SPRING LIKE DAY MEANS TRIP TO THE PARK

Monday morning blahs were alive and well this morning for all the kiddos.
Hubbie got g-son to school , then I did chores.

IR didn't want too ride along this morning to take RL to school so RL cried most of the way to school.
Anyway I came home to find CA sleeping and IR playing quietly with the doll house in the living room.
I gathered laundry and got the first load going before I had breakfast. The temperature today is supposed to get near 70 and the sun is shining so we promised the girls we would go to the park after we picked RL up from school so I wanted to get at least one load washed and dried before we left.
We left a little early so I could run the tax papers by the man that does the Curb Market taxes so he could get started on them.
We picked up RL and stopped at Burger King for them some lunch to eat at the park.
All 3 of the girls were hungry when we sat down at one of the picnic tables to have lunch. We had brought CA's bananas and cereal.  'The park was really crowded today with a home school bunch of young mothers who were not watching their kids at all. We really had to watch the girls as they played because some of the bigger boys had sharp sticks and were running around swinging them at other kids.
CA got her first time in a swing and loved it and she was hypnotized by all the kids running all around.

RL was really good to take care of her and she loved to slide with her for CA's  first ever slide.

Of course these 2 had loads of fun running from one thing to another for a couple hours.

They played until they wore out.

It was a gorgeous day and just look at the clouds in the blue sky.

We came home about 2:30 and CA was the only one who went to sleep on the way home. I brought her inside while hubbie took RL and IR outside to have ice cream cones and play in their play house trailer.

I got more laundry done and then when CA woke up I fed her a bottle and then played with her until hubbie brought the older girls back inside so he could go after g-son at school.

They moms came in shortly after he got back and took all the tired kiddoes home for supper and baths.

Hubbie spotted the large hawk that killed the hen last week in a tree over the same lot earlier today so we spent some time this afternoon putting some string lines over the lot and hanging some aluminum pie pans around hoping that will deter the hawk from coming in and killing anymore of my hens.

I walked some this evening in the warm spring feeling weather. The clouds have moved in ahead of the front that is bring rain to our area and the sky is certainly beautiful tonight.

Hubbie and I spent the evening watching UNC loose to Florida State in a basketball game tonight. UNC is having a really bad year this year with injuries to many key players and are really struggling.

Thankful for all the blessings of this day.

God Bless and Good Night

GROUNDHOG PREDICTS 6 MORE WEEKS OF WINTER

A beautiful and warm Sunday morning to get chores done and get back in the kitchen to get some things ready for lunch after church.
We cooked chicken breasts in the crockpot all night and hubbie shredded the chicken while I was outside doing chores.
I put the shredded chicken in the instant pot with BBQ sauce all over it and turned the pot to the keep warm cycle.
I made mac and cheese and cooked it in the oven while we got dressed for church. Hubbie also put a few corn of the cobs in the cook for the kids.
I turned the oven off and covered the mac and cheese with tin foil to keep it warm.
We went to church with everyone attending except #1 son and RL who is saying her ear is hurting again.
EL sat with us and her and Addie kept IR entertained. Daughter wanted a picture of IR and CA but this is the best she got,haha !!!

We came home from church and had lunch of the BBQ chicken, mac and cheese, green beans, corn, sour dough bread and sweet tea with #1 son's family, #2 son and Tif, daughter and the girls and Aa's family.
It was a good way to celebrate this Groundhog / Superbowl Sunday . These 3 danced the after lunch time away.

Our local groundhogs all saw their shadows today to predict 6 more weeks of winter but Puxatawny Phil up in Pennsyvania didn't see his and his prediction is for an early spring so I guess we'll see who is correct.

#2 son and Tif left here and drove to Greenville to meet with a breeder of Irish Setter cross poodles and bought a 3 month old beautiful dog to love.

The afternoon was so warm and sunny it was shirt sleeve weather at near 60 degrees so I walked around the farm. These blooming Daffodils survived the colder temps and snow so far and are still showing off their bright blooms.

This was my walking partner today. He was on the look out for anything that moved all along the way.

Hubbie worked in his wood pile all afternoon and we were both tired tonight as we sat and watched the Super Bowl  which Kansas City won for the first time in 50 years.

It was a good close game and entertaining to watch. 

Thankful for the blessings of this day.

