Getting Ready for Christmas

The baby and I fly out the 19th, a Wednesday, to visit my in-laws. The hubby won't be following until the 24th, thanks to school demands, so it's high time I make a list of things that need to be finished!

GIFTS:
Renew subscription
Send card
Finish photo calendars
Purse 1
Purse 2
Milk bath
BAGS! (This is what will take the longest, I think)
Iron-ons for bags

Really, that's the big stuff. I need to wrap everything, of course, and make a packing list for clothing and needs for myself and for the baby. I think I'll buy diapers when I get there, so that I don't need to worry about bringing two weeks' worth. I'll also need enough food for the plane, and then I can buy whatever else the little one needs when we get there.

Thanksgiving Preparations!

We're almost ready to head out tomorrow. The laundry is done, most of the dishes are clean, the car's had a tune-up, and I'm so excited!

I'd still like to bake muffins tomorrow to take with us, and get all the dishes clean and the fridge cleaned out. We need to pack, making sure we don't forget anything (ha! I'm sure we will). Josh has class, but no work, so he'll be around to help me. Or to nap. Either way.

So, tomorrow:

Bake muffins
Wash dishes
Clean out fridge
Pack baby necessities for the car
Pack clothes (me and Guy)
Pack toiletries
Pack things for me to do in the car

This means I need to not forget tylenol, diaper cream, a couple of toys, a few baby quilts, and the baby monitor for Guy. I need to remember to bring vitamins, my crocheting (print off those patterns!), Diana's marbles, the books on CD, Sense and Sensibility (to read), and my laptop.

Oh! And I wanted to see if I could take some of the Car Talk archives and burn them to CD. Hmm. . . maybe I'll just download them to J's computer. And I'm off!

Great Cheap Resource

I'd like to share a wonderful resource that I found via Wisebread!

The USDA has created a website with resources for users of food stamps. On said website, one can search for inexpensive recipes, complete with cost breakdown and nutritional information! I'm already really excited to try some of these.

As I'm trying to cut down on my food budget, I'm finding the absolute best way to do so is to COOK! Many times, I just don't feel like it, and if I don't have a plan I'm sunk. However, if I have a menu set up, even a very flexible one, it gives me that little push to go ahead and make something with what I have on hand.

Maybe I'll even  join Organizing Junkie with her Menu Plan Monday when I get back from vacation!

A Month

I'm sure interesting things happened this month, but I'm not here to talk about interesting things! I'm here to discuss my dishes.

THEY'RE CLEAN! For the second day in a row, no less. Now I just need to keep them clean for another twelve days before I can go shopping. Since I'm going out of town next week, I'm not sure how I'll count, but I do know there's a new thrift store I want to go check out. So, we'll see how I do this time.

I'm also trying to not lounge in pajamas as much. Of course, I'm in a robe right now, but I'm planning on showering and getting dressed. I have a meeting at three, so I'll at least be presentable by then.

I've got a lot of things to discuss here for my own personal enrichment, since nobody reads here. Fascinating topics, such as:
Books I've been reading
Rearranging the house
Planning vacations (Thanksgiving and Christmas)
Christmas gifts that I'm working on

Ideally, every day I would like to get dressed by 10 a.m. I want to read the Bible every day, and by the end of the day have the house looking nice and the dishes all clean.

I guess I'd better get cracking!

Mr. Darcy's (Disagreeable) Daughters

The truth: it was so obnoxious I couldn't finish it. Hard on the heels of Persuasion, this novel simply cannot hold a candle to Austen's beautiful writing style.

Simply put: anachronistic language, tired plot, and far too much scandal (and I mean dirty, nasty, horrible scandal). I skipped ahead and realized that the sister I liked best essentially steals her cousin's fiancé. Whether or not he liked the cousin is moot, it just can't go well.

So, I put the novel down after one hundred awful pages. I'm thoroughly looking forward to reading something else instead. Just what, I haven't decided yet. At any rate--I hope it's better!

Persuasion

I just finished reading Jane Austen's Persuasion. Truly an exquisitely written piece of literature.

The story was compelling and agonising and thrilling all at once. The characters were believable and personable; I believe that if I were Captain Wentworth, I would also be in love with the thrilling (in a quiet sort of way) Anne Elliot.

