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Showing posts from November, 2015

Stay At Home Friends

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Every stay at home mom needs at least one. A fellow stay at home mom friend. A partner in crime. A bosom companion. A woman who will cheer her on while she's ambitiously vacuuming cobwebs. A woman who will text her a challenge to stay off of Facebook for the week with her. A woman who will encourage her to donate another 25 items to Goodwill. A woman who extends grace when she's having a bad day. A woman who understands her desperate need for a good chocolate or coffee NOW! I have three such friends:  my sister, my mother, and my mentor. I sincerely hope you can find at least one other lady who's either been there or is in the trenches of stay at home motherhood right now to be your confidant. This also works for career moms, too. , Find a peer, another career mom, and be each other's cheerleaders! On sale right now for half price.  Only $12.99! This blog post shared in the linky at:

Makeshift Advent

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This year the kiddos didn't want the usual 99 cent cardboard Advent calendar with the gross chocolates inside.  Neither did I, so I had to come up with something with more variety since I have a non-chocolate eater, and inexpensive. So, off to the Dollar Store I went and this is what I came home with, a felt and glitter tree and a variety of candy "ornaments." There is one ornament for each day of Advent and the children take turns who gets to choose an ornament off the tree as their treat. It isn't as religiously instructive as I'd like, though before they get to choose an ornament I ask them a question about the Christmas story.

Today I Am Thankful for My Basement

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Sorry.  I don't have a pic of  my real basement, but it isn't pretty and finished. I am thankful for it, however.  It holds a man cave, a play area, laundry, utilities, a pantry, and a corner where I can sew. It helps make this little house all that much more usable for our larger than average family. And for that I am thankful! Please like my facebook pages to get great deals on Black Friday for  Usborne  Books ,  Essential  Oils  and  Herbs   .

Today I Am Thankful for My Dining Room

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As small as this house is, I am forever thankful that it has a dining room. It truly is the heart of our home. It is used for everything from meals to homeschool to projects to parties. The room is small, 9x15, and it also serves as our library, so it can get tight, but without it this house would absolutely not work for us.

Today, I Am Thankful for My Little Stove

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Living in a small house with a large family poses some challenges, and sometimes I get frustrated that we don't have more square footage.  But, there are aspects of this house that I do appreciate, even in their imperfect ways...or perhaps because of them. Today, I am thankful for my little stove.  It came with the house and is an inexpensive basic apartment model electric range.  There are absolutely no bells or whistles so it has challenged my cooking skills.  As you can see there is no oven window.  I have learned to rely on my sense of smell and perhaps a bit of instinct to let me know when something is done. There is no preheat setting, timer, clock, temperature gauge. And it is small. I chuckle to myself when I see small families who eat out most of the time drooling over big 6-burner ranges with double ovens.  I make most of our food from scratch and I can all on this little range. It reminds me of the little cookers used in the 1930's-1970's in Brit

I Bought Myself Roses

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A frivolous purchase for one on a very tight budget, but they were marked down to only $1.99 for the bunch at Aldi!  I couldn't pass them up for pocket change!

Learning To Crochet

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It's is high time I learned! I'm not doing so well right now.  Still working on tension  That little crochet ball is supposed to be a flat circle!  I'm not making anything yet.  Just working on stitches.  I think I need hands-on help.  The book is just a big, confusing pictorial stress-fest. My mother was an avid crocheter in her 30's.  She could crochet at lightening speed and often made these adorable crochet Christmas trees for people.  I never got beyond learning how to make a chain. My sister can crochet and has made stuffed animals and a retro cherry pot holder to decorate my kitchen. I am probably going to have to call upon their assistance.

Sewing Saturday Afternoon

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I renewed an old friendship over the weekend.  My sewing machine and I got back together after a long separation.  Spring, summer, and harvest take away so much time.  It was nice to tackle a small pile of fleece and turn it into useful items. First, I made 3 pairs of "Cozy Pants" as we call them.  I made this moose pair, a brown pair for my youngest, and my oldest boy got a pair in fisherman print.  (The picture won't upload for some reason). We have long winters here and days at home where sometimes only Cozy Pants will do. Not one to waste a scrap of fabric, I whipped together a pattern, pulled out an old cloth diaper from the box of them I saved for just this purpose, and made myself 3 rudimentary cloth pads. Here are two of them.  Nothing as fancy finished as the ones sold online, but they'll do.  I just bought snaps to sew onto the wings and they'll be ready for next  month's visit. The last bit of the moose fabric was turned into "S

One of My Favorite Authors in One of My Favorite Catalogs

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I apologize for the blurry photo as my better camera is on my phone which is currently being used by my potty training toddler to keep him securely on the potty and not running around in the bottom buff. Never mind that, though.  Look at this!  I found True Ladies and Proper Gentlemen Edited by Sarah Chrisman in Victorian Trading Company !! I have read Victorian Secrets by Sarah Chrisman and really enjoyed it.  I love her way of writing, her intelligence, her experiences, and how her book challenged me to think outside the box. I look forward to reading her newest book:  This Victorian Life. While I am not a Victoriaphile (is that a term?), I do enjoy history and understanding the past, regardless of the era.  One thought that really struck me in Victorian Secrets  is that the Victorians weren't necessarily strict prudes so much as they valued their privacy.  Not everyone lived in sprawling  mansions, and even those who did often had servants attending them, so t

Mellow Greetings, Yookie Dookie

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Yesterday evening was a quiet time in my chair watching The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer while mending my snow pants and my youngest's winter coat.  Nylon fabric and chicken fencing don't go well together.  Nothing a little embroidery floss can't fix. I love that movie.  I love Cary Grant's comedy.  I love Myrna Loy.  (One of my chickens is named Myrna Loy!) I love the scenery, the vintage rose-colored-glasses perfection, and I love the glamour shot of Shirley Temple when she wakes up.

I'm BACK!

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I'm back, Cats and Kittens! Let's start anew, shall we? First, let me explain why I stopped blogging.  I partly ran out of time.  And I mostly ran out of ideas and inspiration.  (cue violins)  My precious family went through a time of serious trials over the last 6 years.  We endured the Mister's career training away from home, and the subsequent serious illness with multiple hospitalizations it caused.  We also had 2 more children (which I blogged about on here as the youngest is now 3.5) and I suffered a serious case of post partum depression.  Mister decided to return to his previous career to save his health, but it meant a pay cut on top of the all the debt accrued from such a long term illness.  As such, our poor little cottage on the hill deteriorated.  On top of that, with hopes of moving, I kept many things and our house became quite cluttered. For the past year, I've been slowly working on decluttering and making plans.  No longer having babies in