MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

I got this recipe from a dear friend of mine, Vanessa Looney.  She was my supervisor for many years.  She took the time to love me and tell me about Jesus when I definitely wasn’t very lovable.  She has been with the Lord for many years now.   When we found out her time on this earth was short, she said to me “I’m not afraid of dying.  I’ve lived my entire life to see my Lord!” 

1 box powdered sugar (3 1/2 cups), 1/2 stick butter softened, 1 tsp. vanilla.  Add evaporated milk-1 tbsp at a time.  Could take as many as 3 tbsp.  Mixture needs to be a little dry.  Roll out on wax paper sprinkled with powdered sugar.  Spread peanut butter.  Roll up, chill, slice and enjoy.

Yesterday Dave, Jess and the boys came for a quick visit.   They had purchased a butchered hog in Burnt Chimney, which is kinda close to here.  They had one of the hams cured for a country ham.  It has to hang for 3 months.  They brought it by here to hang in one of our buildings.  They also generously shared some of the pork with us.  Thanks!  We enjoyed fresh sausage this morning with our eggs and cooked pears.  Sooooooo good!!!

Daniel is ready to go to work in this picture.  He has his hat on and my shovel in his hand.  This picture was my first attempt at learning how to crop pictures on my computer.  I should have made it bigger but I’m just learning.  We had some ice fall during the night, now we are getting snow.  Hopefully, it will just be snow from now on.  I really do not like ice.   No church today.  I think it will be a snuggle in day.  Make some candy or cookies-maybe both. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

We had so much fun yesterday making candy.  When we got to Vicki’s, she had already made sugar cookies for the kids to decorate.  They loved it.  After lunch, we made oreo truffles, then peanut butter balls and last we dipped oreo cookies in white chocolate.   It was such a fun day.  The recipe I use to make the peanut butter balls is:

1 stick butter-softened, 1 lb powdered sugar.  Mix these together.  Then add 2 cups creamy peanut butter.  Mix everything together.  You will need to add about 1/4 cup water to this.  Just add a little at a time until it is a little creamy. Be careful not to add too much water.  Form into balls.  In a double boiler, put 2 cups chocolate chips and 1/4 block parafin wax.  Heat until chocolate is creamy.  Dip peanut butter balls into chocolate.  Place on wax papered cookie sheet.  Refrigerate and enjoy.  These are much better after they chill.  I want to make Martha Washington balls next.  I think they are my favorite. 

Time for us to leave for piano practice.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Praise the Lord!  Water is once again flowing in the Dawson home.  We got it unthawed this morning.  We are so happy. It truly is amazing how much water we use during the day.  Temperatures are still cold here.  8 degrees this morning with a wind chill below zero.  Tomorrow though it is supposed to warm up a little and not be too bad until Sunday, then it is supposed to turn cold again.  We will be having an all day play practice Saturday for the Youth Christmas play at church.  We will be doing the play on Sunday-weather permitting.

We have decided no school today.  We are going to our friends, the Horns, to make some more candy.  I will be making peanut butter balls and Vicki is going to make oreo truffles.  We are looking forward to a day of fun.  Hope your day is as blessed as mine has already been.  God bless.

 It is raining outside today.  We did not want to go to the building to get decorations so we just decided to make some candy.  I usually make this only at Christmas time but I should make it more often as it is one of everyone’s favorite.   This recipe came from a dear friend of mine and I have used it now for about 25 years.  Wow, that makes me feel old(maybe I should leave that sentence out).   Anyway the recipe is:

1/4 cup butter-softened, 1 tsp vanilla.  Gradually add in 1 box powdered sugar.  You will need to add a little evaporated milk at the end-only add about 1 tbsp at a time.  1-3 tbsp should be all you will need.  It needs to be a little dry.  Roll out and spread on peanut butter.  Roll up candy length wise and put in fridge until chilled.  Cut and enjoy.

Just a little note about the lady who gave me this recipe.  Her name was Vanessa Looney and she was one of the finest Christian ladies I have ever known.  When it became obvious to those who loved her that it would soon be time for her to be with the Lord, she made a profound statement to me.  We were talking and she said “You know, I am not afraid of dying.  I have lived my entire life for this moment.  I will finally see my Jesus.”  I consider this one of the most important statements a Christian could ever make-that we would all live our lives for the moment we will see Him.   Just a little remembering on my part. 

