#28 - Friday

The girls had a great time with Nana last night!

We took her to the airport today and I made them all cheese for me once again!

Here was the sunset on the way home.
Isaiah 18:4
"For so the LORD said to me,
“ I will take My rest,
And I will look from My dwelling place
Like clear heat in sunshine,
Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

#27 - Nana and the Girls

Brian's mom came over to spend the night with the girls. The girls introduced her to the wonderful world of Wii! Then we ate some leftover chili :) and played Apples to Apples.

They are watching a movie right now before bed. Tomorrow Nana will be flying to Florida (read: warmer weather) to visit her sister. We're trying to figure out a way to sneak into her luggage! :)

Romans 8:28
"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."

#26 - Snow Go

Here is what our backyard looked like when I got up this morning. Everything was white! I have taken so many snow pictures this winter, but I couldn't resist a few more.

They had predicted we'd get 4-6 inches, but we ended up with around 3.

This bush looked like this when I first noticed it being completely white.
Then as the day went on and the snow kept falling it looked like this:

Poor thing :)

The girls went out for a little while to feed the critters and play with Cody boy.

I usually don't complain too much about winter weather, but I sure can't wait to see this:

Bugs and all!

I wanted to say Happy Birthday my sweet sister-in-law Becky today!!! I am sure being in Texas she just enjoys seeing these snow pics and not being in it firsthand! Love you Becky!

1 Chron. 16:31
“The LORD Reigns.”

#25 - Chilly Chili

It's been a pretty calm Tuesday around these parts. I made myself venture to the grocery and while I was there got the stuff to make a big pot of chili. The forecast is calling for us to get 4-6 inches of snow by tomorrow night. Yay us. :(

At least we'll have some comfort food to keep us full and warm!

Have a blessed night!

Psalm 119:76

"Let, I pray, Your merciful kindness be for my comfort,..."

#22 - Fun Saturday

Fun Saturday if you love to do laundry!

Keeping things real....5 loads later I'm almost caught up!

Brian decided to take the veneer pieces off the doors of the hutch.
It was going to be too hard to fix and to be honest I like it better!

The girlies got to play in the snow for a little while. I looked out once and they were rolling down the little hill in our back yard!

After Sissy left I put the girls to work!


Proverbs 12:14
"From the fruit of their lips people are filled with good things,
and the work of their hands brings them reward."

#20 - Tutorial Ragamuffin Barbie Quilt

We've had a pretty non-eventful day and I couldn't think of anything else to take a picture of, except maybe snow. But I've taken enough pictures of snow!

So, I thought I'd show a "how to" for small quilts. Not that I have any idea what I am doing or anything. Hence, the reason they are quilts for dolls :) The girls and I made these before Christmas and I meant to do a post about them before the new year, but didn't. We had also made another simple Barbie quilt that I did post about HERE.

So here we go!

I got this idea from a larger quilt my very crafty sister made Anna.

It's called a ragamuffin quilt and is pretty easy to make!

Cut 8 squares of material either 5 or 6 inches. It's according how big you want your quilt to be. You can use different colors of course. Then cut quilt batting or thick flannel about 1 inch smaller than your material squares.

Lay the batting/flannel between the squares and then sew an X across from corner to corner.

Make sure your thread matches up with the material.

Here are the four squares all sewn with X's.

Next, your gonna sew it all together! Put whatever side you want on the back together and then sew about a 1/2 inch seam.

It should look like this.

After you sew two of them together, sew those two pieces together.

Like this. Then sew a 1/2 inch seam all the way around it.
Please don't look too closely or you'll see I really have no idea what I was doing....hehe!

The back side.

Here is where the ragamuffin comes into play! Take a pair of snips or scissors and cut the material from that 1/2 inch seam allowance you had. The more you cut the cuter it gets. Just make sure you don't cut too far down into the seam. After you get done snipping, hand or machine wash it and it looks a little ragged. WARNING: There will be lots of thread clippings that you'll just love! Ha!

Closer look.

We made a small pillow too. :)

I made this one with just fleece and cotton material with no batting in between. It turned out pretty cute.

