Life. On a Budget.

"My time is worth more than that."

2007-07-20T17:02:00.001-04:00

So, I was reading a blog the other day by a gentleman who, among other things, says that it's all right that he spends at least $3 per serving per meal on his family, because his time is worth more than what it would require to cook from scratch.

I've come across that statement before, even in supposedly frugal books/articles. And I think, honestly, people aren't quite looking at it the right way. Yes, I get the concept they're putting forth. For instance, let's say it takes me 5 hours to make a scarf and hat for a gift and the yarn cost me 50 cents from a garage sale. Now, I could go to Target and buy a hat and scarf for $15 and the total trip time is 1 hour. The argument goes that my remaining time is worth more than whatever I saved in making it myself, because I only saved the equivalent of $3.63 an hour. This seems to be used especially by people who explain, "because I make $12 (or whatever) an hour at work" as why something less than minimum wage is beneath their dignity.

The problems I see with this thinking are twofold. First, the assumption is you are actually working instead of making the scarf and hat. Or, conversely, that you are somehow missing work in order to do it. Otherwise, this doesn't exactly stand up. After all, unless you have some really cool, unusual job, it's very unlikely that anyone is actually paying you to do whatever you did on your off hours instead of make the gift - watch TV, go to a mall, see a movie... and so on. The $3.63 saved is actually more than the $0 earned in this case. (More in full post.)

The second half of this problem is well, even more problematic. Please bear with me while I build a totally hypothetical story to make my point.

Bob and Joe are both single and 30 years old. They have the same salary, work the same hours, live in identical houses with the same mortgage note, and drive the same automobiles. Bob lives very frugally. He shops sales, makes his meals from scratch, gets his entertainment for free or as cheaply as possible. Joe, on the other hand, tends to eat out a lot and likes to "party" on the weekends. Neither man lives beyond his means. However, while Bob is banking a full $800 a month of his paycheck by living simply, Joe only saves $300. Joe doesn't like to bargain hunt, wouldn't dream of "wasting" his time on garage sales and figures it's okay to treat himself to nice meals because, after all, he can afford it. It is "not worth his time" to live like Bob does and save a penny here or a dollar there.

Flash-forward 30 years. Both men are now 60 and they've just paid off their mortgages. Bob looks at his savings and realizes that the interest alone will pay him more than he needs to continue living as he has, since he no longer has a house note to contend with. He can retire, re-invest some of his interest earnings to put away for his later years, and relax and enjoy himself. Joe, on the other hand, hasn't saved near the amount Bob did and needs more money month-to-month to maintain the lifestyle he's told himself he's worth these past 30 years. Joe looks at his savings and realizes he'll either need to sell his home, move somewhere smaller, and scale way back, something he's not accustomed to doing at all, or, he's going to have to keep on working, probably for many years.

And this is the big trap of the "my time is worth more than that" thinking when it comes to measuring how to do something. That attitude might carry someone through years of his working life, but it has the very real potential to hurt him in his golden years if it frequently leads to spending more for something than necessary, just because the frugal version would've required more work.

THIS ARTICLE FROM FRONTLINE talks about the rising costs of retirement and how many of us aren't prepared for it. In particular:

"According to the 401(k) plan records analyzed by the Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI), Americans approaching retirement have, on average, three times their annual salaries in their accounts. Without any other form of savings, these retirees will burn through their 401(k)s in just seven or eight years, leaving them facing 10 or 11 years, based on life expectancy, with nothing but Social Security."

The article then goes on to say people should have 10 - 15 times their annual salary saved. Now, granted, for people like Bob, the amount needed is likely lower, maybe even much lower, considering he already knows how to live on a smaller amount of money than other people in his income bracket. However, for all the (*ahem*) average Joes out there, they're in danger of finding themselves in this very situation, and it could've been prevented by not being so sure that it wasn't even worth their time to save $3.63 an hour on a gift. Or $2 per serving on a meal. Or $16 by not going to the first-run movie and buying a $5 bag of popcorn and $4 cola on top of the $7 ticket, instead of waiting to borrow it from the library when it comes out on DVD.

A penny saved really is penny earned. Being frugal is more than just a way to live within your means. It's also a ticket to how the rest of your life pans out. I know I'd rather save that money now, while I can, then be looking at needing supervised care when I'm 85 and not having the money to cover it, all because I was "worth more" when I was young. My future is worth more than that.

Friday Five for Free (7)

2007-07-20T16:06:00.000-04:00

I mentioned somewhere that I have an enormous collection of cookbooks I inherited. This week was "super clean the kitchen" week and that included dusting/wiping down the books. (They're on a shelf in the breakfast nook.) So, in honor of that, here are 5 free 50s recipes - all from cookbooks from the 50s, but with minor adaptations for today's cooking. :) (More in full post.)

Chocolate Fudge:

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1/4 cup butter (margarine doesn't work so well here, sadly)
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
3 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1. Mix sugar and cocoa together in a saucepan. Add in butter, milk and corn syrup. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes stirring constantly. You might need to reduce the heat a little - as long as the mixture keeps boiling for the 3 minutes.

2. Remove from heat and set in a pan of cold water. The recipe says, "When you can hold your hand on the bottom of the pan, the syrup is cool enough." This usually only takes a few minutes, but don't burn yourself!

3. Stir in the remaining ingredients and spread in a lightly greased 8-inch square pan. Chill and cut into squares.

My kids like to make this one and we've given it as part of gifts before. It's very sweet, so I always cut the squares pretty small.

Potato Pancakes:

(requires a blender)
3 eggs
5 or 6 medium sized potatoes, pared
3 slices onion (I often just put in 3/4 cup of my pre-chopped and frozen onion)
1 tablespoon parsley
1/3 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt. (Original recipe says 1 1/2 teaspoon.)

1. Put eggs in blender. Cut potatoes in wedges and add a handful at a time, pulsing to shred. Add onion. Blend until all vegetables are cut fine.

2. Add parsley, flour, baking powder, and salt. Blend just to mix.

3. Fry in a hot skillet. I put a scant tablespoon of oil in the pan. The original recipe called for bacon drippings.

These are really good with a traditional side of applesauce. Makes about 10 - 12 pancakes.

Oven Stewed Corn:

4 cups corn (cut from cob, or thawed from frozen)
1 cup milk
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter

1. Cut the corn from cob and put into lightly buttered baking dish. Add the milk and salt and pepper.

2. Cover and bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes. Remove from oven and add the butter.

Note: If you have any left-over bell pepper to use up, you can chop it and add to the corn before baking.

Makes about 6 servings.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese:

8 oz elbow macaroni
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk (I've used powdered and results are fine)
1/2 lb. grated American cheese
1 cup bread crumbs (1 to 2 slices of bread whirled in the blender)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook macaroni in boiling water until just tender. Don't overcook. Drain and pour into greased baking dish.

2. While the pasta cooks, make a white sauce of butter, flour, milk and seasonings by cooking over medium heat until smooth and just starting to bubble. Add 2/3 of the cheese and stir until melted.

3. Pour cheese sauce over noodles and sprinkle with remaining grated cheese. Dust with bread crumbs.

4. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes.

Note: 1 1/2 cups canned, diced tomatoes can be added if desired. Makes about 6 servings.

Hawaiian Ham:

1 large fully cooked ham steak, 1 inch thick
4 pineapple rings, from can, reserve juice
2 cooked or canned sweet potatoes, sliced
1/8 cup brown sugar
Prepared mustard

1. Cut ham into 4 servings. Spread each piece with a scant amount of mustard and place in a greased baking dish.

2. Top each piece with a pineapple slice and 1/4 of the sweet potatoes. Pour pineapple juice over all and sprinkle with brown sugar.

3. Bake uncovered at 325 degrees for 30- 35 minutes, or until heated through.

Why I'll never be a "fashionista".

2007-07-18T22:56:00.000-04:00

Here's one for the "Yuh, huh???" pile. DESIGNER BAG HYSTERIA AT WHOLE FOODS.

Okay, so the concept - use canvas bags instead of plastic while shopping - good idea. I'm on board with that.

But this bag? Is horribly ugly. I mean really, really, really ugly. Yet apparently crowds of people couldn't wait to get one. Some even stood in line in the rain for 'em. I guess my fashion taste is just as sadly plebeian as I always figured it was, because - meh. Ugly!

And as far as I'm concerned, this bag sure as heck is not worth the $15 asking price much less: "As of 1 pm ET, the U.S. and U.K. versions of the bags were being bid up into the mid-$200 range on eBay. On Craigslist the bag was being offered for $250."

Whoa.

If you have $250 to blow on one ugly bag, you could just as easily go to ORIENTAL TRADING COMPANY and purchase 12 large canvas bags for about $20. It's not like that bottle of expensive salad dressing cares what it rides home in and then you could take that $230 you just saved, buy a whole lot of food, and donate it to a food bank. Now THAT would be making a difference not just for the environment, but for people less fortunate as well.

Hee. How much now do I want to go over to Cafe Press and design a similar tote bag that says, "I paid way too much for this bag to show-off how environmentally conscious I am!" Betcha I could find a similar font for free.... ;)

(Eek. Is that too mean? Sometimes my snarky side really gets rolling. But honestly, if the idea is to spread awareness - plain bags at an affordable price would do just as well. The more people see other people bringing their own canvas bags to the store, the more people will consider doing it themselves. It doesn't require a bag that actually says, "I'm not a plastic bag." Er... and I hope that's just some sad attempt at some kind of cosmopolitan ironic chic thing there, because otherwise - duh!)

Some more free crochet patterns.

2007-07-18T21:30:00.000-04:00

If you have a daughter who likes head scarves (or know a little girl who does) THIS PATTERN is simple enough that you could whip one up yourself or teach her how to make her own.

And here's a SIMPLE BELT PATTERN - your daughter could make a head scarf and matching belt, or you could make a set as a gift for a special little lady. :)

This one's interesting not so much in what it is, but for the explanation on how to determine the size of a project: CROCHET CURTAINS

Finally, here's a pattern for EASY SLIPPERS FOR BEGINNERS - something else that might make a nice gift.

Wednesday Quick Tip (5)

2007-07-18T16:20:00.000-04:00

Make a cookbook for your kids and teach them to cook from it. First, assemble recipes you know your children like. Type or write them out and put them into an inexpensive binder - one for each child. Once a week or a few times a month, have your children in the kitchen with you actively participating in the cooking of one of these recipes. You may cook the same recipe with them on more than one occasion, until you reach the point where your children can make each dish completely on their own without your assistance. (This might literally take years, depending on how young your children are when you start.) You can keep adding to the cookbook as you and your kids find new favorites or make changes/adjustments to recipes you already have.

Try to cover a wide spectrum here - main dishes, vegetables and sides, soups, baking, and so on. By the time your children are ready to leave the nest, they should not only be comfortable in the kitchen, but also have a "custom" cookbook of all their favorite dishes to take along with them so that as young people just starting out, they don't fall into a trap of eating too much fast-food or canned soup only because they don't know how to prepare the good meals you've always been cooking for them.

PS - Along these same lines: This past Spring we decided to make the "Hope Chest" concept part of our garage sale and thrift store shopping. My husband put some shelves up in one of our closets as storage and we've been every so often buying things we know our kids will need/use when they're on their own for the first time. So far we have one set of pots/pans, a set of plain white dishes, two sets of casserole dishes, plus some odds and ends like a cutting board and toaster. Our goal is to have as many kitchen items as possible for them so that they don't face that initial expense.

Super (Expensive) Suppers.

2007-07-18T15:35:00.000-04:00

Have places like SUPER SUPPERS made it to your area yet? I was utterly dumbfounded when a fellow homeschool mom raved to me about it then said she got 12 meals for just under $220. She invited me to try it with her sometime and as I was still trying desperately to wrap my mind around the concept, I only managed to stammer a reply along the lines of, "We usually don't spend that much on food." (And I'm hoping my mouth wasn't hanging open in stupefied shock for too long before I answered.)

In a nutshell, these places take the concept behind ONCE A MONTH COOKING and have "work stations" set up for you where all the food is prepped and you just need to assemble it. You make up your various dishes based on their menu and bring it home for freezing.

I have to give credit to whomever came up with this idea and sold people on it, because - wow. I never would've guessed anyone would go for it, yet it seems to be doing well. I should say seems to be doing well in certain areas. Someone tried to open one very near my neighborhood and it was only there for a few months before closing. I think the owners didn't do enough demographic research first. Upper-class suburbia may be embracing the idea, but working class neighborhoods? Not so much.

All that said... you can do the same thing at home, for a fraction of the cost. As I listened to my friend talk about it, I realized, in many ways, I already do, since we do all our baking at once and frequently cook our meat all on the same day. In other words, just because it's often called "once-a-month-cooking" doesn't mean you have to cook for a full month. You can cook for an entire week or just a few nights. Set up your kitchen in the same way Super Suppers does, by assembling all the ingredients first,(If your kids are past the toddler stage, they can help.) and then start your cooking.

Here are some links you might like, if the cooking-several-meals-at-once idea appeals to you:

SHEKNOWS.COM

ORGANIZED HOME -FREEZER COOKING - (Also, this site has tons of printable forms for building a "home organizer" notebook. Honestly, for a lot of the things - like the price book page - I just use plain notebook paper because it's cheaper than printing, but you still might find some forms here you like.)

MOMSBUDGET.COM

Spybot mal-ware program.

2007-07-17T11:13:00.000-04:00

Since I'm having computer woes, I thought this might be a good time to point you in the direction of this: SPYBOT SEARCH AND DESTROY. I downloaded this software several years ago and it still works great. It's free, because the creator believes it should be, but he does ask for a donation if you can afford it. If you decide to use the program, please consider making a donation if you can. He and his team of volunteers work hard on this program, constantly having to upgrade it to tackle the latest spyware/malware creations. (But that doesn't mean you have to constantly download upgraded versions. The program is built so that when you run it, it connectes with their database to find everything it needs to know what to search out and destroy.)

The first time I used the software, I was stunned by the number of things that had been installed on my computer without my knowledge or permission. I'm not just talking about malicious programs, either. I'm refering to all the cookies and records that were there. Very scary.

Computer update.

2007-07-17T11:06:00.000-04:00

So, I'm on day - what is it? 5? of Groundhog Day. Each morning, my computer acts as if it's never been turned on before. My husband hasn't been able to fix it, but we have determined this isn't a virus-related problem as far as we can tell. It just seems to be a corrupted file of some sort. This weekend a friend of ours who's *really* into computers is coming over to check on it for me.

Meanwhile, I've given up on accessing my e-mails until then. I keep re-loading them and losing them. *RME* Feel free to leave a comment here about anything until then.

Test Prep.

2007-07-15T14:38:00.001-04:00

If you have an older student who will soon be facing college entrance exams, there are some free sources he/she can utilize for practice.

SparkNotes - the site I linked to in the High School Lit posts - offers more than just classic literature guides. THIS PAGE has links to free online copies of test prep books for the SAT & ACT.

CliffsNotes also offers a PREP SECTION.

The STUDY GUIDE ZONE has test prep help for many different standardized exams. (Note to Florida parents: THIS PAGE covers FCAT test prep. As homeschoolers, taking the FCAT is a legitimate, legal way to meet accountability standards; however, our children are not allowed access to the FCAT Explorer on-line test prep program made available to public school children. I have contacted the state & DOE about this several times and will continue to do so. Perhaps someday this could be changed. Meanwhile, you might want to keep the Study Guide Zone in mind, though their guide is specifically targeted toward the high-school level FCAT.)

TEST PREP PREVIEW has a series of free practice tests - including graduate and vocational exams.

MAJOR TESTS offers free SAT, GRE and GMAT practice exams and help.

Finally, 4 TESTS has a wide range of free pratice tests for educational, professional, and computer exams.

Free budgeting worksheets.

2007-07-15T14:31:00.000-04:00

Better Budgeting offers THESE FREE BUDGETING WORKSHEETS to help you get your personal finances organized. (Also included is a link to some frugal recipes.)

Great FREE cookbooks and more.

2007-07-14T13:52:00.000-04:00

First, just so y'all know: My computer lost its mind yesterday morning and decided my profile no longer existed. While I was able to pull up many of my files from back-up, I was not able to restore certain things that had been "customized" like my FTP information, my e-mail accounts (Though I was able to recall saved e-mails that had been backed-up. I only lost a few weeks worth.), and any and all program settings. I spent several hours fixing it, only to have the exact same thing happen to me today. My husband is laughingly calling it "Groundhog Day." He can say that. He's not the one re-installing everything again! Heh. Anyway, it is possible that if you e-mailed me at some point before about noon yesterday and didn't hear back, that your e-mail is gone, for which I truly apologize. Please feel free to write me again.

And to return to our regularly scheduled program - reader Hope pointed me in the direction of THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE'S CO-OP EXTENSION SITE, which is definitely one of the best extension sites I've seen. In particular, you might be interested in the following free publications:

RECIPE IDEAS FOR THRIFTY FAMILIES
SAVING MONEY WITH HOMEMADE CONVENIENCE MIXES
SODIUM CONTENT OF YOUR FOOD

WINNING WAYS TO GROCERY SHOP WITH YOUNG CHILDREN
MAKING YOUR OWN BABY FOOD

And - erm - I'm including this one, but if you've read my "How I Shop" posts, one thing you'll know, I do NOT plan my meals before shopping because it would actually cost me *more* money. Still, FYI: CUTTING FOOD COSTS

Also, though I'm not sure anyone who doesn't have kids would actually bother much with coming here to Life. On a Budget., just in case there are any readers who are single or living with a roommate/spouse/significant other - there's a short series of books just for cooking for two. (And I suppose anyone who was interested could double or triple these recipes.)

THRIFTY RECIPES: MAIN DISHES
THRIFTY RECIPES: SALADS AND SOUPS, BREADS AND DESSERTS
BUYING FOOD FOR SMALL THRIFTY FAMILIES
IDEAS FOR PLANNING THRIFTY MEALS

I encourage you to explore the site further. In the "Eating Well" category under "Food & Health" you'll find an entire section of PDFs on specific fruits and vegetables that include nutritional information and recipes. There's also a "personal finance" section, which includes: MANAGING YOUR MONEY: PLANNED AND UNPLANNED SPENDING. Not all of the files are available as free PDFs or HTML, but the majority are. Definitely worth the look.

Hope doesn't have a blog I can point you to, so if you find any of this info useful, please take a second to post a comment here to thank her for her help!

