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Taking a Break

I love how this sampler turned out. I found the frame in an antique store in Centerville and knew it would be perfect!

I feel like I’ve taken a break from life this week. After all the running we’ve done this summer during the week and over the weekends it was starting to feel like things were never going to slow down. Then this week came. Joe left for Wisconsin on Monday and was supposed to be home late Tuesday. But – he’s been gone all week. He’s been back in Iowa but he’s helping out a coworker who had an emergency that needed dealt with.

I finished this little pillow and am hoping it doesn’t sell. This is one I’d like to keep for myself!

So, no Joe, nothing on the agenda, and I’ve pretty much just shut down. Of course we had the school open house Tuesday night and first day of school yesterday. Then Aaron showed up last evening just to visit. Dad stopped by with some clothes Drew had left at their house and to pick up some eggs. But other than that my days have consisted of stitching, binge watching Downton Abbey, doing a little bit of crafting, keeping up with the laundry, taking care of the chickens and that’s about it. I shut down. Took a break. And it’s been quiet and relaxing and very much needed. Joe will be home at some point today and things will get back to normal. We’ll get back into a new routine on Monday now that school has started and my days will be a lot more quiet with Drew out of the house. I’m going to work on getting into a weekly cleaning schedule, I want to clean out and rearrange kitchen cupboards, the bathroom needs a deep cleaning, the camper needs stocked for our Labor Day camping trip, the list goes on and on, but this week I took a break from everything. It’s nice to be able to do that now and then.

Being Happy

I was gathering eggs the other day and I brought in another blue egg. Of course I had to show Joe and he laughed and said, “Those blue eggs make you happy don’t they?” And they do! Acutally, just the act of gathering eggs and talking to the chickens makes me happy. And I get to do it on a daily basis!

Then the other evening, one of those few evenings here lately where we could just sit still and relax, we were outside on the deck Joe built this summer. I had my sewing with me and my glass of Diet Pepsi (a bad addiction I’m working on stopping) sitting beside me on the table Joe built. It was a beautiful evening to be outside. And I realized how content I was. I told Joe how spoiled I felt at that moment. His response was that I was far from spoiled. But at that moment I was happy and I did feel spoiled.

Then when we were camping in Clear Lake I shared some salsa with the group that I had made the week before. Dad and Mom have had an overabundance of tomatoes, onions and green peppers this summer and keep giving them to me so I’ve been making freezer salsa and I now have 31 containers of salsa in the freezer, not to mention how much we’ve already eaten. They keep giving me tomatoes and I haven’t wanted them to go to waste so even if it meant getting up extra early in the morning to make a batch before going somewhere else for the day, I was up chopping tomatoes. And I realized it makes me happy. Being able to share with family and friends something I had made that was not only yummy but full of fresh straight from the garden ingredients makes me happy. Knowing this winter I can bring out this homemade yummy salsa and use it in chili and for tacos or just to eat with chips makes me happy. Just the process of making the salsa makes me happy.

Joe just chuckles when I say my blue eggs make me happy but he knows me and he knows these little things are so important to me. It doesn’t take much to find something around here that makes me happy! And that makes me happy too!

I’ve always been a homebody but it seems the older I get and the longer I’m out of the workforce, the more of a homebody I’m becoming. Being away from home these past few days was fun but I would find myself wishing I was back home. When we got home Sunday evening and headed down to check on the chickens I found our first blue egg. Matilda had laid her first egg while we were gone. It really didn’t matter that I wasn’t home when Matilda laid her first egg but it felt like I had missed out on a milestone in one of my baby’s lives! Silly I know but I just like to be home!

Weekend Project

Saturday morning I ran across a post on Facebook shared by my niece giving instructions on making a DIY Umbrella Stand Planter. Usually I just scroll on past these type of things but this one caught my eye. I then showed it to Joe and next thing I know – we’re spending our weekend making one for our deck! Dad and Mom kept Drew for us for awhile on Saturday while we ran to get supplies and then out for supper at Joe’s favorite restaurant, Bubba-Q’s. It was a much needed “date” for us as we rarely spend time by ourselves.

