How Do You Cook Pork Steak?

Pork Steak is often on sale. And I just got this week's ads to begin planning my menu and lo and behold...Pork Steak...$1.49 per pound. So what do you do with Pork Steak? How do you cook it? I'd love to hear your recipes and ideas!

Oh, one more thing...in my fabric stash I had a nice thick cotton sage and white gingham table cloth that I haven't used for years, but kept because I thought I might want the fabric someday for something. Guess what I did to it? It is now DISH TOWELS to replace the paper towels! That thing made a whopping 16 towels!! I just cut it up, double folded and ironed down the edges (didn't even pin them!) and stitched away. Hooray!! :)

It's Budget Time! Toilet Paper...I'll Miss You!

I love paper products. I do! I love them. I love using them. I love stocking up on them. But I've decided we are going to try giving up paper towels and Kleenex. I was just kidding about the toilet paper. I'm not even going to go there! :)

We spend A LOT of money on disposable paper products. A lot. I am in budgeting mode at the moment. We aren't broke, but we have been very lax with our budget lately and hubby is not working as much due to the weather. So I have been thinking about how we are spending our money. We were more diligent about our budget while we were getting out of debt and saving for an emergency fund. Once those things were done, it was really easy to slack off and just float along and live. We really need to follow a budget all the time, not just when things get snug.

Paper towels...well, the one thing I was thinking I would really miss these for would be to clean up cat poo or puke. Yuck. I had contemplated keeping a roll on hand for that purpose, but I have decided that I can have old rags for this purpose that can just be tossed or burned, or toilet paper will work just fine for the cleanup. I bought a yard of gorgeous kitcheny thicker cotton fabric a couple of weeks ago and yesterday I made it into 4 tea towels. I want to make some more, but will probably go through my fabric stash before I buy anymore fabric. There will be a nice stash of those as well as my dish towels in the kitchen. But even going through a lot of kitchen towels a week isn't going to affect my laundry enough to matter. Toilet paper will also be the replacement for Kleenex. Toilet paper is so much cheaper! Savings....I'd estimate between $15 - $30 a month. Since I haven't been paying much attention to the budget, I'm not sure what we have been spending. All I know is we are out of paper towels and Kleenex every time I turn around and adding them to the shopping list!

Another budget friendly change is that when school starts back next week, my kids are packing their lunches. We can save at least $40 a month doing that. Hubby already takes his lunch to work.

I am also going to shop the store ads on Wednesdays and do my grocery shopping first thing Thursday mornings. I always make a weekly menu, yet it is always what sounds good instead of what is on sale. I have set a dollar amount and I am planning on using the envelope system with cash instead of the bank/debit card. While I love the card's convenience dearly, I think using actual cash will help me to stay on budget! I also plan to give some extra though to our menu and make cheaper changes when I can...like using dried beans instead of canned. I think the savings in this category will probably be substantial. By setting a budget and shopping the ads...I am guessing we will probably save an additional $25 - $50 per week.

Hubby and I also talked about cutting out little things. For example, last night he ran to the store with out youngest to get night night pants for her. In all of the holiday happenings, she ran out. But they also came back with Skittles and Sprite for her! Didn't need those! He has a much harder time saying no to her than I do. And it would be nice to get her out of the night night pants too!

So, these are phase one of spiffing up our budget! This all goes along with my last post about focusing. Our budget and money definitely need our attention. If we don't tell it where to go, we'll wonder where it went! :) Yes, we got out of debt. Yes, we have an emergency fund. But I'd really like to have an emergency fund for our emergency fund! Is that silly? The thought of using it really freaks me out. Really, it is odd...I look back to the days when we were in debt and had ZERO saved and the thought of an "emergency" (or an emergency fund) wasn't even on my radar. Maybe I am getting old! :)

The Seed Catalogs Have Started to Arrive!

Yes, I know...we haven't even made it through Christmas OR New Year's yet! Seed catalogs make me smile! Such a wonderful reminder that the cold gloomy Winter won't be here forever. I LOVE LOVE LOVE garden planning! And I so love starting seeds indoors. Weeding? Not so much so.

We have decided to move the garden up to the yard this coming year instead of having it down in the field. Last year we were in way over our heads. WAY OVER. Like we were drowning in weeds, squash bugs, sweat, AND zucchini. Lesson learned. We are going to have a much much smaller garden. This year I would like the focus to be on properly maintaining what we plant and eating fresh through the Summer months. Storage will not be a focus. And I am NOT planting any zucchini! None! Not a one! I know, I'm such a rebel! :) LOL But I am planting Butter Nut squash again! That is some yummy stuff all slathered with butter and brown sugar and baked! ;)

And I am hoping that some things that didn't make it last year...like the green onions, lettuces, broccoli, and Brussels Sprouts...will make it this year. I think they will have a fighting chance if we go for smaller and more manageable. Some things I am not going to even try again...like pop corn or peas or watermelon. Or zucchini. Snicker...snort...bwaaahaaahaaa! :)

