Homemaking Happiness!

"I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty and joy to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble." ~Helen Keller

I decided this week was a great time to go over some of my recent frugal living/household management tips (I find that I often use "household management" in place of "homemaking" since I am still employed full time outside of the home as well). Sharing my frugal living and household management tips with my family and friends has become, over the past year, a HUGE passion of mine!!! My sweet husband is so supportive and told me the other day he thinks I have "found my niche" in doing that. My desire is to help others become better Christian stewards of their household, their finances, and the environment (many of you have heard me mention my love of being "green" when possible). I hope that some of you find these ideas helpful!

Anyway, this week was the perfect time to share some things because our refrigerator died last week (see pics below of empty "dead" refrigerator and sleek new black refigerator delivered to our house this weekend). Sorry the picture of the new one is so blurry and off-center!





In the process of cleaning out the "dead" refrigerator (we did lost most of the food in it). Praise the Lord we had a lot of our food frozen in the stand-alone freezer on our sunporch. In cleaning the old refrigerator out, I gained a LOT of containers that I had used to store things in (that goodness for the help of a dishwasher in washing them all out). I rarely, if ever, have to buy containers of any type for food storage. I resuse ones that I have had for years, and I also save useful containers that come as packaging for food we buy. Just because a container once held brand-name deli meat, or store-bought BBQ sauce, doesn't mean that it has to be tossed at the end of the life of it's contents. I pop many things into the dishwasher and they are GREAT for storage of food and things like homemade salad dressings!

In the picture below, I "rescued" some sauces and marinades from our dying refrigerator and was able to freeze them in the stand-alone freezer before they went bad (just a reminder - if you do this make sure you leave enough space in the bad or container or expansion from freezing). The container with the yellow top on the right is an example of what I was taking about. This is a Hillshire Farm deli meat container (they are some of the best). We long ago finished the deli meat, but the plastic container is definitely sturdy enough to be washed and reused again and again! And with the help of some labels, you can easily remember what was stored in what container. AND, you can simply put another label over the old one when you want to wash it and store something different. This reuse both saves money on buying containers and also keep another piece of plastic out of our landfills!



Another thing I love to reuse are glass and plastic bottles from vending machines. David often drinks Snapple and we have from time to time brought our occasional vending machine soda (even though I'm trying to give up soft drinks - oops). We have found a great use for these! We used to buy bottled water in the individual-serving sized bottles. But then I started to really notice how much cheaper bottled water is by the ounce if you buy it in gallon or larger containers (consumers end up paying for that extra packaing to put the water in individual serving bottles, AND it creates more waste for the trash - not cool!). SO, now we "save" a reasonable number of Snapple bottles and other bottles that have come out of the vending machine. I wash them in the dishwasher (remember - plastic bottles should go on th TOP rack away fron the heating element) and then transfer water from the big "gallon plus" containers into the smaller bottles via funnel. This way, we always have an individual serving bottle to take to work, but we save money AND keep our waste to a minimum. Below is an example of some of the bottles I have filled last week...



And guess what, when we use up the BIG gallon-plus containers of water (or 2 liter bottles of soda) those don't go in our trash, either! In our recent effort to be more preparadness-conscious in case of an emergency, we have started stockpiling tap water over the past month. We take the empty bottled water containers, fill them with tap water, seal them up, and mark them with "stockpile" on he front. We have a place in our house to keep these in case of an emergency when we could not get to the store to get water and city water was shut off. We prefer drinking bottled water in everyday life, but in an emergency tap water would certainly beat having no water at all! We love doing this because it is a way to reuse these containers AND be more prepared for a disaster...



While I was doing all of this in the kitchen this week, I tried a technique that my mother had recommended to me. I took the stuff out of our pantry and wrote the expiration date in large letters on the front of the items. This makes it easier to tell when you open the pantry what you need to use up quickly before it expires. I loved this idea! Now we make sure we don't waste pantry food. Thanks Mom (below is a small sampling of our pantry food with the labeling I did with a Sharpie)...



