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

Old Books

I love old books, especially old school books. I thought I would share a few of them. I thought I might share how our school days “normally” go. I usually wake the girls around 7:00 A.M. They get dressed, make their beds and come downstairs by 7:30. Sometimes they fix their own breakfast and sometimes I do. It mostly depends on what they are having and how our time is running. I begin cleaning up the kitchen and they start piano practice. They practice 30 min. each. While one is practicing the other one is helping me and then vice versa. We shake the rugs and sweep the floors every morning. We have certain days that we do other things, clean bathroom, dust. I have a chart made with the days of the week on it and the designated chores for that day. We try to have all the house chores finished before we start school. It is so difficult for me to concentrate on school if these things are not already done. Laundry gets worked in every day. We are normally finished with all this around 9:15. They then get a 15 min. break to do whatever they want. We try to start school by 9:30. We say our pledges, pray and then begin. Bible is always first. Then they take turns chosing what subject they want to do. Our subjects are bible, spelling, history, science, math and language. Most days we are half way through by lunch time. We break an hour for lunch. Free time for everyone (except Mom). We then finish up somewhere between 1:00 and whenever. Yesterday was a long day for us. It was about 3:30 when we finished. Julie’s math was very long. Today is an easier day. It is now lunch time and all we lack is math. I’m glad as we need to work up an 1/2 bushel of apples. I already have them in the steam juicer and I want to make applesauce from them. Well, our lunch break is almost over. I hope I didn’t bore you all too much. Enjoy your day and God bless.

September 21, 2011 7

Home School

How much more fun is school when you can sit outside under a big shady tree and watch the kittens play? We have had hot temperatures here for the last few days. Not as hot as it is at Jessica’s but hot for us, anyway. I went out early this morning in the garden to work. Hoping to get it finished before it got too hot. I left Julie and Grace inside doing dishes and other inside chores. I much gather work outside than in, even if it is hot. Anyway, I got the garden finished weeding, replanted some tomato plants, planted some beans and some corn. Everything is in the ground now so we’ll see how it does.

I thought you all might enjoy seeing how big the baby geese are. They are almost as big as their parents. Geese are definitely good parents. They are very watchful and protective-always together.

We have piano practice this afternoon so I better get busy. We have another load of clothes to put on the line before we leave and a folded basket to put away. Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 31, 2011 5

Trout Fest

Remember a similar picture from last year. Same little girl perched on the drainpipe. Obviously she really likes the spot.

Now its brothers turn to sit for a while. We really had a nice day with about 90 people showing up all total. After we came home from the fishing we worked in the upper garden. Hubby tilled, and the girls and I set out the plants. They looked great. But then they wilted badly. We watered them when we planted them, again the next morning and again yesterday evening before we went to church. Last night the Lord watered them for us so we are hoping they look better now. I haven’t went up to the garden yet to check on them. If they do not perk up, I am afraid they will not survive. We’ll just have to wait and see.

We plan on going over to the Horns today for lunch and some play time then on to piano practice. I don’t think I told you all but we have ducklings now-12 of them. They are very shy and it is hard to get a picture of them. Mama duck keeps them hid most of the time. I’ll keep trying though.

Time for us to get busy. I have a load of clothes to hang out on the line and several more to get done. Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 23, 2011 5

Our Greenhouse Plants

Our plants are growing. YEAH! Today makes 2 weeks since we planted the seeds. I think they are doing really well.

The tomatoes and peppers seem to be the slower growing. The cucumbers and squash are the fastest. The broccoli and okra are growing pretty fast too.

Today is overcast and windy. The temperature is 60 degrees though so that is very nice. I have clothes on the line outside. We worked on school yesterday and then went into the library and piano practice. I found a book at the library. It is written by Ree Drummond. She has a blog www.thepioneerwoman.com If you have never been to her blog I am sure you would enjoy it. She has some excellent recipes and many interesting stories. The book I got at the library is about her and her husbands courtship and marriage. I think it will be very good.

Time for school. I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless.

