Thanksgiving Reading and Decluttering Books

I thought I'd share my Thanksgiving books that I'm reading before Thanksgiving is over. I've decluttered most of my books and I've told myself that anything I keep I have to have the intention of using unless it is a very special item I just want to keep, but even those I can't just keep them in a box or a drawer, I have to put them out and enjoy them or pass them on.









So I have a lot of reading to do. I pulled out 2 books to read, one is called "Drug Store Days" by Richard Armour about growing up as the son of a drug store owner. The store was founded by his grandfather, Armour Drug Store in Pomona, California in 1890. So far it's delightful. The other one is "Transfer Point" by Kathryn Forbes. She also wrote "Mama's Bank Account" which is a charming book. It inspired "I Remember Mama", so this one should be good too. It's published in 1947. I love old books.

I still have sewing/craft books and cookbooks to go through. I hope to do those in the next week or two and then it the Christmas decorations. I have way too many and hope to just keep the special ones.

I love children's books and like to set them out to add color and whimsy.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. 

Linda

Decluttering: Needs Change

I'm decluttering my gift wrap supplies. I've been trying to use up the paper and ribbon I had stock piled for several years now, but I still have paper, gift bags and tissue that is old and I really don't like or has been reused several times, so I decided to choose a container for each and only keep what I like and what fits in the container. I'm recycling all the rest. I have a big pile of used tissue.

So I still have plenty of paper for Christmas. I realized that we have cut back so much on gifts now that I don't really need that much. Ribbon is the one thing I have had to buy.

I've decluttered 2 more closets now. I'm letting go of things I've hung on to because I didn't know where to take them like an old stereo system. My dd convinced me that the old tapes probably aren't any good now, which is one of the things they talk about, if you keep it too long no one can use it. I'm beginning to see the wisdom in the idea that if you haven't used it for a year pass it on.

Linda

Clutter Free By Christmas

I'm doing well on my decluttering. I've cleaned out 2 walk in closets and I'm working on my craft area. I'm hoping this year to get rid of a lot of Christmas stuff. I just have too much.

 Here is another link for you Gospel Homemaking is doing Count Down to Clutter Free

Also Clean Mama is doing How To Stop The Paper Trail

I'm thinking Thanksgiving dinner. I'm suppose to bring a dessert and a side dish so I'm thinking of something with apples and maybe a sweet potato dish. I may do an up side down apple cake. My dd does the turkey.  As usual it feels like the year is rushing by.

Linda

31 Days of Inspiration, My Choices

Yesterday I talked about the 31 Days posts and I just wanted to share some of the ones I liked. There is something for everybody in the list of posters. I'm hoping these will inspire me this month. I might share some more as the month goes on if I think something is really good.

• Amanda's 31 Day's of Intention's With a Measure of Grace
• Ann's 31 Day's To Crazy Joy
• Ruth's 31 Day's of Living Well and Spending Zero
• 31 Day's of Pure and Simple
• Stephanie's 31 Quotes in 31 Days

Photo is just more of my fall decor.

Linda

Fall Colored Block Scarf

Well I finished my scarf. Now I'm working on the hat. The colors don't look exactly right, but you get the idea. I'm doing the hat with circular needles. I've never done circular knitting before. It was a little hard to get started, but once I got about 2" in it got a lot easier. If it fits and turns out well I think I'll make another one in creamy white yarn.

I've been thinking a lot about Laura, Manly and Rose's life on their Rocky Ridge Farm. We talk a lot about simplicity and frugality. They were an example of both. In this book I just finished they are forced to move to town because their crops failed. Their life changes and becomes more complex, busier and more social. They didn't like town living at first and missed the peace and quiet of the country, but they began to see the advantages and took advantage of them. They had a much larger home that was pretty empty when they moved in. The idea was to take in a couple of boarders so they had to get some furniture eventually. Manly found there were a lot of bargains, to be had, in town when you were there Johnnie on the spot. With his skills he could repair things that others didn't want to bother with and they gradually furnished the rest of the house.

 I'm curious to see what happens when they go back to the farm. I know they end up with a bigger home at some point on the farm. It just showed me that they learned to be frugal and didn't get things until they really needed them. They made most of what they needed on the farm and I know they thought their homemade items were just as good if not better than what they could buy. When they moved to town they were able to get some things through trading and taking what others didn't want in town, but they still stuck to their frugal lives. They did find that they needed more clothes and nicer clothes. Rose was growing up and becoming a young lady and their social life had picked up. They didn't feel they could go to town in their old chore clothes. So sometimes our lifestyle dictates how we spend our money. They could get by on  the farm because no one saw them.

