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Simple Times

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Vol. 10, No. 18 -- September 20th, 2008

http://thesimplemom.wordpress.com/

debi

Copyright 2008 Deborah Taylor-Hough

ISSN: 1527-1269

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Subscribe: join-simple-times

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Celebrating 10+ years of saving your time, money and sanity!

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IN THIS ISSUE:

-- " Dear Readers "

-- Simple Living Quote

-- Seasons of Life

-- Prime the Pump-kin: Healthy Facts, Tips and Recipes

-- Letters to the Editor / Reader Tips

-- Assorted Information (archives, etc.)

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< < < O.U.R S.P.O.N.S.O.R > > >

 

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girls out of our 2-bedroom apartment. It worked! It's now 9

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better feeling than to have NO debts, and a savings account

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--Katrina S. in Houston, TX

 

What the heck ... Give DebtIntoWealth a try, today!

 

Click:

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Dear Readers,

 

My good friend, Catherine Levison, came to my church on

Saturday and presented one of her popular All-Day Educational

Workshops based on the philosophies of Charlotte Mason, a

British educator from the previous century whose ideas are

currently experiencing a rebirth, especially among American

private and home schools.

 

Catherine's workshop was wonderful! Everyone came away

inspired and refreshed ... and the lasagna lunch didn't hurt

either. ;-)

 

http://snurl.com/3ssr4 [whiteriverpres_synodnw_org]

 

 

I'm thinking about providing some future workshops at my church

in Auburn, Washington on topics like voluntary simplicity, frugal

living, home organization, educational ideas, freezer meal cooking,

parenting and general homemaking.

 

I'm curious if there are any Simple Times' readers out there in the

Pacific Northwest who'd be interested in attending something

along those lines if we sponsored it in Auburn? Feel free to

drop me a note at DSimple if you have any thoughts

you'd like to share about the idea.

 

 

Also, it's " that " time of year ... we're starting to think about

the upcoming December holiday season a bit here at Simple

Times. If you have any special money-, time- or sanity-saving

holiday tips you'd like to share with Simple Times readers,

please submit them to: DSimple (include the words

" Holiday Tips " in the subject line). Thanks in advance!

 

 

Simply Yours,

 

Debi

(Deborah Taylor-Hough)

Editor, Simple Times Email Newsletter

--Author of the popular 'Frozen Assets' series; 'A Simple Choice: A

practical guide for saving your time, money & sanity'; and 'Frugal

Living for Dummies®

--Editor, Simple Times, Solo Parents, and Bright-Kids email newsletters

________________________________

 

Visit my new site!

http://thesimplemom.wordpress.com/

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SIMPLE LIVING QUOTE

 

" Busy-ness ruins relationships.

It substitutes shallow frenzy for deep friendships.

It promises satisfying dreams, but delivers hollow nightmares.

It feeds the ego, but starves the inner man.

It fills the calendar, but fractures the family.

It cultivates a program, but plows under priorities. "

--Anonymous

 

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SEASONS OF LIFE

Copyright Deborah Taylor-Hough

Used with permission. All rights reserved.

--Excerpted and adapted from " A Simple Choice: A Practical

Guide for Saving Your Time, Money and Sanity " (Champion Press)

http://thesimplemom.wordpress.com

 

 

Many times we don't experience the joys of life as fully as we can

because we're too wrapped up in the busy-ness and daily-ness of

life. With so many conflicting complications tearing at the frame-

work of our lives, is it any wonder we sometimes long to escape

to a desert island and experience a little bit of that refreshing,

slower-paced " island " time?

 

Life throws so much at us, we often feel like we have no choice

but to knuckle down under it all. I've frequently heard people say

busy-ness is just a fact of modern life, and we'd just better learn

to handle it, or discover how to thrive in the midst of chaos.

 

Family responsibilities, careers, daycare, household chores, meal

planning, bills, errands, health issues, car pools, school functions,

sports, phone calls, traffic jams, community demands, church

committees, political races, taxes, debt. These are just a few of the

numerous -- and often difficult -- demands bombarding us daily.

