RAIN, THUNDER, LIGHTENING, HIGH WIND, SNOW !!!!!

Wow another sleepless night of storming. The thunder was loud and the lightening was constant. The rain at times was deafening but thankfully the brunt of the storms seemed south of our area.

At almost 2am things finally quieted down and I went to sleep wondering what I would wake up to after hearing the winds gust very high.

This morning at least the sun is breaking through the clouds and I was extremely surprised to find only 6/10ths inch more rain in the gauge from the overnight storms.

However thousands of folks are without power this morning and there is a lot of damage in areas south of us.

Thankfully the occupants of this totally destroyed mobile home near Greenville,SC escaped without injury.

As the sun warms the morning the wind is already starting to gust as I got chores done and got ready for market. Our area is in the bullseye for damaging wind gust through tomorrow morning and with all the recent rain the ground is so soggy I'm sure trees will continue to fall.

Market was okay today for a windy cool Thursday in April.
I left market and ran my regular in town errands, stopped by a fresh produce stand and then made stops at Aldi and Walmart to pick up baking supplies and groceries.
I made it home at 4:00 and got things unloaded and put away. I had a memory flash back as I got things unloaded into the basement as usual but then instead of driving up to the front yard in my regular parking place and coming in the front door as usual because of the high winds I left the Honda below the house and carried all the groceries up the basement stairs to the kitchen. When we first built this house the basement was our parking garage and this is how we always got the groceries inside.
After a nice rest and watching the early news we did chores in a cold wind. I put extra wind guards around all the setting Silkie hens I have. Seems Mother Nature is bound and determined to interfere with my hatching rates this season !  So far with the two setters that sat through the cold nights a couple weeks ago I have only one live chick.
Hopefully this cold spell won't be as low and these eggs will stay warm under these mamas.
Back inside hubbie and I had a couple ears of fresh corn that I bought at the fruit stand today and it was very good.
With the temperature steadily dropping this evening and the winds still gusting around 45 mph it is a nasty night to be outside anywhere tonight but especially in our higher elevations as the snow starts to pile up and now the weather gurus say some areas could get as much as a foot of snow ????

The roads are starting to get slick and visibility is almost 0 in some areas.

 In our area we are supposed to get maybe a few flakes but just high winds and cold with chill factors in the mid teens.
Thankfully this cold snap is short lived and we will be back to spring before the weekend is over.

I am headed to bed early tonight for a catch up night of sleep hopefully.
Thankful for the blessings of this day and the safe loving arms of my loving Lord.
God Bless and Good Night

BUSY RAINY DAY AND 1957 APRIL MEMORIES

UHHHH !!! Another damp cloudy morning as I slip and slide around in the mud to get the morning chores done.
After breakfast and devotions I started cleaning. Since hubbie and I worked outside on last Wednesday and the inside housework was neglected today's cleaning was more than necessary !!
I worked until 2:30 with only a short break for lunch.
The rain started about 11am and has been pretty constant all day. No severe storms but just in case of the predicted large hail and high wind storms I put my Honda in the barn earlier today.
Thankfully I have heard thunder but none really close. On the news there was a story of a barn fire in Polk county just south of us that was caused by lightening.
After finishing my cleaning I went to my office to do some paperwork. I got the business figures for March in the books and it was only a slightly better month than February but at least I'm still going up.
I did the weekly paperwork while I was there so that was done for the week.
I also got all the April decade pics sorted out which is exceptionally early for me to get this done in the first week of the month !! This rainy day turned out to be a very industrious day for me.
On the news tonight our area is still in the enhanced area for storms from a line that is now crossing Tennessee. We have already had 1 and 1/10th inch of rain today so I look for another overnight flood.

This evening just as darkness settled in Josh's mom came after some Curly Willow branches for a wedding she is decorating for this weekend . Hubbie and Josh cut a bunch of large limbs from the tree and loaded them into Connie's Honda Pilot. Thankful for the break in the rains so we could get this done.
Since there are no other pics for today it is a great time to start the decade series. In 1957 my photo taking aunt Hattie worked overtime on me and my brother.  I'm sure some of these are Easter pics since Easter was on April 21 in 1957.
My mom Goldie with my brother , Robert who would have been 8 months old and me who was 2 years and 9 months old at that time.

Another set of pics from that month.

Me and my pet hen.....  If my memory serves me correct I think I squeezed my hen a little too hard and she met her demise when an egg inside her broke !!!

My dad was in the chicken raising business at that time and I was loving the baby chicks.

Another pic of just me.

Love these old photos and am so thankful that my aunt took time to make alot of pictures !!!
We are just waiting tonight to see how much noise and damage the storms bring over night.

Thankful for the blessings of health and family today with all the memories that I have and pray that it be God's will for me to continue making many more memories with my wonderful family.
God Bless and Good Night

BEAUTIFUL TUESDAY

7am came very early today after the late night ballgame !!!
G-daughter had her breakfast while I did chores and got the furniture covers that I forgot last week loaded in the Honda.
G-daughter didn't go to sleep on the way to her play school like I was hoping she might so I could stop and get the covers started washing on the way.
I stopped at the laundry on my way home and got all these covers washed and dried. I finished chores when I got home around 9:30.
I had another cup of coffee and read my devotions for the day. Then I took a nice walk on this sunny warm day. The rains of the last several days has really brought out more spring time color around the farm.
My apple trees are loaded with blooms.

The late pear tree is also loaded with blossoms.

Redbud trees are always a bright spot in spring with their branches cover in bright pink flowers before any leaves come out.

