This Week In my Home: Rainy Days and Mondays

 

I chose this week's kitchen because I love that stove angled across a corner that is typically lost space in a kitchen.   I've mentioned to John a couple of times that if I had my kitchen to design from scratch I'd start by building the stove into the useless corner in my own kitchen.  Of course, when and if I do get to renovate my kitchen, we don't plan to do a 'from scratch' start over.  Moving the vent over the stove, which I consider a necessity would be a right pain and require messing about with the roof and no need of doing that.  Unnecessary temptation to leaks and such!  No way!

Diary of A Homemaker's Week: Sunshine!

Saturday:  Today I made a pizza for our lunch but no supper since we were going out to our Creatives for Christ group.

I am so glad we were invited to join this group.   We had two new members last night.  One is a graphic artist and the other is a harpist who has written a lovely piece for harp.   The leader's wife is a quilter and she does some beautiful work.   There's John, who writes and performs his own songs, myself, the leader who is both an orator and poet, a singer who also is an actor, another who acts and cooks and writes satirical poems that are funny and make you think at once.  We also have a photographer and a painter who weren't able to come last night.  It's turning into a lovely little group.

Worth Sharing: Photographic Memory

                                                  My great Grandmother ca 1920

Quite unconsciously this week I fell into looking at old photographs.   There is a shoe box full of photos which Mama gave me a few years ago.  Many are old enough to date back to the 1870's or 1880's, some from WWI and WWII and a few modern day polaroid type photos plus those purchased as a photo package.   As I looked over these faces, both familiar and unfamiliar I wasn't really thinking of the medium of photography.  

But later in the week, I found a most fascinating YouTube vlog that also deals with photographs and I started thinking of the advances we've made in photography over the years.

The Week Ahead: Spring In the Air?

Here's our kitchen this week.  The floor pattern is probably a familiar one to you all by now.  It came in different color waves but sometimes, the same pattern was used over again with a different accent color pulled from it.

First input on this design is that the floor looks mighty scuffed up.  That's just my opinion, of course, but it reminds me that when we were having our home built and were looking at vinyl floor options one that was offered to me had tiny little gray marks on each tile square.  I remember telling the young woman at the time "Good grief, no!  I'll spend all my days trying to get those marks up off the floor thinking we'd scuffed it with our shoes!"    

Diary of a Homemaker's Week: Busy Weekend, Slow Week

Saturday:   I completely forgot to share Friday's menu with you all:

Cereal, Toast I used some of the strawberries on my cereal.  Yum!

Pot stickers, Egg Roll I had five Pot Stickers left in my freezer bag.  John was out for lunch with his friend.  I counted the egg rolls and realized there were five in the package so I had one of those with my dumplings.

General Tso's Chicken, Broccoli, Rice, Egg Rolls I don't normally indulge in Chinese inspired foods twice in the same day but I did today.  I had a chicken breast that I cubed and cooked and then poured the General Tso's sauce from Aldi over it.  Yummy!  I asked John what he thought, since we'd been buying the Asian Fusion frozen General Tso's in the past and he said he thought it was better this way.  I agree.  Bottle of sauce might be $2.49 (can't remember) but everything else is just basics in our house.  We used about half a bottle for this entrée.  

Today was birthday party day at the house across the field.   We headed over right before 12 and found we were the last to arrive.  Caleb was delighted to see me.  Millie was busy paying attention to Caleb.  I had to go hunt down the three older children who were all tucked up in the bed playing with kindles.  Lest you think they ought to have been outdoors it was pouring rain and cold as could be as well, so no, they couldn't.  They were sent to the bedroom to get them out of the adults way while lunch was being prepared and they were doing what anyone might have done, including me.  Isaac was downright sleepy by that time, anyway.  When I walked in he got up to greet me and yawned widely.

Frugal February: Frugal Food

 

Over the past year or so I've been watching various cooking vlogs.   I became intrigued when John did the Daniel Fast a few years ago with Vegan eating.  I'm not vegan but with the incorporation of a meatless meal once or twice a week in our budget I felt that a Vegan or Vegetarian would likely know what they liked to eat and have a few favorite recipes same as I do for meat based dishes.   One of my favorites is Nikki Vegan.  I've actually tried several of her recipes and they are consistently delicious and easy to prepare.   She is a vlogger but she also has a blog where she shares her recipes.  This week she also shared a video that explained how she saves money on grocery shopping.  Some of the facts and figures are truly interesting and I thought you might like to listen to the video yourself.  You can access her blog at nikkivegan.com.   Her bagel recipe is one I return to over and over again.  It never fails.

Coffee Chat: Romancing Your Life

 

Hello, dears.  I thought I'd pop in this afternoon and chat at you all for a little bit.  Come in and have coffee with me.  There's Chocolate Raspberry cake to have too, if you'd like.  It was a happy experiment I made when I thought to make that.   But I'd like to try it in future with white cake.  It would make a lovely summer cake.

Did you have a nice Valentine's Day?  I know many people don't bother with it in any way.  I typically get a box of chocolates for half price on the day after but not even that this year.  Oh it might happen tomorrow....if there's any to be had by that point.  Life goes on and I can't tell you I'm even a tiny bit disappointed.   Taylor made me a pretty Valentine picture on Sunday.  

