Happy Homemaker Monday

I had hoped to get my Happy Homemaker Monday up this morning but the day just seemed to get away from me! I had some cards that absolutely had to get made and mailed today so was busy in my craft room until time to go to town. Oh well, it's still Monday so here goes! A big thank you to Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom, our weekly host for Happy Homemaker Monday!

As I look outside my window:::
Today was beautiful! 80 degrees (F), blue sky, low humidity...perfect! Our garden is beautiful; everything is growing and producing!

Right now I am::: 
Sitting in my bed waiting for hubby to get finished with his work.  

Thinking and pondering:::
About what needs to be done before I leave for my daughter's on Thursday.

On my bedside table:::
Same as usual...books and napkins:)   

On my tv this week:::
We are still binge watching Royal Pains! 

Listening to:::
Rocky snoring at the foot of my bed!
 
On the menu for this week:::
No menu but I am thinking we will be having potato salad and veggie hotdogs on Friday:) 

On my to do list:::
Laundry
Get things ready to take to my daughters (make granola, raisin bread, potato salad)
Pick raspberries

Happening this week:::
Monday - Went to Chiropractor today and delivered Stampin' Up! orders
Wednesday - Cooking, cleaning, packing
Thursday - Leaving to visit my daughter and family
Friday - 4th of July--daughter's neighborhood has a big potluck and fireworks

What I am creating:::
Still working on a baby girl afghan but the baby girl turned into a baby boy! LOL Sooo, when I finish this one I need to start a baby boy afghan!

My simple pleasure:::
Knitting or crocheting! It is so relaxing and I love how you can turn yarn into something useful with knitting needles or a crochet hook.

Homemaking tips::: 
Instead of using the expensive Jet Dry in the dishwasher, try plain, old, ordinary, white vinegar! It works just as good and costs a whole lot less!!!

Looking around the house:::
Things are a little messy after a busy day but not to worry; I will clean it all up tomorrow! 

From the camera:::
I don't have anything today. Hubby took a lot of pictures of the garden but I haven't downloaded them to the computer yet. Maybe I need to add that to my "to do" list.
Prayer List:::
Friends and family who need healing.

Bible verse, Devotional:::
Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he." Proverbs 29:18 (from my devotional reading this morning: Promises for Your Everyday Life by Joyce Meyer)

Well, that's it for me today! See you tomorrow with a card for The Cupboard Trilogy Challenges!

Kat

Sunday Night Chit-Chat

Photo from Franklin Planner website

It's time for the Sunday Night Chit-Chat! A big thank you to Carla at My 1/2 Dozen Daily for hosting the Chit-Chat each week. My picture is of the wonderful new planner I purchased this week! I am super excited about getting organized!!!

• Watching? Silver Linings Playbook DVD and Royal Pains on Netflix
• Reading? The Geometry of Sisters by Luanne Rice; just finished from Paralysis to Praise by Shirley Thrush yesterday; still enjoying Living Life Undaunted by Christine Caine
• Listening to? The wind blowing hard!
• Cooking/Baking? I haven't been in a cooking or baking mood lately so nothing. We had sandwiches and potato chips for dinner!
• Enjoyed over the last week? Planning visit to my daughter's for 4th of July weekend.
• Thankful for today? I am thankful for our home, our garden and my family. 
• Happy you accomplished this week? I ordered and received a weekly planner from Franklin Planner and started working on a schedule to become more organized. I also sent two bags of my clothes off to the Goodwill! Yay!!! So many more to go!!! I have put a reminder to purge in my new planner.
• Thinking about financially? I haven't been thinking about money at all lately. Hubby takes care of the household finances and I get an allowance. Right now everything seems to be running smoothly. I would like to save for a nice electronic piano so I can take piano lessons so will need to work up a plan for that.

Thanks for stopping in for the Sunday Night Chit-Chat! I will be back tomorrow for Happy Homemaker Monday!

Kat

Happy Homemaker Monday

I have a few extra minutes so thought I would pop on with Happy Homemaker Monday! Thank you for being so patient with my sporadic blogging till July 1. I look forward to getting back to some regular blogging again!

Sandra, our weekly host for Happy Homemaker Monday, just finished moving! I hate to move and so admire how she was able to move, keep her family running AND blog about the process!!! She is amazing!!! You can check up on what she's doing at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. 

Let's get started...

As I look outside my window:::
We have a cloud cover today with a light breeze. The temperature is a very comfortable 84 degrees (F). Our garden is amazing and the flowers are beautiful! I am so blessed to live where I do.