PS - Hope, thanks again from me! :)

Random Recipe 2 - Crock Pot Lasagna

2007-07-13T17:41:00.001-04:00

This is recipe I frequently serve when we have guests. It's always well-received and it makes a complete meal just by serving a salad and breadsticks along with it. Since I do try to also offer dessert when we have visitors, I will generally serve a chocolate cake or ice cream as well. If you make your breadsticks (and dessert, if serving) ahead of time, it's a simple matter to toss the salad just before serving dinner and have everything to the table with minimal effort, allowing you to actually enjoy your company, rather than leaving you stuck in the kitchen right up until meal time.

Lasagna

1 container ground beef starter mix* OR
   1 lb. ground beef
   1 medium onion
   2 cloves garlic, minced
29 0z. can tomato sauce
1 cup water
6 oz. can tomato paste
1/2 tsp. salt**
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. basil
8 oz. uncooked lasagna noodles
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

1. Thaw beef starter mix overnight or in microwave and place in large saucepan, OR: brown beef, onion, and garlic in saucepan, drain well, return to pan.
2. Stir in tomato sauce, paste, salt, oregano, and basil; heat just until bubbly.
3. Combine cheeses in a separate bowl or container.
4. Spread 1/4 of the meat sauce in bottom of slow cooker. Top with 1/3 of uncooked noodles. (May have to be broken to fit.)
5. Spoon 1/3 of cheese over noodles.
6. Repeat layers twice, then top with remaining meat sauce.
7. Cover and cook on low for 4 - 5 hours.

* I make a master mix of ground beef when I buy it in bulk - EXPLAINED HERE. Also, when I find ground turkey on sale for cheaper than the beef, I will use it in my master mix instead and no one has ever noticed the difference.

** original recipe called for a full teaspoon of salt, so use at your own discretion.

Friday Five for Free (6)

2007-07-13T14:50:00.000-04:00

This one's a little different. These free websites I'm about to list may not be free or even exist much longer.

First, you should read: THIS ARTICLE ABOUT THE STATE OF INTERNET RADIO.

Just today it was ANNOUNCED THERE'S BEEN A SMALL REPRIEVE but nothing is settled for sure. If this interests you, you can keep up-to-date by visiting: SAVENETRADIO.ORG In particular, READ THESE RESPONSES TO THE SITUATION from musicians who explain exactly why this is a horrible turn of events.

Finally, here are 5 free internet radio sites. I imagine the big guys - aol, yahoo, vh1 - will hang around, though it wouldn't surprise me terribly if they started charging subscription fees. And the "little" guys? They'll probably go out of business, which is a huge shame, as you can see from the musicians' pleas for help.

YAHOO RADIO
AOL RADIO
LIVE 365
VH-1 RADIO
RADIO TOWER

Just to note - I listen to free internet radio frequently, as does my daughter. We very often will let contemporary Christian stations play while we work, including one we really like called LifeTalkKids, which has Christian and Inspirational music and dramatic Bible readings. LifeTalkKids is definitely one on the endangered list.

I do understand that people in the music industry have a right to compensation; however, IMHO, this attempt to jack up royalties is nothing short of base greed and will in the end only hurt the majority of people involved in music/audio production while fattening the wallets of a few folks at the top. If you agree with this sentiment, please consider following the links at savenetradio.org to contact your congressmen and ask for help.

Thanks!

101 Books college-bound students should read.

2007-07-12T21:07:00.000-04:00

The College Board offers THIS LIST of recommended reading for the college-bound student. Interesting choices; many of them the same books I read & listed in my High School Lit posts. I would be curious to see if any one student could read *all* of them, though. I'm sure it's entirely doable for a voracious reader, but I think it could potentially burn-out your average student.

I also firmly believe the Bible should be on this list. It's not about me "shoving my religion" on people or whatever it is that secularists are constantly crying foul over. The Bible has had a marked, direct influence on our culture, history, society, and literature. All students should be aware of this.

In addition to that list, they offer this follow-up: POETRY AND CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL TEXTS

Well, phooey!

2007-07-12T10:11:00.000-04:00

I just realized that if you search under a label - like "recipe chatter" - you don't get all the posts, only the more recent ones. *grumble* I guess I'll go ahead and try to fix that, but as of right now, that still leaves me where I was a month ago when I was considering building a links page. There's nothing *wrong* with that per se, except that it would mean I'd need to manually update it and the whole point to blogging is supposed to be the ease of "push-button publishing." Still, I guess it couldn't hurt to organize everything better here, since my posts are generally as random as they could get.

Just FYI - Binders on Sale

2007-07-12T09:45:00.000-04:00

We went to the bread thrift store yesterday, because Wednesday is their big sale day. We usually go on the first Wednesday of the month when we go, but last week we were in the middle of Science Camp, so we put it off. On the way home, we stopped in at Staples because we knew they were having a school supply sale.

If you happen to live near one, you may want to check it out. They have binders marked down. They are the flexible kind - not the hard ones - but they're only 33 cents each. If you use notebooking as part of your homeschooling, you might want to consider it. There's a limit of 6 per household, but don't be afraid to ask if homeschoolers are allowed to buy more. While standing in line yesterday, I noticed a woman ahead of me holding many items that were supposed to be limited. When she got to the counter, she showed a teacher ID and they let her buy everything at the sale price. So, when I got up there, I showed my teacher ID - I have one because we homeschool under an umbrella school - and explained that I'm a homeschooling mom working through a private school. That was good enough for the clerk, so I was able to buy 10 binders at the sale price. I also got several 8 packs of pencils for a penny per pack, four bottles of 9 cent glue, and 20 brad/pocket folders for a penny each.

Unfortunately, from what I can tell on-line, the penny sales are already over as of yesterday. The binders, though, ACCORDING TO THIS will be on sale until the 14th.

Random Recipe 1 - Crock Pot Potato Soup

2007-07-12T09:24:00.000-04:00

I thought I'd go ahead and start posting some of my family's favorite recipes, beginning specifically with Crock Pot ones, as was mentioned in a comment.

Potato Soup

(I cook this one in my 6 qt cooker. The left-overs do fine in the fridge for a few days. When you reheat it, you might need to add a little milk - reconstituted powdered milk works fine.)

6 cups peeled, diced potatoes
5 cups water
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup diced carrots
1/4 cup margarine (or butter)
4 teaspoons low-salt chicken bouillon granules
1/4 teaspoon pepper
12 oz can evaporated milk
8 oz. shredded cheese (cheddar, Colby, Colby-Jack, whatever you might have on hand)

1. Combine all the ingredients except the milk and cheese in slow cooker.
2. Cover and cook on High until vegetables are tender. Older Crock Pots might take as much as 7 - 8 hours. Mine takes about 5.
3. Turn to low, stir in milk and cheese, until cheese is melted.

If you prefer a creamier rather than chunkier soup, you can easily mash it down with a potato masher before serving.

My children like this served with more grated cheese on top and crumbled bacon. We eat it with a side of cornbread. You may want to add salt to this recipe. Originally it called for 2 teaspoons (to be added with the other ingredients in the beginning) and did not specify low-salt bouillon.

This is a good recipe to make with left-over bits of carrots and celery - the amounts, obviously, don't have to be exact. When I find bags of potatoes on sale, this is one of the recipes I'll frequently make.

High School Lit, part 4 - Senior Guide

2007-07-11T10:51:00.000-04:00

And finally, here's the senior list. (More in full post.)

1) The Canterbury Tales:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

2) The Tragedy of Julius Caesar:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

3) The Crucible:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

4) A Streetcar Named Desire:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

5) The Odyssey:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

6) 1984:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

High School Lit, part 3 - Junior Guide

2007-07-11T10:26:00.000-04:00

And now, here's the list and links for the 11th grade level. (More in full post.)

1) Animal Farm:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

2) Hamlet:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

3) The Scarlet Letter:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

4) Ethan Frome:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

5) The Jungle:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES

6) Silas Marner:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

Wednesday Quick Tip (4)

2007-07-11T10:15:00.000-04:00

Are you an OPEN OFFICE (a lot like MicroSoft Works) user? My computer came with "pre-installed" software from MS, but it turned out to be some sort of trial-only version and if I really wanted to use it, I was supposed to go to the website and pay for a download.

Er. Well. Thanks anyway. I'll take the free open source version. :)

If you use Open Office, you might be interested in the following links. They have templates for everything from CD covers to labels to resumes and so on.

From the Open Office site itself:
TEMPLATES 1
TEMPLATES 2

From off site, user created templates:
LABELS
VARIOUS TEMPLATES
ANOTHER VARIETY SOURCE

High School Lit, part 2 - Sophomore Guide

2007-07-10T19:51:00.000-04:00

Continuing on, here's the sophomore list and study guides. (More in full post.)

1) A Separate Peace:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

2) Great Expectations:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

3) Wuthering Heights:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

4) Much Ado About Nothing:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
GRADE SAVER

5) Of Mice and Men:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

6) Death of a Salesman:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

Saving up for a new "Wants" purchase.

2007-07-10T18:52:00.001-04:00

So, this weekend, I bought something I've wanted for a long while. It was definitely not a need, but it was something I know I'm going to use, and in fact already did, yesterday.

What I wanted was a 4 quart Crock Pot. Now, I do believe every frugal home should have at least one Crock Pot, and I already had a 6 quart one. I also, until very recently, had a small 2 1/2 quart one, but I accidentally knocked it off the top of the fridge (where I kept it) while trying to wipe down those totally useless cabinets above the fridge. It hit the floor and dented so badly the sides partially separated from the bottom, and I figured that made it potentially not safe, so I ditched it. It was over twelve years old and I didn't use it that often anyway. It had been great when my husband and I were still sans children because I could cook a few chicken thighs and some veggies in it, and I did occasionally use it to melt some cheese for dip, and make smaller batches of apple butter, but, really, the death of the 2 quart slow cooker wasn't too great of a tragedy.

The problem with my 6 quart cooker is that I *have* to cook a large batch of whatever I'm cooking, or I run the risk of scorching or overcooking something. It's great for soups and whole chickens and such, but not so great for other things, so I wanted a smaller one.

I've seen Crock Pots for sale at Goodwill for as little as $3. But this was one of those very, very few places where I felt going new would be better. In recent years slow cookers have been "upgraded" for safety concerns and there's no telling how old the used ones really are. On those times when I'm going to purposely purchase something new, I have a special way of saving up for it.

I found a 4 quart Crock Pot at Wal-Mart for a little over $15 with tax. Making note of it, I began saving for it. What I did was keep my change, as long as it was from a shopping day where we hadn't gone over budget. Every Saturday, after shopping, I put whatever coins I had left in a jar on my bathroom counter. This never amounted to more than $1 or so, but it slowly and steadily added up. I also tossed in a few pennies and dimes I'd found in parking lots. (Yes, I really do pick up coins off the ground!) Finally, this past weekend, I had enough to buy my Crock Pot. Woo!

There are two really great things about saving up for a purchase this way. First, If you've budgeted $45 for the shopping week, but you only spent $44.20, then that .80 cents won't really be missed in the grand scheme of things. But more important, by making yourself save up this way, which can take weeks or months, you will give yourself time to *really* consider if you want to even make that purchase after all. This takes all the danger of "impulse buy" right out of it.

There are some downsides, admittedly, such as possibly missing a sale on the item because you haven't saved enough yet, having the item sell out or go up in price, or simply wanting the item by a specific time. However, as I am specifically talking about "wants" here, not "needs," I have found this to be the most effective way for me to squeeze that want out of our budget without digging too much into money that should be spent elsewhere, and this far out-weighs the downsides.

And as everybody loved the BBQ beef and beans we had yesterday, I guess my family is happy enough with my latest acquisition. :)

High School Lit, part 1 - Freshman Guide

2007-07-10T18:20:00.000-04:00

This post, to be followed up with posts for sophomore, junior, and senior years, is a list based on the oh-so-scientific-method of "This is what I read in high school." so I by no means am trying to say all students should read all these books by each of these grades. I'm posting the list here, along with all the study guides, as a suggestion, to give parents more ideas as they look toward homeschooling in the high school years.

Many of these books are public domain and can be found at WOWIO or PROJECT GUTENBERG. Others could be found at used book stores or the library.

FYI - The Spark Notes, Cliff Notes, and Grade Saver sites are all very similar, offering analysis and summary by chapter, author notes, essay questions, and quizzes. The majority of the books I'm listing here have a guide from all three sites, but a few did not. You can read all three of these sites free on-line.

(More in full post.)

Each year includes one play by Shakespeare. THIS PDF FILE offers some general tips for teaching Shakespeare to high school students.

Freshman:

1) The Red Badge of Courage:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

2) A Tale of Two Cities:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

3) To Kill a Mockingbird:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

4) Romeo and Juliet:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

5) The Grapes of Wrath:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
CLIFF NOTES
GRADE SAVER

6) The Time Machine:
STUDY GUIDE
SPARK NOTES
GRADE SAVER

There IS something wrong with Snow White!

2007-07-10T15:29:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I don't know exactly what kind of mental psychosis poor Snow White was suffering from, but any woman who happily cleaned up after 7 sloppy men - and whistled while she did it? Now there's someone just not right in the head! ;)

For those of us who aren't so cheerful about the chores, there are other things we can do to help keep our homes clean. First and foremost, decluttering is essential. The more stuff you have, the more stuff you have to clean. And a lot of it - you probably don't use enough to miss it if you got rid of it. I'm not saying you need to live a Spartan existence, but if you own anything that serves its main purpose as "Dust Collector", then it's probably time to ditch it. When you've gotten rid of a lot of the extra junk, cleaning what's left becomes all the more easier. And that's the important thing, because while if you really push yourself and your family, you can get your house sparkling clean from top to bottom, the problem becomes maintaining that cleanliness on a day to day basis.

THIS EBOOK has some hints and tips at getting and keeping your home clean and organized. It was written for people who need real help getting their homes in order, and the author maintains a non-judgmental tone through-out, but it can also help get anyone motivated when needed, even those Snow Whites among us.

Making tortillas.

2007-07-08T15:38:00.000-04:00

I mentioned in a previous post that I'd come across a 5 lb. bag of tortilla mix for 50 cents and decided to buy it, figuring if it turned out to be a disaster, at least it wouldn't be an expensive disaster. (I also figured we could always use the mix to dust the counter for kneading purposes when making biscuits, if nothing else.)

Turns out, it really is incredibly easy. I don't have a tortilla press or an electric griddle, either. The instructions said to heat the griddle to 400 degrees. We cooked the tortillas in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat and they came out perfect. Also, I tried to roll out the tortillas with a rolling pin, but it ended up being quicker and easier to just pat them out by hand.

Yesterday, while shopping, I cruised by that same shelf and found the mix had been marked down again - to only ten cents a bag! So, I bought 2 more. I'm already thinking I should've picked up three or four.

We do our baking on Sunday afternoons. Today we've already made our waffles, pancakes, and tortillas, and right now the muffins are in the oven. (I'll be making some dinner rolls in a little bit, as well.) I found I could add making tortillas to the schedule quite easily. My children already love being the pancake turners, so now one gets to monitor the pancakes and the other takes the tortillas. We made 16 of them today. This week we'll be having enchiladas, sandwich wraps, and I'm going to take a stab at turning 4 of the torillas into taco salad bowls by basically FOLLOWING THE INSTRUCTIONS I FOUND HERE.

Since eventually I will run out of mix, and I sure can't count on stumbling across ten cent bags of the stuff, I went looking and found a WHOLE WHEAT TORTILLA RECIPE. It will be interesting to try this someday. :)

Some more money talk in the media.

2007-07-08T11:41:00.000-04:00

THE BEST FINANCIAL ADVICE EVER - I don't necessarily agree with all of this, but there are many good points here.

SCRAPING BY ON $150,000 A YEAR - despite the title, this one is mostly about learning how to scale back and live within your means while working to build up a savings.

LIVING POOR AND LOVING IT - Good attitude about living with less. (She also wrote this: SURVIVING AND THRIVING ON 12,000 A YEAR and has a FORUM BOARD TO DISCUSS BUDGET LIVING.)

There's nothing wrong with you!

2007-07-07T18:28:00.000-04:00

There's a very good reason we have such a problem with spending in our culture. We're not just being bombarded with commercials and advertisements designed to convince us we Just. Can't. Live. Without. such and such gadget, but we're also subjected constantly to an attitude that money equals success and therefore a lack of a large bank account must mean failure.

And who wants to feel like a failure?

This starts very young. It's not just the entertainment industry and retail businesses feeding us this horrific lie, either. Starting all the way back in grade school we are told that we must perform well in our classes, not to become better people, not to acquire knowledge to help us someday make a difference in the world; no, we're told this because it will be important that we "get into a good college" when we graduate high school. And why is that so important? Because, of course, we have to "get a good job." That's it. In the end, public schools are teaching us that it's all about the money. (More in full post.)

With that kind of pressure on us, is it any wonder so many of us wind up in the big houses we can't afford, driving the expensive cars and wearing the designer clothes, so we can at least appear like we aren't failures, even if it means being way over our heads in debt? And the pressure only grows when we have children, as others tell us we're depriving our kids and damaging them for life - even abusing them (!) - if we don't let them live like we're quite well off, even if we aren't. And if we aren't affluent enough to afford all the latest this-es and thats? Well, there comes that failure label again, only now, we aren't just personal failures, now we've failed our children, too.

It's all a bunch of horse hooey.

Children need to be fed. (Nutritious meals - NOT Burger King!) They need a clean, safe home, whether it's an apartment or a condo or a house or a manufactured home or a trailer. They need clothing - no over-paid designer's name stamped on the pocket necessary. They need an education, which doesn't have to cost thousands of dollars to be good. And mostly, they need the love, care, and time of their parents/guardians. The things beyond these basics are treats and should be handled as such. No child *needs* to watch television. This is a treat. No child *needs* to have an ice cream cone with mint chocolate chip ice cream and chocolate sprinkles. Again, it's just a treat.

Give them too many treats to often and you wind up with spoiled children who have no concept of money nor of self-restraint. And self-restraint is not a bad thing! It prevents you from buying every little thing that catches your temporary fancy, which will only drive you straight to financial ruin.

So right now what I want to say is this: There is nothing wrong with you! (Or your spouse.) You are not a failure just because you don't have a six figure income. Your house does not need to be a palace. Your car doesn't have to be a Mercedes. If you've been struggling with this lie, if you've been feeling ashamed or guilty or anything else because our society gives off an attitude like nothing less than a McMansion is acceptable, take a moment to step back and re-evaluate.

Whether you are just beginning to get control of your own finances, or if you've been living within your means for a long time, real success is not the amount of money you have, but rather how well you are living your life regardless of how many dollars you can call your own. Ignore the critics and focus on what's really important. So what if your own home is only 1100 square feet in a working class neighborhood while Family X lives on some million dollar estate? They are no better than you are and you are not a failure because of it. Don't compare what you have to what anyone else has. It doesn't even matter in the end.

