FOF: Week 3 of Nothing-But-Dairy-Grocery Challenge

researching how to fix a water heater on youtube.  All the children now know this valubale skill.  ;-)

snacks

Sunrises on the hill are just this beautiful.  No color adjustments needed.

 

A cabbage stored from summertime... looks pretty gross on the outside, buuuut....

peel back the outer leaves and voila!  Perfect!

Ran out of:
raisins
carrots
pepperoni
green pepper

I was so nervous when, as I was making pizza last Saturday night, I found that I only had about 3 or four cups of all purpose flour left for the rest of the month.  Especially now that I have to bake all our bread!  I often use freshly ground whole wheat flour for our bread products but I usually add some white flour as well (anywhere from about 70/30 to 50/50 depending on the type of bread), to make them softer and more delicate.  I was nervous for about two days wondering WHAT I was going to do.   I was SO THANKFUL when I discovered a packed away bag of flour!  It will still have to be rationed and used wisely for the next few weeks but it won't be quite so desperate.  I guess I'll be using a lot more freshly ground whole wheat flour! I'm thankful for wheat berries, that is FO' SHO'.

Eggs must also be rationed as I only have one more dozen left (and it is a miracle to get an egg from our lazy, cold chickens these days).  No more egg breakfasts- I'll need the rest of the eggs for baking. 

It was sad to see the carrots go, as they were the last of the fresh veggies that can be eaten raw.

Bought:

five gallons of milk @ $2.09 ...........$10.36
4 Aldi cheeses @ $1.99...................$7.96
                                        $18.32


On the Menu: 
(HC=home canned) Snacks were varied.  Homemade beef jerky, granola, popcorn, peanut butter crackers, homemade cookies, dehydrated apple chips...things like that.

15th: Saturday
Breakfast: last of the birthday feast breakfast: sausage gravy on waffles, dippy eggs
Lunch: grilled cheese sandwiches
Dinner: Homemade Pizza Night!  Hawaiian Chicken ( BBQ sauce, chicken, HC zucchini "pineapple", onion) and Pepperoni, Onion, Green Pepper (used the last few pieces of pepperoni  by slicing them in quarters to extend them.  Used the last of the green pepper too.)  Carrot sticks.  (Only four more carrots left for the month!)

16th:Sunday
Breakfast: homemade yogurt
Lunch: sandwiches and homemade beef jerky (on the long way home from church)
Dinner: *Homemade Tomato Soup using HC tomatoes. The leftover pieces of pizza I sliced into strips for "pizza bread sticks" to eat alongside the soup.  I don't like how the leftover pizza can sometimes get forgotten about and then wasted.  I wanted to use them up!

17th: Monday
Breakfast: oatmeal and brown sugar (no raisins because I used the last of them in Matt's birthday Welsh Cookies!  :-(  )
Lunch: Tuna and cheddar in tortilla wraps
Dinner: White Bean Alfredo Sauce (brilliant recipe, btw) over penne with chicken and HC green beans.  HC peaches with a dollop of yogurt for dessert.

18th: Tuesday
Breakfast: yogurt and granola
Lunch: I took last nights' dinner leftovers and made a penne cream soup with beans and chicken.  Served with a few crackers.
Dinner: ** scrambled egg, sausage and cheddar breakfast pizza (I had a bit of dough leftover from Saturday night I wanted to use before it was too late.)

19th: Wednesday (FIELD TRIP TO SCIENCE AND DISCOVERY CENTER!)
Breakfast: whole wheat toast with Hagel and peanut butter
Lunch: McDonalds.  (I usually pack lunches for trips uptown but I had those Valentine coupons books for free hamburgers/juice/apples for the children.  We used these.
Dinner: chicken gravy over whole wheat toast, HC applesauce, HC greenbeans, squash casserole.

