NJH Homestead

Cinnamon Roll Recipe

Finally I am back with the cinnamon roll recipe I mentioned.  I have made it 3 times now and it has turned out well.   They seem to stay soft for several days.  I am making them for the  same resturant that I make the pies for, so I wanted them to be really good!  Apparently they do like them as they have ordered them twice this week.   Thanks to LaJuan in Colorado for sending this to me and allowing me to share it here with you.

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This came from "Favorite Family Recipes - The Martin Family". They are a conservative (horse and buggy) Mennonite family out of Barnett, Missouri.

(Note: I baked them at 375 for 20 minutes)

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

Nesting Mission-Day 4-Family Room-Updated

I am so glad yesterday was an easy day of cleaning. With only 16 days left until my due date, I am not getting around as swiftly as I'd like to be. To say I look like a waddling duck is an understatement. So far I've managed to get through 4 rooms counting the family room, in 4 days, and the more I get done, the happier I am. I have been so worried that I was going to go into labor before I got at least the main rooms done. But the Lord has allowed me to get all of the main rooms with the exception of the main bathroom completed.

I don't have before pictures of my family room. Today, hubby took off and so we had a bit of a lazy morning, and then we all just quickly worked together to get the family room straightened. This is another room that I have been keeping pretty well maintained, with a few exceptions. So here's pictures of my family room....

Here's the view from one end of the family room. There's our main sitting area, the ugly yellow chair is mine, as is the foot stool. It was my grandpas and a treasured, and most comfy place to sit. I spend much of my time, when I get to sit down, in my old yellow chair rocking my babies, or working on whatever handiwork project I'm trying to get done. To the right is the door that leads into the kitchen, and past that you see my portable dishwasher which is serving a different purpose as tv stand until the insurance adjuster comes to look at our tv that "blew up" a couple weeks ago. Then the little tv will move into the tv cabinet, and my dishwasher, well....may be used as an end table, or if I'm really lucky, maybe a dishwasher. To the left, you can see a few boxes stacked, and I'm ashamed to say that all those boxes holds papers, yes, papers. Of all things in my life, the one thing I've never managed to gain control of is paper clutter. From bills, to important documents, to papers my children have drawn me or made during school, it's all there. I attempt to go through it about once a week or every couple of weeks, but no matter how much I go through and shred, trash, or file, there always seems to be twice as much there the following week. So if anyone has any ideas of a better, easier way for me to handle all the paper clutter, I'd love to hear it.

The door you see  past the tv cabinet leads to the hallway where the main bathroom, and the kids rooms are all at.

Here is the other end of my large family room. This is where our kitchen/homeschool table is at, our computer desk, and all of our homeschool junk necessities are at. You can't see them very well, but past the door that leads to the kitchen are a large set of cabinets that are perfect for storing all of our homeschool material. The bookshelf, which needs to be gone through again is at the end of the table. And the door you see at this end leads into the laundry room, which is where I'll be heading tomorrow.

As I said this room stays pretty clean, if I can just deal with all those papers, and do a bit more decluttering. This is the main hub of our home and the place we all spend the most of our time between meals, family games and tv watching, and homeschool, we practically never leave it most of the day. I would love to find another home for all of our papers until they can all be gone through, which is something I may be able to do as I work through the other rooms in the house. I may be able to find a space in the laundry room tomorrow.

We've been maintaining the other rooms very well, and the kids are gaining much more responsibility as we go along, and more than anything they've been learning to just pick up after themselves as they go along. This has been a great experience for all of us.

As I said tomorrow we'll be working on the laundry room. So we'll see you then, unless I have a baby before....we'll see.

Blessings, sara

Nesting Mission-Day 3-Master Bedroom/Bathroom-Updated

I'm so thankful to say that day 3 of my nesting mission is an easy one. The last couple of days, although so rewarding, have also been very tiring. I cleaned my master bedroom and bathroom up several weeks ago, and have managed to keep it pretty well maintained. I learned how nice it was to go to bed in such an inviting and clean room.

As I shared in my previous post, the newly cleaned living/dining room is such a blessing, and so is the kitchen, and my beloved rewarded me with taking me to my favorite resteraunt, which only spurred me on to do even more.

So on to today's goals. As I said, today will be an easy one, the bedroom only taking me at most 15 minutes to finish. The rest of the day will be spent resting and doing the regular every day stuff....

