It has been a busy few days. I had the baby shower for the girl at my daughter’s work. It was an interesting time. She got a lot of nice things. I probably would just give someone in that situation extra baby things and NOT throw the shower. It is amazing how in 3 VERY LONG hours someone’s comments and thoughts become public knowledge and you view them differently. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t expect an unwed, pregnant 18 year old, who is living with her boyfriend, to talk of wonderful things. I was just hoping she would control herself. After all, she is well aware how we are. One memorable event was with a game suggestion. She would kiss a doll without anyone looking. We, in turn, would guess where she kissed the doll. If we got it wrong we had to kiss her there. I don’t know about you…..THIS WAS NOT AN APPROPRIATE GAME….! I just said, “I am not comfortable with that type of thing.” My sister looked at me in panic and said, “We have church tomorrow!” Like if this happened on a Thursday instead of Saturday we could possibly entertain the game without the loom of church the next day. I am still amazed at the audacity of this suggestion. Maybe they were going for the “shock” affect. Anyway, we measured around her instead to see how “large” she had gotten from being pregnant. I didn’t like that game either, but at least I wasn’t having to kiss her. My idea of a baby shower is women or families sitting around enjoying a meal together, talking about the wonderful addition to a family. I am still a little traumatized by the shower. She even suggested that she bring her video game to the shower so we could play some guitar game. I nicely told her we didn’t play video games, but thanks for trying to help out. (remember no one went to the shower she threw for herself is why I volunteered to throw her a shower)
It rained so hard here last night. I had forgotten how hard and fast the rain comes down. I had to give shelter to some of the cats because they were too small to really know how to get out of a flood. It looks as if we are going to have another day of rain today. We needed the rain. In Las Vegas they need rain too, but we never expected or hoped on it. If you wanted to grow anything you had to water it. Out here they wait on rain for farming, hay, grass, gardens, whatever you want to grow. We water our garden in between the rain to make sure it keeps growing.
We have the nursing home ministry to do today. This is also the 3rd week of our 2nd 6 week period for school. School has been going much better this year with all of the accountability.
Have a nice one. Blessings, Brenda
I start out this morning a little handicapped. My left hand is swollen, I assume from the wringing of the laundry. The mop wringer did not work. I bought one that I am going to return. It takes out some of the water, but not even the amount I can squeeze out. It was a waste of money in my opinion. I looked online at Lehmans and the wringers are expensive. I will see what else will work in the future, but for now I will wring until I develope debilitating carpel tunnel syndrome then use the washer...Am I crazy or what????
I haven't been quilting, but have everything to start a quilt. I know three women who are pregnant that I can make baby quilts for. A sad story happened yesterday. We were invited to a baby shower on Sunday. We had a pot luck after church so we couldn't go. Yesterday my daughter who works with the young woman (unwed, living with the young man in sin), the girl we will call "Scarlet" came to work devastated because no one went to her baby shower. She had given for herself and gave invitation on the Wednesday before. Anyway....guilt ridden and sad I offered to give her a baby shower Saturday. I called my sister and our friend Patty and of course they are thrilled to help out. I know she isn't making the right choices in life, but to lead her to the LIGHT we have to look better than where she is. To a Christian obviously we are in a better place, but to a wallowing unbeliever where we are seems impossible to obtain. I will love her into a place of acceptance and love and she will see that we are the same as her we are just covered by the blood and walking toward a different goal.
I better get a plunging. . . Besides electricity...which we are trying to use sparingly...what else can I try to cut down on or do differently? Any suggestions?
