Thanksgiving Essentials You Can Make Not Buy!

 Here comes the holiday season!  It's just around the corner!  I've already started to see the commercials for Christmas, and Thanksgiving hasn't even happened yet.  To be fair, Christmas decor made it's way to the stores right after 4th of July, so who are we kidding.  Retailers aren't kidding when it comes to competing for your hard earned dollars.  That includes grocery stores.  I don't fault them for this.  It's their job.  Their job is to get as many of your dollars as they can.  Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to keep as many of your dollars as you can.  This isn't Mission impossible!  It can be done.  You just need to be a little more savvy, and you win.  Part of that savviness is in making more of the things grocers tell you have to be bought.

Many of these recipes I've listed before in one way or another, but I wanted to place them here for convenience.  Both for you and me.  Before you grab a premade, possibly chemically laced bottle, can, or package of something for the holidays; look here to what you can cross off your list.  It's a bigger list than you think!  Full disclosure, I don't know why the next two recipes are highlighted white, but I couldn't fix it so.....

Sweetened Condensed milk

2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp vanilla

On med/low heat whisk the milk and sugar together. Keep stirring occasionally while the milk mixture reduces by about half ( you're shooting for 14 oz. I weigh mine to get it exact). Once reduced, remove from heat and add the vanilla.  Mix well. Makes 12-14 oz and you can use this recipe anywhere sweetened condensed milk is called for.

Evaporated milk

This is incredibly easy.  Simply pour 3 cups of milk into a pot.  On a med low heat simmer until reduced by half.  Use where ever evaporated milk is called for

Cream soup mix

1 1/2 cups dry milk
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 ts salt

mix all together then cut in

1 stick of  butter.  Store in an airtight container in the fridge.  To use for plain white sauce just use 1/3 cup mix to 1 cup of water.  If you want cream of chicken, use chicken broth, cream of mushroom: open a can of mushrooms and drain, add water to the mushroom liquid to equal 1 cup fluid. Then follow the rest of the recipe.  You can also add 1 cup of cheese and 1 tsp. yellow mustard to make cheese sauce. If you don't have dry milk, you can simply make a white sauce using 2 TBS melted butter, 2 TBS flour, 1/4 tsp salt and 1 cup liquid of choice: milk, chicken brother, mushroom, etc.  This recipe will take the place of your cream of chicken, cream mushroom etc.  I used this recipe last night to make queso cheese sauce for our fajitas.  It was very good, and popular.

Homemade Poultry Seasoning

2 tsp ground sage
2 tsp Thyme
1 tsp Marjoram
3/4 tsp ground rosemary
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground black pepper.

Just add everything to a jar and shake well.  Just keep it in your spice cabinet for use whenever you need poultry seasoning.

Homemade pumpkin pie spice

4 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Chicken Broth

Cook a whole chicken for dinner.  SAVE THE JUICE FROM IT"S COOKING!  After it's use for that meals, remove the rest of the meat.  Save that meat in the fridge of freezer for other meals.  Take the bones from the chicken, and the cooking liquid from cooking the chicken and place in a crock pot or stock pot.  If you have the giblets, add those too.  Add some celery (2 large stalks), some carrots( one large), half a large onion, couple of tsp salt, and 2 tbs vinegar.  Covered it all with water, put the lid on and set it to low.  Let this simmer at least a day.  If in a stock pot, let it simmer during the day and check on it periodically.  Add water if it cooks down too low.  You want to keep everything covered.  At bed time, turn off, then resume cooking on low the next day.  You want to cook both crock or stock pot, until you can take a bone out and crush it with your fingers.  That means the vinegar has done it's job and removed all of the minerals from the bones, and the broth is now infused with those good for you minerals.  The broth is now ready.  Strain the broth to remove the bones, and vegetables.  The bones are so soft after cooking broth that I will mash up everything, veggies and all and give it to my dogs.  They love it.  Place the broth in the refrigerator to cool.  Remove once cool and skim the now solid fat off the top.  Your broth is now defatted.  This should a make at least a few quarts of really good bone broth.  Bone broth cost big bucks at the store.  You got it cheap cheap!  