May 3, 2011 4

Wild Mustard

I thought I would share these pictures of a field of wild mustard. This field is on our way into town.

I think it is absolutely beautiful!

So of course I took several pictures from several different views.

Last one. As I was taking these pictures another man was up in another driveway taking pictures too. He of course had a very fancy camera with a tripod. Obviously, I am not the only one who thinks it is beautiful.

We are overcast still today but it is supposed to be fairly warm. I am getting ready to take clothes to the line to dry. We still have some wind but not too bad. We are hoping the wind dies down soon. We have not burned the brush pile off the lower garden yet. We need to get it burned as Hubby will soon need to tiller it. School today as usual. Yesterday we only did half school as we had to go to piano practice in the afternoon. We stopped by the library and Julie found plenty of books she was interested in reading. Grace found a few but not as many as Julie did. Sometimes it is difficult to find books we want to read. The librarian told me it probably meant we had already read all the good ones. We do enjoy reading. Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 19, 2011 5

Candy

We had so much fun yesterday making candy. When we got to Vicki’s, she had already made sugar cookies for the kids to decorate. They loved it. After lunch, we made oreo truffles, then peanut butter balls and last we dipped oreo cookies in white chocolate. It was such a fun day. The recipe I use to make the peanut butter balls is:

1 stick butter-softened, 1 lb powdered sugar. Mix these together. Then add 2 cups creamy peanut butter. Mix everything together. You will need to add about 1/4 cup water to this. Just add a little at a time until it is a little creamy. Be careful not to add too much water. Form into balls. In a double boiler, put 2 cups chocolate chips and 1/4 block parafin wax. Heat until chocolate is creamy. Dip peanut butter balls into chocolate. Place on wax papered cookie sheet. Refrigerate and enjoy. These are much better after they chill. I want to make Martha Washington balls next. I think they are my favorite.

Time for us to leave for piano practice. Enjoy your day and God bless.

December 9, 2010 3

Peaches

We were very blessed to have these peaches given to us. They are called Saturn peaches or donut peaches. These are very small and I was not really sure how to best use them.

As you can see, we had quite a few. We decided to make something like an applesauce from them. We used the food strainer. We made a pie from our peach sauce yesterday to see how it would taste. It actually was very good. Hubby was home yesterday and he helped. Thanks, Babe.

Temperatures here are hot. We are getting a small shower here this morning. Much needed. However the sun is already back so it probably will get hot fast. We are headed into town for piano practice. I also need a few spices for the beets. Enjoy your day and God bless.

July 27, 2010 2

Spring

Forsythia in full bloom.

The only thing missing here is my bench!

Gooseberry bush.

More forsythia bloom.

I just love spring! I think yellow is such a bright, cheerful, happy color. Busy day here. Piano practice, shopping, a little school. Beautiful temperatures. I have clothes hanging on the line to dry. Everything is getting green quick. I pray things don’t get in too much of a hurry. Frost is still very likely. Tonights menu is shimp stir fry. Dessert will be jello with whipped creme. Simple. Easy. I hope to get some outside work done this evening so I want to keep the cooking at a minimum. Hopefully more spring pictures tomorrow. Take care and God bless.

April 5, 2010 0

Closest Neighbor

This is a picture of the closest neighbor that we can see from our house. The picture is zoomed in pretty close. It actually is farther away than it appears. I also wanted to show you the corn that is raised here on the farm. Lots and lots of corn. They cut it up for feed. We can’t see the road from our house because of all the corn. It will soon be corn cutting time. I hope to get pictures of that to post. Today was spent on the road running errands. Piano practice in the afternoon. The highlight of the day was a stop at Lifeway Christian Store. They have so many good books and studies there. I could spend hours looking at them. We do a Ladies Bible Study at my house and we are starting I & II Peter this week. I think it will be an interesting study. I always get excited when we start a new study or we get new school books. The girls don’t always share my excitement. George is working on another chair, so I think I’ll go help him. God Bless.

September 14, 2009 1