after I get through hacking up a lung. Am recovering from bronchitis, with the help of my wonderful husband. My ex-Marine came through with the most timely of provisions and backup. Next post will come when this troop is back in action, soon...
Semper fi !
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Food Budgeting Part Three: Piggyback Meals
Ha, funny post title for a family that eats no pork? ;-)
Here's something I'm still learning, but that cooks like my grandmothers and most of the women today I know who have years of frugality under their belts are well-honed in...the art of making a few items into multiple delicious dishes. Or in our house, what's known as "using every part of the chicken but the cluck."
It starts with some goals such as utilizing those QUALITY foods that are really good for us, but that often we need to stretch into more than one meal for the sake of frugality or lack of waste. It means taking a few basic ingredients and using them as the basis for several very different dishes, some to be frozen, others to be assembled a day or two later.
We're not eating meat as often as we did last year, but even so, I'll give the example roast beef. I found that I got the best price per pound at Sam's Club for bottom round roast...a boneless cut of meat that I could get in a pretty good size for $2.68/lb. We do not have a good source for cleaner more organic meat...this was what we did as a second option. I decided to try reducing our portion sizes of the beef, but Jack still wanted some beef because of the physicality of his job and amount of time spent walking during his work shifts, about 5 or so miles of walking per 8 hour shift. Without some occasional beef, he ran out of steam a lot quicker.
My shopping corresponded with the weekend, so on Sunday, I filled up a big roasting pan with the roast seasoned with sea salt, garlic powder, and pepper and added around it whatever root veggies/tubers/squashes, etc, I wanted to roast along with it....it varied each time, but I really filled that roasting pan up and then sealed it off tightly with foil. As long as there were plenty of potatoes, onions, carrots, whatever else, in there along with the roast, it isn't necessary to add any liquids. I'd slow roast/bake it at 350F for several hours, since I'm usually home at that time, or while we ran errands if we'd be back a bit later. Instead of baking it till the roast was pull-apart tender, I'd take it out just before that stage, while it was still firm and slicing it would hold its shape.
Roast/Meal One...that night, was roast beef and some of whatever veggies we'd roasted alongside. Always can add a salad and/or fresh fruit to round things out.
Well, that was a big roast. I'd let everything cool in the pan. When cool, I'd take the veggies and bag them in a gallon ziplock bag or put them in a separate container of some sort and put them in the fridge. The roast got cut into 4 or 5 big chunks and bagged/contained separately, and refrigerated. The pan juices, when completely cool, got poured, scraped, into another container and also refrigerated. After a few hours of cooling, it will separate into a jellylike aspic and a layer of hard white fat.
What meals had I planned for the week? For meals involving meat, I already had it cooked, portioned, and ready to be put into use...just slice, dice, cube, or chop.
Meals Two through...a lot more: What meals can piggyback roast beef?
Shepherd's pie, roast beef sandwiches (hot or cold), BBQ, sliced beef w/sauteed mushrooms and gravy, curries, vegetable beef soup, chili, tacos, enchiladas, stroganoff, casseroles, beef in wine sauce, tostadas, beef and potato hash (breakfast), beef and beans (especially black beans, yum), stir fries, sloppy joes, spaghetti or other sauces, beef stew...and so on.
I'm sure you have your own beef favorites. The point is, the portions were already determined and the meat was already cooked...and it was very quick to arrange other meals from it. Or to freeze some of the portions to be used later in the week.
For the already cooked veggies, they became "fast" foods...the cooked cold potatoes easily are cubed or sliced for crisping in a skillet as hash browns to serve with eggs (fast!), to dice into curries, to cube and add to soups, to slice and reheat in a skillet and serve as a side with some melted cheese, etc. The cooked onions are pureed and added to soups or pan gravies...delicious!
The pan drippings, after being refrigerated, had separated into a hard layer of white fat (beef tallow) and a congealed aspic that is dark brown and very concentrated with all the seasonings and flavors. This is brown gold...it is beef bouillon times ten! I break off the fat, wiping all the bits of the brown gel back into the container, and throw away the fat (but if I were saving it for soapmaking, I'd probably at this point freeze it.) The cup or so of remaining pan drippings is THE seasoning I use as a soup starter, seasoning for a pot of beans, flavoring for some curries, and anything else you want to add a very concentrated beef flavor to.
I can get a week's worth of meals off that one roast, and I didn't have to slave at anything. The other good thing is that it's flexible...I have some basics already ready and can add the fresh veggies and fruits around it a-plenty, tailoring the rest of the week's meals more around seasonal things than being locked into this dish or that. After all...almost anything can become soup :)
I used the example of beef. The same goes for chicken, and depending on the cut or type of chicken (roaster, fryer, stewing hen, leg/thigh pieces, etc) it can further be used by boiling it or boiling the carcass and bones with some sea salt and optional veggies for an incredible chicken stock...which again can be used in most anything. It's amazing how much meat can be gotten off a single chicken and refrigerated and portioned for further meals, and the stock is lovely in so many things even without the addition of the meat.
The same goes for other meats and types of foods except those that spoil quickly, like fish. I hardboil eggs in quantity sometimes when I find a really good sale, to keep in the fridge for adding to cold meat salads, tossed salads, garnishing greens, dicing into soups, etc.
Baking or chopping up and leaving raw and then storing in the fridge quantities of veggies, or roasting large portions of winter squashes and pumpkins or sweet potatoes are also sometimes good for later use. I reheat baked sweet potatoes without the skins for use in curries and stews (pureed), as a side item (whipped with a tad of cream, maple syrup, toasted nuts), sliced and heated as a non-gluten base to serve chili or black beans over, or jazzed up a bit and used instead of pumpkin in my favorite pumpkin pie recipe, sans crust, for a sweet dessert.
Again...it's preference paired with necessity, but instead of a once-a-month monster quantity cookery (which I never mastered and have no space for) it's more of a weekly piggybacking of spinoff meals originating with a couple of quantity ingredients.
Yes, and I'm SURE most everybody but me has already been doing this! But it sure did simplify things for me, since I do like to cook most of the time but am not so enamored with it that I feel supercharged spending more of my free time there. I LIKE being able to reach into the fridge on a given week and knowing that I have ready portions to turn into a meal in about 20 minutes...and can then utilize my fresh greens and veggies and fruits around them and vary things a lot.
Now we're getting more away from using meats, but evenso, when I cook them, this way has now become a habit that seems to work for me pretty well.
What meals do you enjoy "piggybacking" and stretching to the Nth degree? Got any favorite spinoffs that have become your family's favorites? If we ever get a grill, THAT will become another "quantity" cooking type I'll enjoy serving "reruns" from :)
Here's something I'm still learning, but that cooks like my grandmothers and most of the women today I know who have years of frugality under their belts are well-honed in...the art of making a few items into multiple delicious dishes. Or in our house, what's known as "using every part of the chicken but the cluck."
It starts with some goals such as utilizing those QUALITY foods that are really good for us, but that often we need to stretch into more than one meal for the sake of frugality or lack of waste. It means taking a few basic ingredients and using them as the basis for several very different dishes, some to be frozen, others to be assembled a day or two later.
We're not eating meat as often as we did last year, but even so, I'll give the example roast beef. I found that I got the best price per pound at Sam's Club for bottom round roast...a boneless cut of meat that I could get in a pretty good size for $2.68/lb. We do not have a good source for cleaner more organic meat...this was what we did as a second option. I decided to try reducing our portion sizes of the beef, but Jack still wanted some beef because of the physicality of his job and amount of time spent walking during his work shifts, about 5 or so miles of walking per 8 hour shift. Without some occasional beef, he ran out of steam a lot quicker.
My shopping corresponded with the weekend, so on Sunday, I filled up a big roasting pan with the roast seasoned with sea salt, garlic powder, and pepper and added around it whatever root veggies/tubers/squashes, etc, I wanted to roast along with it....it varied each time, but I really filled that roasting pan up and then sealed it off tightly with foil. As long as there were plenty of potatoes, onions, carrots, whatever else, in there along with the roast, it isn't necessary to add any liquids. I'd slow roast/bake it at 350F for several hours, since I'm usually home at that time, or while we ran errands if we'd be back a bit later. Instead of baking it till the roast was pull-apart tender, I'd take it out just before that stage, while it was still firm and slicing it would hold its shape.
Roast/Meal One...that night, was roast beef and some of whatever veggies we'd roasted alongside. Always can add a salad and/or fresh fruit to round things out.
Well, that was a big roast. I'd let everything cool in the pan. When cool, I'd take the veggies and bag them in a gallon ziplock bag or put them in a separate container of some sort and put them in the fridge. The roast got cut into 4 or 5 big chunks and bagged/contained separately, and refrigerated. The pan juices, when completely cool, got poured, scraped, into another container and also refrigerated. After a few hours of cooling, it will separate into a jellylike aspic and a layer of hard white fat.
What meals had I planned for the week? For meals involving meat, I already had it cooked, portioned, and ready to be put into use...just slice, dice, cube, or chop.
Meals Two through...a lot more: What meals can piggyback roast beef?
