Country Critters

What to do with Turkey Leftovers

Friday on the Homestead

Well we are in Thanksgiving home recovery mode today! LOL.. Time for clean up and then bringing out the Christmas decorations. I have already decorated my website and blog!  

We had a very nice Thanksgiving. It was just the kids, Tobin and me and Tobin’s dad came too. The food was delicious. We ate dinner at about 3:00 and then I took a nap.. Funny how turkey does that to a person  . While I napped the kids and Tobin played Taboo. Then we moved onto pumpkin and apple pie. Emily was in charge of table decorations and she did such a nice job. Here is a pic of the table and place settings…

 

 

And one of Isaac being his silly little self

 

I ate leftovers for breakfast!

Everything went OK yesterday, the turkey was a hit. I saw on one of the shows on the Food Network, they put a sliced orange and a sliced lemon in the cavity of the turkey to help it stay juicy. Well it worked! I also used some cajun injector for seasoning the inside of the meat, that too adds so much flavor. So it was a hit, thank you God, lol.

I, as usual, made too much food. I sent some home with my daughter, fed some inlaws, twice, ate supper, fed strangers that stopped by to say hello, and STILL had tons of food left.  The strangers were only strangers to me, my dh knew these men from work. Grinding keeps going on 24/7 here, there are no holidays as for as the mill bosses are concerned. Things keep running. So there were truck and tractor drivers that were stopping by the house to say hello, and I felt bad and fed them.  My husband did put his foot down on not giving away the coconut cake tho, lol.

So what do you do  with all the cornbread dressing you have left, you eat some of it for breakfast.........and lunch.............and supper. If there is any left by the end of the day, I may have to give some it the cats. LOL

I will be heading out later to face the crowds at Wal-mart, ONLY because I need a new toilet seat and some packing tape. Otherwise, I wouldn't face the crowds. I'm not one for all this shopping madness. Besides, I looked threw all the sales papers, and there wasn't anything that I wanted, lol.

Have a good day, and be safe if your out in the craziness.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Well my house has been full of activity, voices chatting and music playing today.  The girls and I have been baking and cooking in preparation for tomorrow. We started the morning by putting on Christmas music to give us all a holiday feel.   And it worked.. we rolled up our sleeves and got busy in the kitchen. Amazing what four ladies working side by side can accomplish.

Thanksgiving funnies

Here a few cute Thanksgiving funnies my mom sent me.

Have a blessed day, mj

Thanksgiving Blessing

Thanksgiving is a day to see and share Gods blessing with others.   I love when we sit down to dinner and we each share what we are thankful for, it is such a humbling experience.  I love to hear what others have to say.

For us girls it is a double blessing hubby/daddy cooks dinner!!   Hubby is a awesome cook!!!  I just love my/our day off!!  We do the dishes for him.   I just love hubby's cooking.  He is the one who taught me how to cook.

This year we will be having over my mother-in-law, her hubby my step-father-in-law, hubby's cousin, grandma, and maybe my father-in-law.    This will be grandma's last Thanksgiving.   We all think she is holding on to see this day.  Grandma is looking forward to her grandson cooking her dinner.  Grandma is getting worse every day. She will not be here on earth much longer.

I pray that you all have a blessed day tomorrow.  Please enjoy each other.  Do not let every day trouble be there.  Let it go and enjoy Gods love. 

God Bless you all, mj

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody

          


    

                     DRINKING FROM MY SAUCER

                         I've never made a fortune
                         And its probably to late now,
                         But I don't worry about that much
                         I'm happy anyhow.

                         And as I go along life's way
                         I'm reaping better than I sow.
                         I'm drinking from my saucer
                         'Cause my cup has overflowed!

                         Haven't got a lot of riches
                         And sometimes the going's tough,
                         But I've got loving ones around me
                         And that makes me rich enough.

                         I thank God for His blessings
                         And the mercies He's bestowed.
                         I'm drinking from my saucer
                         'Cause my cup has overflowed!

                         Oh, I remember times when things went wrong
                         And my faith wore somewhat thin.
                         But all at once the dark clouds broke
                         And sun peeped through again.

                         So Lord, help me not to gripe
                         About the tough rows that I've hoed.
                         I'm drinking from my saucer
                         "Cause my cup has overflowed!

                         If God gives me strength and courage
                         When the way grows steep and rough,
                         I'll not ask for other blessings
                         I'm already blessed enough.

                         And may I never be too busy
                         To help others bear their loads,
                         Them I'll keep drinking from my saucer
                         'Cause my cup has overflowed!

