Monthly Archives: May 2008

Neighborhood plant exchange

gardening

My neighborhood association hosted a plant exchange for the first time today, and I had an enjoyable and productive time!

When I got there, I had to sign in, and was then directed to the first table.  That was covered with window box planters and big round flowerpots, in several colors.  Each family got to choose one planter; if you chose the window box style, then you got five free annuals provided by the association, and you could get four if you got the round planter. 

Then you went to the next table, where there was a gardener who could assist you in choosing plants for your yard.  There were a variety of annuals, some that did better in sun and some for the shade.  All of the plants were ornamental.  Then you could bring your selection to one of the gardeners stationed at a table, and they would plant your annuals in your chosen container.  After that, you were directed to an area where perennials were at, and allowed to choose one free perennial. 

I had been hoping for plants that would be a good addition to my vegetable garden, but there weren’t any and I was slightly disappointed about that.  I had almost finished selecting my annuals when I saw several plants to the side, looking somewhat random, so I headed over to check them out.  They were tomato plants and leeks, and it looked as if they had been brought by other home owners in the neighborhood to share, but I couldn’t be sure.  If the association provided them, they counted in the allotment of five, and no one seemed sure who provided them.  So I happily took four tomato plants and one leek (that was my allotment), picked up a perennial (I can’t even remember which one I chose – either some kind of lily or black eyed susan), and got ready to leave. 

On my way out, I commented to someone I knew manning one of the booths that it was a wonderful idea, and asked whose brainchild it was.  She called over the person who arranged it all, and I told her that it was a fantastic event and thanked her.  She glanced down and saw that my planter was empty, and told me I needed to get some annuals before I left.  I told her I had taken the tomatoes and leeks, I was putting them into my garden, and didn’t take anything else since I didn’t want to go over the limit.  She told me that she wanted me to get five plants annuals in addition to the veggie plants.

I picked up five dark purple coleus plants – I love how coleus looks.  I already purchased three varieties of coleus when I went to the plant sale a couple of weeks ago, and they look beautiful in the front yard.  I got the new ones potted before I left.

I bumped into a neighbor who brought some day lilies to share, and took some of that.  I don’t know how much I like it, but I’ll plant it and see how it looks in the yard.  I love beautiful plants, but my gardening energy now is going into having a productive vegetable garden, not in making the yard look fancy.  We already transferred the large hostas that were in the back yard to the front, making room for squash plants in the back and nicely enhancing the front landscaping. 

On my way out, someone else was coming in with small seedlings to share – they were tomatoes, and I took one of hers, too.  We started some tomatoes from seed that just sprouted this morning and we found the first hard green marble tomato on our most mature tomato plant this morning, so we’ll have tomato plants in different stages of growth in the garden.  You can’t have too many tomatoes, at least not in a house like this where our kids eat them like fruits!

All in all, it was very productive, and next year (they’re planning for this to be an annual event) I plan to take some of my own plants to share with others. 

Avivah

It’s that time of year again – camping time!

frugal strategies, homemaking

It’s time for our annual camping trip!!  We were supposed to leave for our trip last week, but decided the day before we left to push it off for another week.  The forecast was for cold and rainy weather all week, and the forecasters were actually right (they aren’t always, you know!).  So far the weather for this week is looking much more suitable for camping – it is gorgeous out today.

Last year we went to West Virginia, but we didn’t want the long drive this year, and wanted to stay closer to home.  This year we’re returning to a campground we went to three years ago, that we all mark as our best trip yet. 

We went before the main camping season started, and it was very quiet.  There is a lake with a section for a beach, and another section that they two older boys spent fishing in for hours at a time together.  We hiked around, picked wild garlic that we later that night cooked with our meal, and just generally had a wonderfully relaxing time.  It’s only a little over an hour from home, which makes it more appealing, as well! 

 The last two times we came back from a trip, we found an unwanted cat ‘package’ on the bed – our cat showed his displeasure at having been left by defecating on the bed, something he’s never done before.  So this time my mother is going to stay here at our home for a few days, instead of just popping in and out and feeding him.  He actually likes her more than me. 

So today and tomorrow are our preparation days.  We’re planning to borrow a canoe to take with us, so we can enjoy the swimming, fishing, and now, boating on the lake.  My 13 year old daughter is an excellent canoer, who canoed the Delaware river last year with her camp.  I also really enjoy canoeing, but haven’t done much of it for years – the last time I canoed was with my husband when our oldest was three months old.  (And since he’s almost 15 now, it’s clearly been a very long time!)

