The weather has turned cold here, at least for a couple of days. When it gets cold we love to turn on our fake wood stove. This wood stove looks just like a real one. It has the fake fire you can turn on to watch the fire burning. It also has a heater on it so we can warm up the living room. We also have a fake fireplace to set the stove into. This is my favorite part of the house. I just wish it was a real stove and fireplace - maybe one day we will have the real thing. But for now this will have to do.
Here is a picture of our fake fireplace and wood stove.
I hope you have a wonderful day.
Karen
It has been foggy here for about 5 days and finally the fog has went away and is now getting cold. I am so thankful. My laundry pile was so huge and I like to hang the clothes out on the line instead of drying them in the dryer, to save money. But with the fog I haven't been able to do laundry. So when the weather man said the fog will clear out and get colder and windy here I said it is a perfect day to catch up on the laundry. I do not like doing laundry on Sunday but I felt like I had no choice, since we were running out of clean clothes.
We are also looking forward to having some colder weather for a couple of days. We have been wearing shorts the last several days. I know it is hard to believe. I want the weather to be cold in December especially at Christmas time, but it doesn't look like I will be seeing that this year.
Have a wonderful day.
Karen
One of my dearest friends who lost everything in hurricane Katrina, moved into there new house a couple of months ago. I have been meaning to make her a quilted throw for her couch. I had all the fabric and everything I needed, but I just haven't made the time. Well I just completed it. The whole time she was building the house her verse was Ephesians 3:20 and she wanted that verse to be somewhere in her house. So on this quilt is her verse. I am so excited, I can't wait to give it to her. Here is a picture of it.
Have a wonderful day.
Karen
Last night we made homemade Christmas cards. I thought this would be a really fun family project. We have never done this before, but I think everything went really well. Everyone had a lot of fun doing it. I had a certain amount that we were going to give out, but everyone was having so much fun I decided to make a few more.
Here is a sampling of our cards.
We even came up with our own message for the inside that we printed off on our computer. We got Greeting cards and envelopes at Wal-Mart in the craft department, so it was easier than I thought to make these cards.
Have a wonderful day.
Karen
Last night I made some meatballs. When I make meatballs I usually make several pounds at time. I make my meatballs with the same recipe as meatloaf and then make little balls to fry on the stove. Last night I decided to bake them in the oven. So after making all my little meatballs, they went into several pans with some space in between so they weren't touching. Then I added some water to the pans so they wouldn't stick to the bottom of the pans. (My mother in law taught me to put some water in the bottom of the pan when your making meatloaf so it won't get all hard on the bottom.) I baked them at 350 for a little bit till they were done. I was really impressed with how they turned out and I will be making them this way again. It was a lot easier than frying them on the stove and it took less time.
Have a wonderful day.
Karen
We had a wonderful thanksgiving. It has been a long couple of days. I have done a lot of baking and trying new recipes. It started on Tuesday, when I had to make some pumpkin bread and tried a new recipe for cream corn casserole. Then on Wednesday, I had a busy baking day. I had to make 2 cheesecakes, 4 pumpkin pies, and I made homemade cinnamon rolls. The cinnamon rolls was an adventure. I have never made them before and I had a recipe for some. It took a lot longer than I was expecting and it made a lot more than I was expecting. But everyone loved the rolls and everyone wants them again sometime. So next time I will know what to expect. Today I had to get the turkey in the oven and everything else ready for our meal. The one thing I am really proud of that I made today was the red cabbage. We absolutely love the red cabbage that you buy in a jar down the vegetable isle. These jars are not the easiest things to find and they are a little bit more than what I want to pay for it, so we usually don't have this that often. I got this bright idea to try to make it at home. I found a recipe on the Internet and than bought what we needed. So today I set about to making it. It was very simple and it made 4 times as much as the jar, and it tasted pretty similar. So that is a keeper at our house also. While we were at the store, my darling husband saw some sweet potatoes and wanted homemade sweet potatoes with the brown sugar and marshmallows for Thanksgiving. I have never made these either so we had to make these also today. As you can tell I'm not that experienced in the homemade cooking department, but I am learning.
I hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Karen
I have most of our Thanksgiving menu planned. We will be starting the day off with Cinnamon rolls- I am going to try to make these this year instead of buying the cans at the store. Our Thanksgiving meal will be turkey with stuffing, green beans, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy and cranberry sauce. I will be making fresh bread also. For dessert we will have pumpkin pie and cheesecake.
This year I wanted to try and make more of the things we have. Like pie crusts, cinnamon rolls, and gravy. I was thinking about making homemade stuffing, but my family said no. They like Stove Top way too much.
Also I wanted to share how we make our turkey. We buy those Reynolds oven bags and cook our turkey in that. It turns out really good.
Have a wonderful day.
