wishing of a homestead

 
lately, for about 5 years now, i have been dreaming on a piece of land i can call my own.

(5 acre farm layout from Self-Sufficient Life book by john seymour)

i've been wanting to live on a farm and raise chickens, and a couple of cows, goats, horses, and maybe a pig or two.

i have been researching all the hows, wheres, and the whens (i still do not know on the 'wheres' all i know is i don't want snow :D)

before i do buy though. i came to the realization that i have not been on a real farm since, ohh, since i was about 5 years old when i was in mexico. because of the 'epiphany' i realized i first needed to get 'my feet wet' and rent a farm.

and so, here lies the dilemma.

i found a small farm. a 3 bedroom on about 2 acres of land. the problem is, i have 2 daughters, one is all for it while the other wants to go but does not because of her friends. it's so hard being a mommy, wanting to make your children happy is always hard. sometimes i feel like i'm being selfish by following my dreams. i know i should take the house, my brain AND my heart are telling me to (and lets face it, it is VERY rare when they both agree).

well, i think that there are a few more questions i have for the landlord of this farm and depending on what he has to say... I WILL BE MOVING SOON

HORRRAYY

my new weekly chore list

in the process of simplifying and 'cleaning up' my act (which hasn't gone very well btw), i have started to make my very own

household binder.

there's all kinds of free printables all over the internet, and when i finally knew what i was looking for from the knowledge of many other bloggers, i created my very own daily and weekly chore list.

i was looking around all over the www, i found this organizing beauty on pinterest

you can find this at My 3 Monsters blog. she also has this as a free printable you can fill in. just follow the link.

notice, how for everyday, she has a different room she works on. i like that. mostly because if i stick to one room, i won't feel like a 'chicken with its head cut off'' going all over the place and getting nowhere. i believe that this will work for me also, or, at least hope so.

so, with Amys help, this is what i came up with for my very own daily and weekly chore list...

i wrote things down in the order that i will be doing my chores. so, i will begin my day by making my bed and clearing off my computer desk if needed. from there i brush my teeth and quick wipe the sink, toilet, tile and mirror. because i KNOW my girls will leave me heaps of leftover 'surprises' when they are getting ready for school. 

then, i will start a wash, and head to the living room, the kitchen, my 'office' and lastly, my studio. where, once it's cleared, i can concentrate on making something for a change. 

after the daily tasks are done, i will then concentrate on the one room assigned to that day and be done. i then don't have to think about that room for an entire week.

finally, the beauty of it all. the weekend. 

the time of rest and play. 

i will be doing my daily chores and on saturdays just making simple diy cleaning supplies which takes no time at all. but once thats done i pretty much have the rest of the day to spend quality time with my daughters.

i just hope that this helps me keep myself organized. my home is a far cry from being a haven and i yearn for it to be that and much more, especially for my babies. it's always a great big mess and wonder if a tornado just came thru. but, alas, it did not. 

it has been simply the result of a disorganized life.

so no more disorganization and bring on our new haven............ wish me luck!

thank you for visiting and let me know what you think.

Cowboy Pie

I made this delicious recipe for dinner today, and let me tell you, it was a HIT!

Usually, my 9 year old is a very picky eater, however, she almost finished her food today. And I do say almost because my hubby served her a little too much for what she can eat.

Trust me, these pictures do not give this pie justice.

I served it with green beans and some seasoned potato wedges.

Would you like the recipe? Well, if you do, take your pen and paper out because here it goes.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef (the less grease the better)

1 medium onion, minced

2 medium zucchinis

1 can of beans (pinto, black eyed, etc)

1/2 can of spinach

1 pie crust (you can get these by the cookie dough already prepared for you)

1 packet of Taco Seasoning

1 cup of pancake batter (mix flour, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon oil, milk to pancake consistency) you can also use Bisquick instead

• Preheat oven to 350°F

• On a pan, brown beef, add onion and zucchini, continue to brown for a minute then add taco seasoning and spinach.

• Continue to brown until zucchini is almost tender.

• Place pie crust on a greased pie pan.

• Pour beef mixture into the pie pan and even out.

• Mix pancake (or Bisquick) batter well and pour over beef.

• Place in oven for about 30 minutes or until crust is nice and brown.

• ENJOY

I hope you and your family will enjoy this as much as mine did.

This blog is participating in the following links:

chic on a shoestring decorating

amazingly simple pillows

laura from come together kids has come up with a very cute pillow.