The four middle kids (11, 9, 7, 5) are outside right now pitching the tent to make sure all the parts are there.  We’re borrowing a 10 x 14 tent from a friend that has a divider to make it two rooms, and will probably take our 8 x 8 foot tent as well.  If we do that, it will be very spacious sleeping accomodations for everyone.  We have the menus all planned out, and I just need to pick up a few items to finish off the food shopping for the trip.  We’ll probably pick up the canoe tomorrow, and I’ll let my husband figure out how to securely attach it to the rooftop of the van without a roof rack.

I’m off to a plant exchange; I’ll let you know how that goes when I get back. 🙂

Avivah

Our garden is beginning to sprout!

gardening

We started planting our garden two weeks ago, and a week ago the first sprouts were seen.  The kids ran in to tell me this morning about how many other things are popping up now – it’s so exciting!

Square foot gardening is so space efficient that I still have lots of space to plant more, and I’m not yet sure what to put in.  But here’s what we put in so far: 6 tomato plants, 4 pepper plants, two zucchini, two crookneck (yellow) squash, two cumber, 2 pole beans from plants, 3 sugar snap peas, carrots, onions, and herbs.  The herbs include three kinds of mint, dill, parsley, oregano, basil, sage, fennel, and thyme.

I found out about a two day plant sale on Mother’s Day weekend, that had amazing prices for all of the above.  It was hosted by an organization that helps mentally challenged adults, and among other things, has a greenhouse where they teach them to garden.  It seems that twice a year they have a huge sale and sell the plants that were grown by them, and the proceeds go back to help those same adults further progress.  The woman in charge told me that people wait all year for it because the prices are so good.  Each plant was a dollar (!), so I bought more from starts than I would have otherwise.  I also got the carrots and onions, which I wasn’t planning to grow.  There were several carrots and onion growing in each pot so I decided to see what would happen if we separated them and replanted them individually.  Hopefully they’ll do okay; I can’t tell yet.

Then we planted seeds: 2 ‘squares’ of bush beans (9 in each), 2 squares of lima beans, radishes, swiss chard, lettuce, and beets.  Pole beans produce throughout the growing season, but bush beans just produce for about two weeks, and then that’s it.  This is the first set of bush beans, and we’ll plant some more in a couple of weeks.  We’re also planning to do a second planting of summer squash so when the first ones die off, we’ll extend the squash harvest. 

We started from seed some cherry tomatoes, eggplant, lemon cucumbers, and peppers and will transplant them if the seeds grow well.  We also planted some marigolds throughout the garden, to keep bugs at bay.  I’m not sure which bugs marigolds work best to keep away, but they look nice!  

Then we planted some squash seeds from a squash we ate.  After planting them, I learned that the non organic vegetables in the store are grown in such a way that their seeds often don’t grow normally.  So I’m assuming that’s not going to work, and will replant something else in that spot.  I’m really amazed by how space efficient square foot gardening is, and hope that we’ll get a decent amount of veggies.

Avivah

Maximizing your food dollars – discount grocery stores

frugal strategies

Has everyone else noticed how food prices have been skyrocketing in the last few months?  I’m very concerned for the general public, knowing that many of those who were already feeling stretched to the max won’t be able to stretch any further. 

To stay within the food budget of a year ago seems almost impossible without sacrificing quality or quantity, but I’ve found it doable by making discount grocery stores part of my regular shopping.  Discount grocery stores vary in terms of quality and pricing, but the general idea is they sell the overstocks or slightly damaged groceries that supermarkets aren’t allowed to sell.  Things like: the outer box rips but the inner box is intact, an expiration date that is almost here, packaging in a foreign language, or excess inventory that a store had to get rid of to make room for new inventory are all reasons that these perfectly good foods get passed on.   I couldn’t find a single one in my state, but I kept searching, knowing there had to be something relatively near by, and over time have found several of them in a neighboring state.  Yes, I do have to drive  over 1.5 hours to get there, but I only do it every 6 – 8 weeks, and the savings more than justify the time and gas spent. 

