Simplicity Fail: Or When Planning Turns Into Covetousness

It all started with my renewed interest in taking homemaking seriously. During prayer time last week, I came to realize that I haven't been taking my job as a homemaker seriously. Nothing too terrible was happening, but dishes in the sink, dusty floors, and stacks of stuff randomly situated around the house became commonplace. One place of neglect were the windows in our family room/ kitchen open concept space. When we moved in there were green and purple walls. We got used to them. There were green laminate countertops. We got used to them. The previous owners took the curtains but left the rods. We got used to it. The cabinets were an odd sort of pickled cream while the appliances were white. I NEVER got used to them.  When our television broke and we bought a new one, our old coffee table became the new tv stand. Instead of replacing the dysfunctional overhead microwave we just put another one on the countertop.

Basically our most used room in the house was slowly sliding into ugliness. At first I looked at inexpensive ways to fix things--on the cheap. First up, build and paint an easy corner tv stand so we could reclaim our coffee table.

The prospect of a painted tv stand led me to wanting to paint our cabinets. I found a few tutorials and well, I was off to the races. That led me to pintrest, HGTV.com, and Houzz. My to-do list grew and grew:

• replace the microwave and dishwasher
• paint the cabinets white
• replace the laminate counters with wood--put together by me with my Kreg jig
• replace the non-functioning pendant lights with ones that shed more light
• repaint the dingy refrigerator
• replace the white knobs and pulls with brushed nickel ones
• sew purple and white curtains
• add a roller shade to the back door to cut the heat in summer
• build and paint a corner tv stand
• sew white canvas slipcovers for the sofa
• buy slipper or arm chairs so there is more seating around the tv
• build a few end tables
• buy a sisal or other neutral colored rug
• replace the black mats at the doors

Hours and hours later I had an an entire pintrest board devoted to all the new things I wanted to do to improve this space.

Then, I made the mistake of asking my husband his opinion. He loves the cabinets and even the awful green countertops. So I did what any grown woman would do in this situation: I pouted. I was stuck with an awful family open concept room! After a few hours of pouting I realized that I had fallen into that oh-so-attractive consumerist trap again. In my effort to beautify and make our space more useful, I had assumed that I had to buy and change stuff to make me happy. My happiness depended upon me getting to do what I wanted and (more importantly) buy what I wanted.

My online information gathering had morphed into online covetousness. So I've decided to take a break, clean my kitchen, put away the piles, and try to focus on one bit at a time. For now, keep things tidy and neat. I think I need to step away from the pintrest, and focus on the work rather than the dreaming for a while.

Big Beds

Goodbye, toddler bed and crib; hello, big beds. Tim and I teamed up to build the boys a pair of beds that will eventually be stacked into a bunk bed in a few years. We used these plans. Tim bought and cut the wood while I did the sanding and most of the build. We bought the mattresses at Big Lots and the bedding at Target.

This was technically the boys' big Christmas gift--it just took a little longer than I thought to complete. I didn't want to rush the process. Xavier got such a kick out of seeing his new bed under various stages of construction. As you can see, though, Jack doesn't seem to mind the delay either.

I'm very happy with the results. These beds are SOLID. And if the boys manage to scratch or break them, we've got the skills, supplies and tools to fix them.

Hot Lists and Price Books

Did you all enjoy your week and a half off? Sorry about the gap in classes, folks. With my stepdaughter here for the summer I've been so busy living life that I've had little to no time to blog about it. Couponing and bargain hunting has been making its effect on my family. The boys love to play with my discarded coupons when I'm culling out the expired ones. My stepdaughter is beginning to learn more about PPU (price per unit) and just realized yesterday that the popcorn that the movies sells for $4 costs us about $.06 to make at home.

Enough chit chat, let's get down to business. Today we are going to learn about the value and use of price books. If you only do ONE thing from this series of blog posts, this is it. Back in the dark ages before marriage and kids I worked as an editor of a small women's magazine. One of the parts of my job was to keep an eye on the costs of our supplies and vendors (printers, paper, delivery service, shipping service, etc.) and every so often to comparison shop. Money saved was money earned, quite literally for me as my compensation was based in part on the profitability of each and every issue. I had elaborate spreadsheets dedicated to analyzing various business expenses and how they could change our profitability.

