Bringing Spring Inside

I have posted before that my daughter works at Home
Depot in the garden department. It is really, nice
having someone who feels about plants like I do, and
when she sees something really unique she brings it home.
I have some really neat things growing in my flowerbeds.

This is Emilie in her apron at Home Depot. One of the really
handy things she does is when I need spray paint and I
go to Home Depot, she knows the combination to the spray
paint cage and I don't have to go hunt someone down to get some
for me. My collection of spray paint has grown since she works there.

Yesterday we were driving by, my husband and myself and
I could see all of these great tulips and daffodils out in
front. When I got home and she was getting ready to go to work
I asked if she would get some and bring a few home when she
came home on her lunch hour. Which she did and today,
I have been so happy with these flowers in the house.

I have been so blue and depressed since the fog and the
gloomy days and even if the sun comes out and I try to
get out in it for even five minutes. Nothing has lifted
my spirits like having these flowers in my kitchen.

Even hanging out with my chickens hasn't helped like
it has in the past. I like winter okay, but I have decided
that I need to go somewhere that has a beach, and sand,
and nice warm gentle breezes. I am tired of sweatshirts.
Maybe I do need a chick or two.

Have a great Tuesday,
~Kim~

Right Before The Cloudburst

Right before the cloudburst, I liked the light and I thought
I would go outside to get some pictures of the few bedraggled
flowers I have. While I was out there I was aware I was getting
soaked. Then it dawned on me that it was pouring rain. I love
it when I am so engrossed in what I am doing I don't notice
the weather.

I was making chili for dinner tonight and as I was opening
a can of beans, I thought about the things that I would still like
to do in my life that I have not done. So this is my list.

1. I would like to make a campfire out in my back yard,
with rocks around it and a tri-pod in the center with
a can of beans cooking over the fire. Then I could eat
the beans out of the can like a hobo. I always wanted to
be a hobo.

2. I would like to learn to do counted cross stitch on 40
count linen. Linen puzzles me and I sit and ponder how to
see it when I try and stitch on it but I end up throwing it away
as I can't seem to get the pattern to it in my head.

3. I would like to learn to spin wool, and to use a loom. In there
is having some sheep and goats for wool, but that is a big
stretch for me right now.

4. I would like to write a devotional book and have it published.

5. Buy a new camera and take a photography class and a photoshop
class too.
6. I would like to learn to reupholster furniture.

7.I would like my flowerbeds around my house to stay weed free.
filled to the brim with my own flowers that I grew from seed.

8. I would like to grow my own herbal tea and package it.

9. Make all of my own soap.

10. Be snowed in for awhile in a cabin.

11. Learn to snowshoe.

12. Go stare at the ocean for a few days.

13. Get married to my husband again and this time say " I obey."

14. Get some Silkie hens from My Pet Chicken.

15. Be nice all of the time.

16. Be so skinny, that I can wear my daughter's sparkly jeans
that I have been saving.



17. Get rid of most of my books.

18. Do a how to video and post it on my blog.

19. Have a really nice, big garden that remains weed free all summer.

20. Run and not get weary.


When I was a kid and in- that- want- to- be- a- hippy- mode. I had a poster on the
wall of my bedroom that said, " If dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird
that cannot fly." I sometimes get so busy living I forget to dream. Cloudbursts
and thunder showers make remember dreams.
I thought I would share them today.
Have a wonderful week.

~Kim~

Simply Sunday

Just thoughts I was thinking about to get my mind
on the things that are important today. Blessings to you.

A contented person is one who enjoys the scenery along the detour.

