Rainbow

Hello everyone! I thought I would share a few pictures of a beautiful rainbow God gave us the other evening.

It was very pretty. Today we went to Pastor Tom’s to pick apples. We ended up picking about 11 bushels. I think you all can guess what we will be doing for a while. I also wanted to share with you all a great post I found this morning on making coffee creamer. This sounds delicious and I can’t wait to try them out. You can check out all the flavors here http://www.mrshappyhomemaker.com/2013/03/homemade-coffee-creamer-over-20-flavor-varieties.

Well, I better get off here. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

September 23, 2013 4

VBS

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a good week so far. Last week was pretty busy for us. Seems like VBS is always a busy time. Our theme this year was “Hip Hopping for Jesus”. The kids all seemed to have a great time.

Julie dressed for the part. All the workers dressed in 50’s style. I somehow didn’t get a picture of Grace.

We enjoyed our moon last week and finally (after years of trying) managed to get a good moon picture. Our place was so bright at night, we had a cat bird that sang all night. I guess he didn’t know if it was night or day.

We have also been enjoying some of our fresh produce from the garden. So far we have had salad greens, green onions, beets, radishes, carrots, yellow squash and a few cucumbers. We love it!!

I hope you all have a good evening and God bless.

July 1, 2013 4

Wednesday

I thought I would show you all another picture of the roses in the tree. I took this one this morning looking down from the girl’s bedroom window. They have really looked beautiful this year.

We are still working on school as we took about a month break before and during vacation. We only lack 10 more days if we do double lessons every day. Then I think we will take off the summer. We are looking forward to it.

After school we plan on making strawberry rhubarb jam. I posted the recipe here https://merryheartcrafts.com/category/recipes/canning-recipes/ I have made this jam for many, many years. The recipe I normally use is a little different than this one but I want to give this one a try.

Today I am looking forward to hanging clothes on the line, doing school, making jam and hanging out with my girls. I have such a blessed life. Enjoy your day and God bless.

June 19, 2013 5

Thursday

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing great today. We are kinda warm here in Floyd-86 degrees but we do have a very pleasant wind so it doesn’t seem so bad. At least, not if you are in the shade!

We worked in the garden this morning. We started early but it still got pretty hot before we were done. This is a picture of the first raised bed. We have been enjoying the salad greens and green onions for a while now.

We had a great visit yesterday with my Uncle John and Aunt Elaine. They live in Mighigan and had never been to the farm before. Jess and her kids came up. Everyone went for a ride in the bumpy truck. It was so good to get to see them.

Our grapevine seems to be doing okay now. I was a little worried about it as it got frostbite by the last frost we had. We won’t have as many grapes as last year but it looks like there will be a few.

The roses are blooming and look very beautiful in the tree. We spent most of the evening sitting here yesterday enjoying the view and time spent with family. I wanted to tell you all about something beautiful I saw last night. I almost ALWAYS have to get up during the night to go to the bathroom. Well, last night when I got up I looked out our bedroom window and the sight I saw was totally amazing. The stars were shining so bright in the sky and underneath them the lightning bugs were everywhere! So many it looked like blinking Christmas lights. I stood there watching it all thinking how good our God is to allow me to see something like that!

I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

June 13, 2013 5

Beach Trip

Hello everyone! I’m sure you can guess from the title of this post where we have been. We went with Dave and Jess to Jekyll Island GA for a week. We had so much fun. The girls had never been to the beach before and I have only been a few times. Some friends from our church recommended Jekyll Island and we loved it. It is not too crowded and has lots of fun things to do.

We took a trolley tour of some of the old houses. It was very interested. So many of the “rich and famous” lived in these homes.

We also rode a bicycle around the island.

This took most of one day but it was so much fun. We saw so many things we normally would not have seen.

We did a dolphin tour one day. Little Sam saw his first dolphin on his third bithday. Then the motion of the boat did him in. He had to take a short nap. We also celebrated my Julie’s 15th birthday while we were there. Amazing to me how fast they grow up.

On the island they call this driftwood beach. It is very pretty.

Saturday morning as we were leaving we made a last trip down to driftwood beach and guess what we saw-a dolphin! Amazing! It was just swimming around looking beautiful.

While we were there a tropical storm can through. It was AWESOME! We went down to the beach that evening before it came in and the waves were so pretty. The wind was whipping and the sound was like a roar. I LOVED it!!!! On Thursday, it rained something fierce so we went down to Jacksonville FL to the Museum of Science and History. It was a fun trip with lots of things to look at.

I guess I could go on and on about all the fun things we did but I don’t want to bore you all too much. It was a great week and we are very thankful to Dave and Jess for taking us along with them. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

June 10, 2013 5

Picnic and a Surprise

Tuesday we went for a picnic with the Horn’s. We had a great time. It was our first picnic of the season with them.

The picnic spot was beautiful!

Fresh strawberries from North Carolina. It’s still too early here for them but these were delicious!

I came home today to find this lounge chair being made. I love it! Thanks Hubby. We have looked at this design for a while now and he said he thought today was a good day to build one. It is chilly here today and very windy. Our temperature is 50 degrees as I type. I think there is a freeze warning in effect for tonight. Wouldn’t you know it, we just got our plants in the ground this week. I certainly hope they are wrong. It has been a beautiful day though, just chilly. Beautiful sunshine and the air is so clean and clear. I do love days like this.

