did get to try the doughnuts at the Tipton Bakery and have to say, they beat the pants off Krispy Kreme in both taste and friendliness.

The building in the above picture is being renovated for a gallery and gelato cafe. I'm looking forward to visiting and seeing how it evolves. I love seeing new businesses start and hopefully more will follow. This town is so cute--I can just envision boutique style shops and galleries here. In combination with the awesome Victorian architecture...wow.

Of course, one son had to pop his head in the picture about the time I snapped the shot. Say hi to Mark. Did I mention that it was 13 degrees outside? That's the reason for Mark's red face and frozen pose... Typical teenager, the lips kept moving...

Detailing on the old city hall building. Beautiful. Oh how I wish I had the money to invest in buying and restoring a couple of these buildings for business and residential purposes. They are so beautiful and have so much potential!!!

The view down the street. This is just one side. This town is so cute, I can see why my son loves it here. He is about 30 minutes from Iowa City, which contains a really good University, so we are hoping he decides to finish up college there.

As I said, the cost of going back and forth to Tipton sidelined our financial goals, but I do plan to pick it back up and renew my goals of being frugal and thrifty in 2009 in order to get us ahead and in line with my financial goals. Part of the plan involves reading the books by Dave Ramsey. I ordered "Total Money Makeover" and "Financial Peace" from Dave's website right before Christmas (he had them available for $10 each as opposed to $25 normal retail for each book). I also picked up the "Financial Peace Workbook" for the same price. I am going to read through Total Money Makeover first--that seems to be the one everyone swears by, then I will start implementing the program. I'll report on how well I do and whether this works for me. Believe me, if it works for me, it'll work for anyone!

Since it is January 3rd, I probably should post my goals for 2009:

1. Get $1,000 in the savings for an emergency buffer (this is as per Dave Ramsey). Preferably more, but I'll feel great at the first benchmark of $1,000.

2. Cut the grocery bill down. We spend an awful lot on food and dining out. Less than in the past, but it can still come down more.

3. Buy that freezer. I'm going to be on target for that by February. Throughout January I will be trying recipes from my freezer cooking guides and letting everyone decide which ones are keepers.

4. Use up the fabric and yarn stash in my closets. Seriously, I have enough fabric for SEVERAL quilts and lots of handknitted stuff. I need to slow down on buying more until I deplete a large portion of what I already have. I have a full sized quilt top partially assembled for the bed in the guest bedroom, it's time to get it assembled so I can get it machine quilted. I want top learn how to handquilt the smaller ones, or even machine quilt them myself--but anything bigger than a full size will have to be sent out to a person that has a long arm machine.

5. Figure out what creative endeavor I want to do to bring extra $ into our budget and get the proper training to get my own Etsy business up and running. I have a couple leads from things I'm interested in and have talents for, I just haven't done a business plan and examined all the things involved. The business plan will be forthcoming in February.

6. Go to the Iowa Writers Festival in Iowa City. This has been something I've wanted to do for quite a few years, but finances and travel kept me from it. Now that I have actually driven the route (my son live 30 minutes North of Iowa City), I know I can do it easily in the summer. I've already seen it in the winter when it is icing and the roads are bad. Been there, done that. No big deal. I just have to save $ to actually get there and the registration/class fees.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T07:51:00.000-08:00

OK-so 2008 has come and gone. How close to my goals did I get as far as getting the budget under control, using what I already have on hand as far as craft supplies and starting an Etsy business?

Ummmm. Not very.

But I do plan to stay on course in 2009 and actually formulate more of an action plan. This Christmas was the third Christmas in a row that the holidays kind of overwhelmed me. I didn't get any of the baking or candy making done that I usually get done. Actually I was just kind of wading around and not getting much done. I am not sure why I've had 3 years of getting overwhelmed. Maybe I need to examine my activities/goals and commitments and work towards simplifying.

Since I didn't get my normal holiday baking done, I have decided I am going to bake a dozen cookies on the 15th of each month and send to the people on my list that normally get home baked goodies from me at Christmas. I got an AWESOME cookie cookbook a couple weeks ago. I'll post the title later--I can't remember it at the moment and I seem to be planted in the chair...I'll probably start January's box with candy since I didn't do that either. See? I seem to have been on shut down mode this season. Maybe it was all the economic news or just my poor planning (which is more likely the case).

On the side, I am looking forward to the start of Simple Mom's 2009 book club. I bought a copy of the first book from the list "Your Money or Your Life" and have read ahead, but will go back when it starts and read each chapter and participate in the discussions online. I love the aspect of an online club---it fits my schedule and the books fit the theme I am trying to incorporate into my life. There are a couple other books I will be reading on my own such as two books in a series by Dave Ramsey ("Total Money Makeover" and "Financial Peace") that I have heard a lot of good things about.

As I sit here, my 2 1/2 year old great nephew is throwing a complete temper tantrum. We have him for a couple weeks since my niece is having complications in her pregnancy and he is a handful. It has been 13 years since my kids were this age and I have to say, toddlers are a lot of work. I'd forgotten how much. However we are working on getting him on a schedule and setting some rules. My niece gets overwhelmed with a 2 yr old and a 15 month old--not to mention she is going to have another one in 6 months--so my great nephew has been runny a little wild. The first couple days were a little wild since he tried to disassemble the house and had a few meltdowns, but he is learning there are rules. Not that he isn't testing them.....but that is what kids his age do. That is their job.

And he is doing very well at it!

Off the subject, I did get to go to Tipton, Iowa to pick up my oldest son. The nine hour trip there turned into over 10 hours since the roads in Missouri were iced over, but on the way back we had clear roads all the way through. After Christmas we had to take him back. The twins went with me so they could see the town where their brother lives. We did get a little later start, but since the weather was warmer, I had not anticipated any problems. But guess what you get when you get lots of melting snow and warm temperatures?

FOG!

LOTS of dense fog. Actually it was fog from Des Moines clear up the interstate to the point where I was going 40 miles an hour. There were cars following behind semis that were flying, but since all I could see was less that 4 foot off the passengers headlight, I did not want to follow the rest of them. What happens if there is an accident up the road? With the lack of visibility, all the cars that were flying along following the headlight of the car in front of them would pile right into each other. Count me out on that action. The boys and I ended up navigating our way off the interstate to a Super 8 hotel in Newton, Iowa. We had my son's cat with us so I was afraid they would turn us down and we'd have to do plan B--sleep in the car. They were gracious enough to let us have a smoking room so the cat could come in. I was sooo thankful! We had originally tried to get into the parking lot of the Newton Inn that was directly off the interstate, but we couldn't find the frontage road in the dense fog and gave up. The Super 8 parking entrance was well lit, so that's where we went. I am going to make sure I email corporate to let them know how nice the staff was to us. We had a good nights sleep then left the next morning for the remaining 90 miles of the trip. By then the fog had faded and there was a little ice, but nothing that caused any problems since the road crews were apparently out on the interstate pretty early and the roads were clear.

As much as I loved visiting Iowa, Dorothy was right: There really is no place like home.

Stressed?

2008-12-17T14:44:00.000-08:00

With the holiday season just around the corner and so many grand plans still unfinished, I was starting to feel a little stressed about getting and not getting things done. For example, a couple weeks ago, I spent quite a tidy sum on embossing pads, rubber stamps and card stock to make Christmas cards by hand.

How did that work?

Well, I am totally stocked for embossing powder and all the supplies I need to make cards. However, with one week before Christmas, I seriously doubt that is going to get done. So now I'll dig out my snowflake stamps with a goal of sending out Winter Greetings cards...like I said, GOAL. I think the goal of sending handmade Christmas cards will be recycled for next season. Actually I am planning to go ahead and stamp a few cards a day while it is freezing cold outside and keeping them with the stamps and embossing stuff. My reasoning is that is the best place for me to look next year. Will that work? We'll have to report on that next year...

We sat down with the boys and discussed the fact that Christmas is going to be slimmer this year. To my surprise, they were not only OK with it, they were supportive. It is going to be quite a bit different, but I think it is going to be more realistic. I am going to have the boys help me make cookies each day to take to friends and neighbors. We are also going to make jars of homemade hot cocoa mix to include with the cookies. This will allow the boys to get in on the action and participate in the giving. I will be hitting the dollar store this week for containers to put the goodies in, or to the thrift store for used baskets to carry the goodies in. I may be too late to find the baskets at the thrift store. The best time to look for baskets and things to package goodies in would be around the summer when nobody is thinking of Christmas yet. Oh well, I'll do the best I can and improvise a little. Hot glue and ribbons cover a multitude of sins...

As far as my goal of cutting our grocery bills this month, I am happy to say we are on target to do that this month. However since the month is not over and I also have my oldest coming from Iowa to spend a week, we'll just have to see. At this point, we are really well stocked for a lot of things, so I am going to see how far we go on the allotted amount. We are still above what I would really like to bring the bills down to, but as I said, it is a start. After the first of the year, I am hoping to be able to get a small freezer to start doing once a month cooking.

As far as gas for the car, I am still bundling trips and being really conservative with any driving even though gas is quite a bit lower. One thing that I have found disturbing is that Americans tend to have such a short attention span when it comes to conserving resources. When gas hit $4 a gallon and more, many people started lining up to buy hybrid cars, cancelled unnecessary trips and went out of their way to conserve. Now that gas is down, they have gone back to the same old routine. There were plans to build hybrid cars at a new plant in Mississippi due to the demand for hybrids, but that has been shelved due to the disappearance of the demand for these cars. What happened? My cars are not hybrids, but I do conserve carefully and am hoping to have a hybrid one day in the future. Our heat stays between 67 and 70 degrees (I admit it, the higher temp is my doing, not hubby's--I get really cold even with layers on in the house), which is just low enough to be comfortable. When it warms up, we will be putting in new windows and patio doors to keep money from leaking through those. They were needing to be replaced when we moved in, we just have not gotten to it. I'm still seriously making hard decision on what I spend our money on and am working to get a budget in place that will put us more on track with where we should be financially. Nothing like a recession to hit you in the face with reality!

Home Improvement

2008-12-08T17:09:00.000-08:00

As you can see, big changes are happening here at my house. When we bought the house almost a year and a half ago, the deck was in bad BAD condition.

Actually it was just plain unsafe.

The previous owner paid for the rebuild so we were pretty OK with that. The contractor is a friend and builder that we trust, so that was even better. We knew he would not put our family on something he would not put his own family on, so we went with his bid. My family schedule has been pretty hectic the past year, so the project was put on hold until recently. Charlie came by last week and started the deck project. I am looking forward to it! The original stairs went directly from the upstairs to the downstairs. To get into the yard, you had to go up 3 rock steps that are part of the rock retaining wall. At one time, they must have been OK, but now it is very dangerous to use them. As a result, I don't go into the backyard too much and if I do, I use the wood stairs to hop off at ground level. Charlie is going to build a landing that comes off the stairs and allows us to safely access the yard and connects to the downstairs patio. YEAH! This will be great for me since I really want to get going on a decent garden this spring. After he finishes the deck and stairs, we are going to get quotes for a few other things we need fixed around here. We have been in the house for a while, yet I really haven't embraced decorating or making it OURS. While not exactly frugal, I am going to start looking for heavy fabric to make curtains for all the rooms. I plan to use the discount coupons and sales for JoAnn's and Hancock Fabrics, so it won't be a huge blow to the budget--and I plan to do a little at a time.

Speaking of budgeting: We have really been pinching pennies in anticipation of the holidays. I have been keeping my family budget online at Pear Budget and am in love with that service. The first couple months shocked me! BIG TIME! What I THOUGHT I was spending on the different categories (what I had budgeted as the max amount) vs. what I WAS spending after all the receipts were entered was not a pleasant surprise. For example--we spent $250 more on EATING OUT than I even remotely imagined we did. And we spent SEVERAL HUNDRED dollars more on groceries than I even wildly imagined. After adding up all the little receipts for trips to the groceries "to get one thing" (and ending up with $50 in the cart or more), it was a very unpleasant reality trip. However, having it there in black and white (and a lot of RED)allowed me to see why we have so little money in savings and left in checking at the end of the month after Hubby gets paid. Each month I'd lament that he makes a decent salary, where is it going?! Now I can see where. Financial experts say everyone should have an emergency cushion of 6 months worth of salary in the bank, just for emergencies. Do you have that? This is our goal for the new year. By being more conservative and not buying everything I want just because I can, I am hoping to get us to that point. Part of being in charge of the family books is taking care of making sure there is a cushion and being a good steward of the resources you are given. I've been a little (OK- a LOT) lax in that area so 2009 is going to be the year of getting it back in line with what it should be.

So, this month we have been making menus and eating at home, not eating out as much, not doing small trips to the store (or I send Hubby, who is better at just going in and getting that ONE thing that is missing from the recipe I am making right that moment) and just generally making a real effort to say NO. Oh, and actually eating the leftovers in the fridge instead of letting them "age to a certain patina" before throwing them out. I'm not saying this month is perfect, but so far it is lining up to be much more successful than last month. Christmas cooking may throw it off a bit, but at least we are going in the right direction. I figure by the end of January, I should be on target to buy a small upright freezer so that I can be better prepared to do some freezer cooking (AKA Once a month cooking), that will save more $.

I did find a recipe for homemade hot cocoa mix that has turned out to be fantastic! I am going to put it in quart jars (that I got at the thrift shop for 10 cents apiece--I just have to buy a box of lids) and make decorative tags using my rubberstamps and paper that I have from scrapbooking. I'll be making up batches of this sometime this weekend, then I'll print both the recipe and a picture of some of the jars before we ready them for delivery. I am letting my boys help deliver them so they get in on the act of giving. It just one little way of involving them in the act of giving. We are focusing less on consumer goods and activities this year in favor of downscaling and putting meaning back into the holiday.

Cyber Monday?

2008-12-02T07:04:00.000-08:00

Last night I was contemplating when I would be buying a set of starting blocks (for track season) that my son wanted BADLY for Christmas. They were $70 plus $10 shipping. Not a huge amount, but I was holding off until the last minute. Last night I popped online to look again and was surprised to find that Dick's sporting goods was running a "cyber Monday" special on the entire site for 25% off. As a result, we got a little better quality set of blocks for the same price we would have before--actually we got the better set for $10 less than the lower priced set INCLUDING shipping.

I'm totally happy with that!

I've never heard of Cyber Monday before, but I'm glad I looked online when I did. Next year I am going to buy more since it is my understanding that this is going to be repeated. I DO NOT participate in Black Friday mainly because it causes me more stress and I don't like seeing how people behave towards each other while in pursuit of "a deal".

I am not much of a mall shopper, so going online to Wal-Mart. com yesterday saved me money on a couple other things like gas and time. To save shipping, some of the items are going to be shipped site to store, where we will pick them up, but I can live with that considering we saved a good amount of $ not driving around looking for what the kids wanted. The items I bought online were not available in the stores near us and going online allowed us information to compare three similar models of this item before settling on the one we bought. A good deal all around, I must say.

Are you doing any baking this Christmas season? I have decided to extend the feeling of Christmas beyond just the one day, we are going to make/bake a different kind of cookie/candy for 12 days after Christmas (the Epiphany) and distribute them to friends. I have kept the list manageable, 6 or 7 people/families, and they will get a dozen each day (or one type of candy). This can be done easily with my candy/cookie recipes. Four of the families are in our old neighborhood. We only moved 2 blocks down and one block over, but it seems we just don't go sit and hang out with the neighbors as much as we would like to. I am going to work towards giving the holidays more meaning beyond the standard "gimme" syndrome. Luckily my boys aren't that caught up in the commercialism of the holidays and are all right with a more scaled down holiday.

And after the holidays are over, I am going to participate in SimpleMom's 2009 book club. You can hit the link on my sidebar to find out more about the book club. The first book is going to be "Your Money or Your Life", which is a classic. I am looking forward to all of the books she has chosen. They are well chosen. I like that the first book out of the gate is one about refocusing financially. It is a good start to the new year. I'm all over this book club!!! Especially since it can be done from my house. Totally do-able!

Griping Post...

2008-11-24T11:15:00.000-08:00

No, that's not something to tie an unhappy horse to, but it might work for me..WARNING--this post is going to be full of griping and general bitching.

We recently got the van back after having $400 worth of work done on it. The water pump was out so it was overheating. We took it in and This morning I took it to the grocery store and it started overheating. CRAP! I am taking it back to the mechanic on Friday, but in the meantime, hubby and I are juggling transportation. We are guessing it might just be a hose that disconnected, not a huge problem...We have three cars--two with one down. That seems like a fair amount, but in reality we have come to the conclusion that having three working cars is important to us and we adjust our spending to compensate for that. For quite a while we were down to two--the compact and an older bigger car. We are hoping to trade in the older car soon for something more gas efficient. I would rather spend my $ on things we need, not gas for a gas hog. With all the activities the kids are in and the work/school schedule of my husband, having multiple working cars is imperative.

Have you started holiday preparations yet? What are you doing for gifts this year?

For family and friends, we are giving homemade candy and cookies, jams and other baked goods. This will allow us to give gifts that will be consumed instead of gathering dust on the recipient's shelf, plus save us money. I am going to the Dollar store next week to start amassing tins and cookie trays for the goodies. Some are going to also get hand knitted dishcloth sets. I have been using up my surplus cotton yarn stash while making these and they are a lot of fun. I've made two so far from pretty ornate patterns that look really pretty. Unfortunately they do take longer, so the recipients will probably get one ornate and two not so ornate dishcloths tied together with at pretty ribbon and some seventh generation dish soap that I order it in bulk from Amazon (at quite a substantial savings since I am having it shipped through their subscribe and save program...LOVE THIS DISH SOAP-LOVE SAVING $ !) . I was going to make homemade vanilla extract, but given the late date, I don't think it would have time to age, so I'll do that at a later date. I'm going to actively involve the boys in the making and taking--I think it gives more meaning to the holiday.

I'm still mad about the van, but I feel a little better now. I used to shop when I was stressed, now I blog--it works out better this way.

Now if only I could clean house when I am stressed. I'd have one spotless house!!I know, DREAM ON!

Best Laid Plans....

2008-11-22T07:30:00.000-08:00

soon crumble when you have little ones running around!

Remember those goals of getting my groceries and doing some once a month cooking?

Didn't happen.

Why? Well, I went to Stillwater to watch my 2 year old great nephew and 5 month old great niece, then brought them home with me. From then on, all planned events crashed right out the window.

I have decided that even though I raised two very active twins, as one gets older it just gets too hard to chase around a hyperactive two year old and attend to a teething 5 month old. I am proud to say that he didn't tear my house up the way he does at home and at his grandma's, but we spent the first day at my house being intensely trained. This is a combination of scolding and praising...anyone with kids knows how that goes.

All said, he did really well. I had to be really careful to keep an eye on him while attending to feeding the 5 month old--I had totally forgotten how much chaos a two year old can cause. We did have one issue with him kicking our beagle on the side, which was quickly dealt with. After that, he left ALL the animals alone completely. Our cats tolerated him, but the screaming from my great niece was really too much for them to handle, so we didn't see much of them the whole time the kids were here. We are looking forward to taking one or the other again so that my niece can have a little bit of piece, but I've pretty much decided that I can't handle both at once.

Besides being completely exhausted from the week, a good thing came from this: My twins have an up close and personal experience with the trials of small children. I can't say they even want to have kids EVER after this...This was much better than the hokey little experiment some schools do by making them carry around a doll or an egg. Dolls and eggs don't scream at ear ripping decibels or need a really bad diaper changed. Yep, priceless reality.

So, no once a month cooking got done. However, I am going to dust myself off and start anew next week. I fell short on budgeting too. After not entering my receipts into Pear until today, I realized I had gone over the budget on several odd and unplanned categories. That sucks since it is so close to Christmas. However, I will keep on plugging through so we can get back on track. My goal to buy a freezer is on temporary hold until after the holidays. With whole turkeys at 77 cent a pond, I wish I could snag several and store, but I just don't have the freezer space in our fridge unit.

One good thing from the trip to Stillwater is that I found a really good loveseat and coffee table at a junk shop and put it on layaway until the end of the month. The loveseat is more of a settee style, but it will be prefect in the library. They did have two other coffee tables I am seriously considering since they were all wood and could be refinished. We need one in the family room and one more in the seating area in our master bedroom, and these were only $20 each, so well within the budget. One thing we are lacking is table lamps, but I didn't see any there that would work in our house, so I'll just keep searching.

Learning Once a Month Cooking

2008-11-12T11:58:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to try once a month cooking for quite some time.

I've bought several books, made lists, made plans, then got intimidated. It seemed like a huge undertaking. However, listening to people rave about the $$$ it saves them and looking at our budget has been a powerful motivator for me. I also like the convenience--no more standing in the kitchen at 5:00 wondering what the heck is going to be for dinner. That alone is priceless since we often resort to fast food or take out pizza at that point.

This morning I sat down with my OMC books and found 6 recipes and then found a creole mustard marinade recipe that can be used on pork and chicken. I figured venturing out with 6-8 recipes was not going to be as intimidating, therefore a good way to take baby steps into the process.

After that, I made a master shopping list and a master calendar of two weeks. I figured two weeks of worth of menu planning was not as intimidating. After I made the two week menu, I realized that if I just doubled the amounts I cooked of the 6 recipes, I'd have enough to spread over the next two weeks. I decided that I would buy 10 pounds of ground beef and make 12 large patties to freeze in freezer baggies of 4 patties per bag, with enough left over to make several large baggies of precooked meatballs, beef burritos and stuffed shells. The meatballs will be used for meatball subs, spaghetti and barbecued meatballs with smokies. I also have plans for chicken enchiladas and King Ranch chicken casserole to freeze. In combination with a couple other meal plans, I just realized I will have enough entrees for more than a month! All in one cooking session! And with the meals spread around, we really are not having the same meal more than twice in the month long period. It looks like I might actually have enough to last past the month. Those meals will be handy on the next day I do a cooking session.

I'll look in my OMC book and try 3 new recipes the next time I cook, in addition to the others--if they are voted as repeats--and grow my OMC cooking file that way. Out of the 4 Once a Month cooking books I own, there are hundreds of recipes I can choose from based on my family's preferences. Some of them will be voted off the island I'm sure. But this allows us to try different meals and get out of the cooking rut I've been in. I also have a killer recipe for a peach berry crisp that I am going to test to see how well it freezes. We have a large bag of mixed frozen berries I got from the warehouse store that we haven't used. Combined with frozen peaches and the topping, it sounds like a good way to use up the berries. I'll make a test run of it on Monday and freeze a batch uncooked, then a batch cooked and cooled to see how they turn out. I'll post the recipe for the best one later this month. I figure on the days when we are using up the leftovers in the fridge, having a special dessert will make it a little better. We tend to not eat leftovers like we should, and that is a budget killer too. One other thing I plan to work on is cooking the right amount--more in line with what portion sizes SHOULD be. I tend to cook LARGE portions. Great for hubby to take to lunch and me to have, but let's face it--How many times do you want to eat the same meal in a short period?

