Thank you all for you feedback last week on my goal posts! I learned a lot from your comments and they were all so kind!
I did go to the temple last week, and I am going to go again this week.
I walked four days and rode my bike a fifth day.
I’m still working on our new schedule for the mornings (before 7). I thought I had it figured out, but a last minute change necessitates that I rewrite the schedule again, and then see how well it works out this week. I did work on returning back to an earlier morning wakeup time (I had been sleeping in until 6 lately, so with my earlier time I should see my productivity increase).
I crumbled and put a lot of dried herbs into jars, but I still have more to go, so that stays on the list.
I didn’t get my shopping done, except to run to the nursery at 7 a.m. one morning to check on the plant schedule before I spoke in town about fall gardening. While I was there, I bought some canvas gloves for our 72 hour kits and a 6-pack of pink vincas to plant in the pots by the bench in the backyard. I pulled out one bush that was in one of the pots and planted it in another spot in the garden, and planted 3 vincas in each pot. That is all of the garden work I got done last week (and of course, that wasn’t on the list!) so I still need to take care of everything in the garden that was on last week’s list. It won’t be easy; it’s 107º here. Other than doing that (and walking before sunrise), I only ventured outside to water potted plants with water from the shower, from rinsing fruits at the sink, and from steaming vegetables.
Gardening:
1. Pull weeds from where green onions are growing
2. Plant more green onion seeds
3. Plant beet seeds
4. Pick Asian pears
5. Pick Bartlett pears
6. Prune hedges in the backyard
7. Cut flowers for the house
8. Pick apples
9. Plant sunflower seeds
10. Collect more lettuce seeds
11. Pull dead tomato plant, turn the soil, add fertilizer, and plant some asparagus beans (long green ones). I found some old seeds and I want to see if they are still viable.
12. Plant more red noodle bean seeds where several of mine died
13. Plant more Armenian cucumber seeds
14. Deadhead the roses in the front yard
Sewing:
1. Finish sewing baby shoes for a gift
2. Make flower barrettes for a gift
4. Finish sewing table runner ( I did the sides last week but still need to iron and sew the ends)
5. Sew reinforcements into a tarp. Afterwards, sew loops onto the tarp to make it possible to tie it down
Shopping/Errands:
1. Trip to the library
2. Order items from for our 72-hour kits from Ebay
3. Trip to Walmart
4. Trip to Winco
5. Trip to post office to mail baby gifts
6. Trip to Sam’s Club
Personal Goals:
1. Read at least 2 chapters of The Book of Mormon each day in French
2. Study French using the workbooks I picked up from the library
3. Complete at least 2 sections each day on Duolingo
4. Walk at least 30 minutes 4 mornings this week and bike ride at least once this week (I rode 6 miles this morning)
5. Attend the temple
Cooking/Preserving:
1. Slice and dry pears
2. Crumble dried herbs and put them into jars
Blog/Website Goals:
1. Take photos of finished baby gifts
2. Take photos for 3 other upcoming posts
3. Finish at least 2 blog posts
4. Update Homeschool pages to include 8th grade
How are you slicing your prars? We have a large amount on our tree and many of them are a great size but not quite as big as the ones from the supermarket. I just put some in to be dried and used a mandolin chopping off the stem and slicing from the top down seemed to work best. Have you ever canned pears with skins on? Pealing them is a bear! I make pear sauce, like apple sauce with them as well, any other ideas we have so many pears! I love your blog and all your ideas, it always gives me something to think about!
I never, ever, peel my pears before canning. I wait for them to ripen and then I can get the skins off. A ripe Bartlett pear is yellow. Check out the slide show I made on canning pears at the bottom of this page: http://theprudenthomemaker.com/cooking/recipes/canning-recipes
Also I think pear butter is even more delicious than apple butter. Use my apple butter recipe but use pear sauce instead: http://theprudenthomemaker.com/apple-butter
For slicing, I am just cutting them in half, and then cutting them with a knife. I use a melon baller first to take out the core.
Brandy, I see you mention your 72-hour kits all the time. Do you have a blog post about them?
Are you going to do a tutorial on how you made the baby shoes? I may have missed it somewhere and I have a baby shower coming up in two weeks that I wanted to try making these shoes for. If I missed it, can you direct me to it? Thanks! I enjoy your posts and look forward to them every week.
