We’ll Never Make the Tour of Homes

nor will we ever be featured in Home and Garden and our home will certainly never receive praise from Martha Stewart.  But that’s okay.
When you walk into our home, hopefully you’ll see more than just a family who lives on a tight budget.  You’ll see that kids do indeed LIVE here.  Watch out or you might slip on a stray Hot Wheel.  Their toys are not confined to the closets and shelves in their own bedrooms.  We live in this home. These walls hear the laughter (and sometimes bickering) of little voices.  The floors echo the pitter patter of little feet.  Our kitchen table may be disguised as a secret cave, covered by blankets.  Our kitchen walls?  They may be mistaken for a kindergarten classroom. That is what they are after all.  Books, and brightly colored posters abound. This is where little ones learn. And grow.  Yes, the wall paper in the hall may have a few strips missing here and there.  Little fingers just couldn’t resist the urge to pick and peel the edges.  I’ve decided that’s okay.  We needed to replace it anyway. Someday. You may discover the kitchen floor is a little sticky when you walk.  That’s from where a little one spilled their juice and then tried to clean it up without asking for help or expecting mama to do it.  Our furniture is,  well, loved. They are functional at best.  We live in this home.  We learn and love in this home.  Constant cleaning and decorating and saying “No don’t touch that” or “don’t mess up your bed” takes away from the precious moments of learning and loving.
One day I may have a designer home. Spotless. Stylish. No unknown funky smells. And pretty walls. But I hope that day takes forever to get here, for it will mean that THESE days…days of learning, discovery, giggles and hugs…would have passed away. 

image credit                                                                                                         

This post is linking up with Project 52 at

Preparing for Sunday

I don’t know about your household, but Sunday mornings around here are usually chaotic.  Since it is usually the only morning of the week that we have somewhere we need to be, it is often difficult to change our normal routine.  This usually results in rushing about and then forgetting most of what I needed to take with me.  Needless to say, this is not how I want to begin my day, or week.
Many Christians refer to Sunday as Sabbath, but it isn’t the Sabbath.  That is Saturday.  While we are no longer under the law, we do follow the example of the early church and meet together in worship and fellowship on the first day of the week.  Starting the day off on a bad note can adversely affect our mind-frame in church.  We may be distracted, frustrated or just exhausted.  If we are unable to focus on the service, we will likely miss a blessing.
So, what’s a family to do?  I’ve asked God to help me better prepare on Saturday for Sunday.  A few summers ago my dad toured Israel for ten days.  In fact, my dad spent a Sabbath in Jerusalem while he was there.  He said the entire city shut down at 6pm on Friday and does not open back up until 6 pm on Saturday.  He said they weren’t even allowed to use an elevator, because that would require pushing the button, which was a no-no.  Knowing that modern-day Israel is basically a secular nation, I asked if the same applied to the country as a whole.  Does Tel Aviv shut down the same as Jerusalem?  He did not know, but thinks it is pretty much a nation-wide thing. (I’d love to know if any of my readers know the answer to this.  Leave a comment! ) 
Anyway, while I do not recommend quitting all work at 6pm on Saturday, I do feel it would be so beneficial to have everything in order before going to bed.  Here’s some ideas on ways to make Sunday mornings less hectic:
*Make sure your house is in order.  Do the dishes, sweep the kitchen floor and any necessary vacuuming, put away laundry.  Tidy up.  This way, when you return home on Sunday afternoon, you can focus on quality time with the family, or even take a nap, without worrying about any chores.
* Decide what’s going to happen for lunch on Sunday and make preparations.  If you eat out, then no problem.  If you will be lunching at home, do any prep work the day before so lunch can be quick and relaxing.
*Gather everything you will need to take with you.  Go ahead and stock the diaper bag of necessary items and put it, along with your Bible and anything else you may need, in the car.  Don’t forget your offering or tithe.  If you feel safe in doing so, put it in the car too.  If not, make sure it is in your purse or hubby’s wallet.
*   Choose ahead of time what everyone will be wearing to services.  For small children, go ahead and set it out.  Older kids need to at least know what they want to wear and make sure it is clean, wrinkle-free and ready to go the next day.         image credit

I don’t know how many times I’ve gone to put tights on Beauty only to discover at the last minute that they have a big run down one leg.  If I had prepared the night before, I would’ve had time to either purchase new tights or make a different selection.
*Bathe and wash hair before going to bed.  This eliminates the rush to the shower, and saves tons of time.
*Plan a simple breakfast.  The point is to have little to no clean up on Sunday.  Remember, you want to come home and relax without being greeted by dozens of breakfast dishes, that could possibly be paired with lunch dishes.  I don’t want to spend the afternoon doing dishes, do you?
*Hit the sheets.  Earlier than usual if you can.  Once again, a blessing may be missed if we are foggy-headed from fatigue.
*Arise early and prepare yourself mentally.  This is the most important thing we can do EVERY day, not just on Sunday.  Spend quiet time in the Word and prayer, asking for wisdom and blessing for the day.  Begin with thanksgiving and praise.
I hope you, my dear readers, find these tips useful.  What can you add to this list?

