Applesauce cake - a favorite Family Home Evening treat

Once each week we hold an event in our home called Family Home Evening (FHE). Many LDS families hold it on Monday night, but sometimes families will choose another night.

The evening is spent together as a family and there is typically a lesson, an activity, prayer, song, and often a treat.

The big girl has come to associate Applesauce Cake with FHE and will often mistakenly think it's FHE if I choose to bake it at another time. :)

This is loosely based upon the recipe found in Betty Crocker's cookbook, but as always I have altered the ingredient list and written the instructions in my own words.

Applesauce Cake

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 1/2 cups spiced applesauce (we make our own and can it but you can substitute natural applesauce)
1/2 cup apple juice
1/2 cup shortening or lard
2 eggs
Brown sugar
Flour
Vegetable shortening

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 13"x9" baking pan. Combine all ingredients in a mixer bowl and mix on low until ingredients are combined. Then mix for three minutes on high. Make sure to scrape the sides of your bowl to combine all ingredients. Pour into your prepared pan. Sprinkle the top with brown sugar.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a baking rack.

Chicken and Rice Soup

Ingredients:

2 quarts home canned chicken stock (or store purchased equivalent)
1 lb. chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
1 clove garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
4 carrots, sliced or diced
3 stalks of celery, sliced or diced
olive oil
1 cup jasmine rice (or your favorite rice)
2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
pinch of dried rosemary
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the chicken in olive oil until nearly cooked. Add in onion and garlic and cook until the onions are soft and chicken is fully cooked.



Place chicken mixture and all other remaining ingredients except rice into your soup pot. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until the vegetables are nearly soft. Add in rice. Cook until rice is soft.

We like to serve the soup with breadsticks.

New Life on a Homestead - Homestead Blessings DVD Giveaway

First, let me give a big thank you to my blog friend, Pam, from Adventures in Homemaking for alerting me to New Life on a Homestead. I hadn't been aware of the blog and just love it!

Kendra over at New Life on a Homestead is holding a giveaway for eight different DVDs. The titles include:

The Art of Gardening
The Art of Bread Making
The Art of Canning
The Art of Candle Making
The Art of Soap Making
The Art of Herbs
The Art of Cooking
The Art of Dairy Delights

Long-time readers of my blog probably know that the Hubster and I hope to be real homesteaders some day and this DVD series is definitely going to get a serious look from us and we're likely to add it to our DVD library.

Reducing consumption

(photo credit - World War II poster at New Hampshire State Library - you can click on their image for a free printable version as well)

Continuing with my series of posts about living with less I'll discuss how to reduce consumption.

This is probably one of my favorite topics as we Americans typically consume far too much - too much food, too many natural resources, too much energy, and far far too many consumer goods.

We have been led to believe that we need the latest, the greatest, the newest THING on the market. We buy bigger homes than we need and often buy so much without even having the means to pay for it.

How on earth do we stop this madness?

There is an old adage that goes something like this, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."

So...some of our tips to reduce consumption (in no particular order of importance):

- Shop from home. The next time you think you need to go buy something look around your house and see if you already have it. If you don't have it see if something you have will fill the need.

- Buy used. We have a tiered process we use in making purchasing decisions. First, we shop at home (see above). Second, we shop used - thrift stores, garage sales, estate sales, Craig's List, etc. Third, if we cannot find the item at home or a used item we'll look for it locally. Buying local doesn't just mean shopping your local businesses it also means using local producers. If you have local industries try to buy their products instead of products produced far away. Finally, if we absolutely cannot find it at home, used, or locally we'll finally give in and buy it from another source. This process may sound exhausting and that's part of the plan, actually. It gives us time to decide if we truly do need to buy the item.

- Make it yourself or do it yourself. When possible you might want to consider making the product yourself from raw materials or doing your own repairs, etc. We have another post planned for more details.

- Live simply. One of my very favorite quotes is attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, "Live simply so that others may simply live." When we live within our means it allows us to share our resources with others. We have the means to assist others in need. When we live beyond our means we cheat both ourselves and our fellow man. One example of simple living is our decision to buy a small home in a less desirable neighborhood. My philosophy has always been to never have a mortgage that exceeds local rental rates. By staying within this rule we know that if our income should drop we'd still be able to afford our home. If we couldn't afford it we'd truly be in dire straights because we wouldn't have been able to afford ANY housing.

- Look to other cultures for guidelines for consumption. Learn from other cultures to see how you can alter your consumption practices. Most Europeans, for instance, use public transportation instead of owning two (or three or more) cars. It's far more common for them to walk. In Asian countries it's common to see people walking, using bicycles, or motorized scooters for transportation. Americans have a love affair with their cars, but it's not necessary for many of us to spend so much money and so much of our limited fossil fuels in the area of transportation.

- Conserve energy. I have a whole other post coming about how to reduce energy consumption so I'll reserve the details for then.

- Cook and eat at home.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but should give an overview of some of the ways our family has managed to reduce consumption and some tips that could help your family in your journey.

What are some of the ways you and your family have found to reduce consumption?

Bartering or how to exchange goods and services without cash

In our Buying your meat locally post I discussed how the Hubster barters his time and labor in exchange for free turkeys and low cost chickens.

