DIY - Hypericum Oil

I'd like to share a quick DIY for making your own Hypericum oil. If you're not familiar with it, hypericum (St. John's Wart) is a plant that grows in the wild and is used a lot in homeopathic medicine. Although there are many many different uses for it, my in-laws and husband have been using it for years as sort of a homeopathic neosporin.

Hypericum oil has antibiotic properties and because it's made with olive oil, it's incredibly moisturizing and soothing as well. Making it is super easy and requires only a couple of ingredients and less than 15 minutes of your time.

First, you need to pick the flowers. You probably have them growing in your yard during the late spring or early summer. They look like this:

Cram those yellow beauties in your blender and press down to compact them. Add enough olive oil to cover them about half way, put the lid on and hit puree.

When it's all chopped and blended, it will look like this:

You'll want to secure the blender base a little better than I did.

Next, pour it into a jar with a lid and seal it tightly. I used a mason jar.

Put it outside in the garden, under a plant or wherever else it can sit undisturbed for a while. you'll want to let it steep in the sunlight for about 6 weeks. When that time has passed, pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer to remove all the bits of the flower and you're good to go. You can use the oil on burns, scrapes, cuts or anything else that you would normally put neosporin on. It's also safe for use on pets since it's all natural.

Organization 101: Kitchen Pantry

If you're anything like me, you probably look around your house sometimes and get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work there is to do. You can clean all day and still find nooks or crannies that need attention.

For me, besides the day-to-day cleaning, the lack of organization in my home bothers me. We don't have a lot of storage here, aside from the attic, and the kids have a tendency to mess things up pretty quickly. To help combat the mess, I've made it a goal to organize 1 small space each day.

Today, it was the lower half of the pantry. I decided to go through and give it a quick (less than 10 minutes) organization using some bins I found. I also took the time to refill canisters and toss out expired products.

Here's the before photo:

Kind of a cluttered mess as you can see. Now, remember that I did this in less than 10 minutes with a couple of bins and a goal of tossing anything obviously expired, hardened or otherwise unusable. Here's the result:

Not bad, right? Not only does it look nicer, I also know what I do and do not have now. I really like the little bins I used - the white one stores all of my packet gravies, ketchup packets, etc. The lower one I used for baking items like extracts, pudding mixes, cupcake wrappers, etc. I'd like to get 1 more bin to hold chocolate chips, powdered sugar and other open bag items. I wish there was a nicer way to organize my pasta collection on the top, but since I like having them portioned out in their original boxes, there's no way to do that that I can think of.

Now that you see what 10 minutes and a couple of bins can do, pick a small spot in your home that could use a little help and go organize something. It'll give you a feeling of accomplishment and propel you to continue working through your house and maybe even tackle some bigger projects. Whenever possible, break big jobs into smaller ones to help yourself feel like you're accomplishing things so you continue with the momentum.

Update: Going Green

Remember that blog post I did a while back about saving money by going green? Well, I did those things and guess what - I reduced our energy bill by $150 over this month last year! That's pretty amazing, right? Last year our bill for the month of June was just over $300 and this year it was $150 and change. That's a savings of 50%! Now tell me going green doesn't pay!

I'd say the biggest contributor to our amazing reduction in energy cost was my use of the clothesline. I made a conscious effort to ONLY use the clothesline. That means that when the weather wasn't cooperating, I wasn't doing laundry. We wound up hanging a 2nd line because sometimes I'd have to go a few days without doing any laundry and then I'd need to make up for it with multiple jumbo loads the next couple of days.

Besides the money savings, my kids like it. They have a chance to play outside for 20 or so minutes while I hang or take down laundry and I get some time to myself, outside, in the sun shine. I have one eye on my kids, but my main focus is putting out or taking in the laundry. My youngest - he's 3 months now - stays inside and naps or plays while I do this. My deck where the lines are cast from is right off of my living room, so when I stand at the end of the lines doing laundry I can keep an eye on my 2 "older" kids playing in the yard and my baby sleeping or playing on his play mat in the house. The baby is literally 10 feet away and the older kids aren't far either - it works out nicely for all of us. Then, when we get the energy bill in the mail it's just icing on the cake!

