Farm Home Life

Lawnmower Marriage Lessons

2011-09-14T18:22:00.004-05:00

So, I've been learning to mow the lawn this summer. It's been my summer project.

First let me state that I already knew how to mow the lawn -- I've been pushing a lawnmower since I was 10 years old. This is different -- this involves learning to drive the garden tractor -- and learning how to navigate around a gazillion obstacles without killing myself or wrecking the tractor.

My long farm saga:

Despite growing up on a farm I never learned how to drive a tractor -- or anything of the sort. Partly because I left the farm at 13, but mostly because I was a girl. My dad grew up in a different generation. He moved from horse drawn implements in the 20's and 30's to gasoline powered implements after the war. Gruesome farm accidents were common due to zero safety features on equipment of this period and the following decades. In my dad's mind women simply didn't drive tractors or anything else that could get you killed or maimed in a split second. I never learned how to drive anything but a car, and I was terrified to do that.

My summer mowing adventure:

It takes about 4 hours each week to cut our lawn and George's workload left very little time for for it this summer. I offered to help out several times but he seemed pretty wary of it. Probably because he thought I would kill myself and/or wreck the tractor and was nice enough to not say it out loud.

One night early this summer while mowing our deep-enough-to-lose-the-beagle grass George received an emergency call. He was in a real pinch, the lawn needed to be finished up and he would not have time to finish it that night or the next, or the next. So I nervously offered to finish it up. I could see the wheels turning -- he was mulling over his options, realized he didn't have any and decided to let me give it a try.

After 10 minutes of instructions about what switch did this and what lever did that I was on my own as my husband backed out of the driveway. I just about panicked. What if it stopped working? What if I forgot what one of the levers or switches did? What if I fell off on a slope and the tractor fell on top of me? (Can you tell I've got an active imagination?) Why didn't we have a lawn care service to do this work? With each turn and tree successfully navigated my confidence increased to the point of not worrying so much about killing myself to being happy about learning a new way to help George when he needed it most.

Thus went the next month. As I mowed each week I learned more about the tractor -- what to do and what not to do (it's old and needs "assistance" sometimes, just the kind you want to learn on -- reminds me of my first couple of cars!) I was overjoyed that I was mastering a new skill and helping George at the same time. After a month George still seemed hesitant to have me cut the grass and cheerfully explained that I felt more capable than at first and wouldn't get hurt or hurt the tractor. After a very long moment of silence he voiced these carefully chosen words: I want you to mow the lawn.... only......... if you do it........ right. My perfectionist tendancied husband was not showering me with utter gratitude for taking over one of "his" chores but telling me it had to be done his way!! Aggggh! I thought I was doing great for even managing to drive the tractor without killing myself or someone else! I tottered between wanting to laugh out loud at the irony of being married to a perfectionist and wanting to give him a piece of my mind.

(For those of you not married to a perfectionist "the right way" means the perfectionist's way. But, of course you already knew that because if your spouse is not the perfectionist in the family, you are. God has a sense of humor in matching people up like that. But seriously, each type of personality has strengths and when you put them together in a marriage you get the best of both personalities -- except for when you are fighting over who is more right : )

I sucked it up and chose to focus on the irony/funniness of the situation and ask what he meant by "right". Apparently there is more to this lawn mowing that just cutting the grass. Fast forward through the summer to a couple of days ago. I finished up the back half of the lawn which now involved shredding leaves and directing them in a particular way and George came out and said "Great job! You are really getting the hang of it!" Beaming with pride I hopped off the tractor and thought to myself what a good summer it's been and my George isn't so hard to please after all.

Some additional interesting lessons:

Growing up on a farm you use a lot of hand signals for things. Important things like let another one through, back it up, move it just a few feet, stop, cut the power, stop-right-now-or you-will-run-me-over and things like that. Communicating with your hands in a work environment is very helpful, especially if the person you are communicating with speaks the same hand language. Apparently George and I have different signals for cut the power. His signal is to forcefully push both palms down from chest height to waist height. My signal is a knife to the throat motion. Let's just say we had some issues with that one. Guess we had better figure out if we differ in any other signals -- because a difference in hand signals generally means damage to equipment/property and/or people.

We will not be planting anymore trees in the yard. Amen.

You know when you run over a rock and the mower makes that horrible noise? Well, when your husband asks you if you know what causes that noise be sure not to mention you hear the same noise all the time when he mows.

Our Menu Plan -- Hot Summer Meal Ideas

2011-08-11T14:28:00.002-05:00

Rest assured, even though I've not been posting our weekly menu, we have been eating. This summer is one of the hottest summers I can remember and that means our meals have been prepared accordingly. There are only so many hot weather foods ~~we like~~ that I can think of, so we've been eating mostly the same things week to week. Here's a list of some of our favorites -- we usually eat these once a week, some are every two weeks.

Shaved peppered turkey sandwiches

I always used to pass up the fancier deli meats that had a seasoned "crust". They weren't any more expensive than the regular meats, I just wasn't sure the "crust" would add any extra flavor. One day I gave it a try and wow, the flavored meats are delicious! Especially the peppered variety. It's just pepper, but it makes a big difference.

Grilled Fish
Grilled Brats
Grilled Hamburgers
Tacos
Mexican Casserole made on the stove top and in the microwave
Breakfast
Pizza (yes, we still heat up the house to make this every Friday night)
BBQ Beef or Chicken Sandwiches

Here's what we do for sides:

3 Bean Salad
Oriental Cabbage Salad
Corn on the Cobb
Garden Salad
Cottage Cheese and/or Fruit
Baked Beans (made on the stove top)
Potato Salad
Mixed Veggies

What are your favorite hot weather foods?

I Have a Hot Date

2011-08-11T13:51:00.000-05:00

...with my sister. With our work and family schedules, it's tough for me to get together very often with one of my sisters. For years Kendra & I have arranged to meet at the grocery store and visit while we shop. We always jokingly call this a hot date.

We've been trying for the last couple of weeks to work a visit into our schedules and the only time we could come up with was a quick stop for coffee and then on to the grocery store this Saturday. We always joke that we will end up as two old biddys with blue and purple hair perusing the grocery stores every other day telling all the clerks that we can remember when milk was a cheap $3 a gallon. I want the purple hair. I look good in purple. She looks better in blue.

Eeeeewwwwww

2011-08-02T19:29:00.003-05:00

You know how we have 911 service for emergencies? Press 1 if you are being stabbed. Press 2 if this is for a robbery in progress... anyway. There ought to be another 911 type help service for lower level emergencies. Such as when the need to clean up gross icky things arises -- like vomit, diaper blowouts and tomato worms. Now I do realize that mothers might very well need to contact this other emergency service several times a day. But I need to call 911 for the tomato worms. Eeeeww Yick, Yick, YICK!

We grow a couple of tomato plants right next to the garage door. They start out bigger and we and give them extra loving care and fertilizer -- more so than the regular garden tomatoes in the hopes of getting a nice ripe tomato quicker.This morning my morning walk was rudely interrupted by several tomato worms doing their level best to gobble up my tomato plants. Eeeeeeeew! Tomato worms are one of the ickiest garden interlopers ever. Very few things creep me out more than a tomato worm. Seriously. I have goose bumps on top of my goosebumps. Tonight I picked off 10 more from the garden tomatoes. It was tough to find an instrument that allowed me to keep a safe distance between me and the worms. You can't just knock them off, you need to pull them off. George came to the rescue with an old pair of very long needle nosed pliers. As I type this I feel like those gross things are crawling all over me. Tomorrow I start therapy.

2011-07-25T18:34:00.002-05:00

I've picked up the ~~proverbial pen and paper~~ opened up the lap top to write numerous times, but haven't been able to put words to ~~paper~~ keyboard. There are so many things I want to share with you. None of them are anything special as far as grand doings, just the extraordinary-so-very-ordinary real life stuff you share with friends when you get together to catch up.

I can't remember a time when we've had a busier summer; it's mostly work -- not fun stuff. Although we have done a few fun things here and there.

Oh goodness, I'll just be real honest: my life is crazy! Most of the time I don't know whether I'm coming or going. I'm overwhelmed and I'm so very weary of it. George feels the same way. George and I are both work-a-holic type A people (imagine how fun that is ; ) and while it's good to be busy, too much work feels like a stranglehold. We are actively trying to remedy the work situation for me so I can have more time at home and still maintain health insurance coverage. We aren't sure about George's workload. He doesn't feel God is leading him to hire help so he's going to continue as he is for the time being. Please pray for us to have wisdom in managing our work situations and businesses so that we have opportunity to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet and each other's company without being to tired.

One thing I've always looked forward to is sharing with you here at Farm Home Life. That has fallen by the wayside as my free time has declined. So often things come to mind I would love to share with you all, but I choose to pull up a chair and have a glass of lemonade or tea with George instead. Somehow I knew you would understand. Thank you.

So, what have I been up to besides working?

I've jumped outside my comfort zone and learned how to drive the garden tractor and cut the grass. Now that was interesting! Look for a post on this.

I have not put away the Christmas Village -- on purpose. On one wall I have a festive Independence Day calendar page and the Christmas Village. Quite a juxtaposition. The little Christmas Village makes me smile every time I look at it. I've always thought people that left up Christmas decorations 6 months after Christmas were either lazy or nuts. Maybe both. Now I realize it just might be because they like the decorations.

We've planted quite a few more trees --- before I started mowing. We will stop planting stuff now that I mow.

Our little beagle, Barney was recently diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure, which is the fancy way of saying he isn't long for this world. We knew it was coming, he turned 12 this summer and has been such a wonderful little friend all these years. We aren't sure how long he has; right now he still seems pretty happy, eats well, wags his tail and has some interest in chasing and sniffing. We are going to miss that little fella!

We went to the races -- it was waaay hot, but we had a great time. One of the perks of it being so hot was there weren't so many people, which translates into an easier time leaving the place, more space to spread out in the bleachers and shorter restroom lines. All pluses in my book.

Have I mentioned it is HOT here? My family in San Antonio probably thinks I'm a whiny baby when I exclaim it was 97 degrees today. After all, it was about 97 when I was there in April. Well... it is HOT to us. To us northerners 97 is as uncomfortable as say -10 is to you southerners in January. Speaking of that, one of George's customers just called as I'm typing this. He called about his FURNACE. Yes, and you won't be needing that until October, right?

It's time to sign off for tonight, but I'll be back.

Take Care,
Trixie

Our Weekly Menu

2011-05-16T07:56:00.000-05:00

Here's what we are having for supper this week:

Monday: Pot Roast, Potatoes, Asparagus

Tuesday: Ham Sandwiches, Corn on the Cob, Carrots

Wednesday: Grilled Chicken, Oriental Cabbage Slaw, Mashed Potatoes

Thursday: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Chili

Friday: Pizza Night

With the ever increasing prices at the grocery store it is getting more difficult to find great deals on staple items. I that I used to be able to count on getting at least one or two great bargains each week. After weeks and weeks of no good deals a great deal on something I use often -- tomato paste finally came along. Even if you buy tomato paste at full price, it is still a much better deal than buying the full can of tomato sauce. For about 1/2 the cost you can add the water yourself and voila! you have tomato sauce. I ended up picking up 31 small cans of tomato paste for .15 each. The normal reduced price on these cans is .50. Thirty-one cans should last us until the next great sale.

Our Weekly Menu

2011-04-26T07:02:00.000-05:00

Easter Sunday turned out to be the most beautiful, warm spring day. We grilled marinated chicken breasts and served asparagus and corn on the cob as sides. Here's what we are having for the rest of the week:

Monday: Chicken Piccata, Potato Salad

The plan was to serve the potato salad with the grilled chicken breasts on Sunday but I didn't end up making the potato salad until Sunday night so we ate it with Monday's supper. So. The chicken Piccata was absolutely horrible. Seriously, I haven't made a dish that yucky in ages. Not sure what I did wrong because the recipe had pretty good reviews by others. The only thing I did differently was to use an egg wash to coat the chicken instead of the mayo and used 2 lemons instead of the 3 Kraft suggests.

Tuesday: BLT's and Potato Salad

Wednesday: Comfort Ham & Mac Casserole, Garden Salad

Thursday: Grilled Brats, 3 Bean Salad, Corn

Friday: Hawaiian Pizza

Texas Trip Recap

2011-04-25T15:35:00.001-05:00

I had a wonderful time in San Antonio. It's been 10 years since I was last there and during that time 2 more siblings relocated there. The older I get the more I realize how important family is and want to connect with them more often. I feel so blessed to come from a relatively large family with eight children and it is so nice to get the opportunity to visit the ones you don't get to see as often as the ones that live closer.

My youngest sister is the mother of this little cutie (see first pic below). His name is Kai and he turned 2 the week I was there. I could barely force myself from scooping him up and squeezing the daylights out of him every time I laid eyes on him.

Now for a trip recap:

First and foremost the heat. My word was it hot! We stepped off the plane into 97 degrees -- felt like we were walking into an oven. How on earth do they stand it in the summer? Sure there's air conditioning but what about walking from your home to the car? I might not make it that far. On the plus side: after a few days of mid 90's 87 degrees felt like heaven on earth.

During our visit we got together with my oldest brother's family several times, went to a parade, went to an art fair at Fiesta, celebrated Kai's birthday, went to the biggest, nicest outlet mall -- ever and ate out at a couple of good restaurants.

My oldest brother is quite the carpenter. He manages a city facilities department for his real job but runs a construction business on the side (goodness gracious -- while typing that statement I realized that most of us kids are Type A workaholics, we all have at least one side business!) Anyway, my brother recently built a beautiful new covered deck on the back of his house and built a storage closet out of hidden space under the stair. Strangely I found myself discussing the different building techniques and materials for his part of the country. Obviously I have no life if that's what I spend vacation doing. Wait... there's more about that.

We scoped out the grocery store scene in San Antonio. Not on purpose mind you, we had to go to the grocery store, but it didn't hurt to scope out the prices while I was in there. My two sisters and I used to work together at the same grocery store so grocery stores are fascinating to us. Clearly I will need to rent a life from someone else.

We went to the Fiesta celebration which is apparently a very big deal there. Downtown was absolutely packed. We saw lots of interesting art, most of it was far out of my price range which helped me to not feel the slightest bit tempted to spend anything. I regret that I didn't take many pictures I forgot my camera that day. So many creative and talented artists out there!

Kai and his irresistible curls at the parade

Art Fair at Fiesta: trying to not pass out from the heat

This was earlier in the day, before I was hot, tired and grouchy

Playing Horsie

There was not enough time to show this little guy all the fun stuff Mom used to do with us growing up. Mindy will not allow me to teach him the "Mad Dog" game where the child lays down on the floor and wraps his arms around your legs and screams and howls and carries on something awful -- just for the fun of it. Apparently he does this to some degree on his own. Heh heh. As the long distance aunt that spoils her son, I am not allowed to show him any tricks that will make her life harder. : )

Playing blocks

My niece's little darling Nate. He's two too!

Me and Kendra taking a break from the heat at Fiesta -- overlooking the beautiful River Walk

Spending

Apparently being hot, tired and grouchy from being so hot and tired is great for not spending money! I had saved up for this trip for the last year and had money to spend totally guilt free and credit card free. But it happened to work out that I just didn't spend much money -- how good of a trip is that?! Breakfasts were fruit and yogurt at home. Lunches were chicken fajita tacos at the Fiesta and parade. We ate supper out twice at nice restaurants. One meal was at the Saltgrass Steakhouse -- that was an especially good steak and great service.

On Monday we went to a terrific outlet mall, actually two outlet malls right next to each other. I haven't been to a lot of outlet malls, but this beats anything I've been to before. There were lots of things I wanted to buy. I really, really wanted a new suit from Jones of New York, but it was a lot of money and I would want to think about it more carefully before spending that much (and hopefully lose more weight before shelling out for an "investment piece"). I did splurge at the Wrangler/Lee outlet store -- much more in my price comfort zone. Thankfully I was limited by the size of my suitcase so I didn't go too overboard. I picked up a nice khaki skirt, 2 pr. crop pants, 2 blouses, 2 shirts for me that's just about my whole spring/summer wardrobe!

All in all - it was a great trip!

Menu Plan Monday

2011-04-19T13:50:00.000-05:00

The past couple of weeks have not been the most cost effective grocery shopping weeks. As a matter of fact you could say it's been the total opposite. In spite of spending a lot the last two weeks there doesn't seem to be anything in the house to eat. Funny how that works. Seriously, it's because I bought a lot of things I don't normally purchase and I picked up quite a few non food household items we were out of and splurged on a supper of strip steaks and corn on the cob. Here's our menu for the week.

Monday

Breakfast Burritos

Tuesday

Beef Pot Pie, Coleslaw

Wednesday

Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwiches, Bean Soup

Thursday

Goulash, Sliced Cucumbers in Ranch Dressing

Friday

Cheeseburger Pizza Night (This is one of my husband's favorite pizzas topped with ground beef, onions, cheddar cheese, black or green olives and green peppers)

What I've Been Up To

2011-04-19T13:24:00.000-05:00

You may have noticed postings here have been very sparse of late. Tax season is finally finished up and I put a lid on things at my real job so I could take some time off to visit family in sunny San Antonio.

Ahhh... what a good feeling it is to be done with a big job and to take some time off and to see family you haven't seen in ages. So refreshing!

I'll post some trip highlights and photos a bit later once I snag them off my sister's Facebook page.

Menu Plan Monday

2011-03-28T13:56:00.000-05:00

This week's meal plan is a pretty easy one seeing how I'm buried under tax returns at the moment.

Saturday: BBQ Ribs, Potato Salad, Rolls

Sunday: Out to Dinner (I had fish and George had the brunch buffet)

Monday: Leftover BBQ Ribs and Potato Salad, Cornbread

Tuesday: Deluxe Turkey Sandwiches on Homemade Bread, 3 bean salad

Wednesday: Grilled Cheese (with the good bread!) and tomato soup

Thursday: Eggs, Bacon and Toast

Friday: Hawaiian Pizza

This week's food plan:

Last week I made a pan of dill cottage cheese casserole bread and it was so good I wanted to eat all of it! It made the most delicious grilled ham and cheeses sandwiches you can imagine. So, the plan this week is to try and make this bread in regular loaf pans instead of the big round casserole dish to get nice sized slices for sandwiches.

Most of the time spent in making homemade bread is the rising time; I usually do something else while the bread is rising. Since tonight's supper is just a quick reheating of leftovers so I'll make the bread tonight.

At the grocery store this week:

No really good deals to be had. Our normal grocery budget is $50, but I spent $74 this week. I do that from time to time when I stock up on meat, but this time there was no stocking up going on what-so-ever. I did buy quite a bit of produce, butter and a few baking products we were running low on.

Menu Plan Monday

2011-03-14T08:36:00.000-05:00

Monday: Shepherd's Pie, Pickled Beets and Cornbread

Tuesday: Chicken Fajita Burritos with all the fixin's

Wednesday: Salmon Patties, Asparagus, Roasted Potato Wedges

Thursday: Chicken 'n Dumplings with mashed potatoes, garden salad

Friday: Pizza Night

This week our store had a great bargain on strawberries, $1 per pound. I picked up three pounds. Gave one to my mother and will use the other two for strawberry short cake this week. The berries are smelling up the house with their sweet syrupy smell -- they must be good ones!

The Year of Organization: The Linen Closet 30 Minutes!

2011-03-14T08:19:00.001-05:00

This week's organizing project was the bathroom linen closet. The linen closet is something I need to stay on top of by regularly re-organizing it. If I have to reorganize something often does it mean the space isn't set up right for my needs, I've got too much stuff, or I'm a slob? In this case it feels like a little of all three.

