I Love Me Some Sour Dough!

It was breakfast for dinner on Thursday!  I cooked up some left over bacon and then made some amazing sour dough pancakes! I have some for leftovers which I will eat Saturday morning before we go to the temple. Dad was a little skeptical about sour dough anything, (a bad sour dough experience earlier in life?) but he agrees that these pancakes are delicious!

I also went to the library yesterday and picked up some great murder mysteries. I love the library and I also love how you can select a book that isn't in your library (Indian Trail is a very small library) and they will send it to the one closest to you. Libraries are truly a blessing and I hope each of you are utilizing the ones closest to you. Who doesn't love free books, magazines, movies, CD's?

So what did you all do to save some money?

Little Cutie-Patooties!

Little Cutie-Patooties!

They're growing like the cutest little weeds! And can you believe how well they hold their heads up? We sure do have the cutest and smartest grandchildren ever! (Completely unbiased opinion of course!)

For 3 days in a row now I have found 5 eggs in the coop! Thank goodness I love having eggs every morning for breakfast! I really enjoy having these chickens and I'm so glad for the talents of dad who built the coop and supports me in our little urban homestead right here in the city! There is something about growing your own food and raising your own eggs that makes me happy. And with the news announcing a food recall almost every week I like knowing where most of our food comes from and what's in it! And I love having this awesome apron that the sweet ladies at school had made for me as a retirement gift. 

Looks Just Like Her Momma!

Looks just like her Momma!

Some of you may remember that we have a family photo of dad and I with the first 4 children in our family and we are all in shades of gray! Becky is in this dress and it survived to be worn by little Ivy! Adorable!

So what money-saving things did I do yesterday? Well, I didn't spend any money. Yay! And our youth activity was a back to school BBQ for which I made a batch of brownies from our food storage as my contribution. So dinner was basically free!

I also hung  my laundry outside to dry. I do this regularly during the warm months of the year. And in the winter I hang our clothes on some wooden drying racks in the laundry room. We have 2 large ones and one small rack. Apparently, these wooden racks are considered antiques because I saw one advertised on the neighborhood garage sale website as an 'antique'. Who knew? 

Each day I make conscious choices on ways to keep our budget in check. It's a good feeling knowing that I have helped out your dad in keeping our outgo down!

Families Are Oh So Special!

Families are Oh So Special!

Such a hoot to try to get a picture of Dad with the 5 little Holts! Brian had to sit in so that the twins would cooperate!

Monday was a day of canning all of the peaches that were ripe and making fruit leather of the peaches that were over ripe. I love the sight of canned fruits and veggies because it makes me feel safe and prepared! I also shredded the zucchini that has ripened and am looking forward to making some zucchini cakes and breads with it. 

As a food budget update I did spend $62.00 on the peaches at Green Bluff but that is for the coming year. I have been using what's in the house for our daily meals and hope to continue that for as long as possible. I have a lot of frozen foods that need to be used up. I know this because I finished my 4 freezer inventory and printed off the list so I know what I have and what I need to use. 

Today I made hummus using the Instant Pot and the recipe from Living Traditions Homestead. I bought the sesame oil a while ago and that will last me through many batches of hummus. And we bought the chick peas from Winco's back in their bin area. They are so cheap and when I make my own hummus I get over 3 cups for pennies! I made one batch with lemon juice and one batch with lime juice. I love them both. I encourage you to try it.

I hope you are all being wise in your food choices and doing your best to eat well and thriftily! 

A Very Busy Saturday!

Brownies to celebrate my Beehive advisers birthday

The beginning of canning peaches

Cookies for Dad

A very busy Saturday!

I got right back into the craziness of life by making brownies for Sr. Dunn, my Beehive adviser. It was her birthday on Sunday! And then I also started canning peaches. I only got one batch in but it was a start. And I made dad his favorite cookies!

School starts this Thursday and it is so odd to see all the staff cars in the parking lot and know that rooms are being set up but not by me. It is time for new adventures and I am excited! I think I'll 

re-introduce myself to my sewing machine. 