When I shifted gears into homemaking, making a price book made perfect sense to me. I was new to Beaumont and I had no idea which stores had the best prices. Why wouldn't I make a list of what I bought and how much it cost? So using both my receipts and flyers from grocery stores I made a new spreadsheet with the following columns:

• Category Organize your price book into whatever categories make sense to you. Mine are Baking Goods, Beauty/Grooming, Beverages, Breads, Canned Goods, Cleaning Products, Condiments, Dairy, Frozen, Meat, Pasta, Produce and Seafood.
• Item, Here you specify the item name. If it is an item you are brand loyal about, put the exact product name (i.e. Sensodyne), otherwise just put the generic name (whitening toothpaste).
• Date, Slowly you'll begin to realize that certain products go on sale about every 12 weeks and others go on sale seasonally. Having the date also lets you monitor how overall prices are increasing over time.
• Store, I have abbreviations for each store I frequent
• Quantity, List the numeral for the size or amount of what was purchased (i.e. 24)
• Unit, List the unit of measurement such as ounces, gallons, pounds, etc. If it is produce sold by the piece just put the word unit there
• Price, List the price paid without including any coupons used.
• PPU, Here you will need to do a little spreadsheet operation to divide your column of price by your column of quantity. The result is the PPU. This is what will help you easily compare the price for a 28 oz can of tomatoes to a 14 oz can.

Now instead to making a massive price book for every single item you ever might think of buying, you are going to start out slow with a Hot List Price Book. To start out you need to write down about 20 items that are staples in your household. Hint: what are you always running out of? What fills up your cart? What do you spend the most on? If Armageddon were upon us, what would you stock up on? Some items on our household's hotlist are milk, apples, bananas, apple juice, eggs, coffee, raisins, bread, whole wheat pasta, and popcorn. If you are a meat eater don't forget to add a few meats to your list. Ours includes ground beef, whole chickens, and pork chops.

A word about brand loyalty. I've said before that you will save more in the long run if you can discard most brand loyalty in the supermarket. But undoubtedly there are a few things that you just would rather go without than buy a lesser brand. For me this is Sensodyne toothpaste and Glide dental floss. Put these items on your hotlist by the brand name.

When I put together my first price book I quickly learned that I could save at least $50 a month by buying milk, eggs, coffee and popcorn at Kroger and canned goods, some produce and most meats at Market Basket. I also learned that for our family, Sam's Club didn't make any difference at all from a PPU perspective and that while some products were less expensive at Wal-mart, most weren't. That's about $600 a year in savings without even clipping a coupon. Pretty cool, right?

Homework: Make your Hotlist Pricebook.
You can make a spread sheet or you can just use a notebook and a calculator. I'm sure somewhere someone has made an app for this as well but as a cell phone Luddite I'm no help to you there. Draw up a price book sheet in whatever way works best for you. Make about five blank spaces below each of your 20 hot list items. Over the next week or so (it may be a while before I post again) fill in your price book when you go to the stores you frequent. Don't forget to include club stores and drug stores as well as supermarkets.

Now Enrolling: Coupon College

Over the past few years I've had several people express interest in learning some of the ways I save money on our family's grocery bill. Several others are skeptical that we can use coupons and shop sales without resorting to a high-fat diet of Chefboyardee and fruit punch for dinner each night. So in an effort to help the would-be-frugal (and I admit, squelch the naysayers) I've decided to design a step-by-step course called Coupon College.

There are tons of resources on the internet and in the public library to help you started with saving money and couponing. Why should I reinvent the wheel? I think to jumpstart the process it helps to have someone point out the good deals to you while you are also setting up your own shopping and couponing system. While you work on learning how to coupon, I'll help you right now by pointing out good local sales to you. If it took three months before you started to see any improvement at all, you'd probably give up before you got started. The fact of the matter is that this is somewhat a local proposition. Deals in Texas don't automatically appear in New Hampshire. For that matter the deals in Houston may be completely different from the deals in Beaumont. So while my friends across the country are welcome to join in (and will certainly benefit) the biggest winners in Coupon College are likely to be folks in and around Beaumont, TX. Those of you in other locales will need to use common sense to take what is useful and disregard the rest. I will be providing helpful links to articles, blogs, and databases that will help you customize your own system.

So, let's get a few of the FAQs out of the way, shall we?

Q: How much will Coupon College cost?

