And We Have a Rooster

I don’t often bring things like this home anymore but we were walking through Tractor Supply over the weekend and Drew thought we just had to have this guy. So, now we have our rooster! I would love to have a real rooster but I don’t want one that gets means with Drew so in the meantime I’ll settle for a metal one. He’s inside for now but his new home will be outside the chicken coop when the weather decides to get nice.

Our two babies chicks are growing like weeds. Drew’s little Lizzie is such a sweetie. She likes to cuddle and is so laid back. My Matilda on the other hand has quite the personality. She does not like to be held and she jumps our of her home at every possible chance. We have to keep an old grate that Joe had lying around on top of their house to keep her in.  She is way more aggressive than our four mature birds too but doesn’t seem to take her aggression out on Lizzie. It will be interesting to see how she is as she gets older.

Our mature girls lost their roommates. Outdoor Pierre, the mama who had her babies in the coop – moved her babies the same day. Joe said he counted seven babies and when she moved them she left three behind that hadn’t made it. We think she might have moved them down to the crib as she has been hanging out down there a lot but we haven’t looked for them. She’s a new mama and this is her first littler so we want her to be comfortable and not move them again. We’re leaving her be for now.  We named her Outdoor Pierre because our indoor cat is named Pierre too. Drew doesn’t care about gender when he names his pets!

It’s The Little Things

Yesterday after getting my typing done I worked on Easter baskets and filling eggs. Drew will be home for Easter break  after today and there’s no way I could get this done with him in the house. It was fun to fill a basket for Bayah and to look for pretty pink and frilly things! We try to keep it simple with little fun things and not too much candy. They will get enough candy that day the way  it is. Drew will get a little more in his basket. A bigger Lego set and a sweatshirt he was in dire need of along with a few little things. Something fun and something needed! I filled over 120 eggs. Way too many to be sure but the kids love to find them and find the treasures inside. Candy, little trinkets and coins. I hope it’s warm enough to hide them outside but the weather doesn’t look too promising.

Then I worked on cleaning my ceilings. Our house is old – it was built in 1900. And even though it was a farm  house it’s a small house, one story with very low ceilings. When we bought the place back in 1988 it needed a lot of work. It still does – we don’t get in a hurry! Anyway, we did do some remodeling in the way of sheetrock and at that time popcorn ceilings were popular. As Joe had worked construction some he was able to do the work himself and he was a master at popcorn ceilings! (I know popcorn ceilings are not the in thing and I totally understand why but he’s a fan and he did do all the work so I live with them!) Unfortunately over the years those ceilings have gotten dingy and they are a magnet for cobwebs. The only way I knew to try and clean them was using the vacuum and it has gotten harder and harder for me to do. It really hurts my shoulders and arms. And then comes Pinterest! A paint roller and new roller brush run under water and voila – just roll it across the ceiling and the cobwebs role right off along with the grunge from a certain brand of candle that I love to burn but leaves so much dark soot on the ceiling that I no longer burn them. But that’s another story.  And yes, I lost a little bit of popcorn too but that’s a small price to pay! So, instead of using the broom handle connected to the roller like suggested I used a shorter piece of dowel. An advantage to having low ceilings! I was so excited to try this out and then even more excited when it worked. I only have the back porch and my bedroom ceiling to finish. And best of all – it cost me nothing. I already had everything needed! It’s the little things isn’t it??!!

Busy Doing Nothing

Sweet little bunny Drew made at the afterschool program at the public library last week. They make the cutest craft projects!

I’m sitting here with the TV on watching Sister Wives – not sure why I watch this show but I do. Joe thinks I’m crazy to watch it but he’s gone tonight for work so I have a free evening to watch what I want and since Dew wanst to entertain himself right now I’m watching what I want!  I have Drew behind me playing away with his train set in the dining room and I can hear the rain coming down. I love love the rain! It’s just nice and cozy right now. I feel like we’ve been so busy lately and yet we’ve really not been doing much of anything. We haven’t accomplished anything big around here. Once in awhile it’s nice to do nothing but once the weather starts to cooperate we’re going to have to get busy and get things done around here.

Drew and his fort he has set up in the living room. It’s been up for about a week – I think it’s getting to be about time to bring it down!

