Just Catch'n Up

I've been wanting to post, but just hadn't gotten around to it.  I've seen super sleeping.  I'm so off schedule, I'm like a newborn with my sleeping mixed up.  I'm up while everyone's sleeping and sleeping when everyone else is up.  It's so crazy.  

I've been crocheting some things to put in my Esty store.  I haven't tried selling in there yet, although I've had a store set up for some time...a couple of years, that is.  

My garden:  Donald built me a Rain Gutter Grow System for my garden this year, but it has not worked at all.  I'm thinking it's because we didn't mix the right soil for the buckets.  The plants just sorta petered out.  I decided to till up a block of the yard and planted some corn, pumpkins, lufa, radishes, cucumbers and they are growing great!  So, then I took off the buckets from the first gutter (I have three of them) and decided to fill it with soil which I did, then planted beets.  They are coming up great.  I guess I'm just a 'plant in the grown' kinda girl.  There's something (at least for me) seeing those seeds push up through the ground dirt and grow into something worth eating.  

I never did any spring cleaning and I wish I had.  I need to go through each room of this house and get rid of stuff.  I know the motivation is a mental thing.  I can't seem to wrap my head around it, though.  I heard on the radio that a family had a yard 'sale', except they gave all their stuff away for free.  They felt if somebody needed it, they'd just give it away.  LOL  That's kind of neat; at least that way you aren't stuck hauling it all away yourself.  

I watch a youtuber under the name of Mom the Ebayer.  Wow...look her up.  She dumpster dives, but the things she finds is amazing and the money she gets for it on ebay is crazy!  I wish I could do stuff like that.  

Have a great day!

Hey y'all!  Don't be surprised by the new look.  I love the beach and everything about it.  However, I'm in a country mood right now. 

When Donald and I got married back in '78, we moved onto what was a 7 acre farm.  We didn't own all the 7 acres, our house is near the edge of the acreage.  Long story short, we have a 1/2 acre of land, but mostly in the back where it now hides under the trees.  Our front yard is only 36 feet from the foundation of the house. 

We have a creek behind our house and along side our house and a spring that pops up where it wants when it wants, which is kinda cool.  Our water supply comes from the well in the front yard and we have a septic tank in the back.  Our house is run by electric so when the power goes off we can't even flush the toilets which makes me mad!

I'll write more later, but just wanted to let you all know you haven't come to the wrong place!

Blessings for now!

Something is Bothering Me

I  got problems floating around in my head.  I mean, everybody has problems, but every once in awhile I have conflict going on in my brain. 

What I'm going to write about is not to take sides on eating meat.  In fact, I've been a meat eater all my life.  My dad used to tell me that I needed to eat meat for protein and protein was good for the blood.  Who's to argue with dad?  Besides, roast beef, meatloaf, bacon, ham is so good.  

But here's the thing:  I'm beginning to want to NOT eat meat.       It's crazy, right?  No?  For some reason I started to search out videos  on the humane way to kill animals that I put on my plate or sandwich.  And what I found make me sick.  Mostly, there is no humane to kill an animal.  I watch one video that is suppose to be the kosher way to kill.  Holy moly...slip the cows throat while it's alive and bleeding out.  The poor animal is still mooing but no sound is coming out and it's down right disgusting.  How can that be kosher???  Now, I searched out the way the humane way is to kill the animals and holy moly, shoot them in the head with some sort of nail gun {that's the cows} and the pigs they gas them.   Not to mention chickens have their heads put into a long tube hanging upside down and their poor necks sliced all the while they are skirming inside the metal tube.  Again, disgusting. 

Recently, I've been watching homesteading videos where one is living off the land {and their animals} and it's confused me even more.  I've watched videos of people  getting orders of baby chickens and they are cooing and ahhing over them and saying how cute they are and they are gonna make beautiful chickens with colorful feathers......then a months later one homesteader opens her freezer door and in there the viewer sees packages of chickens.  She says, here's my chickens, but don't worry I'll order more chicks next season.  I understeading homesteading because I was even checking out backyard chickens myself.....to have as pets!  I could never eat my pets.  Even when I went fishing in my teens it wasn't until I was an adult and had children that I actually ate a fish I caught.  I just couldn't.  Now, it's getting that way with the meat I eat.