A: This is a personal blog--it isn't monetized in any way. I do not accept payment or products from any company and do not intend to in the future. I post for my own edification and enjoyment of helping and connecting with others. Accordingly, Coupon College is a completely free and voluntary program. There is no monetary tuition. I would ask that once you get the hang of couponing that you "pay it forward." This could mean donating extra food to a food bank, teaching your neighbor how to coupon, or just forwarding someone else the link to this series. It's up to you.

Q: Does that mean I won't need to spend any money at all do participate in Coupon College?

A: Not exactly. One of our first lessons will be on "school supplies" which will contain a list of optional but recommended tools you'll need. It is made up of really hard-to-find and expensive items like a loose leaf binder, a coupon carrier, a pair of scissors, etc. You may also wish to subscribe to the Sunday paper, which in Beaumont is just $9 per month. If you are really strapped for cash, you can always make do with some old used envelopes and your neighbor's recycled newspapers.

Q: Will there be homework?

A: Yes! You can't expect yourself to learn anything new if you aren't willing to do a little work on your own. I'm not going to wave a magic wand and automatically reduce your grocery bill by 20% each week. You should expect to spend about two hours each week on Coupon College. Some weeks it may be more, some weeks it may be less. Look at it this way: can you think of two television shows you watched last week that in retrospect you could have done without? That wasted time could have been spend being productive in Coupon College. Once you get the hang of it, couponing and shopping sales will feel like second nature like brushing your teeth before you go to bed.

Q: Will there be tests or exams?

A: Yes! From time to time you will need to "test" yourself to make sure you really do know how to implement what you are learning. You can choose to share your test results with the rest of us via the comments boxes or not. Either way, you really ought to at least keep track of your progress to keep you going. I'll be posting my progress as well by giving you our weekly budget and a report on how we did.

Q: How long is Coupon College?

A: Three months. I'll post at least once a week about a new topic and an assignment. I suggest doing things "my way" for this period. Just subscribe to this blog and you're in. Once you are done, you can decide how best to tweak your shopping system to best fit your family's needs.

Q: I'm not a SAHM, a healthfood freak, in need of saving money, etc. Why should I even consider doing this?

A: Quite simply: freedom. Even if you can spare the extra $200 each month for groceries that you would save by couponing, would you turn down $200 if someone offered it to you? Everytime you save a dollar from your household budget you buy a little bit of your freedom back. Perhaps you can use it to go on vacation, or splurge on a fancy date night once a month, or afford to eat more organic/sustainable food. Why spend money that you don't need to? And if for some unforseen reason you do find yourself tight on money one day, you will be glad to know these skills.

Okay, that's the pitch. Are you in or are you out? Leave a message in the comments or send me an e-mail if you'd like to join us. Oh, and feel free to pass a link along to a friend!

Homesewn Luxury

A few weeks ago we finally were able to buy a new box spring and mattress for our master bedroom. This was a purchase that was planned, delayed, replanned, and so on for at least two and a half years. Whenever we had the money in the budget some unforeseen expense would come up that was more urgent. Since we are a pay-as-you-go kind of family, charging what is basically a non-emergency expense was out of the question. So I waited. Sometimes with patience, other times with resentment or self-pity. The entire mattress issue became a spiritual issue for me. I spent time in prayer about it.

Fortunately when the time came we found a great mattress that was well within our budget with a little left over. It's near-double depth compared to the old mattress meant that we would need new sheets too. So I turned my online research skills from mattresses to sheets.

My husband is what some call a "hot sleeper." Not only does he feel hot at night but he heats up the bed and sheets as well thus affecting us both. I found out that our old high thread count cotton sheets may have been making things worse as the tight weave makes for softness but less breathability.

I also discovered that 100% linen sheets are the gold standard for hot sleepers. Unfortunately, they are also extraordinarily pricey. It isn't uncommon to find them on sale for about $800 for an entire set. So with a little disappointment, I went to Target and bought the lowest thread count cotton sheets I could find. They were good, but I kept fantasizing about how much better the $800 linen sheets would be.

One morning it occured to me that I could make our own sheets. While they would need to be pieced together from 60" cloth they would still be linen. I was unable to find any online instructions on how to sew your own queen-sized sheets from fabric--I suppose you have to be a little nutty like me to even want to try. So for posterity, here are my instructions and lessons learned. I'll try to add some more how-to photos in the future.