I am now psyched to get started. I will wait until Monday though, since the boys and hubby will be at school/work and I'll have time to shop in the early morning for the best deals on meat. The grand idea is that I will do all my non perishable shopping on Sunday at the grocery store and clean/empty the fridge at that time, then Monday morning will be my day to hit the store for perishables. That may change. I'll look at the schedule and decide what is going to be the best use of my time.

However, after reviewing what we spent for groceries last month (THANK YOU SimpleMom for turning me on to Pear Budget) , I think any savings will be a tremendous plus!

I'll let you know how it goes.

It's Always Something, plus SimpleMom giveaway

2008-11-08T18:07:00.000-08:00

Remember how I said I finally got the house "guest ready" and was feeling tired but quite pleased with myself? Ever hear "Pride goes before the fall"?

Well, I LIVE it!

Gather round and let me tell you a little STORY..

The room we use as the guest bedroom is the room that formerly housed my oldest son, before he moved to Iowa. When kids move out, they don't always take everything with them. For that matter, they often leave a lot in a pretty fancy state of disarray. That would be the exact state of our "guest bedroom" before I did a FlyLady cleaning. It wasn't perfect by the time my brother in law arrived, but by golly, it was close.

So feeling pretty smug with myself, I tempted fate and patted myself on the back.

That was mistake #1

Brother in law arrived, got settled in and then left to hang out with his friend who was getting married (which is the reason for his trip from California to Kansas). In the process he left the door to the guest bedroom open.

We have dogs that LOVE that soft mattress. It didn't occur to me to make sure the door was closed.

That was mistake #2

So, about 1 a.m, little bro in law gets home after the bachelor party to find a beagle fully stretched out on the bed, snoring.

But WAIT! There's MORE.

Said reclining beagle--apparently fatigue from a full day of eating and lounging around the house, apparently climbed up on the bed, PUKED, then fell asleep beside his little handy work. Yep, PUKED on the FRESHLY WASHED pillow, comforter and sheets of the bed in the room I put real sweat equity getting cleaned up.

GEEEEEEZZZZZ!

What does that say about the confidence of the animals around here when they screw up and don't even bother to leave the scene of the crime? Apparently Buddy the beagle was so confident in his legal resident status that he was not inclined to move at the prompting of my bro in law. He basically looked at him and gave him the "life sucks, deal with it" look and started to go back to sleep. Yep, my proudest moment...

Yes people, that is my life.

Jealous?

On the lighter side, SimpleMom is giving away an Epson Artisian 800 printer in a drawing on Wednesday November 12. Go on over and check out her blog to enter and to read her blog. She has really awesome printable downloads that I print and depend on. Hey, if I win one, I can take pictures of all my BEFORE cleaning projects so that I have a memory of what it looks like BEFORE my animals contribute their 2 cents...

More FlyLady kuddos...

2008-11-06T09:55:00.000-08:00

Just so you don't think the earlier pics of the spot in the kitchen were the worst of the mess, I thought I'd share this post...This is what happens when you move from one house, bring boxes up from the garage and then park them in the house and do nothing else. After a while, you bring stuff in the house and just lay it on top of the piles of boxes "until you can figure out what needs to be done with it". Guess what? You end up with CHAOS.

Here are the BEFORE and AFTER pictures. I'm pretty sure you can tell which is which. As I said, instead of sitting down to do it all at once, I did the FlyLady marathon technique. A simple synopsis is that you start in the kitchen for 15 minutes, then go to the livingroom (the upstairs room in our house is the library, so I did that) for 15 minutes, then the kitchen again, then break for 15 minutes...then repeat. You need to get the book for the correct sequence. At first I thought, 15 minutes here and there?! There is no way I can accomplish anything that way. Being desperate, I tried it.

It WORKS.

The 15 minute intervals keep you from getting bored and overwhelmed in one area. By the time you start getting overwhelmed, you are off to a new area and it helps a lot. Then when you return, you have a refreshed view and are able to tackle the rest. I'll post more tomorrow, I still have the guest bedroom sheets to put on the bed, and guess what? One of the Flylady "commandments" is not to let the computer sidetrack you....

Enough said.

Gotta love FlyLady!

2008-11-06T09:20:00.000-08:00

Remember when I said I was in mass panic mode since my brother in law was coming from California for a visit and our house was utter and total chaos?

Well, I was sitting in my bedroom hyperventilating and looking through the FlyLady book, hoping for either a miracle or a bolt of lightning. I was scanning the book and turned to a page that entailed a panic driven cleaning spree and how to do it.

Guess what? It works!!!!

I will post some pictures to prove it. Above is a section of our kitchen AFTER I spree cleaned it Flylady style. BELOW is the BEFORE. Scary Huh?

Above is what happens when things have no real place and you just put things wherever they land. While the AFTER picture can be improved on by putting those things away, I really don't have a spot for them right now. Later, after brother in law is gone, I will be doing some purging so I'm sure what is left in the after pic will have a home.I'm pretty darn happy with the AFTER anyway.

Above is the before picture of one part of the library. Below is the after. All the things on the wall were sitting in the library, unhung and not dusted. The bookshelf top was speed cleaned and a lot of junk was just plain tossed and pictures/candle sconces hung.

This is chaos what happens when you just let things go because you have too much going on in your life and you get overwhelmed. Then you end up getting overwhelmed by the state of the house which just turns into a vicious cycle.

I have a lot more pics that I will be posting through the rest of the month. Trust me, these are the GOOD before pictures.

It is a little scary letting everyone see how bad I let the house get, it makes me feel really vulnerable, but one of my reasons for letting you see the scary before pictures is that I want you to see how well the FLylady's suggestions work.

Once I get it under control, I intend to use a combination of the Flylady's techniques and SimpleMom's down loadable cleaning schedule. I love those sheets! They help me remember what has been done and what needs to be done. I am using the Flylady's techniques too, so I feel confident that I will be able to get the house in order and keep it in order. There is still a lot more cleaning and purging that I am going to do after the visit to make room for things that I want to keep...

No Spend Month

2008-11-04T10:35:00.000-08:00

While perusing Small Notebook's sight today, I noticed she had posted about her No Spend Month and had links to others who were doing similar. So I have decided that for the rest of the month, I am going to do something similar. Too bad I didn't think about this sooner--I just did a little sleep shopping.

What is SLEEP SHOPPING, you ask?

It's where you buy stuff on the Internet with a click of a button while on auto-pilot..just like sleep walking...Amazon and Book of the Month Club are my weaknesses. Did I mention I spent $60 on book Sunday?! What was I thinking?! While 2 of the books are good books that I will use (Prayer Shawl Companion and a Pie book), one was a complete impulse. There were a couple other books that were the same impulse. SOOOO--for the rest of the month, I am going to limit myself to a budget of $10 a week for the rest of the month. When the $10 is gone, it is gone. This is going to be really hard for me. I'm used to pulling out my debit card and swiping..or ordering online with a click of a button. And truth be told, I really like coming home and having a package for me on the porch. .

It feels good.

However, what doesn't feel good is the fact that my house is filled with clutter and I am embarrassed to have people over. My brother in law is coming from California this Thursday to spend a couple days with us. I've been in a mad rush to get the house cleaned...

I've come to a couple conclusions.

1. I am a "just in case" saver. This weekend I threw out no less than 4 full trash bags of old clothes from when I was a size 9. I am 100 lbs past that (that's another issue I'm working on, but I digress) and have been saving them JUST IN CASE I get to that size soon. Reality: These clothes that were the height of fashion THEN are REALLY out of fashion now. REALLY OUT OF FASHION. ....tossed.

2. I save old jar and plastic containers to use for later. Not bad if you actually USE them. I usually don't, they're just THERE. Hanging around, adding visual clutter. The reality is that plastic containers are not safe to microwave in because of toxins, and when I transfer leftovers to a container destined for the fridge, it is usually a ceramic bowl with plastic wrap over it. Plastic bowls, glass bottles, plastic containers...tossed.

3. I save old magazines. A lot of them had recipes in them that I wanted to use for entertaining. Reality check: With so much paper laying around, it made my house not suitable for entertaining guests. This weekend, I clipped recipes, tossed the magazines and put the recipes in sheet protectors and a binder. Same with knitting patterns. I do not need any new patterns!

This morning I have been doing the Flylady's marathon cleaning. It basically is 15 minute intervals in different areas of the house, then continuing the sequence until the rooms are cleaned. I did it for 2 hours and am taking a break for an hour before diving back in. The crazy thing is I am making real headway. Once I get the kitchen table and the family room completed, I will consider that a huge victory. I still have the guest room and the family room, but I'll use the same system to get them done. I am glad I got this book. I will go back and read through it once I have the house at least decent for guests. I want to get the basic principle in place so I can complete the job after bro in law is gone, and maintain the house.

The other task that might be a challenge is the fact we need to furnish this house and make it comfortable. It sounds like a direct conflict to the NO SPEND, but I think I can do it by using what we have and repainting/refinishing and adding a couple minor purchases. I will allot a certain amount in the budget to this endeavor, but it might be measly until after the holidays..

We have been looking for a desk for our family room. The current computer desk is really small and it is impossible for the boys to spread their work out while working. It makes it really uncomfortable. I had been looking for "the perfect computer desk", when it occurred to me that we have a pub style table out in the garage that seats 4-6 people (it has an extension)...Hmmm. I will have to get a tall chair (saw them on sale somewhere...), but in reality it will probably work perfectly. It might even work better...

So there you have it. The rest of the month is going to be a no spending, clutter cutting and cheap decorating month. I'll let you know how it works. I will break down and take before/after pics of the family room and guest bedroom. The upstairs is a little scary. I'll have to think about that.....pray for me. Seriously! I could use all the help I can get with this total lifestyle change thing....

Purging

2008-11-02T16:04:00.000-08:00

Smokey, one of our cats, in a contemplative mood...

I am embarrassed to say that I have been cleaning our master bedroom for several hours, and I'm nowhere near done. Closer, but definitely not done.

The problem?

It boils down to the fact that I like to save magazines, clip articles, and collect books, but I don't have a system for storage of these things, so I "put" them on top of things. And put, and put...pretty soon, all these potentially useful tidbits become one (or more) big messy pile that robs me of energy.

How?

Every time I look at that ever growing heap, I feel defeated.

So today, I took my time and went through all the magazines in the pile and tore out only the articles that were important to me. A lot of these boiled down to recipes and decorating ideas that I made a separate pile of, then took a break to actually get them into sheet protectors and put into binders. Later I will go back through and actually sort according to type. For example, recipes will be sorted according to breads, sweets, main dishes, etc. For now it was more important to get them out of the magazines so that I can throw the magazines away, which cuts the clutter. Then getting them actually into sleeves and binders gives them a place to actually "be organized" instead of floating around in a pile and looking messy. I must say, although I am not done with the room, I do notice a difference. I wish I had taken a before and after picture, but I was too embarrassed by the sheer amount of stuff that had accumulated. So my immediate goal is to pare down the STUFF. With the cold weather coming up, it is going to be important to be able to keep a clean and tidy house. The quality of the inside air is immediately affected by my ability to keep carpets vacuumed and the stuff dusted. It is much easier if there is LESS STUFF to clean. Kind of makes sense, doesn't it.

Next step? I am going to put a waste basket and a box in the entry hall so I can sort the mail immediately and toss the stuff that is not relevant to us. I'd like to say I will have a recycle box, but right now I need to just get the stuff out and not let it sit around at all! I'll recycle once I get everything under control.

On the budget side, I am working on that too. I realized that we are spending several hundred dollars more for groceries and eating out than I had guessed. Gotta thank Pear Budget for making me aware of this! So for the rest of the week, I am planning meals and shopping from our pantry. I am trying to regroup and frame my attitude so that I am able to be creative with what we do have on hand. Except for possible buying meat at some point, everything else is going to revolve around what we already have. That said, we did opt for sub sandwiches out today since I was knee deep in cleaning. Hubby and I were going to go out later and get a coffee, but instead we made coffee at home and sat on the front steps talking and drinking the coffee. We saved gas and the $8-$10 we usually spend getting coffee out. It offset the subs a little, but we are going to be frugal for the rest the week and all of next week.

With the holidays coming up, I am trying to plan ahead on gift giving for friends and family members. The plan is to make pottery bowls for everyone and pack them with homemade candy. If I can make 8-10 bowls each week for the next month, everyone will be covered. We have a pretty large family on my side and a decent sized family on hubby's side, so I need to get started. These will be cereal bowl sized, so they can be pulled quickly. Candy is pretty easy to make. I take a weekend right before Christmas and spend it making several different types of candy. It is usually a pretty big hit. I am hoping giving everyone a bowl of their own will also be a hit.

How do you handle gifts for friends and family during the Christmas season? Do you opt for store bought or homemade gifts.

When You Ask Boys To Smile for the Camera

2008-10-27T14:53:00.000-07:00

THIS is what you get...

And THIS.....

And THIS...

These pictures are from earlier this summer, but they made me smile so I thought I'd share.Why is it that when you pull a camera out around adolescents, they turn into monkeys? The boy in the royal blue shirt is Jake, a friend of my boys. The other two are my boys. Jake lives in Wyoming since last year and was in town visiting his biological grandma (our "adopted Grandma"). The boys have grown up together since Jake was a baby, so it was pretty hard on the twins when he moved. Thankfully they are able to call each other. They had a great time playing, but it seems like it was all too short. Hopefully next year we can get to Wyoming to visit.

This has been a REALLY off kilter day. All last week I had nightmares about forgetting to pick someone up from somewhere. They were really making me upset and uncomfortable since I pride myself on not being "that kind of parent". Want to guess what I did today?!

Yep, forgot to pick up a kid.

Actually, I was only a 10 minutes late, but that was only because hubby called and hung up before I answered. I thought that was really odd, so I called him back and asked him why he only let it ring once. When he replied that he thought I'd be gone since I pick Mark up at this time........wanna know what I said before I slammed the phone and flew out of the house like I had a fire on my backside?

Didn't think so.

Then I tried to call hubby back. Twice. He didn't answer. I couldn't figure out why until he called me to remind me HE WAS IN CLASS. Mind you, he has had class on Monday and Wednesday for the past THREE MONTHS!!!!

This has not been a good day for me at all.

At least I do have dinner ready for them when they all get home from the high school robotics club (hubby is an adult mentor and the twins are club members). Since I have completely went over on what I had budgeted for food this month, I am making more of an effort to correct that from here on out. In the freezer we had a bag of diced potatoes. Combined with a can of Campbell's pepper jack cheese soup and a can of cream of chicken soup (do not use the Healthy Request style), and about a cup and a half (more or less to your taste) of shredded cheese, I made cheesy potatoes as a side dish. We'll have some chicken and fresh broccoli crowns (my kids hate cooked broccoli), and the frozen dinner roils that are thawing out to be cooked--and that is dinner. Easy, and frugal.

Part of the reason I am trying to make sure we get back on budget is the actual amount I discovered we are spending on food. I think I mentioned we are using a program called Pear budgeting that SimpleMom extolls--well, after a full month of making sure I enter EVERY receipt, I discovered we spend $300 more than I thought we were spending on groceries, and $150 more on eating out than I had ever imagined! Now I completely understand where the leaks are! BIG LEAKS! So the next month is going to focus on plugging the leaks. It may not happen overnight, but I am paying special attention to the holes now, so I'm sure we will conquer this monster!

I did spend part of the day baking ginger crinkle cookies --enough for the rest of the week, and I have a cream cheese poundcake in the oven as I type this. These poundcakes freeze really well, so I am going to make another one tomorrow to use up some cream cheese I've had in the fridge but haven't used. I need to use it while it is still good so it doesn't get wasted. Cream cheese is not cheap.

The rest of the week will focus on using what we have in the fridge and what we have on hand. I might have to get creative for one of the boys since he is a picky eater and doesn't like fish, cheese or about half a billion other foods. The rest of the family loves fish, which we just happen to have a lot of in the freezer, so it will just be one kid that is going to be a challenge to feed nutritiously.

Budgets and menus

2008-10-20T12:17:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd share a picture from our trip to Scott's Bluff, Nebraska on Friday. The scenery was unlike anything I've seen. Very stark, but strikingly pretty at the same time.We went to the Brown Sheep Wool factory for a tour and to do a little shopping in their outlet store. I'm happy to say I actually spent less than I had anticipated, so I stayed within my budget for yarn. That is a big deal for me! I did get a lot of superwash wool for socks and mittens, then some regular sock yarn. The difference between regular and superwash is the fact that the superwash has been treated to allow you to wash and dry it without ruining it. If you wash regular wool, it shrinks and felts. Felting is great if that is what you are trying to do--for example felted bags and hats--but if you don't intend to shrink and felt, like a sweater that you spent lots of money on yarn and time--it can be flat out horrifying!! My oldest felted a 17" wide by 4 foot scarf down to 6"wide by 2.5 feet. At first he was going to toss it, but I am going to stitch the sides and use it for a knitting needle bag. Use up, make do, or do without....I'm working on the do without part.

One of the blogs that I have been following lately is Simple Mom. She had mentioned she keeps her budget online with Pear Budget. I gave the 30 day free trial a go and have since subscribed. At $3 a month, I have to say it is a bargain and an eye opener. Here is what it showed me:

The amount I THOUGHT we spent for groceries, eating out, entertainment and gas were completely different than what we actually spend.

I'd love to say it was LOWER than I had budgeted, but all the categories are higher. In the case of groceries, it is SEVERAL HUNDRED DOLLARS higher than I had thought!! In the case of eating out, it is at least $150 more. All the little lunches through the drive thru and picking up little nibbles on the way to and from places adds up way too quickly!! I've included the times we just get a pop at Quik Trip in the figures since it is a small figure that is easy to overlook. After tallying all the small pop figures, it came out to more than I had figured in my head. Wow! I talked with the kids about the budget that I am keeping and was surprised that not only did they have a pretty good grasp on the concept, they suggested ways we can cut back.

Now I can see why we have more month left at the end of the money!

So here is what I am doing:

1. Going through my food cabinets and taking an actual inventory of what we have.

I have discovered we have several canned goods that have been hanging around and have not been used. For example, I have sauerkraut, several cans of beans (4 or 5 varieties), rice, canned pumpkin, cornbread mix and a ton of bread flour that have been in the cabinet a long time. So, the beans will be used for chili later this week to be served with either corn bread or hush puppies. The sauerkraut will be added to the slowcooker when I buy a pork loin this week. It imparts a nice flavor. Some people do not like sauerkraut--that is because it has been served straight from a can. If you add it to the meat as it is cooking, it absorbs that flavor and really mellows nicely. The pumpkin is going to become pumpkin bread and I'll add some dried cranberries to one loaf for pumpkin cranberry bread. These freeze well--if they aren't scarfed down immediately. The rice is going to be added to some soup I am making, also used as a side dish. We always have rice in the house, so extra is not uncommon...There are several other things that I will be utilizing in the cabinets. They have been pushed to the back and to be truthful, I forgot I had them. I also have some semolina flour I bought in bulk last month. I will use some of it for homemade pasta and then do an Internet search for recipes using semolina flour.

After I use up what we have in the cabinets, that will give me a better idea of what I need when I restock. I tend to buy way more than we really need. It is good to buy in bulk when things are a really good price--I do this often--but if you forget you have it and keep buying it, or don't use it at all, then it was not a bargain at all.

2. Making a menu and sticking to it. Tonight is going to be homemade pizza. We have tomato paste and sauce, Italian seasoning, garlic, mozzarella and peperoni in the house already. I'm making molasses crinkle cookies as soon as I finish this post. They are a good compliment to the pizza.Tomorrow I am using some of the beef broth from a roast I cooked as the base for a soup. We'll have that with crackers and a salad and fruit. Wednesday will be fish sticks and rice.Probably jello for dessert. We seemed to have a fair amount of that on hand for some reason.

Thursday will be leftover night with brownies. The rest of the menus for the week are unplanned at this point. I have a trip to Tulsa on Friday, so I am hoping to keep close to the budget this week since gas will be a consideration. Even though gas prices have dropped considerably, I am still in conserve mode. If we start relaxing our efforts to cut back on gas consumption, it will put us right back to $4 a gallon or more. I'm still bundling trips and cutting out others completely.

What do you have in your cabinets? Have you done and inventory? It's always good to have things stored for lean times, but keep an eye on their expiration dates and use them up. If you don't, it's money wasted.

Blah, Blah Blah

2008-10-19T18:06:00.000-07:00

This is what sunrise looks like at 10,000 feet from the window of a small plane.
UFO's!! Crop Circles!!

Nah, just fields from 10,000 feet up. The circles follow the path of the movable irrigation pipes.

This picture is at the Oregon Trail museum. We just drove to the entrance since we really didn't have time to walk or drive the trail. I'd like to take the kids back to run through it sometime. I think it would be interesting. The scenery was definitely unlike anything we have here in Kansas. Stark, but very pretty. I can definitely see a painting coming from these pictures.
We found the museum after we had visited the Brown Sheep Wool Factory, which was the main reason we were in this part of Nebraska. Surprisingly, I didn't buy as much yarn as I thought I would. I did pick up some superwash wool so I could make mittens and socks for my oldest son and his girlfriend. Superwash wool is wool that has received a special treatment that allows it to be washed and dried. As much as I would like to think son and girlfriend would faithfully hand wash anything I knit them, the reality is that they would forget. It is much easier to just plan accordingly.

On the homefront:

The boys and I were doing a little reorganizing around the house today and one of them said they needed a shelf for their bedroom. I'm not sure why, but I got the notion that we should look in the "still full to the ceiling from the move 1 yr. ago" garage.

Guess what.

We found the perfect shelf. Right there, in plain sight. It did entail a little bit of cleanup and a spider purging, but it worked perfectly.

Then I found a 2 shelf wire unit that would work perfectly in the laundry room. I've been contemplating getting a shelf in order to get the detergents and dryer sheets off the top of the dryer--and it turns out I already had it. Lesson learned. We do have a couple more bookshelves out there, but I'm not sure if they are going to be usable. Some of the shelves are warped. I might be able to use them in the guestroom that is going to double as my studio.

I know, long post..

Road Trippin'

2008-10-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

At 4:30 a.m tomorrow morning, hubby, a friend and I will be flying to Scott's Bluff, Nebraska to then get a rental car and go to Mitchell, Nebraska to tour the Brown Sheep Wool factory. And buy yarn.

Probably lots of yarn.

I have a budget in mind, so I am hoping to stick to it. The yarn is significantly cheaper than in the stores--you buy it by the pound. Yum. I am looking for yarn for Christmas gifts. A lot of my gifts are going to be knitted this year or baked.

