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Throughout any given day I usually write in my head, occasionally taking it to the computer.

Today no brain writing happened. Besides being full of snot (it feels like), I think my head is tired and heavy. Much like my body.

I gave myself permission not to think too much and I feel alright about it.

Besides, today was laundry day and some days are best served on autopilot in order to get through them.
Autopilot plus good tunes/podcasts.

No Pictures on This Post: for obvious reasons.

I need to hurry and post something new before Mick is once again reminded of my last post and proceeds to pinpoint all of my household flaws. I must keep some flaws a surprise.

Mick, the lucky man, now has a years worth of FHE ideas he wants to give tutorials on... to me. I confess, I'm not perfect. And after all this time, I was playing my cards so well. Darn, exposure is not so self assuring.

He adamantly denies the accusation that he does not change or know how to change a toilet paper roll. For the record, I want to clarify that I never accused him of such things, merely suggested he might need a brush up.  Proof is in the new rolls I find sitting on the back of the toilet (a mere twelve inches away from the TP dispenser).

But that is all I'm going to say about that.

This morning I received a serious crusty when, upon leaving a new package of TP on the kitchen counter in the mornings haste, Mick had to retrieve it, from the bathroom... in his birthday suit.

Abbie thought it was funny and gave a response too hilarious to actually write.

Once again, I will reiterate the importance of TP installation tutorial #3.

Things to remember...

Mom says Geranium Oil is a champion cold sore fighter!

Oh, and pine needles around your strawberries keep the bugs at bay.

MMM post #12- mmmmmmm Pies!

This explains a little about my pie making adventures. Lately I've been busting out pies, right and left, in search of the best crust. Apple, triple berry, strawberry, blueberry, peach, key lime, and french silk.

No, I have not been eating all my pies, as I vow to not put on my winter weight this season. Sometimes though, I haven't been able to resist and now feel like I have one berry and one peach pie protruding from my backside. So much for no winter weight and it's not even winter! Alas, another pie might suffice. What a vicious cycle. Good thing I detest pumpkin pie!

I'm getting ready for Thanksgiving and planning to make a few pumpkin pies straight from our garden grown pumpkins. Wish me luck. It's going to take cutting, scraping, baking, softening flavoring and so one, but hey, at least I know my crust will be awesome! If the filling doesn't turn out, we can at least sit around and eat some tasty crust.

Give this recipe a try and you will not be disappointed. Then, let me know if you like it, or what you changed.

P.S. it is not as good with butter, but a slightly healthier option.

Do I really have to:

Go to work,
Run,
Do laundry,
Make salsa,
Make salsa Verde,
Hang up Reflections posters,
Write notes to teachers,
Change a dirty bum,
Pick up my kindergartner,
Do kindergarten and second grade homework,
Make lunch,
Make dinner,
Clean the house,
Do the dishes,
Take a shower,
Get dressed,
Do my hair,
Take Abbie to Preschool,
Pick tomatoes and tomatillas,
Pick Abbie up from Preschool,
Wipe off counters a million times,
Clean up messes,
Help clean the toy room,
and everything else today requires?

I just want to read my new book, is that too much to ask?

Stock Piling?

Harvest has brought its bounty once again.

So far:

Sugar free Strawberry jam was made with inexpensive and I mean INEXPENSIVE YUMMY strawberries- Four flats worth!

I picked about 7 gallons of (free) apricots, thanks to my friend Trisha's generosity and beautiful trees. This picking produced pints of nectar for juice and another flavor (my favorite!) of sugar free jam.

A few weeks back Macey's was hosting a Guinness Book of World Record banana display. They ended up victorious by 18 boxes but had millions of banana's to get rid of. Score one for the Perkins clan! At $8.50 for a 48lb box, I went to town drying, freezing and chocolate dipping this fresh little treat just in time for winter!

Today I put up 18 quarts of beautiful marmalade orange sliced peaches (with only two old bottle fatalities), and four pints. I love the look of peaches perfectly positioned behind a glass jar with a golden ring a top. Hoping to make a delectable peach pie tomorrow. I have yet to attempt such a feat!

Next up- tomatoes and hopefully some salsa Verde. Canning is so much sweeter in the new kitchen. I feel so spoiled. How ever did I manage such domestic work without modern ease?