My preference for linen closets is that they be wide and not too deep. In old houses linen closets tend to be an after thought, much like the bathroom itself. And, they tend to be narrow and deep -- not your easiest storage solution. Over a hundred years ago when our home was built there was no bathroom, let alone a linen closet. Most folks didn't have a stash of rugs, towels and personal care items to store away.

We use this space is for storing our towels, bath rugs and the bulk of our personal care items. The things that we use most often -- the towels and personal care products are within easy reach. The very top shelf is for the things that I nearly have to kill myself trying to reach like the back up bathroom rugs. Which have been stored for so long the rubber backing has disintegrated.

What's Not Working For Me

Each time I reorganize the linen closet I find myself sorting out the lotions, mouthwash, shampoo, conditioner and shaving gel into neat little rows with the partially used containers in front so they will actually get used up. The only problem is after a few days I find myself grabbing for one of other conditioners or hair styling products at the back of the row and then not putting it back. After a few weeks the front row is one big mish mash of products and I can't find a thing. Any suggestions?

If You Don't Use It - Lose It!

We had a similar situation with the bath towels but I think it will be better going forward. In the photo above you see one row of towels; there is one more row behind those. Before organizing things, we had three rows of towels and we were always messing up the piles to get to the towels we liked best -- so with in two weeks we had another jumbled up mess. Prior organizing efforts were simpling straightening up the piles but we kept messing them up. This time around I eliminated all of the towels we don't like.

It nearly killed me to get rid of a stack of big white fluffy towels. It feels so wasteful!We've given them a fair chance several times and they just won't absorb water. We've tried all the tricks but they just won't absorb water. How yucky it is to dry off on a non-absorbent towel -- you just keep pushing the water around. I said "get rid of". By that I mean they are sitting in a big stack on top of the washer because I'm just not sure what to do with them. I feel so guilty getting rid of them because the look so nice and new. Should I make them into rags for my husband? Perhaps not because only absorbent material works well for his rags. Donate them? Try to sell them on Craig's List -- I feel thinking of pushing these off on anyone but somebody out there might have a good use for them.

For more organizing ideas and inspiration, visit Org Junkie's 52 Weeks of Organization.

Groceries -- Budget, Brand Names, Stocking Up

2011-03-07T16:29:00.001-05:00

I try to stick to a $50 per week grocery budget (there are 2 of us). This amount provides enough of a challenge but not so much that it's stressful to shop. Often I find that one week I'll spend upwards of $60 or more and the next week only $30 or $40. This week it came out pretty close to $50.

*Please note our $50 grocery budget is for food. Things like toilet paper, kleenex, trash bags, and personal care items fall under different budget categories for us.

Generally I start out looking at the weekly ad for Meijer. Meijer is the store I shop most often. Every couple of months I'll go to Aldi and Walmart to stock up on some things. For quite awhile I did Kroger and Meijer each week, but I prefer the convenience of only one store, plus I found I was buying too many things that looked good but weren't on the list at Kroger.

How I Plan What to Buy

First I note any really good deals that I want to take advantage of -- including any non-food items. Then I look at the list of items we are out of on the fridge door and check out all of the hot coupons I want to use right away -- generally, these are coupons that will expire soon or are for free items. I also look at menu ideas from last week's list. We usually have enough staple items on hand to make 3-4 weeks of meals. So I'll choose meals that I need to buy only 1 or 2 ingredients for, hopefully those ingredients are on sale -- even if they aren't I will still probably pick them up. I also try to buy anything my husband requests -- like his favorite Chex cereal or the items to prepare a meal he wants. This week brats were the only thing he wanted. If I have a real craving for something, I'll add that in as well which is why you see Totino's frozen pizzas on here. I also add in anything I want to pick up in the next week or two -- this time around it was trash bags.

banana .16
2 avocados 1.00 (markdown)
3 tomatoes 1.18 (markdown)
4 cokes .40 (free + deposit)
green pepper .82
Hellman's mayo 2.24 (.75 coupon)
2 pkgs chi chi's tortillas 1.58 total (used 2 $1 coupons)
cheese 1.88
bread 1.89
gallon milk 2.29
frozen fish 2.99
brats 2.00
ice cream 2.50
brussel sprouts (free, on sale + used coupons)
ketchup 1.00
3 frozen Totino's pizzas 2.00 total (used.75 coupon)
cole slaw 1.00
Kashi cereal .18 (used $3 off coupon)
take and bake pizza 6.98
3 pkgs gum $6
3/4 lb ham 3.56
1 lb butter 2.98
sour cream 1.34
cottage cheese (free, used coupon)
creamer 1.82
eggs 1.64

Grand total: $51.43

We Don't Cheap Out on Everything

In this day and age of blogosphere comparison it's easy to feel pressured to get our grocery budget down to impossibly low levels so we can feel as economical as sister so and so. Sure we could eat for less, probably a lot less, but we don't because we like some brand names and we like some treats now and then. Right now, this budget works pretty well for us. If groceries go a lot higher in the next few months we will probably raise the budget to $60 per week.

This week's list started out at about $75, but it wasn't stuff we really needed so I started paring it down and ended up with what you see above. It seems like a real hodge podge of stuff, but it's mostly items that work well with what we already have on hand or they are stock up items like the tortillas. We have enough of those now for 5 meals, so I likely won't buy anymore for another month or so.

Name Brands

I went with a cheaper bread than planned and a tried a new cheaper brand of sour cream. The bread turned out to be a winner but the sour cream was thin and runny. I'm sticking with my Daisy sour cream from now on. It's the only light version of sour cream that is so close to the thick, rich full fat sour cream that it's hard to tell the difference. A lady at work turned me on to Hellman's full fat mayo --I think this is known as Best Foods west of the Rockies. I've previously been a light Miracle Whip gal and low fat Kraft Mayo. To be real honest the appearance of any kind of mayo or sandwich spread creeps me out. It just looks so gross! But I do like the taste of a thin smear of it -- so I try not to look at it, and it's great in potato and pasta salads. Even though the Hellman's costs more I'm still going to go with it.

What brand names will you stick with no matter the price? What's your grocery budget and for how many people? What part of the country do you live in?

Menu Plan Monday

2011-03-07T07:06:00.000-05:00

Saturday: Brats, Baked Beans and Broccoli Salad

Sunday: Sloppy Joes and Broccoli Salad

Monday: Turkey Sandwiches, Fresh Veggies and Dip

Tuesday: Chicken Fajita Burritos (I’m going to use up some leftover fajita filling, add some black beans and cheese and call it good)

Wednesday: Fish “Fry” Night – Baked Fish, Au gratin Potatoes and Coleslaw

Thursday: Chili and cornbread

Friday: Homemade Pizza Night

Grocery Bonus

Last week I brought home a couple bags of 16 count hamburger and hot dog buns leftover from a recent potluck. For those of you with a large family, I know these wouldn’t last long, but at our house they will last for about 8 meals. As I was picking them up I was reminded of the time years ago when my sister who has 7 children looked into my freezer and saw that I had a package of individually wrapped hot dogs. She incredulously asked why on earth I would buy individually wrapped hot dogs! I reminded her I was only feeding me and that package of 8 would last me 2 months (I had one a week in the summer). We both had a good laugh.

Anyway, not being the one to let something go to waste, I tossed the buns in the freezer to keep until we can use them. Each week I’ll try to have one meal that uses buns – this week it’s two because brats are on sale and George has been wanting some. I think he’s getting in the mood for spring by the way he’s always mentioning foods that can be prepared on the grill.

Groceries

I keep hearing how grocery prices are on the rise around the nation and we can only expect higher prices to come. So far I haven't noticed a huge increase and haven't been having too much of a problem sticking to our $50 a week grocery budget. Of course that doesn't mean I get to buy whatever I want -- there is a process I go through to eliminate a few things off most every grocery trip. That sounds kind of restrictive, but I actually like the feeling of sticking to a budget (and yes, there are some times I go over) and it keeps our cabinets from being stuffed to the brim with stuff that might go out of date before we can eat it.

It's been quite a while since I've shared a grocery shopping trip with you and I've been enjoying Tammy's Costco Series so much I'll share how Saturday's grocery trip went with you later this week.

The Year of Organizing: The Office Miracle

2011-03-04T09:14:00.001-05:00

This week's organizing project is the office. It's a pretty accurate statement to say that my work life has been crazy lately. One big project on top of another and another and another... top that off with needing to hire two more employees and you can image how challenging it is to pull off our work load.

We are all working full tilt and then some... guess what the very last thing on our priority list is? Keeping up on paper. And, boy do we have a LOT of paper. If they gave out prizes for pushing paper I think my department would win the blue ribbon! Know that old saying: the buck stops here? Well, there's a new saying: the paper stops here.

Simply Overwhelmed

Lately I've been feeling so very overwhelmed. I felt like I would never be able to get a handle on my own desk and filing space. The disorganization and paper clutter made my projects even more difficult because I was worried that I would misplace important pieces of work and screw something up because of it and miss crucial deadlines. I was tense and sick with worry.
The Best Laid Plans...

It's easy to think the best way to handle this type of of situation is to delegate more, clear my schedule and just "make" the time or come in on a weekend and do it, work harder, work smarter. Been there, done that. Sometimes no matter how hard you try, things just don't work out they way you plan for them to. Sometimes you need God.

This week has been the worst I've been sick about it all -- the fear of not being able to keep up with my projects because of all the mess was really getting to me. Finally (aha, the finally bring God into it deal! WHY do I wait so long?!) I talked to God about it -- all the stress, pressure and responsibility I was drowning under came pouring out. I immediately felt better! God already knew I was struggling, but admitting to Him that I was struggling just about fixed everything. Emotionally, spiritually and paperly.

A Paper Miracle
Yesterday afternoon, on what would normally be one of my busiest of days, something miraculous happened: the clouds parted and the crisp clear blue sky appeared. A window of about 3 hours opened up yesterday afternoon and I started by cleaning off my desk and sorting a few files. Slowly I began to realize this was a God thing -- the phone never rang, not one person needed something from me ASAP, and that never happens. It was wonderful! After my desk was immaculate, I moved on and purged my main file cabinet and then one drawer in another cabinet. All totaled, I filled one large recycling bag and have a much neater and better organized office space and most importantly peace of mind!

Be sure to stop by Org Junkie for more organizing inspiration. This week Laura is talking about our "good enough" level of organization. After all, our goal is not to be perfect, just to have our homes good enough to work for us.

Chicken Cordon Bleu with Sauce

2011-03-02T11:55:00.003-05:00

Last week's chicken cordon bleu recipe turned out great. Normally chicken cordon bleu isn't something I would make on a weeknight because it's pretty messy and labor intensive or, at least it was the last time I made it several years ago. Apparently I was so traumatized I couldn't bear the thought of all that mess again.

This time involved an easier recipe, a few tweaks and prep prep. That folks, makes all the difference in the world! The night before I used a rolling pin to beat the chicken breasts to smithereens. George came into the kitchen as I was just getting started and watched me for a while. Finally he asked if I was imagining the chicken was his head. I replied "not today sweetie" : )

One special addition to this meal was a quick sauce/gravy. My husband likes all meat served with some sort of sauce/gravy/bbq sauce -- anything so that it's wet. BBQ sauce didn't seem to fit this meal at all so I went with a concocted version of a sauce. Made from one a chicken gravy packet I got for free, some sour cream and a tablespoon of honey mustard. I would normally never think to put these ingredients together. Surprisingly it didn't turn out pretty good!

Here's my recipe:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 thin slices deli ham
4 thin slices of swiss cheese
3 tbsp prepared honey mustard dressing
1 packet (or jar) of chicken gravy
.5 cups of sour cream
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste
toothpicks

Place one chicken breast at a time between sheets of waxed paper. Use a rolling pin or mallet and beat until very thin. The chicken breast should be about double the size you started out with. Season with salt and pepper.

Lay all four breasts out in a row and spread a thin layer of honey mustard dressing on each. Top with a slice of swiss cheese and then ham. Carefully roll each one up as tightly as you can and use 1 or 2 toothpicks to secure it. Set them aside.

Beat one egg in a pie plate. Use a second pie plate to hold the 1 cup of bread crumbs. Carefully -- this might be messy -- dip each rolled up chicken breast into the beaten egg and let the excess drain off and then roll in bread crumbs. Place seam side down in a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes. Depending on how big your chicken breasts are, you may want to cook yours longer -- cut in half to make sure it's done before serving.

Right before serving, make the sauce. Prepare instant gravy mix according to package directions, or open a jar of gravy and heat in a saucepan. Once the gravy is hot, add lots of pepper, 1 tbsp of honey mustard dressing and 1/2 cup of sour cream. Heat on low until the gravy warms back up. Be very careful to not over cook because the sour cream will curdle.

Picture to follow as soon as I download it :)

Menu Plan Monday

2011-02-28T08:22:00.000-05:00

Can I let you in on a little secret? As much as I enjoy cooking and meal planning, I still like to get take out -- anything that involves someone else doing the cooking for me. If we go into the restaurant and I get waited on, so much the better. But take out costs so much more than what we spend for a nice dinner at home! So we try to keep the eating out or bringing in as a treat and not a fill in for "I don't feel like cooking dinner tonight syndrome".

This week is looking to be pretty busy so I put together a pretty easy meal plan to fall back on. Don't let the homemade bread on Wednesday fool you.

Sunday: Church Potluck (It doesn't get any easier than this.)

Monday: Steaks on the grill, potato salad (these are the steaks we were planning to have last week if a snowstorm didn't bury the grill. Said snow is melting now so we can get to the grill. George will be doing the grilling and all I'm going to do is set out a bowl of potato salad I made last week and some plates.

Tuesday: Breakfast -- egg, cheese & ham bagel sandwiches, hash browns (Another quick and easy meal, there will be bagel toasting and egg and potato stirring)

Wednesday: Beef Stew and homemade bread (my first inclination is not to make homemade bread for a busy weeknight supper, but really, even a traditional loaf of bread doesn't take a lot of work time -- most of the time spent in bread making is the proofing, which is okay with me because I do other things during that time. For this meal I will be baking a different kind of bread that's even easier than regular bread-- a dill-cottage cheese bread baked in a round casserole dish. Apparently, now that we are married I have slacked off in the homemade bread department. George is lamenting the fact I have not been wooing him with loaves of fresh homemade bread anymore. Last Sunday on the way home from church we both mentioned how we were in the mood to have this bread. I'll be sharing the recipe with you later in the week.

Thursday: Tuna Noodle Casserole, Broccoli (An old standby)

Friday: Pizza Night

Menu Plan Monday

2011-02-21T09:13:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago I tried out a chicken cordon bleu casserole -- all the same taste as a traditional chicken cordon bleu without all the fuss -- in theory that is. It was okay; just okay. So, this week I'm making the traditional chicken cordon bleu. Last night I pounded the boneless chicken breasts so this meal shouldn't be too much of an ordeal for a weeknight supper.

Monday: Chicken Cordon Bleu, Rice, Garden Salad

Tuesday: Steaks on the Grill -- Last week when it Spring made an early entrance I was really looking forward to doing some steaks on the grill. Now our grill is buried under a foot of snow. If George wants to shovel a path to the grill and dig it out and stand in a snowbank we will have grilled steaks this week. Otherwise I'll pan fry them, which is a distant second choice. Do any of you have good luck broiling steaks? However we cook the steaks we will be having mashed potatoes and broccoli salad as sides.

Wednesday: Steak Fajitas with all the fixin's

Thursday: Tuna Noodle Casserole, Cottage Cheese with Peaches

Friday: Homemade Pizza Night

A Day of Nostalgia

2011-02-21T07:17:00.000-05:00

On Friday my sister accompanied me to an appointment out of town and on the way there and back we stopped by our hometown and did a little sight seeing and reminicisng. But, you know how it is, you can always go home but you can never go back to the way things were. Our trip was fun and bittersweet all at the same time.

We enjoyed lunch at our favorite childhood restaurant and poured over the local paper. The food was not good, but it was so funny because we kept saying over and over how much we enjoyed the restaurant. Nostalgia will do that to you.

We stopped next to the river to take a few pictures and to explore the "new since we lived there" river trail. I've always love the river. Our place was about 1/4 to a 1/2 mile from the river and I spent many happy days there on the banks and wading in the shallows. Depending on the season, there was quite a lot of mosquito slapping, which I'm not nearly so nostalgic about.

My Kitchen -- Likes/Dislikes/Changes

2011-02-17T14:33:00.000-05:00

Earlier this winter Roxanne at The Haven of Home wrote up a 5/5/5 post about her kitchen. I love her idea and I'm stealing it!

Here's my kitchen and my 5/5/5 list ---the 5 things I like about my kitchen, the 5 things that don't work so well for me and the 5 things I would change.

5 Things I love about my kitchen

The light. Certain hours of the day, sunlight floods the room from several windows. Sometimes (usually only when the kitchen is clean : ) I like to sit at the bar stools and marvel at the brilliant sunlight creating wide swaths of light across the warm wood floors and cabinets. I've never had a kitchen with so much natural light and that is my favorite thing about this kitchen hands down.

It isn't fancy -- it's a farmhouse. If you look at the designer kitchen in magazines or builder's books its easy to find yourself wanting a top of the line designer kitchen that costs more than what most people pay for the whole house. But when it comes right down to it, those kitchens aren't me. This kitchen is. It's plain, simple, a little worn around the edges, it's certainly seen a lot of dirt but there are so many happy memories in this kitchen. I have the plant my mom gave me 10 years ago for my birthday -- such a good day. So many happy times around the table for holiday meals and visits with my sister, spreading cookies out on the counter to frost. Then there's the time George bumped into me at the sink as I was doing dishes and smiled as he said to me these are the best days of our lives. My kitchen reminds me of the kitchen I grew up in -- not in looks or layout but in how so much of my life takes place in it.

The counter space is fantastic. I've never had so much counter space and it is such a treat! The space to the right of the stove is my favorite -- so much so that I really have to work hard at keeping the clutter there to a minimum - it is just so handy for setting stuff down.

The top of the cabinets over the sink. Of course this could also be one of the drawbacks because it collects so much dust and isn't easy to clean. But, I love the space; it is the perfect place to display the little white house with ivy trailing down.

The bar area. I've never had a kitchen counter that I could pull up a stool and sit down at. Turns out it is very handy!

Now, the 5 4 things I'm not so crazy about:

It's old. At the risk of sounding like an ungrateful malcontent --- I want a whole new kitchen -- cabinets, counters and appliances whaaaaaa. These elements are closing in on 30 years of wear and tear. I can't depend on the oven to turn on when needed and there are no parts to be had for it. I left a brand new kitchen at my old house. It was so..... perfect and I miss the new, freshness of it. Actually I feel kind of bad about wanting a new kitchen because this one is functional and there are so many things I like about it. George and I are such thrifty savers, and I'm sure this is probably hard for some people to believe, but we have a hard time treating ourselves to something new. This would be a great time to remodel the kitchen while George is off work because generally when we want to do a house project, he doesn't have the free time. (Yes, he's off because he is supposed to be taking it easy, but between the two of us we can do it pretty easily -- we've learned lots of tricks over the years)

No dishwasher. I would love to have one just to the left of the sink, but I'm not willing to give up the cabinet space so that's the end of the conversation. Sniff.

The sliding door. We don't use the slider very much because it has several problems, it is very narrow as far as sliders go (much narrower than a regular door opening) it doesn't slide smoothly and the step down to the outside is a little steep, but not steep enough to bother putting a cement step outside. Boy do I feel whiny typing that. I just want it to be different, better and easily workable. George has had the whole unit out twice and plied all the tricks of the trade and it works a little better and that's as good as it's going to get.

The almond appliances and counter tops. This kitchen was put in when almond was the colour of choice. I can't stand it. It is my personal view that all residential kitchen appliances should fresh, bright white -- never black and certainly not stainless steel. Amen.