20th: Thursday (Company for dinner!)
Breakfast: cinnamon and brown sugar oatmeal
Lunch: bean and cheddar burritos with HC salsa
Dinner:spinach and artichoke lasagna (with collards added for good measure, frozen green beans, 100% whole wheat rolls (oh.my.word.  These were awesome.  Recipe to come!)  Applesauce.  Leftover squash casserole. 

21st: Friday
Breakfast: applesauce and cinnamon sugar toast
Lunch: ham and green beans (I baked a ham to warm up the house!  hehehe)
Dinner: Pizza night!  Pesto Pizza and Ham with Zucchini "pineapple" pizza.  Coleslaw (since, alas, no more fresh carrot sticks!)

Frugal Accomplishments:

~ the water heater stopped working in the house so Matt found a youtube video on how to fix it/replace the element.  An $8.00 element and a handsome handy hubby later, our water heater was fixed!

~ made granola

~ got our tax return back this week.  Didn't touch a cent of it but put it ALL into a vehicle fund.  BOY did that take some serious self-control!  If I can just make this already-paid-for van last for one more year...one more tax return...we will be able to buy a van in cash.  (Probably asking too much at this point...but I can hope anyway!)

~  baked all our bread needs.  Tried this 100% whole wheat bread recipe in order to ration the white flour.  (It was good!)  I'm gonna try this one next.

~ boiled chicken carcass for bone broth

~ roasted the last homegrown pumpkin and a few winter squashes.  (Still a few left of those)

~ * made From Scratch Tomato Soup (tragically) for the first time ever.  Wow!  It's awesome.  It tasted so rich and creamy- so much better than Campbells.  (And I LIKE Campbells!)  Best of all- it was a perfect use for my canned tomatoes and could be thrown together in five minutes!  Methinks this will be a new and wonderful "Dinner Should be DONE by now and I don't even know what I am going to make!" dilemma solver.

~  ** This week I finished the second half of my experiment with frozen eggs.  Over the summer I had frozen bags of lightly scrambled raw eggs (some bags of 2 eggs, some bags of 12 eggs) in desperation because I was being buried alive in dozens and dozens of eggs.  They looked GROSS going in the freezer.  They looked gross frozen.  Seriously gross.  I HIGHLY doubted they would taste like egg.  Well, I grabbed a 12 egg bag this week- thawed it in the fridge (even more gross...some of it was watery and clear some of it was yolky.  ew.) and doubted even more so that they would work as normal eggs do.  Boy, was I pleasantly surprised when I added a bit of sour cream and milk and scrambled them for Tuesdays' breakfast pizza!  It totally worked!  There is a slight texture difference- frozen eggs are a tiny bit more grainy.  But I'll take a teensy bit grainy, flourescent yellow farm eggs over store bought pastel eggs any day.  This was a SUPER exciting discovery for me.  Makes having chickens in winter (the ones that don't lay but still eat) a tiny bit more bearable. I will absolutely do this from now on for winter use.

~ Used the Valentine McDonalds coupon books for a free lunch on our field trip day.

~ children got free gifts from the museum thanks to a birthday club I signed them up for last year!

~ Admission to the Museum was free, thanks to my Mom's grandparent membership.  (I do plan on purchasing a family plan for us at some point.  It is so worth it- I just didn't have the money to do it then.)

~ made homemade toothpaste

~ made flourless peanut butter cookies for snack to ration my white flour.  Twice.

What about you? 

Do you have anything financial to share this week? 

 Link up!  

As always~ PLEASE link to your SPECIFIC blog post, not your entire blog. It could be ways you saved or stretched or strategically spent those pennies...or even inspiration you found or quotes... but please link to a post about SOMETHING financial! Lastly, please link back to my blog and maybe others would like to share!

 

Homemade: Toothpaste

Because you asked:  my recipe for HOMEMADE TOOTHPASTE

There are a ton of recipes out there, with a ton of variations, but this is mine.  I don't actually follow it anymore (because then I would have to find the paper it is written on!) but rather add things until it tastes 'right' and you should do the same.  Taste the sweetness and +/- xylitol or stevia.  Taste the peppermint oil and +/- the concentration.  Start with my base and make it to your liking!

