Teaching Giving at Christmas

I strongly believe that giving is something that can be encouraged and taught at a young age to foster a giving spirit when older. You may recall that my husband and I are trying to pay off our debt and really focus on family, fun and memories. Even though we are paring back our Christmas overall ( as far as gifts, wow did we buy the kids too much!), there is one tradition we love keeping.

We give goats. Or chickens. Or geese- to people in need through Heifer.org. 

We've been giving to this organization for a while ( 15 years maybe?) and when my oldest daughter started Kindergarten, she wanted to give a goose in her teacher's name for Christmas. Talk about making this momma proud.

To backup just a bit, according to the website Heifer's mission is to:

We empower families to turn hunger and poverty into hope and prosperity – but our approach is more than just giving them a handout. Heifer links communities and helps bring sustainable agriculture and commerce to areas with a long history of poverty. Our animals provide partners with both food and reliable income, as agricultural products such as milk, eggs and honey can be traded or sold at market.

When many families gain this new sustainable income, it brings new opportunities for building schools, creating agricultural cooperatives, forming community savings and funding small businesses.

I love that Heifer promotes "passing the gift" meaning that when a family accepts a gift, they are trained on how to care or manage that gift, then are expected to give the knowledge to others around them. They have projects all over the world, even right here in the United States. They help provide everything from actual heifers.... to ducks, geese, goats, sheep, rabbits, vegetable gardens, bee hives and more. It's a great way for us to teach our kids about sustainability as well. 

Once you donate, you can order free "honor cards" in a variety of beautiful prints, to give to whomever you are honoring. 

This year both of our older daughters decided to get this: USE THEIR OWN MONEY to purchase a gift for their teachers. One "bought" a flock of geese, the other a flock of ducks. I also purchased a gift of a gardening project in honor of my boss who has been extra amazing this year. 

We love to give at the holidays, I think this is an amazing way to share our blessings with those that can benefit from it. It's not a handout, anyone that has hand milked a cow twice a day, or made goat's milk cheese, know that these families work hard, but just giving the initial gift of an animal can make such a difference in their world. 

Happy Homesteading Y'all!

One Small thing- Ditch the Disposables

I challenge you to make a commitment this year to not purchase as many disposable products.

For one it really helps with your grocery budget. If on one shopping trip you didn't purchase the following items, how much would you save?
- pack of plastic cups
-plastic spoons and forks for lunches and such
- paper towels
-paper napkins
- paper plates
- facial tissues
-aluminum foil
-plastic wrap
-zip lock bags
-brown lunch bags
-water bottles
-Lysol type cleaning clothes or windex wipes
Other items some may buy :
-Feminine hygiene products
-diapers
-wipes

Just those few items and you probably are spending what $30 a week( more with the diapers)? That's $120 a month. $1440 a year!!!!And depending on what other items you purchase it could be much more for things you are just going to throw away.

Then think of the trash.... not only will you throw away each plastic spoon, but normally they come in a box with plastic wrap, more trash... You will really start to see a difference in your trash if you opt to use reusable products.

For plastic spoons for school and work lunches and picnics I simply send metal ones. My kids have yet to lose one. They also each have a reusable lunch bag they take daily, so that cuts down on the old school brown paper bags. My husband and I each have a lunch bag we take daily as well. We also have several water bottles that we refill and keep in the fridge so no more throwing away water bottles!

Here is a nice lunch set from Tupperware.com please note I don't sale Tupperware, and if you know someone that does I'm sure they would appreciate your business. This also eliminates needs for ziplock type baggies daily.

 

For facial tissues we simply use hankies. Yes I know, so uncivilized. But I find them softer, and then I won't have the trash of used Kleenex and the boxes they come in. I simply wrote our initial on the bottom corner of the hankie so we would know whose was whose after the wash.

 

For ziplock baggies, plastic wrap and foil, just use reusable glass or plastic Tupperware like containers. My kids have little reusable snack bags as well, they use to take snacks in while hiking or to school.

 

For those of you that have children or may be thinking about more children, cloth diapering and wipes may be a good option for you. They have adorable prints and styles now and make it easy for moms. My youngest is finally out of diapers now, so I gifted all I had left to a friend that was very grateful.