I’m working on a blog post about them. I hope to have it up soon.
Myra, I updated the post for you with the link to the free pattern and tutorial.
Thank you pear butter sounds delicious! Great idea!
It looked like you put them in boiling water then cold water and the skin just came off, did you have to rub them at all? I have no idea what kind of pear tree we have but they are lovely green with a beautiful dark red on part of it. They do turn yellow, but then they taste mealy and over ripe. Not sure when they are supposed to actually be ripe! Going to use your melon baller trick!
Boiling water then cold water. Just blanch them for 45 seconds in the boiling water. You rub them just a bit and if they are ripe, the skins come off. If they are not ripe they will stick.
It sounds like you have a different kind of pear (d’anjou). I have not blanched them but I do like them, and they are very pretty! If they’re mealy on you then they are over ripe. Those are a very crisp pear.
Pears ripen off the tree. If you have too many at once, put some in the refrigerator and it will slow the ripening WAY down.
You can use the melon baller to catch the edge of the string that runs down the middle, too, and pull that out.
My big goal for the week is to sort through our emergency kits and make sure everything is updated for the kids’ sizes, rotated food-wise, and get them stored in our new location for them. We have them in a storage room that I also use as a pantry, but this weekend I was able to clear out our front “coat” closet’s contents to different spots so we can put everything in the front hall. With fires in our general area and bigger ones a few hours east, potential evacuation is on my mind. My husband and I discussed the change and he felt it was a good idea – make them more accessible to our vehicle (I’m thinking even just 6′ counts in a rush!) and also to make it more consolidated for the kids. I’d hate to have my kids think they were supposed to start clearing the pantry shelving when that is actually not the priority, it would be an “if we have lots of extra time” type thing. 🙂 To that end, the shopping bags I usually store in the coat closet will be in the “pantry” closet now – on the off chance that we do have to evacuate, with enough time we could still bag up food with those bags and extend our 72-hour kits further.
We also have an orientation for a homeschool co-op this week – my goal there is to not get lost, since it’s our first time there. 😉
Brandy, I don’t know how you do everything. I have always needed sleep. I mean, if I don’t get atleast 7-8 hours a night I do not function well. I work best on 8-9 most of the time.
I don’t know anything about your faith. I’m guessing going to the Temple is not like going to a Sunday church service.
My goals this week are
*Walk 6 days (I don’t walk Sunday) which I have already messed up because I could not get the lock open to the “gym” to get on the treadmill and I have knee, heel, and balance problems so the treadmill with handrails is a must for me to walk.
*Make a trip to Publix for beefy onion soup mix before my coupons expire.
*deadhead zinnas
*make a cake
*survive this heat and humidity
I love that photo :). I love roses.
I have a pretty substantial list to get done this week as well (looks like you’re going to be busy too!). My list for the week can be found here…
http://makedohomemaker.blogspot.com/2015/08/monthly-goals-update-and-this-weeks_23.html
On the list for tonight: Canning. Lots and lots of canning. Thank goodness I remembered to put dinner in the crock pot this morning!
I made a fig butter and a blueberry butter where you use the whole fruit…so easy and in fact the blueberries are cooked first and strained to make pancake syrup and the remaining pulp forms the base of the blueberry butter.
I used my apple peeler corer slicer and canned pear rings one year still have some they were small and oddly shaped but still worked great
My goals this week are just about a simple as can be. It is so hot here. I have my husband set the sprinkler for 4:00am and I turn it off at 5:30 when I get up. It was only 103 here today. No rain is forecast for at least 2 weeks per our weather station for our area. It is so dry here that the cracks in back yard are very large. We do not water much of the back yard, just the trees and of coarse the garden and a few patio plants. But with dogs and boys my back yard is a site. I have a nice stone walk under my clothes line but getting to the line sometimes I have twisted my ankle in a crack.
Last week I had to put my mother’s dog to sleep. Very hard for me to do. It was my last living ‘connection’ to my mother. The very last thing my mother asked me to do for her was take care of her Tidbit. I had her almost 3 years. She was almost 19 years old. She was just so sweet. She had heart issues and it was the kindest thing to do to put her out of misery. But putting her in the ground was very hard. I still can not believe she is gone. Today I realized I brought her dog food at Walmart. I can take it back, but it was on my list for the shopping and I brought it before I remembered I did not have Tidbit any more. What a lame brain I am.