Without perfect loving care in tending to weeds and watering the last 4 weeks, the garden has seemed to flourish. Pumpkin, Crookneck, Zucchini, Banana and our family favorite- Spaghetti, are the many colors of squash that we will be consuming in the coming weeks.

Fall is in the air ...and on the table!

Who could not appreciate such a feast from mother Earth?

Oh Happy Day!

My top of the line, Eco-friendly Bosch dishwasher arrived today. I can practically hear the angels singing their hallelujahs right along with mine. Admittedly, I will be singing even louder when it's installed and I can actually load it with dirty dishes to produce the miracle that is clean, dry, spotless dishes within an hours time with little-to-no effort. Now what I wouldn't give for a contraption designed to put all the clean dishes in their new place of residency!

The Kitchen is complete. All except for window moldings and baseboards. It took about three weeks. Three quick, sleepless, long weeks. I still have yet to move a few items into their proper place. The only problem is, where is their proper place? Space and choice is so much more abundant now that it causes me to question just where I should put the bowls, the Tupperware, the glasses. Choices, I tell you what, but I'm so thankful for them.

We are so grateful this remodel happened. We needed it badly and it will be so great for our family. More space and more accessibility. Also for perks is the fact that every inch of the kitchen is now CLEAN. Not just clean as in the opposite of dirty, but new clean which makes daily, weekly cleaning, so much easier to keep up on. Hooray!

Here are some before and after pics (specifically for you Lisa, Tabbi, Mom and Julie!).

Out with the old...in with the new...

What-not shelves, in keeping with the 1940s

Love this nice little addition between the stove and fridge.

Loving the walnut flooring! Beautiful! See where the dishwasher will reside?

From the side door

Angle cabinets and cupboards

Tight squeeze that works.

Under mount sink- easy wipe-up!

and the miracle that is the finished kitchen

Dining and living room are coming soon! I hope! I so badly want to have life assembled as normal again.

Sneak Peek

What we were living with. Plus a wall, of course. Yep, that was my kitchen folks! Good riddance!

The MESS we've had to live in. Chiga had a hayday!

A sneak peek at new cabinets.

Speaking of things to do...

...the list is a gazillion miles long!

But...

My new cabinets are beautiful. Their woodiness makes me feel happy. Soon we will once again have a kitchen, counter tops and a sink. I have missed the sink the most in these past few days. Wait, I take that back. Sleep is what I have missed the most!

What I had a hard time saying goodbye to from the old layout:

* My dish washing view of the massive open grown Box Elder tree through all it's season, not the hand washing though. Fall will no longer be the same from my new window above the sink.
* My secretive medicine cabinet.

* My built in ironing board. Good thing we preserved it in its original state to place by the laundry facilities.

Counter tops and sink (all hooked up) Monday
Wood floor in Tuesday
Carpet and dish washer (never dreamed I'd own such a beauty) Wednesday.

Till then: paint the living/dining area, then

Head to YELLOWSTONE!

Could not ask for a better time to take a much needed vacation. Tootaloo.

On Strike

Recently I took part in a three day kitchen cleaning strike.
It felt exhilarating...until I stepped into the kitchen to do ANYTHING.

Let me just remind you, I do not have a dishwasher (you know, the machine variety that so many of you are blessed, let me repeat, blessed to own) and my kitchen hosts the hub of the house, including the table, on about a 10 by 10 foot of space.

I was tired of doing the mundane blah that life of wifery and motherhood require.
Wifery, is that even a word?
Oh well, I was tired of it anyway.
Tired of it I tell you!
I could not possibly be the only woman who feels this way.
Am I wrong?

So, I chose to strike!
I did not tell a soul. Although I'm sure they noticed my tush planted firmly on the lazy boy more in those three days then my entire life.
Or did they?
No.

This was the rather large pile of treasures I discovered among the floor after I spent a good hour and a half doing some deep kitchen cleaning.
Wrappers, dust balls, spices, half eaten food and Easter grass. Of course every good mother knows that this is not the end of Easter grass! The pesky electrically charged little stuff shows its stringy self every winter just as I ready for Christmas.