The only other Austen novel I've read has been Pride & Prejudice. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but now that I've seen so many film adaptations of it I simply can't bear to read it anymore. I hear the voices of actresses in my head, see the scenery someone else picked out, and it's not nearly as fun as the first time was. Persuasion captured that love-at-first-sight feeling I have when I read a novel I thoroughly loved.

Go! Read it! Now! And I hope you love it as I did.

A Wise Idea

Twice, in two days, I've been awakened in the early morning hours with a brilliant idea.

And twice, I've rolled back to bed, only to wake up and forget what on earth it was.

I think I need to keep a notepad and pen on the nightstand. It's just a good idea.

In other news, I've avoided the urge to spend $25 on books, when both will be available within a few months at the library. I can wait until then. If I can't, then I know I can borrow one of them from a friend. Hooray for making good decisions.

Ooh, and I found a great little store called Plato's Closet. It's a secondhand store that caters to the teen and twenty-something crowd, but if you're looking for jeans and aren't bigger than a size 12 or 14 you can likely find a pair in reasonable condition for less than $20. All their clothes are less than two years old and in reasonably good condition. I came away with two pairs of jeans that fit for $25. Certainly better than wearing my husban'ds way-too-big jeans. Or my high school jeans that fall off my hips--even with a belt. Hooray!

Brazilian Stroganoff

And now, a recipe for Brazilian Stroganoff, courtesy of a lovely woman from church who taught me to make it this afternoon.

Cube one or two chicken breasts, dice 1 green pepper, dice 1/2 an onion, and dice one decent-sized tomato. Throw the onion into a saucepan with some olive oil and cook over medium heat. Add the green pepper and tomato and cook for a few minutes to mix all those flavors. Add a chicken bouillon cube and the chicken (no water) and stir frequently until chicken is cooked. Add one or two cans of tomato sauce according to preference. Add a little bit of water (maybe 1/2 cup to 1 cup) and a big squirt of ketchup. Cover with a lid tilted to vent steam and cook on medium-low for maybe ten or fifteen minutes, until it's thickened up a little bit (but not a ton).

Remove from heat and immediately stir in four ounces (1/2 can) of Nestlé's Crema Media (table cream). Yeah, I'd never heard of it before, either. I'm hoping the Mexican food aisle has some to be found.

Serve over rice (appropriately seasoned with chicken broth instead of some of the water and grated vegetables). DIE FROM HAPPINESS.

I can't wait to make this meal at home!

INGREDIENTS LIST:
chicken
green pepper
onion
tomato
tomato sauce
chicken bouillon
crema media

Book Giveaway

Pop on over and visit one of my favorite reads in the blogosphere, Crystal at Biblical Womanhood.

She offers a marvelous read from the perspective of a young homemaker, just doing the best with what God gave her. Anyone looking for that little bit of inspiration in her day would appreciate Crystal.

She's offering a great giveaway, a soon to be published book titled "Passionate Housewives" which is a book that looks like it will be finding its way to my bookshelf in short order. Why not visit her before the week is over? Her blog is delightful, and you may win something to boot!

Kitchen Update

Well, the one-day kitchen blitz didn't go as well as I had hoped. It ended up taking two days, due to circumstances beyond my control (read: a husband who wanted to go out and play). However, my dishes are all clean! And dinner was fantastic! My friends still like me! And the baby slept 11 hours straight last night!

Ahh, God is good.

In other news, last night after all the dishes were done (yay me!) I read The Classic Mediterranean Diet  by Sarah Woodward. It's a beautiful book that was a joy to read. The first few pages focus on the typical foods of a Mediterranean diet, broken down into meat, vegetables, fruits, spices, legumes, etc. Following that, you've got a few pages of typical regional dishes (with beautiful pictures). Lastly, a whole lot of yummy-sounding recipes.

Reading it made me want to run to the kitchen and get cooking! Unfortunately, all of the recipes that I singled out required ingredients that don't usually live in my kitchen. Eggplant, red potatoes, and tahini. However, there were a few lovely pizza recipes in there that maybe I'll break out for tonight. I was wondering what I should make for dinner, and this may be just the thing.

Kitchen Musings

The best way to save money in the kitchen is to buy what you will eat, and then eat what you've purchased. This is a simple truth. If you purchase low-cost food, even better!

There is a slight problem with this philosophy in my home right now. The kitchen is a complete mess. It's chaos, pure and simple. Dishes are everywhere, and I simply can't seem to keep the kitchen table tidy.