Your picture of the white rose is just beautiful. My Lady Banks white rose died. I will get it replace free because it died within a year of being planted. Our nursery will replace any plant that dies within a year of being planted. I have a yellow Lady Banks rose and it is fine, I just wanted a white one too.
I have been cooking ahead and freezing a few meals for when I have surgery. I know I will be off my feet a while. (knee replacement) It will be nice to be out of pain, but the idea of surgery again just makes me feel sad. I have had 7 major surgeries in my life, (I know many people have had more) but I remember how miserable the first few days are. I do not tolerate pain pills well so I do without a lot (as much as I can) so I am not looking forward to this at all. 🙁 I know in the long run I have to do it, but just doing it. We are waiting now for insurance approval.
I wish I was able to get as much done in a day as you do. I do not home school, so knowing you do I am amazed at how much you do and still have time to do the home school for your children and work on your own French lessons too. I feel good when I get my Bible/prayer time done every morning.
my heart goes out to all having to deal with drought and fires we all are learning from your preparedness
Beautiful roses!!! I’m so glad you decided to continue listing your goals. It really helps keep me motivated to stay close to my plans, too.
This week I am continuing the meatless recipes in hopes of not doing too much grocery shopping. We made an exception on the meatless meals yesterday due to a last minute decision to invite our neighbors over for dinner. They took care of our cats for us while we were out of town for about 4 days and we wanted to have them over to thank them. Since yesterday worked out for them, we went ahead and made a simple dinner of grilled chicken, salad, baked potatoes, and steamed broccoli, but it put a little dent in my progress since I had to buy chicken (I found some on sale at least!).
So, after having to fold that into the grocery budget, I reached my limit of $150 for these past two weeks. I really didn’t want to go over $125 and was doing pretty well actually. Overall, I’ve been very pleased with doing the two-week budget plan and have been finding it a huge help with staying at or below $300 for the month. I will close out August on Friday and it looks like I will be just over $200 for the month even after getting up to the $150 mark over these past two weeks! This knowledge gives me the confidence I need to bring our grocery spending down even more.
Our gardening plans are shaping up as well. My husband wanted to wait for pest control to come because we’ve had an inordinate amount of scorpions, crickets, and black widows this summer. Now that they’ve sprayed, we can start to prepare our beds for the fall garden. My husband actually rigged a hose contraption off the A/C spout so we can collect the water without spilling it. This will come in handy for the garden since the bed is directly across from the spout.
Another goal I had was to attend a dance class. I used to dance (Modern Ballet) and got away from it while raising my kids. I found a studio close by that offers classes once a week. They give the option of trying out one class for free so I’d like to do that this week. In the meantime, I’ve taken out some old yoga videos (Yes, actual VCR tapes!) and have been using those to help with some stretching in the mornings until I can get over to try one of the dance classes. Whether I get to a dance class or not, I’m happy that I’ve found the motivation to get up early and get about 20-30 minutes of stretching in at least.
Other goals involve tending to the inside of the house. After the kitchen had been torn up for so long, I wasn’t able to keep up on my daily house chores as well. I did a deep cleaning over the weekend and can finally get back into maintenance mode.
I think that about does it for my goals. My other goals are for our homeschooling so…probably not very interesting.
Hope everyone has a great week!
God Bless!
Janell,
If it makes you feel any better I need lots of sleep too! About four years ago I could easily get by on six or seven hours of sleep and now I need close to 9 or 10 to feel human. (I was recently diagnosed with sleep apnea and do have a cpap machine.) It has been hard for me to realize that I am just one of those people who need more sleep!
Brandy I love that you are sharing your goals each week. I have gleaned so many ideas from them and hope to share weekly on my blog as well. You’ve encouraged me to not give up on my gardening. I need to re-seed some lettuce this week and enjoy cutting my flowers. The other lofty goals I hope to accomplish are here: http://lifeasmrsemerson.blogspot.com/2015/08/this-weeks-goals.html I’m making playing outside with my kids a big priority. I live in KY and in another month we won’t be able to enjoy sprinklers outside. Hoping to soak in lots of fun between now and then!
