Pioneer Woman at Heart
One Flourishing, Frugal and Fun Family!
One family learning to live off the land, cut back on expenses, and to live a simpler and a more self-sufficient lifestyle.
Adopted Motto
"Eat it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or go without."
~A Pioneer Sampler, by Barbara Greenwood~
Monday, August 8, 2022
Happy Homemaker Monday
Friday, August 5, 2022
Gaining Progress ~ New Recipe Tried
My husband got the ceiling piece back up over the kitchen sink. He had to use screws (old house, old house rolling eye moments), so I'll be painting over that, taking down the curtains, and finally putting in the last window blind. We are gaining slowly, but love what we've accomplished.
It rained all morning, so instead of taking the donations, I spent several hours upstairs. I made several trips to the burn pile, trash, and put stuff in a box for our friend to scrap. I also added to the donation pile.
I finally got a few minutes to prepare onion dip to try. I decided to make it earlier in the day, and put it in the fridge until we wanted to bake it. I'm just a stickler on getting dishes done and put away, and don't like to do them later after dinner.
Anyway....it was delicious. It's from AllRecipes. It's made from sweet Vidalia onions (these come from GA), organic mayo, organic swiss cheese, and organic parmesan cheese. It's called Vidalia sweet onion dip. So good! Perfect for a group of people, appetizer, get together dish etc. Easy, very little ingredients and bakes in a short time. Great on a toasted baguette bread, cracker or even potato chips. Honestly, as I type this, I wonder how it would taste topped on a grilled burger now. Oh, and I can't wait to try this cold. I heard it was good that way too after baking it.
Thursday, August 4, 2022
Canning Day
We had a heat advisory yesterday, and they were not kidding. It was over 100 degrees and humid as heck.
I finally got bread and butter pickles canned. Daughter E stayed until about noon and left to go enjoy the county fair with her boyfriend. She saw I was crocheting a new item for the holiday craft shows, and took two. I'll get photos soon.
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
Extreme Clean Day
Other than preparing a breakfast for a few days, which now will last a day, I cleaned out much of the upstairs. I have filled the kitchen with items to donate.
The plan is to load up the truck this weekend and donate. I offered it to a family member, who is seeking funding for an adoption. I suggested a garage sale, and we'd donate it all, but they say there may not be a date set. I just don't have anywhere to store the items, and I need to get it out of the kitchen before anyone trips on it.
Daughter E came out and had dinner with us, and stayed the night. She is loving our newly repaired/remodeled bathroom. Now we just need to get the upstairs worked on more to make a spare room.
Today there is a heat advisory. I watered everything yesterday. There is a possibility for rain later this week. I guess we'll find out. The rain keeps leaving the radar, which is not good.
If I have enough, canning resumes today. I will be getting out my scale to see if that happens.
Tuesday, August 2, 2022
Last Night's Sunset and other Chit Chat
Monday, August 1, 2022
Happy Homemaker Monday
Daughter K came over to do more cleaning upstairs. She had intentions of bringing me 3 dozen hears of corn from a community garden near her. Twenty minutes into her drive, she realized she forgot them. Sigh.
We have horse flies bad this year. I have no idea why either. No goats, no horses, nothing but chickens here. Best we figure, is that there is a dead animal in the woods. Urgh. Every time I kill one, another shows up and drives me off the porch.
I was very glad to have Daughter K over, even for a few hours. I got to thinking, and I think I have felt depressed because Mom's birthday is coming up. Either way, I am was glad to have company. My husband had to work Sunday as well.
- Today I am joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.
The weather . . .
85/65°F, thunderstorms.
As I look outside my window . . .
Dark clouds are moving in.
Right now I am . . .
Getting ready to wash dishes and purge some cigar boxes that Daughter K left. I'll be donating the boxes to a friend who has an antique store in a small town about 30 minutes from out home.
Thinking and pondering . . .
The prices of yarn have gotten so ridiculously high. My online resource now has cotton balls at $3.49!!! I used to get them at Wal-mart for $1.50! Wal-mart hasn't had anything I need lately either.
I'm considering starting to prime the master bath cupboards, but I think I want to paint the walls first. Not sure. I still have to clean up the debris left by mainly one kid upstairs.
How I am feeling . . .
Good. Pretty good actually.
On the breakfast plate . . .
Eggs, toast and coffee.
On the dinner plate . . .
I actually made the chicken fajitas last night, so leftovers tonight.
What I am wearing . . .
T-shirt, yoga pants - looking forward to a rainy day inside.
On the reading pile . . .
On my TV this week . . .
We just finished watching Alone. I had a hard time finding good movies, but now that my husband is done with long, exhausting hours at work, we can spend evening out on the motorcycle hopefully.
On the menu . . .
-tacos, homemade salsa
-chicken fajitas
-crockpot bbq pork chops, beets
From the camera . . .
Sunday, July 31, 2022
Stocking Up Day
Saturday I woke up feeling very depressed. I will not lie, I pouted for a while. My husband's work hours have been extremely miserable this year. While our friends were all out on an all day charity bike ride and rib fest, my husband worked a double shift ( 16 hours), which left me home alone. I don't think we've been on a motorcycle ride since March, and Saturday was the perfect weather for one.
My saying this year is, "well, I won't run out of things to do" and I got back to the long to-do list.
It was a freeze and stock up kind of day. I froze asparagus, watercress, zucchini, and more green/wax beans. My husband worked a double shift, so there was no "fun" weekend time for the both of us.
I had one bag of shredded zucchini from last year that had to be used up. I baked us a double chocolate loaf of zucchini bread (King Flour recipe).