A fun, frugal project to complete at home with a simple twin flat sheet! This can be given as a nice homemaking or Christmas gift as well! One twin sheet at my local Goodwill cost just $4. Eliminating the use of paper napkins around our house and replacing with cloth napkins has been a simple way to be a better steward of our environment. It also makes for an elegant table at all times!
Houseplants are a wonderful means of bringing fresh and clean air and oxygen into your home! In fact, they are perhaps the most sophisticated air-purification system available at a more frugal cost! They absorb carbon dioxide and chemicals such as formaldehyde and benzene, and provide a healthy level of humidity. Plus they bring a little creation into your home (part of that creative mothering), displaying some of God’s creativity in each unique plant that He created, encouraging a little love of nature when it is not necessarily able to be enjoyed out of doors as in the current winter season. They provide such elegant decorations to our homes as well!
The EPA estimates that indoor air is 2 to 10 times more polluted than outdoor air. How is this possible? Contributors include that variety of furniture, carpeting, ply-wood, adhesives, mattresses, and shower curtains.
According to Renee Loux in Easy Green Living: “Two small plants or one medium size plant per 100 square feet will provide fresh air and healthy, mold-free humidity in any room so everyone can breathe deeply with ease.”
What are the most effective plants for completing this task?
Bamboo palm, Chinese evergreen, corn plant (Dracaena massangeana, not edible corn), dragon tree, chrysanthemum, English ivy, peace lily, pothos, philodendron, and snake plant.
I am motivated to start saving my pennies to include a little more creation into my home and provide a more healthy environment at the same time!
Shellie asked:
What a wonderful question! I am open for lots of ideas from my readers on this one! I personally wasn’t really raised with a strong desire to be a good steward of the earth. I always thought that was just for the environmentalists and they were a little too radical for me. It has only been over the past year that I have grown with a passion for being good stewards of the earth that God has entrusted to us, as I have studied the Word of God, especially the cultural mandate of Genesis 1:26-28. My eyes have been open to see that this is a means of glorifying God as I seek to take care of His creation.
We were made to subdue the earth by making it productive and fruitful and this can be accomplished in many ways just around our homes and in the decisions we make as to purchases. All and all, I believe God is in control of creation and that it will morn and groan until God returns and creates a new heaven and a new earth, but until then I want to strive to be faithful in taking good care of the resources He has entrusted to me, make them productive and seek to bring about good fruit on the earth.
Cornelius Plantinga’s says it this way in his book, Engaging God’s World:
“God gives human beings authority in the created world, what we might call ‘responsible dominion.’ Let them take responsibility for keeping the earth, for respecting the integrity of kinds, and times, and seasons. Christians and others have sometimes taken dominion as justification for the ‘conquest’ of nature…the Bible speaks of dominion, not in the sense of conquest, but in the sense of stewardship…To have dominion is to act like the mediator of creation. This means that a human steward of God’s good creation will never exploit or pillage; instead, she will give creation room to be itself. She will respect it, care for it, and empower it. The person who practices good animal husbandry, forest management, and water conservation shows respect for God by showing respect for what God has made.”
How can we begin to train our children in valuing being good stewards?
Brittney asked:
During pregnancy I’ve been breaking out a lot (on my face and other areas – with little bumps that you can feel but not always see). Wondering what facial care method you use and any you might recommend. I’ve been researching a bit and have heard of oil facial care (hesitant about that) but can’t find any other facial methods that people say are natural and work. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Great question Brittney and it happens to just be one I am dealing with currently but have not started to find any solution to the problem. I seem to only deal with red splotches during pregnancy and it drives me crazy. Currently, it comes and goes and I keep my facial wash routines pretty basic…water and soap! SO we are passing on this question to the readers. Any natural solutions to share to help us poor pregnant ladies?
On the counter: toothbrush holder, toothpaste dispenser, soap dispenser – that’s all!
Welcome back for further simplifying tips for every room of your house…last week, we discussed the kitchen, and today, we enter the bathroom! Normally this room is piled high with various body, hair and facial products. I have been there! Items that just make this room look so cluttered. How can you simplify? Preparing for this post got me extra motivated to get more organized in the bathroom – I even pulled out a few items that needed to go! Remember every little baby step you take to simplify your life will open up time to focus on the important things – investing in family and the lives of others!
To tell you the truth…I first bought my own complete basic set of makeup last fall for my birthday! Previously, I had a mixed and match set of this and that, without very much knowledge as to how to apply it in the first place. My younger sister, far more knowledgeable in this area than myself (maybe due to her stronger incline to fashion), has taught me most of what I know. With the purchase of my own set, I was simply thrilled!
