Frugal Friday - Borax

I use Borax in several ways.

-50/50 borax and baking soda replaces dishwasher detergent.

-use the same mixture instead of Comet when cleaning the sink or as an abrasive when cleaning your pots and pans.

-I use a few scoops of the same to swish in the toilet. Straight borax works great too.

-I use borax in my homemade laundry detergent.

You should be able to find borax in the laundry section of your grocery store.

Sid the Science Kid Coming in September

There is a new children's' show coming to PBS it's Sid the Science Kid. The Henson Company and KCET Los Angeles are co-producing this show premiering in September.

Weeds-day

Yep, another theme. It just makes it soooo much easier. We schedule everything in our house it seems so why not the blog. Besides everyone else is doing it.

I'm trying to extend our garden beds and bought this Calibrachoa yesterday. It is generally used in baskets but I thought it might do well under one of our citrus trees; maybe it will spread out.

Designed to Sell - June 1st

I hear our episode will air on the 1st!

Here is the link:

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_hdts/episode/0,1806,HGTV_15857_56861,00.html

Take Time for Tomorrow on Tuesdays

I thought I would add another theme day and selected food storage. I'm hooked on food storage as a way to save money AND prepare for emergencies.

More to come...

Frugal Friday - Buy Honey in Bulk

Hello Readers,

We went to pick up our order from the co-op this week. We do this once a month. The co-op orders from Azure Standard. If you want more information just ask me about it.

Well, one of the items we ordered this week was a gallon of honey for $23.10. This is a great purchase for us since the generic "bear" honey from our local Vons retails for $4.13 and that is for 12 oz. only.

Why so much honey? Well, I make a honey wheat bread for the family and each loaf requires a half cup of honey. The boys eat this most mornings. I could make wheat bread sans honey but then I would end up with a bunch of whole wheat doorstops and nobody wants whole wheat doorstops. If you disagree just let me know and I'll be happy to make one for you.

I bet you want to know what a gallon of honey looks like (while being embraced by two darling boys). Well here it is:

Two Honeys and a gallon of honey

Steven Curtis Chapman's daughter killed by car in driveway

Steven Curtis Chapman's daughter killed by car in driveway
By KATE HOWARD and LINDA ZETTLER • Staff Writers • May 21, 2008

Steven Curtis Chapman’s youngest child died Wednesday afternoon after being struck by a car driven by her teenage brother in the driveway of the family’s Williamson County home.Maria, one of the Christian singer’s six children, was taken by LifeFlight to Vanderbilt Hospital, which confirmed the death, according to Laura McPherson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol. The 5-year-old was hit by an SUV driven by her teenage brother, she said. Police did not give the driver’s name.The teen was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser down the driveway of the rural home at about 5:30 p.m. and several children were playing in the area, McPherson said. He did not see Maria in the driveway before the vehicle struck her, she said.“It appears to be a terrible accident,’’ McPherson said. No charges are expected, she said. The accident was witnessed by two other children; the entire family was home at the time, McPherson said.Singer/songwriter Chapman, who recently was inducted into Music City Walk of Fame, is one of contemporary Christian music’s most recognizable and most awarded names. He and his wife Mary Beth have long been supporters of international adoption, having brought three girls from China into their family. Maria was the youngest.The couple is so active in the cause that they formed an organization, Shaohannah’s Hope, to aid families wanting to adopt. With his latest music tour, which came through Nashville in November, Chapman started a campaign called “Change for Orphans”. He asked audience members at each stop to bring spare change to the concert, where it was counted and given to a local family to aid in their adoption process.“I don’t know of anybody who loves his children more than he does and is so committed to the adoption concept, and to lose one, no matter what the circumstances, is heartbreaking beyond all comprehension,” said John Styll, president of the Nashville-based Gospel Music Association.“He talks about his kids all the time. That’s his life. His kids are more important to him than music, that’s for sure.”The tragedy was announced during Wednesday-night services at Harpeth Hills Church of Christ, which the family attends. Maria had just graduated from the church preschool.And word spread throughout the tight-knit Christian music community on Wednesday evening.Styll got the news not long after Maria’s death.“I’m confident I can speak for everyone in the community to say we will do everything we can to support this family, as we would do at any time, but especially at a time like this,” he said.Most of the Chapman family was at Vanderbilt children’s hospital after the accident and could not be contacted. The long, gravel driveway leading to the home west of Franklin was blocked off by Williamson County sheriff’s deputies.

Best Friends

You can always count on your best friend.

If you're lucky, you have more than one.

Can your kid to that?

Look at my dear R. He's cleaning the counters after having scrubbed all the cabinets. What a great kid! I didn't bribe him or anything!

Raccoons

Sadly the swimming pool bit the dust. Two raccoons came for an early morning swim without wearing protective footware; they tore up the bottom of the boys' pool. Naughty raccoons. They'll have to find somewhere else to play, that is, unless they can turn the sprinklers on!

On A Hot Sunday Afternoon...

the boys hop in the wading pool. Yes I know the pool is lop-sided. We shift the pool each weekend and we're all out of flat spots!

How To Wash A Car

Step One: Get a Buddy

Step Two: Gather your suppplies: bucket filled with soapy water,

shammy mitten, scrubber brush and combine.

Step Three: Wave

Step Four: Get to scrubbin'

And keep on scrubbin'

Dale Chihuly - Glass Artist

This is just beautiful.


Dale Chihuly's Glass GardenNora Quinlan, researcher, Alvin Sherman Library, NSUThe NSU Glass Garden by Dale Chihuly in the atrium of the Alvin Sherman Library on the Nova Southeastern University campus is a rare opportunity for the public to view and enjoy a beautiful one-of-a-kind glass sculpture for free. Watch as this permanent exhibit is installed and learn a bit about Chihuly's creative process.

Steven Curtis Chapman and R...

Thought it would be fun to post a pic of R from the Steven Curtsi Chapman website from a few years back when he visited Hong Kong. Click the below link. R is in the slideshow, the slide "Mother's Hope desires..." They meant to say Mother's Choice, R's orphanage home until the age of 14 months. R is wearing the striped overalls. We are in touch with the families of some of the other kiddos in the pic. It's really cool.


http://members.shaohannahshope.org/site/PageServer?pagename=abt_chapmanStory#a

Two Minute Potato and Carrot Salad

I'm always looking for recipes to use ingredients from my food storage. Since it's officially potato salad weather I'll post this recipe for two minute potato and carrot salad. I have no idea where I first saw it, perhaps a blog?

This all comes from your food storage. Hopefully you stocked up on canned sliced potatoes and canned sliced carrots when they were on sale for $0.50 per can.

Drain 1 can sliced potatoes and 1 can slice carrots and add to a bowl. Add mayonnaise, dijon mustard and pepper to taste and you're done. You now have a great $1.00 side dish to go with a quick lunch.

Frugal Friday - No More Paper Towels

For the most part we do not buy or use paper towels. Instead we use bar mops. These can easily be purchased for $1.00 each or less. I find that if they are called shop towels they are even less expensive than when sold as kitchen towels or even bar mops. I buy white towels and bleach them if necessary. Once they are too, well plain old ugly for the kitchen, I get out my laundry marker and write a "G" on the tag. Then the towels are off to the garage and live a new life as garage rags. I do buy paper towels when I find them on sale AND I have a coupon, well if they're free, plain and simple. Let's face it there are some clean up jobs that are too icky for even a bar mop. I suggest that if your husband or kids run into the kitchen screaming for a paper towel, give it to them; don't stop to ask questions. Who knows where that towel is needed!

Hey, when did they start doing that?

Okay, this has been all over the ladies-who-don't-lunch blogosphere....

"Well, I would like to share this with you. Yesterday I went to throw out an empty Reynolds foil box and for some reason I turned it and looked at the end of the box. And written on the end it said, "Press here to lock end". Right there on the end of the box is a tab to lock the roll in place. How long has this little locking tab been there? I then looked at a generic brand of aluminum foil and it had one, too. I then looked at a box of Saran wrap and it had one too! I can't count the number of times the Saran warp roll has jumped out when I was trying to cover something up."

I must have seen this on three blogs today. My goodness ladies! I want to say, come now, there is so little going on in your lives that you are so excited about wrap. Then I remembered the number of times that wrap just flew on the floor and there I was with something gooey to cover and my kids laughing and getting in the way as I try to straighten out the wrap which we all know is IMPOSSIBLE. Okay, I've locked all my rolls.

Food Storage - Sort of...

I suppose we store some of our food outside. We have a small garden. This weekend we harvested 3 heads of brocolli.

Composting and one of our 3 new fruit trees.

We grow our prennials in our flower beds. Here are some artichoke plants growing amongst gladiolas, boxwood, a mock orange, etc. We have strawberries growing in the bed in our front yard along our walkway along with chives, society garlic, rosemary, etc.

Previously we had more food in storage. Since I started receiving weekly produce from the CSA we have less storage and more fresh. It's a constant balance between budget and space. Our overall is to eat the best quality for the least amount of money.

Food Storage - Part III

Oils and vinegars.

Soups, sauces, seasonings, rice, etc.

Breadcrumbs, noodles and my mixer.

Granola, biscuits, cereals.

Baking necessities.

More baking.

Food Storage - Part II

All of the food storage from Part I was in our garage. We also have a full size upright freezer. I buy cheese when it is $3.50/lb. or less. I buy meat, poultry and butter when it is on sale for it's lowest price. I will store bread if I find a great deal or hit the bakery outlet. I would like to get ahead on my own bread making and store a few loaves. Tonight I'm cooking with a 5 lb chub of beef. I'll make spaghetti for tomorrow when I have jury duty and Nana and Umpa are here to watch the kids. I'll also make two meatloaves for later on.




Here is a 5 gallon pail with 25 lbs of wheat flour. I do seem to go through this quick enough that this is acceptable storage. Each loaf of bread takes 5 cups of flour. I just leave this in the kitchen where it's cool.

