Book Review: The Tightwad Gazette

Have I got a book to share with you! The Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn (pronounced like the word “decision”). The book is filled with great money-saving ideas, which should be enough to entice anyone to give it test ride. However, the author also reminds readers why it’s better to save more than earn more. She equates the “don’t save more, earn more” philosophy with running to burn off a candy bar. Instead of finding out how far you have to run to burn off the candy bar, skip the candy bar and actually get some health benefits from that exercise. Here’s how she sees that same philosophy in action with our finances:

“Most Americans are running to burn up candy bars. They are running out of the house, running to the daycare center, running on the job…so they can afford candy bars and Nintendo games, meals at McDonald’s, and designer sneakers.”

Isn’t that the truth?! We’re working so hard to afford those things we think we deserve because we work so hard. Now, here’s the punchline:

“There is a point at which the quality of life and the standard of living depart…where earning more results in a personal cost and erodes the quality of life.”

At some point, all that running to burn off the candy bar starts to interfere with the actual enjoyment of the candy bar. Time to get rid of the candy bar! Time to start working on saving more than earning more.

Anyway, Mrs. Dacyczyn offers some sound advice about living beneath your means and how to do it. I’ve found that I already do quite of few of her ideas, but there are still plenty of untried golden nuggets scattered throughout the book.

I highly recommend that anyone who wants to find practical ways to cut costs finds a way to get her hands on this book. I borrowed my copy from my homeschool support group library, but I’m sure you could find it at a public library or even from a friend. However, this is one of those books that I’ll start keeping my eyes open for at yard sales and thrift stores. It’s a keeper.

One last note: The book was originally published in 1992 and some of her price comparisons are a bit off from today’s prices. This does not affect the books usefulness, but it does date some of the information.

Thanks for stopping by!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

Homemade Pizza

Pizza Dough

2 cups warm water

2 Tbsp oil

2 Tbsp sugar or honey

2 tsp salt

5 cups flour

2 tsp yeast

In a large bowl, combine 2½ cups of flour and the yeast. Set aside. Heat water just until warm (100°F – 110°F). Add sugar, salt and oil, mix well. Add liquid mixture to flour mixture, and mix well, scraping sides. Stir in about 2 cups of flour to make a soft dough. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead in remaining flour until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes). Shape into a ball. Place dough into a lightly greased bowl, turning once in the bowl to grease entire surface of dough. Cover bowl loosely, and let rise in a warm place until double in size (about an hour).

Thin-Crust Pizza: Grease two 16-inch pizza pans. Set aside. Punch dough down. Divide dough in half forming a ball with each half. On a lightly floured surface, roll each dough portion into a 16-inch circle. Transfer dough circles to prepared pans. Build up edges slightly. Do not let rise. Bake at 425°F for about 12 minutes or until golden. Spread sauce on hot crusts, and top with meats, vegetables, and cheese of your choice. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes more or until bubbly.

Thick-Crust Pizza: Lightly grease one 15x10-inch jelly roll pan or two 9x9-inch baking pans. Set aside. Punch dough down. On lightly floured surface, roll dough into one 15x10-inch rectangle. Transfer dough to prepared pan. With lightly floured fingers, gently press dough to fill pan, building up the edges slightly. If using two pans, divide the dough in half, and roll each dough portion into a 9x9-inch square. Transfer dough to prepared pans. With lightly floured fingers, gently press dough to fill pans, building up the edges slightly. Cover and let rise in a warm place until nearly double, about 30-45 minutes. Bake at 375°F for 20 – 25 minutes or until golden. Spread sauce on hot crusts, and top with meats, vegetables, and cheese of your choice. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes more or until bubbly.

Each pizza will need 1 to 2 cups of pizza sauce and about 2 cups of cheese. If adding meats or vegetables, allow about ½ cup of each per pizza. Remember, to use cooked meats only.

Tips:

• These instructions call for hand kneading the dough, but if you’ve got a good mixer or a bread machine, by all means, use them. In the bread machine, simply layer the ingredients as you normally would for making bread and set the machine for its dough cycle. When the machine is done, the dough is ready for shaping. Follow the recipe directions from there. If you have a nice, heavy-duty mixer with a dough hook, you can use the mixer for the kneading part of the recipe.
• All-purpose flour, bread flour, whole wheat flour, and fresh-milled flour all work well for this recipe. My family enjoys a combination of all-purpose flour and fresh-milled hard white flour, but feel free to be creative!
• Remember, this is a yeast bread, so choose a hard wheat like hard red or hard white for your fresh-milled flour. Try a mixture of grains for a flavorful multi-grain crust.
• I usually make two large Sicilian (thick crust) pizzas for my family of four. The first pizza fills us up for dinner, and the second pizza feeds us for lunch the next day. To make this much people, I take the above recipe times one and a half.
• Save time later by doubling the recipe today and freezing half the dough. Freeze the dough immediately after kneading. To use, simply let the dough defrost and raise until doubled and pick up the recipe at shaping.

