Saving money at the pump....by biking!

Did you know that May is National Bike Month? That may not be on your calendar, but it is nevertheless.

  This year I have been watching the gas prices rising and rising and decided that once the weather was warm enough I wanted to see how long we could go without filling the tank on the van (which is our family vehicle and I drive it the most while Ken drives the car to work). I thought it would be fun to challenge myself and had contemplated challenging you all too and seeing if you wanted to join me for a race of sorts (How long can your tank of gas last?) on my blog. I didn't get around to blogging about it but I still thought it would be fun to try ourselves.

  I knew I had a lengthy drive early this month to get the bees and our wheat so I decided to start my challenge after that was over. That happened the first week in May so we officially started on our challenge on May 8th (Mother's Day).

  That first day of biking for the season ended up a little eventful! Ken had blown the tires up before we left but it ended up that a couple of them were blown up to much and they popped! Thankfully we had made it to church okay but we discovered them popped when we were headed home. We had some interesting times of trying to change tires, it starting to rain, wishing I hadn't forgotten my cell phone at home and then Ken having to rescue us with the van. I don't think we saved much in gas but it was a day to remember anyway.

That week we just stayed home all week except for church (I think that the 3 church services were are only outing anyway) and we had fun. I loved how relaxing it was to stay home! Ken had ordered more inter tubes for the bikes (because we ended up popping the spare for the trailer too) but they didn't come until the end of the week.

 The following Sunday we rode to church again and then we rode home for lunch and then rode our bikes to a special biking event. We were able to get some new helmets (very economically!) there for some of us, get our bikes tuned up and the kids got to make a smoothie with a bike that had a blender hooked up to the back of it. It was a free community event and we had fun at it.

On Tuesday we started to ride to our homeschool event but discovered that there was a nail in the trailer tire. I think maybe we should buy stock in the inter tube company! We ended up driving instead.

So far we have rode our bikes to church on an average of 2 out of every 3 times. We have also rode our bikes to our baseball games and out a couple of other times. Mostly we just aren't going a lot. We did make some rather long drives in our van that I hadn't anticipated when I started this challenge. We were invited to a birthday party, a graduation party and I was asked to play at a funeral all of which where quite a ways from our place and to far to bike in an afternoon.

  Our biggest biking adventure so far this month was a day of errands and shopping in town. (I had basically put everything off and tried to avoid stores but we were needing to get some things done so I planned a day of it.) We had lots of fun and I took pictures so I thought I would share our day with you. I am hoping it will also make others realize just how much can be done on bikes.

We left home at about 10 am after the boys had done most of their schoolwork (Mara is already done for the year).  We rode the 3 miles into town.

Our first stop was the post office where I mailed a letter and a package.

Second stop was the library. We had hauled our 30-40 books in that needed to be returned. We checked out around that many again. I had decided it might not be the best (both because of weight and because I didn't want them to get stolen) to haul them around town so instead we just hauled them over to where Ken parks his car while he is at work and put them in there for Ken to bring home that evening. We stopped in at Ken's office to drop something off as well and say hello.

Next stop was the eyeglass place as Mara's glasses needed to be adjusted. That was a quick stop. The cool bike stand above was just outside the eye doctors.

  We also went across the street to a used book store. I had brought 4 books to trade in. We found 5 books we wanted and with the value of our trade in we had to only pay 50 cents. I think I like that used book store!

  Next we rode to Ben Franklin where I hoped to find ribbon for an upcoming wedding. Unfortunately no success.

 Then we went across the street to Good Will. We were very excited to find tennis shoes for Jonathan that looked brand new and they were just his size. He really needed new ones and his old ones had holes in them. Megan also found some new looking "Hello Kitty" dress shoes and so we got them too.

 We rode on to another 2nd hand store where I found a salad master steamer for $1. I was looking for camping cooking pots and that won't work for that but I think it might come in handy. It looked brand new.

Then we rode across town to the bread store. We got bread and then also splurged on crackers and some sweet treats to add to our picnic lunch. We were able to put what we bought there in Mara's pannier bags, I hauled pretty much everything else in the trailer.

