Leaving Excess

Fun Giveaway!

2010-08-02T07:41:00.002-05:00

I have entered to win a Silhouette Craft Cutter - check it out here.

Returning with Random Thoughts

2010-07-05T13:53:00.004-05:00

Hello, there. I have missed blogging, so I am back. BUT, not at a regular pace, just when I feel like it and have time. I am sure it will ebb and flow. But, if you can handle that, then I am glad to have you stop by.

I will start things off with some random thoughts.

1. My domain has changed from leavingexcess.com to leavingexcess.blogspot.com.

2. I am still working full-time and my hubby is home full-time. It has not been without its pain and adjustment, but overall it is working well.

3. My life has more convenience items in it than before. Like it or not, I had to face facts and admit I am just not able to do all I was when I was at home. We almost never ate out, now we do 2-4 times a month. Sometimes more. Sometimes our lettuce comes in bags, our carrots precut. Sometimes not. It just depends.

4. I miss my regular visits with my friends on Friday mornings. I have given up stamping and caved to the full work week this past spring as Steve's unemployment was cut down a level. My friends and I try to reconnect via email and other get togethers, like pedicures (see previous item on convenience) and our kids' sporting events.

This child never stops talking.

Neither does this one. In fact, he recently sang this song:

"I love to talk!

I love to talk!

I am talking....

Because I love to talk!"

Explains a lot.

7. I am requiring greater amounts of Excederin for headaches (see numbers 5 & 6 above).

8. I recently cleaned out my daughter's room and had an embarrassing about of trash to show for it.

9. I recently redid my 14 year old's room and so now my house is about as clean as it will ever get, with the two teenager's rooms clean and organized. It can only go downhill from here.

10. I *heart* freecycle.org, which is how I got rid of a lot of unused items in my teenagers' rooms.

11. My favorite blog is Pioneer Woman - if you have not seen it, check it out. Ree inspired my return to blogging.

12. Seeing my friends = sanity.

13. Laughing at life = sanity.

14. Sleep = sanity.

I am working on the sanity thing, can you tell?

White Flag

2009-12-19T06:00:00.003-06:00

I suppose I should have known that my life would get the best of me, but I really wanted to give blogging one more shot before calling it over forever.

It started out OK in October, but then this happened and life spiraled out of control with the addition of the holidays and some serious stressors at work. You could say, "Well, things will get better!" And yes, they sometimes will, but the simple fact is that I am the mother of four kids, ages 3-13 and am key to running two companies and I have the responsibility of the overall management the household.

This post here really struck a chord with me. This would be a busy season for any woman; let's face it - most days have too much to do crammed into not enough time.

While I really do feel like an epic failure to not be able to fit in all the things I would love to have time for, the simple truth is that for me, right now, I am needed to be so, so much to so, so many and there just is not much left (if any) most of the time. There are times when I could work blogging happily into my life, but I am just not happy with a once a month posting schedule and that is what I would be able to pull together more often than not.

I am so glad that I tried to make a come back, if only to be absolutely sure I am making the right decision. And by the way, I am making this decsion from a really good place. I am finally ready for the holidays, am looking to be able to take some time off and I have finished my most pressing projects at work (and kicked butt at it, thank you very much) - I feel like a thousand tons of brick have been lifted from me - I can breathe again. And I rather enjoy breathing.

I wish I could find a way to let each of you really know how much it has meant to me that you stopped in each day or week or whenever to hear what I had to share. Thank you! And I wish you all the very best that comes with working to grow and learn and better yourself.

Feel free to use this site as a resource. I intend to leave it up until the domain is up for renewal, so you should have access until May sometime. If I find myself dying to say something, maybe I will offer up a guest post from time to time to some of my favorite bloggers (to give them a much needed break!).

If I may impart one last thought to ponder:

It is OK to let something go. You can only have so many priorities, and if one has to slip, then sometimes it just is what it is. No one can do it all, so don't be afraid to do a reality check once in a while.
When you notice one who seems to do it all, then rest assured she is struggling to keep some other area of her life together - whether you see it or not. Wish her all the best as she works it all out for herself. And offer up a drink and an ear until she is able to figure it out.

All my best,

Dude! Why So Frugal?!

2009-12-18T06:00:00.001-06:00

Sometimes I ask myself why I generally am trying so hard to live with less or save money. Its not that I don't believe in the effort. Honestly, sometimes the two purposes clash. Living a simpler life sometimes clashes with running about to get good deals.

Take, for instance, buying things at CVS. Now, most of you know that CVS has some great deals and if you stick to the deals, you can get lots of stuff for nothing - sometimes you can even make money shopping there. I have to admit that there are times I when I am trying to fit stopping at CVS into my life and I lament to myself how I just don't have the time or energy and who really cares if I get a stick of deodorant for free, anyway?! Fortunately, if I had to buy deodorant at full price, I could.

Fast forward to this holiday season. When we remodeled the den, I had room to organize my gift wrapping supplies in the den. In doing so, I cleared out all of our gift giving shelves in the utility room. There have been inexpensive things I have picked up over the past two years of frugality that I was just waiting to pass on to the right recipient. Some candles, some books, some toys, some craft supplies, some clothes - you name it.

When I cleared the area out, I vowed to make this year the year I used all that stuff or donated it to someone who could. The ending result is our gifts to teachers, coaches and sunday school leaders. After all that, we were still able to donate two bags and a box (shown above) to our church to use for fundraisers and donations to our local women's shelter. Walking by that huge pile for a couple of days before I made it to church that Sunday made me feel very happy, indeed. So happy, in fact, that I was motivated to also clean out my supplies of household medicines and toiletries, to add to the stash.

It is in these moments that I realize that while I can afford to buy deodorant, if I don't have to, I can either donate it or something else (with the money saved) to someone in need. Stockpiling our food and buying on sale allows us to donate a full bag of really tasty and good foods to our church the first week of every month, plus give generously to all the other food drives that come our way - schools, after school events, girl scouts, cub scouts, movie events that are free with donated food, our bank's drive, etc. That is SUCH a wonderful blessing that I don't doubt at all probably benefits me, more than it does the recipients of said food.

So, if you are looking for answers in search of why or why not to be frugal, consider this: When I carefully work living with less and getting good deals in a balanced way, I can spend less time working, give more to my community, show others how much they mean to me and instill values in my children. Of course, all in varying combinations, depending on my time and energy level, but when my motivation lags, I try to remember these incentives.

This post participates in Frugal Fridays at Life as MOM, head on over to read more frugal ideas than you could ever hope to implement!

Recycled Post: Make Your Own Frozen Waffles

2009-12-17T06:00:00.000-06:00

Sometimes a girl just needs to leave her excess. When this blog temporarily becomes my excess, I rely on some of my favorite past posts to save the day - sort of recycling the good stuff. If you caught it the first time around, please let us know if you tried it and it worked for you!

My daughter, Alex, has always been a very picky eater. Whenever she likes something, I always try to make it myself so that I can limit the amount of chemicals and preservatives that she consumes. Of course, it is good for all of us to do that, but she eats so little, that I tend to focus first on foods for her.

Luckily, everyone in our house likes waffles! I make this big double batch, make them all and freeze them to use later. Once frozen, you make them just like store bought frozen waffles - toast and serve. I make the batter either the morning that I make the waffles, or if I know that I will be in a rush, I make up the batter the night before and put it in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, I take it out, give it a quick stir and get started!

I have a waffle maker from Williams-Sonoma, but waffle makers are the kind of thing many people buy with good intentions but never really use, so you can pick them up inexpensively at garage sales or thrift stores. I would check there first - save money, save something from hitting the landfill, all is good. My waffle maker makes one large waffle that is sectioned into five smaller sections - I like that because I can break off one or two sections for the smaller kids.

The first time you use the waffle maker, you will need to season it. This just involves wiping the surface with cooking oil on a paper towel and letting it heat up. After that, it should be good to go, but if the waffles stick, just repeat the oil for a while until the waffles no longer stick.

To make the waffles, heat the waffle maker until it indicates that it is ready (usually a light goes on or it makes a sound). Laddle the batter onto the maker, just barely filling the bottom as it will expand as it heats. Wait for small bubbles to appear on the surface, then close the lid and wait for the signal that the waffles are done. I find it works to use a fork to pick up the edge of the waffle to remove it.

Once the waffles come out of the waffle maker, I put them on a cooling rack to cool. I can fit three waffles on my rack, so by the time I put the third one on, the first one is cool and I can wrap it in plastic wrap and move all the waffles up on the rack to make room for the next waffle. If you wrap them up while they are hot, the steam will make them mushy, so be sure to cool them.

I wrap each one individually so that they don't stick together. You'll want to put all the wrapped waffles into a airtight container, a freezer safe zipper bag or wrap them in foil, to help prevent freezer burn.

Basic Waffle Recipe:

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

3 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup cooking oil

Enjoy!

Don't miss reading about when I hit waffle *nerd*vana by reusing the bags from inside cereal boxes when freezing the waffles!

What works sorts of items do you like to freeze ahead for breakfast?

This post participates in both the Recipe Swap at The Grocery Cart Challenge and Ultimate Recipe Swap @ Life As Mom (because you can never have too many recipes!!)

Recycled Post: What Does SAHM Look LIke On Your Resume?

2009-12-16T06:00:00.000-06:00

This post originally aired when I returned to work during the summer of 2008. After nearly 10 years at home, I went to work for an independent research lab 2-3 days a week. I am now the Controller full time (32-40 hours a week depending on what is going on at home and at work) and my husband is home full time. He lost his job in May 2009. With the current state of unemployment, I suspect that other SAHMs are needing to re-enter the work force. Here is my take on how to sell those years at home for what they are - vital, valuable and an asset.

I feel really blessed to work where I do. It was heaven-sent and perfect for my situation. Everyone is very friendly and supportive. You are expected to be responsible and do your job well, but when and how you do it is up to you (within reason). I get to set my hours and work around my family's needs the best I am able.

Bonnie, the woman who started the company, is also the CEO. We met for coffee after a mutual friend from an old employer connected us. Bonnie said that they had passed my resume around the office because they really liked how I worded the section on my time as a stay at home mom (SAHM). I knew right then that I had to work there - it did not matter what my title or duties would be. She got me and got what it meant for a woman to give up time in her career to stay at home.

When I was working on my resume, many people advised me to leave that part of my resume out. They told me to do a "functional" resume, listing my skill-set and then my experience - no real timeline. I valued the opinions of these dear friends and family - they all were trying to help me land a job, after all. But, I knew in my heart that to gloss over the last 10 years would be a huge mistake. Mainly because that is who I am. I am a mom. I am that first and I always will be. I will never just leave an employer in the lurch, but if an employer cannot understand rearranging my schedule for a baseball game or working from home when a child has the flu, then that is not the place for me. Plus, I am proud of what I have done over the past 10 years - it has been really hard and I have learned a lot about myself and my family. In the end, I followed my instinct, left the section at the very start of my resume and I am so glad that I did because it helped me wind up right where I am supposed to be.

Bonnie and I had a conversation the other day about working, being at home and just how hard it is to be a mom in general. Bonnie mentioned my resume again and said that if I did nothing else, I should share that part of my resume with other moms, so that they could use it on their resumes. She said she appreciated how hard it must be to re-enter the work force and how unsure you can feel after taking that time off. Pretty insightful for someone who has never been in that position, wouldn't you say?

So, here it is in all of it's glory - thanks especially to Lesa, Eric and Kreg, who gave me valuable input that ended up making the section what it is today. And thanks to Bonnie, who had the insight to really read this section and take it to heart. Please feel free to make it your own. State what you have done with pride and be prepared to speak to it. If you treat your time at home like the golden experience it is, the right employer will come along and recognize you for the golden employee you are. After all, we mothers are focused and organized - so that we can do a good job and still get home to be with our families. We understand responsibility, patience and multitasking like no one else!

The Schahn Project

December 1998 – Present

Raising four children, ages 18 months to 12 years and managing all our household activities, chores, meals, maintenance, remodeling/improvement projects, logistics and repairs. The skills I have strengthened while being at home full time include patience, compassion, delegation, organization, leadership, the ability to prioritize, negotiation, budget, project and time management and humility.

Recycled Post: Homemade Cleaners

2009-12-15T06:00:00.000-06:00

For the past few weeks I have been sharing some of my favorite homemade cleaner recipes and cleaning tips for all around the house. I hope that you have learned a lot and are inspired to try some of the recipes or at least put it on your to do list to try at some point!

A note about my main source for homemade cleaning recipes: The recipes I use come from the book Clean House, Clean Planet - Clean your house for pennies a day, the safe nontoxic way by Karen Logan. I am a big fan of the library, but this is one book worth owning - mine is falling apart. This book has over 100 cleaning recipes, everything from daily household cleaners to air fresheners, ant killer, car cleaners, carpet cleaners, laundry detergent and on and on. If you are serious about making your own cleaners, I highly recommend buying the book (I checked, and Amazon has it for less than $11 new - there are used copies, too).

Here is a summary and links to all of the homemade cleaner posts that were included in this series:

Post #1: Intro to Making Your Own Cleaning Supplies

Post #2: Cleaning the Laundry

Post #3: Make Your Own Furniture Polish

Post #4: Make Your Own Kitchen Cleaners

Post #5: Make Your Own Bathroom Cleaners

Post #6: Make Your Own Carpet Cleaners

Did you try this?! Do you make your own cleaners? Please share how it works for you.

What's New?

2009-12-14T06:00:00.006-06:00

Holy cow, it seems like a looong time since I just sat down and did some good old original posting here at this blog!

I think the last significant post I did was this three day rant on how my week before Thanksgiving fell apart.

Well, things did (sort of) get back to normal. See the somewhat finished den above. Still not really beautiful-post-worthy, but coming along and very usable. A serious shout out to my hubby who worked like mad to do all the repairs in less than 2 days after returning from hunting. Seemingly it was to save my sanity - jury is out on whether it worked or not. ;-)

By the time the den was in decent order, Thanksgiving was here and I felt woefully behind on the usual stuff that needs to be done this time of the year. So, I have frantically been doing all the stuff that everyone else is doing: Christmas shopping, sending out holiday cards, trying to bake Christmas treats (have yet to make even one, btw), decorating, wrapping, attending festivities, so on and so forth.

The bad thing about generally being done by Thanksgiving each year is that on the off year I am not ready by Thanksgiving, I feel really, really behind. Yikes!

So far, it is coming together, though. And I am trying really hard to just breathe and enjoy what I can get done. I have been enjoying holiday specials with the kids and reading with my bookworm, Max (6). One thing that seems to be falling into place on its own is getting a bit of time one on one with each kid in a fairly even manner - that is nice!

We still have our roof issue (that was discovered when we discovered the water damage a few weeks ago - see rant posts). We have towels in the eve and change them out when it rains or snows or melts. Joy. We are fighting with the insurance company to replace the roof that they inspected and said was fine, when it was not. Now they are saying we only had two years from the storm, and it has been too long. HELLO! We called you - you said it was fine!

Soooo, I have to put on my hardball hat on and call the agent tomorrow. Grrrrr. Just getting all psyched up for that conversation...

Winter has struck here in a BIG way, and we have already found ourselves below zero with the wind chill. Brrrr. Which leads me to the sad news that we turned on our heat. Man - what wimps :-) I think the official day was 12/4 - about 10 days longer than last year without turning on the heat. (In MN - just want to be sure you appreciate the situation :>).)

Seriously, it was chilly in the AM and so we started out at setting it so the temp would not fall below 65 (it seems like that was necessary when the temps were highs in the 20's during the day, lows in the single digits or teens). With that, we have built fewer fires, and somehow the thermostat has crept up to 68 degrees during the day. It is still chilly, but not cold, so whatever, I guess! For the record, I have not touched the thermostat (I'm just sayin'...). Of course, I have only built 2 fires, too, so I guess maybe I am not all that impressive!

With the snow came Steve starting to snow plow. We have a friend who has a son who owns a landscape/snow removal business and needed some help this winter. Steve knows how to operate machinery, so he gets to use the big tractor for a large parking lot area very close to home. That means when it snows, he is up most of the night. Hmmm, he has Will all day, plus kid to school/from school/to activity duty while I am at work. Yeah - we are trying to work all of that out. Once again, thank goodness my work is very flexible is all I have to say! Although, not so flexible that I don't actually have to DO any work...

Anyway, that is what is going on with me. I did manage to write a new post for Friday and I hope to get some blogging time in over the holidays, but in the meantime, I hope you are getting something out of the menus we are planning, recipes I manage to post and enjoying some of my recycled posts.

Take care and remember to enjoy and reflect on the season!

Guest Posting at I'm an Organizing Junkie!

2009-12-13T20:23:00.001-06:00

I could not be more excited to have a guest post up at I'm an Organizing Junkie!

Come check read all about my Family Binder system here!

MPM: What's Cooking This Week

2009-12-13T16:00:00.003-06:00

Having a planned menu for the week is a lifesaver. Sometimes we decide to make something else, but usually we are so busy that we are relieved that it is already planned out for us. One less thing to have to think about!

I enjoy cooking, my husband is willing but not a fan of cooking. I work full-time and he is at home. This is how we make it work:

:: I check what is in the fridge, then plan menus, clip coupons and make a list for Aldi and Cub.

:: My husband does the shopping with our 3 year old, Willie, and adds the things he notices we are out of, as he fixes most breakfasts and lunches and some dinners (milk, eggs, etc.).

:: I stop by our local discount grocery once a week (when I can), find good deals and try to work them into our weekly menu or add to our stock pile.

:: I try to plan something in the slow cooker, something that Steve is comfortable cooking or something I can make ahead for the days he needs to make dinner (generally Mon., Tues. and Thurs.).

Monday: Herbed Chicken and Wild Rice (slow cooker), (new recipe from Simple & Delicious magazine), bread and fresh cut up vegetables

Tuesday: Chicken Parmesan (from the Make It Fast, Cook It Slow cookbook!) with spaghetti noodles and green beans

Wednesday: Chicken Baked in Milk, potatoes and veggies (I am SO excited to try this, so far I have liked nearly everything Amy has recommended!)

Thursday: Tacos (we have meat already in the freezer), chips, cheese, etc.

Friday: Fruity Pork Roast (slow cooker), from Simple & Delicious magazine

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday: (for Sunday, we try to fix something tasty for breakfast before church, then have a dinner/lunch around lunch time, then leftovers or something light for dinner later that night).

Breakfast: Whole Wheat Coffee Cake, turkey bacon

Lunch: Taco Salads

To see hundreds more menus, visit Org Junkie.

Recycled Post: The Work of Being Frugal

2009-12-11T06:00:00.000-06:00

Sometimes being frugal means taking an extra step. Researching before buying, clipping coupons or reading blogs before shopping. Packing your own snacks and beverages for an outing.

This week being frugal meant heading to the mall (DREAD) to return somethings. When I went shopping for clothes to go back to work, I purchased somethings at our closest mall. Trying to be conservative, I did not remove any of the tags until I was actually about to wear an item. In the aftermath of working for a month, I realized I had not worn one of the shirts and a pair of pants. Realizing that I just did not like them, I decided to take them back (since I was careful, they still had the tags on them and I had the receipt). I tossed them into a bag along with the receipt and put it in my van so I was ready if I happened by the mall (about 30 minutes out of my general route).

I hate going to the mall. It is full of temptation, it is out of my way, it takes time, ugh. Lucky for me, I was already over that way for a work meeting, and I was talking to my mom on my cell phone, so I was distracted until I hung up and went to the counter, and I was in a rush to get home. I had paid cash, so I received $40 back in cash. Cool. The old me would have never returned the items - too much of a pain to go out of my way, can't find the receipt, already took the tags off, blah, blah, blah.

It was a bit time consuming. On the way home I stopped at Cub Foods and Aldi for groceries and CVS for this week's deals (see my Sweet Deal Round Up on Friday for how I purchased lots of stuff for very little). And you know what? I spent $22.15 at Cub, $15.48 at Aldi and $.28 at CVS. That adds up to $37.91 - less than the $40 I received back for items I was never going to wear. Because I was willing to go out of my way - an extra step -in the name of being frugal, and I was organized (items and receipt already in the van), I essentially paid for my groceries and personal goods for the week while ridding myself of some clutter.

Maybe you still don't think it would be worth your time. I truly understand - sometimes you just have all you can do to get your basic to do list done. BUT, if you prep yourself ahead of time, like having the item and receipt in my van, then you may find a moment to slip that extra step into your day and you will have less clutter at home, more money in your pocket and a great feeling of satisfaction.

That, I am realizing, is what frugality is all about.

This post participates in Frugal Fridays at Life as MOM, head on over to read more frugal ideas than you could ever hope to implement!

Sausage, Beans & Rice

2009-12-10T06:00:00.001-06:00

image from Simple & Delicious

I really like this recipe! You might notice if you stick around long enough that I try to sneak it into the menu quite often. I prefer it with polish sausage, but sometimes we use venison sausage.

This recipe is from Simple & Delicious magazine, it is posted online, you can read it here. I like this magazine - photos of every recipe and no outside advertising. So, it is nice and small and easy to save.

I actually stick to the original recipe for this one!

Sausage and Beans with Rice
2/3 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound smoked sausage, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 can kidney beans - drained and rinsed (or use dried - read here how to do it in advance and freeze them)
1 can great northern beans - drained and rinsed
1 cup brown rice (uncooked) (we don't use instant)
2 2/3 cups water or broth
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon dijon mustard

In a pot, bring rice and water or broth to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15-20 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed.

In a skillet, saute onion, green pepper and garlic in oil until crisp-tender. Stir in remaining ingredients (including rice). Pour into a 13x9 dish sprayed with cooking spray.

Bake at 350 for 15-25 minutes. Cover if rice begins to dry.

Enjoy!

This post participates in both the Recipe Swap at The Grocery Cart Challenge and Ultimate Recipe Swap @ Life As Mom (because you can never have too many recipes!!)

Enjoy Life's Pleasures: LOVE This Song!

2009-12-09T06:00:00.002-06:00

I have to admit it. I am totally obsessed with this song. I cannot hear it too many times. Just ask my family. It is the only song I have ever set to play on a continuous loop on my iTunes. OK, that was a little embarrassing to admit.

Check it out here.

It is What Child Is This? (Greensleeves) by Sarah McLauglan, whom I love any day, but this really is just unbelievably beautiful and I can sing along (without sounding hideous, not that that ever stops me). Have to love that!

