The Multi-Purpose Room (aka. the Dining Room of a Large Family)

OK.  So today I'm going to be honest and real with you dear readers about my endless quest to create just one grownup room in this old farmhouse.  If you're looking for cool decorating tips, this probably isn't for you.  If you like DIY projects, I am including one super simple project that I sat on the floor and did yesterday in about half an hour while watching old episodes of Once Upon a Time with my kids as the snow fell outside (in April!).  If you want to hear the ramblings and frustrations of a mom of eight concerning her tremendous desire to have a house that looks like it was featured in Country Living, but can't seem to succeed without evicting all other family members, this post IS for you!  Be prepared to see some clutter, plenty of childrens' belongings, along with dust and dead ladybugs on the floor.  You've been warned.

Three years ago, I decided we would convert the dining room from a playroom back into a real dining room.  I was done having babies, all animals were moved outside, our youngest was turning four, and I was going through a mid-life mommy crisis.  I thought if I didn't have one room that looked like adults actually resided here, I would go crazy.  I told my husband I would get rid of all the kid clutter, help him paint, and take care of all the decorating.  All he had to do was show up for the painting and move the piano for me.  He said he could have the room painted in a weekend.  I made big plans to entertain by the end of that April.

As with most of our projects around here, the painting took a little longer than anticipated.  Like 4-6 weeks longer.  In all fairness to my husband, this is in large part because it took not one, not two, not three, but four coats of paint to cover up the huge loopy "artwork" that our youngest created on one of the walls when she was a toddler.  Magic Eraser does not erase black permanent markers, by the way.  And if you look closely, you can still see that masterpiece under the four coats of paint.  This new sofa helps hide some of it.

I hesitate to admit that I did very little of the actual painting.  Instead, I filled garbage bags with stuff to take to Goodwill, and I had to sneak a few things out while the kids were asleep to avoid a total meltdown.  Then I bought insulated curtains from Bed, Bath, & Beyond, along with chair cushions and new pillows for the futon that we had at the time.  I got the bright idea to bring our old dining room table and chairs in from the loft above the outdoor shed.  At first I thought I could refinish them myself, but I need some serious instruction before I tackle that project, so I bought a new tablecloth to throw over it instead.  My mom surprised me with curtain tiebacks that she made herself.  After purchasing a new futon mattress and cover since the old one had been peed on numerous times by either the beagle as a puppy or a toddler or two, I felt like we had a brand new room.  I went shopping in our attic for some wall hangings not currently being used, and we finally had a grownup room.

Fast forward three years, and here we are with an invasion of kids' stuff again.  When the 20 year old futon finally bit the dust for good, we had to go out and shop for a new sofa last week.  Funny how a new piece of furniture makes you see a room in a whole new light.  What happened to my neat, uncluttered, adult room?  I realized that I still don't have a dining room.  No one actually sits in there and dines; but all kinds of other activity occurs in there.  The teenagers sprawl on the couch and browse Pinterest or Instagram on their phones or sneak in some "game time" when they think no one is looking.

The bookshelves have become filled once again with children's games, artwork, and our six year old's attempts to decorate for every holiday and season.  (You have to admire her zeal for decorating though.)

Other shelves hold children's books, craft supplies, and my cookbooks.  Stashed beside and around the bookcase are musical instruments: a mandolin, trumpet, clarinet, and violin.

Another shelf still holds all kinds of homeschooling stuff because we still have one homeschooler in this house.  Did I ever mention this old farmhouse has only two closets?  That's right.  One linen closet that's in the bathroom, and one closet that's in the boys' bedroom.  That's it.  What was I thinking ten years ago when I fell in love with this house at first sight to purchase a house with only one main bathroom and two closets?  The private location, the mountain view, the wide open space, and the colonial decor of this farmhouse reeled me in.  But I clearly wasn't thinking about where we would put all of our stuff!

