Just call me Homemaker Heidi

I was in the workforce since I was 16 and I feel like I have missed out on a lot of other opportunities. Now that I don't work anymore I have made it a goal to do all the "homemaker-ish" things that I can think of. Summer started soon after my last day so I decided not to start these projects until after taking the my 1st summer break since I was about 14. I started working at CE at 16 and before that I babysat everyday during the summer so this break was much needed!!

1st project - paint the kitchen

I really wanted to do a yellow color. I have learned that people either love yellow or hate it. Cirdan and I went to the paint store and after going back and forth for about 30 minutes Cirdan won and we got the paint he wanted. Even though if you ask him it was my choice. When we got home I immediately started to paint and learned pretty quickly that it was not what we had wanted. Example...

It was too bright and looked like a nursery. The picture doesn't really show how bright it was in real life. Since I was pretty bummed that I couldn't start painting that night Cirdan told me that he would wake up first thing to go back to Home Depot to see if they could lighten the paint. The paint the he brought home was much lighter but I like it. You can hardly tell that the walls are painted but its just enough to warm up the house. For some reason I haven't taken an 'after' shot. Guess I have been a little busy.

2nd project - Canning fruit

When I was young I remember every year my mom canning fruit or green beans (I'm sure she did more but I cant remember). I think watching her every year it made me think that all moms that stay home with their kids did that. I got the opportunity to buy a bunch of fruit so I jumped on it and thankfully my mom agreed to teach me. We first made peaches which were super easy...I was surprised how easy it was. Then we did pears. Not as easy but still not as hard as I had thought. Then we bought some boxes of apples to do apple pie filling...YUM! I also learned and made pear, peach, raspberry and strawberry jam. I have been busy canning all week (my house shows it) and am so excited about my family being able to enjoy the fruits of my no pun intended...lol....in the months and years to come.

The night that we canned the apples we ended up with some extra so it was only obvious that we had to make a pie. Cirdan made the crust from scratch and the pie turned out to be one of the best I have ever had.

My not so helper helper...Ella...

My friend Kristel wanted to learn how to can also so last week she came over to learn how to do peaches.