Teapots, Sugar bowls and Creamers

I thought I would share a few pictures of my teapots, sugar bowls and creamers with you all. I think I have told this story before but some of you may not know it. This sugar bowl and creamer belonged to my mother. She told me when she was a very young girl, a man came by the house peddling his wares. He was riding a horse and carried his things to sell inside saddle bags that hung down each side of the horse. He was showing his things to sell to my grandparents and my mother saw this set. She asked if she could have it and my grandfather said yes. This was a rare treat as few things were ever bought at her home. This was the first item to go into her “hope chest.”

And here they are sitting nice and pretty on the shelves Hubby built for me.

Today is cloudy here with a coolness in the air. I think we are supposed to get cooler temps this weekend. We went over to clean the church yesterday. It was our last week of cleaning until next September. The men at church have been working on putting a roof over the entrance to the basement. Grace got a few pictures of them hard at work.

They got quite a lot done and they are working there today as well. I hope you all enjoy your day and God bless.

September 30, 2011 4

Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice Coffee Creamer

I thought I would share with you all my recipe for pumpkin pie spice coffee creamer. I got the original recipe from http://drink.betterrecipes.com/pumpkin-pie-spice-coffee-creamer.html I have altered it a little to suit our taste. I use 1 cup plain non dairy coffee creamer, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup powdered milk and 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice mix. Mix together with a whisk. After mixing, I put the mixture in my coffee grinder and grind it up a little finer than it already is, just to make sure everything is incorporated. This creamer goes wonderful with the pumpkin spice coffee I told you all about yesterday. This jar is for Jess, per request. We will be going down on Saturday for her baby shower.

I have clothes to get on the line and school to start so I guess I better get busy. I hope you all enjoy your day and God bless.

September 29, 2011 7

Water Pictures

Here are a few more pictures from our trip Sunday. This little waterfall was very pretty.

See all the cracks in the rocks.

And last, just a little stream to listen to. So relaxing.

The girls and I went to Roanoke yesterday. They had a dentist appointment. After the appointment, we did a few things they enjoy doing. We went to Books-A-Million, which is one of their favorite places to go. We went to Sam’s Club to pick up a few things we needed. We then walked around a little bit in the mall. Joann’s Fabric had fleece on sale so we wanted to go by there. Grace will be making a top with it for her next sewing project with Mrs. Sally. We discovered that Joann’s was no longer there. We were very disappointed. We wanted to stop at Fresh Market to get some pumpkin spice coffee. It is a specialty coffee they only have in the fall. Well, we were pulling into the shopping center and one of the girls said, “Mom, look, there’s Joann’s.” Yea! So, Grace got her fleece and Mom got her coffee. Grace chose a red with white snowflakes on it. I think it will look very good.

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

September 28, 2011 6

Natural Bridge

We had such fun day yesterday. We went with the Horn’s to Natural Bridge. I have lots of pictures to show you all. We’ll start today with the bridge itself. Isn’t it beautiful?

This picture shows how big the bridge actually is.

I love this picture of Grace. I wanted one of Julie too but she was ahead of us with the Horns.

I wanted to tell you all the amazing blessing we had on Friday. We went with Hubby to check on a job and were coming home from C-burg. We had some rain and then the sun came out. When this happens, we are always on the lookout for rainbows. Well, we found not one but two. The girls and I had never seen a double rainbow. These both were complete arches reaching from one end of the sky to the other. They were so huge. Sometimes it seemed as if we were driving right into them. We got to see them for at least 15 min. It was so amazing. We were so excited. I wish I had my camera with us to take pictures but it probably would not have done any good. Vicki was at home with her camera but she couldn’t get a picture of it. She said it was too big to get it all. Isn’t God good to show us something like that.

I’ll show you all more pictures of our trip next time I post. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

September 26, 2011 8

Apron

Well, ladies, I finally finished the apron I was working on. This is the one I told you all I was making from an old pillowcase. I think it turned out really well. I am looking forward to making more aprons from pillowcases. Now I need everyone’s opinion. I always pin these little tags on my aprons.

So now I am wondering what to say on the aprons made from old pillowcases. I think it would be neat for people to know their apron was made from an old pillowcase but then I’m not sure and if I did how would I word it? I would appreciate your ideas on this.

Have any of you ever seen a mushroom that looks like this? Hubby was mowing around the pond and found this one. We have never seen one before. It is definitely strange looking.

