4 More 31 Day Blogs of Inspiration

Gospel Homemaking 31 Days to a Routine Ordinary Day I like this one so far, this is her first post and the following ones are at the bottom of the post. She talks about having a quiet time.

I've already given you the link for Living Well and Spending Less, but I thought todays post was brilliant,
 Learn something new without spending a dime.

Clean Mama is doing 31 Days To a Clean House I like this one because she shows you how to do each chore and so far they are things that I don't often do, the first one was cleaning edges and corners.

Townsend House 31 Days of Intentional Living- Last time I gave you another link on this subject. I'm fascinated by the term. I've been trying to work out what I think it means. It seems to me to intend to do something is a little iffy, but I know they are using the term in the same way you would say goals or plans. I think I do lived pretty intentional but one area I was thinking I could be more intentional is in my Christian walk.

So these are some of the 31 Day blogs that are inspiring me this week and there are lots more too. Enjoy your weekend.

Linda

More About Decorating, Eating Well and Crochet Lessons

I've been enjoying following these Learning to Crochet lessons. Even though I crochet I've been learning things I didn't know. I'm hoping she will do a knitting one after this is done. I would also like an advanced crochet course, so after I finish this I'll go looking for that. I'm sure Ravelry has something. I've found so many fun projects on Pininterest like this tutorial on a new stitch, the star stitch. I'm still working on Christmas gifts. I feel so smug when I see people say OMG Christmas is only 12 weeks away. I've got 2 projects done and am working on 2 more.

I got some of the little pumpkins to add to my decor. I like having something real. I can't afford to buy too much this year but I got one big one to make into a jack-o-lantern for the porch. I like to layer my decorating. I start out with the basics and then start to add the details. I was thinking about how decorators say you should use bold statements, but at this time of year I think small vignettes are more intimate and cozy.

I got this photo off of Pininterest, isn't it gorgeous. It originated at sunsurler.tumble.com, but when I went to the site it was blank.

I've been reading these French women books, "French Women Don't Get Fat" by Mireille Guiliano, her cookbook "The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook" and "French Women For All Seasons" also by her. She gives good advise on moderation and how to do that, not totally giving up things but keeping them for special treats. She claims that the French woman eats 3 meals a day and no snacking also they eat 3 or more courses but small portions. The idea is to enjoy your treats like dessert in the context of a meal. They take a long time to eat a meal and linger over the table talking and slowly making their way through these different courses.

 In her second book she does admit that these ways are changing and you are seeing more overweight people in France. People don't want to make the time for a real meal in the middle of the day like they use to and fast food is becoming more popular with the young. The culture use to really dictate what people did but I guess things are changing.

What I got out of the books is what I'm trying to do in my life right now, to slow down, pay attention to detail and try as much as I can afford to not compromise on quality. I think we eat way too much and also waste a lot and what I would like to do is to make my meals little jewels that are beautiful and delicious like the tapas idea. However that is a tall order and I'm not sure I can do it but that is my goal, baby steps.

 I have a lot of bad habits to change and I don't know if I have the energy to do that. The whole low carb/diabetic diet just gets my down sometimes and I see the French way of eating as a way to put the pleasure back into meal planning and eating.

 I've been struggling with my food budget and making it work. One of the things the French do is buy for only a day or two and I've been trying to shop only twice a month. I'm finding that it's not really working that well for me. It really helped me to stay on budget when I stuck to it, but I would find myself at the end of 2 weeks eating what I could scrounge together and it wasn't all that appetising. That is a problem for me because I will tend to snack instead of eat a meal. So now I'm going to see if I can shop more often at least for things like fresh produce and still stay on my budget.

We can learn from other cultures, but put our own twist on it. I have another book about eating like the Italians and may take a look at that one again. I think it would benefit me if I could learn to widen the types of food I eat and try some new flavors and ethnic cuisines. My gd's love sushi but I have felt I didn't like the flavors of this cuisine, maybe I need to experiment a little more. I have to keep everything low carb, but I can still learn from others. I'm learning to use my low carb techniques on all recipes. It just a matter of substitution when it's possible.

So Bon Appitite.
Linda

Daily Life

Sorry I just haven't had much to say lately. I'm still doing pretty much the same things. I finished Little Women, Little Men and The Narnia Chronicles. Now I'm starting The Hobbit and Jo's Boys. I really enjoyed Little Men and Jo's Boys begins 10 years later. I read that it is the last book she wrote at the end of her life. I have a book called "The World of Louisa May Alcott" by William Anderson. It's quite interesting and talks of other authors of the time. I enjoyed finally finding out the end of the Narnia stories. I want to read some of his other books, but got in the mood to try The Hobbit because they are making a movie of it right now.

