BIRDS OF ALL COLORS AND SIZES

Today is a different Monday ,not only the first Monday of the new time change but hubbie is working today because they are closing on Friday for Veterans Day.
It's just me and g-son today. He was here at 7:30 this morning searching out a toy that started with the letter H for today's lesson. All the way to school we practiced the H sound.
He is so excited about learning it is a joy to be around him right now. I wonder how long it will last ???
After I dropped him off and came back home I did chores and ate breakfast.
I took a walk this morning on this beautiful sunny day and with a sweatshirt on I was sweating by the time I got back to the house.
Today was a bird watchers paradise as I walked.
I saw blue birds.....
Red birds.......
Big birds ( a pilated wood pecker).......
Little birds ( sparrow).......
I laughed when I downloaded this picture because I didn't even see the second blue bird when I snapped this one.
I spent the rest of the morning cleaning up the dead vines in my front flower bed until it was time to pick up g-son.
We stopped at Sam's on the way home for pizza and then at Dollar Tree to get some things to finish my operation Christmas child boxes. G-son was excited to help pick out toys to go in them. He also picked out a toy for himself.
This fishing pole toy requires a lot of concentration.


Almost there....

Ahhhhh sweet success !!!!!

Celebration !!!!
It always amazes me at the simple pleasures that give g-son that sweet smile.

After he left with his mom I sat out in the outside patio for awhile, the first time in a while that it has been warm enough to be comfortable in a jacket out there.
With darkness falling now an hour earlier chore time comes and hour earlier.
Here is the newest addition to the farm.
This is the calf #1 son got yesterday. He sure is a friendly calf. #1 son and hubbie got the electric fence working this evening so I can let him out in the upper pasture tomorrow to keep Snowball the cow company.
After a snack supper hubbie, daughter and I headed over to her house to clean. Daughter and I worked in her kitchen, cleaning all the cabinets with Murphy's Oil Soap and I cleaned the counter tops all with a bleach cleaner. Hubbie was working in her bathroom getting the new sink in place and connected. I left to at 8:30 to come home and bake and they stayed to clean the kitchen floor.
I baked 40 layers and a couple pound cakes tonight.
Whew, this has surely been a long day and I'm ready for bed as it is almost midnight.
Grateful to a gracious God tonight.
Good Night and God Bless.

SUNDAY FURNITURE SHOPPING SUCCESS

As I got ready for church this morning my decision to not cut my hair was reinforced when I looked at the back of my head to make sure the hair clasp was straight and noticed how pretty my natural curls were hanging down my back. Guess I'll keep it long .
A cool but sunny morning greeted me today.
The fall communion table was set up at church. We leave this up all month long to remind us how blessed we are with God's bountiful blessings.Church was good today we are starting the book of Acts , today we heard about the responsibilities of the church.
We had a small lunch bunch today, only #1 son ,g-son and daughter joined us for lunch.
We had one of the fresh pot roast I bought last week and it was very good.
#2 son is playing in a charity golf tournament and d-in-love is working as usual.
After we ate hubbie and I went with daughter to look at furniture in Asheville. G-son went with us as his daddy is picking up a calf today with a friend of his.
Daughter found a bedroom set she liked on the website of the first place we stopped at but they couldn't tell her exactly when she would get it. Since she is moving in Friday she needs to know when it will come so we decided to look elsewhere.
We went to the same place she picked one out last week and they told her to wait until Thursday for the sale.
After a discussion with the manager they agreed to sell the set today for the sale price.
We can pick it up Tuesday or Wednesday.
We headed to Lowes to look at refrigerators , there is no tax today so we found one that was on sale for 15% off plus no tax so she bought it and they will deliver Tuesday.
Well we didn't expect to have such a successful day but when Friday comes she'll have everything she needs now.
G-son was exceptionally well behaved all afternoon so he got a Sub-Way cheese pizza with bacon on it and a choice of his favorite thing to ride in the mall.Just as we got home #1 son was unloading the calf and g-son took right to it. It already has a name "Louie" , don't ask me where that came from. It also has the same middle and last name as g-son. It was too dark tonight for a picture so that'll come tomorrow.
After all the commotion settled, chores were finished by flashlight and a fire started in the wood stove downstairs hubbie and daughter went over to her house.
I went through old pictures looking for November decade pics. I also downloaded more pics onto my external harddrive as this computer is acting up again.

