Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from my house to yours. May you know the real reason for the season and keep Him in your heart.

Memorial Day

Many years ago my father sat (almost completely bedridden) on the edge of the bed and was watching the news. The television was his only view of the outside world except that of the view from the window or front porch. He was a Korean War veteran. He was a U.S Marine. He was proud of the fact that he was the two previous statements.....

My next door neighbor is a World War 2 veteran and proudly displays not one, but two, American flags just outside his front door. He sometimes asks for his wallet when we go to visit him. In that wallet, in a hidden compartment, is his purple heart. We will probably never know what exactly happened to him to deserve a purple heart because he tears up and goes speechless when he shows it to us.

My great uncle fought in world war 1. I was too young to ask him about it but I can tell you that he was proud to fight for his country. He had a framed letter from former president Woodrow Wilson, hanging on the wall. That framed photo thanked him for his selfless duty to protect his country and the lives of his fellow comrades.

My cousin's husband is a Vietnam veteran. He doesn't speak of his ordeal because it is too traumatic to speak of- yet he did his duty to serve his country- that, can not be forgotten. I remember the stories of some distant relatives in the civil war that died tragically and left behind loved ones. I've heard of a great uncle that made it through the first world war to only come home and die from surgery. I've heard of an uncle that protected the military base. I know many on the internet that have loved ones serving at this very moment and I've read of the struggles and fear that those at home are feeling.... the stories go on and on....

There are thousands upon thousands of veterans in this country that gave- and are currently giving- so selflessly and deserve the honor and respect of every single American citizen. Maybe there are veterans both living and gone that didn't have family. Some were never brought home to their home country. Some are fighting as you are reading this. Some died alone in the wilderness. We should remember and honor them all.

I'll close with this little statement that has stuck in my head for many years. It was a comment that my late father said that day, when he sat on the edge of the bed, watching the news. At that time, our country was sending troops oversees. He sat almost motionless, with a distant look in his eye and proudly said, "If they called me back to duty, I'd go right now".

The week in photos....The Vampire Bunny, UFO's, and some new sewing projects

Vampire Bunny

We had a really great Easter and our Easter dinner and egg hunt were lots of fun ( I ate waaaayyyyy too much) . This cute bunny bread is from a recipe that I had in an old Quick Cooking Magazine from years ago. I misplaced my magazine but I found the link on Taste of Home's site. The link to the recipe for the bunny bread pictured above can be found here. It's super easy but next year I think I'll scale the recipe down to just one batch of bread dough so I'll have more room for the veggies around Mr. Bunny.


I had a few minutes a couple of days before Easter (and some spare cloth scraps) and whipped up this little pocket tissue holder from a pattern that I found on the internet. (Sorry, I'd share the link but I had sewn the holder while the computer was on and later turned the computer off for the day without bookmarking the site- I didn't realize that until later the next day- argh!) Maybe I'll run up on that pattern again.

The only problem is that I don't have a pack of tissues to use inside- so I'll just have to wait until I can remember to buy a pack to see if they actually fit inside! I've got some ideas to make my own pattern with "quilting" and other strange designs that are cooking in my brain. It just might take me awhile to turn those ideas into reality! ....isn't that always the way it goes..... plenty of ideas, just no time to make them come to pass....

I'm keeping this one for myself....

I also found this really cool Bible carrier pattern and knew right away that I had just the right fabric for the job (hence the scraps that went into the tissue holder above). My Bible is a little too small for it but, this was my test model just to see if I could make one. I don't use other people's patterns for anything I sell in my Etsy shop so I'll have to come up with one myself soon as I really enjoyed sewing this one up. I'm planning on changing the tie strings to a buckle type closure with a large button, adding a key ring with a clasp (for holding car keys), and a cell phone pocket. The possibilities are endless as to what they could look like. They could even be made from holiday type fabrics. Hey, I would have used an Easter Bible cover if I had one. Look out, I'd imagine I'll have some interesting choices come Christmas time!