Hi Brandy and have to say that I admire what you get done in your home and am in awe of your organisation. Having a large family is such a challenge and getting everything done an even bigger one. I do agree that schedules and lists are the way to go from my experience too, my children are now grown and are 29 & 28.
Our ( Husband and I) goals for the week are –
– to get our bulk manure for our spring garden beds, sadly they ran out when we went last week.
– Put manure, mushroom compost, and compost in gardens and turn in with rototiller (husband job as it just drags me along).
– Start planting out garden beds.
– Prepare herb gardens in front yard to plant our first ever herbs here.
– Put in drip irrigation system in vegetable beds if it arrives from our order, saving us 50% on our water usage in severe water restriction times, and also around 40 mins a day hand watering.
– Put oats, sugars and flours in storage containers purchased and arrived to save on pantry space, for more food storage.
Dear Brandy,
I love all your posts and I really look forward to the one on the 72 hour kits. Of all the posts the pantry and preparedness subjects are what I love best so I look forward to them. Plus I re read what you have on your pantry.
I have been on a challenge to build up these areas in my home. Plus save money generally. We are just coming into spring. My aims this week are to prepare pots for planting (cherry tomatoes), get my herb garden ready to add basil seedlings, package up Bay leaves I have been drying, finish sewing kitchen towels I have been working on, add as much as I can to my pantry…. and whatever I can do to save money this week.
I have been making kitchen towels from linen I get from thrift stores, I get thick old linen in pretty prints, wash it up, sew double layers and add trims or a crochet edge. They are turning out really nicely. Lots of presents made so far.
Have a good week, Love Annabel. http://thebluebirdsarenesting.blogspot.com.au/
Dear Brandy,
I love all your posts and I really look forward to the one on the 72 hour kits. Of all the posts the pantry and preparedness subjects are what I love best so I look forward to them. Plus I re read what you have on your pantry.
I have been on a challenge to build up these areas in my home. Plus save money generally. We are just coming into spring. My aims this week are to prepare pots for planting (cherry tomatoes), get my herb garden ready to add basil seedlings, package up Bay leaves I have been drying, finish sewing kitchen towels I have been working on, add as much as I can to my pantry…. and whatever I can do to save money this week.
I have been making kitchen towels from linen I get from thrift stores, I get thick old linen in pretty prints, wash it up, sew double layers and add trims or a crochet edge. They are turning out really nicely. Lots of presents made so far.
Have a good week, Love Annabel. http://thebluebirdsarenesting.blogspot.com.au/
My surgery is scheduled for Sept. 9 so I have to get in gear!!
In preparation for the downtime I plan on:
–Cooking several freezer meals that can be used by my family
–Weed the garden and plant some fall seeds in the starter pack
–inventory staples and purchase any gaps that will need to be replenished at Sams( my daughter can make the regular grocery store run)
— purchase my post op supplies. I just a realized I don’t have a “pretty” robe for my overnight stay, I plan on asking my sister if she has one I can borrow, but will probably just use a long sweater cardigan I have as a cover up. Just can’t justify the cost for one what for me would be a one time use.
— I will be off work for 4-6 weeks if all goes well, I will use this time to finish Christmas gifts
Amanda, I am in Ky. also, Lexington. Have been reading this blog for a few years and love every word and picture. I have learned so much and it keeps me motivated. I help teach a class at the Extension Office on saving money and couponing. I have used a lot of the suggestions to help others in our classes. It is lovely weather here right now. I am sure it will be warming back up as Sept. and even Oct. can be hot during the daytime.
I am also trying to get up earlier like I used to. Priority is getting son’s stuff around because he is moving this coming Friday. I’ve been using his stuff that he couldn’t use where he is at for the last 2 yrs. I will need to find lamps LOL.
Updated goals at http://chefowings.blogspot.com/2015/08/this-weeks-goals-or-sort-of.html
I’ve never had pear butter. If I get some pears I will have to try your recipe. Hubby uses apple butter or apple sauce on cottage cheese.
I will be working a lot of hours this week, but that always happens in August.
My other goals are to stay up with the garden. I want to pick 16-24 ears of corn each night after work. We will cook them all, eat what we want, then cut the ret off the cob for the freezer. It works better to do some every day, rather than save it up.