Blessings,
Brenda
When I left you last I was on a journey of sorts. I was trying to make the most of my day and work harder. Well, I am working harder. Today we accomplished a lot of things again. First, I had soaked laundry overnight for handwashing, and got up early to dive into this bazaar new adventure. I washed four washing machine sized loads of laundry by hand. This is getting easier and the water is proof the clothes are getting cleaner. By this time, it is probably 11 am. My daughter Britney made four loaves of bread. She also soaked 12 cups of dry beans again so we will have enough canned for the month. We made lasagna for dinner and ate it outside where it was so cool and beautiful. It was a busy day. Then once we came in, there was baths to do, and beans to can. Alexa (daughter) cleaned the tack room. She goes in there once a week to keep it orderly. My son Jordan cut wood. We are trying to get ready for winter. We love our fireplace. There is plenty of wood on the trees and on the ground, we just need to gather it, cut, and split it. My two oldest sons even managed to treat me to lunch.
Oh....we went to the nursing home today, too. My son Josh does a Bible study there and we visit with the residents. We had sad news today that one of our beloved friends there died. She was in her 90's. She will be missed by all of us.
I have a hamper of dark clothes soaking overnight to wash in the morning. My daughter Britney is going to take my daughters Jenna and Nicole to the orthodontist tomorrow for me. This way I can stay home and WORK! My husband just walks past me and smiles. He told me the other night that he worked hard his first 20 years of life to get away from what I am running toward. 
I am not running toward this new lifestyle. I am walking fast and giving it a try. If at anytime I don't want to play anymore I don't have to. If at anytime he doesn't like how things are going we can stop. No harm done. In the mean time I am burning calories and tired at night. 
I am sure no harm is done (my shoulders and knees hurt a little more than usual). My mom and dad laughed themselves silly about me doing my laundry out of buckets. My mom wanted to remind me of how much laundry I have to do.
We let our bunny "Miguel" out of his cage today. After talking to my mom she convinced me that he would be fine running around. I was concerned with the cats and such, but she reassured me that this isn't going to be an issue. I think someone forgot to tell all of the cats. All day Miguel just hopped around in pure bliss. But as the sun started to set I saw the cats go into hunter mode. I was doing laundry (outside) and saw the first two cats make their move. I yelled at them and they stopped and looked at me and the bunny hopped a little away. Then a group of cats came over and started to circle poor Miguel. I had 3 daughter running after him and chasing the cats. At this point Miguel doesn't want to get into the cage and a chase ensues. We eventually get the bunny in the cage as the cats now are sitting outside of the cage licking their chops. I have a feeling Miguel's days are numbered. For now he is safe.
Have a great night. Brenda
We did so much work around here today. I started reading these agrarian blogs about living off of the land, and I got motivated. First I washed the soaking clothes by hand. I have to wash a rag/cloth napkin/hand towel load everyday. I am getting these things very clean and I am getting quicker at it.
I washed them and one of my daughters hung them out on the line. It was such a wonderful day out. The sun kept hiding behind the clouds giving it a cool feel. 
I have a bunch of rags, cloth napkins, and hand towels we use for whatever we need them for. They tend to get very dirty and often times stained. I was happy at how clean these came out.
My oldest daughter Britney made a couple of loaves of white bread for me. We really haven't been baking bread since my oven broke. We decided to try it in the roaster since everything else had been coming out fine in it.
The loaves turned out fabulous. They weren't as dark as they normally would get, but we were thrilled.
My daughter Alexa went to the garden to pick a couple of jalapenos to go with her dinner and told me all of the banana peppers were ready to pick. After dinner Alexa and Jordan (my son) went out and picked all of these banana peppers. Then they diced them up and put them into baggies with 2 cups of peppers in each. This way when we are cooking and need peppers they will be right there diced in the freezer. 
Thanks to the Pampered Chef chopper it went faster than if they had to chop them up with the knife.
I started boiling beans earlier in the day. I wanted to try to can them. I boiled 12 dry cups of beans and made them into ranch style beans. I then canned 6 quarts and 4 pints of the beans. I had to pressure cook the quarts for 90 minutes. That felt like a long time.
Here are the 6 quarts right out of the pressure cooker. I haven't even wiped the jars off yet. The pints are in the pressure cooker. I hope they turn out well. I guess we will know if they are canned right if no one dies. I guess I should be picky who eats them first. . . I have a couple of choices.
