Poppop and Abigail in the garden

Here is hubby and granddaughter Abigial, the day after Christmas, picking broccoli for dinner. They had a good time and got a good load! We have had a casserole and have steamed some too. Yummy!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree....

I miss it already! Yesterday, December 28, we turned it on and nothing happened....no lights. So we decided to dismantle it, and sure enough it was the main power cord going up the middle that was faulty. I am so glad it was AFTER Christmas Day.....otherwise, there would have been a lot of work involved in getting it back on. And grumbling too.

It was a real tree.....although they are more work and mess, there is nothing like a real tree to me. It smells so good, and this year ours stayed really fresh...it was up five weeks, but I was ready to enjoy it at least another week.

I found the quilt about 15 years ago at an antique shop in Marianna, FL. It is an old crazy quilt, with wool batting. It makes the perfect tree skirt, I think, because it is a little too heavy and too old to sleep under, but just right for presents to lay on.

Christmas Cookies - finished!

No more jammies either! The cookies came out really good, with lots of icing. What are cookies but mere vehicles for lots of icing?

Christmas Day - Men making cookies - little gals too!

Here the guys (Poppop and Daddy) help the little ones roll and cut cookie dough. Most of Christmas day was Jammy Day.....we opened gifts, had brunch, made cookies, took a nap, put the turkey in the oven, iced the cookies, ate dinner, played with all of our new stuff, and had a wonderful day!

Our daughter and her hubby live in town, but they packed their bags and moved in for two nights and almost three days, and we had the best time. It was so nice falling alseep at night knowing all the beds were full of family.

Don't they look serious about their cookie making?

The Cosby Cabin in Maggie Valley NC

Love this cabin!!! I will post more photos of it soon, as I took some of the inside too. We had a fire one night and it was so cozy. We cooked pork chops on the grill on the back porch, read, watched the election returns on TV (yes there were all the comforts of home, even a washer/dryer) and took lots of walks around the property.

The pets on the property claimed us, and there was canned food in the kitchen for them, which is why they claimed us. Two little Jack Russell terriers followed us everywhere; they had boundless energy and then fell exhausted on the porch when we cooked out.

The cabin was well over 100 years old when it was found and brought to the Boyd tree farm. Old bits of newspaper still cling to the inner walls where it was once used for insulation.

How fun it was to cook and sleep and sit by the fire in an actual old log cabin.

Mountain time again

Well, it has been a wonderful autumn. A week ago we spent one week in Tennessee and North Caolina, and the colors were spectacular. We got to visit with Tom's brother and his family, and spent two nights in an authentic log cabin (see http://www.boydmountain.com/) and then spent several days with good friends outside of Asheville.



The image you see here is the view from their deck and family room windows (and the driveway, kitchen, and the dining room, too), of the house we stayed in near Asheville. This view changes every five minutes, and deer wander across the meadow. It was so lovely. This faces west, so the sun goes down behind the mountains. It was also a dairy farm at one time, and the barn buildings are nearby and the fields are still planted in hay. The haying had just finished when we arrived.

Our host is a wonderful cook, and lives by the recipes of Paula Deen. She is also a crazy wonderful friend, and we had so much fun. Isn't this to die for?

Cutting the aprons.....Leftover Kerchief from a giant gets recycled.......

Here is Jennifer, modeling her apron to be. It was a giant kerchief, probably meant to be a card tablecloth.....so cute! She made every angle and border go just right. Even the pockets were going to line up when they were added.

It will look so cute with her jeans when it is finished. Her mom is also a member of our chapter, and she made a blue apron from a scrap of fabric she had. I can't wait to see all the finished products next time, and it got to be 10:00 and we were still sewing.

The girls love to come to these meetings, as it is a night out for them, and hubbies get the kids for the evening. I love having them, as they are all sweet Christian women, and so much fun!

Would you believe all these tiny women have 7 children among them and one on the way? The two older mommies, Donna and I had only children, so we are so blessed to have all the little ones in our lives.

Dueling Needles

The North Florida Farmgirls have fun and lots of laughs (although here they are hard into concentration) as we made aprons. I should say they made aprons.....I worked on the quilt I am making for the new little one on the way. I only use my fingers to sew. However, after watching them, I almost wanted to get a machine of my own and learn. Here is Brittney and Julia hard at work.

