Finished

I am finished with the quilt. This will be for Alexius (oldest granddaughter on her birthday). Next I am starting on Sam’s. His birthday is next. Last week seemed to go by quickly. We got our haircuts and enjoyed a nice afternoon with Faye and Gene. The girls and I went to Sam’s one day to get stocked up on a few things. Hubby cut wood while we were gone. Imagine that, choosing to cut wood over going shopping! On another day, we did some more electrical for our friend that is moving. And before we knew it the weekend was here.

So now, school is finished, outside chores are done, the girls have taken a walk on the tractor road and supper is in the oven. Wow, how good is that! Tonight we are having something new. I bought some marinated turkey breasts at Sam’s last week. We are baking one of them for supper. It smells awesome.

I wanted to share this picture with you all. You remember a while back when I made the comment that our pond was overflowing. Well, we finally figured out why. A duck has somehow got sucked into the drain pipe. Not pleasant, I know, but strange things do happen. Marvin told me he read somewhere that if he fell in, he had 20 min. before hypothermia set in. I told him I’d be watching and if he fell in I would let him know when his time was running out but to make sure he got the duck out while he was in the water. (lol) Anyway, they are trying to get the drain unstopped. So far, no success.

Well, I think that is about all that is going on around here. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

February 11, 2013 6

Monday

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was very nice. Not much going on. We didn’t have church yesterday as there was no power at church. Lots of people here in Floyd have been without power since the storm. I spoke to a lady at our local supermarket this morning and she is still without power. I certainly pray everyone gets power restored before tonight. We are supposed to get really cold-single digits with wind chills at zero or below. So many people have electric heat. It would be hard for them to stay warm without electricity.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day cutting out quilt pieces. I have been inspired by my blogging friends, Blessings and Cheryl. I am doing a simple block quilt. The block pieces are 5″ X 5″. Then hopefully I will sew them all together (using the sewing machine). We’ll see how it goes. I have made quilts before but always using panels not something I have to cut out and sew together. I thought this would be the simplest to do. If I calculated correctly it will take 216 5″ X 5″ blocks to make a twin size quilt. Okay, so maybe I am already overwhelmed. I think it will be a fun project though-something different for me.

Well, that’s about it for us. School is finished for the day, the outside chores are done and the girls are going for a walk on the tractor road. Two dogs and several cats are walking with them. The geese are swimming happily on the pond, the sun is shining. I am SO blessed. Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 21, 2013 5

Monday

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. Things were kinda slow for us-just the way we like it. We didn’t do much of anything on Saturday, just normal cleaning chores. Yesterday, we had a nice day at church. My Secret Sister gave me a tin of homemade cake pops. They were delicious. We came home, ate lunch and then the girls and I went to the movie theater. We very seldom go to the theater. It is reserved for big treats. We usually try to go at Christmas time as part of their Christmas gift. We then went to Wal-Mart and finished up some shopping. Everyone is coming to our house Saturday for our Christmas get together.

Not much else going on here. I am making another batch of homemade yogurt. This time using the pureed fruit. Supper tonight is cabbage casserole, pintos and cornbread. We are warm here today-mid 40’s. I do not have a fire as of yet. We are holding off as long as possible.

I hope you all have a great day. God bless.

December 17, 2012 3

Blueberries

Just look at all these beautiful blueberries! I think I mentioned we planted 3 blueberriy bushes this year. Well, this is one of them. They all have lots of blueberries on them but I think this one has the most. They seem to be doing very well so far.

Monday, we worked around the house. The girls and I made a batch of cherry jam. It is very tasty! Yesterday, we worked in both gardens, hoeing and weeding. We then took down the greenhouse and put it away for next year, cleaned the fish tank, and did several odd chores that have been needed to get done for a while. The girls worked on history and science while I ran into little town to get chick feed. Supper last night was hamburgers, corn on the cob, and pineapple all fixed on the grill. I love cooking on the grill. Not near as much clean up involved and the kitchen doesn’t get heated up.

Well, today we will be cleaning out the chicken house and working on the nests. Definitely not my favorite job, but it is a little cooler this morning so hopefully that will make it a little easier. This morning I am making kefir and buttermilk. I have shared before how I make my buttermilk but maybe someone is reading this that hasn’t read it before, so I thought I would share it again. It tastes a lot like kefir. Heres what I do. First add 1/4 cup of whole milk buttermilk purchased from the store to a quart jar. I suppose you could use lowfat or fat free for this, we just prefer whole buttermilk. Finish filling up the jar with milk. I use raw milk but any milk will do. I leave the cream on but you can take it off. I then shake it up and sit it out on the counter for about 20 hrs. There is no set time for how long to leave it out. It all depends on the temperature of your house. This same rule applies to kefir. The warmer the temperature the quicker it will set. It is ready when you turn the jar over and it all leaves the side of the jar in one clump. Shake the jar for about 5 min and put in the fridge to chill. Now to making kefir, I use kefir grains when making my kefir. Jess bought the grains for me a little while back. Before that I used the powdered starter. The grains will continue to produce indefinitely. I store them in the fridge in a jar covered with milk. When I want to make kefir, which is usually every other day, I take them out, finish filling the jar 2/3 full with raw milk and leave it out on the counter for about 24 hrs. This time is also dependent upon the temperature in your home. Kefir is very good for us. You can read about the benefits of kefir online. It is full of good stuff. It tastes very good in smoothies. I think it is good to drink plain with just a little sweetener.

