Wonderful News

I want to share with you all our wonderful news. We just found out this morning that Jessica is pregnant. We are not sure how far along she is. She will be going to the doctor on Wednesday for her first appointment. God is SO good! His kindness toward His children always amazes me. Thank you Lord! I would so appreciate it if you all would be in prayer for her and this new life she carries.

We have sunshine today with wind gusts of about 50 mph. Temperature is cold. Actual temperature is 35 degrees. I’m not sure what the wind chill is but I know it is cold. I have one load of clothes on the line but I have to keep going out to pick them up off the ground. The wind keeps blowing them off the line. I think I’ll probably just go bring them in. I wanted to do some trimming today but I think I’ll have to postpone it until tomorrow. Hopefully it will be warmer then.

We had our first lesson today in our new study, NO OTHER GODS by Kelly Minter. It seems to be a good study. She asks a lot of questions that cause us to search ourselves for the answers. I think these are hard studies. I guess I’m just not very good at self evaluation.

Tonights menu will be ham biscuits, the leftover kale and potatoes. I made fresh rolls today for the ham however half of them have already been eaten. I love to cook things that get eaten quickly. It makes me fill happy inside. I also made a fifteen bean soup with ham for tomorrow. I like to make soup a day ahead when I can. I always think it taste better the next day.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 11, 2011 7

A New Shelf

This is a picture of our new shelf Hubby and I made yesterday for the new laundry room. I’m sorry it is not a very good picture. I forgot to take the picture before we moved it into the room. After it was in the room, I couldn’t get enough room to show the whole shelf. The top shelf is 5 ft tall and it is 30 in. long with a depth of 9 in. I will be storing all my laundry and cleaning supplies on it. He will be building another shelf soon to store our bulk items.

Temperature here is very nice today-upper 40’s. Sunshine. I love it. The girls are working on school and I am getting ready to hang more clothes on the line outside. Hubby is busy painting the old laundry room. I am a blessed woman.

I am making homemade pizza for lunch. Supper menu will be fried chicken, gravy, corn and homemade biscuits. As I said earlier, I am a blessed woman. Enjoy your day and God bless.

February 16, 2011 3

Congratulations

Congratulations to our son-in-law David who was named lead web developer at his company yesterday. Way to go, David. We are very proud of you! Keep up the good work.

Today started out with ice and lots of fog. Finally the fog has lifted and the ice is all gone. We are enjoying some much needed sunshine.

Enjoy your evening and God bless.

February 5, 2011 1

Jerky

Monday we made jerky. Jerky is one of our favorite things to dehydrate. As some of you may remember, we were blessed last year to have a beef given to us. As it was an old bull , we made hamburger out of most of it. Above is a picture of our dehydrator, our jerky shooter and the type of jerky mix we use. All this came from Wal-Mart. There a lots of jerky mixes out there, this is just the one we use.

This is what it looks like after it has dried. The rack is not necessary. I just put it on it to take the picture. I thought it would show the jerky better.

When finished, it all fits neatly back into this basket and off the the attic it goes to be stored until next time. We have dehydrated apples and peppers too, a few bananas and grapes. We used to dry our green beans on a string in the attic when we lived in Grundy. I wonder how green beans would be dried in a dehydrator. Anyone out there ever tried this? I think I will try it this summer and see how it turns out. We just called them fodder beans but I have heard them referred to as leather britches. I know they are good no matter what you call them.

We did get a storm last night but it was only rain. YEAH! Temperatures are very nice today. Mid 40’s already. Lots of sunshine. I have clothes outside on the line. The wind is supposed to pick up after lunch, about 30 mph with gusts in the 50 mph range. Typical wind for Floyd. It helps the clothes dry and makes them soft as long as you can keep them on the line.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

February 2, 2011 5

Finished Health

We are finished with health! Isn’t that great? The girls decided yesterday that since we were so close to being finished, they would just work on through to the end. (This decision was made all on their own, I didn’t even suggest it) I think that is amazing in itself but so typical of homeschool kids.

Today is a very nice day. Lots of sunshine. Temperatures are in the low 40’s. Amazing! I have clothes on the line, I love it. The girls and I have been walking down to the barn to get milk this week. Today’s walking should be fairly nice except for the mud. I know, complain, complain. But I really do not like walking in mud. Good exercise though.

Tonights menu will be kielbasa with sauteed mushrooms, onion, garlic and green peppers served over brown rice. I haven’t decided what to have for dessert yet , maybe a peach cobbler. I have made little progress on the matching aprons. I am very frustrated with myself. I made an unfixabe error on the little girl apron. I will have to transform it into a doll apron. At least, it will be usable for something. Well, that’s how you learn, I reckon.