North Florida Farmgirls September Meeting

Well, it has been a long time since I added anything to this blog but I had to tell everyone about our last farmgirl meeting. We got together and made aprons from a MaryJanesFarm pattern. It was also Tom's birthday, so one of the gals brought a cake. We called him down to the kitchen, since he runs for the upstairs during our meetings....and he slowly came down wondering why we needed him to sew aprons. We surprised him by singing Happy Birthday and then we had cake and ice cream......that was before we even broke out the scissors. Cake first, work second. This first photo is Julia trying her apron on before sewing to make sure it fit at the neck. You can barely see her mommy tummy, but it is there! She made her apron from a vintage sheet she found at Goodwill. It was so soft and pretty with pale lavendar flowers. The lace you see is the apron she was wearing underneath her newly cut one. I thought the two looked nice together!

Fay, oh Fay, please go away!

The photo you see is our bedroom, and due to a bad back, I have been seen here a lot lately! Read on........


Well, we have had an interesting week-end. And we, so far, have been among the fortunate. We have had no loss of power and no flooding. Our house stands pretty high. We have a rain gauge, and it holds five inches. It has been emptied four times now and there is another 2 inches in it today. I am ready for the rain to stop for a good long while, because everything needs time to drink in the water. However, the bands of rain keep flowing through, literally. I have not been out with our camera, but I can tell you a little dry stream bed two houses from us ran like the Colorado, whitewater and all.

Still, we were able to get out intermittently. Daughter and I went to see Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 and really enjoyed it. We had seen number one together, so we had to take in the second one also! The theatre began to drip from the ceiling while we were there, and I kept wondering the whole time if that roaring sound I heard was from the action movie in the next door theatre, or if it was happening outside. I am such a worrier.....

Oh, how hurricane season can get tiring, 6 months of each year! Prayer and reading my Bible really helped me in the more worrisome moments. And we were able to get out and drive around a little, seeing the trees down (and neighbors out in ponchos talking in groups), getting to church (to see a tarp on the front door), and having dinner out with daughter and her family last night at Ted's Montana Grill (where one of our cars did not start right away after dinner). Blessings exist among the struggles, and I ask God to help me focus on them and let the rest go.

Life lessons never go away! I am 59 and still just beginning to learn to trust in God and lean into him. I get such a feeling of peace when I do that without question. The last weeks have been full of challenges. Son-in-law had a kidney stone, which required a middle of the night drive to get him at a Christian camp in the country. I was in bed for nearly a week with severe back pain. And then we had 22 inches of rain.......but we had electricity, no leaks, a full fridge, books to read and plenty of home projects. Son-in-law came through just fine and passed the nasty old stone. And this week, we find out if the new little one on the way is a boy or girl! Julia and Scott go to the doctor Wednesday.......and among all of these life experiences, Abigail started school and is having a wonderful time. I think she has already made another leap into growing up.

God blesses us so abundantly with gifts and lessons to learn from Him. If anyone out there is reading this blog, and doubts the love of God, or the existence of Him, I say this. Open your heart. Read His word with an open mind. He has given us the gift of choice, and wants us to choose Him willingly. He is there.

Our little Hannah

Here she is, watching the swimming lessons. She loved playing with all the kiddie toys, though, and the other siblings who were not taking lessons. I absolutely love to run my fingers through those blonde soft curls.

She is such an independent little one, and very full of humor. When we got in the car after lessons, all hot and sweaty, I turned on the air-conditioning full blast. That made my bangs fly straight up in the air, and she gave out a big belly giggle. I did not know why she was laughing until I looked back and saw what she was looking at. So I would put my head to the vent and let my bangs fly, and she would laugh all over again. She makes me laugh too.

Grandkids - what an absolute joy.

Summer Swimming

Abigail became a little fish a week or so ago. She learned to swim across the deep end, with her face in the water, and also was able to say good-bye to her beloved "noodle" that always kept her afloat. Hannah, the younger, watched and wondered why she could not join in, but next year for her! She kept asking for "my suit".

