Garden

First step in getting the garden ready.

Then Billy plowed them with the tractor. Sorry I forgot to get a picture of him plowing.

Hubby finished tillering them yesterday evening. We now have peas, onions, and lettuce planted. I hope to get the potatoes and cabbage in the ground this week. I also planted a few cosmos flower seeds yesterday evening. Today will be school as usual. Julie is feeling some better. Hopefully we are getting over all this. We have sunshine at this moment but it is supposed to rain this afternoon. Believe it or not, we actually need rain. The garden was extremely dry. I would have thought with all the snow we had it would not have been. Time for school. Take care and God bless.

April 20, 2010 7

Friday Ladies Bible Study Group

This is our Friday Ladies Group. Okay so two are looking down but it is the best we could do. The sun was shining directly in our eyes. The study as I have said before is really good. We have 3 more lessons to go. Then we are going to do I Corinthians using John MacArthur’s study book. Today has been busy. I made a loaf of bread, then made a batch of laundry detergent. We are doing school and in my spare time I have hung out 4 extra large loads of laundry on the line. Rain is supposed to come tomorrow so I wanted to get as much dried outside as I could. We had frost this morning with temperatures about 28. The house is just now started to warm up. I didn’t want to build a fire because then the clothes I put on the line smell like wood smoke. Not a bad smell-just not that fresh spring smell I wanted. Tonights supper menu will be baked chicken, broccoli and cheese, and mashed potatoes. And of course the bread I made today. Dessert will be rhubard dumplings. Sounds pretty good. I guess I better get started on all this food. Hubby has just come in and seems to be VERY hungry. Take care and God bless.

April 19, 2010 1

Honey Bee

We have actually been seeing a few of these guys around this spring. Very good news. Grace took this picture. Thanks Grace. Things have been a little busy here. Saturday was spring cleaning day at church. We had lots of fun. About 16-18 people showed up to clean. We started at 9:00 in the morning and finished about 2:30 that afternoon. We grilled hot dogs for lunch with all the fixings. You know we got to eat. Then when we came home, I had the most precious message on our answering machine. My little man singing happy birthday to MawMaw. He did such a great job! Hubby mowed the yard and tillered the first garden. I plan to start planting this week. Julie has an earache today. She feels a little better this evening than she did this morning. Hopefully it will not last too long. This weekend has been a little cool here. Upper 50’s for the temperature. Very windy. I guess it wouldn’t be Floyd without the wind. There will be no bible study tonight as some were wanting to go to another church for their revival. We won’t be going. I think Julie needs to stay in and rest. Speaking of rest, I think I’ll go do just that. Take care and God bless.

April 18, 2010 1

Fun

Okay, so our visit went by much too quick. Monday evening when they first arrived it seemed like such a long time, but now it is Thursday and they are gone. I miss them already. We had so much fun. We went to a park here in town. When the girls were little they called it “the colored swings.” We, of course, still call them that. Tuesday was a beautiful day, we packed a picnic lunch and headed into town. We had a great time. Wednesday was cool here. Not much outside activity. Today however is gorgeous. Nice and warm with lots of sunshine.

Doesn’t he look like he is having fun!

The girls had a great time keeping up with him. Well, maybe not a great time but they did have fun.

No fear-no gain. Tuesday evening while we were outside burning off the garden, Daniel had lots of fun playing Superman. As I have said before he is all boy. Time for me to start supper. I think tonight’s menu will be sloppy joes and fries. Something easy. MawMaw needs to rest. (Just kidding) I don’t think anything makes me feel any younger than being around small children. They love so freely and completely. No wonder Christ said for us to come to Him as a little child. Take care and God bless.

April 15, 2010 3

Dandelions

I think life is much about choices. How we look at things determine how we react to them. For example we can choose to see this as just ugly weeds we wish did not grow in our yard or

we can view them as bright, beautiful, yellow flowers. Years ago, when my daughters were little, they taught me to love dandelions. Dandelions are usually the first flowers little hands gather and deliver with much love to their mamas. How special that makes them. Perhaps that is why God created them. Anyway my girls and I love them.

This is a flower almost everyone loves. My lilac bush is starting to bloom! I can hardly wait. The bush is outside our laundry room window and it smells wonderful when in bloom.

The girls and I worked very hard last week getting the garden ready to burn off. Somehow the pile seemed so much bigger last week. Anyway we worked every day after school except one. It rained that day. It is now ready to burn. Hopefully if it is not too windy Hubby will do it this evening. Then it will be ready for him to till. He has to do some work on our tiller first but anyway we are gettting closer. I hope to have it tilled and ready to start planting by the end of the month. I love it! David is gone on a business trip, so Jess and Daniel are coming up to stay with us. I am looking forward to a great visit. Everyone take care and may God bless your day.