Here is the other holiday song by her (and the Bare Naked Ladies) that I always love to hear.

Have a great day!

Recycled Post: Organize the Batteries

2009-12-08T06:00:00.002-06:00

Since we remodeled our laundry room, the batteries are now in a drawer, but this is still a great way to go if you don't have a drawer to dedicate to batteries.

I get that you may not see the immediate value of organizing your batteries, but hang in there with me for a moment.

Batteries are one of those things that are really expensive over time and one of those things of which you can easily loose track. So, then you go out and buy more since you either A) don't realize you already have some or B) don't want to spend seemingly endless time searching for them. And how frustrating is it when your batteries are dead and you have to wait until you can get to the store to buy new ones?

Here is what I do: I used a organizer that we had laying around. I think it is some sort of tool or nuts and bolts organizer that we picked up at a hardware store for under $10. It has plastic dividers, so you can make the sections any size you need to, and you can store all your batteries in one place. It also has a sturdy closure, so we don't run the risk of them all falling out. We now have a section for rechargeable batteries and over time, I realized that it is handy having a smaller Phillips screwdriver in with the batteries to replace all those toy batteries.

Every Fall, I stock up on 9 volts to change our smoke detector batteries (and I know where to find them) when time changes back from Daylight Savings Time. We have an ice cream bucket in our laundry room cupboard to hold all the dead batteries, and when it is close to full, we work a stop into our local Batteries Plus to drop them off to be recycled.

Now when Christmas or birthdays come along, we have batteries ready to go. My older kids can change their batteries on their own. And when we get out the race track and spend an hour arranging it, we have batteries at the ready when the cars are dead. Not quite peace on Earth, but I'll take it.

Update: Here is the frugal twist: having an organized system allows you to stock up during sales and have the batteries when you need them (like, say, during the holidays!!).

This post participates in WFMW at We Are THAT Family, head on over to read more frugal ideas than you could ever hope to implement!

Recycled Post: Free Books!

2009-12-07T06:00:00.000-06:00

Sometimes a girl just needs to leave her excess. When this blog temporarily becomes my excess, I rely on some of my favorite past posts to save the day - sort of recycling the good stuff. This was originally posted in 2008. If you caught it the first time around, please let us know if you tried it and it worked for you!

Do you love the idea of FREE books? So do I.

How about FREE movies or movies for just $1 for a 7 day rental? FREE magazines, anyone? How about CDs, DVDs, books on tape and more?

What if you did not even have to store all those books and such when you were done reading them? Even better!

Sound too good to be true? Well, it is just life as usual at your local library. My best pals, Julie and Missy are avid library goers, and they turned me onto literally a wealth of knowledge at no cost.

Our local library system has an online catalog, so I can go online, request what I want to read, view, etc. and just pick it up when it is ready. I also get an email letting me know when my books are due (it notifies me 3 days in advance) and I can renew online. I have requested kids' DVDs, books, videos and the like. You can even get CDs of all kinds and books on tape or CD to listen to in the car. Try it with the kids - they get a kick out of it. If you travel a way to work, you can zip through a book on your commute in a week or two. You could even learn that second language.

Our library also has FREE museum passes (through Macy's Department Stores), so we can check out all sorts of local museums for free, as well. We just pop in and "check out" the pass and we are good to go. Very, very cool.

The biggest plus? No books, movies and CDs to sort through and purge - just return them to the library for someone else to enjoy.

A way to save money and reduce clutter all at once. Now, what more could a girl ask for?

MPM: What's Cooking This Week

2009-12-06T16:00:00.001-06:00

Having a planned menu for the week is a lifesaver. Sometimes we decide to make something else, but usually we are so busy that we are relieved that it is already planned out for us. One less thing to have to think about!

I enjoy cooking, my husband is willing but not a fan of cooking. I work full-time and he is at home. This is how we make it work:

:: I check what is in the fridge, then plan menus, clip coupons and make a list for Aldi and Cub.

:: My husband does the shopping with our 3 year old, Willie, and adds the things he notices we are out of, as he fixes most breakfasts and lunches and some dinners (milk, eggs, etc.).

:: I stop by our local discount grocery once a week (when I can), find good deals and try to work them into our weekly menu or add to our stock pile.

:: I try to plan something in the slow cooker, something that Steve is comfortable cooking or something I can make ahead for the days he needs to make dinner (generally Mon., Tues. and Thurs.).

Monday: Sausage, Beans & Rice (recipe coming this Thursday), beer bread, salads

Tuesday: Parmesan Baked Salmon, roasted potatoes (cut into cubes, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and bake at 400 for 45 minutes, stirring 2-3 times), frozen vegetable

Wednesday: Baked Potato Soup, Buttery Bread Machine Rolls, salads, chicken nuggets for kiddos that don't like soup

Thursday: Leftovers, apples, bananas and oranges

Friday: Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, corn (it never fails that I go somewhere else for Thanksgiving but can't pass up the good deals on turkey and want to make another Thanksgiving meal at home the next week or two!)

Saturday: Broccoli Turkey Casserole (new recipe from Simple & Delicious magazine), salads, crescent rolls

Sunday: (for Sunday, we try to fix something tasty for breakfast before church, then have a dinner/lunch around lunch time, then leftovers or something light for dinner that night). Breakfast: Sausage, coffee cake. Lunch: Hot turkey sandwiches, stuffing, mashed potatoes.

To see hundreds more menus, visit Org Junkie.

Recycled Post: Organizing Incoming Mail

2009-12-05T06:00:00.001-06:00

Sometimes a girl just needs to leave her excess. When this blog temporarily becomes my excess, I rely on some of my favorite past posts to save the day - sort of recycling the good stuff. This was originally posted in May 2008. If you caught it the first time around, please let us know if you tried it and it worked for you!

Ahhh, the mail. Not very fun when you are an adult, is it? Unless you start ordering freebies - see my previous blog here.

There are bills, bills and more bills. Catalogs galore telling you of all the amazing things you need to want, that until you got the mail, you probably did not even know existed. Then there are surveys, things to sign the kids up for and well, you get my point.

What do you do with your mail? Does it accumulate into a giant pile on your table or counters? Maybe on a desk somewhere; to be ignored until you tear through the pile in a panic trying to find something you are late taking care of?

All this incoming stuff (excess) causes stress and trauma. So, before we dive into organizing the places in your house, let's deal with the stuff that is coming in on a daily basis.

I once read advice from a successful CEO. She said, "Never touch your mail twice." Not always possible, but great advice. What it means, of course, is put it where it belongs right away and be done with it. Going through the mail or piles of mail over and over is a big time (and sanity) thief. When you are going through your mail, you need a place to put bills, a place to put paper from the mail that you can recycle and a place to put things you will need for future reference.

When I get the mail, I sort through it and recycle anything I do not need or want - credit card applications (I tear these first or let my kids shred them), catalogs, brochures and flyers, the inserts that come with bills and any outer envelopes that I do not need. Make sure you remove any extra sheets from bank or credit card statements (a lot of times there are blank sheets with the statements). I also rip off those flyer deals on the return envelopes of some bills. Since we have started recycling paper, we have never had any problems getting all our trash into the one can we have and our recycling can is always full to the brim!

We have a recycling bin in our garage (on top of our pantry) and if I am able to flip through the mail on the walk up the drive, most of it never even gets into the house - I just toss it into the bin in the garage. I also have a basket in the hallway near our kitchen that is just a plain old basket we had around but were not using. It is large enough for paper, so I toss paper to be recycled in that and empty it into our recycling can outside once a week or so.

I try not to keep catalogs, but there are a few I do enjoy, so those go on the magazine rack and are recycled once I look through them. I like some children's toy catalogs for ideas for my kids and nieces and nephews. If I find something I like, I put it on our wish list (it is a word document on our computer), along with the item number and where I saw it. That way I have a list of good ideas when relatives are asking for birthday or Christmas ideas.

As for the bills, I put them into a desktop filer that has three sections. In the first section, I have receipts that need to be entered into our checkbook (debit card stuff), the second section is for bills that are to be paid and the final section holds rebate information and those mailing labels that various organizations send you (use these for return labels on your bills or for "filling" out address info on forms). The photo to the right is what my sorter looks like today. I try to enter all the receipts into the checkbook, balance the checkbook online and pay any bills every Wednesday, just to stay on top of things and not let it turn into too big of a job (very overwhelming when you are behind on keeping up with the paperwork).

I enter any information that I need to from the mail into our calendar (invites and such) and I put all things that need to be filled out into a manilla folder that I bring with me to places I might have to wait a while and I fill things out while I am waiting (before meetings, at the doctor or dentist, waiting in the car to pick up one of my kids, etc.) I put anything I may need to reference later into The Family Binder.

How about you? What do you do to control the mail?

Saving on Phone Service With Ooma

2009-12-04T06:00:00.002-06:00

Please note: this is NOT a paid review and I did NOT receive my Ooma (or any other consideration) in exchange for a review. OK, carry on.

I am really liking our new Ooma phone system. We ordered ours through Costco, as it was the best deal for us. The system generally costs $200 and it costs $40 to have our phone number ported (so we did not have to get a new phone number). We have been using it for about a month now.

My favorite things about Ooma:

:: You NEVER have to pay for phone service again! Ever.

:: And you can take the Ooma with you when you travel or move and just hook it up to the internet and use it anywhere.

:: The system comes with six free months of Premier subscription services (2nd line, call waiting, etc.), but you certainly can live a full life without the Premier service (keeping your monthly cost FREE). The basic system includes voicemail, caller ID, call forwarding and blocking calls, so we do not intend to pay for the Premier service once the free trial has ended. If you chose to subscribe to the service beyond the free trial, it costs $9.95 a month.

:: Ability to Screen Calls: When a caller is leaving a voicemail, you can hear it so you can pick up during their message or screen your calls.

:: With the Premier service, while you are talking to someone, you can also send them to voicemail, so if our 13 year old cannot take a reliable message or find a pen, he can send a caller into voicemail to leave a message for my husband or I. This is cool, but I can't see myself paying for this feature when the free subscription period is over.

:: All Ooma users have access to the online Ooma Lounge, where you can access your voicemail visually (you can also listen at home on the Hub or Scout), make changes to your preferences and changes to your account.

:: With Premier service, you can opt to enter numbers you want to block or automatically send to voicemail. To be honest, this is the only reason I would consider subscribing to the Premier service. We'll see if I dislike the telemarketers more than spending $10 a month. It has been nice and quiet lately...

:: Our US calls are free (so, yes, long distance is free within the US). Ooma proclaims that it has low international calling rates, but I honestly have not a clue about international calling rates (thankfully).

:: 911 service is supported (although you have to keep your address updated with Ooma in order for this to be effective - basically, they route the call based on where you live, it is not automatic like with other traditional phone service).

:: I avoid all those pesky taxes and fees that the phone companies tack onto each bill every month. I *hate* paying those fees and taxes.

:: Saving monthly phone service costs: Our most recent phone service before Ooma was with our cable company. It was bundled for a year and was about $25 a month, then after the year the special rate was offered, it jumped to $47 a month with all the taxes, yadda, yadda, yadda. Basically, for traditional service to our area, we are looking at $45 a month total after taxes and fees. At those rates, we make our investment back in just 5.33 months. After that, we are saving 100% each month, and over $540 a year! That is an amazing number, especially when you consider that we really are not giving up anything for the savings. Even if we opted for the Premier service, we would STILL save just over $420 a year.

:: Easy set up. It was very easy to set up and there are plenty of video tutorials online if you are a visual sort of person.

Things to know before buying Ooma:

:: Your phone system needs to be plugged into the Telo, the Hub or a Scout. So, if you have a phone that has three handsets, they all would work if the base is plugged into the Ooma. The scout would allow you to plug in another system or individual phone. This works for us because we have a phone system base with 5 handsets and then one phone in the garage hooked up to the scout. That is the thing to consider though, if you have four different phones, you would either have to buy 3 scouts, a new phone system or learn to live with one phone plus however many Scouts you choose to purchase. One phone needs to be plugged into the Hub and the Hub needs to be plugged into your router. So, if your system is completely wireless, your Hub may not be in the most convenient location. However, the Scout is smaller and has access to voicemail, etc., so you can just use that on a daily basis.

:: Porting your number. You can usually use your existing phone number (if you go to the Ooma website, you can check if your phone number can be ported), but it costs $39.99 to do so. Another thing to consider is that it takes about 3 weeks to port your phone number, so you cannot use the system right away when you receive it unless you are getting a new number through Ooma.

:: If you have a security system, it will need its own Scout. Luckily, my husband just worked this issue out before we had to cough up a service call fee from our security monitoring system. The scout is about $65 discounted online, but I am hunting one down on ebay as I write this very post (multitasking). Update: I was able to get it off of ebay for $32.95 including the shipping. I still say it is worth it - but judge for yourself. It does push us out to about 7 months before we can realize our investment back in savings. Still, in any market, a 100% return on investment in 7 months is impressive.

Save even more:

:: Amazon.com sells the Ooma (Telo, Hub or Scout) and you could pay for it entirely with SwagBucks if you are patient and save up those $5 gift cards you can earn for Amazon.com with SwagBucks. It usually takes me a 7-10 days to earn enough SwagBucks to get a $5 Amazon.com giftcard, but I was earning them every 2-3 days for a while - it all depends on how much you share SwagBucks with others.

:: I recently received a promotional email from Ooma, offering up three promotional code emails to save $50 on the Telo. If you are purchasing an Ooma Telo and want me to send you one of the emails with the $50 promo code offer, please leave a comment and I will send it to you. There are only 3 emails, so please only request one if you are serious about purchasing the Telo. The code is good through 12-31-09. The Telo is currently $197.85 at Amazon.com, with the additional $50 off, you would pay $147.85.

Full disclosure: I would also receive a $25 Amazon.com gift card when you used your $50 Telo coupon as a referral incentive. However, I would NOT endorse the Ooma if I did not like it and I have been honest in my post about things you need to consider when moving to the Ooma system. And you are welcome to buy your Ooma any old place - just email me if you can use the discount to your advantage.

We have the basic Ooma system and a Scout (I am not being paid or given an Ooma to review, this was bought on our own). The new Ooma Telo looks pretty slick, but I was happy with the deal I found on my older Ooma Hub and Scout. I found our deal at Costco, where I paid $189 for the Hub and Scout together (it was a special purchase).

I wish I could say we are pocketing that $45 a month phone service savings, but since my husband decided to get an iPhone, we are now spending most of that a month for his service. I will say that at least we have more overall service now without any additional cash outlay. (That is my attempt to look on the bright side. How am I doing?)

So, if you have are considering Ooma, I will tell you that although I wondered what the catch is, I have not found it yet and have been very happy with our Ooma system. So, for what it is worth, you have my recommendation.

This post participates in Frugal Fridays at Life as MOM, head on over to read more frugal ideas than you could ever hope to implement!

Pumpkin Praline Cheesecake

2009-12-03T06:00:00.001-06:00

This is a most tasty way to incorporate a fall/winter ingredient into your holiday desserts. It is absolutely delicious and a nice change for those who don't love Pumpkin Pie (I know, I am weird that way).

As I recall, the original recipe called for ginersnaps instead of chocolate wafer cookies, but I can't stand ginger in baked goods (again, weird, I know), so I use chocolate wafer cookies! You could also use graham crackers, cinnamon graham crackers or chocolate graham crackers. I make the praline ahead of time, so prep is easier to manage. Of course, the cheesecake needs to chill, so that is prepared ahead, too. You know how sometimes cheesecake can crack on top? Well, the praline covers that up beautifully. (And if you have someone who is allergic to nuts, the praline can be added individually to other's pieces and the person with allergies can still enjoy as the nuts are not baked into the dessert). A perfect for way to present an impressive dessert during busy holiday entertaining!

Pumpkin Praline Cheesecake

Praline:
:: 1/2 cup brown sugar
:: 3 Tbsp. butter
:: 3/4 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

Line a baking sheet with foil. Stir sugar and butter in a saucepan over medium heat until sugar melts and mixture comes to a boil. Boil 1 minute without stirring. Mix in pecans, spread mixture onto prepared baking sheet. Bake in a 325 degree oven until the sugar bubbles vigorously, about 8 minutes. Cool completely. Break into pieces. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Crust:
:: 2 cups chocolate cookie wafers crumbs
:: 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
:: 1/4 cup butter, melted

Stir crumbs and cinnamon together with butter in a bowl. Press into and up the sides of a 9" springform pan. Bake until set, about 8 minutes (at 325 degrees). Remove from oven to cool until ready to add filling.

Cheesecake Filling:
:: 4 blocks cream cheese (8 ounces each) (I often use 2 - 1/3 less fat and 2 full fat cream cheeses)
:: 1 1/2 cups sugar
:: 3 Tbsp flour
:: 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
:: 1 teaspoon ginger
:: 4 large eggs
:: 1 - 15 ounce can pumpkin or 2 cups pureed pumpkin
:: 3 Tbsp. bourbon (I leave this out if I don't have it on hand)
:: 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place the pan with the crust in the roasting pan. Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until light and smooth. Beat in flour and spices. Beat in eggs one at a time. Mix in pumpkin, bourbon and vanilla extract. Pour into crust (as you can tell from the photo - the pan will be FULL). Pour enough hot water to cover first inch of pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Add water as needed through baking to maintain the 1 inch around the pan. Cool on wire rack. Chill until ready to serve. Run a sharp knive around cake, remove springform. Serve with praline piled on top in the middle. Be careful when moving the pan - the water and full pan, and all.

Enjoy!

This post participates in both the Recipe Swap at The Grocery Cart Challenge and Ultimate Recipe Swap @ Life As Mom (because you can never have too many recipes!!)

How To (And How Not To) Telecommute

2009-12-02T06:00:00.001-06:00

On Monday, I spoke of several ways I have worked to reduce my commuting time, energy and expense. One of my favorite ways to do that is to telecommute. Not everyone can telecommute (a little tough if you are in, say, food service or retail), but there are ways a lot of people can make telecommuting work in their lives and for their employers.

1. If your company does not have a telecommuting culture, propose one. If you work for a large company, odds are that an official policy is in place. Still, maybe no one in your area or department takes advantage of it. Or maybe no one in your company (especially if it is smaller) telecommutes. Pull your facts together (read on for more ideas and considerations) and propose a temporary trial of telecommuting. What do you have to lose?

2. Consider what telecommuting is worth to you. Will you save on transportation and parking? Could you buy fewer business clothes? Will it be easier to make dinner (verses buying dinner out) if you are at home? If so, maybe you could forgo a raise in exchange for a telecommuting arrangement. Given the current economy, an employer may be willing to deal in an effort to A) keep a good employee happy while B) not spending more money. To be brutally honest, I probably could either go out on my own or to another arrangement and make more money than I do right now. But, I am willing to stay where I am for a lot of great reasons, one of which is the flexibility to telecommute. All together, these things make my working much more workable for our family and we can choose to live on the lower income if we are frugal and purposeful in our spending.

3. How will the work get done? For your sake and for your employer's sake, you need to outline how and when your work will be done while you are at home. Do you need to be available during certain hours? By email, cell phone, home phone? Will you need remote access to the server? How can you get a secure connection? Do you have a space to dedicate to working at home? Do you have everything you need (printer, fax, scanner, etc.)? Will you need a laptop? Address these issues in your proposal and you can eliminate 99% of the objections to your plan.

4. Address daycare. If you have ever tried to work while being an at home parent, you have probably faced the harsh reality that it is one tough row to hoe. Really - being an at home parent IS work. So is being a daycare provider. So is your job. You can't do everything at once. At least not well. You need to still make plans to have daycare on your days working from home during the hours you need to be working from home. Period. For us, sometimes my husband will run out during Will's nap. But, I know that if for some reason he gets up early (which only seems to happen when I am working!), I have to work that into my day and pick my work back up when my husband gets home or once the kids are in bed. And my employer is OK if that needs to happen. And I don't chance it when I can't afford for it to happen - I work in the office on those days :>)

5. Be clear about your schedule. In my situation, it works to just take each week as it comes. I try to look ahead to the next week - when do I have meetings I have to attend? What is going on at home that I would need to be home for (and thus would be ideal to skip a commute that day)? Is what I am currently working on portable or do I need to be in the office? It works for us in our office to just shoot out an email in the morning saying WAH (work at home) and specify how to contact - email or cell and which hours we will be available. I realize that is not normal office culture, so you might want to say that you will telecommute on Tuesdays and Thursdays or some sort of set schedule.

I do generally try to be clear on my schedule at least a week in advance, mostly because I have a need to know my schedule in advance. I do this using Google Calendar, and that works well for our office. I just put WAH or OFF as an all day event on the days that need it and my coworkers can tell right away if I am working or not and if I will be in the office or not. They also know that if there is no other option, they can schedule a meeting on a WAH day and I will come into the office or call into the conference line as needed. Which leads me to number 6...

6. Expect flexibility and be flexible in return. In order for telecommuting to work, you need to be a professional. That means that when a meeting comes up on your normal day to telecommute, you might need to change your schedule from time to time.

I try to keep my hours to 32 hours a week. Sometimes (like now and for the foreseeable future), that is not possible. So, I need to deal with it and work more hours in order to get my job done. I accept that responsibility and my employer trusts me to make those decisions and leaves my schedule up to me. If I am working closely with someone else in the office, I go out of my way to be clear on when I am available, how I can be reached and to make sure that works for him or her and that I am clear on any deadlines - the last thing I would ever want to do is put our work in jeopardy for my own benefit.

I also accept that I need to check my email and voicemail even when I am not officially working, so that everyone knows they can reach me in an urgent situation. It rarely happens, and my coworkers do their best to respect my off time, but knowing they can get one important question answered here or there goes a long way to everyone being comfortable in the situation.

I am a busy mom of four kids; I want to be involved in their daily lives. I am a busy controller of two entities; I want to be involved in the management of the company. That is a lot to juggle. Sometimes I have to put on my mom hat while I am at work (to talk to a teacher, etc.) and sometimes I have to put my controller hat on while I am at home. The more flexible I am, the more flexible my coworkers are - and vice versa. This is the way telecommuting works best, and really, the way any job works best.