A UFO

I thought I'd share a picture that one of the younger kiddos at our egg hunt took. I have no idea which one did, but they managed to get this photo of a UFO in mid flight in the backyard. (See it? Look near the top center of the photo- it's long and pinky looking) Awe, I know what it is I just thought it was funny that they managed to get a picture of it. I don't know the technical word for the UFO but it is part of a Ladder Ball yard game. Let's just say that these UFO's were flying back and forth a lot that day. No one got beaned in the head by one believe it or not!

Love you Heather... (Now your hurt boo boo is all over the internet...)

We did have one casualty though- well, technically 2-1/2 casualties on Easter Sunday. One kiddo tripped and hurt her toe when she fell and the bandaged toe in the photo above was cut by the teeniest, tiniest, piece of glass. What was the 1/2 casualty you say? I say 1/2 because it wasn't until the next day that the casualty fully blossomed into a full blown case of poison ivy on Go Cart Boy. ( I guess you could say 1/2 since the ivy claimed it's victim on Easter but didn't show up until the next day.)

So how did your week go?

Happy Easter

St. Patrick's Day and Our Homeschool Experience

What? Are you confused? What's this guy doing in this St. Patrick's Day post, pointing at a pile of snakes?

Why, that's ole' St. Patrick himself! One of the things that he is known for, is for banishing snakes from Ireland. What does that have to do with St. Patrick's Day? Well, in our American culture, we have sort of "changed" the meaning of St. Patrick's Day.

Being a homeschool family, we spent the greater part of this morning researching what St. Patrick's Day really is and what all of the traditional symbols of St. Patrick's Day really mean.

We learned that in Ireland, St. Patrick's Day is a religious holiday, celebrating the date that St. Patrick died. He was known for driving the snakes out of Ireland (possibly meaning the driving out of Druid ceremonies that involved snakes). Most importantly, he spread the word of God and converted many non believers.

We also learned that many in Ireland feel that the color green is unlucky. American's have kind of introduced the drinking of beer as part of the holiday. Oh, and last but not least, the shamrock does indeed, have Irish backgrounds. St. Patrick himself taught that the shamrock represented the Trinity (Father, Son, and The Holy Ghost). So, how about that.

Our learning didn't stop at searching the web. The two younger kids wrote St. Patrick's Day stories (both about leprechauns) and I gave the older kids a fun sheet so they wouldn't feel left out. Later, we searched different locations (including the place where St. Patrick was born- Scotland, by the way) and Dublin Ireland using the street maps so we could get a bird's eye view of the real places. So, basically, it's like we traveled over the ocean and actually "saw" what we were studying with our own eyes (without having to leave the comforts of home!!). If I had thought ahead, we could have thrown some home economics in the mix and fixed some traditional Irish meals today but this mama wasn't that prepared....

Well, we traveled to Ireland and Scotland, wrote some stories, learned some history, AND managed to get our regular school work done. What a St. Patrick's Day we had!

Things I have learned this year.....some the hard way.

Back in July, I started keeping this blog post saved in my drafts so that from time to time, I could come back and fill in those little things that struck me as weird or funny for the rest of the year. I learned a few strange things this year, often the hard way so I'm sharing them with you as a kind of, look back on 2009.


1. When the refrigerator accidentally gets turned up too high, your raw milk will freeze (I know, that's obvious). What I really learned from this is that when raw milk freezes, the cream turns into butter. How did I figure this out? I made myself a nice, tall glass of chocolate milk one day. One swig and the tiny butter chunks that I didn't notice, nearly gagged me.

2. Chicken manure is evil and so are fire ants. I was always told that chicken manure was a fantastic fertilizer. Oh, now I get it, it's a fantastic fertilizer for fire ants.



3. When you plant yellow crooked neck squash in the garden, don't be surprised at all when you harvest zucchini. Things never go as planned and you just need to learn to roll with the punches. Hey, it fries up just the same anyway. You know the old saying- "When life gives you apples, make applesauce". Knowing that, I say, "When life gives you zucchini, don't look a gift squash in the mouth- just put it in yours".

4. If you have the slightest inkling in your mind that you want to make a family photo: Don't tell any children under the age of 18 ahead of time. If you do, chances are, one or more will come up with a big blue bump on their forehead, have a younger sibling give them a haircut in secret, or knock a tooth out (in the front of their mouth- no less) within minutes of your announcement.