April 12, 2010 3

Apple Blossoms

Our apple tree is blooming. Isn’t it pretty! We are not sure what type of apples these are. The tree was here when we came. However they are very good apples. The tree blooms very early though and usually gets caught in the frost. I fear this will happen this year. Temperatures tonight will be in the upper 20’s. We have had a very hard wind for 2 days now so of course it feels much colder. Temperature now is about 50 with a wind chill of about 40. YUCK! I guess this is what we call “dogwood winter” as the dogwoods are blooming now. Warmer temps are on the way though. Yeah!

Dogwood in bloom outside our dining room window.

My bouquet of flowers for the ladies today. I love to have fresh flowers out when they come. Makes the room look so much more cheerful. We all enjoyed these today. Forsythia and spirea. Class went very well. Two ladies could not come. We missed you, Wanda and Vicki. I know I have said this many times, but this really is a good study. She takes it nice and slow so you get to just let it all sink in. I like that. I better get started on supper. Take care and God bless.

April 9, 2010 2

God’s Dryer

I wanted to show you all why clothes dry so quickly here in Floyd. We are blessed with wind almost all the time. This is a blessing in the summer. Not so much in winter. Anyway it makes the clothes dry quickly and they are usually pretty soft. Thank you Lord. God bless.

April 8, 2010 2

Thursday

My Grace took this picture the other evening. The clouds were beautiful. Thanks for the picture, Grace. Today looks as though it will be another beautiful day here in Floyd. The sun is shining, the birds are singing praises. Beautiful! I am getting ready to hang clothes on the line. So much fun. I also just finished making some homemade yogurt. I have not made this in a long time. I usually make kefir. However I am having difficulties getting it to thicken. I think it has something to do with temperature. Without the fire, I don’t think it is warm enough in the house for it to set. I had this same problem last year in the spring. So maybe I’ll just make yogurt for a while. Must be time for a change. School today as usual. Hopefully we will finish getting the garden ready to plow today. I am really ready to play in some fresh turned dirt. Get some early crops in the ground. Onions, lettuce, peas, cabbage. YUM! I don’t think I’ve told you all, but we have a mama goose setting on the island on the pond. Much excitement. We have never had one make a nest here before. We are certainly looking forward to seeing babies swimming around. We have always said when the birds were singing they were singing praises to the Lord. On another blog, I read about listening to their praise songs. I so much like that thought. So it is time for me to go hang some clothes on the line and listen to some beautiful praise music. May your day be filled with the sound of praise. God bless.

April 8, 2010 0

Spirea Bush

Another sign of spring. The spirea bush is in full bloom. It has beautiful, small white flowers on it. I think Friday when the ladies come I will make a bouquet of spirea and forsythia blooms. Very cheerful! School today as usual. It is getting so hard to do school as usual. We so want to be outside playing and doing outside chores. The girls playing-me doing outside chores. Well, we must persevere. I know it will be worth it. Temperature is very nice here today. About 80 degrees. I have clothes drying on the line, blowing in the breeze. I love hanging clothes outside. They smell so wonderful. Tonight’s menu will be homemade pizza. Last summer, we made several jars of pizza sauce from our tomatoes. We have almost used them all so I guess we will need to make more this summer than we did last summer. I think it is important for my girls to know how to raise a garden, to harvest the produce and then how to preserve it for later use. I think in todays fast paced America this is becoming a lost art. I was blessed to acquire this knowledge from my mother and I want to pass it down.

It tastes as good as it looks. Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 7, 2010 1

Thursday’s Fun

Here are some pictures of the fun we had last Thursday on Jess and Daniel’s visit. In the first picture, we are outside playing, the next picture is coltsfoot (one of our earliest wildflowers to bloom). We took a ride around the farm in “MawMaw’s bumpy truck”. On the tractor road, we spotted these kildeer walking on the road. Jess took the picture from the truck. I think they might have a nest somewhere close as they did not want to leave thier area. The last picture is Daniel, thinking. I am not exactly sure but it looks like he is trying to figure out how to get the sawdust in his wheelbarrow. We had lots of fun!

Tonight’s menu is pork tenderloin on the grill, french fries and corn on the cob-frozen from our garden last year. I gathered some rhubarb today and plan to make rhubarb dumplings for dessert.

Rosemary Marinade Recipe

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp minced garlic

2-4 tsp dried rosemary-crushed

Combine all ingredients. Pour over beef, chicken, or pork. (I use this on all types of meat). School is finished for today. Time to enjoy the sun. We got our bikes out today, pumped up the tires,and oiled the chains. We rode for a little while. Long enough for me to discover how out of shape I am. It will take a while before I can keep up with the girls. I hope to work some on the garden this evening. We have some clean up to do before Hubby can plow. I hope you all enjoy your evening. Take care and God bless.

April 6, 2010 1