The Week Ahead: But first the Weekend

 

This is a very compact little kitchen but boy does it pack a wallop for storage and space saving ideas.  It was the use of space that drew me to this one.  The colors are soft and almost monochromatic, very subtle overall and frankly I like something with a little more brightness, but I think the soft subtle colors used here are what makes this kitchen appear wide open.  That bit of terracotta color counter top hardly intrudes into your consciousness at first...and then you begin to see how it's repeated all over the room, from the picture, to the floor border color and in the wall paper border.  As you look at the room you slowly become aware that there's not a lot of space there...But what is there is so well used that it appears to be a much larger room.

Diary of a Homemaker's Week: Birthday Week Bang!

 

Saturday:  John and Millie had their birthdays yesterday.   Today is mine.  Next week we have Amie and Isaac's.  Other February  birthdays were also held by my middle brother and Great Grandmother.   I have a cousin I haven't seen in years but I recall her birthday was exactly 2 days behind mine.   I'm sure there are many more, as this sort of thing does tend to run in a family.  I wonder why?

February Frugal Bootcamp: Frugal Basics

 

We are a consumer society.   If there is something that will enhance our experience with any product we have no problems choosing to discard what is working perfectly well and exchange it for the fancier item.  This is just as true in foods as it is in electronics or appliances or cars.  The manufacturers are innovative and listen to the consumer.  What has aggravated them, what problems did their customers experience.  They then employ someone to brainstorm and invent solutions to those problems.  On the one hand, this is a good thing.  There are features of many products that have made them far more safe and far more user friendly, not to mention affordable.  But also has a downside.  The consumer becomes the monster that demands more.

Monday Morning Coffee Chat: And then...

Hello loves.   Help yourself to a hot cup of coffee and have a sit here near the  heater where it's warm and let us begin.

Remember the Spiritual Emphasis services we had a week or so ago at the church we attend?  Well, I made a decision to join the church one night.  I don't know at the moment just what that means to them, but I know what it means to me.  I've been committed to this church for several years now and I'm only confirming what I've been  all along.  

The Week Ahead: Do What?

 

Our kitchen this week is another from Armstrong  floors.  This was designed for a 1940's home.  I just love this pale soft grayed blue with pale yellow and stark black accents.   The chrome accents in the room just add to the coolness of the colors overall in my opinion.

What I learned this week is that many of the kitchens I'm sharing are all by the same designer, Hazel Dell Brown,  who worked exclusively with Armstrong.   At least I'm consistent in whose work I like!  She created designs for every room in the house and was with Armstrong for upwards of 35 years, retiring in 1957.  

Worth Sharing: Hazel Dell Brown

 

                                                    The iconic, 'nap in kitchen' design

Over the past few months I've been sharing vintage kitchen images with you.   Many are from the Armstrong collection over the years 1925-1957.  Quite by accident Friday night as I worked up 'This Week in My Home' for publication this week, I discovered that many of the kitchens I've shared were all designed by the same woman, Hazel Dell Brown.   I was fascinated.  I mean what's the likelihood that 9/10ths of the rooms I share with linoleum type floors were her designs?  Obviously I am as drawn to her work as I have been to other artists...This one just happens to be an artist in home design.

Diary of A Homemaker's Week: February Begins

 

Saturday:  A quiet  day at home which was just what we needed.   It was a busy week behind us and I wanted a day to rest.  Leisurely breakfast made by John, hot coffee, Bible study time.   All very pleasant.  Felt a big push to write today.  No clue why.  I gave in to it and wrote until I felt tired of it and then I watched videos on You Tube, read magazines, started a book.  

No big thinking, no big tasks, no big revelations.  Just a quiet, lovely day at home.

After sundown, I did dishes and set up outfits for February.  Some are for really cold weather and a few for pleasant weather.

Today's meals:   Brioche Bagel Breakfast sandwiches

Pepperoni and Sausage Pizza

Chicken Pot pie (leftover), Greens, Baked Apples

Seek Me...

 

I will be the first to admit that there are times, even when you are not socially isolated, that God seems as distant as the stars and maybe even more so.   In our state we've been able to attend services at our church now for many months.   I know churches in our area that have yet to reopen.  I've wondered how the people who attended there are managing on their own.  Truth told, if I, going to church, sometimes struggle to find God, how much more difficult might it be for some of those who can't attend?

Monday morning I took up my Bible and opened to Song of Solomon to read my chapter.  There in Chapter 3:2 I read, "I will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and squares; I will search for the one my heart loves..."

February Goals and Plans

 

As usual, I review my previous month's goals before I start making my new monthly goals.  I did okay in January.  

 I didn't make it to the donation center.   The donation center is next to Lowe's and needless to say I didn't get there either, so no Amaryllis for me.   This is two items of three on my list of January goals I didn't attend  to.   The second was to get an early start on February birthdays.  Didn't even blink at that one.    Now here we are and I have to make up for lost time.    All in all, just two misses out of the entire month....I can live with that rate of success.

So what are my goals for February?