Spring Time Flowers

Spring time is probably my "most favorite" time of year (pardon the bad English). I love watching the buds form and begin to emerge and I love the flowers that begin blooming in mid-February!

We knew when we moved here over a year and a half ago that we were getting a special house with special land! We just didn't realize how special our place was until last spring when we saw all of the daffodils blooming all over the place!

They were in clumps, by themselves, out in the field, in the garden, and in many other places that we had never even dreamed of looking! It's obvious that the previous owners loved the happy spring time flowers!

Amidst the daffodils you will find one or two other spring time flowers. I think that this is a Hyacinth... I think. I don't exactly remember what it looked like last year other than that it was a beautiful purple color! This is the only clump of Hyacinth that we have here. I'm also sorry to say that we don't have any crocus'. We find that very interesting and have plans to plant some bulbs this fall.

There are many different varieties of Daffodils around here. We have the "normal" ones, ones that have yellow petals and white centers, one that have orange centers, miniature daffodils, ones with thin spindly leaves, ones with thick leaves, double daffodils, and I know I'm forgetting some. We literally have daffodils blooming all the way through April!! It's beautiful!!!

I cannot wait to go gather a fistful of these happy flowers for my room!!

We also have these "flowers". They come up in huge clumps and cover a large space of ground. We don't know what they are and since they didn't bloom last spring we are assuming that they bloom every other year!

Here is a close up. Does anyone know what they might be?
Oh I just love spring!!

Somthing New!

I had mentioned several months ago to Trevor that I'd really like to have a shelf over my window so that I could display my "special teacups". Well, he surprised me last Saturday by making me one!! Look......

I love it!! I love it!! I love it!!! It's just perfect!!!! The stack of books on the right are a Gene Stratton Porter (I think) and a L.M. Alcott book that I inherited from my Grandmother several years ago. They are in poor condition but are perfect as display items on my shelf!!! The bottle on the left are the hard to find (for us anyway) purple bottles that my Daddy bought me for Christmas last year!!! The big one says "Herb Juice" on it!!!
I feel like another touch of home has been brought to my room by this simple addition!
Thank you Trevor!! I love it!!

What I Sometimes Find...

There are definite advantages of being the oldest in a family. I get to experience first hand the "antics" and the creative games that the younger ones come up with!!! All but two of my brothers are in the "teenage years" which makes life interesting at times!
Sayre and Sawyer on the other hand are twelve years old and two years old and keep us laughing all the time! Here are a few ideas of what I find in my room at least once a week.....

Where did the child go????
I walked into my room one evening and found Sawyer's clothes laid out on the bed just like he had been laying down and then had his body evaporate! I had to laugh!!!!!

The cat is not related to anything that Sayre and Sawyer come up with. However, I do find her sleeping in my drawers (she climbs in before I can get all of my laundry put away!) or sleeping ON TOP of the things I'm working on!

Normal play for Sayre and Sawyer!
On Monday Momma had to run an errand so the boys and I were left at home! I was busy cleaning the bathroom when I peek out to see what Sawyer is doing and I find Sayre "bundling him up" on my bed! As you can tell, his teddy bears are also included in their play!
Even though there is an age difference of ten years between S&S, they are still good buddies and incredible playmates for each other!

Another thing that I have been finding lately, are at least three of the five boys "crashing" on my bed around nine o'clock in the evening!!! I'm not sure what the draw is, but I can guarantee you that if one of them appears in my room, the others will soon follow!!!
I think I have some really neat and special brothers!

Catching Up

The past two weeks have been full to overflowing! Something is always happening or being accomplished! Here are a few of the "highlights" from our "silent weeks"!

Tristan has been busily working on clearing brush, cutting down trees, and now setting fence posts the past several months! He is working toward getting two cows this spring and is becoming very excited as the time for their "arrival" draws nearer!

Two weekends ago, Sawyer helped Tristan distribute the fence posts around the pasture! They both had a blast! As you can tell, Sawyer LOVES keys!

Jasper and Buck happily watch the proceedings and look for an opportunity to run off! They truly have an ideal dogs life!

Sawyer has figured out that the keys go in the ignition, you turn the wheel to make it go, and you have to move that stick on the floor back and forth as you go. He hasn't gotten it down pat yet, but Tristan's' working with him on it!

The calf is growing by leaps and bounds! It is so much more alert and watches us as we walk past or go into the dog pen. It still doesn't like you to be in its' pen; it will run around if you try to come near it.
You can actually get it to "moo" back at you but you have to make the right "moo" sound which Trevor has seemed to accomplish!! He was "mooing" at it from the car yesterday and it was "mooing" back! He has such talent!

There is a story behind my walk into the garden..... Last spring I decided that I should plant part of our "overpopulation of iris's " around the garage (the iris beds pictured and the walk were not there). As I began to dig I hit rock and brick (not unusual here) but it soon became apparent that I had actually hit a "structure" of some sort. I spent the rest of the day unearthing this walkway which no one knows where it went. So, I integrated it into my garden!

