Tuesday

Today we are getting back into the swing of school. We had too many errands yesterday to start. We also visited some with the Horn’s yesterday. For Christmas, the Horn girls had received a kit from Wal-Mart to make a little girl apron and a little doll apron. I took some interfacing over and Vicki and I traced out the pattern. So I now have a little doll apron pattern to make. I want to make a mother, daughter, and doll apron to match.

Temperatures here are much nicer than they have been however yesterday morning was pretty cold. Temperature yesterday was 14 when we got up but it did warm up nicely with lots of sunshine. Cloudy today though, of course, because I am home and could hang our clothes on the line today. Oh well, thats how it goes. Hubby worked on getting some more wood yesterday while the girls and I ran errands.

Tonights menu is something I really don’t have a name for. I brown hamburger meat, add onions, cabbage, and potatoes. The options are limitless as to what you can add. I sometimes add fresh peppers, zucchini, squash, mushrooms. I like fresh baked cornbread with it. I got some cushaw from the freezer this morning. I think I will make a pie for dessert.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 4, 2011 3

More Christfest Fun

For the first time this year, the kids got to play some of the games outside before it got dark. This was a lot of fun and much cooler than in the basement. I, for one, was extremely hot downstairs but then I should have known not to wear a long sleeve shirt. We girls got our hair cut yesterday. I decided to make a batch of cinnamon buns to take to the lady who cuts our hair. We all sat down and enjoy them while they were still warm before we started our haircuts. It was a nice visit.

Today it has been pretty chilly here in Floyd. We have kept a fire going all day. While the girls worked on school, I have been busy making pumpkin puree to put in the freezer. I used part of the puree to make a pumpkin pie for supper. It is in the oven now. The recipe I used is:

2 cups pumpkin puree, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup evaporated milk, 1 egg beaten, 1/3 cup plain flour, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice. Stir all ingredients together and bake at 350 degrees until done. Pie is done when toothpick stuck in middle comes out clean. Start checking for doneness at about 45 min. Years ago, we were at a farmers market and this older lady was selling pumpkins, cushaw and other fall squash. I ask her about a pie recipe for them and she just told me all the ingredient and their measurements, right from memory. I was of course very impressed. I hurriedly wrote them down (before I forgot them) and have used this recipe ever since. It is a favorite fall dessert around here.

Take care and God bless.

November 3, 2010 1

We’re Back

This is our progress so far. It has been a pretty big job. We finished grouting the tile today. I think it looks really good. I really like the color she chose for the walls. I think I like the bigger tile too. David will seal the grout, put on the base trim and get her washer and dryer back in the room. She is wanting to put lots of shelves in and also they are going to purchase a freezer to go in the room. I’ll take more pictures when all this is done.

We had a really nice time Sunday with our revival getting started. The pastor’s messages were really good. Sunday mornings message was about being cleansed and Sunday evening was about getting a touch from God. We left Monday morning to go back down to Jessica’s. She’s such a slave driver, you know.

My next post will have birthday party pictures, however I could not resist showing you these two today.

Ain’t he cute when he’s sleeping? He has an absolutely beautiful smile and smiles a lot. He is a very happy and content little boy.

This is a picture of pure love. I don’t think I have ever seen a little boy love his dog more than Daniel loves his “Buddy” or vice versa. They spend hours outside doing this very thing, just rolling and playing together.

Well, I think I’ll rest for a while. Enjoy your evening and God bless.

September 15, 2010 3

Sweet, Juicy Corn

Our corn is ready! I love fresh garden corn. We have been working some of it up this morning. So far we have put 58 ears in the freezer and 9 pts cut off the cob. I have a vacuum sealer which I use for the corn and other stuff. It is a very handy thing to have. I purchase items at the store in bulk at a discounted price and then separate them out into portions we can use. Then seal them with the vacuum sealer. It really makes a difference. No freezer burn.

The type of corn we raise is called Merit Corn or where I’m from they call it Garden Creek Corn. The man who had the seed for it lived on Garden Creek, thus the name. It is an excellent corn, very sweet. It is called the silkless corn because when you shuck it the silks just fall off with the shucks. I LIKE THAT! Makes working the corn so much easy.

We have been getting quite a lot of rain here this week. The temperatures have cooled down some though because of the rain. Yesterday, the girls and I worked on apples. 16 quarts to be exact. I used my new steamer juicer and extracted over a qt of juice from the peelings. We had fresh apple juice with breakfast this morning. Very delicious!

Better get busy. Enjoy your day and God bless.

August 19, 2010 2

Pink Apples

Saturday while down at Jessica’s we went over to David’s mothers. There we found an apple tree loaded with apples and ready to be picked. She said we could have them. We did get a surprise though. They are not your normal apple.

We gathered about a 1/2 bushel and brought them home. We had never seen an apple that looked like this one. I’m not sure what their name is but they are difinitely different. What fun we had today working with these. Grace of course loved them as pink is her favorite color.

After cooking them and running them through the sauce maker, they turn a beautiful, darker color.

We canned 9 pints and put 1 qt bag in the freezer. I think they look very pretty in the jar. Tomorrow, if all goes as planned, we will be making spaghetti sauce. We have a bushel of tomatoes to work up. Our pastor’s wife gave us her spaghetti sauce recipe, so I think we will make it tomorrow. She gave us a can to try and we all thought it was very good. The recipe I have made before does not get thick enough so I have been on the search for a new one. I’ll let you all know tomorrow how it turns out. Take care and God bless.

July 20, 2010 2

Home Place

This is a picture of our Grundy home. The original house was built by my grandparents. It (like most old homes) had rooms added on. I was 12 years old when I first moved into this home and 40 when I left. Leaving was hard. Life changes though and we must be able to change with it. I have so many happy memories of this place but I also have many happy memories of where I am now.

