Hi everyone! There hasn't been much "thrift" going on here; just a lot of Christmas and family. And per the course, there has been a lot of my 2020 "word of the year" going on. In several days we'll be leaving the state for a short work-cation; half of it will be work, and we will spend a few days vacationing. Hopefully by a beach and/or some historical sites.
I got (and gave) some pretty fun Christmas gifts. I've never considered my family to be "preppers", but what can I say... it was 2020. LOL! There were more than a few books gifted (you can see one that I got above), as well as flashlights, bullets and MREs. I'm not even kidding! So I guess at least we will all be well-prepped for the new year. That's all for now! I look forward to sharing some goals and/or a reading list when we get back home. Blessings, ~Prudence~
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Usually at the end of every year, I enjoy looking over the year's goals and relishing in any that were accomplished (usually there are several). Then I set goals for next year. In 2020, however, I didn't set any goals. 2019 was an exhausting year for me since we remodeled our house and then moved into it, so I just didn't make time for goal-setting at the end of the year. January was spent preparing for our trip to Italy, February was spent in Italy (and recovering from said trip), and then in March... the Rona hit.
2020: Overwhelming If there was one word I could attach to 2020, it would be "overwhelm". I just felt like there was always something else to do and I never accomplished anything. Every day. Where did all of my time go? It's not like we were moving or remodeling a house. I didn't have a new baby. In fact, my "baby" started using the toilet independently, dressing herself and helping me with a lot of things this year! By all measures, I should have accomplished MORE, not less. After some thought, there were a few things that came to mind about why I felt overwhelmed. Of course there was the Rona and everything that came with it. The awful mask mandates and drama over masks. This year, for the first time ever, I left my debit card in the machine at the store. Why? Mask anxiety. This spring I spent a whole week's worth of free time making masks, and then spent the rest of the summer trying not to wear one. And then wearing one, and then feeling guilty about it. And all of that sucked up valuable mental space, and controlled where I went and what I did. I also spent a WHOLE lot more time on social media and government websites trying to figure out the truth about the Rona. I spent time talking to friends and family about what was going on. This didn't cause me stress or worry; I've been fascinated with it since March. But it DID suck a lot of my time away. I probably spent at least two hours per day researching and discussing the pandemic (and, later in the year, the election). Can you imagine how many books I could have written in two hours per day?! At the beginning of the school year, I stalked our community Facebook page to see what the public schools were going to do, even though I don't have (and probably won't ever have) children in that system. The pandemic was like a real-life, real-time episode of Tiger King for me. It was so disastrous, I couldn't stop watching!! A final factor I think contributed to overwhelm was having our renters right next door. I'm an extreme introvert, so having to think about other people being in the garden/barn area (they had a garden next to ours) before I went out caused me anxiety on a low level. Our renters themselves were nice, and I had a lot in common with the wife and enjoyed talking with her. But I spent more time talking with her last year than anyone else except my husband. I don't know if it was 3 or 7 hours per week, but it was a lot. I came to dread walking outside, and planned my day around whether or not she was home. They also had a dog, and I hate dogs. All of these factors were things in my everyday life that I felt like I had no control over, but rather they controlled me. I felt like I didn't have control over my life, and I sort of gave up on "getting things done". 2020 Accomplishments That being said, I did actually do some things, in spite of feeling like I DIDN'T do anything. 1. We went to Italy! The trip itself was so, so exhausting. In fact, I've often wondered if I contracted the Ronavirus over there (we were in Venice two weeks before they locked down) because I was so, so tired. But looking back, I am incredibly thankful that we took the leap and did it, after talking about it for years. 2. I implemented a better trash/recycling system in our home. I started saving and burning all cardboard, and also began composting bathroom items like tissue, hair and toilet paper tubes. I bought a "real" compost bucket for our kitchen that prevents smells and mess. I am still learning how to keep certain items out of the trash, as I mentioned this week (the cool whip container and tea bags). 3. Found a good, free piano for our home, and got it tuned. 4. Had the most productive, easiest vegetable garden yet. There was at least one thing to eat from the garden from March-November, beginning with parsnips and ending with Swiss chard just this week. I hardly bought any seeds for my 2020 garden, but still cleaned out a lot of the "duds" from my collection. Now I have a dud-free and mostly complete seed collection, and it's not even January. 