The baby goes down for a nap in less than half an hour. My goals for today are as follows.

1) Get all the dishes done. As our dish drainer is small, this will likely require a towel on the counter. That's all right.

2) Clean out the fridge

3) Take out the trash

4) Sweep and mop

5) Clean off the table, shake out the tablecloth, wipe down the high chair

6) Decide on recipes for tomorrow night's dinner

Okay, so the last one is a bit of a reward. I love my cookbooks to death, and have such a fun time sifting through recipe after recipe.

Wish me luck! Tomorrow, we'll be tackling the laundry and the baking. As I prefer to buy ingredients instead of processed foods, this means that luxuries such as muffins, bread, and granola need to be created from scratch.

Church Olympics

Oh, my, what a fun Saturday morning! It's pouring, gloomy, and cold, but so far it's been a lovely day.

Poor hubby was out studying, and is now working his tail off because something went wrong at work. So while he's gone, the baby and I went to our church Olympics this morning. We were divided up into countries randomly, and off we went!

We had group events, such as tug-of-war. We had a three-legged race, a boot toss, a hula hoop contest, a diaper derby for the little ones, a marshmallow eating contest, and a game I had never before seen that was hilarious.

Divide into couples. Each couple ties a balloon the size of their head (it needs to be pretty big) to their right feet. Assume dance position, fairly close together. Turn on music and stomp on other couples' balloons. Last couple with at least one balloon left wins! It was absolutely ridiculously fun.

During lunch, we awarded medals and I can't think when I had more fun. The best part was the rain, so instead of being on a big field we were corraled into the gym at the church. I assumed that being by myself with the baby I'd be unable to compete, but plenty of people stepped up to watch him while I competed myself.

What a fun way to spend a Saturday!

Book Review: The Tightwad Gazette II

I knew that I would enjoy this book, which is why it was easy to put it on my list. I checked it out from the library (the author would be proud!) to learn more about frugal living.

If you've read any of Amy Daczyczyn's writings, you'll know that she is a wonderful resource for exploring all aspects of saving money and being frugal. She openly admits that many ideas will not work for everyone, but she does her best to present inspiration to help the individual.
 
This particular volume is a compilation of many money-saving ideas and articles published in her Tightwad Gazette publication, which I believe is no longer being produced.

If you'll check out this post, you'll get an idea of some of the more philosophical articles presented in the book. I'm sure if you were to pick it up, like me you'd have difficulty putting it down until you'd gleaned every bit of information from it possible.

Dinner Group

I live in an apartment complex full of married college students. We get to be pretty good friends with our neighbors, so when my upstairs neighbors proposed the following idea, I was very excited.

The premise: cooking once for eight is easier than cooking four times for a couple.

Execution: Monday through Thursday nights, we have dinner together. Four couples, four homes, four fun dinner parties. I cook once, and do dishes once, but eat four times. This is the part I love the most. How much harder is it to make more? Not very. How much fun is it to eat with my friends? A whole lot.

Tonight it's my turn to host, so we're having one of my favorites--crock-pot stuffed cabbage. Simple, but delicious.

I brown some ground beef with onion (in the crockpot, of course) then blot off as much of the fat as I can get. Throw in a can of diced tomatoes, two small cans of tomato sauce, a bay leaf, and a tablespoon of parsley (or dill if you prefer). Roughly chop some cabbage. Half a head should be enough. Maybe a bit more. Toss it all together, and cook on low for four more hours. Serve with sour cream and cheddar cheese if you're a dairy fiend.

Tonight, we'll also be having rolls, corn, and a butternut squash dish (my first attempt--the butternut squash came from a friend's garden). Hopefully, it will be a hit. Knowing my friends, though, it will be a whole lot of fun!

Ruminations on Frugality

Whilst reading The Tightwad Gazette II, by Amy Dacyczyn, I came across an article that really struck a chord. Amy discusses frugality as being economical and thrifty, in regards to the expenditure of any resource. 

"All of us attempt to achieve the highest quality of life possible by balancing four basic resources: money, time, space, and personal energy. We must manage these four things in relationship to one another."

I find this rather an important aspect of frugality that isn't discussed on the web as often as the frugal vs. cheap question. So, let's have a go, shall we?

