Looking Ahead Update: Getting Started

What do a day planner,  a batch of mini muffins and a vintage bowl have in common?  They are all things related to my goal of being more on top of my family's budget in 2013. 

 In my last post, I wrote about hoping to get back on track with budgeting and clear up some debt.  My husband got a me a spiffy little day planner for Christmas that I absolutely love.  It is the perfect size and has plenty of room to write in work schedules and appointments, plus my dinner menu and my weekly bill pay plan.  So, starting the last week in December, I got my checkbook in order and organized all our bills into the day planner so that each week I can sit down and pay what needs paying.  I also write in a meal plan for each day's evening meal.  This helps with grocery shopping on a budget and is a huge time saver for me.  It saves time in that I don't sit and try to come up with a meal for supper on my way home from work and also then am not tempted to "swing by" the grocery store on my way home, for a "few" things which never fails to turn into a half hour and $30 because I always get sidetracked.

Love this planner!  Isn't it pretty?

Wednesday before work our mission was to fill up our stash of snacks for lunches.  I did not go to the store that day, but Joey and I were home in the morning and he helped me fill up little baggies with mini muffins (from an 89 cent just add water mix) graham crackers and a pan of granola bars.   I have never made granola bars before but thought it looked kind of cool on Pinterest, so I figured I'd give it a whirl. We also did celery sticks and baby carrots. Making lunches should be a breeze for the rest of the week.  I know that using little baggies seems wasteful and not as cost effective as small reusable containers.  Here's the thing.  I bought the little reusable bowls to put snacks in, but they don't fit very well in her Hello Kitty head-shaped lunch box.  So, I went back to snack baggies. I don't reuse them either. Sorry.

Our week's worth of  snacks: Pan of granola (waiting to be cut into bars), celery & baby carrots, mini muffins, mini graham crackers, mozzarella cheese sticks

There you have it.  My big plans to budget and get all our bills paid on time every month and eat too.  It's not overly complicated or scientific, but it gets the job done.  Besides, I like to make lists. ;)

My cute vintage bowl

Still wondering how the vintage bowl figures into this?  Well, its like this.  Everybody needs a little fun money.  I figure a small amount of play money into the budget for the sake of my own sanity.  Not as much as I'd like, but a little bit anyway.  And with that money this week, I went to Goodwill and bought a cute bowl that I probably didn't need, but liked enough to spend 99 cents on it.  Oh and some more jelly jars.  I always need jelly jars for something or other.  Man I love Goodwill.

Looking Ahead

As we get nearer to Christmas, I start looking ahead to what comes next.  I love Christmas and all the cozy things that go with it.  Winter feels warmer in the month of December.  I have no meteorological evidence of this, it just seems that way because everybody is in a good mood and there are smells of yummy food and pine everywhere.

Then comes January.  All the warm coziness of the holidays and their decorations get packed up for another year.  As much as I love decorating for the holidays, I equally enjoy the putting away of all the extra stuff in the house.  Everything feels clean and tidy, especially after all the Christmas presents find homes and get put away.  

In January, my oven gets a break.  There is nothing left to can, no cookies to bake.  I can just enjoy the quiet of winter.  I fully intend to get some reading done and practice knitting some more.  I'd like to actually complete something, even if it is only a dish cloth.

I am not a big "New Year's Resolution" person.  I think one can make a change at any time with no need to wait for the new year to begin.  However, I do have some things to work on starting with January.  More because it is a new month than because it is a new year though.  I am looking forward to getting my household budget back on track.  I have really slacked off on this and it shows.  

I am going to get myself set up with a day planner and keep track of which bills are due when and pay them all on time every single month.  This may lead to some tight(er) weeks, but it will be worth it to have the peace of mind that everything is taken care of.

This year has not been a bad one overall.  Things have mostly gone smoothly in my everyday life.  However, I always get excited for a new year to come and wonder what lies ahead.

Wishing you peace, prosperity and good health in 2013.

Canning. Again.

I think I may need an intervention.  I can't seem to walk past a sale on produce without buying as much as I can afford and canning it.

It all started years ago when my friend told me that's how they fed their family while her husband was a graduate student.  They were on a limited budget and when she saw rock bottom prices on seasonal produce or meat, she would buy as much as she could afford, then can it.

I don't have a nifty closet or cupboard to keep all my canned goods in, so they are stored in the boxes the jars come in, under my bed.  Its starting to look like Doomsday Preppers in there.  I just can't seem to help myself.  I started making jams out of any free fruit I could get my hands on about ten years ago.  This year it has gone to a whole 'nother level.  I made gallons of applesauce, every kind of jam and jelly I could come up with and now I have made some pepper relish and, most recently, a dozen pints of cranberry sauce.  Oh, and I have two turkeys waiting to be cooked and canned too.