To give you a sense of what I was able to buy for the month, here’s a list of what I bought today, from several stores.  You can see that some of the prices are super, and some are just okay, but it made for a very full van coming home:

– 57 quarts of plain yogurt (organic) – 50 cents each

– 100 lb potatoes – $24

– 40 lb yams – $13.50

– 30 lb onions – $6

– 50 lb apples – $15

– 20 lb bananas – .19 lb

– 30 lb rolled oats – .59 lb

– 15 lb quick oats – .59 lb

– approx 25 lb beans – .29 lb

– 34 dozen eggs – bought 28 dozen for 1.49, found them for a bit less at the next store

– 30 lb ricotta cheese – 3 lb container each 1.99

– 3 lb. whipped cream cheese – 8 oz container each .50

– 12 lb butter – 1.49 lb

– 10 lb sugar (because I didn’t know if I’d be able to get sucanat) – 1.99/5 lb

– 25 lb raw sugar (this was as close to sucanat as I could find) – .79 lb

– 12 lb honey – $30

– 4 lb baking yeast – 3.25 ea 2 lb package

– 25 lg. cans of tomato products (sauce, paste, diced, whole/peeled) – 3/$1

– 20 cans green beans – .29 ea

– 4 lb baby carrots (for lunching on while out shopping) – .99 ea, 5 lb carrots – 1.99

– 8 lb frozen mixed veg – 2.25 for 2 lb bag

– 5 lb frozen corn – 2.99 for 2.5 lb bag

– 6 boxes herbal tea – .99 ea

Then there were all the odds and ends – some packaged cocoa and instant oatmeal for our camping trip next week, orange juice concentrate, spices, pie filling, coconut milk, ketchup, baking soda, vaccum packed salmon (for my lunch while we were out today) etc.  Some of these things were regular prices, nothing to get excited about, but most of them were significantly less than the average grocery.  All of this came to a total of $345, and leaves me with $170 for the rest of the month.  That will be enough to buy a case of chicken, and make two trips to the veggie store on alternating weeks to keep us supplied.  I also need to pick up a 20 lb. bag of brown rice; I’m out and forgot to get some today. 

I also bought 16 gallons of raw milk, and 50 lb of hard white wheat (talk about pricey 🙁 ), for which I budget an extra $25 a month (I spend $515 monthly for regular groceries, and the extra $25 brings the monthly total to $540).  I realized that wheat prices were jumping fast about six months ago, well before the media was covering it- it’s very obvious when you buy in bulk the way I do.  I spoke to those doing the ordering for the couple of places I bought the wheat to understand what was going and leading to the price increases, which was my first inkling that this isn’t a short term situation.  (The big supermarkets were artificially holding down prices for a while, so the general public didn’t start to feel it until recently.)  A year ago, when I first started buying wheat berries, a 50 pound bag of wheat was $12.  Several months ago, it was up to $18, and today, it was $30.  That is serious inflation.  Fortunately for me, I decided to limit the kids’ gluten intake for health reasons, which means that I use much less flour than I did previously, so it doesn’t impact me as much as it would have.  Then again, all the other grains that I buy instead are even more expensive than wheat, so maybe it’s not so fortunate, after all! 

When I shop, I purposely buy more than what I’ll need for the month.  I don’t know what will be on sale next month, and I stock up when the prices are right.  So it may look like we have lots less variety than we do, because I don’t buy every ingredient I need each month.  Remember my pantry principle post?  I’m always buying to fill my pantry, and then my menus are based on what I have.  For example, I bought over 40 pounds of buckwheat last month, so I still have plenty of that on hand;  I also got 15 pounds of sliced almonds when they were on sale for 1.49 a pound (at the same discount store today, they were 4.59 lb), and have plenty of that left.  So I wouldn’t need to buy more of those things.

I often hesitate to share the specifics of what I do, because I’ve had the experience of someone implying that I was lying about what I spend, or just negating the value of anything I’ve said by telling me, “We don’t have prices like that around here.”  To which my response is, we don’t have prices like that around here either.  Don’t assume I’m so lucky to live in a cheap state.  I’m not, and I don’t.  You have to look for good deals, and know prices so well that when you see something, you can snap it up right away when you have the opportunity.  But just because you have to look beyond your average supermarket (where I also often get great deals) doesn’t mean that the deals can’t be found!  I spend half of what a frugal similarly sized family spends (and a 1/4 of what the unfrugal spend :)) because of the various strategies that I use, not by walking into a supermarket and buying what strikes my fancy that day. 

