Homemaking on the Homestead

Wednesday Snap Shot is a quick peek into my week. If you'd like to join in on my Wednesday Snap Shot.. copy and paste my post, add your answers (you can also copy the pic).. link your post to my blog and then come back and let me know you shared your week. I'll come and visit you and read about your homemaking week!! :) So Far This Week As I shared on Monday our grandson made his arrival! Last week we had a wonderful week in Sacramento with my daughter, her husband, his family and the birth of our new grandson, Raylan. Next blog post on Friday will be his birth story. After getting home it has been all about regrouping and getting into the flow of things again. Laundry and grocery shopping were done and of course getting ready now to think ahead to Christmas. The tree is up and will be decorated this weekend. It is feeling very festive in my home. On My To-Do List Menu planning! :) I've kind of been working “on the fly” as they say. At these ti...

Well here it is folks.. I have NO idea what we are eating this week!! Ha, ha!! :D .. Seriously. We got home last night from a week in California and I have a beautiful new grandbaby boy and we are so in love!!! I can not wait to post all about our trip and her birth. It was an experience and it was amazing to watch God's plan. I told my daughter.. This is your birth story, and God is in control. We live in a society that wants to take control of situations like this. We don't like this open ended, we don't know where this ends, or how this goes, type situations. We want to see the end, be comforted in the future. The Bible says.. there is a time to be born. Not often today, if you go beyond the doctors and hospitals dates, you are able to experience this. But this is just a preview of the story I'll share later this week. So stay tuned. In the meantime today I'm going grocery shopping to see what kind of deals I can find and what I can pull...

We are heading to my daughter's and awaiting the arrival of baby boy grandson.  I'll be back to blogging soon!  :)  

I love this stuff. So easy to make and what a great way to stretch my homemade soaps. You can make this with homemade soap or store bought soap. Either way it is a great money saver. You know those slivers of soap that you either smoosh into the new bar of soap or toss because they are just to small to use? Well now you can save them and get extra miles from them. The measurements for making liquid soap are simple..  1oz of soap to 1 cup of water.  You will have to weigh your soap bits or you can buy a bar of soap and the weight will be on it and add the water accordingly.  I started by making liquid hand soap. I took the slivers of soap I had and chopped them into bits... Added water and heated it up on the stove until the soap bits melted. I had purchased a liquid soap bottle because I did not have any. This one I got at IKEA for $2.99. If you use liquid hand soap you can just save the bottle and reuse it. I poured my soap into the...

Wednesday Snap Shot is a quick peek into my week. If you'd like to join in on my Wednesday Snap Shot.. copy and paste my post, add your answers (you can also copy the pic).. link your post to my blog and then come back and let me know you shared your week. I'll come and visit you and read about your homemaking week!! :) So Far This Week I spent an enjoyable weekend at home. Got a few things done around here but mostly visited with my kids. My son came up for a visit as well and that is always great. Love to get caught up on his busy life. Hubby and I went and got hay for the goats for the winter. Feels good to have that taken care of. I was almost out of last years hay. The two things that must happen on our little homestead before winter sets in... firewood and hay! :) Firewood has been in for a while now so we are ready for winter. Still waiting for baby boy grandson to make his arrival. Due date has passed but we tend to be a family that runs late s...

I ended up not making the turkey breast that I had planned on last week and instead made some bbq pork over the weekend. So tonight is the turkey breast and a few side dishes to go along with it. I also found cranberries are in the store when I went shopping and will make a batch of cranberry sauce as well. The rest of my week is looking like this... Tacos Not sure yet if they will be hamburger or chicken. But will be served with the typical trimmings. Round Steak Subs I have a smallish size package of round steak in my freezer. I'm planning on cooking it in my Instant Pot with some seasonings and then cutting/shredding it up. I'll serve this on sub sandwich rolls with sauteed onions & peppers. I'll also make a pot of tomato soup and a salad to go with this. Lemon Butter Chicken I made this a while back and it was very good. It is in Instant Pot recipe. You can find the recipe HERE . I'll serve this with rice and a veggie of some sort.. ma...

Wednesday Snap Shot is a quick peek into my week. So Far This Week Hubby and I took a trip into town to run errands. On the way home I snapped a a couple pictures while driving. It was a beautiful fall afternoon. Mt. Hood in the background... Fall in the Columbia River Gorge The days are getting closer for my daughter in California to deliver. We are keeping in regular contact and she is doing well and feeling excited about the birth of little baby boy. I gave my bathroom a good fall cleaning. Cleaned out the drawers that seem to accumulate so much junk over time. And gave it all a good scrubbing. I'm thinking I might be pretty much done with my fall cleaning. On My To-Do List I need to do a little cleaning in my guest rooms. Sheets need to be changed and the rooms dusted and vacuumed. ~Cook up a couple meals today. I often will cook 2 meals at once to give us leftovers to eat for a few days. I like having days I don't have to think about ...

I had lasagna on my menu last week. I made sure I had the noodles and cottage cheese, the spaghetti sauce and meat. I planned to make it Saturday. It was not until Saturday morning that I realized I had completely forgot to purchase the cheese.. sigh.. Living in the country means I don't just hop in the car and head to store for one item. So lasagna is on my menu again this week, after grocery shopping day! :) I will not be having Thanksgiving dinner at my home this year. Feels very strange not to be planning this! But honestly the break is nice. The main reason is I'm not sure if I'll be here or in California. My daughter Hannah told me not to worry about it, she will do it at her house. The family can meet together at her home and if we are here, we, of course, will just join in. The thoughts of Thanksgiving and turkey prompted me to buy a turkey breast, again. We had one a few weeks ago. This time I bought some stuffing as well. I think I do a littl...

Is it feeling like fall in your area? Are you ready for a hot bowl of yummy chowder? This is clam chowder might be the answer! This recipe makes a big pot of chowder. It does freeze pretty well. I often freeze portions of it for my hubby to take to work. I buy my clams from Costco. The cans are large and come two in a pack. The size of the can is 51 ounces. If you can't find this or something similar you can use small cans to get as close to the size as possible.    Open the can of clams and drain, saving the clam juice. The big can of clams gives me about 4 cups of reserved clam juice. To begin with I peel and chop 4#'s of potatoes into approximately 1 to 2 inch cubes. Then cover with water and add a couple teaspoons of salt and put them on the stove to cook.  While they are cooking melt a...

Wednesday Snap Shot is a quick peek into my week. So Far This Week It's been a bit of an eventful week. My daughter had a bag stolen from her that had her keys in it. So it was a rescue trip to take her the spare set of keys and we are in the process of rekeying locks. It happened in the city and the city can teach you some unpleasant lessons, that is for sure. Thankfully she had her phone with her when it happened so she could call home for help. Spent a morning with my daughter and daughter in law.. lots of grandbabies, coffee, hot apple cider, doughnuts..  and good times..  Love my family! I've made some more steps on my fall cleaning. The kitchen windows are washed. I washed, ironed and got the curtains back up. The floor is scrubbed clean. It was needing a good scrub (hands and knees type of scrub). And I finally got the refrigerator cleaned out.  The kitchen is feeling very fresh right now. :)  I think I'll move on to the bathr...