Down on the Homestead - Dec. 12 - 18th

**homesteadmamma** · 12-12-2004, 09:58 AM

Good morning everyone. Its a brand new week and I hope its a better week than last week. We got rain yesterday and now its cold with high winds. Its very slippery outside. I'm so glad I was able to pick dh up yesterday rather than today.

I'm not sure whats on the agenda today. We won't be going into the city to church because of the roads and dh can't go long distances at the present time.

We will probably just spend the day relaxing, reading and then watching movies with the kids later tonight.

I do have to go over to the post office and clean later tonight.

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone.

**kimmee** · 12-12-2004, 10:44 AM

I hope you have a wonderful day too, CJ - a nice CALM one!!
Today I have to spend the day making room in our storage area for all moms stuff - and I also have to repack all of it (outside) because she had cockroaches

I need to get on it as well cuz we are supposed to get snow around noon - but it sounds like its going to be a real pitiful little snow.
Doing laundry today and general cleaning and that should pretty much take up my time til I get to go pick up the kids and hear all about their weekend!!

I love it when I get them back!! Tuesday is my birthday and so I get to go ALONE to the Target after everyone goes to bed to finish my Christmas shopping (stocking stuffers) I love doing that - my special treat!!
Tomorrow I have to drive into town to take mom her her Doctor's appt

- Wednesday Night is Aimee's holiday play at school and then Thursday is classroom Christmas parties so this week is going to be busy and fast!! Only 12 days til Christmas!! :santa:
I hope you all have a fabulous day on your homesteads!

**QuilterMom** · 12-12-2004, 01:12 PM

Good afternoon! We're just in from church. We visited the same one as last week. I enjoyed the pastor's sermon very much, but the length of the service (1 hour 40 minutes) is too much for me (used to 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes at the most) and the music is not what I like (but I knew that ahead of time). We are going to check into the 8:30am service (Sunday School starts at 9:45am so the early service has to be shorter than the 11am service!), but we don't know if there's anywhere for ds to go during the early service. I am just really discouraged right now about finding a church that is what we're looking for (I don't think it exists!). That along with some other things really has me down this holiday season and I normally adore Christmas!

We're about to head to Sears. They have jeans on sale and ds only has one pair that fit! He had more that I thought would take him through this winter and he has grown so much (he's all legs!) that they're way too short. Dh also wants to ask about our dishwasher. I think he's going to cancel the repair service appt. tomorrow because he just can't miss any more work right now (they are slammed with business). He got the dishwasher to work on Thurs. night and then started it for a run again last night and opened the door to see if the detergent cup latch had opened (another problem we're having) and the touchpad buttons jammed again.

He left the door open for a few hours and somehow got the touchpad buttons to work again and ran the load. I'm sure we'll have to have a repair call, but right now is just not a good time so hopefully dh can continue to get it to work. I'm really upset considering how much we paid for it!

I also have to watch this past Thurs.'s Survivor episode today because I didn't realize the finale is tonight! Ack! I absolutely have to sit down and work on ds's quilt tonight while it's on.

Our temps have really dropped here. I'm not sure what the outside temp is, but it was 69 in the house this morning and has just now gotten up to 70 in the house. It doesn't feel that cold though so I think we're going to be able to get away with lower indoor temps here than we were able to at our last house.

Have a great day everyone!

**Michele Annette** · 12-12-2004, 04:16 PM

That along with some other things really has me down this holiday season and I normally adore Christmas!

Kim I am with you on this same exact thought this year and it sucks!

I am so sick I can't even tell you. I spent the whole day in bed again yesterday. I had laryngitis, so bad I could only talk a whisper and it's a little better today, but UGH. I tried to work in Christmas cards while I was in bed, but kept changing my mind on the design. I did finally come up with something that I liked, but it took all day! Plus all that trying to rest in between...DH went to a holiday party without me to a friend's house last night...

Not a lick of holiday baking is done, my house is a mess, the Christmas presents are slow going and well, I have no one to blame but myself. But if I were healthy I could do it all. Again, lesson learned here!

The only good parts about the weekend are that DH is here with me and we have snow.

I have wanted snow since October.

