A Little More Planning

Let's just say that my Friday off was less than productive. I had the whole day and nothing planned. So what did I do? Nothing.

I know that I've written about this before, and my mom will just be nodding her head as she reads this, but it has always been a weakness for me. It's not that I don't have things I want to do, there just isn't a deadline for everything in my life. I thrive on deadlines. And checklists.

At work I have started to schedule all of the tasks for my projects on my calendar. I can't just say, "I'll do that this week." I have to say, "I'll do that from 3:00-4:00 on Wednesday." Now I don't stick to it 100% but at least it is on there and I don't forget that it needs to get done.

So tonight I sat down and created a schedule for my home. A schedule that plans time for crafting, blogging, baking and other projects. Of course it also includes things like cleaning, laundry and dishes. Hopefully having a plan to start with will help me to have more productive days.

This coming week, I'll have even more time, because my stud muffin is leaving me for a week. To go learn more about this golden stuff:

He leaves tomorrow for a week long "Grain Elevator Management Short Course" at Kansas state. Sounds really exciting, huh?

He's packing his swimsuit. I told him not to use it. For one, I don't have a pool to swim in. Secondly, there might be girls. I really don't care how long I've been with Adam, I will probably always think that there is some awful woman out there that will try to steal him. I trust him, just not those crazy vixens! ;) (Okay, I really don't stress that much about it.)

All I hope is that the pup keeps her crazy barking to a minimum. Like the kind of barking that makes you think someone is standing outside of the house trying to kill us. But it was really just a bird. Yeah, that kind of barking will not fly this week.

Hope that you all are having a great weekend!

P.S. I might start blogging about our bathroom remodel a little next week! I've got lots of pictures to sort through and edit, so it will take a while.

Peter Cottontail

Adam is on a mission this year to clean out our ditches.  He’s been cleaning out old stumps, tree limbs and garbage.  Last Saturday, he finally was able to weed-whack and then mow.

I was busy painting and heard him yelling for me.  Well, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it sure wasn’t this:

(Now, I did not zoom in.  He really let me get this close with my camera.  Just sat there.)

Adam had run over their nest and scared this little guy out.  I came to learn later that a rather large snake had been making it’s way to the bunny as well until Adam scared him off.  If I had known this, I don’t think I would have been on my hands and knees in the long grass!

Don’t worry, we didn’t hurt him.  Adam was using the shovel as a guide to push him back to the nest.

The little guy got scared and ran the wrong way.  Then he stopped and let me get close again.  At this point we weren’t sure he’d make it back home before another snake or hawk found him.  So I went to pick him up.  He didn’t even try to run, but was rather annoyed to be hanging in the air.

He made it back to the hole, safe and sound, with his siblings.  We’ve tried to stay away for awhile, so I don’t know if the bunnies are still there.

Thankfully, though, the nest is on the other side of Melody’s electric fence.  So they’re safe from her.  Though she wasn’t too happy about that fact.  She stared at us the entire time, knowing that there was a tasty bunny just out of her reach.

Country Days, City Nights

One of the great things about our property is the countryside around it.  We are blessed to have this fantastic front porch that runs the entire width of our house.  Unfortunately the only thing that we had to sit on out there were camp chairs.  Fine chairs, but they were so low that all you saw was the porch railing.

So I found this beauty on walmart.com:

Of course we didn’t notice that it was designed to be hung from a stand.  Let’s just say that I didn’t want to have to use a ladder to get onto my swing.

So after a trip to the hardware store for more chain, we’ve got a working porch swing!  I think it’s a little odd  that it leans back like that so much, but it sits great.  (Is that really a verb?)

Excuse the poor quality of the next picture, but there is no way that I could have walked outside to catch her sitting like this.  Trust me, she doesn’t just sit like this outside.  I watched her long enough to realize that she was watching the farmer in the field across the road.  Apparently she need to keep an eye on him.

Yes, it’s Friday, so you are subjected to pictures of my trees again.