Now the things I would like to change (other than everything listed above:)

The window sill over the sink. Years ago George made a beautiful oak window sill that was wide enough to set plants on for my old house and I just loved it! I've been wanting to have one in this house too.

The fridge. I would like to have a larger refrigerator, but alas, there isn't room for a larger one because I'm not willing to give up counter and cabinet space, so I'll just have to go with keeping the fridge neat and organized.

The upper cabinets. I would lower the cabinets on either side of the sink 2 inches. That would give me just enough room to comfortably reach things from the top shelf.

The sink. It should be white fake cast iron,(because you will kill yourself putting in a cast iron sink and break all your glass -- ask me how I know). I would also be deeper.

The bar stools. The ones I have were free, so no complaints about that, but a hard wooden stool is not known for it's comfort. Ever since trying out a very padded saddle back stool I know there is no other bar stool for me. It's on my "some day this year" list to replace these with the nice comfy stools.

Spring Might Come After All

2011-02-14T13:48:00.001-05:00

About this time of year it feels like Spring will never arrive. I worry the fields of white snow will surround me for the next six months right on through to next Christmas. That I'll never know what it feels like to have hot sun baking me as I work up a sweat in the garden. Sweat? Too hot? Green grass? The smell of dirt? What is that? Will I ever experience it again? Overly dramatic, I know, but after this much winter, on some level that's what I feel. Anybody get what I mean?

This week mother nature is sending signals that spring just might be on the horizon. Here's our forecast -- even a couple of days over 50! Naturally there are those bubble busters. This weekend I was happy just to have the temp over 30 degrees and the driveway dried off and wouldn't you know my sister from Texas had to tell me it was a chilly 63 degrees there and a girl from the office warned we could be in for several more snowstorms after this. Me? I'm going with Spring this week.

What first sign of Spring do you look forward to the most?

Menu Plan Monday

2011-02-14T13:36:00.000-05:00

Here's our menu for the week:

Monday: Breakfast Bagel sandwiches and hash browns

Tuesday: Tuna Noodle Casserole, 3 Bean Salad

Wednesday: Spaghetti & Meatballs, Garden Salad

Thursday: Honey Mustard Chicken Breasts, Rice, Brussel Sprouts

Friday: Hawaiian Pizza

This week's new recipe is the Honey Mustard Chicken. I'm going to make a 1/2 size of this recipe and use less basil and paprika than a 1/2 recipe would call for. We'll have to see how it goes!

In other food news I picked up a very good money saving tip from one of the deli workers at my local grocery store. Ask about manager's specials. Yep -- that's it! I always assumed that stores put out a sign or something. Apparently my store doesn't do this very often at least not in the deli department. Last week as I was trying to buy some shaved ham, and the clerk told me the same brand --just a different variety was on manager's special for $3 less per pound. Yikes -- that' s a big difference! Every week they usually have 1-2 kinds of meat/cheese and salads.

Generally we don't buy a lot of deli items because they are so expensive, but they are a quick/easy thing and some of the deli food looks really good. Knowing this, I will probably ask what the specials are each week and if something looks good I'll give it a try.

A Year of Organizing: The Kitchen Cabinets

2011-02-11T06:47:00.001-05:00

This week's project started out to be just a cleaning project because that's what was disturbing me the most. Last night I started washing down all of our kitchen cabinets with Murphy's Oil soap. They were soooo dirty! As I started wiping down the cabinets, I was surprised at how fast the job was going. Funny how your mind can make a job far worse than it really is. As I was scrubbing I became motivated to clean out and reorganize the insides of the cabinets. It felt especially good to remind myself the inside of the cabinets would be a breeze because several of the cabinets were done right after Christmas.

All of the kitchen cabinets are clean inside and out and the items they contain are all organized. Yea!!!!!

Be sure to visit Org Junkie for more great organizing projects.

P.S. Sorry for no photo. The camera is charging up. I'll try to post one tonight.

Menu Plan Monday

2011-02-07T09:24:00.000-05:00

Sunday: Chicken & Noodles (kinda like a stew), Salad

Monday: Salisbury Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Peas

Tuesday: Chicken Fajitas with all the fixin's

Wednesday: Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwiches, Coleslaw & Baked Beans

Thursday: BBQ Chicken, Brown Rice Pilaf, Carrots

Friday: Homemade "everything" pizza. (Last week I was planning to do a Hawiian pizza but ended up adding all sorts of things -- olives, onions, green pepper, mushrooms, + the ham and pineapple. It was so good I'm planning on a repeat this week)

I Want a Summer Tomato

2011-02-03T10:44:00.002-05:00

Last night as I went about preparing the ingredients for our garden salad I realized how much I was craving a real tomato. A red, ripe juicy tomato; a tomato that smells like a tomato. Not one of those hard, pink, cardboard tasting things that stores like to put on a display and stick up a sign telling us it's a tomato.

Ah, summer tomato I miss you.

Menu Plan Monday

2011-01-31T13:20:00.000-05:00

Even though it's just George and I at supper I need to cook for six -- until lately that is. Since George is not working like he's accustomed to, he is eating a lot less because he just isn't hungry. He's eating about 1/2 to 1/3rd's of what he used to eat and that takes some getting used to. The last few weeks we've had a lot of leftover food. Enough so that I only spent $23 of our weekly $50 grocery budget and even includes some ground beef to stick in the freezer for future meals!

Saturday: Steak Fajitas (this was about 1/2 a pound of left over steak that would normally not be enough to bother with, except to save to put with other beef leftovers to make a stew. We got a whole meal out of it this time!)

Sunday: Out to Big Boy for brunch (This was a first; I didn't serve anything for a late supper like I normally would)

Monday: Meatloaf, Carrots, Beets

Tuesday: Sloppy Joes, 3 Bean Salad

Wednesday: Layered Spaghetti, Salad, Garlic Toast (I'm going to make 1/2 a batch of this)

Thursday: Tuna Melts and Veggies with Dip

Friday: Homemade Pizza Night

All is Quiet on the Home Front

2011-01-31T11:16:00.000-05:00

It's been a month now that George has been laid up with a back problem. After several tests and doctor visits the experts are not recommending surgery at this point. The spine specialist wants George to take 3-4 months off to let his back heal and to keep from re-injuring it during the healing process. So far he's stuck to this pretty well, and has only done a couple of really small things for customers. Probably more to get out of the house than anything.

In our neck of the woods we are expecting about 15 inches of snow in the next couple of days. The shovel, snow blower and plow are at the ready and the wood box is stuffed to the brim. Can't do much more than that other than put on a pot of coffee and wait.

I'm kind of stumped on what to do for this week's organizing project. Only a few weeks into a year long project an I'm running out of creativity?! Obviously it's not because everything in our house has been organized into the proverbial "find everything I own in the dark" category of neatness. Seriously I'm just running out of enthusiasm, but while typing this, I just had the idea to clean up our bulletin boards so maybe I will have a project for this week.

We've been having a fairly quiet and uneventful winter, not a whole lot going on. The garden catalogues have been filling up the mailbox in all their green gloriousness. Each autumn I'm so sick of taking care of plants that I'm kind of happy when frost kills them all and I can take a break for a few months. But by February I'm itching to start gardening again. So what have you been up to? Ready for Spring?

The Year of Organization: Bedroom Closet Part 2

2011-01-28T07:07:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I dug in and sorted out and organized all the hanging clothes in our bedroom closet. Whew! I am so loving having that mess cleaned up. This week I tackled the rest of the closet: the top shelf and the shoes.

This mainly involved cleaning a bunch of why-did-I-ever-put-this-here-in-the-first-place junk off the top shelf, wiping off an inch of dust, adding a couple of pretty baskets to store the smaller items and Voila! the top shelf is a work of art. Well not really, but all I was going for is clean and neat and it definitely meets that requirement.

On to the shoes. So.... most of my shoes are rattier (is that a word?) than I remember. What is the deal with me?! I work in a professional environment and do not have one pair of presentable dress shoes, slacks, blouse or suit. That will have to be remedied pretty soon. I packed up the out of season shoes for storage and cleaned up the pairs deemed in somewhat keepable shape. This led to another project that I've wanted to do for years but kept putting off. Meet my new "Shoe Care Basket" It's not fancy but it's wonderful to have everything we need to keep our footwear all in one location. Saves looking all over the house for that stuff.

Total Project Time: 1 Hour

High Tech Redneck

2011-01-24T22:15:00.002-05:00

You might be a high tech redneck if you've ever been notified by Facebook that a relative is in jail.

Menu Plan Monday

2011-01-24T09:02:00.000-05:00

Our menu this week will be pretty simplified for a few days. We ate out last night to celebrate my sister's birthday and George is going to up to the lake for a few days to be with his mom when she has surgery.

Sunday -- Dinner out at Red Lobster
Monday -- Tuna salad on crackers, Apple
Tuesday -- Scoop of Tuna Salad on top of a garden salad
Wednesday -- Chicken & Cheese quesadilla
Thursday -- Spaghetti & Meatballs, Garden Salad, Garlic Rolls
Friday -- Pizza Night

The Year of Organization: Paper Clutter

2011-01-21T06:48:00.000-05:00

This week my Organizational project was trying to make some sense out of our paper clutter. Sunday afternoon I got on a roll and worked for a a good hour. Plus I put in about a 1/2 hour two nights this week. Some of the paper clutter was in the entertainment unit so that will help towards my plan of cleaning that out too.

Paper clutter is my main arch nemesis. We have more of it than I can tolerate and it's not something that gets cleaned up and stays that way. Funny thing, we keep getting more and more of it! My usual method (that does NOT work) is to pile the stuff up because I'm not sure what to do with it. I keep piling and piling and then making little "sub piles" and then when company comes or there gets to be too many "sub piles" I hide them somewhere out of sight -- which explains why this project counts towards cleaning out the entertainment unit. Does anyone else do this?

Step 1.

Locate all of my piles. Done, check! (there were about 10 in 3 locations).

Step 2.

Breathe Deep and tell myself this IS doable. Then use the entire living room floor as a place to sort all that stuff into about 25 small piles.

Step 3.

Label file folders with the names of all those piles. Stuff papers in the folder. Place folders into the file cabinet.

Now, that wasn't hard was it? I feel like so relieved after doing this project. Paper clutter causes me more mental stress and anxiety than I care for. It drives me nuts to dig through stacks of paper to find the one thing I need. And yet most of the time I feel powerless to get control of those piles of paper -- today I feel like I am in control of our paper instead of the other way around.

Update on last week's project: Our Bedroom Closet

Last week I tackled the hanging clothes part of the closet and left the shoes and the top shelf. Figured it was better to do something rather than nothing. I'm so glad I did that; now I'm really inspired to tackle the rest! This week I identified 2 cute shallow baskets that will fit perfectly on the top shelf. Next time they go on sale I will pick them up and use one to stash all the extra hangers. The other basket will be used to store the odds and ends that are lying around loose in there.

Be sure to visit Org Junkie for the full 52 Weeks of Organizing to gain inspiration and encouragement in turning your home into an orderly oasis.

Substituting Mashed Cauliflower for Mashed Potatoes

2011-01-18T08:55:00.000-05:00

I did the cauliflower as mashed potatoes experiment and shared my experience here on my weight loss blog.

Have you ever used a substitute for mashed potatoes? Whether cauliflower, celeriac -- anything white.

Do you have any substitutes for anything food related that you recommend?

Our Feathered Friends

2011-01-18T08:19:00.000-05:00

This year we have a few bluebirds that are wintering over at our place. How they find insects enough I'll never know. They eat a variety of berries and a little suet so that must be what's helping them along. We sure enjoy having them!

Menu Plan Monday

2011-01-16T20:14:00.000-05:00

I'm trying one new thing on the menu this week: cauliflower substituted as mashed potatoes. I hear using cauliflower as a mashed potato substitute is a pretty popular low carb thing to do. I'm not necessarily doing it for that reason. I really like cauliflower and wonder how it will taste; plus I plan to do a review of it on my weight loss surgery blog.

Here is this week's menu:

Sat: Hamburgers and homemade Steakhouse Potato Salad

Sun: Fish, Leftover Potato Salad, Mixed Veggies

Mon: Shepherd's Pie with mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes, Salad

Tues: Pork Chops, Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Peas

Wed: Kraut, Potatoes, Smoked Sausage, Cornbread

Thurs: Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwiches, Baked Beans

Fri: Gas Station take out pizza. My husband asks for this every now and then. Imagine a few local yokels with questionable hygiene practises whipping up a pizza for you in a run down gas station/party store. And then, when you go to pick up the pizza you get to listen to several very interesting and educational (so educational you wouldn't want small children to hear...) conversations between the folks that hang out at the gas station and the employees. Yes, I admitted to living in an area where folks hang out at the gas station. So, now you know.

In other sad food developments this week, our chest freezer in the garage broke down. It's totally dead. Now, that isn't really the end of the world because here in Michigan the whole outdoors will be a freezer for the next few months. We could just dump everything in 5 gallon pails and set it out in a shed. But the really bad part of the deal was we didn't notice the freezer stopped working until everything was thawed and starting to smell. Thank God we hadn't filled it up with a bunch of expensive meat! We had a lot of frozen veggies, a few homemade desserts and frozen garlic bread that didn't cost us much. After digging up the receipt and warranty information, it looks like we will be getting a new replacement for free.

The Year of Organization: Our Bedroom Closet

2011-01-16T19:30:00.001-05:00

This week's cleaning/organizing project was our bedroom closet. At last it's at least it's started! It's not completely done, but I spent an hour and 10 minutes working on just the hanging clothes part of the closet. For not having a lot of clothes, my husband and I sure had a lot of clothes stuffed in there! When I say we don't have a lot of clothes, I guess it should be clarified to "we don't have a lot of clothes we actually wear."

After close inspection of the before and after pictures it doesn't look like there's a whole lot of difference, but to me there is.

Here is the before picture. The top shelf and the shoe area should be almost the same in the before and after, as I didn't do anything with those areas.The part of the closet that was driving me the most nuts was all the hanging clothes jam packed in there -- there's about 4 more feet on the right side that you can't see. There were so many old things in there that no longer fit; or were horribly worn that they were crowding out and wrinkling all the freshly ironed clothes hanging in there. It was downright irritating to weed through the unwearable clothes to try and find something I could wear.

Here's the Interim After picture. Most of my cleaning and purging was done on the interior 4 foot section that you can't see in this photo. Which by the way is REALLY hard to get to closet space, which is why most everything we don't routinely wear gets shoved back in there. I confess, when I first set the timer for 1hr, my plan was to work as quickly as possible, but for the first couple of minutes I just looked at the closet wondering where on earth to start and feeling like it was too overwhelming. Then I thought, well, the timer is set; I'll just try to do at something for that time, plus I promised you all I would write about a project this week. Something about the accountability helps motivate me.

Last week's project was cleaning out and organizing what was left of our junk drawer. Let me tell you--- it has been absolutely WONDERFUL to have a neatly organized "junk" drawer. Twice this week I needed to quickly find something in there and it was so easy!! Just today my husband commented how nice it was that he could readily see if we had a certain size battery. I think he is thrilled I'm doing these organizing projects (I spilled the beans when he wanted to know why on earth I was photographing our closet: ).

Don't forget to visit Org Junkie for the official 52 Weeks of Organizing to get inspired to straighten up your little corner of the world.

A Different Perspective: Try Liking Yourself

2011-01-13T09:02:00.001-05:00

Here in Blogland it is very easy to get just a glimpse of the lives of others and not the whole picture. Reading blogs has the tremendous potential to leave us feeling less than. Less of a wife, mother, housekeeper, or financial genius. If we aren't careful, we can end up feeling like we can't do a single thing right.

It is vital to remember when reading a blog (and looking at those gorgeous home photos), you are only seeing what the blogger wants you to see. You might not hear about the horrible fight the blogger had that morning or see the mountain of dirty laundry around the corner from the freshly cleaned kitchen. Those that are big into the financial/ debt free blogs should be especially careful to not let themselves get sucked into believing they are totally screwing up their lives because they have a different set of financial circumstances.

It breaks my heart to see women leaving comments on popular blogs saying they wish they were more like the blogger, handled money like them, raised their children like them and accomplished as much as the blogger. It almost borders on saying they wish they were the blogger.

We are all uniquely different with our own set of quirks and life circumstances. It just doesn't make sense that we compare ourselves to others (in real life or on the internet) and come away feeling bad. It's natural to desire to learn and grow and better ourselves, but when you stop wanting to be a better you and start wishing you were someone else; that's not good.

In the spirit of encouraging you to focus on how great you are, please share in the comment section something you're good at, a great accomplishment, a new thing you've tried that you were hesitant to do. Share anything that makes you -- you! Now, don't sit there thinking you aren't good at anything. Everyone is good at something, and most likely several things!

The Year of Organization: A Few Goals

2011-01-12T14:08:00.000-05:00

There are several large and small areas in our home that would function so much better if they were a bit more organized and in some cases, totally revamped. There is also a need for some redecorating. Or, maybe first time decorating. I am about the worst decorator -- or more accurately NON-decorator you can imagine. I can live somewhere for years and never consider making at least some kine of effort to beautify the place. Remember how long it took me to order some simple window blinds? And, yet I love to see a comfortable, pretty home. It's just that I don't seem to have the vision for getting there.

Keeping a home neat, orderly and beautiful on a budget can seem pretty overwhelming. For me it often feels like there are too many projects calling my name and not enough time or money. So, not being sure what to do, I do nothing. It truly is amazing how not having your house in order really disturbs you. Well, maybe not you, but it sure is unsettling to me. To look at the same project that needs doing day after day, year after year; is discouraging. I'm hoping to use this 52 Weeks of Organization to get me moving in the right direction.

Here's a list detailing several of the home type projects I would like to accomplish this year. Now, it's not likely things will work out where every single thing gets done and that's okay. I will be happy to be able to cross off even 1/2 of this list.

Laundry/Mudroom Redo

Repaint laundry room (I love our colours, so I'll redo it in fresh paint, which means repainting will be only a one coat job!)
Paint both doors in the laundry room
Hang a decorative shelf over the washer and dryer, find cute things to set on it and some sort of a plaque or wall lettering. There are so many inspiring ideas here!
Paint the cabinets

Living Room

Trade out a dresser that I use for filing storage and replace it with a wooden 2 drawer later file (we have a few home businesses, remember so we do have some office type furniture in the L room)
Hang some pictures of my husband's photography (haven't hung but one picture since moving in. Clearly I NEED help!)
Organize the entertainment center
Find a finial for a couple of lamps to hold the lampshade on securely
Find a home for our stash of extra blankets, other than the rocking chair
Replace the rocking chair with a small Lazy Boy type chair (hopefully found used on Craig's List!)
Replace lace curtains and rods at 4 windows

Bedroom

Organize our closet by ruthlessly getting rid of (selling, and donating) clothes that don't fit me anymore
Think of a way to better utilize our under bed storage
Hang one or two decorative wall hangings
Have George build a linen storage area in an unused area under the staircase

Bathroom

Figure out a way to better organise the linen closet
Find a product that actually removes rust stains

Hall Area

Organize our bulletin boards into one larger one that looks at least a little decorative.
Organize the hall closet and try to find a way to make this tiny space more usable

Kitchen

Clean tops of cabinets. Any ideas for anything that would look pretty on top of them? I was thinking some kind of greenery. My mother in law stores her collection of cookie tins and that looks great, but I don't have a collection of cookie tins.
Wash outside of cabinets with Murphy's oil soap

Menu Plan Monday

2011-01-10T18:11:00.000-05:00

In the interest of getting out of our menu rut; I'm trying out a new recipe this week -- Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole. I love "real" chicken cordon bleu, but not all the work and the frying so we will see how this casserole turns out. Here's our menu:

Sunday = Beef & Bean Enchiladas
Monday = Leftovers from Sunday + Mexican Rice
Tuesday = Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole, Broccoli
Wednesday = Layered Spaghetti, Garlic Toast, Salad
Thursday = Tuna Salad Sandwiches & Bean Soup
Friday = Hawaiian Pizza

Frugal Friday: What I Didn't Buy

2011-01-07T13:56:00.000-05:00

Being frugal is not just about saving money. It's also not spending money to begin with.
One of the most frugal things we do that saves us the most money is to not buy stuff we think we want that we haven't purposely set aside money to purchase.

