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Grocery saving tips

I've written about this probably more than once over the years, but it might be time to revisit it. I'm still managing to keep our weekly grocery budget under $200 for eight people. That's with 90% of our groceries being purchased at Aldi. Not included in that number are trips to Costco, which are probably once every five weeks, an occasional bulk order, and the Chinese market. At Costco I buy paper towels, toilet paper, tissues, olive oil, peanut butter, some seasonings, mayonnaise, honey, and sometimes sun-dried tomatoes. That total is usually around $125. I tend not to buy much food there because often it costs more than at Aldi. The Chinese market I go to every couple of months where I stock up on ingredients that are impossible to find at my regular stores. This total is also around $125. The bulk order happens when I need more wheat or oats and I'll throw some other baking items in as well when I'm ordering. Figure around $150 for that depending on the price o...
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Fiber Monday - Conquering a nemesis

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I don't have much to share today. Much of my time this past week was spent doing horse related things and not fiber related things. It's such a shame that the hours in a day are not infinite. My pattern drafting class had a week break, which was very good because my business took a lot of time, but also not very good because yesterday I realized I had quite a bit of work I needed to do in order to have my next class be profitable.  This is why I have spent a pretty significant chunk of time trying to understand how to sew a fly zipper. It has always been one of those things that just hasn't made sense in my head, so I did a pretty good job of avoiding fly zips completely. Until now. Because the skirt I am drafting has a fly zipper. I couldn't really move on until I had figured them out.  I am happy... oh, so happy... to be able to share with you my first correctly sewn fly zipper.  I don't even want to say exactly how many hours these two pictures represent. The goo...
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My book recommendation for the week

Since I read a lot, I'm always on the lookout for new titles to add to my pile of books to read. Because truly, it makes me very uneasy to not have several books waiting for me as I get close to finishing one. Sometimes I will hear about a book, put it on my library hold list, then promptly forget about it. It's always a fun surprise to discover what books have arrived for me.  Such was the case with the book, The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt. No, as much as you might suspect this is yet another book related to the fiber arts, it's not. It's published by the New Directions Publishing Corporation under the Storybook ND label whose tag line is, "the pleasure of reading a great book from cover to cover in an afternoon." An afternoon might be stretching things. I read it in about an hour. Really, it's a short story in book form.  I didn't know this when I put it on hold. It's probably a good thing, because I don't typically enjoy the sho...
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Happy Birthday, Y.!

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Y. spent her birthday making baozi for our joint Lunar New Year and birthday celebration. They were very, very good, and there were even some leftover even after 15 people ate their full. We also had coconut beef curry, a lotus root stir fry, and apple pie for Y.'s birthday dessert.  Not everyone could make it, but most could. As always it was loud and funny and great to have these remarkable human beings around. Is was a very fun way to celebrate a very special child. Happy birthday, Y.!! We love you very much!
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All over the place

It's felt like a busy week and I have ended many days feeling as though my to-do list got longer instead of shorter. I don't like weeks like that. Admittedly, I tend to have a lot of different things going on, both from outside responsibilities as well as my own projects. When everything needs my attention at the same time, it can be a lot.  Because I don't have much bandwidth to write at the moment, I thought I would share some things that I have communicated to others in various venues this week.  "Please don't equate the fact a child is homeschooled with pathology." "Sometimes you need to go back and find the missing pieces and work on those before other learning can happen." "There are so many stressed parents out there who just want to fix their kids that they forget that they are part of the equation." "Honey has antibiotic properties, so I think we need to put that on the chicken's foot after the spray." "We have a...
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Transferable skills

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This morning, L., who takes care of the chickens, noticed one hen was limping. Upon closer inspection, L. noticed that one of the hen's feet looked oddly swollen. The hen was immediately whisked off to quarantine and L. started doing research.  It turns out the hen has a condition called bumble foot, which is when a chicken gets a cut on its foot and the cut becomes infected. It's painful and if not caught in time can lead to death as the infection moves through the body.  I write this as if I know about chicken illnesses. This is merely my reporting of L.'s research. It seems that it was caught early, which is good for the hen. It's also good for the hen that I wasn't in charge because I'm not sure I would have caught it.  Treatment involves soaking the infected foot in an Epsom salt solution, removing any scabs that have formed on the foot, treating with an antiseptic spray (it was a pleasant surprise to know we had this stashed in a cupboard), them wrapping t...
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Year of the Horse

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Today marks the start of the Lunar New Year. We're not celebrating tonight because of schedules, but will be celebrating this weekend. It lasts two weeks, so we're good. We're also ready. The decorations are up. The Chinese lantern window clings are also up, but they're impossible to take a photograph of.  The menu has been planned. Y. will be spending Saturday making two different kinds of baozi (steamed buns). This is her choice as she mostly associates the holiday with cooking good food. We'll be having other things as well, I just have to make a trek to the Chinese market before Saturday.  I'm case you don't celebrate the Lunar New Year (we certainly didn't before adopting children from Asia) we are now in the Year of the Horse. The Year of the Fire Horse, to be exact. This happens only once every six years and can signal a time of massive change and transformation. Let's all hope that it is positive change and massive transformation because our ...
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