One of my new favorite things to do is reading "frugal" blogs. I pore over them with a fevered intensity hoping somehow to find new ways of keeping me at home and away from the big, bad world of work.

I do not have the creativity that many of these bloggers have, but I certainly am willing to try new things...which is really trying "old" things. When my husband and I were growing up, everyone had a garden. People spent many summer days and evenings outdoors, not for exercise or recreation, but for the very pragmatic reasons on needing more economical food to feed large families. My mom made most of our clothes, and getting something handed down, remade, or used was really no big deal. The truth is that much of the furniture in our house once belonged to someone else, but I rarely ever think about that, except to remember whose it was with fondness. We have an entire bedroom set that once belonged to on of my husband's maiden aunts. It's green...so who cares?

In our 1950's gardens we grew corn, tomatoes, green beans, and cucumbers. More ambitious gardeners grew melons and more exotic vegetables. We "canned' in glass jars with lots of boiling water and the eminent threat of explosion. My grandmother had a huge freezer and nothing could compare with the frozen peaches and strawberries we ate when there was snow piled outside the windows.

Regardless of the old versus new argument, we need to use our property for more than a place to grow an overpriced, over-treated lawn which is rarely played upon. We need to grow food for ourselves and for others who do not have the luxury of space that we have here on our little suburban homestead.

I'll keep reading blogs, and trying to find ways to make the most of what we have. Reduce, reuse, recycle will be my mantra. I really want to be a homemaker. I just need to find lots of creative ways of cutting costs so that we can live on what we make. God, please bless our efforts.