The month of June

Looks like another month went by and I did not blog. Sorry for those who actually follow this! It's been quite busy around here to say the least! So for those of you who have been wondering what I've been getting into, here you go.


I have been enjoying spending time with my daughter, I love being a stay at home mom! She will be 2 in early September, time flies! In this picture, she is trying to help me with my baking. She loves to put on her apron and "help" like the big girl she knows she is!


I have made 2 batches of homemade laundry detergent. I haven't made this in years. We really like how well it works and it beats the outrageous price of commercial detergent! I plan on doing a seperate post on how to make this.


Found a wonderful multi-grain bread recipe in Backwoods Home Magazine (my fave mag!). I have tried for several years to find a recipe that hubby and I both like. This is finally it! I should do a sperate post on this also!


This is a Little Tykes play gym I bought for $5 at a garage sale. Had some wear, but that's to be expected! This has really helped me be able to work in the garden and keep my daughter occupied! I keep a list of household and individual needs throughout the year and scour garage sales for them. This year I am really crossing things off my list. I love garage sales!


We are working (slowly) on the landscaping around our house. I have lived here for 6 years, and hubby lived here for 3 years before that, and we never did anything with the yard except mow it! We decided it was high time to eradicate the weeds that took over the former flower beds. This is a planter I put together to help pretty up the porch. I can't stand the prices of pre-made planters, so I buy what I like and throw it together in a dollar store container. The milk can was saved from the metal scrap pile at my in-laws farm.


The strawberries didn't do too bad this year. Certainly not the banner year we had 2 years ago. However, I can't complain as I picked about 2 gallons from our small patch. They were so good fresh, but I froze quite a bit also.


Pea pickin has come and gone! This was my first year growing peas. I was very surprised at the size of these! I grew Early Frosty Peas. They had on average 6-8 peas per pod. There were quite a few with 10 in them! And none of these were tiny peas either. I will definately grow this variety again! I ended up freezing about 6 quart bagfulls.


Raspberries...yummy!!! I bought 2 raspberry plants (or do you call them bushes?) this year. They nursery said they were 2 years old already. I have been picking a steady small handful every couple days for the past couple weeks. They are so good! We are eating them as we pick them. I think my little girl has ate 90% of them!


Then came the greenbeans! The last couple days of June brought me about a 1/2 bushel of beans. I canned them up into 6 quarts and 1 pint.

Then the end of June came and we received some devestating news. I have had a miscarriage. I was only 8 weeks along. This is my second one, the first being before we had our daughter. Words cannot describe how it feels to lose baby. I pray that those around me never have to experience it.

So all in all, I have mostly worked in the garden weeding, picking and putting up the wonderful goodness God has provided us this year. Throw in some garage sales and lots of outdoor play time with my daughter, and it was a pretty good month!

Random things

This blog seems to be either feast or famine. Today its feast!
Lately I have been outdoors alot. The weather has been so beautiful! With the Spring weather comes garage sales. I've been to quite a few already. This area has lots of community sales in the April and May. I always buy enough to dress my daughter for a year at these sales. So far, the deals have been mediocre. Seems everybody is out to make an extra buck this year and the prices are much higher than in the past. This is frustrating. Last year I spent $40-50 dollars to clothe my daughter for an entire year and I got her birthday and Christmas presents too. I don't know if I will be able to copy that this year. I am being frugal though, and not buying those high priced items. I WILL find pricing like last year!
Speaking of my daughter, she is blossoming. She is not quite 20 months old right now. Her vocabulary is increasing every day. She wants to help me so much right now. Like today, at the grocery, she was trying to put items on the conveyor belt. Then she tried to lift bags out of the cart to give to me! She has been telling me when she has soiled her diaper and wanting to sit on the toilet. However, no luck in using the toilet yet. She loves the outdoors and the dog. She would play in a pile of dirt all day if I let her! She does not care if she is black with dirt from head to toe! Sound like a true farm girl to me!

Here is a beautiful picture I tooks from the last spell of rain we had. There are two partial rainbows. The one on the left is very hard to see.


Here is another pic of just the one rainbow.


Have a good week!

Recent garage sale finds

Large fabric remnants, a doorway jumper, 2 dresses, portable toilet seat and games and toys. Found all this for less than $10.
Nice finds for baby girl's birthday and Christmas this year.