It’s been a long time since I’ve posted a goal list. I’ve had several requests to publish my list for the week again. Here is my over-ambitious list of goals for this week!
Garden Goals:
1. Paint plinth for the front garden when it arrives
2. Install plinth and urn
3. Plant urn with plants (I purchased these a couple of weeks ago)
4. Plant zinnias in the backyard circle
5. Plant more zinnias of different colors in the garden
6. Install more drip irrigation in the front yard (and take some pictures as I go)
7. Order garden seeds for my fall garden
8. Have children finish picking apples from the Dorsett Golden Tree
9. Pick Early Elberta peaches when they ripen
Sewing Goals:
1. Finish gift
2. Finish dress for Wren
3. Make dress for Winter
Canning Goals:
1. Can plum sauce
2. Can hot pepper jelly
Website and Blog Goals:
1. Write and photograph 3 blog posts
2. Finish 2 recipes and publish them for the website
Family Goals:
1. Help husband with advertising
2. Correct all schoolwork
3. Give both boys a haircut
In addition to these, I’ll be doing all of my normal things: making all meals and snacks from scratch, doing 22-24 loads of laundry, homeschooling 6 children (we took the last two weeks off while I worked on the front garden; I spent 5 1/2 hours on Saturday moving the last of the dirt into the backyard with the wheelbarrow while it was amazingly overcast; I spent another hour before that in the garden as well. It is MOSTLY done, but struggling in the 118º temperatures of the last week), making sure that the children do their chores, etc.
Will I get all of that done? Highly unlikely! Do I want to get all of that done? You bet!
I’m walking away from the computer now, so that I can check on the cupcakes in the oven and get back to cutting those teeny tiny Mirabelle plums for plum sauce. After that I’m putting a ham in the oven for tonight’s dinner, and after Ivory wakes up from her nap, I’ll put another load of laundry on to wash.
Whew! I’m tired just reading that list! But I love your cheerful outlook always. You are such a hard worker!
That IS an ambitious list! I become so lethargic when the weather gets over 100…
I am amazed at your laundry and I have more children and they wear bigger clothes. Is you washer/dryer tiny? I have the Cabrio (not a recommendation) set and I can get away with one load a day and one extra each for sheets and towels. It runs huge loads but the matching dryer only runs 38 minutes.Our water here is very expensive so I pay attention to that carefully but our bill actually went down with this huge set.
I’m looking forward to seeing your finished front yard.
I have an extra-large capacity washer and dryer; they are some of the biggest out there. Small people change clothes more often and wear bibs. I also go through a lot of cleaning rags, cloth napkins (27 a day) and I have a child who wets the bed every day. I cannot fit everyone’s sheets in one load. I wash very large loads. It is a front loader and doesn’t use as much water, which is very nice, as our water rates are super high here. I only wash very full loads.
That is a lot of laundry. Makes me appreciate the little amount that I have to do. It is just me and my husband right now, so we don’t have a whole lot!
Our son wet the bed every night when younger and into his teenage years, very frustrating for him, he couldn’t go on scouting events because of it. Someone recommended we take him to a chiropractor and have his back adjusted. I was VERY skeptical, however we tried it, it worked. He was so exciting the morning after the first time he didn’t we the bed. It has worked for many others too. I know it’s not the solution to every bed wetting problem, however it might be an area you want to pursue. Last week, we had two days of 114 degree weather, it killed off some of my petunias.
Wow! Reading this makes me feel lazy! Maybe I can use it for motivation?? 🙂 I only have 4 children, and thought our lives were busy…
WOW!!! New reader here. I try really hard to not use my oven during the summer because I find that it heats up the house. Maybe mine is not sealed well enough. We live in the same area as you do just on the other side of the valley. I would love to take a tour of your garden the next time you are having one. Thanks for the wealth of information that you share. Leanna
Leanna,I usually have a tour in April and one in October. I may add one more in the spring on occasion.I have the oven running right now; I am making saltines and then after that I will be baking bread. I have a ceiling fan in the kitchen (my husband installed it); that really helps. We also have a great-room in our house; we ripped out the main wall and installed new, larger windows, which are also double paned. I think the double paned windows make a huge difference. (I don’t have any windows in my kitchen but I can look across to them in the living room and dining area).I use the oven almost every day. I would rather do that then stand outside in the sun over the grill when it’s 118º! I keep the house at 79º. Just for kicks I am going to go get a thermometer and see what it is in the kitchen with the oven running today.
