Just A Day At Home

I hope you had a very nice weekend. Welcome to August.
I can't believe that the year is once again going by so fast.
Erma Bombeck called August the longest month and not one holiday.

I finally found the Jack-be-Little's in the garden. They were
somewhere that I didn't remember planting them.

I hope I have lots more than these two. I try to stay away
and not count my pumpkins before they turn orange. :)

Do you remember in the movie "Babe." How Fly was always
kissing the pig? Fly was always kissing everything. Even the duck.
When I got Sasha, and she was a pup she would kiss my chicks
when they were little. It drove me crazy because I would think she
would react like a normal dog and realize she was tasting chicken.
She never did and still my chickens are never afraid of her and just
walk by her even when she is in her round up the chickens mode.

She loves Hobo's kittens. Since the kittens have turned out to be better
than television for our family. Someone is always outside watching the
cats. In fact, I often here the words, " Oh I am going outside to see the kitties.
This is Sasha watching the kitties.

Hobo is a wonderful Mom and she is never threatened by
Sasha. The kittens just watch with their little innocent faces.


They have even got used to the bath from the dog.
I guess it is just Sasha and her temperament. I have
never seen her kill anything. Well, I take that back,
she stomps bugs. Funnest thing you ever saw.
She will find an ant hill and stand and stamp on ants.

I told my husband I was going to write a blurb about him
in this post. He said it was okay. We had just finished
cleaning up after dinner. I asked him if there was anything
he wanted to watch tonight. He said "No, did I?" I said, " I have had a hankering to watch
Pride and Prejudice" (Colin Firth)
He said, " Oh good, I have been wanting to watch that too."
I told him that he was the best husband in the whole wide world
and I just had to tell you about it.

So I will be watching that and doing a little hooking tonight. I know my sidebar
says I am like Eleanor from Sense and Sensibility. I am afraid though, I am becoming
more and more Mrs. Bennett like.

I hope you all have a lovely week,

~Kim~

Rug Hooking This Week.

You know it wasn't until I took this picture off my camera
did I see that this sunflower is in the shape of a heart. The flower was
way above my head so I had to pull the flower down so I could take a picture
with one hand and hold it with the other.

I did manage to get some rug hooking in this week. I have been rereading
my rug hooking books and they keep talking about practice, practice, practice.
So I found a few of my early beginner rug hooking books and they are called
Mug Mats. So I made these this week. I get to practice on making my loops
and pulling and trying to see what colors work and what don't. Not to mention
I cannot for the life of me make letters. I rip out and start out over and over.
I will get this someday, but for now I will continue practicing.

I think my best attempt at letters was just this rug with
CAT written on it.

My PUNKIN words don't really look like words, in fact
my daughter said to tell you it was Chinese Characters for the
word Punkin.

She also said the word Crow, looks like fox. Then
the last one I decided to change at the last minute and
did it with an Oxford Punch Needle so my words are backwards.
I am still such a rug hooking newb. It is okay though, I love it so much.
I love having a wool cutter that every time I use it I am mesmerized.
I just love watching those wool strips, perfect wool strips come out each time I turn the crank.
This is my next little rug.

My dancing chicken. I was sitting drawing out designs for
a chicken I had in my mind. My husband walked in and started
laughing so hard at my attempts that I gave him the pencil and
told him to draw it himself.

So he did. He even drew it on the cloth for me. He made three others
that I plan on making into a larger rug. I loved the little chickens. They
make me smile every time I look at them.
I hope that I can hook them well enough to do them justice.

I would be hard pressed if someone asked me which thing that I do
do I like best, I really don't know. Do you know who William Blake was?
Well he has always been a source of inspiration for me. I have always admired
his writing, his poetry, and his engravings and art. He did lots and I have always
thought I would like to be like that in that I attempted lots of things.
In the back of my mind is that goal. Also, to be like Winston Churchill,
and Never, never give up.

I hope you are having a lovely Saturday. We are supposed to have thunder showers
in the mountains around us, but there is a nice breeze. It may get hot later, but for now
it is a lovely day.

