Happy Halloween!

Halloween is a curious custom, isn't it?  Kids go from door to door, dressed in costumes, begging for treats.  Some people call today All Hallows Eve.

In the Christian calendar, tomorrow is All Saints Day.  Christians honor and remember those who have passed during the previous year.

In Latin American cultures, tomorrow is El Dia de las Muertas (Day of the Dead), a joyful holiday where families go to cemeteries, clean up the family grave sites, and remember their ancestors.

Are you curious to find out more about Halloween?  Check out these links:

From the History Channel:

http://www.history.com/topics/Halloween


From the Boston Globe:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2013/10/26/seven-books-about-the-history-halloween/OPoCHdWgFzq0Qi0eV4KRZJ/story.html


From the American Folk Life Center at the Library of Congress:
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/halloween.html


And, purely for your own enjoyment:

The Disney Thriller Video:

Lastly, the Muppets get ready to carve the pumpkins!

Have a very safe and enjoyable Halloween tonight!

Hurricane Sandy

This time last year, Hurricane Sandy decimated the East Coast.

If you don't live in one of the areas directly impacted by the Hurricane, you might not realize that the damage still exists, and that the devastation is still heartbreaking.  Boardwalks have been repaired, and the public face of communities that draw in the tourist dollars have been spiffed up.  However, go a few blocks away, and the damage to homes and families is still phenomenal.  I was in Jersey City this summer with middle son, and I was astounded at the damage that I saw - damage that was still present, and had not yet been addressed - months after the hurricane.  But, the national news had found new things to move onto, new stories to cover, and they've left the victims alone to muddle through with whatever resources they might have.

Many people who lived farther away from the coast were prepared for the storm, with bottled water, propane tanks, generators, and canned food.

Many were not prepared.  I remember seeing stories of people who lived in lower Manhattan who had stocked their refrigerators and freezers with food to see them through the storm.  I never did find out how they fared after their power went out, but I think it's safe to assume that things didn't go as they had planned.

This leads me to a question for you:  Are you prepared?

Winter is quickly coming upon us.  In the Mid-Atlantic, winter storms throw us into a panic mode, with store shelves stripped in hours, and cars gridlocked on the road as people fight to get home.

As a family, each of our cars is equipped with the basic needs for winter:  A bag of kitty litter for traction, a snow shovel, chains for the tires, and a couple of blankets.  We also keep a big case of water, and a plastic container full of granola bars, tuna, crackers, nuts, and other things that will keep us going if we get stranded on the side of the road for any length of time.  (I grew up in the Mid-West, and winter proofing your car was something everyone did around Halloween.)

I always keep enough groceries on hand in case if we are snowed in for any length of time.  I'm currently shopping sales and clipping coupons to restock what I normally keep on hand.  I depleted our stock during the recent furloughs.  We have several hand cranked LED lanterns for light,  a couple of radios- one is hand cranked and the other is battery powered.  We also have a wood stove to keep the house warm, as well as a propane stove and a gas grill that we can use outside to cook should our power go out. 

We have been snowed in for more than a week before.  When Snowmaggedon wracked the East Coast a few years ago, we would dig out of our neighborhood just in time to get snowed in again!  Fortunately, I had made a huge COSTCO run in the week before the snow storms hit, so we were well prepared for a lengthy stay at home.

The parking lot for our grocery store got gridlocked the night before the first of the storms were to hit.  The police were called, and it took them well over 3 hours to get the lot cleared.  People were parking at the high school and walking the half mile to the grocery store, only to leave with much less than they expected.

The day before Hurricane Sandy was supposed to strike Maryland, I ran to Wal-Mart to see my friends and neighbors, and see what things went first.

I did pick up extra trash bags, and I picked up some batteries.  Somebody had moved the condoms next to the batteries, and the store manager was having a cow while I was there!  I ran into a lot of my friends, and we had a great time catching up with each other!

The funny thing I noticed was that the frozen/refrigerated foods were the first to go.

The really odd thing is that we live in a rural area.  Power always goes out here during storms. 
Why were people stocking up on refrigerated and frozen food?

In the days after the storm, people were complaining that they'd lost hundreds of dollars in frozen and refrigerated foods.  Hmmm....

We do keep a freezer, and it is filled.  A power outage does hit us hard, but when the power goes out, we treat the freezer as a giant ice chest.  It is already filled with several bottles of water that are hard frozen.  If we feel we are in danger of the power going out, we will fill our ice chests with food that we think that we are going to use, and fill it with some of the frozen water bottles.  And then, we keep the freezer closed.  We will then use the generator once every few hours to power the sump pump, the freezer, and charge our phones.  If we're going to shift anything else over to the ice chests, we will do it while the generator is running, so that the freezer can bring the temperature back down after we open it before we turn the generator off for a while.

(This requires that we keep gas cans on hand in the shed.  We do that anyway, since we have a big yard, and we use it for our lawn mower.)

In memory of everything that the good people of New Jersey and New York went through last year, ask yourself, "How prepared am I for winter?" 

If nothing else, make certain that your car is prepared for the coming winter weather!

My Accomplishments This Week

For the first time in a long time, I am beginning to feel like I'm caught up!  I got my donations for the church bazaar wrapped up and donated (late) yesterday.  Okay, it was due a week ago, but I actually got it in before the night before this year!

I got all of our Halloween decorations spread around the house.

I'm working at cleaning up all of the batting, fabric, and thread from the quilt... Whoa.. how did that thread end up everywhere?  I found some on the carpet in the bathroom the other day!

This is my list from last week:

1) Spend at least 15 minutes a day, twice this week working on cleaning out the basement.

Slow and steady progress is being made down here.  Sadly, so much progress is happening because I'm just not finding the sub jobs this year!

2) Continue playing "What WAS that?"

3) Get out and exercise 3 times this week.

No excuses, I just didn't get it done.

4) Finish the t-shirt quilt.

