Top 10 Ways to Recharge Your Batteries

July 27, 2018 by admin

My hubby and I have been working so hard, and every aspect of our lives are running 90 miles an hour…and that would be the slow lane! We’re taking a few days to ourselves and in uncharacteristic fashion, granting ourselves several luxuries. This week, I’m finding a little balance, and I’ve come upon my Top 10 Ways to Recharge Your Batteries.

10. Take time to enjoy the beauty around you. We often pass by places of beauty because we’re simply too busy to notice. Permit yourself to take the time to visit a museum, a botanical garden, tour a Cathedral or Basilica. Relaxation can be found in the wonder of the beauty that is found everywhere if we only look.

Texas Bluebonnets in the most peaceful refuge I know…my home!

9. Meet a friend for lunch and catch up. Ask about their job, their family, their kids and fill them in about yours. Reminisce about high school, college or a mutual place of employment. The point is…take the time to listen.

8. Sit on the patio and enjoy a refreshing beverage while listening to live music or your favorite playlist. Extremes of temperature may make this one a little challenging, but be creative and find a place where you can enjoy a glass of iced tea, lemonade or an adult beverage if you’re so inclined, and connect with the out-of-doors and relax. www.overunderstl.com

Cobb Salad at The Over / Under

Relaxing evening on The Over / Under patio.

7. Find restaurants that aren’t part of a mega-chain. We all have those go-to restaurants that you can find anywhere in the country. Seek the small local establishments and ask about the specials. Eating in small establishments provides variety to your diet, your dining experiences and jobs to your local community. www.roosterstl.com

Finish Pancake with homemade jam and coffee…yummm!!

Simple decor is the best!

Rooster on Locust in St. Louis

6. Explore a different area of town. Find a Farmers Market and support the local merchants. Buy a bouquet of fresh flowers from the flower grower, fresh produce from the farmer, handmade soaps from the local soaper. Your dollar goes much further when you buy from local merchants, and you get acquainted with those small business owners and learn about their story. www.soulardmarket.com

Historic Soulard Market…visited the spice market!

5. Learn something new. On two different days, we walked from the hotel to the Gateway Arch Park. We went to the top of the Arch and spent hours touring the museum learning about our history and quite a bit about the engineering involved in the arch-building project. I was impressed by the superb job done in the museum renovation to make the exhibits a touchable experience for children and people with visual impairments. www.gatewayarch.com

We made it to the top!

The displays have large print cards.

Lots of hands-on models for kids to touch or help the visually impaired. Some even have braille!

4. Take a walk with your love. A specific destination isn’t necessary; be in their presence, talk about anything, laugh and laugh some more!

3. Eat a good breakfast. A proper bacon and egg breakfast to start the day. Our typical grab-on-the-run breakfast is fine, but let’s face it, a decent breakfast sets the tone of the day.

2. Take a nap…take two naps – a morning nap and an afternoon nap. I had to give myself permission to take a nap and not feel guilty about being “unproductive.” Recharge the body and recharge the mind.

1. Eat the pasta! The diet can wait. Okay…have the salad too but indulge a little. Have the bread, try the dessert but take the time to notice the scents, textures, and flavors. www.chavasmexican.com

Chicken Alfredo over Rigatoni

Now that’s a salad!! Chava’s Mexican

In my last post, we visited briefly about meal planning and how it plays a huge part in building our well-stocked pantry, and we will be talking more about this along the way.

Having a well-stocked pantry is only one facet of living an independent life. Having a sufficient supply of grains, legumes, dry goods, is essential to sustain you, your family and your community through difficult times.

The point of buying in bulk and when things are on sale is to save money. But what are we doing with all these dollars that we’re saving? Maybe the latest phone, television, game system? We all have those things we want and desire. We strive for more – more things, more money, more supplies, more balance.

Don’t work so hard at working, preparing, doing charity that there’s nothing left of you anymore.

So, take a nap, take a walk, laugh, learn, fuel the body. There’s time for saving money, saving calories and doing good for others tomorrow. And you’ll be better equipped to do good for others when you’re rejuvenated.

What are some of your favorite ways to recharge your batteries?

Who’s Got Time to Meal Plan?

June 18, 2018 by admin

Who’s got time to meal plan, anyway?

Few of us, however, I believe that we are all much more aware of eating healthy. As wives and moms, we truly want to provide the best possible meals for our families while keeping an eye on our grocery budget. We intended to do that “meal plan” thing, but then life got in the way! So we jump in the car and make that quick run to the grocery store because we’re out of macaroni and butter, only to come home after spending $100 and we probably forgot the macaroni.

The idea of food storage and having what I need in my pantry is always on my mind. I’ll go in spurts where I’m like a squirrel gathering nuts before the winter. Then I’ll relax and use my stockpile happily knowing that we’re eating much more cheaply than if I just made a quick run to the grocery store and bought ingredients for tonight’s supper.

How do I figure out what should be in my pantry?