God Bless and Good Night

MARKET DAY SATURDAY

Up to a foggy misty morning but thankfully the temperature is above freezing.
We got chores done and headed out to market only about 5 minutes late. Daughter and the girls were waiting on us when we arrived at market.
We got set up and then daughter helped the manager with some office work while hubbie and I watched the girls and the table.
Sales were much better than I expected today with the possible icy weather forecast and the foggy cool morning.
Daughter stayed most of the day until both girls got pretty sleepy and CA fell asleep in my lap while I talked with a couple other board members.
Daughter took both girls home and hubbie stayed with the table while I conducted some market business before we loaded up and left at closing time.
We both came straight home and hubbie helped me get things unloaded and put away. Hubbie went up to his wood pile to split some firewood and I ate some late lunch of tomato soup and avocado.
I rested my aching feet. For some reason my right foot is giving me fits right now, that is the foot with the hammer toe and the contracted knee tendons so I am hoping I have done something to my foot to make the top of it very sore and achy.
Rain ran hubbie inside shortly and we both had a nice rest. There was a beautiful rainbow after the rain stopped and the sun came out.

I got chores done and sadly found one of my golden sexlink pullets I bought last spring dead and almost all eaten in the hen lot.  We checked the fence for evidence of something digging under the wire but found none. This doesn't look like the work of a hawk but we can't think of anything else it might have been.

Hubbie buried the remains of the the hen and thought if anymore of these hens in this lot fall prey to whatever killed this one I will have to relocate them to the enclosed chicken tractor.
As winter goes on and food sources get scarcer I'm afraid I will have more problems. My game camera showed the fox or coyote again a couple days ago so we know it is a routine visitor in the early morning hours.
I plan to move the camera to the hen lot during the day tomorrow to see if I can catch what is coming in the lot.
Hubbie and I spent the evening relaxing.
This first week of February 2020 is really going to be a weather roller coaster with temperatures ranging from spring back to winter all in the 7 days.

Thankful for the blessings of this day.
God Bless and Good Night

SNOWY DAY ENDS JANUARY

Woke this morning to a regular morning of all the grandkids here. Hubbie took g-son to school and I got chores done and took RL to pre-school.
While dropping her off it started to snow lightly but the temperature when I got home was 38 degrees.
I had breakfast with IR and CA and I heard IR saying "look look" and when I went to see what she was yelling about I saw these huge snowflakes pouring down.

I didn't think anything of it since nothing much was sticking to the ground but the thermometer now said 36 degrees.

As we watched the temperature drop and the ground quickly turn white the news came that schools were closing at 11:00am.

#1 son called and said not to get out on the roads that some of them were getting pretty slushie and slick.

He said he would go pick up RL since he was leaving work .

Daughter called and said she would bring G-son home because the car rider lines at the schools were crazy long .

By this time the ground was completely covered and it was still coming down heavy.

Daughter made it in with g-son and #1 son picked him up and went home because RL had went to sleep on the drive home.

Snow flowers started to bloom on all the Azalea bushes.

We had 2 inches of snow and the temperature now was starting to rise.

Unfortunately this school bus accident happened just up the road from us.

Daughter went home and her and son-in-love got the girls out in the snow. This is CA's first experience with snow.

IR loved it until her little hands got really wet and cold.

G-daughter RL got outside and played with her new dog in the snow this afternoon.

EL and BB got outside to enjoy it also.

The sheep that we tried to catch last week is still hanging around with Aa's cattle and looks like he has found a new home since no one has come looking for him.

The temperature got up to 35 and the snow fall tapered off about mid afternoon and some of it started to melt.

We almost always have some snowfall in January and just the other day I commented on how it was going to be really odd for this year's January not to have any snowfall. Mother Nature must have heard me and got her snow maker nudged into working and just in time to end this month with a decent snowfall !

Saying good bye to January is always easy as it tends to be a cold nasty month. However this year it hasn't been very cold but we have had a lot of rain and now the snow so we can still hopefully mark off the worse month of winter weather.

This month saw #2 house work continue and hopefully get finished by the end of next month.

IR started going to pre-school 2 days a week and is slowly adjusting.

BB turned 5 years old on the 15th.

My Daffodils bloomed for the first time in recent memory in January and a neighbor even saw a slow moving black snake out and about last week in the abnormally warm weather.

The month has been warm but we have had a lot of rain to deal with.

IR and CA both dealt with ear infections this month and all 3 girls continue to have runny noses and coughs.

G-son finished his 7th grade year of wrestling and his team was undefeated.

We held the annual stockholders meeting at the Curb Market and I was elected treasurer for another year.

It has been a good blessed start to the new year and a new decade for the entire family and we are very thankful for all the blessings from a wonderful God.

God Bless and Good Night

SCHOOL DAY MARKET DAY

All the grandkids arrived early this morning. Hubbie took g-son to school, I got morning chores done and then we got loaded for market. I took RL and IR with me to pre-school. This is Thursday so IR gets to go to school today and she has been looking forward to it.
They were sassy going into school with their backpacks on and marching along the white lines.