Linking up at

Love

Kristine over at Raising A Quiver Full shared this on FB; I find it so appropriate and timely I have to share it with you.  The author is unknown.


If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in its place, but have not love ~ I am a housekeeper, not a homemaker.
If I have time for waxing, polishing and decorative achievements, but have not love ~ my children learn cleanliness, not godliness.
Love leaves the dust in search of a child's laugh.
Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window.
Love wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk.
Love picks up the child before it picks up the toys.
Love is present through trials. Love reprimands, reproves and is responsive.
As a mother there is much I must teach my child, but the greatest of all is . . . LOVE.

Fruits of Today’s Labor and Pear Jam

Today was a busy day for canning!

For some reason, our garden did not produce a single green bean this year; beautiful plants, but no beans.  This morning, my dad called and said my grandfather had about 3 rows that just came on if we wanted to come pick them.  We jumped at it of course.

Here is Buck with his granddaddy-my dad:

Meanwhile, we had a bushel of pears freshly picked off my folks’ tree. So, I decided to give jam making a try.  Since I only had one package of pectin, I was only able to can two half-pints and one pint of jam, but am very pleased with how they turned out.  I’ll share the directions for pear jam at the end of this post.

We also canned 15 pints of potatoes, another first for us, as well as two pints of the remaining pears.

  The pears and potatoes look very similar in the jars, so I made sure I labeled the lids!    Yep, those are some of the green beans on top.  It is now 10:38 pm as I write this, so they will have to wait to be canned tomorrow.  It has been a long and tiresome day, the longest process being all the peeling and quartering of potatoes and pears, but what a great feeling!

Here’s the pear jam recipe I promised:

Begin with clean jars, rings and new lids.  Let the lids sit in boiling water.  Heat the jars by either placing them in a big pot of boiling water or do as I did and set them on a cookie sheet in the oven. It is important your jars are hot when you go to fill them because your jam mixture will be hot.

Wash and peal pears.  Chop them very finely until you have 4 Cups.

Place pears and 2 TBSP of lemon juice in a 6-8 quart sauce pan.  Slowly add one packet of fruit pectin ( I used Ball Original Fruit Pectin). Once it is boiling hard enough to not be affected when you stir it, add 5 Cups of sugar. Boil hard for one minute. Remove from heat.

Spoon or ladle jam mixture into hot jars.  Apply lids and rings.  Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.  *A hot water bath is simply a big pot with enough water to cover 1-2 inches over lid of jars, and cover the pot. Bring it to a boil then begin timing the processing.

     My pear jam has chunks of fruit.  If you want to decrease the chunks, then mash them with a potato masher before cooking.

I’d love to know what YOU have been up to in the kitchen! Leave me a comment!

Home-made Cleaner and Green too!

I’ve mentioned before that I love Pine Sol, Lysol, Pledge etc. when I clean.  I think I said something like, “I don’t feel like my house is clean unless I can smell it”.  Well, while I still love that lemon-fresh smell, I am now less cynical about homemade cleaners.  Enter Peroxide and Baking Soda!
We have an antique claw-foot tub in our hall bath that, shortly after having it professionally painted, became stained and dingy.  Nothing I have tried would get it clean.  Bleach: nope. Ammonia: nah. CLR: nu-uh. Traditional bath cleaners: no way.  The list goes on.
So I did what any first world citizen living in the 21st century would do; I Googled it.   A few people recommended sprinkling baking soda then gently applying enough peroxide to make a paste and letting it sit.    Cue angelic singing IT WORKED!!!  In just one treatment I could see a big difference.  The second treatment, even better!  If it worked so well on this tub, what else would it clean?
Let me just say I had a blast in the kitchen today.(Yeah, I know-I’m easily entertained.)  Grease and food splatters that even vinegar and Dawn wouldn’t erase, came off easily with just a little bit of my new favorite cleaner.  It even cleaned a dingy stainless steel convection oven and its glass front.  Amazing!  I am hooked and cannot wait to discover what else it can work its magic on.
I returned to Google.  Turns out, peroxide is good for more than whitening teeth and killing infection in minor cuts and scrapes. Wouldn’t you know baking soda is good for more than baking and freshening the fridge.
Here are some of my favorite uses for these natural products:
Peroxide:                 


*dipping your toothbrush in a 3% peroxide solution after use kills bacteria
* helps kill salmonella and bacteria when used to clean cutting boards and other food handling surfaces
* use a 50/50 solution of peroxide and water in a spray bottle to clean toilets
* immersing your fresh fruits and vegetables in a sink full of cold water plus 1/4 cup of peroxide will kill bacteria, and make them stay fresh longer.  Be sure to rinse after removing from the sink.