Other ways we've bartered include:

- bartering our labor for free fruit. Our neighbor regularly brings us gleaned fruit and we dehydrate or can it and give a portion back to him. We barter our labor and the use of our equipment for fruit.

- bartering my labor and craft supplies for other handcrafted goods. I love to sew and regularly participate in craft swaps where I'll sew up toys or other items and barter them for the work of other women. I've received hot pads, tutus, felt toy food, doll clothes, doll blankets, embroidered bookmarks, crayon holders, tote bags, tie-dyed clothing, and all sorts of neat handcrafted items by bartering my handcrafted work.



- bartering food for food. We've bartered venison pasties (a meat pie) for locally produced maple syrup in the past.

- bartering labor for food. The Hubster regularly barters his labor for free range chicken eggs.


Bartering used to be a common method of exchange but over the years Americans have moved away from it and now most of us use a cash system exclusively.

So how do you get started in bartering?

For us the first step was to find other people who are interested in bartering. We just suggested the idea to some local folks who we thought would be receptive to the idea and we negotiated what both parties agreed was a good exchange.

When bartering with people you don't know it's helpful to know the fair market value of what you are offering and what you hope to receive. In the handcrafted goods swaps, for instance, we'll use online shopping sites like Etsy to determine what the value of our handcrafted goods are and then we put together offers that are in $20 packages. But beyond the fair market value of your goods you also have to factor in desirability. Just because your goods or services are valued at $20 doesn't mean that others need or want your goods or services.

You might also want to do an assessment of what you have to offer. What skills or abilities do you have that others might want or need?

Some commonly bartered skills include:

- bookkeeping
- tax preparation
- teaching a skill
- carpentry
- painting
- roofing and siding
- lawn care/ yard work
- plumbing
- sewing
- knitting
- photography
- hair cutting
- web design
- animal care
- general labor
- snow removal
- childcare
- cooking/baking
- housecleaning

And the list of goods to be bartered is nearly endless.

Some people like to put together a list of their skills and goods they wish to barter and assign a suggested value to them. This is something tangible they can give to someone else to start the negotiation process.


And how about you, dear readers? Do you regularly barter your goods and/or services? What are some of your most interesting barters?

Cornbread and the Hubster's famous chili

The Hubster is well known for his chili. In fact, that's what we served at our rehearsal dinner the night before our wedding. It wasn't until well into our marriage that I was entrusted with the recipe. Unfortunately I do not have authorization to share it with you here, but I can let you see a bowl. ;)

I will share our cornbread recipe with you, though!

Mootown Dairy-free Cornbread

2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
2 cups apple juice
1/2 cup olive oil
2 eggs

Grease a 13"x9" pan well. Preheat the oven to 400F.

Mix together all dry ingredients well. In another bowl beat the eggs and gently add the olive oil and apple juice. Quickly pour it into the dry ingredients and mix well.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Did you know....Tophat's Top Ten Cool Things about Breastmilk

Did you know that your breastmilk contains stem cells and researchers believe that immune stem cells pass through your breast milk and into your baby's circulation?

That's something formula absolutely cannot do for your baby.

Please, mamas, if you must supplement use your pumped breast milk and explore the possibility of donor milk if you need additional supplementation.

Check out the rest of TopHat's top ten list over at her blog,
it's all about the hat.

95!

That's the number of times this blog was opened yesterday.

Ninety-five times!

I have twenty-seven followers via Google (hello to you two anonymous ones!) and have another five followers via Networked Blogs.

Yet this blog was opened ninety-five times yesterday. And this wasn't a fluke, either. The day before it was 111 impressions.

So how come the rest of you don't follow? Did you accidentally come across the blog in a search or through a link? Or are my thirty-two followers coming here several times throughout the day? Fess up!

Oh, and thank you so much for visiting - whatever your rationale. :D

Scripture verse of the day

The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge. Proverbs 18:15

File Folder Games

Have you heard about them yet?

They're a great way to keep toddlers and preschoolers entertained.

The basic idea is that you use a manila file folder to hold the pieces together. Most are matching games or games similar to paper dolls where you dress a doll or animal.

I like to cover ours in contact paper and use adhesive Velcro to make them easier for the girls to use in the car, etc.

There are many places online where you can download the graphics for free.

Here are some of our favorites:

File Folder Fun

Preschool Printables

File Folder Games and Other Games

Bible File Folder Games

Positively Autism File Folder Games

Activity Village File Folder Games

The HomeSchool Hutt File Folder Games

Giggly Games File Folder Freebies

How to Make File Folder Games

File Folder Math Games

Bible Story File Folder Games

Veggie Shepherd's Pie

Yesterday was another sick day in our household. That means I spent much of my afternoon nursing and rocking the baby girl.

The boy generously cooked our family's dinner! He's still learning his way around a recipe but the shepherd's pie was great. I would have cut the vegetables a bit smaller and I also would have used chicken stock instead of water, but it was still really tasty. :)

We eliminated the milk from the mashed potatoes and used a little bit of olive oil to make them smooth in mashing.

Here's the recipe:

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, diced
2 cups cabbage, finely chopped
1/2 cup stock
2 cups cooked lentils
1 cup peas
1 cup corn
1 Tbsp soy sauce

Crust-
1 Tbsp olive oil
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
Paprika

Preheat oven to 400F.