I posted the pictures of the finished quilt on Saturday.

5) Decorate for Halloween.

6) Caulk the windows.

I really need to get to this over this coming week!

7) Clean out the window wells around the basement windows, put the plastic covers back on the window wells.

I really need to get to this over the weekend!

8) Work on the scrapbooks for the girls.

 I didn't get to this because I spent so much time on the quilt, and attempting to clean up the mess I made!

9)  Get a load of stuff together to take to Goodwill.

This is collecting on and around the dining room table.  I should have a decent load by the end of the week.

10) Begin looking for yarn for oldest child's Christmas present.

I think I've found a pattern for a sweater vest.  Question is, do I have enough time to finish it?

 

Goals for this coming week:

1) Caulk the windows.

2) Clean out the window wells.

3) Keep working on daughter's cross stitch.

4) Get load of stuff to Goodwill.

5) Clean out the chest freezer, use the old upright to store what is still edible while the chest freezer defrosts.

6) Get the oil changed in the Honda.

7) Start looking for yarn for oldest child's sweater vest.

8) Get out and exercise 3 days this week.

9) Prime the birdhouses for daughter's Gold Award workshop this weekend.

10) Set up a spaghetti garden in the back yard for next year.

T Shirt Quilt

I finished middle child's t-shirt quilt this week.  

I had to trim off the excess batting and fabric.  I turned over the outside edge of the bottom layer once, and ran a quick running stitch through the edge.  The fabric was fraying along the cut edges.  Although the entire thing will be encased in fabric, I want to make certain the edges fraying will not lead to the quilts early demise!  I then turned the outside edge over twice, and sewed it down with the machine.

I meant to take pictures of this final step, but I quite honestly forgot to.  Once I got started, I got wrapped up in the moment & didn't remember the camera until it was too late!

What follows are pictures of the final, finished quilt!

Hard to believe, but its finally finished!

The Six Million Dollar Man

You're only going to get this post if you're of a certain age...  Sad to say, I really am dating myself here....

Do you remember the Six Million Dollar Man?  Steve Austin was an astronaut who was in a training accident in a jet.  In the opening scenes, clips of the accident were shown while the announcer says "Gentlemen, we can rebuild him.  We have the technology.  We have the capacity to make the world's first bionic man.  Steve Austin will be that man.  Better than he was before.  Better, stronger, faster."

And then, there was the theme music "dah-dah-dah-dah-dah".  (So, if you've ever seen that show before, I now have the song stuck in your head for the rest of the day!)

Do you remember the special effects?  The super-slow motion clips of Steve doing something with that bionic twang in the background to let you know that he was doing bionic stuff? 

Last night, we stumbled across the Six Million Dollar Man on one of those retro television stations.  I don't remember which one we were on, I just know it was the "other" station off of our local NBC station.

I had to watch it.

My daughter was in stitches over the clothing and hair.  Every time some new guy walked on screen in what was considered the height of fashion in the 70's, she would laugh so hard she cried.  I have to admit, those were some special clothes!

But that wasn't the best part.

I was reminiscing about how we used to play "Six Million Dollar Man" at recess.  We'd run in super slow motion across the playground.  We'd play kick ball, and everyone moved in super slow motion while the kid running the bases ran as fast as he could.  We perfected the "dah-dah-dah-dah-dah" song and would sing it at lunch time while walking in super slow motion to our lunch tables.  I laughed until I cried as I recalled the feats of strength we would attempt to perform on the playground with hedge apples and lunch boxes. 

My husband and daughter both stared at me for a long time.  Honestly, my husband is the same age as I am.  He's six months older than me.  I thought every kid played the Six Million Dollar Man at recess.  He claims they never played Six Million Dollar Man.  Either he's lying, or he went to a very boring elementary school.

My daughter was another story.  After staring at me for a long time, she finally asked in a small voice "Did the entire class play Six Million Dollar Man, or was it just you?" 
"No," I reassured her, "It was the entire school.  Remember, my school only had two classes per grade level.  It was a very small school, and the entire school had lunch and recess together." 

"Sure" she said.

I'm still laughing over the memories, and the wonderful blast from the past.

I'm going to go clean my kitchen using my bionic speed now - in super slow motion so that the human eye will be capable of actually seeing what I am doing!

Fish Tacos

Yesterday's freezer find was a bunch of fish filets.

I've always wanted to try fish tacos, so I gave it a shot.

Unfortunately, this picture was taken well after we had decimated the onions and green peppers!

This tasty meal took me less than 30 minutes to pull together from beginning to end.

 

Fish Tacos

 

Bell peppers, sliced into long thin strips, and then cut in half.

Onions, cut into half, and then sliced

Fish

Taco Seasoning

flour tortillas

Olive oil

 

Saute the green peppers and onions in a pan over medium high heat.  When the onions become translucent, remove them to a separate bowl.

 

In the same pan, pour in a turn of the pan of olive oil.  Add the fish filets.  Turn occasionally.  The fish will break up as they are turned.  That is okay!  When the fish is cooked, it will flake easily with a fork.  Add taco seasoning and 1/4 cup of water to the fish.  Don't keep it over the heat for more than 3 more minutes.

 

Serve immediately.

 

We had bowls on the table with the fish, separate from the green peppers and onions, tortillas, salsa, and cheese.

 

Quick and easy! 

Random Pictures

Tiger, enjoying the sunshine.

I saw this sign when we were touring colleges recently.  A reminder of a very sad truth:
Human Trafficking has become the 2nd most profitable  criminal industry after drug trafficking.
If you tell yourself "but slavery was abolished after the Civil War", that's true.
However, slavery and Human Trafficking is running rampant worldwide.
 

Can you see them?  Three little birds hanging out on the branches of this bush.
I had pulled in to park, and the rain had just stopped and these little birds popped up from
inside of the bush and hung out on the branches.

