MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

Today was spent running errands.  The girls had dentists appointments this morning.  We left home at 9:00 as it takes about an hour to get to Roanoke from here.    After their appointments, we spent some time in Lifeway.  I picked out several studies I think the ladies will enjoy doing.  Then we went to Toys R Us.  The girls wanted to look around.

  When the girls were younger, we always called Roanoke “big big town, Christiansburg was “big town” and Floyd (our town) was called “little town” .  So we came back, went to “little town” and picked up the wheat I had ordered.  It is called Prairie Gold.  It is a hard white spring wheat.  It can be used in all baking, from bread to cookies.  The price was $25.00 for a 50 lb. bag.  Pretty good price.  Tomorrow I hope to make cinnamon rolls to share with a friend on Thursday.  If I’m really industrious, maybe a loaf of bread too.  Our snow is melting more each day.  Temperature today was about 60 degrees.  I went out on my back porch and sat on my porch swing.  I love porch swings.  When I was a little girl, my grandmother had a porch swing and I have loved them ever since.  To me, nothing says relaxing more than a swing, so I have 1 porch swing and 2 yard swings.  All made for me by my loving Hubby.  The girls have had 2 tree swings since they were very small and still enjoy them.  I guess we’re just “a swingin” bunch.   Take care and God bless.

Miss you, already!  We are back from our visit.  The weather was beautiful, 58 degrees when we left this afternoon.  Pretty nice here too, 45 degrees.  The sun is shining and lots of snow has melted.  We actually have a front yard now.  Our little man was sick this weekend.  He has the same thing Julie and Grace have had.  YUCKY!  However,  as we were playing in his toy room this weekend, he looked up at me and said “I love you, MawMaw”.  Well of course my heart melted.  I have tried since he began talking to get him to say that, and just like that he says it.  No prompting from me, nothing.  Just straight from his heart to mine.   Everything in God’s time.  That of course was the highlight of my trip.  We had lots of great food to eat, did some shopping.  I found the girls a dress for piano recital at Goodwill.  Could not find shoes though.  Hopefully we will find some before the recital.  It’s time for us to leave for church.  I just wanted to share with you all my sweet words from my special boy.  Take care and God bless.

My, what a difference a few months can make.  Jasper was about 8 weeks old in this picture.  The other one was taken this morning.  I think he’s grown some, don’t you all?  He is drying off from a bath, waiting on the girls to break for lunch so he can play with them.  I am not sure how this happened.  I’ve never cared for animals in the house.  We now have 2 full time cats inside and 1 part time dog. 

I used to be so strong.  Oh well, it’s not too bad.  The girls really enjoy them being in.  Cold here today.  The wind is blowing pretty hard.  The fire went out last night and when I tried to build a new fire this morning, the smoke was terrible.  I eventually just took the wood out of the stove and left it alone.  I would rather be a little cool than have to deal with all that smoke.  We have the gas logs on so its not too cold.  Hopefully, we will do bible study tomorrow.  I am very excited to begin this study.  Esther is such an exciting book to study and I’m sure Beth Moore will bring out things I would never think about.  We are hopefully going down to Jessica’s this weekend.  I want to do some girl stuff.  The town she lives in has an excellent Goodwill Store.  I love shopping at Goodwill!  I guess I just love thrift store shopping in general, yard sales, consignment sales, etc.  Good deals at good prices.  Well, lunch break is over.  Time for school.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

About 3 weeks ago, I posted the first  picture showing the amount of snow we had gotten.  The second picture was taken this morning.   Not a lot of change, but I know spring is coming.  Our birds are starting to make the nesting calls.  Surely they know things we don’t.  Hopefully we will get to do bible study tomorrow.  Hubby did get the van out this morning.  It took him 5 trys but he did it.  The truck wheel is still locked up so it is not going anywhere.  I will wait until this evening when he returns to find out how bad our road is, hopefully not too bad, so the ladies will be able to come.  We are supposed to start Esther by Beth Moore.  I am very excited about this study.  I love Beth Moore studies.  School today as usual.   The girls and I are watching the entire series of Anne of Green Gables videos.  There have been really good so far.  Well, I guess it is time for school.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

These shots were taken last summer.  This is our home.  As I have said many times, I think we live in a very beautiful part of God’s creation.  Of course, today you would have to really look hard to find the house.  It kinda blends in with all the snow.  The snow stopped falling yesterday afternoon.  It’s very pretty, but I thought maybe I would post something else besides winter scenes.  I thought of flowers but decided to go with these pictures.  Yesterday and today were snuggle in days.  The girls and I watched the 2 disc movie of “Little House on the Prairie”.  We watched disc 1 yesterday and disc 2 today.  We enjoyed it a lot.  We are big fans of the Ingalls family.  I’ve worked on aprons and a little on Grace’s quilt/wallhanging.  I love snuggle in days.  Well, I think I’ll go play with my girls.  God Bless.

P.S.  I didn’t realize when I put the pictures on but they are almost the same.  Sorry about that but as I lack the computer skills to fix this mistake I had to leave it like it was.

