Yesterday we went down to Jessica’s to celebrate Easter with them.  We enjoyed a great meal of honey baked ham and turkey, potato salad, green beans, potatoes, baked beans, deviled eggs and several different types of dessert.  After we ate, the kids were ready to hunt eggs.  I think the look on Sam’s face says it all. 

On the way back home we stopped at this little spot on the parkway.  Grace wanted to get a few pictures.

I have forgotten the name of this little spot but I think it was a grist mill at one time.

Grace and Julie.  It’s not very often I get a picture of them together.  We then went for a little walk down to the creek.  It was very pretty.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

1 box yellow cake mix, 4 eggs, 3/4 cup oil, 8 oz. sour cream.  Mix ingredients, spread 1/2 of cake mixture in a greased 9 x13 cake pan.  Sprinkle 1/2 of the following mixture on top:

1 cup brown sugar mixed with 1 tbsp. cinnamon

spread remaining cake mixture on top sprinkle remaining brown sugar mixture on top and swirl with butter knife.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 min or until done.    Glaze cake when cooled.

Glaze for cake:  2 cups powdered sugar, 5-6 tbsp evaporated milk, and 1 tsp. vanilla.

Beat eggs on high 3 min.  Gradually beat in sugar.  Stir in pumpkin, lemon juice.  In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients.  Fold into pumpkin mixture.  Spread into a greased 15X10X1″ pan.  Top with nuts.  Bake at 325 degrees for 15 min.  Turn out onto a towel sprinkled with powdered sugar.  Starting at the narrow end roll towel and cake together, cool and unroll.  Use wax paper to turn it out on. 

Filling

1 cup powdered sugar
6 oz cream cheese
4 tbsp butter-softened
1/2 tsp vanilla

Beat until smooth.  Spread over cake roll.  Roll up pumpkin roll and chill well.

My Christmas cactus is blooming.  I don’t think it has ever bloomed at Christmas but it’s very pretty no matter when it blooms.  I love the bright pink color.  It always makes me feel happy when I look at it.

Temperatures here this morning were mid 20′s with a heavy frost.  It has warmed up already to low 30′s and the sun is shining.  I think it will be a nice day.  We will be doing school as usual, then we have some wood to unload.  We also need to go into town to get some chicken feed.  Thank the Lord, we have once again sold enough eggs to pay for the feed. 

Jess and Katie are doing well and big brothers are adjusting nicely to having a little one in the house.  Katie seems to be (as of right now) a very content little girl.  She sleeps very well at night, 3-4 hrs between bottles.  Amazing!  David will be going back to work on Thursday.  He took a week vacation during Katie’s birth. 

Well, it is almost time for school and I have clothes to hang out.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

I thought I would show you all a quilt the girls made for Katie.  They did everything including heming it on the machine.  I thought they did a really good job.  I just finished crocheting an afgan for her but we forgot to take a picture of it.  I’ll try to get one next time we go down.

Today has been rainy and overcast here.  The air has become chillier as the day progressed.  Not much else going on here.  We did school and then Hubby and I went in to town to get some chicken feed.  They have been doing really well with their laying.  I had sold enough eggs to pay for the feed except for $2.00.   I thought that was pretty good. 

Supper tonight is deer tenderloin, gravy, corn, biscuits and plum jelly.  YUM!    Here are a few fall shots we took the other day.

This one is the field behind our house.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Just a little glimpse that fall is on the way.  Dried corn stalks are definitely a sign.  Yesterday, the girls and I went to play with the boys while Jess went to have another ultra sound.  This time Katie was in the birth position instead of breech.  Praise the Lord!  I want to thank you all for praying for her and ask that you continue to pray.  She has about 9 weeks to go. 

Today, we will finish up the pears.  I think I will make juice from what is left.  I may end up canning some more.  I’ll wait and see.  Tomorrow we plan on spending the day with the Horns.  We are going to Paint Bank.  I will hopefully get lots of pictures to show you.  We are so looking forward to this.   It has been several years since we have been there and the Horns have never been.  I hope they enjoy it as much as we do.  Our hens have picked up some on their laying.  Yesterday, we got 5 eggs.  We haven’t gave them any scraps (except just a few little treats).  

This lone tree sits in the field behind our house.  If you look closely, you can see the leaves are starting to change.  It has been so dry here, I’m not sure if we will have very much color.  I hope so, though.  I so enjoy the colors of fall. 

I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

We have been blessed to have quite a few pears given to us.  Do any of you all have any pear recipes you would like to share?  I usually just can them like apples but I am always looking for new things to try.  One thing I want to do is make juice this year.  Anyway, the girls and I will be working up pears tomorrow.  Today, I helped Hubby.   We textured the ceilings on the job he has been working on.  They looked really nice. 

I have a question for you ladies who have chickens.  Last week we were getting 8-10 eggs a day.  Yesterday and today, we got one each day.  What do you think is going on?  We did have a couple of days that we didn’t feed them the layer crumbles.  We had all kinds of scraps from the corn.  Do you think that would affect their laying?  I’m just not sure what would have happened. 

Well, I’m tired and it is my turn for the shower.  Enjoy your evening and God bless.

Beautiful grapes!  Last night a friend of ours called and said they had some grapes that we could have if we wanted them.  They had already used all they wanted so we loaded up and went over to pick.  We picked about 3 bushels.  The girls and I have been busy all day, processing them.    We are using the steam juicer.  I think we will end up with about 20 qts, maybe more.    What a blessing.  God is so good!

Guess what?  We have a broody hen!  Well, where I come from we call them setting hens but here most folks call them broody.  Anyway, she is only 4 months old.  I don’t think I have ever known one to set that young.  We have kept Mr. Rooster separate from the hens so her eggs would not hatch but she doesn’t seem to know that.  The girls and I wanted to put her back in the coup with Mr. Rooster so we could let her set but Hubby said no.  No more chickens-(this year).  Anyway, we moved her out into her own little coup for a few days.  The other hens were glad as she was hogging the only nest they will use.  They have two other nests but for some reason they all prefer to use just this one. 

I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless.

Well, we have decided to give Mr. Rooster a chance.  If he is a good boy, I guess we’ll keep him.  We all think he sounds so cute when he crows.  We have decided his crow adds a little something to our day.  Wow, we really DO need to get out more.  Anyway, we’ll see how it works out. 

Yesterday, we worked with blackberries.  We made some blackberry juice.  Then took the berries we had cooked down to make the juice and put them in the Roma sauce maker.  The sauce maker takes out all the seeds.  We then make blackberry freezer jam.  We had some blackberry puree left over and I wondered what I would do with it.  Then I thought HOMEMADE BLACKBERRY ICE CREAM!  It was so good.  I tried to take a picture to share with you all but I couldn’t get it to turn out right.    I got the recipe online at Cooks.com but altered it some to better suit us.  Anyway, here is the recipe I used:

2 cups blackberry puree, 2 cups sugar, 3 eggs beaten, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 6 cups milk, 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk.  I mixed all the ingredients together and put it into the ice cream maker.  I plan on making peach ice cream this weekend when Dave, Jess and the boys come up. 

I went to work with Hubby this morning and helped him until lunchtime.  Then came home and the girls and I started working on the peaches.  We made some peach freezer jam and then canned some of the peaches.  We saved the peelings again and got 2 more qts of peach juice.  We also had a peach cobbler for supper.  I love peaches. 

I am looking forward to tomorrow as Sam and Daniel will be coming up to spend the day with us.  Enjoy your evening and God bless.