Lessons from the Garden, by Nancy Jansen

Today's post is from my friend Nancy who recently tried her hand at gardening and came away with a very special harvest. 

This year my husband and I decided to grow our own vegetables just for fun, and maybe to cut some costs. We decided on Scallions, Tomatoes and Cucumbers. We decided to buy seeds and a "starter tray" and start the veggies inside while we prepared the soil outside. The tray was a mini green house that kept the moisture in and allowed the seeds to germinate.

All of the seeds started off very nicely. The plants all took root. They grew to a good transplant size and we prepared an area that had direct sun about 1/2 of the daylight hours. When the time came we planted them and soon we had healthy growing plants.

Unfortunately, I have never grown cucumbers before and soon all the beautiful cucumber plants, with their tiny little cukes started to wither away. I thought, "Not enough water"...so I watered more, and they died quicker.  So I thought, "Too much water," and cut back ....and soon they were all dead.  I discovered too late that they had what my mother called a "choke worm." These are tiny little worms that basically suck the nutrients out of the plants, and they die quickly.

 
The scallions started out strong, but just never got any size to them. After 3 months, we pulled up the biggest ones, and they were still very tiny. Crickets had eaten about 1/2 of them, and some had dried up and died. So basically, nothing was of any use to us.

The tomatoes seemed to be doing better. They got REAL tall. I am 5'5" tall and they were almost as tall as I am. Some little tomatoes started popping out. All seemed to be going well. Now these were the big BeefSteak tomatoes that are supposed to get as big as your palm (or bigger). Suddenly, these little tomatoes started to turn red way to soon....like at cherry tomato size. Then the plants slowly started to die. I was only able to pick 3 tiny tomatoes out of at least 2 dozen fruit that started to pop out. When all the fruit was either picked or rotted on the vine, we mowed them over. I just didn't understand what went wrong.

 
Today, as I sat on my back porch, I realize that my garden has been a lot like my spiritual life. I just didn't realize it. Let me explain.

After I was saved as a teenager, I fell to the pleasures of the world. Like those Cucumbers, I grew big, vibrant leaves and abundantly blossomed. I tried to spread the Word of God to my friends and even realized a few tiny fruit of my own. But after a while, worldly pursuits began to choke out the spirit of life inside me. Those worldly pursuits took all the rich nutrients of God's Word and re-directed it so that the fruit in my spirit started to whither and die from lack of sustenance.

 Like the Scallions, the cares of the world started to take root. The evil of the world started to come and feed off of the things that would start to grow in me. The root was still good, but it was not growing because every time I sent up a stalk toward heaven, there was always some insect ready to devour it, keeping me from making headway.

The tomatoes are a different story. They were vibrant plants. They even produced -  smaller than desired and limited - but they did produce. So what is the lesson with the Tomatoes?

You see - when I planted the seeds, they were in small soil capsules contained by netting that made it easy to transplant. The tomato plants grew tall, and did what they were supposed to do, but the netting prevented the roots from growing deeper into the ground. The roots got nutrients and water, but once they reached the limits of the original netting, instead of breaking through them (which is what the package said they would do) and going deeper into the soil surrounding them, they stayed within the netting. This limited the effectiveness of the plant.

My Christian walk has been like that too. I chose to put a "net" around what God could do in my life. Oh, He was an almighty and powerful God, but He was limited because of my sin or my lack of faith. Like those tomato plants, I did not break through the self-imposed net and delve deeper. As a result, I was growing, but the fruit was smaller than it should have been and limited in quantity.

Thanks to a study called Grace Walk, I have found that I don't have to live in that box. I need to break through or shed the "netting" that is holding me back and plunge ever deeper into the depths of God's Grace and Mercy. I am not, and will never be, perfect or sinless on this earth, but God does not look on my imperfections. He looks at me through the forgiveness I was given through Christ's sacrifice. He sees me as a Righteous and Holy Child that he wants to give an inheritance.

