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| James Guthrie - To Pastures New 1883 |
Say to wisdom: Thou art my sister:
and call prudence thy friend
PROVERBS 7:4
Does it seem like every year goes by faster and faster? I've tried some new ideas in the past year that worked really well. I've also learned from some mistakes. Here are some of the things 2024 taught me. These are in no particular order.
1. Don't buy used electronics.
I always want to be frugal and buy used everything, After years of failures including a microwave, two bread machines, a VHS player and most recently a used non-smart tv, I'm done. I've wasted enough gas, time, and energy. People actually donate broken stuff. Never again.
2. Clean the thing that irritates you most.
We have newer toilets with water holes that need to be constantly scrubbed, or they smell funky. (The contractor picked them out.) I started to clean the toilet bowls everyday even though I shouldn't have to do that! I tried 5 different cleaning products, and none of them worked. I can't control any of that. If I spend two minutes swishing the bowl everyday, I take the control back and prevent feeling ticked off the whole day. Two minutes is a small investment for 24 hours of not having to think about it. Whatever that thing is that drives you crazy about your home, just do it. Nip it in the bud. It's worth it. Choose PEACE.
3. Freeze your cookie dough.
I had no idea you could do this. Now, I think it is the most amazing thing ever. When I'm itching to get ready for Christmas in November, I'm going to make all the different cookie dough, scoop them by the spoonful and freeze them. I've frozen oatmeal raisin, sugar, and fruitcake cookie dough. Just add a few extra minutes to the bake time.
4. When buying used Christmas cards, check the envelopes.
I found out the hard way this year when all the old envelopes were sealed. Mr. Peasant and I spent the entire night steaming each envelope open over a pot of boiling water. The envelopes still looked bad when we were done, and I had to tape them up.
5. On Halloween, turn off the porch light.
We were pretty bummed when we decided not pass to out candy this year due to kids running and falling on our lawn. Instead of the trick-or-treat ritual, I placed all of our outdoor Halloween decorations on the mantle and picked out a spooky movie for every Friday night in October. I even made home made
vegan peanut butter cups. We didn't realize how expensive and stressful the neighborhood trick-or-treat production was until we stopped. We will never go back.
6. Tell the church ladies that you're an introvert.
After years of trying to sweetly decline the social invites from the ladies at my church, I was asked to please come to the church dinner social. "We would love for you to come Monday. It's so much fun." I accidentally said the truth. "Oh, no thanks, I'm an introvert. Being in a room full of people I don't know and talking to them is my nightmare." They laughed politely. And then a man chimed in "I feel exactly the same way." See, my friends, we have to remind people that not everyone is an extrovert. Also, you are not unkind or unfriendly if you are an introvert.
7. Candy roasters are a fantastic squash.
The 2024 Garden VIP award goes to the North Georgia Candy Roasters. First off, they didn't need any help from me all summer. The squash bugs and vine borers didn't stand a chance. The candy roasters are huge, and they have stored "as is" on the floor of the spare room for 4 months and counting. They are smoothly textured and slightly sweet.
8. Stop saving seeds.
I planted some saved spaghetti squash seeds this year and wasted time and space in the raised bed. The squash was a Frankenstein squash that never turned yellow. Maybe it cross-pollinated? Maybe it was a hybrid and wasn't pure? Either way, seeds are one penny each. Saving seeds didn't save me anything. It wasted my effort. So, I am no longer saving seeds. I am buying them. I need as much help as I can get.
9. Work on your Christmas cards in November.
Again, this is something you can do when you are chomping at the bit to get the season started. Spend the month writing cards and then send them out on Dec 1st.
10. Elderberry syrup for the win.
The last two years I was so busy with Christmas, I ran out of
elderberry syrup. Both years, we got sick. This year before Thanksgiving, I made a double batch, and we took a tablespoon serving everyday. We haven't been sick. Praise the Lord.
11. Don't buy candy canes and other hard candies.
I don't know what happened to candy canes, but we are throwing out the Brach's candy canes because they cut our tongues. The candy is razor sharp?! The candy canes are also smaller, and the plastic wrapping is harder to open, They are also more expensive ($2.79 for 10.)
12. Burn the Christmas candle. Use the nice things.
I had one of those too nice to use candles for years saving it for that special day. Finally, this year, Mr. Peasant told me to light it up when my family came to visit. The smell was just so lovely. I burned it the whole day, and it floated around the whole house creating a such a cozy feeling. Drag out that 5 year old candle and light it. Use it. Today is special.
13. Embrace imperfection.
Good is good enough. Done is better than perfect. Period.
