Home Grown

Beth R – What is your daily routine like?

My routine depends on what needs to be done on any given day.

Most days I am up between 4 and 6. Almost always before 6. Some days if I have been up late the night before I may see 6 on the clock face, not often, but it does happen.

Steven is often up within minutes or at half an hour of my rising. It makes for very long days when he is up at 4am. I find myself frustrated form the start as I have no quiet time to myself to get my head together in the morning. On a perfect morning I have my coffee and at least an hour with no sound but me stirring in the house. When Steven wakes he wants a drink and his breakfast immediately. He has little patience for waiting. Once he is squared away then I have my coffee and try to get me squared away as well. This month I am working on NaNoWriMo (link in sidebar). So at least an hour of my time is devoted to trying to bang out at least 2000 words. If the words don’t come in the morning I spend some time answering email and other things online.

At 6am Gracie is up and getting ready for school. I fix her breakfast, usually grilled ham and cheese or a oven toasted bagel with ham and cheese or cream cheese. We make sure she has her meds and everything is in her backpack before we start watching the clock.

We are at the bus stop at 7am. By 7:10 I am back in the house.

If Steve is working from home I get his breakfast.

I start the dishwasher and/or laundry and find another cup of coffee. Steven watches SpongeBob while complete any commitments I have due – like working on the monthly report for the local food bank. Work on blog posts or jot down ideas for future posts.

We go upstairs and do a run through of the bedrooms. Making beds and tidying up.

Right now I am also sorting through all the rooms and getting rid of things the kids no longer use or can wear. Gracie and J. have transitioned from tween to teen and Steven is no longer an infant. He is certainly a little boy. We got rid of baby toys and the girls sorted through things and let go of a lot of stuff that they no longer have any attachment to.

Last week we spent one day in each bedroom and cleaned out every closet and every drawer. We got rid of clothes the kids can no longer wear, I released my grip on tons of baby stuff (my baby days are over!) and spent some time photographing items and listing them on Craig’s List. That can take more time than is worth the effort.

This week since all the bedrooms have been cleaned out I stripped everything and washed all the curtains and bedding top to bottom and cleaned the rugs and we mopped the floors.

Thanksgiving is coming and we start decorating for Christmas on the night of Thanksgiving. I have been also sorting Christmas decoration boxes and trying to figure out if the trees for each room need anything. One string of blown lights puts a kink in everything.

In the back of my mind I am trying to figure out what’s for supper and getting it started. Good food takes time. Slow food. Think slow food.

Lunch time. Colby is getting ready for work. I try to have her something substantial to take with her or to eat before she leaves. If there are errands to run she helps me get those out of the way in the morning.

Cooking. Dishes. Laundry. etc. It is never ending. Let the dogs in and out. Play with Steven. Try to get him to sit quietly and hope he will doze or take a nap which rarely ever happens any more.

The last couple months with the ear infections from hell that won’t clear up and led to ruptured eardrums I did much of nothing at all beyond sit on the couch, keep Steven occupied and watch mindless tv or read blogs. Right now I am feeling better and see an ENT once a week and I think it is helping.

Gracie is home just after 3pm. Snacks and homework. A little down time with her.

Then we are off to karate and dance. Those days are time consuming as it is an hour each with forty-five minute wait in between. 4:45 – 7:45 is a lot of minutes.

I usually spend that time reading on my Blackberry.

Home. Supper.

Since I have had the issues with my ears Steve has been doing the barn chores.

Can we go to bed yet?

Some days I feel as if nothing is accomplished and success is written if everyone had clean clothes and a food in their belly.

I would like to cubby hole things like laundry on Monday, mopping on Friday but those things just don’t work for me.

Suzanne – Are you going to sell any of your home-made soaps?

Yes, soap is $3.75 a bar. I have lavender, apple jack, chocolate, chocolate mint, blueberry muffin, tea tree oil, plain, egg, honey and milk, cucumber and mint, raspberry lemonade, lemon poppy seed, oatmeal, three different soaps for men to name a few. Priority mail is $4.95. I accept paypal payments.

I try to get a list of them all.

One more thing to add to a to do list – which I think I misplaced.

More tomorrow!

Keep asking questions and I’ll keep answering them. Just leave them in the comments and I’ll search them out!

P.S. I am considering taking up Tupperware Sales. Would you wonderful readers support me and give me all your Tupperware orders? Remember, Tupperware comes with a life time guarantee.

I want to try something new here and it I need your help to do it.

Ask me any question you have ever wanted to ask. I’ll answer them here the following day. The question platform is open for next couple of days.

Give me some questions and I’ll tell you no lies.

I am lagging behind in my NaNoWriMo word count. I need to spend some quality time sitting this morning and banging out some words. I need to accomplish 2000 words minimum per day. So far I am getting in more like 1500. It is developing into romantic fiction. I don’t know how steamy it will get but the steam is building between my lead characters. I am thinking about posting it here daily.

Are any of you out there in reader land joining NaNoWriMo? Feel free to add me to your buddy list.

Also? Steven got his first black stripe on his white belt in Karate class.

Yesterday I did not post the cookie recipe. Some of you may know something was up with my website. It was a glitch on the server hosting side and the nice people at Liquidweb had to take some time to fix things on their end. All’s well now.

Want to win a $100 Visa gift card and a Sonicare gift package? Go on over to Home Grown Reviews and leave a comment. There are 8 chances for you to enter to win. Please visit the site links to other participants. This would make a great Christmas gift plus the $100 gift card will put some damage on your Christmas shopping list.

I had another ENT appointment yesterday. Again he vacuumed out the ear (it feels good but makes you dizzy for a minute) and told me to keep doing what I am doing. The hole in the ear drum can take up to 30 days after the infection clears to heal. I am tired of hearing ringing and having diminished hearing. I need this thing to heal. I have no clue what super bug is living in my ear.

When the weather started creeping down the 30’s at night I brought in all of my potted plants. I had these double blooming impatiens on the side porch and just couldn’t leave them out to suffer death in the cold. I brought them into the kitchen looking a little leggy and the leaves fading to yellow. In the last two weeks they have made a comeback and are blooming again. Aren’t they pretty?

Cookies!

Today is the perfect day to feed the inner Cookie Monster in yourself and your family and friends. Today is the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street. (I was never into Sesame Street. This is one show that came after my time. My sister is from the SS generation.)

Gracie’s Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

Preheat oven to 350.

1 c. butter
1/2 c. white sugar
1 c. packed brown sugar

Cream the butter and the sugar.

Add 2 eggs beating well after each egg.

1 tsp. Vanilla

Beat well.

In another bowl mix well -

1 3/4 c. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups quick cooking oats

Combine with the wet ingredients mixing only to incorporate. Do NOT over mix.

Add in -
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Fold in and do not over mix.

The dough will be stiff and you will have to work a little to fold in the chips and nuts.

Spoon out 1 1/2 inch balls and place them egaul distance on a cookie sheet and bake for 12 – 15 min.

Let cool a full 5 min before moving cookies from the baking pan.

We use silpats to bake on. They make cookie making easy. We bake 1 doz cookies per pan. As soon as one comes out another is already waiting to go in. In under and hour the cookies are baked and the mess is cleaned up. This recipe makes about 4 dozen cookie.

Also – we voted yesterday. Did you?

If you did not vote please do not whine, bitch or complain. You lost your chance to voice your opinion.