Stuffing

Save the heals of loaves of bread, left over hot dog bung, hamburger buns, corn bread, and biscuits.  Keep this stale bread in your freezer.  If you don't have left over corn bread or biscuits, simply make them and freeze to use for stuffing for Thanksgiving dinner.  No one should have to buy( and pay crazy money) for stale bread.  Saltine crackers are also a great stuffing addition.  Use your favorite recipe, just don't buy the dried stuffing.  

Pie crust

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2/3 cup lard or butter.  Please don't use shortening, and make sure the lard you buy isn't hydrogenated.  I use butter most of the time.

6-7 TBS cold water

Mix flour and salt together.  Cut in the butter until it's crumbly.  There shouldn't be a piece bigger than a pea.  Make a well in the center.  Add the cold water a TBS at a time, tossing it into the mixture.  It you need t add a little more water, add just enough to get a nice dough that doesn't crumble, but isn't sticky.  Divide in to two pieces.  Roll out each onto a floured surface.  Makes two crusts.  You can flour parchment or wax paper and roll the crust out on the paper, then roll and freeze or refrigerate until needed.  

Baking powder

2 TBS Baking Powder

2 TBS Corn Starch

4 TBS Cream of Tarter

Mix all together in a jar.  Use as you would any store bought baking powder, only this will work way better.  Much cheaper.

Brown Sugar

Mix in 1 TBS of Molasses into 1 cup of granulated sugar.  You can blend this to mix, or use your hands to mix well.  Use just as you would any store bought brown sugar.  Way cheaper this way.

Powdered Sugar

I've actually done this.  I know it sound crazy, but to make powdered sugar you need to put a cup of sugar into a blender and blend on high.  You'll need to stop it periodically to loosen things up, but it works.  

Okay.  That's all I can think of at the moment.  If I think of anything else, I'll add it here.  Please comment if you know of something I've missed, have a question, or just want to say hello!

Could be now, but definitely for future use.

 So not waxing political.  I'm just wanting to give some tips and tricks to folks who are currently on food stamps and facing no food stamps for November.  This information, while initially for current EBT recipients, is also useful for anyone facing a financial emergency that takes grocery money out of their bank account.  I've been there.  I've been on food stamps.  When my daughter was a baby I was on food stamps for a few months after the company I worked for closed and moved to North Carolina.  I took a job at McDonalds to get off of them. I will say this.  Be careful who you let control your food, housing, and healthcare. These are things that are essential for living.  It's best to be in control of them yourself.  

Okay.  All that being said; there are times when there's no choice but to get help from Uncle Sam.  This post is to help strengthen you and your family during that time as well as those in a bind financially.  I've been there too!  More than once!  

**When it comes to scratch cooking, I have many recipes on this page, as well as "How to's".  

Regardless of food stamp "money" or your own money, these tips will help you get through any financial crisis. First lets get you through this one.  

1.  Food Banks/Pantries- I know it's not ideal, but look at food banks in your area.  There are also churches that have food pantries.  Many of these offer canned or shelf stable products to people in need.  This is because they can be donated and stored until they are given to those in need of them.  In the food pantry where I served, we always tried to think of staples with the boxes: canned vegetables, canned meats, peanut butter, oil, salt, flour, sugar, etc.  With those items many different meals can be created.  

2.  Scrounged money-  Your family has to eat, so if you have a few dollars, great.  If you don't, some things will have to go by the wayside so groceries can be brought in.  Streaming services that are about to come out; cancel them.  Any unnecessary expenses need to be put on hold: gym membership, hair dresser, nail salon, date nights out, etc.  Your family eating takes priority.  When funds are available again, these services can be reinstated.  You may actually get a better price when you come back!

3.  What do you have on Hand? - Take an inventory of what you have in your pantry, freezer, and fridge.  Think of what you need to buy to make a meal out of what's already there.  

