Housewife, 54

All right!  Here I am posting just a couple of days after Christmas this year... instead of months later! It was another quiet Christmas.  Very nice in it's own way.  We did not do a lot of shopping this year - both of our kids have decided that they really don't want excessive gift-giving, for different reasons, but that is fine with me.  A gift or two is always good, but the excess that we see from our consumer-based media is not at all what we want anymore.  I hope my older son sticks with this idea as his boys get older.  My brother and sister-in-law have maintained a modest Christmas with their kids, and I respect them for that. In any way, it was a very nice time. I DID find myself sewing one gift, but I got it done a good FOUR DAYS early!  Unheard of for me!  I'm usually finishing up something after everyone else has gone to bed. Younger son in his made-to-order shirt from Mom. Now, that is out of order... let's get back on track.... I did a bit of

It is undoubtedly my favorite holiday of the year.  The one time of the year when all of the family comes home.  And food....Have I mentioned that I love to cook?  This year we did not go overboard with the food, though.  We are learning that no matter how good it is, eating rich, "special" foods for an entire weekend is gluttony... and makes you feel icky.  Especially when you get on the scales the Monday morning afterwards. This year we flipped celebration days.  Hubby's birthday is the 23rd, which was Friday, and Thanksgiving is on Thursday, but the kids were all driving in on Thursday so couldn't be sure of arrival time (toddler and an infant in a car for 9+hours???).  So Grandpa's birthday celebration was Thursday night after everyone arrived, and we did our Turkey Feast on Friday. It was a lovely weekend and fun with kids.  Now I am just going to insert a bunch of photos. assembling a Gingerbread House kit Being busy like daddy (in the other roo

I am so far behind on using this as a diary that it is ridiculous.  We have had several family events this year, and I have posted none. Maybe I  will post about all of them at once...later... but for now, I just want to make a short post about this past weekend. I love my extended family.  I grew up living close to grandparents, aunts, uncles, and quite a few cousins, and we were close enough in age that I didn't need friends, I had lots of cousins.  Just recently I had chats via Facebook with a couple of said cousins, now grown as old as me and with families of their own, all living quite far away.  One of those living farthest away was coming back to our home town for a short visit, and how many of us could meet up there?  Count me in! I drove just 4 hours down to stay with my Auntie, Mom's sister and had a nice visit with her and a cousin from that side of the family... and the next day I went to visit the other cousins and family from my Dad's side of the family.

Spring took off with a bang and all the gardening to do.  I had started seedlings indoors at home, first in the basement with a grow light and then took batches in stages out to the greenhouse, then started more!  I ended up with 80 tomato plants, among many other things! I was planting gardens like mad all through May and into June. The educational garden at the City park was the most urgent as it had to be ready by June 24 for the ONLY day of the year that the public can come to visit.  Then the Church garden was my second priority, and my own gardens got worked in whenever I could manage it. Looking back... It was an awful year for gardens....  Petersen Farm started off well with a nice early planting, but we had two new raised beds built and in order to fill them with dirt, the truck ran over the newly planted potatoes and corn....  after I got the new beds planted I got really busy with the other gardens and while SOME things were growing well in the raised beds, the in-ground

Ok, just forget February... Not much going on, anyway.  Did my housekeeping. Did some knitting. Did a lot of sewing.  It was cold. I ate too much.  End of story. March was interesting.  New Grandson was born on March 7!  We went out to visit a week later, to celebrate his birth and Grandson #1's 3rd birthday on St. Patrick's day.  A good time was had by all! New Grandson And now he is 3! Aside from all this family excitement, I had been planting seeds and hoping for spring...  Our weather has been a roller coaster (as so many Springs are), but this year worst than most.  We've had snow more frequently in March and April than in the rest of the winter!  I dare not put anything in the greenhouse (ask how I know this....I had to reorder one batch of seeds) unless it is frost-proof.  The brassicas and lettuces have done well, as have the peas; they don't mind the cold at all. Cabbages, Broccoli, Cauliflower PEAS! Planted IN the greenhouse on March 4

Januaries are a time for sorting out your thoughts, your house, your plans for the new year. I've done a little of all of these... Since I am following a housekeeping system, my house is in better shape than it has been for a long time.  Still not perfect, but my kitchen is staying tidy and I have a regular routine for cleaning... at least I did!  More on that later... After the holidays there is a lot of sorting out to do... putting away the holiday decorations, getting your house back in order, finding a "new normal". Many years I get into a major "organizing" mode, but this year, probably because I have been sorting and purging and organizing better over the past few months, I didn't get that huge urge.  This year, I have been sewing.  I have found inspiration and motivation from watching sewing vlogs on YouTube.  Not that they are professional or are teaching me new methods or techniques (I'm getting that from my Garment Construction class that I

For all of my young life, Christmas Holidays were so full of excitement and busyness!  As a child I had the anticipation of gifts at Christmas, family parties that involved dozens of people, school and Sunday School pageants... sometimes with parts to memorize or songs to learn.  As I got older there were gifts to buy or to make.  I remember when I was in upper grade school, we lived in a bigger town, close to the town center, and my cousins and I would "go in together" and walk downtown to buy a bone china teacup for our grandma, to add to her collection.  We also had gift exchanges with our extended families... we got to the point where there were so many that we "drew names" at Thanksgiving, so each family only had to buy as many gifts as they had family members.  It was fun when I drew a cousin's name... not so much if it was an Uncle! Like all families, it was a challenge to see both sides of the family at holiday time.  We sort of got it worked out thoug