MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

I just love to see a sunrise or a sunset.  I think it comes from living in the mountains of southwest virginia.  Where I grew up, you never saw either one. Our house was in what we call a “holler” so the view was blocked by the mountains.  The sun would hit our yard about 11:00 and go down about 3:00.  I guess thats one of the reasons I love living here in Floyd.  In the summer, the sun is in our yard about 6:30 and leaves about 8:00.  Lots of sunshine, which I love.  This morning God put on another show for us to enjoy.  Thank you Lord!  School today as usual.  It is hard to concentrate on school now though.  We feel like we’re been let out of prison.  The temperatue is warm, the snow is almost gone, so of course everyone wants to be outside instead of in.  We try to mix a little of both so it doesn’t get to bad.  Jasper (young dog) had his first experience with a skunk last night.  Not very pleasant.  I tried a remedy one of the ladies from church told me about.  I sprayed him with Febreeze.  It actually helped quite a lot.  He still smells but not as bad. I don’t have to cook tonight, we are eating  at church.  Roast beef and potatoes with all the trimmings.  It has been a long time since we went to church on Wednesday night.  When the weather is bad, they call it off.   I am definitely looking forward to going tonight.  The girls are involved in TeamKids there at church.  They alternate Wednesdays doing childrens choir and handbells.  They really enjoy the handbells.  The adults are doing a Beth Moore study on the fruit of the spirit.  It has been a really good study so far, however we are pretty far behind because of the bad weather we’ve had this winter.   They have decided not to watch the video that goes with it, in order to hopefully get it finished in May.  Guess I better get ready to go.  Take care and 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’ve probably posted this picture before, but I thought we might all need a little color today.  The Butterfly bush and the Rose of Sharon are always full of brillant color.  The rocks came from over the hill on the farm.  I got Marvin to bring them over on the tractor.  He said this was a first for him, usually people want to get the rocks out of their yard not put them in.  I think however it adds to the charm.  Today temperatures will probably be in the upper 20’s.  They say a chance of wintry mix for Friday.  February is almost here though.  Somehow in my mind, in February, my thoughts turn to spring, gardening, flowers, sunshine.   Winter,however, does allow more time for things like sewing, quilting, crocheting.  I am almost finished with Julie’s quilted wall hanging.  I will post a picture of it when I’m finished.  I attempted to make homemade hamburger buns yesterday.  I do not own a hamburger bun pan so I thought I might could put them in my cast iron biscuit pan.  Not a good idea.  The tasted good, however, they looked like jumbo muffins.  We ate them last night covered with cooked deer and gravy and mashed potatoes.  No one seemed to mind how they looked.  I don’t like to give up though so I will try another approach next time.  Well, better get started on school.  God Bless.

Here’s a few more fall pictures.  The maple tree is in our yard close to the house.  It gives wonderful shade to one of my swing areas.  The other picture is in the field behind our house.  The leaves are almost all gone now but the maple is still holding on to some color.  Today is a big day in our house, my baby girl’s birthday.  We will be having a little party tomorrow with friends.  I let them off with half school today.  You gotta do something special on birthdays.   Another beautiful day here in Floyd.  Sunshine, wind, (almost always wind) temperatures in the 50’s.  Chilly enough to have a fire this evening-around 40 degrees now.  Inside the house is nice and toasty thanks to our hard work yesterday.  I think Saturday has been set aside as another wood cutting day, if weather permits.   It is a wonderful feeling to enter winter knowing you have enough wood to keep you and your family warm.  I think these are blessings we sometimes take for granted.   Well time for me to get to work.  God Bless.

Pictures from Christfest Saturday night.  My girls wore puddle skirts,  Daniel is Spider Man, David is Wafer Man and Jess is dressed as a devil.  It was a GREAT surprise when they came to the party.  I had thought they were going to stay at their house to give away candy.  Change of plans, which made MawMaw very happy.  Julie, Grace, and Daniel had a great time playing the games and getting candy.  Everyone probably noticed I spelled the cats name wrong on my last post.  I noticed it too, but did not know how to change it.  Her name is Stripes.  Anyway, I guess I need to use spell check.  We went down to Dave and Jess’ for a few days, worked some more on their bathroom.  The shower stall is now tiled.  We have to put the grout on our next trip.   We worked very  hard today, splitting and stacking wood.  No school today just work.  The girls would rather do school than work this hard, but as I told them we will appreciate it this winter.  I have been blessed with very good girls.  They work hard and complain very little.   They had fun too.  They make work into a game and that makes it fun.  It was a very beautiful day.  Lots of sunshine, temperature around 50 degrees.  Very nice for working outside.   It’s 6:00 and already dark, however, I do like the fact that it gets daylight earlier.  I have always been a morning person.  Well, it time for me to get some stuff done.  God Bless.