A find from cleaning out the garage.
A sink.
We bought this house from our in-laws, and they never cleaned out the garage.
My father in law had fallen in the bathroom and taken out the sink.
He replaced the sink, but evidently, they never took the sink to the dump.
 

Another find in the garage... middle child had attempted to start a fire with a magnifying glass.
This is the remains of a recycling bin.
He had put a box inside of the bin, and then used the magnifying glass to catch the box on fire.
What you're seeing here is a portion of the box, and a very melted recycling bin.
For the last 3 years, this has been hiding under a tarp deep down in the back of the closet.
I'm really glad that the fire didn't spread!

 

A portion of the stuff going to the dump from the garage.
We had a van load full. 
The top of the van was covered with an old rug that we had taken out of the basement.

This Week's Accomplishments

Middle child has had issues, very big issues with his computer.  We bought him a Toshiba laptop before school began in August.

Starting two weeks after school began, his computer began crashing every time he would turn it on.  He ended up with the blue screen and a sad face message.

Since the laptop was still covered under the manufacturer's original warranty, we called Toshiba.  We spent well over 12 hours on the phone with them over 3 days attempting to fix the problem remotely.  Eventually, we paid to have a box shipped to us, and we sent the laptop back to Toshiba to be fixed.

It took a week for it to ship out, and another week to ship back.

We opened up the laptop on this end.  Middle Child was home for the weekend, so he turned the computer on to check it out.  Things were slightly better with the new computer.  The laptop would work for 10 minutes before it would crash.  After 3 crashes, the computer was stuck on the blue screen sad face message.

We called Toshiba back, and they immediately shipped us another box, and we sent the laptop back to them.  This time, they paid for the box, and for  the shipping.

The laptop arrived back on Thursday.  We took it down to middle child at school on Thursday night.

All of the problems are fixed!  The laptop is working perfectly!

Toshiba was able to keep the Anti-Virus software and Microsoft Office on the computer.  It is working like a dream!

We held our breath while middle child downloaded the Math software that the University requires... and no problem.  It downloaded and is running without a problem.  Okay, there is a problem with the software - he needs to figure out how to program with the software.  Since he's been without a computer for almost a month, he is behind the curve.  The rest of the class has been working with it since school started.  He's been working on the computers at the library, but only a handful of the library computers are equipped with the software, so if he couldn't get onto one of those computers, he was out of luck.

I talked with him last night, and he'd spent most of the weekend working through the practice problems that his math professor had given them to work through.  He was feeling a little better about understanding how it works, but a little frustrated that he was so far behind.  Their first programming assignment using this software is due next week, and he doesn't feel he has mastered the software.  I think this is an excellent sign... it means he is learning!!

Toshiba customer service is amazing.  Although we were frustrated with the situation, Toshiba stepped up and fixed the computer.  They accepted responsibility, and got his machine up and working as fast as they could.  We didn't have to pay a third party to fix the computer, and he didn't lose any data or programs he had on the computer.

Thank you, Toshiba, for taking care of this situation!

 

 

My accomplishments this past week:

This has actually been a very productive week.  Since I didn't have any sub jobs, I got a lot of work done around the house.  We filled the van with stuff to take to the dump, and we primed the bird houses for daughter's last Art class for her Gold Award.  I've gotten a large chunk of the basement room cleaned up, and we dug through the chest freezer and threw out anything that looked questionable.  We've still got at least two more weeks of "What WAS that?" ahead of us...  it will be good to finally clean out and defrost that freezer!

 

These were my goals from last week:

1)      Trip to the bank and the book store on Tuesday.

I have two goals: One, to deposit coins in the loose coin deposit.  Two, to sell our AP Review books to the second hand store.

 

Between the loose coins and the books, we brought in over $200.  We put $100 into the bank  to cover the last of the bills, and the rest has been set aside for gas money for both cars.

2)      Finish organizing the papers, report cards, and other paperwork for middle child that is currently spread all over the living room floor.

     

       Done.  I'd really like to know why I stockpiled them all on the dining room table over the last year anyway.  What was I thinking?  I have an archival quality box for each child.  I got all of the papers put into that box.  They should probably be organized more, but at least they are where they belong.

3)      Clean out the crafty corner in the living room.

 

             It is much cleaner!  I still have one small crate in the corner, but it is much neater.  The big     crate full of scrapbook paper has been moved to the basement, in the corner I keep telling myself will become the "new" craft corner.

4)      Pull out the Halloween Decorations and spread some fall cheer throughout the house.

 

 I have the box upstairs... but I have yet to spread it around the house!

 

      5)      Get out and exercise three times this week.

6)      Begin caulking the windows.

Whoops... we got sidetracked with the dump run.

7)      Work on the t-shirt quilt.

      
      This is almost done!  I have finished all of the unquilted squares!  There were 3 quilts in the middle of the quilt that were the first ones I had quilted.  The stitches weren't as close together as the rest of the squares.  So, I am going back through those 3 squares and adding a few more lines of stitches.  I have finished 2 of them, and hope to finish up the 3rd square today.

8)      Make certain that the cross stitch for daughter is in my bag that travels with me wherever I go.

 

It's been in the bag, but since I haven't been anywhere this week....

9)      Continue playing “What was that”.  Throw out anything that is questionable.

 

We dug through the freezer on Saturday and threw out everything that looked questionable.  There were some very interesting looking vegetables that were beyond freezer burned.  They were disgusting.

10)   Call the power company to come and pick up the old freezer from the basement.

We didn't get this done.  Husband wants to hold onto this freezer for a few more weeks, until we finish clearing out and defrosting the chest freezer.

 

Goals for this Coming Week:

1) Spend at least 15 minutes a day, twice this week working on cleaning out the basement.

2) Continue playing "What WAS that?"

3) Get out and exercise 3 times this week.

4) Finish the t-shirt quilt.

5) Decorate for Halloween.

6) Caulk the windows.

7) Clean out the window wells around the basement windows, put the plastic covers back on the window wells.