I was super excited as well to get slipcovers for the wing-back chairs in our living room (the ones we brough back from Mississippi). Recovering wingbacks usually costs about $300 EACH. WOW. And that does not include buying the material. I was able to slipcover BOTH of the chairs for a total of $180. $600 to reupholster and $180 to slipcover? I'll take the latter, thanks. Plus, slipcovers can be taken off and washed when they get dirty (a trait that I'm sure will be especially handy when we have children)...



We also got new lamps for our living room this week, as well as an accent lamp and pole lamp for our den. EXCITING!!! I used this as an opportunity to replace some of our light bulbs around the house with the new energy-saving bulbs. I got a huge box of them for free from Duke Energy (if you are a Duke Energy customer and want to know how, just ask me!). Nice to know that I'm helping the environment AND saving us money with a low electric bill!





And one last frugal & green tip - you know how many linens that you buy (shower curtains, bedding, etc) often come in the zip-up plastic bags? I LOVE reusing these!!! They are quite durable and can hold a good deal of stuff depening on what they originally packaged. I used one of the plastic bags that our slipcovers came in to hold my haircare products, which are typically scattered about all over the cabinets of our bathroom vanity. I have some organization, and one less thing goes in the trash. Love it!!!



So, like I said, it was a good week of saving and reusing. :-) I would love to hear some of your creative tips of reusing things and saving money!!!

Mothers Day Weekend 2011

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. ~Tenneva Jordan

David and I had so much fun this weekend!!!

We started out on Saturday by going to the Farmers Market in Colfax. They were having a chili cook off, and, although we didn't eat any of the chili, we had fun walking around both inside the market and outside at the chili festival!







We also got to briefly play with some dogs from a dog training group that was out there...



We spent a few hours doing some housework, and then later in the afternoon we went over to my parents house to watch the Kentucky Derby with them. Although my horse finished the lowest among our picks, we had a great time sipping our virgin mint juleps...





After the derby, we took a picnic down to the lake in our neighborhood. The weather was great and the sky was beautiful!





Today, we got to spend some time with my mother and grandmother for Mothers Day. David and I are SOOOOO lucky that we both have such wonderful mothers!!! We are super blessed to have wonderful women that loved us and raised us so well. I am thankful every day for both my mother and my mother-in-law. Tonight, took some pictures...

My mother and grandmother...



My mother and David...



Three generations...



Hope all of the mothers out there had a WONDERFUL Mother's Day! :-)

A Few Thoughts As Of Late...

"There is no spectacle on earth more appealing than that of a woman in the act of cooking dinner for someone she loves." ~Thomas Wolfe

I know that I usually limit this blog to two topics - documenting our random adventures and providing frugal living advice. BUT sometimes I get called to share what has been on my heart recently, and this week has been one of those times.

Really, it's all been centered around two things - God's role for women, and the institution of marriage.

I have had Proverbs 31 heavily on my heart recently. More so even than usual. Many of you who know me know that I am, by nature, super "traditional." I love the idea of the 1950's life. I don't have a problem with gender roles (so long as not taken to a ridiculous) extreme and in fact celebrate the fact that God clearly made men and women very different physically and emotionally and called them to different roles for HIS glory. I know some feminist would rake me over the coals for this, but I don't want to be like men. I want to be a woman. (Proof positive - one of my favorite books is "Let Me Be a Woman" by Elisabeth Elliot). I went to one of the most liberal colleges in the country, where the feminist movement is absolutely celebrated, and it didn't change me. I want the softness, tenderness, and nurturing nature of a woman. Does this mean that I don't want to be successful at work? No. Want to let men run over me? No. Would never take a promotion at work? Not true. Never want an opinion of my own? DEFINITELY not (I am quite opinionated, thank you very much). Does it mean that I NEVER struggle with "living out" the Biblical concept of submitting to my husband in every day life (haha! I can almost can hear my husband laughing as I type this! I wish I never struggled with this. My heart knows the right way, but my stubborn brain doesn't always do the right thing. The whole, "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" thing.) BUT, I don't want to be like a man. Not in the eyes of society, and most certainly not in the eyes of God. I want to let my husband be the leader of our household. I want to let men be the leaders of the Church.

