Tasty Tuesday! Roasted Brussels Sprouts ... YUMMY!

I really, really like roasted Brussels Sprouts, so today I decided to show you how I make them. In the photos below you'll see some carrot slices in there as well ... that was because at that particular meal I did not have enough Brussels Sprouts to feed all the eaters, so I supplemented with carrots. They complement each other well, but I prefer to leave them solo.

And just to let you all know, I did not care much for Brussels Sprouts UNTIL I tried them this way. Now I just look forward to whenever I can find them at a good price and I really hope to grow some this coming year.

Cut off bottoms, cut in half, and peal the off-colour leaves.

Place in baking dish and toss with plenty of olive oil and salt.

Bake at 500 degrees till you see some brown/black spots.

You may squeeze fresh lemon juice over all when done, however it tastes fine without it too.

Hand-Extracting Honey

Our bees produced enough honey this past year to hopefully feed them through the winter. This was our first year with them so we expected it to go this way :)

However ... a woman at the bee meeting asked if we would like to extract some honey for her and said she would give us half. I got on youtube and saw a video right away about using two five-gallon buckets and a five-gallon bucket paint strainer -- it looked super easy, so we went to Lowe's immediately and got a few new buckets (didn't feel like cleaning out nasty old ones) and the strainer (found in the paint department; they also have a 1-gallon size, which seems like it would be great for cheese making).

At home we took the cleanest old bucket we had and sawed off the bottom half of it. The half-bucket sits quite nicely right on top of the whole bucket, and this offers elevation for the strainer so it does not get in to the honey that's dripping down. It got a little heavy, so we used binder clips and clothes pins to help it stay in place.

(the pictures were not very good ... sorry! I might look and see later if Brianna has better ones on her camera as all of these are from my phone)

So, the process was:

1) Scrape the caps off the comb. Our handy "Back to Basics" book suggested using two large knives kept warm in a bowl of hot water. Wipe the knife dry before using it!

Corban scraping the caps off with a warm knife.

2) Scrape the honey and comb off the frame. We have a baker's scraper that worked perfectly for this!!! Also, it really helped that 5 of the 6 frames had a plastic base. The other one was not as easy to scrape off.

Baker's scraper :)

3) Squish the honey out of the comb as best as you can. The guy in the video I watched did this by hand. We actually forgot to do this step so we are going to do it later with what is left after straining it.

4) Pour the scraped and squished honey and comb into the prepared net/strainer.

Binder clips and clothes pin help hold it in place.

  5) Pour the strained honey in to jars.

YUM!

We are so thankful for the free honey!! This was pretty easy work ... and we learned a lot too. In all we got a gallon or so of honey off of 6 smaller frames; the woman only wanted a small jar but we gave her a quart.

Now we are hoping our bees produce enough honey for us to have some next year. We lost one hive because of pesticides :( :( but the other one seems really strong. We are hoping they make it through the winter and all the dangers it can bring.

How to make whole grain / whole wheat bread using a wood cookstove

For this 'frugal friday' post I would like to share a video I did about making homemade bread. Of course we all know homemade bread is healthier than the store bought stuff (even more so if you are able to grind your flour fresh at home), but many may not know that even homemade bread made with the highest quality ingredients is CHEAPER than the store stuff!

I hope this video is a blessing to someone.



This post was featured on Heritage Homesteader's Blog Hop :)

Feeding an old sourdough starter

I hear a lot of sourdough users say it is so hard for them to keep their starters going. After a little conversation I discover they are maintaining a large amount of starter and feeding more often then needed. Yes, you DO need to feed a new starter daily, sometimes twice a day, for about three weeks to get a good starter going ... however after that you can keep it in the fridge when not in use and feed it weekly or every other week after that. Strong starters can last even long without being fed - as is the case in the video I share.

(see the 'sourdough' label for more posts about sourdough!)

Frugal Fridays: Homemade Ear Infection Relief (Garlic Oil)

It really does work.

I have a bad right ear that is very prone to getting infected. Usually I am able to just ride it out, however sometimes I have to doctor it up. In fact, that was the case today and the inspiration for this post.

I used to make a garlic poultice and put that on my neck behind my ear (do up a fresh one 3-4 times a day till the earache is gone). This was the only thing I knew and while it worked well enough I did not care to go around smelling like garlic for days! Also, it took several cloves of garlic a day. Then my mom told me about hydrogen peroxide. She said whenever her or her siblings would get an ear infection their mom would simply dump some peroxide into their ears and that would clear it right up. Well ... I REALLY do not like putting anything in my ear, especially my right one, but when I was very desperate I would resort to this instead of smelling like garlic. Yes, this worked too, but it was quite uncomfortable and sometimes it would get caught in there somewhere and cause me to hear double for a day or two or three (not fun).

And then I discovered garlic oil. It's very simple and actually soothing instead of harsh and, in general, is not stinky.

I've looked at several sites and blogs and they all have a little different variation of the recipe, so apparently this is not a set-in-stone-super-special-exact-formula! All start with one clove of garlic. Some crush it, some chop it in small pieces, some in larger pieces. The point is to expose the juices. [I chop it or crush it] This goes into a glass dish. All of them cover it with olive oil. Some use just enough to cover the garlic, some double and some even a little bit more. [I use a little more than what is needed to cover it - and of course the size of dish will cause you to use more or less too.] Some start with gently heated oil (warm, not hot). Some use cold oil. Some soak it for 15 minutes, some over night. [I soak over night and use cold oil] ALL strain it. DO NOT get the bits in your ear!! Only use the OIL. Some put only a few drops into the ear; some use 1/4t. [I put in enough to feel it.] Some gently warm the oil and some put it in cold. [I warm it by placing the dropper bottle of oil into a bowl filled with hot water] Some leave it sit in the ear for a few minutes while some suggest a half hour. [I lay my head on the table or just lay down for about 5 minutes.] It stays in best if your head remains tilted. When done, place a little cotton in your ear and continue on with your day; it will drain out into the cotton. Repeat 3 or more times a day till the infection or ache is gone. (I like to do it a day past just in case.)

I have heard of this being used on babies and smaller children too but have not tried it on mine because I heard about this a few years ago (mine are far past the baby or toddler stage!). Also, I have read in one place that it's not good to use this if you have a ruptured ear drum.

So, as you can see, there are many variations!! This is a very cheap and effective way to handle an ear infection. Many people go to the doctor and get an antibiotic, however most ear infections are just a virus and will go away on their own. Of course, I am not a doctor and I am sure this method is not approved by the FDA, so use at your own risk! That is my disclaimer.