Place potatoes in saucepan and fill with water. Bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are tender (about 15 minutes). Drain potatoes and mash. Stir in minced parsley.

Saute onion in olive oil until soft. Stir in garlic, carrots, and cabbage and saute until soft and tender.



Add in cooked lentils, peas, corn, stock, and soy sauce. Cook five minutes or until it's thoroughly heated.



Pour into 2 quart casserole dish and spread potato crust over the filling. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake uncovered 20 to 30 minutes.

We forgot to add the paprika and parsley to the potatoes.

Reminder - Baby soft shoe giveaway starts Feb. 2nd!

To celebrate reaching 25 followers (we actually have a total of 31 now - some via Networked Blogs followers) I'm holding a giveaway for baby soft shoes.

Beginning on February 2nd I'll be opening up entries for one of the following sets (these are just the fabrics and trims - soon they'll be sewn into shoes):

Gender Neutral Set - one size 3 months, one size 6 months, one size 9 months









Baby Boy Set - one size 3 months, one size 6 months, one size 9 months








Baby Girl Set - one size 3 months, one size 6 months, one size 9 months









Entries will be open from February 2nd through February 5th, so tell your friends, family, and anyone you see. :)

Dinner Menus - Jan 25th thru Jan 31st

Monday, January 25th - Meat-less meal
Veggie Shepherd's Pie


Tuesday, January 26th - Pork
Pork steak, rice, broccoli


Wednesday, January 27th - Soup
Chicken and rice soup, bread


Thursday, January 28th - Poultry
Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans


Friday, January 29th - Pizza night
Pizza


Saturday, January 30th- Pantry Ready to Eat meal
Chicken tacos, coleslaw salad


Sunday, January 31st - Pork or Beef
Beef stew, bread

Romans 1:16-20

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

The baby girl is sick again

Yes, she is. It started Thursday afternoon with coughing when she napped. A runny nose soon followed. In the wee hours of Friday morning we noticed a fever - around 100F. The fever continued - low running from 99 to 100 - and we had a rough night last night. She has a rattly cough and mucous is trying to clear from her lungs and she doesn't like that. We spent many hours with me sitting upright holding her upright so she could sleep. Can you guess how much sleep I got?

Often I'll have scheduled posts all queued up and ready to go but didn't have enough this time.

This afternoon I'll be chauffeuring youth from our ward (congregation) to our stake center (similar to diocese or area) for a youth event and the baby girl and the big girl will hang here with the Hubster. He'll take the second shift of chauffeuring going back to pick them up and drive them home. It's about an hour and a half drive each way.

Just to let you know that very little real content will get written because we have a busy day helping out and caring for the sickly girl.

Hope you all have a better weekend! :)

My first blog award!!!

Many thanks to Lynn at Viggies Veggies for giving me this award! (it's my very first blog award and couldn't have come from a nicer person)



If you were awarded and would like to play along, just post 10 things that make you happy and send the award to 10 bloggers who brighten your day.

Ten things that make me happy (in no particular order):

1. The Hubster ('nuff said)
2. Milky smiles from a nursing baby
3. Pudgy baby hugs
4. The smell of rain on a summer day
5. The feel of warm soil on my hands as I work in my gardens
6. The aroma of sheets dried on the line
7. The way that bread can fill your home with a heavenly scent while baking
8. Conquering a challenging pattern
9. Finding a great bargain at a thrift store, estate sale, or rummage sale
10. Chocolate

And for my awards - these are all blogs that bring me laughs, smiles, deep thoughts, or new knowledge with their writings. Thank you for the happiness you bring me!

1. Once Upon a Family
2. Smockity Frocks
3. mermaids
4. Seriously, so blessed!
5. Bless Ewe Farm
6. The Garden Gate
7. Woman, Uncensored
8. Tripletly Blessed
9. Rational Living
10. In the Pink

Amazing free pattern for child's sofa!

Hello, I'm the mama and I'm a crafting/sewing blog junkie. My new favorite (don't worry old friends, I'm fickle and will have another new fav tomorrow) these days is ikat bag. I was digging through her old posts and found a pattern for a child's sofa!!! And best of all, she shares her pattern with us all for free. :D

You have to go and check it out. I know there are versions available for sale, but why on earth pay for it when Lier so very generously shares it with us?

Cooking and eating at home

If you had asked me ten years ago if I would ever enjoy cooking three meals a day plus snacks from scratch using whole foods I would have told you that you were crazy! Back then I was a typical American having been raised on frozen foods and boxed mixes. I regularly bought and prepared foods like Hamburger Helper and Kraft mac 'n cheese to feed the boy.

That said, I'm finding a lot of enjoyment in trying new recipes, learning about new foods, and especially learning to cook foods from other cultures.

Some of the things we do in the area of Cooking and Eating at Home that have significantly reduced our food expenditures are:

1. Eat at home - Seems simple, doesn't it? But it's not! You have to plan really well in order to pull this off. For us that means taking snacks with us when we're going to be away from the house for more than an hour or two. That means being aware of scheduled activities and planning meals that will fit into our schedule. Some days the meals have to be very simple and quick cooking in order to work so I keep a list of meals that I can cook and serve in under 30 minutes.