Keep up on picking the other produce. Mainly cucumbers, zucchini and tomatoes. Thin the second planting of carrots. Pick and dry basil and parsley.
I pick the pickling cucumbers every day, but store them through the week and then make pickles on the weekend. I have been getting at least 2-3 quarts a week that way. I only have two pickling cucumber hills, so I think that is great.
Make more zucchini muffins (savory ones) and put in the freezer to have with soups this fall and winter.
I would like to do more outside, but with all the fires around us our air is unhealthy, so we have been warned to limit physical activity outside.
Inside – make above mentioned muffins, make bread on Saturday, Deep clean the kitchen, including the cabinets.
I think that will be enough, if I add in all the normal stuff that you do to keep a household running.
Brandy,
Did you ever consider printing postage at home and mailing packages from your mailbox? It will save a trip to the post office. If you have a decent scale, you can weigh your package and then go to usps.com to find out the postage. Sometimes priority mail is the cheapest – in which case, you can use USPS boxes (I keep some on hand at home). Otherwise, you can just print out the postage on paper and adhere with packing tape to a box or envelope you have and place in your mailbox with the flag up. I sell on eBay and mail most of my packages from home to save me gas and time.
On another note, I have been using duolingo to practice my rusty French, too – ever since we took a car trip to Quebec this past summer. I am loving this program! I hope to get through all the levels within one year (I’m on level 8 now).
I looked on their site previously and it looks like the cheapest option is for me to use their smallest international box, so I’ll have to go get that. I tried a padded envelope that I have and typed in size and it was way more money. The post office is not very far, thankfully. This is just still on my to-do list because I haven’t finished the gifts yet.
There is a site called The Family Homestead she has a free pattern for baby shoes and I believe she walks you through the steps if that helps.
Thank you! These look simple enough for me to try.
Dear Brandy,
I am so very glad you decided to continue listing your goals. I think it helps everyone in this group. I was so swamped last week I did not have a chance to answer but my vote was yes, please continue to list the goals.
You could check thrift stores if you don’t find one to borrow. I have seen quite a lot of them in the ones I visit. I have robes but go in spurts as far as wearing them. In winter it’s more likely because it’s cozier to change in to and relax in the evenings. In summer there is more drop in company and more running in and out. Winter here is stay in and stay warm!!
1. Let the turkey loose to free range with the ducks and chickens. Hopefully I calculated right and they can’t fly any longer – otherwise I will be clipping wings.
2. Continue to collect all the pullets at night and put them in the coop – darn things just are not getting the “go in” at night concept and I don’t want to lose any to owls.
3. wash and hang out all the dog bedding (if it stops raining long enough) There is no point in using the dryer other than it gets alot of the hair off the beds.
4. Clean and reorganize the chest freezer – again
5. Continue stocking up on canned goods/staples – whatever is on sale this week. I try and buy just a few of things each grocery trip. I know I have about a 3 week supply of some things and 6 months of others so I am working towards 6 months of everything.
6. Finish sewing the rest of the towel baby bibs and then photograph and list them in my Etsy store.
And then I need to keep up on the weeding and picking in the garden and do something with the giant brush pile we have outback.
Roxie – sending you a large hug! I hope your surgery goes well too!
Brandy just to let those interested in art i noticed lots and lots of different artist books for kids freereadfeed
done doing apples for now
we are starting to feel effects of smoke here in central iowa so far they are not as bad as when we got them from canada i am feeling it in my lungs will have to take inhaler with me when I go visiting teaching tonight i can’t imagine how awful you all are having it we are to get pretty sunsets because of the smoke in the air
sad to think of the horridness drought then fires keep safe
If I could start with a prayer request:
My husband battles depression and lost his job two months ago. Today is what we call “a bad day. ”
My goals this week are simple. With a stressful job and home life, we are working on routines. My 10 yr old’s goal is for me not to have to write assignments in her planner. We are at week 3 of the school year and have only missed two assignments. ..last year we were in danger of falling because of missed work.
I’m working with a friend on a girl scout my promise, my faith event at our church
I am hoping the weather cooperates and I can dig up and replant my garden for fall planting. And maybe make that quiche that’s pictured under this. ..drat.:p
Although I didn’t do my goals until Tuesday, my goals are to not go to the grocery store for 8 days and go to the gym every other day. So far, I am on track. Plus all the other usual activities like cooking, eating at home and keeping everything clean.
