how does my garden grow?

through my husband's hours upon hours of hard work mainly.

excuse the pictures, as this is a major work in progress...

our starts are in this window,

right behind my couch.

which is not quite as annoying as i had not-so optimistically expected;).

we do all our veggies from seeds.

by we i mostly mean my hubby.

left side of the front yard:

big flower box, border flower boxes,

unfinished picket fence,

basket ball,

and the 2 herb boxes are the smaller ones

{can you believe how huge last years herbs are already?!}

i grow peppermint,

rosemary, sage, lemon thyme, thyme, oregano and will put  basil and chammomile in this year.

 we are putting in crushed granite in the pathways later this week.

view from road:

ignore all construction junk on porch ,

hubs has been working on all the border boxes.

strawberries, last year we had a major earwig issue in our strawberries,

ewwwwwwww.

right side of the yard are our veggie/fruit boxes.

view from front walk

view from porch

{there is another big one you can't see behind that hideous ponderosa pine tree}

there will be tomatoes, cilantro {i know that's an herb},

yellow squash, zucchini, bell pepper, jalapenos,

watermelon, pole beans,

cabbage,

etc.

i can't wait until everything is fruitful and multiplying!

i will show you then!

playing along with alicia!

come play too:)

how does your garden grow?

blessings,

mandy

the homemaker's binder...

oh yes.

another of these posts.

if you are part of blogger world these babies are nothin' new!

but, after talking to my little sister about mine today,

and then seeing angell's post asking for suggestions, it seemed natural i share mine!

first off, i tried and tried to make my homemaker's binder years ago.

i'd start to reorganize, get a little lost, and quit.

repeat that step 10 or so times.

then,

i read Large Family Logistics by Kim Brenneman.

holy cow.

that book is like lotion for itchy skin.

or guacamole on ...anything.

it was life transforming for my household.

the most important thing is...wait for it...

I am caught up on laundry every.single.day.!!!

i know,

a moment of silence.

no more chair covered in clothes, no more musty leftinthewashtoolong shirts,

no more hubby screaming asking at 6 am if he has any clean undies.

i am on it.

kim's idea is 4 loads by 4 o clock.

she has a farm and a few more kids, so mine is 3 loads by 3.

i had to start by having a major laundry day to start from scratch.

i mean like 15 plus loads.

i know,

*hangs head in shame*

but, once i was banging my head against the wall to do my most dreaded task ever of folding and putting away, i was able to start afresh.

everymorn, right after hubs gets out of the shower, i put in a load.

i bring it out and fold it asap.

i bought each kids their own basket{ the two littles have a dish tub bucket , as those are easier for them to take up the stairs} & wrote their names in sharpie.

i am usually done way before 3, but that is my absolute last minute crunch to get clothes all put away, and yes, each kid puts their own away, though i confess i fold them all.

so, anyways, onto the binder. 

this is what my first page looks like:

it's a print out from moneysavingmom that i saved and put in my own list.

click on it to see it closer.

i put it in a sheet protector and write on the same one everyday with a dry erase marker, it wipes right off at the end of the day.

then i have my household chores split up into different days{another large family logistics idea}

so on kitchen day, i have listed all the things i may need to do that day,

clean frig,

wipe down cupboards, etc.

tuesday is bathroom day, wed. is bedroom, thursday is living room/dining, friday office day, saturday outdoor day.

i don't do everything on the list each time, but circulate through.

for my meal planning section, i finally took hold of a great idea a friend shared at a local homeschool meeting, of doing a 'theme' each day.

it makes meal planning much easier!

so we have mexican monday,

chicken tuesday,

crockpot wed.,

pasta thurs.,

easy peasy fri.,

soup,salad, sandwich saturday,

and special sunday.

then for each of these days i have a list that i write meals that could fall under that category,

and as i plan the weekly meals, i just pick something off each list!

these lists are from organizedhome.com

i will share the next parts of my binder another day this week,

and plan on making a homeschooling one similar.

linking here:

blessings,

mandy



i hate my bangs and other such nonsense...

so.

 i asked the girl who cut my hair

{first hair cut in a year!},

to leave me a long side bang.

uh-huh.

i look like a puppy from the 1950s.

i'm not really sure what that means, but it's what i thought of.

it's a good thing i'm not one to pitch a fit or whine about things like this.

  i do hate them, but whatever.

it's hair.

it grows.

{those forehead wrinkles, however, will just continue to get worse.  let's pretend they don't exist, m'kay?}

and now onto a question i keep getting asked:
How did the gluten free thing go and are we still on it???

answer:

awful.

and no, we're not still on it.

we did it for 8 weeks, and we {the hubs and i} did not feel any difference.

it was supposed to be beneficial for his crohn's disease, and for my

multitude of problems.

but, no, we felt no changes.

no clarity of mind, energy, weight loss,

or any of the other benefits everyone else apparently sees after a few weeks.
and, we did not feel headachey, bloated or yucky after reintroducing gluten.

i honestly wasn't sure if i was livid or relieved.

go back to carbs and regular cooking?

yes please!

no easy solution to seeing health improvement?

uhhhhh!

but i am still on my supplements, and hoping that by the time i return to the dr., that my levels will at least be getting closer to normal.

and despite my thought process earlier in this stuff,

i do believe that when finances are better, i will return to my neurologist to get an official diagnosis.

if for no other reason than my own peace of mind.

and yes, this was the nonsense part of the post;)

blessings,

mandy