I am making some fruit leather from some of the peaches that got a bit overripe on Sunday and I also pureed some frozen berries I found in the freezer. It's all about not wasting when we can possibly help it. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Such a pair of cuties!

Such a pair of cuties!

It is so hard to have you all so far away but I am extremely grateful for technology that allows us to remember what we all look like! I think of pioneer days and how hard it was for them to leave family behind knowing that most likely they would never see one another again. So I am finding silver linings in the dark cloud of separation!

I want to share a recipe from a favorite vlog that I follow, family traditions homestead with Kevin and Sarah. She shared this great recipe for zucchini bread that makes 2 loaves of bread and uses 5 cups of shredded zucchini. Yes, that's right it uses 5 cups which is awesome in that how much zucchini do must of us end up with and need to use? Let's face it, even if you don't grow it yourself you will probably have friends who will leave these bundles of green joy on your front porch!. So this recipe is perfect for using it up. Here you go:

Fantastic Zucchini Bread (Makes 2 loaves) 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 3 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg 1 teaspoon fine salt 6 large eggs, at room temperature 1 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar (I used 1 cup) 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar (I used 1 cup) 1 1/2 cup vegetable oil 5 cups shredded zucchini Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Spray 2 bread pans with oil; set aside. Mix together flour, both sugars, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk together. Set aside. Mix the eggs and oil in a large bowl and whisk until the eggs are broken up and the mixture is thoroughly combined. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour mixture until just combined. Fold in the zucchini until evenly mixed. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and spread it into an even layer. Bake until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool slightly, about 15 minutes. Run a knife around the perimeter of the pan and turn the bread out onto the rack to cool completely. I hope you enjoy this. I love this vlog because they don't use crazy ingredients you have to run out and buy. It's all things most homes have already.

Let me know if you try it and tell me what you think!

Not only smart but oh so cute!

Not only smart but oh so cute!

This is our sweet Lucas reading to his class! I love how he's showing pictures to his classmates!

I had fun yesterday with some money-saving activities. First of all I made some chicken broth using some chicken bones that I brought home from Becky's. I added some leftover onion skins and other veggie scraps that we save in the freezer to the bones in a crock pot and let it cook all day. I then strained it into a large pitcher and let it cool in the fridge overnight. I'll process it in my pressure cooker tomorrow.

The other money saving thing I did was to make and freeze some potato jojo's. I did this a couple of years ago and we really enjoyed them!  We had gone up to the 5-mile garden and someone had left out some of their potato crop for anyone to take. I brought home a good sized bag  and proceeded to cut them into 1/2 inch slices with the peels on. I put them into a bowl and added oil and garlic salt and paprika and shook it all up. Then I cooked them at 375 degrees for 20 minutes and put them into freezer bags. Makes me happy to know that I won't have to buy potato jojo's but I can just get them out of the freezer.

And now I am 2 for 2 not buying food for dinner. I pulled out some bacon and cooked up 6 slices and then I made french toast. I found the recipe on Allrecipes.

Ingredients

• 6 thick slices bread
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

 

• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
• salt to taste

Directions

1. Beat together egg, milk, salt, desired spices and vanilla.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or skillet over medium-high heat.
3. Dunk each slice of bread in egg mixture, soaking both sides. Place in pan, and cook on both sides until golden. Serve hot.

I love saving money!

Looking Good After a Great Nap!

Looking good after a great nap!

Becky sent me these pictures yesterday after they had all had a nice nap. We all could use a good nap now and then couldn't we?

So far I am 1 for 1 on not spending any money! Yay me! We enjoyed a mix of diced potatoes, chopped zucchini and onion and leftover turkey from the freezer for dinner and after that had all cooked I added about 6 eggs. I also added in some garlic salt and salt and pepper. It was pretty tasty and healthy! Tonight we're doing some french toast and bacon. 

