Weekend Adventures

We had a HUGE yard sale on Saturday. The weather was perfect and we had a steady stream of customers come by. 

I was selling most of the baby and kid's things I had. I recently did a pretty thorough decluttering of the house. And we also cleaned out our sheds in preparation for the sale. 

Needless to say, there were piles of treasures! 

God really blessed our efforts--we sold so much and were able to surpass our goal for the amount of money raised. 

This is what's left in our living room--

 It looks like a lot but it really is nothing! We had over double the amount of boxes to start with plus lots of bigger items. Before the sale, our living room was almost full! 

These leftovers will be going to the thrift store soon. I've freecycled some items and gave some things to a friend. I took the box of books that was left to the library. 

And as if our busy yard sale wasn't enough, our dog Rock added to the day of adventure by escaping out the back corner of our yard sometime during the sale. 

I had put him out in the fenced yard and after a while during a lull in the sale, I went to get him and  bring him out front with us. 

He was nowhere to be found. There was no sound of dog. It was very unusual especially since I had the leash in my hand and he usually comes running when he sees or hears it. 

We looked everywhere and then discovered a small opening in the fence at the back corner of the property that we thought he may have escaped through. Even though we're not sure how that big head fit through the opening!  

Anyways, to make a long story short, we searched the neighborhood, talked to everyone who was out and put up flyers with Rock's mug shot on them. 

Since Rock isn't a runner normally (and has hardly ever gotten loose!), we really weren't sure how fast he would move or really  how long he had been gone. We have a lot of woods in and behind our neighborhood plus our neighborhood is off a very busy road. So we hoped to find him before he got too far away. 

Thankfully, Rock was found after about 2 hours. He was only about 4 houses away in the woods between the 2 rows of houses. A neighbor called saying that he had seen the dog back there and could hear him thrashing around in the woods. 

We raced over and sure enough, there he was! A young neighbor offered to jump the fence to get to Rock, I handed him the leash and he got Rock out of the woods ( quite a feat with all the brambles and briars) and brought him home to us. 

Meanwhile, a friend of ours who had joined us to sell a few things was keeping our sale going. 

We are very grateful for answered prayer in bringing Rock back home, for a successful sale and perfect timing for having someone else here to help! 

Rock has slept a lot in the past few days. I think he was exhausted from the whole ordeal. We have picked lots of thorns from his fur! 

Oh, and that opening in the fence? It's been repaired. Hopefully no more adventures like this anytime soon!

Getting Rid of Laundry Soap Build-up

I loved using my own homemade laundry soap. It was easy to make, cheap and got our clothes nice and clean.

But after we moved to our current home where we have hard water, we began to notice a filmy residue beginning to build up on our laundry. This was particularly noticeable on our towels and washcloths and affected the absorbency. (I noticed the same type of thing a few years back when I was using a detergent with a built-in fabric softener.)

All we could figure out was possibly the homemade detergent with hard water was not a good combination. Has anyone else experienced this? Also, I've only tried the powdered homemade detergent so I don't know if the liquid kind would be different or not. 

For now, we've switched back to All Free and Clear. For most laundry items, just the detergent switch did away with the filmy residue. 

For the other things, namely towels, I've had to strip them using hot water, vinegar and baking soda using this method. It's very easy and has been effective. I have one small load of dishcloths that I have had to run through this stripping method a couple of times. They were the worst of all. 

The method: 

Put laundry in washing machine with HOT water and 1 cup white vinegar. Let run through entire cycle. 

Leave load in machine and wash with HOT water and 1/2 cup baking soda. 

When done, dry in the dryer. 

If filmy residue is not gone, repeat. 

This also works well for smelly towels. 

Frugal Five

Five ways I've saved money recently...

Today's packed meal: salmon cakes, leftover broccoli, mayo, applesauce, fresh veggies and  banana nut muffins.