 Next stop was the park for a picnic lunch of PB and J sandwiches, oranges and the aforementioned treats.

 The crackers that we got were scrabble cheese crackers so Megan was trying to spell her name with them.

Here Jonathan was having fun with the cable bridge.

 Aaron and Mara climbed up high on a "rock". This park had all new equipment and so the kids had never played on it before. We had a fun time there.

After that we headed to the grocery store where I got a few things including a heavy watermelon and muskmelon and some pansy plants that weren't the easiest things to haul on a bike. We managed however!

 Next stop was Target where we did find some new running shoes for Aaron (but no church shoes for Mara- we can't seem to see any anywhere that we like) and I picked up some dressing and Mayo that were on sale and I had coupons for. Those weren't exactly light things to add to our load but oh well. We also had fun looking over the bikes. Both Jonathan and I are dreaming of getting new ones but we want to be careful this time. When Ken and Mara got new ones a couple of years ago we got cheap ones and we have not been impressed with how they work. I want to read up on whatever type of bike we buy next.

We ended up getting home around 3:30. It was a pretty full day of errands but we had fun and it worked to go on our bikes so it was fun to have that success. We were all pretty hot and tired by the time we made it home but we were ready to ride to baseball at 6 pm and the kids had fun playing that evening.

 Mara commented that she really liked doing our errands on bikes and getting to picnic as well. I love getting the exercise plus getting to really see things as we go by. We had such fun looking at all the flowers we passed. A day like that certainly isn't the most time efficient but it was fun and there were several benefits:

• We saved money on gas.
• I had a memorable time with my children.
• We got some good fresh air and exercise.

This weekend we hope to get some more bike riding in though it won't save us gas as we are planning on driving to try out a new section of trail where we haven't ridden before. It should be fun.

 Do you like to ride bikes? Are you doing anything to make it so you spend less on gas? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Saving money at the pump....by biking!

Did you know that May is National Bike Month? That may not be on your calendar, but it is nevertheless.

  This year I have been watching the gas prices rising and rising and decided that once the weather was warm enough I wanted to see how long we could go without filling the tank on the van (which is our family vehicle and I drive it the most while Ken drives the car to work). I thought it would be fun to challenge myself and had contemplated challenging you all too and seeing if you wanted to join me for a race of sorts (How long can your tank of gas last?) on my blog. I didn't get around to blogging about it but I still thought it would be fun to try ourselves.

  I knew I had a lengthy drive early this month to get the bees and our wheat so I decided to start my challenge after that was over. That happened the first week in May so we officially started on our challenge on May 8th (Mother's Day).

  That first day of biking for the season ended up a little eventful! Ken had blown the tires up before we left but it ended up that a couple of them were blown up to much and they popped! Thankfully we had made it to church okay but we discovered them popped when we were headed home. We had some interesting times of trying to change tires, it starting to rain, wishing I hadn't forgotten my cell phone at home and then Ken having to rescue us with the van. I don't think we saved much in gas but it was a day to remember anyway.

That week we just stayed home all week except for church (I think that the 3 church services were are only outing anyway) and we had fun. I loved how relaxing it was to stay home! Ken had ordered more inter tubes for the bikes (because we ended up popping the spare for the trailer too) but they didn't come until the end of the week.

 The following Sunday we rode to church again and then we rode home for lunch and then rode our bikes to a special biking event. We were able to get some new helmets (very economically!) there for some of us, get our bikes tuned up and the kids got to make a smoothie with a bike that had a blender hooked up to the back of it. It was a free community event and we had fun at it.

On Tuesday we started to ride to our homeschool event but discovered that there was a nail in the trailer tire. I think maybe we should buy stock in the inter tube company! We ended up driving instead.

So far we have rode our bikes to church on an average of 2 out of every 3 times. We have also rode our bikes to our baseball games and out a couple of other times. Mostly we just aren't going a lot. We did make some rather long drives in our van that I hadn't anticipated when I started this challenge. We were invited to a birthday party, a graduation party and I was asked to play at a funeral all of which where quite a ways from our place and to far to bike in an afternoon.