2. Come up with a plan - Meal planning is key for us. I map out a month's worth of dinner meals and put together a schedule. This lets me know what ingredients I need to have on hand and simplifies grocery shopping as well. It also helps me plan out my days so I know when I need to begin meal prep and when I need to defrost meat, for instance. It also helps us evaluate our diet and make sure we're getting a variety of different foods to help us balance our nutritional intake. I can easily look at a week and know if we're getting enough variety in our vegetables (green, orange/yellow, purple/red, etc.) or if we need to squeeze more fruits in.

3. Buy in season - If you want to save money on your grocery purchases one easy way is to eat what is in season. Buying out of season fruits and vegetables adds unnecessary expense.

4. Buy whole foods - When you shop purchase primarily whole foods, that is foods that are as close to possible in their natural unprocessed states. An easy way to remember this is also to say to shop around the perimeter of the store - buy fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, and dairy foods. In almost every case when you buy a processed food you are paying extra for the processing. You also tend to lose some of the nutrition in the processing. Whole foods are a better nutritional value as well as being a more frugal purchase.

5. Learn to cook whole foods - This step may take some additional effort on your part (I know it did on mine) but will help you shave off dollars from your food budget as well. If you know how to cook whole foods you don't have to pay the added price for processed foods. For instance, if you know how to cook dried beans you don't have to pay the added price for canned beans. Around here a 15 oz. can of navy beans will cost just under a dollar. For the same price I can buy a pound of dried navy beans and it will yield 48 oz. of cooked beans. Which is the better value?

6. Check unit prices - I have a whole 'nother post coming up on buying in bulk but you need to learn what you are paying per unit (ounce, piece, pound, etc.) and determine what size is the best value. Then buy your foods in that form.

7. Comparison shop - This ties into checking unit prices, but taking a bit of time and effort to determine what your local best prices are can save you money in the long term. Be careful, though, that you're not spending a dime to save a penny. Sometimes it's not a better price if you have to drive a long distance in order to buy it at that price. With access to the Internet and telephones much of the comparison pricing can be done from home, too!

8. Grow your own - This is another area where I have a whole post coming, but whenever possible you can save money by growing your own food. Even folks living in apartments or on small lots in the city can grow *some* of their own food. It might mean a pot of lettuce on a windowsill or a container garden on your balcony, but seeds are always cheaper than veggies purchased at a grocery store.

9. Buy locally - You're probably sick to death of reading this here, but I've found that local food sources are nearly always cheaper than food trucked in. I know not everyone has the advantage of having farmers just outside their city limits, but check around and see what is available near you. A great site to use to find local producers is Local Harvest. For readers outside the US try searching using "buying local fresh food" or "community supported agriculture".

10. Eliminate non-nutritional foods - Okay, I'll admit not *all* non-nutritional foods have been eliminated from our diets, but why spend your precious food dollars on frankenfoods that do nothing but harm your body? You know what I'm talking about so I won't go into great detail, but in a nutshell make sure that the foods you're buying are really food and that they provide nutritional benefits.

11. Look to other cultures for foods - Americans aren't known for their healthy cuisine, sorry to say. I've discovered that traditional foods from Central and South America, Africa, and Asia are often higher in nutrients and easier on the pocketbook than North American and European dishes. We've instituted a vegetarian meal at least once a week in our dinner plan. It helps us to eat a bit healthier while also lowering our food expenditures.

So what tips do you, dear readers, have on ways to save money by cooking and eating at home? Anyone care to share their tried and true ways to pare down the budget by cooking and eating at home?

I've gone over to the dark side

I've monetized the blog. I hope the ads don't interfere with your enjoyment of the blog. We'll see how things go and whether or not I can tolerate the commercialism.

Thrift stores, vintage cookbooks, and cookie bars

On Tuesday the kids and I went thrifting. For those of you uninitiated, that means we shopped the thrift stores. We only had time to visit two, but it was a fun morning and a great day for bargains! For only 59 cents I was able to purchase the vintage cookie cookbook you see above.

Of course I had to go home and test out a recipe or two, didn't I? ;)

The first one I tried was the recipe for Chocolate Peppermint Bars. It's a layered cookie bar that's REALLY rich. I cut my bars about 2" x 2.5" and I think I need to slice them in half. This is definitely NOT a dairy-free recipe with all the butter, milk, and cream in it but it's a neat look back at desserts from the late '60s and early '70s.

So...you first start with the following ingredients:

2 squares unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Melt your chocolate and butter. I use my microwave and nuke 'em for about 2 minutes, stirring after the first minute. You could also use a double boiler. Then I mixed in the sugar and then mixed in the beaten eggs. Add the flour and nuts and mix well. Pour the mixture into a greased bar pan (13" x 9" or so). Bake it for 15 minutes at 350 F. Cool.

Next you make the chocolate frosting. This is the second layer of the bars.

6 Tbsp softened butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp whole milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted

Combine all the ingredients above and mix well with your mixer until the frosting is smooth. Spread it on top of your first layer. Refrigerate until firm.

The last step is the final layer and that's the peppermint glaze.

