I haven’t made baked oatmeal in a while – my main fallback recipe has more sugar than I want to have for breakfast. Then I came across this recipe and made it yesterday. It was very frugal (for us) and very yummy!
I make my menu based on the ingredients that I have (versus making a menu plan and then buying the ingredients that I need – it’s a very significant difference). What is frugal for one person won’t necessarily be frugal for another.
Becky at Scratch Pantry, whose recipe I adapted, has chickens and abundant eggs, so her recipe is egg heavy. I made some small adjustments, reducing the eggs and oats, and taking out the brown sugar.
Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal (makes one 9 x 13 pan)
5 eggs
2 c. milk
2 c. applesauce
2 t. cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
3 c. oatmeal (not rolled oats)
2 c. finely chopped apples
Topping
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
Mix all the ingredients for the oatmeal mixture, and pour into a 9 x 13 pan. (I doubled the recipe to have one for another day.) Top with slices of butter and sprinkle the brown sugar on top. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celsius until slightly firm to the touch. I used a toaster oven for this and it took over an hour; in the oven it might have been different.
To make two large 9 x 13 pans of this baked oatmeal cost me under ten shekels. My costs were super low because I: 1) used milk that I got for free, 2) blended up a jar of home canned apples to use for applesauce (made from free apples), 3) have fresh apples that I got free and 4) buy oats in bulk so my cost is around 4 shekels a kilo. If I had to buy all of the milk and apples, my cost would be much higher.
Look at what your costs will be to determine if this will be an affordable breakfast for you! What can you do if the specifics make it pricey for you, but you like the basic idea? I’m big on adapting recipes to meet my needs. Don’t have apples, but you have some other fruit or vegetable? Use that instead! I have recipes for zucchini baked oatmeal, pumpkin baked oatmeal, and others. You can use canned or fresh produce. You can leave out the produce and make a basic recipe that is oats, liquid, eggs and sweetener. If you don’t have milk, use juice, or water.
And of course, this general principle doesn’t apply to just this recipe! I consider recipes a starting point, and that’s something I teach my kids when they learn to cook – that it’s just fine to make substitutions or leave something out if they don’t have it. Sometimes you come up with something even better than the original!
>> Aviva, can you maybe do a post about how to shop frugally in Israel? We are a family of 7 and I am finding it very challenging to stick to a grocery budget of less than 4000 nis a month. Would appreciate a post if you’re up for it.<<
I’m happy to share on this topic! While I’ve written loads about frugal shopping in the past, my own strategies are constantly evolving. However, the basic mindset remains the same, and that’s what I’ll start with. I’ll later share more posts on different specifics.
At the foundation of my shopping strategy is this: I don’t shop for specific ingredients, but shop to fill my pantry, and then cook based on what I have. This is a huge, huge difference from the typical shopping most people do, and where I save a lot of money.
When I shop, I’m looking for the sales. When I find a good deal, I buy a lot of that item. For years, people have been looking with curiosity into my shopping cart (and many times commenting or questioning me about specific items they see), because generally my cart looks different than most people. Instead of a small amount of a lot of different items, I buy a lot of a few items.
I call this buying the loss leaders, the sale items advertised weekly to lure people into the stores. Where I live now, I don’t get any advertising booklets or sales flyers, so I don’t know what I’ll find on sale until I get to the store.
On my most recent trip to the supermarket, I saw they had beef bones for 12.90 a kilo, instead of 29.90. People passing by saw me putting a bunch in my cart and all of them glanced at me and then at the price, and kept going. Only one woman stopped and jokingly asked if I was leaving some for everyone else. (There was a ton, I hardly made a dent in what was available.) I told her I was buying a lot while the price was good, and she told me she was planning to do the same thing, and would come back later in the day when she had a car to transport it. (Not surprisingly, she was a a middle aged Russian woman – the Russians this age know about frugal shopping!)
Beef bones are something I only infrequently used in the past. Now that they’re on sale, it’s not hard to find ways to use them! The last few weeks I made meat soup instead of chicken soup for Shabbos dinner; they are delicious for cholent, and they make amazing, nutritious, rich broth that is a great foundation for any soup or stew. Some of them have more fat, some have more meat – I chose the fattiest ones I could find – and I cut off and rendered down chunks of the excess fat to make tallow.
During that same shopping outing there was also meat on sale for the lowest price I’ve seen in over seven months. Why are these things on sale now? I don’t know. But I did know the price wasn’t going to last long and got two cases. I do the same with chicken – when it’s on sale, I get as much as I can fit into my freezer.
