MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

I think it has been a long time since I made a post but things have been kinda busy here.  Jess and the boys came up on Thursday.  We spent Friday doing some shopping and then Dave came up Friday evening.  He and Hubby went over to our pastor’s house for a men’s shoot on Saturday.  Today Dave, Jess and the boys went with us to church.  It was pastor appreciation day.  We had a fellowship meal after church with lots and lots of good food.

Today has been a very nice day here in Floyd.  Sunshine, a slight breeze and a temperature of about 65 degrees.  Very nice.  I hope to get some fall pictures this week to show you all.  The trees are starting to get beautiful colors here.  Tomorrow the girls and I will go down to play with the boys while Jess has one last ultra sound.  She only has about 3 weeks to go. 

This is a picture of some flowers that are blooming beside the road on our way to church.  Aren’t they pretty?  Well, I have a lot of posts to read to get caught up on what has been happening in everyone else’s life.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Hello, ladies.  Seems like we have been busy here for the last few days.   Friday, I worked all day (in my spare time) on aprons.  I managed to get two finished.  I took them down to the Bread Basket for selling.  She had sold all my aprons except one.  YEAH!  This month is our month to clean the church and mow the churchyard.  We went Friday evening to do this.  Grace took this picture of the sky on our way over to the church.    Hubby did the mowing and weed eating while the girls and I cleaned inside.   Our homecoming is tomorrow morning and then our revival starts tomorrow evening.   Here is a picture of the inside of our church. 

Twice a year, our church sponsors a clay shoot at the Coonhunter Club here in Floyd.  Today we had about 25 shooters.    The girls and I stayed for a while and then we had to go to C-burg to buy ink.  Monday we will be starting school and I needed a few supplies.  

I guess I better get busy.  We will be having a fellowship meal following services tomorrow.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

This MawMaw’s heart is full to overflowing.  I have had lots of MawMaw time this weekend.  Thank you Lord!  First, a picture of Sam.  It will not be long until this swing is too small for him but he sure does enjoy it.

Daniel and Gilbert taking a small rest.  Gilbert is Daniel’s kittie, an early Christmas gift.  He loves Gilbert very much-sometimes maybe a little too much.  Gilbert is a very good kittie though and takes it all in stride.

Alexius and Branson.   Playing with kitties.  Kittens and kids just go so well together.

Landon-wearing PawPaw’s hat.   We went down to Jessica’s for Thanksgiving.  She had a wonderful meal.  Turkey with all the trimmings.  Of course, we all ate too much.  Then we did a little shopping on Friday.  When we came home Friday evening it was very cold here.  A huge change in temperature.  At her house it was fairly warm but not here.  The wind was fierce with gusts of about 40 mph.  Inside our house it was very cold, 56 degrees.   Needless to say, we hurried up and built a fire.

Yesterday when we came back from practicing at church, we had a message on our machine.  Chuck was coming for a visit!  He lives in West Virginia so we do not get to see him or his babies very often.  It was such a nice visit.  We had canned deer, mashed potatoes, green beans, blackberry cobbler and homemade rolls. 

Today, we will be doing the music at church.  The girls will be playing a congregational each and each will be doing one special.  Hubby and I will-with 3 others- will be doing 2 specials.  Pray that all goes well.  I hope you all enjoy your Sunday and God bless.

We learned a valuable lesson yesterday.  First I’ll start on Friday evening.  As you all know we met at the pastor’s house to begin peeling apples for our apple butter.  We peeled 6 bushel.  We decided to put them in salt water overnight so they would not turn brown.

On Saturday morning about 8:00, we built the fire and loaded some of the apples into the kettle.  As the apples cooked down, we would add more to the kettle.

All day we took turns stirring the apples in the kettle.  Fun but hard work.  We had a wonderful day of fellowship with a great meal.  However, we did not get any applebutter.  Before we added the sugar, (Thank you, Lord) we decided to taste the applesauce.  YUCK!!!!!It tasted terrible.  We reviewed all we had done and came to the conclusion our mistake was soaking the apples in the salt water overnight.  The salt reacted with the cooper kettle and the apples were very bitter and metallic tasting.  We ended up throwing them away.  No applebutter, however, we did all have a GREAT time.  It was a lot of fun.  I would do it all again even with the same results.  We are talking about trying again maybe in Oct.  We’ll see. 

Today is a rainy day here in Floyd. No complaints though.   We really need the rain.  Kinda chilly.  Mid 50′s.  We are not having bible study tonight so I think today is a snuggle in and relax evening.  I hope your Sunday will be just as enjoyable.  God bless.

Friday evening we went to our Pastor’s house.  As I mentioned earlier, he gave us some peaches.  He has a small orchard at his house.  All his trees were so full of fruit.  It was beautiful.

These are only a few of the trees.  Grace took lots of pictures.  I will try to post more of them tomorrow.

This is a view from his yard.  Very pretty.  We also ate supper at his house.  Almost everything we had was home grown.  I love to eat this way.  We had hamburgers on the grill, cucumbers, onions and tomatoes from the garden, fresh homemade applesauce, and fresh peaches.  Delicious!

The girls and I did not get to can our beets yesterday.  As it was raining most of the day, we decided to run a few errands in town instead.  Jess had given me some coupons she had for canning jars and lids.  We decided to go to Wal-Mart and get these.  They are a little cheaper there than there are at our local supermarket.  We will be canning the beets today. 

The sun is shining here nicely today.  Temperatures have cooled down some, thanks to the rain yesterday.  Outside temperature is about 80 degrees.  This is one of those weeks when things begin to start building up.  Much to do.  Beans are ready to pick, berries are ready, beets are ready and I think we might have enough tomatoes ripe to make a batch of salsa.  I love to can and put away food for my family however when I start getting behind, it is easy for me to allow that to become a stressor in my life.  I do not want this to happen.  God has given us this bounty and I thank Him for it.  When I was growing up,  the garden and canning controlled our summers.  I do not want that for my girls.  I want the garden and all it involves to be enjoyable and fun for my girls.  I want to keep a balance.  This is hard, as old habits are sometimes difficult to break.  Pray that I will do this well-that my girls will have a love for gardening and canning and not see it as just hard work. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.