Behind On Updating

I am behind on updating because of a little ball of fur that entered our lives. I walked out on my back porch after hearing some small meows, and found 3 little kittens that scurried away and hid. I had assumed they were brought here by their momma, since I had been feeding a stray that looked pregnant, then she didn't, and then she disappeared. Unfortunately, these little ones did not seem to belong to anyone and they were so small. We tried catching them with no luck. That night, one was killed by something, the next night the other just disappeared, and then only one was left. It took us a couple of days to finally catch her, but we got her, took her to the vet and had her tested to make sure we could bring her into our 2 cat home safely.

The vet tech said she looked like she was about 4 weeks old! She tested negative for everything so inside she came. We gave her kitten formula and then a two days later, she got to see our vet. The vet figured 4-5 weeks, gave her a probiotic since there was some blood showing up when she made a bowel movement and gave her a clean bill of health. No worms, no parasites, no mites, nothing! The conclusion was she was not a stray but a cast-off. It seems that she and her littermates were dumped off and left to fend for themselves. Sadly, only this one made it. How can people be so cruel? This little one was not even old enough to be weaned!

Well, she adapted well, has gotten fat and sassy and is due for her shots on Thursday. She has grown like a weed and is no longer the skinny baby we finally caught. She was on a 2 hour feeding schedule at first and then it spread out a little longer. Unfortunately with this schedule it changed our family plans. My daughter flew in from the other side of the country to spend a week and celebrate her father's birthday with him and we had small trips scheduled, reservations made, etc., that had to be modified. We did local trips and my son stayed home to feed the kitten while we traveled into the city. My daughter had purchased tickets that couldn't be refunded so he insisted I go while he babysat. 

Hubby has always said was never a cat person, but our vet said it was because he never had his own cat and this one will change him. He was right. Hubby fell in love with this little girl and tells everyone she was his birthday present. She has brought lots of joy into our lives and certainly keeps us on our toes!

Diamond Painting Crafts

 

I needed to order a case to hold my essential oils and after looking all over, I found a cheap case on Temu. I needed a couple more dollars added to my order to have it shipped, so I picked up some very inexpensive diamond painting kits to brighten up the house. I've never done shapes or anything like these before and with the price point, I thought, "Why not?!" 

The kit came with a plastic sign, more than enough drills and gems and a hanger. It finished up quickly and was ready to hang in no time! I couldn't decide how I wanted to seal this, as there were the large gems and the plastic sign itself, so I opted for a glossy spray on sealant. Big mistake! The large gems lost their sparkle and look very matted. Oh well. I'll know better for next time!

Another diamond painting type craft I purchased was a set of 10 patriotic star coasters that came complete with a holder. The stars are wooden but don't have any cork backing. I'm not going to complain, because these were also very inexpensive. I'll just add my own cork backing. I will need to cut the cork in the shape of the stars, but that won't be a problem. 

I really wondered about sealing these guys. I purchased a gloss waterproof sealant made especially for diamond painting and did the bottom star (red center) with that. It turned out ok and still sparkles but the sealant looks a little weird between the drills. I used Mod Podge Dishwasher safe gloss, and honestly, it looks about the same, but felt sticky for a few days and takes a month to cure. The other 2 starts have not been sealed yet. I won't know how I like the sealers until I used the coasters to see if they become cloudy or get "weird". At the price I paid for these, I figured they would be the perfect projects to experiment with sealers on.

Homemade Melt & Pour Soap

Cocoa Marble DIY Soap

In the past, I made my own lye soap. It was nice, but the batches were quite large and I could only make one or 2 batches a year with the amount that I got. It was great when I was busy with a family, but now, it just doesn't appeal to me having to store all that soap. 

Now, I do melt & pour using a natural base. It's not terribly cost effective by using the natural (some other M&P bases are much cheaper), but I know what is in my soap and can tailor it to my needs. I still get all the benefits of homemade soap and I can do one bar at a time, allowing me to experiment and have something different in the soap dish, plus they make lovely gifts. As you can see in the above photo of the Cocoa Marble DIY Soap, it is quite impressive when completed. With just a few ingredients using the recipe found here , you can end up with a lovely bar of soap that nourishes, smells amazing, and looks different every time you make it. Being marbled, the soap changes as it is being used. I've gotten many compliments on it!