5. Skunks can and will take up residence in your outhouse if you are not careful. That information seems as though it should come from an old timer's textbook but in this day and time, it really can happen. By the way, baby skunks are kinda' cute.

6. Snakes like holes in trees. Snakes like to scare people that walk by holes in trees. Snakes can sometimes "jump" from holes in trees to petrify people that walk by holes in trees that snakes like.



7. If there is a mud hole around your place, you can pretty much be confident that a little boy has already discovered it before you did. You, by the way, will discover the fact that you have a mud hole around your place, when you walk through your living room and it looks like a herd of muddy footed elephants stampeded through just recently.

8. Ponder the fact that when your three youngest kids left the dentist's office, the technician gave them each ice cream for the trip home.............. (I'm serious- this really did happen- I kid you not!)

9. A thunderstorm (or at least a very ominous black cloud) will show up at your door step the exact instant you think about going to the park or work in the garden.

10. If you manage to hide some chocolate from everyone else in the house, they will instinctively come running from all directions as soon as you walk into the kitchen to get it for yourself.

11. If the day is relatively calm, expect a storm before that day is over (and I'm not necessarily talking about weather here).

12. You can not trust seed companies to actually include the seed in the package, that they have advertised on the outside of the package.

13. Deer like pinto beans, fire ants like potatoes, and ground hogs like zucchini squash (or at least they do in my neck of the woods).

14. If your toilet fails to flush properly once, don't ignore it. Trouble is on the horizon....



15. If water pours from the bottom of your washing machine at the exact moment that the machine makes a "shriek, clunk, clunk, rip" sound, you just aren't going to wash clothes that day.

16. If your washing machine gets fixed and you finally get to wash that much needed load of dirty clothes, expect the heating element in your dryer to go out the "exact" same day that the washing machine was fixed. Needless to say, the clothes WILL get washed, they just will not get dried.

17. If you notice these beautiful green patches of new grass growing in your backyard and you have experienced #14 from above, you just got your second clue that trouble is on the horizon.

18. If the septic tank man takes 4 days to show up, 5 minutes to look at the backyard, and another, lets say, never comes back, let's just hope that it's not a bad sign that more trouble is on the horizon.

19. Knitting is addicting, plain and simple.

20. If you washing machine, dryer, and septic tank goes out on you - all within the same week, don't be completely surprised when your dishwasher goes on the blink too.

21. Farmville on Facebook is extremely addicting.



22. Wearing a white turtleneck is not a smart thing to do when cooking spaghetti- you get the picture.

Well, there you have it. Some goofy things I learned this year. Mind you, they are not all of the things I learned this year, just the ones that I happened to remember. I wonder what's going to happen this year?

Wishing you and yours a very happy and prosperous new year!

Merry Christmas from My House to Yours

Remember the reason for the season

Halloween, Publix Supermarket, and the Biggest Pile of Leaves I've ever Encountered....

Phew- too much has been going on around here. I'm almost worn out! I did, however, find a minute or two to share some photos again of what's went on lately.

Here is a fairy princess, Snow White, a ninja, and a Victorian princess all about to make their presence known to our unsuspecting elderly neighbors. Look out, Mr. A! They are about to invade! and invade, they did..... Afterward, I was told that Mr. A gave out the coolest chocolate eyeballs around.


I guess by now you are wondering what Publix Supermarket has to do with this Halloween escapade. Some years ago, we discovered that Publix stores let kiddos "Trick or Treat" in each department. (Floral, Pharmacy, Bakery, Deli, Produce, Meat, Service Desk, etc....you get the idea.) Guess what, they scored pretty good here. We drove to the next Publix store on our little route and they scored again. Now, how about that?


Halloween came and went. Then the leaves fell off of the trees. The kids took advantage of that opportunity. Scott, packing a leaf blower, helped the situation a little. We even had a couple of neighborhood kids come over and get lost in that pile too. The kids had this goal of making the pile as tall as the gas grill. They accomplished their goal but the leaf pile didn't stay up very long.


Even some big kids got into the act. Hey, H, got some embarrassing video of you too. You just wait- it will surface on the Internet eventually..... mwha, ha, ha......


