Sugar-Free Summer

... begins today! 

(Or maybe Monday, if there are chocolate chip cookies at the graduation reception tomorrow.....)

Who Knew?

McDonald's teaches its employees that the fastest way to put out a shortening fire is to dump frozen French fries on it.
-- from Who Knew? Things You Didn't Knowabout the Things You Know Well by David Hoffman

When Cooking is More Humorous Than Edible....

My dear Aunty M. is thinking about starting an entertaining/cooking blog.  I hope she does.

But here’s what happens when I just try to cook an ordinary family dinner….

I learned from last time.  When my beloved says, “The casserole takes an hour” he means that it COOKS for an hour.  But since there’s an onion that needs to be chopped and meat that has to brown (and then simmer with said onion for 20 minutes) the whole process takes longer than an hour.

I did manage to have food in the oven, if not on the table, when my husband got home.  But I didn’t realize that no one grates a pound sliced American cheese. You just kind of rip it up.  But I tried to grate it, which was messy.  It left a ring of cheese bits around the plate I had tried to grate it on to.  The cheese promptly smeared all over the counter when I tried to brush it off.  Then I reached for the timer, which fell off the edge of the stove and smashed.  So I wrote a note: “Casserole done at 6:32” which is 32 minutes after he got home when I had planned for it to be all done but it took longer to grate the cheese than I’d thought.  I slid out the door to woodworking class, hoping he would find the cheese-smeared counter and broken timer and late dinner humorous.

When I got back, I discovered that 1 cup of uncooked rice meant 1 cup of instant white rice, not brown rice, and that the casserole was crunchy to the point of being inedible.

Yes, Auntie M will have to do that cooking blog instead!

The Week in Pictures

Learning to play 7 Wonders with Anne-- and proving that you are never too old for a sleepover
... although you might be too old to stay up until 1 am....

A tea party with the lovely young bride, Elizabeth L.

 Taking Arwen to see Beauty and the Beast and having my 2nd sleepover of the week.  All the little girls dressed as princesses got to sit up front and then get their photos taken with Belle and the Prince.

Not sure who this character was, but the costume was super-cool!

My new hair cut and my still-unfinished piano bench....

Surplus Vehicle Auction

It was a cheap date after all.  

It could have cost thousands of dollars, but didn't.... we didn't end up getting a truck.

Here's what we learned....

1. You can eliminate (or reduce the price you are willing to pay) for a surprising number of vehicles by being observant, even when you aren't allowed to drive any of them.

2.  People will pay an amazing amount of cash (say, $4,300) for a vehicle that doesn't start.  Even this one sold for $300:

(Look, boys and girls, can you spot the hole in the floor?  I didn't.... until I put my foot into it....)

Frugal Truck Buying?

We are off to the Nebraska Surplus Vehicle Auction to attempt to frugally buy a pickup truck.  We'll keep you posted!

Article on sustainable living

I keep finding people who are living my life.....

Not sure how I feel about that!

This article is about a couple in Texas with two small children who live "off the grid"-- their hosing, including electricity and plumbing, is DIY.  Their annual budget is $9,600 a year, which means they only have to work (freelance) 5-10 hours a week.

In reality, I realize that this would be an enormous amount of work, including lots of physical labor..  But we would be working for us, not someone else.  And the challenge would interesting, plus it would match a lot of things I value: independence, DIY, frugality, avoiding processed foods, creating...

My guess is that we will opt for a compromise someday.  A compact, carefully designed passive-solar house on-the-grid with a masonry wood stove, a large garden, an orchard, bees, and rain-water collection.  We'll have income from investments as well as my freelancing and art.  And we probably won't be able to even consider it for at least 15 years.  But every year of living frugally and creatively now brings us closer to that possibility, as well as making life now richer.