Don’t get caught up in the specifics of my beef bones or meat! You can substitute any other sale item. This is just an example of one strategy that I regularly use that makes a huge difference in how much I spend. When I say that I shop to fill my pantry, I mean that I don’t buy enough for just that one week, but stock up at the sale price.
When I know how long the sales cycle is, I buy enough to last until the next sale. Back in the US, I would buy grape juice twice a year, when it would be half price. When it would go on sale for 2.99 a bottle instead of 5.99, I would buy six months worth each time. There was no point in buying more than that, because I knew there would be another sale – and there was also no point in buying less, running short and having to pay full price.
I recently began shopping with Mishnat Yosef, a group buying organization (the website is set up for member use and only members can see what is available that week, but there’s no cost to becoming a member). Their staple items are less expensive than the supermarket’s regular prices, and they cycle through their staples items regularly. I’m now learning their cycles and buying accordingly.
Six months ago I learned that at the supermarket I shop at, produce was priced half off one day a week to compete with the weekly ‘shuk’. (Now that shmitta began, it’s the same price all week long.) I shifted my shopping day from Wednesday to Tuesday to take advantage of this. You can start to see how if you regularly buy your groceries at a 25 – 50% discount, it will cut your grocery spending!
I guarantee that wherever you live, there are great shopping options! Everywhere that I’ve lived, I’ve found great deals, and routinely, people living other places said that I was lucky to have the prices that I did, that they didn’t have those kind of opportunities. (And people living in the same place as me would wonder why they couldn’t find good deals …) Your sales will be different than mine, but you definitely have good opportunities wherever you are. You just have to look for them, and buy what is inexpensive for you.
Buying the sales goes hand in hand with buying seasonally. I don’t buy produce that is out of season, which is guaranteed to cost much more and not taste as good. Right now avocadoes are an amazing deal (six shekels a kilo), and I’m buying lots of them! I wish I had a way to preserve them for the long term, but I don’t so I’m enjoying them while I have them. I don’t touch them outside of this season. In the same vein, while in the summer we had loads of tomatoes, now I hardly buy them.
This shopping strategy of stocking up on sales gives me a nice selection of items to work with when planning my weekly menus.
Most people who menu plan first make the menu and then shop for the ingredients. That’s a good strategy and definitely much better than randomly buying items without a plan, but I do the opposite. I shop, then make my plan. I make a list of what I have in my pantry, then look for recipes to use what I have. If there was a great deal on sweet potatoes, it will be in my menu. If they’re not on sale, I won’t use them.
Buying the sales means that even when you are eating the same foods as the full price shoppers, you’ve paid much less. Only your timing is different.
On Wednesday evening, my daughter gave birth to a baby boy!
I told my neighbor yesterday, and she looked confused. “I know…you went to Jerusalem for the bris.” No, that was two and a half weeks ago – this is a different daughter!
Who knew when our two daughters got married twelve days apart, that they would later have baby girls 2.5 months apart, and then baby boys 2.5 weeks away?! It’s so special.
Thank G-d, this is our fourth grandson in the last 12.5 months, making for, as my sister said, “A bumper crop of boys!”
This was my daughter’s third birth, but first homebirth. It was so nice to see her an hour later in her own space, looking relaxed and happy. As she said, a homebirth is a completely different experience than a hospital birth.
Now they’re here with us for a few days, and I’m tapping away at the keyboard with this tiny cutie pie on my lap.
One hour old. ————————————–
After dashing out to meet my new grandson, I came directly back home where several women had already arrived for the canning workshop that I was giving that evening. I offered a canning workshop for women in our community several weeks ago, and then did this second one for women who couldn’t make it to the first one.
What I covered was waterbath canning, something that can be done very inexpensively with supplies that are probably already in your home or inexpensively purchased. Canning is a good strategy to make the most of great produce sales, to extend the seasonality of your fruits and vegetables so you can enjoy the when they are no longer in season.
Waterbath canning is good for high acid foods only – that means fruits, fruit juices and pickled items. So while it’s limited, it’s still a great skill to acquire for your frugality and self-sufficiency toolbox.
It took me some time to figure out how to can things here since the jars and lids are different from the US, where most of my canning experience was. I did a bit of canning when I first moved to Israel using recycled jars, then stopped until this summer. What changed things for me was finding where to buy jars very affordably, and how use them. It was a drive to get to the seller but worth it, since just a day after I bought them, someone in my community who does holiday food distribution called to tell me they had given out all the parcels and were left with some produce. Did I want any? Perfect timing!
