A few of the ways God has blessed us lately

God blesses us all of the time but I thought I would share a few ways He has blessed us lately.

• A bunch of visitors at church this morning (some new and some returning). They seem pretty interested and I am so excited to see them learn and grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ.
• Lots and lots of apples! And some beautiful children to help me get them picked and taken care of.
• Pumpkins and cantaloupe from friends. We have really been enjoying the cantaloupe. I can't believe how much the youngest 3 can eat!!
• A long row of lilacs in my yard! We were able to transplant them from the abundance that an older friend had. I also got a mega case of poison ivy in the process but that is helping me learn self-control. :-)
• A good turnout and plenty of food at the Republican Chili feed on Friday. I had been in charge of organizing volunteers to bring food and so I was able to breath a sigh of relief when we had plenty of food and everything went well.
• A bunch of kids in my Sunday school class this morning. Sometimes it can be pretty small and this morning there were over 20. It was a little crazy but fun.
• Getting to have a lot of fun creating something with my sons for my daughters up coming birthday. We have been having a blast creating using things that we have on hand. I can't wait to share it with you all but I will have too for another week.
• A great family and lots of good friends.
• And most of all a God who loves me even when I make mistakes and am not very lovable!

How has God blessed you lately?

A few frugal gifts

The fall is a pretty busy birthday time for family and friends. We have been working on making homemade and frugal gifts a lot this year and so I thought I would share some recent ones with you. (And those who received these gifts, you don't need to read any further or you will know exactly what they cost!)




Last week was my niece Margaret's birthday. A while back (last year or so) we had found cute sewing baskets complete with pins, needles, (wimpy) scissors and other sewing tools on clearance at Walmart for $3. Mara really thought Margaret would like one and so we gave her that and also included:

• A piece of fabric big enough to make a skirt or something like that. (free/it had been given to me)



• Another smaller piece of fabric (also free, I am frequently given fabric because people want to clean up their house and they know I sew.)



• A glass jar with buttons in it (we had these on hand. I save buttons off of any old clothes that are becoming rags and my grandma just gave me a bunch as well.)



• Thread, elastic, rick rack, lace and ribbon (all free, things that had been given to me)
  

My niece Beatrice has a birthday next month but we saw her this past weekend so we brought her gift as well. For her we gave:

• Some mittens I sewed using a tutorial from Write, Mama, Write. (I used fabric and trim that we had on hand so the cost was free.) They were fun and fairly simple to make. I learned about this tutorial from my friend Betsy.


• Mara also decorated a notebook (10 cents on sale) with a pretty calendar page.


• We also included colored pencils (39 cents), a couple of gel pens (30 cents) and some stickers (pennies).

For my sister Keren we made a gift basket. In it was:

• Stationary (handmade by me, so nearly free.)


• A package of pens (Free after rebate from Walgreens)


• A vase of flowers (from our garden and using one of the many vases that I have collected.)


• Finger nail polish (free after rebate from Walgreens)


• Tooth paste (I earned 75 cents on it) NOTE: before you think I am too weird, we have discussed this with my family. They don't do the Walgreens deals so they actually told me to include them in presents (as we have more that we need.).


• A barrette that we decorated with beads.


• Chocolate candies (we earned money on at Walgreens)


• Basket (given to me)


• Hair sticks. I had a lot of fun making these using this tutorial from Hint of History.
  
  
  

Here is a closer view of the hair sticks (but for some reason the picture insists on coming in sideways - sorry!)

For another friend I also made some hair sticks and included them with a candy bar (50 cents at Walgreens).

I also gave my nephew a gift of a book and some chocolates. When I want good books my favorite place to shop is Christianbook.com . They have a wonderful selection and good prices.

Do you have any great ideas for frugal and fun gifts for men? Ken's birthday is coming up soon and as usual I am a little stumped. I have the most trouble with the men in my life as far as buying/making presents goes. I would actually love to have you share any frugal gift ideas with me. Thanks so much!

Apples through freecycle

This week we have been busy with apples! In the past I have known of people that had crab apples but didn't use them and I know that I very much enjoy making apple sauce out of crab apples (as long as they aren't too tiny and sour). This year I decided I would try to do something about that situation. I have participated in Freecycle for a while now and so I decided to try that out. Freecycle (in case you don't know) is a cool organization that has local online groups that you can join and then people post things that they have to give away or things that they would like to get. (In this category you are only supposed to ask for things that other people might just through away or not use - in other words not big expensive items). I have done some giving away before but so far I hadn't managed to reply in time to get anything (which is fine, I didn't really need the stuff anyway). This time I did post a "wanted" item asking if anybody had crab or regular apples on trees that they weren't going to use and I said that we would be careful with the trees when picking. I got several responses so I was very excited!

