Dare I start talking about Fall?!!!

Remember this bag! I have started using it again for Fall. I know its early, but for me its never too early to start thinking about Fall!




I have written in my planner to put out my Fall wreath on September 1st, but I think I'll do it this weekend. It has sunflowers on it, so it fits summer too! Here's a picture from last year:




All the clothing stores have what they call "transition wear" out right now. This means the clothes look "fallish" but aren't too hot to wear for the next couple of months. I already have some things in my closet that fit that description. No need to go out and buy anything, I hope!

So, I guess I'm starting my gradual transition to Fall by using this "old" bag from last year, putting out the beautiful wreath My sweetie bought me last year and choosing more fall-like clothing.

How about you? Are you ready to start the transition?

Happy Autumn!

Organizing Update

Good Morning and happy Wednesday to you!

I have made some good progress in accomplishing my "homemaking dreams" for the master bedroom so far this week. I have worked a few minutes at a time here and there, as I planned, and its going well.

I have dusted and cleaned most of the furniture in the room. I removed the curtains and a cloth bedside table cover, washed and dried them, ironed them and returned them to their places. I've taken down all pictures, dusted them front and back and the wall behind where they hang. I have one more corner to tackle.

I haven't even gotten the vacuum cleaner out yet! Any dust is falling where it wants to and believe me there is lots of it. Sometimes it looked like snow! When I get all the room dusted really well, I plan to start on the chair rail, baseboards, ceilings and the walls themselves. Oh yes, the dreaded ceiling fan needs desperate attention too.

When I get all the dust off the above items and its had a chance to settle on the floor I'll begin my attack with the vacuum. I'm going to use the crevice tool on all the edges near the wall and under one cabinet I can't move. I can move everything else to vacuum under there.

I've also been slowly working on purging all the unused, wrong size, wrong color items in my closet. I hope to have a nice box full for the crisis center near my office. I really want to build my wardrobe around the colors that look good on me and to have only a basic selection. Less is better in this area I think. I have a tendency, like most women, to buy willy, nilly, when something is on sale, etc., without realizing it doesn't look good on us or doesn't coordinate with anything we already have. Then we need to purchase more items to go with said new purchase.

By the end of the week I'll have a clean bedroom and a much more organized closet.

I also splurged this week and bought four new books from Amazon and have added a widget on the right side bar which shows these books. You can probably get them from the library for review before purchasing them. By the way, I only spent $25.00 for all four books, including shipping. I haven't figured out how to put the lowest price offered for a book on the widget. If you want to purchase one of these books, click on "used" and you will find some great deals! The ones I have received look just like new to me.

They are: "Get More Done in Less Time; Shopping For Time; Have a 48-Hour Day; and Disciplines of the Heart. So far all have arrived except "Shopping For Time" which is the one I was most looking forward to. Maybe it'll arrive today.

Wow, "Get More Done in Less Time" is so good! It has inspired me to once again work on my planner/notebook/control journal. I think this time I'll finally get it like I want it! I'm so excited to finally be organized. I hope to share the contents of my new planner soon.

I plan to use "Disciplines of the Heart" as part of my morning time with the Lord. This book is by Anne Ortlund, the author of one of my all time favorite books, "The Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman". Speaking of which, gotta go do my morning time with the Lord! I should have done that first, but I was waiting for the coffee to brew!

Have a great day!

This week's plan

This week I plan to work in the Master Bedroom when I have a few minutes, here and there, with a grand finale on Saturday during my weekly home cleaning time.

I'm not a perfectionist. Remember that old saying: "The last thing that'll happen to me on this earth is that someone will throw dirt on top of me. I'm not going to worry about a little dirt now".

I do enjoy a clean, uncluttered and organized home. I've been trying to accomplish this for years! LOL

This is my wish list for the bedroom this week. My blog is called "Homemaking Dreams", after all!

1. Dust all furniture really well, including behind and in crevices.
2. Dust and clean all pictures, etc. on the wall.
3. Dust the blades on the ceiling fan.
4. Organize the under bed containers.
5. I have dark carpet in there and the crevices of the carpet near the walls tends to get white with dust. I want to vacuum this with a crevice tool.
6. I want to move all the furniture and vacuum really well.
7. Declutter the entire room.
8. Purge my closet! I want to get rid of all but my favorite summer clothing and shoes, that actually fit and look nice on me. Some will be donated to the local crisis center and some will be thrown away.I'll be switching over to fall and winter clothes in a couple of months, so now's the time to do this.
9. Dust window sills, mini blinds and curtains.
10. Look up into corners, etc. and clean cobwebs.

