so i'm trying out new ways to save money.  my goal is to save enough so that i can become a stay at home mom.  i ACHE to be a sahm.  i blame it on maternity leave.  i work for the county, and just about the only real benefit that we get is ridiculously long maternity leave.  seriously, my leave was almost worth the pregnancy (not the baby, i love my manchild but some people like being pregnant and those people are insane).  i relished my maternity leave.  manchild even had colic and i loved my time off of work. 

but saving money...  not as easy as one would think.  in a lot of ways, hubby and i have pared down a lot of 'stuff' down to it's barest essentials. 

cable?  don't have it.  not even anteni service.  for us, it's cheaper to buy a bluray or two a month than what we were spending on cable. 

car payment? we only have one.  the manvan is paid in full, and when that happy day that "goldie" is paid off, she's not getting replaced unless she's falling apart.

gas?  we do spend a fair amount on gas, but we do our shopping trips in clumps so there are no unnecessary trips to 'pick something up real quick'. and if the weather is nice, hubby rides his motorcycle to and from work, and that thing gets crazy-good gas mileage.  (and honestly, with bp raping our gulf coast, it's not like we can control the price we have to pay in gas)

honestly, the one place you'd think we can scrape a little extra savings is food.  but not so much.  healthy food is expensive.  a bowl of super-processed mac n cheese costs the same as an apple.  for the price of the smallest bowl of mixed fruit, you could buy three frozen dinners.  frozen dinners that are pumped so full of chemicals that honestly, you won't decompose after you die.  seriously.  people aren't decomposing like they used to.  mrs b. told me. 

honestly, working full time, and having a garden that was DESTROYED by the summer storms...  its hard to find good priced, healthy food. 

i need to spend more time around judgmntlhippy.  she'll show me the ropes.

a nifty little update

today is Litha.  I'll most likely celebrate in a pretty low key way, assuming that the rains hold off.  at the very most i'll light up a couple of lots in the fire pit, but i'll probably just light a couple of candles and sit on the couch for a Firefly marathon.  had friends over saturday for a min-celebration and a bonfire, so that was fun.

finally upgraded my compost bin.  admittedly 'upgrade' is a bit...  fancy... of a term. i went from the super crappy trash can system to the slightly less crappy hardware cloth fency thingy system.  yes, fency thingy is a technical term.

i guess i just didn't realize how well the trashcan  system was working until i emptied out the compost into the new bin.  i had some awesome compost! i, of course, have no way to use it till next year, but dang it was cool. one unforeseen problem of the hardware cloth system is keeping the creeper weeds out of the compost bin.  the last thing i need in my back yard is HEALTHIER weeds.  but i'm pretty sure that as long as i keep an eye on it, i can get it under control.

the garden is getting along well.  though i realized that if i had to survive on what i've plated so far a) i would starve and b) i would be the stinkiest corpse ever.  i will have onions upon onions, some garlic, and more blue potatoes than i think we'll be able to eat. (the novelty of blue potatoes will last exactly 1 1/2 meals with princess)

and as far as self sustainability goes, cheese making..... epic fail.  i got a kit with which i am supposed to learn to make my own cheese.  i've either done something horribly worn, or omaha's water system is chlorinated.  possibly both.  either way the cheese gods are not leased.  i will of course be trying again, probably right after pay day.  because lets face it, i can't NOT know how to do something.

i was at the water yesterday, were you? i did a beautiful simple little ritual, and manchild was in my lap the whole time. basically what i did was use my prayer beads to repeat the chant from Blade and Cauldron once for each bead. it was powerful and moving, and about the simplest thing in the world.

but i felt it.

i felt the power of that little chant, and knowing that hundreds would be doing if not the same thing, something equally powerful striving for a common goal. Fan-fracking-tastic!

Meet Us At The Water

Have you ever thought "Gee, the horrible things that BP has done to cornhole us in the gulf.... I wish there was something I could do about it?"

well now you can!!!!!!!!!

june 12th is the new moon, and pagans (and non pagans alike) are coming together in droves to help heal the oceans. you don't need access to the ocean or even to a stream, a bowl of water will be enough. hells people, use a shot glass if you have to! take your water, bless it, heal it, and send it back to the ocean to join the ocean so that it can be healed.

Blade and Cauldron created this chant to use:



we have one planet. she is our mother. please, come together with people off all faiths to heal her.