  Our biggest biking adventure so far this month was a day of errands and shopping in town. (I had basically put everything off and tried to avoid stores but we were needing to get some things done so I planned a day of it.) We had lots of fun and I took pictures so I thought I would share our day with you. I am hoping it will also make others realize just how much can be done on bikes.

We left home at about 10 am after the boys had done most of their schoolwork (Mara is already done for the year).  We rode the 3 miles into town.

Our first stop was the post office where I mailed a letter and a package.

Second stop was the library. We had hauled our 30-40 books in that needed to be returned. We checked out around that many again. I had decided it might not be the best (both because of weight and because I didn't want them to get stolen) to haul them around town so instead we just hauled them over to where Ken parks his car while he is at work and put them in there for Ken to bring home that evening. We stopped in at Ken's office to drop something off as well and say hello.

Next stop was the eyeglass place as Mara's glasses needed to be adjusted. That was a quick stop. The cool bike stand above was just outside the eye doctors.

  We also went across the street to a used book store. I had brought 4 books to trade in. We found 5 books we wanted and with the value of our trade in we had to only pay 50 cents. I think I like that used book store!

  Next we rode to Ben Franklin where I hoped to find ribbon for an upcoming wedding. Unfortunately no success.

 Then we went across the street to Good Will. We were very excited to find tennis shoes for Jonathan that looked brand new and they were just his size. He really needed new ones and his old ones had holes in them. Megan also found some new looking "Hello Kitty" dress shoes and so we got them too.

 We rode on to another 2nd hand store where I found a salad master steamer for $1. I was looking for camping cooking pots and that won't work for that but I think it might come in handy. It looked brand new.

Then we rode across town to the bread store. We got bread and then also splurged on crackers and some sweet treats to add to our picnic lunch. We were able to put what we bought there in Mara's pannier bags, I hauled pretty much everything else in the trailer.

 Next stop was the park for a picnic lunch of PB and J sandwiches, oranges and the aforementioned treats.

 The crackers that we got were scrabble cheese crackers so Megan was trying to spell her name with them.

Here Jonathan was having fun with the cable bridge.

 Aaron and Mara climbed up high on a "rock". This park had all new equipment and so the kids had never played on it before. We had a fun time there.

After that we headed to the grocery store where I got a few things including a heavy watermelon and muskmelon and some pansy plants that weren't the easiest things to haul on a bike. We managed however!

 Next stop was Target where we did find some new running shoes for Aaron (but no church shoes for Mara- we can't seem to see any anywhere that we like) and I picked up some dressing and Mayo that were on sale and I had coupons for. Those weren't exactly light things to add to our load but oh well. We also had fun looking over the bikes. Both Jonathan and I are dreaming of getting new ones but we want to be careful this time. When Ken and Mara got new ones a couple of years ago we got cheap ones and we have not been impressed with how they work. I want to read up on whatever type of bike we buy next.

We ended up getting home around 3:30. It was a pretty full day of errands but we had fun and it worked to go on our bikes so it was fun to have that success. We were all pretty hot and tired by the time we made it home but we were ready to ride to baseball at 6 pm and the kids had fun playing that evening.

 Mara commented that she really liked doing our errands on bikes and getting to picnic as well. I love getting the exercise plus getting to really see things as we go by. We had such fun looking at all the flowers we passed. A day like that certainly isn't the most time efficient but it was fun and there were several benefits:

• We saved money on gas.
• I had a memorable time with my children.
• We got some good fresh air and exercise.

This weekend we hope to get some more bike riding in though it won't save us gas as we are planning on driving to try out a new section of trail where we haven't ridden before. It should be fun.

 Do you like to ride bikes? Are you doing anything to make it so you spend less on gas? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Taking care of those runny noses!

 We seem to be having some Spring allergy problems or maybe some colds bothering us a bit around here. It isn't bad but we have had some need to wipe our noses. I have been trying to use less and less of things that just get thrown away (like tissues) and have been trying to convert over to handkerchiefs more and more. The kids have started using them fairly well but we were having a hard time having enough ready and clean all the time so then we would resort to throwaway tissues.