We mowed and did more laundry after all of that also. My other daughter Amber made dinner tonight. My daughters have assigned meals. One does a breakfast, another lunch, and another dinner. It was Amber's dinner night. She made fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, peas, and homemade ranch beans. The kids loved it all. I am tired, but it was a very efficient day. Tomorrow my sister and a friend are coming over to sew. It should be a fun day. Have a nice night, Brenda
I love fall. I know the weather hasn't changed enough to really make it feel like fall, but just knowing it is fall makes us want to bake. My oldest son, Miles stopped by the corner nursery/fruits and veggie stand and bought a couple of baking pumpkins.
Believe it or not this small pumpkin was enough to make at least two pies. He first had to slice it like watermelon to bake it.
This is half of the pumpkin cut and baked until it was soft and scoopable with a spoon.
The pie is ready to bake. Our oven is broken so we baked it in the roaster. It looks so pretty but he was still looking to decorate it some.
He cut out leaves to decorate for fall. He is going to make such a wonderful husband one day. He frames the garage, takes out the garbage, and bakes...what more could a girl want?
Here is the finished product. It is so pretty. Let's hope it tastes as good as it looks. Happy fall. The seasons are a changing. Enjoy your day. BrendaWe went to Fort Worth today. Wow, did it feel nice to be in a bigger city again. I knew if I just kept driving I would be in Dallas. Fort Worth had everything we needed to feel refreshed again. I know this sounds funny, but it is nice to have a little hustle and bustle from time to time. I even had to jump in a lane quickly. You don’t ever have to do anything quickly in our small town. Most of the time that is the way I like it…today it felt nice to rush a little to have stores, fast food choices, and just ordinary multi-racial people. There were even Asians at the mall (my girls are the only Asian around my small town…they don’t even know they are Asians…they yell, “Hola” to them thinking they are deaf, Hispanic, immigrants…I think!
The doctors appointment went great and we will be using this doctor instead of LV doctor from now on it seems. It saves many miles doing it this way. We went about 260 miles round trip including all of the stops and extra driving…compared to 1200 to Las Vegas.
I was suppose to start my 2nd 6 weeks today, but with the trip into Fort Worth I will start tomorrow. I was a little disappointed to be losing another day, but happy because of what we accomplished with the missed day.
I can hear my husband whistling to the horses to come up to eat. He whistles and they come running up to the barn area. He is hurting from the long day out (my husband not the horse). I could have went to Costco too while we were in there, but he was exhausted and completely ready to go home, especially knowing it was a two and a half hour drive.
We would love to move closer to Fort Worth, but I am not sure we ever will. I get attached quickly to things and love my house more and more everyday, especially as we fix it to meet our needs and size demands.
I know the washing in the bucket thing is weird. I don't know what drives me to want to do things so basic. I might need some medicine....maybe counseling....maybe both! ! ! I try what intrigues me and I keep doing what works.
Have a great one. Brenda
What did I do yesterday, you ask? Well, even though I felt deathly ill, I managed to go into town and buy tires for our little truck. They were bald as bald could get and someone was going to get hurt when they finally blew out. They were 50,000 mile tires with 80,000 miles on them. After that rejuvenating experience, I stopped into Home Depot to look around (This is my favorite place to shop).
I read on a blog the night before about doing laundry without power in a 5 gallon bucket with a plunger. I couldn’t get this out of my mind. My front loading washer doesn’t appear to do much to the clothes but flop them from side to side. While at Home Depot I decided, to my oldest son horror, to buy the two 5 gallon buckets and a new plunger to try this washing method. He made comments the whole way through the store about…now we need to buy Oxy-Plunge, will the clothes have circles imprinted on them? He even said if someone says, “Hey mom, I am running low on underwear.” I could just say, “You know where the plunger is!” I am a good sport and laughed myself over to the register with the buckets and plunger.
