October Menu

I had to get back thinking about all the great dishes for fall. Casseroles, soups, stews, and warm hearty food. Fresh baked breads, and rolls. Best of all it's even more frugal to eat in winter and fall with all the soups, stews and planned over meals.

For This is much easier to do for instance- I plan to make chicken fajitas one day and use the rest of the chicken for sour cream chicken enchilada's. I'll make a double of some the the casserole and cook one, freeze one. Most soups freeze well and it is just as easy to make a huge pot as a small one. So here is my October menu.

1. Chili- froze half for later
2. pizza, veggie tray
3. chicken fajitas and fixin's
4. roast, carrots, mashed potatoes, rolls and brownies w/ ice cream- Birthday meal
5. pork chops, scalloped potatoes, veggie
6. sour cream chicken enchilada's
7. beefy chow main- froze half for later
8. roast chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, peas
9. beef veggie soup, homemade rolls- from leftover roast and veggies Sunday
10. mango chicken with plum sauce and brown rice
11. spaghetti w/ zucchini and chicken sausage, salad, garlic bread- froze half sauce for later
12. meat loaf, baked potatoes, green beans
13. chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots- cooked and shredded extra chicken
14. hamburgers, potato salad
15. chicken Alfredo, broccoli, garlic cheese biscuits- cubed and cooked extra chicken
16. cheesy scalloped potatoes with ham, broccoli
17. chicken and dumplings, peas-used shredded chicken
18. Turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes, peas- made layered thanksgiving casserole out of leftovers
19. chili, cornbread- freezer
20. penne pasta with chicken and Gorgonzola sauce, broccoli- used cubed chicken
21. tacos, cinnamon applesauce
22. chicken potpie, apple salad- used shredded chicken
23.beefy chow main- from freezer
24.beef stew, homemade rolls
25. spaghetti with zucchini and chicken, broccoli, garlic bread
26. pork chops, parsley potatoes, vegetable medley
27. Layered Thanksgiving casserole, carrots- from freezer
28. Zuppa Tuscona soup, sourdough bread
29. Salisbury steak , mashed potatoes, veggie
30. white chicken chili, french bread
31. pizza, veggie tray

Home Made Simple

www.homemakesimple.com
Sign up for their free monthly newsletter, or take the quiz on your home personality. Here is mine.

HOME NURTURING
MOTTO: HAPPINESS IS A HEALTHY FAMILY ENJOYING TIME TOGETHER IN A SAFE HOME

Your focus is on having a happy,healthy family and a safe home.You want to understand health and wellness so you can do your best to protect your loved ones and yourself. Family and friends appreciate your nurturing approach and your thoughtful nature; from the food you cook to how you look out for everyone’s well-being.

They have wonderful tutorials and great tips from home organizing, decorating and more. What's your style?

Donna Reed-Aussie style

These women no longer think the Dark Ages were so dark but something to long for and try to attain. Even Gloria Steinem finally stated "you can't have it all", at least not all at once.

You can see this interview http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=824791 with the Housewife Superstars. Women who glady gave up working outside the home to take care of the home, children, and husband. Free to use their creativity at home. There is something emensely satisfing about eating bread and jam you made with your own hands. Or wearing an apron, setting a nice table and serving a healthful, beautifully prepared meal to your family. Reading your child a story and playing together and not being to tired to do so. After having been on both sides of the street so to speak I can say this is the life I am glad to have.

Colors or white decor

I love color. It it cheerful, ( I don't have any uncheerful colors in my home), makes me feel good, and great color can make you smile just by looking at it. I have color in every room of my home, a red bathroom, yellow dining room, blue bedroom, green and pink kitchen. You get the idea. But I found a wonderful blog http://www.abeachcottage.com/ that is decorated all, almost all in white. gasp! I wasn't aware white was even a color. At least not to decorate in. But this is beautiful, peaceful, soothing, clean. Did I mention clean? We still have 8 children at home. 8. That's 16 feet and hands. 80 sets of fingerprints. When I picked out the flooring for our back porch I picked it to match the color of our dirt outside. Because with 8 children running in and out, dirt color is the main color you see. She did have slipcovers and I know those can be washed and bleached but I do enough laundry now. So I think I will dream about a clean, white cottage home.

Kids cooking and life in general

My two sons (11 & 12) were cooking supper and were making sloppy joes and baked beans. The 11 yo just wanted to dump it all together and get it done. The 12 yo replied "that's not the way you do it, you put the beans in this pan and add just a hint of bbq sauce." (He loves to cook.) But, my older daughter thought he might just be watching too much Martha Stewart with me.

Meanwhile, my 3 and 5 year olds were outside hungry. My 5yo daughter proceeded to make a "salad" for her brother out of grass and leaves. It must not have been to good because he came in quite indignantly and stated" SERENE CAN'T COOK!"

Life goes on at it's own pace whether we do or not. I have had a lot of health problems this summer starting with pneumonia and going from there. My children have been tremendous helps with all the extra chores and cooking that I have not been able to keep pace with. I had some pulmonary tests today with a possible solution to try and I actually have more energy today. One of the hardest things for me is pacing myself. I tend to flat out run until I can't and find that is no longer a possibility. So I have been pondering what God is teaching me and my family through this. Because even though I am the one who is ill, my family bares a lot of the brunt of the effects. I do not have the stamina so have had so I am having to be more careful in the choices I am making. Good, better, best has new meaning when you know that only is not only the best choice but physically possible. If I can only read for a little while without going hoarse, you can bet I am trying to choose the best book and not just a good one. I love to cook, and I love to make elaborate meals too but if I am too tired afterward to visit with my family and hold an intelligent conversation, a simpler meal is the best choice. Besides, all meals look fancy by candlelight. So, daily, hourly, I find myself seeking God for His best instead of my best and I think that is what I needed all along.

What God has taught me through the fire.

After writing yesterday about evaluating material and my life I went back to a few years ago when I once again had no voice and contemplated God's mercy and kindness in dealing with me. We had a fire in March of 2005 and I was inside, I ended up breathing in a lot of smoke and lost my voice for about a month. We had many blessing during this time and I had written about waht God had taught me for myself and then ended up sharing it with my Sunday School class through the teacher. Anyway, I thought it might encourage or bless someone so I am posting it here. I must be a slow learner.


What God has taught me through the fire. Count it all joy.

Peace. ..God has given me peace in all of the circumstances he gives us. He alone is
responsible for a peace that passeth all understanding. He has blessed our family through
very good friends who were there with us while we were waiting. They helped get things
our family and children needed. He gave me good neighbors to help and comfort us
while I was waiting on the firemen. He gave us good friends to wait with us and go and
get what was needed with out asking and it was wonderful. We knew many people cared,
we knew God cared. And I knew we were in the midst of His care.

Faithfulness... I have seen God's faithfulness through this so many times. Through the
insurance company. They have been prompt, kind and helpful. Through our church
family, our home school group, neighbors, dear friends, cards, letters, phone calls
(although that has been more one sided since I haven't had my voice.) A home beyond,
which we couldn't have imagined. We were given wonderful landlords who blest us by
lending us their home with all their furnishings so we wouldn't have as much to do right
away. It has a huge backyard for the children with a swing set, playhouse, and a deck
with picnic tables and a firepit for family campfires.

Blessings. ..I was talking with my daughter the other night and she wants her home back.
Her "real home." Not the one we're in. The home we are in now is temporary while our
home is being fixed. But that home too is temporary. Our real home is not here but
heaven. How often I can get earthly minded and comfortable with this home and not
thinking about my eternal home.
I am looking through decorating books, kitchen books, windows, etc. I am planning and
dreaming about what it will look like. There are a lot of decisions that will affect how we
will live for a long time. Big decisions and little ones, daily decisions. But what about all
the decisions we make now on a daily basis. Don't these affect our whole lives? Our
eternal lives. And our families. Do plan, dream and realize the affect of these decisions is
I deliberate or am I on autopilot, not realizing or being deliberate in the far-reaching
consequences. This is my opportunity to choose the best. Not just good or even better, but
God, what is the best that you have for me?