The real trouble with balancing our money, time, space, and personal energy is that it is so personal. All of our resources are limited, some more than others. Mine certainly in a different capacity than yours. Solutions that might be great for my favorite frugal blogger are ludicrous for my life. No matter how many closets I see go from cluttered to organized, it won't change the fact that I don't have any in my home.

My resources differ from yours, but so does my perception of a quality life. I far prefer borrowing a classic movie from the library and munching homemade pizza to going out. This works well given our limited financial resources; my husband or I have to work extra to pay for that dinner out and show, and it would mean sacrificing more family time during the work week. That would be off-balance for our family.

My personal solution for balancing space is to declutter. I don't save things that might have an undefined future use. I use my limited storage space for food storage and bulk food buying, as well as books and baby clothes. Food, family, and reading are my top priorities space-wise.

To balance the money (and keep that balance with my space) I don't buy things. I think long and hard before spending the money we work so hard to earn. Often, I'll have a purchase in mind for several months before I commit to it.

To balance time, I commit to buying less in order to spend more time with my husband. I spend more time home baking from scratch, and less time shopping.

As far as personal energy is concerned, I want to have enough energy to care for my family. So I always keep playing with the baby, or spending time with my husband, at the top of the list. I need quality fuel, too, to keep up that energy, so next comes preparing quality food.

As you can see, these four aspects of a frugal (and happy!) life require a delicate balance. The result of fine-tuning that balance is peace within ourselves, our homes, and our relationships. Well worth a little extra work to find what fits, isn't it?

Culinary Adventures, à la Julia Child

This morning I roasted a chicken, following the instructions in a lovely book I found at the library, Julia's Kitchen Wisdom. It's a great reference for making classic French dishes. Today I tried the roast chicken, and my goodness! It tasted heavenly, full of flavor and very moist. Here are the basic directions.

Baking time:
15 minutes at 450 degrees, then--
30 minutes at 350, plus 7 minutes per pound

Wash chicken rapidly in hot water, then pat dry. Season inside cavity with salt and pepper (adding anything else you like--lemon slices, onion, apple, herbs, etc.). Salt all over and rub the chicken with soft butter.

After 30 minutes in the oven, strew 1/2 cup each onions and carrots (both chopped) into pan.

This made enough for us to eat for lunch with vegetables and biscuits. There's also 2-3 cups of shredded chicken meat, and I used the bones and remnants to make a fair amount of chicken stock. I could have deglazed the pan and made gravy, but decided to use the yummy bits in my chicken stock.

And, as Julia would say, "Bon appétit!"

My First Book Review!

Here we are with the Fall Reading Challenge, and I've already finished a book! Of coures, it helps that I have a book club meeting to host this Thursday.

Last night, I finished reading The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith. It was a charming read, but I found it rather slow-paced and trite for a detective novel. The stories were all fairly easy to figure out, and I far prefer my Agatha Christie when it comes to mystery. Of course, this book is more about Africa, Botswana, and the lovely Precious Ramotswe than it is about her cases. The end result was a book that was too easy to put down and leave. I would never have finished it, had it not been for our Book Club this week.

All in all, it was a sweet read, but I have little desire to read any of the sequels.

Now onto some fun nonfiction--The Tightwad Gazette II! I have no doubt I'll have it finished within a day or so, as I devoured the 1st and 3rd books in less than a week.

Fall Into Reading

I am so excited about this! I've never participated in a Reading Challenge, hosted by Katrina at Callapidder Days .

My list of books for this Fall include the following:

The rest of the Bible
The Tightwad Gazette II by Amy Dacyczyn
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Mr. Darcy's Daughters by Elizabeth Aston
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall

I'm sure I will also add various non-fiction selections as I go along, as I am apt to pick up random non-fiction books from the library. I'm so excited to have a goal for reading! After having taken a break from reading after the long slog of university studies, it's been wonderful having a book club to inspire me to read more often. Having discovered the local public library has only added fuel to the fire!

Saturday Adventures

Today has been quite the day!

We started off by going to the homecoming parade here at school. Since we live next to campus, it was a short walk to the parade route. Lots of fun seeing the floats, the people dancing, throwing candy, and the little kids having a ball. Definitely something we'll do again next year.

After that, it was off to Enrichment. Fun, but it meant that I was gone for Guy's entire first nap and didn't get anything accomplished at home. Lunch was served, so that was nice to not have to cook anything. There was even extra to take home to the hubby!

