A Journal of My Days: 1/29/24

(Picture:  We started out the week needing this fire, but by the end of the week we were walking around outside in short sleeves as in temps in the upper 7o's and low 80's. What a crazy weather week it's been!)

The theme for this year is “Laser focused, hunkered down and spending as little money as possible.” 

Let’s see how we did this week …

In the Garden:  I spent time cleaning up raised beds and containers.  Every time I would go out to feed the animals, I would clean up a couple of containers or work on a section of a raised bed.  This is easy and doesn’t take up a lot of time.  It also makes a big job easily doable when broken down into smaller parts.

In the Kitchen:   I did a couple of cook-a-heads for the upcoming week.  I like to have sausage already cooked for my breakfast and so cooked some ahead for next week.  I also used the air-fryer and cooked chicken as well.  Speaking of air-fryer, the decision has been made as whether to keep it or rehome it … that little ‘handmaiden’ isn’t going anywhere!  I’m so glad I made myself do an air-fryer challenge!

I also made a jar of scrubbing powder to use as a cleaner and another bottle of all-purpose cleaner.

The scrubbing powder recipe I use came from Homesteading Family.  It simply consists of equal parts of baking soda and salt.  I mixed a quart jar full, so I don’t have to make it every time I get ready to clean.  I sprinkle some on the area I want to clean, wet a cleaning cloth and go at it.  Honestly, it does as good as any purchased scrubbing powder I have used, it’s a lot more cost effective and much less toxic.  

I’ve used the following all-purpose cleaner recipe for years and while from time to time I've tried others, I always come back to this one …

All- Purpose Cleaner 

In a 32-ounce spray bottle add:

1 cup rubbing alcohol and 1 teaspoon dishwashing liquid

Fill the rest of the bottle with tap water.  Give it a good shake and it’s ready for use.  I also give it a good shake before I use it as well!

In the Pantry:  My preserving day this week was on Friday, and I pulled some pinto beans out of storage and canned them.  I had some leftover turkey broth and added it to the liquid I used to cover the beans in the jars.

Health/Fitness:  After continuing to read about all the ways intermittent fasting is good for us, I committed to trying to do a clean fast the hours that I was already fasting.  A clean fast means you drink only water, black coffee, or black tea … unsweetened of course.  Tuesday was my first clean fast day and I have stuck with it since. 

Bargain and/or Loss Leader Shopping:  The only items we purchased this week were milk and low-carb flour tortillas.  I’m so thankful for a well-stocked pantry that makes this possible!

From my Sewing Nook:  My sister and I started sewing on the last piece of our log cabin Christmas quilt we are doing together via long distance using technology. The next step is to find a place large enough to lay it out and put it together in the correct design so it can be sewn together!  This is not going to be a small endeavor as this is going to be one LARGE quilt!

I started looking at ‘orphan’ quilt blocks I have to see if I have enough to put together in some sort of arrangement to make the quilt coat I want to do or if I’ll need to stitch up some.  Orphan blocks are leftover blocks from a quilting project, blocks you are trying out, or maybe even blocks from a project that you’ve just lost interest in and never finished.

What I’m Reading:  I finished Delay, Don’t Deny by Gin Stephens and started reading another book by the same author Fast, Feast, Repeat.

I also started reading All That She Carried by Tiya Miles and Women of the Word by Jen Wilkin.  All of these are being read on Libby the library app.

Bible Study:  I completed and posted lesson 15 in our ladies Bible study on Esther.  It can be found HERE.

I’m also continuing to write out the book of Genesis.  Myself along with the group I’m doing this with are almost ready for chapter 6.  In my humble opinion, you can study books about the Bible, but nothing takes the place of reading and studying the Bible itself!

In addition:  I’ve been decluttering this week!  I had not put our Christmas decorations back in storage yet, yes, they were down and in tubs.  I wanted to go through all of them, combine, discard and downsize all of it before putting the tubs back in storage.  I did that this week.  I discovered that there are several things that I won’t need to purchase for several years!!!

I’ve also been working in my pantry, rotating and inventorying what we have trying to get an idea of what we need to focus on in our garden this year as well as in our shopping.

That’s it for this week,

until next time,

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

Sharing 44 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

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