Thankfulness. ... I am so thankful to be alive. I take it for granted my mortality, that we
raise our children and go about our daily business. But God so easily could have called
me home that day. And while it would have been glorious seeing Jesus, I am so thankful
to again have the opportunity to serve Him. To serve my husband and children through
Him. To grow old with them and see their lives and do my part in it.

Silence Or close to it. I have had laryngitis for weeks now. It doesn't seem like this is
a blessing or something to be thankful for, yet I have learned many things. I had all these
things to do, organize. Now I couldn't talk on the phone, (horrors) I did talk rarely but
most people had a hard time understanding me and I couldn't speak long. We didn't
have Internet access so I couldn't even talk through email. But I had that time to be with
my family. My children had to learn to listen for me whispered voice. (Hopeful
preparation for a still small one.) I had a white board another daughter had gotten me so
they read a lot. I learned not to speak unless it was important. (Not idle chatter) I had to
save my voice for the really important things. Telling them I loved them, how much they
what little voice I had on them answering the same question over and over, so they
learned to listen closer. Many times they had to look at me to be sure of what I was
saying. So I mad the time to look at them too. So many things I knew and also knew I
was busy. I didn't have time to just sit still. God has taught me there is a time to just sit
still. It is still hard but I am learning. I have a friend and older daughters who have been
challenging me on that. We have been in this house for 1 week and I see do many things
to do yet. "Are you resting," they ask? "Yes" I reply. " How long, 10minutes?" They
know me well. I have now learned to type one handed, lying on the bed so I can indeed
say I am resting. That is rest, right?
I have also learned my being silent has been a blessing in my husband and
my relationship. Don't get me wrong, I love to talk to my dear husband but it has also
made me aware of a number of things. I can't give him directions when he drives. (I drive
many more hours than he does so I do know my way around better, but does it really
matter?) I haven't offered my opinion on little things. I was saving what little voice I had
on things that matter. (Gee, if they don't matter now, why did they) I haven't offered
needless corrections. (Who cares if it happened Tuesday or Wednesday?) God has been
teaching me to have a meek and quiet spirit through silence.

God sees the Big Picture My husband has been looking for a different ob this year. I
couldn't understand why he hadn't gotten one. He has years of experience and perfect
attendance. The two things most places are always looking for. But God knew what else
He had in store for us this year. He knew Jim still needed to be where he was. His
company gave him 3 days off with pay for disaster pay and since he has been there so
long he was able to be off with all of us for 2 Y:2weeks. Long enough to get somewhat
settled in a different home, to reassure our children and to meet with contractors and
insurance adjusters. He would not have been able to do that anywhere else. Now I am
able to keep that in mind being sick still. You could say I am sick and tired of being sick
and tired. I have been sick over a month now. A lot of it barely able to talk, at least not a
lot. I have not been able to read to my children, and really talk with my husband about all
of this going on. It has been a lot of monosyllables and writing short sentences on a
whiteboard. I have been trying to listen a lot more. It still doesn't make sense to me, but I
do know that God has purposes that I can not see. And I am learning that is okay too.

Time I have been treasuring it. It is one thing that cannot be replaced, bought or saved.
You use it every day. You don't get a second chance to redo yesterday. I need to make
the most of each day, hour, minute. We look ahead and see how much we have to do.
How slowly the time passes with little ones, how quickly it passes as we age and see our
children grown up. I have one in diapers and one married, (with many in between) there
is a large gap in their ages, yet I know my youngest will too be married and on her own
one day. How will I spend today? What is most important? How did I invest my time?
Did I use it to further relationships? Or my to do list? Did I spend time with God? Teach
my children about Him? Spend time with my husband, children? These are eternal. My
home will not be there. It has already proven it could go up in flames so why do I view it
as so important. It is a tool, a vessel to shelter my family, offer refuge to my husband, be
a place of togetherness. But all that must be in my heart first. That is the place that must
be filled first, over flowed onto others. They are the ones I need to invest in and treasure.

Evaluating material for our children

“Do I consider the material I am examining essential for my children’s pursuit of God and godliness, or is it merely peripheral? Is this idea or that thought indispensable for their walk in the Spirit, or is it only incidental? And most important, will it stir within them a thirst for God, a hunger for His Word, and a desire to represent Him well as salt in the earth.”

Changed into His Image by Jim Berg

I have been laid up for almost a month now with pneumonia. The pneumonia is now gone from my lungs but it really messed up my asthma and I am on different meds to try and get it back under control. Through all this I haven't had a voice above a whisper so I have to choose very carefully the things I need to say since I can't say it all. I also have paper and pen but I still don't write as fast as I could talk. It is very limiting. But also, I am limited to the necessary. My children have been wonderful about pitching in together and meals, housework. They have brought me tea, water, books and movies. But I have looked at the superfluous that I have been doing. When it is hard to breathe, many,, many things are unnecessary. So I am looking for what changes I need to be making. Where do I need to cut and what?
When you go into a store they have listings for items; good, better and best. We have those same choices. But so many times we fall into a pattern or a rut and just do what we have always done. So God has given me this time to evaluate the good, better or best in my life and I am planning some changes. I want things in my life, my husbands, life and my children's lives that will stir up a thirst for God, that will cause them to pursue Him and represent Him all of our lives and I am willing to do whatever I can to change that. Examine your life, don't wait for God to take you in hand so you are dependant on Him for your next breath. (We are anyway but you don't have to sound like Darth Vader doing so.) Ask Him where you need to change.

Mr NO Fear

My son loves to play outside and he learned a new trick this week.

What to do when sick- plan, plan, plan

I have been sick with pneumonia for over a week now. Worse yet, I have very little voice. I have an erasable board on which I write what is needed or needed to do. The only thing is, it is hard to be heard, so I was given a whistle. I need a Van Trapp family whistle though so each child could have a different sound. I think the children think it is a holiday when Mom can't talk. They have been very helpful bringing tea and books. But it is just not much fun and I am not getting much at all acomplished. So I am planning. I am planning a large cook when I am bettter. New chore charts and scheule for summer. I am reorganizing my kitchen in my head. Reorganing the living room, again. I did plan for the spring/summer sheers to be changed in the dining room and living room and they got done by someone else. But now I see I need to clean windows, again. I am writing a "Fun things to do this summer" list so it doesn't pass by so quickly and I not even notice. I have been rereading some good books while I am down. I wish I could read aloud to my children but I have a new list planned for when I can.

Sauces for meatballs

BBQ Sauce

4 c ketsup

2 c vinager

2 c worshire sauce

2 c br. sugar

2 T minced onion

2T minced garlic

1T dry mustard

2t pepper

cook in saucepan

Salisbury Sauce

2 c butter

3 lb sliced mushrooms

2 c flour

16 c water

8 c cream

4 T worshire sauce

4 T beef bullion granules

1 T pepper

melt butter, cook mushrooms in it about 7 minutes until they are soft. add flour and cook about 2-3 more minutes, add rest of ingredients. Stir and cook about 15 more minutes until thick/

OAMC- Ground beef plan for summer

I have been sick so I haven't gotten a lot of work done but I have been working on planning. Since summer is now here I am looking at grilling recipes and for my family, that means hanburgers. So when I get well I plan on purchasing a case of lean ground beef from Sam's Club and make hamburgers and a few meatballs.

Here is what I'm going to make;
10 lb BBQ cheese burgers
10 lb Pizza Burgers
20 Lb onion soup burgers
10 lb. stuffed Hamburgers - from www.onceamonthmom.com
30 lb meatballs with various sauces

BBQ Cheese burgers
1 1/2 c mesquite BBQ suace
6t garlic
3T chili pwdr
1 1/2 t curry pwdr
1 1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t pepper

Mix and shape into patty, grill and top with cheese

Onion soup burgers
These are the easiset, just buy onion soup mix from Aldi's and mix in 2 packages for every 3 lbs of meat. Then make into patties and freeze.

Pizza Burgers
5 c Marina sauce
2 1/2 c finely chopped onion
1/3 c minced garlic
1 T salt
2t pepper
2 1/2 lbs. mozerella cheeese shredded
Mix everything but cheese into ground beef. Make round ball of beef mixture and make a hole to stuff with cheese, pat down gently. Freeze. When you cook you can top with extra marina if you wish.

