Down on the Homestead - Feb 15 - 21st

**homesteadmamma** · 02-15-2004, 10:02 AM

Good morning everyone. The sun is shining but it is a bit cooler this morning. Its suppose to warm up today though, so I'll be turning the heat down even lower once that happens.

Not much planned for today. Will do a bit more on the mystery quilting tutorial, but want to rest for the quilting chat tonight. I'm really excited about it and sure hope everyone comes out.

Not sure what I'll make yet for supper, possibly a pot roast with veggies.

Hope everyone has a good day down on their homestead.

**SusieJD** · 02-15-2004, 12:36 PM

Good Morning! Bitter cold here this morning and it doesn't look like it will be warming up much today. I doubled up on my clothing this morning to let my doggies out to play. Then I hurried back in for a hot bowl of oatmeal.

It's bright and sunny as well here today! Wish the sun would warm it up a little more.

Think I'll do some baking today. I have a herbal Italian bread reciepe I want to make a freeze for the next time DH is home.

Stay warm!

**Mom23boys** · 02-15-2004, 03:36 PM

Busy day here on our homestead.

DH woke up and made everyone breakfast.....eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy. I sat and read the paper while he was cooking.

I decided I would clean up, but there was no hot water!!

The water heater busted and was leaking.

After a quick trip to Lowe's, DH has replaced the water heater with a new one. We once again have hot water.

I have been packaging up all the ebay items I sold this weekend. I thought I ended up doing really well. Better than expected. I have a few more still going. I will mail them out Tuesday, since the PO is closed tomorrow for President's Day.

I have been working on getting the laundry caught up too. I started it this morning, but after the water heater incident had to put it on hold and I just started back up. There seems like tons in there to wash. I think the boys changed 4 times each yesterday after playing in the snow and getting wet.

Tonight's supper will be beans with meat and cornbread.

**canadian gardener** · 02-15-2004, 10:53 PM

coming in late on Sunday on this one, but had a lovely time catching up here. Hope everyone has a great week. Dd is off to my sister's place in the morning (she lives a 2 day drive, but dd got plane tickets) taking some of my books.

My sister and I exchange books and homeschool stuff. It's kind of neat, I'm done, but she is borrowing my Saxon Math 87 for son #3 and returning a Paul Johnson history book and a bunch of John Grisham that she got for 10 cents each at the Salv. Army.

Dd is still unsure about whether to go on to take her bachelors of education after she finishes her BSc Biology next year. She has been wavering between that (aimed at teaching high school science) or going on to graduate school and going on in research. Her teachers are encouraging research for her which is nice, but I do worry a bit about her racking up debt.

So far no debt, and money in bank and one more year for her degree, but I do worry about when she leaves for another city to do any post grad stuff.

Gotta let God take care of it. We raised her to be sensible. She has to figure out what direction. And it's a bit of a gamble either way.

Boy is that ever a hard stage of life. Looks easy looking back, but these choices send us down paths, they are forks in the road, once taken, there is no turning back, only new forks in the road.

**Heather** · 02-16-2004, 08:43 AM

Welcome Susie!

Yesterday Delaney had her skating carnival, it was so cute watching all the young skaters! DH took us all out for supper, hadn't been out in SO long! The kids loved Chinese food and lots of leftovers to bring home.

I so enjoyed the quilting chat last night, LornaJoy is such a special lady.

Today back to routine, thank goodness!! I want to bake some muffins and cookies and get them in the freezer for the week. I'm taking another trip to the consignment store tomorrow if the weather is good so I am getting things together for that plus will stop at the Salvation Army with a couple of boxes of stuff.

We are to get increasingly warmer temperatures this week! I really hope so!

HAve a great day!!

**homesteadmamma** · 02-16-2004, 08:44 AM

Good morning everyone. Had a really bad night last night. Too much chocolate and too much excitement before and during the quilting chat. It was wonderful though to chat with LornaJoy and to learn some of her secrets and her passion for quilting. I loved it when she said she usually has 39 quilting projects on the go at any one time. My kind of lady.

Today is laundry day here and I need to bake bread. I may put the bread baking off until tomorrow though and get some much needed rest once again.

I'm also taping seams and putting plaster on the gyproc upstairs. I can do that a little bit at a time though and it gives me some excersise as well, getting up and down and bending quite a bit.

Other than that, I'm going to be kinda quiet today I'm thinking.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day down on your homestead.

**canadian gardener** · 02-16-2004, 08:51 AM

Hope you are feeling better soon CJ, and glad you all enjoyed that quilting chat session last night.

Dd left with her dad for the airport this morning, looking thrilled to go see my sister and her cousins and uncle.

I'm loaning my sister my new Rod Stewart jazz classic CDS, American Songbook, 1 and 2. She likes jazz too. I am missing them already LOL.