7. Get someone on your side. When you are not at the office, things come up that make it less than ideal for you to be at home. Find someone who is in the office on a regular basis that is willing to help make your situation work - someone who can fax or scan something and send it to you, someone willing to look something up and call you back, etc. No man is an island, and this is especially true of telecommuting. Of course, be sure to return the favor - be helpful and find a way to make that person's job easier when you are in the office. And remember to say "Thank you!!" and show your appreciation. As long as you are sincere, no one can hear how valuable they are too often.

8. Get organized. Make sure you have the information you need with you - whether it is files, contact information, phone numbers, emails, whatever. Being prepared while you are home will ease your stress and help things run smoothly for your coworkers. You do not want others in the office feeling like they have to pick up your slack.

9. Highlight how telecommuting will be good for the company. Is the parking lot crowded? Office space tight? Maybe if you were not there, it would free up some space. Think about how your telecommuting could be a benefit to your employer and be sure to stress those points during your proposal. Perhaps you would be willing to share an office on the days you are in or move to a smaller space so a full time, in the office employee can have a large office - consider these points as you get ready to propose telecommuting.

10. Revisit the arrangement. Come back after a specific period - say a month or six weeks, and check in with your boss and coworkers. Are things running smoothly? What could change to improve the situation? Be willing to discuss any concerns and address how you can tweak the arrangement to better suit everyone's needs. Implement those proposed changes and check back in again after another trial period. Knowing that the arrangement does not have to last forever (if it does not work) might help make an employer willing to try it out. Try to make sure that he or she is pleasantly surprised at how well it works.

11. Know Thy Self. If you are easily distracted or find it difficult to motivate yourself, telecommuting could be a disaster for you. You need to be honest with yourself and determine if you really, truly can resist playing fetch with the dog (other than a brief break - that is a perk of telecommuting), watching TV or taking a nap, and instead focus on getting your work done. If not, then telecommuting probably will not be a good solution for you. Telecommuting does take commitment on your part to execute successfully and you might be surprised how hard it is to make yourself focus on a sunny, beautiful day. And a deary, rainy day. Or a snowy day....

Do you telecommute? Are there things you do that work for you? Anything that has not worked for you?

Baking Mixes Guest Post

2009-12-01T18:15:00.002-06:00

I am very excited to have a guest post at $5 Dinners today! Check it out here.

If you are new to my site, welcome!

If you by chance have not heard that Erin of $5 Dinners is taking pre-orders for her cookbook, you can pre-order here. Be sure to get on the list!

Saving Time and Money (and Energy) on Your Commute

2009-11-30T06:00:00.000-06:00

One thing I have been working towards is lessening the resources I am using commuting. I work about 20 miles away from where I live. There are three ways I could get there, with the total mileage ranging from 19.5 miles to 23.5 miles each way. The longer routes involve more freeway time, so can potentially save me time even though the mileage is more than the most straighforward route.

I work between 32-40 hours a week, depending on my workload, so I could be commuting to the office 4 or 5 days a week. It usually takes me about 35 minutes in the morning and 45-55 minutes in the afternoon, or about 1 1/2 hours a day.

Here are some of the things I have been employing to reduce the amount of time, resources and money I use up to get to work:

1. Take the bus. I have to admit, this is not my favorite option. I am having a hard time ridding myself of the feeling of freedom I have by having a car in the parking lot. The closest bus to me is 10 miles a way. It is a Park and Ride, so I can park my car for free and hop on an express bus to downtown (meaning it does not stop until it gets to downtown). The total mileage on this route is 23.5, about 13.5 of that is on the bus. There are lots of buses to downtown in the morning; fewer in the afternoon and a farther walk to the stop downtown. There are not any midday buses back to the Park and Ride.

The ride costs $3, so it costs more than I would spend in gas, but my work buys the bus pass. It is crowded enough that the ride home sometimes only has standing spots available. If I get a seat, though, it is a quick ride and time to read, which is something I can't do while driving. As a bonus, if the traffic is backed up, the buses travel on the shoulder and bypass the traffic jam - also something I cannot do in the car! To be honest, I feel like I have to change my planned departure from work enough that the bus is not a great option for me. But, I can admit that I have not been really motivated to make it work.

2. Consolidate trips. I do this a lot (and often use this to justify why I can't take the bus :>)). I plan out stops on the way to and/or home from work each day to get our errands out of the way and prevent driving later in the evening or weekends to run errands. I have stops that I will make on the route home from the bank, if I have deposits to make for work, stops that I will make if I go one of the other two routes, and stops I can make if I need to go places for work (training, meetings, etc.), to maximize what I can get done with the lowest mileage. It helps to have a list for those places that I know I might get to, so I can be sure to get everything that I need when I can stop. If I have an idea I will stop, I also am sure to pack the things I need into the car (returns, batteries to recycle, paint colors if I need paint, watches that need batteries, etc.). I love arriving home knowing I not only worked a full day, but I also knocked some errands off the to do list.

3. Carpool. I have not done this as much, but I do live on the route of our COO's commute, so occasionally he will pick me up and drop me off on his way. This is harder for me to reciprocate, as he lives another 20 miles north of me, but he is very generous about doing it. He rides his motorcycle in the summer, so this is more of a winter option or a "hey, my car is in the shop" option. I tend to get in early and out early, he tends to get in later and work later, so we have to work that out, but it is an option.

4. Telecommute. This is my favorite option, as I can get some work done relatively uninterrupted and I can choose to make time in my day to connect with my kids and husband (lunch, etc.) and I save all that commute time, gas money and so on. I don't have to pack a lunch, I don't have to get dressed if I don't want to and I can be in my favorite spot: home. This is actually why we were having the workstation built in the office (when we found the water damage and my week spun out of control). I want to do this more (at least 2 days a week) and needed a better and more efficient work space. After making do for the past year and a half, we knew what we needed and had saved enough to pay for it. More on how to make telecommuting work for you coming up on Wednesday.

5. Work longer hours over fewer days. I am sure this will shock anyone who knows me (not), but I am an all or nothing sort of gal. So, it sometimes works for me to work 3 - 10 hour days and log in a couple of hours over the weekend or work 10.5 hours a day and do something simple for 30 minutes later in the week just to have another day off. From a commute standpoint, this means I save on the time and expense of 1 day's commute.

Did I miss anything? What do you do to save on time, money and resources during your commute?

Thankful

2009-11-26T06:00:00.007-06:00

As I mentioned yesterday, and the end of my three day mini-series/whine-fest about my tough week last week, here are some things (big and small) that help keep me going through the tougher times and remind me that life is still sweet:

1. As of three weeks ago, this sweet guy is potty trained! After four kids and way more diapers than I care to add up, we are done buying diapers!! Yay! As my coworker pointed out, "You just gave yourself a raise!"

2. I love my husband. That makes our family very fortunate and strong against the storms out there. Having been married for 16 years (on Friday) and been together for almost 21 years (wow, I sound old), we have seen some of our friends' marriages end. No matter what the underlying cause(s), I always feel very sad for the kids. Marriage does take effort, so I am thankful that both Steve and I have remained committed and engaged. One cannot do it alone.

3. We are all healthy and together. I am not talking about colds and such, but those major illnesses that change your life. We are fortunate not to be experiencing that. We are all living under the same roof, the same city, the same country. Our thoughts are with those families that cannot be together right now.

4. A new light in the kids' play kitchen. It really is the small things. The old light sat around for quite a while. We tried new batteries, no luck. Then we wondered about the battery charger. Turns out it was not working, we bought a new one, but the light still did not work. I finally just called the company and now the new light is in place and the old one has gone to its just reward. One tiny victory in a week of chaos.

5. Speaking of small things, Steve added some fabulous hooks that are a great addition to our laundry room remodel. Now that winter is here, we needed more space for coats, bags and the like. Much better! (How is that for keeping it real? Fat cat, jackets, trumpet, etc.)

6. My dining room table is clear. After all the den stuff living on it for a while, this is a welcome sight (just don't look in the den just yet).

7. I get to go to my mom's house for Thanksgiving! No mess, no entertaining for me today.

8. We get to share our bounty. I feel so blessed when that we have enough to be able to give of ourselves to others who are suffering right now. I pray that they, too, will soon be able to enjoy the joy of giving to others by sharing their abundance.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for indulging me as I ranted and vented this week, I am thankful for each of you for stopping by and sharing your lives with me.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Real Enough for You? (Part 3)

2009-11-25T06:00:00.007-06:00

Welcome to this little mini-series of posts about my life last week. Fortunately, nothing truly horrific happened, but I thought it might be nice to share with you that, no, in fact, my life is not always clutter-free and smoothly operating. See also, Part 1 and Part 2 of my effort to keep things real for you.

Wednesday

Nothing gets done at home as Steve takes Will to his music class and then about an hour away to pick up the snowmobile he bought over the weekend. As you might imagine, I am not thrilled about such a purchase, but without compromise, there would not be marriage (at least not for long). *sigh* Of course, I have been at work since the wee hours of the morning. Our CEO stops by my office to say that she would never **cough, cough** expect me to work on a holiday **cough, cough**, but if I felt the need to do so over the Thanksgiving holiday, she would understand. Great. I plan on working until the last possible moment, then meeting Steve and the kids at church for our classes that evening at 6:45.

Around 4:20, Steve gets to a H1N1 vaccination clinic with Max only to realize that if the three other kids were there, they could get the vaccination, too. So he calls me and asks if I could leave work and get the kids and then meet him at the clinic. I do, leaving at 5:00, racing all the way and getting to the clinic at 6:10 or so. Once we are done, we have not had any dinner (I did not get lunch again this day at work, unless you count that 10 oz bag of M&Ms I managed to polish off), so I swing through McDonalds to feed Max and Alex while Steve brings Will and Chandler to church (Chandler, Will and Alex had some pizza while Chandler was watching them before I picked them up for the clinic). I get to church 30 minutes late, having dripped some stuff from my burger onto my shirt, and carrying a bag that reeks of McDonalds. I stuff the bag into my other bag and try to seal it up, so I won't stink up the whole class. We finish up at church around 8:00 pm and Steve and Chandler tear into the cold McDonalds like they haven't eaten for days. Back home for bedtime routines, homework and cleaning up the house, putting away the laundry Steve managed to get done after the road trip up north. Steve spends the rest of the night packing up to go hunting on Thursday.

Thursday

I have the day off (so to speak) as Steve has left for hunting. I hoped to sleep in until 8 or so, but Steve wanted to be gone by then and the kids needed to get off to school. Steve manages to sleep through his alarm and has to rush the older two to the bus. I fix breakfast for the younger two and get a quick shower. I sat down for a moment to check my calendar and realized that both older kids have conferences that evening. Ugh! Luckily, I remembered that I had asked my mom to come out to stay with the younger two, but seeing as how I had since forgotten, I thought she might have, too. I called her and she had forgotten, but could still do it. *phew*

Off to gymnastics with Willie (15 minutes late due to his untimely need to poop), grocery shopping, cleaning up the house as much as possible, meet with the exterminator (and try not to breath while he sprays ant poison in and around my house - the first of several visits to eliminate the ants that have taken up residence in our home thanks to our water damaged wall). I know I should work, but I start writing this series of posts instead. Then I make dinner, go through the kids backpacks, head off to conferences for two kids who each have about 7 teachers. Back home in time to get Max to gymnastics 5 minutes late, then back home to get kids going on homework before heading back to pick up Max, then back home again for baths, bedtime stuff and cleaning up again. I am so. tired. I watch Grey's Anatomy (recorded) and am fast asleep.

Friday

This is supposed to be my usual day off each week. Steve is still hunting, so up early to get the kids off to school, take care of house stuff and welcome my two best friends over, as it is my turn to host our Friday stamping sessions (I missed last week to due to my workload). I cry on their shoulders as they agree that it is all horrible and I deserve to cry (love those two), and then they proceed to cheer me up in their usual way and I am reminded again of why they are my best friends in the whole, wide world. :>) And when I make lunch, they don't even mind that it is something I tossed together from leftover taco bar from Will's birthday party the weekend before.

Friday night, we eat at Subway because I want something tasty, but am too tired to fight with the kids over what to eat and too tired to make anything. Then we go home to hang out with the younger two until bedtime and then the older two and I watch a movie. The cat and Willie have me up about 3 times each before Will is up for good before dawn. I did manage to wash the floor in the evening - small victory!

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday we hang out and do not a whole lot. I try to play with the kids, but get distracted by needing to clean up the house, do some laundry. Chandler builds a fire to warm up the house as it is getting cold (snow appears to be on the way next week). I try to organize what I can in the den, into what cupboards are already installed, but it is hard, because stuff is all over the place and a mess. Originally, I had planned to decorate for Christmas while Steve was hunting this weekend, but I cannot even imagine what kind of chaos that would look like with the current mess we have.

While Will naps, the kids watch a movie and I work some more. Steve is still hunting. He better be enjoying himself.

Luckily, through this whole thing my blog was a week plus ahead in posts. I had no idea what was even up for each day until I would receive comments on it.

Sunday brings church and a welcome reception for us as we are among the newly official members of the church. It was lovely and nice and Steve made it back in time for the lunch. Sunday brings running some errands, sitting down with Steve to plan out our week, Steve unpacking and doing laundry from his weekend and some time hanging out with the kids. Thankfully, Thanksgiving dinner is not at our house.

----------

If you have been here long, you know that I love order and routine and lists and everything in its place. I don't like work running my life, chaos in my house or unplanned dinners out. But, despite menu plans, cleaning charts and to do lists, these things are not always in our control. When life gets the best of you, sometimes you have to just get by the best you can. And be thankful for those things that are going well in your life.

There. Now I feel better. Thanks for letting me vent - I promise I am done and will get back to happy, inspiring posts again. But, if you read them and feel frustrated that you are not doing the same, come back and read this to be reminded that I have a real life, too, and no one can do it all and certainly not all of the time.

Please stop by tomorrow (or over the weekend, as I will not be posting this weekend and tomorrow's post will remain up) to read about (and see) all those lovely blessings that I clung to during my week plus of chaos and insanity.

Real Enough For You? (Part 2)

2009-11-24T06:00:00.002-06:00

Welcome to this little mini-series of posts about my life last week. Fortunately, nothing truly horrific happened, but I thought it might be nice to share with you that, no, in fact, my life is not always clutter-free and smoothly operating (despite my intense efforts to make it so). See Part 1 here of my effort to keep things real for you.

Tuesday

I am back at work way before sunrise. Things are going from bad to worse for my headache as my head is spinning with numbers and formulas. The whole thing is a tangled mess that would be exasperating all by itself, but the house stuff is weighing on my mind also. I do manage to get some soup for lunch. From a local restaurant. Even though I have soup in the freezer at work. But that is frozen, and this soup came with tasty warm bread sticks. Do as I say, not as I do.

On the home front, Steve is tearing out Max's wall (which I of course just repainted and decorated just 8 weeks ago) and removing all the rotted materials in there. A local water/fire restoration guy comes out and tells Steve that he is on the right track with the repairs. We learn that Steve is likely saving us a lot by taking care of things himself (not so coincidentally, it is the same a lot that we are paying for the custom work area). But, bad news - this guy says we have a nasty ant infestation (we have had some ant issues, come to think of it) and he pulls out a lovely ant nest from the wall. No telling where the queen is, so we need to get an exterminator. Oh, and by the way, have we noticed that we have hail damage on our roof?

Steve heads up to the roof with the guy, and sure enough, there is damage up there. Now, we are not overly up on what exactly hail damage looks like, so when every. last. neighbor. on our street had their roofs redone two years ago, we called our insurance agent. We told him that we did not have any leaks, but that everyone else seemed to need new roofs and we wanted them to send one of their adjusters to check it out, as we did not want a dishonest contractor to take advantage of us and the system by telling us we needed a roof if we did not AND we did not want to not have it repaired if it needed it as that would be a lot worse then just getting a new roof now. Seems to make sense right?

They did send out an adjuster who said it was fine because we had upgraded singles and they were really standing up to the storms well, and it turns out that it looks like they lied. That stinks. You try your best NOT to take advantage of the system and it turns around and takes you for a ride. We even had our insurance company insist on coming out this summer to check our house for us (they said they wanted to be sure that everyone was right after the series of storms) and they said that everything was fine, but we would have to hide our trampoline (which has a net around it) for their next visit so that they would not have to report us for having a high risk item at our house. Grrrrr. Steve calls our agent to file a claim and arranged for them to meet at the house on Monday with they restoration guy who found the damage. Looks like we will be getting a new roof. Kind of glad I have not gotten around to raising our deductible...

But, I digress. My current workload still being insane, I worked as long as possible, before leaving to get home in time to take Alex to gymnastics while Steve had Max at Cub Scouts. Then he was off to the hardware store again. After getting the kids bathed, bedtime snacks, homework done and the house swept and straightened again, I collapse in bed. I fear I will not be able to fall asleep, but the next thing I know, it is morning.

To recap, this is the state of things in the house:

The den, wall still torn apart, waiting on exterminator and waiting for bleach solution to dry on the molded areas.

The rest of the den, just waiting to be lovingly installed and organized. *sigh*

Computer in the kitchen.

Stuff from the den piled up by our dining area.

If you can stand one more day of whining, come back tomorrow (and bring cheese to go with that whine!)...

Real Enough for You? (Part 1)

2009-11-23T06:00:00.003-06:00

I have found that one unintended side effect of blogging is that people sometimes get the impression that my life is super organized and flows smoothly at all times. Of course, this is not true at all, but who wants to hear about that on a daily basis? Generally, I try to share good stories, good news, happy endings, something inspiring or beautiful (good karma out there in the universe). However, my week last week was beyond brutal, so I thought it was a good time to, you know, keep it real.

To share a little background, we have a room off of our kitchen that we refer to as the den. Over time, it has been an office, a toy room and sometimes both at the same time. We have probably rearranged that room more than any other in our whole house. We have on occasion tossed around the idea of having something custom built for that room, but never really thought it worth the expense in the end. This is how it looked:

Now that I am at work and am able to work at home, and Steve is home and doing some side work on occasion, plus running the house and being active on committees in the fire department, etc., we found that we were constantly bumping into each other or waiting for the other person to finish up with the desk area. On the days I tried to work from home, the desk was too cluttered and nothing was well laid out for me to work efficiently and effectively.

About six weeks ago, we decided to bite the bullet and have a custom work area built. We had looked at desks, but we wound up designing something that worked much better for half the price, so it was a no brainer. We phoned up our friend Troy who does cabinet work and started working out the details. Troy told us he was really busy, but we appreciated him trying to work us in and we (more accurately, I) tried my best to be patient (a long time weakness, but I am better than I once was). Meanwhile, we moved somethings around and sort of had things in flux while we waited (oh, joy).

Six weeks was FINALLY up and Troy was done with the project, as promised. Monday of last week was the scheduled installation of the drawers, cupboards and counter tops. Yah!!!!

Oh, my, did the week not work out as I thought it would!

Monday

Before I left for work, I asked Steve to send me a message once the desk was in - I was so excited I could hardly stand it. I quickly forgot about it when I arrived at work, as I am up to my neck in about 4 projects that all need my immediate attention and no one else knows how to do the work. I worked like an absolute dog, stopping only for "lunch", which turned out to consist of taking 2 minutes to pee and swallow 3 Excederin. OK - back to work! While I was working, Steve sent me a photo of the cabinets being installed - looking good! That message was titled "The Good News". The message following that was titled "The Bad News" and contained a photo of the corner of our den with the wall removed and what appeared to be black mold behind the wall. Say what? Needless to say, installation of the work area ceased and Steve moved on to this new project.

I did not really have time to worry about it, so I kept working as long as I possibly could, leaving work over 11 hours after I got there to meet Steve and the kids for pizza, as our dining room contained all of our den possessions.

I took the kids home from pizza while Steve made the first of many trips to the hardware store for supplies. This is what I came home to:

Yep. The whole side of the wall was gone - that is the brick on the outside of the house that you see in the photo. Everything was rotten inside the wall, Steve tore it all out. The house was a disaster, so I did my best to sweep the floor and kind of pile the den stuff off to the side of the dining area. After talking with Steve, it turns out that we had a leak in one of our eves of our roof, which Steve's wonderful father rushed right out to fix while Steve dealt with the inside. Steve suspected that the damage went up into the wall of the room above the den (Max's bedroom), and was going to deal with that the next day.

Tune in tomorrow to find out what happened next.....

Menu Plan Monday - Keepin' It Real Edition

2009-11-22T06:00:00.002-06:00

As you will be able read about starting on Monday, my life is in a state of chaos for the moment. Sneak peek: we discovered water damage in the front of our house and have walls ripped open, mold, ants and other fun stuff we are dealing with.

In the good old days, when I was home, this would mean I would ramp things up a notch during the day, so that my husband could focus on the crises that is our house when he got home from work. Now that I am the one working, and things at work are off the charts stressful for me right now, I am finding myself struggling to handle things at home and work, as Steve's days are spent dealing with rebuilding the wall and making related repairs. Since I am working long hours (and won't necessarily be home to eat this stuff :-)), I needed to plan menu items that were nearly zero effort, so Steve can focus on the house repairs and other normal chaos a household with four kids and two pets entails.

Therefore, this is a seriously Keeping It Real edition of Menu Plan Monday. And you thought I was so organized....

Monday: I am not even kidding: Chicken nuggets and french fries (as in from the freezer, dumped on a pan). In an effort to make it healthier, the older kids will be charged with peeling carrots and cutting up fruit to go with the meal.

Tuesday: Spaghetti (jarred sauce) and meatballs (frozen, purchased on sale), salads (as in bagged, dumped into a bowl). I figure this is low stress and Steve can even opt to toss the meatballs and sauce into the Crock Pot mid-day and make the noodles at the last minute (and our 13 year old can do that).

Wednesday: Chicken with Mushroom Sauce, Egg Noodles. Our kids have the day off from school and our oldest two love to cook. This is an easy recipe that our 13 year old can manage while Dad focuses on making things whole again in the house.

Thursday: Hallelujah! Dinner at my mom's house. I am contributing a rockin' Pumpkin Praline Cheesecake, but I have made it several times and it is not a big deal.

Friday - Sunday: At this point I have no idea. It depends on where things are with the house, if things are repaired or what. I know at some point I will need to make a turkey, as it is not the same not having leftovers at home from Thanksgiving. I like to cook, so I will probably indulge in a few new recipes to try and ease my stress and reward myself for making it through the last 10 days (assuming I do, of course).

