Do you sometimes wish for a simpler time? A time when life was not full of distractions? No cell phones constantly ringing, tons of emails to check, TV, 24 hour news, tons of school activities.

I know I do! Sometimes I just wish I could go back to a time when life was centered around a self sufficiency and survival. Just raising my family on a small family farm. The kids would only go to school a few months of the year during the winter when they were not needed in the field. Most of our time was spent together with none of the distractions.

Recently I got a taste of what that would be like.

My grandmother has an old fashion glass butter churn. It was handed down to my 82 year old grandmother by her uncle. She was not sure how old it was but thought that he might have been given it used himself. She used it for many years when they had their own dairy cows after WWII. We asked her if we would bring a half gallon of fresh raw cream if she would let us use it. Of course she agreed.


When we got to her house she had it all cleaned up and ready to go. It was amazing that after setting for 40 years it worked so well. We all had a blast sitting around the kitchen table visiting, listening to old family stories, and taking turns churning the butter. Grandma said she never remembered it being this much fun back when she "had" to do the butter chore, but that day with her grand kids and great grand kids she enjoyed it. There was no distractions of life that day, no tv, no cell phones work on the farm, no running to do.


It was all so simple that day.

Why do we celebrate birthdays? How do we celebrate birthdays? I find myself pondering these questions over the past few years. It seems like birthdays (along with most holidays) have been hi-jacked by our commercialized world.

People used to celebrate birthdays because it was a big deal to have made it through another year of life. Children and adults alike were not as blessed as we are to have access to healthy food and medicine. They also did not have huge blow out parties with 30 kids at an expensive location outside their home while expecting their child to be showered by $20-$40 gifts.

I decided that enough is enough. I'm putting the breaks on this train wreck. I'm not letting my children's birthdays be hi-jacked. That is when I started thinking... Now that sometimes gets me into trouble but this time I think I came up with a great way to make their birthdays special while making it into a learning experience. Here is what we did.


Starting at 6 years old we decided that a child has finally developed enough socially and mentally to understand sharing and giving. That the world is bigger then them and not centered around them.

At six years old they can handle not getting gifts from friends for their birthday. Instead, we let our daughter pick out a charity to request gifts for. This gives us an opportunity to talk about all the need there is in our own community. People need food (local food pantry), animals need food and treats (local animal shelter), people need items for their home (local emergency shelter), parks can always use trees and plants, and some parents can't afford to buy their babies anything at all (local Birthright center). After talking about all the different needs in the community she got to pick who SHE can help by having her friends bring items (wrapped like presents) to the birthday party.

You might think that our daughter would have been crying and devastated by this blow of no presents from her friends but she was not. She understood that her parents and grandparents would still buy her gifts and that she could help someone else. She decided to help the babies in need. I was amazed at how excited she became about it. Weeks before the party and before invitation where sent out she started to talk to all of her friends and their moms about not buying her a present but to instead bring a newborn item for a baby.

She was so excited to see all the gifts come in and kept asking to peak inside to see what baby item they brought. You would have thought that they were for her baby! The excitement was still there during the present opening time but the focus was not of the greedy green eyed monster wanting the next fad toy, but instead the excitement of a baby having something they would like and look cute in.

After the party was over she could not wait to deliver all the presents to the local Birthright office. She wanted to make sure they got them fast! It was hard to keep her at bay until Tuesday but what a wonderful way for her to see that she could make a difference and help someone. Walking in there with a huge bag of items to donate make her proud and gave her an even deeper giving spirit. Now the question she keeps asking is not what type of party she wants next year, but instead "Who should I get presents for when I turn 7?"

It's amazing to see the giving spirit in her growing. When you give your child a chance to give you help them to grow spiritually in ways we will never fully understand. I'm proud to say that my favorite tradition is the gift of giving to others.

School started on Tuesday and I just couldn't let my daughter start school without one last visit to my parent's farm. We had a wonderful week of enjoying nature and other local activities that were all free.

