A Nice Surprise

Last night during our fellowship meal, one of the ladies told me she had something for me out in her car. She had gotten me this beautiful material. She found it a Wal-Mart. Our Wal-Mart does not sell material but they had this on clearance, probably from another store. Each bolt has 5 yards of material on it. Lots of aprons! Sometimes God amazes me, the way He leads us to encourage each other. I was feeling a little down about messing up the other material and then He surprises me through a generous friend. God is good.

Temperatures here have changed drastically from yesterday. Mid 20’s with lots and lots of cloud coverage. We are not getting any snow yet but it definitely feels like snow.

Time for school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 31, 2011 4

Finished Health

We are finished with health! Isn’t that great? The girls decided yesterday that since we were so close to being finished, they would just work on through to the end. (This decision was made all on their own, I didn’t even suggest it) I think that is amazing in itself but so typical of homeschool kids.

Today is a very nice day. Lots of sunshine. Temperatures are in the low 40’s. Amazing! I have clothes on the line, I love it. The girls and I have been walking down to the barn to get milk this week. Today’s walking should be fairly nice except for the mud. I know, complain, complain. But I really do not like walking in mud. Good exercise though.

Tonights menu will be kielbasa with sauteed mushrooms, onion, garlic and green peppers served over brown rice. I haven’t decided what to have for dessert yet , maybe a peach cobbler. I have made little progress on the matching aprons. I am very frustrated with myself. I made an unfixabe error on the little girl apron. I will have to transform it into a doll apron. At least, it will be usable for something. Well, that’s how you learn, I reckon.

I hope you all have lots of sunshine today and warm temperatures and that you are able to go outside and enjoy the beauty of the day. God bless.

January 29, 2011 3

Fresh Bread

Very few things say home more than fresh baked bread. Clothes hanging on the line run a close second in my book. I just pulled this bread from the oven and thought it looked soooooo good. It smells delicious too. I tried a different recipe today and am hoping it will be good. I needed a good sandwich bread recipe. Here is the recipe I used:

1-1/3 plus 1tbsp. water, 2 tbsp. butter, 4-1/4 cups flour, 3 tbsp. sugar, 2 tbsp. dry milk, 1-1/2 tsp. salt, 2 tsp. yeast. I put these ingredients into my bread machine on dough cycle and let it do its job. When the cycle was finished, I took the bread out of the machine, shaped it into a loaf and put it into my loaf pan. If you do not have an extra long loaf pan, you will need to make 2 loafs. Bake at 350 degrees until done. It takes about 30 min. in my oven.

I also have been working on apron patterns and I think I have decided which one to do the matching aprons in. I just have to adjust the pattern a little to compensate for what I don’t know how to do. I will show pictures soon. By the way, thanks Dave, for fixing my problem on the computer.

Warmer temperatures here today-35 degrees. Hardly any wind. A really nice day. I have to go raid my material stash. I will need a piece large enough to do all 3 aprons. I’m not sure I have anything. Hopefully, I will, as I would like to get started on them today.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 15, 2011 4

Apron

I finally finished the apron using one of the new patterns. What do you all think? I think my other apron pattern was a lot easier and faster but I know it is time to step it up a notch. My thanks to Grace for modeling for me. I used some material I already had to practice on. I’m not sure I like the rick rack, though. I have another pattern to try and then I will decide which one I want to use for the matching mother, daughter, doll aprons.

No church today due to bad weather conditions. Dave, Jess, and boys did get to come yesterday however the wind came also. It was just too cold for Daniel to play in the snow. Wind chills below zero. We had a good visit though. I made fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and homemade rolls for “lupper”. For those of you confused by this term, this is when it is too late for lunch and too early for supper. We also had cushaw pie for dessert with whipped creme.

Now I must tell the story of why we had fried chicken for lupper. Earlier in the week, Jess had mentioned she would like to have fried chicken. As I knew they would not get to stay long, I thought something a little faster would be better. I decided on hot roast beef sandwiches with green beans. They called when they were on the way here and she jokingly said David would have liked fried chicken too. This conversation was on speaker phone. Hubby overhearing about the fried chicken, which happens to be his favorite meal, said “Oh, I didn’t know fried chicken was an option”. By this time I am feeling a little out numbered so I decided to give in and make the chicken. It was a wise choice. Everyone enjoyed the meal and that makes this mama’s heart happy.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 9, 2011 6

Sunday

Yesterday was such a fun day for us. We decided to take the girls to the movies as part of their Christmas gift. As we very seldom go to the movies, this was a big treat. We found (thanks to our friends, the Horns) a movie theater that is affordable and family friendly. We watched The Chronicles of Narnia-Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It was a very good movie and we all had a great time. Grace has read the book and Julie is in process now of reading it.