Baking Soda:

*  rub baking soda into damp hands to remove any odors from cooking (fish anyone?)
* removes oil and grease stains when sprinkled on dry then wiped with a cloth
* a paste of b.s. and water will remove scuff marks from floor
* a mixture of b.s., water and salt will remove stains from plastic (who knew?)

These are just a few of the many uses! Click here to read up on some more uses for peroxide and here for a list of 25 uses for baking soda.
  And talk about inexpensive!  My big bottle of peroxide was $1 at Dollar General and baking soda usually runs anywhere from .50 to $1.  You can’t beat that.
I’ll still use my Pine Sol and Lysol for freshening up, but when it comes to the deep cleaning I’ll head for the fridge and medicine cabinet.

Goal: financial stewardship

Don’t we all wish this were true?
Unless you are a logger, this is most likely not the case!  In fact, your situation is probably more like this: 
  I know ours is!
.
No doubt these are difficult times.  It is especially so on a single working-man’s income.  But, we are blessed.  Although Hub’s job isn’t necessarily what he would choose for himself, we are thankful he has one.  So many do not.    I am sometimes overwhelmed when I think of how God has blessed and provided for us.   This thought also convicts my heart and compels me to ask myself if I am doing all I can to be a good steward of all He has given us; particularly being a good steward of our money God’s money.  I do most of the bill paying and all of the shopping for the family.  Hubs works hard at a job he does not enjoy (no one likes shift factory work), so I am convicted to be as responsible with his earnings as possible.
So, I am committed to save where I can so our money is not: quite so much.
Here are some ways I think I can help keep expenses down so we can build up our rainy day fund: 

*  Unplug gadgets that are not frequently used.  Even if an appliance or other gadget is turned off,if it is plugged in it is still generating electricity.
*Lights off!  This is easy for me cause, unless I am reading something at night, I prefer to just be in a low light or TV light.  However, I usually have to go behind Hubs and turn off the lights he leaves on.  Take last night for example, he was off last night and was watching TV in the living room and also had the lamp on.  Okay.  Well, he also had the TV and light on in his “man cave”.  He goes to the bathroom and leaves the light on, as well as the hall light cause, you know, he just can’t walk five feet down the hall in the dark.
* Cut back on the hot water.  I’ve heard just turning down the hot water heater just a little can really save some bucks, so I am going to give it a try.  After all, we don’t take hot baths and showers in the summer anyway.
*Have a wash day.  I usually do a little bit of laundry every day.  This is wasteful cause I end up doing several small loads when I could wait till I have a bigger load. 
*Invest in a clothesline.                            
We already have the posts, I just need to buy a line.  We’ve been having some gorgeous clothes-line weather that have gone to waste cause I keep neglecting this one little purchase.  I think the benefits of saving on dryer time is obvious.
*Have an errand day/Make a list.  This is going to save us the most, and it is also going to be the most difficult to discipline myself to.  It seems I run to town everyday, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day.  It would really save us time and money if I do all my shopping and filling up on gas in one trip.  To do this, I need to keep a list of To-Dos and To-Buys while in town.  I consistently get home and realize I forgot to buy something necessary (like toilet paper) and have to make another trip.
* Get to clipping!

Actually, I’ve been couponing for a couple months now so that isn’t a newbie.  However, I have found myself buying things I wouldn’t normally buy just because my coupon for it makes it a great deal.  Need to stop that.  I have gotten several things free or for just pennies and that’s GREAT!  Most of my free items are staples that I would buy eventually, such as toothpaste and bath products, so if I have enough coupons I stock up!
*Limit eating out only to Sunday’s lunch.  We attend church with my parents, sister and brother-in-law, so we often go out to eat afterwards.  Unfortunately, I sometimes have to pass cause I’ve blown our “play money” on eating out several times that week already.  Not only is it healthier to eat home-prepared meals, but cheaper too.
* Can what you can! We’ve actually been canning green beans and freezing corn for years, but this year we’ve added to our garden a little bit.  I used to juice tomatoes, but the past several years have not produced a big enough crop.  Growing and preserving your own veggies is a great money saver, not to mention a great learning experience for the kiddos.  Here’s a pic of our modest garden this year:    We’ve added potatoes and sweet potatoes this year.  We also added peas, which I’ve already picked but didn’t get even a half a cup out of.

