ANOTHER RAINY MONDAY SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW ???

Woke early to another misty cloudy warm morning.

Makes me thankful for the last 2 days with peeks of sunshine !!!
Just as I was finishing morning chores Re bought EL and BB over to stay while she slept after working all night at he hospital.
She left and the kids, hubbie and I all had a good breakfast to begin a fun filled day. They played the morning away. BB took all the toys out of the toy bags and played with each one for a few minutes before going back to the bag for more !!!!

EL isn't giving up Christmas too soon and redecorated her little tree several times before she wanted her tent set up to watch cartoons from while BB took a morning nap.

She finally convinced Pawpaw to take her out to the swing until the rain got heavier and ran them inside for lunch.She loves to be outside !!!

After lunch they both went down for long rainy day naps leaving me to catch up my three loads of weekly laundry and hubbie to work on some wedding projects for daughter in his shop.
Mom came after them when they woke up before she had to go to another meeting.
Hubbie and I did chores a bit early as the skies darkened and the rain and wind began.
Our area is under a flood watch until Thursday with more and more rain forecast for the coming days.

The rain forecast is for between 2-3 inches for our area with pocket areas getting as much as 5 inches. Hope we don't end up in one of those pockets !!!

With the ground already completely saturated any additional rainfall could mean bad flooding issues.
Hubbie shut the gate this evening keeping the cattle and horse in the upper pasture for the night as the wind and rain got heavier as darkness fell tonight.
Hubbie and I spent a restful evening tonight listening to the wind and rain beating the windows and doors as the south wind blew the rain all the way across the porches.
Grateful to God for a blessing filled day and for His never ending love and grace. Praying tonight for all the victims of this storm that is dropping all kinds of severe weather across the country.
God Bless, Good Night and Happy New Year.

BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY AND EXCITING 2005 MEMORIES

Another nice sunny, warm morning after a rainy evening which left another 1/4 inch of rain in the gauge. I was up early to get the chores done and get a mac & cheese with ham casserole made before church. These take an hour to cook so I cooked it this morning and left it in a warm oven.
Church was good today, continuing the Christmas story in Luke 2, 22-40. We also commissioned the senior pastor and 4 other church members who are leaving on a middle east mission trip tomorrow for 2 weeks. We are praying for them.
Back home everyone made it to lunch except #2 son and Tif who were doing some after Christmas shopping today. Since they work for the PO and work 6 days a week all their shopping has to be done on Sundays.
I made some mashed potato pattys to go with the casserole and we had fresh kale greens to top it off.
I also made my special blueberry jello for dessert.  We all enjoyed it very much.
After Aa's family went home for naps and daughter went to take Josh some lunch since he had to make another trip to the ER this morning with his stomach still bothering him. They said he still had some lingering bacteria from the virus he had last week and put him on some antibiotics.
#1 son's family stayed and watched the Panthers vs Falcons football game with us. The Panthers lost their first game of the season today. G-son and I played games while the game was on.
After the game they left to go up to church and shoot some hoops on this 71 degree sunny afternoon.

He can shoot very well but needs to practice his dribbling skills on the pavement.
Hubbie and I took all our outside Christmas decorations down and got them all in the shed before the rain starts again tonight.  The yards look so bare they look kind of funny now without all the colorful decorations.
After chores hubbie and I ate leftovers for supper then #2 son and Tif came by for a short visit.
To continue the decade series since this month we have a picture laden December back in 2005 since #1 son and d-in-love got married that month. Bat Cave Baptist church was beautifully decorated.

Daughter and I before daughter got dressed.

The bride .......

All the girls ..........

The groom.......

#2 son escorts grandparents, JB and Maxine......

#2 son escorts the mother of the groom, me.......

#2 son and daughter .......

The bride escorted by her father, Tim......

Preacher Dave, #1 son and best man, hubbie..........

Relief afterward................

Mr. and Mrs.........

Our new family.............

The wedding party............

Fun at the reception..............

My oldest brother and wife , daughter and b-friend......

Son's truck ready to go......... they were off to the airport to catch a flight to Jamaica for their honeymoon.

The happy couple returned just in time to play Joseph and Mary in the church play that year.

While they were gone we had a terrible ice storm in our area which made for some beautiful pics but sure created a mess of trouble with power lines and falling trees.

Our Christmas trees that year.......

#2 son, hubbie and daughter  on Christmas morning........

So an exciting December 10 years ago made some very happy memories for all of us and brought some very nice changes to our lives.
 Got a pic from d-in-love of a nice break through with g-daughter this evening. She has been putting up a fight about sleeping laying flat down but here she is in the co-sleeper having a nice nap.

As this last Sunday in the year 2015 ends I am very grateful for my family and friends that help make life so enjoyable . I also am humbly grateful for the love of Jesus Christ and for the grace He shows me each and every day as I search for His guidance in all I do.
God Bless, Good Night and Happy New Year

SUNNY WARM SATURDAY

Up and off to market this morning. I'm not excited about this day at all as I think there won't be any customers today.
And I was right as even with the nice 70 degree sunshine there were very few folks who came through market today and of the few that did venture through even fewer bought anything. The lady that ordered the 2 pound cakes came and picked them up and I started thinking about leaving early.
I stayed long enough to have my lunch of salad I had brought and then packed up. I am thankful for what I did sell today.
I made stops at Ingles and Aldi on the way home for some supplies and groceries for the coming week.
After hubbie and I got the Honda unloaded we took a break out on the front porch. Not many end of December days can be comfortably spent rocking in the sunshine !!

I went over to Re's house with d-in-love to have a short visit with Re's mom who is visiting for the day from Ohio. She had never seen g-daughter so as we all feel she is a part of our family they definitely needed to meet.
While we were there daughter dropped g-son off after a day of hiking up on Bearwallow mountain with one of Josh's brother's families. They have a son who is g-son's age and they get along well.

