My Thrift Booty....Boots!

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness. -Charles Spurgeon

I confess that I have a materialistic side. It rarely will overrule my practical side, but it is there. My compromise: I love to shop in thrift stores. I try to go to one of two Goodwill stores between grocery shopping and the Princess' piano lesson every Tuesday, our errand day, because the two best ones I have found around us are not the ones closest to us but on our errand route closer to where her piano teacher lives. When I say the best, I mean that they usually have far more selection and more of the better stuff. At least, they seem to be better than the one nearest us. I also like to go on Tuesdays because ever since I hit "the speed limit mark," what my husband calls being 55, I get a senior discount of 25% off my entire purchase on Tuesdays only. Actually, some cashiers gave the discount to me when I was still 54 because I was honest about being just a few months short...I guess the whitening hair was giving me away. (At times like this my daughter appreciates having an older mama.)

Typically, I thrift shop without a particular idea of what I would like. Having shopped like this for years, I am pretty efficient at not having to look at every single piece of clothing. Goodwill arranges clothes by colors separating solids and patterns so I usually can walk down the aisles to see what jumps out at me. Textures and color have always drawn my attention more than patterns when it comes to tops and dresses and skirts, although I do have a soft spot for leopard prints. Sweaters are the easiest for me because they are all about texture and color, but I have so many bulky textured sweaters and last winter I did not even unpack any of them as it was a warmer winter. I like petite tops that are shorter and harder to find with a glance and longer dresses and skirts which are easier as they hang lower.

In jeans, it is the opposite; I prefer finding the very rare patterns although I currently do not have any since little wild puppy Mishka nipped and ripped the few I had months ago playing as if I was a stubborn two-legged sheep to be chased and herded quite roughly every time he was awake and I was up walking. (Thankfully, he has grown out of that stage.) I have nearly every color of Gloria Vanderbilt's Amanda stretch jeans ever made, except the bright warm colors, that I wear more in the autumn and winter—my favorite of them, though, I like for summer, a lovely sage that looks refreshingly cool with a white eyelet top. When I look for jeans at thrift stores, it is more of a piece-by-piece search because the textures and colors are so similar that is it about cut and size; I am a straight leg, classic cut on the waist, regular or relaxed fit kind of girl, who hates boot cuts or any flare. I like to tuck my jeans in my boots to show them off and flares make my legs look shorter.

For the Princess, it is harder. She has a more slender build and is really petite, not a borderline petite as I am. She likes earthy, more subtle colors like I do, but typically darker. Currently, her most favorite color is black and next red, although she has yet to select any clothing with red for herself, but if she is given a red t-shirt, she would wear it now and then, if it has a good message. I have noticed that she is also drawn to textures, but more open weaves to wear layered (like I did when I was a young adult). She likes her jeans with flare, which is far harder to find in the right length for her.

It is also hard to find longer skirts and dresses for her; most pool around her around her feet. She does not like much of a heel in dress shoes (and I cannot blame her as I wore heels for years when I was in retail clothing and I avoid wearing them now except for rare special occasions), but this week she got a pair of wintry suede-and-furry lace up boots with a built-in heel that not only looked so cute on her, but she said they were comfortable—and she could run in them, which is has been her acid test for a few years with foot wear. (We still laugh about the Jurassic World movie where the lead woman ran in high-heel dress shoes throughout entire the movie. Yeah, right!)

As to foot wear, I lean towards two kinds. One is barely-there, flat, strappy leather sandals or a walking sandal that is not fancy but comfortable and practical—the latter usually has to be brand new because they develop a permanent foot impression. The other kind is a boot, actually all kinds of boots including booties, but I have a particular soft soft for boots with a western flare.

This week Independence Day was on Tuesday so her piano lesson was moved to Monday and I did not get that nice discount, but I also found some practically-new, fringed black boots that I slipped on and were so comfortable that were probably worth the extra $1.75 I had to pay. I have never had this thought in my mind before, but as I looked down at these boots on my feet: Ohhh, Mama LIKE! I caught the Princess involuntarily smiling when I actually said that out loud and I think that is going to be my new saying for extra special things like this. I may not like flashy clothes, but I cannot pass up a fringed western-style boot with a little bling!

The boots looked new, but sadly unloved. The fringe was a scary mess from being left stored with the throats lopped over, but I was pretty sure that I could do something to fix that. And fix that I did!

First things, first. It really would not do to fix the fringe and still have the throats bending, so I got pool noodles for $1 each at a local dollar store. Then I cut them with a sharp knife to size I wanted for the boots and a few others that I have not shown here. The noodles were really easy to cut!

Next I began working on the boot pictured on the right. I saw that many people on the internet suggest using heat, but that really did not work well. However, since I was really fortunate that these boots were made of real leather, I decided to try saddle soap. Now when I say real leather, that did not include the finer fringe at along the top of the boot which I think is a faux leather because the saddle soap did not soak into that fringe as it did on the real leather fringe on the sides of the boot, but even faux leather does well with saddle soap as it straighten itself out without anything else.

Practically, brand new leather boots for under $7 with about 20 minutes of saddle soaping and about 1/3 of a $1 noodle.

Now this is why I love going to thrift stores! 

Thank you, my Lord, for providing not only what I need but also what I do not particularly need but just like. You always make me smile.

A Happy Blessed Day!

God doesn't bless us just to make us happy;
He blesses us to make us a blessing. -Warren W. Wiersbe

When God says He is going to bless you, He means He is going to bless you! I am seeing it in the littlest of things for the last several weeks, but also the big things, those mountains I could not move.

I kind of dreaded Tuesday morning, but it turned out to be a very good day, kind of like spotting my my favorite combination of colors throughout the rest of the day like these lilacs in a old green watering can!

I had an appointment with the periodontist early in the morning before the rest of our weekly errands and the Princess' piano lesson. I have to say that the orthodontist recommends the best people, not only good at what they do and conservative in their approaches, but great personalities also. I am scheduled to have periodontal surgery at the end of July and it will not be as extensive as I thought it might have to be. He confirmed that my gums were in a good enough state for braces, which I think he doubted when he saw my x-rays with the bone loss, but when he examined me I think he found that my gums are in better condition than he expected. He wants to do a deep cleaning of two back teeth, which would be done surgically. I need to have one back tooth removed and bone graphing done to prepare for an implant that will be placed after I am out of braces.

I do have a couple of other teeth with gum recession, but he seem to not be too concerned with them at this time. He said something about looking at everything after my teeth have been moved around and see what I have then. So, it will not be as expensive as I thought it could be! And while God did not yet heal the bone loss—I am still holding on to that possibility—He definitely has healed some of the deep pockets I had!

So, all good news. The braces will be the most expensive part and certainly the longest treatment but I am so very happy about the idea of saving my teeth!

I had realized about three weeks ago that I must have left my black summer cardigan sweater at Goodwill, so it likely was re-donated. When I was in Florida I looked for one in a retail store and a thrift store, because they usually sell them in the summer because of demand from older women who are get sensitive to going into air conditioning after being in the hot outside. Since I came home I have been looking for one at Goodwill stores since. This is actually the best time of the year to look for sweaters because they are not as picked over as in the cooler weather, but finding black cardigans in good shape and my size is an act of patience and perfect timing. It took me nearly a year to find the sweater I lost and it was ideal, but I found two on Tuesday that were not as ideal, but sufficient. Both are snugger on the arms than I like but I am only wearing them with short sleeves or sleeveless tops. Why two? One looks a bit faded and has small pilling, but is very comfortable so I am thinking of using it more at home. The other looks brand new but is a bit thicker, better for air-conditioned stores and restaurants and church.

This is me painted happy!

My Lord, thank you for all the blessings. You are a most awesome God!

2014 Sping Consignment Sales

If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it. ~Olin Miller

I am again preparing for two spring consignment sales. I enjoy getting the checks from the sales so that it helps pay for my daughter's wardrobe for the coming season. I enjoy shopping consignment sales to get good clothes at very low prices. However, I cannot say that I enjoy this part of the task.

Over the years, my daughter has turned the guest room, the one room in my home that always used to look as if it was ready and just waiting for a visitor to stay there, into her own personal dumping zone and clutter just overwhelms me. I have asked her to keep it organized with all the clothes hung, but her idea of organized and mine differ. It is difficult for me to plow through, organize the items I wish to sell, and tag everything because no matter how I do it, it still has that clutter quality until most of it is dropped off at the sale. This time I choose the earliest drop off on Monday morning.