You probably also noticed that I don’t buy lots of processed foods.  I buy ingredients, not prepared food, and cook our meals from scratch.  Discount stores are filled mostly with foods I wouldn’t eat even if they were free, because they are so unhealthy. 

Hope some of this long post gives you some hope for getting your food costs under control!

Avivah

This month’s pantry challenge is over!

frugal strategies

Almost two weeks ago when I challenged myself to use the food we had in the house without spending any money outside of my allotted food budget, I had a little less than $3.40 remaining in my food budget to get us through without compromising the quantity of nutritional quality of our meals, plus my in-house groceries were much less varied than usual.  But we did it, with 51 cents remaining!! 

My oldest son kept commenting on how well we were eating while spending so little; it really didn’t feel like deprivation.  It just took more creativity to plan meals with different ingredients than I was used to working with.  Actually, our meals were nicer because they were planned out in advance, versus some weeks when I take it day by day and it isn’t as organized. 

We did get some unexpected assistance from outside sources, though we would have managed fine without it.  One source was a friend of my husband who works in a supermarket – he asked him if he wanted several loaves of whole grain bread, so my husband said, sure, why not.  It seems that once a week, there is a pickup for whatever packaged bread hasn’t been sold in a week from all the stores in the area, and the bread truck driver offered to give it to this friend of my husband, who couldn’t use it but figured with our size family, we could.  So we got twelve loaves of excellent quality bread, in an assortment of flavors.  This friend has been working there for years, and had this opportunity every week for all that time, and never thought of it until now.  And today he had the chance again, and forgot about it until it was too late.  Isn’t it amazing that this particular week was the one that he happened to think about it?  This made lunchtimes very simple for the last week.  Of course, I had the ingredients to bake the bread myself,  which is what I was planning, but it was nice that I didn’t have to.

To finish off the last meal of the challenge (tonight’s dinner), we had a couple of pizza pies.  My mother in law volunteered for a community social event last night, and though eight pies were ordered for the kids at the event to eat from the local pizza store, they were virtually untouched.  So the volunteers afterwards split them up amongst themselves and took them home.  My mother in law thought the kids would appreciate them (she was right!) and brought them over today.  Wasn’t that timely?  She didn’t even know about my pantry challenge!

I always start the new food budget of the month on the 15th, which is tomorrow, and I have to be honest and say I’m really, really looking forward to stocking up.  I’m not comfortable watching my food reserves in the house go down.  I haven’t increased my food budget in quite some time, so with the recent surge in grocery costs, I’ve had to be even more careful to squeeze out a lot of value when I buy groceries.  I’m trying to not only buy appropriate amounts for our monthly needs, but to simultaneously build up our reserves.   I’m enjoying the challenge, though there are times like this month that I feel like it’s one step forward, one step back.  Overall, though, I look at it as a challenge to be enjoyed, and I’m looking forward to finding some wonderful deals tomorrow!

Avivah

Buying soil for the garden

gardening

My 13 year old and I went to buy topsoil and compost to fill our new raised garden beds.  I was initially planning to buy equal amounts of compost, peat moss, and vermiculite, as per the instructions for square foot gardening.  But that gets very expensive, very fast. 

So then I called companies that deliver topsoil/compost/etc in bulk, to see if I could just get a truckload.  I could, but the minimum was much more than it seemed to me that I would need (5 cubic yards).  I don’t have a huge garden planned – I just need to fill the garden beds that run along part of the sides of my small yard. 

So I decided to find a less expensive plan – lots of topsoil mixed with a manure/humus blend, with a little bit of peat moss.  We bought about 800 pounds, in 19 – 40 pound bags (yes, this was a workout, loading and unloading them in and out of the van), and I thought it should be just about enough to fill the beds we built.  Was I wrong!

I was really amazed at how much soil it takes to fill a six inch deep garden bed.  What I bought was enough to fill up one bed, 12 x 2 ft, plus half of another one the same size.  That means that I need to buy double or triple the amount I bought to finish filling everything up.

My kids are wondering if the produce that we eventually get for the garden is going to justify all the money we’re spending for supplies.  I told them that this first year it probably won’t, but next year we won’t need to do anything but get seeds, transplants, and some compost to boost the soil quality.  I’m hopeful that after all this effort, it will be a productive crop.  As far as a productive use of time and energy, it’s definitely a satisfying feeling to sink your hands in the earth and garden, and that’s something I want my kids to experience. 

