Happy Thursday! It's been c-c-cold here, so I did some thrifty things indoors this week. 1. Baking Day: we spent one morning making bagels, and some muffins for the freezer. I didn't make enough bagels for the freezer, but I think I will next time. I also attempted some sourdough bread, but I think my starter has kerfluffed. As in, defluffed. I cut the failed bread into cubes, and will likely do a breakfast casserole with it at some point. I'm going to try and revive the starter. 2. Chicks: our baby chicks are doing great. I bought another piece to go on their plate warmer: it's called an "anti-roosting cone", so they don't stand and poop on the warmer. It was $14.00, but it will keep them from flying out of their box... for a few weeks, anyway. It will also mean less poop for me to clean up when this process is all over. 3. Granite repairs: I made a few repairs to our granite countertop using a $12.00 repair kit. The one disappointment I've had with the granite is how easily it chips... not on the smooth surfaces, but the edges. We chose to have an ogee edge done, which LOOKS great, but it's a little harder to wipe off, and the sharp edge chips easily. The other edge I've had a lot of trouble with is on the undermount sink. It's easy clean, but also easy chip, and there are several fairly large chips in one side of the sink now. I put off doing the repairs for several days because I was intimidated with all of the items included in the kit. However, after I was done with the first repair I was far less intimidated. It did a great job, and I will work on several more repairs as time allows. 4. I finally finished the DIY Beddy's bedding for our toddler mattress. It took me far too long, as I made many mistakes and had to make a lot of adjustments. At the beginning I tried to do an exact replica of Beddy's, but that was too many layers for my sewing machine and too much for my skill level. I bought fabric, batting, and a roll of bulk zipper for the project. I ended up not using the batting at all, and I realized in short order that I could have saved a lot more money by using new fleece blankets rather than buying new fabric from Walmart's sewing department. I also realized that, for a toddler bed, I could have used a 36" zipper rather than buying a longer roll of "bulk" zipper. That being said, the bulk zipper will be necessary on a twin size bed. What began as a full Beddy's replica morphed into a fitted blanket with sides and a zipper. Beddy's comes with a built-in fitted sheet, but I realized that a not-fully-night-trained toddler will likely need their sheets changed every now and then, so it would make sense to just have a separate fitted sheet. The sides of my "fitted blanket" were originally four pieces, but after I got going I realized it would have been much easier to just start with one long strip (eliminating corner seams), and then cut off any extra length. As for the zipper: It doesn't need to zip all the way from top to bottom. In fact, I realized that it would be better if the zipper stopped about six inches or more from the top end, and up to twelve inches from the bottom end. This will make it vastly easier to install the zipper, and also less zipper for the child to have to zip. One Beddy's feature I decided to keep was the "blanket flap" that drapes out over the side of the bed while the child is sleeping. This does make it harder to zip up, but otherwise a draft comes in from the side of the bed. The end result could have been nicer, and I may do a different one at some point in the future. But for now I'm happy that I actually finished the project (in my mind for more than a year now!) and I have the skills and ability to do another one. 5. Garden: I harvested a bunch of parsnips and froze most of them, which amounted to a gallon bag. There are still 4-8 square feet of parsnips out there that I have to use!! I may just have to cut out the woody parts and freeze what's left. 6. Figure: Here's this week's numbers: So, I'm down 0.1% body fat and 0.6 lbs. from last week. I'm still (mostly) intermittent fasting and (mostly) not having sugar during the week. I had some dark chocolate this week and some lemonade one evening, but nothing crazy. On Sunday we went over to my mother-in-law's for lunch, and she had made dessert, so I ate that out of obligation.
For as long as I've been doing the intermittent fasting thing, it's still hard sometimes. I don't like to be hungry and still occasionally feel cheated... not when it comes to breakfast, but all of those after-dinner snacks. We were at small group the other night and everyone was feasting on chips. I had one chip out of obligation (we're new, and someone said "Hey, you should try these!" And what was I going to say... "No, I'm not going to try those."), but it was socially weird to just stand there while everyone else was eating. No sugar is still really hard. One morning per week my husband takes donuts to his office, and I miss that donut every week. And when we go on dates, I miss getting dessert or cookies or ice cream afterward. This week we went to a bonfire and everyone ate smores except me. I don't think "no sugar" is going to be a maintainable diet for me going forward. The saying "nothing tastes as good as thin feels" doesn't ring quite true. Because "socially acceptable" feels good, too. The reality is that a lot of our social traditions are built around sugar and when you don't partake, you cut yourself out of certain experiences. A lot of our traditions revolve around alcohol, but people understand if you don't drink. They figure you might have been an alcoholic, or maybe alcoholism runs in your family, or maybe your church doesn't allow it, or you're pregnant. Sugar isn't the same way. When you say, "I'm trying to cut out sugar,", people feel like you're being self-righteous or cutting them down in some way. I know, because I've been on that end of the stick! People understand if you tell them you have diabetes or something like that, but not if you're just trying to lose weight or eat healthier. Honestly, I'm pretty happy with where I'm at, health wise and weight wise. But after 140 lbs, I start to feel and look chubby. And it doesn't take a lot to move up past 140 at this point. But I would love to get to a point where I can have a weekly donut, ice cream cone, and bend my rules a bit when we're at someone's house for whatever reason. You know, for mothers-in-law who make dessert. Anyhow, that's it for this Thrifty Thursday! I hope you all have a great weekend. ~Prudence~
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About PrudenceI am a Christian homemaker who lives in the Midwest. I enjoy sewing, gardening, reading and thrifting. Archives
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