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

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

Mrs. Sally’s Decorations

We love to visit Mrs. Sally and see all her Christmas decorations. Her walls are covered with these beautiful wall hangings she has made.

She also has so many nativity scenes.

This one came from Israel. I think it is my favorite.

She has lots of snowmen.

We had a really nice visit. She cooked a beef roast with potatoes and carrots. I took fresh made rolls and an oatmeal pie.

Not much going on here. Just normal stuff. Hubby is gone to work and I am letting the girls sleep in a little bit. Clothes are in the machine washing and dishes are waiting.

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

December 19, 2012 6

Christmas Play

Sunday our youth performed their Christmas play. They always do such a great job.

It was hard to get a good picture that showed everyone. All the youth participate and even some of the adults. Our pastor said he thought this years play was the best one yet (of course, he says that every year!)

This beautiful kingfisher came by for a visit the other day. Grace did a good job of getting his picture.

She also took this picture of our sky the other day. We have been having beautiful weather here. We are in the low 50’s right now. It is cloudy today though with wind. I think we are supposed to get some rain later on. We are hoping it holds off for a little while as Hubby is working on my car. I don’t know if I mentioned it or not but my car is not working. Hubby thinks it might be the distributor cap. He is replacing that today. We are all praying that fixes it.

We have been doing school this morning, laundry, etc. All the things that seem to build up during busy weekends. I am making some homemade rolls to go with supper and I also am trying a new recipe for homemade yogurt. I’ll let you all know how it turns out. I really like the idea of homemade yogurt but I REALLY prefer the taste of flavored store bought yogurts. I am just not very fond of plain yogurt-kinda tastes like sour cream to me. Anyway, this recipe has jelly in it. We’ll see. I don’t want to say much about it until I have tested it.

Time for lunch for us. We are having homemade chicken noodle soup. Tonight’s supper will be meatloaf sandwiches (on homemade buns), fries (using our home grown potatoes) corn on the cob (frozen from our garden). I love it. Eating fresh made and home grown. I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless.

December 10, 2012 7

What We’ve Been Up To

The temperatures here have been wonderful. Upper 50’s for several days now. We actually did not have a fire yesterday or today. Amazing! So what do we do when it’s this warm outside-cut wood, of course! Here are a few pictures.

This tree had been dead for quite a while. It was a pretty big tree. I hope you can see it. If you look at the right of the picture you can see where we cut it down. Hubby was very glad for his new larger chain saw. His old one would never have cut through it.

The wooded area where we were cutting opens up into a beautiful field.

We wheelbarrowed the wood to the truck. This made it a little easier to load. Hubby had to split most of the blocks just so we could lift them into the truck. We worked on this tree for 2 days and still didn’t get it finished. Hubby’s chain messed up on his saw so we had to quit until he gets it fixed. We did school in the mornings and then after lunch we would go cut wood. It was hard work getting the wood around the hill but we had a good time working together. I told Hubby all this physical exercise was keeping us young (lol).

What is more fun than riding in the truck bed after a hard day of working. God is good. We are getting ready to leave for Sunday night bible study. We are studying in Exodus. Tonight’s menu is sloppy joes, potato chips and dip, cole slaw and dessert (unknown at this time). I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

December 2, 2012 6

Before and After

Hubby is almost finished with the farmhouse he has been working on. I thought I would show you all a few before and after pictures. Here is a picture of the stairway before.

And here are a few after pictures.

Here is the livingroom before.

After.

Dining room-kitchen area before.

Okay, so this area still looks really cluttered but I am hoping you can see the floors enough to tell how nice they look.

Of course, being an old farmhouse, none of the bedrooms had closets. He built closets in all three bedrooms.

Last is the bathroom. I could not find my before picture of it but this is the after.

The house is so DRAMTICALLY changed. It really looks like a new house inside, which I guess in a way it is. Everything was torn out except the outside walls. He did a great job. It was such a blessing to get this house remodel. Thank you, Lord! (Oh, by the way Lord, another one like this sure would be great!).

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving. We went down to Dave and Jessica’s. It was a good day, full of good food and lots of grandbaby time. God sure is good to me.

We are warm here-low 50’s- with lots of sunshine. A beautiful day. Another blessing from the Lord. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

November 23, 2012 7

Monday

Little boys playing with toys!

Big boys playing with toys!

Chuck and his kids came over Saturday. He helped Hubby with some car maintenance. It was a fun day. He got here about 9:00 A.M. as he was wanting to eat breakfast with us. We had sausage and gravy, biscuits, fresh eggs, corn, canned apples and homemade waffles. We had a good day.

Grace was having trouble with her nose piece on her glasses so we made a trip to Rocky Mount to get it repaired. We did some grocery shopping while there. It ended up taking most of the day. We came home and worked on things that needed doing. We had planned on doing school today and then taking a break for the rest of the week. We’ll do school tomorrow instead and then break. I love the flexibiltiy of homeschooling.

Grace put one of our freshly butchered chickens in the crockpot today to cook while we were gone. When we got home it smelled so good in the house. We deboned it and make chicken and dumplings. They are delicious!! I think I am spoiled now to having our own chickens for meat. We plan on making stock tonight in the crockpot from the bones. YUMMY!

Well, I guess that’s about all that is happening here. My girls are wanting me to play a game of cards with them. Enjoy your evening and God bless.

November 19, 2012 5

Friday

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a wonderful Friday. Things are good here. School is finished for the week. The girls and I are getting ready to clean out the chicken house. Definitely not a fun job but necessary. It is a nice day here in Floyd so that will make it a fairly pleasant job to do. We have been really cold here in the mornings though. Temperatures all this week have been mid to upper teens when we get up. CHILLY! However it warms up nicely during the day.

Chuck is coming tomorrow to help Hubby do some maintenance repairs on my car. I don’t think I have mentioned it before but please be in prayer for him as he is laid off from his work. We are praying he will get called back soon.

Well, I have lots to get done. Enjoy your day and God bless.

November 16, 2012 6

Chicken Day

Friday was chicken butchering day for us and the Horns. We had a really good day, learned a lot and had lots of good fellowship. All together we butchered 10 roosters. We were kinda amazed at how big they looked before we butchered them versus how small they looked when finished. Huge difference. We are kinda talking about going with the bigger meat birds next year. We’re not sure yet though.

Our pastor made us these killing cones. They are really neat. I would recommend anyone butchering their own chickens to have one. They make it a lot easier. Saturday, the girls and I went down to Jessica’s. We watched the kids while Dave and Jess had a date afternoon to celebrate their anniversary. They have been married 12 years. They went to the movies and David brought us back sushi to try. We had never eaten it before. It was actually pretty good. Grace really liked it.

Sunday, I went to church alone as Julie, Grace and Hubby were not feeling very well. Julie and Grace seem to have a cold-congestion with lots of coughing. Hubby is having tummy troubles. Hopefully all will be well soon. Today is a beautiful day here in Floyd. Sunshine with temperatures in the mid 30’s. It could be a little warmer for my taste but the sun is beautiful. I have a pork tenderloin cooking away on top of the wood stove. It smells yummy. I think I will have potatoes, green beans and cornbread with it.

Well, we are starting school so I better get off. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

November 13, 2012 3

Another Beautiful Sunrise

Hubby and I were drinking our morning cup of coffee together on the glassed in porch and the Lord gave us the beautiful sunrise to enjoy. God is so good! We are still cold here. Temperatures in the mid to upper 20’s with wind chills in the teens. YUCK! I am not ready for temps this cold but the Lord knows what He is doing. Not much else going on here. Just staying warm, working on school and doing normal stuff.

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

October 31, 2012 7