I am constantly amazed by how offensive many women (and even men) seem to find this concept. God made me different. God made man first, then made a woman to help him. Some may look at this as women having a lesser or unimportant role. To me, this is the ULTIMATE role. God made us because man could NOT do it all by himself! We women, and the unique role we play, are so NEEDED!!! God made us to complete the plan. I consider being my husband's helper (and David is so easy to help, because he honors me and doesn't "expect" me to do anything in particular) a gift. There are nights that I get tired. I do a fair part of the housework at our house - laundry, ironing, cooking. I also manage our budget (David manages investments) and am constantly looking for ways to save and stretch our money further. David has never asked me to do these things, and always offers to help or even do it himself! And often times, he DOES do it himself - cleaning the bathroom or folding the clothes. But he is my provider (yes, I work a full time job as well, but David is our main breadwinner) and protector, and so I do what I do to help him be just that. Are there days that I get tired? Of course. But I do it not out of compulsion, not because David asks it of me, but because I WANT to honor God and David by fulfilling that role as much as possible, knowing David will always step in and help me when I need it. Praise the Lord for this awesome role I can play!

The other thing on my heart has been the marriage relationship. How could one not think about it, given the massive fanfare surrounding the Royal Wedding this week (the recording of which I plan to watch tonight). There have been a lot of facts coming out in the media about William not planning to wear a wedding band. I realize this may be part of the "royal culture" to some degree, but I think he should wear one. I know, it doesn't make one any more "married" if they wear one. Nor will Kate ever have to worry that people don't know who her husband is or that he is a married man. But, in my opinion, it is an important sign of the marriage covenant. David and I have never taken our wedding bands off our finger since we married on October 24th, 2009. I hope there is a never reason we have to (although I know that swollen hands from medical conditions can sometimes make it necessary). I KNOW we never will for any reason OTHER than a medical condition or the like. Once he put that ring on my finger, I wanted to keep it on, no matter what. And we have.

I also hope that people remember that, while the Royal Wedding is fun to watch (and believe me, I can't wait) that eventually William and Kate's marriage, like any other, will turn from fairytale and fantasy to real life. This is normal, but often unexpected in our society. When the super romance of dating fades, society says "Go to someone else, someone who makes you happy 24/7!" If they live as God intends, they will CHOOSE to love each other, even when that FEELING of love may waver. Life will not always be long princess dresses or cheering crowds. It will be ups and downs and hardships and triumphs. And in all of these, God's perfect plan is that a husband and wife will draw even CLOSER to each other. I hope that the rumors are not true about the Royal couple getting a prenup. No one is more anti-prenup than me. If you go into marriage God's way, with HIS glory in mind as well as that of the lifelong commitment of marriage, there would be no need for a prenup because divorce would be out of the question. That is one thing David and I discussed before we married - divorce would just not be an option, no matter what we went through or how tough life got. I am so glad we went into it that way. David and I have had our share of hard times, of life's ups and downs and tears and fears. But there is no one I'd rather be going through life with - both during good and bad.

I know this was a long post, but it's just what came our of my heart recently. Thank you for reading. I know many of you disagree with me on many of these things, and that is fine. I simply must speak what I feel like the Lord has laid upon me. May God bless you and your marriages this week!

Adventures from April

"April hath put a spirit of youth in everything." ~William Shakespeare

I realize that I have continued to be a TERRIBLE blogger this month. David and I have been trying to adjust to his new work schedule - getting up so early and him commuting so far away each day. We each wake up around 4:45 each morning. We get on the road early, get to work early (praise the Lord that David has found a vanpool to ride each day to RTP which saves us TONS on gas), put in a full 8-hour day of work (or more than a full day depending on what time we get there), get back home, and then have to make time for cooking, cleaning, laundry, ironing, Scripture reading/devotional/prayer, "together" time, etc. All of that hasn't left a ton of time for blogging! But given that I have a few extra moments this Sunday, I thought I'd update you on some adventures from this month.