Remember, it's a cliche, but it's true. You really can't take it with you. And when you come to the end of your life, you will not be looking back at your bank account. You will be looking at your friends, your family, your loved ones, at the memories and milestones.

And should someone ever imply you're a failure for not having some smashing career with an outrageous salary, just remind yourself that you are doing what's right, and doing what's necessary to live by the means you have for you and your family. Yes, sometimes you might slip or maybe you're currently facing a mountain of debt you're trying to climb out of, but if you keep working at it, one baby step at a time, then you are a true success, not just the flimsy image of one.

Car care tips.

2007-07-07T15:18:00.001-04:00

MOTOR TREND offers these simple suggestions for making sure your vehicle is running at its most fuel-efficient and possibly lower your gasoline expenses.

Free Jane Austen unit.

2007-07-06T17:28:00.000-04:00

Some free Jane Austen novels and study guides:

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (Through Wowio. Free, but you must register.)
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE STUDY GUIDE
SPARKNOTES PRIDE AND PREJUDICE STUDY GUIDE

PERSUASION
PERSUASION STUDY GUIDE
SPARKNOTES PERSUASION STUDY GUIDE

Family traditions, part 2.

2007-07-06T15:45:00.000-04:00

To follow up from my FIRST TRADITIONS POST, I wanted to talk about some other traditions we have in our family. (More in full post.)

One thing I didn't mention in my last post but we also do every November, along with our Thanksgiving traditions - we participate in NaNoWriMo's YOUNG WRITERS PROGRAM. If you are familiar with the original NANOWRIMO - National Novel Writing Month, then you know every November thousands of people try to write a novel, or at least 50,000 words, in one month. The young writers program is a little different, in that you can set a word goal ahead of time, not necessarily 50,000. (In fact, we follow the rule of thumb for 1,000 per age year. For instance, a 9-year-old would write 9,000 words, except both my children work together on the same book.) Once the official writing frenzy is over, we take the work we've done, clean it up and "publish" it by printing it, designing a cover, and comb-binding it. Several years ago the children made up an imaginary kingdom with a name that's made out of parts of their first names combined and each story they write is set there. I consider these books family heirlooms now.

BTW - If you're interested in participating in the Young Writers Program, they do allow homeschoolers to join. In fact, there's a special homeschoolers section on the forum.

It wasn't until I got married that I learned people actually eat certain things for "good luck" on New Year's Day. Since I really don't put any stock in luck, I told my husband he was welcome to keep eating black-eyed peas and cornbread on January 1st, but I wasn't going to make a big deal out of it. (Especially because we eat black-eyed peas and cornbread several times a year!) We also don't write out resolutions. What we *do* do is on December 31st get out our New Year's Notebook and write down our most exciting or favorite memory/event/activity from the past year, and why we chose it. It's fun to look back over the years and see what we all chose in the past. There's a definite trend in events always seeming to be something that happened in the latter part of the year - which doesn't say much for our memory skills! :)

Our Valentine's celebrations always consist of a "everyone makes his/her own cake" afternoon. What that really means is I bake a few small round cakes and a few small square cakes and we cut them up and use them to make heart shapes, which the kids and I then frost and decorate with a choice of toppings. We also all make homemade Valentine's hearts (from construction paper) for each other and then they are displayed by hanging them by thread from the ceiling over the dining table. Each heart has a message written to the recipient that starts with "I love you because...". After Valentine's Day, these are put away in a shoe box like our Thanksgiving tree leaves, so that we can take them out and look at them while we're making our new hearts each year.

A few years ago, we started a new Easter tradition, aside from the food and goodies we serve. Good Friday and Easter Sunday are devoted to church and family time, but the Thursday before Easter my kids have a "school-work hunt", because we don't have Easter egg hunts. (They're a little old for that now.) All right, I know what you're thinking - who'd want to look for school work? If you've looked at my lesson plans, you know we rely heavily on the internet. The week before Easter, I pick certain websites with activities and games that pertain to what we are currently studying. I build a web page with some sort of outdoor/forest image as the "setting" and I hide the links to the websites on the page. The children have to mouse around the page and find these links. For instance, a bird in the sky might be a link, or a certain flower, or a rock on the ground. Once they find a link, they click on it, play the game or do the activity, then go back to the webpage to find another link, until they've found them all. Once they've completed the tasks, they click on a link that says, "I'm done!" and that takes them to the beginning of a story I've written about the scene/setting they've just explored. It's really just some sort of long-ish writing prompt. They take my story starter, and it's their job to finish it. They LOVE doing this. So much so, in fact, that they keep asking if I'll make a school-work hunt for them in the fall, too.

We end our school year with a Make-Your-Own Pizza and Banana Split party. This is basically a family celebration where the kids get to build their own pizzas using dough I've made and a variety of toppings and then make their own desserts. Afterwards, we watch a movie (checked out from the library) together. We also present the kids with promotion certificates I've printed from a free site.

So, these are our family traditions. Feel free to post more of yours and share ideas. I love to read about what other families do. :)

Friday Five for Free (5)

2007-07-06T01:07:00.000-04:00

If you're around my age, you may recall those old television commercials that ran when we were children where people were encouraged to send away for free information booklets from the government, and the address to mail our requests was in Pueblo, Colorado.

What you might not know, is you can still do that, only now, you can find the information on-line. No really. They even use "pueblo" in the URL. :)

Here are five booklets worth ordering, downloading, or reading on-line. (More in full post.)

1) 2007 CONSUMER ACTION HANDBOOK - "This everyday guide to being a smart shopper is chocked full of helpful tips about buying a car or home, preventing identity theft, understanding credit, resolving problems after a purchase, and much more. In the 2007 edition, you'll find new information about filing for bankruptcy, finding a lawyer, and planning a funeral, along with many other useful topics."

2) HANDS ON BANKING - "Money skills you need for life. Customized instruction in English and Spanish for four age groups, from 4th grade through adult. Adults curriculum is a valuable resource for success in personal money management, includes special sections on buying a home, investing, and starting and managing a small business. Curriculum for school-age students meets or exceeds national education standards for math, literacy, and economics. Available free to the public on CD-ROM, the Internet, and printed curriculum."

3) START SMART: MONEY MANAGEMENT FOR TEENS - discusses saving, spending, borrowing, and more.

4) TAKING THE MYSTERY OUT OF RETIREMENT PLANNING - Even though this is "designed for people who are about 10 years away for retirement" - don't let that stop you if you are younger than the target age group. Learning as much as you can about retirement planning now, no matter how far off it may actually be, can only help you in the long run.

5) SIMPLE STRATEGIES FOR MANAGING YOUR MONEY - "Be Prepared, Be Informed, Be in Charge"

8 Things About Me

2007-07-05T16:18:00.000-04:00

CHARITY tagged me. (*Waves* to Charity. :) No worries about going "off topic"!)

The Rules:

The rules are simple. Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Thing One: I'm such a geek, I had to fight the urge to correct the rules to say "Each player lists 8 facts/habits about himself/herself.", and then continue on through the rest of the rules to fix that error each time it shows up.

Thing Two: I don't lie about my age or have any problem telling people how old I am (37). Wrinkles are a badge of honor in my book.

Thing Three: I really, really don't like spiders. I grew up in an area with FIDDLEBACKS and so spiders were always considered the enemy. I never really got over that.

Thing Four: I read The Lord of the Rings when I was in 7th grade - all three books in just four days, while school was in session. I read every spare minute I had, in class, at lunch, after school and late, late into the night until I fell asleep.

Thing Five: Any time someone says, "Life doesn't come with an instruction manual." I promptly reply, "Sure it does. It's called the Bible."

Thing Six: I married my high school sweetheart one year after we graduated. Our 18th anniversary is in 10 days.

Thing Seven: I believe in going to the source of things. If I suspect an article or story is bogus, I will investigate. I have called the FBI, the CIA, and various other law enforcement agencies (to find out about crimes supposedly committed), university professors (to confirm studies done on various foods or products), and tracked down countless footnotes in things I have read. There is a highly disturbing amount of information out there that is total bunk when you start really looking in to it.

Thing Eight: My current "just for me/not a gift" project that I'm working on is a filet crochet table cloth for a round table. I hope to have it done by late October.

And... my apologies to anyone being retagged if I missed it.

1) 5 KIDS AND A DOG
2) HOMESCHOOL IN THE LITTLE HOUSE
3) WALKING ALONG THE ROAD
4) MY TWENTY CENTS KEEPS MOVING!
5) WING AND PRAYERS
6) THE RANDOM ACCOUNT OF QUASIMODO
7) PEAKMORE ACADEMY
8) THE ROAD TO TOTAL GROWTH MIND BODY AND SPIRIT

Money talk in the news.

2007-07-05T09:45:00.000-04:00

First, ACCORDING TO THIS REPORT I am now worth $138,095 a year. Heh. Guess what. To my family, I'm priceless. It's highly unlikely I will ever earn that much money in one year, but I know you can't really put a salary on the work mothers do, so it's always amusing to see what someone tries to say our work is worth.

And then there's THIS STORY that will make your head spin. For instance, there's this:

In wealthy Westchester, N.Y., a couple earning $200,000 a year could barely afford the $2,500 fee that Kathy Boyle, a New York certified financial planner, charged for creating a plan.

"If you drive by their house in Westchester, their life seems like nirvana. They live in a $1.1 million home on a gorgeous road, with two luxury cars in the driveway," Boyle says. "But walking inside their financial house, it's in shambles."

Today, their 19-year-old son's college bills are paid by a generous family friend because they cannot afford them. Yet the mother stays at home with the 13-year-old daughter.

Boyle advised the mother to consider going back to work, but she declined, saying her daughter "needs her." The extra income could have helped the couple tackle their $20,000 credit card debt and maybe start a college-savings fund for their daughter.

Wow. Let me just get past the making $200,000 a year and can't even pay the bills thing for a moment and focus on something else here. I sure hope Ms. Boyle did a lot more for her $2500 than tell this mother to get a job! And if this family honestly needed to pay someone to tell them something plainly obvious - then it's no wonder they're in such financial trouble! The tone of this article is astounding. "... because they cannot afford them. Yet the mother stays at home...." This is posed as if everything is out of whack solely because mom's not working outside the home. This family has a real problem and quite frankly, Ms. Boyle's advice is actually pretty bad. If mom goes back to work, based on their current spending habits, it is only very likely that they will simply start spending and buying more with whatever money she brings in. More money is not going to be an overall solution here. This family needs to rethink their spending habits on a grand scale and learn to live with less. Until that happens, they will always be in trouble. Hopefully Ms. Boyle will actually explain this to them, or someone else will do it, because only then will they be able to achieve some sort of financial stability.

But you know the real question here?

Just what is it dad does that he's worth $61,905 more than I am? ;)

Wednesday Quick Tip (3)

2007-07-04T00:01:00.000-04:00

So, do you have a bacon lover in the family? I do! While my entire family likes it, one member - my son - LOVES the stuff. Since it's not exactly the healthiest thing out there, I do limit the intake. Still, occasionally I'll pick some up and here's something I've found very helpful.

Have you seen those packages of microwavable "pre-cooked" bacon that cost way too much for 15 or 16 slices? You can make your own pre-cooked slices easily enough, buying the inexpensive store brands of regular bacon. Fry or microwave the entire package at the same time. Er... I mean, fry a few pieces at once, but cook the whole pack while you're at it. :) Cook it until just slightly underdone for your preferences.

Blot off the excess grease, then refrigerate it. (I keep it in a plastic container, with layers separated by some parchment paper.) When you want to serve some bacon, just take out the number of slices you want and crisp them up in the microwave. We have a small 700 watt microwave and it usually takes 20 seconds to warm up 4 slices.

Well, golly. I rock! Hee.

2007-07-03T22:50:00.000-04:00

So, *blush* MOMMA KNOWS - nominated (designated?) me for

- which? Aw. Thanks. And I totally think you rock, too. :) And my husband will be so amused by this, because I'm such a nerd, no one would ever usually associate me with something, you know, cool. LOL!

Now I get to choose 5 ladies who also rock and wow! That's hard! Not because there aren't any - I assure you - but because there are so many! I just love the internet and how we can all connect this way.

So, here's what I thought I'd do. Rather than just linking to a blog itself, I'm pointing you to my nominees by way of posts they've made that I found particularly awesome. I'm assuming that's okay, because I did manage to track down the creator of the award, HERE and I'm not seeing any definite rules.

Go see Kathy at BROKEN HOMESCHOOL - and read "8 Things Everybody Knows You Need To Homeschool (But You Don’t)" - I couldn't agree more with her - she nailed it.

Have some COFFEE WITH MRS. DANI - and explore whether Mom can even afford to work. She breaks it all down very well and I hope plenty of moms considering staying at home run into someone who can offer them this same sage advice.

This next one might seem like an odd choice. Tersie at THE ROAD TO TOTAL GROWTH MIND BODY AND SPIRIT has an amazing blog that shows a determined, gutsy lady I really admire, and if you aren't a regular reader already, you should be. But I chose this post not for those reasons. I chose it because it made me laugh out loud when I read it. So loud, in fact, that my children demanded to know what was so funny and when I told them, they laughed, too. (Tersie - we weren't laughing at you like, "What a moron!" or anything. We were laughing because on more than one occasion I have tried to open the doors to vans that don't belong to me. Fortunately for me, I haven't actually succeeded yet!)

Quasimodo, might call her blog a RANDOM ACCOUNT, but her posts on paying attention to home are very thoughtful and thought-provoking. I'm linking to part one, but make sure to also read her newly posted part 2.

And last (but of course not least!) Drop in at THE HOMESCHOOL IN THE LITTLE HOUSE - for a beautifully written post reminding us that we are who God made us and meant for us to be - whether we are oak trees or sunflowers.

Fascinating article about price tags.

2007-07-03T18:42:00.000-04:00

THIS ARTICLE has some interesting theories about the adverse (for consumers) effects of the "price tag only on the shelf" system that has become the norm for most of the country. The story ends with words of hope, about a possible solution, but, in the meantime, we should all be very aware of the points brought up here.

Are you tracking your spending?

2007-07-03T17:24:00.000-04:00

Back at the beginning of June, I encouraged you to RECORD EVERY PENNY YOU SPENT. Now that we're in July, how did June look for you? Did you have some entries in the "Money I Never Should Have Spent" column? Whatever reason you had for spending that money then, what do you think about it now? No, I'm not trying to brow-beat you here! This isn't about "Bad Mom! Off to bed without supper for you!" This is about changing your buying habits if you need to, even if it's just a little bit at a time. (More in full post.)

We are all products of our society and we are bombarded by advertising on a daily basis. It's on TV, the radio, bill boards, mail-outs, the internet - it is pretty much inescapable. Not only that, but we even have people *urging* us to spend every dime we have and then some, because, if we don't, we're not supporting our country. Huh. With that philosophy firmly entrenched, we're creating a population that, as we age, winds up needing the country to support us! If you aren't already, start thinking very carefully about every purchase you make. Watch those pennies! You're probably already tired of hearing me say this, but remember, this is all about being responsible and living within your means. It is also about planning for your own future, outside of what the government might hand you in retirement. It can be done and you can do it, even if you're currently in debt and starting from less than zero. Take it step by step and day by day and you will get there.

And keep on keeping on with your budget book and recording those purchases so you know precisely what areas you need to work on more. :)

Gift giving for single friends.

2007-07-03T16:40:00.000-04:00

If you have any family or friends who live by themselves, or if you yourself have ever lived alone, you're probably aware of the challenges that face a single guy or gal when it comes to eating at home. Shopping for smaller portions is difficult, (and often more costly because bulk-buying can be less appealing to someone who knows he'll have to eat the entire "family pack" of chicken drumsticks himself.) There are items like celery or lettuce that can go bad before being consumed. There are other considerations, as well, like a lack of scaled down recipes and even the general feeling of "I don't even like bothering with cooking when it's just for me."

This situation presents you with a wonderful gift you can present your friend either for a birthday or Christmas or any other event - even just as an "I appreciate you." surprise. (More in full post.)

What you will need: Freezer containers, enough for several meals, in sizes of individual portions. (Note: I do freeze many things in plastic bags, because they can lay flat in the freezer, but it is up to you whether you want to do this, or would rather use something studier as this is for a gift.)

Several weeks before you are giving the gift, pick one or two meals you are cooking for your own family and increase the portions enough to include one more serving. If you do this far enough in advance, to where you are only picking one meal a week, you can squeeze this into your regular food budget with very little adjustment.

Freeze the extra portions, making sure to label and date them. Do this each week until you have as many meals as you want to give. I personally like to give 7, as a "Week of Dinners Just for You". Also, if you bake your own breads, you can add a loaf, a dozen biscuits, dinner rolls or mix of different breads to the gift. Write or type up a page with a list of each meal and any heating instructions the recipient will need to know. (For instance, if I give a bowl of chili, I also grate some cheese and freeze this in a small bag, so my instructions will include the note that the cheese is to be thawed and sprinkled on the chili.)

I deliver this gift in a regular brown paper bag, which, sadly, nowadays I can only seem to find at Target. I will occasionally go to Target and cruise their "Dollar Spot" section and then, if I purchase anything, I always request a paper sack to carry it. They do have nice, sturdy bags, with handles, which is particularly helpful. I put the instructions in with a nice handmade card, and I always try to add a few pieces of fresh fruit, such as an apple or two, or a banana.

This is a great gift for young folks just out on their own, all the way to older retirees. Before my father - a widower, he'd lost my step-mother to cancer - passed away some years ago, I quite frequently brought him a bag of meals and it was not only something nice for him, but peace-of-mind for me, knowing he was eating a good, home-cooked meal and not running out to some local junk-food place again.

Everyone I have ever done this for has always expressed a great appreciation for it, especially the gentlemen. As my BIL once said, "This is even better than winning a free meal at a local restaurant. It's a whole week of food and no one's trying to sell me anything!" :)

Sign the Declaration of Independence.

2007-07-03T10:19:00.000-04:00

Blogging fly-by from Summer Science Camp: THIS SITE (THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES) has an awesome feature where you can sign and then print a copy of the Declaration of Independence. Too cool.

Host a summer day camp.

2007-07-02T16:09:00.000-04:00

Looking for something fun (and not budget-busting) to do this summer? How about having a week-long or once-a-week day camp? You could pick any one theme, such as art, or have a different theme each day like History Day and Music Day.

Borrowing from the idea of weekly science camps held at the Orlando Science Center, this week we're having a Summer Science Camp at our house. We have two other homeschool families involved for 8 kids total. The experiments are all conducted using common household items and the kids are filling out FREE SCIENCE EXPERIMENT NOTEBOOKING FORMS for each experiment. (More in full post.)