I'm making good progress on my cross stitch and plan to do the whole series of Peter Rabbit patterns that I have. I think they are so cute. I sit down and sew for an hour or two almost every day. I'm not doing any crochet or knitting right now, but my gd has shown me a crochet pattern that I may attempt for her and I plan to make another purse.

I've been trying hard to stick to budget and I'm doing well. I finally have the food budget under control, but it's not easy. It also mean little to no purchases that aren't absolutely needed.

My cooking has been very uninteresting lately, just trying to eat more salads and veggies. I've started phase 2 of Atkins and that means I can start adding some carbs, but haven't done that yet. I'm losing slow, but after a stall I started losing again. I've found that drinking water and eating the vegs. are important as well as being active. My dd and I took a 2 milk hike on Sat. and I hope that as the weather get nice I'll be able to do more of that.

Including a variety of photos from house and garden.

Hope you are enjoying life.

Linda

Knitted Fall Hat and Rose Wilder Lane

I finished my hat. It turned out pretty well, but I don't know if I really like it well enough to make another one. I'm looking for another pattern that would be easy. I may make a flower for it, but the pins is cute.

I'm still trying to cut down my expenses. I had a blanket put on my water heater. My strategy for my food budget of trying to stay away from the groc. store as long as possible has worked pretty well. I think I'm actually going to end up within my budget this month. I've ended up going to the store about once every 2 weeks. That's when I run out of eggs and milk. It forces me to use up what I have on hand. I wanted to add that the other things I'm doing is reminding myself to buy basic ingredient, not premade items. Why pay someone else to make something I can make myself. I usually shop this way, but sometimes am tempted by something that looks good. I haven't tackled the insurance yet. I got my gas at the cheapest place I could find this week and I'm keeping my use of the car to a minimum, combining errands. I've added some chard to my container garden. I'm going slow on the garden because it's early yet.

I've finished reading all the Rocky Ridge LH books. They were about the Rose years written by MacBride. Someone said there was some question about how accurate they were and how much they were fictionalized, but I enjoyed them and they seemed authentic. The period of Laura and Manly's lives after Rose leaves is not well documented. Now I'm starting the Caroline years written by Maria D. Wilkes. There is also a few books by the same author about Caroline's mother and grandmother.

Because the books are fictionalized accounts of their lives I wanted to know more about Rose and what really happened to her. I wondered why she made the choices she did. So far I haven't really found the answer to that except that she was searching for something. She was very bright and bored with the life she knew. So I'm started reading bio's and the information is very contradictory. You get a generally idea, but the details change from book to book. So far I've read her own fictional version of her life which I didn't like. I'm almost done with Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder by John E. Miller that talks a lot about Rose and information from her journals. I'm throwing out my old journals after reading this. She had a lot of depression and wrote a lot of stuff that she may not have wanted published. We often pour out our frustrations and doubts into journals, but that doesn't mean that's what we really feel. This book makes it sound like the LH books are a pretty good description on Laura's life, some things are left out, but the gists of it is there. Another small book I read is "Laura's Rose" by William T. Anderson. It was published by the LIW Memorial Society and I think it is kind of a sanitized version.

I would like to read some of the books that Rose wrote. You can get them on Amazon. She was a liberationist and believed in personal rights. She didn't approve on the "New Deal" and the government giving people hand outs. Laura and Amanzo felt the same way. There is a cute story of him throwing a government agent off of his land who was questioning what he was planting. It's quite interesting knowing where we are now. They dealt with the depression by working harder and they thought everyone else ought to do the same. They certainly knew how to live a frugal life, they had been doing it for years. I have some other book with Laura's writing for the farm journal. She wrote about being a farm wife and it should be very interesting. I'll get to those later.

I know everyone is thinking about Easter, but other than going to church I'm not doing much this year. I haven't even changed my decor to spring yet. We've had some sun, but it is still cold at times and I keep hearing about snow flurries here and there. Well I hope everyone has a nice holiday and enjoys each other.

Linda

Frugal Tips and What I'm Up To

If you're not reading Tongue and Cheek's posts on her trip to China you should be. It's fascinating and beautiful and she is witty as ever. This is the current post but start at the beginning of her trip after you read this one.

I'm thrilled I got a prepaid cell phone and no longer have a monthly fee. They also have a box to add to your home phone for $20 a month and it is both local and long distance. I haven't decided if I'm going for that or not. So next week I'm going to try and look into insurance home and auto. I'm thinking maybe I can bundle.

