One of our readers posted this info under another post but we thought more of you would get to see this good info if we made it into a post of it’s own.

Tawra is the gardener and as I have said before I’m not quite as good but I do love, love my compost pile. I don’t make it fancy or complicated. I just find a spot in my yard and start piling things on it. I think I like it so much because it saves on trash for me plus there are things I hate to deal with like dead smelly fresh flowers. With a compost pile I just run the vase of them out to the compost pile and dump. So easy.

I love it too because if I need soil to pot any of my flowers in I just dig some out of my compost pile and never have to buy any soil. It is good for things too like I reseeded my yard and I placed a thin layer of compost down first, then seed and next another thin layer of compost to help it along.

Thanks Tracy from Ohio for this good ideas below.

Here are things you can add to your compost pile. Besides Egg shells and coffee grounds and lawn clippings. I thought this would help you all that do the compost thing.

Jill

Dryer lint.
If you must dry your clothes in an electric clothes dryer at
least compost the lint.

Hair and fur
Hair adds nitrogen and other beneficial nutrients to compost.

Fireplace ashes
Wood ashes contain potassium, a major plant nutrient that can
be beneficial depending on the soil type.

Cotton, wool, and silk clothing/fabric
Worn-out clothing made exclusively of natural fibers will
decompose faster if you shred them before composting.

Full vacuum cleaner bags
Paper vacuum cleaner bags and their contents — as well as
all species of non-synthetic debris — are welcome in the
compost pile.

Nail clippings
The byproducts of pedicures, manicures, and even pet nails
are all compostable, provided that they’re polish-free.

Rope and string
Rope and twine made out of natural fibers (e.g., cotton,
hemp, jute, and manila ropes) will decompose in the compost
pile.

Leather goods and clothing
Natural leather products will decompose (albeit slowly) in
the compost pile.

Cotton balls and Q-Tips
Just make sure that your cotton swabs like Q-Tips are 100%
cotton and have cardboard or wooden sticks (NOT plastic).

Seaweed/kelp
If you live on an ocean or other waterway and your shoreline
is being invaded by washed up seaweed or kelp, add it to the
compost pile.

Stale bread and other grain products
Leftover grain-based food products, including pasta, rice,
cereal, crackers, pizza crusts, etc., can be composted
(bury them in the pile to deter unwanted pests).

We live in a throw away world. From razors, gloves, towels, cameras to dishes and everything in between. We seem to find it so much easier just to toss something then repair it and keep it. Years ago you would buy an item and expect it to last your lifetime but alas not only are things made to be disposable but they aren’t made to last -  at all. I have bought two larger items just in the past week and both of them broke before I even used them once.

Anyway that is another whole article in and of itself. Today I want to mention one thing we can fix and keep and that is our clothes. We tend to view our clothes as disposable too when we could make them last so much longer with just a little care and part of that care is mending.

I know that is now an old fashion word but it could really save many of us a great deal of money if we would start doing it. It doesn’t take a lot of work or education to learn how to sew on a button or to mend a simple seam. To get a little personal I had a pair of panties which had the elastic ripped about 2 inches. Many would have tossed them and bought more. It took me all of 5 minutes to sew it back together and they looked as good as new.

Another reason we should mend is to help our families look neater and nicer. Even though it is not politically correct to believe it, clothes do make the man  but we  send our kids often out the door with torn clothing each morning. Even if everyone else is doing it does it really make it right?

I know it is hard sometimes when you are tired or don’t feel well to keep up on these things but let’s be honest do we find time to do other things like play on the computer, talk on the phone or watch TV? Mending takes as much energy as some of these things yet we don’t have the strength or time to do it.

I know it is hard to get motivated but here are a couple of tips to help make it easier for you.

~ If you don’t know how to mend, learn. Have someone show you or look on the Internet to find out. We think nothing of spending years and huge sums of money to get an education in so many areas which often we don’t use but don’t bother to take a very small amount of time and usually little money to learn to sew on a button. That is knowledge we will use if not daily at least weekly all of our lives.

