Category Archives: Frugal Living

Old Storybooks, New Placemats

I have a love/hate relationship with children’s books.

I love books.

I hate books that are on their last leg with torn pages, marked up illustrations (courtesy of the current toddler) and broken spines.

But, it is so hard to pitch books.  Especially books with memories attached.  And we all know how easily we {and our children} attach memories to their books.

Well, I ran across a great idea over at The Homeschool Chick the other day and had to try it!

Storybook Placemats!

So, while I had my handy-dandy contact paper out from the assignment card project, I decided to make these!

It was not hard to choose which book needed to be upcycled.


{Look at that price! We might just have to get another one!}

Bear’s Curiosity Book has been with us a long time.  When my oldest son was a tiny little guy, he would pour over that book and pretend he lived within the book’s pages.  Every child after him has done likewise.

And the book had begun to show it’s age.

It was coming apart at the binding.  Pages were torn.  Purposeful toddler hands armed with permanent marker had decorated it’s cover.  It was a sad, sad book, yet we loved it.

When the children were busy in another room, I quickly went to work.  {Yes, dismemberment of favorite books is sometimes best left for a mother to do alone}

This is a large book, so it took a lot of contact paper to do 5 placemats (poor Garin didn’t get one because this was all I could salvage from the book).  The best way to do this is to

1.  Cut a piece of contact paper for both the front and the back.

2.  Peel off the back of one of the pieces of contact paper and lay the pages you want to preserve FACE DOWN. If you are not very, super, extra careful with contact paper, you will end up with bubbles and ridges, so laying the front side out first keeps you from having any of these issues with the side that matters most.  Also, don’t forget to place the books pages in the correct order.  The one in the picture is NOT in the correct order.  The kids noticed right away, but thankfully, it is a section that doesn’t require you to read from left to right and they quickly forgave my faux pas. ;)

3.  Peel backing off the second layer of contact paper and be VERY, EXTRA, SUPER CAREFUL to lay it just right on the back side of the pages. Start in the middle if you can and work your way out, gently pressing out bubbles as you go.  And word of caution, contact paper has static cling, so if you get anywhere near the other piece of contact paper, they will suck together!  There is a little window of opportunity where you can unstick and restick, but not much, so be very, extra, super…well, you get the idea!

4.  Trim edges and enjoy!

It warmed my heart to watch my children sitting at the dining room table tracing the pages of the book, talking about their memories, and laughing over new memories.

All this has me wondering how many placemats a family might need…..

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Kitchen Gardens

Our family enjoys fresh herbs.

My husband’s favorite homemade cream of mushroom soup calls for fresh thyme.  My favorite salsa calls for fresh cilantro.

I always prefer to use fresh herbs in my dishes, but I can’t always justify the cost, nor the fact that so much would go to waste because the bundles they were sold in were too big.

That’s when I decided to start a kitchen garden of fresh herbs right on my very own balcony off the dining room!

What a treat!  I have 2 large pots that I grow thyme, oregano, basil, and cilantro in.  These are the 4 herbs I use the most.

It has been so much fun to simply step outside and grab what I need.  No waste!  And no expensive trip to the grocery store!

Looking back, I have no idea why I didn’t start a fresh herb kitchen garden years ago!

Oh, and every time I go out to pick herbs, I come back in singing

Pasley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme…


Get a playlist! Standalone player Get Ringtones

Simple Homemaking – Cheap and Simple Cloth Diapering

{Don’t miss the GIVEAWAY in this post!}

The number one question I get asked when it comes to cloth diapering is:

What is the easiest way to get started?

Which translates into many forms including:

How many diapers do I need?

How can I do this without spending a fortune?

HELP!  I don’t know what I am doing!

This post is my simple answer…

~Prefolds~

Don’t be afraid!  Prefolds are not as hard as you think they are.  These diapers are incredibly versatile and last FOREVER.

Infant size fits until baby is 15 lbs and Premiums can easily last until you potty train. (I prefer Premiums over Regulars because they are more absorbant due to more center layers)

2 dozen in each size is plenty.

{click here to see prefolds from Sweet Little Blessings and here to read my post on using prefolds}

~Snappis~

These little things are Y-shaped blessings!  No more pins!  No more worrying about poking baby!

All you need are 2. (unless you are prone to losing things, then you might want more!)

{click here to see how to use a Snappi}

~Covers~

I’m partial to Bummis Super Whisper Wraps and Mother-ease Air Flows.

You will need 4 per size.

{click here to see Sweet Little Blessings’ diaper cover choices}

This truly is the simplest way to go!

{don’t forget to link up your simple homemaking tips below!}

But first…

Have you figured out yet what this giveaway might be all about?

That’s right!  Coleen from Sweet Little Blessings, long-time advertiser here at Raising Arrows and another mom of many is offering one my readers a

$25 Gift Certificate!

How to Enter:

1. Leave a comment telling me whether or not you use cloth diapers.

2. “Like” Sweet Little Blessings Facebook page.

