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

Wednesday

Hello everyone! This week seems to be speeding by. We had a great Easter weekend! We went down to Jessica’s on Sunday. The weather there was beautiful. When we left Floyd that morning, it was cold, rainy and super foggy. We still had snow in the shady places. It really felt good to have sunshine and warmer temps for the day.

We have started warming up some this week though. Temperatures have been in the 50’s with sun. Nice for doing outside work. The girls and I worked some on cleaning out the chicken house yesterday after school. Today we (Hubby included) worked on getting wood.

I wanted to share with you all a recipe for homemade window cleaner. Jess gave me the recipe. It really does work. We worked on cleaning Hubby’s van this morning. It is his work vehicle so it gets really dirty. I made a batch of the window cleaner and it worked really well cleaning the van windows. If it will clean them, it must be pretty good stuff.

I think it’s time for me to rest. Getting wood is hard work. Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 3, 2013 1

Monday

Hello everyone! Seems like time goes by so quickly. I wanted to give you all an update on Hubby. He is doing some better. We did go to the doctor on Thursday. They did some blood work and we are waiting on the results.

We had a very busy but great weekend. Chuck and his family came and spent Saturday, Saturday night and Sunday with us. Irma and her kids were gone to N.C. to see her family. Her dad has been diagnosed with cancer. Anyway, Chuck and kids went with us to church on Sunday. We had a really good crowd at church. Several visitors, which is very unusual for us.

Today was school as usual. I had hoped to work on Sam’s quilt but just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Probably won’t happen today. I have all the squares sewn together now and am ready to start putting it all together. I think it looks pretty good. I will take a picture and show you all when it is finished. I gave Alexius her quilt this weekend. She slept under it Saturday night. When they were leaving Sunday evening, she forgot to carry out her overnight bag. Chuck carried it out for her. He asked her if she had forgotten anything. She said, “No, I got my quilt.” She wanted to make sure she didn’t forget it.

We have been cold here today. Morning wind chill temperature was zero when we got up. We did have sunshine though but it still has been cold all day. I think I am ready for warmer temperatures. I got a new seed book in the mail today which we have already looked through. Looking at all that beautiful produce always gives me the fever to go play in the dirt. Well, it won’t be too much longer (I hope).

Enjoy your evening and God bless.

March 4, 2013 7

Wednesday

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a good day. Things are kinda slow here. Hubby is still sick-YUCK! He has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. I would appreciate your prayers for a healing for him. He does feel better today than he has in 2 weeks. I can see an improvement every day just not as fast as we would like.

Yesterday another ice storm came through. Everything was covered with ice. This morning though all is gone. YEAH! We have some sun with temperatures in the upper 30’s. We are supposed to get more snow come through Thursday and Friday. I know, though, spring is just around the corner. The birds are singing so pretty and the air just has a different feel to it.

Not much else going on here. School, laundry, housework. You know, just the usual stuff. Enjoy your day and God bless.

February 27, 2013 4

Wintry Mix

We awoke this morning to a wintry mix.

Not a lot going on here this week. Grace has had a little sore throat and congestion going on this week. Hubby has been dealing with something going on with his tummy. Not exactly sure what. I think a trip to the doctor might help but he thinks for sure (today) that he is doing better. We’ll see.

Yesterday, Julie and I went to C-burg while Grace and Hubby stayed home. I was hoping to find a few twin size flat sheets at Goodwill to use as the backing for the quilts I’m working on. I did find one but I don’t think it will be for Sam’s quilt but hopefully it will work for one of the other ones. We picked up a few things at Wal-Mart, paid a few bills and came on home. I’m glad we got all that done yesterday before the storm hit. We also downloaded sheet music for Julie. The song is titled Hope’s Song by Rebecca St. James. She wants to play and sing this song at church for Easter. She’ll have to work pretty hard on it though as Easter is just around the corner.

Julie and I spotted a few of these colts foot blooming yesterday. I took this picture from an older post of mine as we did not have the camera with us yesterday. It is always so exciting when we see these starting to bloom. They are (to my knowledge) our first wild flowers to bloom in spring. YEAH!

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

February 22, 2013 4

Finished

I am finished with the quilt. This will be for Alexius (oldest granddaughter on her birthday). Next I am starting on Sam’s. His birthday is next. Last week seemed to go by quickly. We got our haircuts and enjoyed a nice afternoon with Faye and Gene. The girls and I went to Sam’s one day to get stocked up on a few things. Hubby cut wood while we were gone. Imagine that, choosing to cut wood over going shopping! On another day, we did some more electrical for our friend that is moving. And before we knew it the weekend was here.

So now, school is finished, outside chores are done, the girls have taken a walk on the tractor road and supper is in the oven. Wow, how good is that! Tonight we are having something new. I bought some marinated turkey breasts at Sam’s last week. We are baking one of them for supper. It smells awesome.

I wanted to share this picture with you all. You remember a while back when I made the comment that our pond was overflowing. Well, we finally figured out why. A duck has somehow got sucked into the drain pipe. Not pleasant, I know, but strange things do happen. Marvin told me he read somewhere that if he fell in, he had 20 min. before hypothermia set in. I told him I’d be watching and if he fell in I would let him know when his time was running out but to make sure he got the duck out while he was in the water. (lol) Anyway, they are trying to get the drain unstopped. So far, no success.

Well, I think that is about all that is going on around here. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

February 11, 2013 6

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

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