We ponder God's withholding or bestowing and we pine
for what was never given, and what was taken. Today
slips though our fingers. (Theresa Burleson)

"But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds, " declares
the Lord..."I have loved you with a everlasting love; I have drawn
you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt."
(Jeremiah 30:7; 31:3-4)

"A pearl I'm told, is a wound healed. "
(Gail MacDonald)
"God" she said, " Carefully and lovingly takes
broken pieces of our lives and glues them back together
again."
( Ruth Graham)

Lord, deliver us from smallness and self-pity."
Make us masters of ourselves that we may be servants of
others."
(Sir Alexander Patterson)

~Kim~

My Projects This Week

This week I worked on projects. I got a bunch done
on the cat rug. I never knew that my hand would get so
tired I would not be able to pull one more loop. I am slow
and I think last night I worked on it 3 straight hours. It is fun
and I am enjoying myself. Can you see I am just inching my way
to the face. I have put in and ripped out so many times. I have
cut my wool real thin but it just doesn't look right. I will keep
fooling with it until I get the face to look like a face and not a blob.

I never showed I don't think of my rug that I used
the Oxford Punch Needle on. I steamed it today. I am
getting ready tonight to do the finishing part of it. I am going to
put in in front of the wood stove. At least for a little while.

This was my counted cross stitch I did last week, I finally
put some wool on the back of it and stuffed it and hung
it up. It looks just like I wanted it too.

This was my little practice mat. I drew something on
burlap and tried my hand at this and I wanted to try
finishing one because I had never done that so I figured
that if I had a little project to start on it would be practice not
to mention, the steaming and every thing to get one finished.
I also wanted to do one in a day to try and make myself faster
at hooking.
I just thought I would share this today. I have a cold and my brain
is foggy.
I hope you have a nice weekend and a break before this next storm
hits next week.
~Kim~

Thoughts on Thursday

One of the good things about January, is that I get
to start my year over through the Bible and of course
January means, I get to start at Genesis, the book of
beginnings. Which also means, I get to read though one
of my very favorite stories, and that is the story of Joesph.

No other story in my reading
ever moves me as the story of Joesph, but today what I wanted
to focus on was a passage I read yesterday. In Genesis 50:15
"When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.'

"Joseph wept when they spoke to him." (19-21) "But Joseph said to them,
"Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?
"As you meant it for evil but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today So do not fear;"


I have thought about that now for two days. How many things that happened in my life
that I didn't not understand, things that I thought were evil and unimaginable. Yet, always
at the back of it was if I could only let go of the fear, and that was what I noticed, Josephs
brothers still felt they deserved severe judgment from their brother, to accept his
forgiveness was foreign to them, but as long as their father was alive, they could live
in peace with Joseph. But when their father died they expect Joseph to act in the way
they had acted to him. When their Father was out of the way, they did evil. They threw
their brother in a pit and sold him into slavery. But one thing I noticed, that even though
Joseph may have been the second in command to Pharaoh himself, he remains a slave the
rest of his life. Yet, he lived in more freedom than his brothers did because they lived
in fear. Joseph has to keep reassuring them to not fear.


I am like Josephs brothers most of the time, I think. I live in fear of the what ifs and what
will people think and all of that instead of taking chances and taking those steps of faith
that seem to be so important in the lives of people I admire. To take that step of faith
knowing that no matter what, God is there. I don't live that way. I live very carefully.
I read once, " What would I do, if I knew I could not fail."
I think now, I want to live, so what if I do fail,? I will get up dust myself off and
do all of the things I am afraid of doing.

So one of the things I have wanted to do all of my life is write to the glory of God.
So I will and I hope you will continue to come along for the ride. Really as I stumble
along in this life I have been given.

Have a lovely Thursday!
~Kim~

Wedneday Words for Weight loss

Here we are to Wednesday Words For Weight Loss.
I looked forward to it. Dear Patrice is doing all the thinking up
of questions. Patrice and her girls write really nice blogs.
You should stop in and see all of the wonderful things she does.
She is at Everyday Ruralty.

Here are the questions for this week:

1. What's your favorite vegetable?. I would have to say that I like every
kind of vegetable with maybe red bell peppers being my favorite right now.
Not to mention I really only like my vegetables raw.

2. Is eating out a problem for you? No, You would have to go out to eat
for it to be a problem and we don't go out to eat. I have a problem with going
out to eat food, prepared by someone else, when I can make better food, that
tastes better and feed my family for pennies. The prettier the food, the more
it was handled. I am starting to be like Mr. Monk when it comes to food.

