Getting better!

My cough is almost gone!  I actually slept through the night last night with only two coughing fits. My voice is almost completely back and my energy is getting back to normal.  

The great news is that my camera is here and all set up to start taking real pictures.  I’m still not worrying about getting that beautiful studio-esque shot, but hopefully we can at least get away from all the blur!

I didn’t get much done today, but I’m not too worried. 

I did get some wonderful banana cinnamon muffins made…

And I helped Stepdad get our coldframe into the barn…

And I started mowing the leaves, but the mower broke, and I wasn’t up to raking them…

Otherwise it was an absolutely beautiful fall day.  Look at the last remaining colors behind the goat barn..those trees look like golden spears.  It’s incredible. 

I did do a very little bit of cleaning, and of course laundry.  But I’m tired now, and I’ve got to be up at 0400 for work tomorrow, so its off to bed I go…

Goodnight!! 

Not too demanding.

Well, I’ve been fighting with a cough for a few days now, and yesterday I was awful hoarse.  Today, though…today I have no voice at all and I’m starting to get a headache to go with it.

I’m definitely a little under the weather, so we’re going to take it real easy. 

1. 10 Minutes a Day + Laundry

10MaD today  isn’t going to be timed.  Just a quick pick-me-up in each room with a sweep/vacuum and I’ll call it done. 

1. Bedroom:	done!	5. Dining:	done!
2. Office:	done!	6. Bathroom:	done!
3. Studio:	done!	7. Hall (5):	done!
4. Kitchen:	done!	8. Stairs (5):	done!
-> Laundry:	done!

2. Applesauce!

Mom and I were both buying apples left and right for a while, and we ended up with a bowlful that were starting to go bad.  Well, we can’t let that happen, can we? 

So first thing this morning I set out to make applesauce. I love applesauce.  Unsweetened, of course.  And since this was a tremendous variety of apple types, I just knew it would make an excellent sauce.

Here I’ve got my bowl with lemon water to put the sliced apples in to keep them from browning.  Behind that is my scale – love that thing. On the other side of the cutting board is my bowl full of apples to be used – I had exactly enough to do a half-batch.

Peeled, cored and weighed apples on the left, and happy goats on the right!

Everyone with even the slightest interest in cooking needs an immersion blender.  So much easier. 

All done!  Six pounds of prepped apples gave me four pints and two half-pints (ran out of pint jars!).  Beautiful color, amazing flavor. 

And boy, do I need a real camera. My cell phone really isn’t adequate for this…

2. Schoolwork

Nope, none today.  Just couldn’t bring myself to concentrate.  I’ll be paying for it tomorrow though…

3. Craft! 

I got the mock-up of the Target bag done!  I’m very excited – it came out exactly right on the first try.  That never happens!   But I’ll take any small victory I can get. 

Unfortunately, my mock-up was made out of an old white hospital sheet; guess I should have gone ahead and used good fabric.  No problem, though – I’m just glad it all works and looks good. 

Above, you see the original bag with the pattern I made from it.  The white fabric is from an old hospital sheet – perfect for a mock-up. 

And here’s the twins!  Sorry for the horrible picture, you’ll have to trust me that they’re identical.  I’m so proud!

Been a good day.

 

 

A day off…

And so much to do!

1. 10 Minutes a Day

before: Today’s 10MaD will end up being a 5MaD.  Not up to doing the whole bit, so I’ll just cut it in half.  It will still make a difference.

1. Bedroom:	done!	5. Dining:	done!
2. Office:	done!	6. Craft:	done!
3. Kitchen:	done!	7. Hall:	done!
4. Bath:	done!	8. Stairs:	done!

after: So what did I learn today?  Well, five minutes just isn’t enough time.  I ended up stressing out more than if I had just taken the full 10 minutes.  Interesting.  But it did make a difference.

I suppose that with 5 minutes I was able to get everything picked up.  With 10 minutes, I am also able to do additional work, be it scrub the tub or organize a drawer or cupboard.  Its the difference between treading water and swimming toward land I guess. 

