Last Thursday

I thought I would show you all what it looked like here last Thursday.

Can you believe it? Snow!

We ended up with about 3 inches! Amazing! It was very beautiful but I am ready for sunshine instead of snow. By Friday evening, most of it was gone except in some really shady areas. Saturday we went down to the Farmers Market in Greensboro. An old friend of ours, Retia, went with us. She had never been to Jess and Dave’s since they bought their home. We stopped there first. After coffee and a delicious pound cake Jess had made for us, we were off to the market. Jess found some beautiful ferns for her front porch and some herbs to plant. We had a great day with warm temperatures and sunshine. It was a perfect day for looking around at all the flowers and plants.

We started a new bible study Sunday night at church. It is called “Experiencing God”. It is a really good study. Hubby and I have done it before. Some in our class have taken it and others have not. I am looking forward to all the Lord has planned to show us with this study. Every time I do it, I get something new and different from it.

This week has been absolutely beautiful here in Floyd. Temperatures in the low 70’s. I LOVE it!! Hubby tillered some of the lower garden yesterday. Today, he is working on building a raised bed. We have wanted to do raised beds for years. It just seems to be one of those things we talk about but never get around to doing. That is changing today. He already has it built and is working now on filling it with dirt. We will see how we like using this one and then decide if we want more.

The girls and I are almost finished with school for the day. All we lack is math. Then we are going outside to help. We need to get the upper garden ready for plowing. It will soon be time to get things in the ground. I hope to get some cabbage plants, onion sets, spinach seeds and lettuce seeds the next time we go into town.

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

April 9, 2013 5

Little Angels

Hi everyone! I hope you are all having a great week. Things have been nice here. Warm temperatures and sunshine. I LOVE it! I know it won’t last but it sure is nice for now. We did build a fire yesterday and I already have one going this morning but it is December, right. I thought I would share with you all a fun craft we did at church Saturday.

But, of course, we had to eat first. Can you see the red striped dish in this picture? I would have never guess what that is. It is turnips!! I have never seen turnips that look like that. They were really good though. I would like to find out the name of them. That would be the type I would like to have next year. The lady who brought them didn’t know anything about them. She had bought them at a local store. If any of you know the name of them, I would appreciate you letting me know.

A lady from our church had all these little terra cotta pots. She painted them for us. Actually she did all the prep work for the craft day. All we had to do was put everything together. I wanted to get detailed pictures for you all but once we started on them, everything went too fast. Anyway, here is the finished product.

Aren’t they cute! I made the red one, Grace made the purple, Julie’s is next and we all worked on the pink one. It is for Jess. I think they are adorable. They are supposed to be ornaments but we don’t have our tree up yet. As of now, they are brightening up our dining room window sill.

Well, time for us to get started on school. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

December 6, 2012 6

Spirea Bush

I wanted to share with you all this picture of our spirea bush. I think it is the fullest this year it has been in many years. So bright and cheerful. Not much happening around here. We went with Hubby to work yesterday. Today we went down to Jessica’s but we forgot to take the camera. I want to remember it next time. You all will not believe how much Katie is growing. She just grins and grins. I love it.

We have been getting rain almost every evening this week. Just enough to keep us from working outside. Oh well, I know rain is really needed. Everything is really popping out green here, so the rain and the warm temperatures are doing their job. Our pastor said his peach trees were in full bloom. I certainly hope they are not too early.

I guess that’s about all for today. As I said, not much going on. Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 23, 2012 4

Thursday

Hello Ladies, it has been another busy week for us. Monday we went with Hubby to the job site. This is a picture of one of the rooms he is working on. He has gutted all the upstairs and Monday we put the new subflooring down in 2 of the rooms.

He put these on the rafters upstairs to give them extra support. This is a very old house (over 100 years old). He will be running new electrical throughout the house, hanging sheetrock, lots of updates. We are VERY thankful to the Lord for this job. It is the biggest job he has had in several years.

We took our school books and when the girls had finished with school they wanted to go exploring.

Then on Tuesday, Grace had an eye doctor appointment in Salem. This usually takes all day. It takes about an hour to get there from our home. Wednesday, we did school in the morning and then went to help Hubby again. Today, we went back to Salem to pick up Grace’s eye glasses prescription and then made a trip to Rocky Mount Wal-Mart to get the prescription filled. Tomorrow we are going down to Jessica’s. A week spent on the road.