Our camp is meeting daily from 10:00 until 3:00 and we're sharing lunch costs by each family contributing different food items for each lunch. Today was Chemistry day. We followed several experiments found online and let the kids begin their Summer Science Camp notebooks. Tomorrow we'll be having a Physical Science day. Wednesday is "Backyard Science", which will combine some fun outdoor science experiments and a 4th of July party. (For instance, instead of traditional fireworks - we'll be making an exploding volcano.) Thursday, we'll be studying Earth Science, and on Friday we'll be having a general science fun day to wrap up all the experiments that took more than one day, due to necessary observations of results, followed by a movie and a presentation of CERTIFICATES OF PARTICIPATION.

Summer day camps hosted by companies like the YMCA can run hundreds of dollars or more per child, but if that's out of the question for your budget, as it is for ours, you can recreate the same concept right at home. Find some friends to join in and though it's a learning experience, keep the focus on the fun. Be sure to take plenty of photos, too, so that the kids can have some to paste in notebooks if they're making them, or in a homemade photo album. (I use a digital camera and print pictures right off my color printer on regular paper - not the expensive photo paper.) You can host every day at your house, as we're doing, or have each family host a day or two at their own homes.

We're making our notebooks in plain green folders I bought last summer for 10 cents each. I printed THE PERIODIC TABLE and glued them to the fronts for covers.

At the end of the week the kids will have their notebooks, their certificates, and a few "souvenirs" like spongy eggs - made from soaking eggs in vinegar - and the crystals we're growing.

We had a lot of fun today, but wow! I think I might need a nap now! :)

Science - weeks 5 & 6.

2007-07-01T21:39:00.000-04:00

The Integrated Science lesson plans for weeks 5 and 6 are posted.

Family traditions, part 1.

2007-07-01T14:56:00.001-04:00

Independence Day is this week and so I thought I'd mention some holiday traditions in our house. Having certain traditions creates an even deeper sense of family and belonging and it gives your children something special to look forward to. That does not mean that you have to go crazy in a "buy-out-the-store" way like retailers would have you believe. In fact, focusing your traditions on other things, outside of material gifts, can make them all the more meaningful. (More in full post.)

I'll start with Independence Day, since it's right around the corner. We celebrate the day a few ways, including a reading of the Declaration of Independence. We also have a "red, white, and blue" shortcake for dessert with our dinner - which is strawberry shortcake with blueberries added. I only make this once a year, on the 4th, so my kids see it as an extra special treat. (Familiarity breeding contempt and all that.) In the evening, we take a blanket and a bottle of lemonade and go sit out by a nearby lake where there's a fireworks display. It's all very simple, but it's something the children know as a family tradition and something they can look forward to.

On the first day of October every year, I start the morning with pumpkin pancakes and homemade apple syrup, plus slices of Canadian bacon. Again, this is something that only happens once a year, so my kids really love it. Were I to make pumpkin pancakes more frequently, they'd lose their "specialness." Weather permitting, we follow our breakfast with a nature walk where we gather up some fallen leaves - not a lot here in Florida, sadly, and usually they're all brown - and we bring them home and do leaf rubbings using crayons that are orange, red, and yellow - so that we can make our own fall foliage. (On the one year that it was just pouring down rain that morning, we ended up drawing our leaves instead.) These leaves are set aside until November, for a special Thanksgiving project.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, we make our "Thanksgiving Tree." This is a bare tree cut out from construction paper and taped to the wall. We carefully cut out our leaf rubbings and write things we are thankful for on them, then tape them to the tree. This will include the names of friends and families and other blessings from the year. On Thanksgiving day, we get out a shoebox where we keep the leaves from Thanksgivings past and read out the things we'd written in previous years, and after Thanksgiving is over, we add the current year's leaves to the box. (Actually, the box has gotten quite full. We might be needing to start a new one this year!)

In addition to the traditional Thanksgiving dinner we always serve - plus a chocolate pie my husband loves, also something I only make this one time of the year - every Thanksgiving we also read from a book about the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving.

And this leads into the Christmas season for us. We do not do any formal schooling from the Sunday before Thanksgiving until the new year. (Hence the reason we're actually doing school right now.) First of all, it gives us the chance to focus on the holiday season and second, here in Florida the weather is so hot right now, we might as well stay inside and get our book work done, and then, in the late fall, when things are much nicer, we spend a lot of time outside.

After Thanksgiving is over, we do two things. We get out our Christmas decorations and we construct our advent calendar. We make a new calendar each year out of construction paper. We decorate our home (with mostly handmade things) and set up our Advent wreath. (Special note - I've seen Advent wreaths in catalogs in recent years, costing quite a lot of money. You can assemble one yourself using discount store purchases for around $5.) At the beginning of December, the kids will make a bunch of ornaments. Some are given as gifts to family members, and some are hung on our own tree. We also make a special trip to the grocery store where we buy things to be delivered to the local food bank. In mid-December, we have our annual "Yummy Baking Day" where we will make cookies and spiced/sugared nuts and candy, to be used as gifts for various people, like the kids' Sunday School teachers. And of course, the kids get to eat a lot of the results themselves. We don't often have dessert throughout the year, except on special occasions - but we sure make up for it at Christmas time!

Christmas Eve we have a special dinner with any family members in town, followed by a Bible reading about the birth of Jesus, and then we go to a midnight service at church. On Christmas morning - pretty late in the morning; everyone sleeps in! - the kids get up and get their stockings, then we have a brunch which is always Monkey Bread, fresh fruit, and Quiche Lorraine. (Which - yep, you guessed it - the bread and quiche are only served this one time of the year.) Because the kids choose their gifts themselves, they aren't surprised by anything, but they are allowed to bring their new things out to play with in the afternoon, then in the evening, after a nice dinner, we watch a movie together.

I will talk about other holiday traditions we have in another post, but I wanted to bring the topic up because I think maintaining traditions - whatever may suit your family - is the best way to keep any holiday focused on the meaning behind it, rather than on the "buy-buy-buy" mentality advertisers try to sell us. Don't you just *love* those commercials every year where we're being sold the idea that it would be really awesome of us to give cars as gifts? Oi!

Special times are not made special because of the amount of money we spent on them. They are made special by togetherness, fun, and the time spent on them. I did not grow up in a family that had many traditions, and neither did my husband, so we've had to create them ourselves as we go along, but we've found them to be something our children adore and anticipate with a great deal of excitement. This past Easter I had suggested to my children that perhaps we didn't need our traditional "baby chick" cookies* I always make, because I thought maybe my kids would think they were too old for them now, but both children were utterly horrified at the suggestion and so I made them again. Lesson learned! I suppose I'll still be making those cookies even when my kids are grown.

So feel free to jump in here with any traditions your family enjoys! We can swap ideas and perhaps find new traditions to begin. :)

*Baby Chick Cookies - these are made using a BASIC COOKIE MIX - and following the COCONUT COOKIES RECIPE, in which I tint the coconut with yellow food coloring. I make the cookies by making one batch of larger cookies and one batch of slightly smaller ones. (The larger cookies go into the oven first because they need to cook longer.) When the cookies come out of the oven I put them on the cooling rack and gently press one smaller cookie next to one larger one - to become a head and body. I press a chocolate chip in for a beak, and use snips of green-tinted coconut for eyes.

Teaching nutrition.

2007-06-30T15:47:00.000-04:00

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln county extension has SEVERAL EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES for teaching nutrition and food safety. (The fruit and vegetable fact sheets are nice.) They also offer a section on CANNING AND FREEZING and a small RECIPE section.

Budget recipes.

2007-06-30T13:22:00.000-04:00

THIS SITE - (BETTER TIMES) offers some simple, budget recipes. There are some frugal living tips here as well, and general advice. It's a small site, but worth the look.

Embroidery chatter.

2007-06-29T22:09:00.000-04:00

This is the Bible cover I'm working on, that I mentioned in a comment. I'm sure you've seen these sorts of kits before. They come with instructions and a pre-stamped piece of fabric.

As you can see from the picture, I keep everything I need to work on this project in this little purse. (I purchased it from the Dollar Spot at Target.) I just stick the needle directly into the fabric liner to keep it safe. Whenever I'm going somewhere where I might be sitting/waiting for awhile - such as the kids' doctor appointments - I just grab the purse to go along. Er, yes, I sometimes get strange looks when I'm stitching (or crocheting or knitting) in public, but more often than not, it seems to bring out the friendliness of people. Many of them will strike up a conversation to ask about whatever project I'm working on.

I will make sure to take a picture again when I finally finish this one. :)

Just to mention - THIS SITE offers free vintage embroidery patterns, and includes instructions on how to transfer the patterns to your fabric.

Free cross stitch patterns

2007-06-29T20:55:00.000-04:00

DMC - the embroidery floss people, have a nice collection of FREE CROSS STITCH PATTERNS available on their website, including some "beginner" designs for new learners.

FREE PATTERNS ONLINE offers several designs, including seasonal ones, many of them simple enough for beginners.

CRAFT DESIGNS 4 YOU has instructions on learning cross stitch, plus some free patterns.

123 STITCH has patterns contributed by users, good for more experienced stitchers.

And THIS SITE has a collection of Christmas angels of intermediate to expert level of difficulty.

I'm supposed to spend HOW much?

2007-06-29T10:36:00.000-04:00

Have a look at THE USDA FOOD PLANS: COST OF FOOD CHART for May. (The latest figures.)

Here are my family's numbers, per month:
Thrifty Plan: $567.80
Low Cost Plan: $739.40
Moderate Plan: $920.00
Liberal Plan: $1121.30 (Oh, come on!)

Considering we only actually spend around $190 - I guess the government must think we're starving to death. And my total includes things like toilet paper and shampoo. So I'm trying to decide what to call my actual costs. Is it the Conservative Plan? (Hee.) The Yes, People Really Live Like This Plan? The Reality Plan?

This chart says "Cost of Food at Home" (emphasis added). I could see where dining out very frequently would run your bill up to over $1100. But eating strictly at home? Yikes!

And just in case you were really wondering, here's where the government thinks your food dollars are going: RECIPES AND TIPS FOR HEALTHY, THRIFTY MEALS.

Friday Five for Free (4)

2007-06-29T00:42:00.000-04:00

Five free software programs to help you get creative with your computer.

PAINT.NET - image editing and photo manipulation software

DOGWAFFLE - an artist's painting and animation software

WEBPLUS - website design software (Non-programming. HTML knowledge not needed.)

1ST PAGE 2000 -HTML Editing Software

PAGEPLUS - desktop publishing software

Gifts for Kids.

2007-06-28T12:30:00.000-04:00

If your kids are like my kids, it seems they get invited to at least one birthday party a month. Now, I remember going to birthday parties when I was young and gifts from friends were not typically big affairs. (I can remember one party where everyone was in awe of... a fuzzy pen. Which I think probably cost about $1.) Now we go to some parties where the other kids are bringing large gifts that cost $30 or more- gifts that when I was a child would've been considered the "big birthday wish gift" from mom and dad.

I suppose we could do the same, rush out and buy my son's friend the Pirates of the Caribbean Lego Ship for $40. But then we wouldn't be able to eat for a week, so that wouldn't exactly be a wise decision, eh? (More in full post.)

I actually treat kids gifts in much the same way I do for adults. I assemble gift baskets or bags of treats, a combination of purchased items and homemade things.

Here are some gifts we've given lately. (And no, sorry! I don't have pictures!)

For a young girl turning 9 whose mother told me, "She wants to learn to crochet like your daughter, but I don't know how myself so I can't teach her." - I bought a blue plastic, two-handled basket from Dollar Tree that she can use to tote her new supplies. ($1). I got out several bright colored yarn skeins I have purchased from various garage sales and made 6 round rolls of roughly the same size. (At most this was 30 cents.) From the Super Wal-Mart I purchased a crochet hook pack for about $3.50. Sorry, I'm being a bit lazy here. I could go grab my budget book and pull out the actual receipt, but I do remember the total with tax was just under that price. I then printed out THIS PAGE with a little handwritten note at the top encouraging her to practice and in her birthday card, which my daughter made, I included a "coupon" for 3 crocheting "private lessons" at my house to learn basic stitches and eventually use the yarn I gave her to make a scarf. We finished this gift basket off by my daughter adding a crocheted belt she made for her friend in her friend's favorite color. My daughter came home from the birthday party and said, "Mom, now all my friends want to know how to crochet." so I took that to mean the gift was well-received. :)

For the just-turning-five daughter of a homeschooling family, we made a "My Rainy Day Basket". The basket was a plain pink basket bought after Easter for 25 cents. In it we put several bags of homemade playdough (Sidebar: If you ever make homemade playdough and want really bright colors, generic kool-aid drink mix packs - usually cost 10 cents each - work really well, mixed in with the dough.); a package of plastic cookie cutters from Dollar Tree to play with the playdough; a flexible cutting board to play with the playdough on (Which - I don't know how much these really cost, but we found a pack of five of them for $1 at a local flea market and they work great as play mats or painting mats.); plus we added a "personalized" coloring book, which was created by me printing several free coloring pages off the internet, making a cover with her name printed on it in large letters, and I bound it by using a comb binder machine*, and a box of crayons purchased last summer during the big back-to-school sales. (25 cents) We finished this basket with a boxed puzzle, also purchased from Dollar Tree.

For a 11-year-old boy, we recently created a "Bag or Tricks" gift. He loves magic tricks and so using free internet sources, my son and I printed him a magic trick booklet and then got the supplies he needed. (These were just simple things like rope, a deck of cards, an empty bottle, some coins - none "tricked" out, like a two-headed coin or anything, just regular household items.) We put this all in a plain brown paper bag and stapled it shut and my son wrote "For Brian's Eyes Only - Top Secret!" on it. This was apparently the hit of the party, according to Brian's mom. She said it sat on the table with the other gifts and it was obvious the boys all REALLY wanted to know what was inside, and once he finally opened it, that's all the kids wanted to do - practice and learn the tricks - for the rest of the party.

As you can see, our gifts are very simple and old-fashioned. Generally, they cost around $5 to put together. Anytime my children get a birthday party invitation, if I don't know the child well enough already, I call up the mom and quiz her on her child's interests. Once I know that, I can start brainstorming ideas.

A few other hints:

Personalized gifts always seem to be winners. I once made a set of hair ribbons for a young girl out of solid colored grosgrain ribbon where I wrote her name on each end with a fabric pen. She loved them.

Get creative with the packaging. I guess you can see from all my gift posts, I rarely actually use wrapping paper. It seems like such a waste. It serves one purpose, then gets thrown away. THIS PATTERN shows you how to make a simple draw-string backpack that's a cute gift all in itself and can be used to hold other gifts.

Look online for instructions to make other gifts. Try googling something like "make your own toys" for more ideas. And you might even find some fun things to make for your own children.

*A long time ago I bought a comb binding machine at a church rummage sale and it has been a great thing to have on hand. I've used to to make coloring books for kids and "publish" books my children have written and illustrated as gifts to adult family members. I also use it to make a "best of" sort of portfolio of my kids' work samples each school year, just to keep for myself. I don't think I would ever say they are worth the $40 or more new, but you might want to consider purchasing one if you ever come across it used like I did. Or perhaps you might have 4 or 5 friends who'd be willing to all chip in and buy one and then share it. :)

ETA - Er... that was "wise decision" not "wish decision", though - Hee.

Free online textbooks.

2007-06-28T11:35:00.001-04:00

As most of these are written on a college level, they are, of course, advanced materials. However, if you have a high schooler interested in a particular topic/subject, or perhaps you are yourself, you might want to check out some of these offerings.

FREE TECH BOOKS - covers computer science, programming & scripting, mathematics, and other related fields

FREELOAD PRESS - mostly maths and computers, but a few other books are available, such as "Writing Exploratory Essays". Just note - the site says "most" of the books are free, but some have a end-users fee.

WIKIBOOKS - covers a very wide range of topics, languages, sciences, history, and more. Has a section called wikijunior specifically for younger children. This site, being a wiki, is definitely a work in progress, but it does have some nice reference resources.

Lesson plans update.

2007-06-27T23:50:00.000-04:00

Weeks 5 & 6 of American History, World Geography, and Bible Studies are posted, along with 2 more Bible copywork pages.

Photos?

2007-06-27T20:16:00.000-04:00

Well, I have to admit, I've only once ever taken a picture of a gift I made, and while I'm posting it here, I'm afraid this will be a little misleading! You see, this was a gift made for a woman in our support group and is not like my usual gifts, because this was coming from all of us and other women contributed to the over-all costs. In fact, that's *why* I took the picture - so the other moms could see the final product before we presented it.

I can tell you this - the candle was $1.00 from Dollar Tree, as was the ceramic trinket box (The round thing by the basket handle.) The chocolates cost $1.00 total. I don't know about the basket or bath soap; someone gave them to me. The green material was - er, maybe .15 cents? I cut it from a fabric I bought at 50 cents a yard. The cloth that I embroidered I got in a large bundle of embroidery fabrics from Goodwill. I would say about .25 cents for that, rough estimate, based on how much I paid for the entire bundle.

In any case, as per requested by Iris, here is one picture anyway. I will have to start taking more pictures! It simply never occurred to me before!

Bible Study.

2007-06-27T18:02:00.000-04:00

I was checking out various links and came across this:
IT IS WRITTEN -DISCOVER BIBLE STUDY GUIDES. It looks like each of the 26 lessons includes a small "quiz" at the end. It requires a sign-up, but it is free, so I thought I'd pass the link on. :)

Ready. Sit. Read!

2007-06-27T15:58:00.000-04:00

Target's "Ready. Sit. Read!" program is available for free and is open to homeschoolers. Essentially, you are starting a book club. You can choose from books the club lists, along with worksheets and activities to go with them, or use books of your own choosing. You can work just with your own family, or invite others to join you. When we joined, we received a package by mail that included some signs and a flag and a book about the program. (Something that came as a total surprise since I wasn't expecting something like that from a free club!)

You can learn all about it HERE.

Also - just to note - you can access the book flyers/worksheets directly, without even creating a club, by going TO THIS PAGE. There's a wide range of books listed, including Charlotte's Web, Little House in the Big Woods, and The Giving Tree.

Wednesday Quick Tip (2)

2007-06-27T00:48:00.000-04:00

When's the last time you went through your first aid kit and made sure it was properly stocked? Do you still have an old bottle of acetominophine in there that expired in 2004? Ideally, you should have at the very least two first aid kits, one in your house and one in your car, and everyone in the family should know where they are kept.

The American College of Emergency Physicians offers this list of items all first aid kits should contain:

Acetaminophen, Ibuprofen, and aspirin tablets: For headaches, pain, fever, and simple sprains or strains. (Aspirin should not be used for relief of flu symptoms or given to children.)

Ipecac syrup and activated charcoal: For treatment after ingestion of certain poisons. (Use only on advice of a poison control center or the emergency department.)