Food, Inc.

2009-11-21T06:00:00.001-06:00

I was finally able to watch Food, Inc., the movie about the business of food. The movie is a documentary that sheds some light on just how much control the food industry has gained over our food and the lengths it is allowed to go to protect its nasty secrets.

Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma) add a wonderful conversation and reality to the film. I found it interesting and depressing and inspiring all at the same time.

I would get into a long discussion about it, but I have been up to my neck in complicated spreadsheets and calculations for weeks at work and my brain is fried. It is not pretty.

Suffice it to say that while I have held the goal of eating more local foods on my list of goals for quite a long time, I realize that it is imperative that I start making that change. I know it will be really hard, mostly because it is so easy to just keep doing what I am doing. It is cheaper, closer (as far as how far I have to travel) and more convenient to just run to the supermarket and buy some food and move on with my busy life.

But, I HATE big business. I just do - especially soul-less, corrupt and manipulative business. I cannot continue to be a part of it. So, I vow to start making changes. Now, I know that I cannot do it all at once, it will be baby steps for sure. Even so, I will document my small changes and my successes and failures and my family whining about various tries, because I think it will be interesting to those of you who have wanted to make a change but been unsure where to start, too.

In the movie they say that you can vote with each item scanned at the store, each meal served, with each bite. I can send a message - we consumers, as a whole, can be even more powerful than the industry. Even with its billions of dollars, lobbyists, lawyers and politicians.

If you are ahead of me on this journey, feel free to let me know what has worked (or not) for you.

As with any large journey, I have to start out by stressing to myself the good I have already done:

1 - we eat local, grass fed beef that we buy directly from the farm

2 - we have a large garden each year

3 - we buy lots of local berries from a local farm and freeze them to use later in the year

4 - I have been to Trader Joe's a few times and am starting to learn about their products and even have a few favorites already

The challenges I see ahead:

1 - developing routines that include sources of local and whole foods

2 - accepting that these foods cost more

3 - talking my husband into accepting #2 and the value of doing #1

4 - getting my picky kids who can sniff out even seemingly undetectable changes in their "usual" foods to accept some new choices

So, here is my pledge: I vow to start changing my vote, one bite at a time.

Wish me luck! I have a feeling I am going to need it...

By the way, if you are interested in this local movement, check out Simple-Green-Frugal. I have immensely enjoyed Heather's blog and she has a lot of great links to get you started.

Still Not Using the Furnace

2009-11-20T06:00:00.001-06:00

October's unusually cold and snowy weather turned the last week of the month into some actually decent fall like weather here in the Twin Cities.

Since the weather has been nicer, we have found that we are only building a fire in the evening and that seems to get us through the night and into the next day, especially if the sun is out.

In fact, it warmed so much that when my husband and my favorite fire tender (13 year old Chandler) went hunting the first weekend in November, I did not even have to build one single fire. Not one. Sweet! As I write this (on Nov. 13th), we still have not started a fire! On the down side, I was planning to do some holiday decorating, but who feels like getting out the snowmen when it is sixty degrees out?

We are pretty well stocked on wood, having picked up about 3 cords from a friend in exchange for some concrete work. It was already split, and that is a lot easier then just getting logs! In just a few hours we had the whole pile to our house and neatly stacked by the patio.

On those chillier mornings, I wear my slippers, drink tea, put on a sweatshirt and just shiver a bit. Steve and I pass each other on those days, each saying, "It's cold. We should start a fire." But, we don't and then Chandler comes home from school and gets one roaring before dinner.

We'll have to enjoy it while we can; MN is not known for its mild winters, so soon enough, we will all be tending the fire. And NO ONE wants to set foot outside to get more wood when it is 20 below zero.

Visit Crunchy Chicken to read how others are doing with the Freeze Yer Buns Off Challenge.

Homemade Applesauce

2009-11-19T06:00:00.002-06:00

Well, I finally finished my baking day list when I made homemade applesauce (the weekend after I started!).

I wanted to share the recipe with you. I got it from an issue of Cooking Light, but could not find an online link to share with you to the actual recipe.

Applesauce

5 1/2 cups chopped apples (I suggest peeling them, read on)
1/2 cup of water
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 cinnamon stick (or 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon)
1/4 tsp. salt
dash almond extract

First, I washed apple seconds from our local apple orchard. Next, I chopped them up (and removed the seeds and core). I left the skins on and -yuck- what I hoped would be rustic was just annoyingly hard to chew. The rest of it was awesome, though. I added all the ingredients into my Crock Pot (this is a quadruple batch) and set it on high.

The smell was heavenly, let me tell you! I stir it occasionally and mush it up a bit as needed (I use a potato masher when necessary). I consider it done when it is still a bit chunky. From this stage, you could can it or freeze it or store it in the refrigerator if you plan to eat it shortly. Other things I like to do with it:

:: Eat it as is.

:: Stir into oatmeal for breakfast - stir in raisins and almonds, too.

:: Heat a bowl up, add granola and yogurt (um - like apple crisp, but healthier).

:: Stir into plain yogurt.

:: Heat up, add in dried cranberries and serve with pork.

:: Eat it on ice cream.

This post participates in both the Recipe Swap at The Grocery Cart Challenge and Ultimate Recipe Swap @ Life As Mom (because you can never have too many recipes!!)

Up For a Surf? Links to Good Reads

2009-11-18T06:00:00.002-06:00

You know what works for me? Reading blogs. I love that I can do it when it works for me, that I can indulge in my love of learning, love of reading and desire to do something just for me all at one time. Generally, the articles are short and give me something to think about as I go about the rest of my day or week.

I love that I can leave a quick comment and connect with a like-minded thinker, offer support, say thanks for a job well done and just build a sense of belonging in just a few short minutes.

For other great WFMW ideas, visit We Are THAT Family.

Here are some of my favorite reads as of late:

Do you have a plan for Christmas? Christina @ Northern Cheapskate has a great post on Determining Your Gift Giving Plan Now so that you can save money and reduce your stress. As a bonus, likely everyone on your list has a new found appreciate for living with a budget and you will probably have more cooperation than ever before!

Speaking of the holidays, I LOVE Christmas time, but have worked hard to strip away the craziness that sometimes comes with this time of the year. It was really great to read all the great ideas on getting the most from the holidays (and using frugal ideas) on the holiday edition of Works For Me Wednesday.

I thought Amy @ Mom Advice's post on How You Can Help The Unemployed Today had the compassion and insight that can only come from someone whose family was once in that situation. More than ever, folks need your support as they struggle with unemployment.

Trixie @ Farm Home Life has such vibrant, descriptive vision in her post on a Fall Weekend, that I think if she ever needs a change from being an accountant, she could moonlight as a poet!

You know I am all about getting rid of your excess! Gayle @ The Grocery Cart Challenge has a great post on How to Bring in a Few Hundred Dollars a Year from Your Junk. Getting rid of your excess AND making money? It does not get any better than that! Unless, of course, you save your money by not buying the junk in the first place, but that is not always possible.

I loved Lindsay @ Passionate Homemaking's post about Taking a Weekly Planning Prayer Retreat - especially the part about reflecting how God can use you to do his good. Although I am not sure at all how I might fit this into my life, I have no doubt that it would be worthwhile to try and do so.

Heather @ Simple-Green-Frugal's post on Sprouts - It Just Doesn't Get Any Easier than This reminded me of this easy, simple way to get fresh greens into your diet.

Abbie (aka Abs) and Hannah @ Safely Gathered In have a great post on Cold Weather Preparedness, as well as a link to a real life story about a family stuck in an ice storm in 2008 (see the end of the post). We don't like to think this sort of thing can happen to us, but it can and I believe that it is our responsibility to protect our families by being prepared to weather such emergencies.

Enjoy!

Better Than Stuff

2009-11-17T06:00:00.006-06:00

It was a beautiful fall day in October. We met my best friend, Missy, and her kids at my other best friend, Julie's son's football game. All the kids have known each other forever. I had our nephew with us. We laid out a blanket and we all brought snacks and the kids played and played and Missy and I visited with all of Julie's extended family, also there to watch the game.

We love coming to the other kids' activities - we saw Olivia dance at Nationals (also free) and we are planning to fit in a few basketball games this winter.

While I was at the football game, I walked back a bit to keep track of Willie and I surveyed the scene in front of me. I thought, this is the life! It was then that it hit me - this is totally free and such an opportunity might have been missed if I was too busy shopping for stuff, or working to pay for stuff or tired from working hard to pay for extra stuff. Or busy sorting, cleaning and rearranging my stuff.

It made we wonder how much of life is missed due to the quest of more stuff.

It also made we wonder how much more than money is lost to accumulate stuff.

Finally, it made me thankful for friends who share common goals and the opportunity to foster those relationships.

I wish the same for you!

Mini Purge: Cupboards that Were Not Working For Us

2009-11-16T06:00:00.005-06:00

When you set up a kitchen in a new house, you really are not sure of how you will use the kitchen day to day. That is the sort of thing that you work out with time.

Why then, was it so hard for me to let go of the way I had originally set things up? I have no idea, either.

We have a cupboard that holds our baking supplies. Nearby is a cupboard that holds some china, some decorating items and a bunch of other stuff. It was where we put the coffee, candy the kids brought home and various other stuff. With Steve home, he is using the coffee every day, instead of drinking it at work and the coffee was not near the coffeemaker. And I was growing weary of not really know what types of baking supplies I had with the jumbled mess in the baking cupboard and the baking chips being way too high for me to see. Often times I thought I had what I needed only to find out at the wrong time I did not, or I thought I was out of something and bought more when I did not need to. Things just were not located in the best way.

While I was in the midst of my baking day, I had some spare time in the kitchen between tasks and Steve was hanging out with the boys. Not one to sit around, I tackled this cupboard situation that had gone on long enough.

I stacked the chips neatly (what a concept), so I could read what was what, I put all the chocolate in the cupboard after I cleaned it out of useless and expired items. Next, I rearranged the baking cupboard to hold things that made sense - like keeping the baking supplies I use most easily accessible, stuff I need less on the top shelf, tossing the expired vinegar and cooking items and making room for a coffee making station for Steve's daily coffee.

This mini purge took me about 15 minutes (time grabbed in between cooking tasks while waiting on other steps in the baking day process to be finished).

The finished results (sorry about the lower quality photos, had to use my phone - my hunting husband took off with the camera just when I was finally getting around to taking the photos!):

Organized, unexpired baking supplies.

Coffee located right by coffee maker - what a concept!

Baking chips easy to identify. Decorations accessible but out of the way.

Ahhhhh, much better. What took me so long?!

Mini Purge: Magazines

2009-11-14T06:00:00.003-06:00

I know when I think of organizing, I think of those large projects. The kind that can be overwhelming before hand, take a while to do and then give me a lot of satisfaction at the end.

But the truth is that I spend my daily life doing mini purges - things that take just a couple of minutes to complete.

Every once in a while, I am overwhelmed by the magazines and such that I have waiting to be read. We have a magazine rack in our hallway and one in our bedroom. When I feel behind, I feel overwhelmed. By my magazines. That is not a stress that I need in my life, so I have let it go. If I am not getting to them, then time to pare it down a bit, no?

The easiest to weed out are the cooking magazines. Let's face it, when it is October, I am not likely to be cooking with the fresh garden vegetables that are inspiring the recipes in June's Cooking Light. As it is November, I would rather make a pot of soup, a comforting casserole or holiday treats.

I store two years of the magazine in our office, the older ones are recycled. When I am falling behind, I just store the magazines I am not going to get to and if I find time later, I can go back. Or if I get ahead next year (as if) I can look at the past year's season and find more recipes to make. Having too many recipes I want to get to but can't just bums me out and highlights the fact that I cannot spend as much time cooking as I would like. There is no need to do that to myself.

The same thing can work for other magazines. My Family Fun issue from September for Back To School can be passed on or recycled - it is not worth the stress of having it sit there just to maybe find one idea for next year that I rip out, stress about filing and then forget about anyway. If I get rid of the older magazines, then I can read the current issue and maybe put a Thanksgiving idea to use THIS year - no filing involved.

This mini purge took me exactly 2.5 minutes.

The funny thing is that while I was not getting to the magazines before, now that they are cleaned up and relevant to the current season, I am flying through them and keeping up just fine.

In fact, I see an empty spot on the magazine rack. Ahhh, much better.

How To Save With Online Shopping

2009-11-13T06:00:00.000-06:00

OK, I don't *heart* shopping, but when I have to shop, then I *heart* shopping online. With Christmas right around the corner, I will be doing most of my shopping online.

By shopping online, I can search for the best prices, find exactly what I want in stock and move on with my life - far faster than if I went from store to store in my car searching for what I need to buy.

There are some great ways to keep your online cost down and to save money while shopping online - even if an item is not on sale.

:: Search using SwagBucks. I love SwagBucks - I use it to do my searches, I get swag bucks that add up to gift cards (at least that is what I redeem mine for). Just by using the search engine and sharing SwagBucks on my blog, I have earned over $200 in gift cards to Amazon.com and iTunes. I cannot recall EVER receiving any kind of unwanted email from them - they almost never send out random email.

:: Regularly read money saving blogs. For posts on specific great deals, I like Money Saving Mom, Frugal Dr. Mom and Northern Cheapskate. Frugal Dr. Mom tipped me off to a great deal on the Flip camcorders I bought two of kids - for just $40 each.

:: Know what you are looking for and be prepared to pounce when you find a great deal. Great deals do not wait around - they go fast. So act now or regret it forever!

:: That said, don't talk yourself into a great deal just because it is a great deal. You have to be able to really use and enjoy it or know that whoever you are giving it to will use and enjoy it.

:: Factor in shipping. The cost of the item is your TOTAL cost - including shipping. Many, many online stores offer free shipping at times, so watch for the codes on the home page of the store, in your email (if you subscribe) or online advertising. When I shop Amazon, I search out the items that are noted as "eligible for FREE supersaver shipping" over the ones that ship from another vendor, so I can enjoy free shipping. Sometimes it will take longer to get your items, so do not wait until the last minute to shop.

:: When you are ready to buy, try to buy it through Ebates. Ebates is another great service that has earned me over $300 since last year (I joined about 12 months ago). Ebates has hundreds of stores, which offer a percentage of your total bill back in a cash rebate account that you can receive once a quarter via check or PayPal account. When you sign up, you get $5 in your account and every time you refer someone to Ebates, you get $5 when they use Ebates for the first time. Right now they have a promotion where you get a bonus $5 for every two people you refer. As with SwagBucks, I never receive annoying emails from Ebates. Items I have purchased using Ebates are office supplies, sending flowers, a computer from the Apple Store, clearanced goods from Hickory Farms and a printer from HP that was practically free after rebate (it cost us $3.72). Sweet!

:: Look for coupon codes online. I just use SwagBucks to search, for example, "The Gap coupon code" and click on the first few hits - sometimes I find things, other times not, but at least I did not leave any money on the table.

:: If you know you will be shopping at a certain site in the future, go to the online store and sign up to receive the emails. If you find them annoying or useless, you can unsubscribe - this is usually a painless process. Look for an unsubscribe link at the end of the email, usually in smaller print. About once a month, my email starts to bug and I make it a point to unsubscribe from EVERY email I cannot use - not just delete it. No clutter - even in your mail box.

:: Try to use one credit card only for online use. Make sure you pay it off each month and review the charges. Most credit cards have fraud protection and the last thing you need is someone wiping out your checking account because you used a debit card online. If you find a questionable charge, call your card immediately and file a dispute.

:: Keep in mind that shopping online has the same rules as shopping in person:

- don't go shopping for entertainment - you will end up buying something

- don't buy it if you can't use it or don't need it, no matter how good of a deal it may be

- do return the item if it is not going to work for you. I prefer stores that have a great return policy (free returns) or allow returns to a brick and mortar store in my area (no return shipping)

- be mindful of your budget and don't buy anything on a credit card that you are not able to pay off TODAY, if need be.

- if you can see yourself putting this item in a bag for donation in a couple of years, walk away.

:: You can find unique, handmade gifts online through Etsy - you can search by location to keep it local, if you prefer.

:: Offer up support. I bought a juicer that Gayle recommended. I was in the market for one and she recommended it. She has used it, it works for her and that gal is frugal, man. I made sure to buy it through her site so she could earn the referral commission for it. I love her site and I was happy to have an opportunity to support it. Whenever I am ordering from Amazon (it is not an Ebates store), I click to it from one of my favorite sites - I am buying the thing anyway, someone I appreciate might as well enjoy a benefit.

I would rather buy as little as possible. But, if I AM going to purchase something, I want to be able to 1) stay at home, 2) earn something for myself (SwagBucks and Ebates), 3) find the best deal, 4) have it delivered free, 5) be able to return it easily and 6) support one of my favorite blogs in the process - all at once.

I cannot always achieve all six of my goals - but I usually come close :>)

Creamy Wild Rice Soup

2009-11-12T06:00:00.000-06:00

I love Creamy Wild Rice Soup! This recipe is so versatile! We add half and half to it to make it stretch longer, particularly when we add in meat - we have tried turkey, ham and chicken - all good. It stores in the refrigerator well and is a wonderful lunch. Yum-um-um.

I make the rice sometime in the afternoon, then drain it and let it sit until I need it. If you do it way ahead of time, just put it in the refrigerator.

Creamy Wild Rice Soup

4 cups of water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup wild rice

Bring water and salt to a boil. Add rice, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 50-55 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes; drain.

1/4 cup minced onions
1/2 cup finely chopped carrot
4 tbsp. butter
1/3 cup flour
2 cans chicken broth (4 cups)
1/2 cup - 1 cup diced meat (optional)
1/4 tsp pepper
1 cup half and half (add more if you use meat)

In a large saucepan or dutch oven, melt butter. Saute onions and carrot for 2 minutes. Stir in flour and mix until well incorporated. Gradually add broth, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, then cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly until thickened. Stir in meat, pepper and wild rice. Cover and simmer for at least 5 minutes. (I often simmer it for a while - it can simmer for quite a while without issue as long as you wait to add the half and half).

Stir in half and half and heat through.

Enjoy!

This post participates in both the Recipe Swap at The Grocery Cart Challenge and Ultimate Recipe Swap @ Life As Mom (because you can never have too many recipes!!)

Mantra for Uncertain Times

2009-11-11T06:00:00.001-06:00

A comment by a reader, Erin (31st comment), on my first post back reminded me of the mantra I learned to embrace through the uncertainty of the past year or so.

We spent nearly 18 months on the edge of will my husband lose his job? Or not? If so, when? What can we do now to prepare? Will I have to return to work? Will I be able to find a job? For the amount we needed to bring in? For a Type-A, likes-to-have-a-plan kind of gal, those were tough unknowns to live with. While I realized that spending what might be my precious few last months at home with my kids fretting over what might happen was a waste, I could not help it at times.

Recently, when my cash flow projections for the company I work for started showing a dip this winter in available cash, it hit home that even my job will have its uncertainties at times. We are a small company and completely labor based - it is a difficult balance trying to have enough work but not too much to handle. There are ebbs and flows - it is a longer term project based type of work and it can take months and months for projects to get funding and green lighted to move forward. That's life.

I finally came to realize (and embrace) this mantra:

If I am good today and I have a general plan for tomorrow, then we are in a good enough place.

So, we are good today and we do have a tentative idea of what we would do should work for me slow down (independent consulting, husband doing plowing in winter, side jobs in summer) to where I need to take significant time off and the savings to back that plan up for a reasonable amount of time. No, not forever, but for a while.

In the meantime, I waste not a single day in making the most of my money, living with less, investing wisely where it make sense and adding to our savings at every possible turn. Just in case. And when I home with the kids, I just try to be in the moment - loving it and giving it my all.

I also try to be generous and share what we do have with those who are struggling now more than ever. That really helps to brighten my day and keep me in the moment.

I am truly doing the best I can and working hard to grow and learn how to do even better. And for today, that is enough.

This applies not only to our financial situation, but also to my worries about the future of oil, other natural resources and climate changes. I am good today and I have a general plan for tomorrow - beyond that, it is so very uncertain that I just cannot permit myself to wallow in the fear - for me, it is crippling. That's not to say I am not aware or working to be part of a larger solution, but I have to keep the fretting in check.

This knowledge that the mantra reinforces allows me to live for today, present here and now, enjoying each moment with a certain kind of peace that for now, everything is OK.

Our lives our a precious gift and I don't want to waste a minute of the joy that brings. I know that if I did, I know that I would look back someday with regret.

This post participates in Works For Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family.

Things May Not Always Be As They Seem

2009-11-10T06:00:00.002-06:00

In our living room, we have this flat screen TV. It was rather expensive. We do love that the TV is off of the table below and the picture quality is absolutely fabulous. Plus, until you come into the room, you cannot really see the TV, which I like. If I tell you the honest truth, I did crave one for quite a while.

Now, seeing as I am frugal and I blog about working hard to live with less and avoid buying all the things society tells us we need to have, you might wonder why we have such a TV in our living room.

No, we did not buy it in the days of excess. No, we did not buy it on a whim. We did not buy it using a credit card. And, my husband did not buy it on his own (in fact, he wanted one less than I did).

In fact, we did not buy it at all.

My mom's now-husband was moving out of his town house and into my mom's house. She has a plasma TV and the house is small enough that they did not have a use for his TV. He wanted to sell it, looking to Craig's List but was discouraged by the prices on Craig's List. He was proud of and kind of attached to the TV (its a guy thing) and did not want to let it go for too little, regardless if that was the going rate.

We did consider buying it from him. He offered a low price, saying that he knew we would enjoy it and if he had to let it go for so little, at least it would be to people he knows and will use it (he is the sweetest guy and really loves our kids). We mulled it over, but knew Steve's job was in jeopardy, so we finally admitted to him that even at that great price, we just could not justify the expense when we had a TV that worked fine.

He thought about it and told my mom that he really wanted us to have it. Now, for some reason, we are both really, really uncomfortable getting something for nothing (unless we hunt down the deal from a store :>)). It is not like we had NO TV, and just because we were unwilling to pay for one, does not mean we deserve to be given one. Plus, we knew he could use the money. My mom insisted it was what he really wanted to do and asked me not be rude and just graciously accept. You can't really tell your mother no, especially when she is generally entirely reasonable.

We accepted. But each time Steve and I thought about it, we felt guilty. It was almost as bad as the guilt we would have felt if we would have gone against our better judgement and just bought it.

