Sunday
Mood: A few happy moments, but mostly dominated by several hard experiences resulting in the shedding of tears.
Weather forecast: A few moments of intermittent sunshine but otherwise mostly cloudy with a chance of rain. Flooding in low-lying places.
Monday
Mood: Gloomy and somewhat agitated.
Weather forecast: Mostly cloudy with light, blustery winds.
Tuesday
Mood: Lifting somewhat, happier disposition.
Weather forecast: Milder temperatures, occasional appearance of sunshine.
It may seem that our moods are mirroring the forecast, perhaps even being influence by them. This is not true. External circumstances have determined our moods no matter what the actual weather. I just happened to notice the similarities.
We're praying for warmer, sunnier days. Might we already be feeling a change in the air?
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
Frugal Sunday Dinner, 3/6/11
It was a smaller crowd than usual yesterday. First, The Bear chose the menu . . . and then forgot and went home with friends, but not before giving me strict instructions that we were to save some leftovers for him! Second, Princess and her little family had a better offer. But the rest - all 7 of us - feasted accordingly.
These were the things on yesterday's menu:
- Mexican Chicken casserole
- Mexican rice
- Refried beans
- Mock Mexican fried ice cream
One version of "Mock Fried Ice Cream" recipe can be found here. I was inspired by this recipe but then modified it to fit our tastes by using some frugal items we had on hand. Here is my version (pictured above):
Vanilla ice cream
Honey nut Cheerios (they were on sale this week) - about 2 1/2 cups crushed
Pecans - about 1/2 cup chopped
Coconut - about 1 cup shredded
Butter - 1/2 cup melted
Light corn syrup
Honey
Whipped cream
Cinnamon
Form ice cream into balls. Crush the cereal. Mix cereal with nuts, coconut, and melted butter. Roll ice cream balls into cereal mixture. Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and freeze until hard.
Meanwhile, mix about 1/4 of light corn syrup with 1/4 cup of honey. When ready to serve, place one ice cream ball into serving dish. Drizzle with honey mixture. Add a dollop of whipped cream and finish with a shake of cinnamon. Serves about 15.
The Bear rated this an A+ (obviously we had leftovers.)
Here is the Mexican Chicken casserole that I fixed because The Bear requested it:
Cube about 1.5 lbs. of baked chicken breasts. Place in 8 x 8 inch baking dish. Mix 1 can of cream of chicken soup with 1 small can of red enchilada sauce. Pour soup mixture over chicken cubes and mix well. Crush by hand enough original flavor Dorito chips to make a crust for the top. Place shredded cheese over the chip crust. (The fact that I am not exact on my measurements proves that I quit measuring many years ago!) Bake in 350 degree oven until cheese melts on top.
(I doubled this recipe for yesterday's meal. Yes, there were leftovers enough to feed The Bear.)
The Bear rated this an A+ (obviously we had leftovers.)
Here is the Mexican Chicken casserole that I fixed because The Bear requested it:
Cube about 1.5 lbs. of baked chicken breasts. Place in 8 x 8 inch baking dish. Mix 1 can of cream of chicken soup with 1 small can of red enchilada sauce. Pour soup mixture over chicken cubes and mix well. Crush by hand enough original flavor Dorito chips to make a crust for the top. Place shredded cheese over the chip crust. (The fact that I am not exact on my measurements proves that I quit measuring many years ago!) Bake in 350 degree oven until cheese melts on top.
(I doubled this recipe for yesterday's meal. Yes, there were leftovers enough to feed The Bear.)
This picture of the spring robin doesn't have anything to do with yesterday's meal. It just goes to show you that I feed all my visitors well, including the birds!
Friday, March 4, 2011
More Frugal Beauty Tips
This is a continuation and expansion of a prior post found here.
