MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

Our forsynthia bush is in full bloom.  I love the bright yellow color, so cheerful.  Today is beautiful here in Floyd.  Temperature is mid 50′s, the sun is shining and the wind is not too aggressive.   Very nice.  I have one load of clothes on the line and another on the way.  We are busy with school and have plans for outside time this afternoon.  

Yesterday was a nice day too.  Church was very nice and our evening study went very well with lots of discussion.  Our menu last night was beef roast with potatoes and carrots, green beans, macaroni salad, cookies and peaches.  Very good.  We did hamburgers on the grill for lunch yesterday, with grilled onions and asparagus.  I love cooking on the grill.  I think it makes everything taste so good.   

Enjoy your day and God bless.

This is a far off picture of the graveyard that is on the farm.  This picture was taken from the top of our driveway.

This is a closer shot.  Right beside the graveyard is a hay barn.

I’m sure Jess will recognize this picture.  On the left of this picture at the bottom of the hill is an old farmhouse.  Dave and Jess lived there for several years before they moved to N.C. 

Today will be school as usual, though we have not gotten our early start.  We are running a little behind as Hubby and I did not wake up as early as usual.   Saturday, we worked on cleaning up an area where we used to have the swimming pool.  This was a major job which required almost 5 hrs. to finish.  We had the back of the truck completely full of trash to haul to the dumpster.   We had to cut the pool liner in pieces.  It was too heavy to move in one solid piece.  We kept the parts of the pool we thought we might could reuse.  We were all muddy from head to toe, including the “bumpy truck”.  But I am so glad to get this job done.  Vicki and Quintin are giving us some strawberry plants and we plan on putting them in that space.

Yesterday’s menu at church was pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, green beans, cole slaw, beef strogonoff, key lime pie and cookies.  We started our new study on Galatians.  I think it will be a very good study.   I better get busy or school will be starting really late.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Yesterday, we stopped at Goodwill while on our way to the eye doctor.  The girls found these Narnia books.  They were so happy.  It is the complete set except for book 2 “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.  We will have to be watching for it.  Grace got a good report at the eye doctor.  Her vision had improved some.  She will be picking out new glasses next week.  We have been  blessed so much with improvement in her vision.  She will probably always have to wear bifocals but she has definitely come a long way.   We are extremely grateful to God for this blessing.

Today is still chilly here with a chance of rain for this afternoon but the rest of the week is supposed to be really nice-much warmer.  We are doing school as usual.  Later we will be going into town for piano lessons.  Tonight’s menu is kielbasa, cooked cabbage, and potatoes.  I think I will make a batch of rolls to go with it.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

I want to share with you all our wonderful news.  We just found out this morning that Jessica is pregnant.   We are not sure how far along she is.  She will be going to the doctor on Wednesday for her first appointment.   God is SO good!  His kindness toward His children always amazes me.  Thank you Lord!  I would so appreciate it if you all would be in prayer for her and this new life she carries.

We have sunshine today with wind gusts of about 50 mph.  Temperature is cold.  Actual temperature is 35 degrees.  I’m not sure what the wind chill is but I know it is cold.  I have one load of clothes on the line but I have to keep going out to pick them up off the ground.  The wind keeps blowing them off the line.  I think I’ll probably just go bring them in.  I wanted to do some trimming today but I think I’ll have to postpone it until tomorrow.  Hopefully it will be warmer then.

We had our first lesson today in our new study, NO OTHER GODS by Kelly Minter.  It seems to be a good study.  She asks a lot of questions that cause us to search ourselves for the answers.  I think these are hard studies.  I guess I’m just not very good at self evaluation.

Tonights menu will be ham biscuits, the leftover kale and potatoes.  I made fresh rolls today for the ham however half of them have already been eaten.  I love to cook things that get eaten quickly.  It makes me fill happy inside.  I also made a fifteen bean soup with ham for tomorrow.  I like to make soup a day ahead when I can.  I always think it taste better the next day. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

I think my Christmas Cactus is confused.  It bloomed around Christmas time and has decided (to our great pleasure) to bloom again.  It looks so cheerful and happy in the room. 

Todays temperature was a little warmer when we got up, 26 degrees.  It is a little overcast  but the sun is coming through.  It is now about 30 degrees.  I have one load of clothes on the line and am getting ready to take another.  They are predicting rain for tomorrow.

On the menu for tonight is pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, and kale.  I think I will do homemade biscuits with it and have cooked apples for dessert.   Time for us to start school.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

The birds are starting to come in to the feeders now.  Different ones than we get in the winter.  They make such a joyful sound to the Lord.  As soon as I get up in the morning, they are already singing.  I go hang clothes on the line, their music fills the air.  Such blessings the Lord gives.