Here's a great recent example: I've been in a major organizing mood lately. It would be so wonderful to use all these cute little and big containers to corral all of our stuff. For a while now I've been eying several adorable little bamboo storage containers, similar to these. Granted, they are a little cheaper at The Container Store than they are at my grocery store, but the point is, they aren't really something we need.

Of course we allow room in our budget to purchase some things we simply want but don't really need. But we don't go hog wild with that plan. If we did we would not be able to meet any of our financial goals.

This post is linked to Frugal Friday.

The Year of Organization!

2011-01-07T10:44:00.001-05:00

With all the organizing tendencies I’ve been having lately I was delighted to see Laura over at Org Junkie is hosting a special 52 Weeks of Organizing post series. Every Friday Laura will put up a post about organizing and anyone interested can share about the organizing projects they've done that week, write up a blog post and link up if you are a blogger. Or, you can share what you've done in the comment section.

It’s not about spending your whole week totally rearranging your house and life Do as little or as much as you like and come meet up to share what you’ve done!

I’m so excited to share my latest organizing project with you here today as part of the 52 Weeks of Organizing. You can put it down that I won’t be dedicated enough to stick it out for the full 52 weeks, but here’s what I’ve come up with this week. Be sure to visit Org Junkie each Friday for lots of great ideas, encouragement and inspiration to get your house in order. Seriously, I mean that. Even on weeks where I'm not doing any actual organizing I'm going to tune in just for the inspiration. The creative ideas of other homemakers can be so inspiring!

This week’s project is our junk drawer. Time: 20 min

We all have one or more of these don’t we? Our main junk drawer is in the kitchen and it’s a catch all for all sorts of I-don’t-know-what-to-do-with-it-let’s-get-it-out-of-sight stuff. When we moved here four years ago, we simply emptied the contents of the junk drawer in our old kitchen into this one. Well. That was easy. Now that the drawer is getting so full that stuff is spilling out the back of it into the bottom cabinet it’s time for an overhaul.

Here it is in all its junky glory ---- boy, have we ever got a lot of stuff in there! This is still going to be our odds and ends drawer, but it has to be neater. Usually we spend several minutes rooting around in here trying to find what we are looking for. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve bought extra AAA batteries because I couldn’t find the two packages that were already in the drawer. So frustrating!

Pointers For an Easier Junk Drawer Clean Up

Decide what all should regularly be stored in the drawer

Are there some things that might serve you better if stored elsewhere? Can you create a new little storage space, shelf or basket for those item? Oops -- that's another project!

Find another place in your house to store other things

I tend to toss packets of garden seeds, and string into our junk drawer. We have a dedicated place for those things; I just need to make sure they end up there instead of the junk drawer.

Throw away stuff you aren’t going to use

We have empty matchbook covers, partially disintegrated rubber bands, crumbs!? little scraps of paper and gum wrappers. Hello, how did those ever make it into the drawer in the first place?

Put stuff back where it belongs
Use snazzy little containers to keep like items corralled together

I want to go out and spend $50 on those adorable little bamboo containers that I’ve been admiring at the supermarket for the last several months but I can think of a lot better things to spend $50 on than containers. So, I’m making do with what I could scrounge up around the house.

As an aside… my husband and I are both addicted to cute little containers… errr…. We should probably substitute the word clever for my husband’s containers. He would cringe at the thought of cute containers. If we ever won the lottery you would find us at a container store going hog wild instead the Ferrari dealership. Okay, and then a boat shop.

What do you want to organize?

Menu Plan Monday

2011-01-03T19:44:00.000-05:00

This week I was able to snag a few really good grocery deals. Our local Meijer had Taco Bell products 1/2 off which is just about unheard of good; too bad I didn't have any coupons to match with the sale price, but it was still such a good sale that I picked up several cans of re fried beans for 47cents each and salsa for 87 cents.

Every few months I make a stock up trip to Walmart for the things I don't normally buy at the grocery store and this Friday I went to do that, plus check to see how their white tuna compared in price to my grocery store. (No coupons and I was willing to pay full price because tuna salad sounds so good this week) I picked up 9 large pouches for $1.48 each which was a really great deal compared to my regular grocery store. Turns out $1.48 was a really great price for Walmart too -- they turned out to be mismarked. But, because we have a terrific consumer protection law here in Michigan I got the tuna for $1.48 each PLUS a $5.00 penalty the store paid me for their error.

Monday: Sweet & Sour Meatballs, Augratin Potatoes, Brussel Sprouts

Tuesday: Taco Bake topped with lettuce, tomatoes, salsa & sour cream

Wednesday: Tuna Salad Sandwiches, Fresh Veggies & Dip

Thursday: Polish Sausage, Kraut, Potatoes and Corn Muffins

Friday: Homemade Cheeseburger Pizza

Our New Year's Day

2011-01-01T19:39:00.001-05:00

One of the things I like best about my family and Georges is there is no pressure to be someone you are not. And for me, that translates into not hosting a fancier, more elaborate get-together than you have the means to provide.

Today we had George's newlywed brother and his wife over for dinner and it was nice. Sigh. It was just so nice and simple. We sat around the kitchen table with hot cups of coffee and shot the breeze for a little while and then emptied the oven of its contents that were in there keeping warm and simple as that we had dinner. Nothing, fancy, just what I was going to serve for dinner anyway. After dinner, more coffee and visiting and we all said our goodbyes with a promise from everyone to take a good nap afterwards. I tell ya, this low-key holiday stuff is great!

Is It Spring Yet?

We've had a little mini heat wave the last few days, it got up to 52 degrees yesterday and melted all the snow! Goodness, was it ever a treat to run errands yesterday in long sleeves and no big heavy coat to burden you down and gloves to lose. Today is the end of it though. This afternoon the temperature grew steadily colder so that now at 7:30pm it's 23 degrees and expected to drop to 19 tonight. Traditionally every year we get what we refer to as a "January Thaw", I don't know if other parts of the country get something like this or not, but man, up here in Michigan we sure count on it as a way to help us make it through the winter. It usually lasts a good week or 10 days and after this little mini heat wave, I'm ready to move right into the January Thaw and then on to Spring.

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T17:59:00.000-05:00

I love the beginning of the new year. Just when it feels like the old year is all used up and worn out like a tattered pair of sneakers, we get to start fresh with a brand new one! At the start of a new year optimism rules; we want to save money, be more organized, lose weight, and finally tackle those issues that have been dragging us down for too long. It's a great feeling!

Of course we have to be realistic and realize that just because we tore the wrapping off a new calendar we aren't going to totally reinvent ourselves. Still, it's nice to have the feeling we can make at least a few positive changes. We can make changes at any time of the year, but there's something about the start of a new year that makes it seem easier and more doable.

My big thing at this time of year is cleaning and more specifically organizing. Oh, how I love to dream this will be the year I finally get the house, our business records and every scrap of paper organized into a perfectly neat and orderly fashion. I dream about knowing the whereabouts of every single thing we own. And, is it too much to ask that all clutter and unwanted/unused items are eliminated?

Oh How Happy You Will Make Me --- Perfectly Organized Bathroom Vanity

This year the seasonal organizing bug bit me earlier than expected and I've been straightening up a storm the past few weeks. I wasn't sure how long this tremendous urge to purge junk, clean, and organize would last so I thought it best to take advantage of it. Trust me, normally I'll let a lot of stuff go so I needed to jump on this feeling. Perhaps I can find a way to bottle and sell this energy, it is that amazing! A couple of weeks ago I found myself happily rummaging around under the bathroom vanity. Before long I had emptied it of every single item, thoroughly cleaned everything, threw out all the junk, lined the drawers and yes.... even cut paper towel to perfectly line the part that's under the sink. As I was cutting and fitting the paper towel, I thought to myself that I sure hoped that none of our Christmas company would look under there and feel bad about their own cleaning skills (or think I'm a total nut) because I would never be that particular under normal circumstances.

Does the "Let's Start Fresh In January" cleaning and organizing but bite you?

The We Are So Done With Holiday Foods! Menu

2010-12-28T08:48:00.000-05:00

As great as it was to eat all those yummy once or twice a year foods like sweet potato casserole, baked pineapple and ham and Christmas cookies I am so tired of them! After a few days of leftovers no traditional holiday food sounds even remotely good anymore.

Here's what's on the menu this week:

Tuesday: Layered Spaghetti, Garlic Toast, Coleslaw

Wednesday: Tacos with all the fixin's

Thursday: Almond Chicken Casserole, Brussel Sprouts

Friday: Take Out Pizza (thank you to friends for a gift card)

A Very Merry Christmas....... Sort of....

2010-12-28T08:29:00.000-05:00

I hope each of you had a wonderful Christmas and wish you bright new year.

This Christmas wasn't a Christmas we would like to repeat anytime soon as it was spent all day in the emergency room. But in several ways, it was a good Christmas -- just not one we want to repeat.

George had been having quite a bit of lower back pain lately but he felt pretty good Christmas Eve. We had a great laid back Christmas Eve dinner with my sister and her family and George seemed like everything was fine. Later that evening after our company had gone, a cough did him in. Who would've thought a simple cough would be the nail in the coffin so to speak? But it was; that one cough caused something in his back to go off kilter enough to pinch a nerve. He was in horrible pain and barely able to move. Something like this (only much less painful) happened one other time since we've been married and it greatly improved in a day or two, so we didn't go to the hospital right then thinking it would be better in the morning. Christmas Eve night was one long miserable, sleepless night.

Looking back on the matter, I should have insisted George go to the ER as soon as I knew he was suffering like this. If you are ever crawling on the floor in agony, unable to walk it's probably not the kind of pain that will go away on it's own. Go to the hospital for help (and the good drugs) sooner, rather than later.

So, Christmas morning we went to the ER and called our in-laws to cancel dinner. George really lucked out with medical personnel in his family; both brothers and his mother are nurses. So was his grandma. While George clearly did not get the nursing gene passed on to him, he is very grateful that there are so many in his family that did. One of his brother's met us at the ER; it's a real comfort to have some company in there with you and especially good to have someone that knows something about medicine.

After a round of the good IV pain medication an exam and a strong exhortation to follow up with George's family doctor on Monday we left.

As miserable as George was and the inconvenience of spending a day in the ER, on the way home mulling the day, over almost at the same moment we both expressed how grateful and blessed we were. What first made me express my gratitude was the realization that I could've been driving home alone from the hospital. I mean I actually thought -- "what if I were going home, alone and leaving George there? And, not to recover. How many wives have had to make the long lonely trip home because their husband died? When you look at it from that perspective, anything short of that is a good day. We got to talking over the day and decided we were so very thankful that we had caring, supportive and helpful families, that we had health insurance to help with the cost, and there was a hospital to go to and that we won't be without food or shelter because George won't be working for a while. We are truly blessed.

Christmas night when I closed my eyes to sleep nothing came to mind but all of our blessings and how good God is to us Sure, our day didn't go as planned and George had an awfully long, hard time of it, but honestly that wasn't what came to mind. Only the good things.

A More Exciting Menu

2010-12-22T18:55:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm still lacking inspiration for cooking; but I did plan two meals this week that sounded very tasty that we haven't had for a while and they were delicious! Just what I needed. I'm planing to do a pantry challenge this January to clean up some older stores of food in my pantry and freezer; so I sorted and organized everything in our pantry last week. Surprisingly once everything was all neatened up and organized there wasn't as much extra stuff hiding in there as I thought!

Here's our menu for this week.

Sunday: Cheeseburgers, Sweet & Sour Coleslaw
Monday: Egg Pie (as George likes to call it) & English Muffins
Tuesday: Chicken Cutlets, Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, Green Beans
Wednesday: Leftovers from Mon & Tues (good thing George isn't picky)
Thursday: Goulash, Coleslaw
Friday: Christmas Eve Dinner (details in a separate post)
Saturday: Same deal as Friday

How to Have a Merry Christmas: Reduce Your Expectations

2010-12-22T18:44:00.000-05:00

A disclaimer: I already know that I need therapy for my issues and if you ever come visit me, I promise to try really hard to act normal. : )

I am a control freak. And a really big neat freak -- according to people that have children. I don't really think I am (a neat freak; I KNOW I'm a control freak) because I've only, always lived with myself and a husband that's the same way, so I don't notice it much. Do you know Kate of Kate Plus 8 fame? Well, I would be like her x10 with only one or two children. Don't laugh; it's true.

Cooking Baking Day

We had started out planning an actual cooking baking day. But, we didn't have very much time to spend together and because we wanted to do the fun part -- the decorating, we changed the plan from making 3 kinds of cookies to just one and I baked them the day before so we could all frost them together and then have a quick bite to eat for lunch. Just because you can't do everything you start out planning doesn't mean the event is a bust; even doing a little bit can be fun.

Knowing my control freak nature you will completely understand that inviting a group of people over for a cookie baking/frosting day is like begging for a stroke -- even if they are all adults and don't plan on shoving frosting up their nose. But, I really wanted to bake some cookies and have fun visiting with my mom and sister while doing it. We seldom get some girl time like this and we all wanted to do it. It's proof they love me; even knowing how I am, they were willing to come over and use frosting.

In preparation for today's fun festivities I prayed. Yes. I. Did. It went something like this: Dear Father; please help me to lower my expectations and not get mad when people are not decorating cookies like I think they should (yes I really said that!) and help me to not get irritated if they get frosting somewhere other than on a cookie.

Holiday Meals

We are hosting back to back family get togethers on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I might like to serve something fancier, have better seating for our guests and better gift ideas than gift cards and a few odds and ends that have all the creativity of a limp noodle. But, honestly if I look at from the perspective of those being my worst problems then things are looking great! We all will have a great time visiting with each other. Thank God we have a family on both sides where we all enjoy each other (we're not counting the ones that are in jail : ) It's not the end of the world if some of us end up sitting in kitchen chairs in the living room or the plates don't match. Whatever it is you are stressing over this season... chances are if your family is happy and healthy, (even if they can't make it to visit) then things aren't so bad after all.

Holiday Events

George and I don't have issues with a multitude of holiday events to attend, but if we did that would be a big problem because we are such homebodies. A lot of my friends and some family members struggle with this and it makes me sad to see them run ragged going here and there and everywhere when they most want to be home. For any family, there will always be a certain handful of "must do" or "really, really want to do" events. All I can say is pick and choose very carefully and do not allow the expectations of others dictate what is the best way for your family to spend your time during the holiday season or any other season. Once you've decided to manage your own family's calendar DON'T start feeling guilty about it and caving in to last minute pressures -- unless of course it's something that you will really enjoy doing and won't wreak havoc with the rest of your schedule.

People

They say the holidays tend to bring out the best and worst in people. Thankfully I usually see the best in people at our family get togethers.We try to be gracious guests and hosts, and we work with each other to not create overly complicated and perfect expectations for the holidays. So, based on my personal expectations there probably isn't a lot of encouragement I can share with you if your whole extended family is a bunch of nuts. If that's the case, try to find a quiet corner and hide until the festivities are over.

On a more serious note: Establishing good family relationships requires discipline, love, mercy and forgiveness day in and day out all year long. Often times we try to reap the benefits of this type of good relationship at the holidays without putting in the work that's needed the rest of the year. You can't make a withdrawal of something you never deposited. We don't know whats in the hearts and minds of others. Many of our loved ones and possibly ourselves are mourning the loss of loved one, a job, a marriage. This Christmas things might not be the same as they always have been; and that's very unsettling for most anyone.

To give you an example from our family; this is the second Christmas since my grandma's passing. As in most families; the older women tend to be the "coordinators of the holiday festivities" my Grandma was the one person that seemed to hold the whole extended family together. This year we are all missing her and my aunts are having a challenging time carrying on in the role of matriarch for their families. They are now the ones that will hold together their own growing brood of extended family. The only problem is that it doesn't look or feel anything like what they are familiar with. That's got to be so amazingly difficult! My heart goes out to them.

In this season of celebrating how much Jesus loves us, let's purpose to make our focus be on loving others. Let us show love, kindness, mercy and grace to our loved ones, even if they don't respond they way we want them to and even if they never do the same for us.

Our Weekly Menu -- Not

2010-12-16T13:47:00.000-05:00

I've been seriously lacking in cooking enthusiasm lately. In other words I'm in a rut. I want to make ~~delicious meals~~ -- try a few new things. It's not that our old stand bys aren't tasty, they are. It's just that my schedule/work load has been so hectic lately that I find myself falling back on the old, super easy meals that I know my husband and I both like and that I can pull together in a few minutes. After a few months of these meals nothing is sounding good.

We have a plan for tonight's supper and tomorrow's. Chinese takeout and pizza. Some plan, huh? : )

Got any ideas for me?

Why We Need a Garage Fridge

2010-12-16T13:32:00.000-05:00

Worms. We have 'em. We have lots of worms.

Don't let this affect your answer to an invitation to our house for a meal or anything. Ahem. We like to fish and so that means we usually have worms on hand. After all, you can't waste perfectly good worms. The other day George asked me to "consolidate" his worms for him into just one container. Oh joy. At least they're not leeches. Thank goodness George doesn't think leeches are the best way to catch fish like his dad does. You can always count on his folks to have a couple of containers of leeches in the fridge -- I can't imagine my mother-in-law being all that keen on consolidating containers of leeches. But at least they are kept out in the garage fridge.

Menu Plan Monday

2010-12-06T15:11:00.000-05:00

Sat: Lemon Dill Perch, Augratin Potatoes, Green Beans

Sun: Sloppy Joes, Leftover Potatoes, Green Beans

Mon: Taco Bake with all the fixins

Tues: Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwiches, Tomato Soup, Fresh Veggies & Dip

Wed: Oven Fried Pork Chops, Sweet Potatoes, Mixed Veggies

Thurs: Spaghetti & Meatballs, Garlic Toast, Garden Salad

Fri: Homemade Hawaiian Pizza

As a fisherman's wife I did the unthinkable this weekend. I bought fish.

We are nearly out of our stash of walleye, which is one of our favorites. We have one walleye left and it's not enough to make a meal. George wants me to save it until he can catch another one which will probably be this spring.... Maybe I'll have to cook it up as a snack for him. While doing my every couple of months stock up trip at Aldi I came across their fish and picked up a couple of packages of perch. Even at Aldi's prices it's a whole lot cheaper to catch your own! The perch was a little strong tasting for my preference; I'm so used to the super mild flavor of the walleye, but George liked it okay.

Frugal Friday: Buy Another Turkey, or Ham

2010-12-03T09:13:00.000-05:00

The holiday's are usually a time of year where we spend and then spend some more. So, today's Frugal Friday tip is to actually spend a little more. I know, I know that's the last thing you want to do.

But, here's why you might want to think about it. Right now with the great specials most grocery stores are running on hams and turkeys you can pick one (or two or three) up pretty inexpensively. Or you could by an extra large one and plan to have lots of leftovers.

Because we don't have a huge crowd for our holiday festivities, I usually choose to buy a larger ham or turkey. We leave enough out to eat leftovers the next day, (sometimes two days), and pack up the rest for the freezer.

You can see some of my favorite leftover ham recipes. And, here's my favorite turkey salad recipe. I love to put this turkey salad on whole wheat crackers and top each with a tiny spoonful of cranberry relish -- so good!