Self Sustainability Takes it in the Shorts

I am by nature a fairly law abiding person. running red lights doesn't count, no one was looking. so when i decided i wanted to be able to grow produce all year, i called my local extension office to find out what i needed to do to get a simple greenhouse, i was thinking something along the lines of 8X8, (with no water or electricity hooked up to it) up and running.

big mistake.

a permit is required. a permit. there is a minimum fee of $41 for the permit. i have to provide three copies of the plans as well as a detailed map of the possible location in relation to my property lines. it will take an average of three weeks to go through the planning committee. i will "probably' have to get the structure inspected (at mt cost). all for a structure that can literally be picked up by four strong guys with the promise of beer.

screw it. im building cold frames and im not telling a damn soul.

Home Made Yogurt!!!!!!

i blame the Activia commercials. There's something innately wrong about people sitting on a big comfy couch talking about their digestive health. so of course i had to try it. and i'm not going to get into why i'm still eating yogurt every day, ut suffice it to say i'm spending a small fortune in yogurt every time we get groceries.

since one of my mottos is 'if you can't make it yourself, you don't need it' i ebayed different yogurt makers. there were a couple of different brands out there, and since i'm only buying it once i wanted to make sure i got the best one i could. so where do you go when you want to ask an opinion or solicit advice?

facebook.

that's where andi aka judgementalhippy (and yes, very nearly hippy is a nod to her. i am half the hippy she is. not even half. 33%, tops) told me about a blog that had instructions on making yogurt in your crock pot. i read through the instructions, and they seemed simple enough, so i gave it a try.

the scaled down version (and please, click HERE for the blog itself, it's amazing) goes like this:

take half a gallon of whole milk (i used vitamin d) and put it in your crock pot on low for 2 1/2 hours. turn it off and let it sit for 3 hours. then take 2 cups of the warm milk, and whisk it into 1/2 a cup of yogurt that has live active cultures. add it back into the crock pot, mix it all up, and wrap it up in a towel. still leaving it unplugged leave it sit for at least 8 hours.

PHENOM!!!! it tastes 100 times better than the store bought yogurt. it's not super sweet, and there's no weird after taste that you get with most commercially bought yogurts. if you don't notice the weird after taste, try home made yogurt, you will!!

i've been eating it for a few days in the mornings, and even made yogurt chicken a couple of nights in a row. i am never going back to store bought yogurt. and while i haven't figured the numbers yet, i KNOW it's cheaper to make it yourself.

and for good measure, here's the recipe for yogurt chicken (yummy):

2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded
2 tbl oil
salt/pepper
1/2 cup of home made yogurt
2 limes

put the oil in a dutch oven and add the salt, pepper and the shredded chicken. quarter the limes and add to the pot, crush the limes as best you can. add the yogurt, stir and cook on low for 30-40 minutes, stirring every once in a while. spoon into a bowl and enjoy!!

*** added May 31 from a question on facebook**

From Jen P:
Curious if you've had issues with hot and cold spots in your yogurt?? I was just eyeballing a yogurt maker and it said "eliminates hot and cold spots" so I want to know if those are even an issue.
Are you using pasteurized milk?
Yogurt is one of those mystical things to me. We eat tons of it!! (plain stuff from WF but it is still expensive)

From VNH:
i've never had any problem with temp 'spots'. and i'm using the pasturized stuff i grabbed from the grocery store. i finally crunched the numbers, and a 1/2 gallon of milk from Super Target cost me $1.79 and a 1/2 cup of greek plain yogurt cost $1. it made 12 half cup servings. for the same amount of the cheapest yogurt i could find (yopliat) at .50 each, I saved just over $4. if the yogurt lasts me two weeks (at slow yogurt consumption, i'll run out before that) at the end of the year i will have saved $104, and reduced not only my consumption of chemicals and preservitaves but saved oddles of pounds (not sure how many) of waste from going to a landfill.

Ohm......

I got off work today, rushed home to my baby. my father is cool enough to watch the manchild in the time between when hubbs goes to work, and when i get home. it's not every day, but it's enough to make life way easier in the VNH household. and for once when i walk in the door, manchild is still sleeping (he'd been quite fussy today and didn't get his naps in). so i took this gift of time to do something i haven't done since manchild was born...

yoga

i'm a huge fan of yoga. but i haven't kept a regular practice since i got pregnant. up till then i'd been doing bikram (hot) yoga and that's just not do-able while preggo. i'd meant to keep a 'flow' practice going, but i was so miserable while pregnant, that i just didn't.

but today....ahhhh, today. i popped my favorite barron baptiste dvd in and just stayed in the moment. my butt was kicked, i was dripping sweat, but it was the most calm and centered i've been in.... a year. i'm fully planing on keeping up the practice, even if it's just a sun salutation a day.

and on that healing/positive energy vibe, i'm getting my first level in reiki tomorrow. i can't wait!!!!!