Pizza Sauce

1 Tbsp oil

1 clove garlic, minced

½ cup onion, minced

½ cup green pepper, diced (optional)

2 15-ounce cans tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes

1 Tbsp Italian herb blend

Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Sauté garlic, onions, and green pepper stirring constantly, until onions are transparent, taking care not to burn garlic. Add sauce and herbs. Stir well. Bring sauce to simmering. Reduce heat to low. Simmer gently, uncovered, for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sauce will thicken as it simmers. Recipe makes enough sauce for 2 pizzas.

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

1 pound Andouille sausage
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup cooking oil
1 quart chicken stock or water
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cubed
1 pound sliced okra, fresh or frozen
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium green pepper, seeded and chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
Salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes
Cooked rice

Remove casing from sausage. In a medium skillet, crumble and brown sausage. Drain and set aside.

To make the roux, mix together flour and oil in a Dutch oven, stirring until smooth. Cook over medium-high heat about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Cook and stir constantly for about 15 minutes more until the roux turns dark and coppery like the color of a tarnished penny.

Carefully, stir in stock. Remember, you are adding room temperature or cooler liquid to hot oil. Be Careful! Add sausage, chicken, okra, onion, green pepper, celery, and garlic. Add salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes to taste. Cook over medium-high heat until gumbo begins to bubble. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer gently for about an hour, stirring occasionally. The gumbo will thicken as it simmers and its flavors blend. Serve over hot cooked rice.

Notes:

• Can’t find Andouille sausage? You can substitute Italian or Chorizo sausage for the Andouille. I wasn’t familiar with Andouille sausage when I first started making gumbo and was a bit leery of trying it, so I started with a mild Italian sausage, and then I tried hot Italian. It was very good both times. However, once you make it with Andouille, you won’t want to change!
• Try making the rice with chicken stock and a little parsley or celery powder for more flavor.
• If you use fresh-milled whole wheat flour, your roux will be a bit darker than roux made with all-purpose flour. 

For a special treat, add ½ pound peeled and deveined shrimp to the pot in the last five minutes of cooking. Be sure the shrimp is cooked through before serving.

Menu Plan Monday

Do you menu plan? If you do, be sure to share your plan and get some fresh ideas at Organizing Junkie. If you don’t already plan your family’s meals for the week, what are you waiting for? Menu planning seriously reduces stress on you, your budget, and your schedule. Check out Organizing Junkie’s Menu Planning 101 for some sound reasons to take a few minutes each week to plan and some good information about how to menu plan. As my dear friend Lori always says, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!”

Menu Plan for Week of 9/27/2010

Breakfast 

Toast, fruit, and/or cold cereal (Toasted oats, which is generic for Cheerios™)

Lunch

Hubby takes a sandwich, potato chips, fruit, celery and carrot sticks, pickles and a gallon of ice water to work with him for lunch. This might seem like a lot, but he doesn’t have access to snacks during the day like the rest of us. I just pack a little extra in his lunch bag to get him through the long afternoon stretch. The rest of us either eat a sandwich and fruit or leftovers.

Sandwich of the week – Peanut butter and jam

Fruit of the week – Apples

Dessert of the week – Marble cake with chocolate glaze

Dinner

Monday - Pizza

Tuesday – Grilled chicken salad and stuffed foccacia

Wednesday – Spaghetti and leftover salad

Thursday – Beef and vegetable stew over potatoes

Friday – Gumbo and rice

Saturday – Gumbo and rice

Sunday – Hot dogs, baked beans, cole slaw

Snacks – Tortilla chips and salsa, crackers and peanut butter, fruit, carrot and celery sticks, or salads.