1/2 c baking soda
1 t. salt 
1-3 T. of xylitol or a few drops of liquid stevia (many people don't use this, but I think it tastes a WHOLE lot better!  And homemade shouldn't equal torture in my book.)
15-20 drops of peppermint oil.  (Minty fresh breath is an essential for me.  If my toothpaste ain't minty, it just aint' toothpaste.  I like my toothpaste VERY minty so I hover around the larger number.  When I first began making toothpaste, I didn't know where to find peppermint oil so I tried peppermint extract instead.  I used a LOT more of it and it worked ok.  Then I found true peppermint essential oil and tried that out and it rocked my world.  SO MUCH BETTER.  Do yourself a favor and just invest in some essential oil.

3-4 T. Vegetable Glycerin (use as much as needed to make a thick paste!)

Stir it up and use it up!

All ingredients can be found at your local healthfood store or grocery.

* I may try to replace the vegetable glycerin with coconut oil in the future... coconut oil is good for you and your teeth and I happen to have a bunch of it (so I won't have to buy more glycerin)...but in the meantime, I love this recipe just the way it is.

2013 Garden Thoughts

Putting the garden 'to bed' in November

The hay mulch will be (if all goes well) a great weed barrier and the dirt/worm life underneath should be healthier when not interrupted.

I never blogged these pictures in November.  The garden certainly doesn't look like this now.  It looks quite different under almost 2 feet of snow:

 Perhaps it is because I am sick to death of bright, blaring white.  Perhaps I am longing for the warmth of sunshine.  Maybe it has been too long since I had a fresh tomato... whatever the reason, I've been thinking garden thoughts lately and one of the things I have been thinking about is how the 2013 garden went; what I liked, what I didn't, what I should do better, what I should try, what I should get rid of.

Here's what I am thinking:

* This will be the first year for a truly no-till garden here at Hopestead.  I tried to bed it down the year before in the fall but I didn't have enough hay so when spring came around, it was impossibly weedy. Now, I don't know about you- but when it is finally time to plant, you don't want to have to WEED first.  That's just wrong.  Thankfully, a kind neighbor came and tilled for me in spring allowing me to get off scotch free.  As I planted, I laid out cardboard and hay mulch around the plants to keep the weeds down.  While I've read all the stuff that says that hay mulch is the way to go and how the dirt and organisms will be more healthy without tilling (and agree with it)- and I enjoy not weeding as often (it is helpful for weeding!)- it is A LOT OF WORK to maintain.  It wouldn't be bad if I had just a small garden, but I don't.  I have a large garden.  And then two other garden beds on top of that.  First, we have to seek out free rotten hay. (A lot.) Then, we have to borrow a truck and trailer to haul it. (Usually twice.) Then, I have to break my back for several days spreading it all around in VERY thick layers.  So, we'll see this year if the effort was worth it.  If not, I guess I should start saving now for a plow attachment for Matt's tractor. After all, you can't depend upon the kindness of neighbors forever.  Well, you COULD.  But you SHOULDN'T.  ;-)



* Last year I bought the lights to make grow lights for seedlings but Matt never got around to making the shelving for it.  I am really hoping he does this year so I can start more healthy seedlings.  If not, there is a local Amish woman who has a greenhouse where I can get cheaper plants.  But I really want to use my own seeds.  (Pretty please, Mattie?)

* Carrots:  They don't keep well for me.  And though they are yummy- and a few are truly beautiful- the majority aren't lovely and long and lush in our hard, stony clay soil.  (Try peeling a curly carrot!) I don't think I am going to waste the space to grow them this year.  Carrots are cheap at the store anyway and I ought to be able to utilize that space to grow something more useful.

