Tap Tap Tap

Blow-Blow - this thing on?

Well howdy! Long time no blog! Partly because the night of my last post, everyone but me went down with the flu, (and no one ever fully recovered before we got hit with something else, wash rinse repeat until Spring and we could be outside and have the windows open), and mostly because life has been busy. I'm in the home stretch of finally, finally completely cleaning and organizing the basement. Honestly, if I wasn't waiting for the soup to come to a simmer, I wouldn't even be posting right now, because I'm that close to being done (hallelujah!). Between January and now, I hosted two 100+ in attendance funeral dinners at our church in less than a month, helped with VBS, had a crappy garden, took my twelve year old to State Fair, husband was laid off several times, homeschooling all 5 of the kids, you get the idea. Blogging has been laid aside for the foreseeable future. But. I AM on Instagram. Actually, IG is like the new blogging for me. Blurbs here and there, no pressure to have some brilliantly informative post, quick because I can do it from my phone (could never get anything to post on my blog from my phone) instead of loading pictures from my camera, fighting with the format, etc. etc.
Anyway, come visit me there if you'd like.

Signing off~
Bonnie

https://www.instagram.com/farminginmyapron/

It's the Sugar Creek Gang...

Every week day at 4:15, myself and my brothers, and our best friends who lived around the corner, would come running from whatever corner of the house or yard or woods we were in. We'd huddle around the radio, hit record if we had a tape player that worked and a tape to tape on, and listen to the Sugar Creek Gang. How frustrating it was when Prairie Princess or the Parsonage Family was on instead. In vain I have searched for the Sugar Creek stories we used to listen to. The version with a guy just reading doesn't hold a candle to the radio drama versions we listened to. No one has them. Anywhere. Moody Radio "does not currently have these titles available for sale or plans to do so in the future." Bah. But then one day, inspiration struck and I though to check the Archive site that has Ranger Bill episodes (another childhood favorite)- Bingo! Only 3 stories, but finally my kiddos could listen to the same Sugar Creek Gang stories I did, and listen we have. And even though I was more interested in the adventure part as a kid, the mini sermon in each one is phenomenal. The importance placed on praying always, honesty and integrity and obedience to your parents and to God. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do! (clicking on these should take you to the link, also for the Thief in Town, episode one is actually the second one down. Episode 10 is listed first)

The Thief In Town

Bag Lady of Town Hall

The Pearshell Legend

JANUARY 2016!! My Sisters Bridal Shower Tea

I thought I lost this post, I couldn't find it anywhere and then today, January of 2016, I found it.

So here, in no particular order, is my sisters wedding shower tea I threw, with the help of my mom, sisters, sisters in law and some friends.

Lots of gifts. Lots of them.

They got 4 ironing boards.

I don't have closeups, but having tea cups for 100+ people was doable but stressful to be responsible for, so I printed tea cups on clear labels and we stuck them to all of the paper cups. Besides tea, we had coffee, lemonade, and a friend made raspberry cordial and rose milk.

My new favorite cheap party decoration trick is to grab a package of miscellaneous doilies and stick them on the wall.

For desserts we had cream puffs, tea cakes, thumbprint cookies, cake balls, cake rolls, strawberry shortcake, chocolate covered strawberries, and brownies that I baked in a mini muffin tin and topped with whipped cream and raspberries.

My sweet niece Claire. Oh my goodness, you guys should see her smile, it is the best thing!The quilt on the wall was made by a friend and it was amazing! It chronicled all of Anna and J.'s dating and engagement in photos. 

I baked for what felt like years. The day before the shower, my mom, sisters and a friend came over and helped assemble the sandwiches. I made pumpernickel bread for cucumber sandwiches, oatmeal bread and white bread for chicken salad (I also made all of the mayo because homemade beats the pants off store-bought.), a rollup sandwich on homemade roasted red pepper tortillas, and we had peanut butter and jelly as well.

we also had 3 kinds of tea bread, lemon, banana, and zucchini, crackers and cheese, grapes, scones with mock devonshire cream, lemon curd (homemade) and jam (these were in tea cups on each table to help keep the line moving and to keep with the tea party look) and salami with cream cheese and banana peppers rolled up inside.

That crooked table cloth is making me crazy.

I had originally printed up, cut out and laminated tea pots to stick on the ugly industrial coffee pots, but we were afraid the tape and the plastic would melt so we skipped it.

This is the entry way to the church fellowship hall. And a dandy reflection of me.

All of the tables had cloth table cloths, a tea pot for a vase (we nicked daffodils wherever we could and bought a couple of bouquets to fill it all out), a vintage glass luncheon plate withe the tea cups of scone fixings, candles, and a tea quote.

I never got a good picture of the favors, but I made lime cookies, cut them into teabag shapes and dipped them in white chocolate. Then we attached a little tag on a string to make them look more like a tea bag.

My sister said that her husbands family *still* talks about how much they enjoyed this shower, so I guess we did alright.

New Years Chatter About Pretty Much Everything

This picture really doesn't have anything to do with this post. But a pictureless post seems naked, so here it is.

