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.

Yes, I know to many of you who know me, this only confirms the fact that sometimes I am a little crazy.  The sun is shining so brightly here today.  The birds are singing everywhere.  A slight breeze is blowing.  How could I resist hanging my cloths on the line.  Yes, I admit it was cold.  About 36 degrees.  My hands definitely were cold by the time I was finished, but don’t they look absolutely beautiful blowing in the breeze.  They are going to smell soooooooo good!  Spring is coming and it feels so wonderful.  Thank you Lord!  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.

Here on the farm we are blessed to have lots of blackberries.  They are not the thornless kind, however, so they can be difficult to pick.  They are domestic though and have huge berries on them, so it doesn’t take long to pick a gallon.  They looked so pretty  with the snow on them.  My thanks to Julie for the pictures.  We got about 3-5″ of new snow yesterday.  More shoveling!  My peach pie  was very good.  I also made homemade rolls.  I kinda made up a recipe for supper.  We had some chicken left over from Sunday. I sauteed onions, garlic, italian seasoning, and spinach.  Added the  chicken.  Next I added a can of my homemade spaghetti sauce.  Then I added cooked whole wheat penne noodles.  Mixed it all together, added cheese to the top and baked covered 30 min. at 350 degrees.(cast iron skillet of course)  It tasted really good.  Well time for school.  Take care and God bless.

Yes, we have more snow.  It is snowing hard and we have gotten about 1 1/2″ already.  All our shoveled out places are covered again.  I think it is supposed to snow until about 8:00 tonight.  I just pray it doesn’t snow too much.  We plan on going to Jessica’s this weekend.   The last picture shows how hard it is snowing,  if you look really close, you can see the barn in the distance. 

Changing the subject, here is a picture of a peach pie I made today.  Instead of using a pie pan, I put it in one of my cast iron skillets.  The peaches were home canned.  I just thickened up the juice.  The pie crust is really simple.  1/2 cup oil, 1/3 cup milk, 1/4 tsp. salt.  Stir this together, then add 2 1/3 cup sifted all purpose flour.  Mix together.  This will make top and bottom crust.  I used the entire dough for a bottom crust as this skillet is fairly large,  then I put a crumb topping on the top.  I think this need vanilla ice cream on the side.  What do you all think?  Well, enjoy your day and God bless.

I took these pictures this afternoon after church.  This road connects to our road.  About 3 weeks ago when the first drifts came, they cleared this road.  I was told it took 12 hours to clear it.  I can only imagine how tall the snow was then, if it still looks like this 3 weeks later.  Church today was very good, communion with a fellowship meal, then a business meeting.  I went alone as Julie is still sick.   Hubby volunteered to stay home with them.  I very seldom go anywhere alone, so it felt very strange.  Julie is feeling some better though so I pray she is on the mend.   The young pup Jasper seems to be on the mend too.  Take care and God bless.

I apologize for not posting anything is several days.  Things have been a little busy here.  Julie is sick with a sore throat and head cold.  We took her to the doctor yesterday.  Thankfully it is not strep throat.  But she feels yucky just the same.  Rest and lots of liquids for her.  Also we have been doctoring Jasper’s (young dog) paw.  He seems to have stepped on somthing and run it through his paw in 3 different places.   The first day it happened he just limped, the second day it was swollen 3 times normal size, the third day it bled alot, then finally it has started ( I hope) to improve.  The swelling is down, he still can’t put any weight on it, but it looks much better.  Of course, he has been allowed to sleep on the enclosed porch, which I am thinking he likes WAY too much.  Cold temperatures here-below zero wind chills.  Wind gusts of about 60 mph.  We had to let the fire go out in the wood stove.  It was just too much smoke coming in the house, especially with Julie sick.  This is definitely on Hubby’s to-do list to fix this problem this summer. 

The pictures are of drifts in our side yard.  They are a little darker than I had hoped but you can get the idea anyway.  I estimate them to be over 4 ft.  Yesterday when we took Julie to the doctor,  the main road was pretty bad.  3-4 ft. drifts blocking one side of the road.  Lots of places had only 1 lane open.  When we came back, the road crews had cleared them.  Our road crews have definitely spent a lot of time working this winter.  Speaking of work, I guess I better get busy.  Take care and God bless.

A picture of me and Daniel.  We had a lot of fun playing together this weekend.  It is very seldom I get a picture of us together.  I miss you already, Daniel.   He is a very active little boy so he definitely keeps Mommy busy.  We are starting to thaw out a little here.   The snow melted quite a lot yesterday.   We probably still have about 10 inches to melt yet, but we are on the way.  A small storm is coming through today with very little accumulation.  Hopefully there will be church tonight.  We haven’t met on a Wednesday night in about a month.  I think our Friday Ladies Study will meet this week too.  Our driveway and the hill at the barn are passable.  We are starting a Beth Moore study on Esther.  It is my week to do dessert.  I am making something one of the ladies from our Sunday night study gave me the recipe for.  Thanks Faye.  It is extremely easy.  You use ice cream sandwiches, line them up in the bottom of a 9X13 cake pan, cover them with cool whip, drizzle chocolate syrup on that and freeze.  Wow! how easy is that and it is sooooo delicious.  I can hardly wait for the ladies to try it.  I really enjoy trying new recipes.  Well, time for school to start.  I better get busy.  God bless.

Maple tree with buds on it!

Easter lilies popping up!

Okay, so these pictures were taken at Jessica’s house and not mine, but aren’t they beautiful.  My easter lilies may be popping up, who knows,  they’re still buried under a foot of snow.  It is melting some and I’m glad.  The only thing about melting snow is it is no longer pretty, its just dirty and muddy.  Our trip was great.  We extended it longer than we had planned which suited me just fine.  The temperature there was in the lower 60’s on Sunday.  We grilled out and ate our meal at the picnic table.  Wonderful!  Things are taking shape at their new home.  They purchased a new bed over the weekend which means we get their old one-no more air mattress for us when we visit!  Hopefully we will get to visit more often now that spring is close.  Time for school.  Take care and God bless.