3. Sign up for Sweet Little Blessings mailing list.

4. Facebook this giveaway.

5. Tweet this giveaway.

{leave a comment for each entry!}

As an added bonus, you can receive a

10% OFF COUPON

if you become a Raising Arrows subscriber either by Email or in a Feed Reader.  The code, which expires May 21, will be in the feed footer, so don’t miss it!

This giveaway ends May 19th at 11:59pm.  Winner will be chosen at random by an automated system.

And I just found out my friend Lauren at Mama’s Laundry Talk is doing a 2 week series on Cloth Diaper Care!  Check it out here:


Here’s the link up! {Grab a button if you’d like}

Copy the code below



Simple Homemaking – A Return to My Roots

A few weeks ago our family took a hike together on a lovely Sunday afternoon.  Garin slept peacefully in his fancy mei tai baby carrier, while the rest of the children ran up and down the trail searching for animal tracks and wild violets and unique rocks.

Along the path I began to notice wild onions.  I told Ty about them and he bent over and pulled a bunch from the soft earth.  He called the children over to take a look and smell the pungent odor and next thing I knew, we had a horde of children scavenging for these little yummy jewels!

It was at that moment I remembered.

I remembered who I used to be.  I remembered a younger version of myself learning to live off the land, cook meals from scratch, search out the simple things in life.

And I smiled.

I smiled because that memory is precious to me.  I smiled because I often long for those days once again.

Then I had moment of clarity.

Why must that life be a MEMORY?  What happened to that young mother?  Where did she lose her way and start making everything complicated and overwhelming.

I began to trace pieces of my former self along the chronology of my married life.  My happiest years were spent living life simply.  Every morning, I arose to sit on my front porch and read my Bible.  I taught school to one child as I held his younger sister in my arms.  I spent my afternoons and evenings among nature and friends.  Sundays were truly a day of rest and the garden was full of yummy treats.

My pace was slower and my mind was less cluttered.

And I can tell you precisely where and when my world began to speed up and my steps began to falter, and I have made great strides toward regaining that former life (the jelly, the garden), but sometimes I lack the inspiration.

A while ago, I mentioned on my facebook page my new love of old homemaking books.  Truth be told, this isn’t a NEW love at all, but an old one rekindled.  Recently, I purchased The American Frugal Housewife and A Garden Supper Tonight at our local historical museum.

Talk about inspiration!

Sometimes as homemakers, we need inspiration to keep going forward…or to go back to our roots.  For me, it started with wild onions picked by my family on a Sunday afternoon and served  up on Monday for lunch (cut up as you would green onions and added into our ground beef).  Ahhh!  It’s good to be back!

What or who inspires you to keep going as a homemaker?  How can you be an encouragement to others?   I also want to let you know about a great new series coming in May on Homegrown Mom called Homemaking For Girls.  I’ll be there!

Affording Kids – Keeping Them Healthy

I’ll be honest with you, sick children scare me.  And when there are fevers in the house, I can do nothing but beg God’s mercy.

That is why this post will not be a light-hearted one.  It hits me too close to home.

What I have to say here will not be some comprehensive list on how to keep children healthy or how to afford healthcare.  It will not be a commentary on the healthcare plan or a laundry list of helpful herbs.  I could do all this, and probably will at some point, but not in this post.

This post is a story.  A story of our family’s choice.  A choice that works for us.  Keeping YOUR children healthy is YOUR business.  There is no ONE right choice.  With that said, I want to share with you how we chose to think outside the box and the blessings that followed.

After years of using traditional insurance and even having insurance through my husband’s job (that we paid a pretty penny for), we felt convicted to leave the world of high premiums and numbers without names.  We were introduced to a company called Christian Healthcare Ministries by some friends of ours.  We liked what we saw and decided to drop our “safe” insurance and go with CHM, a Christian cost-share type program where members “shared” each other’s healthcare costs.

In many ways, it was a leap of faith.

In fact, I was pregnant with Emily at the time.  CHM would not be able to cover the cost of her birth.  I had no idea how we would pay the thousands of dollars it would be to deliver her, but my husband believed this was what we should do.

Leap.

And the Lord provided for her birth.

Then Emily got sick.  As the bills rolled in, I wondered how we would ever pay for all of this.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Doing our part to help reduce the bills, we sent bill after adjusted bill into Christian Healthcare Ministries.  CHM even sent someone in to help us get these bills reduced.  Sometimes we felt as if we were knocking heads with the hospital.  Sometimes we wondered if the money would be there to pay for it all.  After all, we had only been members for a little over a year.  We knew how the program was supposed to work.  But would it?

And then Emily died.

And Christian Healthcare Ministries took over completely.

The hospital bill was reduced and finalized and taken out of our hands.  The money began to come in from CHM and we paid off everything.

Everything.

Since then we have had 2 babies and several hospital stays.  We have nothing but good to say about Christian Healthcare Ministries.  As it turns out, Fox news agrees with us.

If you have ever wondered about cost-share programs or simply wanted a way out of the health insurance cycle, please visit Christian Healthcare Ministries.  Tell them I sent you.  My referral number is 112373.

