Tweaking My Life!!

For Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House, I am going to talk about tweaking something besides my home decor this week. How about my life???? Here's the deal. This is the first year I have had a child in public school. My older kids have been in college but for the earlier years. I have never had to do the Monday thru Friday rush here rush there gig of a traditional school schedule.

Man how do all you mom's do this? I am a somewhat organized person but I feel like I am never home with meet the teacher, back to school night, orientations, school dances. Whew, and that is just the first two weeks. I have not even got to the concert season when my daughter will play the piano for her school jazz and orchestra bands.

I am used to school in jammies if we wanted, once or twice a week days of classes and a much slower pace of life with homeschooling. I am trying to get my legs under me and keep organized but this is an adjustment. It is exciting to do new things and I will keep a positive attitude in our new phase of life but I am tweaking my schedule to try and stay on top of household chores, meals that need cooking and endless carpools.

Q has not even started her preschool yet. We have meet the teacher this week. The girls excitement over this new phase makes me feel we have made the right choice for the time being. I know if need be we can always go back but for now I am in the trenches with you and would love any comments on how you keep the schedules going as smooth as possible. For now, we do as much the night before so in the mornings we don't feel as rushed. The kids seem to be doing fine but mom here is trying to find the best ways to make this new life as smooth as possible. Is anyone going to Starbucks? I will take an iced latte please. I am going to take the best suggestions and do a post on them so leave me your blog url so I can give you full credit.

Also sharing at A Stroll Thru Life

A Bowl Full of Lemons

Coastal Charm

Tip Junkie
Southern Hospitality

Sunny Simple Sunday

Hello! I wanted to get this up earlier but we had a super busy day and then we had dinner and when I thought I might get on the computer we all ended up in the den with my husband playing music from his Ipod and all the kids ended up down there and we talked and laughed for hours and I know you know that when your older kids want to just sit and hang out and share, you need to let it happen. It was the best. We were silly and serious and together, which is what was most important. Sorry I am late but I was hangin with the fam.

Jann of Have a Daily Cup with Mrs.Olson shared this most adorable playhouse. A friend rescued and redid this playhouse that used to be in Jann's yard. You have to see this. It will bring out the child in you.

Linda's Lens took this amazing photograph of a recent hike. She is my idol. I love how she is out there enjoying such gorgeous places on a regular basis. You can read this post and see where she took these photos here.

Chenille Cottage shared with us her darling children's aprons. Her fabric choices are so adorable and I think Q should have one of these. I will have to see if she sells them. You can see them all here.

So please link up whatever as long as it is family friendly. Have a wonderful Sunday.

Country General Open House

One of my most favorite days of the year is here. It is my favorite shops fall open house at Country General Store. If you are anywhere near Covina, CA you should head on in. You won't be disappointed. Their website with directions is here.

The store has the best display team and is so lovely to spend some time in.

Almost all of my seasonal decor is from that store. It is my favorite place to shop.

Sunny Simple Sundays will be up this afternoon. Stop by and show us what you have been up to.

Linking to:
BNOTP

Did I Grow My First Pumpkins?

I love pumpkins and can never seem to grow them. The vines are always iffy and never a pumpkin EVER!

I adore these heirloom varieties but I want to just grow one of any kind of pumpkin.

On my small city lot, space is tight so this year I started a vine right in the center of our front planter. I mounded lots of compost and let it go. It seems this vine has been growing forever so I figured well at least I can grow a vine. Maybe a pumpkin will come another year. Well imagine my surprise when I spotted this guy.

And this one. Could I have done it? My husband says until I cut that pumpkin from the vine, don't get too excited. But I just cannot help it. This is the closest to a pumpkin I have ever been.

This is where I grew it. The vine has covered my roses and taken over but I think it is pretty and I will plant here again next year. I may even take some of the plants out and use as another veggies space. I could see some corn in the back, sunflowers and veggies with flowers along the front border.

The flowers are at their end in here anyway so the vine can take over for now.
Maybe unconventional but that describes me.

The bees have been busy and I thank them.

Here is my main veggie garden in the front yard which is my only sunny spot.

You can read about it here.

Linking to:
Simple and Sweet Fridays
Farm Girl Friday
SNS 149
Sunday Blog Love

Cuban Sandwiches

Now, I have no idea why these have that name or if they even make them in Cuba, but that is what my neighbor who made them called them. I love pressed sandwiches and we had these one night for dinner in the heat wave.

The real recipe does not call for tomatoes but my husband and I wanted them on there and boy what a taste. So good!!

