Pioneer Lady

This is my friend Barbara. No, she is not a real pioneer lady. She is one of our Friday Ladies Study group. She needed an outfit for a Red Hat function and this is what we come up with. She looks so good! I made the skirt and the apron for her. She got the bonnet at Schoolhouse Fabrics here in Floyd. I had so much fun making the apron. I have never attempted an apron this this before. It was challenging for me but I so enjoyed doing it. I think I will make one for myself, maybe even the girls. We think this would be an excellent costume for Christfest (halloween alternative) at church. The sun is trying to shine here but the clouds seem to be winning the contest right now. Hopefully it will be warmer today. School as usual. We are almost finished with spelling, only two more word lists. This is when it starts getting exciting again. When you can see the end in sight. I have to make pickled eggs today. My hubby loves pickled eggs. I make some every year at Easter and Christmas and sometimes in between. I will try to document the process and post on it tomorrow. Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 30, 2010 2

Snow!

Yes, we are getting snow! How about that? Well, it is March. I thought spring was here but I guess winter is still holding on. The snow has been gone long enough though that seeing it coming down was pretty exciting. I have come across a really easy homemade biscuit recipe. I have struggled for years to make good homemade biscuits and have never gotten it quite right. I think these are pretty good. Not as good as my grandmothers were but good. Perhaps that has been my problem. Too high a standard. Anyway here’s the recipe if anyone would like to try it. 2 1/4 cups self rising flour, 2/3 cup shortening or lard, 1 cup milk. Combine flour and shortening with pastry blender or fork until no large clumps of shortening appear. Add milk. (Your choice sweet or buttermilk). Stir. Turn out on floured surface. Add enough flour to make stiff dough. Pat out and cut biscuits. Bake at 425 degrees for 20-25 minutes. When done, brush tops with melted butter. I like them because I don’t have to use a rolling pin and I can use self-rising flour. I have made some biscuit recipes that just took forever to make. These go very fast (both in making and in eating).

Here’s a picture of how they turned out. I think they look pretty good! I forgot to tell you the recipe will make about 9 biscuits this size. 2 are suspiciously missing from this picture. Well, I think it’s time to eat. Enjoy your day, take care and God bless.

March 26, 2010 2

Another Sign of Spring

Another indicator of spring. This flower is one of the early ones. I’m not sure what it is but it comes up early every year. Does anyone know it’s name? Anyway it is always such an uplifting sight to see it coming out of the ground. Today has been a little cool here, overcast, kinda dreary. Yesterday was georgeous. Windy but lots of sunshine. Today has been school as usual. We are all looking forward to finishing the year (hopefully) a little early. Our expectations are to be finished around the first of May. I guess that is if we don’t miss too many days between now and then. Spring is the hardest for us. We want to take too many days off and enjoy the sun. I’ve still been working on Grace’s quilt. I’m about 2/3 of the way finished. I really want to get it done soon so I can put the quilting frame away for summer. It always seems to me, spring is the time for new projects and it is hard to get old ones finished when so many new ones are calling. I MUST REMAIN FOCUSED! Tonight’s menu for supper is venison strips, mashed potatoes, corn, gravy and homemade biscuits. Dessert will probably be honey and butter swirled together and put on hot biscuits. YUM! Tomorrow is Ladies Bible Study day. It is going really well. A very good study. I highly recommend it. Well it is time for us to get some house cleaning done and then start on supper. Take care and God Bless.

March 25, 2010 0

Family

My girls. Ain’t they beautiful! The recital was Sunday and went very well. Call me impartial, but I think my girls were the BEST. It was great fun. Dave, Jess, and Daniel came up. Jess is responsible for “dolling” them up every year. She does a great job. They looked so grown up. It is hard for me to believe how fast they are becoming young ladies. I love you, girls (all 3). Can you believe this is the same girls that just the day before were fishing and catching lizards?

We also got a nice picture of Jess, David, and Daniel. It was such a nice weekend. We enjoyed chicken on the grill Saturday evening which we ate outside at the picnic table. We had planned to do a campfire but it was too windy. Hopefully next time. Our time together extended on to Monday. We went down with Jess on Sunday evening so I could go with her for her ultra sound on Monday. It was amazing! I actually got to see little Samuel blink his eyes. I could not believe it. Ulta sounds have really come a long way. It is cold here today, very windy. Snow flurries . Typical March weather. We saw lots of trees and flowers blooming this weekend though. Signs of encouragement for those of us who are soooooo ready for spring. Well, I better work on school. We’re learning about prepositions this week. What fun!!! Take care and God bless.

March 23, 2010 2

New Life

The field above our house has come to life. Several new calves have been born. They run and jump through the new grass. They have so much fun and are such a joy to watch. Today we worked outside most of the day, picking up in the yard, getting the garden ready. David, Jess, and Daniel came this afternoon. We had hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. Ate them outside at the picnic table. The sun was shining brightly. A beautiful day.