Elastic Wraps: For wrapping wrist, ankle, knee, and elbow injuries.

Triangular Bandages: For wrapping injuries and making an arm sling.

Scissors with rounded tips.

Adhesive tape and 2" gauze: For dressing wounds.

Disposable, instant ice bags: For icing injuries and treating high fevers.

Bandages of assorted sizes: For covering minor cuts and scrapes.

Antibiotic ointment: For minor burns, cuts, and scrapes.

Gauze in rolls and in 2" and 4" pads: For dressing wounds

Bandage Closures: 1/4" and 1": For taping cut edges together.

Tweezers: To remove small splinters and ticks.

Safety pins: To fasten bandages.

Rubber gloves: to protect yourself and reduce the risk of infection when treating open wounds.

First Aid Manual
List of emergency telephone numbers.

Check your local discount stores and dollar stores for any items you might be missing or need to replace. Accidents do happen. It never hurts to be prepared.

What are your financial goals?

2007-06-26T23:58:00.000-04:00

Sometimes this seems like an obvious question, but then, if you haven't reviewed your goals recently, this might be a good time to do so. (More in full post.)

Some years back there was a television commercial that started off showing a handsome man and his elegant-looking watch. The voice-over described the watch in glowing terms and went on to tell you the staggering price it cost. Then the voice said something along the lines of, "And what does he do with this watch? He tells time."

It turned out this wasn't a watch commercial, but rather a commercial about financial planning. The voice-over broke down the numbers of how much money this watch owner wasted in buying something that served no more use than a $15 Timex, and how the money could have grown over the years to make a tidy nest egg.

I remember being extremely amused by it.

If you are facing very specific financial needs currently, such as paying off debts or simply making sure all your bills are paid on time, it can be hard sometimes to think past that point to future goals. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't have at least some ideas of where you want to be in five years, ten years, and more.

Aside from college for the kids, and maybe a nice bit of traveling for yourself, there is one aspect that it is never too early to be planning for. Yes, I am speaking of retirement, but not in the "hanging out on the golf course" sense.

Americans are living longer and longer and because of that we are needing more money to support ourselves in our old age when we can no longer physically work. Not too long ago, my aunt called me to let me know we have a bit of a crisis in our own family. My grandmother has reached the age of 94. She's developed Alzheimer's and needs constant care. My aunt told me she's starting to become very concerned because my grandmother is running out of money. No one ever thought this would happen and I know, though her mental capabilities have dwindled, she would never have ever wanted to become a burden for her children, were she aware of the situation. As of right now, it looks quite likely that our entire family will need to start chipping in as much as possible to meet her monthly bills.

So, even if you have immediate goals that swallow every last dime right now, such as paying off a college loan, just take a few moments to sketch out all your financial goals and plans and even write down some things you might do to reach them. This goal list is very useful to have handy, especially on days when you might be tempted to make a questionable "splurge" purchase. You can whip it out to remind yourself of where you really want to be in your own financial future, and stop yourself from buying that way over-priced watch you didn't need anyway.

How I shop, Part 5.

2007-06-26T20:37:00.000-04:00

The lowdown.

I said I wanted to give a complete breakdown of one entire shopping day, and so here it is. Please note - if you were to only buy what I've bought this week alone, you wouldn't be able to make many meals. This is because I buy things over time and keep them as staples, so each week I'm only picking up some particular needs and items I find on sale. (More in full post.)

We did not go to any garage sales this week. The weather was hot and we aren't currently looking for anything in particular. We did stop by a used book store, where I found a Spanish 1 for Christian Schools textbook and teacher manual for $1 each and I picked those up. We have been listening to Spanish language CDs from the library and I figured this could give us some reinforcement.

Total: $2.13

Our first store stop was Dollar General. I bought a 6 pack of toilet paper (which we won't actually need until next week) for $1, a bag of cat food for $3, also not needed for another week or so, and a $1 stick of Suave deodorant.

Total $5.33

Next we went to Save-Rite, where I bought:
1) 1 bag of potatoes: $2.50
2) 2 lbs yellow onions: $1.25 - didn't need them right away, but this was a good price.
3) orange gelatin mix: .32 cents
4) raspberry gelatin mix: .32 cents - My daughter handed her cold on to my son and jello is one of his "comfort foods".
5) one can of no-salt added corn: .40 cents
6) one can of diced tomatoes: .50 cents
7) two cans of tomato paste: .68 cents
8) 1 bottle of BBQ sauce: $1.00 - because we'd used up the last of it in our BBQ chicken sandwiches last week; don't need it right away, but I consider it a staple to keep on hand.
9) 1 carton of oatmeal: $1.35 - my son also loves oatmeal for breakfast when he's feeling ill - this will last us a long time.
10) vegetable oil: $1.65 - don't need it currently, but was on sale

Total: $9.97

At Winn Dixie we only bought 2 bell peppers for .98 cents and a 4 lb. bag of kidney beans for $3.49 - another item that will last us a long time.

Total: $4.47

At Wal-Mart we bought:

1) 1 lb. bag of carrots: .79 cents
2) bananas (at .48 cents a pound): $1.15
3) raw spinach: $1.98
4) mayo: $1.00 (to use in a salad dressing)
5) Cajun seasoning: .50 cents (didn't need right away, but is often hard to come by at this price)
6) oregano: .50 cents
7) 12 oz bag of egg noodles: .60 cents
8) one whole chicken: $3.62
9) ham: $2.50 (marked down)
10) 1 5 lb. bag of "tortilla mix" on the clearance aisle - .50 cents. I've never tried making tortillas before, but I figure if I blow it, I only wasted 50 cents, but if I succeed, each tortilla will cost less than 2 cents.
11) large bottle of white vinegar: $1.85 (didn't need immediately, but my supply was getting a little low)
12) one bag frozen mixed veggies: .78 cents

Total: $15.77

Grand Total: $37.67

In the interest of full disclosure, my husband bought yogurt and fruit on Friday on his way home, for a total of $5.85, so he could make my son some smoothies as snacks, so to be fair, our real total for this week is: $43.52

When you combine the things we bought this week plus things we already had on hand, these are our 14 lunches and dinners for the week -

1) chef salad and cheese bread
2) roasted chicken and vegetables (onions, carrots, potatoes), steamed green beans (from a frozen pack), rolls
3) baked potatoes "stuffed" with broccoli and covered in a cheese sauce, spinach salad
4) "fake" red beans and rice w/ ham chunks (I say "fake" because I used kidney beans instead of genuine red beans), biscuits, jello
5) chicken noodle soup and garlic cheese biscuits (both at son's request.)
6) garden chili - a chili made with beans, ground beef, and veggies: some carrots, corn, bell pepper, and tomatoes - Texans you are free to groan at my calling it "chili" ;), corn bread
7) chicken enchiladas, refried beans, Spanish rice
8) ham and mashed potatoes, broccoli, rolls
9) vegetable-beef soup, garlic bread
10) chicken creole served on rice, biscuits, chocolate pudding*
11) hamburger-macaroni casserole, jello
12) Sloppy Joes, oven fries, carrot sticks with ranch dressing as a dip
13) veggie-topped pizza and garlic bread, leftover jello or pudding
14) Potatoes O'Brien and scrambled eggs. (Yes, we eat eggs for dinner sometimes, typically on Fridays if we do.)

Breakfasts are a choice of waffles, pancakes, muffins or oatmeal - with bananas, apple slices, or oranges on the side.

If you look over what I bought and compare it with what I have/will be cooked/cooking, you'll see that several ingredients I already had. For instance, I still had several containers of ground beef from last week, as well as already prepared refried beans. I also had eggs already and some iceberg lettuce. I almost never buy iceberg lettuce, but we had it from last week because of the tacos we had, so I used it up in a chef salad with ham, cheese, cucumber and carrots. We had BBQ chicken on hamburger buns last week, so I'm using the remaining 4 buns from the pack to make Sloppy Joes this week. I also didn't need any baking supplies this week. My muffins were made with leftover zucchini from last week and I had plenty of my master baking mix on hand to make waffles, pancakes, rolls and biscuits.

One other note - because of the price of milk lately, we've cut back to only one gallon every two weeks. I "stretch" it by mixing it with reconstituted powdered milk.

I don't know how helpful this information truly is, but I wanted to show specifically what one week's shopping produced.

*I make chocolate pudding using this recipe:

1 1/2 cups instant nonfat powdered milk
5 cups sugar
3 cups cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa

Mix all ingredients until they are well blended. Store in an airtight container.

To use, stir the mix in the container before measuring out 2/3 cup of the mix into a saucepan. Add 2 cups milk and cook over low heat, stirring, until mixture thickens and comes to a boil. Continue stirring for 1 minute. Remove from heat and pour into individual serving dishes. Pudding will thicken further as it cools.

Hello.

2007-06-26T11:25:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to take a quick moment to say a "Hello!" to everyone who has stopped by my blog. This blog is just a few days shy of being one month old and I'm so glad to know that people are already finding it useful. And to those of you who have made comments or e-mailed me, thank you very much for taking the time to write.

Welcome to you all and please feel free to "speak up" and post any of your own ideas or suggestions or favorite links or anything else that comes to mind. :)

Creative writing with Aesop's Fables.

2007-06-26T01:23:00.000-04:00

Here's something a little different from your typical creative writing prompt:

CREATIVE WRITING USING WORDLESS PICTURE BOOKS

I really do like the concept and think it would work well for my dyslexic daughter, but, well, *ahem*, I don't want to buy any wordless picture books. So instead, I popped on over to Project Gutenberg to see what I could come up with, and I found this: THE AESOP FOR CHILDREN. It has lots of lovely illustrations, and as they are WOO! public domain, I can print as many as I want. My daughter loves animals of all kinds, so I picked several and now I'm going to let her choose one and write a short story about what she thinks is happening in the picture. Then we can read the "real" story together and see how hers compares, in a same/different sense, not a "this one is good, but yours is bad" sense. I think she'll enjoy this much more than a word prompt of the "Imagine you're sailing a boat on a jungle river...." kind.

Aesop's Fables is by no means the only illustrated book at Project Gutenberg. If you have a child who might need new ideas for writing, poke around the PG site and see what you can find. :)

Free printable recipe cards.

2007-06-25T16:36:00.000-04:00

GRAPHIC GARDEN offers some very cute, free printable recipes cards you can use with the "Gifts in a Jar" recipes I mentioned in my last post. The site owner specifically says you can give these cards as gifts, so you are not bound by any "home, personal use only" restrictions.

Another source of Master Mix Recipes.

2007-06-25T13:39:00.001-04:00

More master mix recipes, courtesy of the Ohio State University extension.

MASTER MIX COOKBOOK
There's also this: HEARTY SOUP MIX

And if you're looking for "Gifts in a Jar" type recipes, here's a site with dozens to choose from: FOOD GIFTS FROM YOUR KITCHEN - (Watch for people selling canning jars at garage sales; you can often pick them up for mere pennies and just buy replacement lids if needed. Since you are not actually canning the food for safety/storage, you can even buy plastic screw-on lids.)

Week 4 of American History and Language Arts.

2007-06-24T18:48:00.000-04:00

The week 4 lessons plans for American History and 5th & 7th grade Language Arts are posted.

Canned Cream of Whatever.

2007-06-24T15:37:00.000-04:00

If you have a recipe that you want to use that calls for canned cream of soup, here's a mix recipe you can use it its place.

BASIC SOUP MIX

2 cups powdered milk
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup instant chicken bouillon*
2 Tablespoons dried onion flakes**
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

Mix all the ingredients well and store in an airtight container. Makes the equivalent of 9 cans of soup. In order to substitute this recipe for canned soup,
combine 1/3 cups mix with 1 1/4 cups cold water. Cook and stir on the stove top or in the microwave until thickened then add to the recipe.

* chicken bouillon is LOADED with salt. Try to purchase the lower salt alternative, even if it costs more.

** look for dried onion flakes in the Hispanic food section if your grocery store has one. Sometimes they are cheaper there. If you can't find flakes at a reasonable price, leave them out and add 1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder if you have it or skip the onion altogether. (You can buy 5th Season brand onion powder for as low as 50 cents.)

Note - this mix can be turned into a cheese sauce by mixing the 1/3 cup of mix, 1 1/4 cups water and 1 cup grated cheese. It can be turned into tomato soup by again mixing the 1/3 cup mix to 1 1/4 cups water and adding 2 cups tomato sauce. Alfredo sauce can be made by mixing the 1/3 cup mix, 1 1/4 cup water, 1/2 cup low-fat sour cream, 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Learn to Crochet & Knit.

2007-06-24T14:16:00.000-04:00

Lion Brand Yarn has free instructions to learn to crochet and knit and includes some patterns for beginners.

CROCHETING
KNITTING

I shop for yarn at garage sales and when I find it, I bargain for 10 cents per skein. The seller almost always takes the deal. I do also sometimes find yarn in discount stores and dollar stores, but I only buy it there if it's the really nice "fuzzy" yarn and I use it for special projects and borders.

One thing I like to do is make baby blankets. When I give them to expectant mothers, I include a little card with this message:

Precious baby, though we haven't yet met, I made this gift just for you. My thoughts and prayers were carefully woven in to each chain and stitch and turn. And so each time this blanket is wrapped about you, know that it is more than simple warmth and comfort you are receiving. It is a loving hug from me.

That isn't from anything - I wrote it myself and you're welcome to use it, or any version you come up with. It grew out of what I told my own children about the blankets I made them when I was pregnant. I've always told them any time they needed, if I wasn't available for some reason, they could wrap up in their blankets and know this was a hug from me.

If you take the time to learn to knit or crochet, if you don't already know how, you will be able to create many lovely gifts. Free patterns abound on the 'net. I like to listen to audio books while I work, and often the kids and I will sit in the den and listen together. My daughter and I will work on some type of project and my son likes to just lie on the floor and listen. Just to note - crocheting (which I do enjoy more, sadly for me) does use more yarn than knitting. It also typically produces a "heavier" result.

My advice to new homeschoolers.

2007-06-22T12:39:00.000-04:00

I really wasn't sure if I was going to do this post, as part of the PASS THE TORCH HOMESCHOOL TIPS AND ADVICE CAMPAIGN because a) I'm not sure I wouldn't just be saying the same things everyone else is saying and b) I haven't a clue what a Mr. Linky is.

But I decided I did want to mention the 3 things I have found the most crucial to homeschooling.

1) Read, read, read, and then read some more. Research homeschooling like you were about to have to give a five hour lecture to a crowd of people who have never heard of homeschooling. Read every single thing you can find and get your hands on. If you don't know where to start - google it. Your reading list will be enormous after just one simple web search.

2) Join a support group or co-op. There is a school of thought with some people to not do this as it sounds too "school like" and so they refuse to get involved. But a support group is invaluable to you as a resource where you can meet other homeschooling families, find a mentor in someone who's been at this for awhile now, and give your kids a chance to make new friends. It can also provide you with a chance for your kids to do some things that may be closed to them otherwise, like perform in a drama or group sports. To find a local group, try googling "homeschool support group" plus the name of your city or town. Or, google "homeschool" plus the name of your state, to find a state-wide association that can then point you in the right direction.

3) DON'T DON'T DON'T rush out and buy a pre-packaged curriculum until you have researched it THOROUGHLY. Try this site: HOMESCHOOL REVIEWS to find out what other parents think about anything you are considering buying. You can spend (and waste) a fortune on curricula that ends up being something you hardly, if ever, use. Even if you've pulled your child from school in the middle of the year and have no idea what to do next - do NOT rush out and buy something. Go to the library and check out some books and spend a little while de-schooling and de-toxing. Let your child read all and as much as he wants while you spend the time to research things and make an informed decision. A few weeks of de-schooling, or even a month or more if you and your child needs it, can easily be made up later.

(And remember, you don't HAVE to buy any curriculum at all! See the rest of my blog for more about that.)

Necessity is the mother...

2007-06-22T10:57:00.001-04:00

What would you say if I told you one year I gave everyone toilet tissue rolls for Christmas? Seriously. I did.

All right, so I didn't just walk up and hand them cardboard tubes, but they were used in the gifts I made. It was the year I learned to prepare for Christmas all year long. I hadn't previously done that. But as I said in my About Me page - I've had to learn all this stuff as I go along, and I'm still learning new things every day.

This particular year, I didn't get started on Christmas gifts until late November, something I'd always thought meant I was "ahead" because I wasn't waiting until December! Eep. Unfortunately, this had been a particularly hard year for us. Our second child was only a few months old, and a new baby obviously adds new expenses, and my husband had been out of work for almost three months. By October, he was working again, but our finances were even tighter than usual.

(More in full post.)

My gift-giving brainstorming started off with twenty dark brown paper gift bags and a bag full of toilet tissue rolls that I had been keeping because I would cover them with paper and let my then preschooler play with them like blocks. The bags were un-used, but they had advertising on one side that I needed to cover up. I decided to make pictures out of construction paper, a supply I always have on hand because I use it with my own kids and with the kids in my Sunday School classes. I did not draw anything at all. I cut everything out, piece by piece, in the color I needed and then glued them to the bags. After a little thought, I decided to use Christmas carols as a theme. So, for instance, one bag was covered with a cut-out Christmas tree and cut-out ornaments (O! Christmas Tree!) and another had Jesus in the manger. I made one bag for each adult I was giving a gift to - at the time 15 people total. As I worked on the bags, real inspiration struck. I'd already decided to invite everyone to a dinner at my house as part of their gifts. Instead of making tags for the gift bags, I wrote down the names of each carol I had used on small strips of paper. I put each strip in a toilet tissue roll and added 3 Hershey kisses from a bag I'd bought to make my husband's favorite chocolate pie on Thanksgiving. I covered the tubes with tissue paper and tied them on the ends so that they looked very much like ENGLISH PARTY CRACKERS - of course mine wouldn't actually "pop" when you opened them. For each tube I made, I took a plain white mailing label, drew little Christmas ivy and berry designs on it, wrote the recipient's name and stuck it to the tube.

For actual gifts, I made all the men spicy hot pecans and the ladies got sugar almonds. Because this was the year my daughter was born, I had lots of recent pictures of my friends and family with my kids. I picked one good picture of each person and framed them with inexpensive frames designed to be used as Christmas tree ornaments. Finally, I made everyone my "famous" Chocolate-Peanut Butter balls, a candy much like Reese's, but with coconut and a few other ingredients. I put all the nuts and the candy in bell jars I'd bought at a garage sale. (I added red gingham fabric tops and tied them with green bows.) Each bag got a jar of nuts, a jar of candy, and a picture ornament. I topped each bag with some colored tissue paper I bought just for this - using one color per bag to match the construction paper design. They actually looked quite pretty and festive, all lined up.

