So much to say and so little time to say it.....

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1



Good Morning, friends.




I want to start out telling you about our Veteran's Day. My husband, of course, is a veteran. He was in the first Gulf War in 1990-1991 and then he served 18 months in 2004-2005 of this Iraqi Freedom war. Now he is scheduled to go back in May or July of 2009. However, he had the privilege of doing the color guard at the unveiling of a monument for this man Colonel Van T. Barfoot yesterday. Colonel Barfoot received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroism during WWII. He not only battled hard and saved his regiment but he also saved lives of his soldiers. When he got up to except the monument, he said I didn't do anything, nothing more than any of you would do. I know for a fact that is not true. They just don't make them like this man any more. He is the only living recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor in Mississippi and one of only 98 in the nation. They are a dwindling breed.


You can watch a clip of the ceremony here, if you are interested:
http://www.wlbt.com/global/video/popup/pop_player.asp?ClipID1=3125985&h1=Medal%20of%20Honor%20recipient%20honored&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=140167&LaunchPageAdTag=News&activePane=info&playerVersion=1&hostPageUrl=http%3A//www.wlbt.com/global/story.asp%3Fs%3D9332010&rnd=82691289



Well, instead of working on this place and making it more homey.......



We have been working on putting this in the woods.

This is one of the shooting houses that my honey and children have been working on. It's a 6 X 6 monster. We had to load it onto a trailer and drive it at 10 MPH and set it out in the woods. I was floored at how smoothly the whole process went. Deer Season opens up Saturday for my crew. They are so excited.

My honey used the scrap lumber that he got from tearing down this old smoke house to build his newest shooting house. I just love that old rusty tin and now want him to find more to go on the side of my garden shed. I think that rust patina is so beautiful.

This has been the other project. We got my garden spot all disked up. It will measure about 50X30. So, Lord willing, this spring I will have about 1500 sq. ft. of glorious garden. We just finished the last jar of homemade pickles that I put up 2 years ago and I am truly anticipating next years bounty.

This is my little mini 5X5 garden that I have now. Of which, I am very thankful for it. It holds some lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. It is growing strong and I am so excited. We have eaten some lettuce and it was scrumptious. We have little baby broccoli on the stems, so they shouldn't be too much longer.

This one just blows my mind. We have had at least two frosty cold snaps here in Central Mississippi but these beauties are still going strong. I hope to move them this winter when they go dormant to a nice sunny spot. I can't imagine what they will do with a little more sun.

And then of course, I have to add in my clown children pictures. Don't you just love this ensemble? You've got the typical Carhart jacket with shorts and crocs. Is there any other way to dress in Mississippi? It just cracks me up what these kids will go out in.

I just had to share this one with you. My daughter, last year around Resurrection Sunday time, found this little guy. We were at a Seed and Feed store where we get our chickens every year. They had this little guy and he was very sickly with only one eye. The lady said if you can nurse him back to health take him. So my daughter did and we got some medicine for his eye. (our vet loves us) She really nursed him to good health for months and he is now a 25lb. big boy. He still only has the one eye because, it was just too far infected when we got him, but he gets around perfect. I thought this picture of him sleeping half out of his box really depicts his very lazy, happy life.

In closing this post out, I want to share what my family has been studying and looking at. We have been looking for a church home here for over a year and it has been tough to say the least. We are a little different in the aspect that we don't want to do things because the "church building" has done it that way for 100 years. We wont to see it in the Word of God and then do it. Here are a couple of verses that we have just found that are so prophetic:

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"Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men." He was also saying to them, " You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. Mark 7:8-9

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That sounds so familiar to me. So many things we do in church on Sunday morning are just traditions of men.

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I also want to share this clip. This guy is so powerful.

I could not get the clip to embed so here is the URL.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4axy22oTkA

I hope you all have a great day.

So what exactly does a homeschool kid do when the temp. drops?

Let me preface by saying that the temps. here in central Ms. have finally turned cool and we have a cool front blowing in today. It may even frost tonight. So the kids (mainly the boy) wanted to build a fire out in the yard but it was just to0 windy. So what do you do when mom is way too logical?

Well, it all starts with a very overgrown muscadine vine/bush. When we moved here these very old vines had really been neglected and this is the largest one.

Then you add a very ingenious 11 year old boy.