3. How often do you weight yourself? I weigh myself, once a week, every
Friday morning.

4. What's the hardest time of day for you regarding snacking? It depends
how hard I have worked during the day. If I have worked hard all day then about
2:00 in the afternoon I am so hungry. I always think if I just get pass that time
of day the rest is easy.

5. Please tell me something you will do this week to be nice to yourself.
This is a hard question for me. I think I am always nice to myself. I will maybe find
some time to sit and watch my chickens. I am in declutter mode at my house right
now and sitting is sort of a luxury. I cleaned my two pantries today,
and cleaned out all of my cupboards and my kitchen drawers. I got my guest bathroom
clean and for the first time in 10 years I could store toilet paper under the sink. It is such a nice feeling to be able to do this right now. For some weird reason that was where I stored
my family photos. I found a place for my photos today.

Thanks for stopping by and reading today. Knowing that I have this to do is nice
for me in my journey this year. I have lost 4 pounds so far.

~Kim~

Today on Tuesday

Today on Tuesday I had some things to share with you.
First, dear Sweet Amy is having a give a way. So go on over
to Verde Farms and see the stuff she is getting together for her
give away. She is helping out her chickens this week.

We are under dense fog advisory this week and who knows how long.
I went out in the pasture so you could see what I see. It had lifted a
tiny bit because being a chicken like I am the fog plays tricks on me.
It makes the sound muffled so when I am out there by myself I can
never tell how far away something is or how close.

I climbed through the fence to the other side so you could
see how it looks from the green side of the fence. It was so wet
my feet and my pants got soaking wet.

I was standing at the back of the pasture looking toward
the back of my house. It is a very lost feeling when I am out
there, the world has become gray and cold. As I listened to
hear what sounds I could hear, I could hear a meadowlark
far away singing a two note song. I thought only two notes for
a gray day.
Then I became conscious of the cawing of ravens. I knew they were
close but I couldn't tell what direction they were whether they were
in front of me or behind me.
Later after the sun came out and I went out there, I saw the ravens.
I could tell where they were then, and they were dive bombing something
over and over the man behind me has a legendary back yard. Ducks
come and herons and oyster catchers and in the huge date tree at the back
of his property, a barn owl must have made its nest there. I watched and
there were two ravens. Finally, one flew off to the top of a pole and watched the world
from his fence post. I felt sorry for the owl.

One of the reasons I like gardening is for the secret surprises
that are around every corner. In my husbands place he grows his
trees, he said, in the summer he rescued these primroses. He is always
rescuing some kind of plant. There they were just blooming away among
his bare branches of his little trees.

These are the only flowers I can find right now and I am
pining away for them. It does my heart good to just find something.
I sat yesterday and dreamed over seed catalogs. I have shapes of gardens
starting to come into my mind. I went out to my strawberry bed today
after I fed my chickens and uncovered my plants a bit to see how they were
doing. I ended up pulling weeds for a bit and I do miss the dirt.

I know I tell myself by August, never again, I am not going to put in another garden.
Then comes January and cold, wet, dreary days and I long to put my hands in the dirt.
I have to show you one more picture that made me so happy.

Can you see the tiny little buds on the end of my peach tree?
It made me so happy to see the promise of spring getting ready.
So no matter how gray the days may seem, quietly waiting spring
will come. I am dreaming of April because then a new little person
will come and gama will have a new little girl to hold. So much to look
forward to in spring.

Have a lovely Tuesday.

~Kim~

The Simple Woman's Daybook

http://thesimplewomansdaybook.blogspot.com/


FOR TODAY
Outside my window... It is foggy and gray, the trees are dripping with fog, the ground is wet and
the air smells like a deep freeze. My thermometer reads 37 degrees.

I am thinking...That I am not yet tired of winter. I am not ready to attach a hula-hoe to my arm like that guy in Edward Scissor Hands. Every where I look I see Chick Weed and Lesser Nettles growing.

I am thankful for...Today. I am so thankful for my home, for the dryer working away, for sons that I still can teach and for my life. Today, I am very, very thankful for my life.