Right now I am::: 
Taking a break from laundry and housework by blogging and drinking a glass of iced tea.  

Thinking and pondering:::
I have been thinking about card ideas. No surprise, right?!!! I need to make 3 Thank You cards, 1 Birthday card, 2 swap cards and 3 Design Team Projects this week. Ideas are running through my head but I need to start putting them on paper!

On my bedside table:::
Books, books and more books! I could make a Jenga Puzzle out of the books! Also a stack of napkins; I am a napkin hoarder! So, what are the napkins doing in my bedroom? Good question! Our TV is in the bedroom so I often eat my lunch in the bedroom and put the gently used napkin on the beside table to reuse. The problem is that the next day I get another napkin. You see the problem, right?!!!    

On my tv this week:::
We have been watching Royal Pains on Netflix.

Listening to:::
The wind just picked up; no longer gentle! Also Rocky is snoring beside me.

On the menu for this week:::
No menu:( Hubby and I are experimenting with Intermittent Fasting. The method we chose is 3 days a week of 500 calories (hubby 600 calories). On Monday, Wednesday and Friday we eat one meal about noon with 500/600 calories and that's it till the next day. On the other 4 days we just eat normal. We just started our 2nd week.
 
On my to do list:::
Laundry--nearly finished
Cards--listed above
Purging clothes that I no longer need or want

Happening this week:::
Monday - Laundry; work on cards
Tuesday - Finish cards; get them ready to mail or upload
Wednesday - Laundry; sort stamping orders
Thursday - Deliver stamping orders; Chiropractor appointment
Friday - Clean house

What I am creating:::
I am making a baby afghan for a baby girl to be born in October!

My simple pleasure:::
Picking berries--any kind of berries. I have been picking a lot of raspberries. I'm hoping we can go to pick blueberries this week. I really enjoy picking berries:)   

Homemaking tips::: 
I wanted to start making my own foaming hand soap so we were looking online for a good pump that wouldn't stick or quit working in a short time. The more I read the more I realized the best pump already has soap in it...Method! So we bought enough containers of Method Foaming Hand Soap. I will have to wait till the containers are empty to make my own but thought it was interesting that you can't purchase a better pump dispenser. 
Looking around the house:::
It looks pretty good around here. The dogs are lying on the floor at my feet; the cat is on the back of my chair.  

From the camera:::

The Clematis is beautiful this year!

Prayer List:::

• Baby in NICU; baby and mother both need prayer
• My relationship with my extended family
• Daughter and family while on vacation
• Friend traveling from Washington to Missouri

Bible verse, Devotional:::
"To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice." Proverbs 21:3

"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8

Well, that's it for today! I hope all is well in your world!

Kat

Need a Little More Time

Found at Dumpaday.com

I feel like I have dropped off the planet lately and certainly out of the blogisphere! I have had a whole lot of things going on, most of them good, but I have become a little overwhelmed. I have said in the past that I have Fibromyalgia and the overwhelmed thing is part of the territory. Fortunately it only gets really bad about once a year!

There are some fairly significant milestones for me that have caused me to reflect and make some decisions as to what's really important to me. Hubby and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary last week. We spent a few days away just relaxing. Needless to say, he is just a little bit important to me:)

The second milestone is my 60th birthday coming up in four weeks! I really didn't think this birthday would bother me and the age thing doesn't. What does bother me is that I have lived this long and there are still so many things I want to do. I need to start prioritizing and making sure I do those things that are really important to me.

Blogging is important to me. I look forward to writing my blog posts and sharing with you the things I love. Unfortunately, my blog is not important to my husband and he doesn't understand why I do it. His frequent question is "What do you find to write about everyday?" This is sometimes frustrating. I feel his pain, I really do. I don't understand everything he does either! He is much better at managing his time than I am. Take this morning for instance...hubby left early so I read my email, ate breakfast, checked out a few websites (still in my pjs at 10:00) then the phone rang! Ah, my brother-in-law! So we visited a bit. Then a friend came to the door (we don't get much company way out here) so guess what? We visited with me in my pjs! See what I mean?!!! I finally got dressed and picked 2 quarts of raspberries at 11:30! Dishes still in the sink and clothes need to go from washer to dryer:( The day just gets away from me!

So, I am going to order me a Franklin Planner (used one for YEARS and it worked wonders) and get myself on a schedule! It is so easy when being home without children to just fly by the seat of your pants but I think the seat of my pants is worn through so I need to fix the situation!