Every day the weather permits the girls try to take Jasper on a walk.  They want to teach him how to walk on a lease.  They call this their P.E. class.  They walk to the top of the hill on the tractor road.   As you can tell, the kitten goes too.  Sometimes, however, Dad has a real P.E. class for them.  Anyone who has ever moved much wood knows what a workout that can be.  It was a beautiful day for working outside.  A litte windy, as usual, but warm with lots of sunshine.  The last two days, however, have not been so nice.  Lots of fog and wet.  Oh well.  The girls were probably glad for the fog.  The splitter was loaned to us from a friend at church.  We are very thankful for the use of it.  Splitting wood by hand, I think, is a young man job.  The older we get the harder it is to do.  So thanks again, Dale.  We appreciate it.   Hubby is gone today with other church members to shoot some clays.  The place, I think, is called Primland and that’s about all I know.  They go there quite often.  George has been looking forward to going with them for quite some time.  They seem to always have lots of fun.  Tonight is our Halloween Alternative at church.  We call it Christfest.  Lots of fun.  Dress Up-kids and adults.  Lots of games and candy.  I will try to get some pictures to post so you all can see what fun it really is.  I pray everyone enjoys the children tonight and that everyone will be safe.  In my Daily Bread devotional today, it talks about children tonight filling their bags with candy and then it asks “What are we filling our vessels with?”  Think about it tonight every time you drop candy in a child’s bag.  If we are not filled with the Holy Spirit, we leave room for other things to fill us.  End of sermon.  God Bless.

Coming home from church Sunday, we had this wonderful surprise.  An eagle perched high in the top of this tree.  We have saw a few eagles here on the farm before but never got a picture this good.  It was very exciting.  Today is a very pleasant day here in Floyd.  Sunshine, warm temperatures, and wind.  Of course wind.  School has been going very well today.  Several tests but good grades on all.  I like it when they make good grades, makes me think they must be listening.  Tonight is church night.  We are still doing the Beth Moore study on fruits of the spirit.  It is going very well.  A very interesting study.  For those of you who have done Beth Moore studies you know she does such a great job.  Well lunch break is over. School Time.  God Bless.

Tonight our church sponsors something called a Sportman’s Banquet, or as we call it The Critter Chompin.  Our church has a really great men’s ministry that reaches out to the hunters in our community.  Many women and youth from our church are hunters too.  So this is a great opportunity for them (and us) to enjoy the fruits of their labor.  They will bring lots of wild game especially deer as they are in abundance here.   We’ve taking turkey chili and it is simmering now in the pot.  It smells SO GOOD in here.  I can hardly wait to sample all the good food tonight.   We give away door prizes and have people give testimonies to what Christ has done in their life.  A very nice way to spend an evening.  Today has been a georgeous day in Floyd.   Sunshine, wind, warm temperatures.  Just wonderful.   I think I’ll go enjoy some outside time before we have to leave.  God Bless.

No picture with this post.  Just exciting news.  Jessica is pregnant!!!!!!!  Isn’t the God we serve amazing.  Her estimated due date is early June.  They are both extremely happy and of course MawMaw is too.  More on that little tidbit later.  About my selling day at the Fair.  Not too good.  I paid $30.00 for the spot and made $32.00.  A big $2.00 profit, but at least I made that much.  It was however a fun day.  I met lots of different people and enjoyed lots of sunshine.  And of course spent some time with Daniel.  How much better could a day be.  I’ve been shopping today so we are behind with school and other chores.  I better get busy.  God Bless.

Here’s a picture of the beets I canned the other day.  I pulled 1/2 bushel of beets.  Pretty good for the first time I ever raised  beets here at the farm.  From that 1/2 bushel I canned 9 qts.  This will taste really good this winter with pinto beans and cornbread.  The other jars are pureed tomotoes.  The tomatoes were the yellow striped variety thus explaining the color in the jars.  I had forgotten how much work goes into canning beets.  Quite a lot but as you know most things worth having require  work.  Today was homecoming day at church.  We had a really good day.  Lots of people showed up, good music, good preaching, good eating.  The temperatures are still cool at night here with beautiful sunshine during the day.  Wonderful fall weather.  I think I will take my Daniel bible study and my bible and go out and enjoy some of this wonderful weather God has decided to bless us with.  Enjoy and God Bless.