I'm almost done with my scarf and got circular needles to start on the hat soon. It's been grey and rainy here just about every day. I've been watching "Campion" British detective, sort of. The actor played Tristin in All Creatures. I like him he's funny and very dapper in this show. His side kick Lug is very funny too and quite the opposite of Campion. I read the book Laura Ingles Wilder wrote about her trip to San Francisco to visit her dd Rose in 1915, "West From Home". It was very interesting to me because I use to live there. She talks a lot about the Great World Fair that was celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal. I've always heard about the fair but never read anything about it. There were photos too. Anyway it was a good read for me and anyone interested in San Francisco. I'm continuing to read the Rocky Ridge series and I have a new crochet mystery.

The next catagory of blogs I want to share is frugal tips. A lady I've known on line for quite awhile has a blog called Living on Less Money which she has had to learn to do. She is sharing her experience and some good tips. I have several frugal sites that I like and I've put a list on them on my side bar. If you have any good ones please share. I'm in the process of changing it.

Have a good day.

Linda

Blog Sharing and My Week

I've been going through all my blogs on my blog feeder and I was thinking I'd like to share some of the ones I enjoy on a variety of subjects. I'm also going to be redoing my blog page and the lists I have on it. I'd like to redo the look of it too, but not sure yet what I want to do.

The first blog I want to share is http://tigressinajam.blogspot.com/ It is from my canning and preserving category. I don't really can, but I would like to. I've always wanted to make mustard and though Tigress in a Jam I somehow found this recipe  http://localkitchenblog.com/2010/03/12/can-jam-roasted-garlic-lemon-mustard/ So maybe I'll try it one of these days. Tigress has some yummy recipes and links to other yummy recipes. If you have any good canning and preserving sites you like, please share.

I've decided to try going grain free for several months and see if any of my allergic symptoms go away or get better. I read a blog about a family that had several allergic symptoms, not just stomach, but rashes, dizziness and so on and this made a big difference for their whole family. I'm not really suppose to be eating grains on my low carb diet, but I cheat now and then and so I'm using this to find out is I'm really strict if I notice any difference. I've been dizzy a lot lately and I've always been allergic. It's quite common for diabetics to have problems with grains.

I'm knitting a fall scarf, with fall colors and I got a pattern for a hat. So when I finish the scarf I'm going to try making a hat with circular needles. I'm starting to think about what I can make for Christmas gifts. I can't say what but I've started one project already.

So this week I made the call about my cable. I was prepared to be without tv, but I was able to get the economy package for it and my Internet, they are the same provider. So I cut my cost almost in half. I don't get all of my favorite channels, but most of them. I've decided to tackle the rest of the things a bite at a time. This week I'm going to tackle the cell phone. I've also unplugged all the things that I can to see if I can save on power. I tried it once before, but not really long enough to tell, but I heard someone say they did it and saved a fair amount. I'm more motivated now, it's a little inconvenient, but I think I can get use to it. Another thing I'm going to do is go with a smaller garbage can and that will reduce that bill.

We (my gd and I) went on a hike with the Curves group today. They were planning to go a lot farther than I though I could go so we just went part of the way and then dropped out, but it's a start and now I know a new cool place to walk. I need to get back in the walking grove. I tired out pretty quick today and we were lagging behind the group.

The photo is my herb and pansy garden. It survived the winter and is growing well. I planted some lettuce this week.

Have a good week.

Linda

Granny Square Purse

I finally got my purse finished and I made a little coin purse to match. I lined it with fabric. It turned out really well. I'd like to make another one and maybe try some different shapes. I knitted the coin purse. I've been knitting again. I've done a wash cloth and am working on a second one. I'm also doing another scarf. I'm trying to use some of the yarn I have. I've been reading these knitting mysteries and that got me in the mood to knit again. The one I'm reading now is talking about felting and that is something I would like to try. It makes things warmer and more water tight. It's a good idea for a hat.

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I had all these medical, yearly apts., but they are done now and they didn't find any new problems so that's a relief. I've also been focused on trying to figure out how to make my budget work. I'm going to cancel my cable, just waiting for my current reality show to end, Top Chef. I don't think I'll get any reception without it. I'm tracking my spending at the groc. store and trying to figure out how to make it work on my budget. I've consistently gone over and I can't keep doing that.

