Hello everyone! I hope all of you have been having a good week so far.

We have been busy doing the usual things here. Gardening, canning, things like that.

Teaching Daniel how to work up beans. He seemed to enjoy it and wants to help more. I’m glad. I think it is important for children to learn the art of gardening and canning. So far, we have about 60 quarts of beans canned, with hopefully more to do.

One of my first tomatoes and just look how big it is. It has been so dry here at my house. It amazes me that the garden is producing at all. Jess, who lives 10 minutes from us, has rain almost every day.

A carrot I pulled the other day to add to our slaw. I haven’t had much success with carrots in years past but they have done very well this year.

We have had some beautiful night skies here.

The moon has been so pretty.

That’s all for now. I hope you all have a great Friday. God bless.

Grace and I took the kiddos blueberry picking today. We had so much fun!

Nap time! I love it.

They did such a good job picking.

They each had their own bucket.

All together they picked a half gallon of berries. Impressive!

Then we celebrated our hard work with a pizza picnic.

After we ate, play time!

I love the fact that they still love playgrounds!

Thank you Lord for such a good day!

So yesterday, I said I would be having big news in this post. Grace’s art work will be on display for the months of July and August at our local library.

We are all so proud of her and so happy for her.

She draws every day. Constantly improving her skills.

This is a really BIG step for her.

I LOVE the picture and the write up she did about herself to go with the display.

I love you, Grace!

Good morning everyone! I hope you have all had a grest weekend. Ours was nice. We spent the day yesterday with the Horns. We had a great time.

I thought I would show you all a few garden pictures. These are some purple beans we grew for the first time this year. The germination wasn’t very good but there will be enough to have something different. I love the color.

Beautiful green tomatoes.

Our blueberries. They are not very big but they taste really good.

And a picture of my ever faithful Ezzie. She is always with me when I am outside. She sits outside the gate to the garden, waiting on me to come out so we can play.

I have also been enjoying my little fireplace. It is the perfect size for my campfires.

That’s all for now. I have big news coming in my next post. God bless.

Yesterday was such a fun day!

Grace and I are taking care of a neighbor’s animals while they are on a trip.

One of the things we do is feed their horses.

Katie LOVES horses! It was so much fun to take her with me yesterday and to see her joy at being with them.

I also spent some time with Daniel. We went to the greenhouse and purchased some flowers for his very own first garden.

We had SO much fun picking out what flowers to plant. I think he chose well. They look so good together.

While I was having fun with Daniel and Katie, Sam was having fun with Grace. They spent the time playing their favorite video games and eating pizza. John Luke enjoyed some alone time with Mommy.

Thank you, Lord!

Yesterday we went with the Bates crew to celebrate Sam’s birthday. He chose to go to the Greensboro Science Center which is one of his favorite places to go. This year he was old enough to go on the zipline.

At first, he was a little anxious but he soon forgot about that. He has been wanting to do this since last year when Daniel got to do it.

I love these two pictures. Brother helping brother. Isn’t that what family is all about!

This boy! He is growing into such a good man.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SAM!!

Good morning everyone! I thought I would share a few garden pictures this morning.

First let me say, our temperature this morning is 48 degrees and the wind is whipping! Wow!!

We have been enjoying a few squash and peas already. Yum!

A few cucumbers are starting to form.

This is a “new to me” tomato. They are a type of patio tomato. I am curious to see how they do.

Peppers and beans are blooming. We will hopefully be eating beans soon. It takes a long time for peppers here though.

Blueberries are starting to blush a little. We also picked a small amount of raspberries yesterday.

One last look before I shut the gate. I love this spot. So peaceful.

Daniel came over this week for a little fun time with Grace. One of the fun things they did was perler beads. It was Daniel’s first time doing them. They had a ton of fun!

A few more pictures to show how everything is growing here.

Juicy is growing too. He thinks he is hid.

This view is from our dining room window. I was hoping to show how beautiful the asparagus looked with the water droplets on it.

A little stream on the back side of our road. I think it is so pretty!

That’s all for now. I hope you all enjoy your day and God bless.

Good morning everyone! For those of you who have been reading my blog for any length of time, you know how much we love this rose bush. When we first moved here 16 years ago, it was already here. It was in need of some love and attention. We have given it that. We worked and worked to get it started climbing up this tree. Now it seems like every year it grows a little higher. We think it is beautiful!

After weeks of no measurable rain at my house, this is a wonderful sight. As I am making this post, I am sitting on our glassed in front porch listening to the sound of gentle rain on our tin roof. Blessings from God!

I have been enjoying my little firepit. It is the perfect size for me. I build a small fire almost every morning to drink my coffee by. I have decided I am a morning campfire girl.

Also a few garden pictures.

I really love how it is started to look. I do have more ideas of things I want to do but it is coming along nicely.

The blueberries bushes are loaded with blueberries. Now if we can just beat the birds to the ripe ones.

A little baby cucumber! We have been enjoying salads, green onions, peas and a few squash from the garden already. I love fresh veggies.

I have watered my garden by hand every day for weeks. I am SO thankful for the rain today. The rain the Good Lord sends always makes everything just jump to life.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

So yesterday while we were picnicking and having fun, Dave started this project. This is John Luke’s old gate that keeps him contained in the living room when needed. He is still not super steady on his feet and definitely can’t manage stairs without help. The old one was coming apart so …Dave built him a new one using old decking materials. I got to help him with the middle gate today. I think it looks awesome!Some of his other helpers.Also Daniel made this beautiful shelf for his mom to put flower pots on.He did it all himself including cutting the boards with a hand saw.Great job, Daniel!I hope you all have a good day and God bless.

Yesterday we went with the Horns to celebrate Bub’s graduation.We went to Flag Rock park which is close to where Vicki was raised.It was so beautiful .We rode up to the top of the mountain to visit this place.Absolutely beautiful views!Beautiful rock formations.We had a great day,Got lots of great pictures,Grace got to hold a baby rat,And spent time with great friends.I can count on one hand the women in my life that I consider true friends. This lady is one of them.God is good!