Hidden Haven Homestead

Well here we are...... Let me first say that moving or making the move does not come without trials....lol

Ya, now I can laugh about things but I can tell you that I wasn't laughing when they did happen.

Everyone is looking for thier perverbial " Garden of Eden" here on earth and or heaven on earth

to live peacably while we wait for the Lord's return. Perhaps if our little homestead was in heaven

While we found a 2 bedroom mobile home, 2 bathrooms 14 x 60. In the country of course.

The girls are happy the landlords daughter has 2 horses pastured out here behind our place.

They are ok with us having our goats and fencing in an area for them here. We have a nice sized

porch to sit out on , so that is good . Have to watch out for the fire ant hills but that is part of TN.

OK so for the trials.... The Second night we had a electrical fire in the furnace, house was filling with smoke

we got out and tried to wake up neighbours and no luck. Well the guy up the road was up shotting cyottes

so he called the landlord for us. We aired out the house and then slept well , after the landlord brought us space heaters to use.

Updates from the Homestead

I think today we might get a break from the rain and wind. A real fall like storm moved in a couple of days ago and dumped a ton of rain on us and came with major high winds. We lost power once too. The leaves lost a lot of there leaves as well. Despite the windy, rainy weather my sweet hubby told me yesterday afternoon that he wanted a BBQ! So a BBQ he got! I pulled a some steaks from the freezer and put them in a little warm water to defrost quick and through some potatoes in the oven to bake and made a salad. Dinner was easy. It was fun to defy the yucky weather have an enjoyable afternoon and evening! LOL..

With all that rainy weather coming down we just focused on inside things mostly for the last few days. Tobin had his own list of details to take care of and so did I. Leanne took Emily’s place with the twins on a couple days this week so Emily could study. One day the girls all left to spend the day in town doing a bit of shopping.

I have been working on my Christmas projects lately. I would love to share more detail about what I am doing, but recipients of these gifts also read my blog! LOL.. soo… I will save it for either after Christmas or I will share next Christmas!

This year I am determined to get things done ahead of time. I want to make sure I get my packages out in the mail on time. I am so excited too because my son’s deployment will be ending next month! Hard to believe 15 months has gone by.. hard for me to believe but not for him. I can see first hand how hard these deployments are for our military men. He is more than ready to come home. He will be able to be here for Christmas and our family is so excited to see him!! I guess that has been another motivation for me to get things done early! I want to enjoy my family time and not be rushing around doing lots of last minute things.

One thing I am going to be doing ahead of time is my Christmas baking. I am going to freeze my cookies and quick breads. I have done this many times and it is a great way to have a nice variety of goodies during the holiday season. Has anyone ever frozen fudge? I am sure it would be fine.. just wanting to hear some personal experience on this. I just don’t want my defrosted fudge to be sticky or anything.. so if you have frozen fudge before.. let me know how it was!!

Today I need to focus on homeschooling, housekeeping, dinner prep, and then spend time on my projects. Dinner tonight is crockpot swiss steak, mashed potatoes and salad. I think if I, or one of my daughters, have time then we will make some more of those delicious pumpkin cookies. They are soooo good.. and maybe some pumpkin bread to put in the freezer. The biggest problem I have with baking cookies for the freezer is actually getting them INTO the freezer before they are all eaten up! So maybe I will do a quadruple batch of pumpkin cookies.. for sure I would get a bunch in the freezer! LOL..

A Christmas Challenge for all of YOU!!!!!

I just finished reading Kitty's Kozy Korner entry entitled, "This is soooo sad". In it she talks about all the wonderful older people who are in nursing homes that have no one to give them so much as a small gift at Christmas. While it's true of Nursing Home Residence, it's also true of many other people. Whether it's young children, single parents of families, older people living on their own, someone who is fighting an illness or maybe it's your next door neighbor, there are going to be a lot of people this year who have NO ONE to show them the gift of love.

With our economy in the state it's in, I know many of you are having to cut back on your Christmas giving or maybe your not even sure how your going to have Christmas for your own families. My challenge for you this holiday season is to show that love just as the Three Wise Men showed their love for Jesus. By starting early, don't you think it's possible that EACH ONE of us can pick out one, two or maybe even three people that we know won't be having a Christmas and do something special for them???? It doesn't have to be expensive, just some little gift that will show someone who thinks the world has forgot them that they are loved.

I'm challenging you right now to pick out those people and then post on our blogs the "gifts" we'll be giving them. I'm sure you'll all come up with tons of ideas and by sharing them here, we all can "borrow" them and who knows, maybe we'll be able to help more than one or two people. Are you ready??? Start posting and may your hearts be filled with love as we come up with these ideas. Hugs, Sher

New Fall and Winter Soaps!

Oh, Brrrrr!

It's another frosty morning on the farm. Actually, the past few days have been so cold and rainy I've hated to crawl out of that bed each morning. I know it's that time of year but I guess we're never ready for them. Of course with the colder temperatures has came the colds. Keith and I have both been feeling miserable. We've taken so much medicine to try and find relief that it's kind of put us into "La-La Land"! Yesterday we started the fireplace and spent the day reading and resting in front of it. It sure doesn't make for a clean house but we both feel better today so I guess it was worth it.

