Happy Homemaker Monday ~ First Day of April

 I hope you all had a nice Easter weekend.  We had some excitement going on here so to speak.  First the power went out for several hours, along with an internet outage.  They could not locate the cause, or at the point of powering back on, did not disclose why they both went out of service.  It was a good spectrum of an area to lose both services.

Secondly, we had to cancel our weekend plans. My husband was on the forced overtime list at work.  He worked the entire Easter weekend.  Hence the unfinished home repairs.  

Thirdly, two very suspicious looking people landed on our front porch.  No vehicle, no cell phone (according to them), and their story was that they were "left by the side of the road"  and wanted to use my cell phone or call for a ride etc.  They also said they were from another state, and not from around here.  I was not about to do that, so I shut and locked the door, and called the Sheriff.   Mind you, we live in the country, so we have prepared for such situations.  

I in the meantime, had prepared a new breakfast, and it involved green beans.  

My husband told me that it's because I prepared a "weird" breakfast, that "weird" stuff happened.  I have promised not to put green beans in our breakfast, ha ha!

I am joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

The weather . . .

It's pouring down rain, we are to have rain for a few more days.  Mostly 40-50 degree days.   Possible snow mid-week.  Possibly a sunny 70 degree Sunday.  Weather is all over the map again.

Right now I am . . .

Filling a diffuser with water and lemon essential oil.  The air in the house is super dry this winter.  I also got out our smaller humidifier.

Thinking and pondering . . .

To garden at all this year, or not to garden.  We are still on the fence with giving the soil a rest this year.

To blog or not to blog.  I love to write it, but lately I feel it's monotonous and time consuming. Most of my posts, after so many years of writing, have almost zero comments, so hence monotonous (and boring?).

Blogger continues to have issues, and the photo loader is once again not working.  

The flower beds definitely need some upkeep work done.

I have lost my mojo to do interior house painting.  I'm a bit burned out from that job.  It's getting a rest for now.

I wrote down 3 things to do in the gardens on good weather days.  One has been crossed off the list now.

How I am feeling . . .

Tired, but ready to tackle the week ahead.  Due to an extra trip to town, I got a head start on my "to-do" list for the week.

On the breakfast plate . . .

Well, it's not green beans (ha ha!).  I have no idea just yet.

Breakfast enchiladas went into the oven.  I used a spinach tortilla.  Kroger has the ones we like with lots of veggies and non-gmo, when I don't want to make them myself.

On the menu . . .

-leftovers
-soup beans, homemade cornbread, maybe a salad too
-not sure on the rest of the week just yet.

On the reading pile . . .

I am not sure when I purchased this book, but it's off the shelf and I am very much enjoying it.

The back of the book. . .

It starts by saying "Molly Pink has become a yarnaholic."  The book includes a free crochet pattern and a recipe.  

On the TV . . .

It's been difficult to find anything worth watching.

Looking around the house . . .

Windows look great!   I am a firm believer of a homemade window cleaner recipe I found online (link).  It did a fantastic job.  It's rubbing alcohol, white vinegar, arrowroot powder, and distilled water.

On the to-do list . . .

-take items to the local blessing box
-start sorting more yarn, scraps from donations
-sort more craft inventory for donation locations
-bake us a breakfast casserole

-catch up on laundry

-brew tea infusions with nettle/oat straw

-sweep floors

-write out a re-stock shopping list

I need to put together our newest (second) mole-chasing windmill.  It's the perfect time to get the grounding rod in the ground (while the rain has softened the soil).

For the week:

(still on the list)

-wash upstairs windows

From the camera . . .

What I am crocheting . . .

Finished!!!   I got this done on the last day of March.  It measures about 9 inches wide.  It's the second doily I started over a year ago, and it landed in a basket (while we tore up floors and painted walls and ceilings).  So happy it's finally done.  One more unfinished project off my list.  Technically, only one unfinished project remains on that list.  The rest are just items to use up yarn, and keep on hand for gifting.

Progress on the baby blanket.

I used the last bit of leftover gray yarn to start a scrap lap afghan.  By "scrap" I mean those small hand size and golf ball sized balls of leftover project yarn.

I'm still crocheting baby washcloths, but only when I have long drives here or there, or sometimes when we have nice porch sitting weather.  I am blocking the washcloths when I finish each one.  I'll package them up in sets for gifting.

Devotionals, Bible Verses, Prayers . . .

I do not have any prayer requests this week.

Happy Homemaker Monday ~ First Day of April  © April 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

On a roll until we had no AC!

 Success!  If you were reading my blog, do you remember my new list of 7 areas (these are all in plain sight) to clean up/purge/ put things back in their homes?  All of our set backs were making me depressed, so I dove full speed ahead into my list.

I have now checked off 4 of those 7 areas, and it has been heaven to wake up and start my day.   I would otherwise get side tracked, or be outside.  Anyway, my kitchen is back to neat and clean, and tidy.  I filled the truck with more donations (can't believe I found more stuff).

I even washed the tablecloth!

I have gifted these a few times, and they were well received.  They are sturdy, and hold notepads, you can buy at Wal-mart or the Dollar Tree.  I glue a magnet to a pen, so the pen stays on the fridge too.  I will not glue magnets to the pens until I gift these (so the pen does not dry out).  You can get the full instructions:  HERE (on my S.C.R.A.P. Blogspot).

In the process to clean off the kitchen table, and my computer desk area, I had craft projects that needed to be finished, and put in craft show totes (or boxed up for gifting).

I finished that pair of crochet wired beaded earrings.  I finished a pair of crocheted candy corn earrings, I finished the wedding penny (and created packaging for it), and I finally got the magnets glued to the backs of the small clip boards (for fridge shopping notepads for gifting).

My Word on my computer stopped working, so I used an Avery template with 2 x 2 stickers I had on hand, and put them on cut pieces of card stock for the packaging.  I also had the resealable bags and safety pins.   It felt great to get all of this done and put away.  I was temped to make a few more of the wedding penny crocheted flowers, but put those supplies away until the list of "7" areas are done.  

By the way, the penny flower can be given with other poems about a "lucky" penny.  It doesn't have to be a "wedding" penny.  That is just what I needed it for.  Pattern is free on YouTube.

My husband intentionally took the weekend off but, he needed to mow.   Today, all I wanted him to do, was install the upstairs AC.  Instead, he insisted we remove the main window unit downstairs, hose it down (literally, and have no idea why), and put it back in.  However, the unit will not work, as he got something wet he shouldn't have.  He's tried to dry it out, and what not, but to no avail, we are roasting in this house.  

I won't be working so hard today, and maybe not tomorrow.  I may be opening windows and buying some fans.  We don't really have the cash to buy a new unit after the $4400.00 we spent to repair the truck.  Lord have Mercy on us, more so my husband, because I'm not a happy wifey right now.

Toodles, and Happy Sunday!