A couple more Azaleas are blooming today.

And even the Money Plant is starting to bloom.

Another sure sign of spring time is the arrival around the bird houses of several pairs of Eastern Bluebirds.

After I got back inside it was time to pick up g-daughter. She went to sleep on the way home and slept in her car seat for over an hour but woke up very cranky and acted like her ear was hurting again.
I took her outside to swing and let her explore her favorite places but by the look on her sweet face I could tell she did not feel like her regular self today.

Her "friends" are always ready to play any time she is outside !!

After d-in-love picked her up Re brought EL and BB over for a little while to play. Daughter was with them to look at some of Re's baby things to use.

BB loves driving the tractor !!!!

After a nice visit they left to go home to fix supper and hubbie  got on the lawn mower for the first lawn mowing of this season. I love the smell of freshly mowed grass.

 

 Unfortunately her had to stop a little short of getting all of it mowed because the belt broke on the mower.
After I did the chores I sat in the outside patio and watched the sun set in a clear sky for a nice change.

Tomorrow we are already under warnings and watches for severe storms We are in the "enhanced" damage area for these storms as they begin about noon tomorrow.

Praying for all the folks who are in the paths of these storms as they move through the area tomorrow ,may God's protective arms wrap us in the comfort only He can give.
Thankful for a very blessed day today.
God Bless and Good Night

RAINY MONDAY

Woke to a cloudy morning with the arrival of g-daughter. Hubbie got her breakfast while I did chores in a misting rain already.
Today was definitely an inside kind of day to g-daughter's dislike as she kept pointing out the window and saying "swing" !!!
I did 3 loads of laundry this morning before the storms arrived.
And about 1:00 the thunder and lightening began with the pouring rain. The power was knocked off for a minute but thankfully came back on sending all the electric appliances into a "reboot" mode !
Daughter called and said the power at the school did the same thing and even Josh said the power in town did the same thing so it must have been a major lightening hit on something big !!
The bottom pastures quickly filled with flood waters again with the 2"  of rain that fell in about 2 hours !!!

The water continued to rise in the bottoms even after the rain stopped late this afternoon .

G-daughter has "nap time" hair after her short morning nap today !!

She played inside and acted like she felt better today after a week of medicine for her ear infection.
She loves apples !!!

By chore time thankfully the rain and storms had passed our area and the sun was visible below the dark storm clouds as it dropped below the horizon.

Tomorrow is a drying out warm day for us before more storms move back in on Wednesday. Did I just recently complain about being so "dry" around here ??????

Blogging earlier tonight to get ready to watch the last basketball game of the season as UNC takes on Gonzaga at 9:00 tonight.

Aaaannnnndddd  UNC wins the national championship in a very good tight game.

Okay it's now after midnight and I am trying to wind down after watching this intense basketball game so I'm off to bed.
Thankful to God for the blessings of this day and for His greatest gift.
God Bless and Good Night

SOCCER SUNDAY

Up and getting ready for church this morning. We put a crockpot full of beef stew on for a quick already ready lunch since g-son has his first soccer game this afternoon at 1:30.
Church was good today continuing in Mathew 5, 21-26.
Lunch bunch was #1 son's family and Aa as we all enjoyed the beef stew and corn bread before getting on with our busy afternoon.
We watched g-son's team defeat the other team by a score of 7-0.  G-son played the entire game and played awesomely .

He has grown so much since last year it is crazy !!
G-daughter who slept the first half of the game away in the car was not impressed !!!

Hubbie and I left there and headed home to give Bernie and Dolly the 4-legged kids baths and then hubbie had a Deacon's meeting at 4:00 that lasted almost 2 hours.
While he was gone these two and me enjoyed the warm sunshine and some relaxing time.

After chores this evening we watched the news of more storms and rain headed our way for tomorrow. Each of the last two storms and a major flood that have passed through our area have been when we were in the yellow color !!!

This first week of April continues our up and down temps for the year with a cold snap coming for the weekend.

I am super tired tonight for some reason ???  I have dedicated this week to getting back to my clean eating habits to see if this will improve my energy levels , wish me luck !!!
I am thankful for a worshipful Sunday and the opportunity to worship as I please my Savior the Lord Jesus Christ.
God Bless and Good Night

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY

April fools day rolls in today with a cool mid 40's morning but the sun is shining and the air is fresh.
Market was slow today even with the free ice cream being given out to our customers that stopped by.
I am thankful for what I did sell as always. Daughter came out and brought her baked breads and stayed at market most of the morning .
Hubbie left to do our shopping at Sam's Club and Walmart.
After market daughter and I went to Lowes to check out the wash and dryer selection as she needs a new set.
We also grocery shopped at Aldi before going our separate ways to get home.
Hubbie helped me get things unloaded and put away then he went to help #1 son on his house project and I took a nice break.
After I finished chores I stopped by to see how the work was coming along and found all the guys in there helping.

I came back to the house and finished chores for the evening and then hubbie came home and we grilled a couple steaks for our supper to go with a package of asparagus I had bought.
We finished up the evening watching final four games. Our UNC Tarheels defeated Oregon to get a chance for a national championship in the last game of the season on Monday against Gonzaga.
I didn't get any April fools day jokes played on me today so it's been a good first day of April. The sun warmed the temps to upper 60's this afternoon for a nice start to April.
There is still quite a bit of snow cover this late in the western states as well as a surprise snow for the northeast today.

Thankful for a blessed first day of the new month and praying that it be in God's will that I stay healthy and stay focused on what really matters most in my life and that is God.
God Bless and Good Night