Cool Down...Period

When envoys are sent with compliments in their mouths, it is a sign that the enemy wishes for a truce. -Sun Tzu

After calling for a cooling down period—literally—the refrigerator war finally is over and, although our new relationship started tenuously and is still fragile, I am ignoring its chilling looks and focusing on the exchange of cold foods that was the point of the war. I appreciate its beauty, how it blends in with the other appliances, and how seems to be fitting in well now, as I am sighing in relief and thanking God it is over.

I had to cancel my daughter's piano lesson and not go grocery shopping yesterday because yesterday afternoon was the soonest we could get the new non-working refrigerator swapped out for one that looked exactly like it. Once everything was hooked up, I heard the very quiet hum just like the last one. I pace in front of it hoping it will cool like it is supposed to do...and, yes, I did place my refrigerator/freezer thermometer inside, despite the warning I was given to not do that. I am still rolling my eyes over that one!

Within a few minutes the gauge read about a degree or two lower. Yay! About an hour later it was in the low 50's and still going down. At around 8:30 p.m. I began moving all the things in the coolers into the refrigerator. I found that one item had not been as sealed as it should have been and had gotten knocked over one of the times we got in it, so broth had leaked on a few things and sat on the bottom.

I do not have everything arranged the way I want it yet, but at least everything is staying cool now!

Midnight, our outside cat who seems to want to be an inside cat whenever she wants to be, was particularly interested in the refrigerator swap as the front door was open, I picked her up and held her to keep her out of the way. Unfortunately, Midnight did not let me know that she had urushiol from poison ivy on the her fur on her right side. How do I know where it was on her, you may ask? Well, she likes to perch herself to look over my shoulder and she usually prefers my left shoulder, but I also had her on my right side and I have three spots between my shoulder neck on that side and only there. It is even more ironic that I was telling one of the delivery men, who is a cat lover, that she tends to give me poison ivy.

I had been looking for my poison ivy homeopathic for the last two weeks thinking I needed to start taking it to avoid the problem starting in February every year, but I just was not looking in the right places. This morning it had a higher priority and I found it.  I will be taking it daily until fall when poison ivy dies back.

I am not in the mood to get into another war, especially not with poison ivy. I would like to have some peace for a little while at least.

My Lord, thank you for reminding me how blessed I am, how the things I take for granted every day are things about which people for centuries did not even know was possible and would have seemed miraculous...and some people in the world still do not have. Help me to be grateful for each moment an appliance works as it is suppose to do so that my life is easier.

Catching a Breather Here

The world is so dreadfully managed, one hardly knows to whom to complain. ~Ronald Firbank

I hate the time change stuff:
Spring ahead, fall behind.
Spring ahead, fall behind.
Spring ahead, fall behind.
Just pick one and stop this craziness! Daylight saving time? How does it save daylight? I mean, really, what is the point? Most businesses have lights on all day whether it is day or night, so it is not really "saving" anything at all!

Thursday, the Thursday before last actually, after the Princess begged and we were acclimating to the time change, I was determined to get her to the youth praise and worship team practice. I drove 25 minutes west to the Yorkville campus of our church where it should have been. Unfortunately, we were met with construction inside as they were replacing some of the media equipment and lighting. Practice, we were told, was at the other campus. So we drove another 30 minutes east past our home to find only the adult team practicing as the youth one had been cancelled. Then I drove another 15 minutes to get home with at least a quarter tank of gas wasted. Had I been on Facebook.... (No, I am still resisting the whole Facebook/social networking thing. It is not going to happen.) So, my husband talked to the Music Pastor, who explained that due to vacations where the youth were filling in with the adult P&W and the changes they need to make with stage, they have cancelled the youth praise and worship practice until after Easter, but that he will put together a music book so that the Princess can begin learning the songs. We hope to have them over for dinner this week with their first little baby! I just have some cleaning to do....

I received my check from my first consignment sale the Saturday before last; it was over $200! Not bad considering that all those clothes and books were from consigment sales so I sold them for about the same price as I paid for them, although I price on the low side. That $200 paid for books and clothes that I bought so far for the Princess plus some. Considering that I get 70% of the sale price, I did very well and sold about half of the things I put in it. I replaced the tags with ones for the next sale, added all our VHS tapes as this sale does not have a limit on them as the others do, and will be dropping those items off this afternoon. I also signed up for another sale that takes place in the middle of April, but if I do not have enough left over from this one to make it worthwhile, I will simply unregister.

