The Great Tomato Project

Several months ago I planted my first tomato seeds. They grew indoors for about 2 months and became quite gangly looking...

So I transferred them to milk jugs and moved them out to my little greenhouse on the porch.

Several of them have grown big and strong enough to move to their permanent homes.

I heard that you can get free frosting buckets (empty, of course) from the bakery at any grocery store...Albertsons was thrilled to get these off their hands. Great for patio planting!

I can't wait until the whole porch is filled with my homegrown tomatoes. I'm daydreaming of lots of garden-fresh tomatoes and jars of homemade sauce!

It's been such a long cold spring that I thought I could start another set of tomato starts from seed. A good friend gave me a cute little packet of cherry tomato seeds.

I started by preparing the garden marker sticks.

All planted and ready to grow!

One week later and they're doing great! I probably should thin them out. :(

More tomato posts to come!

Housekeeping Schedule

My good friend and mentor, Ida, has a printed schedule of her housekeeping chores hanging in her den. It is a daily list of chores which include a rotation of weekly and monthly tasks. Recently, in my frustration with trying to keep this big house clean, I thought I'd give her method a try. Here is the calendar I've developed for myself:

To some of you it may seem bothersome to have such a rigid schedule, but for me this has been a lifesaver. I need a good to-do list like this to be able to keep up. This message I wrote to Ida says it all:

"So, it's been a month since I've been following my house cleaning schedule and I LOVE IT!!! It has changed how I feel about chores. I LOVE getting to check stuff off, like you said. Another thing that makes this so much more rewarding is that before I used to look at this big impossible house and think "I'll never ever be able to tackle this" and cleaning it always felt like I was only ever getting the tip of the iceberg. But now, with this chart, all I have to think about is what is on the schedule for the day and everything else will be taken care of in it's own time. It is so refreshing to feel DONE at the end of the day rather than bogged down with everything that still needs attention. I feel liberated!"

Black: Daily Chores

Purple: Weekly Chores

Green: Monthly and Every-Other-Week Chores
"Clean Sweep" = clear away all the clutter that has accumulated on tables, counters, etc.

Rag Doll Project - Part III - Knit Sweater

I'm still working on my rag dolls to sell at a Christmas Bazaar this December. I thought it would be really cute to knit little sweaters but could not find a pattern anywhere. I found this toddler size pattern and adapted it to fit my little rag dolls. It took a couple tries to get it right, but I've worked out all the kinks. The problem solving was a lot of fun.  

Click on "Rag Doll" in the Label Archive to see other posts about this project.

Check out our finished Coop!

HIP HIP HOORAY! The chickens are outside and doing great! Expect lots of cute chicken pictures to come!

Click on image to enlarge

For more pictures follow this link to my family blog: The Chicken Coop is Finished!