Pioneer Woman at Heart

I finally did it!  After talking about it for a year or two, I finally dug through my semi-good jewelry and held a jewelry purge party with two of the girls.  They had so much fun too, and I cleaned out my stash.  There was even more that didn't get into the photo.  Felt so good, and they are "happy campers" to say the least. I even made my Grandma's oatmeal raisin cookies for the get together.  Hubby's been asking for them, and since I only made one cookie at Christmas - wa-la!

I apologize in advance.  This post is long today.  Grab a cup of java or tea.  Maybe grab your breakfast too? I'm not the only one organizing and purging.  Daughter is making the spare bedroom upstairs into her "study" room.  It would have made a wonderful craft room, had it not been "upstairs."   Game day we made a new recipe.  I've been wanting to try it for a while now, and it's a crockpot recipe - Spinach-Artichoke Dip.  It was good, and mostly spinach, but it lacked garlic.  I think it's because I'm buying it, and our homegrown (more flavorful) is gone.  I'm keeping the recipe, but will tweak the garlic for more flavor.  It's perfect for get togethers or parties. We successfully cut the remaining piece of the tree.  It wasn't fun either - so many knots in the last piece.  It's ash too.  It took wood stacking to a whole new level.  The pieces split into all sorts of shapes and sizes.  It ...

Increasing the numbers.  So happy about this. Yesterday, I was sort slipping into "oh poor me" mode.  Youngest got up, ate and left immediately, leaving all the holiday dishes to me (and there were a ton of them).  I didn't feel I should be doing so much work on a day I should have been celebrating, but Hubby worked as well.  Anyway, I worked myself through the dishes, and the laundry, and got busy. Keeping to my word, I purged the Halloween totes.  All costumes (hand made by my mother) are going to the grand kids.  Woohoo to that.  One full tote leaving the garage. By the way, my new planner has been so helpful.  There is a section to write in my monthly goals!  Woot!  I can use it to plan daughter's grad party too. The weather has been so warm, I've been enjoying hanging the laundry outside vs. racks in the house.  It's so warm, one could go camping right now.  Literally. Also, keeping to my word on han...

We had weather in the lower 50's and the laundry went out on the line.  Felt so good to do that too. Our youngest child turns 18 today.  Sigh....it's gonna be so strange when she moves out, so I'm not even thinking about that right now. My goals are being set and I am so ready to complete them this winter.  #1 is get all my crafts restocked by the end of Feb. this year (for next year's show). #2 is clean out and reorganize the garage #3 is clean out the utility room and organize #4 clean and re organize the bedroom closet, which involves organizing my patterns into binders, more purging and organizing yarn and craft supplies. #5 is to be determined. Hubby's goals are to buy wood and repair wall where we cut it out last winter to fix cracked pipes, to install an electrical outlet in the kitchen (or not, depending on if it can easily be done). I'm super excited!  The ladies are laying again, after several long months and a coop burglar to deal w...

Normally I get up about 5am.  Not today.  Woke up at 7:30am.  Could be the warm, new cozy pj's I opened last night.  We have a tradition of new jammies Christmas Eve, but we opened them last night and do not regret it. We had our first big Christmas yesterday.  I think we had 30-40 people there.  However, they forgot about beverages other than coffee.  Good thing we brought water bottles to refill. I lack photos today, we were so busy yesterday.  The grands opened their gifts and were very happy.  Our daughter (with the grands) is married to a guy with two of  his own, so we gifted 4 grands.   Today baking officially starts.  However, it starts with a trip to the grocery store.  We had planned on going last night, but we were zonked.  Literally so tired.  I'm glad we slept in.  Last year we still had Jesse with us.  I miss him so much.  I know there is nothing we can do about a visit...

Even though Hubby didn't want to exchange gifts, I took advantage of a 50% off sale and got him some joggers for the gym, a new pair of slippers with rubber soles (he wanted some to take the dog out), and half price snow boots.   He hasn't had a pair for a few years.  I got them half off and another $10 off that.  A very good deal.  I already gave him the snow boots.  All things he's needed, but never took the time to get himself. Hubby asked me to write up a list of things to get me. I told him "I have no idea."   Finished the double wrap infinity scarf.  It's ready for delivery.  She previously ordered the headband, and wanted a scarf to match. Finished Hubby's hat.  Got it wrapped too.  He has no idea.  I've been working on it while he's at work.  Very warm too.