Because I needed to go through our DVD and VHS collection to pull the VHS tapes and sell them, I decided to reorganize that entire bookshelf again. I used to have the movies labeled in categories color coordinated for their age ratings--actually, with my age ratings. However no one, but me, really put the movies back by category except for the children's videos. I also used to have them inventoried but the program being free is now no longer being updated so I looked for something free online and found iTrackMine. Now I know that we have over 300 DVDs and I am getting rid of the duplicates plus some that were just plain horrible choices. This time I bought little color dots instead of making a dot with markers, so we have blue for G, green for PG, yellow for PG-13, and red for R with the children and family videos on the lower shelves and the reds on the top shelf. The Princess helped with dusting each one and placing them in categories, which I did not bother to label this time because what would be the point? These days I am usually the one who puts them back where they belong anyway. Now I need to do something with those music CDs also.

We had to replace the compressor for the air conditioner in our van on Friday. That was about $200 dollars more than we had expected it to be. Quite costly, but I really would not want to go without air conditioning in the van with summer coming...if summer ever does come because we keep getting cold snaps in waves as if we are just being teased with warmer temperatures before the next one; tomorrow night the low is expected to dip into the 20's again!

This past Saturday my husband was required to attend the chaperone meeting at Living Science from 9 to 12. I was to clean at the school this weekend as well, so I choose to clean in the classroom building, which has only two large science classrooms, as the other building would be occupied with the meeting. I wish I had taken the pay $50 option instead of cleaning because the classroom building was not vacant, but filled with high school students in the Servant Leader program. All the Princess and I could really clean was the bathrooms and the foyer around the bookbags and kids, which we did and gave up on the classrooms. Last fall I paid because it is an hour drive for us just to get to the school and then there is about three hours worth of cleaning to be done. I pay half the $50 in gas and then it is half of my day shot when I have plenty of house and yard work to do at home. I would not have even attempted it this time if my husband did not have to be there for that meeting. Being thrifty, I do not like paying the money, but weighing it out I also consider my time to be valuable.

Since we were in the area, I stopped by to give my friend, the Princess' piano teacher, an ozonator to borrow as she had smoke damage in her house again. This is the third time she has smoke damage in about three years. Her first insurance company dropped her after the second one which was just a few months after the first time. She simply started cooking something and forgot about it...all three times. This time she felt she could not report it to her insurance company and was washing everything she could herself with a few friends helping. The ozonator would be able to treat the remaining smoke smells, we are hoping. So after a short visit there, we ate out and then started for home.

That same evening our church was hosting a concert but even if we had remembered, it would have been too much to do in one day. We did enjoy the singing couple for church service yesterday morning.

This week we are focused on the Princesss' science presentation and the expedition. Her father has been working with her on the 3-D model of the habitat for the endangered red wolf. So timely, as he had worked with someone recently who had a passion and experience for building an impressive train model, who gave him some great advice. I gladly have taken a hands-off approach so they could do this project together, but I will be working with her on the presentation itself and possibly help her paint the wolf figurines she got.

We have to get certain items for the expedition also. Mostly the Princess is concerned about finding cheap tennis shoes that she has been told she will need to toss away after the expedition as they will be using them in the river and swamp areas. We are going to look for them today when I go out to make my consignment sale drop off.

Oh, and my husband for the very first time in his life was summoned for jury duty. "We don't have anything going on the week of April 14th, do we?" No, honey....just the science expedition! He jumped on that right away last Monday and his differral has been approved so he will be serving in the middle of May instead.

I am looking forward to five days all to myself in April...well, not completely to myself as there are the furry ones. I have a couple projects in mind to do without concerns about being in the way of anyone else and without any interruptions.

~ My Lord, so much more to do. Let me not waste time on things of little importance to You. ~

Thanksgiving Feast Preparations

Gratitude can transform common days into Thanksgiving, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” ~William Arthur Ward

This is one of the many reasons I was too busy to blog for the past three weeks.

...and God is so very good! 

With guests coming for Thanksgiving dinner, I began my holiday cleaning with full intentions of a thorough top to bottom cleaning of the kitchen, dining room, living room, and the guest bathroom. That turned out a bit too ambitious of an undertaking, but I was still quite happy (and tired out) because at least my kitchen sparkled from top to bottom! You may remember that I began reorganizing my kitchen in March―yeah, that was nine months ago―and I got it all done except for one deep cabinet that goes from the left of the sink to the corner of the room. That one was just a mess of vases that I have never used, grocery bags for which I now have a place in the garage, those plastic trays from bakeries that I use this time of year to share my own baked goods, and plastic bags that are repurposed from being filled with bulk grains to covering my homemade bread. I finally found a perfect thing to use to organize those plastic bread bags: a magazine file holder that I had no more use for in the office/homeschooling area. I love repurposing!