Blessings to you and yours,
~Kim~

Regarding Bats

I wrote this post this morning and Debbie at It's All About Purple,
has some really nice pictures of bats. http://itsallaboutpurple-debbie.blogspot.com/2011/07/going-batty.html

I don't have any pictures of bats. This summer though,
I feel like I have become acquainted with them.
This summer bats have made me feel like I was batty. I take the dog
outside at night right before bed. I always take her out by this tree.
I noticed that I was starting to get dive bombed by bats. Just like the
birds do in the day time when you can see them. I quit taking her
to that tree and went to another spot in the yard. It was worse.
That night, I turned and ran in the house, because even though I couldn't
see them because they are so fast, they still make that high pitched sound above
my head.


I ran in the house and my husband looked up at me and asked me what was wrong.
I told him, but you could see just a bit of disbelief in his eyes. The next night he went
with me and I had him stand next to the tree and he got dive bombed. Then we
both ran in the house. Then it was his turn to tell the kids who looked at him with
just a tad disbelief.


The next night, I thought I would go back to the old tree and while I was waiting,
I could hear the bats making a noise like when a bird falls out of a tree. My husband
was on the driveway, when he took a step, something started running straight at my feet
very fast. I was barefooted. The dog ran to it and sniffed it but it wasn't interesting.
The baby bat war more interested in chasing me down. I yelled and jumped over
that little thing and ran full speed into the house.
I had shivers for days when I thought about it.

This week since I have been washing windows I have been on a ladder. I was
spraying off the outside of the house with water and getting every thing clean.
I must of dislodged a bat family. One fell in the flower bed outside my office.

All day the family, was yelling encouragement to the one in the flowerbed. They
do this motion of flying back and fourth and making a high pitched sound. It looks
creepy and they are little, maybe the size of a sparrow. With bigger wings.
They must have rescued it because after about two hours it stopped.


In the twilight I see them flying out of the trees next to the house. I have stood
under where I see them fly out of and looked and looked to see if I can see how
they spend the day. I wonder if it is like seeing a hummingbird nest, I really never knew
what one looked like until I saw it in person. I never noticed them before because they
just look like a knot on the tree.
I wonder if because I don't know what a place where bats live look like I might be
staring at one and not see it.

It has been really hard this summer to go outside at dark. Even when I go to watch the moon
rise, the bats find me. I can hear them all around. It must be because we have had
such a wet winter and spring. When we first moved here we had a huge population of bats.
This year has been like that. I have noticed that we don't have flies like in years past. So
I will put up with bats.

Have a lovely weekend.

~Kim~

Going Into the Weekend

Today the kids went to the show. They said I could go,
but I was still doing laundry and I wanted to get finished.
They pulled out of the driveway and then the house became silent.
Well, except for the drying clanging away, then that got finished and
it was quiet once again.

The cats were concerned. They all came and found me and sat and
stared at me. I guess I don't do anything fun, the look was like I needed
to perform some little dance.

I thought okay, before summer came one of my things I wanted to do is
sit down and watch Gilmore Girls. I thought it would be a perfect afternoon
to do that.
I thought, you know, I am going to sit in the living room and eat my lunch.
in front of the T.V. I felt a little reckless I don't eat in the living room. I always
sit at a table or in front of my computer.


I dug around and found the place where all of the Gilmore Girls boxed sets were.
We don't own the first season. I remembered we had borrowed it. Drat! I thought
oh well I will just watch season two, I dug that out put the first disk in and I am sorry
to say, I had to operate the VCR by standing next to it and pushing buttons. With my
fingers. I don't know how to operate the remote control.


You know how the music plays over and over until you hit the button that says,
episodes, play all, well I picked up the remote and I must have hit play all and it started
playing.

I started watching that first episode, and I started crying. I guess I have changed
a lot since I first watched it a long time ago. I found it to be so sad so very sad. I
couldn't stand the pain I was watching.
Finally it was over, I felt I had just had a tooth removed. I got up and ejected the movie
and put every thing away and turned it off and decided I liked the quiet house and
I sewed a bit and read a bit of a book and then it was time for everyone to be home
again.

Now, the piano is being played a very loud, Fugue in D minor. The sound of voices
from upstairs, the knowing that my husband's keys will be jingling in a few moments,
and dinner will be on the table.


