Cheaper than canned pumpkin

When I was first thinking about doing this post I thought maybe I should wait until harvest time as that is the usual time to be thinking about pumpkins and squash, but then I realized that this is a good time to post about this because this is planting time. The time when we decide what we hope to be harvesting in a couple of months.

I just thought that at this time it might be good to put in a little recommendation for planting winter squash (or pumpkins if you prefer). Winter squash are very good for you! Check out this link. Squash are also great for storing so you can eat them all winter long with no need of canning or freezing. (I believe that would be why they are called winter squash.) They are also I believe pretty easy to grow. I will tell you though, I have never actually had them in my own garden. My parents grow them by the hundreds (perhaps I am exaggerating, but not by much) and they are willing to share so I get mine that way. And even if you don't like eating them plain or with butter and brown sugar (which I don't, they make me want to gag) there are oodles of other ways to use them. Here are some of the ways that I have discovered that I like to use squash:

• "Pumpkin" pie
• Yeast bread
• Quick bread or muffins (not just pumpkin bread or muffins either)
• Pancakes
• "Pumpkin Bars"
• "Pumpkin" desserts
• Small amounts that have been pureed in soups, casseroles, meatloaf,spaghetti sauce, etc.
• Chocolate cake (very moist and yummy!)

You can just get creative and stick it in anything where you think it won't be to obvious (unless perhaps you want it to be obvious. I know many people love to eat it just plain.). I love the idea that I am able to add some extra very good for you (and for us free) food in much of what I make.

Most pumpkin recipes that you find lately will call for a 15 oz. can of pumpkin but It truly doesn't need to come out of a can. You can start with a pumpkin or a squash like above. There are a couple of different ways that I know of to prepare them. You can cut it in half or smaller pieces and put it in a pan with a little water and either cook it slowly on the stove top or in the oven. (Take the seeds out and discard or save to plant next year or clean and roast them for a yummy treat.)

My favorite way however is to just wash the outside, set it in a pan with a little water in the bottom and stick it in the oven during a baking time. (I like to bake a lot at a time and so when I am doing bread, dessert and whatever else the squash can be in there as well.) I bake it until it is nice and soft on the outside.

After it cools I cut it in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon and put them in my compost. Then I scoop out the orange flesh to use in my cooking.

I have discovered that if I want to put squash in many things it is nice to have it very smooth first. So I have been using my hand held blender to make it into a puree. I then will keep a container of squash in the fridge to always have ready to use and the rest I will put in the freezer in containers. It is quite simple, cheap and very good for you.

For more Frugal Friday tips visit Biblical Womanhood.

Decorating for a wedding

I am tired tonight, it has been a busy day. I thought however that it would be fun to show you my project for today. Today I put together my most expensive wedding flower order to date. (It wasn't the most time consuming or complicated but the most expensive as calla lilies are rather spendy.)
This is the Bride with her bouquet of ivory and fuchsia mini calla lilies and Asiatic lilies. The bridesmaids also had arm bouquets but with just ivory mini calla lilies.
The ceremony and reception was held at our local country club. It is a pretty location with one side overlooking Lake Bemidji (which is currently frozen with snow on top) and the other side looks out at the golf course (which is currently snow covered as we got 12 more inches of snow Yesterday). The were going to exchange vows in front of this fire place. We put candles, greenery and a vase of Calla lilies on top of the mantle and then I brought the candelabras for them to use and decorated them.
This is the stairs that you have to go up to get in the main room. Yesterday I made 80 some feet of salal garland which I put on all of the rails. Below is the view looking down. I also made an arrangement to hang in the middle of the big window (It is hard to see very well in this picture).



There was some extra garland so we put that on the head table.

This is the flower girls basket.

We ended up with a little variety with the centerpieces. She had first thought she would have all of the centerpieces like the one above with calla lilies and Asiatic lilies. We did 10 of them. But the she decided she would need more table but wanted something a little less expensive so we did this:

A short vase with just Asiatic lilies (I did 6 if these). And then at the last minute she ended up needing more tables. I had quite a bit of extra greenery so we did this:

Just a line of Salal leaves, some curly fuchsia ribbon and candles. (We did this on 5 or 6 rectangular tables.)

We also decorated with greenery and flowers around the punch bowl and here and there on the dessert table. It was a fun wedding to work on and the bride was happy so that is what matters!

Challenge yourself

Our family lives frugally because it is necessary for living the way we want to live. ( It is important for our family that I be a stay at home, homeshooling mom. We also don't like the idea of being deeply in debt.) Everybody gets to make choices about how they want to live and that is the choice we have made. As a result of that choice I am blessed with having what I think (at least for me) is the greatest job on earth!! (I love the variety and creativity that we can use with the job of homemaking! Also getting the blessing of being with and serving those I love the most is so neat!)