I spent the day in town today with a friend. How nice to spend a day just visiting. We hadn’t gotten together since way before Christmas and it was just time. I’ve become something of a hermit lately. I like to be home. I’m content to be home. I’ve gotten really good at isolating and I have to make myself spend time out and about. When I don’t it gets harder and harder for me to get out and socialize. It was nice to get out and converse with somebody in person and just get away from the house and I need to make myself do it more often. The longer I go without socializing the harder it gets for me to get out and I have to make myself get out of my comfort zone of home!

Tina Woltman designs.

I have gotten a lot of stitching done over the last few weeks. These two are getting filled with crushed walnut shells and then I’ll stitch them up. I’m not sure if I want to sell these or keep them for myself. I’ll probably try and sell them and then stitch up two more for myself. I’m loving how they are turning out and will hate to see them go. I love Tina Woltman designs. They are so prim perfect!

 

 

New Additions to the Chicken Family

These two love their chickens!We added to our flock over the weekend. We don’t have much room left in our coop but we also want to be able to keep a steady stream of eggs comings so we brought two babies home Saturday morning. I wanted more but that wouldn’t be fair to them. Even though the coop supposedly will hold 10 chickens I think the six we now have will be a stretch for them in the winter. We might have to rethink our coop situation next spring. These chickens are addictive! And I went out to check for eggs today I got quite a surprise – I opened up the door and saw a blur of orange run past only to see a nest of baby kittens in the box the chicken usually their eggs in. And one of the Reds was laying in another box. I quickly shut the door as the mama cat was really really anxious. I don’t even know if she was done having them as she wasn’t in there when Joe let the chickens out this morning. Not a good place to have babies I’m afraid. Hopefully she will decide to find a new home for her babies.

We now have a Barred Rock named Lizzie and an Americana named Matilda! Drew picked out the Barred Rock and named her. He picked out the smallest one (I remember always wanting the runt when I was young too!) they had and so far she seems to be thriving. I wanted an Americana because they lay blue eggs. No other reason than that – I just want to have blue eggs! They only had two Americanas left so I was glad we decided to check on Saturday. We were going to wait a couple more weeks but they weren’t sure what breeds they would be getting in later so home with us they came! Now we really have a mix of breeds but I think it’s fun that way.  We can easily tell them apart and they each have their own distinct personality except for the two Rhode Island Reds. We have never figured out how to tell them apart!

The weather is finally warming up here. We had an evening and night of rain, lightening, thunder, sleet, snow – you name it we had it – but it’s warm enough now that nothing sticks. I think Joe’s getting the camping itch because he’s been grilling us some yummy meals. He grilled jalapeno stuffed chicken breasts one night and they were so good he grilled more a couple of nights later to take over to Mom and Dad. Dad had bunion surgery and a hammer toe worked on so we thought Mom would like to not have to fix supper after taking care of Dad all day. Then yesterday he grilled what he called a Bacon Cheeseburger Fattie. Another really yummy meal and it looked to pretty – he weaved bacon to roll the hamburger/cheese mixture up in. Definitely camping season meals for sure!

And I’ve been busy stitching away. I had a large order that kept me busy. I’m thinking I might not be so open to orders anymore. I get so nervous about getting them down and shipped and that’s all I can concentrate on. Not such a good thing for me or my family I’m afraid. But I have found a new show on Netflix to watch while stitching- Calling The Midwife. A really enjoyable show!

 

What We’ve Been Up To

 

After the first round

Last week we saw snow. Lots of snow. It started a week ago Monday and kept coming. All in all we ended up with something like 15 inches or so.  I’m not sure how many years it’s been since we’ve seen this much snow but it’s been awhile.  I’ve really missed having snow like this and I’m enjoying it while it’s here. It covers all the drab browns with a beautiful blanket of white. It softens all the hard edges. It’s beautiful!

On Friday after Joe got done clearning the driveway he pulled Drew around on his sled behind the 4-wheeler. Unfortunately this ended up with Drew falling off the sled and planting his head in the driveway. He came in the house crying and with blood running. He banged his head up pretty good but he’s tough. After an hour of cuddling he was up and running around loving his war wounds and planning how to make sure he doesn’t fall off the sled tomorrow!

