A place to talk about our "tribe" of 6 and our dream of farm life even though we live "kinda , sorta " in the city . I grew up a farm girl and long for my family to have the same experience .
Well Thanksgiving is just a few days away. Where has this year gone? We will be having family over for Thanksgiving lunch this year. We have been busy doing school and working on some deep cleaning. We are tired but we have been able to do a lot of de-cluttering which makes us feel better. We are taking our Thanksgiving break from today til Monday. No worries about school for a few days anyhow. Next week though we will be getting back to the books and starting up our nature study which you can read more about on my other blog (link on left sidebar). Tomorrow I have three pumpkins to prepare for pumpkin pie and one for pumpkin custard which is a favorite of my Mommas. Actually it is like a pumpkin pie served in a cooked pumpkin. I will also be making homemade yeast rolls.
I will not be going out to shop on Friday this year since we are broke. Usually I take one of the kids and go and we have a fun kiddy & momma time but its not to be this year. I usually just went to Old Time Pottery anyway and it burnt earlier this year so no big worries. Big lots and our local thrift stores were my other targets. You can usually get great deals on Christmas stuff at the thrift stores on Black Friday. Anyway, if I don't get to say it on Thursday... then HAPPY THANKSGIVING ! Blessings! ~ Nikki
Hi all! It is a great day in the Lord ! Roosie,Hoopy and I are in Kentucky with our ChristianSchool for Student Convention. Pray for all the competitors today. I miss my DH and BabyGirl and Tman but we head home to Tennessee tomorrow so that makes me happy. I cant seem to get used to time "falling back" this year. For nearly a week now I have been waking up about 4am. Today was no exception. Its only 6:41 am but I am already starting to get sleepy again. No job yet for Toodles but God is being ever faithful. Our needs are met so truly, what else could we ask for? When the right job comes along then Toodles will get it. School has been going great. We are having a really good year so far. We will be doing more special things around the holidays. Stuff like lapbooking or notebooking. We enjoy doing stuff like that. I have not really been able to work much on the free printables I'm making but maybe after convention I can. We have had a hectic pace trying to get ready for that. I'm looking forward to the Homeschool Blog Awards this year. I am eager to see if the blogs I nominated get listed. You are some great bloggers out there :) I may not comment much at times but trust me, I read :) Well I gotta go. We have to get ready for convention. I will update later.
Hey everyone! We are back! Our crew brought home 17 medals today. Hoopy and Roosie both got several first place medals. Hoopy has 5 medals total and Roosie has 7. They all did a tremendous job and I am so proud of them. Well it is late and I am tired so goodnight all! Blessings! ~ Nikki
We were so excited because Toodles was called in for two interviews on Friday and both times he was told how he was just the one they were looking for. They told him they would let him know on Monday..nothing, nada, zip, zero...no word. So, it looks like the search begins again. Just keep praying :)
For those of you who are Duggar fans, they will be the special guests at Winterfest in Pigeon Forge this year. They will be flipping the switch to turn on the lights. So you might want to visit our lovely area on November 5th if you want to get a chance to see them.
I will be canning some pumpkin butter this week. I also want to can some pumpkin pie filling. Anyone have a recipe? Fall is showing herself around here. The temps are dropping and the leaves are changing. It has been so nice watching the changes. I love Autumn. Well that's it for now I guess. Have a great night all! ~ Blessings! ~ Nikki
Toodles has an interview this morning at 10 for the Lead Supervisor for the maintenance crew at a cabin rental company. So keep praying ! Thanks ~ Nikki
Blessing!
After being laid off for 9 months and putting in tons of applications . . . DH Toodles got a call back yesterday! We have been trying so hard to not get discouraged as the weeks turned into months without a job and it has been hard. Only God's Grace has seen us through. We are praying that if this is the job God wants him to have then he will get it. Will you join us in praying? Thanks so much ! Blessings ! ~ Nikki
A Birthday Shout Out To DS Hoopy and Fall Decorations
HAPPY 12th BIRTHDAY HOOPY! I LOVE YOU! Hoopy is my youngest DS. He caught a tree frog on the porch last night. You can check out my homeschool blog to see it if you would like. The feed is posted on the left sidebar.
I also wanted to post some pics of our fall decorations. When we cleaned out the gardens we had lots of grapevine so I made these wreaths. Free decorations...you can't beat that.
I took our electric firelogs and made this little "fireplace" beside the dining table. It creates a cozy atmosphere. I will eventually have to remove everything when we start to use the fireplace.
This is the garland we made for art class one day. I have the links to the printables on a post on my other blog. We taped the pics to jute and tied some gingham ribbon on it . The picture doesnt show much detail , sorry :)
Another "free" wreath.