Would you believe that the picture on the left is two weeks old and the one on the right is from today?  Melting snow apparently makes for greener grass.  I can’t imagine what it will look like after one good rain storm.

We’re off to town tonight.  The local UNI Panthers are taking on Michigan State and it’s just too much of a big game to watch at home.  After last week’s crazy upset, fans are in a frenzy here.  (They even made it on the cover of Sports Illustrated last week.)  We’ll also watch the Ohio State game in honor of my dad.  If both teams win tonight, they’ll go head-to-head on Sunday.  Enough sports talk for you?  Me too.

Have a great weekend!

How Sweet…

After a good couple weeks of sunshine, Iowa has turned into a scene from a Steven King novel (thanks Koob for the reference).  Lots of fog, misty rain and clouds all day.  Yet we still made it pretty close to 50 degrees.

Decided when I got home to take Melody for a walk.  She loved it.  Found all of the puddles, mud and water, jumped a few streams of melting snow and thoroughly annoyed the neighbor dogs.

Just wanted to post a couple more cards from my crafty Sunday.  I used the same floral paper and then tried to summon my inner Becky and use two different patterns together.

I ended up making the sentiment block a little too big, so I had a hard time finding a stamp that would fit.  I’m still not completely happy with that part.

This is the same card, just a different sentiment.

Supplies: (All Papertrey Ink unless noted otherwise)
Stamps:  Piece of Cake and Scattered Showers
Cardstock:  Kraft and Stamper’s Select
Patterned Paper: Petit Blossoms (Melody Ross) Birthday Girl (My Mind’s Eye)
Ink:  Chamomile, Chai, Dark Chocolate and Versamark
Ribbon:  Fresh Snow Twill Tape and Rustic Cream Button Twine
Other:  Raspberry Fizz Vintage Button; white embossing powder; gemstones (Mark Richards)

A Day with Paper

The weather today was very gloomy.  Lots of clouds and fog.  But nothing that couldn’t stop more snow from melting!  Which happened to reveal some very interesting smells to my dog.  She was rooting around the well pump for hours! 

I did a few things around the house this morning and then spent the entire afternoon in at my craft table.  And since it didn’t look like spring outside, I made cards with a spring flair.  My favorite is below, but I’ll show more later this week.

I just fell in love with this floral paper last time I was at Archiver’s.  Not that I need more patterned paper; I still have hoards of it from when I worked there years ago.  But thankfully I picked this up.  It just makes me happy.

One of my new resolutions is to try to add something to the inside of my cards.

Just another card with the same layout, but had to use more of my Heidi Swapp flowers.  Which I am almost out of!  I haven’t seen them around lately and am starting to get worried that I’ll run out.  Anyone know where I can find some?

Supplies: (All Papertrey Ink unless noted otherwise)
Stamps:  Beyond Border Basics, Birthday Basics and Life
Cardstock:  Kraft and Spring Moss
Patterned Paper: Petit Blossoms (Melody Ross)
Ink:  Chamomile and Chai Tea Dye Duo; Dark Chocolate, Raspberry Fizz and Spring Moss
Other:  Raspberry Fizz Vintage Buttons, embroidery floss

A Slow Trickle

I walked out to get the mail this afternoon, avoiding puddles of melted snow and mud.  I wasn’t very successful.  On my way back, I heard a noise that caused me to stop and drink in the moment.

The slow trickle of melting snow.  It sounded like a peaceful, babbling brook.  The snow saying, “Goodbye, I hope you enjoy the spring.”

I had been on my work computer all day.  Staring at a screen.  Then I heard the trickle.  I like it when God reminds me of the beauty of His creation.

It won’t be too much longer and we’ll watch the farmer plant this field and then watch the green tips push through the dark, rich soil.

Melody has been enjoying the change of season.  Her old haunts are accessible again.  Left with new smells from the winter.  She traipses through snow and mud and stays warm in the chilly breeze with her dark coat. 

