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Yogurt seems to be one of those foods, either you REALLY like it or you REALLY don’t. As a child, I remember my Mom buying those little containers of flavored yogurt (from time to time). It seems like I was a fan for awhile and then got bored with it. Does that ever happen to you? What I didn’t know then was that those little flavored yogurts are filled with sugar. Many years later I learned it’s much healthier to make your own and MUCH cheaper. I have to admit, I’m kind of funny about stuff like that. It took me awhile to wrap my brain around “making yogurt.” It really is ok, if I can do it you can do it!

At first when I read directions how to make yogurt at home it was using a heating pad set on low with some towels wrapped around a quart jar. This scared me for some reason. Then I purchased one of those fancy yogurt makers, I made yogurt in that for awhile and it turned out ok. I tried my crockpot once and the temperature wasn’t right (I admit I forgot about it for a few hours too). I used my temperature controlled dehydrator a few times and I even tried the oven (using the heat from the pilot and light bulb). I’ve come across yet another “way” to make yogurt, this one is my favorite by far! Check out THIS SITE for my new favorite way to make yogurt, it’s SO easy!

Greek yogurt seems to be all the rage these days. Don’t pay the expensive store prices when you can make Greek yogurt at home (in my opinion it tastes MUCH better than store bought!). Check out THIS SITE for some background info on Greek yogurt and store brands/prices. Then hop OVER HERE to get the recipe and directions for making your own. Making yogurt works for me!

Do you make your own yogurt? What’s your favorite method of making it? Do you make more than a quart at a time?

Yup, it’s that time of year again – school’s out and the kiddos are home 24/7! Are we having fun yet? Some of you may even be fortunate enough to be planning some time away. But did you know that you can go on vacation AND use the time to provide an educational boost as well? Here are some tips to make sure they don’t “lose their heads” – or at least their brains – while out of school.

• Prepare ahead of time by doing research. Check the internet or write to the Chamber of Commerce and find interesting and educational places to visit at your destination.  See if any of them correlate to your children’s interests, and you’ll be getting off to a great start!

• Use your vacation to study a specific them or topic. One year a friend of ours planned their summer travels around historic and notable places around the state. After their kids had already spent the year learning about these locals in books, they were super excited to get some hands-on and real-life experiences, as these historic sites became real to them!

• Always include a journal or diary assignment of some sort. Even non-writers can dictate a few thoughts for you to write down, and anyone can illustrate or add pictures from flyers or postcards. Starting a collection along the way gives them opportunities to arrange them or prepare a display when they get home. This not only helps to strengthen vacation memories but reinforces the educational aspect of the time away.

• If you need some ideas of how to get started, take a look at what I have used with my own family on more than one occasion –> http://bit.ly/L5lcdG

Need a break but can’t “get out of Dodge”? No worries! “Staycations” are becoming more and more popular in this economy. Here are some ideas to help you make the most of a memorable vacation in your own backyard:

• Take a break from technology – turn off the cell-phones, ipods, computer…and just focus on enjoying each other and your time together
• Be unavailable to others – remember, you’re on vacation, so act like it!
• Resolve to stay out of the kitchen! Eat out (as much as your budget allows), grill out or cook over an open fire (just be aware of any applicable local ordinances)
• Plan activities you wouldn’t normally do, whether they happen in your backyard, your own town, or a nearby city, park or museum.
• Pull out a local map and come up with new places to visit that are within a “doable” distance (take into account spending time getting there and getting back home!)

If you’re like me and enjoy a good book, try out some of these for some more ideas:

Field Trips: Bug Hunting, Animal Tracking, Bird-watching, Shore Walking by Jim Arnosky 

The Great American Staycation by Matt Wixon

Backyard Vacations: Outdoor fun in your own neighborhood by Carolyn Haas, et al. 

To paraphrase an oft-used saying: “the family that learns together, stays together”! Whether you travel far and wide this summer or stay home-sweet-home, may you have fun times and many happy family moments…together!