And I am half way thinking about quitting blogging. I really either need to give it up or get it in gear. On the bright side I am good at rambling and I do so many interesting things! Yet I never manage to get pictures or update. I have a bit of a follow through problem. Let's just say I am a big thinker and I have the best of intentions, yet I seem to lack the focus and follow through. In other words, Half-Arsed describes my madness quite well. I truly think I try to do too many things and put a little effort into a lot of things, instead of putting a lot of effort into a few things and doing them well. I have too many "hobbies". And part of the problem is trying to manage our double life style in general - one aspect being our typical life (kids, school, work, extra curricular, etc) and the other, the wanna-be lifestyle (homesteading-ish). So one of my goals for the new year is to work on doing what I love best and on follow through. Focus my attention. At this point I am not sure if blogging will be a part of that - is it something I am going to set goals and work on? or is it something I am going to let go to focus on something else? Time will tell! :)

So in the meantime, has your ever so wonderful mail person been bringing you Springtime catalog goodies? Are you loving them or are you not quite ready to "GO THERE" just yet?

Light Bulb Moments....

I love light bulb moments! And I love my friends because that is where I learn so many great things!

Today I was speaking to a friend and she told me how she handles Christmas presents for her children....

Something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read.

Wow. You would have thought she had just told me the secrets of the universe, I was that excited inside! As I was wrapping my children's Christmas presents just now, her method was on my mind and I felt the need to take a break and blog about it.

I have a hard time not going Christmas crazy. As much as I wanted this year to be different, I got caught up. Again. I love my kids and love making them happy and there are just so many neat things to buy for them! Yet I also want them to grow up balanced. Since I find it very challenging to myself to stay balanced, you can imagine my quandary. And understand my failure!

A guideline such as the one my friend told me about sounds like it could be a wonderful solution to both keep me in check and to teach my children. Knowing my boundaries would help me to stay on track. Setting a budget along with it would really help! And the lessons for my kidlets...some of which could be less materialism, more focus on what they really want and enjoy and with less to take care of perhaps that could also mean more appreciation and taking better care of what they do have?

I also thought it would be nice to add a fifth category...Something to give. We need to work more on that too.

So, it is pretty much too late this year (unless I wanted to do a LOT of returning, which I don't!) but I am definitely going to be promoting this for next year. And maybe over the next year I can convince my kids that this is a GOOD thing! :)

Do you have a method to your Christmas gift giving madness, especially when it comes to your children? What do you think of this method? I would love to hear your thoughts!

You Simply Must Check It Out!!

My friend, Breanna, has three wonderful blogs going and I'd love to share them with you!

This one, her original, has a lot of neat stuff. Delicious yarn photos (she spins and dyes and knits!), pictures of neat places she has visited, her beautiful children and family, pugs, some neat crafty ideas, and more. Go on, have a look-see!

This one is one of her new blogs and it is about FREEZER COOKING!! :) I really want to get into doing this. She has some great recipes up. Check it out!

And last but not least, she is a preschool teacher. She was my youngest daughter's preschool teacher last year and I give her an A+! She's a wonderful teacher. She has recently started a blog about Montessori activities . It's new, but one you'll definitely want to follow especially if you have little ones!

So there you have it. If you are getting hit with this winter storm as we are, go grab a cup of cocoa (Or coffee for you in particular Coop Keeper Jayme! Or decaf tea in my case because I mixed a packet on cocoa in coffee just a bit ago and I am on caffeine overload!), snuggle in your warm robe, and go check out Breanna's blogs!

Alive and Kicking...

Just a quick update to let you all know that the wounded Divas are still alive and well! It truly must be a miracle. I did not expect them to even survive the night they were hurt, yet here they are. Have a great weekend! :)

Three Dead Divas and A Dead Raccoon....

I heard the girls making noise after dark, which they never do, and sent hubby out to check on them. Hubby caught the coon in the act and shot him dead. I have many choice words for that raccoon. Three of the Diva's are dead. Three more are wounded. We thought only one was wounded, but upon further inspection at least three are. Two appear to be terminally wounded - their behinds are chewed off. :( They are alive, they are walking around with the flock, but it is just a matter of time. We are contemplating putting them down, I'd rather they not suffer. This is so hard. The third I couldn't get a good look at, but doesn't look nearly as bad as the other two - I am hoping tomorrow I will find that she is just missing a few feathers. My poor girls. :(

It is our own fault and I feel terrible. :( The electric fence still isn't working and we haven't been consistently locking them in at night, even after we lost some of our Guineas to a coon and knew they were our number one predator. We must be more diligent.

It's Makeover Time!

I have been in the process of making over the house, and also realized that I need to make over this blog! So much needs to be updated and changed! I have so much to talk about too! Things that have worked and not worked this past year, things I have learned, and on and on. So that is one of my goals over the next month. Please be patient with me! :)

And I SWEAR I am going to post pictures of stuff soon. Currently, I have no idea where my camera is. Pathetic, I know. I think I need to put it on a leash. ;)

So how are your holiday preparations coming along? Can you believe it is December 1st today? WOW!