IR was fine until she got to her classroom door and then the tears started but Ms. Kenna scooped her up and started talking to her.
I dropped RL and left to meet hubbie and CA at market.
Before I set up my table this morning since there was no customers yet at market I took all my winter decorations down and set out the Valentine décor.

Sales were really slow this morning as I got my end of the month treasurer payroll duties done and made the call to Duke Energy.
I got a really rude young man to talk to who treated me as if I paid my bill late every mont.
He said my checks were probably there but were placed in a large bin with all the other payments that had something wrong with them. He couldn't tell me anything that might cause your payment to go into this bin but said after 30 days they would all be shredded. I asked how I could go about getting someone to search for my payment so that I could know why it got put into the bin and he
didn't answer me. The only thing he kept saying to me was if I set up automatic draft I wouldn't have to worry about this happening anymore ????  I came away from this conversation wondering if this is a strong arm way for Duke Energy to get everyone to do the automatic draft. The things this man said to me just did not make sense. I am going to call again tomorrow and hopefully talk to someone else to see if I get the same run around.
I picked up a happy IR from pre-school today and she was happily talking all about her day. Kenna said this was her best day so far . Hopefully she is getting into the flow of things.
We stopped by McDonalds and got her a cheeseburger and fries and me a salad as I just realized all I had eaten all day was a banana I grabbed on my way out the door this morning.
She was happy to tell all her friends at market about her good school day and ate her lunch happily. CA had went to the dump / recycle center with hubbie about 10:00 this morning and went to sleep on the way and she was still sleeping when we came back to market but woke up shortly and had her lunch. She is getting better of not swallowing and is eating better today so maybe the medicine is working on her ears.
We all got ready at the end of market day and loaded up.  The day ended up not being too bad afterall with a couple good sales.
Hubbie took CA home and IR wanted to go with me to the bank, PO and Ingles.
She got to ride in the little car cart at Ingles and got a sucker for being so good as I shopped for a couple things we needed from there.
We came home just in time for me to stay with the girls while hubbie picked g-son up from school.
He dropped him off at home so he could help get their basset hound to an adoption shelter to meet with another dog to see if he got along with her.
Looks like they hit it off and d-in-love adopted this little black and white dog to give Abe the basset some company.

Daughter came after her girls and IR was outside riding this little tractor around.

She loves riding this "green one" as g-son used to call it when he was her size but she is having to learn to steer it.
After daughter left hubbie and I got chores done and then we cooked these delicious smoked pork chops we had bought on our trip to Hickory Nut Gap farms last month.
I seared them in the cast iron skillet on the stove them put them in the oven to bake for about 30 minutes. Hubbie gathered some fresh greens from our winter garden to go in the instant pot and he also fried some potatoes to go along with them.

We had a delicious supper and healthy supper. I love getting meat from this place since I know it isn't loaded down with preservatives and junk.
The chops were so large and think hubbie or I couldn't eat all of them so we saved some for lunch tomorrow.
We spent the evening relaxing.
Thankful for the blessings of this day.
God Bless and Good Night

BAKING DAY

Back on regular schedule this morning. G-son and RL arrived and had breakfast before hubbie took g-son to middle school. I got chores done when he got back.  There was a beautiful sunrise this morning.

IR and CA 's other g-ma is coming up to stay with them today so hubbie rode along with me to take RL to pre-school.
After we dropped her off we made our weekly Aldi stop for baking supplies and then to Ingles.
We came home so I could get my baking started and hubbie could get some outside task done .
I baked 6 caramel, 2 pound cakes and 2 chocolate cakes and a pan of brownies.
I did a load of laundry and hung it out on the clothes line to dry since my washer wouldn't spin the heavy mattress cover I was washing.
I did evening chores and then got the weekly paperwork done and paid bills. I noticed on my bank statement that the duke energy checks for the house and shed hadn't been cashed and I mailed them on the 2nd of January. I opened the new bill they had just sent and of course it was doubled and a threatening note that if the past due balance wasn't immediately paid my power would be cut off. I have never had any trouble like this before. I know I mailed the bills with a couple other bills and the other bills were posted on the bank statement.
I called #2 son the mailman and asked him if there was anyway to find the letter and of course he said no there wasn't but he told me this seems to happen a lot with duke energy for some reason. Folks call all the time about their power bills not being delivered and he said even he had had this happen to him. He said Duke energy found his check eventually and posted it to his account after he had already re-payed the lost bill. He told me to call tomorrow and ask them to refund the late charges.
I spent the rest of the evening icing cakes and getting things ready for market.
There is a slight chance of some more black ice on the roads in the morning so we'll wait and see what happens.
Thankful for the blessings of this day.
God Bless and Good Night