Now, I bring you to the funniest story in this leaf journey. You know how teenagers like to talk on the phone and "text" constantly. How is this shot for showing how dedicated a teenage boy can be with his texting. What was he saying, "Hey, jumping in leaf pile- text ya' later"?



I just had to include this photo. Do you see it? The dedicated texting teenager triumphantly held his phone out of the leaves to protect it. Such determination and dedication that boy has.....

Happy Independance Day

Happy Fourth to you and yours! Always remember the reason for the celebration......

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all of the "Daddies" out there. If your Daddy is still around, give him a hug, give him a call, just give him some love......You will be glad you did in the long run.




My Daddy and "me"
(1934-2003)

Not So Secret Father's Day Gifts for the Dad at My House

The Dr. and Rose
By Mark Satchwill

MarkSatchwillArt.etsy.com

My honey has this favorite television show. It's been his favorite for a long, long time. Lots of people in America have no idea what the show even is. But, on the other hand, thanks to BBC America and PBS (in the 1980's), lots of people do know what the show is. That show is called Dr. Who. No, it's not a hospital drama, tear jerker, type of show; Dr. Who is a science fiction program. Dr. Who is a time lord. He never dies- well, sort of never. Dr. Who "regenerates" into the form of another Dr.

By the way, he isn't a medical doctor. People just kind of think he is. He travels through space and time saving planets, species, and the such from utter destruction. His vehicle of travel is a Tardis. A Tardis is what the British will easily recognize as a telephone booth of sorts that is painted blue and has the words, "police box" across the top. The Tardis is gigantically huge on the inside and normally sized on the outside. Almost all Dr. Who episodes are family friendly- except the newer ones do have a "naughty" word or two that show up from time to time. Some episodes do get a little "scary" with the occasional feisty alien or two but overall- everyone in my family can watch.

Oh, know, this post has turned out being a write up on Dr. Who the program and not the reason as to why I'm posting this in the first place! Back to my original intention!

There are lots of neat items on Etsy that are Dr. Who related. From time to time, when I actually have time, I type in Dr. Who in the search bar and see what comes up. Some time back, I found the reproduction print you see above. I had to buy it for my husband. He collects Dr. Who memorabilia, which by the way, is hard to come by in America. Mark Satchwill shipped me the print very fast "over the pond" and it got to me in time for my husband's birthday.

Dr. Who- David Tennant
By Mark Satchwill
MarkSatchwillArt.etsy.com

This print is the one that's on it's way over the Atlantic ocean at this very moment for part of my husband's Father's Day gift. Mark has a couple of other Dr. Who's that he has completed and is working on my husband's favorite Dr. right now. I couldn't keep the secret from my honey about the print pictured above and I just had to show him what was on the way to him. He wants all of the Dr. prints by Mark Satchwill now!

A special order "Tardis" that I ordered from Roger's Stuff - also on Etsy.

This Tardis was something that I asked Roger from Roger's Stuff, if he could make. He had it done within a very short while- even before I logged off of the computer that day! Today, it came in the mail- super fast shipping people!

My honey put his Tardis in the back window of the truck before we even got home from the post office. I'm so glad he liked it.

Well, seller's be on the lookout for me, I've finally found a way to surprise my honey. He has no idea what I buy on Etsy so I'll be on the lookout for Dr. Who for Christmas!

Memorial Day

In remembrance of those that have served and lost their lives in the service of our country

A Wordless Wednesday- The Easter Edition

The Real Meaning Of Easter- (Not just an egg hunting day)

Calvary

Usually holidays slip up on me when it comes to blogging about them. This time, Easter didn't. I wanted to share with you the real meaning of Easter in case you didn't know it or maybe you forgot.


In a typical kid's eyes, Easter brings about thoughts of Easter bunnies, ducks, eggs, a delicious baked ham, and candy- lots of candy. These things are great (especially the chocolate bunnies) but we tend to forget why we celebrate Easter in the first place.

Being a Christian holiday from the beginning, Easter is the day that Jesus Christ rose from the dead after being hung on a cross to die for our sins. I believe that most importantly, Easter reminds us of the sacrifice that Jesus gave; so that we might have eternal life.

