Um, That's Different...

Seeds in my sprouter

For quite some time, I'd wanted to incorporate a healthier diet into my lifestyle, but with the high cost of whole grains and organics, this desire hadn't materialized.  Several weeks back, though, a friend introduced me to the concept of sprouting.  I hadn't known that it was possible to sprout so many seeds so effortlessly.  You don't even need soil!  I was hooked and began researching more on sprouting.

Researching sprouting led me to soaking grains, which led me to sourdough starters, which led me to kombucha, and somewhere in between all of those I found recipes for home-made deodorant and brownies made from black beans and spinach.

Are you grossed out yet?

I promise I'm not becoming some rogue health nut, but some of these concepts intrigued me to the point that I tried them.  Some, like the sourdough starter and kombucha, I've yet to try, but I do hope to experiment with them in the near future.  Stay tuned for those. 

All that to say, I didn't plan on 2012 turning into my year for trying new, do-it-yourself (DIY), frugal (and sometimes crazy!) ideas, but I'm having a lot of fun.  Some things have proven to be wonderful, while others have done nothing but given me a good laugh.  I'm excited, though, at the prospect of inexpensively incorporating healthful living into my current routine.  My next several posts will focus on these new endeavors, both the successes and the failures.  If you're interested, come learn with me.

No doubt that this will be a fun, odd, and occasionally awkward adventure!

Fixing the Broke

We've all been told, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" but my friend D pointed out in her post here that occasionally things do need to be modified or updated.  So it was with my scheduling and couponing systems:  what had once worked was no longer effective.

A couple of years ago, I started with a coupon binder that I got with gift cards I'd earned on some money-maker deals.  It worked for a little while, but I quickly tired of the time it took to get the coupons in and out of the sheet protectors.

After reading through several coupon-compiling methods in The Money Saving Mom's Budget, I settled on the coupon box.  I was eager to put this together, and since we were studying finances and stewardship in school, I had the kids help.  Educational fun - what a great combo!

All three spark plugs had a great time helping me sort and prepare the envelopes.

We followed the example pretty closely, not because it's a perfect model, but because it was a place to start.  I'm learning that if I wait until I've worked out everything perfectly in my mind, I'll never start anything!

A few things we did change:  I used legal-sized envelopes instead of the smaller size; I put the empty envelope box in the back for holding unsorted coupons; and we added our cash envelopes that I made last year based on the "prettified" version, explained here.

Yep, I made those!  It was fun to work with all of those lovely patterns and flowers.  I had decided a while ago that if I had a hope of sticking to the envelope system (and honestly, I mostly use these to file receipts), it should be attractive enough to warrant the constant viewing.  :)

Lastly, I made some space for a pen, scissors, and a grocery list so that I have everything in one spot.  I won't take all of those cash envelopes with me, but it's nice to have a place to store them.  And to solve the issue of 152-coupon-pickup when the box gets dropped (the biggest drawback to using a coupon box), we picked a box with lid locks. 

So far, this method is working well.  I find it quick and easy to toss the coupons right into the envelopes instead of letting them stack up, unfiled, on the top of my microwave (I can't believe I'm admitting that I actually do that).  Less clutter makes a happier me, so this is a complete win-win situation in my book!

In addition to updating my coupon storage, I was struggling with home organization.  I love lists, but making impractically-long "to-dos" on random pieces of paper did nothing but frustrate me and clutter my house further.  I have a homemaking binder, but I kept forgetting to reference it.  I also tried using digital lists to minimize the scraps of lists that followed in my wake, but I do much better with a physical, tangible list.

I recently found the answer to my need for a sensible, paper list:  the Motivated Moms Chore Planner.  I'd seen it advertised on Money Saving Mom, but it wasn't until my friend A purchased it and gave it a more in-depth review that I felt confident in spending the money on it (I don't like to spend money on things that I could make on my own, especially when purchasing the item still requires me to print it out and thus increase expenses with more paper and ink).

The result?  I LOVE it.  It's simple; it's sensible and realistic; and it even reminds me to do things like feed the cat and trim the kids' nails.  It was definitely worth the $7.  It also suggested something I'd never thought of:  cleaning the bathroom over a few days instead of the whole thing in one fell swoop.  Since cleaning the bathroom is one of my most hated chores, I tend to put it off.  But if I look at it from the standpoint of cleaning the mirrors on Monday and wiping down the sink on Tuesday, somehow that is more manageable for me (and oddly enough, I often get the whole thing cleaned on Monday and free up time later in the week).

Coupon binders and scribbled lists were a great start for me.  As my needs have changed, though, it's been nice to find better solutions that fit my current situation.  Not every change in life will be as easy as these were, nor will each change transition as smoothly as I hope these will.  My hope, however, is that by implementing small bits of positive change, the larger upheavals won't be as earth-shattering as they could have been.

Avocado Attack!

I've tried many frugal adventures in the past few years.  While I've never purposely taken showers without hot water, I have glued shoes (it didn't hold), made laundry soap (so much fun!), and sewn fleece jammies (better to leave that to the experts for now).  However, pitting and peeling 95 overly-ripe avocados has to rank up there on my "unusual frugal finds" list!

When a limb from Jon's parents' avocado tree came down just before Christmas, it showered down over 300 avocados in the process.  A hundred were too bruised to be salvaged; Jon's brother kept a hundred; and we were blessed with the last 95 (yes, I counted them all).

The above photo does not do justice to the situation, since there were only about 45 left in the box by the time I decided to photograph the endeavor.  It took hours of sitting on the floor of the kitchen, getting covered in guacamole-esk avocado guts, to get through the pit-and-peel process.  Although I was tired and sore after doing it, Jon figured out that since avocados on sale are 2 for $3 and I was pitting them at a rate of one avocado every 2 minutes, I was getting paid a handsome hourly wage!

