*****  Warning!! This post contains a discussion of personal financial matters citing actual dollar amounts.  I know this is considered tacky by most well brought up folks, but I believe it could possibly help someone recognize some non-essential spending and maybe, possibly positively influence someone else’s bottom line.  If you find this blatant money talk offensive please stop by again some other time.  Have a nice day.  *****

I’m totally aware that my post about going back to work was a tad whiny and that I’ve been whining about leaving my kids in order to work for nearly six seven years now, but I never really sat down and strategized a way out of it that didn’t involve a fantasy where I was fired or downsized,(I’ve never been a quitter) and stopped by the mini-mart to get a lottery ticket, and won.  So I’ve been thinking through some of our non-essential expenditures and here’s what I’ve come up with.

Cable-Internet-Phone Bundle

I won’t go as far as to say we could do without TV, even though I know we technically could.  Instead I’ll say we don’t need as many channels as we have now.  The cable company tricked us into buying expanded cable by spreading the four channels we like to watch out over three separate packages.  I’m ashamed to say it’s taken me three years to finally realize that nearly everything I want to watch is available on the internet that’s included in the bundle.  So, I’ll be calling the cable company to let them know we only need the basic channels.  As for internet and phone, we already have the bare minimum.  Getting rid of expanded should save us about $50/month.

Netflix

Again, it’s taken me three years and for that I am ashamed.  I just really stink at sending videos back, so we we’ve been paying for DVD’s and streaming movies, but really only using streaming.  So in under two minutes I logged into my account and changed my package to streaming only.  This was a quick way to save $10.

Insurance

I drive a paid off 2001 Subaru.  We’ve been paying for full coverage because we had to while we had a car loan.  Full coverage on an 11 year old vehicle just doesn’t make sense, so I called the insurance agent and switching to less coverage saves us $25 a month.

PMI

Because we didn’t have the full 20% to put down on our conventional mortgage we pay private mortgage insurance.  When we reach the balance which would reflect having put the full twenty percent down we can request that the mortgage company drop the PMI which will save us $69 per month.  We are eagerly awaiting that day, which should happen in January.

These are all set expenditures that we’ve been making each month, and cutting them saves us one hundred and fifty four of our hardest earned, green American dollars.  Nobody  is going to let me quit my job for figuring out how to save 154 dollars a month, but I’m not done yet.  I know there are a lot of little purchases and expenses adding up to a big ol’ bucket of cash being tossed out the window around here.

Fast Food and Quick Stop lunches

Probably our biggest non-essential expenditure and here’s the smacker: we don’t even really like the stuff (except for you, Rusty Burgers and Mom!) and we feel junky after we eat it.  But it’s so convenient and we’re so strapped for time.  We fall into the trap of thinking if we grab something quick for dinner on the way home we will have so much extra time to spend with the kids or getting other things done.  BUT, if you’ve ever eaten a fast food meal you may know that the only thing you can do after is un-button your jeans and groan.  Some weeks we’re better and follow a healthy, cooked-at-home meal plan, other weeks go to heck in a hand basket, but I bet if we averaged it out we’d find a couple hundred going out the window so we can feel full of regret, sluggish and a little fatter.  This is going to be very difficult since I’m rarely organized, which is what one needs to be to consistently make quick meals at home.  Since it’s hard to say exactly how much we’ve been spending I don’t know how much we’ll save.  Shameful, I know.  I’ve started by sitting down with the hubster and making a list of easy make at home and make ahead meals, and the things we need to keep on hand to make them.  After a month of trying to stick with it, we’ll see what’s left over in the bank account the day before pay day.  I have a feeling this one topic will make a great future post.

Electricity

At 2.3 cents per kilowat hour we have some of the nations least expensive electricity, but that’s no reason to use more than we need.  Last winter I became the furnace Nazi, and I’m holding strong there, so the number one way to reduce electricity bills has already been tapped into here.  But guess what comes next? Laundry.  I’ve already switched to cold water washes which saves on powering the water heater.  Also, I’ve been hanging my clothes out more and more with the good weather, but this could still use some tightening.  As could making sure lights are off in unused rooms, (like the basement, ahem, Nate), and unplugging chargers and appliances when they’re not in use.   I also need to plan ahead and do my baking all at once so we only go through the pre-heating process once.  This will also help reduce those fast food visits.

