Here's an excerpt from a wonderful post by the Money Saving Mom:
"She was working on a project for school. She was sitting on the fairly-new, suede couch. She was using scissors. {You can guess where this is going already…} Unbeknownst to her, in her concentration to get the project cut out just right, she also cut the suede on the couch. Not once, not twice, but five times."
https://moneysavingmom.com/2012/11/its-just-a-couch.html
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Inexpensive glasses at Zenni Optical
Of all the frugal sites I have told people about, this one meets with the most disbelief and skepticism. I first heard about it on the Money Saving Mom's blog, and then a friend had also used it, so I decided to give it a try. It is Zenni Optical.
At this site, you can get prescription glasses - frames and lenses both - for as little as $10 shipped. No kidding! For real! I, like many people, have spent hundreds on glasses. But my husband, myself and my son all wear them, so that could get very expensive very quickly. Thank goodness for Zenni! It's cheap enough we each have a back up pair, where before I would wait YEARS to get a new pair of glasses.
So I have ordered several pairs from them, the glasses are great, the frames are fine, they seem to last, the prescription is done well. All you need is your prescription and your PD (pupillary distance) which you can get from your eye doctor.
You can upload a picture of yourself to "try on" different styles of frames. You can search by price, style, color, material, men's, women's or kid's. Then you can save your favorites and compare them.
For us, it has worked great! Check it out!
At this site, you can get prescription glasses - frames and lenses both - for as little as $10 shipped. No kidding! For real! I, like many people, have spent hundreds on glasses. But my husband, myself and my son all wear them, so that could get very expensive very quickly. Thank goodness for Zenni! It's cheap enough we each have a back up pair, where before I would wait YEARS to get a new pair of glasses.
So I have ordered several pairs from them, the glasses are great, the frames are fine, they seem to last, the prescription is done well. All you need is your prescription and your PD (pupillary distance) which you can get from your eye doctor.
You can upload a picture of yourself to "try on" different styles of frames. You can search by price, style, color, material, men's, women's or kid's. Then you can save your favorites and compare them.
For us, it has worked great! Check it out!
Savings tip: Cook and Freeze sausage
A friend of mine gave me a handy tip when I mentioned I had recently bought a bunch of sausage for 99 cents a pound when it was on sale, only to find that my husband and I rarely ate it.
"Cook it up and freeze it," she said.
So I crumbled up the whole pound, cooked it up and put it in a freezer bag, and then take a handful out to sprinkle on homemade pizzas, scrambled eggs, soups or casseroles. Such a great idea. Thanks, Rox!
"Cook it up and freeze it," she said.
So I crumbled up the whole pound, cooked it up and put it in a freezer bag, and then take a handful out to sprinkle on homemade pizzas, scrambled eggs, soups or casseroles. Such a great idea. Thanks, Rox!
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Zucchini boats
We got some HUGE zucchinis someone in town had left over from their garden and let me tell you, I've made zucchini it seems like 100 different ways since moving here. So I searched for something different and this seemed like a great idea. I'll be making ours again with deer and will probably add some rice in with it as well. Enjoy!
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2012/07/sausage-stuffed-zucchini-boats.html
OR
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Zucchini-Boats
Kid motivator: The Prize Store
Now, The Prize Store sounds like one of these wonderful freebie sites I'm always talking about, but it's not! It's something we do in our very own home.
I found myself in search of a reward system that would work for Brady. Lots of sites had ideas for having a kid "earn" points or coloring part of a chart when they did something well, basically working toward some goal in which they would receive a reward. The idea is to encourage positive behavior in a pro-active way, rather than focusing on the negative unwanted behavior.
My kiddo has never been terribly motivated by rewards charts. To some degree, but he loses interest quickly and the motivating factor is gone. But he does love the idea of points and money and keeping track of such things. He revels in math. So my idea was this: I bought a pretend register drawer and set of pretend money at our local Dollar Tree.
Then I taped 3 shoe boxes together - one with items costing 25c like Tootsie Rolls, Smarties, real quarters, bubbles, stickers, tattoos; one costing 50c with little toys, bigger treats like candy bars, Cheetos, a can of pop; and one costing $1 with real dollars, coupons for extra time on the computer or playing Pacman at the local restaurant to use whenever he wants, a new calculator, a bell for his bike, and the ULTIMATE - a coupon to stay up until 9:30 on the weekend! I called it "Brady's Prize Store" and keep it well stocked.