There were flowers to decorate with


Cool evening breezes to rock in


Sisters to play with


Slides to ride


Grammies to hug


Birthdays to celebrate

Tractors to ride


Free zoos to visit


Even free hair eating to boot'

Funny faces to make


Webs to conquer


Farmer markets to sample


Evening rides along the creek


Morning walks through the wildlife preserve


Wildflowers and weeds in the ditch to clip

One of the best parts of working in the yard is being surrounded by beautiful flowers. Sometimes they might even end up in a persons hair. As a child is seems so magical to wear flowers in your hair. But what happens when the petals start to fall off from playing a little to much with your picked flower?

After our daughter finished sulking about losing her petals she came up with a great idea. Earlier this summer she took a collage art camp at the local art museum. She learned about mixing mediums as well as using natural items in her art work. Without any guidance from us she asked for her a glue stick and got busy at her desk.

This is her newest masterpiece. It's a wonderful sight to see her love of nature and art working together.

Asparagus is one of our family's favorite veggies. We have our own asparagus patch and we seem to never have enough. We could eat it once a day and still not get sick of it. But, we don't eat it year around. We eat it only when it is fresh and local. Our family works hard to only eat local foods. Here is one of our favorite frugal recipes for beloved asparagus.

1. Steam your asparagus
2. Place on platter and sprinkle with sea salt and freshly grated Parmesan cheese
3. Fry an egg
4. Place egg on top of the asparagus
5. Enjoy!

Everywhere you go these days you hear people griping about the bad economy. There is no denying that the recession has hit a lot of us hard. However, most things are neither inherently good nor bad but rather are what we make of them. If we can maintain a positive attitude about the situation that we’re in then we may find that there are actually a lot of good things coming out of the downturn in the economy.

Simpler Living

When faced with a recession, people start living a more frugal life which in turn often leads to living a simpler life. Many of us have stopped rushing around so much because we simply can’t afford the movie tickets, weekend trips, community classes and other things that were taking up so much of our time. Instead, we’re making do with the entertainment that we have at home. This allows us a chance to really get our priorities straight and to gain a more thorough understanding of what matters to us. It also allows us to find pleasure in life’s little things. Even in the face of financial stress, we may find that the little pleasures of simple living are actually reducing our overall stress levels.

Stronger Communities

The recession has caused a lot of us to grow closer to our families, friends and community members. We’re spending less time on entertaining each other and more time just talking and spending time together. We’re getting to know one another better. Since we’re all in a financial bind, we can really empathize with others who are in a tight spot. People are lending each other a helping hand. Bartering is making a comeback among people who have services to trade even though they may not have money. Living in a close community is far more important to most of us than living in a rich one!

Healthier Lifestyles

We typically think of poverty as a cause of unhealthy living but the recession is different. The recession is causing some changes that actually improve our health. More people are going vegetarian since meat is expensive. They’re often buying local foods. This is healthier for their bodies as well as for the environment. In fact, a lot of money-saving efforts are also efforts that reduce waste and make for a more eco-friendly way of life which makes the earth around us healthier. Additionally, many of us are taking better care of ourselves than in the past. In trying to make ourselves feel safe in a time when things are chaotic, we are paying more attention to meeting our own needs. We’re also remembering that money doesn’t matter nearly as much as our health does and we’re acting accordingly.

Embracing our Creativity

All of these changes are causing us to really explore a creative side to ourselves that many people have let lie dormant for far too long. We are learning to get creative in making things since we can’t afford to buy them. We’re getting more creative about our approaches to indulgences like vacations so that we can enjoy them without spending a lot of money. People really do thrive when they express themselves creatively so this is definitely a good thing that’s come out of the bad economy.

Following our Passions

The change in the economy has caused a lot of people to lose their jobs. That’s a terrible experience but many people are turning it into a positive thing. When work is steady, it’s easy to just fall into a pattern of doing it even though you don’t love it. When you realize that your job isn’t secure, you start to ask yourself why you’re doing it. This is causing a lot of people to realize that the work they’ve been doing isn’t the work that they love. People are finding a fresh reason to identify their passions and to follow them.

Doing Better at our Jobs

Those people who do have jobs may be reinvesting themselves in their work. They’re making a concentrated effort to do their work well. Although the fear of job loss that is motivating them is not a positive thing, the result is a positive one. People care more about a job well done. That’s something to be valued.