I may not get all of this done, but any progress will make me happy.

I've also been thinking about menus for the week. These are some dishes I'm planning:

1. Pork, potatoes and string bean stew.

2. Lasagna and salad

3. Chicken Salad for sandwiches.

4. Chicken Rice Bake

5. Pizza Noodle Dish

Do you have any plans for the upcoming week made?

Tagged! Six Random Things About Me.

The sweet Melinda of "The Nest Egg" tagged me to list six random things about me.

So here you go!

1. I was born on George Washington's birthday 50 years ago. I have three older brothers and one older sister. I was walking by the time I was 8 months old. My Mama says I always tried to eat dirt when I was outside. She had to watch me like a hawk. This isn't good, since we had chickens in the yard in those days.
When I was growing up I loved dogs and wanted to be a veterinarian, but was severely frightened by a "mean dog" when I was 13 and never wanted to pursue that career again!

2. A funny story about my growing up years. One morning my older sister made my breakfast and had put pepper on my scrambled eggs. I started crying hysterically and saying, "The boys put boogers in my eggs!". Evidently they aggravated me a lot to make me think that. LOL (Sorry, hope you already had your breakfast!)

3. I have had three children, two of which are still living. My middle child, Josh, was born in 1984 and died in 1986. He had a heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. He's my Saint in heaven!

4. Pregnancy and child births: I was VERY sick with morning sickness with my first child, Lori. She was born in 1980. At that time the doctor would give you a prescription for this called Benedictine. With the medicine I was able to get through the morning sickness. With all three of my children I dilated to 2 centimeters 2 weeks before they were born. I was only in labor with my first for about 6 hours. The Dukes of Hazzard were on the tv when she was born. The most beautiful sound memory I have is the first time I heard her cry. I love to remember the sound!

With my second child, Josh, I was NOT SICK A DAY. I did have gestational diabetes and didn't gain nearly as much weight as with my first. My water broke and he was born 2 hours later. He was pronounced healthy, but the next day the doctor became worried because there was a heart murmur that normally went away within a few days. We were sent to Chapel Hill Hospital and there we learned that he had a fatal birth defect and would not live long. However, he lived 2 years! A gift from God!

I also had severe morning sickness with my third child, Jacob, but no medicine this time! My delivery was quick with him too. The doctor broke my water and he was born about 30 minutes later. He started making noise and hasn't been quiet since! Lol. I love that boy!

5. Both of my children went to public school, but if they were born now, no way would they go to public school. I would definitely home school them.

6. I'm a paralegal. I wasn't educated to be a paralegal, but have done this work for 20 years. The state of North Carolina has a program now that allows you to be certified based on on the job training. So I have a nice pretty certificate that says I'm a paralegal. Funny, I feel the same.

If you would like to reveal six things about yourself to the blogging world, please let me know. I'd love to learn more about you.


Thanks Melinda for the Tag!!!

Time Management Progress

I feel so much better today because I made some progress in getting some things done.

This is what I got done after work yesterday

1. I washed and dried 1 load of clothes
2. Made Spaghetti and Salad for supper (Thanks Clare for the salad hint!)
3. Hemmed my black pants. They are new and the hem of one leg came completely out the first day I wore them! AARRRGGHHH!!!
4. Pressed the completed flannel sheep blanket I crocheted an edge on.
5. Prepared the fabric for my next crochet edge blanket. This included trimming it to the correct size, rounding off the corners and sewing a 1/4 inch hem all around. Now I can start crocheting the edge tonight when I spend the night at Mama's. This fabric has doggies on it with red bandannas and collars. So the crochet thread I'm using is red.
6. Took a relaxing bath and was in bed by 9:00, instead of crashing in my recliner. This makes me sleep much better if I start out my sleep for the night in bed.

This morning before work I accomplished this:

1. Bible reading and devotion
2. Washed one load of clothes. I'll dry these when I get home before going over to Mama's.
3. Swished and Swiped the boys' bathroom.
4. Decluttered the top of the dryer and wiped if off.
5. Made a gallon of tea
6. Decided what was for supper
7. My hubby always empties and fills the dishwasher every morning and every night so the kitchen is usually in pretty good shape. I did sweep a little.


