The Joys Of Family and Hearth

It has been a quite a week here in our home..But God has taught me soo much. How thankful I am to know the Lord and have his love. We have been sick, very very sick here this past week. Now for those of you who know us well. You know we don't get ill. And lately the Lord has been teaching me that "yes, you do". It started off with my oldest not feel well at all! She literally woke up one morning crying..This is not my daughter! Off to the dr . we went. Now I knew as soon as she rolled out of bed, threw on a pair of boots and her coat..That she was ill. She is a normal 16 year old girl, who normally wouldn't been seen outside without her hair and make up done and dressed oh so fashionable cute! :) Dr. diagnosis pneumonia..Whoa!! Where did that come from?!!?! Ok , we can handle that. So off to bed she goes, meanwhile here at the fort Grandma had been holding the place down, while it was being winterized and watching the rest of the hooligans for me. So we fill script...

Be careful what you wish for, I should say!! We LOVE snow!!! a TON!!! and over the last two weeks we have recieved a TON of snow! The kids enjoy playing in it and frankly so does thier mama. The snow falling gives me a complete sense of peace. I'm not sure why, but I often ponder if it's not Lord, cleansing the earth with it. Fluffy white stuff falls from the sky to cover everything..Leaving things feeling clean, fresh and a new. Isn't January often associated with "new" things? We make resolutions, changes and fresh starts along with the new year. We hope to improve our health, finances, and relationships. Our hope however is in the Lord. My hope is in him, and this January for me, is a renewal of sorts, a renewel of my hope in the Lord. He has sustained us through some trials this past year. He has continued to hold us up, often when I have turned my back and looked for my own solutions. Yet I can still find a renewal in his holy spirit. Thankfully he does n...

It's been a busy and fun Christmas Week here in our home. We have prepared much food and enjoyed many days of just listening to Christmas Music and baking, or cooking for our Annual Christmas Eve Celebration. We started by baking several dozen of cooking, excellent sugar cookies, chocolate chips and oatmeal butterscotch. Then we made several dozen batches of Cinnamon Rolls, they were handed out as gifts to our friends and neighbors. Then we started our Christmas Eve Cooking extravaganza!! Each year we host an open house and have tons of fun seeing who will come and celebrate with us. This year we had a full open house. And we even did some cooking with our guests. We made Strufoli! We started our open house at noon. We do this so that if anyone is in the area and would like to stop by for a quick lunch, some tea, or coffee or just cheese and crackers they are more then welcome to pop in. Enjoy some food and fellowship and be on their way. :) We had tons of cheese (horseradish, ...

On November 16, 1994, day 3 of my hospital stay/induction. I gave birth to: Ashley Nicole 8 lbs. 11 ozs . 21 inches She was plump and perfect, and happened to be the first baby born, on the 100 th anniversary of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Hospital and was given a $50.00 savings bond from them. It was a special time in our life. We brought this little munchkin home to our chicken coop, I kid you not we rented a chicken coop/apt. Really neat little place! :) Now here we are 16 years later, and four more sibling added to the mix! We arrive at her Sweet 16 party!!! Last night showed me just how blessed I am! If you don't know my daughter, by walking around the room last night you would have figured out her heart for sure. Ashley loves photography, and is really good at it too! :) She covered the walls in our church with about 500 photos of family and friends. And not just plain shots, but really interesting shots, where you could read the person's emotions!!! She had some old p...

A couple of weeks ago we ventured out to our favorite place to camp and attended a most wonderful event. The HayCreek Festival at Johanna Furnace in Morgantown Pa. What a wonderful hands on event... My new favorite pic of my hubby... (swoon) The gentleman is carving table legs, with the leg power of our son. He couldn't pedal too fast or too slow or the machine wouldn't work. My oldest son volunteered at the festival and pedaled the pedal drill for hours that day!! On top of all the hands on activites, there was tons of tractors, and little neat gadgets like this tiny car. :) Here my guy is taking the dried corn cob, putting it through this machine and hand cranking it. The machine would then strip the cob of the kernals and wah-lah, corn kernals that can now be ground into corn meal. Another old beauty.. My husband had the best time looking at all the old machinery and cars, and now would like to make this one of his hobbies. Here's my #4. Learning to wring out the ...

Ok, so most of you know I am anti-schedule. I don't like them, I feel like a slave to them. I just don't like the over all feel of them. HOWEVER, as my family as grown..I am seeing the need for some order. More like an organized chaos, instead of just chaos! SO I've read all the books, and like the idea of a MOTH routine, but still ummm for this skeptic seemed like it wasn't going to happen. One of my biggest issues with scheduling is I personally have a very hard time with not completing things. If it's on my to do list and it doesn't get done, I get down on myself. So the thought of planning the entire day and possible missing something is dreadful to me!! Now MOTH is very clear that if you miss something you just keep going with the schedule..ooo that is hard for me too!! What about the stuff you missed, now you've got to catch up!! See the pressure. BUT.... I knew I needed to develop something! Soooo Here's our basic routine for the day. 6:30 am~Mom ...

This is NOT a Chili, not matter what you say!! This is NOT a Chili!!! :) Ok, so try this out, it's fantastic..We ate it as a side and a lot of people at the bbq we were at, put it on their hot dogs!!! Big hit!!! 4 ounces bacon, diced~yeah right, I did a pound! 1 pound lean ground beef (90% lean)~80% is fine. 1/2 cup chopped onion~whole onion 1 can (21 ounces) pork and beans 1 can (16 ounces) kidney beans, rinsed and drained~you can use a "chili" variety 1 can (16 ounces) butter beans, rinsed and drained 1/2 cup packed brown sugar~I used Damara! 1/2 cup ketchup 1 tablespoon cider vinegar~I did 2! 1 teaspoon prepared mustard 1 teaspoon salt I made this in my cast iron pot, ok I'm on a new kick..loving my cast iron!!!! fry the bacon, drain the grease almost all the way but not totally. -throw bacon in crockpot. :) add the onion, once it starts to get soft and brown..add the ground beef Let that cook till no longer pink then add all the beans, and the rest of ingredients....