Avivah

Building raised garden beds

gardening

Two years ago, we ambitiously began tilling the soil in a community garden.  We had three plots that were totally overgrown, and it was a huge amount of work.  We put in a number of hours in clearing the soil and finally planted some tomato and pepper plants, in addition to some other seeds.  Then life suddenly got very busy, as we bought a house, the business, and still had our tiny baby (1 month at the time) to take care of.  If the garden had been in our yard, we could have fit in time to continue working on it, but it wasn’t.  So the garden got put to the side, and we never reaped any of the fruits of our labor.

Last summer, we were busy with renovations inside the house, and were too busy to start a garden.  This year, I decided it’s time.  But since the last experience left a negative impression in their minds because of all the work and no harvest, I wanted this one to be something they would feel good about.  That meant doing some research, since my knowledge about gardening is limited to stick the seeds in the ground and hope they grow.  🙂

So I did some online reading, and read about something called square foot gardening.  It takes less space, less time, but the yield is higher than with traditional methods.  Sounded good to me!  It’s recommended to build raise garden beds to do this, and because I wanted to do it inexpensively, I got about ten wood pallets from someone on Craig’s List.  I read that pallets are a good source of cheap lumber since it’s untreated wood – all you have to do is take them apart.

Well, that wasn’t so simple.  The boards were attached very securely and were splintering when taken apart, and it took them ten minute so get just one board off.  The kids were getting frustrated, taking the boards apart was becoming an overwhelming idea, and I decided that as nice as the pallet idea sounded, it wasn’t working out.  So off to Home Depot I went to buy some lumber. 

I don’t have a very large yard, and I want to leave the majority of the yard for the kids to play in, so I decided to build the beds against the fence, two feet deep.  It’s very simple to put them together.  You just make a box, basically, of the size that you predetermine.  In order to maximize the gardening space and use as little lumber as possible, my son planned out one very large U shaped box, that would fit around all three sides of the area where we want it.  Last night he finished putting it together.  Today I think I’ll have some of the other kids build some more with the leftover lumber and scrap pallet wood that’s usable for other parts of the yard.

Then I gave the younger kids piles of newspapers and cardboard to put down to kill the weeds/grass.  One of the premises of square foot gardening is that instead of improving your soil, you fill the boxes with the perfect mix for growing.  I had anticipated that was going to be the biggest expense, since the ingredients for that aren’t cheap.  (That was before I walked out of Home Depot many dollars lighter.) 

Later today I’ll see what seeds we have left in the garage from our past gardening experience.  My husband picked up the gardening books I ordered yesterday (Square Foot Gardening, and Lasagna Gardening), so I’ll read them today and tomorrow.  Once I’ve read that, I can plot out on paper what I want to grow, and where.  On Friday, I’m going to a plant sale for charity and will see what they have.  I’d like to finish buying any seeds and soil ingredients (peat moss, vermiculite, and organic compost)  by Friday so I can start planting on Sunday.

It’s a big project but I’m feeling optimistic about it!

Avivah

Homeschooling science – dissection

homeschooling,

I debated about whether to share this with your or not, as it might gross some of you out.  But I’ll just warn those of you who are squeamish not to read any more, and if you decide to read anyway, well – it’s your choice.

Yesterday our cat caught a mouse, a large mouse.  Unfortunately for him, he doesn’t eat them (because they’re perfect complete packages of feline nutrition), so he deposited in the side yard.  My kids saw him put it there, and asked me if they could dissect it. 

I can’t say that I enthusiastically agreed to this idea.  Frankly, it was slightly outside of my comfort zone, but I didn’t say no.  I try to say yes as much as I can, especially to potential learning opportunities.  Remembering the memorable and educational dissection I did in high school, I kind of half nodded while slightly gagging.  They didn’t need more than that before they raced back outside excitedly.

Three of the kids dissected the mouse.  (Don’t ask me what they used, I didn’t watch and didn’t ask.)  They showed the rest of us what they learned.  It was very, very fascinating.  They found five mouse embryos inside – each about the size of a large pea.  By looking closely, you could see clearly the shape of the mouse it would be, though they weren’t fully developed. 

They took a picture with the digital camera to bring it in to show me – and with the camera, we were able to zoom in on the picture already taken and see minute details.  They didn’t have a book, but based on their knowledge of human anatomy, they identified the placenta, and looked at the other organs.  They were able to identify the heart, and probably could have figured out which were the intestines, etc, if they had more time.

