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).

This and That in a Big Way

I took a day off of weeding flower beds in order to run to town.  I have been cleaning up our mess of a house though.

We put stuff everywhere to clear out the kitchen and bathroom, and so in order to move stuff upstairs it's a juggle of room to room purging and putting stuff where it belongs.

I'm finding out in order to move this to there, I have to put there to here and back to the beginning.  

I finally moved Aunt J's plates out of our bedroom and back up on the wall.  Corner trim still needs installed.  Anyway, I have to find where I put my aprons next.  I think those ended up in my utility room (ha ha!).  Oh boy.  So much to purge and get back in place and organized again.  

The bathroom shower is finally in, but not complete.  I was truly hoping it was done, but that may happen next week.

I took advantage of the weather and put a lot of laundry out on the clothesline.  I have more to do today.  I'm washing up the old kitchen curtains.  I'll most likely donate them.  The kids do not need any, and I don't see a reason to store them.

The vegetable garden is calling me today.  No rain in sight for at least a week.  

In the Jungle....The Mighty Jungle....

 

My front flower beds are a jungle of weeds.  I put on my garden work clothes and worked until the heat was unbearable.  Let's just say, it's not completely weeded as of today.  That's okay.  Life happens.  I'll get it done, and we need mulch too.  It's been rough this summer juggling everything including running around for parts and supplies for the bathroom.

By the way, the handy-man had personal business, so there is no shower yet in the bathroom.  Possibly today?  Maybe.  Who knows anymore.

Just the Bits

 Although late, and due to rain again, I planted some shasta daisy seeds in the flower bed.

I also planted basil, cilantro and parsley for indoors.  

Made Einkorn pancakes and blueberry sausages for breakfast.

  

Baked another peach crumble, and a chicken/brussel sprout/carrot sheet pan dinner.

I love rainy days and yesterday was one of those.

I also printed another new crochet pattern.  Like a need another pattern...ha ha!

Daughter E came over and raided my closet.  She is attending a country concert soon.  She left with some cowboy boots, a summer dress and a jean's skirt.  Well, she helped purge my closet anyway, ha ha!

Our smaller bathroom now has a functioning toilet and sink.  The rest of the shower goes in today.

I filled a box with old dvd's, and it's ready to be taken to donate somewhere.

The green beans, cucumbers and squash are rolling in now.  Thanks to the rain, and the bell peppers are on, but not ready to harvest.

My errand day lists are growing, but today it's back to weeding the flower beds.  

Tomatoes and other Chit Chat

 

I spent the entire day re-staking and tying tomatoes.  They out grew their 4 foot stakes and the last rain gave them some growing juice.  Good gravy.  I was out there from 8am to a little after 2pm.  My muscles are sore today.  I had enough 5 foot stakes to get  them all upright, and now we can actually walk thru that jungle, ha ha!  I picked off 3 tomato worms, but I will have to check for any more daily.   One paste tomato is already turning red. Gulp!

When my husband got home he weed whipped around the garden and around the flower beds.  We paid our mower guy to trim the last two times, and he has not.  We will not hire him unless there is a horrible work schedule again.

Update on the bathroom.  Well, we will have to re-center the bathroom light fixture and mirror, and remove all caulk and re-do it ourselves.  I could have told the guy to re-do it, but it's obvious he doesn't know what he's doing.  You can bigify the photo to see how bad it looks.  Sigh....

My husband and I both agreed, that we just want the shower installed completely, toilet installed and sink in and hooked up.  We are just so frustrated with everything.  This is the 3rd time we've been dealing with expensive and terrible work, from hiring someone.  We only hired someone due to my husband's horrible work schedule the last two months.

Two days in a row, I did not get the pancakes made.  I was sweaty, hot and tired by the time I came inside.  Today, I decided the rest of the flower beds can wait a day, so I can catch up inside and get a real breakfast baked.  We do have a slight chance of rain in the afternoon, which we do need.

Weeding ~ Tending Tomatoes and other ramblings

 

I spent the better part of the day weeding this part (my muscles reminded me this morning) of the front flower beds.  I have a lot more to do, but today I have to be in the tomato patches.  As you can see (sorry for the bath photos, I took them on my phone), there are no annuals. It just didn't happen in this bed.  Next year we'll get landscaping stones and it expand it out where we put tarps to kill the grass.  It will make mowing much easier.

During my husband's crazy long hours, we ended up with two different trims for the bathroom.  We had to run to the other "big city" and get the right trim so the bathroom could be finished up.  

We had a beautiful sunset last night.  Mom used to text me every night there was a beautiful one, because our sunset view is behind the house and behind the woods. I would not see it unless I was outside.

We ended up walking around the garden at dusk, to check on our motion sensor solar lights.  All are working, but one look into the tomatoes and I let a big sigh....I have more staking and tying to do.  Plus, the handyman used up the last of the gas, so if I will have to go get gas in order to do the tilling (again).

Today is one of those days I wish I had help.  Flower beds need finished weeding, tomatoes are in dire need of securing, beans need picked.....and oh, I have to paint one piece of floor trim this morning before I even go out the door.  I never got pancakes made yesterday.  I literally got the grill to the counter and that is as far as I got.  It's one of those whirlwind days today.

Speaking of the handy-man, since he changed his tune on payment amount regarding the bathroom, we are going back to doing the mowing and trimming ourselves.  However, the mower needs a new battery.  

Happy Homemaker Monday

We thankfully got rain all weekend, however it is too wet to work out there this morning.  I'll be weeding from the sides fo the flowers beds however.  

I finally found where I got my washcloth pattern.  It's from Cream of the Crop Crochet.  There are ads on the page, but I absolutely love this pattern for a washcloth.  Left is my old pattern, and the one on the right is the new pattern I found free online.

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

I will link up when she posts today.

The weather . . .

Looks like we stay in the 80's with more rain this week.

As I look outside my window . . .

Flower beds look horrible!  Full of weeds.

Right now I am . . .

Making a 2nd pot of coffee.  

Thinking and pondering . . .

Apparently we bought two different shades of corner trims (for the bathroom), so we have to return 3 pieces and pick up 4 more.  Trying to figure out if we can go do that tonight, or pay the handyman to go do it (would have to pay him for gas).

How I am feeling  . . .

Ready to get some weeds pulled.  But first the coffee...

On the breakfast plate . . .

Einkorn pancakes and blueberry sausages, coffee

What I am wearing . . .

Work jeans, tank top - weeding day.

On the reading pile . . .

Does the mail count? Ha ha!

On my TV . . .

Virgin River

On the menu . . . 

-sheet pan chicken, brussel sprouts, carrots

-have no idea on the rest yet.

Looking around the house . . .

All of the trim, other than the bathroom floor trim has left my living room.  I still need to clean off a kitchen table, and start packing up the living room for that floor repair.

To-do list . . .

-laundry
-dishes
-weed flower beds
-check tomatoes for worms, check beans

-plant indoor cilantro, parsley, and basil

-work in living room 

From the camera . . .

New sign for the kitchen.

Devotional . . .

I still haven't moved all of my "office" back, so I haven't found my devotional book yet.  I need to get that done this week.