14. Make a cozy home.
If you asked me or Mr. Peasant to name our favorite place, we would say home. Not Cancun or the mountains but our home. If you asked Mr. Peasant to name his favorite place to eat, he'd say home. Not Carrabas or Chipotle but our home. Make your home your favorite place to be. Customize it to what you love. We love filling the home with music. We make mix tapes with our favorite songs, or play the oldies radio station. We play Reader's Digest instrumental CDs softly, so we can talk during dinner. We like books in most rooms. We use battery operated candles to light the living room on movie night. We have weekly rituals and Friday night treats. We make home our favorite place to be.
15. Go to Walmart in the early morning.
It's dead in the morning, and you can get checked out by the one human cashier with no line.
16. A supply for your mind.
Books, DVDs, and music are not clutter. They are a supply for you mind. Just like we stock up the pantry to feed ourselves in the future, we shouldn't feel badly about stocking up for the feeding of our minds and spirits.
17. Starting seeds inside is dumb.
Start tomatoes, peppers and sweet potato vine slips indoors in red solo cups. That's it. Everything else is direct sowing in the ground. Hardening off is so iffy, and the plants look leggy and bad.
18. Start sweet potatoes slips in February.
I am going to start them earlier this year. I am not starting slips in May. I am planting the rooted slips in May.
19. Refill disposable clicky pencils with lead.
You can refill your old school Bic Clicky pencils (which are made way better than the newer ones) with refill leads. A box of 100 leads is 6 bucks and each pencil usually comes with 3 leads in the package. This saves money and is a preparedness item.
20. Get a good kitchen knife.
I was given one quality Damascus steel knife, and it is the only knife I reach for now. It has made my kitchen work so much easier. This knife cuts through hard squashes, watermelons, onions, cabbage and tomatoes like nothing.
21. Prune the muscadines to prevent yellow jackets.
If the muscadines fall on the ground, they will soon be covered in yellow jackets and wasps. Prune the branches back before harvesting, so you can see what's ripe and ready to pick. Secondly, never let fruit fall and stay on the ground to rot.
22. Limes make great pomanders.
I couldn't bring myself to buy an orange for $1.30. So, I used a few frozen limes from the freezer. They smelled wonderful. The limes were even stronger than the oranges. I'll always do limes now.
23. Accept that you aren't a morning person.
Who says that you can't bake cookies or clean the bathrooms after dinner? If you feel more energy after 9 pm, then vacuum after 9 pm. It doesn't matter what time you clean the house. The main thing is to get it done. Make peace with it.
24. No one will notice if you do less.
I overthink things. I always think more is better. For example, I kept thinking I should have made three types of cookies instead of the two I had made for my Christmas gathering. I should have had one more salad dressing choice or another beverage to offer. I told myself to knock it off. Guess what happened. No one noticed. No one noticed I only had one salad dressing. No one noticed the salad had no croutons. No one noticed I didn't make a third type of cookie. No one missed the Iced tea I didn't make. The only one who knew of the "let down" was me. No one cared. You are overdoing it. Just keep it simple.
25. Your air fryer is a pan.
You have to wash it every time you use it just like a pan. I was skipping days washing it, and this makes it harder to clean. I had to make the mind shift.
26. Just buy frozen vegetables and canned beans.
Groceries are so expensive now that I mostly buy frozen vegetables. I hate to waste any food. When you buy frozen, you don't have to worry about getting it eaten quickly. You can eat it whenever you want. Canned beans are so much easier to eat. I used to buy sales for the savings. Now, I find it is a better savings when things are easy to use, and I have longer to use them up.
27. No more fresh potatoes.
Sadly, I have stopped buying fresh potatoes on sale. I have found that most of the potatoes in the bag are spoiled even one day after I buy them. A sale on potatoes equals rotten food. I was throwing more potatoes away than I was eating. I now spend a little more and buy frozen cut potatoes or instant mashed potatoes. At least this way, I get to eat 100% of the purchase.
28. Freeze your bread.
I've started buying bread even with shorter best buy dates and keeping them in the freezer. It is nice to always have a back-up loaf for toast or sandwiches.
29. Embrace your food uniform.
I found out that Mr. Peasant loves the vegan lasagna I make which is wonderful because we can eat on it for 3 days. I asked him if he would mind eating it two times this month. Surprisingly, he was overjoyed saying he'd love that. What a relief! I was putting way too much pressure on our food rotations. Lately, I've embraced a veggie plate dinner. It includes a bean, two veggies and a grain or potato. The vegetables can be whatever I have such as a salad, collared greens, green beans, coleslaw, candy roaster squash, or succotash. I make brown rice or mashed potatoes. We love it. I forgot that we are easy to please. Maybe if you ask your family, you will discover some meals they'd be happy to eat every week.