I am sorry if this is such a downer post, but I pray that I am healther soon! I have been resting a lot, taking my vitamins, drinking my green tea, ginger tea with fresh lemon, eating very healthy foods and drinking as much water as I can. I have now developed a slight cough. I haven't been this sick in year! I'm on the 10th day!

I hope and pray that you and your families are ALL healthy.

**slowtypinwoman** · 12-12-2004, 08:32 PM

Hi everyone,
Today has been a busy day here. I got most of the laundry done. Did dishes and took the dog for a 2 mile walk. It felt good to walk. The evenings go so quickly when we get home from school and I don't seem to have the time. That is one thing I have to make time for though. Today Michael and I had to go to the funeral home.

I close freind lost her long battle with cancer. She fought so long and so hard. Her family was wonderful caregivers for her. Her daughter is actually my close friend, but they are like family to us. And have been wonderful surragate grandmothers to Alex. They are the ones I do the Relay for Life with. They burried her in her survivor sweatshirt. So fitting.
She died yesterday at 11:30 and the first grandchild of that family came into this world at 6:30 p.m. God works in mysterious was doesn't he?

Right now I'm finishing my shopping online. I hope to have most of it done by bedtime.
Have a peaceful evening everyone
Marcia

**guest2** · 12-12-2004, 09:01 PM

Michele. Praying you get to feeling better soon.

are with you and yoru friend's family Marcia.
~Kim, I pray that you are able to get that dishwasher fixed for good. How frustrating...
~Kimmee

Cockroaches Ewww......I feel so badly for you!
~CJ, hope you had a wonderful and relaxing day at home and that your hubby is on his way to a quick healing!

Today has been a busy one around here. The boys went down to church here in town and Jeff and I got busy working on a few things in the house. We moved the waterbed frame, headboard and drawer pedestal out of our bedroom and put in a new frame and my parent's beautiful old Ethan Allen headboard that they gave us. In the process of cleaning out the drawers under the old bed, I found a lovely old lace tablecloth and put it up on the bedroom wondown behind our bed to give me some more privacy during the day but still let the light in. The curtains close right over it at night. In the process of moving out the old stuff and in the new headboard, we moved our dining room table out of the way of the sliding glass doors and realized the leg was lose so DH fixed that. Jeff then decided to use the drawer and cabinet base from the waterbed and modify them to work as part of our entertainment center in the living room. That ment cleaning out all the shelves and drawers in the entertainment center and taking down the extra shelves we had in the living room to fit this in. Luckily the boys came home in time to help with that.

I think my furniture moving and being hubby's assistant for the morning just about wiped me out. So DH worked on those things and I got busy baking 4 loaves of whole wheat bread and 6 loaves of banana bread working around the drawers that were piled in the kitchen and the upside down dining room table that had the glue drying while the legs were clamped on.

. The boys then informed us that there was a big Christmas Party at their other youth group tonight and could they possibly go and by the way...could the leaders of the youth group here in town borrow our van so they could take lots of kids into the party with it?

So... we lent the van out to the youth group leaders and I got busy making dinner so the boys could eat before they left.

As I was sitting in the middle of my living room floor eating dinner (the couches were covered with cd's, boxes and books from my husband's remodeling project

) I guess I must have had a overwhelmed look on my face (I get totally overwhelmed by big messes and kind of shut down). My husband sent me to our bedroom and told me to come and visit with all of you here for awhile so I would not get stressed by looking at the mess he made. What a sweetie!

I still need to get our bed made now that the sheets are all washed and find somewhere to put all of the clothes that we took out of those drawers that we used to have under the bed. Our bedroom had been clean but you sure couldn't tell it now.

Hope you all have a wonderful evening!

**matt&roxy** · 12-13-2004, 09:29 AM

I am sorry to see the weekend go. Yesterday, I washed laundry and used my retractable clothesline to dry them. I so loved it!!!!!! Of course, it did look a little funny having it in the living room, but I have no where else to put it. Last night I made steak, portebella mushrooms, baked potatoes, corn, and noodles for supper and afterwards Matthew and I played Uno Attack!!!! I love when we sit and play games together. Yesterday we also got all the dogs, cats, and goats wormed. We also have the dogs and cats their flea drops, what fun we had with that

Today, there really isn't much to do......

