Wednesday Hodgepodge

 

 

1. Give us three rhyming words that say something about your Thanksgiving holiday (or your most recent holiday gathering if you didn't celebrate Thanksgiving).  
   1. Fast- This holiday was quick.  Time flew!
   2. Blast- Time flew because we were having such a great time.
   3. Last- This is the last holiday of the year that all of Jeremiah's family gets together.  Those that travel stay home for Christmas. 

2. When did you last say, 'the more the merrier'? Did you mean it?  I can't exactly say when I used that saying last.  I use it a lot.  Every time we have get together's we love to have more.  I definitely mean it when I say it! 

3. What's one piece of advice you'd give someone who is your same age?  This is tough as I could really use the advice! LOL  I am entering into a stage of life where my kids aren't as dependent on me anymore and are branching out onto other things.  They do most of their school themselves so I am not necessarily needed there anymore. They are teens and it is hard to sometimes let go.  I guess my advice would be to enjoy every moment of time together we can.  They will be flying the coop way to soon!

4. You're ordering a veggie plate, what four veggies are on it? 
   1. Carrots
   2. Cauliflower
   3. Broccoli
   4. Radishes

5. Shop til you drop! Did you? Have you ever? Will you between now and Christmas?  I didn't shop til I dropped.  I may have in my early twenties though.  I will shop again but it isn't my favorite thing to do.  I detest shopping.

6. What's your favorite chair in your house, and why is it a favorite?  A favorite chair is actually a glider with a matching ottoman.  A dear friend gave us this glider set and it is so comfortable!!!!  I love to sit and read on it. I think it may actually be a favorite chair for a lot of the family.  It isn't comfortable to take a nap in though.  I fell asleep in it one time while reading. I woke with a terrible kink in my neck!  LOL  It is also a great chair to be in while holding my baby nephew! Awesome!  It gets a lot of usage! 

7. Share an early memory of faith, religion, or spirituality. I have so many memories that picking one is hard. I guess I will go with one from my teen years.  I was in our church youth group.  It was different from many of the ones today.  Our group met to help others; like an outreach ministry and we spent a lot of time learning the Scriptures and how to apply them to our lives.  Occasionally we would go for ice cream and once we had a sledding party. That was fun!

8. Insert your own random thought here.   It's amazing that Christmas will be here soon.  I can't believe that we are at the end of November already! We have only had one snow so far this season.  It seems weird!  LOL  Today it is raining!  It should be snow... I am not wanting snow but it makes it seem more festive.  We have had the Christmas music playing since Thanksgiving and it is starting to look like Christmas in our home!  The tree is up and some decorations have been set out.  It's an exciting time of the year!

Update, Again!

   I think that I stated a while back that I was going to do better posting.  Umm...Well, that didn't happen!  I have been too busy living life instead of blogging.  I figured that today would be a good day to update you on what has been happening here.  

   Ryder and I were under the weather last week.  He had a sore throat and head cold and I had a stuffy head.  I wasn't really sick, sick- just icky sick. I was also really tired.  Everything I did wore me out. Ryder was much worse than I was.  He spent much of his week on the couch or in bed.  He wasn't even upset that he didn't get to go to homeschool group that week so I knew he was still sick.  He is still a bit clogged in the head but doing much better.  Madi went to work this morning but she told me that her throat was a bit sore.  I told her to call me if she needed to leave work early.  She has a really nice boss and manager at her store so if she needs to leave there shouldn't be a problem. Jeremiah has been able to stay clear of the crud.

   We went to a Thanksgiving dinner for my side of the family last Saturday.  My mom hosted it and she kept it pretty small this year but we have enough leftovers to go home with each of us.  She made everything but I brought the rolls. Mom only had us, my brother C and his family and my uncle and friend K. My brother J lives in FL and didn't make it home. We enjoyed getting to visit and it was just a nice family meal.  One more reason to be thankful.  On Thanksgiving day, we went to Jeremiah's parent's house.  I took candied carrots, that we canned this year, and coleslaw.  They host all Jeremiah's extended family.  It is a large, noisy affair with lots and lots of food.  You never get the time back so we enjoy all the time we get to spend with our families.

   Madi really, really wanted to go Black Friday shopping so I broke down and went with her.  One positive thing is; Madi isn't a morning person so she had no interest in getting up at O dark-thirty to go. I have not gone Black Friday shopping in years.  I used to take both kids when they were babies with me to shop because Jerm was working. We had a good time shopping. A couple of those years when the kids were babies in diapers and really little my father-in-law even went with us to help out.  Those are precious memories that we will never forget so even though I didn't want to go shopping I went and it made my daughter extremely happy.  Another day of memory making!

