A Joyful Keeper

Ok, I’ve got a few updates to do here… first of all, the chooks are laying slowly, but surely! We started with one or two a day, and yesterday we got three! Yay! We saved up the first five eggs and then I soft boiled them. We all had one and oooooh, it was soooo yummy! There is nothing better than free range eggs!

My grocery budget…. well, the challenge is still on! I am a little over $150 a week at the moment. Thankfully it is still the beginning of the year and I am still going to try for $100 on average. I’ve been buying extras for preserving, and I have also been buying extra for my pantry so that I have a spare of each thing on hand and therefore don’t have to run to the shops for just one thing. So I am quite pleased with how I am doing so far.

I keep forgetting to update you on Purposeful Planning by Phyllis Sather. I read it while I was away at my inlaws, and I really enjoyed it. It brought back memories of our first years of marriage when we went away for planning weekends. Our first planning weekend was in a tent. Other ones were in nicer places like Bed and Breakfasts… but all were wonderful times of planning, praying and relaxing.

Phyllis does a great job in her book of explaining what a planning weekend is, what kind of things can be included, lots of suggestions, and lots of motivation! I would really recommend it to you if you haven’t read it yet. Just click on the link above and visit her site.

I also keep meaning to mention The Year of the Doll House. You can check out more details at A Mother’s Journal. Last December I felt God was telling me to take the time to play Barbies with Elizabeth. I can remember my own mother coming and playing Barbies (actually, I had the Happy Family and Sunshine Family!) with me. I used to treasure those times so much, and wished she had time everyday to play with me! She would not only play with me, but help me make clothes for them. Hers were always so much nicer than the ones I made! However, with the rush of Christmas I forgot about this little seed that was planted in my mind.

In January I came across A Mother’s Journal and read about the Year of the Doll House. It was another nudge from God to say, “Play with your daughter… just play with her…” Finally at the end of the month, God nudged me again(big nudge!) (a long story and I won’t bore you with it!). So I’ve been doing that. Playing with her. Playing Barbie families - she has a house, and I have a house. Just like the old days when I was young….lol! And I still have my Happy Families dolls, so we play with them too. If you have young girls, I’d encourage you to head over to the above site and join in with us. I’m not playing with Elizabeth everyday, but I am trying to play with her at least a few times a week.

And finally…. a Sabbatical…. I wrote about this way back before Christmas last year, here. I have been feeling God telling me to slow down on the internet for a long time. And to take a break from blogging. I’ve resisted it. I’ve prayed about it. I’ve whined talked about it. And this morning, during my Quiet Time, I knew I needed to make the step.

The first six months of this year are going to pretty hectic. We have overseas visitors coming to stay with us, and family as well. Our house is still far from unpacked and organized. I know I need to take time this first half of the year to get us settled properly.

I love blogging. I love visiting other people’s blogs. But I also know that if it takes too much time away from being a keeper of my home, then I need to discipline myself to slow down. It is not going to be easy, and I’m sure I’ll have days when I’ll go crazy and madly visit everyone’s blogs into the wee hours…. but I want to try to cut way back!

My hope for this Sabbatical from the internet is to get our home in order, to spend time with the children other than just school time, and to get our routines into place. I have preserving to do, sewing for the home, and other things. It is easy for me to think about these things, plan towards them, write lists, but it is better for me to actually do them!

I will leave my site up as it is, and you never know, I may even post occasionally over the next 6 months, but that is not at the top of my priority list. And yes,… I will be dropping in on your blogs every now and then. Just not on a daily or weekly basis.

Thank you all for the kind comments you’ve left on my blog over the past year and a half. Thanks to all who dropped in. This is not goodbye, just adieu!

Hosted by Biblical Womanhood

While I was at my dmil’s, we had an interesting discussion about spending and frugal living. I said how I was frustrated by the government encouraging the people to keep on spending. Apparently Australians spent 36.5 Million dollars in the six weeks before Christmas. If that isn’t bad enough, after Christmas sales were phenomenal as well. What did they spend their money on? According to the article I read, a lot of the spending was on on technology - ipods, laptops & plasma tvs…..