I thought a bit about the frugal skin care ideas that I've used over the years and realized that I no longer have access to one of the products I mentioned as being previously free to me. What would I use now? And don't think this is purely a mental exercise! I will be returning to this skin care routine shortly but I still have no intention of buying anything! I will need to substitute something while still implementing the following inexpensive steps:
I also am equipped with a few bottles and bars of baby soap from previous babysitting days. Perhaps I'm wrong, but it seems to me that if a product is mild enough to use on a baby's delicate skin it might not be bad for using on my face either. I see no reason to let these products go to waste.
These two sources of soap shall now take the place of cleanser in Step 2. My point being that any soap would do as long as the oil and moisturizer steps are faithfully followed.
Moving on from the facial package, there is the matter of the mouth.
But what happens if you're traveling and find that you've forgotten to pack toothpaste? Okay, most places will give you a complimentary tube at the front desk if you ask, but not all of them. And I've been surprised to find that it is some of the higher-end places (where we've been deposited by the churches where Pastor Dad has been a guest speaker lest you think we're paying their exorbitant prices ourselves. Ha! Ha! Ha!) that will charge a nominal fee for forgotten items.
Forget it! Go to the nearest store and buy a package of baking soda. It will cost less than those micro sizes of toothpaste and do nicely in a pinch. Brushing with a powder isn't as sublime an experience as brushing with paste (oh, I'm really a wise-cracker today!) but it will get the job done inexpensively and will also remind you to pack better next trip. If you cannot take the box of baking soda home at the end of your stay (for instance, if you're traveling by airline) give it to someone (the host pastor's wife maybe?) or just throw it away. The money wasted will be less than on a small tube of toothpaste.
Speaking of oral hygiene, for every day teeth whitening and mouth wash, swish a very small amount hydrogen peroxide around in the mouth for 5 minutes each morning and then gargle it before spitting it out. You must use a very small amount or you'll end up looking like you're suffering a case of rabies! But a small amount is good anyway when you're striving to be thrifty!
As an added bonus, peroxide kills germs. This could potentially save the cost of a doctor bill, too. But don't swallow the stuff. Just swish, gargle, and spit it out.
The mail option usually nets the subscriber with more product than can be used in a month. My theory is to split the order between 2 or 3 friends. Or do like my daughter did and wait to have such a backlog that the subscription can be cancelled without running out of products for a year or so.
The kiosk option is only available to those who live near enough to a mall that has one to meet the need. I checked today to see how close we are to a kiosk where we can buy them directly and it isn't that close. However, there are other purchases we can make while in that neighborhood and we are usually at this particular mall a couple of times a year. That would probably be our best option even though there is no shortage of young people who regularly visit our house to play video games with The Bear that would be potential "product-sharers." I'm not sure how kindly they and their parents would take it if I were to approach them with an offer of sharing the purchase of acne products. Sounds a bit insulting to me. Therefore, I think we'll make a trip to the closest kiosk in the next month or so.
Let me know if you have any frugal beauty tips to share. I'm always looking for new suggestions.
This post is linked to Frugal Friday at Life as Mom
I thought a bit about the frugal skin care ideas that I've used over the years and realized that I no longer have access to one of the products I mentioned as being previously free to me. What would I use now? And don't think this is purely a mental exercise! I will be returning to this skin care routine shortly but I still have no intention of buying anything! I will need to substitute something while still implementing the following inexpensive steps:
- baby oil
- wash with - oh, I don't know; we'll discuss this in a minute
- alcohol on 1/2 of a cotton ball
- moisturizer
I also am equipped with a few bottles and bars of baby soap from previous babysitting days. Perhaps I'm wrong, but it seems to me that if a product is mild enough to use on a baby's delicate skin it might not be bad for using on my face either. I see no reason to let these products go to waste.
These two sources of soap shall now take the place of cleanser in Step 2. My point being that any soap would do as long as the oil and moisturizer steps are faithfully followed.
Moving on from the facial package, there is the matter of the mouth.
