Homemaking
Accepting God’s Will
“One great means of preserving a constant peace and tranquillity of heart is to receive all things as coming from the hands of God, whatever they may be, and in whatever way they may come.” ~ St. Dorotheus ~
Read MoreWater Damage (Part 2)
Once the walls were painted and tile was installed, we chose carpeting for two of the bedrooms. The girls chose Stainmaster Trusoft carpet in “Medallion” for their room. The carpet complements the “Greek Isles” paint that they chose for their walls nicely. The boys settled on Stainmaster Trusoft “Raffia” for their bedroom. We will use…
Read MoreTile Floors
Recently, a friend asked me, “Why did you choose tile? Seems cold and well, hard. Do you have throw rugs for the cold winters or warm slippers?” Just in case anyone else is trying to decide whether or not to install cold, hard tile in their house, I thought that I would share my response…
Read MoreWater Damage (Part 1)
One morning in March, I was woken by one of my sons standing by my bed telling me that the bathroom floor was flooded with dirty toilet water. Before I could get out of bed, Cecilia came upstairs and told me that there was water dripping into the bathroom, her closet, and her bedroom. I…
Read MoreTasha Tudor
When I was in grade school, the librarian read us Fairy Tales from Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Tasha Tudor. I remember going to the library each week and anxiously waiting for the librarian to finish reading the book, so that I could check it out and look at the lovely illustrations. When I grew…
Read MoreFeeding a Large or Small Family on a Budget
A few years ago, I gave myself a grocery budget challenge. A week or so ago, I received the following from a dear friend: On my last trip to Winco, I was amazed at how expensive all the meats were. I was walking in circles trying to find some dinner meats that didn’t cost at…
Read MoreCostco Grocery Shopping List
I always find summer a great time to get organized. After giving birth to our ninth child and being unable to go grocery shopping for quite some time, I realized that it is much easier to have master grocery lists, based on store layout, then it is to say, “We need this. We need that.”…
Read MoreThe Joys of Homeownership: Dishwasher Repair
When your dishes start coming out of the dishwasher looking worse than they did when you put them in, it is not necessarily time to call the repair man or purchase a new dishwasher. As I mentioned here, the Handy Guys have a podcast (embedded below) which explains how a person might be able to get their dishwasher…
Read MoreThe Best Budgeting Program
Over four years ago, a friend sent an email to our homeschool group, titled, “Budget is Not a Four-Letter Word”. She caught my husband’s and my attention. She influenced us to purchase YNAB (a.k.a. You Need a Budget). We started taking baby steps towards truly managing our finances and not living paycheck to paycheck. Over four…
Read MoreTime After Epiphany Daybook
Outside my window, it is foggy again. We have had foggy mornings with beautiful blue skies in the afternoon for the past week or so. In the kitchen, the children are planning the menu that they want when I have our baby. Breakfast: Waffles Fruit Smoothies Lunch: Grape and Tuna Sandwiches or Soup (cut up…
Read MoreBaptism Anniversary Presents
Each year, we celebrate our children’s Baptism anniversaries by going to Mass if possible, having a Mass offered for them (not always on their anniversary), giving our son/daughter a religious gift, and having a special dessert after dinner. With our first child, we started by giving her a book each year; however, as our family…
Read MoreNursing Cover
I used to sew on a regular basis, but then my favorite sewing machine got jammed and I couldn’t fix it. When I learned the cost of having it fixed, I put the machine away and lamented the fact that I had used it to stitch already glued on appliques onto aprons for a friend.…
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