It is a fact of life that children do get sick.  Christian Healthcare Ministries gives this mama one less thing to worry about.

Affording Kids Series:
Introduction
Feeding Them
Schooling Them
Entertaining Them
Keeping Them Healthy – this post

Affording Kids – Entertaining Them

Let me be honest here.  I do not believe it is my job to ENTERTAIN my children.  I am not a fan of the incessant whine of the words, “I’m bored.”

But, since the Cost of Raising a Child factors in “entertainment,” I thought I should probably address this.

So, what all constitutes Entertainment?  In my opinion, it would be anything that occurs during a child’s leisure time.  This would be anything from playing on the computer to watching a movie to playing outside or participating in extracurricular activities.  Because of this, I will readily admit Entertaining a child *could* easily get expensive.  New computers, theatre tickets, sports equipment and zoo memberships aren’t free.

But are they necessary?

Every family is going to be different on what they deem necessary.  No matter what you choose for your family, let me give you one rule of thumb on which to base every decision…

NEVER PARENT BY GUILT

As parents, we often find ourselves manipulated by the media, the grandparents, the next door neighbors, and even our own children.

*The media tells us EVERY kid has the latest, greatest electronic gadget.  We don’t want our kids to be behind the times.

*The relatives tell us they want to get the latest thing as a gift for our child.  We don’t want to have to say no.

*The neighbors and peer groups tell us their kids are doing such and such.  We don’t want to look odd.

*Our children give us those sad, puppy-dog eyes as they beg us for just this one little thing.  We hate to disappoint them.

But parenting by guilt is not a good way to parent.  We already know that.  We have to learn to put it into practice.

So, when it comes to Entertainment as an expense of raising children, we have to decide how far we are willing it.  Are we willing to be manipulated by the culture or do we have a clear understanding of what types of products and activities are worthwhile to own and do.

While I cannot make these decisions for you, here are a few of the ways we discern which “entertainment” items are worth the money and which ones are better left in the store (for a list of how we choose extracurricular activities, go to my Family First Activities list).

Child’s age – An example of a product that we would have to factor age into would be a cell phone.  A cell phone is an Entertainment item until it becomes a Necessary item.  None of my children have a NEED for a cell phone; therefore, I am not going to spend the money on one for them.

Child’s level of responsibility - The bottom line here is CAN WE TRUST HIM or HER?  Suppose you buy your child an electronic device and within a week it has been stepped on repeatedly by younger siblings.  This isn’t entirely a matter of younger siblings being naughty.  It is also about the owner of the electronic device being irresponsible with their property. {Note: DO NOT set your child up for failure here.  Our older children own lock boxes.  They have a key and I have a key.  In these lock boxes are things they do not want touched by younger siblings who have an uncanny knack for getting into things.}  If you know your child is not a responsible individual, then DO NOT give them entertainment items they will need to be responsible with.

Does it take AWAY from the family? – As I mentioned in my post on choosing activities for your family to participate in, if an entertainment item will place a wedge in relationships within the family, RUN FROM IT!  Will buying that video game player foster family relationships or create obsessed and distant children?  Will playing Little League baseball bring the family closer together or make life unbearable with endless games and practices?  Only you and your family can answer the hard questions it takes to truly discern if an entertainment item/activity is a family-builder or a family-breaker.

Is it God-honoring? - I can often be heard saying,

“It might be fun, but that doesn’t make it appropriate.”

Whether or not something is FUN is not a good way to choose what you do for entertainment. I know that sounds contradictory, but think of it this way…

Getting drunk might be fun, but it is not a beneficial way to spend an evening.

Stop thinking with your emotions and start analyzing through a better lens…a Biblical worldview.  Things do not have to be overtly Christian to be God-honoring.  God owns it all.  It is either in harmony with Him or discordant with Him. (see the book Assumptions for more!)

Fun House with Daddy & Keian

Can we do it cheaper? – Some of us go out to eat for entertainment.  Some of us go to movies.  Some of us like to bungee jump. {not me…but I’m sure there’s someone reading this who thinks that is fun!}  Whatever it is you like to do, if saving money is the goal, then look for a cheaper way to do it.  As you know from my post on eating out with kids, we have lots of ways we do this when it comes to eating out.  Perhaps you could Google some of your favorite restaurant recipes and try them at home.  If movies are your thing, consider a Netflix subscription instead of taking everyone to the theater all the time.  If bungee jumping is your cup of tea…well…please don’t try a cheap alternative. ;)

Whatever your family chooses as entertainment, realize it is a personal decision.  Just remember, your children don’t NEED to be entertained by a million gadgets and a million events.  Life can be plenty of fun without all the extras.  But, it starts with you.  Smile more.  Sing more.  Enjoy the life you have and quit looking for fulfillment elsewhere.

Contentment, my friends, is cheap and absolutely priceless.

Affording Kids Series:
Introduction
Feeding Them
Schooling Them
Entertaining Them – this post
Keeping Them Healthy