Torn both ways

Ok.  This time of year causes a serious dilemma for me.  I'm torn two ways.  There is still a ton of work to be done outside, gardening, cleaning, weeding, harvesting, replanting, laying mulch, on and on and on.  BUT my mind is already ahead of me to the time when I can't go outside as much and I'm already longing to spend time knitting, crocheting, sewing, working on leather, cross stitch, (not even mentioning cleaning, because that's an ongoing chore), canning, drying (which, of course, goes on all year).

For instance, I bought a cross stitch book a few years back, planning on making each of our immediate family members a Christmas stocking.  Now, I'm already looking at my cross stitch bag (I keep different crafts in different bags, so if I want to work on a specific thing, I just grab that bag), and thinking, gosh, I wish I had time right now to sit and get to working on those stockings again.  Will I get them done before Christmas this year?  Probably not.  Then there is the yarn I bought for wedding shawls for each of my granddaughters. Do I have time right now?  No.  Then I have the kitchen aprons cut out and not yet sewn.  And the kitchen towels I'm knitting and crocheting.  And the ladies facial towels I'm knitting and crocheting, and the mini scrap books I'm working on (five right now).  And the large scrapbooks I've been working for my kids (WAY behind on those, like years).  On and on and on it goes.

On top of all of that, there is finding the time for sitting with the Lord and just being in His presence.  A friend told me yesterday that everything I do during the day can be considered prayer.  I guess I probably knew that already, but had kind of forgotten it in the day to day grind.

Do you also have this problem?  What are you working on right now, and what do you have sitting, calling to you, waiting on you?  Let me know, I'm interested in how others deal with the anxiety that comes along this time of year.

Until next time.

Proverbs 31 Grandma?

I never knew what real love was until I became a Grandma.  Now, don't get me wrong, I love my husband very much.  I have tried very hard to be a Proverbs 31 wife.  And I love my children more than I could ever put into words.  But being a Grandma?  It's the best.  Grandma's aren't quite so worried about how the kids look.  Nor do we worry about a little dirt.  And in fact, sometimes we think our grandkids look really cute with some dirt showing!

Grandkids love us unconditionally, and completely, and they aren't at all afraid to show that love.  

I have seven grandchildren.  I never even dreamed that I could be so blessed.  They absolutely light up our lives.  They give us a reason to go on.  A reason to still make that bed every morning, clean house, do the laundry, and make sure there are 'goodies' around for them.

I spent part of the summer tutoring two of my granddaughters in Grammar, English, Reading, and Math, as well as religion.  What an incredible time it was.  As a Grandma, I had all the time in the world, with nothing else I had to go do.  I was able to give them undivided attention, for four hours a day, we did nothing else.  It was incredible to me to watch them learn.  I could actually see their little minds working as they silently sat at their tables, sometimes pencil ends in their mouths, thinking and figuring things out.  It did my heart good.

We hear so much bad news today about the youth.  I'm very blessed that all of mine are growing into such good children, and hopefully will grow into God fearing adults.  And they just soak up religion, good little sponges that they are.

It's a great thing....being a Grandma.  What a blessing

Fall Garden

So tomorrow we get our fall garden completed.  I think we are planting carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, onions, celery, garlic, and more beans (just on the off chance that it stays warm a little longer than usual).  Also peas, we didn't get any this spring at all.

It was such an awful summer, weeks of over 100 degree temps with no rain at all in Southern Kansas.  We were in the extreme drought area, and our garden showed it.  We watered, but anybody who gardens knows that watering with treated water is never as good as rain.

I am going to try to garden in thick tree mulch next year.  I watched a film about the Back to Eden garden.  I'm not sure it will work in this part of the country, but I'm going to give it a try.

School has started here, the grandkids are all busy with school, and homework.  I have found tons of great ideas online to help out this year with organization, and am very excited about getting them started.

Until next time.

Hoping for rain

We are hoping and praying for rain.  Literally.  It has rained around us all day today.  This evening we finally got enough to wet the ground.  Not completely, but enough to settle the dust for an hour or so.  We want rain, we need rain.  I seriously went outside and prayed and prayed, asking for some of the wet stuff.  We've lost so much this summer.  We lost alot last summer too, but this is the worst summer I've ever lived through for gardening.

 Although we don't have any animals, I know people who have had to start selling off due to the drought.  Very sad circumstances.  And old timers who say they've never seen anything like this, other than the dust bowl.

  Of course, people took precautions so we wouldn't lose so much top soil again.  But that was decades ago.  People forgot.  Trees have been destroyed.  A dust bowl could easily happen again.

Wells in our parts are going dry.

We need rain.  Badly.

Until next time.

Paleo what's for supper?

What to eat....what to eat....

The never ending question of a housewife and Mom.  It's even harder when you are trying to eat gluten free, soy free, dairy free.  So hard to make out a menu without getting stuck in a rut of baked chicken breast, hamburger patties, baked fish.  I wish I were a gourmet chef, who could whip up beautiful meals at a minutes notice, and still be able to make them GF, etc.  But my mind just doesn't work that way....so it takes time out of each week to try to figure out what I will fix for us for the following week.

Next week, it consists of baked chicken on Monday, steak of some sort on Tuesday, Chicken and rice soup on Wed., Pork chops on Thurs., Fish on Fri., Beef soup on Sat., Roast on Sunday.  What will I serve with it?  Truly, not much probably.  Rice, veggies, or maybe some potato of some sort, most of it very plainly cooked, no dairy limits my choices drastically.

Boring, boring, boring.  But it's what I have to do to stay half way normal feeling.

What are you having?  I hope something wonderful, and spicy.

Until next time.

Rain, Beautiful wonderful Rain!!!!