While I'm cooking meat, the thing I'm thinking about  is not how tasty the meat is gonna be, I'm wondering how bad this poor animal suffered.  

Now, my grandma was raised on a farm.  They were self sufficient.  They had to be.  Her favorite food was chicken.  Don't get me wrong, I love fried chicken, but now, I look at that bird and wonder how bad it suffered, how scared it was.  

I'm a Christian, no hiding that fact.  Jesus ate fish.  God said 
It is okay to eat meat.  But now, I can't help to think that the meat I'm eating had a life and how scared it must have been when it was being killed.  How can I be a part of that?

I asked my husband if I started making some vegetarian meals would he eat them and he told me he'd eat anything I'd make.  

And that is where I am right now, right this minute.  I don't think I can find any vegan fake meat that comes close to the taste of meat.  Yet, watching meat cook only reminds me of the suffering that animal must have gone through.  

This is my problem.  

Changing the way one eats, even if it's a weight loss change, it's hard.  But, I really think eating more vegetables and less meat and maybe no meat at all is the way I'm gonna go.  I think if I can make some dinners without meat and eventually cut out meat that's the best way to go.

Blessings!

Gardening!!

Let's talk weather.  Has spring arrived yet?  I know it has on the calendar, but what is it really like outside?  Cold, warm, cold warm, that's what it's doing.  Such tease when one is anxious to get plants in the ground.  I did plant peas a couple of weeks ago, but I can tell you, going outside every single day to see if you can see just a little hint of green can drive a person crazy.  It's like watching water boil.  However, today I saw maybe three peas just breaking ground!   Wahoo.  

The family room in our house is starting to look like an outdoor garden indoors.  It's fun to start planting and watching the seed grow into a plant, but sooner or later, just like kids, they need to go.  (hahaha).  Seriously though, please warm weather, come here soon.

Squash, cucumbers started in the aerogarden

Another view:  in the pots are catus, tomatoes, and strawberries

I just started peppers

Blueberry bush

Onions

 You can see I need to get these in the ground or, in my case, in my rain gutter growth garden.

Speaking of which, here is a picture of garden set up this year:

Here's the beginnings of it

This are rain gutters.  Right now we are trying to save money so we had some aluminum gutters we are using.  But probably plastic gutters would be better

We are using 3 inch net cups on the bottom of the buckets.  We drill a hole in the bottom to insert the cup, then the cups sit in the gutter with water in it.

All the buckets will have holes in them like the third from the left.  It allows the roots to have air.

I'm so excited to see how this set up works.  There is a man named Larry Hall who came up with this idea.  He's on youtube and also has a facebook page if you'd like to look him up.  Amazing what he invented!

I celebrated my birthday yesterday.  Will put up pictures in my next post.

Blessings!

Catching Up

There are no excuses as to why I haven't been around here.  So I'll just start catching you up.

Valentine's Day was nice as Donald brought home tulips that were just about ready to bloom.  They were lovely:

I really love the container they came in.  Now, the tulips have come and gone.  Only thing left of them are the shriveled up stems that I need to cut off and put the bulbs away until next year.  Or, I can put them in the refrigerator for about six weeks and they will bloom again.  Maybe I'll do that. 

I don't know if I mentioned we have been, okay, not me so much except as a supervior, working on the inside of the motor home.  We started with just the tv cabinet because we had an old tv in there which worked just fine as long as the, oh, what's that box called that we all had to run out and buy for our old tv in order to watch it digital{?}, anyway, we had one in the motor home until it went ka-poop.  So, we were talking about getting a flat screen for it, therefore, we had to take down the cabinet the old tv sat in. 

That cabinet is gone now.  No tv there yet!  Then the shower was leaking so Donald tore the whole bathroom out including the floor and re-did everything.  He put self sticking tiles in the bathroom and I'm not at all happy with it.  He also put a floating floor down in the motor home which was left over from a room we did in the house and because he put a couple of staples in the floor where it met with the rug, it has separated a little.  Donald's not happy with that, but it doesn't bother me.  :)  Now, I've decided to take out all the carpet and just replace it all with the floating floor.  

New Bathroom Floor

Where the carpet and floor meet.