 

When my first child was born, I was involved with a wide variety of

activities. I was working part-time at a local hospital. I volunteered

at an agency that offered peer counseling and support groups for

women in crisis. I answered a hot-line in my home. I facilitated

study groups. I was the Nursery Director and Preschool Sunday

School teacher at our church. And I did all the normal wife/mother/

homemaker things, too.

 

Busy, busy, busy, busy.

 

One day, before I'd finally stepped out of my over-commitments, I

saw in my mind a picture of my life. I was sitting in the center and

all around me were whirling the assorted activities that made up

my busy days. I suddenly noticed that not only my activities but

also my closely held personal priorities were circling around me.

 

It dawned on me that maybe the priorities (family, God, service

to others) needed to be set firmly in the center hub of the wheel

and I needed to make sure that the activities circling my life were

actually revolving around my priorities, rather than just around me

and my personal schedule.

 

I discovered that in order to be true to my personal priorities at

that time of my life, I needed to focus on being a wife. And a

mother. And to focus on the spiritual aspects of life. And to be

available. My life had been busy with service to others, but I found

even after I shifted my focus to my home, opportunities for service

continued to enter my life. Service to others became a natural

outgrowth of my life, rather than a title on a name tag or a job

description at church or one more " to-do " item on a list in my

day planner.

 

In the book, Finding Focus in a Whirlwind World, by Jean Fleming,

the author says that she sits down about three or four times each

year and re-evaluates her various activities in light of her priorities.

She said some seasons of life are full of busy-ness and we just

can't help it (sometimes that's just the way life is -- hectic and

full), but other times we need to be sensitive to possibly needing

to sit quietly and focus on quieter pursuits for a time.

 

In her book, Fleming compared her life to a tree. The trunk of the

tree was her number one priority (which in her case was a strong

commitment to God). Out of the trunk grew the main limbs which

were the main activities of her life (parenthood, career, etc.). And

then from the main limbs would grow all those little branches that

had a tendency to grow and multiply quickly. The little branches

were the general activities that would crowd in and fill up her day.

 

Just like a tree grows healthier and more fruitful by regular pruning,

Fleming saw her times of re-evaluating her activities as that time

of pruning her life to make it more fruitful. She found it more

productive to do a few things well, rather than being involved with

a myriad of conflicting activities, but not being fully fruitful with

any of them.

 

I learned a valuable object lesson about pruning and fruitfulness

in my own front yard. One year, I pruned back a Clematis plant

that was overgrowing the front of the house. I cut it back almost

to the stump. My husband and neighbors all thought I'd killed

the poor plant. And to be honest, sometimes I wondered if

maybe I'd been a little over-zealous in my pruning.

 

But the following Spring when the Clematis bloomed, it was

absolutely breath-taking. Every vine had an over-abundance of

blossoms. It was simply a mass of flowers -- unlike anything

I'd ever seen. Even people walking by on the sidewalk would

stop to comment on how full and beautiful my plant was that

year.

 

But I know that if I hadn't pruned the Clematis back to the bare

essentials, it would've continued to grow long and gangly, never

achieving the level of beauty and fullness that came from focusing

all its energy and growth into it's stem and main branches.

 

While we can't ever free ourselves fully from all of life's demands,

we can have hope to discover a sense of balance in our lives.

Or we can identify ways to shift between the two extremes --

finding a time and place in our lives and hearts for contemplation,

and then alternating that with other times of busy-ness and

distraction. In the book " Gift from the Sea, " Anne Morrow

Lindbergh describes this balancing act as " the process of

finding a rhythm of life with more creative pauses. "

 

It can be difficult to find balance in the midst of life's activities,

but finding focus is necessary in order to function properly and

reap full satisfaction and enjoyment from our busy lives full of

activities, relationships and commitments.

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

--Deborah Taylor-Hough is a free-lance writer, editor of Simple

Times E-zine, and author of several bestselling books including

Frugal Living For Dummies®, Frozen Assets: How to Cook for

a Day and Eat for a Month, and A Simple Choice: A Practical

Guide to Saving Your Time, Money and Sanity. Visit Debi online

at: http://thesimplemom.wordpress.com

________________________________

 

O.U.R S.P.O.N.S.O.R

 

Copycat Cookbook . com

 

Cook your favorite dishes from your favorite restaurants

right in your own kitchen!