The night of my dinner party, I used the "crackers" as place setters. After we'd eaten, I told everyone to open their crackers. They then all had to go to the Christmas tree in our den and figure out which gift bag was theirs, based on the song titles. Someone - not me! - then suggested that each person, on finding his/her bag - actually had to sing part of their carol. Somehow that turned into a full hour of singing by everyone, followed by cups of coffee or hot cocoa and my husband reading from a Christmas story book. (That was for our kids, but everyone sat around listening.)

Later, several of my guests told me this had been one of the most fun and memorable Christmas dinners they'd ever been to. In fact, every so often, someone STILL mentions it. "You remember that year you made those Christmas song bags...."

Necessity is the mother of invention, but I think it's also the mother of creativity and ingenuity. If I'd had more than about $20 to spend on gifts that year (outside of the dinner food money), I really doubt I would've even considered using toilet tissue rolls in my gift-giving.

I once read a book by a supposedly frugal author who made it a point to distinguish between "frugal" - shop at sales! and "cheap" - recycle envelopes. Her time, she explained, was worth more than that penny she would've saved by reusing an envelope. (And is apparently worth more than the environment, too, since she couldn't be bothered to not send something directly to the landfills.)

Cheap, mind you, is a terrible, terrible, shameful thing to be. I'm sure this woman would be horrified by the idea of using toilet tissue rolls in gifts. And yet, because my definition of "cheap" clearly doesn't mirror hers, I was able to devise something that turned out wonderful just with a bit of inspiration and a lot of determination.

You are NOT being cheap when you are creative with things you have. You are NOT being cheap when you re-use something and save it, at least for now, from the garbage heap. (And not only are you preventing it from going into the trash, you aren't buying something new to become more trash later.) You are NOT being cheap when you count your pennies. You are being responsible with the money you have.

A cheap person is one who hordes his wealth and property to himself, someone who readily takes, but never gives.

If you find yourself in a situation where you want to give someone a gift, but you have no money at all to spend, then give your time. This is not cheap, either. In fact, really, it is the most valuable thing you could ever give. I have cleaned a friend's house after the birth of her third child, mowed and weeded someone's yard, and even organized a family member's garage as gifts before and I promise you they appreciated it way more than they would've some Hallmark store trinket.

Nowadays, I spend all year working on Christmas gifts, as I explained in a previous post, and I've found I'm easily able to keep things in the same price range as I did for that crazy song-bag year. I still have to get creative, but though you may shake your head as you read this: being creative with things is easier than you might think. I am not an artist/imaginative type by nature. I'm a logical/organized type. I'm not the dreamer - I'm the stick-in-the-mud, let's-get-it-done kind of person. I don't look at a beautiful lake setting and think, "I should paint that!" I think, "Wow. Bet there are a lot of mosquitoes there." I get my ideas from everywhere - things I see on TV or the internet, magazines I'll skim through at the library, things I see for sale, and then I figure out how can I recreate something like that with the money and items I have? Or sometimes, as in the case of the toilet tissue rolls, the ideas simply flow out from another idea.

I encourage you to get creative, even if you're the list-writing, schedule-making, no-nonsense type like I am - in fact especially so in that case! - and start looking at things you might have laying around your house to see what they can inspire in you. Not just in gift-giving, but in any and all aspects of your life.

And remember, again, you aren't being cheap! Don't let the everything-must-be-new-and-brand-name, consumer-driven mentality that pervades our culture ever make you think so!

Friday Five for Free (3)

2007-06-22T10:12:00.000-04:00

My five favorite cleaning supplies "recipes" - go green and save money. :)

Disinfectant spray: combine 2 teaspoons borax*, 4 tablespoons vinegar, and 3 to 4 cups hot water in a spray bottle. (If you need "extra" cleaning power, you can add 1/4 teaspoon liquid soap**.)

Air Freshener: combine 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon vinegar, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and 2 cups hot water in a spray bottle. Spritz in the air whenever needed.

Glass Cleaner: combine 3 tablespoons of vinegar, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, and 1 teaspoon of liquid soap in a 1 quart spray bottle. Fill the rest of the bottle with warm water. Shake well. Spray on lightly, then wipe with crumbled newspapers. (Yes, the newspaper really works, if you've never tried it. We don't subscribe to the paper, but we get a few free local/neighborhood ones delivered once a week and I'll sometimes pick up free copies at the store.)

All purpose cleaner: Combine 1/4 cup white vinegar, 2 teaspoons borax and 1 teaspoon lemon juice in a 1 quart spray bottle. Fill the rest of the bottle with very hot water. Shake well. (You can add more borax for tougher cleaning jobs.)

Toilet Bowl Cleaner: Pour 1 cup of borax into the toilet. Let stand for several hours or overnight. Scrub and flush. (If you need "extra" cleaning power here, you can add 1/4 cup vinegar to the borax.)

Honorable mention - for every day dusting, a lightly dampened cloth does the trick - no spray-on "polish" needed. For extra polishing, combine olive oil and vinegar in equal parts. Pour a small amount on a soft cloth and buff. If you use too much polish, just use a dry cloth to wipe off.

*borax can be found in the laundry detergent aisle.

**liquid soap - I have seen many recipes for liquid soap, but they often call for odd or expensive ingredients. The one I've tried before is this: Save all the little bits and pieces of leftover bar soap until you have 1 cup full. Make sure they are fully dried out and then grind them to a fine powder in your blender. Pour one cup of boiling water over the soap and stir until the powder is dissolved. This can be stored in a pump dispenser or squeeze top bottle. In our house, however, it takes forever to build up to a full cup of soap pieces because we tend to use them until there's barely anything left. Generally, I simply buy the generic liquid soap from Dollar General.

PS - Don't forget to label your bottles! :)

Geography & Science Week 4.

2007-06-21T00:54:00.001-04:00

Week 4 of World Geography and Intergrated Science lesson plans are posted.

Free penmanship font & printables.

2007-06-20T22:36:00.000-04:00

In THIS POST I pointed out a website with a free cursive writing font. THIS SITE has a free downloadable font for manuscript writing. (Including the primary-school dotted lines.) Scroll down the page a bit to find it.

Also - a link from that site takes you HERE where you can create your own flash cards, game boards, study sheets and other printables - including tracing sheets for beginner writers for free. Be sure to check out the "List Wizard" to help you create your word lists. Pretty cool! :)

Win, Lose, or Draw - Homeschool style.

2007-06-20T20:26:00.000-04:00

Anyone remember "Win, Lose, or Draw!"? It was a sorta cheesy game show based primarily on Pictionary. (You can read about it in more detail HERE.)

So what's the homeschool version? Simple: play the game, award points instead of money, and for your cards of items to be drawn, use vocabulary words or terms from subjects you're currently studying. For instance, as we're learning American History right now, some of our terms might be "The Mayflower" or "Pocahontas". I write a bunch of these on plain index cards* and we use a large dry erase board to work with.

To make the game fair, because I already know every potential answer, I work only as an "artist" - not a guesser. And we don't use teams. Everyone not drawing (but me, when I'm not the artist) has a chance to guess the answer. The person who gets the answer right in under 30 seconds gets 15 points; if it takes between 30 and 60 seconds, it's 10 points; between 60 and 90 seconds, it's 5 points; between 90 and 120 seconds is 2 points, and after that the round ends and no points are awarded. The person with the most points at the end of the game gets bragging rights. We actually have a notepad where we've been recording the winners and how may points they earned. And yeah, because I can't guess, I'm nowhere in the winner's circle. *Elaborate sigh*. ;) To determine who's the artist, we simply take turns. Everyone draws an equal number of times.

We've played this game with science terms, history terms, Bible heroes and more. We usually use a mix from several subjects to make things more interesting. This is a fun "rainy day" game or a good game to play if your kids are showing signs of "spring fever" and can't seem to focus on their regular lessons.

*I cut the index cards into five pieces so that we aren't wasting them and after we've played one game, we keep the cards for another one - and write on the backs.

Wednesday Quick Tip

2007-06-20T11:50:00.000-04:00

Save your scraps in the kitchen!

You already know that you can make a great broth from chicken or turkey bones, even if you've never actually done it, but did you realize you don't *have* to use the whole vegetables as so many recipes tell you, too? You can use the scraps and have the same good results.

THIS SITE gives stock making instructions, including explaining how to use your scraps instead of whole veggies.

And save your citrus peels, too - lemons, oranges, limes, grapefruit. First, you can make CANDIED CITRUS PEELS out of them. (Hint: if you cut the peels in very narrow strips, they make an extra fancy touch as homemade cake decorations.)

If candied peels aren't your thing, save them anyway if you have a garbage disposal. At night once your kitchen is closed for the evening and the dishes are done, wipe down your sink and toss some peels in the disposal and give it a whirl. It'll fill your kitchen with a nice citrus-y scent.

How I shop, Part 4.

2007-06-19T15:29:00.000-04:00

It's entirely likely this post should be titled "What I do when I get home from shopping." but as it follows along with the other posts, I figured I should stay in the same title-category. Now that you know where I go and what I buy, I thought I'd explain what I do with it. But first, I want to finally address the shopping only in one store issue. (More in full post.)

We lived for awhile in an area with only one store nearby and it wasn't at all feasible for us to drive the additional 19 miles each way once a week to visit other stores. This meant we had to rely on one grocery store for most of our needs. Once a month we did make the longer drive, and we included trips to a bread thrift store and a Goodwill store with it. For regular weekly shopping, though, we actually went to our local store 2 or 3 times in the same week. (Usually 2 of those trips would be my husband stopping there on his way home from work, to avoid using gas unnecessarily.) We did this because while advertised sale prices typically last for a full week, mark-down prices could happen any time. My husband would run in and check the meat aisle for anything marked down and look for any other items he could find, in the produce section and also in the back of the store where the clearance mark-downs are left. These mark-downs might include anything from bakery goods - like hamburger buns; canned goods - dented is fine! Really. You just need to worry about cans that have puffed out; dried herbs and spices; and sometimes non-food items like cough medicine. Because we were there so often, we actually became well acquainted with several of the employees and they were often kind enough to tell us as soon as they saw us about any unadvertised specials. Other than that, we followed the same patterns we do now. We shopped for loss-leaders and built our menus around any good deals we could find.

When we go shopping on Saturdays, between the garage sale/thrift store stops and multiple grocery store visits, we don't get home until lunch and we are definitely hungry! (I should note - we ALWAYS leave the house with bottles of water - not the one-time use only kind; washable bottles refilled from our refrigerator - and some type of snack, such as cookies or muffins. This is to give us a boost at around 10:30 when we might start feeling some hunger pangs and prevent us from wasting money on packaged snacks or junk food.) When we get home, we put the groceries away quickly and have lunch. Lunch might be something that's been simmering in the Crockpot or something quick and easy to fix, such as a salad and microwave baked potatoes.

After lunch, my work begins. First, I have to decide our menu for the week. Yes, I really do this - after we've been shopping. Hee. Obviously, I already have the meals in mind, but now I have to figure out which meal we'll be eating when. I use a simple chart: FOUND HERE to work out our meals. As I mentioned in my MAKING MIXES post, I do a lot of baking on Sundays to cover breakfasts for the week. So typically, my breakfast boxes on the chart simply say "choice" unless I'm preparing something different, like eggs. In the "Snacks" category, I write down things that I know need to be eaten up that week. For instance, if I've got homemade jam I want to make sure is used up, I write that down so I can remember to tell the kids to have toast and jam at least once that week. Lunches and dinners are determined mostly by order in which perishables should be consumed and anything that will have an impact on eating time - like knowing we'll be getting home just before dinner on a certain day because of a field trip.

The next thing I need to determine is what meats need to be cooked immediately. The best way to explain that is by example. This Saturday I purchased 5 lbs of ground beef. It had a sell-by date of the 17th, and so was marked down from over $9 to just over $6. This means, though, that I didn't want to leave it sitting uncooked in my refrigerator all week. Saturday afternoon I made a ground-beef "starter" mix. I put it in a bowl and added one large chopped onion (or about two cups), 1 chopped bell pepper, 3 grated carrots, 4 pressed gloves of garlic, 2 stalks of finely chopped celery and 1 cup of bread crumbs (made by giving a slice of bread a whirl in the blender.) I browned this entire mix in batches and then divided it among 7 different containers. Three of these containers went into the freezer to be used another week and the other 4 went into the refrigerator. One container was used to make the tacos for my daughter's birthday. I mixed it with a can of petite diced tomatoes and some HOMEMADE TACO SEASONING MIX (This recipe is very similar to mine except I don't use the salt or cayenne pepper.) This afternoon, I used some more of the meat mix, as well as some of my pinto bean mix* - a mix that can be used in several recipes, including refried beans - to make chili for lunch. I will also be using the mix in a vegetable beef soup, and the other container will become shepherd's pie.

I also bought a family pack of chicken thighs that was marked down for quick sale, so while I was working on my beef mix, I cooked them in my Crockpot. (Just threw them in with some chopped onion, some dried herbs and a little bit of water.) The chicken was divided into 4 containers and this week will be: Chicken and rice soup, made with a broth from boiling down the bones I kept after picking off most of the chicken; BBQ chicken on a bun - I heat the chicken with some BBQ sauce and serve it on hamburger buns; creamed chicken and peas on potato pancakes, and chicken stir fry. (Because the chicken is already cooked, I stir fry the veggies and throw the chicken in at the last minute just to heat it.)

Normally, I would've also made my pinto-bean mix on Saturday, but as I was busy with also preparing some things for Father's Day, I put that off until Monday afternoon.

I had to buy onions this week, as we were running low, so I also took the time to chop all of them and put them in a couple of freezer containers. This works great. On busy nights, I just have to scoop out whatever I need and add them to my recipes. I don't even thaw them. They cook just fine as is.

I guess you can see what I mean about using lots of mixes! In addition to the ones I've already mentioned here, I also used a Spanish Rice mix last night to serve with our tacos. Sometimes, I think the mixes are just a psychological advantage. For instance, I could probably assemble the ingredients for the taco seasoning mix right as I'm making tacos without really adding much prep-time, but somehow knowing even that one little step is taken care of makes the cooking just seem easier. On the other hand, they really can be advantageous - having my ground beef already browned and ready to go knocks several minutes off prep time and really speeds things up in the evening when I'm getting dinner together. It also allows me to take advantage of bulk item prices when they're a good deal. I bought a 4 lb. bag of pinto beans this week, because I knew I could use them up in my mix and the per pound price was significantly less than the cost of a single pound bag.

*Pinto Bean Mix

This is very simple. I take 2 lbs of dried beans (washed and picked over) and put them in a pot of water. I bring them to boil for two minutes, remove from heat and cover and let stand for an hour. I drain them and wash them in a colander then put them back in the pot. I add 1 large or 2 medium chopped onions (2 cups from my freezer container), two pressed gloves of garlic, and 3 tablespoons of cajun seasoning. I cover this with water and bring back to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for a few hours. That's it. Once they're cooked and soft, I divide the mix among 5 containers and freeze whatever I won't be using that week.

To make refried beans, I mash 1 container of the beans with a potato masher, adding a little water to get the consistency I like and mix in 1/2 cup salsa. Probably that's some kind of terrible blow to real Mexican cooking, but that's how my family likes them. :)

Next week I'll give you a complete breakdown of every item I purchase this coming Saturday and where it will be used.

Lesson Plans and Copywork.

2007-06-19T15:23:00.000-04:00

The Week 3 Language Arts plans for 5th and 7th grade are uploaded. Also, I've added 5 more OT Bible Copywork pages and another Secret Garden page.

I do not know why the links in the pdfs won't work for some people so if anyone has ever had this issue and solved it, PLEASE let me know how! Thanks! I can't seem to find anything wrong myself, so I clearly don't know what I'm looking for/at!

Neat Art Ideas.

2007-06-18T22:02:00.000-04:00

Just a quick "blogging fly-by". I still have to clean up from my daughter's all-day birthday celebrating. This is definitely one of those times where I need to recite the dirty dishes poem:

"Thank God for dirty dishes;
They have a tale to tell.
While others may go hungry,
We're eating very well
With home, health, and happiness,
I shouldn't want to fuss;
By the stack of evidence,
God's been very good to us."

~author unknown.

Aside from my mountain of dishes - why on earth do homemade refried beans take so many pots? Hee! - I wanted to point out THIS CUTE SITE for some awesome ideas for art projects. And not only are there some cool "art sparkers", but there're also links you can follow for more information. Be sure to explore the whole site!

Then there's THIS SITE of "Incredible Art Education Resources" - with lots of links and lesson plans.

Switching gears - I have not yet posted the week 3 LA plans. It's been pointed out to me that for at least one person, the links in the pdfs aren't working and I'm trying to figure that out. One way or the other, I will post the plans some time tomorrow. Hopefully with that problem solved!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Father's Day! Did you go stargazing? We only did so-so on the constellations, but we were able to find Venus easily enough. Yay, us. ;)

Fun with Dad.

2007-06-17T04:23:00.000-04:00

Looking for something fun (& free) to do with Dad tonight? How about a little star-gazing? It's awfully hot to be outside during the day, but once the sun is down, if you're fortunate enough to have clear skies, you might want to see if you can identify some of the star constellations.

Before you go out, check out THIS VIDEO DESCRIBING WHAT YOU CAN SEE IN TONIGHT'S SKY.

You might want to print THIS SHORT GUIDE TO ASTRONOMY which includes some star charts and basic info to help you know what you're looking at. You can also visit THE BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO ASTRONOMY for more help and information. And then there's this one - ASTRONOMY FOR KIDS!.

The NASA SITE has star charts you can print, along with a game to play to challenge one another on finding specific constellations.

After your outdoor adventures, go on an "Outer Space" visual odyssey online - also courtesy of the HUBBLE SITE to view God's amazing universe.

This is a sneaky little way to work in a bit of homeschooling, but if you don't tell Dad or the kids, they'll never even know it. :) You can extend this into a full summer school unit for younger kids by registering at LEARNING PAGE (it's free) and creating a wall mural and notebook of outer space. (In the themes section. There's a LOT there. Just click on the "Space" tab and then be sure to check each of the links - "Fact Files", "Fun Sheets", "Murals", etc. for lots of free print-outs.) Older kids might enjoy the THINK QUEST ASTRONOMY page. (Be aware, this site and many others on outer space have a definite "Big Bang" bent.) And THIS SITE is meant for high school aged students, brought to you by NASA. Visit the teacher section for lesson plans and printables.

Last, but not least, your kids might enjoy BECOMING VIRTUAL ASTRONAUTS.

Have fun and Happy Father's Day!

The Frugal Housewife Book online.

2007-06-17T02:56:00.000-04:00

How cool is THIS?

