Martha Home Mary Way Book Giveaway

I am giving away one copy of Sarah Mae's new Book

I posted some more information about the challenge, links to her blog earlier today. I wanted to do a little more and provide you with a copy so that you can participate in the challenge. I will be posting the days challenge and accomplished task, so you can follow along for the 31 days if you would like, you can also participate along with her Blog or mine until your copy arrives.

If you have cleaning tips of your own, supplies you love, I would love to hear all about it, leave me a blog post comment.

6 Months of House Cleaning

A few years back I participated in something called 31 Days to Clean, what a blessing that was. You can see a post here
Sarah Mae has written a book based on that printable/challenge many of us followed called Having a Martha Home the Mary Way. I absolutely love it.
Recently I entered a contest for 6 months of house cleaning for free. I truly need it. Working in your own home is challenging. It is difficult sometimes to balance everything from quilt orders to homework to being a taxi service for my high- schoolers and college student.
At least once a week I ask the Lord to help me in this area, probably truly much more often than that.
Organization is something I truly need help on. Its challenging because this house has many old features, it lacks a garage, attic space, closets. These are places where you store things you aren't using, things you don't need every day. We have none of that. One of the bedrooms is so challenging because the previous home owners put the washer and dryer where the closet should be. The Loft, which now houses two boys isn't even tall enough for them to walk in. At the very center of the room where the stairs lead you can actually stand, but if you veer either direction you must duck otherwise you hit your head. We recently added some mock closet space to it, but it requires some other creative solutions to become a little more livable.
When I saw this new book, I new it was calling out to our family, not just to me. I had been following Sarah Mae's daily posts on her blog and I entered the contest. I will admit I never dreamed I would truly win 6 months of house cleaning. I don't even know what that would look like.
Surprise, I won~
It was exciting and terrifying all at the same time. We live in a small town, it has stores and a post office and lots of schools, however, we live in a sort of farm lifestyle as well. I mean you have seen my posts we are hatching chicken eggs inside our home. Now how exactly do I explain that to a house cleaning service, it seems a little strange I am sure.
The only obstacle I saw was that I had planned to go through the 31 Day Challenge that starts April 11th. I didn't really want a service to come in until after that was complete. (If you would like to sign up, you can go to the link and their is a place for your email. Her blog posts can be sent to you directly)
What is truly interesting is as side work to help ends meet I often clean peoples homes, watch their animals while they are out of town etc. Now I am looking at someone clean our home. What an awesome prospect.
I need a service that does more than clean. I need help organizing our tiny space, which is much smaller with a quilting business in my living room, an exercise area in my den and my daughters personal study nook in my bedroom.
Anyway it is going to work out wonderfully. I feel a sense of relief. I know the Lord is answering this desire of my heart. I am super grateful to have this GIFT.
I can't wait to see how it all unfolds between June and December. I plan to post some photos of the progress. I also am wanting to host a giveaway of Sarah Mae's new book, you can also purchase a journal to go along with it. The challenge starts April 11th. If you need to do a little spring cleaning, organize a room, get something under control, then join us. Lets take back our homes and make a martha home the mary way.
I am very excited for this new journey.

ETSY Banner

Etsy changed its setup, with that change I needed a new banner for my shop 
I am excited that my oldest was able to help me out with this. I love how it turned out.
It shows a variety of what I have to offer and looks very cheerful for my site.

google.com/+JennWellsandSunshineOfAutumnQuilts

God's Beauty while Quilting

I love quilting in the living room. It is very strange if people come over because we don't have the typical set up. There truly isn't anywhere to really sit. However the benefits are the beautiful spring creatures I get to watch while quilting.

Spring is wonderful, so many varieties of birds visit the window area, hang out in the bushes outside the windows and such

I am thankful I can capture a few of them on my camera

My favorite this past week were these two dove, just perfectly sitting

Its interesting to see how many red birds we have this year.

They do have to battle the squirrel that continues to come by.

I think there are several males that stop in, they love to drink from various water areas off the porch, we will leave a lid out when it rains so it will collect for them. Eventually I hope to get a bird bath put out front for them.

I am anxious to see if they will build any nests. We have some very small birds building nests off the side of the house, but none of the red birds yet.

They like to chase each other through the bushes or just hang out like these last two were doing.

google.com/+JennWellsandSunshineOfAutumnQuilts

Variable Quilt

Graduation quilt for a return customer. She wanted several jerseys to be put into the quilt, along with some sleeves, logos from shorts etc.

It did not have border in between the shirts, just an outside border and black flannel backing. It contained 40+ pieces. Finished the width of a twin size quilt and the length of a queen. 

google.com/+JennWellsandSunshineOfAutumnQuilts

Having a Horse

MeKenzei has always wanted a horse, she loves them. When Izzy moved in 6 months that dream became a reality. While the horse is Izzy's she has enjoyed Lucky's company. So has the rest of us for sure. He can be so sweet. We have learned a lot too

He loves the citrus tree leaves, he loves the fig tree leaves, he loves to sneak out of the fence if you leave it open, he loves to get in the garden, thankfully not much harm this time. So that required a metal fence all around. It has been a challenge among the blessing of horse manure for the compost pile

Today I had encountered it all. He got into the fruit tree area, which was roped off, then I let him out into the back acreage, not knowing that someone had not secured the temporary fencing and he went out the front, that was fun. Then I put him in the new stable like area Zekaryah created for him to find that the gate to that fence is broken and needs repair. I have been trying to get binding on a quilt all day. Between the horse, phone calls, kids schedules. It has yet to happen. Our small some what farm life can be very busy~

google.com/+JennWellsandSunshineOfAutumnQuilts

Second batch of chicks

We had gotten some eggs from a friend to help run two incubators worth of chicks. We didn't have as much success as we would have liked. Each incubator holds 40+ eggs and 35 hatched, so we kept 5 of them and gave  her the rest. We are running another batch. I am hoping we get a better percentage this time. Its tough sometimes, you have to worry about the temperature, water in the incubators, then when they are hatching there is a process to that too. We did loose five right from the start. Of course Paul has a snake and he enjoys that part of this process.

google.com/+JennWellsandSunshineOfAutumnQuilts

Spring Break with Family Friends

Zekaryah had a good friend named Zach, he is a couple years younger but he spends a lot of time with their family. This year they kept him for Spring Break because they were headed out of town for vacation. He had a great time.

Oddly enough he saw one of his other classmates from school there. They posted photos about them stalking each other it was funny.

They got to visit the USS Lexington

I am so thankful he had a great time on break

They truly are family to him.

We actually didn't see him until Sunday right before school was about to start up again

I dropped Mekenzei and Zekaryah at the movies sunday night to have some time together before break was officially over.

They enjoyed seeing Allegiant.

google.com/+JennWellsandSunshineOfAutumnQuilts

Life with Chickens and a Horse

When you have little chickens the brooding house only lasts for so long. We spent Saturday reworking the old quail cages. We no longer have quail or dove, the wildlife had gotten to all of them over the course of the last couple of years.

Zekaryah worked on getting Lucky, Izzy's Horse, a shelter. We need to purchase some metal siding for the top.

There was a tree behind the horse shelter so of course Zekaryah "had to" climb the tree and cut the two big limbs, which required him to hang upside down

I am thankful I have learned to worry a little less at my tree boys desire to be in the trees so much.

By nightfall the little chicks had a new place. Hatchet did not like that they were once again moved.

Monday we got home mid day and MeKenzei was home and started helping us clear the next step in the chicken process. Soon we will have a new set of eggs hatching and these little guys will need a normal area, so we have a fenced yard we have to refortify, it hasn't been used in quite some time, it was for ducks before. 

Paul worked hard to get the foundation set for a roof and laying boxes

Hatchet (and Pilsner too) worked hard to enjoy the nice cool ground. He also kept some roosters that wanted to fight in line. Boy can he break up a fight, he tosses the rooster into its own corner and checks on the other. Its kind of funny. One day I might catch video of it.

What I did catch was this little chick (hen) swinging- literally on the wire to the warming light. We put in some sticks so they could roost but this swing idea might be something to do in their bigger coop area. She sure loves it.

google.com/+JennWellsandSunshineOfAutumnQuilts

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday was full of church and then driving Jakob back to Dallas to finish out Spring Semester

We had time for a very quick lunch after church, a few photos at the park and then it was a late night getting him home and back to our house. I am so thankful for the week he was home with us.

google.com/+JennWellsandSunshineOfAutumnQuilts