Monday

Today has been a beautiful day here in Floyd. Plenty of sunshine with a good breeze. Perfect for drying clothes on the line. I love to see clothes flapping in the wind. This means they will dry quickly and will be so soft.

I tried a new homemade coffee creamer today. It is Almond Coffee Creamer. I changed the recipe some to suit our tastes. 3/4 cup powdered sugar, 3/4 cup non-dairy coffee creamer, 3/4 cup powdered milk, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp almond extract. Put all ingredients into blender and blend well. I must admit I had some trouble getting it to blend together but I just keep on trying. I like almond extract in other things so I thought it would be worth trying. I do like it and think it would definitely be worth making again. I was wondering if I could use this same recipe with different extracts, peppermint for example. I’m not sure how the cinnamon would go with the peppermint though.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

November 14, 2011 7

Christfest 2011

Every year our church has a halloween alternative. We call it Christfest. It is a big outreach. Lots of children come to play games and get candy. Last night was no different. Our fellowship hall was overflowing with children and adults, laughing and just in general having a great time. This little lion (Kaleb) is adorable.

Chocolate candy is always abundant. As a matter of fact, in the bulletin when we are requesting donations of candy, it actually specifies individually wrapped chocolate.

This young man was just a doctor, then he got the glasses at one of the games, and instantly became a mad scientist.

Everyone participates. From clowns,

to hunters,

to fun loving,

to one needing a small nap. Our pastor (regrettably I did not get any pictures) asked the children bible questions. If they answered correctly they got to throw a whipped creme pie at him. I’m not sure who had the most fun with this game, him or them. It actually was his idea-go figure. And last of all, my baby girls. No longer babies, except to me.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

November 1, 2011 5

Blue Ridge Folklife Festival

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Yesterday we did a field trip to Ferrum College. We had so much fun and I have so many pictures that it will take me several days to show you all them. The first thing we came to when we got there was this music museum. It had the history of the dulcimer. Very interesting.

Guess what this is? A sewing machine! All I can say is, we’ve come a long way, ladies.

Several places were demonstrating how corn was ground into meal. This one however gave away free samples.

I think I’ll grind ours a little finer in my grinder. The corn we grind for corn meal is white so this will be a little different.

Who remembers these? Growing up, I would have loved to have one of these. Well, that all for today. I’ll post more pictures tomorrow. It’s almost time to leave for bible study. Enjoy your day and God bless.

October 23, 2011 5

More Fall Pictures

Here are a few more fall pictures. These was taken last Saturday during our hike at Bottom Creek Gorge.

Fall is such a beautiful time of the year. We have been working on school, cleaning up the garden for fall plowing and working on an afgan. Not a lot going on. Yesterday evening we gave Mr. Rooster away. YEAH! We gave him to a family that wants to hatch baby chicks for their young daughter to take of. He will be so happy.

Yesterday, it was rainy and foggy here. Then the temperatures dropped quite a bit during the night. It was 36 degrees this morning when we got up. The sun is out now though and it looks like it will be a beautiful day. Yesterday, I was reading a blogger friend’s post, http://theboydbunch.wordpress.com/, and she was having crockpot parmesan chicken for supper. I thought that sounded good and I had already planned on having chicken for supper so I looked up a recipe for it. I’m not sure if this is the same recipe she used or not but it was really good. I got my recipe from betty crocker. I did make a few changes.

Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan with Penne Pasta

1 egg, 1/3 cup bread crumbs, 1/3 cup parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp. italian seasoning, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper, 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast, 1 jar spaghetti sauce, 1/2 cup shredded cheese, 2 2/3 cups penne pasta.

1. Spray crockpot

2. In a small bowl, beat egg until foamy. In another bowl, mix bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Dip chicken into egg, then coat with bread crumb mixture. place in crockpot. Cover chicken with spaghetti sauce.

3. Cover and cook on low for 5 to 6 hrs. (I cooked mine on high for 4 1/2 hrs.)

4. Cook and drain pasta. Serve chicken on top of pasta. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top. (I used mozarella).

Makes 4 servings.

I hope you all enjoy your day and God bless.

October 20, 2011 6

Cherries

Look at these beautiful cherries. David’s mother has 2 of these cherries trees in her yard. She graciously gave them to us. Thank you, Donna. We went down Friday morning as Hubby was having difficulties with his computer too. While Dave and Hubby worked on the computer, Jess and I with the kids went to pick cherries. We picked 3 gal. and didn’t even hardly take a step.

Look at how the limbs are just bowed down to the ground. You could just stand and pick. No tree or ladder climbing. I really liked that.

We ended up staying Friday night and most of the day Saturday getting Hubby’s computer up and going. When we came home I put the cherries in our steamer juicer. We got 5 1/2 qts of juice.

Sunday morning just before we left to go to church, Jess calls and says Dave needs Hubby’s help. Their shower drain has come loose and flooded under the house and the heat pump was not working. This of course means no air conditioner and for a pregnant woman that was bad. It is really hot where they live with lots of humidity. Well, we changed clothes and headed down to help Dave. While the men went to Lowes, the girls and I went to pick more cherries. We got 2 1/2 gal. I have one batch in the steamer juicer now. I think I will make jelly from some of the juice and then just can the rest. It is very good. We had fresh cherry juice with our breakfast this morning. The Lord is so good to provide us with treats like that.

Well, I have clothes to go on the line and much to do today. Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 30, 2011 4

Fire Pinks

On one of the rare occasions Sunday that the sun actually peeked through the clouds, we happened to be at Smartview Park. These beautiful fire pinks were blooming everywhere.

I thought you all might like them. We are always looking for different types wildflowers and quizzing each other to see if we can remember their names.

Today is STILL overcast and foggy. We had rain most of the day yesterday and more last night. Our temperature this morning was 40 degrees. I finally decided to just go ahead and build a fire. I washed a load of clothes on Monday and hung them up inside. This morning there were still not completely dry. It takes a long time for them to dry if I don’t have a fire and besides the house was a little chilly and damp.

Time for school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 18, 2011 4