As luck would have it, a few short months later, my mom and her guy realized that in order for both of their cars to fit in the garage over the winter, they would have to remove some of the back wall and add a bump out to the garage. As the wood butts up against soil, it has a tendency to rot, and so they wanted the bump out to be concrete. Know anyone who does concrete work?

My mom asked Steve to do the job, and of course, he was more than happy to do so. Seeing an opportunity to absolve our guilt, we offered to donate the labor and normal profit. My mom was unsure until I played the free TV card, and then, I am sure realizing how uncomfortable we were with the free TV (she did raise me, after all - where do you think I got the "take care yourself" mentality?), she was delighted to say "yes". Yay!!

Steve did the job, my mom and her husband were super happy and had clean, snow free cars all winter and we can now enjoy our TV without reservation. Turns out, Steve figured that the amount my mom saved was about what Mike really wanted to get in the first place for selling his TV - isn't that fabulous?!

All of this is a very long story to explain why I am reluctant to judge what someone else has, even if their financial situation seems unstable.

We have friends who are really struggling right now. We have done some things to help them out. They just returned from a vacation in Florida. Steve was a small bit irritated about that, but when they spoke, Steve learned that they have a time share that they are locked into (from better days) and they lose certain benefits if they do not use it. They found airfare for just $150.00 a person (which, is still $150 a person, but a relatively decent deal for airfare). They cooked a lot in the time share and did mostly free stuff, like hang out on the beach. And, the poor guy was not even able to enjoy it as he was thinking the whole time, "we cannot afford this".

I know that it can be tempting to feel crabby about what others are doing when you are being responsible and living with less, not asking for help and making things work the best you can. But, I would ask that you consider that there may be something else going on that you cannot see that is enabling that person to obtain that item, vacation or what have you. Here are some possibilities, in case you need some help:

:: The item was gifted by someone who is better off and generous.

:: The item was traded for something else of value. Fair and square.

:: The item was inherited.

:: The item was purchased during better times.

:: The item was a much better deal than it would appear.

:: This person gave up other things in order to save for this thing he or she really wanted and worked hard to get and enjoy it.

:: Maybe one person does all the finances and for whatever reason, does not have the heart to tell their spouse the really awful truth and that spouse is making decisions not knowing what is really going on (like still getting fake nails, pedicures and having their hair colored - for example).

:: Maybe that person just had a moment of weakness and was - gasp! - human and caved into temptation. Now they are racked with guilt and worse off than before (and more in need of grace and encouragement than ever).

:: If you have chosen to help this person/family, then that is YOUR choice. It needs to be a gift that you are giving on your own. If you cannot give it freely, then don't do it - it will be better for you and for them.

This is a struggle that I believe God has placed in front of me over and over and I think I finally get it.

Life is difficult. It is impossible to know all that is going on in another's life. Sometimes people make bad decisions and sometimes bad things happen even though people make good decisions. It is not my job to judge. It is my job to answer God's call to let Him work through me in the life of others and trust that it is what is best - in His infinite wisdom. It is clear to me that what the world needs more of is unconditional grace and caring.

The funny thing is that I may have benefited the most from this lesson. I have a peace that can only come when I can accept that somethings are beyond my understanding and still give freely. I am free from having to get all worked up about the fairness or unfairness of a situation and just concentrate on what is important. I want to emphasize that this was not an easy lesson for me, nor did it happen right away - sometimes I really had to force myself to stop thinking about it. But, after many opportunities to practice, it has become a part of me.

To keep it real: I am so very far from perfect! Believe me, God has other struggles he is still working on with me ;-)

Do you struggle with this issue? Consider opening your heart and changing your attitude. I promise that it will bring you peace eventually. And we all deserve that!

Is Your Stuff Keeping You Up At Night?

2009-11-09T09:00:00.000-06:00

photo by: amateur photo bore

It seems like my husband is always cleaning out the garage. Move stuff here, move stuff there, move stuff back again.

Some of it is due to the fact that is where stuff tends to end up. The kids get it out or take it outside and it never makes it back in again. Or that is where we store off season items and we are in the in-between of spring and summer or fall and winter, etc. It does not help that dirt and leaves and other stuff are constantly being tracked in or blowing in when the door is open.

However, some of it is due to my husband's reluctance to get rid of something still "useful", even if it will not be used by us. He continues to progress down the path of getting rid of the clutter, though, and I understand how it can be a gradual process. He is embracing the idea of using Freecycle or donating items, much preferring to see something get used to being thrown away.

Recently, he put a ceiling up in the garage and so now he is clearing stuff out. One night, we were out there sorting until nearly midnight, hardly making a dent in the chaos (or so it felt). He was blaming me for keeping him up because I pointed out that if he did not stay on it and work, it would never get done.

I replied that it was not me, but his stuff that was keeping him up.

Stuff takes energy. You have to organize it, sort through it, deal with it, clean it, work around it. How many nights have you put the kids to bed so you can tackle a bunch of stuff that is closing in on you?

If your stuff is keeping you up at night, try this. Spend the evenings you need to sort it and purge. Then don't buy any more to replace it. Don't let it rob you of time you should be relaxing or sleeping or playing with your kids.

Don't let your stuff keep you up at night.

Menu Plan For This Week

2009-11-08T06:00:00.001-06:00

Having a planned menu for the week is a lifesaver. Sometimes we decide to make something else, but usually we are so busy that we are relieved that it is already planned out for us. One less thing to have to think about!

I plan the menus, leave out the recipes and my husband cooks dinner on the weeknights when I am not working from home or am too busy to get to it myself.

Monday: Apricot Chicken, potatoes, corn, fruit.

Tuesday: Sausage, Beans & Rice, salads or raw veggies, bread

Wednesday: Zesty Chicken Tortilla Bake (using leftover chicken from last Monday - I chopped and froze it), taco chips, rice

Thursday: Pizza, veggies and fruit for kids, Mom and Dad eating out (using Restuarant.com coupon) and having a planning meeting.

Friday: Leftovers, veggies, fruit

Saturday: Will's Birthday Party - Taco Bar, refried beans, spanish rice, homemade applesauce, margaritas (for adults), ice cream cake

Sunday: Maple Glazed Stuffed Pork Roast, rice, broccoli

I also plan to try out Pretzel Bark to see if we want to include it in our holiday baking. (Pretzels, chocolate - not sure how it could be bad really, but one must test these things.)

To see hundreds more menus, visit Org Junkie.

Proud Parents - Of a Tree?!

2009-11-07T06:00:00.001-06:00

This is the view out of our kitchen window. The lovely tree you see is a huge white oak tree that is literally JUST outside our kitchen window. When we built the house, our builder assured us that the tree would surely die within five years, as we had to disrupt the roots too much in order to build the house. Due to the large drop off to most of the yard, we could not move the house enough to save the tree.

Occasionally, I would look at the tree and have a pang of guilt. Knowing it faced certain death as a result of my life before leaving excess - one more way I had ignorantly impacted the world in a negative way just to get what I want.

As if to prove nature's resilience at times, it is now 12 years later and the tree is doing just fine. So fine, in fact, that this year, for the first year since we have lived here, it produced acorns. Acorns! Steve and I were so delighted - it was like baby's first words. "Oh, look! The tree has ACORNS! How exciting!"

Of course, that excitement dampened just slightly when we spent days and nights listening to the acorns loudly falling on our roof. And we discovered just how difficult it is to walk on acorns - particularly when barefoot. We honestly had to shovel the acorns off the path leading to the backyard.

But, we still beam like proud parents - so delighted in our decision to give the tree a chance, even though it faced certain death. Had we chosen to just remove it as the builder recommended, we would not have the joy of this lovely tree outside our window and the delight in discovering its offspring. It is a beautiful view that we all delight in every single day.

I like to think that our tree is a little life lesson that not everything is lost. Although we have impacted our Earth in many awful ways, there is hope that we can make better choices to reduce the damage. And maybe, just maybe, some of nature's resilience will meet us part way.

Tip O' The Day: Managing The Blog For The Busy Mom

2009-11-06T06:00:00.001-06:00

Blogging is very rewarding. I have discovered an absolute love for writing, made many wonderful friends, propelled my learning forward in many areas and had better success holding myself accountable for change.

However wonderful it is, sometimes I feel pressure to have daily posts. I am sure it is somewhat Type A, but I don't want to disappoint my faithful readers and I want to keep them as faithful readers. When the kids get the flu, or I get the flu, or work is crazy or ____________ (insert any number of life events here), something has to give. Unfortunately, the blog sometimes gets the short straw.

Most of you know that I took a break a while back from blogging. Before I decided to come back, I knew I would have to find a reliable way to manage my time AND a good back up plan for the times I was just too busy with life to get any quality time in front of the computer (or for when I just need a break).

What is my solution?

Timed posting is my salvation. I usually try to post about 1 - 2 weeks ahead, so that I feel like I have a good cushion of prepared posts, but my conversation is still relevant to current events and the current season. When I put in a weekly post (like our grocery shopping, a recipe to share, a quick tip), I just move the posts out one day or move the "scheduled" posts to the end of the post schedule.

But here is the big secret - I also have prepared about 30 posts way ahead. I set them to publish on the last day of the year, so they are at the top of my posting list and I can easily find them. As the year comes to a close, I change the post date to the end of the next year (so right now, the date is 12/31/2010).

Most of them are recycled posts, some of the best posts from the past that I feel are worth highlighting again. I add a note about the post being recycled and read through to update any related links and change any major references that no longer apply. I also try to ask a question at the end to encourage conversation in the comments - so that I can learn, and so that those who have seen the original post can say if the idea worked for them and share what they have learned since the post originally aired. Hopefully if the recycled post is a bit of a snooze for long time readers, the comments will offer something new.

Other posts are just some thoughtful posts I have written but do no have to be published at any certain time. Or a summary of past posts related to a topic - funny ideas, freezing foods to increase your efficiency during busy times, gardening tips - what have you.

So, if I ever get hit by the proverbial bus, after a respectable period of mourning (of course), be sure to check back with my blog. There should be about 30 posts all coming on at 6:00 AM on December 31st.

May you read them and say, "That Michelle - thank the good Lord she was Type A. May she finally get the rest she deserves." ;>)

Baking Day, Update

2009-11-05T06:00:00.000-06:00

If you read my post on Monday, you know that I worked like a dog this weekend to take care of a lot of chores in the kitchen.

I should have seen this coming, but once I was done, the tiredness quickly set in.

I did, however, manage to make the banana bread on Monday. This is absolutely delicious and is my new favorite banana bread recipe. I had used another recipe from Cooking Light with oats, but the middle never completely cooked while the rest was plenty done. In fact, this new recipe was gone so fast, I did not even get a photo. But, if you check out the link, you will find Amy's lovely photo, excellent review and copy of the recipe.

Tuesday it was raining and dark, dark, dark way too early. No baking for me this day. I had to force myself back out the door after coming home from work just to vote. By 8:00, Alex and I were snuggled into bed to watch the Dancing with the Stars results show and at various points all three boys joined us (yes, even the 13 year old - who laid across the bed and still hung off both ends!). My husband was gracious enough to overlook the mess that was left of the bed (he is particular about having a wrinkle-free bed). I did my best to put it back together. What fun - I loved it!

Wednesday I worked a short day from home and took some time after working to get the soup simmering. I debated not roasting any more pumpkin, as I already had several "cans" bagged up in the freezer, but I could not let my homegrown goodies go to waste, so I processed them and plan to pass the tasty and healthy results onto my two best friends to use in their recipes.

I chopped our expensive ham (see shopping trip here) and was delighted when it turned out that I was able to get 8 big batches of soup worth of ham (for Creamy Wild Rice Soup and Potato Soup), as well as enough sliced ham for two 13x9 dishes of Ham and Scalloped Potatoes. The turkey was larger and also boneless, so I don't see why I would not get the same amount from that when we cook it. That would work out to be just $1.60 ($35 for both the ham and turkey, divided by 11 meals each) in meat spent on each meal for 22 meals that feed six people - with leftovers for lunches. I think that worked out just fine for us! Although, as all that ham went into the freezer, it is not doing much to help our "empty the freezer" cause. *oops*

One trick to help the meat go farther is to use it in things like soup and casseroles, where you don't need as much and the bulk of the dish is less expensive, like rice, beans, potatoes, carrots, etc. I have found that I can cut back on the meat much more than one would think in these sorts of dishes - just a bit goes pretty far.

While the soup cooled and the pumpkin roasted, Steve and I also stacked some wood we received in exchange for a concrete job and Steve headed off to picked up another trailer full. The soup went into canning jars that I split between home and work and stacked in the freezer for quick lunches at work those days I don't feel like packing a lunch.

I prepped things for dinner - (spaghetti and meatballs) and when Max came home, we made Rice Krispie Bars. *whew*

It seems I have managed to put off the applesauce for yet another day... Maybe Friday night or Saturday!

Last night, I was able to rest my head on my pillow knowing that our children are healthy, our bank account has a cushion and we have warm fires and tasty food all ready to go, as well as some to share with friends. What a wonderful and blessed feeling!

Hot Cocoa Mix

2009-11-05T05:00:00.000-06:00

OK, so this may not be the healthiest hot cocoa (is there such a thing?), but it is a tasty winter treat that you can probably indulge in on occasion. It also makes a great gift - put it into a cellophane bag and top it with marshmallows and plop it into a pretty mug. What a great way to share your appreciation without spending an arm and a leg or risking giving something useless.

I have it on good authority (my 13 year old, who is a bit of a cocoa snob) that this is the best mix he has tried so far.

This makes a HUGE batch - so you should have plenty for the whole winter, even if you give some as gifts! My mom likes to wrap a coffee can in tin foil and put a bag of the mix inside as a gift.

Mom's Cocoa Mix (compliments of my mom)
- one box (10 2/3 cups) of instant powdered milk
- one can (16 ounces) instant chocolate drink mix (like Nesquik)
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 6 cups powdered nondairy creamer

Mix all together (this requires your largest bowl - for sure). Add in mini marshmallows (about 1 bag ($.88 at Aldi)), if you'd like.

I put some in a smaller container for regular use and store the rest in a large container in the pantry.

Add 2-3 tablespoons to one cup of hot water or hot milk (for a super rich cup of cocoa).

If you are looking for something a bit more sophisticated, try Homemade Vanilla Chai Tea - a tasty mix I enjoy often in the winter! I blogged about it here, also.

This post participates in both the Recipe Swap at The Grocery Cart Challenge and Ultimate Recipe Swap @ Life As Mom (because you can never have too many recipes!!)

Inexpensive Holiday Decorations

2009-11-04T06:00:00.006-06:00

Note: This was originally posted on 11/08/2008.

I love the Christmas holiday season! I love the music, the lights, ribbons, packages, snow, falling temperatures, family gatherings, church services and on and on - you name it, I love it!

Well, except shopping and feeling hectic. And spending lots of money.

Since I am being super frugal, and since our dryer has died, on top of needing a new computer and so on and so forth, I was aiming to decorate the outside of the house for free. Actually, almost free, since we already bought a beautiful wreath from our friends whose son is in Cub Scouts.

And, since I hate to be rushed during the holiday season (and the dirt in our planters freezes once the weather is too cold), I got to decorating the house right after Halloween (as in Nov. 1st).

To add the festive flair to the outside of the house, I simply pruned the evergreen bushes in our yard, stuck the twigs into the planters that we have around the house for summer plantings and tied some ribbons onto some of the planters. I added to the planters until I had a "bush" about the size and shape that I wanted.

It was warm the day and week following the "planting", so I watered the branches to keep them looking nice until they freeze.

Here are the results:

Near the front of the house (the photo at the top of the post is also by our front door):

In front of the garage:

And I did the evergreen bushes some good, too!

I also love to cut smaller portions off the evergreen bushes during the winter to put into tiny vases on the table and around the house during the winter. It smells great!

For ideas on inexpensive gift tags, read this post here.

This post participates in Works For Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family and Frugal Fridays at Life As MOM.

Grocery Shopping for the Week

2009-11-04T05:00:00.000-06:00

With me working and my husband being at home, we share grocery duty.

I check the ads, get my Grocery Game List and put the coupons and list in an envelope. My husband heads to Aldi and Cub for the weekly deals, adding in things he knows we are running out of (generally Aldi items). I also try to stop at Mike's Discount Foods once a week on my way home from work.

Here is how this week went down:

Our freezer is packed, our pantry is overflowing and my husband is going hunting this weekend. So, operation empty the freezer has gone into effect. My plan was to NOT buy any more meat for a while. Then there was a deal at Cub to buy a ham and get a turkey for free. Can I resist the temptation?

Photo credit: My supportive husband did the shopping and took the pictures for me! Isn't that sweet?

(Note: I did not stop at Mike's this week in an effort to reduce the temptation to stock our already busting pantry.)

Aldi:

- 34.5 oz coffee, $4.49 (my husband ran out the morning he was up nearly all night on a fire call. NOT pretty, my friends, not pretty. Luckily, we were headed to church bright and early and they provide coffee :>)

- 10 lbs potatoes, $1.99

- chocolate donuts, $1.59 each (the price of the husband and 2 year old shopping for me)

- gallon of milk, $1.89

- garlic, $.79 for three in each package

- bananas, $.81

- string cheese, $2.69

- lunchmeat, $2.79/lb

- turkey bacon, $1.99

- marshmallows, $1.15 per bag (shout out to my husband, who figured out on the run that the marshmallows at Aldi (16 oz) were a better deal then at Cub ($.99 for 10 oz.).

- bread, $1.19

- softener salt, $3.99 for 40 lbs.

- chicken nuggets, $3.99

- celery, $1.19 each

- salad, $.99

- 14 oz mustard, $.69

- 16 oz sour cream, $.89 each

- eggs, $.89 per dozen

- cheese slices, $1.89

Total spent: $50.59.

Cub:

Yes, as you can see, I could not resist the ham/turkey temptation at Cub. I was surprised at how expensive the ham was ($35!!), but it turned out to be boneless and rather large. We ate it for one dinner plus I cut some up to use with Ham and Scalloped potatoes later in the week AND I was still able to put away for bags of cubed ham to use in Creamy Wild Rice Soup over the next few months. Plus we still have a free turkey breast that I hope to stretch the same way into about 6 meals. Assuming that works, that would be 12 dinners worth of meat (for six people) for $2.92 a meal.

All told, we spent $67.66 for $112.42 of groceries. Of our $44.76 savings, $21.49 was using coupons (both store and manufacturer coupons) and $23.27 was due to the sale prices.

Total spent this week: $118.25.

This post participates in the Gayle's Grocery Cart Challenge and Money Saving Mom's Super Saving Saturday.

Thriving on Less - Free eBook

2009-11-03T05:00:00.003-06:00

Money Saving Mom posted about the free ebook Thriving on Less by Leo Babauta.

I downloaded it and looked it over - I have NOT read it yet, but who knows when I will get to it, so I am passing the tip onto you. It looks well laid out and useful from the little I scanned it.

During these past nearly two years of my extreme drive to become very frugal - and by very frugal I mean questioning every purchase, challenging myself to do without or find another way, not just to save money but to live a different life - one of the things I have done is immersed myself in frugal reading.

When you are trying to rewrite a whole lifetime of "more is better", it requires repetition. One could ask why I would even read such a book now - I mean, haven't I just about hit on every way to live with less? Well, no, I don't believe I have. And while I probably already do a majority of the things in the book, reading the book will reinforce those decisions and lead me down the path of continued growth.

That is the thing about growth - the strong, lasting kind is slow and methodical. So, while I may have heard a lot of ideas, I have not always been ready for them when I first heard them. Like a child who needs to be served peas 15 times in order try them, I benefit from hearing the same ideas over and over until I am comfortable enough to give it a try already.

You just never know when that spark of motivation and inspiration will ignite - it is best to have fuel at the ready.

Baking Day - Part 1

2009-11-02T06:00:00.012-06:00

I love following along with Crystal's Baking Days. I used to have days similar, but now with work and all the kids, I find it very difficult to have a whole day to focus on cooking. I feel so frustrated when I am constantly interrupted and I have a long, difficult list to tackle.

When I read Erin's post about this week's Baking Day, it hit me that breaking my to do list into smaller baking periods was perfect for me, too, even though I am not 9 months pregnant like Erin. I had planned to catch up a bit in the kitchen this weekend and I had a long list of things to get done, so I decided to try and tackle the whole list by breaking it up over a few different days.

Here is what I needed to accomplish:

:: clean pumpkins seeds

:: roast seeds with sea salt

:: roast seeds with cinnamon sugar

:: dry and store seeds for next year's garden

:: roast pumpkins (2 or 3 batches of roasting)

:: make applesauce

:: can applesauce

:: puree and freeze roasted pumpkin in 2 cup servings

:: bake zucchini bread

:: cook 10 lbs. ground beef and freeze for future use

:: roast beef soup bones and make beef stock

:: make vegetable beef soup

:: make and freeze a double batch of waffles

:: make pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting

:: mix a batch of Homemade Vanilla Chai Tea mix

:: try Amy's recipe for Banana Bread

My first night was Friday night. As Steve and the kids carved pumpkins for the next day, I separated the seeds from the goo and rinsed them all off. I put some on a towel to dry for storage for next year's garden and prepped the rest of the seeds to be roasted.

Once that was all done, I set a pan of pumpkins (the sugar pie pumpkins I grew this year) into roast. I have never roasted pumpkin seeds before and was not sure if anyone would like them (including me - I am not a huge fan of nuts or seeds unless they are baked in chocolate goodness), but I decided I would find out one way or the other.

I tried olive oil with sea salt and olive oil with cinnamon sugar. I tried one of the sea salt seeds and - ish. Then Steve informed me that they were like sunflowers and you have to take it out the SHELL before you eat it. Oh. Still not my favorite, but the family has been snacking on them, so all is not lost.

Once the pumpkins finished roasting, I set the pan on the stove top to cool a bit, and then I cut off the pumpkin shell/skin and pureed the pumpkin in my food processor. I decided that I had A) let the pumpkins cool a bit too long, because I thought the skin would come off more easily and B) attempted to puree too much pumpkin at once - less is better in the food processor.

I think the end results LOOK well worth it - the final puree is a glorious orange that just screams I AM WAY HEALTHIER AND NUTRITIOUS THAN CANNED. Check it out:

But I would have to wait to find out about how the taste was. It was off to bed once I did the hand washing, cleaned up the kitchen and ran the dishwasher.