 

By Saturday we were needing groceries and needing to get out of the house so we headed to Oskaloosa. First we took Drew to the mall to see a model train set up that’s there.  He is fascinated with model trains. We all enjoyed this set up and best of all – it was free! Then onto Fareway to stock up on some meat and Hy-Vee for some sale items. On the way home Dad called and asked if Joe could run over and help him fix his tractor so when we got home Joe and Drew headed over there while I stayed behind to put groceries away, bag up meat for the freezer and clean the chicken coop.

Joe and Drew built a fort on Sunday after Joe got done cleaning out the driveway. Snow – free entertainment for adults and kids alike! Then we headed to Fairfield to visit Aunt Konnie. She had been in the hospital with pneumonia and is now in a care facility for a week or two for some additional help before she goes home.  She was looking good and seems to be on the road to recovery. Later Dad and Mom came over for supper and to play games. A nice ending to the weekend.

Nothing much went on throughout the week. A nice quiet week for once. I got my hair cut on Thursday – the first haircut I’ve had in over a year. Joe likes it long but it was just getting to be too much for me and it was time to shorten it up. I worked at the school on Friday and yesterday we met Joe’s brother and sister-in-law for supper in Des Moines. Something we’ve talked about doing and finally did. It was a nice evening. We decided we needed to try and do that more often. Hopefully we will make it happen.

Our meals the past few days:

Saturday: Comfort Meatballs and Mashed Potatoes – recipes from The Pinoneer Lady

Sunday: Crockpot Beef Stew, bread and butter and cheese.

Monday – Cheeseburger Quesadillas – recipe from Sunny Simple Life. I hadn’t made these before but was hoping we would like them. Something fairly quick and easy to make for those busy nights that pop up now and then. We all loved them!

Tuesday: Pancake supper with Dad and Mom at the Sigourney Christian Church.

Wednesday: Spaghetti with both red sauce and alfredo sauce, strawberry Jell-O with bananas and marshmallows, homemade rolls,  Mississippi Mud Cake. And Valentine’s chocolates!

Thursday: Leftovers. I love leftover nights!

Friday: Crockpot Taco Chicken Bowls

Saturday: Famous Dave’s – we met Joe’s brother and sister-in-law in Des Moines for supper. A spur of the moment decision – and a fun evening out with family.

What I’ve done to be frugal:  Stitched the flower back on my headband that Drew had been wearing around. That kid likes to wear my headgear for some reason.

Fixed my winter chore hat. Drew had worn it to school and brought it home with a broken clasp. I cut the clasp off and attached iron on Velcro. I’ve had that Velcro stashed away for years and never used it. There was a time when I would have simply stuffed the hat into the back of the closet and bought a new one. And yet now, after my frugal fix, it stays snugger than ever and is better than new!

Repurposed an empty plastic coffee container. I hate throwing those away and yet you can only store so many for later use. But, we are now using one for leftovers to go to the cats. I keep it in the refrigerator and when it’s full out to the cats it goes. Then I wash it and start all over. I’m saving the container from the landfill and saving on cat food too. On the days the cats get leftovers they don’t get dry cat food – and they love leftovers!

Joe started cleaning out his office and shredded tons of paper – will be used for bedding in the chicken coop.

I’ve gotten a lot of stitching done while watching the Olympics in the evenings with Drew. We really enjoy the Winter Olympics. Anybody else enjoying the competitions?

 

All Caught Up

These came today and I’m now all caught up! Yeah!!! I love these books and I love the writer. She lived in my small town when she was younger and I remember her well. She is now a great author, has a fun blog and is on Facebook. Check her out! I started out getting her book on the Kindle. Remember – an agreement I had with Joe was no books if I got a Kindle. Well ………. I decided these were books I needed to own. I mean really – look at those beautiful covers. Diane’s husband takes the pictures for the covers. And one of the pictures on one of the books is of the office where I worked for years. (I have the coffee mug with that book cover too!) And they are books – you just have to have a few actual books right? We have all kinds of kids books. After four kids who love to read you have to have books. But I’m slowly buying books again here and there. I just think a house needs to have books! Now to get caught up on reading them. That’s what I’ve been reading while I’m sitting in line to pick Drew up from school – I get a good half hour of reading in! I’m on book 17 and there’s 20 so far in the series.  A new book comes out every three months.