~Keep a small sewing basket with thread, scissors, seam ripper, pins and needles etc. by the chair you sit in in the evening to have everything handy. Basic neutral thread colors to keep in it are light gray, medium gray, cream, white and black. If you don’t have a lot of room wind some on a small card or bobbin to keep in your basket.

I didn’t know for years that light or medium gray make a great neutral thread so these are important to have but adapt the threads in your basket to your family. For example you may want to keep some brown, red, navy or with little girls in the house some pink.

~Keep a pin cushion with needles already threaded with white, black, brown, navy, cream, red and medium gray in it by your washer and dryer. If you find a stray button or see something has a small tear you can fix right then which can keep the tear from getting worse or you forgetting to do it latter.

Something small like this will only take a few seconds and it will be done. There is nothing more frustrating too then to put a shirt on in a hurry and find a button missing so this could help eliminate small stresses in your family’s and your life.

Jill

Bea, one of our readers sent this quote to me. It is a Swedish proverb which says “If you buy what you don’t need you steal from yourself”. Bea said it is true, you are stealing from yourself by wasting your money on more unneeded things (or junk).

I also think about how many people are stealing their freedom by doing this. Often they go into debt to buy  things and they are chained to that debt from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed.

Even if they don’t go into debt they can loose their freedom because then they are having to use their time to take care of, storing etc. these things.  Instead of being able to spend the day or their time on something fun, more worth while or with their kids they have to use their time taking care of things.

Too much stuff can be so overwhelming. When I first became sick with my CFS I had a closet full of clothes. Just trying to make the decision on what to wear for the day became overwhelming for me because I had so much to choose from. I ended up picking 3 outfits out and packed the rest away. For the period of time when I did this it was so freeing and I had one less worry for the day.

Now I have gone back to having more clothes but I really learned a lesson then. The more things I had the more and harder the decisions were. Just think about it how much time do you spend each morning with your kids trying to decide what kind of cereal they want from the 3-5 boxes they have to pick from, clothes for them to choose from or which toys to play with.

We talk about things being so stressful now but a lot of the time we make our own stress by setting ourselves and our children up for having to make too many decisions each day.

Look around you and take note of all the things you and your family have to decide on for just one day. Look for ways you can cut back on some of those things. Maybe buy just 1-2  boxes of cereal or better yet, if you can, fix oatmeal all this week and cream of wheat all next week. Best of all, you make a menu out and just serve it.

Do you really need more toys, clothes, electronic games for entertainment, purses, shoes? Buy one kind or at the most two kinds of shampoo, conditioner, cleaners etc, etc, etc. Just watch and each time you find yourself choosing think, “How can I make this simpler?”

Don’t steal any more money or time from yourself by buying more then you need.

Jill

We don’t have cable now and I have been missing my decorating shows. Even though some of those shows are way out there you can get some good ideas to make it a cheaper.

Well, I got the bright idea a few weeks ago to look at real estate in Colorado and see if we should try and move back.  As I was looking I found the perfect house!

I’m not sure why everyone laughed when they saw the price but I figured “hey why not shoot for best?”

Anyway, I got to thinking, if you need some decorating ideas look at houses like this. They will give you some good ideas that you can do at home. Remember paint is cheap!

Tawra

P.S What is this about moving, again? (this will be my 15th move in 17 years. No we aren’t n the military, just nuts!)

I am a type A personality. I am the only person I know who gets these thoughts in her head. Here was my conversation with myself.

“I wonder when we should go to Colorado this summer for 2 weeks.” (this is the only place we go on vacation because we can stay with family.)

“Wow, we really should go in August because I don’t want to deal with the heat and humidity here.”

“Hum, Mike’s folks were wanting to rent out their rental to long term renters maybe we could stay a month.”

“I really don’t want to even be here for the summer, maybe we could pack up the kids and stay the summer? We can take the business with us.”

“Maybe I will just go look at real estate prices, they say they are falling there.”

I went to look at prices on realtor.com.

