Project 365 ~ Week 11: I can’t believe it has been three years…

Monday, March 12

I bought on of these on Monday. I am still learning about all the features this has. However It has gone off several times this week. I can tell you that when it does go off it will defiantly get your attention. Especially if you are not prepared for a shrill blast to go off. Talk about jumping out of your skin. I think there may be a way to make it not be so loud but then doesn't thank kind of defeat the purpose.

 

As well as being prepared for the next wave of sever weather to come through I am stocked up on birthday cake supplies. Seeing as there is a birthday cake in my future later in the week this is a good thing.

Tuesday, March 13

Muffinhead woke up to thunder and heavy rain. We had to go watch for a few minute at the window to assure ourselves that everything was ok and the rain was going to stay outside.

Grandma: “Good morning sleepyhead.”

Muffinhead hears the thunder: “It’s raining in my bedroom.”

Grandma: “No! It’s raining outside!”

Thursday, March 15

Experimenting with rolled fondant. Muffinhead’s mom and I were contemplating using some rolled fondant on the birthday cake. I found some all ready prepared fondant at wal-mart the other day so I bought two boxes. It was a smidge expensive, but I figure you only turn three once, right!

Well we were less than impressed with how it tasted and were weighing the decision of using it on the cake. I decide that rather than cover the entire cake with something that did not taste very good that I might make some of the smaller decorations out of it. I have never worked with fondant before. It is sort of the constancy of play dough. It worked well for rolling out and cutting out some of the decorations.

Friday, March 16

Let the decorating begin……….

 

All we need now is a knife and some paper plates!

The cake looks good…the kitchen not so much!

11-25-2011

Y’all may remember when I did some pantry organizing in the fall of last year. I have been enjoying having my jam’s and things with in arms reach in my kitchen.

The DD and I made a run to get our hair cut on Friday afternoon. When I returned home and walked into my kitchen this is what I found!

The only thing I can surmise is the the glass was not thick enough for the weight of all the jars. One of my husbands co-workers sent home several jars of tomatoes he had canned as well as a big jar of peaches and some tomato sauce. I think the addition of the extra weight was just to much for the glass shelving. The majority of the jars fell behind the shelf unit and landed in a heap between the bottom of the shelf and the baseboards. The rest of them rolled to various places all over the kitchen.

The miracle in all of this was that I have one of my grandmother crystal platters on the shelf directly below and thankfully it was not broken.

  

There was glass all over the kitchen floor and it had even traveled as far as the sun room. Since Friday afternoon I have mopped the floor about six time and I am still finding sticky spots. The second good thing is that with all the glass jars that were on the shelf (about half as many as were in the first picture) the peaches were the only thing to get broken, aside from the shelf that is.

Saturday, March 17It was Muffinhead’s birthday today!

I saw this Tinkerbelle costume and just could not resist. She hit the ground running or flying I should say and had a wonderful time.

One….                                                  Two

 

Three…

 

Well that was my week. Messy kitchen and birthdays.

For more P365 y’all head over to Sara’s and link up.

Blessings

R

My House is Quiet

The sun has just come up, the birds are enjoying themselves with a racket of chirping and calling back and forth, the dog is curled up next to me and the grandbaby is still fast asleep….for now anyway.

I have begun to wonder if there may be some biological connection between waning hormones and brain function. Last night I was trying to describe how I felt to the ladies in my accountability group. They were listening and had the automatic head bobbing in the affirmative as they either remembered  similar feelings or were experiencing them as well. I felt mildly comforted knowing that this “OFF” feeling is not unique, however it did little in actually making me feel better.

Attempting to describe the feelings………it’s like being surrounded by a thick fog that is charged with a negative emotions. The internal dialogue within my head is extremely loud. The things I’m thinking y’all……it is a constant ongoing opportunity for repentance and then asking for forgiveness. Throw in the mix a almost 17 year old who can’t seem to focus on anything that is not a small electronic device, grooming device, accessories or basically revolving around her add to the internal dialog in a big way.