It's raining.  YEA!!!!!  It's raining...beautiful wonderful rain, wet, cool rain, cleansing, watering rain.  We haven't had enough for so long, everyone was grinning around here.  My granddaughters were sitting in our window, with the window open, singing

"It's raining, it's pouring,
the old man is snoring..."

It's so nice!

Until next time (I'll be enjoying the 60 degree weather for the rest of the afternoon).

A Repost from an earlier blog

This is a post from a blog I had a long time ago.  It's one of my favorites, because these were two of my favorite people.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2008

A pic of my grandma.  She was the hardest working woman I've ever known.  I've talked about her before and some of the people who might read this might have read some of my words about her.  She was a farm and ranch woman.  She rose at about 4:00 am every morning.  She started bread as soon as she got the stove going (wood).  Then she started breakfast.  She cooked for ranch hands, so she cooked in large amounts.  Breakfast commonly consisted of eggs, bacon, ham, steak, pancakes, biscuits, jam, coffee or tea.  Then she cleaned up from breakfast.  Took bread out of the oven, and it was time to head outside to milk.  She milked, brought the milk in, put it in whatever container it was headed for.  Some for their use, some for selling, some for butter, etc.  Some cream for the fridge.

When that was done, she would go check on eggs.  Gathering eggs was one of my favorite things to do growing up.  I remember her telling us, make sure you look before you reach.  Although we never found a snake in the henhouse, they were there occasionally.  After eggs, she started lunch.  Lunch was usually steak (or fried chicken), potatoes, green beans,  whatever was out of the garden in season, bread, homemade butter, pitcher of milk, coffee, jam, pie or coffee (either left over from day before, or some she had managed to get baked in the morning between eggs and milking).  Then she cleaned up from lunch after every one ate.  Then it was out to the garden.   She would work as long as she could, or had time for, then inside to do household chores, and while doing household chores, it was time to start supper.  Supper could be pork chops, steak, fried chicken, chicken and noodles, beans, rice, potatoes, green beans, corn, okra, pickled beets, pickles of any sort, bread, and always desert of some kind, coffee or iced tea, depending on the season.  She then cleaned up from supper.  During whatever was left of the evening, she either took care of household chores, or she did sewing, mending, canning, making butter, shucking corn, milked again.  Then it was time to shut down for the night.  Stoke the stove, and prepare it for night.  She usually got to bed at about 12 every night.  Up again at 4:00 again the next morning.  If there was time, she would try to take a small nap, even if it was just 30 minutes in the afternoon.  Sometimes there was no time for it.  It depended alot on what time of year it was, and what was being harvested.

She could cook anything.  She never had a recipe.  She canned everything they ate out of the garden, and canned fruit, of any kind she could get, or had on hand.  She raised her own chickens, her milk cow.

These are pics of my "Pa" (grandpa).  He was a big man.  The ax in his hands looks like a stick doesn't it?  

Pa took care of the cattle, the planting, the haying, the feeding, the watering, the horses, the pigs, cutting wood, and whatever else Grandma found for him to do.  He was a wonderful guy.  He worked in his younger years for the "101 Ranch" in Oklahoma, traveling with their Wild West Show, as a roper.  He would rope us kids as we ran, it was alot of fun.  Nowdays someone would probably complain that it was dangerous.  He never hurt us, not once.  He could do some pretty amazing things with that rope, he could make the lasso go up or down, make it really big, or really small, make it go side to side with him jumping through it like a jump rope.  He had a large horse "Red".  Red was the cutting horse.  And probably one of the best in this part of the country at that time.  Nobody rode Red but Pa.  He could put us kids up on Red and walk us around the barnyard, but we never got close to that horse unless Pa was around.  I remember one day, Red bit Pa on the shoulder.  Pa reached up and grabbed the horse by both ears and bit him on the nose until it bled.  I don't think Red ever bit Pa again.

The reason I posted about my grandparents today (these are my mom's folks), is because Sharon posted about wood stoves on her site and it made me think of Grandma and how hard she worked her whole life.  They were wonderful, loving people.  I miss them both.

Until next time

Dog days

Summer dog days again.  Seems time has flown the last year or so, and I've not posted at all.  Back to it I guess.  I've been very busy the last year or so.  My beloved Mom had ovarian cancer and I nursed her through to the last.  She passed on New Years Eve, just an hour and a half short of midnight.  When I got home that evening with my kids, we went out at midnight, and banged wooden spoons on pans for my Mom.  It's what she used to do with them on New Years Eve.  We did it for her.  I know she heard us.  My dear husband had had a second heart attack the day before my Mom passed.  So he was in another town in a heart hospital.  It was awful being torn between the two.  But Our Lord has a way of working all of the details out.  My husband is a little better now, after four surgeries in six months.  We almost lost him on many occasions, but now life seems as if it is getting a little better.

Because of all of this, everything has fallen on my shoulders.  I  now take care of the household stuff (which I mostly did anyway).  But now I also take care of the yard, dump the trash, fix things, and the car duties are mine now also.  Besides caring for my husband, and getting him to doctors appointments, etc.

Because I've fallen into all of this, it is forcing me to become more organized.  I have to admit that during the last several years of being so busy, my house has fallen into a mess.  So I've been working on trying to get caught up.  Am I there yet?  No.  It will take a while.  I also suffer from several physical ailments which limit me at times, so I can't get up and get through the house like the whirlwind I was at a much younger age.  I can't even usually get whirling in one room a day.  So it's slow and steady for me.

I've also had to take care of all of the gardening this year, however with our weather here in Kansas, that's been a nightmare all of it's own.  We have canned some tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, peaches and now getting ready to start on apples.  Hopefully next year will be better without the long stretch of not only 100 degree temps, but over 110 degree temps, and maybe with more moisture.  We are in an extreme drought situation.

Until next time.