I then went and did some very necessary grocery shopping. And after that, it was off to a birthday party for a couple who we're good friends with. It was a barbecue, so I didn't have to cook dinner, either!

This evening has been spent working for me, and doing homework for Josh. Now, I'm done staring at a computer screen and get to go do some more work, in the form of that mountain of dishes in my kitchen! At the very least, I need to transfer the leftovers from the crockpot in the fridge so I can wash the crock.

Which reminds me of my Sunday solution: Josh is often gone at meetings most of the day on Sundays, and I rarely know when he'll be home. Since he longs to have a good home-cooked meal on Sundays, I avail myself of the breadmaker and the crockpot. Then, I have dinner ready from the time I'm home from church. Not much work, and it's always tasty. Except that chili I burned that one time! Well, and last week's lentil stew was a bit gross-looking, but it tasted fine to me.

Weekday Widow

In case I haven't mentioned it before, my husband is a university student. He's in a top-rated program, where they ask their students to work no more than ten hours per week in order to focus on schoolwork.

My husband also has a job. He's got a lot to keep him busy at work, and often ends up working thirty hour weeks without having planned. This means that most days are a lot like today.

He had only six hours of sleep, interrupted twice by an unusually fussy son. Home for lunch after class, we had a few minutes to chat and relax. From work, he went to to a professor's home for dinner. It's 7 p.m. and my son didn't see his father all day.

This makes me a bit sad, but it gives me motivation to work hard around the house so that it is peaceful and happy when he comes home. Every minute counts when you don't see each other very often. Who wants to waste time bickering or sniping? Not me!

What works well is keeping on a schedule, keeping busy (but getting things done--not too much socializing), and having fun whenever I get the chance. Nothing he needs more than a happy wife.

Here's lookin' at you, fridge

So, in the quest to keep my kitchen clean, I have challenged myself. Fourteen straight days of a clean kitchen at the end of the day (or at least cleaner than it started, seeing as I started with a mountain of dishes). This means any dish used must be washed before going to bed.

The reward? A new dress. I've only got two Sunday outfits right now, as I've skinnied myself right out of everything else. Two days in, I'm thinking I can make this work. Even while preparing two meals a day for the family, it's a doable task, and I love cooking in a clean kitchen. So motivation is right in front of me.

In other news, I read an odd blog post today claiming that it's not any cheaper or healthier to make baby food than it is to buy jarred food. This I do not believe in the slightest. For one, the baby food is processed in order to jar it. This would include heat, and other methods that weaken or alter nutrients. Secondly, the jars then sit on the shelves for ages, further reducing nutritional content. Thirdly, it's cheapest to simply breastfeed until the child is old enough to start eating real food. Mashed bananas, veggies, oatmeal, etc. are good starters until your child has teeth and can start to chew.

Honestly, I've been amazed at my son's ability to bite, chew, and swallow as a 9-month-old without much practice on even eating food. He can even drink from a cup, which he did on the first try. Sometimes it takes lots of practice, but it seems to me that it's all pretty intuitive for my little bubby.

Basic Kitchen Tip

Home-cooked meals are invariably cheaper than the storebought variety.

Cooking in a clean kitchen is a joy, while shuffling the dirty dishes while trying to cook is frustrating beyond belief.

Add two and two, and you realize that having a clean kitchen is a good step towards wanting to cook frugal and healthy meals.

Get a clue, Emily. Seriously.

Tips for a New Baby

I left a comment on one of my favorite blogs, Frugal Upstate, with some advice for a mom-to-be on how to save money and space with a little one. I thought I'd reprint it here.

We live in a tiny two-bedroom apartment (my husband is still in college) and one of our biggest space and money-savers was borrowing from friends. My son's bouncer, baby bathtub, sling, and swing were all borrowed. When we were done, we gave them back so we didn't have to store them for future kids. We also didn't have to pay for them.

I change my son on the floor on a kitchen towel to protect the carpet, because we have no room or money for a dresser or changing table. So, all of his clothes are stored in a closet hanging shoe organizer (less than $20). This makes it easy to find what I need quickly, too!

We haven't spent much money on toys, either. My son loves to play with an empty formula can, plastic measuring cups, an extra tv remote with no batteries, and some rubber ducks and dinosaurs my mother purchased for us. We have spent money on board books, so that he has something he can "read" himself.