Even after dropping off what will be allowed in the spring sale, I still have some fall items that will be waiting for half a year, which increase in number and bulk by the fall. Clutter...it just drives me crazy, especially when it is unending as it has become in my guest room. My husband has suggested several times that I could just give away the outgrown clothes and I toy with that thought until I start adding up the potential net pay from the sales.

That thrifty side of me just cannot get past that these sales generally pay for at least half (most of the time more) of the cost of the clothes I will be buying for the Princess and it is getting more difficult to find consignment clothes for her. She is more particular, as expected with this age, as she is exploring her own sense of style and there are fewer modest styles for her size--I am thankful that modesty is still important to her. In addition, we cannot have her try on clothes at most of these sales, which means more of the clothes we do get may not fit her well as her body is morphing from her former willowy shape to one with more curves.

Still, I have to keep working on this task, because I am hoping to not have to mess with it much this weekend so I can spend time with my husband. He is feeling better and hopes to be coming home tomorrow evening. Now that I have written out my goals, perhaps I will be motivated to get it all done by tomorrow afternoon.

~ My Lord, it is difficult to stay motivated to finish preparing for the consignment sales, so I surrender my desire to procrastinate finishing this task to You. ~

Too Long Gone

We owe something to extravagance, for thrift and adventure seldom go hand in hand. ~Jennie Churchill

My husband is finally coming home today. He has been away for nearly three weeks. I am used to him being gone during most or all weekdays—well, as used to it as one gets, I suppose—but when he is gone over the weekends as well, it wears on me. Although we talk every day, most of the time, and some days three or four times, I still feel disconnected with him when he comes home and it might be that he will be home only a few days.

I used to start a project of some sort when he was going to be gone for a longer than a week, but it is difficult with homeschooling to dive into an all-consuming project. This time my "project" was Craigslist as I found this wonderful free app for my Kindle for it. I wish I could say the main project was selling items on Craigslist, but it was more about buying items on Craigslist, although yesterday I did sell and deliver the Loving Family dollhouse I had listed for $60 with and additional $5 for the delivery. I do have more items to place on Craigslist too, instead of waiting for the next consignment sale in the fall, but the highest priority was getting a desk for the Princess so she could reorganize her things and we could move the table she had been using into the art studio area (when it gets cleaning up) and then I could list the whiteboard/chalkboard/art easel, toy bins, and small chairs to sell, which I will be doing soon.

In the last three weeks, I bought and picked up: a shabby chic pink desk for the Princess for $45 that she adores and while it is a rough finish to cover damaged surfaces and edges, the drawers work like it is new; a rebounder (a small trampoline for working out) in like new condition for $15; a baker's rack that will be used for gardening items and plants on my front porch for $60, and a barely used Jack Lalanne Power Juicer Pro, which is the top of the line stainless steel one, for $45, but I soon realized that it missed a tool that I need to take it apart to clean it after use so I have not yet used it and I ordered it for $8 with shipping included (I know, another juicer but this one is an extractor with a larger opening so I do not have to chop up all the vegetables so much as I do with the one that does everything and wheat grass too).

I also bought some other things online: a brand new soap dispenser for $24 to match the new kitchen sink faucet my husband replaced a few months ago when the other one completely broke (our sink has four holes and the new faucet with one soap dispenser used three of them so hand soap will be in the second one, but the thing was rather expensive for being all plastic made to look like stainless steel); another rotating case for my Kindle at $9 that is lime color and lighter in weight as the other one is heavy and the elastic band is coming apart already, and that one was $35; a computer game called Rhem 4 for $6 that is supposed to be similar to the later Myst games that I loved so much, as if I will ever get time to play it, but sometimes the Princess and I play those games together for fun in the cool of the basement office during a hot afternoon and this one I will not know in advance. Since I got all these from Amazon, the shipping was free.

The Princess also bought a Zeepad and a light pink cover for it, all for $81 from Amazon, with her gift money saved from Christmases and birthdays, so now she has her own tablet and does not need to ask me for my Kindle to play games. It is pretty decent for the price. Yesterday while shopping in a Whole Foods store she was busy on her Zeepad. I thought she was playing a game and I was about to say something, but then I realized she was thumb typing or texting but on email (I am probably behind on the proper tech terms). She was typing an email to her father because she saw that Wi-Fi was available. I looked at it and told her that while it was available, she was not yet connected, so we did that.

This is an odd age and it comes with strange feelings. I like that she was emailing her father, just sharing her day with him, but I also did not like her being distracted when she should be spending the time with me as I shopped. Still, this was only one time and she is a pretty balanced child. When she first got her Zeepad I thought she would be glued to it for at least a day or two, but she went out that evening and the next day to play with a friend. We both have come to realize that she cannot play games or even read in the car much as it makes her car sick—I now feel terrible that I used to make her do some lessons in the car, about which she would fight with me and I thought she was just being stubborn. She is stubborn about admitting to it being motion sickness though, she still tries to say it is the smell in the van, but she is now conceding that it happens in every vehicle.

There is more to write about that happened when my husband was gone, but his plane has landed and I will be seeing him in about an hour. I feel bad that he is coming home to a woman ready to fall apart physically maybe, emotionally...even more probable. I was hoping I would be in a better condition so we could just enjoy each other when he returns. I have a few more minutes so there is still hope.

~ My Lord, so much has gone on and so little of it was for You. I want to be closer to You so I can be closer to the ones I love and the ones who need Your love. ~

Adventures with Cheesecakes and Cold Storage

Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart. ~Erma Bombeck

I am not much for labels but since others are I am sure that there is some psychiatric term for this issue. I am not so much a food hoarder as I am a "cannot pass up a food bargain and must buy it in bulk" person. The question is if it is actually a compulsive problem. I do not trust myself to be objective about this, so just let me explain to you how this happens to me.

My daughter and I had some extra time some weeks ago before her piano lesson so we drove around and I saw this store with a huge sign reading "CLOSEOUTS" in red letters. Maybe I was in trouble already? Then I saw some large pet crates outside the store. I had sold a rabbit over a year ago to the guy that cleans our carpets and he still has not returned the crate, so I hoped they were have small ones too. That was my justification for stopping in to look around, as if I would not have thought of another if the crates had not been there.

No small crates but—oh, my!—light fixtures. I have been wanting to replace the one in the master bathroom since we moved in over 15 years ago. The price was so very low and I really liked two of them, but we did not have the time nor the budget envelope for household items, so I began to plan coming back the next week. As we were leaving the cashier calls out and asks if I had seen the cheesecakes in the freezer for $5. Not just plain old cheesecakes she tells us, but 10" Cheesecake Factory cheesecakes that go for about $7 to $8 per slice in the restaurant and from $42 to $52 for one whole.

Now I ask you, what would you do if you were me? Would you not even look? Would you tell yourself that there is absolutely no way cheesecakes would fit into your full freezers, or would you begin thinking that you would find a way to fit them in? Yeah, that is exactly what I thought too.

The cheesecakes there were already sliced and just a few were a mix of flavors among several plain but just a bit brown on the top. I could not resist, but knowing that my freezers may not close, I reluctantly limited myself to two. If there had been more space, I probably would have bought five or six. (Apparently, I was not the only one with such aspirations, as the clerk told me I just missed the lady who bought 15 of them.) We shared one with friends about two weeks ago and everyone else had two pieces but I only had one: a caramel top with mini dark chocolate chips to die for. I just could not see anything that would surpass that one luscious piece. Mmm.

Hence, my problem of wishing I had gotten more. I really dislike that feeling, which is probably why I much prefer getting more than enough along with the feelings of guilt for having so many. Unfortunately, "more than enough along with feelings of guilt" are associated with several items, which is why my freezers are full (of my guilt).

Over a week ago I decided to tackle my refrigerator for a thorough cleaning and reorganization. We have been making raw dog food for nearly a year, but it was put in an inconvenient place. We also have been juicing or making smoothies for nearly as long so I decided to change where some items are kept. I confess that I have not done the door yet, but it could use a bit of the same.

Instead of finishing the refrigerator, I decided to work on the freezers in the garage on the following Friday; that would be the Friday before last. We have a deep chest and an upright. The upright is used mostly for frozen vegetables and fruit and small frozen pastas. I also used it for storing butter, cream cheese, shredded cheese, bags of flour, and some seeds and grains. The upright is far more convenient to organize and find for what you are looking, but it is also far more work to defrost because the frost builds up between the grates sandwiching the cooling coils. However, a warm air blower does help to speed up the process. Also, my husband was home and had some time to help out.

