New Clothes

 To say I have been busy is an understatement.  I locked myself down for 2 weeks and got busy. A few things for them and a few things for me. Oh, buy there will be more. 😁😁

Latest Videos

 Join me on my YouTube channel for my latest Videos. 

One video is in my Homemaking Series. The things I cover on my Homemaking page here on the blog are in video form on my channel. I cover alot in this video. Grab and snacky snack, pen and paper. 

Today's video is sharing grocery buying tips I have learned over the years. 

With all the rising costs of groceries and everything else, we have got to get smarter at shopping economically. Especially you young whooper snappers. Yep, you youngn's. It is your hard earned money use it wisely. I am decades old and have learned a few tricks and just want to share them with you.  #budget #LifeSkills #grocery #groceryshopping #shopping

I hope you enjoy these. 😉  I count it a joy to be able to help people any way I can. 

Get A Jumpstart On Canning Supplies

 

If you are growing a garden and you are going to preserve your harvest, now might be a good time to start stocking up on your supplies. Waiting until it is time to harvest or later in the summer can cause shortages, shelves being empty and not being able to find what you need and paying higher prices. So get a Jumpstart on getting your canning supplies before they get gone. 

Also, if you do not exactly know how you are going to preserve something, you need to research this info before harvesting. 

Check out our Canning and Preserving page by clicking on the title in the subheader box on the home page. It will take you to that page. I show you how we preserve everything  we grow or we buy in bulk from the store. 

Transplanting Your Seedlings or Starter Plants

 

Spring is in the air and is bringing warmer temperatures,  for some places that is. 

If you spent the winter or early spring starting seeds indoors, your plants should be getting ready to transplant out into the garden. Just a few things to remember though before you do this. 

The plants need to be hardened off first. Hardening off means you slowly introduce them to fresh air, sunshine and the outdoor elements. As the temps warm up and on pretty days, you can take them outside and let them start getting use to the outdoors. Bring them back in when the sun is going down and the temps get lower. You do this slowly because you don't want to shock them. There is nothing worse than working so hard to start seeds and baby them to turn around and shock them and possibly loose them. I have done this myself. Lost every herb plant I had. 

The next step is to find out what your last frost date is for your zone. Then it will be safe to transplant to the garden. Still keep an eye on the weather in case of potential sudden frosts or bad weather. Have something on hand to be able to cover them if necessary.  I have had to cover plants like broccoli,  cauliflower and cabbage before because of sudden frost out of no where. I did this with a bed sheet. 

You can use hay, a sheet, milk jugs, jars, ziploc bags, trash bags etc. If using bags, just  kind of tie them to the base of the plant so they want blow off. 

Protect those babies with your life. You worked hard for them and they will bring you plenty of harvests and your work will not be in vain. 

Happy Gardening. If you are going to plant a garden from seeds are already bought plants,  check out our Gardening Page here on the blog. In the subheader,  at the top of the homepage, are titles. Those titles are links to pages concerning that topic. Just click on it and it will take you directly to that page. 

Happy reading. 😊 

Transitioning Your Home From Winter To Spring

 

It   is that time of year to  enjoy Spring weather. Your home needs to be able to enjoy it as well. These are some things I like to do to transition my home from Winter to  Spring. Any day the weather starts permitting, I will start raising the windows to let in fresh air and sunshine and push out some of those winter germs. When I've aired out the house really good, this is the perfect time to spring clean anything that I may have missed while regular cleaning or saved for this particular season. We love to give the house a bath and pressure wash, clean gutters, clean the flue, wash windows, etc. On the inside I will take down curtains and wash them and clean the windows and glass screen doors. I will try to vacuum out any bugs or gunk from the inside window seal. I will switch any candle or essential oil scents to spring flower scents. I replace table runner and place mats to spring ones. Bring in those early blooming daffodils and hyacinths and place in a jar for the table. 

My husband grew up with a momma who washed the walls in the spring. Anyone else's mommas do this? She literally moved furniture and took things off the walls to do this.   She used bleach and water. This killed all the germs. She was a stickler and my husband dreaded this every season. lol He had to help move furniture and take things off the walls. 

Transitioning the home can help relieve the winter blues and stress. There is nothing like breathing in clean fresh air and letting the home breathe as well. 

What are some ways you can share that you transition your home for Spring?

Happy Easter He Is Alive

 Today we remember the reason for the crucifixion.  Jesus said all these things would happen in order for the Resurrection.  Today is the day. HE IS ALIVE.  Let us rejoice that the grave did not hold him. And may we forever more remember he is coming back. 

Have a very Blessed and Happy Easter. 

Good Friday

 Reading the story of the Crucifixion should bring a tear to every eye and humble every heart to think that someone loved you so much enough to die for you. ❤️🩵

Being Content While Being Frugal

 The Bible tells us to be content with what we have. We can be content and still be frugal at the same time. 

Being frugal does not mean it has to be boring either. Here are some ways to be frugal with kids:

1- Find free activities like parks, playgrounds, outside gardening, backyard games, hiking, etc. Save money by packing lunches and have a picnic. Avoid taking them out to eat or trips to malls or toy stores where the temptation to buy something is tantalizing. In other words, when you are out and about it makes you spend more money. Stress and boredom will do that. 

2- If you homeschool your kids, check online or in libraries for free resources for curriculum to organize their classes with. 

3- Shop yard sales and thrift stores. If you want to shop retail stores, shop going out of season clothes but go up a size for each kid. They will have new clothes for when that season rolls around again. Hit the clearance racks. 