Yesterday I inventoried the garage freezer and made a list of all the meats that were in there. I try to keep all beef, pork and poultry in that freezer because it makes it easier to track. Today I'm going to check out the kitchen freezer and hopefully tomorrow I can do the big upright freezer. This freezer is where we store all frozen veggies and fruits. It takes a while to inventory that one! I am determined to use up what we have before accessing the newly preserved stuff. 

I know that stocking up on food can be a daunting task but I encourage you all to do what dad and I did. We worked on it slowly throughout the year. We did not spend a ton of money because we didn't have a ton of money and yet we managed to add an extra can of tuna here and a few extra dollars there to buy a bushel of peaches to can. Start slow but start. 

I have been following a few homestead blogs and they all seem to be very concerned about the possibility of rising food prices due to the flooding and late planting of the mid west farms. I too see that the chances are good that we are all going to be paying more for food in the coming year. So buy that peanut better when it goes on sale and stock up on those strawberries to make jam. I love you all and know that if we are prepared we needn't fear!

Happy Grandpa!

This is my favorite guy and my favorite set of triplets! Aren't they all just precious?

We are home now and I am spending the day trying to catch up on housework. Then it hits me, I'm retired and not going back to school next week. Don't rush it, do the work right the first time! But I also got up at 4 AM because I'm still on Utah time and so I had many hours to do a lot of things.. During today's morning hours I have made bread, weeded the salad garden and replanted lettuce, lopped off a rose bush and shrub that were trying to take over the house, washed and hung 3 loads of laundry, put all the Utah travel stuff away and took a 15 minute power nap! I also inventoried the garage freezer which leads me to my money saving idea for today. Here you go, enjoy!

I have not been the best at using our food storage. I found that it was easier after work to make something quick and easy and if I needed an ingredient, Dad would pick it up on his way home. But I am challenging myself to not spend a dime on groceries as long as possible. I want to see what I can create from our food storage, from our garden and from my imagination! Tonight we are having a potato/zucchini/chopped chicken/egg scramble that I saw on Instagram. From Becky I got the idea to have more breakfast for dinner foods and tomorrow we will have french toast and bacon. I also have a stir fry, a ham and potato bake and homemade macaroni and cheese on the next week's menu. I will not need to buy anything for this menu! 

It was fun to watch Becky and see how she makes her menus and shop for necessary ingredients. She was an inspiration to me to do better. 

Making a week's worth of menu's is such a money saver and I encourage everyone to try it!

Back to Cross Stitching

During the triplets afternoon nap I spend time with them in Becky and Brian's front living room. They are often restless and so I will pick them up and cuddle them until they're settled and then lay them back down to finish their naps. While I am with them I am not idle. I picked up the above cross stitch craft to work on, I am reading The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder, I fold clothes, I catch up on emails. I have discovered again, that I cannot not be doing something, and I like that! How easy it would be to just sit and waste time but I love that I need to keep busy. 

The saddest days are when I have accomplished very little and my best days are when I can look at my to-do list and see how many things have been checked off. I am totally a list making person and as so many others have written, nothing feels better than putting that big check next to an accomplished goal! 

I feel so blessed that our children are all hard workers! I'm sure there were times when they went with Doug to give service to a church member or they shoveled our walks and the neighbors walks that they didn't appreciate what they were being taught. But I hope they can see as I can, just what amazing adults they have grown up to be! There isn't anything they cannot accomplish because they know how to work and not waste time. And from dad and I, 'you're welcome'!

Late Night Girl Talk!

This is such a sweet picture of Julie and Lacey!

So what do I have to share with my family about saving money and living frugally? Well, if you saw my last Facebook post you are aware that I spent money at Crumbl Cookie! Can I make cookies cheaper? Most definitely. But is it okay to occasionally splurge on a treat. 

MOST DEFINITELY! 