It’s been fun to get back into canning! There’s a limit to how much fresh fruit you’re going to get, even if it’s free, because there’s a limit to how much you want to eat, and there’s a limit to how long it will stay in your fridge before it goes off. In this case, I got a case each of apples and pears, and with the help of my new jars and large stock pot, preserved them so they are now shelf stable.
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When I went to Jerusalem for the bris a couple of weeks ago, my son-in-law asked me if I wanted zucchini. He knows the quantities of food we go through, and he also knows that I find ways to use whatever comes my way! (Frugality tip – when something is offered and it seems like something that will be helpful, accept it even if you aren’t yet sure what to do with it! You can pass it along to others if you don’t use it.)
At his yeshiva, many families participate in a vegetable buying order; every week each family gets an identical box of assorted produce. They pick up their orders at a central location, and when someone doesn’t want an item that was in their box, they put it to the side. Anyone who comes to pickup his box can add to the extra produce put to the side or take it. On the Friday that we were there, there was a lot of zucchini, and my son-in-law brought me a case and a half!
What to do with so much zucchini? I could have chopped them and frozen them, but am trying to get away from using my freezer so heavily. I don’t like to depend exclusively on something that is dependent on electricity. (I remember well being without power for a week in Baltimore when a storm came through, and trying to cook all the chicken in the freezer before it spoiled, as the daylight faded and I had just a candle for light.) I decided dehydrating the zucchini in the oven would be my best option, but all three batches failed – one spoiled (not hot enough), and two got overdone when the heat was too high. Our chickens enjoyed them, at least.
Since it was clear dehydrating wasn’t working in this case, I thought about what to do with the remaining zucchini. I could can them, but as a low-acid food my only choice was pickling them, and that didn’t sound appealing.
When I began canning in 2008, I made lots of the recipes in the canning books. They looked good and filled the jars, but they weren’t foods that we ate. I learned my lesson – now I won’t can something unless it’s something I know I’ll use.
I started cruising for zucchini inspiration and came across a comment about mock pineapple that got my mental wheels turning – I started thinking about zucchini as a potential palette to absorb other flavors. With some more looking, I found recipes for apple pie and lemon pie filling made from zucchini, as well as pineapple zucchini. It sounds strange, I know. I think of it like tofu. It doesn’t taste like much on it’s own but it can turn into whatever you want.
I made the mock pineapple, and when one of the jars didn’t seal when processing, we put it in the fridge and had some the next day. My boys told me it actually tasted like pineapple and was really good!
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The mock pineapple was especially yummy with homemade yogurt, made by ds14. We got a call a couple of nights ago (from my other son-in-law) that a large synagogue was giving away tons of milk that was due to expire a day later. We got a bunch and while I was out at choir practice, ds14 was busy making loads of yogurt. Literally – he made an 18 liter bucket full! (You can see it behind him in the picture below.)
Making cheese
Then over the next couple of days, he and ds12 experimented with making soft cheeses, adding flavorings, straining them, weighting them down. They are using only lemon juice and vinegar for a curdling element, no rennet. My favorite so far was made by ds12, with milk, salt, eggs and yogurt. It takes a lot of milk to make cheese, and it’s fun to experiment when all the milk is free! My boys appreciated the opportunity since they’ve been wanting to experiment with cheese making for quite a while. (A while back ds14 did some cheesemaking, but that ended when the budget I allotted was spent.)
This was my favorite so far, by ds12 – it sliced up really nicely in firm slices. He weighted it down quite a lot to squeeze the liquids out.
The shalom zachor will be at our home tonight, and today will be a busy day getting ready for that as well as Shabbos. Dd21 and ds15 came home last night so they can be here for the shalom zachor (they were initially planning to only next week for the Thursday bris and then stay for Shabbos), and since my birthday is tomorrow I appreciate them being here even more!
I said I was going to share more about frugality, and I will, but I’ve received a couple of emails with important questions that I want to respond to first. I’ve edited out specifics below, as I think this is a question many people have with their own personal slant.
>>I am so grateful to be out of “emergency” mode but lately I’m findingmyself confused about some things in living, maybe it’s just that I’m having a few minutes now to process what happened. You’ve shared different challenges over the years …. I feel nervous to think that life can get back to “normal”. I feel like there is no such thing as normal. Did you ever feel this way? Someone said to me that if we got through this, then we know we could get through anything, that sounded nice but the truth is I really don’t feel like having HaShem raise the bar, I think I’m only realizing now how hard this year was, and maybe a bit more traumatic than I want to admit. While it was happening I just kept putting one step in front of the other and stayed focus on what was needed in the moment to get our family through. I feel that the only sense of inner peace and calm comes with living with bitachon, no matter what life is going to send next. To know it in our hearts, not just our heads.