From the learning rooms... Last night we had a young man stay for dinner. I am thankful that God brings people to our table that want to learn of Spiritual things and that he was comfortable enough to be open and ask questions and that God can use our home to minister to others who have been hurt in the world.

From the kitchen...I am so glad that I have a kitchen in which to cook and that even though I still haven't got my dishwasher fixed, I really do enjoy washing dishes and the time that I can stand and dream looking out my kitchen window.

I am wearing...My ratty old walking jacket, Jeans, (I can wear them now, and I didn't have to lay on the bed to get them zipped nor did have to go though all kinds of contortions to pull them up.
A old black shirt with that because it is a house cleaning day.

I am creating...I am working on my hooked rug and I plan on making some more things I just haven't worked out somethings in my head.

I am going...To be going upstairs to teach school.

I am reading...Walking Away From the Faith By Ruth A. Tucker and Hot Tub Religion by
J.I. Packer, Great Books of the Christian Tradition by Terry W. Glaspey

I am hoping...That the sun comes out this afternoon.

I am hearing...The gentle hum of my computer, the heavy sighs of the dog who wants to go for a walk, the sound of the jeans in the dryer and the sound of the zippers hitting the metal.

Around the house...I need to get the floors mopped after school.

One of my favorite things...I love schedules. I love knowing that things are being done according to plan. I love that my house is pretty clean and I am calm.

A few plans for the rest of the week:School, sewing, running my house hold and formulating a plan to declutter my house.
Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

I am glad I am not having one of these weeks.
I hope you have a wonderful week, thank you so much for stopping by
today, and I thank Peggy for her Day Book entries.
Blessings to you today,
~Kim~

Monday Musings

This is how our day was after the fog burned off. We will
have dense fog until the end of the week. So any kind of sunshine
just seems like relief.

Last year for my birthday my brother bought this smoker
for me. I have to say this thing has made my life so wonderful.
We cooked our Prime Rib in it on Christmas Day. The smoker is a Traeger Grill.
It uses these wood pellets and the food turns out perfect.
I am sharing my very favorite chicken recipe. The only thing
I do different from the recipe is I double or triple the maranade recipe,
because I cook so much extra chicken to use in different recipes during the
week. Right now I am really enjoying this chicken on spinach.
I got the recipe from Taste of Home. It is called Sesame Chicken Over Greens.

Photo by: Taste of Home

• 4 Servings
• Prep: 10 min. + marinating Grill: 10 min.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup reduced-sodium teriyaki sauce
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 pound)
• 5 cups torn mixed salad greens
• 1/2 cup sliced sweet red pepper
• 1/2 cup shredded carrot
• 4 green onions, sliced
• 1 can (2-1/4 ounces) sliced ripe olives, drained
• 1/2 cup reduced-fat ranch salad dressing
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted

Directions

• In a large resealable plastic bag, combine the first six ingredients. Add chicken; seal bag and turn to coat. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
• Drain and discard marinade. Grill chicken, uncovered, over medium heat for 5-7 minutes on each side or until juices run clear.
• On four serving plates, divide the greens, red pepper, carrot, onions and olives. Thinly slice chicken and arrange over salad. Drizzle with ranch dressing; sprinkle with sesame seeds. Yield: 4 servings.

Nutritional Analysis: One serving (1 chicken breast half with about 1-1/2 cups salad and 2 tablespoons dressing) equals 347 calories, 16 g fat (2 g saturated fat), 71 mg cholesterol, 788 mg sodium, 21 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 30 g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 3-1/2 lean meat, 2 fat, 2 vegetable.

I have found that it works really well keeping me on my goal of weight loss. I am the

slowest person in loosing weight but I have lost 4 pounds since I started January 1st.
I keep telling myself"that slow and steady goes far in a day." That is from one of
my favorite book series by Ralph Moody called Little Britches.

