Birds

We have been entertained all day today by these beautiful birds. Many, many birds. Every time I looked out my dining room window, I would see 50-60 birds in our yard. Probably 20 of these were doves. We love feeding the birds. They love sunflower seeds. This morning as Hubby and I were sharing our coffee together, we listened as they sang morning praises to the Lord. Beautiful! We take care of them by feeding them and they take care of us by providing beautiful praise music. I think that’s a fair trade. It was a little distracting doing school and watching the birds, though. Well, the fog has moved in here. Super foggy. High wind warnings for tomorrow and Thursday 25-30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph. This will be for Wednesday and Thursday. I never knew what fog and wind could be like until we moved to Floyd. No church tomorrow night-it’s already cancelled. I guess it isn’t done snowing yet. I just looked out and the snow is pouring down. Oh well. We are warm inside our home, our tummy’s are full and our children are happy. Life is good! God Bless.

February 9, 2010 0

More Snow Pictures

A picture of the field. I was hoping it would show how the sun was glistening off the snow. It was absolutely beautiful.

Our road after the tractor had made a path.

Going up the hill beside the hay barn. Yes, that brown spot proves there is still dirt under all this snow.

Guess what? We’re supposed to get more snow tomorrow. Not much though-about 3″. After all this, we probably won’t even notice 3 more inches. Anyway, we have company coming over today. My brother-in-law and his wife are coming. I made homemade vegetable beef soup(cooked on the wood stove, of course)and I’m making rolls as I type this. I use my bread machine to mix and knead the dough. I love this machine. It is a Zojirushi.

I bought it used several years ago and consider it a very valuable helper. I put 1 cup lukewarm water into the machine, 1/4 cup butter-cut into chunks, 1egg beaten, 3 1/4 cups bread flour, 4 tbsp sugar, 3 tbsp powdered milk, 1tsp salt, 1 1/2 tsp yeast. Set the machine to dough cycle and walk away. It takes the machine l hr 50 min. to run through this cycle. Then I take the dough out, punch it down and form the rolls. I get about 15 rolls from 1 batch. Then I spray them with olive oil and let them rise for about 1 hr. Bake 12 min. at 425 degrees. When I take them out of the oven, I brush them with melted butter(being generous with the butter). Half of these never make it to the table. They get eaten as soon as the butter is spread on them. One thing I do a little different from this recipe is I put 1 1/4 cup fresh ground wheat flour and 2 cups bread flour instead of using all bread flour. My family doesn’t care a lot for whole wheat so I mix it. I guess I better go check on my rolls and get ready for company. God Bless.

February 8, 2010 3

Our Home

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.

February 7, 2010 2

Honey Bun Cake Recipe

This is my honey bun cake recipe. It is really easy but oh so delicious. 1 box yellow cake mix, 4 eggs, 3/4 cup oil, 8 oz.sour cream (or sour cream substitute). Mix ingredients, spread 1/2 mixture in a greased 9X13 cake pan. Sprinkle 1/2 of the following mixture on top–1 cup brown sugar, 1 tbsp cinnamon. Spread remainder of cake batter on top sprinkle remaining brown sugar mixture on top of this. Swirl batter with a butter knife. Bake at 350 degrees 35 minutes or until done. For the glaze I use 2 cups powdered sugar, 2 tsp. vanilla and 5-6 tbsp evaporated milk. Drizzle glaze on while cake is still warm and enjoy. I would like to take a minute to thank my friend Marie for this recipe. She is one of the best cooks I have ever known. Unfortunately, Alzheimers has robbed her memory of many great recipes but every time I make this cake I think of her. I hope you all enjoy it as much as we do. God Bless.

February 6, 2010 2

Before and Now

I thought you all might enjoy seeing how much snow we have. I wanted to give you something to judge by, so I found the picture of the rock area in summer and then how it looks this morning. And guess what? It’s still snowing. Perhaps most of the day. Wow! This is definitely a record year for snow accumulation here. But you know, even with all the snow we’ve had, I still think it is beautiful. When it is fresh and bright white, it is georgeous. However, one can only stand so much white, right. I am ready to see some yellow, purple, red. Some pansies would be nice, right Jess. Well, everything has a season. I think I want to enjoy this season and what God wants to bless us with instead of wishing for something else. I’m working on this process, anyway.

I made a honey bun cake yesterday. It turned out really good. The recipe called for sour cream. I did not have any and as we are snowed in couldn’t just run to the store to get some. I went on line (what would we do without the internet) and found a substitute for sour cream. Put 1 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice in a cup-add enough milk to make 1 cup. It really works. I could not taste the difference. Well, I thinks I’ll get busy watching the snow. God Bless.

February 6, 2010 2

More Snow

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.

February 5, 2010 1

Snow Covered Pond

It is hard to tell where the pond begins and where it ends in this picture. The snow covered the ice and it all seemed to blend together.. We did our bible study today. Yes I know it’s not Friday, however, another storm is scheduled to come in tonight. Posssibly up to 12 more inches by Saturday night. I can hardly wait! We thought if we were going to meet this week we better do it today. We finished our study on Peter so next Friday we will begin Beth Moore’s study on Esther. I believe it will be an excellent study. I always enjoy her studies. They can get kinda hard sometimes but most things worthwhile require work. Well, better get busy. God Bless.

February 4, 2010 0

Projects

Here is Julie’s wall hanging. What do you all think? I think maybe for a beginner it might not be too bad. It really was a lot of fun. There was a little more guilting involved than I first anticipated but I think it turned out okay. I am going to start Grace’s hopefully this week. More snow today. We have had more snow this winter than we have had since we have lived here at the farm-6 yrs. now. I hope this makes for an excellent garden year. Hopefully lots of good veggies and fresh fruit. Fruit trees in our area did not do well last year and we really missed all those good apples, pears, and peaches.

Another project I worked on today. Making our own hamburger buns. This batch turned out much better than the first batch. At least these look like buns. We’ll find out this evening how they taste. I think hamburgers and fries for supper. School has been a little slow today, sometimes this happens when we take a day off. Of course, the snow outside didn’t help any. The forecast is calling for another storm to come in over the weekend. I guess this will mean no MawMaw time. Maybe the next weekend. Well break time is over. Time for school. Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting. God Bless.

February 2, 2010 3

Fun

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.

February 1, 2010 2