G is for Gardening

Gardening is in my blood, so it was inevitable that I would be gardening at sometime in my life. My dad is a botanist and landscape architect. He also has worked in nurseries, had his own landscaping buisness and use to teach at UMass Amherst. He's been doing this his entire life. I have learned so much from him and still go to him with questions. He gets a kick out of me wanting to learn the "old" ways of gardening. He says that not many know about companion planting and other ways to naturally repel bugs from the garden.

My mom's parents were also big gardeners/homesteaders. They use to have a huge veggie, flower and fruit garden. I remember picking ripe cherry tomatoes fresh off the plant and popping them in my mouth, still hot from the sun. Sadly now I don't care for the taste of tomatoes. I loved to eat raw corn right off the plant too. I would help my grandmother prune her rose bushes and cringe whenever she squished the Japanese beetles between her fingers. It's like nails on a chalkboard to me. She always planted a little shade garden for me and always had Heather plants somewhere in her huge garden.

I was always surrounded by a beautiful garden. Everyday I could find my dad doing something in the garden, either watering, weeding or planting. My dad is still doing this, but at a low scale. When he was visiting me one year, he designed and planted a couple of little flower gardens for me.  I love them and plan on adding more perennials to the beds.

These little beds are special to me and are a way to remember my dad every day when he passes.

F is for Frugal Living

This is how my family and I try to live as frugally as we can. It doesn't always happen, but we try.

I make our laundry detergent and fabric softener. This alone saves us a ton of money. I try to only wash and dry our clothes in the evening. It uses less electricity in our area to do that. In the summer I hang our clothes out and try not to use the dryer. The dryer makes it hot inside, which makes our ac work harder in the summer. It's nice in the winter to have the extra heat though. Our dryer is in the bathroom, which is between Matt's room and our bedroom.

I also make our own household cleaners. I do have some Method brand spray however. The hubby feels more piece of mind knowing there is something brand name he can clean with. hehe

We do have oil heat. While we don't have control over how much we pay for the oil, we do watch what the temperature it is inside. I tend to like it a bit colder than the hubby. I will keep the house around 66 all day in the winter. Hubby likes it around 70. I just throw a sweatshirt on or curl up with a blanket instead of touching that thermostat. At night, I turn the heat down to 62-64. We also put plastic on all our windows. Our mobile home was built in 1969 and still has the original windows. We need to replace a few that are broken this year though.

We use an AC in the summer, but only for days that is really humid. My asthma and RA hate the humidity, I can handle the heat with just a fan, but not the humidity. I try to keep the AC temp at 70-72. I do use a fan in the living room to help the cool air circulating around.

I use coupons, but only for foods that we actually eat. I cook just about everything we eat from scratch (I have some boxed stuffing and cans of beans in the cupboards), I don't use all those coupons for the processed boxed foods. In the warm months, we grow all our veggies for the year. I can, freeze and dehydrate it all. The hubby hunts and fishes.

Meal planning is a must. I plan my meals around the sales in the grocery store and if I can combine coupons, all the better. There have been times when money is tight, so I just shop my freezers. We do stock up on certain things. For example, after Thanksgiving when the turkeys are on sale, I will pick up like 6 of them. We have two chest freezers, so I have no problems storing them. I did this for a month once only having to buy milk, bread and eggs.

We shop thrift stores for clothes, sheets and blankets. With a teen boy who is growing like crazy, it has been easier on my wallet to shop for his clothes second hand. He is starting to ask for clothes not from a thrift store though. I have bought him some jeans from other stores, like Target and Old Navy, because it is so hard to find his size at a thrift store. Just yesterday, I bought Matt 9 shirts and 5 pairs of shorts for 56.00. Most were brands like Old Navy and Hollister, but they were bought at a thrift store. All were in super nice condition. He is all set for summer now.

We also hit yard sales in the summer. It amazes us what people sell and for the prices they do. We got a huge outdoor table and chair set complete with 6 chairs with thick padding (I need to replace it though) and a huge glass top table for 30.00! It goes for like 300.00 brand new. Lots of our garden tools, pots and other containers I use to plant in also come from yard sales. I got another Presto pressure canner last year for like 15.00 or 20.00. It was only used once to can jam. Even though I have one already, it is nice to have two going at once.

I am still trying to convince my hubby to ditch cable and just keep the internet. We have Netflix and Amazon Prime. I want to get a Roku as well as sign up for Hulu Plus. Now that we can get HBO outside of a cable company, that will be a plus. I love my Game of Thrones. Just need to pray that Starz follows suit so I can keep up with Outlander.

What are some things you do to help save money?

E is for Essential Oils

So sorry for getting this post out so late in the day. I've been on the go since early morning running errands and taking my dad (who is down visiting this week) shopping. I hate shopping.



Essential oils seem like all the rage right now. So many people are selling them. I see posts all the time on Facebook from friends or other people selling two big brands. I have checked out both, but found them to be very over priced for the amount of the jars. I did a little research and found a company that is much cheaper and the oils are wonderful and not full of other crap. I buy my oils at Eden's Garden. I'm not affiliated with them, nor do I make money off mentioning them. I just like them.