Thank you for stopping by! Please, bear with me as I slowly but surely add recipes to my new blog. I’ll be linking some of the meals to recipes still posted at my old blog for now, but everything will be moved over eventually…I hope. By the way, I did not make a mistake and accidentally type the same meal for Friday and Saturday. We've had such an active schedule lately that I find it easier to make double and triple portions on Fridays to eat all weekend. I'm so glad my family doesn't mind!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

What's Wrong with Our Food System Video

A dear friend shared this video on FaceBook, but it’s definitely worth passing along even further. This young man speaks a lot of truth about our food supply, and everyone needs to listen. If this video piques your interest, then I recommend you follow this little snippet with Food, Inc., either the movie or the book; FRESH: The Movie; and Joel Salatin’s book Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal. 

I Didn't Need to Know That

We now have two family mottos. One is “Re-defining normal one day at a time,” and the other is “Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.” When my eleven-year-old son came home from an impromptu field trip with Dad this afternoon, he very eloquently reminded me why these mottos are perfect for this family. He enthusiastically bounced into the room and with the biggest grin on his face, looked me right in the eye and said, “Mom, three of the best things just happened to me. One, I got to go to the saw mill. Two, when we were leaving, I got to drive the truck. And three, I smashed a toilet.” Why do my children always feel it’s necessary to actually tell me these things? I would happily embrace the motto, “Ignorance is bliss” if I were but given the chance. Sigh.

Homemade Laundry Soap

One of my least favorite products to spend money on was laundry soap. Anything that cleaned well but gently and didn’t destroy the environment was always priced well out of my budget. Then there’s the smell factor. Why is it that you can’t find compatible detergent and softener scents in the same store? Invariably, I’d pick two flavors that smelled wretched when put together on my clothes. I also noticed that only the expensive brands had an unscented variety, and that was usually more money. Why is that? Shouldn’t it be cheaper not to add fragrance?

Anyway, a couple of years ago, when I embarked on a mission to stop throwing money down the drain, I started making my own laundry soap. It’s cheap and easy, and it works!

By the way, in the last four or five years, I think I’ve only bought two small bottles of commercial detergent, and that was because I forgot to pack some on a couple of camping trips. I really need to stop doing that.

Laundry Soap

½ bar Fels Naptha or Zote laundry soap, grated

½ cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (NOT baking soda!)

½ cup borax

Water

Pour 3 quarts hot water into a large stock pot. Add grated Fels Naptha Soap. Heat mixture on medium high heat until the Fels Naptha has dissolved completely. Add washing soda and borax. Continuing heating and stirring mixture until it thickens to the consistency of honey. 

Carefully pour the hot soap mixture into a large bucket. Add 3 quarts hot water. Let sit for an hour or more to cool, stirring occasionally. Mixture will thicken as it cools. 

Divide cooled mixture between two 100 oz. laundry detergent bottles and top with warm water. Use about ½ cup per load of laundry. These two bottles last our family of four about a month. The soap has a clean scent by itself but doesn’t leave any scent on your clothes. If you like scented laundry soap, add a couple of drops of your favorite essential oil like lavender or patchouli to each bottle.

I’ve found that this is very gentle, low-sudsing soap. Okay, if you have hard water, it’s actually a no-sudsing soap. If you’re washing a particularly dirty batch of laundry, add ½ cup of washing soda or borax to the wash water. Vinegar is also a great additive during the rinse cycle. It acts as a fabric softener, a deodorizer, and a brightener for your dark colors. 

If you are having trouble finding the ingredients, check out the Arm & Hammer website for the washing soda and the store locator at the Dial Corporation’s website for the Fels Naptha soap. Borax is a pretty common product and can be found in the laundry detergent aisle of most grocery stores as well as home improvement stores. I can usually get a year’s supply of ingredients for less than $10.

The Zote soap costs a little bit more than the Fels Naptha and has a little more of a scent to it. However, it is also much better at preventing dinginess to your lights and whites. Home Depot and Lowes carry Zote.

The Fels Naptha Soap is useful to have around for more than laundry. Not only is it a main ingredient in this recipe, it is also an excellent pretreatment for tough stains, and it’s an effective treatment for Poison Ivy. 

I hope you try this recipe at least once. It’s gentle on your clothes, your washer, and your wallet.

Thanks for stopping by! Getting the dirty clothes through the wash isn’t really a housekeeping nemesis for me. Now, FOLDING the laundry is a different matter entirely. I’m so glad my children do the folding!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

Updated 9/26/2011 - Walmart now carries Borax, Washing Soda and Fels Naptha bars!

Homemade Vanilla

I really enjoy cooking and baking, but as with my love for sewing, sometimes the materials or ingredients can get quite pricey, especially vanilla extract. I know that the imitation vanilla can be reasonably priced, but I’m not really into imitation anything. So, I started making my own. It’s surprisingly simple to make. For those concerned with using alcohol, read a bottle of real vanilla extract sometime. Vanilla extract is about 35% alcohol, or 70 proof.