Christmas Cards

2010-11-27T20:40:00.000-05:00

Have you ever received one of those Christmas cards that doesn't mention a thing about Christmas? They annoy me something awful. Why send out a generic "winter/peace/holiday/ card under the guise of a Christmas card? Years ago the Season's Greetings and Happy Holidays cards actually meant something before they became the hallmark of the politically correct. One of the local stores here actually has a special section within their vast array of "Holiday" cards to designate which ones have anything to do with Christmas.

George and I like Christmas cards. The ones that actually acknowledge the holiday we are celebrating. It's always a pleasure for me to pick out several choices of beautiful cards with a heartfelt message. We do a lot of cards every year; many are for our business customers and the rest are for friends and family. I do a few each night while we watch our favorite Beverly Hillbillies episodes.

Menu Plan Monday

2010-11-23T08:51:00.001-05:00

I forgot this was ~~Turkey Week~~ Thanksgiving. It would've been really helpful to remember that before I picked up a pound of shaved deli turkey. Sooooo we will be eating a lot of turkey. My husband is trying to eat lunches during the week and right now is liking a bagel with cream cheese and turkey on it. I imagine he will be wanting to switch over to ham next week.

Sunday: Oven "Fried" pork chops, Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Broccoli

Monday: Turkey BLT's, Baked Beans
(Our Turkey BLT's are whole wheat bread with turkey, lettuce and tomato and then a strip or two of bacon tossed in; a thin slice of red onion is a great addition too)

Tuesday: Taco's with all the fixin's

Wednesday: Turkey Pot Pie and 7 Layer Salad (We are going to my in-laws on Thanksgiving and my item to bring is a 7 Layer Salad. Whenever I make one of these salads I also make a small, one meal serving sized one for George and I. You know, as long as you've got all the ingredients out and ready to go...7 layer salad isn't something I make all the time)

Thursday: Thanksgiving with the in-laws. This will be my first time tasting a brined turkey. Looking forward to that; I hear they are very moist. Other than the turkey and the 7 Layer salad we are taking, I'm not sure what all is on the menu.

George's mom really lays out the red carpet on the desserts. No doubt there will be at least 3 or 4 goodies to chose from (and leftovers to take home). I love it when George's mom sends home goodies. We usually stick them in the freezer and then I haul them out as "emergency dessert" for those days when our weekly dessert runs out early and George is dying for something sweet after a meal. As you can imagine with a mom that lays out the red carpet on desserts, George just can conceive of a meal without something sweet afterwards. He keeps me busy baking up something regularly.

Friday: Tentatively a pizza get together at our house for the whole gang.

My youngest sister and my little nephew are in town for a few days. And, it's a total surprise for my mom! Shhhh... Kendra and I have almost let the cat of the bag in our excitement several times now. Hopefully Mom doesn't suspect anything.

Don't Miss An Opportunity To Encourage Others

2010-11-17T07:30:00.000-05:00

Never miss the opportunity to encourage somebody. I shudder to think how many times I've missed the boat and not encouraged someone when I had the chance. Life it too short to be the one that pulls others down or or the one that never says "good job; way to go!". We know how discouraging it is to be on the receiving end, why would we would to cause others to feel that way?

A few weeks ago I had the chance to screw up big time and let the air of my sister's sail, and I almost did just that. My little sister who is every bit as frugal and financially conservative as I am did the frugal unthinkable -- she rented a workspace. More specifically an art studio. To someone like me that enjoys art, but doesn't really "get it", my first thought when she excitedly called to tell me the news was "You did WHAT?! Why on EARTH would you waste good money on something like that?!"

Thankfully, after asking for some wisdom from God in how to respond gracefully, I was able to share her excitement of a dream fulfilled and encourage her. She said that my comments were the only good words she had heard that day -- whoa... and I almost said something negative and critical to crush her?

My sister has always had a natural gift for art -- as the older sister, I used to try and copy her pictures and drawings. She's gone to college to learn more and perfect her techniques and is quite accomplished, even selling some of her work. The colored pencil of red raspberries above is one of my favorites. She created it years ago and to her it has a million faults, but I think it's beautiful! She did this completely from memory, every thorn and berry is perfect. It reminds me of those happy summer days when we picked gallons of raspberries with from our berry patch.

Menu Plan Monday

2010-11-08T09:24:00.000-05:00

After the disastrous Stouffer's Lasagna experience a couple of weeks ago (it wasn't nearly as good as George remembered) we will be having real lasagna this week!

Monday

Homemade Salisbury Steaks, Mashed Potatoes, Brussel Sprouts (this is our new favorite supper; the leftovers reheat very well)

Tuesday

Lasagna, Garlic Toast & Garden Salad

Wednesday

Lemon Dill Baked Tilapia, Broccoli and Rice Pilaf

Thursday

Chinese Takeout (must remember to take roast out of the freezer to thaw for Sunday!!!)

Friday

Pizza

Frugal Friday: Get Some Tires

2010-11-05T09:43:00.003-05:00

Yeah, yeah, I know, Frugal Friday is all about saving money. Not spending it. Well, I'm going to share two of my life experiences to make the point that sometimes spending money up front saves us a lot more than money down the road.

Daddy always said he never had 2 nickles to rub together. As my parents were working hard to build up our old farm, money was something that didn't come quickly enough and when we had some, it went faster than greased lightning. In spite of that we always had two vehicles. A car and the farm truck. Technically they were still vehicles, even though they were usually approaching 20 years old and usually only one of them was in running condition. You can just imagine the state of the tires. Once in a while my dad would get somebody else's used tires so we could upgrade the ones that were the worst off. But, all the tires were still varying degrees of bald.

When I was about 7 or 8 we were all piled in Daddy's truck about to make a bend in one of those old narrow country roads where one car has to pull over if another comes from the opposite direction. We hit a slick spot and started spinning, one tire slid completely off the road. Normally that wouldn't be too much of a problem, except this road is cut into a hill side and there was a 40 foot drop if we went over. Nobody breathed as we sat there teetering for what seemed at the time like an eternity. Finally Daddy, said "nobody move!" in the most serious voice I'd ever heard him say. Somehow he manged to get out and get help. A neighbor was able to pull us out with a tractor and we were on our way. Mom was quiet the whole time we were tottering on the edge, but I remember a lot of "discussion" over bald tires on the way home. That episode must have earned her a few well deserved gray hairs.

Fast forward a number of years and I'm on my own and needing a new set of tires. Money was tight and I figured, they're rubber right? Isn't rubber supposed to be grip-y" They should work fine until every last bit of tread is gone! Wrong. On one rainy day I slid all the way down a small hill through a stop sign. Thank goodness no one was there! That really scared me and I've been all about keeping reliable tires on a car since.

With snow in our forecast for this weekend, I've decided it's time for a new set for my car. George is needing a new set for his truck too. We put quite a few miles on our vehicles (one drawback about country living) and that means tires need to be replaced sooner than you might think. Fortunately one of our good friend; our race car driver of a neighbor is a manager at a tire shop and gives us a great deal. Here's a few tips he shared with us about tires to make them last longer:

1. Don't race! I'm sure this doesn't apply to 99% of us, but he and his wife both race and they go through 2 or 3 sets in a weekend. (Good thing they both work at a tire shop, huh?)

2. Rotate your tires. Every 5k-10k miles. When I lived in the city, this was once a year for me. Now that I put a lot more miles on, I need to do it more often. The first two years we lived out here I didn't and TRUST me; it makes a HUGE difference in how long your tires last.

3. Be careful of dry-rot, especially if you park outside and you live in a sunny climate. Ever see those small cracks all over the sidewalls on an older tire? Well, that's dry rot (I'm sure there is a more technical name for this). You can buy a set of 65,000 mile warranted tires and still have plenty of tread left, and yet your tires are junk because of the dry rot. So, if this is a problem for you, only buy cheaper tires where the tread wears down faster, because you will need to replace them sooner anyway. It makes no sense to pay for tires where the tread lasts longer if you need to replace them long before then.

4. Get the right tire for where you live Another example: when my little sister drove up here from San Antonio in the dead of winter, she ran right off the road, in a snow storm. The first thing the tow truck driver told her was to get some tires with more 'aggressive tread' if she was going to be here for the winter. We are just south enough that salt works most of the time so we don't have much snow pack on the main roads in the winter so we put all season radials on with aggressive tread. Up north at the lake where my in-laws live, they don't use salt, because it won't melt snow and ice much. They use sand on the roads, if they use anything. Consequently they have a snow pack for much of the winter and they use snow tires until May and then change back to radials or "regular tires". Other parts of our country, people use metal studded snow tires or chains. It's really important to find out what works best for your climate and then go with that.

This post is linked to FF at LifeasMOM

A Wedding

2010-11-04T19:39:00.003-05:00

Not marrying until you are a confirmed lifetime bachelor runs in my husband's family. This weekend, we had the pleasure of attending the wedding of my husband's youngest brother. He married at the same age George did: 47. There is still one more brother to go, he's 49 and you better believe I'm praying for God to send him a wonderful mate that is just right for him. And, in case he's too dense to realize it's her when she comes along, I'm praying God slaps him upside the head to get his attention.

The wedding was the simplest affair, held in a beautiful little country church up north at the lake. Candles and the slanting afternoon sun streamed in through the stained glass windows to light the knotty pine interior. The bride and groom were glowing with happiness and the anticipation of a rewarding lifetime together.

So often, we are tempted to view attending a wedding as an inconvenience, (so much to prepare for, the expenses, travel) when really, we should think of it as an invitation to share in one of the most precious, important moments in a person's life. A lot like a birth, weddings are. A wedding is the formal pledge to take two separate lives and create one new life, as husband and wife. The real work of this pledge plays out in the day to day business of life. Married life is a tremendous adjustment from single life; there are fights, hurt feelings, and days without words. But, in among all the trials and adjustments of making two lives into one, you get that inward elation, of yes! we are finally doing this! we are becoming one, not just in body, but mind and spirit.

Menu Plan Monday

2010-10-25T08:40:00.001-05:00

Monday: Stouffer's Lasagna, Salad and Garlic Toast made from Homemade bread

Tuesday: Chili and Cornbread

Wednesday: Turkey Sandwiches and Leftover Chili

Thursday: Sloppy Joes, Broccoli Salad (you probably see this a lot; it's one of George's favorite)

Friday: Dinner out and then we will be out of town for the weekend for my brother-in-law's wedding. So happy to see that guy get married!

My Cooking Skills are Still Evolving......

Just so you know, all my dinners are not as delicious as they sound. Last week I made the most horrific "tuna noodle casserole" you could imagine. How can I list the ways this went wrong? First I used whole wheat noodles -- we use whole wheat noodles for most everything and like the taste, but when you use whole wheat noodles, you need to add a little more liquid to the dish because ww noodles tend to absorb more liquid. I didn't do that AND, I got busy with something and let the casserole cook waaay too long. It was one big dried up lump. And, then, let's see I forgot to add the tuna. So we had one big dried out lump of noodles for supper. Uh, not very appetizing, huh? George was a real sweetie and ate a big helping though, he didn't want me to have make anything else.

And We Will Be Eating a Box of Frozen Lasagna

We are not big on eating frozen prepared meals -- usually too low on taste and too high on salt. However, today we will be eating Stoufer's Giant Lasagna in a box. I'm going to buy a big family sized one at lunch time today. As a bachelor, a big pan of Stoufer's lasagna was like a home cooked meal to George. He's mentioned twice this week that he would like one. Last night before closing his eyes to sleep, he mentioned it again. So my husband is dreaming of Stoufer's lasagna... and we are going to have it for supper tonight.

Menu Plan Monday: The Egg Edition Part 2

2010-10-18T07:28:00.000-05:00

This week is Egg Edition Part 2. One night we will be having a breakfast casserole for supper, my husband likes to refer to dishes like this as egg pie. I decided to follow Mama Hen's very wise advice of making up several batches of cookie dough for the freezer. I love to make frosted cut out cookies for almost any holiday, so it will be nice to have all that cookie dough made up -- and luckily the dough recipe contains 3 egg yolks so those eggs will get used up yet!

For this week's dessert, I will be making one of my husband's favorites, pineapple upside down cake -- it's a 3 egg cake. How do you think this would freeze with the pineapple?

Monday: Chicken Fajitas with all the fixin's

Tuesday: Breakfast Casserole, Broccoli Salad

Wednesday: Tuna Noodle Casserole, Broccoli Salad

Thursday: Lemon and Dill Tilapia, Au gratin Potatoes, Mixed Vegetables

Friday: Cheeseburger Pizza (ground beef, green peppers, mushrooms, onions and cheddar cheese)

The Art of Frugal: Learning What DOESN'T Save you Money

2010-10-15T09:55:00.004-05:00

Saving money is terrific, but what if you are doing something that you think is saving you money and then you discover it's not? You stop doing that money "saving" activity! Or, at least find a way to do it that actually saves you money!

For the longest time I thought I was saving money by cooking up a big package of chicken thighs and then taking the meat off the bones and shredding it for future recipes. Sure it was more work than just cooking up boneless skinless chicken breasts, but was it worth it? The last time I cooked a batch I decided to calculate if it saved any money or not, in comparison to using boneless skinless chicken breasts.

Here's what I started with: $4.22 worth of .99 a pound chicken thighs -- complete with fat, skin and bones. Total package weight was 4.26 lbs Please note, the picture below shows them trimmed of most of the fat and skin. I don't know how your store does it but, mine seems to find a way to include all the skin from the whole hind end of the bird. I've plucked enough chickens to know they don't come with that much skin!

After spending 10 minutes trimming the 8 thighs I had exactly 1 pound of trimmings -- fat and skin. This is great if you have a pack of wolves you are feeding -- not if you are trying to save money. After I roasted and cooled them I spent about 15 minutes cleaning the meat off the bones, no doubt missing some of the meat as it's so hard to get into every little nook and cranny. I didn't weigh the bones, but I'm going to estimate they come in at a 1/4 of a pound to make for a nice easy calculation.

By my calculations, the 4.26lb package of .99 per pound chicken thighs has only 3lbs of edible meat so that means the meat comes in at $1.40 per pound. Now, how does this compare to boneless, skinless chicken breasts? In my area, boneless, skinless chicken breast frequently goes on sale for $1.79 - $1.99 per pound, which is anywhere from .39 to .59 a pound more than what chicken thighs cost. Guess what? The thighs are still cheaper, BUT when I take into account the 25 minutes I spend trimming and taking the meat of the thighs I don't think buying thighs are a big money or time saver for me.

For "stocking up the freezer" purposes I will be purchasing boneless, skinless breast because that works best for me. But, I will continue to buy the thighs for eating bbq style because my husband likes to be able to pick up a piece of chicken with bones in it for that kind of a meal.

What doesn't work for you?

This post is linked to Frugal Friday @ LifeasMOM.

This post is linked to WFMW @ Weare THATfamily.

Menu Plan Monday: The Egg Edition

2010-10-11T18:12:00.001-05:00

Please help me out and share your ideas for using up eggs!

I had our weekly menu all planned out. It's a menu that doesn't call for a lot of eggs. One of our neighbors just gave us 3 dozen farm fresh eggs, plus we have nearly 1 dozen in the fridge now. This is good, but maybe it's too much of a good thing, after all there are only 2 of us!

My husband and I like eggs, but they just aren't a food we eat very often, most likely because I tend to think of them as a breakfast food and my husband doesn't eat breakfast and I'm certainly not going to whip up a dozen eggs for my breakfast. I rethought our menu to include using at least one dozen eggs. Drat, we are having apple pie this week for dessert (I know, how can that be bad?!) so I won't be using up any eggs for that.

Here is my revised-- flexible menu. Please give me your suggestions on how to use up nearly 4 dozen eggs in the next couple of weeks.

Monday: Homemade Salisbury Steak, Baked Potatoes, Brussel Sprouts

Tuesday: Breakfast Burritos, (thank goodness I have every thing on hand to make these, so no special trip to the store)

Wednesday: Chili and cornbread (2 eggs!)

Thursday: Homemade Ham, Egg and Cheese McMuffins, Cottage Cheese and Peaches

Friday: Pizza

As an aside, George said our neighbor had a sow that just delivered (farrowed) a litter of 10 piglets -- 8 surviving. They are 3 weeks old and according to my husband's "city boy" description of them being "just plain old pink!" they are little Chester Whites like the ones pictured in my header above. I wanted to run right over there and scoop up a whole armful of those cuties and bring them back home. You had better believe it, I will be stopping by our neighbor's place for some quality baby pig cuddling time.

Michigan Fall Colour

2010-10-11T17:57:00.000-05:00

Friday George had me take a few photos of the fall colour around our place.

This is my favorite. It's the big maple tree outside our bedroom window. It's the first thing I notice when waking up and looking out the window. We feel so blessed to live out here where the first view of the day is this tree, a freshly plowed field and the old milk house.

The view across the front yard -- that's a lot of leaves to clean up! George spent all morning doing just that and now you can hardly tell.

A view of the side yard looking towards the rear of our property. Way off in the distance is our old red shed that's more of a home for squirrels, opossums and raccoons than for farm storage. Every year it leans a little more; it really needs to be torn down, but I love it too much. A new pole barn doesn't come with the same level of warm fuzziness.

Here's the view looking towards the road. Those ornamental grasses were so small when I first planted them, the middle one towers over my by a good two feet.

Menu Plan Monday

2010-10-04T08:47:00.000-05:00

In spite of a cold, dreary weekend, we are fore casted for a beautiful, sunny week. When planning our menu this weekend, I was really (cold and dreary, remember) in the mood for comfort foods so that's mostly what's on the menu. We will see how that works out. For dessert this week we are having what will probably be our last strawberry shortcake of the season.

Monday: Meatloaf, Butternut Squash, Coleslaw

Tuesday: Lemon & Dill Tilapia, Au gratin Potatoes, Mixed Veggies

Wednesday: Turkey Sandwiches and Bean Soup

Thursday: Ham & Mac Casserole, Garden Salad

Friday: Cheeseburger Pizza

2010-10-02T21:06:00.000-05:00

It's a cold dreary day today. Rain is continually drip, drip, dripping. A roaring fire is in the wood stove and the heat is radiating throughout the family room and kitchen. Days like this are wonderful for body and soul. I've needed a day like this for a long time, where there's no pressure to get out and do anything or work on outdoor projects.

I slept in until 6:30 and awoke refreshed and ready to start the day, armed with my list of errands and chores. But upon hearing the rain softly dripping down and taking note the sky was still black as night, I decided to decadently pull up the covers and sleep in some more. I lay there a long time appreciating all the things that we so easily forget to be thankful for when we are busy or things aren't going our way.

Once our little family of husband and beagle were up, we leisurely watched the news and had coffee and tea. I pared down my must do errand list down to the one and only "must do" item: getting groceries. Turns out those other errands weren't nearly as important and I thought! The rest of the afternoon was spent on laundry, a few phone calls, and puttering around the house. I love puttering. I'm not sure how you would describe it, but to me, it's a no hurry approach to tidying up the house. It's doing a few little things here and there in among leisurely pursuits, like taking a break for tea, or reading another chapter in a book, or playing with the dog.

What a quiet, refreshing day! How was your day?

My First Post From A Lap Top

2010-10-02T13:04:00.000-05:00

Well folks, the title says it all: this is my first time posting from a lap top -- my new laptop. Our old Dell desktop is nearing the end of its life so we thought it best to get a new computer before it totally dies. Our printer has been deceased for a while now so we replaced that too.

I can hardly get over the novelty of being able to type from the comfort of the recliner or actually printing something out. For people that don't print a lot, we sure did miss having a working printer! One thing I'm especially looking forward to is being able to use this thing at the kitchen table or counter when I enter piles of business receipts. My desk has a free area of about 1 square foot to set stuff on, so it will be really nice to be able to have everything laid out within easy reach for entering. Of course, you notice I am typing this post instead of entering receipts. Ahem.

