What I'm Up To

This is a very busy season for sure!

My "extra" time has been spent working on the garden and other yard work. I've been working out there almost every evening and some nap times the last week or so, in between the rain showers. I've made it a goal to do at least one thing a day. Progress, although slow progress, is being made!

I spray painted some pots and planters that had seen better days--this freshens them up and makes them look very nice and less like plastic. Otherwise, I would throw them out and buy new so this saves money and reduces waste.

The little ones have been enjoying the sand and water table my sister passed on to us. I had passed it to them a few years ago and now it's back! LOL! I have sand in it for now. But at the rate they're going, soon there will be a new sand pile under the deck and then we'll fill the table with something else. Among other things, I gave them a formula scoop, some yogurt containers  and a couple old wooden spoons I had recently replaced for the sand box and they are having a  wonderful time. Who needs to buy sand toys when there are so many other suitable items to use for free?

I cut up all the dried banana peelings I had saved and scattered them on the rose bed and in the garden plot for fertilizer.

I've been putting cardboard down for a path in the garden and got some straw to use for topping the cardboard. The cardboard will act as a weed barrier.

I want to look more into "Lasagna Gardening". A no-dig method sounds perfect for us.

My mending basket had gotten pretty full. I also noticed a growing pile of unfinished sewing projects. So I made a goal to finish all those things before starting anything else. I'm about half-done. Quite a few of these things have taken 15 minutes or less to finish but there are a few larger projects in there too. I hope to post more about this later.

Meals have been ultra-simple lately. I've been using the cook once, eat twice ( sometimes 3 times) method several times a week. It saves so much time and there are not as many dishes to wash every night either.

I need to do some freezer cooking again.

Toddler Girl(age 3) loves Andy. I looked over at snack the other day and they were holding hands. She would not let him let go--"Don't open your hand!" Haha!

She is quite the girl and is The Assistant. She loves to help and can be a big help to me with the littler ones. Toddler Boy (age 2) knows this and is starting to work the system, " Help me!", he'll say pitifully to Toddler Girl after he has dropped things on purpose. Oh my...

Toddler Girl calling to Rock outside, "Rock, come here! Rock, come here! ROCK!!! 1...2...3..." This made me laugh.

Some cute words they say right now:

Toddler Boy-- "Hork" (fork), "Cucumber" (kookaburra, which is one of his favorite songs; he also likes to eat cucumbers)
Toddler Girl -- "Maggots" (music), "Princess maggots" (praise music) So if you hear her say, "I want maggots!", you don't need to be alarmed.

So that's life right now. And nap time is over! Talk to you again soon!

Andes Mint Cookie Bites

After making these cookies, I was inspired to try them in a mini muffin pan as "cookie bites".

I needed to make around 4 dozen  cookie bars or small cookies for a special family occasion in a few weeks and thought that the mini muffin size would be a good bite size and would be easy to do--no cutting of bars and easy to transport!

I don't have a mini muffin pan--I used to have 1 or 2 but never used them--so I borrowed 2 from my neighbor.

Cake mixes and brownie mixes were on sale when I ran to the grocery store on Saturday so I bought 4 Devil's Food cake mixes and 2 brownie mixes to keep on hand. I knew I'd be using the cake mixes anyways so I might as well save a little money! I also bought 3 packages of Andes mints.

I bought a few other things but the cake mixes and candy made up the bulk of my shopping cart. I told my husband that it looked like I had a serious chocolate problem. To which he replied, "There is no such thing as a chocolate problem!"

Haha--we definitely like our chocolate around here!

Anyways, I made a single batch the first time to share for our Sunday Fellowship. Nobody minds being a guinea pig or eating mint chocolate cookies two weeks in a row--I served the original recipe last week!

I put small spoonfuls of dough in each muffin hole and baked for 8 minutes. I cut the Andes mints in half and put one on each cookie bite. I think half-size worked better than using the whole candy. A single batch in the mini muffin size made about 4 dozen.

We all liked them, so I made a double batch the next day which made 8 dozen. We ate a few and shared a few. I froze the rest to take with us in a few weeks so that chore is done and marked off the list!

I just thought I'd share how these turned out in case any of you wanted to try it!

Frugal Five And An Expensive Repair!

It was a pretty frugal week, quiet and uneventful, until Saturday. We lost water and come to find out, the connector on our pump (well) had broken. No water in house + water bubbling in the front yard = a problem. We were planning to wait for a repair until Monday as weekend plumbing jobs are usually twice the price! We were fortunate to find a company who doesn't charge more for weekends so they sent a technician out and the repair was complete within a few hours. Not cheap by any stretch but certainly money well spent--we have water again! While this was major, it could've been a whole lot worse and even more expensive.

As far as frugal things go:

1. Stayed home most of the week--no go, no spend!
2. We didn't eat out this week; we have a separate cash envelope for eating out and we've used most of it already this month, so we ate at home!
3. Harvested more lettuce from the garden; planted some onions. I'm so slow in gardening this year; hope to get it in soon!
4. Used this frugal cardboard method for my rose bed; we'll see how it does. It was a quick and easy project-- Toddler Girl said it looked nice once I finished!:-)  Hoping to use cardboard as a weed barrier in between the rows in the garden too.
5. Made homemade laundry soap!