Shepherd's pie, roast beef sandwiches (hot or cold), BBQ, sliced beef w/sauteed mushrooms and gravy, curries, vegetable beef soup, chili, tacos, enchiladas, stroganoff, casseroles, beef in wine sauce, tostadas, beef and potato hash (breakfast), beef and beans (especially black beans, yum), stir fries, sloppy joes, spaghetti or other sauces, beef stew...and so on.
I'm sure you have your own beef favorites. The point is, the portions were already determined and the meat was already cooked...and it was very quick to arrange other meals from it. Or to freeze some of the portions to be used later in the week.
For the already cooked veggies, they became "fast" foods...the cooked cold potatoes easily are cubed or sliced for crisping in a skillet as hash browns to serve with eggs (fast!), to dice into curries, to cube and add to soups, to slice and reheat in a skillet and serve as a side with some melted cheese, etc. The cooked onions are pureed and added to soups or pan gravies...delicious!
The pan drippings, after being refrigerated, had separated into a hard layer of white fat (beef tallow) and a congealed aspic that is dark brown and very concentrated with all the seasonings and flavors. This is brown gold...it is beef bouillon times ten! I break off the fat, wiping all the bits of the brown gel back into the container, and throw away the fat (but if I were saving it for soapmaking, I'd probably at this point freeze it.) The cup or so of remaining pan drippings is THE seasoning I use as a soup starter, seasoning for a pot of beans, flavoring for some curries, and anything else you want to add a very concentrated beef flavor to.
I can get a week's worth of meals off that one roast, and I didn't have to slave at anything. The other good thing is that it's flexible...I have some basics already ready and can add the fresh veggies and fruits around it a-plenty, tailoring the rest of the week's meals more around seasonal things than being locked into this dish or that. After all...almost anything can become soup :)
I used the example of beef. The same goes for chicken, and depending on the cut or type of chicken (roaster, fryer, stewing hen, leg/thigh pieces, etc) it can further be used by boiling it or boiling the carcass and bones with some sea salt and optional veggies for an incredible chicken stock...which again can be used in most anything. It's amazing how much meat can be gotten off a single chicken and refrigerated and portioned for further meals, and the stock is lovely in so many things even without the addition of the meat.
The same goes for other meats and types of foods except those that spoil quickly, like fish. I hardboil eggs in quantity sometimes when I find a really good sale, to keep in the fridge for adding to cold meat salads, tossed salads, garnishing greens, dicing into soups, etc.
Baking or chopping up and leaving raw and then storing in the fridge quantities of veggies, or roasting large portions of winter squashes and pumpkins or sweet potatoes are also sometimes good for later use. I reheat baked sweet potatoes without the skins for use in curries and stews (pureed), as a side item (whipped with a tad of cream, maple syrup, toasted nuts), sliced and heated as a non-gluten base to serve chili or black beans over, or jazzed up a bit and used instead of pumpkin in my favorite pumpkin pie recipe, sans crust, for a sweet dessert.
Again...it's preference paired with necessity, but instead of a once-a-month monster quantity cookery (which I never mastered and have no space for) it's more of a weekly piggybacking of spinoff meals originating with a couple of quantity ingredients.
Yes, and I'm SURE most everybody but me has already been doing this! But it sure did simplify things for me, since I do like to cook most of the time but am not so enamored with it that I feel supercharged spending more of my free time there. I LIKE being able to reach into the fridge on a given week and knowing that I have ready portions to turn into a meal in about 20 minutes...and can then utilize my fresh greens and veggies and fruits around them and vary things a lot.
Now we're getting more away from using meats, but evenso, when I cook them, this way has now become a habit that seems to work for me pretty well.
What meals do you enjoy "piggybacking" and stretching to the Nth degree? Got any favorite spinoffs that have become your family's favorites? If we ever get a grill, THAT will become another "quantity" cooking type I'll enjoy serving "reruns" from :)
Food Budgeting Part Two: One For the Cart
Thank you for sharing your grocery budget ideas and challenges! We all have similar needs that overlap, despite differences in our situations.
Donna, I need to learn from YOU...you're already doing these things and I'm not sure anything here will be very groundbreaking as far as a new approach! Everyone who sends in their tips ads to the collective wisdom here...thank you!
One For The Cart
Remember the practice of coffeemaking where a certain amount goes in per serving and then lastly another scoop gets added "for the pot"? When it comes to groceries, we can adopt a "one for the cart" practice which, for a lot of us, is something that can slowly add up if we apply it to our weekly (or whatever increment) food gathering, especially if you shop at the store. If you're fortunate enough to not have to shop at the store for most of your food needs...I want to be you! (and hopefully am working my way there) But for now, my world includes storebought items.
My former mother-in-law always grew a huge garden and was a study in cooking the best homemade meals ever for her husband and six ravenous boys. She canned, froze, preserved, pickled, baked, knew her local butcher by name, and could sniff out a sale better than most. Years ago, I'd look at wonder at her fully-stocked shelves located not only in her kitchen but also overflowing into storage areas such as the basement. While being really frugal, she and her husband had the money to buy extra quantities of staple goods and storage foods, a lot of times at Big Box stores or through mail order, or to stock up when there were really good sales at local shopping centers. She recycled her glass jars to hold a lot of the overflow, and she had quantities of nearly everything from dried beans/lentils, rice, flour/grains, every sort of home-canned good, canned goods from the store, spices, herbs, liquors (mostly for making tinctures for her herbs, teas, freezer items, personal care and hygiene products, etc. She leaned hard in the direction of keeping all those things natural and organic as possible.
But in those years, for my own family of three with one car and a slim income, our budget was so to-the-bone that I shopped weekly for THAT week alone, it was difficult to buy ANYTHING in extra quantities for building up a reserve, and most small reserves quickly became depleted of necessity when we'd have company over or cook foods for celebrations and holidays. Plus, I was purchasing a lot more processed foods back then...things like canned soups, breaded meats, boxed cereals, flavored individual packets of oatmeal...etc etc. That's changed today.
I was always so frustrated not to have some good reserves at hand to select from then...a surplus to serve as backup and also inspiration for putting together meals not requiring a lengthy list of ingredients from the supermarket. Think of it...if every time you wanted to make biscuits or a baked item you had to make a separate trip to the store for EACH of the ingredients...over and over again...who would bake? There are some items most of us keep on hand so we don't have to...flour, baking soda/powder, salt/pepper/some spices, and so on. I needed to do that on a bigger scale than for biscuits, though...so I could make full meals from what we had on hand. This was VERY difficult for me to learn when the budget was so cut to the bone.
But thankfully, that's gotten better, mostly because we've cut out nearly all processed foods. This is really important as a first step for being able to purchase any reserve foods. I say nearly all processed foods because there are a few things I still fall back on for convenience or out of habit (one example, evaporated milk). WHAT I want to have in reserves has changed, too...now it's things that can make a meal without a laundry list of ingredients.
So what's One For The Cart? It's the one or two extras (cheap!) I make myself get when I have even as much as one or two dollars of wiggle room during a shopping trip to the store, namely my weekly trip for groceries. When I shop, since we're mostly getting fruits and vegetables that are fresh or frozen, I'll slip in long-storage items, a spice or two, or an on-sale "luxury" item (like a jar of olives, pimientos, honey, etc) to the tune of three or four dollars' worth to have as my back up. Or during the holidays, maybe that bag of chocolate chips that is marked way down the day before Thanksgiving, or the generic box of raisins and generic oatmeal. Voila...cookies ingredients for giftgiving during the year end holiday season...and so on.
(I know nearly everyone out here already does this...it's not rocket science. But it took me a long time to get the hang of it since we bought processed foods...the already-made cookies...for so long)
Certain places have better deals than others. This is where ethnic markets, discount stores and dollar stores, and sales items really count. Ethnic markets usually have spices and dried beans/lentils at MUCH lower prices than the regular grocery store, plus they have spice mixes. I'll write more on that later. Stores like Big Lots sell certain items at a huge discount in their food aisles, because in the middle of those boxes of processed foods there are things like garlic powder, Wasa wafers (that don't go stale!), imported chocolate bars, etc that are top dollar at the supermarket but are CHEAP there.
When I shop, I save the last dollar or two for an extra bag of those frozen veggies that are special or a bag or two of dried black beans, or the real vanilla extract that's on sale because it's the holidays....and so on. Are you good on frozen or fresh or canned produce, but always get short handed when it comes to spices? Make those your One For The Cart items the next few shopping trips and make a side trip to the ethnic markets and dollar stores to see how low you can go. The only way that's fun for me is if I hold onto a few of my dollars and make a fun sidetrip of it when out already running errands, not doing it when I'm flustered and in a hurry.
Most people probably already do this...so it's not so much a groundbreaking concept. It's just that I never really did it before. But buying those two extra bags of frozen limas and that couple cans of black beans here and there, and those little sacks of dried beans and split peas add up to MANY suppers of Veggies-and-cornbread, or soups, or hummus, or sides to a plate of fresh veg SO many times.
If you're organized, you can round out a really good collection of spices this way, a stash of dried beans/lentils, baking needs, soup ingredients, personal care items, paper goods, special celebration ingredients, brown bag lunch items, supplements/medicines, and so on...and can eyeball the stash to see which ones need to be re-stocked eventually.