Learning about Ourselves

All in all this experience of going through a bad recession has caused each of us to learn more about ourselves. We have had to find wells of inner strength to get us through these tough times. We have had to make tough choices about how we want to spend our money and making those choices has helped us to learn to prioritize things in our lives. We have had to look at the work we do, the way that we do it and the goals we have for our lives. The recession has required us to shift our thinking and the result is that our thinking is opening up. We may want the recession to be over but we can use this time to make positive changes that will last us for the rest of our lives.




Guest post by Kathryn Vercillo. Kathryn is a writer for Promotionalcodes.org.uk which gives away free voucher codes (like this Laura Ashley promotional code) and also publishes money saving tips.

During tough economy times we sometimes forget what is really important in life. We get so worried and wrapped in the things that are going wrong that we miss the forest from the trees. If we just take a step back we can see that their a lot of blessings in our lives. And as the saying goes "The best things in life are free." Here are some of the best free things in my life.

My Blessings:

• Happy children
• Wonderful husband
• Dear friends
• Time with extended family
• Good neighbors
• Wonderful Church community
  
• Family dinners
  
• Backyard campfires
• Hammock time
• Lazy days at the beach
• Family bike rides and walks
• Watching my husband play basketball w/ my daughter in the driveway

The Bathrooms~

We have one and a half baths in our house. For the past 5 months we have basically be down to the small half bath with no outlets. Over Labor Day weekend we started to gut our main bathroom. That was also the weekend that Mr. NtJS had to work almost the whole weekend with no warning. After that weekend he has had to increase his hours at work a lot because of the lack of staff. We are of course grateful that he has a job, but this has been very problematic for finishing the bathroom remodeling. We started to see the light and was exciting about finishing the remodel this past weekend. Then it happened. He came home early from work on Friday sick. He was sick all the way through Monday night. The bathroom is still not done.

However we are so close you can smell it! We are also close enough that I moved us back in today. Normally when I prep for de-cluttering a room I have a mental list of what needs to be done. This time I really had no clue. Our bathroom was now divided up and broken into four different rooms/ closets.

I was surprised when I started emptying boxes by the amount of items that were expired or extremely old with no expiration date. I ended up filling a large trash bag with expired items and extremely old items! I was able to organize everything in a logical way and nothing was cramped. Our bathroom is small so that was amazing to me!

I'm extremely happy with the way things have turned out so far. I have not taken any photos yet because I want until the mirror and shelves are hung, the drop cloth is gone and the vanity doors shut all the way. Then we will show you before and after photos along with a post about the project. I can't wait to show you the new and improved bathroom!

Have you checked expiration dates on your first aid items and toiletries lately? Do you have a de-cluttered bathroom? Feel free to share a photo of your space.

This battle has been won! The next room to tackle is the office. This is by far the worst room in the house. Check back next Friday to see how the final room is shaping up or if I've lost the battle in the worst room.

I love mason jars! It all started when I was a freshman in college. I needed something to keep my pens and pencils in on my desk in the dorms. With no money to my name I decided to re purpose something. I found an old quart sized mason jar and put it to work.

Since then I have used them for everything! I'm still amazed at the number of times I solve a problem with a glass mason jar. It's almost like a woman's version of duct tape really. In fact, I just solved another problem with them just the other day. I wanted to put my bulk food into glass containers to store them instead of the flimsy plastic bags they come in. We really don't have room in the budget for the jars and I did not find any at garage sales and estate sales this past summer. I was not sure what I was going to do when I remembered that I had some 1/2 gallon mason jars in the basement that I "inherited" from my mom's best friend's mom's estate. I've never used them for canning and they have just been sitting in the basement. It was a perfect match for my bulk flours, sugar and rices.

Here are 16 of the many other uses for your canning jars other then canning.

• Pen/Pencil holder
• Utensil holder
• Bulk food canisters
• Cookie jar
• Storing leftover food
  
• Loose change container
• Hold plant clippings you are rooting
• Candle holder
• Flower vase
  
• Sorter/holder for loose screws, nuts, etc
• Store extra buttons
• Custom mixed wood stain holder
• Holds gifts like dried cookie mixes or homemade bath salts
• Bird feeders
• Use as a drinking glass
• Eye Spy container for kids
  

The Kitchen~

I was not sure the day would come, but today it happened. It is the first day in well over two weeks that I am not sick nor am I taking care of sick kids or pets for that matter. With all the health issues under control it was time to tackle the kitchen de-junking project.