8) Work on the scrapbooks for the girls.

9)  Get a load of stuff together to take to Goodwill.

10) Begin looking for yarn for oldest child's Christmas present.

 

 

College Visits

When I was looking at colleges, my parents refused to take me out to tour the colleges until after I had accepted the offer of admission to a school.  To this day, I still think that if I had been allowed to visit the campuses of both schools I was interested in, I would have chosen to go to the OTHER school, and not the one I went to.  The other school was smaller, closer to home, and also had a beautiful campus, but it was a very different atmosphere than the school that I went to.

So, with our kids, we have toured every college campus of every school they were interested in during the course of the Junior year of high school, and the summer between Junior and Senior years.
Over three children, we've now visited 10 campuses.

It's funny, because with some of the schools the kids were looking at, I was totally opposed to the school going in, but was charmed enough by the admissions program and seeing the campus and talking to the professors that I was willing to consider the schools as excellent matches for my kids.  Other campuses, I went in thinking they'd be okay, and walked away vehemently opposed to the school for some reason or another.

Many of the schools now include lunch as part of their tour.  So, after you walk around campus, you get to eat in one of the dining halls.  It's a great opportunity to sample to food, and check to make certain that the food is edible, and that dietary choices are offered.  (A very important thing for vegetarians and those of certain religious beliefs.)  Believe it or not, that dining room visit can make our break a college in the minds of the kids.  Considering that they are going to be eating there every day for at least a year, I do think that knowing what the food is like in the dining hall is crucial.

We had the day off of school yesterday, so we went to visit another school on daughter's list.  I went into the school with an open mind.  After visiting it, I can honestly say I don't hate the school, but I don't think it's a good match for my daughter.  I didn't say anything during the tour, but I was relieved when we got into the car and she told me she didn't like the school. 

We've had some interesting highlights over the years on our school visits:

1) A tour guide at one college was called "Girl on Fire" by the admissions staff.  One of the parents asked "Why do they call you that?  Are you on the track team?"

"No", she admitted.  "When you become a student tour guide,  you get these really nice fleece jackets.  I like mine a lot and wear it a lot.  I'm also on the swim team.  So, I got done with practice, took a shower, and put my fleece on to go back to my dorm room.  When I got back to my room, my friends wanted to go to the dining hall to get dinner.  So, I tossed my fleece into the microwave to dry it off.  Who knew that the fleece would catch fire in the microwave??"

2) A mother and son were walking behind us on a campus tour when the tour guide mentioned that the school had a planetarium, and that on Friday nights after the planetarium show, the staff would open up the telescope on the roof and let people look through it.

"Justin would love this place."  Said the mother.

"Well then, keep it in mind when Justin looks for schools" said the son.

"No, I really mean Justin would love it here!  The planetarium, the telescope..."

At this point, the son starts screaming.. "Then bring JUSTIN here when he's looking for schools!  Right now, I'M looking for schools!" 

(Okay, that one was a very awkward moment, and a lesson for all of us parents on what to do and not to do when looking at colleges!)

3)  A group of students joined in with our tour group and was walking along with us while the guide was telling us about the wonders of the campus.  The kids start talking in low voices amongst themselves:

"Hey, this campus is pretty nice."

"Yeah, I hear they've got a really nice student body."

"Good school, great sports teams..."

"But there is that cocaine problem..."

I did turn around at that one, started laughing at the kids in our group, and thanked them.  They all sheepishly grinned and left our tour group.  I know there are drugs everywhere, and I don't think the drug problem on that campus is any different than the drug problem on any other campus.  What I really appreciated was the effort it took to add some levity into a tour that was growing pretty old by that point in time!

4) Oh hey... Penn State has ice cream from their creamery.  You don't get it on the tour, but the tour does end fairly close to the ice cream place.

University of Maryland ends their tours in the same building as their creamery, and they aren't shy about pointing out that they have the best ice cream anywhere.

5) Jim Henson (creator of the Muppets) went to the University of Maryland.  The character of Miss Piggy was based upon a girl he went out with in college.  Not only is he immortalized on campus with a bronze statue of him and Kermit, but somewhere, in one of the dorms, the person who inspired Miss Piggy is also immortalized...  

We've got 4 more schools on daughter's list to visit.  We're hitting up three of them over her spring break.

And then?  Oldest son is looking at Grad. Schools, and he is compiling a list for us to visit over his break this spring...  I've more than made up for the schools that I didn't get to visit when I was in high school!

Lessons we Learned from the Government Shutdown

Husband is back at work today.  I'm relieved he's finally back at work, and he is so very happy to be back there!

Our financial tightwaddery is not quite over yet.  Eventually, he will receive back pay for the days missed, but we don't know when we will actually see that money.  So, as far as I can tell, we  have several more weeks of penny pinching ahead of us.

I consider it to be a challenge.

We will continue to play "What WAS that?".  The chest freezer needs to be cleaned out and defrosted, so the game continues.  I've been surprised at what I've found.  Todays find was 5 pounds of smoked sausage and 5 gallon size bags of frozen strawberries.

I'm searching for something to make with the smoked sausage.  We've still got half of the bag of potatoes and onions, so I'm thinking that I'll make a potato, onion, and sausage bake for dinner tonight.  That will leave me with 4 pounds of smoked sausage to work my way through...  I've got to check and see if we have any more rhubarb in the garden.  If we do, I'll be making a strawberry-rhubarb crisp for desert tonight.  That should leave me with only 4 1/2 gallon size bags of strawberries.

The interesting thing to note here is that I've always kept a fairly deep pantry.  I can veggies and jellies.  I freeze things.  My freezer is full.  I buy items on sale and keep them in the cupboard.  I keep a lot of potatoes, celery, and carrots on hand.  They become the base of many other dishes.  Since I cook from scratch so often, I keep the basic staples on hand.  (Sugar, flour, salt, pasta, rice, etc.)