The boys practice playing their instruments in the "dining room."  Um, in case you're wondering what's on our youngest son's head, that's a paper brain with all parts labeled that he made in science class.  And yes, he has actually been known to wear that out in public.

Our youngest daughter practices her violin in this room too.  

And at some point every day, someone decides to play the piano.  Sometimes two or three children try to play simultaneously, which never ends well.  Does anyone else have a house full of people who play different instruments...all at the same time...and all playing a different song?  

This room is also housing a number of house plants, and it's been known to hold trays of seedlings owned by my husband who is itching to start planting in the garden but has to wait until the threat of frost is over.

Speaking of my husband, even though there is this great designated office space at the top of the stairs where there is a desk, printer, file cabinet, and a terrific view from the window above, he still insists on having his morning coffee and browsing the Internet in my "dining room."

Finally, for whatever reason, this is the favorite room of our behemoth black cat, Star.  Yes, this is the one who threw out my back during Winter Storm Jonas when I tried to grab him before he went to the bathroom on a stack of backpacks.  If you haven't read about that, it's in my blog archives under the month of January.  And no, he really isn't supposed to be in here.  I am a glutton for punishment.

As my frustration mounted this week at the state of this room that really isn't a dining room, and never really was, I finally made my peace with it.  I don't know how other big families manage to have kid-free zones.  Maybe they don't.  I just know that in our house while there are still more children than adults living here, their things, their interests, their personalities can be found in every room, including this one.  I stopped fighting it, and decided to just accept that this is the multi-purpose room.  And then I decided to create something to make myself feel better.  So I went to Michael's and picked up plain wood boards glued together with twine attached at the top.  And my little girl helped me decide which alphabet letters would look and fit best on the wood since there are a gazillion different sizes, colors, and styles of letters to choose from right now.  And then I pulled out my hot glue gun and went to work.

Then I hung my finished project on the same wall that held the "artwork" that we painted over three years ago.  Above the new couch.  And above the portraits of our 8 blessings taken when they were all toddlers.  And I reminded myself that some day when this house is empty and quiet, and I'm sitting in the actual dining room having a grownup meal with my husband, we'll probably be reminiscing teary-eyed about the days when this room was filled with four musical instruments being played at once while teenagers texted on the couch, the black cat was sleeping on the chair, and my husband and I were popping Tylenol for our migraine headaches in the adjoining kitchen.  Or maybe we'll just sit there and eat in silence and relish the quiet in the room that is no longer used for multiple purposes but is actually used for dining.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Glimpses of Early Spring at Our Mountain Farm

It's a busy week here, and my days are filled with substitute teaching, taking children to appointments and activities, running to the grocery store, and tackling the endless loads of laundry.  I'm pretty sure none of you want to see or hear about all of that.  So I decided to post some pictures taken over the past few days of sights on and around our farmhouse.  Even though it was 22 degrees here this morning, everywhere you look, the beginning of spring is evident.

We drove past an Amish farm the other evening and witnessed this newborn foal getting up and walking on its wobbly legs for the first time.  It felt like we were witnessing a miracle.

I only wish I could have gotten closer.  These were taken from our vehicle with my phone.

No leaves on our birch tree yet, but its light colored bark really stood out against the blue sky and kelly green grass.  The kids managed to nail in some platforms on some of the tree limbs.  Our youngest son can climb to nearly the top, which is about even with the attic floor of our farmhouse.  He's bound and determined to turn my hair gray!

The sky on Saturday looked like a painting.  Unfortunately, this turned into wet, windy, cold weather the next day.  We had wind gusts up to 70 mph that night and part of Sunday.  Nothing was damaged here, thank goodness.

Little grape hyacinths have popped up near the creek.  We're hoping that Morel mushrooms will be following close behind.  The woods are full of them up here in May, if you know where to look.  They sell for an astronomical price on the Internet and at our local Wegman's.