Yesterday was also our darling daughters eleventh birthday! We had celebrated Saturday when some of the older kids were here but of course couldn't let the actual day go without doing a little something special for her. I asked her what she wanted for supper and she said "Your home-made Pizza!" so that's what we had. Keith had bought her a special pair of birthstone earrings from the jewelry store so we saved those back from the other presents and gave them to her yesterday morning before she got on the bus. I also baked pumpkin shaped Sugar Cookies for her class (It's the third time I've baked a double batch of those things in two weeks and I'm SICK of them!!!!) so she was a big hit with her classmates! HA On Sunday afternoon my sister took her to a Musical our High School was putting on and then to the Dairy Queen for a treat. All in all, a pretty good birthday! And now for a picture of the birthday girl:

Another thing that I did yesterday was go through even more cookbooks and find more new recipes to try. I can't believe how much better we're eating since I've started doing this. And not only are we eating better but we have so much variety in the things I fix. If your in a "cooking rut" I strongly recommend you try this. There's nothing better than a hot cooked meal with a new twist when the weather is cold. I can't remember if I told you how I do this so please forgive me if I repeat myself....What I have done is copy each new recipe down and put it in a "new" recipe box. (I have six recipe boxes so had to have a new one so I would know where they are at! HA) I then took a little book and wrote the name of each new recipe under the correct heading. (Steak, Salads, Chicken, Pork, Desserts, Pies, Cakes, ect..) Now when I go to fix a new meal, I get out the book and go to the section I want for my meat. I then go to the salad, vegetable and dessert sections. Once I know what I'll be fixing, I simply pull them out of my new box and I'm ready to cook. It really makes it easy to plan your weekly menus and we seem to eat so much better and cheaper!

Okay, Where are we?............

Here is my home place. We are out in the country among the cotton fields, soybean fields and corn fields. We live on 4 ac and believe me, that is all we need. My front yard is a small lake (very large pond) which ever way you call it.

But what I noticed the other day while driving is, I have got the best of both worlds. I really do. We have lived out here for over 20 years. Our daughters do not know anything else but here. The great thing is, no matter which direction I drive in, I have the most beauitful drive till I get there. We live in such a place of the county that we are only about 10-15 miles from 4 small towns. And when we feel the need, we are only 30 or so miles from the big city of Memphis. I have gotten to where I go there only as needed. Not very often, even though I grew up there my teen years till I got married.

So, I thought that I would share with you my drive on a few different days last week as I ran errands and such during my day.

And as you can see, all roads lead me home. Here is what I see as I am coming up our drive to our house.

Thank you for visiting me here in my neck of the woods. Stop by for a visit if you are ever in the area !!

College Plus! Questions

madiantin.blogspot.com asked about Emily’s schedule and resources books. Emily works about 40 hours or more a week as a nanny to a set of twins. She has one weekday off and the weekends off. A typical work day looks like this for her:

She gets up at 4:30 or 5:00 am and spends a couple hours with Bible time and study time. Then she leaves for work. She is typically gone for about 10 plus hours a day. During the day she is usually able to get in a couple hours of study time (sometimes 3 hours) when the twins nap. Then she comes home, eats, and will do a little more study and goes to bed rather early. On her weekends she spends pretty much the whole time studying. Typically all CLEP tests are scheduled for her one week day off.

As for resource materials… her coach sends her a list of resource books and websites for each up coming test well enough in advance so if we have to order anything we can do it before she begins studying for it. She also uses the REA CLEP examine prep books.

Precious Memories!

What a day we had.....We picked up five, five gallon buckets in a little over an hour! While we picked we chatted, laughed and carried on like we didn't have good sense. (Those of you who know my family know we don't! HA) I honestly hated to see the pecans start thinning out but by the end of an hour we knew we had found most of them. From there we went out to a yummy lunch at Keith's favorite Buffet. I swear Mom ate more than any man there! HA And of course we couldn't go home until we hit our favorite thrift shop. Found tons of neat things there!

On Tuesday Mom wanted to work the Election Board so I told her I would come over and stay with Daddy. (Since his heart attack, we're not leaving him alone.) Mom had told me he'd be with his best friend Bob so I didn't have to hurry over. For that reason I spent the morning cooking things for them and I didn't arrive at the farm until a little before 2:00. Imagine my surprise when Daddy was sitting in his chair!!!! The first words out of his mouth were, "Where have you been?" I explained that Mom said he wouldn't be home until around 4:00 but he quickly told me it was to windy to fish so they had came home early and Bob had left to go vote.

Mom hadn't told him I was staying all night and I wasn't about to (He gets so upset that we don't feel he's well enough to stay by himself!) so I told him I had some things to carry in and then I was going to crack some pecans and we were going to pick them out. What I didn't know is they hadn't had lunch and when I sat some "Fig Newton's" down by his chair he dove into them. (For some reason he's on a "Fig Newton" kick and will eat them package after package.) I asked him if he was hungry and he said no so like a fool I didn't fix him anything.