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These may not seem like biggies, but every little bit counts.
I recently stumbled upon a lady who has made a similar commitment and is devoting an entire blog to ways she is saving money and building her portfolio.  Her blog is entitled Minding My Financials and in it she referred to an interesting article I would like to share with you. 
Ten Biggest Money Wasters
1. ATM fees
2. Lottery tickets
3. Gourmet coffee
4. Cigarettes
5. Infomercial impulse buys
6. Brand-name groceries
7. Eating out
8. Unused gym memberships
9. Daily internet deals
10. Bundled cable or phone services
I must admit I am surprised at number ten, but then again, we don’t bundle so I don’t know the difference. I personally think number 8 should be gym memberships in general.  Go for a walk around the neighborhood or do crunches in your living room floor and you’ll save a bundle.  The rest seem like common sense to me.  I would have to add: unnecessary late fees for movie rentals or library books, or any kind of late fee really.
What are some ways you try to save money and be better financial stewards?  I’d love to be able to add to my list!

3in30 Challenge

I’m joining in on the 3in30 Challenge.  The object is to choose three goals I’d like to accomplish this month.  This breaks down my marathon-long To Do list into manageable chunks.

So, for May here are my goals:

Clean/Organize the coat closet (it has become quite the catchall storage closet!)
Sew pillows for living room
Finish sowing the garden

Why don’t you join in and knock some of the stuff off your list?  Click the button above to learn more.

A foul smell and not knowing my fridge

The Hubs and I noticed a foul smell emanating from our fridge today.  After checking all its contents, Hubs was convinced it was the Tyson chicken tenders in the crisper.  I wasn't so sure, since it had never been opened and had not yet reached its "Sell By" date.  But, knowing he'd never eat the chicken now that he'd convinced himself it was bad, I threw it out.  The smell remained. 

I mentioned this to my mom a few minutes ago while we were chatting over the phone and she told me to check the drain pan.  The what?  How many of you knew that there is a drain pan under your refrigerator?  Pull off the vent under the door and there it is.  Mine is located on the right.  Am I the only one who never knew about this?  I know to clean behind the refrigerator obviously, and since I just "spring cleaned" my kitchen yesterday, I couldn't figure out the smell.  I've been married 8 1/2 years and never knew about the drain pan.  I mean, the fact there is one seems obvious to me now, but still. 

I was not about to take a picture of it to post here.  It was beyond disgusting, as you can imagine, since I never ever cleaned it.  Don't worry, it has now been washed in warm water (per the directions written on the pan itself) as well as Cloroxed.  YUCK!

Don't laugh. :)

Gearing Up for Spring Cleaning!

It is that time of year again.  Yep, spring is in the air so let's raise the windows and freshen up our homes.

Beauty will be camping with my folks this week so I intend to dive in and use up some elbow grease!

Sylvia over at The Christian Homekeeper Network is hosting a Spring Cleaning Event where she will be
providing tips on decluttering, lists of supplies and even a giveaway or two.  Check it out and get to cleaning! You KNOW you want to!

As for my own personal cleaning goals, the list is a mile long, but I hope to accomplish as much as my fibromyalgia and Lil Mister will allow.  All by the grace of God, dear friends!

I know there is a trend developing where more and more women are converting to homemade cleaning supplies and all-natural products.  I say, "Good for them, but I'm just not there yet".  My home does not feel clean unless it smells clean and I find "the old faithfuls" really make my home SMELL CLEAN.  My own personal favorites (and probably many of yours too) are the following:

Pine Sol
Clorox
Lemon Pledge
Windex
Tide
Liquid Downy
and occasionally Borax

So what is on my mile-long list?  The standards:  clean out closets
                                                                          windows
                                                                          base boards
                                                                          freshen up paint
                                                                          bring out warm weather clothes and pack away winter
                                                                          plus a bunch more to do outside
I'll also use this time to pack up stuff to take to consignment or Goodwill. Oh, I have lots of sewing on my To-Do List as well.

What are some of your favorite cleaning products and projects this spring?

New Post-Cushaw

I spent the afternoon pureeing cushaw for pies.  To read how I did it, go to my cooking blog, A Pinch of Grace.

Tonight I made my first batch of homemade baby food.  I had some frozen green beans, peas and carrots.  Since he's already eaten each of those individually, I thought it would be alright to combine them.  I cooked them in water only until they were mashable.  I then threw them in the blender and added water.  It came out too thin so I added some rice cereal.  He loved it!