Pioneer Woman at Heart

  Instead of the traditional frenzy and hustle of baking, cooking and washing a ton of dirty dishes (and house cleaning), we took off this past holiday, and enjoyed it on a larger scale of relaxation. Our adult kids do not cook.  They rely (and expect me) to do all of the cleaning, hosting, cooking and baking.  One year one kiddo brought the ham, and one brought a fruit dip.  My fruits of my labor walk out the door at the end of the traditional big meal as well (pratically zero leftovers for us).  I get tired of the lack of help, and needed a break.  Cooking/baking from scratch is work, and does have it's limits. Thankfully, my husband was on board with me, and we instead, relaxed in the midst of a cabin in the high wooded hills.  The best part?  A hot tub.  The snow arrived, and it was  a cozy retreat. We have discovered new places to hike, and new adventures with nature in the future.  We did not miss the traditional holiday feast...

  We have discovered bulk, smoked bacon.  It is a drive for us, but the packages are packed with 150 slices of smoked bacon.  We do not own a smoker, so this was a nice discovery.  Did you know that smoked bacon loses it's fat when smoked?  It greatly reduces the amount of time to cook it as well.  On a side note, it is even more cost saving to cure, smoke and slice your own bacon with pork, if you have a smoker (so many instructions online for this). It costs a lot less to buy the bacon this way (bulk), and saves us so much money.  We will be stocking up on this, from now on.  We don't use bacon in every meal, but the savings are wonderful.   We are finding more and more ways to locate supplies at lower prices, organic herbs and other items when we do take the drive for supplies.  We are now incorporating the shopping trips with an outdoor hike/walk.  It's something new for us, but we are loving this new idea.  We are exp...

  The rain has brought on the garden.  More rain is coming, and the bell peppers look great. My husband and I took a short weekend getaway to a nearby Amish country.  We checked out their new flea market, but wasn't impressed.  We did however, bring home some items for the newly repaired/remodeling bathroom.  It's now all put together and looking nice. We stayed one night in a historic hotel we stayed at years ago.  I was so disappointed with the new owners.  They completely took the "nostalgic" away from the hotel.  The parlor was completely remodeled into a quilt room.  It was one of the reasons I loved that hotel.  No more.  Our room we stayed at years ago, now has no refrigerator nor microwave. We brought food with us, and could not keep it cold, nor heat it up, and the other rooms also had no refrigerator.  I was blown away at this.... Literally in front of the toilet. See the toilet paper?  We checked out and got cof...

While I should have been canning, my husband and I took off for a getaway, and took a boat tour.  Well worth it.   I am up early to wash dishes that were left on last Friday, and the one daughter who was home and on vacation, left more.  Everything I need to can was still dirty.  My mental health vacation needs another one.  All I can say at this point, is that I am pretty sure my husband is on board with the lack of help and respect around here.  He finally sees what I have been dealing with. It's been a long day already. Yesterday was the one year mark we lost our 4 month old grandson, so we made a quick trip over to see them before retiring for the night last night. Oh, while out on our getaway, I scored canning jars.  There were no lids to be had, but I got myself jars with lids (which I needed, as I am down to my last 9 jars or so of half-pints).  I also finished a crochet project during our drive.  I hope to ...

We had another weekend retreat at our favorite island.  It was the best weekend ever.  We went alone this time.  We met more islanders and laughed and laughed and laughed.  Tried a Storm Cloud shot for the first time.  Hubby didn't like it so much, but I did.  Sort of on the sweet side. It was pretty busy on the island and the place we rent is now booked until mid August already.  Our friends that own it, have a machine that they set inside and put a timer on and it kills anything.  Sort of like what the UV machines do, but different. We were home early, unpacked, laundry started, lawn mowed, garden checked, catnip went into the dehydrator and potted plants watered. Sage went into another dehydrator.  It was hotter here than at the island (beautiful weather and nice breeze at the island). We have six acres, but not all is mowed.  Our old goat pasture looks like this now.  Hm.  Time to locate people to bring the goats ...

