GOOD FLAG DAY MARKET DAY

UHHHH !!!!   Woke up this morning in a sweat with a nauseous feeling.  Of all days !!!
I dragged myself out of bed and managed to get the chores done and get ready for market with hubbie's help.  I have too many orders and too much stuff to do to call in sick this morning!  Hubbie followed me closely as I drove to market and I had pull off one time thinking I was really going to be sick but it passed. I have no idea why I am feeling this way this morning, I can think of nothing I ate last night that would cause this. I hope I am not getting some sort of virus I guess only time would tell.
Comments from fellow marketers let me know that my face showed how I was feeling as I pushed through the sickness.
Hubbie stayed close and helped with the stream of customers all morning. I finally ate a pack of cheese crackers and some iced sparkling water that I had brought with me and felt some better. Good enough so that hubbie could leave to run his errands and get up to church to mark off some handicap parking spaces so the paint would be dry by in the morning.
After lunch business slowed down so I had no trouble getting through the rest of the day.  I sold very well although not completely out of everything so I was very happy with the day.
I made only one stop at Aldi on the way home to pick up baking supplies for next week.  I was glad to get home and sit down for a little while.
Hubbie got on the lawn mower and I rested.  Thankfully Rebekah and Evy came to keep me company for a while before I nodded off . I can't sleep at night if I take a nap during the day.
Daughter is a bridesmaid in her friends wedding today and they have a beautiful day for an outside wedding thankfully.
This is daughter and the bride, Kindra. Her husband's family gave them some land and they built a large pole barn on it for later use and to have their wedding in. I thought this was a brilliant idea and saved a lot of wasted money on a wedding venue.  Looks like they have the barn decorated beautifully.

Daughter and I made 18 layer cakes, 2 of 9 different varieties for her reception and  daughter made a special red velvet cake for the bride and groom.  This is daughter after setting up one of each flavor of  the cakes.

I pray that this young couple have a very long happy life together.
While daughter is away for the day hubbie and I get to babysit our 4 legged grandchild Tipper who loves to run around while we sit out in the patio watching the sun set.

I am getting to bed early tonight to try and catch up on my rest from this busy week.
We celebrate the 237th birthday of our American flag today . Sweet "Old Glory" may your red ,white and blue wave forever !!

God is good all the time and I look forward to praising His sweet name tomorrow.
Good Night and God Bless.

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL FALLS ON FRIDAY THE 13th ????

If you fear this day I have some even worse news for you.  A full moon rose just after the clock struck midnight last night to give this one and only Friday the 13th of 2014 a double whammy !!

No I wasn't up early enough to get his picture myself, I let those early risers of the Navy take it for me.
I am not superstitious so I hadn't even thought of this until I watched the news this evening.
This day started out beautifully for me as I dropped g-son at school I took these pictures of his last walk into his first grade classroom.

He said he was both happy and sad today as he was glad school was out but that he would miss his friends.
As I made my last drive home from dropping a first grader off the clouds were still hugging the mountain tops.

This is going to be a very busy day as  the phone started ringing early with cake orders. It's as if everyone suddenly remembered Father's Day !!
After a regular morning routine I baked 12 caramel, 5 chocolate, 3 coconut, 3 pound and 2 wine cakes then had lunch.
I went with Rebekah up to #2 son's house to clean up some furniture she has stored up there and is going to sell.  Evy and I enjoyed his big back yard while she worked. Unfortunately her grandmother who fell last month passed away this morning.  Prayers requested for her and her family, please.
We came home just before the storms started.  There was some loud thunder and close lightening strikes with about another inch of rainfall.  My four legged kids and I sat out in the sunroom and watched the storm as the brunt of it passed to the south and east of us thankfully.
I started icing cakes early as I had 18 caramels to ice along with the chocolate and coconut.
Only pausing for a few minutes a couple times to get the chores done and have a light supper it still took me until almost midnight again.   Maybe I am just getting slower I can't figure it out !!!
I fell into bed with a sigh of tired accomplishment after another very busy day.  Thankful for the business that makes these days busy.
All the county high schools held graduation ceremonies inside tonight as the rain made the move necessary. Unfortunately the number of guest has to be reduced when this happens because gyms  won't hold as many people as football stadiums but no one wants to sit out in a thunder storm with lightening flashing all around.

Congratulations to the more than 860 graduates from around the county who are now entering the next phase of their lives.  Today is the latest I can ever remember the schools getting out.

Daughter was attending the rehearsal dinner of the friend who's wedding she is in tomorrow and sent this pic of the bride and groom square dancing into the sunset. It did rain on their supposed to be outside event so they moved it inside this barn.

Grateful to God for all the blessings He sent my way today.
God Bless.