Anyway, the One for the Cart is something I realized I now do instinctually, and was worth at least a mention. It's a way of having things on hand like that jar of roasted red peppers, some parmesan cheese, some olives, and so on that otherwise I'd be spending three times as much for (or in my case not using at all) to make a regular meal a little more savory, or to make sure there are backup provisions in case we're short one week...or on those night I accidentally scorch the soup!
I'd love to hear how you increase your reserve supplies without big outlays of cash, and what some of your favorite cart items are when you do :)
Donna, I need to learn from YOU...you're already doing these things and I'm not sure anything here will be very groundbreaking as far as a new approach! Everyone who sends in their tips ads to the collective wisdom here...thank you!
One For The Cart
Remember the practice of coffeemaking where a certain amount goes in per serving and then lastly another scoop gets added "for the pot"? When it comes to groceries, we can adopt a "one for the cart" practice which, for a lot of us, is something that can slowly add up if we apply it to our weekly (or whatever increment) food gathering, especially if you shop at the store. If you're fortunate enough to not have to shop at the store for most of your food needs...I want to be you! (and hopefully am working my way there) But for now, my world includes storebought items.
My former mother-in-law always grew a huge garden and was a study in cooking the best homemade meals ever for her husband and six ravenous boys. She canned, froze, preserved, pickled, baked, knew her local butcher by name, and could sniff out a sale better than most. Years ago, I'd look at wonder at her fully-stocked shelves located not only in her kitchen but also overflowing into storage areas such as the basement. While being really frugal, she and her husband had the money to buy extra quantities of staple goods and storage foods, a lot of times at Big Box stores or through mail order, or to stock up when there were really good sales at local shopping centers. She recycled her glass jars to hold a lot of the overflow, and she had quantities of nearly everything from dried beans/lentils, rice, flour/grains, every sort of home-canned good, canned goods from the store, spices, herbs, liquors (mostly for making tinctures for her herbs, teas, freezer items, personal care and hygiene products, etc. She leaned hard in the direction of keeping all those things natural and organic as possible.
But in those years, for my own family of three with one car and a slim income, our budget was so to-the-bone that I shopped weekly for THAT week alone, it was difficult to buy ANYTHING in extra quantities for building up a reserve, and most small reserves quickly became depleted of necessity when we'd have company over or cook foods for celebrations and holidays. Plus, I was purchasing a lot more processed foods back then...things like canned soups, breaded meats, boxed cereals, flavored individual packets of oatmeal...etc etc. That's changed today.
I was always so frustrated not to have some good reserves at hand to select from then...a surplus to serve as backup and also inspiration for putting together meals not requiring a lengthy list of ingredients from the supermarket. Think of it...if every time you wanted to make biscuits or a baked item you had to make a separate trip to the store for EACH of the ingredients...over and over again...who would bake? There are some items most of us keep on hand so we don't have to...flour, baking soda/powder, salt/pepper/some spices, and so on. I needed to do that on a bigger scale than for biscuits, though...so I could make full meals from what we had on hand. This was VERY difficult for me to learn when the budget was so cut to the bone.
But thankfully, that's gotten better, mostly because we've cut out nearly all processed foods. This is really important as a first step for being able to purchase any reserve foods. I say nearly all processed foods because there are a few things I still fall back on for convenience or out of habit (one example, evaporated milk). WHAT I want to have in reserves has changed, too...now it's things that can make a meal without a laundry list of ingredients.
So what's One For The Cart? It's the one or two extras (cheap!) I make myself get when I have even as much as one or two dollars of wiggle room during a shopping trip to the store, namely my weekly trip for groceries. When I shop, since we're mostly getting fruits and vegetables that are fresh or frozen, I'll slip in long-storage items, a spice or two, or an on-sale "luxury" item (like a jar of olives, pimientos, honey, etc) to the tune of three or four dollars' worth to have as my back up. Or during the holidays, maybe that bag of chocolate chips that is marked way down the day before Thanksgiving, or the generic box of raisins and generic oatmeal. Voila...cookies ingredients for giftgiving during the year end holiday season...and so on.
(I know nearly everyone out here already does this...it's not rocket science. But it took me a long time to get the hang of it since we bought processed foods...the already-made cookies...for so long)
Certain places have better deals than others. This is where ethnic markets, discount stores and dollar stores, and sales items really count. Ethnic markets usually have spices and dried beans/lentils at MUCH lower prices than the regular grocery store, plus they have spice mixes. I'll write more on that later. Stores like Big Lots sell certain items at a huge discount in their food aisles, because in the middle of those boxes of processed foods there are things like garlic powder, Wasa wafers (that don't go stale!), imported chocolate bars, etc that are top dollar at the supermarket but are CHEAP there.
When I shop, I save the last dollar or two for an extra bag of those frozen veggies that are special or a bag or two of dried black beans, or the real vanilla extract that's on sale because it's the holidays....and so on. Are you good on frozen or fresh or canned produce, but always get short handed when it comes to spices? Make those your One For The Cart items the next few shopping trips and make a side trip to the ethnic markets and dollar stores to see how low you can go. The only way that's fun for me is if I hold onto a few of my dollars and make a fun sidetrip of it when out already running errands, not doing it when I'm flustered and in a hurry.
Most people probably already do this...so it's not so much a groundbreaking concept. It's just that I never really did it before. But buying those two extra bags of frozen limas and that couple cans of black beans here and there, and those little sacks of dried beans and split peas add up to MANY suppers of Veggies-and-cornbread, or soups, or hummus, or sides to a plate of fresh veg SO many times.
If you're organized, you can round out a really good collection of spices this way, a stash of dried beans/lentils, baking needs, soup ingredients, personal care items, paper goods, special celebration ingredients, brown bag lunch items, supplements/medicines, and so on...and can eyeball the stash to see which ones need to be re-stocked eventually.
Anyway, the One for the Cart is something I realized I now do instinctually, and was worth at least a mention. It's a way of having things on hand like that jar of roasted red peppers, some parmesan cheese, some olives, and so on that otherwise I'd be spending three times as much for (or in my case not using at all) to make a regular meal a little more savory, or to make sure there are backup provisions in case we're short one week...or on those night I accidentally scorch the soup!
I'd love to hear how you increase your reserve supplies without big outlays of cash, and what some of your favorite cart items are when you do :)
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Food Budgeting Part One: Think Real Food
Happy New Year to all!!!
This can be our best year ever...yes, a lot of us in this country and elsewhere are having to be creative about how to make lemonade of lemons, but the nice news is that with some practice it's not only possible, but empowering..AND...plus around here we love lemonade :)
I've decided to break this post into segments instead of my usual monster post, and this week will be putting my mental notes here in black and white, beginning with the subject of some things that ARE working for me as we've already been (of necessity) cutting things way back from our former food budget and eating habits that dovetail with that budget.
I'll start with something near to my heart: Nutrition.
It's near to my heart not because I've mastered good eating habits, nor am I a svelte 120 pounds, nor can I fit into my jeans from 25 years ago. I've lost some weight the past year, yet have a lot of pounds to continue losing and am on medications for health problems I still need to solve.
But here's the deal...despair and relinquishment are not the same thing as acceptance of current limitations, and they leave no room for some very simple steps that can, and will, continue to return both me and my husband to good health.
And that is not only our goal, it is our continued Resolution...every month of the year.
So, what, if anything, have we done right the past couple years in that category, seeing that we still have so far to go?
Well...a LOT...we've changed a lot of habits and spending to nurture it, and have seen results. And no, we're not perfect and don't have our act all together. But we love to learn and I wanted to share a little of that changed perspective so that others staring down the barrell of a very short budget don't feel powerless to rise to the challenge...I've felt overwhelmed in the past and have been so encouraged seeing how others solve some of the particulars for their families. Just sharing a bit of what seems to be working for ours...
First, we keep one particular goal in mind: Cost.
A lot of people rationalize spending money they don't have because they're told (all the time) some version of the phrases "your health is worth any price" or "this (supplement/procedure/membership fee/etc) is worth it because of the health problems it will save you from later that would be much more expensive to address."
There are a lot of holistic supplements and treatments Jack and I would glady participate in, that probably WOULD hasten some of our goals more quickly, if not for the cost.
But here's the COSTLY lesson we've learned, and thankfully adopted in the past couple years: If you don't have the money, DON'T think the only door to eating and living healthfully is closed...there are many doors. Just because the money is not there does not mean we're out of options. This goes for successful lifestyle changes, treatments of medical problems, prevention, and selecting good nutritious foods on a very tight budget.
I had to preface all the other post for this week on this subject by emphasizing that. GOOD NUTRITION DOES NOT HAVE TO BREAK THE BUDGET.
I'm not a guru on this...we've learned slowly and are still learning.
We've had to slaughter some sacred cows because of this, as well. We've had to relax any purist mentality in some areas that are still important to us, but that have to be revised at this moment IN ORDER to facilitate our financial ability until we can reach our goal of EVENTUALLY being more self-sufficient and closer to some of these goals....such as
1. Eating foods grown locally by small farmers and individuals rather than from the Big Box stores...near to our hearts, this one.