Every time we fly, I start thinking about things we need to do. As odd as it sounds, little things like the fact we haven't made wills or given directives starts to nag me.

If something were to happen, do you have clear directives and a will?

We would want the boys to go to either Hubby's Mom or his sister since they both have very stable environments. My sister would also be a good choice, but I don't know if she would take on two more. You'd think after I took estate and probate law in college that I would have done this by now. So next week we are going to sit down and get everything written down. My oldest son is not from this marriage, but Hubby is the only Dad he's known, so we'd divide everything three ways. We need to get this in writing. One of the things I learned from probate law is the time to make your wishes known is before you are not around. It just causes too much trouble for people to guess your intentions. We have neglected that part of our finances. Everything else is getting lined out as far as the budget, now it is time to get the full package taken care of.

Something to think about--Are your wishes in writing?

Checking In

2008-10-02T17:02:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of a hot air balloon that flew right over the top of my car last summer. I love hot air balloons! Someday I might just have to join a ballooning club...Once I get over my FEAR OF HEIGHTS!!!

As much as I would love to say I followed a strict budget and got all my bills caught up and we will be sailing free for the rest of October...that hasn't quite happened.

What has happened is that I started using a budgeting program and have become painfully aware that I spend a really ridiculous amount of money on my knitting. While it is good to have a hobby and knitting produces wonderful functional objects such as socks, mittens, sweaters etc, I am buying entirely too much yarn each month and I already have a huge stash. I am basically insulating our poorhouse with wool if I don't stop this! I am pretty glad I started entering stuff on Pear budgeting (Thanks SimpleMom).

Hubby, a friend and I are flying to Mitchell, Nebraska in the middle of this month to tour the Brown Sheep yarn factory so I have planned to spend my yarn "budget" for the month there. I will hold off on anything else for most of the month to try to get us back on track. I have a ton of patterns and yarn for projects right here at home. I think I need to rearrange my closet to look like a retail store so it feels more like I really am shopping in my closet!

Speaking of closets: Tomorrow I am taking 10 minutes to do a quick purge of my clothing that is hanging in the closet. I have several things that are not my size or no longer any style I'd wear, yet there they hang, taking up physical and mental space.

What's up with that?

I am hoping to buy a bookshelf at Target tomorrow, but I think I might wait until Sunday to see if they go on sale. Our bedroom is big enough that I would love to have a reading/knitting corner. However since we don't really have it in the budget to buy comfy chairs, the seating part is going to have to be put on hold.

I noticed gas prices are going down. How has that affected your travel and errand running? I can't believe that $3.20 a gallon seems like "a bargain" to me! However it still has not come down to the price that I can afford to relax my spending in other areas. I am still bundling errands and trying to make do, use it up, or do without for most stuff--and I will be attempting to use that philosophy with my hobby stuff also...I do wish riding a scooter didn't entail subjecting yourself to drivers who don't like to share the road. America needs to start spending a little more to support things like motorcycle/scooter/bike lanes so those who are not on 4 wheels and do not like feeling like sitting ducks can travel around in a safe fashion. We wouldn't be able to scooter year round here in Kansas because of the ice and snow, but even 6 months of using a lower gas consuming mode of transportation would help.

Pear budgeting has made me aware that we also go pretty far over on the food budget too. I had a rough estimate of how much I thought I spent on groceries, but it turns out that amount is pretty low. We also waste too much food. Leftovers go to the fridge and die a slow death. I am going to have a leftover buffet meal once a week where we have leftovers and a really good homemade dessert to round it out.

A friend is currently in the beginning stages of a divorce that promises to be pretty tense as far as what her income ends up being. I have been running around helping her find rental houses and have come to the realization that anyone on a fixed budget is pretty limited in where they can find decent housing. I'm talking about bare bones, basic housing in a safe neighborhood. She is going from a really large income and being a stay at home wife (kids are 22 and 24 years old, so not an issue) to not even a 1/8 of the income she is used to. We are looking for all the possible ways to have frugal fun since every cent she has will be plowed into rent and basic expenses. I told her we'll take advantage of places to go where we can just sit and knit or crochet. Border's bookstore is going to be our haven, I'm sure. Plus I figure she can hang out at my house and I'll make coffee and goodies just like Starbucks--my weakness--but without the large cost. I already buy my coffee from a local roaster and grind the beans myself. It is much cheaper and tastes SO much better! I'll have to pull out my numerous recipe books and make treats.

Well, I'd better sign off. It is 3 a.m...I couldn't sleep and thought I'd post a blurb since it has been a while.

A little progress...

2008-09-15T20:39:00.000-07:00

Last night, I was sitting in our family room contemplating the huge task of cleaning the family room. We moved in a year ago and there were boxes and other things still sitting where they landed. It has bugged me for quite a few months, but I just haven't had the energy to get anything done.

I got a bag and started slowly working through some of the piles and one of my son came in and just started helping...without me even saying anything.

It took us over an hour, and we didn't get all of the room done, but we cleared a very large area, vacuumed up enough animal hair and dust bunnies to build a small country, and filled two trash bags. Some of it was boxes and packaging, but a lot of it was stuff--papers I was holding on to "just in case". It really felt good to finally have some visual clutter removed.

Thursday night I am going to tackle the other half of the family room and then start getting the library in order. My goal before the month ends is to get the master bedroom tackled. That is going to be a large job...I have a lot of stuff still in boxes! However, after seeing how good the family room is looking, I am motivated.

I'd take a before and after picture, but I'm pretty embarrassed at how bad the house really is...

Pear Budget---soooooo easy!

2008-09-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

After perusing Simple Mom's blog and reading about how she uses Pear budgeting software, I decided to give it a try. I was trying to set up a spreadsheet on Excel myself, but this was soooo easy that I gave up on the Excel spreadsheet. Pear gives you a 30 day free trial, but I can already tell I am going to pay the $3 a month to continue using this. It really is worth every penny to not have to set up the tables. You just plug in the info into the categories determined by you and it is ready to go. I love it that it tells me how much I need to put aside each month for expenses that just happen once a year!

The only uncomfortable thing about this software is the fact it lets me see exactly how much I have spent so far on things like yarn,books and stuff I thought I was doing better on(I made a category on my chart just for these). Let's just say all the little "couple dollar" receipts added up to quite a large sum. Much larger than what I had imagined and definitely more than what I would have budgeted. It definitely explains why we have a lot more month left at the end of the money!!

I must say, when it is sitting right there staring you in the face, it is pretty uncomfortable! However, I now know where the leaks are and will spend the rest of the month getting back on track. I really don't think it would have been so apparent on any other method I could have created. I am not being payed to hawk this program, really! I like it that much!!!

All said, the rest of the month, the focus is going to be catching up, cooking at home, being careful with car mileage (gas was another big expense, no surprise), and trying to keep the balance in mind before I whip out my debit card.

I am going to be thumbing through one of my once a month cookbooks and putting together a shopping list so I can start using some of the recipes. One of my kids is a picky eater, but a lot of the recipes I am going to try will probably pass his "high standards".

Thursday already?!

2008-09-11T06:12:00.000-07:00

This week has flown by!

I am hanging out before I head off to the yarn shop where I help out. I will be there for the larger part of the day helping out, then I have a mittens class from 6-8 p.m.

It is going to be a full day!

I am looking forward to the mittens class. Even though I have been working on a pair of fiddlehead mittens, I have never done a thumb---you'll notice in my post about the fiddlehead mittens that they do not have thumbs yet--so this will be a good opportunity to learn. I am working on the mate to the fiddlehead I posted about earlier, but I also have a quickie hat on my needles since I like to have something easy and mindless to carry with me to appointments. The fiddleheads require pretty good concentration, so they are my "home knitting" project. Since winter is right around the corner, I want to learn to make a pair of simple and basic mittens so I can have several pairs for the glove/hat basket by the front door. A really basic pair of mittens works up quickly and I won't freak out if they go missing, as gloves tend to do...

Any plans for the weekend? I have a drawing class at a local art museum that I am pretty excited about. I have tried to take this class a couple times but have had such a schedule conflict that it never panned out. Hubby is picking the kids up from their Saturday football practice, so there isn't anything that is causing a schedule conflict this time. As parents know, when kids schedules conflict with parent schedules, the parent activities will be the first to go...Anyway, I want to take this drawing class to refresh my skills and to work towards taking an oil painting and a print making class at the same facility. I already do pottery, but would like to be able to have stuff I paint on my walls. It just makes it more personal, don't you think?

On the drive home from my son's pottery class last night, there was a smell in the air that reminded me that Fall is right on us and winter is just hanging out around the corner. We had such a mild summer, I am hoping that doesn't mean we are going to have a crazy winter. I like snow, which we got plenty of last winter, but I do not like ice, which we also get every year to varying degrees. I tend to stay home a lot in the winter and just venture out when it is absolutely necessary, like for classes, grocery shopping or to pick kids up from school. I tend to spend a lot of time on the Internet when I'm at home. This season I am going to work on making sure I work on the decor of the house and the maintenance instead of hanging out in cyberspace! Especially any site that might encourage pulling out the credit card

I am trying to do a short run from a one a month cooking cookbook I got recently. I figured I would prepare single meal sized batches so I can make sure my family likes the entree before making it in bulk and then ending up wasting it. The good thing about bulk cooking is that it makes meal times pretty mindless--you just pull something out that morning to thaw and pop it in the oven, add sides, and you're done. I have a friend that will be going through a divorce pretty soon and is going to be cutting her income into a tiny fragment of what she is used to living on, so it would be nice if I could have a couple spare meals to take to her weekly to help her out a bit while she is transitioning.

We have talked about the fact that once her divorce goes through, we will be creative in our get-togethers and try to find all the free things to do in the city or just get together and read at the bookstore and knit/crochet. It will be a good opportunity for me to see how creative I can be at finding cheap or free entertainment for us. There are lots of things to do around the city, we just have to search these out a little. Once a month, the city has Final Fridays. It is an art event where several downtown businesses and galleries stay open late and have varied exhibits from artists. There is a trolley that runs around town and several other things going on. We have never gone to one before--this is a good time to start.

I guess I'd better sign off and get ready to head to the yarn shop. I'll have pictures later, I'm sure!

Trying to Organize for the Winter

2008-09-10T06:07:00.000-07:00

This week has been a flurry of planning here at my house. I several things this weekend, some good-some not so good:

1: Our house is way out of control!

There is too much clutter and too much stuff. Paper and unread mail is taking a big chunk out of our visual space.

I am slowly working towards getting this under control. I sat down with a large garbage bag and did a little purge. However, I am going to have to go back through and get serious. We moved to a bigger house last year and slowly all surfaces and crevices are being filled. I realize I tend to save things for "just in case".

That has to stop.

2. Our budget is way out of control.

Actually, I realized that we have no budget that we are working from.

It is basically if we want/need it, I buy it. Do I need to tell you what that does to any possible money for savings? So starting this week I have set up a budget on Excel. It is a preliminary one and I'm sure I will be tweaking it as time goes along.

Would you be shocked to know that this a totally new concept for me? My parents never discussed anything related to money, so I am feeling my way along on this. I am going to make sure my boys are taught to budget. The oldest one is out on his own and not doing to well at the budgeting, so I need to teach the two youngest better obviously.

Two excellent home management blogs that I find myself going back to time and time again are
Small Notebook and Simple Mom. You will love these sights, I promise. I am using tips and charts from both to get my house under control finally.

3. Time Management
I tend to take on a lot of projects, then get overwhelmed and unable to accomplish any of them.

I am going to cut down on a lot of the busyness that I have going on so that I can get the house in shape. Part of the worksheets on Simple Mom is a daily docket and a chore list. I love these sheets!!! I made copies (she does give permission for personal use) and plan to start using them tomorrow. It is really cool to have a list like this already made up since I never remember a lot of this...It definitely does wonders when all you have to do is cross something off and go to the next step without getting bogged down in actually making list.

Crazy Schedules

2008-09-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

Above are some of the projects I have worked on over the past couple months. As you can see on the mitten, I am still working on the thumb and putting in a lining. I have cast on the mate to it and will probably do the thumb and lining when I get to that point on the mate.

The jewelry is something I love doing too. I bought the sterling wire and a book titled Perfect Match that showed me how to do some of the hand formed ones in the picture. It is an extremely satisfying craft. In laying these out, I realized one of the butterfly earrings has gone AWOL....time to send out a search party...

As the Fall season arrives and school is in full swing for my boys, I have come to realize I am keeping a pretty crazy schedule. Here are some things from my weekly schedule:

Monday: Football games for my boys at 4:30
Hubby has class until 9pm

Tuesday: I am at Twist yarn shop helping out from 10 a.m until 2p.m
2:30- 4:30 pottery class for me
6:00 pick kids up from football practice

Wednesday: I help out at another friend's yarn shop in Newton until 1:30, pick one son up from school at 2:50
Take son to physical therapy appointment at 4:30
Pick other son up from football practice 6 p.m
one son has pottery class from 7-9p.m
Hubby has class until 9p.m

Thursday:
Help at first yarn shop again until 4p.m
pick kids up at 6 p.m from football

Friday:
My free day...sigh...
Pick kids up from football practice if they have it.
Kids have to go to JV football games as per coach--to observe the plays--hubby will have to handle this--one day of football is all I can handle.
Every other week hubby and I go out to dinner with our dinner group...

Saturday:
kids football practice 7 a.m -10:a.m (hubby picks kids up)
9 a.m to 11:00 my art class

Sunday:
Nervous breakdown? Hmmm I think I could schedule that in on this day...

Okay--something has to give. And I didn't add in the other "one time things" that are happening. The past couple nights, my dreams have consisted of scenarios where I am constantly missing buses, appointments. etc.

Talk about dreams trying to tell you something!

I am probably going to have to cut down Tuesday/Thursday to just Thursdays until I get a handle on the schedule and the chaos. I love being at both shops so I will continue on day at each--going there really feeds my soul, but I do need to cut down one day from the Wichita store. I also need to keep a calendar going so I can get rid of this "Am I forgetting something? " feeling that is causing me a great deal of anxiety. The football and hubby's school schedule are pretty set in stone, so I need to make sure I am giving myself mental breathing space between all the running and getting HOME things done--which is really not going so well and may be the reason I am stressing...

ARGGGG!

On the bright side--I have been pretty disciplined and have not bought a ton of yarn and other knitting related things in the past week. This may not sound big, but it is for me. I always buy something...even if it is a skein or two of yarn. I have been able to remind myself that I already have yarn at home. I do have a mittens class coming up this week, but I already have the yarn and needles for it, thankfully!

Later addition to this post:

I realize the above post sounds like a whole lotta whinin'... sorry.

However, in typing that out, I realized that I really am overloaded. Some of it can be helped, some of it can't (like kids and hubby schedules). I am just going to have to give a serious look at all my activities and see what can be cut out, even if on a temporary basis. The dreams I'm having about missing important appointments, buses, events is a sure sign my mind is trying to give me a hint that it is all too much.

I have a habit of taking on too much and trying to make it all fit. That is part of the reason my house looks the way it does.

I did find an excellent tool over at Simple Mom's blog and I intend to put it into use this week. I will be getting a binder and running off the sheets tonight so I can start using this tool. I love that she has a grocery list, chore list and a couple other things that you can also download for free from her sight.

Another sight I love is Small Notebook. She has excellent ideas on keeping your house in order and just making yourself DO the work. I really enjoyed her posts about laundry and getting it done and organized. I am going to put some of her suggestions and insights to use this week. I realized we have a ton of clothes that are not really fitting anyone, but somehow they keep getting put in the laundry, washed, folded and then redistributed. Then they end up in the laundry again because someone can't wear it, but doesn't toss it. What's up with that? Next weekend, I am going to make the boys drag everything out of their closets and drawers so we can cull the herd! Then I will do that with my clothes on Monday. I realized I have clothes in my closet that I haven't worn since before the twins were born. Did I mention the twins are almost 15 years old?!! Come on!!! What's up with that?!

Check out both of them in my sidebar of links.

Things to be done....

2008-08-31T18:19:00.000-07:00

It has occurred to me that lately I have been doing a lot of stuff that is pretty darn counterproductive to my goals to spend less money. Here is but a partial list:

1 & 2: Not eating/exercising properly. Not sleeping properly.

Unfortunately I am no longer at the age where what I eat and drink rolls off and doesn't effect my health. I have realized lately--after two painful kidney stones and some other health issues that have never been a problem before--that my diet and exercise program is very sad.

When I was younger, I could eat any amount of sugar and stay up until the wee hours of the morning and just shake it off before heading off to the next adventure. Lately, I spend the whole day feeling like a Mack truck has parked on my body.

Not good.

So, starting tomorrow morning, I am going to take baby steps and get at least 30 minutes of walking done. This will be a small beginning. I'm not in good shape, so starting slow means I will not get worn out and drop it. We have a YMCA family membership that we pay for every month, but I have just not used it very much since I have "been so busy".

30 minutes.

I can manage that to start...I am going to force myself to get into bed before 11:00. 10:00 would be optimal and the most realistic, so that is my goal. I have a problem with wandering the house at all hours of the night, so this will be hard to start. I'm sure it will get better once it is a habit.

Realistically, having better sleep and exercise habits will help me immediately and in the long run. I have noticed that I am just not as flexible and this has caused problems with my confidence. Taking care of these will cost me a lot less money in the long run!

3. Not taking care of some dental issues.
We have excellent dental insurance, so this is just being stupid on my part!

4. Browsing in shops/putting stuff aside when yarn shipments come in at the shop.
If I were the kind of person who could resist "a great bargain", this wouldn't be an issue.

I'm not.

I have bought a ton of yarn and other things in the last month by getting wrapped up in the new yarn I unpack and price at the shop. It's not like I don't have enough yarn to keep me busy for the next YEAR!!! With that said, I did manage to keep from buying some more sock yarn that we got in last week. It is absolutely gorgeous and I want it.

BAD.

But I managed to talk myself out of it by reminding myself that I have 2 projects on the needles and a closet full of yarn for other projects. Last week I shopped entirely too much at thrift stores. While I did find things that I am going to use and were an awesome deal, I probably should have abstained from doing it all at on one pay period...

We are getting out deck rebuilt this week so I will have to be home for an extended period of time. This will be good since it will force me to focus on getting the house in order. I did start packing up my oldest son's room so we can start working towards making it a guest bedroom and a craft room for me. Tomorrow I will pack more. I think I have put this off for the past YEAR because I had a really hard time with him leaving the nest. Time to make it into a functional room. I need to get it cleaned out so I can get the walls painted. Preferably this week....It will be nice to have the deck rebuilt. That has been a looming project for the past year. We already paid for the work last year when we bought the house, we just had to tell our builder friend when we were ready to have the work done. A year passes so quickly!! They start work on it Thursday.

Some upcoming things I am excited about:

Next Saturday I start a drawing class at one of the art museums here in Wichita. I used to draw all the time and had some really good things done. I put it away when my oldest son was born and fell out of practice. This class is a beginner's class, so it will allow me to brush up on the basics and give me a new starting point. I want to take oil painting classes and printmaking classes later, so I can paint things for my house. I am really looking forward to the class...

In October a friend and I are going to take a cake decorating class. She is a member of an organization that has grant money for her and a friend to take a class together, so we are taking this class. The grant also covers class supplies, so this is something we can do together for no cost. I have taken cake decorating classes clear up to the wedding cake classes, but that was over 7 years ago and I am quite rusty now. Taking a cake decorating class is a great way to save money. I was able to make quite beautiful birthday cakes, cupcakes and cookies for a fraction of the cost of a store bought cake. It was really quite fun.

Some things I've been thinking about lately:

I have been thinking about how little we have had family get togethers. My immediate family lives in Oklahoma and everyone now lives in the same town with the exception of us. My other relatives are in Maryland, with an aunt in Arkansas. The boys have never met any of their Yankee relatives. Sad...We are only a two hour drive away from Oklahoma and yet we have been too busy to get back. My son is living 7 hours away in Iowa and we have not gone to visit.

This will change.

I am planning to quit making excuses and rent a car for the drive to Iowa before winter gets here. Plus, I would like to get together with family in Oklahoma at least once a month, or at least every other month. The last time my boys and their cousins were together, they had a lot of fun.

Time to really take stock in what is immediately a blessing for me and work on things that need attention...

I know...blah, blah, blah....

Blah, Blah Blah

2008-08-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

Here is a little picture of a washcloth that I am knitting for a future spa gift basket that I will be making for Christmas. A little more about that farther in today's post.
I am crazy about the texture in this stitch!!

To everything there is a season...

And I seem to be constantly running at least one behind.

At the beginning of summer, actually at the first inkling of warm weather this Spring, I made quite a list of things I wanted to accomplish outside and inside. How'd I do?

Terrible.

The list included:

1. Planting a large garden so we could grow our own veggies and fruit.

This did not happen at all. I guess I got lazy and just put it aside. I am mad at myself now since I could be canning tomatoes in order to have fresh salsa and spaghetti sauce for the winter and without all the high fructose corn syrup and other additives the food companies like to slip in...

2. Plant a pear and an apple tree in the backyard for future fruit.

We still have time to do this one since it is still warm. I bought a cherry tree this time last year and saved a substantial amount over the beginning of summer cost. I just mulch the tree extra heavy for the winter freeze and make sure I keep it watered and fertilized right up until the time it gets cold enough for the tree to go dormant. We should have cherries next year. I am going to hit the garden centers this weekend to find some dwarf trees. I would also like to find a dwarf peach tree since I love going to the U pick peach orchard but haven't had time to get there this year.

3. Get the house in order and the garage completely cleaned out.

I will be getting that one more in line as the weeks progress. The kids are back in school so I am trying to get myself focused and motivated. It would be great to actually be able to park cars in the 2 car garage! Especially when it hails, as it did several times this Spring.

Most of my major goals had to do with home related stuff, but there were a couple other things I had thought about doing:

1. Learn to weave.

I already spin, so weaving seemed like a good idea. However, right now I think I am going to take a drawing class as a means to express my need create. Not only does drawing require less space, it is portable and the skills I learn will allow me to make artwork for my walls as I see fit. I took art in college. I started out as an art major, but becoming a single parent focused me on another major--sometimes I regret it. But I have gotten rusty on the foundations like perspective and composition. There is an awesome art center here in town that offers drawing classes. They are pricey, but the instructor is good, so that offsets the cost. I would still like to learn to weave, but I don't have the money or space for a loom setup, so that may have to be put on the back burner for now. I was seriously considering taking both classes, but I have recognized that I have a BAD habit of spreading myself thin and need to monitor that better. Cute man is working on his masters degree and working full time, the kids are in sports and other activities, one son and I are continuing in pottery classes, so I have reached capacity on things/activities to do away from the house.