Another wreath I put on the cross DS Tman made for me. Didn't he do a great job?
Just a little display I added to the garden.
I tried to add some color to the porch. I put some leaf garlands on the rails and DDs BabyGirl, Roosie and I painted some large vegetable cans with some fall themes.We use them for planters. Well I hope you enjoyed our fall decorations. I'm off to build a frog habitat :) Blessings! ~ Nikki
Today was a beautiful Autumn day. The rain was gone and the sky was such an amazing blue. There were huge puffy white clouds floating in the sky. You know the ones I'm talking about :) You can see Autumn in the wildflowers blooming everywhere and the leaves are beginning to lose their vibrant summer green. We have had a cool windy day today and are supposed to see temps near 47 tonight. I am looking forward to the cooler days.
I spent the day at my Aunt's house with DD BabyGirl. I sewed some throw pillows for her. They are so pretty. They are a vibrant sunny yellow. I sewed three square ones and two "taffy" roll pillows. She will fill those and then tie ribbon on the end like a piece of taffy.
After I got home DH Toodles and I cooked supper. We had pinto beans that he had simmering on the stove all day and "taters" and smoked sausage with cornbread. Yummy! After summer we went out into the backyard with DS Hoopy to pick up our "harvest". Know what these are?
Yep ... its chesnuts. This year they are huge. These came from the three small chestnut trees in our backyard. We used to have two huge trees in our front yard but our landlord wanted them cut. It made me want to cry. I love chestnut trees. The bark alone is so pretty. Still we have enough to enjoy and share with the squirrels and chipmunks. I posted the poem today for the Autumn Poetry party I am hosting on my homeschool blog. So far I am the only one who has posted one. I am giving away some neat little prizes this year. Nothing "huge" but some nice little Autumn themed things. Wont you please join me ? Just click on the graphic at the top of the blog to join the party. Blessings ! ~ Nikki
I would like to invite everyone to join the 2009 Autumn Poetry Party. Check out my Homeschool blog for details. Simcox Homeschool You just have to read today's post too. My younguns were in full funny today. I would like to share a poem with you today that we read in school. Blessings! ~ Nikki
~ Autumn~ Emily Dickinson
The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry’s cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.
The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I’ll put a trinket on.
Today my girls and I got to meet my favorite author, Beverly Lewis. The girls and I love her books. She is so sweet and nice. She is an amazing writer and so friendly. She was having a book signing for her new book in the Seasons of Grace series at one of our library branches today. She was so easy to talk with and seemed very humble when I complemented her on her writing ability. I told her that God had really blessed her and she said “yes He has”. The look on her face when she said that spoke volumes about how much she loves her Lord. We have some pictures to put in our memory books. Here is a picture of my signed copy of the Missing.
Here are some pictures of the baking Roosie (DD 9) and I did this evening.
Looking for a little simplicity? Seems a lotta folks are these days! We’ve got it, by way of our Ebook, Homestead Simplicity: A Primer, and YOU can win a copy!!
Homestead Simplicity: A Primer shares helps for the Keeper of the Home! We like to keep it simple around here, and while I also want the best for my family, sometimes striking a balance between the two can be difficult at best. Join us as we share some simple hints, tips and recipes along with a little inspiration to add a little “Homestead Simplicity” to your life! Natural Cleaning recipes, Cooking from Scratch (easily!) planning/stocking your pantry, and loving care for your homestead and those in it!
This past week we have been working on our Fall cleanup. We trimmed bushes and trees and cleaned out the front flower garden. I let it grow wild throughout Spring and Summer because of the grapes and sweet smelling honeysuckle so you can imagine what a mess the vines are in Fall. I had enough vines though to make six wreaths for Fall decoration. You can't beat free material especially since we are so broke. I have some decorations put up in the garden. When I get it finished I will post some pictures.
Our veggie garden is dying out. We have a few tomatoes still and the last of the cukes will be ready in a few more days. I do have some voluntary cuke vines growing but not sure if they will survive through Fall to produce. Would be nice though. We have been canning pickles and finishing up projects for our county Fair next week. I have been working on some aprons for my Momma and Aunts for Christmas. I am making them out of vintage cloth that belonged to their Momma. Since money is scarce this year due to Toodles layoff last December, most of our Christmas gifts will be homemade or something that people can use. For the last several years we have been making homemade breads and the like for our family and they seem to really enjoy them.
I hope to find a great deal on pumpkins this Fall. I want to make some pumpkin butter and can some to have for baking. I love warm pumpkin bread. If the orchards have decent prices we want to buy some apples and make apple butter too. Anyone have a thought on what the best apples for apple butter are?