2. Eating 100% organic, non-pesticide foods
3. Eating mostly foods grown by us
4. Eating according to the seasons...seasonal produce, etc.
Here are the goals that supercede those, for the time being:
1. Being consistent about good eating changes
2. Stockpiling or otherwise storing extra foods that keep easily for long term storage and are nutritious
3. Staying away from all or most processed foods
4. Making it myself in my own kitchen
5. Coming up with ways to make my own "fast" foods so not everything in the kitchen is time-intensive
6. Making the nutritious meals taste good...otherwise we won't get used to them and continue eating them
7. Varying the basics enough that meals with similar ingredients are still appealing even though we eat them a lot
8. Thinking of survival, simplicity, and self-sufficiency even with every store purchase: training ourselves to do with very basic ingredients that we could grow if we wanted to or had to
9. Eliminate preservatives. If something we buy has a label, choosing the food with no preservatives, additives, food coloring, etc.
10. Eat for the Cure. Learning what foods will best support our own particular genetic weaknesses (mine are tendencies for upper respiratory problems and blood sugar issues, Jack's would include high blood pressure) and making them standard fare instead of "bite the nail and swallow the bitter pill" types of cures.
11. EDUCATE ourselves and DO IT OURSELVES.
I was in a grocery store the other day and saw a girl in her twenties walking down the aisle, and had a flashback to my young (broke!) days. In her cart were a variety of boxes and flavors of Ramen Noodles, a lot of pasta, and processed food that price-wise was inexpensive. I ate like that when I was in college, and it wrecked my health for years. Not that I'm immune to an annual blackslide into a box or two of Kraft Mac and Cheese, but my mindset is very very different now, of necessity.
I'll go into this further in my next post, but I just wanted to state that the MINDSET before even budgeting on a very minimal amount of money for food NEEDS to be THE HIGHEST FORM OF NUTRITIOUS FOOD FOR THE MONEY. And THOSE things, thankfully, are the most basic foods...fresh vegetables and fruits, dried beans/peas/lentils, tubers, longterm storage vegetables like winter squashes, quality seeds/nuts/ and some grains. Preservative-free sweeteners.
A lot of people have this down pat. Others, like me, have had to come a long way, baby.
So....making nutritional goals is first before a single dollar gets spent.
BUY REAL FOOD. Food that remembers where it came from, preferably the straight up raw ingredients. That's the goal. Anything else, truly, is not exactly FOOD, really, because the more processed those ingredients become before reaching the kitchen, the more they are a substance.
The most basic elements of our meals are akin to the most basic elements of our budget...sticking to what is essential, not loading up with non-essentials.
That's part one...mindset, before spending a single cent. More ramble tomorrow...I have no idea how many point there'll be, but at least I'm breaking them up a bit :)
Got food budgeting advice? We're all ears!
This can be our best year ever...yes, a lot of us in this country and elsewhere are having to be creative about how to make lemonade of lemons, but the nice news is that with some practice it's not only possible, but empowering..AND...plus around here we love lemonade :)
I've decided to break this post into segments instead of my usual monster post, and this week will be putting my mental notes here in black and white, beginning with the subject of some things that ARE working for me as we've already been (of necessity) cutting things way back from our former food budget and eating habits that dovetail with that budget.
I'll start with something near to my heart: Nutrition.
It's near to my heart not because I've mastered good eating habits, nor am I a svelte 120 pounds, nor can I fit into my jeans from 25 years ago. I've lost some weight the past year, yet have a lot of pounds to continue losing and am on medications for health problems I still need to solve.
But here's the deal...despair and relinquishment are not the same thing as acceptance of current limitations, and they leave no room for some very simple steps that can, and will, continue to return both me and my husband to good health.
And that is not only our goal, it is our continued Resolution...every month of the year.
So, what, if anything, have we done right the past couple years in that category, seeing that we still have so far to go?
Well...a LOT...we've changed a lot of habits and spending to nurture it, and have seen results. And no, we're not perfect and don't have our act all together. But we love to learn and I wanted to share a little of that changed perspective so that others staring down the barrell of a very short budget don't feel powerless to rise to the challenge...I've felt overwhelmed in the past and have been so encouraged seeing how others solve some of the particulars for their families. Just sharing a bit of what seems to be working for ours...
First, we keep one particular goal in mind: Cost.
A lot of people rationalize spending money they don't have because they're told (all the time) some version of the phrases "your health is worth any price" or "this (supplement/procedure/membership fee/etc) is worth it because of the health problems it will save you from later that would be much more expensive to address."
There are a lot of holistic supplements and treatments Jack and I would glady participate in, that probably WOULD hasten some of our goals more quickly, if not for the cost.
But here's the COSTLY lesson we've learned, and thankfully adopted in the past couple years: If you don't have the money, DON'T think the only door to eating and living healthfully is closed...there are many doors. Just because the money is not there does not mean we're out of options. This goes for successful lifestyle changes, treatments of medical problems, prevention, and selecting good nutritious foods on a very tight budget.
I had to preface all the other post for this week on this subject by emphasizing that. GOOD NUTRITION DOES NOT HAVE TO BREAK THE BUDGET.
I'm not a guru on this...we've learned slowly and are still learning.
We've had to slaughter some sacred cows because of this, as well. We've had to relax any purist mentality in some areas that are still important to us, but that have to be revised at this moment IN ORDER to facilitate our financial ability until we can reach our goal of EVENTUALLY being more self-sufficient and closer to some of these goals....such as
1. Eating foods grown locally by small farmers and individuals rather than from the Big Box stores...near to our hearts, this one.
2. Eating 100% organic, non-pesticide foods
3. Eating mostly foods grown by us
4. Eating according to the seasons...seasonal produce, etc.
Here are the goals that supercede those, for the time being:
1. Being consistent about good eating changes
2. Stockpiling or otherwise storing extra foods that keep easily for long term storage and are nutritious
3. Staying away from all or most processed foods
4. Making it myself in my own kitchen
5. Coming up with ways to make my own "fast" foods so not everything in the kitchen is time-intensive
6. Making the nutritious meals taste good...otherwise we won't get used to them and continue eating them
7. Varying the basics enough that meals with similar ingredients are still appealing even though we eat them a lot
8. Thinking of survival, simplicity, and self-sufficiency even with every store purchase: training ourselves to do with very basic ingredients that we could grow if we wanted to or had to
9. Eliminate preservatives. If something we buy has a label, choosing the food with no preservatives, additives, food coloring, etc.
10. Eat for the Cure. Learning what foods will best support our own particular genetic weaknesses (mine are tendencies for upper respiratory problems and blood sugar issues, Jack's would include high blood pressure) and making them standard fare instead of "bite the nail and swallow the bitter pill" types of cures.
11. EDUCATE ourselves and DO IT OURSELVES.
I was in a grocery store the other day and saw a girl in her twenties walking down the aisle, and had a flashback to my young (broke!) days. In her cart were a variety of boxes and flavors of Ramen Noodles, a lot of pasta, and processed food that price-wise was inexpensive. I ate like that when I was in college, and it wrecked my health for years. Not that I'm immune to an annual blackslide into a box or two of Kraft Mac and Cheese, but my mindset is very very different now, of necessity.
I'll go into this further in my next post, but I just wanted to state that the MINDSET before even budgeting on a very minimal amount of money for food NEEDS to be THE HIGHEST FORM OF NUTRITIOUS FOOD FOR THE MONEY. And THOSE things, thankfully, are the most basic foods...fresh vegetables and fruits, dried beans/peas/lentils, tubers, longterm storage vegetables like winter squashes, quality seeds/nuts/ and some grains. Preservative-free sweeteners.
A lot of people have this down pat. Others, like me, have had to come a long way, baby.
So....making nutritional goals is first before a single dollar gets spent.
BUY REAL FOOD. Food that remembers where it came from, preferably the straight up raw ingredients. That's the goal. Anything else, truly, is not exactly FOOD, really, because the more processed those ingredients become before reaching the kitchen, the more they are a substance.
The most basic elements of our meals are akin to the most basic elements of our budget...sticking to what is essential, not loading up with non-essentials.
That's part one...mindset, before spending a single cent. More ramble tomorrow...I have no idea how many point there'll be, but at least I'm breaking them up a bit :)
Got food budgeting advice? We're all ears!
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Things That Happened This Year
1. News! Passed CNA Test!! I took the Exam Prep course in early
2. A friend called and is giving us her Champion Juicer. WOW!!!! It's just sitting in a closet not being used. Well, watch out, I can't wait to get my hands on it :)
3. Job Changes. Backing up, for the past few years since losing my previous job in another industry, I began moonlighting as a security officer on the side to help with keeping our income steady. Sometimes moonlighting takes on a life of its own, and I worked nights and kept doing so for...years now. This year, as I was considering other options in the spring and was also considering the impact night shifts were having on my health, I asked God for guidance as far as timing and opportunities in different fields. I love being at home, but working night shifts made my time off at home feel as if I were in continual jet lag instead of being productive. My present job began drastically becoming less ideal (many factors) and about the month of May, my daughter offered to pay for me to be a challenger to the state CNA exam via a test prep course offered here locally...and the commute and gasoline, as well as being down to one vehicle shared between two working adults became an issue with my job. So...uncharacteristically of me...I gave notice in time to take the course. This was all with Jack's blessing, even though it may have felt a little scary for him, too. But it turns out with the money I saved being home and cooking everything here and doing it even more frugally than before AND minus the expense of gasoline I'd been using...it came out about even. WOW. So anyway, this bullet point should read LEFT MY JOB.