2. Use up my yarn stash and get more stuff knitted for the Christmas season for gifts.

I have fallen down on this one since I have had several health issues going on and just haven't sat down and focused on accomplishing anything. I realize that I tend to have SEVERAL projects going at all times and it takes forever to get one thing finished. I am only going to work on two detailed projects at a time. Right now I have a lace panel and a pair of Norwegian mittens on the needle (pics later, I promise!). Everything else is going to be taken apart and the wool re-balled until I get these two projects completed. I am keeping one washcloth project on the needles since a washcloth is portable and finishes quickly. I bought a couple Barbara Walker stitch dictionaries this summer and have been trying different stitch pattens out of those. The books were pricey, but for the breadth of pattens and the details in the instructions, they were worth every penny! I am seriously considering working towards getting the other 2 books to complete the set as finances allow. Ideally I would like to make several washcloths and some handmade soap this season so I can make gift "baskets" out of pottery. I am going to make the baskets in the upcoming month so we have that portion of the gift completed, either homemade or store bought (as time permits) soap and the washcloths to round out the gift baskets. You see the beginning of the first washcloth in the picture above. I am going to wrap 3 or 4 washcloths with a bar of specialty soap. I know how to make soap, but will do this only if time permits -- it does take 6 weeks to cure soap, so I have a time limit...

A friend mentioned she wanted to take cake decorating classes and I found a cake supply store in Wichita that has formal classes. They don't start until September, which is good. I took cake decorating classes a while back and it saved big bucks over buying a store decorated cakes (plus it tasted much better), but I need a refresher since it has been so long. This will be a great opportunity to refresh my skills and hang out with my friend. I have done classes clear up to the wedding cake classes, but definitely need to refresh my flower skills. I loved being able to make all the cakes for family functions and parties--when you do it yourself, you can make it much more elaborate and festive than when a stranger does it.

I know, quite a lengthy post about trivial stuff. But it is the basis for my goal of giving homemade this Christmas.

Iced coffee at home on the cheap!

2008-08-15T13:06:00.000-07:00

I love coffee.

Freshly ground from whole bean coffee.

I love it so much, I invested in a pretty darn good Krups burr grinder ($50 buck from Amazon,com) a couple years ago and have never regretted the outlay of cash. As a matter of fact, I think it was the best $50 bucks I've spent. The money saved by buying good beans from a local roaster over the cost of stopping by Starbucks from time to time to feed my addiction (what else can you call that "gotta have coffee craving" you get in the morning?) has really been substantial.

As much as I love hot coffee on cold days, I have to admit that often I waited and drank my coffee when it was lukewarm, or completely cool. I had never tried cold brewed coffee or had an iced coffee until a couple weeks ago. I splurged at Border's bookstore and bought a combo lunch that included a medium coffee drink. Since it was over 95 degrees outside, iced coffee sounded interesting. Not only was it interesting, it was flat out fantastic!!

I wanted to be able to recreate that wonderful taste at home, the way I did with hot brewed coffee. Border's sells a cold brew carafe system---but at around $30, it was a little out of the ideal price for me. Remember, it's all about being able to live rich on the cheap! Last night, I had a really bad craving for iced coffee. Driving across town would have made that the most expensive cup of iced coffee in town! So, I did a little research and found one of the most informative websites (I need Coffee. com) , on making coffee that I have ever seen. I was going to head off to the Asian grocery store this morning to get a Vietnamese coffee filter to strain the coffee when I realized that the gold fine mesh filter that I bought for my coffee machine might just do the trick. Guess what? It was perfect!

So, I followed the instructions and made an awesome jar of cold brewed coffee concentrate (I even used a canning jar that I recycled from a previous salsa purchase!)!

Lesson here? If there is some type of food/beverage that you are obsessing about, do a little Internet research. You might have to tweak recipes or try several different ones, but I'd be willing to bet you can make it at home for pennies on the dollar. Or in my case, pretty close to free since I had everything right here at home.

The only thing that I plan to do for future glasses is to make a pretty stout simple syrup from the turbino sugar that I love so much so that it is already dissolved and mixes easily in the cold coffee. After that, milk or a little half and half is all that is needed. I might experiment and use a little vanilla in the simple syrup, but other than that I love the idea of making iced coffee at home so inexpensively! I have a bottle of coffee concentrate in the fridge as I type, ready for whenever I MUST have more!

Goals for the Week

2008-08-10T21:07:00.000-07:00

This weekend has pretty much been a wash out as far as getting anything accomplished towards the house.

I did manage to get caught up on sleep, so that should not be an issue. I realize my house is really in need of a good cleaning and organizing. Badly. It seems that I always have good intentions, then get overwhelmed with the tasks. So this week I am going to work on one room--the library, then the family room once that is finished. By giving myself 3 days per room and only doing one room from top to bottom (this includes hanging new curtains and all pictures and wall art that hasn't been properly hung) , I am hoping it won't seem so overwhelming. After that, I will take 3 days for the master bedroom. we have put a lot of unopened boxes in this room and need to do some major emptying. This will include getting the master closet and the master bathroom cleaned through and organized. I have clothes on hangers that I can honestly say I have not worn since before the twins were born. They turn 14 this year!! Why are they still on hangers taking up precious space?!

At some point this weekend, I want to have a friend help me pick up the freezer so we can get it plugged in and cooled down. Pretty sad to be excited about getting a freezer, but this should make it easier for me to budget and plan meals. I think the saving should be substantial.

Even though gas prices are falling, I am still looking for major ways to conserve and cut back. Actually I am trying to conserve and cut back in every section, not just gas. I've done pretty well at staying out of stores, but there have been a couple slips that drain the budget, so my goal is to completely stay away from Wal-mart and Target. I guess I also have to work on staying away from Amazon too. It is too easy to hit the BUY button.

I am getting better at not buying a skein or three of yarn ever time I got to the yarn store, so that is getting better. I took a mini inventory of all the yarn I do have and can honestly say I have enough to keep me busy for the next season. I usually do a bit more knitting in the colder seasons, so my goal is to burn through my stash. I am working on some really pretty Norwegian mittens at the moment and will need a soft yarn to line the inside with, so I am not ruling out buying more yarn just for that purpose, but just for the linings since I don't have anything else that will work. I have enough yarn left over from these mittens and enough of the same kind of yarn in my stash to make several more pairs--which will keep me busy. The stranded color work on these mittens is easy enough that I don't get frustrated, but complicated enough to make me pay attention. I'll have to post pictures of them later this week, once I get a little farther on them. I've just got half of the first one done right now, so I do want to get far enough so you can tell what you are looking at.

Slow Sunday....

2008-08-10T16:46:00.001-07:00

Hubby and one of our sons have been at a 52 hour round the clock baseball tournament since Friday night, so other son and I have been hanging out here at the house. Usually I have a vehicle at my disposal, but hubby discovered a nail in his tire, so he has my car. It has been really strange to not have a car. It has made me realize how much I depend on my car.

It feels weird staying home all weekend. Actually, I did get out to go to our dinner groups biweekly dinner out, so I haven't been completely home bound...Mark (other son)went with me to dinner so between the two of us, we spent $40. Not the cheapest dinner by far, but it was good, the portions huge and the leftovers fed us for lunch on Saturday. One good thing about not having a car is the fact that I didn't go out and do any impulse/boredom shopping. Actually, pizza really sounded good for dinner tonight and I almost let my fingers do the walking, but instead Mark and I walked to the video store (I discovered I REALLY need to walk more!) for cheap movies and some video games for them and then came home. I cut up a pork loin that I had picked up at Sam's Club on Friday and fixed dinner at home. The rest of it is roasting in the oven for Tuesday's dinner. I bought a lot of meat at Sam's on Friday and froze some of it already. I have a package of hamburger meat in the fridge that has to be divided up into 1 pound sections before being frozen--that has to be done tonight.

One of the things I discovered Friday is that we just do not have enough freezer space for me to buy in bulk. As a result, we are going to get a chest freezer. Not a big one, just 7-8 cubic feet. I really don't think we would keep one of the really big ones stocked (since there are just 4 of us here at the house) and that makes the freezer have to use more electricity to keep the foods frozen. Every time I go to Sam's there are some really good meat deals. However, our freezer can't handle large purchases so often I have to pass it up. When I am at the local grocery store, they often have really good prices on frozen veggies etc, but again, not enough room to stock up. So I often have to stop by the store to pick up "one or two items"--which never goes successfully. I wish I could say I was one of those people who could come in for one item and leave with only that one item, but that never happens. Quick trips to the store always end up costing at least $50, usually more. A freezer will allow me to go shopping in bulk once and then not have to go to the store until the next planned shopping trip. Luckily the freezer is small enough to fit in the back of my friend's Saturn Vue, so at some point this week or this coming weekend, I will have hubby come along and help us load it into the car.

I am going to have to unearth my freezer cooking books that are in boxes and I ordered 2 more freezer cookbooks from Amazon (32% off retail price plus free shipping for over $25 order) to increase the possible recipe bank I have to chose from. I figure once a month I will have a marathon cooking jag and get entrees prepared. That will allow me to have a planned menu--finally! This will also allow me to have the entree defrosting in the freezer while I go about my day and be able to pop it in the oven at the proper time. I have done a couple sessions at Super Suppers and Simple Suppers before, but I want to do it a little more inexpensively. While I loved going somewhere and preparing the meal and having someone else take care of the cleanup, it is a pretty big bite to the budget, which defeats my goals. One my side bar under "Blogs I adore" are two really good sites : Simple Mom and Small Notebook that talk about meal planning and family budgeting. I'd highly recommend taking a look at both of them for ideas on menu planning.

Freezer Cooking

2008-08-09T02:03:00.000-07:00

For quite some time, I have been interested in freezer cooking aka one a month cooking etc.
This is where you stock up on one day, then spend an afternoon in a marathon cooking session preparing meals that you freeze in individual meal portions. Then all you have to do for the next 15 or 30 days (depending on how many you prepared) is take the meal out of the freezer the night before, or that morning and place it in the fridge to thaw. This method has been around a while--I have cookbooks from 10 years ago--and is a time saver for busy families. I have never actually cooked this way, but have really wanted to for a long time. Unfortunately we have never had a freezer to keep all these meals--the fridge freezer is just too small for this amount of frozen foods. I had decided that we were going to get a freezer to put downstairs so I have been considering the options and looking at the prices. I knew that the standard small car sized freezer would be too big for our family of 5 (now 4 since oldest has moved out) and would be an electricity drain if we didn't keep it filled, so I was thinking either the smallest or the next size up would suffice. I did find a 7 cubic foot freezer at Sam's--this looks like the best option. At $190, it won't bust the budget either. Now I have to find a way to get it to the house. Time to hit up friends...If the van was not at the mechanic's, we'd haul it home in that...but alas...

So now I am digging out the freezer cookbooks and fixing single family meal sized portions of recipes to find the ones my family will eat so that we can make larger portions to freeze. I am hoping that having a freezer stocked with meals already prepared, and having a freezer to keep frozen veggies and fruit in large portions, will allow me to "shop big-shop once". Every time I go into a store to pick up "a couple things for dinner tonight", I end up coming out with $100 worth of non related stuff. Hopefully this will help in the budget and consumption department and pay for itself.

Know Your Store Policies

2008-08-09T01:45:00.000-07:00

I was reading this post from the blog Get Rich Slowly and was alarmed by the fact that Target stores don't honor their customer service policies when they sell defective DVD's. Needless to say, I won't be buying DVD's from Target.

That said, I have to admit that lately we just don't buy dvd's unless it is a documentary--I recently purchased the Ken Burns Civil war series from Sam's club (and a couple dvd's about the Vietnam war, ww II and the navy seals also) since they are educational and there is benefit from having them on hand to watch again. Lately we just rent movies and games at the video store a lot more than actually purchasing them. While this may not sound economically feasible, what I have found is that after the kids play a game 4 or 5 times, they tire of it and it then becomes just one more thing in the cabinet. If we rent it 4 times and it costs $20-$30 total to rent, then I save $30 off the regular cost of a $60 game. If they take these games to a reseller, we don't get much for them...so renting is actually the most economical way to go. There are a few games we have bought and the kids still play, but we rent them first to make sure they are worth it.

Wednesday...Hump Day...

2008-08-06T18:23:00.000-07:00

I ended up staying home today instead of going to the yarn store in Newton. Actually, I intended to go, but since it was only 8 a.m after I picked the kids up from football practice, I laid down.

And woke up at 1:oo. GEEEZZZZZZZZZ. I guess I am still not back on track as far feeling better.

I did get the lab reports back and yes, the kidney stone was composed of calcium, which is pretty common. So as a result, there is a huge list of things I have to avoid like broccoli, carrots, spinach (goodbye beloved spinach salad), whole wheat anything, shrimp, raspberries, CHOCOLATE (just shoot me!!), ICE CREAM (ditto), tea, coffee, yogurt....did I mention that I start every morning with yogurt and a glass of iced tea....and the list goes on. It will take me a while to get used to the NO list. Damn. Chocolate is going to be impossible. I'll have to work on that by cutting back first. I am pretty motivated to not get another one as large as this one, but changing all at once is going to be unrealistic. The hard thing is that a lot of the foods I have to avoid are foods you usually think of a healthy. No cranberries, raspberries, whole grains, whole wheat, cheeses, etc.

Thank God (literally) for good health insurance though. I have a needle biopsy scheduled for the 12 th of the month to check out the lesion they found on my liver. I know, EWWWWWWWWWW--believe me, I'd rather not be blogging about this either. However I have discovered that just getting it out in blog land helps me be less stressed.

The boys start school on the 14th, so this is going to be a busy month. As of Friday, our budget is going to take a huge dip. To enroll the boys in public school costs $110 for both kids, then we have sports physicals at $60 each. And then we have new clothes for school. However the boys are pretty easy to shop for since they prefer to wear jeans and t-shirts.

I have decided that I want to learn to weave this year. I have been interested in weaving for a while and there is a class available at the city art center. I'll look into it on Friday. A lot depends on whether hubby has class on the day the class is offered. He is working on his master's degree again this semester, so our family schedule will be "interesting" to say the least.

On the budget side, my goal this pay period is to make a grocery budget and a meal plan and stick with it. I am going to be pretty careful about writing down EVERYTHING I buy so I can determine where the leaks are. I am also going to try some freezer cooking...dinner for tomorrow will be homemade pizza. I buy mozzarella cheese in bulk at Sam's and freeze it, so I have all the ingredients for it, including pepperoni and other toppings. There is a blogger I admire who feed 13 kids and two adults on a budget. check out her site, not only is it a highly entertaining blog, she is a great example of how to budget and feed a family on a budget. She also has tips on meal planning and a little of everything else. Go check out her site :

http://bakersdozen.typepad.com/.

One of my goals this Christmas is to make gifts and buy very few commercially made stuff. I am going to make jams/jellies, candies, knitted gifts and other handmade gifts. Since it is August, I am working on mittens. Actually I took a mitten class last week and am still working on the color work. They are very detailed, so I can't say I will be gifting any of these except to family. They are very labor intensive. Fun, and a good project to keep me focused and entertained, but definitely labor intensive. The yarn shop is going to have a mitten of the month club, but I'm not sure it will be in my budget to join. I might have to go solo and find free patterns off Ravelry...Heaven knows I have yarn for more pairs of mittens....lots more! and I am definitely going to do a lot more of the Fiddlehead mittens that I am currently working on.

Small morning post...

2008-08-05T06:54:00.000-07:00

Picked up the boys from morning football practice. Yep, getting three sweaty teenage boys in a small car is quite invigorating....

Not!

Practices this week have started at 6:30 a.m. Guess who has been taking them? Guess who is NOT a morning person?! That'd be me....

At some point this week, I am going to go hunting for a small freezer to go downstairs. I have been thinking about getting a freezer for a while now. Even though I am trying to not buy anything new, I think this will be a good thing. This will allow me to buy in bulk when I see really good meat deals. There have been several times when Sam's or one of the local grocery stores have had really good meat sales and I have had to pass them up because we didn't have room in the freezer. I have been wanting to actually use my once a month freezer cookbooks too. Some of the women I know that cook with this method, swear by it. It would be great to just be able to take an entree out of the freezer --already prepared--and the only thing you have to do is heat it up and prepare the sides.It does take a full day marathon of prepping the dishes, but after that, it is pretty easy. I definitely want to do this now that the school season is beginning. Hubby is working towards his master's degree, so on Monday and Wednesdays, he will be going straight from work to school. The boys have football games on Monday nights, so I will be attending...not to mention other little activities that go on throughout the week. It will be a busy season and having meals already prepared would go a long way towards keeping things sane. Anyway, I am going to look for a small one that can go downstairs and not take up a lot of space so we have just enough freezer space, but not so much that it eats electricity and is a bear to fill. Some of my friends have the large ones and they have to be kept stocked or they use more electricity to keep it cool.

I have to admit I didn't get anything done as far as a garden this year. I am seriously considering putting in my raised beds as it cools off so that next year I just have to remove the layers of newspaper (to keep out weeds) and aerate the soil before planting. We are going to hit the nursery this weekend in search of a dwarf pear and a dwarf peach tree. One of the boys is volleying for an apple tree too. It depends on the space we have left. We planted a cherry tree last year when we moved in. Hopefully it will give us cherries next year. Wouldn't it be great to have most of the fruit we use readily available from our backyard? I am looking at some blackberry bushes and raspberry bushes to use as shrubs along the fences to maximize our potential to grow what we eat. I love to make jams and preserves. This year I am going to try my hand at canning jars of peaches from the local peach farm here in town.

Well, I guess I'd better run and try to get something done for the day. It promises to be a busy one!

Good Deals

2008-08-01T22:28:00.000-07:00

While I didn't escape the day without spending, what I did buy was a really good deal. A friend and I went to Border's to sit and talk today and I found a copy of a cookbook that I have been coveting for a long time that was in the bargain section for $7.99. It is normally a $40 book and the recipes are ones that I will REALLY use, so I'm feeling pretty positive about that. The down side is that I actually splurged and bought lunch there. That was $7 I could have done without spending. I am going to have to plan a little better so I don't find myself out somewhere and hungry.

After that we went to the Goodwill store and found a nice wood chair that I intend to refinish and paint for $3. I will strip it and use it to sit on when I am spinning at my spinning wheel. I've been lugging a chair from the dining room each time I want to spin and this will make things easier.

I also found a copy of "The Nanny Diaries" for .99. I have been wanting to read the book ever since I saw the movie. The movie disappointed me immensely but a friend told me the book was MUCH better. So now I have a copy to read. I'll pass it along or give it back to Goodwill after I'm finished with it. I am trying to make more of an effort to actually start reading a lot more books this year. I have a large amount of books that I had put on the shelf to "read someday" but haven't been able to get to it. I am finally making myself read through the shelf and then donating or passing along the book that I don't really love enough to add to the permanent collection in my library.

I have a mittens class at the yarn shop tomorrow, so I am hoping that I will be able to refrain from buying anything. In reality I am behind the rest of the class since I missed the first class meeting due to illness (darn kidney stones!!), but I intend to go to the class anyway so I can see where everyone is at and at least hear the discussion and tips about the pattern. They are a Norwegian style mitten and they look really warm. I am hoping to get the pattern and the techniques figured out so I can make quite a few of these for gifts this Christmas season. With the number of skeins we needed for the class, I will have enough yarn to make at least three pairs in different color combinations. I might have to buy yarn for the linings, but I'll cross that bridge when I actually have the outside of three pairs completed. I am hoping to get them completed by September. The girl that teaches the class says she can make a complete set in less than a week, but with the schedule I keep, I am going to set the end of September as a goal.

The next week is going to be pretty expensive since school related expenses for the kids are coming out of this paycheck. We have school fees for 2 boys at $100-120 each. I miss living in Oklahoma where you don't have to pay registration and other fees for public school!! They are both in football, so we have to get sports physicals done at $60 each....That is not going to do wonders for the budget, but they are not things we can avoid, so no use bitching about it..

So the goals for the upcoming week are:

1. Work on -and make significant progress on-- Norwegian mittens.

2. Empty boxes in the master bedroom and pitch what is not really needed.

3. Organize the master bedroom and the library. We still have boxes from when me moved in-A YEAR AGO!

4. Get the family room in order and arranged. Empty boxes and clean up.

I am going to just focus on those 4 things instead of adding more. If I get them done early, then I add other goals.

Well, considering it is after midnight, I probably should sign off and go to bed. Have a great morning!

Day 1--no new yarn...

2008-07-31T21:29:00.000-07:00

That doesn't sound like a huge deal, but since I am at the yarn shop helping out twice a week, it is. I handle every type of yarn we stock and most times I end up taking home at least one (usually 2 or more) skeins or a new tool EVERY TIME I AM THERE!

That is really not good!

So today, I decided to make sure I focused on the fact I am trying to finish a set of Norwegian mittens for a class...it was REALLY hard, but I am proud of myself for sticking with it. No yarn or tools adopted today...I wound a dozen skeins of this recycled cotton we have in the shop and was soooo tempted--but I didn't buy any. I reminded myself I have 5 balls of cotton for dishcloths and 2 really large cones of the same cotton in my stash closet. Then I reminded myself I need to work through through my stash---I have quite a bit of yarn that needs to be made into projects.

I found another good budgeting/consumerism reduction site: http://smallnotebook.org/
Check it out. I'm not sure I can make $250 last our family as long as their 2 adult /1 toddler family did, but the ideas are very realistic and I will adapt them to our family but possibly raising the monthly budgeted amount. I'll look this over and work it out this coming weekend. Since tomorrow is the beginning of the month, this is a good time to start.

Affluenza

2008-07-30T15:56:00.000-07:00

Time Overload

2008-07-30T15:40:00.000-07:00

Compacting?

2008-07-29T21:26:00.000-07:00

Starting in July, I made a commitment to not buy anything new and to get my house and budget in line. Actually I started in June and was doing really well until July. My "official" commitment to the Compact was due to start then.

At the stroke of midnight on the 1st, my brain turned into a consumer pumpkin.

Not only did I blow the budget on new stuff, I REALLY blew it!

So as of this week--the last week of July (!) , I have to say I wasn't too successful. However, instead of giving up and throwing in the towel, I am just going to get back up and saddle up again. Hopefully this time I'm on a horse instead of a jackass...oops!

One of the things I did discover about myself is that I have problems with buying even at thrift stores. For example: Yesterday one of the kids and I went to Goodwill to look for painting for the walls. We had found some really neat paintings at Goodwill earlier in the month. At this Goodwill, we didn't find anything even remotely decent, but as we were leaving I made one last pass through the housewares and dishes.

Bad call.

I found a punch bowl and cups for $5. Then I found 2 more sets for $5 each. Yes, I am one of those rare people who actually use punch bowls. But 3? As you can surmise, all three ended up coming home with me.

Damn!