The grass and mosses are really turning bright green everywhere, including this brook that flows down the mountain on the other side of our lane.

OK, so these may have nothing to do with Mother Nature and spring, but I found these paisley sneakers at Target this weekend, and I couldn't resist sharing.  I just want to wear them with everything.  If I could find them in a pair of ballet flats, I don't think I'd wear anything else for the next two months.

The children were outside most of the day Saturday.  My husband has our younger boys all pumped up about rocket mass heaters.  They now want to build these miniature versions out of bricks all over our back yard.  Our fire-loving son spent hours tending to his until it got hot enough to boil water.  Not sure why that was the goal, since the water didn't get used for anything.

Our sheep and goats are so happy to be out on green pasture again.  They're still eating hay too, so they are getting quite round.  It's almost time for sheep shearing and kidding.  We expect baby goats by next month at this time.  Can't wait!

I'm going to admit that these little mounds puzzled me when the younger children and I were at the park last week.  They looked like small ant hills, but there were small yellow/black bees or hornets hovering over them.  We get plenty of yellow jackets here, but I'd never seen them with nests in the ground before.  These flying insects weren't aggressive, and they would sometimes dip down into the hole and fly back up again.  I did some googling, and I can't determine if they are a type of yellow jacket or a ground bee or something else I'm not even aware of.  If any of you knowledgeable readers out there can enlighten me, I would really appreciate it.

I hope your first week of April is warmer than ours.  I am grateful, though, that we didn't get any of the forecasted snow here.

What Would Spring Be Without Pansies?

How many of you have already planted some pansies or violas in flower beds near your house or pots on your porches?  Maybe you have some in hanging baskets or window boxes.  These are one of my all-time favorite flowers.  When we lived in South Carolina, it was often too hot in the summer for them, but we could grow them through the winter and into the spring.  This weekend we picked up a few packs of a variety of colors, and I spent some time digging in dirt and potting soil for the first time this year.  It felt fantastic.

With a new bag of potting soil, compost from our barn floor, my pink gardening gloves, and a shiny new spade, I was set to plant on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

I was feeling rather grumpy before I started.  Do you ever just have one of those days when you feel so crabby and grouchy, and you don't even know why?  Saturday morning was like that for me.  Maybe it was because it got colder or because I had heaping baskets of laundry to do or because I needed to pay bills, balance the check book, and record monthly expenses.  Yuck.

Regardless of the reason for my bad mood, it was completely gone after mixing soil, digging holes, loosening roots, and getting my hands in the dirt.  The sun was shining down on me, the wind was blowing my hair all over my face, the frogs were peeping near our pool, and all was right with the world.

I didn't even mind when my husband corrected my planting methods and told me where the extras should go.

Planting those few pansies and violas reminded me that I have always had a love for these flowers, and I started searching through my house for pansy items.  Like this throw cover I purchased many years ago from a gift shop that one of my childhood friends owned.

And I rediscovered this doily that my great grandmother made decades ago.

And then I remembered that a lifetime ago, I baked a cake for a friend's birthday and put fresh pansies on and around it because they're a beautiful, natural decoration and are edible too.  I seemed to recall somewhere in the back corners of my brain some interesting facts about this flower, so I did some google searching and jotted down some notes.  I'd like to share them with you.  Maybe this is common knowledge to many of you, but I had forgotten most of this.

 *Pansies are a hybrid from violas.
*Lady Mary Elizabeth Bennet produced them via cross-breeding, and she introduced them to the horticultural world in 1812.
 *Their name is derived from the French word, pensee (meaning thought.)
 *They are winter hardy in zones 4-8, and they can survive light freezes and short snow covers.
 *Margaret Mitchell originally chose Pansy as the name of the heroine in Gone With the Wind.
 *Van Gogh created the beautiful painting of pansies in the work Mand met viooltjes in 1887. 

*They really are edible.