3. Saying it while I can....life is so short, and this has been underlined as some friends have died in recent months and years, and we've also lost Jack's mom a couple years back. It makes you consider all those things you wish you'd said while the person was still alive to feel appreciated. As I no longer want to have any regrets in that department, I said Thank You to people I've been remiss to thank throughout the years. I began writing retroactive thank yous to people who have really been there for me in the past, whether I'm still in touch with them today or not, especially those people who came to mind and I felt I'd not adequately told I appreciated, or some folks I've lost touch with. The divorce years were dark and not pretty, and a lot of people fell off my radar for reasons of my own withdrawal, not for lack of contact on their part. Privacy and isolation were part of my grieving process but there are so many things for which I am thankful before, during, and after that time. So I took the time to say some of those things, and am SO glad to have made this a more deliberate practice this year. I hope to continue to do it. I do feel caught up on many dear people I'd been remiss to thank, and now one of them is no longer alive. It underlines how important this needs to continue being as a focus for me rather than something I intend to do but procrastinate.
4. Some major cleaning and organization in the house got done. Certain areas were overwhelming for me...why, I don't know, but as they got tackled one square foot or box at a time, the momentum increased and it got finished. This impacts all the daily small things even if it's not a really big accomplishment...things are easier to find, less cluttered, prioritized and used or given away. A really GOOD feeling.
5. I've spent a lot less time on the computer. It just happened. There were other things I wanted to do not requiring being in an office chair. :) My blog may have suffered for it, but I gained a lot of involvement in things that needed to happen or be experienced in the moment. Yay!
6. And along that same vein, in the late winter and spring of early this year, I wanted to read read read books of all kinds and I don't think it's an exaggeration to say those may be up into the three digits in count by now. I had a voracious reader's appetite that needed to be filled, especially when I was working nights and had pockets of time with no mental stimulation that needed to be filled. History, fiction, Florida history, author series (I like to choose one I've never read and read several of theirs in sequence to get a good feel for their writing, suspense, espionage, biographies, gardening, cooking, writing, etc etc) I've slowed it down moreso since June. But I needed the recharge books give me that no amount of "screen time" can equal.
7. I've made Jack's health and schedule consistency a priority. Mine is, too, but with my being at home since June, I try to always send him off to work having had a really good hot meal, his supplements, early morning fruit/snack, etc etc. I try to keep the house quiet so he can sleep days...and so on and so on. Living around night work schedules is backwards and I know from having done it, too, that it's so hard on our bodies. There are certain supplements we take that radically help our bone and joint comfort and protects them from injury, so I make sure we have those. Jack is the partner/husband/soulmate/bestfriend of my dreams and prayers. Our goal is to get beyond debt so that neither of us has to ever work a night shift out of necessity again. The goal is close. In the meantime, I help keep his routine from having any complications other than the ones that are inevitable. And I really really like that. He does the same for me.
8. I de-stressed and slowed things wayyy down. I'm burnt out of being burnt out. I concentrated on fewer projects and did them better. I deliberately took the CNA practice time between the course and the test date, etc, at a very slow and relaxed pace because there have been SO many times I DIDNT have a choice other than rush rush rush and push push push before, that when it's not crucial I just simply refuse to fall into my Overachiever mode...it just comes at too great a cost. I have a tendency to be all-or-nothing, so this is sort of coming to center for me. I can't stand to having nothing in the works and feel unproductive. But I am so glad I took things a bit slower and didnt remain in the stress of driving myself faster in this area this time.
9. Thanks to the commisseration of one of my dearest friends and a great series of surprise packages in the mail, filled with spices galore from international markets she frequents in her area, I learned to cook some Indian food dishes on a regular basis (a few good dishes I have no names for but Jack LOVES). They begin with spice packets whose ingredients are not simply dry spices but are ground and packaged airtight and still moist with oils, and you roast them a couple minutes in a skillet and then add in your own ingredients...and so on. I played with spices, and even if it didn't turn out excellent every time, it did enough times to keep on having fun with it. The house smells delicious with the spices, so that is a winner EVERY time :) Now I have some tried-n-trues enough that I can fix a big batch of a masala to keep in the fridge and Jack can have it as his "fast food" when I'm not home, so all he has to do is reheat an individual portion...and it's better after a few days, anyway. So INDIAN FOOD is in the house!
10. We learned to eat our moringa and chaya. WHY it takes us so long to acclimate to the wonderful alternative plants that grow as perrenials (we have no garden this year), I do not know, but we did make an effort to begin learning with the moringa and chaya. They are delicious greens! We need more greens in our meals, period. Not only do they provide that but their nutrition content is higher than anything else we could grow. We'll expand our experimentation, but as fresh greens for half the year or longer, these rock!
11. I only sustained a weight loss of 10 pounds this year...up and down and up and down but now the set point is ten pounds less. While I'd like this to have been wayyyyyyyyy farther downwards, anything downwards is appreciated.
12. Prayer. I've been more deliberate about paying attention to praying for others and actively asking for prayer for things that arise with us. I feel very insular here, as we don't have schedules that encourage much interaction with people beyond the workplace or running errands. But I have dear friends elsewhere and online, and have tried to be more consistent about participating with them in the ups and downs of their own lives. There have been so many wonderful answers to prayer, and its' always encouraging! I'm also grateful for those who've prayed specifically for some of our concerns...and have shared in our joys and some of our disappointments. I'm so grateful! Anytime you have a prayer request, we are HAPPY to join with you it in...it is a joy to, and always brings us back to such a gratefulness for the goodness of God.
13. Hopes and Disappointments about land. This is the area I can't talk about, but suffice it to say that there has been a consistent process afoot to conclude a couple possibilities related to land, once and for all. It has required weekly correspondence and so on, an ongoing process. This has run on like a bad sitcom, with apparent 'breakthroughs" followed by sucker punches, all of which are just " a part of the process" but have so much of our planning and expectation attached that every reposition FEELS like a big shift back and forth. I've had bitter periods and ecstatic ones, but right now my focus is the things I do have some control over, whether any of these others materialize or not.
14. Paid off half our remaining debt!!! Thank you, God, and all who were praying! A couple properties (undeveloped lots, residential) that Jack had had for sale for a long time finally sold, for pennies on the dollar. But those pennies paid off half our debt...so we have the other half to go, but the amount it depressurized in our monthly budget is HUGE. THANK YOU to God and those of you who prayed for us!!
15. Have a Lap Top. This was something we deliberately acquired earlier in the year so that I could have a way to write and do communications away from home, since many of my hours at the first of the year through midyear were spent away from home. I have hoped to chip away at some personal writing projects and now am delighted to have files where I was able to jot copious jumbled notes in the moment instead of forever losing them. I hope someday to turn some of those into a book or two...we'll see. Still, for someone who loves to write, having a great tool handy is such a blessing. Thank you to Jack and my daughter for their contributions (birthday presents, etc) that made this possible for me! It will be a great tool for going back to school in what I hope is a not too distant future!
16. Aunt Jessie. Named for a dear friend's elderly aunt who was full of spunk and old-fashioned independence and kept her firearms handy and her pistol strapped to her leg beneath her ladylike skirt, I have a handgun for the first time in my life. Ever. This was big, as I was afraid of firearms. Jack helped me with a trip to the gun range and safety instruction, the internet and copious youtube watching helped me with some basic familiarity, and a book called the Boston's Gun Bible helped me learn terms and see comparisons and categories so that I was not totally illiterate and could find some recommendations, etc. I still have a healthy respect/fear of anything that can blow a person away. But we feel the times we are in necessitate responsible exercise of our freedoms and I'd rather be knowledgeable rather than ignorant. So WE bought ME a pistol. I still need a lot of practice. But this was a huge step for me, and a positive one. I do not feel like a sitting target on nights when there have been prowlers.
17. Refine, refine, refine. We are constantly refining things such as our longterm goals, our budget, our eating, the way we spend our time, and so on. The changes that have occurred in conjuction of where we see our goal to get to our "farm" are that we (I should say "I") really want to keep it simple and straightforward. Where before we felt we had years to finetune situations that could unfold mutiple ways over time slowly, now I simply want to Get There Without Complications. I do not want building or environmental restrictions, legalities that have to be solved, bargains that have things left unsolved or undone, timeframes with no definite dates, second parties who may or may not take their sweet time in making decisions or changing their minds. We are considering 4 season areas not in Florida, which is also a big change, but we're not leaning towards the colder climates as a permanent location. We are looking at the sustainability financially, too, and for different goals as far as location and siting. Our "dream" house now is very small...I have notebooks filled with drawings of houses that now are scrapped because our needs determine our expectations more and more. We feel empowered the simpler we think, because the smaller scale we can keep things the more freedom we have in other areas, and that's becoming more and more important to us, especially as the economy is looking dire for the longterm. I'm talking in generalties, but the specifics are too many to go into except to say we're running to try to get "set up" while there is still opportunity to. We do not see further economic downturns as "ifs" but as "whens." We've refined our eating towards nutrition and with an eye for learning to enjoy things that could be grown by us or kept in long term storage inexpensively. We've challenged our weekly food budget to see "how low can we go" while still staying free of processed food. We have a goal amount for our ideal lowest monthly overhead, and it's LOW :) We are ditching excess belongings and trading them for things we most need. We are researching what few tools can later help us without our feeling we have to acquire an array of technology, while also determining those few tools that will be crucial to staying productive without wearing our bodies out or making extra work.
