Going to church on Sunday Morning

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There’s a song out there which follows the lines of  kids with only one shoe, no hot water, and no breakfast, voices loud, we’re already late and the baby has a bad diaper which requires a bath and a new outfit.  I think the punch line was, “We lost our religion going to church on Sunday morning.”

We’ve had a lot of Sunday’s like that around here.  I’m embarrassed to admit it.  And it never fails that once we get there the lesson is on caring enough about God to be on time to church.

Most times, the problem starts on Saturday night; I just don’t notice it then.  I accept an evening invitation that keeps us out too late to bathe the children the night before.  The week’s been so busy and the weekend worse, that I can’t tell you where the clean underwear is or why Son#1’s dress shirt is missing a button and his suit has wedding frosting on the pants.

In addition to helping the children get ready for church, I’m usually preparing a nice dinner in the morning before we leave.  It will cook in the timed oven or crock-pot and be hot and ready to eat when we get home.  This takes time, and I often feel pressure to make it awesome and not be late!

Today, I spent the day sick in bed.  I probably won’t be going to church tomorrow morning.  Poor Darren will have to sing a solo to the elderly at Carmel Hills (not what they had in mind when they invited our 5 cute little kids to come out–sigh.)  

I’ve been using my down time thinking about how to make things better.  Here’s my list:

1.  Don’t stay out too late on Saturday night.

2.  Bathe children Saturday instead of Sunday morning.

3.  Prepare dinner in the slow cooker the night before and slip it in the fridge.  Then just set it in the base and turn it on in the morning.  No Stress!

4.  Put bread dough in the bread machine the night before and time delay start for breakfast.  Yum!

5.  Lay out clothing the night before.  Be sure everything is clean, mended and pressed.  Locate 2 shoes and appropriate socks for each child. 

Note to self:  Remember, going to church should be a happy occasion.  It’s a joy and a privilege to go.  If after all I can do, the needs of my children mean we need to be late, so be it.  All I can do is my best.  And if I can do it cheerfully, I’ve won the victory.

Homemade Granola

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Boxed cereal can be found on sale for as little as $1 a box or $.10 a serving. I buy it at those prices and use it as part of my low-budget plan and steer towards low sugar, high fiber types. (Like bran flakes, and toasted oat rings.) I read an article that suggested even the low sugar varieties of boxed cereal aren’t as healthy as we hope.

Homemade Granola, soaked in yogurt to release even more vitamins, is a tasty alternative.  I made my own version, which is still cooling and I can hardly keep my fingers out of the hot little bites.

Here’s the recipe I used:  But you might also check out these sites:  Seeking Faithfulness, Natural Health Information, Passionate Homemaking, Health Beings with Mom

6 cups rolled oats

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup plain skim yogurt

1/2 cup water

(Combine and soak overnight)

2 cups sunflower seeds

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

3/4 cup brown sugar

(Mix into the soaked mixture)

1/2 cup vegetable oil, 3/4 cup honey, 1 teaspoon salt (combine in a small saucepan and heat until well combined)  Pour over the oat mixture until well combined.

Spread granola into greased cookie sheets in a thin layer.  Mine took 3 small sheets.

Bake at 250 for 60 minutes, stirring and rotating pans after each 20 minutes interval.  Switch the pans one final time and turn the oven off.  Leave the pans in the oven as the oven cools down, or overnight.  Add 1-2 cups raisins or craisins if desired and store in a air tight container.

Tips to make granola inexpensive:

1.  Keep your ingredients simple.  The more things you add such as wheat germ, coconut, and other nut mixtures, the higher the cost.

2.  Use sunflower seeds in place of other nuts.

3.  Use honey instead of maple syrup.

4.  Buy your rolled oats at Aldi, from a food coop,  or from a bulk food store.

It’s all what you make of it….

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Meet Fritz.  He’s our happy little Angora bunny who has a lot to be miserable about.  But he doesn’t see it that way. 

We just shaved off all his gorgeous fur, his pride and beauty. Even though the process wasn’t fun, he didn’t sit around and mope.  As soon as given the opportunity he ran and jumped and kicked his heels.  He didn’t see it as a loss of beauty but a gain of comfort in the heat.

He lives in a cage for his own safety.  Though we can’t explain that to him, when we let him out for a romp, he doesn’t hold a grudge for the previous captivity.  He snuggles his face into our neck when we hold him and is content to be held or to run. 

In the picture above, he is eating a bug chewed piece of kale from our garden.  He is thrilled!  I had to be quick with the camera he was snarfing it down so fast.  He didn’t see bugs, he saw fresh, gourmet food. 

Fritz is definitely a glass half full bunny. 

