The New Arrival

She came on Tuesday.  It was a little bit snowy, but the delivery went well.  Bright, shiny and brand, spanking new.  Here she is folks...

My beautiful 15 cubic foot freezer.  My heart sings a little each time I think of her.  She sits in my basement, spacious and empty, just waiting to be filled.  I have big plans for her.  Seriously, I think she need a name, a sturdy name like Martha or Bertha.  I have wanted a chest freezer for a long time and my husband and I finally decided to use a little money we'd set aside to purchase one.  We did some research and really thought it over.  A chest freezer may not make sense for everyone, but it does for us.  Here are the deciding factors:

-I make most of our food from scratch.  This means that I don't have a lot of convenience foods sitting on the shelves.  It will be nice to have a place to store extra batches of soup and loaves of bread.  Being able to make larger batches of food will allow me to save time and money.
-We have a decent-sized garden.  Although I aspire to learn to can (and I hope to this summer with the help of my friend Kelly and her grammy), I don't yet.  The freezer will allow us to save some of the harvest and have cheap, fresh produce throughout the year. 
-Energy Star appliances make powering a chest freezer affordable.  Our 15 cubic feet freezer will cost us a whopping $37 a year to run. 
-The freezer in our kitchen will be much more organized and useful.  I was cramming a lot of stuff into it and it was hard to keep organized. 

I also gave a lot of thought to how I'd organize my new freezer.  Chest freezers can become abysses and be a vehicle for wasting rather than saving money.  I don't want to put food in and find it years later, too old to be eaten.  So, I have a plan.  Heather, who blogs at Want What You Have is my thriftiness guru and I get lots of ideas from her.  I borrowed heavily from her freezer organization system in planning my own.  Here's what I plan to do:

I'll use the four sliding baskets that came with the freezer, plus add two more milk crates to the bottom. This will allow me to simply remove one basket and then slide everything else around to reach what I need. 

Each basket will store a designated type of food.  So far, I plan to divide the baskets into the following categories:

Fruits and Veggies (purchased and from our garden)
Meat (we use very little, but storing it is a must since I'm the only one who eats it)
Prepared Food Purchased (the occasional frozen pizza, pierogies, veggie burgers and the like)
Prepared Food Homemade (soups, casseroles, etc.  anything that just needs to be defrosted and heated)
Breads (for DH's lunch and treats like muffins and banana bread for us and to take to others)
Dairy (cheese, that's pretty much it, cheese. Oh, ice cream, I can't forget ice cream)
Beans (soaked, cooked and ready to use.  cheaper and healthier than canned)

That's the grand plan.  I can't wait to get started!

Kate

The Best Use of Time

Today's agenda looked something like this:

5:30 Get Up and Exercise
6:30 Bible Study and Breakfast
6:45 Shower and Dress
7:00 Household Chores/Wait for Elle to Wake
7:30 Feed and Dress Elle
8:30 Run Errands to Craft Store, Kohl's, Teacher Store
11:00 Home
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Nap for Elle
1:00 Personal Time
2:00 Clean House
3:30 Play with Elle
4:00 Dinner Prep
4:30 Hubby Home

and so on...

I only did the errands.  Well, that's not quite true.  I did manage to do Bible Study and dress and feed my child.  I woke up with a headache and a neck that refused to move within normal range.  I hurt.  Surprisingly, I am not whining.  However, I am being very hard on myself for not exercising or completing the household tasks I had planned to do.  Currently it is nap time and my only plan is to fold some laundry and sit on the sofa.  I struggle when I am not feeling productive and don't complete my agenda.  But today, the best use of my time is rest.  I can't do anything else and taking on my previously planned tasks will only cause me trouble in the long run.  So, rest.  And, that's okay.  That's what I'm telling myself. 

The $3.99 Valentine

In my bloggy dreams, there were more auspicious topics for a first post, but, well, today is Valentine's Day and I really love the gift I got for my husband.  It's perfect for him and for us.  We don't typically do big gestures for special occasions and we're both just fine with that.  Really.  Well, most of the time, anyway.  The conversation we had about Valentine's gifts went something like this: 

Hubby:  Are we getting each other gifts for Valentine's Day? 
Me:  That's a decision you'll have to make for yourself.
Hubby:  Okay, well, I guess I'll be shopping this weekend.
Me:  Why?
Hubby:  Because translated that means you already got me something.
Me:  If it helps, I spent less than $5.00

So, folks, here it is:

Now, understand this.  This is our VERY favorite flavor of ice cream.  We love it, but rarely have it for two reasons.  One, it's hard to find.  I had to look on the Ben and Jerry's Web Site to locate an area store that carried it.  Two, being the money-minded steward that I am, I generally object to spending $3.99 on a PINT of ice cream when I get buy a lot more ice cream for a lot less money.  But today, in celebration of my love for my dearest, I spent $3.99 for a pint of ice cream.  Tonight, after the wee one is in bed, we'll curl up on the couch, watch an episode of Leverage on Netflix and eat ice cream.  That's a big night at our house and it makes us happy. 

So, happy, happy to my hubby, who daily brings me more joy than I ever could have imagined.