Our current uniform is as follows:
Breakfast is always a bowl of oatmeal. Lunch is either a sandwich or a quesadilla with kidney beans. Dinner on most days is vegan lasagna or a simple veggie plate. Of course, there is some variety in the month. We may have burritos, "chicken" sandwiches, Asian rice, or cabbage with noodles. Having a food uniform helps me with decision fatigue. What we don't have is 15 different dinner options. We now have 5, and we are very happy.
Our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner food uniform is: Gardein Turkey cutlets, green beans, mash potatoes, cranberry sauce and stuffing. This is simple and covers all the bases. I don't ever have to think about it.
30. God will send the people to you.
You don't have to do something amazing. You don't have to travel to a different country or even leave your house. God can use little old you exactly where you are. I've found that God always sends us people to pray for everyday. We don't get out much now with Mr. Peasant's TBI. But I'll run into someone at church or at the grocery store, and they will ask for prayer. We now have a reputation for actually praying for those requests. God is good. If we don't have a personal request for prayer, we pray for someone on our parish's sick list. Pray for those God sends your way. We offer up one rosary a night for someone. Over the course of a year, that's 365 rosaries times two. That's a lot of prayer.
31. Travel is overrated.
I like being able to talk to someone over the phone instead of a busy restaurant. I like feeling unrushed and uninterrupted. With free long distance, it is easier, cheaper, less stressful, safer, and more practical to just enjoy catching up with someone you love on the phone. I do miss hugging, but you can connect and really spend more quality time on the phone than in person. At least for me, they are seeing me at my worst--my stressed out, polite faced, drained worst. Grab a cup of tea in your pajamas and call me anytime. Let's catch up and laugh and really connect without all the stress.
32. Spend more time with your husband.
One of my oldest and dearest friends lost her husband this year, and I have to say to everyone out there to spend more time with your husband while you can. Husbands can be annoying, but you are their person. Women have girlfriends and work friends and church friends. Husbands have you. They are your dog. You are their person. They have you. What a beautiful irreplaceable thing. When you are happy, they are happy. Who else cares about your tires? Who else sees you so unpolished day in and day out and still loves you? Who worries when you come home late? Walk your dog more. Give him some treats and pet him. Husbands don't last forever.
33. Find a TV show.
It's very popular to bash on television these days. They will say that you are wasting your life on the couch when you could be living your best life watching from an Alaskan cruise ship as whales leap from the ocean. They say that they are into experiences. Well, I'm into experiences, too. Just the free kind. And I can't think of a better experience than Saturday nights with Mr. Peasant. We watch Perry Mason every Saturday night. We cozy up in the living room with the glow of battery operated candles and eat popcorn. And for a few hours, we are in a different world. We are engrossed in a shared experience. Without spending a dime or starting the car, we are whisked away into a new world of characters. Television is just a story. It's like a book on the screen. I've never been a big TV watcher but I have changed my mind on it. TV is a wonderful way for regular poor people to share an experience together. It's a great ritual that deserves more credit. I also recommend Columbo to anyone needing a TV series.
34. Buy clearance fruitcake ingredients and freeze them for 11 months.
Trust me, no one will fight you over it. Those ingredients will probably still be there on the clearance rack in February. I wrapped the candied fruit tub in plastic wrap and then double bagged it in freezer bags. I double bagged and froze the pecans Mr. Peasant cracked for me last year. Again, the nuts were marked down. Also, make these
fruitcake cookies. They are so much better than fruitcake.
35. Call your parents and ask about photos.
Hands down, the most wonderful moment this year was talking with my mother about her childhood Christmas photos. I asked her about Christmas when she was growing up. She sent me photos from her old Christmas album via Facebook messenger. First off, Christmas pictures are so magical. See how your grandmother decorated her tree, how she carefully wrapped the presents, and how she captured your mom with the camera. It was so beautiful. I feel like I found out more about my grandparents looking at those old photos than I ever knew before. Christmas is when you see everyone with all smiles and joy. It was wonderful hearing my mom talk about the houses she lived in over the years with her toys and her beloved brothers. Do it. Call your parents and enjoy them while they are still here.