By the time we got home from Dad and Mom’s after picking up Drew it was after 9:00 p.m. but we decided to go ahead and get started. We got the cement work done so the cement would be set for the next day. Then yesterday we finished the project. After it was finished and put in place, I told Joe I thought rather than use it as a planter it would be more practicle for us to turn it into a table and he jumped right on it! The next thing I knew this is what we had – a DIY Umbrella Stand Table. I love it! Now we can sit out on the deck, in the shade, and not worry about the birds leaving droppings all over us. We have a tree over our deck which works great for shade but the darn birds like to roost in the tree and they sure do leave a mess!

We have had such beautiful weather here the last couple of weeks and last Sunday was no exception. We invited Dad and Mom over for supper on the deck and then after they left we cleaned everyting up and we sat outside under our new umbrella table until dark. I sewed, Joe had his iPad and Drew kept coming and going doing his thing. We had a quiet, relaxing, productive weekend!

Now I have the perfect outside stitching spot!

Favorite Flowers

I think zinnias are my new favorite summer flower. They come in so many different colors and they just keep blooming and blooming. Some are tall, others are perfect for borders. The more you cut them the more they bloom so you get beautiful bouquets for the house that last for days and yet they keep blooming outside. And they’ll keep blooming into fall. I’m loving them this year!

A Few Frugal Happenings

I try to work at being frugal as much as I can but I always forget to keep track. When I do keep track I usually find myself trying even harder or I realize some of the things we do that are frugal that I don’t think about. A few frugal things from the past few days –

We trimmed one of our trees instead of hiring it out. Trimming trees means lots of clean up work but it sure saves money to do it yourself if you can!
Lots of dead branches gone from our tree.
Mom gave me a bunch of green peppers from her garden. I chopped them all up and froze them. They will taste so good in casseroles and Sloppy Joe’s and such later.
We took advantage of Menard’s 11% off sale. You get a 11% rebate on all purchases, even those that are on sale! That’s when we bought our decorative fence supplies.
Drew found fish sticks on sale at the local grocery store – he loves fish sticks! I hate to buy them at regular price as they are so expensive. I then made some homemade tartar sauce to go with them. It tastes so much better than what you can buy in the store and I can make just the amount we will eat!
I was wanting a star to hang on the chicken coop but wasn’t really wanting to buy one. Then I had a “duh” moment – I used twigs off the branches we trimmed off the tree and made my own primitive star using twigs and twine. Perfect! I just might have to make a couple more!
We built our privacy fence ourselves. I can’t imagine what labor costs would be. Joe always does these things himself so we’ve never had to pay for labor. Between what his dad taught him and what he learned working construction for a local company years ago he can pretty much do anything except electrical. That he won’t tackle.
When I want fresh flowers in the house I go outside and pick what I want. This year I planted a lot of zinnias from seed. They come in so many colors and are so easy to grow and the more you cut them the more they bloom!
Beautiful bright cheery colors!
Joe’s been drinking lots of sun tea. So easy to make and so frugal.
We had a friend drop off some homegrown sweetcorn. That along with some fresh green beans from Mom’s garden made for a yummy supper alongside hamburgers from the freezer.

That’s all I can think of at the moment. I’m slowly working on building up my pantry. I put it on hold while we’ve been busy working outside and I thought this week was going to be really busy but plans have changed. (I’m very thankful!) Next week is Ragbrai – The Register’s Great Ride Across Iowa – and we will be having 20 plus people camping out in our yard Thursday night. There will be an extra 20,000 plus people in our little town of 2,000. Needless to say I will not be going to town on Thursday. But more about that later. For now I can relax the rest of this week and keep being frugal!

Toad Time

No Drew was not licking this little guy – he just wanted to stick his tongue out for some reason!