Thursday the "feels like" index was 0°F.  It was frigid for sure.  I did the water exchange for the chickens, but the door was froze to the ground on the barn.  After a few minutes I got it free. I've been dreaming of a better garden year more so then ever.  I sure miss my bounty. I've also be dreaming of the days when I can dry my laundry outside again.   It's been so cold, and not very windy, nor sunny lately. We are planning our daughter's 18th birthday party now.  Hard to believe it's arriving already. I'm just about done with my scarf order.   Hopefully I will have time today for that. Today is the last day of school for Christmas break.  Daughter is taking her teacher gifts in.   I ended up putting together 3 nail polish crochet ornaments and they each got some strawberry margarita jam.  I hope they like their gifts.

I had plans to make a trip to the "big city" yesterday, but snow squalls moved in, making roads slippery.  I decided to stay home and work on orders and cleaning the house.   I cleaned up the kitchen, did the dishes, some laundry, put together Mom's Christmas gift, and started on the bedroom closet (again, and a daunting task as it holds my yarn and crafting items). Pantry Score!  Last jar of home canned BBQ sauce.  It went into the crock pot with organic chicken breasts. I'm going to try my hardest to stay on track this coming year.  Is it bad I have a 3 ring binder for next Christmas (gift ideas, recipes, ornaments to make)?  I want to get stuff done during winter so the garden(s) will have my full attention next year.  It also means I need to organize and purge the rest of the bedroom closet, re-organize my patterns (the two I have are a mess and out of order).   Even if it's getting rid of one item or putting...

Most schools ended up closing yesterday.   Our school eventually closed too. Vehicles were traveling slow past our house, and I never saw one snow plow.  Although I wanted to go out for one last Christmas present, I enjoyed the thought of staying home and crocheting. I whipped up a batch of homemade hot cocoa for gifting two people.  The gift-it list went down considerably this year.  My side of the family set a gathering date mid-January - no gifts, no Christmas traditional food, etc.  I guess you would call it a winter gathering (same thing happened last year).  They want a taco bar, so with Hubby not allowed to eat carbs we'll just take some low carb spinach or tomato wraps (or stuff for taco salad minus tortilla chips).  I love Christmas, and making homemade gifts, so this sort of depressed me.  I feel like my side of the family lets life keep us from celebrating Christmas anymore. I indulged with a hot cup of hot cocoa myself....

It was 11am before I was done putting chili in the crocky yesterday, and making breakfast egg muffins (bacon/bell pepper/jalapeno/spinach).  Everything takes time - chopping, baking the bacon, cooking the ground beef, peeling the garlic....blah.  It was a long day in the kitchen.  By the way, when I have to make homemade buttermilk, my cornbread is a tad dry.  I added a small bit of sour cream, and the bread was deliciously moist. Woke up to more snow.  No surprise there.  School is delayed though.   Chicken coop is fine, but still no eggs.  Darn it.  I know they'll start laying again though. Does anyone know if there is such a thing as a cast iron tea kettle made in the USA?  I checked Lodge cast iron and didn't see one, and everything on Amazon is from China.

I should have paid more attention to the weather.  It's much warmer, but 90% chance of rain, and it's raining.  No wood cutting today.  Ugh. My sets didn't sell at the craft show.  Not one, so this one went into my youngest daughter's hope chest. I found these reindeer antlers in the Christmas totes.  Romeo didn't like them, but let us put them on for a short while.  I finished the granny square scarf with matching slouchy hat for our 20 year-old daughter. The stray cats are trusting me a bit more lately.  I found both looking inside the door at me this morning.  They will run off if I open the door though.  Just ignore those doggie nose marks on the glass, ha ha! I went out to the "Big City" for a few errands and one was to find paint brushes for water painting books.  Believe or not, I found the books at the dollar store, but no brushes. I found those at Wal-Mart.