With my desire to pursue more natural routines in our home, I looked into mineral makeup. Beware that not all mineral makeup is worthy of your use. My research has proved two companies to be readily available:
BareMinerals & Everyday Minerals
I must confess…I don’t have it all figured out. I wish I did. I wish I could provide you with ten simple steps to eat nutritionally and organically on a budget. But no…month by month, it seems like it just doesn’t quite work out as I had hoped. My $300 budget has often resulted in a final bill of $350 (my goal has been to get it to $300, although our budget has a buffer of $50), and that is really with nothing fancy, and includes our groceries and general household products.
With my knowledge of health and nutrition and not being able to buy everything organic has resulted in fear and worry at what the end result might be. The Lord has graciously and gradually brought me to the understanding that He is indeed sovereign! I can fret till I am blue in the face, but God is ultimately in control! I have a strong conviction that we are to eat healthy in order to be fit for the Master’s use, but again, it will not add a day unto my life apart from what has already been destined by the Father!
I have learned a few things lately that have helped me in the process of eating nutritionally on a budget, and I pray they may be of some assistance to some of you.
I referred these questions that were asked in regards to my Tomato Tricks & Tips post to the farmer who grew my tomatoes from seed (Michael @ MiIlenium Farms in Ridgefield, WA), and he provided this helpful information:
Autumn asked:
I told a friend about your great ideas for the tomato plants and she advised me against the plastic water bottle because of trying to go organic, the plastic would release toxins into the soil. Is this a problem?
Coming from a long line of Mennonite farmers, I am quite concerned with the soil and will do nothing to harm it or the beneficial life which dwells in it. As such, I am not aware of immediate breakdown of the plastic used in 2 liter soda or water bottles. In fact, they are high-value targets for recycling because of their long half-lives, so any idea of immediate breakdown in the soil is really stretching, in my humble opinion. One could always use glass vessels, unless one fears their breakdown as well.
Amy asked: How often did the guy say to water them? The lady at Shorty’s said to water once a week…??
Tomatoes in the ground should be watered twice a week, to the equivalent of 1 inch per watering, until the end of July. Then, I would suggest eliminating watering to allow the plant to rely upon deeper sources of water to help minimize fruit cracking, as well as to accelerate fruit ripening and fruit flavor enhancment. I would remove the plastic wrap when the plant fills the cage, which will then allow the bees to pollinate and further stimulate the plant. If in containers, you will have to continue watering as recommended above, twice a week.
I thought this information to be very helpful!
How spoiled we are when we truly look at the abundance God has provided us within our own communities! Why should I buy food that has traveled thousands of miles at times, when an abundance is available in my own vicinity simply through doing a little research. The more I reflect on enjoying and supporting local agriculture the more I realize that eating locally is the way to go!
Local food is fresher and tastes better than food shipped long distances from other states or countries. Local farmers can offer produce varieties bred for taste and freshness rather than for shipping and long shelf life. The average food travels 1,300 miles from farm to table! That means it needs a lot of preservatives and added chemicals to make it last! Refining and processing allow these products to store for months. Supermarket food often travels seven to fourteen days before arriving in your local supermarket.
Local food doesn’t have to travel far. This reduces carbon dioxide emissions and packing materials. When you buy local food, you vote with your food dollar. This ensures that family farms in your community will continue to thrive and that healthy, flavorful, plentiful food will be available for future generations. This is another small way we can be good stewards of the world around us!
Buying according to the what is in season is definitely cheaper! It doesn’t have to travel very far to your table and thus doesn’t have all those additional costs for transportation and perservation.
Getting to know farmers in the area is quite enjoyable! It is refreshing to know where your food is coming from, knowing how farmers go about producing their goods, and to get to knows them in the process is a great joy.
Supermarket flyers, advertisements addressed to “current resident”, catalogs you never asked for! It has started driving me up the wall!
In an effort to cut back on the waste in our family, we began recycling our junk mail! I would never have thought that you could save so much space in your kitchen garbage bag by recycling all this paper! I cut back from once a week, to once every two weeks in dumping the kitchen garbage.
But at the same time, we are still often just bringing in the mail and disposing of it immediately in the recycling bins. The question begs to be asked…is this the best way to be good stewards of the earth that the Lord has entrusted to our care? How can we cut this stream of junk mail at the source?
1. Register for the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service. It costs $1 (only if you mail in, online is free with the provision of a CC to confirm identity, but they do not charge it), and it will stop commerical mail from companies that you don’t already do business with.
2. Email your full name and current address to the Abacus Catalog Alliance ([email protected]), which will take you off the list of its members.
3. Sign up for OptOutPrescreen, which will stop prescreened credit-card offers.
4. Sign the Do Not Mail Registry, a petition to stop junk mail.
4. Lastly, you will still have stragglers to which you will have to give a ring! Hang onto these throughout the week and make a once a week call to the company’s toll-free number. It works! We have been receiving unnecessary gift receipts for our monthly giving to different organizations. I would rather these costs of printing be cut back and used for more effective use. So I called them and just asked for a annual statement for tax purposes. They were more than happy to change this for me.
It may take a few months to notice a difference, but I want to make an effort to cut back on all this junk!