2. Harvest gourds

My big project today was the get the gourds harvested and do a little work on cleaning up the garden.  I’m still a little sick, so I wore out quickly – but I did get those darn gourds in.  And they’re beautiful!  I’m really hoping they’ll dry and not rot…

The fall vegetable garden is always so depressing and ugly.  But look, there’s treasure under those dead vines!

Not a bad harvest.  The cannonball gourds are a kick – I’m looking forward to making baskets out of those.  And some of the luffa are huge!  If they dry properly, they’ll be very useful – nothing like home grown scrubbies!

All lined up and pretty outside the greenhouse.  The larger luffa are hanging in the goat barn.

3. market bag

I bought these fabulous bags at Target when they were on clearance.  I think I’ve got six of them.  I’m sure they were designed to be purses, but they’re perfect grocery bags.  Now I want more so I’ve got to make them.

I made the pattern a few weeks ago.  I only have time tonight to cut out the first draft (thus the white fabric) and will try to sew it up on Monday.   That’s fine – it’s a start!

4. menu/food

I managed to get food together to get me through my 36 hour shift starting tomorrow.  If we’re not busy, I’ll get a menu for the rest of the week together at work.

5. string the black peppers:

I’m not sure this is going to work, but I thought I’d give it a try.  They certainly look pretty…

They’re Hungarian Black Peppers and we really didn’t get to experiment with them as I would have liked.  The weather didn’t give us a very good pepper harvest though we had beautiful pepper plants.  Supposedly they make a good spicy paprika when dried, so if this works that’s probably what I’ll do with them. 

Lovely day.  Hope to have more like this!

Never enough time!

But instead of complaining about it, I’m gonna just go with it…

Work with me, here, okay?

1. 1o Minutes a Day

1. kitchen	done!
2. bedroom	done!
3. dining	done!
4. bathroom	done!
5. craft/living	darn it…
6. office	done!
7. hall (5 min)	done!
8. stairs (5 min)	done!

2. Schoolwork:        Done!

3. Laundry:               Done!

3. Craft?                      Nope, not today.

Okay, that’s not what I expected…

I have a little more time today than I thought – I guess I’d read the schedule wrong.

And I am *not* complaining!

1. 10 Minutes a Day

I’m going to experiment a bit today.  Since I am quite caught up and have several other things I want to do today, I’m scheduling some areas to only take five minutes.  Let’s see how that works.

1. Office:	done!
2. Bedroom (5 min):	done!
3. Kitchen:	done!
4. Dining (5 min):	done!
5. Living/Craft:
6. Bathroom (5 min):
7. Hall (5 min):	done!
8. Stairwell (5 min):

2. Finish Laundry:        done!

3. Study:                           done!

Today’s assignment was to *learn* two registry sheets and review medication dosages.  Well, I got one down pat, so I’ll take it.

4. Gym:                             done!

My doctor made it quite clear that I need to be working out.   managed to put in 30 minutes on the elliptical and about 45 minutes lifting weights.  Not too shabby.

 

music: The Damned (again)

Recap…

10 Minutes a Day:

1. Bedroom:	Done!
2. Bathroom:	Done!
3. Office:	Nope, not today…
4. Kitchen:	Done – including the top of the freezer!
5. Dining:	Done!
6. Living/Craft:	Nope, not today…
7. Hall:	Done!
8. Stairs:	Nope, not today…

Laundry:

Whites:	Done!
Colors (incl. uniform):	It’s in the dryer!
Rugs:	Done!
Sheets:	It’s in the washer!

Other:

I did find time to sketch out a bracket design…

…and even got much of it cut out on the scroll saw; unfortunately, my one saw blade broke about halfway through…

Oh well.  I’ll go order some blades now.

 

Music: The Damned

What to do today?

Well, there’s always 10 Minutes a Day to start…

And there’s a pile of laundry…

And schoolwork…

That might be it for the day.