Snow

We are experiencing typical March weather. One minute snow the next minute sun.

Very pretty to look at, however it is already almost all gone. I did want to tell you all that yesterday I made chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles. At first, I was very hesitant as I have never made noodles before. These were very easy to make and everyone (to my surprise) loved them. I will definitely be making them again. I got the recipe from a new to me blog-penniesandpancakes.blogspot. I have made several of her recipes this week and have been impressed with all of them. Definitely keepers!

Well, I better get busy. We are trying a new recipe out tonight. It must be my week for new recipes. Do any of you get the magazine Kraft Food & Family? It comes out every 3 months. My spring copy came in the mail yesterday. My darling daughter, Jess, gets herself and me a subscription. Thanks Jess! I really love the magazine. It is full of easy, good recipes. Tonights new recipe comes from this magazine. It is called spaghetti with shrimp and broccoli. I’ll let you all know how it turns out.

Update on how it turned out-DELICIOUS! Another keeper.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 13, 2013 5

An Unusual Visitor

Hello ladies! I just wanted to thank all of you for your prayers. The visit at the doctor today went well. The doctor is treating him for a kidney infection which she thinks is definitely part of his problem. She also wants him to come back in 3 weeks for more blood work. There is a possibility he is a diabetic. Thank you all again for your prayers.

I also wanted to show you these pictures of a visitor we had at the pond the other day. Our pond has been seeing LOTS of activity. The morning this guy came in we had about 60 geese and several ducks there. They are lots of fun to watch.

I have no idea what type of goose this is, maybe he is a domestic breed. I don’t know but he sure did stick out from the rest. We also had a visit from these quys.

There were 2 males and one female. The males were so aggressive. They fought most of the day. I’m not sure which one ended up being the victor but today when the ducks came back there was only one male and one female. I guess one of the males finally gave up.

I hope you all have a wonderful evening and God bless.

March 11, 2013 5

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

Spring

Friday these beautiful red winged blackbirds stopped by our feeders for a little snack. They are usually the first birds to return in the spring. They are a week earlier this year than last year. Hopefully, that means an early spring. However, this morning was no indication that spring is on its way. Wind chill temperature -10 degrees with snow on the ground. Well, the snow is gone now and the wind chill now is 5 degrees so we are warming up some.

Not much going on here. I have started work on Sam’s quilt. I have all the 5 x 5 in. squares cut out and am ready to start sewing them together. School has went well this week. Did I mention to you all about the last batch of homemade laundry soap I made using the laundry bar soap instead of fels naptha? Well, those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that in the past I have had trouble with the homemade laundry soap. My clothes seem to get a dingy look and the towels became really non-absorbent. I know, strange stuff, but strange happens a lot here. I guess it is our water that causes these problems. Well, so far I have had no problems using this batch. It is a little bit different recipe than I have tried before but I think the real difference is using homemade laundry bar soap. I will try to remember to keep you all updating as to how it is doing.

Well, I better get busy. Church tonight and the menu is baked potato bar. Sounds delicious to me. I really like baked potatoes. Enjoy your Sunday and God bless.

February 17, 2013 3

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

Happy Monday!

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a great day so far. We have worked on half school today as we are going to get haircuts this afternoon. I found this new recipe for bread and so I am taking this loaf to Mrs. Faye as a thank you for cutting our hair. We also plan on sharing these cinnamon buns with her.

I got this recipe from http://redfarmhouse.blogspot.com/search?q=one+rise+bread.

I also wanted to share another new recipe I am trying. I got it from here http://belovedsbride.blogspot.com/ I had a beef roast to put in the crockpot this morning. Amazing how things work out that way. It sure does smell good cooking.

Another new thing I did last month was bake our bacon in the oven. Jess does this all the time so I thought I would give it a try. We buy our bacon at Sam’s in a 3 lb package. Last month, I baked the entire package at one time. Instructions are here: http://blog.makezine.com/craft/kitchen_101_cooking_bacon_in_t/ I then froze the precooked bacon. Wow, I’m thinking, why hadn’t I thought of this before. Now all I have to do is get out the amount of bacon needed for breakfast, heat it up in a skillet or microwave and ta-da bacon is ready. I am impressed with how fast it is and how crispy the bacon is. Of course, the instructions on the post said to throw away the bacon grease that accumulates in the pan. I’m sure that ain’t right! I would never throw away good bacon grease. Mine is in a jar in the fridge and has already been used several times. Once, for some refried beans I made the other day that was delicious.

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

February 4, 2013 7

Homemade Hot Fudge Cake

Hello everyone! I thought I would share with you all a picture of this delicious dessert I made yesterday. Now bear in mind that by just looking at this picture you have probably added 500 calories to your day but believe me it is SO worth it. I made the cake from Cheryl’s recipe-buttermilk chocolate cake. So that is the healthy part of the dessert. Then I made the hot fudge sauce from this recipe-hot fudge sauce. When I used to work outside the home, one of the girls I worked with always brought this to our dinners. I had not had it in at least 15 years, maybe more. It is delicious. For me to say this is pretty amazing as I am not a chocolate person.

We are enjoying BEAUTIFUL weather here today. It is 55 degrees right now with tons of sunshine. Feels like spring!! Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer, I think. We did, however, have freezing rain this morning. Everything was covered with ice. The sun and warm temps have melted all of that away. We do still have patches of snow though.

Well, I better get busy. Lunch break is almost over. Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 28, 2013 4

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

Snow

We have snow-about 6″. I thought I would share with you all some of our snow pictures. This picture was taken from the dining room window.

So was this one.

The front deck.

The pond.

The side yard.

The field behind the house. Everything is BEAUTIFUL!!! The snow started about 3:00 p.m. and ended around 9:00 p.m. It was so pretty. We have already made snow cream this morning. YUM,YUM!

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

January 18, 2013 6

Rain and Visitors

Yesterday morning we had some strange visitors at the pond-sea gulls. I guess they were confused with all the rain we have been having. Look at the level of water at the pond yesterday- now look at it today.

Lots of rain. I do not know for sure but I estimate 6-8 in of rain. The pond is overflowing.

Oh well, we definitely needed rain and this has been a slow steady rain which is good. I think the forecast is for snow tomorrow. Well, it is time for school so I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

January 16, 2013 3