Pat Fenner has been homeschooling her 5 children for 17 years, and writes on education and family topics on her website, Help 4 Your Homeschool. She reviews books as part of the Christian Women Affiliate’s “Review Crew”, writes guest-posts on related blogs and periodically contributes to Econobusters. You can read her piece entitled “From Fear to Flight” in an anthology published by the Gulf Coast Writers’ Association, due out this summer. She can be reached via email at Pat@Help-4-Your-Homeschool.com

This back issue is FULL of handy tips to help you along. Making a Frugal Fresh Start is on sale NOW for only $2.50 (this price will be good until Sunday night 6/23). Have you ever seen inside one of my magazines? Take a SNEAK PEEK HERE to see some of the frugal goodness we packed into this issue!

Here’s a little more of what’s inside:

Don’t you love a good yard sale? Learn to shop yard sales like a pro! The goal of this month’s feature is to suggest ideas to use in three major areas—cleaning, organizing, and food (feeding your family). Start taking incremental steps toward lasting change . . .

Organize without Spending: You could spend a lot of money on organizational stuff—but you don’t have to!

• Don’t throw it away! What can you do with oatmeal containers? Cylinder-shaped chip containers? Cereal boxes? Coffee cans? Caps from aerosol spray cans? An unused photo album? And there’s more . . . organize!
• How are you using those plastic milk jugs?
• Great ways to upcycle those 2-liter plastic soda bottles!
• Kimberly, from Kimberly’s Cup, shows you how she repurposes glass jars for pantry storage. You may never throw out another jar!

Beyond Coupons—Seven Ways to Save Money While Eating Well: You’ll find practical suggestions to re-think ways of getting food on the table and enjoy healthy, creative meals without over-spending.

• Watch your waist, and your waste! Re-think portion control!
• Are you menu planning yet? Get a free E-Book download link that’ll make it so easy to get started!
• Practice recipe substitutions. Get this handy chart to help!
• Plan a cooking party or start a brunch club!
• Consider bartering and gleaning. You’ll want to hear what Molly has to say about it.

Over 35 pages of information & support for an incredibly low price! A small price to pay compared to the great benefits you’ll receive and the money you’ll be saving once you dig into this E-Book! Buy this E-Magazine today for ONLY $2.50!

Molly members already have this magazine in your member page! Simply click the “Molly Members” tab above, log in, and search out April 2009.

If you’re not a Molly member, check out everything you receive and sign up now on our SUBSCRIPTION PAGE!

There are so many different ways to live a frugal  lifestyle . . . this is a great place to learn new things and encourage one another! Below you can share the link to a post on your own blog, share a little about your frugal life and encourage others. Be sure to come back each Friday and link-up to this great community of frugal followers!

If you get my Friday newsletter, you most likely read Midge’s question about my favorite copycat restaurant recipe (if you don’t get my FREE newsletter be sure and subscribe via the sticky note in the upper right corner). Read below to see my response.  Molly

 Dear Midge,

I have to confess, I didn’t really have many “copycat” recipes in my collection until I looked at today’s freebie! Yummy! Thanks to that great E-Book, I now have quite a few to add to my collection! I have to say that of the recipes in the E-Book, my favorite is the “copycat Cinnabon cinnamon rolls.” I’m planning on making those this weekend for Father’s Day!

For your birthday dinner, why not try something you have never eaten before? You know my favorite cuisine is Mexican (and that’s where we usually end up!). If you try a type of cuisine that you end up not liking very much, you could always end the night with ice cream! Ice cream always saves the day, doesn’t it?

You could always make a reservation at one of those cute Hibachi grill places. Have you been to one of those yet? I love watching the food prepared right in front of me (and all the fun tricks the chef does while cooking!).  

If you were brave enough to prepare (and EAT!) frog legs, I know you’ll come up with something great for your birthday dinner!

Happy eating!

Love ya, Molly 

To share a link to your post about frugal living, use the Linky below. But first. . .

1. We’d love for you to share your links that include anything  related to DIY projects, saving money, frugal living, made from scratch cooking, cleaning products, sustainable living, gardening, organic, and anything else related to homemaking! You can also  include your struggles while trying to live a frugal lifestyle (like  Midge!)! Show us about how you are thriving while surviving on a smaller budget!

