Pioneer Woman at Heart

Feeling pretty lazy for once, and not feeling guilty for once....

The birds are singing this morning.  What a nice thing to wake up too.  It sounds so peaceful out there.  It's a good day to let the ladies out and clean the coop too.  They will be so happy to be out and about today.  My 15 year-old opened the door and smiled, "it sounds like spring out there."   Yesterday, I was just finishing up my lunch, when a van pulled in.  My Hubby surprised me with red roses.  

I'll admit, the chilly outside air has kept me indoors more often.  I do have to enjoy it and slow down.  So far, we have avoided the flu, although our 15 year-old recently came home from a sleepover sick.   The more I am home, the less contact I have of airborne and other nasty germs.  I am, however, considering banning sleepovers during the remainder of the winter (flu hospitalizations are up in our area).   I just want to keep sickness out of our home.  This is the second time this season that she has come home sick from a friend's house. Although it is snowing right now, we did have a warm up, and the weather was perfect for drying laundry outdoors.  And it was warm enough to let the ladies out and clean the coop.  We tried last week (to clean the coop), but everything was simply frozen to the ground.   I've taken some time to think on things, and ....

Hubby and I went to one last Christmas family gathering.  We ended up going by ourselves, but brought home leftovers.  The kids gobbled them up last night. Although I was tempted to crochet, and had another unfinished project in my hands (I found several as I was cleaning a few days ago), I put it away.

We've been eating leftovers for a few days.  I cooked up a crock pot of organic black beans with onion, and those have been going fast too.  I really enjoy eating the beans with scrambled eggs, home canned zucchini salsa and a bit of cheese, all wrapped up in a whole wheat tortilla.  Youngest started doing this after school, and they really are delicious.

It was pretty cold yesterday.  However, we are not heating just yet here.  I like how the leaves on the ground make a dark day bright.  I could not rake them up just yet.  These will eventually go on the garden (unless a big wind whips them away before then). See that pot of geraniums?  I have two actually. Mid summer when my original plants died, I bought them at the grocery store, half dead and for pennies.  They are still blooming, while the hostas are turning for the fall season. I was successful in drying an entire.....

I think I have blogger's block today.  However, I feel that not blogging would be a disservice to my readers.  I have no pictures to share either.  Sigh.  Could it be that I am simply getting boring?

(Yesterday morning's sunrise) This time of year, everything is very wet early in the morning.  As I picked green peppers yesterday, I noticed how wet the garden still is.   I opted to bake first, then head to the front flower beds instead.  I was sure to get "Frankenstein" feet if I went to the vegetable garden. While my breakfast cooked, I quickly tossed ingredients together to make a pie for dinner.  Which by the way, was not a pie I'll make again.   It was called "Stupid Pie" and

After a trip to the library, I was back home baking yesterday. I was blessed with overly ripe bananas, so first I made banana bread (using my canned applesauce).  While that was baking, I mixed ingredients for the next item - chewy granola bars.  Lunch packings are now re-stocked.

Yesterday, I canned homemade pizza sauce for the first time.  I have never had this many tomatoes, so it is a blessing.  We'll be popping open a jar of this to make grilled pizzas this week.  I'll let you know how it tastes and which recipe I adapted.

Yesterday, after laundry was on the line, I decided to start with 20 lbs. of paste tomatoes, a few bay leaves and followed the instructions in Keeping the Harvest , by Nancy Chioffi and Gretchen Mead.  

Okay, so I played around all day in my home, decluttering, creating new piles to file at my computer, and just getting some overdue cleaning done, when I realized I forgot to pick the tomatoes. With rain in the forecast (which as of this morning we still have not gotten), and well overdue, I decided to seek help from a kiddo.  My 15 year-old and I gathered tomatoes. 

Five minutes for Me ~ This morning's sunrise, sipping coffee on the front porch.