I did not get even one cucumber or scallion from my garden and I was only able to eat one small tomato. But that garden.....It was a gift from God!

Nancy is a 47-year-old mother of 5 (4 of her own and one step) grown children and 3 grandchildren. She was raised in a Christian family. Nancy works as a Software Documentation specialist from home and is a member of Pathways Community Church in Largo, FL. 

Thanks for stopping by! Unfortunately, Nancy and I don't get to see each other much these days, but at least we both love Facebook! Thanks, Nancy, for your beautiful story and the reminder that God has lessons for us everywhere. Keep your eyes open!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

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Intersting Reading

Every week, I graze on a smorgasbord of blogs, devouring some the tastiest morsels and tidbits that feed my information and encouragement hungry soul. Some posts whet my appetite like a simple cup of soup, enticing me to look deeper at something. Other posts are five-course gourmet meals that completely fill me. Today, I want to share my favorites from last week for you to savor and enjoy, too!

Courtney at Women Living Well shares how easily and unknowingly we let the media and technology interfere with our marriage in 5 Ways Media Could Be Affecting Your Marriage. I have to confess. My husband and I are guilty of a few of the things she points out in her post like being okay sitting next to each other tap-tap-tapping away on our laptops instead of actually talking to each other. We may need to work on that.

My favorite DIY post for the week was Mary at Shining for His Glory. Her husband installed a new whiteboard for their homeschooling adventure. What so special about a new white board, you ask? You have to see it to believe it!! What a great idea! Check out White Board Mania! for an unusual approach to creating enough teaching space. 

My favorite photos of the week were in a Garden Mosaic at Mary’s Little Corner. I’m so jealous of that garden! The only thing I have growing right now is okra because it’s one of the few things that can handle the heat here in the summer. Just you wait, though! I’ll have some garden photos you’ll be drooling over in October! I hope so anyway.

Mz Helen at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage shared this very cool Strawberry Jalapeno Jam recipe! I am so making this for strawberry season! Wait! I have strawberries in the freezer. I am so making this next week! The jam is absolutely beautiful, and I love the idea of sweet and spicy all in one.

Last but not least, I must introduce you to my friend Linda and The Family that Likes Each Other. It was a difficult week for Linda last week, and she shared a bit of what was going on along with some wonderful memories. Please, take a moment to walk down memory lane with Linda, and please, send a prayer her way. After you read Elizabeth Deck 1931 – 2011 My Awesome Mother followed by Happy Birthday, Dad, the Man, the Myth, the Legend, you’ll understand the journey ahead of her, but you’ll also appreciate her interesting wit and approach to life.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoy these posts as much as I did. I think I’ll try to do this every week, but on Saturday instead.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

Frugal Living: Food

So far, in our attempt to live more simply and therefore live more frugally, we’ve looked at our priorities and our entertainment spending. Hopefully, you found plenty of places to cut excess spending. Today, I’m addressing food and household spending. Most likely, I’m going to tell you things you already know, but I hope you also walk away with the motivation to make real changes.

The key to frugal living is simplicity! However, do not mistake simplicity with convenience. Convenience is costly, and when it comes to food, convenience foods usually equal unhealthy foods that lack nutrition!

Real Food. With the excitement of extreme couponing, it’s getting increasingly difficult to get people to cook real food. Spending a few hours on clipping coupons and searching out the best deal quickly fills the cabinets with a little money. Here’s the problem: there are no coupons for fresh produce! None!

I’ve seen pictures of what couponers bring home for their families for $40. Unfortunately, you can’t live on 8 gallons of ice cream, 6 boxes of sugared cereals, 10 boxes of sodium-rich instant potatoes and 4 super-sized bags of frozen “pressed chicken” nuggets. Where are the veggies?? Where’s the fruit?? Where are the whole grains??

I once heard an amazing speech in which the young, passionate speaker reminded the audience, “You can pay the farmer, or you can pay the doctor.” How much money do you dish out to the doctor that you wouldn’t have to if you would just eat right? The money you saved filling your freezer with “free” food won’t be staying in your piggy bank for long. Trust me.