More snow!  We already have about 3 more inches and as you can see it is still coming down.  It is supposed to snow all day today and tomorrow.  Wow!  I think it is going to be a snuggle in weekend.  I hope to work on Grace’s quilt this weekend, maybe make a few aprons, have fun with my girls, make a pot of coffee to share with my hubby.  Our front porch is enclosed with glass.  We love to sit out there, drink coffee and watch it snow.  All the beauty without the cold.  I have a beef roast on the wood stove cooking.  I haven’t decided what to put with this yet, probably potatoes and carrots.  Yesterday’s menu was meatloaft, mashed potatoes, green beans, mac & cheese, and biscuits.  School today as usual, maybe make some snow cream later.  Enjoy your day and God Bless.

I thought some of you all might enjoy pictures of what pure fun looks like on a child’s face.  This has been one of the best sled riding snows we have ever had.  Of course, Dad being home has helped make it the best.  Nothing like a big Dad push to really get your sled going at top speed.  No school today.  We took a snow day.  I thought we better enjoy it while we can.  The girls, of course, did not mind at all.  Not much else happening here, just another one of those family days.  I kinda borrowed this from an old Kelloggs commercial and adapted it to fit my lifestyle-Life is Good and the God I serve is GREAT!  I truly enjoy this life the Lord has given me, my family, my home.  I can think of no greater calling than to be a wife and mother.  I pray my home and my words  reflect how I feel.   I will soon have a picture of Julie’s completed wall hanging.  I can’t wait for you all to see it.  Next is Grace’s.  I already have all the material needed to get it set up and ready to start working on.  I love new projects.  They are always so exciting.  Well, it is rest time for me.  God Bless.

I thought the pond looked very pretty this morning.  The sun was shining and the water looks beautiful.    We need to enjoy this sunshine while we can.  Weather reports are calling for a winter storm tomorrow with significant amount of accumulation.  The girls are excited about this.  Sledding!  Prayerfully we will get to meet tomorrow for Ladies Study.  We are going to meet earlier in the day to avoid anyone getting caught in the snow.  In the 6 years we have been doing this study, I don’t think it has ever been this long since we met.    I counted it up yesterday.  This Friday will make 7 weeks.   No wonder I miss those  ladies.  Today will be filled with the usual things.  School, house cleaning, cooking, eating.  Enjoying the love of family.  I pray I never take the little things for granted.  They are all gifts from God.  Feel free to sit on my porch for a while.  Bring a cup of coffe or tea and enjoy the view.  Warning though, it can become habit forming. God Bless.

I received this picture from Dave and could’nt wait to put it on my blog.  Ain’t he just the cutest thing?  Nothing says  boy more than a baseball cap and a truck.  Temperatures here have warmed up greatly.  Highs in the upper 40’s to low 50’s.  The girls have spent much time outside playing which of course Jasper (the pup) loves.  The forecast however is calling for freezing rain Thursday night and Friday morning.  Oh well, it is just the middle of January.  Grace did find a dandelion in bloom yesterday, just to remind us spring is coming.  Not much longer until we see some flowers in bloom.  We  normally have some early wildflowers that bloom here about the end of  March- blood root, colts foot, and periwinkle.   We get so excited when we see them.  Only about 6 more weeks to go.  In the mountains where I was raised, my Mom always planted lettuce, peas and onions on Valentines day.  Can’t do that here.  We have had frost as late as the end of May.  I guess I better quit dream about spring and garden food and get to work.  God Bless.

Well, what do you all think?  Not to be bragging,  but they look pretty good, huh.  Okay so maybe I am bragging a little!  They did turn out pretty good though and they tasted good too.  The good news is we finally have water in our bathroom.   On Wednesday, our temperatures got above freezing, finally.  I’m not completely sure but I think we have not been above freezing since Dec. 18 when the snow came.  Actually there were many days were didn’t get out of the single digits.  I know you all have heard this before, but I really don’t like cold weather.  Anyway, yesterday, we got in the lower 40’s.  The girls thought it was spring time.  On Wednesday we went to visit our friends, the Horn’s.  We returned to find no water pressure in the house, which of course indicates a problem.  Usually this means a water leak somewhere.  After much checking, we discover a busted water line in the little house building (where my wringer washer is).  The line had frozen and when it thawed the old pipe just couldn’t take the pressure.  This required much quick thinking on part of Hubby, as water is gushing out of the pipe.  Thank God for hubbies!  He quickly fixed this problem and before the night was out our bathroom thawed  also.  Thankfully, no leaks.  School today as usual.  We are not meeting for our Friday Ladies Class.  One of our ladies is gone on a trip and the other one has car trouble.  Hopefully next week all will fall back in place.  I really miss when we don’t get to meet.  These ladies are like family to me.  Well, I better get to work.  Oh, I wanted to let you all know, it is 9:00 A.M. and the temperature is already 30 degrees.  WOW!  God Bless.