Cozy Cottage & Simple Living

Cozy Cottage & Simple Living
We live in a 900 Sq.Ft. Cottage. One must be creative with storage, children's toys, and homeschooling. We live in the "Arrowhead of Minnesota" Sit a spell, kick your shoes off, and peek into our simple lives.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Wow! I know it's been a whole year since I last blogged, but Life just got so busy!
Now I am starting something new and I want to share it with you!
I am a "Hoader" ! I have piles of stuff all over my cottage! Every flat surface is covered!
I just joined a Boot Camp!


I am going to blog about this beginning on 1 Feb!
I am asking for support, encouragement. and for anyone out in Blog land to Cheer me on!
This is a one month commitment!
So I am now going to commit to blogging everyday in February!
Please leave me a comment, so I know you have my back in this difficult commitment!
I love my stuff! I have OCD about letting go of my beloved stuff! It's time to Let go and live my dream life.....Clutter free and Organized!

~Blessings~
Rhonda

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Clever Ideas To Make Life Easier, Even If You Don't Live In A 900 Sq. Ft. Cottage!


To hull a Strawberry use a Straw!


To stop an apple from browning after cutting it, put a rubber band around the Apple!


How to fold a fitted sheet instaed of just Scrunching and bunching it then stuff it in the linen closet!


For a neat linnen closet store your sheet sets in one of the pillow cases.
There'll be no more hunting for matching set!


I love this one! Attach a strip of Velcro on the wall to hang up those little stuffed animals and soft toys!


Use a Megnetic strip, attach it to the inside of your bathroom cabinet or vanity door to store bobbie pins, Tweezers,and clippers!


I'm all for "Recycling" so what to do with those bread tags?
They make perfect cord lables for your TV and Computer, whatever cords you want to lable!


Use wire to make a space to store your gift wrap rolls against the ceiling instead of taking up floor space! I love this in our cottage as every bit of floor space counts and besides having rolls of gift wrap in a tall trash can takes up floor space. I hung up my wire in my closet, it's out of the way and off the floor!


Install a tension rod inside your cabinet to store all your cleaning bottles!


Micowave your own popcorn in a brown papaer bag instead of buying the expenisive Micowave popcorn! It's healthier and cheaper too!


Bake cupcakes directly in an ice-cream cone! It's much more fun and easier for children to eat!


In our homeschool, we use a muffin tin for all our craft items and "tools" to become our craft caddy! I put magnets in the bottom of the cups, so it becomes tip-resistant!

I have more that I'll post at another time. I hope you have enjoyed this blog as much as I have enjoyed blogging about these "Clever Ideas"!
I would love to hear what you think of these clever ideas! Leave me a comment!
Until next time, Have a blessed day and the may your week be a blessing to you!
Blessings,
Rhonda

Monday, December 19, 2011

Have I got something for you for the new year!







I know I haven't been blogging like I thought I would when I first started this blog. (I thought I'd be blogging everyday about something interesting!)
I thought by now I would have tons of followers, because in my mind I visioned my blog would be so popular! Ha!
Ok I am now working on a blog post that is going to make your life easy peasy in 2012! Even if you just do a few, or all! Please come back to my Blog to see what I am talking about! I should have my new blog posted in 2012 on the 1st or 2nd of January! Oh! I'm so excited about this blog and this new year 2012!

Something we all need to keep in mind this Christmas!

Just a few days ago, my friends on Face Book, in CEO Moms, wwere talking about this very thing "prefection"!
Prefection can be a very dangerous thing! I know I use to "re do" what my child just did. Like she would make her bed and it wasn't perfect, so I just fixed it a bit to look better to my liking! I was always fixing the things she did or made, one day she looked at me, with huge tears rolling down her cheecks, and in a sobbing cry she said, "Mommy just leave it,it's my work! It's just fine! Leave it alone!" she barried her little head in my apron,on my lap. Sobbing her little heart out. I felt about two inches high, right then. and vowed I would never touch another thing, that my little five year old did again ever ever agin! I haven't either!

This was in an E-mail I received and it was so fitting to me. I just had to share it!



The Beauty of Imperfection







In my mind, I saw perfect little gingerbread houses all lined up in a row, looking much too good to eat. I quickly realized this family project would yield anything but perfect gingerbread houses and there would be more eating than architecture completed that night.

And it was beautiful.

There we were gathered ’round the dining room table with piles of graham crackers, tubs of frosting, and oodles of brightly colored candies, creating delicious memories.

No, these gingerbread houses did not step off the pages of some nationally syndicated cooking magazine, but to my children, that night was perfect.

How often my heart longs for perfection. I want those perfectly staged magazine ads. I want perfect hair and the perfect apron and the perfect kitchen. How often I fail to recognize that what I want does not exist and even if it did, I would not want it.

No memories are made in studio photo shoots of staged holidays with airbrushed models. And if I spend my life longing for an ideal that only exists in magazines and on television, I will have missed the beauty of my real life.

We must teach our daughters that perfection is not something to be found in the things of this earth. We must never get so caught up in our expectations that we fail to see the beauty in our limitations.

As my family laughed and frolicked that night, I was struck by how even my best attempts at perfection always fall miserably short, but if my heart and mind are focused on Christ, it is His love that shines through my imperfections and creates a beauty that far exceeds my expectations.

So, this holiday season, I seek Christ’s perfection and not my own.

And it is beautiful.

So please remember, It's OK if things aren't perfect for holidays or anything in your life....It's OK....It's OK just keep telling yourself that when you are temped to "fix" something your child has just done!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Annebell


Annebell had her puppies on July 29, 2011. She had seven puppies! We were so surprised to discover she had them sometime in the early morning of July 29!
She seemed to be nervous, and would not nurse the puppies. That night, we checked on Annebell and the puppies, they all seemed to be doing great. Annnebell was laying with her puppies.
Then the next morning we went to check on Annebell and the puppies and we found Annebell dead. The puppies were under her legs and we had to pull them out and clean them up.


We had to bottle feed the puppies. We use reuglar baby bottles and nipples to feed the puppies. We bought puppy formula and it cost $20.00 a can! It was more than baby formula! Anyway, feeding seven puppies was very overwhelming for us! We had to feed these puppies every three hours! And then try to manage our two children and a household. I couldn't do it, so my daughter found a friend of hers that was willing to help us out. So she took four puppies into her home and bottle fed them. We kept three. That was all I could do with having children too. Unfortunately, the four other puppies caught a virus and all died. Our three puppies did very well and they are now healthy and happy pups!



When the puppies got older, we started feeding them "mush" which was puppy food mixed up with a hand mixer. They LOVED it! and the feedings got easier as the puppies got older, it went from every three hours to every six hours.


The puppies had many baths, and they didn't like it!

I think the puppies were about two weeks old, maybe older (I don't remember)they could eat, and do their business all on their own. Yay we didn't have to help them do their business anymore! (Not a job I liked!)


I love this photo!

Maria loves to play with the puppies and they love her!
I will post some new photos of the puppies, now that they are 3 months old.
We are keeping all three puppies. their names are:
Ladokta, he is my pup. He is the watcher of the group. He loves to please, and loves to cuddle! He's so sweet!
Cocoa, is Maria's pup. She is the trouble maker and loves to get into anything she can! But we love her!
Cheyenne, She is Ken's pup and looks like she could be Annebells twin! Cheyenne is the oldest of all the puppies. She loves to please and loves to play tug the toy with her brother and sister.


Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Homeschooing Preschool for Maria