Summer is whizzing by. Birthday week-end came and went, and
we enjoyed two parties, two cakes, and the traditional junk shopping with my daughter (who shares a July 4 birthday with me) and lots of fun. We got some good junk. Our hubbies wonder why we bring home these rusted peeling things from 50 years ago......no answer for that one.

Julia's gift to me was a "date night" with her and her hubby. Just the four of us.....which is a treat, because any time we are together, there are kiddies to bath, feed, and play with. We never get to sit down and talk together for any length of time. So last Saturday night, we went to eat and then to dance!!!! Yes, dance. A swing band was playing locally, and my daughter can sure cut a rug. She and her hubby had the best time of anyone there. It was so fun to watch! Sorry, I did not take my camera! Hubby, who does not dance, was very good-natured about the whole thing. :)

Family at the Grand Canyon

Recently my daughter and her hubby and children spent a week in Arizona at the Grand Canyon and staying in a little cottage in Flagstaff. She took a leash for the little one and yu can see Hannah wearing it in this photo.

Hubby and I have been there in the past, too, and there are no words to describe it. I was so happy they could see this wonderful place. They look happy, don't they?

Another of God's gifts to me

The father of my child and my dear hubby. We have been together over 30 years. He is a good man. A man of habit. A man who is as good as his word, which can always be depended on. Hard worker. Pretty cute for 58.

I want to honor him this Father's Day. My life has been better since the day I met him.

Happy Father's Day, to my Tom.

Thank you for being you.

Summertime for sure

Flip flop time. This was taken on the bay at St. George Island. I sat there for a long time, with wine glass and camera. It was late afternoon. The water was so clear that the fish were quite noticeable as they swam beneath the dock. It was so quiet.....

The dock next to us had a family that lived on it all week-end. They had chairs, towels, fishing rods, coolers, you name it. They went in at dark and came back out on the dock in the morning with their coffee in hand. But it was far enough away, they were little moving specks, and I could just hear the murmur of their voices.

Summertime for sure.....

God has given us so many earthly gifts!

On the bay

Well, four couples recently spent a long week-end at St. George Island, Florida. What a wonderul time. We have all known each other for over 30 years. So we could put on bathing suits and say "so what?"

Here is a sunset. I think I have been converted from being a beach gal to a bay gal. So quiet, so lovely, and so much wildlife! We saw dolphin so close to the dock we could hear the blow hole, and heron, and the stars were incredible.

God is good. He has given us such beauty! Just look!

Pretty Ballerina

When I look at this photo I can see in her eyes that just two days prior to her little recital, she had been very ill. But by the time Friday and Saturday came, she was ready to dance. It was so good to see, after knowing how sick she had been.

I love the ballet school she attends. It is at a church. All the music and dance are built around scripture and praising the Lord. And yet, it has three mirror lined, hardwood floor studios, a staff of wonderul teachers, and the church sancutary makes a wonderful stage for performing. It is just a good place, and it is a blessing that our little one can participate.

Not without grumbling sometimes, though! There are afternoons when she just wants to stay at Nana's and play. But now she has a summer break, and next year is tap dancing. She is excited about dancing when there is noise involved.

She loves to clog! And so do I. Who can stand still when bluegrass is playing? Here, however, she looks so much like the classic little ballerina. All smiles. Of course, Nana's heart melts at that!

Living on the back porch

The days of that are getting short - how can that be, Northerners say? Because here it is already 92 degrees in the shade. I ate lunch here today after I worked in the garden and was already hot. With a big glass of water, it felt good to rock in the rocker.

The light through the window is our dining room chandelier.

I keep telling myself on cool nights I will sleep on the swing.....but then I hear the raccoons. And the mosquitoes buzzing.

We have our share of meals here, as we sit and look out at the trees. No houses in back of us - acres and acres of land undeveloped. Love it! Come and sit with us some night!

As I was growing up, our family porch was on the front and folks did come and sit. Our evening entertainment was talking to the neighbors who would often wander over. But now I notice that porches and patios are on the back, where family can enjoy privacy. There is good in both. I remember having dates sit with me on the porch, and I knew all the neighbors were probably watching. Back porches can cure that! :)

Our Dining Room

Well, we used to eat in the kitchen all the time. I have posted a photo of that room in my MaryJanesFarmfarmgirl blog-a-thon. But as our family grows, we eat in the dining room, which is not fancy but I try to keep it comfortable....I am not fancy!!!! I am a mid-western gal who only knows how to make it nice.