On Saturday, I started by roasting more pumpkins and baking up the zucchini bread (the recipe makes two loaves - one for now and one to freeze for later). As that all baked, I set the pumpkin puree from Friday night into a fine sieve over a bowl to drain off the water. Once that was done, I measured out two cups (same size as a can of pumpkin) and laid the bag flat to freeze in the freezer (so they will stack well when frozen). For the next batch, I measured out the two cups when I set it to drain and it was a bit easier to get into the bag that way (instead of from a measuring cup), but still messy.

I mixed up a double batch of waffles and alternated between pureeing the now done roasting pumpkin, draining the puree and switching the waffles in the waffle maker. As I worked, I chatted with kids, let them help as they wanted (usually drive by assistance), resolved some fights, fed the kids lunch (waffles) and cleaned up as best I could.

I took the Zucchini Bread out to cool and made up the pumpkin bars and set them in the oven to cook. While they cooked, I did the hand washing, ran the dishwasher, cleaned up the counters, got myself ready for Halloween night and turned the Zucchini Bread out onto wire racks. After wrapping up the bread and frosting the Pumpkin Bars, I called Saturday Baking Day done. Before I dropped into the bed, I sampled a Pumpkin Bar - yummy! Wonderfully moist and flavorful. Bye-bye canned pumpkin!

On Sunday, I was a bit tired and found myself behind schedule after attending church and running errands. Luckily, in the unusual quiet of the afternoon, I did manage to cook up the 10 pounds of ground beef, rendering over 15 - 1 lb. equivalents for future meals (read the referenced link above to learn about how that works to increase our nutrition and make the meat go a lot farther). We have ground venison, but I don't love the taste of it, so I used 3 pounds of it and 7 pounds of ground beef. It smelled and looked like ground beef, so hopefully I was successful in finding a way to use it without having to taste it :>).

I also roasted the soup bones and then set the beef stock to simmer all day long.

After dinner, I mixed up a batch of Homemade Vanilla Chai mix, packed up a container to take to work and cleaned up the beef stock by removing the veggies and spices and straining the stock. I set it in a bowl to let the fat rise and solidify over the next two days. I plan to simmer homemade Vegetable Beef Soup on Wednesday while I am working from home.

*WHEW* That was tiring, but it is so wonderful to have fresh, homemade food ready when we need it!

I also still need to deal with pounds of apples from the local orchard (applesauce) and make that tasty looking banana bread. I am hoping to fit those in during the evenings this week - we'll see how that works out...

For more inspiration, whether you can dedicate one day or some time over several days, check out Money Saving Mom and Life As Mom for more links starting on Tuesday.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-11-01T22:26:00.004-06:00

Having a planned menu for the week is a lifesaver. Sometimes we decide to make something else, but usually we are so busy that we are relieved that it is already planned out for us. One less thing to have to think about!

I plan the menus, leave out the recipes and my husband cooks dinner on the weeknights when I am not working from home or am too busy to get to it myself.

Monday: Honey Ginger Chicken with angel hair pasta and green beans.

Tuesday: Ham, Golden Sauce (pineapple mustard sauce), rice and vegetables

Wednesday: Spaghetti, meatballs, bread and salads

Thursday: Ham and Scalloped Potatoes with peas.

Friday: (Dad and Chandler hunting) Hot dogs, chips, pop, fruit on a blanket in front of the fire. Picnic in November! And what a treat - pop!

Saturday: (boys still hunting) Leftover Buffet

Sunday: Creamy Wild Rice Soup, homemade bread, salads and chicken nuggets for the non-soup eaters.

I also plan to get to the remaining recipes for my baking day (gone rouge and taking over several days): Vegetable Beef Soup, Banana Bread and Applesauce.

To see hundreds more menus, visit Org Junkie.

Discount Food Shopping

2009-10-31T05:00:00.002-05:00

I have to say that I really admire Gayle, who blogs over at The Grocery Cart Challenge. She is the lovely, funny and realistic mother of four kids whose family decided that her husband would start his own business while they remained committed to Gayle being at home and homeschooling the children. As a result of those commitments, Gayle has found herself with a budget of just $60 a week with which to feed her family of 6. W-O-W.

Gayle's blog summarizes her weekly shopping trips, shares recipes and sometimes (my favorite) shares her family's strategies in other areas of spending (like super cheap room makeovers and how to make laundry detergent).

Gayle does not relish the use of coupons, although when it is right, she will use them. Instead, she prefers to shop at discount grocers - of which, there seem to be many in her area. This has not been an option for me in my area - or at least I thought - until Gayle did this post on how to find discount grocers in your area. After a lot of hard work (all I had to do was click twice), Voila! - discount grocer in my area. Gayle to the rescue!

Turns out that Mike's Discount Foods has three locations in my area. Two on my way home from work and one in a neighboring suburb. Over two weeks, I checked out all three and nailed down the one that I liked the best (biggest, cleanest) and was most convenient (luckily, the same one). I try to stop by on Mondays on my way home from work - it is a fun little excursion for me.

Turns out that things at the discount store are rather unpredictable, which makes sense, I suppose, but I have been able to get some great deals. And, since I am a stockpiler and rarely eat what I buy the same week I buy it, this works for me. Here are some of the deals I have found in recent weeks:

100 Handi-Snacks for $9.99 - these were great for the kids' school snacks, our teens put them in their locker at school for days they forgot a snack or were extra hungry, we put them in Max's goody and treat bags for his birthday. Great find for us..

2 huge boxes of pears for $5 each, 14 pounds each. When I found these, I quickly figured out when I could make time to can them and with a plan in place, I did just that. Delicious!

Flat (8 lbs) of strawberries for $4.99. We ate them quickly, having to resort to making smoothies out of only 1 pound.

Artisan bread from local bakery - $1.

A container of pre-cut apples (8 packages) with caramel packs for $.50.

A ridiculous amount of sunflower seeds (I think it was 5 lbs?) for just $3.99.

These are just some examples and no, not everything is a great deal. To make the most of discount grocers, I think you need to know your prices, be realistic on what you can use (if it is perishable) and be flexible - you never know what you will find.

Tune in each week when I offer up a peek at our grocery shopping and you can track my deals at the discount grocer.

It's Official - I am Jaded.

2009-10-30T06:00:00.003-05:00

Please note that the following post is my point of view and experience. If you are not at the same place and point in life that I currently am, that is something that I can respect and appreciate. As you will see in my post, I have not always been jaded :>).

There once was a time when I would be so excited to receive a Crate & Barrel or Pottery Barn catalog in the mail. I would wait until nap time or bed time, curl up on the couch and look through the catalog, oohhing and aahhing over the beautiful page layouts, coveting the shiny, perfect items on the glossy pages for my very own. Sometimes, I would even whip out the credit card and splurge, making up some lame scenario of how our lives would be improved should we own that item. There was always a nagging sense of guilt, but I tried my best to ignore it. After all, what is another $49.95 tacked on to the credit card debt?

As the debt snowball caught up with us, these purchases were less and less do-able. I was doing everything I could to be able to remain at home with the kids, so when those shiny catalogs showed up in the mail, I just recycled them straight away, hoping to avoid the certain temptation that lay in those perfect, glossy pages. This went on for over four years. Can you believe that I STILL get those catalogs from time to time, even though I have not purchased anything in years. You have to admire their perseverance.

The other day, I sat down to eat breakfast and everyone was off doing something else, so I picked up the catalog that happened to have just arrived in the mail. It was for Crate & Barrel. I sort of wanted to see if it would still be as tempting as it once was, and I figured, I could also look for Christmas gifts or ideas for Christmas gifts, at the very least. I wondered if it would be be as enjoyable as it was all those years ago.

But, you know what? It held no interest, no passion, no temptation for me at all. In a stunning display of how far I have come, I turned the pages and thought - still? This stuff is practically all the same. Sure, the hurricane vase is now square instead of round, but really, it is the same old stuff. Stuff made in China and shipped half way around the globe. Stuff that I felt guilty about when I disposed of the packaging. Stuff that I have fought so hard to pay off (turns out that additional $49.95 did make a difference). Stuff that I have repeatedly put at the end of my driveway for charities to pick up. No thanks. No more. I don't want it.

So, I am officially jaded - no longer able to enjoy the pleasures of a shiny, glossy Pottery Barn catalog.

Or maybe, just maybe, I have broken free of the purchase-consume-toss-replace-and-repeat spell that our economy has been solidly built upon since WWII.

Recently one of my best friends called up all the companies sending her these types of catalogs and requested to be removed from their mailing lists. She is done with all of it - including the clutter the catalogs bring, if only for the moment it takes to recycle them. (FYI - it is always a great plan to surround yourself with friends who tend to think like and support your current growth cycles :>)).

Here are the conclusions I have come to:

:: I don't want my money to support that economy of make it in one country and ship it thousands of miles to me, while my friends and neighbors struggle and lose their jobs here at home.

:: I don't want to lug in the box, sort through the paperwork that comes with it and try to figure out how to dispose of all of it.

:: I don't want that stuff cluttering up my house.

:: I don't want that stuff tying up my money, or worse - sitting on a credit card.

:: I don't want to spend my weekends dusting, moving and repairing that stuff - finally resorting to spending MORE time sorting and donating it in the end, anyway.

So, yes, I may be jaded. But you know what? I am OK with it.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

2009-10-29T06:00:00.005-05:00

This is a recipe that I adapted from a light cookbook from Better Homes and Gardens; I forget the actual title - the book is long gone, but this recipe was a keeper. I have been making it for more than a decade!

My younger kids prefer this in mini-muffin form, which is just right for little hands. These freeze beautifully and are perfect for the teens to toss into their bag frozen (they don't get smashed that way), then at school they put them in their locker and by the time they need a snack, they are thawed.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup wheat germ (so sneaky!) - optional
1 slightly beaten egg (or two egg whites, lightly beaten)
1 cup mashed bananas (I just estimate - about 3 smaller bananas, 2 large)
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons oil
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

In a large bowl mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and wheat germ (I like to use a whisk - it is as good as sifting it). In a smaller bowl combine egg, banana, sugar and oil. Stir wet ingredients into dry, being sure to incorporate all the flour mixture, but do not over mix. When most of the dry ingredients are mixed in, add the chips for the final few stirs.

Put into greased muffin tins. This recipe makes about 12 standard muffins or 24 mini muffins. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown or a toothpick stuck in the center comes out mostly clean, about 22 minutes for mini muffins.

I have also made mini loaves (a huge hit with the 13 year old) and the mini loaves these would also be a nice gift - maybe with a mug with hot cocoa mix in it! Giant muffins for a brunch or coffee would be nice, too.

I have doubled the recipe many, many times without any issues.

If I have a lot of bananas mushed up, I cut back on the oil. Same if the bananas I have don't make all that much, I can add a bit more oil if I need to.

Use the egg whites in place of whole egg to lower the fat content, if you wish.

I have not tried it, but I would think substituting up to 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour would be a great option as these are flavorful and hearty and I bet no one would catch on (more sneaky nutrition - I love it!).

Enjoy!

This post participates in the Recipe Swap at The Grocery Cart Challenge.

Halloween - Pumpkins on the Cheap

2009-10-28T09:00:00.003-05:00

What would Halloween be without pumpkins? No good - that is what.

No matter what your budget, you can sneak in some pumpkins to enjoy this time of the year.

:: Shop at Aldi. This year pumpkins were just $2 each.

:: Check a discount grocer. I found pumpkins here for $1.99 each and they were a good carving size.

:: Grow your own. We added a small garden patch on the side of yard and let the pumpkins, sunflowers and zucchini go wild. My oldest had to battle the vines when he mowed, but it did not bother me any! For just $1 in seeds, we harvested 7 pumpkins - too small to carve, but I will bake them and store them for later use as pies, bars and the like. Yu-um! The photo above is our youngest, Willie, with the garden pumpkins.

:: Save this year's pumpkin seeds to plant next year. Wash them off well, set them on a towel to dry and then store in a plastic bag when COMPLETELY dry (or risk rotting). Cost for next year's pumpkins? Free.

:: Keep an eye out for events that give away pumpkins. One local realty company has an open house each fall and each kid gets to pick and keep a pumpkin - no cost. We also signed up for a local city event that had a dance, bingo and other fun things for small kids to do. Each child went home with a pumpkin that they "hunted" for in the dark with flashlights. The whole event cost $7 - but hey - sometimes the pumpkin itself can cost that. Here is a photo of Max at the event:

:: Shop a local farm. Buying local takes the sting out of a higher price - at least you are supporting a local farmer and building a sense of community for your children.

For more Halloween ideas, see Costumes on the Cheap.

Also, for details on putting up the pumpkins for later baking use see this post at Simple-Green-Frugal.

This post participates in We are THAT Family's Works For Me Wednesday.

A Peek At Our Grocery Shopping

2009-10-28T06:00:00.001-05:00

With me working and my husband being at home, we have tried to share grocery duty.

I check the ads, get my Grocery Game List and put the coupons and list in an envelope. My husband heads to Aldi and Cub for the weekly deals, adding in things he knows we are running out of (generally Aldi items). I also try hard to stop at Mike's Discount Foods once a week on my way home from work.

Here is how this week went down:

Mike's Discount Foods:

- 9 boxes of fettucine and angel hair pasta, 3/$2.00

- 2 boxes of lasagna noodles, $1 each

- 2 large pumpkins (not pictured), $1.99 each

- 3 caramel apples, 3/$1.00

- 1 package organic hearts of romaine, $.99

- 2 Lunchables with drink, $1.99 each

- 1 box of chewy granola bars, $1.49

- 1 bag green apples, $1

Total spent: $19.44

Aldi:

- grapes, $.79/lb

- celery, $1.19

- beef hot dogs, $1.99

- chocolate donut (this is an addition that my husband and two year old take upon themselves to add to the list each week. I try to look the other way.) $1.59 each

- breath mints, $.99

- 1 dozen eggs, $.89

- radishes, $.99

- chicken nuggets, $3.99 each

Total spent: $18.86.

Cub:

At Cub we spent $93.12 for $147.45 of groceries. Of our $54.33 savings, $40.24 was using coupons (both store and manufacturer coupons) and $14.09 was due to the sale prices.

This total includes the purchase of an iTunes gift card ($15), which resulted in $5 toward candy (for which I had a coupon, so the candy only cost me $4 in the first place). This helps our song library - read about ways to get free music here.

This week at Cub was not the best ever, but my husband is still learning and sometimes tries to do deals on his own that don't quite work out as planned. Or he decides that $3.50 for a pack of hot dogs is a good deal. Or he decides to use a coupon I did not tell him to, but forgets to actually CUT the coupon out. *sigh* Oh, well - you have to give him an A for effort! And, he is open to suggestions, so what more can you ask? Makes me realize how far I have come in my journey to be frugal. (I am tempted to point out here that if he had stuck to the list, we would have spent $50.98, but I won't ;>))

Total spent this week: $131.42.

Here's to a better week next week!

This post participates in the Gayle's Grocery Cart Challenge and Money Saving Mom's Super Saving Saturday.

Free Music

2009-10-27T06:00:00.000-05:00

I *heart* my iPod. I listen to it in the car nearly all the time. I listen to it while I am at work when I am working on a larger project or something I won't be distracted by background music. I listen to it while I am walking or working out. LOVE it. I have had it for over 3 years and it is still going strong - no problems at all.

I like the convenience of iTunes and buying what I want one song at a time, but free music is always welcome, too. Every dollar helps!

So I was happy to see Norther Cheapskate's post about free music at Amazon.com. Frugal Dr. Mom also is good about highlighting free or very inexpensive music (often a whole album for $.99). Recently, I scored this collection of classic songs (album on the left) and I really love Canon in D and Aquarium from Carnival of the Animals. Great background music for hanging out, cooking or working.

I notice that I really have to remind myself to listen to music when we are just generally around the house. But, it is so nice and calming to have it on - it really does add to your quality of life for very little expense.

Keep in mind that themed CDs would be a great and thoughtful gift you could make yourself for holiday gifts.

BTW - if I call it an "album", am I dating myself? Once we were cleaning out the basement and moving some genuine 1970 and 1980's albums and our oldest, then about 5 said, "Wow! Those are the biggest CDs I have ever seen!"

;>)

Halloween - Costumes on the Cheap

2009-10-26T06:00:00.005-05:00

Halloween costumes. So fun, so cute... sometimes so expensive.

Our older kids do go around for candy with friends (that is the tradition in our neighborhood). For them, as they cannot wear their costumes at school or during daylight and it is colder than cold some Octobers here in MN (current year is a good example), I require them to be creative with what is around. My oldest goes as a four-wheel racer and my daughter is putting together a paparazzi costume for her costume this year.

Our youngest is using one of those easy costumes that is just an over head with a hood sort of thing (doggy) that he used last year and Max also used for a year or two a few Halloweens ago. It is warm, cost about $14.99 and we have used it four times and then will pass it along to another family.

What else can you do for frugal Halloween fun?

:: Make your own. This year, Max wanted to be Batman. I am too lazy - er, busy - to do all that, but I did make him this cute bat hat that he is wearing with a black sweatshirt and pants. It cost me all of $3, including the fabric glue, which I was out of, and it is super cute (and took about 10 minutes to make). Family Fun has tons of cute DIY costume ideas!

:: Use your dance costumes. Our daughter, Alex is in dance and participates in a show each year. We have successful reused her costumes for Halloween several times. As the costumes are not cheap (*sigh*), at least we can get more use out of them.

:: Share. My girl friends and I pass around Halloween costumes all the time - once your kid gets to a certain age, he or she does NOT want to wear the same thing two years in a row. But his or her pal probably would love to wear it next year! And here in MN, the costumes are roomy enough to cover up warm clothing, so there is often room to get two years of use out of the costumes, even if your kid grows.

:: Find it cheap. I received a spider costume using Freecycle and have found pieces for costumes at thrift shops and garage sales.

:: Be creative. One year, at an adult costume party, our friends were expecting their first child. She went as an oven (the door opened and it was her pregnant belly inside - get it: bun in the oven) made out of a cardboard box and he was a baker. Clever - not for every audience, but still clever and it worked for that party. They even had glo sticks inside for the heating elements. Another couple came as dice - a box painted white with dots on it - how simple, but clever and fun. Steve and I went as a couple from the 80's one year - tacky old clothes from the thrift store (or yikes! - the closet), big hair and lots of makeup.

So, be creative and think outside of the box.

Or in the box - a cardboard box has been the base for many a great costume!

Freeze Yer Buns Off (Again)

2009-10-24T06:00:00.001-05:00

It is that time of year... Time to freeze yer buns off with Crunchy Chicken and company.

We have a small twist on our challenge as we are too wimpy to tough it out at too cold of temps, so we resort to heating with wood. We use dead or diseased wood that has been stored (wrapped and such) for long enough for the disease to be dead. We have two acres and we have lots of friends and neighbors with woods, so there is not a lack of this resource and most people are delighted to have you come and take their dead trees away.

Last year, you may recall that we made it nearly all the way to December without turning on the furnace. We were rapidly schooled last year as to exactly how much wood it takes to keep the ol' wood stove/fireplace cooking warm enough to heat our whole house. Let's just say it is A LOT. We have this nifty fan inside a vent just outside the exhaust for the fireplace that helps us circulate the heat throughout the house. The house is a good size, at about 3,000 square feet, but with a fan near the steps, using this fan in the vent and letting go old physics (hot air rises) work its magic, we can make it work.

Steve figured that we should have 10 cords of wood ready if we want to make it through a whole winter on wood. 10! That is a lot, I can tell you because we did four cords this summer and it was a bit daunting to say the least.

As we were sweaty and tired from splitting and stacking all wood last July, I pointed out that natural gas prices are expected to be lower this winter and maybe it was not such a big deal. But, by then Steve had realized that we could save well over $1,000 during the winter by heating with wood most of the time, and well, he was sold on the idea of wood.

We do love the smell and somehow the heat from the fire is so much warmer feeling to us than the heat from the furnace. We all really enjoy it.

So, it is still on Steve's to do list to get a few more cords cut and stacked, and the weather has already turned unseasonably cold (yes, even for Minnesota), with temps maxing out in the 40s most days. We'll see if it gets done. It has occurred to me that we are very spoiled compared to the pioneers that went before us - for them, stacking that wood meant survival.

In the meantime, our oldest is the fire king. He takes his duty of keeping the home fires burning very seriously and we have had to talk to him after he got the heat up to 74 on more than one occasion. Those temps are going to go a lot lower, so we told him to just hang on a bit longer before really blasting the heat.

I love, love, love that Chandler does the fire and Steve is home now to do it during the day. I *ahem* sort of stink at keeping it going as I keep meaning to do it, but something always distracts me until it is too late and I have to start all over again. *sigh*

The guys will be hunting next weekend, so I will have to step up then, but I really can't complain about that.

On the days I am home alone, I resort to fuzzy socks, tea and blankets to keep me warm until the boys get back home to take on the fire duties.

What Are You Waiting For, Exactly?

2009-10-23T06:00:00.002-05:00

The title of this post is the question I asked myself as I lit other candles around my kitchen the other night but passed by this pumpkin candle. I have had it for a few years. It is fun, makes a good centerpiece and the face glows in the dark (oooh, ahhh - at least to toddlers and preschoolers).

I guess I have not lit it much because then it would be partially melted and no longer be a cute, whole pumpkin face.

But for how long and for what purpose do I have things if I do not use them? Sure, it is a decoration, but it is also a candle. And when it is gone, I could put a pumpkin and some leaves from my garden and yard in its place. Or feature another decoration that has been in the background all this time. Or put a bowl of some potpourri I already have out or whatever - necessity is the mother of invention (although how necessary a table decoration is could certainly be debatable).

So for the rest of this month, the pumpkin will happily glow at our dinners. Surely it will be satisfied at having reached its highest purpose.

Ready or Not, Here We Go Again....

2009-10-22T16:08:00.002-05:00

Yes, I am back. Tell your friends, post it on your blog, bookmark it - I still have something to say, believe it or not!

