Guess where we are!!! Ok, I know the picture gave it away but Grace and I are at Jekyll Island.❤

We drove down yesterday. It took us about 10 hours to get here. We ordered our groceries at Walmart and used the pickup service. So unless we want to, we do have to leave the island until Friday morning when we start home!

We got to the rental house about 4:30. We unloaded the car, ate supper and headed to one of our favorite places-Driftwood Beach. Sorry my pictures aren’t the best. It was already getting dark by the time we got there.

The beach was as pretty as ever. There are some changes from hurricane damage but to Grace and I it looked beautiful.

Hopefully I will have lots of pictures to share with you all. At this moment, it is early morning of our first day here. It is raining and very humid outside. We brought umbrellas just in case it did rain. After today though the forecast looks sunny and nice.

Grace and I have been talking about this trip for a long time. We LOVE this place!

Thank you, Lord!

Good morning everyone! I hope all is well with you. It seems like it has been a while since I made a post. We have been busy with just ordinary stuff. Grace is going to the GED class two days a week. She is doing really well with them and she says they are a lot of fun.

She has also been participating in Inktober again this year. These are a couple of her drawings.

I think she has amazing talent.

We have also been having regular visits from these guys.

Aren’t they beautiful!!

I have been making a few more crochet items. I think this shawl turned out really nice.

I made this shawl for Jessica. I had never made anything with a hood on it. It was a lot of fun.

It was going to be her Christmas gift but I decided to give it to her now. She is putting it to good use already. Daniel has told me he would like me to make him one. We will be going soon to Michael’s to pick out his yarn.

One of the seed companies I order from (Migardener) offered these grab bags for sale. 30 packets of seeds for only $10. I was very excited to get these.

Our temperatures have dropped drastically here so last night I built our first fire of the season. It felt really good. The temperature in the house was upper 50’s so it definitely was time.

That’s about all for now. I hope everyone has a good day and God bless.

Hello everyone! Not much going on here. We have been busy with normal things.

Grace is doing really well with her GED classes. She says it is fun and she is really enjoying them. She and her instructor have something in common, they both like crows.

I am still working on crochet projects. This is a c2c dishcloth I finished yesterday .

Fall is approaching but slowly this year. We are experiencing very warm weather. Highs are close to 90 and lows only in the 60’s and very dry. We did get a little rain over the weekend, not a lot, just enough to settle the dust.

Grace and I plan on mowing the yard today. We came back from our trip the end of July and have only mowed once because everything is just so dry.

I saw this picture on Facebook and saved it to my phone. It helps me remember Julie’s joy.

God is good!

Just a little update on what I’ve been working on. I really like this pattern. I got the pattern from fiber flux YouTube video. It is called coastal placemat. She also shows how to make coasters to match.

I did this one using Christmas colors. It is a different pattern but I don’t remember what it is called. I really like crocheting these in the round when I FINALLY learned how to do it.

Things have been busy here but not a lot to post about. Grace is taking her GED classes and is really enjoying them. Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know we are homeschoolers. There are curriculums out there that give high school diplomas but we chose not go that route.

Sam drew this yesterday in school. The assignment always to think of a bad day you had and what made it better. Thank you, Lord, for reminding us through this sweet boy of your mercies ad your love.

God bless.

Grace and I took the kiddos on a little picnic Monday.

We went to a little picnic area on the Parkway called Rocky Knob. It is not too far from our house.

And features absolutely beautiful views.

It was a really nice day. Not too hot.

The kids had a lot of fun playing on all the rocks.

Sam said this rock was perfect to use as a chair. It even had a foot rest.

They are growing up. This young man will be 12 this Friday. Amazing!

We had a lot of fun!

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Hello everyone! I thought I would share wth you all my latest big crochet project and tell the story behind it.

Just a few weeks before my sweet Julie went to heaven, she picked out this yarn. She wanted me to make her a new “double cover” which is what we call a little extra blanket at the foot of the bed to be used when needed.

I had started making it and was about half way through one skein when she went home to Jesus. I can still see her face when she told me how much she loved the colors!

Last year, I couldn’t even look inside the basket where I kept it. This fall, I decided it was time to do something with it. She would not have wanted it to just sit in that basket serving no purpose. So I undid what I had crochet before and made something new.

I decided to make my first ever shawl. This has truly been one of the hardest things I have ever crochet. Some days I couldn’t even pick it up to work on it. But now it is finished.

I will wrap up in it and remember my sweet girl, the love and joy she brought into our lives. And I will try to focus on all she gained and not all we lost. Death is such a hard thing for us left here. My Julie truly loved Jesus. Knowing her as I do, she’s probably talked nonstop since she got there!

God bless.

Hello everyone! Our temperatures have cooled off some here and in this family that means fall decorations.

Grace does our decorating and she loves fall.

Her art room looks so cute!

Our mantle

I crocheted this little doily in fall colors.

I have also been working on more dishcloths. This is a granny stitch which for some reason I have had a hard time learning. I did this one with scraps of yarn.

The garden is winding down. Green beans are done. I counted it up the other day and we have almost 170 quarts of green beans in the cellar. We have canned lots of tomatoes, peaches and corn. Huge blessings!

There is still plenty of canning to do though. Grapes are just finishing up and apples will soon be ready.

I always say I feel more ready for winter when the cellar is full of home canned goodies and the wood building is full of wood.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a good week so far.

We have been busy with normal summer things, harvesting and preserving. Look at the size of this tomato. It is the biggest one we have gotten so far.

We have been making lots of salsa.

This is by far my favorite salsa recipe. https://heartbeetkitchen.com/2013/recipes/dietary/paleo/fiery-roasted-salsa

We canned 7 quarts of these October beans and had 1/ 2 gal dried . These were given to us by a friend.

This is one of our favorite ways to eat tomatoes. I will definitely miss fresh tomatoes when they are gone.

I bought this melon the other day at one of our local produce stands. It was huge and tasted so good.

I decided to save seeds from it. I never have success with melons in my garden but I may try this one next year.

I have been working on new crochet dishcloth patterns.

Here are a few pictures of some I have finished.

I guess that is about all. Grace and I are cleaning a house today and doing some more canning.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

This will be the last beach pictures for a while.

This little boy loved the waves. He would laugh so hard every time the waves touched him. See that man standing there beside him? I know I have said this many times but he sure is a good Daddy! He stood there for hours letting John Luke and the other kids play. While they were playing, Jess got the rare opportunity to sit and watch them play. Love has many languages! I didn’t get a picture of all of them playing. I wish I had!We certainly had a lot fun!Many happy memories!

God bless!

We spent one of our vacation days at the MOSH center. (Museum of Science and History).

It was a really fun day

With lots of cool stuff to see and do.

After that, we came back to the beach.

I love just looking at the ocean. Enjoying the sounds of the waves. My next post will be the last vacation post.

I hope you all are enjoying seeing the pictures and the things we did. God bless.