Gasoline

In previous years, though my husband and I work for the same company, we were unable to ride to work together because of differing schedules.  This year our hours have been more in line and we’re able to ride together about 80% of the time.  This has saved us about $200 per month in fuel costs.  It also saves wear and tear on my husband’s newer truck.

Life Insurance

Those of us without families should never go a day without life insurance, but the fact is we’ve been overpaying.  First, someone decided to say he was a smoker, though he only smokes one or two drags of a cigarette per year, usually when a smoking friend is about to do something stupid and says “here, hold this for a minute”.  Then someone else fell for the sales pitch and purchased a whole-life policy.  Which is generally considered a poor investment.  Next we failed to realize that we were still paying for two term policies.  It’s ugly.  $400 per month ugly.  We plan to ditch the whole life and shop around for a better term policy.

There is one more expense I feel I need to mention, though it can’t yet be eliminated.  Daycare.  We have some seriously budget daycare from a couple of great gals,who share our values and love our kids.  We love these ladies, and know the kids have a great time with them.  Still, I am so jealous of them for getting to spend most of my babies’ waking hours with them, while I only get to rush them through dinner, homework, chores and bedtime.  If I were to quit my job, poof! We’d save 800 dollars a month and our family would gain the strong foundation of a mama at home.

Again, I know these things seem like drops in a bucket, but that bucket just might be my ticket to raising my own children instead of paying someone else to do so.

Have any of you made the transition from work-outside mama to stay at home mama?  What did you do to fill the financial gap? Did you have to convince your husband that the value of Mama at home outweighs the financial sacrifice?

May be linked up with The Homestead Barn Hop, the Homemaking Link Up, No Ordinary Blog Hop, and the Homeacre Hop.

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I’m not sure I know the “correct” answer to this question.  We have chosen to be gently honest with our children when a death occurs.  We usually tell them that the person or animal who died went to Jesus.

We’ve never had an old dog “go to live on a farm up north”.  My kids would see right through that.  They’d want to know why the dog couldn’t stay on our “farm up north”.

When we lose a pet we take a deep breath, deliver the sad news and offer hugs and comfort for as long as needed.  Sometimes the kids need a day off, or a special outing to feel better, sometimes they have a mature thankfulness that the pet is safe and snug in “pet heaven”.

We’ve been lucky that the children haven’t lost a “close” person yet.  I don’t know how they’ll react. But I do know that, for our children, honesty and plenty of hugs will smooth the way.

What about deliberate killing?

We choose to live the country life to the fullest extent we can on our half acre.  We’ve raised and butchered chickens.  Our kids have caught and helped clean fish.  They have rushed out to see fresh game in the back of Dad’s truck.  These things haven’t seemed to bother them a bit.  Perhaps it’s because they have seen these things since before they could understand that the animal had a life at one time.  Perhaps it’s because they have enjoyed plenty of venison jerky.

When we’ve butchered chickens that the children fed, and played with and petted, we urged the children to stay indoors and watch cartoons.  Soon they were peeking out the window, and then they came out and watched with keen interest.  I figured watching was one thing, but they’d probably turn up their noses at eating our chickens.  Boy,  was I in for a surprise.  My six year old, who is know for barely eating anything at all, balked at eating any chicken except the ones we butchered until we ran out, at which point she quit eating chicken almost all together.  She does eat the occasional nugget, but she still  expresses a strong preference for “our chicken”.

I guess my point is that if we do choose to shield our children from death, and I can certainly see why one might, we can only do it for so long.  Eventually they will come face to face with the loss of a pet, family member, or friend.  It really sucks.  But it might be easier if they’ve learned to process grief by working through a non-life-altering loss,  before a serious loss occurs.  I’m not saying that losing a gold fish compares to losing a friend or parent.  I’m just thinking that experiencing a toned down, shortened and fully processed grief is good practice for a little heart which will grow up to experience real life-changing grief.