 

For those of you that have a menstrual cycle you may want to look into these reusable pads. The picture is just a random one I found on etsy similar to the ones I have. With a house of three girls I'm sure these will come in handy. I would think if you have multiple daughters you would just have each one their own pattern or something if they were concerned about wearing someone else's. You wash them and wear them over and over. I've had a set of about 6 I've used for over 18 months now. That's a big saving monetarily and our bathroom trash is way down. It's not for everyone, but I would encourage you to try it. They have patterns to make your own, you can search for them on etsy, or other sites sell them.

 

For paper towels we just use kitchen towels or rags, and of course use them to clean my counters and windows replacing the need for Lysol and windex type wipes.

 

We use cloth napkins for paper napkins and I have several sets. I send them in our lunches, and use them at home for each meal as well as for picnicking and camping. I do have a nicer set that matches I use for company.

 

 

I realize many of you probably do this and more! What other ways are you finding to cut down your disposable costs and well as your trash?

 

 

Happy Homesteading!

 

One Small Thing- Soup Bucket

Yes a Soup Bucket!

It's been unusually cold here, and soup is just nice on a cold night isn't it?
One small thing I've been doing for a while is to keep what I call a Soup Bucket in my freezer. It's really just a few freezer Tupperware type containers, but here's the premise:

- Every so often I have a few little tablespoons of veggies left over at the end of a meal.  Instead of throwing them out, I put them in the freezer. This works well for things like green beans, carrots, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, even kale or spinach. Just throw it in there.

- Also when I make corn on the cob and have maybe one or two cobs left, I'll cut it off the cob and put the kernels in my bucket.

- We had a wild boar ham about a month ago and I had a few pieces left, I cut it in hunks and put it in my bucket.

- So yesterday I had to take all three kids to the dentist, I had made a loaf of fresh bread, and soup sounded good.

For the base of the soup I freeze tomatoes from the garden, so I took a few out, defrosted them, and ran them through my blender. It made a great tomato base.

I put it all in the crock pot and by the time we were back from the dentist we had a lovely meal ready for us.

Happy Homesteading Ya'll!

One Small Thing- Smoothies

It's Spring Break for us this week and unfortunatly, after a BEAUTIFUL weekend it is raining and stormy.

I had a Mango that was too ripe so I decided the kids would like a smoothie.

We love fruit. I do buy some ( like a Mango) but we do grow our own sometimes. Fruit is expensive and so wonderful I just can't let it go to waste. So I have a little Tupperware container in the freezer and when I have a few strawberries, blackberries, raspberries etc that are too ripe I'll throw them in the container. Same with peaches, plums, nectarines, etc. I'll just cut them up and throw them in my "smoothie container".

Sometimes at our grocery store they will have overly ripe pineapples for .99cents. I'll buy a few and cut them up and put them in the container. Then on days like today I'll just open it up, put it in the blender and add a little greek yogurt. And there you have it- a delicious smoothie. Fresh, ripe REAL fruit, no artificial anything and it's fruit that otherwise would have been discarded.

The baby ( 18 months ) LOVES it and it's a great way to get nutrients into the little ones.

You can add honey I suppose, I find that too sweet, but otherwise most anything else is game. When the girls want more of a slushie type drink I just add ice cubes.

Just think about that next time you have a couple of really ripe strawberries that can't be used, or a Mango that is past it's prime. Think of how delicious a smoothie will be and think about the money you aren't wasting by not throwing it out.

Happy Homesteading Ya'll!!

One Small Thing- Crock Pots

In the south we say Crock Pots. Others call it slow cookers. Either way, they are amazing. If you don't have one you should really look into getting one. If you do have one, but don't use it, you need to really look into using it more. If you do use one a lot, awesome for you, you probably have some great recipes to share.

A great source for Crock pot recipes includes Allrecipes.com. You can click the picture below for one of my favorite recipes for refried beans!

 

Gooseberry Patch ( which I love their cookbooks) has a Slow Cooker cookbook also for relatively cheap and again, I just love it.

 

 

 

I found that when I do my menu plan, that I include at least one or two crock pot meals a week in the fall and winter. It just makes sense to me and my family and our needs. You dump everything in the morning, turn in on and when you get home from work you have a delicious meal waiting for you. This is especialy important for us in the winter when it gets dark earlier, which we tend to eat dinner earlier.

