The Joys Of Family and Hearth

So while browsing pinterest, I came across an idea.. that I loved! After pricing it out at home depot, it wasn't such a great idea anymore.. way too much $$. But I did see another idea, that I thought was cute. SO I enlisted Big Daddy's help, and we set to work! The only investment I made in the project was for plants, mulch and the balusters, about $20.00 in total. I had the teacups aka, bird feeders and the bowl aka bird bath, the milk can I just respray painted it white. Big Daddy drilled holes in the cups and sauces and screwed them into the balusters, and then we did a light caulk around the center to keep anything from going through. We then just glued the bowl to top of milk can. added some mulch and flowers and now we waited for some birds to come visit it! :) Psalm 104:12 The bird s of the sky nest by the waters; they sing among the branches. From My Home to Yours~~ Blessings~~

Psalm 29:11 The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace . Oh, how the Lord has blessed me with peace these past few weeks. I almost feel as if I am not myself. The *me* I know, would be panicking with the fear of how we are going to make it. The *me* I know would be doubting God, double minding my husband, and living in fear of what is to come. But since before my dh was laid off, our Pastor in church has been doing a series on Faith, based on Hebrews 11.  So many men of faith discussed in Hebrews 11. So many different situations to faith. I hope I am expressing myself clearly. Anyway, it is almost like it was preparatory for what was about to come, and sermons to carry us through this trial. We have grown so much during the past several months. We felt the Lord leading us several months ago, to stay at home more, train our children more, and just be present more for our children. It's amazing what has happened in our lives since then. ...

As the warmer weather approaches and the kids are outdoors more and so I am.. Our appetite naturally increases. Here's some healthy snacks your might find around our home if your pop over for a visit. Ice Cold Water Homemade unsweetened ice tea are a must for this house! We always have both on hand!!! :) Celery is always available too, we like to stuff it with peanut butter, or with cream cheese and then top it with some walnuts!! So good. Carrots are always on hand as well. Not the baby carrots, those are bad for you!!! And more expensive then just buying  a regular bag of carrots, that you peel and eat. We have several hand peelers on deck. Even my 3 yo can peel a carrot. :) Apples!!! Our favorites are granny smiths, pink ladies, golden delicious and gala!! Now you can slice apple and dip in peanut butter or cashew butter.. We will eat the Granny's with cheddar or smoked Gouda cheese.  Apples and cheese go great together! Grapes, we like seedless either red o...

Woke up to the birds singing. The sun shining, and a cool breeze blowing through my bedroom window. :) Decided we would go to a flea market at Allaire State Park! So glad we did. We met my mom there and we had a great time. Also caught up with my friend Genevieve!!! SO glad to see her as well! You can check out her finds here : http://primitiveparadise.blogspot.com/ Hubby and I found some great deals! First off I love cast iron!!! I love to cook in it, love the way it looks, just love it all around! And since I am primarily cooking with it, my anemia is no longer. :) How precious are these?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?! Little Bears  Fruits and Veggies!!! Muffin/Cake pans!! I just love them. Now I am very picky about where my cast iron comes from it absolutely must be made in the USA! And these were from a place in Pennsylvania!! Yeah, so exciting!!! They are in really good shape, just going to clean them up and oil them really good !!! Can't wait to giv...

Well we sent off the appeal to unemployment. Hopefully this will go through and we will be allowed to collect. If they do allow the appeal, we should get back pay for all this time he has been out of work. What an amazing time this has been. You really do find out who your friends are when your in a tough  financial situation.  Many offer help, I guess it's to be kind. But when you call on it. They don't return your calls. And then others that you wouldn't expect to get help from are truly offering you anything they can do. What a blessing that is! How wonderful to see God moving in peoples hearts. Dh has been offered small jobs by friends of ours, things they could do themselves I'm sure but they are taking the time to offer it to dh, so they can give him a little bit of money. How grateful we are for that. We even had a couple bring us a box of blessings. FOOD!! yeah!!!! How grateful our hearts were last night when we went to bed. God is moving. We are b...

This morning the kids and I woke up early and feeling energetic! So we decided to go for a walk to the "flower" lady. She is about a two mile hike from the campground. I was a little concerned about my youngest one making the trip, it's 4 miles total. But she did it like a champ! We traveled on very country roads. So cars go pretty fast, yet at times you meet up with kids on horseback or horse and buggy's going past. It's a cool day here in Pa, the sun is shining.. the walk was great. We passed several  fields. One was filled with sheep, Emma did her best sheep impression and the came running to the fence, "talking" back to her! It was so cute! We walked past a Mennonite house, and the children were banging on the windows to say "hi" to us. Down a curvy road, following the creek.. we saw several large horses, I'm not sure what kind of horses' they were but they were huge! Fields of yellow wildflowers. Up a steep Hill...

Carrie, This is what happens when you give your cousins your password to your blog. We change EVERYTHING!! We hope you like it, we worked hard and thought of what you would like for your new blog design, the WHOLE time!! LOVE YOU Jess and Tue

So this past weekend we were out at our home away from home. We went to our first ever Mud Sale! If you haven't been to one, what a blast. EVERYTHING you can possible imagine is for sale!!!! From tea cups to motorcycles! There were several auctioneers going at one time! And some stuff was dirt cheap while other stuff went a little high, just depended on what you wanted I suppose. One thing about being out here in the middle of Amish country is they don't waste ANYTHING! and EVERYTHING is for sale! Stuff I will find back home dumped for garbage, they sell. And people buy it too! It's kind of funny! And the way they use things is so neat! So there was two things, I wanted.. a wood stove was one, and a huge cast iron kettle was the other. Unfortunately both sales were going at the same time. Missed the wood stove.. it sold for $5.00. And was over bid on the pot. That sold for $125.00... Great price , I know but with dh unemployed... not going to spend that much ...

Into the will of Jesus, Deeper and deeper I go, Praying for grace to flollow, Seeking His way to know; Bowing in full surrender Low at His blessed feet, Bidding Him take, break me and make, Till I am molded, complete. Oswald J Smith