Frugal Luxuries: The Library

I’m a reader. Or, I was a reader until I became a mommy. Now I’m a fugitive reader, reading on the run.

My husband’s a reader also, and we have a pretty extensive personal library. At last count it was between 1500 and 2000 books, and maybe 50 magazines (mostly his, I chop my magazines).

That’s a lot of cash sunk into books, I know. We seldom purchase them at full price, and we’ve been collecting them since we were teens, but it’s still a lot of money over the years. Lately we’ve been trying to be good and kick our book buying habits, reserving purchases for books that we know we will re-read by authors that we love.

So, what are the options besides purchasing books? Borrowing them, of course!

Most libraries are public and free for residents, and many have audio books and movies as well! Some are even coming into the digital age, allowing patrons access to e-books and digital audio books. And if your library doesn’t have a book you’re looking for, ask if they have an inter-library loan system so you can borrow books from other libraries.

I love our local library, it’s an old building with beautiful character, and I grew up using that library. We even had our wedding in that library. But their choices are a bit limited. They have fantastic children’s and young adult sections, and personally I love their sci-fi/fantasy section (it’s very much to my taste). But, the rest of their selection, while very good, is small and once you’ve read through it you’re a bit stuck.

To this end we purchased a one-year subscription to a much larger library in the town I work in. It’s $45 a year for a single person, and they belong to a large network of libraries which expands the selection even further. We’re able to get e-books and digital audio books, and the audio books are great for when I’m busy with Max but still want to “read” a book!

If you haven’t been to your local library lately, give them another look. Maybe they’ve been busy upgrading since the last time you visited. Or, if you’re in need of more selection go the next town over. Do a little research and find out what library is connected to a network and has access to digital selections. It opens up a whole slew of options.

Playgroup, the Potty, and the Park

We had a really nice weekend. Saturday morning we hosted our monthly playgroup, and everyone was healthy, in town, and able to make it! It was quite the house-full – six mommies and eight kids – and it was so much fun. Max crawled around and kissed all of the little girls (the ones that he could catch), then he pulled himself up on me, grabbed my fingers, and away we went walking two laps of the room. He’s quite the little show-off.

(This might be a little bit TMI – but if you’re a parent you’ll understand) I started a new “routine” with Max this weekend as well – communal potty time. He’s a great one for learning by observation, so I thought it would be good to know about this pee-pee on the potty idea. He sits on the bathroom floor (mostly checking out the digital scale) hanging out while I go potty. Then after mommy is done he watches me flush the toilet and wash my hands, while I keep up a running monologue. Then we take off his diaper and he gets to sit on the potty. I give him a minute or two until he starts getting antsy, then we flush the toilet and wash our hands (this time he gets to wash his hands too). He’s enjoying it so far, and even though he’s only 9 ½ months old it’s good for him to get used to sitting on the potty even if nothing happens. Kristi over at Wee Little Changes wrote this morning on potty training her kids, and how she found starting earlier worked better. Maybe not quite this early, but it’s certainly not unheard of. The Chinese are well known for having their infants potty trained at a very early age, and my (American) father-in-law and his brother were both potty trained shortly after they started to walk.

Yesterday we broke out the backpack carrier and went to a local state park. It was a beautiful spring day (unlike today), in the 50s with a cool wind but a warm sun. Max fell asleep in less than ten minutes and had a pretty solid nap while hubby and I strolled around. I got some cute photos of Max, but of course they’re still on the camera. I’ll try to update the post tonight. We weren’t the only ones with the same idea, there were a half dozen cars parked at the entrance.

Oh – and this morning! I forgot to mention (so proudly) that Max is so close to saying banana. He loves bananas, and even though he gets breakfast at daycare he generally insists on a pre-breakfast snack of half of a banana. (yes, for most 9 ½ month olds a half of a banana would be breakfast, but not our baby Jethro.) This morning I put him in his highchair so I could put together my lunch and he pointed at the bananas on the counter and demanded, “bababa.” I asked him if he wanted a banana, and he answered, “yeah.” I love that kid.

