When John and I first got married, we were in school and very broke.  We’d walk to the store two blocks away, get cash with our bank card, and come back with as much food as we happened to have money for at the time.  We never came close to starving, but when the...
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For awhile our 5 year old has been playing on her bike with the pedals off–a great way to help little kids learn to ride — and she’s been acting like she’s got the balance thing figured out. Yesterday John put the pedals back on, and sure enough, she was more than ready. In...
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I decided quite awhile ago that couponing does not work for me.  Well, in tiny amounts it is fine.  I probably use a coupon every other month, for a grand total savings of  perhaps $10 a year.  But serious couponing, with the binder and the circular-sawingcutting and the combining sales and rebates and coupons?...
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Sixteen summers ago, my sister in law and I were pregnant at the same time. Due the very same day, actually, August 15th. It was my 4th and her first. Her baby seemed anxious to arrive first — she was on bed rest beginning in mid-pregnancy. In mid-June I also began having signs of...
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When you pick 15 cabbages in one morning, it’s a pretty sure bet there’s all manner of salad in your future. Recently I made a great Thai Pasta Salad that was inspired by the recipe here on Casual Kitchen, one of my very favorite cooking blogs.  The salad is perfect on a hot day,...
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I got two books in the mail on the same day a few weeks ago, which was an interesting coincidence, because I think the authors would find a lot of common ground. Palmer Chinchen wrote True Religion: Taking Pieces of Heaven to Places of Hell on Earth.  He challenges Christians to be part of...
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It’s begun already. Earlier it seems than most years. I’m awash in zucchini. I vowed to pick them tiny, I really did. It’s so much easier to pick/eat/give away 6-inch zucchinis than 18-inch monsters.  But then we went camping and came back to plants that had gone berserk in our absence.   John and I...
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I got an email earlier this week from Jessica at Life As Mom.  She is doing Christmas in July this week, talking smart about budgeting, avoiding debt and other important ways to plan wisely for a meaningful, debt free Christmas.  Go check it out–looks like good stuff, and there are some good giveaways too. ...
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