 I decided to try to remedy that problem. Today I found a pair of old flannel pajama pants that we had around here. I had already cut a little off them to use for another project last winter but I decided to turn the rest of the pair into handkerchiefs. I was able to cut 10 handkerchiefs from the pair, mostly around 8 inch square. We do not like huge handkerchiefs as they are to big for our pockets and who really needs that much blowing space (or if you have used part of it do you really want to continue to use it until it is all used up?!).

I quickly and easily hemmed them on my machine and now they are ready for use.

The boys kindly "Modeled" them for me. Sorry the picture is bad but I found it humorous so I decided to include it anyway.

Now hopefully we won't run out of handkerchiefs so fast- and if we still do I'll just sew up some more. We have other absorbent fabrics that would work and they are very fast to make. We keep them in one of our handmade baskets in a easy to find spot next to the phone.

  I know some (maybe many) people find handkerchiefs gross but I guess I don't see it that way and I would prefer not to spend a lot of money on something that just goes to the dump. (Though I did recently read that you can compost Kleenex- so if you do use it please at least compost them!)

 That is something I have been fixing up this week. What have you been working on?

Taking care of those runny noses!

 We seem to be having some Spring allergy problems or maybe some colds bothering us a bit around here. It isn't bad but we have had some need to wipe our noses. I have been trying to use less and less of things that just get thrown away (like tissues) and have been trying to convert over to handkerchiefs more and more. The kids have started using them fairly well but we were having a hard time having enough ready and clean all the time so then we would resort to throwaway tissues.

 I decided to try to remedy that problem. Today I found a pair of old flannel pajama pants that we had around here. I had already cut a little off them to use for another project last winter but I decided to turn the rest of the pair into handkerchiefs. I was able to cut 10 handkerchiefs from the pair, mostly around 8 inch square. We do not like huge handkerchiefs as they are to big for our pockets and who really needs that much blowing space (or if you have used part of it do you really want to continue to use it until it is all used up?!).

I quickly and easily hemmed them on my machine and now they are ready for use.

The boys kindly "Modeled" them for me. Sorry the picture is bad but I found it humorous so I decided to include it anyway.

Now hopefully we won't run out of handkerchiefs so fast- and if we still do I'll just sew up some more. We have other absorbent fabrics that would work and they are very fast to make. We keep them in one of our handmade baskets in a easy to find spot next to the phone.

  I know some (maybe many) people find handkerchiefs gross but I guess I don't see it that way and I would prefer not to spend a lot of money on something that just goes to the dump. (Though I did recently read that you can compost Kleenex- so if you do use it please at least compost them!)

 That is something I have been fixing up this week. What have you been working on?

Fix it up Friday

 One fun thing about having a little girl is getting to sew things for her and then take pictures of her wearing them. It is quite amusing to have a very creative model. Megan is wearing a jumper that I put together for her using a tank top and then adding some fabric for the skirt. Here is some pictures of our "photo shoot".

  

My "sleeping" girl

This "fix-up" worked very well for us as we don't wear tank tops around here but Megan loves having girly dresses to wear. It was also very simple to put together and so we like it for that.

Fix it up Friday

 One fun thing about having a little girl is getting to sew things for her and then take pictures of her wearing them. It is quite amusing to have a very creative model. Megan is wearing a jumper that I put together for her using a tank top and then adding some fabric for the skirt. Here is some pictures of our "photo shoot".

  

My "sleeping" girl

This "fix-up" worked very well for us as we don't wear tank tops around here but Megan loves having girly dresses to wear. It was also very simple to put together and so we like it for that.

Another baby sweater set

 This month I made yet another baby sweater set (with a sweater rather like this one). I am having so much fun turning my odds and ends of leftover yarn to make cute stuff for babies with. I used up every little scrap of this particular type of white yarn on this set. I had used up all the peach too and thought I didn't have enough yarn when Mara produced from her room another ball of the peach yarn.

 I love the touch that the flowers add to the simple sweater and hat. This is the link to the basic pattern that I used. I just did a little changing on it to make it a bit more special. This sweater set I donated to a fundraiser silent auction. I hope to make another one soon to have to give away friends that have babies.