I've been really thinking about yesterday's list and where each item fits into God's plan for my life. If God is first and Family is second, I need to take care of my Bible reading, devotion and prayer throughout the day no matter what else gets done. Then family... I thank the Lord that I have a lot of great family! At this time in my life taking care of my Mama is very important.

I'm not going to be sewing for my Etsy Shop or making Christmas gifts unless the Lord gives me some unexpected free time! That's ok. I'm willing to give up what ever I need to for a "season". I've been trying to do it all in my own power and I just can't do it any more. So I'm only going to concentrate on my priorities. What a relief!!!

MATTHEW 11:30 FOR MY YOKE IS EASY AND MY BURDEN IS LIGHT

Do You Ever Feel Overwhelmed?!!!

I do! Lately, it's been one thing after another for me.

So I've tried to sit down with my calendar and notebooks and all my organizing tools to get organized. I want to figure out what is important and what will just have to wait. I even found more books on organizing your time at the library. I've about read all my branch has on the subject! LOL

When I got out my calendar and turned to August, 08, this is what I wrote in there last January. "Work on handmade Christmas gifts". Yikes!

If I had time this is a list of all the things I need to do or want to do:

1. Spend more time reading the Bible and doing a daily devotion.
2. Sew items for my Etsy Shop
3. Sew items for Christmas
4. Make a baby quilt for my nephew's upcoming baby shower.
5. Make crochet edge baby blankets for my nephew's baby and for future gifts and possibly the Etsy Shop.
6. Work on taxes
7. Do all of Flylady's routines for my home.
8. Declutter and clean everything, including the attic, garage, all closets and cabinets.
9. Exercise every day. My doctor told me recently to walk 45 minutes a day. (!!)
10. Sew special items for on line friends. Some of you have been so kind to me and I want to do the same. I've just had a crazy summer!!
11. Cook more nutritious meals instead of the quick meals we've had to resort to lately.
12. Work in my yard. I love to work in the yard, but haven't done any this summer. My sweetie and son have been doing all of it.
13. Work on Christmas preparations ahead of time.
14. Shop with coupons. I love to coupon shop!
15. Bargain hunt. I love thrift stores, yard sales and good deals. Even if I were rich, I would still enjoy these.
16. Blog more.

I read some where that if you give something up, some how God gives it back to you. So I've got to let some of the above list go, because its humanly impossible to do it all!

I think if I do number one on the list maybe the others will fall into place. Which of these items should I give up and which should I pursue? I want to do them all!!!

Susan of With Heart and Hand by Grace has a great idea that I'm trying this week. You make a list of only THREE of your most pressing things that need to be done each day. I think this would help me not to feel so overwhelmed. I can certainly get three things done a day in addition my regular daily routine of working, etc. I usually make such a long list, I can't possibly get it all done and then I feel like a failure. If I set my sights lower I can succeed.

Have a great Wednesday!

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays

My tips for today's Kitchen Tip Tuesday I learned from an older sister in law years ago and I started doing the same.

1. When frying items in oil that can be reused, such as french fries or cornbread, wait for the oil to cool. Then return it to the empty oil bottle using a funnel. It can usually be used one or two more times before being discarded. When you are through you can just throw away the oil bottle. You don't have to worry about finding a container to store the oil in and it makes things much neater in the kitchen.

2. I know you've heard this before, BUT, always fill the kitchen sink with hot sudsy water as soon as you start cooking and wash as you go! My sister in law always washed all her dishes as she was dirtying them up and hardly ever used the dishwasher as a result. Even if you still use the dishwasher, it will save time and space to wash as many as possible by hand. I always presoak anything that has dried food for a couple of minutes in some water before putting it into my clean dish water, too.

For more kitchen tips please visit Tammy's Recipes!

Heart Strings - Good Bye Faithful Friend!

SLEEPY EYE MY SWEET DAVE
FEBRUARY 20, 1993 - AUGUST 11, 2008


Good Dog!

A Slice of My Life

My camera is not working again!!! Its very hard to post what I want to post without pictures, but until I can get a new camera, so be it....

This is what is going on in my life this week.

1. I have been crocheting a scalloped edge around some flannel baby fabric I purchased. I've been trying to learn this off and on for over a year and I finally did it. This first one is my "learning project" so its not perfect, but its good enough I would give it as a gift. I have learned from my mistakes and will do better on the next ones I hope.

I am dying to show you a picture. AAAARRRRGGGHH!!! I also would love to show you pictures of similar work my grandmother did over 50 years ago. Eventually I'll show you.