I’m thinking of you and your husband, and pray that future days are “good days.”
I think that you are right to focus on simple routines during times like this. Hope the weather cooperates.
Hi Robbie and your husband is in our prayers.
My husband suffers from PTSD from his time in the military and relative depression and memory loss, so I know about the bad days indeed. I am my husbands carer due to his injuries and condition, and all I can say is that making a joke of everything is helpful, laughter is sometimes the best medicine. Play silly games, and laugh often. If all else fails go for a walk for a few minutes for a bit of respite, enjoy the garden, the clouds and all the beautiful things nature has to offer if things get to you a bit. What people don’t realise is the wife and family also feel the effect of depression of a family member, and sometimes need time out too.
I hope your husband finds a new job shortly.
The weather is supposed to be nice this weekend so my plan is to pull out strawberry plants that just are not producing well and I am feeling they are taking up to much “real estate” in my garden. On my way home from work today I am going to stop at our recycling center (its on my way home so I do not to make another trip out) and fill up containers that I have in the trunk with some free top soil to fill up the beds some. I will also mix in some of my compost and start to prepare this area for planting next year.
Hopefully I will have some energy to trim back my weeping cherry tree. I trimmed a Chinese Maple tree last weekend and what a difference it made.
All this weekend will cost me is my time!
I have been so busy these past couple of weeks that I have missed out on some posts! Looks like I have some reading to do! I often wonder, since you and I have the same planting zone (but a totally different climate, so I don’t know how that works???) if the noodle beans and Armenian cucumbers would do well for me. I have a brown thumb basically and have had no success with squashes, beans or cucumbers. I can grow some herbs which I console myself with since they can be so pricey!
Also, you have inspired me to get back to studying Spanish since in this area, and basically everywhere, it would be so very helpful in business and life in general. I have always wanted to learn French as well but I’m prioritizing the Spanish for now.
As far as going outside…until this past week when we got quite a bit of rain, I stayed inside at all costs because walking outside was like getting smothered with a hot humidity blanket…just miserable. Our sweat starts sweating before we can even towel off from a shower in these parts, lol!
Enjoy your weekend!~TJ
I got a bike for Christmas, and I really would like to spend more time riding it. I should make that a priority while we have nice weather. I am trying to get a lot of outside projects finished (also because of the weather!) such as goat pens fixed up, gates repaired, and I’m hoping hubby will hang a zipline for us! Here’s some of what I’m trying to get done this week, right here . But I want to make more concrete goals like I used to. These days I feel like I waste a bunch of time trying to figure out what to do rather than doing it.
I have been in the same position as your husband, so I can seriously empathize with your situation. I chose to go back to school and retrain for another type of job. It really helped me deal with my depression as I had something positive to work towards and created optimism for my future. The new career I chose was something that I always loved, so it was kind of a dream becoming reality for me. We did not have much money at the time. In fact we ended up having to declare bankruptcy…not something I’m very proud of and it’s very hard to admit to. But struggling to send me back to school was better than sitting at home thinking about suicide. I know not everyone would or could make the same decisions as we did, but the outcome was very positive for me and we learned quite a bit from this part of our lives. I now understand more about my shortcomings, my strengths and we had a really big lesson on how to handle our money better.
I sincerely hope your husband finds something to do that will induce a sense of positive self worth. I would encourage him to try volunteering with something that he really enjoys (something that he sees as a hobby or special interest) until he finds that illusive job. It may not make him money, but it will give him a purpose to get up in the morning, get out of the house, and may bring some much needed joy back into his life. Volunteer work can easily be added to his resume and it shows he is willing and able to work, not to mention showcase some of those transferable skills employers are always looking for. Don’t forget, this is also a way of networking with people. You never know who you might end up volunteering with, who may know of an unadvertised job market as well as another possible reference. So keep an open mind and just have some fun doing it!
Sending you all lots of love and hugs for your whole family!
Many pears ripen off the tree. I would pick them when they looked great but were hard & in a few days usually they were ripe but not mealy. Good luck
Thank you so much, Becky! We started getting rain in our area over the weekend and are so grateful it has continued off and on since then. Now we pray it pushes east and helps the folks who need it to put out the bigger fires!
Thank you both!