Spiritual and Personal:
We're about to enter the Jewish Holy days. Even though we no longer attend synagogue, or participate in the feasts, I love these days of Yom Kippur and the Feast of Sukkot. It's a time to celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of a new one, a time to appreciate the blessings the year has brought, and a season of plentiful harvests.
I feel a little guilty for saying that I'm counting my blessings, knowing how many are living without things we consider to be basics just now, in light of the storm last week and the threat of more weather ahead. But so many have shared not just pictures of destruction but blessings as neighbor reaches out to neighbor and family and friends and strangers find ways to get things to those in need.
I think one of the things I always appreciate about community is that no matter how divided we might seem on politics or religion or whatever thing is hot debate material at the moment, in a crisis, folks remember they are all community and come together and make things work. The instinct to do good things is still there. Thank God for that!
I want to remember that this month.
These past two months I've done a lot of thinking about all sorts of things, including my spiritual life. I want to make time to spend in The Word every single day. I've been lax and I've used every excuse: not interesting enough study, not having time, not in the mood, not rested enough, don't understand a difficult set of passages, too busy with this and that...Oh I could go on and on! It's all a sorry excuse.
Sunday's sermon was a good kick in the seat of my pants. God deserves more from me. No more excuses! I got up Monday morning, and said, "Wherever this Bible opens, Lord, I'll start right there and study." It opened to Psalms. Right at the beginning. I started on Psalms, and I will stick with it until I'm through. I'm not putting time restraints on myself nor am I am going to push ahead to get it finished. I'm going to read as much as I can absorb and then ponder it, read the study guide, etc. It was easy enough to finish Psalm 1 in one sitting this morning...I don't expect the same with every one of them though!
Continue with the Gratitude Journal.
Work on my Self-care Journal. I thought I'd begin the journal three weeks ago and then I thought I'd start two weeks ago. Finally, I thought, it will be a great occupation for vacation, but I didn't start it then either. Turns out all I wanted to do on vacation was...nothing at all. But I have this idea of making my journal a creative effort as well as a journal of caring for myself. It's not all grooming either. It's to be a listing of the little ways I can care for myself.
I started two weeks ago when I said, "I'm going to give myself the gift of a clean kitchen when I wake up tomorrow." So, I did all the things to make my kitchen look clean and neat, including that sweeping that I so often forget. And it was a gift! Every single morning when I walked into the sunny kitchen, it was clean and neat and ready to see me through another day.
I'm going to look at more of the things I can do that will be a 'gift' to myself. Like taking time to journal or read or doing a task that I've been putting off, so I can be free of the nagging voice in my head that kept telling me to tackle that job!
And self-care as grooming! I need to make the grooming as routine as my daily chores. Physically caring for my body, taking time to make myself feel pampered is important. I know this firsthand. When I was still in a great deal of pain from the car accident, the grooming self-care that I took time to give my body helped tremendously in how I felt overall about my body, despite the pain I was experiencing. I'd grown to almost hate it because I hurt so very much. But taking time to shave my legs, or to smooth lotion over aching joints, and while I was doing that reminding myself how much work they did to carry me made me appreciate how wonderfully made we are.
Funny thing, every year I say that I shall not do a summing up of the year behind and every year as October is getting near, I find myself beginning that very process of looking at the year and determining what it taught me about myself and about others; what I struggled with most, what I missed, changes that occurred, etc. Well, I'm there in my head already so this month I'll likely begin the process of writing these things down. It helps me to focus on what I'd like to do and be in the year ahead.
Home and Garden:
There is so much I didn't get done on my September list! I realized that my issue wasn't just lack of time, though September was a busy month. It was that I kept seeing the whole goal. Move ALL the iris. Buy 100's of bulbs (not going to happen!) and plant them ALL. Spending money I can't spend on too many things at once. So, let's start over with small bite goals, shall we?
Divide the iris by the shed door. And get those I divide planted elsewhere in the yard. Just that one clump.
Buy ONE package of Daffodil bulbs and plant them. I'll be far happier seeing ten daffodils come February or March than I will be if I plant none at all.
Get the garden pots emptied, cleaned, filled with a fresh mix of soil, compost and manure to ripen over these cold months and be ready to plant come spring.
Make the flower bed by the back steps pretty for fall. I have mums and coleus which will last until later in the year. I'm sure I can make that spot pretty with just what I have. And I think I can rearrange some more of what I have and get a couple of pumpkins, a couple of pots of mums (that's affordable!) and make the entrance to the front porch look pretty as well.