I marked all the bags with the sell-by dates on the front with a marker and put them in order of oldest to newest. I planned to inventory them with my Out of Milk app on my Kindle, but I have not done it yet. I decided that since the butter could have things placed on top of it, that I could move it to the deep freezer for a time, but I have been thinking of moving it back and stacking some of the vegetable bags on top of them on the top shelve since there is some space to do so there. I use cardboard crates saved from bulk purchases of Santa Cruz lemonades from Whole Foods the last few years. They fit well, keep the items organized, and are easy to remove and restock...when the frost is not overwhelming. I also decided to move the raw milk to the upright on the second shelf for easier access.

Each freezer is nearly an all day job, not because of the defrosting so much, but it takes time to organize them when so many bags of frozen fruit and vegetables had been tossed into the chest freezer where I knew, of course, they did not belong and I would get to them sometime...later. This was that all so dreaded later. I began on the chest freezer the next day, Saturday. Unfortunately, there was a great deal of ice built up inside the lid of the freezer. That ended up taking far longer than I planned as I waited for it to melt enough to break it up and reach it to pull it out through the hole where the light was supposed to be. I did it, though.

I placed the three gallons of frozen organic pasteurized milk, this I buy for half price when it is near the sell-by date and only use for making yogurt, in the bottom crate where the raw milk used to go and stacked the short crate on top. Just fitting inside the short crate, I stack filled three lock top round plastic containers that protect my pie crusts and other crushable baked goods. Everything just fits in height so that the  freezer lid will close. I used four of the five thick, strong, short, plastic crates for soda cans and bottles bought for a  $1 each at a yard sale earlier that week to organize other areas and items as they can be lifted out.

However, one problem is that we have too many rabbit pelts plus a deer one taking up about a 20% of the chest freezer that need to be either tanned or tossed. I was hoping that we would learn to tan them ourselves and we made one attempt with the rabbit hides, but they did not turn out as pliable as they should have. I would like to try again, as we have plenty with which to experiment, but we may trade some for having them tanned by someone who has the experience.

Another problem is simply that I have too much food. The chest freezer is completely full—completely! No amount of organizing really helps when there is just too much stuffed in the freezer. And, I have not even begun to buy the grain for grinding in my grain mill (which I do not have yet either but more on that story later). We were a bit low on some frozen vegetables and I have no homemade biscuits or rolls or pizza crusts in the freezer, but other than that, I need to stop buying foods that will go into the freezer for a while—unless that place gets more cheesecakes. I know it's crazy, but it is just so hard to pass up a tasty bargain!

So, now I have all my cold storage organized, defrosted, and clean, or I will have as I am about to tackle the door of the refrigerator today. I have added a new favorite store to shop on our errand day as if we did not have enough to do on that day already. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, I did get the new light fixture for the bathroom. We will not be putting it up until—well, the master bathroom still has the same decor it did when we moved here and needs redecorated so....uh, yeah, I haven't even got the areas I wanted reorganized yet and now I am already contemplating another project that will tear up a room for awhile. I am sure there is another psychiatric term for this as well. It seems I am hopeless!

~ My Lord, sometimes I want to seize the day and other times what the days bring seem to have seized me. Make me productive in the lasting, spiritual things, my Lord, but also help me to not procrastinate with the material needs in the present moment and enjoy sharing that working moment resting in You. ~

My Budget System

There were times my pants were so thin I could sit on a dime and tell if it was heads or tails. ~Spencer Tracy

Now most people would wonder why Spencer Tracy did not buy those much needed new pants with a credit card. Ever notice how cashiers today ask if you will be paying by credit or debit? Whatever happened to cash money? You know, legal tender?

When people see me handing over cash out of an envelope, they often ask about Dave Ramsey. I usually laugh. My husband and I have been cash-envelope people long before Dave Ramsey was giving budget advice. Actually, I started this system around the time Mr. Ramsey was in bankruptcy. Although his system is well known now, he has always said that nothing he advises is new and probably close to how our grandparents used to handle money (before credit cards). My husband and I got the envelope idea from a friend and it just stuck. That is not to say that we had not used credit cards, we had, and it took us years to pay them completely off, but we did get there. When we moved to Georgia over fifteen years ago, we were completely debt free—completely. That changed, however, the moment we signed the papers for our first house.

We did not remain debt-free except for the mortgage as I wished we had, but I still had an envelope system. I have never paid a utility bill with plastic—really, never. We did not even have any monthly direct bill pay until we got Netflix about a year ago. We stay as low tech as we can. I do use a credit card for online purchases and transfer from an account to pay the balance off before accruing any interest charges. I do not even write checks except for charities and that was on the strong advice of a tax attorney. Some people think we are a bit old fashion in how we handle our finances, but it does minimize our exposure to identify theft and employees of companies having access to our bank accounts. Plus, it helps our credit card company and our bank to recognize suspicious behavior; over the years, twice they caught a thief using our credit card number before the charges even posted to our account online.

Going to a cash system is not a lifestyle that works for everyone. I pay the bills I can in person and the few others are paid with postal money orders that I buy with cash. I keep receipts. The actual money is in my hands and goes out from my hands. I see the exchange. I feel it. I decide if the item is really worth what I am handing over. It is not an invisible exchange of numbers, as it is with plastic. I can look in my budget envelope and see exactly how much money I have left and make decisions based on that see-it-right-there reality.

I have a system that is frugal and simple. My budget is designed on a per paycheck basis which is bi-monthly for us so that is 24 paychecks a year. First, I take the utility bills for the last twelve months and add them together, then I divide that number by 24 (the number of paychecks in a year) and add 10% more. This gives me an average amount with a bit extra just in case the bills are higher than they were due to more usage and/or cost increases.

My water bill looks something like this. Last year we paid $276.45 exactly, but another way would be just to use rounded numbers for each month's bill to the nearest dollar, which is usually within just a few dollars of the actual figure. In this case, the rounded monthly numbers equaled $277, and that is as close as it gets. Dividing $277 by 24 is $11.54 plus that extra 10% (or times 110%) making it 12.69. I do not put coins in my budget envelopes so this number becomes $13 per pay check.

When I first began this system I kept a separate envelope for each the utility bill, but as I gained confidence with it, I began grouping all the utility budgets in one envelope. In that case, I would just use the average amounts per pay for each company adding them all together and then adding an extra 10%. Each year about this time, I clean out the file cabinet of the bills from two years ago to place in storage, keeping last year's receipts handy but clipped together and the figure written on a sticky note of the average monthly cost.

My system starts with No. 6¾ envelopes. I first tuck in the flap.

I label the envelope at the top of the flap with the category and the amount that I will be putting in it from each pay check. Again, for us this is based on our bimonthly paychecks being that we are a one-income family. (It is a bit more complicated to do it this way with two incomes paid at differing times, but I have done it even with a home business when I was paid randomly. Even then I still separated the money twice a month or every two weeks, depending on the timing of my husband's paychecks.)

The top one is my new envelope for utilities and the bottom one was used for the last year. Actually both the electric and the gas bills were less this past year than the year before because we had a mild summer and a mild winter for the most part, plus we turned off our hot tub because it was leaking. However, I decided to keep them at the same levels as the year before because we plan to fix the hot tub in the next few months and weather is far too unpredictable; I rather budget too high than too low. I do not like to mess with $1 bills so I always round up to $5 for the per pay budget figure at the top of the envelope. For personal expenses, I estimate and label the expenses for which I expect the money to be used, like hair cuts, clothing, and gifts.

Along the bottom side of the envelope, (where the camera strap is hiding the corner) I keep a tab of how much money is in the envelope after I have separated the money. I used put the amount of what is left after taking money out, but now I just leave the receipts that fit in the envelope until the next time I separate the money. I can easily see how much money is in the envelope because it is not closed up.

When I started this over two decades ago I bought a large black leather wallet that is longer than the envelopes and just folds over so they fit in it snugly and yet are accessible. It has served me well. I have never lost any money out of it.

The biggest drawback to this system is that I have to plan ahead and make sure that I have every envelope that I will need as I go out shopping. There have been times that I did not plan to find a homeschooling item and did not have my envelope for homeschooling, but knew I had enough money it to cover the cost. (Yes, I do confess that I have been know to use money from another envelope for things like that, but the receipt is in the envelope from which I took the money and I can either transfer the money when I get home or the next time I am preparing the envelopes.)

Now for the benefits of a cash envelope system like this, we have never had to put off paying a bill because we lacked the funds which happened when we both were dipping into the checking account the first few years of our marriage. We had many lively discussions about how to handle the money then before my husband relinquished the home money managing to me; being that his first wife had maxed out all their credit, it was a huge step toward trusting me, but I knew that I leaned more the saver and he more the spender. I also knew that he had to have his own "mad money" to spend however he wished to be happy. Once he realized that he could spend some money however he wanted; I had talked our credit card companies down to low interest rates; bills were being paid before their due dates with no extra charges; our debts were being paid off and we were not accruing new debt; and even saving some money all at the same time, he relaxed a little.