Anyway with our choice to be frugal that could either be done with a feeling of "I'll do this but I wish we could have more..." or it can be done with a cheerful attitude and we can have fun with the challenge. I think most of us enjoy some kinds of challenges. Many people like playing games (cards, board games or athletic sports) all of which present us with a challenge. That is the fun of playing to see if we can meet that challenge and do well.

I have gotten to the point that I really truly enjoy the challenge of living frugally. In fact I love making a game of it to see if I can just go a step farther in living frugally. I sometimes will challenge myself in an area for just a certain amount of time. For instance a year ago in March I was getting frustrated with not having room enough in my dresser and closet for all of my clothes. As I was trying to figure out how to make everything fit I told myself "This is silly, I don't need to buy any clothes (whether new or used) until I wear out some of the ones that I have." So I decided that I would set a goal to not buy any clothes for the whole year. I did have to relent once because last summer when we flew out to Oregon for Ken's sisters weddings our bag of dress shoes got lost at the airport. (We did eventually get it back but not until we were ready to go home). I had only tennis shoes and thought it best that I get something else for the wedding. Other than that I have not bought anything. (I was given a few hand me downs however) One year like that really went quite well and I decided I could do it for a longer period of time so I decided to do it for 2008 as well. As we were getting ready for the new year we realized that the kids drawers were also overflowing so they decided to join the challenge for the year of 2008. (We did buy Jonathan a winter coat for next year when they went on cheap clearance but that is all so far.) It has been very fun to see how creative we can be with what we have. We are trying to take care of the clothes we have, mending them if they need it and carefully treating the stains. We also have worn some clothes out which has made more room in our drawers. The benefits for us has been: Less mess(in our drawers and rooms), less shopping time, less money spent and also the fun of the challenge.

Some of my other challenges that I am working on are:

• Cutting our grocery costs down without sacrificing healthfulness.
• Giving gifts that are homemade, or gotten pretty much free from my Walgreens shopping or ones that I already have in my gifts boxes (as they were overflowing too.)

Some of the ones I am considering are:

• Riding bikes to church or on errands once a week or so. (I am already pretty careful on how often I drive around, this is something that I think would be fun to do to make our gas consumption go lower yet.)
• Trying to eat just(or nearly so) local foods for a month. This would mean mostly eating from our garden and all completely from scratch foods. I think this could be economical but even if it is not I think it would be fun to try for the environmental reasons and health reasons and just because it sounds like a fun challenge. :-)
• Trying to greatly reduce our electricty use for a month or so to see if it would cost much less. (We have already switched pretty much everything to florescent light bulbs.)

Do you ever make up challenges for yourself to make living frugally more fun? I would love to hear your ideas.

For more frugal ideas visit Frugal Friday at Biblical Womanhood.

North Carolina

The last week in March we had a fun time studying about North Carolina. For us the first thing we think of with connected with that state is my sister Martha and her family. That is where their home is. The above picture (which I had to scan in and for some reason the colors are funny) is of Derek and Martha and kids on the coast in N. Carolina. I understand that the coast is very beautiful there and that there are a lot of shells that can be collected.
This is another picture that Martha gave me. It is of cotton growing in N. Carolina. They grow a lot of cotton in that state and also have many textile mills. In North Carolina they make hosiery, denim, carpet, blouses, sheets and towels.

We didn't end up eating a lot of food from N. Carolina but one that we tried was peanut soup. We thought it was quite good. I think it is a North Carolina recipe because of the peanuts in it (which they grow there). Martha and another friend who both tried it thought that it actually tasted like a Thai soup. I did also attempt making North Carolina BBQ which is famous and I made some pork steak that we liked quite well but we decided not to bother with BBQ sauce and it was afterwards that I realized that it is the sauce (a vinegary BBQ sauce) that makes it North Carolina. Oh well! Milk is the State drink of N. Carolina and we certainly had plenty of that.

One thing that I ready about which is well known in North Carolina but which we didn't get around to trying was Livermush. You can check out the recipe here. It is made from cornmeal mush and hog liver. It really doesn't sound to appetizing but it sounds like there are many fans of it. If any of you have tried it I would love to hear what you think. I found this fun video that shows you all about it. Maybe it will get your taste buds watering.

One night we did have fun decorating our table with North Carolina stuff. Martha had brought us a box of shells and pine cones which we used all over the table. The kids thought we should also include Sunny as part of the centerpiece.
There is a lot of beautiful scenery in North Carolina. We had a great time looking at all the pictures.
As far as History goes we enjoyed reading about how Orville and Wilbur Wright went there (around Kitty Hawk) to try out their airplanes. I guess that area had better wind than in Ohio.