Our weekend weather was a little different.  It started to rain about 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning.  It rained all day Saturday, all night Saturday night and most of the day Sunday.  All our little creeks were overflowing.  Several places the creek was running across the road when we came back from church Sunday afternoon.  Then it started to ice, then it snowed some and finally it got bitter cold.  When we came out from church last night, the side doors to the van were frozen shut.  Julie and Grace had to get in the the front doors.  We had some fierce wind so I guess that made the doors freeze.  This morning it was 20 degrees when we got up.  The wind has slowed down to a more manageable breeze, the sun is shining and hopefully it will get warmer.  I just checked and it is 32 degrees now.  I already have 2 loads of clothes on the line and another load ready to go out.  I love clothes dried outside.

We finished our study of II Corinthians last night.  Next week we will begin in Galatians.  Our supper menu last night was pigs in a blanket, mashed potatoes, corn, baked beans, cornbread and a sour creme pound cake for dessert.  I tell you, we sure do eat good.  Our pastor says if you like to eat and shoot this is the church for you.  As you may remember, our church does a lot of clay shoots as a men’s outreach.  Lots of the women shoot too.  We certainly have a lot of fun at our church.  Hopefully, I haven’t made it sound like a social club.  We are very dedicated to worshipping and serving the Lord.  We just believe the Lord wants us to have fun too.

Well, it is time for school.  Enjoy your day 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.

Good morning!  No picture today.  I just couldn’t find anything I thought  was interesting.  We had a really nice weekend.  We went down to Jessica’s on Saturday, planning on coming home that evening.  Things happened and we ended up staying the night and coming home on Sunday.  It was a nice visit.  I got to play some games with Daniel and got plenty of beautiful smiles from Sam.  I just wish I had taken my camera then I would have some pictures to post today.  

Temperatures are chilly here-about 14 degrees with a little snow falling.  Lots of cloud coverage.  I have a deer roast simmering on the wood stove.  It smells so good!  I think we will have mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans with it and, of course, fresh baked rolls.  I have two new aprons cut out and hopefully I will get to work on them today.  It is matching mother/daughter waist aprons.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

I finally finished the apron using one of the new patterns.  What do you all think?  I think my other apron pattern was a lot easier and faster but I know it is time to step it up a notch.  My thanks to Grace for modeling for me.  I used some material I already had to practice on.  I’m not sure I like the rick rack, though.  I have another pattern to try and then I will decide which one I want to use for the matching mother, daughter, doll aprons. 

No church today due to bad weather conditions.  Dave, Jess, and boys did get to come yesterday however the wind came also.  It was just too cold for Daniel to play in the snow.  Wind chills below zero.  We had a good visit though.  I made fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and homemade rolls for “lupper”.   For those of you confused by this term, this is when it is too late for lunch and too early for supper.  We also had cushaw pie for dessert with whipped creme. 

Now I must tell the story of why we had fried chicken for lupper.  Earlier in the week, Jess had mentioned she would like to have fried chicken.  As I knew they would not get to stay long, I thought something a little faster would be better.  I decided on hot roast beef sandwiches with green beans.  They called when they were on the way here and she jokingly said David would have liked fried chicken too.  This conversation was on speaker phone.  Hubby overhearing about the fried chicken, which happens to be his favorite meal, said “Oh, I didn’t know fried chicken was an option”.  By this time I am feeling a little out numbered so I decided to give in and make the chicken.  It was a wise choice.  Everyone enjoyed the meal and that makes this mama’s heart happy. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Today we are getting back into the swing of school.  We had too many errands  yesterday to start.  We also visited some with the Horn’s yesterday.  For Christmas, the Horn girls had received a kit from Wal-Mart to make a little girl apron and a little doll apron.  I took some interfacing over and Vicki and I traced out the pattern.  So I now have a little doll apron pattern to make.  I want to make a mother, daughter, and doll apron to match. 

Temperatures here are much nicer than they have been however yesterday morning was pretty cold.  Temperature yesterday was 14 when we got up but it did warm up nicely with lots of sunshine.  Cloudy today though, of course, because I am home and could hang our clothes on the line today.  Oh well, thats how it goes.  Hubby worked on getting some more wood yesterday while the girls and I ran errands. 

Tonights menu is something I really don’t have a name for.  I brown hamburger meat, add onions, cabbage, and potatoes.  The options are limitless as to what you can add.   I sometimes add fresh peppers, zucchini, squash, mushrooms.  I like fresh baked cornbread with it.   I got some  cushaw from the freezer this morning.  I think I will make a pie for dessert. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.