STORMY MARKET DAY

It was nice to have hubbie off today to get up with g-son as he arrived early this morning.  I got up at my regular time and was ready to load my cakes when  he got home from taking him to school.
He followed me to market and helped carry the cakes inside. It is very stormy looking this morning and the aisles of the market are totally empty today.  I poured out 7/10ths inch of rain from the gauge from last night's storms already today.
Hubbie left going to do his Sam's Club shopping today instead of Saturday.
The day was very slow for me.  I was very grateful for the large 8 caramel cake order from one of the camps that was picked up today. I also got several orders for Father's day get togethers for Saturday.
It rained hard at times while I was at market but thankfully when it was time to load the rain had slacked off.
It began again after I left Aldi and headed home.  We got unloaded in a break from the rain, then spent the rest of the afternoon watching the rains pour down here. There was a couple loud claps of thunder which sent all the dogs into a frenzy.   Annie and Sadie were pressed against the back sunroom doors.

And Bernie and Dolly had their heads buried under a blanket sitting in the chair with me.

The rains passed before chore time and left another 1 inch of rain in the gauge.  I was finishing chores when Aaron, Rebekah and Evy came up to the garden. Rebekah has had bad pregnancy sickness but looked much better today, hopefully she is getting over the worst of the sickness.
Hubbie and I had supper and then relaxed for the evening. No sitting outside tonight as all the seat are wet and I'm sure with the dampness the mosquitoes are out with vengence.
I had to laugh when daughter sent me these pics from the high school she works at of this year's senior pranks.   You know you live in the country when tractors are used to block the teachers parking lot and hay bales are used to block the doors ,haha  gotta love it !!!

A pretty harmless and non damaging prank, way to go guys !!! 

Thankful to God for the love and graciousness He shows me each and every day.
Good Night and God Bless.

BERRIES ,BERRIES , BERRIES

The sun is shining this morning and the temperature is not too bad as I get g-son off to school and get home to do the chores.  After I had breakfast I took a nice walk . I noticed that barring any hail beatings we should have a bountiful berry harvest around our place. These blueberries are loaded.

The grapes have also liked our weather so far and we will have plenty for jam and juice.

But the most loaded bushes are the blackberries that I planted a couple years ago.

Everything is about at least 2 weeks behind what they would typically be this time of year but better late the never I say !!!
I baked 18 caramel cakes, 2 chocolates, 2 pound and 2 wine cakes before stopping for lunch.
The sun and  clouds are in a battle today so I found some inside work to do this afternoon. I went through my photos to get out my June decade pics before I picked up g-son.
I had to make a cake delivery at 4:00 then came back home just in time to beat the rain. The rain continued off and on all evening making doing chores a soggy duty this evening.  Hubbie and I sat outside and watched the rain fall for a little while before my cake icing had to  begin.  I iced cakes, did weekly paperwork, payed bills and finally fell into bed a little after midnight.
Hubbie is taking a day off  tomorrow to use some hours he needs to use before next week and I am glad because d-in-love called earlier and said she had to go into work earlier so g-son would be here 45 minutes earlier than usual.
I am writing this on Thursday night in case you are wondering.
Grateful to God for the strength He gives me each day.
God Bless

SUNNY MORNING, STORMY EVENING

I wish g-son had been as excited about going to school all year as he is in the last few days.
He talked non-stop all the way to school this morning, jumping from one subject to the other as if his mind was racing ahead to imagine the fun he was going to have today.
I made an empty trip to the post office as the package I went to mail had a bad "click and ship" label on it that wouldn't scan.  I brought it back home and called the tech line which proceeded to tell me what all might be wrong with my computer as if they knew for sure it couldn't be anything wrong on their end.  I just got a refund and will take it to the P.O. uptown Thursday and mail it.  Never intend to use the USPS click and ship site again !
I did the morning chores, had breakfast and took a nice walk in the sunshine and already almost hot morning.
Even in late spring their is plenty of new life around our place as I watched this Carolina Wren feeding her hungry loud brood for a while.

And I think we are going to have a second family of Bluebirds in this house.

Our garden is growing so nicely this year I think putting a fence around it has made a big difference as we apparently didn't realize how much of our produce was being consumed by rabbits and other critters.

Back inside I got the laundry started and then housecleaning Tuesday was on !!!   I have decided to clean my entire house on this day again since the other days don't seem to hold time to do any cleaning in them.  I feel more energetic with my weight loss so it is worth a try.
With only a short lunch break I finished 3 loads of laundry and had the house cleaned by about 2:30 with the dryer still running with the last load of towels in it.
Just in time to sit down and drink a bottle of water before picking up g-son from school.
He came to the van carrying a huge kite he had won today in a drawing.  It had a very long tale and was made from nylon.
He settled in with something to eat and I had a snack.
His dad came to pick him up and they went home to watch a video of his first grade year that his teacher had made for all of them.
Hubbie and I worked in the garden again pulling weeds and tilling since it is finally dry enough to run the tiller through it.
I came inside and had supper and then started baking pound cakes. I have several large orders this week so I need some extra baking time.
I baked 8 pound cakes tonight.   While they were in the ovens hubbie and I sat out in the patio watching the dark clouds roll in and the lightening streaking across the sky. The 87 degree afternoon hadn't cooled down much at this hour so these storms looked ominous.
This is the clouds as I shut up my chickens about 9:00. The clouds were really mean looking !!

