FLY LADY WEEK 3 - Bedroom/ Bathroom

 Good morning, friends!

As I suspected, not a lot got done in the living room last week. My start to the new year is still a bit slow. 

I did get nine pints of Salisbury steak patties canned. I had quite a bit of syphoning but everything came out okay. I had one pint that lost more than half of the juice but it sealed. I'd already planned to pop one open and try for dinner. Very tasty! I'll do more of those next fall. Still lots of other items to can while the weather is cool.

The bathroom will get a serious scrub-down. This includes wiping down the ledge all the way around the soaking tub and deliming around the faucet at the sink. The rest is pretty easy. 

With more canning to do this week for #Canuary, I'm not expecting as much from the bedroom as I'd like.  My two big things for the bedroom are 1 - start jarring up the two cases of Town House Crackers sitting in the 'pantry' closet and to 2 - get the mattresses rotated.

I rotate the mattresses a half turn the beginning of every quarter. At some point, I want to totally dismantle the bed so I can clean underneath and the frame really. That won't be this week but maybe April at the beginning of the next quarter. Since this is the beginning of the week, I'll strip the bed and wash the bedding. 

If I want to add one more item, that would be to clean off my nightstand. 

One of the things I do every morning is to turn the bedding down, open the windows to allow the cold air in to freeze out any germs. When I remake the bed, I spray the mattress top with Lysol as well as the top edge of the sheet/ blankets where we breathe and both sides of each of the pillows. I think this daily sanitizing has a lot to do with why Bob and are are lucky if we are sick once a year. For me, that's usually sinus, not a head/ chest cold type of issue. This practice has served us well for almost twenty years.  If colds are a regularity in your home, give this a try and encourage hand washing. Let me know if you notice a difference.

Be safe, Be prepared, Be Blessed!

~ Kelly

FLY LADY WEEK 2 - Living Room/ Dining Room

 Good morning, friends.

Been a busy few days here. 

RIP HoneyB

March 2016 - January 2026

He would have been 12 years old in March

i got only what had to be done in the Laundry Room/ Kitchen last week. Mostly focusing on giving the kitchen a good clean ahead of a project for this week.

Last Thursday we sent our adorable, Beagle/ Bassett mix over the rainbow. We are not sure what happened but have our suspicions. He went from being an excited, rambunctious dog to a very quick decline over night and the course of about eight days. A vet check-up showed his vitals all good yet he didn't want food or move around. He also, suddenly, wanted to stay outside in the cold air. We'd bring him in after a chance to do his business only to want right back out a short time later.  I hated to see this sweet boy leave us. He showed up on my deck litter box trained and would bring me his food bowl when it was empty. The house is much quieter now.

I'll spend this week clearing out the remaining items of HoneyB like his toy bucket and figuring out if we're leaving his kennel up until we find an end table. Currently, the top of his kennel serves as an end table on Bob's end of the sofa. I also want to clean up as much hair as I can both around the rooms and in the couch crevices. For a tight-haired dog he could shed a ton! I'll focus mostly on the living room for the deep clean and start taking care of things just lying around in the dining room.

I mentioned last week I was taking part in the Pantry Challenge and Canuary. As I type this on Sunday afternoon, Bob and I canned 7 quarts of Beef Pot Pie filling. You'll find Leisa's video HERE. There's a link to the recipe she used in her description box of the video. Today we'll be canning Beef Tips & Mushrooms in wide mouth pints. We'll use them for stroganoff or just over rice. That recipe is HERE. If there's canner room, I'll add a couple pints of Salisbury Steak patties. That recipe is on Linda's Pantry channel HERE.

Wednesday, I'll b emptying jars of too-soft apple pie filling into the crock pot to cook down to apple butter as well as canning the apple cider I have yet to do. I also think I've found a recipe for powdered mulling spices but since that doesn't require heat, I'll come back to that this fall.

We're adjusting to the new normal around here but we're moving forward.

How are y'all doin? Drop a comment down below. Do you can foods?

Be safe, Be prepared, Be Blessed!

~ Kelly

FLY LADY WEEK 1 - Laundry Room, Dining Room

Happy New Year, friends!

Are you ready to make 2026 your best year? Have you packed away the Christmas decorations?

We haven't. The tree usually stays up until after the 8th. I love enjoying the lights.  My bathroom decor stays up until at least the end of January because it's still winter and the snowmen just belong. The laundry room and kitchen stay up until after Valentine's Day. My curtains have gingerbread people and hearts.  By By end of February, everything will be packed away. At some point in the spring, I want to pull all of the Christmas decor out, sort it by room everything will go in to then donate the rest.

I'm not diving in hard this month on these two rooms since Christmas decor is still up. I didn't do any decorating in the kitchen this year so my only plan is to detail the drains and the coffee counter. 

Laundry Room needs a serious clean. Bob got into a decluttering and finally got that junk drawer gone through!

My big focus for these two rooms is the floor - a continuous run between the two rooms.  But I have something a bit more important going on.

#Canuary2026 Details 

If you're not familiar with Canuary, this is my second year seriously participating (the challenge has been going on for 8!). The challenge is all about restocking the pantry before garden season starts and we're outside more than in.  The challenge is hosted by Leisa at SuttonsDaze and sponsored in part my 4JarsCanning. Check out the videos, subscribe to the channels, leave a positive comment to be entered to win some awesome prizes. I have my eye on the steam canner. 