I'm still reading Little House books. I finished the one written by Laura and am going to start the Rocky Ridge series about her life with her husband after they left their original home. I read about Rose and was sad to find out that she had a very different life from her mother and didn't have a happy marriage. By different life I mean her values seemed to be very different. All the things we love about her mom's life it sounds like she rejected.

Spring seems to finally be here and I'm going to start trying to get out and walk. One of the instructors at Curves is starting a walking group and so I hope to be a part of that. I've been struggling with my diet. I'm trying to get back on it. I gained back a couple of pounds, but I hope the walking will help.

I'm hoping soon to start doing some gardening again. My herbs and pansies seem to have survived the winter pretty well. The mints all turned brown, but they will come back I'm sure. I have bulbs coming up. I hope we have a better growing season this year.

I got a jar attachment for my Food Saver that you use on your canning jars to vacuum seal them. it works really well. I got it through Amazon for about $10. I've dehydrated green beans, spinach, mushrooms, peppers, zucchini chips and I'm going to do celery next. Come summer I'll do tomatoes.

We have sun today, I hope you all get some soon.

Linda

Think Like a Chef

Because we had our Christmas celebrations a few days early I am already into the goal setting mode for the new year. I got a new cookbook for Christmas "Think Like a Chef" by Tom Colicchio. He is the head judge on Top Chef. Anyway I was thinking I needed to work on my cooking skills. After so many years of cooking just for me I feel like I've lost some of my cooking  skill. His book starts off with a chapter on techniques and he talks about roasting, braising and blanching. His take on some of these is a little different than the standard. He believes in low and gentle cooking for better flavor and texture. So I bought a whole chicken today and I'm going to try his roasting method this week and I hope to improve my cooking skills this year and plan to be in the kitchen more. I have my ups and downs where cooking in concerned. Lately I'm been eating a lot of frozen foods, not wanting to cook. I cook for other people but getting myself to cook for myself can be a challenge at times. So that is one of my goals. I hope to post on my kitchen blog what I am learning.t

I've started taking down a few of my decorations, but I'm not ready to take them all down. I'm just doing a few each day. The girls and I are going to see Dawn Treader this week. They saw it in 3D and want to see it again, but we won't be seeing it in 3D, just regular.

I'm not out shopping the sales but I may go later this week. I'm not really a sale shopper, unless there is something I need. I feel like I just spent a lot of money and need to economize for a while. I'm planning on making Jan. a no spend month except for my gd's birthday.

Yesterday I took down the Santa's and Snowmen that were in my bookcase that holds all my garden books. I set out some of the garden books to display them and I was thinking as I was doing this that I should read some of them and start planning next years garden. We had a cool wet summer for the most part. It got warm late and things just never had a chance to grow much, but hopefully next year will be better. So I haven't given up, yet on the container garden idea. I will give it another shot this year.

I never do anything for New Year, just watch the fireworks on tv, but hope everyone has a good time if you are celebrating and pray your new year will be a blessed one.

Linda

Plunging Into Paperwork and Budgeting Tools

I finally got started on getting my financial records ready for the new year. I decided for the new decade to make a new budget book, mine was getting kind of old. I devided it into two books. Several years ago I had to start handling my own finances and didn't have a clue how to do it. I read several books about budgeting and came up with using accounting pages to keep track of my money.

In the budget book the first page is my budget and behind that are accounting pages for each item in the budget. At the end I keep the audits I do at the end of each month. I do those to make sure I have in the checking account the same amount that is shown in the accounts. I include in my budget a monthly amount for those bills that only come up quarterly or yearly or things like dentist that vary. I figured those out by adding up the year cost and dividing it my 12. I redo that every year at the beginning when I redo my budget because costs keep going up like gas for the car.

In the banking book I decided this time to start keeping track of my deposits, so the first section is the break down of what is in my deposits. The second section has a page for each month and I record my spending for that month. These amounts are posted onto the accounting pages a couple of times a month, so that I know if I have over spent in an area like groceries. The third section is savings. I keep all my savings in one account but it is from different sources and for different purposes so instead of having different savings accounts I keep track of it here.

The last took I use to keep track of receipts. It is an open top according file with Jan to Dec sections. I just throw all my receipts in there and clear it out at the end of the year. I always know where my receipts are that way and I like that it is open because it is easy to stick them in there.

So I still have to clear out the receit file and then it's on to doing my files. I'm going to break it down into small bits. It's not a job I enjoy doing. That is why I make myself do it in Jan. each year. Even though I don't enjoy doing this stuff I do enjoy knowing that I'm on top of my finances and paperwork and that I can find things if I need them. I lived too many years not being able to find stuff.

