Gotta work tonight....

but had to tell you that Dennis put a handrail in the stairwell going to the basement, and a huge light in the pantry for me.... 

AND... a neighbor gave me a monster zucchini! YIPEE!

Canning time is Monday.. I can see it! Chow Chow, V8 juice and zucchini pickles here I come!

Blessings!

And today is Wednesday...

I had Psych class today from 1-5p. Well, supposed to anyway. I ended up having to leave at 2:30p cause I had to pick up 14y/o from school at 3p. Thank goodness 20 y/o dd took 16 y/o dd to work for me... as I was running behind!

I had put a pot of lentil stew this AM. Added some onion, celery, and a bit of carrot. I think it turned out very well, if I do say so myself.  I used a couple of quarts of chicken broth that I had canned last year... gave the lentils quite a flavor. I have 1 large bowl in the freezer for another day, and 3 small bowls for future lunches for me, either at school or work. Made some homemade biscuits to go with it too. DH loves homemade biscuits... LOL!

We also had our granddaughter all day today. She's such a little joy to be around! She's starting to talk more clearly each day (or does Grandma just understand her better?) and is a good little gal. She is starting to be the typical two year old that DH and I were worried about before... 
Two days in a row now, I have found my Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls shoved under the couch... LOL! But yet when I get them and try to hand them to her, she acts almost like she's in trouble. Time will tell, eh?

Abi is doing quite well in school. She's bringing in good grades and has made lots of friends. So I am thankful for that.

We met Amelia's "boyfriend" last night. Gave him 3 kinds of he** and back for sneaking out with our daughter. He apologized and after he got the Dad lecture, he got mine. He did then ask permission to date Amelia, under our terms, and we agreed. We figure, any boy with enough guts to stand up to DH and admit to sneaking his daughter out all night, then apologize, AND even be lectured on top of that... deserves a small chance to make things right...
And besides, he seems like a nice boy. He'd better be, cause he's under scrutiny now!

Well, I think I am gonna head off here and make a cake this evening. Family deserves some kind of a goodie.....

~Blessings~
From our home to yours

Monday evening

Tomorrow I start back to school for my last semester. *sigh* I'm gonna miss being at home. A 3 week break sure does the soul good!

Sunday

Not too much going on around here today...
I woke up at 3:30 (worked last night) and got almost right into supper. DH asked for fried chicken, so I fried up a batch of chicken, and we had some of our canned beans, a few ears of corn, and some homemade bread.
Pretty good, if I do say so myself!  :)
Now, I am getting 5 more quarts of broth canned, and DH and Meli are watching a cowboy show on TV. I'm also working on laundry (about 2 loads to go).

Another nurse at work had brought in some corn last night on 2nd shift and offered it to anyone that wanted it. No one on 2nd took any, and a gal from 3rd took 2 bags, so I waited till 4am to see if anyone else wanted some, they all said no, so I bought home 3 bags of corn! Free! (That's my fav price!)

DH had it shucked and in freezer bags before I woke up, so I didn't have a chance to do what I wanted to with it (but that's ok). I wanted to take it off the cob and can it.

Dh and the girls pulled up our tomato plants and disposed of them today. They were able to save a little bit of the tomatoes that weren't diseased, but not many.  A few is better than none though, and the Lord has blessed us with so much more anyway.... we'll be ok.

Then we decided to take down the pool for the year... LOL! Now, when I get the video of DH getting into that freezing water to unplug that pool..... well, let's just say, I was giggling pretty darn hard at that one! :)

I suppose it's time to get Abi ready for bed (she has school bright and early), and get myself situated for the evening (although I am no where near tired since DH allowed me to sleep in so late! LOL!)
And my time is almost up for my chicken broth I have processing....

So I am going to run for now, and may post in the AM.

Thanks for stopping by to visit...

G'nite!

~Blessings~

1 week at school

and Abi is doing much better. She finally came home today the bubbly, giggling and happy little girl that I raised. The children are finally talking to her and she has friends....
I am so happy!