When we came home #1 son met us here and we had a supper of left overs and a nice visit before they went home. Love these two !!!

After they went home hubbie and I did some preparation for tomorrow's lunch then relaxed for the evening.
The rain moved back in tonight and is predicted to stay several more days. With several roads all around the county still closed by flood waters it could be a very interesting week coming up !!

God is good all the time and I can rest in the comfort that He knows best and He knows exactly what we need.
God Bless and Good Night.

RAINY QUIET CHRISTMAS DAY

Ahhhhh !!!! Slept in a little while on this Christmas day.  It is another dreary morning with light rain still falling.
After chores and breakfast hubbie went outside to his workshop and I caught up my blog book reading. It was fun to read back over the last 6 years Christmas and note the changes in our family and lives. It made me very thankful for my blessings along the way.
After lunch the rain got heavy again and we watched the creek rise to the tops of the banks again but the rain stopped in time for no more flooding today.
We took the afternoon to relax and do nothing as we watched the rains fall steadily outside.
I always feel a let down after all the Christmas festivities are over and done and all the gifts are opened but this year I am holding on to the season a bit longer , lighting the lights in the house and enjoying the quiet time without having a bunch of things that need to be done. I am looking forward to this next week of slow down time and having time to stop and savor this season.
Hubbie and I talked this afternoon as how next year's Christmas will be with g-daughter running around and wondering what other changes await us in the coming year.
At chore time this evening I dumped another 1/2 inch from the rain gauge.
It is a foggy cloudy evening, but the clouds appear to be lightening up a little bit so maybe the rain will stop for awhile.

There is a full moon tonight on Christmas day , the first since the year 1977 and there won't be another one for 19 more years. But with the clouds hanging so low and thick tonight we won't be able to see the moon.

I had a good friend and customer call and ask for a couple pound cakes tomorrow for a death in her church so I baked 1 granny and 1 chocolate pound cake tonight. I decided I will go to market and see if any one is there and then come home if it is really slow.
The news tonight was all about the weather and the snow storm that is coming across the country.

By the time it gets to our area it will be all rain for the first of the week giving us another rainy Monday.
Today's high was 69 degrees which tied the old record set back in 1955. This is a comparison graft for the last six years.

31 son came up this afternoon to blow up g-son's basketball in shorts and a t-shirt which looked so strange for a Christmas day attire !!
Hubbie and I relaxed watching some old Andy of Mayberry shows tonight on TV.
Thanking God for the blessings of family and friends and for the precious memories of  Christmas Joys.
God Bless, Good Night and Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

THE FACES OF CHRISTMAS

A dreary rainy Christmas Eve 2015 started early with rumblings of thunder waking me in the early morning hours. I went back to sleep thinking of the old saying that snow will come 7 days after thunder in winter !!!???
Out doing the chores in a pouring rain with mid 60's temps already surely didn't even feel like winter let alone any thoughts of "snow". As I slipped and sloshed through the mud this was the image that was brought to mind for this year's Christmas. A "mudman" !!

 Hubbie and I needed to pick up some last minute items so we got an early start hopefully to beat the huge crowds of last minute shoppers.
We made it back home before lunch just as the skies opened up and the hardest rain of the entire year pounded us as we ran from the honda to the porch with our purchases.
The mud filled waters soon overflowed the creek banks and filled the pastures on both sides of the road.

The rain continued all day leaving another almost 2 1/4 inch of rain in the gauge at evening choretime.
Hubbie and I spent the rainy afternoon cleaning house and cooking for tonight's family dinner.
We cooked a smoked ham, mashed potatoes, baked mac and cheese, green beans, 7-layer salad and biscuits with sweet tea to drink. Re is bringing the sweet potato casserole and broccoli salad, d-in-love is bring her corn casserole and daughter is bringing a pumpkin roll for dessert.
We did chores early and turned the ovens and pressure pot to warm while we went to the annual candle light service at church.

      

The lighting of the Christ Candle began the service.

I always enjoy this service with all the candle light and the old familiar carols.

D-in-love always helps provide the music.

My family with the exception of the mail delivery folks who always work late.

 Re always has a song during this service.

And this year g-son and the other two boys who played the three kings joined the men's essemble for the singing of "We Three Kings" which was the hit of the night especially when the words of the song faded from the screen and the men stopped singing but the boys with g-son in the lead kept right on singing as they had memorized the words for their play a couple weeks ago.

G-daughter thought the Christmas songs were perfect lullabys as she snuggled up to daughter !

It was a wonderful service to begin the celebration of the birth of our Dear Savior.

As we headed home the rain was still falling to make for a nasty night. I am thankful that all the family made it to our gathering and fun was had by all, especially these guys !!!
Daughter had bought a gingerbread reindeer for EL to put together and decorate.

Josh was the icing helper as g-son gave instruction !!!!

And she brought some "ninja" bread cookie mix for g-son to make and decorate.

And little BB didn't know what to think about all the excitement!!

We all ate waaay too much as usual and then the really fun part of the evening began.
The tree was now completely surrounded with presents and the kids were vibrating with excitement.

I love the "faces of Christmas"  !!!!!

I am very appreciative as always for my beautiful gifts, thanks to all the kids for a wonderful Christmas.

I have a guardian angel to put on my Pandora bracelet to watch over me.

And daughter also gave me this hand made wreath, made by  the students in a special class at the high school she teaches at, it is made of book pages !!

It was a wonderful evening and I am thankful to God for giving me another fun filled Christmas season and thankful most of all the gift of His son.
God Bless, Good Night and Merry Christmas.