"Buck"

After putting down new pine straw in the garden (which we can rake up from around the place) I decided that I'd go ahead and "mulch" the pansies and put straw down in the garden path (after weeding of course). Buck found the perfect spot to sleep on a warm spring day!

My Bunny collection will be featured throughout my garden this summer! I finally got around to sealing them a week ago and they looked so happy that I just had to share them!

Wednesday night found us running in and out of the house to look at the moon! It was cold out there so we didn't bring out the lawn chairs to watch the eclipse!

I really enjoyed watching the eclipse..... and having the moonlight come through my bedroom window!

Momma got the Little Kitchen all fixed up for "ham man" and for the children that visit us from time to time! Sawyer is sitting in the "refrigerator" and enjoys scaring us as we walk past!

Well, that catches me up on the past several weeks...... now I can start thinking about daily posts!!! Hmmm...... what would YOU all like to hear about?

A Hymn for Sunday

Several months ago I found the hymn "He Leadeth Me" while paging through my hymnbook looking for something to play for church. Since then, it has became one of my favorite hymns to play when I wanted to sit down and play the piano.
One of the reasons I have been drawn to this hymn is beacause I can look back on the past ten or eleven years and can see how the Lord has led and directed my footsteps. Yet, I also see how far I have to go; Verse Three is especially convicting...... "content, whatever lot I see"...... oh how often I complain or groan inwardly about the hard things in life; how often I let my circumstances dictate my responses; how far I have to go..... but, "...by His hand He Leadeth Me".

He leadeth me! O blessed thought!

O words with heav'nly comfort fraught!

What e'er I do, where'er I be,

Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me!

He leadeth me, He leadeth me,

By His own hand He leadeth me:

His faithful foll'wer I would be,

For by His hand He leadeth me.

Sometines 'mid scenes of deepest gloom,

Sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom,

By waters still o'er troubled sea,

Still 'tis His hand that leadeth me!

He leadeth me, He leadeth me,

By His own hand He leadeth me:

His faithful foll'wer I would be,

For by His hand He leadeth me.

Lord, I would clasp Thy hand in mine,

Nor ever murmur nor repine,

Content, whatever lot I see,

Since 'tis Thy hand that leadeth me!

He leadeth me, He leadeth me,

By His own hand He leadeth me:

His faithful foll'wer I would be,

For by His hand He leadeth me.

And when my task on earth is done,

When, by Thy grace, the vict'ry's won,

E'en death's cold wave I will not flee,

Since God thru Jordan leadeth me!

He leadeth me, He leadeth me,

By His own hand He leadeth me:

His faithful foll'wer I would be,

For by His hand He leadeth me.

Words: Joseph H. Gilmore 1834-1918
Music:William Bradbury 1816-1868

Up and Running Once Again!

Friends~It is with great joy that I am once again doing a blog post from the comfort of my home! What a delight! Our "vacationing computer" is no longer able to serve us and has/is going to be put to rest in computer fashion (whatever that may be). My dear Daddy bravely faced rush hour traffic on Friday night, to run over to Woodruff Road (which is NOT the place to be on a rainy day in rush hour traffic) and pick out a new computer for our family. We all are already enjoying the fruits of his bravery to the fullest extent.

It might be a day or so before pictures appear back up on the blog. I have to re-load the software hoping all the while that I don't have the same problem with it this time around! I've probably taken around one hundred pictures during the past two weeks including some from the eclipse on Wednesday night!! Was the moon red where y'all were? Here, the moon only had a tint of red but it was still really neat!!

Well, I must be off. I'm so glad tomorrow is Sunday.... I really need a Day Of Rest.

Good Night!

A Quick Update

Dear Friends,

I am sure that most of you have noticed my lack of blog posts this past week or so and an explanation is in order! Well, a week ago our computer decided that it was time for it to "take a self proclaimed vacation" and decided to go visit the computer doctor for an extended period of time. Right now it looks like the earliest that it might be coming home will be early NEXT week. So, in the meantime we are getting all of the little things accomplished that had been piling up on our lists!
I feel awful about not keeping my blog up-to-date but there is nothing I can do about it.
I must be running along, I'm at the library and the computer time is limited here. I just can't wait to get back to blogging!!!! Did you know I've been working in my garden????!!! That means things are coming up and the daffodils are blooming!!!!! YAY!

A Completed Project!

This has been an abmormal week for me. It's been chock full of places to go, piano lessons to give, houses to clean, a horn lesson to attend, two hours of travel time done twice this week, and the list could go on and on!
I've still found time to blog (amazingly!) somehow and I worked on a "fix-it-up" project!