It's been forty years since I've spent the night at my parents without my DH or children and to be honest I don't think I EVER spent the night with just the three of us. This was definitely a special one on one time that will never be forgotten. Memories that will be locked in my heart.

Even though my Dad is really ill you would never know it. He's never lost his sense of humor and it was so obvious that afternoon and evening. We laughed the day away and we're still laughing when we all went to bed at 11:00 P.M.!!!! When it started getting dark I told him I was going to fix him some supper and he told me to get on the road before it got any darker that Mom would feed him when she got home. That's when I told him I was staying all night. I was prepared to have him argue he didn't need me there but to my surprise he said, "Oh, I didn't know that!" As I was fixing supper (I fried him hamburger and made Chili Fries.) he was asking me what was taking me so long. Well, when my little sister was home she cleaned Mom's double ovens with Clorox and she took all the numbers off the knobs. You now have no idea what temperature your cooking at. I swear, it took me forever to get those fries done. I can not believe how much Daddy ate!!!! It was unreal! And even though he swore he was stuffed, when Mom got home he ate some of the Cherry Oatmeal Cobbler I had made!!!!

As Daddy and I picked out nuts through out the night we talked. None of us were sure he knew how seriously ill he is but I know now he does. Each year he attends a tractor pull with his dear friends down in Mississippi, and even at late as last year (At the age of 82) driving one of their tractors and placing with it!!! Mom was so worried about how he would take not going this year but once again daddy surprised us all. As we were talking he said, "I won't be going to the tractor pull this year." Not wanting to upset him I said, "Well, it's not until next month we'll see how you feel then." To my surprise he said, "Sherry, I could die down there and do you know what that would do to the guys vacation? Well, it would just ruin it for them!" We then looked at one another and burst out laughing! I said, "Yep Daddy, that would make their vacation pretty bad!" And then he said, "You know I could die picking out these nuts!" I shot back, "Well don't! My sisters would always swear I did something to you!" Then we started laughing again!!!!

If I ever laughed harder or had a better time I don't know when it was! When mom got home we all picked out more nuts and kept the stories coming....I just rolled when Dad told how Mom ran over my grandpa when she was learning to drive!!!! Definitely a wonderful, special time. And I felt special when I found Mom had turned the covers back on my bed and had a little angel night light turned on for me!

And while I was staying with my parents, history was being made....We have a new President! While not the man I voted for, it was The People's choice so like all good Americans, I respect that and look forward to his Presidency. I was so hurt when I read so many mean comments on this web site when I got home but I know there are a lot of uneducated, narrow minded people on this site (One girl wrote I don't know how many entries on the subject and kept commenting on other peoples blogs that it was obvious she was just "stirring the pot" to keep the trouble going. Course this same gal comments on everyone's blogs so she's always making a fool of herself!) so I just considered the source and let them go in one ear and out the other! As my dear old Dad said, "It doesn't matter who is our President, the world is in such a mess no one man is going to get us out of it. It's going to take every person working twice as hard as they've ever worked to bring things back around. The average man is still going to get up and go to work tomorrow and life is going to go on!" Amen!

Monday is Jeni's birthday so Keith and I took off shopping for it yesterday. On the way home we stopped by my folks as I had more groceries for them. That makes four days this week I've been at their home. Told Mom I might as well move back home so I wouldn't be spending so much on gas! HA

Well, the morning is slowly getting away from me. We have more of our kids coming home this weekend so I best get my tail around and get things ready for them. I hope your all enjoying these cool, crisp days and getting more accomplished than I am. Hugs, Sher

Pumpkin Cookies

Catching Up On Our News!

This has been one of those weeks when I have met myself coming and going. So many things to do, no time to do them. Since I use this blog to catch my friends up on what's going on in my life (Especially now when I haven't had the time to write) and to make a log on what happens when, I'm going to do this in several "installments". This installment will go back to Halloween night.

A normal Halloween night for our family is to have a special Halloween meal and then when it starts getting dusk we go out Trick or Treating for an hour or so. This year our plans changed a little. A little friend of Jeni's moved to Topeka at the beginning of our school years and when he called to say he was at his grandparents that weekend, he wanted to know if we could go to the annual town "Party". Normally I would have said no (Since it lasted hours) but after talking it over we decided it we would do it just this once. We ended up having so much fun, we'll probably do it every year.

So, late into the afternoon the little ones dressed up (Jeni then decided to be a "Good Witch" and we had to find that costume!) and outside we went for pictures. Drew hates to have his picture taken so he was running around acting silly. For that reason, Keith had me get take one with Jeni. Would you like to see what this almost sixty year old woman looks like??? Okay, here you are:

The party turned out to be so much fun. The women had done a super job of decorating and had so many neat games lined up for the children. For a small fee we had a nice little meal and the evening was rounded off with a hay rack ride. We only "Trick or Treated" for about half an hour and then it was home to sit around and talk about the evening.

Hidden Haven Homestead

We have a home !!!!

Updates from the Homestead

A Christmas Challenge for all of YOU!!!!!

New Fall and Winter Soaps!

Oh, Brrrrr!

Okay, Where are we?............

College Plus! Questions

Precious Memories!

Pumpkin Cookies

Catching Up On Our News!

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