 Manly was more of a spend thrift than Laura. She had to keep him in check. He bought her a new fangle butter churn that made butter in 3 mins. She kept cutting herself on it and asking for her old churn back. She finally threw it out the window and broke it. She got her old churn back.  The main thing I learned about simple frugal living is to only get what you need today and to make do until you can meet the need without debt. Also I learned that a very simple life can be a narrow life. It's all about choices, but also knowing what really makes you happy. Not everyone is cut out for a very simple life. They got much busier in town, but they had to work to pay off debt and provide for their needs, so they did what they had to do by moving to town. They made the best of it by embracing the parts they liked, but I have a feeling they will be happy to go back, but will they be changed. I don't know, we will see.

I'm adding new lists to my side bar, this weeks it's some organizing sites. Some of them also have cleaning and decorating posts on them too. One I liked is Bowl Full of Lemons. She has some challenges, a 21 day challenge and some weekly challenges. I also like I Heart Organizing. A girl after my own heart. I haven't been doing much organizing lately, but need to get back to decluttering. I haven't been doing much except reading.

I took the ferry over to visit my dd and see her new townhouse. I always enjoy the ferry ride, but going to the city always tires me out. We went to church and out to lunch and I helped her hang up some pictures and met her new housemate. So it was a pleasant day. A break from my narrow, simple life. lol

Linda

Kitchen Stewardship

I've had this blog Kitchen Stewardship on my reader for some time, but never really understood what she was trying to do until I started to really look at her site.

She has a list of missions to help you have a healthier home and eat healthier. Her missions are baby step missions and you know I like baby steps. I love this kind of thing. Evey Monday is a new mission. She's doing MSG today, getting rid of it.

A lot of her missions I'm already doing, but most of them I'm not. There are a lot of things I've thought of doing but haven't and she gives you the motivation to try and do them, like getting rid of some of the plastics that are toxic or including the super foods into your diet.

So this week I'm working on the plastics, just checking to see if any of the ones I'm using are the bad ones.

I've already checked for HFCS and found my canned pears and bread crumbs had it. The mayo has soy oil in it which is an omega 6 and they say we get too much of it. So I've been saving the heals of my bread and making my own bread crumbs, the pears are really for emergencies supplies. I'll have to see if I can find a mayo with out soy oil, make my own, or find a substitute.

The photo is one of the few flowers in my garden right now a box of violets. They did rather well this year.

Linda

It Doesn't Have To Be Perfect

I was thinking of another lesson I learned from FlyLady. You don't have to wait until you can do a perfect job to get started. Sometimes a little is better than nothing at all.

We've all been taught that we have to do our best and give it our all, but sometimes it is so overwhelming that we need to be able to give our self permission to just get started. That is why I like baby steps, one step leads to another and before you know it you've accomplished more than you thought you could.

I also think it's OK to say that's good enough. I don't want to put all my energy into this project it's not that important. We all are busy these days and it can be hard to get everything done let alone having to do a perfect job. Sometimes we have to settle for good enough and I don't think we should feel guilty about that.

That is another reason I like to keep my life simple so that I don't get into that place of being stressed with too much to do and not enough time to do it. But when you are in that place give yourself a break.

Setting priorities helps you to know what needs to be done first but it doesn't tell you what needs a lot of time and what can just use a quick fix. That's where schedules come in, you know what needs to be done, you know what are long term projects, and you know how much time you are going to spend on each.

I had a hard time getting myself to do schedules because it felt too confining until I realized that I didn't have to do them perfectly. I could use them as a guide but I could be flexible. They are not a set of rules I have to keep, but a guide to help me know what needs to be done and when would be a good time to do it.

Over time I have made my schedules simpler. I realized I like having a morning and evening schedule and a weekly schedule, but I also like to switch things up now and then. I often try new things and tweak my schedule, but I never throw it out completely.

There are some things that have become habits. I always make my bed when I get up or almost always. I think sometimes I don't just because I want to be different. The last few days I decided to let my bed and bedroom air out for a while in the morning so I'm not making my bed right away. It suppose to be healthier. I throw out the junk mail as soon as it comes. I have a walk in closet and I change my clothes in there so they are never littering my bedroom or bathroom. I've also learned to put dirty dishes in the kitchen I don't leave them laying around the house. I'm trying to train myself to clean up the kitchen before I go to bed, but right now sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. But once something becomes a habit you don't really have to think about it anymore, it become an automatic response. You do it on autopilot.

Getting back to the title of this post I had to learn that things don't have to be perfect. My poor dd's taught me that as I had to learn to let them do things even if they didn't do it as well as I did it. Being a bit of a perfectionist that was hard for me and I didn't do it perfectly but I learned I didn't have to be the perfect mother either. It took me longer to learn some things.

Linda

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I'm trying to learn to be more frugal. When my income took a hit this year I stopped shopping. I was thinking about it and I remember I use to read Cindy's Porch. She challenges people to stop spending. This works pretty well for me, but I still need to learn to be a smart shopper. I really don't like to shop that much. I think I need to start reading her site again.