~Regular Routines

~Basic Homeschool with kids

~Maintain clean rooms-Kitchen, Living/Dining room

~Clean Master Bedroom/Bathroom from top to bottom

~Projects-today I'm going to do whatever I feel like I can get to. I may just work on the tea towel, and if I feel up to it, I will work on the girl's dresses.

~Since I got to eat out last night, we will be having the chicken potato chowder and a side salad for dinner tonight.

And here is the before pictures of my master bedroom/bathroom...

The view from the door that leads to the kitchen. To the left is the bathroom, to the right, hubby and my closet. All that needs doing from this view is putting shoes in the closet, making my bed, and picking up hubby's dirty laundry.

This is beside the bed looking towards the kitchen door. That is the baby's pack n play. I have a basket of laundry needing to be folded there on my dresser and just some general straightening.

And here's a small view of my small bathroom. Everthing needs to be wiped down. All the clothes and towels in the tub need to be taken to the laundry room and that should take care of this room. I'll update when I'm all done, either tonight or tomorrow. Have a blessed day!

***Daily Update***

My room only took me a few minutes to get done and the rest of my day was spent just resting and maintaining the other rooms I've already cleaned. So here's my room after it was all cleaned up.

The stuff you see piled on the baby bed is my bag to take to the hospital and also my sweater. I straightened everything up, took care of the giant basket full of dirty clothes, and cleaned the bathroom, all of which took me about 15 minutes, except for the laundry, which I worked on throughout the day.

Now on to day 4....

Sara

Pumpkin Pie Coffee Creamer

Nesting Mission-Day 2-Living/Dining Room-Updated

Ok, so the kitchen is done, and tired as I am, I fully intend to keep on going with this mission. It brought such satisfaction to go to bed last night with a clean kitchen, knowing there wasn't a dirty dish left in the house, and not a single sticky spot left unwiped on my cabinets.

The kitchen got cleaned, a nice meal was cooked, and my husband was much appreciative of both. I also managed to get the fabric and one pattern prepared for the girl's dresses. I apparently misread the pattern thinking it had sizes from 2 to 8, but found out it was only up to size 5, thankfully though I have another similar, though not exactly the same, pattern to make for my oldest daughter. The tea towel was ironed and the iron on transfer was applied, and I started  working on it during the few moments I had to sit down last night.

So today's goals are as follows...

~Regular Routines

~Basic Homeschool with Kids

~Maintain Cleaned rooms-Kitchen

~Clean Living/Dining Room from top to bottom

~Laundry- I need to get at least 2-3 loads done up today

~Projects-Today I want to get the other pattern prepared and start cutting both dresses out. And work at least 15 minutes on the tea towl.

~Tonight's dinner is Chicken potato chowder and salad. We have some pumpkin muffins leftover for dessert.

So now onto the before photos of my living/dining room. I will tell you, I am not proud of this room. It's the first room you see when you walk in my house and it is such a mess. I've gotten into the habit of walking on past it and not even looking around. We spend no time in there, and since moving here in July, it has become a catch all for the yard sale stuff we've been gathering, the empty boxes, and other stuff I haven't taken the time to deal with. It's shameful really, but, like I said, I promised that I would share it, in all it's ugliness...so here it is....

Here is the view of my front door, taken from the door that leads into the kitchen.

And now the view from my front door. That door is the kitchen door, and to the right, which you can't see, there is a door that leads into the hallway. The only furniture we have for this room is the dining room table, a chair and a side table, my cedar chest, and the china hutch. The green chair you see is barber chair that we got for $5 at goodwill. I cut all my family's hair and then some, and this chair has made it a lot easier, if  I can only find a more permanent place for it, otherwise, it may have to go away. Not that a regular chair wouldn't work, but when you're cutting at least 9 heads of hair a month, it sure is nice to have a chair that goes up and down. I would like to get a small formal loveseat for this room, but won't buy one unless I can find it at a yard sale or for free, so for now, my goal is to just get the boxes cleaned up, the dining room table useable, and everything that has a place where it belongs. We intend on having a  yard sale first thing in the spring, but for now, I need to find a place for all of our junk, it may go to my parent's storage building for now if there is room, we'll see. I'll post my updated pictures this evening or first thing in the morning, for now, I'm off to get to work. Have a blessed day!

