As the flower fades.......

The whole purpose of this blog for me is to document our life. You know, so that as I forget all of these great memories, there is a record somewhere. I have not done a great job of it the last year and I hope to do better this fall. Here is a little of what our summer has entailed. It's been a great summer.

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This is my chalk board in my dining area. We have had this verse on it for a few weeks. The grass is withering and the flowers are fading, sniff sniff, but we have the assurance that God's Word stands forever. Praise the Lord!!

It seems as though the season has flown by but here is a small glimpse of what we have done and seen. We have watched many beautiful sunsets over the pastures.

The girls have spent a great deal of time with these guys. They haven't ridden a whole lot, as this summer has been SO hot but they have done a lot of caring for them. This special guy went to the trainer almost 2 wks. ago and Lord willing, will come back a perfect gentleman just right for riding. The girls miss him terribly and even shed a tear when he left.

My honey has done a lot of grilling for us. And it has been soooo good. We grill though, even in the dead of winter. Ha Ha Oh, how I love this man!!!

I had this little nook of space beside my cabinets that I really wanted some type of storage system in so Mr. Wonderful also built this for me. He took an old ugly dresser apart cut it down and added shelves. I love it!! I am having the best time scouting out glass canisters and jars for all of my baking supplies. I found the huge one, holding my Prarie Gold Wheat Berries, at Old Time Pottery in B'ham for $3.99. In hindsight I wish I had gotten 3 of them. At the time, I didn't know if they would fit my shelf. I like the idea of all the different shapes and sizes. It gives a rustic feel. I think. Ha Ha

We've had a turtle race. Our little nephew, Ace, has now entered his 3rd turtle race at Lena Day. This turtle was named Hot Junior. He loves it and it causes us to have many laughs!!
We watched the fireworks on Lena Day, 4th of July. They were great, as always.
Cousins got to bond again over the summer. This is our youngest girl cousin Jessica. She has 4 brothers and would love to come live with us part time.
This has also consumed my summer. We were getting a 5 gallon bucket of tomatoes a day. It was a blessing but it took every moment of my day. Oh but the rewards are so worth the effort. God is good!! Prov. 3:10I have been filling my freezer. It's even fuller now. I have been filling my pantry. Oh, it is so satisfying to be able to look at the fruits of ALL your labor. The tomatoes, tomato sauces, spaghetti sauce, ketchup, and salsa are over flowing on out in the laundry room. I need more shelving and places for shelving. Ha Ha

Now the pears and muscadines are ripening but I don't think I am going to make very many preserves and jellies. We have an abundance from the last two years we need to eat up. I do hope to make and can some muscadine juice.

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And last but not least, here is the newest member of the family.......

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Her name is Phoebe and she is a 6 wk. old miniature pot bellied pig. My oldest daughter, Katherine, has been wanting one for quite a while. So about 3 wks ago we found one at the flea market and I told her if that is how she wants to spend her money then go for it.....Ha Ha..... and She did.She is supposed to live in this pen that was custom built for her until she gets big enough to go out in the pasture.

However.....

She thinks she is a dog..... and has been living on the back porch during the day and sleeping in her nice pen at night. Too funny.

She cracks us up....I mean literally my Ronnie watches her and just starts laughing.

We have also taken a few trips, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Vicksburg to name a few. We have one more planned in 2 wks. to Tn.

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So it's been a great summer and we are so sad to see it leave but I am ready for some cooler days. We have already got the hammock hanging and the girls have started laying out in it and reading. So I know fall is in the air even if its still 90+ degrees outside.
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Oh and by the way, School starts at our house on Monday.

20 years ago today......

Today is our 20th. anniversary.

This is when we first saw each other after this last deployment of 9 months.

I never thought we would be here. We got married for all the wrong reasons but WOW , did God have a plan. I was way too young or should I say immature at the time. I often say that Our girls ages (18) and (15) are more mature now than I was when we got married and it's true. Neither of us knew and walked with Jesus and it was just doomed to fail. We have had MANY rough days but the good ones seem to far outweigh the bad.