Now my recycle container is in the front of that cabinet, easily removed to get to the other items that are used less often. I also used a small wired shelf to organize the rolls of cling wrap, aluminum foil, wax paper, parchment, and the like. I placed gloves and dishwashing pads in a small rectangle basket that I got at Goodwill that I did not know what I might use it for at the time, but I had a bathroom cabinet in mind. I finally found another home for plastic containers that we recycle in a variety of ways which will mean that my other cabinet where they had been will finally not have stranded lids all over the place and the other small plastic containers we use for food storage will not be falling down anymore. That alone makes puts a big smile on my face.

The Princess kept saying that our guests would not be looking into the cabinets or on top of the cabinets at all the dust that had collected there, but I felt so much better, particularly after tackling that one cabinet I had put off for all these months―actually years before that as well―as if some great weight had been lifted from me. And the really strange thing is that it really was not that bad of a job. The hardest part was deciding to finally throw away the extras that came with our refrigerator and dishwasher that were in a large shopping bag taking up space because I might use them some day or the appliances were more complete by keeping them even though we had not used any of them. I had to come to terms with myself; I completely forgot about them so it is unlikely I would ever need them. I mean, the refrigerator is nearly 20 years old and the dishwasher is probably 15 years old, so if I have not used those things in all that time, how could I justify the space they are taking?

I just seem to have a problem with letting things go that I never used, do not use, and do not plan to use. I suppose it comes from growing up poor and having grandparents that grew up in the Depression, who were hoarders of many unused things: treasures we discovered as children but were basically trash.

Even though the deep cleaning only was done in the kitchen, with every cabinet door oiled and gleaming―my husband said they looked nearly brand new, we cleaned the dining room, living room, and bathroom so that it all looked nice for our guests. Our families had basically adopted each other since we both have no other family around. The six-year gap in our daughters' ages not much different than the over fifteen-year gap between the adults. We have known them from our former church and they stayed a few months more after we left, but when told them about a church that was just five minutes from their home, they loved it at their very first visit. A few weeks later we all became regulars there. We sit together, especially now as the husband is getting involved in media and she is sitting alone on those Sundays―I well remember what that was like for the three years my husband did it.

For our dinner, my husband prepared the turkey in a brine and roasted it on the grill as he has done the past few years. This not only makes for a very moist turkey, but leaves the oven free for baking and keeping the other food warm. I love to make sweet potatoes with pears and pecans adding just enough brown sugar to the broth to add some sweetness. We also had my coleslaw and sourdough rolls. My husband is famous also for his garlic mashed potatoes and gravy. My homemade applesauce was nearly as good as my husband's homemade cranberry sauce with ginger and pears. I made an apple pie (with a wonderfully flaky crust this time) and my friend made a pumpkin one.

There was some good feasting and friendship on our Thanksgiving!

~ My Lord, may I give You thanks forever and forever. ~

One Space a Day - Part 1

Remember the law of the home: Junk expands to fill the space available, plus one room. ~ Deniece Schofield

Today is a very wet day. I could not work outside. It would have been excellent for baking bread had I planned to do that, but the weather prediction for the week suggests I will have plenty of other wet days to bake. It just would have been another distraction from what I really need to do anyway.

I planned to to use the same concept downstairs, I did March when I tackled the job of reorganizing my panty and kitchen food storage areas (although I have one cupboard in particular that still desperately need to be done, but not today). Actually, I have been toying with it more than planning as I have been putting it off but my one motivation is to have a useable workout area in the garage, a functional office/homeschool area, and--best of all--an space for inspiration and creativity that I will call my art studio. I need to work on one area, one drawer, one shelf, or whatever each day in those areas.

My husband has said that these three areas (which are as big as the entire living areas upstairs) are all connected, which means that to move things in one usually means you have to find a place for some of them in the other two. That makes it seem so, so, so overwhelming to me, because all three are in a state of disaster--well, the office/homeschool area is not too bad now that we have sold some items that took up so much space.

Let me explain what happens. I moved the table and kid-sized chairs out of the office area so that we could put the Princess' new desk in its place. The table is folded up in the garage but needs to be in the center of the art room, when the that room is organized. The two chairs were placed out on the curb with a for sale sign for a few days (and are listed on Craigslist) and this is how they ended up in the garage instead back into the office area. The toy bin organizer was moved out of the office/homeschool room into the art studio until it sold last week.

I have a several boxes of things that are from all three areas in the homeschool area that are piled in front of a stereo cabinet that I use to organize homeschooling items as they are waiting for new homes. This large spread out pile is very inconvenient and terribly bothering me. I really hate piles. I also really hate it when piles just get moved to add to an existing pile or make another whole new pile. Piles make have an adverse effect on me.

