Happy Homemaker Monday

Happy new week my Friends!

It's still been pretty hot in the northwoods. We did get some thunderstorms and a bit of rain - so that was helpful. 

It was a pretty quiet weekend. Annie was out-of-town. And I got a little stomach flu. I was fighting a fever, chills - the works. Thankfully I felt better by later yesterday and I feel more like myself today. So Matt and I mostly hung out indoors in the a/c. We watched some shows, napped, and he did a lot of yard work. Yesterday, we played some cards and caught up with Annie when she got home. 

We have some busy weeks ahead - still lots of summer things and folks we are trying to pack in before it all flies by. ☀️💛

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

half of an english muffin with a tiny bit of natural pb & banana,  iced coffee

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

groceries, errands, Matt's childhood friend coming to visit and for dinner, lunch that I'm hosting for some honorary "Aunties" of mine, Ruby's haircut, the company we hired to redo one of our bathrooms in the Fall is coming this week to measure, we are going to dinner & mini golf with my Bro & SIL, I'm doing lunch with my bestie later in the week, my hospice work 

(yep a busy one)...and next week Annie's bf is coming to visit from FL for the week - so it will be a busy one too!

THINKING ABOUT: 

How I'd like to do a Christmas in July day (on just a small level) and what I want that to involve ....hmmmm? 

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

watching our garden grow a little bigger every day :) 💚

CURRENTLY READING

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower

 

ON THE TV TODAY:

Jeopardy, Big Brother, AGT, I watched the new Little House on the Prairie series and liked it, The Five Star Weekend, some Christmas Hallmark movies taped for Christmas in July ❤️💚😊

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY - lemon ricotta pasta with peas, roasted broccoli with parm, garlic bread

TUESDAY - 

WEDNESDAY - 

THURSDAY -  

FRIDAY -

*not sure about the rest of the week because still setting the dates for what nights Matt's friend is visiting and when we're going out with my Bro & SIL. I'm going to make and bring food for my Mom& step Dad one night (she requested my slow cooker sweet & sour meatballs with asian style cauliflower rice). I'm also planning to make a brunch kind of lunch for my honorary "Aunties" and plan to make monte cristo sliders with raspberry jam and fruit. And maybe make cookies this weekend for Christmas in July??  - lots of ideas are brewing over here 😉

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

color, read, work on a Christmas gift project (while listening to Christmas music of course!)

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

 

FROM THE CAMERA:

Since we really didn't go anywhere - all of my pics are from around our home sweet home. So of course lots of flowers and garden pics.  I wanted to share that my lilies are all popping open and I love the variety of colors we have. The peach ones haven't opened yet - they're usually last. The deep red ones always remind me of this pic of Annie when she was little.  I've always loved it and included it in her grad announcement a few years ago. ❤️

My Aunt sent this thank you too me knowing I love quilling. I think it's such a pretty art form:

The hydrangeas are also popping open...

The herbs are taking over their pots and the lettuce is spilling out of its pot. The garden is growing bigger now and I love how the cukes are curling around the chives:

I found this pretty garden iron flower cross I had bought when we were in AZ and had Matt hang it on my gardeners table. 

PRAYER LIST:

 For an end to the conflicts all over the world and anyone living in war & fear, especially everything going on in the middle east right now. For peace and unity in this country, especially from hate and shootings or violence.  For anyone sick, suffering, in pain, fear, loneliness etc ... that God bring them comfort and peace. For the wildfires to end.

For the Lord's love and peace to fill 2026. ❤️ 

For Christ's Light and Love to cast out the darkness everywhere and help the world find its way to loving our neighbors as ourselves. 🙏🏻

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

💗💗💗

I hope you have a week full of treasures Friends!

I'm sharing this with Sandra of Diary of a SAHM for Happy Homemaker Monday.

Five on Friday & Scraptastic Saturday: Essential Oils

Happy Friday my Friends! 

I had some busy and fun adventures today at an art studio where my daughter has been going to art camp this week. Since today was the last day they had a little gallery show and pizza party. Lots of fun! But now I'm finally home and can get this post in before my day is done.  Today for my 5 I thought I'd share some of the essential oils I've been loving and some uses for them.