Tomorrow night we will have barbecued chicken breasts, macaroni and cheese (the kids love that), salad, and home made bread and I hope always that the kids will remember sitting down at this table with love.

Mother's Day Gift from my Daughter

I love this apron! It is from 1930 and my daughter gave it to me for Mother's Day. It is so delicate, and hand stitched, and it is precious because she thought about it and searched it out and thought it would be the perfect gift, and it was!!!

She and I really like to wear aprons, as you have seen on previous posts, but this one I will wear only for special. I tried it on immediately, and also immediately my little Hannah granddaughter asked to be picked up. It wrinkled the apron, but I thought how wonderful to have your little granddaughter be the first one to wrinkle your new apron!!!

Blessings are everywhere - I try to see them, but they sometimes pass by so fast, I miss them. Not this time.

A time for everything

Ecclesiastes - that wonderul book in the Bible that studies the meaning of life and tells us that all is meaningless unless God is at the center of our lives.

In Chapter 3 we find the famous verses that have even been put to folksong .....to everything there is a season.....

The NIV translation says "There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under Heaven".

Just the other day I was reading another blog that mentioned these passages, and for her it told her there is time for everything. Not just "a" time but time. I suddenly had a new and fresh understanding of these passages that I had not experienced before (isn't that why it is called the Living Word?)

We rush around so....we are late, we are late, for very important dates....but God encourages us to slow down. There is time for everything. Time to be born and time to die. Time to plant and time to uproot. Time to weep and time to laugh. All these things come into each of our lives, and all are of God. Even when we do not recognize that fact, it is nonetheless true. All things are of God and we need to spend our time making it count for Him.

So what I heard and felt anew in these passages, was that I need not rush. There is time for everything. These times may come to my life unbidden, but is part of the infinite plan for each of us who are God's children.

I also began to feel less guilty, because sometimes I feel I do not navigate through my time well enough. I do not chase after riches, high degrees in education, and accomplishments I could list in a resume. This has plagued me.....but I hope God uses my time here for making a difference in someone else's life in a good and loving way.

Go and read Ecclesiastes (it is right after Proverbs.) You will find a time for treasuring His Word.

Tea for me? Sweet!!!!!

As part of the MaryJanesFarm blog-a-thon, one week's theme was all about tea. Sadly, I only drink one kind of tea........the good old southern sweet iced tea. Now I know that is not sophisticated and not something health oriented, but let me tell you, there is nothing like a big, ice cold glass of southern sweet iced tea.

Here is my recipe and you will probably gasp:

boil water enough for one good size pitcher
in a glass pitcher, put 1 1/2 cup sugar
Choose two tea bags of your favorite tea
After water boils, pour into pitcher to one half full
stir sugar until dissolved
pour rest of hot water into pitcher
add tea bags and let steep until cool
Refrigerate or let cool to room temp
Pour into glasses filled with lots of ice

I have to tell you I grew up in the midwest, and we drank our iced tea this way, too. Or maybe it was because I had a mom who had roots in Tennessee!

www.maryjanesfarm.org

check it out!

A furry friend visits us - #6 MaryJanes Blog-a-thon

Here is a little furry friend I saw the other morning as I went out to my garage. We have seen foxes many other times, mostly in the evenings, but this one was out chasing squirrels at 10 AM!

I stood quietly awhile to see if it looked aggressive, but I think it was just playing around. Or hungry for a good squirrel lunch.....

He (or she).....actually I think it is a she, had three young ones with her last fall. She came to the yard each evening at dusk when we would put out left overs. Her little ones were near, down by the stream, and in the mornings early we could hear their little barks. The barks sound like something between a cat and a puppy - sharp, mewly barks. But cute. Anyway, several years ago, we also had a pair of foxes, and the hubby would come to the yard, check out the food, and curl up beside it until mommy was done eating...then he would finish it. Isn't that sweet?

