Geese are back

What are beautiful sight! The geese are back. They look so pretty on the pond with the sun shining on them. We heard our first frogs peeping Saturday night. Spring is on its way. I will be posting pictures this week of other signs of Spring. I am sooooooooo glad. Yesterday was a good day. Pastor Tom had a good message, then we had a team leaders meeting afterward. Our Sunday School Director retired and George accepted the position. We really have no idea what his duties will be as of it but I’m sure we will learn as we go. Last night’s menu at church included a hamburger casserole, baked beans, potato salad, pretzels and dip, a peach jello salad, and brownies. I took something no one from church had ate before, pickled corn. It was a success. Most seemed to like it. I guess its kinda like kraut, you either like it or you don’t, not much in- between ground. Today will be school as usual. Tomorrow both girls have eye doctor appointments. We plan to leave early in the morning so as to do some shopping for shoes. Recital is this Sunday. I hope to hang clothes on the line today. It gives me an opportunity to be outside, plus saves us money. Temperature is supposed to get in the upper 40’s today. Things are drying up from all the melting snow. It will soon be time to start preparing the garden for summer. I get excited just thinking about all this. Well it is time to begin working. Take care and God bless.

March 15, 2010 0

Old Books

I simply LOVE old school books. Here are a few that I have collected over the years. I learned to read with Dick and Jane and taught my girls with the same books. They have such wonderful pictures. The last picture is of two old books from my Dad’s childhood. Inside the cover, there are the names of many of my aunts and uncles. I suppose they just passed the books down. Gotta love that. We still do that here in this household. Just pass them on. These books have a very important place in my schoolroom/dining room, along with an old Strawberry Shortcake lunchbox. The lunchbox is metal and still has the thermos in it. It belonged to Jess. Such happy memories.

As you can tell, it was a much loved lunch box. Lots of rain here last night. Today has been overcast. Temperature in the mid 40’s. Not too bad. Supper tonight will be pork tenderloin on the grill, fresh pineapple, home fries, home canned green beans and homemade biscuits. For dessert we have some cinnamon rolls left over from the other day. This will be served with cold mint tea. Are you all hungry yet? I am so I guess I better go get that grill going. Take care and God bless.

March 13, 2010 4

Sunrise

I just love to see a sunrise or a sunset. I think it comes from living in the mountains of southwest virginia. Where I grew up, you never saw either one. Our house was in what we call a “holler” so the view was blocked by the mountains. The sun would hit our yard about 11:00 and go down about 3:00. I guess thats one of the reasons I love living here in Floyd. In the summer, the sun is in our yard about 6:30 and leaves about 8:00. Lots of sunshine, which I love. This morning God put on another show for us to enjoy. Thank you Lord! School today as usual. It is hard to concentrate on school now though. We feel like we’re been let out of prison. The temperatue is warm, the snow is almost gone, so of course everyone wants to be outside instead of in. We try to mix a little of both so it doesn’t get to bad. Jasper (young dog) had his first experience with a skunk last night. Not very pleasant. I tried a remedy one of the ladies from church told me about. I sprayed him with Febreeze. It actually helped quite a lot. He still smells but not as bad. I don’t have to cook tonight, we are eating at church. Roast beef and potatoes with all the trimmings. It has been a long time since we went to church on Wednesday night. When the weather is bad, they call it off. I am definitely looking forward to going tonight. The girls are involved in TeamKids there at church. They alternate Wednesdays doing childrens choir and handbells. They really enjoy the handbells. The adults are doing a Beth Moore study on the fruit of the spirit. It has been a really good study so far, however we are pretty far behind because of the bad weather we’ve had this winter. They have decided not to watch the video that goes with it, in order to hopefully get it finished in May. Guess I better get ready to go. Take care and God bless.

March 10, 2010 2

Wheat

Today was spent running errands. The girls had dentists appointments this morning. We left home at 9:00 as it takes about an hour to get to Roanoke from here. After their appointments, we spent some time in Lifeway. I picked out several studies I think the ladies will enjoy doing. Then we went to Toys R Us. The girls wanted to look around.

When the girls were younger, we always called Roanoke “big big town, Christiansburg was “big town” and Floyd (our town) was called “little town” . So we came back, went to “little town” and picked up the wheat I had ordered. It is called Prairie Gold. It is a hard white spring wheat. It can be used in all baking, from bread to cookies. The price was $25.00 for a 50 lb. bag. Pretty good price. Tomorrow I hope to make cinnamon rolls to share with a friend on Thursday. If I’m really industrious, maybe a loaf of bread too. Our snow is melting more each day. Temperature today was about 60 degrees. I went out on my back porch and sat on my porch swing. I love porch swings. When I was a little girl, my grandmother had a porch swing and I have loved them ever since. To me, nothing says relaxing more than a swing, so I have 1 porch swing and 2 yard swings. All made for me by my loving Hubby. The girls have had 2 tree swings since they were very small and still enjoy them. I guess we’re just “a swingin” bunch. Take care and God bless.