4- Save money by not going out to eat as much. Cook from scratch when ever possible. Take the money that you save from going out to eat and pay a debt off, put in a savings or put towards a vacation you have been wanting to take with the family. My parents use to save all their spare change and roll it up in the coin wrappers and take it to the bank and get cash for it. Believe it or not, this paid for the expenses of half of our vacation and sometimes, all of it. Coins equals dollars, I don't care if it's pennies. 

5- Sign up for rewards programs with apps like Fetch, Retail Me Not, Receipt Hog, ibotta, etc. I have Fetch and Receipt Hog and last year I cashed in and got two Amazon gift cards. I have a referral code for Receipt Hog for you. Down load the app and sign up and use code: prub8555. You can also scan e-receipts as well. If you would rather use Fetch Rewards, use the same process as Receipt Hog but use code:8586R. 

6- Sign up for grocery store membership cards like Sam's, Costco, Kroger, Aldi, Food Lion, Hoover's, Dollar General, etc. Clip tabloid or online coupons and download apps that have digital coupons. We save a lot of money by using Kroger because we also get fuel points. 

7- Believe it or not, unplugging appliances that are not being used saves a little on the light bills. When things are plugged in, they are still pulling some kind of power from the outlet. They are just setting on ready to be used. Unplug things like toasters, can openers, air fryers, deep fryers, bread machines,  food processors, blenders, electronics like laptops, chargers, etc. Only plug them in when ready to use. 

8- Repurpose things like, milk jugs, plastic grocery sacks, etc. I use  milk jugs sometimes to wash out and store filtered water in, in case of emergencies. I also use them to cover tender plants to protect them from frosts or freezes in the garden. I reuse grocery sacks to line my trash cans with. I also save wipes containers too and use them to put my grocery store bags in. I fold them like those little paper footballs we use to play with in class in school. Remember those? When I need a bag for something like sending the grandkids home with goodies, I grab a bag. 

You can also use them for packing kids little lunches or snacks for road trips. You can put toys or paper and crayons also. You can make emergency baby necessities like a change of clothes, diaper, wipes, etc. and keep it in your vehicle in case of emergencies. 

9- You can repurpose cardboard boxes to use as a weed barrier in gardens and flower beds to reduce weeding. 

10- I save Ziploc freezer bags and wash them out and reuse them. I don't reuse them if they have had meat in them. I throw those away. 

11- I save gift bags to reuse. 

12- If you sew, use scrap pieces to make a quilt or hair bows for girls. 

These are just some areas that I save money on in our home. I hope you can use them for your home as well. 

#frugal #frugalliving #saving #groceries #budget 

New Life On The Farm

 It has been a very good season so far. Calving season. We now have two more additions to 4D Farms. One is a bull which in now a steer, and another little heifer. All calving went fine, all mommas are fine. No problems. We did have one set back a few months ago or even before that. We had 3 AI'd but only two gave birth. The third was confirmed pregnant by blood tests but in her second trimester, she started bleeding and did this on and off for three months. She must have lost it some time in that period. Poor thing. Life on the farm is not always easy. You get to bring joy into the world and then you bury some. 

We did have a tragedy on the farm. Our son who lives in his later grandmothers house which is where the  momma cows and babies are now, someone poisoned his herd dogs which have always protected the cows and they knew the dogs very well and felt safe. We do not know who did it but their day will come. The Lord always take care of things like this. We do have cameras around but they were not pointed in the right direction. We adjusted them. My son was so upset and still is. He and his wife do not have children yet and this was their companions. She cried for a week straight. Vengence is mine saith the Lord. Our girls are loving playing with the calves and have already named  them. This actually helps get them use to us so they will not run or be skittish of anyone needing to take care of them. Our Daughter in law actually banded her first ever calf. We're gonna make a cow girl out of her yet. Last years calves are at our house in our pasture and have been since weaning time. It is wonderful to have life on our farm again. For those just now following me here on Blogger, I use to raise Registered Dairy Goats 11 years ago. Due to physical health reasons, I had to part with my herds. I was so upset for a few years prior because I saw it coming. I miss seeing little kids running around and playing in the pasture. The little noses and kisses. I guess I can still get big slobbery kisses from the calves I guess. If you want to know how I raised them, you can check out any of our Goat Pages on our blog. Go to the top of the home page and in the sub-header, there are titles. Each title is a link to that page. Just click on it and away you go. Happy reading. You can also click here

While new life happening on our farm, we are on a work trip and I got to venture out. We love Duck Dynasty and The Robertson family and each and every one of their personal testimonies. They truly are blessing to anyone who gets the chance to meet them. I went to West Monroe, LA where they live, work and go to church. I visited the warehouse in which they have turned half into a museum and gift shop. I didn't get to meet anyone. Ms. Kay has actually been in the hospital there recovering from surgery and intensive physical therapy for a broken foot. I got to visit their church. Their oldest son Al just so happened to not have been there that day. Dadburnit. lol I was so hoping to meet anyone that day, but they have lives too. The museum was wonderful. I got to cross this off my bucket list. There are so many pics but this is just a few. I did get to eat at the donut shop they frequent and one of the episodes was actually filmed in this shop. It was an experience. I even got to make my own duck call. 

This trip, we have had to stay in a hotel which is ok. I'm use to it by now. But I have been making some wonderful dishes. No recipes, just creating off the top of my head. I am pretty proud of myself. Yes, there will be videos on our YouTube Channel Speaking of our channel, I have started two new series. The first series is Breadmaking for Beginners and Sunday my Homemaking Series start. I had been holding on to these videos for 2 years and just didn't know when to publish them. I prayed and prayed and God finally said, "It's time child!" Be sure to catch them. 

We are headed out tomorrow for the next place to work. More to come. 

#farmlife #farm #homesteading #homemaking #traveling #recipes #meals #cooking