I’ve always loved toads. I remember having a pet toad when I was little when we still lived in town. It lived in our sandbox. My boys always wanted to scare me with all the creepy crawlies they would find but along with toads, I’m not too squeamish with anything creepy crawly. I looked at that as a positive but they were always disappointed that I didn’t scream and run away! Drew loves to catch frogs and toads and anything else he can get his hands on. Right now the crickets are out and he’s having a great time catching them. I’m thankful he’s finally outgrowing wanting to keep all his finds as pets and putting them in jars and trying to bring them inside but he still has to show me all of his finds. He’s getting more and more willing to catch and release – which is good for the house and for the little critters!

This little guy was the sweetest. He had a fat little tummy! And I see I need to trim Drew’s nails – dirty little boy fingernails – yuck!

Almost Done

It took us all weekend but we are finally almost done! We had rain, lots and lots of heat, bugs galore, one minor blood drawing mishap, a few “words”, took a break to go to supper at Belva Deer with Dad and Mom but for the most part everything went pretty smoothly and the fence is up! And it turned out beautifully! We searched in Pinterest until we found something we both liked. Joe sat down and figured out how to build it and here it is! It’s not a very long fence as you can see but it’s going to help tremendously I think with blocking the view from the gravel road although Joe thinks we should extend it onto the end of the deck that butts up to the patio. We’ll live with it for awhile and see how we feel next spring. I’m guessing we’ll end up extending it. Now we just have to wait for the dirt to dry out so we can fill it in and put the blocks back down and then it will be finished. I love the way it turned out and am blessed to have a husband who can envision what I want and then build it for me!

Almost There

This is going to keep us busy this weekend – if it doesn’t rain. We are so close to finally getting our deck/patio/whatever you want to call it done! Earlier this week we trimmed the tree that overhangs this area. It had so many dead branches and branches hanging over the house and hanging so low we had to duck to walk around the patio. That was a job I’m glad is done! There is going to be a decorative fence of some sort here. Right now there’s the driveway and then the old garage is situated between the driveway and the gravel road which gives us a little privacy from the road. Once that comes down it will be wide open – and we will also be able to see the back of the neighbor’s house across the way which means they will be able to see our patio/deck. Not what I want. They are great neighbors but I live in the country for many reasons – and privacy is one of those reasons. (I want to be able to step out my backdoor in my pj’s without being seen!) So – we’re going to put up a decorative fence. I’m hoping we can get it done this weekend. Then if the heat ever breaks and the bugs ever leave – we can sit outside in the evenings and just enjoy this area. Next year I can concentrate on decorating this space and the fence itself – something to dream about and plan over the winter! !

Slowing Down

Slowing down – one thing we as older parents have learned to do. We have more patience. We definitely don’t sweat the small stuff. We are more willing to take the time to work with Drew more at a much younger age than we did with the older kids. Joe especially. Not because we didn’t want to with the other kids – we just didn’t have the time. Or we thought we didn’t anyway. Joe would have set a certain pace and worked hard to get a project done. The boys would have stayed out of his way. But Drew is different. For one, he’s always right in the middle of whatever we are doing. At all times. Raising him is in many ways like raising an only child. He demands attention! Aaron might have been watching, analyzing, learning in his own way but staying back. Eric would not have been anywhere around. He was usually with Abby and Jeremy. But Drew, he’s going to be right here, demanding to be a part of this, and Joe is so much more willing to slow down and work with him, show him, teach him and allow him to do this. And I love it. Do I now have deck boards with a few extra dents in them from a drill slipping off the screw? Definitely. Are some of the screws in a little deeper than they should be? Of course. But you know what – that’s okay. I don’t need perfection. Everytime I look down at these boards I’ll see my little boy on his knees, concentrating so hard, working his heart out and being so proud of himself because he helped build this deck. And I’ll see his daddy right there with him, taking the time to teach him this very valuable skill.