Who recruits his sisters. Even the one who just turned 17 on Saturday. (Oh how I am crazy about these kids)

And then you turn said muscadine vine/bush into a fort of sorts.

They have their sleeping bags under there with pillows and blankets and are all huddled up. It's great.

There are so many things that I love about homeschooling and here is one of them. My girls and boy are not concerned about boys/girls or things of the world like who's wearing or doing what and all that peer pressure stuff. They are able to be 11, 14, and 17 and still play and dream and have fun. It's truly a blessing! We make a lot of sacrifices for me being home but I would not take one minute for it!!!

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On the topic of sacrificing, here is one frugal tip. With all of the fencing, preparing animal homes, and getting hay ready for winter, my husband has just not had time to put up a clothesline. So I hung a small clothesline between two of our small oaks. It is temporary but works. I love the smell of line dried sheets. There is nothing better. I have read that every load of clothes dried in the dryer can cost $.36. Around here that will add up quick. Now don't get me wrong, I do not line dry every load of clothes but I do like to use it as much as possible.

Do you see how that wind is whipping up today? They will be dry in no time!!

I love the idea of this clotheline with a garden trellis on either end. I think it would beautify a plain old clothesline. I would grow morning glories up either side. I doubt mine will be this fancy initially but maybe one day!!

I hope you all have a great week!!!

Thoughts on the days to come...

If there's one prediction I can make from this analysis, it's this: It looks very much to me like there will be a rough few years ahead in the United States, whichever candidate wins.

I took this excerpt from an article found here:http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article4995.html.

Let me preface this post by saying I have several things on my mind and this may be a long post. I don't want to really be political in the sense of Dems. vs. Reps. I do have a side and I will say that I am on the side of life no matter who the candidate is.(killing millions of babies every year is unacceptable) However, I don't think it really matters who is elected this time around, as our nation is in such a pitiful financial shape. I think the economy will be the biggest focus for the next 4 years for whoever wins. I think all other points of interest will be taking a back seat to the coming recession. I don't even really care who's fault it is, although I do think that if it were all the Republicans you would here the other side kicking and screaming that fact. Nevertheless, from what all the "financial powers that be" are saying we are headed for some tough times.

First and foremost let me say, In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid... Psalms 56:11

I want it to be clear that I believe God knows what is about to happen and that if we trust in Him, He will not abandon us. However, I do think that we can prepare for the times ahead. Here are a few things that I am doing. I boiled a chicken this past week and instead of throwing out all that scrumptious broth, I put up 2 qts. of broth. I will be doing that with every chicken I boil for the next few months.

Now this is something I have done for several years now. I grind my own wheat and bake all of our bread, rolls, crescent rolls, cinnamon rolls and anything else you can make out of bread dough. The thing I am doing differently is that I have stocked up on wheat berries. I am just sticking them in the freezer. The price of wheat berries has gone through the roof.
The big gallon size jar is honey. Until we have our own bees, I buy honey in a gallon jug.
This is what I made today, a loaf of bread and rolls. My kids love to eat a sandwich on rolls instead of sliced bread.I think my biggest point is, not only am I trying to save some of my money at the grocery store, I am also trying to stock up on pantry items. I am adding extra bags of rice and nonperishables to my pantry every week. I think it may be a wise thing to do.

Another huge thing for the days ahead is living a life that is debt free. If you are not already I encourage you to work on this this next year. We, Lord willing, hope to be debt free at the first of the year next year. Instead of spending on all of the wonderful things I want for this new house, like landscaping, we are focusing on paying off all debt. I think it will serve us far better in the days to come.


Now for the not so glamorous part of the simple life......
We have intentions, Lord willing, of growing and raising all of our food, eventually. We hope to eventually have a diet that does not contain any antibiotics or growth hormone, just natural free range from our own range.LOL
Well, this morning my honey took care of one of our roosters. He has been aggravating our little ladies unbearably. Earlier in the summer we had to kill a rooster because he chased our middle daughter and pecked her when she went to feed them. We just don't tolerate a mean rooster, especially when they are mean to the hand that feeds them. However, this one was mean to the other chickens which can be very upsetting to the egg production. So needless to say his days were numbered. Here is honey taking him across the yard to the barn for his demise. He is not dead but if you pick them up by there feet it has a sort of tranquilizing effect.