(Call to Mike) “I think we should move to Colorado.”

Mike: “Let’s go, how fast can we get there?”

“OK, we will look at houses when we go back next time in a few weeks”

All that happened in about 10 minutes.

What drives my family crazy is that I do this all the time! I will just get an idea in my head and then start running with it!

(Tawra Thinking-”Hum, when should we take our Colorado vacation? Let’s just save some time and move there instead!” LOL)

That’s how this book and website got started!

Anyway, I have been painting everything that needs it and getting ready in case we decide to go ahead and put the house on the market and move.  All that because I was thinking for 10 minutes! LOL

What she failed to mention was that means I too need to plan on moving. Where the grandkids go I must follow. I always say since the first day my first child (Tawra) was born I have been exhausted and continue to be exhausted. It didn’t get any better when she grew up and moved away from home. I don’t want to discourage any of you new parents out there who think it gets easier as they grow up but it doesn’t they just multiply and you have more : ) not that I mind.

I haven’t even gotten everything unpacked from my last move. Now that’s rough or the bright side is I won’t have to pack as much.

Jill

We have all been there and done that. That sells person telling us their vacuum cleaner will radically change our life and make it easier and how in the world did you ever cook without that chopper, blender or juicer. Then there are the beauty products (who doesn’t want to look 20 years younger?) or the exercise machine that will help you to loose weight and have the body of a 20 year old. They forgot to mention it will only do that if you use it and not store it under your bed. Maybe that is why one of the first things they tell you is it is how easy it is to store because they know that is what most people will be doing with it. : )

Then there are the trips to the shops and malls. What fun. Is that outfit not to die for and it is on sell for 50% off. I really need to get it now because it will never be this price again except maybe next week when they are desperate to get rid of the other 100 identical dresses and put them on sell for 75% off.

We are so bombarded with these things every day and impulse spending (or any impulse decision) can get us in more trouble.

As with any 12 step program you need to admit you have a problem so here are a few signs to help you see you might have a problem.

1. When you are upset do you go shopping ?

2. Is your house full of items you thought you had to have but they are now sitting all over your house still in the box or hanging with their price tags on?

3. Do you spend more time during the week shopping (that includes TV,  Internet shopping and garage sales)  then you do cleaning your house or with your family?

4. Are your credit cards maxed out with things other then life and death needs?

If you said yes to even one of these questions or didn’t answer them at all but think maybe you do have a problem here are some things to help over come impulse buying.

But first let me say we all have bought impulsively and usually regret it. I still  to this day have to be very careful because every once in awhile I end up with something I didn’t need and will never probably use. As a matter of fact I am speaking from years of experience in this area hoping some of what I have learned will help you.

1. Use cash. I know in the day and age of credit cards this will seem weird and hard at first but it is one of the best ways I know to control spending. First of all you can see exactly how much you are spending where with a credit card you can’t. Second if you leave home with only the amount of cash you need for your shopping trip you can’t over spend and you carefully watch every item you buy.

This isn’t as hard as it seems. You only need to one time arrive at the cash register, be embarrassed by having bought too much and you will be sure never to do it again. : ) Plus I am not saying you need to do this for the rest of your life only for a month or so until you break the habit of impulse buying.

2. Don’t take any one with you. You know good and well your girlfriends, sisters, mom or kids will tell “Oh that is the perfect dress for you you need to get it.” Am I right or am I right????

3. When shopping for major items and things do your homework. Check out prices and different brands whether on line or in other stores.

4. If an item (other then something I buy on a regular basis like my medicine etc) is more then $20 go home and think about it overnight. We so often think it is only $10 or $20 which isn’t that much but they all add up to $100 and eventually $1,000.

5. I once read don’t buy anything no matter what a great deal it is if:

You can’t afford it.

You don’t need it.

You need something else worse. (like to make your house payment)

6. Be careful of sales because they are a big cause of impulse buying. Only buy something on sale if you have carefully studied the prices already and you need it. Our grocery store here have a lot of 10 for $10 sale which at times sounds like a great deal but I have watched and some of the items I can get for $.75 some place else so be careful.