We do not have any domestic animals anymore. Our last one, a doggie, lived over 18 years, and when he passed, we decided to enlarge the garden, and not have animals..... we want a simple life, but at this point, animals do not seem simple!

Anyway, please check out www.maryjanesfarm.org. She covers all aspects of farm life, and you will really enjoy her website and her new magazine!!! And, she is a fox, too! :)

In the Garden - MaryJanesFarm Blog-a-thon Continues!!

So....a recent theme for the blog-a-thon was "In The Garden".......I have gotten out of order in my posting, I think, but I am trying to keep up!

Our garden this spring is absolutely great!!!!! It is because we have had lots of cool nights and sunny days. Less rain and muggyness means less bugs and rot, in Florida anyway. My sugar snap peas are taller than my hubby and he is 6 feet. I have so many peas I do not know what to do with them! We love to eat them fresh steamed with a little salt and pepper. And we put small ones raw on our salads. I also include them with other veggies in my fish dishes.

But I have never had to "put up" peas before and have no idea if they freeze. Sounds like I need to do some research.

Our pepper plants and our tomato plants are blooming and each have small veggies on them. The cucumbers are flowering. And one little broccoli plant, which still looked so sturdy I could not bear to take it out, still lives among the spring garden plants.

We have 3 small organic gardens in our front, side and back yards. We have about one acre, but there are LOTS of trees in the back, and sunlight is an issue. When I can, I will take a photo of the snap peas....I cannot go out the door without wandering over to them and picking. It is so fun to pick peas....Guess I am just a peapicker!

As always, check out www.maryjanesfarm.org. Talk about luscious gardens!

Getting Crafty

As part of our ongoing salute to MaryJanesFarm, a weekly theme was about crafting. The only photo I have online of something I made is of a sampler I stitched and dedicated to my grandmother.

Going up our staircase, I have hung 14 samplers I have made through the years. I just love the look of old samplers, and I love the stories they tell of family, of a young girl's ability to stitch, and of the memories of living through the generations. The really, really old samplers, like those on display at Williamsburg, Virginia, are astounding in their loveliness. Anyway, I decided I would start a collection of my own. I have made samplers honoring our home, our marriage, our daughter, our mother's and grandmothers.....

I love to sit in the evenings and stitch, looking at the beautiful colors of floss nearby and feeling linen between my fingers.....to think that in the olde days, these samplers were done by 8 and 9 year old girls at schools especially made to teach young women the crafts of keeping a home!

Remember to check out www.maryjanesfarm.org and see the lovely stitched crafts shown in her new magazine! I almost hate to use the word crafts because it is really art. Fine art in my book!

Here is the sampler dedicated to my grandmother:

Jeannie's Kitchen

Here is a photo of my blissful kitchen - at least part of it. You cannot see the floor length window or the stove on the other side of the table. It is little, but I love my kitchen! For 22 years it has fed us!

Bliss in the Kitchen

As part of the MaryJanesFarm blog-a-thon, bliss in the kitchen is the theme for week three. Well, to coin a kitchen phrase, that really opens up a whole can of peas! My bliss in the kitchen began early with memories of my grandmother's kitchens. I can remember every detail of both of them, both farmgirl kitchens for real.

My paternal grandma had a kitchen on a dairy farm in Iowa. It was complete with big windows, blowing curtains, and a table right near the stove and sink. She cooked huge meals for the farm hands and she would always sit down and eat last. As she grew older, she could not do as much, so mom would do the cooking and washing when we were there. Grandma also began to lose some of her memory. The last time my mom stood washing the dishes, grandma walked up to her, put her arm around her and said, "I don't know who sent you to help me, but you are a jewel!" She thought mom was hired help! We laughed at that one and always told mom she was indeed a jewel in the kitchen. Family bliss in that memory, for sure.

My maternal grandma had a pump at the sink in her small town kitchen until the 60's. She also always had a daybed on one wall. Above the daybed was a wall lamp where one could lay and read. Anyone not feeling well could always convalesce there where she could keep a watchful eye on them. Her back door went right out the side of the house into her garden, and she canned constantly it seemed. Wearing an apron of course. Her house had no dining room, so we always ate in the kitchen or in the back yard. It was blissful in that room, too.