We all love guacamole around here, but we're not often willing to pay the price for avocados.  So, even though it took a little elbow work and a few hours of my time, this was definitely one miserly attempt that went well and produced good results.

Over 30 pits in the sink (yep, my sink is nauseating chartreuse)!  After we got the avocados divided and frozen, I decided that I'd like an avocado tree of my own and saved 6 pits to sprout.  That part of the avocado frenzy didn't go quite as planned.

I'm currently saving up the money I don't have to spend on avocados to buy a tree next year.  :)

Bloom Where You're [Trans]Planted

(Photo Credit:  MacroGirl Photography)

I love to learn, especially about home organization and money management.  If there's a book out there on either subject (or, better yet, one that combines the two), I've probably read it.  So, when I was blessed to receive a copy of "The Money Saving Mom's Budget" this past week as a gift from my cousin, I was elated and dove right in, starting with the introduction as I do with all books that I read.

Outlined in the opening pages was a summary of each chapter, and a line from chapter nine's content caught my attention:  "bloom where you're planted."  This made me smile, because I'm not living where I grew up or even where I thought I would spend my adult years.

When we first moved from my hometown to the fast-paced Silicon Valley, I didn't feel like blooming much.  In fact, I'm fairly certain that I wilted for a while!  The high cost of living; Jon's night job and schooling; and my injured arm were enough to topple any resolve of flourishing in my new surroundings.

As time went on, though, the Lord slowly removed each of my thorns and produced lovely roses in their stead.  Jon graduated and later landed a much steadier job with day-time hours; my arm began to heal; and we're constantly finding new ways of keeping down costs.

In the process of these adjustments, I've become more aware of both my sinfulness and the Lord's graciousness.  To have avoided the dead-heading trials of previous years sounds pleasant, but I know that in the long run I am better off for having climbed my Everest.  And now that I'm at the top, I'm free to bloom in much more grandeur than I ever could have prior to the pruning!

The Money Saving Mom's Budget

In case anyone missed it, you can pre-order the Money Saving Mom's Budget from Amazon.  Since I've long enjoyed her blog, I'm sure the book will be equally inspiring.  Even better is the fact that all proceeds from the book go toward Compassion International!

Due to revamping our budget, I've not yet reserved my own copy, but I hope to be able to do so soon.  I have no doubt that it will be worth the wait!

Something Sweet

Compared to many - perhaps even most - people, I lead a very vanilla life.  I've learned to be okay with the fact that I have few extreme likes and to appreciate that I'm not terribly adventurous.  That said, I do have a few things in which I genuinely take pleasure.

When my mom-in-law invited me to join her Sweet Adelines chorus this summer, I looked forward to trying it out.  This activity would combine two of my favorite subjects:  music and learning (learning, because I know relatively little about Barbershop singing...actually, I don't know much about singing of any kind, least of all Barbershop).  I also figured that joining would get me out of the house once a week for something other than schooling or teaching piano. 

To date, I've truly enjoyed myself at chorus rehearsal.  The ladies are amazing.  They gave me tons of literature on what, exactly, Barbershop singing is and made the qualifying process as painless as singing-a-capella-in-front-of-other-people-while-staying-on-pitch could possibly be.  (Okay, maybe that wasn't so vanilla, after all!)  I'm learning a lot about this form of music; I'm having fun while doing it; and hopefully I can help contribute to the group's performance at Nationals next October. 

While costuming and stage makeup aren't generally things that fall into my comfort zone, it's good for me to try something a little out of the range of vanilla.  At least I'll be colorful even if not comfortable!

No More CSF (For Now)!

It's hard to believe that Jon's surgery was two weeks ago!  Time seemed to drag as we anticipated the operation, and now that it's behind us, time seems to fly.  When we arrived at the hospital nice and early Monday morning, we were told that the surgery would take about 4 hours.  Since his previous surgery had gone longer than expected, I assumed the same would be true again and decided to return home once he was wheeled into the operating room.

His doctor called me about three hours later to let me know he was out of surgery and that all had gone smoothly.  While I had some questions for her, such as finding out whether or not she'd found another CSF leak, I figured I'd just ask her once I drove back to the hospital.  Since I knew Jon would be wanting me as soon as possible, I didn't want to spend too much time on the phone before leaving.  Once I got back to the recovery floor, though, I found out that she was already back in surgery with another patient. 

It took several hours for the anesthesia to wear off and for Jon to feel up to traveling home, but I was amazed at how much better he looked so soon after surgery.  By Wednesday morning, he felt up to returning to work - just 48 hours after his operation!  I was afraid he would overdo, but aside from some insomnia due to his medications, he made a full recovery without much setback. 

At his first post-op appointment, we were able to get many of our questions answered.  He did not seem to have another CSF leak - yay! - but there had been a lot of scarring from the prior surgery which was probably the root of much of his discomfort.  As long as no more scar tissue develops, he shouldn't need any future operations. 

The only problem he's currently dealing with is the headaches he gets right before the weather changes.  I'd really hoped that this surgery would eliminate those, but that doesn't seem to be the case.  Since I get heat headaches every summer, I can somewhat relate to this.  Hopefully over time these will lessen in intensity or even go away completely. 

For now, we're thrilled that he doesn't have any current leaks and that his doctor is pleased with his progress.  This surgery was so much simpler and easier to deal with than the first one, and we know it's because so many people were praying.  It was wonderful to have yet another very vivid reminder that the Lord truly does answer prayer!