  After Black Friday shopping it is a tradition to go to my in-laws again for another supper. My mother-in-law always makes turkey pot-pies with the leftover turkey and some of the left over veggies.  We eat up most of the leftovers and bring some new dishes to feed everyone again.  I decided to take a big crockpot full of baked potatoes and a container of sour cream along with the left over coleslaw.

   Speaking of memories...  This is just a weird thought that I had last week.  Madi and I were in the car going somewhere, I can't remember where but, I was driving and went to change the radio station.  When I looked at my hand I could have sworn it was my mom's or grandma's (mom's mom) hand and not mine!  Isn't that crazy?  Grandma has been gone for many years now but my memories of her are still clear. OK, so really my hand isn't as wrinkly yet but the shape and just the movement caused me to picture one of their hands. I should state that Mom's hand isn't really wrinkly yet either but still... I shared it with Madi who put her hand out with mine and was rather appalled that her lovely, young hands would one day end up with age spots and wrinkles!   HAHA!

   Since we have been doing a lot of running lately, you know that the laundry has fallen behind.  Yep, Mt. Laundry has peaked.  I am remedying that today.  I have two loads washed and on the line to dry.  Jeremiah has furnace fire going so it shouldn't be long for them to dry and I will start another load.  While Madi and I were shopping yesterday, Jerm sent me a picture of a cleaned up kitchen. He and Ryder cleaned the house while we were out.  What wonderful guys.  Jerm said that he didn't think I wanted to come home from shopping all day to tackle the mess from the previous day.  So sweet of him!   

  Well, that's all the time I am going to take today to post.  Hope everyone is having a blessed day. 

Canning shelves for 2016

   I am finally finished canning for 2016.  The only thing that I may have to can is venison if Ryder or Jeremiah get another deer.  We froze the meat from the doe Ryder already got.  My mom needs some venison so the next deer will go to her but both boys can get a doe and a buck each.  We only harvest what we will eat so really we only need to get two more deer.  One for mom and one more for us. 

Here is the break down on the jars.

 ::The first shelf from the ceiling is our tomato soup.  We have already eaten a lot of jars.  Madi has eaten the bulk of those jars.  She took them to work.  :-)

::The second shelf is salsa on the left and carrots on the right.  I may end up canning more carrots because they are so convenient to have on hand.  One of Ryder's favorite sides is sweet carrots. I melt some butter and brown sugar together.  When it is blended I just add a jar of drained carrots and heat it thoroughly. Easy peasy.   

::On the third shelf starting from the left is grape juice then some applesauce from last year, then some spaghetti sauce that I also canned last year. Next in line is some spicy banana peppers and some peaches- again from last year.  Finishing up that shelf is jams.  I have elderberry, peach and blueberry.

::The fourth shelf is the green beans.

::The bottom shelf from the left is red beets, venison, honey and maple syrup.

   That's a wrap on this year.  Hopefully I haven't bored you with all the canning updates. Until next time, be blessed and enjoy this November! 

From My Front Porch

 

  It has been a bit since I posted by life has been a bit busy.  I did take pictures from our front porch every Friday in October.  The leaves were beautiful.  I will post the nicest ones today. 

This photo starts out early October.  The leaves were just starting to turn.

 



We had some rainy days.  I couldn't help but snap a shot on those days.

 



Some of the trees turned quicker than others. 

 



The sky was beautiful and blue this day.  It helped to show the beautiful colors.

 



The line in this picture is an electric line. I wanted to try to zoom in a bit on some of the orange and red and the line came with it!  :-)

 



 

Another beautiful sky picture!

 

 

And then the storms came.... Leaves fell quickly.  The only ones left are on the oaks....

 

 

I hope you enjoyed a little bit of October from our perspective. I enjoyed taking the pictures and tracking the leaf coloring process.  My dad always says that the leaves are the flowers of Fall. 

 

I hate to say it but next....comes the snow!  It may be a bit (hopefully) until the snow falls but when it does, I will get a picture of it from the front porch.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. What would you say is your strongest sense? Smell and taste are close for me.  Since I have to chose one I will go with smell. 

 2. Do you believe in the idea of a 'sixth sense'? Why or why not? I do believe in a "sixth sense".  I think that we all have one.  We get that feeling in our gut and to me that is a sixth sense.

3. When do you most feel like a slave to time? Explain. When I need to get out the door for an appointment or to have one of kids to work. I don't even fret about supper time anymore....  We can eat sandwiches! :-)

4. Have you ever worked in a restaurant? How would you rate the experience? If you could own a restaurant what kind would it be? Yes, I have worked at a restaurant.  I somewhat enjoyed that job.  I learned a lot about dealing with the public and practicing patience. That job gave me experience for my future jobs as a secretary/receptionist. If I owned a restaurant I would do a down home-styled restaurant.  For one, that's the food I know how to cook and I don't like food from packages or the kind that you microwave and eat. 