A good friend of mine confessed recently that after jumping on the extreme couponing bandwagon she saved a ton of money on groceries, but that she and her daughter needed new clothes. You see, all of that “free” food may have lightened her budget, but the scale wasn’t so lucky. She also realized that even though her sons didn’t have any weight issues, she wasn’t cultivating a healthy palate for her sons to take with them through life. What we eat in childhood, we crave all of our lives. Well, that explains my addiction to fried chicken!

By the way, those bags of salad mixes are over-priced convenience foods! If you won’t serve a salad unless it comes already chopped, then by all means keep wasting your money. Wouldn’t it be better to bring the kids into the kitchen to help with the salad for dinner every night? Little guys can do big things too like ripping pieces of lettuce into bite-sized pieces. Older kids can shred a carrot or two into the mix. That leaves dicing up a tomato and a cucumber for you. If you’re smart, you’ll already have some diced and in containers in the refrigerator. All the kids have to do is toss a handful on top of each salad and serve. A little team work and family time and you’ve saved some money.

Menu Plan. Stick to real food, real cooking and a real plan. You do not have to be a gourmet chef to put a healthy meal on the table for your family. It all starts with a plan. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail! Plan your meals each week. All of your meals! Use that menu to make your shopping list, and stick to that list.

Keep those meals on the menu simple. Menu planning does not change the price of filet mignon. It wasn’t in the budget before. It’s not in the budget now. Menu planning saves you money by limiting shopping to once a week.

I often use the sales flyers to help me plan my menu. Actually, what I buy on sale this week, usually doesn’t show up on the menu until next week or later. I write my menu on Sunday, but I can’t shop until Wednesday. The food for the first couple of days has to come from the pantry. After a while, I just got into the habit of planning those couple of days a week ahead. One of these days, I’ll actually get around to monthly planning. Until then, weekly planning works out just fine.

Keep an eye on the calendar when you plan. Got a potluck coming up in two weeks? What about that special birthday dinner, family picnic or other large gathering coming up? Think now what you want to make and watch for the ingredients to go on sale. Nothing kills the budget like racing at the last minute to pick up a couple bags of deli fried chicken on the way to that potluck get-together. My daughter’s birthday is in three weeks. She will want the same thing for dinner that she’s wanted every year since she was five: pierogies, chicken fingers, and cheesecake. I always throw some veggies in there to make me feel better, but that menu hasn’t changed for years. Look ahead to these special meals, make a plan and start shopping for them as early as possible, watching the sales along the way.

Snacks. You knew I’d eventually get around to these. Humor me. Inventory the snacks in your kitchen. Actually write it all down. All of it. Why do you keep so many snacks on hand? I know of very few good reasons to have a cabinet full of cookies, cakes, candy and chips. Feed your family a healthy diet of real food and ditch the snacks. It’s good for your wallet and your waistline!

We snack out of boredom around here. I recently proved this theory to my family. When we go camping, we’ll hike for 8 hours straight with little more to eat than a handful of trail mix and some water, and everyone is just fine. When we go to Busch Gardens for the day, everyone is fine with a good breakfast at home and lunch in the parking lot. No one is starving an hour after lunch like they are on a normal day here at home. There’s no sugar high or insulin crash. Concentration levels are just fine. They’re just bored, and think they need to eat while doing school work, reading a book or watching a DVD. Are you truly hungry or do you just need something for your hands to do?

By the way, providing fresh produce as snacks for your family does not cost more than that nutritionally-empty junk food, even if you did get it on a BOGO sale and stacked your coupons. You’re just buying your produce in the wrong place.

