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

Friday

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a good week so far. We have definitely had an assortment of weather types here this week. The first of the week was beautiful, warm. Our temperature one day was 70 degrees. It felt like spring. I hung clothes out on the line. Then the rain came-in buckets. We had heavy downpours of rain and high wind. Now the cold is here. Our temperature this morning is 10 degrees. We have wind gusts of 50 mph, wind chill temps below zero, and snow on the ground. It is very cold.

School has went well this week. On Wednesday, we helped a friend by changing some light fixtures. They are moving into a new place and are doing some small upgrades to the place before they move in. We took our school with us. As I have said before, this is one of the things we love about homeschooling. School adjusts to our schedule not our schedule adjusting to school. It was a nice day. We did a lot of catch-up as we had not really seen them in a while.

Well, I guess that’s about it. Stay warm and God bless.

February 1, 2013 3

Homemade Hot Fudge Cake

Hello everyone! I thought I would share with you all a picture of this delicious dessert I made yesterday. Now bear in mind that by just looking at this picture you have probably added 500 calories to your day but believe me it is SO worth it. I made the cake from Cheryl’s recipe-buttermilk chocolate cake. So that is the healthy part of the dessert. Then I made the hot fudge sauce from this recipe-hot fudge sauce. When I used to work outside the home, one of the girls I worked with always brought this to our dinners. I had not had it in at least 15 years, maybe more. It is delicious. For me to say this is pretty amazing as I am not a chocolate person.

We are enjoying BEAUTIFUL weather here today. It is 55 degrees right now with tons of sunshine. Feels like spring!! Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer, I think. We did, however, have freezing rain this morning. Everything was covered with ice. The sun and warm temps have melted all of that away. We do still have patches of snow though.

Well, I better get busy. Lunch break is almost over. Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 28, 2013 4

Trying New Things

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful, blessed Sunday. We are home today-no church-due to the snow we got on Thursday.

I have been wanting to try making our own body wash ever since I came across this recipe for it. So today is the day. I am making homemade liquid face wash. I divided the recipe by 4 as I just wanted to make 1 qt to try. I used 2/3 of a bar of aveeno clear complexion cleansing bar, 1 and 1/2 tsp glycerin and a qt of water. I’ll let you all know how we like it. I estimate the cost of this qt. to be about $2.00. I bought the aveeno soap at our local pharmacy and probably paid more for it than I would have at Wal-Mart. We have a big thing of shower gel right now that we are using but when this runs out I plan on making the gallon recipe using ivory soap. I think you could use any soap of your choosing. I like ivory and it is not expensive.

My quilt is coming along nicely. I finished all the 9 X 9 in. squares yesterday. Now to put them all together. I am thinking of a border but am undecided as of yet. A border would probably mean I would have to purchase material and I am wanting to make it all from scrap material I already have on hand. I hope to work some more on it today.

We were still cold this morning-16 degrees-but the wind is not blowing too much so it is not so bad. Well, that’s about all that’s going on here. Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 27, 2013 7

Tuesday

Good morning, ladies! I hope you all stayed warm last night. We were at 8 degrees this morning with a wind chill of -4. The bathroom and laundry room water was frozen but it didn’t take Hubby long to get it unthawed. The above picture is in what we call our sitting room. I wanted to share the beautiful sunshine coming through the window, especially for Cheryl. I understand she has had a really cold dreary several weeks.

We will be starting school in a little bit. After school I hope to work some more on the quilt pieces. So far it has been kinda fun. I am making crockpot terriyaki pork for supper with rice and green beans.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 22, 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

Snow

We have snow-about 6″. I thought I would share with you all some of our snow pictures. This picture was taken from the dining room window.

So was this one.

The front deck.

The pond.

The side yard.

The field behind the house. Everything is BEAUTIFUL!!! The snow started about 3:00 p.m. and ended around 9:00 p.m. It was so pretty. We have already made snow cream this morning. YUM,YUM!

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

January 18, 2013 6

Rainy Tuesday

Hello everyone! I hope all is well with you all. We are getting some much needed rain here in Floyd. It rained most of the night and is still raining. Temperatures are warm though. Over the weekend we got up to about 60 degrees. Amazing! Right now it is 40 degrees. I will take this for January weather any time.

We are working on school as usual. I love routine days. Days that we just go along doing normal stuff. Hubby hasn’t found any work yet so he is still working on learning how to make bowls. He is doing a really good job.

I want to give an update on the homemade dish soap. I don’t think I will be making it again. I’m sure it cleans good but I just do not like the fact that it does not soap up. I really like to see bubbles in my water when washing dishes. Oh well, it was fun making it.

Well, I think that’s about it. Piano practice is almost over and then book work begins so I better be getting ready. Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 15, 2013 5

Homemade Dish Soap

Hello everyone! I thought I would share with you all a new project I am making today. I got the idea from http://theblessedhearth.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-little-winter-project.html She always has the best projects going on. I tried to figure my cost on this. I think it runs a little less than one dollar counting the essential oils It makes over a quart of dishsoap. I will let you all know how it works. Anyway, it was a fun project to make. Thanks, Mrs. Faye.

Enjoy your day and God bless..

January 10, 2013 2

Hubby’s First Bowl

Hubby hasn’t had any work for a while now. Not knowing exactly what to do with himself, he has been working on bowl making. This is his first one. I think it looks beautiful. He, of course, sees many flaws. This bowl is made of sassafras wood.

He also made me this long handled wooden spoon. My new canning kettle has a nonstick finish on it so I have to use wooden or plastic spoons with it. My spoons didn’t really have a long enough handle. I don’t like getting so close to the hot stuff I’m stirring. I told him when we got the kettle that I needed a long handled spoon for it, so ta-da, I now have one. Thanks, honey.

Well, I hope you all have a good day and God bless.

January 9, 2013 2