Anyways I was just wondering if you could relate to these feelings. My world definitely expanded ….my husband and I feeling stretched to what seemed impossible limits…. BH it’s good to have some of the intensity subside but I still feel a bit on edge and I’m trying to understand why so that I could move on and live more in alignment with how I think HaShem wants of us. <<
I can relate very, very much to these emotions. When you get used to living in extended crisis mode, it’s not natural to return to regular mode without a conscious adjustment. There’s an inner wariness, a guardedness, fear that something could happen again. Your body, your mind, your hormones are all on alert.
Our first few years of aliyah were one long stretch of ongoing challenge and while in my head I would tell myself it would get better, it was getting better – in my heart I was waiting for when the next shoe would drop. (See my post here on my conversation with my naturopath seven years ago.)
Sometimes it’s enough to have some time to slow down, breathe deeply, and experience life without the heavy weight of life stressors to shift back into ‘safe’ mode. If this feeling passes within a relatively short time, great. But for me, I became aware I had internalized a certain amount of trauma that kept me from feeling safe even when the threat was removed.
About seven years ago I began my inner exploration of this issue. I slowly recognized that I held on to this thinking because it was my safety net when ironically, it was the barrier blocking me from feeling safe.
I had some beliefs that were subtle but I’ll try to explain it. I was looking at the world as a cosmic measuring scale. Into every life some rain must fall, right? There was a certain amount of suffering that I had to experience. If I let myself enjoy something fully, the ‘good’ side of the scale would be heavier – and that would mean something else negative would have to happen to me to balance it out. If I kept myself from fully enjoying the good, then it wouldn’t be counted as something good, and wouldn’t trigger something bad. Does that make sense? It was self-protective.
I could only fully enjoy the good in my life by learning to let go of the fear that something bad is around the corner. That’s meant internalizing what faith and trust in G-d mean, experiential learning that continues to this day. I say He’s always taking care of me, but do I really feel it?
I also had some anger I pushed down and didn’t want to admit to even to myself, anger at Him for putting me through some of the things I experienced, things that felt off the scale unfair. Yes, I knew I was growing, I knew everything G-d did was for my benefit and ultimate good – but I didn’t feel the love. I finally expressed that anger, which was very hard for me but also very important. It cleared the air in our relationship, so to speak.
For now, be kind to yourself and recognize that you’ve experienced a huge trauma, and it’s going to take time to let go of that tension that you’ve been holding in without realizing it. Get as much sleep as you can. Lots of relaxing music, time outdoors, meditation, and positive affirmations were – and continue to be – very helpful to me.
We do a lot of dishes in our house, and there are some things we do that make things easier. For those of you who will be shifting from disposables to regular dishes, here are some things to help make the transition smoother!
Order of dishwashing – The general principle is, wash the least dirty dishes first, and save the heavy duty grease and grime for the end. My personal order looks like this: glasses, bowls, plates, silverware, pots/pans. I keep glasses and cups on the counter next to the sink, and wash them first. They tend to be lightly used (especially in our home of water drinkers), and if you put them in the sink they’ll get dirtier and greasier, making it a bigger job to wash them than if you kept them separate. This is also true of plastic food storage containers – they get so much greasier being in the sink with dishes washed on top of them. When they need a quick wash I do them them first so I get them out of the way. If they are really greasy, I leave them for after the dishes.
2) Soak the really dirty stuff – pans and pots can be soaking while you wait to get to them. I have a recipe for getting really burnt stuff off: 1/2 t. salt, 1/2 t. baking soda, 2 t. vinegar, 3/4 c. dishwashing liquid, 1 c. water – put in a pot, bring to a boil, then let cool.
Though this has worked really well for me, I now prefer something simpler that works just fine and is easier and cheaper – I squirt a little bit of dishwashing liquid into the dirty pot, add pinch of baking soda, then put it on the fire to boil. Once it boils, turn off the fire and just let it sit while you’re washing the rest of the dishes. It’s amazing how much faster and easier washing it will be.
3) Buy good scrubbers – as with everything else, having the right tools makes the job much easier. I prefer the foam scrubbers covered with tinsely textured stuff for dishes, though I buy the plastic round scrubbies to use for Shabbos. I consider stainless steel scrubbers critical for getting pots and pans clean without using the above technique. It makes it much easier to get the burnt stuff off, rather than scraping away at it with a spoon.