* Beets: I waited too long to harvest some of the beets last year.  The skin was hard and the flesh was stringy.  I love beets.  Love beet greens.  Love eating them, love canning them.  They will be staying in the garden but I have to be more diligent with them and harvest them when they are still tender.



* Watermelons- what a treat!  And they grew beautifully!  Definitely growing them again. I heard that when deydrated, the watermelons turn into something thin and jolly-rancher-candy-ish so I tried it.  SO NOT TRUE.  (ew.)

* Collards: tried them for the first time last year and loved them.  Will grow them again, and abundantly!  They have made such a great addition to soups this winter!

* Kale: I didn't grow this last year.  But I must.  The end.

* Tomatoes- it was a good year for tomatoes last year. 100 or so plants is a good number for us for now.  I'll stay with that.  BUT I need to work out a better staking system. It was really hard to get into that jungle of tipped over stakes- and many tomatoes fell on the ground and rotted.  Especially cherry tomatoes...they were the worst! 



* Corn- oh boy.  Corn.  Those corn dinners and lunches were to die for.  I can practically taste them now.  I planted the corn in three separate plantings so that it would mature throughout the summer.  Excellent plan.  Worked perfectly.

* Potatoes.  I would like to possibly make a separate potato patch this year.  If that is possible, I will use the space allotted for potatoes last year to grow horticulture beans.



* Cilantro and Basil grew super well.   18 plants of basil and a packet of cilantro seeds were JUST RIGHT.

* Cabbage- I need to research how to protect my beautiful plants from pests. But I love having cabbage in the garden.


* Hot peppers- I grew them too near the bell peppers and some were crazy hot and some turned sweet.  This wouldn't be that big of a deal (they are all edible!) except when you are making salsa and you want to add some heat but the jalapeno's taste like bell peppers. Or you are making soup and add a handful of dehydrated sweet peppers and it turns out they were the spicy ones!  Ack!  Yeah.  Not the best plan.


* Green beans- need to grow more and need to pick them more often at their peak.  We have an ample supply of green beans from last year- but that was mostly due to our neighbor who kept passing bags and buckets along to me.  It was not because of my own garden.


* Want to grow many more healing herbs this year and in larger quantities.

* Leeks- these aren't in the garden but I am pretty sure I can find some wild around here.  I don't want to miss that window of opportunity this year like I did last year.

* The pumpkins and winter squashes all grew but were smaller than usual.  That was true for many people around here.  I am hoping it will be a better year for them this year.

* Onions: I grew them from sets last year.  This year I want to grow some as sets and some as seed to compare.

 

* I absolutely adored having a cutting garden last year.  Oh my word, it has been too long since I have had a bouquet of fresh cut flowers in my house.

I always have to fight laziness and tiredness in the garden and canning season.  There were many times when my laziness cost us dearly and then all the work I did beforehand was worthless (like when I had to throw rotten carrots that I didn't harvest in time in the compost pile because they were slimy) or not as fruitful (like when we had to eat thick-skinned, stringy beets).  I have to be more diligent to take care of things at their PEAK and not put things off until I can wait no longer (like when green beans turned into dried beans when they weren't supposed to!).  This has nothing to do with the garden but everything to do with my own self discipline.

I think the biggest change I need to make is to try (TRY!) not to get in over my head and start more than I can finish.  I would rather do well with a moderate garden than to grow too much and then let it get out of control, resulting in me going insane and food rotting in the rows. 

The seed catalogs don't make this sort of thing very easy though.  ;-)

Handmade: A Dollhouse Pillow

It just occurred to me that I never showed you a few of the HANDMADE GIFTS at Christmas. Of course, there were plenty of yarn crafts. But there were a few non-yarn gifts too.  One of them was too cute to not blog.  The Dollhouse Pillow.

On my side of the family, children far outnumber grown ups~ leaving a bit of a predicament at Christmas.  We decided a few years ago to have the "youngers" draw names and it is great fun for the children to decide what to do for that special person.  The youngest ones, like Adele' and Judah, need a bit of help giving something that would actually want to be gotten (if you catch my drift!)- but I wanted them to be a part of the gift-making to really make it a gift from them. 