A queen flat sheets is 92x102 inches finished. In lieu of making a fitted sheet, I decided to make two oversized flat sheets, one of which can be folded with hospital corners on the bottom. That way they would be interchangable. I also needed four pillow cases, 20x32 inches finished.

I found a great online store to order the fabric from. I must have been in a fog when I ordered the fabric because I only got 8 yards when I really needed 17. Somehow I lost sight of the fact that each sheet required two three-yard lengths. Don't make my mistake!

In any case, here's the how-to for a single sheet:

Cut two lengths of cloth at 3 yards each. One will be the center panel and the other will be split down the middle to form the two side panels. Depending on the desired final width (full, queen, king) you may want to split the second piece into three panels, a side panel from each edge (you'll want to work with the selvege, believe me) and the remainer cut out from the center piece. I chose to just keep the extra width to make it easier to use as a bottom sheet and to be able to use if we ever upgrade to a king-size bed.

Prewash, line dry, and press the fabric. Then pin the raw edge of the side panel to the selvege side of the center panel. Because you are working with such an expanse of fabric, you'll want to pin carefully. Sew a 5/8 inch seam. Press flat, then press open. Trim the raw edge of the seam down to a 1/4 inch. Fold selvege edge of the seam over it and press. Sew near the edge of the selvege. This is called a flat-felled seam. It encases the raw edge and results in a sturdy flat seam similar to those you'll find on a pair of blue jeans. Repeat the same on the other side of the center panel with the second side piece making sure the flat felled seams are on the same side of the sheet.

Double fold the bottom edge of the sheet (1/4 and then 5/8 inch) and press to form an encased hem. Stitch the edge through all three layers.

Single or double fold the sides of the sheet--since they are selvege edges you don't need to worry about fraying.

Double fold the top edge of the sheet (1/4 and then 4 inches) and press to form a thick encased hem. Stitch through all three layers. This is the area where you may choose to do a decorative stitch across the top. I preferred the simpler look. These are positively monastic and deliciously so. I would refrain from hemstitching like you see on tea towels though as that basically weakens the sheet which is intended for heavy duty use. I imagine after a year or two it would tear sort of like perforated toilet paper.

Pillowcases

Pillowcases were much easier for me. Cut a 44x36 inch square--a little less than one full yard of 60 inch cloth. Fold it over width-wise to form the pillowcase shape. Stitch along the bottom and side. I did a straight stitch first and then went back over with a overedge stitch on my machine similar to an overlock/serger stitch. Basically I wanted a no-fray finish without having to turn under the seam. Then double fold the open edge of the pillowcase (1/4 and then 4 inches), press, and stitch through all three layers close to the folded edge. Again, if you are going for a decorative stitch this should be the place for it. No hemstitching though!

Here are a few things I would do differently next time...learn from my mistakes:

• Buy the correct amount of cloth in the first place! 17 yards, not 8. Doh!
  
• Don't bother with prewashing the fabric since there is a lot of wiggle room in the final dimensions. Prewashing just created a pressing and edge trimming hassle I think.


• Pin, pin, pin and pin before stitching. Yes, it's a straight stitch but as I mentioned earlier a little bit of slippage over the course of a 3-yard length makes for a huge uneven edge. While I did pin, next time I'll do it about twice as much to avoid that problem again.
  

So far, we've been sleeping on the cotton bottom sheet with the linen top sheet until I can make a second order of linen. I find that it feels so wonderful to be in linen sheets but it does take a little getting used to if you are accustomed to silkier sheets. The best adjectives I can use to describe it are "soft and crisp." Oh, and it is much much cooler but yet still cozy. Apparently linen sheets are a study in contradiction...like the phrase homesewn luxury I suppose.

Masters Degree in Homemaking

Yesterday I went grocery shopping with a good friend with the goal of helping share a little bit of my money saving techiniques. It was chaotic to say the least. I just pointed out items in the produce section that were a good bargain, tried to explain PPU comparisons, and grocery timing all while we were maneuvering two huge car/carts with two toddlers and a baby in tow. I mistakenly was trying to do too much too fast. Upon reflection later in the evening, I realized that it has taken me a while to accumulate what I know about shopping frugally.