In decade pictures there were no '61 or '71 that I found so 1981 will be the first for this month.
In November 1981 hubbie and I were learning to be parents to a new baby boy who was only 2 weeks old by the first of the month.
He definitely does not look happy about bath time !!

Mom had one sister still living at this time and she and her husband made the trip down from Michigan to see mom's first grandchild.

This is my uncle Bob and aunt Carol with my mom in November 1981. They were on their way to spend the winter in Florida.

Daylight Savings time is over for the year,I'm sure it is going to take at least a week for me to adjust to the new schedule,yuck. The older I get the less I like change !!
I'm staying up to watch the 11:00 news tonight but it feels like the midnight news !!

Thankful to God tonight for the blessings of today.
Good Night and God Bless.

DAY LIGHT SAVING TIME ENDS

GRRRRRR!!!!! I hate it when the phone jars me awake in the middle of the night,knowing it can't be good news on the other end of the line. I had just gotten to sleep last night after a very stressful day when my phone went off. To make matters worse the voice on the other end ,cheerfully asked, "what are you doing "? To preserve my sleepiness I did not say what I felt like saying,instead I just groaned as #1 son explained how he had fallen asleep on the couch and forgot to bring g-son over here. I really don't know what else was said ,I think when I realized it wasn't an emergency I dozed right back off with the phone in the bed with me.
I got up on time this morning but felt like I was in slow motion as I was 10 minutes late getting to market. But I don't think it mattered as there has been very light traffic through here all morning. I had a really nice order so I've had a decent day ,thank you Lord.
Hubbie was over at daughter's working so when I left market I stopped by Aldi to pick up a smoked turkey they had on sale and Big Lots to look at their rugs and kitchen islands they had advertised. The kitchen island were too small and they had no blue rugs so I picked up daughter some 75% off Halloween decorations for next year and headed on home.
After getting things put away I rested awhile but didn't want to nap to ruin my first night of time change sleep. Got an apologetic phone call from #1 son saying he thought it was 11:00, not 5 minutes until 1:00.
Hubbie came in shortly and neither of us was hungry so I made a cottage cheese salad for a snack supper before chore time.
This day started out really cool in the upper 20's and only got to 54 this afternoon and even the bright sunshine didn't make it feel comfortable outside with a breeze that blew all day.
I decided tonight to finish my 4th blog book, I only liked a month and I always get nervous that this old computer will shut down and I'll have to start all over again when I get near the end of these books. I only liked 1 month so I sat down and finished it and downloaded it to Blurb while I slept.

This catches me up until I finish this years blogging. The kids are already enjoying these books so I think all my hard work and time put into the books will pay off.

Since I couldn't publish this post during that download I am publishing this on Sunday morning.
Hope everyone remembered to set their clocks back early this morning to get back on regular time.
God is so good all the time and I'm looking forward to worshiping Him with my church family in just a little while.
God Bless .

