Retrain Your Brian

When we no longer have a use for something, we usually think of only two options, both include getting rid of the item. Either give it away or sell it. Well, sadly for me, there is also the third option of throw it away. But I am starting to learn the value of another option.

REPURPOSING! The old adage of "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" really has much more meaning to me now. I already shared about how I finally made croutons from dry bread that I normally would have just thrown out.

Meredith shares about how she keeps from accumulating too much (love it!) as well as about how she repurposes.

And Rebecca talks about how she made over a dress. MY goodness girlfriend that is so beautiful!! I need to learn how to do that! Do share!!! How do you train your mind to think of these things?

And Monica shares how she repurposes too. Here too!

Why is is so hard to repurpose things? Why do we get into this mentality of an object has one and only one use? I loved Meredith's idea of using an old cloth napkin as a basket liner. I NEVER WOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT! So simple, yet a great way to make it do. :)

This brain of mine needs to be re-trained to see these things differently. I have always known you could reuse old sheets for fabric. Cut them up for matching napkins and placemats. Make a dress out of it. But I need help retraining for all the OTHER things!!! I need to get in the mentality of:
Am I able to sell this and make some god money?
Or do I know someone who is in need of this item?
If not,
Am I able to barter this item for something else I need/want more?
Or can I find another way to re-use this item?

I wonder if there is a board out there where you share items you have that you are thinking of getting rid of, and everyone tells you all the great things you can do with it. Maybe they have even done something similar themselves and have a picture or a tutorial or a pattern. :) Heck, you might even be able to barter the new item you made from the old item that nobody wanted. :) Wouldn't THAT be cool???

Saving Money on Heating

I had been keeping the thermostat at 65. Beloved turned it back up to 68 (where the utility company suggests you keep it no higher than) last month. Our electric bill went up near $70!!! Now true, two of those days we had no windows (windows were being replaced), and we did have a space heater going in the garage for a few days while the dog was sleeping out there. But WOW, an increase of $70 is quite a bit!!!

After getting the bill, beloved turned the thermostat back down to 65. :) I try to get him (and the girls) to dress WARMLY. Wear those stockings and bloomers. Wear sweatpants on top of your bloomers. Hubby wears sweatpants under his jeans (skinny man!!!). We will see how much it helps cutting back those extra three degrees.

But still, sometimes we get cold. I am wondering about lowering the thermostat even more at night and then up during the day while we are here and moving around. I have been doing some research and came across a great article on how to make a cherry stone bed warmer. I must admit that I am pretty excited about this!!! :)

Cherry pits are supposed to retain heat longer and release it more slowly than grains usually used in heating packs. A dear friend of mine, Brenda mentioned that she is not sure if they are or are not a moist heat (which grains are) which is really good for penetrating. But what she has read so far it seems like they are. So cherry pits might be a good way to keep warm and to help a hurting back. I have not been able to find information on the moist heat of cherry pits. Might check on her blog in the future to see if she does. She is a whiz with this kind of stuff. :D

Oh check this out! There is a great little post on Crunchy Chicken about it. I have read this article, but if you decide to wander from this page, read with a discerning heart, as I would hope you do with all blogs (even mine). :)

As to where to buy cherry pits, you can buy them from The Cherry Pit Store. You can also do it yourself, but one article said it takes 30-40 pounds of cherries to make one pillow. THAT'S SOME SERIOUS CHERRY PICKIN and eatin!!! LOL!!! You might also see if there is a cannery nearby that you might be able to get them really cheap or possibly even free (Dave Ramsey says bargain EVERYTHING!) :) SO who knows! :) Keep me updated if you do this or if you have experience with making one yourself. :)

I know I am thinking of making some cute small ones for boo-boo's to keep in the fridge. They are supposed to stay cold longer than grains too. :)

Reclaimied: Dinning Room

The great thing about the question posed by Reclaiming The Home (Ravelry group):

"How did you reclaim your home today?"

is that it is so FREEING! I am so encouraged! I can reclaim something as big as a level in the house or a room in the house or something as small as the top of the refrigerator or a drawer in the kitchen. Just reclaiming something so small can make you feel so GOOD!

And the freeing part is that I can choose what I want to reclaim and who cares if it is just the pen drawer in my desk! :) I reclaimed it and it is now nice and neat and pretty to look at. IT MAKES ME FEEL GOOD and it encourages me to do more.

Remembering that this can be small REALLY helps me. I started off just wanting to reclaim the dining room table. Our dining room is part of a great room (minus the kitchen). I have always felt that BOTH rooms HAD to be cleaned at the same time. But remembering that reclaiming can be small, I was able to do just the dining room and make it look so NICE AND PRETTY!!