I have much to do today, however all I really want to do is just cocoon myself away from everyone and wait…..

Well  a little blond curly headed ray of sunshine just woke up and is now cuddle up next to me on the sofa asking to play triangles…..gotta go y’all

 

Blessings

R

coming or staying: a conversation with the DD

I walked into the DD room, she is sitting on the bed listening to her/my IPod, but that is a whole other story that I will delve into at a later date!

“I am heading out are you coming or staying?” The kids have a day off from school today due to a teacher furlough day.

“I’ll stay here.” the DD says.

“Are you sure, you could be my chauffer. You need the driving time. Plus I thought you wanted to get an application at the new pizza place?”

“Can’t you just pick one up for me?”

“It would be better if you did it in person!”

“Where are you going? I don't want to be gone all day!!!”

“Well I need to go to Wal-Mart, stop by Home Depot, maybe go to the ATT store and look at new phones, get the emissions done on the car and a few other things…”

She hops off the bed, “OK I”ll go, it will take me a few minutes to get ready though!”

The deciding factor….she really wants a new phone!

I may just leave that one off till the very last just for fun y’all!

My bad!

 

Blessings

R

Project 365 ~ Week 10…it was 50/50!

I only pictures of three days this week.

Muffinhead has been wearing me out in the mornings y'all! Now that the DS is working more consistently she is back almost every day. It has taken us a few days to get back into the swing of things. We are having a great time in our mornings together, but this old girl is tired at the end of the week. Tired but really happy that I am getting some good one on one time with that sweet grandbaby!

I had a few pictures of her this week but they were all a bit blurry or of the back of her head, she is a busy girl y’all. Sitting still is not a priority for her these days!

Well here's my week, or at least half of my week anyway!

Tuesday, March 6

Are y’all as tired of this election year as I am?

My spirit is so troubled for the state of this country. Each week in my small group we lift up the country and the political leaders. This is difficult due to my strong feelings about our elected officials. We continue to pray for guidance, for God’s hand of intervention, for clarity, you name it we pray for it!

One person one vote…….well I claimed my right this afternoon!

Voting was the first important thing I did on Super Tuesday.

After I voted I made a grocery run.

We were out of practically everything. The next important thing happened when I saw these on sale!

Brach’s Jelly Beans, aside for Jelly Belly’s Brach’s are my favorite. The can be extremely difficult to find. I snatched up several bags. In hindsight I probably should have resisted the urge since I have had little luck practicing restraint. They are a major weakness where my sweet tooth is concerned!

Thursday, March 8

The had several things on sale in the meat department on Tuesday. I got a whole ham for $9.00, it was originally prices @ $24.00 but they had it “reduced for quick sale”, my four favorite words.

I was experimenting with a crock pot recipe, I figure that if it did not work then I would rather waste $9.00 rather than $24.00. My only problem was that the ham did not fit. There was no way to cut it down as the bone ran all the way through the entire length of the ham.

What do you think of my solution? A layer of heavy duty aluminum foil and my large pasta bowl and it worked great!

It was a simple enough recipe. It called for 1 1/2 cups brown sugar. You layered some on the bottom of the crock pot. Place the ham in flat side down, then rub the remaining brown sugar on the outside of the ham. Cook on low for 6 hours.

It was not the most attractive ham I have ever fixed but it sure was good.

When I removed the foil there was a good bit of liquid, ham juice as well as fat. I am not sure if this was due to the fact that it did not have a vent or if this was the way it was supposed to be. I poured about three cups of the liquid in my fat skimmer, poured off the ham juice and transferred it to my small sauté pan. I reduced it down by about half. I found a can of apricots in the back of the pantry and popped them open. I drained them and poured the juice into the reduction and then reduced it down by about half again. I gave the apricots a rough chop and then right before serving I added the diced fruit to the sauce. It was super yummy drizzled over the ham. I was good over the baked sweet potatoes I served with the ham too!

