MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

This is a picture of our Grundy home.  The original house was built by my grandparents.  It (like most old homes) had rooms added on.  I was 12 years old when I first moved into this home and 40 when I left.  Leaving was hard.  Life changes though and we must be able to change with it.  I have so many happy memories of this place but I also have many happy memories of where I am now.  

The girls and I have been busy.  We had 23 qts. of green beans.  We finished them today.  We also put  more squash in the freezer.  We are going down to Jessica’s this evening.  Tomorrow us girls will be going blueberry picking while Dad and PawPaw watch the two boys.  After that we plan on going to Lifeway and then out to eat.  We will be coming back home tomorrow evening. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

I thought it would be nice to look back and remember how things were just a few short months ago.  This picture was taken this morning.  Then I looked back and found another picture of the same scene.

Personally I like this morning’s picture better but to each his own.  Yesterday was busy for us.  The girls and I went to pick apples.  A friend from church offered us his early apples from his tree.  We were very thankful to get them.  After we came home, we started processing them.  Yesterday we got 11 quarts of applesauce made and still have more to work with today.  Sally, our pastors wife, told us she puts her apples in the microwave to cook them.  This was much easier as we didn’t have to worry about them burning.  Then she puts hers through her food strainer and puts them in the freezer.  I had never put applesauce in the freezer, only apples.  We tried that yesterday.  It was a lot faster and didn’t heat up the house. 

 Beautiful weather here in Floyd this week.  Much cooler temperatures with a wonderful breeze.    We have had several little rains which we really needed.  I picked green beans Monday and dug some young potatoes.  They were delicious.  I think I’ll be able to pick some more beans by tomorrow.  YUM!   I love fresh produce. 

 Did you all notice my canning and freezing logs Dave put on my blog?  Thanks Dave.  I really like being able to look at it and see what I’ve got done and what I still need.  I better get working on those apples.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Here are a few pictures of the decorations for bible school.  Our theme this year was Harvesting God’s Word.  We had lots of good lessons, fun crafts and games, and of course good food.   We averaged around 17 kids each night.   I wanted to get some pictures of the kids, but Hubby put it all on video and I don’t know how to load that on the blog.  Our pastor was there every night.  He has such a heart for kids.  I think he had as much fun as they did.

Progress is slow but moving on the new room.  A minor setback occurred when we decided to put the door in a different place.  This required undoing almost all we had done.  Hubby had to remove the floor and do all the plumbing drains different.  This will be much better though than the original plan. 

The girls and I have been busy today putting up gooseberries in the freezer.  We had 6 bags.  This is the first time I have froze gooseberries.  I hope they will be good.  I also gathered some squash and zucchini to put in the freezer.   We will  be enjoying the first of our broccoli this evening with supper.  I think home grown broccoli is so much better than store bought but then I think everything is better home grown.   If I finish these other veggies in time, I think I will put up some rhubarb.  I have gotten a little behind with my harvesting due to bible school and the new room.  Oh well, all in God’s time.   It has been a very pleasant morning for me.   I so much enjoy putting up our own veggies that we raise in our garden.  It always gives me a feeling of peace and contentment. 

We are planning to go to the fireworks this evening in town.  We had hoped the Horn’s would get to meet us there but Quentin had to work.  Jess and Dave are going to enjoy fireworks down at their town.  They will be coming up next weekend.  Sam’s first trip to the mountains.  I can hardly wait to see them all.  I guess I better get busy if I expect to get anything done.   Happy 4th of July.  Take care and God bless.

This lily has had a rough beginning.  In early spring, it was trampled and broken by a big footed pup.  It seems to have survived nicely though.  I have waited all spring to see what it would look like.  I think it looks pretty next to the purple flowers.  I most definitely will have to separate some of these flowers next year.  The bed is extremely crowded.  Yesterday was a busy day.  The girls and I cleaned out both of the big freezers-making room for this year’s harvest.  This took a major portion of the day.  Then I helped Hubby by mowing some before he came in from work.  For supper, I used some of the pork tenderloin I had cooked the day before.  I like to cook a large amount of meat at one time and then use it in different dishes for another meal.  So I put the tenderloin in the oven with some potatoes and roasted them.  We also had corn on the cob from our freezer, biscuits with butter and homemade blackberry jam for dessert.  Today is starting out to be a beautiful day here is Floyd.  Lots of sunshine.  Tomorrow our church is doing a horseshoe tournament down by the river.   We will play horseshoes, eat lots of good food, listen to good music and in general have a great time.  It amazes me some people think Christian life is boring.  We have a blast at my church!  We are small in number but we do lots of things together.  We are family.  I will try to get some pictures to post of our activities.  This is the first year we have done this and we are hoping many will come.  Baby Sam and Mom are still doing good.  Daniel says he loves his baby brother. Thanks so much for your prayers.  I hope to go down to see them soon and get more pictures.  Take care and God bless.

Well that batch of salsa is done.  We got 11 pints.  It took up the major part of the day.  From morning till lunch chopping.  We were blessed to use all fresh garden ingredients.  The tomatoes had to be scalded, peeled and then chopped.  Then from lunch until about 6:00 was dedicated to simmering and then canning.  If I knew how to do pictures, I would show you pictures of the jars.  The salsa is very pretty in the jars and taste wonderful.  Today we will be working on some more corn.  At last count we had a little over 200 ears in the freezer and around 30 cans of corn.  Thank you Lord.  Last night was church night.  We have been working on establishing a youth class on Wed. and last night we had 7 youth.  Pretty good for a small church.  I think this is one of those stretching times from the Lord.  I have never taught youth before(only my own) however this has truly been fun.  My prayer would be to see more kids show up and that they would learn more about our Lord through this class.  Well I gotta get some work done.  I need to go down to the barn and get some milk.  We get our milk fresh from the cow.  The girls however now have a hard time drinking what we call store milk.  They say it doesn’t taste good.  Thanks for reading and may God bless you throughout this day.