 

You will save thousands of dollars per year by cooking just

one of these recipes each week rather than going out to eat!

Learn to cook the highly guarded secrets behind dishes from

Red Lobster

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Chili's

Olive Garden

TGI Friday's

Outback Steakhouse

Starbucks

 

http://stimes.drecipes.hop.clickbank.net/

 

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PRIME THE PUMP-KIN ... Healthy Facts, Tips and Recipes

Copyright 2002 Leanne Ely, C.N.C.

Used with permission. All rights reserved.

http://www.savingdinner.com/

(Recipes mentioned in this article are included at the end.)

 

 

After the apples are harvested late summer comes the epitome

of autumn -- the ripening of pumpkins. Beautiful, versatile pumpkins

of every imaginable size, variety and color even seem to turn mall

parking lots into a fall party with scarecrows and dried cornstalks

doing the decorating as children scramble to pick out " the biggest

one. "

 

And while children might enjoy such activity, there is great

nutritional value to be had in those parking lot pumpkins. Just

1/2 cup of pumpkin, yields 280% (of the RDA) of vitamin A,

4 grams of fiber, and 4% vitamin C, 2% calcium and iron is 8%.

Pumpkins are also rich in selenium, potassium and zinc.

 

But don't forget about the abundance of phytochemicals (over

18 phytochemicals -- unreal!) in pumpkin that make this food

a (super!) natural for fighting cancer. That's not too shabby for

a great, big squash.

 

For those of you with pumpkin intrepidation, don't worry! You

can open a can of pumpkin puree and do just as well. Here's

a few tips and ideas plus three tasty recipes to keep you in

pumpkin heaven for the fall:

 

 

PUMPKIN TIPS

 

*Try adding some pumpkin puree to your pancake batter this

Saturday. Sprinkle a few walnuts and cinnamon over the top of

the syrup and enjoy your fall pancakes!

 

*Pumpkin bread is a perfect hostess gift anytime during the fall,

but is very welcome at Thanksgiving. Make a big batch and freeze

them for later giving.

 

*On summer, I grew a big patch of Sugar Pumpkins (pie pumpkins)

and I baked them whole in the oven (removed a rack) till they were

soft. Then I removed the pumpkins, let them cool, took out the

pumpkin " innards " , took out the seeds and bagged it up in freezer

bags for later cooking. The cooking whole part made my harvesting

of the pumpkin easier because the hard outer shell was too difficult

to permeate with a knife.

 

 

PUMPKIN RECIPES

 

 

Honey Pumpkin Pie (adapted)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Serves 8

 

1 16-ounce can solid pack pumpkin (or pumpkin puree)

1 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup honey

3 eggs -- slightly beaten

2 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour (sold in health food stores)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 Pastry for single 9-inch pie crust (use your favorite recipe)

 

Combine all ingredients except pastry in large bowl, beat until

well blended. Pour into a pastry-lined, 9-inch pie plate -- how

hard is that? :-) Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or until a

knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

 

 

Maple-Roasted Squash & Pumpkin (adapted from Cooking Light)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Serves 8

 

3/4 pound acorn squash -- cut in half vertically; discard seeds

2 1/2 pounds pumpkin -- cut in half vertically; save seeds (recipe

follows)

1/3 cup maple syrup

1 1/2 tablespoons butter-- melted

1/4 cup sucanat (sugar substitute, available in health food stores)

teeny bit of salt

 

Cut each squash and pumpkin half into 8 wedges. Place wedges

in a 13 " x9 " -inch baking dish, lightly greased. Carefully drizzle

syrup and butter over wedges, and sprinkle with sucanat and a

little bit of salt. Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or until tender

and lightly browned, turning wedges every 15 minutes.

 

 

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1/2 pound raw pumpkin seeds

spray oil (I use a non-aerosol pump -- better for you)

salt to taste

 

Preheat oven to 250. Put the seeds in a bowl, and spray them

with oil. Sprinkle the salt over them, tossing to distribute evenly.

Spread on a baking sheet in one layer and bake until you hear

them popping and they are browned slightly, between 5 and 10

minutes. Cool completely and store in an air-tight container.