His vocabulary currently includes (in order of appearance):

• Yum (at 4 months)
• Mama (at 6 months)
• Cat (only for my parents’ cat)
• Bah (his pacifier)
• Yeah (his affirmative, he hasn’t learned no yet thank goodness!)
• Hey (to get our attention)
• Hi Dad (his first sentence, and the first time he said dad/dada, at 9 months)
• Dada (yes, “Hi Dad” came before Dada by about 30 seconds)
• Bababa (aka banana)

He babbles a lot too, but he uses his words with purpose immediately after learning them. I can’t think of a time that he used a word out of context, though occasionally he’ll include one in babble. It’s still a little weird to ask him a question and have him answer, “Yeah.” He’s a smart cookie!

I’m Wearing Real Clothes Today!

sorry for the blurry photo!

I’m wearing a skirt with a regular waist band (no elastic) from my pre-pregnancy wardrobe! And a bra with an underwire, no shapeless mommy bra today! And cute flats, also from pre-pregnancy! No, this is not an April Fool's joke. :)

This is a huge deal. Losing the weight from pregnancy was easy – I went down to my pre-pregnancy weight within three months of giving birth with no effort on my part. However, I’m now a totally different shape with lots of extra belly. Making my clothes not fit. Ugh. I bought a few pairs of “transition” pants (read: elastic waist) to get me through, but I’m still wearing them 9 months later. Which sucks. I’ve been eating healthy (per my normal), but I think I need to get a little extreme here. I think I need to exercise. <cue music> dum dum dummmm

I don’t go to the gym. I hate that exercising for exercising sake accomplishes nothing. Yeah, yeah, you’re doing it for self improvement, health, some people even find it meditative, etc etc. Good for you. Not for me. When I’m on the elliptical I’m envisioning all of the chores that I could be taking care of, or the projects that I could do, or everything else that is way more interesting and has a result. (and if I try to get into a meditative rhythm I fall off)

I blame my New England farmer genes. There’s this whole work ethic thing that was ingrained into us – if you have free time then you should put it to good use and accomplish something. Hobbies should be fruitful (like quilting, knitting, renovating your home). And exercise should be part of daily life, like tossing hay bales onto the back of the wagon. That was the most physically exhausting day of my life (besides childbirth, of course), and I loved it. I exercised my entire body and had a wagon full of hay bales to show for it. Unfortunately I don’t have a farm, just an ambitious garden. (My parents were the first generation to not be farmers.)

I had my son in summer, so by the time I was ready to start getting back into some semblance of a shape (you know, besides fluffy) it was cold out. My main form of exercise is walking, and I’m so not walking when it’s freezing outside. So I tried other ways to fit movement into my desk-job, mother-of-an-infant-soon-to-be-toddler, home-loving life. I tried Zumba. I loved it – but I hated the inconvenience of having to go to the gym, change, do the class, go home, give the baby his dinner, and his bath, and put him to bed, then eat my dinner and fall into bed. It just really didn’t work with my routine or Max’s.

I love the idea of workout videos, but I’m really really bad at follow-through. I totally slack off after one or two times. I can walk a bit more now that it’s warming up out, but I’d like to do something else besides walking a couple days a week. And I have a few villains to overcome…

Exercise Nemesis #1: Self motivation. I have plenty of discipline, but I’m not motivated. Mostly resulting from Nemesis #3.

Exercise Nemesis #2: Distractions. Chores, and projects, and baby, and husband, and all of the other things that I could be doing that are more interesting.

Exercise Nemesis #3: Prior failure. Not failure to stick to an exercise routine, in fact I was really good at it. To the point that I over did it in high school and lost too much weight. And had a small eating disorder. The strain on my body led to a hormonal imbalance which led to PCOS flaring up big time. As in gaining 80lbs in three months while on a diet and exercise plan big time. All of my efforts to lose weight since the PCOS reared its ugly head have been failures. My body refuses to lose weight past a certain plateau point (a common symptom of PCOS). So I essentially gave up. Why bother, especially since when I didn’t exercise I still stayed the same weight? But, I might be able to lose weight now. Sometimes the female body will reset itself after having a child and the PCOS can go away. I’m crossing my fingers.

To help with motivation I’m trying to focus on my goals:

Actively play with my son. Crawling around on the floor: check. Racing around the backyard when he starts walking and running: I’m working on that.