Last night, I wrote up a CNA for sitting on the nurses desk and text messaging on her phone. So we'll see where that goes today, eh? I work with her for the first 4 hours of my shift tonight, so it'll either be a good one or not!

DH made supper..... so I had better scedaddle off here and eat, then get ready for work!

Talk to ya'll later!

More corn!

DH was given 2 doz ears of sweet delicious corn last night at work! Yea!

Canning and my new pantry!

DH said he'd do it... a long time ago... this summer, our grandson went back to live with his Mom, so DH finally did it! He took our grandboy's old room and built me a pantry!
I'm so excited... didn't think it could... or would ..... be done!
But I started moving in today......
I still have more to do, but here's the gist of it....

I have these two shelves on the right side of the room, and this one...
There's another shelf to the right of this one, but it's being hidden by my treadmill right now. The rest of the room has to be cleaned out before I can move things around much more....

Then, against the far wall, there is going to be another shelving system for more canning jars and such. (We just didn't get it out yet.)

So, yesterday, I was busy canning, and put up 19 quarts of turkey, vegetable soup for chilly winter evenings, and today, I did 3 quarts and 8 pints of salsa, and 3 quarts of pineapple topping. I ran out of seals, else I'd be doing more chicken broth. I have wide mouth jars, and only small mouth seals.... *sigh* it's too hot to do anymore today anyway....

Our tomatoes caught that Late Blight fungal disease this year. So sad.... I'm going to pull up my plants and use what I can of the green tomatoes. Seems all of them around us caught it too! We had no clue what it was until we saw an article in the paper... and sure enough, that's exactly what our little beauties looked like.... I won't use the tomatoes with the disease on it. DH told me I could cut it out, and I probably could... but I'd rather not take that chance, ya know?

Here's my salsa I did today though. See that bright red pepper in there? That's DH's special jar! No... not cause I'm mad at him, he likes that kind of stuff! That nose waterin', eye burnin' , can't taste anything cause your tongue is gone stuff....

So, how's your winter planning coming along?

Teenagers....

Why is it a wonderful little girl can be so sweet and innocent and full of life and joy during a vacation to the country, and the same night we get home turns into a beast from he**, sneaking out and hanging (or whatever else) with her "boyfriend" (whom her parents have not even met!) all night?
She came walking down the road at 6:30am, saw her Dad sitting on the porch, and knew then it was over. And it was.......

Till now.

15 August 2009

We just got back from Kentucky last night after a wonderful visit with family. Sad to leave, but, oh so good to be home! :)
I think we hiked all over the mountains there! We went to Cumberland Falls, The Pinnacle, Chained Rock and a few other spots we saw along the way.  We'd usually leave about 10-11 am and not get home till about 7-8 pm.
The girls had a blast with their cousins, and Dennis and I shared a dream of buying the cabin up the holler a bit from Uncle Eb and Aunt Sandy's.
Beautiful. Simply beautiful.

Our view every morning was.... Looking left down the driveway....

Looking right down the driveway....

After we figured out what to do, we'd load up and go find a park or something to tromp through. Only to see more Kentucky beauty everywhere we looked...


We had to be careful for little buggers like this guy..... he was hiding under a rock, and the kids just hiked right over top of him... didn't even realize he was there! God was with us that day though.....


We always had fun.... and the children did too.  They all stood half in Kentucky and half in Virginia for this pic! I love it!

At the end of each day, Den and I would dream of owning this little property.... and it's for sale too! There's a small cabin behind the barn a bit.....



All in all..... we had a wonderful time. A wonderful time of family, fun and praising God.....

He has made this a true slice of heaven on earth. Kentucky.

Wednesday's Happenings

Ahh.. today... the good ol middle of the week day of Wednesday.

We had our granddaughter again today. She's a quiet little bugger, doesn't say much at all, and just kind of wanders around after you (whomever she chooses at the moment). Usually doesn't play and is content to sit on a lap most of the time. Dh and I are concerned, but if we say anything, we'll be accused of interfering again and probably won't get to see her till whenever again, so we'll just keep our mouths shut and pray. She plays and talks like a just turned 2 year old, but she's just sooo quiet! I guess I just remember our 2 year olds... they were rambuncious and ornery and talking up a storm.... Guess all children are different though, aren't they?

