meal plan

Hydrangea (pre-deer attack)

The resident fisherman was out doing what he does yesterday (fishing) and I had a rare fit of organization come over me.

After reading the post and  comments from Annabel's inspiring and encouraging blog, I donned my winter gloves and headed to the basement to inventory the freezer.

I set up a few card tables and pulled everything out.   I put all the things in categories: 

Meats

Grains

Fruits

Vegetables

Main Course

Dairy

Bakery

Other

Then within each category, I listed what we had:

Turkey Breast

Ground turkey

Brats

Chicken Breast

Sausage links  

(Apparently we are in crisis mode now as there was NO BEEF ANYWHERE TO BE FOUND IN THE FREEZER.  No worries,  since this is Labor Day weekend, there will surely be sales on Beef - ground and otherwise.)

Then as I put each item back, I tallied.

I am too lazy to take a picture of it, but it looked roughly like this:

MEAT

Turkey breast     O

Ground Turkey    OOO

Brats OOOOO

Chicken breast O

Sausage links )

FRUIT

Mixed O

Cranberries OOOO

Strawberries OO

Rhubarb OO

And so on...... 

Obviously, we are light on beef.  The ads come out tomorrow and I will rectify the situation immediately.

Buoyed by the sight of a nice, neat freezer, I came upstairs and tackled the fridge freezer.  Same system.  Different piece of paper.

Earlier this year I had already done the pantry, the lazy susan and the food stores we keep in the basement.  I would say 95% of our groceries were bought on sale.

I looked over my inventory sheets and roughly calculated the servings in each package of meat and some of the main dish type things like some homemade chili I have packaged up and frozen.

I came up with (roughly) 63 servings.  Just from our 2 freezers.  That would feed the resident fisherman and I for a while.  I did not count the other areas of food storage we have or the fridge.  I have 16 cans of canned soup alone  that would provide us with another 32 servings (2 per can).

Why am I mentioning this?   As of this writing, Houston is being inundated by Hurricane Harvey.  People are being flooded out of their homes.  Other people, sheltering in place, will be unable to find an open grocery store or restaurant for a little while yet.

Having a decent stockpile of food, means that (unless you are flooded out of course) you can shelter in place and feed yourself.  If we lost power, I could pressure can the meat and veggies and water bath can the fruits (gas stove).

If we had to evacuate our house (we are much more at risk for a forest fire than a flood here), I would grab a change or two of clothing, family documents and pictures, blankets, camping stuff and fill the rest of the car with food.

Hopefully, we will never have to do that.  But we are ready for other kinds of storms.  We have a rather large expense coming up in October.  Because of our deep pantry, we can divert money we would otherwise use for groceries in the next two months for that bill (which if paid in advance saves us 5%).

So, I save 25-50% on my grocery bills (I calculate my savings after every major shopping trip).  I 'snowball' that money into paying other bills advance when it is to my advantage to do so.

What do you do?  Do you have a deep enough pantry to get you through a rough patch?  A bout of flu?  An unexpected bill or job loss?  Or unexpected company?

I would love to hear your plans!

Oh, the circles after each item in each category?  When I use up, say, a bag of cranberries, I color in one circle to denote that it is gone.  If I buy more cranberries, I simply make another circle for each bag.  Every once or twice a year, I re-inventory.  You see, according to my previous inventory, we still had 4 pounds of ground beef in the downstairs freezer.  Someone forgot to color in his circles.  :)

The system works best if it is used properly.

enough part 2

Whether it started a few weeks ago, when I looked for jingle bells to finish the Christmas stockings I made, or a few days ago as I emptied a shoe box of Operation Christmas Child, I decided I must get the minutiae of my life organized.

No jingle bells were to be found - in either my gift wrap box or the one Christmas box I knew would have them - though I had this nagging feeling that I had just purchased some last year.

The shoe box held a disparate collection of bits and bobs of things - a garter (?), broken jewelry, a die, bobby pins, ribbons, halfway decent jewelry, empty jewelry boxes, a golf tee (?), sewing notions.

After throwing away the useless things, I took the sewing notions to my sewing basket.

If I thought I had enough office supplies to last the rest of my life, whether I live three more years or thirty, I certainly have enough sewing notions to last the rest of my life.

Dozens of needles (embroidery, quilting, tapestry needlepoint carpet making, canvas sewing-because you never know when you might need to make a boat cover), hundreds of pins, seam rippers (2), scissors (2), rotary cutters (2), spools of thread (a few dozen) and about one hundred skeins of embroidery floss, 6 embroidery hoops and a partridge in a pear tree.  I do not take full responsibility for all the floss; this collection contains not only mine, but Mom's and Grandma's.  Not to mention hooks and eyes, snaps, and various lengths of bias tape and seam binding.

I have three sewing baskets* (I didn't buy any of them), 5 pincushions (I didn't buy any of them), enough yardage for four projects. That is one area I have control over - I know my finely honed propensity for procrastination, so I only purchase the fabric I need for current projects - no stash here.  Oh, and enough fabric scraps to make two or three quilts.

Again, I am both embarrassed and amazed at all the stuff I have in the sewing department. 

Need anything monogrammed or embroidered?  I'm your girl. Thankfully my niece Emilee wants to learn to embroider and hopefully in the future I can teach Sadie and Lainey to stitch.

Taking up sewing?  Don't buy anything - call me first.  I have a notion that I have more than enough notions to supply all of us.


* One of my sewing baskets contained 'dog tags' for my husband and brother-in-law.  These were made pre-1958,when they were young boys, according to the address listed on them.  How they got in my sewing basket, I don't know - but I'm guessing they weren't there until after my mother-in-law's death in 2004.  Regardless, I obviously need to clean out my sewing basket more often.

enough part 1

Before we know it, it will be Thanksgiving.  I thought I would spend the month of November contemplating the many blessings God has bestowed upon me.

Starting with paper clips.

Now, this is not what I am most thankful for, not by a long shot. But for a former public school teacher, former homeschooler, Sunday school teacher  and once in a while office administrator - office and school supplies are my drug of choice.

To open the desk drawer and see that there are enough paper clips, pens, pencils, colored pencils, markers, scissors, staples, glue, paper and envelopes to last my life time (thanks in part to my late mother-in-law and our inheriting her accumulation of office goods), both embarrasses and pleases me. 

I will never have to buy any of the above for the rest of my life.  Need any office supplies? Please call me first.

I have more than enough.

Chloe, the wonder dog

It was fun to get to know our granddog Chloe. She is a pug/Jack Russell terrier mix and as cute as all get out. One of her favorite activities while we were there was to sneak into the room where the boys slept and grab one of Nate's socks. She would come prancing out with it in her mouth as if to say, "Ha, ha, ha!" A chase would ensue and Chloe, now sockless, would repeat the activity when she saw fit.

She is quite a tenacious puppy. Shown above, she is holding on to one of her chew toys. Nate had grabbed it and pulled it away from her. But she was not about to let go. She would be dangling in mid-air, but she would not let go. This also happened several times.

I love dogs.

I need to exhibit some tenacity today myself. There are several organizational projects I have been putting off (I'm gifted in procrastination). With Chloe as inspiration, I plan to tackle some of them today.

If I get some of these done, maybe I can relax by the fire tonight.

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the LORD...."

Colossians 3:23

back to normal? whatever that is....

The tree is down, the decorations are put away. This week we get back to our regular schedule. All of the members of the family who were traveling during the holiday season have returned safely home - thank you LORD for answered prayer.

Now what?

Time to work on Sunday school lessons again, AWANA counsel time, Bible study. I'll be working at the food pantry more than usual.

Next week I am the 'speaker' at the local MOPS group, so I am working on my rough draft of that talk.

And then there is the mountainous decluttering and organizing project.

Although there are still no home buyers on the horizon - the prospect of moving (and the accompanying work) is never far from the back of my mind. I don't want to take all this stuff with us.

All of the Christmas decorations fit into two storage bins. Maybe that is what I should do with all my other stuff. Limit how much space I will allow them to have. Two bins for fabric? One for card making/ rubber stamping/ scrapbooking? A limit on how many books we have?

Wait a minute - is there such a thing as too many books?

Decisions, decisions, decisions. Thankfully I don't have to make any of these alone.

"Since You are my Rock and my Fortress, for the sake of Your Name lead and guide me."
Psalm 31:3

"I will instruct you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you."
Psalm 32:8

Christmas undone
re-purposed Christmas tree

taking stock

After less than an hour of work, my china cupboard/ former wardrobe was organized. I decided I don't need more than a half dozen platters, nor do I need more than 24 drinking glasses. These extras and other miscellaneous items went into a box for Goodwill.

I am inspired to tackle other areas of the house.

The end of the year seems like a good time to take stock. If we haven't used something for a year, conventional wisdom encourages us to get rid of it.

I'm taking stock in other areas of my life as well. I finished reading through the Bible the other day. Now I am trying to decide if I want to read through it again in '07 or pick a topic or book and study that more thoroughly.

In our Bible study, we are studying the book Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby. He encourages us to watch and see where God is working and join Him there. He shares many inspiring stories. I heard another inspiring story from my friend Laurie last night. She has begun a Bible study in a small town nearby. Several women have come to her wanting to know more about the Bible. How could she say no?

I'm not one to make New Year's resolutions, but I am trying to determine where I want to be in my spiritual walk a year from now. Or more importantly where God wants me to be a year from now.

So, join me won't you? Let's clean out cupboards, closets and drawers, but let's not stop there.

The God of the universe wants to have a relationship with each one of us. Let's not let our cluttered closets and schedules stop us from putting Him first.

categorically defying categorization

Well, I did it.

I switched over my blog to a new and improved blog. Notice any difference?

Neither do I.

There is one thing. I can now label my blogs and divide them into different categories. So in time and in theory you will be able to click on a link on the right side bar - let's say 'recipes' and immediately all of my blogs containing recipes would appear.

Please be patient with me on this. I take the title of my blog seriously - Northwoods Ramblings. And ramble I do.

Ramble:
to talk or write in a discursive, aimless manner.
Discursive:
passing aimlessly from one subject to another; digressive, rambling

So, labeling and categorizing my blogs may be a rather challenging undertaking.

I have some goals for my blog for the new year. I won't share them now, but keep watching.

Several people have asked me recently what I am going to do with my time now that the choir thing is over.

I'm getting ready to move. Slowly and deliberately going through things. Organizing and decluttering. I probably spent at least an hour a day on the choir/ Sunday School music over the past three months. I figure if I spend that amount of time every day on decluttering and organizing I'll be ready to move in a year or so.

But I digress.

Wait, that is what I'm supposed to do in this blog.

I'll try to organize my blog and my house in the new year.

Stay tuned for a more orderly me.