Unimportant Things I Haven’t Mentioned:

• Bryce and I canned 70 quarts of pears.
• Bryce is awesome to can with.
• I didn’t take a picture.
• No one really cares.
• My neighbor got evicted from his house.
• The estate holders put a lot of stuff in the dumpster.
• One is an old vanity.
• I’m pretty sure it could be awesome.
• Meg dumped a bucket of dirt on Spencer’s head.
• Spencer just stood there.
• I harvested 50 tomatoes last night.
• Spencer is really good at catching chickens.
• I canned apple juice.
• I’m re-doing my friend’s household’s worth of furniture.
• It’s taking forever but I’m almost done.
• I’m watching a little girl 3-4 days a week.
• So I can buy bee stuff.
• I bought some of it last week at a garage sale.
• Yes, you can buy that stuff at a garage sale.
• It’s Oregon, people.
• I’m really excited about this.
• We’re duck sitting Bryce’s co-worker’s ducks.
• Yes, the same co-worker that saw my bare bum.
• One of their ducks is laying eggs.
• I’m kind of nervous to try one.
• My kids get dropped off and picked up by the bus right in front of our house.
• It makes life worth living.
• This is not an exaggeration.
• I’m working on sewing two skirts.
• I’m planning on making peach leather tonight.
• It’s still really hot here, like 90s and 100s.
• I pick a handful of raspberries everyday.
• Someone left the back door open yesterday afternoon {not me}.
• One of the chickens came in and made it all the way through the mud room, kitchen, and dining room.
• Tried to chase chicken out.
• Apparently wood floors are very slippery.
• Finally succeeded.
• Checked for poop.
• None.
• Phew.
• I’m really inspired by my friend's blog to start sewing more clothing for myself.
• Bryce said no more projects for this year.
• I asked him to clarify ‘projects’.
• He refused.
• Boo.

Hope you have a great weekend.

We’re going to be working on putting in the sprinkler system.

Katie

Sometimes I Just Want To Take A Nap

But then I tell myself I should come up with something clever to post.

I end up not finding something clever to post.

Feel like I should post anyway.

Start to blog.

Delete post.

Start again.

Decide that I should write a post about posting but not really posting.

Wonder again what I should blog on.

Wish I had time to do a craft.

Which one would think I would have ample time with two 2! kids in school.

Does not seem to make a difference.

Found 30 chicken eggs in our yard.

They’re so naughty.

Spencer and Meg will not stop hitting, crying, spitting, or pushing, or taking time outs.

Yes, even Spencer.

Begin countdown for school starting for them.

Just left my not real blog post to put Meg in her room.

Lots of deep breathing.

 

 

Hope this finds you well, or not reading my post because you’re taking a nap.

Katie

This Week….

Bryce built a kiwi arbor.

Did you know kiwi grows in Oregon?

Well it does.

You should come visit.

Spencer got new shoes (which he won’t let me take off)….

….and chased and caught chickens and sat in chicken poop.

And realized the chickens are laying their eggs in the duck house.

One may wonder why I have a lot of pictures of Spencer…it’s because he follows me around every.where.  Sometimes happy and sometimes crying and sometimes poopy and sometimes a combination of two of the three.

Elizabeth started 2nd grade.

I picked 2lbs of green beans and the first of the corn.

I would like the record to show that after four attempts at sweet corn, I was successful this season.

I’m feeling pretty good about that.

Made tons and tons and tons and tons of tomatillo based salsa.

Maybe no tomatillos next year.

And better tomato cages.

Before

Ate this rooster for dinner

(Sometimes I sound like such a hippie.)

Put oars up in the sun room above the windows.

This weekend we’re chipping up branches, canning pears and putting in the start of a sprinkler system so that we will have lovely barefoot grass….in a section of our yard anyway.

Katie

….And the Winner Is….

Ronni!

“I follow, and I love your blog. Your the best visiting teacher and I have lots of favorite 80's movies. Maybe too many to mention?
Princess Bride, Top Gun, Ferris Bueller, Pretty in Pink, Adventures in Babysitting and who could forget the Back to the Future series?
Does that work? LOL!”

I will get that to you sometime this week.

Thanks for all those who participated, I really enjoyed reading the comments.

I’ll be back later this week.

Katie

Sister’s Weekend Giveaway {Exclamation Point}

So, if you’re new to the area, allow me to explain.

My sisters, sisters-in-law, my mom and myself participate in a Sister’s Weekend. 

We each make a surprise gift, times that by the number of women participating, and mail it out the first weekend in September.

Basically, we each get seven gifts in the mail in about a weeks time.

And each of them are different.

Last year, I made make-up bags.

I usually make one extra gift to giveaway on my blog.

However, none of my family have received theirs yet, and many of them read my blog, so I can’t disclose what I’ve made.

So, to sum it up, it’s a surprise giveaway, but! a giveaway nonetheless.

To participate:

• Make sure you’re a follower.
• Leave a comment telling me what your favorite movie from the 80s is
• And enter by Tuesday

The winner will be randomly selected and I’ll announce who it is Wednesday morning.

Katie

Trying to Get Back in The Habit

I made this apron for holding my clothes pins.  It has enormous pockets which when filled with the 682 clothes pins I need to hang five loads of my family’s laundry each week can be quite heavy.  However, for some reason I find it quite therapeutic to hang laundry, I like the quiet rhythm of it.  This is the curtain fabric from our house in Colorado.  This is the only part of my life that is like the movies.  I’ve never had a widowed millionaire serenade me with songs about German flowers….

Our other chickens started laying so we get 6-8 eggs a day, which is perfect.  One of my neighbors {not the one whose dog killed one of our chickens} will buy a dozen for $3.

I made some bunting using an old atlas that I picked up at an estate sale for the frame on top of the piano. 

And, thanks to Curious George for giving Elizabeth the idea to cook a slice of pizza via solar power.  She wanted to cook the whole pizza that way but I said there was no way that I was going to take my chances on an idea from a fictional monkey who has poor role models and a dog as a best friend and walks using his hands.  Actually….I just said no.  It actually worked.

I’m going to have a busy week, but check back on Friday for a giveaway post.  It’s Sister’s Weekend again and I’ll be giving away an extra project.

Hope you had a good weekend,

Katie

What I Know:

• 170# is a lot of peaches
• 170# feels like 600# when you’re canning them in a non-air conditioned house
• $.10 a # is pretty cheap for peaches
• Not as cheap as free
• Which you will realize is what you’d pay only after you canned 170# at $.10 a # the day before {specifically from 8pm-2am}
• I will be doing another quilt giveaway
• I will be having a quilt tying party at my house, Monday the 20th if you want to come, seriously, you should come….
• I will only blog two days a week
• It makes me a better mom to not have a working computer
• I still want to be a good mom
• More chickens is better than less chickens
• Spencer’s poopy diapers really smell
• Boys poop way more often than girls
• I don’t have bed bugs
• I found this out after I had scoured the kids’ bedrooms and washed 25 {not kidding} loads of laundry
• It is better to have a clean house than bed bugs
• I’m always the last person to have my garbage to the curb on my street
• I try to be the first person to have my garbage to the curb
• It’s not a competition
• But if it was, I’d be losing
• One can get tired of broccoli
• Maybe not so much broccoli but having to pick it daily
• Bleh
• I love the song Want U Back by Cher Lloyd

 

Glad to be back,

Katie