MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

We have had a BEAUTIFUL day here in Floyd.  The temperature right now is 60 degrees!!!!!!!!!!!!  I absolutely love it.  The girls and I worked on cleaning the house this morning, then we started on school.  Hubby is working on a chair design for us.  He made our kitchen table several years ago and he made benches to go with it.  Well, you know how we women are, now I want chairs instead of benches. 

After he worked some on the chair, he decided to cut wood.  He went up on the hill and cut wood while we finished school.  Then we all worked together splitting the wood and stacking it.  It was a great day for outside work.  My menu plan for tonight has changed.  I had planned on meatloaf, fried potatoes and pinto beans but it is a little too late to do meatloaf.  Hubby said he would like hotdogs so we are having hotdogs and pintos.  Tomorrow we will have the meatloaf. 

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

When Dave & Jess were up for the weekend, we all went riding in the “bumpy” truck.  This is one of Daniel’s favorite things to do when he comes to our house.  It also is one of Grace’s favorite things to do.  She took this beautiful picture of the sunset. 

Yesterday, we went to a friend’s house.  Her sister has thornless blackberries and she had said we could come and pick.  We picked about 1 gal.  They are very easy to pick.  No thorns-I really like that.  We then went back to my friend’s house and had a cookout.  We had hamburgers, pinto beans, cole slaw and watermelon.  It was a really nice day.  We got 3 pints of blackberry juice and 4 pts of blackberry jam, plus saved back about a quart to eat. 

I have some aprons to deliver today, then we will be going over to the Horn’s for a visit.  After that, the girls have piano lessons.  I need to get one more apron made before we leave so I guess I better get busy.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Here are a few pictures of some flowers that are blooming around our house now.  I am pretty sure these are called violas.  I so enjoy their tiny bright blooms.  So cheerful.  Purple and yellow are my favorite color combinations for flowers.

Yesterday, we made strawberry rhubarb jam.  I had enough rhubarb to make a rhubard pie as well.  The recipe I use is :

1 cup rhubard- finely chopped, 1/4 cup melted butter, 1 cup sugar, 2 tbsp cornstarch and 2 eggs well beaten.  Combine all ingredients and pour into 1 unbaked pie crust.  Bake at 350 degrees until done.  It takes about 45 min in my oven.  I have made this pie for about 25 years.  It is a family favorite.

Today was friends day at church.  We had a great day.  Probably about 70 people in total.  Our numbers usually run in the 40′s.  We had some really good music, a good sermon from our pastor and  a great fellowship meal afterward because you all know how much we like to eat.  I took pinto beans, green onions and a peach sauce pie.   We won’t be having evening bible study tonight so we plan on just relaxing this evening.  The girls and I will be traveling down to Jessica’s tomorrow to watch the boys.  She will be having an ultra sound tomorrow to (maybe) discover if she will be having a boy or girl.  This all depends upon the baby’s cooperation of course.  

Enjoy your day and God bless.

We finally managed to get some pictures of the baby ducks.  They have grown so much.  When she first brought them off the nest, they were so tiny.   We could hardly see them in the grass. 

She is getting very brave with them now.  In these pictures, she is in the edge of the yard.  Maybe not too smart with all the cats we have running around here.

Today has been rather hot here.    Hubby worked some on putting the vinyl siding on the new room we built last fall.  He almost got it all finished.  We washed clothes and hung them out.   They dried pretty quick.  Todays “lupper” was wilted lettuce and onions with crumbled bacon,  pinto beans and corn on the cob.  I also baked some corn bread and made some flitters, watermelon for dessert.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

So here are the other pictures I could not get to load yesterday. 

Today we are getting much needed rain.  The fog has already come in so it promises to be a dreary day here in Floyd, a good day for a inside project. Temperature is about 35 degrees.  Hopefully, this will all be rain.   I am hoping next week to get some outside work done here.  All the trees and bushes need trimming, along with the grapevines.   We also need to do some cleanup in the blackberries.  Not my favorite job.  The thorns are hard to work with but it has to be done if we want to enjoy the berries.   I love outside work.  In my opinion, so much more fun than cleaning house.   I am already looking forward to enjoying  fresh fruit and veggies. 

I added a little bit to my menu  last night.  One of our favorite things to eat in the spring is wilted lettuce and green onions.   Hubby likes pinto beans with his.  So I purchased some fresh baby greens at the store, put a little chopped onion on top.  Then I heated olive oil  (shameful but I did not have bacon grease).  Next step is to pour some of the hot oil on top of the greens and onions, then top it off with pinto beans.  A big chunk of cornbread finished it up.    It was not as good as it would have been fresh from our garden but it definitely was good.  