I make sure that all his toys fit in a basket we keep in the living room, an extra that we had laying around. This makes clean-up easy and helps prevent us from amassing too many things at this stage.

Also--my favorite frugal find was a Maclaren umbrella stroller at Costco for about $75. It works like a dream and is very sturdy but lightweight. This is one of those things you just have to watch out for if you're a Costco shopper.

Have I jabbered on enough, yet?

Morsbags to the Rescue!

I needed a project. Okay, so that's an outright lie. As I was surfing the internet the other day, I came across a few websites that left me dreaming of better things for myself, my family, and the environment.

www.reusablebags.com was one of these, and I got to thinking how nice it would be if I could cut down on the enormous number of plastic bags coming into my household.

Well, there's a $50 set that would be nice. However, I don't think I'm willing to spend $50. Let alone $100 for a bag that proclaims "I'm Not a Plastic Bag". Ridiculous.

I happened to have several yards of a neutral-colored fabric, very sturdy, purchased for the purposes of making a civil war re-enacting corset. Obviously, that never happened, as I'm sadly no longer involved in re-enacting. And yesterday, I found the best website!

www.morsbags.com

The idea is that people get together, sew these bags from scrap fabric, and then leave them at grocery stores for people to use to prevent the wasting of precious resources manufacturing and then throwing away plastic bags.

There's a wonderful visual tutorial clarifies the instructions. You need an iron, some fabric, and the ability to sew straight lines (thus a machine is incredibly helpful).

I managed to finish one yesterday (thanks to the husband, who watched the baby while I finished it up) and it's very sturdy. I have enough fabric to make three more, which will undoubtedly take much longer than necessary, but anything to save the planet :-)

Frugal Cleaning Tip

There's nothing I hate more than toxic chemicals. Yes, I know that they work really well for cleaning, but it's not worth poor health to have in my home.

Yesterday morning, I noticed the shower was clogged. It wasn't pretty! The best way I know of to remove a clog is to physically remove whatever is blocking the drain. It's a quick fix. In my case, it was a lot of hair--we shaved the husband's head yesterday, and I've got long hair that ends up everywhere. With this removed, I wanted to make certain the drain was clear.

The solution here? Baking soda, followed by vinegar. Then, (and don't skip this step!) after 10 minutes have passed, pour a kettleful of boiling water down the drain. This will remove any last strongholds that the baking soda/vinegar combination weakened.

Save your cookies!

Yesterday, I baked several dozen snickerdoodles for book club. What I didn't mention is that I left them in the oven too long, and they came out crunchy. I like my cookies soft. I could have easily dumped them, run to the store, and bought something to serve my guests.

But that offends my sensibility. Instead? I put all the cookies into a large plastic bowl with a lid, along with three slices of bread. By evening, several of them had softened up. The leftovers that I took to a potluck lunch? Beautifully soft.

Book Club

I'm fortunate to live in a town with an excellent public library. Not only do they have 100's of board books you can check out for the children, but they have thousands of films, in DVD and VHS formats, both entertaining and educational.

My favorite feature of our public library is a Book Club program. The requirements? Be a cardholder in good standing who is part of a community book club. The perks? You can check out fifteen copies of a book for six weeks' time. They have many sets to choose from, all of which are wonderful books, many award-winners, both fiction and nonfiction. There are even a few plays and sets of poetry.

Last night, we held our first discussion, and it was a success! We had eight lovely women come, who enjoyed snickerdoodles and discussion. Nothing fancy, just a clean house and a book to talk about. The snack, of course, was less of a requirement and more for my own personal delight, as I love to bake.

This will be a monthly occasion I'm definitely looking forward to! An entertaining evening that was very economical thanks to this library program.

$37,000 List

The $37,000 list is a concept I learned from reading the biography of Mary Kay Ash (founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics). The principle is that every day you make a list of the six most important things to do, and then number them from most important to least important. Then, you do your best to accomplish them one at a time.

Today's list:
1) Find a baby-sitter and attend my meeting
2) Shower and get dressed, shoes and makeup
3) Clean the bathroom
4) Do the dishes
5) Arrange refreshments for book club tonight
6) Go to the library and pick up the next book club set

So far I've found a baby-sitter (the meeting is this afternoon) and I've cleaned the bathroom in preparation for the meeting tonight. The baby goes down for a nap in about 45 minutes, then I will shower and get dressed for the day. I'll also get started on those dishes! When he wakes up, we'll probably go outside to play, or perhaps for a walk. Today will be a good day.