It even bothers me that while I am organizing something I have to make temporary piles. That is why just one area a day works best for me. It is just one concise area so that I can manage all the little piles I must make in the process of organizing and making it all so wonderfully better.

Although I have been wanting to tackle the art studio, I am just not mentally ready to enter that room yet. Its piles have piles on top of piles and some of the stuff is not mine. I have to have my husband help out with deciding what to do with his stuff. So, for today I decided that I would take on the two lowest two drawers in the office filing cabinet. It was my hope that everything would fit into the lowest one when I was done. Well, not everything did even with the things that I decided to throw out or give to Goodwill. I had to find places for a few things, but I am pleased and the drawer above is completely empty--not for long, but for now.

I also had a few things that needed to fit into the cabinet were we have our printing paper, labels, envelopes, and such. This is the finished product. Not particularly pretty which is why we have it inside a cabinet we can close, but now we can find everything much better than before.

 

~ My Lord, I finally started on what I have been avoiding, ridding myself of the things that take up so much room in my home and time from the things I believe You are encouraging me to do. Please bless my efforts so that my daughter and I can create artwork to honor You. ~

Woman Needing Rewound

It is impossible to get exhausted in work for God. We get exhausted because we try to do God’s work in our own way. ~Oswald Chambers

Have you been wondering where I have been? Lots of things have been going on. My husband, my daughter, and I have cluttered our home and our lives so much with things that are really unimportant and not necessary for the plans God has for us, so we have plans to clean out some things and rearrange some others. My husband finally had a week off, this week. We had big plans...and some of them actually did get done or at least worked on. Unfortunately, I had far more work to do than energy to do it. I need to be rewound!

We all went to the Open House at Home Study Center two Tuesdays ago. I have known about this school for some years and have heard only good things. They teach science from a creation viewpoint and the teacher, Miss Penney, is energetic and enthusiastic with an English accent that reminds me of someone dear to me (Hi, Ganeida!) although she was originally from Southern Africa. My husband and I both feel that a science class with a teacher, peers, and lots of lab work and projects would be very good for the Princess at this point. Yesterday, the Princess and I dropped off her paperwork and the check for the application fee. Today we agreed on an appointment time for an informal interview in July. The Princess will take the 7th grade Life Science for 2½ hours weekly on Wednesdays.

Yes, Wednesdays are usually my fasting days, but come September when the class starts, my weekly fasting day will be Tuesday. It has been arranged to move her piano lessons to be after the science class as the two are only about 15-20 minutes apart. I will have a chunk of time to go shopping alone or something. I have not thought it all out completely with my errands, but I am confident that it will work out well.

One of our outside cats, Midnight, we did not see for three days. She finally came home a bit thin with a cold-like symptoms and has been staying close to home ever since, and she gave me another tick. I am wondering if she gets a tick on her and then is out of commission for a day or so, because she tends to go off for a day or two now and then, but does not come to the bell we have used since she was a kitten to call her for food. You can hear that thing throughout the entire neighborhood!

While we were on errands yesterday, my husband stayed home to watch the installment of our new roof. We found a company that quoted us $1,000 less than the others around and it looks as if they did a very good job--we shall see when it rains next.

My husband worked on fixing his ATV and built a new cage for the breeding does when they are kindling. He also started cleaning up his work bench in the garage and replaced the broken part on our Bowflex. The Princess is now at a size where she can use our workout equipment and she has been pressing me to add "Phys Ed" to our homeschool schedule since she read about the class in schools in a book.

I have been working on some of the gardens, not the ones next to the house as I knew it would be messy after the roof work was done. I also removed the Princess' kid easel, which was sold on Craigslist, and a bin storage item that was for toys was moved out of the room but I am not sure what to do with it yet, and my husband cleaned up around his desk, so I then had some space to move some things around in the homeschool/office room. I also worked some in the art/craft room but we just need to sell get rid of some things and get some other things to make it work better in there. We are several steps closer but it is far from done.

It seems I should have got more done but I was extremely tired much of this week and today my indoor cat, Jamie, has my attention. He is sixteen years old. Lately, he has been hiding away in strange places and does not seem to hear us anymore or does not want to come to us because he rather not move--it is difficult to tell--because he is having some pain. Perhaps some of the extra tiredness and pain I have been having is from him--it happens with the gift of empathy that the illnesses of the living beings around me sneak up on me and I cannot shake the problems. My husband wanted me to rest on Saturday after he saw how extremely tired I had gotten Friday for the amount of work I did, so I spent some time with Jamie, who is currently confined to the office/homeschool room with his box and food and only about three good hiding places. He would not come for his breakfast nibbles and it took us half the morning searching to find him under the stairs and then take out enough stuff so I could get to him as he would not come to me. He currently is on my lap, but that gets uncomfortable for him in time and then he looks for a good hiding place.