So each day, he has the potential to earn $1.30 of the fake money: 15c if the morning goes smooth, 15c if bedtime goes smooth, $1 if he has no problems at school, after-school or bus ride, and then money gets tacked off for each incident at the different locations (this also helps us reinforce school expectations). If he has just one incident in a day, it drops from $1 to 35c. He argues that's not fair, but I tell him having no problems anywhere is like the Grand Prize and something he has to work hard for.
At the end of the week, neither of us can wait to burst in the back door and have him count his money, exchange dimes and nickels for quarters, quarters for 50c pieces (pirate gold from his Halloween costume, LOL) and 50c pieces for $1 bills. We recently introduced a $5 bill but he has to do REALLY well all week to get that and I'm happy to say he has.
Then he gets to spend his play money on whatever he wants out of that store. It's so much fun for both of us. It's his own little store, made just for him, and he really wants to have lots of money for it at the end of the week. It's just involved enough to keep him interested and it gives us both something to look forward to, even if we've had a bad week. And it puts the responsibility of how much he gets to buy on his shoulders, not mine. Whew! I sure hope it keeps working!
The best part is, I hope, that it can grow as he does. I can always put new things in there to surprise him. And it would work with whatever is important to a particular kid. Just my little idea. I'm sure someone else somewhere does it too, but I was quite happy to think of it and introduce it at our house!
I found myself in search of a reward system that would work for Brady. Lots of sites had ideas for having a kid "earn" points or coloring part of a chart when they did something well, basically working toward some goal in which they would receive a reward. The idea is to encourage positive behavior in a pro-active way, rather than focusing on the negative unwanted behavior.
My kiddo has never been terribly motivated by rewards charts. To some degree, but he loses interest quickly and the motivating factor is gone. But he does love the idea of points and money and keeping track of such things. He revels in math. So my idea was this: I bought a pretend register drawer and set of pretend money at our local Dollar Tree.
Then I taped 3 shoe boxes together - one with items costing 25c like Tootsie Rolls, Smarties, real quarters, bubbles, stickers, tattoos; one costing 50c with little toys, bigger treats like candy bars, Cheetos, a can of pop; and one costing $1 with real dollars, coupons for extra time on the computer or playing Pacman at the local restaurant to use whenever he wants, a new calculator, a bell for his bike, and the ULTIMATE - a coupon to stay up until 9:30 on the weekend! I called it "Brady's Prize Store" and keep it well stocked.
So each day, he has the potential to earn $1.30 of the fake money: 15c if the morning goes smooth, 15c if bedtime goes smooth, $1 if he has no problems at school, after-school or bus ride, and then money gets tacked off for each incident at the different locations (this also helps us reinforce school expectations). If he has just one incident in a day, it drops from $1 to 35c. He argues that's not fair, but I tell him having no problems anywhere is like the Grand Prize and something he has to work hard for.
At the end of the week, neither of us can wait to burst in the back door and have him count his money, exchange dimes and nickels for quarters, quarters for 50c pieces (pirate gold from his Halloween costume, LOL) and 50c pieces for $1 bills. We recently introduced a $5 bill but he has to do REALLY well all week to get that and I'm happy to say he has.
Then he gets to spend his play money on whatever he wants out of that store. It's so much fun for both of us. It's his own little store, made just for him, and he really wants to have lots of money for it at the end of the week. It's just involved enough to keep him interested and it gives us both something to look forward to, even if we've had a bad week. And it puts the responsibility of how much he gets to buy on his shoulders, not mine. Whew! I sure hope it keeps working!
The best part is, I hope, that it can grow as he does. I can always put new things in there to surprise him. And it would work with whatever is important to a particular kid. Just my little idea. I'm sure someone else somewhere does it too, but I was quite happy to think of it and introduce it at our house!
Savings tip: Retail Me Not
Whenever you are making a purchase online, BE SURE to check Retail Me Not before checking out. It has coupon codes, free shipping codes and discount codes for all kinds of retailers. Mostly commonly I have used this when printing photos from Walgreens.com. I have always, every time, found at least some kind of discount code to use and get the prints cheaper.
I think I also used it to find discount codes for Match.com and Eharmony.com back when I was trying to get back into the dating world! Ugh! Glad I don't have to worry about that now. But I did find codes and get those services for a lower monthly price.
So check it out before you check out!