Blessings ! ~ Nikki
It has been a while since I posted but we have been busy here at the "homestead". On July 23 Toodles and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary. We renewed our vows. My brother got to walk me down the aisle and my Daddy officiated. Our Pastor did prayer for us and oversaw the Lord's Supper that Toodles and I shared. Our boys served it to us and our girls were my attendants. My precious Momma and Aunt (my "second Momma") bought all the reception food and my Momma decorated the church so beautifully. Our DD BabyGirl baked our cakes for us. Our family made it so special for us. Our dear friends Shirley and Tommy from My Four Miracles ( Used to be my thr33 sons but lo and behold the Lord blessed them with a wee Baby Girl (also a preemie so pray for her) gave us a gift card to Outback so we enjoyed supper there and then for the first time in 10 years we went to a movie alone. Wow! It was kinda odd. I'm a Momma at heart through and through... I miss my kids when they arent with me.
We had VBS the first week of August and I celebrated my 35th birthday on the 6th. WOW! Where do the years go? Our Pastor's DS and his wife had their Baby Boy on the 11th. He is a 3lb 12 oz preemie but seems to be very healthy other than size and some feeding issues. Just pray for them and their family. Thanks!
I helped my Aunt Roo can 52 pints of white -half runner green beans this week. Last week the girls and I canned beans and pickles. It looks like our cuke vines are still hanging on so maybe we can get a few more jars of pickles put back.
DD Baby Girl will be turning 16 on Monday so we are having a Luau for her. Congrats BabyGirl! They grow up too fast. *sigh*
Anyway have a great day in the Lord and God bless!
Ok , This is a copy post from my homeschool blog...my hand is too tired to type up another:)
Ok, no way did I anticipate that I would be so busy this summer. It seems like we have been on a constant go go go. Well at least this is turning out to be a cool summer. I can't believe the weather we have been having. I guess I will update and let everyone know what we have been up to . That is if anyone is still reading my blog ...are you? Are you there? Hellooooooooooooooo? Well anyway , here is the story... (imagine a movie narrator's voice..)
When last our blog writer left us she had intended to keep up with her blog posting but time seemed to slip away much faster than she anticipated. One week was spent in Bible study with her youth group in order to prepare their hearts for worship at the Casting Crowns concert. Truly it was an amazing week...watching God speak to the hearts of the youth (and adults too) was awesome. The concert was awesome too. The crowd was pleasantly surprised when special guest John Waller took the stage (ok our blog writer was extremely happy ...she loves his music). Mark Hall and the Crowns are some of the most humble people on the planet and they have such amazing talent. It was more than a concert it was a worship service. (pictures to come later).
Next for our blog writer came the July 4 holiday. A wondeful time spent with family and eating all that awesome July 4th food fare. A pleasnat evening was had by all as fireworks exploded in the night sky creating vibrant splashes of color against the inky blackness. (pictures to come later)
Then came the birth of our blog writers BFF's lovely (much anticipated and teeny tiny) preemie baby girl. Both Momma and Baby are home and doing fine. Visit Shirley at MyThr33Sons and check out the story (with cute baby pics).
Later , our blog writer and family got to travel to Chattanooga and celebrate the 70th birthday of her lovely MIL.
Next for our blog writer and her handsome hubby came an unexpected oppurtunity to travel. They enjoyed a lovely trip through Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Virginia. Their favorite part was having some playtime at Lake Erie. Lovely cannot describe it. Pictures will definetly be posted later!
And last but not our blog writer has been preparing for her and her DH 10th wedding anniversary tomorrow. They will be renewing their vows amongst a gathering of family and friends.Stay tuned for the next installment...
OK, was that funny? Did it make it more interesting? Did you smile? At least a little bit? Let me know if you are still here ... leave me a comment... go ahead ...I'm begging...I'm making puppy dog eyes at you right now...Blessings~ Nikki
The garden is doing great and I have been harvesting some cukes and grape "maters". I will be getting some more jars and lids so that I can get to canning some pickles. I just wanted to share some garden pictures with you tonight. I will be posting some neat canning recipes and stuff later this week. Blessings! ~ Nikki
Here are some pictures from my garden.
The tomatoes are coming in... The cukes are coming in too and are climbing the trellis . Here is a picture of my Daddy working in his garden.
He and Momma always have a great garden.
Blessings! ~
" >
I will eventually have to remove everything when we start to use the fireplace.
Well I hope you enjoyed our fall decorations. I'm off to build a frog habitat :) Blessings! ~ Nikki
The cukes are coming in too and are climbing the trellis . Here is a picture of my Daddy working in his garden.