Garden of your heart

Day 6 - doesn't seem like we got a lot done

My house looks almost the same tonight as it did 24 hours ago. It doesn't seem like we got anywhere today even though we did get the following done:

- finished painting the other side of the kitchen (pantry and refrigerator wall)

- figured out how to reroute pipes for faucet and bought parts to do so

- painted bathroom

- cut, primed, painted and hung crown molding in bathroom (this took bloomin' forever!)

- bought new toilet (other toilet will go in downstairs bathroom) - here is the one we bought (not my bathroom, of course!). It looks "older" with a really pretty flush handle and should go nicely with everything else.

- found out that the box in the wall where we have to attach the light that I bought isn't the right one. We are going to have to find a way to make it work though because there were only 3 lights that I could buy based on the metal they were made of.

We'll be working our tails off tomorrow to try to get as much done as possible. These are our plans:

1. Buy black screws to use to install light - gotta make it work with the box in the wall.

2. Install baseboard molding (already primed and painted). Then install the beadboard. Paint it. When dry, install top rail molding.

3. Get plumbing ready for faucet. Install vanity and then faucet.

4. Install toilet.

5. Caulk around crown molding and paint ceilings (may not get done until another weekend)

That's probably all we'll get done before heading over to my parent's house for dinner. Then back home to shoot off fireworks with our neighbors. If we can get all of that done, then Sunday we can finish up the room and

- hang mirror (it needs to be sanded and stained darker, but it's going up "as is" for now)

- hang towel rod

- change out light switches and put all electric covers up

- hang shower rod and curtain

- paint bathroom door and trim (this may not get done until another day)

- hang decor back up in living areas

I also need to figure out what we are going to do about the backsplash area to keep the water from going down the back wall as the vanity sits a smidge away from the wall - too far to just caulk. Still have a lot to do - I wish I could just snap my fingers and get it all done.

A Prayer for Fourth of July

Fourth of July Plans & Menu

                              I have been planning our weekend.  Tomorrow we will enjoy a quiet day at home.. just family ( all 12 of us!).  We always enjoy a special meal on America's B-day.. so this year I will be making grilled steaks ( a rare treat) , baked potatoes, homemade baked beans, watermelon & homemade apple pie! It's not the fourth w/ out homemade apple pie! 

      Sunday our Church is holding an evening meeting and then a potluck meal. I'll be brining watermelon, lemon meringue pies and spinach salad. The girls are making cookies & cupcakes.  We are also going to bring a pinata & water balloons!  It should be a fun evening!

      Fourth of July is one of our favorite holidays!  We sure enjoy celebrating and taking time to remember how blessed we are in this land of the brave and home of the free!  I am also thankful for the freedom and perfect law of liberty thru Christ our Lord ! Jesus died so ALL men could be set free!  How grateful  I am for that!  We are no longer under the bondage of the law -- but are free thru the grace and liberty in Christ! Thank you Jesus for your precious blood shed on calvary so all men can be free!

  Hope you all enjoy a blessed Holiday!

Gloria

Cute Children and pets pictures

My Mom sends me some cute e-mails.  I love these one and had to share with you all.

Who is walking who?

I look like you or is it you look like me?

Ah, can I keep him?  (the dog is asking):

Um mom, why am I wearing clothes and his is not??

Look Mom at what I learned :

Just one little bite that's all:

Are you sure they taste like chicken??

Are you sure they are in here???

That's all for now, Blessings,Mj

Preparing for Holiday Bible Club

• Designed a template for an angel decoration craft
• Designed the template for a ridiculously complicated stained-glass craft
• Made a giant cardboard sword, helmet and shield for Goliath
• Stuck together masses of paper to draw Goliath on
• Designed a David and Saul's armour paper doll craft
• Started working on a lion mask - need to check the size of it on a child
• Bought 18 pairs of socks to make into sock puppets
  
• Bought balloons and plastic cups to use for the Goliath activity
• Cut out 36 snake tongues from pink felt
• Laminated two sets of Bible dominos

Yes, another entry! :)

Each evening, we take a ride up top to check on our cows. Last night, we were rewarded with seeing a new bull calf! Had we been there 10 minutes sooner, we could have watched him being born.