I'll post a video later this week of what I plan to stock.

The other challenge, is the Pantry Challenge, hosted by Three Rivers Homestead. You'll find her Week 1 HERE.

The idea is to go through your pantry, freezer, fridge, etc an plan meals around what you have, to limit what you buy, for two months (January, February). It's easy for things to get pushed to the back as we bring in new shopping items. Very easy to forget what we have even, then go buy more of the same.

I'll be taking stock of what's downstairs in the pantry and the big freezer, as well as the upright freezer in the laundry room, and planning our meal around those. I plan to limit my spending to three categories:

1 - items I need to complete a recipe using items on hand

2 - fresh staples such as milk

3 - items I need for the Canuary challenge. I have a long list and so many of the things I want to put up are on sale so while I'm not spending money on the other items, I can devote that to the items I do need.

I'm prepared for these two challenges.   Are you going to  join either one? I'd love to hear from you.

Be safe, Be prepared, Be Blessed!

~ Kelly

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has been a tradition with me since I was probably ten. The parade has changed over the years but I still enjoy the celebration.

Be safe, Be prepared, Be Blessed!

~ Kelly

FLY LADY - Week 4 - Office

 Good morning, friends!

The final push to get everything set up for Christmas. 

Thanksgiving was a big tradition during my teenaged years, thanks to my (step) mom. I use that term loosely and will always refer to her as Mom.  We always decorated the Christmas tree after Thanksgiving dinner... between dinner and desserts. That tradition slid downhill fast after we became empty-nesters then again when Bob took the line boat position and was gone twenty-one days at a time.

Since this is his first full year of retirement, I'm determined to pull that tradition back out. 

What tradition do you wish you still continued? Why not?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Be safe, Be prepared, Be Blessed!

~ Kelly 

FLY LADY - Week 3 - Bedroom - Bathroom

 Good morning, friends!

Where is this month going? Hard to believe we are just over a week from Thanksgiving.

Before I talk about this week, I do have to say not much progress was made on last week's projects while Bob was gone. At least not on what I wanted.

I chilled Wednesday, as I usually do the first day I have the house to myself. Thursday, I realized I was missing a couple of spices for the spice mixes. I thought I had them all. So off to the local grocery to hopefully pick them up. They only had one of the three, however, they did have the boneless hams in the brand we prefer on sale Thur/ Fri/ Sat only. I ordered two to be sliced while I went on into Cabool to Sheplers to hopefully pick up the other 2 spices. (they didn't have either one!) Back to pick up the two sliced hams as well as four boneless butterball turkey breasts. They were frozen so we'll thaw them out here at home and Bob can put them on our meat slicer. But we're set for lunch meats for the winter. 

We use a lot of the shaved ham around here. Bob makes the best grilled hot ham, egg, cheese sandwiches for breakfast. I also use it on my protein platters for lunch. Along with the ham, I like sliced turkey, a hard boiled egg, cheese sticks cut from the block and cottage cheese. Bob likes to use both meats in wraps.  

If you love ham or turkey NOW is the time to buy. They are both at their lowest price between now and Christmas. Otherwise, the next low price will come around in time for Easter. Buying the products you love seasonally will save you the most money.

I finished up the spices on Friday but realized they aren't all going to fit into the cabinet unless I use a stadium riser type of shelving. However, the ones you can buy are not made for the mason jars. I store my spices in 1/4 or 1/2 pint mason jars. So they are currently in canning boxes on the sofa until Bob comes home and we can brainstorm between one of two best solutions. 

Saturday and Sunday I wound up with pains in my right thigh. I think from all the steps I did Friday, then pushed through again on Saturday working on the living room corner. So I didn't do much of anything yesterday. 

Bob will be home this evening. And so I'm in holding pattern at least for a couple of days yet again. 

At least I can still do that living room corner with Bob home. 

While I do love naps, I'm determined to spend time cleaning this week. The sewing corner stuff MUST get moved back to their studio home. I haven't told Bob but if I can pull this off, I want a woodsy decor tree for the bedroom. I'll need remote control tree lights though so Bob can easily turn them off when he comes to bed. Oh yeah, and hope Tabby doesn't think she needs to climb the tree LOL

How many trees do you put up and are you putting one in your bedroom?

Be safe, Be prepared, Be Blessed!

~ Kelly 

FLY LADY - Week 2 - Living/ Dining Room

 Good morning!

Week 2 into November. Bob will leave Wednesday for a wedding in Oklahoma. I'll have 5 days to deep clean ahead of Christmas decorating and working on my book. My goal is to write 1086 words per day. I didn't write the first two days of the Rough Draft Challenge so I'll have some words to make up.

I still need to get the Halloween/ Christmas craft stuff out of the living room where the tree needs to go.

I have the craft binders ready to put those items in so I'm planning Halloween one day and the Christmas stuff another day so that table can come down before Bob gets home on the 17th.

The Dining Room will have more of it's focus next month.

Accomplishing that this week will be a HUGE win for me and for the house.

What's your plan of attack this week? I'd love to hear.

Be safe, Be prepared, Be Blessed.

~ Kelly