4) Don’t let the dishes pile up – the longer the dishes are in the sink and the more of them there are, the more intimidating it is and the more you want to push it off! This is the hardest one for me. We all eat dinner together, but due to different schedules, breakfast and lunch happen at different times for different people. Since each of those people don’t individually wash their dishes and cooking utensils, breakfast and lunch dishes tend to get washed together.
For Shabbos, it helps tremendously if I do the dishes right after the Friday night meal rather than wait until the next morning. Everything gets cleaner faster when it hasn’t been sitting overnight, and it’s nice to wake up in the morning knowing it’s been done. Sometimes I’m too tired and it doesn’t happen, and that’s okay, too.
5) Get your kids involved – the youngest I’ve started my kids washing dishes was age 7, but I tend to wait until around 9. At that age, I don’t expect them to wash pots and pans, but the basic dishes are very doable. Having a chore chart with assigned tasks makes this easier, rather than randomly asking people after each meal.
6) Do something else while washing dishes – Though I enjoy washing dishes, I find added benefit if I use the time to listen to music or a podcast. Sometimes I like to have the quiet, though – there’s something about water that helps one’s thoughts flow, and I find this true when washing dishes. Your experience may differ on this, though!
If you have tips that have helped you, please share in the comments below!
A while back, I heard that there would be a high tax put on disposables here in Israel, and that would go into effect on Jan. 1. Only nine days ago I learned that the date was changed to Nov. 1.
I called my daughter, who is due to give birth soon, and told her to buy what she will need for a kiddush/bris now, because by the time she has a baby it’s going to cost a lot more.
I’m not really affected by the increase in the cost of disposable dishes, since I hardly use them at all, not during the week and not during Shabbos. It definitely takes a lot more time and financially you can say if I would spend that time doing an income earning activity, I’d financially come out far ahead of standing at the kitchen sink washing up. For me it’s not a moral position, I don’t feel superior or judgmental of others who don’t do this – I just have a reduce/reuse/recycle kind of attitude towards everything, and I’d rather avoid adding so much plastic to the landfills.
That being said, I really empathize with the difficulty this will present for those with families and very busy schedules. When a day is packed full with activities, putting another task in is daunting. I often have dishes waiting to be washed in my sink. One daughter-in-law said that it’s discouraging to help out by washing dishes at my house, because they never end! It’s true – everything is washed and then the next person comes along to prepare something to eat, and voila! – more dishes in the sink that was empty for seemingly just a few minutes.
Back to the legislation about disposables. On the face of this, it’s something you would expect me to rejoice over. After all, all those plastics in the sea…it’s actually horrible how much waste we produce on our tiny little planet. And each of us can make a difference by making small changes.
However, I have concerns about the legislation that will continue to amplify with time, with the stated concern being protection of our environment and climate change. This is going to impact much more than disposable dishes. I expect that those who don’t go along with this agenda will be accused of not caring about the environment and humanity, since don’t you know, we’re all going to die if we don’t get this climate issue taken care of? (Kind of like if you spent years learning about, practicing and sharing about natural health, you were accused of being selfish and not caring about anyone if you didn’t agree with the government mandated solution to the health crisis.)
I absolutely support grass roots initiatives to educate and to inspire behavior change to protect the environment. There are so many little things we can do. I compost, I’ve had a vehicle in the past that I converted to run on waste vegetable oil, I currently have a vehicle that runs on propane (a much cleaner fuel than gas or diesel), I buy used, I minimize consumption in different areas and I’m constantly learning more and doing more.
We were given a beautiful world and I’d love to leave my tiny piece of it a little bit better physically for me having been here. I DREAM of having a large piece of land and restoring it with permaculture practices, which I practice on a small scale in my garden. I believe in the interconnectedness of all parts of this world, the people, the creatures, the flora, the water – all of it. The same principles that apply to healthy family living apply on the larger scale.
What I don’t support is heavy handed legislation, with fear, ridicule and shaming used as tactics to force change. And – here we go – I don’t believe climate change is the threat that we’re told that it is. Remember that I said that – one day it will mean more to you than it does right now.
What I just wrote about the climate will be banned in the future, but since we’re ahead of the curve it still feels like we have free speech – on this topic, at least.
Yesterday I went to pick up a long awaited package from the post office. It was mistakenly sent to a location two hours from me, then sent back to the central processing center, then finally arrived back in my area.