I use a quilt rack to hang our tablecloths on. It is a fun way to display them, know what I have AND a great way to keep the wrinkles out!! :) Since we have two dining tables, I took all the ones that did not fit the dining room table and EE folded those and put those in the bench of the other table in the kitchen. Then we cleaned off the floor and vacuumed it. (It had never occurred to me I could vacuum just one room - I know, silly me.) I took everything that did not belong in the dining room and put it where it belonged. I am no longer going to use the dining room for storage! YEAH!!

Then EE (and AA offered to help her) made the table, picking a table cloth from the quilt rack, some placemats (fabric) and some napkins (fabric). EE placed the placemats and AA folded the napkins in a pretty style and placed them near each placemat. IT LOOKS SO PRETTY AND ELEGANT!! Now I just need to put some candles in the center and we are ready to go!

The dining room is part of EE's zone and she is responsible for cleaning it up and keeping it clean (a very overwhelming and sometimes neglected task). Working with her today and encouraging her (and not having it be a storage area for her anymore) really encouraged her today! She is able to clearly see what needs to be done and will have a much easier time keeping a reclaimed area clean!! :)

Tuesday Link Up - crafts

Free Vintage Craft Patterns has crochet, knitting, tatting and other craft patterns as wel as instructions! Pick a new craft and learn it!! :)

How fun is this? Bath Cookies!! Just make sure to give them to adults and not children! They look too close to real!

Apron
More Free Patterns from the same site.

Reclaimed: Entertainment Center

I posted this on another group and wanted to share with you. It is in association with a blog called Reclaiming The Home.
The question posed was:

"How did you reclaim your home today?"

This was my answer:

I reclaimed the entertainment center. The DVD’s! They were a MESS! So I had the girls help and we reorganized them, we even decluttered some! Then I have some books that are FULL of TV free activities that I keep right next to the TV. I organized those so they would be easier to access. Then we went through and got rid of all the VHS’s we had bought DVD’s (don’t need TWO of the same movie now that the oldest can put in and take out a DVD properly). :)

I placed all the scrapbooks in an easy to reach spot (yes, we have a LOT of storage in our entertainment center). :) It is so important for me to capture all these moments with them because I know that I look at my mother’s and grandmother’s pictures and wonder who/what/where and no one knows. And now my grandmother has passed away. The girls LOVE looking at themselves when they were younger (look at that - you DID love your sister at one time!). :) I also put all the hiking with kids books next to the TV free activity books. A reminder that when the weather gets better to not watch the TV but go take a HIKE! :)

I also found out that I had MORE than enough space to add some of the daily homeschooling books as well as the Bible I have been reading through with the children. I did not realize I had so much space!!! Now it looks and feels so nice! And I was able to clean up some books that had just been lying around in the living room and put them in the entertainment center! Yah!!

Now onto reclaiming the living room!!!

I did it and I feel GREAT!

I was forced to do it. It was a craving that just had to be satisfied and there was just no other option. It was just staring me in the face and I just had to overcome my fear and just do it.

That's right....for the first time in my life, I made croutons. :)

We had some bread that my husband had bought on clearance for Christmas. It was pretty dry. And there is no money in the budget fro croutons. :)

It is amazing how picky you become when you are shopping with cash and you vow to spend ONLY so much cash at the grocery store. Things that I would just grab on a whim, I now realized where part of what was putting us into debt.

The left over rolls were about 25 cents. The little bit of olive oil and herbs I used to flavor the bread was prolly about 25 cents. So I usually pay $3 for our croutons. I made them for just over 50 cents (gotta pay to heat the oven and wash the dishes). :)

I took the brad and cubed it (no easy task considering the bread was pretty dry). I put the cubes into a bowl, drizzled them with olive oil and tossed with herbs (garlic, onion powder, Italian herbs). I pre-heated the oven to 350F and put the coated cubes on a jelly roll pan (love my Pampered Chef) and then turned the oven down to 200 and baked for 15 minutes. Then the oven was turned off and they stayed in there until cool. I was not able to find a RECIPE recipe for these, so this is what I did and it turned out pretty good. I stored them in a ziplock baggie. YIPPEE!!!

Friday's Fun: Just Do IT!

With my kids enjoying crafts, they got a lot of crafts this year (and from years past). I know that I have the best of intentions when I get them the craft kits, or when they receive them from others. "SURE Momma will help you make it." But then life gets in the way and I forget, or get "too busy" (how can anyone be too busy for their kids?) or worry too much about the mess that will follow.

My girls have proved themselves time and time again. The excitement of a craft gives them the encouragement to clean it up when done. I always remind them BEFORE we begin the craft that at the end, there must be a clean up, and they always come through - even without being reminded again at the end!

And yet I still hesitate. Silly me!!!

