Monday on the Homestead

-

Monday’s can be a rough day generally.. but for the most part I LOVE Monday’s!  I love getting back into the groove of life again.  Gearing up for a new week has always been exciting.. maybe it is me and my weird sense of things or maybe it is just my attitude..  I will admit that Monday is my hubby’s first day of his weekend so it is something to look forward to, but mostly for me Monday means the start of a new school week with my kids, a new week to tackle the house keeping and keep the wheels at home turning as smoothly as possible and the ability to plot and plan what type of things to accomplish above and beyond keeping the kids educated and the house clean.  


Today my plan is to get my children up in a bit and with their help we will tackle Monday’s Cleaning List (I print out my daily chore lists each Monday so that as we do the chores we can cross them off the list).  When we all work together we get it done pretty quickly.   I already know what is for dinner and it is an easy meal to make.  My daughter Sierra is working on a sewing project for a friend so I plan on helping her get that finished up.   Then it will be dinner and a relaxing evening with my hubby and children.  


 A few weeks ago I decided my bedroom needed a change.  The first thing I did was give the room a thorough cleaning.  I washed walls, dusted, cleaned out closets, vacuumed the dust in corners and edges and so on.  Then it was time to move onto the bedding..  thirteen years ago my hubby repainted the room, put in wall to wall carpet and I purchased a comforter and new curtains for the windows.  Well all these years later the paint job, honestly, looks fine still.  I will admit I am tired of white walls and want to repaint.  But life is just too busy right now to start that project.  I am hoping maybe early fall I can repaint.  One nice thing about white walls is that I can change other things in the room and it still coordinates!   So I purchased a new comforter and bed skirt with pillows and shams.  I searched and searched and searched the world wide web and a few department stores in town for everything I wanted to come together.. the colors I wanted, the price, the quality, etc..  I wanted something that was not too feminine (hubs would have a hard time with that one!  LOL).. and something not to masculine but something that was just right.  It had to be a reasonable priced too..  LOL..   Well, I finally found what I was looking for.  It is somewhat of a plaid/stripe design in the colors tan, cream, burgundy, and green.  Last week the UPS man delivered it and I am totally in love with it.  :)  The website I purchased it from is King Linen:  http://www.kinglinen.com/  They had a great selection and I got free shipping in the deal and they were FAST.  After placing my order I had my comforter set in a week.  If I ever need comforters or bedding sets again I will check with them first.  I did not buy sheets there as I guess I am a bit of sheet snob..  the higher the thread count the better and they did not have it in that department.  But then again, I don’t need sheets right now and when I do I usually purchase them from Costco. Yesterday I completed the fresh new look in my room by purchasing new curtains from Walmart.  They really have a nice selection and very reasonable prices. I ended up with a dark tan color that nicely compliments my new bedding.   I am hoping that the new paint job will come along later this year, but I don’t mind waiting as it will give plenty of time to figure out what color I want the walls.  


Time for me to get rolling on my Monday..  hope you all have a great Monday on your homesteads! 

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 7, 2011 at 8:33 AM

    How fun. I always think rearranging and getting a "new" look are refreshing. Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMarch 7, 2011 at 8:35 AM

    Oh and that cinnamon roll photo at the top looks amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownMarch 7, 2011 at 9:24 AM

    thanks for the King Linen tip. Just purchased a set - really good deal.
    Ursula

    ReplyDelete
  4. MicheleMarch 7, 2011 at 10:13 AM

    I am feeling the same about my bedroom. It must be spring! lol

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cozy Seaside HomemakerMarch 10, 2011 at 12:18 PM

    That sounds like a fun spring thing to do! Don't know if you have a Homegoods near you, but they sell wonderful sheet sets for cheap prices. Very high threadcount too - I got my kids some nice sets at Marhalls, but wound up getting much of my bedding at Homegoods! Thanks for the king linen link - they look very well priced!

    ReplyDelete
  6. MandyMarch 18, 2011 at 2:31 PM

    Do we get to see pictures?! I also second the Homegoods recommendation, if you have one nearby :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

All messages are moderated. After approval your message will be posted. Thank you for your comments!! Crystal :)

Popular posts from this blog

Canning Chicken Noodle-less Soup

-
Image
Today was one of those busy days that it seemed I was moving from the time my feet hit the floor until this evening.. But, I got so much done and that is a great feeling! :) One of my accomplishments today was canning 14 jars of chicken noodle-less soup. I call it “noodle-less” because you can’t can noodles. They end up falling apart. So I canned the chicken, veggies and broth. When I go to use the soup I will bring it to a boil and then add a handful of noodles (any type of pasta will work) and cook it until the noodles are done. Because I plan to add the pasta after the fact I wanted to make sure there was enough chicken broth to do this. So I only filled my jars about half to two thirds with chicken and veggies and then filled with chicken broth. Here is how I did this…. I started off with 2 chickens that were a total weight of about 10lbs. I put them in my 14 quart stock pot… I then added 2 gallons of water.. And 3 tablespoons salt.. I brought this ...
Read more

Canning Cabbage

-
Image
I had 4 large heads of cabbage that weighted about 25 pounds. We had some really hot days and I figured I better get the last of them picked soon. My daughter Sierra and I ended up processing 3 of them yesterday and I have one left for a meal on my menu this week. I made pickled cabbage and then canned up the last of the cabbage. Here is the recipe for the pickled cabbage (according to how I made it)… 8 pounds cabbage 1 large onion 1 ½ red peppers 1 lb carrots ¾ cup salt 9 cups water 12 cups white vinegar 10 cups sugar 1t mustard seed 1t celery seed Slice cabbage thinly. Slice onion and peppers. Grate carrots. Mix all veggies together in a very large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and mix in well. Let sit for 2 hours to soften veggies. Rinse veggies well.  In a large stock pot (mine was 14 quarts) combine water, vinegar, sugar, spices. Bring to a boil. Add cabbage/veggies. Bring to a boil. Fill hot pint jars with veggies using a slotted spoon. Fill jar with brine...
Read more

Canning Beef Stew

-
Image
In my last blog post I shared that I had bought 10 pounds of beef roast. I cut it all up and used 4 pounds in 2 crockpot freezer meals ( http://homesteadinghomemaker.blogspot.com/2012/02/two-more-crockpot-meals-for-freezer.html ) . I used the other 6 pounds of meat along with potatoes, carrots, onions and celery to can beef stew. Here were the general proportions I used in canning 7 quarts of beef stew.. 6# beef 2# potatoes 2# carrots 1# onions 1# celery After I cut up the meat and got the freezer meals done I moved to the beef stew. I peeled and cut up the potatoes and carrots. I chopped up the onions and sliced the celery. I pulled out 3 quarts of veggie stock from my freezer to use for liquid in the stew. You can use beef or chicken stock or you can use water. I did not add anything to thicken the liquid as usually thickeners don’t hold up in canning. You can thicken the broth after it is opened if you would like. I added 1 teaspoon salt to each of my ...
Read more