So, now I am going to have to actually start using them to justify the space they take up. That means actually having get togethers at our house, which actually means getting the house uncluttered so I am not freaking out that our house is too cluttered for guests. That is going to entail actually making a plan and sticking to it.

One good thing about this is the fact that if I stick with staying home and uncluttering and decorating, I will not be in stores shopping. This is going to take a lot of self discipline!!

Weekend in Agra

2008-07-21T17:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to Agra, Oklahoma to hang out with my sister in law and her kids. My niece was having a birthday, so it was good to be able to celebrate with her. Usually my mom in law and I go to Texas to celebrate on their home turf--this time Roxanne came here. Unfortunately her husband had to work, so he stayed behind in Texas. As you can see, there is a significant height difference between the older boys and their young cousin.....
Goofy boys! But the height problem WAS solved....
Grandma and the kids.........
Mom in law, Dad in law, Hubby and sister in law....

Families are a good thing........

Raking in the goodies...

2008-07-14T19:09:00.000-07:00

Today was a really good day for treasures. I needed a table with a straight edge to attach my yarn ball winder and yarn swift since all the surfaces in my house, as I discovered, have decorative edges and aren't suitable for attaching things....

Saturday, hubby and I went to the hardware store and I had all the parts needed to build a table for my swift and yarn winder. Hubby pointed out we had $60 worth of stuff in the cart, then it dawned on me that I hadn't even looked at any thrift shops. I had THOUGHT about looking, but had not actually looked. So while one of my sons and I were out running errands today, I stopped at a thrift shop and found THE perfect table. For $4 !!! Oh Yeah! Needless to say, it came home with me. I also found 2 really neat oil paintings for $4 each, so they came home with me also. They will be hung in the guest bathroom. The next thing I'm looking for is a baby gate so we can keep the dogs out of the laundry room. I will continue to look in thrift stores since I am trying not to buy new or pay retail prices.

When I got home, there was a message on my answering machine from a shop here in town that my husband I visited Saturday. They were having a customer appreciation party and there were some really neat grand prizes. The message on the machine said I won one of the grand prizes--a gift basket of natural skincare products. Good stuff! I usually do not win in drawings, so it took me a minute or 3 to remember what I had entered.

I had planned on running errands again once hubby came home, but decided to wait and bundle all the errands on Friday when I will be in that part of town. I am still trying to conserve and limit the gas we are burning. Actually I am trying to save money on utilities in general. Yesterday I had turned off the air conditioner and it was 84 degrees in the house. However with the windows open, it didn't feel that way to me--we were getting a pretty good cross breeze. I am usually the one who gets hot and insists the a/c get turned on, but this time hubby did it. HMMM.

I did talk to our contractor to secure a date in August to get our deck rebuilt. I am looking forward to being able to sit on the deck this Fall. Hubby and I wandered around the front and side yard to discuss some changes I want to make to the front and sides of the house. A lot of it is cosmetic, but one entails extending the fence along the side of the house to give us a little more space in the backyard. We have a 20 foot square area beside the house that is not being used--wasted space. I want to extend the fence so we can use that space. I am going to measure this week so we can project the costs. I am finally getting around to making changes to this house in order to make it ours. We moved in last year and really haven't done anything to it. I am rededicating myself to getting the inside and outside of the house in order and making it a haven for my family. This Friday I am picking up some decorative bricks and mulch to build decorative areas around some of the trees and rose bushes in the backyard. These things will cost money and require I buy new, but I think the benefits will outweigh the drawbacks. At some point I am going to build a water garden in the backyard. I love water gardens and will put what I learned in the water garden class to the test.

Well I need to go change out clothes in the washer--Good coffee and great friends to you and yours.

Can't sleep Post

2008-07-12T03:53:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is storming outside and I should not be on the computer, but it is 5 something in the morning and I can't sleep. So instead I am checking out the blogs of others and adding blurbs to my own blog. I'm sure I will feel like hell in a couple hours, but luckily I don't have to worry about going anywhere today. The only big plan on the schedule is to knit some more on a pair of socks that have been hanging on my needles WAY too long and to make something sweet to munch on. Oh, and get to the pottery studio to throw some pots. I've missed two weeks worth of throwing so I'd bette pull it out! It might be better if I skip the baking part since I have really crashed my diet and have actually gained weight this month.

I am actually enjoying the rain we have been getting lately. It helps to water the plants outside and save me some $$ on the water bill. If it rains during the day today, I am going to move my spinning wheel over to the patio door and do a little spinning. I need to stay home and out of the yarn shop anyway. I have SOOOOOOOOOOOOO blown the budget and have bought a ton of knitting related stuff this month. That would be OK except for the reality of the fact that I have enough of a yarn stash already.

So, from this weekend until the end of the summer, I am going to do my best to not add to the stash--and to knit from what I have!

I blew the spirit of the Compact this month big time. It is a little ironic that I did better following the Compact before I officially began...That said, I am following the Compact on my own since it appears they are not active anymore. I have emailed the group leader several times and have not received a response. It appears a lot of the group keep their entries on their personal blogs and don't post to the group site, so I usually go to the individual sites, and keep my notes on this blog site about my efforts (TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS) to get a handle on my spending and to make responsible decisions about not buying new. I have a ton of book that are sitting on the bookshelf, unread, and a ton of other craft related enterprises that need to be consumed, so it's not like I have a good excuse to buy something new.... except maybe some stuff to make things for a craft show I am going to have a booth at this Fall. I need to make a lot of earring, necklaces and bracelets to sell. Haven't started on them yet...

Ideally today I will get oldest son's room packed up and the walls painted so I can get it turned into my studio and the guest bedroom. I would really like to be able to have all my craft stuff in one place and organized. I get pretty frustrated since I have a pretty good stock of jewelry supplies, but since they are scattered around, I often have problems finding them. The game pan is to get the room in order, then bring in shelving units and bins for a better system of organization.

Blowing the Compact slightly...

2008-07-06T18:23:00.000-07:00

I was doing pretty darn good following the compact and not buying new--but it seems like the money flew out the door this July 4th holiday. I need to plan better and have more of a reserve built in for holidays. Food and fireworks cost more than I had budgeted for, even though we we really conservative on both this year.

When it rains, it pours. The car might have to go in the shop to get looked at--hubby said it wouldn't turn over initially when he was out today. I almost had to go get him. He put the car in neutral and it started. I hope it is nothing serious. We really are not in a good position to have a big car repair bill. And to top it off, the dishwasher bit the big one Friday. We do have it covered on an appliance warranty from when we bought the house--and we recently renewed it, so that might be a little easier on the budget. But it still bites the wallet. Next pay period I am going to write what I spend for EVERYTHING in a little book, so I can see where I'm slipping up.

I am showing one of the boys how to make a New York style crumb cake in just a little bit. We were at the grocery store and he was trying to talk me into buying a boxed crumb cake mix. I looked at the price, quantity, and preservatives and explained we could make one better,bigger and less expensive. He jumped at the suggestion he help me make one, so that is what we will be doing as soon as the buttermilk is at room temp. I want both boys to have a better sense of the fact they can usually make things like pizza and sweets themselves. They don't need to be dependant on a box.

Lazy Sunday......

2008-07-06T05:24:00.000-07:00

It is Sunday and either the beginning or ending of the week, depending on your opinion...I just woke up, hubby is out flight instructing (since 6 a.m!!) so I am the only one up at the moment. The sheer fact that I am up at 7 something in the morning can be taken as nothing short of a miracle.

But then stranger things have happened.

I just finished a really good book last night. Actually it was such an easy read that I devoured it in 2 nights, start to finish. It is " Here If You Need Me" --the book is upstairs, so I'll have to retrieve Katie's last name later. If I try to spell it now, only hard feelings will occur! It was a really easy read about the author's attempt at reconstructing a life for her and their children after the death of her state trooper husband. His dream was to become a minister after he retired. She took that dream and brought it into being. The book itself is not large and not emotionally draining so it is a good read for night time. It tells a lot about just having compassion and being there for others--not trying to make an unfortunate situation right, but to just BE there for the people going through the hardships she is called out on and to BE there for the officers that have to deal with the emotions they often bottle. I would recommend this book highly. The first person to blurb this post's comments saying they'd like to read it, I'll send the book to them. I do ask they pass the book on after reading it. Share the pleasure..

I am getting ready to start on another book that I recently bought used in Kansas City by Joan Anderson. I'll post the title and a short review later. This summer I am hoping to be able to read some of the books that have lingered on my bookshelf for way too long and then redistribute them to others. I'll use this blog as a posting place. I would really love to get a laptop computer so I can log on and blog from upstairs. A lot of times I get sidetracked and don't get downstairs to blog about something while the moment is still fresh. Hubby is working on his master degree, so having a laptop may be something we have to have---I'm just not sure how much play time I'll get on it once he gets it filled up with school assignments and general engineering junk... Oh well.

Today is destined to be a home focused day. I am going to work on getting the kitchen cleaned and the master bathroom done. Our stairs have cream colored carpet, so having as many cats as we do, they are always looking quite worse for wear. They will have to be dealt with today.

In the budget arena, I am trying not to spend any money until the end of the week, when hubby gets paid. Even then it will be a little slim since we are going to have to have the dishwasher repaired. Two days ago it just quit working. Figures. This one came with the house and we did extend the home warranty, which covers appliances, so I we'll see how that plays out budget wise. I do have to run to Stillwater to complete some wedding flowers for a friend of my niece, but that is the only big trip I have planned for the rest of the month at this point. A trip to see my oldest son is in the planning stages also.

School starts August 13th for the kids--damn this summer went fast! I feel bad that we didn't do any traveling this season. We might have to make a trip to Kansas City or fly to the ocean. Jeremy wants to go to Pensacola, Florida to collect seashells. Mark wants to go to Wyoming to visit a friend, but that trip may not be possible this year. The beach is do-able. We are trying to stay close to home or do trip that won't require a huge output of gas expenses. Even though a flight to Florida would require aviation fuel, we would spend most days on the beach, which should save fuel. I am going to have to consider whether it would be better for us to go after school starts and it is the off season as far as tourists go. I also want to find a hotel within walking distance of the beach or directly on the beach so the car can stay parked unless needed. Any suggestions? Another possible place we could go is Sanibel Island/Captiva. It is probably the best location in the US for shelling....

Happy Independence Day!

2008-07-04T10:39:00.000-07:00

I am waiting for a batch of no-bake cookies to cool off so we can put them in a tin to go to a cook out later this evening in the old neighborhood we moved from last year. We used to host a large gathering of neighbors in our front yard in the old neighborhood every July 4th. We didn't have anything at the new house last year since we were still tired from moving in, and this year one of the old neighbors wanted us to come to their front yard...I think we will host a neighborhood cookout sometime this Fall when it is a little cooler.

Hubby and the boys just got back from the fishing contest and frog races. I love our little town! Every July 4th, they have frog races for different age categories of kids. Each kids brings a frog and the first frog that jumps outside the ring is the winner. Jeremy wanted to bring the HUGE toad that sits by our back door at night, but I was a little worried about it getting hurt, and to tell you the truth, I'd be devastated if he got lost. I really love watching him at night. He's quite comical.

I completed my passport application last night in order to be able to go to Mexico with my friend, Marita, at some point this year. I will be taking it to the post office to be witnessed and mailed off on Friday. However, I also got on the government website for traveler's advisories and was pretty freaked out how bad it sounds like Mexico has gotten! It sounds remarkably like Columbia and Nicaragua did in the 80's when drug cartels were running the country. I am going to have to give serious consideration about going. We will be with Marita's husband, Juan, and staying with his family, but the situation in Mexico sounds really bad in general. And it is not only the border towns. It seems to be affecting the whole country. Too bad she didn't marry someone who lives in Canada. That really sounds like a safer option!

I made a really awesome cream cheese pound cake last night for the get together tonight. I love cream cheese pound cakes. They are one of those simple, yet elegant dessert options that can be used in a multitude of ways. We slice ours, pile it high with sliced strawberries that have had a tablespoon of sugar added to them and allowed to sit (we use 3 tablespoons of sugar for every 4 cups of sliced strawberries, or less if the strawberries are sweet.) Basically they sit in the sugar for a couple hours which draws out some of the juices and allows a syrup to form, then we pile them on sliced poundcake and add whipped cream or cool whip. Here is the pound cake recipe:

Cream cheese Poundcake

1 (8 oz.) brick cream cheese, at room temp.
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups)unsalted butter (no substitutions) at room temp.
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs at room temp.
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
(the grated rind of 1 lemon, orange or lime is also a great addition of you have it.)
3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Beat the butter, cream cheese and sugar together until light and fluffy (5-7 minutes) with an electric mixer (I use my stand mixer, which makes this really easy).
Slowly add the eggs, one at a time and beat well after each addition. Add vanilla and other flavoring, lemon zests etc.

Combine flour and salt. Add to the butter mixture, beating at low speed just until flour is combined. Too much beating makes it rise out of the pan too high and become lighter. Poundcake is supposed to be dense.

Pour into a greased and floured 10 inch tube or bundt pan. Bale at 325 degree until a wooden skewer inserted in the center of cake comes out clean, approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes--your oven may be different, so make sure to check the cake with the skewer.

Let sit in pan on wire rack for 5 minutes, them loosen and invert onto a wire rack to completely cool. Dust with powdered sugar before slicing or top with a powdered sugar glazed while cooling.

REALLY GOOD!

Communities

2008-07-01T18:29:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about the idea of what encompasses a community.

What are the elements needed to establish and grow a community? Not a town, but a COMMUNITY. A town is where people live, a community is where people interact and establish links and bonds to others.

I guess part of why I have been thinking of this is when we moved from our old neighborhood, our new neighborhood is not as interactive and connected. How do we change that? It seemed to happen pretty easy in the old neighborhood--the houses are small and pretty close together. There was also a higher percentage of older, retired people or people who were at home and available to interact.

I guess where you live does not have to define whether you have a community or not. Some of the blogs I read have people that get together for meals and events and they build community that way. I think as humans, we are more dependent on interaction than we want to admit. Humans need contact and connection with others. However getting a community together is a little intimidating. What do you do when a community member causes problems or gossips. How does a community stay strong during inevitable stress points? What are the rules of community?

What is your definition of community?

Catching Up!

2008-07-01T13:42:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how much time has passed since I last posted to this site! Time sure flies!

I have stayed close to home today since I have what seems to be a touch of a summer bug. I'm hoping it goes away by tomorrow. I think I got a bit of something while visiting my mother in Stillwater this weekend. It was either that or the lack of sleep. I have a really hard time sleeping on the couch at my mothers. I think next time it will be worth it to rent a hotel room when we go there overnight.

My goal this month is to get a water garden dug in our backyard so I can have a water garden to hang out by. I love water gardens. I took a class at Botanica here in Wichita and really learned a lot. Luckily we got some free plants while at the class at Botanica, so I have stock to start with at no charge. Free is always good!

My goal is to get my house and back yard in shape so I can make a retreat atmosphere here at home and in the backyard. I bought two dwarf bamboo plants this past week that I plan to plant this week. The last thing we are looking planning to plant is a dwarf pear tree for the backyard and some blackberry bushes for the side yard. I am hoping to get fruit going in order to supplement the food budget next season. Blackberries are a favorite, so I have to look at getting a lot of them going for fresh eating, jam and other desserts. Yum!

I have really been tempted to buy some new stuff this week, but to be truthful, the trip to Stillwater and Tulsa was a little expensive as far as gas and food, so I am fighting that urge. I may have to order some beads for stitch markers this week, but I am holding off and seeing what I can do to work from my stash. Somewhere in the garage I have a box of seed beads that I could definitely use--I need to rededicate myself to getting the garage cleaned out and the rest of the boxes unpacked. It will save money by finding stuff I need and have packed in boxes.

Technically I started the Mamas on the Compact on the first, although I do not think the sight is still active. I noticed the last person who signed on started in May, but no more new ones have joined since that time. I haven't been able to get in touch with the moderator either. I will continue to stick with the goals of the group since it does seems like a good cause. Plus I was working towards this because the price of gas is causing me to seriously reconsider consumer spending on mass produced items. I will buy from artists, craft persons and locally owned businesses (farmers, local businesses etc). Even if the price is higher, buying from a local or indie helps the small business chain. I found an awesome video on this site about the story of STUFF. Watch it, it will cause some thinking...

Have gas prices affected your buying styles? Have you made cut backs? What are you not willing to give up?

Monday.....

2008-06-23T13:21:00.000-07:00

water lilies--sooooo pretty!
Closeup of one of the blooms.

It has actually been a pretty quiet and uneventful day. That's good. Everyone can use those kinds of days.

I was tempted to run to the west end of Wichita today to hit a used bookstore, but instead I stayed home and worked on the house. I can't say that I have gotten a huge amount done, but I am working towards getting some of the little things picked up and paper clutter tossed. I have noticed that paper tends to accumulate in our house, whether it be old cash register receipts, mail or even magazines and newspapers. I really need to come up with a better system for that.

I took a water gardening class at the public gardens here in Wichita on Sunday and really had a good time. I have a small one that we assembled sitting on the patio downstairs, but I am contemplating building a larger on that will accommodate a couple goldfish. I will look around town Saturday to see what options we have. I would love to have one situated where we can see it from the upstairs patio. I'll price liners and other things this weekend since that is when I am planning to do any errands I have. I am going to try to build this myself inexpensively. We got several really nice plant starts and a couple potted water plants in the water gardening class, so there is some $ saved. The instructor even gave us some water lilies, if we wanted them. This type gets REALLY large, so I will probably use one of the starts and take the rest to Oklahoma for my mom in law's pond--if she wants them. I am really looking forward to this. When I lived in Tulsa, my oldest son and I would go to the public gardens at Woodward park and spend the day. He was quite young and love getting a peek at the little goldfish as they went from plant to plant. The public gardens her in Wichita (Botanica) have huge water gardens with koi and bass in them. I love going there and feeding the fish. One day I am just going to bring a lunch and sit and knit the whole day. It's have to be in the early Fall though. I am not a heat loving girl...

With gas just at the edge of $4 a gallon for the lowest grade here in Wichita, I am cutting completely back on both my spending and any running that will eat gas. My reaction to the high gas prices has been to drop out of the consumer market as much as possible. Starting July 1, that will increase even more as I start my two months on "Mama's on the Compact".

My biggest goal this summer is to find things that focus on stying home, whether that be finally using the outdoor fireplace and making a seating area to enjoy it from, to getting my house decorated and organized with things we have. Some of the redecorating may involve an outlay of money when I buy fabric to reupholster or paint to spiff up stuff, but I think these will be tempered against the final result. I will be careful and I will use coupon for $ off on these things whenever possible.

Plans for tonight:

Make brownies for snacking . I bought the Duncan Hines mixes when they were on sale for $1 a box--actually they were advertised as 10 for $10--but when they are $1 a box, I'm buying a whole lot of them for times I am craving them but not wanting to make them from scratch. And let's face it, these are really good!

Gain a few inches on a pair of mittens I'm knitting for one of my boys.

Get books that I tore out while organizing actually organized. Or at least put in the correct place.

Good coffee and great friends to you and yours.

Budget busting..

2008-06-21T17:34:00.000-07:00

OK-
Let's just say that this has not been the best day for the budget. But everything I bought will be needed, with the exception of a $12 book. I did use a 50% off coupon to get it at that price, but it might have been an impulse....

I am knitting a pair of colorwork mittens for one of my sons and discovered that I REALLY needed a larger set of needles to get gauge. The suggested needle size, which I have in my stash, resulted in a mitten that could double as a tourniquet. Since the outlay of time is going to be significant on these mittens, I really had to have a larger double pointed needle. I did use my discount at the yarn shop and got 2 different sizes so I don't have to worry about going back and getting another set. Since I will be knitting a LOT of mittens for gifts this year, the new needles will get a lot of use. I am classifying them as a need.

I also got some flat nosed pliers at a jewelry supply place-finally. I have been scrimping by with another type and had come to the reality that it will actually allow me to do my jewelry and stitch markers much faster if I use the right equipment. I am selling these markers, so they have to be well made and made quickly to make them cost effective.

The book was more of an inspirational reference. I probably could have easily done without it, so I am counting that as an "OOPS". I am hoping I turn to it for design ideas enough to justify the $12 expense.

I need to stay home for the rest of the weekend. I do have a water gardening class that I am taking tomorrow, so I will have to be out and about. I need to use a little self control and not wander into stores.

I did find a really irritating fact about myself though: if I have a coupon, I feel compelled to use it. I have 2 more 50% off coupons to JoAnne's Crafts stores that expire tonight and they are really burning a hole in my pocket. Luckily cute man took the car to a baseball game, so I have no way to get there. Yes, we have another car in the drive, but I really don't like to drive it, so I'm safe on that.

My goal for the rest of the week and right up to payday is to be a little more disciplined in both the wallet and the food prep arena. Last night I should have made pizza from scratch but we ordered out. That is pretty sad since it takes no time when I use my KitchenAide mixer to knead the dough. The only crimp was that the block of cheese was frozen. In the future I will pre-shred 1 pound baggies of cheese to freeze so that I can remove what I need and it will be thawed out by the time the dough rises.

I did get to the studio to throw some pots today, but I didn't get much as far as quality. I have been a little off on my throwing and that is irritating me. I need to go in and learn to focus more. I have noticed when I don't focus, I don't get anything decent. Throwing pottery can be a lot like meditating sometimes. It is hard to quiet the monkey mind and focus. I'll be working towards that.

How has your budget been going this week? I do think the warm up to my July 1st starting date of "Mama's on the Compact" has been good for me. I realized today that, while not totally perfect, I have been making a lot of headway on actually making do, using up and buying used--or doing without. That's a big step for me.

Well, good coffee and great friends to you and yours!

Posting for dollars...

2008-06-20T18:18:00.000-07:00

Actually the title of this post should be "posting to save $" since I made myself write this instead of continuing to surf Amazon. com. I have more than enough books to read, but I always find more that intrigues me. Not good!

I helped man the "Knit in Public" booth at a show today and I must toot my horn that I went there, stayed for 5 hours and just knitted on a project I brought with me. I did a little looking at a beadshop booth, but decided I probably have or can get the same beads cheaper. Somewhere in the garage is multiple strands of seed beads, just waiting to be used. So I had to give myself a pat for not buying ANYTHING.

That said, hubby and I did spring almost $30 for pizza out when we really could have made it at home for 1/4 the cost. Two steps forward, one step back. I need to make sure I keep some frozen pizza dough in the fridge with a couple pounds of shredded mozzarella cheese so I can get pizza made quickly. I had a block of mozzarella in the freezer, but contemplated the fact that it would take a little while to thaw, so from now on it gets shredded before we put it away.