We took in a pair of orphaned ducklings over the weekend.  Fluffy little adorable puff-balls.  Neither made it through last night.  I dreaded telling my girls, but I did.  They cried for awhile then asked if they could have cake for breakfast.  Now they’re watching cartoons and after chores we plan to spend the day at the park.  I’m aware that we may see some ducks there, and that it might start the girls crying again.  I’ll be there with the snuggles.  And tomorrow will be another day.

How have you approached or avoided the topic of death with your children?

Linking up at the Homestead Barn Hop.

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About five years ago I woke up around one AM and stumbled into the kitchen of our then tiny home.  Upon arriving in the kitchen (two steps out of the bedroom) I asked myself what on earth I had come in there for.  Was I thirsty? No.  Did I need to use the bathroom? No.  Baby crying? Nooop.

Then a flickering caught my eye.  It was a tiny flame coming from an out-of-order air conditioner in the corner of the room.  A few weeks earlier when the summer started heating up I had turned it on and it made a funny noise, so I turned it back off and told my husband it was making a funny noise.  But it never occurred to me to unplug it.

Lesson #1 If it doesn’t work, or makes a funny noise, unplug it, don’t just turn it off.  ’Nuff said.

I still don’t know what it was that woke me up, except the hand of God.  I started screeching for my husband to wake up, and searching for a fire extinguisher as the flames multiplied and crawled up the wall.  We had two of them in our less than 500 square foot house, but in the shuffle of daily life they had been moved to make room for this or that.

Lesson # 2  Mount your fire extinguishers on a wall.  Never move them except to check the charge, replace, or use them.  You need to know exactly where they are at all times.

When my husband woke up and came out we tried to fight the fire with water, which was the way wrong thing to do.  The breaker popped and we were in the dark.  Then my husband ran out to see if we could fight it with a garden hose and realized that not only was the irrigation off, but the flames were much larger on the outside of the house.

Lesson # 3  Know when to fight and when to flee.  There is a formula for deciding how and when to fight a fire, involving the size, location and potential speed of the fire, but suffice it to say When In Doubt Get The Heck Out. *

All that was left to do was leave.  We grabbed our baby and ran next door to call 911.  Thankfully at that time our nearest neighbor was my in-laws.  Thankfully my mother in law had a robe I could borrow, because I was 70 pounds overweight (as opposed to a mere 50lbs over now ) and wearing nothing but my shortest, summer friendly, nighty. I didn’t grab no shoes or nothing, Jesus, I ran for my life!  Really though, I did.

So we called 911.  They came…to an incomplete bridge which was being built to replace the hundred-plus year old one that had fallen the prior winter.  By the time they found the back route onto the property (we couldn’t exactly give them directions over the river) the house was a lost cause.

Lesson # 4 Don’t assume emergency services know about road closures, washouts, or alternate routes in your area.  If there is anything blocking access to your home, and you’re using an alternate route, you need to let dispatch know.  Especially for a rural volunteer fire crew.  They don’t have a magic super-computer to tell them these things.

We escaped that fire with what we were wearing and our baby.  Fortunately we both have large families in the area, and an amazing community and bounced back very quickly despite losing everything and not having any renter’s insurance at the time.

Fast forward to tonight.  Tonight was one of the rare occasions when I went to bed before midnight.  My husband downloaded The Hobbit, and we went to bed around ten and watched about an hour of the movie before turning it off and going to sleep.

Piercing beeps, flashing lights.  Mama up out of bed like a bullet!  No smoke or flames.  Check the house.  Check the kids room.  Nothing.  Feel the walls, check the appliances, look out the windows, basement, attic…Nothing.  Back to bed shaking from head to toe and into the core of my being.  Maybe the batteries are wearing out.  Close eyes.

Piercing beeps, flashing lights.  Repeat the above paragraph, except this time I go outside to look around.  Definitely smell smoke out there.  Look at the roof.  Check the chicken coop; no signs of trouble.  BEEP BEEP BEEEEP!  BEEP BEEP BEEEEP!

Wake up the kids, make them come downstairs while my husband looks around.  He can smell the smoke from outside now, but still can’t see, hear or smell anything to indicate the house is on fire…except the fire alarm keeps going off.

Finally the alarms get to me, and while hubby is looking in the attic, I panic and call 911.  I tell them about the alarms and that we can’t see anything, but can smell smoke outside.  I ask are there any other reports of smoke in the area.  No.  They say they’ll send someone out and I take the kids to my good friend’s house across the street.

