101 Update - And Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year to you all!  It's 2024.  How did that happen so fast?  I am still in the Christmas mood and not quite willing to give up my decorations.  Do you take everything down the first week of the new year, or do you wait until after Three Kings day?  Or maybe even later?  One year I kept the tree until almost Valentine's day!  The decorations were down, but I liked the tree and lights.

I realize I haven't done an update on my 101 list in 3 months now.  I haven't really been keeping up with it too much as some new revelations have occurred during that time...

I'm pregnant!

Yup.  Our 8th baby is due in late May.  So I'm not even sure some of these list items will be possible, haha.  We'll see.  

Now, on with the list!

13. Create an Old Fashioned Christmas (more traditional, less ‘stuff’) (DONE December 2023)

Done that this Christmas!  Made the kids their gifts, only one per child.  They pulled tickets and gave gifts to each other as well, and we kept with the pj's and ornament tradition (used squishmallow ornaments and put them with their pjs on Christmas eve, which they thought was fantastic!).  I went back to the old Christmas Bowls this year instead of stockings as that was what my dad grew up with in his more Mennonite home.  We told the Christmas story before presents, which we do each year.  We went to the Christmas Eve service and sang carols before going to look at lights.  It was a wonderful Christmas.  I think simple is good.  I want to continue doing one gift like this.  We have so much stuff in our house already, and they were all so happy with their gifts!

16. Make something we want out of stuff laying around/trash rather than buying. (DONE 7/5)

Finished this one with the Christmas gifts!  We were renovating our office over Christmas as we had purchased a pallet of cabinets at a tent sale for $200, and they had more cabinets than we needed.  So, using that as well as a bunch of scrap wood, I made a play kitchen for the kids.  I also used fresh rags to make a plush Oatchie for my daughter, scrap wood to make shelves for my son, and fabric I had around to make a couple of other plushes for the kids.

25. Fix roof on barn (DONE October 2023)

Yes!  This finished in October!  The roof over the robot area was leaking terribly, and we had to hire someone to build a whole new roof over that 'new' area of the barn.  It is only 6 years old.  Disappointing, honestly.  But the new roof looks so nice!  I look forward to being able to decorate when the decking area and fence is finished on the front.

32. Create free to use items in Cricut design space (7/15)

I made 4 more projects that are free to use.  An advent calendar set of boxes to fill, a 'Nintendo Light-switch', a funny joke sign for the bathroom in the barn, and Mario block bins.

42. Read entire Bible in a year (66/66 books COMPLETE December 30 2023)

Finished December 30.  The whole Bible in a year!  I'm doing it again this year.

43. Make praying for our leaders a habit (do so each evening for a month at supper)

Started that January first.  Hoping I'll remember.  It isn't easy for some reason.

55. Get back to pre-pregnancy weight and 56. Bring down waist to under 30 inches

These two are going to be tricky to do right now.  Seeing as I'm gaining about a pound a week in pregnancy, and losing weight has been harder and harder after each baby.  I got within 5 lbs of my prepreg weight last time before getting pregnant again.   I'll also need to really work on my diastasis recti.  It is pretty bad right now.  Not sure if I can fix it.

61. Put up shelves for laundry room/table area

I started this!  I have shelves up for the laundry baskets and that has helped immensely.  I have so much more I want to do in there to make the space even nicer.  We'll see when I get to the rest.

62. Build a bunk bed in girls room (DONE December 2023)

We were gifted a free bunk bed!  My husband put it up a week before Christmas and the toddler was moved into the toddler bed.  The crib is disassembled in our bedroom right now.  The toddler will be able to move into the other girls room at any point now as we have mattresses for 4 in there as well!  Fantastic!  I still want to change up the ladder system with stairs between the two.  And eventually make the bunk a wooden one instead of the metal bar one we were gifted, but this is fantastic!

63. Rework office area with new desks and craft storage (Done December 2023)

Like I said earlier, we were working on the office last month.  I love how things are now, even though they are not completely finished.  We have a desktop spanning the entire wall with all 3 computers for school set up.  The open shelves are gone and we have shelves with doors.  I still need to rework a few things, but the main setup is done.  I mostly want to put storage that is open on the walls, like pegboards, or small shelves, things to have some of the supplies in easier reach but not on the countertop.

Moved furniture around

This cabinet was moved to the this side of the window (that took a while).

Took everything off the desks and shelves.

