Monday

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was very nice. Not much going on. We didn’t have church yesterday as there was no power at church. Lots of people here in Floyd have been without power since the storm. I spoke to a lady at our local supermarket this morning and she is still without power. I certainly pray everyone gets power restored before tonight. We are supposed to get really cold-single digits with wind chills at zero or below. So many people have electric heat. It would be hard for them to stay warm without electricity.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day cutting out quilt pieces. I have been inspired by my blogging friends, Blessings and Cheryl. I am doing a simple block quilt. The block pieces are 5″ X 5″. Then hopefully I will sew them all together (using the sewing machine). We’ll see how it goes. I have made quilts before but always using panels not something I have to cut out and sew together. I thought this would be the simplest to do. If I calculated correctly it will take 216 5″ X 5″ blocks to make a twin size quilt. Okay, so maybe I am already overwhelmed. I think it will be a fun project though-something different for me.

Well, that’s about it for us. School is finished for the day, the outside chores are done and the girls are going for a walk on the tractor road. Two dogs and several cats are walking with them. The geese are swimming happily on the pond, the sun is shining. I am SO blessed. Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 21, 2013 5

Snow

We have snow-about 6″. I thought I would share with you all some of our snow pictures. This picture was taken from the dining room window.

So was this one.

The front deck.

The pond.

The side yard.

The field behind the house. Everything is BEAUTIFUL!!! The snow started about 3:00 p.m. and ended around 9:00 p.m. It was so pretty. We have already made snow cream this morning. YUM,YUM!

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

January 18, 2013 6

Rain and Visitors

Yesterday morning we had some strange visitors at the pond-sea gulls. I guess they were confused with all the rain we have been having. Look at the level of water at the pond yesterday- now look at it today.

Lots of rain. I do not know for sure but I estimate 6-8 in of rain. The pond is overflowing.

Oh well, we definitely needed rain and this has been a slow steady rain which is good. I think the forecast is for snow tomorrow. Well, it is time for school so I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

January 16, 2013 3

Rainy Tuesday

Hello everyone! I hope all is well with you all. We are getting some much needed rain here in Floyd. It rained most of the night and is still raining. Temperatures are warm though. Over the weekend we got up to about 60 degrees. Amazing! Right now it is 40 degrees. I will take this for January weather any time.

We are working on school as usual. I love routine days. Days that we just go along doing normal stuff. Hubby hasn’t found any work yet so he is still working on learning how to make bowls. He is doing a really good job.

I want to give an update on the homemade dish soap. I don’t think I will be making it again. I’m sure it cleans good but I just do not like the fact that it does not soap up. I really like to see bubbles in my water when washing dishes. Oh well, it was fun making it.

Well, I think that’s about it. Piano practice is almost over and then book work begins so I better be getting ready. Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 15, 2013 5

Homemade Dish Soap

Hello everyone! I thought I would share with you all a new project I am making today. I got the idea from http://theblessedhearth.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-little-winter-project.html She always has the best projects going on. I tried to figure my cost on this. I think it runs a little less than one dollar counting the essential oils It makes over a quart of dishsoap. I will let you all know how it works. Anyway, it was a fun project to make. Thanks, Mrs. Faye.

Enjoy your day and God bless..

January 10, 2013 2

Hubby’s First Bowl

Hubby hasn’t had any work for a while now. Not knowing exactly what to do with himself, he has been working on bowl making. This is his first one. I think it looks beautiful. He, of course, sees many flaws. This bowl is made of sassafras wood.

He also made me this long handled wooden spoon. My new canning kettle has a nonstick finish on it so I have to use wooden or plastic spoons with it. My spoons didn’t really have a long enough handle. I don’t like getting so close to the hot stuff I’m stirring. I told him when we got the kettle that I needed a long handled spoon for it, so ta-da, I now have one. Thanks, honey.

Well, I hope you all have a good day and God bless.

January 9, 2013 2

Flowers

It is not very often I do two posts in one day but I wanted to share this with you all. I got a HUGE surprise today from Jessica. These beautiful flowers were delivered to our home as a thank you from her and the kids. So sweet! Thank you, Jess.

January 8, 2013 4

Another Update

Hello everyone! I wanted to let you all know how everyone is doing. I came home yesterday. The Bates clan seems to be on the mend. A long way from better but on the mend. Jess took Daniel to the doctor this morning. He has a lot of congestion and a double ear infection. Also please pray for our friends, the Horns. As of right now, 3 out of 5 of them have the flu and one has strep throat with the flu. I know many blogs I read have had this bug going through them. It is horrible.

Today we are working on school and other normal things. The girls and Hubby kept things running smoothly here while I was away. I did come back up Sunday morning and went to church. You all remember, Sunday was the girls big day of playing music. They did a great job. I hope to get a copy of the CD this weekend. If I can figure out how to put it on, I’ll try to share some of it with you all.

Well, that’s about it. Lunch break is over and time for us to start back on school. Thanks again for your prayers. God bless.

January 8, 2013 3

Update on Sam

I just wanted to give you all an update on little Sam. He is doing some better. He still has a long way to go but is much improved from the other day. He managed to come through it without a hospital stay which is a good thing. We so appreciate your prayers and ask that you would please continue to pray for him. I just got a call from Jess and she is on her way to the doctor with Katie. She is congested and running a fever. Please include Katie and Jess in your prayers. David is gone to Vegas so Jess is holding down the fort alone. I think the keeper of the fort could really use some prayers..

Yesterday, we went bowling with the Horns. We had a great time. I think I have mentioned this before, our bowling alley does a thing called homeschool bowling. The first Friday in every month, homeschoolers can bowl for $l.50 a game and the shoe rental is free. We are hoping to do it again next month.

Today is fairly nice here in Floyd. When we first got up, the temperature was 19 with a wind chill of 9 degrees. It has warmed up to about 25 degrees now and we have sunshine. Not too bad for January.

Well, I hope you all have a great day. We are planning on doing a little housecleaning and working some on the chicken nests and lot area. Kinda a slow day. Tomorrow the girls will be doing all the music for church. Our piano player is gone on a little vacation so the girls are doing the music. Grace is doing the congregational for Sunday School. She is playing “What a friend we have in Jesus”. She is also playing the doxology and a congregational for worship service-“Rock of Ages”. Julie is playing “Sweet Hour of Prayer” for her congregational and “Softly and Tenderly” for the invitational. Julie is also doing a special, “The Old Rugged Cross”. She will be singing and playing it. BIG DAY! Pray for them, that all will go well.

I guess that’s about all. Enjoy your day and God bless.

UPDATE ON KATIE: I wanted to let you all know, Katie has the flu. Jess is supposed to try to keep Katie and Sam apart so Sam doesn’t get it too. I am going down to help. It would be so hard for Jess to manage all this alone. I am thanking you all in advance for your prayers. God bless.

January 5, 2013 5

Pray for Sam

You all are looking at one sick little boy. Please pray for him. Jess took him Tuesday to the ER and they said he had bronchitis. They gave him a breathing treatment and a steroid shot. Last night he got worse. She called us at 3:30 this morning to be in prayer for him. He was running a high fever and nothing she did seemed to help. Anyway, after a long night, she took him back to the doctor this morning. He now has pneumonia. They are given him a breathing machine to take home. She is supposed to use it every 6 hrs, also giving him a very strong antibiotic. The doctor told her to go to their local health food store and get buckwheat honey. Buckwheat honey has medicinal properties that will help with all his coughing. I appreciate all your prayers. Thank you and God bless.

January 3, 2013 5