A Visit to the Library

After living here for two years, I finally made it to the library and got my library card! I'm not much of a book person, but I like libraries. They hold a wealth of information for the low cost of whatever time you have to spend. (Or happen to spend, for those who "accidentally" take a good deal of time inside poring over books.) It was kind of an exciting time for me. I used to be a frequent library-goer back home. And here now I have my very own library card once again! 

I think one reason I like them is because books are so expensive and good ones can be hard to find. I'd rather browse what's available locally for free than take a chance at something for a price tag. I almost never get the opportunity to read and it's not something I do for fun, either. But... I have a weakness. Children's books. From the good old classics for an avid school-aged reader to the cute, clean stories and wonderful illustrations inside the cover of something for the younger generation. I guess it's all a novelty. It brings back memories of my own childhood. So I can't help but get excited when I find something that reminds me of days gone by! 

Growing up, we had a decent collection of old Little Golden Books. There are so many of them that I recall looking at for hours on end. When I see the golden binding peeking out from its place on a bookshelf, I just have to see which one it is! All too often though, my eyes have been deceived and it's one of the new modern Disney stories. That's what I was expecting this morning. But instead, it was an old Richard Scarry ABC book. Just the fact that it held his old illustrations made me happy, even if I didn't recognize the cover. I flipped through the pages anyway, and it wasn't long before my trusty but rusty old memory pulled out some files that had long been forgotten!!! We did have this book growing up, and I had completely forgotten it ever existed. But the three pages below confirmed that yes, indeed, my little eyes have scanned this one before! I recognized so many details in each of the pictures. I can't tell you how excited I am. But it doesn't end here! Today I learned that this library has a little room of books that are for sale, and nothing is over 25 cents. Children's titles are only .10! THIS book was in that little room, so for the cost of a little ten-cent coin, I danced merrily back to my car with a treasure. 

Canning Applesauce

We tend to do things up big around here, and canning applesauce is no exception. Between my visionary brother-in-law and my efficiency-perfecter/handyman husband, we have quite the set up.
If you've ever tried processing apples by yourself, you know it's not a quick easy task. It seems to take forever to get enough apples prepared for 50 quarts of sauce, besides being boring when you're the only one doing it. So, why not gather a few families and make it together? Surely you've heard the old "many hands make light work" thing. In this case it was most definitely true.

Several years ago we gave the whole bulk applesauce deal a shot. With so many families needing such a large number processed, we were able to get together and purchase several bins of apples from a local orchard. Two things: bulk prices are cheaper (which means lower cost per quart if you're purchasing anyway), and quality is better and more time efficient than trying to use blemished wind-falls.

The two go-getter brothers have made a rather nice kitchen set up for the processing, including an apple chopping machine, a 10-burner gas stove (plus several more outdoor propane burners), a giant stainless steel food strainer, and two canning pans - the largest of which holds 70 quarts at a time!

Washing apples and removing stems outdoors.

This is my man. The genius fabricator that made the equipment. 

The 70 quart water-bath canner. 

The result of a day's work? 970 quarts done! 

Not our biggest year yet, but it was nice to be finished by mid-afternoon!

Satisfaction

I always aim to cut meal cost whenever possible, but in some areas we're not really willing to go for the lowest market price out there because that often means sacrificing quality (like in meat, for instance). Plus any discount (or not-nigh-priced) grocery store is 20 miles away, and I rarely get to town. So seeing numbers like this gives me such a big satisfaction:

Last night's meal cost us a whopping 60 cents or so, since the only cost into it was the carrots. Potatoes and onions were from our garden and the grass-fed roast was given to us.

We had some leftover meat and veggies, so that's on tonight's menu as well. It wasn't a huge amount, so I am adding to the meal with some acorn squash our landlord shared with us. Mmm. Cut those in half and add a pad of butter, some maple syrup, and a dash of cinnamon and bake it until it's nice and soft.... I can't wait! And the cost into this meal? About 27 cents between the butter and maple syrup. So the past two days' suppers have equaled less than a dollar! Eeeee! It makes me feel better since I've had to start implementing a weekly (or bi-weekly if I can get away with it) grocery store run recently.

Ahhh

The joys of having supper all ready and in the crockpot! 

Makes for a nice free afternoon and a beyond delicious meal waiting for you at suppertime.

Updating the Cleaning Schedule

Cleaning. Uggh. I would almost rather do anything than clean! It's just not my thing. Yet as a stay-at-home wife and mother, this is one of my job requirements. And as much as I don't like cleaning, I can't stand a messy house (and husband doesn't, either!), so there is a little bit of motivation for me to keep things in order.