Putting up cabinets.  This is going to be so nice to get everything in hidden storage.

Things are still messy, but we corralled the cords and put in the 'desk' pieces we bought from Ikea to set things up for 3 computers instead of 2.

I created 2 more boxes on top of the craft cabinet which makes things look much nicer.  The one 'desk' table I built out of scraps years ago is in the center of the room for the kids to craft on.  The tool box will be removed from here yet.   I still want to clean up a few more things like the bookshelves and decluttering more of the shelves.  I put a tablecloth on this table and the pencil sharpener, and we've set up all the computers, but I haven't got those pictures on this computer yet.

68. Build a bench for the dining table (Done December 2023)

I didn't exactly build it, but repurposed one that we had in our basement.  I hope to properly recover it by sewing removeable 'sheets' for the top, but for now what I have done is working fabulously.  We finally were able to get the high chair into storage.  

Showing our Christmas bowl setup as well as the gingerbread house we made the 23rd.  No more high chair!

71. Build cute signs for the house/farmyard (2/5) (welcome planter)

I made a funny sign (see above) for the barn bathroom.  I have so many ideas for so many more signs!

So, 27 down, 74 to go.  260 days in... should be done 26!  Lovely!

September 101 update

My latest update on the 101 in 1001 I am attempting to do.  How many days in am I now?  175?  Need to be 17 or 18 complete, then.

1. Celebrate five strange holidays   (cheeseburger day, September 18 2023) 2/5

We 'celebrated' cheeseburger day by eating homemade cheeseburgers.  And fries.  Can't forget fries.

22. Finish cleaning barn office and redoing the awards/putting them up in frames  DONE September 2023

I'm counting this as done.  All the frames are back up on the wall.  There is still work to be done in the office as it is never ending, but the main areas I wished to tackle are complete.  My husband keeps working in there which is  'undoing' some of the progress on the counters by the computer, so that is a never ending process, haha. 

32. Create free to use items in Cricut design space (3/15)

I made a 'Raising Arrows' t'shirt for my husband as his birthday gift and since I created it using all free items on the design space in Cricut, I published it for anyone else to use as well.

37. Try to do a walk for ms or life walk or something similar (DONE September 20, 2023)

We did this in September as we joined the 1 Million March 4 Children in our area against the SOGI curriculum being pushed in schools.  I am disturbed and disgusted by the stuff they are putting in the school libraries and classroom libraries that children have access to.  I'm thankful to be homeschooling, and I'm thankful that there are many schools in the area that haven't fallen to this yet, but oh boy some of the stories I've heard from even our local area disturb me.  

42. Read entire Bible in a year (35/66 books)

I'm currently in Isaiah and 2 Thessalonians.

54. Try 10 new recipes (10/10)  (DONE October 11 2023)

This week I made a cheesy bacon soup.  It was really good!  Took a lot longer to make than I expected, though, haha.  It was on our 'dairy' calendar.  The kids sometimes spot those recipes and beg me to make them.  Also, for my daughter's birthday, I made gluten free and sugar free banana cupcakes and cream cheese frosting.  Yes, no sugar.  I used honey to sweeten a little cream cheese for her (she is avoiding all sugar).

60. Finish basement floor (DONE October8 2023)

I'm so happy to be done this now.  I mean, there is always more I could do, but I am now done the area I set to do.  I had to wait with the one zone near the washer and dryer because I had to put up the shelf in the corner first in order to be able to note where the matts would need to go to.  That's done!

61. Put up shelves for laundry room/table area (WIP)

I got the main shelf that I wanted up now.  It's for the laundry baskets.  So much nicer than before.  Now I need to make the table section and the façade for in front of the laundry sink to make it look nicer.

95. Successfully grow a garden (here and here)  DONE October 2023

Gardening for the year is done.  I didn't grow many things, only tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers.  They all grew.  Tomatoes were all tiny, but I got a lot of them.  Potatoes look good, too.  I just need to pull out all the plants now.  Peppers are only now showing up.  They are about 2 inches across.  I might need to bring the pot inside the workshop so they don't freeze and can continue growing.

20 down, 81 to go!

Another 101 in 1001 update!

It's end of the month yet again!  Time for another 101 in 1001 update.

2. Do the 1000 hours outside challenge (1000 Hours Outside )  396/1000

7. Find 5 interesting places/events to visit in local area (4/5)

My husband took the kids to the local festival for some fun while I spent a couple of hours making pizza sauce from tomatoes in the garden.  They had fun.