For the last four years we worked on getting debt-free except for our mortgages even through a very tough financial time and after charging the cost of a mini van and we reached that goal in October 2012. We are now saving money to replace the siding and windows of our house, without going into debt to do it...hopefully! I am concerned about the mileage on my husband's work van, we may need to replace it soon, but I am just trusting God that He will guide us as He has done.

That is really where the budget all starts, with prayer and listening. You cannot plan for everything, but I have learned that God knows what is coming and will provide. There have been times I had saved up money for one thing, only to end up spending it for something unplanned. I would be disappointed that our plans were changed, yet thankful that we had the money at the same time. If we had already spent it on the plan, then it would not have been there for the unplanned. God has this really amazing timing and I am most thankful that He is my Lord.

~ My Lord, thank you for all that you have given us in material things. I could ask You to guide us to use the money wisely, but I would rather that You just guide us in how we are to use it, period. ~

Kitchen Counter Spaces

Hands to work, hearts to God. ~ Ann Lee, known as Mother Ann to the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, also known as the Shakers.

The Shakers have always fascinated me. They were charismatic Christians, but now most people know them for their craftsmanship, particularly in furniture with simple lines, and for their architecture. A religious society with a doctrine of celibacy is one that does not flourish and in 2012 there were only three Shakers left according to Wikipedia. Still, I do agree with the quote above.

I know that it seems like my posts are flipping back and forth from the shallowness of the material world (reorganizing my home) to the depths of some spiritual issues, but I find that home projects often provide my mind time to rest on my Lord. It is as if He is given me a season, without a church home, to straighten out my home and enlighten me on some spiritual matters at the same time. I have many home projects to do and, apparently, a great deal of spiritual matters to work on as well.
 
For just a few dollars I bought these at a Goodwill store. I think it all was for around $6. I did not exactly had a plan for how I would use them at the time, but I knew that I would use them.

The first thing that was used was the napkin holder (front), just to corral the small bottles and other odds and ends used for our pets that end up on the counter instead of the pet supplies basket in the utility room. This was one of those things that I planned to not have there in the long term, but would do until I could get to rearranging some other things so they would have a better and yet convenient place.

The place I had it on the counter turned out to be more short lived than I hoped, because my husband had purchased another juicer, a NutriBullet that would fit best where my little corral of pet stuff was. Of course, when my husband goes on a trip for work, his new juicer goes with him, but he uses it daily now, even when he is home, (even though we have had a VitaMix that will do the same) so it needs to be on the counter for convenience. So, temporarily the corral is on the now-not-so-organized bar and we have a counter to the left of the stove that is practically devoted to juicing, even with its own cutting board.

Before you wonder why we now have three juicers, the new one as I mentioned is like the VitaMix but smaller and will not always be here; both are basically high-power blenders. The other is an extractor but unlike most extractors, this one grinds between two gears so that it can even be used to make freshly exacted wheat grass juice. We have been using all our juicers more lately, much like when we used to do for several years, but years ago. I really do not know how and why we stopped for such a long time perhaps it was during the baby-toddler years, but we are into juicing being a daily dietary routine again.

Back to my thrift finds, I have no idea just yet for what I will use the wire basket, but I leaning towards using it for a plant somehow. I had several possibilities for the small wooden crate for CDs, but it ended up in my kitchen placed on its side to house a food scale and a small timer, allowing the shelf to sit on top to use the vertical space. It may not stay there, but for now I like what it is doing.

That little green wire and wicker corral on top of the crate holds a major change in convenience for me. I mentioned that we have mixes that were in packets previously and we use some of them quite often. These were in a cabinet where my oils are now and when one was opened, it would be folded up and held with a rubber band. There was always some powder in the cabinet from the mixes and they just looked messy. I had been keeping a few smaller jars that were originally for jams and baby food. I decided that opening the packets and pouring the contents in jars would be far more convenient; the jam jars hold four full packets. I labeled the front side as well as taped the ingredients and instructions on the back that I had cut off a packet. I even measured the volume of the contents so we would know how much to use in portion to the other ingredients to be added. Now my ranch and Casear dressing mixes are very convenient as well as a fajita mix and what was left over from a chili mix, because my daughter does not like chili full strength. I am just loving this change! (The other smaller jars have treats for the dog and cats. One had my own ground and shifted stevia, a sweetener, from the herb garden, but it is nearly gone now.)

I am very pleased that, so far, my family is adjusting to the changes and not undermining them by putting things back the way they were or just leaving things out.

~ My Lord, I thank you for this time of rest so that I can sort out my home and spend time listening to You more. ~

Spicing It Up!

What are young women made of?
Sugar and spice and all things nice.
~Robert Southey

The one thing I was really excited about doing was organizing my spices and flavorings. Well, to be honest, I was not excited to do this, but I was excited about having it done to to alleviate the frustration of looking for a particular spice because some people just cannot put things in the same place that they were found...not naming anyone specifically, mind you, as whoever it is, is in denial and I would not want to confront the person with the truth causing a psychotic break. (Forgive me. The last few days have been a bit too spicy for my taste. That is, it has been a rough, emotionally-charged week, but this post is scheduled to be published a few days from now, so I might be back to "normal" by the time you read it...maybe...hopefully.)

Some of our herbs no longer need to be bought from the store as I grow them myself, so my husband thought the contemporary, stainless steel, swivel spice rack he bought would be ideal, but neither of us really used it. The bottles that came with it did not seal air tight and about half the size of most spice jars. I could not fit all the contents from a store bought jar in them, so I would have spice left over in the larger bottle after filling. It was not efficient, so the spice rack mostly took up space on the counter and gathered dust. Cleaning something that is of no use is just not logical, so after five or six years I happily donated it to Goodwill. (I never really liked the thing anyway and would have gotten rid of it sooner, but my husband bought it, so I felt he needed realize its lack of potential before I tossed it out. Now that I think about it, I might have used it for craft supplies...probably not though.)

My aunt used to have a spice drawer as she bought most of her spices in tin boxes, laying them face up so that you could easily read them, but I have yet to see organic spices sold that way today. I have been looking for spice racks, which I used to see often in thrift stores, but thanks to crafty women and Pinterest, more people have caught on that they can be re-purposed for many things, like storing small craft supplies or nail polish. I have had my spices on the lower shelf of the cabinet left of the stove, which is where I still like them for now, but something had to be done with organizing that shelf!

I looked for solutions that would better use the vertical space, but everything I found so far just is not going to work well because the spices would have been less accessible or it was costly, as in buying many metal box containers with windows to label. I removed the toothpicks and put them in to the junk drawer just below this cabinet, which is also organized now. I threw away some old food coloring as I usually use Wilton's food color and then usually only for cake decorating: those supplies are in a Wilton tool caddy. I took out the straws and put them in the cabinet next to the sink. I moved a couple of the protein supplements to put with the other ones we use in smoothies.

What I had left was just spices and flavorings. I also had a few mix packets that I had removed from another cabinet. Now the question was how to organize the spices. My husband was in favor of  alphabetical order, but I had always liked the baking spices grouped together and the others I use most toward the front. Experience suggested to me that there needed to be some kind of labeling to indicate this new organization of the spices, for those who resist the notion.

I decided to use our label maker and place the labels on the wall in the back. This is how I arranged them from left to right: flavorings (front), mix packets (back), misc. herbs (front), Italian herbs and spices (front), meat seasonings (back), hot spices, peppers, salts (front), seeds (back), alliums, baking spices, and popcorn seasonings (front).

Although we have spices that are not organic, the majority that I have are from Frontier and Simply Organic. What I like about Simply Organic is that the lids are labeled with the name of the spice so on a step stool I can read the lids. I may write the spice names on the other lids also.

As it is, I cannot tell you how much better this cabinet looks. Sometimes I open it just to motivate me to do another area! Who would have thought that my smile was in an organized spice cabinet!

~ My Lord, the smallest accomplishments can bring great pleasure when the uncontrollable harshness of life is all around. Thank you for this ability that You have given to us. ~

Organizing Food Storage in My Kitchen - Part 5

Happiness is a place between too little and too much. ~Finnish Proverb

Are you still with me? When I began this series, I did explain that the reason I was not blogging much in February was because I had been very busy. As I looked over our food stock, I realized just how much we had on hand of the foods of which we used to eat very little and how little on hand we had of the foods we used to eat very much. It was the reason I wanted to rearrange all my food storage, to help me get a perspective on what we really had and how it was affecting our eating habits.