When I was preparing mentally for this room I saw lots of things I could get rid of. I also decided that it was time to reconsider there things are located. When we moved in I just put everything away in the same place that the previous owner had her stuff. Two years later, it's time to decide what is working and what is not. I already have some ideas going into this project but want to see how much room I have after weeding out unwanted items.
Before:










After:









I started this project by getting a couple empty boxes to put garage sale items in. Then I start in one corner of the cabinets and went in order through all the cabinets removing items I want to sell or give away. I ended up filling 4 good sized boxes to be added to the garage sale pile. I have everything from wine glasses to a strainers. In the end I actually freed up a lot more space then I thought I would.

Next I took post it notes and put one on all the cabinet doors and the drawers. I wrote what items were staying there and what was being added to it. After I did a re-org post it style, I took the plunge and started moving things around. It all seemed to work just fine, however, it will take some getting used to the new locations. One of the biggest changes was moving the food from the pantry (which is located in the hallway) to the lower kitchen cabinets and the item's used once month or so moved into the pantry closet. It will be nice to not have to make the long walk back and forth all the time.

Before:












After:













We did add baskets that pull out for the food to make it easier to see what we have. I am also going to use large canning jars for my bulk food items to get them out of the flimsy plastic bags. When I do that I would like to put nice labels on them like the Mabel canister and spices labels. But that will be a project for another day. For now I'm happy with the way things turned out. I'd have to say that I won this battle!

How did you kitchen turn out? Did you get a box full of kitchen goodies for your next garage sale?

Next will be bathrooms and linen closet. This should be a lot of fun since we will be moving back into the full bath after finishing the remodeling this coming weekend. Right now it's still a work in progress (but at least we have a floor again). Tune in next Wednesday to see how the new bathroom comes together!

Thanks to horrible case of the stomach flu I will have to postpone Day 4, the kitchen, portion of this series. I ended up in the emergency room from dehydration Tuesday early morning and needed two bags of IV fluids. Now that I am home I have slept for over 24 hours with just a few brief 5-10 minute periods of awake time. I'm still extremely weak and now our oldest daughter is home sick from school with a different bug!

Hopefully I will be able to work on the kitchen by the end of this coming weekend. Maybe by Monday I will be able to post about my kitchen de-junking adventure. However, you might notice a drop in the number of posts during the next few days. As I'm out of commission and the Mr. is busy being Mr. Mom at home with the baby and us two sickos.

Kid's Bedroom~

The girls' bedroom always looks like it has been ransacked by vandals. Today was no exception. The thought of tackling their room was scary and if it was not for making a commitment to doing it in the last post in this series I would have put it off a little longer. But alas, I will keep my word and not let the junk win this battle!


It was hard to prepare mentally for this room. There was just to much stuff everywhere and it was all a moving target with the one year old moving everything around constantly. I did decide that the best way to tackle it would be to start by the door and work my way around the room counter clockwise. This would give me a feel of accomplishment and hopefully help keep the youngest from destroying to much in my wake.

I have spent a full day in this room and could easily spend more time working in it if I had the time. So far I have pulled out 4 really large paper sacks full of toys to sell and/or give away. I've also pulled clothes out that doesn't fit the girls any more. Our oldest daughter had several outfits that will be going into storage containers for when the little one grows into them. Then there was about 10 outfits that the youngest has outgrown that were still hanging in the closet. I'm going to sell them mainly online. What I can't sell online I'll hold back for the garage sale. There was also a huge bag of trash that came out of the room.




I personally find it extremely hard to keep the girls' room clean. They are 5 and 1 years old. They have lots of friends who are always coming over to play which seems to make it even harder to keep clean even when they clean up before they leave.

The Master Bedroom~

While preparing mentally I did come up with some things to sell and give away. The main items being my nursing tops that I don't use any more. I think that I could manage to give away a few pairs of shoes that I have not worn in awhile. The main things I noticed was a lot of dust on surfaces and clutter on top of dressers.

