Wow, has it really been 14 years?

Today, is my beautiful middle daughter's birthday. These are not the best pictures but they are fun. She has turned into the most amazing girl. It is bittersweet, as I am so looking forward to seeing the plan that God has laid out for her life but I do miss my baby. I hate to see them getting older. However, these days are so much fun and I can honestly say I am getting to be a part of their every waking moment.

Happy Birthday my sweet Lindsey.




Since today is a birthday, we will be taking the day off of school. I try to let them really feel how special their day is to all of us. We will probably do some fun things like picking the ton of muscadines that are ready, play a board game or two, or watch movies. We will have her birthday dinner tomorrow night, as my son has football practice tonight from 5:30-8:30. She chose to have steak and shrimp, twice baked potatoes, and salad. It will be so good!! With the high prices of groceries lately, we have not had steak in quite a while.


Here are some cute pictures taken yesterday on the mini farm. These kittens are too funny to watch. I have been reassured that at least one of them (the grey striped) is not as worthless as I have been thinking. She did have a small mouse one day last week. Which is their whole purpose of living here.LOL

As we were sitting at the table doing school yesterday morning, this was the sight we saw. I guess they were tired from a long night. Who knows what they do during the night?!!
The horse laying down is Thunder and he has been with us since the day he was born. My oldest daughter has been able to sit out there with him lying down since he was a baby. It's a neat relationship they have. The one standing up is our new boy, shooter. He too, is a big baby but we didn't get him until he was 13 months old. They are a lot of work and hastle but so much fun.
I have to say that with all that we have going on, I have not been too crafty lately but I hope to get back to working on the house this fall. Right now, I am just trying to get our new schedule down. We have had a great couple of weeks of school!!

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As a side note, Gustav is heading to the Gulf of Mississippi. This will mean that my husband will be called in to go and help. He loves being of service but it can also be dangerous. Depending on the severity of the storm, he could be gone for weeks. If you think of it pray for all those who could be affected by this storm. I pray that people take heed and leave before it comes in!!

I hope you all have a great day.

I have so much to share.....

I will start with the fact that I have been so incredibly busy with the starting of the Spencer family homeschool for the 2008-2009 school year. We have been homeschooling for years but I feel an increased since of pressure this year. That sweet darling in the yellow is now in the 11 th. grade. I only have 2 more years to instill all of the many values and lessons I still have for her to learn. I can not believe time has gone this fast. I remember when she was just a tiny thing that I rocked daily. I want these next 2 years to go at turtle speed and be filled with lots of fun and tons of memories!!!

So the last few weeks I have been readying myself for this school year. I have been pouring over teachers manuals and writing lesson plans. I have also been doing a ton of organizing, as in our move, I lost a school room. Oh how devastating. I hope to get one back in our kitchen/ school room remodel but that will be a while. So for now I am making do with a dining room/ school room. So far so good.

Here are my reluctant pupils on their first day. They have been sleeping late all summer and Monday morning Hubby and I got them up at 6:30 to pray and get our day started. Trust me the day went great!!!
Now, here is some of my other exciting news......... My honey is putting up the light fixture that I won from Our Cozy Nest. It came in the mail yesterday and I had it all ready for Hubby to put up when he got home from work. You didn't think I could wait did you?!

Oh, and by the way, I know those blinds are hideous. One thing at a time.....



Isn't it just lovely?!

Now for my next little lovely.....
I got my tassel from Susie at Bienvenue on Saturday. Now let me tell you, I have been doing some coveting over these tassels. I have wanted a Susie Harris tassel or a Nester tassel for quite some time but I just can not justify $25-$30 on a tassel when I am redoing a whole house. Then Susie goes and does a thing like offering these for next to nothing. What was she thinking? Well, I had to grab it and grab it I did. It came in the mail Saturday and here is her new home. Isn't she lovely?!

And she came with these little cuties. I almost want to frame them. Susie what would you suggest I do with them?
I added these last couple of pics. for no particular reason. This is the sky this past week before one of our many storms we have had lately. I just thought it was a beautiful.

And last but not least, this one just cracks me up. My children had friends over all weekend and this was my son and a friend taking the ladder to our pear tree to climb. How inventive.!

I hope you all have a great day. I will be catching up with you all this weekend. Bless you!!!