The cabinet to the right of the rice, pastas, and mixes and left of the window over the sink. It is partially above a dish rack for drying next to the sink which leaves very little counter space directly below it, yet it goes into a very deep corner. These shelves used to house the box mixes, crackers, cookies, smoothie supplements, juices, and other odds and ends in a haphazard way for the most part.

I decided that cookies would be brought up from the pantry only no more than two boxes at a time and crackers about the same. There has not been a sale on our favorite crackers lately so we are low on them anyway. Those things would go on the lower left side stacked on their sides for now although that could change. We have some taco shells left over and some broken sugar cone pieces still good tasting mixed in with ice cream, so I decided to place them both in a tall plastic contain with a yellow lid that used to be used to store snack and protein bars.

On the upper left side is rice milk and broths, left over marshmallows in a small plastic jar, straws, and our favorite chewing gum that I also got on sale. It is still a bunch of odds and ends, but at least now we can see what we have better than before.

The right side of this cabinet is breakfast foods, mostly. Last summer the Princess and I began to have smoothies for our breakfast. The top shelf has supplements that we can add to our smoothies. We stopped having smoothies when it got cold, but we are now juicing more—I will get to that in a later post.

In the past, we did not buy cereal in boxes often, but the Princess was introduced to boxed cereals once when staying at her grandparents. I refuse to get the puffed cereals even in organic because she is always hungry in as little as an hour later; thankfully she likes things like shredded wheat and it sticks with her better. Just a few months ago, the Kroger store near us discontinued carrying some of the Cascadian Farms organic cereals and marked them half price. I do so like those Manager's Special labels! I bought them all, which was nearly thirty boxes. Later my favorite health food store did the same with Kashi boxed cereals and I bought all the organic ones. (A caution is that not all Kashi is organic and I am still a bit leery of the possible GMO content in their "natural" products that tested rather high about a year ago, but to be able to legally use the organic label means no GMOs.)

Now something else I have learned since my daughter is eating some cereals is that she does not reseal them well, practically asking for a pest problem. Also, she is not particularly careful when she pours it into a bowl nor does she wipe the counter afterward of the crumbs. My solution was to place cereal in a container that seals and pours better. I had two 12-cup Rubbermaid Servin' Savers that I think my husband had when we married so I used one of them for the cereal. (I used to have brown rice in one and rolled oats in the other, but if you have been following along, you know that I found something smaller for the rice and something larger for the oats.)

The other large one Servin' Saver gets filled with granola, that is the granola that I make and my daughter does not particularly like—not sweet enough for her, perhaps. I used to place my granola in a large re-purposed plastic jar, but sometimes there was a bit more than it could hold so this way I do not have to used another small container or be concerned about it fitting. The only thing I do not like about the large Servin' Savers is that they are too tall to stack and they waste space side by side because of the lid lip.

I had quite a bit of couscous in two or three different containers, so I placed it in the last smaller Servin' Saver and labeled it because my daughter just could not remember what it was. It could go in the cabinet with the rice and pastas, but we use it mostly as a warm cereal or even a dessert. There is just enough space in front of the large ones for it to fit and the cabinet door close completely.

The one awkward feature about this cabinet is that it is deep to the corner and it is not that accessible. However, I decided to stop thinking of it as a waste of space or just a place to put things that will be forgotten (like it was used before) and to use its good hiding place attribute. Out of sight to the left, past the straws, on the top shelf are bottles of alcohols we use for marinating, cooking, preserving homemade remedies, and other medicinal purposes. They used to be in the same area on the lower shelf, but now that the Princess is taller, I decided that even though she knows we have them they do not need to be so obvious.


The deep dark corner on the lower shelf is for bulky bags of chips and I do not really mind how they are stuffed in as there will only be four bags at any time. These get resealed with our FoodSaver, at this time.

One of my hopes with this rearranging of the foods was to drift our focus back to eating to live healthy. When my husband lost his job, started working again at a considerable reduction in pay four years ago, and began traveling so much ever since, I had shifted into eating cheaply for substance, which ended up being more carbohydrates because those foods go on sale more often and generally cost less. I also just felt more secure having more food on hand. Even though we are out of all debt except for our two mortgages, I still feel the need to be quite frugal because we really need to have the siding replaced on our home and most of the windows replaced with new construction windows, not just insert replacements. Also, my husband's minivan will probably need to be replaced soon also, just because it has so many miles on it.

Yet, I have been feeling the physical affects of my eating habits. When we did the 40-day fast over two years ago, I remember how it felt to wake up in the morning completely free of any and all pain. You never really notice all the little aches and pains until you are completely free of them. As time passed and I returned to eating the way I was, all those little aches became back and I generally was not feeling well off and on. I knew that I needed to change my course. My husband needed it as well, because he was eating out most of the time and our daughter needs us to be her role models, so she can see the benefits of eating healthy. I will write more about this subject in the future.

And...if you thought my pantry was much with food for three people, you should see my two large freezers and my supplement cabinets! One area at a time....I will get to rearranging them as well.

~ My Lord, thank you for answering my prayers, all those little things that I ask You to help me accomplish that go unnoticed by others but mean so much to me. ~

Organizing Food Storage in My Kitchen - Part 4

The ordinary arts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest.
~ Thomas Moore

To the right of the cans and jars cabinet, which has no divider by design, is the pasta, rice, and box mixes cabinet. I used to have the box mixes in another cabinet yet to be seen. Previously the lower shelf had granola and bags of pasta resealed as we have a FoodSaver and we would also have bags of chips also resealed. This did not make for an organized look at all, however all the items were protected from pests!

I used to have the brown rice in a larger container when we used to make dog food for two dogs, but now a smaller one would do well. I also had no container for my favorite wild rices so I used two of those aforementioned (earlier post) five 6-cup Rubbermaid Servin' Savers purchased from Goodwill for each of these. I filled my Creamette tin in the corner with fettuccine, as I am currently out of spaghetti. This is one of the tins I have in my collection that actually gets used in the cabinets. Instead of resealing the bags of pasta. I decided that they would be better stored in re-purposed plastic containers that may not be as air tight, but suitable for pasta. Stacking the boxes face down is just an easier way to see everything and uses the vertical space more efficiently.

The reason I placed these all together is that the Princess is able to read instructions on a box and make these foods—following the directions is an entirely different issue with a tween brain, but let's just not go there right now. She also is particularly fond of macaroni and cheese as well as tuna noodle casserole, so this is mostly set up for her. The containers are not labeled because the ingredients can be easily identified and the containers may not always have the same kind of pasta or rice in them—there's some of that that fluidity I was mentioning earlier.

~ My Lord, as I went through one cabinet at a time, I kept thinking if only I would be better at taking one moment at a time with You. ~

Organizing Food Storage in My Kitchen - Part 2

If you can organize your kitchen, you can organize your life. ~Louis Parrish

With the bulk of the flour removed (and buggy ones thrown out) I now had some space in that cabinet above the stove. I decided that the baking ingredients should remain there because they are not needed as often as the other items. You can see part of my collection of tins on top. I am thinking of reducing that collection down, but that will be decided at a later time. For now, I am writing about the baking cabinet.

Long ago I had purchased two plastic containers meant for 5lb. bags of flour but they were never convenient when measuring out the flour, so while I used them, I did not really like them for that purpose. Now that my flour is in the jumbo canisters, I had these containers available. In one I placed powdered sugar in its original resealable bag and the other have cornmeal and cornstarch.

I recently purchased five "vintage" 6-cup Rubbermaid Servin' Savers, a Goodwill find for 97¢ each, of which two are in this cabinet. (Would you believe that someone has one listed for $14.99 on eBay just now? Oh, yes, I do know about BPA but even if these containers have them they are being used for dry food only so leaching is not as much as a concern.) One has Buckwheat and Waffle Mix and the other Cornbread Mix. Each is labeled and very accessible, as well as easy to measure out. I even cut the instructions and ingredients off their original bags and taped them on the back of the containers. These stack well enough, but the one thing I do not like about them is that the lid lip sticks out around the top so that placing them next to each other wastes space, but for less than a dollar, that thrifty side of me says I can work with it until I find another low priced solution.

If you look hard you will notice the large yellow and orange Kroger's Manger Special label on a bottle of agave, which was half the price just because they reorganized the Nature's Market section of the store and discontinued it. The same happened with the box of organic chocolate icing mix at my favorite little health store. The many extra cans of baking powder was a low price buy at Big Lots which was cheaper than I could get even with my discount at the health store. (I suppose technically the extra cans should be in the pantry now that I think about it.) The flour mixes in the containers where also bought marked down for being close to their sell-by dates, but where kept in the freezer until opened. I usually buy most everything that goes into baking goods on in bulk while on sale or marked down, and with even with the added reduction of coupons when I have them.

