While we were still living the old house  our fridge died.

One day at the end of November I walked out into the kitchen to find some water sittin

g o

n the floor.  I blamed it on Jesse spilling while getting a glass of water.  But when I opened the freezer and saw the ice melting every where, we knew the truth.  The freezer contents went into the deep-freeze in the basement.  The contents of the fridge where dolle

d out between a cooler on the deck and a small dorm-sized fridge we kept in our living room.

I had been dabbling in meal planning on and off for a couple of months, but when my fridge took a crap I learned the importance of planning out my meals for the week.   I made my list before heading out the grocery store and then would promptly through it out the window and buying whatever looked good to me that day.

I am sure you already know what $200 of groceries does not fit in a mini-fridge.

I had to sit down each week and carefully plan out what we are going to have for supper each now.  I planned out the meals to the extent of using up or having no leftovers:  if I roasted a chicken on Monday, I used the leftover cooked chicken in a casserole or tacos later on in the week.  I went on this way, successfully, for the better part of a month.

Things have changed since the fridge-less times.  I am living in a different home, with a working fridge and lots more pantry space.   The meal planning has stuck with me, when I go a week with putting it all down on paper I feel a bit lost.  I have saved myself around $60 a week, and a whole lot of heart ache when throwing away wasted food.

Next week I will share how I get my meal plans worked out and stick with it.

Do you plan out your meals?

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Mid January.

It is the time of year when you hunker down in your home and wait for spring.

American Gods :: Neil Gaiman

Tiny Beautiful Things :: Cheryl Strayed

The One Straw Revolution :: Masandbu Fukuoka

Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child :: Bob Spitz

The Weekend Homesteader :: Anna Hess

I am not big on New Year’s Resolutions.

In college after a few (too many) bottles of beer a friend and I made the resolution that we were going to stop doing those stupid New Year’s Resolutions.  Huh, may be I am good at these.

But in honor of the New Year at the Old Farm I wanted to set some goals for myself.   Just 10 basic things I would like to get accomplished this year.

 Get completely moved into the house.  This may sound a bit ridiculous but since our house has not sold yet we still have a bunch of stuff left behind.  It is time for a hardcore weeding of things.  I also have a pallet of items boxed up in my Dad’s shop that I need to go through.

Finish the bedroom remodel.  The floor is in and the walls are painted, but that is about it.  We need to finish the closet, and put in trim.  I also would like to get a new bed and some accessories.

Get my new project up and running.  I have big plans to pour one of my biggest passions into a new project.  Stay tuned!

Get back to baking.  Since the beginning of November we have really been pushing the move.  Our free time has been packing, cleaning, and doing one remodeling project after another.  I have spent too long without the feeling of dough in my hands.

Corral the Paper Monster.  Dad owns his own business.  Jesse has a day job and works for his dad on the side.  I do the book keeping for my father-in-law.  The kitchen and office are overflowing with receipts  bills to pay, invoices to send and junk mail.  I need to come up with a system to keep everything in line and under control.

Sew!  When I look at my sewing machine I feel both fear and sadness.  I need to get over myself and complete at least one sewing project this year.

Make it through a year with my bees.  I am in the process of getting ready for my first season as a beekeeper.  My starter hive is here.  My bees have be ordered.  And I am starting to get nervous.

What do you want to accomplish this year?

I love to read other blogs, of any type.  My reader is full of gardening blogs, food blogs, book blogs and Mom blogs (even though I am not a Mom).  Here are 5 of my favorites.

Recipes, Food, and Family

Flora and Fauna

(I think the name explains itself, right)

(same here . . . )

books, food, homesteading

Or at least done enough that we can use it.

After our fridge took a crap at the SG house and as Christmas loomed closer we decided even though the room was not completely ready it was finished enough.

For most of my childhood I shared this room with my younger sister, Stacy. About 6 months before I left for college my parents got a new mattress and box spring for their room (which was down the hall).  The box spring would not make the corner of the stairs, so we shuffled rooms.  Mom’s loom went to the basement, Mom and Dad moved into Mom’s sewing room, and I moved to into Mom and Dad’s old room and this room stayed Stacy’s

This is what we started with.

My sister had a dragon faze.  She did the painting herself, why Mom let her do it, no one is sure.

Part of the charm (annoying things?) about old houses are NO CLOSETS.  My Gramps bought this wardrobe for my Dad when he was a kid.

We sold it for scrap.  Seriously.

I did have a bit of water damage from a nasty storm a while back.  Luckily plaster is pretty tough.  It needed some patch and a paint job.

Mom also let us paint clouds on the ceiling.  She was pretty cool.

Even without a closet, this is by far the nicest room in the house.  Good size, and bright thanks to the 3 big windows.

The first thing we did is clean out all of the stuff.  The wardrobe got scrapped, the bed went out to my aunt’s, the rocking chair when to my sisters.  As for the rest of the things left over, they are boxed up in another room upstairs patiently awaiting their sorting.

We ripped out the carpet, replaced the ceiling fan and cut a hole in the wall.  More on that next time.

A few weeks ago I (along with my husband) did something crazy.

We moved out of our cozy house and into a 100 + year old farmhouse.

To live with my Dad.

Now this is not news to many people, my hubby and I have been planning on this and talking about it for awhile.  And when we tell most people of our plans of moving and that, Yes, my dad will be living with us, most of the time I get the plastic smile and the “well that’s nice.”

People think either Jesse and I are about to lose our house and don’t want to admit it or that my dad who moved out of his mother’s house in with my mother, is so incapable of life in general that someone needs to take care him.

And on both counts, people are wrong.

Jesse and I were living a comfortable life in our house, but we where not happy there.  We are both country kids and living in any town, even if it is a small (or tiny) one, is suffocating. And my Dad has been living alone in a huge house for two years.  He has picked up some bad habits over his bachelor time, he can cook, do laundry, and clean.  Some what.

We have all had our doubts about how this would work, and we are still having problems getting all of our stuff to fit (half of our stuff is still over at the house).  But things are working well.

Multi-generational living should be something that more people look at seriously.

We do have plenty of people who were on board with the plan.  Friends that know us well that have said they would do the same if they were in my position and family who are thrilled that the farm and house will stay within the family.

But now I have get back to going through over a hundred years of collected history and paint over seemly miles and miles of 70′s style wood paneling.

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