I am content. I know the sand is slipping faster and faster through my hands.
I know that change is coming, time will be that I will be more and more alone.
I know though that even in that season, God will be with me and then I am
content, because "The eternal God is my refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms."
(Duet. 33:27)

So glad that we are at the weekend again. My work is all done I think
for the week, so I think I will sew on Friday. I hope I can come up with
something to show you.
~Kim~

Finished For Awhile

I did about as much cleaning as I could today. I did even
get my car washed. It crossed my mind about doing the school room
today but I knew if I did one more thing I would be a zombie.
I decided that stopping was the smart thing to do.

Morning Glories really like this weather. They are growing and
they just looked so pretty today.


I was looking for some Jack-Be-Little's to show you they
are such cute tiny little things right now but I couldn't find them.
I did come across this pie pumpkin turning orange. It made me happy,
that even though it feels like it will never happen, fall will come.

I am afraid the pictures from the roof didn't turn out
as well as I hoped. The house next door is where I grew up.
There is a older lady who lives there now. She bought it from
my parents. It always freaks me out that she is there alone.
She never has company. No one ever checks on her.
She doesn't like me at all. She wasn't happy when we decided
to build so we never got off on the right foot.

This is what I wanted you to see, wouldn't you know I wanted
a picture of the very busy street next door to here, and of course
there were no cars to speak of, then I wanted you to see all of the neighborhoods.
I live in the middle of neighborhoods in a little island of farms. We are in a little
tiny 80 acre section zoned for farms. Everything else is residential around us.
All of the people around us live in city but we are still in the county so we can
still live pretty free.

Across the road from me is like No man's land. When I grew up
here it was farmed but the land lost the water lease so there is no
water. It is owned by the refinery that is out there. The area is
full of capped off oil wells. When I was a kid the whole area was filled
with oil wells. When we first moved here it was so pretty and green.
That part always bothers me that it just looks like this now. It is posted
with no trespassing signs and is patrolled by security guards.

I did sit down and started planning my school year. That helps
so much to be able to sort of chart a course. My son did all of the
course work with my son who graduated this year so I am hard pressed
to come up with something new, that he hasn't had 5 times before. I played in
my mind of letting him graduate with his brother and starting college at 16 but
my husband thinks he needs time to be at home where he has time to be with me.
I can tell you I am relieved. I do enjoy planning a year of school.
That is what is happening around here today. I hope you have a lovely
rest of the week.

~Kim~

Patrice had a new Meme!!!! I love the picture. I just have to play along.
I think if you want to join it would be great fun and a way to get to know you
better.
Patrice is at Everyday Rurality.

Questions:

1. What's your favorite potato dish?
French fries, I don't eat them though. So something I eat, well, potato soup. I like that.



2. When was the last time you were at a playground?

I don't do playgrounds. That is why I have my own in my back yard. I lost my son at one when he was two, and I never again went to them.


3. Do you do any needle crafts or sew?

Oh gosh, I love all needle crafts. I do counted cross stitch, rug hooking, needle punch, quilting, sewing clothes, I still want to make braided rugs and I would like to make more stuffed animals. I also do needlepoint.


4. Who was your favorite adult, outside of you family, when you were a child?

It had to be my teachers at my school. I went to a little grade school. When my Mom died, they just stepped in and even though I was in sixth grade, my third grade teacher would have me over on weekends to just talk. My sister was in 1st grade so her 1st grade teacher would take her home from school after school until my Dad could pick her up after work.
When I got in junior high the teachers there were Christians and they found ways of making it real and preparing us for the world. I think that if not for them those rocky years of trying to blend two families would have taken its toll on me. It was very, very hard but
those people were always willing to listen and they would step in the gap over and over
through the years. I am friends on facebook with the teachers from my old school and it is so nice to read the comments from people who felt just like I did, it was a safe place in a crazy world.


5. What topping do you like on your pizza?

When my kids started working at the pizza place they would fix such yummy ones. My favorite being Bacon, chicken, Artichoke with spinach. But now, that they have to bring home the mistakes, I don't know if I will ever eat any pizza again. yuk!! I just hate the smell so much. The place also makes cheesy bread and a cinnamon wheel that they bring home at night when they are having people over at night when I am trying to get ready for bed and the smell as I am going to sleep is just gross. So at this point I will never make cinnamon rolls again.