Ingredients
4 vanilla beans**
1-750ml bottle of rum, vodka or brandy*


Using a very sharp knife, slice the vanilla beans down the entire length of the bean but not all the way through. The objective is to expose the seeds inside, not to slice the bean into two pieces.

Submerge the beans in the alcohol, and seal the bottle tightly.

Store bottle in a cool, dark place. The mixture needs to steep for about two or three months and should be shaken regularly. You should see the tiny seeds floating in the alcohol. I keep my bottle out of the way on a high shelf. Whenever I’m looking for something up there, I shake the bottle.

After about two months, open the bottle, and test the vanilla by smelling it. At first, you may smell just alcohol. Leave the lid off the bottle for about five minutes and that alcohol smell will dissipate. Then try the sniff test again. If the smell of vanilla isn’t strong, reseal the bottle and let steep for another month. If your scent of vanilla is rich and strong, then your extract is ready to use. You might find it easier to refill a small bottle continually rather than trying to work out of the bottle.

Notes:

*Vanilla beans can be difficult to find and very expensive to purchase. Believe it or not, I recommend checking out a local health food store. Many health food stores carry Frontier organic herbs and spices at surprisingly low prices. I've also found good beans at a local beer and wine making supply shop.

I also save my old beans. When it’s time to brew another batch, I add a fresh bean or two to the bunch and mix both the old and new beans with new bottle.

**Rum, vodka, and brandy are all good choices for making vanilla extract because they absorb the flavor of the vanilla easily without adding any new flavors. The biggest difference is color. All three will yield a brown vanilla extract, however the brandy will be much darker. For the longest time, I only used cheap vodka to make my vanilla. Then I met a chef who swears by rum, so I gave it a try. I definitely liked the rum better. Even though many people say that vodka has no scent or taste, I noticed a definitely alcohol taste and smell with vodka. In the end, it boils down to personal preference.

Making vanilla extract at home does require patience. However, it has saved me a significant amount of money. The first time I made vanilla, I only make a quart. My initial investment on that quart of vanilla extract was equal to the price of a single 4-oz bottle store-bought extract. I got eight times the vanilla for the same price! Now that’s worth a little patience!

Thanks for stopping by.

Betty
Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Morning Chore Bug Repellent

I live in Florida. Like most areas of the Deep South, mosquitoes, no-see-ums, and other nippy members of the insect family abound, especially first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, half of my morning chores each day are outside, first thing in the morning.

Let me also tell you that I’m not a fan of commercial bug sprays. First of all, they stink. I have no desire to smell like DEET ALL DAY LONG! Yuck! Second of all, skin is porous. That means that what goes on your skin, goes in your skin. A daily does of bug spray just isn’t appealing at all. However, with the threat of disease and the daily deluge of itchy bug bite bumps, I had to do something. So, I made my own.

I need to add a disclaimer here. I do not recommend this spray for hiking. It only lasts about thirty minutes and is no where near strong enough for any great outdoor adventures. However, it is good for a quick drive-by letterbox or stroll through the park…looking for a letterbox.

Homemade Bug Repellent

Original Recipe

Lavender Essential Oil

Witch Hazel

Water

Spray Bottle

Mix 5 drops of Lavender Oil with 1 tablespoon of witch hazel. Add 4 tablespoons of water. Mix well. Either splash or spray solution on exposed skin.

Vodka can be used instead of witch hazel. Use 2 teaspoons of vodka instead of the 1 tablespoon of witch hazel.

This spray worked well, but it wasn’t quite strong enough for our entomological paradise. So, I doubled the amount of lavender. If the original recipe isn’t strong enough, use 10 drops instead of 5.

This recipe can also be made in larger quantities. Simply double or triple the recipe as you see fit.

Why lavender? Because it’s what I have on hand, and it's effective. There are two essential oils that I always have on hand: lavender and tea tree oil. Lavender has exceptional bug repelling qualities, is a great relaxant for cramping muscles, and smells nice. Oh, and is safe to use around our growing number of animals. Before I made this spray, I was concerned about using it around my children’s new bunnies. So, I sent my daughter on a research journey. Is lavender safe around rabbit? She found out that bunnies actually love lavender. In the wild, rabbits will roll around in the plants for its scent. See, even rabbits know it’s great as a bug repellent!!

I’m including a list of bug repelling oils and the bugs they repel so you can use what you like or make a blend for your spray.

