11 uses for your old Calendars

It is a new year and I am guessing that you have old calendars at your house. What do you plan to do with them? Just put them in the recycling or (gasp!) throw them away? Why not make something from them that you or someone else can enjoy. Here are some ideas that our family has enjoyed (and a few more that I found while googling!). I hope something works for you!


~Make cards from them. These cards pictured I recently made to use as part of a gift for a friend. Cards like these are quite simple to make but are attractive and useful as well. These I made using pictures from a small calendar but you can also use a portion of a picture from a large calendar or pictures from a catalog. Simply cut a piece of card stock in half (or to the size you desire) fold it in half and then cut a picture just slightly larger than the card. Carefully spread glue on the back of the picture. You want to spread it thin and don't leave any lumps. Then glue it to the card and using a rag press it on carefully to make sure that it is flat. Then trim of any overhanging edges of the picture. Let it dry and you are all done.
~After making cards you can make envelopes to go with them. This is the type of envelope we use for the majority of our mail. Since many people know we make these we are the recipients of many calendars, so we always have plenty to use. Here are some envelope templates that you can print out and use. I am not sure that these envelopes can be considered frugal as buying envelopes is quite cheap and making them takes time as well as a little tape. But I still like to make them because it is something the kids and I enjoy doing together, It is a use for something that otherwise is trash and people seem to enjoy receiving them.

~You can use old calendars to decoupage things.
~You can use the calendars for origami.
~Make a little gift box.


~Frame it. This picture didn't turn out very well (I was using flash and it had a glare.) but using Calendars as framed are does work well. It is a very frugal way to help decorate your house.
~ You can make place mats.
~ You can make bookmarks.
~Make a paper pocket to put little gifts in.
~ Use calendar pages for wrapping paper.
~ Another fun idea that I hadn't thought of as I always think about using the picture side, is to use the number side as a learning tool. For kids that are learning their numbers let them copy the little number in the bigger box right next to it. I think this idea would be perfect for Aaron, my four year old.
Well I hope you have fun with your old calendars too.

Going to Delaware

We are planning on going to Delaware this coming week. Well actually we aren't really physically going there (I wish!) but we are planing on learning all about it.

We checked out a couple of books from the library (We love that place!) on the state of Delaware. We are looking forward to reading about it's history as well as what is special about the state.

Here are a few fast facts that we have already learned:

• Date of statehood is December 7, 1787. It is the first state which is why we are studying it first.
• Capital is Dover.
• It is the 2nd smallest state. We live in a fairly large state of Minnesota so it was very impressive to us that the narrowest part of Delaware is only 9 miles. For us that is only slightly farther than going to my parents house. Even at the longest point it is only 96 miles. (I am doing those facts from memory since I am not sure where I put that information, so I may have erred but I think that is right.)
• State bird is the Blue Hen Chicken
• State flower is the Peach blossom
• State insect is the Ladybug (that is why I posted the above picture which my sister Keren took this summer.)
• Delaware has a lot of coast line on the Atlantic ocean.

Here is a printable map for the state of Delaware.

Some foods that we have found to be fitting for this state are:

• Chicken. It is the state bird and also the raise a lot of chickens there. (We wonder, do they advertise eating their state bird? With our state bird being a loon, which does not get eaten, it seems a little funny to us to have a state bird that you are used to eating.)
• The state beverage is Milk. Yea! We love milk.
• Clams and crab are popular foods according to what we have read. (unfortunately it is expensive here so I don't think we are going to be eating that this week.)
• We figured that since the state flower is a peach blossom that they most also have peaches, so we plan to eat some peaches this coming week.
• Here is a some more information on Delaware food and has a couple of recipes including "Delaware chicken salad".
• Here are more recipes from Delaware including ways to prepare beef, fish and seafood.

I will try to keep you updated on all the fun stuff we do this next week.

If there are any of you reading that either live in or have lived in Delaware, would you please comment and say "Hi" or tell me something special about your state? Thanks so much!

Goals for 2008

Over at Biblical Womanhood today Crystal listed some of her financial goals for 2008. I had been planning on sharing my goals for 2008 with you soon anyway so I decided to do that for my Frugal Friday post rather than what I had planned which I will save until next week.