Don’t Buy Produce at the Grocery Store. This is an easy change to make. Skip the produce section of the grocery store and head to a produce stand or farmer’s market. When I’m paying 69¢ a pound for locally grown tomatoes, the grocery store is charging $2.99 a pound. I spend about $20 a week on produce that provides enough fresh fruits and vegetables for a family of 4 to eat at least two salad meals a week, a side salad with each meal the rest of the week, fruit for breakfast everyday, carrots, celery and fruit for snacking, and any other produce I need to use in recipes for the rest of the week. We eat a lot of produce. It really cuts down on the amount of snacks we eat.

Don’t Eat Out. I touched on this in the Frugal Living: Priorities post, but I cannot emphasize this point enough! Watch how much you eat out! It really adds up! And if you’re ordering something you can make at home like a hamburger, then you’re really wasting money! If you’re going out, make it special. There is nothing special about eating out all the time. And do not eat out just because you have a coupon! Those dinner coupons don’t save all that much money. If you happen to have a coupon, and you’re planning to eat out, by all means use it. We went to Sweet Tomatoes after Colleen’s graduation and took her grandparents with us. You know I used a coupon or six! Just don’t go out to eat because a coupon is expiring soon. There will be more coupons. There are always more coupons!

Watch Your Waste. Before getting control of your food budget, get control of your garbage can! Several years ago, I was doing my weekly refrigerator cleanout and was horrified at what went into my garbage can. The amount of food (and money) heading to the dump each week was sinful! I wasn’t menu planning at the time. I’d buy ingredients to some recipe I wanted to try, and then time would get away from me, or I’d forget about it, and the next thing you know the food spoiled and had to go. Buy what you need, and use what you have!

I also don’t plan for leftover nights anymore. Every once in a while, you’ll see it on the menu, but those nights I can guarantee what will be left over. Otherwise, I don’t bother. I just make the portions we should be eating, and leave it at that. If you are making enough food to have leftovers, you are tempting your family to overeat. You are also committing to remembering every leftover that hit the fridge so you don’t forget anything on leftover night. If you had to throw any leftovers in the garbage this week, you didn’t succeed.

Once you start cooking the portions of food your family truly needs, you’ll buy less, and you’ll waste less.

Thanks for stopping by! I know many of my frugal suggestions and rules have you rolling your eyes and saying, “Yeah, right. My family would never go for that!” Talk to your family. You might be surprised. When we had to make drastic changes, we sat the kids down and laid everything out for them. We put it in terms they understood. Math manipulatives work well for a visual here or a pitcher of water and a variety of glasses and cups with the names of your expenses on them. The pitcher of water is all of the money you have to work with in a month. As you fill each cup, the kids can see that there just isn’t enough water for all of the cups. Something has to go. Each small sacrifice means that cup gets smaller and needs less water. Eliminating an entire glass frees up a lot of water for other uses. We could either have cable television, OR we can have the gas money to get you to your Girl Scout meetings. We could have a bunch of store-bought sugary snacks in the cabinet OR we could have one homemade dessert each week and money set aside for extra-special birthday dinners. You might be surprised with what your family chooses.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty


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Menu Plan Monday 07/24

What a productive week last week! It seemed to take forever, but Jared’s room is painted! I’ll be posting pictures later this week so you’ll understand why it took so long. I can’t just paint a room one color and be done. Go big or go home! I’ll give you a hint. My son loves camouflage! Brad Paisley has a song out that should be my son’s personal anthem!

Colleen is away for one last 4-H event for the summer. She’s off to Gainesville for 4-H State Congress for the week where she and her friend Sarah will be competing with their team demonstration. I have no idea what else she’s doing for the week. I just know it’ll be amazing, and when she gives me a post about it, I’ll post it. I cannot say enough good stuff about 4-H!

Have a great week! I’ll be hauling manure to the backyard and prepping Colleen’s room for painting. It’s going to be an interesting week.

                                                                                              

Don’t forget to stop by Organizing Junkie for more menu ideas! If you’re looking for some new recipe resources, check out this Recipe Index Round Up.

Menu Plan for Week of 07/24/2011

Breakfast 

Oatmeal, fruit, granola, toast, yogurt, or smoothies.

