Blue Jeans and Cotton Tees

Milk. It’s a staple in almost every household, a basic ingredient in almost every refrigerator.

But have you seen the prices? They keep going up! I cringe when my children pour extra milk on their cereal and don’t drink it. (Don’t worry, I’m working on that habit!)

We use a lot of milk, not just to drink, but in cooking. Since we’ve moved to the country, it’s hard to keep milk on hand. You don’t just run to the store to pick up a gallon. A trip to any store is a well-planned event.

In the past I would keep dry milk on hand to mix up and use in baking, but the price of dry milk keeps going up as well. It’s no longer the bargain it used to be.

I also watch the price of evaporated milk and stock up when it’s on sale. It tastes fine in cooking or baking. It even adds a creamier texture to mashed potatoes without all the extra fat from cream. But even the sale price has been higher lately.

My friend Kristin recently told me of another option, freezing milk. I was skeptical at first, but have found that it really does work.

She just puts the entire 2 gallon jug in the freezer. It freezes and stays good until you need it. It does take a few days to thaw completely, but works wonderfully well in any cooking you need to do.

Skim and 1% work the best. My children even used it on their cereal and drank it at meal times. They never knew the difference. If you freeze whole milk or 2% , it is okay to cook with, but it doesn’t taste quite the same.

Now I watch the milk whenever I’m in town and always pick up the jugs that are reduced for quick sale. They get put in the freezer as soon as I get home and are ready to take out and thaw whenever I need them!

So this Thrifty Lady learned a very good lesson, two actually. The first is always be willing to examine a new thrifty idea and the second is, periodically reexamine your own thrifty ideas. Prices change, your needs change, and what has always worked before may not always work in the future.

We had a wonderful weekend at the NICHE Home School Conference! As always, the Lord sent just the things we needed to hear to encourage and motivate us.

Here’s just a small sampling:

• Todd Wilson: Be real. Show the chinks in your armor and be understanding when others do the same. There is no “perfect home school family”, every one has their share of trouble.

• Zan Tyler: Kids have to talk. Conversation builds tissues in the brains. My home should be bursting with language.

• Todd Wilson: If a plant loses some leaves, it can still grow, but if the stem of a plant is broken, the plant will die. My marriage is the stem. I need to cultivate it and be careful with it. Almost everything else (curriculum, money, houses, even home schooling) are leaves, there are just not that important.

• Zan Tyler: “Fold them the way they’re bent”. I need to adapt the training of my children to the way that God created them, their natural abilities and interests.

• Sarah Mally: Five goals for our home school: 1. Godliness 2. Wisdom 3. Knowledge 4. Skills 5. Ministry. Spiritual goals always come first!

• Sonya Shafer: Habits take up 1/3 of education. “The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days; while she who lets habits take care of themselves has a weary life of endless friction with the children.” ~Charlotte Mason

• Jan Bloom: Great books help your children to practice emotions. They should nourish the mind and the hearts. They should broaden our understanding and develop our imagination.

It was just the weekend that both my husband and I needed!

After spending a wonderful weekend at the annual home school conference, I was once again amazed at how many curriculum choices we have to choose from.

When I was first involved in home schooling, as a recent college graduate in the late 1980′s in the height of the home school battle, the parents I worked with had just two choices, A Beka or Bob Jones. Now there were two gyms full of vendors and  hallways full of the overflow. There are catalogs 2 inches thick full of curriculum choices.

How do you choose? You could easily spend thousands (I know people who do every year), but you don’t have too.  We spend very little on home school materials and I still think our children are getting an excellent education.

Want to know my secrets?

1. Use non-consumable books. That means no workbooks that one child writes in and then you thrown them away. Whenever possible we buy hard back books for the first child that each child down the line will also use. For example, we just purchased Apologia Chemistry for $55. Sounds expensive doesn’t it? But it’s a hard cover book that all 5 of my children will use. That brings its cost down to just $11 per child for an excellent curriculum. Then when we’re done with it, I can resell it. Or look at Spelling Power. We purchased the book for about $50 several years ago. It starts about third grade and continues until your child has completed every level (usually about 10th grade.) I have five children who will use that one book for about 8 years each, which would be 40 years total. That brings the cost of that one book down to slightly over a dollar a year for each child.

2. Use literature. I’m a big fan of the literature approach to education. I’ve read a lot about Charlotte Mason and practice many of her ideas. When ever possible I’ll use a book rather than a text book. Library books are free! We also love book sales, garage sales and thrift stores.

3. Buy used. Before shelling out the big bucks for brand new books, check out eBay, Amazon, or the Curriculum Market at Home School Legal Defense (http://market.hslda.org).

4. Ask yourself if you need it. So much of the curriculum and extras we buy never even get used. Give yourself three good reasons why you need it before you buy.

5. Remember that an expensive curriculum doesn’t guarantee an excellent education. Many of the pioneer children had just the McGuffy Readers, the Bible and a few other books. The most important part of your child’s education is teaching them to love to learn.

A quick stop at our local Amish Store and Nursery yielded me a lovely flat of bedding plants for just $4.

I’ve found that by waiting till June 1st, all of their bedding plants are marked way down. It’s a great way to get some beautiful, large plants for a great deal.

In this flat I was able to purchase: 18 dianthus plants, 6 petunia, 3 wave petunia, 6 pansy, 6 carpet of snow, and 6 small pretty blue flowers But I can’t remember their name!)

That’s 46 plants for just $4.

I was able to fill 6 planters and even used a few to fill in around my perennials in a flower bed.

The best part is, in another week or so I’ll stop back in. If they have any left, they just give them away.

Patience can be a very Thrifty Virtue!

It’s time for our Annual State Home School Conference and I am packed and ready!

This has become a tradition for my husband and I, a time away to really focus on our home and children. It’s a time to set goals, choose curriculum and be encouraged. It’s a time to evaluate where we are as a family and decide where we are going and how we are going to get there.

Some sessions we attend together, some we split up and take good notes. Everyday for lunch we picnic at a nearby park and talk over the things we are hearing.

We never know in advance just what speaker it will be that bring tears to our eyes or conviction to our hearts. But every year we come away blessed and thankful that we invested the time in our family.

I wonder what God will have in store for us this year?