I’m a lazy canner. And I’m sure you get better results cutting up all the plums; but as soon as I heard you don’t actually have to cut up plums when you can them (put themn in water whole, boil the crap out of them, and them pick the pits out) I was all over that. So, in case you haven’t thought of trying it, try it with a batch. Particularly if you’re making jam, boiling the plums whole actually helps with the pectin level (the pits have a lot of pectin), but I’ve made plum sauce the same way and the result is just fine and dandy.
I was thinking of doing this for plum sauce and running through my food strainer. I’ve been considering it and I will probably do that for the rest of them!
He’s a very deep sleeper.
Do you have air conditioning?
My son was a very deep sleeper as well. His first few scout camps he took the pullups that look like underwear. He was nervous, but it all worked out and he eventually stopped. It was much harder on him than me, since I just have one child.
We are only a family of four and I wash 1-2 loads a day. Our washer and dryer aren’t huge capacity though. I do know we go through more clothes than is really necessary so I hope I can get it down!
Hi Brandy, I have an abundance of plums this year. I made jam a few days ago and would like to make plum sauce. I have a recipe from the Ball Blue Book. It calls for a green chili pepper. If this is the same recipe you use, what type of pepper do you recommend? Susan
Susan, that’s the recipe that I am using. I don’t have any green peppers; all of mine turned red. It calls for 2 tablespoons of green pepper, right? I used red Thai peppers from my garden. In the past I went to the store and bought a green pepper (not a jalepeno but something else that was a green hot pepper!) I made a batch today and it is delicious! I do remember that my last ones were more blended, and this time the plums seemed to be staying in pieces rather than turning into a sauce, so I pulled out my immersion blender and blended it, and then cooked it down a little more so that it was thicker. If you have extra ginger just freeze it. I grated mine instead of chopping it. I keep ginger in a bag in the freezer and I just grate it as needed. You can grate it frozen or let it defrost just a bit without a problem. Of course if you are blending it then pieces would be fine.
Thanks for the quick response Brandy. We are not big “hot pepper” eaters here. 🙂 But I do like the hot/sweet taste that plum sauce offers. I grow peppers but only sweet ones. I will look for the Thai peppers tomorrow at the store. Thanks again!
I do have windows in my kitchen and it is on the Northeast side of the house plus it bumps out from the rest of the house so it gets full sun all day in the summer and is ths hottest place in the house. It is usually at least 5 degrees hotter in there. It has a low ceiling so no fan – we have considered it though. We do have ceiling fans throughout the house and mostly keep our thermostat set at 82 degrees. I would freeze if it was at 79.
This is how my mom always made plum jam, I miss plum jam so much but plums cost to much
Wow! You are doing a lot already by keeping it at 82º. We have vaulted ceilings so the heat can rise. Does your hood vent actually vent to outside of the house? (I know many houses here in town just vent it right back in the room!) That can help.I had the oven on for 2 hours yesterday making saltines and French bread. The first hour it rose 1 1/2º. That’s it! Then as I started opening the oven more with the crackers, it went up another degree. I never turned on the hood vent, either. Within an hour of turning the oven off it was back down to where it started (79.4º). Yes, it felt warmer, but it really wasn’t that much warmer. The difference could be that you have it at 82º. We have had the house that hot when we aren’t running the a/c, but when it gets up to 83º in the house, I turn on the a/c. If you’ve measured it as being 87º in there, it will definitely feel hotter. Do you have solar screens? Any trees outside of that part of the house?
No solar screens no tress. We have lived here 20 years but have not done much to the landscaping. Other things have taken priority. We do have dual pane windows. I love the brightness in that room especially in the winter. We also have vaulted ceilings but not in our kitchen, our boys’ rooms or front bathroom.
A fruit tree would drop leaves in the winter.I’m not a fan of solar screens myself (it becomes so dark) but they did make a couple degree difference in temperature (our last house had them).Extra insulation in the walls and ceiling could help. My mom lives next door and has the same model. There is a part of the house that is hotter in summer and cooler in winter. She had extra insulation blown in there. She said that up in the rafters they found out that there was actually less insulation up there than in the rest of the house.