Confessions of a Teenage Housewife

As I prepare to depart from my teenage years and enter into the true adulthood of age twenty, I cannot help but look back on the eight months I spent as a teenage housewife and remind myself of just how far I have come in learning the intricate workings of the world of housekeeping. And so it begins...the confessions of a teenage housewife.

1. Learn to love the walls of your kitchen. This is the room in which I spend the majority of my indoor time, so I am thankful for a cheerfully red kitchen wall (left by the home's previous inhabitants) and plenty of space to move around.

For six months after we got married, I did not make the same meal twice for my husband, with the exception of homemade pizza that we are required to have every Friday evening. Everyone knows a family tradition from both sides cannot be broken. My goal was to learn how to cook, so I scoured the recipe books and planned my menu diligently every week until the spring breezes swept away my culinary interest. It gave me some good experience, but these days my motivation has instead been focused on outdoor activities.

The scale also told me that although I have made great progress in the culinary arts (or that I am forced to eat all of my own flops), I am not even close to mastering any kind of healthy cooking. So, help would be appreciated. We have been eating a lot of eggs and garden lettuce lately. I am sure Matt will be glad when the garden lettuce is gone!

2. Wash the dishes. NOW. Food is well worth the mess created by the cook, but all of this kitchen time means an overabundance of dirty dishes. As a newlywed, the dishes pretty much got done every night. However, habits changed and developed to the point of not even clearing the table after supper. That got old very fast, so we have stayed on top of the dishes for a couple weeks now. REMINDER: All of the dirty dishes on the counters could be done in a half hour. If you are really good and only have to do the supper dishes, they could be done in ten minutes. Just get to work, girl.

3. Do laundry from start to finish. When you find wet clothes still in the washing machine the following week, this is terribly sad because then all of those clothes smell awful. They smell even worse when you try to dry and wear them anyway. The other sad laundry day is finding clean clothes in the dryer or laundry basket a week later because then they are terribly wrinkled. Therefore, a person absolutely must remain focused on the laundry task at hand and complete the process before the end of laundry day.

4. A clean house is the easiest to clean. So keep it clean! Right. In the ideal world where I was a clean person with a clean house who kept it clean, umm...well, that would just be ideal. But I am not a clean person with a clean house who keeps it clean. In fact, the house only gets clean when company is coming. I think that is the case with at least 75% of homes. If not, let me assume the validity of the statistic to keep me obliviously content.

5. The garden won't weed itself. As if nobody already knew that. Another tip is to take a picture of your garden for the blog right after spending four days removing two months' worth of accumulated weeds. And then keep up with it. Speaking of the garden- the lettuce, spinach, and peas are done and I am now getting green beans! Tomatoes and potatoes are forming too. Everything else is pretending to grow or stay green. I still don't know what I am going to do when all of this stuff is ready to harvest.

6. Never turn down a husband's help. Especially this gal's husband because he is a good helper. If he didn't have to be at work all day, this house would be very clean and organized. And it would not be because I work harder when he is around. He washes dishes, does laundry, makes beds, and all sorts of other good things! (But is NOT for sale or rent.)

7. Get beauty rest (...and I fail). A little sleep goes a long way...toward making you tired. Plenty of sleep goes a better way. We are two night owls stuck in a morning bird's world and hence never get enough sleep. And that's all I have to say about that because I am too tired to think of anything else.

8. Company is motivating. I decided we need to have company more often. As I said, these are the only times the house gets clean. The first several months of taking care of a household were intimidating as a hostess because I did not know what was going on. I still don't know what I am doing, but it is exciting to host people in our home on occasion. Now that I am resigning from teenage housekeeping, I hope to be a big girl and not care what my food tastes like for guests (as long as we have a good time!).

9. Keep clear of unproductive activities. My biggest weakness is extensive naps and going back to sleep for an hour after Matt leaves at six in the morning. I do best when I make sure I am always doing something that will improve the lives of Matt, myself, or someone else. Sometimes a short nap does make me happier, though. :)

10. I resign from this teenage housekeeping business. Effective tomorrow. Thank you for your support.

Summer Days

With the passing of May and our grand entrance into the beautiful month of June, it would be far from the truth to say things have slowed down at all. In fact, we found that summer in the country brings along a lot of outdoor work and plenty of other activities that can hardly be labeled as work.

We ended the month of April with a trip up to Lester for Drew and Lanna's wedding. Two days later, our baby nephew was welcomed into the world - little Garret John (Tim and Laurie, Matt's sister). He was born twelve weeks early and remains in the hospital at Iowa City making slow but seemingly steady progress. The family could certainly use your prayers. He has a 18-month-old sister waiting for his safe arrival home. I forgot to take pictures both times I saw the tiny baby, but here is a picture we received from the parents. (I hope I am not infringing on anyone's copyrights...)

Little baby Garret - 5.5 weeks old, just over 4 lb.

The rest of the family shortly before Garret's arrival

The next weekend was Zach's (Matt's brother) baptism, along with a few others in Burlington. It was a blessing to be able to share in the weekend with him and be encouraged by new souls finding their salvation through Jesus Christ! Several friends and family came for the weekend, including Steve and Julie. We had the privilege to spend some time with them and the rest of the Schulz family on Sunday evening.