(By the way, did you check out those webbed feet above?  That girl can swim!)

She had learned how to carry this huge tennis ball and over-sized rope in her mouth at the same time.  Yes, I assure you, she has actually done it.

I love that we have given Melody a place that she can run.  She is such a happier dog when she can run.

I told Adam the other day that it’s not any particular season that I like, but rather the change of seasons.  I love the longing for spring, summer, fall or winter.  For the changing weather, the feel of something new.

When this:

…will turn into this:

October Randomness

Yes, it is almost December, and I am blogging about October. Just a few notes…

See the old yogurt container in front of Mel? That is the scoop we used for her food. Have used it for weeks. This day, she turned it into her toy. She is still playing with it.

We went to an awesome pumpkin patch with our small group and their kids. This is the corn cannon. Of course boys would need to shoot something.

Here is the harvest. Little Ty liked pushing the wheelbarrow.

And here is a project we (and when I say we, I mean I said what I wanted and Adam did the work).

Here are the shelves in the breezeway/mud room. Eventually we’ll build nice, huge cabinets. But that’s a few years away. In the meantime, it just wasn’t enough room for pantry items, cleaning products, cookbooks, etc.

So here is the fancy, dancy shelving system. I told Adam since it would be totally temporary, that plywood would be fine. We’re going for function not looks.

There’s my handyman. Too bad he’s not facing the other way. Would have been a better picture for me to look at. ;)

One shelf in. Now this space is an addition, only a few years old. Yet, the width in the back of that “closet” space is TWO inches smaller than the front! (Not that that means a lot to me, but Adam was shocked.)

The finished product! I wasted no time filling it up. I kept running back into the living room to tell Adam thank you. I love that he can just create things out of thin air.

So now those original shelves are completely functional. I’ve got almost two shelves just for food storage, all of my cookbooks have a home, and we even created a drop spot for mail, bills, pens, etc.

So those are the highlights of October 2009. I’ve got a few more posts ready. Including another project. And I did this one!

Time to Catch Up

Well, I have not blogged in forever.  And I know I have said before that I’d be a more frequent blogger.  While that is my desire (I really do like it!) I just can’t make any promises!  I’ve got a bunch of stories and pictures from this past summer.  So as I find time, I’ll try to share some of them with you

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Back in July, before we put in the invisible fence, we came home from church and let Melody out of the kennel.  Usually she clobbers us and then does a few laps around the house.  Not today.

Instead she went right to the flower bed by her kennel and started barking.  We’ve had bunnies there before, so I didn’t think about it too much and turned to go inside.  Then I heard it.

Not an animal noise that I had ever heard before, but it was definitely a critter of some kind.  I decided that I’ll let my big, strapping husband investigate.  Here’s what he found:

Now I can’t tell you for sure, but we think it is a woodchuck.  And one who hasn’t been chewing too much wood by looking at his teeth!  I threw Mel inside in case the guy decided to fight for his spot.  Adam got a shovel and started shooing him out.

He ran a little bit, but once he got to the garden, his bravery stepped in.  He stood up and started jumping on Adam’s shovel!  At that point, we decided that Mel might be useful.

 

I put Mel on a leash and handed her to Adam.  Then he let her “chase” the woodchuck out of the yard.  It was just enough that the critter was scared enough to run away, but we could pull Mel away in case he decided to fight.  We haven’t seen him since.

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Do you remember the garden we planted in May?  Well it’s been great and interesting at the same time.

Our first “crop” was strawberries!  I ended up making 2 batches (or maybe it was 2 double batches) of freezer jam.  I didn’t want to try to figure out canning yet, since this we June and we were out of town most of the month!  We gave away lots, but I do have a little stash in the back of our freezer. ;)

After a few weeks, towards the end of June, Adam declared strawberry season over.  So we let the weeds overtake the patch.  But a least a month later we were still seeing some beautiful red berries!  It is certainly a resilient patch.

Then we had radishes.  They were good, but I only eat them on salads.  So most of them went to work.  Will plant MUCH less, if at all, next year.

