A good day

I'm taking baby steps in altering my schedule to that of full-time homemaker/frugal goddess. I already have been doing many frugal things and have been a mostly full-time homemaker since I got out of the Navy when Zach was a baby. But incorporating all of that to a full time status and looking at it as a profession rather than as what-I'm-doing-now-while-I-wait-for-a-crappy-minimum-wage-job is a bit of a task. This...by that I mean taking care of my home and family...has always been conveyed to me as a lesser thing. The greater thing is going out and getting a job and having two incomes so we could have more things and a better retirement.

I prefer this.

I got a book from the library that I've been almost unable to put down (obviously I did or I wouldn't be blogging right now.) I'd been intermittently reading a blog called Cold Antler Farm and I just discovered the author had written a book called Made from Scratch. It's really good. Even if I don't want to homestead to the degree she does, it's still very informative and inspiring. I do want to find out if we can have chickens here in town. And while I'm really intrigued about beekeeping, I'm not sure it's a good idea when you've got a son whose OCD issues includes terror of bees.

Still...I'm thinking hard about how to incorporate all of our yard to make it more productive. I'm pretty sure I'm going to scythe the prairie garden since it still doesn't look good at all and use it for maybe terraced gardening since it's such a steep slope. I'm hoping I can get my physical stamina and strength up to speed by spring because I would be the only one really working on it.

I'm trying not to envision this with eyes bigger than my stomach. And yet, maybe it would be good to push myself further than I think I'm capable.

I'm definitely going to use seed catalogs this year because the seeds I get from StuffMart are really crappy and don't seem to grow very well. I'm looking at heirloom seeds, too, for some things.

I didn't get the clothes pegged out until late morning because I was still awake at 4 a.m. and let myself sleep in until 11. They are almost dry except for the coat that is going to the thrift store when it dries so I will have time to get them down before the snow starts falling. If it does start falling.

I started cleaning the fridge today and hope to have it done before bedtime. I need to keep up with this stuff before it gets too bad. No reason I can't do it. Tomorrow I'm going to start working on the pantry downstairs, clearing it out and giving it a massive clean up. I can store some things down there which would make the upstairs pantry (which is just some racks in a cubby that used to house the refrigerator (but our fridge now is too big and is situated across from the sink so you can't actually open the door and get through the kitchen at the same time.)

Zach asked for some mitts today so I'm going to look for some manly patterns for him. My aunt wants thick socks so it won't take as long to knit those as it would fingering weight. I need to get to Hartford for that though because Banner Crafts has Wool ease there and that's what I like to knit socks with. And somewhere in there I need to work on my cardigan and my beaded scarf.

I need someone with a big stick to keep me off line more often!

Okay...not a big stick. A big fluffy pillow.

Well, supper is ready so I must eat while it's still warm. Hopefully this new attitude will grow incrementally and I'll be more productive each day.

TTFN