I didn't have a job for the first six months of my married life. One month was taken up by our fantastic honeymoon in Vermont. One month was consumed by combining our households and moving to Beaumont. The remaining four months are what I refer to as my time earning my self-taught masters degree in homemaking: home finance to be exact.

I used to grocery shop willy nilly. I had no idea what things cost. Price of a bell pepper? No idea. When it would be in season and therefore cheaper. Again, no idea. Were fresh peppers more or less expensive than frozen ones? What?!

But during those easy, kid-free days of my early marriage, I tackled homemaking the way I had tackled other workplace challenges. I started out by reading. A lot. Blogs, library books, websites, coupon clubs, anything I could get my hands on. I made a price book with a spreadsheet program. I made a list of the top 30 items we buy each month and comparison shopped at three grocery stores, the dollar store, and even snuck into the Sam's Club without a membership card. I'm sure I raised a few eyebrows as I just went down the aisle with my notebook, pencil and calculator in hand. As a courtesy I bought a small item at each store (with the exception of Sam's). As my husband reminds me, I even went to the "ghetto" grocery store across town to see prices were cheaper there. For the record, I was horrified to see that they were the same or MORE expensive for the same items. I tried various methods of couponing and quickly realized that brand loyalty was a thing of the past for me. Oh, and I realized that I'll never pay full price for a craft item again thanks to coupons from Hobby Lobby and Joann's. I got familiar with the thrift stores in town and I garage-saled a lot.
Even after starting paid employment up until I had my first child, I still read and read some more about how to save money and run household finances efficiently.  

I am so greatful for that time because once kids came along, doing the hard work of getting up to speed as a homemaker was pushed to the side in favor of reading books, websites, and blogs about raising kids.

Now, I'm no expert on frugal living yet. There are ladies out there in the blogosphere that feed a family of six on $50 a week while using mostly organic foods. I'm not there yet, and perhaps I'll never be. At a certain point I have to accept that there is only so much scrounging around for deals that I'm willing to do. I love the hunt of a good bargain and a penny saved but I'm not ready to make it my sole focus. I do think that to be successful at this, you need to make it a hobby. Amy D., author of the Tightwad Gazette book series says that she only has hobbies that save money or are at least spending neutral--none of those $100 trips to Hobby Lobby for her! I have taken her advice to heart. My hobbies are more likely to be baking, sewing gifts, and vegetable gardening than the golf, shopping, and dining out in my single years.

I know a lot of people are trying to trim budgets these days. In the case of my friend, she's working towards savings for a positive financial goal. Others are thrust into frugality school by necessity such as job loss. If you have the time and interest in running a tighter ship when it comes to your household finances, I'd recommend these three guidelines:

Go slowly at your own pace. What is good for someone else might feel like extreme deprivation for your family. There are many, many ways to practice good financial stewardship as a homemaker. Most of them take time though. If you have a lot of free time, like I did in the early days of my marriage, than you will be able to make changes more quickly. But even I revert back to less frugal ways when things get hectic around here with guests in town or if Tim is away on business. Sometimes you just don't have the time and energy to find the good deals, make a meal plan around it, and cook from scratch each night. Something's gotta give. Which leads me to guideline number two...

Don't measure your sucess by comparing yourself to others. There is no way I could do what I do with our home finances if I worked a full-time or even part-time job. Homemaking is a fulltime endeavor for me so I can do things that others can't do. At the same time, I'm relatively new at this. I'm sure the real frugalistas out there could cut my spending by at least another 30% without us feeling a pinch. It's all relative and you can't enjoy your progress if you are constantly comparing yourself to others. Also, try to refrain from getting too sanctimonious about how much you save/other people "waste" on groceries/clothes/whatever. I fell into this trap at first. If being frugal is going to make you a judgemental prig, it isn't worth it.

Find enjoyment in it. Some folks love the couponing game. I'm not as crazy about it since we try not to eat as many processed foods but for those who do, a lot of money can be saved this way. I've turned scratch cooking into a source of pleasure for me and the boys. At least one day a week be bake and freeze muffins, bread, bagels, cakes, you name it. Gardening is another source of fun although we're nowhere near feeding ourselves primarily from what we grow. I LOVE finding a good closeout deal at the store or blithley walking by a false sale--that's a product labelled as if it is on sale but my price book indicates that you can get it for a much lower price at other times of the year. I LOVE passing on sale information to like-minded frugal folks.