2. Please, no link-ups to giveaways or blog topics in which you are just selling a product.

3. Link directly to your frugal post, not to your home page.

4. Grab our linky graphic (from the sidebar) and put it on your blog or on your linky post.

5. If a linked up post does not meet the above guidelines, it will  be removed.

6. If you link-up, please click on other’s links as well. Our frugal followers have a lot to share!

Living frugally means living, learning, and growing from each other. We can’t wait to see what you are going to share (to see other blogs who have linked up, click the link below)!  Ready, set, link!

CLICK HERE TO LINK-UP!

Guest Blog by: Midge

The only true failure is if you don’t try again, right? Baking and I don’t normally see eye to eye and it was especially obvious when I tried PAVLOVA and failed . . . miserably.

Loads of fresh fruit make this a refreshing dessert for summer time.

At first I pouted, then I sent Molly a plethora of texts asking her what I was doing wrong. Other people all across the world have made this dish from New Zealand to England as well as America too. What in the world could I have done wrong?

Then, I realized it came to down to one main ingredient. It seems as if the most important part of any baking recipe is having a few of GRANDMA’S KITCHEN SECRETS in your back pocket or having an accurate recipe handy to sheds light on those types of secrets.   Molly asked me if I let the eggs sit at room temperature. Nope, rats, was I supposed to? Where was that in the recipe?

So, last week Friday I felt brave and decided I was going to conquer this recipe once and for all. I got out a recipe book I received as a wedding gift and researched their Pavlova recipe. Guess what? The first instruction told me to bring the eggs to room temperature!  HA! I gathered the ingredients and started my KitchenAid mixer. My Dad said, “It must have looked like I was ready to slay the Pavlova Dragon once and for all”.

Patience turned out to be another key for my ultimate success. I had to give the mixer enough time to whip the eggs into shape! Guess what? I had PEAKS!!!!!!! My last Pavlova never peaked but this one did everything just like the recipe said! My husband and I spent about five minutes with our heads close to the mixer waiting for the miracle “peaking” to begin. And when it worked, I almost shed a tear of joy!! This is what baking is supposed to be all about!

It’s a PEAK!

The rest of the recipe went perfectly and when it was done it looked just like Molly’s Pavlova. While I was retelling the story, a gal who is close to my heart remarked, “Wow, we all thought that it was going to take you a lot more times than just two to get the recipe right!”  LOL I did too! She continued on by asking, “Well, you have conquered that recipe, what is next?”

Look how creamy it is… just like Molly’s!

The finished product ready to try!

Any ideas Molly fans? Which baking recipe should I select next?

You most likely already have these two ingredients in your pantry: olive oil and vinegar. If you’re like me, you probably also have some wood furniture (or floors) that have a few scratches of their own. I have an easy DIY fix for those scratches! Simply mix equal parts olive oil and vinegar, shake the mixture up very well and rub some lightly into the wood. You can let the mixture rest there for 12-24 hours and then go back and rub it off. You can repeat this process over and over until the scratch lessens or disappears all together! How easy (and frugal) is that?!?

Check out the following sites for more information:

THIS SITE gives you multiple tips on how to repair/fix worn out wood floors.

THIS SITE shares a bit of info on where this recipe has been used for years.

THIS SITE shares multiple tips on how you can remove stains and repair scratches/dents from hardwood floors.

DIY scratch repair works for me! Do you use DIY cleaners? What is your favorite?

Disclaimer: Please use caution/discretion and test this mixture in an inconspicuous area before applying to a large area of furniture/flooring. Econobusters is not held liable for any discoloration or “harm” that may come from using this mix of ingredients on your personal property.

Molly Green is happy to link to the following blogs and would love for you to take a peek at these sites as well!  WE ARE THAT FAMILY, HIP HOMESCHOOL MOMS,  TIME WARP WIFE, ABOVE RUBIES, ADORNED FROM ABOVE,  VICKI ARNOLD,  RAISING ARROWS, RAISING HOMEMAKERS, HOMEMAKERS CHALLENGE, and ORGANIZED 31!

