Flip-flops, Aprons, and Pearls

Goodbye to a Dear Friend

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:22:00 +0000

Nancy Deason Jenkins, 65, of Springdale died December 3, 2009 at Springdale. She was born September 15, 1944 in Rogers to Mauriece and Letha Dell Reeves Deason.
She was a member of Fellowship Bible Church of Rogers and she also attended First Baptist Church of Lowell. She had been active in Women’s Ministry Leadership at Fellowship Bible Church. She had done numerous workshops, speeches and classes for women of all ages influencing their lives forever. She was the founder of an Aid Organization for Chinese orphans with a missionary trip to Bejing. She was a member of Springdale Kiwanis Club. She was a 2008 candidate for Springdale Mayor. She was passionate about Springdale and its future. She did extensive advocacy work for homelessness, mental health and insurance reform. Nancy never met a stranger and helped countless people, touching the lives of many through the years.
Survivors include her husband Dr. Travis Jenkins of the home, to whom she was married June 24, 1963; Two sons Adam Jenkins and wife Mary of Lexington, Kentucky, Nathan Jenkins and wife Sara of Knoxville, Tennessee; one daughter Susanna Taha and husband Tarek of Rogers, Arkansas; two brothers Darwin Deason and wife Katarina of Dallas, Texas, Dale Deason and wife Beckie of Decatur, Alabama; one sister Donna Buck and husband, John of Elm Springs; five grandchildren Sarah Taha, Isabel Jenkins, Dylan Jenkins, Donovan Jenkins and Miley Jenkins.

December 2

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:33:00 +0000

Yesterday I managed to nearly finish a pair of longies. I did also manage to get rid of a huge trash bag of clothing and old shoes. It was wonderfully freeing. I look forward to throwing away more stuff. I did go through everything very carefully and salvaged anything that could be used for crafts or sewing projects. I also took out any clothes that could be used as rags or oil cloths. By the end of the week we will have a nice bag of items to donate.

My daughter is nearly finished with a doll that she has been making for the nature table. We will get that finished today and some pictures posted later.

Off to cook breakfast.

December 1

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:54:00 +0000

It has been a while since I posted anything. Turns out it is not so easy to homestead, homeschool and blog. But here I go again. Back in the saddle so to speak.

We are taking the month of December to finish up craft projects that were started over the past year. Or in my case several years. Today we worked on a nature table doll and are almost done with it. I also have several new projects that are simple to do for Christmas decorating. I had both my girls make lists of what they need to finish. I started a list but we do not have that much paper. I have way to many UFO's to count. I am hoping to overcome my startitis. I love to learn new things. So I tend to start a lot of new things. It is not that I never finish anything it just takes me a while once the newness wears off. I have started dolls, quilts, pants and skirts. This is only the sewing stuff. My knitting basket is another story. So I will be posting throughout the month the different projects that we finish up.

I have also decided to organize my entire house. I have no idea why but the bug to simplify always hits me hard this time of the year. Maybe it is a reaction to all the holiday shopping. I actually rarely leave the house from Thanksgiving to the New Year. Thank goodness for a well stocked pantry. Makes me get all excited about the seed catalogs. I think I will pop over to rareseeds.com just to dream for a bit. Feel free to join me.

Check out this Blog!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:44:00 +0000

For all my knitting and sewing friends. This is a great cause:
http://ibol.wordpress.com/

More Blocks

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:27:00 +0000

Here are some more blocks from the Oh Fransson Quilt Along. I do realize I am very behind but this is my first quilt and I want to do it right!

Tree Huggin' Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:59:00 +0000

I was visiting one of my favorite blogs this morning and she asked how many of her readers tend a garden spot. So I thought I would share some photos of part of my garden spot. It is raining rather hard here this morning so there is some parts missing as I can not photo them from the shelter of my porch. I do my own version of intensive gardening. I am slowly digging up my yard and adding things as I go. Right now we have about 75 tomato plants, asparagus, pole beans, cucumbers, cabbage, watermelon, cantaloupe, purple hull peas and potatoes. I also have raspberry and blackberry growing along the fence. Oh yes and various herbs that are trying to take over. :-) My spot is not very large yet. My goal is for my entire front yard to become edible. I do have a variety of edible flowers planted too. I was inspired by this garden. The plan is to add chickens in the next few years and goats in the future too. I must say it is an absolute joy growing my own food. Most of my neighbors think I am a little off for digging instead of tilling the ground. But I figure once I get it all dug up there will be no need for a tiller so why buy one now. Not to mention I have lost about 2 inches of arm fat this summer. Now when I wave as the neighbors drive by my arm is not still waving 30 minutes later. I've been working on my little garden spot since we first moved here about 4 years ago. I do love my garden!!!!