Lunch

Lunch of the week – PBJs, veggie sandwiches and wraps, leftovers, or salads

Fruit of the week – Apples, pears, bananas and peaches

Dinner

Monday – Breakfast for dinner

Tuesday – Grilled chicken salad

Wednesday – Chicken salad wraps

Thursday – Texas Ranger Soup

Friday – Veggie-heavy pasta salad

Saturday – Homemade Pizza

Sunday – Salad bar Sunday

Snacks – Crackers and peanut butter, fruit, yogurt, carrot and celery sticks, or popcorn.

Thank you for stopping by!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

Frugal Living: Entertainment

Yesterday, I talked about evaluating your priorities and looking at where you are spending your money as the first step to getting a handle on overspending and living a frugal life. Today, I am attacking a common area of overspending: Entertainment.

When you looked at your list of expenses, how high was your entertainment bill? If it wasn’t very high, are you sure you added everything? It’s easy to miss things like books and eBooks, cable television subscriptions, Netflix subscriptions, magazine subscriptions and your smartphone bill. Living frugally means cutting out all of this excessive entertainment, but enjoying what’s left more. Trust me on this.

Lose the television. This is probably one of the top two expenses people will fight to the death in order to rationalize shelling out big bucks each month.

First, let’s look at how much cable television you watch each week. If you are only watching one or two shows a week, do the math. How much are those couple of shows really costing you? Is it worth it? Can you catch those shows online for free? Do you have to watch it right now or can you wait for the DVD of the season and borrow it from the library? If you’re watching more than just a couple of shows or you “just have it on for the noise,” then you need to shut it off because that’s just too much screen time and noise for anyone! If you really need some kind of background noise while housecleaning, turn on the radio or pop in a fun, motivating CD that’ll get you moving. By the way, did you know that many libraries also let you borrow CDs?

Second, look at the repercussions of too much television. How many hours do you waste in front of the television that you will never get back? Did you know that while you watch television, your brain becomes passive? Your mind is not actively engaged, even if you’re watching educational programming. Read a book instead. Or start doing all of those things on your “I’ll do that when I have more time” list. You’ll be surprised at how much time unplugging the television suddenly frees up in your day! And your night!! If you have ever stayed up until a ridiculously foolish hour watching movies from your Netflix account you know exactly how much time that screen sucks out of your life. Unplug!! If you love movies like we do, check out your library or Redbox. Redbox is cheap and only lets you have the movie for one night. It makes it a little more difficult to over-indulge if you know the movie has to be back the next day.

Third, cancelling your cable subscription saves you more money than the total on the bill. Getting away from television means getting away from some very strong and influential advertising. I bet you have no idea how influenced by advertising you really are. I didn’t realize it either until after we unplugged about 5 years ago. The Christmastime i-want-itus began to dissipate. My need to hit those limited-time sales slowly disappeared. When I realized just how big of an impact that advertising really made, I was glad we unplugged

Finally, the big screen is hurting your health. I know you know this one, but I’m here to remind you. You were not made to sit still that long! If you have a sedentary job, you’ve already sat all day long. Get up and move around! I know you feel tired, but I’m going to let you in on a little physics secret: A body at rest tends to stay at rest. You have to make yourself move. If you have a physical job, unless it’s the equivalent of running a marathon each day, you’re exhausted because you’re out of shape. Watching more TV isn’t going to change that.

Lose the Smartphone. This would be the other item I’ve heard people willing to fight to the death to keep. I have heard every justification out there for throwing money away on a Smartphone. This is not a necessity. This is an entertainment expense, especially if you use that phone for anything other than making a phone call.

Notice that I’m not telling you to ditch your cell phone. I understand the practicality of having one. After being without one for several years and experiencing the difficulty of finding a working pay phone these days, my husband and I finally caved and got one inexpensive phone and plan to share. Not a Smartphone with all of its bells and whistles and extra fees. Just a simple phone to make a few phone calls or to send a few texts. Nothing fancy.