Tasty Tuesday: "Road Trip Biscuits" or meal-in-a-biscuit

A few weeks ago I made a 'frugal fridays' post about meals and snacks that were good for travelling. A commenter mentioned an all-in-one savoury muffin, and while I've done something similar I never thought to make it a complete meal. The other morning I decided to make some all-in-one biscuits (or, 'meal-in-a-biscuit') and they turned out great. To keep things simple, I dropped the biscuits onto the pan instead of rolling them out; when I make biscuits this way I will either brush melted butter over the top or we'll each butter our own on the bottom (a flat surface).

SAVOURY "road trip" BISCUITS
4c flour (I like to do half unbleached white and half whole grain)
2T sweetener
2T baking powder
2t onion powder/granules (mincing a small onion would be yummy too but I did not have time for that)
1t EACH: cream of tartar, salt, garlic powder/granules [may sub one fresh clove], and thyme
1/2c fat
1 1/2c liquid (I used broth but water or milk will work too)
1/2c parmesan cheese or 1c grated cheese of your choice
1/2lb cooked meat in small pieces
1lb cooked veggies in small pieces

Combine the dry ingredients (everything listed before the fat) and mix well. If you are using solid fat, cut the solid fat into the dry ingredients. If you are using liquid fat, measure out the fat with the liquid. Add the liquid (or liquid/fat mixture) to the dry mixture and stir gently. Do not mix all the way yet. Add the remaining ingredients and stir gently till combined. Drop onto greased sheets and bake at 450 till done.
Brush tops with butter/butter garlic or spread butter on the bottoms. May also sprinkle extra parmesan cheese on top before serving. 

Frugal Fridays: Reuse what you have ...

For today's 'frugal fridays' instalment I would like to share a post from a blog I subscribe to: HOW TO REUSE EVERYDAY OBJECTS. I especially appreciated the cereal box magazine holders (you can use cardboard instead for something studier and put cookbooks in them) and the old book bookshelves.

I would like to add "uses for mason jars" to the list. We use mason jars for many things ...

- Bulk spices
- Leftovers
- Organizing small objects (we each have our own in the bathroom cabinet for our toothbrushes, floss, clippers, and other small bathroom-type things)
- Organizing not-so-small objects (also in the bathroom I have quart size jars with different things in each jar: extra bars of homemade soap, flossers, q-tips, cotton balls, and so on)
- Storing smaller amounts of grains (the end bits of bulk packages of rice, oats, etc. go well in a half or full gallon mason jar)
- Drinking glasses (everyone has their own with their name written on it)

There are so many things you can do with mason jars!! I am sure I missed a few but maybe you have some suggestions? 

Learn how to Knit!

A few weeks ago I visited some family in MN and my s.i.l. was learning how to knit. I know how to crochet but never did learn how to knit.

Cold + Wool Socks = Motivation

The other day I sat down with a book from the library and learned in a half hour of so how to cast on and do a basic knit and purl stitch. The next day I watched a video my s.i.l. recommended and thought it probably would have been easier to just start with that :) but sometimes I just do not feel like looking at a screen and that was one of those times. I appreciate the way this woman teaches: slow and easy. Also, I like her voice - a good teaching voice in my opinion.

If you want to learn how to knit, here are the first few videos. If you'd like to go further than that, you are on your own!





I shared the videos above because I like the simplicity of the teacher, however I found I prefer to use one needle when casting on. I did a little research and found this video that shows two ways of casting on using only one needle.


My plan is to practice and eventually learn how to knit wool socks. Maybe I'll have some for next year? We'll see.

Do you have a good 'learn-to-knit' resource? If so, please share!

Frugal Fridays: The Early Bird Gets the Worm

Meat and cheese are SO EXPENSIVE - and I feed a crew that especially appreciates meat (cheese is nice, but really it's all about the meat). I used to always hope to find some meat marked down because of the expiration date however it seemed to not happen very often UNTIL I started shopping at 5:30 in the morning.

It happened by accident the first time. I was in need of something and not able to get it the day before so I decided to leave first thing in the morning. When I got to the store I saw the meat department guy marking down the soon-to-expire meat. I followed behind him and had first pick for the first time in my life. Now, much more often than not, if I show up at about 5:30 there is usually a good selection of marked-down meat. It was always there ... I was just too late.

Here are some examples of my recent early-morning shopping trip to two different stores.

There were a lot of sliced cheese packages about to go out of date. What was even better, there was a sale running too! These cheese slices were on sale and then they EACH had a $2 off coupon for the soon-to-expire date. I brought them home, opened them up, put pieces of waxed paper between each slice, put them back in their bags, and placed them in the freezer. The individual waxed paper sheets allow for me to take out as many slices as I need at any given time. These will probably be used for our breakfast sandwiches (fried egg, cheese and meat of some kind). They are just the right size for us: not so thick that they overpower the sandwich or cause a belly ache (some of us are a bit sensitive to dairy) yet not so thin that you cannot taste them.

Sirloin steak was marked down 30% - which brought it to the price of the cheaper cuts. Two of the steaks (partially shown on the back left) are marinating 24+ hours and will be grilled for supper. One of the steaks (the right) got diced up and is also marinating 24 or so hours ... I will portion it out for my lunches and store in the freezer till needed. The final pack in the middle was very thin sliced sirloin. I cut the sirloin in to sandwich-size slices, added a marinade and put it in the freezer till needed. This will be used for breakfast sandwiches or some kind of meal on the go.

In case you were wondering, the marinade was 1/3c evoo, 2T acv, 2T braggs, 2T worcestershire sauce, 1T dijon mustard and several crushed garlic cloves (about 2T). This is enough for a few larger steaks.

Not pictured was a 10lb bag of chicken leg quarters. I put those right into a large pot, covered them with water and set them on the wood cook stove to slow cook for several hours. When done, the meat was removed from the pot to cool and then separated from the bones and skin. The scraps were put back into the pot with the cooking water, a few whole carrots and onions, and several ribs of celery WITH the leaves. More water was added and it was simmered for 24 hours or so on the wood cook stove. I plan to can some of the stock and use the rest for chicken and dumplings. YUM. The meat was portioned out and placed in the freezer.

Because of the expiration dates you must deal with these items right when you get home, so make sure to allow time to do that!! Be creative!

Tasty Tuesday: Homemade Turkey Sausage, Homemade Fried Corn Mush and Homemade Pancake Syrup

I try to plan my meals 2 weeks at a time; each Monday is usually spent getting a few things ready for the upcoming week or weeks, depending on what is needed. Every 2 weeks I make a batch of homemade turkey sausage ... YUM!!! It's very simple.