I think I also used it to find discount codes for Match.com and Eharmony.com back when I was trying to get back into the dating world! Ugh! Glad I don't have to worry about that now. But I did find codes and get those services for a lower monthly price.
So check it out before you check out!
Country Photo Essay
I was looking for a new background photo and took a bunch of pictures around the north end of town. I thought they were pretty cool, nice scenes of fall in the Midwest (It was 15 degrees here this morning!), so here are a few of them:
Nice view from our side yard of fields and an old house.
There are a lot of birds flying through this time of year heading South.
Main Street in a small town, it's like the heart, all activity extends from there :)
No leaves to be found anywhere this time of year!
Grain elevators are as majestic to me as skyscrapers. Tall and imposing and important.
Winter Wheat is growing!
No telling where a country road might take you.
We collect mulberries off this path in the summer as well as walk it and bike it. It's amazing how Brady's imagination runs wild when we are out walking. He imagines so many things about where we might be and what we might be doing.
Nice view from our side yard of fields and an old house.
Main Street in a small town, it's like the heart, all activity extends from there :)
No leaves to be found anywhere this time of year!
Grain elevators are as majestic to me as skyscrapers. Tall and imposing and important.
Winter Wheat is growing!
No telling where a country road might take you.
We collect mulberries off this path in the summer as well as walk it and bike it. It's amazing how Brady's imagination runs wild when we are out walking. He imagines so many things about where we might be and what we might be doing.
Savings tip: Save Your Mesh Bags
I once read on The Money Saving Mom a tip to save the mesh bags that potatoes and onions come in to use as dish scrubbies. So I started doing so and they work great! In the meantime, I have also used them hold all the little scraps of soap leftover in the shower so they can be used up, and also once to hold little bags of beach glass that I sold on Ebay with a nice ribbon tied around the top.
They are very versatile and useful. I never have to buy scrubbies!
They are very versatile and useful. I never have to buy scrubbies!
Monday, November 26, 2012
Easy Shepherd's Pie
Easy Shepherd's Pie
Oh boy it's good! I make it with deer :) But ground pork, turkey, chicken or beef would work too. I like recipes that are easy, with few ingredients, not much to do and healthy. Enjoy!
Oh boy it's good! I make it with deer :) But ground pork, turkey, chicken or beef would work too. I like recipes that are easy, with few ingredients, not much to do and healthy. Enjoy!
Homemade Dry Stuffing and bread crumbs
If anyone has kids that don't like bread crusts (like mine!) or a family that won't touch the ends of the bread or any rolls that get too hard or stale, I have a great idea via my very frugal husband. I kept throwing away the cut off crusts of my son's peanut butter sandwich. My husband said, "Can't you do something with those?"
Hmmm... let me see. So I researched ideas online and at first I dried them and used them to make bread crumbs, doing something like this, though I used my smoothie maker. Even a coffee bean grinder would work:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Bread/BreadCrumbs.htm
Then when I had a bunch of that, I decided to research recipes for homemade dry stuffing mix and found this one:
http://www.ehow.com/how_7626551_homemade-dry-stuffing-mix.html
And made five bags of it! We cooked it up like the recipe and it was great! All with bread crumbs from my son's sandwiches. Now this time of year, I was able to get boxes of Stove Top for 50 cents a piece, but this was something I made from something I had been wasting. How cool! Thanks hubby!
Bread pudding is another idea, but I haven't tried that... yet!
Hmmm... let me see. So I researched ideas online and at first I dried them and used them to make bread crumbs, doing something like this, though I used my smoothie maker. Even a coffee bean grinder would work:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Bread/BreadCrumbs.htm
Then when I had a bunch of that, I decided to research recipes for homemade dry stuffing mix and found this one:
http://www.ehow.com/how_7626551_homemade-dry-stuffing-mix.html
And made five bags of it! We cooked it up like the recipe and it was great! All with bread crumbs from my son's sandwiches. Now this time of year, I was able to get boxes of Stove Top for 50 cents a piece, but this was something I made from something I had been wasting. How cool! Thanks hubby!
Bread pudding is another idea, but I haven't tried that... yet!