On the Saturday before Mother's Day, we had my family (Massner) over for a fish fry. The boys helped catch some of the fish and Dad fried them up. It was a nice evening and the weather even cooperated for us to eat out on the deck! On Sunday evening we went to the Schulz gathering at Brian and Lorna's and had a great time there as well. 

Here are a few of the fish. I can't find the picture of the fish Matt caught with Trevor at Troy and Joni's pond, but that was the main source of fish for our fish fry. 

These are the two biggest crappies he caught.

Jesse's first fish at our pond! 

Dad frying up dinner.

The next weekend was graduation, so we spent two days grazing on our meals. Congratulations to the Class of 2014! 

Another day in May, Kelli brought the boys over to go fishing while their dad was away! 

I fish.

They caught four fish that we could keep, so we had a mini fish fry afterward. Yummy! 

For Memorial Day weekend, we flew from Burlington down to St. Louis for the weekend. We spent some time downtown, went to the Arch, the City Museum, several places to eat, Historic St. Charles, and the Science Museum. We used the Metro to get almost everywhere, but got to ride with a local couple to the St. Louis church on Sunday morning. We enjoyed the get-away, also referred to as our first family vacation. :)

This picture would be way cooler if you could see the entire arch, but unfortunately then you would not be able to see Matt touching the arch. Therefore, I took multiple shots of the architecture. 

One of several "Selfies at the Arch"

As Matt's great luck would have it, there was a Rib Fest going on in downtown St. Louis that weekend. Of course, we had to stop and sample a few. This particular stand was from "Highway 61 Roadhouse," which obviously reminded us of the recently-closed restaurant in our hometown, so we had to get our ribs from them. Did I mention BBQ Ribs are my husband's favorite real food in the whole wide world? "Real" excludes ice cream and fruit. 

Outshine took this picture (who would have guessed?) at the Rib Fest. We got free popsicles out the deal and then they emailed us our picture. 

This tie collection at the City Museum made us think of my mom's Christmas gift to Matt. 

Only this guy would be capable of fitting through such tiny tunnels at age 25.999...

This was difficult. I apologize that you don't have a good enough view to perceive the difficulty of fitting down this skinny wiry contraption. 

After the City Museum, we walked down the street to Pi Pizzeria and learned how to recite to the umpteenth digit of pi. And for those who weren't learning, there was also some really good pizza.  Ok, we did NOT learn about pi, except that it is the first two letters in pizza. Our waiter didn't know pi past 3.14 anyway.

We went to the science museum on Monday (instead of the zoo because this place was air conditioned). This was one of the exhibits Matt analyzed much more than the average museum attendee. Clue to the unobserving: He designs power lines for a living... 

"Helping kids" learn about the building and structure of an arch. This exhibit was entirely relevant because we were in St. Louis and there is a really big arch there by the river. That we also visited. From which you already saw the pictures... ok, next picture. 

I would put the picture of Matt waiting for the trolley, but for the sake of being somewhat fair to him in the proportion of pictures of each of us on this blog, I am putting this one here. That black security vehicle behind me is getting ready to come over and tell me to get off the curb. So I really should have put the picture of Matt on here so I didn't look so silly. 

One of a hundred pictures of our flight on Air Choice One. It was a great flight- we were right behind the pilots on an eight-passenger plane and got to watch everything they did! This would not be at all cool enough to photograph unless I was married and my spouse had the camera. I am and he did.

Thus ended our lovely, exciting mini four-day trip to St. Louis.

The next weekend was Tim and Wendy's wedding in Mediapolis, and it was a very full Sunday in church for a beautiful wedding! We wish the new couple God's richest blessings and nearness in their new lives together.

On June 2nd, Matthew turned 26, so now we are 7 years apart until I turn 20 in a couple weeks. I tried to make his 26th birthday happy by making him supper. Yes - I actually MADE supper for him! Ever since the weather has been cooperative, we have been lazy about eating and making anything for supper, but this was a special day. To celebrate, we had Orrin and Christa and Travis and Kenna over for the evening and for root beer floats. Twas an enjoyable evening!

We finished celebrating on Friday at my family's house with a real birthday party with real presents and real cake and real candles and a real birthday song and a real birthday hat.

Happy Birthday, Matt!

YUMMY! 26 years!

Phil and Kelli's boys came over on Saturday for supper and the evening!

This is what happens when you tell four boys to smile and act like they like pizza... 

This is what happens when Brandon wants his picture taken.

The Burlington Sunday School Picnic was Sunday!

I thought this water balloon launcher was a pretty nifty contraption. They went high and far... 

Like so far that my highest zoom could only do this well in getting a picture of Matt catching one in a bucket. 

Other than all the excitement, our lives are pretty dull. ;) In the meantime, we do things less worthy of photos, such as working in the garden (namely, weeding the garden), watering plants, caring for fruit trees, working on projects, mowing, maintaining the place, and, of course, cooking, cleaning, and laundry. Ha, I make it sound like those last three things actually get done around here. Nope! Only right before company walks in the door. Speaking of company, have you been over lately? That's what I thought...it is (partially) your duty to keep our house clean by showing up once in awhile. ;) At least I think that's how it works...