             From a song by: Michael Combs
     
     Therefore; Thanks be to God for His wonderful
gifts.  For through Him all blessings flow indeed.  Amen!        
                              ( 2 Corinthians 9:15 )

Happy Thanksgiving to all my dear friends here on the blog. Have a love filled day........Kitty

Whew...what's been going on around here....

It's the busy time of year....the most busy time we have all year long. While it can be tiring, it's also lots of fun. I LOVE this time of year, for the weather change, the beauty change and the excitement of all that's going on!

Here's our past week in photos...

First, Thomas went hunting with our friend and neighbor...

Here they are going up our hill...

Nope, they didn't get a deer...maybe on Thursday when they go again? Maybe if the yahoos in the field behind us are not buzzing around on their 4 wheelers with their guns out....maybe they'd be able to get one!

Our dachshund, Penny, gave birth to five beautiful puppies!!!

Rebecca used the Knifty Knitter and made Mary a hat....she's working on other projects with it now...

We made root beer! Now, this did not save money at all...but you know how I like to make things myself...  It was neat to do and tasted wonderful!!!

Here are all the supplies...

Here I've poured the root beer flavoring into the sugar...

Here is the combined flavoring and sugar, as well as the yeast that has proofed...

And here is the final result!

We have 5 gallons of root beer to drink! The box says to store it on its side for 1-2 days, then store it in the frig for 3-4 days...consuming within a week. Guess we have alot of root beer to drink, eh?! Toby stopped at the store and bought a huge container of vanilla ice cream..can you say "root beer floats all around"?!

Craft day for Thanksgiving...here are Natalie and her dog, Bean, as pilgrims. (No, I'm sure the pilgrims didn't wear yellow hats..bonnets..what were they called?! But, it's the color we had on hand and I didn't want to ask Honey to make yet another stop at Wal Mart on his way home...)

It's been a fun filled, busy week in our home. We have baking to do today..along with a run to pick up milk. We are planning a quiet day tomorrow to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Hope you enjoyed our week in review!!

What to do when a 15 year old boy shows up at your door late at night and tells you that he's run away from home?

You panic! That's what I did.

Here's the story. Years ago when my youngest son was still attending public school he made  a friend. The cutest little black boy named Kia. He  spent many nights and weekends at our house for  years. He was a good child to say the least.  He is one of three children that his single mom is trying to raise. I had no problems with him at all. Then once I took Zack out of school we didn't see the little fellow as much. But they still talked on the phone from time to time. I was sad that they didn't remain close close.

Then last night around 8:45 there is a knock at my door. I freak, as I ususally do when there  is a knock late at night. You always fear the worse for a moment. He had grown a good bit so I didn't recognize him at first and was wondering what the hey is this kid that I don't know doing at my house this late. Then when he said my name I realized who he was. He was crying and informs me that he had ran away from home. His story was unclear about why he was doing this, buy I did get that his mom would be very very upset with him for something that he had done and in his words, "kill him". At first I thought he was exaggerating, but through more conversation with him I found out, if his story is true, that his mom is abusive to him, he even mentioned a baseball bat.  To see this women, whom I never really got to know all that well, you wouldn't think she would do this. But as my husband said, "you never know what people are truly like behind closed doors."

So as we sat on the front porch swing I prayed for God to help me give this child the right words. I told him that he could spend the night here with us IF he called his mom and let me speak to her. He didn't like that, he didn't want her to know where he was. The child was really frightened of what he was facing.  I offered to bring where ever he wanted to go. His grandfather lived not too far from my home. He said no. I offered to call anyone he thought might help him, a friend, a relative, a teacher, a pastor, anyone. I didn't know what to do for him. I didn't know where he lived since they had moved in the past year, I didn't know any phone numbers or even names of his relatives. I felt useless and helpless. He had come to me and I was not helping him.

After almost an hour, he promised me that he was going to go straight to his grandfather's house, but I knew better since he wouldn't allow me to bring him there. I prayed for him, hugged him and watched him walk down my dark road.

I cryed and then decided to call the police. After about 20 minutes of them trying to decide what department to give me and my problem to, they told me thay would send out a car to look for him. They also told me that they would contact me with any more info on him. I stayed dressed and up untill the wee hours of the morning, and never heard from anyone. And as I said I don't have any phone numbers to call and check up on him.

 I pray that this child was helped in some manner by someone. I felt helpless in the whole situation. I wanted to just invite him into my home and let him stay forever if  that's what he wanted. But that wouldn't have been fair to his mother. And I also didn't want to cross any legal lines, you know how thin those lines are now days.

I just hope God is watching over Kia today and always. Could I have done anything different?

Making a smaller footprint