Friday night, hubby wanted to run into Wal-Mart to pick up 2 things. Since I can't "just pick up 2 things" in that store, I opted to stay in the car and not get tempted. It actually worked well. I keep a good book in the car so I got to read further into the book and didn't spend any money.

Little steps, but progress anyway. I think by the end of the month I will have an easier time of sticking to the Compact. I have been pretty creative on finding what we need and really asking hard questions on whether something is a want or a need. If it is a want, not a need, I am working on not buying. I won't say I've been perfect, but I am working on it and being very conscious of the cash flow going out. It is quite a change for me, I must say. Usually if I see something I like, I just buy it. Now I try to find it used, or not get it at all. Again, I'm not perfect at it all the time, but I am working in that direction.

Now I just have to figure out a way to cut the auto gas bill.

I'd love to take the bus into Wichita, except there is no bus that runs into our town. There isn't even a place to park and ride like there is in Atlanta. I would love it if Wichita had a bus/train system like Atlanta. I know Atlanta is a bigger city, but they do have a good bus/train system and I felt completely safe using it. When I am visited my friend in Atlanta, we took the train from the park and ride terminal and the bus from there. It was surprisingly easy and well thought out. Maybe Wichita will work towards that.

It's all good.

Things I would love to do....

2008-06-16T20:51:00.001-07:00

I have decided to do a master list of 13 things I want to do by the end of 2009. Some of them are little, some of them are big. I am giving myself the goal date of the end of 2009 since some of these things will require saving some $$$.

1. Get an Etsy shop up and running. Establish a business out of my art and crafts.

2. Go to Mexico with Marita.

3. Install a wood floor in the downstairs. Easier to keep clean....

4. Look into taking parts of the house off the grid. Even one or two rooms like the kitchen and master bedroom would be neat. Not sure about the costs though. This is going to require some research.

5. Get my house totally decorated. All rooms.

6. Get chickens. Will have to build a chicken coop and make a part of the yard "cat proof" in order to get this goal done...

7. Take a week long writing class at the Iowa Summer Writer's Festival. (It isn't in the budget this summer, but I am targeting next summer..)

8. Lose 60 lbs.

9. Start entertaining more at our house. Get monthly soup dinners started with friends.

10. Have the recommended 6 month emergency savings amount in the bank........this one will probably be the hardest of all since it will require constant monitoring and deciding whether to buy certain things or make do...

11. Totally purge the clutter.

12. Reconnect with my older sister. We really don't see each other or even know each other very well.

13. Knit a coat and sweater for me.

As I said, some are little and some are big. All will require that I focus and do a little research. I fully intend to look for green ways to do all these. The redecorating part will entail looking for furniture that can be restored at thrift shops and garage sales before investing in new (exceptions will be mattresses and anything that will bw slept on...I don't do used bedding, especially after seeing a mattress get reconditioned..).

Sleepin' in...........

2008-06-15T19:19:00.000-07:00

This weekend has been a total wash as far as any real activity. Hubby and I did some grocery shopping yesterday and today--I am trying to get groceries for the week in one trip since multiple trips to the store tend to result in more impulse purchases than we should indulge in.
Unfortunately last night we went to Dillion's after the fish counter had closed so I am going to have to make a trip out tomorrow at some point. We had thought the Wal-mart in Derby had a fish counter, but that was a bust. Just frozen pre-packaged fish. ARGGGG. I need some more shrimp for meals. I was thinking about going to Sam's in the morning but I spend entirely too much when I go in there.

It is so easy to tip the checkbook over the mark in Wal-Mart! I pretty good at getting only what we really needed, but there were two impulse purchases: A wall sconce for one of my jar candles and a large self feeding dog food dispenser. I had thought I had picked up a water dispenser but I guess I wasn't paying attention. I'll take it back tomorrow and get my money back if they don't have the water dispenser. The water dispenser is definitely needed. The wall sconce is an impulse, but it will make it a little easier to light my candles and not worry about them getting knocked over when they are on the counters.

The game plan tomorrow is to take the kids to weight training camp at the high school then we're going to go to a museum afterwards and spend a little time downtown exploring. We have lived here for 11 years and there are so many things we have not seen! This summer I am going to be a tourist in our town.

Saturday I am planning to go to the Farmer's market on the west side of town and get some fresh things to cook for the following week. I picked up herb plants when we were in Kansas City and I am going to get some planter boxes to put them in and position them on the patio so I can snip as needed when cooking. I am hoping to get some goodies baked for the upcoming week tomorrow. I've been really tired this week from being out of the house all day during the day, so not a lot has gotten accomplished. I need to focus on getting back on both a sleep schedule and a time schedule.

I picked up a book at JoAnne's Crafts today (using a 50% off coupon of course!) on do it yourself upholstery. I have a chair that I picked up for free that needs some work, along with my recovering my dining room chairs, this book will come in handy! I will look at upholstery fabric at some point and get the dining room chairs done first to give me a little confidence. I am looking forward to retrieving the chair I found on the curbside with other trash in Stillwater. It has great bones and I am confident it is going to be spectacular after I get the chair stripped and stained in a light golden maple color. I had to leave it in my mom's garage in Stillwater since I couldn't get it in the little car. When my van is finally fixed, I will be picking the chair up and get down to business. I am envisioning this chair in our bedroom as a perfect sit and knit/read chair. I will take before and after pics when I get this project started.

So the focus for the beginning of this upcoming week is going to be:

1. Bake a pound cake to send to child in Iowa and one for our freezer.

2. Make some no-bake cookies for son and for here.

3. Send the goodies to son.

4. Unload a couple more boxes from the living room and bedroom.

5. Paint the guest bedroom.

6. Work on some mittens I am knitting for one of the sons.

If I get that list knocked out, it will be good. I have a lot of things to do here at the house so it is time to focus my energies in that direction. I have a lot of blessings, time to put then forward and utilize them to make a home.

Spending for the day:

Books: total $30 (this is more than I probably should have spent..)
Groceries: $165 (I will work hard at not spending too much more on food this pay period. It will be interesting to see how long I can extend the budget with what we have right now)
Brunch out with friend: approx $30

Long Week

2008-06-14T22:29:00.000-07:00

This has not been my week to please people. I would seriously like to have a do-over on this past week, but with the knowledge of who I should avoid and why. It would definitely save me some mental anguish when someone gets bitchy for no good reason.

On the money front, I did spring for some yarn this weekend in preparation for a mittens class that I am taking at Twist in July. I am really excited about learning mittens so I can make a whole bunch between now and Christmas. I am hoping to start a couple gifts this week so I can get done by the time Christmas rolls around.

Tomorrow I am going to utilize one of the recipes I learned in the cooking class I took in Kansas City and teach the boys to make paella. Since one of the boys really dislikes shrimp, we will have to put some extra chicken in it. I had not bought olive oil in a while and found out it is considerably more expensive than I had anticipated. The cheapest bottle I could find was $7. But I guess a little goes a long way, so that is good.

I am going to sleep in tomorrow since I have had to be at the yarn shop more than normal and have missed out on a lot of sleep due to storms. I am exhausted and it didn't help that there were some things that happened that made a ripe situation for miscommunication. I am really hoping next week is better.

Money spent this week:

Yarn and needles: $36 (there will be enough for at least three pairs of mittens, so not a big expense-I just need to be careful not to do this again this month).

4 Books from book club: $40 (this probably could have been avoided, but they are books I have been wanting to read and $10 a book is a real bargain)

Magazine: $6

Groceries: $102 so far (I still have a little more to get tomorrow)

Gas for car: $30

Eating out $45

Total: $249 so far. I will need to really watch it for the rest of the week if I am going to hit my goal and save even more than last pay period. The rest of the week I am going to make every effort to stay off Amazon.com. It is toooooooo easy to hit the BUY button. Especially when I've had a completely crappy week like I have had this week. I tend to stress eat and stress spend--and this has been a really stressful week.

I have decided that I am going to spend more of my free time at home getting it in order and actually making a home that is comfortable and inviting. I am going to be shampooing the heck out of the carpets this week, starting tomorrow.

I will also be painting some art for the walls and actually hanging the stuff we do have. I have decided will spring for an oil painting class in August--I have always wanted to know how to oil paint. I use watercolors and acrylics, but oils are something I have wanted to do for quite some time. I have no problem using $ to pay for classes to learn something--I am going to focus on not spending on THINGS. The starting date of my "Mamas on the Compact" compact is July 1. It will be very interesting to see how well I do. I have been trying to be pretty careful lately and to make myself ask hard questions about whether a purchase is a want or a need. I have discovered that it is hard to make that distinction sometimes--especially when it is REALLY a want and I am trying to find creative ways to make it a need.

Funny!

2008-06-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

Back from The Big KC

2008-06-09T14:49:00.000-07:00

Details from the Unity Church in The Plaza.

They have a vegetarian cafe inside called Edan Alley. Really good food and a really cool atmosphere. They also have a patio where you can sit outside and eat while people watching. Tip--use the parking garage next to the church. We originally tried to park on the street , but there was none. Once we spotted the sign on the church that said Edan Alley was inside (in the basement --FYI) we spotted the garage. Easy, free parking. Since The Plaza is the mecca for all the chic designer stores, the variety of people at any given time is immense and varied. Parking is "interesting". Thankfully we found this garage..Also, the bread and agave butter they bring you before dinner is so good it will bring tears to your eyes!! You can shop in the gift store while they are preparing your food. They have a lot of really interesting things from all beliefs and religious traditions.

This is the view from one of the hills right outside KC, MO. Actually Staci and I were riding around in a neighborhood of really huge houses. Mega million dollar houses. This is a view from an empty lot that was for sale. The houses on either side of it were easily 5,000 square feet. Damn! What do you do for a living to be able to pay the mortgage on a house like that?! Not to mention the fact that nobody in that area had a car that was more than a year old. Damn...
Above is the Chef (male) and the assistant for the Choux pastry class Staci and I took this weekend. I loved listening to this guy talk. He is from France and I think I'd pay just to hear him read the newspaper! The class was wonderful and I learned a lot! I will be making cream puffs and eclairs for the boys this coming weekend. The Quick and Healthy cooking class was also worth every penny. There are several recipes I will be making this week. They are quick, easy and really great tasting. An interesting thing the Chef did was to stop at the end and make us think about the fact that we were satisfied. Not gut busting full or still hungry, but satisfied. I guess we tend to eat on auto-pilot.

It was fun to be there, but Dorothy is right--there really is no place like home. Staci and I ran around and explored Kansas City (both the Kansas side and the Missouri side of KC) and a lot of points in between. One thing we discovered about KC and the 'burbs is that although you may start out on a street, if you proceed straight, with no curves, you will not be one the same street when you end..Several times we headed down one street, only to realize the street name had changed..WTF?!! The original street is actually a block or 6 away. Strange.

One thing that got a little trampled while in KC was the budget. I did a lot of buying and eating out always costs you out the wazoo. I was pretty conservative in the eateries, but it still costs. The hotel we were staying in had a fridge in the room so we did save a little by getting provisions at Whole Foods such as yogurt and milk for breakfast.

My only complaint about the Overland Park Whole Foods Market was the fish counter really smelled--I think they may want to investigate whether the ice under the fish needs to be changed. It should not have smelled that way and for that distance. Another thing I noticed was the dated on the milk in glass bottles are not being watched carefully. I bought some milk and it turned out to be sour. I hadn't noticed but the date was past. Since it had a really cool glass bottle, I just dumped it and kept the returnable bottle. I know, I lost the deposit. But the bottle was really neat. In fairness, the other 2 quarts I bought after that were not old and tasted fine. There is just something good about milk in glass bottles. It really does taste better. That is why I pay a premium price for milk in glass bottles here in Wichita. It's just better.

I did blow the book budget too. I have to get serious this week and get some stitch markers made up and put out at Twist to try to put some $ in the account to compensate for the damage.. I figure I will get at least 30-35 made this coming weekend. They work up pretty fast and are fun to make.

This trip was an excellent trip for inspiration. I found lots of great ideas for jewelry and other things that I intend to follow up on. The next time I go to KC, I want to go to the art museums and galleries. I think we are going again in August so the boys can take a cooking class and we can shop at Cabella's and Bass Pro shops.

MOM. I'm bored....

2008-06-02T18:29:00.000-07:00

OK, so the kids aren't saying that. I am.

I have been surfing the web and contemplating going to the kitchen to make something sweet.

Preferably with some form of chocolate included in the ingredient list. Lots of chocolate...After the load of clothes in the washer finishes, I am going to have to go upstairs and make some chocolate chip cookies or some no-bake cookies. I like no-bakes a lot, so that is probably what we will end up with. Plus it will enable me to make a dent in the oatmeal and peanut butter population around here. I got several boxes and jars when they were on sale for $1 a container. Good price--as long as it gets used. I am trying to use up things I have and not buy anything else for the rest of the week. However I think I am going to have to cave in and pick up some additional groceries tomorrow. We are at the bottom of our canned goods and for some reason, hamburgers or spaghetti sounds good for tomorrow...

I found my older copy of the book "Kansas: Off the Beaten Path". I plan to look through it to get ideas on quirky places in our state to visit this summer. I was thinking about purchasing a newer copy, but I will just make a list and do an Internet search of these places to make sure they are still around. This is part of our attempt to stick close to home this year and explore places that will not cost us so much in gas. We are going to Iowa this summer to see oldest one and his girlfriend, but that may be the one big trip of the season. There is an "Off the Beaten Path" book for just about every state. Go check one out from the library. You will find things you never even knew existed! Some cool, some quirky, some just plain weird.

The boys have a friend spending the night tonight. Hopefully they are reasonably quiet and don't get too rowdy. One teenager and there is one brain. Two teenagers and they have half a brain. With 3 teenagers, there are no brains in the room. Nadda...Zip...

I ended up staying home today in order to save some gas. I will go to the pottery studio tomorrow after I leave the yarn shop since it will make more sense to go when I am already out. Hopefully I will get a couple decent pots thrown. My throwing and glazing mojo has been seriously off kilter lately. Time to get it back in line!

Addition to post: What is it about kids that they have to be kept amused? I had a roll of packing tape--as in the not cheap tape--on the table and discovered the kids friend unrolling it. The jury is still out as to whether this kids is a guest again.

Monday Morning Temptations

2008-06-02T11:08:00.000-07:00

I would love to just run off to the craft store to peruse the bead aisle today.

Really I WANT to.

I just don't NEED to.

The fact that beads are one of my Compact exemptions is good, but I am really making an effort to maintain the spirit of the compact and only buy what I intend to use. No mindless consumerism. Although I don't officially start the Compact until July 1, I am going to practice getting the concept of not shopping early. My goal today is to get a handle on my kitchen and all the boxed that we have sitting around and in need of unpacking. There is a lot of stuff still in boxes, like my set of Prismacolor art pencils, that could be pressed into service if I just knew where the heck they were. I feel like our garage is the ending scene of an Indiana Jones movie. Remember the warehouse where they stuck the Ark? Yep, now you get the idea.

So, instead of shopping and burning valuable fossil fuel and cash, I am going to hang close to home and work on getting it under control. I may go to the studio later to throw on the wheel, but I'll see how the day goes. Ideally I should go tomorrow after I leave the yarn shop that I volunteer time at. It is relatively close to the studio and would make more sense to go then.

At the end of the week, a friend and I are going to Overland Park, Kansas. We are taking cooking classes at the Kansas City Culinary Center. Originally we had signed up for a gluten free cooking class since Staci is allergic to any form of gluten, but that class was moved to a different date and we had already committed to the hotel and Staci had time off, so we were already committed to the date. We are taking a healthy cooking class and a pastry class. Although Staci can't eat the pastry (gluten), she is game to take the class.

Another reason I am really trying hard to not spend any money this week is the fact that Staci and I are going to visit two Half Price Book stores. It is a chain, but they have great prices and a huge selection. I have decided to take some books to trade in order to soften the blow. I always find something great there. However I am fully prepared to ask myself a series of questions to decide if a book is really useful or just clutter.

I'll let you know how that works.

6p.m. update : Spending $0, not even on the internet...yeah!

Starting the Compact

2008-06-01T22:45:00.001-07:00

Beginning July 1, 2008 I will officially begin the "Mamas on the Compact " for the next two months.

My focus for the next couple months, my focus will be on making our family a little more aware of how much we consume and how much we spend.

Starting in July, I will work on enjoying people and experiences that just can't be bought with money. I am hoping this helps me get creative on finding creative alternatives to the normal mindless shopping we do. Another focus I plan to add is to declutter what we already have--to edit and pare down so we are not spending so much time maintaining THINGS.

I think that this will be good for us. However here are exceptions to the rules on buying new:

1. Personal hygiene products. I have teenage boys who play sports. Need I say more?!

2. Supplies for my crafts business. I sell stitch markers and handmade crafts. I will focus on using what I have, but I will purchase supplies if I REALLY need. This also includes clay for my pottery class. I will use what I have and buy bags only as needed. Pottery gives me a tangible creative outlet and provides an outlet to relieve stress.

3. Supplies to maintain and build our garden and chicken house. Both of these will pay back in a reduction in food costs.

4. Biweekly dinner group dinners. Our group has been going out for a while. We will cook meals at home other than those dates.

5. Medicine. This goes without saying.

What is out:

1. New books - I will focus on reading what I already have or buy at used bookstores and secondary markets.

2. Yarn--this one is going to be hard. I volunteer time in 2 yarn stores and get a discount. I love yarn--badly...I will focus on knitting through my REALLY LARGE stash.

3. Random shopping -- Actually I will make it a habit to stay out of stores in general. I actually put this into practice today. I had suggested to a friend that we meet at a bookstore to hang out for a while. After thinking about it, I called her back and we met at her house instead.

This actually falls into line with what I have been doing anyway to offset the outrageous cost of gas. Another thing that is a thing of the past is getting in the car to run single errands. Errands are now bundled according to what side of town they are on. They are also examined to see if they are REALLY needed or if they can be eliminated.

Homemade Bread video (Really good instructions)

2008-05-31T23:20:00.001-07:00

Homemade pizza dough recipe demo

2008-05-31T23:04:00.001-07:00

Trying to behave

2008-05-31T20:59:00.000-07:00

I found a really good web blog dedicated to making a commitment not to buy new products for a period of 2,4,6,8 or 12 months. It is called Compacting Mamas and it is very inspiring. I am going to do a 2 month informal trial run and see how well I can do before actually making the leap. Hey, it's a big step! I am a rampant consumer aka. impulse shopper, so this is really going to be like going cold turkey with chocolate. Thankfully that is not one of the things since it is a food item....technically.

One of the biggest reason for doing this is to save money. With gas prices being what they are, I will cut corners whenever and however I can. That will entail a drastic reduction in fluff spending. With Compacting Mamas, basics such as food,shampoo and hygiene things are exempt. Thank God! And you can name exemptions of things that are necessary. For example, I am going to sell some of my stitch markers and handmade jewelry, pottery and craft objects. so supplies related to this venture are exempt.

One of the ways that I plan on getting away from spending on new is to avoid shopping for ANYTHING when I am bored and tired. This will help save gas too.

I have been prompted to make these changes because of the high cost of gas. Let's face it, if you have a choice between getting to work or buying something new, the new item has to be given up. If I am getting screwed by the oil/gas companies, I will not spend my money on consumer stuff..This will mean being really careful when I am on the Internet too. I tend to shop at Amazon for books too much. That will stop for two months, at least. I am hoping this helps ease me into curbing spending long term. I have a membership in a book club that automatically sends a book from my reading list (books I've chosen) so that will have to be exempt too. I get charged if I cancel. Plus the books are $9.99 shipping included, so it isn't a huge bite into the budget.

Some other things we have been doing to cut out a little extra spending is to eat at home more. With the exception of our biweekly dinner group outing, we have been eating at home a lot more than in the past. When I was working outside the home, we were always stopping and getting something pre-made because hubby and I were too tired to cook. That has been seriously cut down. I think making it from scratch or at home also cut out a lot of salt and preservatives, depending on what you are cooking. Obviously if you are using boxed dinners, you have sodium and preservatives to contend with, but I think overall homecooked meals tend to be healthier. Hubby and I love to drink coffee in the morning. Good coffee--not the pre-canned and stale stuff. We buy whole beans from a roaster here in town and sometimes from the bulk bin at the natural foods store and then grind our own as we need them. The difference in flavor is phenomenal, and the savings over getting a coffee at Starbucks or another coffee shop is significant. I will splurge on our dinner nights out every two weeks, but not in between. Eventually I want to cut that in half. The really interesting things is that there are so many varieties of coffee from different places and each one has different characteristics. Grinding and brewing at home has definitely educated my palate. In the mornings I grind the beans and make coffee while hubby is in the shower. We have a small collection of insulated travel mugs, so he goes out the door with his coffee and we save $.

It will be interesting to see how well I do in the upcoming weekend. A friend and I are going to Kansas City to take a cooking class and do a little exploring. I know we are going to hit a couple used books stores, so I am not even going to pretend I won't be buying. I plan on taking a load of books to trade for store credit. One of our favorite places to go is a chain store called Half Price Books. They always have an incredible selection of books. I may also go to the spice store in downtown Overland Park, but probably just to look since I really can't think of anything I need that I can't get locally. There is a yarn shop there also, but I will try not to splurge there. For the most part, I have more than enough yarn, so if I buy, it has to be something really incredible that I can't get in the shops in Wichita or Newton. The 2 months of "no buying new", I plan to work on reducing and using what I already have in my stash.

As far as spending today and the past couple days, I had a lot of things that needed to be paid as far as pottery studio memberships for both my son and I (this is important to us), dinner out with out dinner group, bills to pay, and a little bead buying. The beads are actually part of my business and will be used in things I am selling, so I am not to worried about that. I have to sit down and make up stitch markers as soon as I get the wire I ordered earlier in the week.

How have the soaring gas prices affected your routines and spending? Have you cut down, cut back, or just plain stopped spending? Leave me a comment and let me know how you make the ends meet!

Good coffee and great friends to you and yours!

Hump day

2008-05-28T07:58:00.000-07:00

Wednesday is here--two more days until payday.

We always do pretty good on the budget until the last 4 days. Then it seems that little things nickle and dime away the bottom line. This check I am going to be really conscience of where every cent is going since a lot of big ticket bills come out of this one.

Eventually I want to get to the point we can actually set aside a full 10% of the paycheck without wincing. We set aside a large amount of each check for the mortgage, but I want to put aside money strictly for savings. It would be ideal if at least 20% went into saving each pay period, but we'll have to work up to that.

One of my favorite frugality websites is packed with great ideas on saving $. As with anything, you have to pick and chose what is right for you. For example, I REALLY don't like cloth diapers, so the cost of disposables was my personal choice. Although not green, it did make my life a lot easier when my boys were younger. Having twins, the time saved washing and cleaning diapers was an advantage to me. Everyone has to decide what is best for them and what works. However, I have found some really good gems and advice from this sight and highly recommend it.

