Big Universe, Small World... ©2013-2020

Funny how certain events in your life make you start to appreciate your Mother-in-Law more and more as time goes by...   So, when she reads this...I appreciate you!!  :)

Lead Me Home : Winds of Change Series By Stacy Hawkins Adams Published by Zondervan Book Review: This is the first novel I have read from author Stacy Hawkins Adams. This is the second novel in the Winds of Change series. The first novel in this series was Coming Home. I wish I had read the first novel in the series, before reading this one, to have more background information and such. The second novel in the series though could serve as a stand alone, and was a fine read on its own merit. The lead character in  Lead Me Home is Shiloh Griffin. Shiloh is a pastor's wife and mom. She is locked into these roles, needing to find who she is as an individual, mostly she needs to relieve herself of secrets she hides. Shiloh finds herself partnered with another lady, Jade, on a mission project. She also begins to teach music and realizes the students need her to be more genuine with them. It is in these settings that Shiloh learns to lean upon the Lord to overc...

Okay...no monkeys tumbled out of anything...but my banana tree fell...  :(     We had a massive rainstorm and winds up to 30 mph and the tree just gave. The ground is so moist after days upon days (months) of rain...       My husband was able to stand it back up before we went to bed that night with temporary supports on each side to stabilize it made from pallets.     My husband added more soil to the banana tree to help support it in the ground.     On a positive note, there are new shoots coming up two days later.

1.  We (child and I) are canning again today...tomato sauce, cabbage, apples, and peaches... 2.  We are making a slow cooked mixed fruit butter to can...yummy!! 3.  I made some Italian dressing tonight to cook the chicken in for dinner... 4.  Charlie has been singing the tune of My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music. Although, in his tune, the cats are farting and the dogs are barking...these are a few of his favorite things. :) 5.  Charlie has tried for about 5 minutes to put Mandy's pressure canner lid on our pressure canner, to see if it will fit... 6.  Tonight, I have to make some homemade barbecue sauce for some pork ribs. :)

I went to produce co-op this past week. One of the other ladies went to the bathroom and screamed when she did........there was a snake beside the toilet...what else is a mommy to do, but bring the snake home for her kid to see????    I placed him in a baggie until I got home and filled it with air. I made him a temporary snake habitat in a jar. He was not as active in the jar as he had been in the baggie.   I fed him hotdogs. He ate two of the pieces. A friend of Charlie's did determine that the snake was nonvenomous through eye shape and split scales after the vent. Otherwise, I would never have kept it. The snake was a water snake. The snake was only kept for two days in the jar until my son returned home from camp so he could see it and then it was released.  We set the snake loose near the creek tributary to the lake that is behind our house.     And, then he crawled away...      ...

M:  missing my children. A:   absolutely not enough time. N:  need to take a nap. I:   ice would be nice...since it's so hot. C:  chocolate: want; canning: need to do. M:  mother and father gave me dishes today.   O:  oh snap, I forgot something again. N:  need to fold the laundry. D:  do I have to wear more than pajamas? A:  all the laundry done? nope, people still live here. Y:  yep, more papers to grade.

I am trying to minimalize some things in my life, my younger child's life, my family's life. We seem to get stressed out lately by the requirements of the activities we engage in...the best way to stop this is to get rid of some events, get rid of activities. I am trying to declutter...always trying to clean up and declutter...move it out, clean it out... My study is an unending mess of piles. My older son returned home last summer. I had to move many things around and put things into different places to welcome this move back. I was happy to have him return. It also made me see how many things we have we do not need in our household. My older son moved out in March and I am still cleaning and up and decluttering. I needed to move the chest of drawers to the younger child's room and move the chair to the study. The bed had to come out of the study and the couch go back in. Then the removal and clean up of books began...Books...these things are everywhere in my house. Th...

I was preparing zucchini casserole tonight for dinner. I went to go cut up some shallots and they have started to sprout in the refrigerator. For anyone who knows me, if it sprouts...I have to plant it. Although, you are not supposed to plant shallot bulbs until the fall and then harvest next year.       To be able to still use the shallots in the casserole and still save them for harvesting to plant...I carefully peeled back the outer levels of each bulb and then cut the pieces I could use and saved the rest to plant. I guess I will be starting an indoor shallot container. I am thinking that setting the container(s) in the freezer through a rotation schedule could prompt a false winter to them to start a growth pattern?  Who knows?  

a tree attacked our rabbit hutch and chicken coop this evening right before sunset...repairs will begin tomorrow...no chickens were hurt, but they did seem very confused...

my younger son broke and crushed his wrist in may. he had surgery then. now, at the end of the first full week of july, he is in his 5th wrist wrap appliance. he has about another week or so in this current contraption. in the meantime, he went to camp with scouts for a week in june - fully casted and all - and came home with a nasty ingrown toenail. we have had to go to the doctor twice now for this. he is scheduled to have surgery on his toe later this month...he could not swim the entire time of the broke wrist due to the cast and open wound into his bone. now, due to the toe and it being wrapped, he still can't swim. summer is half gone and the typical stuff we would do, we are hindered from doing. all of my younger son's normal activities are not capable of being done...no guitar, no bow practice, no boxing, no fishing, no hatchet throwing, no whittling, no biking, no hiking, no shooting, no no no...even wii playing is limited due to limited range of motion... :/ it has ...