3.  Shop wisely -  You aren't going to have a wind fall of cash despite what you do, so you'll need to be smart with how you spend.  Basics are what you're looking for.  Staple items.  Coke, snacks, "Fun foods" are out.  It doesn't mean you can't have them.  It just means you'll have to make them!  You can do it!  Switch lunch meat for a whole chicken or turkey. Walmart has these on sale right now for .97 lb..  That's cheaper than a whole chicken.  These can be cooked and used just like lunch meat.  You will get many meals from a whole chicken and especially a whole turkey.  Don't forget the bones!  Once you've used the meat on the chicken or turkey, those bones can be slow cooked a couple of days in a croc pot and make broth!  That broth is highly nutritional.  You have kids; they need milk.  Under 2 it should be full strength whole milk, but over two you have the option of stretching 1 gallon of whole milk into 2 gallons of milk.  Mix whole milk half and half with water.  Voila!  2 gallons of milk!  It will be the taste and consistency of 2%.  Flour, salt, sugar, potatoes, onions, carrots, tea bags, etc..  Yes I said Tea bags.  We're in the south Honey!  We drink tea here.  Ya know what?  You can make sweet tea, and still have less sugar than drinking a coke.  Well maybe, some of you southerners like really sweet tea.  I'm a half cup sugar to a gallon of tea type girl.  I know.  I swear I was born and raised in Ga!  However my family came from Pennsylvania laying railroad, so maybe that's it.   So you are looking to fill in gaps with what you have at home.  If you have a question about anything you need to learn to do, You Tube is a cornucopia of info.  Mary's Nest is a great resource.  Nice lady.  

4.  Stretch what you have and buy-  You may think "I have one can of corn.  That's not enough for 6 people".  Well it is if you take that corn and make soup or corn chowder.  Dice onions and peppers in it.  Add it to corn bread.  This is just an example.  The idea is to make what you have go further.  In 1976 when I was a kid.  Inflation was bad.  My parents had 5 kids to feed, and groceries went up over night.  To stretch ground beef, my mom added chopped onion and bread crumbs( from left over bread).  To this day it's my favorite way to eat ground beef.  Our daughter, her husband and our grandson lived with us for about 8 months years ago.  We had 6 adults and a toddler here to feed.  Not a lot of money to spare.  I made a chicken pot pie, actually two 9x11 casserole dishes, with two chicken breasts.  I doubled the carrots, onions, potatoes and celery.  Everyone ate what they wanted and no hungry bellies.  I had no left overs, but everyone was fed.  I did the same thing with frying chicken breast.  I took two large chicken breasts.  Pounded them flat, cut them into strips and double breaded them.  Everyone was full.  Left over meatloaf becomes the meat for chili or spaghetti.  Left over egg/milk mix from french toast becomes muffins for another day.  Leftover mashed potatoes, rice, and oatmeal can be added to muffin batter to stretch the number of muffins.  Stretch what you have!!

 So those last tips are some of the options to get you through now.  The following are so you don't have to have it this hard again

1.  Build a pantry. .  Set aside a place or, if there isn't a set place, use every nook and cranny you can come up with to put food that you are going to begin to set aside.  Like I said in the beginning.  This may not be helpful out of the gate, but it will in the future.  There will always be financial crisis.  Doesn't matter how much you make.  There will always be problems with EBT.  I mean we are talking about the government.  How efficient do you think they are?  

2.  Buy staples!  -  The best thing you can do financially and health wise is to begin to cook all you can( and it's a lot that can be made) from scratch.  Getting away from highly processed food will leave you with massive amounts of food stamp dollars at the end of the month.  What do you buy with those?  More staples; meats, produce, etc.  You can freeze a lot of things, and if you have jars and a big stock pot you can water bath can a lot. Learn to ferment.  The idea here is by purchasing staples and putting it in your area designated to be the pantry or food storage.  You will never have to worry about something happening like this again.  You will have food laid by, and it's like money in the bank.  You will shrug when another government shut down or financial crisis hits, because you will know that regardless of it all, your family will still eat.