What an amazing thing birth is. I am in awe of it. Animal births are so different than human births. We treat animal births as a natural event, and very few need any help or intervention. Human birth, on the other hand, is treated as some sort of illness that simply must be treated and have intervention. Whether the intervention is to "move things along with pitocin", or to "monitor to be sure all is well" or to "take the baby". God designed the female body to reproduce. I think we'd do well to let His design do the work, not the medical community.

I digress...sorry...birth is such an incredible event...I hate to see women give that time of their life over to the medical community. God is doing so much more than just bringing a new life into the world...though that's awesome in and of itself....He can use that time to grow you as a person. As a couple. As a child. As a parent. But, if you're all doped up, can't feel the labor pain, and can't move....you kind of remove Him from the situation, don't you?

Okay, okay....moving on.....

We're going to a cookout tomorrow for the 4th. Thomas wanted fireworks, so we may have to have our own private show another day. Wish our town put on a fireworks show. I remember living in NY, there was always a big show to go see. Even in FL, there were fireworks on the beach.

Honey starts a new schedule soon. He'll be working on the inventory prep crew. Instead of his normal 5am to 2pm shift, he'll work 2pm to 11pm. We all see this is a really good thing for the summer. It's light out so late that it makes getting to bed on time difficult. And it's too warm to sleep comfortably...course, in the morning, it's quite cool and pleasant, so sleeping in is really easy to do. (ask me how I know this to be true?!)

Mom's night out is next week. I didn't go last month, so I'm really looking forward to going this month. It's always a good time with fun friends. Sure, some seem to have their own agendas......and that I surely don't understand....but I do like my time out with friends.

Mary has a couple of loose teeth. So does Natalie. They just keep growing up....

Rebecca is going on a trip with my family later this year. My folks, Aunt Nina, brother and his family and cousin and his family are going to Cozumel, Mexico over Thanksgiving. Aunt Nina invited Rebecca since my niece will be there too. She's footing the entire bill, from her passport to her flight to her time there. How incredibly generous of her!!!! Rebecca is quite excited about this opportunity...and I am too....though I know I will miss her terribly.

Natalie and Mary have decided we need to do something special while Rebecca is away. They've tossed out some wild ideas....we shall see what the future holds...

Honey is stopping at the sawmill on his way home today to get the rest of our lumber for the corral. This needs to be finished up for so many reasons....one of which being just to cross off a HUGE to do on the never-ending list. What a blessing it will be to have this finished!!!

I need to get my July menu finished up so we can do our big monthly grocery shopping tomorrow. The cupboards are looking a bit bare. The pantry needs re-stocking. I will have a most happy family to have cheese in the house again. We ran out of all but mozzarella earlier this week....and I've heard many a comment about this tragedy.

I'm off to work on said menu.....Happy Fourth of July!!!

July? Already??

Is it just me or is this year flying by with lightning speed??

We're having a fun, busy summer. We've really enjoyed spending time with friends, gardening, going to the creek, reading, and just generally enjoying our time together.

I'm realizing how short my time with Rebecca is getting to be. Not that I expect her to go anywhere right after graduation, but she's going to be in 11th grade this coming year....who knows what the Lord has in store for her. I want to soak up every minute with her...and her siblings, of course.

Rebecca and Mary were discussing how old each of them would be in "so many years". When Mary turns 16, Rebecca will be 26. If she's anything like me, Rebecca will have a couple of children by that time. Strange to think about it that way....

If she did follow me...Rebecca would be married in 5 short years..and a Mama in 7. Doesn't seem that far away....

Okay...I'm going to get all teary-eyed if I keep on...so I'll stop and just love the time NOW.

Rebecca and I taught Natalie and Mary how to play Dutch Blitz. We have two more girls who love to play this game! Mary is the Uno girl..but she likes the Dutch Blitz too! What fun we have playing. We should get another deck of cards, since there's only cards enough for 4 players....

We're all getting nice tans. I'm loving this weather. Could be cooler for my taste, but I'll take it. It's not overwhelmingly hot as it has been the last few years. The a/c isn't running non-stop. It's not unbearable outside. Most days, we've had a nice breeze which makes such a difference. It's warm enough to make me want to swim, yet not so warm that makes me want to stay indoors. I'm quite thankful for this weather!!!!

Honey is going to the dentist next week. He's lost one of his crowns for the 3rd time. The dentist told him if it comes off again, there was nothing he could do to put it back on. It started out with one pin holding it in place...he now has 3 pins...and it still comes off. So, he's going in so the dentist can remove the pins....one less tooth for my beloved. I feel badly for him. I so wish someone had taught him...and emphasised to him...the importance of taking care of your teeth.

