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: