Daily Comings and Goings

Things have been busy, as usual, filled with all kinds of research of recipes for Trim Healthy Mama, researching moving expenses to help my Mother move out here (possibly) this year, and planning our days.  Mind you, I pretty much plan breakfasts, lunches and dinners, Bible reading time, chore time and fill in the rest with pencil, making adjustments--holding my plans loosely.

As of the first of January we switched chores.  We're gradually lessening our oldest son's chores a bit for when he graduates and gets a full time job for the summer.

One of the pictures I sent to my Mother to show her our kitchen and dining room.  We're hoping she decides soon so we can further our planning.

Another view of the kitchen...

 ...and the other side.

Five hats just like this one made for a little cutie pie.

Rustie has recently been diagnosed with Lyme Disease.  He's been taking medication to get better.

And he has progressively gotten better.  Here he hopped up on Mr. G while we had a night of snuggling and movies.  My youngest just happen to get the perfect shot of Rustie sticking his tongue out.  LOL

And my daughter tried a Beehive hair doo on me.  LOL  I'm not amused here.  LOL

Rustie...what a good dog he is.  And he gave us a bit of a scare.

This is where Biscuit's favorite position of the winter is....snuggling to stay warm.  He's half hairless, so he needs lots of snuggles in the winter and we're happy to oblige.

My new planner my wonderful Mr. G bought me for Christmas...just cuz I love planners.  LOL  This one also has a read the Bible in a year plan that is working out very well, even though I'm a day behind. :D

Snow rolls this morning!  God blessed us with snowballs!  LOL

It was quite a wind that made these things.  Apparently they are very rare.

They're like swiss rolls where they're cylindrical and some are hollow.

Of course, this looks so very much like they are reading opposite sides of the newspaper while Biscuit is in the middle.  LOL  I wasn't thinking that when I took the picture.  I just thought it was neat.  LOL

A very diligent wood splitter.  =O)

Today was our shopping trip day.  We ended up running errands, standing in line a lot more than usual, spending time in Joann Fabrics looking at material and pattern books with my favorite daughter.  We're starting to look for possible ideas for a spring formal dress.  So far she wants a poofy skirt.  The bodice we'll have to adjust.  I'm thinking of making it vs trying to find one to buy.  We'll see though.

I have lost 4.6 pounds in 3 weeks changing my eating habits just a bit by following the Trim Healthy Mama plan.  I love it so far.  I'm amazed at how much better I feel without the sugar and all its forms!  I use Stevia now and although everyone else in the house doesn't like the taste, to me it tastes good for the mere fact that it is healthier for me.  :0)

Have a wonderful day!

God Bless,

The Reality of It All

Proverbs 16:9  

The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.

Today our loosely held plans were to attend our local home school group meeting, come home, put everything away and throw together something for dinner and veg in front of the TV with a movie.  Then God had other plans.

This is what it looked like before the REAL snow and wind and ice came in!  

The Lord established our way today and we managed to get some school done, some relaxing, some discussion on some important-to-our-family issues and some Netflix shows like Ceasar Milan, Dual Survival and McGiver.  We had a fire to keep us warm while the ice pelted the surrounding area encapsulating everything in a slickery shiny cocoon.  What a blessing today was in more ways than one.  Our day was not the originally planned day, but it didn't matter.  Hearts were mended, souls were nourished and all things great and small were loved.  

   

Contentment

1 Timothy 6:6-12  

Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment,  

(7)  for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.  

(8)  But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.  

(9)  But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, 

into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.  

(10)  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. 

It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith

 and pierced themselves with many pangs.  

(11)  But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness,

 faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.  

(12)  Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

I have food and clothing, a place to lay my head and a roof to cover me.  I have blankets to snuggle under when I'm cold and a chair to sit in to read and enjoy my family.  I am very blessed.  

It does NOT say anything about discontentment with the weather though.  Spring is 2 days away.  We've seen the first of the snow crocuses and now it's time for the snow to go away and for the flowers to bloom.  It's time to get our hands dirty and to work in the garden.  

Just a little while longer to wait.  At least my house will be cleaner and more organized when it Spring finally arrives due to the restlessness I'm feeling.  Cabin fever has never hit me this hard before.  Whew!  

Maybe that's the way God intended it for now.  :)

Cold Winter Days

When walking out the front door of our house, we look to the left and see this lovely bird feeder that my husband made for us to enjoy all the winter birds who come for a visit.  We watch the little chickadees hopping around in the crunchy brown leftover foliage from last summer far to the left and enjoy their flitting too and fro.  The foliage is left in place from the gardens and flower beds to keep the top soil in place during the rainy time and for the birds when they return to nest in the spring.  To some it looks unsightly and unkept.  We're caring for God's creatures.  :) 

This is my beautiful red maple in our front yard just to the right of the above picture.  She certainly looks like she needs a jacket!  Brrrr! 

The suburban is pretty well covered.  The boys were out uncovering her this morning when we were getting ready to leave for church.  They scraped for quite a while because underneath all this snow was quite the layer of ice!

The dry erase board looks very full of meal plans, grammar and the word "Ventriloquist".  This is pretty much how full it is at the end of a day's worth of work.  This day, we discussed diabetis and how detrimental too many carbohydrates are in the diets of diabetics.  After discussing this above, I set them to colaborating on the first week of dinner menu plans for February using this as a guide.  They did pretty well.

This is how our table looks while doing school every day.  Yes, there is usually a stray bottle of ketchup still on the table from lunch.  LOL  It usually gets put away as soon as they're done writing.  LOL

And...

...when Momma lets them collaborate and walks away to sit down and knit...

...this is what happens...

Winter time means lots of snuggling with Biscuit.  :)

I found a new pattern to try, so I've been working on it too. :)  I've made 2 crocheted dishcloths, 1 knitted dishcloth and 1 crocheted potholder out of this cotton.  It has been so very nice.  I love the flecks of color in it! :)

What do you do in the winter?

Winter Wonderland

This is the view outside my back door just this morning. Isn't it beautiful? We are currently sitting in the basement sipping hot cocoa with a little bit of Chocolate Mint Truffle Cream added to it while sitting around the fire. The children have all been outside playing in the snow, building medieval castles to go along with our unit on European History that we're studying. What fun! I'll post more pictures as time goes on.

Our New Year's Eve will consist of movies from the Love Comes Softly series, pop corn and whatever else we can find. We'll ring in the new year like we always do, with Daddy setting off fireworks in the back yard at midnight.

New Years Resolutions are not practiced here at our home. We decided years ago to stop doing that because by March we were beating ourselves up for not sticking to our resolutions. We realized that the Lord is gracious and merciful and that we needed to set goals and ask God to bless them instead. So, this is what we do in lieu of New Year's Resolutions.

Have a lovely New Year's celebration!

Blessings,