My daily reward, if I finish all of my tasks and he's still napping (usually his second nap) then I take some time to read or to work on my latest craft project.

A New Budget

I've always been lousy at budgeting. I even took a Personal & Family Finance course in college; it taught me how to create a budget, but I hated doing it. It never turned out even remotely close to what I planned.

The idea there was to estimate how much money would be coming in; then you allocate money to all the important things (bills, tithes, rent, etc.) and then allocate the rest of it to your other pre-determined categories. I did it for two months. Two months was the required length of time to get full credit on the assignment.

Instead, I've decided to handle things paycheck by paycheck. I'll write down how much comes in. Then, I'll subtract the givens. We have our given expenses divided into two categories; half of them are set up to automatically take place the first two weeks of the month, and the remainder we take care of the last weeks of the month. This will give me a good idea of what's left to play with.

I can vary our grocery bill quite a lot by paying attention to how much we have to work with. My hope is that I'll not only see exactly where money is going, but have a lot more control over it.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Pasta Primavera

Here's a tasty and frugal recipe that was a real pleaser this weekend!

Pasta Primavera

2 ribs celery
2 carrots
1 small onion
5 ripe tomatoes

Chop and add vegetables to 2-qt saucepan. Cook on medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the following:

1 tsp sugar
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp pepper

Cover and reduce heat to medium-low. After 5 minutes, add 1 Tbsp oil (olive or vegetable) and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes or until carrots are tender.

Toss with cooked pasta (I did betweeen 6 and 8 oz, which seemed a good amount to feed 4-6 people)

Delicious, and cheap!

Simple Rules for Tidying

This morning, I went over to a friend's house when our husbands met up to carpool to work. I was amazed at her efficiency in whipping her house back into shape after hosting a couple for dinner last night, and then hosting a "chocolate fountain" party for the ladies of the neighborhood. In less than one hour, she managed to pacify her 6-month-old daughter and keep her happy, do all of her dishes, vacuumed, and tidied her entire house. It was left looking spotless, save the few toys on the floor that her daughter was enjoying. Her secret? Everything has a place!

Imagine: such a simple concept has a profound impact on her housekeeping. She can tidy her entire apartment in under 15 minutes, no matter how messy, because she can look at something and immediately know where it's supposed to go. Whenever something comes into her home, she does her best to immediately find a place for it. If there's nowhere for it to live, she either parts with it or parts with something else in it's place.

I'd like to implement this concept more thoroughly for my home, because at the moment it feels like I have piles of things that, instead of being put away, simply migrate from spot to spot. The goal for today, then, is to deal with the clutter on and surrounding my desk, finding a place for things. Anything that isn't important enough to have a place will be leaving today!

On improving the world around you

"Never suppress a generous thought." --Sister Camilla Kimball

I had a generous thought on Monday, and I'm so glad that I didn't just ignore it. The day seems so much brighter when I take the time to be kind to others.

Lesson Number 1

When I make a plan for dinner, I should double check the pantry to make sure I have all the ingredients I need.

Tonight, I was short 8 oz. of tomato sauce, and it really threw me for a loop. I was tired, the baby was fussy, the husband was tired, and I had no brain power left to suddenly make something completely different.

It turned out all right. We didn't go out to eat, despite the temptation. We ended up cutting up hot dogs, cooking them in about a cup of spaghetti sauce, and tossing it with whole wheat angel hair pasta served with fruit on the side. Not bad all in all, it was actually quite tasty, but I was so upset that I couldn't try out the recipe I had planned to make.

Obviously, the pantry needs some work. (And some restocking!)

Meal cost: less than $2.50

I'll return here someday

In the meantime, I think I'll try to make my home a place where I feel as happy as I did on this hillside in Germany.

Too Much Drama!

There is, by far, too much drama in my world these days. Therefore in order to combat my desire to gossip, I have decided to put more energy into making this blog what I want it to be.

As we all know, blogs live or die based on their content and the devotion of their creators. My goals for this particular blog are to chronicle my attempts to become a better homemaker, to live within our limited college student budget, and to find joy in my life as it is. If it's not joyful, then I'd better find a way to put some joy in it!