I stopped by Jessica’s today and we decided to make laundry soap.  She had a new recipe she wanted to try.  She got the recipe from here http://aprons-n-pearls.blogspot.com/2012/11/homemade-laundry-soap.html.   But first a picture of our helper, Miss Katie.

Doing this was lots of fun.  I still think it is amazing that I can just drop by her house and we can do stuff like this together.

We did change a few things on the recipe.  Our store was sold out of Fels Naptha soap so we used Zote.  Also we used all fabric powder bleach instead of oxi clean and we used purex crystals in the place of the downy unstoppables.  Okay so maybe we changed quite a few things but the basic recipe was still the same.

When all was finished, she had a pretty good amount of laundry soap.  I think this will be a really good soap to use.  It smells wonderful and has the powdered bleach to keep whites from getting dingy looking.

That’s about it for today.  I need to go start supper.  We are having chicken quesadillas.  I hope you all have a wonderful evening and God bless.

Most of you probably don’t know but this summer Grace had Lyme disease.  This knocked her out of getting to go on the youth trip to Gatlinburg.  She was disappointed to say the least.  She was SO looking forward to seeing the aquarium.

So yesterday and today we were in Tennessee.  This was our Christmas gift from Dave and Jess.  Thanks again both of you.  We had such a great time.  I think you can tell by the look on Grace’s face she is very excited to be there.

We saw so many interesting fish!

Grace even got to pick up a horseshoe crab!When we came out of the aquarium, this is what we saw!

Very exciting!  All the Christmas lights were still up.  It was very beautiful.  The girls and I love Christmas lights.  Hubby doesn’t seem to get as excited as we do but he was a good sport during the trips around town so we could look.  Notice I said trips-we didn’t want to miss anything!

Our view from the balcony of our room.

Julie and the Avengers!

We spent a LONG time in here!  We had a great two days.  This trip was something we had been needed for a while.  Thanks again, Dave and Jess.

That’s all for now.  Enjoy your evening and God bless.

I FOUND THIS POST AS I WAS GOING THROUGH MY PICTURES.  I AM SORRY THIS DIDN’T GET POSTED UNTIL NOW JAN 10, 2015.  IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE POSTED ON JUNE 22, 2014.  MOST OF YOU ALREADY KNOW ALL OF THIS BUT I WANTED TO POST IT ANYWAY,

So much has happened since my last post.  First off, I want to tell you all that I am still having trouble making posts so that is part of the reason it has been so long since I made one.  I am on facebook though as Donna Mitchell Dawson if any of you want an update on Hubby and I haven’t put anything on here.

Two weeks ago, Hubby had a complete bowel obstruction from the tumor.  They admitted him to the hospital on Wednesday and on Saturday they finally decided to do surgery.  They bypassed the tumor completely with a colostomy.  He is recoverying from the surgery.  He stays very tired but is in good spirits.  He starts chemo on Tuesday of this week.  He will taking chemo pills twice a day and iv once every 3 weeks.  At first they told us the chemo could add years to his life, now there are saying months.  Not what we wanted to hear but as I have stated many times-GOD IS IN CONTROL!

I will try to keep updates on here but if not check on facebook or email me.  I think most of you have my email address.  If not it is d-forgiven58@hotmail. com  Thanks so much for all your prayers and God bless.

Hello everyone!  Well, I think I am back to blogging.  I am going to try really hard to make time for this as I so much enjoy doing it.  So much has went on here since my last post that I could not ever tell it all in one setting.  I will try to bring you all up to date as I make posts.  Hubby is still doing chemo.  He is tentatively scheduled for a scan on the 20th of Jan.  Dave, Jess and kids are settled in a house in Floyd for now.  Jess is expecting baby #4 in April.  A boy-John Luke.  She said as active as he has been so far they thought he would need two bible names.

I took this picture this morning.  God has really been giving us beautiful sunrises.  One thing this walk has taught me is to try to the best of my ability NOT to take for granted the many blessings God gives.  Each and every gift is special.

