2014 Pinterest #1 done!

Paper towel tubes, cut to different lengths, taped to the freezer.

Braeden says it is fun. 

You can't go wrong with pop poms and little bugs. 

51 more to go........

Another good soup with thanks to Lena

Lena writes a really sweet, frugal and helpful blog called On My Side Of The World. She posted this soup recipe recently and I made it yesterday. I had thought we would just have the last of the smoked turkey soil but when I checked, there was only one serving left.

I remembered this soup and it was perfect since I had not thawed any meat for supper.
I like meatless meals best but the rest of my family think meals usually need meat so my husband had the last of the turkey soup and I had this yummy and easy soup.

Cabbage and Bean Soup

I made it just like Lena's recipe except I substituted a pinch of sage and Rosemary for the marjoram and I had to leave out the white beans as we had neither cooked or canned white beans or marjoram.  Next time,  I will add the beans. 

This is a really nice soup, light and made with basic kitchen ingredients. 

 

chicken broth, carrots, onions, potatoes, cabbage, a little butter, some spices and beans

 

I will be making this soup again! 

Thank you Lena. 

Happy New Year and a new home record keeping notebook

Isn't he silly? I got him from  a thrift store years ago.

My kids think he is creepy, my grandson said he is an elf, but whatever he is, he makes me smile. 

This last year may of been my most fly-by-the-seat-of-my pants, unorganized year ever. I prefer to plan things ahead and have time to think about choices and decisions. So I am really hoping that 2014 will be smoother. 

I tend to write lots of lists on spiral notebooks and then they get messy or switched around, with no real plan, just what I write in them.  I've seen on several blogs about homekeeping notebooks and decided I need to do one of those. 

I shopped online and at one store, seeing if I could buy a readymade one, but none of the ones I looked at had just the things in them that I need to plan and keep track of. 

So, I made my own!  First I bought a notebook and a package of 8 dividers, but when I was looking for my page protectors at home, I found an old notebook that would work fine. I returned the first notebook for a refund. 

 Not sure I like this cover but it is what I used in 2008, the last time I had a home keeping notebook.

Mine has 8 sections so far, mainly because my dividers came in a package of 8. 

The sections may change as the year goes on.

My notebook has 2 pockets on my sides, I knew it would need pockets. 

My 8 sections

1. bills, I used a printout from organizedhomelife.com called annual bill schedule, with a page protector behind it to hold the bills needing attention. Thankfully, we don't have stacks of bills every month and I pay most bills online so this section is not big. Some families will need a notebook dedicated just to their bills. 

2. birthdays   I used a printout from organizedChristmas.com and filled it in with family birthdays and anniversaries by the month. My father in law's birthday is in a few days so I noted beside his name what gift we sent. 

3. Holidays- this section will be to keep menu plans and any special things I hope to do. So far, it is just a page protector holding our 2013 Thanksgiving and Christmas menus. 

4. Kitchen- I put my freezer inventory here and used a printable at organizedhomelife.com for it. 

5. Home receipts- another page protector that will hold them and some lined paper to keep totals. 

I know this ticket is dated 2013 but it is part of my current spending period. 

6. Daily- I printed off 53 pages from TheConfidentMom.com, one for each week. I can write things for each day as well as plans for the week. It also has a spot for menus. 

7. Create- where I will plan and keep track of crafting and sewing projects,

8. Home- for projects and needs 

There are oodles of free and pay to print printables on the sites I mentioned and on many other sites. 

This system is what I think will work for me and it looks a lot tidier than my old spirals. 

I am also pleased that the only money spent on it was buying the new dividers, and the printer ink.  It is always nice when things come together in a frugal way.

What is your system for keeping up with these things?

Pleasant productive day

I woke up early as usual and got my normal morning routine things done- fixing husband's work lunch and morning coffee, doing my Bible study and earning some Swagbucks. 

Then I went through my coupons and the newspaper ads from yesterday to plan out my errands, 

Before I shopped, I did some small sewing jobs like turning our old and worn hand towels into cleaning rags by cutting them in half and zig-zagging the raw edges. 

H

I added some length to another pair of jeans for the long legged grand daughter. I used purple polka dots to go with the purple stitching on the pockets. 

This baby shirt was a gift and had a design on the front that we didn't care for. It is a nice heavy weight shirt so to make it wearable, I put a fabric appliqué over that design. 

One of my errands was to stop at CVS for a prescription refill. CVS had Christmas, gifts and toys marked down 75%.  I got a few toys for future gift and also got this cute retro design hot air popcorn popper for $5

LED lantern was $2.50 at the CVS clearance. It will be perfect to use in our tornado safe room. 

This cubby shelf is from Walmart and was bought for our play room, because don't we all want to get organized for the new year? With just a few hiccups, I even managed to assemble it all by myself.  

Tomorrow, I hope to get the toys put in it. 

Smoked Turkey Soup

Our lunch today was so good!

For Thanksgiving, my family was at our home. I did a lot of the cooking and my brother brought a big smoked ham and smoked turkey. The meats were cooked at a restaurant on the campus of the university in our town and were both delicious. 

I've made turkey soup a number of times but always with a baked turkey, never a smoked one. 

The Thanksgiving turkey came with a recipe to make soup so I wraped up and froze the carcas after my husband carved it.

I did not read the recipe until after I had already simmered the carcus with water and celery, then strained and chilled it so I could de-fat it. According to the recipe, I was supposed to sauté onions and cook the turkey with onions and spices.

I ended up just heating the broth and cooking 1 cup of rice in my 2 quarts or so smoked turkey broth. 

Then I added 2 jars of Red Gold brand medium salsa (I bought it really cheap about a year ago and still have 8 jars) some leftover smoked turkey from our Christmas Eve turkey that my husband smoked, some frozen corn and a can of drained pinto beans. 

We ate it with a little grated cheddar cheese and tortilla chips. 

From now on, I will save all turkey bones, whether baked or smoked, to make broth.  

This smoked turkey soup really tasted good on this cold, windy Sunday. It was thrifty, easy and had a lot of good nutrition in it too.

In the top picture is the leftover soup in a half gallon jar- I think I can have smoked turkey soup for lunch all week! 

Verse from Today

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, (Exodus 34:6 ESV)