ONE

I love adding a few drops to my big water bottle. Just a very little gives a lot of flavor to boring old water. I like lemon, lime, or grapefruit...although lately my favorite has been just a few drops of orange oil.

TWO

I love lavender essential oil for using in a spray for the bed sheets. It's such a soothing smell and it's very calming and great for bed time. It's also a natural antiseptic and great to help treat minor scrapes or burns - so also handy to keep in the kitchen. Further you can read here how it can improve circulation on your scalp and be good for stopping hair loss and promoting hair growth. All that in one tiny bottle and you only need a few drops.

THREE

I love thieves essential oil! This oil is so versatile and smells so good! With it's clove, lemon and cinnamon base it smells like the holidays to me.  You can read more about it here, but it basically got its name based on a legend about thieves in the 15th century that used it on themselves to cover the smell when robbing those dead from the plague...and they never got sick, as it's supposed to help the immune system. I love to use it for a safe cleaner. Just put about one drop for every 1/2 ounce to ounce of water in a spray bottle and it's healthy and non-toxic, yet effective. Also, as you can see above - it helps numb things for the mouth if you have a toothache or gum pain. I guess clove oil was used for many years in dentistry as a common ingredient to help with tooth pain. My daughter had a tooth coming in recently that bothered her and she used this and it worked great to numb the pain. 

FOUR

As I have mentioned several times before, I love to use essential oils in the diffuser. I'm diffusing oils into the room with positive healthy properties to it....as well as making my home smell great. I'm still really into lavender and lemon together and often will add some orange too. In the Fall I love using thieves instead.

FIVE

Another fun use for essential oils is to make your own natural soaps and lotions. I recently picked up these goodies at the craft store and I'm going to use them to make some little bottle of lotions - great to keep or give as gifts! It will be fun to experiment with different smells. I think for summer lime would make a yummy citrus smelling lotion and of course I'll have to make a lavender one, as its one of my favorite oil scents for this time of year.   I didn't take a photo but I also use peppermint essential oil for headaches as needed. I have a little bottle that has a roller on the top and I keep it in my purse. A little bit at my temples or the back of my neck and I can truly get rid of headaches that way!

These are just some of the ways I've been using essential oils lately. I'm not selling oils or getting anything for talking about them. Nor am I any kind of expert; I'm still learning a lot but I love that everything is natural. I love the idea of not using things with chemicals in them...plus most oils actually have wonderful health benefits! I know a gal that makes her own cough drops and even has capsules she can fill with oils to make her own vitamins for health benefits. If you want to learn even more you can look at my pinterest board about essential oils here and read how they can help belly aches, acid reflux, allergies, help with skin and beauty and many more ideas. I just keep learning and I can honestly say that with the ones I've been using - they WORK! 

I'm linking with Amy of Love Made My Home for Five on Friday.

I'm also linking with Scrapality for Scraptastic Saturday.

Chest Cold S.O.S.

 

Well I initially had a whole different plan for my post today, that would have explained my absence from HHM last Monday.  But it would have been a more involved post and required more effort and time and I'm just not up for it today as I've gone and caught a bad cold bug! Ugh!

Actually, my son has been sick for days and I put up the good fight, but being home with him for these sick days must have been too much exposure and now I've got it. It's a horrible chest cold with LOTS of exhausting coughing.  So I'm sending out an S.O.S. to see what you do for a bad cold?  - tips, advice, secret cures- I'm open to it all so please feel free to share! In the mean time here's what I'm doing:

Drinking lots of hot tea (& water & juice & lots of liquids in general)

Sucking on lots of cough drops to let my chest get some rest from all the coughing.

 

 

Spraying lots of this around to try to kill all the cold germs, as well as wiping down all my tables and counter top surfaces with anti-bacterial wipes. Die bugs Die!!!

 

And getting in lots of snuggle and rest time with a favorite blankie and my sweet Girl.

Thank goodness nurse Ruby is on the job!

I'm also eating lots of chicken soup and taking my vitamins.  I don't have the patience for no energy and feeling so lousy so please share any magic cures out there....