Well, that’s it for now.  I have been working for two days getting all my pictures back on my blog.  I now fully understand why I do not do computer work for a living. (lol)  I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

No surgery as of yet. We will be doing two cycles of chemo first to shrink the tumor. The surgery is tentatively scheduled for mid July to remove the tumor and the fistula.

I wanted to give you all the update on what the biopsy revealed.  It is colon cancer and it has spread to his liver.  We go tomorrow to see the surgeon and he will start chemo next week.  I DO NOT look forward to this journey the Lord has us on but I know He will continue to reveal Himself to us  as we go.  We would appreciate it if you all would continue to pray for us and I will keep you all posted as to how it is going, now that Dave has my blog back up and running.

On a different note, I would like to share with you all the experience we had a church yesterday.  Sunday School had just started.  Hubby was teaching when one of our deacons just kinda rolled his head back and seemed to be gone.  Two members jumped up and started talking to him.  He seemed to revive then the same thing happened again.  He was extremely pale and sweating.  We all thought sure the Lord was calling him home.  He is a very healthy, active man so this was a surprise for all of us.  Anyway, the rescue squad came and took him to the hospital.  Today he is still with us and SO much better.  The doctors said it was his blood pressure medicine.  His heart rate was down to 44 when the rescue squad came.  We know it was TOTALLY answered prayer.  God wanted to remind us HE is still in control.  I know it was a hard day on our deacon but I feel like it was a powerful day for our church.  Amazing, that is what our God is!!

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

Wow, I can’t believe how long it has been since my last post.  It is hard for me to get computer time right now.  Grace is using my computer as her’s is not working. Things have been moving along here.  We planted some seeds in our little greenhouse the first of the month.  I can’t believe how they have taken off.  I would show you all pictures but for some reason, I am having trouble with loading pictures. We also had our first camping trip this past weekend.  It was my birthday gift from Dave and Jess.  They have purchased us a tent and the things that go with a tent so that hopefully we can do some fun things this year with them.  We had planned on going to Charleston SC but the weather there was too bad.  Instead we went to the NC Zoo and camped at the Zooland Family Campground.  We still ended up coming home one day early because of rain but the campground gave us a rain check for another night.  We will not be doing much today, just resting.  Camping is hard work!! So I think I finally got the picture thing to working.   Dave and Jessica’s camper

Our tent.

Daniel having fun at the playground.

Katie and a new friend she made at the playground.

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

I took these pictures about 2 weeks ago.  Believe it or not, everything is covered with snow here right now.  Our temperature is 15 degrees with a wind chill of zero.  Our winds are about 20-25 mph.  3 inches of snow fell yesterday.   Definitely winter weather.

But I know this won’t last much longer.  Spring is just around the corner.  You can feel the difference in the air.  Well, maybe not today but other days you can feel the difference.

Saturday we went down to Jessica’s.  We planted some onion sets, lettuces and cabbage for her.  That was a lot of fun.  At least, I got to get my hands in the dirt.  Maybe next week, we will work on getting one of our raised beds ready for early crop plants.  I want to plant peas, onions, cabbage, lettuce, radishes, and beets.  Makes my mouth water just thinking about all that fresh food.  I love it!!

Well, that’s about it-not much going on!  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Just a few pictures to show you all what it looks like here in Floyd.

As I said yesterday, first we had snow then sleet.

Everything is completely covered.

For the first time since I started taking bread to R G Cattle, I think today is just too bad for me to get out to deliver it.

I guess we’ll just do school and have a cozy day snuggled in.  I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

I took these pictures of Katie a little while back when we were down there visiting.  Ain’t she just the cutest thing?

Do you see her painters tape bracelet?  That girl is all into her some fashion!!

Today we have snow, then sleet on top of the snow.  We were looking forward to going to the Horns today but we have had to postpone because of the weather.  You would think by the middle of March bad weather wouldn’t be an issue but the Lord knows what He is doing.

School  is going along nicely.  We finished language and have started literature in its place. The girls are kinda excited about that.  I think we needed a break from grammar.

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