3.  Shop sales-  The next few months are the best, in my opinion, for buying staples.  Using food stamp or grocery money to focus on staple items on sale is the best combination to stretch dollars.  Many people don't realize coupons can be combined with food stamps, just as if using cash.  

You may have to be on food stamps for a time, but that doesn't mean food stamps needs to control you.   The same goes for any financial crisis.  You can breath easier knowing you can eat from the pantry, saving the money you would have spent on food for whatever financial need arises.  It's also money in the bank.  

Something practical, and a recipe!

 Good morning!  Rainy day here, and damp cold!  Brrr.  DH and I are both sitting down to a sausage and cheese breakfast sandwich and a cup of coffee.  Yum!

So sausage is expensive you say?  Well it doesn't have to be.  In fact, using this recipe one can get not only a great flavorful sausage inexpensively, but also get a good whollap of protein to boot.  Way more than store bought sausage.  How?  Well no fillers in this sausage.  It uses a pound of ground meat; cooks choice : ground pork, turkey, chicken, or beef.  The beef will make it pricier.  FYI.  Todays' sausage was made with 85/15 ground turkey.  I've used ground pork before.  In fact if you have a grocery store with an independent butcher( Ingles for example).  Watch for whole boneless pork loin to go on sale for $1.99-$2.49 lb.  Get them to slice the center into chops, but grind the ends.  You can also just get them to grind the whole thing, and then freeze it into 1 pound packages.  Ground pork is also a great substitution for ground beef if pinching pennies.  

Without further ado:

Indiana Farm Sausage

1 pound ground meat

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp chili powder

1/3- 1/5 tsp marjoram

1/5 tsp thyme

1/3-1/5 basil

1 tsp salt

1 rounded tsp sage

1 rounded tsp parsley

1 tsp onion powder

Mix all together in a mixing bowl.  You can make it ahead the night before to let the flavors mix, but today I simply made it up and cooked it immediately.  You cook it just like any other sausage:  brown it in a pan.  I've used this recipe to make sausage biscuits, breakfast sandwiches, pizza, sausage gravy, and sausage cheese balls.  

I can get ground turkey for $1.99 at Aldi, and watch for the pork loin to go on sale.  The cheapest I've seen sausage on sale is $3.99.  This ends up being half that.  Well worth the effort!

My second practical tidbit today is our bread.  It's sourdough.  I used to think I lacked the sourdough gene.  It seemed like every time I tried to make a starter, it would die.  I was... a starter killer.  Then my sweet niece, Lydia, gave me a starter from her stash.  Her starter had been kept alive for about 2 hundred years!  NO PRESSURE! So I fed it religiously.  I was so afraid I'd kill it.  I kept it going for a while.  Then I made the mistake of listening to someone on the internet that said you could freeze starter.  Yea.  You can't.  Once again I killed it!  So I decided to try once again to make my own.  I felt I'd learned a lot from caring for my niece starter; especially not to freeze it.  So I gave it a try, and made my own!  It is much easier than people think, but it does require attention.  

So here are the rules for starter' mainly making and caring for your own.

1.  You can buy distilled water, but who needs yet another thing to buy.  Fill a jar with water and let it sit out, lightly capped or covered, over night.  That will let any chlorine dissipate.  I keep a jar filled on my counter, next to my starter.  

2.  Don't worry about flour and water ratios.  Just take a good scoop of flour; say a cup if you need a measurement, and add water to it until it's the consistency of pancake patter.

3.  You will need to discard starter and add more flour and water at least daily in the beginning.  I don't go by a set time when doing this.  I check it periodically during the day and when it's not bubbling very much I'll pour off some starter then add more water and flour.  When the starter is strong enough, it won't have to happen as often.  It will become more a routine where you're using the starter and feeding it for next time.  I fed this starter this morning around 7 am.  It's 9:30 and it's bubbling away.  