Two more disciplines that I do to control finances and paperwork. I throw out junk mail right away and I pay bills weekly. I try to do filing regularly, but I don't do it as often as I should.

Eating Green

I walked over to the farmers market on my morning walk on Saturday and took some pictures while they were setting up. I'm finding when you have a camera in your hand people are pretty nice. Later I went back and bought a bag full of lovely produce.

I don't shop at the farmers market every week because I always end up buying too much and I've usually spent my grocery money for the week by then. I was thinking I should plan it so that Saturday is at the beginning of my food budget week.

I realized that before we know it the farmer's market will be closing for the year and it will be back to produce from Mexico and Chili. Our grocery store tells us where it comes from now. I felt better about it when I didn't know. It does however take away the denial.

Learning to make the best choices is a process for me. Because I have been focusing this week on eating more veggies and eating all the colors I'm thinking more about produce and how much better it is at a farmers market. I'm trying to figure out how I can improve the quality of what I eat without breaking my budget.

I think one thing is just cutting out all the expensive extras. I have done that to a degree, but I was thinking if I bought my veggies first and made those the main part of my meals, then I would fill in around them with a little protein and those extras would naturally fall to the bottom of my list. Produce first, protein second and everything else third. I don't know if that will work come winter, because the produce isn't as good them. I'll have to see how it works out. Last year I ate homemade soup a lot.

Buying local and organic protein is another matter. I don't eat a lot of meat, but I do use a lot of dairy and so that is where I have consentrated my dollars. Buying raw milk is almost out of the question for me, so I just try to get local and organic if I can.

I read that organic eggs are much healthier and so I'm sticking to the organic and local ones. I eat a lot of them. Cheese is just too expensive to get made with raw milk.

I hope next year to grow a little more in pots and to try some dehydrating. As I said this is a learning process and I'll have to see how things go this winter.

Linda

My food budget has been the hardest one for me to get control of. As a young housewife I learned to cook from the cookbooks of James Beard and Julia Child. I also took classes in healthy cooking and learned the evils of processed food and all the chemicals they put in them. So I learn to cook from scratch. My tastes became pretty goumet as time went on. As a family we ate at some pretty nice resturants. Then life took a turn and the budget entered my life.

It has been hard to curb my spending on food and learn to still eat well on a lot less money. I cut my food budget by 1/3 this year. I like to buy as much organic as possible, but I use the dirty dozen list for produce. I have had to compromise on many things I would like to get.

I started to make the change by looking at what I had purchased each time I went to the grocery store and how much did it cost. I zeroed in on the most expensive items and try to find cheaper alternative or just cut back on how often I bought them.

I bought a big freezer chest so I can buy meat on sale and that has worked out very well for me.
The other area I had to look at was waste. I would go to the store and buy a bunch of produce and than not feel like cooking so now I only by for 1 or 2 meals at a time. I often freeze left overs or plan left overs to stock the freezer.

The problem I'm trying to figure out now is how I can find money for stocking up. I do buy a few things here and there out of my budget, but when I go to Costco or Trader Joe's I would like to have the money to buy for my freezer and pantry.

I also buy all my paper products, cleaning produces, vitamins and suppliments, bath and body products from my grocery budget, but I learned not to buy those things at the grocery store. I buy in bulk at Costco and buy store labels at Walmart and Target for medicines and vitamins.

I've had to give up some on quality but I hope to improve on getting the quality I want and still stay on my budget. I think everyone has different challenges with their food budget, these are just a few of mine. I've found a lot of good help on line and have added a couple of blogs on the side that I follow. StorybookWoods is my daughter. She is a great bargan shopper, she didn't get it from me. lol

I started budgeting several years ago. The first thing I did was write down everything I spent. Then I figured out what broad catagories I should have in my budget and what expenses would go under each catagory. For instance

Giving- Tithes and Offerings, Gifts
Household- Groceries, Home Maintenance, Insurance Home, Furnishings
Medical- Insurance, Dental, Perscriptions

Some other catagores are utilities, transportation, taxes and personal.

I read several books on the subject and kept tweeking it. After about 6 months and then again at 1 year I found the monthly average for each expense so that I could spread the costs out evenly throught the year. This works well for annual and semi annual or quarterly expenses. You need a little extra money to start this process, but it's worth it because you will never have that yearly payment come along and not have the money to pay it. It also gives you a more accurate picture of the money you have committed to pay. When you sign a contract you are making a committment. If you don't plan for it you will spend that money on something else.

The ongoing problem for me has been sticking to the budget but that is another posts.