The Frugal Housewife, Dedicated to Those Who Are Not Ashamed of Economy. By Lydia Maria Francis Child, Boston: Carter and Hendee, 1830.

And be sure to check out the entire Feeding America website while you're there. It's got dozens of really old cookbooks all scanned for you to see. (Or you can read them in an HTML-text version.)

What's your budget view-point?

2007-06-17T00:56:00.001-04:00

THIS ARTICLE is totally worth the read. There's plenty of food for thought there, especially in the possible causes section for why so many kids think they'll have 6-figure incomes when they join the work-world.

A long time ago I read something somewhere (I wish I could remember where, to give proper credit. If you recognize this, please let me know!) in which a woman talked about how perspective is everything. Apparently her husband had made frequent mention of growing up "poor", in a negative way, and so she was shocked when she finally learned that his family had lived on about the same income that hers had. She went on to explain that she'd never once thought that she was poor growing up. Her family had even made regular donations to a food bank and surely, as she'd believed as a child, if they were donating to the poor, they couldn't possibly be poor themselves.

Two families. Two totally different viewpoints. And two totally different outcomes. In the one household, the child grew up feeling deprived, something that can very often lead to huge financial problems in adulthood - debt-creating overspending to compensate for a "miserable" childhood. In the other, clearly, the blessings of what they did have were stressed, as well as the need to help those less fortunate, leading to a woman who grew up believing she'd been lucky as a child.

There are two very distinct ways of going about a frugal lifestyle. You can do it with a "woe-is-me" attitude or a "we are blessed" attitude. (More in full post.)

The biggest problem with the "woe-is-me" perspective is you are much, much more likely to get yourself into financial jams. You'll blow your food budget on a $25 pizza order delivered to your house because you're feeling like you've earned it and you've been deprived of this pleasure, rather than having the fun of making a pizza at home, for a fraction of that cost, and feeling grateful that you're able to do so. Make mistakes like this too often, and you'll find yourself in debt and struggling to climb out of a seemingly ever-deepening hole.

I do understand this can be hard. As that article says, here in America we are constantly being bombarded with images of the so-called "good life" and those images are always filled with fancy homes and expensive cars. Success in our society is not marked by a person who lives quietly and well, who has good friends and a great family, who honors God and is genuinely happy. Success is measured by bank accounts. Is it any wonder why people get so caught up in the race to have more, more, more?

Then there are those who openly criticize anyone who embraces frugalness. These people, frankly, astonish me. Why on earth someone would think you are being cruel to your child by not taking him to McDonald's for a "treat" is beyond me! If it means you are using money that should be used elsewhere, you are only being financially irresponsible. And furthermore, it's not like you're doing your child any favors anyway - feeding him a meal that's genuinely bad for him. What kind of treat is that? Unfortunately, these critics can be quite vocal and rude, and sadly, undermine the efforts of a parent who does want to take control of her/his finances, by making her/him feel somehow inadequate as a mom or dad.

There are way too many people in this world who really are truly poor. People who are homeless and hungry. But are you one of them? Do you spend a little too much time bemoaning what you don't have, rather than being grateful for what you do? Are you, however unwittingly, handing the "woe-is-me" attitude down to your children? You might want to try a little thanksgiving.

No, don't go out and buy a turkey and some cranberry sauce! What I mean is, don't wait for November. Make a list now of all your blessings. I mean this literally. Take out a piece of paper and write down everything you have for which you are thankful, both tangible, like a roof over your head, and intangible, like the love of your friends, family and spouse. Tape this list somewhere that you'll see it every day, like your bathroom mirror. Thank God daily for these things and keep them foremost in your mind. When you start to focus wholly on your blessings, the other things quickly lose their importance. A joyful hug from your son or daughter is worth a thousand diamond necklaces, and if your attitude is one of happiness and thankfulness, your children will pick up on it and mirror it in their own lives.

Random ways to "gift" yourself any time you feel you might be slipping into the "woe-is-me" trap for a moment:

1. Read your Blessings List. Out loud. To the dog if no one else is around to listen.

2. Make some artwork. Collect cards, drawings, and pictures your children have made for you, or if they're young, ask them to make you something new. Select a few and frame them, or make a larger, single collage. You don't need expensive frames. You can find inexpensive ones at garage sales and dollar stores, or make them yourself. Hang your artwork proudly. I promise you, in twenty years when your kids are grown and gone, this art will mean much, much more to you than any "real" paintings or prints you might have in your home.

3. Go to the library. A friend of mine once told me any time she feels the "shopping bug" biting, she makes a trip to the local library. Once she's checked out some books and music CDs and a few movies, she feels just as good as she used to when she'd go on a credit-card rampage at the mall. Sure, she eventually has to give these things back, but she's done with it all by then anyway and she's satisfied the "must have something new" craving that hit her.

4. Go garage sale shopping. Plan to buy something - any one thing you want - as long as it doesn't cost more than $1. Really shop around with that one dollar and by the time you make your choice, you'll feel absurdly pleased with your "splurge" even though you didn't just drop a fortune.

5. Take a day off. There will likely be some things you have to do, regardless, especially if you have very young children, but do as little as possible. After breakfast, put dinner in the Crock-Pot (and if you don't have one of those - get one!) so that you won't be working in the kitchen in the evening. Let the kids off from school work and instead designate the day as "free reading". Or, if you're a homeschooler who takes summer break, tell the kids that they're to amuse themselves for the day, with books or board games or anything else that requires little parental supervision. Relax as much as you can. Read a book. Work on a craft project. Sit outside in the sun. Consider it a vacation, even though you aren't going anywhere and use the day to recharge.

Even if you've made some really bad money decisions before, even if you're already in that debt-hole and now trying to get out, no matter how slow the going, it is not too late! You really can change your outlook and attitude and work to make sure your children don't grow up thinking nothing less than $100,000 a year is acceptable.

This really is all about remembering what the important things in life are, and money? Isn't one of them.

Birthday Budget.

2007-06-16T18:00:00.000-04:00

My daughter's birthday is coming up this week, so what better time to talk about kids' birthdays on tiny budgets? ;) We follow a system where each year, one of the children gets a "big" party and one gets a small/family party, then we switch the next year. Last year my daughter had 15 girls attend a ceramic-painting, pizza-eating, raise-the-roof blow-out, while for my son we simply went bowling in the early afternoon when games are just $1 per game. So this year it's my daughter's turn for the "small" party. (More in full post.)

I guess there might be some people who think we are short-changing our kids this way, but we set up this system many years ago and the kids have never once complained. And thinking back on my own childhood, there were years I had big parties - like a dozen girls at a slumber party when I turned 9, and years when there weren't so many; like when I and two friends went to play mini-golf for my 12th birthday. I suspect this is actually true for most people if they stop to consider it.

For my daughter's birthday this year, she elected to just stay home with the family. She chose a movie from the library - The Princess Bride (Which? Hee. My husband and I both started quoting it as soon as she brought it to us. She and my son have never seen it, so we thought it was a great choice.) On her birthday, we'll be having chocolate chip pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Potato Soup and biscuits for lunch. And tacos, Spanish Rice, and refried beans for dinner. All her favorites. We'll also be having chocolate cake. After dinner, we'll watch the movie in the den with popcorn* and some limeade.

Her big gift this year is a digital camera. She's been asking for one for awhile, and we've decided she's demonstrated she's responsible enough to have one. (On a side note - this is a girl who taught herself how to use a Paint program to manipulate graphics and images, how to set up simple webpages, and she even has created her own animation videos online. It is not at all surprising that she wants a digital camera!) I put out word to all our family members and friends that we were looking for a used digital camera if anyone was selling one, and I was contacted by a friend of a friend who sold us a nice Sony camera for $10. My daughter has no idea about this, so I can't wait to see her face when she opens it.

She's also been asking about a sewing machine, so I sent out word about that as well, and wonder of wonders, one turned up that someone was selling. In fact, I was going to give her that as her birthday present, until we were called about the camera. So now I'm keeping the sewing machine to be a Christmas gift.

I made her some new headbands for herself and her Our Generation Doll** (a sorta American Girl doll, but doesn't cost more than our monthly utility bills!), USING THIS REALLY SIMPLE PATTERN.

Last week, my husband took her to a local used bookstore that sells used CDs and let her pick out 4 of her favorite Christian bands/artists. (At a total of just over $7.) We recently got the free iPod through wowio.com for her and now she's able to convert and play the CDs on it.

We were able to get free tickets to the Orlando Opera's youth performance of The Pirates of Penzance, so we'll be going to that at the end of next week as her final birthday gift.

(Note - she's received some gifts in the mail from relatives, but as we haven't opened them yet, I don't know what they are.)

The food costs are negligible - we'd be eating anyway, obviously, and nothing in the meals is anything different/more expensive than something we'd usually eat - and the addition of the cake isn't much. I use a master mix for that and I make the frosting, as well. The cakes I make only cost around $1.50 at most, even if I add sprinkles.

Her gifts cost less than $20. The headbands were made from yarn remnants from other projects, so at most that was $1. To be fair, I should also factor in the gas costs to drive to the opera, so I'll say this birthday is costing us $21.

One other note: We do decorate for birthdays. We have a "Happy Birthday!" banner that we purchased years ago. We blow up a few balloons and tie them to the chair of the birthday person. We have a "Celebrate" plate from Pampered Chef that the birthday person eats on all day. (Um, LOL! I do wash it between meals! I don't mean someone walks around with the plate all day, eating off it.) Ours is an older version I bought at a garage sale a long time ago. It's blue and white. They have a more colorful one now, so maybe I'll stumble across it at a garage sale, too, sometime. :) We also have a special tablecloth that we bring out. I made it when my oldest turned 2. I bought a couple of yards of green fabric, hemmed it all around, and appliqued circles of yellow, red, and blue on it and embroidered black "strings" to make balloons.

*I'm not typically a fan of extra kitchen gadgets. I don't often buy things that serve only one purpose, but I do have one of those hand-crank popcorn pots. It produces MUCH better popcorn than what you get out of a microwave, and we won't even talk about the cardboard-tasting horrors that come out of air-poppers! Also, even with some salt and butter added, a really big bowl of popcorn costs less than .20 cents when you pop it yourself and it hardly takes that much more time than the microwave - about 5 minutes. I've seen them selling new as low as $20 and you can probably find them for less on auction sites (Though watch the shipping costs!). If your family eats popcorn at least once a week, it wouldn't take very long for you to pay off that upfront cost in savings from not buying the microwave version. Plus you can avoid the questions that have recently arisen concerning the possible toxicity of microwave popcorn.

**OUR GENERATION DOLLS - We purchased one of these awhile back, using a gift certificate someone gave me. It's held up just fine with her playing and taking it with her to her Keepers at Home club meetings where they read and discuss American Girl books. My mother has made the doll some very cute outfits, and made matching sundresses for my daughter and the doll.

Free Mad Math Minutes

2007-06-16T16:40:00.001-04:00

If your child could use some math drills practice, THIS SITE allows you to generate on-line math worksheets that are self-grading. You can use addition, subtraction, multiplication and/or division and set the upper limit of number to be used (As in no higher than 20 - goes up to 100.), and choose how many problems and whether or not decimals or negatives can be included.

How I shop, Part 3.

2007-06-16T12:26:00.000-04:00

I mentioned in THE PART 2 SHOPPING POST that I do some of my meal planning while standing in the store. I know this is contradictory to what most "budget advisers" usually recommend. I do this, though, because I don't know until I get there just what meat I'll be buying. (More in full post.)

It's not until after I've decided on my meat purchases that I can figure out exactly what we'll be eating. Generally, this is actually a simple process, despite how it might sound. I cook using a combination of basic staples and HOMEMADE MIXES. So after I know what meat I'm buying, usually there are only some "special" ingredients I need to pick up, as well as restocking any staples that are low. I keep a piece of paper stuck to the fridge and another on the inside of the pantry door. All week I write down things I realize are running low so that I know to purchase them while shopping. This usually isn't that much, since I also stock up on things when on sale, but occasionally I'll go a stretch of time where I don't find something on sale, like perhaps olive oil or rice, and I'll need to pick some up because we're running out of it.

"Special" ingredients just means something like zucchini or dried kidney beans; something I don't keep on hand but would need to complete the meals, not anything very expensive or "gourmet".

I will start checking for the special ingredients and the staples in the first store we visit and if the prices are good there, I go ahead and buy them; otherwise I wait to see the other stores.

A few weeks ago, I purchased a frozen turkey breast for $2.50. I cooked it in the gravy it came with and that night I served hot open-faced sandwiches (turkey slices on bread slices with caramelized onions and the gravy), oven fries, steamed carrots, and peaches. A couple of days later, at lunch, we had a spinach salad with diced turkey, a bit of bacon, some homemade croutons, and sliced carrots, served with some garlic biscuits. We also had a night where dinner was turkey pot pie and apple slices. By deciding in the store that these were the meals I would make with my turkey, I knew I needed to pick up fresh spinach, peaches, bacon, and some frozen peas (for the pot pie.) I already had other ingredients/foods, like the apples. I always buy potatoes, onions and carrots if I'm low - I consider these staples. And because I was buying the bacon and spinach, I knew I'd need to come up with something else to make with it, so we had a mock-quiche* that week, too. Because I decided to make the quiche, I had to pick up some swiss cheese. This was too expensive at store number one, but at a good price at store 2. Because I was buying swiss cheese, I also decided to make a two-cheese (also used cheddar, which I keep on hand) scalloped potatoes dish and I served that with some sausage, which also happened to be on sale that week. I'd already figured I'd serve some sort of potato dish with the sausage, so once I decided upon the quiche, I knew just what potato dish I'd want to make.

Note - the turkey pot pie required a sauce and crust, and the scalloped potatoes had a sauce, all of which were made from some of the mixes I keep on hand, so I didn't need to buy anything extra for that.

I have a feeling this sounds utterly insane! But I hope this is making at least some sense. The point is, I first determine the meat. Then I figure out what we'll be eating with that meat, then I make sure whatever I buy for the meat can be used up - that I'm not buying something I'll never use again. Sometimes it may be that I freeze something for use later, but I will definitely use it.

I think you can see that my meals are pretty simple. We don't eat the exact same thing every week - there's no Meatloaf Monday or Spaghetti Thursday - and I do make a variety of casseroles and soups to use up ingredients, but what I don't do is cook anything hugely fancy or costly or full of one-time-use only ingredients.

I'm assuming this will be more understandable if I really break down an entire shopping trip and all the ingredients, so that will be my next shopping post.

(Also - I mentioned shopping in only one store before, and I haven't forgotten that. I will get to it soon.)

*mock-quiche: I brought this up once before, but mock-quiche for us is some variation of what Bisquick calls IMPOSSIBLY EASY PIES. I vary the ingredients by what I have on hand and use my own "master biscuit mix" to make these.

Friday Five for Free (2)

2007-06-15T00:45:00.001-04:00

This is a little unusual. It's a 5 volume set of cooking textbooks, published in 1921 (and so now public domain.) Some of the information and recipes contained within will probably make you want to never set foot in your kitchen again! :) Still there is a surprising amount of stuff you can learn from these books, and a lot of it involves cooking from scratch, the budget-minded way to go. Okay, so I can promise you I'm never going to cook up a batch of hominy and then take that and use it in a hominy and cheese souffle, but still, the simple, basic recipes are worth knowing. And, as these are actual textbooks, there are even exam questions included. (More in full post.)

BOOK 1
BOOK 2
BOOK 3
BOOK 4
BOOK 5

Just to note - keeping in mind how long ago these books were written, if you decide to try out any of the recipes, make sure that you're not doing something we've come to learn is not as safe as once believed. (For instance, we now know not to make eggnog with raw eggs unless they have been specially pasteurized.)

If you're the kind of person who finds something like this interesting the way I do, you might also be interested in: SCHOOL AND HOME COOKING - This is another cooking school text. Something in particular that strikes me, as I have noticed it in some of the older cookbooks I've inherited, is the inclusion of a section on feeding someone who is sick. I never seem to come across that in modern cookbooks, and I wonder why we seem to think that doesn't merit special attention any more.

How I create my "free" curriculum, Part 2.

2007-06-14T12:28:00.000-04:00

Now, that I explained a little bit about how I build my curriculum, I wanted to give a more detailed example. (More in full post)

Yesterday, I came up with a 50 States geography curriculum, that I'm not even sure I'll ever use, LOL!

While poking around on the Stickers and Charts website, I found THESE US STATE STICKERS - second set HERE. I thought, "Oh, wouldn't those be cute in some sort of 'passport' notebook, where the kids get a sticker for each state studied?" So then I went on a google search and eventually came up with this plan:

Print an outline copy of the US - FROM HERE - and put it in the front of a notebook. Print several copies of THIS STATES QUICK FACTS PAGE to be filled out using information from these sources - THE INTERNET LIBRARY and AMERICA'S STORY. (Two notes - the Quick Facts form only needs page 1 printed. Page 2 is blank. Also, on the internet library, if you click on the individual state name, it will take you to a page with more info and lots of links directly related to that state.)

States could be studied in alphabetical order or, IN THE ORDER IN WHICH THEY JOINED THE UNION. (THIS PAGE allows you to sign up for a 25 week e-mail program that directs you to study 2 states a week - by order into the union - it could help keep you on track.)

You can also print BLANK OUTLINE MAPS OF THE INDIVIDUAL STATES and COMPARISON CHARTS FOR THE STATES.

Here is how I would pull all that together:

I'd start on Monday with a certain state (using order into the union). We'd read about the state at the internet library and follow some of the links. We'd color the state on the US map and label it, with its capitol. We would also write out some interesting facts we learned about the state, just using notebook paper.

On Tuesday, we'd fill out the Quick Facts form and the comparison chart, and also visit the America's Story website. We'd print the state outline map, color it, and label it with major cities and natural features - rivers, mountains, etc. We'd finish the state by using one of those cool stickers - sticking it to the Quick Facts page, as a mark in our "passports" that we'd "visited" said state.

We'd repeat this for a new state on Wednesday and Thursday.

On Friday, we'd do something fun, like cook a meal known to that region, or read/watch a book or movie relating to a state we'd studied.

As I said, since we're working on World Geography, I'm not sure if or when we'd actually even use this plan, but I wanted to use it as an example of how you can take multiple sources to come up with one finished plan.

How I "create" my free curriculum, Part 1.

2007-06-14T11:03:00.000-04:00

One of the purposes of this blog was my hopes to demonstrate to others how you can use free resources to make your own curriculum. It is, admittedly, quite time-consuming; however, there are nice rewards for your hard work. (More in full post.)