Thanks to Patrice, I really love the new title and the new blog. The questions really are fun.
I will be putting your button on my sidebar soon as I figure out how, :) or the upstairs residents get up who know computers better than me.
Have a wonderful Wednesday,
~Kim~

Washing Windows Part 2

I was thinking as I was washing the fan blades, that if you
were coming for a visit I would be cleaning for you just like this.
I would have everything done and we could sit and visit and
we could have tea and it would be so nice to get caught up
on your life. That was what I thought about as I went
through your blogs in my mind and prayed for each one of you.
I think that is why I enjoy washing windows, my mind is free to
think and so it becomes my place of worship, on a ladder.

Though I will admit to writing news headlines in my head too.
Like when coming down off the ladder my foot got tangled in the
blind string. The headline read, " Mom falls through window after falling
off ladder."
Or Mom bites the dust after not moving ladder closer to the window and
reached to far." You know things like that.

I thought if I showed you how it would be if you came over for a visit.
No one uses the front door. Everyone comes in the side door, into the dining room.
So when you walked in this is what you would see. That door way down at the very
end is our office/sewing room/ hang out room. The picture of the sunflowers
was painted by my daughter, Emilie just for me.

I took a picture so you could see all of the windows in the front.
After living in a very dark house with no windows, I love each and everyone.
I just wanted to add that when I was washing windows the thought came to me,
this isn't my house. It is God's He has been gracious enough to let us live here.
I do sometimes get very grabby and want to keep it all to myself but it is His and
as long as I remember that my work is unto Him I am okay.

Today was much harder to make myself get on the ladder.
I am sore and tired. I cleaned the blinds yesterday, I didn't do
that today. I still did the fans and washed walls and did wood work and
vacuumed. I really wanted to sit in these chairs in the shade
and drink water.

This is one of the outside lights in the front of the house.
I would have liked to had old oil re-purposed oil lamps but
they were so much and I needed so many of these there was no
way.

I think that this is the highest traffic area in the house.
The posts had little tiny finger prints just at the low level.
Where little fingers grab to climb the stairs to get books or
visit aunts and uncles. They think upstairs is a magic place.
You can sort of see the french doors looking the other way
to the dining room.


I thought I would show you a picture of my room.
My furniture is my parents old stuff they bought brand new
when I was four years old. I will maybe keep it forever now.
It is very well made and I have looked at new stuff but
nothing is made as solid as this and you know it might
come back into style again. It is a very nice bedroom.
I have never slept as good as I do here.

That is my tour for today. I have the upper story to do
tomorrow and I will take pictures from the roof. It looks pretty
neat. It won't be what you expect. It is a secret.
I also have the garage to do which I do on the day as upstairs.

I hope you have enjoyed this tour. It has been so much fun giving you
a look.

Blessings from me to you,
~Kim~

Washing Windows and Other Thoughts

I thought I would show you the lighting that I have around my house.
I really like the lights I got to pick out when we built the house. I am not
a decorator, at all. I don't like it, I can't pick paint and so when the builder
told me to go down and pick out lights for the whole house I about died.
But now 10 years later, I really like them as I have spent hours on
decorating blogs now. So this is some of the outside lights. I will show you
the other kind as I make my way around the house.

This is the light in my bathroom. I really love it and
I wonder why I didn't put it somewhere where people could see
it. The more I look at it the more I like it.

Since I was in the bathroom with my camera, I thought
you might like to see my bathroom. Today I noticed how
pretty it is and how big that bathtub is. The only people
who use it is my grand kids who think it is a" fun pool".
When we built I of course did not want to live here and I
was thinking of resale, not living here forever. My husband
promised that all I had to do was live here three years.(Its been ten.)
I really did not settle down here until three years ago.
Now I would hate to leave.

This is Hobo. She is my cat. She has walked into our hearts.
She is like this where ever I am in the house. If I am in my office,
she is outside the door or if I am folding clothes she is outside the window.
She is the best Mom so even my husband who was totally against Hobo has
decided she can stay and even the other cats are getting better.


