September, 2008

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Great Day at Home!

Monday, September 29th, 2008

I am having a splendid day at home today.

My kitchen is spic & span from top to bottom.  Floor is drying right now, counters are empty, dishwasher is empty, sink is empty, pantry is clean and everything that didn’t belong in there is out.  I was suffocating in there.  There was stuff that belonged in every room in the house sitting in the kitchen for some strange reason.  Mind you, it hasn’t been that long since I did a complete top to bottom scrubbing of the kitchen either.

Dave and I really have a common problem…we don’t put stuff away right away.   And you know that adage about how everything should have a place.  Yeah, right.  Everything in our house seems to just decide to occupy the space in which it was set down.  We have so much stuff that doesn’t have it’s own spot to live.  I keep telling myself I’m going to buy a label maker and put labels all over the house with an attached Polaroid showing what belongs where and how it looks when the item is there.

Not being consistant putting things away isn’t the message though.  The fact that I had a nice day staying-at-home and taking care of my home was the point.  It was quiet, I was relaxed, I was able to do a nice job, and I’m happy with the results.  I get to stay-at-home tomorrow too!  YEAH!

Posted in Homemaking & Recipes | 1 Response »

Shedding Pounds

Sunday, September 28th, 2008

Dave & I have been legitimately trying to shred some pounds lately.  He is down 5 and I’m down 11 so far.  I’m bragging temporarily on my reduction, because you know how men are with weight loss.  He’ll be passing me by all too soon.  What is with a man’s metabolism…it is so unfair.

Our weight plan it utterly easy, because neither of us would stick to anything complicated.  We are reducing quantities consumed, increasing veggie consumption and going for 1 mile+ walks as many days a week as we can fit into our schedules.   Pretty easy and no brainer stuff.

Who knows, maybe this will help with getting pregnant too!!

Posted in Marriage/Married Life, Trying to Conceive | No Responses »

More Veggies in the Freezer

Sunday, September 28th, 2008

With Dave’s help today, we processed two enormous butternut squash, 14 ears of corn and 4 pounds of green beans.

Dave peeled & diced the butternut squash (also peeled part of his thumb, ouchie).  I put olive oil, salt & pepper on it and roasted it in the oven for an hour and 15 minutes.  Then I put it through the food processor and into freezer bags.  I dislike squash, but I am totally willing to hide stuff like squash in soups, stews etc.  As a matter of fact, I made a vegetable beef soup for dinner tonight and put at least 1 cup of squished squash in there…can’t even tell.  Bonus is that I get the nutrients without having to taste the stuff.

Posted in Homemaking & Recipes, Marriage/Married Life | No Responses »

“Hunting”

Sunday, September 28th, 2008

Well, Dave and I went “hunting” today.  Actually, we did the modern equivalent and went to the butcher shop.  There is a butcher shop near here that has great meat for great prices.  We stocked up on at least an entire month’s worth of meat this morning for a pretty low sum.  I repacked everything and used my handy vacuum sealer.  And I promptly put everything into our brand new freezer!

I’ve been stashing veggies away all summer so our freezer is looking pretty well stocked.  After the butcher shop, we went to the grocery store where I bought all the extra items we’ll need for the entire week for a whopping $20!!!!!  I was very impressed.  Stock piling summer veggies and buying at the local butcher shop is really saving us money.  It has really helped that at each of the Farmer’s Markets I’ve been working this summer there is at least one produce seller who has “extras” at the end of the day which they give me.

Posted in Gardening/Farmers Markets, Homemaking & Recipes | No Responses »

Schedule Thoughts

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

Okay, I have to admit a few character flaws.  I am rampantly undisciplined and yet a perfectionist.  How on earth I cultivated those two characteristics at the same time is beyond me.  I am so much an all or nothing person.  Either I make a detailed list everyday and feel utter worthless if I don’t accomplish every single anal-retentive entry or I make no list and get hardly anything accomplished.

So when I am thinking of making a better schedule for myself, it means listing out everything in 15 minute increments and being totally unrealistic.  I have got to come up with a happy medium.  Some months back, Dave’s solution for me was to just make a list of things that needed to be accomplished daily, it didn’t matter when.  Somehow that didn’t work for me, it was far too lenient.  When I am facing a  deadline, I’m ruthlessly disciplined.   But give me the mundane tasks with no deadline and I’m horrible.