7. When in doubt, don’t buy it.

8. Find other things to do besides shopping. When you are upset do some volunteer work. This helps to put your problems in perspective. Instead of meeting your friends at the mall for a day of shopping have them over for a cup of coffee or tea. Not only won’t you spend money but it will force you to keep your house clean : ) or you could ask them to go for a walk or bike ride. Not only do you save money but you can get in shape.

Bottom line is control your money, don’t let it control you and think, think, think. Don’t feel, feel, feel when it comes to money.

Jill

I just wanted to let everyone know that we are working on re-designing the website and blog. It will be a few more weeks before it’s done but until then we are going to not be posting as much on the blog.
We are going to have to manually move the thousands of posts on both so we don’t want to add more work by putting on a bunch of posts now.

As for us we are doing ok.  I’ve been really sick the last few months with my fibromyalgia. I’m not sure why but it’s decided to act up pretty bad. Until this week I’ve pretty much been a blob on the couch. I started a  new med called Sevalla  3 weeks ago. It’s just for FM.

At first the side effects were as bad as the FM pain even though it did take care of most of the pain. I lowered the dose down and it seems to be helping. I actually vacumed and carpet cleaned the bedrooms and hope to get the living room done tomorrow! I’ve been a cleaning and organizing machine the last two days I’ve felt good!

It’s amazing! I had totally forgotten what it was like to actually feel good! It’s an amazing feeling!

Jack still isn’t sleeping though the night. He will get up and drink one or two rice bottles.  He is eating solids and has cereal before bed. We even tried Benadryl to help with his allergies to see if that would work but nope, he still gets up!

Other than that he is doing great. He’s 7 months and 23 pounds so he’s huge! Yes, I do have a hard time holding him and can only hold him for a few minutes at a time.

That’s it about us for now. We will let everyone know when the new site it up and running! Tawra

We will still be here and be posting but just not the usual amount I have even done a few of things for next week so hang in there with us. We just might have a couple of hiccups once in awhile. We are really excited about the new updates and are hoping it will be sooo much easier for everyone to move around on the new site.

Jill

Many of you are busy deep cleaning right now but there still is all the every day jobs to keep up with. Here is some ideas on how to do your daily jobs (starting with the kitchen) quickly so you can get on to the big stuff. Some people do things differently and in different order so this is just a suggestion to help you get started.

Clean You Kitchen In Seven Easy Steps

1. Put all dirty dishes in the dishwasher. Fill the sink with hot soapy water and put the hand washables in it to soak.

2. Wipe off counter tops and tables with hot soapy water. (This way, if you have unexpected company your table and counters are clean they will think you have been cleaning all morning.)

3. Sweep the floor and shake throw rugs if needed.

4. Wash the dishes that have been soaking.

5. Wipe down the faucets and dry with a towel. (Be sure to wipe any sticky appliances, too.)

6. Put out a clean dishcloth and towel.

7. Take out the trash.

Jill

Add a pinch or two of cinnamon to your baked beans.

Add a 1/2 cup of sour cream to banana pudding. I have found adding sour cream to a lot of recipes gives it a creamier texture and cuts the sweetness.

Add cinnamon and/or vanilla to your pancake batter.

To make French toast crisper add Tbsp. of flour to the eggs mixture.

Eggs on Toast Dessert

This is a fun snack or treat to have for an after school snack or for a special brunch.

1 can peach halves

1 pound cake

1 carton whipped topping

Cut pound cake in 1/2 in. slices. Spread with a large circle of whipped topping. Place a peach half on top of topping. It should look like a fried egg. : )

Jill

I have been hitting the newsletter and the blog pretty heavy the past few days on the subject of getting organized, weight loss and getting out of debt but this morning I am taking a quick turn for the moment.