So today we took out one craft and worked on it, together. It was a wonderful tying strings with my girls!! And not only were we tying strings, but Momma was faithful to her word.

I still have a box full of craft kits to do in the future with the girls. Something to pull out on those rainy days where they are stir crazy and Momma is going crazy. :) Just a little reminder to DO those little kits with your kids. They won't remember how it looked (because TRUST ME - it will not look like something to remember), but what they will remember, the TIME you spent WITH them.... that will stay with them for life.

You May Prove The Will Of God

I have had to really think about what I REALLY want to accomplish in my life. While my ultimate goal is to glorify God in all I do and say, I fall terribly short. Sometimes I think I should put duct tape over my mouth to avoid saying things in anger. And sometimes I think I should toss out every TV and computer so I am not tempted to waste time on them rather then investing in my children.

But I am reminded of a story of little boy who was being very horrible to his mother. She finally told him to sit in the corner. The little boy replied "I may be sitting on the outside, but I am still standing on the inside!" I am reminded that it doesn't matter what kind of obedience (even that forced upon me by duct tape) I show God, it is the obedient heart that matters to God.

So I need to change my heart.
"Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me."
I need to change my conduct.
If you have indeed heard Him, and the truth is in you, put off...your former conduct..."
I need to put on a NEW man.
"...put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge..."
I need to renew my mind.
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

That is POWERFUL!!! I may prove God's will. I find it interesting that the word MAY is used instead of the word CAN. Being a home school mom, it was important to me to teach my children from an early age, the difference between those two words.

Tuesday Link Up

OK, so I totally forgot Tuesdays are when I share links. LOL!! SO just pretend yesterday's post is todays and today's post is yesterdays. :D

While I currently do not knit, I plan to learn some day (just like I taught myself to crochet). So, until then, I will just admire the adorable free knitting patterns for tea party food.

I would have never thought of felted soap.

This post reminds us of our worth in Christ and not in a blog.

AND A WARNING FOR ALL THOSE WHO HAVE BANK OF AMERICA CREDIT CARDS!!

I got this in my email from a local friend who is the originator of the email and am passing it along for those of you who might now someone or are someone with a BOA CC.

We've been going through our credit card statement online today and reconciling it with the holiday shopping receipts we have. We found a couple of charges for $10.65 from ilicsolutions and alana designs- we did not buy anything from these places! after doing a quick google search we discovered that there are a lot of people who have been charged this same amount by the same people or others using another company name during the days of 12/10- 12/12. The charges on our statement were made on 12/10. You need to dispute the charges with BOA if you have them as they are a scam. Someone has evidently compromised the BOA sales records for those days and harvested the CC numbers.
So, go check your statement and look for any charges of $10.65 that you didn't make!

Christmas Dinner for $15

Our Christmas for $15:

Usually our Christmas Dinner is overflowing with food. We make a little bit of everything and fill up the table with goodies. Our fridge then becomes stocked with leftovers which seem to always go bad before we can use them all. I am not sure why or how it happened, but this year was WONDERFULLY different.

Maybe it was because we only had $15 to spend.

I was telling my husband how Crystal takes $35 and ONLY $35 dollars with her when she does her grocery shopping. She takes a calculator and adds it all up as she goes along, making sure not to go over the budget (pretty embarrassing to get up to the grocery counter only to realize you have $40 worth of food and only $35 to pay for it).

So hubby was shopping (he is the cook in our house when it comes to the fancy dinners - I do the everyday stuff, he does the fanciful stuff). And he only had $15 cash left. So as he went shopping, he added everything up in his mind. And he spent just cents less of $15. :)

He bought organic chicken (on sale), some rolls, cranberry sauce (the canned kind because **I** like it, although he prefers to make his own), carrots and celery. He also bought a pie (which normally we make ourselves, but pecans are so expensive, it was cheaper to buy one than make one). He also bought something else, but I cannot remember what.

He did comment on how difficult it was to stay with the cash he had on hand. He realized just how easy it was to pick something up to purchase it just because you wanted it (after all, that is a GREAT price for it!), rather than truly needing it. I must admit that I am happy for this because I usually send my beloved out to buy a few things and he comes back with a bunch! This will help him to get back sooner as well as help keep us from overspending. Taking cash only with us to buy groceries will really help keep our grocery budget under control.

We had roast chicken (a leg for each person) with carrots and celery. Sides were herbed rice (we already had the rice and herbs), cranberry sauce, veggies and rolls. And for dessert, pecan pie.

I was amazed at how simple and elegant dinner was. There was no rushing around to cook this and that. There were no foods to keep warm while others were cooking. It was nice and simple and .... WONDERFUL! There was no hustle and bustle. Just a simple and elegant dinner to enjoy together. And everyone got plenty to eat!!! :D