36. Call even when you don't know what to say.
When you love someone and it's hard to call because you don't know what to say, call anyway. When they are suffering a heartbreaking tragedy and you don't know what to say, call anyway. When you are overwhelmed with gratitude and you can't put it into words, call anyway. When you haven't reached out in a while and you aren't sure how to mend it, call anyway. The best thing you can say is, "I don't know what to say" and then try your best to say how you feel. It's okay to sound stupid. No one knows what to say. It's okay. When you call, they know you love them.
37. Do things poorly.
We have the worst Christmas lights in our whole neighbor. The lights are one strand over the door. I call it the "Snoopy's dog house look." It's okay to not be great at something. Someone has to be in last place. You don't have to be the best. My goal was just to spread some Christmas joy. I have to remind myself to not be so serious. Good is good enough.
38. Wear big brimmed hats instead of sunscreen.
Sunscreen makes me breakout. It's sticky, and it makes my eyes sting when I wipe my eyes in the sweaty summer heat. I'd like to find a sunscreen that won't break me out, but I also don't want to spend a lot of money blowing through money testing 15,000 sunscreens. I was trapped in this cycle. My answer is a big brimmed hat (4 and 1/2 inches) and long sleeve shirts. I think it'll be cheaper in the long run.
39. Wool socks for the win.
Wool socks are the newest addition this winter. Dickies wool socks are not very expensive on Amazon. These socks are a wonderful way to feel warm and cozy while saving money on the heating bill.
40. Don't wear shoes too long. Once you find a comfortable shoe, buy backups.
Using the last of something is a virtue in all areas except shoes. Your leg pain, knee pain, and foot pain maybe from your blown out shoes. When you buy a pair of shoes, mark the date on your calendar and see how long they last. My Sketchers usually last 8 months. I used to be able to wear blown out shoes forever, and I took pride in that, Now, my old feet aren't playing that game. Shoes get used up like socks and underwear.
41. Take pictures of your Christmas decor to use as a template for next year.
I'm not reinventing the wheel every year. I like it just the way it is.
42. Write down the aisle number for your shopping list.
When I go to a store that's huge and I don't go there very often, I will go on their website and look up the items on my list to see if they are even available. Then, I'll jot down the aisle number, and sometimes even the price and sku numbers. I did this with a longer list at Walmart, and it was awesome. Vegan marshmallows at Walmart are not with the regular marshmallows. Vegan marshmallows are mysteriously in the gluten free section. Vegan chocolate chips are also in the gluten free section. I was glad I had that list. I was able to get in and out quickly.
43. Buy men's socks.
They are made better. I like Dickies black crew socks.
44. Stop having nice things that you are afraid to use.
This would be the high end tea you got as a gift, or the nice journals you are afraid to write in. This is the Christmas Candle I was telling you about earlier. If you are someone like me that can't use the super nice thing then start buying used or not nice stuff. My most used notebook for writing is not the pretty magnetic grocery lists or beautiful gifted journals. It is the pocket sized mead spiral bound notebook. It's a mental block. Now that I know this about myself, I exclusively use these cheap notebooks and finally fill them up. There are no more pretty notebooks with only 6 pages used. I am not an expensive perfume. I am a cherry almond Jergens lotion. I am not an age defying body wash. I am a bar of Dove soap. Know thyself.
45. You are going to be hot and tired when you lose electricity.
We lost power a few times this year. It was nothing major. What I quickly learned is that when it is boiling in your house you get tired immediately. I slept the whole time the power was out. I was wiped out. I didn't want to cook anything over the stove and play camping. I wish I had more granola bars and cans of baked beans. I wanted super easy grab and eat stuff. I also wish I had a battery powered camping fan.
46. Get a Uniball pen.
People are stealing mail in our county and washing checks. We read that the Uniball is the pen to use to prevent check washing. We also drop off all our bills inside the post office directly to be extra cautious.
47. Roll on deodorant.
I've wasted many hours scrubbing white build up from my shirts with tooth brushes and baking soda. Never again. Now, I only buy roll on deodorant which has eliminated the problem. I love that.
48. Use ant killer in your pantry.
We had a trail of ants in the kitchen closet over the summer. I could not find where they were coming from. I took an empty soda bottle cap and filled it with Andro ant killer and placed it on the floor of the closet. Within 30 minutes, the ants were carrying the poison back to the queen. That night they were gone.
Hopefully you found an idea you could use to make your life a little better. What have you learned this year? Big or small, I'd love to hear it. Thank you for stopping by and reading. Blessings to you in the New Year!
Rather, as I gaze with faith, hope, and love
upon your incarnate littleness,
may I love my own littleness,
for God is with us.
FATHER PETER JOHN CAMERON, O.P.
Madonna, from a painting by Carl Fröschl 1904