1. Packed lunches (and a few suppers) for those times when we were not at home to eat. While we do eat out and run through the drive-thru occasionally, we save money and eat much better when we eat food from home!
2. Mended some clothes and shortened some thrifted jeans. I use this method for hemming jeans; it's easy and keeps the original hem. I'm not short but pants are almost always too long for me.
3. Made chicken broth after roasting a chicken. I look at this as almost free broth since I could just throw the bones away. Much healthier and less expensive than the canned broth from the store.
4. Requested a couple of books from the library. I love the library. Not only do I save money by getting books there but it keeps me from having to store all the books I read.
5. Gave myself a haircut. This is the second time I've cut my own hair. I got braver this time and cut some bangs. Not perfect but I think it looks ok and it is definitely frugal!

How have you saved money recently? Please share in the comments so we can all be encouraged and inspired in our frugal journeys!

Zaycon Chicken

Last week we got two 40 pound boxes of chicken breasts from Zaycon Foods.

This was our second time ordering from Zaycon and we were once again very pleased! We got one 40 pound box last fall when Zaycon came to our area and just finished using the chicken from that order last week.

Eighty pounds of chicken is a LOT. But considering we went through 40 pounds in 4 months, we got 80 pounds this time to last us until Zaycon has another chicken event in the fall.

The chicken is a really good price- $1.89 a pound and the breasts are huge! This is not certified organic chicken but from what I understand, the chickens are cage-free and are not given antibiotics. So it is a good price for what I feel is a bit better than regular grocery store chicken.

Erin from The Humbled Homemaker wrote a very informative post about Zaycon chicken that you can read here.

So do you want to know what I did with 80 pounds of chicken breasts? 

 Box #1: Trimmed and frozen in 1-2 breast packages.

Box #2: 20 pounds of the chicken were cooked in the crock pots. I then shredded the chicken and froze it in 2-4 cup portions to use later. Shredded chicken is so very versatile and will be a great base for many easy meals later.

Tip: Use your mixer to quickly shred all that chicken! I have a Bosch mixer and the batter hook worked well. I have heard that a Kitchen Aid mixer's dough hook shreds chicken really nicely too. I've used my food processor too with the dough blade but I prefer the mixer since I can do more at once.

I ended up with 21 containers of cooked shredded chicken.

The other 20 pounds of chicken from Box #2 were used for some crockpot freezer meals and one dinner that week.

I made 8 easy freezer meals. I chose 4 recipes we really liked from the last chicken extravaganza and made 2 of each.

• Honey Mustard Chicken
• Sour Cream Salsa Chicken
• Thai Chicken with Peanut Sauce
• General Tso's Chicken

 Zaycon delivers all over the country. You can check their website to see if there are any upcoming events in your area. They sell not only chicken but also ground beef, bacon, sausage or ham. They usually sell only 1-2 items per event. For example: Chicken was the only item offered at last week's event.

I know a 40 pound box of chicken (or two 40 pound boxes) sounds overwhelming to some of you. If you don't have the space to store that much or just simply cannot eat it all in a reasonable amount of time, consider splitting a box with a friend or two.

And as a disclaimer: The links to Zaycon Foods in this post are referral links. That means that if you go to the Zaycon website and place an order through my referral link, I will get some credit towards my next Zaycon purchase. Thank you!

Zaycon did not pay me in any way to write this post. We're just very satisfied customers and want to pass this info along to you!

Fresh Bread

We finished the Whole30 this past Sunday and are slowly reintroducing different food groups. 

Today we reintroduce wheat. So I made some fresh French bread this morning. 

Recipe is here. (I used all white flour this time.) 

It smells so good!

Touch of Spring

A $2.49 pot of daffodils from Trader Joe's adds a pretty touch of spring to our table! 

This plant was purchased almost 2 weeks ago and has nearly tripled in height. Thus the classy skewers and repurposed velcro ties to keep it together! 

Using Those Organizing Containers

There's been more time for organizing the past few days since we've been snowed in!

We're preparing for an early spring yard sale so one of my February goals is to go through the house and do a pretty thorough decluttering! I'd love to clean out the sheds as well but don't know if I'll get that far this month. 

All of those Freecycled organizing containers are coming in handy; I've used more than I thought I would!  

I've been going through cabinets and drawers tossing trash, filling the yard sale box and organizing a little if needed. 

Here are a few examples of my organizing projects so far. I'm very pleased with how these turned out. 

Nothing fancy but maybe these pictures will inspire you in your quest for an organized home! 