After getting home I decided to jump right into the insanity. My oldest son did suggest using a cordless drill to turn the “agitator” while you move it up and down. I declined and went to work. I had help from a daughter and another son. We did get a lot of clothes washed, but because I didn’t buy the mop wringer that was suggested, the clothes were really wet and therefore this morning very hard. I know I was suppose to soak the clothes overnight in the bucket then wash them in the morning but with 5 washing machine loads a day I didn’t think that would work. I will try that next time. I am not giving up, yet. I will see what I can get to work for me. My power bill was the highest it has ever been last month, since moving to Texas. It isn’t always whether one can afford the bill or not, but whether that is a good use of money. There are so many things that need doing around here I would like to take some of that surplus and apply it to the project funds.
I am going into Fort Worth for the first time tomorrow. My husband has a doctor's appointment. I am so excited to see what it is like. I am hoping it is familiar like Las Vegas, but friendly like Texas. We will see. We are over two hours away so it is quite a drive to get there. It is closer to go to Fort Worth than Las Vegas if this works out. My husband was going quarterly to his doctor in Vegas. This is a lot of wasted money and time. Pray this is a good fit for us.
Have a great one. Brenda
I have been feeling sick today with a head cold. I rested all day. My headache seemed to get worse just laying there, but I still just stayed there anyway. I did watch a couple of shows (about 4 baby stories, 1 adoption story, and a movie). I didn't do any laundry....tomorrow I will be sorry for this choice, but for today....I sit.
I did wander around the property a little at dusk. This is one of my favorite times of day (or night). I took a few pictures but didn't really know what to take pictures of. I have already taken pictures of horse, goats, chickens, trees, flowers, etc. I kept thinking what would anyone want to see pictures of???
Only 2 more days off of school and our new 6 weeks begins. Last six weeks we studied Ellis Island. This six weeks my kids are going to continue that study with the Statue of Liberty, and more states/capital memorizations, plus the study on the American Flag. I want it to be an American History year. They need to know all about some of our basic things here in America before I drill them with foreign information. We are memorizing a state and capital every 2 weeks. We already learned Montana, Arkansas, and Kansas. They know more than those, but I am allowing different kids to choose the state we memorize.
Night, Brenda
The weather out here is beautiful. I don’t know how long it will last, but I am loving it while it does. I am enjoying this break from home schooling. I can’t believe how much work we have already accomplished in the 6 short weeks we have been schooling. My college kids are going crazy with school and work. Plus, I work them hard around here with all of the projects that need doing, especially my oldest son.
We went to eat at a pizza place out here called CiCi’s. The cashier was a teenager, maybe 17 or so. She was shocked at the 25 kids our 3 families came in with. She asked me if mine were all biological. This was okay with me because none of my kids were with me, they were already sitting down. I told her no, that some were adopted. She let out the biggest sigh. “Oh good! I was thinking how bad I would have felt for you.” I told her to please still feel bad for me because I had to raise them and once she had a baby she would remember this and know that the hard part of motherhood is raising the baby not having it. She then looked at my sister and said, “You don’t even have it hard compared to her.” I thought I would have to restrain my sister from jumping over the counter. She took a breath and said with a big smile, “No, I don’t.” We did have a woman come up to us and tell us we restored her faith in adult taking children traveling and out in public. We had such a well mannered group. If she only knew we weren’t traveling and they were our kids. We just told her “Thank you very much” and she was on her way.
It is always funny to see us through other people’s eyes. We stopped at Kmart to just look around. I didn’t really need anything, but wanted to take the day slow and do some shopping that we aren’t usually able to do in our less-than-small-towns. One lady laughed hysterical when we walked by. We did break up a little. My older kids were in the books, music, etc. so our group wasn’t that large, but once she started laughing I looked back and we took up the whole isle and some of the next. I guess that is funny, but it isn’t really. Even with all of these “things” that added to our zoo day, we had a great time.
My parents are going to AZ for a family wedding. I would have loved to go, but with all of the projects around here I didn’t dare spend one dime on a trip. If I was going to spend money on a trip, it would be to see my parents.
I haven’t heard anything from the specialist on Isabel. I have to call the pediatrician today to see what he wants me to do.