I hope you all have lots of sunshine today and warm temperatures and that you are able to go outside and enjoy the beauty of the day. God bless.

January 29, 2011 3

Change in Pattern

This is how the apron looked before changes. I took off the pocket and the fabric at the bottom.

This is how it looks now. I like this much better even if it did make the apron shorter. What do you all think?

We are getting some sunshine now, hopefully it will stay. Temperatures are warm-mid 40’s. Pretty nice. Enjoy your day. God bless.

January 18, 2011 4

Beautiful Sky

Today has been a very pretty day here in Floyd. Beautiful sunshine and as you can see the sky is just amazing. Such a bright, vibrant blue. It is warmer than it has been. 25 degrees with very little wind. All in all, this makes for a fairly nice day.
I wanted to put a picture of my latest apron on, but for some reason I am having difficulties with my pictures. I think I will need some help, Dave.
Tonights menu will be pinto beans(cooked on the wood stove) Kielbasa with cabbage, cornbread and the buttermilk chocolate cake for dessert. Pintos cooked on the wood stove are just sooooo good. I guess they prefer slow cooking.
Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 14, 2011 3

Wednesday

I hope you all are not tired of sunrise pictures. I just love a beautiful sunrise and we get some amazing ones here. I thought this one this morning was especially beautiful.

Today while the girls worked on school, I worked on the dreaded refrigerators. We have two refrigerators here in the house. One is a side by side and the other is just a regular refrigerator with the freezer on top. So many little cups of this and cups of that had been stored over the holidays. It was getting impossible to find space to put new cups of this and that. I decided enough was enough. I cleaned both of them out completely, removed the shelves and washed them. I stood back and looked at them and was amazed at how much better they looked. Empty but better. So good that I decided to do the freezers too. Amazing! I actually have space in the fridges and the freezers now. I thought I would never get all those containers washed. I decided since the girls were working so hard on school, I would let them out of that chore today. Thats one job I am glad to have done.

While we were inside working on this Hubby was busy splitting wood. (Dave, he has your splitting maul sharpened and ready for you!) After we were finished inside, we went out and helped him move all the split wood inside the wood building. It was a fairly nice day for working outside. Temperature was around 30 degrees with occasional sunshine.

Enjoy your evening and God bless.

January 5, 2011 3

Hard Worker

We start them working young around here. Daniel was a big helper Friday as PawPaw, MawMaw and Daddy worked cutting wood. He rode in the “bumpy truck”. He was a very tired, very dirty, little boy at days end but definitely a very HAPPY little boy. He had so much fun and I considered myself blessed to be part of his fun day.

They have been visiting since Thursday and we had a wonderful visit. Dave and Hubby went to shoot sporting clays Thursday and Saturday. We worked on the wood Friday. David will need to go back to work tomorrow to rest. We have been having beautiful weather here in Floyd. Friday, when we were cutting the wood, we worked in short sleeves most of the day. Temperature was in the mid 50’s. Unbelievable but great. Temperature today is 40 degrees. It is a little overcast with some sun and a slight breeze. So much better than last week (in my opinion).

I think I will go enjoy some of that sunshine. Take care and God bless.

January 2, 2011 5

A Mountain of Rolls

One of the things I am taking tomorrow for our thanksgiving meal at church will be these rolls. I froze them ahead of time and have been baking them all day today. The one difference I have noticed is that the frozen dough did not rise as much as it would if it had not been frozen. They taste the same though and I guess thats what counts. I am also making cinnamon rolls to take. Not sure what else yet. After our meal, the youth of our church will go shopping. Every year they get two “angels” from the angel tree. A boy and a girl. Each family in the church contributes $5.00. Then the youth go shopping. They boys buy for the boy and the girls buy for the girl. It is a very nice tradition. Our youth really look forward to going. One year, they were shopping and picked out something they wanted to buy and they were a little short on the money needed to buy it. One of the boys said he had some extra from a job he had done that week. He gave the extra so they could purchase the item. I love that. Children being raised to give generously and without expecting anything in return.

Yesterday I had a WONDERFUL surprise. Jessica and Sam came up for a visit. I did not know they were coming. They just walked in the door. I was so happy. Daniel and David were at home. She stayed until after lunch. The bible study ladies had not gotten to see Sam yet. It was a great surprise. Have I mentioned I love happy surprises?

Beautiful day here in Floyd. Very nice temperatures with lots of sunshine. A great day for being outside. Enjoy your day and God bless.

November 20, 2010 4