5. We made maple syrup for the first time. It was very enjoyable and we still have a lot of syrup to use in the next several months. We now have all of the equipment needed to do it year after year. 6. Started a new berry patch under plastic. This was one of my "failed" projects, but it's still an accomplishment, in a way. I originally ordered and planted 100 plants, but the plants had been stored at the wrong temperature and only two of them survived. I then had to transplant live plugs from my other patch, one by one. It was long and tedious work. About half of those transplants died. Had the original plants been viable, the project would have been a success. However, I still have at least 60 living plants under plastic and ready to grow for next year. 7. Redecorated our nursery. What a relief to have a beautiful nursery rather than an ugly one! 8. Bought a beef calf. I also had to (re)learn cattle care, such as how to put up fence (thankfully my husband led in that endeavor) and how much hay to buy for winter. I drew up a good rotational grazing plan and we were able to make three one-week pastures for our steer, plus a large "free-for-all" area that we will finish fencing in next year. Thanks to the pasture, we didn't have to buy feed for him for two and a half months. 9. I finished painting our upstairs guest bedroom and hallway. 10. I published my first Prudence Palmer book. 11. Began using sourdough starter for cooking. I also tried and was successful at making crackers this year. 12. All things prepping: besides following the pandemic drama, my second hobby this year was prepping. I tried (and was mildly successful) at campfire cooking, and it also became a fun summer tradition for us. I made an off-grid clothes washer with two 5-gallon buckets. I established a pantry buying schedule and master list, with a 3-6 month supply of everything from beans and rice to spices and tea. I made a master list of household/personal care items and a plan to restock 1-2 times per year. Yes, I now have a year's worth of shampoo and conditioner. I made an "emergency" bag for our car, which contains mostly practical, useful things like extra sweatshirts and snacks, plus some true emergency items like a fire-starting kit, topographic maps and a personal water filter. I also made a backpack version with many of the same items. The backpack has actually been very helpful for weekend trips; I simply take out what I likely won't need (extra shirts, for example, because I'll be packing more shirts anyway, or maps that don't apply to where we're going) and repack with what I will need for a few days. I have always kept a backpack semi-packed (Hubby and I did yearly backpacking in our child-free days) out of convenience for weekend or day trips, but the extra "survival" items have actually come in handy a few times; toilet paper, duct tape and bandages are always useful to have on hand, wherever you are. Looking Forward: 2021 I am feeling quite optimistic for this coming year. There are a few habits I have changed and a few circumstances that have changed, and I believe those things will make all the difference in accomplishing goals and being productive in 2021. 1. A drama-free (media) life. Rather than spending two hours a day looking things up on my phone, over the past few months I've found some alternative media outlets that I trust to share truthful news. I can simply skim headlines on Parler, and then listen to 1-2 hours of Youtube/Rumble videos while I do other productive things. I've stopped looking up government statistics or press conferences because they are probably garbage anyway. Rather, I'll wait to have those things filtered and analyzed by a reputable local Youtube figure and then digest that information. I may still end up spending an hour every night catching up on news, but at least I'm not spending twice that amount on fake news. 2. A mask-free life. I'm not saying I'll never wear a mask again, but I'm done asking the "mask or no mask?" question. It's just a default "no mask" for me. I figure that if a store wants you to wear a mask, they will have one available. I feel so much freer striding into Walmart or wherever without a muzzle on. When I don't have to think "mask or no mask?" it feels a little bit like the old days. 3. Renters who are a better fit. Our first renter of 2021 will be an older lady who will be there for a short time. After that it will likely be my brother-in-law; both are single, low-maintenance people who will probably spend a lot of their time elsewhere. I also jokingly told my husband that *I* would pay $25.00 per month to keep all dogs off of our property. 