Cucumbers, oh my cucumbers.  We kept looking for them.  Didn’t see any for the longest time.  Then one day we found this:

This is a comparison between a normal sized cucumber (on the left) and one of our monsters (on the right).

Since then, we’ve been monitoring them more closely and have gotten some great cucumbers.  

I even tried pickling a few jars.  But really, they looked and smelled downright disgusting.  And apparently there are special “pickling” cucumbers.  We didn’t use those.  So I’m not really sure how they will taste, but I did learn how to can them! 

Those are our beans below.  We ended up with 11 quarts of beans.  Melody certainly enjoyed the nights when we picked and cut beans.  She’d just stick her nose in the bucket and saunter off to eat her treat.  And then come back for another.  And another. And another…

Our corn did not fare well this year.  We had a few storm and most to the stalks got pushed over.  So we ended up with only a dozen ears, but they were pretty good!

Carrots,  so pretty.  We planted them really close together and then never  thinned them out, so most of them were really tiny, think “golf pencil.”  But we did get one ice cream pail full.

And the tops, just because they’re so green!!

The tomatoes started off not so great.  My cherries that I got from a friend were obliterated after a storm (I had just planted them).  Then the romas and goliaths kept getting bugs!  But lately they’ve just been thriving.  Must be that we’re actually having a little bit of summer now.  August was just cool!  I love my tomatoes.  I can say my, because Adam doesn’t eat them.  

Unless I make  them into salsa.  Three batches so far!

But this is how I like to eat them.  Chilled and with a little salt.  Perfection.

There is something very satisfying about making a salad with carrots, cucumbers and tomatoes that were grown in my backyard.  Next year I’m growing lettuce too!

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Long enough for you?  If you got bored with my produce rundown, I’ll try to talk more about people next time. 

Flaming Marshmallows

If you know me well, or have at least sat around a campfire with me, you know that I cook my marshmallows like this:

Until a few years ago, I would just stick a brand new marshmallow straight into the fire and torch it.  I have since learned that the perfect marshmallow must be slow roasted first for inside gooey-ness and then torched for that wonderful charred crust.  :)  yum. 

And yes, I know many of you are appalled at the way I make my marshmallows.  I am aware that this is not the “proper” way to roast a marshmallow.  But I don’t really care. ;)

One s’mores innovation I stumbled upon this summer is pre-melting your chocolate.  I’ve never cared for the way that the chocolate is still hard in s’mores.  Doesn’t mesh with the gooey ‘mallow.   Hence this:

Find a clean-ish rock around your campfire and leave one half of your s’more there to warm up while you roast your marshmallow.  (Half of a pudgie-pie maker works great too!)  But be warned, your s’more will be even messier with that melted chocolate!

And of course the master fire-tender:

Other high points in life right now are:

• Lots of exciting thing happening with my job.  As we start to work on our 2nd campus, everyone’s job is morphing/changing/growing to accommodate new staff and multiply our ministries.  Personally, it means that I have decided to work full time.  God has shown me that He has given me the time now and I have just been selfish with it.
• The house is taking shape.  I “finished” the living room and dining room the other night, all of the surfaces are clear and partially decorated and most of the boxes are gone.  We buried the invisible fence this weekend for Melody.  She’s gotten zapped a few times, which is hard to see, but she has learned fast and now she will have the freedom to be outside more often and when we’re not home.  No more being stuck in the kennel all day.
• Just wrote my first check for our mortgage payment.  Only 359 payments left!!  It is still kinda crazy to look around here and see what God has bestowed upon us.  We hope only to be good stewards of this gift we have been given.

Isn’t that just a seriously cool picture?  I think maybe these days I am more inspired by my camera than paper and stamps.  **Gasp**  I know.  Do I really consider taking my stamping budget and put it into photography classes or save for equipment??  What do you think?  Thoughts would be great.

Hope this finds you all enjoying your week!  Thanks for stopping by.