My mom's kitchen was big, bright yellow, and in the center was a yellow mother of pearl kitchen table. When my grandma came to live with us, my parents gave their bedroom to her and they slept in our kitchen on a roll away which got tucked away during the day. The sink was so deep, she gave me baths in it as a small child! It was so sunny, and had a huge walnut tree outside the back window. Each morning mom would stand there with her coffee. And on late nights, she and I sat and had hot chocolate and talked at the table.

So for me bliss in the kitchen goes a lot deeper than meals, recipes, or the latest appliances, as important as those things are! In fact, it goes backward in time to kitchen living that provided childhood bliss. The best kind.

Check out http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/! Much more bliss in the kitchen can be found there!

Later, I will tell you stories about my kitchen and my daugher's, too. Hers is yellow and sunny, by the way.

Tie One On - An Apron that is!

Last October, my daughter and I had the fun opportunity to meet MaryJane Butters. She was visiting the Atlanta area, and we had a great day together eating, making rag rugs, chatting, and of course taking photos. Here is one memory of that wonderful day when we all had our aprons on and enjoyed a day of farmgirl friendship! Here you see maryjane's daughter Meg holding Stella, MaryJane, me and Julia, my daughter.

Visit www.maryjanesfarm.org and find out about her!

MaryJanesFarm

In May 2004, I found a great website. MaryJanesFarm. Now I am not one to visit chat rooms, and surf all over the net. But this is the one place I visit and shop at regularly and it's a keeper.

Many who visit this blog will already be very familiar with MaryJane and what she stands for. If you are not, go to http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/. It is a great place. A place where folks who want to live life in a simple way can learn how to grow an organic garden, buy organic food products, and meet with similar minds from all over the world. This is one site that is safe, well moderated, fresh and interesting.

Since I am such a newbie at blogging, I do not know yet how to show a link to her site, so that is why I listed it above.

I have met MaryJane personally. She is a wonderful and genuine person who has found herself at the head of a "farmgirl" movement. She promotes a cause that many of us strive for - good family life, creating things with our hands, making homes and farms and businesses that reap positive results, both in the fields and in the family.

So visit there! You will have fun!

HomeMade Stitches

Over thirty years ago my mother gave me the last quilt top my grandmother ever made. Not too long after piecing it she had a stroke and came to live with us. When her home in small town Pawnee, Illinois, got cleaned out, Mom found the quilt top, kept it, and passed it on to me when I was newly married.

I bought a quilt frame, purchased batting, pinned the top to a backing, and began the project. It was slow going. I guess thirty years is very very slow! A baby came along, the quilt frame came down, and a crib took it's place. Time went by, and the quilt stayed folded neatly in the linen closet. Until November 2007.

That is when, through MaryJane'sFarm website, I found a wonderful business called HomeMade Stitches. A group of Mennonite and Amish women in Minnesota and Wisconsin finish quilts and also make custom quilts as a business - and everything is done by hand. Out of the linen closet came grandma's quilt, still pinned and only slightly sewn together. Back to the mid-west it travelled and a few short months later, it is now a finished work of art. To me anyway.

This quilt was pieced together with what was once my grandmother's housedresses. When they wore out, she used them for quilting. I know that because the first time I saw it, I immediately could see her in those dresses which were usually covered with an apron...and I think there are apron pieces in there too.

When the box came home to me in the mail two days ago, my granddaughter was with me. We opened it together and drew out this quilt, and I felt the threads of time literally piecing our lives together - grandmother to grandmother, I stood with the woman who made that last quilt top.

My grandma's last quilt

Spring has Sprung and all is Dusty Yellow!

Today is a glorious day! I took a mile walk, and now I am watering the garden we planted yesterday. The nursery was a busy place on a sunny Palm Sunday! Hubby and I got tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. After getting them in the ground, I fertilized my snap peas and harvested some more broccoli. I am letting the broccoli bloom out a lot, though, because the bees LOVE the flowers, and that will bring precious pollinators to my new little tomato plants, some of which already have tiny blooms. Broccoli has the loveliest, most delicate yellow bloom; they are really pretty and edible!