And bookmarks. You have to have bookmarks. You just can’t dog ear a book. But, I tend to lose bookmarks and so I usually just use a scrap piece of paper or a piece of junk mail. But I follow Susan Branch’s blog and get her Willard newsletter and she has the cutest bookmarks that she offers for free. This is the latest one I’ve downloaded, printed and run through the  laminator. It’s just the cutest. Of course it is meant to be used as a nametag to use at her picnic but since I won’t be going to the UK anytime soon – I’ll just use it as a bookmark. And it has a lamb on it. I love, love, love anything with a lamb on it!

This came in the mail today too. We were given this exact knife as a wedding gift oh so many years ago. It hasn’t seen a lot of use. Mostly to cut up a watermelon and Joe would use it to cut up his deer meat. Which is what he was doing this year when it snapped in two. There was a time when I would have thrown it away and bought a new one but now that I’m not working we need to be way more frugal with our money. (Something we should have always done I know) So, I went  online and discovered that Chicago Cutlery has a lifetime guarantee. I emailed them a quick message and they responded quickly and before I knew it – a brand new knife! Isn’t that wonderful??!!

 

Another way I’ve been saving money and being frugal and trying to make things easier around here is freezing leftovers. I have two of these containers filled with beef stew in the freezer. I work at the school again tomorrow and Friday and instead of paying for a lunch there I’ve pulled out one container to thaw and that will be my lunch for the next two days. Perfect. No fuss, no worries. I’ll peel an orange in the morning and throw it in my bag along with my beef stew and a bottle of water and I’ll be all set. And I have another container of beef stew and one of veggie soup in the freezer for the next time I’m subbing at the school!

The next few days will be busy. Two days at school. Then Saturday I’m thinking we may visit my aunt who is in Iowa city in the hospitalwith pneumonia. We’ll have to see if she’s up to visitors yet.  Then Sunday we’re meeting Joe’s siblings in Des Moines for lunch and to sign some papers and make some decisions. Then home to watch the Super Bowl I’m assuming. Joe doesn’t seem to be too into it this year so who knows. I have never been into the whole football thing. I’d rather watch a good episode of Little House on the Prairie!

Baby Steps

In an effort to try and make some changes around here I’m trying to get Drew to eat healthier. He loves oatmeal for breakfast on cold mornings but I know those little packets of instant oatmeal just aren’t healthy. Are those little pieces of fruit even fruit? I’m not so sure. I found this recipe for homemade instant oatmeal in my Little House Living book and thought I’d give it a try. It took some trial and error. He didn’t like it plain even though there’s brown sugar in it. So next we tried dried fruit. That was a no go. So onto frozen fruit because that’s what I had in the house. Blueberries first – he decided he doesn’t like blueberries. Then strawberries – he didn’t like those because I warmed them up in the microwave along with the oatmeal. He refused to try them again without warming them up. So, then I tried a little bit of sugar and cinnamon. Bingo! Now I need to mix up larger batches of this stuff at a time because he loves it. He even wanted oatmeal for supper last night! He’s been eating two bowls every morning before school. This is a huge plus for me – a nice warm filling bowl of oatmeal makes me feel like he’s starting his day off on the right foot! And I’m loving the oatmeal too – might have to start buying it in bulk! So baby steps – we’re starting slow – one little step at a time!

Getting Started

I don’t buy books much anymore. That’s what my Kindle is for. My house is so small and I had sooo many books and it was driving Joe crazy. So in order for me to get a Kindle to use to read from I agreed to downsize on my books. I did really really well at first. I got rid of all but my most loved books and most of them have been put in storage. But as time has gone by I have bought a book or two here or there. There’s just something about an actual book and holding it in your hands and smelling it and thumbing through it. Nothing compares.

And cookbooks and self help books just don’t work for me on the Kindle. I have to be able to thumb through and find a page I need and bookmark it and even write notes if need be. So at the beginning of the year I ordered a few books to help get me started on my plan to save time, save money and eat healthier around here. I’m loving these books. I already had Little House Living and have read it multiple times and have used some of her ideas. She has a wonderful blog too with so much great information on it. I’ve gone through it and written down so many recipes and ideas that I want to get started on.

Then there’s Homestead Kitchen. I almost didn’t order it because I didn’t know if it would really help me out much.  I ordered it more for a treat to myself because I’m loving watching Alaska The Last Frontier  and I wanted to learn more about Eiven and Eve and the Kilchers. But I’m glad I’ve got it now. I’ve read it from cover to cover. It’s amazing how much reading you can get done on long road trips! I love this book. I love all the personal stories and there are so many recipes I want to try. Now it’s just a matter of slowing down around here and taking the time to try something new now and again.