What is important is that this doesn't happen often and that I truly enjoyed the splurge. In one of Amy Dacyczyn's Tightwad Gazette books she speaks directly to this. She had gone to the mall to buy a birthday gift and as a special treat she had bought ice cream cones for her children at the local ice cream shop. Her children really appreciated the cone and Amy taught that because this didn't happen often she didn't feel the need to buy an ice cream sundae or banana split to make it special. Just the cone did the trick. So it is with going to Crumbl Cookie for me. It doesn't happen often. Let's face it, I probably won't do it again this year. But I am happy and okay with occasional splurging, as long as I can do it just 'occasionally'!

New'ish' Coop

I'm excited to see the changes dad made in the chicken coop. As my back issues tend to flare up I'm doing all I can to alleviate stress on it. So dad kindly raised the roof on the coop so I'm not stooping when I go inside. And I no longer have to lift and move the coop in order to enter because he put in a new door on the back side. So thankful!

One of my favorite gardening/homesteading/frugal YouTube vlogs that I follow is Living Traditions Homestead. They are a family that moved from the Phoenix, Arizona area to live in the Missouri Ozarks. What I enjoy about their videos is that they are trying to raise all their own food including fruit, vegetables and meat. And they post about the good, the bad and their failures which I appreciate. They are an inspiration to me to strive to be more self sufficient and more mindful about what my food dollar buys. I highly recommend that you watch Kevin and Sarah on YouTube for ideas, for inspiration and for recipes. Although dad and I will not be moving to the Missouri Ozarks, we are trying to be more self sufficient and to watch what our hard-earned dollar buys! 

Hello Little Red!

Once again I did not buy anything today and thus saved tons of money! Funny how that happens. It used to be that if you didn't leave your home you didn't have to worry about spending money. But now there are so many options to shop from the comfort of your home! And I will admit that Amazon could easily become an addiction for me! But one of the best things I do to ensure that I keep my money is to give myself 24 hours to 'think on it'. After 24 hours that must have item doesn't seem so important. Just thought I'd share that little tidbit!

Love My Family!

Isn't this a great picture? Not quite sure who's mimicking who?!

One of my favorite commercials to watch and holler at is an online furniture company that begins with W.  If you've never heard of them, apparently they sell furniture. But I love/hate how their advertisement stresses the fact that they don't charge shipping if your order is over a certain amount. Don't most companies do this? And doesn't Amazon Prime have free shipping? But the ad just shows happy people in furniture-perfect rooms and not one syllable about how much that furniture-perfect room cost. Kudos to the advertising agency who came up with this because it makes me want to order their stuff and be living happily ever after in my perfectly decorated home.  But then I think about how much that stuff cost and so what if the shipping is free, the furniture isn't and if you're not careful you'll order yourself into a hole you may not be able to pull yourself out of. 

It took over 20 years for dad and I to get new living room and family room furniture and even when we had the money we were oh-so-careful when we decided because we knew this furniture would need to last another 20 years because that's how we roll. If we took you on a tour of our home I would happily point out our new furniture but I would just as happily point out our craigslist sofa bed, our craigslist dining set, our yard sale decor and all the other 2nd hand stuff we have! 

I feel no shame that our home is decorated with more 'old' stuff than 'new' stuff'!

Learning New Things

Being with little ones you quickly adapt to watching new TV shows, at least new to your schedule. Sesame Street has been around for decades but they have updated it and I have learned that Elmo has a new segment about learning new things! He even has a song and a dance to celebrate learning new things! I'm pretty impressed!

So what new things have I learned? Besides the fact that Elmo is still contemporary and fun? Well, watching my homesteading blogs, I have learned about Fall Planting. Apparently people plant to harvest a Spring, a Summer and a Fall crop! Who knew? Not this gal! So I'm excited to learn about how to plant for 3 crops in our Zone 6 area! Learning new things is awesome and I hope I never stop! 

By the way! Besides dad, Becky and Brian, who knows which triplet that is above?

Beware of Advertisers!

Many years ago I read a quote which I will now probably butcher but it goes something like this: "It is the job of the advertisers to get us (the consumers) to buy things we don't need but they make us believe we can't live without" And there you have the job description for advertisers. And let's face it they do a great job! How many of us really need a brand new car? a new phone? a new kitchen gadget? And yet at the end of the commercial we're like, 'That would really come in handy'. 