4. Small improvements add up to big change. There are still many areas of life that I'm looking to streamline. I made a lot of progress on monthly menu planning; now it takes about an hour to plan out a week's worth of meals (repeated four times to equal a month). Not only do I have the list of meals, but also a list of in-season produce to use and a list of monthly and weekly bulk preps to make each meal a little easier. I buy all of the same staple items each month, so grocery shopping is a breeze. Monthly changes to the basic menu are just variations on the same ingredients: chicken, carrots, rice, onions, etc. I've also made a small amount of progress in the cleaning department this year. I purchased a set of E-cloths that I really love, and a steam mop with attachments that makes mopping easier. I also put a lock on our toy closet and have tried to make our home more minimalist/Montessori themed when it comes to toys. My ultimate goal is to spend just one hour cooking and one hour cleaning every day, so I can focus more time on crafting, writing, homeschooling, etc. It is a tall order, but every year I get a little closer. Goals 2021? One area that I really want to focus on next year is cleaning. Our house is so big and I am the only one available to clean it. I can keep it picked up, but actual cleaning is what gets me. The toilet is often dirty. Our oven and microwave get dirty. My husband doesn't complain a lot, but when he does it is usually about something dirty. Another area that really needs work is my strawberry patch. I've implemented a plan to get rid of the poison ivy out there. I'm also hoping that we don't have a bad frost in 2021, which cut my harvest in half this year. If we do, I have some tarps and straw ready to cover the plants. We tilled in between the rows after harvest, so hopefully the extra room will allow for bigger berries. And lastly, I've planned to either buy new strawberry plants from the store (unfrozen) or simply continue to transplant old starts. I want to finish going through the Fascinating Womanhood course that I started this summer. It's something I've neglected for a long time, but has never been far from my mind. Lastly, I want to be a better letter writer and family memory documenter (aka photo printer, etc.). I usually try to write one of my siblings once a month. This fall one of my brothers joined the military and I have only written him two letters and a Christmas card so far. All of those "goals" really equate to fixing what I failed at in 2020. It kind of scares me to make goals above that, but some new things I'd like to take on are: -More sewing. I have a bedding project and some clothing projects I want to finish. I don't know where this time is going to come from. -More writing. I am going to replace daily "news mining" sessions with work on my writing business. -More Bible study. Again, I will replace bedtime social media browsing with Bible study. I usually read the Bible on Kindle. This is helpful because I can look up individual words in the Kindle dictionary or on Wikipedia. Very good when you are reading through the Old Testament! Those are my unofficial goals for 2021. Do you have any goals for the new year? How do you feel like you did in 2020? ~Prudence~ Hi everyone! I hope you've had a wonderful December so far.
Secretly, I'm a little happy that almost all of the normal Christmas Eve activities are cancelled this year. It looks like we won't have any church services or any non-family parties this year. I've cancelled some of my own "traditions" as well, just for simplicity's sake. Normally I make a wreath for our front door. This year I didn't make one; I just gathered all of the supplies around and felt guilty about not making it. Finally at Home Depot one night, my husband and I decided to just buy a wreath. The guilt melted away! It was so freeing to NOT have to make that wreath. I'm also not doing a gingerbread house and won't be making obligatory snacks/desserts/cookie plates for neighbors. It just seems like a good year to not do that. Anyway, onto the thriftiness! 1. Swiss chard. I still had a bunch of it in one of my raised beds. Yes, uncovered, in December! I harvested all of it this week. I put one third of it in the fridge to use fresh, one third in the freezer, and one third I dehydrated for use in January/February. I have quite the stash of dried vegetables now, and I'm excited to try making things with it later. 2. The "x" key on my keyboard went caput. But there are ways to get around it! I plugged in my external keyboard, and use that most of the time. But if you don't have one of those, you can still 1) misspell the word and then use autocorrect (for example, "eksternal"), or 2) copy/paste the letter from a website or another document. 3. I bought a large round bale of straw and covered my strawberry patch. One $30.00 bale was enough to cover 300+ plants. Small bales can get expensive, so I think the round bale was a good choice. Last year I didn't cover my plants, and we had a bad year. I feel like a responsible farmer this year to have actually gotten out to do it. 4. I fed and watered the rabbits at my parents' house, as they were on vacation this week. While I was there, I picked up some newspapers out of their driveway. I expected the papers to be our local garbage paper (because there's not much in it besides ads and recycled leftist stories from a bigger newspaper). But instead it was the Wall Street Journal! My mom said she could save them for us, which is an offer I might take her up on. 5. Recycling tidbits: I saved some takeout bags and napkins to use at home. I'd never thought about saving fast food bags for reuse until the pandemic closed everything down, and now we seem to have a lot of bags (as well as napkins) floating around after date night. I saved a cool whip container to grow microgreens in, and I also started saving tea bags to put at the bottom of potted plants for drainage. I love learning new ways to save money! That's all for this week. I hope you're all doing well! Blessings, ~Prudence~ Hello everyone! We have had a busy but fun two weeks.