All of this to say, give me till July 1 to get myself together and I will be back full throttle!!! Be sure to sign up to be notified by email when I post ("be the first to know when I update my blog"). 

Thank you!

Kat

Happy Homemaker Monday

This day very nearly got away from me without doing Happy Homemaker Monday but, it is still Monday:) Thanks to Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom for hosting Happy Homemaker Monday each week! So, on with the show!!!

As I look outside my window:::
This day was glorious! Hubby has really whipped the yard and garden into shape and it looks like a park outside my window!

Right now I am:::
Just relaxing at the end of the day and working on this post.

Thinking and pondering:::
I have been thinking a lot about my life lately...what it is; what it could have been; what it could be. I guess it's that 60 benchmark coming up that makes me reflective.

On my bedside table:::
Books, magazines, napkins (I am a hoarder of napkins), remotes.

On my TV this week:::
Nothing! I am trying to finish up a couple of books I am reading.

Listening to:::
The wind rustling through the trees outside my open bedroom window.

On the menu for this week:::
Not good at the menu thing but we did have a delicious (if I do say so myself) pasta salad for dinner today. I might have to make it again this week because it was so good. 

On my to do list:::

• Clean the guest apartment (because I didn't clean it last week)
• Go through my closet to get rid of clothes and shoes that I don't wear
• Tax stuff (for next year--trying to keep up on it)
• Laundry

Happening this week:::

Tuesday - Bank and Post Office

What I am creating:::

I am crocheting a baby afghan for a baby due in October--a little girl:)

My simple pleasure:::

Getting my back scratched...ahhh!!! 

Homemaking tips:::

To go along with Sandra's tip...I hang all our dark colored clothes, especially black, on the wooden rack or on hangers. It preserves the color longer and the clothes last longer too! BTW, I am loving the aluminum foil balls I put in the dryer! Waayyy less static than even dryer sheets and sooo much cheaper:)

Looking around the house:::

One load of clothes on the floor waiting to be washed tomorrow; tonight's dishes need to be done. Surprisingly, the dining room table doesn't look too bad this week!

From the camera:::

We have been eating a few raspberries:)

Prayer List:::

• Family who recently lost a child
• Friend moving across country
• Friend having cataract surgery this week
• Friend needing a new job
• For God to give me direction for my life

Bible verse/Devotional:::

"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Isaiah 40:31

Well, that's it for me tonight! I am hoping to be back tomorrow to show you a card or two! I have enough new ones to fill up a whole week!!!

Kat

Sunday Night Chit-Chat

My beautiful new lavender plant:)

I had a busy day today! My son and I went to The Dalles (nearest big town to us) to do some shopping. He needed to have some maintenance done on his car and I needed some yarn...among other things! But with 1 1/2 hour drive each way, it was a long day!

It's time once again for the Sunday Night Chit-Chat! A big thank you to Carla for hosting the Chit-Chat each week over at My 1/2 Dozen Daily:) So let's get started!

• I am watching...America's Got Talent while I am typing this post
• I am reading...Finishing up From Paralysis to Praise by Shirley Thrush; also reading The Litigators by John Grisham
• I am looking forward to next week...Planting some new plants I bought today:) Oh, and being able to place my first order from the NEW Stampin' Up! catalog!!! So excited!
• Did I have for dinner tonight...DS and I ate at Cousins Restaurant in The Dalles. I had a yummy Veggie Burger with Bread Pudding for dessert! I ended up bringing over half the pugging home.
• Are my 3 top goals for next week...Get items ready for thrift store; clean guest apartment (didn't get it done last week); make hubby some cinnamon rolls
• Best/worst financial decision over the last week...At Joann's today I got a lot of stuff and it was all on sale. I spent $43 but saved over $22:) I also discovered that Dollar Tree has American Greeting Cards that are regularly $3.89 for just $1. Though I make cards I am averse to making cards for people who really don't appreciate the time it takes to make one. So, being able to purchase some nice cards for a great price was GREAT! Worst decision (but still glad I did it) was dinner at Cousins. I had a $5 coupon plus a $25 gift card but the meal still cost us $20! I am not used to spending that much to eat in a restaurant but the food was really good:)
• Made me happy this week...I received two cards this week! Always love receiving happy mail!
• Is a lesson I learned this week...I really NEED a schedule and need to start using a Franklin Planner again. I was never so organized as when I used one. Thought I could get by without one since I am "just staying home" but am learning different.

Well, that's it for me tonight! Thanks for stopping by!

Kat