I can see my girls through my school room window out on the grass doing gymnastics. The Olympics sure started something around here. They have been doing sports non-stop since. Have a great day. (Love you mom and dad!)
Love,
Brenda
What have I been up to? Well, we just finished our first 6 weeks of school. We have a week off. To celebrate the week off we took the kids to the zoo. We had such a great time. My sister and her family, and our friend and her kids came also. You can see from the picture of the whole group, we had a lot of kids.
Of course we had the kids gather where the sun was directly in their eyes and they all had to squint to keep from going blind.
The giraffe is my favorite animal at the zoo. The giraffe actually stuck it's tongue through the fencing and wrapped it around my daughter's arm causing her to have a sore red arm.
This is a picture of three of my daughters in the reptile room. My kids were so excited to see all of the snakes.
Here all of my kids posed near a beautiful flower garden. It was a beautiful day out. It was almost chilly in the morning.
When we got home from our day at the zoo, my son got started on finishing the garage project. He worked way after dark.
The garage is finally enclosed. Now we need to do the trim work then we can move inside to do some work. I think we are going to start on the other garage door soon. That side will have a window in it. I am so excited.
Tomorrow I am going to start some project while my college kids are at school and we are off of homeschooling for the week. I am tempted to sleep really late and relax, but I know I will regret it if I do it.
Night, Brenda
Saturday I had planned to work on the garage remodel, but with the threat of Hurricane Ike we decided it would be smarter to wait. We didn't want to open the garage up and have to leave it exposed to the weather. We had alerts for our area and were expecting a storm of sorts. We didn't get anything but wind. So we decided to work on the outside area around the garage. We removed the planter on the outside of the house that was holding water when it rained. We needed to remove this to ensure no water went into the garage once we remodeled it.
Here you see the planter to the right of the chair on the steps. Notice the wide cement curb below the planter because to our shock and horror it encased the gas line.
Here is the gas line after we chipped it out of the cement. It went into the garage and under the house. We obviously had to move it to bury it. That was additional headaches and time. Anything you do to an old house is a headache because anything you touch needs fixing.
We took the garage door off and started taking down all of the old lumber that was water damaged. On the right wall of the garage you will notice the door to the crawl space to get under the house. This wall ended up being water damaged also.
This is the water damaged wall. The bottom board we swept up because once it was touched it turned to dust.
Here the wall is repaired and ready for the remodel to begin.
This is the garage wall framed out. We are putting a door on because this part of the front of the garage will be a utility room to house the freezer, gun safe (we are in Texas), and our 5 gallon drinking water bottles (we go through 45 gallons of drinking water a week).
Here is the framed wall from the inside of the garage. Now the real work begins. We didn't have enough day to finish this, but we will work more tomorrow. I can't even move. I sorted every bucket and cleaned the garage. I am getting excited to have this added space.
What a day!!! I made a doctor's appointment for my daughter who is 9. She recently had grown a couple of inches. She had started looking very thin...too thin. She only weighed 47 pounds. I also noticed that her eyes looked more pronounced almost buggy like and strained. She also had been complaining about her hands having muscle cramps. Each thing could be explained away but together they had me worried. I also noticed her heart was beating very hard and fast. If you were sitting next to her and she leaned against you, you would feel her heart. When I asked her on it she said it had been doing that. I made a doctor's appointment for today and off we went. After telling this and seeing that the doctor became more and more concerned. He noticed her thyroid was enlarged, too. He sent us for all kinds of testing. About 5:45pm while I was still in town he called to say she has everything to point to Graves' Disease. It is an overactive thyroid. She has to have medicine to try to slow the thyroid down. Hopefully this will work and she will be feeling better soon.
Here are a few more pictures to see what's been going on around here.
This is the beginning of a new hen house. This one is going to shut down for the winter giving the hens a comfortable place to lay their eggs. Our other chicken coops are chicken wired and large, but open and airy for summer.
These are our newest twins, Tara and Moto. They are a couple of weeks old.
