PLANT SALE

After getting g-son his breakfast this morning I hurried downstairs to open the door for daughter who was arriving with her baked goods.
No storms for us last night thankfully and I was glad for a good night of sleep. I slept so deeply it took me a few minutes after the alarm sounded this morning to figure out what was going on ! ??
I had a pretty routine morning of chores, breakfast and then cake baking.  My baking time got extended when I had a couple orders called in, one for 6 caramel cakes.
I had to turn the oven off with the last 2 pound cakes in it and head out to school to meet daughter at the FFA plant sale.  Teachers get to go in early, (and teacher's moms too),haha  .
We also had Rebekah's order so we made a healthy dent in their inventory.

And even after all this we have come up with a couple other flats that we missed today!  The prices are great and it helps the FFA dept. as well.
I sat in an extra long line at car-rider pick-up today for some reason.

And cars were lined up behind me as far as I could see !
The clouds are still hanging on but still no rain for us.  It has been a little cooler today.
After I got g-son settled with his mac and cheese and chocolate milk I stuffed some pillows I had sewed up. I got these 9 small eyelet pillows made before #1 son came after g-son.

My sewing stack is shrinking little by little !!!
As a light rain started falling we did chores early in case the rain got harder but it didn't and it stopped after about 30 minutes.
I did weekly paperwork, still surprised that April is already gone leaving me with several extra task to catch up in May.
I iced caramel,chocolate and a coconut cake tonight.  Hubbie washed and got all the eggs ready for market to help me get an earlier bedtime.
May is starting out with some very calm, cool, dry weather, just what we need to catch up with the weeds in the garden and get out all the  plants !

Thankfully this calm weather will help all the victims of the storms of the last couple days recover what they can.  I pray for all the families that lost property and especially the families of the 35 folks who lost their lives during these storms. May God comfort and care for them.
Thankful for all the blessings God sent my way today.
Good Night and God Bless.

TERRIBLE STORMS MAKE FOR BEAUTIFUL GREEN LANDSCAPES

Wow !!! What a night !!!  Around midnight last night the thunder,lightening and rain began and continued relentlessly until after 4am this morning. Our county was put under a tornado watch from midnight until 7am this morning. The thunder at times was so loud we just knew lightening had struck something very close but couldn't find any evidence of lightening strikes this morning.
Poor Bernie who is deathly afraid of all the storm noise spent most of the night under the covers between my legs shivering so that I couldn't have slept even if I could have gotten used to the thunder. The lightening was so intense the sky stayed ablaze with it.

The pouring rain was deafening and I was very surprised this morning to find only 1 & 1/2" in the gauge.  I guess the strong winds with the storms made it sound like it was raining harder than it was.
We are some of the very fortunate ones not to have lost electric or had any flooding problems as those just in the next county were not so lucky. This is in Bumcombe county where they recieved over 5 inches of rain flooding many low areas and forcing rescues of folks in these flooded houses.

As g-son and I drove to school this morning the rain stopped falling.   I made a trip to Walmart on my way home to pick up some baking supplies. I love going to Walmart early in the morning because there is hardly anyone in there and it makes for a fast shopping trip. I was home by 8:30.
After chores and breakfast I started the weekly laundry and housework.
The clouds grew darker as the day went on but no more rain thankfully.
I had lunch, finished up some laundry and headed over to school to pick up g-son early for his dermatologist appointment.  He has a  couple large plantar warts on the bottom of one of his feet.
He was really worried at what the doctor was going to do to get them off but we played pick a color game all the way across the mountain to meet his mom and kept his mind off it.
It wound up not being so bad as they shaved the warts off and gave him some acid cream to put on them.  He said in a phone call after he left the doctor that it didn't hurt at all, only tickled.
As I drove home back across the mountain through Terry's Gap I noticed the green seems so much brighter today after the rains of last night.  In this pic it is easy to see why they call this a "gap".

These mountains are beautiful in the fall with all the colored leaves but today they have a beauty also with all the shades of green.

Gas prices keep going up as I passed our friends store.

Some of the later blooming apple trees.

I had a little visitor this evening while her mom went to a meeting at work.  Dolly loves for her to throw her tennis ball for her.

She is growing up way to fast and is so smart.  She is picking up her linking blocks and putting them back in their bag, then she zipped it up and handed it to me !
Her dad picked her up to go home and have supper with him. 
After chores a lady came and bought 2 of the Silkie chicks I have for sale. She brought her teen age daughter with her and she saw several more things that she wanted and they might come back to buy.
It started misting a light rain by the time it got dark and there was a noticable chill in the air. At 10:30 tonight it is 60 degrees, that is 10 degrees lower than this time last night.
We are now under a flood warning for the hard rains that are headed our way overnight again tonight.

 Hoping to get to sleep tonight more than last night so maybe the storms will hit these cooler temps and fall apart.
God is good and He knows what's best.
Good Night and God Bless.

SHOPPING, SEWING, STORMS

Another Monday morning as g-son arrived early and hubbie got up and got his breakfast and took him to school.
I did chores on a muggy feeling morning but the sun is shining between clouds that are floating by.
After breakfast I pulled weeds from the outside patio until Rebekah came by to pick me up and go to a plant sale at the local community college greenhouse. We both thought the plants were a bit pricey but did find some heirloom tomato plants we figured we wouldn't find anywhere else that we purchased.
We then went to a nearby thrift shop to hunt for some pretty handkerchiefs for Rebekah to make some little keepsake bonnets from.  The thrift shop was having a huge sale today so we left with a whole lot more than just linens, even a huge cedar chest !
Evy wasn't impressed with the sale or shopping especially around her lunch time but she was a trooper like she always is and we made it home without any major meltdowns.
I spent the rest of the afternoon working in the yard, getting some old stems off some of my plants and checking to see what didn't survive our extra cold winter. Looks like I lost my, several years old Rosemary bush, along with some of my Apple and Chocolate Mint and my Lavender.  Two of the three roses I bought last year look like they are not going to come back and the huge potted red rose by the front steps shows no signs of life sadly.  This was the coldest winter we have had in many years and the plants were not conditioned for that much cold.
After I picked up g-son we had to go back into his classroom to retrieve his forgotten folder again and I had a nice visit with his teachers.  He said I "chit chatted"  too long !!
After we got home he ate while I did some sewing. I am determined to attack the cut-out pile beside my sewing machine. I got these two little white baby bonnets made that I intended to get done for Easter.