ANOTHER FRIDAY AND SOMEONE IS SICKLY

Got an early phone call this morning from d-in-love. Seemed g-son was running a low grade fever again this morning and didn't feel like going to school. This is d-in-love's volunteer day at his pre-school so she brought him here and went to school alone !
He seemed fine and ate 2 waffles for breakfast while I went outside to do the chores. It is cool and windy this morning after the rainy night. There was 1 1/2" of rain in the gauge this morning.
I iced cakes and caught up some loose ends while g-son watched cartoons and rode laps around the house on his tricycle.
He still says he feels bad and his eyes look week.
I got my new little table set up and it fits and does the job fine.And actually I think it looks like a table that would be in the bathroom.The old chamber pot on the bottom shelf is from my dad and mom's house. I remember it went in a pink basket woven box with a lid and was used during the night and in really cold weather.
I finally found a matching dish pan at the Fall Harvest Days last month.
Most of the old enamel things have black trim like the smaller bucket inside the dish pan so I was glad to finally find red trim to match.
After lunch d-in-love came back and picked up g-son so I could go work at church.
Another upsetting afternoon at church because I found my equipment closet blocked and had to take time to put things away that should have been the responsibility of the users.
I came back home and g-son came back while mom went to her 2nd volunteer time of the day.
Hubbie came home and the three of us headed up to finish work at church. Normally g-son would be excited to go with us as he gets to play drums and pianos while we work but today he didn't feel so good and took his favorite blanket to snuggle with.
He tired very quickly of performing.
He snuggled quietly until his dad came to pick him up after he got off work.
As we finished work and headed home the wind still was making the sunny 54 degree day really chilly. We snacked for supper after doing the chores and then relaxed for a while.
I iced 5 chocolate cakes for an order tomorrow and 2 coconuts .
#1 son called and asked if g-son could spend the night over here so he could get up early in the morning and go deer hunting.

Grateful for the love of a forgiving gracious Lord tonight.
Good Night and God Bless.

OKAY MARKET DAY , RAINY EVENING

As I hrriedly got chores done I didn't realize how cold it was until I got in the van and looked at the temperature gauge in there. Wow, 30 degrees at 9:00,wonder how cold it was earlier ?? That explains why the hens were so slow coming out of their house for the scratch feed I threw on the ground.I needed to be right on time at market as a customer was stopping by to pick up her order on her way to another appointment. She was there when I arrived so that made it easy. After she left I didn't have to be in any hurry to get things set up. It is slow today so far, by 11:30 I haven't even made a dent in my inventory for today and sold only a couple things for daughter.
I still have 2 orders to be picked up.

I've been looking up prices of washer/dryer pairs to see who has the best deal. I'm giving mine to my daughter because I don't like the new washer I bought and my dryer is pretty old but it will do her until she can afford a new one. I have picked out the one I want and I'm just watching pricing right now.
Thankfully by time to pack up I had an okay day. I ran regular errands along with a couple extra stops. I found a table for my bathroom I've been looking for, I think at least, it was on sale for 1/2 price at Habitat Restore so if it doesn't fit in there I can use it somewhere else at only $14 I don't have a lot invested. When I get it cleaned up I'll make a picture.
By the time I got home around 5 it had started to rain. Daughter and hubbie helped get things unloaded and put away before the rain got too hard.
We ate supper and then did the chores in a light rain.
I am beat tonight and spent some time just relaxing tonight while daughter made pumpkin rolls to sell Saturday.
I started baking at 9 and made 26 layers, a pound and 2 wine cakes.
The rain got harder and lasted most of the evening. The news says we got about an inch,I'll check the gauge in the morning for sure.

This was the radar when I sat down to blog with most of the heavy stuff already past us by this time.
I am thankful for the rain to dampen all the fallen leaves,usually at this time we have major forest fires around these mountains and any bit of rain will help prevent that.
It looks like we will get more rain next week about this time and we're also in for some milder temperatures for next week.Thanking God for His wonderful love and all the blessings He showers down on me each day.
Good Night and God Bless.

ANOTHER BUSY HOUSEWORK DAY

Woke an hour early this morning and should have gotten up but snuggled a while longer in the nice warm bed. Next week I'll be waking an hour early by the clock anyway.
Facing another busy day I decided to take my morning walk anyway. I love this walk because it is my quiet time for communicating with God and enjoying His creations each day.These trees are still so pretty on the hill in front of our house.

I walk past this little Red Maple tree each day and admire it's beauty. I'll have to flag it so it doesn't get cut down when we do winter brush clearing.

The Forsythia is showing a few blooms in this cool weather, maybe it just can't wait for spring.

