Simple Girl

It's the last day of the month and, managing not to spend anything the last two days, we made our goal!  We still have food in the fridge, the freezer and the pantry.  I still have gas in my car, and there is even one spare roll of toilet paper!  Overall, our lives were not greatly affected, and yet, every small decision that we made to spend or save contributed to the bottom line. The kids asked why we were budgeting.  The truth is, we always budget, just not to this extreme.  By being more aware of our spending, I believe we make better choices.  By delaying gratification, we learn to appreciate what we have.  By putting in a little more effort by packing lunches or thinking outside the box, we can change our habits.  We managed to eat 90 meals at home, yet somehow Chick-fi-la is still in business!  We managed to go but once to Target, and yet their doors are still open! In many ways, I actually enjoyed the last month.  After a...

Today the kids' piano teacher, MaryAnn Wetzler, came to our house, not to give the kids a lesson, but to play duets - with me!  Although my fingers were younger, hers seemed more nimble as we played through pages and pages of Gershwin and Bernstein, Copeland and Holst and Faure's hauntingly elegant and soulfully romantic, Pavane.  The kids wondered why we kept on playing.  Would we ever stop?  Perhaps they had yet to fully realize the reason for the repetition and the lessons and the scales.  Eventually they would play, not out of duty, but for the pure love of the music - the expression of the soul that comes when the mind and the heart and the body collaborate in perfect harmony.  This is why we practice - so that someday we may play, just for the love of it. Following our duet session,  we took refreshment with some homemade banana bread. After years of making this recipe, which I found in an old church cookbook, I think I have tweaked it into p...

I always feel a little rush of adrenaline when I find an opportunity to use another one of my cookie cutters!  Today, as we prepared for the Swim Team Banquet, I got out my alphabet cookie cutters, all in search of one letter - "W" for Waves. Cut out cookies are perfect for little hands. As usual, we used the frozen, prepared dough that I stock-pile when it comes out around Christmas. Each girl demanded equal time with the "W" cutter -  As well as equal face time on the blog! We baked up almost 4 dozen W's from two packets of frozen dough. I frosted them them in an aqua blue with my new favorite alternative to Royal Icing - Wilton's Poured Cookie Icing. I've posted the recipe before, but it bears repeating. I used the same icing recipe to outline the cookies in white. GO WAVES! Wilton's Poured Cookie Icing Ingredients: 1 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted 2 teaspoons milk 2 teaspoons light corn syrup Instructions: Place sug...

"Why is there always so much month left at the end of the money?" --John Barrymore, Early American Actor  (Grandfather of Drew Barrymore) With only four days to go, I sat down to evaluate our remaining money and our remaining needs.  We had about $80 left.  I had planned the rest of the meals and had most of the ingredients, but needed a few filler items.  I was out of laundry detergent, and knew I couldn't go five days without doing laundry!  The swim banquet was coming up.  The kids (swimmers) were free, but the adults had to pay for sandwiches as well as bring a side (in our case, dessert).  Could we buy a case of Gatorade for Samuel's football camp?  Would I need more gas? We decided to get the Gatorade, but bottle our own water.  Perry and I would pass on the $5.00 sub sandwiches at the swim banquet and eat at home.  (We'd still bring cookies!)  I'd switch to generic laundry detergent, but still buy vegetables, milk and fru...

My alternate title for this post was:  "Ways I Try To Get My Kids To Eat Vegetables."   As the name implies, I am always trying to find sneaky ways to get my kids to eat vegetables that they would otherwise shun.  What better way, I thought, than to hide them in a pie?  The original name for this recipe was "Zucchini, Tomato and Cheese Tart".  But since I decided to vary the recipe (I swapped out the frozen puff pastry crust for a pre-made standard pie crust), I thought I, technically speaking, needed to change the name.   A tart, according to Barron's  Food Lover's Companion , is "a pastry crust with shallow sides, a filling and no top crust."  A pie, on the other hand, has a much broader definition and is "a sweet or savory dish made with a crust and filling."  A pie crust can be on the top, bottom, or both.  It can be shallow or deep and can be made from a variety of ingredients, including mashed potatoes (i.e. Shepherd's Pie...

This afternoon, I decided to make use of our annual museum membership and took the kids downtown to The High Museum.  It was the last weekend of the temporary exhibit, "The Allure of the Automobile."  With many activities revolving around the three girls, I'm always thrilled when I can find artful adventures that will appeal to the boy, too! As it turned out, we didn't have to enter the museum to find art - we only had to look UP!   These cumulus clouds were a masterpiece in themselves! Here, we combined car and cloud!   Inside the museum, we were treated to a display of 18 of the world's rarest and most brilliantly conceived cars from the 1930's to mid-1960's, including masterpieces by Bugatti, Duesenberg, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Ferrari and Tucker !  I made a mental note to myself to rent, "Tucker", a great family film about the auto maker! Back in our car, I had actually planned ahead and brought a cooler with snacks.  Thi...

"If you have but two loaves of bread, sell one and buy flowers." --Chinese Proverb Then set the table, light a candle, turn on some music, and enjoy what you have! TODAY'S SPENDING:  0

It just so happened that the girls' Vacation Bible School missions project precisely coincided with my decision to clean out the pantry.  For the last week I had been wondering why the pantry still seemed so full after our now 23 day financial fast.  What I found surprised, no,  astounded , me.  As I carefully dug through every nook and cranny, I pulled out  seven  various sized shopping bags full of candy and small toys.   I realize that most moms manage to simply toss all the stuff that comes home with their kids after school parties, birthday parties and every candy involving holiday.  Apparently, not me.  I did, at least get it stashed on the top shelf and far reaching corners of the pantry, where I, (and hopefully the kids) would forget about it!  So here I stood, with my kitchen counters cluttered with candy, realizing that this would be the perfect moment for a goody bag project. Now, the idea of the re-crafted goody bag is n...

Well, we have come to what I am calling, "The Final Stretch".  With nine days left, I can see the end, but it's just too soon to coast.  My spending is pacing ahead of schedule, so these last days are crucial.  I am already running out of daily needs like laundry detergent (despite my reduction to a mere tablespoon per load!), garbage bags (you have to put the garbage somewhere!) and toilet paper (I am just not willing to improvise on this one!). The one gem I do still have in my freezer is a Costco-sized package of beef stew meat!  Wanting to make something memorable from this last bit of red meat in the house, I decided to try Julia Child's recipe for Beef Bourguignon.  After my trip to the farmer's market yesterday, I had all the necessary ingredients-- except bacon.  I am NOT a big bacon fan.  (Did I mention that I got all the bad genes?)  In fact, turkey bacon aside, it is quite possible that I have never cooked a strip of real bacon in my...