Wear my old wardrobe. I like my clothes. I’d edited my wardrobe to a really great point and I want to fit into it again. I’d also like to not have to resize my rings. The shoes are going to have to be stretched though, I don’t think my feet are shrinking.

Be ready. If the apocalypse hits and there are zombies roaming around, I need to be ready to run away. Or, you know, be ready to lend a helping hand if someone needs help lugging boxes around or walking the neighbor’s dog or something.

If I can incorporate some of my distractions into the workout, even better. Like taking Max for walks, or dancing while doing the laundry.

Now I just need to figure out some sort of exercise plan that I can do that fits in with Max’s routine, my routine and hubby’s routine, that isn’t boring, that is effective, and that I can do at home. Thoughts? Suggestions? I’d appreciate feedback.

Batch Cooking #2

the freezer after the last batch cooking session

We’ve cleaned out our freezer lunches from the last batch cooking session – so I’ve started up again. This time I made or am in the process of making:

DONE Taco Casserole (my own design, it was a massive fail but I have ideas for round two)
DONE General’s Pork over brown rice (aka shredded cooked pork with jarred General Tso’s sauce)
DONE Chicken Noodle Soup
DONE Tex-Mex Sticky Rice with pork (I got a good deal on pork recently)
Breakfast Sandwiches (fried egg sandwiches cut in half, for breakfast not lunch)
Macaroni & Cheese
Chili (I don’t know why I am unable to make decent chili without a recipe, it should be so easy…)

The Plan:
I decided not to try and fit everything into one weekend like I’ve done in the past. That idea had been inspired by the once a month cookers. It seems so awesome, the idea of only cooking once a month. I just haven’t found that it works well for me. I cook for a few days instead, and will freeze leftovers to have quick things available. But once a month cooking, even for lunches, is too much trouble for me at the moment.

Instead, I’m making one per week, which gives me a little more wiggle room. So far I like doing it this way a lot better - it gives me time to do other stuff on what would have otherwise been a purely cooking weekend. (Such as doing other stuff like ripping up the kitchen floor to get the broken dishwasher out because the previous homeowner installed another layer of ½” subflooring after putting in the snugly fit dishwasher, making it impossible to get the dishwasher out without demolishing something. Idiot.)

I’ve gotten a lot of great tips on freezer cooking (or cooking for the freezer) over at Life as Mom. In particular:
http://lifeasmom.com/2010/09/how-to-do-freezer-cooking.html - lots of links on this post
http://lifeasmom.com/2009/11/freezer-cooking-what-can-you-freeze.html - a quick guide on what you can successfully freeze

It doesn’t have to be lunches or dinners, by the way. My mom freezes cookies. Every few weeks she makes dozens of chocolate chip cookies and then freezes them. She brings a dozen or two to work every Friday, so this way she doesn’t have to bake every single week. (Lucky bastards. I could be eating those cookies instead.)

So, do you make extra food? Do you freeze it for later? Do you make meals just for the freezer?

Frugal Luxuries: Broth – Too Simple for Words…

…or is it? bwahaha!

Yes, we’re talking broth today. Or stock. Choose your favorite word. I’ll be using both. The definitions contradict each other saying that the other one is the one with chunks, but I’m referring to flavored water with no chunks. In my mind (related to this topic at least) chunks=soup. Lots of chunks=stew. No chunks=broth/stock.

I use chicken broth the most, so that’s what I’ll be referring to today. But you can also make vegetable, pork, or beef broth. (Apparently pork broth is a hot topic? Odd. Maybe because of its strong flavor, and that a lot of Western style recipes are chicken or beef based? Your thoughts? I’m loving the comments over here.)

My basic stock making method:

Step 1: Start with a gallon freezer bag (clearly labeled, we don’t want mixup on this one) kept in the freezer. Put chicken bones and vegetable trimmings in the bag.
Note: Good vegetables to use are celery, onion, carrot. Potatoes don’t tend to add a lot of flavor. Mushrooms are so/so. Tomatoes are generally not used, but you might dig them.

Step 2

Step 2: When the bag is full, dump the contents in a big pot, fill with water, and simmer for a few hours. Two hours seem to be the minimum. If desired, add in salt, garlic, and spices. I put in a little salt but hold off on the spices etc, I add that later when I’m prepping the actual dish I’m using the broth in.