What can you share with us about North Carolina? Also this week we are studying Vermont, we would love to learn from you about that state as well.

Works for me Wednesday ~ My kids love to dust

One chore at our house which my kids love to do is dusting. The reason they love it is because before they dust I go around and hide pennies (and sometimes a nickel or a dime too.) in spots that they need to dust. Each child has there own area for dusting (Mara does the family room and office area, Jonathan does the living room and Aaron the entry way and boy's room. I get to do the rest of the house). They each take their rags and dust away and then check with me to be sure that they found everything that they were supposed too. If they haven't found all the coins then back to dusting they go.

I got this idea from a cute set of books that I read growing up called the "All of a Kind Family". In that book the mother hid buttons and sometimes a treat of a penny as well. Finding everything insured that a good dusting job had been done. Changing the spots each week keeps the kids on their toes.

Do you have any methods for making chores for your kids more exciting? I would love to hear about it.

Tipster Tuesday ~Getting ready for Gardening

Over at BeCentsable today they are talking about gardening. I have been getting excited about gardening as well. I am working at creating healthier foods for my family and getting lots of fresh produce certainly helps with that goal. I have been involved in gardening for as long as I can remember. My parents are avid gardeners and we always had large gardens and a large harvest. Ever since I have had a home of my own I have had a garden as well. I don't do things perfectly and I don't tend to have a totally weed free garden but I thought I would share some of the things that I have learned.
Starting seeds indoors instead of buying plants saves a ton of money. I like to plant the seeds in recycled containers versus buying something to plant them in (I like the financial as well as environmental aspect of this). In years past we have mostly used milk jugs to plant in. I would use the bottom of one milk jug for the container with little holes punched in the bottom and then I would use another one cut really short for the tray.
It works well if you have a growing light for your plants, I have never had that though I have just used a sunny window which works well too. You just have to turn the plants every so often as they tend to lean towards the sun.
I lay an old shower curtain on the table I am using to protect it from the inevitable moisture.
Composting is another very frugal and very helpful addition to a garden. The above is a picture of my rather messy composting area. I made a very simple bin from old pallets which I got free. I made it with two compartments to aid in turning. We work to fill one side with all our household compost materials (potato peels, egg shells, hair, dirt from my vacuum, moldy bread and all fruit and veggie scraps) we also add leaves and manure(which I haul in from my parents farm). Any weeds that I pull during the gardening season also go in there. When one side gets full I use a potato fork and flip it to the other side. I am always amazed at how much good black dirt I will find at the bottom. On the other side then I will just begin the process again. It does speed up the process if you turn it more often but I am a little lazy about that. Do be on the alert mice, shrews and then snakes like to hide in compost piles.
Mulching is a great help in gardens. One of the ways we like to mulch is with old carpet. I like to use strips for paths in the garden. It is very hard for the weeds to grow through and also makes it so you don't have to water as much because it keeps the soil from drying out. Other mulching methods I use are Newspaper with dirt or grass clippings or pulled weeds on top to hold them down, and leaves. Mulching is a huge time saver and the methods I mentioned are free.

Another gardening tip that I love is to add flowers. Not only do flowers make gardening very fun but they also attract bees and other good insects that help with the pollination which helps up your yield. Also a lot of the good insects that they attract will help get rid of the bad insects that will eat your crop. Last year I had a ton of fun with flowers, being able to bring them inside to enjoy, take to decorate at church and also give to others.
This picture above is not very good as I took it at night but it shows how I raise my beans. I like to grow climbing beans as they are nice to pick and I think you get more harvest from the space you give them compared to bush beans. An easy and cheap method for letting them grow is to make tipis from very tall sticks that you have around your place. I tie them together at the top and then make sure the bottom parts are stuck in the soil and then plant a bean plant or two around each stake. At the end of the season it looks very neat to have these tall green tipis.

Another method I like for gardening is the wide row method. Instead of just planting a long row of lettuce seeds, onions or carrots I make a row as wide as my garden rake and just scatter the seed across. Wide rows save space and also leave less plain dirt available for drying out. The plants kind of mulch each other. I learned about this and lots of other neat gardening ideas from the book "The Joy of Gardening". The wide row method doesn't work for everything (like corn, squash and tomatoes for example).

We have a while to wait still before we are actually out in the garden (right now we have about a foot of snow and our last frost free date is usually around Memorial day) but I am getting excited about it and am working to get prepared. Happy Gardening to all of you. If you would like to share any of your favorite methods or anything about gardening I would love to hear from you.