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

--Leanne Ely, CNC, is the author of a number of bestselling books

including Saving Dinner and Healthy Foods: An irreverent guide to

nutrition and feeding your family well. She's also the creator of a

unit study for teaching children about nutrition and healthy eating.

Visit Leanne online at: savingdinner.com

 

Browse Leanne Ely's books online at:

 

Saving Dinner

http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345464869/simplepleasuresp/

 

Healthy Foods

http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1891400207/simplepleasuresp/

 

Healthy Foods Unit Study

http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1891400150/simplepleasuresp/

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Feel free to forward this newsletter to your family and friends. :-)

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR / READER TIPS

We'd love to hear YOUR tips and ideas for simplifying daily life.

Send your simple living comments/tips to: DSimple

 

 

== Homemade Baby Wipes ==

A simple idea for those of us who have young children still in

diapers, and an inexpensive way to make " wet wipes. " You'll

need, good quality paper towel, liquid baby body wash soap,

baby oil, a one litre ice cream container and some water. Cut

the paper towel roll in half and place it in the ice cream container.

In 2 cups of water, mix in 2Tbs of baby wash and 2Tbs of baby

oil. Pour over paper towel and remove centre. Pull the wipes out

from the centre. Voila! Also very good for travel ... just fold a few

in the already purchased travel container.

--Lorelei M.

 

 

== Moving Ideas ==

I really enjoy the ideas and articles you include! Someone recently

suggested using plastic grocery bags as packing for moving. A friend

helped me pack, and she used my bath towels, wash cloths and

linens to pack breakables in. That way you protect your precious

heirlooms, and save boxes that would've been filled with the towels

and linens.

--Marchauna R., Boise ID

 

 

== Creative Baby Shower Ideas ==

Many of my friends are having child 2, 3 or 4. We have found

that having a Pantry Party or Freezer Party is a great baby

shower alternative. Instead of traditional shower gifts, guests

are asked to bring food items to stock the freezer or pantry.

This is a great help for mom after the baby arrives. If the

freezer is stocked with ready to heat and eat meals, she

has more time to spend with baby and older kids, especially

during the first few weeks of transition.

--Michele in Gillette, WY

 

[Editor's Note: Great idea, Michele! :-) For more information on

freeze-ahead meals, go to http://frozenassets.wordpress.com or

visit the Frozen-Assets Email Discussion Group's archives at:

frozen-assets ~Debi ]

 

 

== Homemade Bread " Special Flour " ==

I have a good and practical use for the powdery cereal leftover in

the bottom of commercial cereal boxes. I use it as an addition to

my homemade bread recipes! When I am pouring the last bowl

of cereal from the box, I am careful to leave the " powder " in the

bag. After I have accumulated several bags worth, I measure it

out in a measuring cup and adjust the flour amount in my bread

recipe. (I use a bread machine) It doesn't matter what kind of

cereal you eat, the powder gets incorporated. *If sugar cereal

is used, you may want to use less sugar. I have used up to 1

slight cup in a 4 cup flour recipe. I have also rinsed the empty

milk container and used the liquid in my bread recipes.

--Frances C.

 

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SIMPLE TIMES RECOMMENDED BOOKS

Book list for frugality and simple living

Go to: http://snurl.com/simplebooks

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SIMPLE TIMES ARCHIVES

 

Two years' worth of back issues are available by clicking the

" Read Messages " button at: http://snurl.com/st_archives

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As always, a special " Thank you! " goes out to Gary Foreman

and the friendly folks at the Dollar Stretcher for making this

mailing list possible!

 

== http://www.stretcher.com/ ==

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Feel free to forward this newsletter to your family and friends. :-)

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EDITOR'S BOOKS AND AUDIO RESOURCES:

Books and resources by Deborah Taylor-Hough

Editor, Simple Times Email Newsletter

http://snurl.com/debisbooks

________________________________

 

DEBI'S ON-LINE RESOURCES:

Personal Blog: http://dsimple.wordpress.com/

Frugality/Simplicity: http://thesimplemom.wordpress.com

Cooking Ahead: http://frozenassets.wordpress.com/

Bright-Kids: http://brightkids.wordpress.com

Tupperware®: http://snurl.com/DebiTupperware

Kids' Books: http://snurl.com/books4kids

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