Try it if you can - hang a line and see how much you can save in electricity while having mandatory time outside to refresh your spirit and enjoy the day.

A Message for Deval Patrick

Governor Patrick,

It has come to my attention that President Obama has asked you to open the Commonwealth to house some of the unaccompanied minors that crossed the border into this country illegally. Knowing that you and the president are friends and that you are a card-carrying member of the Democratic party, I assume your answer will be yes. However, I'd like you to reconsider.

Massachusetts is not where these kids need to be. They need to be with their parents. There's no reason to house them for extended periods of time and to register them for school or health benefits. They need to be put on a plane and sent back to their parents. When they're returned, someone should smack their parents and tell them it's a bad idea to pack your kids up and ship them off to a foreign country. Idiots. I know the places they're coming from areas wrought with war and violence, but flooding another country with illegals will start the same process here, so you're really not signing your kids up for a better future at all.

My other problem with this plan is that I'm paying for it. Sure, my ancestors came to this country from somewhere else too, but they did it legally. They didn't ask for anyone to give them food, shelter, medical coverage or anything else. They came here, worked hard and made something of themselves. I'm sure your constituents are harping about Native Americans and the first settlers by this point, but I don't recall the folks on the Mayflower demanding that the Native Americans put them up in nice houses, educate them, feed them and tend to their ill. If these kids were just looking for a piece of dirt to stand on that would be one thing, but they're looking for much more than that and we both know it.

Finally, I'm concerned that reports are saying not all of the kids are kids. Some are in their 20's and may have affiliations with gangs and other less-than-desirable groups. That's not what we need in Massachusetts. The long winters, narrow roads and short tempers of people here already drive many people to their breaking points - we don't need more whackos added to the mix.

So, in conclusion, I urge you to tell your friend, the president, thanks, but no thanks. Massachusetts doesn't need any more illegals than we already have and we're a state that values laws, like the type that dictate how a person is allowed to enter this country and how they're not.

Please, reconsider. Send the illegals that are already here back home and focus on taking care of the legal citizens before we open our borders in some kind of misguided political power play.

Being Thankful

I needed to give myself a little reminder of the blessings in my life today, so I thought I'd just make a list of a few things I'm Thankful for:

• I'm thankful for my kids, even though they can be a handful at times.
• I'm thankful for having a roof over my head, even though it leaked this past winter in the kitchen and was a complete nightmare.
• I'm thankful for my husband who always keeps trying, even when things get hard.
• I'm thankful for my friends, new and old, who have been there to help keep my spirits up.
• I'm thankful for living in a country where I'm allowed to drive, go in public without my husband and hold a job if I would like to.

There are a thousand other things I could probably list, but those 5 will be enough for right now to remind me that no matter how bad it looks, life is still full of little blessings. Now I'll take a deep breath and count the hours until bedtime so I can start fresh tomorrow.

Backyard Chickens

I am in no means an expert when it comes to backyard chickens, but my friends that have met my flock have been asking a lot of questions, so I thought I'd share my limited knowledge with anyone interested in getting involved with the world of poultry.

Getting Started

You don't need a lot to get started. We used a rubbermaid tote as the brooder. Sprinkle some wood shavings on the bottom and put in a feeder and water dish designed to be used with young birds. We clamped a heat light to the top of the crate and used the door (poultry mesh on a wooden frame) from our coop as a cover. The chicks lived in there for about 5 weeks - it started getting cramped towards the end.

You'll want to change the shavings every couple days. The food and water will need to be refilled daily and they'll probably kick shavings into the water, so elevate it or you'll be changing that 4 or 5 times a day.

After 5 weeks

Once the chicks reach about 5 weeks you can start letting them out. We began putting the chickens in the coop during the day (closed up) and then bringing them back in the house at night. It wasn't terribly warm out at night at this point, so it made sense. They also had time to roam about in the lawn and look for bugs. They really enjoyed eating ants.