One of the things our house has been doing more of is eating at home. When I worked outside the home, we ate entirely too much fast food. Both the budget and our waistline showed it. Since coming home, eating fast food is a rare occurrence. I am taking a cooking class at the Kansas City Culinary Center this June so I can learn some more techniques to add a little flair and fun to our home cooked menus. I learned to make tamales there one year. I am going to make some for the freezer in June. The boys may not eat them, but hubby and I will. One of the classes I am taking is a pate choux class. Pate Choux is the base for cream puff, eclairs and savory cheese puffs. I love eclairs but hate the price and preservatives, so I am going to just learn to make my own. You can make your own for pennies as opposed to buying them from a store. That is true with pretty much anything though. I have a recipe for pizza dough that is outrageously easy and save big bucks over ordering out. When you buy the mozzarella cheese at the warehouse store in 5 lb blocks, it save a lot of money. I just cut it into 1 pound portions and freeze these in separate freezer bags. I look for tomato paste and tomato sauce when it goes on sale, then I stock up. The same goes with olives, canned mushrooms and anything else that stores long term in the pantry. We buy pepperoni at the warehouse store and divide it up into portions to freeze also. I am going to unearth my freezer cookbooks in the coming months and start cooking individual meals from them so we can get an idea of which recipes the kids will eat. When we find "keepers", we will write them down. Once we amass a small collection, I will have a cooking weekend that will allow me to cook and freeze several entrees at one time. When we are having a time crunch, we can pull out a freezer meal. There are several really good freezer cookbooks available. Look online at Amazon for new or used copies (search under the term "freezer" etc). One excellent book is 30 Day Gourmet. They also have a website and a database of recipes available to those that buy the cookbook. It is worth every penny.

I will probably have to get our garden beds built out of this check since the seeds I've started in the flats are getting to the point they will need to be planted. I need to look at investing in a rototiller at some point since we will be using it quite a bit each year. I fully intend to grow most of the veggies we will use this summer and can or preserve what we have not used. I love making salsa and tomato sauces, so we will have a large tomato garden this year. I am looking for one of those rolling composters since it seems they are easier than having to turn piles by hand. We have been doing a little composting, but I think we can do a lot more. Especially in the Fall when the leaves are totting. Leaves make awesome compost!

I can't believe the price of gas! And it seems that it will only be going up!

I guess Americans are spoiled when it comes to the freedom of just jumping in their cars and going where they please. In most European/Asian countries, bike and cycles are pretty much part of the culture. The transportation system in the US is geared towards autos and are very unfriendly towards cycles and bikes. The upsurge in gas prices will hurt initially, but hopefully result in more bike friendly options for those of us who would like to use Vespa and bikes more. I want to look around for a used one so I can do my local errands. Realistically I don't have a huge amount of local errands though. Most of what I do is in Wichita, so a car is a necessity. There is no really good public transportation system like in bigger cities, so we are pretty dependent on our vehicles. What I have been doing is bundling errands, using the mail and Internet for purchases - especially when they offer free shipping. I will still buy locally from locally owned businesses, but shun big retailers for things I can do without.

All this being said, I think the economy is very much a cyclical beast. In the 70's things got outrageously tight and then let up in the 80's. It was frugality then rampant consumerism. We are in the frugality phase. The same thing happened in the 20's and then the 30's. Rampant consumerism of the 20's gave way to the great depression and making do with what you had. It all cyclical. Either that or we don't learn from history and are doomed to repeat over and over again.

On the budgeting flip side, I have decided I am going to save my pennies for a used laptop. I don't need a brand new one with all the bells and whistles, just one that I can carry with me to workshops and whenever I am in need to the Internet away from the house. I am looking for a relatively compact one, so I may have to pay the bucks for a new model--maybe I can look around and get a good deal on a "last year's model". I have put it on paper, so now I just have to work on making the changes to manifest it.

This day is going to end up being a messed up schedule day. Hubby's employer has arrange for employees to go to a restaurant for a pizza buffet and then to see Indian Jones afterwards. This is good since I can't say I would have paid to see this movie at full price. I like to wait for movies to either hit the discount theatres or to go to video. One of the boys just told me he is scheduled to umpire during that time period. He is going to ride his bike, but I hate being away from the house when the kids are out. With the recent rains, it is a distinct possibility the game will get cancelled, but he'll have to ride there to find out...

I did order wire to make stitch markers and beaded bracelets today. I was holding off for some time, but the reality is that if I don't have the wire, I won't be able to make the stitch markers that will hopefully sell at the yarn shop. I have plenty of beads so I'm covered there. When the wire gets here, I will make time to make half a dozen stitch marker sets and their tags. The goal is to actually get these done.

spending today:

$52.00 wire
$ 10.00 Amazon (I need to work on staying off Amazon.com!)

Ok--upstairs to make a tunnel of fudge cake. I found a Pillsbury Bakeoff recipe book at a thrift store with this updated recipe in it. The old recipe used powdered frosting that is no longer made. This updated recipe does without it. It does require nuts and states it is vital to the success of the recipe. My kids claim they don't like nuts. We'll have to see.

Happy Monday

2008-05-26T19:56:00.000-07:00

It is still storming like crazy.

It has been storming for most of the weekend and the past week.

Needless to say, I am pretty tired of thunder and lightning. I guess I can't bitch too much about the rain since it is taking care of my flowers. Too bad I haven't got a veggie garden planted yet since this rain would really be great.

I spent a wee bit more in gas this weekend than I had planned, but I had to go to Stillwater for my niece's baby shower. The burning of gas was unavoidable. I will spend the rest of the week making up for the extra spending on food ($20) and gas (approx $30). I did find a couple books at a thrift store for a total of $2 and bought something to read at Mom's house ($15), but nothing too over the top. I was going to do a little more thrift shop hopping but decided that I'd abstain. I don't need more. Stillwater is a college town, so this is the month that a lot of students go home. As a result, there is usually a lot of really neat stuff left on the curb. My mom's neighbor left a chair on the curb that just begged to be refinished and fixed. It has a lot of potential and won't be too hard to bring back to functional status. There was a cushion that had to be tossed, and that cushion was supported, at some point in the past, by straps that provided the bottom support. Those straps were attached to the sides by a 3" lip. Instead of replacing the strapping, I am just going to get a piece of plywood cut to fit that area and wrap it with fabric before I set it in the base. PERFECT! I will make thick cushions for the bottom and the back. All of this will come together after I strip the chair and stain it a rich golden maple. It will be the perfect chair to sit and knit in the bedroom.

I did amuse myself by working on the mate to a sock I have on the needles. I have been trying to watch my spending this month on yarn or anything knitting related--until I make a dent in the stash I already have. I have done reasonably well in that arena, but I did blow it last week when I bought 3 balls of yarn. I'll work a little harder on keeping yarn buying in check.

Tomorrow I am going to do some baking once I get home for the evening. The goal this week is to cook from what we have without buying any more groceries. I want to challenge myself and be creative. We have done better with actually using leftovers, so that is saving a little green...

Going to Stillwater made me pause and reflect on what blessings I have here in Wichita. We have a wonderful house in a nice town. There are plenty of things to do here and always something to see. I need to make sure I pull back from things that cost cash and start focusing more on entertaining at home. When I was in college, my roommates and I always had people over for impromptu get-togethers. I am getting my house together so we can have dinners or brunch get-togethers with friends, or movie nights. That will also allow me to try out new recipes from my huge collection of cookbooks.

Spending for the weekend trip:
$60 gas (there is still some left in the tank for the remainder of the week, so that a TOTAL amount)

$20 Eating out in Stillwater

$17.50 reading materials

$20 WalMart--(I bought niece some milk and pop, plus some snack/breakfast stuff for me)

total : $117.50

Definitely more than would be ideal. I'll have to budget very carefully this week and for the rest of the month since I am going to Kansas City with a friend to take cooking classes the first week of June. I am really looking forward to taking these classes. I LOVE creme puff and eclairs. One of the classes is a class on making these and cheese puffs using the pate choux dough. This should translate wonderfully into my entertaining schemes..

On the vacation front, we are focusing on mini trips and destinations close to home this year due to the gas prices. I think a lot of people are doing this. I am going to purchase the "Off the Beaten Path" book for Kansas. There is a series of these books which cover most, if not all, the states in the U.S..It has quirky places to visit throughout the state. I have the old one, I need to get the updated version. What are you doing to cut costs?

Blake Shelton

2008-05-21T21:15:00.000-07:00

I love this video!

Wednesday Post

2008-05-21T20:50:00.000-07:00

I went to Newton today and didn't spend a cent. I was sooooo tempted to make some crystal earrings and a bracelet, but I abstained from spending any cash. I go to Twist tomorrow and really need to make sure I do the same there. While unpacking boxes this weekend, I realized I really have entirely too much stuff. I will be working hard to cull the herd and get things sorted and under control. I am one of those people who need to feel like I have everything I might need--as a result I have doubles and triples of some things. For example, I realized I have 3 crockpots. Who in the heck needs THREE crockpots? One of the crockpots is pretty old, so I am going to just toss it this weekend. The funny thing is that thought is causing me to resist actually going through the action of getting it done..like I have some kind of attachment. Mind you, I have two of the newer models also. One even has a temp. probe! GEEZ! And I have a really large amount of waffle makers in every sort of design. Why? I haven't even made waffles in a while (although I really enjoy making them). I need to find my favorite three (1 Belgian and the heart shaped Villaware one stays for sure..) and give the rest to Brandon and his girlfriend. I need to get away from being attached to things and shopping when I'm bored or stressed. This includes Internet shopping.

I am considering doing something different to keep me motivated to save money. Every time I get the urge to buy something, I will calculate the cost, including tax, and put it into savings. At the end of each month I will analyze how much I have added to savings.

I am still tired from the boys' 8th grade graduation on Tuesday. The convention center parking was a madhouse since there were other schools that had their ceremonies going on at the same time. I don't do well in traffic and general chaos. I do wish Mom had been able to spend more time here. We really don't get to see each other much. I have to go to Stillwater for my niece's baby shower on Sunday. The goal tomorrow is to only spend money on a gift for her shower.

My diet this week has been pretty poor, so I will spend the rest of this week getting back on track. I have had doughnuts and cake --both something that I have been able to stay away from until this week. Time to get motivated again.

This morning when we started to open the patio door downstairs, there was a huge Sphinx moth trapped inside between the screen and the glass. We were able to get him out without the cats seeing him, so I hope we see plenty more of these huge beauties this summer.

I haven't made much progress on actually getting the garden planted. I really need to get going on that if we are going to have any kind of veggie harvest this summer. Veggies from the garden are always so much better tasting!

Well, I guess I'd better sign off! Good coffee and great friends to you and yours.

Slow weekend

2008-05-18T11:46:00.000-07:00

It has been a pretty darn good weekend. A friend and I went to Lawrence, Kansas for a little road trip and some shopping. I spent more than I had budgeted, but I did get some things that are going to make my life easier and provide some entertainment. I bought a set of Ashford hand carders for $55 --more than I had planned to spend for the day, but I really needed a set. I have been searching for a used set, but that hasn't happened. I have been waiting quite a while. So when I went to the Yarn Barn, I bit the bullet and bought a pair. Now I can comb out and reuse the little bits of wool that get matted or I've pulled while spinning. If I get a lump in a skein, I stop and pull that inch. With hand carders I can comb it out and reuse it. I did pick up a pound of merino superwash, which was an impulse buy, but I will have an excellent time spinning and dyeing this, and it is something that will keep me occupied at home and produce something usable. Eventually I want to sell my handspun and handyed. I have a lot more learning to do in that arena. I will however start making stitch markers this week to sell at Twist. I want to use non tarnish base metals instead of sterling. Sterling sounds good, but it does tarnish and it does drive the cost up of the final product. I personally like using crystals, so that is where I chose to put my extra cost.

I did find a really good budgeting magazine on the newsstand this weekend. I bought it because it has a really good worksheet that I intend to transfer to Excel. I've been looking for one, but this one is the first one I've seen that is pretty complete. The booklet also has excellent tips for saving cash in a lot of different ways.

My goal this week is to use what we have in the freezer and only grocery shop for things we really are out of. I can probably make it through most of this week without having to grocery shop, with the exception of buying a cake for the boys 8th grade graduation on Tuesday. Funny, they didn't have "graduation" in the 8th grade when my oldest was in school. Someone said having these little graduations is supposed to encourage students to stay in school and graduate from high school. Hmmm. Do you think this works?

Spending Friday: Gas for car: $30 Dinner out with friend: $22 Artful Blogging magazine: $15 . I must say I do get am immense amout of inspiration from this magazine, so I consider it a necessity. It feeds the creative muse. Spending for the day: $67

Spending yesterday: $40 gas for trip, $85 handcarders and roving, $16 used books, $12 lunch in Lawrence, $7 pop, coffee and snacks on road Total: $160.00

You know, by themselves they looked little. When I added them up in one lump sum, I went CRAP!! That seems to be my favorite phrase this year. No more spending this week on anything other than necessities.

With gas prices being what they are, I have already cut back on using our car and shopping. I wish Wichita was more bike friendly. There are no bike lanes. Even if they had lanes for mopeds, that would be an improvement. I think we Americans are such a car nation that we don't even look for alternatives. Look at the Netherlands. Biking is a normal sight. And it seems to me they are also more physically fit than Americans on the average. I would love to eventually be able to convert some, if not most of our house to solar power. The budget restricts that right now, but I am exploring for the future.

Goal for the upcoming week:

Monday: Have boys help put futon in family room. Unearth the desk and hutch for downstairs. Find a table to put TV on so marble one can be moved upstairs.

Wednesday: Look for a work desk for the guest bedroom to replace the cheap one already there that is falling apart.

Thursday: Get guest bedroom cleaned and things packed . Prepare walls for painting.

Friday: Enlist boys into helping me paint the guest bedroom walls.

Start shopping for an area rug for downstairs.

Mama said there'd be days like this...

2008-05-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

Apparently the cosmic God of pissiness resides in my corner of the world today. Or at least it felt like it. I was having a rushed and pissy day today.

I went to the pottery studio to clean some of my green ware and prepare it for firing--and promptly crushed one of my largest bowls that I had labored on. Crap. Oh well, what can you do. If you get upset, the bowl remains crunched. Lesson learned. Thin walls should be supported from the bottom. However, with my schedule being so weird and gas prices being what they are, I am giving serious consideration as to the convenience of having a wheel here at the house to allow me to throw more and get more pots done without having to drive to the studio all the time. this would also allow me to get more wheel time and experience. I will just have to make sure I transport the pots carefully to the studio for firing.

I was rushing this morning and forgot to wash the clothes my boys wanted to wear to the sports awards ceremony this evening at 6:00. So I made a mad dash at 4:15 to get the clothes washed and dried by 5:45--except they told me the coach wanted them there by 5:30. CRAP.......So I made them wear collar shirts and nice pants instead of the t shirts that they wanted to wear -which were in the dryer. Guess what? Every kid there wore t shirts and some kind of shorts. And not all of the T shirts looked like they had been cleaned in the past week..Some of the parents had muscle shirts and dirty T shirts on....go figure. I thought since it was an awards ceremony, they should at least look nominally presentable. I did tell them they had better prepare themselves because 8th grade graduation is coming up and they would be wearing collar shirts and nice pants. I'm such a mean Mom.

I have got to work on getting some kind of a routine down. During the first months that I no longer worked outside the home, things ran pretty smoothly. Now, not so much. I am going to have to think about running less and getting things back on track at the house. Especially with gas prices getting so close to $4 a gallon, it isn't even funny! Screw the economic stimulus checks. They all went to gas. Everyone I know is making an effort to NOT spend since gas is so outrageous. If we were in the home remodeling stage and could afford it, I would give serious consideration to converting part of our house to solar. Even part of the house would be a big improvement over having everything on the grid. I must say however, this house is much better on gas and electric costs than the other smaller house we lived in last year. Our bill run almost half the cost for twice the square footage. We have much better cross ventilation in this house so we have been able to keep the house much cooler and extend the time before we absolutely have to have the air conditioner on.

I have pretty much decided that this week I will buy the supplies to make my stitch markers to sell at Twist. I have been thinking about it for quite some time, the time is now.

Budget:
Interweave Knits magazine and a British knitting magazine at the shop $11 (used my discount--what a lifesaver) I probably could have lived without this, but using my discount helped and I would have bought these in the long run....

Dinner for 4 Subway sandwiches $21

We went to the grocery store and picked up chips and soda --this way we could have chips and soda for the week instead of spending $8 for sodas and $8 for bags of chips with a combo...)
$12 chips and soda (however this will last several meals, not just one, so it was a good move)

Monday, Monday....

2008-05-12T14:57:00.000-07:00

Just something pretty--remember to appreciate the flowers you come across each day. They are a frugal luxury......Often you can enjoy them for free at public areas. I like to take pictures so I have something pretty to look at and to share with others.

This has been one of those days where I WANTED to get things done, but haven't accomplished a heck of a lot.

As I write this, "Follow that Food" with Gordon Elliott was on in the background, but the sound of his voice was starting to get on my nerves, so I turned it to a country music station. Blake Shelton's "I want to Go Home" is playing--I LOVE this song. As he gets older, Blake's voice gets richer. I will buy this album.

What I would like most of all right now is to figure out why the dog food that we bought last night is making Cocoa the equivalent of a canine stink bug. Seriously!! I had to open the doors to keep the lights from causing a flash fire!! I guess as dogs age, they become a lot more sensitive to different foods. Kinda like us humans...Except when a dog passes gas, he hangs around to watch your reaction. Come to think of it, just like a teenager. How's that for a perfect picture?! LOL..

I did get around to making chocolate chip cookies today, but so far the bread has not materialized. That will entail cooperation from me...I will saunter upstairs in a little bit and make the bread since the recipe looks amazingly easy and it would be really sad if I don't get it made FINALLY. I am also looking forward to using my Lodge Dutch oven. I'll let you know how it turns out. Hopefully it lives up to the hype.

The boys have 8th grade graduation coming up next week so I am trying to make preparations for a little party here. Since it is in the evening, I am considering doing finger foods and something easy. We may actually end up going out to eat as a treat for the boys. I can't believe they will in high school next year. It's amazing how fast time flies. Summer is going to be action packed also. Both boys have football camp and various other sports related event, so I can see a lot of kid related errand running. I need to get a master calendar going so I am not trying to remember all of this in my head!! I do have to say, I am glad I am home. It makes it a little less stressful since I will not have to worry about how the kids will get to and from morning practices. Little blessings.

I will be at the yarn shop and the pottery studio tomorrow. I really would love to have a wheel here at the house, but would I realistically use it enough? Maybe..It would be nice to be able to go throw some pots on the nights I am wandering the house or the days that I can't get to the studio but want to be on the wheel. We'll see. It's not in the budget yet, but if I am careful over the summer, we'll look at the budget again and decide.

I have been looking at my books about chickens a lot lately. I may actually make the leap and have a small chicken coop built so we can have a couple hens. I love fresh eggs. We'll have to completely enclose the chickens though. We have a lot of cats here at Casa Davis--not to mention the ones that run the neighborhood. The only option would be to enclose them for their own safety. I am seriously looking at Bantams. They are smaller. However that means the eggs would be either medium or small sized. Hmmmm.......maybe we should have bought a farm or at least something rural.....I'm still trying to figure out how to disguise an alpaca as a dog....

Spending: $0 --this one took a little discipline since it is too easy to hit the BUY button when I'm online at Amazon and BOMC2.........but I behaved...

Mother's Day,,,,

2008-05-11T17:39:00.001-07:00

Hubby and I actually slept in late today. It was great! We got up and went to a diner for a late lunch and then to the public library. Unfortunately the library closes at 5:00 on Sundays, and we only had an hour to peruse the shelves, but I did find a honkin' big stack of books to check out.

We have been in this house for almost a year and I have decided to get serious about the decorating and taking care of it. I intend to scour thrift stores and flea markets for chair and stuff that can be fixed up for relatively little with a little paint and fabric, and other little things to feather the nest. I am planning to get the library area completed this week since we actually have guests coming for the boys' 8th grade graduation on the 20th. Nothing like a deadline to get me going....

Tomorrow I will concentrate on getting some cleaning done and finally getting around to baking the no knead bread from the New York Times article. I bought a 6 qt enamel coated cast iron dutch oven this past week. The price was a bit much, but I can see that I will use this a lot for other things such as stew and soups. I think it will pay for itself.

I did break down and order the Artisianal Bread in 5 minutes a Day book--Amazon had it for $16+, which is cheaper than it's cover price, but after a little searching, I actually found it for $9.99 (shipping included!) from the book club I subscribe to. It used to be called Zooba, but now it is BOMC2....You put books on a list in the order you want them sent to you (they auto send once a month from your list, but you can order more any time). I have been really pleased with the books I've been able to get from them. I have saved a large amount off the regular price for a lot of books I wanted to buy anyway. I just have to be careful not to hit the BUY NOW button a lot...it still adds up if it isn't in the budget..However, for what I have bought, this is a great way to save money.

Fun Day

2008-05-10T22:19:00.000-07:00

Although the budget took a wee bit of a hit today, I had a lot of fun! I will have to be careful for the rest of the week, but today was a treat.

I drove to Newton today to take a sock class. Since no one had signed up in advance, they ended up cancelling it and the shop didn't open until 10 a.m. That gave me time to hit Prairie Harvest Natural Food store a couple doors down and have a cinnamon roll (their homemade cinnamon rolls and bread are to die for!) and a Tazo tea for breakfast. Then I even had time to peruse the thrift store next door. I always find treasures there. I picked up some really good cooking magazines and a couple cookbooks for a steal. I probably didn't need any more cooking magazines, but these had some really good oldies that I haven't seen since I was a kid...I know, lame excuse.

The good thing about the sock class getting cancelled was that was I got to take a beading class from Julie. The Newton Beadery has both beads and yarn--the best of both worlds. I've taken a couple beading classes there in the past and completely loved it so today was a real treat. We did a crochet bead work bracelet. It was FUN!! I'll post pictures later...I met up with Cindy a little later and we went for lunch and then to Border's to sit and knit/read. Hubby joined us a little later and hung out with us until the bookstore closed.... An overall EXCELLENT day! Except for that little budget thing....oopsie....

$ spent today:
Bead store: $30
Breakfast $5
Lunch $10
Thrift store $6
Coffee : $4 (this could have been skipped...)
Filled the gas tank: $23
Groceries: $24

I will behave and be careful the rest of the week.........

Wasting the Day....

2008-05-09T12:00:00.001-07:00

This has not been one of my most productive days -- that I must admit. I woke up feeling like a crushed Styrofoam cup this morning...used up and not renewable....and that has pretty much been the whole days business.