I use them for aromatherapy and in cleaning recipes the most. There are a ton of recipes on Pinterest that you can use. Here is my Essential Oil board. You can also find a ton of free books for the Kindle as well. It's how I got the books I have. Free is always nice.

My favorite oil has to be Four Thieves. I will admit that I was a skeptic before I started using oils. I had a lot of pressure and drainage from my sinuses last week. Not wanting to be drugged up and sleep more than I already do, I decided to try out my oils.

I put two drops of four thieves into a small amount of sweet almond oil and rubbed it on the sides of the top of my toes. It is the area on your feet associated with your sinuses. I also rubbed some on my chest because I was starting to get congested. Last thing I wanted was a upper respiratory infection or a sinus infection. I slept like a log and the next day the pressure in my sinuses was gone and my chest congestion was gone. I still have a cough (I can not take anything to suppress it because it will trigger my asthma) and do cough up some gunk, but the pressure and pain is gone. Not to mention the gunk went from green to clear. Okay enough of the TMI. Sorry.

Here are a couple of the recipes that I use for cleaning:

D is for Dehydrate

Last year I bought myself a dehydrator. The mac daddy of dehydrator's according to my sister, the Excalibur. I got the 5 drawer one not thinking I would need the 9 drawer one. Boy was I wrong. I guess I will buy myself a Nesco one as a backup dehydrator.

So far, all I have dehydrated has been my herbs and some fruits. I use my dehydrated parsley a ton as well as the dehydrated basil. Dehydrating mint was new to me this year, but only ended up with a little bit. I had intended to make my own mint tea's with it. Something I will do more of this year. Mint and chamomile teas are my favorite.

I love dehydrated apple slices. I eat them like chips all throughout the winter. They taste just like fresh apples. I don't do anything fancy with them, no cinnamon or honey, just apples.

Dehydrated bananas are another favorite of ours, mostly Matt's. They are so expensive to buy at the store. Not to mention they are crisp like a chip and my homemade ones have a little chew to them.

Next on my list to try and make are fruit rolls ups from the strawberry and blueberries that we grow. I can't wait!

C is for cookies

Now that I have that song stuck in my head, lets move on to some yummy cookie making.

I am a big cookie person. Love to eat them, love to make them. We have some go to recipes and certain cookies that we make all the time. The biggest one we make (it's the hubby's favorite and he's diabetic) is a regular ole Chocolate Chip Cookie.

Matt's favorite is my Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies. I only make them in the fall, so he tends to savor them. Not that they last long to begin with anyway.

What's your favorite cookie to eat?

B is for Books

I love books. I devour books. I go through stages in the amount of books that I read. I always seem to read a ton in the winter (nothing better than curling up with a book and a blanket to keep warm) and almost none in the summer (never have time with the garden going full speed). Growing up with no tv and before the age of computers (my first boyfriend got one when I was 15), I tended to read a ton.

I set goals every year for certain books to read, this year it is a bunch of books on homemaking and marriage. Not that my marriage is bad, far from it, but I am always wanting to be a better wife. My homemaking skills need help, seriously. LOL. I'm not a messy person, but we have a ton of clutter that is a pain to organize. Lots of it is mine. I also keep a list of all the books I have read in a year. Last year I read 60 books. For some that may not seem like a lot, for me it's good. Most books I can read in a day or two, others take a lot longer.

My Kindle Fire is loaded with thousands of books, mostly free, most I have read. My bookshelves are overflowing and then some. I have been buying less paper books and more ebooks. Easier to store that way. However, there are certain books that I have to have the physical book for. Like my homesteading books and cookbooks.

The books I like are all over the place as well. Right now I have been reading lots of Amish romance and fiction. It's the complete opposite of what I was reading the beginning of last year, Kim Harrison and Laurel K. Hamilton. Love all the books those two authors have written too. I have read a few non-fiction books, mostly about people I like or topics that interest me. Probably the only books I don't care for are science fiction. Fantasy is great, but I don't care for the science fiction. I love watching sci-fi movies/tv though. I am a total Trekkie.

What kind of books do you like to read? I am always open to new books.

A is for Apples

I love all things apple. Apple cider, apple pie, apple butter, apple crisp, apples themselves, you name it. There is nothing that is made with an apple that I won't eat. Not to mention they are soo good for you.

Growing up we went apple picking as a family. We always went to Applecrest Farm in Hampton Falls, NH. The hubby and I continue the tradition with our kids every year as well. Every weekend during apple picking season, the farm throws huge festivals. There is tons of pumpkins, bluegrass music, scarecrow making, tons of food to eat, farm animals to pet and feed, not to mention the hay rides.

Now, we are blessed to live 5 minutes down the street from them. I tend to go there at least once a week during the warm months to pick up veggies and other things we do not grow or make. This farm also supplies our local grocery stores with apples too, but there is something about going to pick the apples yourself (yes it costs a bunch more but the apples are huge and sooo worth it).

Here are some of the recipes that I like to make using apples:


Apple Butter

Apple Sauce

Apple Pie In a Bag

Dehydrated Apple Slices

Apple Crisp


What kind of things to you like with apples?