Cuban Sandwiches
Sliced sour dough bread
sliced ham
cheddar cheese
mustard
sliced pickles
butter

Better the bread first on the outside and assemble the sandwiches while your pan is heating up. You could just make these grilled but if you want them pressed and don't have a panini maker like me, then you can use two pans. You are supposed to fill a tea kettle to set on the top pan for pressing but I don't have one right now so I filled a pan with some water which was a little wonky but worked. Just toast on one side and then flip for a couple more minutes

I think next time I have 30% off at Kohls I know what I may splurge on. A panini press of my own.

Linking to:
Open House Party
The Mommy Club
Share Your Cup Thursday
Katherine's Corner
A Return to Loveliness
It's a Keeper Thursday
Gooseberry Patch
Foodie Friends
Treasure Hunt Thursday
Time Travel Thursday
Home Sweet Home
Fantabulous Friday
Show and Tell Friday
Potpourri Friday
SNS 149
Pinned It Made It Monday

Around My Feet

There is a lump in my throat as I write this post. Not sure why. I am a very sentimental gal as I am sure you have noticed. I am some what excited though. Here's the deal. For all of my married life, practically, I have had kids and little ones around my feet because we homeschooled and I was pregnant a year after we were married. It is something I have become accustomed to and it is like a drug. I am an enabler you know. You want to cook with me, sure, I will hide that I might be annoyed but let's cook sort of thing. Over the years I have become so used to someone always here in the house. I can count on one hand the times I have been alone in the house. Not kidding. Not complaining either as I don't think I like to be alone. Never a big fan. Maybe that will change. But these kids have all been with me through it all. Once you have it, you always want it. BUT in two weeks for two half days a week, I will be ALONE!

Q is starting preschool. With big sisters all gone during the day now she is so bored and just loves to be around other kids. She is so excited. We are good friends with her teacher so mom is happy.

What will I do? House work of course, hang out with the chickens and blog I am sure, but who will I talk to? Will the silence be deafening. I think I may cry the first day. I just love having my chicks around me and times are changing. Before you judge me and think I am crazy, I have raised all my girls to be independent. Go after what they want to do. Take chances. All the while knowing this day would come. Can you imagine if Q had not come along? I think I would be a real mess. She keeps twirly dancing, funny sayings and the sound of little feet running around the house. You just never know when God will give you the best blessings.

Soon though these will be the only four little girls around my feet. And I mean they are around my feet literally. Whenever I go out back, if they are loose, they follow me so closely that I have even stepped on their poor feet. From little girls to little chickens. Life is funny. Go with it!

Linking to:
Mystic Chicken

Vintage In the Kitchen

I love changing things up in my kitchen and especially my little shelf. Red and yellow is my favorite color combo this year so I have been going with that theme in here this summer.

Took down some summer things but put in these pieces which still seem summery and bright. I am fighting the urge to think of fall.

Have to have some chickens. They really do like that while sitting on the nest.

The vintage Thermos' stay as they say back to school to me.

I am sharing this with Cozy Little House for Tweak It Tuesday.

Linking to:
Tabletop Tuesday
Tweak it Tuesday

A Bowl Full of Lemons

Coastal Charm

Tip Junkie
Wow Us Wed.
Treasure Hunt Thursday
504 Main
BNOTP

Frugal Challenge - Factors Affecting Food Prices

Do you ever feel like this economy thing is never going to turn around? I think we may be looking at sustained high prices for food maybe from here on in. You buy a box of cereal that is the same price but it is barely the size of a book. Food costs affect us all. You have to eat.

Around here we have been tying to beef up some of our food storage. We do not have a nice walk in pantry. I have to deal with the storage in a 50s house. We did add the cabinet below in our service porch for more storage. We had other items in here before and some paper goods and we moved them somewhere else. Constant editing and reorganizing to find better ways to store more. That is my song. Here you will see we have lots of snacks. I stock up when I find deals but we having been buying more items that that are quickly going up.

We all know corn prices are skyrocketing due to wide spread drought. They say this will affect 75% of the food items you buy. We have been stocking up on extra oil, flour and grain products that are basics in so many meals. We had to spend an unexpected large amount on one of our older cars this week and also have two college age girls who we wrote check after check for this month. Whew! We are on one of our self imposed spending fasts. Food and gas is all we are buying for the next two weeks. If we cut back on all other spending we can rebuild our checking account faster. So to provide meals seven days a week three times a day, for six people, it takes a lot of food. Pantry basics are vital to cooking meals economically. Breads, muffins, soups, cookies are all items that fill tummies and can be made so much more cheaply from scratch.