We made this one for a doll Anna got for Christmas. Instead of making the four squares we just sewed around the edges and then lines across the middle to give it a quilted look. Then we snipped the edges all the way around.

We did the same for Holly's doll, Rebecca.

She and her pups really liked it.

Psalm 32:1

"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered."

#18 - Eggcellent!

We have not gotten any eggs from our hens in a long time. :o(

But today, Brian came in after feeding them with 3 beautiful brown eggs in his hands!!!

A few weeks ago he put some golf balls in the nesting boxes to try and trick them into laying......and it worked! You don't know how badly it has pained me to pay $1.75 for a dozen of eggs at the store! And to think about 5 years ago I wouldn't even touch a brown egg. Now I long for them. :)

Our hens are fairly young and they usually don't lay until they are older. It's also hard to get them to lay in the winter months. Last spring we started out with two hens and a rooster. In school we incubated 3 chicks and then one of our hens set more chicks and now we've got a total of 8 hens and 3 roosters.

Anna took today's picture for me and I think she did an eggcellent job! (Sorry...couldn't resist:)

Psalm 8:9

"O LORD, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth!"

#11 - Gone with the Cabin Fever

The girls have been wanting to watch, "Gone with the Wind," and today I finally let them after they got finished with school. It has never been one of my favorites and until a few years ago I had never even watched the entire movie. I don't care much for Scarlett, but I know that she is a lot like most people (me!) deep down, with that selfish sin nature.....ha!

Even though we had gotten out of the house for a little yesterday, cabin fever was beginning to set in! When Brian got home from work we headed to get a BOGO free Blizzard at the DQ! I just love when it snows!

(Side note: This Dairy Queen used to be a Druthers. Remember those?! Oh, what memories!)There was a 25th Year Blizzard Anniversary sign in the window of the DQ and Brian said what is sad is that he remembers when they first came out! I do too! They still flip 'em upside down at ours before they hand them to you. :)

It has taken me about an hour to eat mine, because I've had to wait on the chocolate to melt when I took a bite! It's still a bit hard to chew with those back teeth! :D

Psalm 119:103
"How sweet are Your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!"

#10 - Soup and Wood

Day three of my recovery has been a pretty decent day. The girls and I ventured out this afternoon to take Brian lunch at work and to get some well needed groceries. Since I still can't eat any thing solid, I thought I'd make a creamy veggie soup. I actually found the same recipe that the Dixie Stampede uses. It was easy to make and tasted yummy!

We were running low on wood and hadn't been able to get any cut, so we had someone bring us a load. We're suppose to be getting a few inches of snow by tomorrow night. We got about 3 inches on Friday night, but I was too busy being in "Lala Land" to pay any attention! I am grateful to be on the mend and even though the pain is still there, it is getting better!

1 Corinthians 3:11-13
"For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is."

Snow, Ice, & Lunar Eclipses!

Last week we got some pretty good snow accumulations. For years I complained that our girls would never have any snow to play in, but this year alone will make up for all of those winters we didn't get much snow! Today is the first day of winter and we've already had 2 or 3 measurable snows and a layer of ice!

Holly measured it for me one day when they went to play. It was so cold that I only let them stay about 15 minutes and they were froze by the time they came back in!
Snow angels!


The abominable snowman!

"Okay girls on the count of three jump!"

Haha!

When they came in I had some hot chocolate waiting on them.

Is this really worth only 15 minutes of snow play?!

This might be worth it!

I did venture out to gather some snow for some snow cream! It has been years since I made any and it was pretty good!

We were under a winter storm warning for ice last week and after the previous ice storm we knew to get prepared for the worst! But this time wasn't too bad. There was a small layer of ice that is just now melting, but the electric didn't go off and it wasn't too bitterly cold. And for that I am very thankful!

Our dogwood tree covered in ice.

Brian's Jeep had a nice layer covering it.

We are suppose to get some more snow/ice for this Friday which coincidentally is also CHRISTmas Eve! So maybe we'll have a white CHRISTmas!!!

Also, we didn't get to see the Lunar Eclipse last night because it was too cloudy, but here is a video that Vision Forum had and it's pretty neat to see in case you missed it:

Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Have a very blessed week!