Here's the kitchen-I bought smart tiles at Home Depot to put on the wall behind the stove and sink

These are the tiles I chose.  Smart tiles are heat proof; sorta plastic, but they are peel and stick and you can cut them with scissors.  Easy

Here are the 'cracks' in the floor.  Floating floors are not suppose to be nails or staples because they 'float' but since Donald nailed down the rug with the floor it started to separate.  It really bothers him! LOL  I'm all for just filling in the cracks.

Renovation realities in the house--haha.  About a year ago our 1970's in wall oven gave up the ghost.  We had some problems with it in the past, but Donald was always able to get parts.  But, there comes a time when it is just vintage and parts can't be bought for it anymore.  We were slightly looking for a new oven when sales ads came out or when were in the stores, but the cheapest one we could find was $1, 399.00.  Wow.  Now, one day we were in Lowe's looking around when Donald came upon a stainless steel wall oven, display model, the last one of it's kind {so the sign said} for $876

.00.  Seriously?  Plus, we got 10% off that!  Here's some advice for anyone near our age..never, ever think you can remember measurements of anything in your home no matter how many times you measure it or how long you've lived in your home.  Haha.  The 'new' oven measured 29" opening and I was so sure that's what our old oven opening was.  So, as not to pass up a great deal we went ahead and arranged to have it sold to us (we didn't have the money at the time; had to come back next day); then when we got home, we measured the opening and it was a 26" opening!  Uh-oh.  Then we had to brain storm how we were gonna extend the cabinet in order to install the new oven.  Here's what we came up with:

You can see the lighter colored wood  under Donald's drill.  That's what we added.

On the left is the added wood.  Donald hasn't cut the the front 'bar' off yet.

I was pleasantly surprised the stain we had on the shelf in the basement matched really well with the rest of the cabinets.

Always a mess when renovating!

A bit blurry, but the opening is ready for the oven.

And here it is.  Thankfully, the cabinet hasn't fallen down! :)

I've made meatloaf in it and that's all I've done.  I need to go to the store and stock up on food!  

Next blog entry is gonna be about gardening.  Oh, I can't wait to get my plants in the ground or in containers.

Blessings!

Family Time at Glory Days and other stuff...

It's been a true winter here in the southern parts of Maryland.  Snow, snow and more snow.  The only good thing I can say about this is that the snow melts, then it snows again; the snow melts then it snows again.  And, on one of the first snows, I did make some ice cream, so that was cool.  {No pun intended!} And now that the groundhog saw his shadow do I guess it's another six weeks of winter.  I'm so  ready to get my garden started.  For Christmas I got an outdoor sink so now I can do my planting right next to my garden because I have an outdoor faucet  there and I won't have to go all the way around to the other side of the house when I have transplanting to do.  Are we lazy or what??

Yesterday I was talking to Adam on the phone; I haven't seen him in about a month {even though he lives 10 minutes from me} but I asked him if he wanted to go to dinner, and I mentioned a favorite place of his, hehehe, and he decided that he would.  I went downstairs to tell Meghan to get ready we are going to have dinner with her brother.  It was one of those nights where we just had fun and everyone was in a good mood.

 

Times like these are far and few between these days.  It's hard when everyone is working and have their own schedules..it's hard to find time to get together.  Sometimes, I think of when life was simpler, yet harder, too; when families lived on the same farm and grandma and grandpa was always around.  That would have been awesome times.  

I'm thinking about doing some youtube vlogging..haven't decided yet about it.  I'm about 80% sure I will, but I'm still thinking.  I'm sure I must have something to say that might help someone. 

Still having sleeping issues, but I totally need to work on it.  I know other night owls feel the same way as I do, but nighttime is so peaceful...nobody to bother you...the phone stops ringing, it's time to have to one's self.  I do not manage my time very well and I suppose I need to work on that, too.

With that said, I'm signing off for now.
Blessings!

Shoveling Snow

 Well, we may be doing a lot of this tomorrow if the weather forecasters are right.  Not looking forward to it.  And I always worry about Donald, Adam and Meghan driving in the snow and rain.   I've been blessed to be able to stay home and not have to go out into this mess.....oops, but I'm remembering just now that I have one more day before the emissions testing on my car expires.  Drats!!  That means I have to go to the emissions place.  *shaking my head*  I need to start getting things done when I'm thinking about them.  

