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

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

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

Another Update

Hello everyone! I wanted to let you all know how everyone is doing. I came home yesterday. The Bates clan seems to be on the mend. A long way from better but on the mend. Jess took Daniel to the doctor this morning. He has a lot of congestion and a double ear infection. Also please pray for our friends, the Horns. As of right now, 3 out of 5 of them have the flu and one has strep throat with the flu. I know many blogs I read have had this bug going through them. It is horrible.

Today we are working on school and other normal things. The girls and Hubby kept things running smoothly here while I was away. I did come back up Sunday morning and went to church. You all remember, Sunday was the girls big day of playing music. They did a great job. I hope to get a copy of the CD this weekend. If I can figure out how to put it on, I’ll try to share some of it with you all.

Well, that’s about it. Lunch break is over and time for us to start back on school. Thanks again for your prayers. God bless.

January 8, 2013 3

What We Still Look Like

Hello everyone! I thought I would show you all what it STILL looks like here in Floyd.

Ice still covers everything. I was hoping to show you all how beautiful it is when the sun shines on it but none of these pictures do it justice.

We are still snuggled in and enjoying the slow pace of days with nothing major to do. We will be starting back school next week.

I have to tell you all about all the fun we had last evening. We opened the chickens gate to see if they would come out and explore a little. Well, they came out just fine. The problem was, they didn’t want to go back in. I think they didn’t want to walk on the ice. When it started getting dark, instead of being on the roost, they were scattered everywhere-under buildings, in the wood shed. We had to gather them all up and put them in their house. Needless to say, we were SO COLD! Silly chickens, they will not have an open gate this evening.

Our actual temperature here this morning is 15 degrees. I’m not sure what the wind chill is but I am certain it is in the single digits. COLD!! I am working on another afgan. I made Jessica and Chuck one each for Christmas but forgot to take a picture of them. Jessica’s is purple and white-Chuck’s is green and yellow.

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

December 28, 2012 3

Merry Christmas!

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. We certainly did. Saturday was a full day. All my kids and my grandkids here at our home. God is SO good. We enjoyed a good meal. We had ham, rolls, potatoes, green beans, corn and so many desserts I don’t think I could name them all. It was such a fun day.

We will be having our candlelight service this evening. We all look so forward to it. I think it is a beautiful service. I wish I could get pictures of it but my camera doesn’t take very good night time pictures.

I pray each and every one of you have a wonderful Christmas. God bless.

December 24, 2012 1

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

Monday

Hello everyone! I thought I would share a few sunrise pictures from yesterday morning. It was a beautiful sky.

Saturday was very cold here. We ended up not doing much outside as it was just too cold. Sunday was cold in the morning but warmed up nicely as the day went on. A good thing too as it was parade day here in Floyd. We LOVE our Christmas parade. It is always so much fun. Pastor Tom and Mrs. Sally came home with us after church. We had taco soup and applesauce for lunch. Then we left for the parade. Our church did a float this year for the first time. Julie, Grace and several others walked behind the float and gave out candy. It was a lot of fun.

In this picture is Pastor Tom, Mrs. Sally, myself, Julie and Grace. Our float was one of the earlier ones, so everyone got to watch the remainder of the parade.

We are getting back into our routine today after a week break from school. We are working on science now. We have already finished bible and history. It promises to be a nice day here. It has warmed up already. Our temperature is upper 40’s with lots of sunshine.

Well, I better get busy. Enjoy your day and God bless.

November 26, 2012 5