~empty catpans
~empty dishwasher
~clean bathroom

Tonight Matthew is bringing home some boxes so I can get started on packing. The moving date is almost here and nothing is packed

! I think I will try finishing the afghan I am making today and if I have time make some more preemie blankets!!!!! Matthew bought me some more baby yarn Saturday so I could make some more stuff for HAIN.....he is so sweet.....

So far I have four preemie blankets and 20 hats and bootie sets!!!! I feel so good about joining this group and being able to help these families out!!!!!!!!!!

I hope ya'll have a wonderful, wonderful Monday

**homesteadmamma** · 12-13-2004, 10:15 AM

Good morning everyone. Its quiet here still, everyone is still sleeping including dh. The weather is nice although a little dull.

Today is laundry and baking day. I have one load of laundry done and another ready to start. I need to get some grain ground up and then get bread started. Along with that, last night's dishes need to be done.

This afternoon I need to do some sewing. I'd like to do some quilting as well, but will have to wait and see how the day unfolds.

Tonight I need to clean the post office and then I think I'll read.

Kim - hope things begin to improve soon.
Michelle - praying your feeling better soon. Have you gone to the doctors yet?
Kimmee - have a wonderful day
Debbie - sounds like your a busy gal. I love changing furniture around, its the mess from doing it that always overwhelms me too.
Marcia -

Hope everyone has a great Monday.

**Michele Annette** · 12-13-2004, 10:20 AM

Hi Everyone!

CJ- I hope your husband's eye is healing. I'm saying my prayers for you and your family. No, I haven't gone to the doctors. I have a virus and I told DH I would see how I felt today. If I get any worse I'm calling for an appointment, but I don't want to take antibiotics. Half of them I'm allergic to, but I want this to take it's course. I have been keeping an eye out on my cough and making sure it doesn't go into my lungs. If it moves further into my lungs, off to the doctor I go.

Kimmee- UGH Cockroaches!! I pray for your sanity and strength in dealing with your mother and all of this.

Kim- I hope your dishwasher is working again and that your spirits are lifted soon!

Marcia- I'm sending prayers to you and your friend's family. I am so sorry for the loss of your dear friend.

Debbie- I think your DH had the right idea sending you to the computer! I get stressed out over messes and clutter too!

Roxy, I may have missed this, where are you moving? I hope your packing goes quickly!!

hugs to all of you!!!

I am trying very hard not to talk much today. I'm at work. Thank God I don't work with the public. I just sit at my desk and drink tea while I'm working on the computer. I have a nice window and there is a beautiful snow falling right now. The heat is on, I'm all bundled up and have my slippers on too. My coworker insists that I go home to rest some more, but frankly, I am worse at home because we have forced air heat. I think I should get a humidifier or a vaporizer for our bedroom when we sleep. That may help me.

Tonight I will be making my first batch of Christmas cookie dough. (Well, I'll see how I feel first). For dinner I'll me making some spinach tortellinni soup and rolls. Then I will relax and do the one last load of laundry I have to do and work on Christmas cards, in bed!

I hope you are all having a good day!

**kimmee** · 12-13-2004, 10:58 AM

Good Morning!!
Michele - I was wondering if I missed about Roxy moving to. By the way - I am still planning to send you stuff about the area of Colorado you are interested in - there just isn't much info available. Bruce and I are thinking abouttaking a drive out there though.
I have to take my mom to the doctor today

her life completely revolves around her trips to the doc's, her meds, and her different "ailments" (she has always been a hypochondriac but now its ten-fold

)
When I finally get back I am working on a new "pool" for the ducks - theirs broke so instead of buying a new one I am just digging one and lining it with plastic tell when ever we can finally move them to their big pond out front.
Tomorrow is my birthday - I am going to be 42

and I am probably going to celebrate it by waiting on my mom hand and foot

but I chose this.
I am hoping to get a chance to do some sewing tonight and I have several books to read so I have lots of fun things to do - if I get a chance to just goof off!!
I hope you all have a lovely day on your hometseads today!! Only 11 days til Christmas !! I am so excited!!

