Gratitude and Frugal Accomplishments

at the pond

I'm thankful to be joining in with the Frugal Accomplishments community today.  I canned dill relish, oven canned 15# quinoa, and dehydrated carrots.  I borrowed season 2 of Call The Midwife from the library.  I canned dill pickles, and made homemade pickling spices, enough for 2 canning sessions.  Oven canned 12# jasmine rice.  Cut up a pineapple and started a batch of pineapple vinegar.

As a soapmaker, I end up with lots of little scraps of soap, which I keep in mason jars.  This week, I added water to the scraps and made soap gel in the blender.  I generally add some gel to each load of laundry, do my hand washing with it, and keep some in a dispenser at the bathroom sink.  For a ladies homesteading potluck, I brought asian cucumbers.  There were so many wonderful dishes at the potluck, and great conversation and sharing.  If you are interested in homestead-type endeavors, and learning and sharing with other women, you may like to check out the Ladies Homestead Gathering.

blue tailed skink on our front step

I weeded the potato bed, and other spots as I came across them in the garden.  Harvested cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, tromboncino squash, blueberries, blackberries, swiss chard, and apples.  I made kefir, yogurt  and kombucha, and gave the extra scoby to the chickens.  The pups got grated broccoli and cauliflower stems, cucumbers and fallen apples with their dinner.  They also got a boiled egg a couple of nights.  I emptied a water bottle into the birdbath.

I've been researching some staples I want to stock up on, finding the best deals on organic sugar, walnuts, toilet paper, & canning supplies.  Recent suggestions from a number of various sources about the need to stock up have me believing it seems a prudent thing to do at this time.  As grocery prices tend to go up, I figure the worst that can happen is I will save money on the groceries we typically use.  I made bread crumbs from bread ends, and crushed a pan of eggshells to add to our compost bin.  The chickens got a watermelon rind, a small amount of leftover spaghetti, and lots of Japanese beetles.  Shared some basil trimmings with friends who had no luck with theirs.  Once the canner water cooled down, I watered plants with it.

Something one of the commenters said on The Prudent Homemaker last week struck a chord with me.  She noticed that everyone taking part in the frugal community there had a positive attitude.  Though they may have lost a job, lost a spouse through death or divorce, or had some other major setback, each was doing what they could with what they had to make their lives better.  That surely takes you further than moaning and groaning about circumstances.  Then I saw this quote via Elizabeth Gilbert- "Gratitude turns what we have into enough."  That sums it up perfectly, to my way of thinking.  Some see living frugally as being cheap or miserly, but the way I see it, making the best use of our resources and being grateful for all we have is the wisest way to live.