I hope you have a great week!
~Kim~

A Wool Cutter

When I first became interested in rug hooking every thing
I read talked about a wool cutter. I went to web sites and
looked and looked at them but I couldn't figure how they
were supposed to work. So I thought since I was using mine
today, maybe you might be interested in seeing them up close.
All of my rug hooking friends just bear with me. I am entirely
self taught so I imagine I will make lots of mistakes in this post.

You take the wool and put it next to the guide and
that is a cutter blade that you see with the wool underneath it.

That is me holding the wool and trying to turn the crank
to cut the wool, and that was a new injury to my other hand
today as I was changing the blade and bashed my hand
and cut that hand. I haven't had much luck working with
sharp things for a couple of days. Oh my son is taking the
pictures because I need another hand to hold the camera.

This is how it looks when the strips come out from
the cutter. Two very nice strips.


This is another view of it with the wool on the table.
I have been happily cutting wool today. I have had such
fun cutting a bit and then hooking. My son walked by and said,
" Gosh, I can't believe it my Mom is a hooker!" He meant rug hooker. :)

I just just thought it might be fun for those of you who wonder what
being a rug hooker is and what they do. Now that I have got over my
fear of doing something wrong It is fun. Besides my first project is going
to a 3 year old. He will be happy with it and that it is a kitty cat, not that
I am such a beginner.

I can't wait to show you my rug when it is finished. It is such a nice way
to spend an afternoon. Almost as much fun as watching chickens, but it
got warm this afternoon so I let some of my chickens out and watched them
and hooked so it is a perfect day.

~Kim~

Today On Saturday

Last night I participated in my first Friday Night
Sew in, I learned about it from Jacque.
I went to this website and got the link.
Handmade by Heidi.
When I signed up early in the day, I had my evening
all planned I was going to hook and I was going to finish
up my counted cross stitch I had been working on. Which
I did but I did not realize how hard it was going to be.
My first project was my hooked cat.

I started hooking the edges just because I am like that in
my mind. I work best inside of parameters. If I can break
something down into the shape of a square I can get so much
done. That is how I think. That is why my garden is always
in squares I work best that way.
The next thing I worked on is a freebie design from, Betty,
at Primitive Betty's.

I finished that last night too. I have been just wanting
to work on red and white since Valentines Day is just
around the corner.

Anyway back to the story. I went to put gas in my car
and at the gas pumps I noticed that around the pump there
was what I thought was water on the ground. All of the pumps
were taken so I went to the one with all of the water. I was very
careful when I got out of my car, (I thought) not to step in the puddles.
I pumped my gas and and carefully stepped my way back to the door
of my car. I drive a big car and I have to use the running board to get
in so as I went to get in my car, I stepped on the running board and
it was slick as ice and my feet flew out from under me and if I had not
grabbed onto the steering wheel and the door, I would have been
flat on my back in the island of the gas station. It wrenched both of
my arms it felt like out of the sockets. I very carefully got into the car,
and even climbing in slowly my feet still slipped. Then my car smelled of
gas on the way home.

For dinner last night I was fixing Kung Pao Chicken. So I sharpened my knives
real sharp so I could cut my chicken. You can see where this is going right?
So I cut up the chicken and then promptly forgot I had put the very sharp
knives in the hot dish water. So I went to reach into my hot dishwater to get
a dishrag when my finger found the knife. I cut it pretty good. So my first thought
was darn, am I going to be able to sew for Friday night sew in?
After a while It stopped bleeding and I was able to finish that little freebie.

I expected to not be able to move this morning but I can so it is a good
Saturday.
I hope you have a good Saturday too. One of my grandsons came up while I was
hooking my cat rug and said, that the cat was his cat and could he have that
carpet for his bedroom. So I said, yes, so now I have to get it finished so he
can put it in his room.

I better get hooking,
~Kim~

Friday Pretties!

Today I am linking with Joyce at I Love Pretty Things.
It has been awhile since I did that. I thought today I would
share a bit of my antique dishes. In this set, only one is old, the others
are reproductions. I thought I would get a whole set of these, but
I decided that I had enough.

