Frugal Friday

There is nothing better then homemade bread; unless its homemade cookies! I've always loved homemade bread. My dad attempted it a time or two during his running, health food, raw veggies for dinner phase. I loved the running, and the homemade bread, the fact that my dad had a weakness for hot dogs and that there was a great hot dog stand not to far away. Then in college I had a roommate who was also a running health food fanatic. She at least made stir fry with her veggies. She also made wonderful bread. I have just never had the patience. It isn't the labor involved in kneading the dough. I hand mixed clay in my ceramics class; great stress reliever. Bread just never worked for me. Until bread makers became widely available and reasonably priced. I just never thought I'd be able to buy one for $7.10. Yup! That's right. The cost of two good bakery loaves of wheat bread and I can now make my own at home!



Happiness is homemade bread! Especially at this price! Did I mention that it is an expensive brand that would have retailed for more then $200? Yup! I NEVER would have spent that much for a bread machine! Used machines of this brand sell for $150 or more on Amazon! So I saved $200 and get home made goodness! I think that is a pretty frugal find don't you!?

WIP

Welcome to Work In Progress Wednesday! I finally attempted socks this past week! I had a child free day to wander through a few yarn stores, a book store or two, as well as a fabric store. I found a lot of inspiration for WIP posts! Aprons from some lovely fabric are sure to follow. But for now, its socks.

Yeah for my little green sock! It wasn't very hard at all! I would definitely recommend the book Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. I also found another book at one of those wonderful stores I visited last week, that does two socks at one time on circular needles. The instructions in the Sensational Knitted Socks book are for 4 dpn (double pointed needles), 5 dpn, or two circular needles (one sock at a time). Looking forward to knitting several socks in both of my new sock books!

Mission Monday

I've had this idea for a while now, but have not had the time to act on it. I want to do a few post a week, Mission Monday, Work in progress Wednesday and Frugal or Feasting Friday. Instead of waiting until I have time, I am going to make time for these posts, and for the effort that goes into them. They are not a waste of time, but a source of inspiration and support for the work that I am attempting in my home. Its like the saying goes "a person needs at least 10 minutes of prayer each day, a busy person 20". Hopefully the effort I put into these post will help me in my Mission.

In my Mission Monday posts I would like to share experiences that gave me insight, inspiration and/or the strength necessary to continue my Mission.

"A third similarity between sacred and domestic liturgies is that it takes time to learn to perform them with familiarity and ease. The British author C.S. Lewis occasionally complained about the tendency of prayer book editors constantly to 'update' the words of the liturgy. He didn't care what particular form the liturgy took, he said; all he wanted was that they choose a form and then leave it alone. His point was not that liturgy should never change. His point was that if he was constantly unsure what to do and say next, it made it very difficult to enter into prayer with concentration and serenity and an openess to grace.
The routines of housekeeping have the potential to be similarly disorienting. If we are unfamiliar with the myriad tasks and subtasks involved in planning menus and cooking meals or in picking up and cleaning house, we may feel just as confused as the Baptist who has stumbled into an Anglican church and is frantically searching for the right page in the prayer book while trying - and failing - to sit, stand, and kneel at the right times."

Keeping House : The Litany of Everyday Life
By Margaret Kim Peterson