Adele' got Aletta's name... Three year old girl.  Easy enough.  Perfect for Adele'.  Now...what to do? 

We first considered making a stuffed animal based on a drawing of Adele's but then, last minute, decided upon a Dollhouse Pillow instead. (Easier on Mama. Possibly cuter too-but one never knows for sure about that.)

 

Adele' chose all the fabrics and drew the doll family inside the windows with permanent marker pens all by herself.

She felt very special to be able to have a REAL part in the gift-making.

(And she has a great eye for color coordinating!)

 

 

 

(That's a mailbox, by the way)

No pattern- just winging' it (as generally tends to happen around here)...and it used only supplies I already had on hand.  (I even had to break open a freshly washed but very flat bed pillow for stuffing- because I realized too late I had no pillow stuffing left in my stash!

The gift cost not a red cent and made a 3 year old girl happy in the getting and a 5 year old girl happy in the giving.

Two Days in the Kitchen

The kitchen is always the busiest room in the house. 

And I always have plenty of helpers.

Because my counter space is so small, when the children pull up their chairs they put them right exactly where I need to be- the only place I can work.  It can be so FRUSTRATING. Sometimes there is nothing to do but laugh and the wall of children I have to break in order to get the meal prep done. 

I think, meals would be done so much more quickly, so much more efficiently, so much more tidily if I didn't have so many "helpers".  Then I look longingly into the future when the kitchen is open and spacious and I can stand at the counter and work without twisting myself like a pretzel to get a bit of work space.  I think about how much more time I would have to cook and bake and how much more quickly and efficiently I could accomplish all the baking and cooking.  

And then I think about the fact that when I have all the time in the world to be in the kitchen and no little hands to interfere...I will have all the time in the world but no little mouths to feed and no little hands to interfere.  And how sad and empty a kitchen would feel then.

The kitchen is busy and bursting and often loud and usually messy.  

But it is, every bit of it, delicious.

The Lilla Rose Flexi-clip Winner!

Congratulations to Stephanie Skelly, the winner of the free Lilla Rose Flexi-clip!

You can contact Leah Terry at terrytribe@gmail.com and let her know which flexi-clip you choose!  

Good luck with that! ;-)

And thanks to all who entered!

FOF and Week 2 of the Nothin'ButDairy Grocery Challenge

Sending some love to all of you who check in on me from time to time in my little corner of the blogosphere~ HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! 

 In a Nutshell:

Week Two of the Nothing But Dairy Grocery Challenge!  This week a certain someone had a special birthday (translate: BIRTHDAY FEAST!) which I did without a special grocery trip.  (Well, almost.)


Also- this week I ran out of ketchup and bread.  

I've been wanting to try to make my own ketchup anyway- so now is the perfect excuse.  (Hopefully, I can find a recipe that makes it taste similar.  I happen to LIKE the taste of ketchup.)

 But:  No more storebought bread for the rest of the month.

This isn't tragic.  (I bake bread.)  But it will be an adjustment.

While I make all rolls, breadsticks, pizza dough, scones and all other bread-ish items we eat with meals...LUNCHTIME has always been a place for storebought bread.  Sandwiches are quick and thoughtless(a necessity while in the trenches of  homeschooling) and it has always been a bit of a luxury to not have to do lunches from scratch. I have grown accustomed to the ease of having a loaf to slather and smear without any work on my part.

Matt loves to freak me out by reminding me about the chinese human hair that is in bread and artificial junk for preservatives in an attempt to get me to bake all our bread...but there you have it.  I still succumb to the temptation of having a quick and easy lunch most of the time, even if it means eating 100% Whole Wheat hair.  (har har)

It will be interesting to bake ALL of our bread needs (not really looking too forward to it!) and a lot more work (I imagine) but maybe I will be pleasantly surprised.  (Or maybe we won't eat as much bread!)  ;-)

(Any easy, fast lunch ideas that don't include bread would be welcome!)