A week before the government shutdown, we went out and bought a 50 pound bag of potatoes, and some other basic, basic supplies that we needed to keep on hand.  At that time, I had begun the $30 a week challenge, and starting that challenge in the face of the shutdown seemed like a good idea at the time. 

I have been grocery shopping once during the last 16 days - to pick up a very large container of hummus, and more very basic veggies- carrots, onions, and celery.  (Daughter likes to take hummus and celery sticks to school for lunch.)  Thankfully, our apple trees were ready to be picked, and that was the source of our fruit for the last few weeks.  Frankly, I'm a little sick of apples, which is a good thing, since most of the apples have been picked and either eaten or preserved.

We still haven't turned the heat on yet.  The shutdown hit at an excellent time as far as the weather is concerned!  The days have been warm, but not hot. The nights have been cool, but not cold.  We did have to light a fire in the wood stove one day last week when it was downright chilly, and that was enough to take the chill out of the air in the house.

We had been expecting a government showdown and shutdown for a long time.  As a result, we had saved money to cover  bills should it happen.  We had enough (barely) to cover our bills.  Believe it or not, the loose coin deposit made the difference.  There was one last bill we had to cover, and the loose coin deposit covered that last bill.  Thankfully, we don't have many beginning of the month bills, and I did earn enough subbing in the first half of the month to cover the bills that will be coming in.  We do need to have more savings, though.  Experts say you should have enough to cover at least 3 months of expenses on hand.  We didn't, and we need to fix that.  Lesson learned.

The most disturbing thing for me came with the mortgage.  We are ahead in our mortgage payments, but it is not paid off.  I contacted the mortgage company about skipping our November payment.  No dice.  I was told that 14 days after the mortgage payment was due, they would downgrade our credit, and begin foreclosure proceedings.  Really?  14 days?  I don't believe state law allows that.  I really need to check into that, because it just doesn't seem right.  I mentioned that we were ahead in our mortgage, but that didn't phase them at all.  Fortunately, the money I have coming in from subbing will cover the payment for November.    The lesson learned here is to pay off that mortgage completely and as soon as possible.  I really don't want to risk losing the house if another shutdown should happen and last for a longer period of time.  For that reason alone, we will continue to live on $30 a week/person for groceries and play "What WAS that?" and cut every other expense we can until we can pay off the mortgage.

I know financial experts differ on whether or not a mortgage should be paid off, or whether you should keep the mortgage so you can take the income tax deduction.  Personally, I want to know that no matter what is going on in the world around me, we own our house outright.  We need to own our house, and we need to be able to pay the taxes on our house and land.  Life can be uncertain, but I want to be certain that our house will remain "our" house.  (not the banks)

THAT is my lesson learned from the shutdown.

What WAS this?

Early this morning, I went down to the freezer in the basement and began to root around for dinner for tonight.

I came up with a most interesting find: half a turkey carcass, with meat still attached to the bones.

I vaguely remember breaking the turkey carcass in half and sticking it in the freezer last year.

This morning, it's like hitting pay dirt!

I've currently got the carcass stewing on the stove.  I've already added tomatoes, okra, and corn.  I've been rooting around and found the center of two celery bunches.  I've diced those and tossed them into the pot, along with a potato from the 50 pound bag and some carrots. 

It smells divine!

Lessons from the Kindergarten

I've spent some days subbing in kindergarten recently, and I'd like to share some stories:

It was hot here last Monday.  We brought the kids back from PE, and the sweat was dripping off of one little guy.  We had the kids pack up their backpacks to go home and then lined them up to go out for a quick 10 minute recess before it was time to go home.  The little guy who was dripping sweat proceeded to put his hooded sweat shirt on.  "Honey, you don't need your coat outside, it's 80* today.  It's hot."
"Yes I do!  I'm all sweaty and I don't want to catch a chill!"


We were working on glyphs in Math.  If you've been out of school for a while, you might not remember glyphs.  It's a picture that you color in with coded colors, and it reads like a map.  Our glyph was a duck in a raincoat.  The children were to put three circle buttons on if they were 5 years old, or 3 triangle buttons if they were 6 years old.  They were to color the coat yellow if they like to watch tv on rainy days, or orange if they like to jump in puddles on rainy days.  The hat was supposed to be blue if they were a boy, and red if they were a girl, and the boots were supposed to be colored black if they had a pet at home, or green if they didn't have any pets at all.
I had gotten through the directions on the hat when I looked over at Gina, and she was coloring the hat yellow. 
"You're supposed to color the hat red since you're a girl." I said.
"No.  I won't."  She replied.
"But those are the directions,"  I stupidly said.  "Color the hat red if you're a girl.  You are a girl, so the hat is supposed to be red."
"No.  You do not wear red hats with yellow rain coats.  You wear yellow hats with yellow rain coats.  And yellow boots.  Would you wear a red hat with a yellow coat to school?  I don't think so...."


We were attempting to introduce the kids to ABC order.  We had sentence strips, and I was to give them four adjacent letters of the alphabet.  (E, F, H, G) and have them place the letters in order.  I covered up all the letters on the sentence strip except those 4 letters, and asked Patrick:
"Which letter comes first?"
"A"
"No, of these four letters, which one comes first?"
"A always comes first.  Then B, Then C, then D.  E comes fifth."

Love those kids!!

This Week's Accomplishments

It’s been an interesting week.  With the furloughs still in effect, we have cut our spending back to the bone.  We managed to cover all of our bills for the mid-month period, and we have a little left over to go grocery shopping.  We are holding onto that money in case if this lasts even longer, just in case if this situation does not resolve itself before the next round of bills comes due.

This has led to an interesting pastime.  We’ve eaten through everything in the refrigerator, and we’ve gone through some of the more easily prepared foods.  This has led to a new game that we call… (drum roll please)  What WAS that?