Homemade Turkey Sausage
3lb ground turkey
1T ground ginger
1T salt
2T sage
1 1/2t cayenne pepper
2T maple syrup

Place the ground turkey in a bowl and set aside. In a small bowl mix the spices till combined. Add the spices to the turkey and mix/knead with your hands till well incorporated. Add the maple syrup. Mix well. Fry as is (turkey sausage crumbles) or form in to patties and fry. Portion out and freeze till needed. Note: the spiciness of your sausage will depend greatly on the quality of your spices :) and your personal preferences. Try it as-is the first time but note any needed changes on your recipe card for next time.

We like to use the crumbles for savoury dishes like homemade pizza rolls, biscuits and gravy, pizza soup, white bean and sausage soup, and so on. We like to use the patties for fried egg sandwiches.

Homemade syrup is really quite easy and there are so many different recipes out there to choose from. I have been experimenting with different recipes trying to find one we like ... and the newest try was really good! 2c brown sugar, 1c water, 3/4c brown rice syrup. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 8 minutes till it begins to thicken a little (it will still be pretty thin though).
Remove from heat. Stir in 1 teaspoon each: vanilla, maple flavor and salt. Cool.
Transfer to a container (a used ketchup bottle works great) and store at room temp. 

Last, I'd like to share a super simple, cheap, healthy and tasty breakfast meal: Fried Corn Mush. It's basically just a polenta recipe ... or a 3/1 water to cornmeal/grits/polenta ratio with some salt and butter (I put in a little buttermilk powder too for flavor). It's easier to put 2/3 of the water to a boil first and save back the remaining third to whisk the grains. This makes it a lot easier to add to the pot!!

Pour the just-cooked polenta/cornmeal into greased bread pans.
Refrigerate over night.

Invert and cut in to slices.
This batch was a bit runny but that did not matter.

Fry in plenty of butter. It might take a while!

We like this best with molasses - it sure makes a nice breakfast!

Frugal Fridays: Meals and Snacks for Travelling (and games too!)

Lord willing, we plan to do a little travelling this upcoming week. As with any trip we take, my mind always goes to: "What are we going to eat?" In an effort to save money while going from place to place, we always try to bring along meals and snacks. Depending on the length of the trip, sometimes we manage to bring along ALL the meals and snacks. However other times we are only able to bring along SOME of the meals and snacks ... but that's ok! Something is certainly better than nothing. Subway with the 'five dollar footlongs' or Taco Bell with the dollar burritos sure come in handy for times when we are not able to bring all the meals.

We have a joke that I will not get too much in to, but we have a name we call our little 'travelling restaurant' and anyone who travels with us more than once in a while knows this said 'restaurant' will always have some sort of snack or meal or both planned for the road. I was thinking how this would be fun for a family with younger children - it would really give them something fun to do and responsibility too. Let them help plan the meals and snacks, pack the plates, cups, forks, spoons, etc. Don't forget extra napkins and a few bags for trash!! They could even make up a menu with 'prices'. Maybe surprise treats could be given 'here and there' to keep things interesting in a long ride?

On a side note ... we keep a box of 'car games' in the game closet that is ready to grab when we need to go. This box includes one-player games and puzzles (we like the ones from Thinkfun like brick by brick, shape by shape, etc.)

and magnetic games like travel checkers and backgammon. We also include educational cards - such as a pack of cards with animals on the front and information about that animal on the back or famous buildings on the front with info on the back. My daughter likes to quiz us, so she has a few quiz-type decks of cards on hand. We had a bible trivia game with all the questions on little cards. We found we all enjoyed answering the questions but could care less about playing the game, so I threw out the game board and put the cards in a zip baggie to keep in our 'car game' box. We did the same thing with a trivia game about the United States. We hardly ever played the game but we sure do like answering the questions! These kinds of things are really fun on car rides. And I cannot end this section without mentioning our all time favourite car trip game: one person draws one thing on a piece of paper and hands it to the next person. That person then draws something else and hands it to the next person. The paper gets passed around the car to each person and each person adds something to the picture. With different ages and personalities, it is so fun to watch the picture and the story come to life!! We have a lot of fond memories with this game.

Ok, back to meals and snacks ...

Before we go on a trip we always try to visit the discount stores to see what they have that travels easy. A few in our area will have granola-type bars, 4 or 5 for a dollar. Not just the junky ones either!! They have Lara Bars and Kind Bars :)

They also have all sorts of crackers and chips, some even organic. Dips and spreads too ... and once again, some even organic. If we are in a pinch and  unable to make homemade bread, the discount stores have whole wheat buns and bread for $1 or so a loaf. This is always nice when we are in a time crunch and it would be much more stressful to make bread than to just spend a few dollars on a few loaves.

So ... what's for lunch?
Any kind of wrap or sandwich travels well if wrapped up in foil individually. Not too long ago I was at a Trader Joe's in another state and saw they had hummus wraps - hummus with shredded raw veggies wrapped in a flour tortilla. YUM! I copied this and we all liked the results. Since hummus are thick, no mess was left behind in the vehicle.

Sometimes if we are going to eat soon I will make hot sandwiches - some kind of meat (shredded chicken from a whole chicken cooked at home is the cheapest and best in my opinion), mayo and/or cheese, wrapped in foil and warmed up in the oven.

We've also made 'pancake sandwiches' -- pancakes with nut butter, jam, fruit or any other appropriate thing in between make nice, handy meals.

I guess the possibilities are endless.

For snacks we like to bring homemade things like muffins or crackers, however we also bring along whatever we found at the discount store as well as other things from our pantry that need to be used up while we are gone.

Speaking of 'used up while we are gone' ... whenever you are going on a trip, it is best to plan a few snacks and meals around what needs to go. Clean out your fridge so nothing is left growing while you are gone and nothing gets wasted.

That's all the time I have for now because I must get ready for our trip!! Please share your car-ride ideas and tips.

Frugal Fridays: Eating In Season

It's pretty much a no-brainer by now, right? It's cheaper to eat in season. Not only that, it's healthier too.

Right now sweet potatoes and apples are in. Last night Brianna chopped up some sweet potatoes (from our garden - we had white and orange sweet potatoes this year) and apples (purchased for 20 cents a pound in bulk). She added about a tablespoon of butter, cinnamon, about a tablespoon of sweetener (rapadura) and raisins in a 9x13 baking dish, covered it and baked till tender. The result was very, very delicious, though the photo, in my opinion, does not do it justice :)

We have this quite often when sweet potatoes are in season. If you did not grow your own, pay attention to the store ads because RIGHT NOW is the time they begin to go on sale ... I've seen them as low as 19 cents a pound within the last 4 years. When they get that low we really stock up as they store quite a while in a cool, dry, dark place (not the refrigerator - it's too cold. For best results, keep them above 55 but not much more than that!!).