I won!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, let me tell you, I am soooo excited. I entered Nicole over at Our Cozy Nests chandelier giveaway. Now keep in mind, I have entered Susie's giveaway, Boo Mama's, the Nester's and on and on. Too many to even count. And have never won. Usually as I am entering them, I am thinking I wont ever win this, why bother.

Well, Guess what!! I won!!

I can not tell you how excited I am. It is the perfect giveaway for my new house. I think it is going to go in the dining room, as we have a ceiling fan in there now.

Have a great weekend!!

Life and death on our little piece of paradise

We had a very trying Sunday around here......

I will preface with, we spent a lot of Saturday night preparing food for Sunday, as we were going home to church for potluck. Our church back home has potluck the first Sunday of every month and we haven't been since March and I was really needing the encouragement. I have missed our home church soooo much.

So when we woke up Sunday morning, needless to say we were on a TIGHT schedule. Well, everything was going along well until youngest daughter, Lindsey, went out to put her rabbit in his daytime pen and feed the chickens. Well, she went down to the chicken coop and she saw 2 dead chickens in the pen. She ran in hysterical. My honey went down there to find that there were 2 chickens ripped to shreds on the ground. I will tell you a little about our chicken set up. We have a pretty large chicken yard. Our coop is a large rectangle box that sits about 3 feet off the ground on posts. The coop has doors on it that can close the chickens in at night. However, we had not been doing this, as we had not had any problems and probably out of pure laziness. Well, Saturday night some predator dug under our fencing and climbed 3 feet to get in our coop and got some of our chickens off their roost. We are thinking it was a fox. We're not sure. We lost 7 chickens and 3 guineas. It was a devastating loss, especially for Lindsey, as these are her project.

On top of all this commotion, we went on to church and had a great day of like minded fellowship. I sooo needed it!! We got home around 5 ish and went down to the coop to see if all was ok. I looked over to the rabbit cage and did not see a rabbit. I wanted to be sick. It seems that in all the uproar of the chickens my Lindsey forgot to latch the pen. I can not tell you how upset she was. We were scouring the yard, the pasture, and the barn with no luck. I came in the house and just begged God to let them find Lindsey's rabbit. My husband finally came in and said he was going next door to borrow a post pounder to work on the chicken yard. I told him I would ride with him. A little ways up the road, I looked out in the neighboring pasture and saw 2 little white ears. I screamed for hubby to stop. He stopped in the middle of the road and jumped out to run across the pasture to get the rabbit. He screamed back up at the house for the kids to come get him. They did and all was well.

I praise God that He hears our most nonessential, ridiculous prayers and that He cares about the broken heart of a little girl. He is an amazing God and I praise Him in the devastation of death and the rejoicing of Life.

I am not getting a lot of great decorating done, as we are getting ready to start back to school. I am trying to get organized!!!

Have a great day!

A Simple Woman's Daybook entry August 4th.

For Today...

Outside my Window...

I am looking out the big picture window behind our computer desk at the freshly cut pasture, that my Ronnie worked furociously on Saturday. It looks great!!

I am thinking...

How much I love living here and being able to be at home and enjoy this place. Also, I have so much to do today and need to get off this contraption. (Keeping it real)

I am thankful for...

My family and the fact that my honey finds it important for me to be here in the home!!!

From the kitchen...

This is a tough one, as we are revamping our eating. We are really trying to watch our diet. I think I am going to be making dried beans and cornbread. Something light.

I am wearing...

Nothing special, a T-shirt and shorts. My hair is pulled up in a bun and I have my favorite Mudd ballet type shoes on.

I am reading...

I will be reading 1 Timothy today.

I am hoping...

That today is a better day than yesterday. Yesterday, we lost 6 chickens and 3 guineas to a predator.

I am hearing...

I have the news on in the background.

Around the house...

We have some cleaning to catch up on from the weekend. I also really hope to work on a home management binder.

One of my favorite things...

Yesterday, we went home to go to church. Our old church has potluck on the first Sunday of every month. One of my favorite things is sitting around fellowshipping with likeminded friends and watching my children just have a great time. I wish we could find that same thing here.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week...

To work on really getting organized for the new school year. Hence, the new home management binder.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...

I forgot to put my picture in first and then right my post. So my pic of the day is at the top. It's a picture of Ginger and her not such a baby anymore.

Do any of you know how to move the pictures after uploaded. I hate it when I forget to put them in first!!!

To view other great daybooks go over to Peggy's at the Simple Woman's spot. I really enjoy doing these and seeing what other's are doing.....