*They are often called the "Trinity Flower" because of their 3 petaled shape and were used like the shamrock to represent the Holy Trinity.  For this reason, they are also associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary and referred to as Our Lady's Delight.  They are often one of many flowers planted in "Mary Gardens."  

I wish all of you a week filled with sunshine, sounds of spring, and a few hours of getting your hands in some dirt.  I'm confident it will cure any grouchy mood.

Those Easter Dinner Recipes and More

I have a quiet reprieve today and I'm home for the morning with time to do what I love best: blog, read, reflect, and hike.  Maybe I'll even get a few photographs taken when I'm on my walk, if our beagle will let me.  Then it's back to the usual chauffeuring, helping with homework, laundry and cooking, and subbing.  As promised, I'm including the recipes I used for our Easter dinner.  These will be dishes I'll make again throughout the spring and summer---not just for Easter.

Brown Sugar Balsamic Roasted Carrots

modified from letsdishrecipes.com and found on Pinterest

Clean 1 1/2 pounds of carrots and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  I slit the carrots down the middle and sliced the larger ones in half.  Mix up 2 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, and 2 tablespoons olive oil.  Pour over the carrots and "roll" them in the liquid to coat evenly.  Roast in 350 degree oven for approximately 40 minutes.  Sprinkle salt and parsley over the top.

Fruit Kabobs with Peeps

found on Pinterest & linked to ameessavorydish.com/

I included these in my last post, but I think they're so cute that I'm featuring them again.  You could certainly use any fruit on bamboo skewers, and use marshmallow chicks instead of rabbits of any color.  I put the peeps on the end so they could be removed first and given away to the peep lovers in our house.  I have a couple of children who would eat raw marshmallows by the handfuls if I allowed it (which I don't, but a certain 6 year old has been known to sneak.)  I used whole strawberries, sliced kiwi fruit, canned pineapple chunks, and grapes.  These were placed at the children's end of our big kitchen table.

The children's end of the table held the fruit kabobs, a Beatrix Potter planter with plastic eggs, and the carrot cupcakes.  I think, subconsciously, I arranged it this way to entice them to eat all their dinner so they could have the desserts.  Of course, this was at the end of a day filled with sugar and chocolate from their Easter baskets, so it may not have been as effective as it would be on normal days.

Balsamic Vinegar Grilled Lamb Chops

Pinterest-inspired from Food Network (heavily modified)

I used a lot of vinegar this weekend!  This was really supposed to be a sauce recipe, but I marinated our own pasture-raised lamb in this instead, and then Hubby poured the remainder over the chops while they grilled.  This was my first attempt at making lamb chops, and we were so pleased.  They were tender, juicy, and had no strong gamey taste to them.  We grilled about 24 small lamb chops since we were feeding 9 people, so the recipe below is doubled.

Mix 2 cloves of garlic, 4 tablespoons honey, & 2/3 cup Balsamic vinegar in a bowl.  Slowly add 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil and stir.  Add salt and pepper to taste, and 1 tablespoon of rosemary.  Pour over seasoned (salt & pepper) lamb chops in a baking dish so all are covered.  Cover and store in refrigerator overnight to marinade.  As you are grilling, brush remaining marinade over pork chops.

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

from Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook (I use this cookbook all the time)

Our 13-year old daughter is our resident cake maker, and she gets all the credit for these.  All I did was lick the beaters and suggest sprinkling nutmeg over the top.

for the Cupcakes:

Combine 2 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon in a large mixing bowl.  Then add 3 cups finely shredded carrot, 1 cup vegetable oil, and 4 eggs.  Beat with electric mixer till combined.  Then beat on medium speed for at least 2 minutes.  Pour into lined muffin tins and bake at 325 degrees for 20-30 minutes.  Cool.

for the Frosting:

Beat together 3 ounces softened cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla until fluffy.  Gradually add 2 cups powdered sugar and beat until smooth.  Spread over cupcakes, and sprinkle with nutmeg if you like.  *Note: This is enough frosting if you are simply spreading it with a knife.  To make enough to put in a pastry bag and make something more fancy, like our daughter did, you need to double the recipe. In addition to our cupcakes, our son and his fiancee brought a chocolate fudge/whipped cream/ Oreo dessert that was to die for.  I gained back about 3 pounds over Easter, unfortunately.  The good news is that my new paisley tablecloth made it through Easter without being stained.  That is a miracle itself.