This is my cleaning storage. I use borax, baking soda, washing soda and vinegar for the most part. I make my own laundry detergent and use the vinegar in place of fabric softener. I store the powders in cracker jars. I also have a collection of rags. I make my own anti-bacterial wipes. I use small dish towels instead of sponges. We also have switched to bar mops instead of paper towels and dish towels for drying dishes.

Above our microwave I keep glass canning jars. I use these to store opened containers of foodstuffs.

I found that crocks are the best way for me to store root vegetables.

Food Storage - Part I

This may be of interest to few of you but I am asked about food storage from time to time and thought it would be good to post about this once.

In order to feed our family of 4 for as little as possible I purchase food on sale or in bulk and use that food storage in our meal plan each week. I've taken some pictures to illustrate.




The above two pictures are mostly canned goods, box mixes and pastas purchased as loss leaders at the local grocery store. None are organic. Most have been purchased for $0.50 or less as I shop the loss leaders and use coupons. I only buy when items are on sale AND I have a coupon.

The above picture includes my #10 cans, health and beauty, infrequently used appliances and cookware.

I purchase the #10 cans from Emercency Essentials and Honeyville Grains. The cans contain dehydrated milk, meats and vegetables. I know it sounds unappetizing, however when making a soup these ingredients do come in handy. Since we don't drink milk, I like to have dehydrated milk on hand for baking.

The health and beauty is purchased almost exclusively from CVS for little cash. I use their Extra Care Bucks system. I purchase items for little cash and store them for use later. I have plenty of Fels Naptha for making laundry detergent.

The above are items used for cleaning. I make most of our cleaning supplies but hold on to some commercial products for hard to clean jobs. I use these products rarely. I make most of my cleaners from vinegar. I buy vinegar from CVS when on deep discount or from Costco. The last picture is paper plates (camping, eating out of doors), batteries and confiscated toys :)

Happy Mother's Day

From me to all the mommies...

Mother's Day Eve

digiscrap by Nana

Frugal Friday: Vinegar

I thought I would try my hand at theme days. I think Frugal Fridays are a natural choice.

Now can you believe it's May is National Vinegar Month!!! Yippee!! Clip art wouldn't lie. I love vinegar. I make cleaners out of it; I used it in place of fabric softener; it is a great rinse agent in the dishwasher; I even use it as a scalp tonic/husband repellent (hee hee). If you have some free time (and I know you do because you're reading my blog), then head on over to the Vinegar Institute (no joke). http://www.versatilevinegar.org/ There is tons of information there. Especially here, Uses and Tips http://www.versatilevinegar.org/usesandtips.html.

Super Cook!!!

I was reading another blog and the author mentioned this new recipe website http://www.supercook.com/ Wow is it cool! Sign up for an account and enter the items you have in your fridge and pantry and it will list the recipes you can prepare with your ingredients on hand. It will recommend some items to puchase (listed below your list). If you already have these items, just click on them and they'll be added to your pantry list. It's pretty cool. It was no surprise that I can make brocolli soup, onion bread, mac n cheese, LOL!! I had no idea that I could make mac n cheese in the crock pot, LOL again! I'll play with it a bit. I'm bound to find something new to make with my staples.

Euro Sunday Road Rally

Big A told me that there is a pic of him and Little A at the website for the road rally. Here it is...

http://www.eurosunday.net/fresno/images/052008/052008-sarah/slides/100_0681.html

Road Rally '08

My husband takes one boy at a time on little road trips to visit his hometown. Last weekend it was little A's turn and they went on a road rally.

Here is Little A looking all his five years with his camera.

Little A and what I assume must be a five year old's idea of a RED RACE CAR.

I agree, that car is worth a picture.

Little A and our family friend; we'll call him "J".

We always protect the innocent here on Goody Gladys.

Here is Little A, Big A and the road rally car.

Grandpa L allowed the boys to drive this car in the rally.

Here is Little A and J apres rally.

Okay, okay, they never made it past the car show and to the rally but it looks like they had a great time!

Do You Ever Just...

...take your kid's shoes off, give him a popcorn, turn on his favorite movie and hope for the best?

CSA

My mom was visiting yesterday and joined us on our trip to the park to pick up our CSA delivery. She creates fabulous digital scrap pages. She sure made the trip to the park look like a real event!

CVS Today

I haven't been blogging much lately. It seems there is so much to do as we sort through our storage facility and decide what we will keep.

R and I did go to CVS today. We did pretty well. Here is what we bought:

4 Colgate 360 toothbrushes
1 Drano (yes I clogged the kitchen sink, or as R says... I broke it)
1 Garnier Fructis hair wax for my husband, can't have that hair moving ;)
1 Sally Hansen cuticle cream for me, and boy did I need that
1 M&M for R who was nearly a good boy at the store...

I paid $1.45 out of pocket and earned $15.96 in Extra Care Bucks for next week.

Happy Shopping....