I've been thinking about how some frugal ideas are also healthy ideas. Homemade cleaning products is one. I've been wanting to get into this more but I have to use up what I have. I have eliminated dryer sheets and softener in the laundry. I've tried a few things and am using vinegar in the softener dispenser and it seems to work pretty well. I also had a hard water mark around my sink stopper and I soaked it in vinegar and scrubbed it with a brush and got rid of the water mark. I've also used baking soda as a scrub. I like it with lemon essential oil to make it smell nice. So instead of replacing my usual toxic or expensive cleaning products I will try to find an alternative. It should be interesting. Have any of you had good luck with this?

Sometimes the healthy choice is not the frugal choice like organics. Being frugal isn't the only thing to think about when making a choice. Sometimes you can give up something else to allow you to buy the more expensive organic choice. I looked at what I use the most. I use a lot of dairy products and can't buy them all organic so I buy organic milk and regular cheese. I've cut down on how much cheese I use. I eat a lot of eggs and so like to get the organic when I can. It's all about choices and compromise.

I have a long ways to go with frugal living as well as healthy living I get lazy and sometimes revert back to what familiar, easier and more convenient.

Walking instead of driving is another frugal and healthy choice. I have been trying to do all my chores on one day and do as much as I can locally, which is frugal but walking to some of these errands would add that healthy element.

Growing some of your own food is frugal and healthy, but it is not an option for me. I'm growing some Roma tomatoes in a pot and that's it this year. Gardening and plants is a place in the past where I have spent too much money, so I just made up my mind I wasn't going to buy any this year.

Cooking from scratch use to be frugal but isn't always now, but it is healthier. Of course canning and freezing can help you preserve produce in season at lower prices. I do some of this but as I don't have a big family to feed I don't do much. I think this year thought I will be looking for things to purchase at a good price and freeze. We have also used a dryer to preserve things like cherries. Yum. Does anyone preserve produce in season?

I was taught growing up to buy the best quality I could afford, but I have had to compromise that ideal. I think planning might help in this area. If I wait until I'm desperate for something and I don't have the money I have to either do without or end up spending money I don't have. If I know I'm going to have to replace an item I can start looking for a deal and trying to save. This all sounds pretty elementary but I think many of us have gotten away from this way of life we are too use to putting using the plastic and worrying about how we are going to pay later. I'm happy to say I'm doing well in that area, but every once in a while I let my guard down and then when the bill comes I'm reminded why I need to stop and think before I spend. Cindy's Porch also has good advice on how to stop spur of the moment purchases.

So my next question to myself was, is simple living and frugal living the same thing? I think simple living is generally frugal but frugal isn't always simple. I remember reading frugal tips and thinking that is not for me. I'm not going to start saving every little item in case I can recycle it for another purpose. Some of that is good, but much of it is more that I want to get involved in. Many people are remaking clothing now and I think if you like to sew that is a great idea. If I can get myself sewing again I may try it.

Making your own clothes is another one of those ideas that isn't necessarily that frugal. But if your are good at it the quality for the price might be better.

So what I'm saying is that being frugal is complicated for someone new at it, but I hope to become an expert at it in time. I want to learn to not only make the frugal choice but also the healthy and simple choice.

As I keep saying I don't want to leave prayer out of the equation. God can give us the wisdom we need or even provide for us in miraculous ways.

Simple living is a term that has come to mean something different to me then when I first started reading about it. I've read many of the back to the land books and leaving the rat race books. I was fasinated with the self-sufficiency of the Quakers, Shakers and Amish. I wanted to move to the country, raise chickens and plant a garden. I loved Gladys Tabor books and wanted to live her life. However I married a man who was not cut out for that lifestyle, so it was just a dream. I did try my hand at a tiny garden, baking bread and other things but they were more of a hobby than a lifestyle.

Many years later I got the chance to do some of this and found out it was a lot of hard work and I was no longer young enough or fit enough. I still admired the people that could do it. I began to see I was living a simple life in other ways.

This last year I discovered a blog that expressed a lot of what I felt simple living was to me. Sadly High Desert Home is no longer blogging but her blog is still up to read for a while.

Leaning to say no was something I had to learn to do when I couldn't keep up with my home and outside obligations. Finally I said I'm taking back my time and doing what I love, taking care of my home and my family. As they grew up I branched out a bit but always keeping in mind my priorities. I don't let other people or things take over my life.

I've learned over the years what I'm good at, what I'm interested in and I've stopped trying to be and do what other people think I should do or be. It doesn't make people very happy, but it has freed me to be myself. I didn't even know who I was for many years.

I often talk about keeping my life simple and what I mean by that is that I don't fill my life up with meaningless stuff. I know what my priorities are. I've found a sence of peace and contentment in focusing on a few things. Just like clutter creeps into your house, it can creep into your life. Continuing to look at what's important to you and getting rid of what isn't will keep your life simple.

Image from Allposters