Meatballs
30 lb ground beef
15 c dry bread crumbs
3 1/3 cup milk
20 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 c minced onions
1/2 c + 2 T minced garlic
1/4 c salt
3 T pepper
shape into meatballs. These you can either bake or boil and then freeze. But this time I think I am going to try to can them. I will post sauces later.

Worldwide Demographics- where will you fit in?

Prepare to be challanged. It is worth the time to watch.

Clipping in front of Bible

I had this in an email from a long time ago, I don't know who the author is but it touched my heart and also makes me think if I am getting all that I can from this wonderful life giving book.


"This book contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, the pil- grim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, and the Christian's character. Here Paradise is restored, heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand Object, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently and prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a Paradise of glory and a river of pleasure. It is given you in life, will be opened in the judgment, and will be remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibi- lity, will reward the greatest labor and will condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents."

How not to use a ziplock vacuum sealer

" Do not try putting it on your forehead just to see what it does. Your sister will laugh before she ever helps you get it off."

Fanny Crosby

LIVE IN THE MOMENT AND MAKE IT SO BEAUTIFUL THAT IT WILL BE WORTH REMEMBERING.


-Fanny Crosby

Last night we were delighted to be at mother/ daughter banquet that featured Fanny Crosby. ( Actually it was an impersonator, but she was very good.) It was wonderful to listen to "Aunt Fanny" (as she liked to call herself) and tell about her life, the poems and hymns she wrote, and to see what she might have been like. The thing that struck me the most though, was her joyful spirit and thankfulness. She lived a normal life, for then. She could identify the flowers and birds just by the sound or feel, at 4 or 5. I can't do that now with my sight. She learned to sew , crochet and knit as a child to help with household chores. I have been remiss in teaching my daughters. She was even happy, not just content with, but really happy that she lost her sight. Because she used her other senses more and was not "distracted" with the sights. How many things am I distracted with? But she was so joyful and thankful in all she did and had. She wrote poems about it. She spoke to others. She was outgoing for the Lord. She loved to hear how her hymns encouraged others and the stories that went with the songs she wrote. So I am purposing to be more thankful and joyful myself after her wonderful example

A Tribute to My Mom

Today at church we were able to "rise up and bless our mothers" but since my mother is far away today I would give testimony of the ways she has blessed me with her life.

She honored my father, she stood by him as he went into different businesses and worked with him.
She was a hard worker. She has always worked outside the home growing up. I know I would have rather had her home but she worked hard to help support her family. I remember when I was much younger she worked as a waitress and she couldn't get the car out of the driveway so she walked to work that night. This was in winter and it was snowing, I am sure she would have rather stayed at home where it was warm but she said you show up for work when you are scheduled. She was faithful in that very much, if she said she would be there, she would. And mostly on time. I remember many times growing up looking for keys to go someplace so I keep them in one place.
She was not the most organized person growing up but I have seen so much growth in that area and others so I know you always keep learning. She enjoys getting more organized now and I have enjoyed learning that as well. It did not come naturally for me, either.
She kept a sense of family. Remember driving an hour quite often to visit my grandparents and staying over. We always sang on the way down to visit them too. We had a lot of traditions, many of them I still keep. We always looked at lights Christmas Eve and had snackie foods. Both sets of grandparents came for holidays, one set always came early and left right after dinner and left early the other set right before dinner and stayed late. As a child I loved it but now as the mom I see how much extra work that would have been for her.
We played games together and read together. She attended programs and cooked.
She loves her children and her grandchildren. She makes a special effort even being far away to let them know that she loves them and visits when she can. Then she reads to them, plays games and we sleep very little. I hope she catches up at home. We are just glad to spend time together.
I am very blessed with the Mom God gave me.

Menu Plan Monday

Here's my menu plan this week. I am trying to clean out my freezer and reorganize it so I need the room.

Monday- Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn

Tuesday- Mosticoli, garlic toast and salad

Wednesday-Fresh green beans, new potatoes and sausage (recipe below)

Thursday- Pancakes, ham, and fruit cup

Friday- Turkey breast, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, peas

Saturday- Turkey and noodle casserole, candy carrots, biscuits

Green beans, potatoes and sausage

This is one of my husband's favorite warm weather meals and it's so easy I wasn't going to include the recipe but maybe someone may need it. It is great for when you go away since you make it in the morning and just forget about it until dinner. Except for the wonderful smell, of course.

This is a large quantity so you may make yours smaller, just reduce and use a crockpot.

I use 3-4 lbs fresh snapped green beans
About 5 lbs new red potatoes , wash and halve
3 lb pack of smoked sausage
1 large onion chopped
pepper
other seasonings to taste

Just put all in the crockpot ( I use a 18 qt roaster for this quantity) and let cook all day.

Gross helpful kids

We were on the way to the library and I heard a voice yell" Ooooh don't eat that, have my abc gum instead." I, of course, thought this was awful and asked what was going on. "Mom, Zach found gum on the bottom of his shoe and ate it so I gave him my abc gum instead since that was gross." Aren't these awful?

Then another daughter said "that's nothing. " He was on sisters bed and whizzed on her pillow and I knew if she found out she'd be mad so I stuck in in the dryer and then sprayed it with perfume."

And they thought they were helping.

Time and money saving tips

I had a friend ask for some money saving tips as her husbands hours were down and she was looking for some new ways to save. These are the ones I sent her and I thought I would share with you.

Dear ,

I was thinking about the money saving tips you asked for and all the ones I thought of I knew were time consuming and was hesitant to share since I know how busy you are. But I thought I would give them to you and let you weed out the ones you wouldn’t do. Here is a list of grocery saving ones I put on my blog enclosed too.

Give the job to the youngest person possible. I know this isn’t a money saving tip but it saves time. Also, it teaches them to do the jobs and gives them a sense of self worth. I know with many children it is easiest to give it to one who already knows how to do it but I look back on what my older children did when younger and sometimes I sell them short on what they can do.

I make my own laundry soap.

Calculate how much something really costs. We got a gadget that you plug in and plug that appliance into to see how many kilowatts it uses.

Don’t do a lot that someone else can do for you. Many hands make light work.

Don’t peel your potatoes, we just spot them.

I shop farther for better bargains. I bought chicken quarters by the case because they were only 42 cents a lb that way. Even at 5lb. Per meal that is still just over $2.

Make multiples of meals. It is almost as easy to make double as one. When I make mac and cheese I make an 18 qt. Roaster full and eat one and freeze 3 portions. Today I’m making blueberry bread, instead of 1 or 2, I’ll make 6 and freeze 4. I used to do a lot more once a month cooking but with time constraints this is much easier and I still stock my freezer.

Make what you can.

We are given clothes that are a huge blessing but sometimes something either doesn’t fit quite right or no one likes it. I either pass it or make something else. I have a lot of aprons that were the skirts of dresses. My daughter made a blue jean square quilt. Shorts from flood pants are always easy.

Use CVS for their ebc’s and get free and very cheap items.

Keep a price book so you know how much something costs, where it is the best price and how often it goes on sale.

Garden. You can grow a small salad garden in only a few minutes a day.

Go to the dented stores. Salad dressings are only a quarter and many other good buys.

Shop early if you can. The early bird gets the worm or the sale.

I color code my children so I know whose towel, cup, bowl, etc it left out.

Take care of yourself. Find little ways to still make you feel good without spending a lot of money. A cup of tea, a candle, a good book and a bubble bath are my favorite. They don’t cost much and I feel pampered.

There are many things to do with your children that are very frugal. There are free concerts and movies at the parks soon in the summer. Many museums have free days. Just the park itself is fun. You could make them a treasure map of things to look for so it makes it more interesting. God on a family walk, see if there are any good walking trails near you. 50 cents movies at the show on Mondays are even just library movies, a bucket of popcorn and kool aid. Also, don’t think you can’t have people over just because it cost to much. We have had them over just for dessert, or made homemade ice cream. Everyone gets to turn the crank. Most people are happy to help and bring something to add, potluck style. Spaghetti can stretch really far. A baked potato or salad bar are both fun and filling. Or just snacks after evening church.

