Clay Shoot

I apologize for not getting to post in a while. Things have been very busy here. Hopefully, they will slow down soon. The weekend was so much fun. David, Jess, and the boys came up. We all went to the clay shoot on Saturday. We stayed for a while, then left David and George there. We stopped at a few yard sales on the way home. Later we had a campfire and just relaxed and enjoyed the evening.

This is David shooting. He did really good for a beginning and I think he really enjoyed himself.

One of the ladies shooting in the Women’s Competition.

And, of course, my hero!

God bless.

September 21, 2010 4

Birthday Pictures

Daniel’s birthday cake. He was very excited about his cake. He loves “Cars” and especially “TowMater”. (Hope I spelled that correct)

Daniel blowing out the big #3 candle. My, but they sure grow up fast.

Friends playing at the party. All in all I think he had a really fun day.

David, Jess and the boys are coming up tomorrow for a visit. Our church will be sponsoring a clay shoot tomorrow. David will be spending the day with Hubby at the shoot. Julie and Grace are going to be with them. Jess, myself and the boys will find something else to do-too much loud noise for little ears. Sunday they plan on going to church with us. This will be Sam’s first visit to our church. MawMaw can’t wait to show him off. After church we will be going to the Mennonite church for their annual hymm sing. It is always such a blessing to go there. Beautiful hymns!

Sunday night we will be starting our new bible study. We will be doing John MacArthur’s study on II Corinthians. Enjoy your evening and God bless.

September 17, 2010 3

Still No Pictures

Well, we came back home yesterday evening and I did remember to bring the camera. The problem is the camera card is in Jessica’s pocket book. So still no pictures. Anyway, we have got a lot done. All the walls and ceiling is finished. Dave and Jess are painting it this weekend while we are home. She decided to paint the room a light blue, the official name is icy blue. It sounds really pretty. We are staying here until Monday morning then going back down to work some more. We will be coming back home Tuesday evening as Hubby has some work coming up this week. He still has to lay the tile on the floor and do some more to the electrical. We will be starting our revival at church tomorrow. I am really looking forward to hearing the preacher who is bringing the message. I have never heard him before but others that have say he does a really good job. The youth from his church will be doing the music. We will be having a fellowship meal tomorrow following the service (of course), you know we gotta eat. I think I will take potato soup and salisbury steak with gravy. I’m not sure if I’ll have time to make a dessert or not but there usually is an abundance of desserts.

Temperatures here are cool-mid 50’s. It has been raining most of the day. It is also pretty foggy. I think it will be a nice sleeping night. I just made some blueberry muffins and they are ready to eat. I think I’ll see if they are good. Enjoy your day and God bless.

September 11, 2010 5

Unexpected Repairs

Water can do a lot of damage. This is what Dave found when he discovered a water leak behind the wall where his breaker box is. Lots of damage. Obviously this had been leaking for quite a while.

We went down on Tuesday evening as soon as we got the distress call.

Hubby and Dave fixed the leak yesterday and went to Lowes to get materials. They are tearing out the floor today and beginning repairs. Jess and I came back to Floyd to do some of her laundry as this leak occurred in her laundry room. The plan is to put new sheetrock on the walls and ceiling, also they are putting down tile on the floor. All the old must come up before any of the new can go down. They think they will also have to replace the floor joists too and level up the floor. Lots of work. I have been really blessed to have a man who knows how to fix all this.

Lots to get done so enjoy your day and God bless.

September 2, 2010 0

Pears

Look at these beautiful pears! We went down to Jessica’s over the weekend and Saturday we went to David’s Moms. She gave us lots of beautiful apples and pears. We have 3 boxes of apples and 1 box of pears. Thanks, Donna! I think we will start on the pears today. I am thinking I will freeze them. They are very juicy pears. I’m not sure if they would hold up to canning them. The girls had a great time swimming Saturday afternoon in Donna’s pool. Daniel is making great progress learning to swim (with his lifejacket on). He can move all around the pool by himself and of course does not want any help. We also enjoyed hamburgers on the grill with corn on the cob and mac and cheese. We had a lot of fun but it was soon time to come home. Time goes so quickly.

It was a very pleasant day here yesterday. Sunshine and nice temperatures. Upper 70’s to low 80’s. After church, we came home and did our lesson for Sunday night class. I spent some time reading outside on my swing. For our evening meal at church we had polish sausage with peppers, onions and potatoes, sauerkraut, corn pudding, rolls, cucumbers, tomatoes, cole slaw, peach pie, pound cake with ice cream and brownies. I think that’s all! Really good food. We have decided to do II Corinthians next. We are almost finished with I Corinthians.

Grace took this picture the other day. I think she did a good job. Yes, Jess, I know you do not like butterfly pictures.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

August 9, 2010 2

Orchard

Friday evening we went to our Pastor’s house. As I mentioned earlier, he gave us some peaches. He has a small orchard at his house. All his trees were so full of fruit. It was beautiful.

These are only a few of the trees. Grace took lots of pictures. I will try to post more of them tomorrow.