Karen
Yesterday we finally had our yard sale that we have been putting off. We said if we were going to have one this year we needed to do it. So we decided to have our yard sale yesterday. We have been collecting things for months and piling them in a corner. Down here where we live the weather is quite nice that you can have yard sales all year long. Yesterday started out a little chilly, but warmed up nicely. We were able to get rid of some stuff. We only sold $45 worth of stuff, but we said Praise the Lord, that's $45 more dollars than what we had. When the sale was over we packed everything up and separated it into several piles. One for a friend of ours grand baby, one for the thrift store and one for the Consignment shop that I put stuff into. We loaded up the thrift store stuff ( about 6 bags full) and carted them off to the donation bin. It is such a good feeling to get rid of stuff. Now we will be going through more stuff and collecting for another yard sale in a few months.
Have a wonderful day,
Karen
It was finally cold enough to put my Log Cabin Quilt on our bed last night. This quilt is really special to my husband and I. A few years ago I decided to try to make a quilt since I had never done one before. I was so excited. I started this quilt and was progressing along with it, when my husband got activated and was deploying. (He was in the reserves.) When we got the call, he was scheduled to leave in less than 3 days. So my quilt got put on hold while we got prepared for him to leave. He was gone for several months and I decided I needed to finish this quilt before he got back. I was able to finish it. This quilt has our favorite colors in it blue and purple. So this quilt has a lot of memories attached to it and is very special. Every year we look forward to the cold weather so we can put this quilt on our bed.
Have a wonderful day.
Karen
My two oldest kids have been involved in our homeschool groups play, Dr. Newheart's Neck-Up Check-Up. They have been practicing for about 9 weeks and they finally put on the play this past Friday and Saturday. It was a wonderful play and we really enjoyed it as well as they did. Our oldest played the role of Tom the Trainer. He was an animal trainer that had a problem with his tongue and what he said. He needed to learn that he had to tame his tongue. Our other child was in the choir singing songs. They both really enjoyed it. Here is a couple of pictures.
Daniel as Tom the Trainer
Katelyn and Daniel in their play outfits.
Have a wonderful day.
Karen
This week has been a trying week My car "Hank the Tank" as we call it, lost the brakes again ( 2nd time in 3 months). So I am without a car again. This would not have been a problem if it wasn't for the fact that my two oldest kids were in a homeschool group play. This week we had 2 dress rehearsals and regular play practice and 2 performances of the play. All of this and I had no way to get them there since it was taking place on days my husband worked and he needed the other car. I had to ask 2 families to pick us up on the way to get there. I hated to ask these families to go out of the way to pick us up, but I had to get the kids to the play. So after several days of getting rides, We felt like we were imposing and felt we shouldn't ask for a ride to get to church this morning ( Hubby was working today), but someone asked if we needed a ride and we said we did. So they drove 15 minutes out of there way to pick us up and then go to church. I was so thankful. So when they dropped us off at home they asked us if we needed another ride to get back tonight. So they are coming back out of there way to get us again. I am so thankful, God knew the need and has provided.
Here is a picture of my car "Hank the Tank" it is a full size station wagon. ( a 1987 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser) This car was given to us by my sister and her husband and was a blessing. I have grown to love my car, hopefully we get it fixed soon. Isn't he a beauty? I think so, but I am partial.
We are truly blessed,
Karen
For several years now I have bought gifts throughout the year for my families birthday and Christmas gifts and I put them in a certain closet. This has been a lifesaver on our budget since we spread out the gift buying over a year. I try to pick up things that the kids will be needing or would want when they are on sale or clearance. Every once in a while I find some nice things for adults as well and put them in the closet just in case I need an adult gift. This has saved me a trip to the store many times when hubby needed a gift for someone at work. It is about that time to go through everything and see what else I need to fill in the gaps with the kids to make sure everything is even.
Enjoy your day.
Karen
This is just a different idea. This year for Christmas we are going to be giving gift cards to several people. Certain family members will be getting a gift card this year. Like my mom, she has everything she needs or could want and she lives by herself . She likes to go eat out at Wendy's every so often so we will be getting a Wendy's gift card for her. Another family member will be getting a gift card from Wal- Mart so she can go pick out what she wants. This is practical for us also since we live away from our family, it cuts down on shipping costs. This is the first year we will do this for Christmas, but we have done this for Mother's Day and Father's Day. We traditionally give my mother a Wendy's gift card. My husbands mom and dad get Burger King gift cards and my husbands dad he gets a McDonald's gift card. As you can see each person has there own particular place they like to eat at. I first got this idea because I hated buying something or making something for the sake of buying something. I thought to myself, you know our parents have a lot of stuff and why are we adding to the stuff, why not give them something they will enjoy. All our parents already ate at these restaurants fairly often. So why not treat them a couple of times to there treat. Like my husbands mom and dad would eat at Burger King once a week when they went to town on there weekly trip. My husbands dad also loves to go down to the local McDonald's for coffee so he got a McDonald's card so he can go get his coffee. My mom finds it easier to go get some chili at Wendy's for 99 cents rather than make chili for 1 person. I don't know how much we will be giving for our Christmas gift cards yet, but for our Mother's and Father's day gift cards we usually put $10 on them and that gets each person a trip to there favorite place 2-3 times on us, depending on what they order. Our parents really appreciate this type of gift.