Our Nature Table

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:44:00 +0000

I am a Waldorf Mama. I have finally got around to starting a nature table with the kids. I figure ya gotta start some where. Ours may not be the most beautiful out there but we are incredible proud of it. The shells came from a visit to a local Mill. We found the wasp nest on the porch last year. I knitted the little snail to go with a shell we found in our yard. The poor butterfly met it's match with one of our cats. We have added a walnut shell since this picture was taken and my oldest daughter is working on a fairy for our table. This is a lot of fun. I am glad that I did not wait until I could make it perfect. Because honestly it would have never been done if I waited that long.:-)
Enjoy!

Fabric Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:37:00 +0000

Some yummy goodness that I got in the mail from one of my very favorite enablers. I cannot wait to get started on a quilt made with the owls. I have been looking at Quilt blogs and admiring all the nice blocks made with that print. I am also going to make a quilt with the Far Far Away by Heather Ross. Of course I should probably finish my first quilt. :-)

My Quilt

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:25:00 +0000

I have some pictures to share. I have finally got going on the quilt along that OhFransson! started a while back. Life got put on hold with the death of my Grandmother and the end of a homeschooling year. This quilt will be my first and I am very excited about my progress. These are pictures of the blocks cut out and ready for sewing and the finished blocks A. I hope to get going on blocks B & C this weekend. My better half has been on the pager for work and using my sewing desk for his computer. I will be happy to get it back.

Checking In

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Thu, 14 May 2009 01:07:00 +0000

Life has been busy. Hope to add more soon. In the meantime enjoy one of my all time favorite songs

Fabric Choices

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:25:00 +0000

Yes? No? Maybe? These are some fabrics that are on the table for the Quilt Along.

A Quilt-Along

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:23:00 +0000

I am going to try something new. I have decided to participate in a Quilt-Along that Oh, Fransson is hosting. I love her website and all her wonderful quilts. This will be my first quilt and I thought some hand holding would be nice. Later today I hope to post a picture of the fabrics I have chosen. Honestly I do like any reason to riffle through my stash.

Vacation

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 13:43:00 +0000

If I were to ever go on a vacation my dream would be here. Most of my favorite knitting designers are on that page as teachers. No wait I was wrong all of my favorites are there. The cool thing is it is right around my birthday. So all I need to do is win the lottery so I can afford it and find a friend to go with me. Let's see most of my knitting friends are due to have babies in August so that will not work. Not to mention I do not play the lottery. I bet I could come up with a way and then I would actually have something cool to blog about.

Apron Giveaway On Another Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:22:00 +0000

I spend a lot of time over at Not Quite June Cleaver. I love her recipes and her aprons. I hope to save enough money soon to make one my own. In the meantime, I will continue to enter her wonderful give aways hoping it might be my lucky day!! So pop on over there and check it her out. You must peruse her archives cause seriously her recipes are wonderful. Then you must checkout her store.

Winter Meals From Our Summer Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:02:00 +0000

I honestly did not think it would be very easy to start the 100 ft. challenge in winter. We have very little left from our summer gardening efforts. It turns out that this is the best time to do it. I am able to see how much I could feed our family by putting up our food. We had a nice stew to eat from over the weekend. It was made from local grass fed beef. I used tomatoes that I had put up. I also added purple hull peas that were from our garden and corn from the farmer's market. Today we are having fried chicken. I plan on the side being green beans from the garden. For desert I am going to make either a mock pumpkin pie with our homegrown butternut squash or an apple dessert with apples given to me by a neighbor. I also found out that I can get steel cut oats locally grown and milled. The mill is right down the road and we will be going to it for a field trip for the kids when the weather gets nice. It's amazing what opportunities open up when you open yourself to a new way of looking at things.

100 Ft. Diet

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 22:19:00 +0000

This is how I will be spending my time now. I am very excited about this challenge. I am committed to growing more of our fruits and veggies. We live on .75 of an acre and I am excited to see how self sufficient I can become on our little plot. Tonight for dinner we are having homemade pizza. The pizza sauce is made from tomatoes that I put up last summer. I will use cheese that I made from milk I buy from a local farmer. I am very excited about my little start. I encourage everyone to join in!!!

