HAPPY NEW YEAR!

New Year blessings to everyone!

CHRISTMAS BAKING!

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Enjoy the Christmas music!

The last few years I haven't been doing a lot of decorating. I do, however, love to hang colored lights around the house. Of course, we always put a tree. With a small house and BOYS, I don't put out things like Nativity Scenes! I have a beautiful one that Jim's brother gave to me years ago--before children. Someday when I have a surface that's safe, I'll display it! Until then, colored lights and a few things we can hang, like wreaths, will suffice!

Seems that the pink always stands out... :o(

Nathan took up birdwatching and feeding a couple of months ago. We're enjoying all the different birds that we've seen. We've taken several pictures from our kitchen window. Here are just a couple.

Chickadee

Downy Woodpecker




Christmas cookies! We started baking yesterday. When I was growing up, we made a "butter cookie" that wasn't even made with butter. We used oleo. Since that was replaced with margarine, they didn't taste good to me anymore. As an adult, I've tried to find a cookie to replace it. Last year we found a recipe that we liked, but it was made with oil and was greasy. Yesterday Nathan found a sugar cookie called Cracked Sugar Cookies on www.allrecipes.com . He made them, and they are delicious! It's a keeper! I think we'll leave off the word "cracked", though. Don't like it.

Our latest find in Christmas sugar cookie recipes.

"Amazing" pork roast
My son's words! (wasn't that good, but it was nice compliment!)

Tonight at bed time, Owen said to me, "Seriously, there isn't a girl beautifuller than you!" He's my cornball!

Until next time...

blessings,
joie

LAST DAY OF NOVEMBER 2010

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I love comments! They inspire me to keep blogging!
Enjoy the Christmas music!

Today we did some more outdoor work that we hadn't planned to do. I had thought we could just pile up leaves in our corral--that hasn't been built yet with pallets. But I learned that they'll just mat and mold. You have to chop them up. So that's what the boys did today down the hill--with the mower. We didn't get as much done as we wanted before the rain...

It was a quick and easy process--even though it was awfully windy!

We have many leaves left!

Until next time...

joie

HOW TO WRAP A CAT FOR CHRISTMAS!

I AM STILL HERE!

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I'm sorry that I haven't put up a new post in 5+ MONTHS! Shame on me. No excuses. Now it's Christmas time--well actually it's not even December. Every time I advise anyone on starting a blog, I tell them: DON'T put off posting because it'll just get overwhelming and you'll shut down! That's what I did here! For now, I'll post some recent pictures. Of course, we took SO MANY pictures over the summer --garden, playing, etc. Maybe if I didn't take SO many pictures, I wouldn't feel that I had to include so many, and then I might not feel so overwhelmed!

I apologize to those of you who aren't on Facebook to follow my daily life! My blog looks like I dropped off the face of the earth!

This post will be the first of many throughout the holidays! I have loads of pictures to post since JUNE! I have to start slow though--overwhelming!

I have my Christmas music up now, so I want to have some holiday pictures!! I keep my blog up often listening to the music while I work around the house or do other things on the internet!

This was made for me by my friend Chrissy YEARS ago!

Daytime pictures don't look so great!
Owen wants to put strands of shiny red beads on the tree. He said we did last year.

More pictures to come soon. I promised Jim I'd get stuff done while he and the boys ran errands!

Until next time...

blessings,

joie

SUMMER UPDATE

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I started this blog last weekend:

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at my sister Brenda's for my niece's Sweet 16 birthday party! It's always a good time to talk with relatives and friends that we only see a few times a year. We let Nathan and Jared spend the night afterward. Turns out, they hardly slept! I really didn't expect them to. They did, however, have fun! Explains why they're napping this afternoon! I hope they don't stay up late tonight! (They didn't! They were asleep by 11:00!)

My nephew (17) enjoys making videos/movies. Last year he made a short western movie here at my house. The boys loved being part of it. Yesterday they did it again. We saw the edited version today. It was really neat and fun! TJ does a great job editing. Now we'll just have to get them in full costume and do another one!

Owen

TJ with Owen

During this past week, the boys start video taping themselves again. I suggested they make a slap stick "movie". That way, it's more fun and they can laugh at themselves as they're learning! They love Buster Keaton movies. However, I hope they don't try the stunts that he did! He was a master! Nathan was able to show me on the camera Jared's video taping in fast motion. It was hysterical! I'm sure they can do that with a video editing program. I suggested they make it black and white or sepia for added effect!

This moth was on my parents' porch.

I love to watch the day-to-day progress of our garden. Nathan said the tomato plants have flowers! So exciting! This isn't the first time we've had a garden, but we're much more serious this year! It's important! We're praying for a good harvest so we can do some canning!

peas

Jared with one of the lower boxes

Not sure if this is a cucumber, pumpkin, or zucchini plant! They all look the same at this size! Actually, this photo was taken almost a week ago! They look different now!

Ever heard of Bangers and Mash? It's a traditional British meal. We've made it a couple of times, but we haven't found the right tasting sausage. It should be a mild NON-Italian flavored beef sausage. The gravy is outstanding--you fry up onions and caramelize them! The recipe we used was from an e-how video .







I love making greeting cards, and now that I have good ink for my photo printer, I'm having a blast printing photos for cards! It's always great when you can use your own photos, but it's handy that we can print out any image from the internet and work with it! Yesterday, I had Nathan find me an image of a horse --my niece loves horses. So we found a beautiful picture of a horse's face, and I printed it out for a card! Now I'm not selling these cards, so I'm pretty sure I'm not violating anything. I forgot to scan the card. But I mounted it like the card you see below. The picture of the dandelion I took a couple of years ago! So a couple of weeks ago, I made it into a card for a friend!

A photo that I'm considering using for making note cards.

Just having fun playing with the camera!

Until next time...

blessings, joie

PHOTO UPDATE

I'm going to make this post mostly about the pictures this time. I'm so far behind, so this is the quickest way to catch up! Not sure I like my new blog layout and design, but I'd rather update it than spend time playing with the design layout!

The boys always love hanging out with Dad at his truck!

Owen "driving"

Jared helping with the landing gear

Nathan helping with the landing gear

Jim picking up his truck after having it serviced.

We went to Massachusetts to get pure maple syrup--got some there in March Ioka Valley Farms

We also went to buy strawberries at Ioka Valley Farms. They were $5/quart, but they are organic (I think!)

I thought that was pricey, but then again I haven't bought strawberries from a stand in a long long time!

Across from the farm on a hill are some wind turbines. They're huge!

Nathan's my bread baker! 4 16" loaves this time. He cuts them up and freezes them.

I re-potted some herbs--basil and oregano and parsley. The latter two are a little straggly!


Somethin's got this one... not all of the broccoli are like this.

Llama bean tea! I read on the internet that it's most effective this way. Add 1 cup llama manure to 1 gallon water. Let it sit for a couple of days. We think it's helped our tomato plants come back to life!



Our bush beans have taken off, and the tomatoes are looking better!

I hope I didn't leave too much out! Until next time...

blessings, joie