Two of our horses scratching each other's backs.
We had a dozen or more ducks, but one by one they are raccoon's dinner. We are down to these two survivors. See the bird at the bottom of the picture. Our pond is low because of the lack of rain. With the weather we have had over the last few days, I hope the pond fills back up.
Please pray for my daughter. She is a sweet, fragile girl who needs lots of prayer. While you are at it, pray for me. I am a a sturdy, middle aged woman who needs lots of prayers, too.
Blessings, Brenda
Here are some of our turkeys. They are getting big. We have 3 males ready to eat. I think I am going to buy a turkey and kill a turkey. This way if we don't like the "fresh" one we have a backup. They don't really look appetizing.
Here is Miguel my daughter's pet bunny that my parents gave her. It is in bunny heaven out here. It has two chicken friends in the cage with him in case he gets lonely. We are not getting a girl bunny for sure. I know that sick trick. I have kittens all over the place. (I don't think bunnies have kittens....I just know the results are similar).
This is a picture in our garden of some of our pepper plants. The peppers did exceptional this year. We have been so enjoying all of the veggies. My son Jordan is in charge of the garden. He did a great job.
I went out and about and took some pictures, finally. I will post them over the next few days. Today it rained on and off and was so nice and cool out. I am excited about fall. I made a double recipe of my homemade ranch beans. The kids have already been eating them. I wonder how well homemade beans will can? I haven't canned them before, but I think it might make them easier if I can them and use them as I need them.
Have a nice one.
Brenda
I know I keep promising and promising pictures, but I haven't been able to get about and take them. We have had so much rain today. I went into town to go grocery shopping and I could barely drive it was raining so hard. The windshield wipers didn't do a thing for the windshield. I just followed the emergency line and went really slow. I did my monthly grocery shopping. I have been trying to keep my groceries to about $1000 a month. This includes our bathroom things, but not fast food or eating out. We usually eat out once a week, after church. We drive 60 miles to church. After church everyone seems extra hungry and to wait another hour seems too long. I have brought things for everyone to eat so we didn't buy food, but it wasn't as enjoyable. So, we eat out on Sunday for lunch.
We are still getting tomatoes. My daughter cut up about 20 plus tomatoes, and the kids just ate them as they watched TV. They loved them. I have been adding peppers and tomatoes to everything we cook. Friday my husband and daughter butchered four roosters, Sunday they butchered six, and today they butchered three. We soaked them and froze them. Well, Saturday we ate three of them. The three they butchered today are still soaking. It sure helped to take the "fresh" chicken taste out of the meat.
The power keeps flickering. I lit a couple of lanterns in case it decides to go out. I sure hope not, it is muggy and warm out. I always thought it would be great to live in the olden days when there wasn't electricity...I would like to choose the things I have to go without and the things I enjoy, like air conditioning. 
I talked to my parents tonight. It is always so uplifting talking to them. My brother and his family are planning on coming out here for Thanksgiving...God willing! My dad and mom are going to come down with them. I am so excited. It will be the best Thanksgiving ever!!!!!! Now I have to try to get my other brother to come out here too. I hope he can come out, too. It will be all of together again. 
Well, I better get going. I have college work to help with, homeschooling to grade, chickens to freeze, laundry to switch, and sanity to find (my sanity has been gone long enough I am not even sure where it went...I know it isn't anywhere I have been lately).
Blessings,
Brenda
Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes! I can't believe how many tomatoes we have in our garden. It was a slow start, but they have been growing like crazy lately. We already canned 7 quarts of spaghetti sauce (and used 4). We have at least 80 tomatoes on the counter right now. After church tomorrow we will probably make another batch of sauce before the tomatoes go bad.
Yesterday my husband and a couple of our kids killed 3 roosters for dinner tonight. I soaked them in salt water all night and put them in my large roaster all day to slow cook with potatoes and carrots. Everyone enjoyed them. We are just starting to be able to eat the "fresh" chickens. We get more than a dozen eggs a day from the hens. We have at least ten more roosters to eat. We have at least 20 turkeys that we can eat. We are going to let them get big enough first. We have 3 huge males that are ready for Thanksgiving.