So, where were we? Ah, yes. My husband, Steve, lost his job in May and became the stay at home parent and I went to work full time. Turns out that I have been fairly successful in this frugal living stuff, as we did not need to dip into savings at all, even though we lived on part time income until July. Steve picked up some side jobs here and there, and things were busy at home with him doing that, so I reduced my hours to 32 hours a week. Now I fluctuate between 30 and 40 depending on the need at work and what is going on at home. I try to work 1-2 days at home and I made room in my life for my beloved Friday mornings, making cards and bonding with my two best friends.

One day we were harvesting tomatoes from the garden and my husband said, "One year ago would you have imagined that we'd be in the garden together at noon on a Wednesday?" I can't really complain, so I won't. We love how in control of our time we are now, and depending on less money and having a savings account has EVERYTHING to do with it.

I read way too many books (is that possible?) this summer and loved every minute of it. I did dive deeper into that tunnel of unknown crisis (financial, natural resource and climate-wise), but I think I have finally arrived at the other side (or at least the light is starting to come in more).

My garden had its successes and its failures (just like the rest of life). I canned 13 quarts of pears and LOVED it - there is nothing better to me than the joy of knowing that I did that and it is good. I left the jars on my counter for two weeks, just so I could look at them. Well, and we ate a good portion of them right away, too. Yummy!

My dear chiropractor helped me start an elimination diet, and I am feeling much better than I was in the spring. I have had the energy to tackle some house projects (weeding out, tossing, organizing - that sort of stuff that you have to do now and again). Unfortunately, I found it too difficult to stick with the strict diet for very long, but I am working on moderation and being mindful and working out and it seems to be helping how I am feeling. I did have that blood work done and there are somethings to improve (like, cholesterol levels), but nothing horribly wrong with me (whew!).

Life is still chaotic with four kids ages 13, 11, 6 and almost 3 and our two careers that are flexible but also unpredictable, Steve being a volunteer fire fighter and all that - but what the heck? I miss sharing my ideas and imperfect thoughts and interacting with my Internet friends, so I am back.

I cannot guarantee that I will post daily. But, when I have something to say, I will try to share it with you. I hope you find inspiration to be even better than you are now at whatever it is you want to achieve and I hope that sharing my story helps me to continue to grow and reach new goals - some of which I probably don't even realize I have as of yet.

I hope to change things up a bit on the site - maybe even add some links to help support my family with a new and different revenue stream and also support some great causes. I will post about what is on my mind at a given moment - it is not always one thing and one thing only, but hopefully you can stick with me through the topics that are not your thing and enjoy the ones that are your thing.

If you are so inclined, I'd love for you to leave a comment and let me know what has been going on with you for the past few months. Stuff like what you are interested in, what you are working towards, great things that are working for you - whatever is on your mind!

The Final Post

2009-06-24T06:00:00.001-05:00

After much thought and consideration and hemming and hawing, I have decided to stop blogging at Leaving Excess.

I have gotten so much from the experience! I have met some really fantastic people and learned from every one's comments and links. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for visiting me and sharing your comments over this 14 months. In just under 14 months, I have been visited over 165,000 times - that is amazing and humbling. To every single person who took the time to leave comments, share ideas and encouragement, thank you, thank you, thank you!

The reality is that right now I am needed in more places than I can get to and I really feel the need to just live life and write about it less (at least for a while - see note below).

Maybe I will see you in the comment sections of some of my favorite blogs:

- Simple - Green - Frugal
- The Grocery Cart Challenge
- Money Saving Mom
- Northern Cheapskate
- Frugal Dr. Mom

- Casaubon's Book

I hope that you will continue to take care of yourselves and your families and prepare to weather any storm that may come your way:

- Food Storage Made Easy
- Safely Gathered In
- don't forget to try to Build An Emergency Fund

Remember, when all else fails, you can always:

Make It Yourself
Do It Yourself
Get Organized
Simplify Your Life
and Conserve Energy and Reduce Waste.

Don't forget to laugh, love, learn and grow, in short, Enjoy Life's Pleasures!

Best to you all,

SIDE NOTE: One of my recent struggles as of late is my belief that we are headed for very different times here and all over the world. The reality of peak energy (oil, metals, natural gas and more) and climate change and our inability to sustain the endless growth that our current economy spells a lot of trouble for our current way of life within the next decade.

I will be taking some blogging time off, but I may eventually start a new blog about transitioning to this new period in time - post peak everything. If you are interested in following such a blog, feel free to subscribe to this blog and when I start that one, I will post one last message here pointing to the new blog (if/when I decide to start it - winter is a good time to blog, right?)

DISCLAIMER: This is meant to be informative for those interested. If you are not interested, then please just don't subscribe - it is not necessary to leave a negative comment about the idea. I realize that I started this blog as a frugal-type blog, not a transition blog; people don't expect to read about such things here and that is why I feel the need to start over somewhere else. I have not felt able to be myself here at this blog because some people honestly don't want to hear about the possibility that their way of life could change. That is fine, but I am entitled to my beliefs and I want to share the information I am learning with those who see the changes that are coming and are interested in preparing for what lies ahead. Of course, you would be more than welcome if you are not sure what to think about this idea of peak energy and you want to come along to see what the idea is all about, ask questions and even question some of the ideas of behind the beliefs. I am open to discussions with varying opinions in a respectful manner, but negative, usually "Anonymous"comments are the cowardly Internet equivalent of road rage.

Is It Quiet In Here, or Is It Just Me?

2009-06-22T06:00:00.000-05:00

We were watching a TV show as a family and Will had wandered off to play. Since he is just 2 1/2, most shows that the older kids are interested in watching won't hold his attention very long. I forget what it even was, but it was something on the Discovery Channel.

Anyway, it seemed awfully quiet. Will was not making much noise and we could not hear him playing or coming back to us to talk like he usually does.

So, Steve and I got up to investigate and this is what we found:

Now, the boy truly does love his butter, often just licking his bread and dinner and asking for "more butter". But this is a bit ridiculous. Guess it is another bath night!

By the way - our butter dish broke a few months ago, so I have been making do with a plate (just had to point out my frugalness there :>))

Wood, Part Deux

2009-06-19T06:00:00.006-05:00

Last week I posted about all of the wood in our driveway and how thanks to my shift in perception, this seemed like a great thing to me. One insightful commenter said we had a "blessing in our driveway". I loved the sound of that.

Well, now we are doubly blessed:

Yes, that is the original wood pile (which still has not moved) and the second load has arrived. (Sorry, it was dark when I took the picture - no time!)

Now we need the blessing of a wood splitter :>)

Apocalypse 2012: My Thoughts (Book Review Part II)

2009-06-17T00:01:00.000-05:00

You may have heard about the movie 2012, scheduled to come out in November. Here is the trailer. Yesterday, I summarized the book Apocalypse 2012, by Lawrence E. Joseph, which explains his research into the various dangers currently facing us and how they seem to culminate and point (along with ancient teachings) to 2012 as a very dangerous time for our planet. In particular, 12/21/2012. Other than the topic, I don't think the movie and the book are related.

Today I wanted to offer up my thoughts after reading the book. As I write this, I just finished the book a couple of days ago, so I have not been able to reflect on it for very long. But, I can offer my first reactions and thoughts so far.

I would also like to note that I am not saying that I believe that the world will end in 2012. In reviewing the book, my intent was to discuss a topic that is becoming more talked about as the date nears. Undoubtedly, it will continue to do so as the date draws near.

My first reaction to this book is one of awe. It is so amazing that life here on Earth has even happened. It really takes the perfect conditions at the perfect time and whether you believe it just is or that God made it, it is fantastic and awesome and amazing just the same. With so much out there in space floating around and how powerful the sun can be and how sensitive the Earth can sometimes be to changes in its environment, it is amazing that humans have made it this far at all.

As I have spent the last four years reading about climate change, the threat of peak energy and resources and now the sun and its power, as well as how the Earth works, how the solar system works, the advances that humans have made (Mayan discoveries, early Chinese discoveries, etc.), Industrial Revolution, mass plagues and diseases over time, I have learned so many fascinating things. And I have come to have an active appreciation of life on Earth and all that we enjoy today.

I have had this sense of impending doom for a while now - it has gotten a lot stronger since late 2008 (maybe the economy has something to do with it). While it is incredibly difficult to imagine our way of life dramatically changing, I am not so arrogant nor naive to believe that we are immune to chaos and destruction. Or that our way of life is somehow protected or untouchable. Nature's forces are most powerful, for sure. Just ask anyone who has survived a natural disaster. Not to mention those who perished in one.

So, Apocalypse 2012 did sort of tie things together for me. A lot of the things I have been reading about sort of came together into one comprehensive argument and instead of wondering which thing could get us first, I started to see how a lot of what we face is interconnected and could all come to a head at once. That helped things me make more sense or at least see possibilities of all the things I have learned over the past few years coming together.

Do I think the world will end in 2012? I can't imagine how anyone could know the answer to that. I do feel that we face such tremendous challenges that it is very difficult to imagine how we will be able to navigate through each one without significant damage, much less no damage at all. And I have respect for ancient cultures who were not plugged into so much information that they may have been more open to divine wisdom than we are today. When is the last time something divine was written down? It has been a while (as in hundreds of years, really).

It is uncanny how spot on some of the predictions from that time have been. Even more disturbing is how so many ancient texts and teachings are pointing at 2012 as the "end" or time of great change. Add to it the scientific facts that we will be at a point of solar maximum, an unstable point in the Milky Way, with a climate nearly more overloaded with carbon and methane than nearly any other time and overdue for a major extinction (which seem to happen every 62-65 million years; we are at 65 million+), and you do end up with the feeling that someone is sneaking up behind you in a dark alley.

The author says that he finds it hard to believe that absolutely everyone and everything would be entirely wiped out. He says that as a father of two beautiful children, he is not capable of believing that everything will perish. He goes on to point out that end of time can mean the end of our current civilization. When the Roman Empire collapsed, people still existed. If, say, only 100 million people were left out of 6.5 billion, that would be a pretty major event, to say the least.

I can see all of this and turn around and see all of our man made challenges, too. To toss up our need to correct things here and now in the belief that it will all be over soon seems foolish and cowardly. In the end, I would say that we do face challenges and that we should take one thing at a time and do what we can to make a difference.

So where does all of this leave me?

As I turned the last page and closed the book, I thought to myself:

What would you choose to do if you knew you only had 3 years left?

For me, the answer is simple.

Enjoy my kids, spend time with family and friends, do fun things everyday,clean less, work less,smile and laugh a lot more. And pray more - in thanksgiving for what I have been given, for protection of my soul and for grace and for courage to face what lies ahead of me.

Regardless of what may or may not happen in 2012, or any other date for that matter, I am determined to live like my time here is short. Because no matter how old I will be when I die, life is short. And it is a great gift, meant to be enjoyed. And I will continue to be mindful and kind in the way I treat others because once my time is over I would like to find grace and peace in God.

In the end, none of us knows if we have one day, one year or 20 years left to enjoy. So we had better make the most of it.

A Book Review, Part I: Apocalypse 2012

2009-06-16T06:00:00.004-05:00

I just finished reading Apocalypse 2012 by Lawrence E. Joseph, in which Mr. Joseph lays out his case for why 2012 will likely be a year of great change, if not the end of civilization as we know it (btw, I found it at the library).

The book is divided into 6 sections that lay out the arguments that 2012 is the year of the Apocalypse. In each section, Joseph lays out the science backing each argument and leads you through as he himself questions whether this prediction leads to 2012 as the end of civilization.

I will highlight the support for 2012 being the year of intense change and then I will talk about what I got from the book. As for what I think will happen in 2012 or beyond, you can tune in Thursday for that post.

Section I: Time:
In this section, the main focus is the Mayan calendar whose end date is 13.0.0.0.0, or in our terms, 12/21/2012. The Mayans had a sophisticated mathematical and observation based formula for developing various calendars. The system has stood the test of time so far. The Mayan teaching is that 13.0.0.0.0 will be a year of "new birth and spiritual enlightenment" or "the end of time". In the case of new birth, Mayan elders point out that birth is not without its share of blood and pain, but the end outcome is better than if you had not gone through the trauma of the birth. The prediction/belief is that things will be more and more turbulent as we get closer and closer to that date.

The Mayans view this as the natural circle of time. It is interesting to note that Joseph says in his book that the Mayans believe that everyone who was ever on Earth will return to have a chance to make things right and turn to the higher power. That is why (they believe) the population increase has been so intense in recent (relatively) years.

Section II: Earth:
The biggest (no pun intended) point of this section is that Yellowstone, a super volcano, is showing signs of increased activity and is threatening to erupt in what can only be described as a life altering (if not ending) massive explosion that would literally rock our world. I have to admit that this argument and it supporting facts were a *tiny bit* disturbing, since I live the central US. I am not necessarily close to Yellowstone, but I am not necessarily anywhere near far enough away from it if it were to explode. I would be in the zone where estimated ash would be, oh, several feet deep. Not that it matters, since there would be enough ash and such in the air to cut off the sun for about 2 years. So much for those solar flashlights I just purchased.

There are also the matters of a potential pole shift (leaving us with less protection from the sun while the North and South poles switch as they have done many times before), increased storm activities, weakening pressure on continental plates with the ice cap melting (therefore they will move more easily) and an enormous crack in Africa that many people have come to realize will be the future bed of a new ocean floor once Mother Nature moves on with her plan.

Section III: Sun:
This seems to be Joseph's strongest argument for why 2012 will be a year of catastrophic change. The sun goes through 11 year cycles of solar maximum and solar minimum, times when the storms on the surface of the sun are either increased or decreased. In late 2004 and 2005, the sun went a little crazy and was more active than nearly any other time in history that we have information on. The increase in the sun's activity coincided with the huge Indian tsunami and with Katrina, Rita, et. al. There is a lot of info in this section, so I am sure I am not doing it justice.

Anyway, all this increase in activity was during a solar minimum, or when the sun is supposed to be quiet. Many scientists believe that things are setting up for the solar maximum (2011, 2012 would be the height of it) to be unbelievable active. That being said, yesterday I was reading some information on NASA.gov noting that 2008 (the year after this book was published) and so far, 2009 have been unbelievably quiet and other scientists are predicting a less active solar maximum - go figure.

There also is the tiny issue of global warming, but that is so over talked about that I will just leave it pretty much alone. Suffice it to say that there is evidence that right now it is warmer than it has been for the past 50,000 years (overall, on average). Joseph also goes into why there is a growing belief that the Earth and Sun interact, meaning the Earth can affect the intensity of the storms on the Sun and how global warming could impact that interaction.

Section IV: Space:
I have to admit, when it comes to outer space, I am baffled. It is inconceivable to me how we can understand so much of what is out there - billions and billions of miles away. Regardless, it would seem that the Earth enters into a solar system eclipse once every 26,000 years, when the solar system blocks our view of the Milky Way's center (which appears to be a black hole). This has some not so great implications when put together with the next part.

There is research supporting that we are in an interstellar energy cloud that will mess with the Sun's behavior and Earth's reaction to it and various challenges we already face within Earth's own atmosphere. I will not even attempt to summarize the details, but I will say this part was really engaging, interesting and is worth a read.

One thing to note is that scientists do agree that the Sun has the power to impact us with enough energy to wipe out our electrical grids for a good, long time. That would spell catastrophe for much of the developed world and the developing world that depends on the developed world happily continuing to function as is.

Section V: Extinction
We are way overdue for a mass extinction. That is the premise of this section. The range (including the outliers) of times between when 90% of the species on Earth go extinct is at least every 62 - 65 million years. A mass extinction of some sort (ala, the dinosaurs). Call it purification of the Earth. We are at the edge of that range, at 65 million years. Of course, a year or two is quite a small fraction of that large amount of time, so who knows if this really predicts that 2012 is the actual year.

This section also covers the risks of comets and the fear of the unknown of what is out there.

Section VI: Armageddon:
I found this section somewhat disturbing, although not terrifying as it is subject to interpretation. Here is what I mean: Several ancient texts (including The Bible, supported in The Bible Code by Michael Dronsin) have signs and symbols that point to 2012 as the end of time. Some very interesting information here about what appears to be encoded in The Bible.

Joseph goes on to cover a lot of Armageddon stuff that we have already heard, such as the four trumpeters and the predictions laid out in the Book of Revelations. He even goes so far as to suggest who could be the great deceiver (wow). It is eerie how so many varied religions have predicts surrounding this time.

Joseph also points out how dangerous this time is in that we have a lot of our roommates here on Earth that would love to see the Armageddon stuff played out sooner rather than later - folks who have read this information and are trying to make the "signs" happen so as to usher in the final days. Mainly people that don't care if they die. He warns that some of us could make 2012 a self-fulfilling prophecy.

********

I have to say that I did enjoy the book. Joseph is an entertaining writer, injecting humor in an otherwise rather dire subject. He does seem to ask a lot of the questions I was asking myself, so I appreciated his thoroughness in that regard. I could tell that his belief was grounded in his gut reaction to meeting a lot of the experts to which he spoke, as would be the case for any of us. You know, how you met someone and just get a good feeling about them (or not). The unfortunate thing about reading about his meetings with these people is that you cannot gain the same level of trust just reading about it. Nevertheless, I will say that I have no reason to suspect that any of the experts are not being truthful - all seem to have good credentials.

Of course, since no one can ever KNOW for certain what will happen in the future, these are just (very, very) educated guesses based on each person's years of research and study, just as the book is the result of months of study for Mr. Joseph. And, of course, for every person you find with a theory, you will find at least one with the opposite theory. I just don't put a lot of credibility in the theory that says, "Earth and life as we know it will always be as it is today because that is how it has been for a while now and none of us want it to change." Support the theory with facts and trends, and then we can talk.

I will say this: I don't think that anyone will argue with the fact that the past several thousand years have been relatively stable for our planet. Unusually so, in fact. It is highly unlikely that things will stay as is forever. Now, whether this stability will change in 2012 or sometime in the future, is up for debate - for sure.

Overall, the book was very interesting, had a lot of information (and agreed with that information) from several other sources I have been reading over the past few years, and was often funny. Joseph does a good job of organizing the material and leaving you with a lump in your stomach at times.

Tune in Thursday for my thoughts on the future after reading this book.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-06-15T06:00:00.001-05:00

Note: My husband cooks most of the weeknight dinners since he is the at home parent and I am at work. He asks me to keep it easy - very important when four kids are underfoot.

I actually did this post last week, before I left on my weekend away, so that I would not have to stress about it over the weekend. I love it when I manage to be organized.

Monday: Hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, baked beans, vegetables.

Monday notes: Turkey burgers from the freezer.

Tuesday: BLTs, fries, corn.

Tuesday notes: To be completely honest, my kids mostly eat the fries and the bacon and sometimes the lettuce. Whatever - at least it is peaceful. At least for a few minutes.

Wednesday: Shredded Beef Sandwiches, roasted potatoes, salads.

Wednesday notes: We toss a roast in the Crock Pot, shred it about 8 hours later and mix in some BBQ sauce. The potatoes can be done in the oven (400 degrees, stir every 15 minutes) or on the grill. Which method we will use depends on how hot it is outside and in the house.

Thursday: Stir-fry, rice, egg rolls, Chinese noodles, fruit.

Thursday notes: I make stir-fry without a recipe - I toss in some meat (usually something we have left over), whatever veggies I have on hand, and at the end I mix in 1/3 cup soy sauce with 2/3 cup water and about 2 tablespoons of corn starch (I mix these three together then add to the pan), stir until bubbly. We love Schwan's egg rolls, so rather than order out Chinese, we buy these and keep them in the freezer. They are a little expensive, but way less than ordering take out for the family. The kids love mandarin oranges and apples and they go well with an Asian meal.

Friday: Tacos, rice, chips and cheese.

Saturday: Favorite Pot Roast, potatoes, carrots, bread or rolls, salads.

Saturday notes: Another Crock Pot meal that leaves the house smelling great.

Sunday: Leftovers.

Head on over to OrgJunkie.com for dozens (and dozens) more menu plans!

Do You See What I See?

2009-06-11T06:00:00.000-05:00

Now that my mind set has evolved, I see things differently than I used to.

Take for example this pile of wood in my driveway:

There was a time I would have seen a big mess, more work than we could handle and a huge time thief.

Today, however, I see sustenance, lower heating bills, security, warmth, family time around the fire in the cold, dark winter and good, honest work ahead of my husband, myself and my children in the coming weeks; lots of it, because I know that there is at least twice that amount still to come!

This wood is from my brother-in-law's cabin. He had to have several trees cut down as they were in danger of falling on surrounding houses. He offered it to us and we gratefully accepted. My father-in-law started bringing it to our house, this is the first load.

I know my husband feels a bit weary when he looks at it, but I truly feel joy when I see it. It smells wonderful, and it represents the ability to last a long time without turning on the heat. Despite living in Minnesota, we almost made it to December 1st last year, until we ran out of wood. This wood needs a year to dry out, but we already have good stash started for this winter.

Perhaps beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

Garden Update: Progress and Failure

2009-06-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

How is that for a title? Well, it is accurate.

Just about everything I started from seed did not transplant into the garden. Grrr. Tomatoes, onions, basil and thyme. I tossed in the towel and have bought three tomato plants and one basil plant so far. I still need to pick up some onion sets and thyme. The only thing that made a successful transition from the grow light to outside was a sweet little flower plant that Max planted for me in preschool. It is in one of our planters.

The dill I planted from seed in the garden is a no-go, also. The lettuce and spinach are barely surviving and the carrots are no where to be found. How is that possible? I know it can be hard to start onions from seed - but carrots and lettuce? These are supposed to be simple.

On to the good news: The potatoes are rockin' awesome! They all sprouted and have leaves above ground now - I am so excited to see how these turn out! Both types of cucumbers are started, as are the two types of peas, zucchini, pumpkins, sunflowers, wild flowers and shallots. And, of course, all NINE rhubarb plants are doing just fine. Great!

I have been keeping up with the weeding, I have it down to just 20-30 minutes once a week. We finally had a few days of much needed rain. The Square Foot Gardening planting is working out well and I have so much space using the new method, that I still have unused space! I do think the grid would be a nice addition and as I have to weed each week, I wonder more and more about starting with Mel's mix instead of using my own soil. Something to ponder during those cold winter months...

So, still on the to-do list is plant some more tomatoes and try planting more carrot, lettuce and spinach seeds. I already have some great ideas for next year, including a planting box on the deck for the salad greens - right off the kitchen! And, they will be shaded part of the day during the hot summer months - that should make for fine growth. The only problem I can see is that we still have not put our deck on.