Now that I'm retired and no longer have a regular income I need to think twice, no, I need to think 4 or 5 times whether I really need something. And then I need to ask myself, 'can I get it free'? Can I get it 2nd hand or at a garage sale? Dad is our garage sale professional and when I think of something I would like I ask him to put it on his garage sale list to look for. When we were looking to replace the hanging light/fan in the dining room I let dad know and he kept his eyes open. One Saturday he sent me a picture asking if this hanging light would work. It was perfect! And it helps that he has the skills to install it himself as well. Later in the year I saw the same light fixture at a friends home in her dining room and I'm willing to bet that she didn't pay $5.00 for it! The lady at the garage sale was asking $10.00 but took dad's offer of $5.00! It is all too easy and convenient to buy new but where's the  challenge in that?

So that's my challenge to each of you today! If you believe you need something, sleep on it for 24 hours and then decide if it's something you can live without or get elsewhere for less. 

Cuteness Overload!

Maran mentioned that there were no new pictures on the latest blog. So true! I hadn't yet downloaded any of  my phone pictures to my laptop and truth be told, it takes me a while to do it. As you all know I am not that techy, (is that even a word) and it literally took me a day to do it. But success comes to those too  stubborn to give up! Dad's comment about this picture is that 'it looks like Lacey is telling Kevin a secret'. Poor Julie is left out of the loop!

So score one for the mom who actually downloaded pictures and didn't delete any of them! Yay, me!

It Doesn't feel Like I've Retired!

Today is August 1st and I have yet to feel like I am a retired person. I'm thinking that will happen when I don't go set up the classroom on August 28th and school starts on August 29th without me! 

And spending the summer in Utah has also kept me from feeling the retirement blues as well! Dad and I will return home on August 20th and then we'll see how I'm doing! I have made a list of things I want to do with my time and none of them involve watching TV or sitting around the house. I want to attend the temple weekly, study Isaiah with my scripture study group, attend an exercise class with friends, lead book club, work with my young women, use my sewing machine, work in the yard, can all of our harvest and blog regularly! And there's family history and managing the house. 

And now let me tell you what's been bothering me about my acceptance of retirement. For quite a few years I was a stay-at-home mom and I loved it! I was the one who told other moms that our value to our families was more than monetary! We were the heart of the home, we were the ones who brought comfort to our families when the world tossed them around. We told our families they were loved as they headed out into that cold world and we welcomed them home with unconditional acceptance and love! We were truly the unsung and unpaid heroines of the home! And then after Brady graduated I went back to school and then out into the work force where they actually paid me money at the end of each month. And you know what? I liked that paycheck. We were able to get out of debt, to pay off our home and to build up our emergency fund! I liked knowing that at the end of the month I could contribute monetarily to our home. And then I injured my back and for the last year I struggled with working in extreme pain and taking lots of over-the-counter medications so that I could go to work and earn that paycheck! And I realized during Christmas break that I had the choice between continuing to earn that paycheck and risk becoming permanently disabled or retiring and waving goodbye to the money. And sadly, I tried to justify working maybe another year or 3! But the Lord sent me a sign in the gift of triplets to Becky and Brian and I realized that I was needed elsewhere and that if I wanted to be the kind of grandmother I had always dreamed of being, I needed to put myself first. So I officially ended my contract with the school district. And I am giving myself those pep talks again about my value as a stay-at-home wife and mom and grandma! And as I begin this journey I am going to take you all with me as I learn to budget with what we have and how to:

"Use it up,

Wear it out,

Make it do

Or do without"

For crying out loud we raised 6 children, bought a home, sent you all to dance classes, piano classes, soccer games and all the other stuff on ONE INCOME! I think I can raise dad and I on his income again! 

Thanks for letting me rant and I hope you will stay with me as I post ways I will NOT SPEND MONEY!