A few crafty things.

A little dyeing, a little sewing, a little soap, and a little home decorating. Have forgotten to take pics of lots that I've done this month but here's the run down of what I did remember to take pics of.

Finished the curtains for Garrison's new room. Thanks to Loraine's help for getting me started by doing the blackout curtains (behind). I had crafter's block and couldn't seem to get started. Can't wait to get the rest done, he's going to love it. They didn't turn out quite like I planned since first I measured wrong, then I cut even more wrong, and then I had to salvage the whole situation. Oh, well.

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My mom and I had a dye day while she was here. We did more than this, but this is all I remembered to take pictures of. This will be knit into a cabled sleep sack (pattern purchased from cabbages and kings- so CUTE!). And the roving will be handspun by me and my mom will knit it into a matching cabled hat. My mom does all my knitting since I don't know how. I also finished a really pretty skein of handspun yarn in tropical colors but sadly forgot to take pictures.

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And finally, I'm pretty proud of this. A man who grew up in our neighbor hood (whose parents still live here) needs a liver transplant. The whole community was pitching in for a big fund raising effort. So I put this together to put in the silent auction. I have no clue what it went for but I sure enjoyed making it. I got the idea online, as some one else did a go green basket for a library fundraiser. It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed doing it. So here is my take on a go green kitchen basket:

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Mine contained:
1 set dinner napkins - woven
1 set dinner napkins- flannel
1 set lunch napkins
1 roll unpaper towels.
1 bag holder
1 reusable shopping tote (purchased)
1 SS water bottle (purchased)
1 bottle seventh generation dish soap. (purchased obviously)
1 bottle seventh generation spray cleaner (purchased)
1 natural lip balm (made by me)
3 bars soap (also made by me)
and 1 natural oil lotion bar.

Lambing time

We are half way through lambing and so far it's been a good year. We've had all twins and so far haven't lost a lamb. No, we don't have a bottle baby (thankfully). We had a little lamb with obstructed bowel, that just kept getting weaker and weaker. We found it about dead and had to milk out mom and tube feed it to keep it alive. It progressed to a bottle after tubing it twice. Justen performed an emergency "colonoscopy" when he decided it was going to die any way and amazingly enough it lived. We put it back with mom who accepted it back and now it's with her and doing well. Yesterday was still rough and he got several bottles (which means I kept having to crawl under mom to get the milk). After a dose of mineral oil last night with his bottle and some quality time teaching him where milk is suppose to come from he is in the pasture and looking great today.


Then this morning, Garrison insisted on helping Dad with chores before church. I managed to get him to stay in the house with me by cutting up strawberries and getting the whipped cream out (can you say BRIBE). But when Dad went back out the second time there was nothing I could do. I really just didn't want to hunt down his coat and boots because I was trying to get a bunch of other things done. I told him he had to find a hat and coat to go out. This is how he dressed himself.

Making Dinner

I decided to grab a few shots of Garrison and Daddy peeling spuds for dinner tonight.

A few things...

First off Garrison would like to show you the new use he has for undies, they make great hats! And I'm very excited to say that we are now officially done with diapers. Over Christmas break Garrison decided he was done with them. We were worried about him going to daycare because if he has a single accident there they will put him right back in pullups. He's been there a whole week now and hasn't come home in different clothes a single day. We still put a pull up on him at night, but most mornings even those are dry. I'm sad to see him grow up, but glad that the struggle of this stage is over.





We had a death recently at our house. The steam mop I got for my birthday last year died. It was a sad thing. Justen being who he is decided he would "fix" it. Well, since you can't buy parts, that isn't possible. But I had to take some pictures of Justen, steam mop surgeon. After much debate we decided to replace it. We just love our steam mop, and when we got it Justen started doing the mopping. When I was going to get a regular old mop Justen was less than enthusiastic, which translates into I will have to do all the mopping again. So, we did a little research and decided to buy another one, a little different model. We had a bissel, the new one we bought is the Eureka Envirosteamer. I can't speak to it's longevity, but it is SO MUCH BETTER than our old mop in terms of performance, and we thought the old one was great.