18. We have found we want to be connected to people longterm who love the Almighty. We love privacy but still need to be part of a community, whether that's looseknit or family-like. We like to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, so whatever we do in the years to come, it will involve using our talents to further "the repair of the world"...something worthwhile that can help others, be a part of community in some way. We are seeing more and more that there is an inherent respect for people and for Creation that some people who really care about the Almighty share, whether they have much else in common or not, and others who have no interior values other than what are superimposed on them externally just do not have that. It's a paradigm that has everything to do with how sound a community will be...the basic recognition and respect for life and the Almighty....and how they will be able to rely interdependently on each other. Even if we are far afield and loosely-knit with such a community, while at the same time really valuing our privacy and autonomy, we do not want to be without our community at large. So we'll be aware of this in the midst of the other goals we have, and deliberate in cultivating it, and it will never be far from all the other considerations.
19. We didn't put in a garden. We did use multi-purpose "perennials." We de-bucketed Bucketville. What began a few years ago as an assumption we'd be moving soon to land, and thereby resulted in planting a wide array of plants in five gallon buckets, continued to expand and expand, while our available time to maintain them did not. And we never moved and those buckets...kept collecting. Since we're in a neighborhood where curb appeal will sell a home faster than will the sight of five gallon buckets as far as the eye can see, we stopped growing seasonal test plots on our vacant lot next door and only kept enough buckets as we need for Jack to continue experimenting with the best ways of keeping our perennial plants (chaya, cranberry hibiscus, gynura, papayas) and moringa trees productive. Those, and some trees, are all we have left at present of the Bucketville collection, and most of those are planted in-ground now...something we had waited on a long while as we wondered if we'd be able to carry them to our "final" land for transplant, but had to keep waiting, and finally decided they'd croak if we didn't go ahead and just plant them here. It's HARD resisting the urge to go ahead and do more with a garden, but there is a purpose...we're so near getting out of our debt and we don't need time distractions. We need to ready the house for sale so when the time comes we can immediately stick a sign in the yard and know nearly everything's done. And how we hope that day is soon! :) It's all good. But when we CAN finally have the garden and order those seed...WOO !
20. We're down to one car. This is huge, since we both commuted an hour to work on differing schedules. But we're adapting and one of the big considerations in my wanting this CNA job is that there are openings much closer to home, requiring less gas and meaning the probability of continuing to share the same vehicle is much more likely. This is something we're figuring into our choice of a permanent acreage, too...the distance to a reliable area for parttime employment. We figure saving on fuel is crucial to our budget...we no longer can justify working longer and harder just to afford the gas and same standard of living, and have no desire to do so. We're HAPPY being frugal because it's freeing us, not constricting :) Have a single vehicle for two jobs is worrisome on other levels. We're working to be debt free so that there is a cushion in the event we need to get even more creative later down the road.
That's about it...what were the main events of your year? What do you hope to include for the next one? what would you hope to do better and what were the "keepers"?
Thank you for being such an encouraging part of our lives with your comments here and the great sense of sharing and community that is very very real. We hope your year had some really positive lessons and your year ahead is your best one yet :)
June
2. A friend called and is giving us her Champion Juicer. WOW!!!! It's just sitting in a closet not being used. Well, watch out, I can't wait to get my hands on it :)
3. Job Changes. Backing up, for the past few years since losing my previous job in another industry, I began moonlighting as a security officer on the side to help with keeping our income steady. Sometimes moonlighting takes on a life of its own, and I worked nights and kept doing so for...years now. This year, as I was considering other options in the spring and was also considering the impact night shifts were having on my health, I asked God for guidance as far as timing and opportunities in different fields. I love being at home, but working night shifts made my time off at home feel as if I were in continual jet lag instead of being productive. My present job began drastically becoming less ideal (many factors) and about the month of May, my daughter offered to pay for me to be a challenger to the state CNA exam via a test prep course offered here locally...and the commute and gasoline, as well as being down to one vehicle shared between two working adults became an issue with my job. So...uncharacteristically of me...I gave notice in time to take the course. This was all with Jack's blessing, even though it may have felt a little scary for him, too. But it turns out with the money I saved being home and cooking everything here and doing it even more frugally than before AND minus the expense of gasoline I'd been using...it came out about even. WOW. So anyway, this bullet point should read LEFT MY JOB.
3. Saying it while I can....life is so short, and this has been underlined as some friends have died in recent months and years, and we've also lost Jack's mom a couple years back. It makes you consider all those things you wish you'd said while the person was still alive to feel appreciated. As I no longer want to have any regrets in that department, I said Thank You to people I've been remiss to thank throughout the years. I began writing retroactive thank yous to people who have really been there for me in the past, whether I'm still in touch with them today or not, especially those people who came to mind and I felt I'd not adequately told I appreciated, or some folks I've lost touch with. The divorce years were dark and not pretty, and a lot of people fell off my radar for reasons of my own withdrawal, not for lack of contact on their part. Privacy and isolation were part of my grieving process but there are so many things for which I am thankful before, during, and after that time. So I took the time to say some of those things, and am SO glad to have made this a more deliberate practice this year. I hope to continue to do it. I do feel caught up on many dear people I'd been remiss to thank, and now one of them is no longer alive. It underlines how important this needs to continue being as a focus for me rather than something I intend to do but procrastinate.
4. Some major cleaning and organization in the house got done. Certain areas were overwhelming for me...why, I don't know, but as they got tackled one square foot or box at a time, the momentum increased and it got finished. This impacts all the daily small things even if it's not a really big accomplishment...things are easier to find, less cluttered, prioritized and used or given away. A really GOOD feeling.
5. I've spent a lot less time on the computer. It just happened. There were other things I wanted to do not requiring being in an office chair. :) My blog may have suffered for it, but I gained a lot of involvement in things that needed to happen or be experienced in the moment. Yay!
6. And along that same vein, in the late winter and spring of early this year, I wanted to read read read books of all kinds and I don't think it's an exaggeration to say those may be up into the three digits in count by now. I had a voracious reader's appetite that needed to be filled, especially when I was working nights and had pockets of time with no mental stimulation that needed to be filled. History, fiction, Florida history, author series (I like to choose one I've never read and read several of theirs in sequence to get a good feel for their writing, suspense, espionage, biographies, gardening, cooking, writing, etc etc) I've slowed it down moreso since June. But I needed the recharge books give me that no amount of "screen time" can equal.
7. I've made Jack's health and schedule consistency a priority. Mine is, too, but with my being at home since June, I try to always send him off to work having had a really good hot meal, his supplements, early morning fruit/snack, etc etc. I try to keep the house quiet so he can sleep days...and so on and so on. Living around night work schedules is backwards and I know from having done it, too, that it's so hard on our bodies. There are certain supplements we take that radically help our bone and joint comfort and protects them from injury, so I make sure we have those. Jack is the partner/husband/soulmate/bestfriend of my dreams and prayers. Our goal is to get beyond debt so that neither of us has to ever work a night shift out of necessity again. The goal is close. In the meantime, I help keep his routine from having any complications other than the ones that are inevitable. And I really really like that. He does the same for me.
8. I de-stressed and slowed things wayyy down. I'm burnt out of being burnt out. I concentrated on fewer projects and did them better. I deliberately took the CNA practice time between the course and the test date, etc, at a very slow and relaxed pace because there have been SO many times I DIDNT have a choice other than rush rush rush and push push push before, that when it's not crucial I just simply refuse to fall into my Overachiever mode...it just comes at too great a cost. I have a tendency to be all-or-nothing, so this is sort of coming to center for me. I can't stand to having nothing in the works and feel unproductive. But I am so glad I took things a bit slower and didnt remain in the stress of driving myself faster in this area this time.
9. Thanks to the commisseration of one of my dearest friends and a great series of surprise packages in the mail, filled with spices galore from international markets she frequents in her area, I learned to cook some Indian food dishes on a regular basis (a few good dishes I have no names for but Jack LOVES). They begin with spice packets whose ingredients are not simply dry spices but are ground and packaged airtight and still moist with oils, and you roast them a couple minutes in a skillet and then add in your own ingredients...and so on. I played with spices, and even if it didn't turn out excellent every time, it did enough times to keep on having fun with it. The house smells delicious with the spices, so that is a winner EVERY time :) Now I have some tried-n-trues enough that I can fix a big batch of a masala to keep in the fridge and Jack can have it as his "fast food" when I'm not home, so all he has to do is reheat an individual portion...and it's better after a few days, anyway. So INDIAN FOOD is in the house!