1. Thanksgiving: my main contribution to both Thanksgiving dinners was dressing, made with a bunch of bread that we were given for free. That recipe also used homemade (free) broth, celery, onions and spices; several of which I used from my herb garden. The only pricey ingredient was butter, but even then it was only one stick. I estimate the total cost for stuffing/dressing was less than $2.00 per party, and each recipe filled a 9 by 13" pan. 2. During Thanksgiving weekend, we spent some time in Amish country and stopped by a few bulk food stores. At one of the stores, I bought high quality cocoa and pretzel salt for a reasonable price. 3. I found several bags of chicken thighs on clearance for $0.37/lb. 4. We began Christmas decorating! We have a pretty large house and have only been in it for one year, so we are still buying Christmas decorations and figuring out what we like best. But this year was still a LOT easier than last! My husband put up the lights around the house on a warm day in November. I wrapped our porch posts in artificial garland and put bows on each post. Some new things we bought this year were a small electric fireplace and electric candles for each window facing the road. I think the fireplace was $80.00 on a black Friday deal (which I'm not sure was actually a deal, but....). We love how it looks under the TV. After Christmas we will put it in one of the upstairs bedrooms, since our upstairs is cold for seven months out of the year. The candles were also pricey at $2.00+ each. However, they are remote controlled on a timer and came with batteries, so there is no need to plug each one in. We bought a pack of 10 candles, and I love them so much that I'm planning on getting more in the coming years. I used to be a minimalist freegan when it came to Christmas decorations. I either made stuff for free from natural materials, or got used junk at garage sales and thrift stores. However, my thinking on Christmas decorations has changed since then. First, we have a lot more storage space for decorations. Second, we have a lot more money for Christmas decorations. I used to make my own wreath, garlands, gingerbread centerpieces, etc. (it sounds idyllic, but some of it was not the best artwork) and then throw everything away in January. It was a great system when we had less money, no storage space and a lot of time. Everything was free, but again, it was hobbled together and some things were broken or didn't match. For instance, we had one string each of blue and green lights, one string that half worked of red/green lights and two strands of two different tones of white lights. We had two old window candles that we had to plug in and switch on when we wanted them turned on. Sometimes my wreaths would droop after a few days, or the gingerbread house be a little burnt on one side. Now, however, I find myself for 3-4 times as much space to decorate, and a whole basement in which to store things. It would be completely overwhelming to make enough decorations by hand to decorate the whole house, and have to do that every single year. Now I can just put up the same sturdy, working, matching decorations every year, in the same places, and it only takes a day to do. Think about it; The Christmas season only lasts for 30 days. If it takes you two weeks to get up the lights, decorations and tree, that means you only have 14 days to enjoy it all, let alone get Christmas cards sent out, make special treats, shop for and wrap gifts. 5. Recipe and meal planning: I read a book on Scribd called Little House Living and pulled a few recipes from it. Specifically, I copied down recipes for make-ahead mixes that you put into jars and use later. Then I put together a December menu with some of those recipes. I also pulled out four dessert and specialty Christmas recipes that I would like to make this year. I think we will do homemade marshmallows as a family/friend gift. I also pulled out a biscotti recipe, chocolate sugar cookie recipe, and a cookie-mix-in-a-jar recipe, and those will be what I make this year for fun. That is about it for this week! I hope you are all having a lot of Christmas fun and excitement. Blessings, ~Prudence~ |
About PrudenceI am a Christian homemaker who lives in the Midwest. I enjoy sewing, gardening, reading and thrifting. Archives
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