Spring Cleaning

You know I have many friends and family members that always say or something similar "If your coming over to my house your coming to see me, not my house, so it shouldn't matter what condition my house is in." That is true, if your going to go see someone it should be for them and not to judge the state of their house. I would have to argue though that a clean house equals a happy you which equals a happier and more comfortable visit from the friend, Right? The key to a clean house is all in the daily mudane chores that go on. Sweeping the floor, Ceaning the dishes, Making the bed, Not wearing shoes in the house, Picking up the toys, etc. I will admit I'm no where near perfect, I mean I do live in only 840 square feet right now and that little of space can get cluttered and messy in a hurry. But by doing the little things once a day, as well as cleaning/mopping the kitchen and bathrooms once a week, vaccuming and dusting at least twice a week helps when the heavy cleaning comes up, its not so heavy then, just a mild case of cleaning.

I'm grateful, that I'm starting out small to develop my cleaning skills so by the time I have a bigger home, it will be no big deal, plus I'll have older children then to teach the skills to. Thats something I'm very grateful for, my mom and her making us her slaves and help clean the house every weekend. None of us got out of house chores, unless we could come up with a good excuse which usually included helping dad move cows or build fence or something, which is another thing I'm grateful for, but thats for another post. I hated cleaning house as a young child and teenager but has I've grown older I've seen the lessons and value I've learned from it. Thankyou mom.

There is also a book I've read recently "The Art of Homemaking." by Daryl V Hoole. It is a great book and had some great ideas on homemaking. Although I will warn you it was wrote in 1962, so some material is defintaly dated compared to our modern generation, but basically the principles are the same. It was a great encouragement to me. One quote from the book

"Thank God for dirty dishes. They have a tale to tell; while other folks go hungry we're eating very well. With home, health, & happiness we shouldn't want to fuss, for by this stack of evidence Gods very good to us. -Dear Abby Colum"

So my friends I keep my house clean not for your benefit (although its nice right?) But for mine. It makes my life that much less stressful.

Morning Reading Time

So as you all know I love to read. But even after reading the same children books a million times they get a little tiring. (For me mind you, the girls love the repeats!) Well my mom has been cleaning out her room at school, since they have to move out due to remodeling of the school. So she has given us a bunch of books that she no longer wants!! Of course some of them already have my name in them since they once upon a time were mine. :0) So this morning I leave my

girls on my bed to get some milk for us and come back to find....

Daisy reading to Page! I was able to finally get a picture of it, she has started doing this the last couple of days, either with her books or mine. I love it!

Book Club

So me and a couple of friends started a book club last month. So i thought I would post what books we are reading and my thoughts on them.

April~ Band of Sisters, by Annette Lyon. This book is about five women who give each other support and act as a sounding board at their weekly lunches, when their husbands unit is deployed to Afganistan. This book made me appriciate those wifes whose husbands do serve in any kind of military unit. The heartache and loneliness they feel, yet the pride they have in their husbands is tremendous. This story is fictional yet based upon true events. It is a really good book.

May~ The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. This book is wonderful. I heard so many good things about it that I decided to check it out, and its the book we choose for May. The sad thing about this book, is I already knew the principles talked about in it, even knew how to apply them, have even tried to a couple times. But this book is written very bluntly that I've decided to apply the principles right now. So we are going to be tightening our belts a little tighter and get our tractor paid off this year and my school loans by next Aug. (I actually think we will and can have it done sooner!) Then in about seven years we will have our farm paid for!!!!

I will continue to post what books we read.

Happy Day

Today is a happy day for me.
1st~ Page's Doctors appt went well yesterday, she is growing good and everything is peachy king.
2nd~ We replaced our old broken vanity/medicine cabinet/mirror yesterday. Love the new one!
3rd~ I've officially got a washer and dryer in my home. I can't use them yet due to some eletrical stuff we need to figure out, but they are in the hose and that much closer to being used. :)
4th~ Found out the other day that we will be getting rid of my inlaws carpet out of our storage unit, in that they are going to put it in their house. I never thought the day would come.
Its a happy day!