January Meal Plan

Here is the menu I did for my latest once a month cooking (OAMC). I have to say, I love this way of thinking!! I make a huge mess in my kitchen and I'm totally exhausted when I'm done. BUT, I only have to deep clean the kitchen once. The whole rest of the month it's just wiping counters, and one or two loads of dishes A WEEK!! I put in links for recipes I found online. Many of the recipes are just my own normal ones that I've figured out the best way to freeze. This month's goal was to use up the already cooked turkey I put in the freezer at Thanksgiving, and the left over Christmas ham, as well as a huge banana squash I had in the basement. It went pretty well but I certainly couldn't have done it without Justen's help. The numbers after each meal like x2 mean how many of that meal is in the freezer. If it says +1GF that means I made an additional one gluten free for a certain somebody whose baby is due soon. If I counted correctly I made 46 meals or major portions of meals to put in the freezer. 41 of them are for us, which means this months cooking day should actually last us until the end of February at the rate we normally use them. Since I do still tend to cook on weekends, and some night s we are gone or eat left overs we only use 4-5 of the meals a week. This should almost get me to spring break when I have time to do another big day.

*Farmer’s Casserole (+1GF) (x2)

*Linguine Ala Anne (x2)

*Linguine Marinara (x1)

*Lentil Soup (+1GF) (x2)

*Meat Loaf (+1GF) (x2)- also made loaded spuds to go with these.

*Spinach, Cheese, and sausage stuffed shells (x3) - these are incredible! I doubled the recipe and ended up with three 8x8pans to freeze and a 9x13 we ate that night.

*Baked Ziti (x2)

*Hobo Casserole (x2)

*Lasagna (+1 GF) (x2)

*Light Turkey Tetrazzini (x2)

* Sicilian Supper (x1)

*Turkey Chunk Casserole (x2) -This is like turkey enchiladas except layered instead of rolled up

* Turkey & Wild Rice Soup (x2)

*Squash, Bacon & Leek Chowder (x2)

*French Bread Pizzas (X2)

*Chicken Fajita Kits(+1GF) (x2)

*Basil and Balsamic Pork Chops (x1)

*Citrus Pork Chops (x2)

*Taco Meat (x2) -To make tacos, burritos, or taco soup

*Armour Meat Balls (x4) Precooked-Ideas: Swedish gravy & noodles, mac & cheese, Soup, BBQ meatballs, Heat and serve.

*Spaghetti meat sauce (X1)

Christmas

The pictures are totally in reverse order. We started out at home and did our family gift exchange on Christmas eve. Garrison loves ripping wrapping paper off, and this year he actually played with the toys inside instead of just the paper and empty boxes. Then we headed up to Nanny's for the night. He LOVES playing with his nanny and he dressed up in her frosty the snowman outfit. In the morning he got his stocking. Justen managed to find a pair of mini safety glasses to put in it. Now Garrison can be just like Daddy when they work. There was also a pillow pet under the tree with his name on the tag. We told him to figure out what under the tree had his name on it. He was so busy trying to find his name he totally missed what it was. He likes his puppy and laid on it while watching a movie. On the way to Grandma's he got kind of upset at us because we left his new puppy at Nanny's. Next, we went over to Grandma Raine's and Grandpa Chris's house. But mommy forgot to get out the camera. Finally, we headed over to Great Grandma and Grandpa Selman's where he unwrapped his new fire truck. He drove it all over their house. He loved giving everyone their gifts, but I think he especially enjoyed Grandpa Selman's because Grandpa let him help unwrap them. He really likes ripping paper off things, even if he doesn't get the gift inside. So here we are, back at Nanny's for nap time. I figured I had better get these pictures up while I"m thinking about it or it may never happen. If I get around to it, I'll try and get some from Nanny's party up tonight, we'll see.

This month...

Garrison loves playing with Daddy's "guitar".


















And showing off his new train outfit from Oma.