16. Make something we want out of stuff laying around/trash rather than buying. (4/5) 

Been working on an item in the backyard.  It is now useable, but not finished.  Used an old bunkbed, placed it on two pallets, put some scrap wood cut to size in where the bottom bunk mattress would be (those were trashed... full of mice), and am cutting a bunch of branches from the trimming I did around the farmyard this summer into sticks to cover the sides to make it like a 'tree fort' of sorts.  Not sure how I'll do the top yet, as I need more wood to cover that so it can be another seat or lookout, but for now it works at the fireside for sitting.

22. Finish cleaning barn office and redoing the awards/putting them up in frames

I aim to work on this during the week yet.  I finished the sitting/kitchen area and got the frames up, but the actual office desk (which we started and got somewhere on earlier in the year) is full of random piles of things again and needs more work than I thought.  Also, since this has 4 zones, I've completed 2 of them now... the kitchen/seating area, and the shower/sink area.  The laundry/storage area needs doing and the actual office zone.  Both were started.  Both had a lot done.  Both have been undone somewhat as they are more 'used' it seems.  I guess I didn't have as much of a maintaining plan in place for those areas.

27. Fix floor properly in bulk tank room

Hoping to work on this sometime this week.

42. Read entire Bible in a year (26/66 books)

I'm just finished Psalms and starting 2 Corinthians.

54. Try 10 new recipes (8/10)

I made a zucchini boat recipe that used cottage cheese.  Recipe can be found here.  It was really good!  My oldest two kept getting more.  We used 4 rather large zucchini a friend gave us and only had half of one left at the end of the meal (we served it with sausage).  It would be a lot quicker if you already had the cottage cheese rather than making it yourself.  

Also, not sure if it should count or not, but I made tomato sauce from my garden tomatoes (since that is it's own item, I won't put it in here).

Today I made a crockpot cabbage soup using all sorts of garden veggies.  It looks and smells delish.  We'll see how it tastes.  Since I had so much cabbage, I made a 'second batch' by prepping all the veggies and spices and putting them into a freezer bag for later.  Recipe can be found here.

Edit to add:  I made two new recipes before Sept 1.  Apple juice (from crab apples the size of cherries.  Just take off the stems, wash, chop in half, boil water and cover for a few minutes before turning off and letting sit for a number of hours with a cinnamon stick and a large scoop of honey mixed in.  The kids love it!  And the chickens love the leftover apple pieces.)  The second recipe was a creamy zucchini sauce.  I got more zucchini we needed to use up, so this is what I did last night for supper.  

93. Make salsa or pizza sauce from scratch. DONE

Spent two hours on this on the 26th.  Whew!  Biggest problem is how tiny my tomatoes are.  They just didn't want to grow to full size and they are starting to ripen already.  I was afraid of them going bad, so I blanched them, peeled them, pureed them, cooked them down and then saw all the little seeds and strained them out.  I'd do that before cooking next time, to be honest.  Added my spices and my 2 lbs of tomatoes (which was probably about 50 of them, it was ridiculous the amount of work that took) became 2 cups of pizza sauce... which promptly went on the pizzas I made for supper that night.  Tasted great!  Too much work for tiny tomatoes, though.  I'd do it again if my tomatoes were larger.  Most of mine were barely bigger than cherry tomatoes!  Here is the site I used for a recipe.

95. Successfully grow a garden 

Been harvesting tomatoes!  The pepper plants have little tiny peppers starting.  I am not getting any cucumbers this year.  My mother in law did a lot of gardens with the kids and yesterday they brought me 30 corn cobs which I made 18 for supper, and the other 12 blanched and froze (1.5 kgs of frozen sweet corn!  Yes!).  Making soup currently using one of the cabbages she had me take from the garden (she has quite a few... I honestly don't know what else to do with cabbage besides soup as my kids don't like cole slaw).  Also used beet leaves, celery, and for the first time in years we have carrots in the garden!  Trying to use up all the giant zucchini she gave me.  That thing is giant!  Half of it was 4 cups chopped (after removing the seeds and the peel).  I still have another quarter of it in my fridge.  Been chopping it up and cooking with eggs and ham and cheese at breakfast lately.  Used half of it today in the cabbage soup... 2 cups for freezing, 2 cups in the crock pot.

15 down, 86 to go!  We are 132 days in.