4.  DON'T THROW YOUR DISCARD AWAY!  The easiest thing to do is pour it into a heated cast iron pan or pizza pan.  Sprinkle salt on it and bake for a quick easy pizza crust.  I'll make these up and freeze them for easy meals.  There are other things to do with your discard.  I'll cover those later.  When your discard is strong enough, you can use it to make bread like I did today!

5.  If you don't have time to deal with the starter or don't have anything to bake anytime soon, you can refrigerate it.  You'll want to feed it after about a week.  Maybe sooner if your starter is still new.  When you do take it out to use,  feed it, and let it sit on the counter and get to room temp before you use it.

                                                          

6.  DON"T use stainless steel!  Not even for stirring.  I have a rubber spatula that I use, but wooden spoons are fine as well.  My starter began it's life in a 2 quart mason jar, but now lives in a crock that stays on my counter.  The lid to the crock is broken, so my starter has to have plastic wrap to cover it.  I want to use it though because it's the pattern of my dishes.  I decided on the crock because I can scoop the starter out easier and the lid to the mason jar kept getting crusty with dried starter.  I like this better.

                                                       

7.  DON'T FREEZE!  I don't care what the internet says.

I will say having sourdough is a plus.  Not only do I not have to buy yeast to make our baked goods, but true sourdough breaks down the gluten making it easier to digest.  It also is a fermented product, so is good for the gut.  Plus the pizza crust and the cracker recipe have become a go to for me. 

Sourdough crackers

1 cup flour

1 cup sourdough starter (discard)

1 tsp salt

3 TBS fat( butter, lard, avocado oil, etc.; cooks choice)

Mix flour, salt, and oil/fat together.  Add starter and mix well.  Let sit, covered, for 30 minutes.  Take a third of the dough at a time, and roll out thin ( 1/4 inch)on either parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.  I cut mine with a pizza cutter, but you can use a knife.  Lightly sprinkle with salt.  Place parchment or mat on cookie sheet.  Bake 12 minutes at 350 until the edges brown.  These will taste like saltines, but are much lighter.  

Relax. I'm no AI.

 😁 I heard yesterday that a growing number of internet articles are now AI.  That includes many names that are well known in media.  Even they have jumped on the AI band wagon to help with their writing.  Well you can rest assured that isn't me!  😉.  Can you tell?  

Full disclosure;  I recently started asking Chatgpt some questions.  I see the attraction.  Chatgpt helped me decide what colors to paint my living room and dining room.  It helped me in repairing a vinyl dolls eyes.  Which is great, since I'm teaching myself to restore vintage and antique dolls.  It helped me fix our sliding glass door.  You get my drift.  The one thing I haven't used it for is my writing.  Good or bad grammar; it's all mine.  Not giving that up.  I don't care if it might make it sound better.  It isn't me.  So know when you come here all the thoughts, information, antics, mistakes, etc. are all my own.  I will be your contact with reality!

Okay, so now, back to reality:

I finally got around to taking the 12 roosters to the processor.  One of those twelve got a last minute stay of execution because the processors wife needed a rooster.  She choose from the lighter of the 12.  So he now has 10 ladies of his own.  I'm happy he got to get a reprieve.  I'd reprieve all of them if it wasn't for the fact that I had 15 roosters crowing at 5 a.m. every morning.  My neighbors can only take so much.  The two roosters we kept were the low man on the totem pole so never put on enough weight.  In fact he almost starved.  I had to remove him from the roosters and feed him alone in order for him to come back.  The second, miraculously was the one who laid his head on my shoulder a couple of weeks ago.  He'd been lost in the crowd of identical roosters until I picked him up to load him in the truck.  When I went to carry him to the truck, he once again laid his head on my chest.  Of all of the roosters, he's the only one that did that.  I've named him Swanson, and I think I'll name the second one Sanders.

We learned a lesson with these guys.  These were meat birds and we should have been feeding them a high protein 24% feed at the point of hatching.  We didn't.  We fed them chick feed according to the directions on the chick feed bag.  Had we done that one thing they would have been ready for processing weeks ago.  Instead we had to wait longer, and therefore pay more in feed over time to get them to a decent weight.  We did change feed a few weeks ago, but we've still lost time and money.  Now we know.  In fact we're switching to the high protein feed for everyone, layers included moving forward.  This will help the layers during molting, and can increase egg production.  We hope!  