If you build your own curriculum from many sources, you can truly tailor it to your children. If you look at my Language Arts plans in my "Totally Free Curriculum" links, you'll see that my daughter is reading The Secret Garden, while my son is reading Tom Sawyer. I chose those - out of the numerous classics books available - because I knew they would enjoy them. My daughter this year will also be reading The Prince and the Pauper, because she watched a library Barbie DVD based on the plot and I thought it might be interesting for her to read it, and then Treasure Island, because pirates are so big right now - especially here in Orlando!

I chose Tom Sawyer for my son after mentioning to him how I had read it in 7th grade and really liked it and he said he'd like to read it, too. Then, I figured why not read Huck Finn as well, and for his other novels, I chose Jack London books because my son loves wolves, dogs, and foxes.

Once I have general topics decided upon, I begin searching for sources. For instance, I googled "Mark Twain" to see what I could find - and there was a lot! I will bookmark sites and then, as I build the lesson plans day by day, I check my bookmarks for sources that will work for each individual lesson.

That's pretty much all there is to it. Nothing terribly complicated; it just takes some time to sift through everything out there to find something we need and can use. We also go to the library weekly, and I take a list of the topics we'll be covering the following week, like countries we'll be studying in geography or people we'll be learning about in history, and I'll find books and sometimes DVDs we can use.

As for what to teach year by year, I have a long-term goal in mind and a list of things that need to be covered by then. Here in Florida, we have the DUAL ENROLLMENT PROGRAM, where students can start attending college at 16 and graduate high school with their completed AAs, as well as their regular high school diplomas. This program is absolutely free for public schooled children and free for homeschoolers, except we have to pay for textbooks. Through our co-op, I've had the pleasure of knowing several bright, personable kids who have either already finished this program or are working through it currently. This is the goal for my own children. Two years of college for only the price of the textbooks? Sign us up! Obviously, there isn't a total guarantee that they'll both get in, but I'm still working toward that goal and believe they each stand a very good chance. :)

Because I want to take advantage of dual enrollment, I've made sure I know all the requirements to enroll. I also have a COPY OF WHAT FLORIDA PUBLIC SCHOOLS REQUIRE FOR GRADUATION, because I assume that's what colleges and universities are looking for, even with their "exceptions" for homeschooled kids. Since my children will need to take - and do well on! - the SAT or ACT in order to use the dual enrollment program, I have my eye on that particular ball as I pick and choose what we're learning now.

Another great thing about building your curriculum yourself is, not only are you getting something made just for your kids, you also have the added bonus of, if it's not working, drop it and try something else! It's a lot harder to do that when you're working from a packaged curriculum and you paid big bucks for it. I should know! After homeschooling this way for years, for our last school year I had the (someone smack me now!) crazy idea that as my son was entering middle school, he needed something more "put together" and separate from his younger sister. I saved and scrimped and asked everyone I knew for $10, or whatever they could afford, in lieu of any birthday or Christmas gifts for myself and my husband for the year and a half leading up to it, and then bought Switched-on-Schoolhouse. It started out well, and it certainly did free my time up, but then by Christmas, my children announced they *hated* it. They missed schooling together. They missed all my wacky ideas and projects. They missed spreading out on the living room floor and reading together. And so we abandoned the SOS (Okay - that's just funny when you read it.) and came back to our "free" homeschooling. Golly, did I really hate knowing how much I'd spent on it. On the up side - I was able to find "good homes" for the CDs - people who could really use them, so at least they did not go to total waste. Yes, I know I could've sold them, but as I know just how hard it was for us to come up with the money, I preferred to give them to people who otherwise would not have been able to have them for their own homeschools.

And as for anyone concerned that using a "free" program might be short-changing the children, let me offer you this reassurance. At the end of the school year, I give my kids standardized tests. I don't submit or report the scores; I just do it to monitor their progress. They always ace them. Even my daughter, who struggles with dyslexia, has no problem with these tests, though she does use up every bit of the allotted time. They both tell me the tests are "too easy" and even "stupid". Personally, I agree with them. But this does give me something concrete to show, if I need, and it will show me any gaps if we have them.

One last note: I only stumbled across AN OLD FASHIONED EDUCATION this past winter, but it has proved to be an excellent resource for my lesson plan building. I don't follow the plans there exactly because we combine some subjects and in certain cases, like geography, I prefer to use current sources as opposed to public domain books, but it is still a great place to go and start from if you are trying to build your own free curriculum.

Science & Geography Week 3.

2007-06-13T22:04:00.000-04:00

The week 3 lesson plans for Integrated Science and World Geography have been uploaded.

Earn free books.

2007-06-13T20:07:00.000-04:00

(Thanks to Amy at OFE for posting a direct link!)

Barnes and Nobel is doing their Summer Reading Program again where your child can earn a free book after reading 8 books. The 8 books are his choice and do not have to be purchased from B&N. PRINT THE REQUIRED FORM HERE. Note that it actually says your child can turn in 2 forms, not just one. Also, it lists grades 1 - 6 as eligible grades.

Yes, I am sheltering my kids!

2007-06-13T15:53:00.000-04:00

For the past few days I have come across comments from anti-homeschoolers who accuse homeschooling parents of "sheltering" their kids to the point of denying the children the opportunity to grow up. In several cases, the argument was kids need to be exposed to the sex and drugs and bullying because they're going to have to face it "someday". (More in full post.)

By this logic, I should've let my children play in the front yard as toddlers, so they could be exposed to cars driving by, because someday they were going to need to know that standing in the middle of the street could get them killed. It didn't matter that they weren't yet developed enough to understand the concept. By not letting them out there, I apparently denied them a critical opportunity to grow up properly. Bad mom! No cookie!

THIS ARTICLE, talking about a middle school after-school trip to Planned Parenthood (!), explains that someone spoke to the kids about the services offered by Planned Parenthood - including annual exams and PAP smears, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, birth control and pregnancy counseling - but that this was all okay because they didn't mention abortion.

What?!?

My son is in middle school. He is not ready to have chats about sexually transmitted diseases or birth control. And because I haven't thrown him to the wolves of public school, thankfully, he's not being exposed to this sort of thing before he's old enough and mature enough to understand it.

Yesterday, I even read a comment on a blog by someone who said 12-year-olds need to be fully educated about sex "before things become a problem." Now this wasn't talking about explaining to your child where babies come from - this was, well, this was written by someone who would clearly support field trips to Planned Parenthood.

Give me a break. Yes, I do shelter my kids. It's called PARENTING. I think quite a few people need to look that word up! Preferably before they have children themselves.

Chores Incentive Program.

2007-06-13T11:26:00.001-04:00

This is an interesting program. You register with the site, create/choose tasks for your children, designate a point system, and create awards goals. You and your children can log in to monitor progress and "claim" the rewards. (More in full post.)

I admit, I was quite skeptical when I stumbled across HANDIPOINTS, if for no other reason than it looks too slick to be free. Heh. But I have registered with it so that I could really check it out and I went over every point of the Terms of Service. As far as I can tell, the biggest "catch" is that as long as you use the service you cannot opt out of their mailing list and you will receive advertisements because of it.

I was also wary of the awards system. I certainly didn't want to get into some sort of situation where I'm promising my kids I'll be them a Nintendo Wii! However, when I clicked on the "most popular rewards" section, many of them turned out to be things like "1 hour of computer time" or "play a board game" type rewards. In addition, you don't have to use a listed reward - you can create your own.

My hiccup with this system is this: Obviously, this program was created with the intent to get you to purchase things. It asks that you "support" the site by purchasing your rewards through their "featured merchants". Now, this is NOT a requirement whatsoever; the service is offered for free, but it remains a personal decision on whether or not using the site without ever buying anything would be completely ethical or not.

I will give the system a try for a few weeks and let you know what I think of it.

Just one other note - the site has a referral system; however, as I am only posting this info FYI and not trying to actively promote it, I am not "referring" you with that above link. It simply directs you to the main page.

Free printable award certificates.

2007-06-13T10:29:00.001-04:00

If you'd like to give your child some type of award, completion, or promotion certificate, there are several sites that provide these for free.

FREE PRINTABLE CERTIFICATES - nice for older kids.

BILLY BEAR'S CERTIFICATES - customizable, for younger kids.

123 CERTIFICATES - all ages, customizable, many choices. Check out the reading certificates - there are incentive charts to record the child's reading and matching certificates for when his goal is reached. They have the same program in the "cute" awards; you could use the incentive charts for any kind of school work or chores and then reward a matching certificate when the jobs are done. Nice! :) (Also note - this site has a "sister" site with free printable incentive charts and stickers: STICKERS AND CHARTS.)

How I shop, Side Bar.

2007-06-12T11:25:00.000-04:00

I wanted to talk more about purchases other than meat at the grocery store, when I remembered that I only casually mentioned bread thrift stores somewhere and I thought I'd better go into a little detail about that before I continue with the rest of the shopping posts, or I'm likely to forget about it altogether. (More in full post.)

We live within about 20 minutes drive from two bread thrift stores. One of them, on Wednesdays, has .65 cents for everything in the store, including the "nice" bread - meaning the whole grains and multi-grains and breads that are *not* Wonderbread. Well, they have that, too, but we don't buy it. Once every two months, we go to the thrift store and buy 8 loaves of bread. This costs a little under five and a half dollars. Because we buy at least $5 worth, we are also allowed to select something off the "free" rack. From there we will get something like hoagie rolls (for meatball sandwiches - yum!) or tortillas or occasionally we'll choose the dinner rolls. As I've mentioned before, I bake everything else. Muffins, cakes, sweet breads, biscuits, and so on. It may very well be that I could purchase all the ingredients to bake multi-grain bread at home cheaper than the thrift store, but I'm not entirely sure where I'd work that into my schedule if I did! I decided awhile ago that spending .65 cents a week on bread would fit into our budget. We actually don't eat that many sandwiches, but bread slices are eaten frequently at snack time - toasted and served with apple butter or homemade jam and a glass of milk, or served with peanut butter, fresh fruit, and some lemonade. I will also sometimes, at the request of my children, make a batch of French toast.

We freeze all but one loaf of the bread when we bring it home. I keep stackable baking racks on my counter all the time. On any given day you will find (in baggies) some muffins, cookies and possibly dinner rolls on the lower rack, and on the upper rack sits the loaf of bread. When one runs out, I pull another from the freezer. They seem to thaw just fine in this way, sitting on the rack; we never have "mushy" bread.

I wanted to mention all this so that later when I've finished my actual shopping posts and then break down a shopping trip by posting everything I've bought and how much it cost, you won't be confused by the lack of bread/grains.

Oh, and because I mentioned lemonade, here's my recipe:

LEMONADE
1 1/2 cups sugar (Increase by 1/4 cup if you like more sweet, less tart.)
8 cups water
1 1/2 cups lemon juice - fresh squeezed.

In a saucepan, combine sugar and 1 cup water. Bring to boil and stir to dissolve sugar. Allow to cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until chilled (about 4 hours). Remove seeds from lemon juice, but leave pulp. In pitcher, stir together chilled syrup, lemon juice, and remaining 7 cups water.

Generally, it takes me about 6 lemons to get the 1 1/2 cups juice. Every so often I'll find lemons on sale for 10 for a $1.00.

Blog Edits.

2007-06-12T10:37:00.000-04:00

So, I'm attempting to do some stuff that will hopefully make my blog easier to read/navigate. Now if I can just solve the archiving issue in a way that doesn't require a *lot* of time-consuming work on my part. Heh. (More in full post.)

Hmmm. Not so sure I like the fact that the "read full post" link shows up AFTER the label link and I can't seem to prevent that from happening. Now I have to decide if I want to keep this feature or not.

American History & Bible Plans.

2007-06-11T21:01:00.001-04:00

Week 3 of the American History lesson plan is posted, along with weeks 3 and 4 for Old Testament Bible.

7th Grade LA Week 2.

2007-06-11T16:43:00.000-04:00

Have posted the 7th grade Language Arts week 2 lesson plan.

Every penny counts!

2007-06-11T14:10:00.000-04:00

Hee. File this under "Frugal Mania."

I buy notebook paper during the back-to-school sales when a pack of 150 sheets costs 10 cents. I use it not just for school, but also for other things, including my shopping lists.

I had a sheet sitting on my desk. My husband picked it up after lunch and handed it to me. Here's the conversation that followed.

Him: Isn't this the list we used on Saturday? Why didn't you throw this away?
Me: Because I'll be using the back for this week's list.
Him: You use the backs of old lists to make new ones?
Me: Well, sure. Why waste the paper and money?
Him: (After a very long pause.) All right, I'll give it to you on the not making more trash than necessary, but just how much money do you really think you're saving?
Me: I don't know. But every penny counts!

And then we both laughed because, of course we live by that rule, but this might be taking it to the extreme. As near as I can tell, my policy of re-using my shopping lists is saving us about 3 cents a year. Woo! If I start counting now, at this rate, by the time we're 80, I'll have saved us almost a dollar and a half!

So from here on out, I'm just going to say I'm saving the trees.

Still, I must say, when you think in terms of counting every single penny, it does make a difference overall. I could go the opposite way and think, "Oh, it's just three cents." but when you do that too often, that three cents here and ten cents there and dollar-fifty elsewhere really does start to add up. I know I'm a little bit insane about money - oh, all right; I'm downright crazy - but this really is the reason why our family lives on so little and yet isn't in debt or "living beyond our means". I guess I can live with being the nutty one for that. :)

Basic Essay Writing.

2007-06-11T13:35:00.000-04:00

If you're looking for help with teaching the steps to essay writing, THIS SITE includes a step-by-step guide.

Vocabulary "Keeper" Bookmark

2007-06-11T11:52:00.000-04:00

This is neat - it's a bookmark where students can record new words as they're reading. The page recommends that you laminate the bookmark to keep using it. My only caution there would be, be careful what you write with then! I could see where the ink used on the lamination might rub off onto your book pages. Eep!

BOOKMARK.

Of course, if you want to do this really cheaply - just take the concept and use scrap paper or notebook paper cut into strips. :)

OT Bible Copywork.

2007-06-10T20:51:00.000-04:00

Have added 3 Bible copywork pages, plus a link to free printable handwriting pages.

Cheaper Than Public School.

2007-06-09T22:59:00.000-04:00

If you've read my "about me" page, you'll know I homeschool for less than it cost me to send my kids to public school. Since I just invited someone to visit my blog for that very reason, I thought I'd go into more detail.

My kids went to public school for one year. They had to bring everything on their supply lists - including wet wipes and Kleenex (things I never buy), and of course they each had to have a box of crayons, map pencils, folders, rulers and so on. Now, our public school doesn't let you actually keep these supplies. They go into the community bin to be doled out - as needed. This means at the end of the year you get nothing back and have to provide new supplies again at the beginning of the following year. Plus, all through the year we were told this or that ran out and we needed to contribute more.

We didn't just have to pay for field trips themselves,(including one to Build-a-Bear!), we also had to contribute an extra "fee" for transportation costs because the district couldn't afford to just send the buses. These fees were always $10, much more than it costs us in gas to go to the exact same locations ourselves.

Our room moms were constantly sending letters home telling us we needed to contribute $2 - $5 for teacher gifts. As near as I could tell, we apparently needed to shower our teachers with appreciation at least once a month.

Then there were PE uniforms, fundraisers, and extra fees for various clubs, snack contributions, party contributions - because we had to have a huge party for every single holiday, of course - and more.

If you take a look at my "Totally Free Curriculum" links, you'll see how I build my lesson plans from free sources. The only subject not there is math. I happened to luck out and find used Saxon math books and teacher manuals for less than $4 each. I purchased them and have math covered for several years.

We have the same box of crayons I bought three years ago, and my children share. I haven't bought wet-wipes since that one wasted year. I don't have to buy a rainbow assortment of folders, or expensive foam board. No one keeps our scissors or tells us we need to keep buying new markers to replace ones that dried out. I buy notebook paper and spirals in July when Wal-Mart has them for 10 cents a piece, and that's all I've had to buy for a couple of years now. It's not like pencils have a shelf life!

Our food costs are down - it's easier to serve a nutritious, hot meal straight from my kitchen at lunch than to try to provide a boxed/bag one.

We don't have PE uniforms.

We don't have fundraisers that either force us to contribute lots of baked goods or demand we buy terrible-smelling candles or World's Most Gosh Awful Chocolate.

Thanks to the internet - which we'd have regardless of whether we homeschooled or not, so I'm not counting that cost - yes, for us, homeschooling really is cheaper than public school and it can be for any family willing to put in the time and work of building their curriculum themselves.

Learn French.

2007-06-09T22:09:00.000-04:00

If you're looking to satisfy a foreign language credit for your high schooler, THIS SITE offers lessons, audio files, vocabulary, grammar, activities and videos.

Free Custom Chore Charts.

2007-06-09T15:59:00.000-04:00

THIS SITE allows you to create and print customized chore charts for your children. (Don't worry about the SpongeBob picture on the front page - you aren't stuck with him; you get to choose from many themes.)

Hint - if you have a program like CUTE PDF WRITER you can save your document as a pdf file before printing it.

Yes. It really is free.

2007-06-09T14:43:00.000-04:00

I received an e-mail this morning that I have already answered, but I thought perhaps I'd better address it here, as well, to clarify a few things.

Every website I point you to is free. Whatever it is offering - be it downloadable ebooks, worksheets, information (like craft patterns or recipes), or advice - it is available to you at no cost. If I should ever happen across something I genuinely believe is worth paying for, I will make that very clear in my post that there is a fee involved. (Though that hasn't happened yet, so... draw your own conclusions there.)

So, yes, my curriculum plans I'm posting - they're all free. Some things require printing - so there's a paper and ink consideration - but that's the only cost. And I don't think we print as many things as some other people might. For instance, stories and books, we simply read online, as we only read a chapter a day and that's not too hard on our eyes.

No, I'm not trying to "undermine" the homeschool community by advocating that everyone do things my way and not pay for their curriculum. I am merely showing people on very restricted budgets how it *can* be done. And if someone not on a tight budget, but frugal-minded anyway, also wants to follow my methods of doing things, great! It never hurts to start saving as much as you can for emergencies, retirement, college, and so on. But those of us who spend mere pennies on our supplies are few and far between and we won't even make a dent in the homeschool market's income. I assure you I'm no threat whatsoever!

No, I will never bundle all this information up into some sort of book, CD, or ebook for sale. First, I find that rather unethical - the selling of free information. Yes, I suppose I could argue I'm selling my "time and experience" but that's a weak argument IMHO and besides, it would defeat the entire point. I'm trying to show anyone interested how to get/acquire/make things for free if possible or for very little money if necessary. Starting off with *charging* for the information would be contradictory to the whole point!

In any case, I may not say it with every post: "Check out this FREE link..." because it starts feeling redundant, but yes, wherever I'm sending you, it really is free and I hope you'll find it useful.