All of this brings me back to my failed grocery store tutorial from yesterday. It was a crash course. Because we were both shopping it was hard not to compare what each of us put in the cart. And because we went at a busy time of the day with somewhat cranky and hyper kids, it wasn't the leisurly fun that grocery shopping can be at other times. I broke my own three rules! Despite all this, my friend still did fantastic and managed to cut her spending by about 15-20% on that one trip. Which I suppose should be guideline number four: just do it!

Yogurt: Set It and Forget It

I've been on a scratch cooking kick lately. The thing about cooking from scratch is that once you start doing it, it becomes progressively easier. No, really. You know that you have the basics in the house: flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, yeast, milk or milk powder, eggs, oils and butters, and spices. It means that whipping up a batch of muffins, pancakes, bagels, or cookies is just a matter or measuring out what you already have on hand. It is almost as easy as dumping a box mix in a bowl and adding egg and oil. But with scratch cooking you know exactly what you are feeding your family.

Xavier has loved to help cook since he was about 18 months old. I'll measure and he'll put things in the bowl. He "stirs" and then I stir after him. He can put paper cups in the muffin tin. He likes to watch things bake through the oven's glass door. One of the easiest ways to scratch cook is to find catch-all recipies. I have a basic bread recipie that can use honey, brown sugar, or any other kind of sweetener, as well as butter, olive oil, veggie oil or any other fat as the, well, fat in the recipie. I also have a basic muffin recipie to which I can add overripe bananas, raisins, even leftover mashed sweet potatoes. Scratch cooking is a great way to use up leftovers and boost nutrition at the same time.

A few weeks ago I found an online recipe for yogurt that didn't involve getting a yogurt maker (which just means one more one-use gadget cluttering my small kitchen) or using a heating pad (I'm a little squeamish about using non-cookware for dairy products). Instead this recipie used one of my favorite tools: the crockpot! Here's the recipie itself. I find that letting the yogurt sit a little longer than 8 hours (say 10-11) produces the best results. I put the finished product back into large and small yogurt containers I've saved from store-bought in the past. Just make sure to use a sharpie and masking tape to label the "use by" date on each container.

Now here's how you can extend the recipie even further. If you have fruit that is just this side of overripe, puree it in the blender and freeze into ice cubes. When you're heading out the door, pop a cube into a small single-serving container, fill up with yogurt, pop it in the diaper bag, and you're good to go with a snack.

Another way to extend the useful life of your yogurt, mix it at a 1:1 ratio with water and you have "buttermilk." Make pancakes, pound cake, salad dressing, veggie dip or any other recipie you have that calls for buttermilk. In the past I've always avoided them because really, who buys buttermilk? What do you do with the leftovers?

Lastly, don't forget to freeze a few cubes of yogurt (equal to 1/2 cup) for using to make your next batch of yogurt.

Work

I've been on a rabit trail lately about the American tradition of work. It all started when a mom at the library recommended checking out DVDs (free!) for some at home date nights with my husband. She and her spouse had just finished the Showtime series on Henry VIII called The Tudors. Starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry, this was high on the racy sex factor and not so much with the history. Tim and I made it through about 2-3 episodes before deciding this just wasn't worth our precious quiet time together.

But the idea of watching premium cable series through the library's DVD program triggered my memory of rave reviews of HBO's John Adams series. So I requested that and received it the next week. We both really liked this one. More history, more character development, etc. It makes me want to read the biography that the series is drawn from.

Two things stood out to me: one was how Abigail Adams seemed like a great role model for the modern homemaker. She was educated, thoughtful, supportive, hard-working, and loving. She also worked. She may have planned meals but she also scrubbed windows and floors too.

From there I ended up checking out a book from the children's library entitled Home and Child Life in Colonial Days. It was clearly too advanced for Xavier -- in fact it was just an abridged version of an adult book. But I found it fascinating. Again what impressed me was how much work occupied time back then. Even social events were centered around work: spinning, building, land clearing, and quilting just to name a few. It was considered patriotic to be self-sufficient when possible and neighborly helpful when needed. Pride came from providing for your family and your accomplishements, not from material possessions or leisurly pursuits. The latter illicited enjoyment rather than pride.