So how do I have what I need in my pantry for supper tonight and who has time to cook supper anyway?

Great questions! Meal Planning is the answer. I know, I know – if you had time to meal plan you’d probably have time to cook and There’s NO Time To Cook Much Less To Meal Plan!!!

Here’s the deal…none of us have time to sit down and dream up thematic meals with cutesie names for each dish on those cutesie Free Printable forms. But consider this, our moms didn’t come up with Meatloaf Mondays or Taco Tuesdays because they were looking for cutesie menu names on cutesie forms (which I do believe are awesomely cute!). Nope…they were meal planning long before “meal planning” was a thing.

Your mission…

So, here’s my proposal. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to fill in the Weekly Meal Planner Form with two weeks of meals; but I want you to take two weeks to do it. WHAT??!! Yep, I want you to write down your supper/dinner for Sunday on Sunday, supper for Monday on Monday and so on and so forth for two weeks. Write them down as you make them. And if you happen to have soccer or baseball practice on a given night and need to run through the drive through…write that down, too. After two weeks, you will have a good idea of how often you eat out and when you cook, what your family loves. The ingredients needed to make these favorite meals are the ingredients you need to have in your pantry.

Weekly Meal Planner Form

Saving Money

Take a good hard look at your family’s eating out nights and how much money is spent. This money is also part of your grocery budget. A family of four will easily spend $35 for burgers and fries at a fast food restaurant when you could probably do burgers and fries at home for $10…for the entire family! Now that “meal plan” thing is looking almost profitable.

The key to saving money…aside from not eating out as much…is to learn how to only buy what is on sale at the grocery store and to use coupons and or couponing apps to help you save money.

Ibotta is an app that you can use on your computer while you’re planning your next shopping trip or on your phone if you’re shopping on the fly. https://ibotta.com/r/kmnffyb

I recently took an amazing couponing class with The Extreme Couponing Queen, Jen Morris. Her website at www.livelifeonless.com offers information on couponing, including an awesome coupon database. Go check her out.

If you’d like to save money on fresh meats, Zaycon Fresh is a fantastic resource. This is group buying on steroids! I’ve purchased the ground beef, ground turkey, and boneless, skinless chicken and am super pleased with the quality. I’ll get a case or two of the chicken at a time and freeze some, can some and freeze-dry some. Check out the website and see the pickup locations in your area. https://www.zayconfresh.com/refer/ZF426168

Don’t Stress Over It!

Don’t stress out over this whole meal plan thing. Print as many of the Weekly Meal Planner forms as you’d like. Hole punch them and put them in a binder if you’d like. It’s not a fancy form, but it is practical. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be showing you the meals I make, how I make them and I’ll be adding links to some YouTube videos for a more step-by-step tutorial.

Weekly Meal Planner Form

Hello world!

May 30, 2018 by admin

Hello!

Just a quick introduction. My name is Susan Mase. I’m a wife, mother, Oma and a teacher of the 30 years. I have a passion to preserve the ways of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Canning, cooking from scratch, stocking a pantry to get through the winter, milking cows and making butter was simply a day-in-the-life.

I’m no expert…

I had a hand-crank, toy sewing machine that I used to make Barbie doll clothes. When I was 9 years old, my mom enrolled me in a sewing class at the Singer store in our local strip shopping center. I made my very first dress complete with sleeves and a zipper in that class.

I grew up working our very large garden, canning vegetables, jams, and jelly. Our pantry was well planned and well stocked.

After I married, I realized very quickly that I needed to build a well-stocked pantry of my own. I’ve refined the process, reassessed my needs many times over. And I’ve learned skills that my grandmothers never gave a second thought.

Learning “old” ways…

Many years ago, I decided that if my grandmothers could make soap without a formula, in a cast iron pot, over an open fire, in the yard…I could make soap with more modern calculations. With this notion, Windmill Ridge Soap was born. I made laundry soap, bar soap, shampoo soap, shave soap and other bath products. My family, my DH and I would sell soaps and bath products at the Farmers Market in Rockwall, Texas. We developed quite a following and loved teaching people about the wonderful virtues of handmade soap…Real Soap. We participated as a vendor at the Rockwall Farmers Market for 5 years. After the passing of my father in 2017, we decided that Windmill Ridge Soap would undergo a transformation.

A New Direction

In 2018, Windmill Ridge Independent Living was born with a philosophy that we would now be “teaching a man to fish” so to speak. I’ll teach you how to have a well-stocked pantry and you’ll be stocking up on foods that your family knows and loves. This digital platform that seems to be everywhere will enable us to reach for more people that one day a week at the Farmers Market.

So with that said, here we are. In upcoming posts, I’ll be tackling Meal Planning and how it will save you money. I’ll be sharing some of my favorite links that I use and I’ll be sharing recipes and YouTube videos.

Getting to know each other…

So, please give me feedback, ask questions, share your concerns, share your successes. We are all here to learn that being prepared for life’s everyday emergencies is More Than Beans and Rice.