~ My Lord, it is a small pleasure to open cabinets that are arranged well and to have its contents be easily to use. I quite imagine You might feel the same when You open our hearts and put things in order for us. ~

Organizing Food Storage in My Kitchen - Part 1

No matter where I serve my guests,
it seems they like my kitchen best. ~Unknown

My aunt had this trivet hanging on the wall near her stove for so many years. I liked the saying but the trivet itself just looked too old fashion to me with a woman running in an apron flipping a pancake. That was so un-me as a teenager and I did not like the thing at all then. However, when I saw one just like it in a Goodwill store, it gave me such strong feelings of nostalgia that I snatched it up. Funny how things like that, things I hated as well as things I loved, both are sentimentally pleasing. I have not yet hung it in my own kitchen, but I most likely will right above my own stove. The saying was very true in my aunt's home as she had a large country eat-in kitchen, but my home has a bar with a pot rack hanging over it between the dining area and the kitchen, so technically it is my dining room that seems to be the hang out, apart from the kitchen yet open to it. Still some of the best conversations are during the making of a meal!

However, my kitchen is has not been the place I like best and, after beginning to inventory the pantry, it just seemed to be logical to also work on food storage areas in my kitchen as well.

I was too ashamed to take pictures of my cabinets where I store food previously. For one, besides being messy, we had been having an Indianmeal Moth problem. This pest is rather common when buying bulk foods like nuts, grains, popcorn, and flour, particularly with organics because the foods are not treated with insecticides. However, this infestation was different in that it was not contained in a container and I often had a few fly out whenever I opened my cabinets—not the kind of thing you ever want a guest to see. I had removed the source of the infestation or at least what they were going after for food mostly, a bag of almonds, but by then they had also found other things to sustain themselves. Another very common pest in organic grains and flours is the Grain Weevil. I have had them upon occasion also, which is why my flours and grains usually are stored in the freezer. It is said it kills the eggs, but I have even had some infestations break out after freezing, although it does limit any infestation better.

All of the flours and such were sealed in zip lock bags to discourage or contain pests, but apparently both of these bugs can eat through them as well, to my surprise. (Previously, I though only the weevil could.) So, I had a few more things to toss. Just a few, thankfully. Obviously, we needed better storage solutions.

My daughter and I have been searching for items to help us organize as cheaply as possible, which means that I have been shopping at every Goodwill, Big Lots, and other closeout stores near my errand route. I have found some new favorite stores and some very handy things!

There are three things that I have wanted to have in larger containers: rolled oats, whole wheat flour, and unbleached white flour. (Rolled oats are for my husband's oatmeal, my homemade granola, part of our homemade dog food, and treats for the rabbits. Yeah, we go through it pretty fast.) I found these jumbo stainless steel canisters at Big Lots, actually a Target Room Essentials brand with very minor deflects, for $12 each, which is probably half its original price since now they can only be purchased from Target online so there is additional shipping costs. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately because I would have bought I don't know how many more if they had them), they only had three. An entire 5lb bag of flour fits with room to spare!

Now the problem with these huge canisters is that they did not really fit in my cabinets, which is to say they fit into them but were huge space hogs and nothing else would fit in with them. These canisters were so large that they also took up too much space on my counters; besides I do not bake so often that they would not need to that quite accessible. Previously I had the flours in the cabinet above the oven, which was a stretch for me, but we have an Amish made wooden ironing board, step stool, and chair in one that moves easily around and is highly used for such things in our kitchen. It was my husband who suggested the top of the pot rack which is close to the step stool. I had to remove a few things from that, hang the stainless steel strainer, and arrange the pots we needed to have there, but I have been very pleased with this solution. I even labeled the canisters so I could easily identify their contents.

My Lord, thank you for spending time with me when I am immersed into projects like this. ~

Inventoring my Pantry

Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans. ~Peter F. Drucker

My dear readers, I finally got around to uploading pictures to reveal what I had been doing in February when my blog was so silent and my husband was gone, so he did not have to deal with the mess in the kitchen as I moved things around. I have been meaning to do this project for so long—far too long—but just never had the time, energy, or maybe I just was not committed enough. Now that I have more time and energy, I seem to be far more committed to reorganizing my home, but in a no-hurry-worry way, just one area at a time, because I am still homeschooling, which is a higher priority.

I did not take before pictures of my pantry because what was on the shelves was pretty well organized. The problem was that I had left bags upon bags of things all over the floor because it is close to dinner time and I am usually too tired after unpacking the van on my errand day to put on the shelves in the order of expiration dates. I buy things in bulk when they go on sale. The problem has been that many things do not get used up by their expiration dates, but I have not had anything go bad with the exception of ginger cookies--regardless of the brand, there must be something about ginger without preservatives in baked goods. (If you are wondering what I do with all that canola oil so wonderfully rich in healthy Omega 3, I make my own mayonnaise and ranch dressing with it.)

Now the really cool thing is that this time I did not just arrange the panty but I inventoried it. I was excited about using the bar code feature with the Out of Milk app for android devices, however I soon learned that while Kindle Fire HD has a built-in camera, it does not have a bar code reading capabilities. I could enter the UPC number, but then I was ending up changing the names so that they were categorized by flavor first and brand name last. In the end it was just faster to input the inventory using my laptop, but I can access it with my Kindle (or my phone, I later found out) wherever there is free WiFi (which is not in the stores I shop at this time but I can also print out my inventory or save it in a PDF format loaded it on my Kindle). I also put in the expiration months and years in the notes so that I can keep track of them. I am hoping this will help me make better decisions when I bulk buy, so that I have less out of date items.

Now the downside of this is if anyone brings something up from the pantry other than lemonade or tea which gets used up quickly, I have to know so that I take it off the inventory and this is a new house rule so it may not go over easily, but I am hoping to head off most of that by weekly replenishing the kitchen cupboards with the oldest items. Once something is brought up to the kitchen cupboards, I take it off the list whether it is stored in the cupboard or used. This way my inventory is solely for the pantry as I can easily see what is in the cupboards...at least I can now, but I am saving that for another post.

~ My Lord, when I think of the earth with fresh water in its place and salt water in its place, the mountains and plains in their places, the sky and the ground in their places, the atmosphere and outer space in theirs, and so on, I am amazed by how orderly your creation is. May my family be motivated by how Your order benefits us in keeping our home organized and enjoying its benefits as well. ~

Autumn Consignment Sale Madness

By sowing frugality we reap liberty, a golden harvest. ~Agesilaus

I am still around, just very busy. There has been much to do with getting the praise and worship service together each week and being on the church board (and I have not even begun to work on the Missions Ministry, which is why I am a board member). I have been making an effort to stick to my homeschool lessons schedule, although it needs some tweaking, and get back into a weekly routine, but then...

it is that time of year again!

I am considering the quote I chose and if this is sowing frugality, I am wondering why does it feel so enslaving? I am selling in a consignment sale at the end of the week but I had to drop off my things today at 5:00 pm. I spent the better part of the last three days getting everything together, cleaned, put on wire hangers as required, and tagged. It seems the Princess has spurted again. Even shoes we bought just a few months ago are too small! She is still thin but taller and I think finding jeans that fit her waist and are long enough in the leg is going to be challenging.

The thing about consignment sales is that clothes cannot be tried on, so I often get more than I would because I am guessing the fit--although I used to work at a higher end department store in junior clothing and can be pretty accurate at sizing. I usually like to get some things that are bigger than she currently needs for the on-going growth factor.

So, Wednesday night the Princess and I will be shopping the seller's pre-sale and I will pick up my check and whatever is left over on Saturday. Then I get to start all over again with those left-overs and enter them by the 10th of September, Monday, for the next consignment sale for which I registered. I will shop it also on the following Wednesday evening. Thursday morning we will stop at another to shop in the morning and if I have any stamina and money left, we might try to go to another on Friday night, although that one has not been worth it as much in the last couple of years. I used to sell in it, but I the last three years I sold in it I just did not so well in the autumn oddly--spring was usually okay, but the clothes really had to be cheaper than the other sales.

It is worth it though...I think. Well, I have convinced myself of that most of the year until zero hour, at least. I usually break about even on the clothes I buy and the clothes I am selling, although it is getting more difficult to find clothes in sizes that fit the more she grows. I think tween girls wear out their clothes more as they grow slower than younger children but are still more active than teenagers.