What the Heck Have I Been Doing

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:54:00 +0000

Well it has been forever since I posted. I am currently doing some spring cleaning and getting my projects organized for the year. I have to organize sewing projects, knitting projects, homeschool projects, and gardening stuff. In the meantime go check out this wonderful blog for some cool urban homesteading.

Something Old, Something New

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 12:29:00 +0000

Yesterday my sister and I made another trip to my Grandparents house to help with cleanup. It was actually kinda neat because it was me, my sister, my brother and both my parents. We haven't all been together just us three since the 90's. I personally love the walk down memory lane and it is an honor for me to be able to help clean out their house. We found some of my grandmother's old clothes from the 70's. These are the first pants she ever owned. I brought home the cabinet that my Grandfather made for her to keep her pretties in. I also was able to get some of her pretties to put in it. I have it in my kitchen and it looks beautiful. Hopefully they can come over soon and see that it is being taken care of. I know my Grandmother will probably not leave the nursing home again but I have hope.

We have lived in our house for nearly 4 years and I have had the hardest time finding stuff to decorate it with. I do not like over the top decorations. I love simplicity. It seems fitting that I would choose all the things that no one wanted from my Grandparent's house. Many times I even dug stuff out of the trash. I just do not get my mom. She threw away one of my Grandmother's aprons. It is from the 40's and I am pretty sure she made it herself. I took a picture of it a while back. I need to put my girls in it and get a better picture. I am to big to wear it. :-) She was 16 when she got married and I am now 35 trying to squeeze into it. I also got some vintage nighties that are just so pretty. I am hoping that some oxy clean will help me get some of the stains out. When an elderly person develops dementia it is rather fascinating what they do with their things. She was a very orderly person so everything was packed in suitcases. She made sure there was a folded Kleenex in every pocket. Kinda amazing where life's journey will take you....

I Tasted A Carrot

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:41:00 +0000

Last night for dinner I made a nice roast with potatoes and carrots. Now normally I do not eat the carrots but for some reason they just called to me. I have always disliked the lack of taste in a carrot. It was wonderful. So full of flavor. I have spent the last 2 years cutting artifical stuff out of our diet and it has paid off. Fruit is like candy to me. We had bananas and raspberries with our breakfast and it was a heavenly treat. I want to encourage those that do want to cut out the hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, msgs and all that other stuff. It is so worth it in the end. Food in it's simplest form has the most amazing flavor. I am amazed that homemade bread just melts in your mouth. I am looking forward to cooking too. It makes a huge difference when you can actually taste the food you eat.

And Another One

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:41:00 +0000

Take the Quiz here!

I'm a Fifties Woman!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:20:00 +0000

You Belong in 1953

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

http://www.blogthings.com/whatyeardoyoubelonginquiz/">What Year Do You Belong In?

Canning

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:59:00 +0000

Well I have been doing some more canning. I have managed to make some really good bread and butter pickles. Last year all attempts at pickles were to say the least really gross. This year I got my hands on a Lily Wallace cookbook from the 1940's and presto yummy pickles. I now have 3 copies of that cookbook. I will be giving them to my nieces and daughters when they turn 16. I am also making them some cloth dough mats. I found this wonderful red ticking at the local quilt shop on sale. Lots to do. I better get going.

Something Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:38:00 +0000

Here is something I came across that I find really entertaining. Hopefully the image will work for everyone.

Been Busy!!

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:32:00 +0000

Oh my have I been busy. I put up some tomatoes yesterday. I put up some corn today. I am baking with fresh eggs and fresh milk and I am totally on cloud 9!!! I went to my Grandparents this weekend and helped clean a bit. I discovered in the trash the most amazing apron I have ever seen. Then to make it even more amazing I also found my Grandmother's pattern for the apron. My mom threw these treasures in the trash!!!! This is one apple that must have fallen in someone else's yard. I will get pictures of the two together soon. I have soaked the apron in some natural oxy clean type stuff to get some of the dust out of it. So in the meantime you can look at my corn, milk and eggs.

A New Friend

noreply@blogger.com (Natural Mom) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:17:00 +0000

I keep forgetting to share that I made a new real life friend!!! I am very excited about it. She has a daughter close in age to my oldest and they got along great. In fact my oldest keeps asking when we are going back. That is always a good sign. We have a lot in common and got along really good. Here is her blog. It is a really cool one too so go and visit!!!