Highlight of the day... we sold our old dining room set for $400. We're going to deliver it for them tomorrow. It's an elderly couple that has family in frequently.  After we deliver that, we have to take Abi to the school and get her registered for the upcoming year. I asked DH if I could use some of that money to get Abi some new school clothes, and he said sure... so we're probably going ot shop while we're in Kentucky.

I got some sewing done today. 2 pair of boxers for my fella, and a little dress for a granddaughter. And to think, I went into my sewing room to make some fabric market bags! LOL!

This evening, after dh went to work, we ordered pizza and didn't do too much of anything else, so I can't say as I've accomplished a whole lot, but what I did accomplish felt good to me.

Life has been good to me so far......

Being at Home....

What a wonderful vacation this is turning out to be!
I worked on laundry all day yesterday, washing and getting it hung out to dry, but my last load of jeans and a quilt were caught in a rainstorm this morning.... that's ok, I guess...

I also worked on the basement last night, moving things around and took 3 boxes and a bag to Goodwill. I plan on taking another load today. I'm in a clearing out frenzy around here! LOL! We have a room downstairs that we want to use as our food pantry, where I will have shelves stocked full of my canned goods that we have gotten from our gardens! As it is right now, we have to go to 3 different rooms to find what we need, and it just isn't productive... not at all. But we have a plan....

I am also working on oldest dd school schedule for the upcoming year. I have all of her books and things she will need, just need to get the schedule laid out, so on the days I am not here, DH can handle it, and keep her on task.

Oh! That reminds me! Today I have to call the school that we are sending younger dd to and get her registered.

I'd better get busy.... cause tasks do not accomplish themselves, do they?

~Blessings!~

True Diversity in America

Where else can you be at a store, and look up and see...
A Mexican Store right across the street..... (I've shopped there... they have some good stuff!)

and then, right next to your car, is a reminder of America the Beautiful....

4H Fair

DH took me on a date yesterday. It was nice... we both love the same things, and enjoy walking around looking at things.  The rides are a bit too much for me these days, and the food... oh yes! The fair food! (That's the very best part!) He bought me an elephant ear, then we each had a huge burrito (enough for an entire day), and then we shared a waffle cone of raspberry chunk ice cream! Delish! I think my blood sugar may have skyrocketed, but once in a while isn't going to hurt!
We walked around and gandered at everything, but our favorites were the animals, of course.
Wish I would have thought enough to get pics of some of the farm veggies that were grown! But I didn't... sorry....

Here's a beautiful horse that a fellow was getting warmed up....

And another.... we overheard this little girls Mom talking to her about the competition, and she was so scared, she was crying... poor little thing.... I hope she placed.

Here's a beautiful mare that was tired, so she was laying down....

Then we went to see the bulls and cows..... awesome! Here's a couple...

Then we hit the poultry barn.... that was fun! Seeing all the different types of birds that God put on this earth... my goodness! :)




I loved this guy... couldn't get him to look up too much, so he's a little blurry....
Off to the rabbits next! Most were adorable little fluffy fellas, who allowed you to touch their fur and pet them.... then there was this one, that was soo big I didn't know what to think! I'd say probably about 16-20 pounds!


and of course... what date would be complete without a picture of MY kind of transportation?

John Deere all the way!
(Now all I need is a farm to work on, eh?)

Good times... and a perfect date with my best friend....

Thanks Honey, I had a blast!  :)

Sunday August 2, 2009

Wanted to share some pics with you today..... nothing exciting, but things I am happy for in my life.
My first garden produce....


My front yard flowerbed....


My little pup dog, Cordell.....


My granddaughter Gabriel, and being given the opportunity to be grandparents....
(some of the others live too far away to see almost every day, but we are definitely Grandma and Grandpa with them too!)


and lovely simplicity in our lives.....



Hope you enjoyed a sneak peek into our (mostly) quiet little happy life.....
Maybe I can share more tomorrow!

~Blessings!~