But the air is yellow! Really, I mean really yellow. I have a blue car, and the Oak pollen has coated it as if it needed talcum. When I drive, some of it blows off, and when it rains, everyone has a polka dot car. Driving country roads, one can see what looks like a dust cloud from a recent car, but it is just clouds of pollen blowing out of Oaks. And here in the deep south, there are a zillion big old Oaks!

The photo I posted below is of little Abigail and Hannah, watching their favorite show, Calliou. They can watch 1/2 hour of TV at my house on Wednesday, when they visit me. This is their choice, and they cozy up together and it gives me time to make the lunch!!! There is a method to my madness, but it is their first choice of shows, too.

There they sit, in my hubby's grandma's rocker, which makes it their great-great-grandmother's rocker. I do not have anything that belonged to my great-great grandmothers, so I hope to keep it for them to have someday.

Well, back outside now to move the sprinklers!

Watching their favorite show!

The Windy Month of March

That phrase is certainly proving true this year for us in North Florida. Today...clear, blue, cold but warm in the sun, but the wind is strong enough to blow you over! If this wind was part of a tropical system, I would be one nervous cat, but it is a winter wind and full of spring, and so I am enjoying it.

My favorite poem (or one of them) is by Robert Frost, and here it is:

Wind and Window Flower

Lovers, forget your love,
And list to the love of these,
She a window flower,
And he a winter breeze.

When the frosty window veil
Was melted down at noon,
And the cage-ed yellow bird
Hung over her in tune,

He marked her through the pane,
He could not help but mark,
And only passed her by
To come again at dark.

He was a winter wind,
Concerned with ice and snow,
Dead weeds and unmated birds,
And little of love could know.

But he sighed upon the sill,
He gave the sash a shake,
As witness all within
Who lay that night awake.

Perchance he half prevailed
To win her for the flight
From the firelit looking-glass
And warm stove-window light.

But the flower leaned aside
And thought of naught to say,
And morning found the winter breeze
A hundred miles away.

Living on Leftovers

for 5 nights now and loving it!

Tomorrow night it will be spaghetti. I make my sauce from scratch. It is so easy, here is the recipe:

Sirloin beef, cut into small cubes. I buy stew meat or use my leftover roast or steaks
one small onion, minced
2 T. Olive oil
1 can organic stewed tomatoes, spiced with basil and oregano if available
2 small cans organic tomato sauce
1 large bay leaf broken into three pieces
oregano to taste ( and I sprinkle the top of my sauce generously several times)
a pinch of sweet basil, crushed in my palm and sprinkled over sauce once
salt and pepper to taste

Saute meat and onion in olive oil in a large sauce pan or deep skillet until brown.
Add remaining ingredients, and stir together. Bring to a small boil.
If the sauce is too "watery" for you, add a small amount of flour over the top, gently spreading it into the sauce to prevent lumps. We like our not so thick.
Reduce heat, cover and simmer 4 hours

This keeps in the fridge for a good while. I sometimes even add to it. The stew meat is different, I know, but it sure gives a nice beef taste to the sauce, better than hamburger.

Hannah Giraffe

Hubby and I love the Appalachians. We try to visit about once a year. This was taken last November. In Jonesboro, Tennessee, the oldest town in that state. We had just finished the most fantastic bowl of home-made chicken noodle soup with corn bread at a nearby cafe. It was a great day. And the colors were breathtaking at that time. Autumn - my favorite season.

Good Gravy

Well, in all the cooking I did last week, I made a crockpot turkey recipe I really enjoy. And then I thought, hmmmm......you cannot have turkey without gravy, so I made some. And it was different but yummy. Here is the whole recipe:

two 3-lb turkey breasts, boneless
2 cups chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup honey
4 strips uncooked bacon, laid over the turkey breasts
1 small onion, sliced
a pinch of sweet basil sprinkled on top

Put all into a large crockpot and cook for 8-10 hours.

When the crockpot has been going for about 7 hours or more, remove the lid long enough to take out about 1 cup broth mixture.
Mix 1 cup milk and about 3/4 cup flour in a shaker until blended.
Add mixture to the broth, stirring in a saucepan until it thickens. You can add/adjust the ingredients as you stir to achieve the thickness you want.

