September Acres

Monday's are usually my favorite days. Everyone is back to work and school and I have the morning to gather my thoughts and eat a leisurely breakfast before starting my day. My friend, E, who I carpool with has her husband take the kids to school since he is off on Mondays. Today, however, has been a bit odd. We had a new dishwasher delivered this morning and my husband uninstalled the old one last night. This morning I wake up to a leak in one of the dishwasher hoses - thankfully just a slow leak but still an inconvenience. My husband had to come home and semi-install the new dishwasher to stop the leak. I have been washing the dishes in the wet bar sink instead of the kitchen sink since something is turned off there and the hubby said not to use it until the new dishwasher is totally installed. I am thankful to have a wet bar sink and not have to resort to washing the dishes in the bathroom - something I am sure we've all had to do at one time. I have some things in t...

I was looking at my calendar and realized that Ash Wednesday is in 2 weeks. Which means Easter is in about 8. I usually skip right over St. Patrick's Day ( although I made a really cute, cheap little St. Patty's day 'decoration' which I'll try to show you next week.) and go straight to Easter. I love the 'Easter Bunny' part of Easter ( I love the religious part too but I usually decorate the bunny way). So fresh and bright. Even though this year spring will officially arrive a month before Easter AND we live in Arizona so it will be getting H.O.T. by the end of April, Easter symbolizes the spring season to me. And after this winter (it was even cold here - actually, it is cold here now) I am more than ready for Spring. I thought it was here last week but apparently I was wrong. So I will wait for Spring patiently. Planning for the day when I can plant some flowers that will not succumb to the frost of a chilly night. Picking out an Easter dress for my swee...

Well, I am sad to say that I have been watching a bit of American Idol this year. Actually, more than a 'bit'. So much in fact that at the Top 24 I am predicting the Top 2. Like I am an expert or something. As with the past couple of years, I am keeping my predictions top secret so as not to jinx them. 'Cause I have that much power... I did say to my husband about one of my choices 'if they pick him/her to go to the Top 24 he/she will win the whole thing'. I know, you're on the edge of your seat now aren't you?? Take this all with a grain of salt. Remember, I picked Chris Daughtry to win a few years ago....

I have never been a fan of window treatments. If I had my way all of my windows would be uncovered. But I married a man who would keep the shades closed all day if he could (part vampire, maybe?) so cover the windows I must. Plus in the summer keeping the blinds shut during the day keeps the house a lot cooler. When we moved into our house all the windows had vertical blinds. I have never been a fan of verticals but I knew it was something that would be easy to change. We have converted most of our windows to 2" faux wood blinds - faux wood works well here in the AZ heat and sun. Our sliding glass doors (another thing I am not a fan of) in our bedroom and playroom have cellular blinds which I quite like. Our bedroom has room darkening ones for the hubby. :) I got my new Pottery Barn bed & bath catalog yesterday and fell in love with these drapes. The are room darkening bedroom drapes. I don't need them in the bedroom but dream about them in our dining area. But ...

...no problem! We have virtually no foyer in our house and definitely no mudroom (not much mud in Arizona!) but I wanted some place for backpacks, jackets, shoes, etc. When we added some cabinets in our dining area I asked the cabinet maker to make a little bench with cubbies and some hooks at the end of the wall closest to the front door. This is it at it's very neatest. It doesn't look like that too often! I am on my 2 nd set of canvas bins. They just don't last forever but I have always been able to find great deals on them (both times @ Kmart). If I ever were to find baskets to fit at a great price I would love to have them in the cubbies for some texture. One cubbie houses LM's shoes, the other one has the a dog leash and gloves (yes, we need them sometimes!) If you have multiple children you could designate a bin per child and make a cute label for the bin. If you are unable to build a cubbie and only have limited space try a large basket placed on t...

Last night when I went to pick LM up from ballet I spent a few minutes talking to her teacher. Before we left she said, "LM only had one ballet shoe today". So I asked LM about it and she said there was only one shoe in her bag. We dug through her ballet bag & the missing shoe bin at the ballet studio but didn't find the match. I did, however, find her black bolero that I spent forever looking for on Friday night. Amazingly, I never thought to look in her ballet bag for her sweater. Here's hoping I find that other ballet shoe in an odd spot. Before next Monday...

(I have no idea why my picture rotated when I downloaded it. It started out with the oj on the top right!) Since Valentine's Day falls on a Monday this year I had to do a quickie breakfast, just like every school day. French toast is always appreciated and quick. A little powdered sugar heart adds just the right touch. The hubby even got a powdered sugar heart on his Ezekiel toast this morning! I have a special dinner planned for tonight too. Tortellini w/ red sauce, garlic bread and salad. And the Red Velvet cupcakes I made... Have a Happy Valentine's Day!

