First Day of Spring

My seeds have been started!

First thing this morning (after breakfast, of course), Adam and I went to work in the dirt and officially started our 2018 gardening season. I thoroughly enjoyed having a little helper working alongside of me. He was so excited to be able to help and happily watered the starting pellets and watched them grow. He is so detailed and careful for a two year old, and took his job seriously when I let him plant the pepper seeds.

I had a hard time figuring out how many of each item to plant, since I'm hoping to sell some produce on top of stocking up and feeding my own family, so I just threw some seeds in the dirt and we'll see how we do! 

I'm going to try three different tomato varieties: Roma (since they bring a high dollar at the produce auction and are a specialty item), Beefsteak (because who doesn't want a giant tomato or BLT sandwich), and Amish Paste (because this is my tried-and-true paste tomato. It has never failed me in all my gardening years, even while I've attempted and failed growing a number of other varieties.)

For peppers, I'm using seeds I had left from previous years. Besides bell peppers, I used up the rest of my jalapeno seeds. I'm hoping to sell those. There weren't any at the produce auction last year, and there are always gobs of men who attend, so I figured I'd take the chance and watch the market!

In addition to the tomatoes and peppers, I decided to try some flowers, too. I've never had success with them, but I have too many packets of seeds sitting around unused. Ideally I should have started them weeks ago, so I guess you can call them an experiment, too. (But then again, what do I do that isn't an experiment?) The varieties I planted are Marigolds and Evening Primrose. 

Evening Primrose are known as an enthusiastically spreading plant. I'm going to see what it does here in Mid-Northern Michigan where it gets below -10*F in the winter. I had the seeds so I thought I'd give it a shot. Another experiment I guess.... but this one is not going in my produce garden! 

Refrigerator and Freezer Cleaning and Organizing

Now that I've shown you my kitchen makeover (when I actually washed the hideous pile of dishes), I may as well keep going and update you on the rest of my house projects. I'm involving myself in a weekly "declutter challenge" that attacks a different area of the house per week. I'm loving that I get a whole week to take care of an area, because some of these weeks require more time for me to get the nominated task accomplished.   

*Moment of truth*: when I finally achieved my goal of clearing those kitchen counters a couple weeks ago, it wasn't just because I woke up one morning and told myself I was finally going to suck it up and get it done (after having it on my to-do list for a month), but rather because it just so happened to be the task for the first week of the declutter challenge. It was an extra help to know that other housewives around the world were working on the same problem area that I was. 

Fast forward to week three. This is the week to clean out the refrigerator and freezer. When I learned what area this week was, my first though was "well, at least my deep freezer is already organized", followed by a "don't they know I have more than just a little refrigerator-freezer?". My deep freeze is organized to a degree, but I've also acquired 50lbs of pork, 9lbs of ground beef, and a cow's worth of bones in the last week and a half, so it really isn't all that organized looking anymore. 

As far as the refrigerator, it was in desperate need of cleaning out. I had been making the excuse of there being snow on the ground, so I can't get out to the compost pile to dump out any bad stuff, plus I don't want to mess up the yard, to justify my putting it off for like... all winter. But since this was the task for the week, and the fact that the snow melted over the weekend, that was no longer a valid excuse. I was going to get it done! In order to keep myself from putting it off any further (you know, my habit towards last-minute stuff), I got right on it Monday morning!

Why is it so satisfying to see a clean, shiny refrigerator? Is it because I know there is no longer a puddle of crystalized maple syrup under the crisper drawer? (Honestly, I had no idea it was even there until I pulled the drawer out to clean.) It's nice to know that every crevasse has been wiped down. 

Next area: the deep freezer. I just took the first batch of bone broth out of the cooker, and will start another this afternoon so I can clear that much space before I tackle the actual cleaning and organizing of the freezer. It will be easier if I don't have to wonder where to put a few large items!

Teaser:

Stay tuned - an after picture is coming! Plus, I'll be taking inventory of the freezer, so check back later if you're wondering what's hiding underneath the top layer of frozen goods. :) 

#lamehousewifegoals

My lame housewife goal for December was to clear all my kitchen countertops. I wanted a clutter-free kitchen where I could think and create! For me, having a clean kitchen equals happiness. I can handle some clutter elsewhere, but when my kitchen looks nice, I can still breathe.

I'm here to announce that I made my goal!

In January.