I took my car in for service last Thursday.  That car sucked up $590.00 of my money! LOL  Unreal.  I don't know how people afford service on their cars.  Seriously.  For 35 years my husband has taken care of the maintenance on our vehicles when needed because we didn't have extra money to spend on the cars.  So when I bought my Hyundai two years ago I decided that it was easier to take it into the dealership for service and give Donald a break from worrying and working on the car.  Especially in the weather; there would be times he'd be out in the snow or rain under the car and I would feel so bad for him.  So taking my car in  for service is a break for him, but boy, he has to work overtime sometimes to pay for it.  Crazy.

Little by little and step by small step I have been cleaning up around here.  Donald sometimes complains that he 'just took the trash out' and it's filled up again.  I told him to be proud of a filled up trash can.  That means I'm cleaning and getting rid of stuff we don't need.  And it really feels good too, to walk into a room and see it organized and cleaned.  The dumb thing is is that I forget to take pictures of the before and then when I'm done and look at what my hard work has accomplished I think to myself, 'I should have taken a before picture'.  Duh!  Story of my life! 

I so can't wait for spring, I so can't wait for spring!  Winter is just so 'live in the cave' kind of thing.  It's okay for a couple of days, but I would love to be planting a garden and smelling fresh cut grass and sitting outside.  

April is my birthday so I look forward to that because spring is right around the corner.  My mom said that when she brought me home from the hospital it was snowing.  Maybe that's why I don't like the snow, per se.  :)

Blessings!

It's Time to Get Back to my Blog!!

I didn't expect to be gone so long, but wouldn't you know it, on Thanksgiving night I got sick.  I had gotten some type of intestinal bug.  While at my brother's house I started feeling chilly, which, when that happens, I know that I'm getting sick.  So, me and the family left to come home, but on the way home i was feeling sick to my stomach.  By the time we arrived home I was soooo cold that I went to my bed with my coat, hat and gloves on.  I pulled the blanket on me and I was still cold.  Meghan went to get another blanket for me and she put that on me and I was still cold!!  Let's just say, it was downhill from there.  It took me a good 3 1/2 weeks just to get somewhat back to normal.  I took a leave of absence from my volunteering, but I'm trying to decide when's the best time to go back.  

As I was getting better, the day before Christmas Donald came down with what I had.  It didn't stop him from enjoying Christmas, though.  

 

We had a good new years.  Meghan was with us, but Adam had to work.  

 January has really claimed itself...we've had snow, winds and temps as low as 5 degrees.  The poor dog; she hasn't been able to go outside and run to her hearts content like in the summer time.  It's basically go out and come in.  Then lay around the house all day as there's nothing for her to do.  

Little by little, I'm decluttering and organizing.  Years, when I was having depression really bad, I had let things get really out of control.  I'm happy now that I'm tackling it.  Although one might not be able to see what's being done, I can see it and it's exciting to have things organized again.  Yes, it's going to take me awhile, maybe even this whole year to get things done, but I am keeping my eyes on the end result.  

 So this is the a short update on me.  Next post will not be as long!

Blessings 

Well, Hello There!

I think I've been in a funk.  I'm so unmotivated, yet I want things done.  It's almost like having a split personality!  The one side of me says, "let's do it!" while the other side says, "it can wait until tomorrow."  Then that Annie's song starts playing in my head.....'tomorrow, tomorrow, there's always tomorrow, tomorrow's just a day away."  But the truth its, no one is guaranteed tomorrow.  How often have you heard of someone passing away when least expected?  For example, 911.  For all those people it was just another day.  For some it was another day at work, for some children it was an exciting day flying on an airplane.  Can you imagine being a child, excited about your first plane ride, can't wait to tell your parents or friends or siblings about your experience when you get home, but you never get home?  So, we are not guaranteed tomorrow.  We have to show people we love them today.  I watched the life leave my baby girl when she was 12 years old.  We didn't expect it, thinking we have more years with her, but she didn't get to have a tomorrow.  That's why today is important.

I've changed up my blog here several times.  I read other people's blogs and they are so creative and cool; mine is so drab.  When I first started this blog it was just a place for me to post our family's activities and things to do, but I'm feeling now it needs to be a little bit more.  I don't know what, though.  

