~Pansies~

Last fall, I planted pansies in my front flower beds. Not very many - just six plants. I wanted to see how they would do. And would they really come back in the spring??? Well, after a very harsh winter, I am pleased to report that they did indeed come back, and they are doing beautifully! It is so nice to have some color in the front without having had to do anything (this spring) to get it!

Early in the spring

Now

Beauty shot

I don't know how long the blooms will last into summer, but you can be sure that I will be planting even more this coming fall!

~On Art, and Laundry~

With some of my Christmas money, I purchased  A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Meant to Live, which I thought was going to be somewhat of an updated version of The Hidden Art of Homemaking. Turns out, it's quite unlike Hidden Art, but in a very good way. I started reading the book, but then had to get busy around the house. I was down in the basement sorting through mounds of laundry, thinking as I sorted, "Where is the art? It has to be somewhere in here, otherwise how do I create and live art on a daily basis???"

It's funny how words of a book can sink in and as you think about them, they start to make more sense. One day, several weeks into the book, I was folding laundry. As the laundry fell from my hands into neatly folded piles, ready to be a blessing to my family in the form of clean clothes, I realized: I love doing laundry! I thought about that for a little bit, realizing that, for me, laundry is art. And then, as I let that thought spin around my head a little longer, I came to the conclusion that while, yes, I do love to do laundry, there are some aspects I don't love.

One thing I don't love so much? folding towering piles of my daughter's clothes, clothes that were never worn or hardly worn in the first place. So I went to her room and took everything out of her dresser. I carefully thought about what should go back in. Does she need a drawer packed with enough shirts to wear one a day for 30 days? No. So I took them out, and put less than half back in. Same with pants. I checked her closet but that was ok for the time being. In the end she still has more clothes than she truly needs, but the drawers can shut. Since she was "helping" with the decision process we did keep a few more than I thought necessary.

The end result? I can hardly believe this! But it has meant less laundry all the way around. There's less digging to get to that one shirt she wants to wear, and for some reason, having fewer pieces of clothing has reduced the number of outfit changes per day. Also through the process of weeding out her dresser, we were able to bless another family with the excess. That's what I'd call a win-win situation! :D

Oh, and the book? I highly recommend it! I had a highlighter handy the entire time I was reading it, and felt like it was all so good. I'd start reading passages aloud to my husband and have to stop myself from just reading the whole chapter!

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~This week in my kitchen~

Making tortillas with my new tortilla press.

Real food grows! A bean got lodged under the drain cover and started growing. :)

Baked Oatmeal

Starting the process of stocking my downstairs freezer -
3 jars of chicken broth + 3 meals of Broccoli Chicken Rice Casserole

Today I'm linking up with Heather of Beauty that Moves. For more kitchen pictures, click here.