These last two I want to really spend time going through and I just haven’t had the time yet. I have browsed through them and think they are going to be full of great information and be very helpful. The bread recipe I tried out the other day came from The Made From Scratch Life. So much of what you read in these books is common sense and really, I just need a reminder now and then to get back to the basics. Many things are things I have wanted to do or try but just wasn’t sure how. Now I have no excuse – I just have to get up and do it!

Monday

Today is a cold windy Monday at 1 degree and the wind makes it feel even colder! I just came in from cleaning out the chickens. They are happy campers now. Clean coop, fresh water, feed bowl filled and banana peels for a treat. As happy as they can be I guess being cooped up in the coop. They sure don’t like the snow and cold. The kitties have fresh water too and a bowl full of food and a nice warm insulated doghouse full of straw.

Today has been busy. A two hour delay at school due to the cold and wind. That means keeping Drew entertained and yet ready to go to school when it’s time. He doesn’t sleep in and he gets all settled in at home when there’s a delay and then it can be a fight to get him out the door. Today we played with legos and talked about school. I think that helped.I made chocolate chip cookies when I got home from delivering Drew. Eric goes back to Iowa today and I wanted to send him off with something yummy from home! Then I spent some time on the phone with my mom who is trying to help my aunt learn how to use her new iPhone. Mom doesn’t have an iPhone so it’s quite comical trying to get her to understand over the phone so she can explain to Aunt Konnie over the phone what to do. I think we might be running to Konnie’s house tomorrow afternoon. It’ much easier to explain in person than doing it this way.

 

I did manage to squeeze in a frugal pantry craft though. Am I the only person who will buy a product at the grocery store just for the pretty label? I loved this label on the store brand flour at our local grocery store. Now, in this instance I would have bought this brand anyway due to it being the cheapest. When you shop at the local grocery store in a small town, you tend to buy the store brand. It still many times is more expensive than anything you can buy at the bigger name brand store. But sometimes it’s just cheaper and much less time consuming to run to town which is seven miles away than it is to run to the closest Fareway or Hy-Vee which are 30 miles away.

I was in need of flour and when I saw this label on the flour bag I fell in love. It’s blue for one thing and I love the old time feel!  I thought it would be perfect glued to my flour jar. Now to find similar labels for my other jars – sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, powdered milk, rice, macaroni noodles, etc. I’m not sure that will happen at the store so maybe I can find something on Pinterest I like that will coordinate. I like the how cheery this looks sitting on my cupboard and would like to have all my jars look pretty. And I used wheat paste so if I need or want to I can take this off and replace it with something else down the road.

A Sunday Visit

We went for an afternoon visit today to see Uncle Jerry and Aunt Konnie. I was thankful I wasn’t driving – I don’t do well in these conditions! It snowed all the way to their place and it was so pretty. I just love the snow! Here’s the highway leading to Rubio, the little tiny almost non-existent town they live just outside of.

And I love gravel roads covered in snow (although this isn’t a whole lot of snow). That bend in the road – it takes you to one of the prettiest places in Iowa! I shared pictures of Uncle Jerry and Aunt Konnie’s place last summer and it’s just as pretty in the winter. The only difference is it was so cold out and I didn’t wear my boots so I only took a few pictures from the truck as we were moving so I didn’t get the best pictures.

Off to the right, a few of Uncle Jerry’s horses with their backs to the wind. Uncle Jerry has always had horses and at one time he raised mules. On past these horses there were goats and llamas. I didn’t get any pictures – next time maybe. Uncle Jerry said he had just bought some new goats yesterday and they were due to give birth at any time. If it had been a warmer day and I had been dressed more appropriately I would have gone out with him to check on the mamas. Baby goats – how sweet. When I was growing up we would have been getting ready for lambing season. I loved the baby lambs!

And to the left I the old farmhouse and barn. Up the road and around the bend and you’re there. The house on the left and the most beautiful view to the right.  A big old farmhouse and room to roam. Lots of memories here and they’re all good. My older kids always enjoyed visiting and now Drew does too. It’s almost like time slows down when I’m visiting Uncle Jerry and Aunt Konnie.