Now the volunteer fire fighters start showing up.  Thanks Nate, and Doug!  Nate has strong smoke at his house about three miles away, and the valley has a definite haze.  We deduce that somehow the fire alarm is detecting that (although it never detected any smoke when our entire region was blanked in smoke and under hazardous air warnings for a month last summer) and after talking to hubby he calls off the troops, while Doug and hubby do some extra looking around.

The kids and I wait for the all clear at my friend’s house and then head home.  I tuck everyone in and resign myself to a long sleepless night.

I love my small town, but I hate that everyone is going to know I panicked.

What I learned from tonight.

#1 My kids do NOT wake up from a fire alarm.  In fact many kids do not.  And of those who do, many do not know what to do.

#2 Although I consider myself prepared, I did not grab the “go box” which has all of our important documents in it, when I left with the kids.  Had there been an actual fire I feel certain my husband also would not have grabbed the go box.  Maybe I need to rethink my fire plan to include times when I’m pretty sure there’s not a fire, but we’re leaving just in case.

#3 I need to write it on the calendar (or perhaps pencil it right on the alarm mount) when I change batteries.  I feel like I remember doing it around Christmas when I did a unit on safety at home with my Camp Fire group.  The red LED is flashing every 45 seconds, just as it should, and the alarm was the same as when I burn toast, not the chirp it typically does when the batteries are going bad.  But I’m not sure, so I’m having the hubby pick up some fresh batteries tomorrow.

#4 It’s time to buy an escape latter for the second floor and practice using it.

#5 Just like back in my college days, I can write a whole composition in an hour given the proper amount of adrenaline…whether it be from a looming deadline, or a false fire alarm.

*Disclaimer:

Although I do feel silly about waking all of my neighbors, and I am by no means an expert on these things, I think I can safely remind you that ANY time you think there is a fire, or any other dangerous situation in your home, you should get yourself and your family to a safe location and call 911.  

I’ll share this post with No Ordinary Blog Hop, The Homestead Barn Hop, and the Homeacre Hop.

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A few weeks back I noticed a chicken ranging around the yard with a bloody, stringy, poopy, slimy and feathery looking mass hanging from her rear end.  Eewww.

I quickly trapped her in the rarely-used dog kennel, to try to keep the others from pecking at her while I ran into the house to Google the solution.

Google agreed with my initial suspicion that she had been egg bound, and had broken an egg inside her.  She had also prolapsed her vent.  The good news is that it didn’t seem to be slowing her down or making her feel bad at all.  In fact before I got back out to her, she had already escaped from the kennel and was foraging with the rest of the girls.

Why Oh Why do I not have rubber gloves on this farm?

I caught her and brought her into the mud room so I could take care of her as well as possible.  I started by using a paper towel to gently pull the gooey mass from her vent. This task was mercifully easy.  Thankfully, the egg seemed to be soft shelled, I found NO hard shell pieces, which could have cut her, resulting in infection.  There was blood, however, so I proceeded as if I knew she had lacerations.  

Next I used the sprayer on the utility sink to clean her up as well as she would allow.  I got another paper towel, smeared it with antibiotic ointment, and used it to gently push her vent back in as well as I could.  She didn’t like it.  I didn’t like it.  But we got it done.  The vent still looked slightly “inside out”, but I was worried I’d do more damage than good if I kept harassing her.

My husband’s buddies had a good laugh at me at this point, not that any of them would/could help a girl out in such a situation.

I kept her in the mud room over night, inside an overturned and weighed down laundry basket.  Why Oh Why did I not think of using a pet porter, or one of our empty rabbit cages?  I covered her makeshift home in a blanket to keep the light out and break her laying cycle.  I did not want her trying to form a new egg until her vent had a chance to recover.

I gave her plenty of water with Essential Oil of Oregano, which has antibiotic properties, and watered-down, plain yogurt to eat. *

The next day she got lovely morning and afternoon sitz baths with warm water and Lavender oil.  You’d be surprised how much a chicken can enjoy a bath.  She didn’t even fight too much about being toweled off.