Enjoy your weekend and God bless.

Daniel is doing some serious thinking about something, probably something he can get into.

Baby Sam is definitely growing.  I have other pictures but for some reason I could not get them to load correctly.  Hopefully, I will be able to post them tomorrow.  Today is sunny here but kinda chilly.   Temperature is 30 degrees.  It was 18 degrees this morning when Hubby went to work.  I am going to hang clothes outside in just a few minutes.  I’ll need a coat and gloves though.  I can’t stand for my fingers to get cold.  I know I’m becoming wimpy in my old age. 

We are planning to go to our friends, the Horns, after lunch.  It has been too long since we got to spend time together.  Supper tonight is cooked beef chunks with potatoes, pinto beans and corn bread.  I already have the beef in the crockpot.  Before we leave to go to the Horns, I will add the potatoes.    I also have the pintos cooking in another crockpot.  Hopefully all will be done when we get home except baking the corn bread. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Today has been a very pretty day here in Floyd. Beautiful sunshine and as you can see the sky is just amazing. Such a bright, vibrant blue. It is warmer than it has been. 25 degrees with very little wind. All in all, this makes for a fairly nice day.
I wanted to put a picture of my latest apron on, but for some reason I am having difficulties with my pictures. I think I will need some help, Dave.
Tonights menu will be pinto beans(cooked on the wood stove) Kielbasa with cabbage, cornbread and the buttermilk chocolate cake for dessert. Pintos cooked on the wood stove are just sooooo good. I guess they prefer slow cooking.
Enjoy your day and God bless.

For many years, I have thought about trying to make one of these.  However I have always been intimidated by the idea of rolling it up.  I’m not sure why as I make many other things that need to be rolled.  Anyway, today was the day I put my fears behind me and tackled it.  Guess what?  It was not near as difficult as I thought it would be.  With a little practice, I think it would even be easy. 

Today is an absolutely beautiful day here in Floyd.  Temperatures are in the mid 60′s. Lots of sunshine.  Just beautiful!  I can hardly wait to get my stuff finished and get out in this wonderful weather.   Yesterday I cooked a large pork roast in the crockpot.  We had pork roast, cheesy potatoes and pinto beans.   Tonights menu will be pork bbq with homemade buns, home fries and slaw.   I think there will be enough pork left over for burrittos tomorrow night.  I like to do this.  Cook a large amount of meat and then use it in several different ways for supper over the next few days.  This speeds up cooking time in the evening. 

I think I need to get busy.  My “green swing” is lonely and needs me to come keep it company.  God bless.

We have a slight breeze here in Floyd today.  Well, okay maybe more than a slight breeze but not a hard wind.  Just perfect for drying clothes on the line.  When the wind is blowing like this, the clothes are so soft when they get dry.  We had a busy weekend but lots of fun.  The girls and I went to Sam’s Club Saturday and picked up a few things.  Before that we went to one of our local malls and walked around, just looking.  This is something we never do, so that made it special.  They have already started putting up their Christmas stuff.  It was so much fun.  Yesterday was church day.  The pastors sermon was very good.  He compared being a soldier in the Armed Forces with being a soldier in God’s army.  He did a really good job.  Last nights menu was soup, pinto beans, cornbread, tator tot casserole, cooked apples and carrot cake.  Very good.

Today we are doing Grace’s birthday party.  We are going over to our friends the Horns to celebrate.  Vicki is making the cake and I am taking some homemade chicken noodle soup.  We are all looking forward to a great day.  I know I have said it before, but we are very blessed by the Lord to have the Horns in our life.  We so appreciate their friendship.

Well, I gotta go party.  Take care and God bless.

Here is another picture from our outing yesterday.  Such beautiful colors.  Today has been busy working on the new room.  We have the vinyl flooring down.  Now I should pause to say “where I come from”  we call this linoleum.  Here they call it vinyl flooring.  Anyway, it is down on the floor.  All the trim is cut, painted and on except for the window trim.  It is really starting to look like a room.  I will try to post a picture of it soon so you all can see our progress. 

We did not have ladies bible study today.  Two of the ladies were unable to come so we just decided to call it off.  Probably for the best, my house is a little cluttered right now.  Hopefully, soon it will all be finished and we can get everything back in order.  Today has been a beautiful day here in Floyd.  Nice temperatures, cool but not too much,  lots of sunshine.  We did have a fire all day which has felt really nice.  I cooked my first kettle of pinto beans on the wood stove today so I guess fall is officially here.  There is no better pinto beans than those cooked on a wood stove-in my opinion. 

Well, still more to get done.  Enjoy your evening and God bless.