When I started cleaning today I was dreading this room just because I've neglected it for so long. However, once I got started I really got into it! It felt good to clean my own room for a change. This is the only real space the Mr. and I have that is kid free (except for what they drag in). I was also surprised just how fast it went! It did not take long at all to finish the whole room. I did end up with a large stack of clothes. I'll be listing most of the nursing tops on diaper swappers and the rest I'm adding to the sack of baby toys to give away. I'll keep you posted on how much I make off of what I sell. In the end I also had a grocery sack full of shoes to freecycle.

The one thing I was not expecting when I cleaned the bedroom was the mattress cover. When I went to wash the sheets I found that some how since the last time I washed sheets the mattress cover was ripped and destroyed. I'm not sure how that one happened! So I did end up running to target today to buy a new one. I'll have to subtract it from my money make during the cleaning process.

After reading the "Too Much Junk in the Trunk?" post you might be wondering about all that junk in the trunk (now the house). I promised you more info on our junk removal process. So here it is! The first post in a new series all about the Frugal and Green benefits simple house. The Mr.'s favorite saying is "Less is More". We try our hardest to live that motto but in our materialistic world is a never ending battle.

But no worries, I have never enter battle without a good strategy. Here is an outline of our basic battle plans for de-junking our house.

• Time- I only start this project when I have a lot of time to work on it. Otherwise it doesn't get finished and is de-motivating.
  
• Prepare- I spend the week before hand mentally going though each room and changing things while I live my normal life. This seems to help make the work go faster because I've already started a short list of what items need to stay and what can go.
  
• Focus- When it's time to start working it's easy to get distracted. I try to stay focused by giving everyone a job, no TV, only music that gets you moving, and no checking email.
  
• One- I only tackle one room at a time. This relates to the above in that it keeps me focused. If I leave the room I start cleaning a different room and never can get one done completely. I also limit myself to one room a day if possible.
  
• Supplies- Make sure to have everything you need with you when you go into the room. Here is the general list of items I take with me to insure I don't leave the room and get distracted.
  

1. Two paper sacks (trash and stuff to sell)
2. Laundry basket (for items that don't below in that room)
3. Vacuum or broom
4. Surface and window cleaner w/ rag
5. Phone (so I don't leave the room!)

• Finish- It's important to finish the job. That means take the trash out, sort out the sack of stuff to get rid of and either post it on freecycle, craigslist, ebay or put it with your growing garage sale stash. Take the laundry basket full of stuff and put it away correctly. If you do this after each room it will make each room a little easier.
  

Please don't get me wrong, I LOVE to celebrate the birth of Christ and truly enjoy the religious aspect of the holiday. However, the rest of it is just goes against my values to much for me to truly enjoy.

Let me explain.

Mr. NtJS and I had set a limit of three gifts per child and one stocking for Christmas. The gifts do not have to be large either. We work hard to make sure that the items under our tree are of good quality (made in the USA and environmentally friendly when possible). We also de-emphasize Santa Claus (or Saint Nicholas as we call him) but instead focus on each week of Advent and the story behind Christ's birth. We would prefer to sleep in on Christmas morning (going to Mass the night before) and then spend the day in our PJ's having fun with the girls. Enjoy a nicely cooked meal at whatever time we get to it and munch on cookies all day.


What REALLY happens at our house? We spend from early October through Christmas Eve trying to convince our family that our children do NOT need tons and tons of plastic crap made in China. They do not need 5 new expensive dressy outfits each. Then we have the joy of spending out Christmas away from home. We grew up in neighboring towns so we have to go to everyone's Christmas gathering. Dragging food, gifts, and kids all over creation for two to three days. Then we have to rush home before it's time for the Mr. to get back to work. We are all tired, the house is trashed, the tree we didn't get to enjoy has to come down, I have to box up a ton of the girl's toys and clothes to make room for the new ones since their room is stuffed full from their birthdays and the previous Christmas's stuff. I'll spend the next couple months giving away the toys and the brand new stuff I don't feel we should have in our house.

Where is the joy? Where is the fun? Why do I have to compromise my values for the holidays?

I'm I just a stick in the mud? I'm I the only one who dread's Christmas because of these issues?
What do you do to avoid these negative Christmas feelings?