I can deadhead plants, fertilize one more time, clean out the spent pots on the patio, get those cleaned up, and stored for spring next year. All jobs that can be done in increments and each one will be impactful.
Look for seeds for winter sowing. Spinach, chard, lettuce, beets, radishes, peas, and a few other crops can be planted come January. I want to get seeds for those crops this month. I would like heirloom varieties so I can harvest my own seeds year to year. I don't have to buy a whole garden's worth. One or two packets and then regular seeds for the rest will keep the budget intact. I can buy a handful of seed packets for under $20. Small bites, Terri...small bites.
Do a series of posts on budget grocery purchases. I need this challenge! I keep seeing these 'budget meal' highlights on shorts and someone goes in and buys food to make ONE meal at $25 for a family of four. I've never been the best at calculating costs for meals. I tend to balance a really inexpensive meal with a more moderately priced one, but I'm sure I can do better than providing us with two meals for $25 (dividing that money in half for our much smaller sized household). I'm hoping that in experimenting once again I can figure out just about where I want us to land for a budget amount. $100 a week was what G-Donna set for herself and Charles, but she ended up finding it was a little easier and a better fit for them at $125 a week.
I personally have been all over the place this year. I've tried $100 a week, $125 a week, $150 a week...I've struggled with all three amounts! Well, we just had another bill increase in the monthly amount and that's an increase in every single area of our budget this year. And that extra has to come from somewhere. So where can the grocery amount land that both fits the budget and suits us so we don't feel deprived? That's the question I want to answer. So back to challenging myself to see what really will work for us.
Make at least one thrift store visit and possibly two. I want to buy used first if I can, especially for picture frames and lamps.
Buy one quart of Navy-Blue paint to repaint the front and back door. I'm ready for change and I can afford a quart of paint. If I can buy a smaller can I'm pretty sure I can paint both doors and still have leftovers, but I think a quart is as small as I can get.
Finances:
I don't know what the new house insurance is likely to look like next month. I figure this month is my one chance to really sock money towards our Christmas fund. We have discussed long and hard how we will be reducing to family gifts and no individual gifts. It breaks my heart because I so love to give gifts, but the truth is we need to do this in the manner John suggests. It's a much better way for us to go forward. I don't know that I can get it all together this month, but I can add to what I've set aside thus far.
And we will just let that sleeping dog slumber. When the insurance bill arrives, I'll face that giant if it's become one and we'll figure it out then. later: The bill arrived. Higher, but not by a huge leap. Budget will need to be adjusted, AGAIN. I feel like I've done nothing but make adjustments (all to the negative, lol) to our budget for the past six months. That is the last bill we'll face this year. Now next year...who knows?
Propane gas arrived the week before we left on vacation. It was up this year, too...It's never a huge expense in our generally mild climate and the savings of not using the heat pump when we do drop below freezing offsets the cost considerably over the cost of electricity. But yet another increase, which seems to be the norm these days with most things. I know that at some point this month we'll start using the heat, too. We used to be diehard 'Wait until November 1st,' folks when it came to turning on the heat. These days, not so much. On the other hand, we won't need to mow as often this month, and it should be the last month we do mow until sometime next year. So, it balances out in some ways.
Kitchen:
Make Oatmeal cookies. It just never felt right in September, but October feels like a sugar and spice month to me. I want to bake a nice spice cake this month, too.
Make Apple Cider Syrup. I saw this online, and it looked so good! You reduce apple cider until it's thick and syrupy, then bottle it. I think it would be excellent to make my own Apple Cider Latte for an afternoon coffee, or on pancakes. Or drizzled over cinnamon rolls. The site showed it drizzled over an apple pie with vanilla ice cream...I'm thinking it would be a lovely seasonal condiment to have on hand.
Buy some fresh apples. Just because fresh, grown in my own state apples taste so much better than something that traveled across the country to me.
Do a fresh pantry and freezer inventory. Keep an eye on those expiration dates. I'm not above using an already expired can of most things, but I can try to be more vigilant than I've been in the past, so I have fewer things to use up. As well, I want to be more mindful of what we use and in what quantities. If I'm overbuying certain items, I can slow that down.
I also want to determine what I'm buying that perhaps I could make on my own and figure out how I can make that more convenient while using basics I likely always have on hand. This is as much to do with the budget end of groceries as it is with a very real desire to move a little further away from the many weird and unknown ingredients and chemicals found in any food that has been manufactured outside of a home kitchen.
Go to Sam's Club and purchase flour. Work on a price list of other things and see if I can get a better buy there. And try to avoid all the lovely and delicious temptations!
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