Karen
Happy Veterans Day to all who have served or are serving our Country. Thank you for all you have sacrificed for our country. A big Thank you goes out for the families of these Veterans. Without these families holding up the fort while there spouse is gone, our brave men and women could never do the job they have to do. Thank you to all our military families, especially on Veterans Day.
Karen
Well I have been gone for some time now. I am healing well from my surgery. I went to the Doctor yesterday and he said I am doing good. I can do most everything now except for lifting heavy things for about a week and a half. I am thankful that I am able to do things again. It was great to get a break, but I am itching to get things going again. I feel I am finally able to do things and my strength is steadily increasing, which I am grateful for.
Have a wonderful day.
Karen
Sorry, I have been absent from my blog for a little bit. I had surgery (a hysterectomy) on October 17th. and spent 3 days in the hospital. Then I have been recuperating at home, moving very slowly. I have been doing very well from what people have told me. They are really surprised at how well I am doing.
We have had a wonderful blessing from our church. They have been bringing over meals for our family. This has been such a blessing. We have really appreciated the kindness that they have showed.
I got to run and get some rest again.
Karen
Yesterday our homeschool group went on a field trip to a corn maze. What a wonderful time we had. We only wish dad could have went with us. We had done corn mazes before and have really enjoyed them. Our littlest one was really excited about the hay ride to the pumpkin patch. I must admit I did give in and let him pick out a little pumpkin for $2.00, but the frugal person in me had him pick out the largest $2.00 pumpkin we could. Later we went on the hayride with some friends and my older two kids and I let them pick out a $2.00 pumpkin. Now we will let dad decorate them with the kids.I can't wait till we can do another corn maze with dad.
Karen
I had a wonderful opportunity this past week to look threw a bunch of books that our local library was giving away to homeschoolers. This was such a blessing to us. We were able to find a bunch of books for all the kids. Some books on space for our oldest, some girl books ( Barbie, Amelia Badilla etc.) for our girl, and a bunch of Arthur books and Berenstain bears books for our youngest. We are so thankful for these books.
We had the opportunity to go to the zoo a few days ago and luckily the rain held off until we were out of the zoo. We usually go to the zoo 2 times a year so when we got information about becoming a member in the mail and checked out the price, we realized we could go all year long for the same price that it would cost of going twice. So we got the year membership for the zoo and it also included the aquarium. It has been years since we went to the aquarium because the price was just to much for us all to go. So what a blessing this membership has been. So now we can take a little over an hour trip to the zoo or aquarium and all it will cost us is our gas.
Counting my blessings,
Karen
For the last several years we have had a huge antique car show come to our area. This week is a family favorite of ours. There is lots of old cars driving around the area. There is special events and lots of chances to get out and look at the old cars. I always laugh at the way people will sit on the sides of one of our major roadways in there lawn chairs for hours just watching the cars drive by. Some of them even have number cars to show the old cars if they like the cars. Most of the cards are a 10 that they hold up.
One of our favorite events is the kick off parade and a party on the beach,which was last night. We love to go to this parade and watch all the old cars. The cars line up one after each other and drive from the starting point to the beach where the party is. There is so many cars that the parade lasts about 1 1/2 hours. We see all sorts of old cars, and some of the cars throw out candy and Mardi Gras beads for the kids. This is a great family event.
This week we will be going to some of the places where the car owners park the cars and you can look at all the cars. We will probably go later this week during the day to look and listen to some 50's music.
Here is some pictures of the parade. My oldest son took the pictures so there is only pictures of Mustangs. Can you guess what type of car he likes?
Hope you have a great day.
Karen
I have a question for my fellow bloggers. I was wanting to make some extra money and I am looking for ideas on how to make money at home. I was going to go out and work and I even put in some applications but I haven't gotten any response yet.( It has been over a month now) I think it is because I was wanting to work opposite my husbands rotating 12 hour shifts. I was going to put more applications in but I am going to have surgery and I will be at home recuperating for 6 weeks, so there went that idea. I am looking for something to at home to make some extra money. If any one has any ideas please let me know.
I do know how to sew as long as it is not difficult. I have done crafts in the past, but haven't had any luck selling them. I do sell some stuff on eBay and in a consignment shop that I want to get rid of out of the house. But that doesn't amount to much.
Thank you for any advice that you could give,
Karen