Years ago, when the kids were small, we bought a melt and pour soap kit that was on clearance at Walmart. The kids had fun with it, but that was the extent of our M&P soap making. Fast forward to 2020. I stumbled across a video of someone telling about a subscription to Simply Earth, a essential oil company that not only sold essential oils, but made a box that contained everything you would need to make projects using the oils, a big box of bottles and other supplies (sent every 6 subscription boxes) AND it came complete with a course on how to SAFELY use the oils. I looked into the company and it was owned and run by certified aromatherapists, had good oils and the price was very good, so I subscribed. I made many awesome products from the kits, but after my vaccination in 2021 and the bad reaction I had to it, I ended up suspending my subscription until I was able to function again. I'm finally back on the horse making things with the EO's and loving it! If you would like to look further into the Simply Earth Subscription box, you can get a total of $50 off by using my referral code: THERESAD504 You will receive $10 off each of the next 5 boxes totalling $50 of savings and I get a little for referring, too. Normally, I don't refer anyone to any product, but the savings and the product here are amazing and something I've used for a couple of years. Yes - this is a product I believe in, the course is great and the items are high quality. The subscription runs $45 a box at the time of this writing, but with 4 essential oils, recipe cards, lables, molds, bottles, diffusers, waxes, flowers, clays, oils,  bases, (and anything else you might need for that month's projects ), the cost is very reasonable, (you ALWAYS have leftovers!!) PLUS free shipping. This is the only subscriptioin I buy because it's worth every penny! 

Even if you aren't interested in subscribing, make sure to check out the recipes and the blog on their site. It's full of information and you don't have to subscribe to be able to make them! You can purchase the oils individually on the site (or elsewhere if you prefer) as well as all the other supplies needed. 

Life is Unpredictable

Our life went from quiet in 2022 to full of excitement in 2023. We were moving along quite well with the garden last year but for some reason I kept a close eye on my husband while he was outside doing things. It was odd of me to do that, but something just didn't seem right. Then the end of May came and I was out ready to work the front flower beds and I noticed him leaning over the wheelbarrow. I thought he was having issues with his back and I yelled up and asked him if he was ok. No answer. I walked up to him and asked again and he walked around to the side of the the wheelbarrow, said his chest and collapsed. He went into full cardiac arrest - but not from a heart attack but a birth defect that went undetected. My son has just gotten home from running errands and I yelled for him. He did CPR while I stayed on the phone with 911. Within minutes, EMS arrived and then transported him to our local hospital. A few days later he was transported to another hospital and had an aortic valve replacement. He is doing well now, but I look back and thank the good Lord that the niggle in my head that something was not right saved him. If I had gone on with my plans of working out in the front beds, he would have been alone and no longer with us.

Life has since settled back down. Hubby is now working in the garden again and seems to be doing quite well. God is good! 

This year is a year for change. We are close to retirement age and it's time to start thinking about purging things that aren't useful any longer. The kids have all grown up and have their own lives and they don't want all our treasures junk that is important only to us. It is time they need to be sorted, offered to the children and/or purged. I have stopped buying yarn and craft supplies and am now using what I have. I should have more than enough in my stash to last past this lifetime!! I had gotten into that "must buy now or it will be gone" mode. You know how crafting is - everything is a limited edition and if you don't buy it now, you're going to regret it in the future. I stopped all my subscriptions after hubby's operation and really haven't regretted it since. There are a few things I miss about them - mostly the excitement of opening the package and not knowing what is inside, but that excitement wears off quickly and the item ends up in the "someday" pile.

It is time to use what we have here. Over the past years, I've abandoned many of my make-it-from scratch ideals for the easier and more expensive prepared items. I really don't know why as the prepared items are of much lower quality. Food items taste less than delicious to absolutely unpalatable and are chemical/preservative laden plus so much is genetically modified. It was easy falling into that trap with only cooking for the two of us as it was so much easier to pull out something in a can or package instead of slaving over a hot stove! Oh how the lazies can easily creep into your life!