Notice our little Shit-Zhu walking along side. He never left during the whole grizzly process.
Yes, that is an extension cord holding the wings. I didn't say we have the most sophisticated process going.
I left out some of the more gory pictures. Here is the end result. We hope to next spring, get 25-50 meat chickens to raise out for our freezer.

Picket, I think your Burly Boys would be proud. We have quite the deer season around here too.LOL

I would like to point out that while all of this killing and processing is going on, I am in the house. I just cook the stuff.LOL
Again, this way of life, I pray, will benefit us in the coming days.

I don't want to seem all doom and gloom but I do think it will benefit us all to be a little more prepared.

*****If you enjoy my blog, I would love for you to become a follower of it, over in the sidebar**** I hope to work on my list of blogs that I love to follow this week. Have a great week!!!

Beauty in the Simple Things

This is one of the many amazing sunsets that I get the privilege of viewing every evening from our wonderful back porch. God truly knows how to show off all of His splendor.
Exodus 33:18

And here is our main man relaxing in the new hammock. With all the work we have around here you rarely see him relaxing. He works hard for us and in return I hope we serve him well.

This has been the latest funny. The little kitten loves to sleep in the barn shoes we keep outside the door. The kids get a big kick out of this.

This is our middle maiden. I love seeing her and her sister riding through the pasture or in this case the yard. It's the simple things that truly make me smile.

Of course, there is quite a bit of maintenance that go with these little beasts, as well. This is our oldest maiden cleaning hooves and brushing them down.

I also wanted to show my newest little vignette for fall. My husband and son found a man who was wanting and old smoke house torn down on his property. He has gotten older and just could not keep up all of the outbuildings he has. We, having this little mini farm, need all the lumber we can get, so it was a great trade off. So they went and tore it down and brought home all the lumber. This window pane was the goodie that I got to keep. It was painted an awful pinky color but I white washed it and I think it turned out great. I still need to paint that mantel. I have wanted to several times and just can't find the time. Soon!!

Have a wonderful evening.

A great girls afternoon....

This past Friday afternoon, my girls and I went into Jackson to see a movie and do some shopping/looking. This is the movie we went to see.




I know what some are you are thinking, "Why didn't you go with your hubby?". Well, we were but we just couldn't work out a date night and I really wanted to see it and so did my girls. So that's how it went. Anyway, he can see it on DVD in a couple of months.LOL

As for the movie, it was amazing. I had a couple of people at church say that it was not kid friendly. Well, my girls are 16 and 14, and I think it was more than appropriate for them. It really hit on the sin of divorce but that there is redemption. It was great. Kirk Cameron did an amazing job!!! I really encourage those who are married or planning to be, to see this one. I think in America and especially in the Church, marriage has become way to convenient and not thought of as a lifelong covenant before God. This movie really makes that solid!!

The girls and I then hit Hobby Lobby and went over to what we call the "Kitchen Store", Linens and Things. My oldest daughter loves to cook and this store is heavenly to her. I think one of her Christmas gifts this year will be a basket full of kitchen gadgets. I know that may sound lame for Christmas but I would have loved a head start on my homemaking gadgets. I think she will too. We had dinner at Backyard Burger and headed home. It was a great girls night out with my favorite girls.

Have a great week!!

Should I call this my bimonthly blog post?

I know that you are all just as incredibly busy as I, but I just have the hardest time fitting the blog into my schedule since we have started schooling. I do try to keep up with all of you. I would rather read all of your blogs than post anyway. Well, we have had a lot going on the past few weeks and here is one......

My mother's cat had 4 kittens and using mother's words, 11 days later she had a fatal car accident (the cat, not mother). Well, mother did not feel that she could bottle feed all 4 kittens so she decided we needed to take 2 of them. You know since she thinks because we home school we have so much free time on our hands. That's a whole other story in itself. Here are the 2 babies we brought home and my girls have been bottle feeding. They look like little rats they are so small. I have a feeling we will end up keeping these 2, as much as we do not need them.

Now, this is the crafting I have been doing. I took one of my plain white lamp shades and spray painted it red. I got the idea from the Berry's Patch. She painted hers using acrylic paint and I used spray paint. I think it turned out great. I still plan to add some trim around the edges but I have to make a trip to Hobby Lobby for that.

Susie did you recognize that wonderful tassel? I love it!!!

Then I dug out this tropical tray that I have had stored forever. I gave it a quick coat of the red.