Here is my best descriptive picture of the flannel blanket I'm working on. Try to imagine it in your mind's eye.

The fabric is 36 inches square made of prewashed flannel. It is blue with white sheep with black faces all over it. The crochet edging is made from white crochet thread, not yarn. It is scalloped and the finished effect looks kind of like lace.

I am happy to be working on this because it gives me something to do that doesn't involve the sewing machine too much and is portable. I do use the sewing machine to hem the edges before starting the crochet work.

Here are the two links I used to learn this new craft: HERE and HERE.


Both of these sites have a wealth of information for sewing and all kinds of crafts.

2. I received an email yesterday saying I had sold a book I listed on Half.Com months ago. I had forgotten all about it and was worried that I might not even still have the book, but it was right where I put all the books listed for sale. I think I'll probably make about $1.00 profit. LOL :o) I think in the future I won't list books that won't make at least $5.00 profit. Hey, at least I could buy a McDonalds Large Sweet Tea with that $1.00!

3. My new vehicle (well, new to me) is a good sturdy car. I jokingly call it my "old lady car". When I told one of my friends and my sweetie this, they both said, well you are! They are just joking, but I think I need to snazz it up a little with a bumper sticker or front license plate. Maybe I need to get some fuzzy dice or a flower lei to hang on the rear view mirror..... just kidding. This car drives like a dream. I do miss my old van..... but, I must move on..... Do any of you get attached to your vehicle? They do hold memories, don't they?

4. Speaking of memories, my church holds so many memories! I was sitting there this past Sunday remembering all the things in my life that took place there. I have attended the same church all of my life. There are many happy memories and many bitter sweet. Weddings, funerals and all the stuff life is made of.

5. My Grandson is now not only walking whereever he wants to go, but saying lots of words! Recently he looked at his Daddy and said "Up!" Daddy said, "You want to get up?". He said "yes". I think that's pretty good for an 11 month old. He'll be one year old in a couple of weeks and I can't believe how fast his first year has gone by. He is the sweetest thing in the world and I love him so much!

6. My son was gone for several days on a trip to the Mountains of N.C. and TN this past week. I was in charge of taking care of his goats. They don't need much care, just plenty of water and some food. They graze in their fenced off area which is about 3 acres, so they get most of their food that way. He called the day before he was to come home and jokingly asked me how many of his goats were dead. I said, "None that I know of!". Sure enough the next morning I saw that one of the goats had indeed died! We're not sure what happened, but he now has to take care of burying the goat. He still has 10 left.

7. Not to end this blog post with too much sad news, but our elderly sheltie, Dave, is not going to be around much longer. I am torn between taking him to the vet to have him put to sleep and hoping that he'll just die in his sleep. Lots of memories are tied up with him too!

8. We are having a bad heat wave here in N.C. this week, but the weekend forcast is looking much cooler. I have been trying to bring my lunch to avoid going out in the heat and also to avoid those jitters I get when driving during lunch, since that's when the wreck I had a couple of weeks ago happened. I still haven't driven down that same street since the accident.

I hope your Thursday is going well and that the prospect of the weekend is as exciting to you as it is to me!

Weekend Update

Well, it took 11 weeks, but my Mama was able to go to church with me today! It wasn't easy but we did it. Thanks to the fact I am driving a rental car due to my wreck, she was able to get in and out of my vehicle. We went armed with a walker and a walking cane. She was determined she was going up the steps like she has all of her 83 years, so we used the walking cane. It was scary for me, but she made it.

All of our scripture readings this week seemed just for us. This was one of them:

Romans 8:35, 37-39 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Not even a stroke or car wreck!)

One more step in Mama's progress this week was being able to stay by herself during the day! We are still spending the night, but when everyone is at work during the day she can stay alone and during the day on weekends. We are making sure she has plenty to eat, and checking on her regularly. She is so happy about that! She is really tired of never being alone. She was one happy camper the first day and I can totally relate. I love my alone time, especially at home.

Tomorrow I hope to get another vehicle since we settled with the insurance company for the car damage Friday. We found another vehicle that we can pay for in full with the insurance proceeds with $75.00 left over. We figure the $75.00 will buy about 1 tank of gas! My prior vehicle was a mini van, but this is a good sturdy car. My Mama will be able to get in and out of it much easier than the van and it will probably get better gas mileage.

It has been a hard summer! I am so ready for the cooler weather of Fall. What about you?

Dianne of Majestic Mountains, Rolling hills Blog gave me this award!



Thanks Dianne!