Anyway, here is Shadow doing one of his most favorite things. He doesn’t swim but he certainly loves to wade in the pond. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

September 22, 2011 6

Old Books

I love old books, especially old school books. I thought I would share a few of them. I thought I might share how our school days “normally” go. I usually wake the girls around 7:00 A.M. They get dressed, make their beds and come downstairs by 7:30. Sometimes they fix their own breakfast and sometimes I do. It mostly depends on what they are having and how our time is running. I begin cleaning up the kitchen and they start piano practice. They practice 30 min. each. While one is practicing the other one is helping me and then vice versa. We shake the rugs and sweep the floors every morning. We have certain days that we do other things, clean bathroom, dust. I have a chart made with the days of the week on it and the designated chores for that day. We try to have all the house chores finished before we start school. It is so difficult for me to concentrate on school if these things are not already done. Laundry gets worked in every day. We are normally finished with all this around 9:15. They then get a 15 min. break to do whatever they want. We try to start school by 9:30. We say our pledges, pray and then begin. Bible is always first. Then they take turns chosing what subject they want to do. Our subjects are bible, spelling, history, science, math and language. Most days we are half way through by lunch time. We break an hour for lunch. Free time for everyone (except Mom). We then finish up somewhere between 1:00 and whenever. Yesterday was a long day for us. It was about 3:30 when we finished. Julie’s math was very long. Today is an easier day. It is now lunch time and all we lack is math. I’m glad as we need to work up an 1/2 bushel of apples. I already have them in the steam juicer and I want to make applesauce from them. Well, our lunch break is almost over. I hope I didn’t bore you all too much. Enjoy your day and God bless.

September 21, 2011 7

A Candle Kind of Day

Today is the kind of day that just begs me to light candles. I love candles. I think they make any day a little brighter but especially dark, gloomy, rainy days like today. This is a picture of our mantle. My good friend, Vicki, bought me this candle holder. See how the light reflects from the mirror.

These candles are in our “sitting room”. We call it that because it is a wonderful place to just sit. The view from the windows is beautiful. When I took this picture, my Grace was sitting there enjoying reading a good book. She dearly loves to read.

And this is the view from the window that you see in this picture.

We are so blessed. Well, time for school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

September 20, 2011 6

Pirate in Training

Sorry, I have no picture to share today. We went down to Jessica’s yesterday for Daniel’s birthday party and I forgot to put the card in the camera, so no pictures. He had a great party though. At this point, pirates are very big in his world so he had a pirate party. Now I’m getting ready to tell you what was (in my opinion) the best part of the party. Jess had bought “pirate sword and shields” for all the kids at the party. There was about 8 kids there. They are all playing pirate and here comes Daniel with a sword and a shield for MawMaw. “Come on, MawMaw, we got pirates to get”. So here we go around the house with our swords and shields ready. I am sneak attacked by a pirate. I said to Daniel, “help, I’m under attack!” Here he comes, so serious. “Don’t worry, MawMaw. I’ll save you”. Now how cool is that. All those kids to play with and he wanted to play with MawMaw. God is so good. Enjoy your day and God bless.

September 18, 2011 7

Stack Cake

It’s not very often I make two posts in one day, but I thought this was worth sharing. Tomorrow we will be going down to play with the boys while Jess has another doctor’s appointment. She asked me if I could make her a stack cake. This cake goes by different names. Some call it a stack cake, others a “lassie” cake (molasses). No matter what you call it, it is GOOD! In the mountains where I grew up, this cake was common at most all family get-togethers. It is not as common now, as the art of making them has all but disappeared. It took me many years of trial and error, but I finally got it. (I think, anyway.) These cakes are best eaten the next day. Most like them with a cold glass of buttermilk. In Grundy, these sell for $15.00-$20.00 and worth every penny. The layers are thin and between them is a good amount of homemade applebutter. Well, I just wanted to show you all my accomplishment for the day. Just kidding, it didn’t take me all day to make it but it did take a long time to clean up afterward. Enjoy your day and God bless.

September 15, 2011 8

Apron

Here is a picture of the apron I just finished. I am hoping to take it to the Bread Basket today. I am working on another apron that I am making from an old pillowcase. I will take a picture of it when it is finished. We have been busy with school this week. It seems to be going pretty well. I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies because school is just not school without cookies-or so I have been told. We have had fairly nice weather here this week. I think though rain is in the forecast and cooler temps. We’ll see. Well, it actually started to sprinkle as I typed this, so the girls and I had to make a run out to the clothesline to get them off before they got too wet.

It is corn cutting time. For several weeks, this is a familar site here on the farm. They started cutting above the house this morning. Well, our lunch break is over. Enjoy your day and God bless.

September 15, 2011 5