• Catnip Oil–mosquitoes
• Cedarwood Oil–lice, moths
• Cinnamon Oil–ants
• Citronella Oil–mosquitoes
• Clove Oil–mosquitoes
• Eucalyptus Oil–mosquitoes
• Geranium Oil–flies, mosquitoes
• Lavender Oil–mosquitoes, ticks, chiggers, fleas, flies
• Lemongrass Oil–mosquitoes, ticks, chiggers, fleas, flies
• Patchouli–gnats
• Peppermint Oil–lice, spiders, ants
• Rosemary Oil–fleas, ticks
• Tea Tree Oil–mosquitoes, lice, ants

Always check whether the oils you choose can be used safely around animals and are compatible with any medication you may be taking. Many of our modern medications began as derivatives of these plants, and they aren’t always compatible.

Thanks for stopping by!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

Shared on:

Frugally Sustainable's Frugal Ways, Sustainable Days 
We are THAT Family's Works for me Wednesday 
Our Simple Farm's  Simple Living Wednesday
GNOWFGLINS Simple Lives Thursday
Our Simple Country Life's Heart 4 Home 

Recycling Jeans

I love to sew, but I don’t love the high cost of fabric and notions. However, I have come to appreciate the horrid, faded, so-badly-out-of-date-it’s-not-even-retro-cool shirt with the 25-cent price tag at my neighbor’s yard sale. What could possibly be so appealing about something so wretched? Why, the cute buttons, of course! You can make pretty quick work of salvaging those buttons that you cannot buy anywhere else for just a quarter. Yard sales and thrift stores are a treasure trove of fabric and notions. You just have to look creatively.

One of my favorite clothes to repurpose is a pair of jeans. Denim is durable, easy to work with, and terribly expensive. Many of my favorite projects don’t need a lot of yardage. Bags and book covers can be pieced together for a fun patchwork design. So, when I retire a pair of jeans it gets repurposed quickly.

For those of you mumbling that you’d rather see your jeans given to the needy, remember, not every pair of jeans you send to a charity should be there. Rips too big to be worth fixing, bad zippers, and unwashable stains are not good candidates for hand-me-downs. In fact, sending garments that belong in the rag bag now burdens the charity with the disposal job. So, why not get some real use out of those old jeans.

By the way, even if I don’t have a pending project, I’ll keep a stack of denim strips on hand. My hubby does construction, and if I didn’t keep his jeans patched, I’d be buying new ones weekly!!

I find it best to strip the jeans of seams, zippers, and buttons right away so I always have the raw fabric ready when inspiration strikes!

I do tend to wear my jeans until they're falling apart, but I can still get a lot of fabric out of them. Notice the big rip in the backside of these. What you can't see are the thread bare areas that make these jeans not worth patching. Time to cutaway the areas I don't use.

Every once in a while I'll make something that I want to keep certain details from the original jeans. Most of the time I don't want the bulkiness of all that excess. So, I cut away that bulk, starting with the inseam.

Cut the seams all the up to the waistband, then cut away the waistband and zipper. Follow the seam all the way up the leg, around the waits and back down the other side. If the back pockets still look nice, be sure to save them. They can come in handy!

When you open up the pant legs, you'll notice you still have a seam, a hem, and a couple of front pockets to deal with. Simply cut them away staying very close to the original stitching to get the most out of your fabric.

What you have left is 4 nice sized pieces of denim trimmed of all seams and zippers that can be used for a var iety of craft projects.

What do I do with them? Well, here are some pictures of my favorite projects. My daughter made the smaller purse. The large bag is lined because I made it for my laptop. The Bible cover, though, is my favorite! Don't you just love the pocket on the cover and the bandanna lining? I can keep my cell phone, a couple of pens, and a few index cards in the pocket, so I'm always ready to take notes! The splatter project is Colleen's creation. She' ll be using it to carry her dance gear, schoolwork, and lunch on Tuesdays. The whole time she worked on this project, the girl complained that I did "this" to her. I, of course, feigned innocence and blamed some freakish chromosome of her father's.

Thank you for stopping by!What have you recycled or re-purposed today??

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

What a Summer!

My goodness! Is it really September already??! I cannot believe how quickly this summer flew by this year. Although, I suspect my lack of an accurate perspective on the passage of time may have something to do with our very active, very full schedule. Or, I just have an innate ability to be completely oblivious to the days passing by. Either way, it’s September already!