Evy came up to stay for a while this evening while her mom went with daughter to an exercise class. She and g-son played for a while before he had to go home. She ate her supper before her mom picked her up, she is such a great eater.
Hubbie and I did chores and put Front Line on all the outside dogs.  The clouds are low and dark this evening and we are expecting the storms to start rolling through our area later tonight. We are currently under a flash flood watch until Thursday.

So many folks have suffered loss of homes and even a couple lost their lives in this same storm system yesterday and earlier today as it moves across the country.
One of the hardest hit areas was in Arkansas were tornadoes devastated areas.

Areas of Kansas also suffered tornado damage.

Missouri had storms and hail damage.

Along with Oklahoma....

And even Nebraska,Iowa and several other states ....

We have battened down all the hatches we could tonight in hopes that the storms will weaken as they hit the mountains that serve as a protective barrier for our area.
God is in complete control and I can rest in His loving care.
Good Night and God Bless.

DO YOU KNOW ANY OF THESE FOLKS ?

Woke to another beautiful morning today.  After chores and breakfast I got ready and went to church.
We had a good sermon today from Romans 7 .
After the service Daughter, d-in-love, Rebekah and Evy and I went out to check out the estate sale. We haven't been in quite a while since they changed their hours to only Saturday and Sunday from 10:00-2:00.
Since we were planning a spaghetti lunch, hubbie, #1 son and Aaron went home to get things started while we shopped.
The sale wasn't very good, I bought a hose reel that hubbie had spotted yesterday when he stopped by for 1/2 price along with a set of TV tables and a new small water bath canner for my haul. Daughter bought a tray of randon kitchen gadgets and d-in-love and Rebekah didn't find anything they couldn't live without.
We had a nice lunch followed by fresh strawberry short cake, yummy !!!
Everyone was here except #2 son who is golfing.
After everyone left Hubbie and I went out in the back patio to soak up some Vitamin D under a hazy sky.
The warm sunshine felt so good before I realized it I was sound a sleep.  Guess the busy week just caught up with me.  I hope this doesn't mean I won't sleep tonight.  When I woke up I had to laugh as my nose was all stuffy and I was covered with pollen that was blowing off the trees in the yard.
Probably not a good thing for my ailing sinus !!!
We came inside and watched the evening news then visited with #2 son who came by for left overs for his supper.
The air outside tonight is heavy with moisture and we are probably in for our first real storms of the season in the next couple days with this system that is already causing severe weather and tornadoes as it comes across the country.

It is 66 degrees tonight at 10:30 !
To end the decade pics for the month of April I found these pictures of some folks I would like to know how they had a connection with my family.

Hopefully someone will recognize some of these names and let me know who they are and why there are several pictures among my mother's old photo albums.
No rain yet as of 11pm but the air is sticky and the smell of rain is in the air .
Several counties to the west of ours are under flood warnings but so far not us.
Grateful to God for the blessing of a wonderfully blessed Sunday and striving to honor Him in all that I do.
Good Night and God Bless.

SLOW MARKET, BEAUTIFUL DAY

I was awake this morning before the alarm wondering why g-son was so late getting here ?  It finally dawned on me that it was Saturday but I still couldn't go back to sleep for that extra 30 minutes.
We made it to market with time to spare after the earlier than usual start.
Market business was slow again today. I think I may have actually done a little better Thursday than today. There was a good crowd of people in there but no one seemed to be buying anything.
We had plenty of entertainment with all the kids there today.  My candy selling neighbor had her granddaughter, d-in-love and g-son came by and g-son wanted to stay of course and Evy who is now a regular "marketeer" was there. They all three played well together.

 Evy loved her new friend,Annaleese.

After market g-son and I went by Wendy's and had lunch, Aldi's to pick up baking supplies and a local farm outlet that just opened yesterday with fresh vegetables.

My special turnip !!!!!!!
I bought fresh strawberries, cantalope and tomatoes, yum yum.
These are our first strawberries of the season and they are surprisingly sweet. I feel a strawberry shortcake dessert coming on tomorrow !!!

We had the cantalope tonight and it was very good.
After dropping g-son at home and unloading the van hubbie and I vacuumed and mopped all the floors since I haven't had a chance to get that done this week.
After evening chores I took a nice walk on this wonderful warm evening.
This Azaelea  seemed to have bloomed out overnight.

Love how the evening sun reflects off this old dead tree in the lower pasture.

There is starting to be wild flower color along the creek bank with these bright yellow daisies.

And there was a big patch of these white violets that I have never seen before blooming.

The "drought rock" in the creek had plenty of water running over it today.

The nice green moist pasture was a feeding ground for Robins this evening as first there was only one.

Quickly he was joined by a flurry of landing red breasted beauties.

It was also feeding time for this pair of Mallard ducks along the creek bank.

As I walked I thanked God over and over for the beauty He created and for His wonderful care.
I headed home for a restful evening as the setting sun reflected in the eastern sky.

Good Night and God Bless.