Pioneer Woman at Heart

                  I've been spring cleaning so to speak.  Really, the entire house needs swept and mopped, so I'm tackling one room a day when I can.  I am moving furniture and washing any rugs.   I have also been washing bed covers/comforters.   The weather is up and down for using the clothesline. I pampered myself with a home hair treatment.  It saved me  $$ from going to the salon.  Well water is not my hair's best friend.  We all deserve to pamper ourselves. Another "finish" for April - set of cotton hot pads to donate.                               The deer have started to roam the homestead, and we are not happy.  We have not gotten the fencing up (deer jump fence if it's too short).  There has not been time to do it. Heck, we haven't even had time to buy the rest of the supplies to get the job done....

Our new winter egg "basket" as we are in slower egg production, and this helps keep track of the oldest to newest egg. I made another new recipe by The Real Food Dietitians - Banana Chocolate Chip Baked Oatmeal.  It is very good, but so far I think my favorite is the pumpkin one. My pamper me moment - merino wool socks.  They were on sale for $2 at the farm store.  I could learn to knit my own socks, but I've put that off for so many years now.  You never know.  Until then, I bought these to keep my feet warm during this winter freeze. Entertainer for the Day   I don't know how I get into such conversations, but I do, and I did.  I not only entertained the dentist at my last appointment, but the dental assistant as well. It was freezing cold out, so the conversation started there. I was talking about tending the hens, which led to talking about dressing for the weather.  I mentioned that I always take my cell phone and a house key with me, wh...

About mid-morning yesterday, it snowed. Yes, that's right.  Snow.  Cold and snow.   I found out yesterday, that due to the restrictions still forced upon us in our state, Ohio Bike Week 2021 has been canceled.  Two years in a row now.  They instead are holding a spring rally at the Harley dealer.  We are all so tired of the restrictions in our state.  Just so tired of it all.  It's really wearing us all down mentally. Daughter K went to town to get a hair cut from her sister, so I joined along.  I pampered myself with a conditioning treatment - coconut and tea tree oil. Getting out of the house is fun, but sick of the mask mandate.  My hometown extended their own mandate until late June.   Speaking of mandates, our Gov. has said he doesn't plan to free us until end of April or in May.  It's getting ridiculous.  I also feel that the longer he locks us down, the more families are not getting together, and the lack ...

Despite meds, my sinus pressure has been horrible this time around.  We have too much moisture in the air.  I just got tired of depending on a decongestant pill.  I decided to go back to natural relief, and so glad I did.  Even though the pressure made it so unbearably uncomfortable to function, I ditched the pills and switched it up a bit. I spent the day doing essential oil steams with oregano oil, and sipped this tea early in the day. 1/2 cup water 1/4 cup fresh organic lemon juice 1/4 cup Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar 1 tsp. freshly grated organic ginger root 1/4 tsp. ground organic turmeric 1/4 tsp. ground organic cayenne pepper 1/4 tsp. ground organic black pepper 1 teabag of throat coat (or Breathe Easy) teabag (organic) with one drop of organic food grade oregano essential oil Boil all ingredients minus the teabag, add the teabag last, steep, strain and sip. Notes:  I have always grated my ginger root into my tea infusers (photo above) and...

We booked our last camping trip for this weekend, but had to cancel it yesterday.  Why?  Rain and wind.  We've camped in rain before, but this time the weatherman predicts we'll get over 2 inches of rain on Saturday alone. It is to start raining tonight, and it rained yesterday.  The temperature is nice, but cooking would be an issue.  We don't have an RV, with a full kitchen inside.  We cook all meals outside the camper (which I prefer).  When the wind is in bad, we can't put our awning out to cover the gas stove either.