For the past month I've been researching the best buy for the buck and after awhile it feels like you are going to lose your mind. Maybe that's just me, there is only so much technical computer talk I can take. Picking out a new computer (or any electronics) is almost paralyzing in it's complexity. Is it worth it to spend a little more to upgrade the whatz it and the hoozit and even that will be old and outdated in 6 months? Good grief, who cares?! So finally I picked out what seemed to be a good buy at a good price that will do what we need it to do. So far all is well.

Just my Thoughts on Strong Willed Children

2010-09-28T10:21:00.001-05:00

I don’t have children and you know what that means…. I have a whole truck load of child rearing advice backed by absolutely no practical experience. Those of you with children can stop laughing now. Remember how it was before you had children? Your kids were never going to do X or be allowed to say X. You would never be the parent at the store with a child screaming at an ear drum shattering decibel level. And then, on day two of bringing your sweet little bundle of joy home you realized you shouldn’t have been allowed to bring the baby home without some sort of license or advanced training seminar?

As a parent of a beagle, which goes poop outside, eats off the floor, and only needs bathed a couple of times a year I understand that I am in no way qualified to give parenting advice. In my book, women that call themselves “Mom” to anyone that the authorities won’t be alerted if it dies are not qualified to give parenting advice.

Because I recognize how severely disqualified I am to give parenting advice I try very hard to refrain from doing it, or criticizing parents – even when it looks like the children were dumped off from the local zoo’s Monkey House exhibit. Parenting is hard work!

One day at work a friend was talking to me in a voice laden with all the weariness and exhaustion you would expect from a mother of two very energetic boys about the rough week, month… year she was having and how parenting was nothing like she thought it would be. I told her I thought she was doing a great job as Mom and that her boys would turn out terrific because they had her for a mom. She nearly started bawling right there at the copier. Parenting is hard work!

Surprisingly My Sister Asks Me for Advice

My little sister (mother to two teenagers, God bless her) asks me for parenting advice. Little old me, with absolutely no child raising experience. Sounds flattering, right. Not really. Let me tell you why.

No. It’s not so that I feel important and useful. She’s my little sister remember? Her main purpose in life is to tattle on me.

My sister is blessed with a tremendously strong willed, 14-going-on-30-year old daughter. It’s a real battle of wills -- and tears. My sister, being an ever pleasing middle child simply can’t get how a strong willed child can be so, so, so….. well, you fill in the blank. One day she called me crying saying that she was horrified to finally figure out that her daughter is just like me. She often feels like she is the child in the mother daughter relationship, or at least the little sister. Just what every sister wants to hear.

After we shed some tears and laughed at ourselves, my sister felt immensely better and then started periodically calling me for advice -- Parenting advice. Apparently she figures that I’ve got some kind of inside scoop on how to deal with children that want to not only boss the entire household, but the world. I probably do; how often I’ve wished for my own bank, business, country… planet, but in a healthy, balanced sort of way : )

Step One: Copy Mom & Dad

My first advice to my sister was that she start doing whatever it was that Mom and Daddy did to parent us. After all, their methods have been proven to work. Turns out that's what she was doing, only it wasn't working. In discussing how this could be, we discovered that our parents parented us very differently! My sister hardly ever remembers receiving correction and discipline, or even needing a good talking to. What the?! Apparently, she was one of those kind of children that all parents dream of that try really hard to do everything their parents say to please them. To put it nicely, lets just say they had to work a little harder with me.

For what it's worth here are my totally un-tested tips for parenting strong willed children are based solely on my own personal experience as a child and the techniques my parents used on me.

1. Let it be known, unquestionably that you are the parent and you make the household decisions, not the child. This is probably the most helpful thing my parents did to keep our household and family peaceful. My folks just naturally did this from my birth. I don't think it's something they had to work at. They both grew up in families where parents were the grown ups and just naturally did the same. That one thing eliminated much controversy and trouble. There were a lot of attitudes and manipulation techniques I didn't even try because I knew they would simply not stand for it. If you have a history of letting your child control and manipulate you into making the decisions they want I have no suggestions of how to get out of that pattern, as all my experience is based on never being allowed to do it in the first place. Best see #2.

2. Pray for God's help in raising your strong willed child. I don't care if you are an atheist or an agnostic; if you don't think you need God's help to raise your child, then you do not have a strong willed child.

3. Recognize that strong willed children are not anymore inherently bad or sinful than any other child and they should not be treated as though they are. Yes, they know how to push your buttons and will try your patience to the point of breaking but you can still have a sweet relationship with them. Do not belittle them, bully them, or otherwise torment them. They will resent you for it all the days of their lives. It will make them hard hearted, angry and critical.

I never had any doubts about my parents' love and affection for me. We weren't one of those families where we said "I love you" all the time. In fact, I seldom remember hearing that. But, I always knew I was loved, appreciated, valued and enjoyed. Because my parents clearly enjoyed being with me. Not only did they love me; they liked me. I felt happy, confident and secure.

4. Train, train, and train some more on negative traits. Let's face it. Most strong willed children have strong tendencies to be outspoken, bossy, and selfish. Lots of kids have these tendencies to some degree, but strong willed children get a double or triple dose. These aren't exactly the best traits to have if you want to have happy, peaceful relationships. If they are not trained out of them, or at least toned down a lot, the child will grow up to have trouble in every relationship they have. Think about it. How many adults do you know that never had these traits trained out? Do you like to spend time with them?

I cringe to think how much these traits are a part of me -- even today. As a child, they were much more pronounced. I remember being constantly told things like "let your sister go first", "let's quietly listen to what Susy has to say", "ask to play with the toy, don't just grab it". Now, I tell my self similar grown up versions of these statements when interacting with people.

For my work, I've had several personality tests (you know the kind where you are supposed to answer from you gut and not what you think they want to hear) and I always score in the highest level of leader (read bossy). People that know me personally are always very surprised by that because I don't seem to have such a strong personality. A giant thank you to my parents is in order. They worked very hard to get me to think before I open my mouth (can't say that I do that as often as I would like:) and to consider others first. Their diligence has led to much more enjoyable and well rounded relationships for me.

5. Allow your child to shine. Strong willed children typically handle a lot of responsibility well, work independently, make decisions quickly, are strong natural leaders, and will surprise you with their many accomplishments. It is key for the strong willed child to feel as if they are in charge of something -- anything. Obviously this doesn't mean your child gets to boss the whole family, but you will be terrifically surprised at how happy your strong willed child will be if he is allowed to be in charge of something with your full approval. If a strong willed child is not put in charge of several time consuming occupations they will find trouble.

I am so very thankful that my parents recognized this early on, both for my own happiness and for their peace of mind. It is probably what saved them from being locked up in a padded room. They made me boss of everything! It's funny to think of it now and I surely hope they weren't just humoring me, but this technique really does work!

Here are some of the things my parents put me in charge of:

keeping the wood box full
emptying the ashes
the chickens
sweeping the kitchen floor after meals
hanging clothes on the line
tending my mini garden
tending the sick baby animals or the runts when they were brought into the house

I made each of these responsibilities my own personal mission to do and do well. My parents never had to remind me to clean out the chicken coop, collect the eggs or fill the wood box. I remember spending the early fall afternoons of the first grade thinking over what all produce from my mini garden would be ready to bring in to the cellar for storage after school. And the baby animals? Oh my, they couldn't have wanted for more attention or nursing.

Maybe you don't live on a farm, but there are all kinds of things you can put your strong willed child in charge of and they will run with it. Just make sure to emphasize it's THEIR job and you know how good they will be at it. How about making sure every scrap of paper and toy is picked up off the floor? How about setting the table and clearing it? Or, the laundry?

6. Pray for your child to know the Lord Jesus as Savior above all else. And for them to develop humility and to seek the wisdom of God. Strong willed children grow up to be strong willed adults, regardless of how much we try to tone it down. With that comes an overwhelming sense of pride. We tend to think we've done it all and we are so great that we simply have no need of the Lord. Oh, how many years I thought that when, really, it was the Lord carrying me. The humility that comes with that realization makes for a whole new outlook on life.

Are you the parent of a strong willed child? Please share anything you've found to be particularly helpful in the comment section.

Menu Plan Monday

2010-09-20T08:55:00.000-05:00

Monday: Steaks on the Grill, Au gratin Potatoes, Garden Salad

Tuesday: Turkey Sandwiches, Veggies & Dip

Wednesday: Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Salad, Garlic Rolls

Thursday: Tuna Noodle Casserole, Green Beans

Friday: Pizza

Well. Last week I forgot to thaw the turkey, so we will not be having turkey leftovers this week. Perhaps if I can remember to do that this week, next week we can eat turkey leftovers. Last night I made an apple pie so we will have that for dessert this week.

Could I be a Southerner?

2010-09-18T19:32:00.001-05:00

Roxanne recently asked:

" Are you SURE you're not from the South?"

When I read Roxanne's question, I had to laugh. Over the course of my blogging career I've been asked that several times and I'm not really sure why. In this latest instance it was because Roxanne noted my love for homemade biscuits. Last night I counted up and it turns out that most of the bloggers I follow are from the south, so there must be some draw to the South for me.

But just for the sake of some fun, I'll give you some reasons why I like the south. Bear with me, as one that has never lived in the south I'm basing a lot of this on my perception of the south. Which might be totally off base.

I absolutely love homemade biscuits, banana cream pie, cornbread and coconut cake. And fried stuff and greens.

I love the country life (yes, I understand "the south" is not all rural:) and the slower pace of life.

I have pretty conservative values. Up here in Michigan (at least in my part of the state)-- that's fairly unusual. Even though we have many churches here, most of them are the kind that like the idea of the bible, but don't want actually do anything it says. Isn't the south referred to as the Bible Belt? There's probably a greater percentage of the general population that believes there is a God and that He gets to make up the rules. What a novel idea!

I LOVE the accents -- all of them. According to southerners I sound all whiny and nasally and pronounce Mom as Maaaam. Great. My accent would make me stick out like a sore thumb. One of my brothers has lived in Texas for the last 30 years and I really love his voice. He sounds just like Dr. Phil does and you could see him saying "And how's that workin for ya?"

The longer growing season. Up here it is inconceivable to have 2 or 3 growing seasons. We try real hard to plant stuff early enough in our one 3 month season so that it has time to ripen before frost.

Little or no snow. We are in full fledged autumn now and it goes fast. Snow (or at least really cold whether ) will be here before we know it.

I really enjoy Southern Living magazine. Last year I excitedly subscribed to Midwest Living thinking it would be just like Southern Living -- only for my neck of the woods. I was very sad when the first issue arrived full of promise only to disappoint because it was one giant advertisement masquerading as a magazine.

The people. Over the years I've had the pleasure of talking with many southerners in person and on the phone. When I worked at the grocery store, there were a lot customers that came up here to work in the GM plants. They were always the friendliest sort. In my current job I often speak with folks from the south and even though they are usually calling about a problem and are often very frustrated, they are still the most gracious people, everyone in my group thinks so. I think this is one of the reasons I enjoy reading the blogs of southern women so much -- they are just so warm and friendly!

The roads. I live in the land of let's see how bad we can let the roads get before people start killing off the politicians. Seriously. Last year, the county attempted to fill the cracks in the main highway near our home with sawdust. Again, not kidding. Two years ago when I went down to Gulf Shores to visit my in-laws my nose was stuck to the back window as I kept admiring mile after mile of un-potholed roads.

Prison work crews. When I was a little kid the main town near us, where we went to do all of our "big shopping" at the Wards catalog store and Kmart was a prison town. It was also the cleanest town you ever saw. They had prison and jail work crews out there cleaning everything and planting flowers. Now-a-days they don't do this very often. The reason for this is because almost all of the county, local and state employees that are charged with doing clean up work are unionized here and they don't want prisoners doing the work for free. Something about putting a union worker out of a job. You would think this would mean we would still have beautiful roadsides and public areas. We don't because it costs too much to have a union worker to do it.

I'm not sure if they have prisoners doing this type of work throughout the south, but I saw a lot of it in Alabama. Plus I'm a big believer in having them do something for the public good instead of lying around watching television.

The title Miss. Remember the matriarch from Dallas -- Miss Ellie? A dear lady that was my boss years ago lived in the south for many years. She shared how the Miss title is used down south and I think it's the greatest thing. We don't have anything like that here. We use the formal Mrs/Ms or the first name. It would be great to have something in between.

One of my favorite Southern sayings is "bless her heart". Apparently you can say just about anything about somebody and then follow it up with a bless her heart and it comes across as a compliment. I am ALL FOR such a sweet way of telling someone they are a complete idiot. It makes me feel less mean. It works especially good up here, where most people don't know what it's code for. Are there any more special sayings like this?

Now, for some more laughs. Here's why you could never mistake me for a Southerner.

I can't stand sweet tea, the cornbread I love must be sweetened --a lot. I can't stand mustard or collared greens and do not believe in flavoring any vegetable side dish with any part of a smoked hog. And, I detest okra in any form -- even fried. And catfish. Soda is pop to me.

I think 90 degrees is too hot to do much of anything. On the rare occasions when it reaches 95, I start wondering if hell is about the same level of hotness.

The incredibility large bugs, spiders and what not and those flying cockroaches people down there like to affectionately rename Palmetto Bugs. We like to rename stuff so it sounds less offensive too, but everybody knows what it really is.

I love the accents but sometimes have a hard time adjusting to the slowness of the speech. Up here we talk really fast. All of us; well you could probably exclude those with a stuttering problem. There have been many times I've wanted to reach right through the phone and shake the living daylights out someone to make them talk faster. To give you an idea of what it feels like, imagine you are on a 70 mile per hour freeway, and someone in a combine gets on in front of you and you can't pass. You go from 70 down to 8. Ever notice how there aren't many southerners on those tv news shows where all they do is yell at each other? That's because the people that make these shows know that most southerners can't speak fast enough even when they are mad to make for a good fight.

Kindergarten graduations. Apparently this is a VERY big deal and I sure hope I'm not going to offend any of you sweet southern readers. But, most of us Northerners (except those super doting parents that celebrate every. single. thing. their kid does) are thinking Come on, what is the big deal... so your kid made it through their first grueling year of eating paste and learning not to pick their nose in public?! Let's have a big party?!

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the northern/southern culture. Share away!

Menu Plan Monday

2010-09-13T07:45:00.000-05:00

After taking an inventory of what all foods we have on hand in the freezer and pantry (and buying a few more items this weekend) I've made up our weekly menu to use up what we have on hand.

Monday: Roast Beef, Potatoes, Brussel Sprouts, Biscuits & Jam

Tuesday: Chicken 'n Dumplings, mashed potatoes, green beans

Wednesday: Chicken & Black Bean Burritos with all the fixin's

Thursday: Comfort Ham & Mac Casserole, Beets

Friday: Homemade Pizza

Saturday: Turkey & Dressing, Squash, Brussel Sprouts

Our Cleaning Out the Pantry Menu

2010-09-08T19:02:00.000-05:00

After taking stock of all the major items in our pantry and freezer I've jotted down a quick list of potential meals and side dishes we will be eating the next few weeks. I also noticed I've got a lot of dessert type mixes and such. There's no way George will be able to eat all of that in the next several months, so I might make up some of the muffins and stick those in the freezer for what I like to call "emergency desserts".

Sides

Mac & Cheese from a box 2x
Wild Rice
Couscous (will be having tonight, yum!)
Pasta Salad
Split Pea & Ham Soup
Stove Top Stuffing
Cornbread (probably about 5 times)

Main Dish

Spaghetti
8x8 pan of lasagna
Chicken & Mushroom Alfredo
Sloppy Joes x2
Burritos/tacos 5x
taco bake
Oven fried pork chops (tomorrow night)
Anything with bbq sauce (we have 5 bottles bought for about .25 a piece. Good thing George likes bbq sauce on almost any kind of meat)
Turkey (We might have my sister's family over for a preThanksgiving meal)
Fish (tonight)
tuna noodle casserole

One of the reasons I love to sort out the cabinets & freezer and figure out just what we've got in there is because doing so forces me to make the best use of the food we have on hand. I'm one of those people that will open a 1/2 full cabinet of stuff all jumbled about and think "oh, that's not enough to make a meal out of anything". I want takeout!!!!!! Every time I take an inventory of what we've got and arrange it all neatly I am utterly amazed at the number of meals that can be whipped up out of "nothing".

One particularly yummy find was some freezer jam. How, after only a week or so did that get pushed to the back of the freezer?!

My mother gave me a jar of strawberry freezer jam for my birthday and I can't wait to bake up some homemade biscuits to serve with it. When I was a kid, we ate homemade biscuits and jam several times a week. In my mind that was a complete meal.

Our Spider Policy

2010-09-08T18:42:00.000-05:00

We have a lot of spiders. I ~~don't particularly care for~~ hate spiders. Unfortunately since we have lives, (and no maid) we cannot spend our days squashing the innumerable number of spiders we have -- in the garage, in the outbuildings, in our old, spidery, rat, snake and what-not infested country root cellar of a basement. To help us cope with all the spiders we have an unwritten Spider Policy:

When to let the Spiders live

Under most circumstances a spider is allowed to live if it's in an area we don't often use like an out of the way corner, or any place that George goes more than I do like the outbuildings and the cellar... and the crawl space. Doesn't the word crawl space just scream spider infested? If the spider is in a more populated area like the kitchen or living room, then I still let it live if it's not too easy to kill it. Laziness rules.

When to squash Spiders dead

Under no circumstances is a spider allowed to live if it's on or real close to furniture, in the bedroom or headed that way. All spiders near the toilet or in the tub/shower will be killed on sight -- I'm still tormented by the Arachnophobia movie. Any fast moving spiders and recent spider baby hatchlings are killed immediately -- even if it's hard to get to them. I'm not taking any chances with those suckers!

One of the things about living up here in Michigan where it gets, down right cold is the immense satisfaction that all the creepy bugs, spiders and such will die, die, die every winter. I really feel for the people in warmer parts of the country (and God forbid the tropics) where their creepy crawlies only get bigger and bigger.

Do you have a spider policy? How big do your spiders get?

Our Labour Day Weekend

2010-09-06T21:30:00.005-05:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Labour Day weekend. Around here we tend to take the "labour" part of Labour Day Weekend literally. We don't intentionally celebrate the holiday that way, it just works out really well as a catch up weekend for us. We've both been working an ungodly amount of hours lately, so a catch up weekend was much needed. While we are very thankful for the work, rest is also very much needed and appreciated.

In spite of having a 3 day "work weekend" I feel remarkably refreshed and renewed, mostly because I forced myself to not bring anything from the office home and to completely forget all about it and was mostly successful -- except for those two bad dreams about the office.

The first of our very much anticipated cooler fall weather arrived this weekend. How wonderful it feels to curl up in jeans, socks and my favorite tattered old sweatshirt! George built the first fire of the season in the wood stove. Saturday evening we spent a good while sitting in front of the stove enjoying the warmth and listening to the crunchy whisper of fallen leaves blowing into the garage.

George spent the morning mowing and finished just in time for a good downpour. We really need the rain so no complaints here. While the rain was drumming down George started making some trim for a basement remodel he hopes to finish this week. I happily puttered around the house doing laundry, straightening things up and taking stock of our pantry and freezer supplies.

A few times a year I like to go through our stash of food on hand to ensure we are using the older items up first and that I'm not consistently ignoring some foods for a year or more. Who needs more "mystery packages" in the freezer or 5 year old flour? I made up an inventory list of the major items in our freezer and pantry and then came up with a list of possible meal ideas. Over the few weeks we will go lighter on newly purchased groceries and eat up the older stuff in the cupboards.

We finished up the day with a big pot of chili and cornbread with honey.