 5. Ever traced your family tree? Share something interesting you learned there. I haven't actually traced my family tree but family history is a big deal in my family.  Information has been passed through the generations but my brother has traced some of our family history online.  An interesting story he found is that one of our "a lot of great's" uncle was close to George Washington during the Revolutionary War.  Shortened version:

    ::George found our uncle to be a close friend
   ::After the war was over he asked uncle what he could give him for being
      loyal to him during the war
   ::Uncle said that there was a beautiful piece of land that he traveled through
     on his way to one of the other forts
   ::George gifted him the land for his loyalty and service
   ::My kinfolk have been here since
    
 6. What did your childhood bedroom look like?  Exactly the same as now.  My mom still lives in my childhood home and nothing has changed really.  I had a nice bedroom.  It was cold in winter though as there isn't a heat source in there.  My old room has sloped ceilings- kinda like an A but had straight walls about 3 feet to the floor. My kids love to go to my old room and hang out when we go to Mom's.  We go there frequently as mom only lives a couple miles away. 

7. Anyone who knows me knows I love_______________________? TEA!!!!!!  :-)

8. Insert your own random thought here. I have finished canning for the season.  Madilynne and I canned 15 pounds of carrots yesterday.  I will be carrying them to the shelves today and the season is done!

Honey!

   I finally finished the honey!  I ended up with 13 quarts.  :-)   I am pretty happy with the end results!  My dad is the beekeeper.  I only help with the harvest.  ****Now before I continue I will tell you that we are novice beekeepers.  We do not do everything correctly. I can not endorse the way we harvest the honey.  It works for us but I can't state that this is the safest or correct way.****   

 

This year my dad and I decided to try a different approach to harvesting. We have tried several different methods in the past couple years but we struggled with those ways- me more than my dad. Since we thought we should think outside the box my dad decided that we should try to scrape the honey combs off of each section. 

 

 

This was a great idea!  It made much easier work for us- me especially with the filtering process.

 

The only drawback to this method is I was keeping the combs away from me so the honey would only drip onto the table and not make a mess on the floor.  Some of those combs were really heavy and stretched my abdomen muscles...hence I was pretty sore for a couple days! Ack!

 

I filled two nice sized bowls with honey and the wax. 

 

 

If you notice the plate and fork in the upper right hand corner- Ryder was making a quick snack of the honey and wax.  He said that this batch was one of the best harvests ever! :-)

 

I filter the honey through cheesecloth and a stainless steel strainer into a glass bowl.

 

This is some of the filtered honey.  All that is left is wax.  My dad took the wax back up to the bees.  We are experimenting to see if they will reuse the wax and take the leftover honey.

 

I put the filtered honey into clean Mason jars. I used a couple little jars that I recycled in case we need to give some away.  I don't worry about those jars being returned.

 

You can see the difference in colors if you look closely. The darker honey is clover and the more bright yellow honey is goldenrod.

 

Sorry about all the clutter in the pictures.  Ryder was helping me take photos and I just didn't want to take the time to make everything look all tidy!  LOL

 

 

From My Front Porch- October

   We have entered into Autumn.  The temperatures have turned much cooler and we have removed air conditioners in favor of the furnace!  For the last several days we have been getting plenty of rain.  I am happy about it because I think our spring could really use it.  It has been raining here since Thursday evening, if I am remembering correctly.  LOL  Days have been running together lately.  I have been a bit under the weather recently due to some pulled abdomen muscles.  I was working on honey and the combs are heavy when they are full and I was holding them away from my body.  I will post more on that later as I am pretty much back to normal now. 

 

   As you can see from the pictures, the sky is one big cloud!  No sunshine in sight.  If you can make the photos bigger you can see that the leaves are starting to change colors.  Fall is spectacular around here!  

 

   In this photo you can see where the grass is dry and in need of a good watering!  There is also a bit of goldenrod across the road.  The bees are visiting the goldenrod and the clover that remain in the fields.

 

   This photo isn't from the front porch but...  It is of our rain gauge that shows we have been getting a bit of rain.  Not as much as some areas but enough to fill our streams back up.  Most of the creeks and rivers around here were low.

   As I read over this before publishing, I noticed that I referred to the season as Autumn and Fall....  Hum, I am not quite sure what I refer to usually.  Do you call it Autumn or Fall? 

 

Happy Fall Y'all! 

 

or

 

Autumn's Blessings!