I recently read a post on Facebook from a woman praising God for her Smartphone because it gave her something to do while waiting in line at a ride in Sea World. Really? I guess it never occurred to her to actually talk to the people she went there with. There had to be others with her because nobody goes to an amusement park alone. And that’s my other point. You spent entertainment money on tickets to Sea World, and you still needed to be entertained by your phone. There’s just something weird about that to me.

The bottom line is that your Smartphone is draining money from your wallet and sucking time from your life. Why do you have it? And why are you willing to fight to the death to keep it? I heard a very wise pastor preach about how to tell whether a person has a problem with alcohol. I think his idea works for our obsession with entertainment and technology gadgets. If God walked up to you right now and told you to put it down for a month, could you do it?

Free Entertainment. Once you get rid of all of expensive entertainment bleeding your budget dry, you'll probably look around and think, "Wow, I'm bored." You don't have to be. Read a book (from the library). Play cards or games with your family. Call a friend and have an actual conversation. Go for a walk. Finally take up that hobby you've been meaning to get around to. Read and extra chapter or two in the Bible. Sit and enjoy the silence (my personal favorite). You know you can find joy in all of these things, but it's so easy to let the noisy entertainment become a distraction. Simplify!

Thanks for stopping by! I know that today’s post was a little rough. I just feel strongly that our society emphasizes entertainment so much that we are too willing to walk around broke and in debt in order to feed the entertainment monster. Living frugally is all about finding the beauty in living simply. Unplug.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

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Nachos

A couple of weeks ago I posted that we have changed nachos from a snack into a meal. I thought I’d share just how we make them.

We use pie plates for baking and serving individual nachos. The plate is hot but fits nicely in those wicker paper plate holders. Remember those? When you used to use paper plates instead of Styrofoam plates at the picnic, you popped the paper plate into a basket-like holder to keep it rigid. I keep a bunch for protecting diners from the hot pie plate.

Any oven-safe dish would work, or you could use a baking sheet for melting the cheese onto the chips and then slide everything onto a serving plate. I don’t do it because I’m just too uncoordinated not to have the chips and cheese hit the ground during transfer!

Nachos

Tortilla chips

1 cup chili

½ cup cheddar cheese, shredded

Black olives, sliced (optional)

Jalapenos, seeded and sliced (optional)

1 cup lettuce, shredded

½ cup tomatoes, diced

2 tablespoons cheddar cheese, shredded

Salsa, sour cream or plain yogurt and guacamole (optional)

Spread the chips in a single layer in the pie plate. Spread chili evenly over chips. Spread cheese evenly over chili and top with olives and jalapenos.

Broil at 550°F for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Remove from oven. Top with remaining ingredients and serve.

Tips:

 If you don’t have any leftover chili and don’t want to use canned chili, brown one pound of ground meat in a skillet over medium-high heat. Drain. Add one can of chili beans, undrained and ½ cup of salsa. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. This quick cheater chili works great on nachos. For a vegetarian option, simmer two cans of chili beans with salsa and use in place of the chili. Both of these options make enough for 4 servings of nachos.

We like cheddar cheese on our nachos, but feel free to experiment. Monterey jack, pepper jack, Muenster and havarti are just a few cheeses that melt well and taste great on nachos.

Broiling at high temperatures can be quite intimidating. Unfortunately, baking these at a lower temperature just makes them super soggy and nasty. Stick to broiling. It’s quick and easy and dinner is ready in just a few minutes.

If you really like your veggies, by all means add more on top! Dice some cucumbers and green peppers. Skip the guacamole and toss on some avocado slices. I haven’t tried any fruits on top yet but I could definitely see diced mangoes working well here.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoy these nachos. They taste so good after a busy day. The cool veggies on top make this an excellent summer dish. By the way, you could also just make a big pan of these and serve them in the middle of the table while everyone digs in. Be flexible and have fun in your kitchen!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

Blessed by Grace: Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

Lark’s Country Heart: Made it on Monday

Miz Helen’s Country Cottage: Full Plate Thursday

Frugal Living: Priorities

We live on a pretty limited income, so I’m always on the look out for frugal ideas. I also get quite a few requests for frugal living ideas. I always smile at these requests. Most of the time when I tell people how we live, they just shake their heads and remark that they could never live the way we do.