My house looks like a tornado struck because of the painting process.  I'm hopeful I can get it all together soon.  I have to say Chat did a great job with his paint recommendations.  I choose from the options he offered, but he gave me some good option.  I'm loving the colors so far.  I will post the finished pics later. 

Thought I'd include a few of my past projects.  These were done before I met Chat.  The top two are circa 1940's total composition dolls.  The last one with the long hair is a 1955 EeGee Susan Stroller doll.

 

I failed.

 Yep!  I went over my grocery budget, and it was intentional.  I already know where I made my mistake; bad planning on my part.  

You see, we have chickens.  Well, actually we have a lot of chickens.  Back in May we decided to buy specifically meat birds with the intention of starting a sustainable meat bird flock.  The idea was that we would buy 24 birds.  Of those 24 birds, half would be hens, and half roosters.  We'd keep one rooster to keep the flock going, and the rest would be processed.  We chose a heritage breed call "Jersey Giants".  Males can be up to 13 lbs. at adulthood and females 10 lbs.  

Two things have thrown a wrench in this plan: we didn't know to give them a high protein meat feed starting at birth, and we didn't realize DH would get an opportunity to tour with a wrestling group.   So when we had planned to process the birds, they weren't at a decent weight.  That meant a longer wait, and more expense for chicken feed.  We have since changed their feed to the high protein, which is a little more expensive than what we were feeding them.  That's when we found out they should have been given this feed from the time they hatched.  So because these guys are needing a more expensive feed, and they're still here, means I went over my budget.  In addition, because of DH schedule, we've found a processor to take care of these guys when the time comes (needs to be soon.  Imagine how much fun it is to hear 14 roosters crowing at 5am.).  So even more added expense.  So now we know.  This lesson cost us some dollars, but now we know.  We're still following our plan as far as raising meat birds, but now we know where we went wrong and can tweak things moving forward.  

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up one of the roosters to see if he had put on weight.  The stupid thing laid his head on my chest like he was cuddling me.  I'm like DRAT!  Okay.  You get to be the one that stays with the hens cause now I can't process you.  Well that worked for a couple of days until he got out of the enclosure for the hens to be with his brothers.  I did tell you he wasn't that bright.  Now I can't tell them apart.  They all look the same.  I looked up the breed and apparently this cuddling behavior is common among this breed.  That's terrible!  They should be ornery so I have no problem letting them go.  If they cuddle me every time I'll never be able to process them.  Sigh.  

In other news, one of the reasons I've been quiet on here the last few weeks is I have yet again another project.  I'm now painting our living room and dining room.  I don't think I shared my kitchen, pics, I did that a month or so ago.  

That red phone will be in use soon, as soon as I can figure out what VOI system I want to use.  I miss being able to work and talk on the phone at the same time.  You can't hold a cell phone on your shoulder. 

 This picture frame is my favorite piece in my kitchen.  On the bottom is the actual WW2 food ration book, with unused stamps inside, that belonged to  my great grandmother.  It has her name, Ollie, on it as well as her address.  I looked up the address in Atlanta and her house still stands.  Anyway, I framed the ration card along with some pictures of her and my dad when he was a boy

My garden is done for the season except for some peppers and a few valiant tomatoes.  Once we have a first freeze I'll get out there to put it officially to bed for the year.  I've decided my garden will slumber through next season as well to give it and me a rest.  With DH touring, I don't want to get into an "over my head" situation like I did this year.  

So that's my update.  I'm off to start painting again!  Thanks for reading!  Have a blessed day!