How to pressure can beans using an All American weighted-gauge canner AND an old dial-gauge canner

Here is a short demonstration video I did on canning beans using an All American weighted-gauge pressure canner and an old dial-gauge pressure canner; I pray it is useful for new canners!! I used to be so afraid of pressure canning until I finally saw someone else doing it ... and I quickly learned that it was not scary after all!


This post was featured on Heritage Homesteader's Blog Hop :)

Mockingbird Singing

Today we stopped a while to listen to a Mockingbird sing. After several minutes I realized I could record it. You cannot see the bird but you can hear him :) We see them quite frequently but I never think to get a recording usually until it's too late.

Frugal Fridays - Repurposing / Upcycling Clothes

It's good to have vision when visiting the thrift store.

We have a very nice thrift store a few blocks away and we try to visit it as much as possible (which ends up being a few times a month). There are several little girls in our church with busy mamas who do not really have the time or resources to make things like underskirts, aprons, and so on, so Brianna happily does this for some of them. Instead of starting 'from scratch' with new fabric though, we search the thrift store for anything that looks like it could be turned in to what we want. Skirts, jumpers, big shirts, sheets, curtains, etc., can all become something 'new' and needed with a few cuts and stitches 'here and there' ... maybe some elastic and/or buttons ... and some imagination or vision. I guess it helps to not be afraid to experiment; even if all you learn is what does NOT work, at least you learned something and are one step closer to what DOES work.

I made a video to share what we've been up to ... if for some reason pictures work better for you, please let me know and I will post pictures and the video from here on out when I have time.

Tasty Tuesday: Homemade Pizza Rolls

Last Thursday morning I made pizza rolls for breakfast ... and they turned out VERY GOOD ... so I thought I would use this as my first "Tasty Tuesday" post. From here on out, I hope to have something to post each Tuesday that is worth making. I'm sure I'll miss a day 'here and there' but I will do my best to be consistent.

You will need a basic bread dough - nothing fancy, and any size to suit your family will do. I made enough dough for two loaves of bread; I did not measure things out but here is the approximate ingredients:

2c warm water
1T salt
2-3T olive oil
2-3T sweetener
~6c flour (I like to use half whole grain and half unbleached white)
a few large cloves of garlic, crushed
~1T Italian seasoning blend

I think that's it. Make the dough as usual, let it rise twice ... and while it is rising, be sure to have pizza sauce ready. You can use a store-bought jar of sauce or you can quickly make your own using a can or two of tomato paste, a little water (you'll want a pretty thick sauce so it does not run out all over the place!), some fresh garlic or garlic powder (a clove or two or a tsp or two of powder), salt (start with 1tsp), sugar (start with 1tsp) and oregano (start with a few teaspoons). The seasonings will depend on 1) how much sauce you are making and 2) your personal preferences. This is how I like MY sauce :) but you might like yours different. Just remember the key ingredients in pizza sauce are oregano, garlic and salt. The sugar takes the bite out of the paste, however you will not want to use as much as you would with a spaghetti sauce. Simmer the sauce gently a little while, covered. Remove from heat and set aside till needed.

During the rising time also you will want to get ready any other ingredients you wish to have in your pizza rolls. In my case, I put a bag of already cooked, frozen turkey sausage crumbles into the refrigerator the night before (I like to make up a larger batch of it every few weeks, portion it out and store in the freezer for a quick addition to various meals ... like biscuits and gravy ... or pizza rolls!). I sauteed diced onion in olive oil till soft and then I added the turkey sausage and cooked till heated through. 

I did a video for the rest; enjoy!!

Frugal ... what is it?

I have been thinking of doing something a little bit different ... I would like to introduce "FRUGAL FRIDAYS". I will try to post a frugal tip or thought each friday, though I assume I will miss some fridays once in a while. Without further ado, here is my first official FRUGAL FRIDAYS post.

There are so many aspects to being frugal that I am not sure I can even mention or think of them all. Sometimes I believe we can even be caught in a false sort of 'frugality' and not even realize it. I am not sure where all this applies or even if it applies to everyone or even to every season of each of our lives ... but here is where the thought started.

Blackberries.

When we first moved here to SW MO I was SO EXCITED to learn that there were wild blackberries, as many as we could pick, free for the taking. Very frugal, right? My mind immediately went back to our time living in the pacific NW. Big, juicy, sweet blackberries. We had a nice, mostly private place we could go pick berries and would get them by the gallon for not much effort. Yes, there were thorns, sometimes it was quite the tangled mess, and clothing would get snagged, however it was well worth the effort and time it took to pick them. So naturally I was excited when I found out we could have free blackberries again.

The first summer we were here we went with buckets in hand, heavy clothing on our bodies and high expectations in our minds ... but we soon learned it was nothing like our blackberry days in Washington. The berries were a bit smaller and not quite as sweet. The brambles were tighter, the thorns more plentiful. The weather was MUCH HOTTER and very humid. We all got sunburned even though we thought we were protected AND we were in the trees. The mosquitoes were a nightmare. Ticks. No end to them. We had to be alert for dangerous and deadly snakes and spiders. None of these things were an issue in Washington!! But, we pressed on for several hours and a few days and managed to get about 10 gallons or so [I forget exactly how much] that first year we were here.

The next year we set out again but did not get nearly as much. There was a drought and not much going on with the berries. Also, it was way too hot. The year after that I was not feeling well so we skipped it. And then this past summer I had a revelation.

10lbs of frozen blackberries could be purchased through our bulk food order (Azure Standard) for about $20.

Now, some might think that is not a very good deal nor is it very frugal. But let's think about this now. That's 10lbs of blackberries for $20!! No picking. No brambles. No snakes or spiders. No ticks. No unbearable heat or sunburns. No driving to our remote picking spot. No mosquitoes. No picking through the buckets of berries to get out the bad ones and the bugs. No washing or soaking. No spending hours upon hours harvesting, cleaning and processing. No labour spent. It's JUST 10lbs of berries for $20.

As time becomes more precious, we no longer have much of it to do things like spend  hours and a few days picking berries. Maybe some day we will, however at this season in our lives we simply do not have the time or desire to do all of that work for not much return. We must weigh all the sides. Sure, something might seem like a good deal on the surface, however once you really dig in to it you start to realize that maybe it was not such a good deal after all??

Do you get what I'm saying? Maybe there is something you have discovered in your life like this? If so, feel free to share - maybe it will help someone else?