It wasn’t fun or easy dealing with Amazon regarding this order, and I wondered if I was going to have to accept the package was lost, along with my money. I was relieved when I finally got the notice it arrived.
I had wanted to order two of this item (it was a set of five toy cars, a gift to be split for children and grandchildren), but waited to confirm that first package made it before buying another one. After picking it up, I logged on to order a second set, to see the following message:
“Currently unavailable. We don’t know if or when this item will be back in stock.”
I checked other sellers – one other seller had it for close to fifty dollars – for an item that five weeks ago cost $22.
I kept looking. I found the same toy cars being sold individually for $11 each (totaling $55 instead of $22). That’s a serious price increase. And my item isn’t the exception – I was notified that a different toy I was considering buying went up over 30% a week or two after I put it in my cart. The prices have risen significantly on many items that I looked at.
I’ve been watching the worldwide economy pretty closely for a number of months so this wasn’t a surprise to me – it was more of a question of when than if.
In the beginning of August when I wrote my sheepdog post, I referenced having concerns that I wasn’t able to share about. When you’re too early to talk about something, people think you’re crazy or paranoid, and it’s not always a blessing that I tend to accurately anticipate things on the horizon before a lot of people. Actually, it’s quite challenging.
I’ve been waiting months for the mainstream media to write about this inflation issue so I can say something to you, so that you can take steps to prepare yourselves. Now that they’re finally writing about the price increases and the serious supply chain issues, they’re still doing their best to minimize it and keep people in the dark.
My understanding is that we are in an inflationary period, which – according to the theory that makes the most sense to me – will be followed by a deflationary period, and then a more rapid inflationary period. I don’t pretend to predict the future, I’m not an economist, I’m not giving you financial advice – I’m sharing my understanding of what the indicators seem to be. So obviously I could be completely wrong and if I am, no one will be happier than me.
Though back in June US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the inflation was “transitory“, it was pretty obvious to those of us paying attention that it wasn’t. I was disgusted then at the efforts to hide from the population what was happening, and I continue to be very concerned about being lied to and manipulated. Yes, strong terms and you’re welcome to think I’m exaggerating. I’d rather think I’m exaggerating. Looking at unpleasant facts isn’t fun. History will show retroactively what isn’t obvious to many right now.
This isn’t going to be a small blip on the economic scene, despite the media effort to minimize or explain away the issues. They don’t want a panic and they’re not telling you the truth about the severity of what is underway. They waited as long as they possibly could to even begin to mention the financial crisis developing, and are going to break it to you slowly, so you get used to the idea bit by bit.
I’ve lived on a budget for years and so do many of you. If we were to experience significant price increases in products, food, housing or energy (different parts of the world are seeing increases at different times), that would affect many people. Will that happen? It’s happening across the world right now.
Blessedly, Israel seems to be on the later side of the curve to be affected the the downward economic cycle. I pray we will continue to be minimally affected but the global economy is interconnected, and something major that affects one country inevitably affects the others.
Am I fear mongering, or telling you to panic? Absolutely not. I’m concerned, but I’m not panicking, and neither should you. Wherever you live, and whatever your income, there are things you can do to minimize the impact of increased living expenses on your family. But doing that means you’re going to have to be willing to consider some uncomfortable possibilities rather than hide your heads in the sand (which in the short term is really much more comforting).
One practical suggestion for right now: if there’s something you need or want that is of practical value to your family and you have the resources to purchase it, now’s a good time to buy it.
Going back to that cycle (inflation-deflation-rapid inflation), deflation is when prices fall because rising prices (inflation) have caused people to cut their extraneous spending. If we experience deflation, prices will go down on the things people can live without. (Yes, like toys!) However, it’s unlikely that prices on critical items go down.
The material costs are dramatically shooting up – metals, cardboard, plastics – and that impacts the price for you as the buyer. It also impacts what continues to be manufactured. As with my toy purchase above, some things will no longer be available because the company has decided it’s no longer profitable to make them.
The most important things you can do now are pray, and visualize our world stabilizing and healing. On the physical plane, I’m going to be talking more about frugality since taking responsibility for your personal economy is more important than ever.
We have been blessed with our third grandson two days ago – first three granddaughters were born within nine months of each other, and now these three little boys born within a year! (We’re waiting for one more addition in the next few weeks.) It’s so nice that as they grow up and we have family get togethers, the cousins will all have each other.
Two days old
And so he won’t be left out since I didn’t announce when he was born, here’s me with my beautiful second grandson three months ago.