Thanks to the “new economy”, more of us than ever are having to live simply. Many families are doing things they never thought they’d do – cutting coupons, getting rid of cable television, trading down cars or houses, and even living with relatives. Many of us are used to nicer lifestyles where we could afford a few indulgences or luxuries, so this step down might be a bit of a culture shock. The question is: How can we become content with a simple life?

We’re going through some of these same changes in our own family and we’ve had our own ups and downs with accepting our new economic reality, so I wanted to share some of the tips we’ve found to be helpful as we adjust to a simpler way of living.

Stay busy.

Personally, I do great at following our budget when I’m busy. When I’m bored, I tend to seek out activities that cost money such as shopping or eating out regularly. The more engaged I am with our family, though, the more content I am with a simple family dinner or an afternoon at the park.

Re-establish what’s important.

Refocusing on the things that are most important to us is a big help when we’re trying to cultivate contentment. For our family, these priorities are our worship, our time as a family, and our commitment to homeschooling. When we weigh up any leisure activities or luxuries against these three priorities, it’s pretty easy to know which to choose.

Save, don’t skimp.

This last tip may seem like a bit of a contradiction, but I think there’s a fine line to walk here. Our goal is to save money, not to skimp on necessities or occasional wants. For example, we have four children, so we have to spend a considerable amount of money on groceries. At first, I tried to pare our grocery budget down to the absolute minimum in an attempt to save as much money as possible. Guess what happened? We ended up eating out more than ever because everybody was hungry. Now I know that it’s more important to save money by buying less expensive items than to skimp on the amount of food we actually need to eat.

Choose your associates wisely.

Even if you’re sticking to the above three tips faithfully, they may not be enough to help you cope with another kind of temptation: the temptation to become jealous of the life others are living. If you’re spending time with friends and family members who regularly spend money on activities you can’t afford, it can be difficult not to feel envious of their supposed “freedom.” We try to seek out friends who are living simply as well so that we aren’t invited to do things that are outside of our budget. We also explain our financial goals to others if we know we can’t afford an activity – without feeling embarrassed or frustrated. Rather than dwelling on what others are doing, we try to search out things that we know we can do together, which counteracts any of the resentment we could feel.

Selena is a former tax accountant-turned-homeschooling mom of four. She and her husband, Jay, have committed themselves to homeschooling their children in an effort to give them the very best education possible and to strengthen their bond as a family. Selena shares her family’s homeschooling adventures every weekday at Look! We’re Learning! Readers can keep up with the family by subscribing via email or by following Look! We’re Learning! on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, or Google+.

It’s time for happy hearts, big smiles, and my Making Money from Home magazine! This edition of Molly’s Money-Saving Digest is full of creative ways to provide for your family’s needs while remaining within your budget! In this issue you’ll find lots of fresh inspiration and information, so don’t miss it!

This 2009 back issue is on sale only this week for $2.50. Have you ever seen inside one of my magazines? Take a SNEAK PEEK HERE to see some of the frugal goodness we packed into this issue! Over 35 pages of information & support for an incredibly low price! A small price to pay compared to the great benefits you’ll receive and the money you’ll be saving once you dig into this E-Book! Buy this E-Book today for ONLY $2.50!

Molly members already have this magazine in your member page! Simply click the “Molly Members” tab above, log in, and search out March 2009.

If you’re not a Molly member, check out everything you receive and sign up now on our SUBSCRIPTION PAGE!

Are you new to gardening? Would you like to make homemade cleaners but don’t know where to start? This 2009 back issue is FULL of handy tips to help you along. Gardening Basics and Natural Cleaners is on sale NOW for only $2.50, today is the last day to receive this back issue at this discounted price. Have you ever seen inside one of my magazines? Take a SNEAK PEEK HERE to see some of the frugal goodness we packed into this issue!

Over 35 pages of information & support for an incredibly low price! A small price to pay compared to the great benefits you’ll receive and the money you’ll be saving once you dig into this E-Book! Buy this E-Book today for ONLY $2.50!

Molly members already have this magazine in your member page! Simply click the “Molly Members” tab above, log in, and search out February 2009.

If you’re not a Molly member, check out everything you receive and sign up now on our SUBSCRIPTION PAGE!