1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp cream
1/2 tsp peppermint extract

The original recipe also called for a few drops of red food coloring. I thought that was insane, myself. When I think of mint I think of green, not red. I guess they thought it might remind folks of candy canes or something, but gee whiz my candy canes aren't brown and red! I left the coloring out.

Blend the powdered sugar, cream, and peppermint extract well until smooth. Then drizzle over the frosting layer. Refrigerate until firm and then cut. I recommend pieces that are about 1" x 2" or so because this is one rich cookie bar. Enjoy!

Why Choose a Midwife?

I found this video clip through another blog, Woman,Uncensored, and needed to share it as well.

It's an outstanding video produced in Massachusetts and discusses the risks and benefits of homebirth. Well worth the 12 minutes or so it takes to watch it!

I was 24 years old when the boy was surgically removed from me. The boy's birth was a cascade of interventions that led to a c-section. The pregnancy went to 41 weeks and the OB team I was using told me they'd cease to care for me as a patient unless I immediately went from their office to the hospital for a pitocin induction. They didn't even allow me to go home to get clothing or snacks for my husband. Pitocin induction, premature rupture of amniotic sac, internal fetal monitoring (placing a probe under the skin in my son's forehead while he was trying to be born), forced/coerced epidural, and eventual c-section.

I labored for 7 hours without an epidural and was only permitted to labor for 14 hours total. This was my first birth. The OB insisted I wasn't making adequate progress and that I wouldn't dilate and couldn't birth this baby - my pelvis was too small.

I birthed the big girl at home with a certified professional midwife in 2004. The pregnancy went to 41 weeks as well. I was 37 years old and the labor took 15 hours. My pelvis is adequate and my cervix is able to dilate independent of drugs.

I birthed the baby girl at home unassisted in 2008. Her pregnancy was 39 weeks long. I was 40 years old and the labor took 15 hours. I don't think I need to repeat that my pelvis is adequate and my cervix is able to dilate independent of drugs.

Know your bodies. Know the REAL risks. Educate yourselves.

Budgeting 101 or How to Manage your Money by Spending with a Purpose

disclaimer - I am not an expert on budgeting and much of this will be old news to the majority of readers. Perhaps it might help one or two of you, though.

When I first married the Hubster I kept a paper ledger to track my income and expenditures. It was a simple system I learned from my father and it had served me well for eleven years at that point. The Hubster, however, used an electronic ledger system.

When we married we continued doing both. Can you tell we're both a tad stubborn? ;)

A few months after the big girl came along, though, I handed the bill paying and financial tracking over to the Hubster because our colicky high need baby just wouldn't let her mama sit down and look at spreadsheets or write out checks.

We're so 21st century now that we don't write checks with the exception of our monthly tithe and fast offering checks. It's the digital age, baby!

What does that have to do with budgeting, you might ask. Well...we've found that using a financial software package like Quicken helps us track our expenses as well as categorizing them to make sure we're staying within our budget.

If you haven't explored this option, please go ahead and take a look at some of the software packages that are available.

I had to get that out of the way before I forgot. But back to the general topic of budgeting.

What is a budget? It's a plan. A plan for how you want to allocate your resources. In layman's terms it's how you spend and save your money.

How do you go about writing up your budget?

A good starting point is to determine what your revenue is. For us it's primarily the Hubster's monthly take-home pay. Some people might receive child support payments or have investment income that they want to include. We keep it simple. This is the amount you have to work with in determining your expenditure and savings plans.

Next you need to determine what your expenditures are. We like to split it into three categories - fixed expenses, variable expenses, and savings.

How do you determine what your fixed expenses are?
These are the bills you pay or expenses you incur that have a relatively consistent amount to them. The categories we include in our fixed expenses are:

- mortgage payment (includes homeowners' insurance, property taxes, and mortgage principal and interest payment)
- auto loan
- student loan payments
- utilities (electricity, natural gas, water/sewer)
- auto insurance
- cell phones
- land line telephone/Internet service
- Netflix
- Tithe
- Fast Offering

Fixed expenses are pretty easy for most people to figure out since you usually get a bill on a monthly or quarterly basis. Some of the amounts might fluctuate, but looking back over the course of a year you can estimate what you should budget. We personally prefer to use the budget billing plan for our electricity and natural gas plans. This way we have a consistent amount throughout the year and don't have spikes during our winter months.

How do you determine what your variable expenses are?
This category is harder for many people to figure out. One option is to spend a month tracking what you spend and use that as a guide to determine what you should budget in the various categories. Another option is to set a budget line amount and test it out for several months making adjustments when needed. We opted to track expenses and use that as a guide and then made a few minor adjustments.

For most families this is the category where you really are making decisions about how you choose to use your money and how you prioritize where you use it.

The categories we include in our variable expenses are:

- Groceries
- Gasoline
- Auto Maintenance
- Clothing
- Misc. Sundries (any health & beauty supplies or household supplies)
- Auto Registration
- Home Maintenance
- Entertainment
- Homeschooling Supplies & Books
- Gifts

The categories that are italicized are cash categories. We take the budgeted monthly amount and put it into envelopes and spend cash for those items. The remainder of the categories are budgeted monthly but the money is put into a savings account to be used as needed. You'll notice there isn't a line for medical expenses because that is taken out before we receive the take-home pay. We have an excellent PPO package through the Hubster's employer and we use a flex-pay health care account to save for the small expenses we have in the way of co-pays and prescription costs.