 

If you are trying to simply cooking, trying to try new recipes or just wanting more homecooked meals, please dust off that crockpot ( or find a good used one at a thrift store) and start making good use of it.

 

What are your favorite things to cook in the crockpot?

 

 

Linked up with Simple Living Wednesday, What we Wore, Read and Made,

One Small Thing- Leftovers

Pondering this new year I've been updating my menu plans, grocery lists and doing inventory on my pantry, freezer and fridge. One thing that I think we could probably ALL do better on( myself included) is to make sure we make the best use out of our food as possible.

Food is expensive folks. If you grow your own food you put a lot of sweat, tears and time into cultivating it and growing it.

So I think One Small Thing we could all vow to do this year is to USE UP OUR FOOD. Don't throw out leftovers, don't allow produce to go bad, don't let milk, yogurt, cheeses or breads spoil.

I have a couple of tricks for this.
1. Containers.... Silly I know, but make sure to have a stock of reusable containers WITH LIDS, to put leftovers in. I have ones with little compartments in them that I use for mine and my husband's lunch. I pack them up while I'm cleaning up after dinner and we are good to go the next day. Clear ones work best of course so you can see through them. I use them in and out of the fridge. For instance when I make a loaf of bread of rolls, I don't store the leftovers in the fridge, I have a nice Tupperware container that I put it in by the stove. I can see them, I know it's there and I'm much more likely to use it the next day for breakfast, a sandwich etc.

2. Pizza- Extra Produce I can always put on a homeade pizza. If you have just a few peices of broccoli, peppers, fresh tomatoes, etc. just pile them on a nice homade pizza. The nice thing is that you can customize this based on preferences. Maybe half of it ( for my husband) will get the tomatoes, maybe the girls peices won't. It's a great way to get some extra veggies and not let it go bad.

3. Soup- I freeze small containers of left over corn, beans, peas, etc. and when I get enough I put it all in a big pot with some home canned stewed tomatoes and we have delicious soup. I also do this when I make tacos and used browned deer meat. If I just have a half a cup or so left I freeze it and will add it to my soup. I may not have enough for a full serving, but saving up all my leftovers over time makes for a delicious pot of soup.

4. Plan ahead for meals: I sometimes make a large batch of rice, I'll use it through out the week. One day it will be a base for the stir fry, another day it will go in a Mexican casserole, another day I may put it in to beef up my soup. Just because you have an extra batch of something, doesn't mean you have to use it the next night for the same dish. Think ahead and you'll have lots of ideas I'm sure.

This will save you on your grocery bill, and it just makes me feel better knowing that I'm being a good steward of what I've been blessed with.

Anyone else have some creative uses for leftovers?


Linked up to Monday Homestead Barn Hop

One Small Thing- Honey

Let's talk about Honey! One thing that you can do this week during your Homesteading Quest is to think about honey. I have been purchasing local honey from an older gentlemen about 20 minutes from me, for as long as I can remember. My folks use to buy from him, and now I do to. I remember when I was small he would save the honeycomb for us and it was such a treat to chew on that sweet yumminess...

there have been lots of studies done that show eating "local" honey can help with allergies, as you are actually ingesting a very small amount of the local allergens through that honey, as that is what the bee is using to pollinate. I've never had allergies, but that makes sense to me.

Of course is would be wonderful if you harvested your own honey. I have longed for that, but it hasn't made it to the top of my must do list just yet, so for now I'm satisfied buying it from my elderly friend.

Honey is great to use as a sweetener for things like hot teas, yogurt, and baked goods. I will also say that a yummy dollop of honey on freshly baked biscuits on a cold morning really gets the day off to a good start. My girls also like honey bread, which is just a thick slice of homeade bread with melted butter and honey on it. Hey, not the healthiest in the world, but better than a twinkie and at least I know where it came from.

Honey is also great for many illnesses. My family uses it as we start to feel the approach of a cold, sinus infection or sore throat. My kids often ask for a teaspoon of honey for their "sore thoat" , which I know is just a plot for me to dispense the liquid gold, but I normally oblige....

So my challendge this week is to
-research local sources of honey for you
- experiment with ways to use honey in your families favorite meals, snacks and drinks

Let me know what you all are thinking!

Happy Homesteading.....


Linked up with Artful Homemaking, Monday Homesteading Barn Hop