See, I really live 'in the woods' but a piece of my heart loves the beach.  Not that I spend time on the beach because if I get there once a summer I'm happy, but I love the sun and the warm weather and the summer breeze...and I do love going to Ocean City, Maryland to a store called Salty Yarns.  Walking the boardwalk is always fun, too.  

I thought about changing my blog to a woodsy theme, and I did for a short time, but I really love the beach theme.  Hence, I changed it again.  I'm so having trouble putting a banner up top..I don't know what my problem is!! LOL

Here are a couple of things I wanna talk about {listing them here so I don't forget}:

Donald's birthday

Planners

Crafts/craftroom

Donald's 60th birthday was last month.  Can't believe he is 60 now.  It's crazy.  It doesn't feel so long ago that we were dating and planning our future!  Where did time go?  I got to thinking that maybe this is how time feels in heaven.  I mean,  there is no time in heaven.  Here on earth we can measure time by the clock, months, years, things we do, things we've done, but really, if you blend all that into your life and don't think about what divides those things...it's like eternal time.  I will admit, that we've had friends die, spouses of friends and they've been our age or younger than us.  How can we not think that our end is near and that we need to prepare ourselves and our families for it?  But it's crazy, really because I'm still that 20 something girl in my head that was planning her future and now I have to plan the end of my life, just in case.  *shaking my head*  It's a hard concept to grasp, to say the least. 

I had thought about doing a surprise party for him, but time got away from me.  And then again, what if there is no next year and I don't get the chance to try again?  See, we have to embrace today.

I have some subscriptions to youtube that I watch daily and sometimes a video will pop onto the side list that looks interesting, so I watch it and somehow I started watching Filofax videos.  I think I was looking at home management binders and that's when I saw some videos about organization and Filofax.  So now I have a few subscriptions to people who post about their organizers, be it Filofax or some other planners they've made.  They decorate their pages, too.  

I had made a home management binder a couple of years go from a regular sized notebook and it sorta worked, but I was getting bored with it so I decided to try a planner method.  I didn't care if it was a Filofax or  not so I went to a few office supply stores and I couldn't find anything pretty.  I ended up buying a Dayrunner planner that is a dark red color and to tell you the truth, it's drab and doesn't motivate me {but maybe like I said before, it's my other 'personality' LOL}.  I was thinking if I had a really pretty, colorful planner I would be more willing to use it.  I'm so fickle with stuff.  I mean, here I've changed my blog name a few times because nothing seems to fit me.  It's the same way with other stuff.  I get bored with it easily.  I need changes with some things in my life.  :)

Anyway, I'll take some pictures of my planner and do another blog post on that.

Now about my craft room....it's a work in progress.  Eventually, I'm thinking that maybe I'll do some videos in my craft room as soon as it gets more organized.  I'm really proud of the progress I've made in it so far.  It had gotten to the point where I couldn't even open the door.  It became a ...what do you call it?.... a place where you throw stuff in because you have no other place to put it.  But now, I can open the door and freely walk in.  I have my books organized now, too.  It's so nice to have room to turn around in it again.  However, my workspace table is still cluttered so I gotta get to work on it.  

I also wanna redo my wedding pictures.  Here's the story on that: I did not have a professional photograper take my wedding pictures.  I thought I knew better than my mom at the time and if she was alive today I'd tell her how sorry I am that I didn't heed her advise to me.  I was in a relationship for about four years with the neighborhood boy that I basically grew up with.  When I say relationship I mean 'going steady'.  Relationships back in the day are not what they are today, for sure.  However, after four years it wasn't working out so I broke it off, but we were still friends because the guy lived a couple houses away from me and we grew up together. So, when I met Donald and started dating him, guy #1 tried to win me back, but it didn't work. Then when Donald and I were getting married, guy #1 said that he would take our photos as his present to us and to save us money {he wasn't a professional phtographer, but he dubbled in it and has some pictures published in the newspaper}.  My mom was against it {for obvious reasons, of course}, but I trusted guy #1.  As it turned out, the pictures came out okay, but they are definitely not quality pictures and I do wish now that I had some really nice photos.  But, live and learn, right?  Right now the photos are in an album from the 70's and I'd like to scrapbook them instead.  That's a project I gotta put on my list of things to do.  And it would make another blog post!

I'm gonna really try to stay current here.  If others can do it so can I!

Blessings <><