I hope this was a help and I will be praying for you.
Blessings, Christina

25 Ways of Saving Money on Food

I was working on my menus plans and thought I would share some ways I save money on food. 1
Since food is one of the biggest areas we can both splurge and save and for most people money is tight right now this is a good place to look to save some money.

1. I plan my menus on what I found on sale last week and not what I am planning on buying this week.
2. I try never to buy anything that is not on sale. Obviously, it's not possible with everything but it is with most items. For example, last week one of my favorite stores had cottage cheese 1/2 off. I stocked up enough to last a while. Another store I know has pasta on sale about every 10 weeks. I buy enough to last 10 weeks and don't buy it in the meantime.
3.I use coupons on things we use regularly or things that are free or almost free. I
4. I don't use coupons on things I wouldn't normally buy anyway just to try them or use a coupon.
5. Make most things from scratch. I think the only thing cheaper to buy in a mix is mac and cheese but it doesn't have much cheese in it. In everything else it is both cheaper and more nutritious to make it yourself.
6. Shop more than 1 store. It is much cheaper to buy the sales and loss leaders at more than one store than everything at one store.
7. Use an Aldi's is you have one. They rarely run sales but their prices are low all the time.
8. Try to find a discount or salvage store in your area. We have a dented store that i get great buys at. I have bought yogurt for $2 a case, chocolate chips for 50 cents a bag, and many other great deals.
9. Do ahead for the week. I cut as many vegetables as we will eat all at once. I brown hamburger ahead of time and bag it. Make an extra casserole and freeze one and cook one.
10. Make over leftovers. We had beef stroganoff Saturday and I had noodles left so I added a little browned hamburger, beans and spices and made goulash today for dinner.
11. Have dessert infrequently. It isn't that good for you and sweets are usually costly.
12. Grow your own fruits and vegetables. We always have a garden and we have fruit trees. It saves on our grocery bill and I know what is in our food.
13. Glean or let the word out you will take extras. My father-in-law has a friend who loves to garden but doesn't use much himself so he gives a lot away. I have seen other do the same, they want someone who will take it and put it up.
14. Can, or freeze your food. We can a lot in the summer of fresh produce so we have it in the winter. Talk to your children about being ants in the summer and preparing for winter. It is a lot of work but so worth it.
15. Eat soup at least once a week. Soup is a cheap meal and you can make many different kinds from all sorts of leftovers. With a loaf of hot bread it makes a feast.
16. Make your own bread. I can't believe how high bread has gotten but it can still be made more economically at home. I see bread machines all the time at Goodwill too.
17. Rotate a lot of the same meals. Our lunches and breakfasts from week to week don't vary much. We have the same meal for lunch every Monday, the same on Tuesday. This way you don't have to stock your pantry with as many different items.
18. Make dinner fun. No, it doesn't really save you money but a frugal meal with lots of love is better than a gourmet feast with strife.
19. Involve your children. Sometimes they can turn their nose up at food but if they help prepare it or better yet grow it they will be thrilled to taste and share it.
20.Buy in bulk, if you will use it. I bought 150 lbs of potatoes last week when they were on sale. Also, GFS sells gallon cans, meat they will slice and you can prepackage it at home.
21. Once a month cooking saves both time and money.
22.Buy spices in bulk. Frontier herbs sell by the pound but if you only want a little a lot of health food stores sell small amounts. One near us will let you buy 50 cents of any spice.
23.Spend as little time in the grocery store as possible. The longer you are there the more you will buy.
24. Try and make it at home. If you love Red Lobsters biscuits try and look on the web for a comparable recipe. You can find so many recipes that are makeovers of restaurant meals. It is definitely cheaper to stay home.
25.Look for markdowns. I stopped in yesterday at GFS and they had their holiday gift hams marked down for 99cents a lb. Different stores have them in different places so you have to check and find out where they are. Most stores mark down in the morning but we have one near us that does it at night. You can save 1/2 or more.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday- Goulash, salad
Tuesday- Hamburgers, baked Parmesan pepper fries, and raw veggies and dip
Wednesday- Lemon Chicken and rice , broccoli
Thursday- Steak with Mushrooms, baked potatoes, mixed veggies-steamed
Friday- Homemade pizza night and veggies
Saturday-Easy pork chops with potatoes with gravy, peas, biscuits
Sunday-Spaghetti, garlic toast, salad

I have a super easy pork chop recipe. Just cut up the potatoes your family will eat, I need about 15, you probably use less. I cube them into bite size pieces. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and place them in a large baking pan, toss to mix seasonings. Now you can either brown or not brown the pork chops, it looks nicer if you brown them but it doesn't matter and place them on top of the potatoes. Then cover with cream of mushroom soup, 2-3 cans for our family, and cover with foil and bake about an hour and a half. When the potatoes are soft it is done. Everything is moist and you have a sauce for the potatoes.

See my new Etsy Shop

I have a new Etsy shop for some of the aprons and gloves I have been making. You can check there at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6765716

CVS deals this week only $1.76 oop

I can't believe the deals I got this week at CVS. I only spent $1.76 and saved $55.10. I received an extra EBC for $4 and a $5 off coupon and used up most of my EBC's for last week but still have some saved. I got 4 special K products that were on sale and I had coupons for. A container of diaper wipes that I had a $3 coupon so they ended up for only 29 cents. A lot of the rest were free with EBC's.

New Year Purpose

I want to live my life on purpose. It is so easy to just glide through, doing what is easy or at least not thinking and planning and doing. New Years Resolutions just don't seem to stick for me. So I am trying to strengthen poor habits and add a few new good one. All the while keeping up with the few good habits I do have. As the mother of a large family, there is a lot to do and while I don't do all of it, I do manage almost all of it. Here are some things that work for me and habits I am working on adding.

Rising early...I have my quiet time with God in the morning. It is what sustains me through the day and keeps me going, as well as being a much kinder person. I like to get a head start on the morning before anyone gets up. If I arise late I feel behind the whole day. But that starts with going to bed early which I am going to have to work much harder at.

A schedule... things flow so much smoother with a schedule. Children know what to expect and they really do like it. We get much more done, both the necessary stuff, school, housework, meals, and laundry. As well as the fun stuff, baking, scrap booking, working in the garage.

I need to add in exercise on a daily basis. I have a tendency to jump in and do too much and them none at all. I need to start slow and keep it a steady pace.

Homekeeping... I have already written about Motivated Moms. http://keepingahome.blogspot.com/2009/01/getting-it-mostly-done.html
I also like http://www.flylady.net/ for helpful information for keeping up your home. I need to be consist ant with this. It makes me feel so much better to have a clean house and I know it blesses my husband.

Child training... This has to be a priority before anything else. It is so easy to get busy and not want to stop in the middle of what I am doing to train a child and think it takes to much time. But it actually takes less time when they are young than to inter grain bad habits in them that are later much harder to break.

Meals- I am very good at shopping and stocking my pantry with all the sales but less so at making menus. I need to get into an every week habit of doing this. I am also this year going to keep track of how much money I actually save using coupons.

Laundry is so easy to keep up since we added a second washer. This was a huge blessing. We still only have one washer but it takes longer than the dryer and I have a clothesline also, although I am not good about using it in the winter. Now if I could just keep up with the socks.

Getting it mostly done

I have come to believe there is no such thing as getting it all done. Take laundry for example; even if you have all the clothes washed, dried and put away, you still are wearing dirty clothes. It is never all done. So I have learned to be satisfied with enough. One of the things that has been a huge help to me the last few years is a daily planner from http://www.motivatedmoms.com/
It has a list of daily and weekly tasks to get done as well as extras that I usually didn't get done like pampering your self or working on a hobby. You can see a sample of this at this link http://www.motivatedmoms.com/samples/2009fullBible-sample.pdf
I set my planner in the kitchen and mark it off as I get it done, sometimes ahead of time and sometimes I am running behind but usually by weeks end I have everything completed. I also write my menus down the side of it so I have a record of what we have and I think this year I am going to put the saving I earn by using coupons and ebc's from cvs. That way at the end of the years I have a pretty good record of what has been done. Please feel free to ask any questions.