I'm not a theologian, and will not give the entire story the justice it deserves, so you can read the story in the Bible for yourself. Head on over to the Book of Mathew chapter 27 and you can educate yourself fairly quickly.

As for today, I plan to spend the day with my family. We are going to hunt Easter eggs, eat ham, and hopefully, I can grab a spare chocolate bunny or two (or three or four....). Most importantly, I am going to remind them all of why we celebrate Easter and what it should mean to them.

Happy 31st birthday to Dusty who just happened to be born "An April Fool"

Orion's Stardust born April 1, 1978
An old horse at 31 years

My horse turned 31 years old today. (It is my opinion that if a horse is born on April Fool's Day, they will have a silly personality).

I'm sure that he doesn't know it is his birthday but I remember. Even though it is not very probable that he will have many more birthdays, I sure hope he does.

A Wordless Wednesday- (Easter Anticipation)

St. Patrick's Day

I'm a little late today, but Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Night Night Puppy even got into the "wearing" green thing today

This morning at my house, there was this brief, but very frantic event that took place. For a few minutes, four children scrambled around, searching for green shirts (or pants as the case may have been). Luckily, all but Night Night Puppy managed to avoid the traditional "pinch" of St. Patrick's Day. It didn't take long before Night Night Puppy even got into the spirit of things and sported a homemade green leash (made by her loving four year old owner).

I was completely caught off guard myself but thinking quickly, I grabbed an ink pen and stuck it out of my pants pocket. I also told them to pay careful attention to the color of my eyes as well. The kids said that it didn't count so I played it safe and put on a green shirt. Phewwww, now I'm safe......

Decked out for Saint Patricks Day

Well, Valentine's Day is done and gone. I learned something because of Valentine's Day. You can't post pictures of grocery stores on your blog. Or at least, I can't seem to get away with it.

Yep, my Winn Dixie Picture that I posted on my hubby's Valentine's Day post was removed. I know what you are thinking. No, I did not swipe it from a copyrighted site. I searched for a long, long, long time to find a picture of a Winn Dixie Marketplace and finally, I found one that was not copyrighted and free for the taking. Or at least I was led to believe. Go figure. Why an unlinked photo was removed, I am completely at a loss. I'm not one to stir up trouble and I doubt I would ever get an answer as to why my picture was removed so I'm just going to pick up the pieces, and move on. (Winn Dixie isn't a dirty word is it? In the south, it's a grocery store- surely it's not a dirty word.)

By the way, if anyone has a free (no strings attached) picture of a Winn Dixie Marketplace, send it my way please...... That way, I can plug it back into it's intended spot. Much obliged.

(And yes, my hubby and I met at Winn Dixie- in the floral department no less and on Valentine's Day). It is a long story and as much as I would like to share it, there just isn't time or space on any blog for the long, and weird details. Just trust me, it was the strangest day of my life. Let's just sum it up and say there is such a thing as Divine intervention!

Well, this post wasn't intended to talk about Winn Dixie or even Valentine's Day. It's purpose was to simply say that I changed the background on my blog to celebrate the next holiday in line on the calendar. Boy, I sure do go the long way around just to say something simple, don't I?

I have a wonderful update on my Winn Dixie delimma. My sweet hubby drove by and took a picture on his cell phone, of the very building where we first met. I now have it in it's appropriate place !

Hey SC, thought I forgot, huh?

I remember getting that bouquet ......

And I remember where I got it from on the strangest day of my life......

Happy Anniversary and Happy Valentine's Day to my best friend and love of my life.

Happy New Year!

I just wanted to drop in and tell everyone that it is my sincere hope that this coming year is one of peace and prosperity for all.

And on the silly side, did anyone get any sleep last night? We are not party animals around here so we went to bed before midnight. The cannons and fireworks going off until 3 am had other ideas when it came to letting people sleep though!

I've always heard that what you do on New Years Day will be what you do all year. If that is true, I will be mopping my floor, steam cleaning the carpet, washing clothes, and listing things on Etsy all year. The first three things on that list are a bummer. I tried, I honestly tried to get those things done yesterday but things just didn't work out. Oh well. I guess I will have some seriously clean floors all year. (Who am I kidding?) Based on that old tale, what are you doing today that you will find yourself doing all year?

Enjoy your holiday!