Sunday

Hello ladies. Weather here has certainly decided to change. Just a few days ago, we didn’t even need a fire. Last night, temperatures dropped to 5 degrees with wind gusts of 60 mph. This put the wind chill to about -10 or lower. To top all that off the power went off about midnight and stayed off until around noon today. Thankfully, we do not need electricity for heat or we would have definitely been cold. However, when the electricity came back on, our water was frozen. We had left it running slightly last night so that it wouldn’t freeze but when the power went off the pump stopped working, therefore the water stopped running. We worked on thawing it out after lunch. We now have hot and cold water in the bathroom and laundry room but only cold water in the kitchen. Thank you, Lord! It seems no matter how hard we try, when the wind blows that fierce and the temperature drops that low, our water seems to always freeze. I am very grateful that it thawed as easy as it did. You all may remember a few years back, our water remained frozen in the bathroom for an entire month. YUCK!

Well, that’s enough of my woes. Last week, I heard a funny saying for when someone is complaining. “Do you want some cheese with that whine?” I think I’ve whined enough. Sorry ladies. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

February 12, 2012 5

Grace and Sam

Grace and Sam are pretty big buddies. She is usually his watcher and Julie has Daniel. As you can see, Sam must be barricaded away from the construction zone. He is just a little bit too much help.

He looks a little sad, don’t he?

The electrical is all done and the ceiling is hung. Monday we will hang the walls and start putting the mud on (hopefully). After that, the new floor goes down. Hubby will be building her a pantry to go beside her new stove.

The boys were very happy when they were allowed inside the construction zone to help. They worked very hard pulling up the old tile. Daniel would pull it up with his special tool and Sam would carry it to the trash. Very good helpers.

Temperatures here are very cold. Wind gusts of about 40 mph with an actual temperature of 13 degrees, putting the wind chill below zero. Our wood stove has been working hard keeping us nice and warm inside though. I hope you all have a great weekend and stay warm. God bless.

February 11, 2012 5

Update on Facelift

Hello ladies. Just a quick update on our progress so far. Here is a picture of the ceiling just as we were beginning to tear it all down.

After tearing down all the ceiling this is what it looked like. We now have 10 recessed lights in the ceiling but I didn’t get any pictures of that. We came home late this evening to feed up all the animals. We’ll be leaving early in the morning to go back and work some more. Tomorrow we hope to get the lights finished and start hanging the sheet rock. We also will be tearing up the old floor and putting down a new laminate flooring. We will have to do some leveling of the floor first though.

Her new stove was delivered today. She is so happy with it. Her old stove was just a stove top with the oven built into the wall, probably an early 70’s model. If you look in the background you will see the old oven. This will be coming out and Hubby will be building her a pantry to take it’s place. They also plan on painting the cabinets.

Well, that’s all for tonight. I hope to get caught up on everyone’s blogs tonight but I’m not sure. I’m pretty tired. Please be in prayer for David. He had surgery on his knee back in January and it still hurts him quite a lot. It definitely is not healing as fast as we all thought it would.

Enjoy your evening and God bless.

February 8, 2012 5

Having Fun

Good morning, ladies! We had a great visit yesterday with David, Jess, and the kids. It was a nice warm day and as you can see, most of it was spent outside. If you look on the ground you can see where Daniel’s boots are. I guess they got in the way of swinging.

Sam and Katie. Sam had so much fun sitting with Katie and taking pictures. Every time the we would take a picture, he would just bust out laughing. So of course, we took MANY pictures. I thought this one was the best.

David helped Hubby fix the brakes on the car yesterday. It was a full day’s job but we think they are finally fixed. Thank’s again Dave for helping. Jess and I worked inside on making her some applebutter. She ended up with 5 qts. We had spaghetti with homemade sauce, rolls and cinnamon rolls for dessert. Daniel told me spaghetti was his favorite. I made a new recipe for cinnamon rolls and I really liked this recipe. Much better than the one I had been using. I got the recipe here. http://homejoys.blogspot.com/2011/02/sweet-dough.html I also posted the recipe under sweet dough in my recipe file. I did divide the recipe in half and got 18 cinnamon rolls. I will definitely be making them again. We are planning on starting a remodel at Jessica’s on Monday. Her kitchen is getting a facelift. I hope to remember to take the camera and I’ll show pictures of the process.

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

February 4, 2012 6

Chickens

Every evening we turn the chickens loose to scratch and play. They love it!! They stand right at the fence when we go out to turn them loose. Each one wanting to be the first one out the gate.

As of right now we have 13 of these lovely ladies, 4 red and 9 white. We want to expand the chicken house and lot this spring and get more-maybe about 20.

They are extremely curious ladies. They follow us around wanting to be petted. If any of us step outside they will come running up to us to see what we are doing. They are definitely a lot of fun to have around. Today has been warm but the wind is a little strong. Jess and David and the kids are coming up tomorrow. I hope to get some new pictures to show you all. Enjoy your day and God bless.

February 2, 2012 5

Powdered Laundry Soap

I got this recipe from my friend Mrs. Faye at http://theblessedhearth.blogspot.com

Homemade Laundry Soap

2 1/4 cups shredded Ivory

* you can use the other soaps used on the web (just google) ..

2 cups Borax

2 Cups Arm and Hammer Soda

1 Cup Water Softener (Calgon) (I use Purex water softening crystals-lavender)

*Essential Oil of Choice and as much as you like.

I combine these ingredients in my food processor.

I package this for sale.

February 1, 2012 0