On Monday we drove around 20 miles and at this place the lady had a tree with regular apples (which when we got there she had them all picked and ready to go for us!) and a crab apple tree with egg sized apples. The crab apples are incredibly yummy to eat just plain and we have really been enjoying them! We picked the apples off of that tree getting about 1 1/2 bushels. It was very fun. A friend from church went with us and so we shared the apples with her. Today we went to another house in town where the lady had offered her trees. She had more of the egg sized red crab apples (2 small trees) and another crab apple tree with golf ball sized apples that were really good! We got about 4 1/2 gallons today.
Now we are busy at work making apples sauce. It is quite a bit of work with crab apples but I take as many shortcuts as I can. First we cut them in quarters (Jonathan asked if he could help) and then I take the cores out.
Then I cook them with a little water until soft.
After they are cooked I use my hand held blender and puree them (skins and all) and then I add any cinnamon or sugar if desired. Then it is ready to can, freeze or eat.

I am really looking forward to having lots of apples sauce and apple pies this winter! Do have any other suggestions for storing apples?

Do you use freecycle? What do you think about it?

We need to pray!

In my Bible reading this morning I was reading these verses:

1 Timothy 2:1-4

"First of all, then I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings,

be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority,

in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour,

Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

When reading this I naturally thought about the upcoming election and the change in leadership that we will have. It just reinforced in me the realization that we need to be seriously praying that God's will is done. We want to have a Godly nation where we can lead a tranquil and quiet life and one where we can share the gospel with others so they to can be saved.

WFMW ~ Aprons (and yummy cinnamon rolls)

Something that truly "Works for me" is aprons for the kids. We especially use them for meals but we also use them for other kitchen projects or painting. They help a lot to lower how much laundry we do as we have far less changes of clothes because of the aprons. When our children are babies we use bibs but as they get bigger bibs don't work as well and kids may start to not want to wear them as they are "Babyish". Aprons are nice in both ways. Aprons are also pretty simple to sew up and don't take a lot of fabric. They definitely work for me! In the picture above we were making yummy cinnamon rolls which my husband declared to be some of the best he has ever had. I thought I would share the recipe.

Honey Cinnamon Rolls

Dough

3/4 cup warm water

1 egg

3 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons honey

3 cups flour (I use mostly whole wheat)

2 tablespoons powdered milk

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons yeast

Mix one cup flour, yeast, powdered milk and salt. Then add the wet ingredients. Then mix in the remaining flour. Knead well. Let rise until double. Roll out on a floured surface and spread filling on.

Filling
3 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 Tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins

Mix and spread on dough. Roll up and cut in 1 inch sections.

Glaze
5 tablespoons melted butter
5 tablespoons honey
5 tablespoons powdered milk

Mix together and spread on the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Then lay the cinnamon roll pieces in. Let rise until double. Bake in an oven that has been preheated to 350 degrees. Bake 25- 30 minutes (but watch carefully that they don't get over done and I don't recommend putting them on the bottom rack as the sugar mixture seems to burn rather easily -speaking from experience!). Let cool 5 minutes and then invert on a platter. Then enjoy!

Our Local summer

This summer we have had fun working at eating local foods as much as possible. I especially inspired to do that after reading Animal, Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Local eating probably comes a lot easier to me than to many as I was raised by parents who raise their own meat, milk and eggs and grow large gardens, enjoy berry picking and have their own maturing orchard. That said I still did a lot of buying at the regular grocery store including much of my produce. Though I cook mostly from scratch there was still room in our diet for getting rid of preservatives and other stuff that isn't so great for us. I am not out to change the world or to say that I think everybody should eat only local but I thought I would explain some of the reasons I wanted to try heading that way:

• You get fresher food! No fruit that ripens as it travels to you or sits on the store shelves.
• A lot of times either you are the producer or you can visit with the farmer to make sure that you are getting food that is chemical free.
• You support the local economy.
• If you train your way of thinking you can eat things that are in season and save money.
• Getting food without hormones. This is something I am really working on for my maturing children.
• Less gas is wasted in transportation.

I had planned on being fairly strict in my eating locally this summer. That didn't quite happen (I did still go to the grocery stores every so often though I didn't visit Walmart from the beginning of June to Sept.) but I did make progress. Here are some of the ways we eat locally:

• We have ordered (from a local farmer) 1/4 of a steer that is hormone free and grass fed. We are getting for around $2 a lb. so I think we are getting a good deal.
• We get most of our milk from either my parents (goats milk) or a local dairy (which is hormone free). I have tried some to make my own cheese. I have also made butter and ice cream a few times. We regularly have homemade yogurt. (lately I have been spoiled because my mom has been making it for me!)
• We have a garden and also have been frequenting the local farmers market. We have also been blessed with friends and family sharing produce with us.
• We picked lots of wild berries!
• I have started using more honey which I bought from local beekeepers.
• We buy local grain and grind it ourselves.
• I talked to a friend that loves to hunt and he said he would be glad to share if he gets a lot, we will pay for his tags.
• Today we picked a bunch of apples that I got after posting on Freecycle that I would be interested in any apples that people might let go to waste.

That is some of our methods of eating locally, what do you do?