Canning is a way to stretch my grocery dollars, but it is also something I get a real sense of pride about.  Canning makes me feel useful, resourceful, self-sufficient.  I like knowing that I can spend $6 on fresh cranberries, add a little sugar and come out with a dozen jars of cranberry sauce made with minimal ingredients and nothing artificial.  Six dollars for twelve jars is also a rock bottom price for a sauce that we use regularly, even if you factor in the roughly $1.50 worth of sugar added.  The same can be said for wild berries that we pick along the roads in the summer and the apples that we have unlimited access to.

Strawberry jam from the summer.

I do hope to get the nerve up to can some vegetables next year and maybe even try pickles again.  I did some dill pickles a few years ago and I wasn't thrilled with the results.

One more thing, I really like anything in jars.  If you have read previous posts, you may have noticed that I keep lots of things in jars.   I kinda have a thing.

Jars, they aren't just for jelly anymore...

The above picture is a sliver of my cupboard that houses all my spices/seasonings, coffee and other beverage mixes.  There are many more jars in there, but I thought it made the point to show you one part and not show the whole thing.  Just in case it causes anyone alarm and you feel the need to have me committed for treatment.  Hi, my name is Lisa and I'm a jar/basket/organize-a-holic.  The first step is admitting it right?

Bonbon Day

Yesterday Natalie and I went to my Aunt Iris's house for our annual Bonbon Day.  We have been kicking off the holidays with a candy making day for the past several years.  Neither one of us remembers how many exactly, but I think it started before Natalie was born, so at least seven years.  

Bonbon Day got started when I asked Iris to show me how to make her coconut bonbons.  They are my favorite most yummy thing on earth.  Really, how can you go wrong with sugared coconut balls dipped in chocolate? 

Each year we make a slightly different assortment of candies, but the main attraction is always bonbons.  This year we did homemade marshmallows, two flavors of divinity, chocolate fudge with white chips and walnuts, and of course bonbons.  It was a busy day to say the least.

Naturally, I didn't check the batteries in my camera before we left and they were dead when I decided to snap a few shots.  This was a bummer for me because I wanted to get a few snaps of  Iris teaching Natalie how to dip bonbons.  

Natalie has been coming with since she was old enough to reach the counter (with the help of a stool).  This year was something else entirely.  She is so much help.  She just dug right in and mixed up the bonbons all by herself.  All I did for her was put the ingredients in the big bowl and she worked it all together with her hands until it was ready, then she rolled it into dozens of little balls.  When the bonbons were all done and dipped, she helped me with the marshmallows.  It is truly amazing to me the difference that extra pair of little hands made.

Divinity was something new for me to see this year.  I remember that Iris always made it at Christmas when I was little, but have never actually seen it done.  It is not nearly as complicated as I thought, but I think I'll watch for another year or two before I try it on my own.

Bonbons (top left), mint divinity, chocolate fudge,
raspberry divinity and marshmallows

Since I didn't have a working camera with me yesterday, I had to settle for a picture of a sample plate of our creations.   Next year I will get some pictures of the actual candy making process.  

Getting Big

We recently celebrated Natalie's SIXTH birthday.  People often say that it seems like only yesterday that their children were babies.  I don't feel that way with Natalie.  It feels like she has been with us forever.  Honestly, it's hard to remember life before she came along.  

Newborn Natalie

We had her parent/teacher conference last night and were very proud of her progress.  Her teacher says that she is very detailed and tells great stories at sharing time.  Miss Carlson said that Natalie is well on her way to mastering everything she needs to know by the end of the year.

Natalie at 6 years old

She is very happy to be six years old.  Being six, she is old enough to go to school on the bus.  She is learning to spell and read.  She is making new friends, but still prefers to hang out with her original gang of kids.

Natalie & friends having snacks at her party

Natalie & her bunny cake

An innocent enough looking line of kids waiting for turns at the pinata

Innocent no more.  They are all scrambling for parts
of the newly dismembered paper mache burro and his contents.

We had a very simple party and she was thrilled.  She had her friends, a bunny cake and a pinata full of lollipops.  What more could a girl ask for?

Indian Relish

Every year, my office holds an online auction with proceeds going to our local United Way.  We all donate things to go up for bids.  One of the ladies in the billing department makes a fabulous salsa type relish called Indian Relish.  I had not tried it before, but thought it looked yummy.  Naturally, I did not win that item in the auction.  But, she was kind enough to sell me a jar.  Then she gave me the recipe.  

