Orange Cleaner

I wanted to share with you all something new I am trying. It is homemade orange cleaner. I got the idea from http://isabellaanddorinda.blogspot.com/2012/01/homemadecitrus-cleaner.html Mine has been made for less than a week now but it already smells so good. I will let you all know how it turns out.

Today we finished with school and had plans for doing some outside work. However, before we could get outside, it started to rain. This, of course, required a mad dash to the clothes line. Thankfully, we got the clothes-which had already dried-off before they got wet. I think our outside work will have to be put off for another day. We are planning to expand our chicken lot and purchase more layers this spring so we have much to do to get everything ready. Maybe it will dry off enough later to work on it some.

I also wanted to share another bird picture. Grace took this picture yesterday. Mr. Woodpecker has been a regular visitor to our feeder for the past few days. Isn’t he beautiful?

Enjoy your day and God bless.

February 24, 2012 7

Crocuses

Look, everyone, what is blooming at our home!!! We were all so excited today when we saw them. I just had to share them with you all. Also yesterday, the red winged blackbirds came back. They are always one of the first birds to return to our area in the spring. Every year, they stop at my feeder in the dogwood tree and spend the day there. We wanted to get a picture of them but everytime we would get close to the window they would fly away. Grace did however get a picture of this sparrow.

Today has felt like a spring day. Warm temperatures-60 degrees right now. Amazing! I LOVE it.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

February 23, 2012 6

Daniel and Darth Vader

Daniel is SO into Star Wars right now. He has a light saber and everything. He earned his light saber. He has just recently been promoted to a booster seat and was having trouble getting his seat belt to buckle. His mom told him if he could buckle himself in 10 times on his own, they would buy him a light saber. Motivation, you know. Well, it took him a while but he has it down pat now. He was super excited because when they went to purchase his light saber, they found a place on line where they could get 3 light sabers for the same price as one at Wal-Mart. Daniel says he got himself one, Daddy one, and Sam one so they can all be Jedi. Way to go, Daniel.

Today is a BEAUTIFUL day here in Floyd. The sun is shining and the temperature is already 40 degrees. We have gotten a great start on our day. The house chores are done and we even have a few minutes of relaxation before school starts. I was wondering if any of you ladies make kefir and if you do, do you use the powdered starter or the grains? I have made it a lot using the powdered starter but am wondering if the grains would be better. Any opinions?

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

February 22, 2012 5

Snow

I thought I would share with you all a few pictures of the snow we got on Sunday. It was (in my opinion) the perfect snow. It was beautiful to look at, it didn’t get bitter cold after the snow and it is already melting off.

We have been working on school and getting housework caught up. I wonder how it is that our house got so dirty when we were not even here! Well, you know what they say, “a woman’s work is never done.” But I love it. It really makes me happy to look around our home and have things be in order. Speaking of which, I guess I better get busy with our day. Tonight’s supper will be tuna cakes, pinto beans, fried potatoes, rolls and (maybe) a peach pie for dessert. Enjoy your day and God bless.

February 21, 2012 7

Finished

Hello ladies. We are finished with our part of the redo. Here we are getting ready to texture the ceiling.

Hubby does the rolling.

I do the stomping.

The finished ceiling. There are 11 recessed lights in her kitchen now. When we started it was pretty dark in her kitchen now it is very bright.

Here we are just starting to put down the floor. Now I must say, this floor just about did us in. It took us 2 days on our knees to get it down but it was definitely worth it.

It looks beautiful! David’s sister will be coming tomorrow to paint the walls. Jess chose buttercream for the walls. After the walls are painted, the next step will be to finish taking the doors off the cabinets and stripping off the laminate. The cabinet doors will have to be sanded. Then the cabinets themselves will be ready for paint. Jess has chose black for the cabinet paint. I will continue to show you all pictures as the process comes along. I think it will all look really great.

Well, that’s about it for today. I have lots of catching up to do with everyone. Enjoy your day and God bless.

February 19, 2012 5

Another Update

It is Tuesday evening and we are home for the night. The project is getting closer and closer to being finished. Yesterday, we hung all the walls. Today we got everything mudded and tomorrow we will sand and texture the ceiling and then the drywall part will be done. After that, we have a place in front of the sink to fix, possibly replacing the sink and sink cabinet. Then the new floor will go down. YEAH!

And now some pictures of SPRING! Jessica’s temperatures are much warmer than ours. Down where she lives, there are many signs of spring. Her daffodils are just ready to bloom. On the road down to her house, we see lots and lots of daffodils already blooming. We are like kids in a candy shop, looking for them, trying to be the first one to spot them.

The maple tree in her yard is full of buds.

The onion grass is huge.

Dandelions are already starting to bloom. I thought you all should know that while I’m there its not all work. There are flowers to enjoy, warmer temperatures and, of course, GRANDBABIES! I have a blessed life.

Well, I better get busy. I had hoped to catch up on what’s been happening in everyone else life but it is late and I still have much to get done. Enjoy your day and God bless.

February 14, 2012 6

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