Earn money free: From Inbox Dollars
Over the weekend, I told you about swagbucks.com and mypoints.com - two sites where I make money by doing very little. Well, today I have the 3rd website I use. But before I get into that, I just HAVE to tell you about All You Magazine's Daily Freebies. I signed up for their email and get them once per day. They point you to freebies and samples from all kinds of companies, from food to make up. And today, ONLY FOR TODAY, is a free Santa Hat. So stop by All You and check out how to get today's freebie, then sign up for the daily email while you're at it! I tell my husband that going to the mailbox is like Christmas because I end up with so many samples and free magazines (I get, at the very least, 6 free magazines, more likely closer to 10. I just can't think of them all right now!)
And now to Inboxdollars.com I started using this website about a year ago, based on a recommendation from The Money Saving Mom and it works great! Like MyPoints, I get a few emails a day, I click on links, sometimes take surveys, watch videos, check my credit score, sometimes sign up for newsletters or websites or "like" somebody on Facebook. And money racks up. In that year's time, I have gotten 2 checks for $27 a piece. Just like that!
It sounds crazy, I know, but it really truly is nothing more than what I have described. And in none of these cases do I have to give a credit card or any extensive information. It's basically an advertising network, I guess, and that's how they make money. I have a time or two shopped using a link through MyPoints and gotten points that way, one time I used them to switch car insurance and got 5,000 points. But usually it's no more than simple things with no strings longer than an email newsletter I can unsubscribe from later if I don't want it anymore.
So now we have $40 per year for Pizza Hut from MyPoints, $30-$40 per year to Amazon from Swagbucks and now $54 in cash from Inbox Dollars. Just one more much smaller one tomorrow. Wow! It's true, I really really mean it. Give it a try!
And now to Inboxdollars.com I started using this website about a year ago, based on a recommendation from The Money Saving Mom and it works great! Like MyPoints, I get a few emails a day, I click on links, sometimes take surveys, watch videos, check my credit score, sometimes sign up for newsletters or websites or "like" somebody on Facebook. And money racks up. In that year's time, I have gotten 2 checks for $27 a piece. Just like that!
It sounds crazy, I know, but it really truly is nothing more than what I have described. And in none of these cases do I have to give a credit card or any extensive information. It's basically an advertising network, I guess, and that's how they make money. I have a time or two shopped using a link through MyPoints and gotten points that way, one time I used them to switch car insurance and got 5,000 points. But usually it's no more than simple things with no strings longer than an email newsletter I can unsubscribe from later if I don't want it anymore.
So now we have $40 per year for Pizza Hut from MyPoints, $30-$40 per year to Amazon from Swagbucks and now $54 in cash from Inbox Dollars. Just one more much smaller one tomorrow. Wow! It's true, I really really mean it. Give it a try!
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Free Amazon gift cards: From Swagbucks
So yesterday I talked about MyPoints. Four $10 gift cards per year! Cool!
Today I want to tell you my experience with Swagbucks. I like this site as much as MyPoints. Roughly every 6 to 8 weeks I accumulate enough points to get a free $5 gift card to Amazon.com. Again, that's $10 every 3 months just like MyPoints. I do a minimum of things at Swagbucks, so if you had more time, you could potentially earn a lot more!
I earn 4 points every day: 1 for using their toolbar, 1 for answering a poll and 2 for looking at a few ads. That alone nets me 40 points every 10 days. But you do need to do more than that to get the $5 every 6 to 8 weeks. I earn 1 or 2 points a day watching a video. Sometimes I see a Swagcode on their Facebook page and get 5-10 points. I earn points using their search bar. I sign up for newsletters or add apps to my Facebook page for 10 or 20 points a piece.
I've been using this one for four years as well and it works great. Totally free and totally cool. There are other prizes, but I always opt for the Amazon gift card. Even with only $5 if I shop well, I can find a used DVD that combined with shipping is under that amount. It can be a family DVD for us all to watch or sometimes a gift for someone with a birthday coming up. Such a nice little treat for minimal effort!
Today I want to tell you my experience with Swagbucks. I like this site as much as MyPoints. Roughly every 6 to 8 weeks I accumulate enough points to get a free $5 gift card to Amazon.com. Again, that's $10 every 3 months just like MyPoints. I do a minimum of things at Swagbucks, so if you had more time, you could potentially earn a lot more!
I earn 4 points every day: 1 for using their toolbar, 1 for answering a poll and 2 for looking at a few ads. That alone nets me 40 points every 10 days. But you do need to do more than that to get the $5 every 6 to 8 weeks. I earn 1 or 2 points a day watching a video. Sometimes I see a Swagcode on their Facebook page and get 5-10 points. I earn points using their search bar. I sign up for newsletters or add apps to my Facebook page for 10 or 20 points a piece.