If he were human, I think he would be the frugal type.  Contented people spend less and enjoy life more. Oh to be more like Fritz. 🙂

Easy Corn Muffins

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I’m a cook from scratch girl…mostly.  But I do keep inexpensive boxes of corn muffin mix and canned vegetables on my shelf.  Some days I’m just frazzled to the core and appreciate being able to grab a 30 cent box  or a 50 cent can to round out our meal and relieve a little stress. 

The recipe:

1 box corn muffin mix (like Jiffy mix, but I used Aldi Brand)

1 Can creamed corn

That’s it!  Combine the mix and the can of corn liquid and all.  Divide the dough into 10 greased muffin cups.  Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until the muffins are golden on the top and cooked through.  These stay really soft almost like a pudding and are nice eaten right out of the cup (if you use the silicone kind.)  If you let them cool on a rack for 5 minutes they are easier to get out and serve as a traditional muffin.

What’s for Dinner? Kabobs!

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It’s so easy to get in a rut.    If we ate Kabobs every day for dinner, they wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but for us it is such a rare treat that the kids gobbled them down, veggies and all.

We splurged a little on this treat with the grocery money we had leftover from last month.  It was still a LOT less than buying this kind of meal out.  I had the shrimp and turkey sausage in my freezer bought as loss leader items earler in the year.  We also used an onion (given to us after they had leftover food at a summer camp), colored peppers $2.99 for 3 at Aldi, fresh Mushrooms $1.29 for 8 oz, and a can of chunk pineapple ($.89 on sale.) 

We let the kids skewer their own and they chose to make them colorful even though they don’t normally eat these vegetables well. 


Bamboo skewers are inexpensive at Wal-mart or the grocery store. Be sure to soak them in water before putting the food on them. Normally it is recommended to soak for 4 hours or more, but we totally forgot and just soaked them for about 30 minutes. They got a little dark on the ends, but nothing caught fire.

We waited to season the kabobs until they were on our plates, and salt was all they needed.  Yum!

For side dishes, we had simple buttered noodles.  Just a pound of cooked egg noodles topped with 4 Tablespoons of butter and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and dried parsley.  The corn muffins were tasty and easy.  I’ll share the recipe tomorrow :).

Fixing a Hole

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Simple mending can save a piece of clothing from the rag bag or trash.  Usually it just takes a couple of minutes, but thinking about doing the mending is hard.  Just do it!  You’ll be so glad you did.

My daughter’s favorite shorts had a drawstring with eyelet holes.  One of the eyeles ripped out and left a hole that threatened to get bigger.  Normally I would have slipped it into my mending basket and left it to sit until they no longer fit.  Fortunately my daughter needed them for camp and I had to act fast.

1.  First I removed the drawstring which was for style only and not really functional.

2.  Then I used a scrap of fusible interfacing on the front and back to reinforce the torn fabric.

3.  Then I picked a scrap of fabric from my stash and ironed a piece of Wonder Under Regular-Weight Paper-Backed Fusible Web to the scrap.

4.  The Wonder Under has a paper backing that is easy to draw on.  I used a pencil to draw a heart shape patch and then cut the fabric on the pencil lines.  (It’s so much easier to cut out fusible shapes after the wonder under is fused to the fabric than to cut the shapes first.)

5.  I peeled off the paper backing and ironed the patch over the hole.  I set my machine to a satin stitch (a zig-zag with a width of 3.0 and a length of .5) and top stitched all around the edge.   It’s not perfect, but it’s sturdy and the whole process took about 5 minutes. 

Fixing a Waistband

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My son is blessed with a thin waist and has been able to wear the same swimming trunks for 3 years. Finally chlorine rotted the stretch right out of the elastic and he couldn’t hold his trunks up any more. My first thought was to pitch them and buy a new pair, but finding time to go to the store was harder than just fixing them.

I use this same method to add elastic to the back of garage sale found jeans and slacks too. It helps the kids wear a wider variety of sizes.

Note 1:  Since this was a real mending job, my thread matches perfectly and may be hard to see.  You can click on the pictures to enlarge them and see more details. 

Note 2:  I keep a stash of basic mending supplies that I purchase when the thread and notion walls are half off.  My stash includes hanks of elastic in all sizes ($.50-$1 each) basic colors of thread:  red, black, khaki, navy, white, pink etc.,  interfacing, and sewing machine needles in all sizes and types.  This allows me to do quick sewing and mending without a trip to the store and I never have to pay full price for notions!

Step 1. Use a seam ripper to cut a slit in the inside of the waistband at each side seam.

Make a hole with the seam ripper

Step 2. Measure the width of the opening and choose elastic that is about 1/8 in narrower. Slip a pin in one end and pull it through the waistband. (Wait to cut the length of elastic until the end.)