(picture by come together kids)

it's so adorable and easy to do, i decided i would give her some room in my little space

so everyone can enjoy.

it is made of fleece and is held together mostly by hot glue... though i think it can be made completely from this wonderful invention.

they are perfect for the spring, on a child's bed or even on your living room couch to snuggle with a book.

for the easy how-to on this project go here

thank you laura for sharing this cute flower pillow.

-jackie

simplifying

as some of you may have noticed, i have been simplifying my little space. i must apologize to my fellow bloggers that have arrived here via the graphics fairy.

here is the picture of my previous banner (the one i posted about)...

(click to enlarge)

on another note, the new banner picture is also from the graphics fairy, as is my new button.

 my previous blog was a little bright and a little too colorful for me now. i made it a while back and it appears my tastes have changed since. 

i guess i figured, since im simplifying my home, i might as well do the same to my little blog. and i think i like it.

i just love karen's blog. it is filled with wonderful images that she has collected throughout the years.

thank you karen for taking the time off your very busy day to bring us all joy!

what are your thoughts?

thank you for visiting my little space and come back again soon.

sick of being sick...

i have been stuck at home sick for the last couple of days now. yesterday, i was sick of being sick.. and of being bored.

so, i decided to do something fun. i cleaned my studio (that was not fun) enough to be able to get to my sewing machine. i then made this apron for one of my daughters. she loved it! just look at her modeling, and LOOK AT THOSE HEEEELS!!

she's only 9. those shoes belong to her sister and she wanted to try them on and see if they 'fit' her.... her foot was swimming inside them! hahahahaha

ohhh, to be a child again!

i made the pattern myself. all you need to do is fold a piece of tissue paper in half and place it on the child's chest. from there you just draw where you want the apron to be. add 1/2" for the seam allowance and cut. there's your pattern. it took me only a couple of hours to do, and it definately beats laying in bed sick. i felt good about accomplishing something.

well my friends, until next time and thank you for stopping by.

i missed that freshly line-dried laundry scent...

spring is just around the corner, and i for one, AM READY!!

it was a long winter this year, and though i do love the smell of fresh snow on the ground, i love even more the smell of line-dryed laundry. i missed smelling the flowers and watching the sunset after a long day without risking gettin a cold.

my aparment building is old and still has the original brick as siding. and, i live right smack in the middle of more 'fancy' apartments right next door and right in front of us.

my next door neighbor and i seem to get snooty looks whenever we hang out our clothes. it saddens me.

it saddens me because in this day in age, people don't stop and take a few minutes to smell the roses (or the laundry) and enjoy life as it was meant to be.

they would rather buy the artificially and chemically ladden fabric softener that smells like the sun instead of gettin the real thing.

i remeber the first time i started to let the sun dry my clothes.

i was not used to that smell. it was strong. and at first i did not like it.

i did not like it because i was not used to it.

i, like these people formerly mentioned, was used to those artificially scented detergents and softeners.

after about 2 weeks I fell in love with this wonderful sun scent. i've been drying my clothes outside ever since. it's now been 4 years.

it all started also because i was out of quarters one day. it was a saturday afternoon. the banks were closed and i had no car to go to the store and get change. i had a mountain of dirty laundry waiting to be washed and no quarters for the laundromat.

so what do i do? i hand washed  all those clothes myself. my hands were sore and blistery the next day because i had never done that before jajajaja.

though, i have to admit, it was not hard at all. the only thing that was hard was washing all those jeans! everything else was easy. not only that, my clothes came out cleaner that when washed by machine.

washing by hand gives you the advantage of seeing and getting the little spots and gettin rid of them. another advantage is your arms get nicely toned, and who doesn't want that?! not to mention putting less strain on Mother Earth with all the electricity saved, plus all those quarters that instead of going to the laundromat go to my ceramic piggy.

and here i am, four years later, loving the smell of freshly line-dryed laundry.

the real thing.

can messy be considered...beautiful?

my apartment is like a pigstye.
i'm not in denial about that.

have you ever asked yourself why every time you clean house, it always starts up looking like a tornado went right thru your living room floor? but yet you're amazed that it did not even touch your neighbors home.

i often think about this (mostly because my apartment gets hit by this tornado quite often).

you see, i'm always re-aranging, re-organizing, and re-doing EVERYTHING.

my kids are now used to this, however, my boyfriend finds it annoying that he can never find things where they last were.

he once told me "furniture is fine with me because they are big, i can see them, but when you start moving my shaving cream, the razors, the forks, and all those little things: IT DRIVES ME INSANE!"

my response to that ofcourse was: "the day you move in here, and start paying rent,  might be the day you can begin to have an opinion on my decorating habits"

*notice how i said 'might'.... he doesn't stand a chance!!