The kidlets are tucked into their beds, dishes are washed, Braden's lunch packed for tomorrow, and the coffee set up. Finally, some time to blog!
I am so ready for this year of 2015 (side note: so ready that I don't have a calendar yet. Somehow I always forget to buy one. Always.), after the rough year 2014 was. I'm not for resolutions, but I do like to dream/plan, and think about what needs to change for the coming year.
High on that long list (and maybe repeated every so often) is finding or making a realistic housekeeping schedule. The girls got all of the American Girl movies from their aunt and cousins for Christmas and we watched Kit this evening. After that, I'm rarin' to make myself a new apron and go.
I printed out a bunch of schedules I found on line and I'm thinking we'll just give each one a few weeks go and see what we like.  A tidy house is a must. I see too many times in blogland where home keeping is looked down upon. That having a clean house means you're somehow depriving your children of your time, and you can clean when they've grown. My opinion is that having your children help with the house work means A. you're spending time with them while getting something done, B. you're teaching them the importance of order and keeping things clean, and C. that as part of the family, they are expected to do work, and parents are not servants. How will they learn if Mama blows it off or does it for them? The kids do the majority of dishwashing, sweeping and tidying, but we need some sort of plan of attack for the rest of the house that will fit in with homeschooling.
I'm wishing I could dump the house out onto the front lawn right now and put it all back together and start fresh that way.

Next on my list is getting my wardrobe in shape. It's pathetic. Really really pathetic. And I've noticed *I* get more done and feel happier when I've actually taken the time to dress nicely, throw on a little make-up and do something with my hair besides a ponytail. I've read through (and plan to re-read as well as take notes on) all of the FANTASTIC posts on femininity Emma at Charming the Birds From the Trees has written. And when I incorporated them, I felt pretty darn good. And then we got into holiday business and now we're back at the starting line.
Another reason is that I don't want my girls falling into the trap of frumpiness. They seem to be watching me closer everyday, and I'm seeing their own dressing follows what I'm wearing. I don't want them to be clothes horses, but I do want them to learn to dress nicely for their families. If we dress up for company and those we want to make a good impression on, why would we think our own families don't care that we dress as slobs for them?
I'm still trying to figure out my style. I know what I like, but it doesn't always like me, and then also, I will be 35 this year. Am I dressing age appropriate? Sigh.
Here's a list of links which *should*take you to Emma's posts:
From Frumpy to Fabulous
Commitment to Loveliness
General Femininity Posts
Feminine Dress Posts
Feminine Tips
Finishing School
One of my favorite things about Emma? She's not petite. She's a bit taller than I am and silly as it sounds, I feel like I can relate to her better. You can be tall and feminine!

Moving on with my list is eating and "health". We ate a LOT of crap last year. We just did. The good news is- I didn't gain too much weight from it. That said, I'm also NOT going to try to lose it. If I do, great, but I am tired of the merry go 'round of "Oh I can't eat this or that because I'm trying to lose weight, yada yada yada."  I am done with that. On the whole, (with a few exceptions) we eat a good healthy diet. My weight has pretty much stayed the same for the last year and I have decided to be fine with that. Too many times have I heard "So and so lost so much weight, don't they look great?" As if there was something horribly wrong with them before? No. My worth as a person is not found in what I weigh or how skinny I am, and I will not let my own vanity tell me otherwise. I will be happy and healthy where I am. I will not wait until I'm a certain weight to enjoy life. I do plan to get on the elliptical more, and I know I need to drink more water. I feel better when I do. I will change and adjust our regular food as I learn more about health, but I will do that for all of us, not as a weight thing.

Now I will talk about my house and farm plans. I have millions of them. I also have no money for decorating. Goals though are to do something with our bedroom which is full of hideously ugly furniture, black sheets covering the windows, no curtains and I HATE it. I am challenging myself to make it over before summer. Somehow and with no money. And I want to love it, not just be okay with it.
I also want to spruce up our porch, it just looks tired. And every room in this house because it's all shabby and needs it (except the living room, we got some hand me down furniture and it finally looks comfortable and inviting!) especially painting.
As much as I want to add more animals and some fruits to the farm, I'm scaling back and just planning on re-establishing the herb garden (it all got torn out last summer when we had to have our drainage worked on) and getting enough seedlings started to sell. (Maybe a roadside stand?) Anything else will be a great surprise.
Not related to any of the above is my hope to open an Etsy shop. I've got some ideas floating around the old noggin' and I would like to put them into action.

Rounding out this very long list is the most important: A regular Bible quiet time. I *know* a lot of the reason last year was so hard was because I bore the load by myself instead of making time to spend with God. I hate that desperately grasping feeling. My two biggest problems are finding the time to do it (My preferred time is first thing in the morning, but Sprout usually wakes up when I do and nothing gets done. Come evening, I generally forget.), and a good study. I have a very hard time just reading, I need some sort of plan, a goal so to speak. I've tried several, but nothing feels like "it".

Well then, congratulations if you read all of that drivel! And if you have any advice to offer on any of it PLEASE DO- introduce yourself and say hello! I'm not the best at replying to comments, but I do read them!

Signing off,
Bonnie