Back to my dmil. They have been farmers all their lives, but not the types that did everything themselves. They hired others to do the shearing, cut the hay, fix the tractors. She thought I was commenting on this, and defended herself by saying that they put money back into the community. They paid the laborers who then spent money in the town, etc, etc. This is not what I was saying, however. It is great to put money back into the community, and I also do this as much as I can. I like to buy local when I can, support the little shops in our town, but is this what everyone was doing in the Christmas sales?

I came across these posters at this site, and it just highlighted the difference in the governments gone by and the ones we now have.

Now I am not an economist. I didn’t do well in economics at school. I know people say we are supposed to spend to keep the economy going. But correct me if I’m wrong - how can putting “things”, (that are mostly imported, which means our money is going overseas) on our credit cards (because I am sure much of that Christmas spending was not cash!) be sustainable. Credit card money is not “real”. Look at the posters above:

“Grow a Victory Garden!” During the war, people were encouraged to grow their own.

“We’ll have lots to eat this winter, won’t we Mom?” Canning and preserving was not looking down on. It was part of a nation wide effort to grow things yourself, can them and take responsibility.

“Use it up - Wear it out - Make it do!” Not the things we are hearing today. We are hearing - spend, spend, spend. New is better. You must have this latest gadget…. your children need the latest toys….

To me the posters above are the essence of old fashioned thrift. Growing as much as you can yourself, even if it is in pots. Canning food is not only frugal (if you grow it yourself), but it is also healthier. You know exactly what has gone into the food you are eating.

Using what you have, and using it until it is worn out.. it’s a different mindset. It speaks of contentment - I am happy with what I have. It may not be the latest fashion or model, but it does the job. It speaks of creativity - now that this is worn out and can’t be used for its original purpose, what else can I use it for? Can it be fixed? Can it has a new lease of life? Can I turn it into something else?

Being old fashioned is frowned upon and mocked in today’s society. But one day things are going to come crashing down around us, and those of us who know how to be old fashioned will find the changes we need to make less difficult.

Practically, what can you do in light of the old fashioned frugality encouraged in the posters above?

Grow it yourself:

Even if you don’t have a big garden you can grow things in pots. Herbs are easy to grow on the window sill. Instead of flowers, plant veggies in your garden beds. One zucchini plant, a few lettuces and a tomato will give you soups in winter and salads in summer.

Can it or freeze it:

Freeze your zucchini’s for soups in winter. You can grate zucchini and freeze it in portion sizes for recipes that call for grated zucchini. No need to blanch it. Buy vegetables like pumpkin on special, cook them and freeze them as well. You don’t need to grow it yourself to can it. I buy big boxes of tomatoes from the veggie shops and can them if I don’t have enough in my garden. It still saves me money and I know it is healthier.

Use it up, make do…:

Use what you have and what you are given. I have a friend who gets me cheap flour, sugar, etc. I try to use that as much as possible. My clothes are not the latest fashion, and I have been wearing them for the past… um, er,… ok, years…! I love hand me downs for myself and the children. I love to find a different use for the clothes we have, if they are too worn out to pass on to others (see my post on using old jeans). I can’t bring myself to cut up perfectly good clothes, however, because I know there are people out there who need them. Clothes that are too tatty to use for anything, become rags.

Making do is a big thing in today’s society. I fall in the “want” trap so often. It is so easy to see something new in the shop, even if it is something I already have, but a nicer color, or a better style, or whatever. Making do and contentment run hand in hand. Being content with what we have and what we have been given.

Old fashioned thrift…. I know that if we could go back in time to the 50’s, we would learn so many things from the older women who practiced all the things in the above posters. Thankfully there are women today who are going back to old fashioned thrift, and I’d like to say that they are a great encouragement to people like me. I still have a lot to learn in this area, but just visiting other frugal blogs and looking at how it was done years ago are so motivating. I hope this motivates you as well, and I’d love to hear some memories of your grandmothers and how they practiced thrift in their daily lives.