Fall is here!

I am beyond excited. Really. I am so thankful for the cooler weather and all that fall brings with it.

Our country garden did rather pathetically this year for several reasons ... Corban, the main gardener, was much too busy with work. Brianna, the main helper at home, was much too busy helping me, other mothers, old people and keeping up with her sewing business. Tylor, the muscles behind the operation and the go-to-man for anything dirty, moved out. And me ... well ... my health was beyond bad (but, praise the Lord, it's been really good the last month or so due to something new I am trying ... but more on that later once it proves to be true and not just 'coincidence'). So anyway, like I said, pathetic country garden. That's ok. We did get some tomatoes, a good bit of green beans, a good amount of winter squash and a puny showing of sweet potatoes.

Our main plan with the country garden was to grow produce for the farmers market. However, due to all the reasons mentioned above, it was just not happening. NEXT YEAR (Lord willing) we plan on just selling plants that have been started from seed. Starting and growing seeds happens at a time of year when the head gardener is not as busy with other work. All of his started plants did beautifully well this past season, so it seems logical to put our focus on that instead of trying to grow a bunch of produce that we may or may not be able to take care of.

Our city garden provided a steady supply of kale, lettuce, spinach and beet greens (well, not so steady in the hotter months) as well as some more seeds. Corban planted a few small rows of sweet potatoes and those did very well.

It was nearly dark outside but you can kind of see the results from one plant.

Our friends got a good deal on apples so we purchased 8 bushels - 2 for eating and 6 for canning. So far we have canned 4 bushels of applesauce (which, if anyone is curious, comes about to about 60 quarts). So, that's 60 quarts of homemade applesauce with JUST APPLES for $36. Not bad. Of course it would have been nice to get hold of some free apples, however these apples were pretty cheap and in VERY good shape ... which means a lot less work. The remaining two for processing will become apple pie filling and dehydrated apples.

This time around instead of using my vitamix to process the sauce, we borrowed a sister's "Back to Basics Food Strainer and Sauce Maker". It sure did make processing the apples a lot easier! All we did was quarter the apples (leaving the skin and cores in place), boiled them till soft, put them through the strainer and water bathed them. Easy! I might have to purchase my own mill if the budget allows. Here are a few photos of that:

Using the wood stove provided a lot more cooking space.

Running the apples through the mill/strainer.

In other news, I think I am going to try and have this blog on facebook. I have not had a personal facebook account in a long time but I want to see if having a fb page for this blog will be profitable. If you are interested in joining me, here is the link to the page: Frugal Home and Health on facebook. I have done nothing with the page yet ... so please be patient! Like I said, I am not even sure it will be worth my time but we'll see.

That's all for now. Have a great day!

Meal Planning and Bulk Pancake Mix

We all know it's wise to plan out our meals, right? My weeks always seem to run smoother when I have a plan in mind. I try to sit down on saturday and plan out at least one week of meals, but two is better. I then see what I can do ahead of time.

Last week for example on a planned day I ...
- Made 3 meat loaves, put them in loaf pans, covered with foil and wrote the directions on the foil with a sharpie.
- Made 14 hamburger patties, froze individually, and then stacked with waxed paper in between and stored in a freezer bag.
- Made dough for 16 hamburger buns and 32 dinner rolls (same recipe). Shaped in to balls, froze individually.
- Canned chicken veggie soup and beef veggie soup (this was not part of my meal plan, but something that had to be done. These soups come in handy when there are no left-overs for the boys to pack for lunch).
- Made 2 gallons of bulk pancake mix.
- Made 3lbs of turkey sausage crumbles (maybe I'll share the recipe some other time if I remember) to be used in biscuits and gravy and another breakfast dish.
- Made sure I had all the groceries on hand for the next few weeks (but knew I would still get a few things on my regular shopping day).

So why am I sharing this? Well ... it helps keep things running somewhat smooth when they otherwise would or should have been falling apart. We had a should-have-been-tragic-but-still-very-stressful situation happen last week and it was a blessing to have a plan all ready in place to keep everyone fed. This situation left me stressed out and very tired ... and the LAST thing I wanted to do was think about supper. Well actually, the very last thing I wanted to do was think about cleaning. Unfortunately that cannot be done ahead of time, but it helps to have it caught up and organized! Anyway, I did not have to think about supper because there was my handy-dandy meal plan ready to do the thinking for me. Yesterday for instance was meat loaf, roasted potatoes, peas and bread. All I had to do was pull the frozen bread dough out (that was made a few weeks ago) and pull out two of my meat loaf pans. They sat on the counter all day long and were ready to bake at the right time. All I had to do was cut up some potatoes, add some olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic, and throw them in the oven. Easy.

The bulk pancake mix was an experiment but we all loved the way it turned out.

Not the best photo but you get the idea! The sharpie will wash right off.

Here are the ingredients if you are interested in making your own:

10c Kamut flour
10c Buckwheat flour
10c Unbleached white flour
1 1/4c Baking powder
2 1/2T Salt
2c Dry sweetener of choice (I use rapadura)

This yields almost two gallons of mix (we already dipped in to the jar on the right in the photo above). The flours may be substituted for whatever you prefer ... all whole wheat, half whole wheat half white, all kamut, some rye, spelt, rice, whatever. If you use all rice it will be a bit crumbly; you may add 5T xanthan gum if it's 100% rice flour. We have done this before even without the xanthan gum and it works fine ... we just had to get used to the different texture and preferred them more as a savoury pancake along with supper.

To serve:
4c Mix
4 eggs
1/4c oil
3c liquid of choice (I just use water)

Combine the liquids before adding the mix. Gently stir and pay attention to the consistency. If you think you need more liquid or more mix, it's best to add it before it's totally combined. As with any pancake recipe, be careful not to over-mix it!

Variation: You may use a liquid sweetener instead (honey, syrup, molasses, etc.), however it will obviously not be added to the bulk mix! Simply omit the dry sweetener and add 1/4c liquid sweetener with the other liquids.

Other variations:
- Add 2T cinnamon to the dry mix
- Fold in about a cup of berries or other fruit chunks to the batter (apple cinnamon comes to mind ... YUM!)

I welcome your suggestions and ideas.

Living Books / Charlotte Mason / Homeschooling

Wow, it's been more than a month since my last post. It's been a bit busy around here, but what's new? That always seems to be the case.

This morning I am working on some things that take a while to download and upload, so I thought I'd use this time to post something that has been on my mind. Recently we added a 14 year old boy to our family. He has been working a lot with Corban and other men from our church and I believe this is the best kind of 'schooling' a child could have. Life. However we are also doing some sort of schooling at home in between work and sleep. It has been 'fun' for me to pull out my old ideas and methods and WOW I am enjoying it a lot. All of the children desire brushing up on old skills and we are hoping for a hard winter :) so we'll be able to have more evenings by the fire.