Although I've had a strenuous week, and had goat du ties to cover my d aughter's absence, I got the chan ce to hold and kiss the cutesome twosome ( my n ame for the twin buck lings). I pampered myself with fresh roses and t ulips. Today is the last day for Drive r's ed. classes, and the first day of spring break (f or the younger ones).  The younger two gir ls have already bombarded me with sleepover runs, and so forth.      Sharing a update on "Dark Days Challeng e" Break fast has been farm fresh eggs, along with homemade whole wheat bread we bought, topped with hormone free (locally ma de) butter, and my home canned jams/jellies.     This is the easiest recipes I have come up wi th.  Last summer we were gifted ho me canned Pepper Mustar d Sa uce.  I was told it would be delicous over meatballs.  However, I simply placed orga nic chicken tend erloins in the crock, the n topped it with a jar of sauce.  Wa...

This male cardinal was singing his heart out last night.  My older brother stopped in for a visit, and gifted us wood and fencing, and we were still all standing out side.  My 11 year-old daughter encourage d me to run in and gra b my camera.  B irds are th e most difficult animal for me to photograph.  They are there on e s econd, and gone the ne xt.  However, I got lucky this time.  What a beautiful sound he made too. We may have a change of plans today.  Hubby got called into work for a  repair, sometime arou nd 4-5am.  He's still not back home, so I best get started on plan B.   The weather is even better today than yesterday.  However, like most days in our state, we'll probably be back to colder da ys soon.  It 's a good day to wash the kids be dding and put it on the line.  Not to menti on, air out the house. I'm not drinking a green veggie smoothie drink, that contains spirulina, and blue green algae...

Thankfully, hubby and I purchased some min e ral bath salts, made with organic ingredients, on our recent weekend away.  We are b oth enjoying them to recover from this recent bug. A photo of what' s a bove the bath tub.  I have two wall candles like the blue one ab ove. Thankf u lly, my fever finally broke last night.  Two and half days of misery.  Speak ing of  misery, it's not over yet.  Even my eyeball sockets hurt to the touch.   I really want some homemade chicken noodle soup, but no one in the house knows how to make it. Boo hoo to me.  Hubby did bring home (better than nothing at all) canned soup.  I am pretty sure I don't have broth or chicken anyway. I think I got the flu, and not hubby, since I had already had the upper respiratory crud for 6 weeks, and was just getting over it.  I really wanted him to wait another week for the drive, but he insisted.   I tried telling him that I was not up for it....

I lit erally took only a few photos this past weekend.  This one was taken w hen we stopped to stock up on artificial grow th hormone free cheese .   Once we got our cheese, we brow sed the countryside, but with only a few things on our minds - inexpensive fencing sup plies, hay, and some R&R. Hubby planned the en tire trip, and we very much enjoyed th e ja cuzzi Friday night.  Sat urday night, however, wa s a different story. All of our regu lar lod ging locations were booke d already.  I'm guessing many fol ks got their tax returns and were t aking much needed wi nter geta ways.   Sa tur day, I felt off.  I told hubby we should just pack up and head home Sunday, and not do our usual Sunday trip taking (like we normally do).  He agreed with it.  Even Saturday night I fe lt off, and didn't feel like eating anything.  Sure enough Sunday, I wok e up si ck, and by 5pm, had a fever of 102 °F and almost all the flu ...

Hubby had to work late, so I decided to do foot soaks and pedic ures with the girls.  W ell, some of them.  With 5 kid dos still in the house, I plan to do m or e self -pampering for stress reducing reasons. I f ailed to get hous e work finished, but di d get the bedding on the clothesline yesterday.   I'm not stressing over it , but will writ e down what I do get do ne vs. a "to-do" list.  Then tackle what I haven't c ompleted. Also, with the older two (19, and al most 21) not being employed yet, I have a list of chores for them too - chicken coop cleaning, taki ng donations to the t hrift store, taking recycling to the recycl ing center, ta king returns to the library, picking up jugs of water, and a few other jobs.   The snow is still f alling, and i s making laundry day havoc.     W e had some st rong win d s prior to this sn ow arri ving, and have tree branches to pick up now. As you can see the days h ave been clou...