Saturday, March 10

Saturday was such a gorgeous day I grabbed my garden gloves and my pitch fork and spent a few hours in the back yard pulling weeds, pruning trees, clearing out the dried up foliage from my flower beds, generally getting things ready for the spring plantings.

As I was clearing away the massive accumulation of weeds that had invaded my raised bed I noticed this small little sprouting of lambs ear poking it’s leafy little head out.

How it got from all the way over there on the far left side of the garden to my raise bed is a mystery. It’s probably about 40 feet from where it planted to where the seedling sprouted up! I think I may leave it there for the time being and then transplant it in the fall to a better location.

It was so good to get out in the backyard on Saturday. I am ready for the warm weather to get here.

Well that was my week!

For more P365 y’all head over to Sara’s and link up!

Next week will be Muffinhead’s third birthday. Can y’all believe it! Me neither!

Three Years!

My how time flies when your having fun!

Blessings

R

A little then and now…..a year in my back yard!

A lot has changed in my back yard from when we first moved in. We took up residence in May of 2006. It was also in the midst of one of the worst droughts we have experience. There was such extreme water restrictions that the option for doing any work in the back yard seemed nearly impossible. It was not until the fall of 2009 that water restriction were lifted and beginning to renovate our barren back yard seemed even possible.

This is what the backyard looked like on September 28, 2009…..

 

I thought that it might be an interesting idea to try and take a picture of the transition from one season to the next so scroll thought and take a small trip.

March 1, 2011

 

March 14, 2011

March 25

April 1

April 22

May 2

May 20

May 27

June 6

July 1

August 18, 2011

September 10, 2011

October 28, 2011

December 26, 2011

March 3,2012

Well that was a year in my backyard!

As you can see from this last picture that weeding needs to be done already and it’s only March 3rd! A gardeners work is never done!

I have moved a good deal of things around and expanded it to go all around the perimeter of the back yard so I am very eager to see how the new additions will effect the landscape this spring and summer.

Blessings

R

Project 365 ~ Week 9: Blocking, Pancakes, Blossoms and some Nasty Weather…

Hey There! I missed a few days this week.

We have had some weird up and down weather this week. Lots of rain, some sever weather warnings. It went for begin cold and then hot. March in the south……yea!

Monday, February 27

I finished a knitted prayer shawl this week. I found that the instructions for finishing off this piece ended up with a border that curled up significantly. Having never blocked a knitted piece before I had to Google the instructions. It sounds rather complicated but in reality it is nothing more involved than pinning down the area you want to flatten out and spraying it down with water and letting it dry.

Thank goodness for my dinning room table. That was a perfect place to lay it out flat and let it dry.

Tuesday, February 28

In honor of National Pancake Day…what else for dinner but pancakes! I think my favorite thing for dinner is still breakfast!

Wednesday, February 29

Here is a picture of the end result. I was a bit disappointed in the success of the blocking. I feel certain that when this piece gets washed the edge will curl right back up again. I did like the pattern, it was a bit difficult to get the hang of but once I got it figured out it turned out to be a nice stitch. I love the eyelet open weave look!

 

Friday, March 2

Well I guess spring is coming early this year like it or not. The mystery tree in our front yard is in bloom. I keep forgetting exactly what kind of tree this is. It does have very pretty blooms on it though.

 

Saturday, March 3

There was a line of severe weather that came though our area last night. We got a little bit of rain y’all. Thankfully that was the extent of what we experienced. However there were some in my home state that were not so lucky.

Well that was my week y’all! I hope you all had a great week and were safe, dry and experiencing blue skies. For those who may have suffered the extreme weather know that there art lots of praying people out there. Praying for comfort, safety, protection and endurance for the approaching season of turbulent weather that comes with the arrival of spring.

On my list for the week, get a severe weather alert radio!

For more P365 y’all head over to Sara’s and link up!

Blessings

R

Pet Peeve….Am I the only one? Gas Station etiquette…is there such a thing any more?

I was on my way home from church this morning.

My tank was dead on empty.

I pull into the Quick Trip to get some gas.