**mylittle4** · 02-16-2004, 02:32 PM

Hello all. Today I am doing the laundry and cleaning the house. i have company coming later this week. It is suppost to get into the 50s this week!WooHoo!!!!

**guest2** · 02-16-2004, 04:19 PM

Hi Ladies!!! Welcome Susie!!!!

It's been an interesting Monday here.

I told the kids that we could take the day off from school IF they would help get the house cleaned up. We've been working on the Dirty Laundry mountain range and are making progress there! It's really windy outside, so we have some shirts and towels haning out to dry. I ended up having to get a different perscription today, so Jaysn drove me into town and did really well despite the gusting winds (he's taking Driver's Ed). We stopped by to see my hubby at work after picking up my perscription and realized that the new meds I'm on cause projectile vomiting if I have any alcohol in my system. Now I don't drink at all, but one of the natural remedy things I use does have a bit of alcohol in it, so I can't use that. I also can't wear perfume or use hairspray because the alcohol is absorbed through your skin. Hubby is banned from wearing any aftershave around me or cologne for the next 10 days. Now my kids think it would be really cool to see that kind of a "show", but I told them I'm not going to be their amusement!!!

This afternoon, if the jobs are all done around here, the boys are having some friends up. These are all neat kids who I really enjoy and it's so much fun to hear all of them talking and playing games together. Despite a few "bumps" today, it's turned out to be a pretty nice day despite the gray skies. I think hubby and I and the kids are finally at peace with our decision on what to do about our difficult "situation" and it's really brought some much needed calm to our lives.

**mylittle4** · 02-16-2004, 05:38 PM

Im so glad things are feeling better for you Debbie. There is nothing like the calm after the storm feeling when you reach a decision and you know its for the best.

**guest2** · 02-16-2004, 05:52 PM

Thanks Angelee! You are so right!!!!

**Mom23boys** · 02-16-2004, 07:03 PM

Beautiful day here on the homestead.

It was back to work/school for us. I loved hearing the stories about all the snowmen and snowball fights the younger children had. You can tell snow was something we never see cause we all talked about it. They were saying on the radio today that the last time we had any snow was in 1982. Weird huh? We always get ice though.

Been reading a great book on frugality. I plan on reading more tonight.

**canadian gardener** · 02-16-2004, 08:42 PM

LOL Debbie, for goodness sake, pull yourself together and do a show for those boys! tsk tsk tsk. It's HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE DAY when an event like that happens. Applied physiology! tsk tsk.

ROFL hon, I think I'd pass on the projectile vomiting too! Those poor deprived boys can get their amusements and science lessons other ways bless em. My children have often felt deprived of fun in life too.

I'm glad you are feeling peace about the other thing, that is also showing that you made the right decision. Not easy, but the right one. Way to go girl!

Michelle I can't imagine a world without snow at least a few months out of the year. I know intellectually it doesn't snow in the tropics but it's hard to imagine.

I remember when my friend from New Zealand was living here the first winter, and she had skiing experiance but not day to life in the snow experiance. It was neat seeing it thru her eyes.

**forestdale** · 02-16-2004, 11:27 PM

Canadian gardener, I live in the sub-tropics and I even though I've lived in Germany for a couple of years and have a bit of snow experience, it still amazes me when I read the posts here about all the snow. The reality for me is that yesterday it was 39 degrees C, which is a bit over 100 F; today it's around 33 C and tomorrow it will hotter again and 38 C again on thursday. Although this might seem like heaven to you, the humidity makes you very tired and it's boring when almost everyday is hot and sunny. It's terrible trying to sleep on a hot night. Frankly, I'd love to be sitting in front of an open fire with a warm cup of tea, a friend and a blizzard outside.

I think the thing I have problems imaging is people in cold climates having to put their plants away for winter. That to me is totally amazing.

**homesteadmamma** · 02-17-2004, 08:51 AM

Good morning everyone. Its quiet here as the kids are still sleeping and I don't plan on waking them up. I'll just let them sleep all the want. I love the quiet.

I'm feeling a bit better today which I good because I have lots to do or at least want to do.

I need to bake bread and finish the laundry first. Along with that I need to fold the laundry from yesterday and get that put away.

I want to finish dd's blouse and I am starting another mystery tutorial (another very simple one) and I need to also do the BOM that I'm doing. It looks a bit more complicated this time, so I want to get it started right away. The first mystery tutorial is done, I am just waiting a bit for members to get the blocks done. I also want to finish the jam making either today or tomorrow, then I can get the pictures developed while in the city next Friday.

Somewhere in there I have to doing my biking as well. I'm really enjoying my new bike, its so quiet. I want to up that a notch today so may not get quite as many miles in as I have been over the past few days.

Other than that, not much happening. I can hardly wait for spring so I can get outside and do some gardening. All in good time I guess.

Hope you all have a great day down on the homestead.