 I really want to beef up my supply of pastas and canned tuna and other meats. We are also learning to eat more meals without meat. I mean when an average sized beef roast is $17 who can afford that. I am finding mark down meat even harder to find as others are snagging them up as quick as it gets put out. Many are finding it hard to stretch the food budget.

Tuna Noodle Mac is a great easy filling dish that can be made from pantry staples.I will make a huge bowl and we will eat it with some cut up fruit for a quick dinner and there will be enough left for lunches the next day.

This of course is not all my food storage but just some of it. I am looking into freeze dried items like veggies to have more long term food storage and more variety on hand to create entire meals.
Besides food, I am stocking up on the basic cleaning supplies for the home made cleaners I make on my own. My Homemade Laundry Stain Remover is really a great all purpose cleaner. I used it on the kitchen floor the other day and tonight I used it in my van to deep clean all the crud off the doors and cup holders. Worked great!

So gas is rising again and food prices are rising even higher. One thing we did wrong this summer was to keep our garage fridge plugged in. With hot temps, the amount of energy to keep it cool in a hot garage did not make it worth the small supply of bargain meat I had in there. It will be cleaned out and unplugged for the rest of the summer and not ran in the summer ever again. We left it unplugged last summer and it really helped with the electricity bill but we were attempting to stockpile some meat but for about half the difference of running it, I can just buy meat on sale and keep a small supply in the house freezer. Lesson learned.
Here is a link to a post I did in the Thrifty Living Series that links to a lot of former posts I have done on stretching your grocery budget. Next on this topic is where I shop to find the best prices.
Sunny Simple Sunday is still going on and you can link up here.

Linking to:
Thrifty Treasures
DIY Home Sweet Home
The Morris Tribe
By Your Hands
Pin It, Made It Monday
Homestead Revival
Met Monday
A Return to Loveliness
Debt Free Mommy
Tabletop Tuesday

Sunny Simple Sunday #11

Hello from hot, no I mean HOT sunny southern California. We are hiding in the house today it is too hot for much else. Welcome to Sunny Simple Sunday #11. Here are a few faves from last week.

Did you get a chance to see Ricki Jill's daughter's Custom Headboard? They love reclaimed wood and this is just a beautiful piece for their college age daughter. 

Pembrokshire lass shared this old country cottage. Can you imagine life back then in this simple stone cottage? So charming. Her blog is beautiful. Just the header alone takes you away.

Kathe with an E stole my heart with this table of thrifty vintage finds in red and green and my favorite, roosters. She shows what a wonderful table you can set on a thrifty budget.

And the most viewed post from last week was Magazine Your Home and her Possum Belly Cabinet. This was popular all over blog land and I can see why. What charm and coziness just this photo exudes. 

Thank you to everyone for linking up and showing us what you are up to. Well, we are still baking here in SoCal but it is supposed to start cooling off Monday, slowly, but oh I can't wait. I am so ready for fall.

Okay, the party is up so link up and have a great weekend.

Who Needs a Gym Membership?

With my new found time during the school days I have been trying to get some much needed deep cleaning done. My mop broke on me so I decided to give my kitchen floor a deep scrubbing on my hands and knees.

To save my knees I used a folded towel to kneel on. 

I also used a little bit of my homemade laundry stain remover diluted in hot water to scrub the floor and it worked awesome as it is a great degreaser.

This guy was a bit annoyed that the floor he walks on to get to his food was wet. So he waited watching me.

Still waiting.

All clean and shiny. It felt so good under my bare feet. But the whole point of this post is why would I ever need a gym membership when by the time I was done I had worked out my whole body and was good and sweaty and I am sure burned a few calories. So now I just need to do some deep scrubbing in areas of the house a few times a week and I will have a good workout and a clean house for free. Hmmm....

Come back later today to link up to Sunny Simple Sundays.

Linking to:
SNS 148
Sunday Blog Love

15 Minute Pick Up

I have been working hard to get the kitchen organized and deep cleaned for the back to school rush that has hit our home. Surfaces cleaned and sparkly don't stay that way long in my home. In my continuing pursuit of my word of the year, I have been implementing some additional daily habits to try and keep the house as picked up and organized as I can.