I was able to make myself go to the grocery store here in town to get dog and cat food, but that was to prevent the dogs from consuming my little feline friends. There was a little incident at the cat food dish this morning and I felt compelled to fill the dog food bowl with something for the canines. However, Cocoa still likes cat food (and cat boxes) better than just about anything the dog food companies make, so she was a little disappointed to have lost the excuse to forage.

This past weekend my mom in law and I went to Temple, Texas to visit my sister in law and her family. Carol and I did a little exploring this time and struck out to find the downtown. I was amazed that Temple has this potentially fabulous downtown and yet it had all but died out. Next time we go, I will take pictures. I did get online and found out there is a drive to revitalize the downtown going. That would be so fabulous. I think it would be great since you can tell that at one time the downtown was a real gem. The architectural detailing on some of the buildings are amazing. I hope they offer incentives for artists to open galleries and studios in some of the storefronts. Supposedly there is a steakhouse down there. I am going to seek it out next time and look around at what other businesses there are. The biggest problem I see in Temple is that the highway/interstate divides the town and chain stores have moved to the other side of the highway, drawing business away. As in many towns, the chain stores have made a mess of the potential businesses with real personalities. Hopefully someone takes the reins and gets a solution going. In Tulsa, Home Depot opened a store in downtown and drew people to it. Wouldn't it be great if some of the other stores did the same. Then it would ease the excuses the residents have for going "all the way down there"..I fell in love with the downtown. It is amazing. Much like a gem that was once sparkling but fell down on it's luck. It's still a gem, waiting to be discovered. That is part of the reason my drive this year is to buy from local, family or indie owned places. I can't always find that kind of alternative, but when it does exist, that is the direction my money goes. There is a face behind the product and that is good.

I did blow the budget on wine though. I'll recoup and be more careful this week....Really...

Mid day post

2008-05-02T14:13:00.000-07:00

It has been a pretty busy day here at my house. Busy, but not completely productive.

I had aimed to get out of the house early and hit Sam's at 7:30 (I have a business membership so can shop between 7 a.m and 10 a.m. before they open the doors top the general public. ) but instead I fell back to sleep. I have been having a heck of a time sleeping through the night lately so it has been an issue with me sleeping in after everyone is out of the house. I really hate doing that since it makes the day less productive! Anyway, I decided that I would skip Sam's. Last time I went we spent over $300. The meat deals were great, but sometimes it doesn't pay to buy in bulk. I could buy 30 lbs of rice and 5 pounds of noodles, but will we use it all in a timely manner?

Probably not.

So I will shop the sale ads and stock up that way unless there is something we use in bulk (tissue paper, pop tarts, Lifewater, etc) regularly. I did go to two different grocery stores today. One stocks a certain kind of flour (Hudson Cream) that I love, so it is worth the side trip. They also had great grocery deals this week. I did do a little impulse spending on magazines at Wal-mart, and I paid $50 for a Lodge cast iron enamel finish 6 quart dutch oven...I have been shopping for one to make the no-knead bread recipe that the New York Times published. It is getting rave reviews and has an almost cult like following, so I have been looking for a 6 quart heavy pot. The Lodge pot came in two colors (blue really caught my eye) and was REALLY heavy. I can definitely see using this for soups and stews too. It's beautiful! After I get back from Texas, I am going to make the no-knead bread and a kettle of chicken noodle soup...

Home Day

2008-05-01T08:58:00.001-07:00

Not my house--wish--a shot of the gardens at Botanica. Another way I save money is by getting a membership to places that I love to visit often. Although I garden at home, a Botanica membership lets me have a place where I can take my knitting and or a book so I can sit by myself and have "MOM TIME" to myself, take the boys and let them walk and enjoy the flowers, indulge in a gardening lecture or class at a member's discount, and just have a place where I can slow down. Plus, they give a REALLY cool annual picture to each member when you renew or join. It is worth every cent.

I'm feeling a little sick today so I am staying home instead of helping out at the yarn shop. I am planning to go to the pottery studio at some point today to try to fix a pot I whacked with my hand after I threw it on the wheel.

The windows and doors are open and it is really nice to hear the birds sing.

I will be bundling up some of my trips today and getting some housework done. It is probably a good day to bake some banana bread from the bananas we have on the kitchen table, they are getting pretty ripe. I also plan to make some chocolate chip cookies and extra dough for freezing.

Instead of buying cookie dough, you can save a bundle by making up dough and freezing the dough either in a freezer safe tub, or scooping the dough into individual sized scoops and freezing them on a cookie sheet until firm. Once the balls are firm, put them into a freezer bag (I put 2 dozen cookie balls to a bag), label them and put in the freezer for use later. It makes homemade cookies a flash on days you want something sweet but don't have time to drag out the mixer and all the other stuff. The individual balls thaw out quicker than a tub and you can put them directly on the cookie sheets to thaw. I make chocolate chip, oatmeal and peanut butter cookies this way, but just about any recipe will work. You save both time and money. It is very satisfying.

I just got an email from our library that a copy of a bread book I have been wanting to buy is in. I put a hold on the first copy since it is a new book and has been checked out every time I try to check it out. I love the library! This is going to be my new best friend in my quest to save $. I also put a copy of Larry Winget's "You're Broke because You Want to Be" on hold...I read a little about him on one of my favorite budget sites "The Simple Dollar". Check out the site--it is really good for little tips on saving $. They have a really good article on getting motivated to save $ by using coupons. I've never been a big coupon user since a lot of the stuff is for brand name items and I tend to veer towards store brands, but I am going to start out with baby steps and try to get a system together for organizing them so they are easier to use when I'm at the store.

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Budget -end of day post: $27.00 Chinese restaurant for 2, $7 Sonic for one kid.....a little backslide, but I'll watch it the rest of the pay period so it doesn't happen more than once. Paid for pottery lesson for son and I. I consider this a necessity.

A little swerve in the budget road...

2008-04-30T14:49:00.000-07:00

OK, for some odd reason today I have been eating anything that isn't nailed down and can remotely be classified as food..don't worry, the cats and dogs are safe and alive...

I ate a really large breakfast this morning and then headed off to The Beadery in Newton. After getting there, I worked for a little bit, then got really hungry. Since I had assumed the huge breakfast would tide me over until I got home, I had not packed anything. So $5 later, I finished half an egg salad sandwich and a Tazo Mango tea....I probably could have lived without the tea as far as the budget goes. After getting home today, I inhaled bagel bites and a candy bar..WTF?!! Tomorrow will find me at Twist and the pottery studio, but I fully intend to pack a lunch.

I am heading to Texas with my Mom in law on Friday to see my niece and nephew. I love going with my Mom in law and having a girls weekend. Last year we hit the outlet malls on the way back to Oklahoma. We plan to do that again, but I will be really conservative if I buy anything. I do intend to buy a lot of Texas wines while I am there. In Texas you can buy wine--really good wine--in the grocery store. We are going to have a wine tasting at our house sometime this summer so I want to get a variety of Texas wines to sample.

A friend is coming over tonight for a visit. At some point, I would like to bake cookies and a cream cheese poundcake to tide the boys and hubby over while I'm gone. On Monday I plan on hanging out at home and baking challah bread and brownies to freeze. I love baking and it is a budget stretcher, so it is good all around. I am thinking about teaching the boys to make sopapillas this week since I have a large stockpile of honey here at the house.

Spending today: $5 on lunch

Busy Day

2008-04-29T19:27:00.000-07:00

I went to Twist today and managed not to spend a single cent. Given that there are shelves and shelves of luscious yarns, this is a major deal for me. At one point I had 4 sets of Addi circular needles, 10 balls of yarn to complete a sweater and some more stuff. I put it back. I really need to focus on working from my stash. We are going to have to be in major conserve mode in order to make up for the huge dent the fuel bill is making in our budget.

I even managed to get to the pottery studio today. The studio owner is selling my favorite wheel for $400....Is this the equivalent of being offered chocolate the day you decide to lose weight? I think so. DAMN. I really want a wheel to be able to throw at home (in the garage) on late nights and days I can't justify using the gas to get to the studio. Darn....I guess if it is meant to be, the perfect wheel will come along when we have the extra cash for this type of investment...

Today I cooked dinner from what we had in the freezer and canned goods.

Impulse or etc. $ spent by me today: $0

Day 2 of no spending..even for a pop, and I have to admit, I was tempted. I brought my lunch and a snack to the yarn shop. I even packed a pop so I wouldn't spend the 50 cents.

Hubby is going to have to pick up a small bag of dog food. The cats are getting eyed by the dogs, so I feel compelled to feed the little beasts..money well spent..however, I intend to buy a much bigger bag at Sam's on payday and monitor how much we feed them instead of just keeping the bowl filled 24/7. He is also going to put a little gas in my car.

Thursday I am going to use up some bananas and make banana bread. The good thing about banana bread is it tastes even better if you freeze it for later. I found some killer recipes for challah bread online and am using the library inter-library loan to get a peak at a book I have been dying to cook from but can't justify the $25.

Little things that will hopefully add up. Gas is $3.50 in our area right now. Although that is less than what they are paying elsewhere, it still takes such a huge bite out of our budget that I am going to have to REALLY watch my spending everywhere else.

I plan to shop more at thrift stores also. I should have been doing that all along, but it is to the point where I am really motivated to use up and make do, or do without.

Stayin' home......

2008-04-28T15:57:00.000-07:00

Learning to appreciate the simple pleasures such as these pictures that I took of flowers at Botanica (in Wichita) earlier this month.

Since gas is just shy of $3.50 in my neck of the woods, it is taking a huge bite out of our budget.

As a result, I am making more of an effort to stay at home and conserve gas in an effort to save money. The past week has been a real drain! Isn't it funny how the little things and the little checks are the ones that crash the accounts? I am taking a cue from this blog and making myself actually acknowledge what I have spent each day. It is a simple gesture, but I think it is brilliant. Why didn't I think of that?!

Since it is Monday, I have decided to focus my efforts this week on using up what we have in the fridge for meals, baking snacks such as cookies, and making bread/muffins on Thursday and Friday. When I finally got around to cleaning out the fridge last night, I was not amused at myself because of the amount of leftovers that had gone past their prime and had to be tossed. Wasted $....

I am also making an effort to actually use the public library for books instead of clicking the BUY button at Amazon....this one is the hard one!!

If you have any suggestions or observations, please feel free to share them with me. The rest of the week, I am trying to bundle my trips and really consider whether it is a need or a want when I am tempted to whip out the debit card or check book.

Since the weather is warming up, I put out a flat of seeds in Jiffy pots this weekend. Hubby and I are going to build raised garden beds next weekend so we can plant a garden this season. I figure even a little garden will reduce our food costs. I definitely want to grow some lettuce, tomatoes and watermelons, along with squash and a couple zucchini (it only takes a couple of these to feed an entire army!). This year I am also planting little pie pumpkins. I will can/freeze the flesh when they ripen so we have plenty for pies and some for pumpkin butter. I think with food prices and gas prices rising, a lot of people are looking for little ways to ease the sting. I am actually looking forward to canning tomatoes. I LOVE canning. I am seriously considering planting blackberries (the THORN LESS kind) so we can have fresh berries, jam and blackberry honey...

Spending for today: Stayed home: $0

A little Art in Architecture

2008-03-24T21:38:00.001-07:00

I love the detailing on some of the buildings downtown. These are some picture from a scavenger hunt one of the kids had as a class assignment over Spring Break. It turned out to be a lot of fun and really enlightening, although we didn't find the building downtown that had the medallion of the Greek Parthenon on it...and NOBODY knew what we were talking about when we called several city offices...ARGGGGG.

Beautiful details from the Old Historical Courthouse in Wichita. BEAUTIFUL!!

English Muffin Bread--severe YUM alert

2008-03-03T12:28:00.000-08:00

I love Egg McMuffins from McDonald's. Actually, I CRAVE them. However, the amount of fat in them coupled with the fact we don't have one nearby prompted me to start making homemade ones in the mornings. However, the cost of English muffins is also a little bit higher than what I like, so I went looking for alternatives. EASY alternatives....I found an actual recipe for English muffins, but who has time to stand over the hot skillet and toast the individual rounds for 15 minutes each? Then I found this recipe in my Better Homes and Gardens Pink Cookbook. I adore that cookbook!!! It is such an easy recipe and the bread turns out flawless! Tomorrow I will just slice and toast the bread and then make homemade Egg McMuffins. I am also happy since it saves me money. That will be a big theme over the next couple weeks since a friend and I are taking a girlfriend's getaway to Port Huron, MI this summer...More on that later.... Aren't they gorgeous! Here is the recipe, although I highly recommend buying the cookbook. They have a pizza dough recipe and a cinnamon roll recipe that will knock your socks off and that is just the start!

English Muffin Bread
(Some of the comments are mine)

Cornmeal for dusting pans
6 cups all purpose flour
2 packages active dry yeast
1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 cups milk (I use whole milk --the flavor is richer)
1/2 cup water
1 TBLSP. sugar
1 tsp. salt

Grease 2 8"x4" loaf pans. Lightly sprinkle with cornmeal (coat sides and bottom). Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine 3 cups of the flour, both packets of yeast, and the baking soda. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, heat the milk, water, sugar and salt just until warm (120*F to 130*F).

Using a wooden spoon, stir milk mixture into flour mixture. Stir in remaining flour.

Divide dough in half and place each portion in a prepared pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubles in size (approx 45 minutes)....I put mine on top of the preheating stove...

Bake in a 400*F oven for 25 minutes (approx.) or until golden brown. Immediately remove bread from pans and let cool...or you can be a heathen like me and rip into it as soon as you can cut it without having to go to the emergency room for burns.....

Pictures for the New Year

2008-01-20T15:15:00.000-08:00

I seem to have been pretty bad about not paying attention to this blog in favor of my main blog. From now on, I will make sure I post to this blog at least once a week. I had considered merging this one into my main blog, but I will post pictures here that do not fit on my other blog or are strictly animal related, hence the name AnimalHaus... Above is Charlie. As you can see, he is SOOOO excited to see the camera. NOT ! And this is Sugar is her "suck up" mode. This happens 90% of the time, and it works. Who has who trained?!
Now there's optimism for you. She REALLY thinks she is going to pull this from Jeremy. Got to give her credit for her enthusiasm.
Anyone know what these are? They were mixed among the Canada geese and other ducks at a city lake in Winfield, Kansas. I've never seen anything like these guys. They seemed to be equally offended that we were making a fuss over them. Not coincidentally, these pictures were taken from the safety of inside the car. Ever been bit by a goose? It hurts! I know this from experience!

Home for Good-Day 2

2007-12-04T09:17:00.000-08:00

Today is my second day of being home for good. It feels weird that I don't have a huge block of my day already preplanned for me, however so far I haven't been all that great about actually getting anything accomplished except for a baking jag I went on yesterday that netted 2 large pans of 7 layer bars (one with the coconut and one with white chocolate chips instead of coconut) and 2 pumpkin pies. Yep, that is going to have to stop. I'll have to make it a point to only bake once a week or I am going to be regretting staying home....Let's see, the agenda for this week includes an early morning trip to Sam's before it gets crowded, a trip to the public gardens and getting my closet organized FINALLY. I am working from the closet outward. I will post a before and after picture only when I have an AFTER since the before picture is pretty scary. The up side to that is it can only look better....

On the craft side, I have been taking a spinning class and am looking for a used wheel. Do you know how hard it is to find a used wheel ? I think everyone else is looking for the same thing. I am surprising myself and leaning towards Louet wheels. I am usually a fan of the traditional spinning wheel look, but I have kind of taken a fancy to the clean lines of the Louet. So if anyone knows of anyone with a Louet they'd like to part with at a good price, email me. I want to spin some yarn from the mystery roving I have ordered from Wool2dye4. They have excellent yarn and they had a mystery roving for $10 a pound. Can't pass that up! I am going to spin my own wool to dye and ply. Since they said it was a mystery but definitely not merino, I hope it is a least soft enough for sock yarn. We'll see. So far I have been VERY happy with anything I've bought from them.

I still haven't figured out my new camera so no pictures right now. Tomorrow may warrant a trip downtown so I will try to get hubby to load up my camera software tonight and hopefully have some eye candy for you. So what are your plans this week? Have you got all your Christmas preparations completed? What are your plans for Christmas? Leave me a comment with all the details!

Good friends and great coffee to you and yours!

Some Things to Think About

2007-11-12T07:35:00.000-08:00

The house is quiet and I am contemplating how to fully revel in the fact that our office is closed for Veteran's Day. The boys and hubby are off to school and work, so I am left in a somewhat quiet house with multiple dogs and cats--and one cat in particular that has decided the empty case for the dog food cans is an adversary worthy of attacking in the most vicious and loud way. I was contemplating going back to bed, but I think I will grab a shower, take my knitting and head downtown to Dunn Brother's coffee shop and work on the sock I started over again. I got all the way down to the heel flap and decided I REALLY do not like 7 inches of plain stockinette. Who care if it is a beginner sock and that is the way it is written. It shall now have 7" of k2p2 ribbing...

I am preparing for the end of the month when my resignation becomes final. While I will really miss the law firm, I am ready to come home and get my house and health back in line. I am examining a lot of details about our hectic life and seeing what I can change or at least alter to make it soak in more. Seems like we just sail through life on autopilot without really taking time to honor the details. Here are some things I am thinking about:

1. Cooking from scratch more. Nothing fancy, just cooking with attention to little things like spices...

2. Cooking with the boys. They are at the age when making a pie crust or rolling out cookies and biscuits is a skill they need to learn, and they like being in the kitchen creating.

3. Actually getting my garden plowed for next spring. This way I can add things to the soil during the winter and they will be able to compost...and actually getting a compost bin that I can use easily. I want to grow things in the summer so we can eat from the garden more, not the store.

4. Shopping at the Farmer's markets in the Spring and Summer. I will buy more local fruits and veggies.

5. Sewing and knitting more -- to reduce my stash and make room in my house. A sweater that takes 8 balls of yarn is easier to store than the 8 balls of yarn--plus it is more functional.

6. Looking for ways to economise. Gas prices are knocking holes in everyone's budgets. I am going to look for ways to economise and still live well. When gas prices go up, my shopping budget takes a serious hit and second hand markets/bartering become my best friend!

7. Finding my art supplies such as my watercolors and prismacolors and sitting down to create something every day and shutting off my inner critic. I will give myself permission to make "bad" art if that is what rolls off my brush. I am a horrid perfectionist. That will cease, or at least be worked on!

I have become very interested in the way the Europeans are able to take little things and make focus on them. I have read a couple books that have made me think about trying to slow down and focus more. While I am sure not all of Europe does this, and it is not a blanket statement for every European, I am ready to slow down and get off auto pilot.

Those are my goals.

Scenes from my weekend!

2007-10-24T17:47:00.000-07:00

One of my sons and I spent the day at the Wichita Art Museum and Botanica (a public garden we love). I couldn't take any pictures of the Quilt exhibit at WAM, but here are a few goodies from the gardens. My son loves to feed the koi in the pond. We have been doing this since the kids were babies and now they are almost 14. Time sure flies!

It is getting closer to the time when I will be ending my work at the law firm I work at. I have loved the job but it is time I come home and work on my house and my health. I am amazed at how things fall into place and things I have wanted to learn are placed in my path. when I was in Georgia, my friend and I found a wonderful scarf done in entralac. She mentioned how much she like the pattern and I remarked that I have always wanted to learn it. I saw a set of stitch markers while at the shop that got me thinking about learning wire working so I could make my own. And last but not least, I have considered trying a little faire isle, but can't get the hang of it from books. I am taking a wire working class in Newton tomorrow at the Newton Beadery and a Faire Isle class there Saturday. November 8th I am taking an entralac class at Twist. Is that not wild or what?!!!

Creativity Plans

2007-10-11T19:39:00.001-07:00

Pictures from my trip to Tulsa on Monday and Tuesday...

I am sitting here completely chilling out to a really neat album that I am surprised I like. It is Love, Sensuality, Devotion by the group Enigma. For those of you who lived through the 80's, it is very 80's style...but in a cool way! I can see painting or knitting to this group! I may just have to order more. I am a member of a monthly music service called Your Music and the albums are only 6.99 . I have found some good stuff there and you can't buy most of these for that price, so I'm lovin' it!

With winter approaching, my thoughts are turning towards artistic endeavors. While I was in Tulsa last week, I came across a bead store that is offering a class on making your own jewelry clasps, jump rings and other findings out of sterling silver wire...definitely something I want to learn. So I am contemplating whether I can make it up to Tulsa at the end of the month to take this class. It would take a little juggling and I am trying to watch finances in anticipation of me ceasing working outside the home, so I am still weighing the pros and cons. One pro would be that I can make jewelry for Christmas gifts....one con would be the actual logistics of getting to Tulsa....

I am having a creativity spike right now. I have made myself go on several field trips for inspiration (Artists Dates for those of you familiar with Judith Cameron's incredible books such as The Artist's Way", "Vein of Gold" etc) . The artist date is a field trip to a place in order to get inspiration or to push your creativity along. It is definitely working! I have been free writing (again, Judith Cameron calls them Morning Pages) for 3 pages in the morning after I get everyone off to school and work. This is my time to get my heart ready before I head to work....

I am trying to make myself behave when it comes to buying more yarn--kind of a yarn-a-holics 12 step...I fell off the wagon this week when I ordered 10 skeins (a bag) of Bretton yarn from Patternworks. Hey, I save 15% --does that count? And I got 5 free patterns with it that use Bretton. I have not ordered yarn from Patternworks before and sometimes I am hesitant about buying yarn without touching it first--but this is a superwash wool (70%)/Nylon (25%) and alpaca (5%) blend that is really going to be wonderful for socks. I ordered white and I am planning to dye it. I figure I have enough sock yarn now to keep me knitting for the next year without having to buy more...let's just see how that turns out. I think I need a sponsor...but everyone that has volunteer is a sock knitter themselves and on that shaky ground!!! However, I am quite firm that I will finish the socks I am working on before starting another pair....

Things I am trying to do in anticipation of not working outside the home:

1: Taking stock of all the books I have and have not read--technically I have enough to keep me interested for years!

2: Taking stock of all my cookbooks in anticipation of cooking more at home. I have quite a few and it will be fun to actually start using them!

3. Taking stock of all my fabric in anticipation of actually having time to quilt. I have enough that I can get several really good sized quilts completed and only have to buy backing fabric.

4. Taking stock of all my knitting supplies. This includes yarn, patterns, needles, books etc. I am set for life!

5. Taking stock and getting all my beads and jewelry supplies in one place.

A few of these will happen slowly as I am having to work through the contents of our garage. That alone will keep me busy for a while once I leave my job in December... it will be good to take time to get the house in order. We moved into this house in June and still have boxes unpacked in every room and a garage full of boxes. I will roll up my sleeves and get working on putting the house in order one I am home full time...