I received an email from a friend whose family income was suddenly cut in half and who has an intelligent eye on the future of this country’s economy. She’s not panicking because she believes in God’s sovereignty, but she is looking for ways to weather the storm. So, in light of my friend’s request, I decided to post some of my favorite frugal living tips this week. I’ll be posting one each day. Beware! Many of these tips require real sacrifice. As my friend Cathy once noticed, “You really can’t get control of your finances without sacrifice, can you?” Nope. You can’t. Unless you have unlimited financial resources, some things have to go.

Evaluate your priorities. This is a HUGE step in getting a handle on your spending. Where does your money go, and what do your spending habits say about you? For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:21.  

I know of two couples who took a good look at their spending and realized they were dropping between $500 and $600 a month on food not prepared at home. One couple had one preschooler and the other couple had one high-schooler at home. It’s not like they were taking a large family of ten out to dinner. They were shocked to learn what their laziness and poor time management cost them. A dinner out from time to time is something special, but should you and your family be eating out three and four times a week?

Is a large percentage of your budget entertaining you? Cable television subscriptions, movie rentals, Netflix subscriptions, tickets to movie theaters, concerts and other shows, theme parks, and smart phones are all about entertaining you. Is entertainment a priority for you and your family? Everyone likes to be entertained, and a little entertaining distraction can actually be refreshing at times, but like everything else, too much does a lot more harm than good.

Take a little time to look over your spending habits the past couple of months and look at where your family’s and your priorities lie. Where is your heart? The answer might not be what you think it is, or what you hope it is. Write the list and crunch the numbers.

Once you have a clear picture of where your money is going, you can start plugging those holes!

Thanks for stopping by! I’ll be posting the rest of my top five frugal living tips this week. Even if you’re in a financial place that you don’t need to make any changes right now, I hope you keep these tips in mind just in case you need them someday.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

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Menu Plan Monday 07/18

I just realized that I haven’t posted anything other than the Menu Plan for two weeks now! I guess I’ve just been so occupied with doing the things I write about that I haven’t had time to write about them! I’ll make up for that this week and post about the last fourteen “lazy” days of summer. It’s been an interesting summer so far. So much for a leisurely summer!

                                                                                              

Don’t forget to stop by Organizing Junkie for more menu ideas! If you’re looking for some new recipe resources, check out this Recipe Index Round Up.

Menu Plan for Week of 07/18/2011

Breakfast 

Oatmeal, fruit, granola, toast, yogurt, or smoothies.

Lunch

Lunch of the week – PBJs, veggie sandwiches and wraps, leftovers, or salads

Fruit of the week – Apples, plums and pears

Dinner

Monday – Grilled chicken salad

Tuesday – Breakfast for dinner

Wednesday – Veggie wraps

Thursday – White Chili

Friday – Taco salad

Saturday – Spaghetti

Sunday – Salad bar Sunday

Snacks – Crackers and peanut butter, fruit, yogurt, carrot and celery sticks, or popcorn.

Thank you for stopping by!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

Menu Plan Monday 07/11

This is going to be a very strange week. Both of my kids will be away at camp for the week, and I’ll be menu planning for two. Cooking for just two of us is going to be very strange. I think I understand why empty-nesters eat out so much. Just trying to plan for the week is odd.

Hubby keeps teasing that we should fill the menu with steaks, lobster and seafood, just because it would be funny. We wouldn’t actually eat those things, but the menu would look cool and make the kids a little jealous. I can’t bring myself to do it.