Pens and pencils in the junk drawer. 

Cloth hankies in a drawer. Previously they were just stuffed in any old way.

Summer skin supplies.

Medicine box. 

First aid supplies. 

The sunscreen box, meds and first aid boxes all fit perfectly in a cabinet in the guest bathroom. Much better than before! 

Ribbon!

A soft-sided bin used for socks. I used four of these type bins in my drawers. For my drawers. Ha! This is the only one pictured for privacy and to maintain my personal dignity. 

These soft-sided bins are from the Dollar Tree and work very well. 

I used this cute divided box with snap on lid for some of my jewelry. I really like this container and may use it somewhere else  in the future but for now it works nicely for jewelry. 

And that's all for today! 

**Are you in an organizing mood too or is it just me? **  

Another Report From Rock the Snow Dog

Hello again! Rock the snow dog here with another weather report. 

It's been snowing again! This is the 2nd day. Woot woot! 

When it snows, I stand at the door and whine until I get to go outside. That seems to work.

Look at this snow! I can't help but notice the stark contrast between the white snow and my lovely black coat. Both are beautiful.

During this blizzard, my main obsession has been these storm drain pipes or " delightful tunnels of mystery" as I like to call them. They are in every driveway in my neighborhood. Do you think my mom will let me crawl through them? No! So not fair.   

The road is a bit slippery and as the snow and wintry mix continue, the road will be even more treacherous. So be careful out there. Even better,stay home or go for a walk.  

Whatever you do, don't eat the yellow snow! Ha ha ha ha ha! 

Organizing Containers

 We've been working to make my sewing/ guest room organized and functional. So when my husband saw a Freecycle offer for organizing containers, he responded saying that we would like them.

It turned out that these were being offered by our neighbor so he zipped down to pick them up and was back in just a few minutes.

And did I mention that there were 2 bags of containers? Two huge black garbage bags full!

Um, yeah.

I know I won't use all of these so if you are local to me and need storage containers, I am your girl! You are free to help yourself!

There are all kinds of organizing tools here from magazine holders to desk organizers to cleaning caddies. There was also a pile of Rubbermaid lids that had no boxes with them which went right to the recycling bin!

I did already pick out a few that will be very useful so in spite of the sheer amount, it was a good Freecycle haul!

All the hard plastic containers took a run through the dishwasher. I ended up running 3 loads which included some of my own containers that could also use a cleaning.

Oh and those big black bags all this came in? They were nice heavy duty bags so I saved them to use again. :-)

Now I'm off to organize!

**I find it funny that right about this time last year, I also posted about Freecycle!

The Road Conditions by Rock the Snow Dog

 

Hello! This is Rock the Snow Dog reporting on today's road conditions in South Carolina.

It's a great morning to be out for a walk. They say it's 21 degrees and feels like 12 degrees. Whatever. It's beautiful! Of course, a nice heavy fur coat comes in handy for days like this. This part is easy for me since I was born with one! Those without heavy fur may need to get more creative.

Mommy is walking awfully slow. Come on! Are you afraid you're going to fall or something? I'm not having any trouble getting traction. But then, I have 4-paw drive!

I ran into my favorite neighbor. We go way back to when I was a wee pup and she rescued me! So I love her a lot.  She told me her husband (my other fave) took twice as long to get to work this morning. She also stayed up on her porch and we were on the other side of the road. Whatever. These people seem to think it's cold and treacherous.

I don't see what the problem is. This weather is great!

This white stuff covers up all kinds of lovely smells. Lots of things to stop and sniff.

So here's what I think about the current road conditions.

Get out! Enjoy! Walk. And walk and walk. Sniff everything. Run around the yard. Pull your humans with you.

Happy Snow Day, everyone!

Pantry Challenge Menu Plan

This is the second week of my two week pantry challenge. Random is the name of the game this week!

We're starting the Whole30 on Saturday so my goal is to clean out the bits and bobs before then.

The pantry challenge has gone pretty well. We've been sick and not quite up to par most of the last couple of weeks so our appetites haven't been normal. I've used up a lot of things but we still have some odds and ends.

