A Helping Hand Gardening

  SproutRobot is exactly what I was looking for! I am so excited to have this "Helping Hand" as I call it. I have always been a hands on learner. Someone needs to show me what to do, and I will get it. Like, hold my hand, and walk me through it, type showing. But once I see it and do it, I usually can do it. This year I will be trying this SproutRobot.com. I am super excited!! It emails you notifications to start your seeds, and when to plant them for your zip code. It gives you picture directions that are easy to follow. And the best part is it's FREE!

Here is a link to the page: "How To Plant Cabbage"

  I will be trying this for our planting season this year. I so badly want to grow a garden, but haven't had the opportunity to be shown hands on. I think it is so important to help with our grocery budget, and for getting the children to actually eat veggies. The one year we had a small 8x8 raised garden bed that my hubby put together for me for Mothers Day...complete with wonderful organic compost! The children ate the most veggies I have ever seen them eat! It's always better when grown by your own tender care. But, that's as close I got to being a gardener (and my square foot garden was a flop last summer). It was fun for the summer, but I really didn't know what I was doing! This year I'd like it to be different! I want to involve the children and keep my mind focused on the project and not get bored, or flake out on it, as I seem to have a problem with. "I'm a sprinter, not a marathon runner!" It's just my nature, and I'd like to change that...I do awesomely well for a small period of time, then something throws a wrench in it, and I never get back to it.

*Pictures to come throughout our journey! Pray for steadfastness! I need it :)
Heather

The Big One...

  The biggest deal of the century, or at least my century, I scored last week! I seem to always be one step behind when it comes to finding a good deal. Praise God, He allowed me to find this one...

  My dad and I were walking around Lowes, looking for some flooring and bathroom vanities for our bonus room renovation, and I figured we should take a look at the clearance section. As we are standing there, I noticed two big boxes. I thought to myself, "Wonder what's in there?" I went around the other side to find tags that said, "Clearance $17.60 Was $199.00". Breakwater Blue storage pedestals! Same color family as my washer and dryer, not the exact color, but close enough to make it worth buying them!

  The logical side of me says, "Don't do it! You're doing fine with the setup you have, and Bob hasn't been working for 3 weeks. That's $38 you don't have to spend right now." The free spirited side is jumping for joy at this steal of a deal, and saying, "Sweet! Load 'em up!" Thankfully my dad is a free spirited type when it comes to deals and says, "What? You can't not get them! You'd be crazy not to!". So thankfully my dad footed the $38 bill, and I now have my beautiful pedestals that took only 5hrs to install...Gasp!! Sorry honey! I really didn't think it would take more than 30 minutes to get them in. Boy, was I wrong!

Addie trying to help us lift the ducting.

"I got it Daddy!"

"Good Job, Addie!"

We tried it, but I ended up climbing back there to hold it.

Bob pushing the dryer back into its spot.

Don't they look lovely!?

Here is the real color without flash...kind of a Seafoam Green with a Grey Blue

Lincoln trying them out.

Kisses from Daddy

The end result! I'm a happy girl!

So there is my awesome find for the year! Not bad :) It makes the room seem bigger and I now don't have to stuff myself into the dryer to get what's in the back! Oh, and a big thanks to our neighbor Ryan for lending us some plumbers tape!!

31 Days to Clean Martha Challenge VIDEOS!

Hi All!

  So sorry I've been away for so long. Life has just been hectic and challenging lately. A new Bible study, a puking plague, and a 10 day vacation back "home",  just to name a few. Life just got really busy, really fast. Who said summer was laid back?! I guess they haven't been to our home. :)


  I have decided to participate in the 31 Days to Clean Video Challenge (haven't heard of it? I have been dying to buy this ebook since it came out a few months ago, but you know me, I always think I can get it on sale! Guess what I did!) Having a Martha House the Mary Way, by Sarah Mae. Here is the link to the Home page. Sarah Mae of Like A Warm Cup of Coffee is offering it at 50% off this week using code: BLOOM  Yes ladies, $2.50 for a helpful ebook. I can say, for $2.50 it is worth missing a coffee and having a clean home! :)

  I'm so excited, are you?! Today is day 1, so hop on over to the 31 Days to Clean website and get your ebook...grab your apron...'cause things are gonna get all tidy in here!

Blessings~Heather

Eggs...Eggs...and more Eggs!

