a room with a view

our sunroom: its my favorite room in our home. we eat our meals here, knit, color, cut paper, draw, write letters and stories, have quiet times, visit with friends adn family, watercolor, read and do nearly all of our living in here. i don't know if it will be warm enough in here during the cold months but i aim to put some little heaters by our feet to prolong the sunroom-goodness. and according to my mama (the expert flora and fauna lady) we have lilacs, dogwoods, possibly a red maple, and more azaleas on the side of the house. [which means we'll have red buds in the winter and the gorgeous dogwood blooms in the spring.]

all of this talk of flowers, seasons and gardening inspired me to get out yesterday and weed my frontyard beds. i am half-way done. i will be putting in some lovely mums soon. fall is not quite here but i am looking forward to the changes that we will see through our sunroom views.

we also just spied a "sharpie" or a sharp-shinned hawk on our fence. what fun!

radical homemaking via soulemama

i was just perusing amanda's site and found this fantastic review of the book radical homemaking - i want to go run out and buy it! while i believe that it is a God-given role for the woman to be in the home, i think that the reviewer has some excellent points. check it out. ps i am already planning out my garden for spring 2011! so excited!

leftover solutions

i had some leftover oatmeal from yesterday's breakfast and so we made delicious pancakes with the remainders! here is a terrific/easy recipe i found through keeper of the home. the kids ate theirs with real maple syrup and i had mine with homemade blackberry jam that my mama made a few days ago (from our berry picking at morris orchard in monroe, va!) needless to say everyone was satisfied. this will be a good go-to meal for the upcoming school year.

make your place

last week i ordered make your place: affordable, sustainable nesting skills by raleigh briggs. i am loving this book.

words to describe the home i am creating:

affordable
frugal
sustainable
green
mindful
loving
caring
listening
noisy
peaceful
nesting
keeping
watching
waiting
protecting
creative
safe
intentional
community
busy
joyful
d.i.y.
industrious

so i am off to make the house in to our home ie. time to unpack the office!!

using everything

here is a few ways i have been trying to be more frugal in our home:

1. ate delicious green beans we picked the day before in my mama's garden + cooked them with some bacon = saved the boiling water and freezed it for future soup broths

2. chopped up almost all of the celery (including the the leaves) to use in a bahamian macaroni and cheese recipe i was making -- usually i would have cut all of that off -- but now we got all that good stuff right in the casserole. maybe it outweighed the cheese and butter?:)

3. bought a 10 lb. bag of freshly ground whole wheat flour from our mill back near my folks' farm + my own bread hook on the kitchen aide = fresh bread. my mama used to make four loaves every week when we were little b/c it was so cheap and they were living on a shoestring. she made some for us when we were visiting and used some of the leftover whey from making her artisan goat cheese. it was phenomenol. i am vowing to make my own bread (as soon as i can get some bulk ingredients). i think if i get a little station up and running and in to a routine, we are going to be so much happier with the finished product. plus it just makes sense for our family, as our four littles get bigger and require more food.

here are a few links to some great cooking from scratch posts:

from kitchen
stewardship via simplemom

scratch hacks from simple mom

leila's use for potato water in bread