This post may be a bit redundant and silly to seasoned homeschoolers, however it might give you new ones some fresh ideas :) That is what I am hoping any way. 

My homeschooling method of choice over the years has been rather eclectic - taking ideas from Charlotte Mason, Raymond Moore, John Holt, John Taylor Gatto, and others that lean more towards a 'child led learning' approach rather than the 'school at home' approach. I also got ideas from a curriculum called "SOW" (Student of the Word) - I did not follow it exactly but I really appreciated the ideas it gave me. And that is what should happen ... no one way will work exactly right for everyone, however we can glean ideas and get inspiration from a variety of places and shape and mold them to fit OUR family and preferences.

One of my favourite things to do was to read "living books" (a phrase coined by Charlotte Mason) and pull further learning ideas from the books ... history, copywork, science, math, vocabulary, spelling, and so on.

I like the way this website said it: "A “living book” is usually written by an author who is very knowledgeable about his subject, many times in an experiential way. The author tends to write from a love of his subject, one that propels him to write with an enthusiasm that excites the imagination of the reader and carries him along as though experiencing the subject first-hand." [my disclaimer - I have NO IDEA what all is on that website! I just googled real quick and found that page]

A good example: my daughter really likes animals and always has. Not only does she like animals, but she has also always been interested in the care of animals. James Harriot is an excellent writer and was a vet; he has/had so many stories to share of all sorts of encounters with a variety of animals while working in the city and the country in England. We also picked her up a very large book (college text I believe) at a yard sale that was about the veterinary care of animals. James Harriot and this other topic-specific book on veterinary care are both considered living books; check out your local library for books like these if you have a child that is interested in animals. A word of caution though ... James Harriot sometimes uses a bit colourful language. Nothing that I would consider defiling [that I can remember???], but I know we all have our own ideas on what is acceptable and what is not. He's just being himself and telling the story as it happened ... and sometimes not-so-appropriate words or phrases are used.

The bible is a living book [in more ways than one]. The last few years I homeschooled I would use the bible as our main text; we started with Matthew. I would choose a chapter or two [wherever it made sense to stop] for the week and read to myself it before the school week began. From those chapters I would choose vocabulary words ... any word I thought the children would benefit from knowing a more exact definition. I would also choose a passage of 3 or more verses, depending on their age and ability. These verses were then used for memorizing, dictation and copywork.

At the beginning of our school week, we would read the chapters together. Then I would dictate the passage to them and check over their work; any spelling errors would become their spelling words for the week. Each day they would practice their spelling words and also copy their passage as nice as they could ... handwriting / copywork practice. Also on the first day they would write out the definitions to the vocabulary words and use them in their own sentence. And then throughout the week they could either write or draw (or both) an outline of the whole reading. Sometimes I would also have them focus on one particular person or character trait (good or bad) in the reading and write about that person. We would then all share what we wrote.

Well, you get the idea, right? We all really enjoyed this way of learning and that is what I am going to implement again ... or at least try to!

Now for a real example.

Ambleside Online has been a great resource for me over the years. I really appreciate their 'living book' or 'twaddle-free' book lists, though I cannot recommend all of them. I am not really sure how some of the books are considered 'living' or 'twaddle-free' when they are filled with witchcraft, goblins, and other such things. No thank you. But ... AO did introduce us to so many good books that I would have never known about otherwise. I recently checked their list again the other day and saw the book "The Endless Steppe". I have never heard of the book before, but the library had it so we checked it out and made it through the first chapter.

SO MANY THINGS flung out at me as I was reading the book. Ideas about geography, geology, history, language, culture, and so much more! And the vocabulary ... wow. This book is packed full of good vocabulary words. In the first chapter alone I got several of them:

Dignified
Facade
Opulent
Baroque
Progressive
Invariably
Aberration
Battalion
Confiscated
Premonition
Explicit
Bayonet
Capitalists
Fastidiously
Surreptitiously
Jaunt
Gawking
Interminable

Do you see that word "baroque"? That could lead to a history study on the Baroque period ... art, music, architecture, geography, people, and so on.

The first chapter talks about speaking Yiddish and making challah for sabbath. That could lead to a culture / religion / language study. There are many directions to go with that.

Geography and geology ... specific places are mentioned as well as rivers and of course the title of the book has the word "steppe" in it. 

History: the whole book is a study of history ... Hitler and WWII.