Well our 9 month journey with chickens has finally paid off! Only 2 out of our 13 hens were laying one egg each for the end of the summer, and having none laying any for the last 2 months, we were about to make them into dinner. They have redeemed themselves by giving us 10 eggs yesterday, and 1 blue~green egg this morning. Our dry streak has now been broken! I can't wait to look this afternoon to see if we find more. :)

I know it's silly to get sooo excited over eggs, but we are an impatient family (unfortunately). We made sure we picked out the breeds that lay early, and are daily layers, and all the other credentials of a "good layer." (We have been taught through this that we need to wait on the good things in life. Just because everything is how it's supposed to be, doesn't mean that it will just happen. We have to do our best, and then we need to wait on the Lord. It's His timing not our own.)

We have now figured out that a lot of this is the care of the animals. I'm thinking that we should have been more diligent in our feeding and watering of these little birds...and not allowing the children to be the sole caretakers of them. They see a little water, and a little food, and think that they don't need anymore than they have. This for Ty has been an eye opener in the fruits of your labor lesson. When he wasn't caring for them as he should, he didn't reap the benefits of eggs, but now that he has stuck to feeding and watering them properly, he is now seeing these benefits. He was also shown how by his slacking, others were hurt from it. He will be the head of his household one day, and if he isn't doing his very best to take care of them then they will too be hurt by his laziness. As we were finding these 10 eggs yesterday afternoon, he kept saying "oh my, here's another," and "look there, another," and "Mom this is a miracle," and "I can't believe how many eggs there are!"

Lessons learned for the little ones are summed up in this poem that is now posted in the kitchen for all to see:

Work While You Work
M.A. Stodart

Work while you work,
Play while you play,
One thing each time,
That is the way.
All that you do,
Do with your might;
Things done by halves
Are not done right.

Master Cleaning List

I got all my Saturday chores done, so I'm taking the time to write out my new master cleaning list. I'm hoping that by doing this, it will keep me accountable for actually sticking to this list. I started this yesterday, and hope that I will be able to accomplish these things as listed, along with all of my daily chores, cooking, and homeschooling, etc!

Weekly Master Cleaning List

Monday- 6 loads of laundry, mop floors.

Tuesday- 4 loads of laundry, clean the whole kitchen (microwave, walls, stove, fridge, pantry)

Wednesday- 3 loads of laundry, deep clean both bathrooms, get car cleaned out, and vacuumed (while I'm in town for my crazy day)

Thursday- 4 loads of laundry, bedroom cleaning day ***kids clean theirs, I clean mine***, mop floors.

Friday- 5 loads of laundry, deep clean living room (vacuum under couch cushins, sweep under couch, dust, wash walls) mop floors.

Saturday- Clean all windows and mirrors in house, strip everyone's beds and wash sheets, wash Bob's work clothes.

I'll continue to compile my lists of daily chores, meal planning, etc. when I get a chance. They will get posted when I have more free time:) Maybe if there are messy's out there like me, this will help you get your home under control too! I have for too long been a messy, and now with the amount of kids and daily chaos, I have been forced to try to be a cleany! Pray for ME!!!

The Best Window Cleaner

So, this morning I have my list of chores to do. The first is to clean all mirrors, and windows. The problem was that I had run out of Windex! I have been putting this chore off for a few weeks (gross I know). I kept forgetting to buy it at the store, these days food is more important to me:-)

Anyways, I decided to look up a natural cleaning solution. I then found a recipe for water, vinegar, and dish soap. I looked in my cupboards, and yes, I had all of those. Well I guess I just looked for the vinegar, the others you obviously don't find in the cupboard! I had the exact amount of vinegar to make this recipe (let's hope I can remember to buy the vinegar next time I'm at the store!) This recipe for window cleaner is a bit different. Most of you probably already use this, and I'm the one behind on this one, but for those of us who have always used the "toxic" stuff this recipe works great. I put a pump of my foam dish soap in the spray bottle to cut the film that the Windex left from all the other window cleanings. It worked great! It's twice as fast to clean em, because you can wipe, then let it dry by itself. I came back to the windows hoping tt the watery look would disappear without a trace of streaks, and it did. They are now all sparkling clean. Such a good feeling, wouldn't you say???

Here is the recipe:

1/4 cup of vinegar

2 cups of water

One pump of foam dish soap (you could probably use one pump of regular, but I don't know how it will turn out, so don't get mad if it doesn't work!)

The best benefit besides being a lot healthier for you, is that it costs like $.25 to make it, instead of the $3.99 the bottle of cleaner costs! Win win in either case if you ask me:-)