I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth…

I’ve just been very busy  being a mom, and getting my house in order.  I’m very motivated to declutter, organize and get my house into working order, and it is a very big task!  the house got out of control when Zach was born, and it wasn’t in the best of condition before the birth – I let a lot slide once I got very pregnant and there are a LOT of things needing my attention.  Slowly but surey I’m wading through it all.

I wasn’t able to finish the quilt I wanted to make for my daughter for Christmas.  I told her about it though and she wants to help me finish it, or at least watch how its done.  At this point I only have a handful of blocks that need to be added to the quilt, then do the batting and binding.

My upstairs garden is doing so-so.  I haven’t kept up with watering… Before I gave birth I wasn’t doing stairs too much, nor was I after the birth, so  lost my green peppers.  I almost lost my basil,but it’s back full strength again.  The rest of my herbs are great, I have green beans coming in nicely now, and my tomatoes I started from seed are doing well. 

I have some mixes to make up for the pantry.  Spaghetti sauce, taco, beef stew and italian seasoning are the few I can come up with.  I need to dry some basil, thyme and oregano because the spice containers are empty. I’d like to make up a couple more freezer meals, however two of my dogs need some desperate grooming attention.  I think tomorrow I am going to tackle that.

I’d like to get my office and craft room in order, and finish bringing up the kids Christmas presents.  I’d like to get back to homeschooling upstairs, and get the lower part of the house together.  Somehow, between late pregnancy and now, the living room became my office, craft room and homeschooling room.  With the amount of ’stuff’ that comes with each, you can only imagine how cluttered my living room is.  And the master bedroom which has beome a storage room of sorts! Ack!

Today as the kids were taking a bath I got the upstairs bathroom in order.  It sure needed it.

It feels good to see a difference.  I can’t wait to get caught up! 

Hopefuly after the new year everything will be back to the way it should be.  I’d like to begin including photo tutorials and how-to’s on some of the hometeading in the city type things just about anyone can do

I found a new hobby

Quilting! I was making tag blankets for the younger kids (as Christmas gifts) and for the tops I would make a small lap sized quilt on the top, then back it with fleece and of course the tags would be along the sides. I enjoyed making the little quilted tops so much I decided to make a full size quilt for my daughters bed for Christmas. I’m using a lot of fabric I have on hand already (in fact, I’m not buying any fabric for this project except perhaps some fabric for the back of the quilt because I have a few sheets laying around I can just attach but none really match the quilt. I’m using a lot of pinks, purples, flowers, cats and all of my daughters favorite things. I’m also adding a few designed blocks to the quilt – hearts, cats, stars, all created out of smaller shapes like squares and triangles. There are a bunch of free block patterns online, so I’m using those

Life has been pretty busy since the birth of Zachariah. We’re all adjusting well and completely in love.

I’m falling behind on some house chores, and re-creating some schedules and making new ones. Life with four little ones calls for some required organization and I’m trying to figure out how to make it all happen. Every couple of days, something new falls into place and I just tackle the next thing on the list. Sooner or later I’ll feel like we’re all back to ‘normal’ and I’ll begin to start experimenting with new homesteading skills and picking up the ones I’ve had to put on the back burner.