I am going to start preparing my family for a "no power" day. We are going to not use any unnecessary power on Sundays to see the effect if will have on my power bill. My power bill is way to high and I know there are things we can do beyond what we already do. All of my light bulbs are the twisty bulbs. We have the air set a little hotter than I like. I hang out most of the laundry (except the endly white load of socks, and on rainy days). We limit the lights on to whatever is needed, but not to leave a light on. Next I think we should only use the power for the air, fridge, freezer, etc., but not for lights, laundry, TV, etc. on Sundays to see what effect it has on the power, then if it is significant enough I could try two days a week. The kids will love the lanterns and I will love the quiet.
Well, after church tomorrow I am going to take some pictures. Have a nice one.
Brenda
Well here I am again. I haven't been blogging lately. I needed a break to get myself emotionally together. I am feeling like a new woman and ready to take on this homestead and life. I have been gardening, sewing, cleaning, everything to get myself feeling good again.
I will start taking pictures to show some of the stuff I have been working on. The weather is getting a little cooler and more enjoyable. I have been schooling the kids. In Texas they do 6 - 6weeks instead of 4 - 9weeks. I am trying that this year. I am taking a week off in between. We are loving the new schedule.
On my week off from schooling we are going to empty the full garage, sort everything out, and frame out one of the garage doors to start our addition of two rooms there. I am so excited about this. The garage right now isn't sealed because one of the two garage doors is broken. I have everything that doesn't fit in the house in the garage. I have a task before me. I want to sort every box and container and make sure it is needed, then put them in plastic totes to ensure nothing gets ruined. Next week is sure to be a lot of work, but it will be worth it.
Be back soon,
Brenda
It is stormy out right now. I can't believe how it changed this afternoon. It was hot and sunny all day then the wind started blowing more than usual and the weather changed. We were without power for an hour. It is on now and the house is starting to cool off. We got much needed rain and so it makes the hot house worth it.
My garden is doing really good. We have yet to eat anything from it, but the harvest is near. The cucumbers and getting big. There are tomatoes and peppers on almost all of the plants. I can't wait to get my hands on the tomatoes.
We have started going to a church in Abilene. I wouldn't have thought of driving that far to go to church before, but we are starving for the taught word. We went last week, and we will go again tomorrow. I am excited to go.
My parents will be here tomorrow. I am so excited. I can't wait to see them. Pray for their safe trip.
We are working hard around here. Today we pruned the trees off of the roof. When the wind blows the tree branches rub on the house and scratch the roof. We don't want that! My son climbed on the roof and pruned the branches he could reach and the ones he could cut through without killing himself or falling off of the roof.
I did laundry, laundry, laundry. The kids have been swimming in the little pool all day (not my older kids....althought it was hot enough that it started to look appealing to me).
My six year old son said to me, "Mommy, remember when you used to wear pants?" I said, "Yes, but that was a long time ago." He said, "When you were bad?" I told him, "No women that wear pants aren't bad. I just wear skirts." We were both confused by the end.
The weather has been HOT here. It has been around 100 degrees. We need rain and the grass is starting to look dry. We water our garden because it is so hot, but last year we got enough rain where I barely had to water it at all. We have a ton of green tomatoes, pepper, and cucumbers.
Why are some people grudge holders and other people are not? I am not a grudge holder at all. If I have 5 minutes I am completely over whatever it is you did to me. I don't harbor anger or feel sad. I find it hard to imagine living with a grudge and something happening to the person you had a grudge with and you being able to live with yourself. I am a guilt ridden person. I carry guilt around and allow it at times to weigh me down. I know that there is forgiveness through Jesus Christ and all is washed clean, but I do this to myself. I can reason it away, but lots of times it is there and I live with it. It actually keeps me careful because I fear guilt. I don't want to make a mistake I can't live with.