This week I have started a 15 minute pick up in the evenings. After I tuck in the chickens and give Q a bath, and before I allow myself to flop down and give up on the day, I am forcing myself to take 15 minutes and do a quick pick up. Tonight the pick up yielded some laundry that was folded but still sitting on the table, some scattered dishes that made it into the dishwasher and items left on kitchen counters from after dinner snacks. I put those all in their respective places and hung a fresh kitchen towel for tomorrow.

Counters are now clear for the busy morning rush of breakfast and lunch making.

Items left on the dining table were picked up and tidied. We used to use the table as an unloading zone as in everyone unloaded whatever they came in the door with onto my table. Myself included. In my move towards trying to teach myself to be more organized, I have stopped this practice. I try to keep the kids from  setting things down at all on the table and when my husband comes in after a long day and empties his pockets, I just quietly move his things to a tray I have for him in the bedroom. He is actually starting to use the tray first thing so as they say, a habit over time can become a reality if you keep it up.

Having the house just that much more picked up before bed makes rising and starting my day so much more pleasant.
Oh and there is still time to enter the Venus giveaway for a $50 Visa gift card. I am linking up with Cozy Little House for Tweak It Tuesday

Linking to:
SNS 148
Nifty Thrifty Things
Seasonal Sunday
BNOTP
Southern Hospitality
The Morris Tribe
DIY Home Sweet Home

Back to School

Today was our first day of school. So back packs stuffed with fresh new supplies and lunches made we headed off for the morning carpool. The day went well and my new high schooler seemed to have enjoyed her first day of public school ever. She found all her classes and met lots of new folks. Her and a friend really enjoyed decorating their lockers a couple of days before school started. 

So in anticipation of this special week I splurged and bought our favorite cheddar cheese bagels for breakfast.

Some cute paper bags bought on clearance for holding lunches. I tucked a little not inside wishing her a good day and hoping she made lots of new friends.

So just Q and I remained on the home front. We came home, took care of the chickens and then I scrubbed my kitchen counters and wiped everything down. They really needed a good cleaning.

I threw some of my needed supplies in a wooden box but may move this to my little desk. I am always tweaking things to see if I can find better ways to stay organized.

Linking to:
Katherine's Corner
A Return to Loveliness
Common Ground

Frugal Challenge - This is a Great Time to Stock Up on Office Supplies

Back to school shopping is here. Every store has a designated area full of supplies for all the kids headed back to the classroom. Did you know that even if you don't have school aged kids this is a great time to stock up on office supplies?

Some of the great deals on items this time of year that I buy and stock up on for later:

Scotch tape - Great deals. Now is the time to stock up for all that Christmas wrapping. I found these cute colorful ones for 99 cents but they also had the multi packs priced lower than the rest of the year.

Pens and pencils - I  always buy one big back of pens that lasts me all year and I always find them for 99 cents or a dollar in the back to school section.

Glue and glue sticks - Multi packs for a dollar. I buy enough for all year.

Staplers - Lowest prices of the year.

Flash drives - You can find an 8 GB flash drive for around $5-6 dollars.

Calculators - Dirt cheap if you need a basic one for your desk. I like to keep one where I pay bills.

Computer paper - I try to buy enough for the whole year. It is discounted this time of year in the school section so stock up.

Also a lot of snack packs are priced very low this time of year. I try to buy several every time I am in the store to stash away for later.

Linking to:
Handy Man Crafty Woman
Frugally Sustainable
Ivy and Elephants
Raising Homemakers
Bunny Hop Wednesday
Wow Us Wednesday
Open House Party
The Mommy Club
Share Your Cup Thursday
Fantabulous Friday
Show and Tell Friday
Potpourri Friday
Home Sweet Home

Tweaking My Chicken Care

Today I am joining Cozy Little House for Tweak It Tuesday. So let's see. We are still baking under oppressive heat here in SoCal so I have had to take extra care of the chickens. Lots of wading dishes of ice water and flooding the planters for them to cool off in.

One of my Easter Eggers is laying these pretty blue eggs. Not sure which one yet.

What I am having to change up is watching them in the morning. One of my girls is laying a thin egg and dropping it any old place and the others are pecking it. Egg breaking and eating chickens are very bad. It is a terrible habit and I am trying to keep a close eye to see who it is and gather that egg quickly.
One of the girls layed a gigantic egg and it was a double yoker.

See my pretty egg tray. Love the colors.

Hubby and I enjoyed a breakfast of left over chicken sausage and eggs. The bright yellow color is wonderful.

Linking to:
Tabletop Tuesday
Wow Us Wed.
Cottage Style Linky Party
Primp Your Stuff Wed.