- Toothpaste, teeth whitener, and mouthwash
But what happens if you're traveling and find that you've forgotten to pack toothpaste? Okay, most places will give you a complimentary tube at the front desk if you ask, but not all of them. And I've been surprised to find that it is some of the higher-end places (where we've been deposited by the churches where Pastor Dad has been a guest speaker lest you think we're paying their exorbitant prices ourselves. Ha! Ha! Ha!) that will charge a nominal fee for forgotten items.
Forget it! Go to the nearest store and buy a package of baking soda. It will cost less than those micro sizes of toothpaste and do nicely in a pinch. Brushing with a powder isn't as sublime an experience as brushing with paste (oh, I'm really a wise-cracker today!) but it will get the job done inexpensively and will also remind you to pack better next trip. If you cannot take the box of baking soda home at the end of your stay (for instance, if you're traveling by airline) give it to someone (the host pastor's wife maybe?) or just throw it away. The money wasted will be less than on a small tube of toothpaste.
Speaking of oral hygiene, for every day teeth whitening and mouth wash, swish a very small amount hydrogen peroxide around in the mouth for 5 minutes each morning and then gargle it before spitting it out. You must use a very small amount or you'll end up looking like you're suffering a case of rabies! But a small amount is good anyway when you're striving to be thrifty!
As an added bonus, peroxide kills germs. This could potentially save the cost of a doctor bill, too. But don't swallow the stuff. Just swish, gargle, and spit it out.
- Acne products
The mail option usually nets the subscriber with more product than can be used in a month. My theory is to split the order between 2 or 3 friends. Or do like my daughter did and wait to have such a backlog that the subscription can be cancelled without running out of products for a year or so.
The kiosk option is only available to those who live near enough to a mall that has one to meet the need. I checked today to see how close we are to a kiosk where we can buy them directly and it isn't that close. However, there are other purchases we can make while in that neighborhood and we are usually at this particular mall a couple of times a year. That would probably be our best option even though there is no shortage of young people who regularly visit our house to play video games with The Bear that would be potential "product-sharers." I'm not sure how kindly they and their parents would take it if I were to approach them with an offer of sharing the purchase of acne products. Sounds a bit insulting to me. Therefore, I think we'll make a trip to the closest kiosk in the next month or so.
Let me know if you have any frugal beauty tips to share. I'm always looking for new suggestions.
This post is linked to Frugal Friday at Life as Mom
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
The Books of February 2011
This was not a month spent reading a lot for pleasure. This was more a month for research, specifically as it related to the Ohio History Class that I teach each Monday in our homeschool co-op. But even that netted me some reading pleasure.
This was also a month that saw me spending a great deal of time on the road for the sake of basketball. I'm one of those folks who can read just fine while riding in a car, but I've never tried to do it while actually doing the driving.
Without further ado (and whining), I will review the books I read last month. But first, I'd like to draw your attention to something. It's March! Yippee! The month that spring officially begins. :)
Okay, now that I got that out of my system, here are the books I read in February.
This was the book I alluded to when I said I wondered why I hadn't written it. (Well, I know the answer to that, really.) To say that I do - and have done - probably 90% of the stuff in the book is not an exaggeration. In our case, it is not that we are suddenly frugal. It is that we are looking for more cost-cutting tips. I did find a few that were new to me and some that I knew already but needed to be reminded to do.
One of the new tips I learned was that vinegar can be used to clean laminate floors. We replaced most of the carpet in our house with a quality wood-look laminate a couple of years ago and I had found that the cheap store-brand alternatives to Swiffer mopping cloths were not worth the money I paid for them so I always used the real thing (which should make several members of my extended family who work for P and G very happy). However, I am pleased to have the vinegar and water frugal alternative. My floors look G-R-E-A-T.
If you "suddenly" find yourself needing some frugal suggestions I recommend this book. It will get you moving in the right direction. And then, for more industrial strength frugality, go borrow the bound volumes of The Tightwad Gazette (written by Amy Dacyczyn) or better yet, find them in a thrift store.