This past spring there was a cleaning schedule floating around the internet that seemed to be every wife's new craze. I couldn't begin to count how many times I saw it posted, shared, and passed along between women folk. Maybe you saw it? It divided up household chores by the day where, for example, Monday was dusting day and you'd dust every room in the house. Tuesday was vacuum day and you'd get all the carpets. Then they had other bigger tasks divided up by week/month throughout the rest of the year. It seemed to help lots of busy moms get a schedule to their duties, but this list just wasn't for me. I don't like the feeling of never having a room done, so even if I do dust every room in the house at once, that doesn't give me a feeling that I've finished a task. It kind of seems half way to me. So I came up with my own schedule that targets a room at a time and it seems to work pretty well! Throughout the summer I mostly abandoned it as I couldn't guarantee when I'd be home or what canning needed to be done, so I just made sure I had things straightened up pretty well for our weekly Thursday company. Now that fall is here and I'm indoors a lot more, it was time to pull out the old list and adjust it where necessary to fit our current schedule. 

Our weekends can be pretty hectic with all we're involved with in our church group, plus any other random activities that pop up. Once a month I'm in charge of feeding 40 people lunch on Sunday, which equals a messy kitchen as I scramble around getting that ready (in addition to feeding and taking care of my own family's needs), and that means a messy kitchen to greet me on Monday morning. So Monday is kitchen day! This includes everything you would think of to straighten the room, like doing dishes, wiping down countertops, and sweeping floors. But I also like to add one extra task each time, which gives me a chance to target areas that tend to be forgotten. Extra jobs can be something like cleaning out the refrigerator or freezer, reorganizing a cupboard or two that has needed attention, or cleaning the stove. Yesterday I picked the top of my refrigerator as I had noticed it collected a few miscellaneous items that needed off my counters during canning season. It needed me worse than I thought, and I was pleased with how clean it all looked when I was finished. Short little me can easily forget the fact that dust collects up there, too. Those zinc canning lids I bought at a yard sale ended up getting stashed on the fridge, so I finally got around to washing them and replacing the regular canning jar lids on my spice/bulk food shelf with them. That got me to straightening up said shelf, which led me to give some attention to the cupboard shelf with all my other random baking items, which had been bothering me for some time. I spent more time in the kitchen than I would've had to, but it is such a good feeling to have all those areas tidy. If this was a busy week and I had other obligations for the day, then just the basic kitchen jobs would be enough. The amount of extra jobs you choose to do is entirely up to you depending on your schedule for that particular day. But this is not a free ticket to get out of things every week! Our goal here is a clean, welcoming home.

The other task for Monday that I have on the list is laundry, so I ran a load of husband's greasy work clothes that needed done. Because I do cloth diapers and they need washed every three days, I usually wait to launder everyday shirts, socks, and underwear for those days so I'm not running a half-full washer. 

Today is Tuesday and my duties for the day are bread baking and bathroom cleaning. It's also going to be diaper laundry day since the pail is full enough it needs done. Both diaper laundry and bread making can vary by a day or so depending on our needs and schedule; like those weeks when we blow through two loaves (bread, not diapers) and I need to make more before the weekend. Generally though, it gets held off until the beginning of the next week. 

Wednesday my attention turns toward our bedroom. This was one change I made when I brought out the list the other day. I had bedroom for Friday before and found that it never got done quite to satisfaction because of our unpredictable weekends. Besides the kitchen, this is the room that gets out of hand the quickest, so we really needed to set a day where we could enjoy it being cleaned up!

Thursday night we host people at our house for prayer, so I take care of the living and dining rooms this day. This was another recent adjustment I made. With a toddler around now it's easier doing it all the day of expected company rather than the day before, since it's almost guaranteed it won't stay nice and in shape for the next day. Because our living room rarely ever needs much more than a quick dusting or vacuuming (well, and the daily toy pick-up), it just made sense to do it and the dining room all at once.

And then there's Friday. We only have five main living areas in our house and two of them were done Thursday, so this day I call swing/catch-up day. Often this is my second diaper laundry day. Having Friday open gives me time to prepare for any weekend activities, to catch up on another room that might've gotten out of hand in the past few days, or to take care of other random things around the house. For some of you, this might be the day to tackle the office, garage, closets, laundry room, or some other area of your house. I realize most people have a bigger house to take care of than we do, so you'll probably have to adjust the list some to fit your needs!

The best part? I get the weekend off! Or at least, there aren't any obligations to clean or straighten. Saturday still means dishes and cooking, but I don't have specific rooms on the schedule to clean, since they were all taken care of earlier in the week. Like Friday, if there's something extra that needs done, this day is open for that. And I think everyone needs a break from the daunting task of cleaning, so Sunday is my day of rest. I usually don't even do dishes then, but I also don't normally cook Sundays, since we eat together at church every week.

Now that you've read all that you should've learned that cleaning isn't my strong point and this is what I try to do to keep our little house in order. But look! I made a nice chart!

Easy to Please

Sometimes it's the simple things that make me the most excited. 

Like finding this box of vintage birthday candles in a dresser we bought.