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Dd21 and I went to Jerusalem yesterday to see the new baby, and we had the luxury of a long day of driving together that provided the opportunity for hours of shmoozing time. It’s really interesting to watch one’s children become independent, thoughtful adults with well-formed opinions. I reread a couple of John Taylor Gatto’s books recently (Dumbing Us Down and Weapons of Mass Instruction – I highly recommend them both if you want to expand your thinking about education). His writing from twenty and and eleven years ago is remarkably relevant to current events. Dd picked up the book one day when I left it out, and has found his writing insightful and thought-provoking, and we’ve had some really great conversations about the themes he discusses.
Last year I gave the keynote talk at the online Jewish Homeschooling Summit (our first grandson was born that morning!), and though this year I’m not able to participate, dd21 will be joining the alumni panel tonight. The conference is free, and details of the schedule are here. Recordings are available if you can’t participate live. (Edited to add: though she had a lot to say, she only got one question so you won’t hear much of her very well thought-out and articulated positions on education.)
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Meanwhile, it looks like we’ll be having some shifts to our homeschooling. Ds15 is seriously considering leaving high school to learn at home. He’s very mature and is taking the time to weigh the decision, evaluating the benefits and disadvantages of each option. The main advantage is the doors that may open later on, for example, to the post high school yeshiva that his older brother attended. The main disadvantage is spending years waiting to do the things you really want to do, which closes other doors. I would love to have him home again but will support whatever choice he makes.
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We had a visitor this Shabbos and spent hours chatting. This resulted in me agreeing – for the first time ever, despite many requests over the years – to include her thirteen year old son in our homeschooling lives. (He’ll be living with us during the week, going home for Shabbos.) We’ll be doing a week long trial, after we get home from the Shabbos bris of our grandson ***. If it goes well, we’ll extend the trial for another few weeks. My husband was surprised that I agreed, but I think it will be a positive thing for all the boys – hers and mine.
We’re looking to do a house swap for this Shabbos with someone in the Rechavia neighborhood of Jerusalem with a three bedroom apartment. If you know someone, or are that someone and want to enjoy a Shabbos in the gorgeous north, please be in touch via email. (My name@yahoo.com)
Every morning, I go out with the leftovers from dinner to feed the chickens – as soon as they see me they run from the far side of the yard for their breakfast! Our chickens have a very nice life free ranging in the yard and they return the favor by scratching around in my garden beds, eating bugs and fertilizing the soil – it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement. Then they turn my scraps into eggs – and now, into baby chicks!
Yesterday afternoon ds14 came in with great excitement to announce that there were two newly hatched chicks. His hen made her nest at the base of the pandorea vine, and was almost completely surrounded by the leaves. I could hardly make out one chick – he said the other was under its mother.
This morning, I thought I’d be helpful and put food next to her nest so she doesn’t have to go hungry while sitting on her eggs. But she jumped up with the others to get food, so I peered in. I saw one little chick looking solemnly out at me. I stepped back to look around to see where the other chick was, and saw it had followed its mother. Then that one ventured out to join them, so all three had breakfast with the others.
Many mornings after putting ds9 and ds4 on their school van mornings I go out and sit in the yard and just sit and watch the chickens. They’re very entertaining, much more than ducks.
I thought that ducklings were the cutest thing ever, but I think it might actually be baby chicks. I had the strongest desire to just scoop up and stroke the little chick learning to walk on his new legs, but I didn’t. Instead I took a picture for you.
Ds14 has had a variety of experiences raising poultry – starting with ducks, then quail, then chickens and lastly geese, and has decided that chickens are the very best. (I agree.) These chickens hatch their own eggs, versus him needing to incubate the eggs for all the other birds. Did you think that all birds hatch their own eggs? Not at all. It’s been bred out of them, I suppose. After all the ups and down and various experiences he’s had, it’s been especially gratifying for him to watch his flock multiply without his intensive involvement.
As we were watching together, he commented, “It’s so nice for the chickens to have mothers.” As attentive and responsible as he is, it’s a qualitatively different experience being raised by a mother hen, who keeps her chicks warm under her, teaches them to run and forage, shows them how to be safe, and protects them from threats.
Mother hen with chicks that are less then a day old
It’s also really nice for him to watch things come full circle. He bought the original chicks in the beginning of the spring when they were two weeks old. A few died in the early days, a couple were sold as they got bigger (not more than one rooster, I insisted!) but mostly he’s watched them grow and it’s really nice now to see them with chicks of their own.