10. We learned to eat our moringa and chaya. WHY it takes us so long to acclimate to the wonderful alternative plants that grow as perrenials (we have no garden this year), I do not know, but we did make an effort to begin learning with the moringa and chaya. They are delicious greens! We need more greens in our meals, period. Not only do they provide that but their nutrition content is higher than anything else we could grow. We'll expand our experimentation, but as fresh greens for half the year or longer, these rock!
11. I only sustained a weight loss of 10 pounds this year...up and down and up and down but now the set point is ten pounds less. While I'd like this to have been wayyyyyyyyy farther downwards, anything downwards is appreciated.
12. Prayer. I've been more deliberate about paying attention to praying for others and actively asking for prayer for things that arise with us. I feel very insular here, as we don't have schedules that encourage much interaction with people beyond the workplace or running errands. But I have dear friends elsewhere and online, and have tried to be more consistent about participating with them in the ups and downs of their own lives. There have been so many wonderful answers to prayer, and its' always encouraging! I'm also grateful for those who've prayed specifically for some of our concerns...and have shared in our joys and some of our disappointments. I'm so grateful! Anytime you have a prayer request, we are HAPPY to join with you it in...it is a joy to, and always brings us back to such a gratefulness for the goodness of God.
13. Hopes and Disappointments about land. This is the area I can't talk about, but suffice it to say that there has been a consistent process afoot to conclude a couple possibilities related to land, once and for all. It has required weekly correspondence and so on, an ongoing process. This has run on like a bad sitcom, with apparent 'breakthroughs" followed by sucker punches, all of which are just " a part of the process" but have so much of our planning and expectation attached that every reposition FEELS like a big shift back and forth. I've had bitter periods and ecstatic ones, but right now my focus is the things I do have some control over, whether any of these others materialize or not.
14. Paid off half our remaining debt!!! Thank you, God, and all who were praying! A couple properties (undeveloped lots, residential) that Jack had had for sale for a long time finally sold, for pennies on the dollar. But those pennies paid off half our debt...so we have the other half to go, but the amount it depressurized in our monthly budget is HUGE. THANK YOU to God and those of you who prayed for us!!
15. Have a Lap Top. This was something we deliberately acquired earlier in the year so that I could have a way to write and do communications away from home, since many of my hours at the first of the year through midyear were spent away from home. I have hoped to chip away at some personal writing projects and now am delighted to have files where I was able to jot copious jumbled notes in the moment instead of forever losing them. I hope someday to turn some of those into a book or two...we'll see. Still, for someone who loves to write, having a great tool handy is such a blessing. Thank you to Jack and my daughter for their contributions (birthday presents, etc) that made this possible for me! It will be a great tool for going back to school in what I hope is a not too distant future!
16. Aunt Jessie. Named for a dear friend's elderly aunt who was full of spunk and old-fashioned independence and kept her firearms handy and her pistol strapped to her leg beneath her ladylike skirt, I have a handgun for the first time in my life. Ever. This was big, as I was afraid of firearms. Jack helped me with a trip to the gun range and safety instruction, the internet and copious youtube watching helped me with some basic familiarity, and a book called the Boston's Gun Bible helped me learn terms and see comparisons and categories so that I was not totally illiterate and could find some recommendations, etc. I still have a healthy respect/fear of anything that can blow a person away. But we feel the times we are in necessitate responsible exercise of our freedoms and I'd rather be knowledgeable rather than ignorant. So WE bought ME a pistol. I still need a lot of practice. But this was a huge step for me, and a positive one. I do not feel like a sitting target on nights when there have been prowlers.
17. Refine, refine, refine. We are constantly refining things such as our longterm goals, our budget, our eating, the way we spend our time, and so on. The changes that have occurred in conjuction of where we see our goal to get to our "farm" are that we (I should say "I") really want to keep it simple and straightforward. Where before we felt we had years to finetune situations that could unfold mutiple ways over time slowly, now I simply want to Get There Without Complications. I do not want building or environmental restrictions, legalities that have to be solved, bargains that have things left unsolved or undone, timeframes with no definite dates, second parties who may or may not take their sweet time in making decisions or changing their minds. We are considering 4 season areas not in Florida, which is also a big change, but we're not leaning towards the colder climates as a permanent location. We are looking at the sustainability financially, too, and for different goals as far as location and siting. Our "dream" house now is very small...I have notebooks filled with drawings of houses that now are scrapped because our needs determine our expectations more and more. We feel empowered the simpler we think, because the smaller scale we can keep things the more freedom we have in other areas, and that's becoming more and more important to us, especially as the economy is looking dire for the longterm. I'm talking in generalties, but the specifics are too many to go into except to say we're running to try to get "set up" while there is still opportunity to. We do not see further economic downturns as "ifs" but as "whens." We've refined our eating towards nutrition and with an eye for learning to enjoy things that could be grown by us or kept in long term storage inexpensively. We've challenged our weekly food budget to see "how low can we go" while still staying free of processed food. We have a goal amount for our ideal lowest monthly overhead, and it's LOW :) We are ditching excess belongings and trading them for things we most need. We are researching what few tools can later help us without our feeling we have to acquire an array of technology, while also determining those few tools that will be crucial to staying productive without wearing our bodies out or making extra work.
18. We have found we want to be connected to people longterm who love the Almighty. We love privacy but still need to be part of a community, whether that's looseknit or family-like. We like to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, so whatever we do in the years to come, it will involve using our talents to further "the repair of the world"...something worthwhile that can help others, be a part of community in some way. We are seeing more and more that there is an inherent respect for people and for Creation that some people who really care about the Almighty share, whether they have much else in common or not, and others who have no interior values other than what are superimposed on them externally just do not have that. It's a paradigm that has everything to do with how sound a community will be...the basic recognition and respect for life and the Almighty....and how they will be able to rely interdependently on each other. Even if we are far afield and loosely-knit with such a community, while at the same time really valuing our privacy and autonomy, we do not want to be without our community at large. So we'll be aware of this in the midst of the other goals we have, and deliberate in cultivating it, and it will never be far from all the other considerations.
19. We didn't put in a garden. We did use multi-purpose "perennials." We de-bucketed Bucketville. What began a few years ago as an assumption we'd be moving soon to land, and thereby resulted in planting a wide array of plants in five gallon buckets, continued to expand and expand, while our available time to maintain them did not. And we never moved and those buckets...kept collecting. Since we're in a neighborhood where curb appeal will sell a home faster than will the sight of five gallon buckets as far as the eye can see, we stopped growing seasonal test plots on our vacant lot next door and only kept enough buckets as we need for Jack to continue experimenting with the best ways of keeping our perennial plants (chaya, cranberry hibiscus, gynura, papayas) and moringa trees productive. Those, and some trees, are all we have left at present of the Bucketville collection, and most of those are planted in-ground now...something we had waited on a long while as we wondered if we'd be able to carry them to our "final" land for transplant, but had to keep waiting, and finally decided they'd croak if we didn't go ahead and just plant them here. It's HARD resisting the urge to go ahead and do more with a garden, but there is a purpose...we're so near getting out of our debt and we don't need time distractions. We need to ready the house for sale so when the time comes we can immediately stick a sign in the yard and know nearly everything's done. And how we hope that day is soon! :) It's all good. But when we CAN finally have the garden and order those seed...WOO !
20. We're down to one car. This is huge, since we both commuted an hour to work on differing schedules. But we're adapting and one of the big considerations in my wanting this CNA job is that there are openings much closer to home, requiring less gas and meaning the probability of continuing to share the same vehicle is much more likely. This is something we're figuring into our choice of a permanent acreage, too...the distance to a reliable area for parttime employment. We figure saving on fuel is crucial to our budget...we no longer can justify working longer and harder just to afford the gas and same standard of living, and have no desire to do so. We're HAPPY being frugal because it's freeing us, not constricting :) Have a single vehicle for two jobs is worrisome on other levels. We're working to be debt free so that there is a cushion in the event we need to get even more creative later down the road.
That's about it...what were the main events of your year? What do you hope to include for the next one? what would you hope to do better and what were the "keepers"?
Thank you for being such an encouraging part of our lives with your comments here and the great sense of sharing and community that is very very real. We hope your year had some really positive lessons and your year ahead is your best one yet :)
June
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Spam Prose
Running together some subject lines in my current Junk Mail folder.
Spam Prose, Chapter One:
Not sure I understand the new genre, but obviously it's a tear-jerker...
Spam Prose, Chapter One:
YOUR URGENT ATTENTION IS HIGHLY NEEDED. WITH TEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hey. LET'S BE NEW BUSINESS PARTNER! Free ground shipping on orders over $75 PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL Gold bar/dust offer for sale From Princess Josephine.
You have one new alert Message from Mrs. Gladys Kala: Dear one,.. you're cold? these will warm you up...YOUR LIFE IS IN DANGER! CONGRATULATIONS YOU WON ATM CARD.
FROM THE DESK OF MRS SAMATA GAMBO. Hello, featured resource. Where have you been, (no subject)? Reply Immediately WITH TEARS!!!!! Donation inquiry. Please read careffully (sic). ASSIT SO I COULD FULFILL MY Hannukah overstock sale. Switch to a 15 year fixed mortgage.
Not sure I understand the new genre, but obviously it's a tear-jerker...
