Frugal Living

Hi family, I have been waiting for someone to put your news here but other than Luke it seems no one is taking an interest! I think Luke has done a wonderful thing getting this up and it would be so nice if we could take an hour or less every couple of weeks to add something!

Pop and I feel ashamed that we are not reading anything in full right now. We are mostly bits and pieces readers. I always feel great when I do find a book that holds my interest from beginning to end. Myself, I love to read cookbooks and do it yourself books. As for the Bible, I'm currently going through the book of Ecclesiastes. The reason I chose this book is that the women in our church are having a study of it and I haven't joined up so thought I should read it. Of course I have always loved Solomons poem "A Time for Everything". These are familar verses to most people because of the folk song by Simon and Garfunkle. I'll bet a lot of people don't even know that it is from the Bible! It is a beautiful way of expressing the truth that God does have a plan for all of us. We all have an appointed work to do while on earth. My Bibles explanation for this part...The secret to peace with God is to discover, accept, and appreciate Gods perfect timing. The danger is to doubt or resent Gods timing. This can lead to dispair, rebellion, or moving ahead without his advice. This makes me think of Isaiah 40:31 which tells us to wait upon the Lord. Solomon had it all and was still unsatisfied. Which should teach us that we will not find our happiness in things or even in our work unless we are doing all to the glory of God. I struggle alot with getting tired and doing for others and not getting the thanks I want. I think reading this book will help me get the right attitude that I am serving God not man!
I am only a few chapters into the book. So there is my little commentary.

I titled this Blog "Frugal Living" as the one book I like to go back to again is the "Tightwad Digest". I believe the author has written more books on this topic but I only have one. Over the course of the 18 years that we had eight people in the house I did very little outside the home(except vegetable gardening!) So I liked to cut corners wherever possible to be a good helpmeet to my husband. I knew he was living most of his life on the road and in the postoffice. So I felt it my job to make the most of his earnings. I am sure I could have done better but I thought I would share a few things as Julia said to me the other day "I don't know how you and Pop did it!" I know eating out was a pretty rare thing for us. We maybe got to Country Cooking once a month if that. We never went to the movies but we did listen to the Old Time Radio Hour on Sunday nights! I know for a fact that breast feeding all six of you and cloth diapering saved us a WHOLE LOT of money. It may sound strange but I loved those jobs. I feel strange calling them jobs. It was a joy and a priviledge. Just about everyone was using Pampers then also so alot of people thought I was a bit strange but I loved the Old fashion way of doing things and The price of Pampers or whatever always made me proud that we weren't submitting. I saw a write up recently that compared cloth diapering expenses(washing etc.) to Disposable over a two year period; cloth diapering costs approx.; $750.00 and disposables $2,500! Quite a difference I'd say! We had many a meal of pinto beans and cornbread which seemed make you kids happy enough. A special meal was rice, beans and cornbread! : ) I always used a bib so you children were nice and clean and laundry was kept to a minimum. I always liked the big ones with a pocket that would catch the food so I had less to pick up off the floor. . A bib could easily be rinsed out in the sink. Whereas clothes took more time to wash. Speaking of washing I never used the dryer unless we were having a rainy day. Remember when I put a sign on the dryer telling you boys not to use it unless it was raining? Your Papa had told me dryers use alot of electricity so I took that as my cue to use it sparingly. I did not mind as hanging out clothes is a very peaceful job. In the winter we probably used the dryer more but often hung diapers and clothes on drying racks. I know you kids can think of many things we did wrong but I do have so many sweet memories of it all! Love, Mom