I am linking this to:

Another baby sweater set

 This month I made yet another baby sweater set (with a sweater rather like this one). I am having so much fun turning my odds and ends of leftover yarn to make cute stuff for babies with. I used up every little scrap of this particular type of white yarn on this set. I had used up all the peach too and thought I didn't have enough yarn when Mara produced from her room another ball of the peach yarn.

 I love the touch that the flowers add to the simple sweater and hat. This is the link to the basic pattern that I used. I just did a little changing on it to make it a bit more special. This sweater set I donated to a fundraiser silent auction. I hope to make another one soon to have to give away friends that have babies.

I am linking this to:

An apron from old overalls

  A while back I had seen an apron at a craft store that had been made from cutting out the pocket/zipper area from a pair of jeans (so it was basically in a half circle shape) and then attaching a wide ruffle and a tie to it. I thought it would be fun to try and so pulled out my box of old jeans for that purpose one day last week.

 The first thing I pulled out was a pair of girls (size 7 or 8) overalls that had holes in the knees. That wasn't what I was looking for but then I thought "Why not?" I could make an apron with a bib which is what I prefer anyway. Here is how I did it:

The picture above is what I started with.
1. I unbuttoned the sides of the overalls and then seam ripped the seams down to the level of the crotch seam.
2. I cut straight across from side to side just above the crotch.

3. I found some ribbon I wanted to use to complete the neck loop and for waist ties.
4. I cut the shoulder straps off at the place that they matched the width of my ribbon.
5. I figured out how long I needed the neck to be (it is adjustable because of the way you can adjust overall straps) and cut the ribbon the right length to finish the neck strap.
6. I sewed the ribbon in place.

7. I found some white fabric to make the apron longer. I cut it around twice as wide as the denim and as long as I desired.

8. I gathered the white fabric and then sewed it to the denim.

9. I turned under the edges of the white fabric (I cut the corners so they were rounded) and then sewed lace around the edge of the whole bottom section of the apron.

10. I measured a ribbon long enough to use for the waist ties, I threaded it through the belt loops and then sewed it to secure it on each side.

11. I double stitched over many of the flattened seams to make a more finished look.

This was a very quick project and a really fun way to give new life to an old pair of overalls. It sold on a silent auction at a fundraiser last week.

I am linking this to:

Frugal Friday at Life as Mom

and

An apron from old overalls

  A while back I had seen an apron at a craft store that had been made from cutting out the pocket/zipper area from a pair of jeans (so it was basically in a half circle shape) and then attaching a wide ruffle and a tie to it. I thought it would be fun to try and so pulled out my box of old jeans for that purpose one day last week.

 The first thing I pulled out was a pair of girls (size 7 or 8) overalls that had holes in the knees. That wasn't what I was looking for but then I thought "Why not?" I could make an apron with a bib which is what I prefer anyway. Here is how I did it:

The picture above is what I started with.
1. I unbuttoned the sides of the overalls and then seam ripped the seams down to the level of the crotch seam.
2. I cut straight across from side to side just above the crotch.

3. I found some ribbon I wanted to use to complete the neck loop and for waist ties.
4. I cut the shoulder straps off at the place that they matched the width of my ribbon.
5. I figured out how long I needed the neck to be (it is adjustable because of the way you can adjust overall straps) and cut the ribbon the right length to finish the neck strap.
6. I sewed the ribbon in place.

7. I found some white fabric to make the apron longer. I cut it around twice as wide as the denim and as long as I desired.

8. I gathered the white fabric and then sewed it to the denim.

9. I turned under the edges of the white fabric (I cut the corners so they were rounded) and then sewed lace around the edge of the whole bottom section of the apron.

10. I measured a ribbon long enough to use for the waist ties, I threaded it through the belt loops and then sewed it to secure it on each side.

11. I double stitched over many of the flattened seams to make a more finished look.

This was a very quick project and a really fun way to give new life to an old pair of overalls. It sold on a silent auction at a fundraiser last week.

I am linking this to:

Frugal Friday at Life as Mom

and