The chickens do the same thing. They were outside in
the yard while I was washing windows. I had to finally
put them back in the pen because I would get the patio
all sprayed off and they would get in the flowerbed and
throw the damp earth up on the porch.

When I started to clean the bathroom, it was like trying to clean
Shelob's lair. I knew that some spiders had been trying to live
in the bathroom, but I didn't know they meant permanent residence.
I could see these spots on the ceiling and I thought, " Oh, no, is that
mold?" I got up on the ladder and it was tiny little spiders living on the ceiling.
No more, I washed the ceiling.

Well, time to get back to work. My daughter and niece went to give blood today.
My daughter almost passed out twice so they kept her there. They finally came
dragging themselves in the door. My son Elliot, brings pizza home from work and
puts it in the freezer and he looked at them and fixed them something to eat.
I put off vacuuming while they were eating.
Now I can get back at it.

~Kim~

Getting Older

One of the things I suppose I like about getting older,
is that I have made so many mistakes, but because of those
mistakes I am who I am and I see how many times God
has taken those mistakes and made them into blessings.

I sort of took that Romans 8:28 as my mantra, knowing that
no matter what, God could use it for good. I would get on my knees
and beg God to take it and turn things around for His glory.


One thing about being older, I have come to trust Him deeper than
in my 20s or 30s or 40s. I think when the economy took a nose dive,
and my way of life changed. Then at 50 my husband left his job to go
into a new field, and overnight I had to fall back on those lessons God
has taught me in my 20s about trust, and faith and keeping so close
so that fear would not keep me from living life.

I have had to work harder and I have learned how much fun it is to wait
for something I wanted rather than getting it when I wanted it. It has opened
my eyes to so many possibilities that I wouldn't have noticed.

Like being so happy that I have chickens, or that I have a garden or that
now I only buy a pair of shoes when the other ones are showing wear.

I read this today, " To be afraid of what happens today or what may
happen tomorrow is not only an awful waste of energy, it is not only useless,
it is disobedient. We are forbidden to fear anything but the Lord Himself."

(A lamp for My Feet, p.54)

"Do not see what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an
anxious mind."
(Luke 12:29)

Of all of the things I have come to have peace about is that so often,
my plans that I have schemed, manipulated, and tried to work out in
my own strength, comes to nothing, but with age, I have learned to
lay my plans down and let God be God and accept His will and
every time, I am so much more happier with the way He opens doors.

I have come to realize at this age, that He always does things with such
grace. One of the things I have come to trust is His "No's"


Now today is my day to start washing windows. So I better get off
this computer and get on the ladder.
Have a great Monday.
~Kim~

Today On Saturday

I did work in the garden and I did pick egg plant,
and tomatoes and some zucchini. So for dinner we
had Eggplant Parmesan I got my recipe here .
I didn't even know how to slice it to cook it. This is a step by
step tutorial to make it. It turned out so pretty.
When we were newly married, I made eggplant one night for dinner.
I know now I had let the egg plant get to big. I tried to feed
it to my kids and my husband and they all gagged so bad, I threw
it out and we went to McDonald's. I finally got up the nerve to grow
it again and fix it. So I am very excited about it now.

This morning, I decided that parrots or not I was going to pick
sunflowers and bring them in the house. I normally just use
my Black-eyed Susan's for my fresh flowers because
the parrots don't eat those. I liked having them in the house so much
the parrots can just eat peaches.

This is the cherry tomatoes I picked this morning.
See the real pretty orange ones? Well, I have been picking
the red ones but I kept wondering when the orange ones were
going to turn red. This morning we were tying up the vines and
I got the bright idea to taste one. They were yummy and ripe.
The light came on about the time I tasted the tomato. I then remembered
I had bought gold ones. Duh. I felt sheepish.

This is my peach cobbler. My peaches are all getting ripe at the same
time. I still have last year's peaches in my freezer. I am going to have to
use them up. I thought today I would fix a cobbler. I made homemade ice
cream the other day and I thought that would go really good with the peach
cobbler.
Yesterday, I made oatmeal cookies with cranberries and dried blueberries and I put
in some sunflower seeds. They were very nice cookies. The kids had friends over
to play Apples to Apples and when I got up this morning all of the cookies were gone.
So I thought that was such a nice recipe what if I start to make oatmeal cookies but
add sour cream so it is a bit creamy and that is what I used for the topping.
The peaches were very juicy so it worked perfectly.