How do you determine savings?
The last category is the one many American families neglect - savings. But if you don't plan to save you often don't save at all. The savings we're discussing here isn't long term investing for your children's educations or retirement, but ordinary sort of savings for larger purchases or vacations or your emergency fund. Some families will set aside a percentage of income and others will have a monthly dollar amount in mind. We use the set dollar amount method.

Some people might wonder how much we budgeted for each category and in writing this post I first hesitated to reveal such personal information, but realized it could well be helpful for beginning budgeters to have a benchmark figure to work with.

So...here it is - the Mootown Monthly Budget

Revenue - $3,598.02

Fixed Expenses - $2686.00
Tithing - $504.17
Fast Offering - $25.00
Mortgage - $874.85
Student Loans - $442.83
Electricity - $104.00
Natural gas - $126.00
Water/Sewer - $51.00
Land line phone & Internet connection - $68.00
Cell phones - $91.00
Auto Loan - $315.16
Auto Insurance - $69.30
Netflix - $14.69

Variable Expenses - $886.00
Groceries - $450.00
Gasoline - $250.00
Auto Maintenance - $10.00
Clothing - $30.00
Misc. Sundries - $50.00
Auto Registration - $6.00
Home Maintenance - $25.00
Entertainment - $30.00
Homeschooling Books & Supplies - $10.00
Gifts - $25.00


Savings - $26.02

Any money that isn't used in the Variable Expenses cash categories in a given month is rolled over to the next month. We primarily use our Savings allocations as an emergency fund and home improvement fund.

We also will deposit all profits from my home-based business that aren't reinvested into the business into savings.

So do you have any budgeting tips for readers? What method works best for you or your family?

Mujadarrah and fry bread

For vegetarian night this week we tried Mujadarrah and some fry bread. I had wanted to make naan, but all the recipes I found were very dairy heavy and I thought that substitutions might change the bread too much so we used a native American fry bread recipe instead.

The Mujadarrah was enjoyed by everyone except the big girl. She opted for a pb&j sandwich instead.

To make the Mujadarrah I combined the following ingredients in a large saucepan:

1 1/2 cups lentils
1 1/2 cups brown rice
8 cups chicken stock

Then I added in

2 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp ground cumin

I mixed all ingredients well and brought the mixture up to a boil over high heat. I turned the heat down to low and simmered for about 40 minutes.

While that was simmering I went ahead and made the fry bread.

I combined

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup water

I mixed until the dough formed a ball and turned it out onto a floured countertop. Then I divided the dough into eight pieces and rolled them flat.

I poured olive oil about 1/2 inch deep into a deep frying pan and heated it to about 375 F. Then I carefully dropped in the flattened dough one piece at a time. I cooked each piece individually until lightly brown and drained them.

When the fry bread was all cooked I then cut two large onions and fried them in about 3 Tbsp olive oil until caramelized.

We served the Mujadarrah with caramelized onions on top and with fry bread and steamed broccoli as side dishes.

Dinner Menus - Jan 18th thru Jan 24th

Monday, January 18th - Vegetarian
Mujadarrah, native American fry bread, steamed broccoli


Tuesday, January 19th - Pork
Meatloaf made with ground pork, mashed potatoes, green beans


Wednesday, January 20th - Soup
Chili; cornbread; raw carrot sticks, celery sticks, and sliced cucumbers


Thursday, January 21st - Poultry
Chicken stir fry, rice


Friday, January 22nd - Pizza
Pizza - one with cheese and one without cheese


Saturday, January 23rd- Pantry Ready to Eat
Tuna noodle salad, carrot sticks


Sunday, January 24th - Pork or Beef
Ham, mashed potatoes, corn 

1 Corinthians 13

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS - CHAPTER 13

Money, madness, and mothering

Hrmm...what on earth do those three have to do with each other?

Well, my decision to mother full-time and not work much meant a big drop in our income. (I don't consider the bit of sewing and selling I do to be work because it always comes at the end of my to-do list unless I have to ship an order for a customer) In fact, when I first stepped off the career track way back in 2001 it meant our income was about half of what it might have been - yeppers a 50% reduction.

How on earth does a family adjust to a 50% drop in income?

Here are some of the ways *our* family adjusted -

1. Budget - we assigned every dollar that comes into our home with a purpose.

2. Use cash - we've found that if we budget and then set aside cash for those budget items we cannot overspend.

3. Barter - we participate in swaps and barter our skills and labor for things we need (i.e., the Hubster working with chickens in exchange for low cost meat; and I swap my sewing skills for other goods).

4. Grow our own food - our little urban homestead doesn't come close to providing all of our food needs, but we are able to reduce our need to buy produce from the markets in summer and part of the winter.

5. Reduce consumption - here alone was probably the biggest lifestyle change and the biggest savings. It involves making do with what you have and reducing your consumption of non-essential goods.

6. Buy in bulk - you need to check your unit prices but often buying in bulk will be the lowest unit price possible.

7. Reduce expenses - we became a one car family (reduced auto insurance costs, fuel costs, auto maintenance costs, etc.), cancelled many magazine subscriptions, eliminated cable tv, and eliminated unnecessary travel.