Thought this might still be relevant

 Hello again!  Hello cousin "K"!  How are things?  STILL EXPENSIVE!  Even with the rate of inflation down, it doesn't mean there is no inflation.  Throw in supply line issues, drought, etc.  Gone are the days of a $400 grocery budget.  (sigh).  $400 was our average for years, but when DH and I got married, I could fill our pantry and fridge for a month for about $150.  (double sigh)

I've been trying to get us back on a good grocery budget, and by a good Grocery Budget I'm shooting for $600 a month.  This would include all pet food, chicken feed, paper products, and cleaning supplies.  This may be a bit of a challenge, but I'm determined to at least find a comfortable budget in the ball park.  $600 was the budget I had in August.  I stuck to it pretty well, but had some accidental debit purchases I'd not planned on.  September was the same, but, again, lost track of some things so not exactly sure of numbers.  So I'm trying again to do a cash only grocery budget.  October 1st is the day I get my grocery money.  Not sure how this is going to go, but in lieu of my foray into the grocery battle; I thought I'd bring forward an article I wrote o so long ago in 2021.  I found it useful for my own situation and thought it might be helpful to you dear reader.  I'll let you know how it goes.  😓

Stretch what you have

What can I say?

Charlie Kirk was a day younger than our son, Einstein. That doesn't make his assassination any worse than it already is, but it does strike us as to how young he was. DH and I were up last night talking about it all. Not just Charlie Kirk, but the senseless murder of the young Ukrainian woman, Irina Zarutska, on the subway in NC, and also the general state of things. I'm stunned, saddened, and worried. DH is MAD. Mad at what happened to Charlie and Irina, but mostly mad at the politicians that have whipped people into such a frenzy that a young man and woman are no longer here. He's calmer now than he was the day Charlie Kirk died, but still mad.

DH says he changed that day. I asked him what was different. His initial reaction to the death of Charlie Kirk wasn't a positive one, and he knew it. It was visceral. Now he confesses he's more guarded. He's keenly aware of the fact that someone could take something he posts and use it to target him or his family. He believes one on one he'd be bolder. During the course of our conversation, however, we determined that to be silent in any capacity is to give a win to the shooter.

To me, and this is my opinion, politics and faith go hand and hand. I believe this because our political beliefs are usually guided by our faith and values. I say "usually" because politicians are very adept at twisting faith to fit their narrative. Because I believe they're intertwined; I can't speak out about one without the other. For instance, I'm pro-life. Therefore I vote for candidates with a pro life platform. I wavered from that this past presidential campaign season when RFK Jr was running. He's the closest I've ever come to voting for a Democrat. The reason I came that close was due to his approach to abortion. To quote RFK Jr " every abortion is a tragedy". His plan was to find a way to support and incentivize mothers to keep their children rather than just a blanket statement that women shouldn't have abortions. I still would rather abortion not exist, but he was at least trying to solve the problem.

So I'm not supposed to be silent about my faith. As a result, my politics will show up! So just so you know, dear reader, I'm a conservative. I believe in the Father, Son, and Holy ghost. I believe in being responsible for my actions. Dh and I learned long ago to live our lives in such a way as to NOT need govt help. We learned that tough lesson a long time ago. We live within our means and want the government to do the same. I believe we are made in the image of God. God doesn't make mistakes. If he intended a child to be a boy; it's a boy. As an aside. I will never, ever, refer to a man by female pronouns. You haven't paid the dues buddy. You're a dude in a skirt. Anyway. I believe in Biblical marriage. I believe my husband is the head of the house, and Christ is the head of him. Does that make me weak or dumb? No. Does that mean he can abuse me? NO! I believe in life at conception. As unplanned pregnancies go, my first was not stellar. My daughters biological father was married at the time, and not to me. I worked at Wendy's. I lived with my daughters biological father AND HIS WIFE. Top that Geraldo! I was married, technically at the time, but separated from my then husband. I had to tell my parents!!!! Ugh! I had every reason in todays' world to have the pregnancy quietly terminated. I didn't, and I wouldn't. Even in the midst of the craziness of my heathen life, I still was prolife. I've never regretted bringing my daughter into this world. She's beautiful, funny, sharp as a tac, and she gets it all from me😁. Read my testimony here

So there you go.  You know me.  I will not be silent.