Anniversary Star Quilt

I've finally finished my in-laws quilt and borrowed someones camara to get a picture of it before I gave it to them. This quilt is from a Buggy Barn pattern called Garden Path. I adapted the pattern a little bit. My Mom in law loves blues and so when I found these colors and fabric, I knew it was perfect for her! I quilted it on my friends long-arm machine, which was my first experience I usually just quilt on my regular machine. I've decided that I'm much better with a regular machine, but maybe someday I'll give long-arm quilting a chance again, possibly on a different brand and with a different quilting table. In the long run I like the way it turned out and the buggy barn pattern was a lot of fun to do.

Making Do

"Fix it up, Wear it out, Make it do, Or do without." ~Gordon B Hinkley

Koda and I have tried to make this quote our motto in life. Especially in our early married life and parenthood. There has quite a few times, that by making do with what we had we were doubly blessed in the long run. A couple of examples.

Example #1. Our kitchen table. We never had one, which never was a big deal, since I lived in apartments that were furnished at college and he lived here in our camper, so the table was built in. Chirstmas of 2008 my parents gave us a card table, so I could do my bills and other projects on it, instead of the floor. When we finally bought our trailer house, we were just planning on using that card table as our kitchen table. Well before we even got moved into our home, Koda's aunt asked us if we would like a table. It had been through a fire, had some smoke damage and bubbling on the varnish other then that it was a solid oak table and in great shape. The previous owners, were just getting rid of everything and getting all new stuff, they didn't want any reminder of their fire. So Koda's aunt took it and had plans to clean it up and fix it, but she never did. So we took it, my mom cleaned it up and refinshed the top. It also came with two chairs, that just needed cleaning. It is absoulutly stunning! I bet that if the original owners and even Koda's aunt knew all it took was some hotwater and some soap, with only the top needing redone, they would've never gave it up.

Example #2. Our House. We bought it two and half years into our marriage, but it was a long road to get it. There were two homes that we actually looked at and almost bought in Jensen, one we actually went into negotions one, but we never felt completly right about it, so nothing ever came from them. The Spring of 2008, after I'd graduated college, we finally decided to get a stick-built house and put it on the farm. So we started that process and kept hitting roadblock after roadblock trying to get this house in. It was such a headache! During this time, we lived at my mom and dad's, in our camper, then Koda's moms and dad's, then finally his grandma Southams. We saved on not having to rent, but it was a major headache and stress, for I didn't have a place of my own and there was now three of us, since Daisy had joined our family. Finally in October the Tri-County Health told us that we had to wait through high-water season to have our water monitored, to see exactly what kind of septic system to get, and the earliest we could start on it, was June, if it passed. So the waiting game had begun. Just as a note, our loan for this house was going to be $120,000 plus the $120,000 for the land so a grand total of $240,000. We figured that wasn't bad. Our home that we were getting was only 1,500 square feet, three bedrooms, two baths and we were getting 160 acres in land. (How we aquired the land is a whole other story, I'll go into that sometime). Many people were spending that amount of money on a decent sized house and a smaller lot. The economy at this time was good and we had a good job, with only two other loans, we could afford this kind of debt. Well in January 2009, my dad called me and told me about a single wide trailer that he heard was for sale in Lapoint for $3,500. That night I told Koda about it and he was certain, it was just a junked out indian home, and wouldn't be worth it to even look at. I convinced him ohterwise I felt we needed to go check it out. So the next morning (miraculsaly Koda was off work), we drove over and looked at the home. It was an older used trailer no doubt about it, but it was in good shape and clean. The lady selling it told us that it was being sold to the first person to get her the money and she wasn't holding it for anyone. We knew before we even got all the way out of Lapoint that we were going to buy it. So I made a phone call to my mom to transfer some money for me from our savings, and we went back ready to write a check out. She wasn't there, so we called her and came back later that afternoon, to give her the check. We owned a home! Free and clear. It still took us eight months before we were living in it, and even then another two before we had running water. But we were able to only have to pay for the land, since our home was in the free and clear. It is small, we will out grow it, but this way we can save our money, get other things paid off, and start building in about seven years.

There is many other examples that I could go on about (my serger, couch, rocking chair oven, koda's vice, etc), but this post is long enough already. I'm just glad that I've learned this principle in my young adult life and I pray and hope to keep it in my mind throughout my life. "Fix it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without"

Growing Up

"There is only one child in the world: Peterpan. Everyone has to grow up someday. Wendy realized this when she was two, your realizing it at twenty-two." -Rusty Cartwright from ABCfamilys Greek.

