Frugal tip of the week...

I am starting a "frugal tip of the week." These will post on Mondays. I'm posting one today to get started. :) I'm a very frugal person and wanted to share some tips. I believe as a helpmeet to our husbands, it's our responsibility to help stretch the dollar they earn and to be good stewards of what God has given. If you earn the dollar as a wife, then it's still a good idea to learn to stretch that, too. :)

TIP #1 Homemade Laundry Soap

The laundry soap I make comes out to about $1.50 a month. Pretty good! It works great and you can pick the scent. Here's the recipe I use. You will need a 2 gallon bucket.

1/2 bar of fels naptha or ivory (fels naptha is a great stain fighter. I find mine at Amish stores or Kroger)
1/2 c washing soda (not baking soda)
1/2c borax
fragrance
water

Grate the soap. (I use my food processor to shred it) Put into sauce pan. Add 6 cups of water. (That's 1 1/2 mason jars full) Heat on low/medium until soap melts. Make sure it all melts. Add washing soda and borax and stir until dissolved. Again make sure it's dissolved. Pour 4 c of hot water into the bucket. (I have a mason jar of water heated and ready in the microwave) Add soap mixture to the bucket and stir. Now add 1 gallon plus 6 c water into bucket and stir. Now you can add your fragrance if desired. Let stand overnight. It will come out kind of like egg drop soup or a little gellier. Use 1/2c per load.

No jury duty...

They excused me from jury duty due to the fact I homeschool our son and he would miss all this week. :) I'm soooo glad! I have so much to do rather than sit in that room. School, cleaning, sewing, etc. Now I can do it! Yeah! What a relief. :)

Jury Duty...

Ugh. I have jury duty starting tomorrow. I'm dreading it in a way. I'd rather be home doing my normal routine. I have to go to the grocery store tomorrow and I won't be able to do it until I get home from jury duty. Maybe they won't need me. :) That would be great.

I've got some sewing to do this week. Hopefully I will have time to get it done even with jury duty. I'm waiting for the weather to warm back up. It actually snowed here this morning and I'm not sure I liked that! lol. My body is wanting spring! I like to see all the new flowers coming up and the buds on the trees starting to form. Hanging out clothes on the line again excites me. Ya I know. I'm weird. lol. I just love hanging out laundry though. Well, I need to get ready for evening church. Hope everyone's day was blessed!

Raising Chickens...

We decided to raise chickens this year for eggs. This is our first time doing it. I'm pretty excited about it. I've wanted to do it since I was a kid. Here they are at a couple days old. The cute little fuzzy butts. lol. We have Jersey White Giants, Barred Rocks, Black Sex Links, and Buff Orpingtons. When you first get them they need to have a heat lamp that heats an area in the brooder to about 95 degrees. You decrease this every week by 5 degrees. Once they feather out completely around six weeks they can go in the coop. This green bin was our first brooder until they got bigger.



The need chick starter until they are ready to lay and then they will need laying feed. They are so fun to play with! You can feed them their feed from your hand and it tickles a lot! Hunter loves it! (Me too) My husband had to build them another brooder because they were outgrowing this one. Here they are around 2 weeks old. What a difference a couple weeks make!

This is the new brooder Ryan built.


Here is a Barred Rock (in the back), a Jersey White Giant (foreground), and a Black Sex link.

You can see more of their feathers now. The yellow ones are Buff Orpingtons. They enjoy their new home, but it won't be long until they go to the coop. They should probably go around Easter if the weather temperature permits. It needs to be at least 70 degrees out for them. They are such a pleasure to watch be chickens. :) I really enjoy it.

What we want...

What we want is not always best. What we want is not always what we want, but what others want for us. I've been doing a lot of praying lately about what I want. There was a part of me that thought God was wanting me to wear pants now. I got sorta excited because I wanted to fit in with the rest of my friends and wear pants like them too. I even approached my husband about it. He was apprehensive at first, but said if I wanted to wear pants, I had to have a mentor first. He didn't want me to fall back into how I was before when I wore pants. He wanted someone to keep me accountable. Well, I wasn't too keen on the whole mentor thing. And the person I asked wasn't too sure about it either. It is a big responsibility and they weren't sure they were ready for it. I decided to pray about it some more. I felt like God was wanting me to grow more and with pants I would really have to keep myself in check. I thought that's what he wanted. But, with more prayer and searching my heart, it seems that God wants me to keep wearing skirts, for now. I wasn't sure I liked that at first. I wanted to be like everyone else. I wanted to put jeans on and go on about my day. The problem with that is those clothes won't hold me accountable. Let me explain. There is an old fashionedness inside me. A soft, feminine side. There is also a rude, hard, rough side to me. This side I don't like so much. When I wear pants, that side comes out more. It's not like that for everyone. Most women can wear pants and be just fine. But, when I do, I sit different, carry myself different, act different. It's hard for other women to understand this because they can be feminine and lady-like in their pants. I can to a point, then I slide back into my hardness. On the flip side, when I wear my skirts and dresses, I am softer to my child and husband, I feel more feminine (even tho I still get dirty with chickens and gardening. I still like dirt. ) I sit nicer and I think more about what comes out of my mouth. My clothes hold me accountable. Now I still get down right dorky when I wear skirts. I act silly, sometimes too silly, but through this journey I have come to realize that I am not stiff or dead even though I wear a skirt. I'm still me, but a nicer, softer, kinder, goofy me. I accept this is what God wants for my life and understand that it's not for everyone. Women can still pull modesty off with pants, etc. Not everyone has to wear skirts like me. These are my convictions and I am happy with them. This is who I am. Goofy, modest, old fashioned, simple loving, me. I still have a lot to work on on the inside with God, but He loves me enough to keep the light on so I can grow. The inside of the flower pot needs a good cleaning! The cleaner the pot, the prettier the flower that comes out of the pot. To God be the glory.