8. Cook at home and eat at home - we went from spending well over $800 per month on food to spending under $450 per month on food by cooking from scratch, eating simple meals made from whole foods, and becoming more savvy in our food purchasing

9. Conserve - we upgraded our hot water heater and furnace & a/c with newer energy efficient models. We also replaced some of the old (1880s) windows in our home with new replacment windows. We now have a monthly electric bill of $104 and a monthly natural gas bill of $126. We spend just $230 per month to heat, light, and fuel our home appliances. We're working on reducing the electricity consumption further by replacing light bulbs with CFLs.

10. Buy locally - we've found that with a little research we were able to find lower cost food alteratives by buying locally produced foods.

11. DIY - we've added some new skills to our DIY toolbox and we've been able to save lots of $ by doing home improvement projects ourselves rather than outsourcing them.


When faced with a reduction in income your choices are really painfully simple. You must either increase your income or reduce your expenses. We chose to primarily reduce our expenses. It means that we now live a lifestyle very different from most Americans, but not so very different from families in other countries.

For our family the largest advantage of these changes is that we spend more quality time together as a family because we're spending more quantity time together as well!

I have plans to put together some other posts detailing some of the above mentioned changes so you can see just exactly how we implemented the changes.

What about your family, though? If you've ever experienced a reduction in income how did you adjust? What are some of your solutions for making do with less?

Saw a great idea for a dress...

at Target!






I'm always looking for ways to extend the life of my children's clothes (especially the girls).

Readers who've been with me a while might remember the amazing shirt and how we added a skirt to that shirt using knit fabric.

Well now, thanks to the fine folks at Target, I have another idea for lengthening the girls' shirts!

The Target style takes woven cotton fabric in strips of varying colors sewn together and gathered to create a skirt. There is a waistband of woven cotton that attaches the skirt to the knit top to create the dress.

For some reason (my husband's genes) our girls have ridiculously long torsos and outgrow their tops in length long before they outgrow them in girth.

Now I have a new style to sew up and even have one of the baby girl's outgrown shirts waiting to be re-made. :)

Do you re-purpose outgrown clothing? What are some of your frugal sewing creations?

So what are those ants up to now?

They're digging more tunnels and piling more of the excess "stuff" up on the top.

They seem more active lately. I wonder sometimes what makes them active and what makes them inactive.

Guess what came in the mail this morning?

This book:



It's The Gospel According to Lost and it's the first book I'll be reviewing for Thomas Nelson, Inc.

I'm really looking forward to reading it.

We don't watch TV (unless you count the occasional episode of The Office that I watch online) and I am really in the dark regarding the show Lost. My little sister is a fan, though, so when I saw that this book was available for review I snatched it up right away.

Watch for a review to be posted here soon!

All natural nitrite free sausage

Have you tried it yet? We have and it gets a thumbs up here!

This is going to sound a bit like a commercial, but it's not one. I'm just so excited to have found it and thought I'd share with you.

Now normally the Hubster makes pork sausage for us, but we're out and he hasn't had time to make another batch. (btw it's really easy to make your own fresh pork sausage and that will be an upcoming post - I just have to wait for him to make the next batch)

Since we're transitioning the big girl to the Feingold Program we can't buy ordinary pork sausage since it contains nitrites and usually contains BHT.

So imagine our excitement when we were shopping at Costco and found Jones all natural fully cooked sausage links.

It's a pork sausage made without nitrites and without preservatives. It's also gluten free.



It is all natural and contains only pork, water, sea salt, spices and sugar.



We bought ours in a 3.5 pound bag at Costco but I've also seen it in small boxes at our local Pick 'n Save grocery stores. It's a bit pricier than your typical brown and serve sausages, but a whole lot safer.

Now there are some downsides as well. It's made with conventionally farmed pork. It's not organic. But if you're looking for a relatively healthy precooked breakfast sausage this one is reasonably priced and tasty to boot.

Natural cleaning

Odd title, I know. Cleaning doesn't come naturally to me, either! ;)

Really, though, it's all about using more natural ingredients to clean with.

We make most of our own cleaning solutions ourselves and try to buy ecologically sound ones when we turn to alternatives that we don't make ourselves.

There are a few basic ingredients that I use in my cleaning these days.

White Vinegar


Tea Tree Oil (natural anti-septic and anti-fungal)


Liquid Castile Soap


Baking Soda (great scouring powder on it's own as well as an ingredient in many solutions)


Borax


Washing Soda


Lemon Oil (for polishing wood furniture)


Here are some of my favorite recipes (I wish I could give proper attribution, but when I wrote them down I didn't include sources - most of them have been found online and I'm prone to changing recipes as well):


General Cleaning Solution - I use this for wiping down countertops, cleaning the stovetop,cleaning the exhaust fan above the stovetop, cleaning non-wooden tabletops, wiping down laminate shelves, wiping down the sink, and for spot cleaning our laminate flooring. It works well on most non-porous surfaces.