And a bonus: Discovered that the freezer door hadn't been closed properly (my fault) before anything had a chance to thaw much. Thanking God for that!

What frugal things have you been up to?

Pinned It, Made It: Polka Dot Notebook Cover

I use a plain notebook to record my insights as I read God's Word each day. I've been wanting something a bit more cute and from time to time I've purchased cuter notebooks.

But since I use one page per day, you can imagine how quickly I go through notebooks! So a reusable cute cover fits the bill perfectly!

I had pinned this cute and easy notebook cover from Blissfully Content. One evening when the house was quiet, I got out my fabric and ribbon and went to work.

I chose this happy red polka dot fabric from IKEA. I smile just to look at it! If you hang around here long enough, you'll notice how much I like red!

Red is my happy color.

Anyways, this project was pretty fast--completed in under an hour minus the flower. I had a little trouble getting it the right fit for the notebook but with a little seam ripping and resewing, it fit very well!:)

I preferred this flower to the one in the notebook cover tutorial, so that's what I used. Mine doesn't look quite the same since I glanced over the instructions and then started creating and "winging it" as I went.

My sister had given me some red and white polka dot scraps which I used for the flower! I made the flower into a pin so I could remove it if I wanted to and use it somewhere else! It turned out a bit lopsided but thankfully, scissors are very handy for trimming!

I'm very happy with how it turned out and the polka dots make me smile each morning when I reach for my Bible and notebook!

**This post is part of Pinned It, Made It Monday hosted by Country Girl At Home. **

Freezing Milk

 Jars of Milk: The jar on the right has already been frozen.

We don't drink milk often and sometimes don't use it that quickly. Often, I'm concerned that it will go bad before we can use it all!

So, instead of pouring it all down the drain, I freeze it to use later!

Milk freezes very well--just be sure to leave room at the top of the container for expansion!

Mason jars are my go-to canning and storage jars and I've had good success freezing milk and homemade broth in them. In several years of freezing in glass, I've only had one breakage so far.

Of course, any plastic container or even the milk jug can be used. I like to use quart size or smaller containers since there are just two of us and milk doesn't get used as quickly!

Because frozen foods can often end up looking similar I try to always label the containers! I'd prefer not to have chicken broth in my pancakes, thank you! 

I don't have a lot of experience using milk that's been frozen for plain drinking, although I've read that some families freeze jugs of milk to stretch out grocery trips. I've used the milk for baking, cooking,  pancakes, homemade yogurt and now, for making kefir. It works great and minimizes waste!

To thaw, I remove the jar of milk from the freezer and let set in a bowl filled with cold water. If I'm planning ahead really well, I'll set it in the fridge and it'll be ready to use in a day or two.

Freezing soon-to-expire milk is one way I save money by not wasting food!

Flowers For Mom

Since this is our first spring in our new house, it's been fun to see what is blooming around the yard!

My mom asked to see some pictures of the flowers so these are for her...and for you! Enjoy!

**These were taken a few weeks ago; there have been a  few changes since then--more irises, more colors of tulips, more azaleas. Also, I've done very little work in the flowerbeds yet this spring so focus on the flowers and not the state of the beds themselves! :-) **

Frugal Five

It's been a few weeks since I did a Frugal Five post! Days have been busy and there is just not the time to do everything I want or need to do! So sometimes, blogging gets pushed back for a time.

I've been participating in Money Saving Mom's 30 Day Housecleaning Challenge. While I haven't been able to accomplish every single challenge, I've been able to do a lot--more than if I hadn't joined in at all! Each day, I try to do one extra thing in the focus room like cleaning baseboards, light fixtures, ceiling fans, etc.  I have learned that for the most part, I don't usually have time to do the cleaning and blog about it. So I've been choosing to do the cleaning...:-)

Anyways, on to Frugal Five!

1. Harvested lettuce from the garden--lots of lettuce! I planted these plants last December and they never really took off--until a month or so ago. And I was getting ready to pull them out! Glad I didn't! We've been eating fresh lettuce almost every day and it's time to cut some more!
2. Stayed in my grocery budget for the month. I did most of my shopping at the beginning of the month and kept a small portion of the cash for fresh produce and odds and ends for the last two weeks. This seems to have worked well!
3. My sister's family is preparing to for a move halfway across the country. She gave me some frozen fish and a meaty ham bone that she had frozen and probably won't be able to use before they go. I was glad to accept!
4. Found some nice dress shoes(Sketchers)  for my husband-- $3 at the thrift store!
5. Some bananas, milk and celery were getting close to their expiration dates. I took a  few minutes and chopped the celery and bananas to freeze(not together!!) and poured the milk into jars and froze them too. No waste! 

How have you saved money or lived frugally recently?