Along with the foods already mentioned, I also added to the table a big bowl of tossed salad with a simple homemade vinaigrette dressing, pickled beets and sweet gherkins (store-bought), and the children's colored eggs.  All of our eggs this year were laid by our one remaining geriatric hen who free-ranges all over and then lays an egg almost daily in an empty rabbit cage in our barn.

I'll include just a few pictures of the afternoon egg hunt.  Notice the Amish buggy going down the lane.  There was quite a bit of Amish traffic up here Easter Sunday.

It's too bad it was so cloudy and gray.  The rest of the Easter weekend was beautiful.

Our cat Arwin "helped" look for eggs.  She's especially interested in the multitude of green toad eggs that are clustered in our pool cover right now.

These wildflowers and a variety of shades of daffodils came into bloom over the Easter holiday and are now covering parts of our bank.

I'll close with one last picture of a carrot cupcake and this spring bouquet.  Both are on their last day here at our preppy mountain farmhouse.  The seven remaining cupcakes will be gone before the day is through, I'm sure.  And these flowers have lasted nearly two weeks, but they're being replaced today with fresh daffodils next to one of our pastures.  Everything around us is revealing that spring is definitely here...except for that annoying weather forecast that is predicting snow showers for our area this Sunday.  I'm definitely not happy about that.

Quick Easter Wrap Up

I hope you all had an Easter weekend as lovely as we had.  Although it was a bit gray and chilly today, the rest of the weekend was warm, sunny, and brought blooming daffodils and plenty of time outdoors.  Our company just left half an hour ago, and the younger children have gone to bed and will hopefully not be awake from too much sugar for too long.  I just wanted to post a few photos before Hubby and I also go to sleep.  I am busier than usual this week with additional days of substitute teaching, so I need a good night's rest.  I'll just touch briefly on a few highlights of our Easter weekend, and I'll write a more detailed post with recipes later this week.  The above fruit kabobs with bunny peeps were inspired by Pinterest.  I used strawberries, kiwi, grapes, and pineapple.

I experimented with two new dishes adapted from recipes found on Pinterest: lamb chops and these roasted carrots.  Both turned out marvelously and required very little prep time.  Recipes to come later.  Notice the gentleman at the end of the table who picked out a jacket and bowtie to wear to Church today.  He thought he looked so dapper that he insisted on keeping that on until he went to bed.  He is always the first one at the table eager for a big meal. 

Our 13 year old daughter finally got over the flu and spent Saturday afternoon grating 3 cups of carrots to make homemade carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting from scratch.  We sprinkled a little nutmeg over the top.  These are so good that I just want to sit down and eat a plateful.  Recipe coming later.

It was cloudy and cool, but it wasn't snowing or raining, so the kiddos were excited to hunt for Easter eggs.  Even the teenagers still want to do this.  The older they get, the harder their Dad makes it for them to find the eggs though.  Our youngest still gets so excited about finding eggs and waking up to a full Easter basket at her spot at the kitchen table.  I just want to hold on to that as long as I can.

I didn't think our daffodils were going to bloom in time for Easter, so I forced buds into bloom earlier in the week by bringing them inside, and they did bloom overnight.  It turns out that by Good Friday, however, our bank was covered in blooming daffodils.  What a blessing.

I'll hold off and save the rest of the details of our Easter holiday for later this week.  It's time for me to get out of this dress and these pumps and put my feet up.  I'll be back here on Wednesday, folks.