We did have an interesting and unforgettable summer, by the way. The summer started with the Colleen and Jared singing and acting in their end-of-year performance with the Palm Lake Performing Arts Center. The theme was British Invasion and the final performance was filled with music from the Beatles, Def Leppard, Elton John, and the musical Oliver, along with some of the best Monty Python skits. My kids are still singing the praises of “Food, glorious food!” and complaining about dead parrots! This year’s theme is the Old Testament. They’ll be singing Contemporary Christian songs and learning a lot about Bible storytelling. I can’t wait to see what the dance classes do for this one!!

Just after the performance, we headed off for a camping trip to Stone Mountain, Georgia, of course. I just can’t get enough of that place! This was a special trip for us filled with poison ivy, angry hornets, busted knees, and monstrous ticks! Jared ran into the back end of a parked truck (don’t ask) and ended up with a pretty nice black eye and a little road rash on his knees. However, we would not let anything slow us down! We still hiked like maniacs even at night, found 81 letterboxes, made some new friends, and spent a little time with some old ones. Tom and Colleen made some special memories of their own when they tackled a challenging night hike that had them swimming across a channel and tromping around an island barefoot. Well, at least their boots stayed dry!

Next was a trip to Gainesville, Florida, for the 4-H State Competition where Colleen took home the 2^nd place trophy and a chance to compete at the regional competition. Oh, and not to waste the trip, we took a tour around Gainesville after the competition and found a few letterboxes while we were there. Of course.

Somewhere in here is a trip to Ocala for 4-H camp, where, after dropping Colleen off at camp, Tom, Jared, and I had a lovely picnic, checked out parts of the Florida Trail, and found some letterboxes…of course.

The 4-H Regional Competition was in Clemson, South Carolina, so we packed up our camping gear and headed to South Carolina for a few days. Did I mention that the transmission in the van was going? Oh, and the air conditioner. And the door locks and electrical system. And, and, and…you get the idea. Before the road trip to South Carolina we had to make some decisions. Do we dish out a few thousand dollars to fix the old girl or replace her? Well, we replaced her…with a TRUCK! Never in my life did I ever think I’d be driving a pick-up truck. Then again, I didn’t think I would ever own chickens either, and here I am. So, now we have this very large pick-up truck that I love driving, and we headed off to South Carolina. This was a much calmer trip than our usual camping adventures are. Colleen took tenth at Regionals. The dog discovered that she likes to walk in the shallow waters at the edge of a lake. We learned that the Botanical Garden at Clemson has some interesting artwork and is a great place to letterbox or crash a wedding whichever you prefer. We did both. We also made some wonderful new friends! And found some letterboxes…of course.

Also, in all of this craziness, my daughter turned 17!! I cannot believe she is 17, has her permit, and is a senior this year. It’s going to be quite a year! We had her party at a local place that does swing dancing including lessons. Everyone had a great time. I even danced!! Very cool!

We even managed to make it to the Homeschool Open House at the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa. If you ever have the chance to check out the CSI Experience Exhibit at a local museum, go for it! It was a wonderfully interactive exhibit where you visit three crime scenes then follow up at various labs including autopsy to solve the crimes. The kids had a blast. Ok, I did, too, even though there weren’t any letterboxes.

The summer ended with a beach picnic for middle schoolers with our homeschool support group. Jared had a great time reconnecting with friends he hadn’t seen all summer. And I got to hang out with some of my favorite moms and meet a few new ones. It was wonderful!!

Last but not least, we spent a couple of days with my brothers and sisters-in-law who visited from Pennsylvania over Labor Day weekend. I am probably missing a whole lot of fun things we did, but at least I got the highlights. I am so ready to get into the regular routines of the school year and to stay home long enough to actually get my house clean!! Boy, is it cluttered from all our comings and goings. Like I said, it was an interesting, eventful, and unforgettable summer. I have a feeling, though, that with Colleen’s senior year ahead of us and Jared entering the middle school years, it’s going to also be an interesting, eventful, and unforgettable school year. Did I mention that the kids have decided to be heavily involved in 4-H this year? When I say “heavily involved,” I mean that the 4-H club will be meeting here now, and we’ve increased our animal population by four. Oh, and Colleen is taking dance, choir and drama classes, and Jared is taking drama, choir, and piano lessons. It’s going to be an interesting, eventful, unforgettable, and NOISY year!!

Thanks for stopping by! Now that I’ve recapped our summer craziness, I promise to return to my more practical and useful posts. In fact, I’m almost done with my next one already. I had some down time during the piano lesson.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Betty