Our marriage has been a growing process, much like our walk with the Lord. As we have grown in Him, we have grown together. We both got saved when Katherine was a baby but we weren't really growing in Christ. We went to church every time the door opened but never really cracked a Bible to study and read for ourselves. Then we were shown, basically the folly of our ways, and began truly walking with the Lord, reading His word, meditating, studying, and memorizing. Wow, what a difference those simple little things can make.

Even then, I had a long road to go. I needed to truly understand the word submission. Eph. 5:22-24 Having been raised by a very strong willed, independent, single, mother, submission is not a word I was ever taught. HaHa In time though, God can change your heart and show you a better way. About 5 yrs. ago I read the book Created to be His Helpmeet by Debi Pearl and it was life changing for me and I think Ronnie would say him too. I saw all of the many ways I was still trying to be the head of our family, even though I would have previously thought I had this submission thing down. Things run much more smoothly around here now.:)

Today, we have a pretty great marriage and family and Lord willing, we will have at least 20 more years together. I am extremely thankful that God took something that we didn't necessarily mean for good and turned it into something really good. Romans 8:28

Ronnie is in Hattiesburg for summer camp. However, he has managed to work it out that he is going to sweep me away for the evening. I have no idea what he has planned. He just told me to pack a bag. If you know Ronnie, than you know this is not typical. He and the girls have been back and forth on the phone and there is no telling what is going but no matter what it is, it will be special.

Have a great day!!

22Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 24Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.~~ Ephesians 5:22-24

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.~~ Romans 8:28

A Glimpse at our days.....

The biggest thing going on around our homestead this week is that this beautiful, sweet, loving, and most of all totally sold out to Jesus Christ, girl is spending the week on a mission trip to New Orleans. We went to a musical at Christmas time and she told me then she wanted to join the performance choir that was performing. Well, we got her all signed up in Jan. and she has worked so hard. This week they are performing at different churches, detention centers, and public places like the Cafe Du Monde. She is worn out from all of the busyness of it but is having a great time. We live by the verse,... Bad company corrupts good morals. 1 Cor. 15:33. So it was a big leap for her to go off and do something like this. However, she did just graduate and she will be 19 in Oct. By this point she should be trained in the way that she should go. (Prov. 22:6) She truly has a heart for those less fortunate and we are so proud of the young woman she is becoming.
I love you Katherine and I have missed you like crazy this week!!!!

In the meantime we are staying busy busy with the garden. I go out every morning for a while and weed or tie up tomato plants.

All of this hard work has produced beyond our wildest dreams. We have decided this may very well be our best garden yet. I think God is blessing this sweet man because he missed all of last years harvest. He loves gardening. I am so thankful. I love stalks of corn. It is really shooting up now.We have a ton of squash and zucchini blooms.
And a ton of zucchini.....

and squash. We should be picking by the end of the week. Praise the Lord.

I have 60 tomato plants planted and it looks like only one is going to die. They are already covered with little tomatoes. Today I am taking all of my frozen tomatoes from last year and working on my new spaghetti/pizza sauce. I will be putting up a lot of sauce, salsa, and ketchup this year, Lord willing.

~~she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. Prov. 6:8~~

By the way, I am wondering does anyone have any idea what this plant is? I don't think it is an angel trumpet. It doesn't grow on a large stem. It grows more like an amaryllis. It may just be some type of amaryllis, however the foliage looks different.

Well, I must go get started. I hope you all have a great day!!

Whirlwind of renovating......

We have done a ton of renovating since my honey came home from Iraq. Here is just a snippet of what we have done.....