This comment comes from the only TV show that I make time to watch, which is usually on laundry day at my mom's house on her computer, since my internet is to slow to be able to watch it.

I've been mulling this comment over in my mind for a couple of weeks now, wondering, when or did I have an Ah-Ha moment about having to grow up and leave childhood behind? Was it when I left home and went to college? or when I graduated college maybe, or when I became a mother, maybe it was back in high school when I did something wrong and lost my parents trust. It could have happend when I was preparing to go to the temple to be sealed and I came close to my Savior that I realized I needed to grow up. I'm not sure if I actually had an Ah-Ha moment, but all these instances certainly have helped me to become the grownup I am today.

I realized as I mulled this over, that I have always accepted and moved onto each station of my life smoothly, never with reluctance or fear. True there was a couple of times in my teenage years that I wanted to be moved out and on my own quicker then it was coming, but I've never feared of moving on, if anything I accept it with anticipation. Maybe that means I was ready to move to that next stage of life.

I do believe that being raised the way I was and by the wonderful parents that I have, has defintaly helped me to grow up. I was given responsibilty from the time I was tiny, (feeding the chickens, dogs, gathering the eggs, graining the sheep, etc) clear through to today. Having always had responsibilty from my earlist memory has defintaly prepared me for the life of mother and wife, which I'm so grateful for.

There is other parts of my life that I realize had a big impact on who I am today, which I'm thankful for, but some of those parts I wish they didn't happen, but they probably had to in order for me to learn my lesson in life and prepare me for my future. One thing is for certain your past will always infullence your future. What are your thoughts on growing up? Did you have an Ah-Ha moment or have you accepted it from the begining of your life, such as me?

Hot Springs

So I've been thinking a lot lately about the basic knowledge that I grew up knowing. Like how baby animals get here, where milk comes from, the fact that it takes eleven shearers to shear 2500 sheep in two days. Most people don't even know this, which I find very interesting since I've known it my whole life. It makes me wonder what the big city kids learn has they are growing up, cause I bet you its much different then what us country bumpkins know.


Thinking of this it reminds me of a experiance I had in college. My old roomates and some people from their ward were going to head to the hot springs and invited me to come along. So I agreed I had nothing else to do, but I've never been to a hot springs, we don't have many out here in good ole Vernal, so I asked well is there a place to change or do we have to change here? They're like of course you can change there. So in my mind I'm figuring we are heading up the mountain, so some secluded hot spring, were all the kids go party at, and that there's probably an old outhouse or shed there that we can change in right.

So we head out of Logan towards Tremonton and I keep figuring we are going to turn off somewhere and head up into the hills, but no we drive through the hills, and on towards Tremonton and go to a fancy resort.


I was shocked to say the least, made me feel very small town, has you can imagine. Thank heavens one of the other boys that went with us seemed shocked too or at least he pretened to be I'm not sure. Everyone else was like shocked that I would think we would go to some random place in the middle of no-where. Haha what a great memory and eye opening experience for me at the age of nineteen!

Re-Vamp

I'm going with a different approach to my whole blog writing and we'll see if it turns out better. Hopefully I can get into a better habit and do better at keeping everybody updated with my life.

Lately I've been busy being a momma to two girls. Miss D keeps me running from sun up to sun down and sometimes through the night. My most used phrase lately is 'D don't do that!' Oh exciting someday the discipling may take affect right? She sure keeps me wore out.

I've been busy trying to get my quilt done for K's mom and dad. I decided after all the teasing that his dad gives me about never receiving a quilt from his daughter or daughter in laws, I'd make them one (plus it gives me a good excuse to try out a new pattern). So I'm making one for them its going to be an anniversary gift...and the anniversay date passed me by, but I'm almost done, I just need to get it binded, and take a picture of it! But that will be another hurdle seeing how I've misplaced my camera or lost it or it walked away and went to another home, I don't know, so hopefully I can find it again and soon. Also talking about quilts I have a few more patterns that I want to try out so bad, but I can find the justification in doing them...blah so I guess they will have to wait and be put on hold.

My Garden is doing good, well considering I only got half of it planted the other day :) and I have to wait a bit longer to plant the rest. I've been waiting all winter to get out of this house and get my hands dirty. Same with D, only I think she is much more help then I need right now, which goes back to my most used phrase :).