Life is change. Some are welcome, some are hard work, some are sad, some are just plain inevitable, some are exhausting, and some are refreshing. I wonder often if heaven will have changes and what they will be like.

~ My Lord, thank you so much for the week my husband was home to get work done and rest from work. Please, energize me to finish the work we have yet to do so that my daughter and I will finally have the art studio we need.~

Misadventures in Multitasking

Many people feel they must multitask because everybody else is multitasking, but this is partly because they are all interrupting each other so much. ~Marilyn vos Savant

Ever since I heard the word "multitasking," I knew that it was an inhuman trait.

According to Wikipedia:

"Human multitasking is the best performance by an individual of appearing to handle more than one task at the same time. The term is derived from computer multitasking. An example of multitasking is taking phone calls while typing an email. Some believe that multitasking can result in time wasted due to human context switching and apparently causing more errors due to insufficient attention." (Emphasis added.)

The term is quite popular though, as if everyone should be able to multitask. It became the new catch word on résumés. Good mothers are considered to be natural multitaskers or else...what? They are not such good mothers? They even have come up with a cutesy acronym: M.O.M. standing for Master of Multitasking!

Those who multitask well are highly regarded and those who do not—well, who would want anyone to know that? It reminds me of the story of the Emperor's New Clothes where everyone did not want to admit that the king was parading naked. (I am digressing but that story never made any sense to me even as a child, because who would want to parade new clothes that some people may not see knowing he would appear naked to them even if there had been such a thing?)

Okay, here's the thing...

I am NOT a multitasker!

There, I admitted it. (Cleansing, calming exhale.)

I know myself. I am the type of person who once my attention is pulled off one task, has difficulty shifting back to that task. This is not to say that I am easily distracted, quite the opposite. Once my mind is set to a task, I find distractions irritating and time consuming, not good for a mother who is often distracted by a child's question. However, if I really do not like the task then I may be a bit more welcoming for distractions.

I am more of a single-minded person. One who can give a great deal of attention and concentration to a single task to the point that I seem absent-minded. That is not to say that when I am doing a task that does not take much thought that I cannot engage my mind on other things. One of my favorite things to do is fold laundry while talking on the phone to a friend. You see, I dislike folding and putting away clothes. It is a repetitive, mindless, routine task, but when I am talking with a friend on the phone using my headset so my hands are free and my neck is not pained from holding the phone, I do the task without thinking about it in a very short time. In fact, when a friend calls, I look for clothes that need folding or something that needs cleaning or some other repetitive mindless task. Still, this does not qualify me as a multitasker because any two things done together that requires a bit more thought I do not do well. For instance, talking to a friend and cooking at the same time is never a good idea for me. Listening to music and cooking is okay, but trying to sing along and cooking or baking at the same time, not good either.


This week was one of those weeks that would have gone a bit better if I was a multitasker.

It all started with when I asked my daughter to get chicken wings out to thaw for our dog, as she eats one raw wing for daily breakfast. I did not see until after it was thawed that my daughter had mistakenly grabbed a package of chicken breasts, which makes me wonder how the child who has been reading since she was four years old suddenly cannot now.

Then I went to look in the chest freezer and not finding any wings I mistakenly got out rabbit legs thinking they were the shoulders that we usually give the dog because I was in a hurry and a bit angry. Also, not a good combination. So, then I have the meatiest parts of a chicken and a rabbit thawed but still no raw dog food. I would have to grill these meats, which I did on Tuesday night even though we still had plenty of roast left from the Seder meal and turkey breast that we had thawed earlier for sandwiches and dinners with gravy.

My husband came home Wednesday night and took us out to eat, which is usually my fasting day, but I made an except for the dinner meal. He was supposed to be home in mid afternoon but got delayed and then ended up in spring break traffic. We finally were at the restaurant just before 7:30pm.

Thursday, he warms up the roast which is still very tasty. I mentioned something about the grilled chicken and rabbit, but he says he did not see them in the refrigerator. It then dawns on me how I had put them in the oven to cool while we were eating to keep the cat from getting to them as they were too hot to put into a container just then. Yes, they were still in the oven dried out but not spoiled so they were warmed up in a pan with water and eaten last night...and, no, we did not get sick. You know, people did survive without refrigerators for many centuries.