This is the original bowl. I never knew who told the
true story growing up. When my grandparents passed
away and we had to go through the house there was two
of these bowls. My Dad said that they were his and my grandmother
said they were hers. So if we had a family gathering someone
was always stealing the bowls back and forth.

I really am afraid to use it. That was why when I saw
the reproductions I bought those.
I have another bowl, that was given to me by my
husband's grandfather. He told me it had been his
mothers.

It is of Carnival glass and it is just beautiful and I love
the feet on the bottom.

On the inside is a beautiful scene of a countryside and
in the background is a windmill, like they have in Holland.
I also keep it in my hutch and being afraid to use it.

The last thing I wanted to show you is my teapot. I love my teapot.

I am old- fashioned in how I like my tea, I like it
brewed with loose leaves and I boil the water in a
tea pot on the stove first. I will have already filled the
teapot with boiling water to get it warm and then the
second time I make my tea. I like tea in tea cups with
saucers too. There is something peaceful in going through
the whole routine then sitting down to have tea.

I don't know if you can see it very well, but it was made
in occupied Japan. I have taken it with me every where
I have been. When I lived on my own in my own little
apartment when I would get home from work, I would make
tea in my teapot and I felt like I was the richest girl in the world.
I have other teapots but this remains my teapot of choice.

These are some of the things that mean so much to me. The things
I could not replace, not because they are fancy or anything but because
they have stories and they have history and for me, that is what
makes them treasures.
I hope you will go by and visit all of the ladies who are participating in
Friday's Pretties, they are such beautiful ladies themselves.

~Kim~

Getting Caught Up On Thursday

Guess who is sitting? Yep, little miss Silkie herself.
I took her off the nest today and put her out in the yard
and closed the door to her coop. I picked her up and petted
her little white top knot and told her why, I did not
want her to sit and I was thinking of getting a Silkie
rooster and told her she would not be happy about it.
She remained unmoved and when the sun was going down
and I opened the door to her house, she went and got back
on her nest. Silly Chicken. I love all my chickens, I love
all of the different personalities but Silkies I think remain
my favorite breed, with Cuckoo Marans following a close
second. Oh woe is me I am dreaming of chicks.

These are pictures I took last year after a storm.
The weather man said we might not get anymore storms.
That kind of scares me to think of no more rain until next
November. Do you know how dusty it will be. I really hope
he is wrong.

I loved the way the sun looked in the picture. It had been dark
all day and then the sun came out and it just made the neatest
picture. One of the quotes I tell myself all of the time, when I get
afraid is Courage is not the absence of fear but the willingness
to do the thing we fear. (Keep a Quiet Heart, p 97) One of the things
I am so glad about being 52 is I don't have a very long life expectancy.
I know that sounds weird but the Insurance Company decided it and by
the statistics I can't get very much life insurance. (My Mom died at 30 and
my Dad at 67) So when I turned 50 most of my life is gone. So what
is left to fear? So being a pretty fearful person, I decided well if most of
my life is over why not live doing the things I have been afraid of, like
blogging for people to read and writing every day. Like taking pictures
and posting them. Like looking at cameras and reading about them and
making the plunge to learn to do things I might not have tried.

Telling stories so that my children would have a record of my
life. To keep making friends because life is to short to be a hermit.
Of which I am, really. I have to break out of the box I have
built around myself and sometimes it feels like it is made of
bricks so brick by brick I am tearing down the walls. The walls
of being afraid of what if someone steals my identity or what if
someone comes after my family all of the things that make me
afraid.
So, When I started blogging, my mantra became, "Hanging onto good things can bar me from
God's best. Let go of your plans, Say, " Lord, I want You to run my life."
So as I struggle to let Him have my life to let him run it, I admit there are days,
I want to say, I will just turn off my computer and go away and never write again.
Then that still quiet voice always comes back to say, Did you not want me to run your life?
I will say yes, and He says, then Trust Me.
So I will continue to trust Him for the life I have been given and be faithful to
the gift I have been given and that is the wonderful gift of writing a blog each day.
No matter how embarrassed I am sharing this stuff out loud.

~Kim~