All Domestic Like

I've been baking and canning lately.  I told Aaron that I have been feeling like I'm in a rut with cooking so my goal is to try one new recipe a week. 

I've baked/cooked three new recipes this week.  I tried PW's Cowboy Calazone's on Monday.  (Pretty good, but missing something...  Not sure just what.  I would have put even more cheese than the extra I already put in there also.) 
I just pulled her cinnamon rolls out of the oven.
And I have a new bread going in my bread machine.  (That's mostly because we're out of bread and I don't want to run to the store today.)  Hopefully it's good!

I canned relish- green tomato relish from the "T" cookbook yesterday.

I canned some of our apples a couple weeks ago.  It takes a lot of apples and a lot of work for that.  I don't think I'll be doing that with my apple tree apples again.  They are too soft. 
But I also made homemade applesauce, not quite as much work and it feels good that we are using some of what's in our yard!

What are your favorite recipes?

Sometimes

-Sometimes it feels like I go so long without adult conversation that I become an eruption of words when I get to spend time with friends.
-Sometimes while spending time with friends, I feel like I need to get my story out right now or I will forget it and that makes me
-Sometimes interrupt others in the middle of their stories
-Sometimes I have a hard time remembering people's names
-Sometimes these are people I've known for years
-Sometimes, mostly always, it's the names that could be pronounced two different ways and I'm not sure which is right
-Sometimes I don't use names
-Sometimes I don't introduce people that don't know each other for that reason
-Sometimes I think it's more important to play with my son- and take a nap at the same time as him than to clean
-Sometimes might mean the past month for that one
-Sometimes I use words and don't know how to pronounce them
-Sometimes I find myself listening to myself sing along with the radio and I realize that I don't know half the words, so I'm mumble singing
-Sometimes I listen to a song that's been out for 20 years and I finally realize what the words are saying
-Sometimes that's not what I've been singing for 20 years

A Frugal Life

I had a discussion today about how "we can't afford to buy this, and that..."  And afterwards I started thinking about how I presented myself. 

Aaron and I are in a spot in our life where we are watching our finances pretty closely.  We somewhat follow Mary Hunt's Debt Proof Living system and it works pretty well when we stick with it. 

We are living frugally, with a baby on the way, Aaron in school and me not working, that's the best decision we can make.  Neither one of us wants to start living off of credit. 

Yet, by saying that we can't afford this or that, I'm doing myself a disservice.  The truth is- we CHOOSE not to afford name brand items.  We CHOOSE not to go out to eat.  We CHOOSE not to spend money when we go on dates.  We CHOOSE to make do with our older clothes.
And today was a day that it was getting me down.  It's hard sometimes to pass things up, hard sometimes to not just stop at the gas station for a pop or what-ever.  It's hard to feel like we don't have the money for that. 

And then I stopped to remember that we're choosing this. We're choosing to pass up these little things that don't matter in the long run.  We're choosing to use the money we spend on important items- like trips to see my family- things that make us happy and give lasting memories.  It's not that we don't have the money for the little things, it's that we are choosing what we spend our money on. 

When you live a frugal life, it's all about making the best of it! :)