Well, I guess we better get busy with our day. God bless.

May 30, 2012 5

Rainbow

I thought I would share with you this rainbow. Isn’t it beautiful? We love rainbows. In Grundy, where I was raised, we very seldom ever saw a rainbow. Here in Floyd, we see them much more often but they never fail to amaze us. Today, Julie was finishes up her outside chores and had taken a few minutes to spend time with the new chicks. She loves to do this. She pets them and gets them all tamed up. Anyway, it started to sprinkle rain and the sun was shining. She turned around to look for a rainbow and they it was! She came running in to get us so we could all see it. Then, of course, we stood out in the yard (in the rain) looking at it. God is good!

Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 16, 2012 6

Wednesday

Monday afternoon the rain stopped and the wind really picked up. The girls finished their outside chores and wanted to stay outside for awhile. Do you see the two little dots in the distance? Well, that’s them. I took these this pictures from the house as they were walking the field.

They are never out without company. The cats always follow them any time they walk outside. I zoomed this picture in so you could see them better.

And, of course, Shadow. He would never dream of allowing them to be out of his sight. I’m not sure why this picture turned out so dark but you can still see him.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. The girls and I were at Jessica’s. The temperature at her house was in the 60’s so I know it was probably in the 50’s here. I love this weather-makes me think about spring. Today is supposed to be nice too and then rain is in the forecast. The girls and I are going to the Horn’s today after school. YEAH! We are soooo looking forward to it. Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 25, 2012 5

Fallen Leaves

Yesterday, we went to our Pastor’s home. They had some corn to give us and some peaches. I thought you all might enjoy seeing some pictures we took. As you can see, I think fall is coming on us pretty fast. Some of the trees are already losing their leaves. Our temperatures this morning was 55 degrees. Our morning temps have been in the 50’s for about a week now. So much nicer sleeping weather. Anyway we got about 2 bushel of corn and almost a bushel of peaches. We will be busy today working all that up. Grace is my helper when it comes to shucking corn. She loves it. Julie will be inside doing other work while Grace and I shuck. Then I will let Julie help with the blanching while Grace has other chores.

Also, a couple who go to our church told us we could come and pick plums from their tree. This is exciting for us. We have never known anyone who had a plum tree. We want to make jelly and I was thinking about trying plum juice. I wonder how that would taste? I guess we’ll find out. We probably won’t get to go pick them until later in the week. I let you all know how it turns out.

This is a picture of some of the trees in the Pastor’s orchard. If you look close, you can see the ladder at the tree we picked peaches from. I will show you all a few more pictures next time. Well, we better get busy. Enjoy your day and God bless.

August 16, 2011 8

Home School

How much more fun is school when you can sit outside under a big shady tree and watch the kittens play? We have had hot temperatures here for the last few days. Not as hot as it is at Jessica’s but hot for us, anyway. I went out early this morning in the garden to work. Hoping to get it finished before it got too hot. I left Julie and Grace inside doing dishes and other inside chores. I much gather work outside than in, even if it is hot. Anyway, I got the garden finished weeding, replanted some tomato plants, planted some beans and some corn. Everything is in the ground now so we’ll see how it does.

I thought you all might enjoy seeing how big the baby geese are. They are almost as big as their parents. Geese are definitely good parents. They are very watchful and protective-always together.

We have piano practice this afternoon so I better get busy. We have another load of clothes to put on the line before we leave and a folded basket to put away. Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 31, 2011 5

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

Exciting News

No picture with this post. Just exciting news. Jessica is pregnant!!!!!!! Isn’t the God we serve amazing. Her estimated due date is early June. They are both extremely happy and of course MawMaw is too. More on that little tidbit later. About my selling day at the Fair. Not too good. I paid $30.00 for the spot and made $32.00. A big $2.00 profit, but at least I made that much. It was however a fun day. I met lots of different people and enjoyed lots of sunshine. And of course spent some time with Daniel. How much better could a day be. I’ve been shopping today so we are behind with school and other chores. I better get busy. God Bless.

October 5, 2009 1