I did my monthly grocery shopping. I spent a little too much. I am trying to stockpile a little food in case the truckers strike and food continues to climb. Last month I bought 100 pounds of ground beef. This month I bought 130 pounds of ground beef, I bought a case of pork loin (I don't know how many pounds the case was, but it had 5 two feet boneless loins in the box), and a case of stew meat. I am the house to go to if there is a problem. I have my stand up freezer full. I also bought more dry pinto bean, flour, rice, powdered milk, etc. I am full to overflowing with food here. I made a ranch bean recipe that is soooo good. If you buy ranch beans you won't have to anymore after trying this recipe. This recipe is made for my very large family so you could cut it in half or freeze what you didn't use.
4 cups of dried pinto beans
6 tablespoons of Fiesta brand Pinto Bean Seasoning (in the Mexican spice section of Wal-Mart)
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
2 tablespoons canola oil (or oil of your choosing)
8 oz can of tomato sauce
Soak the beans over night with ample water. Rinse and drain the beans in the morning. Cover the beans with fresh water. Make sure you have at least an inch or so of water above the beans. Bring the beans to a boil and lower it to a medium heat. Continue to boil the beans for an hour or so making sure there is always enough water covering them. If you need to add water make sure it is hot water. I add everything to the boiling beans and water except the tomato sauce. I continue to boil them for the next couple of hours letting the water mixture start to thicken (not too quickly or too thickly) while the beans soften. When the beans seem done and there is still sauce (I add water sometimes if I need more sauce and continue to boil it down some more) then add the tomato sauce. Cook to mix the sauce in. The beans are done. This is a family favorite for us. I put a container in the fridge and the kids will use them all week as desired or with a meal.
Well, I better get going there is so much that has to get done before I head to bed. Night, Brenda
People that don't know me wouldn't know the difference in me, but those who know me and are around me could see the difference in me. I was depressed. I have been searching and searching for what could be wrong with me. I didn't have a will to do anything any more. I stopped obsessing over things. I stopped sewing. I didn't read anymore. I didn't over clean or move things around. I just stopped loving life. I barely made it through the days. I didn't sleep through the nights. I just survived. I can talk about this now because I put the pieces together. So what have I don't to fix this problem in me...well I started purposely obsessing on things. I started working myself like crazy. I get up and get moving right away. I work and clean and work and clean some more. I used to obsess over things that mattered to me but maybe no one else would notice. I started again. I pressure myself into doing just one more thing. If I have a ten minute window I try to fit something into it that will matter to me. I am feeling sooooo much better!!!!! I started getting back into my routine and I am doing so good now. I was trying to blame everything for my lack of "will". Praise God He has shown me the way and has walked me back to my joy.
How is VBS going you ask??? One day done, four more to go. It went better than I could have imagined, but I am exhausted. We had 16 kids in the class which wouldn't have been bad if they were all well behaved kids. A couple of the kids I could wring their necks. I just breathed through it and I survived and they did also.
It is only 20 days until my parents come here for a visit. I am so excited. They are going to stay at my house for 2 weeks and then my sister's. I would love them to stay the whole month here, but my sister would be sad (I never did share well). I can't wait.
I better get going. I have things still on the list I want to get done before bed. I also started reading again....
Blessings,
Brenda
It was another hot one today. The wind blew ferociously (sp?) all day long. I was able to dry quite a few loads of laundry. My son finished the turkey run and arbor and now just has to make the gate. He trenched for the water pipe to put a faucet in the turkey run for their water. I think in the next day or so he will run the water. He has a long day at work tomorrow.
My parents are coming on the 28th of June. Hip, hip, horray!!!!!!! I can't wait.
I have been trying to keep busy and keep my mind busy. I seem to fall into some sort of depression (not sadness) when I am idol. I worked harder today and am feeling better right now. I am going to give this a try and see how I feel.
We have cucumbers and tomatoes. They are growing nice and steady now. I can't wait to start harvesting them. With the tomato thing here in Texas I will appreciate the tomatoes.