Some of my goals are frugal related and some are not. I thought it would be fun to share with you because maybe you can help remind me to keep on track. Also I thought maybe you would like to share your goals with me and hopefully we can encourage each other to keep them. Anyway here they are:

1. Cutting down our food costs. Currently we have $350 budgeted for food every month for our family of 6 in Northern MN. Though I don't think that is a bad amount to budget and we are able to afford it, I think it is possible that we could go lower. I am excited because I discussed with Ken the possibility of donating whatever amount of money that I am able to save from going under budget and he said that would be fine. So that gives me a real motivation to work on it. I am hoping to spend only $300 hundred or less a month on food. I will try to let you know how I do. Here are some of the new ways that I hope to save money (this will add to the things that I have already done a long time.):

• Using coupons. I have been using coupons quite a bit for a couple of months now but in the whole scheme of things I am fairly new to this. I hope to really make this work for me this year. I have learned that I don't want to buy everything that is cheap with a coupon. Even if I can get candy, a snack food or canned soup cheap with a coupon it doesn't really make it a good deal because I wouldn't buy it at all otherwise. (There will be exceptions to this rule, but for the most part it is true.) The place that really got me motivated to couponing was Money Saving Mom, if you are not already a reader of this blog I would highly recommend it. I also read a book "Shop, Save and Share" by Ellie Kay that was helpful.
• The other thing that I really want to concentrate on more in order to save money on food is using up what I have. We glean potatoes every year and pick up over 1000 pounds ( a group of us.) Usually there are some that go to waste because they go bad. I want to really try to eat a lot of potatoes as they are free and available. I also have many canned tomatoes on hand, a bunch of squash and pumpkin. So I am going to work very hard to eat what we can get free or very cheaply and then wait for extremely good sales on the other things.
• I am also excited because I recently was given the contact number for ordering through Azure Standard and being able to pick it up locally. I have looked at a friends catalog before and they seem to have a lot of good deals on bulk items, also on organic stuff if that is what you buy.
• We have been getting our milk cheaply at the dairy and I plan to continue to do that. We drink a lot of milk though and that price still adds up. I am thinking about starting to drink water at lunch instead of milk to lower our milk consumption slightly.

2. My next goal for this new year is to not do any blogging at night (my normal blogging time) until all of my dishes are done. I had gotten in the habit of loading the dishwasher but then leaving any of the other dishes that didn't fit until the next day much of the time. I have decided that this is quite gross and I don't like to get up to dirty dishes, so the rule is for me ~ no blogging until they are done.

3. Another goal is to do more bible study. When I started this blog I had planned on writing about what I am studying on frequently on my blog. I have done that a little but not nearly the amount that I think that I should. So my goal is to have a post on bible study at least once a week.

4. I also have a goal to reach a certain level in my playing for both the violin and cello by the end of this year. That means I need to do a lot more practicing!

5. Last year I set a goal in March to go at least a year without buying any clothes for myself. That included new or used shopping and all clothes: Shoes, underwear and coats included. So far I have done pretty well. The only time that I didn't follow my goal was when we went out to Oregon this summer for a wedding and the airline lost the bag with my dress shoes in it. (It did turn up after the wedding.) So I broke down and bought a pair of flip flops (which was what the whole bridal party was wearing at the outdoor wedding so I didn't look out of place.). I have been given clothes but that doesn't count. I think it looks like I still have tons of clothes so I don't plan to buy any this year either.

What are your goals for 2008?

My Day

Hello again finally. Our company is all gone now, it is just us at home. The Rounds left yesterday morning, that morning I watched two boys, that evening we went to church and then last night some friends came around 10 pm and stayed until a little after 3 am (it's a long story), today my sister was here for breakfast and another friend joined us for lunch. This afternoon I helped Ken out at the office while my sister watched the kids. I am very, very tired as I got very little sleep last night. I am grateful that we have a bunch of leftover pizza from what I made on Tuesday so that is what we are going to have for supper.

I am looking forward to doing a lot of blogging this year. I have a bunch of things that I have been working on that I hope to get pictures of and share with you. I also have a lot of things that I want to start working on. The kids and I are very excited about learning about our states and I am sure you will get to hear about it and we will be asking for your advice. I really enjoy having you all read and leave comments. I hope I can enjoy that more this new year!

Happy New Year!

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday

and today,

Yes and forever."

Hebrew 13:8

Isn't it so neat to know that no matter what comes in the New Year, Jesus is the same. He is always there, always faithful and always willing to offer salvation. No matter what is going on in our lives we can have peace because of Him.

I am hoping that you have a wonderful New Year and that Jesus is part of it.

We had a fun party last night. I hope your New Year's Eve was fun as well!