The girls enjoyed some fishing time. It was one of those days that I just thank the Lord I live where I do. Clothes blowing dry in the wind. The birds are singing so beautiful. Frogs peeping. It makes me want to do all my work outside. I even open my window just a little bit at night so the frogs can sing me to sleep. Wonderful time of the year in Floyd. It’s been a really hard winter but spring in sweet. Just like life. Sometimes life is hard but the Lord is good and brings us through to spring. Well, I must go. My baby boy is here. Take care and God bless.

March 20, 2010 1

Info about using dryers

I did some research on how much it cost to run a dryer. The info I got said an average of about 50 cents a load. I wash about 10 loads a week which means if I hang them all outside I will be saving about $5.00 a week. About $20.00 a month. I like that. I can do a lot with $20.00 extra dollars. I just wanted to let you ladies know this information. I thought it was very useful. Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 15, 2010 2

Wheat

Today was spent running errands. The girls had dentists appointments this morning. We left home at 9:00 as it takes about an hour to get to Roanoke from here. After their appointments, we spent some time in Lifeway. I picked out several studies I think the ladies will enjoy doing. Then we went to Toys R Us. The girls wanted to look around.

When the girls were younger, we always called Roanoke “big big town, Christiansburg was “big town” and Floyd (our town) was called “little town” . So we came back, went to “little town” and picked up the wheat I had ordered. It is called Prairie Gold. It is a hard white spring wheat. It can be used in all baking, from bread to cookies. The price was $25.00 for a 50 lb. bag. Pretty good price. Tomorrow I hope to make cinnamon rolls to share with a friend on Thursday. If I’m really industrious, maybe a loaf of bread too. Our snow is melting more each day. Temperature today was about 60 degrees. I went out on my back porch and sat on my porch swing. I love porch swings. When I was a little girl, my grandmother had a porch swing and I have loved them ever since. To me, nothing says relaxing more than a swing, so I have 1 porch swing and 2 yard swings. All made for me by my loving Hubby. The girls have had 2 tree swings since they were very small and still enjoy them. I guess we’re just “a swingin” bunch. Take care and God bless.

March 9, 2010 3

May Be Crazy!

Yes, I know to many of you who know me, this only confirms the fact that sometimes I am a little crazy. The sun is shining so brightly here today. The birds are singing everywhere. A slight breeze is blowing. How could I resist hanging my cloths on the line. Yes, I admit it was cold. About 36 degrees. My hands definitely were cold by the time I was finished, but don’t they look absolutely beautiful blowing in the breeze. They are going to smell soooooooo good! Spring is coming and it feels so wonderful. Thank you Lord! Take care and God bless.

March 8, 2010 4

My Special Boy

Miss you, already! We are back from our visit. The weather was beautiful, 58 degrees when we left this afternoon. Pretty nice here too, 45 degrees. The sun is shining and lots of snow has melted. We actually have a front yard now. Our little man was sick this weekend. He has the same thing Julie and Grace have had. YUCKY! However, as we were playing in his toy room this weekend, he looked up at me and said “I love you, MawMaw”. Well of course my heart melted. I have tried since he began talking to get him to say that, and just like that he says it. No prompting from me, nothing. Just straight from his heart to mine. Everything in God’s time. That of course was the highlight of my trip. We had lots of great food to eat, did some shopping. I found the girls a dress for piano recital at Goodwill. Could not find shoes though. Hopefully we will find some before the recital. It’s time for us to leave for church. I just wanted to share with you all my sweet words from my special boy. Take care and God bless.

March 7, 2010 2

Bigger Now

My, what a difference a few months can make. Jasper was about 8 weeks old in this picture. The other one was taken this morning. I think he’s grown some, don’t you all? He is drying off from a bath, waiting on the girls to break for lunch so he can play with them. I am not sure how this happened. I’ve never cared for animals in the house. We now have 2 full time cats inside and 1 part time dog.

I used to be so strong. Oh well, it’s not too bad. The girls really enjoy them being in. Cold here today. The wind is blowing pretty hard. The fire went out last night and when I tried to build a new fire this morning, the smoke was terrible. I eventually just took the wood out of the stove and left it alone. I would rather be a little cool than have to deal with all that smoke. We have the gas logs on so its not too cold. Hopefully, we will do bible study tomorrow. I am very excited to begin this study. Esther is such an exciting book to study and I’m sure Beth Moore will bring out things I would never think about. We are hopefully going down to Jessica’s this weekend. I want to do some girl stuff. The town she lives in has an excellent Goodwill Store. I love shopping at Goodwill! I guess I just love thrift store shopping in general, yard sales, consignment sales, etc. Good deals at good prices. Well, lunch break is over. Time for school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 4, 2010 2