March 9, 2010 3

May Be Crazy!

Yes, I know to many of you who know me, this only confirms the fact that sometimes I am a little crazy. The sun is shining so brightly here today. The birds are singing everywhere. A slight breeze is blowing. How could I resist hanging my cloths on the line. Yes, I admit it was cold. About 36 degrees. My hands definitely were cold by the time I was finished, but don’t they look absolutely beautiful blowing in the breeze. They are going to smell soooooooo good! Spring is coming and it feels so wonderful. Thank you Lord! Take care and God bless.

March 8, 2010 4

My Special Boy

Miss you, already! We are back from our visit. The weather was beautiful, 58 degrees when we left this afternoon. Pretty nice here too, 45 degrees. The sun is shining and lots of snow has melted. We actually have a front yard now. Our little man was sick this weekend. He has the same thing Julie and Grace have had. YUCKY! However, as we were playing in his toy room this weekend, he looked up at me and said “I love you, MawMaw”. Well of course my heart melted. I have tried since he began talking to get him to say that, and just like that he says it. No prompting from me, nothing. Just straight from his heart to mine. Everything in God’s time. That of course was the highlight of my trip. We had lots of great food to eat, did some shopping. I found the girls a dress for piano recital at Goodwill. Could not find shoes though. Hopefully we will find some before the recital. It’s time for us to leave for church. I just wanted to share with you all my sweet words from my special boy. Take care and God bless.

March 7, 2010 2

Bigger Now

My, what a difference a few months can make. Jasper was about 8 weeks old in this picture. The other one was taken this morning. I think he’s grown some, don’t you all? He is drying off from a bath, waiting on the girls to break for lunch so he can play with them. I am not sure how this happened. I’ve never cared for animals in the house. We now have 2 full time cats inside and 1 part time dog.

I used to be so strong. Oh well, it’s not too bad. The girls really enjoy them being in. Cold here today. The wind is blowing pretty hard. The fire went out last night and when I tried to build a new fire this morning, the smoke was terrible. I eventually just took the wood out of the stove and left it alone. I would rather be a little cool than have to deal with all that smoke. We have the gas logs on so its not too cold. Hopefully, we will do bible study tomorrow. I am very excited to begin this study. Esther is such an exciting book to study and I’m sure Beth Moore will bring out things I would never think about. We are hopefully going down to Jessica’s this weekend. I want to do some girl stuff. The town she lives in has an excellent Goodwill Store. I love shopping at Goodwill! I guess I just love thrift store shopping in general, yard sales, consignment sales, etc. Good deals at good prices. Well, lunch break is over. Time for school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 4, 2010 2

Blackberries

Here on the farm we are blessed to have lots of blackberries. They are not the thornless kind, however, so they can be difficult to pick. They are domestic though and have huge berries on them, so it doesn’t take long to pick a gallon. They looked so pretty with the snow on them. My thanks to Julie for the pictures. We got about 3-5″ of new snow yesterday. More shoveling! My peach pie was very good. I also made homemade rolls. I kinda made up a recipe for supper. We had some chicken left over from Sunday. I sauteed onions, garlic, italian seasoning, and spinach. Added the chicken. Next I added a can of my homemade spaghetti sauce. Then I added cooked whole wheat penne noodles. Mixed it all together, added cheese to the top and baked covered 30 min. at 350 degrees.(cast iron skillet of course) It tasted really good. Well time for school. Take care and God bless.

March 3, 2010 2

More Snow

Yes, we have more snow. It is snowing hard and we have gotten about 1 1/2″ already. All our shoveled out places are covered again. I think it is supposed to snow until about 8:00 tonight. I just pray it doesn’t snow too much. We plan on going to Jessica’s this weekend. The last picture shows how hard it is snowing, if you look really close, you can see the barn in the distance.

Changing the subject, here is a picture of a peach pie I made today. Instead of using a pie pan, I put it in one of my cast iron skillets. The peaches were home canned. I just thickened up the juice. The pie crust is really simple. 1/2 cup oil, 1/3 cup milk, 1/4 tsp. salt. Stir this together, then add 2 1/3 cup sifted all purpose flour. Mix together. This will make top and bottom crust. I used the entire dough for a bottom crust as this skillet is fairly large, then I put a crumb topping on the top. I think this need vanilla ice cream on the side. What do you all think? Well, enjoy your day and God bless.

March 2, 2010 1

Road

I took these pictures this afternoon after church. This road connects to our road. About 3 weeks ago when the first drifts came, they cleared this road. I was told it took 12 hours to clear it. I can only imagine how tall the snow was then, if it still looks like this 3 weeks later. Church today was very good, communion with a fellowship meal, then a business meeting. I went alone as Julie is still sick. Hubby volunteered to stay home with them. I very seldom go anywhere alone, so it felt very strange. Julie is feeling some better though so I pray she is on the mend. The young pup Jasper seems to be on the mend too. Take care and God bless.

February 28, 2010 3