Step 3: Let the pot cool.

Step 4: Strain out the solids and discard them.

Step 4

Note: To make the straining out process even easier, I have a stock pot that has a nesting colander. It’s pretty spiffy. I put the colander in the pot and then put the stock ingredients into the colander. It makes Step 4 a breeze.

Step 5: Admire your broth. Skim off fat once it cools. Store in the fridge or freezer.

My broth came out pretty thinly flavored – but I also stretched it to 10 quarts. I’m ok with that because I tend to add a lot of other flavor (herbs, spices, meat) when using stock in recipes. You may want to add less water to get a stronger flavored broth.

It really is ridiculously inexpensive since you’re using things that you’d throw away anyhow, minimal spices, and water. It’s almost free! Way better than paying over a dollar per quart in the store!

Mother’s Day Raffle to Benefit Japan

Photo courtesy of A Bit of This and a Bit of That

As you may remember, I featured Rita from Surfing Silver last month for the beautiful key fob that I gave my husband for his 30th birthday. She has teamed up with a fellow blogger, Jo at A Bit of This and a Bit of That, for a raffle benefitting organizations who are assisting Japan in the aftermath of the tsunami.

The rules are pretty simple: Make a donation to one of the organizations she lists, then post the receipt number and your email. The raffle will close on Monday, April 4th, and the winner will be selected at random.

The winner will receive a silver Mommy bracelet (or pendant), like the one in the photo but using your own child’s artwork. If you aren’t a mommy, daddy, or grandparent, or don’t have a little one to draw something precious for you to be engraved on the bracelet, Ebi-kun (Jo’s little one) can draw a masterpiece just for you.

I’ve already donated and entered, and I hope you will too – it’s for a good cause and you get the chance to get something pretty in return.

The direct link is http://jojoebi.blogspot.com/2011/03/mothers-day-love.html

Max’s Bookshelf

Max’s room has been in some desperate need of easily accessible storage to help the toys-all-over-the-floor situation. He loves toys, even if sometimes he has a very loose definition of “toys.” He has a piece of folded cardboard that came with one of his outfits that he just loves, he pretends it’s a book and that he’s reading it. He won’t pretend to read actual books, but that piece of cardboard he’ll open and close, and open and close… He’ll even babble to me as he reads it. Very serious, he is.

Back to the point - he needs storage. My requirements:

• Easily accessible for an infant/toddler
• Tall enough that he can’t reach a lamp sitting on the top shelf
• Sturdy (I know he’ll be climbing it when he thinks I’m not looking)
• Relatively aesthetically pleasing
• Something neutral that he can grow with
• Inexpensive, or even better, free

We don’t really have spare furniture so moving in a piece from another room wasn’t a great option as I would then be lacking in another room. I scoured thrift stores, Craigslist and FreeCycle for over a month with no success. I just didn’t like anything. I had a vision of long and low in my head, with different sized cubbies for different sized toys and books, and that wasn’t appearing.

Then, I remembered some Ikea bookcases (two different sizes) that we had used in an apartment but didn’t assemble here since we have a lot of built-in bookcases. Essentially they’re spare lumber. With some pre-drilled holes and lots of screws…

I did a lot of measuring and planning, and made a diagram. I used the larger bookcase frame as a base and half of the smaller for the top, trying to incorporate as many pre-drilled holes as possible.



I cut the ends off two long edge boards (where they were curved to fit over floorboards) and cut two shorter shelf boards in half. Then I did a lot of measuring and pre-drilling. And some more pre-drilling when I put those holes in the wrong spots. (thankfully hidden by other boards)



Then I assembled the whole unit, using exactly the number of screws that came with the units. Cool, huh? I also used iron-on veneer to cover the rough ends on the long boards. If you tilt your head sideways to the right you can see the 1 1/2 bookcases that went into this.



I debated painting it white, but I’m glad I stuck with the light wood. We brought it up to Max's room and I secured it to the wall studs with some strapping that came with the bookcases.



I love them, Max loves them (or at least loves pulling himself up on them), I got some practice building something, and they were free. I had everything except the veneer, which my dad bought for another project that he never ended up doing.

What do you think?


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