While I was looking up something to answer a readers question a came across some notes I had written years ago in a class I had taken. We get so many questions over and over about meals and meal planning and when I saw this statement I thought this is like Meal Planning 101. It is clear, simple and pretty much covers everything you need to know when fixing a meal.

I know I have now got your curiosity up ( I hope) so here it goes:

Meals should be planned, regular,on time, taste good, be nutritious, fit budget, smell good and be attractive.

It might help to write this statement out and keep it in your kitchen some where or with your coupons and meal planning things because as you plan your meals you can go quickly go over the list and see if your meal fits all or most of these.

If you remember the above statement that is all you  really need to know but I decided to add a little to it to help give your some ideas of what that statement means.

Planned - planning helps to save money at the store and gets rid of the last minute stress of “What am I fixing tonight for dinner!!!!!????”

Regular - we so often know we need nutritious meals but sometimes don’t realize having meals on a regular basis really helps our digestive system to function better. That means picking a time to have dinner close to the same time each day.

It also helps our families emotionally. We are built to like consistency in our lives especially children. There is something comforting in knowing no matter what frustrating things happened in their day when your family arrives home there is one constant in their life - dinner. If you don’t think this to be true try it for a week or two then stop doing it and see how your family reacts.

On time - this can be a little tricky for new cooks. It takes a little practice but you can learn to do it. Start fixing the food that will take the longest to cook first and then the next longest etc. Also do as much ahead of time as possible. This goes for everyone.

Brand new cooks may want to set the table way before you even begin the meal because it is one less thing to deal with but with practice you can usually set the table while you are waiting for something to cook on the stove. You will with practice also get to the point where you can toss a salad while you are waiting for the potatoes to cook but this all comes with time.

Taste Good - pick foods your family likes, learn to cook. I know this can be a challenge for some of you I mean some do have a harder time learning to cook then others just like some are better gardeners, sewers etc. but you really need to try the best you can to learn some basics.

Also you may have to work a little at finding foods which taste good. For example you may have to try different brands and types of things.

Fresh doesn’t always mean it tastes better either. For example most of the time I can’t tell any difference when I use frozen or fresh broccoli in my cooked foods but I can tell a difference in the brands of frozen broccoli I buy. To save money you may want to use frozen for something like this and use your savings to buy fresh foods where you really can tell a difference.

Be nutritious - I have touched on this a lot in other articles but basically this means you need to learn about nutrients and what your family needs.

Fit budget - you may want to have steak for dinner but your budget only allows chicken so chicken it is.

Smell Good - You truly use all of your senses when you eat. If your family can’t get it past their nose it won’t make it into their mouth.

Plus emotionally food smells have a strong impact on people especially when those are connected with home and family. How often do you hear an adult talk about memories of home and half of the time they will mention some smell they remember.

Be Attractive - Like I mentioned above, we use all of our senses. If it doesn’t look good or looks “grouse” they won’t eat it. Don’t forget to use lots of different colored food. Not only does this help with eye appeal but it also is an easy way to know you are giving your family a balanced meal for nutrients.

Don’t forget too to use different shapes and textures of food.

Meal planning is one of those jobs we tend to let go because we don’t consider them as important or as pressing as other things. Kinda like folding clothes and putting them away. We can get them washed and dried but not folded and put away.

But doing and following through with these things can really make our lives easier, can get rid of a lot of stress and always saves us money. Rethink some things in your life which you are letting slide you might be surprised a what a difference changing a few things will make.

Jill

Rose was asking for the Cranberry Roast recipe. So many people liked this so I will post it again. If any of you have a question about a recipe someone mentions it is pretty easy to find. Just go to our web page and in the top left corner where it says search you type in the name of the recipe or any subject you want to find on our site or newsletter.

Jill

Cranberry Roast

1 pkg. dry onion soup mix

1 (3lb) roast

1 can (16 oz) cranberry sauce

In a crockpot pour soup mix, add roast and top with cranberry sauce. Cover and cook for 8 hours. To thicken gravy mix 1 Tbsp. cornstarch and water and add to gravy. You can add carrots and potatoes 4 hours into cooking.