I circle round once, circle around a second time, still not a free pump. I finally pulled to the side and waited for several minutes. What I noticed was that almost everyone who was pumping their gas just left there car and leisurely walked into the store to get additional purchases.

Is it only me or have the rules of common courtesy changed.

I sat in my car and waited for several minutes for a pump to free up. I was amazed at how many people simply without a thought to those waiting to pull into a spot just left their cars in front of the pump and went into the store.

Am I placing my expectations to high?

Is it an unwritten rule that only apples to me?

Secondly, am I the only person who understands that if you pull into a gas station and there are two pumps and you are the only car there you need to pull up to the furthers pump so that someone can pull up behind you and you will not block the pump.

After watching almost every single person simply walk away from their car after pumping their gas and not even bother to notice that there were other folks waiting to get gas. I was floored by how thoughtless and unobservant most of the patrons were.

Lord forgive me for this rant about one of my pet peeves, but it just flies all over me when I see people who are so wrapped up in their own little world that they fail to recognize other people or even consider that there are other people who their actions impact.

Am I the only one who understand the rules?

and I spent $75.00 to fill up my tank….

Blessings

R

Project 365 ~ Week 8: Early Blooms, Sleeping Beauty, A Leak, Barbie Fun and a Bag of Lemons…

Monday, February 20

Well I am not sure what to think! I do not ever recall having blooms this early in the year. My fear is that in typical southern fashion we will get a very nasty turn to the frigid winter temperatures and all the new spring blooms will be ruined. The cherry tree in the back yard is in full bloom and all the daffodils are up and the thrift is blooming and the red bud trees have been blooming for days.

Tuesday, February 21

Well things for my son have picked back up and the jobs are rolling in. Mommy drops off Muffinhead very early and she tuck her in the spare room and she falls fast asleep for several more hours. I went in to wake her and found her sprawled out with such a sweet look on her face. Is there anything better than a sleeping little one?

 

I noticed a small puddle in the garage at the beginning of the week. Well when I went out in the garage this afternoon the small puddle had turned into a very large puddle. After moving some things around and opening the doors to the utility closet where the water heart is I found the problem. There was about 1/2 an inch of standing water on the floor that was seeping out into the garage. There was also a very consistent stream of water dripping at an alarming rate from the bottom of the water heart. Thankfully I have a very dear friend who is just as handy in the home repair as the hubs. I made an emergency call to him and with in the hour he had come to my rescue and determined the problem was possibly a faulty valve. He wrangled the broken valve out and replace it and ….my problem was solved.

 

The Hubs has been traveling for business consistently for about five years now, this is the very first time that I have ever had an issue that I needed to address immediately. The good thing about being in the midst of the body of believers is they understand the need to help when there is a call for help. I knew just who to call and I called with assurance that the issue would get taken care of…God is Good!

Wednesday, February 22

We attended the Ash Wednesday service at church.

Thursday, February 23

I had this thought that there might be some dress up cloths in a storage bin in the back closet. Well I went in search of said dress up cloths only to find that they have either been sold at a yard sale or donated to Goodwill. However I think I found the next best thing.

Barbie and Mufinhead are now best friends.

Friday, February 24

The DD and I went to the grocery story on Friday evening.The Hubs is coming home on Saturday and we have a lot of housework to get done not to mention a panty that needed some attention. So the evening grocery run helped to get one chore out of the way so our Saturday morning will be free to get the house ready for the hubs return Saturday evening.

For years I have been watching the Food Network and listening to all the chefs talk about Meyer Lemons. Meyer lemons this, Meyer Lemons that….Have you ever seen them in the store? Me neither, that is until Friday night. Hopefully they will start to become a bit more main stream. I am eager to give them a try. The first order of business is maybe a cocktail or maybe a refreshing glass of homemade lemonade or maybe a lemon meringue pie…..I’ll let you know what I think of them.

Well that was my week, for more P365 y’all head over to Sara’s and link up!

Blessings

R

PS: The Hub’s is home safely from Germany and sleeping off the jet lag…….:)

All is well!