Monday, January 21, 2008

Another Yummy Sunday Lunch

Yesterday, my daughter brought a smoked chicken with stuffing for lunch. My husband made a batch of green bean casserole without the french fried onions and some instant mashed potatoes. If you had to pay for a meal like this at a restaurant, it would be at least $30. The chicken and stuffing were the biggest hit of the day. My three grandsons couldn't get enough of the chicken or the stuffing. Believe me, I ate my share too! My son-in-law raised the chickens and then smoked it with apple wood. Absolutely too good to describe.

For dinner we always do a dessert, cake, brownies, etc. I made a jello cake yesterday and it went over well too! I used white cake and cherry jello. YUM!

We had very good services yesterday. Our pastor spoke of the need for holiness. It was an excellent message and one so needed today.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

I need to keep after this! It's hard for me to keep at something, but I do want to do this. It's nice to be able to write a few lines about my day/days.

It's snowing here. I mentioned I work at a day care and care for infants. We have a buggy we put them in for walks in the summer time. Today, we loaded them up and took them upstairs to see the snow. They were so excited to see the snow! Then we took them to the gym where one of the younger workers took them for a nice ride. They absolutely loved it! One of the children started crying when we got back in the elevator to go back to the baby room. He was angry he had to go back! He has a temper. You wouldn't think he would have such a temper. I was so surprised the first time he displayed it. Children are so wonderful! I adore them.

Speaking of children, my middle daughter's children helped their mom and dad to butcher chickens this week. They are all a bunch of workers!! They were so excited about helping, and they had to do two days oc school work on Monday so they could help.

Tomorrow's Friday. Hooray!!!

I listed my pans on ebay. The electric skillet already has a bid on it and the other set of pans has 7 wathchers. I sure hope we sell them.

Well, I need to go get some beans started. I want to make beans and ham for supper.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Sundays are my favorite!

Sundays are my favorite days of the week. We had a wonderful service this morning! God came on the service and we had a shouting good time.

My dear husband made lunch for us. Today we had hamburg barbecue, french fries and corn. He is the BEST cook. He makes our meals on Sunday and my daughter said today it's like going to a good restaurant, you just never know what we're having. We had two of our grandchildren spending the weekend and my daughter and her family visit every Sunday. I just can't get enough of my family.

The hamburg we had for lunch today only costed $1.99 per pound. I got it at a meat market. It is a very nice, clean market, you can bet I'll be getting my hamburg there hereafter! I did very well shopping yesterday. I was able to get Yoplait yogurt for $.25 each. They were on sale and I had coupons. Not often I get a deal that good. I also got Campbells Chunky soups for $1.00 each. They will make a great lunch for work or even some evening.

My granddaughter was very sick this week. She is feeling 100% better and was here for the day. My daughter called me after they got home from church this evening. When they had her in the Emergency Room Thursday, they took a strep culture and they called this evening to tell them it was positive. Too bad they didn't know before. This sweet little girl never even complained of a sore throat. She also had gastroenteritis. I'm so thankful she is on the mend.

Well, tomorrow, it's back to work. With that thought, I think I'll call it a night.

In closing, I'll give you something to think about and appreciate... "The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time." By Abraham Lincoln

Thursday, January 10, 2008

It's almost Friday!!!

I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday! I really enjoy my job, but the weekends when I have more time to spend with my husband and family is what it's all about. My days at work are so full and I am very tired when I get home every day. I take care of infants at a day care and they are so dependent on their caregivers. I absolutely love to care for them. They are such precious little people. I'm hoping my love and care will make a positive impact on their lives. They love me too, and it's so nice to be loved! I have very good co-workers to work with too, so I do have interactions with grown-ups. Tomorrow I only work til 2:00. Hooray!!!

I may do a little shopping tomorrow. I found a nice little food store that sells at a real discount. Their lunchmeat and cheese is the cheapest I've found and it's good. They had popcorn chicken for $8.95 for 10 pounds and we are really enjoying that excellent buy! The workers are all Amish or Mennonite and they are so polite.

We're getting the grandchildren tomorrow evening again and I really look forward to that. My grandson is in 8th grade and he has a lot of assignments to keep up on. I try to help him to study for Spelling, Bible, etc. (they go to a Christian school). They are required to read 1,200 pages of good books in a year, which I think is a really good idea. My grandson wasn't too keen on reading at first, but he is finding it interesting now that he is reading. He has read a book about Billy Sunday, Robert E Lee and I can't remember the third one! My forgetter keeps getting better and better!

I wonder how many people would pay to have someone else clip, sort and mail coupons. I tried to do that on ebay, with little success. Any ideas?

I have a nice collection of stainless steel lifetime guaranteed cookware from Townecraft. My husband got me a new set of pans for Christmas. I really like my pans, but I don't have the strength to lift them without anything in them, let alone WITH something in them! I thought about selling on ebay, but the shipping would be so high! A friend of mine may know of someone who may be interested, but I haven't heard back from her. Do any of you know of someone who may be interested?