Use a pin to slide the elastic through

Step 3. Set your machine to a wide satin stitch (a zigzag with a very short stitch, so the stitches lay right beside each other.) Satin stitch over the hole you cut, catching the end of the elastic to secure.

Fix a Waistband Step 3

Pin the elastic in place before satin stitching

Step 4. Adjust the gathers in the back to be even and trim the elastic to the desired length. Satin stitch over the other end to secure and repair the hole.

Satin stitch over the hole

Step 5. Straight stitch through the center back of the elastic to keep it from twisting.

Confession:  After the mending, he wore them once and we plan to donate them to Diabled Veterans instead of throwing them in the trash since the fabric is still good and the elastic gave them years of new life. I thought he deserved a bigger pair of trunks and this time of year is the perfect time to buy a swimming suit. They are on clearance for less than thrift store prices!

What’s for dinner?

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Penne Frittata and Pepperoni Kale.  This meal was a prime example of substituting what I had in my pantry to save a trip to the store and also to save from buying more expensive ingredients.  It is meatless which also saves on costs, but has plenty of protein from the eggs, yogurt and cheese.  The kale is from our garden.  It was overgrown but still had great flavor.

This Frittata recipe is inspired by Martha Stewart’s.  I didn’t have milk, ricotta, or fresh basil so I made a few adjustments.  Here’s the recipe as I used it.  Next time I would use a little less salt and less basil. Darren and I loved it, but the kids did not. 

6 eggs

1 cup plain fat free yogurt

1/4 cup parmesean cheese

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

3 cups cooked whole wheat penne pasta

Beat eggs, stir in yogurt, cheese and spices.  Fold in pasta.  Pour into a greased cast iron skillet and bake at 400 degrees until eggs are set, about 30 minutes. (I put mine in a cold oven and let the eggs cook while the oven heated up.  I thought this would give the cook first on the stove top and transfer to the oven feel without having to stand over it and burn the bottom.

Pepperoni Kale (What happens when I run out of turkey bacon–it was fantastic!)

6 slices of pepperoni, chopped

1 onion sliced

1 large bunch of kale, washed and sliced (I didn’t measure, just stuffed the pan full.)

Stirfry the pepperoni and onion together until the onion is clear.  Add the kale and cook just until barely wilted.  Remove from heat and salt gently.

With 6 you get Eggrolls

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Eggrolls! I love egg rolls, but they can be expensive either at a restaurant or from the frozen section at the Grocery Store. Eggrolls are easy and inexpensive to make at home. I prefer to make them ahead and then bake to rewarm for the meal. (It saves my nerves if I’m making stir fry to go with them.) You can triple this recipe and keep some in your freezer.

1 lb ground turkey (or chicken, pork or shrimp or any combo)
3 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 scant teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 package (12-16 oz) coleslaw mix (this is just shredded cabbage and carrots and often goes on sale between $.50 and $1 a bag.) (you can also add other chopped veggies like broccoli, onion, celery, mung bean sprouts etc, water chestnuts etc.  I just kept mine simple and fast.)
10 egg roll wraps (or click to make your own)

1 48oz container of oil

  1. Pour oil into an electric skillet set to 350 and put the lid on while it comes to temperature.
  2. Place turkey in a large skillet and sprinkle with soy sauce and spices.  Brown meat, breaking it up into small pieces.
  3. When meat is cooked add the coleslaw mix and cook and stir for 3 minutes or until the veggies are crisp tender.
  4. Place 1/10 of the mixture on an egg roll wrapper. Fold the sides in. Tuck the bottom up and wet the top of the wrapper with your finger dipped in water.  Roll the rest of the way up.
  5. Fry in hot oil (350 degrees) until golden brown, turning once.
  6. Remove with a large fork to paper towels to drain.

We’ve spritzed these with olive oil non-stick spray and baked them in the oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes with good results.  They don’t have the same texture as fried egg rolls, but still yummy.  We’ve also skipped the wrapper and just eaten the filling.  It’s commonly known in the fitness community as “Eggroll in a Bowl.”   I’d love to try these in an air fryer.  If you have one, let me know how it goes!

What’s your favorite dish from a Chinese Restaurant?

Homemade Deodrant?

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Am I brave enough to try it? I don’t love the chemicals in commercial deodrant, but I do love smelling great. Now that my older children are entering the deodrant wearing age, I’m wondering if it’s time to find a more natural alternative that works.  As a plus, going DIY is budget friendly too.

There are lots of blogs out there for recipes and instructions and reviews. Here are my top 3:

Angry Chicken

Passionate Homemaking

WholeHearted Mama

Are you going to try it with me?  Interested in a deodrant container coop?