This afternoon while sitting at the Farmer’s Market I made two schedules entitling them Option A and Option B.    Option A, I admitted right at the top that it was my ambitious schedule, the one that lists everything in 15 minute increments and is super anal.  Option B, is probably more realistic, but it feels, how should I say this, ah, not living up to the perfectionist in me.

So I had a thought.  Instead of 15 minute increments, maybe I should divide my day into 3 sections like maybe morning routine, mid-day routine and afternoon routine.  Maybe that will take Dave’s original idea of just making a list to finish everyday and my need to be a little more deadline oriented in order to avoid the terrible undisciplined part of my character.  My need for oversight is kind of desperate.  If I don’t have accountability FORGET IT!  Dave isn’t a task master.  He’s not going to want to check a paper daily to make sure I’ve done all my tasks.  So I have to find the incentive within myself, argh!!  That’s the hard part.

As I have more thoughts on fixing this little dilemma, I will post again.

Posted in Homemaking & Recipes | No Responses »

No Schedule and Suffering For It

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

With our maple syrup business getting more and more busy, I am really starting to see the results of not having a set schedule for my days.  Since I do several Farmer’s Markets throughout the week on different days & times, I need to implement a schedule that accommodates.

Today I’m especially feeling the lack of a schedule because I’ve got errands Dave needs me to run, maple business that must be accomplished, a farmer’s market and we both need to eat dinner this evening and we need clothes to wear tomorrow.  Hmmm…gotta spread the load better than I have been doing lately.  My schedule is “feast or famine”, hardly anything on one day and screaming busy another.

Speaking of screamin’ busy…gotta go and get ready to leave.  But today while it is slow at the market, I think I’ll be working on some thoughts for a schedule of sorts.

Posted in Homemaking & Recipes, Maple Syrup | No Responses »

A Recent Read

Sunday, September 21st, 2008

I just recently finished reading Eragon by Christopher Paolini.  It was a really fun read.  Highly recommended!!

Posted in Reading | 1 Response »

Very Nice and Pretty Quiet Weekend

Sunday, September 21st, 2008

Dave and I had a really nice weekend.  Friday evening we went for a nice walk.  Then, we packed 5 gallons of maple syrup into smaller quantities for the Farmer’s Markets while we also made maple candy.  Saturday we had the Somers market from 9-12, then we went to a local shop that is going to carry our maple products.   We spent 2 hours at Lowe’s pricing items for our new sugarhouse which we begin construction on in October (I’m sure we’ll post photos).

Today we went to church and to the Knights of Columbus pancake breakfast (we supply the maple syrup, of course).  Our church is doing several fundraisers this year for a Franciscan mission in Jamaica.  There is a pasta dinner next week and there will be four more dinners throughout the year.  Since there are some fantastically large maple trees on the church property, we thought of another fundraiser.  Dave is going to tap the trees, we’ll pack the syrup in pint containers and the church can sell “church syrup”.

The rest of today has been nice and quiet.  I made a big pot of very healthy and yummy vegetable beef stew for dinner.  We even took a nap and watched a football game, our team lost though.

Posted in Catholicism, Gardening/Farmers Markets, Uncategorized | No Responses »

Ah, the life of small business owners!

Thursday, September 18th, 2008

Good golly, it has been a long while since I’ve been able to blog.  Actually, it’s been a long while since I’ve even had time to look at blogs I enjoy reading.  Dave & I have been busy with our maple syrup business.  Busy in a good way!  Two of our three farmer’s market will be ending at this end of this month.  The market here in our town will continue through mid-November (unless it snows).

It is really starting to feel like autumn here this week.  It was a perfect blue sky today.  We’ve noticed some of the trees are beginning to show signs of the season change too.  I’m ready for autumn because this summer just was long.  It was more humid here than last year and for someone who hates heat, having to sit outside at farmer’s markets was punishing.   I’m really hopeful next summer isn’t as warm as this one was here.  It only actually reached 90 once here (and that was barely 90, I think technically it was 89.9), but heat and me don’t mix.

I’ve got a small mountain of phone calls to make today so I had better get busy.  I thought I’d just stop by and let everyone know we are still alive and doing well.

Posted in Gardening/Farmers Markets | No Responses »