So many things can come out of this one book. Do you get what I'm saying? And each of these subjects can be studied. Your studies can be added to subject-related binders and be used as a portfolio or a scrapbook of memories.

~~~~~~~~~~

Here are a few of the books I appreciated:
The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook by Raymond Moore (and his other books ... but this is my favourite ... and it might actually be at the very top of my all-time favourite list.)
Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto (he has other books and speeches as well, including a new one I just saw and might check in to if the library has it)
A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola (excellent book)
Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Comstock
You Can Teach Your Child Successfully by Ruth Beechick (and other books by her)

Well, I am sure I am leaving out several but that's what I have in my head right now.

Please share your favourite homeschool books and ideas!

Cheap Organic Produce Deals vs. Cheap Sugary Cereal

Is fresh fruit expensive? How about organic fresh fruit?

I was thinking about it the other day how a box of cheap, sugary cereal costs around $2 for 10-13oz, right? I don't know. It's been a long time since I've checked in to it but we'll assume I am correct. So that's a pound of cheap, sugary cereal for about $2.50 (obviously I am not looking to be exact here, just trying to make a point).

Or a pound of organic nectarines for $1. A pound of organic apples for $.75. A pound of organic bananas for $.44. A pound of organic peaches for $1.20.

You get the point.

I do not understand why so many people think fresh fruit is expensive. Especially organic fresh fruit. You just have to know where to shop!!

Here are my recent finds - all organic, all the prices listed above. Celery is in here too. Right now Aldi has celery for $1.29 a stalk. It's small and not very impressive. The health food store had beautiful stalks of organic celery for $2.29. Their weight was probably double or more of what is at Aldi, which of course brings the price of the Aldi celery way up. 

Organic nectarines and peaches from Azure

Organic nectarines from Azure Standard

Organic 'overripe' bananas and apples and organic celery

The peaches and nectarines are REALLY REALLY REALLY GOOD. The local stores have sales right now for around a dollar a pound but seriously, there is NO WAY the quality and taste could compare to these organic fruits from Azure Standard!!

And as you can see, I got the bananas and apples off the discount shelf at the local health food store (Mama Jean's in Springfield). A few of the apples are a little soft/wrinkled but they look and taste great. The bananas are still firm; it's just the peel that looks a little 'rough'. 

Thy key is: be on the look out for these deals! If you do not find any such deals in the local hfs, ask someone. Check the farmers markets too - often towards the end of the market day vendors are willing to reduce the price so they do not have to take all their stuff home and feed it to the chickens. When you do find a good deal, be prepared to stock up. These bananas and apples are going to be used for my green smoothies. I'll use as many as I can fresh and then cut and freeze the rest so they are ready to go when I am.

So there you have it. Please don't tell me produce is too expensive. I'd much rather eat a pound of organic peaches for $1.20 than a pound of sugary cereal for $2.50. The peaches are sweet, juicy and I am sure they are filled with vitamins and minerals. The sugary cereal on the other hand ... blah. What a waste of money and health.

But that's just me. My opinion. Take it or leave it.

Raw, live, sprouted, gluten free granola - homemade vs store bought price comparison

Good 'n' Raw Chocolate Granola

A few weeks ago we had a family stay with us. They had a big tote box full of a wide variety of healthy cereals [which I'm sure they got all of them for free or a very reduced price due to being out of date] and among the selection was raw, sprouted buckwheat granola. I tried both kinds and REALLY liked them. YUM, YUM, YUM. Finally a granola that tastes good, is healthy for me, is not loaded down with added sugar and fat, and does not upset my stomach! I was very excited to say the least. Oh yes, and it's raw!

Nature's Path Qi'a Superfood

I knew I could make a copy of them so when I had time I did a quick internet search for 'sprouted buckwheat granola recipe' or something like that and came up with several recipes. I printed out 5 of what looked like the best choices and then came up with my own variation with what I had.

Making it was not hard at all, but it did take time and also I'm sure it was very convenient to have the proper equipment on hand ... mainly, a dehydrator. (I have a 9-tray Excalibur that someone gifted me; I am very thankful for it and it has served me well for several years.) If you do not have a dehydrator, you might be able to rig one up or use your stove if it has a low setting (to maintain the 'raw' status, it cannot be heated above 115; I heated mine at 105).

Here is the recipe I came up with; it yields about 3 pounds of granola and fills a gallon jug. 
2 1/2c hulled buckwheat groats, soaked over night and then sprouted for 8-12 hours till you just start to see the 'tail' come out
1/4c flax soaked in 1/2c water over night (keep the water)
1/4c plus 1/8c sunflower seeds, soaked and sprouted
1/4c plus 1/8c sesame seeds, soaked over night
3/4c almonds soaked over night (this caused them to just start to sprout) - slip skins, slice a little
3/4c pecan pieces, soaked over night
3/4c coconut flakes or shreds
3/4c raisins
and a paste made out of:
1c dates
1c figs
1/2c honey
1/4c coconut oil
1T cinnamon
Water as needed to ease the mixing process 

Combine all in a bowl. Mix well. Spread to about 1/4" over teflex sheets or waxed paper or parchment paper. I put about 2 1/4c per teflex sheet and filled 4 sheets. Dehydrate at 105-115 degrees for 8 hours, flip onto the tray and dehydrate another 24 hours. Store in air tight container, pref in the refrigerator if you will not be eating it within a week or so. It is RAW and perishable.

Now the big question of the day: HOW MUCH DID IT COST? I used the current Azure Standard prices for all the ingredients listed except the coconut oil which I purchase from Costco.

My granola ... VERY GOOD flavor

My 3 pounds of mostly organic, raw, sprouted, gluten free granola cost just under $12 to make; $10.50 if I would have used as many non-organic options as possible. This is about the price of 'normal' non-organic store-bought granola that is usually loaded with added sugar and does not have as high of quality of ingredients. We must consider these things when we look at the price!

How much does THEIR granola cost?
Amazon sells several different 'raw granolas' however many of them have agave listed as one of the main ingredients. I don't care if it's 'raw' or not, I do not want it in my granola! There is much information on the web on why I stay away from agave but I'll leave the digging up to you if you are interested. Just start with a google search of "raw agave bad". Because of this, I did not consider many of these raw granolas comparable to mine. Yes, I used honey, however I believe it would have been just fine without it and will leave it out next time (that knocks off about $1.35 from my cost ... wow). I will only compare mine with the ones I have listed above.

A 7.9oz bag of Nature's Path Qi'a Superfood granola goes for $9.25 on amazon (plus $4.99 s&h but we will not include that here and just assume it was the health food store price). We'll need just over 6 bags to equal 3lbs ... for a total of $44.05.

An 8oz bag of Good 'n' Raw Chocolate goes for $7.95 on their website (I could not find it anywhere else, and once again, we'll leave out shipping and handling). 6 bags of that for 3lbs total ... $47.70.

I'm paying about a fourth of the cost to make mine at home ... and it's how I want it to be. Of course there are ways I can reduce the price of mine and that is my next project: making a more frugal batch of raw sprouted granola. I am not one for sweet things and this granola turned out a little on the 'too sweet side' for my tastes. I am now in the process of making a batch of very basic granola with buckwheat, sunflower seeds, flax and sesame seeds. I'll probably add a little coconut oil and coconut flakes as well. Ok and maybe a bit of raisins.

I hope this experiment has helped someone.

Frugal Home Organization Tips

This whole home organizing spree was birthed by the fact that sometimes I just do not feel good. In times when I am not feeling the best I have found it helps A WHOLE BUNCH if things are orderly in the home. Organizing has never been my strong point; thankfully we do not have a lot of stuff but it still gets out of control and becomes an area of stress. I realized that this area of stress could be greatly eliminated if I would just figure out an organizing system that works for me. I did a little research watching some organizing videos and reading what others have done to help them. Some of their ideas were not practical for me, however some were a great blessing. I would like to share with you all what has worked well for me with the hopes of being able to give someone else ideas that might work well for them.