Last weekend, I made a huge pot of chicken broth with bones and veggie scraps I'd saved in the freezer. I also added a package of chicken legs which added a good flavor. I made a big pot of chicken soup since we were sick which not only used the chicken from the broth but also a few carrots and celery that were nearing expiration. We ate on the soup for several days. Besides the soup, I was able to freeze 8 quarts of broth for later use. We were out of broth so this will come in handy in the weeks to come. Yay for getting a 16 quart stockpot for Christmas!

My initial goal for the challenge was to spend $0 for the two weeks in order to save the grocery budget for the Whole30. First, we were sick and needed a few supplies, then Andy's parents came to visit this past weekend so I bought a few extra things because of having company. Turned out to be a good move since I was sick while they were here. My sweet mother-in-law ended up cooking! I was a terrible hostess...:-)

In preparation for the weekend, I did make banana muffins from frozen bananas and baked an apple pie I had frozen. My mother-in-law brought some grapes, a bag of salad, an apple, a cucumber and some green onions which she thought might go bad at her house so we're eating those things up too!

Total we've spent to date is $41.03. Not too bad and a few food items will carry over to our Whole30 meal plan.

I scrawled a tentative meal plan for the week. We'll see how it goes from day to day. It really depends on how much we feel like eating! Some of the combinations are super weird-- we may change them up as the week goes on but really, who cares? We're eating things up!

Breakfasts:

• Hard boiled eggs, banana muffins, grapes
• Creamed eggs and waffles (I really want waffles before starting the Whole30!)
• Eggs in various forms

Lunches:

• hot dogs and buns (left from weekend)
• Chicken Cordon Bleu casserole from freezer (2 servings)
• Southwestern Lentils from freezer (1 serving)
• Chick-fil-a soup --free this month with the 2014 Chick-fil-a Calendar card
• Brown Rice, Carrot  and Ginger Cakes with leftover cooked lentils and rice
• Any other leftovers!

Suppers:

• Texas Chili (no beans; from this cookbook) with cheese, sour cream, green onions and olives, salad
• Thai Chicken with Peanut Sauce (from freezer), Cheesy Potato Balls (from freezer; made with leftover mashed potatoes from Thanksgiving!), steamed broccoli
• Spaghetti--have a half bag of rice pasta to use and a small jar of spaghetti sauce from freezer or we may use leftover Texas Chili on the pasta--we'll see! Also have a small amount of Parmesan cheese to use up. 
• Cheeseburger Soup (from freezer), Sweet Potato Souffle (from freezer; from Thanksgiving!) 
• Fish or chicken with whatever veggies and sides we have left or random leftovers

What are you eating this week? And if you're also doing a pantry challenge this month, how's it going? Please share in the comments!

**This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday over at I'm An Organizing Junkie! 

Two-Week Pantry Challenge

It's a new year and my pantry and freezer are full of bits and bobs of random ingredients.

Time to clean it out!

We'll be doing a two-week pantry challenge this month in preparation for starting the Whole30 cleanse on January 18.

Time will tell, but I don't think I'll need to purchase much in the way of groceries to get us through the next two weeks. So my financial goal with this challenge is to spend $300 for both January and February groceries. $300 is the amount I normally spend each month on groceries so to make it stretch for two months would be awesome! Don't know if it's totally doable with the cleanse (meat, produce, healthy fats) but I'm going to give it a try. February is a short month too, which should help me out!

Even spending $400 instead of $600 for two months would be good! We have a couple savings goals this year and being able to save $200 or more in the first two months of the year would make me very happy!

I'm starting the challenge today since we just got back yesterday from spending time with family. I'll update a couple of times during the challenge as to what we're eating and how we're doing money-wise.

Anyone else eating from their pantry this month in order to clean things out and save a little cash? 

About Those Recycled Storage Jars...

Since I'm in the midst of a two week vacation from work, I finally got around to finishing some of  these recycled jars for craft storage.

One lid was gold and the other painted black so I just left them as they were. Of the four that were left, I painted two of them red and then mod-podged fabric on the other two.

I received these awesome chalkboard labels for Christmas so I put a label on each jar and wrote the contents on the labels with a chalk marker.

To store zippers, I wrapped an old formula can with burlap and tied it with ribbon. Simple and functional!