I hope to add feet to it and use it as a centerpiece on my table. I will update when I get it done. I also painted an old window frame white. I hope to put it above my mantel. Lord willing, that will be my next post.

Have a great week.

The Harvest is Definately Coming In....

It has been a while since my last post and here is a big reason why. I am up to my ears in putting up the harvest. One thing that we inherited from buying our little slice of heaven is a row of muscadine/scuppernog vines and a huge pear tree.
Here is one of 4 sink fulls of Bronze muscadines. We also have purple coming in.

Here is one of 2 clothes baskets full of pears.
And this is the end result.... I have put up about 50+ jars of muscadine jelly, pear butter, spiced pears, and pear preserves. It has been very time consuming but I know come winter and Christmas, I will be glad I did it. I will be giving neighbors and other friends a pretty jar of jelly and a fresh loaf of bread for Christmas Happy's.

So with school and preserving our little harvest, I have been a busy little bee. I am also hoping to plant a few cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage and lettuce today in a little plot we made Friday.

I still have not gotten out my fall decorations but I hope to this week. It is just now feeling like fall here in Central Ms. The temps. this week should be in the lower 80's, which is a nice change from upper 90's.

Before I go and check out all of your blogs, I wanted to share this You Tube clip. Of course it has a political overtone, that is not my intent. I just thought it was a tear jerker and wanted to share.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4fe9GlWS8


I hope you all have a great week. Oh, and Dot, I will be buying that black paint for the mantel today!!!!

God definately provided.....

First things first, Christi at Charm and Grace Cottage, gave me this sooo sweet award. I have been given a couple of awards and am so humbled every time. If you have a chance swing by there, she does some amazing artwork. Thank you, Christi.

Well, I think all of us in the Mississippi- Louisiana area feel a huge sigh of relief. When we were watching the news on Saturday preparing for the infamous Gustav, we were told that he would come in as a Category 4 storm. That in itself is nerve racking. Instead he came in as a Cat. 2. Praise the Lord. Thank you Heathahlee for checking on us, that was just too sweet.

The evacuation of the Gulf went like clock work and all is good. My husband did have to go and spend the night in the armory on alert status but he did not have to go to the Coast. They sent 1200 troops down to the Ms. Coast on Friday to knock on doors to ask people to leave but my husband was not in that group. I don't want this blog to have any tones of politics but the differences in the operation of this storm and Katrina are huge. I think the big difference was the change in Governor in Louisiana. During Katrina, when the governor was asked is she needed federal assistance, she declined. Of course, in today's mainstream media you don't hear that, all you hear is that it was the President's fault (I have other issues with him, LOL). This go round the Governor took all the help he could get. I don't know who he is but he did a great job.

Here in Ms. our coast line was wiped out during Katrina. We had a whole town, Waveland, Ms. that was completely destroyed. You don't here, as much about the Ms. coast as you do New Orleans being so devastated by Katrina. I believe the reason why is because we had great leadership and as a result, we did not have as much loss of life. Today, you only hear the bad news. Ok, enough of that.

Here is a picture of the birthday girl from the weekend. She had a great birthday. She got a fancy smancy cell phone. I don't know who she is going to call but for some reason she felt it a necessity and my mother obliged. She got a new CD and a movie, some stationary and a new MSU t-shirt, and I got her 2 new Southern Belle's for Jesus t-shirts. She also got a good bit of money. These t-shirts are sold by a little country church about 30 miles from my house and they are too cute. They are selling them as a fundraiser for a new play ground.

This is the only real accomplishment we had for the weekend. We put up this hammock. The kids think it is the best thing. They got their pillows and blankets and swung until the rain came in.

Oh, and I also worked on the new look of the blog. You know the important things. I love this fall scene!!! I got it from Lena at Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates and there free!!! You don't get any better than that. I would love to know how I can change my template without loosing all of my saved blog links. Oh, well.

Then I thought I would share the newest members to the mini farm. Here are Betty and Wilma. My husband bought these little cuties about a month ago. He is planning to feed them out until about February. Then he will have them processed for the freezer. I keep waiting for them to get fat and ugly so that it wont be so hard to know their fate but so far they haven't.
So for the rest of the week, it will probably rain, as remnants of the hurricane. We are under tornado warnings all day today. However, in the grand scheme of things we fared very well.

If you lasted through this whole post, (LOL), have a great day!!!