We're getting ready for the 'big' day around here. Finally finished decorating last week - just in the nick of time. The mantle is showing a little love. I know the TV is super romantic. Here's a little color that doesn't shout Valentine but puts me in the spirit a bit. My sister got me the jar for Christmas and I just L O V E it! Here's LM's Valentine station. Her lucky Valentines will get to enjoy the fun dip - pure sugar. She has ballet on Monday so she will get to exchange Valentine's with those friends as well. I am off to buy what I need to make some red velvet cupcakes. Thanks for the idea, Laurie ! Love is in the air!!!

Yes, it's that time again. Time to think of teacher's gifts for Valentine's Day. I was in Staples the other day and was perusing their $1 area. I saw small clipboards for $1 each and pads of lined paper for the clipboards for $1 for a 2 pack. Then the light bulb went off! I could decorated the clipboards and use them as teacher gifts. $1.50 for each gift (I don't count the decorations in the cost since I am using paper, ribbons, stickers, etc that I already have-but if you need to buy other things I would add that into the cost.) I gathered all my supplies: Clipboards and pads of paper Mod Podge (I love this stuff!) & foam brush Paper cutter Scrapbooking paper, stickers, ribbon I cut the scrapbook paper to the size of the clipboard (6"X 9" in this case). I brushed the mod podge on the clipboard and placed the paper on top. I then brushed more mod podge on top of the paper. Then I added stickers and paper shapes and mod podged on top of that. I just k...

Last night we were watching an episode of House Hunters and the couple was looking for a new house in my husband's hometown, near St Louis. It was fun seeing if we recognized any of the streets or homes. After the show I asked him if he'd ever like to move back there. His response? "I don't have a job there." The man is not a daydreamer. I said, "if we HAD to move back there would you want to live in Webster Groves?" He said, "I don't know." So, I started thinking what kind of house we could afford there (we are not moving). I logged onto realtor.com , plugged in Webster Groves, a price range, bedroom & bath criteria, etc. Well, what to my wondering eyes should appear but...... the house my hubby grew up in! Yes, the old homestead is on the market! It was neat to see how it's changed. The funny thing is that when my mother-in-law sold the house about six years ago we were under the impression that the new owners were going to tear d...

It's time for Frugal Friday again. Okay, so it's Saturday but better late than never, right? I wanted to share my frugal February idea. This is the 3rd year in a row that we have had a 'no spend' February. I got the idea somewhere on line but don't remember where. The basic premise is that we spend no money in February. Yes, we still buy groceries, although I do tweak the budget down a bit, and any other truly necessary things (like medicine if one of us is sick). But we don't buy anything else - no clothes (we can all make it through the month for sure), no sporting goods, no toys, no gifts, no going out to eat, no home decor (this is sometimes painful for me), no hair cuts. Not much of anything, really. My husband & I still get our 'allowance' each week. I even put back a truly hilarious card (that would be perfect for a friend who just got out of the hospital) when I was at CVS yesterday (waiting for a prescription). It was only $1.99 but it was...

My husband went back to work today after being home sick for 2 days. He rarely gets sick but when he does watch out! He even missed hockey on Wed and Thurs - that's how you know it's bad. Today things are back to normal. Smokey has his chair back and I can vacuum without waking anyone up. I have sheets to wash (an everyday event when the flu hits - I needed to wait the past two days for him to get out of bed for a few minutes so I could change everything out) for what I hope will be the last time this week. I'll just basically be getting back into my routine and doing my thing. We have had our coldest temps here in the past 25 years. So even though it's balmy compared to some places (my sister called me on Wed from UT where it was -20!) it's cold for us. It was 21 degrees yesterday morning when LM left for school. We don't have to bundle up much so I needed to remember to make sure she had on long pants (not capris ), boots, socks and a heavy jacket. Today was ...

Be who you're meant to be, not what you've become because every one's so busy. I am not a Glenn Beck fan. No particular reason. He just came along too late to join my talk show party. I have the shows I listen to and LOVE but there just wasn't room for one more. So I never listen or watch. Until today. He is on the talk radio station on XM right before Dave Ramsey (who I do have room for). I turned to the station this morning thinking it was time for Dave but it wasn't. Glenn Beck was on talking about stockpiling food for an emergency (I think). As I was getting ready to change the channel I heard him say this: Be who you're meant to be not what you've become because every one's so busy I thought, 'I have to remember that.' I am not sure if the thought this up on his own or if he was quoting someone else. I am not sure it matters but if someone knows I'd love to give credit where credit is due. I think alot of folks can (and ...