Daughter even made up a song to go along with the “Big Reveal”.  "Its furlough week, and we’re not getting paid, it’s time to play “What was that?”"

We have a very bad habit of putting leftovers into large plastic bags and then dumping them into the freezer and forgetting about them.  So, we’ve been digging out a mystery bag of something every night since we finished our $30 challenge.  I’m not sure how much the bottom line on these meals is, since we actually assembled them quite some time ago.

This has led to some very interesting meals.  We’ve unearthed a really good turkey soup I made after Thanksgiving last year.  We’ve had an okay batch of bean soup.  I ended up putting the bean soup in a deep pie pan, and covering it with cornbread.  The soup was not that good on its own, but it was transformed into something we didn’t mind eating with the cornbread.  Last night we attempted to make homemade pizza.  The dough was great, but the sauce was freezer burned.  Too bad we didn’t discover that it had crossed that line before we put it on the pizza dough.  It was edible, but it wasn’t great.  We ended up dousing it in crushed red pepper and parmesan cheese.

I’ve already dug through the freezer and found tomorrow night’s dinner.  I’m not sure what it is, but I do know it’s red.  It could be more spaghetti sauce, or chili, or a red sauced chicken and rice casserole. 

We’ve really got to start labeling and dating those bags before they go into the freezer…



These were my goals for last week:

1)      Work on the t-shirt quilt.

3 more blocks are finished.  I have 3 blocks to finish the quilt, and then I’m planning on going back and doing a little clean up with some of the interior blocks before I begin to work on the edges.

2)      Spend at least 15 minutes a day, twice this week cleaning the basement.

I ended up spending over an hour, twice in this room!  I’ve cleaned out a lot of trash, and I found a bag of paper recycling that went out on Friday.  I’m almost to the point where I have a clean pathway down one side of the room.

3)      Call the power company and have them pick up the old freezer in the basement.

We have 2 freezers in our basement.  One is a chest, and one is an upright.  The upright was left in this house when my in-laws moved out.  They bought it in 1970.  The thing eats energy like you wouldn’t believe, and food kept in there readily goes bad.  Our power company is offering a rebate for old freezers.  I’ve got to call them and have them come out and haul that old freezer away.  We are keeping our chest freezer – it’s a little over 10 years old, but it’s still energy efficient.

4)      Start working on daughter's cross stitch.

This will be her Christmas present.  I found the cross stitch this week.  I’d put it away back in August when we went to Washington.  I’m going to take the cross stitch with me when I go places.  It’s a nice, portable project that I can carry with me.

5)      Pick up yarn for my niece's graduation present.

Found it!  It’s a lovely dark maroon.  I found some wonderful wools, but since she’s going to use this in college, she needs something that she can toss in the washer and dryer.  I found a very nice acrylic yarn that I’ve used before and love.

 

6)      Get out and exercise at least 3 times this week.

I only got out once.  The heavy rains this week have gotten in the way of my getting outside and taking walks.

 

7)      Deposit loose coins at the bank.

I didn’t make it there this week.  I have a trip planned on Tuesday.  I’ll be heading to the bank, as well as to the second hand store.

 

8)      Start working on earrings to sell at the craft fair next month.

I finished well over 50 pairs of earrings.  I think that’s enough for this year!

9)      Make a batch of apple butter.

Done!  The cold, wet, rainy weather just lends itself to warming up the house with apple butter.

 

10)  Fix clothes in the repair basket.

I didn’t do this.  I hope to get to this early this week.

 

11)  Get AP Review Books to the Second Hand Store.

Tuesday is the day to do this!  The book store is a block down the street from the bank.

 
Goals for This Week:

1)      Trip to the bank and the book store on Tuesday.

I have two goals: One, to deposit coins in the loose coin deposit.  Two, to sell our AP Review books to the second hand store.

2)      Finish organizing the papers, report cards, and other paperwork for middle child that is currently spread all over the living room floor.

3)      Clean out the crafty corner in the living room.

4)      Pull out the Halloween Decorations and spread some fall cheer throughout the house.

5)      Get out and exercise three times this week.

6)      Begin caulking the windows.

7)      Work on the t-shirt quilt.

8)      Make certain that the cross stitch for daughter is in my bag that travels with me wherever I go.

9)      Continue playing “What was that”.  Throw out anything that is questionable.

10)   Call the power company to come and pick up the old freezer from the basement.

Jack Andraka, the Teen Prodigy of Pancreatic Cancer | Science & Nature | Smithsonian Magazine

This kid is absolutely amazing.  At the age of 15, he has developed a test which could determine the presence of pancreatic cancer cells.  He's won an international science fair award.  And he still goes to high school, hangs out with his brother, and makes a mess of his parent's basement.

Jack Andraka, the Teen Prodigy of Pancreatic Cancer | Science & Nature | Smithsonian Magazine

Here is the CBS video of this amazing kid:



Just when you think that there is no creativity or imagination in the current generation of teenagers, you run across something like this!

What an amazing kid!  What an amazing family!

The Final Cost of the Chicken

You see, I really do stretch a roasted chicken out quite far.

Once our family finishes with the original chicken, I sit down and pick the chicken off of the bones.  I then portion out what is left into one cup servings to go into other meals.  Sometimes, I'll use one cup, sometimes, I'll use two.  I try to use the chicken as more of a flavoring in casseroles and use veggies to fill up on bulk in the meals as much as possible. 

When I finish stripping the chicken, I will boil the bones down and either make broth to freeze for later, or I'll make soup.  I'm always surprised at how much meat is still clinging to the bones when I finish stripping a chicken.  The bones do make a very good soup.  This time, I chose to make some more broth.  I had planned on making soup out of the bones, but it's been an "interesting" week.  And I don't mean "interesting" in a good way.  I mean frustrating.  So, for the sake of my own sanity, I decided to go ahead and boil the chicken down into broth.