I've been using this one for four years as well and it works great. Totally free and totally cool. There are other prizes, but I always opt for the Amazon gift card. Even with only $5 if I shop well, I can find a used DVD that combined with shipping is under that amount. It can be a family DVD for us all to watch or sometimes a gift for someone with a birthday coming up. Such a nice little treat for minimal effort!
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Patience with kids: Wet cement commercial...
Tasty Turkey Crescent Braid
Trying this recipe today with leftover pork loin, from Red Gold's website:
http://www.redgold.com/red-gold-brand/recipes/recipe-details?recipe_id=1370
http://www.redgold.com/red-gold-brand/recipes/recipe-details?recipe_id=1370
Free gift cards: From MyPoints
I participate in several web sites where I get money or gift cards for free, REALLY! There are four of them, and today I will talk about www.mypoints.com
About every 3 months, I am able to get a $10 gift card to Pizza Hut. In the past I've gotten them to other places, used to use $10 Walmart gift cards as presents, but Pizza Hut allows for a nice cost-free cooking-free date night with hubby every couple of months :)
It works like this. You sign up, get about 5 or 6 emails a day, you get 5 points just for clicking on most of them. If you do that 5 times a day, that's 25 points a day, 250 points every 10 days, 750 per month and when you reach 1650, you get a $10 gift card. You can also do surveys for 50-75 points, answer questions for 10-15 points, get points for online shopping you are already doing, and 75 points a month for using their search toolbar at least 40 times. It's easy, doesn't take much time at all and with my minimal effort, I get 4 $10 gift cards per year. With a bit more effort than I do, you could probably get 1 a month. I've been doing it for four years or so, and it has continued to work the same way the whole time. My points always rack up, they send my gift card within 2 weeks of me ordering it.
And, as with most things I love, it is totally FREE! So check out mypoints.com and see if it might work for you!
About every 3 months, I am able to get a $10 gift card to Pizza Hut. In the past I've gotten them to other places, used to use $10 Walmart gift cards as presents, but Pizza Hut allows for a nice cost-free cooking-free date night with hubby every couple of months :)
It works like this. You sign up, get about 5 or 6 emails a day, you get 5 points just for clicking on most of them. If you do that 5 times a day, that's 25 points a day, 250 points every 10 days, 750 per month and when you reach 1650, you get a $10 gift card. You can also do surveys for 50-75 points, answer questions for 10-15 points, get points for online shopping you are already doing, and 75 points a month for using their search toolbar at least 40 times. It's easy, doesn't take much time at all and with my minimal effort, I get 4 $10 gift cards per year. With a bit more effort than I do, you could probably get 1 a month. I've been doing it for four years or so, and it has continued to work the same way the whole time. My points always rack up, they send my gift card within 2 weeks of me ordering it.
And, as with most things I love, it is totally FREE! So check out mypoints.com and see if it might work for you!
Friday, November 23, 2012
Awesome resources: Money Saving Mom, Spark People
Each day I will post some useful, unique, poignant or otherwise interesting online find that either I use regularly or found helpful. Today, I am posting two that I use most often.
1) www.moneysavingmom.com This blog is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE! Her ideas have changed the way I think about many things, in particular grocery shopping, cooking and finances. There are so many good things to find here, on couponing, saving money, parenting, homeschooling, homemaking, business etc., that I cannot possibly list them all. I use her site each week when making my grocery list, daily to get free items online and learn of deals. I glean inspiration as a homemaker and minimalist and parent, and just generally love her practicality and efficiency.
Her site is the single most influential site when I began to want to live frugally. When I first went to her site I was spending $1,000 per month for a family of three with three cats at the grocery store. I now spend between $240 and $300 per month, again for a family of three and three animals. That's at the minimum, $8400 per year savings!! I'd say it's worth checking out since it's free!