That was not the worse of it though. On Friday, I also had decided to bake pizza crusts and hamburger buns to freeze. I had not been baking much and so I fed and left out my sourdough starter for a over a day to get it activated. It was doing well so I added enough flour and water for the recipe with some left over to keep as my starter. Zipping to the event, I had baked one pizza crust and was putting in the second when I realized that the starter in its usual glass jar was still near the oven vent to warm a bit when I had the dough rising in the warmed oven. But, now the oven was hot as I was baking and I stupidly picked the jar up, immediately getting burned so I dropped it on its side onto the baking pan. That is when I grabbed the pot holder and stood the jar up hoping to still save the starter while thinking the heat probably killed off all the wild yeast and I would have to make another starter, which takes a least two weeks. One side of the jar had baked some but the core temperature of the starter was warm, not hot. Probably a good temperature for the yeast, I hoped, so I poured out the starter into another container and fed it with more flour and water, which cooled it more.

I made this starter over four years ago and all I can say is I am so thankful for its resiliency! Yes, it is just fine. I should have blistered from the burn, but I have a number of alternative health items at my disposal and it was not even sore within minutes afterward.

Things like this happen when I am trying to homeschool my daughter, write an article under a deadline, and bake at the same time. I am really not a multitasker.

~ My Lord, You are probably a Perfect Multitasker and that is why You are so good at saving me from my misadventures in multitasking. Thank you for that! ~

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. ~

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 3

Who ever said that pleasure wasn't functional?
~Charles Eames

Although there is no right and wrong in organizing a kitchen, there should be functionality. (Whew! My spellchecker says that really is a word!) Functionality differs according to the habit and purpose. Kitchens are the family centers of the home where the lifestyle of the family is highly evident.

To the right of the baking cabinet and the stove is the one that I use for cooking goods or just most used kinds of things that are in jars and cans. This is the cabinet opened the most often and here is where the bag of infested almonds had been placed, so you can image my embarrassment of tiny moths flying out every time it was opened! Also, some of the baking items were encroaching into the top shelf of this cabinet solely because things would get forced into the front pushing around other items without discretion. That is what happens when things are not organized and there is no specific place for the item.

One other thing I picked up from my perceptions of my aunt was not necessarily a good habit and it may not have been her nature, but when I lived with her we were in the middle of planning a large wedding for her oldest daughter and the next year my aunt was taking a full schedule at a technical college, so she was rather busy and she did not rearrange things much at all. So, at that time, it seemed to me that once she had determined a place for a thing or a use for a thing, it rarely changed. She was very efficient at fitting things just so and she had a place for everything, but some things had become inconvenient to our lifestyle at the time.

I am trying to identify things that work like mental barriers for me and change them so that they are inspirational and motivating. I started with the pantry because of the traffic it gets and the bags of pantry items on the floor that was a barrier to me, but also so that I could reorganize the highest traffic area, the kitchen. Also, I am trying to be open to see things more fluidly, as in nothing is set in stone. If something better comes along or there is a better use for something somewhere else, I want to be open and willing to change it.

The major change in this cabinet was that all the oils were on the top shelf and, as I wrote before, that is a stretch for me and I need a step stool unless the item was right in front. Now there were two reasons I placed them there when I first arranged my kitchen: one, was that the oil bottles were too tall to go under the half shelve insert so it just seemed practical to place them on the top shelf, and, two, I did not use oil very often then.

How often and how much I use oil and what kinds has changed. In part the change was based on newer research about the benefits of oils rich in Omega 3 ALA to counterbalance the too rich in Omega 6 Western diet, not a bad oil unless you get too much of it and not enough of the right Omega 3 to balance it. Omega 3 ALA, which converts to EPA and DHA, is high in canola oil. Also, for years we were told to avoid saturated fats, like coconut oil, but now research reveals that saturated fats are beneficial. I was never of the oil-free cooking mind set even when it was the rage in natural and conventional health, but I did use as little oil as possible. Armed with the knowledge of the later research on dietary oils and my husband's smaller paychecks for two years, I began making my own sourdough bread and I oil the pans usually with a canola oil spray. Also, I began making my own Omega 3 rich mayonnaise and ranch dressing. Both of these items are used heavily in our home, but rarely go on sale, while the oils go on sale at least two to three times a year.

Now when I think that I have been stretching or pulling over a step stool sometimes as many as five times times a day to get the oil I needed for the last four years, I realize how ridiculous that would seem to someone looking in from the outside. I really wanted to bring the oils down to the lower shelf, so I moved the shelf insert over instead of having it flush to the side of the cabinet. I moved the cat food down so it would be easier for the Princess to reach as feeding the cats has been one of her chores. I moved the beans from the top of the shelf insert to the top shelf so that I can see them, although I do not use them as often. The things that we used the most often or condiments that are refrigerated after opening are in the on the left.