Before I bought the ingredients to make it, I decided I had better give it a whirl.  Our birthday potluck at work seemed like the perfect place to test it out.  It was a winner!  It reminds me of the Pepper & Onion relish from Harry & David we had at my mom's a few years ago.  I have made two double batches now.  This recipe is not a secret, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Indian Relish (or Pepper & Onion Relish if you prefer)

4 red bell peppers, or a combination of red, yellow and orange

2 large sweet onions

2 cups white sugar

2 cups white wine vinegar

4 Tablespoons red pepper flakes (more or less depending on how hot you want it)

2 Tablespoons powdered pectin (if needed)

Finely chop the onions and peppers.  Put all the ingredients, except the pectin, in a big pot and boil.  Once it comes up to a boil, reduce the heat and then just let it simmer for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.  If the liquid looks like its thickening up, just let it cook for 5 more minutes then put in jars.  If it is not getting thicker, then add the pectin and let it cook the last 5 minutes.  

Pour into hot jars.  Process in water bath for 15 minutes.

Makes 5 half pint jars, plus a generous sample for taste testing.

To serve, whip an 8 oz. pkg cream cheese and mix the relish in, or simply pour over the block of cream cheese and serve with crackers or corn chips.  

Isn't that pretty?

Be prepared for people to think you are a culinary genius.  When they ask how you ever made this wonderful dip, act mysterious.  Say its really complicated.  They'll be impressed.  Nobody needs to know that you dumped a jar of tasty relish into a tub of cream cheese.  Oh, and serve it in a pretty bowl.  That'll throw them off ;)

The Farm News Report

It is hard to believe that it has been SEVEN weeks since I sat down and wrote on my poor neglected blog.  As I think about what to write, I smile to myself thinking that our daily goings on sound like the Farm & News Report at Noon that I used to watch with my Grandma.

Two days after my last post, we were surprised with a litter of baby bunnies.  The biggest part of the surprise was that we thought we had two female rabbits.  Clearly we were mistaken.  I have never had rabbits as pets until this past summer when we got them for the kids.  I panicked.  I Googled everything I could think of to get information about how to tell who was who and what to do with these bunnies.  I was trying to find homes for six of the seven babies, knowing we couldn't keep all these rabbits.  Sadly, finding them homes became a non-issue when they all died four days later.  We still don't know what happened.  We do know that the mother rabbit is young, there were in fact TWELVE babies (!!)  And that she probably became stressed when we removed the male from the hutch. (Did you know female rabbits can breed again the same day they give birth?!)

Baby bunnies, one day old.

In another case of mistaken gender  (Man, I'm bad at this stuff), our little Pippy the peeper grew up to be a rooster.  Over a few weeks, she got really tall.  She was far leggier than the other females of the same breed, though no other features of a rooster were evident.  Then she started growing sickle feathers and saddle hackles, you know, rooster feathers.  So much for adding another laying hen to the flock.  So now my Pippy is just Pip.  

l-r: Pip with T-Roy (the daddy rooster) and two hens

We also have been getting some projects off of our never-ending to do list.  We finally finished in the inside of our chicken coop.  It is now all insulated and the walls are covered with OSB.  Matt also fixed up the roof with some tar paper and shingles we had left over from when we did the roof on the house.  It is now all ship shape and ready for winter.

Freshly re-vamped chicken quarters

Last week, a deer got into our vegetable garden and from the looks of it, had a heck of a time getting out.  When I went out to feed the rabbits on Friday morning, the whole south end of the fence was laying on the ground and the center post was broken.  Matt and I talked about what to do with it and decided that we are going to move the garden to a new location next year, so he took the fence down on Saturday.  That side of the yard certainly does look different.

Chickens pecking in the old garden

Yesterday, Joey and I let the chickens out to feast on the remains of the garden.  We have had frost most nights and several light snowfalls, so nothing is growing anymore, but  the cool weather plants are in the ground to use as treats for the critters.  Joey and I were out digging around to see what was still there and we found a few nice radishes for the rabbits and a handful of carrots for us.  The chickens seemed most delighted with the remnants of the lettuces and rutabagas.  Oh and they all took the opportunity to get in one last nice dust bath before winter.

Joey with his "nice fat carrot"

We have also had a two birthdays, grouse hunting, trick or treating, deer season, a school conference, and a bit more canning in this time.  More on those in my next few posts.  If I wrote it all in one sitting, it would take an hour to read. :)