Have a great evening and God bless.

May 24, 2013 5

Tuesday

Hello everyone! I hope you all are doing well. Seems like the week rushes by here and I haven’t made a post. School is going along. Maybe even finishing a little early. I have been watching ebay like a crazy woman getting all our books for next year. Our science book is on the way and that finishes up all we need. YEAH!

Our weather cooled off a bit over the weekend-redbud winter. When the redbuds are in full bloom it always cools off some. We have been having a fire but today has nice. Hubby has been working on putting the vinyl siding on the new room. I helped him some after school. There always seems to be so much to get done in the spring.

Friday, Dave and Jess took us all out to eat to celebrate mine and Dave’s birthday. We had planned on doing a cookout at their house but the weather was too bad. We ate at a really cool restuarant. I think the name was Hillbilly Hideaway (I could be wrong on the name but it was something like that). They serve you family style. BIG bowls and platters of food. 3 types of meat and tons of veggies. It was really good. Thanks, Dave and Jess. Of course, Jess couldn’t resist telling the waitresses it was our birthday celebration so they sang happy birthday to us. It was a lot of fun. One of the waitresses and I were talking. She has several grandkids. She said “I like to watch them one at a time. I can’t handle them all at once,they wear me out, drive me crazy”. Sam looked at me with big eyes and said, “MawMaw, are you crazy?” I hugged him and said, “Yes, Sam, I think I am!” I know I’m crazy for all them. My children and my grandchildren are so important to me. I can understand though what she was saying. They sure do have lots more energy than I do.

Well, I guess that’s about all that’s going on here. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

April 23, 2013 3

Last Thursday

I thought I would show you all what it looked like here last Thursday.

Can you believe it? Snow!

We ended up with about 3 inches! Amazing! It was very beautiful but I am ready for sunshine instead of snow. By Friday evening, most of it was gone except in some really shady areas. Saturday we went down to the Farmers Market in Greensboro. An old friend of ours, Retia, went with us. She had never been to Jess and Dave’s since they bought their home. We stopped there first. After coffee and a delicious pound cake Jess had made for us, we were off to the market. Jess found some beautiful ferns for her front porch and some herbs to plant. We had a great day with warm temperatures and sunshine. It was a perfect day for looking around at all the flowers and plants.

We started a new bible study Sunday night at church. It is called “Experiencing God”. It is a really good study. Hubby and I have done it before. Some in our class have taken it and others have not. I am looking forward to all the Lord has planned to show us with this study. Every time I do it, I get something new and different from it.

This week has been absolutely beautiful here in Floyd. Temperatures in the low 70’s. I LOVE it!! Hubby tillered some of the lower garden yesterday. Today, he is working on building a raised bed. We have wanted to do raised beds for years. It just seems to be one of those things we talk about but never get around to doing. That is changing today. He already has it built and is working now on filling it with dirt. We will see how we like using this one and then decide if we want more.

The girls and I are almost finished with school for the day. All we lack is math. Then we are going outside to help. We need to get the upper garden ready for plowing. It will soon be time to get things in the ground. I hope to get some cabbage plants, onion sets, spinach seeds and lettuce seeds the next time we go into town.

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

April 9, 2013 5

Winter Wonderland

I thought I would share a few pictures of what it looks like here in Floyd. Maybe I shouldn’t say Floyd because from what I can understand not everywhere in Floyd looks like this. Some areas only got ice but we have snow on top of the ice.

Yesterday was spent not doing much of anything. Just chilling out, reading, playing games. Just a fun relaxing day. Watching it snow.

It is very beautiful, however, I do believe I am ready for warmer temperatures (I think I have said that before!) Next week, we are supposed to warm up considerably.

My hero! The first thing he does after a snow is to clear the vehicles and the walkway-just in case we want to get out. Thanks, babe! I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless.

March 25, 2013 4

Happy Monday!

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a great day so far. We have worked on half school today as we are going to get haircuts this afternoon. I found this new recipe for bread and so I am taking this loaf to Mrs. Faye as a thank you for cutting our hair. We also plan on sharing these cinnamon buns with her.

I got this recipe from http://redfarmhouse.blogspot.com/search?q=one+rise+bread.

I also wanted to share another new recipe I am trying. I got it from here http://belovedsbride.blogspot.com/ I had a beef roast to put in the crockpot this morning. Amazing how things work out that way. It sure does smell good cooking.

Another new thing I did last month was bake our bacon in the oven. Jess does this all the time so I thought I would give it a try. We buy our bacon at Sam’s in a 3 lb package. Last month, I baked the entire package at one time. Instructions are here: http://blog.makezine.com/craft/kitchen_101_cooking_bacon_in_t/ I then froze the precooked bacon. Wow, I’m thinking, why hadn’t I thought of this before. Now all I have to do is get out the amount of bacon needed for breakfast, heat it up in a skillet or microwave and ta-da bacon is ready. I am impressed with how fast it is and how crispy the bacon is. Of course, the instructions on the post said to throw away the bacon grease that accumulates in the pan. I’m sure that ain’t right! I would never throw away good bacon grease. Mine is in a jar in the fridge and has already been used several times. Once, for some refried beans I made the other day that was delicious.

Well, that’s about it. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

February 4, 2013 7