From My Home to Yours: 6/6/25

  From My Home to Yours

6/6/25

~ pantry pic, money talk and more ~

I've been continuing to work on cleaning and organizing my pantry.  I started on this section a couple of weeks ago and finished it this week.  Yes, I'm taking it slow and working it in, in and around our hectic schedule right now ... but I'm determined to get my pantry in tip top shape ... one area at a time.

On the top shelf are beef broth, quilts and a crocheted blanket ...

On the bottom shelf are chicken broth, a quilt and another crocheted blanket ...

In the wooden soda boxes below the piece of furniture there are various soups.

(It was time to pack the quilts and blankets away for the summer and this is how and where I store them during their 'off' season.  Many of our furniture pieces serve more than one purpose, this is just one example!)

I've started working on inventorying and cleaning another area of my pantry and things are topsy-turvy!  You know what it's like when you empty everything out of something, clean it and then put everything back together???  I'm in the emptying out stage, enough said!!!  Maybe by next week I'll have it in some kind of order that I can share it with you ... but I'm not promising!  

(pictured:  a cluster of elderberry flowers on our property)

Looking back over last week's post in which I shared that we had been able to make 2 payments on our new to us vehicle for the month of May, I want to clarify something.  Just reading the post made it sound so easy; however, it was anything but easy.  We had to work hard not to spend, cut corners when spending was necessary and decide to be content.  Having said that, I also need and want to say that we are in no way depriving ourselves of what we need, we did reduce our personal allowances, but since this is a long-term goal, we opted not to cut them out completely as we did for a time in our hunkering down journey last year.  In order to stick with the goal, we've chosen, we decided that a little 'pocket money' for each of us every month would be beneficial in the long run.  Our thinking is that it will cut down on the urge to go on a spending spree because of our self-imposed budget.  Let me also make it clear that we've set this goal because we want too, no one is making us, it's something we want to do.

Along the same line, I have had my eye on a quilt pattern for quite some time.  This past week the owner of the shop had a really nice sale on all her patterns in her shop.  I had been waiting to purchase the pattern because I knew this once-a-year sale was coming, I had saved enough of my personal allowance to be able to purchase it once the sale started.  I would visit the site and look at the pattern, I really wanted it and since I was going to use my personal money to buy it, I knew it was just a matter of waiting for the sale!  And then life happened, and we needed both of our personal allowances ... and I didn't purchase the pattern.  I made up my mind not to be a 'debbie downer' about it and looked for a free version that was somewhat similar or had the same 'theme' to the pattern I wanted.  I found one and started on it this week.  No, it's not what I originally wanted, but it will do.  I decided to share this so you can see that when we set a goal that we are committed to meeting, it WILL require sacrifices.  This week for me it was the quilt pattern I had been saving for ... I just couldn't bear not meeting our vehicle payment goal the very first month and for such a trivial thing!  Please do not 'feel sorry' for me, I don't!  This is called 'adulting!'

(pictured:  a second planting of tomatoes ... succession planting if you will ... the goal is to have fresh from the garden tomatoes to eat all summer long.  This variety is old fashioned German pink, and yes, they are heirloom.)

(pictured:  purple majesty sweet potato slips)

We were given 'purple majesty' sweet potato slips this week by a gentleman and fellow gardener from church.  I didn't have time to plant them immediately so put them in a jar of water.  Soon little roots will start to develop, and I'll get them in the ground then.  Just as a sidenote, I have planted both rooted and unrooted sweet potato slips with equal success.  Because of time constraints right now, these will have the opportunity to grow roots and with any luck we'll be eating purple sweet potatoes this fall and winter!

We harvested our first squash this week and from the look of the vines, will have plenty by next week to preserve.  We also dug more blue potatoes this week and enjoyed them in a meal.  It's really nice to be able to start eating fresh from the garden produce. 

As part of my daily garden walk right now, I'm harvesting both mullein flowers and calendula flowers before they either drop off (mullein flowers) or dry up (calendula flowers).  They both do their thing regular quickly, so diligence and daily harvesting is the name of the game if I want them.  These are seasonal for our area, and one has to be on top of their game if they're going to get the flowers.  I use the mullein flowers in herbal remedies and the calendula in herbal salves.

In addition to mullein flowers and calendula flowers, I've harvested yarrow, oregano, sage, tarragon, elderberry flowers and plantain.  All of these will be used for herbal and or culinary uses in my kitchen.

I did some crocheting while we were traveling.  You can take a peek at one of the items I completed over on Grandma's Got a Sewing Machine.

Ladies, the next lesson in our Bible study on Hagar has been posted HERE!  I hope you'll pop over and take a look.

That's all for this week!

I hope you've found something in my ramblings that will help and or encourage you in the upcoming week.

Until the next time ...

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

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

You might be interested in my other blogs ...

Grandma's Got a Sewing Machine 

From This Heart of Mine