Spring will come!!

Maple tree with buds on it!

Easter lilies popping up!

Okay, so these pictures were taken at Jessica’s house and not mine, but aren’t they beautiful. My easter lilies may be popping up, who knows, they’re still buried under a foot of snow. It is melting some and I’m glad. The only thing about melting snow is it is no longer pretty, its just dirty and muddy. Our trip was great. We extended it longer than we had planned which suited me just fine. The temperature there was in the lower 60’s on Sunday. We grilled out and ate our meal at the picnic table. Wonderful! Things are taking shape at their new home. They purchased a new bed over the weekend which means we get their old one-no more air mattress for us when we visit! Hopefully we will get to visit more often now that spring is close. Time for school. Take care and God bless.

February 23, 2010 0

Going South

We are “bustin loose”, going where the temperature is going to be in the lower 50’s. We will be seeing grass, flowers peeking up from the ground. I can hardly wait. My biggest plan is to get me some Daniel sugar, even if I have to hold him down to get it. Dave will be doing some repairs to my computer. Thanks Dave. Well, enough talking. We are out of here. Take care and God bless.

February 19, 2010 1

Comparison

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About 3 weeks ago, I posted the first picture showing the amount of snow we had gotten. The second picture was taken this morning. Not a lot of change, but I know spring is coming. Our birds are starting to make the nesting calls. Surely they know things we don’t. Hopefully we will get to do bible study tomorrow. Hubby did get the van out this morning. It took him 5 trys but he did it. The truck wheel is still locked up so it is not going anywhere. I will wait until this evening when he returns to find out how bad our road is, hopefully not too bad, so the ladies will be able to come. We are supposed to start Esther by Beth Moore. I am very excited about this study. I love Beth Moore studies. School today as usual. The girls and I are watching the entire series of Anne of Green Gables videos. There have been really good so far. Well, I guess it is time for school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

February 18, 2010 2

Here Comes the Sun

The sunrise was beautiful here this morning. As hubby and I were drinking our morning coffee, the Lord decided to give us a blessing. Just a glimpse into what He can do. I love sunrises. A new day, a day the Lord has made, and I am privileged to be part of it. Thank you, Lord. There’s just something about sunshine that always makes me grateful. The snow has stopped, the wind is laying down some. Our road was blocked by drifts again, so we could not go anywhere. We rescheduled paino lessons for Thursday, hopefully we will be able to get out by then. We are having difficulties with our 4 wheel drive truck. The back wheel is locking up. Hubby took me to the barn Monday to get milk and thats when it happened. Hopefully, he will get this fixed soon. No church tonight. The rule is if there is no public school on Wednesday, there is no church Wednesday night. We probably couldn’t get out to go anyway. School goes on as usual in our household. I tell the girls, they will thank me this summer, when we are finished early with school. I’m not sure they believe me right now, but I know it is true. Well, I better get started on our day. God Bless.

February 17, 2010 1

Snowing Again

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I thought everyone would enjoy some more snow pictures. The last picture is the pond. I know it just looks white but it really is snowing hard. Yes, it is snowing again. 2-4 inches. Well, that don’t sound too bad. We did get out over the weekend. Went to town Saturday and church yesterday. It felt good to get out. Not much else happening here today. Just school and everyday things. We brought Jasper (the puppy-I shouldn’t call him puppy anymore) in and gave him a bath this morning. Very interesting! He hadn’t had a bath in a while as he has been outside most of the winter. I was amazed at how much bigger he is. I have allowed him to stay in today while he is drying. He is a very happy dog, and of course Julie is a very happy girl. Enjoy your day and God bless.

February 15, 2010 2

More Snow Pictures

I wanted to get some pictures showing how deep the drifts had gotten. Unfortunately by the time we went back down to the barn it was almost too dark to get really good pictures. This picture shows going down to the milk barn.

This is the side of the road at the milk barn.

This picture is coming up from the milk barn.

These pictures do not show it as well as I wanted them to. There was not enough light. Anyway you can get an idea of how it looks. The road crews have not even thought about our road yet. Fortunately for us, Marvin clears this part of the road with his tractor so he can get up to his cows. If not, there would be no path cleared. The wind, praise God, has slowed down. Temperatures were in the lower 20’s. The weather man says to expect below normal temperatures for the next 10 day, so I guess none of this will be melting any time soon. Chance of more snow coming in on Monday. At least we can get the truck down to the barn now. No bible study tomorrow. No one could get here. I guess I better get busy, getting things done. God Bless.

