Early Evening Coffee Chat: March Showers

Come in, dears, come in.  March is nearly away from us and I wanted one last visit with you this month.  It's nice enough outdoors I suppose but the pollen is rather heavy at the moment so we'll take our coffee in the kitchen sitting area and admire the views from the windows, all right? We are due thunderstorms this evening, but thus far we've only cloudy skies.

There are few flowers to see but the world is certainly green and blue these days...or green and gray as the day may be at the time.  We've had plenty of showers of late.  Not great puddle makers, just showers, but sometimes they've lasted very nearly all the day.  In Georgia, March seldom roars, but it certainly does sprinkle us liberally, a baptism into a new season.

I've been busy...did you notice?  I've had the fun of working hard on my home, both cleaning and what I call playing, which is the part where I decorate and refresh and such.  I tend to over do but gracious, a  good day's work does usually make for a really good night's rest I've noticed so it sorts itself out.  I'll confess we had a few worrisome days as well and housework is always good for what worries me.  It takes my mind off things...or if it's repetitive work it sometimes allows me to mull over the troubles and get some insight and clarity.

Spring Fresh: Freshening Up the Kitchen

Fair Warning:  This is a picture heavy post!

    

I've been longing to do something fresh and new to my kitchen for the longest time.   I'd had the same drapes, cafe curtains and rugs in the kitchen for 8 years and I was so thoroughly tired of them that I knew I had to make the kitchen my priority this year. I had a budget of $150 and some of that went into the living room ($20) and the master bath ($15).

After spending months looking, I finally found flat sheets at Walmart that I felt were perfect for curtains for the kitchen and these rugs (Better Homes and Gardens line for Walmart).  I really hadn't planned to introduce browns into the room but it actually pulls out colors already in the wall covering.  Just as I'd been looking at and contemplating fabric for months, I also had been looking for new rugs.  I liked these best of any I'd seen.  Sheets enough to make curtains, the two rugs, new dish towels and a couple of new items to organize the cabinet space, cost about $120.  That's not exact but it is definitely within $10-$20 of the amount.

This Week In My Home: Spring Has Sprung

That's me...not sure if she's daydreaming, tired from Spring Cleaning, contemplating yet another house project, thinking of yard work that should be done, or the week ahead, but yeah...that's me.

We're just done with a hectic paced Shabat in which we both slept incredibly well Friday night and then rose early Saturday morning to drive to Athens to spend a whirl wind time with children and return home again just in time for going to bed and starting all over again.  We made it to church this morning, and I'm glad I went, but as I told John a little later, I'm done.  Today is going to have to be recovery day.

There was no meal at home yesterday save breakfast.  I made breakfast this morning and John picked up chicken in the grocery when he went in to buy bread.  And that's what we ate for 'dinner'.  Chicken and bread.  Supper is not looking too hopeful around here.  Tomorrow, I'll be back at it all over again, swinging away but today can be our nutritionally unbalanced, eat to live, sort of day.

This Week In My Home: Fresh Savings

Another of my copy-cat crafts.  I fashioned this basket after an MSL design...It cost me $3 for                             the Spanish Moss I used as my filler.  Everything else was on hand.

Saturday:  I made pizza from scratch.  I put homemade yeast dough in the fridge Friday, along with prepared vegetables and cheese I grated.  Today I spread dough on the pan and let it rise a bit then topped and baked.

Dug about in the fridge and found some green olives I'd bought that had pits in them.  I sliced the olives away from the pit.  I put the pits aside and when I was done I sat down and ate the remaining flesh off the pits.  I think I prefer the flavor of green olives with pits in them.

Went through the magazines Mama gave me last week and pulled the pages that interested me.

Retirement Remedy: Getting Savings Straight

In a conversation with a younger married person this week I heard an all too familiar story:  Credit cards were all paid off with the tax refund and now the slow creep has begun.  "It's not that we're using the cards to eat out or travel, it's the emergencies that come up.  The car needs new tires or the oil needs to be changed..."

uhm hmmm...

Shall we get it straight once and for all?

I'm going to make myself mighty unpopular and say this.  Oil changes and the need for new tires are NOT emergencies (unless you have a slashed or punctured tire right away after buying new).  They are routine maintenance issues and should be dealt with by setting aside a small monthly amount to cover the costs at time of service. This is not savings per se, it is planning ahead.

In My Home This Week: Inspired to be Frugal

 I make a large portion of the foods we eat from scratch...and most I had to learn how to make.  I didn't know how to make cinnamon rolls or yeast raised breads as a young married woman.  I made plenty of mistakes until I learned.  Now it's all old tricks and I'm looking for new ones to learn.

Saturday:  We had the propane heater on this morning to chase the chill of the frost morning away.

I made chili for our main meal.  The recipe on the seasoning packet (a favorite of John's that I buy occasionally) calls for 1 pound of meat and 1 can each of tomatoes and beans.  I double the beans and tomatoes and serve the chili over rice. It's a bit spicy and I can't imagine how much heat it would impart if we made it as the recipe reads.

I cut slices of Challah and made cheese toast to go with the chili.

I put a little more than a standard quart of chili in the fridge for a 'Leftover Makeover' dish later this week of Tamale Pie.

Washed a full load of dishes this evening.

Spring Fresh

Well winter is over...At least in my neck of the woods it's most likely over.  We've already seen days with temperatures at 90F, though nights and early mornings can be cool and yesterday was miserably damp and chilly.  Nevertheless a new season is here.    

I don't know about you but I needed to see the change of season indoors.  I wanted something fresh.  I had a budget of $20 to do all I wanted to do.  Yeah.  It didn't go far, lol. I spent it all in one place and it made exactly one spot look nice for about a week.  

Well...now my budget was $0 and I'm shocked to tell you that I made it go a long way towards making things look different.

Here's what I did: