10 Minutes

In ten minutes I made a change to an area of my living room that has bothered me for over a year.  It cost $0, just a thought as to how to make the area useful and a bit more beautiful.  Just shopped the house really quickly and went from this sad, neglected space:

To this, with just a bit more life and a bit more umph:

Just a very small change in using a picture that was being stored in our basement, adding a bit of art from my children a small candy dish and some cd's that were laying around.  It just makes the space appear more intentional and that makes a big difference.  And a $0 budget for it makes this frugal mommy smile.  I pray to make many similar changes throughout the house this week as I prepare the house for the new school year.

What small changes can you make in your house today?

Blessings!

Adventures in Dehydrating

My new Excalibur dehydrator is amazing.  I mean, AMAZING!  I just got it two days ago after  literally years of imagining what I could do with one.  I set to work right away. Mango, eggplant, ginger (for ground ginger) peaches, kale....all of these have been experimented with.  Each one has been incredible.  I wanted to have this so that I could really make sure the kids had healthy snacks in their school lunches and so I would not have to spend so much on dried fruits and veggies.  Now that I have a great source for inexpensive fruits and veggies year round (more on that in a separate post), having this dehydrator is going to just add additional cost savings.  I am so excited about it!  I have been sending pics to close friends and family of some of my creations and they are equally amazed. All of it tastes like something from Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, and it is not because I am doing anything special (although I did specially season the eggplant - it was SOOO good!) but because what God has created is beautiful and tasty all on its own.

Also, the sun tea that I made a couple of days ago was really good.  I am going  to start doing that more.  There is no bitterness in the tea, just flavor.  It needs no sweetener at all.

I have really been trying to stay productive in the house, but still feels like nothing is getting done.  I have tremendous respect for women that work from home and/or stay at home with children.  It is a lot of work.  For me, trying to get work done AND simultaneous be present for my children's needs are two arduous tasks. But with God, all things are possible and He has extended me a lot of grace.

On the debt payoff front, in less than two weeks our children will be back in school and my husband's teaching job will begin again.  This means we can transfer all of the money that we've stored in savings directly to debt payoff - as soon as he gets his first paycheck.  I think we will actually be able to pay off our (small) vehicle loan next month!  How exciting is that!  When we get back to paying off debt next month, I plan on doing more posts about budgeting and how Dave Ramsey's plan is working for us.

Blessings!
 

A Productive Morning

This morning I got so much stuff done.  I washed and hung a couple of loads of laundry, made steel cut oats for breakfast (my 5 year old carefully cut of strawberries with a butter knife to go on top!), set out a jar of filtered water and tea bags to make sun tea  and prepped watermelon rind for pickling. Other things were done such as cleaning my room, making my bed, washing dishes and getting some other mundane things done. Now I am working and supervising the children.  We have tons more to get done today but I will be following up with the results of my day.  In the meantime, find joy in yours!

HONEST

Okay.  I have to be very honest with myself and anyone who happens upon my blog today.  I am a failure.  I have failed to make goals, much less meet them.  I have failed to use my planner.  I have failed to stick strictly to my budget.  I have been finding every way possible to use up all the food that we have, and then eating it without restraint.  Now the scale shows I need to budget more than just my money.  

Don't get me wrong, we have done a great job of really buying only what we need, managing money well, and saving during the lean summer months when our household income is lower.  However, I have just lost a lot of discipline in a lot of areas of my life.  My last post was about accountability and in that regard I have really failed. 

One of my brothers recently forced a goal on me - to run a 5k.  Its a race that I have done several times in the past, with no real problem.  But I have not run in MONTHS and right now it seems way out of reach.  My brother paid for me to run this race with him in less than 5 weeks.  So, right now, this moment I have to make a decision who I will serve.  My clothes are not fitting, my self esteem sucks...I snore sometimes at night, I have indigestion a lot and am bloated.  I know what I have to do, I know what works, but when I want to do right, sin is right there with me, keeping me from living a life that is glorifying to the Lord in many many many respects.  So, here we go, AGAIN, recommitting to a better me, a better approach, more discipline.  I pray that I can find accountability through this blog.

One thing that I am very excited about it my dehydrator!  I ordered one recently and am so excited about everything I can do with it! I envision snacks for the kids, dried herbs, fruit roll ups, beef jerky, etc. etc etc!  And I can also eliminate a lot of processed foods from the childrens' lunches for school :)  Makes me really happy.

I also taught myself how to install braid extensions in my hair.  This is something that I wanted to try for a long time....I understand that knowing this skill is one that saves a lot of money, but can also make a lot of money....I think I did a pretty good job, just need to learn how to seal the ends properly. 

I have also been pickling a few different things, learned how to make my own citrus cleaner and am about to make my own laundry detergent....All of these things are great skills and will save us tons of money.  I pray that I have the wherewithal to document everything here :)  

So, let me try again with goals for the week:

Thank you cards for VBS'

Rearrange and clean shelf in stairwell

Tidy up workout space in basement

Complete office space in breakfast room

Workout four times this week

Okay.  I am going to keep the list short and see how we go from there!  Time to get in order before the back to school rush starts :)