These tiny guys aren’t the first chicks to hatch this season. Four chickens went broody all at once – one hen made her nest in one area, and three others all sat in nests right next to one another. The first eggs to hatch were from one of the three hens – only two eggs hatched, and those hens sitting right next to the mother were just as proud and protective as if they were their own (none of the other eggs hatched). Those chicks are now about six weeks old, and they still all travel together, as well as another hen who latched on to them as soon as the first chicks hatched. My son says they have four mothers; I think of them as one mother and three very devoted aunts.
The second hen hatched three eggs, and she runs around on her own with them.
Mother hen with six weeks old chicks
It was a surprise when ds found the new nest a week or two ago; it was well hidden and he wasn’t expecting it. There are eight more eggs still in the nest and when dd21 checked them she said they all look viable. We were pleasantly surprised that they were fertile since the rooster was rehomed before Sukkos. I don’t know what we’re going to do with them if they all hatch, but one thing is for certain – they aren’t all going to stay here!
I’ve had a lovely few weeks of living life without writing anything about it and I’m now back with you!
This morning I went for a short walk and discovered a beautiful private spot near a stream. I went down next to the water and sat there for quite a while, just being quiet. I found it’s not so easy to sit and be present with the sounds of nature around me without wanting to reach for something to listen to or read or write. I’ve gotten used to listening to podcasts/recordings/meditations/music when by myself, and although these are often very positive, centering, gentle messages, they nonetheless keep me from being truly alone with myself. Hence my recognition of inner restlessness this morning.
It’s not easy to be with one’s self without distraction, but it’s important. I’m reading Digital Minimalism, by Cal Newport, and he has a chapter on the benefits of solitude. Never in history, he says, have we had the possibility of never being alone with ourselves. Not in the car, not walking somewhere or waiting somewhere. Thanks to modern technology that allows us to access non-stop entertainment and information, we never have to be alone with ourselves.
He quotes Michael Harris, author of Solitude, who says that three crucial benefits of time by one’s self are: new ideas, understanding yourself, and closeness to others.
I don’t have to read a book, though, to know that I always feel better after time alone in nature. I like the inner calm that comes from slowing down and being present with myself, and helps me be more present in the moment for others.
My daughter was sharing with me about an interaction with a woman who is around seventy, and said it’s nice that older people often have the ability to hold space for others. Unless, she added, they have a smartphone. Her observation made me sad. It’s really a challenge to hold onto yourself in the digital world, and even those who have lived many decades without it have been sucked in. Online technology is touted as the answer to social isolation for people of all ages, but what it too often ends up doing is stealing us from ourselves and those around us.
I sometimes think that more nature is the solution to almost everything. Nature always holds a space for us. It just is, and allows your mind to slow down, and to find the stillness in yourself. We are all calmer, happier people in the context of nature. I am extremely blessed to live where I have so much more access to nature than I have in the past (as you know, that’s what the impetus for making the move here was), and even when I don’t go out of my yard (which is most of the time – I’ve become quite a homebody), I find deep pleasure sitting on my patio, looking out at the fields and mountains.
Last week I took an early morning nature walk and I crossed paths with a teen boy riding a horse. Not galloping or anything exciting, just a slow, plodding pace. A couple mornings later I crossed paths with a different teen boy, and thought how wonderful it is that these young men have this space for themselves.
I’ve regularly noticed that a day or two after my fifteen year old comes back from school, as the ‘city’ energy is released from him, he gets more upbeat and I sense an inner calm stealing over him. We had a number of guests over the summer in our vacation apartment, and I saw it happening with them also – they came with a faster moving energy, and after a couple of days they had a more relaxed vibe. It’s the effect of the natural environment.
Green Renaissance Films make short films of ten minutes ore less that celebrate the inner beauty of regular people who are living their lives in harmony with their values. It doesn’t seem incidental that nature is important to them all.
I just started a read aloud of My Side of the Mountain with my boys (dd21 ended up joining us, too); I’ve read it with the older kids but these boys were too young to remember it. I’ve loved this book since I read it as a ten year old! This fictional book is about a thirteen year old who leaves home to live alone in the Catskill mountains, and the life he creates for himself. As I was sitting in my quiet spot this morning, I thought how I’d love to share it with the boys, and when I came home told them that today we’ll be doing our reading in this spot. Dd 21 is planning to travel to Jerusalem today, and I asked her if she’ll be able to join us. She’s going to schedule her bus so that she can come with us. They’ll experience the book in a different way when sitting next to a gently rippling stream, in the middle of a bamboo thicket while listening to me read.
That’s where we’ll be going in about twenty minutes. I’m looking forward to it!
