Valentine’s Lanterns

Speaking of sustainability, the kids and I had a little fun making some fun lanterns for Valentine’s with all recycled materials! I had wanted to do a little bit of decorating for Valentine’s but we are trying to limit spending this month.  I am also not a HUGE Valentine’s fan, but I have felt that…

Let’s Talk Sustainability

A few years back, the sustainability bug hit me.  We WASTE so much in this country!  I set out to try to do better.  I am far from the best, but I try and I truly believe that trying makes a big difference.  Our world is so beautiful and I want to preserve that.  I…

A Lesson for My Girls and a Lesson for Me

I sew a fair amount.  I love it.  It is a wonderful release for me.  And therefore, my girls are interested in sewing.  Here’s the problem, hand sewing and I don’t exactly get along.  I have very little patience.  Here’s my confession, I have such little patience with teaching the home skills I so enjoy….

Life and Trouble with Posting

My plan, my goal, my ultimate would be to run my little farm, grow enough food to sustain our family of 5, produce as little waste as possible (I’m not talking zero waste–I don’t have THAT much resolve), be organized, be thin and do as much as I can for human kind….. That’s not asking…

The Day my Dryer Made Me Go Green

At our old house, there was this random hole in the ground.  It was just out the back door and no one could figure out what the heck it was for.  Until one day, when it dawned on me, it was for one of those round clotheslines that you can take up and down.  And…

Chocolate Chip Cookies in the Fall

When I was a junior in high school, I went abroad for a semester and lived in France.  I went to a lycee (French high school) and lived with a French host family.  It was wonderful.  I went for my fall semester, which meant that I was away for Thanksgiving for the first time in…

Concord Grapes and Garlic Snapes

This past spring we moved.  We bought a house that has everything I want for trying my hand at really doing some real homesteading!  We have a two-stall barn, a green house and a HUMONGOUS fenced in garden!  Yippee!  Here’s the small dilemma.  The property had been vacant for a while…..which means the green house is…

Graphic Holiday Pillows

I love decorating our home for Christmas!  For a while, I’ve been wanting to switch out our couch pillow shams for the holidays, but many years ago I failed miserably and never tried again…..until this week-end! Recently, my dear friend endowed me with her old Cricut machine.  I’d been fawning after them for years but…

Brown Sugar, Baby!

The holidays are here and most people do the majority of their baking around now…..at least that is my perception…. This summer I learned something amazing…..drum roll, please……..are you ready for it?? You can make your OWN brown sugar!!! Now, some people may roll their eyes and go “DUH!” Well, let me just tell you, Mr./Mrs./Miss…

Plain and Simple Pankcakes from scratch

I love making breakfast for my little family. It is actually my favorite meal to make for them because no one ever complains about what I make. 😉 I’ve been known to get pretty fancy with my pancakes and waffles…..banana, blueberry, cinnamon bun, pumpkin, eggnog……but you also can never go wrong with a good, ol’…

Mmmmmmm…..fresh pumpkin!

When I was little I loved my mom’s pumpkin bread! She always made it from scratch, but one of the main ingredients was canned pumpkin. I didn’t even know you could cook a pumpkin! It is ironic that in California, the state that grows most of this nation’s produce has so few home gardens–at least…

I LOVE French Onion Soup!

It is Fall! And that means the official start of soup weather! Eek! Do you know what I love most about soup? How very, very forgiving it is. I don’t think I’ve ever made the exact same recipe twice! But, happily, this time when I made French Onion Soup, I actually wrote down what I…