I'm back on the road of making from scratch. If I want it - I need to make it! Things are being cleaned off the pantry shelves and being replaced with staples that I preserved. Bread, crackers, cookies, etc. are no longer being purchased, but come fresh out of the oven. That is only the beginning. I'm pretty much making everything from the basics, including decorations, necessities, toilietries, cleaners, etc. I have found this is slowly removing the toxins, we are feeling better and saving money!

If you have made it through my long post, I thank you. I hope you will join us on our journey and I hope that you may find something useful from my journey back to being a traditional homemaker. It is amazing how much I have forgotten over the years!

Quiet Here

Edge of a local field.

Life is quiet in our small town. Every once in a while one of the farmers' pigs, cows or goats my get out and that causes a little excitement, lots of laughs and photos, as well as warnings to drive with caution, on our local message board. Nothing in the world beats the country life! 

The garden is doing well in spite of the lack of rain and the heat we've had. I have not been fond of the high temperatures and humidity this summer has brought with it. It seems like we went from winter to summer with no real spring this year. On the up side, we've been pretty much been living out of the garden. It certainly has helped with the grocery bills these past couple of months! We also had a nice surprise from it as well. We purchased some composted horse barn muckings from a local farmer and it appears that it also contained sunflower seeds. We have sunflowers all over the garden - and that doesn't include the ones we intentionally planted on the back edge! The garden is gorgeous with all the happy yellow flowers all over. (Why did I think of Bob Ross when I wrote that?) We planted the Giant ones and have some that reached 11 ft tall, but the ones that were in the compost were smaller and many were multiheaded. I saved some seeds from those.

We are doing a trial of both cherry tomatoes and bush beans for Seeds Savers Exchange (SSE) and have been having fun watching them grow, taking notes and tasting them. I love trying new things and am looking forward to seeing what I'll get for next year's trial. 

There is a downside to living here. We are in a quite transient area, so people are always coming and going. Because of this, we have tons of stray cats - especially here near the farms. According to the vet, people think they can just drop them here in the country and they will find shelter in the barns and have plenty of food to eat with the mice, etc. Sadly, a house cat doesn't always fare well since they've been always sheltered in a home and never outside. 

We currently have two that have adopted us. One is a feral female that I have been working with since December. She came to our house so skinny and it was below zero here when she first showed up. I put food out and some shelter, but she never used the shelter - no matter how cold it got. She had her ear clipped (a practice done here on feral cats to mark they've been fixed). She has come a long way in trusting us - but still not totally. There is definitely a wild side to her that I don't think will ever go away. Even after all these months, she still afraid of hands reaching out to her and any sudden movements. You can approach her slowly, but only on her terms. She's taught me a lot when it comes to patience and trust.

The other was pretty much a kitten that would cry in the bushes when I would go out to feed the feral. I put another dish out for the little one and she'd come after I left. Every night she would cry and slowly would come to eat but boy did that girl run! Then she was gone - but we heard a cat crying like she was trapped, so we went searching. We finally found the cat was closed in the neighbor's garage. I went and talked to the neighbor and she told me not to worry - her daughter was involved with the local no kill shelter. But for over 3 weeks we heard the meows and no little one showed up here. I was sure it was the same cat. Then one day, the kitten reappeared and no more crying in the garage. She settled and became more friendly as we watched her grow larger. Sadly, not from eating, but the little one was pregnant!

We got her tamed down, coaxed her in the house with the door always opened and one day, she came in and didn't leave - she decided to have her kittens that same day in our living room. I put her in a box and we helped her deliver 7 kittens. She was exhausted after 3 and didn't try cleaning the rest, so we cut the cords and did it for her. That will be 6 weeks ago tomorrow. Six of the seven survived. I don't know what happened to the one. I discovered it away from the others dead. I felt awful. It was only a week old.

