Purring Cottage

 Guess who just moved in with us?! Yup, granddaughter and her parents. They'll be building an apartment for themselves in our son-in-law's mom's basement to be able to care for her as she has Parkinson's and is not doing so well. They've already been a big help in getting a shared garden in and in inspiring her to hire builders and roofers to improve the house. So, while they make their new home, they're living in our basement. Our basement has been the subject of much improvement over the past few months, mostly by DD1 who has been renting it from us. She has put up drywall, doing most the mudding and taping, too, while I am the official helper and painter. My husband did the complicated stuff of closets and wiring. Once the walls were done, they figured out how to do the flooring and she did the majority of it while he had to work out of town. She put the last puzzle piece in place yesterday as they were moving in. I think it looks pretty good! We had started

After pulling off a pretty nice open house for the graduation of my sixth homeschooled child, I wondered, again, why we don't make a party for the moms who have put so many years (27+ in my case) into teaching/raising/training/praying for their kids. So I determined to throw myself a private party. Well, when it happened that said sixth child wanted to go "yondering" and practice her driving, we kinda turned that event into a party. It was a perfect day for our adventure, with the cherry trees blooming all over the area, the sun shining brightly but not too hotly, and the light clouds adding character to the sky. We stopped along the wandering way for a wonderful lunch at a cute cafe. A little sidestreet to us to a lakeside tourist trap shopping area and I bought myself a semi-retirement (one never retires from homemaking, just homeschooling) present... ...a rain chain thingy with teapot and cups (of course). I still need to find the right spot to hang it. We also discove

Over a nice cup of tea (this one in a lovely cup and pot that my sister-in-law got for me when she was in Poland), let me tell you about our recent improvements around Purring Cottage. My sweet husband is able to borrow equipment from his job, so he and H dug out stumps from where frilly toothpick-shaped pines used to reside, like the ones across the street. They weren't very pretty and no longer served as windbreaks since they were so tall and skinny. Yesterday I finished the majority of the smoothing of the soil there and planted about 10 serviceberry bushes/trees. They produced fruit somwhat like blueberries and grow well in our northern climate. They're also deer resistant, which is a big plus here. While they did that, I cleaned out all the dead stuff from this small cottage garden which I hadn't cleaned out in the fall. It's now ready for the gorgeous flowers that will soon be sprouting up. Yesterday I also made a simple compost bin with some thick chicken wire. I

 Well, my laptop and my printer are once again speaking to one another, even without calling in a counsellor. Maybe just the threat of doing so did the job. And, because homeschool co-op is on Monday, I'm posting about Monday goals on Tuesday again.  So, I got some recipes typed up - nothing fancy; I just want to get them all in one place and typed with a size of font that doesn't require my reading glasses. 😏 I already had colorful notebooks started, but decided to make dividers so as to be able to find things easier. I just used cardstock that I already had on hand, slipped them into plastic page protectors like I did with the recipes pages, and will add stick-on page-edge labels once I get them. Simple, but effective in organizing to make more useful. So, that's one goal from last week that I met. I also did a lot of embroidery, but don't think I made my 4 hour goal. I got one section of the pantry repainted, shelves covered with clear contact paper, and neatly put

 For many years now I've stated that the things that make the world go 'round are color and harmony . And I mean the many facets of both those words. I love to wear colorful clothes, even in the white of winter when traditionally you're supposed to wear dark clothes. And I love to sing harmony, particularly alto or tenor, especially when making up a trio. And I love it when people get along in peaceful harmonious living. So I'm tickled pink to participate in this blog hop about color. The last hop I was in was all about winter and I made myself a little bottle cap trivet for my little teapot which helps me stay warm in the winter. Well, this time I made something to keep the teapot warm - a small cozy. Not only is it colorful, but it features the artwork of one of my favorite authors, Beatrix Potter. I actually already had the fabric and batting cut out since I'd wanted to make a regular sized cozy some time ago. So I just trimmed it down to a size that would fit t

  Small service is true service while it lasts: Of humblest Friends, bright Creature! scorn not one: The Daisy, by the shadow that it casts, Protects the lingering dew-drop from the Sun... ~ William Wordsworth ~

 While the long-awaited apple muffins are in the oven, I'll try to set my goals for this week. And since our host for this link-up is late at posting hers this time, I don't have to feel so guilty. 😁 I do have to feel rather guilty for not accomplishing many of my goals last week, but I have two rather legitimate excuses.  1) I spent much more time driving hither, thither, and yon than anticipated, so not much time to do home stuff, and  2) I'm discovering, after assessing several weeks' worth of goals, that my eyes are bigger than my stomach, figuratively speaking. I have delusions about getting more done than I think I will. So, given those points and the fact that I'm not posting till Tuesday afternoon, I'm going to follow the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) this week and maybe learn my lesson. In the kitchen last week I did pretty well though work on the recipe notebooks didn't happen because my laptop (ancient enough to have the name Cleopatra)