Cost for project: Free!  Everything was either recycled or something I had on hand and the labels were a gift. 

I'm super pleased with how the jars turned out--much more organized than before too!

Merry Christmas

We're settled in and ready for a quiet Christmas at home since we won't be traveling to celebrate with family until later in the week!

Merry Christmas to all who stop by and read here. Enjoy your time with family and friends remembering the real reason we are able to celebrate the season: a Savior who came so we could live the abundant life!

Crockpot Hamburger Vegetable Soup

Needing a simple nourishing meal to offset the rich holiday foods?

This soup is perfect! Simple, healthy and nourishing plus it can cook for 10 or more hours in the crockpot. It's a great recipe for those long days at work.

1 pound ground beef, crumbled and browned
1- 16 ounce package frozen mixed vegetables
1 quart canned tomatoes
1 can chicken broth
1 small onion, chopped
2-4 cups water
Salt and pepper, other seasonings, to taste

Combine all ingredients in 3.5 to 5 quart crockpot. Cook on high for 5-6 hours or on low for 10 or more hours.

Thanks to my mom for sharing this recipe. We've been making this soup at least once a month lately. It makes about 3 meals for the two of us. 

McAbees' Apples

McAbees' Fruit Stand near Hendersonville, NC is our favorite place to stop to buy apples if we happen to head to the mountains in the fall. 

They are located right off I-26 in Flat Rock and can be seen from the interstate. It's a very convenient stop for travelers. 

According to the people at the stand, they should have apples to sell through the winter, until April, I think they said!  

They have a big variety of apples. My favorite thing here is the shelves at the back of the stand that are filled with 1/2 bushel bags of seconds for only $5 a bag. Seconds are typically smaller than first quality and are likely to have some bruising. That is what I usually buy for applesauce and apple butter since it really doesn't matter what they look like because I'm going to cook and smoosh them anyways.    

But first quality apples are still only $8 for a 1/2 bushel so still a great deal in my opinion! 

We filled the van up with apples when we stopped there this year. 

Yum! Homemade applesauce to eat all year long! 

Curried Green Tomato Sauce

After a frost, I ended up with a collection of green tomatoes from my garden plus a bag full from the children's garden at work. A few turned red after setting out for a few days!

What to do with them?

I finally decided to make Curried Green Tomato Sauce because I had all the ingredients on hand! Plus it sounded interesting.

I just poured the sauce into freezer containers to freeze rather than can.

The sauce is a different type of flavor combination for us. It's tasty though and on the spicy side! We ate it with fish and rice the other night and it was quite good.

I loved making something yummy out of these tomatoes instead of throwing them away!

Apples and Sewing

We stopped in Hendersonville, NC and bought five bushels (10-1/2 bushel bags) of apples on our way home from Pigeon Forge. So my evenings have been spent doing apples. My goal has been to do a 1/2 bushel (1 bag) most evenings and so far it's working well. I'm sure there are faster ways to accomplish this but this goal is attainable and not too overwhelming. 8 bags down, 2 to go!

I've been making applesauce, apple butter, dried apples and will also freeze some apples for pies and apple crisps. I think I'm done with apple sauce now; I have over 40 quart. We love homemade applesauce and eat a lot of it!

I've spent an hour or two each morning working on a big Etsy order--5 of these Christmas gift sets. They are packed and ready to ship off today-- I didn't get a picture of them before I boxed them up. But my sewing room looks like this...

Etsy by day; apples by night!

Housework beyond clean dishes, laundry and cooking hasn't been my top priority during this season as you can see. I'll get back to it soon! Starting to drive me a bit crazy as I really like things in order.

Our fall seasons are always jam-packed and super busy. This year is no exception!

What have you been up to?

Foothills Parkway

After two days at Dollywood, I was ready for something less touristy to do on our way out of town. I wanted to see some scenery!

Our GPS took us on the Foothills Parkway coming out of Gatlinburg. It was a beautiful day and the foliage was gorgeous!

There were places to pull over all along the parkway and we stopped at every single one. I took lots of pictures. It was all so beautiful!

As you can see, not all of the leaves have turned yet,but it was still lovely with lots of vibrant color!