2 Tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp. Borax
Really hot water (I use tap water but distilled is best for cleaning)
1/8 cup liquid castile soap (I like Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Castile)
3 drops tea tree oil

Mix vinegar and borax in a clean 32 oz. spray bottle. I find a funnel makes this *much* easier! Then fill the rest of the bottle about 3/4 full with very hot water. Shake until the Borax is dissolved. Add in the 1/8 cup castile soap. Gently shake to mix in the soap (it will foam up). Add in your tea tree oil last.


Scouring powder - this I use for scrubbing sinks and the bathtub. It also works great for tough stains on the countertop.

Baking soda - yep just use baking soda straight up!
I bought some in a nice shaker canister and I just refill it with large boxes of cleaning grade baking soda.


Anti-Mildew Spray for shower
White vinegar
Tap water
Tea tree oil

Just fill your spray bottle with about 1/3 cup white vinegar. Then top the bottle off with warm tap water. Add in a few drops of tea tree oil. Spray your shower walls after each shower to reduce mildew growth.


Furniture Polish

Lemon oil

We just pour a small amount of the oil onto our wood furniture and then wipe it into the wood with a soft cloth. We'll then take another soft cloth and buff the wood to shine.


Powdered Laundry Detergent

2 cups soap flakes (I use Fels Naptha or castile soap)
1 cup washing soda
1 cup Borax

Grate your soap using a hand grater or food processor. Mix all ingredients together and store in a sealed container. We use gallon mason jars or other saved glass jars, but you might have some plastic containers that work well for your family.


Floor Cleaner - for general washing of vinyl or laminate flooring

1/4 cup liquid castile soap
Bucket full of hot water

Yep, to wash my floors I add about 1/4 cup of liquid castile soap to a bucket full of hot water. I actually put the soap in first and then fill the bucket and find the spray of the water tends to mix it well.

For spot cleaning messes on the floors I use my general spray cleaner.


I still need to keep my cleaning supplies and solutions out of the reach of my children since natural doesn't necessarily equate to non-toxic. But I really like the convenience of having fewer supplies to store and knowing that there are fewer chemicals in my house.

Do you have any natural cleaning recipes or tips you'd like to share?

School at home?

One of my ongoing frustrations in conversations with well-meaning family and friends is that they expect that our unschooling is just having school at home - that I design or buy a curriculum and use it to teach my children. Over the winter holidays some would even ask if we were having school or if we were on break.

I try to explain that the reason our children are learning at home is because we feel the system of schooling isn't the best model for our children to learn within.

Why on earth would I want to try and replicate it in our home?!?

This quote by John Holt (found in his book Teach Your Own) really sums up our philosophy well: (the bolding is mine)

"...I have used the words "homeschooling" to describe the process by which children grow and learn in the world without going, or going very much, to schools, because those words are familiar and quickly understood. But in one very important sense they are misleading. What is most important and valuable about the home as a base for children's growth into the world is not that it is a better school than the schools but that it isn't a school at all. It is not an artificial place, set up to make "learning" happen and in which nothing except "learning" ever happens. It is a natural, organic, central, fundamental human institution, one might easily and rightly say the foundation of all other institutions. We can imagine and indeed we have had human societies without schools, without factories, without libraries, museums, hospitals, roads, legislatures, courts, or any of the institutions which seem so indispensable and permanent a part of modern life. We might someday even choose, or be obliged, to live once again without some or all of these. But we cannot even imagine a society without homes, even if these should be no more than tents, or mud huts, or holes in the ground. What I am trying to say, in short, is that our chief educational problem is not to find a way to make homes more like schools. If anything, it is to make schools less like schools."

Our home is the center of our children's universe. It is their grounding point and their haven. It is where they first learn to love, trust, explore, grow, develop, and fail. I couldn't prevent their learning just as I couldn't prevent their limbs from growing. What we do is create an environment in which they feel safe to explore and test out the world and all the knowledge and skills contained within. Then they venture out to try and come back to rest before trying again.

It isn't a school and never shall be. It's far far more significant a place than that.

Pork and rice hot dish recipe

This is a dish that the hubster sort of made up on the go. He's good at that - just taking ingredients on hand and making a meal out of them.

This one is super easy to make and uses ingredients we tend to keep in our fridge, freezer, and pantry all the time.

You're going to use rice, ground meat (we used ground pork this time because we recently bought 2/3 of an organically raised hog), olive oil, chicken stock, carrots, and onion.








First up you finely dice about two carrots, and a large onion.



We like to use celery most of the time, but we were out of celery this time. If you use it, just dice it like the carrots and onions and combine it with them.

Pour a bit of olive oil (2-3 Tbsp) into a deep heavy skillet and saute your vegetables.



While that's going on we cook up 2 cups of jasmine rice in 2 1/2 cups of home canned chicken stock. We like the extra flavor the stock gives this dish, but if you don't have any on hand feel free to substitute water. To cook it we use a very heavy 1 quart saucepan. Combine the rice and stock and bring it to a boil. Then reduce the heat to a very low simmer and put a lid on the pan. Check it from time to time. It's finished when the stock has been absorbed and the rice is soft.

After your vegetables are soft, then add in your pork and cook it until the juices run clear.



When it's fully cooked and your rice is steamed combine all the ingredients in your skillet and it's ready to serve!



Do you have any family favorite recipes that you made (or another family member) made up?