Also, as my aprons are now being sold in a local store, I thought it would be nice to try out some different patterns. I had been told it would be nice if I could do matching aprons. One for Mom (or MawMaw)and one for a little girl. I found a pattern I like pretty well. Here is a picture of it.

Not exactly what I was looking for but a good place to start.

This is the material I picked out. The floral will be the main material and the striped will be the contrasting material. What do you all think? I am having difficulties with my sewing maching, so pray I can get it up and running soon. (Could be the operator, who knows!) Anyway, I am excited to start a new project and upping my abilities. I have not made many things from a real pattern. Usually, its something I just figure out on my own or I alter the pattern so that it fits my abilities. Sally, our pastor’s wife, has agreed to help me if I get in over my head. I don’t think I will though. It looks pretty easy on paper. I will show you the finished results when done.

I think I’ll go check out my machine. Take care and God bless.

December 19, 2010 4

Our Mantle Nativity

This little Nativity set is the star attraction on our mantle during Christmas. It is already sitting in its place of honor. It has been to cold too go to the building to get out our other decorations but we did venture out to get the Nativity. Hopefully, it will warm up some so we can get the other stuff down soon. Very cold here last night. Acutual temperature 7 degrees with a wind chill of about -5. Our water is frozen. So sad. Hubby thought he had fixed every little crack that the wind could get into but I guess we were wrong. Remember last year, our bathroom water was frozen for about 1 1/2 months. We were hoping to avoid that this year. Well, this morning all the water is frozen, nothing coming into the house anywhere. Definitely not good. Hubby is going to work on it this evening as soon as he gets in. Pray it will not be too hard to get it running again. Then I guess we will just have to keep a small trinkle running at night to keep it from freezing again. I am so grateful I went up yesterday to the cellar and covered up our pototoes and our canned green beans with quilts. Hopefully they are in good shape. Last year they froze in the cellar. I do not want a repeat of that. The green beans are closest to the door so I guess there must be some wind that gets in at the door. Oh well, this is all part of winter, I know. I can’t say I like it though.

I do have good news. A local bakery, The Bread Basket, has graciously agreed to display my aprons for sale. I am so excited!!!!! I took her 9 aprons this morning. I pray they sell quickly and that perhaps I could bring her more. This would be so much better than trying to sell them myself. All in God’s hands.

Well, I have things to get done-not laundry though. Can’t do laundry without water. Stay warm and God bless.

December 7, 2010 2

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

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

More Snow

More snow! We already have about 3 more inches and as you can see it is still coming down. It is supposed to snow all day today and tomorrow. Wow! I think it is going to be a snuggle in weekend. I hope to work on Grace’s quilt this weekend, maybe make a few aprons, have fun with my girls, make a pot of coffee to share with my hubby. Our front porch is enclosed with glass. We love to sit out there, drink coffee and watch it snow. All the beauty without the cold. I have a beef roast on the wood stove cooking. I haven’t decided what to put with this yet, probably potatoes and carrots. Yesterday’s menu was meatloaft, mashed potatoes, green beans, mac & cheese, and biscuits. School today as usual, maybe make some snow cream later. Enjoy your day and God Bless.

February 5, 2010 1

Summer Anyone?

Ok, so I’m really getting tired of cold weather and I thought I would have a little summer . Garden growing, clothes drying on the line. Mr. Scarecrow on duty. That’s right. Stop. Take a deep breath. Imagine summer in full swing. Not wind chills below zero, frozen water lines etc. Today has been a nice day, church was good. The bad news was yesterday. I went up to my cellar to get some canned goods and discovered my canned green beans had frozen. I counted 40 quarts frozen and decided I didn’t want to count anymore. I just shut the door and walked away. I have never had cans to freeze before so I’m not exactly sure what to do. I researched this and from what I have discovered, as long as they stay sealed they should be okay. I pray this is so. So much work to lose them all. Anyway, it’s all part of life. I’ve been busy making aprons and discloths to sell. I have 3 aprons finished and working on the 4th one. I have about 4 dishcloths made. I am also working on another wall hanging. This one will be for Julie. Oh yea, I also have an afghan in the works. This is all done in my spare time. (What spare time?) Well, it’s time for bible study. Tonight’s menu includes brunswick stew, green beans(guess who’s bringing them) cornbread, mac & cheese and 2 different desserts, unknown at this time. God Bless.

January 10, 2010 0