When Queens Ride By

This is one of my favorite stories and I reread it many times and remember my priorities.

When Queens Ride By by Agnes Slight Turnbull, 1888

Jennie Musgrave woke at the shrill rasp of the alarm clock as she always woke—with the shuddering start and a heavy realization that the brief respite of the night's oblivion was over. She had only time to glance through the dull light at the cluttered, dusty room, before John's voice was saying sleepily as he said every morning, "All right, let's go. It doesn't seem as if we'd been in bed at all!"
Jennie dressed quickly in the clothes, none too clean, that, exhausted, she had flung from her the night before. She hurried down the back stairs, her coarse shoes clattering thickly upon the bare boards. She kindled the fire in the range and then made a hasty pretense at washing in the basin in the sink.
John strode through the kitchen and on out to the barn. There were six cows to be milked and the great cans of milk to be taken to the station for the morning train.
Jennie put coffee and bacon on the stove, and then, catching up a pail from the porch, went after John. A golden red disk broke the misty blue of the morning above the cow pasture. A sweet, fragrant breath blew from the orchard. But Jennie neither saw nor felt the beauty about her.She glanced at the sun and thought, It's going to be a hot day.
She glanced at the orchard, and her brows knit. There it hung. All that fruit. Bushels of it going to waste. Maybe she could get time that day to make some more apple butter. But the tomatoes wouldn't wait. She must pick them and get them to town today, or that would be a dead loss. After all her work, well, it would only be in a piece with everything else if it did happen so. She and John had bad luck, and they might as well make up their minds to it.
She finished her part of the milking and hurried back again to the overcooked bacon and strong coffee. The children were down, clamorous, dirty, always underfoot. Jim, the eldest, was in his first term of school. She glanced at his spotted waist. He should have a clean one. But she couldn't help it. She couldn't get the washing done last week, and when she was to get a day for it this week she didn't know, with all the picking and the trips to town to make!Breakfast was hurried and unpalatable, a sort of grudging concession to the demands of the body. Then John left in the milk wagon for the station, and Jennie packed little Jim's lunch basket with bread and apple butter and pie, left the two little children to their own devices in the backyard, and started toward the barn.
There was no time to do anything in the house. The chickens and turkeys had to be attended to, and then she must get to the tomato patch before the sun got too hot. Behind her was the orchard with its rows and rows of laden apple tree. Maybe this afternoon—maybe tomorrow morning. There were the potatoes, too, to be lifted. Too hard work for a woman. But what were you going to do? Starve? John worked till dark in the fields.
She pushed her hair back with a quick, boyish sweep of her arm and went on scattering the grain to the fowls. She remembered their eager plans when they were married, when they took over the old farm—laden with its heavy mortgage—that had been John's father's. John had been so straight of back then and so jolly. Only seven years, yet now he was stooped a little, and his brows were always drawn, as though to hide a look of ashamed failure.
They had planned to have a model farm someday: blooded stock, a tractor, a new barn. And then such a home they were to make of the old stone house! Jennie's hopes had flared higher even than John's. A rug for the parlor, an overstuffed set like the one in the mail—order catalogue, linoleum for the kitchen, electric lights!They were young and, oh, so strong! There was nothing they could not do if they only worked hard enough.But that great faith had dwindled as the first year passed. John worked later and later in the evenings. Jennie took more and more of the heavy tasks upon her own shoulders. She often thought with some pride that no woman in the countryside ever helped her husband as she did. Even with the haying and riding the reaper. Hard, coarsening work, but she was glad to do it for John's sake.
The sad riddle of it all was that at the end of each year they were no further on. The only difference from the year before was another window shutter hanging from one hinge and another crippled wagon in the barnyard which John never had time to mend. They puzzled over it in a vague distress. And meanwhile life degenerated into a straining, hopeless struggle. Sometimes lately John had seemed a little listless, as though nothing mattered.
A little bitter when he spoke of Henry Davis.Henry held the mortgage and had expected a payment on the principle this year. He had come once and looked about with something very like a sneer on his face. If he should decide someday to foreclose—that would be the final blow. They never would get up after that. If John couldn't hold the old farm, he could never try to buy a new one. It would mean being renters all their lives. Poor renters at that!
She went to the tomato field. It had been her own idea to do some tracking along with the regular farm crops. But, like everything else, it had failed of her expectations. As she put the scarlet tomatoes, just a little overripe, into the basket, she glanced with a hard tightening of her lips toward a break in the trees a half mile away where a dark, listening bit of road caught the sun.
Across its polished surface twinkled an endless procession of shining, swift—moving objects. The State Highway.Jennie hated it. In the first place, it was so tauntingly near and yet so hopelessly far from them. If it only ran by their door, as it did past Henry Davis's for instance, it would solve the whole problem of marketing the fruits and vegetables. Then they could set the baskets on the lawn, and people could stop for them. But as it was, nobody all summer long had paid the least attention to the sign John had put up at the end of the lane. And no wonder. Why should travelers drive their cars over the stony country byway, when a little farther along they would find the same fruit spread temptingly for them at the very roadside?
But there was another reason she hated that bit of sleek road showing between the trees. She hated it because it hurt her with its suggestions of all that passed her by in that endless procession twinkling in the sunshine. There they kept going, day after day, those happy, carefree women, riding in handsome limousines or in gay little roadsters. Some in plainer cars, too, but even those were, like the others, women who could have rest, pleasure, comfort for the asking. They were whirled along hour by hour to new pleasures, while she was weighted to the drudgery of the farm like one of the great rocks in the pasture field.
And—most bitter thought of all—they had pretty homes to go back to when the happy journey was over. That seemed to be the strange and cruel law about homes. The finer they were, the easier it was to leave them. Now with her—if she had the rug for the parlor and the stuffed furniture and linoleum for the kitchen, she shouldn't mind anything so much then; she had nothing, nothing but hard slaving and bad luck. And the highway taunted her with it. Flung its impossible pleasures mockingly in her face as she bent over the vines or dragged the heavy baskets along the rows.
The sun grew hotter. Jennie put more strength into her task. She knew, at last, by the scorching heat overhead that is was nearing noon.
She must have a bit of lunch ready for John when he came in. There wasn't time to prepare much. Just reheat the coffee and set down some bread and pie.She started towards the house, giving a long yodeling call for the children as she went. They appeared from the orchard, tumbled and torn from experiments with the wire fence. Her heart smothered her at the sight of them.
Among the other dreams that the years had crushed out were those of little rosy boys and girls in clean suits and fresh ruffled dresses. As it was, the children had just grown like farm weeds.This was the part of all the drudgery that hurt most. That she had not time to care for her children, sew for them, teach them things that other children knew.
Sometimes it seemed as if she had no real love for them at all. She was too terribly tired as a rule to have any feeling. The only times she used energy to talk to them was when she had to reprove them for some dangerous misdeed. That was all wrong. It seemed wicked; but how could she help it?
With the work draining the very life out of her, strong as she was.John came in heavily, and they ate in silence except for the children's chatter. John hardly looked up form his plate. He gulped down great drafts of the warmed-over coffee and then pushed his chair back hurriedly."I'm goin' to try to finish the harrowin' in the south field," he said."I'm at the tomatoes," Jennie answered. "I've got them' most all picked and ready for takin'.
"That was all. Work was again upon them.It was two o'clock by the sun, and Jennie had loaded the last heavy basket of tomatoes on the milk wagon in which she must drive to town, when she heard shrill voices sounding along the path.
The children were flying in excitement toward her."Mum! Mum! Mum!" they called as they came panting up to her with big, surprised eyes."Mum, there's a lady up there. At the kitchen door. All dressed up. A pretty lady. She wants to see you."Jennie gazed down at them disbelievingly. A lady, a pretty lady at her kitchen door? All dressed up! What that could mean! Was it possible someone had at last braved the stony lane to buy fruit? Maybe bushels of it!"Did she come in a car?" Jennie asked quickly."No, she just walked in. She's awful pretty. She smiled at us."
