Adventures, Accomplishments, and Goals

 If you have not yet read Jennifer's post on being still, go there right now...I'll wait. Be sure to watch the video, too.

Now, aren't you glad you did that?!

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While I haven't been completely still lately (ok, rather busy lately), I did take it easy yesterday because I had the "fun" of having a tooth extraction in the morning and only felt like napping after I'd taken care of a few errands while the pain killers were keeping me happy. 😄 I was surprised by the relatively low pain even after the dentist's shots wore off. So, that's good!

After starting another batch this morning of supposedly Farmhouse Hard Cheddar Cheese (it comes out more like Parmesan cheese, which we like), I'm gonna sit, relax, and chatter on about projects and goals.

My cool pottery molds and rustic pressing method to extract the whey.

So, what else has been happening besides enjoying my kitty friends?

Well, last week I drove the six hours to visit my 89yo mom and we visited an Independent Living/Assisted Living home near her which is also very close to her church with which she's very involved and has quite a few friends. It is a very pleasant place and she'll probably be moving there before next winter. Not an easy thing to think about, but 'tis time. As I was with her, we drove the hour farther south to meet up with my two daughters who now live in Ohio and had a lunch and explore/shopping time. It was fun!

Accomplishments:

When I got home, I did a good clean-out of the "Critter Corner" including shop-vaccing the quail cages in hopes of finally getting said birds. Our buck, Winston, was quite interested in the process.

The cage units conveniently roll so I can put them wherever I need to while cleaning, or when we finally begin getting eggs rolling out onto the little roll-out lips.

This is the brooder into which the chicks will go when they come out of the incubator. We still have to hang the heat-lamps above it, but other than that it's good to go.

Portable handwork projects were again the order of the day and I finished crocheting edging around these two receiving blankets to take to the pregnancy care center along with a bunch of preemie hats that Mom had knitted and several bib and burpie cloths that I'd sewn. I'm hemming some more pieces of flannel to be ready to crochet more edgings.

That's about all the sewing/crafting I've been able to do, but I've had some continuing my experiments with indoor gardening. Here's the progress made on the potato plants. They look kinda spindly to me. I did get a couple of full-spectrum bulbs, so I'll install them in their clip-on fixtures soon and see if that improves things and if my other gardening attempt work better.

I planted seeds of spinach, cilantro, and Swiss chard to enable me to have more salad greens besides my soil sprouts.

Whenever I visit Mom she makes sure to do her paper shredding and sends me home with more bedding for my vermi-composting (worm bins). So I added that and stirred it up nicely and can't wait to add it to my gardens this spring. I hope to make a screen sifter so that I can also use the compost in the house without including the worms which I prefer to have safely tucked away in the bins.

Another project has been revamping my fodder-growing system for feeding the rabbits to make it more efficient, but I'll write about that in another post cuz this is getting long.

Goals:

Homemaking/Homesteading (the line blurs):

* Finish clearing/decluttering desk area

* Organize craft dresser in bedroom & make pretty labels

* Declutter kitchen counters/workspaces

* Ensure that quail watering system works

* Put up heat-lamps

* Plan gardens and order seeds

* Keep an eye on rabbit mamas who are due to deliver Saturday and Monday

Crafts/Sewing:

* Crochet more blanket edges

* Make at least 4 bib/burp cloth sets

* Finish last blocks of Sew Scrappy Spools and begin to make into a flimsy

* Finish borders of Autumn Jubilee flimsy

Ongoing Reading:

* Sacred Sorrow by Michael Card

* The Collagen Diet by Dr. Josh Axe

* The Complete Stories by Dorothy Sayers

* Essentialism by Greg McKeown

May your day be filled with wonders and delights 

tucked in along the way.