February 11, 2010 5

New Aprons

Here are two new aprons I just finished. I think the red polka dot is so cheerful. I think it would make anyone happy wearing it around doing household chores, don’t you? Today has not been a very pleasant day here in our little section of God’s creation. High wind has been the main issue today. Gusts up to about 70 mph and a steady wind of about 40-50 mph. We tried to go down to the barn a little while ago to get milk. The drifts were too high for our old 86 Chevy truck to get through even in 4wheel low. The wind is blowing so hard, the chimney is having a hard time drawing, so it has been a challenge keeping the fire going. If you look outside, you would think we live in Alaska. Of course, I’ve never been to Alaska, but it looks like the pictures I’ ve saw. We awoke this morning to single digit temperatures with below zero wind chills. The temperatures did not come out of the teens all day and the wind has continued to blow stronger. The weatherman says we are in a “nor’easter” ( I’m not sure I spelled that correct) until sometime tomorrow afternoon and then the wind will calm to about 20-30 mph. Oh well, that’s winter. Okay, I’ve complained enough about the weather for one day. I know things could be so much worse. We still have electricity, the water isn’t frozen and it’s warm inside our home. God is good! As my step-grandmother used to say “Praise the name of my King” I pray you all will keep warm and safe this night. God Bless.

February 10, 2010 3

Birds

We have been entertained all day today by these beautiful birds. Many, many birds. Every time I looked out my dining room window, I would see 50-60 birds in our yard. Probably 20 of these were doves. We love feeding the birds. They love sunflower seeds. This morning as Hubby and I were sharing our coffee together, we listened as they sang morning praises to the Lord. Beautiful! We take care of them by feeding them and they take care of us by providing beautiful praise music. I think that’s a fair trade. It was a little distracting doing school and watching the birds, though. Well, the fog has moved in here. Super foggy. High wind warnings for tomorrow and Thursday 25-30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph. This will be for Wednesday and Thursday. I never knew what fog and wind could be like until we moved to Floyd. No church tomorrow night-it’s already cancelled. I guess it isn’t done snowing yet. I just looked out and the snow is pouring down. Oh well. We are warm inside our home, our tummy’s are full and our children are happy. Life is good! God Bless.

February 9, 2010 0

More Snow Pictures

A picture of the field. I was hoping it would show how the sun was glistening off the snow. It was absolutely beautiful.

Our road after the tractor had made a path.

Going up the hill beside the hay barn. Yes, that brown spot proves there is still dirt under all this snow.

Guess what? We’re supposed to get more snow tomorrow. Not much though-about 3″. After all this, we probably won’t even notice 3 more inches. Anyway, we have company coming over today. My brother-in-law and his wife are coming. I made homemade vegetable beef soup(cooked on the wood stove, of course)and I’m making rolls as I type this. I use my bread machine to mix and knead the dough. I love this machine. It is a Zojirushi.

I bought it used several years ago and consider it a very valuable helper. I put 1 cup lukewarm water into the machine, 1/4 cup butter-cut into chunks, 1egg beaten, 3 1/4 cups bread flour, 4 tbsp sugar, 3 tbsp powdered milk, 1tsp salt, 1 1/2 tsp yeast. Set the machine to dough cycle and walk away. It takes the machine l hr 50 min. to run through this cycle. Then I take the dough out, punch it down and form the rolls. I get about 15 rolls from 1 batch. Then I spray them with olive oil and let them rise for about 1 hr. Bake 12 min. at 425 degrees. When I take them out of the oven, I brush them with melted butter(being generous with the butter). Half of these never make it to the table. They get eaten as soon as the butter is spread on them. One thing I do a little different from this recipe is I put 1 1/4 cup fresh ground wheat flour and 2 cups bread flour instead of using all bread flour. My family doesn’t care a lot for whole wheat so I mix it. I guess I better go check on my rolls and get ready for company. God Bless.

February 8, 2010 3

Our Home

These shots were taken last summer. This is our home. As I have said many times, I think we live in a very beautiful part of God’s creation. Of course, today you would have to really look hard to find the house. It kinda blends in with all the snow. The snow stopped falling yesterday afternoon. It’s very pretty, but I thought maybe I would post something else besides winter scenes. I thought of flowers but decided to go with these pictures. Yesterday and today were snuggle in days. The girls and I watched the 2 disc movie of “Little House on the Prairie”. We watched disc 1 yesterday and disc 2 today. We enjoyed it a lot. We are big fans of the Ingalls family. I’ve worked on aprons and a little on Grace’s quilt/wallhanging. I love snuggle in days. Well, I think I’ll go play with my girls. God Bless.

P.S. I didn’t realize when I put the pictures on but they are almost the same. Sorry about that but as I lack the computer skills to fix this mistake I had to leave it like it was.

February 7, 2010 2