Now we have a house full of fun, playful babies. We are working with a shelter that says it will be so easy to find them homes as kittens are quickly adopted. I hate to see them leave, but going through this shelter is the best way to home them. They do background checks and require references including ones from their family vet. I will definitely miss them though.

As Good, If Not Better!

I was over the moon when Aldi put a new store in our area. Our closest one before they came was over 40 miles away, so we didn't visit much unless we had other things we had to do in that area. Now, Aldi is my store of choice and where we do the most shopping at. The produce is beautiful and reasonably priced and there's a nice selection. Actually, the store has a nice selection of everything! 

Prices of everything keep climbing and we're cutting out more and more items. Girl Scout cookies were one of the things we removed from our buying since it's an overpriced unnecessary item. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across these look-alikes of my absolute favorite of the GS cookies. I had to purchase them to try. They cost under $2 here at my local Aldi. Now, at that price, I wasn't holding a lot of hope, but they are from the Benton brand, and most of their cookies are awesome.

We got them home and after bringing and putting away the groceries, we sat down to a nice cuppa and tried a cookie. OH MY!!!! I was in heaven! Both of us agreed that the cookie not only looked like the GS cookie but tasted AS GOOD IF NOT BETTER than the originals!! Now I can treat myself get a taste of my favorite cookie without feeling guilty for spending so much money on an unnecessary item.

I took the rest and put them in a jar in the freezer, where they will stay fresh and we can nibble on a lovely treat now and then. Another Aldi score for me!!!

Another Item I Stopped Buying

 

So many don't believe that we pay so much for milk in Pennsylvania. We are a regulated state, so the prices are higher than most other states here in the US. I understand the idea behind regulation, but at over $5 for a gallon of milk, does it really help the farmers when folks like myself cannot and will not pay that price for milk? I really can't pay that price - it was hard when it was $4.50 - and that was a treat then, but over $5, that has taken it our of our diet. No more fresh milk for us. I still use dried milk, but even that took a pretty substantial jump. The specialty milks like almond are now cheaper than our cow milk. I may be looking at them for an alternative every now and then. 

With the cost of groceries continuing to climb, my spending habits have changed. We eat meals that are made from the items that are on sale. I'm always looking for clearance, sale, and manager's specials. Some days we don't have meat. Beans are a cheap source of protein that can really stretch the budget! One pound of dried beans can feed more that one pound of hamburger at a fraction of the cost. 

My spending on craft supplies and sprucing the home up has dwindled and will soon be stopping. I've hit a few sales, but outside of that, my subscriptions have been cancelled as well as Craftsy. I hate to see them go, but I do have enough supplies to last me quite a long time. My husband bought me a year subscription to Potomac Beads Best Bead Box XL for my birthday. I was over the moon with that and will enjoy that more than he'll ever know. He bought it for me 2 years ago for an anniversary present, but I didn't use it all, and put it aside until earlier this year. This year, I went to town on them and finished them all. He saw me enjoying them and decided that I would love getting them throughout the year, especially since I cancelled my others. He also surprised me with a few months of a subscription to Bargain Bead Box, so you man see some postings from time to time for that. I'm not good when it comes to being handed a bunch of beads and being told to create something. So that will definitely be a challenge for me! I'm sure that will be cancelled soon as the prices everything else climbs. He is so good to me to give me such wonderful gifts!

I'm considering adding dresses to my wardrobe as things wear out. I can never find pants that fit my legs correctly. I have lymphedema and even though it is controlled, my calves are large and there are many pants that just don't fit around them or look absolutely awful if I can get them on. To think that this all started with a spider bite many years ago. Sigh.... So now I need to change my wardrobe some. It would make life so much easier to not have to worry about finding pants that fit. I've been looking at some dress patterns and have settled on a modest Mennonite Cape Dress. It kills me to pay $15 for a pattern, but it is a paper pattern and designed by a Mennonite woman that also supports her pattern (in case you need help). Overall, I will be saving money by going this route. 

I'd love to hear how grocery prices are changing your outlook and what you are doing to cope.