Anyway, after a lot of deliberation, I finally got the menu finished. Breakfast, lunch and snack choices stay the same, of course, because everything listed are staples. Dinners, however, will probably be negotiable as the week goes on. We’ll probably eat about half of what I planned. Well, at least I’ll have a jump on next week’s menu!

                                                                                              

Don’t forget to stop by Organizing Junkie for more menu ideas! If you’re looking for some new recipe resources, check out this Recipe Index Round Up.

Menu Plan for Week of 07/11/2011

Breakfast 

Oatmeal, fruit, granola, toast, yogurt, or smoothies.

Lunch

Lunch of the week – PBJs, veggie sandwiches and wraps, leftovers, or salads

Fruit of the week – Apples and peaches

Dinner

Monday – Grilled chicken salad

Tuesday – Sausage rolls, salad

Wednesday – Dinner at church

Thursday – Chicken scampi, salad

Friday – Homemade Pizza, salad

Saturday – Breakfast for dinner

Sunday – Hot dogs, and pot luck sides (4-H club picnic)

Snacks – Crackers and peanut butter, fruit, yogurt, carrot and celery sticks, or popcorn.

Thank you for stopping by!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

Menu Plan Monday 07/04

My quiet week of painting wasn’t so quiet in the end! I ended up teaching 2 canning classes. What a joy to be able to introduce these ladies to canning!

The first class was noisy, crazy and very cool. All six of the ladies in the class brought their children. There had to be 20 kids in all from nursing infants to teenagers. What a fun mixture! I feel so blessed for the new friendships and our time together working with our hands. Although the atmosphere was a bit chaotic from time to time with kids running in and out of the kitchen while we chopped vegetables and chatted, these ladies just rolled with it. We joked that this is what it must be like at the Duggar’s. We canned about 20 jars of salsa with the water bath canner in 4 hours. Not bad for newbies!!

The next day I spent with a dear friend teaching her how to use the water bath canner and the pressure canner. It was a lovely time of fellowship for us and our sons. We took our time and talked a lot and canned some strawberry jam and diced tomatoes. In return, my friend sent me home with a piping hot lasagna to feed to my family so I wouldn’t have to cook dinner when I got home. What a sweet blessing!! On top of that, I told her I was having trouble making decent tortillas and she sent me home with her very nice tortilla press to borrow. You can bet I’ll be playing with it a lot this week!!

It was a crazy couple of days and my back was a little tender in the end, but I wouldn’t have missed these moments for anything! There was a moment during the group class that I looked around and the ladies of all ages chopping vegetables at the table, a child whispering into one mama’s ear, another passing an infant to a teenager that I don’t think was hers, and one off to the side nursing her little one and I smiled. This is community. This is what we should be doing. This is my social network. People coming together to work together and to fellowship together face to face. Not on the computer. All of our heartbeats under one roof for a short time. Yeah, this is community.

                                                                                              

Don’t forget to stop by Organizing Junkie for more menu ideas! If you’re looking for some new recipe resources, check out this Recipe Index Round Up.

Menu Plan for Week of 07/04/2011

Breakfast 

Oatmeal, fruit, granola, toast, yogurt, or smoothies.

Lunch

Lunch of the week – PBJs, veggie sandwiches and wraps, leftovers, or salads

Fruit of the week – Apples and watermelon

Dinner

Monday – Grilled chicken with peach BBQ sauce, mac salad, watermelon

Tuesday – Sloppy joes, chips, raw veggies (Busch Gardens! Yes, we eat in the parking lot and I have no problem with dropping the tailgate of the truck and setting up my camp stove to heat things up.)

Wednesday – Grilled chicken wraps

Thursday – Spaghetti

Friday – Big saladnight

Saturday – Quesadillas, beans and rice, salad

Sunday – Sandwiches on the road (Driving to Ocala to deliver a child to camp)

Snacks – Crackers and peanut butter, fruit, yogurt, carrot and celery sticks, or popcorn.

Thank you for stopping by!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

Friday Funny

My solar clothes dryer broke this week. 

It rained.