All of this makes me realize how little we actually do during each day compared to our forbearers. Sure I do a few loads of laundry a day but that mostly consists of putting things into a machine and pressing buttons. Same with washing dishes. Same with vacuuming. How much of my day do I actually spend engaged in actual work versus leisure (web surfing, talking on the telephone, reading books, sending e-mail).

The past few days I've been trying to find the joy and peace in work, actual work. Not just spot cleaning on the fly but planning and executing. The funny thing is that while I still get about the same amount done each day, I've found that my entire attitude with respect to work has changed as I try to be diligent but not perfectionist. How? I give whatever I'm doing my full attention and when I'm done, I'm done.

I've also tried to be more mindful about what I find satisfaction in. Is it the neatly made bed and tidy room or is it the fashionably painted bedroom and coordinating bedding?

Views from the Hidden Homestead

Clockwise from upper left:

1. The compost bin that Tim and I built. It holds over 54 cubic feet of compost.
2. My garden clogs and well worn gloves ready for 5 minutes of work here and there.
3. Baby clothes hanging in the sunshine.
4. Clothespin basket.
5. Reissentraube heirloom tomatoes.
6. Bird bath left by previous owner. A favorite stalking spot for the local cats.
7. Hand tools for spot gardening.
8. Birdhouse painted by Lexy.
9. The potted herb garden which provided basil for tonight's pesto.

We love our backyard! It is beautiful and functional. I hope to extend the vegetable garden into another bed. Of course our front yard is a fright. Just your standard shrubs and desperately in need of weeding.

Mrs. Fix-It

Well we are getting back to normal here after Hurricane Ike. We have a fence that is blown down and we'll be needing to get new carpet but compared to some of our neighbors, we are doing very, very well.

I've decided to make a list of all the little repairs around the house that I've been meaning to get to for a while. One thing about inspecting your home inside and out for storm damage, it seems to clear my vision to see those small things that I pass up everyday.

Today my first project was to set up the garden trellis that I made out of PVC pipe, screws, and twine (again!). My green beans are pretty much the only crop that has survived both Ike and Gustav. Poor things were scrambling all over the ground with no vertical apparatus to climb.

I was so inspired by that project (and Xavier was still napping!) that I decided to straighten out our garage. Xavier likes to accompany me when I do laundry in there, and his curiousity was beginning to outpace the modicum of childproofing I had done out there early last spring.

This was my big accomplishment:

I took down this peg board several months ago to install some heavy duty shelves. Originally I had intended to reinstall it below the shelves but I realize now that would have been too low. So I put up the new peg board in the narrow space beside the washing machine. I figure it is a handy way for me to make sure our of the corner of my eye that Xavier isn't getting into it when I'm putting things in the dryer.

Those of you who may be concerned that I'm doing all this physical work while 28 weeks pregnant need not fear. Doing a little handy work is much less exhausting or taxing than taking Xavier to the playground and we do that several times a week.

My next project that I hope to tackle is to rescreen all the windows in our home. With the weather getting cooler, I'd really like to keep our windows open more to get more fresh air in our home. According to an article I read a while back, modern homes are much more energy efficient but tend to have more air pollution because less fresh air flows in and out. The only thing that keeps me from leaving the windows open most days and evenings is the screens. Some have holes in them. The flimsy polyester netting on others has been damaged by a certain toddler's explorations.

I plan to replace the polyester screen with standard aluminium screen to make them sturdier. This will be a first-time project for me so I'll let you know how it goes.

Well that's one way to clean the bathroom floor

Xavier and I have been attending Mommy & Me swim lessons for the last week and a half. Class runs from 8-9 a.m. By the time we get back home, Xavier usually is sacked out and I hop into the shower quickly before taking a nap myself. I'm usually in a mad dash to get something to eat, get clean, and get in bed so I can actually sleep before Xavier wakes up.

This morning I put my bathing suit in the sink, ran the water, grabbed a muffin, hopped in the shower, and...did you catch it? Thank goodness I take short showers in general. I turned off the water and heard the ominous sound of MORE water running. Yep. I left the sink on and managed to flood the bathroom with a half inch of water.

I threw on my bathrobe and dashed to the garage where we keep about a dozen extra bath towels in various stages of decrepitude. About fifteen minutes later I had a laundry basket filled with soggy towels to bring back to the garage.

My bathroom floor has never been so sparkly.