Anyway, the final rundown on the chicken:

Original Cost:  $15.69

Chicken and Rice Casserole:  6 servings
White Chicken Chili:   6 servings
Chicken Neck Soup:  6 servings
Baked Chicken: 6 servings

This added up to a grand total of 24 servings from one chicken.

Divide the $15.69/24, and we come up with 65 cents per serving.

Not bad.

Again, if you take a closer look at the recipes I used, you'll notice that I stretched my chicken out with rice, veggies, beans, and in soup as much as possible.  The meat became more of a flavoring than the centerpiece of the meal. 

I can't wait to see what I can do with a turkey come Thanksgiving!

Chicken Pot Pie

I turned the last of the chicken into chicken pot pie.

Many of the recipes that I look at call for copious amounts of chicken to go into the recipe.

My personal opinion is that when this recipe was first invented, the purpose was not to go out and buy new chicken, or even to use an entire new chicken in the recipe.  My opinion is that it was originally developed to stretch a chicken a little bit farther. 

I honestly don't think my husbands grandmother, who raised 8 kids on a farm during the Great Depression ever managed to stretch a chicken this far out.  I do know she would roast a chicken, and I do know that she would make the leftovers into soup.  Sometimes, that soup came in the form of chicken and dumplings, sometimes it came in the form of chicken pot pie.  When you're feeding 10 hungry people who are doing hard physical labor on a farm, I do think you would find new and inventive ways to stretch a dollar as far as possible. 

There are easier short cuts to making a chicken pot pie for dinner.  However, since I'm still trying to keep my costs down as low as possible, I made this from scratch.  This provides one other health benefit for me:  I control the sodium levels, and I control the food quality.  I'm not worried about what strange additives went into the making of my dinner. 

Chicken Pot Pie

(Recipe adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, copyright circa 1982)

1 10 ounce package of frozen peas and carrots
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped fresh mushrooms (I use 1 cup)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground sage
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 cups water
3/4 cup milk
1 TBSP chicken bullion (or 1 of the frozen bullion cubes I made this summer)
3 cups cooked chicken or turkey (I used less when I made this, since I was down to about 1 cup at the time)
2 baked potatoes, diced
Pie Crust

In a saucepan, cook onion and mushroom in olive oil until tender but not brown.  Add water, milk, and bullion all at once.  Cook and stir until thick and bubbly.  Cook and stir one to two minutes more.  Stir in veggies, chicken or turkey, heat until bubbly.  Turn chicken mixture into a deep pie pan.

**** Pie Crust*** see notes at bottom

Bake in a 450* oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until crust is golden brown.


*** There are differing schools of thought on pot pie crusts.  Some people like a crust only on top.  Some people like pie crust on both top and bottom.  Depending upon what I have on hand, I've been known to make biscuits and drop them on top of the pie.  I know people who will cut up refrigerated biscuits into quarters and cover the top of their pie.  Use whatever materials you have on hand to make this work for you!

**I am not including a recipe for pie crust because I can not, for the life of me, make a decent pie crust. I don't know if it's my recipe, or me, but I lean toward operator error.  I use refrigerated pie crusts.  When I made this the other night, I topped it with biscuits, because that is what I had on hand.

Street View Map of the South Pole

No kidding.  This is a street view map of the South Pole.  THE south pole!

So amazingly cool!  If you get a chance, click through on the link and take a look around the Science Exploration Station at the South Pole.  If you're really hot today, looking at all that snow and ice might just cool you off by about 20* or so!

Enjoy!

http://maps.google.com/intl/en/help/maps/streetview/gallery.html#!/antarctica

The Last of the Chicken

We had baked potatoes for dinner on Tuesday night.

Last night, we used up the last of the chicken.  Wait, I used up the last of the meat on the bones.  I'm going to make chicken soup out of the remaining bones for dinner tonight.

Unfortunately, when I'm making soup from scratch, I believe in bringing the water to a boil before I let it simmer.  So, tomorrow morning before I head off to work, I'll bring the water and leftover bones to a rolling boil, and then I'll toss it all into the crock pot and set it on low for 8 hours.

For dinner last night, I made a Chicken and Rice Casserole.  This recipe was given to me by my room-mate's grandmother back when we were in college and just learning how to cook.  I loved it then because even I could make it - as long as I remembered to set the timer once I put the stuff in the oven!  Even better, when I made this for me, I ended up having dinner for several days during the week.  This was dinner last night, and will be lunch for my husband and I tomorrow.

 

Chicken and Rice Casserole

(Cherie's Grandma's Recipe)

1 cup cooked chicken or turkey, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 onion, diced
1 (10 ounce) bag of frozen mixed veggies
2 cups of cooked rice
1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 cup mayo
Corn Flakes

Spray a 9x13 inch pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Saute the onion and celery in a saucepan until veggies are soft.

In the pan, combine chicken, mixed veggies, rice, onion mixture, cream of mushroom soup, and mayo.  Stir well and spread to edges of the pan.

Crush one cup of corn flakes, spread evenly over the casserole.

Bake in a 350* oven for 20 minutes.

Note- I've had this recipe with mayo and without.  I prefer it with the mayo.  I've exchanged the cream of mushroom soup for cream of celery and omitted the celery stalks.  I've had it with two cans of cream of soup and no mayo - one can of mushroom and one of celery.  The point of this recipe is to keep your expenses low.  Cherie's Grandma told me that the trick to this recipe is to use what you have in your fridge and pantry first, and then to hit up the grocery store last.  She always used this recipe to use up odds and ends of leftovers in the fridge.  If she was trying to feed more people, she'd add more rice and veggies to the mix. 

Random Pictures

It's been a while since I posted any pictures.  I thought I'd share some that I'd gathered this past few weeks:

 

I found this little wooly bear caterpillar in the woods last week.
According to legend, the longer the orange part, the milder the winter.
Hmmm.. according to this little guy, it looks like the winter will be on the mild side!