2) sparkpeople.com Twice in my life I have had to lose 25 pounds, many other times just 5 or 10. I've done paid programs through weightwatchers.com and ediets.com, and also read Larry North's Slimdown For Life book, but had just as much or more success with the FREE sparkpeople.com
I use it now every time I feel as though I've put on a few pounds (when my pants don't fit right anymore) since I don't EVER want to have to lose 25 again, and it helps me each and every time. The last time I needed to lose 25 it took me, honest to goodness, five years to get that off and keep it off. Five pounds per year for five years. Wow, talk about losing slowly! But it was through Sparkpeople that I took those pounds off and kept them from creeping back on. It can be simple and easy - all I do is enter what I eat every day (super easy using their database) and occasionally look at recipe and exercise articles - or it can be more involved with weight loss blogs, inspirational stories, message boards etc. If you don't need to necessarily lose weight, it is also good to help develop a more healthful and well-rounded eating habit as it tracks your protein, carbohydrates, fat and calories. I love knowing that I'm keeping in balance and becoming aware of what my habits are!
1) www.moneysavingmom.com This blog is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE! Her ideas have changed the way I think about many things, in particular grocery shopping, cooking and finances. There are so many good things to find here, on couponing, saving money, parenting, homeschooling, homemaking, business etc., that I cannot possibly list them all. I use her site each week when making my grocery list, daily to get free items online and learn of deals. I glean inspiration as a homemaker and minimalist and parent, and just generally love her practicality and efficiency.
Her site is the single most influential site when I began to want to live frugally. When I first went to her site I was spending $1,000 per month for a family of three with three cats at the grocery store. I now spend between $240 and $300 per month, again for a family of three and three animals. That's at the minimum, $8400 per year savings!! I'd say it's worth checking out since it's free!
2) sparkpeople.com Twice in my life I have had to lose 25 pounds, many other times just 5 or 10. I've done paid programs through weightwatchers.com and ediets.com, and also read Larry North's Slimdown For Life book, but had just as much or more success with the FREE sparkpeople.com
I use it now every time I feel as though I've put on a few pounds (when my pants don't fit right anymore) since I don't EVER want to have to lose 25 again, and it helps me each and every time. The last time I needed to lose 25 it took me, honest to goodness, five years to get that off and keep it off. Five pounds per year for five years. Wow, talk about losing slowly! But it was through Sparkpeople that I took those pounds off and kept them from creeping back on. It can be simple and easy - all I do is enter what I eat every day (super easy using their database) and occasionally look at recipe and exercise articles - or it can be more involved with weight loss blogs, inspirational stories, message boards etc. If you don't need to necessarily lose weight, it is also good to help develop a more healthful and well-rounded eating habit as it tracks your protein, carbohydrates, fat and calories. I love knowing that I'm keeping in balance and becoming aware of what my habits are!
How I Got Here
So before I get into the things that have informed my life that I think might be helpful to others, I want to share how I got to this point. It's been a long, winding, complicated, roller coaster ride that went from Kansas to Florida to Utah back to Florida up to South Carolina back to Florida and back to Kansas. It involved working for county and federal government at times, a university for two years, as a cake decorator and journalist and now as the computer guru for a small family used car business. At times I was a stay at home mother, then an unemployed divorced mom and finally a working mom. It involved living on a barrier island, in apartments and finally owning a house.
But it all starts when I was 17 (24 years ago, how can that be!). That's how old I was when I first met my now-husband. I was dating a guy from his high school and we met at a party. We didn't meet again until we were 19, but we both remember our initial meeting all these years later. At 19, I became best friends with a classmate of Jason's and we met again, dated for four years, were engaged, but weren't quite ready for each other. I wanted to go out and see the world, follow my dreams, see what I could accomplish "out there," and he wanted to build a business and stay in the small town his family had inhabited for generations and where his parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and extended family lived. We both had very noble but very different goals.
So I left, was blessed to do all the things I wanted: move around the country, meet interesting people, work as a journalist and an earth science researcher, have a beautiful child, and Jason was blessed to build a successful business, be there for his family and raise an adopted son into a wonderful young man. We both married and later divorced, and then at age 39 found each other on Facebook. I was in Florida, he was still in Kansas and within five minutes on the phone, we both knew all those old feelings were still there but we had pursued our separate paths, had learned and grown and mellowed, and were ready to make a life together. So that's what we did. When I was laid off from my job in Florida, he moved me, my son and my mother back to that small town we'd live in together 16 years before.
I was amazed to find that all of my experiences over those 16 years brought me to a place to appreciate this town I once felt trapped in. I'd gone through sprawl and traffic and crime and disconnectedness. The smallness and safety here now seemed like freedom rather than the prison I once imagined it to be. It now seemed like a perfect city in which to raise a child and pursue the things I believed in, like living off the land, living simply and frugally, eating locally and building relationships in a community. The town hadn't changed, but my perspective had.