It's January again and our $10 per year occupational privilege tax is now $52.00. So now, we get to pay $1.00 per week for the privilege of working! People keep coming up with ways to take our money, pretty soon, we won't be getting any, all we'll get is the privilege to live, eat and sleep. But, you know, I am truly thankful that I can work and that I do have a roof over my head. My husband has always been such a good provider. I tell him often, if he would be paid what he is worth, he would be getting a much higher salary. That is not a prejudiced statement either.

Well I guess I'm done rambling today!

Monday, January 7, 2008

Weekends come and go so fast!

This weekend we had two of our grandchildren stay from Friday to Sunday evening. We love to have them come. We enjoy them immensely. I'm so thankful their mom and dad are letting us have a part in their lives. They live about an hour away, so this is keeping us in touch.

The hardest part is getting them to go to bed at a decent hour! Then, of course, getting them up for church Sunday morning can be next to impossible, depending on which of the children we have. The older one is never hard to get up and going, the younger ones are a different story! But we couldn't love them more!

We have had some of our grandchildren at our home almost every weekend for a while now, and we never tire of having them here. They are so interesting! They help keep us young! We are able to see things from a young person's standpoint.

Getting up Monday morning for work is a little challenging after a short weekend, but I love my job. I work at a Day Care and take care of infants. I'm on the lookout for a secretarial position now, only because taking care of infants is a little more demanding physically than secretarial work and secretarial work is my first love (when it comes to work, of course).

Saturday, January 5, 2008

The old farmhouse

My mom had 16 children, 8 boys and 8 girls. We were raised on a nice farm. There was plenty of play space for us. We had a big back porch and a smaller front porch. There were two furnaces, both were coal fired. One was in the kitchen and mom used that for baking. The other one was in the living room and that heated the upstairs and of course the living room. We used to pick apples from the orchard and then put them in the top of the furnace till they got soft. MMM... they were good! The kitchen stove was something like one of the stoves Country Cupboard had on display, except it wasn't fancy. Just practical and black. We used to love to sit behind it when we came in from the cold. We didn't have a refrigerator, we had a pantry. There wasn't any heat in there and that's where we stored leftovers, etc. As you can imagine with a house full of children like that, there wasn't often leftovers. We had a basement, but we seldom went down there. We had an outhouse! NOT COMFORTABLE! We didn't have a telephone.

Our dining room had a buffet and a china closet. They would sell for big bucks today if they were still around. Our table was extra long to accommodate all of us. When we got company we would hide the kids gloves, etc. in the buffet so they couldn't leave. Of couse, after a while one of the adults would get angry and we had to hand over the hidden goods. At first, there was only a door between our kitchen and dining room. I still remember my grandpa coming one day and cutting out this BIG hole in the wall then it was more like one big room.

Some of my fondest memories are of picking berries on the berry hill. We used to have to walk a ways and then either vault over a creek or walk through it to get there. There was a tree close to where we would cross. We called it our "Monkey Tree". My older brothers carved all of our initials somewhere in that tree. Another thing we used to do for fun was to find a branch, cut a nick in it, tie string on it and go fishing. I don't think I ever caught anything, but it was fun walking!

Mom made the most delicious blackberry pot pie. That's one of the reasons we enjoyed picking berries! Oh, to sit down to a feast like that with my mom again!

There were four bedrooms upstairs and a closet. There was an attic also and we used to play soldier up there. Of course the older ones were the big shots and ordered us little ones around. Still, it was fun.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Welcome!

I'm new at this and I think I need a book called Blogs for Dummies! I tried to add this post yesterday and couldn't figure out how to do it! You could say I'm a little challenged when it comes to trying new things. After a while, I'm sure I'll feel much more comfortable with this.

Here's a little bit about me that will help you understand why I chose the blog title I did...

My husband is my very best friend. He is always here for me and I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful man in my life. He gave me three of the most beautiful children any mother could wish for.

And they, in turn, gave me 9 of the most wonderful grandchildren any grandmother could hope for.

I met Jesus when I was 21 years old. I was searching for Him, but I didn't realize He was what I was searching for. He spoke to my heart, and told me He could and would take my heartache and sin if I wanted Him to. I confessed my sins and by His grace, forsook them, now I walk the "straight and narrow path". He taught me through His Holy Word that I needed Him to take care of a deeper need in my heart, the need to be sanctified. I'm so thankful that He doesn't look at us, see where we've been, and say "no way". He came not for those who have no need, but for those who DO have a need. He is the only One who can and will satisfy your deepest need.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

My husband, children and grandchildren inspire me! We hear so much about people who are very unfortunate and don't have these dear people to count on. I am SO blessed. Not only do I have all these wonderful people to count on, but I have a personal Saviour, Jesus Christ to count on.

My youngest daughter inspired me to do this. She is amazing, as are my other two. They got so much talent, creativity, etc. that I just do not have. (Thanks to my wonderful husband!)

I'm hoping this blog can in some way be a blessing to someone out there!

I plan on just writing from my heart, sort of a diary...

I'll probably be talking a lot about the afore mentioned people in my life (DH, DC, DGC & S), so if that would happen to offend you, by all means, please don't feel obligated to read my blogs! I'm not trying to be facetious(SP?).