To find out more about Wooly Bear Caterpillars, and their history with weather forecasting, check out this link to the Farmer's Almanac:
http://www.almanac.com/content/predicting-winter-weather-woolly-bear-caterpillars

The view out of my car window headed down the street.
Last year, this field was planted in wheat.
This year, it's corn.  I love driving by the corn stalks!

I got to school last week and was just stunned by the beauty of the sun breaking through the clouds on the horizon.
 

This picture is from the Gold Award workshop.
This is the page of an art journal that someone was working on.
I love the reverse image of the butterflies!
 

OMG.  I found this outside of out kitchen door on Saturday night.
At first, I thought it was a fake spider, but then it started to move.
Believe it or not, I called my husband on the cell phone and had him come outside to kill it.
He took one look at it and decided to chase it with a stick.  He was afraid it would bite him if he tried to step on it.

Research from one of our friends told us that this thing is a Brown Mouse Spider.
It's a ground dweller.  It builds tunnels in the ground to trap it's prey.
It lives up to 20 years.
It is venomous.  If anyone gets bitten by it, go to the emergency room immediately.
Great, just what I want to have living right outside of my kitchen door.

A Calendar!

I've put together a calendar, if anyone is interested in buying one.  It contains 12 of my best pictures from our trip to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State this summer.  There are pictures from Seattle, from the Rainforest, and from the Ocean.  I think it's a beautiful calendar!

I'm including the link below.  It will take you to Lulu, where you can purchase the calendar if you so desire.



If you do purchase a calendar, I thank you so much for your support!

Thoughts on the $30/week challenge

Over the course of this past week, I have attempted to eat groceries by the federal guidelines.
Adding up the cost of my meals over the last week, I find that I spent $14.96 for myself.  I am well under what the government says I should be spending for the week.

BUT, I have a few thoughts about eating on this plan:

1) FRESH PRODUCE-
I had the luxury of being able to go out not once, but twice to stock up on produce.  We had the cash on hand midway through the challenge to go out and purchase onions, carrots, and celery.  While not hugely expensive, I did spend close to $20 in that particular trip.

And that was just veggies.  Fruit is even more expensive.  I am fortunate in that I live on a large plot of land, and we are able to grow many of our fruits.  Strawberries in the spring.  (Yes, I still need to move the darn strawberry patch.) Blueberries and Raspberries through the summer.  (Need to cut those branches back.)  And apples in the fall.  The cost per pound for fruits can be prohibitive.

Fortunately, we live in farm country.  I live close to several farmers that sell produce at an extremely reasonable price, so I can what I don't grow.  A bushel of peaches for $15?  Standard cost for me.  Unheard of in the city.  Farmer's markets are a great way to help get fresh fruit, and many farmers now accept food stamps at these markets.  The biggest challenge for many living on a tight budget would be finding and getting to farmer's markets.

2) TIME
In order to keep the cost of my groceries and overall food expenses down to a minimum, this requires that I cook all of my food from scratch.  Easy to do if you don't work outside of the home.  I work part-time, and as long as I think ahead for dinner, I can have what I need either cooked ahead, prepared ahead, or in a crock pot the next morning before I leave.  I honestly believe this is more of a challenge for those who work full time.  If you have several hours on a weekend afternoon, it is possible to prep more items in advance.  If you cook double batches of something on a weekend, eat one and freeze the other, then you would have a dinner for another night on hand.  This requires freezer space, and the time to put into meal prep on a weekend.

3) VARIETY
I found myself rotating around the same meals over and over again, especially for breakfast.  I've never been much of a breakfast eater.  But eggs and oatmeal get a little bit old after a while.  I also found myself continuously short on my fruit and veggie intake.  Especially fruit.  Adding fresh fruit in is expensive.  Oranges right now are running $1 each here.  Canned mandarin oranges are running 33 cents a can.  While a fresh orange would be healthier for me, it would considerably raise my cost per day.  The canned mandarin oranges contain some of the benefits of an orange, but they are preserved in a sugar syrup.  I feel that the health benefits of the mandarin oranges are mitigated by the sugared syrup.  This would be a difficult choice for a family living on a very limited income.

4) VEGETARIANS
I believe that vegetarians would be able to keep well under the federal price points.  However, they would need to prepare their meals from scratch.  Many of our meals are vegetarian.  Meat is expensive, and the ability to prepare meals without meat considerably lowers the overall price point of any meal.

5) INITIAL CASH OUTLAY
This is the biggest challenge.  You must have the cash in order to purchase in bulk in the first place.  50 pounds of potatoes cost us $20.  For a $30/week budget, that is most of your budget.  However, those 50 pounds of potatoes will feed us very, very well for two months at a ridiculously low cost.

Take a look at the chicken I purchased.  It was an initial cash outlay of $15.69.  That is over half of the $30/week.  When you look at the number of servings that I am getting out of this chicken, the cost per serving is manageable.  However, if you only have $30 for a week of groceries, this would be a difficult choice to make.

Other Thoughts:
I typically use coupons when I shop.  I shop the sales, and I purchase items when they are on sale, and I buy them with a coupon if I can.   Since I work part time, I have the time to do this.  When I find myself in the middle of a long term sub job, I don't have the time to put into coupon clipping and sale shopping.  Therefore, my bottom line for groceries increases.  I also hit up the farmer's markets on Saturday mornings, as well as the big produce stand.  The owner of the big produce stand owns a farm that grows fruits and veggies for the commercial market.  He sells seconds to the general public.  I can buy a bag of veggies for 50 cents.  They make excellent soup veggies for the stock pot, or an excellent stir fry.  I don't always hit pay dirt when I check out his seconds, but it is always worth the stop. 

I will continue to keep my costs as low as I can with my groceries, and I will continue to blog about my grocery savings on occasion.  I'm still working on getting as many servings as I can out of the chicken. (Are you sick of the chicken yet?)  I think I've got 2, maybe 3 more meals before I boil the carcass down for stock.