Well, time to wrap up my fresh-baked bread and go to sleep. Tomorrow morning we go to the horse barn.

~ My Lord, there are times I wonder about the priorities in my life and about my lifestyle. Please guide me to keep in line with Your priorities and thank you for the opportunities You have provided for me save money here and there. ~

Debt Free, Not Yet

Wouldst thou shut up the avenues of ill, Pay every debt as if God wrote the bill. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

We had a plan, Debt Pay-Off Plan A. We planned to be debt free of our credit card debt, which actually is how we paid for the second van so it is like car loan, sometime around Christmas time, maybe even November but possibly as late as January. I never plan on an Income Tax Return, because we usually break about even, but this time around we received much more than expected (a benefit from giving more than 10% as our tithe), so I was very excited about launching Debt Pay-Off Plan B! After some prayer we decided to pay more each month out of those extra funds and then pay the debt off completely in July, this month, in one last lump sum.

I am so thankful we listened to our Lord, because Plan B was to be short-lived. A few weeks ago, my husband could not dodge the rubber flying from a semi-truck ahead of him without causing a real accident. He drove over some of it as some more flew over his mini-van into the radiator and windshield of the vehicle behind him. We do not have collision on the van as it is so old with so many miles on it that the insurance company would total it for something like this and hand us about a thousand dollars if we were lucky.

Either way was a risk about the collision insurance, but we have had that van for four years and by now we would have paid nearly as much as what the insurance would have given us for it totaled. We chose to pay for the repairs, which was a new transmission, because we just could not afford a replacement vehicle right now and otherwise the little van is in good working order. (Since this happened in another state, he had to leave the van and fly to a customer in the north and fly back to pick up the van, which ironically had a lay-over in Atlanta, but I would not see him for another eight hours.)

So, the money I had earmarked for paying off the credit card paid for van repairs instead. The good news is that we have a 0% interest rate until February and if I had paid it off the repairs would have had to be charged with extra fees or at least interest charged.

Now we are back to Debt-Payoff Plan A, but I am optimistic. It looks as though we actually should pay it off in October!

~ My Lord, bless our efforts to get out of debt and begin saving for replacing the siding on our house and other repairs necessary. ~

This Week in Review

Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees. ~Victor Hugo

I think I have been in calling out to my Lord quite a bit in the last few months, even though I have, at times, avoided prayer. I think part of me knew I was being stubborn, stuck in the mire and wanting out but my way. God was showing me not the path of least resistance, but the one He had prepared for me and I for it. The difference in my attitude is not just the schedule change, although that was a large part of it, but something more...something more like trusting Him more with the Princess' education and allowing myself to enjoy both her talents and my own. I had just gotten off track with the whole thing, but now...ahhh, so much the better now!

Saturday
My daughter cleaned her room and her hamster's cage. I dusted and vacuumed most of the house because the fleas had finally died down and the diatomaceous earth I used to treat for them for the last three weeks was everywhere in my house--and I do mean everywhere, on everything and in everything.

My husband was out hunting for the day and came home late in the dark with a deer. Although past her bedtime, my daughter was as excited as the outside mitten kittens, but for differing reasons. There was an outside party next door and we were trying to be discreet, just in case the children would be upset.

We had to process the deer that night in our garage, at least in part, which took a few hours being it was the first we have ever done. My husband was given the deer by his hunting partner, who had shot it and felt it was not worth taking to a processor because it was too small. Actually it was average size for a doe in our area. It is not like my husband did not earn it, at least, a portion of it, for it was he who tracked the deer, since it ran away, and hauled it back.

Sunday
Because we all were up late the night before, we left for Sunday School late. There was a dinner after church as it was Pastor Appreciation Day and there would be no evening service, which suit us fine as we had more processing to do. Once done, my husband packed as he would be leaving after work to fly out to Boston on Monday night.

Monday
After my husband had left for work, the day unraveled. First thing in the morning when I was feeding the rabbits I noticed a freakish accident in which a bunny's back leg got caught in the wiring of the cage. The leg was obviously broken or dislocated. While trying to get him freed, with my daughter holding him, she expressed concern for one of the mitten kittens. Midnight, the prissy, long-haired one who rather be a lap cat and carried everywhere, was on the ground and from the description given by my dramatic Princess, because my focus was on the bunny, the kitten could have had a seizure. I called my husband about the bunny, this before I understood what may have happened to the cat.

We began lessons a bit late, but all was going well, although I was a bit frazzled on the edges about the bunny. The Princess finished her pastel drawing of a horse for an art show and we went to the arts and craft store to get a can of fixative spray. After I realized that I had gotten "workable" fixative instead of the "final" one, I called to find out that the final fixative was one aisle over. Of course, the cans of final fixative and working fixative were in separate aisles! What was I thinking?

Then my daughter saw the next door neighbors walking their dog in costumes and began getting upset about treat or trick already starting. She never has like people being in full costumes with masks, but I thought she had grown out of it. I am still not sure if she was just being dramatic or truly upset.

This year she had a plan to keep children from stomping on the porch. What she did not plan is slipping on acorns while trying to move a heavy trash can to block the front steps and falling hard on her knee. About twenty minutes later she was fine and sweeping the sidewalk. The trash can, with a "no trick or treating" sign, was to stop the children from walking up to our door, which they always do even when we have porch lights off and drapes drawn close. It drives our dog crazy and we tend to hide downstairs, but this year we decided to enjoy sitting in our living room without closing the drapes, enjoying an episode of SG-1 while eating dinner and munching on a few treats. The Princess is proud that she came up with a way to keep those trick or treating off our porch.

Tuesday
The horses decided to be mischievous and play musical stalls...without the music. We got them situated and had no other incidents. After our chores there, I changed clothes because we needed to do some errands, including exchanging the fixative, but I left an article of clothing by accident, which I did not realize until we had returned home.

We went to the bank, got our refills of water from Kroger, filled the van with gas, exchanged the fixative, and stopped in at Target to look over the marked down candy. Several times I found myself thinking how much more I am enjoying the freedom on Tuesdays with the new homeschooling schedule. At home, the Princess had a shower, then we had a large lunch. I then showered while the Princess began working on her horse curriculum and the Latin she did not get done the day before.

All seemed to go so well, but later I realized I forgot to remind her of piano practice. I was distracted because I was trying to finish matting, mounting, shrink wrapping and placing a card on her artwork, as required so that we could turn it in at the 4-H meeting that evening. The meeting place is just a few minutes from my home, thankfully, because I realized on the way there that not only had I forgotten to take a picture of the pastel drawing my daughter did, but I had forgotten my camera as well, and the artwork is to be donated and sold to raise money to be split by the county animal control and an animal rescue group. I left the Princess and went back home for my camera and when I came back I was asked by a mother I know to take pictures of her daughter's presentation for her 4-H portfolio, which helps her qualify for scholarships. This is the same girl who has given the Princess a few riding lessons.

My husband returns home from Boston late, just before I had fallen asleep, which I did soon afterward.

Wednesday
Lessons go well. On Monday we covered Stonehenge, so for art in the afternoon I asked that she do a pencil drawing of Stonehenge from an elevated perspective so that the top was elliptical and also to begin a drawing for our Christmas cards. She felt it was too early, but I reminded her how rush we get when we wait until December.

We received Beautiful Feet's History of Classical Music. At first glance, each lesson looks to be more involved than the History of the Horse curriculum, perhaps better geared for an older child, so I think I will break up the lessons a bit so that the Princess can do them in the van between errands more easily. I want more than just a day to look through it, so I decided not to begin it until next week.

I relaxed in the afternoon, worked on separating money into the budget envelopes, viewing sales flyers online for my health food store, and organizing my coupons. I was particularly excited to find the 32 oz. organic canola oil regularly around $13.00 is on sale for $8.49 and there is also a $2.00 off coupon, so the $10.40 normally would pay with my 20% discount would be $5.19--half the price. Besides cooking, I use canola oil to make mayonnaise and ranch dressing, and because it is higher in Omega 3 than most vegetable oils, it is a healthier choice. Organic white flour normally around $7.00 for five pounds is also on sale for $4.99 with a $1.00 off coupon, my price of $5.60 down to $3.19. The whole wheat would be about 80¢ more. Also on sale is various soups and flavorings with coupons and sugar without. This is when I really stock up on baking goods and soups for my hunting man, but I try to hold back enough for two turkeys also.

Thursday
My husband's van had a flat tire, because one of his accounts has a building still under construction and the workers cleaned up by blowing around the debris in the parking lot. A couple of screws found their way into the most worn tires, fortunately, but they may have lasted another 25,000. My husband filled the tires with air and asked me to follow him to the place where he would have the tires replaced on our way out to do errands.