I accomplished the huge task this week. On January 3rd. It seemed like an impossible feat especially after welcoming the new year. We were out of town for the weekend, and had food to prepare right before leaving, which meant no time to clean up messes. These before pictures were taken after our return home, January 2nd. Oye. This is what a lived in house looks like, folks! It's a moment of reality. Truth. I am not a neat, picture-perfect blogging mom. I'm a meal-cooking, diaper-changing, errand-running housewife. And clearly, by the pictures, anything but a cleaner. (Honestly, I hate cleaning. But I love the results. haha)

This is my kitchen. Isn't it LOVELY? You can see it! Look at the beautiful wood pieces my husband built for me. You can actually see the toaster. There's room to cook! All of a sudden my teeny kitchen, with no counter space and no cupboards, feels like it has room. It's not as small as it seemed. And today, I am enjoying it. I just want to kick back on this beautiful wintery day and look at the outcome of my labor. 

Pumpkin Sales

Now that pumpkin growing season is officially over, it's time for a report on our crop!

You may remember that we started our pumpkin plants from seed this year in hopes of getting an earlier harvest. We used our mini greenhouse during some of the cooler spring days and nights, and ended up losing a few plants from accidentally leaving the heater on during the day once. I have since bought a light timer, so that should prevent this from happening again in the future. 

I planted three different varieties of pumpkins: Howden, Jack O'Lantern, and pie pumpkins from seeds I had saved a couple years ago. This was my first year branching out and trying anything other than a pie pumpkin. I was aiming to try a couple new varieties, while also getting a nice range in size. I'd say I had the best success with my pie pumpkins. The yield was much better on these than each of the other kinds. I harvested almost as many pie pumpkins as I did the other two varieties combined. The Howden did the second best. It gave nice, uniform fruit with really pretty grooves. They are more round and robust in shape, making for a nice decorative autumn squash, rather than a taller and narrow(ish) pumpkin like you would normally see carved. The Jack O' Lantern variety didn't leave me too pleased. These pumpkins did really well at the beginning of the season, growing big and fast, but they seemed to stop growing halfway through the summer, and never filled out. If you look at the picture I had posted earlier this summer (I'll post it again below), it's the one on the left. See how long it is? It was a good 12" long when I took the picture, but didn't grow beyond that! The skin was pretty tough, and they had a hard time turning orange. I probably got 7-8 of these long pumpkins (from several plants!), and only picked one orange one, and one other that had turned color only halfway. The rest sat out in the garden doing absolutely nothing. I'm not sure if there were a few defective seeds in the bunch or what, but they honestly don't even resemble pumpkins to me. They remind me more of an elongated green spaghetti squash.

In this image, you can see the one longer pumpkin there on the right. Isn't it weird looking?

My goal in planting pumpkins was to set them out at a farm stand in front of our property and sell them to help cover my garden expenses for the year. Unfortunately not only did the yellow cucumber beetles appear early in the season, but we had a terrible infestation of gray squash bugs, as well. I felt like I was battling a war against them, and there being hundreds of them to one of me, they got out of hand fast. These bugs killed about half of the buds, so ... we lost almost half of our pumpkins. 

In order to hit the busy buying season, I needed to start selling them by the middle to end of September. I had a few orange ones picked and ready by then, but didn't get my stand up until October 2nd. We live on a fairly main road heading into town, so I knew there would be plenty of people driving by, but when a day had past and nobody stopped I started getting discouraged and thought maybe my price was a little high. I had priced them competitively, but wondered if I needed to have them a bit lower just to get people to make a special stop just for pumpkins. While I procrastinated and thought about it, I got my first and second customers, and then felt like if I lowered the price at that point, those buyers might feel like they got a bad deal, so I just left the prices alone. Over the next two weeks I sold quite a few more pumpkins. The most common amount spent at the stand was $3-4 per customer, but there were a few that spent between $5-12 and bought more of the larger ones. 

When I was out picking the pumpkins, I had a few that lost their stems in the process. That really bugged me, because in general, people go for the ones with stems. I felt like I was losing a dollar every time one of the stems popped off. Because I didn't have a huge crop of pumpkins compared to what I was hoping for, I put the stemless ones out there anyway, to add bulk to the table. As the old farmer's market saying goes, "Pile 'em high, and watch 'em fly!" I ended up selling all of the ones I had out there without stems! They didn't go right away, but eventually someone chose them for their own. I sold that funny long pumpkin, too!

As I mentioned earlier, I tried to price them competitively. The pie pumpkins all went for $1, and the largest pumkins for $4. I had some in between ones that I had marked at $2 and $3, depending on size. The $1 pie pumpkins and the $3 medium-large ones were gone the fastest. I had a container out there so it was a self-serve, help yourself stand. A few people must not have felt comfortable leaving their money out there, so they knocked on my door to hand the money right to me. That works for me too, but it's nice not having to feel like I needed to be watching the driveway all day long. I ended up selling all the pumpkins out there, with the exception of one greener funny-looking long pumpkin that I put out later in the season. My total earnings off pumpkins came to $57! I was not expecting to do that well, especially with such a piddly little crop. I am super excited to have a reward at the end of the somewhat stressful gardening season. It makes it all feel worth it. This has more than covered the cost of seeds for 2017, and will cover next year's as well. Seeing how much I was able to make off a mini pumpkin patch has gotten me a touch ambitious for next year, and I may have been planning my next garden already.... If I can do that well on a few pumpkins, what if I expand the stand a bit and sell some more produce next year? Or, if you read my recent post titled "Deal of the Week", you heard about my other business idea; selling at the produce auction. 