El jardín. Lettuce, spinach, carrots, peas, green beans, onions, tomatoes, peppers, maybe some cantaloupe and cucumbers, potatoes, and strawberries. I have gotten several pickings of lettuce and spinach and it looks like the peas will be ready any day now! Not that I have any idea how to cook or preserve any of these veggies... 

One last picture of this handsome man working on his latest project...a floating dock for the pond!  

If previous trends continue, I will be giving another update come October...but please stay in tune, just in case I surprise the world and post in the next couple weeks! :)

We hope this month of June has and will continue to bring you and yours many blessings and memories with each passing day! Though it takes work to keep up the garden, landscaping, and yard, it sure is wonderful to see God's handiwork written everywhere in nature! Just as we are rewarded for our labors now, our reward will be so much greater on that Harvest Day when the Lord brings His laborers to their eternal rest. Let us labor now so He will reap a fruitful harvest!

Spring Sprang

I'm having a difficult time sticking to my blogging goals. What was once supposed to be biweekly went to weekly, bimonthly, and now I will be lucky to even get it in once a month, it appears. My apologies.

The last time I posted, we were in the middle of a mid-winter depression. Life went on, I found motivation in the anticipation of spring, and now there is more than enough to keep me busy during the days. So much, in fact, that I seem to get nothing done during the day.

In March, my urge for spring's expedited arrival drove me to create an in-home greenhouse in our office, which has since been affectionately renamed the "project room".

The plants are now pretty much taking over half of the room. Who knew all of those tiny, innocent-looking seeds would turn into these ever-growing-out-of-control plants?

So here you have it:

$1 PLANT STARTERS- WHILE SUPPLIES LAST:

30 Rutgers tomatoes

15+ Green bell peppers

5+ Jalepeno peppers

9+ Mystery peppers (either green or jalepenos)

3 Watermelon

15 Snapdragons

15 Zinnias

12 Dahlias

12 Morning Glories

6 Moonflowers

AVAILABILITY SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

Anyway, back to our life story.

The project room is also so named because it is the location of a few other ongoing decor projects that may not be finished for awhile on account of the excitement of spring in the air. More on those when they get completed.

He just started staking power lines again for the spring and summer, this time around home near Ft. Madison. We are both thankful he is able to come home in the evenings, rather than being in a hotel a couple hours away. He will be gone from 6 to 6 every day and have every other Friday off now, probably until the end of July. I had the day off on Monday so I went out with him to watch him work and see what he does.

This is what he looks like when he is working hard! :)

I work every weekday from eight to noon at Champion (Federal Mogul) in Burlington, which is a spark plug factory. I help out in the scheduling department where a few very busy people schedule the components running on the machines. My routine is full and I am enjoying it there as well as learning a lot about the manufacturing of spark plugs!

There it is!

After work I eat lunch with Jenni, who works in the accounting department at the same place, and then either run errands in town or go home and find work to do around there. We are often busy in the evenings, but this week has been empty thus far and we are thankful to have some calm evenings to ourselves.

Just a few of the more exciting parts of my life after work...

I made a candy bouquet for my brother after his surgery last month. :) He appreciated the thought in bringing him a bouquet of candy rather than flowers. 

I finally started using the clothesline in the basement toward the end of the winter when we had the wood stove going. It works almost faster than our dryer! :) Maybe... 

Cinnamon rolls-a first for this gal! They turned out swell. 

Frugality at its extreme. 

Invited myself to this girl's surprise birthday party in March. 

And this little cutie was having a splendid time celebrating as well!  

As spring warms up...

On the way to an evening gathering, we made a pit stop in the driveway to dig small trenches going from the driveway into the grass due to a lot of unwanted water from melted snow. 

He must have done something right. 

We got our grill (belated wedding gift!) and have been getting some use of it. 

Philip picked up our chicken house because they are going to start raising chickens. Loading this up was an impressive feat!  

Matt was excited to bring home a new string trimmer/leaf blower combo yesterday. Now he is itching to get some use of it! 

ALICE came to visit again, this time to our home in the country! We broke her in by having her help us get our garden started, and then we went for a boat ride and fished on the pond. She met Matt's family Saturday evening and spent Sunday evening at my family's home with the Bible Class. We must have done something right because she is planning to come again next weekend. So exciting to introduce a bit of off-campus culture to her! :)

For those who may not know Alice, she is a friend from China I met last year at the University of Iowa while I was studying there. We were both in the same program at the time and enjoyed each other's company in and out of class. She came home with me to meet my family last May, came to my wedding, and then visited a few weeks ago at my new home. So glad to keep in touch!

We got to visit Wendy a few weeks ago and had a wonderful time! Our chances for such evenings are dwindling as she will be getting married soon... 

We had Matt's family over for hamburgers and to celebrate Mom's birthday. I did not have the camera out very much but it appears someone else did! 

One of the beautiful flowers I received for our 1/2 anniversary. On April 20, we had been married six months! How time flies... 

Hope all is well with our friends and family! Happy Spring! :)