When I got back to the house I started a load of laundry and then iced 6 caramel cakes and 4 chocolate cakes before lunch.
Mixing in a couple more loads of laundry with cleaning floors, sweeping porches and watering all the plants I brought inside last week I had a busy afternoon.
The sunshine is beautiful outside with mid 60 temperatures but I need to go to the meat market so I won't be enjoying any relaxing time in the sun today.
I bought 5 chuck roast and 5 lbs of ground chuck plus a couple packs of smoked pork chops. I love going to this market because they cut the roast and grind the meat right in front of you so you know it is very fresh and their prices are very reasonable.
This should supply us with our Sunday lunches with some other special things I find mixed in until after Christmas and for only $67, you can't beat it.
Back home I put away all the Halloween decorations and with hubbie's help put up the new plate holder I painted yesterday and moved some plates into it.
Hubbie and daughter went over to her house to finish the painting tonight. That's another milestone behind her. Hopefully she'll get moved next weekend.
I buried myself in paperwork while they were gone and finished the October figures and this weeks bills .
Daughter baked when she got back and then I iced 2 coconut cakes.
#2 son came up for hubbie to give him a haircut,his hair is longer than I've seen it in a while and he was tired of fooling with it so off it came along with a beard he had been growing.
Watching the news and then heading to bath and bed.
Thanking God for all the blessings of today and praying for His guidance tomorrow.
Good Night and God Bless.

THE NOVEMBER VIEW FROM HERE

The view from here sure has changed in a months time. It now definitely has a bareness about it and even in the warm sunshine it looks cold.
On this first day of November it started out very frosty again about 30 degrees.
After chores and breakfast I walked in the coolness of the morning. It does put an extra giddy-up in each step.The pastures are still green but the surrounding trees are getting that barren winter look.
Back at the house I warmed up by starting laundry and baking my pound and wine cakes as well as icing 6 caramel cakes all before lunch.
I changed all the furniture covers ,rugs and etc. to start the month of November.I can not believe it is already almost Thanksgiving again. It seems that we just had Thanksgiving dinner a few weeks ago ,not an entire year ago !!!
Soon there will be cooked turkey on this table as well as the placemat turkeys !!

I stayed steadily busy all afternoon, alternating laundry loads and hanging out to dry with washing windows ,cleaning bathrooms, taking down Halloween decorations and wrapping and labeling cake orders.
When daughter got home I went with her out to a rug store. She found one for her living room and one for her dining room while we were there and she ordered a matching runner for her front foyer. The salesman went to school with my boys and he gave her a good deal. She found something she really liked for her bedroom but is not sure about rug space in there until she finds some bedroom furniture.
We came home and after chores and supper her and her dad took a load of her things that she had stored at #2 son's house along with her new rugs on over to her house.
While they were gone I iced 6 more caramel cakes.
She has baking to do when she gets home and I have heartburn so I don't feel like doing a lot tonight anyway. I think I should stay out of the left over Halloween candy after I get over this bought of painful heartburn !!!

The accident that happened just up the road yesterday turned out to be a drug deal gone bad and the guys in the car actually ran down the victim and hit him. When the 4 black guys jumped out and ran they ran up on a neighbors porch and told him they had been robbed. He told them he didn't want anything to do with them and asked them to leave. Lucky for him they ran off. The victim apparently is not seriously injured. But that has made me very nervous and several times today I found myself locking my doors while I was working inside. I have never done that before and never thought I needed to do that, but times are changing and I'm afraid they are going to get much worse. The trouble that used to be around towns and cities is quickly spilling out into the sparsely settled country where life moves at a slower pace and trust is understood.
I grew up sleeping with the doors open and our back door didn't even have a lock on it.
My brothers and I played and roamed the woods and fields at will without even a thought of danger except from maybe stepping on a snake or a bees nest ( which we did both from time to time).
A man's handshake was as good back then as 10 signed documents are today.(maybe better)
Times sure have changed right here on this same farm I was raised on and it makes me sad sometimes to think what my daddy would have to say about how things are now.
Sometimes when I buy a bottle of water to drink I even giggle a little as I think of what he might say about buying water !!!

Just think what a wonderful world this would be if everyone loved God and followed His Ten Commandments.
All I know is I love God and pray each day for His forgiveness for my shortcomings.
Good Night and God Bless.