All places - big, small and in between - have their beauty and benefits. I hope you are all lucky enough to find one that "fits" you and if it's not quite there yet, use gratitude and prayer and personal/life change to make it into what feeds your soul.
Happy Day After Thanksgiving! Thanks for being here.
Steph
But it all starts when I was 17 (24 years ago, how can that be!). That's how old I was when I first met my now-husband. I was dating a guy from his high school and we met at a party. We didn't meet again until we were 19, but we both remember our initial meeting all these years later. At 19, I became best friends with a classmate of Jason's and we met again, dated for four years, were engaged, but weren't quite ready for each other. I wanted to go out and see the world, follow my dreams, see what I could accomplish "out there," and he wanted to build a business and stay in the small town his family had inhabited for generations and where his parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and extended family lived. We both had very noble but very different goals.
So I left, was blessed to do all the things I wanted: move around the country, meet interesting people, work as a journalist and an earth science researcher, have a beautiful child, and Jason was blessed to build a successful business, be there for his family and raise an adopted son into a wonderful young man. We both married and later divorced, and then at age 39 found each other on Facebook. I was in Florida, he was still in Kansas and within five minutes on the phone, we both knew all those old feelings were still there but we had pursued our separate paths, had learned and grown and mellowed, and were ready to make a life together. So that's what we did. When I was laid off from my job in Florida, he moved me, my son and my mother back to that small town we'd live in together 16 years before.
I was amazed to find that all of my experiences over those 16 years brought me to a place to appreciate this town I once felt trapped in. I'd gone through sprawl and traffic and crime and disconnectedness. The smallness and safety here now seemed like freedom rather than the prison I once imagined it to be. It now seemed like a perfect city in which to raise a child and pursue the things I believed in, like living off the land, living simply and frugally, eating locally and building relationships in a community. The town hadn't changed, but my perspective had.
All places - big, small and in between - have their beauty and benefits. I hope you are all lucky enough to find one that "fits" you and if it's not quite there yet, use gratitude and prayer and personal/life change to make it into what feeds your soul.
Happy Day After Thanksgiving! Thanks for being here.
Steph
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Inaugural post: Where I Am Now
The nail in the coffin of the old me was the deer heart.
Nearly the size of a football, it came from a doe my husband shot earlier that
day, ultimately giving our family more than 80 pounds of nice, lean meat. He
put the heart in a pan of water in the sink and then casually said, "Let's
cook it." "Cook what?" I asked and paused as it sunk in. “The
heart?"
“Why not?”
And then I realized he meant me! Oh boy. Now, I had begun
experimenting with different foods when we got married three months before, both
at the age of 40, deer included. But the heart? This was going to be hard to
swallow, literally!
But he was right. Why not? Wasn’t I always saying we should take
personal responsibility for the food we eat, that we shouldn’t waste anything?
Here was a protein and vitamin-rich food and I could think of no good reason
not to eat it. “It’s gross!” just wouldn’t cut it.
So the next night I stood at that same sink, scrubbing the insides
of this heavy dark red organ, a disgusted half-wrinkle stuck on my nose. I
cleaned its chambers, stuffed it with dressing, seasoned it, wrapped it in
bacon, and gradually sensed a moment of permanent personal change come over me.
This girl who once lived in the middle of a town of 1 million
people in a dinky apartment relying on mass-transit, who’d gone through a
vegetarian stage and an organic stage and a not-tested-on-animals stage was in
her house – on the very edge of a town of fewer than 1,000 – baking a day-old
deer heart. TO EAT!
And it seemed right. It seemed natural and elemental and personal,
as food should be. To my utter amazement it tasted fantastic, so the next time
he got a deer, preparing and baking the heart didn’t faze me one bit.
It is my goal for Burbs to the Boonies to be about many things:
the transition from city life to country life, life in a small town, learning to garden and hunt and gather, living off the land,
building relationships in a close-knit community, getting
back to the basics of life, cooking for food allergies, the power of prayer and gratitude, and many other things.
Thank you for being here. I'll leave this post with a couple of photos of our life. One of my son and I at a corn maze in October, one of my son's ride on a generous farmer's combine during harvest this year and sleeping with his teddy bear in the basement during a night of tornadoes in April.