Here's what I bought this week:

5 gallons of 2% milk @ $2.09...............$10.45
1 2# block of Wegmans sharp cheddar.........$6.28 ($3.18 per pound- cheaper than Aldi cheese which is $3.58 per pound)
1 10# bag of shredded mozzerella...........$12.67
*1 tube of Maple Jimmy Dean Sausage.........$3.49
                                           $32.89

* I HAD to buy this because it was part of Matt's birthday meal request and it was somehow overlooked last month as I gathered up food in preparation.  Well, birthday meals are SERIOUS business around here- so I broke my challenge this week for him.  ;-)

Here's What We Ate: (with the exception of afternoon snacks)

8th: Saturday
Breakfast: cheddar omelets with sauteed onions, peppers and a few bits of pepperoni. (No ham. :-( )
Lunch: sandwiches
Dinner: Meatloaf (I made two large ones...one for tonight and one for tomorrow.)  Mashed garlic potatoes.  Sauteed summer squash and peas (frozen from summer).  HC (home-canned) Applesauce.

9th: Sunday (ran out of ketchup!)
Breakfast: cinnamon sugar toast (homemade bread).  homemade yogurt
Lunch: Fellowship meal at church.  I brought gluten free peanut butter cookies.  (And communion bread for worship)
Dinner: Open-faced meatloaf sandwiches on homemade bread.  HC Pickles.  Caramelized onions.  Tortilla chips topped with melted cheese.

10th: Monday
Breakfast: Cinnamon-sugar "Donut" Muffins, slice of cheese
Lunch: sandwiches
Dinner: Vegetable Pot-pie. (mmmmm...that is one of my favorite dinners.  It hit the spot.) Vanilla pudding.

11th: Tuesday (ran out of bread!)
Breakfast: Homemade yogurt with a dollop of leftover pudding on top.  Slice of peanut butter toast.
Lunch: grilled cheese sandwiches
Dinner: Matt surprised me with a spur-of-the-moment suggestion to get the family ready to go to a local cheap diner for dinner.  This does not happen.  I did what any rational woman would do, and snatched the kids up without a second thought.  We all got water to drink, the little kidlets split a (monstrous sized) kids meal and the big kids split a (monstrous sized) dinner special.  These helped keep the expenses down...we paid just a few dollars more than what a fast food meal would have cost us. (We had the cash for it in our 'entertainment' envelope.)

12th: Wednesday
Breakfast: cinnamon oatmeal with rationed raisins (only half a box left!)
Lunch: macaroni and cheese with chicken and peas (we were given the box of Mac n Cheese at church on Sunday)
Dinner: Sausage, white bean and greens soup.  Cornbread muffins.

13th: Thursday (Matt's birthday!  A BIRTHDAY FEAST for dinner!)
Breakfast: yogurt, a slice of peanut butter toast
Lunch: leftover soup and cornbread muffins from dinner
Dinner: "A Lumber Jack Breakfast" in which Matt ups the ante' for birthday meals to include four main-dish meals in ONE night.  (Isn't HE special?!)  A 'proper' lumberjack breakfast, I am informed, must include (and so it did) oatmeal, dippy eggs with toast,  sausage gravy over toast,  waffles with maple syrup, caramelized onions and welsh cookies for dessert instead of birthday cake. (I can hardly believe that last part.  He  must be getting old.)

14th: Friday
Breakfast: leftovers from last night- sausage gravy on toast
Lunch: waffles with cheese (sandwiches.)  Weird.  I know.
Dinner: dinner at John and Holly's.  I'll bring welsh cookies. (pizza night will be tomorrow night)

Other financial pursuits this week:

~ My sister clued me in to a really great sale at J.C.Penny's where sneakers and winter coats were $3.00 a piece.  By the time I got there later in the week, a lot was gone-including the shoes and most coats but I was able to find several things for next year for the children-matching church shirts for the boys, pants, a suit jacket and even a dress for myself!  I spent $26.45 and the total before all the sale prices were reduced was $209.38!

