August 2020 Newsletter

"But in this season it is well to reassert that the hope of mankind rest in faith. As man thinketh, so he is. Nothing much happens unless you believe in it, and believing there is hope for the world is a way to move toward it."

~ Gladys Taber

Greetings gentle reader! Here we are with another monthly newsletter in which I talk about books I have read, things I have watched, projects I have been working on and any other ponderings which really don't fit into its own post! It's pretty much some old-fashioned, homemaking chit-chat. The problem with making a monthly newsletter is that sometimes life is a blur and you can't remember all the details. That is the case with last month so you will have to forgive this vague attempt at reporting! I almost skipped this month but since I do have some pictures... perhaps they will tell the story. 

I can safely say my month was full of family dinners with family prayers, made with homegrown foods and other daily blessings of a simple life. It is hard to get used to the fact that our garden space is limited right now and there hasn't been an abundance to preserve. But we are enjoying everything we are growing and I suppose that is a blessing in itself.

I made at least three - 13x9 inch - casserole dishes of eggplant parmigiana featuring our humble harvest. That is one of my husband's favorite dishes so he was happy!

We continued  to enjoy the last of the tomatoes in these fresh, tasty and healthy caprese salads.

I also shared my favorite tuna salad recipe on Instagram but I will put it here as well (for those of you who are not on it). It is called "Mediterranean Tuna". You simply dice up some red bell peppers (ours are from the garden), snip in some green onions or chives (ours are from the herb garden) and add in a handful of sliced olives.

Mix in mayonnaise and seasoned salt with some freshly ground pepper and you have a tasty tuna salad. Serve with whole grain bread for sandwiches, dip with your favorite chips and crackers or lay atop a pile of fresh greens! Do you have a favorite tuna recipe?

I also have been preparing batches of spice mixes for our pantry by the pint. We go through the ranch and Italian dressings like water! What I love about these mixes is that they are healthier and don't contain all the extra additives and are very inexpensive to make. For the Italian dressing recipe, I substituted the sugar for Monkfruit sweetener and that works out well. I also use the Italian dressing mix as an herbal sprinkle on top of my salads if I use plain vinegar and oil (I put a small amount in a shaker). It would be tasty on top of pizza too!

For the ranch dip mix, I actually revised the recipe that I shared many years ago. I like this mixture better and have shared the updated version! It is now our favorite and it doesn't contain the evil MSG! Plus it is pennies to make when compared to purchasing the Hidden Valley mix!

Note: When preparing your own spice mixes, I find buying the parsley, onion powder, garlic powder and black pepper in bulk to be very beneficial (I purchase ours at Costco).

I also continue to build up my pantry (these labels can be found here). Unfortunately, we are living in uncertain times and we see that sometimes (contrary to popular belief), the stores can not keep up with the demand during a crisis. I feel that as the keeper of my home, it is my duty to make sure we have the proper inventory of household supplies to get us through at least a six-month period. Just like a business needs to keep a certain amount of inventory to make it run efficiently, so must we in our home if we want things to run smoothly. I have been doing this for years but now I have seen the first-hand blessing of it! (See our preparedness series here and our pantry series here.)

In good times, basic flour, oatmeal, beans and rice are very affordable and those are the items I gravitate towards because of our budget. I am not putting us back financially to prepare (you can add one item for $5 a week which will get you suprisingly far!) and these particular food items last longer so there is no harm in storing them long term. During the "heat of the moment" a few months back, I wasn't running around looking for flour or other food items, we already had a solid supply of food. 

To give a small example of following these little homemaking instincts... during our last year of homeschooling, we read Hiroshima together. After finishing the book, I felt a great need to stock up on our first aid supplies (as that was the sought after element during that tragic time). I went to Walmart and purchased many bottles of alcohol, bandaids, peroxide, you name it! This was done during a time of plenty so I don't consider that hoarding but preparing. Well, as soon as the crisis hit us at the beginning of the year, my husband came home saying an elderly man he knew was panicking as he needed alcohol to clean some of his medical supplies and couldn't find any. It felt so good to be able to hand my husband a bottle knowing we had plenty to share and plenty for home use. These are the things I am thinking of as I continue to build my medicinal pantry, my first aid pantry, my toiletry pantry and my food storage. That investment into my first aid kit only set me back $20 as alcohol was cheap at that time ($1 per bottle) and little did I know what a sought-after item it would turn out to be a few months later!

On a lighter note, last month I enjoyed reading Mrs. Dunwoody's Excellent Instructions for Homekeeping - Timeless Wisdom and Practical Advice by Miriam Lukken. It is an older book and I don't think it is in publication anymore but I thoroughly enjoyed its old-fashioned wisdom and charm. I will share a quote that I appreciated from the book and will sprinkle more in future posts as there are quite a few gems in there!

"She often wrote and spoke of finding the sacred in the everyday. In one of her many letters to her daughters, she noted, "One has to be in the same place every day, watch the sun rise from the same house, hear the same birds awaken each morning, to realize how inexhaustibly rich and different is sameness." And later, "even the common articles made for daily use become endowed with beauty when they are loved. We must strive to see the goodness or usefulness in all things, taking nothing for granted. And we must approach every task as a blessing to be received, never as a chore." Those who knew her best describe a woman of elegance and effortless charm who dearly cherished her faith and was always attentive to the lives around her."

~ Mrs. Dunwoody's Excellent Instructions for Homekeeping -

Timeless Wisdom and Practical Advice

by Miriam Lukken

Also, I know many of you are planning for the new homeschool year! How I miss that and wanted to take a moment to share a link to our Charlotte Mason series, Free Unit Studies and our index of general homeschooling posts in case you need some ideas! There are so many fun things you can do and learn with your children this year! How I have been reflecting back on all our memories and cherishing every single one. It does eventually end one day and you will be surprised at how much you end up missing it! 

As a reminder, our "In Love with Lavender" giveaway ends soon (within 24 hours) in case you haven't yet entered! It is a set of herbal goodness that I find useful and lovely in homemaking. I have to mention again that my favorite part about the giveaways is reading all the comments! It is so much fun to hear from you all!

And finally, what about you dear reader? What wholesome and lovely things have you been reading, watching and/or working on? As always, recommendations are much appreciated and hearing about your homemaking projects always inspires me! (As for myself, here are a few thrifted jars I have collected to add to my goal of creating an "old world" style pantry. It is another nerdy homemaking hobby of mine!) Until next time...

Verse of the Month:

"Prove all things;

hold fast that which is good.

~ 1 Thessalonians 5:21