First of all, we took up the hardwood and laid it back down right. The previous owners didn't lay it right around the door frames and it really drove my husband and I nuts. It looks so good now. I hope to eventually put the hardwood in all of my bedrooms too. He also laid new ceramic tile in both of our bathrooms. It's a light terra cottaey color. It, too, looks great.Now, we are on to the hall bathroom. We just added these accessories yesterday. We added this white shelf.
Our house is about 40 years old and has the original iron sinks, and tubs. The hall bath's are this yellow color. I don't want to replace them because you just don't get quality like this today, so we are working around them. We chose this aqua blue set to go along with the yellow.

This is the new shower curtain.

Now on to the really big project. This was a wall with a pocket door opening. It separated my living and dining room. My kitchen was off the living room and you walked through the door opening to get to the dining room. Well, no more. We took down the wall and made a nice cased opening. I also switched my dining and living room. Now the dining room is off the kitchen and it's all one big open space. I love it!!!

This is the Before:

And the After:

I painted the walls in the living room a nice chocolate brown (Valspar's Pretzel Twist). We also got new furniture, as what I had before was 11 yrs. old and showing quite a bit of wear and tear. This set is a nice rusty/red color. I hope it lasts at least 11 yrs.

This is the "new" dining room. I painted this room Benjamin Moore's Adobe Beige. It is the perfect like ivory/khaki color. We plan on trimming out the chalkboard this weekend.

The Before:

And the After:

This works so much better for our family because we live with us all in the same area reading, playing games, watching movies, or playing on the computer.

Here's another view. I would like to eventually paint my chairs black. I am working on a family photo collage for that big empty space. I also want to put a verse on the top of the book shelf. I am thinking,

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. 3 John 1:4.

This is probably one of the things I am most excited about.... My honey changed out my old two sided sink for this huge single tub sink. I wanted the single tub because it is huge and I can fit a whole cookie sheet in the bottom. My oldest daughter is a budding homemaker/chef and she has put this thing to good use.

We have several more projects but they are on hold. It's about to be canning season and that will consume my summer. Praise the Lord.

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Proverbs 10:5~~ He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.~~

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And last but definitely not least.......

The newest member of our family. We are still working on the name.

I hope you all have a great weekend. We are thinking of going camping.

So many posts.... so little time....

Here is our HUGE project right now, besides all of the remodeling (pics. coming soon). The garden!!! It is bigger this year measuring about 75X110. I have 60 tomato plants, 4 rows of corn, 3 rows of peas, 1 row of beans, 1 row of squash and zucchini, 2 rows of melons and cucumbers, a half row of peppers, and a row of sunflowers. We will add pumpkins later. Lord willing, it will all make and I will be canning like a mad woman come June and July.

Here are the 60 tomato plants. So far so good, they look healthy and strong. I hope to make all of our preservative free ketchup and tomato sauces this year.

We planted two blueberry plants last year and they are loaded this year. I also planted one more blueberry this year. They are all still small but in about 3 more years I will have blueberries, figs, and blackberries running out of my ears, Lord willing. Hopefully, we will be able to add peaches and plums to our little orchard soon.

Here is the bumper crop of muscadines. I will be canning quite a bit of jelly this summer, Lord willing.

These are the newest members to our flock. We have 3 hens and the white one is supposed to be a rooster. I try to add a few every year so that our flock stays at an even level. Right now, I am getting about 8 -10 eggs a day. Which is more than enough for us and allows us to give them to friends and neighbors. Eph. 4:12, Heb. 6:10

Those of you from the South, primarily Mississippi, know that this past winter was record breakingly cold and wet. I think it added to the depression we already had from Ronnie being gone. I can tell you right now that I would probably die if I lived above the mason dixon line. (not really Ha Ha)

However, one great thing about an excess of water this past winter is that it has produced some amazing roses this spring. Just look at them showing off. Oh, and yeah it has already gotten so hot here we have had to turn on the AC. I will have to remind myself to Praise God when it's 100* outside this summer.

Last but not least my oldest daughter, a true Ruby, has started a blog featuring all of her amazing photography. I would love it if you would swing by and give her some encouragement.

Here's her blog address:

http://katherinespencerphotography.blogspot.com/