Have you ever had Turkey-Bacon-Honey gravy? Boy, is it good!!!

Addicted already

I think I am really going to like blogging! It has me so excited.

Today was absolutely beautiful outdoors....over 75 and windy but clear and lovely. I took a long walk. We have a nature area near us. It is called Goose Pond. It is a lowland water pond, and attracts a lot of wildlife. As long as I live in Florida, I will never get used to seeing Blue Herons, White Ibis, Otters, huge snapping turtles and giant Hawks just 1/2 block from my home. I am a mid-western girl by heritage. Growing up we had birds, but nothing exotic. We had wildlife, but not Red Foxes eating biscuits in our backyard. We had farm animals, but not alligators sometimes venturing into the neighborhhood. It is a wonderful world and no matter where we live, we need to really look around and give thanks to God.

Going out on the back porch early this morning, the air was full of bird song. And on a branch near me was a Warbler I had never seen before, singing to his (or her) heart's content.

Yesterday I planted pepper plants, and I have tomatoes and snap peas coming up and broccoli still producing. How I wish I had more land to plant! Here in Florida, I feel I have become a fan of winter more than any other season. It is cold, but not too cold. The bugs are less. There is no snow. It is like summer up north, maybe.

Anyway, Jeannie's Place is encountering a new season, and my back porch is a welcome place for a little while, until the heat and bugs chase me inside.

Getting there!

Hope you enjoy the photos! The one of the four of us had to be resized, and I see it worked. Last night it still looked huge and cut in half!

The photo was taken by my hubby. We were south of Daytona Beach at Ponce Inlet. We went to dinner that night and the girls danced with the band, and had a lot of fun.

Abigail, Me, Julia and Hannah

With flowers in our hair (except for Hannah who was having none of that, plus she had hardly any hair!)

Sunday again!

This was a busy week! Last Sunday afternoon, my hubby's father and his lady came to visit us. They live in northern Illinois, so it was a long drive for two folks over 80. It was the first time in 4 years for him and the first time for his lady. My FIL lost his wife of 55 years five years ago, and now he has found a wonderful gal, who went to high school with him. He went to his 60th High School two years ago and met her. Isn't that a great testament to how God will always provide for us? He was so lonely.

Anyway, the weather was clear and beautiful, they got to play golf one day, and I cooked up a storm. Pot roast with potatoes/carrots, pork loin and macaroni and cheese, grilled steaks and french fries, crockpot turkey with sweet potato casserole, spaghetti and salad, all in one week, not to mention lunches and breakfast, and baking a chocolate layer cake. Actually, I loved the time in the kitchen.

My daughter and her family joined us each evening they could, and what a wonderful week of family time!!! Loved it.

I continue to teach myself this blog business, and this afternoon I am going to research the photo tutorial again. When I see the blogs of others, I see I have a long, long way to go. But learning new things is a gift, and I love to learn new things.

Later! :)

Trying to post a photo

Well, it is Sunday evening. Expecting strong storms, but we are cozy in our home knowing that no sleet or snow is on the way. The north of this country is having a winter of record! but not the south. Yesterday, the grandkids and my daughter spent the day with us. We walked in the woods, we junked shopped, we had lunch on the back porch, we scavenged for leaves and beries, went out to eat for dinner, and then the kids got a bath and danced to Lawrence Welk.....their fave show on Saturday night. How strange, and what a throw back - it was my fave in my youth too. So there they are in their jammies, wet hair, and dancng to beat the band - no pun intended. I sat there thinking that life's treasures are small and mighty all at once.

Here I am in blogger world....

A strange and alien place to me! Why am I here? I have never even been good at keeping a diary or journaling; I just like to visit other blogs!

Today is the day after Valentine's Day. I am now the owner of new pearl earrings, and still in love with my hubby. Of 30 years.

I was putting on my make-up on Wednesday night - we were going to see Cedar Lake Dance Company - and my hubby extends a little box with a big bow and the pearls inside. Gotta love it.

So now here I am blogging about it, and the challenge for me here will be learning to post photos, and keep this thing interesting. Like my pearls, I hope my blog will be a surprise each time you open it.