Remember This?
My dear mother gave up "ownership" of this poor neglected sign and transferred it to my "tender loving care"!

The Finished Project!
I was able to paint it all in one day (I dislike it greatly when projects drag on and on) and am fairly happy with how it turned out! My handwriting is not the best so "writing" with a paint brush was a challenge. But, at least you can read it!
I just love the barbed wire hanger! I think I'll make one for my Mamma now!

Among other things going on here... We have company!

Tristan and Collin have been helping a neighbor feed his cattle every evening for about a month now. They have gotten some real hands on experiance with giving cows shots, feeding them, and in general learning how to care for them.
The boys brought this little girl home Wednesday night. Her Mamma had become sick and as a result it had to be put down. The boys are "bottle feeding" her and doing all sorts of things to get her to eat.

She's only a little bigger than Lila (pictured) who weighs about fifty-five pounds. Collin let Lila in with the calf this morning and I think Lila would've mothered her if she, Lila, hadn't been so excited about being out of her pen!
Sawyer likes the "baby cow" and talks about her whenever he sees Collin!

For Rainy Days...

One of the ongoing projects that I have is building my own recipe book. I've been collecting the recipe's of foods that are a HUGE hit with my family (or that I think are just incredibly good)for several years now, and I finally began to file them sometime last fall.

I really don't have that many recipe's but yet I have enough to need to do something with them!

A Page Out of My Recipe Book
My recipe book is based on my Momma's. She has a four inch think three ring binder that is just chock full of good stuff along with another binder filled with all the "sweet stuff" and "party" ideas!

My All Time Favorite Recipe Cards
I have three different styles of recipe cards (gooseberry patch, lined note cards, and some random recipe cards) but the ones pictured above are my favorite!!! You can find them HERE . They came from Small Meadows Press which is a Home Business that makes and sells stationary and all kinds of good stuff!!! You really need to go take a peek at the website!!! When I get some free cash, I'm going to purchase the Jane Austen Missives which is in essence note paper. I'm always needing to write a note to someone these days!!
I just loooooove the website!!!

Gluing the Recipe Cards to the Paper
I glue the recipes to the "notebook paper" and then stick them under a think stack of heavy books to make sure they are really glued down. I've found that the heavier recipe card will cause the notebook paper to curl up; setting books on top of them causes it all to lay flat.

Other Good Stuff....
My recipe book is not just for recipe's!! I've also collected several interesting articals, thoughts, and ideas/inspirations that are just sitting in a drawer, so why not just include them in my book???

Inspiration

This project gets worked on in spurts and is perfect for those rainy cold days or when I'm not feeling well! One always has plenty of recipes to cull through in our family!!!

It's the Simple Things....

I'm finding that I am enjoying the simple things in life more and more......Things like.....

Watching Sawyer climb all over the fresh cut logs as he explores and works on his balance skills! He laughs in delight each time he makes it over one!

Putting my arbor up on the spur of the moment. Trevor and Sayre were so kind to just say "hey, lets do it now!" when all I had in mind was looking to see if it needed a concrete base!

Momma's decorating. Old Clothespins on an old sink! Very nice!
Finding and examining a birdhouse while on a walk.
It reads.... "Homes for BlueBirds. Bailey N.C."

Watching Sayre keep Sawyer occupied and out of trouble while "the ladies" are cooking! Sayre plays with him in such a way that keeps us all laughing at their antics! Ni-Ni is Sawyer game of choice......

Finding an old sign that needs some paint help.
It reads... "Weeds For Sale.... You Pick"
Yes, I'm going to paint it!

And lastly, the first flower of spring was found yesterday afternoon! Thus begins our beautiful Daffodil season!!!

A Hymn For Sunday

I've had the Hymn "Farther Along" running through my head constantly the past several days and thought that it would be a good time to do a post on "A Hymn For Sunday".
I would've loved to been around in the "old days" when this was sung in the "country churches"! It gives me the shivers just thinking about it!

Tempted and tried, we’re oft made to wonder
Why it should be thus all the day long;
While there are others living about us,
Never molested, though in the wrong.

Farther along we’ll know more about it, Farther along we’ll understand why;
Cheer up, my brother, live in the sunshine, We’ll understand it all by and by.

“Faithful till death,” saith our loving Master;
Short is our time to labor and wait;
Then will our toiling seem to be nothing,
When we shall pass the heavenly gate.

Farther along we'll know more about it, Father along we'll understand why:
Cheer up, my brother, live in the sunshine, We'll understand it all by and by.

Soon we will see our dear, loving Savior,
Hear the last trumpet sound through the sky;
Then we will meet those gone on before us,
Then we shall know and understand why.

Farther along we'll know more about it, Farther along we'll understand why:
Cheer up, my brother, live in the sunshine, We'll understand it all by and by.

Author/Composer Unknown
Arranged by Barney E. Warren
Published in 1911