Moral of the story: Don't go on kitchen cleaning strike.
It does not do any good.
Buck up! Keep cleaning even when the skin on your hands start to flake off peel and crack.
Even when you'd rather do anything anything but clean.
Clean up the mess and get it over with, otherwise, it just sits around, gets denser and waits for when you are in the mood.
Besides, the above picture is evidence of what you can look forward to if you choose to go on strike.
The break from it all, now that was great!

It's All in the Plan

I think I'm nesting.
No, this is not an announcement.

Can you nest and not be pregnant?

I pride myself in being a clutter hater.
With two kids, I felt on top of the piles.
Now, after my third pregnancy and baby (yes, I know it's been almost 2 years),
the piles have encroached and now feel stacked on top of me.

Oh where to begin...

Since I arrived home from my March Madness vacation, all the stuff stashed in piles has been calling me to rid them of there dismal life!
This week, I'm happy to oblige.

Organizational plan:
Move up empty file cabinet, buy folders and start using it- genius, I know!
Buy a paper shredder complete with bucket. Find a home for it, plug it in and use it immediately.
Purchase a matching paper recycling tray to make reusing paper less of a search. The mass expanse of the floor is no longer cutting it.
Place a paper recycling tray on the wall for easy 'take out' purposes.
Find two bins, one for glass and one for everything else! I commit to better glass recycling and less single item trips to the recycle bin, aka: opening and closing of the back door a million times a day.
Secretly junk the girls room. Is it wrong to ask for forgiveness before I throw out stuff?

Picture courtesy of www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/housewife.html

10 Years in the Making

This domestic helper was delivered via the blue Dodge sleigh yesterday. Courtesy of three little elves, Ruthie, Brenda, and myself.

What a great Christmas present. Thank you, Thank you, Thank You, ladies! I can't believe I've been sacrificing life and limb by using hand mixers for so long. No more burning up cheap mixers every two years- this baby Bosch promises a 30 year life! I might have to financially plan for a proper burial if it dies after being loved for so long. We are bonded all ready. It seems the longer you want for something, the deeper you fall in love with it. I've used it four times in the last 24 hours. Granted, I've had to come up with a few good excuses, but whoever said you can't make waffle dough with a machine. Those waffles turned out so light and fluffy! Besides, this is Mick's present too, so I have to keep his belly happy.

Only one beef, I've had to rearrange my kitchen to find a home for the little beast.
I still would never trade it for a million cupboards or the kitchen of my dreams!!!

These Little Guys Arrived Today

Thanks to my friend Kris, I was able to get my neighborhood treats completed! What a great idea, thanks Kris! Click on her name to check out her Santa's too. So fun!
The mice turned out so cute, and with equal amounts of diverse personalities as salvation army Santa's. Not an insurmountable task with these little rodents.

'Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse - or will they come to life tonight?

Easy and fun to make, Aspen and Liberty loved putting on the ears.

Christmas Mice
Hershey kisses
Dipping chocolate
Maraschino Cherries with stem
Peanut halves
Wax paper

Melt chocolate in pan at about 170 degrees, drain and dry cherries, use unsalted peanuts, unwrap kisses. Dip cherries in chocolate, press kiss to end opposite of stem, place peanut ears immediately behind the kiss- DONE. Makes about 50 with one bag of kisses, 1 lb of chocolate (with left over), few peanuts (although you can mix some with your extra chocolate!)

Home Grown Christmas

The girls and I made all our ornaments for the tree this year. Pipe cleaner beaded snowflakes, felt-bearded google-eyed pom pom Santa's, google eye felt cardinals, wax glitter stars, bundles of firewood complete with holly berries and leaves, cute happy sparkly felt snowmen, twisted pipe cleaner candy canes, popcorn garland and one white pipe cleaner angel to top off the look.
I thought they would enjoy creating, but I think I ended up doing most of the work- imagine that! Their favorite creations were the snowmen, Santa's, candy canes, and sparkly snowflakes! When I requested Micks help in getting things finished, his reply was "so, are we having a 70's Christmas tree this year?". Just because we used such materials as felt, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, beads and sticks does not denote 1970, or does it?
Well, here's our 70's tree.
We are quite proud, blinking colored lights and all!