The series is about the disappearance of a girl named Daisy and is set in 1973. Book 1 is written from the perspective of her friend, Jed Pepper, a preacher's kid. Do you see any similarities to my own family yet? Well, yes, The Bear was a 14-year-old preacher's kid this time last year. Like Jed, he is also pretty trustworthy and somewhat of an introverted deep thinker. Perhaps now you see why the book disturbed me a bit too much to want to remember something written from the perspective of the tortured 14-year-old boy who feels responsible for his best friend's disappearance.
These good qualities are about all that The Bear has in common with Jed, though. The Bear's preacher-dad is NOTHING like Jed's dad, thankfully. In fact, despite the fact that I kept seeing The Bear's face as I read, the rest of the family and the people in his father's church resemble nobody that I know.
A Slow Burn picks up the story where Daisy Chain left off but the thread is picked up by Daisy's grieving mother, Emory. She is haunted by her own feelings of remorse. She wasn't a good mother to Daisy. In fact, she wasn't a good neighbor, friend, employee, or anything to anyone with whom she came in contact. This book is about her journey to find her daughter's killer (yes, Daisy is dead) and the spiritual journey she begins in spite of her desire to avoid it.
I recommend these books, but only if you have the time to read the whole trilogy because the first book left me totally deflated and this second book left me waiting for Emory to find the answers to the questions that troubled her, including the identity of the killer.
(P.S. I began the third and final book in the trilogy this month but did not finish it. I just completed it last night and will review it next month.)
Why did I read this magazine? It provided research toward a lesson I was teaching in my Ohio History class. My students are 4th-6th grade homeschoolers and I think it is important that the information I present be both interesting and accurate. This particular edition had an article concerning European migration and the Kaskaskia Indians. We happened to be studying how the Native Americans in the Ohio region were influenced by French fur traders.
As an added bonus, after I returned home with this magazine I found that another article in it was written by a professor that Pastor Dad and I met last year at the conference we attended in Mississippi. And as an added added bonus the article was about the pastor of one of the churches that started the church that Pastor Dad now pastors. Okay, that's not quite as confusing as it sounds. (A certain pastor pastored a church in KY in the 1700s. That church later helped start our church.) The article was interesting to me, too, because it discussed regional and cultural biases among Baptists in the late 1700s. Ohio was a frontier microcosm of the blending between the New England and southern cultures. Most historians are familiar with how that blending in the 13 original colonies wreaked havoc with the nerves of our Founding Fathers as they worked to coalesce the colonies into a nation. Those regional prejudices extended beyond governmental procedures and into how churches conducted their worship and missions. This, of course, was aggravated by how differing affiliations interpreted Scripture concerning church polity and its offspring, missions.
But for those of you who are not interested in Native Americans or church history, this volume also contained an article about a heinous robbery/murder and the resulting execution of the perpetrators, plus one about a steamboat of long ago. There was also a section for book reviews, which I found helpful for suggestions for further reading, particularly to adequately prepare for certain future Ohio History lessons, which was the impetus for obtaining this magazine in the first place!
So the results for this month are not that spectacular, but they are what they are:
1 non-fiction book
1 non-fiction magazine (which had more information in it than many of the non-fiction books I've read)
2 fiction books (1 via audiobook)
This was also a month that saw me spending a great deal of time on the road for the sake of basketball. I'm one of those folks who can read just fine while riding in a car, but I've never tried to do it while actually doing the driving.
Without further ado (and whining), I will review the books I read last month. But first, I'd like to draw your attention to something. It's March! Yippee! The month that spring officially begins. :)
Okay, now that I got that out of my system, here are the books I read in February.
- Suddenly Frugal by Leah Ingram.
This was the book I alluded to when I said I wondered why I hadn't written it. (Well, I know the answer to that, really.) To say that I do - and have done - probably 90% of the stuff in the book is not an exaggeration. In our case, it is not that we are suddenly frugal. It is that we are looking for more cost-cutting tips. I did find a few that were new to me and some that I knew already but needed to be reminded to do.