Menu Plan Monday

2010-08-23T10:17:00.000-05:00

We are finally getting some cooler weather here and I'm in the mood for more fall comfort food type meals. But, we are up to our eyeballs in fresh tomatoes and corn so we need to eat that up. The fall casserole food will have to wait a couple of weeks.

Here's what we are having for dinner this week:

Monday: BLT's, Homemade Steakhouse Potato Salad

Tuesday: Sloppy Joes, Glazed Carrots, Garden Salad

Wednesday: BBQ chicken thighs, Broccoli Salad, Rolls

Thursday: Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Garlic Toast, Garden Salad

Friday: Homemade Pizza

Menu Plan Monday

2010-08-16T14:37:00.003-05:00

Now that you've got some idea of what we purchase for $50 a week; here's what we are eating this week:

Monday:

Breakfast: Protein Shake, Cottage Cheese

Lunch: Oriental Chicken Salad from Boston Market, yuck and double yuck, save your $

Supper: Ham Sandwiches for George, Tuna Salad for me, Chili from the freezer

Tuesday:

Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with brown sugar and Peanut Butter

Lunch: Tuna Salad on day old Croissants marked down, apple
Supper: Chicken Pot Pie, Mashed Potatoes, Beets & Garden Salad

Wednesday:

Breakfast: Greek Yogurt & Banana
Lunch: Chicken Pot Pie (mmmm Love this!)
Supper: Meatloaf from the freezer, Baked Potato, Brussel Sprouts, Carrots

Thursday:

Breakfast: Cottage Cheese & Fibre One Cereal, nectarine
Lunch: Another Chicken Pot Pie, Apple
Supper: Oven baked Pork Chops, roasted root veggies (rutabaga, turnips and parsnips) and a garden salad

Friday

Breakfast: Scrambled egg with melted cheese
Lunch: Pork Chop and veggies
Supper: Pizza

Snacks for this week will be skim milk, low fat cheese, cashews, apple, nectarines and raw veggies with dip.

This post is linked to MPM.

The Household Grocery Budget

2010-08-16T14:10:00.002-05:00

Mrs. U over at Making a House a Home, recently lamented the high cost of groceries. It can be a real challenge to provide our families with nutritious meals without breaking the bank! When we first married, four years ago I set our grocery budget at $50 per week. As a single lady, my grocery budget was $34 a week and I didn't even use all of it most weeks. I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to feed George for an additional $16 per week. And, it was easy, at first. And, then it became increasingly more challenging, especially when George decided he wanted milk that costs $8 a gallon.

When I'm in a big hurry I would love to be one of those people that runs to the store without considering what's on sale, making a list, and just throw whatever looks good in the cart, But I've come to realize that's not me. I need to have some sort of a game plan for the grocery store, or I spend way too much money and have nothing to make a meal of.

So, What Do We For $50 a Week?

Every family's grocery budget looks a little different. What you spend for food depends on income, the season of life you are in, special dietary considerations and preferences and how much food costs in your neck of the woods. Here's a look at what we routinely get for our $50 per week and our special considerations that affect cost:

First off, we just have the two of us to feed and that alone is a big money saver. My husband doesn't eat a typical breakfast or lunch 5 days a week, but he does go through a jar of peanuts every other week to help keep mid day hunger at bay and he eats a really big meal at night. I have special dietary need of a little higher lean protein than average due to weight loss surgery. Other than that we don't have any special foods we need. We aren't "all organic, never buy anything in a box people" either. But we do like lots of fresh veggies, fruit and dairy. My idea of a convenience food is a bag of frozen vegetables.

If you read my weekly menus you have a pretty good idea of what we eat for supper day in and day out, so we will start with that.

Our most commonly eaten dinner meats are the following (all purchased at sale prices)

Fish (free; well except for the license and tackle, but that comes under entertainment in our budget)
Pork Loin (about $1.79lb)
Ground Round (about $2.29lb)
Chicken Breast (about $1.79-1.99lb)
Chicken Thighs (about .99lb)
Good Steak (about 1x per month $5.99 to 7.49lb)

Sometimes we eat the protein portion of our supper in a form that stretches it out a bit; like a Mexican dish or casserole of some sort. The sides for our suppers are pretty simple: salads, fresh or frozen vegetables. We grow a pretty good sized garden and eat from that for most of July and August. We preserve onions, peppers and corn and share the rest of what we don't eat right away with friends and family.

Other items we buy frequently:

Ice Cream (Breyer's $2.50)
Milk ($2-$3 a gallon)
Cottage Cheese ($2)
Greek Yogurt ($2-$4)
Sour Cream ($1-$1.50)
Cheese ($3 - $4/lb)
Albacore Tuna ($2)
Salsa ($2)
Bread ($2 -$3)
Fresh and/or frozen fruit and veggies (about $10-$15 each week)

Items we use fairly often, but buy only occasionally due to stocking up on a great sale, or buying in a larger quantity:

Oils (olive, coconut, walnut)
Butter
Flour
Sugar
Stevia
Tea
Coffee
Crackers
Oats
Rice
Pasta
Beans
Peanuts
Tomato Sauce, Paste, etc
Gum
Taco Shells
Spices
Condiments

Over all, I think we eat a pretty healthy diet on our $50 a week budget. Since we nixed the $8 a gallon it's been a lot easier to stick to $50, but it still presents a fun challenge. I think the main reason we are able to stick to a pretty conservative grocery budget is mostly because of what we don't buy or only buy as a rare treat or convenience. Many items we think of as staples or must haves, actually cost quite a lot of money per serving. Some examples are: many types of cold cereals, breakfast bars, juice, pop, frozen dinners or desserts, canned soup and out of season produce. Of course, if you match up a good sale with a coupon, many of these items can be had very cheaply and sometimes I do that.

We Splurge Too!

That said, it might surprise you to find out we do include some expensive items in our grocery budget. Such as gum (is that even a food?!) well, it is to me because it comes out of the grocery budget. My husband must go through 6 packs of this a month. I also buy the good tuna -- the expensive Starkist albacore pouches. I just don't like the light tuna. Does that make me bad? I match up sales with coupons to the extent that I can to keep the cost lower, but sometimes I pay full price for a package. Please note, if I were feeding a crowd of hungry kids, I would be very tempted to serve the .59 a can cheap stuff!

We also buy Stevia, which is a gazillion times more expensive than regular sugar. I routinely buy the more expensive brands of Greek Yogurt like Chobani, Stoneyfield Farms and Fage which, is very pricey per serving -- but I really, really like it. Oh, and we also buy the good bread that's about $4 a loaf but we get that on sale for $2 -$3). Sometimes I make homemade, which is much tastier and cheaper, but not that often. And, don't forget the steak. About once every month or so I've been buying a couple of pounds of really good steak. There are plenty of items we are willing to skimp and buy the cheaper version so we can splurge on the things we really like.

Is It Sweet Tea or Unsweetened Tea?

2010-08-13T13:45:00.001-05:00

Last week I sat next to a girlfriend at a company luncheon and she ordered a sweet tea. The first thought in my mind was "this ain't the south, honey". In confirmation of my thought, the waitress replied "we only serve unsweetened tea". To you Southerners serving only unsweetened tea boarders on blasphemy, but up here, north of the sweet tea line, it's the norm. The expression on my girlfriend's face was priceless, she just couldn't believe they expected her to sweeten her tea herself at the table. She's lived in Michigan for years and years so I was really surprised that she thought you could get a sweet tea at a restaurant (it's just not done here, folks). She said that she'd gotten used to all the McDonald's carrying the sweet tea and thought all the restaurants had finally arrived. Too cute!

Just for the record, I really like tea in general and love icy cold unsweetened tea in the summer. I'm not to particular about brands, I usually make my hot and cold tea at home using Lipton or something similar that can be picked up a regular grocery store. Lately I've really been enjoying the new Lipton pyramid teas -- blueberry pomegranate is my favorite! As far as iced tea; in my neck of the woods; Gold Peak Tea is the gold standard for good tea; but I seldom buy it as it's so much cheaper to make it at home for as much as we drink.

So, how do you like your tea? Sweet or Unsweetened?

Where is this elusive Sweet Tea Line? Does it fall the same as the Mason-Dixon line?

Do you like hot tea as well as iced tea?

My Waterford Crystal, Egg Anniversary

2010-08-12T08:20:00.000-05:00

George and I don't generally exchange gifts to celebrate our anniversary. So, I wasn't expecting anything on our anniversary last week. But, I was pleasantly surprised. Upon his return from a long hot day of roofing a barn, the first thing he unloaded from his truck was a Waterford crystal box, a card with my name on it and a dozen of eggs. My curiosity was piqued. George had been working 12-14 hour days for weeks and weeks; when did he have time to buy me a gift? I wondered. And, a something crystal?! Let's face it; I'm far more likely to receive a gift that can be bought at a contractor's supply house.

After we finished our nightly ritual of unloading his truck, we sat down and had a glass of ice water and George told me the story of the crystal vase. George was telling the owner of the barn that it was our 4th anniversary that day. He tells everyone when it's our anniversary -- which is enough to make me marry that man all over again. Turns out his customer has a whole roomful of Waterford crystal in one of his other barns. What on earth?! A roomful of boxed up ready to gift crystal?! He gave George a lovely vase and card to give to me and said to consider it part of his pay for the job. What a nice surprise.

In addition to the beautiful vase; I was equally thrilled to receive a dozen pastel coloured eggs from "Easter Egg" chickens. I'd never seen any of these eggs up close and personal and they are just so neat. The blue eggs are my favorite; the palest blue and so exquisitely dainty and beautiful.

Our Weekly Menu

2010-08-09T08:02:00.001-05:00

Monday

BBQ Ribs, Mashed Potatoes, Green Peas

Tuesday

Quick & Tasty Mexican Casserole with all the fixin’s and homemade salsa

Wednesday

Spaghetti & Meatballs, Garden Salad, Garlic Toast

Thursday

Lemon Dill Fish, Oven Fries, Glazed Carrots

Friday

Take out Pizza

It's our Anniversary!

2010-08-04T18:13:00.001-05:00

We are celebrating anniversaries back to back around here. Today is our 4th wedding anniversary; the time has passed so quickly. It's hard to believe 4 years have gone by in the blink of an eye.

We aren't doing anything to celebrate due to George's long hours, unless you count me discovering that Mr Clean magic erasers really do work magic on stubborn shower and tub stains. Oh wait, that is something to celebrate all on it's own! We will probably grab a bite to eat after church on Sunday after the flurry of the week has passed.

The blog-o-sphere is filled with oodles of newly-married-to-my-best-friend-and-everything-is-perfect ladies doling out expert marriage advice. Frankly, that's always seem kind of ironic to me. I prefer to seek counsel on important topics like marriage from those that have done it for a long time and have actually seen hard times. And, no, having to stick to a household budget and working long hours does not constitute a hard time.

Now, that I've made my viewpoint on who's qualified to give out marriage advice on the Internet and who's not clear, I'm going to give you my advice. Me -- who doesn't even meet my own criteria. Tee hee. Please stay with me as I'm sharing the three most helpful things to our marriage.

1. Ask God for a mate

Hello, this is just good common sense. The One that made you also probably has a really good idea of who is the right mate for you. When I was a little kid, our local Redneck dime store routinely cleared out old merchandise by stuffing a bunch in a grocery bag and stapling it shut so you couldn't see the contents. Upon paying your $1 you tore open the bag hoping for something good. Sometimes you were pleasantly surprised. Most often you were severely disappointed. If I did the picking of a husband on my own, I stood a pretty fair chance of pulling a dud out of the grab bag of life. It worked much better for me to go with God's choice and end up pleasantly surprised.

2. Stop being so selfish

Uh, yeah, that's a hard one for me. George and I both married late in life and lived alone for so long that we've had all the time in the world to become selfish. It is so easy to get along with people when you don't have to be around anyone. It's laughable now to think how sweet and loving I thought I was when I lived alone. My sisters and I have actually laughed ourselves sick over that one.

So many marriages struggle for a breath of life because one or both parties are so worried the other one is being to selfish and not meeting all their needs. News flash: we can all be horribly selfish -- even when we think we're not because we just can't see it. Bottom line; stop whining and start being nice, thoughtful and helpful. The chances of you being taken advantage of and never getting your own way, or having things done right, or becoming a doormat are pretty slim. Even if you don't get as much as you think you should in return, it's a good feeling to be sweet to your husband. After all, did we get married just to see how much we can get from our spouse? It seems to me we ought to be good to our husband to show our love and affection because that's what you do to people you love. Not in love anymore? How about doing it because you promised to.

3. Attend the Seniors bible study class

At 51 and 35, George and I are the youngest members of our Sunday bible study class. We've been in the class since before marriage and I can honestly say that I've learned as much on life from the members of our class as I have from our study of the bible. Hearing a man tell you with tears in his eyes that he will have to put his wife of 64 years in a home soon really helps you put love, life and marriage in the proper perspective.

Our Weekly Menu

2010-08-02T07:19:00.000-05:00

Monday

Chili topped Cheese & Sour Cream, Cornbread

Tuesday

Reubens, Pasta Salad

Wednesday

Mesquite Marinated Grilled Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans

Thursday

Taco Bake topped with lettuce, sour cream, salsa & tomatoes

Friday

Pizza

Our Country Garage Sale Plan Foiled

2010-07-26T10:56:00.032-05:00

After sharing my tips on how to have a successful country garage sale I now have to admit defeat. We held our sale this weekend and it was a dismal failure -- as in the worst garage sale I have ever held.

We had a couple of big problems. The first being advertising. We seem to get the best response with a very detailed Craig's List ad that includes some pictures. Just as I was getting ready to put the ad up my computer decided to die. (I'm waiting on the IT people to let me know if it can be resurrected.) Our little country library has very limited hours and they were closed on our sales days, so the ad was a no go.

Secondly, we had rain, rain and more rain; oh and throw in a whole bunch of heat and make-up-slides right-of-your-face-as-you-are-putting-it-on-humidity. This was probably our biggest hurdle. People just aren't in the mood to garage sale in the rain. No matter how much planning you do, there's not much to a sale if you don't have customers!

After a couple of days of rain and lackluster sales, we finally decided to call it quits. I was never so happy to end a sale. As soon as George suggested we pack up everything and donate it, my energy renewed and I quickly packed every part of my car by the driver's seat with our castoffs and drove to the closest Good Will.

An Interesting Phenomenon

As excited as I was to be packing up our dismal failure of a garage sale and getting all that stuff our of our house I was torn between wanting to donate the stuff and cram it all back into our house. With each item, I had a little flash of "waaaaiiiit maybe I can use that!". So I kept reminding myself the reason we had the sale in the first place was to get rid of the stuff and I just kept loading the car up. Why is it so hard to part with our things?

Success is a Matter of Thinking

As disappointed as we were we decided to consider the sale a success. After all, even though we only made $20, we did get rid of a whole car full of stuff, which was the whole point of the sale. Sure it would've been nicer to rake in $300 or so for our old stuff, but I'm not in the mood to give up a nice sunny weekend for another sale and a spot to store the stuff until then. We also got rid of a large dresser and hutch that was way too big for our bedroom. In my mind that made the whole weekend worth it. Every time I walk in the bedroom I'm thrilled by how large and open it feels.

Our Weekly Menu

2010-07-26T10:00:00.000-05:00

Monday

Homemade bean soup, Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwiches

Tuesday
Roast Pork Tenderloin, Mashed Potatoes, Beets from the garden, Broccoli Salad

Wednesday

BLT's with our first ripe tomato! Corn on the Cob, Coleslaw

Thursday

Chili with all the fixings and cornbread

Friday

Hawaiian Pizza

Old Fashioned Settler's Honeymoon

2010-07-22T10:49:00.000-05:00

Lately I've been on a kick researching about the white settlement of our county. It's absolutely fascinating stuff! My favorite portions are the real life experiences shared by members of the "old pioneer societies". Many of these are recollections of the mid 1830 -1850 era, written in the late 1800's by the old-timers of that day.

I'm going to share a few tid bits with you here and my comments.

Jesse Hart, of Brookfield, thus relates his experience: “I was born in the township of Springfield, Portage (now Summit) county, Ohio, April 27, 1814, and lived there with my father until I was twenty-three years of age. I then married Rachel Richards, July 16, 1837, and about the tenth day of the next October we started for Michigan with two yokes of oxen and one wagon. We got along well until we got to what was called the ‘Black Swamp,’ then all the roads I ever saw or traveled over, that road through that swamp was the worst. Suffice it to say I worked hard for eight days to get thirty-two miles.

We arrived at Joseph Bosworth’s on the sixty day of November following; he lived then in what is now the town of Walton. He had moved two or three weeks before, and had built a shanty right in the woods. My land was four miles northeast of there in what is now the town of Brookfield. As Mr. Bosworth was the nearest one to my land, I made arrangements to stay with him until I could build a shanty and cut a road to it, and I got him to help me.

We got the body of the shanty up, three-fourths of the roof on, and the door cut out, but had neither door nor floor; then we moved in. It was here in this partly built shanty that, on the 12th day of November, 1837, my wife and I first began keeping house.

It was four miles to the nearest neighbor, with no road but a crooked track I had cut through the woods, and the whole county an almost unbroken wilderness. The screech of the owl and the howl of the wolf was our music by night, and the Indians our callers by day. The first night we made our bed on some split pieces of basswood in one corner of the shanty, built a fire in another, hung up a blanket for a door and some on the walls around the bed, and it seemed quite like home, and we had a good night’s rest. I soon made a pole bedstead, hewed out and put down a puncheon floor, built a stone back and stick chimney in one corner, made a clay hearth, and the shanty was finished, without a nail, except what were in the door. We lived in that shanty nearly two years—yes, the happiest two years of my life were spent in that shanty. There was something grand and romantic about it, which I very much enjoyed. The grand old forest yielded up for our support of its wild fruits, its honey, and its venison. It was in this shanty that our first child was born, cradled and rocked in a sap trough.”

Wow -- can you imagine spending your honeymoon traipsing over a swampy road for a month to utter wilderness, building your first home with little save an ax and then sleeping on a pile of wood with no door, to keep out the wild animals? And, then birthing your first baby in such a place (likely without the aid of anyone but your husband) and rocking your baby in a hollowed out log? Yet...

Despite all of the hardships and toil, those were the best years of this man's life.

It really makes you think doesn't it?

Menu Plan Monday

2010-07-12T08:52:00.000-05:00

Sunday

Grilled Hamburgers, Potato Salad, Corn on the Cob

Monday

Beef Stroganof over noodles, 7 Layer Salad, Dinner Rolls

Tuesday

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, 7 Layer Salad, Garlic Toast

Wednesday

Rueben's and Broccoli Cheese Soup

Thursday

Grilled Ham Steak with Mustard Brown Sugar Glaze, Augratin Potatoes and Peas

Friday

Cheeseburger Pizza

Want to take a peak at a whole bunch more of my menus? Go here.

This post is linked to MPM.

It's Not Everyday You Can Have Your Cow and Eat It Too

2010-07-09T17:05:00.001-05:00

The other day a neighbor pulled in with a trailer full of steers on his way to the locker. He offered George his pick of 1/2 a beef. Apparently he had sold 1/2 of one steer, but hadn't sold the other half yet. We had talked with this neighbor last year about getting a 1/2 or a 1/4 but just didn't think we could swing the freezer room so we didn't order one. He stopped by on the way to the locker, hoping to entice us to take the other 1/2. George passed up the offer knowing we don't have the space right now.

But it did get me to thinking that we ought to get the freezer cleaned out and order at least a 1/4, which is plenty for the two of us. I'm a big fan of knowing where my food comes from, what it eats, how it's cared for, and ideally being able to see it with my own two eyes when it's on the hoof so to speak. And I've realized how much things have changed for me since I grew up helping to butcher all of our meat.