We've done some organizing and re-arranging...with more to be done. I have a pile here in the office....quite the pile...of things to sell. I'm not sure I want to deal with the hassle of eBaying them...but then....I've done two book sales and am left with this pile. The pile was MUCH larger before the sales, so I've done pretty well at downsizing it...but I want it GONE altogether!

Guess that job won't do itself.....I should spend some computer time taking care of such things....

The Garden at the Beginning of July

Our main vegetable bed.  There are strawberries here permanently, and we've planted beans, squashes and courgettes there as well.

Two tiny beans

A bean that's big enough to eat!

I suspect we may be able to start eating them next week, which is very exciting!

Vegetables in Pots

I've also got a few things growing in pots, owing to lack of space in the bed more than anything else.  I've got four large-ish pots of leaf beet (chard - perpetual spinach) growing, and they seem to be doing ok.  They actually seem to grow better if I cut some of the leaves of and eat them.

I've also got peppers and chillis growing in pots.  The pepper is actually in our bedroom, on the windowsill, chiefly because I need to keep the pepper and chilli separated so I can save the seeds.  It's got a flower or two on it now, which is exciting.  The chills (2 plants, in the mini greenhouse) also have flowers:

The tomatoes are starting to produce fruit, too.  We've got three plants in a "hanging basket" bolted to the fence a few feet up, and they're growing very well.  Lots of trusses of flowers, though only three tomatoes have appeared yet.  It's a Siberian variety, a yellow cherry tomato, which I'm hoping will make ripening more likely.  So many of our friends grew tomatoes last year that simply never ripened.

The "basket" with three tomato plants in it.

Tomato fruit growing and (hopefully) ripening

The Herb Garden

At the other end of the garden, on our patio, most of my herbs sit in pots.  We have chives, marjoram, lemon thyme, golden thyme and ordinary thyme in a herb pot, parsley in a pot and a third pot containing mint. 

Mint, growing like mad and thinking about taking over

Parsley

This is one of my (ordinary) thyme plants.  I'm really impressed by this, as I grew it from a cutting taken from my mother's garden in May.  There are three of them, and they seem to be doing really well.

We also have a basil plant.  This is amazing - it was meant to go outside (according to the label on the plant when it was bought), but it promptly withered and appeared to have died.  There were maybe two leaves left, both brown, and we thought it had had it.  We're not sure why - lack of water / too much water / not enough sunlight / too cold are all possibilities.  Anyway, we shoved it in the greenhouse, and a few weeks later it looks like this:

7-2-09 Up-date

Kristi was board earlier today and decided to play wii.  She played monopoly with Hope!  Hope is our soon to be 10 year old golden medical alert service dog.  We train the dog to all kinds of stuff some funny and silly but this is too much!

Titus is doing great in his service dog training.  We took him out for the first time to go shopping and he was wonderful.  If we stopped and looked or spoke to someone he would lay down with out being told to.  I thought it was odd, so I kept testing him.  I would walk and stop not look at him he would just lay down .  That is amazing for a six month old puppy to do on his first outing in stores.  I wonder if Kristi is going to teach Titus to play monopoly??

We start training them as soon as they are born.  Also having good parents helps too.  It took me two years to find his parents, to find the lines I was looking for.  Now we need one more female golden.  We might get one from Alex's breeder.

Blessings, Mj

Day 5 - the real work begins

I cannot believe how much we have gotten done in the past 2 days. The tile is all grouted and sealed and we are ready to begin the final work needed to put the bathroom together. If it wasn't for the sink pipes coming out of the ground instead of the wall, we'd be nearly done tomorrow. But my husband has to figure a way to reroute the pipes.

We have painted the dining room and sitting area, foyer and kitchen as well as installing beadboard in the rooms with chair rail and painting it and the trim today. The only area I still need to paint by Sunday night is the hallway to the bedrooms. We will also paint the living room and the master bedroom, but that will come another time. We also need to install more beadboard and chair rail to the foyer area and a couple of small walls, but that is also another weekend project.

All that is left to do in the dining room and sitting area is to hang some decor on the walls. Once that is done, I'll take pictures and share the before and after shots. I love, love, LOVE the yellow color we choose and the beadboard just looks fabulous! Even my husband says it all looks great and he hates change!

Well, it's late and I'm pooped - pictures coming in the next post!