Jennie's hopes dropped. Of course. She might have known. Some agent likely, selling books. She followed the children wearily back along the path and in at the rear door of the kitchen. Across from it another door opened into the side yard. Here stood the stranger.The two women looked at each other across the kitchen, across the table with the remains of two meals upon it, the strewn chairs, the littered stove—across the whole scene of unlovely disorder. They looked at each other in startled surprise, as inhabitants of Earth and Mars might look if they were suddenly brought face-to-face.
Jennie saw a woman in a gray tweed coat that seemed to be part of her straight, slim body. A small gray hat with a rose quill was drawn low over the brownish hair. Her blue eyes were clear and smiling. She was beautiful! And yet she was not young. She was in her forties, surely. But an aura of eager youth clung to her, a clean and exquisite freshness.
The stranger in her turn looked across at a young woman, haggard and weary. Her yellowish hair hung in straggling wisps. Her eyes looked hard and hunted. Her cheeks were thin and sallow. Her calico dress was shapeless and begrimed from her work.So they looked at each other for one long, appraising second.
Then the woman in gray smiled."How do you do? " she began. "We ran our car into the shade of your lane to have our lunch and rest for a while. And I walked on up to buy a few apples, if you have them."Jennie stood staring at the stranger. There was an unconscious hostility in her eyes. This was one of the women from the highway. One of those envied ones who passed twinkling through the summer sunshine from pleasure to pleasure while Jennie slaved on.But the pretty lady's smile was disarming. Jennie started toward a chair and pulled off the old coat and apron that lay on it.
"Won't you sit down?" she said politely. "I'll go and get the apples. I'll have to pick them off the tree. Would you prefer rambos?""I don't know what they are, but they sound delicious. You must choose them for me. But mayn't I come with you? I should love to help pick them."
Jennie considered. She felt baffled by the friendliness of the other woman's face and utterly unable to meet it. But she did not know how to refuse."Why I s'pose so. If you can get through the dirt."She led the way over the back porch with its crowded baskets and pails and coal buckets, along the unkept path toward the orchard. She had never been so acutely conscious of the disorder about her. Now a hot shame brought a lump to her throat.
In her preoccupied haste before, she had actually not noticed that tub of overturned milk cans and rubbish heap! She saw it all now swiftly through the other woman's eyes. And then that new perspective was checked by a bitter defiance. Why should she care how things looked to this woman? She would be gone, speeding down the highway in a few minutes as though she had never been there.
She reached the orchard and began to drag a long ladder from the fence to the rambo tree.The other woman cried out in distress. "Oh, but you can't do that! You mustn't. It's too heavy for you, or even for both of us. Please just let me pick a few from the ground."Jennie looked in amazement at the stranger's concern. It was so long since she had seen anything like it."Heavy?" she repeated. "This ladder? I wish I didn't ever lift anything heavier than this. After hoistin' bushel baskets of tomatoes onto a wagon, this feels light to me."The stranger caught her arm. "But—but do you think it's right? Why, that's a man's work."
Jennie's eyes blazed. Something furious and long-pent broke out from within her. "Right! Who are you to be askin' me whether I'm right or not?" What would have become of us if I didn't do a man's work? It takes us both, slaving away, an' then we get nowhere. A person like you don't know what work is! You don't know—"Jennie's voice was the high shrill of hysteria; but the stranger's low tones somehow broke through. "Listen," she said soothingly. "Please listen to me. I'm sorry I annoyed you by saying that, but now, since we are talking, why can't we sit down here and rest a minute? It's so cool and lovely here under the trees, and if you were to tell me all about it—because I'm only a stranger—perhaps it would help. It does sometimes, you know. A little rest would—"
"Rest! Me sit down to rest, an' the wagon loaded to go to town? It'll hurry me now to get back before dark."And then something strange happened. The other women put her cool, soft hand on Jennie's grimy arm. There was a compelling tenderness in her eyes. "Just take the time you would have spent picking apples. I would so much rather. And perhaps somehow I could help you. I wish I could. Won't you tell me why you have to work so hard?"
Jennie sank down on the smooth green grass. Her hunted, unwilling eyes had yielded to some power in the clear, serene eyes of the stranger. A sort of exhaustion came over her. A trembling reaction from the straining effort of weeks."There ain't much to tell," she said half sullenly, "only that we ain't gettin' ahead. We're clean discouraged, both off us. Henry Davis is talking about foreclosin' on us if we don't pay some principle. The time of the mortgage is out this year, an' mebbe he won't renew it. He's got plenty himself, but them's the hardest kind." She paused; then her eyes flared. "An' it ain't that I haven't done my part. Look at me. I'm barely thirty, an' I might be fifty. I'm so weather-beaten. That's the way I've worked!"
"And you think that has helped your husband?"
"Helped him?" Jennie's voice was sharp. "Why shouldn't it help him?"
The stranger was looking away through the green stretches of orchard. She laced her slim hands together about her knees. She spoke slowly. "Men are such queer things, husbands especially. Sometimes we blunder when we are trying hardest to serve them. For instance, they want us to be economical, and yet they want us in pretty clothes. They need our work, and yet they want us to keep our youth and our beauty. And sometimes they don't know themselves which they really want most. So we have to choose. That's what makes it so hard".She paused.
Jennie was watching her with dull curiosity as though she were speaking a foreign tongue.
Then the stranger went on:I had to choose once, long ago; just after we were married, my husband decided to have his own business, so he started a very tiny one. He couldn't afford a helper, and he wanted me to stay in the office while he did the outside selling. And I refused, even though it hurt him. Oh, it was hard! But I knew how it would be if I did as he wished. We would both have come back each night. Tired out, to a dark, cheerless house and a picked-up dinner. And a year if that might have taken something away from us—something precious. I couldn't risk it, so I refused and stuck to it."
And then how I worked in my house—a flat it was then. I had so little outside of our wedding gifts; but at least I could make it a clean, shining, happy place. I tried to give our little dinners the grace of a feast. And as the months went on, I knew I had done right. My husband would come home dead-tired and discouraged, ready to give up the whole thing. But after he had eaten and sat down in our bright little living room, and I had read to him or told him all the funny things I could invent about my day, I could see him change. By bedtime he had his courage back, and by morning he was at last ready to go out and fight again. And at last he won, and he won his success alone, as a man loves to do.
Still Jennie did not speak. She only regarded her guest with a half-resentful understanding.
The woman in gray looked off again between the trees. Her voice was very sweet. A humorous little smile played about her lips."There was a queen once," she went on, "who reigned in troublous days. And every time the country was on the brink of war and the people ready to fly into a panic, she would put on her showiest dress and take her court with her and go hunting. And when the people would see her riding by, apparently so gay and happy, they were sure all was well with the Government. So she tided over many a danger. And I've tried to be like her."Whenever a big crisis comes in my husband's business—and we've had several—or when he's discouraged, I put on my prettiest dress and get the best dinner I know how or give a party! And somehow it seems to work. That's the woman's part, you know. To play the queen—"
A faint honk-honk came from the lane. The stranger started to her feet. "That's my husband. I must go. Please don't bother about the apples. I'll just take these from under the tree. We only wanted two or three, really. And give these to the children." She slipped two coins into Jennie's hand.
Jennie had risen, too, and was trying from a confusion of startled thoughts to select one for speech. Instead she only answered the other woman's bright good-bye with a stammering repetition and a broken apology about the apples.
She watched the stranger's erect, lithe figure hurrying away across the path that led directly to the lane. Then she turned her back to the house, wondering dazedly if she had only dreamed that the other woman had been there.
But no, there were emotions rising hotly within her that were new. They had had no place an hour before. They had risen at the words of the stranger and at the sight of her smooth, soft hair, the fresh color in her cheeks, the happy shine of her eyes.A great wave of longing swept over Jennie, a desire that was lost in choking despair. It was as thought she had heard a strain of music for which she had waited all her life and then felt it swept away into silence before she had grasped its beauty.
For a few brief minutes she, Jennie Musgrave, had sat beside one of the women of the highway and caught a breath of her life—that life which forever twinkled in the past in bright procession, like the happenings of a fairy tale.