This is a view from his yard. Very pretty. We also ate supper at his house. Almost everything we had was home grown. I love to eat this way. We had hamburgers on the grill, cucumbers, onions and tomatoes from the garden, fresh homemade applesauce, and fresh peaches. Delicious!

The girls and I did not get to can our beets yesterday. As it was raining most of the day, we decided to run a few errands in town instead. Jess had given me some coupons she had for canning jars and lids. We decided to go to Wal-Mart and get these. They are a little cheaper there than there are at our local supermarket. We will be canning the beets today.

The sun is shining here nicely today. Temperatures have cooled down some, thanks to the rain yesterday. Outside temperature is about 80 degrees. This is one of those weeks when things begin to start building up. Much to do. Beans are ready to pick, berries are ready, beets are ready and I think we might have enough tomatoes ripe to make a batch of salsa. I love to can and put away food for my family however when I start getting behind, it is easy for me to allow that to become a stressor in my life. I do not want this to happen. God has given us this bounty and I thank Him for it. When I was growing up, the garden and canning controlled our summers. I do not want that for my girls. I want the garden and all it involves to be enjoyable and fun for my girls. I want to keep a balance. This is hard, as old habits are sometimes difficult to break. Pray that I will do this well-that my girls will have a love for gardening and canning and not see it as just hard work.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

July 28, 2010 1

Baptism

This is David Donna’s Son-In-Law, I am posting this for her so if you view this before she gets a chance to change this text just keep checking back as she will be adding some more description soon.

This is me. My thanks to Dave for putting the video on. Yesterday was a wonderfully blessed day for us. Both our girls were baptized yesterday. Praise the Lord! We had church at this beautiful pond. Then we did the baptism. Our girls and another young man were baptized. After that we had a potluck meal. You know we gotta eat. Dave, Jess, and boys came up to spend the day. It was a very special day to a mother’s heart.

Take care and God bless.

July 25, 2010 3

More Spaghetti Sauce

Yesterday we had 12 more quarts of spaghetti sauce. I think this will be all the spaghetti sauce we make unless we have lots more tomatoes. I want to make salsa and maybe try our hand at ketchup. We also usually just can tomatoes and tomato sauce for use in soup and chili. Temperatures here have been hot and humid. Low to mid 90’s.

Jess talked to her mother-in-law yesterday and she said the name of this apple is Scarlett Apple. She thinks she ordered the tree from Stark Bros. I typed it in on Google and found all kinds of information about it. Very interesting.

Today is bible study day so I better get busy. We have decided to do it at Barbara’s house. It is so hot here and Barbara has air conditioning. Enjoy your day and God bless.

July 23, 2010 4

Just a Swingin

Sam really loves his swing. He does not however like his car seat. He was sooooooo ready to be home Saturday after shopping. He wanted his swing and some sleep. Us girls got up early and went blueberry picking. We picked 2 gallon-1 for us and 1 for Jess. We came home just before the rain started. Good timing. It rained most of the day there.

Afterward, we all went out to eat at Golden Corral. Then we went to look around at Lifeway. I purchased a new bible study. It is Ruth by Kelly Minter. I think this will be our next Friday Ladies Study. It looks very interesting. I saw so many new studies that I want to do. We even picked out one for the girls to do for their bible class this coming year. It was a great day. We all had lots of fun.

We are getting some much needed rain today. Temperatures are cooler too. 74 degrees right now. I like that. Did you all notice my drying log on the right. My darling baby girl, Grace, did that for me. She told me she watched David put the others on. I was very impressed with her knowledge as I have no idea how to do any of that. Thanks Grace.

Church was very nice yesterday. Our pastor’s sermon was on what it takes to make a man. It was a very good sermon. Then we had communion, followed by a fellowship meal. LOTS o f good food. Then we had more good food last night with our Sunday Evening Study. All in all it was a really good day. I better get busy. Take care and God bless.

July 19, 2010 1

The Cost of Berry Picking

I decided yesterday to pick some more gooseberries and make a gooseberry cobbler. I had never made this before. It turned out very good. Tasted a lot like cherry cobbler. The recipe I used is:

1/2 cup butter, 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup flour, 1 tsp almond extract, 1/2 cup water, 4 cups gooseberries. Melt butter in 9X13 baking dish. Combine sugar and flour. Mix almond extract and water and add to sugar mixture; add berries. Pour into pan. TOPPING: 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour, 1 tbsp oil, 1 egg-mix ingredients until crumbly. Put on top of berry mixture and bake at 375 degrees for 40 min. I think this would work with just about any fruit.

Somehow during my picking I managed to get too close to a wasp. Not good! I also made my own tortillas yesterday for supper. Another first. They were really good and not too hard to make. I think I would try them again.

We got a little rain last night. Lots and lots of thunder and lightning. I could have done without the thunder and lightning but we really need rain. Hopefully we will get more this weekend. The garden and yard really need a drink. Jess and family will be coming up tomorrow for a little visit. I can hardly wait to see them. I know Sam has grown so much already and Daniel seems to grow up more each time I see him. Family is such a blessing from God.

Bible study today so I need to start getting ready. Take care and God bless.

July 9, 2010 2