Week in review

This has been one crazy week! It all started out with 100 ears of corn early Saturday morning. By Monday morning I had frozen 26 pounds of corn, made a batch of ketchup, a batch of BBQ sauce, 2 chocolate zucchini cakes, 10 quarts of beans, and a potato salad for my husband to take to on office luncheon. It all made for one busy weekend. When the garden grows it makes one tired Momma!

This week the children are at Vacation Bible School. This has left me with 3 hours of time every morning. So I decided to tackle the never ending project. Remember this hutch?

It is now 3/4 of the way done. I still have the 4 doors and the top do. There just wasn't enough space to work on everything at the same time. But at least there is progress!  I really can't wait to see it all finished, it's been sitting around forever!

And just because I could I started another project. :) At least this one was easy. The chalkboard in the school room needed painting due to scratched so  I worked on that also. I also decided to make it magnetic with the magnetic primer they sell. I can't wait to use it with our spelling lessons!

  And here is another project I partially finished. Do you see a trend? This is why I own a shirt that says Queen of unfinished projects! You can see where it is just pinned to the table. I want to get some trim and then attach it properly. At least for now it looks so much better that looking at all the junk that is under the table in my scrapbook room.

And just to show you that I do finish some things eventually. This is a plant stand I painted back when David was on a business trip. I decided to put it in the dining room. It adds a nice dimension to the otherwise boring corner. When I get everything put together I'll take some better photos and reveal the whole room.

Now I am off for a three day scrapbooking retreat and some rest.

See you on Monday!

Honey Baked Chicken

It's been a while since I have posted a recipe. Canning season is in full swing and so I am busy with that. This is a quick meal to pull out for dinner, and it goes well with all the produce coming in. 1 3lb. fryer chicken

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup honey

2 Tablespoons mustard

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon curry powder

FREEZER STEP: Mix ingredients and pour over chicken in a Ziploc bag.

TO PREPARE: Pull out chicken the night before to thaw in the fridge. Bake 1 1/4 hours, basting every 15 minutes, until chicken is tender and nicely browned.

TIPS: The meat marinates as it thaws, if you want to make this the day you eat it, just marinate it in the morning so it sits for about 6 to 8 hours.

Adapted from the More with Less Cookbook

Sisters

The best of friends.

Summertime

One of my favorite things...

Boys

After a hard days work in the fields... A glass of ice water to cool you off is all the reward you need.

Hello Kitty Party!

Here are some pictures from Fiona's party. We kept it really simple this year with just family. I still made a special cake per her request. I think it turned out so cute. It has to be one of my favorites!This scooter and her sewing basket were her favorite gifts!Six is a big deal around here. For the first  time you need two hands to show how old you are!

Six Years Ago

This little Sweet Pea arrived into our lives.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Tired of waiting

We have been "remodeling" our laundry room for going on four and a half years now and I am tired of it!  This is what happens when you start to many projects at once, think your are moving, and don't like doing drywall! I have been collecting some lovely things for a long time in anticipation of using them and I got tired of storing them and tripping over them all the time. So even if the room is only halfway done at least I can get a start on the decorating instead of staring at blank walls and temporary light fixtures.

This is what the space looked like in February. We just hooked the machines back up so we could do laundry and left it at that.

This is what it looks like now.

Someday there will be bead board on the walls, a shelf above the washer and dryer and a floor. For now even just adding the baskets and art work the room feels so much better and I don't mind going in there so much to do laundry.

The frame is from the goodwill for 3.00 and the feed sack was from a yard sale for the same price. I cut a matte to fit, attached the sack with spray adhesive, and it's held in the frame with painters tape, just in case I change my mind. The egg basket, fire brigade bucket and pulleys are from out local antiques store. I purchased them at various times over the past couple of years. For now the enamelware pan is holding the washing supplies, but I have plans for those once I have a shelf!

Small improvements that really help until we can get to the rest of the room.

Raspberry picking

Nothing like a hot day to go raspberry picking! My little helpers and I picked 12 pounds and then came home to make jam.

My new toy

Look what came in the mail today!! I can't wait to play with it and laminate all the things we need for school. I have been busy planning the year out and working on workboxes for the children. If you haven't heard of the workbox system you can read about it here.

I am planning a modified version as I don't have room for all of the boxes she recommends using. I'll share it to you when I have it completed. I spent the day tearing out all of the lessons from the children's workbooks and filing them per week in those folders you see in the bottom of the picture. I tear them out for many reasons.

1. The children can print better without having the binding in the way.

2. Miles gets overwhelmed seeing all the work that must be done, even if he knows it doesn't have to be done all in one day.

3. I can keep one of them from working so far ahead they loose to much in retention and end up needing to repeat.

4. It is easier to fill the workbox "folders" with a torn out pace that the whole workbook.

I am feeling much better today and was able to get things caught up around the house. Even Fiona noticed as she said I was walking straight now, where as of yesterday I looked like a little old hunchback as it was to painful to stand straight.

Tomorrow I am going to tackle the history and science lessons. We'll see how far I get.

Someday

While the rest of the world enjoyed, picnics, family, and fireworks.

I spent the weekend here.

On my dirty sofa wishing I was well enough to get to all the things I had planned. We did nothing festive, nothing special, it was just another weekend. Nothing marked the importance of the day at our house. Oh,  my husband read the Constitution and other documents, but missing was the party, the people, and the fireworks. You know how some people get depressed around Christmas because they miss the way things were? Well that is how I feel about this day. When we were first married and lived in Illinois we would have a party at our house. Not just any party but a large gathering with so many people you could hardly speak with everyone, to many children to count, and so much food the tables seemed to bend toward the ground. Everyone loved coming over and celebrating, it was just a quick walk across the street to view the fireworks, and the fellowship was memorable. We had such high hopes when we moved of having the same kind of gathering, oh not right at first of course but perhaps the next year. What we didn't know was that no one stays here for the holidays, everyone has family and some other place to go. It's rather lonely for those of us who come from somewhere else. It's been 4 summers now you would think we would be used to it. Apparently not. In a way  I was glad I was sick, I didn't have to pretend to be happy, or pretend that I was enjoying the day. I could remember what was before and I pray that we can have again. Someday.

Independence Day

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday! 

New life for an old cabinet

Project number two is officially completed. I had it done at the beginning of the week but I needed to get new knobs.  Here is the before picture. This cabinet was a gift from my parents for my 21st birthday. It has been used in many different rooms as storage over the years. I'll leave you to guess how many. :) It is currently my canned goods pantry. I got sick of staring at the yellow pine wood and just knew some paint would give it a new life. What do you think? It's the first thing I see when I walk into the kitchen in the morning. A little distressing to give it the feel of age. The door not shutting all the way anymore helps too. :) The clock was a wedding present from a family friend.  He made it out of quarter sawn ash, knowing my love for the Arts and Crafts movement. I love how it stands out with the painted cabinet now. For those interested the color is called Swiss Coffee by Behr. It works well with the yellow walls. Now to move on to another project.

For as soon as I finish one I come up with 100 more...

Linking to