One Saturday early in the month, David and I spent the whole day doing some outside work, including (David) cleaning out our gutters. With all the trees around our house, there is quite a lot to take care of at gutter cleaning time...







While I was out watching him that day, I took a picture of the BEAUTIFUL blue sky over our front yard in Greensboro...LOVE that color!



Also took a picture of our azaleas in the backyard, which were blooming at that time...





One random Friday evening, we had LAMB for dinner! David LOVES lamb, and they had it on sale at Harris Teeter. You know if there has ever been a girl that loves a sale, that girl is me. So we picked up a few lamb chops and David grilled them. I made baked potato and some veggies and bread (DELICIOUS rosemary bread from EarthFare). As most of you know, I am also all about using the things that you have instead of just letting them sit around to look pretty. SO we pulled out the fine china and crystal as we sometimes do and had a romantic dinner in our dining room...



LAST weekend, we had one of the most unusual and unexpected adventures of the month. It was Saturday night, which is our standard date night/go out to eat night each week. We had looked forward all day to going to one of our favorite casual restaurants that we go to frequently. We got there, ordered our food, and in the process of waiting were told by the people behind us that they had seen a MOUSE run across the floor!!! WHOA!!! I am not going to name this establishment, because I truly believe it was not their fault (construction next door had apparently flushed out a nest of mice) and I don't want them losing business over something they really can't help. I am also NOT afraid of mice. HOWEVER, we were a little bothered by eating at a table where we didn't know if a mouse had run across it earlier or not. So, we politely asked for a take out container. The restaurant took care of our dinner, which was totally unnecessary (although a very nice gesture) and we took our food to go! We went to a local and somewhat hidden park in the area where we could have a nice little picnic by ourselves. It was fun, and the sky was once again beautiful! One of the many things I treasure about being married to David is that even unexpected trouble often turns into fun!





Most recently, we celebrated my grandfather "Golly's" 90th birthday last night (if you want an explanation of why we call him Golly please ask and I'll be glad to give you the funny story). We are so fortunate to have had him with us for so many years! We all (Mimi and Golly, David and I, my parents & my Uncle Chuck) went to dinner at Harpers, a favorite restaurant nearby, and afterwards went back to Mimi and Golly's house for him to open cards and presents. What a wonderful celebration of 90 years of life!!! :-)





The man in this photo with us is the manager at Harpers who was very helpful!





Finally, we wrapped up our April (last night AFTER Golly's birthday celebration) by celebrating Walpurgis Night! Never heard of it? I would be surprised if you HAD heard of it! Many of you know that I am VERY into heritage and traditions. I have always really wanted our kids one day to be able to celebrate some of the holidays and traditions from the countries that David and I's ancestors are from, and thus am always researching such things. But why wait for kids? Why not have the fun now? So last night we celebrated our first Walpurgis Night (a Swedish and German holiday - part of my ancestry). You can read more about it here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walpurgis_Night . David made a Walpurgis bonfire in our fire pit, and my parents and uncle came over to join the fun (actually, I think it was just to humor me). We drank coffee and enjoyed the fire for this cool spring night. Call me crazy with all my random holidays, but I love them!!! I'm DEFINITELY not crazy about our kids celebrating the original pagan meaning of the holiday - that the fires keep away the evil spirits that supposedly roamed the earth on April 30th. So when we have kids, we are going to let them instead celebrate the idea that 1) God gave us the awesome season of spring and 2) the light of the fire (Christ) keeps away (spiritual) darkness! :-)





Thanks to my wonderful husband for building our fire, putting it out afterwards, and, most of all tolerating (and even appreciating) my passion for our culture and heritage...



All in all, a great month filed with lots of random fun!