MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

The ice storm did come on Christmas morning.  Not as much as they predicted but enough to do damage.  So far, Praise God, we still have electricity.  As you can tell from one of the pictures, one limb is hanging over the power line.  George will have to work on this after the ice stops.   Christmas dinner did occur.  Lots of good food.  Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, baked beans, sweet potatoes and homemade rolls.  I wish all the family could have been together to enjoy it.  Oh well, I guess we’ll just have to eat another  big meal next weekend.  Life is tough sometimes.  Today has been spend playing board games, cards, and other fun activities.  I pray your Christmas has been as enjoyable as mine.  Maybe next post, I’ll put something summery and cheerful.  God Bless.

More winter pictures.  The snow is still around.  Almost all of it.  Today was the first day that maybe some of it melted.  Not very much.  I guess it will be safe to say we will have a white Christmas.  We ventured out today for the first time.  It felt pretty good to just see other people.  Our kids in N.C. have a stomach virus, so I guess our weekend plans are changed.  Oh well, that’s life.  Forecast for the weekend is calling for sleet, freezing rain, etc.  so we probably would have had to change them anyway.  I hope the weather holds off.   We are wanting to go  to the candlelight service at church.   It is always so beautiful.  I pray all of you will have a blessed Christmas.  Enjoy family, friends and life.  God Bless.

I thought with winter so hard on us, we could use a little summer.  These are from my flower garden this summer and I thought they looked very cheerful.  The girls and I did something new this week.  We made butter.   This was a new experience for us.  It was a lot of fun.  We collected cream from our milk, added a little salt, put it in a quart jar and began to shake.  No we did not have a churn, but it was not necessary for the small amount we made.  We had about 1 cup of cream to begin with and ended up with about 1/2 cup of butter.  Pretty exciting stuff.  I also made a batch of laundry soap this week.  We all went yesterday and got much needed haircuts.  Gotta look good for those Christmas pictures.  The weather forecast for this weekend is snow.  Perhaps many inches of snow.  I love snow!   Hopefully we won’t have to postpone our visit with Chuck and the grandkids.  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.  The other morning our pond was completely frozen.  A goose was walking across it.  I ran to get the camera, however by the time I got back the goose was gone.  It would have made a great picture.  It’s time for us to start working.  School and all that fun stuff.  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.

For those of you who do not have the comfort of a wood fire to enjoy, I thought I would share ours.  One of the girls(I’m not sure which one) took this picture.  I thought it looked so warm and cozy.  Today I cooked chicken and dumplings over that wood fire in my cast iron kettle.  YUM!   Very cold temperatures this morning made us really appreciate that wood fire.  The temperature was around 8 degrees with a below zero wind chill.  COLD!!!  Today it warmed up to the mid 20’s and the wind has laid down some but it is still very cold.  Oh well, I quess it’s that time of year.  Today was bible study day here at my home.  One of the ladies brought some wild rice soup to share with everyone.  Thanks, Barbara.  We have about 2 weeks left on our Peter study and then in January we plan to start Beth Moore’s Esther study.  We will be taking a 2 week Christmas  break.  Well I guess I better get some work done.  I am working on a quilt.  I will  try to post a picture when it is finished.  God Bless.

It appears as if winter might be here to stay.  We awoke this morning to ice.  Not too bad but enough to be pretty.  I would much rather have the snow from the weekend but I’ll have to take whatever God sends our way.  Not a lot happening here in Floyd.  Just winter coming on.  School as usual.  Getting ready for Christmas.  The tree and all the decorations are up.  Christmas music, which I love, playing on the radio.  Life if good!  I know I say that a lot but I really believe it.  I am so blessed.  God has given me so many blessings.  My husband, my kid, my grandkids.  I live in a beautiful home and have a wonderful church.  For me, life really is good and I am thankful to God for His blessings.  (My sermon for the day).  The ice is melting quickly and temperatures are warming up.  Our next  spell of winter mix is for Saturday.  I had hoped to go visit Jess on Saturday but I guess that might not happen.  Depends on the weather.  Well, break time is over and school time begins.  Have a wonderful day.  God Bless.

Our first snow!  The snow started about 6:30 this morning and is still coming down at 2:00.  The girls are so happy.  They have been out several times to play.  The Horn family is supposed to come over later this afternoon for a visit.  The girls can hardly wait.  Playing in the snow with their best friends.  Vicki is bringing homemade potato soup.  I am making homemade rolls and dessert.  Our tree is up and snow is falling.  It’s starting to look a lot like Christmas around here.  I love this time of year.  God Bless

Our mantle.  The girls and I spent the morning putting away fall decorations.  Then we decided to decorate the mantle for winter.  We think it looks pretty good.  What do you think?  I like to use snowmen instead of Santa Claus, that way I can leave them up all winter.  Not just for Christmas.  I know I’m kinda lazy when it comes to decorating.  I really enjoy the putting up of decorations, its the taking down I don’t like.  Anyway the mantle was fun.  We had egg nog and enjoyed being together.  Life is good.  No, life is GREAT!  I so enjoy my girls and being at home with them.  We plan on putting the Christmas tree up Saturday.  More egg nog, Christmas music, hot chocolate.  I can’t wait!  They are calling for a chance of snow Saturday here.  Maybe some ice.  I prefer snow, however we’ll see.  It will probably just be cold.  I hope you all have as much fun as we do this time of year.  God Bless.

What do you all think about my Christmas cactus?  Ain’t it pretty?  It was given to me several years ago by a dear friend.  I’m not very good with indoor flowers but this one has been beautiful every year.  I quess I just have it in a good location.  Thanks, Barbara!  I really enjoy it’s color so I thought I would share it with everyone.  Today is a very dreary day in Floyd.  Rainy, foggy, windy, chilly.  Yuk. No outside activities today, except carry in some wood for the fire.  Oh well, it could be much worse.  School has went very well today.  We are learning about writing reports in language.  Not very exciting but necessary information.   Tonight is church night and the girls always look forward to Team Kids.  They have lots of fun and learn about scripture too, so it makes them and us happy.  If anyone wants to learn more about Team Kids, it is a program through Lifeway.  You can go to their web page and find out all about it.  We are still doing the Beth Moore study on the Fruit of the Spirit on Wednesday night.  Pretty good study.  Well lunch break is over and I better get busy.  God Bless.

Here’s a few pictures of all the hard work the girls and I have been doing this summer.  Ain’t God good!  So much good home grown food.  I love it.  Julie took the pictures for me and I think she did a good job.  I went shopping today and purchased enough material for 9 more aprons.   I have sold all my dishcloths.  I have 2 aprons  left and 2 quilts.  I gotta get busy.  I also have some orders for Christmas to get made.    Today we went to a fall party at our friends house and the girls had so much fun.  Thanks Vicki!  I also bought some tea today (Christmas flavors).  So now every day at school we’ll be having a tea break.  Homeschool is so much fun.  Tomorrow is Sunday so I guess I better get busy doing my study on Daniel.  God Bless.