Last Night's Sunset and other Chit Chat

Although we got zero rain, we had a beautiful sunset for a short time.  We can't really see all of it, due to the woods behind our home, but the sky was a pretty pink.

I spent about 2 hours cleaning stuff from the upstairs.  Mostly, I spent time bringing down any larger items to donate.  I may have found a home for a pole lamp she left up there, and I have a kitchen floor full of boxed up stuff to donate somewhere.  I filled the trash, and put a few things in the burn pile.  Today, I need to spray Lysol up there, as I realized she had 4 animals up there, and I am not sure how well she cleaned, as in sanitized.  There is still much to clean out.

I cannot tell you all how happy I am to have an entire summer of wicked, miserable work hours end for my husband.  He was home, and out mowing after work! 

The handyman finished the bathroom, but left without putting the bathroom door back on.  My husband and I put that back up, installed a new toilet paper holder, installed a mini wooden ladder to hold bath towel, washcloths, and installed a hand towel holder.  We just need to add a small bit of decor, and it's completely done finally.  It is hard to take photos in that small bathroom, but once we have whatever decor up we decide on, I'll try and show you all before and after.  We now have peace of mind that the floor, shower, toilet and sink are good for many years to come.

I have to say, it is truly nice to have the house to myself again.  I know it will be crazy again soon when we tear up the living room, but thankfully we have time to do more cleaning and removing of furniture, and packing up bookshelves before that happens.  Speaking of which, the bookshelf holds all of my homesteading info, so I may just temporarily move it to the office or bedroom, so I can access it.

I told my husband I am not ready to rip up the stairway carpet (also ruined by the dogs), because I am literally dragging stuff down the stairs (ha ha!) to save myself.  It makes it super easy to get things down and out.

Unfortunately, our chances of rain continue to blurp right off the radar.  It was 60% yesterday, and we go zero.  I'll be watering everything today.  The garden has slowed down due to the lack of rain, but praying we do get some this week yet.

 

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.

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• 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 . . .

Mom's recipe books.  She kept a lot of recipes.  I'm looking for notes on the recipes she tried and found delicious.  I may be trying a few, adjusting them with organic/home grown ingredients.

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 . . .

-Black bean cakes with mango salsa, yellow squash patties
-tacos, homemade salsa
-chicken fajitas
-crockpot bbq pork chops, beets

-something grilled, grilled onion for a side

Looking around the house . . . 

Well, handyman came to finish installing the shower, and the bathroom door is now back on where it belongs.  

To do list . . .

(for the week)

-can pickles

-can grape jelly

-can applesauce

-freeze corn

-purge living room, bedroom and upstairs

-buy paint for master bath

-finish weeding flower beds

-clean out fridge

-crochet new item for holiday craft show

-take a trip to donate more stuff that the kids left

From the camera . . .

Daughter K brought her boyfriend with her Sunday, so I gave them Mom's tea spoons.  They will be a nice addition to their black/white themed kitchen.

We finally got my husband's Father's Day gift (from Daughter K) put up on the porch.

Prayers . . .

Daughter K's dog King has had 4 seizures in one month.  Prayers for him.  He may be going to the vet.  He gets a natural calming oil every morning, but he is getting worse and it makes me sad.  He never had them until they moved to an apartment way back in the day.  Poor Kingsley.

Prayers for those dealing with flooding and lost lives in Jackson, KY.

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.