'Tis the Season

While some are strongly against anything Christmas until Thanksgiving is over, others have been listening to carols while looking at their decorated tree for weeks now. I'm not the person to get ready for Christmas as soon as November hits, but I love the season so much I decided I needed to start decorating before Thanksgiving if I was going to get anything done in time to enjoy it. So I started decorating last week. I unloaded my stuff from last year and came up with a new way to use it, and also added some greenery in the form of a homemade wreath - something I had never done before! We have wild grape vines all over the place so it made a nice form to work with. I need to tweak it a bit if I get the chance as it's a bit droopy. I think I fastened the branches in only two or three spots with wire, otherwise it's just all intertwined with the vines. A quick homemade project, but I was able to get it all done while Adam was napping.

I had been wanting to make a popcorn garland since last year so I popped the corn last week in hopes of finding time to put one together. It needed to get stale so it didn't break when I tried threading it, so um, I guess six days was long enough, huh? I finally got time to sit down and work on it this afternoon. It will be going in the kitchen.

As a mom you can't say no to every possible mess when you have a toddler or child in your care. It could be losing opportunity for a good learning moment or great quality mom-child time. My soon-to-be 15 month old loves to be involved in whatever is going on at the moment. I decided against help with dishes this morning, but thought making popcorn garlands would be the perfect place for him to step in. The worst that would happen is I'd have to sweep the floor, which I'd have to do anyway. He loved being next to me munching away! It was almost lunch time anyway, so we had stale popcorn and leftover pumpkin pie for lunch. Adam did end up spilling half the bowl, but as I said, it was an easy clean up. 

And another task of the season ... collecting paper sacks! If I would get plastic grocery bags every time I went to the store, my bag drawer would be overflowing. It seems a waste when there aren't many practical ways to reuse them, other than as liners for the small trash cans around my house. So when I remember, which often happens to be a rainy day, I ask for paper. It makes for cheap but artsy wrapping material! In the two years we've been married I haven't bought any gift paper. If you'd like to add a little pinterest to your Christmas, you should start asking for paper, too. 

What's for dinner tonight: Upside Down Pizza Casserole

Updating the Cleaning Schedule

Cleaning. Uggh. I would almost rather do anything than clean! It's just not my thing. Yet as a stay-at-home wife and mother, this is one of my job requirements. And as much as I don't like cleaning, I can't stand a messy house (and husband doesn't, either!), so there is a little bit of motivation for me to keep things in order.

This past spring there was a cleaning schedule floating around the internet that seemed to be every wife's new craze. I couldn't begin to count how many times I saw it posted, shared, and passed along between women folk. Maybe you saw it? It divided up household chores by the day where, for example, Monday was dusting day and you'd dust every room in the house. Tuesday was vacuum day and you'd get all the carpets. Then they had other bigger tasks divided up by week/month throughout the rest of the year. It seemed to help lots of busy moms get a schedule to their duties, but this list just wasn't for me. I don't like the feeling of never having a room done, so even if I do dust every room in the house at once, that doesn't give me a feeling that I've finished a task. It kind of seems half way to me. So I came up with my own schedule that targets a room at a time and it seems to work pretty well! Throughout the summer I mostly abandoned it as I couldn't guarantee when I'd be home or what canning needed to be done, so I just made sure I had things straightened up pretty well for our weekly Thursday company. Now that fall is here and I'm indoors a lot more, it was time to pull out the old list and adjust it where necessary to fit our current schedule. 

Our weekends can be pretty hectic with all we're involved with in our church group, plus any other random activities that pop up. Once a month I'm in charge of feeding 40 people lunch on Sunday, which equals a messy kitchen as I scramble around getting that ready (in addition to feeding and taking care of my own family's needs), and that means a messy kitchen to greet me on Monday morning. So Monday is kitchen day! This includes everything you would think of to straighten the room, like doing dishes, wiping down countertops, and sweeping floors. But I also like to add one extra task each time, which gives me a chance to target areas that tend to be forgotten. Extra jobs can be something like cleaning out the refrigerator or freezer, reorganizing a cupboard or two that has needed attention, or cleaning the stove. Yesterday I picked the top of my refrigerator as I had noticed it collected a few miscellaneous items that needed off my counters during canning season. It needed me worse than I thought, and I was pleased with how clean it all looked when I was finished. Short little me can easily forget the fact that dust collects up there, too. Those zinc canning lids I bought at a yard sale ended up getting stashed on the fridge, so I finally got around to washing them and replacing the regular canning jar lids on my spice/bulk food shelf with them. That got me to straightening up said shelf, which led me to give some attention to the cupboard shelf with all my other random baking items, which had been bothering me for some time. I spent more time in the kitchen than I would've had to, but it is such a good feeling to have all those areas tidy. If this was a busy week and I had other obligations for the day, then just the basic kitchen jobs would be enough. The amount of extra jobs you choose to do is entirely up to you depending on your schedule for that particular day. But this is not a free ticket to get out of things every week! Our goal here is a clean, welcoming home.