The girls and I have been busy. We had 23 qts. of green beans. We finished them today. We also put more squash in the freezer. We are going down to Jessica’s this evening. Tomorrow us girls will be going blueberry picking while Dad and PawPaw watch the two boys. After that we plan on going to Lifeway and then out to eat. We will be coming back home tomorrow evening.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

July 16, 2010 2

Comparison

I thought it would be nice to look back and remember how things were just a few short months ago. This picture was taken this morning. Then I looked back and found another picture of the same scene.

Personally I like this morning’s picture better but to each his own. Yesterday was busy for us. The girls and I went to pick apples. A friend from church offered us his early apples from his tree. We were very thankful to get them. After we came home, we started processing them. Yesterday we got 11 quarts of applesauce made and still have more to work with today. Sally, our pastors wife, told us she puts her apples in the microwave to cook them. This was much easier as we didn’t have to worry about them burning. Then she puts hers through her food strainer and puts them in the freezer. I had never put applesauce in the freezer, only apples. We tried that yesterday. It was a lot faster and didn’t heat up the house.

Beautiful weather here in Floyd this week. Much cooler temperatures with a wonderful breeze. We have had several little rains which we really needed. I picked green beans Monday and dug some young potatoes. They were delicious. I think I’ll be able to pick some more beans by tomorrow. YUM! I love fresh produce.

Did you all notice my canning and freezing logs Dave put on my blog? Thanks Dave. I really like being able to look at it and see what I’ve got done and what I still need. I better get working on those apples. Enjoy your day and God bless.

July 14, 2010 1

VBS

Here are a few pictures of the decorations for bible school. Our theme this year was Harvesting God’s Word. We had lots of good lessons, fun crafts and games, and of course good food. We averaged around 17 kids each night. I wanted to get some pictures of the kids, but Hubby put it all on video and I don’t know how to load that on the blog. Our pastor was there every night. He has such a heart for kids. I think he had as much fun as they did.

Progress is slow but moving on the new room. A minor setback occurred when we decided to put the door in a different place. This required undoing almost all we had done. Hubby had to remove the floor and do all the plumbing drains different. This will be much better though than the original plan.

The girls and I have been busy today putting up gooseberries in the freezer. We had 6 bags. This is the first time I have froze gooseberries. I hope they will be good. I also gathered some squash and zucchini to put in the freezer. We will be enjoying the first of our broccoli this evening with supper. I think home grown broccoli is so much better than store bought but then I think everything is better home grown. If I finish these other veggies in time, I think I will put up some rhubarb. I have gotten a little behind with my harvesting due to bible school and the new room. Oh well, all in God’s time. It has been a very pleasant morning for me. I so much enjoy putting up our own veggies that we raise in our garden. It always gives me a feeling of peace and contentment.

We are planning to go to the fireworks this evening in town. We had hoped the Horn’s would get to meet us there but Quentin had to work. Jess and Dave are going to enjoy fireworks down at their town. They will be coming up next weekend. Sam’s first trip to the mountains. I can hardly wait to see them all. I guess I better get busy if I expect to get anything done. Happy 4th of July. Take care and God bless.

July 3, 2010 1

Flowers

This lily has had a rough beginning. In early spring, it was trampled and broken by a big footed pup. It seems to have survived nicely though. I have waited all spring to see what it would look like. I think it looks pretty next to the purple flowers. I most definitely will have to separate some of these flowers next year. The bed is extremely crowded. Yesterday was a busy day. The girls and I cleaned out both of the big freezers-making room for this year’s harvest. This took a major portion of the day. Then I helped Hubby by mowing some before he came in from work. For supper, I used some of the pork tenderloin I had cooked the day before. I like to cook a large amount of meat at one time and then use it in different dishes for another meal. So I put the tenderloin in the oven with some potatoes and roasted them. We also had corn on the cob from our freezer, biscuits with butter and homemade blackberry jam for dessert. Today is starting out to be a beautiful day here is Floyd. Lots of sunshine. Tomorrow our church is doing a horseshoe tournament down by the river. We will play horseshoes, eat lots of good food, listen to good music and in general have a great time. It amazes me some people think Christian life is boring. We have a blast at my church! We are small in number but we do lots of things together. We are family. I will try to get some pictures to post of our activities. This is the first year we have done this and we are hoping many will come. Baby Sam and Mom are still doing good. Daniel says he loves his baby brother. Thanks so much for your prayers. I hope to go down to see them soon and get more pictures. Take care and God bless.

June 11, 2010 1

Salsa

Well that batch of salsa is done. We got 11 pints. It took up the major part of the day. From morning till lunch chopping. We were blessed to use all fresh garden ingredients. The tomatoes had to be scalded, peeled and then chopped. Then from lunch until about 6:00 was dedicated to simmering and then canning. If I knew how to do pictures, I would show you pictures of the jars. The salsa is very pretty in the jars and taste wonderful. Today we will be working on some more corn. At last count we had a little over 200 ears in the freezer and around 30 cans of corn. Thank you Lord. Last night was church night. We have been working on establishing a youth class on Wed. and last night we had 7 youth. Pretty good for a small church. I think this is one of those stretching times from the Lord. I have never taught youth before(only my own) however this has truly been fun. My prayer would be to see more kids show up and that they would learn more about our Lord through this class. Well I gotta get some work done. I need to go down to the barn and get some milk. We get our milk fresh from the cow. The girls however now have a hard time drinking what we call store milk. They say it doesn’t taste good. Thanks for reading and may God bless you throughout this day.

August 20, 2009 1