Eventually, when they got too big for the brooder we moved them to the coop full time. I think we could have done it before that point, but my husband was concerned about predators. We keep the coop in a large (55 feet long by 16 feet wide) fenced area near the house. Because it's close to the house, we think we won't have as big of an issue with predators going after the chickens. It's also large enough that they haven't picked the land clear yet and they don't smell.

What happens next?

Now, we're just waiting for the hens to start laying. I've read that happens between 4 and 6 months, so we're looking at the end of the summer to get our first egg. I can't wait to see which of the ladies will lay first!

Being Broke

I thought I'd write about a topic that a lot of people can relate to – being broke. I keep hearing how we need to be saving for retirement, the kids' college educations, emergencies, a new car, a nice vacation, etc. etc. and at the same time we're supposed to be paying all of our bills on time, paying down the mortgage early and studiously avoiding the use of credit cards.

Let me be the first to say that's a nice pipe dream you have there.

If you're like us, or like most people, you're probably screwed if you lose your job and can't find a new one right away. In our family, my husband is the "bread winner" and I'm the housewife. I do freelance writing on the side, but it brings in just enough to cover the car payment and the preschool payment. If I'm lucky, I can also cover the gas payment. My husband worries about everything else. When emergencies come up like his car breaking down and needing brakes to the tune of $700, we have to use credit cards. Right now, we also have 2 hospital bills hanging over our heads because our insurance charges a $1,000 co-pay for each admission. Add to that the fact that everything else is increasing in cost at the same time, but my husband's salary is staying the same and you can see where this is going.

We've taken steps to lower our living expenses. We don't have a landline and if we weren't in a contract I'd suggest getting rid of the TV too. I use clotheslines (multiple there) instead of the dryer and my husband and I hardly ever buy new clothes. I know there are a lot of places we can improve - for instance we go a little overboard at Christmas buying gifts for way too many people (23 last year in addition to our kids and each other... no joke!) and my husband has a habit of racking up debt at Home Depot for things like fencing materials and whatnot.

To help even more with our quest to be more frugal, we've gotten chickens. While they cost a lot in feed and materials, I got the coop for free which we then fixed up and we're hoping the free eggs and savings in pesticides to take care of the bugs in the yard makes up for it. They're also a lot of fun, and it's stretching the entertainment budget. ;-)

I'm also venturing into the world of cloth diapering. I got some second-hand diapers and I'll be giving it a go as soon as this box of Huggies is used up. My son is almost too big for them, so I want to use them while I still can. No sense in taking a loss selling them on the yard sale site while racking up the water bill washing cloth diapers if I don't have to.

In the future, I'd like to start a worm composter like the one I saw on Pinterest to get the maximum yield out of the garden. I'd also like to look into expanding the chicken coop. We wound up with a rooster and that means we may get chicks in the spring. If that's the case, I'll have to sell them off since our town only allows 10 chickens and we're already up to 6.

I'm curious to know what other frugal measures people have taken up in an effort to save money. I tried couponing, but found that since I don't buy a lot of pre-packaged foods, the money saved barely offset the cost of the newspaper.

Recipe: Fresh Tomato Salad

If your garden is turning out tomatoes like there's no tomorrow, use some of the freshness up with this delicious tomato salad recipe. I ate this all the time as a kid and I still love it as an adult. My kids love it too!

Ingredients:
- About 5 fresh tomatoes. I like to use Roma tomatoes.
-1/2 onion, thinly sliced. *note: you can use red onion, white onion or whatever type of onion you like.
- 4 leaves fresh basil, rolled and sliced thinly
- Generous drizzle of olive oil
- 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1/4 tsp dried parsley
- Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Chop tomatoes and place in bowl along with any juices that are left on the cutting board. Add the sliced onion, fresh basil, olive oil, vinegar and parsley. Mix thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before eating.

Some variations include adding mozarella cubes to the mixture, using garlic salt instead of regular salt or even a little bit of fresh oregano. I find fresh parsley to be a bit overpowering in this recipe and tend to stick to the dried type.