Then she was gone, and Jennie was left as she had been, bound to the soil like one of the rocks of the field.The bitterness that stormed her heart now was different from the old dull disheartenment. For it was coupled with new knowledge. The words of the stranger seemed more vivid to her than when she had sat listening in the orchard. But they came back to her with the pain of agony."
All very well for her to talk so smooth to me about man's work and woman's work! An' what she did for her husband's big success. Easy enough for her to sit talking about queens! What would she do if she was here on this farm like me? What would a woman like her do?"Jennie had reached the kitchen door and stood there looking at the hopeless melee about her. Her words sounded strange and hollow in the silence of the house.
"Easy for her!" she burst out. She never had the work pilin' up over her like I have. She never felt it at her throat like a wolf, the same as John an' me does. Talk about choosin'! I haven't got no choice. I just got to keep goin'—just keep goin', like I always have—"She stopped suddenly. There in the middle of the kitchen floor, where the other woman had passed over, lay a tiny square of white. Jennie crossed to it quickly and picked it up. A faint delicious fragrance like the dream of a flower came from it. Jennie inhaled it eagerly. It was not like any odor she had ever known. It made her think of sweet, strange things. Things she had never thought about before. Of gardens in the early summer dusk, of wide fair rooms with the moonlight shining in them. It made her somehow think with vague wistfulness of all that.She looked carefully at the tiny square. The handkerchief was of fine, fairylike smoothness. In the corner a dainty blue butterfly spread his wings. Jennie drew in another long breath. The fragrance filled her senses again. Her first greedy draft had not exhausted it. It would stay for a while, at least.She laid the bit of white down cautiously on the edge of the table and went to the sink, where she washed her hands carefully.
The she returned and picked up the handkerchief again with something like reverence. She sat down, still holding it, staring at it. This bit of linen was to her an articulated voice. She understood its language. It spoke to her of white, freshly washed clothes blowing in the sunshine, of an iron moving smoothly, leisurely, to the accompaniment of a song over snowy folds; it spoke to her of quiet, orderly rooms and ticking clocks and a mending basket under the evening lamp; it spoke to her of all the peaceful routine of a well managed household, the kind she had once dreamed of having.But more than this, the exquisite daintiness of it, the sweet, alluring perfume spoke to her of something else which her heart understood, even though her speech could have found no words for it. She could feel gropingly the delicacy, the grace, the beauty that made up the other woman's life in all its relations.
She, Jennie, had none of that. Everything about their lives, hers and John's, was coarsened, soiled somehow by the dragging, endless labor or the days.Jennie leaned forward, her arms stretched tautly before her upon her knees, her hands clasped tightly over the fragrant bit of white.
Suppose she were to try doing as the stranger had said. Suppose that she spent her time on the house and let the outside work go. What then? What would John say? Would they be much farther behind than they were now? Could they be?
And suppose, by some strange chance, the other woman had been right! That a man could be helped more by doing of these other things she had neglected?She sat very still, distressed, uncertain.
Out in the barnyard waited the wagon of tomatoes, overripe now for market. No, she could do nothing today, at least, but go on as usual.Then her hands opened a little; the perfume within them came up to her, bringing again that thrill of sweet, indescribable things.
She started up, half-terrified at her own resolve. "I'm goin' to try it now. Mebbe I'm crazy, but I'm goin' to do it anyhow!"It was a long time since Jennie had performed such a meticulous toilet. It was years since she had brushed her hair. A hasty combing had been its best treatment. She put on her one clean dress, the dark voile reserved for trips to town. She even changed from her shapeless, heavy shoes to her best ones. Then, as she looked at herself in the dusty mirror, she saw that she was changed. Something, at least, of the hard haggardness was gone from her face, and her hair framed it with smooth softness. Tomorrow she would wash it. It used to be almost yellow.
She went to the kitchen. With something of the burning zeal of a fanatic, she attacked the confusion before her. By half past four the room was clean: the floor swept, the stove shining, dishes and pans washed and put in their places. From the tumbled depths of a drawer Jennie had extracted a white tablecloth that had been bought in the early days, for company only. With a spirit of daring recklessness she spread it on the table. She polished the chimney of the big oil lamp and then set the fixture, clean and shining, in the center of the white cloth.
Now the supper! And she must hurry. She planned to have it at six o' clock and ring the big bell for John fifteen minutes before, as she used to just after they were married.She decided upon fried ham and browned potatoes and applesauce with hot biscuits. She hadn't made them for so long, but her fingers fell into their old deftness. Why, cooking was just play if you had time to do it right!
Then she thought of the tomatoes and gave a little shudder. She thought of the long hours of backbreaking work she had put into them and called herself a little fool to have been swayed by the words of a strange and the scent of a handkerchief, to neglect her rightful work and bring more loss upon John and herself.
But she went on, making the biscuits, turning the ham, setting the table.It was half past five; the first pan of flaky brown mounds had been withdrawn from the oven, the children's faces and hands had been washed and their excited questions satisfied, when the sound of a car came from the bend.
Jennie knew that car. It belonged to Henry Davis. He could be coming for only one thing.The blow they had dreaded, fending off by blind disbelief in the ultimate disaster, was about to fall. Henry was coming to tell them he was going to foreclose. It would almost kill John. This was his father's old farm. John had taken it over, mortgage and all, so hopefully, so sure he could succeed where his father had failed. If he had to leave now there would be a double disgrace to bear. And where could they go? Farms weren't so plentiful.Henry had driven up to the side gate. He fumbled with some papers in his inner pocket as he started up the walk. A wild terror filled Jennie's heart. She wanted desperately to avoid meeting Henry Davis's keen, hard face, to flee somewhere, anywhere before she heard the words hat doomed them.
Then as she stood shaken, wondering how she could live through what the next hours would bring, she saw in a flash the beautiful stranger as she had sat in the orchard, looking off between the trees and smiling to herself.
"There was once a queen."Jennie heard the words again distinctly just as Henry Davis's steps sounded sharply nearer on the walk outside. There was only a confused picture of a queen wearing the stranger's lovely, highbred face, riding gaily to the hunt through forests and towns while her kingdom was tottering. Riding gallantly on, in spite of her fears.Jennie's heart was pounding and her hands were suddenly cold. But something unreal and yet irresistible was sweeping her with it.
"There was once a queen."She opened the screen door before Henry Davis had time to knock. She extended her hand cordially. She was smiling. "Well, how d' you do, Mr. Davis. Come right in. I'm real glad to see you. Been quite a while since you was over."
Henry looked surprised and very much embarrassed. "Why, no, now, I won't go in. I just stopped to see John on a little matter of business. I'll just—"
"You'll just come right in. John will be in from milkin' in a few minutes an' you can talk while you eat, both of you. I've supper just ready. Now step right in, Mr. Davis!"
As Jennie moved aside, a warm, fragrant breath of fried ham and biscuits seemed to waft itself to Henry Davis's nostrils. There was a visible softening of his features. "Why, no, I didn't reckon on anything like this. I 'lowed I'd just speak to John and then be gettin' on."
"They'll see you at home when you get there," Jennie put in quickly. "You never tasted my hot biscuits with butter an' quince honey, or you wouldn't take so much coachin'!"Henry Davis came in and sat in the big, clean, warm kitchen. His eyes took in every detail of the orderly room: the clean cloth, the shining lamp, the neat sink, the glowing stove. Jennie saw him relax comfortably in his chair. Then above the aromas of the food about her, she detected the strange sweetness of the bit of white linen she had tucked away in the bosom of her dress. It rose to her as a haunting sense of her power as a woman.She smiled at Henry Davis. Smiled as she would never have thought of doing a day ago. Then she would have spoken to him with a drawn face full of subservient fear. Now, though the fear clutched her heart, her lips smiled sweetly, moved by that unreality that seemed to possess her.
"There was once a queen.""An' how are things goin' with you, Mr. Davis?" she asked with a blithe upward reflection.Henry Davis was very human. He had never noticed before that Jennie's hair was so thick and pretty and that she had such pleasant ways. Neither had he dreamed that she was such a good cook as the sight and smell of the supper things would indicate. He was very comfortable there in the big sweet-smelling kitchen.He smiled back. It was an interesting experiment on Henry's part, for his smiles were rare. "Oh, so-so. How are they with you?"