I suppose it is silly, but just having those oils down on the lower shelf has given me much pleasure with its convenience. I used to have packets of mixes there, like a salad dressing and fajita mixes, but it just looked messy and I would have to look through them all to see how much I had of each one. I found another solution for them that works wonderfully...but if I gave all my secrets away at once, what fun would that be?

~ My Lord, I thank you that I am able to find pleasure in the little things. ~

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. ~

A Little Inspiration

Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity. ~Bo Bennett

I thought my eccentricity was enough for this family, but either I have mellowed with age or my daughter has aspirations that far outpaced me even when I was her age. I think the child has painted and drawn more than I have my whole life and she has begun writing a least ten books of which I know, even finished a few. I would laugh, but a friend of mine was looking for a particular book Who Owns the Sun? and while I was helping, I found out this award winning book was written and illustrated by a thirteen year old and it published when she was fourteen. Not just a book but an award winning book that we cannot find used for a thrifty price anywhere and this written by a young teenager!

My daughter was already inspired but now, between having been given a book from her piano teacher on Akiane's amazing artwork (another book worth reading--see the picture of her self portrait) and this, she believes without doubt that her wildest dreams can come true and she talks of being published often or selling her artwork by the road to help raise money for some project. She even began a gel pen tattoo business charging her friends from 2¢ to 25¢ depending on the size, not very surprising since I have done face painting for charities.

Lately, the child has been into cleaning and reorganizing her room. She read a good portion of a book called Shameless Shortcuts, which she keeps reminding me that I should also read. Give the child a book and she becomes it! (That could be so useful, thinks I in my mama-of-a-tween mind.) Now her room has truly become her own. She decided that it was time to take out the Living Family plastic dollhouse and accessories. She has been buying items to help her organize it her way. Seeing that she is being so responsible with her allowance, I have talked to her father about increasing it, perhaps doubling it so that she will have $4 a week spending money, while saving $4 and giving a tithe of $2 each week.

My aspirations are small in comparison to my daughter's and most of the time, it is the little things that excite me. I also get inspired by an idea then off I go in, perhaps, a more mature way. Lately, I have been thinking critically of why I do not like to spend much time in certain areas of my home. What I dislike about the area and how to change it so that I do like it. As boring as it is in comparison, I know from a lifetime of experience that I am far more creative when I feel my home is organized.

As odd as it seem, right now I am most inspired about my uninspiring spaces and my daughter's energy. This year my husband and I both have made commitments to organize our home and that can be a rather creative outlet of its own making. I will be on the hunt at thrift store, yard sales, and Craigslist for the things that will improve my spaces. I have ideas to repurpose, recycle, and rethink all sorts of things. I even joined Pinterest which was one more "everyone is doing it" Internet fad I avoided, but I see how it can be put to good use to keep me inspired. Additionally, I have changed the way I am using my technology to be inspiring also.

~ My Lord, may we be inspired in only in the direction You would have us go. I feel You want my daughter to increase in her gifts of music, writing, and art. May I be most useful in encouraging and challenging her as well as she, me. let me also give up those things that are no longer necessary and reorganize my spaces so that they can be used for the purposes You have blessed. ~

One Small First Step

Don't agonize. Organize. ~Florence Kennedy

I may need intervention. I still have a clutter problem. However, my schedule has just been decluttered, so now I have the time to declutter other areas.

I am planning on reorganizing my entire home during this year, but the task is so overwhelming that I decided to take it one small step at a time. Today, I completed my very first step! It was nothing big nor particularly life changing, but I knew that once I did it, it would be one little thing that would make one little area a happier place for my eyes to rest upon.

For years we have use a small bright green shoe box (from when our daughter was a probably three years old) to store batteries. The box was beginning to look worn and everything in it would get dusty because the top was never placed on it and bulk batteries packages were tossed into it that did not fit. It has been on the top shelf of my husband's desk hutch for years, which houses lots of other loose items that just gather dust, because he just may need some intervention also.

I began looking on the Internet for ideas about organizing in general and saw this idea that was quick, easy, and cheap. I bought a five-drawer organizer, which was nearly half the price it would be to buy two of the three-drawer types that I saw for this idea. From top to bottom, I labeled the drawers:

• 9V and Specialty
• AAA
• AA
• C
• D

Now my battery organizer is sitting on a shelving unit were my old flatbed scanner used to be. We replaced that scanner with a wireless all-in-one when we switched our Internet service from DSL to U-verse just before Christmas (AT&T did not give us much choice in that). The old scanner had to be directly plugged into a computer with installed software and it was getting to difficult with three computers, plus some of our equipment was so old that the software is incompatible with the newer versions of windows and is no longer supported.

Anyway, I now have our batteries in a clean little drawer unit that is easy to dust, keep organized, and reduces that clutter (those dreaded "piles") so that I feel like smiling just a little more when I am in the office area.