Everything I am sharing with you today has been in practice in my home for at least a month but most have been in practice for several months. I did not want to post ideas I am excited about but rather things that I was excited about, tried, [sometimes tweaked] and appreciate a lot. These simple things have made my life run a lot smoother; items are easy to find and easy to put back because they have a PLACE. Less stress, less time, less mess. I am thankful.

A discount store south of us will sometimes have older vegetables sold by the crate ... crate included. One time last year it was a large crate of cucumbers (probably a bushel?) for $2. This year it was acorn squash in the large crates and summer squash in the half-size crates for $5. These crates are GREAT!! They have so many uses and what's even nicer is they easily fold flat for storage and stack on top of each other when in use. Here I have my Food-Saver stuff in a smaller crate and that is sitting on a large crate that holds my juicer. The other small crate has juice jugs that we use for homemade ginger soda and beneath that is a large crate of misc. jugs and containers too nice to recycle yet. These crates fit right into my larger pantry shelf :) :)

In the pantry: double stacked vegetable crates.

My home management binder ... maybe I'll post about it some day.

Seriously, this is what it looks like under my sink all the time now ... except sometimes some cleaning supplies get put here instead of in the cleaning bucket. But really, this used to be a HUGE eye-sore and I would just hope no little child would open the door and have things falling out on them!!
One box holds misc lids, another rings of both sizes, another regular tattlers and the final one has wide-mouth tattlers.

Dollar boxes to keep the area under my sink looking good.

The linen closet used to be an unorganized mess. NO LONGER!!!! It is such a blessing to be able to go to the closet, open the door and know exactly where to find something even if you do not know exactly where it's at. For example, Corban asked for nail clippers a few months ago ... USUALLY we keep a pair or two hanging by the back door but they were not there ... I told him to look in the linen closet and figure it out. Easy - it's in the bin labelled 'nails'. Even he was excited about that.

Little things that used to all be piled in one big bin. Bins: $1 at WM

Organized bedding and a box just for light bulbs.

I really like the idea of having one of those fancy pull-out things that hold your pans or whatever but the cheapest one I could find was $79 at Lowes. No thanks! I saw one woman used an old cookie sheet on her shelf and I thought that was a great idea! It slides out easy to reach whatever is behind it.
The lids used to be scattered all over the shelf but not any more. I found a bin in another room that worked perfect for storing the lids in. It slides out easy and keeps the lids CONTAINED.

Cookie sheet slider

A bin for my pan lids!!! YAY!!! They used to fall out of the cabinet.

I purchase a lot of food in bulk. I used to have the bulk bags in different places all over the house and garage. What a mess ... each time I needed something I'd have to remember where it was or go look for it, take a bowl and scoop with me and then hope not to drop or spill anything in the process. This was a big cause of stress in my life because I cook a lot and found I was spending so much time and energy running after things that were not in easy reach. Now I have my most used items right on the counter top under the cabinets. I have it in my schedule to re-fill the bins weekly but sometimes I skip a week if it seems I can. This helps me to know what I have on hand and know when I need to order more.
SO EASY!

D.G. half off: air tight, BPA free bins for my bulk stuff.

Each bin has a permanent scoop of the appropriate size for what is in the bin. For example, popcorn and almonds have a half cup, flax, raisins and coconut a 1/4 cup, rapadura 1/2T, oats 1c ... and so on. All of the scoops except the one for flour were purchased at the thrift store. The flour one was made by my grandpa. Permanent scoops save time!

Here is a picture of more bulk items on the top shelf with the same brand of containers but in different sizes / shapes. This has really made it so much easier to access all my baking items. The lazy susan on the bottom is cheap ... I hope to find a higher quality one but this seems to be holding out so far (though it looks like it could crash at any time!!). And as always, I appreciate having mason jars for various items too.

More of the same air-tight, BPA free containers.

I used to have my measuring items in the baking utensil drawer but it was such a mess searching for the right one and also trying to get the drawer shut after I found what I was looking for (IF I ever found it). I had the idea to move all of the measuring items into a small plastic box. This sat on my bread box on the counter for several months and was certainly a better idea than the drawer however it still was not quite what I wanted. And then I saw this idea :) little plastic hooks and key rings to hang each item. The key rings could have been quite expensive had I not found a box of 25 tagged rings at Lowes for $2.50 or so. These are the small rings with round tags that realtors or car sales people will use. Now what should I do with the tags? I was thinking of using them as labels attached to a string.
After we all got used to things flinging around when we opened this particular cabinet, this idea has proved to work VERY well for us. And as mentioned above, measuring devices were purchased at the thrift store.

Measuring spoons and cups hung on the inside cabinet.

We often have a lot of people eating supper with us. These little baskets have come in handy in two ways. 1) It's so easy to simply take the basket out of the drawer and set it on the counter for buffet-style serving. 2) Easy to clean - I take the knives out first, clean that basket, put the spoons in that basket, clean the spoon basket, and continue rotating till everything is clean (the knives end up in the last basket that was cleaned).

3 / $1 at WM

Spices are another thing I purchase in bulk. I used to have my jars sitting nicely out on the counter. I did this for many years. A few years ago I saw that a sister had put her spice containers in a drawer; they all fit nicely laid on their side. I copied this idea when we first moved into our current house. It works great!!!
A note on the baby-food jars. We got several dozen organic plum/pear puree from the thrift store for free (wow they sure were delicious! we ate them alone or used them in baked recipes). I thought it would be nice to use these jars for spices however it was difficult to get the lids off!!! I still have the ones pictured but I hope to eventually find more shorter 1/2 pint jars to replace them.

Half-pint mason jelly jars and baby-food jars for spices in a drawer.

That's it for now. I still have a few 'hot spots' I am working on; mainly the front closet. It is beyond embarrassing. Really, you might lose a child in there if you are not careful. Maybe I'll soon have an update with before and after pictures? We'll see.

Maybe you have some ideas or tips to share? What has worked for YOU? Do you have a blog post about it? Feel free to share a link in the comment section.

7-24-13 UPDATE
I just finished cleaning out the front closet and then remembered I wanted to take a 'before' and 'after' picture. Well, I forgot the 'before' so the 'after' is useless now!! There were about 25 pairs of work gloves in there!! Whew. I didn't know we had that many people living in our house! Several coats and a few sweaters. Got rid of most of them. You see, we just seem to collect coats because people give them to us. We think "Oh, this is ok. Maybe I'll wear it ..." but then we hardly do. What's the point of hanging on to it?? Might as well give it to the thrift store so someone else can use it. None of us have many shoes so that was not an issue. Corban has one pair. He did have a pair of roofing shoes but he outgrew them so they went to the thrift store. Brianna has one pair. I have 3 - my every day shoes, my therapeutic shoes for planter plantar fasciitis (which really has not flared up in a long time) and my snow boots (I wore them maybe 3 times in the last 2 years but they are kind of one of those things that you actually will appreciate when you need them). Tylor has 3 pair as well - work tennis shoes, tennis shoes and work boots.

I put all the hats, scarves and gloves into a box. I left the boys' coats in there and put mine and Brianna's coats in my closet. It looks nice and tidy and will stay that way from now on.

Clean closet. Yay! Now what's my next project? I'll have to think about it.