Jennie had been taught to speak the truth; but at this moment there dawned in her mind a vague understanding that the high loyalties of life are, after all, relative and not absolute.She smiled again as she skillfully flipped a great slice of golden brown ham over in the frying pan. "Why, just fine, Mr. Davis. We're gettin' on just fine, John an' me. It's been hard sleddin' but I sort of think the worst is over. I think we're goin' to come out way ahead now. We'll just be proud to pay off that mortgage so fast, come another year, that you'll be surprised!"It was said. Jennie marveled that the words had not choked her, had not somehow smitten her dead as she spoke them.
But their effect on Henry Davis was amazingly good."That so?" he asked in surprise. "Well now, that's fine. I always wanted to see John make a success of the old place, but somehow—well, you know it didn't look as if—that is, there's been some talk around that maybe John wasn't just gettin' along any too—you know. A man has to sort of watch his investments. Well, now, I'm glad things are pickin' up a little."
Jennie felt as though a tight hand at her throat had relaxed. She spoke brightly of the fall weather and the crops as she finished setting the dishes on the table and rang the big bell for John. There was delicate work yet to be done when he came in.
Little Jim had to be sent to hasten him before he finally appeared. He was a big man, John Musgrave, big and slow moving and serious. He had known nothing all his life but hard physical toil. Hedaviess had pitted his great body against all the adverse forces of nature. There was a time when he had felt that strength such as his was all any man needed to bring him fortune. Now he was not so sure. The brightness of that faith was dimmed by experience.John came to the kitchen door with his eyebrows drawn.
Little Jim had told Jim that Henry Davis was there. He came into the room as an accused man faces the jury of his peers, faces the men who, though the same flesh and blood as he, are yet somehow curiously in a position to save or to destroy him.
John came in, and then he stopped, staring blankly at the scene before him. At Jennie moving about the bright table, chatting happily with Henry Davis! At Henry himself, his sharp features softened by an air of great satisfaction. At the sixth plate on the white cloth. Henry staying for supper!
But the silent deeps of John's nature served him well. He made no comment. Merely shook hands with Henry Davis and then washed his face at the sink.Jennie arranged the savory dishes, and they sat down to supper. It was an entirely new experience to John to sit at the head of his own table and serve a generously heaped plate to Henry Davis. It sent through him a sharp thrill of sufficiency, of equality. He realized that before he had been cringing in his soul at the very sight of this man.
Henry consumed eight biscuits richly covered with quince honey, along with the heavier part of his dinner. Jennie counted them. She recalled hearing that the Davises did not set a very bountiful table; it was common talk that Mrs. Davis was even more "miserly" than her husband. But, however that was, Henry now seemed to grow more and more genial and expansive as he ate. So did John.
By the time the pie was set before them, they were laughing over a joke Henry had heard at Grange meeting.
Jennie was bright, watchful, careful. If the talk lagged, she made a quick remark. She moved softly between table and stove, refilling the dishes. She saw to it that a hot biscuit was at Henry Davis's elbow just when he was ready for it.
All the while there was rising within her a strong zest for life that she would have deemed impossible only that morning. This meal, at least, was a perfect success, and achievements of any sort whatever had been few.Henry Davis left soon after supper. He brought the conversation around awkwardly to his errand as they rose from the table.
Jennie was ready."I told him, John, that the worst was over now, an' we're getting' on fine!" She laughed." I told him we'd be swampin' him pretty soon with our payments. Ain't that right John?"John's mind was not analytical. At that moment he was comfortable. He has been host at a delicious supper with his ancient adversary, whose sharp face marvelously softened. Jennie's eyes were shining with a new and amazing confidence. It was a natural moment for unreasoning optimism."Why that's right, Mr. Davis. I believe we can start clearin' this off now pretty soon. If you could just see your way clear to renew the note mebbe. . . ."
It was done. The papers were back in Davis's pocket. They had bid him a cordial good-bye from the door."Next time you come, I will have biscuits for you Mr. Davis." Jennie had called daringly after him."Now you don't forget that Mrs. Musgrave! They certainly ain't hard to eat."He was gone. Jennie cleared the table and set the shining lamp in the center of the oilcloth covering. She began to wash the dishes.
John was fumbling through the papers on a hanging shelf. He finally sat down with and old tablet and pencil. He spoke meditatively. "I believe I'll do a little figurin' since I've got time tonight. It just struck me that mebbe if I used my head a little more I'd get on faster.""Well now, you might," said Jennie. It would not be John's way to comment just yet on their sudden deliverance. She polished two big Rambo apples and placed them on a saucer beside him.He looked pleased. "Now that's what I like." He grinned.
Then making a clumsy clutch at her arm, he added, "Say, you look sort of pretty tonight."Jennie made a brisk coquettish business of freeing herself. "Go along with you!" she returned, smiling and started in again upon the dishes. But a hot wave of color had swept up in her shallow cheeks.John had looked more grateful over her setting those two apples beside him now, than he had the day last fall when she lifted all the potatoes herself!
Men were strange, as the woman in gray had said. Maybe even John had been needing something else more than he needed the hard, backbreaking work she had been doing.She tidied up the kitchen and put the children to bed.
It seemed strange to be through now, ready to sit down. All summer they had worked outdoors till bedtime. Last night she had been slaving over apple butter until she stopped, exhausted, and John had been working in the barn with the lantern. Tonight seemed so peaceful, so quiet.
John still sat at the table, figuring while he munched his apples. His brows were not drawn now. There was a new, purposeful light upon his face.Jennie walked to the doorway and stood looking off through the darkness and through the break in the trees at the end of the lane. Bright and golden lights kept glittering across it, breaking dimly through the woods, flashing out strongly for a moment, then disappearing behind the hill. Those were the lights of the happy cars that never stopped in their swift search for far and magic places. Those were the lights of the highway which she had hated. But she did not hate it now.
For today it had come to her at last and left with her some of its mysterious pleasure.Jennie wished, as she stood there, that she could somehow tell the beautiful stranger in the gray coat that her words had been true, that she, Jennie, insofar as she was able, was to be like her and fulfill her woman's part.
For while she was not figuring as John was doing, yet her mind had been planning, sketching in details, strengthening itself against the chains of old habits, resolving on new ones; seeing with sudden clearness where they had been blundered, where they had made mistakes that farsighted, orderly management could have avoided. But how could John have sat down to figure in comfort before, in the kind of kitchen she had been keeping?Jennie bit her lip. Even if some of the tomatoes spoiled, if all of them spoiled, there would be a snowy washing on her line tomorrow; there would be ironing the next day in her clean kitchen. She could sing as she worked. She used to when she was a girl.
Even if the apples rotted on the trees, there were certain things she knew now that she must do, regardless of what John might say. It would pay better in the end, for she had read the real needs of his soul from his eyes that evening. Yes, wives had to choose for their husbands sometimes.
A thin haunting breath of sweetness rose from the bosom of her dress where the scrap of white linen lay. Jennie smiled into the dark. And tomorrow she would take time to wash her hair. It used to be yellow—and she wished she could see the stranger once more, just long enough to tell her she understood.
As matter of fact, at that very moment, many miles along the sleek highway, a woman in a gray coat, with a soft gray hat and a rose quill, leaned suddenly close to her husband as he shot the high-powered car through the night.
Suddenly he glanced down at her and slackened the speed."Tired?" he asked. "You haven't spoken for miles. Shall we stop at this next town?"
The woman shook her head. "I'm all right, and I love to drive at night. It's only—you know—that poor woman at the farm. I can't get over her wretched face and house and everything. It—it was hopeless!"
The man smiled down at her tenderly. "Well, I'm sorry, too, if it was all as bad as your description; but you mustn't worry. Good gracious, darling, you're not weeping over it, I hope!"
"No, truly, just a few little tears. I know it's silly, but I did so want to help her, and I know now that what I said must have sounded perfectly insane. She wouldn't know what I was talking about. She just looked up with that blank, tired face. And it all seemed so impossible. No, I'm not going to cry. Of course I'm not—but—lend me your handkerchief, will you dear? I've lost mine somehow!"