The other task for Monday that I have on the list is laundry, so I ran a load of husband's greasy work clothes that needed done. Because I do cloth diapers and they need washed every three days, I usually wait to launder everyday shirts, socks, and underwear for those days so I'm not running a half-full washer. 

Today is Tuesday and my duties for the day are bread baking and bathroom cleaning. It's also going to be diaper laundry day since the pail is full enough it needs done. Both diaper laundry and bread making can vary by a day or so depending on our needs and schedule; like those weeks when we blow through two loaves (bread, not diapers) and I need to make more before the weekend. Generally though, it gets held off until the beginning of the next week. 

Wednesday my attention turns toward our bedroom. This was one change I made when I brought out the list the other day. I had bedroom for Friday before and found that it never got done quite to satisfaction because of our unpredictable weekends. Besides the kitchen, this is the room that gets out of hand the quickest, so we really needed to set a day where we could enjoy it being cleaned up!

Thursday night we host people at our house for prayer, so I take care of the living and dining rooms this day. This was another recent adjustment I made. With a toddler around now it's easier doing it all the day of expected company rather than the day before, since it's almost guaranteed it won't stay nice and in shape for the next day. Because our living room rarely ever needs much more than a quick dusting or vacuuming (well, and the daily toy pick-up), it just made sense to do it and the dining room all at once.

And then there's Friday. We only have five main living areas in our house and two of them were done Thursday, so this day I call swing/catch-up day. Often this is my second diaper laundry day. Having Friday open gives me time to prepare for any weekend activities, to catch up on another room that might've gotten out of hand in the past few days, or to take care of other random things around the house. For some of you, this might be the day to tackle the office, garage, closets, laundry room, or some other area of your house. I realize most people have a bigger house to take care of than we do, so you'll probably have to adjust the list some to fit your needs!

The best part? I get the weekend off! Or at least, there aren't any obligations to clean or straighten. Saturday still means dishes and cooking, but I don't have specific rooms on the schedule to clean, since they were all taken care of earlier in the week. Like Friday, if there's something extra that needs done, this day is open for that. And I think everyone needs a break from the daunting task of cleaning, so Sunday is my day of rest. I usually don't even do dishes then, but I also don't normally cook Sundays, since we eat together at church every week.

Now that you've read all that you should've learned that cleaning isn't my strong point and this is what I try to do to keep our little house in order. But look! I made a nice chart!

Vintage Camping

One thing my husband and I enjoy doing together is camping. There is nothing like getting out and enjoying God's amazing creation without modern distractions. Last year we had a pop-up camper that we used on a several-day trip with a bunch of friends, but it ended up pouring rain a night or two... and we discovered it leaked pretty bad. We had quite the night as we constantly woke looking for higher ground on the mattress. Later that summer we ended up selling it while it was still worth a little bit. Our dream was to find a vintage-style camper one day. Within the year, opportunity struck!

Tucked back on a side road in a neighboring town, there it was. A 1969 Franklin. It wasn't the most beautiful thing you've seen, but it had some potential, and we didn't have the wallet for one that was ready for use tomorrow. We knew we'd probably have to do some restoring to a fixer-upper. But with Frank's price tag and an eager, adventuresome couple, he captured our heart and became part of the family.

...yeah. It needed some help. Ugly cushions, big sloppy painting on the side wall. It looked more like an art project than a homey little camping space!

Normally we go on a camping trip every June, but with everyone's extra-busy schedules, it got cancelled until further notice. That gave us a little time to work on it! When the weather got nice enough this spring, my handy, experienced husband set to work getting the outside shell all nice, fixing any leakage, painting, and sealing the roof. Every now and then when it was a nice free day, he was out repairing.

Then the camping trip got rescheduled for August, and we realized we really needed to get to work if we wanted to use it. The inside walls needed torn out, wood replaced, insulation redone, everything repainted... as well as a number of other smaller projects that just added up to a lot of time! As we got to crunch time, he was given the last two weeks before the trip off work so we could get everything finished. It was a chore, and he worked SO hard from morning 'til night, but we made it. Everything was done two days before we were scheduled to leave! What a vacation we were planning on. Rest, sleep, relaxation....

Isn't it a beaut?!