**Michele Annette** · 12-13-2004, 11:10 AM

Kimmee- Yes, we are still interested in Colorado. We plan on taking a trip in the Spring maybe. Thank you, but don't worry about sending me stuff. You just focus on more important things at home!

**QuilterMom** · 12-13-2004, 11:52 AM

for everyone!

I'm still in Bah Humbug mode today and hoping I can snap myself out of it. Dh talked to one of his sisters and his mom for a few minutes last night and evidently his mom didn't tell his sisters (dh refused to be the one to tell his sisters the news and I certainly didn't think I should have to!) that we're no longer sending all the nieces and nephews bday or Christmas money (we got tired of no one ever sending us a thank you card or making a quick call to say thanks - we always make ds write thank you notes, amidst loud protests from him, so I am just over sending them gifts). His mom hit him up about it and his sister was yelling about it in the background that we need to send bday cards to 2 of our nieces (which we did back in Oct.) and money and something for Christmas. Dh just takes it and won't stand up to his mom and I get so furious (I cannot stand the woman - she has always treated me poorly) and it just really put me in a bad mood last night. Add to that dh having to buy a new tv yesterday (he had a complimentary gc left from the delivery fiasco that was burning a hole in his pocket!) and he and I so not being on the same page about money or anything else right now and I've just had it! I am afraid we are going to end up drowning here and he doesn't seem to care. We stretched ourselves to the limit buying this homestead and were lucky to get in when we did (the cheapest house for sale now where we live is only on 1 acre and is $125,000 more than we paid for ours!). I know that our property taxes will increase next year based on our purchase and we know that our homeowner's ins. and auto ins. will jump by at least 25% next year even though we didn't file a claim on either from the hurricanes, yet dh continues to spend money like it grows on trees and just has me stressed to the brink.

Ok, off my vent! Ds and I will be heading to the library to return some things today and I'll stop by Walgreens on the way to buy more albacore tuna they have on sale for our stockpile. I only have one more row to attach to ds's quilt tonight then I need to clip all the edges. Hopefully I can get all the clipping finished and wash the quilt tomorrow so the edges fray.

It's cold here today (was 45 outside this morning and 65 in the house) so I really should take advantage and do some baking, but I'm not really in the mood. If ds asks to make some cookies though, I probably will.

Have a great day everyone!

**matt&roxy** · 12-13-2004, 11:56 AM

I could of swore I posted about us moving.....oh well, I will post it in the veranda.......

**homesteadmamma** · 12-13-2004, 11:59 AM

Kim -

**guest2** · 12-13-2004, 12:42 PM

Kim I'm so sorry that you are going through all this stress. When my DH was spending money we did not have I turned over all the bill paying to him...now he is Mr. Frugal

.
Kimmee~make sure you do something nice for you for your birthday!

Michele~praying you get to feeling better real soon.

Roxy~your dinner sounds wonderful! You are making my mouth water!

CJ~Praying that those blessings just keep rolling in for you!

This morning Jaysn and I both woke up not feeling well. I think we are coming down with the nasty cold/flu virus that is going around. :yuck: Chris also informed me that the cats had knocked over our Christmas tree and the glass spire on the top was broken. He got it all cleaned up while I dragged myself out of bed.

I got the tree all put back together and am praying that the cats will leave it alone.

I refuse to leave our house until 2 p.m. today. The boys still have so much work to do to get ready for their debate tomorrow and I need to be here to help them with it. Jaysn's former boss left a message here on our phone to meet him at 10 this morning but I am not going to do that. I had let him know before that 2 p.m. was when I was available. If he doesn't like it...tough! I will not change my day around and give up school time for him. Oh my...don't I sound lovely today.

On the agenda for me is getting the rest of the Christmas cards done. I need to get them sent out and have been putting off doing the second half of the batch. I also need to go to work this afternoon after stopping by to pick up Jaysn's last paycheck. I want to get some decorating done at the library for Christmas today.

I just feel so unmotivated when I have a cold and all I want to do is crawl into bed and sleep. However...that is not to be today. I need to put on some beautiful music and snap put of this funk that is hanging over me.

You all be blessed and I pray you do not get this cold!