~ made a batch of jerky with the marinated meat from Friday

~ downloaded two free books from Amazon.  How to Save Money: A 21-Day Challenge to Save $500/month and How to Store Food for a Disaster.  (Not sure how long these will be free to download.)

~ printed valentines from Pinterest-

~ I have been setting aside a few dollars here and there to get myself some high black dress boots for winter dress/skirt wearing.  (Walking in snow in pumps is NO FUN.)  I waited until I began to see shoes on sale and then went looking.  Couldn't find anything.  For weeks.  (I have enormous feet, by the way, and very few stores even carry my boat-ish size 11 shoes!  I never find shoes second hand either, so I must buy new.) Finally, by some fluke, Target had black dress boots in the clearance section marked down over $18.00  They had a few size 6's and ONE pair of size 11.  It looked as though someone had worn them and returned them because there was a scratch or two in different spots so I asked if they would take another discount off.  They took off 20% on top of the already discounted price! See?  It never hurts to ask!

~ hung jeans and heavy things to dry by woodstove

~ made a double batch of yogurt, flavoring half with sweetener and vanilla and the other half leaving plain so it is more versatile (and can be used in place of sour cream!)

~ dehydrated a batch of apple slices

~ baked all our bread needs from Tuesday on.

~ The wedding dress that I put on ebay last week sold!  So I have to tell you the story.  (Why OF COURSE there is a story!)  An Amish man down the road started an auction business last year and some friends of mine live right next door and go/work at them every week.  Well, one auction there was a rugged bin for sale (the kind you store stuff in) and some guy got the winning bid.  (He wanted the bin- not what was inside.)  What was inside was a brand spankin' new wedding dress from David's Bridal- along with the corset, poofy slip, and garters.  The price tag on the dress was $600.00.  It made for some fun, so I hear, having this old farmer hold up a sparkly size 4 wedding dress after he won the bid!  When asked what he would do with the dress, the guy said he was going to BURN it (!) so my friends piped up and asked if they might have it.  He gave it to them.  My friends do not have a computer or internet, so they asked if I would post it on ebay for them and we would split the profit! $113  and a very happy bride who got a steal...from a dress that WOULD have been burned up!

~ my engagement ring broke- with two of the prongs broken right off (praise God I didn't lose my diamond.  I would have been devastated!) so I sent it in to get repaired.  I had a coupon for $40.00 off a $100 purchase but Matt was certain it was only for buying NEW things.  He said I might not even bother trying.  I said "It never hurts to try!" (are you sick of me saying this yet?) Well, when asked, she accepted it toward the repair!  I was thrilled.  By the way- thanks to you who bought my calendars in December!  I used that money to get my ring repaired!  ;-)

What about you? 

Do you have anything financial to share this week? 

 Link up! 

As always~ PLEASE link to your SPECIFIC blog post, not your entire blog. It could be ways you saved or stretched or strategically spent those pennies...or even inspiration you found or quotes... but please link to a post about SOMETHING financial! Lastly, please link back to my blog and maybe others would like to share!

Tied with a bow

I did manage to survive the two weeks Matt were away, despite the snow storms (and the work that came with them!) and any motivation I may have been able to muster 'once upon a time' deciding to hibernate until further notice. 

But I feel much more myself now. *smile* 

Here is a bit of randomness from the last few days, all tied with a bow.

classy girls have bow tangles.

a helper

A neighbor admired Andrew's Christmas neckwarmer and asked me to make a black one for her.  A terrible picture of it, but there you have it.

 

We aren't learning about the body in science.  This was 'recreation'.  I love the kind of children that homeschooling produces.

I did quite a bit of shoveling last week.

One little hyacinth bulb makes my day so much more beautiful.