Walking. In a Winter. Wonder. Land.
WALKING:
Jack's boss just told him last night that his security rounds must be continual all night, with no periods of rest. Is this legal? Whether or not it is, it's being made a condition of employment. We need the paycheck. He is resting right now before his next shift, tryin to sleep. His legs are having painful cramps.
In a WINTER:
We've had dips down to the mid-30s some evenings, so our two newer dwarf cavendish bananas were the first to wave a brown-and-wilted-leaf farewell. The more mature moringas are soldiering on, pods still on two of them and still growing. Some of the cranberry hibiscus are on the decline. Papayas still holding out. The gynura are ridiculously loving the temps and are downright lush, but I know from past years that come anything below 32F, they'll be toast. But I can walk outside and feel the sun on my face, some days in the 80s, right now in the 70s. As much as I have twinges in missing the briskness of a more northerly winter, and REALLY miss the joys of a wood fire, these Florida climes do have their up sides.
WONDER:
I wonder if I'll pass my upcoming state exam on the 13th.
I wonder if my husband's legs will hold out till better days mean he can enjoy a more suitable way of making an income.
I wonder if I'll be good at being a CNA.
I wonder how fast we can get finish getting out of debt when I get a CNA job.
I wonder if I'll ever stop wanting to have another child, even at my age now.
I wonder if I did ever have another child, if I'd wonder if I had been slap crazy in wanting that.
I wonder at what a different world this is than my grandparents' world, and miss them.
I wonder if I'm a good mother, always assessing that balance between non-interference and asking about the personal things.
I wonder why I am drawn to really great first lines in books, especially fiction, and what's the greatest first line ever written.
I wonder if I will ever get to be a creative writing teacher again, and if I could ever go to college and be in writing workshops...or if I'd blank ...and...blank some more.
I wonder what my dog is thinking when he gazes at me with such devotion. Is it devotion? Is he thinking "I'm crazy about my person!" or "My Food Source seems to be moving a little closer to the kitchen, hooray!"
I wonder when I'll be able to write about the backstory that has eaten up our days and hopes and a lot of our time, but has to remain private till it's resolved. It does involve land.
I wonder at the healing nature of laughter, and love love love to find the quirkiness that makes human folly less sinister and simply meriting a hearty chuckle.
I wonder at how quickly time passes.
I wonder what life will be like a year from now.
I wonder if I'll have back my waistline in this lifetime.
I wonder at the amazing love my husband has for me.
I wonder at the person my husband is, and how we are such a good fit, and how miraculous it was that we ever met in the first place.
I wonder at God's continued goodness, and wonder why He always gets the blame for anything man does wrong in this world.
I wonder when the citizens of our nation will stop handing over their personal rights in exchange for promises of protection.
I wonder how cheaply I could eat if we had rationing or much less money to live on presently. I wonder if I could be really grateful for eating beans every single day if it came to that, or if it would become apparent how spoiled I am and how much I still take for granted.
I wonder if I could sew if I HAD TO. I mean the kind of sewing where any attempts at making clothing would produce an actual wearable item ;-)
I wonder if I can write a really great novel.
I wonder if I wrote about my life, what genre it would be and if it would be even remotely believable.
I wonder why part of me craves living in complete austerity, and the other part of me loves beauty so much and feathering my nest.
I wonder why food tastes so good, and why I have trouble controlling how much I eat, but not what or how much I drink.
I wonder why I listened in the past to people I didn't respect and bothered to care what their opinion was.
I wonder when the era of political correctness will run its course before there are no words left to say without pressure of conformity.
I wonder why I have such a visceral revulsion to Pres Obama and Sarah Palin alike, even though they're on polar opposite sides of the fence.
I wonder why I'm so happy not having TV, but can't seem to go a week without wanting to see another tantrum by Gordon Ramsay in HK on Hulu.
I wonder how the copious quantities of dog hair making dust bunnies in every corner of my house never seem quite equal to the modest amounts of hair removed when I brush the dog.
I wonder why the greater bulk of English literature considered classic reading made it to the list. Jane Austen is the exception, of course.
I wonder why I want to eat out even when the food I cook most of the time tastes better, always is more economical to make, and is so much better for me.
I wonder at the power of being cherished and how it sustains me through the ordinary and the extraordinary and makes so many bumps in the road seem just inconsequential. Thank you Jack. Thank you, God.
I wonder if my dog knows how happy I am because he's always near.
I wonder if my husband realizes how his laughter makes my whole world lighter.
LAND:
Um, yeah...that. Ever in our minds, in our efforts, in our working and waiting. Completely in God's control and timing, be it yea or nay...or stay.
That's the update...what's going on with your winter, wonder, or corner of the world?
Jack's boss just told him last night that his security rounds must be continual all night, with no periods of rest. Is this legal? Whether or not it is, it's being made a condition of employment. We need the paycheck. He is resting right now before his next shift, tryin to sleep. His legs are having painful cramps.
In a WINTER:
We've had dips down to the mid-30s some evenings, so our two newer dwarf cavendish bananas were the first to wave a brown-and-wilted-leaf farewell. The more mature moringas are soldiering on, pods still on two of them and still growing. Some of the cranberry hibiscus are on the decline. Papayas still holding out. The gynura are ridiculously loving the temps and are downright lush, but I know from past years that come anything below 32F, they'll be toast. But I can walk outside and feel the sun on my face, some days in the 80s, right now in the 70s. As much as I have twinges in missing the briskness of a more northerly winter, and REALLY miss the joys of a wood fire, these Florida climes do have their up sides.
WONDER:
I wonder if I'll pass my upcoming state exam on the 13th.
I wonder if my husband's legs will hold out till better days mean he can enjoy a more suitable way of making an income.
I wonder if I'll be good at being a CNA.
I wonder how fast we can get finish getting out of debt when I get a CNA job.
I wonder if I'll ever stop wanting to have another child, even at my age now.
I wonder if I did ever have another child, if I'd wonder if I had been slap crazy in wanting that.
I wonder at what a different world this is than my grandparents' world, and miss them.
I wonder if I'm a good mother, always assessing that balance between non-interference and asking about the personal things.
I wonder why I am drawn to really great first lines in books, especially fiction, and what's the greatest first line ever written.
I wonder if I will ever get to be a creative writing teacher again, and if I could ever go to college and be in writing workshops...or if I'd blank ...and...blank some more.
I wonder what my dog is thinking when he gazes at me with such devotion. Is it devotion? Is he thinking "I'm crazy about my person!" or "My Food Source seems to be moving a little closer to the kitchen, hooray!"
I wonder when I'll be able to write about the backstory that has eaten up our days and hopes and a lot of our time, but has to remain private till it's resolved. It does involve land.
I wonder at the healing nature of laughter, and love love love to find the quirkiness that makes human folly less sinister and simply meriting a hearty chuckle.
I wonder at how quickly time passes.
I wonder what life will be like a year from now.
I wonder if I'll have back my waistline in this lifetime.
I wonder at the amazing love my husband has for me.
I wonder at the person my husband is, and how we are such a good fit, and how miraculous it was that we ever met in the first place.
I wonder at God's continued goodness, and wonder why He always gets the blame for anything man does wrong in this world.
I wonder when the citizens of our nation will stop handing over their personal rights in exchange for promises of protection.
I wonder how cheaply I could eat if we had rationing or much less money to live on presently. I wonder if I could be really grateful for eating beans every single day if it came to that, or if it would become apparent how spoiled I am and how much I still take for granted.
I wonder if I could sew if I HAD TO. I mean the kind of sewing where any attempts at making clothing would produce an actual wearable item ;-)
I wonder if I can write a really great novel.
I wonder if I wrote about my life, what genre it would be and if it would be even remotely believable.
I wonder why part of me craves living in complete austerity, and the other part of me loves beauty so much and feathering my nest.
I wonder why food tastes so good, and why I have trouble controlling how much I eat, but not what or how much I drink.
I wonder why I listened in the past to people I didn't respect and bothered to care what their opinion was.
I wonder when the era of political correctness will run its course before there are no words left to say without pressure of conformity.
I wonder why I have such a visceral revulsion to Pres Obama and Sarah Palin alike, even though they're on polar opposite sides of the fence.
I wonder why I'm so happy not having TV, but can't seem to go a week without wanting to see another tantrum by Gordon Ramsay in HK on Hulu.
I wonder how the copious quantities of dog hair making dust bunnies in every corner of my house never seem quite equal to the modest amounts of hair removed when I brush the dog.
I wonder why the greater bulk of English literature considered classic reading made it to the list. Jane Austen is the exception, of course.
I wonder why I want to eat out even when the food I cook most of the time tastes better, always is more economical to make, and is so much better for me.
I wonder at the power of being cherished and how it sustains me through the ordinary and the extraordinary and makes so many bumps in the road seem just inconsequential. Thank you Jack. Thank you, God.
I wonder if my dog knows how happy I am because he's always near.
I wonder if my husband realizes how his laughter makes my whole world lighter.
LAND:
Um, yeah...that. Ever in our minds, in our efforts, in our working and waiting. Completely in God's control and timing, be it yea or nay...or stay.
That's the update...what's going on with your winter, wonder, or corner of the world?
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