High stress levels called for rela xing tea, and for Hubby to reach inside his date "night" jar and pull out a stick. A well deserved weekend was called for - just Hubby and me (and solitude).  We both voted for " spontaneous ." The jar holds day trips, one night trips and two night trips in it.  Our marriage revival getaway was a two night trip.  Yay for us! The drive was very peaceful.  Beautiful scenery, good driving weather, and positive thoughts along the way.

Hubby and I typically take the kids to a hotel for a good night of swimming during winter.  We however, we had other things happen to delay that.  

I had an upset stomach, and was searching for a peppermint teabag, and got this one.  My youngest daughter said I should share this.  It's pretty funny.  It's comical.  It's entertaining.  At least to me it was.  

  I enjoy reflecting on the previous year, as we bring in a new year.  So grab of cup of coffee, tea, or your favorite beverage, and join me.   Made my first hay net.  Click on "read more" for more reflections in no particular order, and definitely not all of them. . .

While sipping hot coffee, in my island coffee mug, I sat and looked through the photos we took from our weekend getaway.  Oh, I miss the gorgeous sunrises, the relaxing sounds of the waves, and the unique place(s) we sat and enjoying time with each other (and nature).   I'm wondering if I can squeeze another camping trip in this fall.  Hubby is back to working every day with major over time, so we hardly see each other already.  We are having what I call a "voice mail" week.  I leave him a voice mail, he leaves me one.  Sometimes we actually get to talk to each other.  On the phone that is.  Okay, I'm getting a bit off track with this post, but let me get to the point.

Guess where I've been? He he!  This was where we had lunch one day.  By late afternoon, the marina was packed with boats.  Just a warning, this post may be long, as you know I like to talk. Hubby and I have been working on spending more nights together, we call "date nights."  They vary from a dinner out, to a candlelight dinner at home, to an outing of some sort.  Sometimes, it's a long bike ride, a trip to the orchard, or even renting a DVD to watch at home (with some yummy "snackages").  With 5 kiddos still living at home, we both feel it's so important to not let our time together wash by in our lives.  The younger girls moan and groan, but they'll get over it.  Besides, they get their "trips" and special times too.

Hubby, in much need of a "night away" decided to take a drive to Marshall, Michigan - Home of the famous Schuler's Restaurant & Pub.  He decided to take two of the kids with us.  This fountain is in the center of the town's round- about.  At night this fountain has colored lights and the water looks absolutely beautiful.  Marshall lodging was sold out, so we had to stay about 25 miles from there, and did not want to drive back just for photos.  Otherwise you'd be viewing them.   Years ago, Hubby and I ate at Schuler's for his birthday.  I remember it costing us about $80.00 for dinner for two, and one bottle of wine.  It is fine dining at it's best. Downtown Marshall has a variety of stores, and many that are in old, historic buildings.  Unfortunately, many of the stores have closed and reopened by other businesses, or remained empty.  It's constantly changing.  However, I did see that my favorite antique store, Am...

Do you remember the weekend "restoration tri ps" Hubby and I took last year?

Ever since Hubby and I  took our short trips to re gain our sani ty last year, we' ve been saying "no wor ries" a lot. T here is one thing my Hubby got right.   He bought me this t-shirt, and a matching one for himself.  That particular saying has been our marriage slo gan .  It brings us good memories of our "sanity saver" getaways.   Gues s what we 're wearing today?

Now this is how you get your laundry dried!  W ow zers!  Check out that clothesline!  Hubby and I laugh ed !  I need one that big !  H ubby and I took a nother road trip, but this one was for heirloom see ds, seed potatoes, and onion sets.    We d ecided to do some re la xing , s c enic driving be fore we returned home. Speaking of home .  This is w hat we wok e to this Monday mo rning.   The re is about a three foot dri ft in the center of our ho rseshoe drive.  I am so glad we got the goats moved o ut of the big bar n .  I never expec ted more snow.  Snow is expected all day today, and s chool is closed.   

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 ...