Does Meat Come From an Animal or "The Store"

Growing up, all of our meat was grown and slaughtered in an ethical manner whether it was chicken, pork, or wild game. We occasionally bought beef from the store and I'm assuming that was processed accordingly. I will probably get hate mail from the PETA people on this but it seemed perfectly normal to pick out an animal by name and fix him or her for dinner. Or to enjoy a succulent dinner of hasenpfeffer out of a couple of cute little rabbits that were frolicking in the yard that morning. It actually seemed weird to buy meat from the store. Now it's the total opposite.

I've gotten so accustomed to pushing my cart up to the meat counter and loading up on the chicken breast, pork loin, ground beef that I seldom think "hey, this meat came from a living breathing creature". It almost seems weird that I could pop over to the neighbor's anytime and pet "our" cow. Sometimes I wonder if George brought in a brace of geese or a couple of rabbits if I would be willing to clean and cook them. Would I be grossed out? Would I somehow think the meat wasn't "good enough" if it didn't come neatly sliced and wrapped in butcher paper?

It's amazingly disturbing this disconnect that's happened between me and food since I've become so accustomed to "the store" as our source of food.

What are your thoughts about food, where it comes from, how it's raised, hunting your own food -- and cleaning it?

How To Have A Successful Garage Sale --- In The Country

2010-07-09T07:39:00.001-05:00

In a recent post I shared that we've been working on getting everything ready for our upcoming garage sale. Grace asked:

"How do you get traffic to your sale if you are way out in the country? I put off having one every year bc we are on a dead end street and I figure we won't get anyone, or if we do I worry it will only be creepy people. I'm just wondering if in the end, you feel it is worth your time to have one - do you get enough traffic to make it worth your while is my question?"

So, how do you have a successful garage sale when you live out in the country? The same way you do if you live in town!

Here are the essentials that will give you the best chance for a successful garage sale, no matter where you live:

Good location (yes, there is such a thing as a good location in the country)

We happen to be blessed with a great country garage sale location. Our house fronts to a very busy dirt road. Lots of people have to drive right by our home on their way to the main highway. Some sales we’ve had more traffic than when we lived in the city.

As Grace points out, her location is less than ideal for holding a garage sale. Paying customers – and lots of them are the most important ingredient for a successful garage sale and it’s hard to get customers when you live on a dead end road.

My suggestion to anyone in Grace’s situation is to consider participating in a large group sale in a town near your home. Here in our neck of the woods, it’s very common for each town to hold a community garage sale in a large public area. There are usually a large number of people selling things and lots of potential customers. Of course, this type of arrangement requires you to load up all your stuff, haul it somewhere and then unload it again.

For some folks it might work better to have the sale at home. If you want to do this, then advertising is key. Be sure to take special note of the Signs & Advertising part below.

Timing

The very first garage sale I held was on “Graduation Open House Day” which is typically the first weekend in June. For the longest time I sat out at my little table wondering why nobody was coming to my sale. Be sure to schedule your sale when most of the local population isn’t out doing something else.

Signs & Advertising

Post large, easy to read signs at the main crossroads near your home (it helps a lot if at least one of the roads is a highway). Advertise in all the local papers.(In our area we can put a free ad in 4 little county papers ( people actually read those). Put up a notice at the little country mom & pop stores, the local Elk’s club, the post office, etc. On your ads be sure to include something like “Big Sale – Worth the Drive” and highlight some of the bigger items you will be selling. You will also want to advertise on Craig’s List. Even if you don’t live in the urban community that your Craig’s List is set up for, still list your sale, address and a link to a map. We get lots of additional customers by doing these things.

For us, it works especially good to advertise our garage sale in conjunction with a bake sale and/or plant sale. We not only make some money off our clutter, but we also earn money from baked goods and plants.

Neat, efficient set up and lay out

Don’t just throw everything you’ve got outdoors on the ground. Your sales needs to look big, inviting and neat from the road or people won’t stop. Set up tables or makeshift tables from sawhorses and doors (yes, I’ve taken doors off the hinges to do this). In George’s line of work, we always have an extra door or two lying around.

Good Prices

Be reasonable with your prices. You are not going to get what you would if you sold your stuff at a consignment shop or over the Internet. Also, take extra care when pricing used furniture – the goal is to get rid of it, not to earn enough for a new sofa.

In rural areas, there tends to be a lot of poverty -- more than you might expect. Many of the people coming to your sale won’t be able to afford to pay a lot for your cast offs. You don’t have to give your things away, but do your friends, neighbors and community members a favor and price your items fairly. I am especially conscious of this fact because when I was starting out on my own I took home $77.40 a week after tithe. With this money I furnished my home on garage sale finds and had to find a way to eat too. There were times I got in my car after finding a few crucial things like a skillet, drinking glasses, and towels for next to nothing at a sale and cried with thankfulness. You just never know who you will be blessing to – so don’t miss your chance!

Menu Plan Monday -- the Sandwich Version

2010-07-07T05:04:00.000-05:00

Thank goodness George loves sandwiches, because he's been eating a lot of them this week. We've got some pretty long days this week and the weather's been so hot that I haven't felt much like cooking or eating anything that requires a lot of cooking and heats up the house. As much as I enjoy cooking, sometimes I need/want to take a break during the hot weather. Between the deli turkey and meat from the freezer this is a pretty easy "week off" from cooking.

Notice, even though I'm calling this a week off from cooking, all the meals still come from our kitchen. If there was a way I could work in a trip to our favorite Chinese restaurant for some takeout, I would. Trust me. But, time and location-wise it's just not going to work this week. What a shame, with all this hot weather, the food actually had a good chance of being hot when I get it home.

Sunday: Hamburgers on the grill, baked beans, veggies & dip

Monday: Turkey sandwiches, broccoli salad

Tuesday: Chicken Fajitas with all the fixings

Wednesday: Sloppy Joes, Broccoli Salad, Chili Lime Corn

Thursday: BLT's, baked beans, veggies & dip

Friday: Hawaiian Pizza

Getting Ready for our Garage Sale

2010-07-06T05:56:00.005-05:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Independence Day weekend. We had a very nice weekend and got caught up on lot of things around the house, but also rested up quite a bit too.

George scheduled work on Friday, but he managed to make it a lighter day than usual. I did a 2 hr job that he had on his schedule to help him out a little bit - but boy, was it ever hot! I don't know how he can work out in the blazing sun for such long days.

As a result of three days worth of catch up on stuff around the house -- mostly cleaning for the first time in a long time I'm starting out the week with everything done. That hasn't happened in ages! Last night I was wandering around the house wondering what I needed to do next (that's the bane of us type A people:) and literally couldn't think of another thing. For once all the dishes are done, dried and put away, the sinks clean, floors, bathroom and the laundry all washed, dried, ironed and put away. Oh my! Can you tell how excited I am about this? I'll try to remember what it feels like because it probably won't be happening again anytime soon.

With my new found free time I started getting things ready for our upcoming garage sale. See our table filled with magazines above -- who knew we had so many of those? And, that's only the ones we want to get rid of. I tend to tuck magazines here and there and everywhere, and George does the same thing. We had old magazines coming out of our ears. I rounded them all up and ruthlessly culled the throwaway stuff from the "possibly can get rid of this at a garage sale" stuff and got busy organizing them into piles, tying them up and stacking them in the laundry room.

After that, I went through every area on the first floor and did a major decluttering and came up with 5 paper grocery sacks of stuff we aren't using/don't need/don't want. Every time we get ready for a garage sale, it's just amazing how much stuff we have that we don't really need. And that's not the half of it. We still have a lot more stuff that we can't let go of yet. Most of what I packed up for the sale this last weekend was stuff that I refused to sell at previous garage sales. Know what? Hardly any of that stuff was used even once since I decided not to sell it at the last sale!What is it with the mentality, of needing to keep useless stuff on the very off chance we just might-maybe-someday want to use it?!

How was your holiday weekend?

Menu Plan Monday

2010-06-28T07:35:00.000-05:00

This week while grocery shopping I picked up a big splurge item: a $28 package of NY strip steaks. Okay, those of you that buy steaks regularly can stop reading this now, this won't be a big deal to you. But to me, spending slightly over 1/2 of my weekly grocery budget on one package of meat is a big deal. This package was one of the cheaper ones too. There were packages at the meat counter upwards of $50. However, these sounded so good; I just had to get them.

So, since I spent a small fortune on meat, the rest of this week's groceries included milk, yogurt, cheese and produce, no stocking the pantry on this trip. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday's meals all come from the pantry. Sunday we had steaks on the grill and they were every bit as good as they looked. We had a lot more leftovers than I had planned (thankfully!) so we have enough left for 3 more meals, which will be steak fajitas.

Sunday: Grilled Steaks, Potato Salad, Chili-lime Corn

Monday: Steak Fajitas

Tuesday: BBQ Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Peas

Wednesday: Layered Spaghetti, Garden Salad, Garlic Toast

Thursday: Repeat of Wednesday. (My husband LOVES Layered Spaghetti, so he will be more than happy to have a repeat dinner)

Friday: Gas Station Pizza

Yes -- you read that right: Gas Station Pizza. We are having this because George requested it and we want to keep him happy, plus I can tolerate it. You see, out here in the country it's not like you can order up a pizza and 20 minutes later, it arrives at your door. There's a gas station not too far from us and they make pizzas and other assorted ~~fried~~ dried out treats that sit for hours on end, waiting for someone to finally come in and buy them. Mmmmmm

2010-06-25T09:53:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite things about summer is the abundance of fresh berries. Don’t your eyes just light up at all the recipe possibilities in a pint of bright, juicy berries? Last night I picked the first of our black raspberries and they didn’t disappoint. While they were still warm from the sun I ate a dish of them with a dollop of whipped cream. Nature’s perfect dessert!

As a child, Berry Picking ranked right up there on my list of favorite things to do. It made my day when Mom sent me down the road with a pail and the instruction to “pick enough berries for a pie”. Picking berries is still an enjoyable task.

Last night as I was picking our black raspberries I got to wondering why picking berries is a favorite task of mine. After all, picking berries involves a lot of things I don’t particularly care for and it doesn’t make sense that I would like any task that requires so many things I don’t like.

For those of you that have never picked any kind of wild bramble berry here’s what it’s like:

1. It’s hot and humid
2. You wear long sleeves and pants when it’s so hot and humid
3. The whole area is swarming with mosquitoes
4. Even with long sleeves and pants you get scratched and bit to death
5. You spend all your time bending, reaching and contorting to reach that last ripe berry; at the same time you are trying to wrench yourself free from the thorny clutch of the berry canes, swat mosquitoes, watch for snakes and make sure you don’t upset your berry bucket.

What’s to like about that?! At first glance I’m really not sure! But when you dig deeper there are several things that I do enjoy:

1. With my type a personality, I’m always thinking of the next thing that has to be done. Most of the time when I’m working on something I’m trying to hurry so I can move on to the next thing and the next thing after that. I seldom work with great focus, becoming so consumed with a task that I don’t think of anything else. (Maybe I have adult add :) There are very few activities/chores/tasks that I can completely focus on and not have my brain going 90 miles an hour thinking of what’s next. Berry picking is one of those rare tasks; it’s so refreshing to just be able to focus singularly on something and forget everything else.

2. Growing up on a farm you learn very early in life that nothing will get done if you wait until the conditions are just right and you are in the right mood. And sadly, even when you are out of the farm environment, this principle still holds true. But I can honestly say, the reward of a job well done is terrific, especially when you didn’t feel like doing it and the conditions were hard to overcome.

3. The nostalgia aspect. The older I grow, the more delight I find in anything that makes me feel like a kid again. When I’m standing waist deep in grass, brush and brambles, swatting mosquitoes and picking berries with my purple stained hands I feel like I’m 10 years old. It’s as if time stands still for me for those few precious minutes.

4. The pies, cobblers, jams, smoothies, etc! Who doesn't love a homemade goody made with berries you picked yourself?

Menu Plan Monday

2010-06-20T19:04:00.000-05:00

This week I've got several projects that I want to work on in the evenings before we sit down to dinner, so our menu is all about quick and easy.

Monday: Grilled Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, Garden Salad

Tuesday: Turkey Dill Sandwiches, Baked Beans

Wednesday: Chili with all the fixin's, cornbread

Thursday: BLT's , Cottage Cheese with Fruit

Friday: Hawaiian Pizza

Summer Thunderstorm

2010-06-19T11:11:00.000-05:00

We had another humdinger of a storm yesterday evening. I was inside when the storm hit and boy was it loud! I kept listening for that freight train sound that people say they hear when a tornado is upon them. All the branches and leaves on our trees were blowing completely horizontal with the wind.

Once it let up a little bit, I went outside with George to watch. This storm brought down the more branches and tree limbs than any storm since we've lived here. We lost a couple of small trees and two trees fell into the road, a few hundred yards from our place, completely blocking the road. The neighbors closet and a few drivers were able to clear the road in short order.

An hour's work first thing this morning created this giant pile of debris. Thankfully nothing was bigger than what I could drag myself. (George was in town looking at mowers). By the sound of it most of our neighbors were doing the same thing -- the air was filled with the whine of chain saws.

In a few minutes we will be headed off to a Father's Day potluck. We are really looking forward to seeing George's folks. When we get back we will tackle the two fallen trees.

Menu Plan Monday

2010-06-14T07:39:00.000-05:00

Monday:

Grilled Hamburgers and Brats, Oriental Cabbage Salad, Corn on the Cob

Tuesday:

Tacos with all the fixings

Wednesday:

Peanut Chicken Stir Fry

Thursday:

Goulash, Whole Wheat Bread, Brussel Sprouts

Friday:

Homemade Pizza Night

This post is linked to MPM

It's Official: I've Turned Into My Mom

2010-06-09T17:18:00.000-05:00

Not that turning into my mom is such a bad thing.... Earlier today I got the news of a spur of the moment potluck luncheon this Friday. My brain was already running on overdrive and I knew there was no way I was going to remember to bring something on Friday if I didn't remind myself. The old fashioned purse note did the trick.

The funny/sad thing is that I used to tease my mom about having purse notes. I just couldn't fathom having your brain so filled that you didn't have room to remember a simple potluck.

So, fess up. Do you do purse notes? Do you have another sure fire way to remind yourself of important things?

Keep Stored Linens Fresh with Cedar

2010-06-09T08:05:00.001-05:00

There is nothing like the scent of mothballs; that harsh, chemical-ey odor is hard to forget. And we are supposed to use these horrid chemical laden mothballs to store with our clothing and linens?! After smelling a box full of clothing stored with mothballs, it makes you wonder if you can ever get that odor out of the clothes and wear them again.

Here, in our house we use a natural alternative that works much better and smells heavenly -- Cedar. You know those graceful evergreens you see so often at cemeteries and golf courses? Those are usually Cedars. Cedar is not only a lovely tree to look at, it's wood is very special too. Cedar wood is a beautiful redish pink with dark streaks. Cedar is wonderfully aromatic and it's extremely resistant to rot and insects. Cedar's wonderful smell and it's ability to repel insects make it the perfect solution to keeping bugs out of stored linens and clothing.

Cedar really works!

Since losing weight I've had to go digging into totes of my smaller clothes that have been stored for several years. Each of these totes have at least one piece of cedar and not a bug was found!

You can purchase small pieces of cedar from the laundry and home section of major home improvement stores to keep your clothes and linens fresh smelling and bug free. We were fortunate enough to get a virtually unlimited supply of cedar for free. My husband took down a cedar tree for one of his customers a couple of weeks ago and has made several round disks for me to keep in our linen closet, dressers and closets. Now, if I can get him to make me a cedar lined chest!

This post is linked to wfmw.

This Week's Menu: Use What You Have Edition

2010-06-07T17:50:00.002-05:00

There weren't many to good to pass up deals at the grocery store this week. I picked up some milk, fresh produce and few products that I had free coupons for and that was it. Our menu this week consists almost entirely off what we have on hand.

Monday: Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Garlic Toast, Salad

Tuesday: Sloppy Joes, Pasta Salad

Wednesday: Chicken Sandwiches, Corn on the Cob

Thursday: BLT's, Baked Beans, Green Pepper Strips

Friday: Homemade Pizza Night

Our Severe Weather Emergency Kit

2010-06-04T19:49:00.004-05:00

A few years ago we had a tornado wreak havoc about 2-3 miles from our house. That disaster really opened our eyes to how important it is to be prepared in the event of an emergency. Out where we are there aren't any warning sirens. Our source of weather info is the satellite tv and the outdoors. Often we lose the satellite so that leaves us the outdoors, which is a good distance from the basement door. So for us it's really important to have things ready because we don't anticipate having any time to round things up.

Tonight we had a couple of serious storms with the potential for a tornado come roaring through. So we quickly packed up our emergency bag. Okay, so it's obvious we don't plan to head downstairs until we actually see a tornado.....

See that black grocery bag on the basement door? That's our emergency bag, well that and the tennis shoes, but we didn't have room for those in the bag. Behind the door is a set of shelves and a trap door to the cellar. Once we know severe weather is on the way we quickly pack up a bag with a few of the most crucial items.

In today's bag we packed a couple of flashlights, a shirt and jeans for George (he is wearing shorts and a T-shirt; apparently he wants to be wearing long pants and a work shirt while he's getting dug out of the cellar). My purse, George's wallet, checkbook and keys are always included. You know you will want to use your vehicle if the tornado doesn't flatten it. I also included tennis shoes as I was barefoot (in retrospect I should've been wearing them). We also include Barney's harness and leash.

While we were packing today's bag it occurred to me that there were a great many things that would be helpful to have with us if our house did cave in. Such as our insurance guy's contact info.... why didn't I think to pack that? What would be best is to have everything we have upstairs now, downstairs. That would solve the whole problem!

What else can you suggest as a necessity? (keep in mind we've got water, cell phones covered)

One of the Residents Here on the Farm

2010-06-04T10:23:00.001-05:00

This little mama lives in the old maple tree outside our bedroom window. On Monday when we were out on patio grilling we saw her taking a peek at us. We haven't seen her babies yet, but George is sure she's a mama. The old fashioned country way of telling the maternal status of an animal is that when you see her, she's quite fat and the next time you see her she isn't. A few weeks ago this little gal was so fat she could hardly squeeze herself down into her hole. We were really afraid she got stuck in there! The next time we saw her, she bounded down into the hole with no problem.

Menu Plan Monday

2010-06-01T06:11:00.000-05:00

Our Favorite Fruit Salad

I absolutely adore fresh fruit salad. But, because there is just the two of us, and we can only eat so much fresh fruit before it goes bad, we can't make too big of a salad. One of my favorite fruit salads is comprised of three simple ingredients: cantaloupe, blueberries and strawberries. Of course there are a lot of other goodies (like fresh pineapple) that you can throw in there to make it even better, but then we would end up with too big of a salad and it would go to waste.

This weekend I was pleasantly surprised to find that all three ingredients for our salad were on sale. So for $5 we ended up with a terrific fruit salad to eat all week; plus a few leftover strawberries and blueberries for my morning yogurt.

This week's menu also contains a splurge, steaks on the grill. Even though they were on sale, they were still more expensive than any other meat we buy. As I'm posting this on Tuesday, I can tell you they were fabulous (thank you McCormick Grill Mates Marinade)! I'm having steak leftovers for lunch today and tomorrow. A few weeks ago we received two free samples of Grill Mates Marinade and it's pretty much solved our problem of dry tough meat on the grill.

Sunday: Sloppy Joes, Peas, Carrot Sticks

Monday: Steaks on the Grill, Corn on the Cob, Broccoli, Fruit Salad

Tuesday: Tacos with all the fixings

Wednesday: BLT's, Corn on the Cob, Fruit Salad

Thursday: Spaghetti and Meatballs, Garden Salad, Garlic Toast

Friday: Hawaiian Pizza Night