Thankfully the storms abated in the cooler air with darkness before they reached our area and we only got a shower of huge raindrops.  I thought it was hail by the noise they made hitting the metal roofing but I saw nothing but water on the porches.
I got caught up on May's monthly business figures tonight and they were better than I thought they would be so that is a good sign for the beginning of the busy season.
Very thankful to God tonight for sparing us the storms some near neighbors got and very grateful for the blessings of this day.
Good Night and God Bless.

BUSY MONDAY

I didn't get my usual extra snoozing this Monday morning as I headed out to the laundry with all my rugs,etc before hubbie and g-son left for school.  This is hubbie's last Monday off so I needed to get this done today. He will start being off on Fridays next week for the summer. While school is out they don't want any workers in the buildings on Fridays because they can save a bunch of money on electricity by totally closing down one day a week.
I got all my things washed and the ones dried that didn't have rubber backs and made it home by about 8:45.  The laundry doesn't usually open until 8am but the doors were unlocked when I got there at 7:40 this morning and being the only one doing laundry at this early hour made things go faster.
I hung out all the rubber backed rugs as soon as I got home.  Hubbie had let all the chickens out of their houses so they were waiting to be fed.
Shortly after I had a snack the glasses place called and said my new glasses were in.   Hubbie needed lawn mower gas so we took the truck and picked up my glasses, which I do like, and some gas for the mowers on the way home.

I will have to get used to the appearance of frames again as my old glasses were frameless.
I do notice a difference in that things look a bit clearer with the new ones.
After we came home we had lunch then had a visit from this little beauty while her mom went to a meeting.

She is walking more and more but still is really hesitant.
She used her tractor as a push around walker !!

After mom picked her up to go home and get a nap hubbie and I headed up to the garden to work.
He planted some more tomato plants he raised and I pulled weeds out of our pea row and gave them to the chickens for a green treat.
I cleaned out chicken houses so I can move some chicks around tonight after they go to roost.
I use diatemaceous earth to sprinkle on the new bedding to ward off insect pest .
I also thawed out all the pumpkin seeds I froze last fall for their spring worming.
I also carried a bucket of water and soap up to the lots and washed all the waterers this afternoon.
This mama and the newest 5 little ones need a bigger box and after I get the bigger chicks moved out into one of the lots tonight and I get their big box cleaned out (hopefully tomorrow) they can move in there.

As the skies grew cloudier I gathered all the rugs off the clothes line while hubbie went after g-son from school.  G-son had a dentist appointment this afternoon so he had to eat a quick snack when he got here and then his dad picked him up to get to his appointment. He was looking forward to going so I hope it was a pleasant experience.
 After chores and supper hubbie and I ended the day with visits from #2 son and daughter as they both stopped by on their way home from work.   Then we sat out in the patio to watch darkness creep in.
We had clouds periodically all day and this evening even some gusty winds that threatened to blow in a thunder storm but it all passed us by today.  By the looks of the forecast for the next week we won't continue to stay dry.

Thankful for a wonderfully blessed day and for the graciousness of our Lord.
Good Night and God Bless.

GRADUATION SUNDAY

A rain shower overnight left another 2/10ths inch in the gauge this morning. I heard thunder in the distance just before I went to sleep but it must have moved around us because I wasn't awakened by shivering dogs as I am when the thunder gets louder.
I was a greeter at church this morning so I got there earlier than usual and still had to park in the lower parking lot due to this being graduation Sunday.
We honored  5 high school graduates and 2 college graduates this morning as the preacher always wears a robe on this day. The beautiful yellow roses will be handed out to the graduates at the Baccualaureate service at the local high school.  The local HS is the only one in the county that still has this service on the Sunday before graduation.

Good luck to all these young folks and all the young graduates of 2014.  Our county HS all have graduation scheduled for this Friday.
Everyone was here for lunch except #2 son who is playing golf today. We had mac and cheese with ham casserole, fresh green beans, potatoes and corn on the cob.  It was enjoyed by all.
After everyone scattered hubbie and I spent a relaxing Sunday afternoon and evening doing what Sunday's are best for.
Thunder clouds appeared then disappeared without any more rain this afternoon.
We ended the evening watching the sunset out in the covered patio.
Tonight I loaded all the rugs, dogbeds, seat cushions, etc in the van for a trip to the local laundra mat early in the morning.
Thanking God for the wonderful blessings of this Sunday and looking forward to what His plans are for me tomorrow.
Good Night and God Bless.