~ My Lord, thank you for reminding me that the littlest change in the right direction is inspiring for the largest tasks ahead. ~

It is the Little Things

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

My husband has been on a fix-it kick for the past month and I am very thankful for it. I could go into the long list of things he has been fixing, which would include the church media computer and a huge change in our Internet service provider with its router and more. However, I just wanted to write about two little things that have improved my life...just a little bit.

I finally have a handle on my refrigerator! Believe it or not, the handle on our refrigerator broke three years ago, when we were in some very financially tough times. After a year of opening the refrigerator door by our fingernails, I searched the Internet for a replacement. Being that our refrigerator is twenty years old, the only places I found on the Internet to replace it would tell me that they did not have it in stock, but to go ahead and order it (pay for it) as the manufacturer would do a run when there were sufficient orders for them...it could be a few weeks or a few months.

All those places, by the way, were actually the same one company with different names, but the websites were nearly identical. Unlike most places, they would charge our credit card for the item immediately and ship it when it came in. It was rather expensive too. Something like $90 for just the metal part of the handle, not even the entire handle...oh, but shipping was free! (Probably because it justified the overcharge of the $20 metal piece of the handle.) However, one of the "other" companies--which was the same one--listed it for $15 cheaper. Things were just so tight then, I could not justify tossing money at or giving my credit card information to an untrusted source, who had a few companies with different price structures. Besides, we could still open the refrigerator!

Lately, my dishwasher has been leaving more stuff on the dishes than it is taking off and it needs a part replaced, which my husband ordered and should be here within a week. Also, its utensil basket was disintegrating at the bottom so the silverware fell though in some parts. Honestly, when you put your dirty silverware into the basket, you really don't want to be concerned placing them in a pattern that mirrors where the diminishing bottom is still intact. Why did not I order one before? Can you guess? Yes, it seemed to be from the same company as the refrigerator handle and, yes, they were never in stock. Let's not forget that it cost about $70 for this basket but the shipping was free! Oh, and one of the "other" companies listed it at around $15 less.

I have no idea what my husband spent for these items as he has his own money...that is, he gets reimbursed for his work expenses, which just pays for actual expenditures, except for car mileage. That is where they pay a certain amount per mile toward gas, maintenance, repairs, and the expense of buying the car, but not actual expenditures. We had only one vehicle for two years until he got a better job and then we had to buy a second one two years ago, which we paid by credit card. I never saw any of the mileage money go toward paying off that debt, even so we just paid off that credit card last month. I am still doing the happy dance over having no credit card debt!

Anyway, the extra money for vehicle expenses somehow never gets into my budget envelope for the vehicles, but my husband sometimes buys things for car maintenance as well as treats us to a dinner out and he did get me a new computer with it (months after he bought an iPad for himself that he mostly uses for work). So, I just work with the paycheck and he has his mad money to spend as he sees fit. Our marriage works this way: my budget pays the bills and necessities with some emergency money for those unexpected things and my husband gets to be generous or gets himself things without asking if we have it in the budget.

I think he used to think I was too strict with budgeting. However, he appreciated my budget when we needed new tires three years ago--this was also when money was so tight I would not buy a replacement refrigerator handle and my dishwasher was complete broke too. The tires literally were coming apart and I had built into my budget extra money for maintenance and repairs since we had such an older vehicle with lots of miles on it that became his work van. He looked nearly ill thinking about the cost of the tires, which is usually my thing, not his. He was apologizing to me about cost of new tires thinking I would lose it, which I can do when more is going out than coming in. I remember calmly asking him how much the tires would be and when he told me, I was the one assuring him that we could afford that expense. The look of surprise and relief on his face was priceless! Yeah, I can still dazzle the guy with my budget planning now and then.

Usually, my husband worries far less about money than I do, but that time of being out of work four years ago and then finding a job at 60% of what he used to make and the state of our government outspending its revenue had transformed his perspective about our finances. It has had a lasting affect. I doubt we will run up our credit card debt again. I would not even add the amount of a refrigerator handle and a dishwasher basket to our debt! I know it may sound ridiculous to you and it was not my plan to open the refrigerator by my fingernails for three years, but we all survived it. I saw those things as very nice conveniences, but they were not absolutely necessary to get by.

Now we are out of our credit card debt. Now we have a refrigerator handle and a dishwasher basket with a complete bottom. I have a new computer that thankfully did not have Windows 8 on it! My husband found his iPad that he misplaced five days ago. My daughter and I spent yesterday icing Christmas cut out sugar cookies.

This is one of the best Christmases I have ever had!

~ My Lord, thank you for the lean times so that I can better appreciated the times I can repair and improve. ~