Well, I best be going.  My girls want to play a game of cards.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Today was spent doing a very fun project.  Our gingerbread house.   Last year the girls and I made our first gingerbread house.  We decided it needed to be a  tradition at our house.  So much fun.  Here’s a picture of our gingerbread house.  Not competition material but great for our house.   This will be our centerpiece until Christmas.   When I do things like this with my girls, I can’t help but be thankful for our lives together.  The laughter, the Christmas music, a warm fire.  I am a very blessed woman and I thank God for his blessings.   George had some work to do today so we didn’t get to go to Jessica’s this weekend.  The girls and I are doing girl stuff today,  the gingerbread house, some Russian Tea Cakes and maybe some peanut butter roll candy.   Temperatures were cold again last night.  7 degrees when we got up this morning.  Not much wind though so it doesn’t feel as bad as yesterday.  The weather forecast says freezing rain for tonight and early Sunday morning.  YUK!  Hopefully it won’t happen so we can go to church.  Oh well, I guess we’ll see what tomorrow morning brings.  Well time to make some more memories (Russian Tea Cakes).  God Bless.

Pictures from Christfest Saturday night.  My girls wore puddle skirts,  Daniel is Spider Man, David is Wafer Man and Jess is dressed as a devil.  It was a GREAT surprise when they came to the party.  I had thought they were going to stay at their house to give away candy.  Change of plans, which made MawMaw very happy.  Julie, Grace, and Daniel had a great time playing the games and getting candy.  Everyone probably noticed I spelled the cats name wrong on my last post.  I noticed it too, but did not know how to change it.  Her name is Stripes.  Anyway, I guess I need to use spell check.  We went down to Dave and Jess’ for a few days, worked some more on their bathroom.  The shower stall is now tiled.  We have to put the grout on our next trip.   We worked very  hard today, splitting and stacking wood.  No school today just work.  The girls would rather do school than work this hard, but as I told them we will appreciate it this winter.  I have been blessed with very good girls.  They work hard and complain very little.   They had fun too.  They make work into a game and that makes it fun.  It was a very beautiful day.  Lots of sunshine, temperature around 50 degrees.  Very nice for working outside.   It’s 6:00 and already dark, however, I do like the fact that it gets daylight earlier.  I have always been a morning person.  Well, it time for me to get some stuff done.  God Bless.

Every day the weather permits the girls try to take Jasper on a walk.  They want to teach him how to walk on a lease.  They call this their P.E. class.  They walk to the top of the hill on the tractor road.   As you can tell, the kitten goes too.  Sometimes, however, Dad has a real P.E. class for them.  Anyone who has ever moved much wood knows what a workout that can be.  It was a beautiful day for working outside.  A litte windy, as usual, but warm with lots of sunshine.  The last two days, however, have not been so nice.  Lots of fog and wet.  Oh well.  The girls were probably glad for the fog.  The splitter was loaned to us from a friend at church.  We are very thankful for the use of it.  Splitting wood by hand, I think, is a young man job.  The older we get the harder it is to do.  So thanks again, Dale.  We appreciate it.   Hubby is gone today with other church members to shoot some clays.  The place, I think, is called Primland and that’s about all I know.  They go there quite often.  George has been looking forward to going with them for quite some time.  They seem to always have lots of fun.  Tonight is our Halloween Alternative at church.  We call it Christfest.  Lots of fun.  Dress Up-kids and adults.  Lots of games and candy.  I will try to get some pictures to post so you all can see what fun it really is.  I pray everyone enjoys the children tonight and that everyone will be safe.  In my Daily Bread devotional today, it talks about children tonight filling their bags with candy and then it asks “What are we filling our vessels with?”  Think about it tonight every time you drop candy in a child’s bag.  If we are not filled with the Holy Spirit, we leave room for other things to fill us.  End of sermon.  God Bless.

These are some late blooming flowers in one of my flower beds.  Yes, I actually took these pictures this morning .  Temperatures in the low to mid 30′s.  These flowers are close to the house so they are kinda sheltered.  I certainly am glad they decided to bloom so late, adding their special color to fall.  Almost all my flowers are gone so these are especially appreciated.   I think today I will work on making Grace’s poodle shirt for our Christfest (Halloween alternative) at church.   The girls look forward to it every year.  Lots of games and of course more candy than any 2 girls could eat.   We have a new member at our Friday Ladies Bible study.  So good to have you, Vicki!    We had a surprise yesterday.  We heard a kitten meowing in one of our outbuildings.  When we went to check it out we discovered 3 new kittens,  2 gray, and 1 black with a little white on her face.   I will try to get a picture of them later today and post it so you all can see them.  They are very cute!   Of course, we never seem to have a shortage of cats here on the farm but no matter how many we have it is always exciting to the girls to find new kittens.  Hours of playtime for them.  Well it is time for me to do some work.  God Bless.