Everyone says it is very yummy. I am okay if I don't take that first bite so I won't be
taking a bite.

When I got married, I found out this terrible fact about my husband. He hated tomatoes.
I mean hated how they look and smell. I had grew up where there is nothing better in the
whole world than a bacon and tomato sandwich. He has so many other really nice qualities
I looked past the tomato deal.

We had children. All six hate tomatoes. Hate tomatoes today. Then they got married. They married people who hate tomatoes. I have lived alone for 31 years eating tomatoes
all by myself. That is until yesterday. My two year old grand daughter asked to eat
"matoes." I gave her one she ate it. So I gave her two. She ate those. Then I gave her a cup.
She walked around eating them like candy. I felt like I had been crowned queen.

I do have to say that my grandson was very sweet. He took a tomato and popped it in his
mouth. About a hour later in the car ride home or maybe at home, he spit the tomato out.
He kept it in his mouth the whole time. I thought that was very sweet.

So I have been pretty happy. Though I do have to say, the girls are coming over to the
dark side and cooking with them. They do eat salsa.

I hope your weekend is very nice.

~Kim~

July, I will be glad to see you go.

I was looking at the calendar today. It dawned on me,
we have a full week left until August. I really yelled,
Eek!!! August is crunch time for me. My first day of school
is the 22 of August. I have a whole list of things I haven't done.

1. Sat and read out by the swimming pool with a book. ( You know it is hot when
it is to hot to swim.)

2. Went swimming everyday. See above.

3. Made soap. It is so hot I can't face the stove.

4. Washed windows, cleaned blinds, deep cleaned the house.

5. Spent a day watching Gilmore Girls. ( I thought about this early in the summer but
I always gain about 10 pounds because they eat so much.) I am a social eater.

6. Got out all of my school books and decided just how much War of Northern Aggression
I want to study. ( My daughter's history teacher was from that south and that is what
she always called it.)

7. Clean the doom closet. ( Where all my books are stored.)

8. Did a 80 day walking challenge of walking 10,000 steps a day. ( Mostly sat this summer.)

9. Went on vacation. ( Soon very soon.)

10. Make blueberry jam and blueberry lime jam.

I am limiting it to 10 things as I can't stand not doing a really huge list. I will have
to get myself in gear. Maybe tomorrow I can start with number one after I weed
the garden.

Have a lovely Saturday,

~Kim~

Friday and a Winner

I didn't get a chance to get on last night and tell you who
the winner is of this giveaway. So without further ado,
The winner is Mimi. She has been a follower since I first started
blogging. I was thrilled when her name came out of
the hat. So if you see this just go to my gmail and leave me your
address and I will get your box off to you.

I had a good time with the giveaway and I enjoyed meeting new
people so I will be doing another one pretty soon. I wish I could be
like TexWizGirl and do one every month but I am just not that organized.


So glad it is Friday, I got all of my work finished yesterday so today is going
to be a play day. All of my grand kids are coming to gama's house this morning.
I have the Slip and Slide out for them to play in the water. I bought them
some nifty pirate swords to play with and take home. :) There is lots
of chalk so they can draw pretty pictures on the patio and lots of
books to read and the Mommy's and I can sit and visit. It is going to be a nice day.


Oh, the date was fun. Food was great. The movie was exceptional. I am always
in most cases disappointed when books are made into movies because of my own
vivid imagination. This movie was like they got into my head and made it the
way I always saw it and in some cases did it better than I imagined it.

The kinds of movie I prefer are the ones that the BBC does, like my favorite
Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. North and South the book
was written by Elisabeth Gaskill. I love the movie. I like all of the
Charles Dickens that have been made into movies, like Little Dorrit, Bleak House,
and Our Mutual Friend.


Oh and I should tell you this, I am big on time travel movies.
Thank you so much for entering my giveaway and thank you so much for all
of your lovely comments. As with everything I am so blessed by the friendships
I have made and thank you for sharing you life.

Have a lovely weekend.
~Kim~