***Update***

Well, yesterday turned out to be quite productive. The living/dining room was a bit more work than I anticipated, but I still got it all cleaned up with the exception of a few boxes. I didn't get to any of my crafting projects, but I'll have more time and energy for that today. So without further ado, here is the completed pictures of my living/dining room...

Here's the view from my front door. My dining room table is all clean and we're going to enjoy our dinner their tonight.

Here's the view from the dining room table to my front door. The boxes there, sitting on top of my cedar chest are all yard sale things. I was going to take them over to my parents storage building, but I figured that I would find a lot more things on my way through the rest of the house, so they'll stay there until I've gone through all the other rooms.

Here's a nice little sitting nook where I can sit and read my bible in peace and watch the sun come up on my front porch.

And one of my favorite items, my old treadle machine, still in working condition. And now it isn't buried in the junk and I can actually practice using it.

Cleaning this room was another great blessing to my family and I. My husband was so shocked to walk in and find this. Now when people come over to see the baby or otherwise, I won't be so imbarassed to bring them in and let them walk through the living room and kitchen to get to the family room.

I also managed to maintain the kitchen as well, and it still is so nice to wake up to a clean kitchen, and I'm finding it so much easier to keep up with on a daily basis. My hubby was so pleased, he even took me out to eat at my favorite resteraunt. So the chicken potato chowder is on the menu for tonight's dinner instead.

sara

Nesting Mission-Day 1-Kitchen-Updated

This is my second attempt at the same post today. I had it all typed out earlier today and then poof it was gone. So yes, my ticker says 19 days left, but for some reason, this baby being my 4th, my body has been especially in tune with the moon's cycles. And on last Thursday, you would have thought that this baby was coming any moment. I was in what I thought was real labor from 7pm Thursday night until 4am Friday morning. We readied ourselves for the trip to the hospital awaiting that moment that told us this was indeed it, but it never came. The contractions, although steady, painful and quite regular, never got any stronger or closer together. So, with that said, I am still very much pregnant, and awaiting the next new moon, for which my midwife has said I will most likely have this baby. The next new moon happens to be Thanksgiving night, so I guess we'll see.

Lots of things have been going on around the home. Lots of preperations made, craft projects being completed, and teeth being knocked out. If you're wondering about that last part, I'm speaking of my middle daughter. She and my son got a little rough playing in the house, after many reminders from me to settle down, when my son raised his head and hit her smack in the mouth, knocking her two front teeth loose. Thankfully, the teeth that were knocked loose were next in line to come out any ways, but probably not at the same time, and probably not with so much pain being inflicted.

Later on I will post on the many projects I have been working at completeing, but for today and the next several days, (or at least until this little one makes his arrival,) I am on a nesting mission. Although I work steadily on getting things done, I regret to say that I am mercilessly behind on getting my home in order for this baby. So, starting today, I am going to be posting a list of my daily goals, which will include one room a day to tackle, and whatever other projects I intend to work on. I will also post a picture of the before picture (in all it's ugliness), and will update the same post later in the day with the after. So for today...

~Clean the kitchen from top to bottom

~Basic Homeschool with the kids

~Regular routines

~Projects- Today I would like to prepare the fabric and pattern for the two dresses that I am making my girls for Christmas. I would also like to prepare the tea towel (#3 in a set I am giving as a gift) to be embroidered.

~For dinner, we are having roast chicken, baked potatoes, and salad. Dessert is pumpkin muffins.

So if you can bare to look, here is the before picture of my kitchen, dishes piled up and all....

My kitchen is inevitably small, but it works well for me. Basically what you see, is what you get. It actually has a lot of storage space and room to work. I usually have 1 kitchen helper and myself working in there and it works out quite well. On the other side of the stove is another small cabinet, and then the door to our bedroom. On the left side of the sink is a hole where my dishwasher may eventually go, but for now they are done by hand. Beside me is the pantry cabinet, which is also quite small, and bare right now. I'm standing in the door that leads to the dining room, and to my right, beside the icebox is the door that leads into the family room. After it's clean, I'll post some more detailed pictures of the whole room and all it's components.

As I said, this is my second attempt at this post, so many of the things are already done. The kitchen is on it's way to clean, the chicken is roasting in the crockpot, the pumpkin muffins are done and cooling, school is an ongoing process at the moment, and the fabric for the dresses has been washed and is awaiting pressing. I will work on the pattern after the kids are in bed, because I want it to be a surprise for the girls for Christmas. So if you're keeping up with me here. Later on today or first thing in the morning, I will post the completed photos of my kitchen and update on what I got done. The title will say "Nesting Mission-Day 1-Kitchen-Updated". For now, I'm off to finish what needs doing! Have a blessed day!