I thought I would then double back and drop off one of the Princess' books at the library as well pay for one overdue and renew it. I really wish I would stop forgeting that the library's hours have changed, so it was not opened and we would do that on the way home.

Stopped at Walmart to look at marked down candy and got a little. Then we went to the health food store. (I know that sounds counterproductive, candy and health food, but we eat very little candy. A few bags keep well in my freezer for months. Besides, organic chocolate is very expensive.) At Life Grocery, I bought my bargains and a few staples like eggs and fruit. The Princess has taken up helping in the store the last few weeks. She asks what she can do and they usually have her front items or locate items where the labels are missing on the shelves. This time they "paid" her with a bag of natural milk chocolate, which she shared with me. Isn't she sweet? It tasted more like something between milk and dark chocolate and I really liked it very much, but then I never met a chocolate I did not like.

We also stopped at Big Lots and bought 16 oz. organic Newman-O's, a sandwich cookie, for just $2.00, which is the best price I have ever seen, but for some reason I have found them only at one Big Lots of the three closest on our errand run.

During the piano lessons, I read several chapters of a book. Afterward, we started the drive home with a stop at the Post Office. Because of an accident on the highway, we were delayed about 20 minutes and this time we did not stop for a Happy Hour half-priced milk shake at Steak-n-Shake. We stopped at the Target closest to home and bought five (all that was there) Sweet Leaf Organic Tea in the 64 oz. size for $1.99 (with the 8 oz. near it for about $1.49). We have plenty of organic spring salad mix so I did not stop at Sam's Club for it this time.

Then we made it to the library. The Princess placed two of the remaining Ramona books by Beverly Cleary on hold, which means they were ordered from other libraries.

At home we unpack and I begin dinner, which is usually just a salad, especially if my husband is working late and he did. The Princess and I watched a Stargate SG-1 episode during dinner.

Friday
Thinking my husband would be working on Saturday, I focused on lessons with the Princess and planned to work on reorganizing my pantry, kitchen cabinets for food, and upright freezer on Saturday. Of course, plans around here are never worth writing in pen and my husband will be home on Saturday after all which means he will not get a comp day so we can go to the apple country (North Georgia) on Monday as we had penciled in.

We had a nice dinner, rabbit with black beans and rice. I am still trying to get use to cooking rabbit, because it has so little fat, it can be a bit chewy in comparison to chicken, which is what it tastes like for the most part.

Saturday
My daughter cleaned her room and swept the back deck and sidewalks. I defrosted the upright freezer and organized it with older items in the front and everything more easily accessible. My husband decided that he would like to move the pantry from the garage to one end of the arts and crafts room, because we had a mouse problem that we think has been corrected, but why encourage more? Also, that way we can use those shelves in our garage as our mud room area with hunting supplies and gardening items. To make room in the arts and craft room, he is now moving his computer and hobby work bench to another wall and clearing it out of all the outdated computer stuff not needed anymore.

I am half way done with the pantry, checking all the dates to move the oldest to the front and making mental notes of what we have, need, and should be used. I have not even started in the kitchen and I have my doubts that I will get to it today. We need to stop at a store tomorrow after church and perhaps then I will relax...while I prepare lessons for the week, that is.

And, we have to change the clocks now too!

You know what is the most amazing thing is: I am feeling so much better emotionally (and a little tired physically). I don't know if it is the new schedule or just a phase or maybe I just slapped myself in the face with reality, but I actually feel I am trusting God again and the rest, the bad along with the good, has had a very different feel for the last two weeks and even when I look at the next few weeks which are always very hectic with extra 4-H activities.

Still, I just have been feeling at more peace. Thank you for the prayers.

~ My Lord, thank you...just thank You. ~

Weighing the Worth of Seasonal Consignment Sales

Frugality is founded on the principal that all riches have limits. ~Edmund Burke

Seasonal consignment sales are the probably the epitome of frugality, where one must carefully weigh worth between money and time, savings and effort, value and intangibles.

It has not escaped me that to place items for sale in a seasonal consignment sale, one must devote time and energy to find which items for the season that have not been worn in six months no longer fit and then look for spots and tears and whatever else that will cause the clothes to be rejected. Clothes must be laundered and ironed to look their best, then hung on hangers just so with the tag in the upper right corner. Some sales require all to be hung on wire hangers only because the plastic ones can break. For some, shoes must be in bags pinned on hangers and others just want the pair fastened together to be placed in bins. Other items like nursery decor, toys, games, shoes, DVDs, CDs, homeschool materials and books must all be clean and in working order with batteries included for those items that need them. Depending on how much you have to do, it can take a least a few hours of preparation and some consignment sales have limits of how many items can be listed, that is listed under one consignor's number and each one has a fee.

The Princess tried on all her clothes from last year, because some things were large on her then and she seems to be in a slow, but steady growth, staying a bit petite for her age and we cannot go by the size on the label to determine what will fit and not fit. She thinks this is such a waste of time, but this is the worst of her part in the preparations and just the beginning of mine. After I have sorted the piles of what she will still be able to wear and not, I have much to do.

After I have prepared the items, I must take them to the designated place at the designated time to drop them off. Now for most sales, the only thing I must do afterward is to pick up the leftovers, if I want them back, at another designated time on a Saturday. Some sales also have the check ready and others mail it in a day or so.

As a seller, I get to go the preview sale for sellers and volunteers, which is usually on Wednesday night. To entice people to volunteer to help with the sale, there are earlier preview times according to how many shifts one worked. A shift is three hours, so for working three hours, one gets in a half hour earlier up to three shifts. I don't think the trade off is worth it personally. Particularly when the children of volunteers are put in a daycare with other children where it is likely that at least one child has a contagious illness just waiting to be pass along, which happened the one and only time I volunteered when the Princess was four. They also tried to feed her junk food, which she refused, but this was after I told them she had her own food and not to give her anything else. Now the Princess is old enough to help or sit quietly doing her lessons, but I still don't see the trade-off for volunteering three hours as worth it.

Unfortunately, the second of the two sales for which I registered, which is this week, has a rule that new sellers MUST volunteer one shift. So, tomorrow I drop off my items and begin working for three hours right through our lunch time. They usually allow the workers time to eat, but I am still not looking forward to it, because when I work, I work hard...perhaps harder than I need to do? The last time I was at this, I noticed that I matched the work of three other volunteers collectively, who spent a great deal of time talking. I also worked through the hour lunch everyone else took so that I was only there two hours instead of three. I see time as precious, something you cannot buy or make up when wasted, and as a homeschooling parent, I have other things to do that are far more important to do than to organize assortments of clothes, shoes, games, toys, etc. However, if I do it this one time, I will not be a "new seller" next time and hopefully will not be required to do it again...ever.

Today I must take off the tags of my leftovers from the last sale and put on new tags for the next one. Tomorrow makes for a short homeschool day and it is the same for Wednesday with Thursday being our errand day. Obviously we are not going to cover all the lessons I would like but I do have a few shortcuts for weeks like this so that the most important subjects are still covered. Basically, it is just different style with resources I would typically use as supplements.

I wish I had sold more in the first sale so I would not have to go to the second one. I sold about 33% of what I listed for a check of $101. Which was pretty good as this sale had so much in clothes left over and I sold more in homeschool things than clothes. Still, this is twice more than I did in the last two fall sales put together! The next sale is also early in the season and very popular so I would like to double my profit with the 66% of items I have left and this time I marked many of the items for the 50% discount on Saturday, hoping I will have very left over.

Now, my one peeve is about the seller's fee. Most sales charge $6 to $7 for a seller's fee in addition to the 30% they make off the sale, which in the last one was around $51. The first $10 of the sale just goes to make up for the seller's fee which is about four tops the way I price them. I do not understand why there is a seller's fee at all, but I particularly don't get the seller's fee when a person is also volunteering her time. The first sale takes off the seller's fee for volunteering, which I think is still not a good trade for my time: for three hours I save $6 and I get a 30-minute earlier shopping time? However, the sale I am in next not only requires new sellers to volunteer three hours but also charges $7 for the seller's fee whether you volunteer time or not.

And...is it really volunteering when it is required? I think not!

With all that said, I guess it is worth it because when I do well with the consignment sale, it offsets the amount I spend in the consignment sales for new-to-her clothes and shoes most times. Oh, and can you believe it? I bought her another fancy dress after I already said she does not need another one, but it is rather lovely.

~ My Lord, thank you for this extra bit of money and help me to be sure that all my efforts to be frugal are wise choices. ~