By evening her vent looked back to normal and she was looking eager to get out, so I decided to let her out a little before dark.  I watched her closely for a few days, and as an added measure I put Oregano Oil to the water in the coop.  She has had no further problems that I’ve noticed.

*There is a lot of conflicting information regarding the use of essential oils to treat  chickens.  I am not a vet, and nothing in this post is intended as medical advice.  You should do lots of research before you decide how to treat your flock.

Have you had any experiences with prolapse or egg binding?  Did your hen recover?

This post will be shared at No Ordinary Blog Hop, The Homestead Barn Hop, and The Home Acre Hop.

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Moms, sometimes it might be okay to just sign your kid up for an activity and not volunteer to help out, or run the program, or sit on the board.  Maybe they call for volunteers and instead of yes, you say “Oh shoot, wish I could”.  Stick with volunteering for those activities about which you are passionate. 

Honestly it’s not that bad, but when we are eating pbj or hot dogs for dinner, and getting to bed late -again -I am wondering what was wrong with just raising the kids and taking care of the home and garden.  The plus side to all of these activites is that they are in the evening, when my energy levels tend to be highest, unfortunately that is usually when I take care of housework and planning, so those areas are suffering a tiny bit.

This week I need to accomplish some organizing and streamlining so that we can still have a normal life, even though I’ve over-scheduled us.  This is no one’s fault but my own.  I just need to learn to do my mommy work in the morning instead of afternoon/evening, and not take the orders from a six-year-old who comes home waving a flyer and saying “We have to go to a meeting and sign up tonight“!

Here are my goals for the week:

• Make a meal plan and take full advantage of the slow cooker.  I’ve had varying levels success with making and sticking to a meal plan.  Life is inevitably easier when I stick with it.  This is THE list item which will have the most impact on daily life here. 
• Clean out the chicken coop and partition the corner that we use for brooding.  It’s almost chickie time!
• Get my rump out to the garden and get my spinach and brassicas going.
• File taxes.  Not fun, and I’m not sure it’s even really required by the law,  but we’ll do it because we feel we should.  Also I don’t want to pay a lawyer and back taxes if the above video is wrong.  And seriously, I don’t have time to research this for myself.  But it is food for thought.
• Bring the recycling to town.  Curbside is available here, but taking it to town is free and I’m headed that way anyway–lots of times. 
• Drop off some paperwork at the Campfire office. 

What are you up to this week?

This post may be shared at The Homeacre Hop, Raising Homemakers, No Ordinary Blog Hop, and The Homestead Barn Hop. 

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I can’t believe it hasn’t occurred to me to share this recipe before now.  I literally tell someone how to make this at least once a month.  The conversation goes something like this:

Friend:  I would eat white rice at home, if only I could make it like the Mexican restaurants do.

Me:  It’s really easy, I’ll show you how.  (I’m super helpful that way )

You’ll need two secret weapons to complete this task; a pan with a tight fitting lid, and Knorr brand Caldo de Tomate.  You’ll also need white rice, but I don’t suppose we can call that a secret.  (I am not affiliated with Knorr, but I do recommend this specific brand.  We love it, and eat it far more often than we should considering it’s sodium/msg content.)

First, brown one cup of white rice over medium heat.  We usually use butter or cooking spray for this, but dry works too.

When the rice is nicely browned, add 2 Cups of boiling water and 2 tsp of Caldo de Tomate.  Give it a quick stir to incorporate the caldo, then reduce heat to low, and put the lid on.

Allow it to cook with the lid on for about 20 minutes.  Resist the urge to check it by taking the lid off, and whatever you do, DO NOT stir it!  Stirring it will cause it to become sticky.

After 20 minutes you can check it.  It will likely be done, but occasionally I find that I need to add more water.  If this happens, pour a little boiling water in the center of the rice, Do Not Stir It, and put the lid back on for a few more minutes.

After the water is all absorbed, fluff the rice and serve as a side dish to your favorite Mexican entrée.

Enjoy!

This recipe has been shared at The HomeAcre Hop, The Homemaking Link Up, and No Ordinary Blog Hop. and The Homestead Barn Hop.

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From seedlings in windowsills, to greenhouse activity, and discarded shoes, signs of Spring are everywhere on our farm!

Shared at The Homestead Barn Hop

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