Oh, well - details, details!

Menu Plan Monday

2009-06-08T06:00:00.001-05:00

Note: My husband cooks most of the weeknight dinners since he is the at home parent and I am at work. He asks me to keep it easy - very important when four kids are underfoot.

Also, this weekend my Mom is coming out to watch our kids while Steve and I enjoy a rare weekend away (MN Fire Department Conference). It will be mostly paid for by the fire department and the hotel gave us a great deal (less than a standard room) on the only rooms left - king size suites with whirlpools in the room. The fire department picks up the hotel tab, but I am glad to know that it is such a great deal - that way I can enjoy without guilt :>)

Anyway, I wanted to have some simple options for my mom to make. She is a great cook, but four kids is a lot (even when you are used to it) and it is hard to know what someone else has in their house. She will be staying here Thursday night - Saturday night.

Monday: Ham and Scalloped Potatoes, salads, bread.

Monday notes: Using up some ham and potatoes. I double the recipe for Scalloped Potatoes in my trusty Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, layer potatoes, ham, potatoes again and ham again and pour the sauce over it. Bake at 350 for about 1 hour.

Tuesday: One Dish Chicken Bake, salads, Buttery Bread Machine Rolls.

Tuesday notes: Yummy comfort food for our unusually cool weather.

Wednesday: Meat on the grill, potatoes on the grill, salads.

Wednesday notes: Can you tell that we are trying to use up some potatoes and salad ingredients?

Thursday: Lasagna and garlic bread. Boston Cream Pie.

Thursday notes: My mom is generously making this up at home and bringing it out on Thursday, so we can leave earlier rather than later. Chandler (our 13-year-old) loves this pie, which is actually a cake. So do I; maybe I can sneak a piece with me...

Friday: Spaghetti and meatballs, salads, bread.

Friday notes: A great meal that pleases all, as the sauce and meatballs can be optional. Great for leftovers, too.

Saturday: Tacos, chips, cheese and rice.

Saturday notes: Another meal that is easy to please because each person makes his or her own. Good for leftovers, too. My beef is pre-cooked and frozen (just like Mom taught me), so that will make it even easier for Mom to feed the hungry beasts.

Sunday: Honey Ginger Chicken, spaghetti noodles, fruit (and salads, if we still have produce to use up).

Head on over to OrgJunkie.com for dozens (and dozens) more menu plans!

The Number One Way to Save On Food

2009-06-06T07:57:00.001-05:00

On Thursday Money Saving Mom had a great post on buying groceries "ahead of time". Read it here.

I am not going to recap the whole thing when she so clearly laid it out on her post. I will just add that many times I catch someone looking at my cart at the store and wonder what they must think! 15 boxes of cereal, 2 mega packs of toilet paper, canning jars and some produce. Odd week for that family!

But really, other than dairy and produce, we rarely eat what we have purchased that week. And I think that has made the biggest impact in my budget.

So, read Crystal's post and consider shopping this way, if you don't already.

My Husband is a Fire Fighter

2009-06-04T06:00:00.001-05:00

My husband is a volunteer fire fighter (that is an actual picture of him - he is on the far left). What that means is that he fights fires and responds to medical emergencies just like a paid fire fighter, but it is not his regular job. If he is in the city and able to respond, then he is expected to do so. One weekend every six weeks he is "Duty Officer" and response to all calls for both stations as the Officer in Charge (he is a captain). He is reimbursed hourly for his time, which for us amounts to an average of about $200 a month. I can't imagine that anyone would do it just for the money.

My husband sometimes accuses me of being two-faced about his fire fighting. And he is sort of right, although I would say my feelings are actually multi-faceted and very often conflicting.

Of course, I am very proud. Steve has delivered a baby, held the hand of more than one person as they have left this life and saved countless lives and comforted our community during some of the most trying times - including several personal tragedies of his fellow fire fighters. He even rescued a cat from a burning house - much to the relief of our neighbors, whose house was burning down. (The running joke at the fire department is whether or not he had to give the cat CPR.) These moments are the entire point of life here on earth - to do something meaningful and selfless.

And, I dearly love all the fire fighters and their families. It is a great, close knit group and I feel more than privileged to know each and every person. Completely ordinary men and women who do the extraordinary any time day or night without so much as a second thought. Some of the most wonderful people I have ever had the joy to know.

Not to mention that a man in uniform (or turnouts) is quite a turn on. Especially when you are married to him ;>) (Totally silly side note: One of the fire fighters found out his wife was cheating on him. I said to Steve, "What - is she NUTS? She is married to a fire fighter for goodness sake - what more could you want in a guy?!")

But, there is another side. One that I still struggle with, even after over 15 years of having a husband who serves as a volunteer fire fighter. It is not so much that Steve is a fire fighter, it is what that means for me and my family while he is away.

First, there are the meetings. Each and every Monday night Steve has a meeting - it alternates between trainings, clean up, business meetings and certifications. I agree that it is necessary - I do not want him doing that job without being 100% knowledgeable and trained - but every single Monday night gets to be a BIG drag. If each of my kids has just one activity just one night a week, that leaves us apart or running 5 nights a week. And that is only if I never get to do anything that I would like to give my time to. Steve is also a captain, so he has additional meetings monthly for officers.

Then there are the community events. I love and look forward to the actual events, it is the planning, additional meetings and set up/tear down that drive me mad. It takes a lot of time. That it time that we are on our own and having to cover for things that Steve usually is responsible for at home.

Finally, there are the actual calls. These are in addition to the regular meetings (huge fires rarely have the decency to occur on Monday nights between 5:30 - 9:00 when he is already there for the meetings) and you never know when one will happen. It is worth noting that it is uncanny how often it is at: (a) dinner time, (b) time to put the kids to bed, (c) when we have company or (d) just after I say, "I need a break - do something with the kids". It is also uncanny how he manages to get back home just after the kids are in bed and all the chores are done around the house. Today there was a large grass fire. He got the call at 3:30 pm and walked back in the door at 9:00 pm - unplanned, unpredictable and sometimes annoying and/or disappointing for those left behind.

When he is Duty Officer, he has a fire truck at the house and cannot (and will not) leave the city or be left alone with the kids for the entire weekend. No running an errand, meeting my friends for lunch or going for a walk. I am on duty in case he is on duty (although, blessedly, my 13 year old is beginning to be able and willing to cover long enough for me to get a walk in!). He even drives the fire truck separately to church, just in case.

So, what is my point?

If you live in a community that has volunteer fire fighters, please pay attention to the events that they host. Go, participate and thank them for their service. Then go and thank the spouses and children for sacrificing time with their loved one for the good of the community. When there are times that I feel I should volunteer for something, I stop and realize that I already volunteer over 400 hours every year just to support my husband, the fire fighter. Without me he could not have both the family he loves and serve the community he loves, doing a job he is passionate about.

When you see an emergency vehicle on the road, pull over and let them by. Someone's life is flashing before their eyes and you can help make the difference between "Thank goodness" and total destruction - just get out of the way so everyone can do their job safely. What if it was your loved one waiting for that ambulance or fire fighter?

When you see emergency workers on the side of the road, move over, slow down and pay attention. Those people are giving their all to help others and their families desperately want them to come back home safe and sound. And the members of their community count on them every day to help keep them safe.

When traffic is re-routed for an accident clean up or due to a fire, don't curse and throw a fit because you have been inconvenienced. Thank the good Lord that there are people in your community who will help in times of need, give thanks that you are not the one in need at the moment and take a few seconds to pray for those who are in need at that moment. Every time I see or hear an ambulance, I try to quietly say a Hail Mary for whomever is inside (or will be soon).

As for me, I love my husband and therefore, I choose to support his love and dedication to fire fighting - very often, that requires a lot of sacrifice, patience and just plain sucking it up on my part. I don't always love it, but I do always appreciate what it means for Steve to be a fire fighter.

I don't worry about him too much - Lord knows they get enough training and you cannot live your life afraid of what might happen. He could get hit by a falling branch just as much as he could be killed in a fire. I actually worry about him more when I know he will be on the side of the road. That is dangerous and no amount of training can save you from a distracted driver.

And, as always, it helps to have a sense of humor. You should see our friends and neighbor's faces the first time they hear me say, "Is that your mistress calling?" or "Are you off to see your mistress?". It takes a while before they figure out that no, we are not one of those couples - that is just what I call his fire pager/fire calls.

At least there is some comfort in the knowledge that between his family and his fire fighting - there is no time (or energy) for an actual mistress.

Organizing the Garage

2009-06-03T06:00:00.001-05:00

I just have to give a shout out to my fabulous hubby, Steve. We built our house over eleven years ago (where did the time go?!) and we are just now finally getting the garage well organized. The poor guy – by the time we make sure that we have things taken care of in the house and with the kids, the garage is left to it’s own. We also tend to move things that are on their way out of the house to the garage. Plus, he has lots of stuff. But anyway, after lots of moving things around, we have committed to getting rid of the useless things and making better use of what we keep.

Here are some of the storage solutions we have used:

We ran water to the garage. It is very nice to be able to fill a water bucket, wash our hands or get a drink of water outside. Steve picked this sink up for free at a demolition site of an old school. He cut it to fit our space and installed it. Twice. Then fixed the leak. Now it works just fine! If you are not willing to heat your garage when it is near zero degrees, then you need to drain the pipes each fall or the pipes could burst.

Steve found these great organizers at a home improvement store. They are flat strips that screw onto the wall, then you can attach various types of organizers (which you buy separately) to hold the things you have to store. It really works well, keeping things off the floor and also keeping a slim profile on the wall, so we can still park, get in and out of the cars, etc.

We sorted out and tossed all old paints, most of which we did not even have in the house any more. For latex paint (the kind we had), we opened the containers , let the paint dry and then threw them away. According to the recycling information for our county, oil based paints are hazardous and need to be brought to a recycling center.

We utilized larger containers when we could. Steve labeled them with a permanent marker, so that we could see what we had easily. They are on the top of the shelving that he built, so we were sure to put things up there that we don’t need often: outside Christmas decorations, camping gear, fishing gear, etc.

Steve hung up a free cabinet he got from a friend who was remodeling. We have it over the sink and store things like old towels, wash cloths, bug spray, etc.

Steve was clever to think ahead for our convenience, but I have to admit that not all of this is frugal or leaving excess (remember, this was 10 years ago!). He put in drains and grates on the floor, so that we could wash the dog, the car and drain the melted snow in the winter. With hot and cold water in the garage, we are able to wash the car and dog all winter long, saving on a lot of grooming and car wash fees. When it is zero degrees out for weeks on end, it is really impossible to wash your car yourself. And the salt we put on our roads will eat away at your car really quickly.

He also put in a ceiling heating unit (with the help of our friend in the business). He insulated the walls, put up sheet rock and paneling. He built a floor over the rafters and made shelving in the garage “attic”, where we store off season items, or things that we will need eventually, but not now. I think he also squirrels away things that I think we should be getting rid of, but whatever, at least it is out of sight. He has been patiently waiting to buy some metal to put up a ceiling in the garage. His patience was rewarded with aluminum prices more than tripling – ugh. But, he just scored a bunch for free when someone he knows removed the siding on their pole barn. Good job, honey! Way to wait 11 years to save some dough! That project is coming up soon.

Although heating our garage is not really frugal, it does allow us to wash our cars and dog throughout the winter. We have learned that we can leave the heat off until the temperature is below 20 or so for more than a few days, or if it is below zero at all. Of course, we keep the doors closed. And, we occasionally heat it up to work on a project or something out there, so that works well, too. We never turn it up higher than the lowest setting, 50 degrees. And the ceiling is insulated to keep in the heat.

We also set a bin out for each of the four kids, which helps us to clean up. Just toss it into a bin and move on!

Another helpful hint has been to store things we need for the house in the house. Paint for existing rooms is stored in our ulitity room, our occasional use appliances (like extra crockpots, humidifiers) and stored in the basement, as well.

To make seasonal room, we store winter hats, gloves, coats, boots and snowpants in the garage attic during the summer. In the winter, we put up all the lake toys like noodles, and the life jackets, things like that. We also store some things down in a temporary type shelter in our wooded area. Things like the snowblower are protected but out of the way during the summer (and not taking up room in the garage). Just be sure to bring the snowblower up before the snow flies - nothing like trying to get it up a hilly yard that has a foot of snow on it :>)

The Bright Side of Having to be Frugal

2009-06-02T06:00:00.002-05:00

photo by KevinSnaps

Recession got you down? Are you feeling grumpy about all the things you feel like you have to give up?

For so long our society has lived by the mantra, "More! More! More!". For most working adults alive today, this is the message our government and media have spewed forth day in and day out. As we are seeing now, the health of our current economy is hugely dependent on people consuming more and more and more - there is not any room for us to stop.

And yet now, we seem to have hit a wall. The inevitable wall that has always been there but no one wanted to think about. The point where we just cannot consume any more. We have maxed out our credit, sent both parents to work, run around like crazy people and turned shopping into a national past time. Our three car garages are stuffed to the gills and the creditors are calling - all the way to Wall Street. The party is over and our society has a serious hangover.

Now we are reassessing (at least we as individuals, not necessarily our government quite yet) - what is all this stuff we think we need? What can we live without? What should we live without? Are you feeling like everything is about living without? It can just feel painful sometimes. After "More! More! More!", "Less! Less! Less!" can be a bit of a shock. At the very least, it is culture shock.

Well, I think if you turn your view around you will see the bright side of having to be frugal.

Having to be frugal makes you rethink the things you mindlessly purchase. Latte in the morning, take out for lunch and dinner, unlimited cable, clothes with the tags still on. Were you really enjoying those purchases? Each and every one? Were they each deliberate and enjoyed?

When you pare things down, you might realize you can actually wear the things in your closet - and enjoy them and use them to get the most from your hard earned cash. Packing a lunch from home? It does take planning, but it is really not that big of a deal. Skipping the latte? - - - Now, wait a minute!

I am not a coffee drinker, but I have enough common sense not to stand between my husband or coworkers and their morning cup of joe. Maybe you have pinched and saved and so on, but life is just not the same without the latte - at least once in a while. That is OK - that is the bright side of being frugal.

You learn to appreciate what you love!

When you cut back on things, those things that actually do give you the most pleasure for your buck float to the surface and you can ENJOY them.

So the bright side of being frugal? Truly, there are a few - one of which being the pride you feel when you discover you can make do without something you formerly thought to be indispensable - but the one I am talking about here is that you filter out the "More! More! More!" and actually enjoy the purchases you consciously choose to make.

So, can't live without the latte? Bravo! Cut it to twice a week and ENJOY and savor each one.

For me, leaving excess is about leaving all that stuff I don't need, don't want, don't enjoy and costs me money. It is not about leaving what I love and enjoy. Thankfully, I don't have a latte habit to break, but never fear, I certainly do have my own vices ;>)

Welcome to being frugal - where mindlessness is a thing of the past and living and enjoying each moment is all the rage.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-06-01T06:00:00.002-05:00

Note: My husband cooks most of the weeknight dinners since he is the at home parent and I am at work. He asks me to keep it easy - very important when four kids are underfoot.

Note from last week: the Cinnamon Bun Pizza was very good! We also loved the Buttery Bread Machine Rolls!

Monday: Parmesan-Baked Salmon, roasted potatoes, fruit, veggies

Monday notes: This salmon recipe is wonderful! Have you ever read a chicken recipe that says "saute for 4 minutes per side or until done" and thought - nice try! Chicken takes way longer than 8 minutes to cook, my friends. Well, fish cooks up very fast and makes for a great, quick and tasty weeknight meal.

Steve has a meeting at the unemployment office, so I will be home in the afternoon and making this dinner before we are off to baseball, dance and a fire fighter meeting (no rest for the weary...).

Tuesday: Tacos, chips, rice, beans (and if I were feeling wishful, Margaritas :>))

Tuesday notes: Steve will be making extra beans and taco meat and cutting up some extra cheese and tomatoes, so I can make my usual spinach salad for lunch the next day into a taco salad - yum!

Wednesday: Turkey Burgers, hot dogs, baked beans, salads, root beer floats

Wednesday notes: Ummm, root beer floats.

Thursday: Grilled meat (Steve's pick), potatoes, corn, salads

Thursday notes: My kids LOVE salads! This week, I bought hearts of Romain, a head of iceberg, baby spinach and leaf lettuce, washed it, tore it into pieces and stored it in the refrigerator for my lunches and salads for dinner. Don't hate me, but my kids will even make themselves a salad for a snack! We are anxiously waiting for our lettuce and spinach come in more in the garden.

Friday: Stir fry (Steve's pick on meat) with carrots, corn, peas and peppers; rice, Chinese noodles, mandarin oranges.

Friday notes: Stir fry can be a quick and easy meal when you prep the night or morning before dinner. Cut up the meat (marinate, if you like), cut up the veggies and set things out for the rice. It all comes together quickly if you are prepared in advance.

Saturday: Shredded beef sandwiches (put a roast in the slow cooker, season and let it go. After about 6-8 hours, shred the meat and add BBQ sauce or some beef broth and onion soup mix), mashed potatoes, salads.

Saturday notes: I am making extra mashed potatoes for this bread recipe - it sounds good!

Sunday: Fettuccine with Bacon and Peas, Buttery Bread Machine Rolls, Cocoa Brownies.

Head on over to OrgJunkie.com for dozens (and dozens) more menu plans!

Leaving Excess: May 2009 Report

2009-05-31T06:00:00.004-05:00

Wow. It has been two months since I posted a Leaving Excess report. Sorry about that! Well, we got rid of one job (ha ha, at least I still have my humor).

I know that I have continued on my journey to leave excess, but I was not good at all about writing things down.

I guess the most impressive thing I managed to leave behind (and I just realized it this month) was my impulse to spend now and worry about it later.

But, this month, as I found myself returning to full-time employment for the first time in just over 10 years, much of what I had to let go of was due to a lack of time. Here is a sampling of some of the things I have left behind in the name of sanity this month. Lest you think I am not human....

:: Frugal Snacks. This week was our turn to provide treats for the baseball team for Max after the game. My husband did remind me a few times. I acknowledged this fact. Then we planned our budget for the end of May through June and decided to eat from our stockpile of food. I made a quick stop into Aldi for milk and some fresh produce - and completely forgot about snack duty. My husband called me in a panic when he arrived first at Max's game and remembered about the snacks. Ugh. Even with out stockpile of food, I had nothing that would pass as a respectable snack for 14 kids.

I suppose I could have been more organized, planned and purchased things at CVS over six weeks or something like that. If I had a Publix or Kroger's store, I could whip in and get $189 worth of groceries for what I would normally have paid for just the snacks like that show off, Dr. Mom. (Of course, I am kidding - I love Dr. Mom and if you have either of those stores around, you should check out how she consistently nails the deals there. I SO have Kroger's envy - tripling coupons, are you kidding?! I can't even get one that will double coupons.)

Anyway - I had a couple of coupons I maybe could have used, but nothing matched what I finally ended up buying. Two 12-packs of individually packaged Oreos for $5.98 each. Totally ridiculous! But, done and crossed off the list. At the last minute. With two kids in tow. After a long and mentally draining week of work. So be it.

:: Recycling. Of course I did not completely give this up. However, lately I have noticed that somehow it is just too hard for me to actually bring the toilet paper roll down to recycle after I replace the roll in the bathroom upstairs. Really?

:: Mother of the Year Award. My uncle graciously invited my daughter to come out to his place in MI this summer for a week before we all meet at WI Dells for our annual family vacation. He found a sweet deal for me on airfare (that guy rocks) and volunteered to drive 2 hours away to pick her up at 10:55 at night, just so I could send her out there for the sweet price of $104.60 total - fees and all! And that includes the $50 fee for unaccompanied minor on the flight. Rock on, Uncle Tom! The airline reservation guy says, "Are you sure you want her to get there at 11:00 at night?" My reply, "Well, do you fly there at any other time?" "No." "Yeah, well, then I am sure." Dude! Whatever - my daughter gets to go on the trip she has had her heart set on for nearly a year, despite the fact that my husband lost his job. If it has to be at 11:00 at night and my wonderful uncle is willing to get her then - okay.

:: Control Freakery. Sorry, I went a little George W. there on that one, but at least it is descriptive, right? My husband has been running the house for the last three weeks. Not everything is how I would have it (not saying my way is right, I am just used to my way). You know what? I just let it go. All in all, he has done a great job and I am lucky as can be to be married to such a great guy. Right now, my number one job is to rock my day job and support the family. The rest I have to leave in my hubby's capable hands. So, sorry, honey if I circle around the kitchen a few time while you are making dinner or resort your piles of mail - old habits die hard and I am just trying to find my new place.

:: My resolve to start posting my grocery deals again. In this post I committed to posting my weekly grocery trips again because I really thing more and more people are desperate for finding ways to save money and do not know how to make it work. Unfortunately, I have just not found the time or energy to post about it. Yet. Don't give up on me - hopefully one of these days I will get to it!

If you were hoping for more inspiration, please feel free to check out my three previous posts on leaving excess here, here and here. I promise I will try to do better during June!

**********

I promise you that tiny progress really begins to snowball and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish by just taking one small step at a time. This is true with getting organized, eating better, reducing clutter, working out, paying off debt, working toward a degree - you name it. Slow and steady wins the race. That is super good news for me, since I have been very s-l-o-w this past month(s).

So, how about you?! What excess have you been able to leave or prevent this month? Add a comment and let me know!

Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

2009-05-30T06:00:00.001-05:00

As promised on Monday, here is the Chicken with Mushroom Sauce recipe.

Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 cup light sour cream
1 can mushroom pieces
1/4 cup chicken broth or white wine
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or 2 garlic cloves minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper (or to taste)

Hot egg noodles or rice

Brown the chicken breasts in a nonstick pan.

While the chicken is browning, mix together remaining ingredients.

Put the chicken into a 9 x 13-inch pan, pour soup mixture over the chicken.

Bake at 375 for 20-30 minutes or until chicken is done and juices run clear.

We love ours with egg noodles, but it would be right tasty over rice, too! You could make either ahead and warm it up at dinner time. The egg noodles cook very quickly - I start the water when I put the chicken into the oven. About 3 minutes before dinner is done, I toss in the egg noodles and drain just before eating.

Enjoy!

For more great recipes, check out Gayle's blog here!