It has been warm here this week. A beautiful week for being outside. We slept last night with our bedroom window open a little. I love falling asleep listening to the frogs. We are getting rain now. The rain and the warm temperatures will get everything blooming and greening up. So exciting! I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

March 15, 2012 5

Crocuses

Look, everyone, what is blooming at our home!!! We were all so excited today when we saw them. I just had to share them with you all. Also yesterday, the red winged blackbirds came back. They are always one of the first birds to return to our area in the spring. Every year, they stop at my feeder in the dogwood tree and spend the day there. We wanted to get a picture of them but everytime we would get close to the window they would fly away. Grace did however get a picture of this sparrow.

Today has felt like a spring day. Warm temperatures-60 degrees right now. Amazing! I LOVE it.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

February 23, 2012 6

Baby Gooseberries

Our gooseberry bush promises to have lots of fruit on it this year. We’ve glad as we really like them. We spent today making a swing for our neighbor. She is in her upper 70’s and loves to swing in her yard swing after working in the garden. We first intended to repair her old swing but it was just too far gone. Hubby made her a new one exactly like her old one. We took it down and hung it up for her. She was very happy. We so enjoy doing things that make others happy.

Today has been a nice day here in Floyd. A slight breeze with warm temperatures. You all will not believe how much our plants have grown in the greenhouse. I will try to take a picture of them soon to let you see them. Well, it is late and we are all hungry. I’m frying chicken for supper with gravy, corn and biscuits. Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 9, 2011 2

Pan-Pan

This cat’s name is Panther but somehow Grace started calling him Pan-Pan and now everyone calls him that. He is a very loving and playful cat. Here he is thinking about “attacking” another cat that is walking by.

We seem to be on the mend here. Grace (I think) is almost over it and Julie is feeling better than she was. Hopefully we will soon be completely better. Jess had planned on coming up this week with the boys and spending a few days with us while David is gone on a business trip. This won’t be happening now. Oh well, we hope to go down on Easter Sunday to spend the day with them. Yesterday was a beautiful day here. We had sunshine and warm temperatures after the fog lifted. Today is slightly overcast but the temperature is warm. I have clothes on the line outside to dry. Our birds are singing beautifully. I think it will be a nice day.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 11, 2011 3

Grapevine

Our grapevine. You can see another smaller “brash” pile in the second garden. We are hoping to have lots and lots of grapes this year. Now that we have our steamer juicer, we are looking forward to making lots of grape juice . We certainly did enjoy the apple juice we made last year. I want to experiment with other types of fruit to make juice.

Today is another beautiful day here in Floyd. Very windy though, as usual. Temperature is already in the 50’s. Forecast is for rain over the weekend. I was hoping for sunshine and warm temperatures but I know we did rain too. The ladies will be coming in a little bit. We are planning on doing some more outside work after our study is finished. The girls work on school while the ladies and I are doing our bible study. We are working on a surprise outside which I will show you all when we get it finished.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 18, 2011 7

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

Biscuit Mix

Tired of buying this out of the store? Well, today Jess and I came across a recipe to make our own. We found it in our Mennonite cookbook. I needed to make sausage balls for our thanksgiving meal and of course my store bought bisquick mix was out of date. I will be making this mix today but I felt confident enough in Mrs. Shank’s recipe to post it without trying it first. I very seldom do that but every recipe I have tried from this cookbook has been excellent. I feel confident this one will be also. The recipe is:

8 cups all purpose flour, 1/3 cup baking powder, 2 tsp. cream of tartar, 3 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp salt, 1 1/2 cups dry milk powder. Mix together thoroughly. 2 cups vegetable shortening. Cut in until mixture is fine uniform crumbs. Store in airtight container in cool dry place. Yield 13 cups mix which makes 45-50 biscuits. To make biscuits, blend together 3 1/2 cups mix and 2/3 cup water. Stir just until liquid is mixed into the dough. Form into a ball and knead slightly. Pat or roll out to 1/2″ thickness. Cut with biscuit cutter. Place on greased baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 min. Makes 12 large biscuits.

Temperatures are nice here today but the clouds are moving in. I have clothes on the line, hoping they will dry. Yesterday was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine. I certainly am enjoying these warm temperatures. I was looking on our calendar. Last year on Dec. 5th we had our first snow and it snowed all winter. It was a beautiful but hard winter. I wonder what the Lord has in mind for this winter.

Time for school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

November 23, 2010 4