You never know when an educational opportunity will present itself.  Hands on learning!

Avivah

My pantry challenge and this week’s menu

menu plans

For those of us who celebrate Passover, we all know that food is a big expense that can break the usual food budgets.  By using some of my frugal strategies I’ve shared here, I’ve managed to spend the same amount I always do monthly, in spite of having so many expensive holiday meals to prepare, and buying lots more meat and poultry.  I’ve gone through huge amounts of food, and though I’ve depleted my pantry/freezer significantly, am determined not to go out and buy anything else until the 15th (that’s when I replenish my monthly food money).  So I’m making my own personal pantry challenge, to see if I can make it through almost two more weeks without doing any shopping, and continuing to serve nutritious and tasty meals. 

I’ve always found menu planning to be a very helpful tool, but on a month like this, it’s indispensable!  If I wasn’t forcing myself to be a little more creative, it would be the most natural thing in the world to run out and stock up on some staples (like rice, potatoes, carrots and cabbage).  I inventoried my fridge and freezer today, made a list of what I have in the house, and have based my menu for this week strictly on that.  It’s similar to the approach I usually do, but since I have so much less variety (and quantity) in my pantry than usual, I have to be more creative and committed to make this work. 

Here’s what I have to work with:

– steel cut oats, millet, buckwheat, cornmeal (lots of all these things), nuts, and some flour and dried beans

– canned pumpkin, some canned beans and 2 cans tomato sauce

– freezer – 2 pkg. lamb breast, 4 lb ground meat; 3 lb chicken, some chunks of banana, 2 lb cottage cheese, 3 lb ricotta; prepared frozen stuff: chicken stock, 1 pan of turkey stew, 1 pan vegetarian stuffed peppers, 2 pans of moussaka

– the veg are really low – onions, celery, butternut squash, cabbage, a few carrots, a couple of turnips, tomatoes and lettuce, some broccoli stalks, bok chok, napa, no fruit

So the fun begins today!!  Though I’m planning now for the next two weeks, to be sure that there will be enough of everything until I go shopping, I’m only sharing this week’s menu here with you.  Just remember that the items above are for a family of ten, three meals a day, for almost two weeks.  Whenever you don’t see something listed for lunch, it’s because I’ll make a larger amount of dinner the night before and have planned leftovers the next day:

Sun – b – eggs; l – leftovers from yesterday; d – bean soup with bok choy (using lentil flour – I ground the lentils – and chicken stock in the fridge)

Mon – b – steel cut oats; d – lamb cassoulet (I have a pot of cooked lima beans in the fridge, and some lamb and stock in the freezer), cornbread

Tues – b – pumpkin bread; d – lasagna (with polenta as the base instead of pasta), and I’m going to shred and saute some broccoli stalks I have to use in place of spinach

Wed – b – steel cut oats; l – lasagna; d – moussaka (from freezer)

Thur – b – banana nut muffins; l – stuffed vegetarian peppers; d – lentils and rice

Fri – b – steel cut oats; l – lentils and rice

– for the baby: I’m going to cook up the last carrots and blend them together with butternut squash with some coconut oil.  He also loves drinking rich chicken broth. 

My kids usually like having fresh fruit daily, but I told them this morning that they’re going to have to focus on how much they’ll appreciate when I go shopping on the 15th!!   It’s important to me that we have ample, not just adequate, amounts of nutritious food, but if their taste buds miss the fruit, I’m not going to feel too bad about it. 

Would any of you like to join me for the week?  If so, inventory your foods, and get busy making a menu, using only what you have in your house.  (If you get something for free from someone or somewhere, that’s fine, too. )

Avivah

Free copy of Magic School Bus book

frugal strategies

 I found out about this offer (and ordered it) and thought some other moms would appreciate hearing about it.  The EPA is giving away free copies of The Magic School Bus Gets Cleaned Up. 

Call the EPA National Service Center for Environmental Publications at 1-800-490-9198 to order, or order online.

If you order online, it just takes a couple of minutes, but can be a little tricky.  Here’s what you do: after clicking on the above link, enter “Magic School Bus” in the search field.  Then click on the shopping cart icon on the far right for the first item in the list.  Finally, click on “Select All”, then “Order Publications” to get to the form to enter your mailing address.

Enjoy!

Avivah