One of the new tips I learned was that vinegar can be used to clean laminate floors. We replaced most of the carpet in our house with a quality wood-look laminate a couple of years ago and I had found that the cheap store-brand alternatives to Swiffer mopping cloths were not worth the money I paid for them so I always used the real thing (which should make several members of my extended family who work for P and G very happy). However, I am pleased to have the vinegar and water frugal alternative. My floors look G-R-E-A-T.
If you "suddenly" find yourself needing some frugal suggestions I recommend this book. It will get you moving in the right direction. And then, for more industrial strength frugality, go borrow the bound volumes of The Tightwad Gazette (written by Amy Dacyczyn) or better yet, find them in a thrift store.
- A Slow Burn by Mary E. Demuth
The series is about the disappearance of a girl named Daisy and is set in 1973. Book 1 is written from the perspective of her friend, Jed Pepper, a preacher's kid. Do you see any similarities to my own family yet? Well, yes, The Bear was a 14-year-old preacher's kid this time last year. Like Jed, he is also pretty trustworthy and somewhat of an introverted deep thinker. Perhaps now you see why the book disturbed me a bit too much to want to remember something written from the perspective of the tortured 14-year-old boy who feels responsible for his best friend's disappearance.
These good qualities are about all that The Bear has in common with Jed, though. The Bear's preacher-dad is NOTHING like Jed's dad, thankfully. In fact, despite the fact that I kept seeing The Bear's face as I read, the rest of the family and the people in his father's church resemble nobody that I know.
A Slow Burn picks up the story where Daisy Chain left off but the thread is picked up by Daisy's grieving mother, Emory. She is haunted by her own feelings of remorse. She wasn't a good mother to Daisy. In fact, she wasn't a good neighbor, friend, employee, or anything to anyone with whom she came in contact. This book is about her journey to find her daughter's killer (yes, Daisy is dead) and the spiritual journey she begins in spite of her desire to avoid it.
I recommend these books, but only if you have the time to read the whole trilogy because the first book left me totally deflated and this second book left me waiting for Emory to find the answers to the questions that troubled her, including the identity of the killer.
(P.S. I began the third and final book in the trilogy this month but did not finish it. I just completed it last night and will review it next month.)
- The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
- "Ohio Valley History" Volume 9, Number 3, Fall 2009
Why did I read this magazine? It provided research toward a lesson I was teaching in my Ohio History class. My students are 4th-6th grade homeschoolers and I think it is important that the information I present be both interesting and accurate. This particular edition had an article concerning European migration and the Kaskaskia Indians. We happened to be studying how the Native Americans in the Ohio region were influenced by French fur traders.
As an added bonus, after I returned home with this magazine I found that another article in it was written by a professor that Pastor Dad and I met last year at the conference we attended in Mississippi. And as an added added bonus the article was about the pastor of one of the churches that started the church that Pastor Dad now pastors. Okay, that's not quite as confusing as it sounds. (A certain pastor pastored a church in KY in the 1700s. That church later helped start our church.) The article was interesting to me, too, because it discussed regional and cultural biases among Baptists in the late 1700s. Ohio was a frontier microcosm of the blending between the New England and southern cultures. Most historians are familiar with how that blending in the 13 original colonies wreaked havoc with the nerves of our Founding Fathers as they worked to coalesce the colonies into a nation. Those regional prejudices extended beyond governmental procedures and into how churches conducted their worship and missions. This, of course, was aggravated by how differing affiliations interpreted Scripture concerning church polity and its offspring, missions.
But for those of you who are not interested in Native Americans or church history, this volume also contained an article about a heinous robbery/murder and the resulting execution of the perpetrators, plus one about a steamboat of long ago. There was also a section for book reviews, which I found helpful for suggestions for further reading, particularly to adequately prepare for certain future Ohio History lessons, which was the impetus for obtaining this magazine in the first place!
So the results for this month are not that spectacular, but they are what they are:
1 non-fiction book
1 non-fiction magazine (which had more information in it than many of the non-fiction books I've read)
2 fiction books (1 via audiobook)
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