***Daily Update***

So here is the updated pictures of my kitchen, which will give you a better idea of the size and layout of my kitchen.

Here is the same view as above, only no dishes piled up and the stove is all clean.

Here is the view from the family room. That is our pantry area. I keep a lot of stuff in there, although right now it needs restocking. I have had to get creative with food storage because I try to keep stocked up, so we have storage in several other areas in our home.  The hanging cabinets and microwave are something we just added when we moved in here, that wall was bare before.

Here's my sink, dishrack, and hole in the wall. I still have a portable dishwasher that my eventually go in that hole, but for now, it serves no purpose, other than making me realize how much I wish I had a dishwasher there. lol.

Here is the view of my biggest cabinet area. My main work space. The little window there leads into the family room, and makes a good pass through to the kitchen table at meal time. Those are my favorite canisters that my mom gave me for Christmas last year, and my prized Bosch mixer that I found at goodwill for $15.

And the last picture, this is from standing at the sink. I have two coffee pots in view here, one electric drip, and one percolater. I'm in a controversy here over my coffee pots. You see, I love the convenience of having my coffee ready when I wake up in the morning with the drip, but after having percolated coffee, the taste is so much better. So for now, I have both. I have a feeling the percolater will win, but time with a newborn will soon tell.

It is such a blessing to have a clean kitchen. That's why I chose to tackle this room first. It makes cooking such a joyful task for me, and my husband appreciates it so much. I'm learning to do the dishes as I go, and take care of them directly after meals so that they don't sit there and get all yucky and harder to clean. I've also enlisted each of my children, even my 3 year old to help me on a daily basis in the task of drying. Right now, all they can do is dry and stack them on the cabinet, but it makes the task of putting them away so much easier, plus it is teaching them some good habits, and hopefully before long, they can help mom out by taking turns washing the dishes as well. I've also gotten in the habit of sweeping the floor every night before I go to bed. So now, tired as I may be, it's time to move on to day 2 of my nesting mission. Be prepared, this may get ugly! lol.

sara

Happy Birthday to Richard!!

 

Happy birthday to my son Richard! He is my oldest child..  and definitely not a “child” anymore! He turned 26 yesterday.. hard to believe where all the years have gone! 

 

Richard is in the Army and currently deployed in Iraq. His unit will be back in North Carolina (Ft.Bragg)  in 5 weeks! And then home to us in Washington in time for Christmas! The family can’t wait to see him!!

 

Here are a few current pictures of him:

 

    

 

 

And this is Richard with his girlfriend Lolot:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday to my boy! 

This Weeks Menu

Pizza: Sierra’s Birthday! 

A Too Large Pot Roast...

Thank you.........

for all of the comments on my cinnamon roll questions!  I also received a really good recipe by email, I will check to see if she minds me sharing it here.  That is the one I used.  I have a recipe that I have made many times, but this one looked so good, I just had to try it.  I ended up cutting them thicker and putting 6 in a 9x13 pan, that made a nice size roll.  Now we will see what the lady I made them for thinks?  I made a cream cheese frosting that was yummy too!

This afternoon I glanced out of my kitchen window and saw the most amazing sight!!  One of the brightest full, double rainbows I have ever seen.  I had just come in from outside and it wasn't even rainy then.  I noticed sprinkles on the window and looked out to see this.  One surprise was it was a north window, I don't ever remember seeing a rainbow in the north sky.  I grabbed the camera, but you would know the batteries were dead.  I hadn't used it for a while, so I had better get them charged up again.

Yesterday I baked 3 pies along with the cinnamon rolls, today 2 pies.  One for the restaurant and 1 a surprise for someone special. 

Our calves have been getting out, but just hanging around not bothering anything,  yesterday morning they had taken a stroll down the road.........so we drove along the fence and found a couple of places they could have easily gotten out.  So I hope we fixed them.  They have 20 acres but the old saying is so true the grass is always greener someplace else!

I need to get to bed, we will be up bright and early tomorrow to go to an auction.  It is in an area where we lived before moving here, so I hope to see some people we have not seen in a while.  It is supposed to be really cold and windy tomorrow, but most of this should be inside, so maybe not too bad.

Country Blessings,

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead