Chats on the Farmhouse Porch

I know I am a bit late for Patrice's Chat's on the Farmhouse Porch.
I thought I would be getting to visit today earlier than this but
today the day just seemed to get away from me. It could
be that it is so gloomy it has felt like it has been dark all day.
So here we go.

Questions

1. What's your favorite day of the week? Why?

I like Thursdays best. We finish our bookwork on Thursdays and I get my house and my laundry all finished on Thursdays and it just seems like a nice way to start Friday. We always have other things to do on Fridays like music lessons and I run errands, but Thursdays, Peter and I just enjoy school with no pressing deadlines.

2. What's your favorite Christmas movie?

I like "Scrooge" with George C. Scott or "The Muppet's Christmas." I do like "While you Were Sleeping" and "Sleepless in Seattle". All of these I watch every year. I would like to try for all of the" Lord of the Rings," extended this year but who knows, I know you asked for my favorite, but these are my favorites.

3. Is there a Christmas Carol that's special to you?
Every year for Christmas my son Elliot learns a Christmas Carol on the piano for me, He learned
"What child is this" one year which is a favorite and then he learned the" Carol of the Bells." This year I have heard him practicing "Wizards in Winter", so it is what he gives me each year for Christmas so I always love each song he gives me each year.



4. Is there an art or craft that you'd love to be able to do?

I am currently doing all of the ones I wanted to so badly for years and years.
I love the rug hooking and the counted cross stitch. I love my saw outside for wood working and I love growing gardens. I have chickens. Nope I have to say that right now I am doing pretty much what I always dreamed of.

5. Do you have a live Christmas tree or an artificial one?

We have a fake tree. It took my family years to get me to get one, but the last one we had was so dry and crispy that I was afraid to turn on the lights after Christmas Eve. We went down and bought a beautiful fake tree and I love that the lights just plug in on the trunk.
I do miss the smell but I am thinking I will go cut limbs this year and use them so I can have the smell of pine in the house.

Thanks to Patrice for coming up with interesting questions each week.
If you want to join in Visit EverydayRurality.

Have a great Thursday!

~Kim~

A Childlike Christmas

My friend Pom Pom over at Pom Pom's Ponderings,
is doing a short little feature through Christmas called
a Childlike Christmas. I thought it might be nice to join in
so if you get a chance go over and visit her today.

I thought I would share about my Nativity Set. When I got married
my lovely SIL bought a Mary, Joesph and Baby Jesus. I was thrilled.
It was also plastic. I wanted when I had kids to be able to let them
play with it without fear of it breaking.

As each of the children came along I would let them hold the pieces
and I would tell them the story. I would read it from the Bible to them.
Since I am a tactile learner, I have always thought it is easier to teach,
if my kids can hold it, and touch what ever I am teaching them.



Through the years I kept collecting pieces. I have so many now.
I am sorry about this picture, I didn't notice it until too late
but Jesus isn't in the manger. There is a donkey. I mean no disrespect
He is around there somewhere, but my kids now hide him and I have to look
among all of the other pieces until I find him. They never say
anything, but all Christmas this goes on, hiding the baby until
Christmas then he gets to stay in the manger.



These are some of my favorite pieces. The horse and the elephant
and the 3 wise men on the camels. My husband used to
have to work in Michigan a lot so one year we went with him.
We stayed a extra week and rented a car and went all over
that lovely state. We went to a place that had a Christmas store
and they had the 3 wise men. I have never seen them ever again.
I am so glad I bought them when I did.



I apologize for the pictures. It is so dark. The sun has
left for awhile and it doesn't get light all day. It is like
living in a cave right now. We are supposed to have a storm
that is one of those once in a decade deals tomorrow and it is
supposed to blow away the fog.

I hope you get a chance to stop by and visit with Pom Pom and
all of her nice friends.

I hope you are having a nice week. I am still sick so the brain
is still in a deep freeze.

~Kim~

A Child Like Christmas

This is week,three of A Child Like Christmas.
Pom Pom has some very nice friends and I enjoy
getting to take part in this.

This is what I thought about for A Childlike Christmas today, so I remember
that Christmas isn't about what is under the tree, but about
a baby's birth.

The other day I was listening to some Christmas music. This song by Jennifer Knapp
came on my play list, called Sing Mary Sing. The words are this,

Mary Had A Baby Born In A Manger
Mary What To Do, Mary What To Do?
Before The Vow Was Made,
In Her Belly Laid The King



I have heard that song a million times, but I never really heard the words.
Why did I that day I don't know, but I kept going back and listening to it
over and over.
It had never clicked for me like this, Mary was an unwed mother. The
God who spoke the worlds and they came into being. Gave his son to a unwed mother,
I always think about the virgin part but not that she wasn't married to Joesph yet.
I started thinking about how that must have got tongues talking, how
Jesus grew up with whispers," Hey, you know who that kid is don't you? "
"Remember his Mother?"



Do you ever think about how Mary was really important? Not only did
God pick her to be the mother of Jesus. She says to Gabriel " Behold, the bond slave
of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.
(Luke 1:38)
Do you know what a bond slave is? It is one who person in a state of slavery; one whose person and liberty are subjected to the authority of a master.
I love that she had that attitude. She put all that she was at the disposal of the Lord to take
every thing she was and who she was to be a home for a baby.
She pondered the things Anna and Simeon said when they took him to the temple
to be dedicated when Jesus was 8 days old. She stored them in her heart.



She was at the foot of the cross and she was at the empty tomb. Jesus gave her
into the care of John the beloved. I always thought it was interesting that John
was maybe the last disciple to die, so maybe he didn't die until after his work
taking care of Mary was done.

She always does the right thing. She travels on a donkey, 9 months pregnant.
She always waits on the Lord, like when Joesph is going to put her away quietly.
We are not shown a picture of a girl wringing her hands and crying, I see her as
waiting on God and God sends a angel to explain to Joesph just how it is.



Oh I do forget myself, she does, chide Jesus when he had been missing 3 days, but
what I love is she is a mother. She does what any Mom would do, she says, " Your
father and I were worried about you.

What I love about Mary is that God chose her from the beginning of time to be the mother
of His son, but what I love is her very humanness that we are given glimpses of in the pages
of the Bible.
My favorite Christmases were always the ones that I was with child. There was always
such a sweetness knowing that for just a while I had a baby too. It seemed to make all of the
passages about God caring for his flock speak very loudly to me.

I think that to have a Child like Christmas is to remember what child's birth we celebrate.

Thank you to Pom Pom for helping me to remember too.

~Kim~

Oranges and Lemons

The lemons and the oranges are starting to get ripe.
I am so glad, but the way the kids want to eat them
I am hoping they last long enough to get really ripe.
My son went out with a flash light
and brought in oranges and lemons. The blood oranges
are barely pink.



The lemon tree we have is a Meyer Lemon. Bar none
the best lemon ever. The longer it stays on the tree the
more juice it produces and the skin is so thin. One of the
things my kids do is pick lemons and drink fresh lemon-aid.
All winter. There will be a pitcher of it in the fridge.
Tonight though it is because the whole house is coming down
with my cold. The-Whole-House.
This is not the week for me to have got everyone sick. It is the week
before finals for the kids. My husband is in the middle of a two year
project that is due Friday.

Don't you wish you could schedule being sick? Tell your body,
okay, here is my schedule for the next few weeks, I think I can fit being
sick here to here.



Mondays are just Mondays sometimes. I am glad
though that this too shall pass.

I am glad for lemon trees and orange trees. Just looking at
them make me feel happy.

Blessings to you,
~Kim~

Blessings and Thoughts About Them

I was thinking today, now that Thanksgiving is over, how
do I go about letting Thanksgiving be a habit of my life. I
thought well first I must give thanks for even the things I am
not wild about like being sick. Yep, I came down with a horrible cold.
But to give thanks, I can say that I am thankful there if food in the
fridge, and I don't have to cook.

I am always reminded of 10 years ago today. We were in the midst
of building this house. People were not buying houses in light of 911.
We had a house that had been on the market for 6 months and this
one was almost finished.

My house is town was the prettiest house to decorate in the winter.
For me it had it problems but it was not my husband idea of anything
he wanted. He wanted land and as I had inherited this he was ready
to move. I wasn't.

On this day, 10 years ago, we had been out here to check on things. I was sick about
leaving my pretty house is town and moving out here. We went home
and I went outside to watch the sunset. I had to go stand in a side of
our yard to see the setting sun and as I watched it I was crying. I looked in the window
there was a fire in the fireplace, the kids were much younger they were playing on the floor and it was warm and inviting. I was outside looking in.




I shook myself and made me go inside and as I hadn't done devotions
yet I thought I would do them in front of the fire. I always keep my devotional
materials in a basket so I can carry them where ever I go.

I picked up the first one and on the page for this day it read. "How long will
thou mourn?...fill thy lamp with oil, and go. I will send thee... I have provided...
(-1 Samuel 16:1)

I jumped like I had been hit with a cattle prod. This verse was all true too, in about 2 weeks.
before Christmas that year the house was sold, we never made two house-payments,
God sent the right people for our house, they went on to have 6 kids too.
This house is pretty when it is decorated and I have been so blessed.



So life is like that I think, I get so caught up in looking what is in front of me,
I forget to lift my eyes and see all of the beauty that is around me. I am not saying
it was ever easy, it wasn't but if I quit whining and moaning, God has blessed
me over and over beyond my wildest dreams.

I just had to share this as I was walking around tonight watching the sunset thinking
about how 10 years ago I was different. I am so glad I am right here in this place.


Blessings from me to you,
~Kim~

A Lovely Day

Just a song for today. " Christmas is coming,
if she isn't careful this goose will be getting fat." :)
I hope you in US had a very nice time with family
and friends.
Our fridge is filled with food. I just wanted to
stop in and say hi before I do anything else.



Have a lovely Friday.

~Kim~

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

Psalm 100

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness;
come before Him with joyful singing.
Know that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves,
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving,
and His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
For the Lord is good; and His loving kindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.

Thank you for reading my blog this year, thank you for commenting and
so often you say the words I needed to hear.
My life is so much better because of the friends God has blessed me with
so this year I am so thankful for YOU!

Where ever you are, I wish you blessing upon blessing, everyday!

So happy Give the Thanks day from me to you.

~Kim~

Chats on the Farmhouse Porch

Today is the day we venture over to visit with Patrice.
I think it might be too cold to visit on her porch and I know
it is too cold on mine.
Patrice's porch is at Everyday Rurality



QUESTIONS

1. What are you thankful for?

I will keep this short and sweet, I really could write a novel. I am thankful for my family, my blogging friends and my life.

2. Jellied cranberry or whole berry cranberry?

I love making my own cranberry sauce. In fact I buy lots of packages of cranberries this time of year and keep them in my freezer.
Then I will use them through out the year to have with chicken and I use them to make cranberry muffins and bread. I love cranberries.

3. How many will sit at your dinner table Thursday?

We will have sixteen this year.

4. Would anyone who visits the porch be interested in some type of Christmas card or small gift exchange?

That would be fun.

5. Do you venture out on Black Friday?

NO, NADA, Never, I didn't know about Black Friday when I was much younger. I took all six of my kids with me I needed
something like coats or something for the kids. I got to the mall and I couldn't figure out where and why all of these cars
were there. Duh.
I don't go anywhere on Black Friday.

I hope you have a lovely Wednesday. I am looking forward to baking pies
tomorrow. I love making pies. But well, I enjoy eating them lots more.

Have a great day,
~Kim~

Finally Something Finished

I finally finished my quilt top. First one in 20 years. It was nice
to have a refresher course. Not to mention my grand daughter will
have a quilt from Gama, just like the others. Yesterday as I was
finishing up the blocks I remembered why I used to quilt so much.
I really do enjoy it. Now I can fold it until next week when I do the
backing, batting and the quilting. I am in- get- the- house- ready- for- company-
mode and I just had to get finished with my projects.



Here is November. I finally finished it and I did start December.
I am happy with how it turned out even if I did make some mistakes.
Oh well, someday I will learn to count.



Here is one I finally finished. I forgot I had done it.
It is cute and I had fun making it now it is finished too.



I just hung them on my HOME sign. Along with my fresh eggs sign, I am only getting one
egg a day, so there is no fresh eggs right now.
I will start decorating for Christmas on Friday so I am going to pack this
stuff away so I thought it was okay for today.
Sorry the pictures are so dark but it is really foggy today and dark.
Welcome to November in the Central Valley. We won't see the sun now
until March.

Now, sewing is finished for this week. My husband is off starting tomorrow.
He still keeps me rattled just like when we were dating, I can't count or
think or do anything when he is home. I just kind of follow him around
like a befuddled school girl. It is all good and I am excited and it is always
fun, I will just have other things on my mind. Like cooking.

Have a lovely Tuesday!
~Kim~

Keeping It Real

One of the things that if you knew me, is I keep it real. I don't think
I am blunt but let's say if we were standing in a dressing room and you tried
on jeans and they looked a bit tight and if you asked me, " Do these
jeans make my butt look big," I would say yes, because I don't want
you to get home and have to hide your jeans in the drawer like I
did the other day. Okay so where am I going now that I have your
attention?



Well, my Friday night sewing didn't go quite like I planned. Life
intervened. But, I did finish Mr. Turkey and after I I started the
other stitchery's but nothing to show you and I picked up the quilt
blocks and looked at them. I just thought I would let you know,
because I am keeping it real.

We have Thanksgiving this week, One of the things I wanted
to share with you and hopefully not gush, is I am so thankful
for my grand children. All six and number 7 who will show up
in March.



I was and ( girls do not read this to the babies.)
I was a very reluctant grand mother. Maybe it was
that 3 of them were born 3 days apart. The twins
were not due until June and they were born in March.
My first journey into the world of being a grandmother
happened so fast and so extreme.
The whole world seemed to be falling in and I was
so afraid, more afraid than I have been of anything in
my whole life.

" The course God sets for us in His commandments is not an
obstacle course but one carefully planned to suit our
qualifications---not too rigorous for our limitations, not
too lenient for our strengths."
" I will run the way of Your commandments, for You
shall enlarge my heart."
(Psalm 119:32)



God was all about enlarging my heart. My heart was too small.
Now, today with the boys being 4 and then the two year olds and
then the baby, my heart is not what it was then.

I am thankful.

So on Thursday when we sit around the table, and our table is full
from end to end and all of the very special people God has blessed
us with, I am very thankful because the boys
want to come to Gama and Paqua's house for " Give the Thanks Day."

I am a reluctant Gama no more.

God really did know best.
Happy Monday!
~Kim~

Friday Night Sew In

It has been a long time since I linked to a blog called
Hand made by Heidi. She has a linky party once a month
called Friday Night Sew In (the link is on my sidebar.)
I got up this morning thinking, I am going to do that
tonight. Then I started thinking every time I have linked,
all hell breaks loose during the day and I never sew on
the day I have linked.
So if nothing bends or breaks tonight that is my plan.
I am sorry for the darkness of the pictures as we have a very
overcast day today.



The first thing I am working on is this quilt for my newest grand daughter.
I don't know why I play at this sewing thing. I am just no good at it,
but I still like to do it. I have spent more time ripping out than I do sewing.
I do such dumb things I just shake my head at myself. I even ran out
of material. I thought I would be finished with this today but
here it is I think I have 3 more strips to sew on this block.




This is what I have been working on since October.
I have a turkey to finish that if I would just sit for a bit I could
finish it. I am having a hard time with it. It has those kind of colors
that you do one stitch and change colors. That is why I quit
counted cross stitch in the first place. I hate that. I did red
work years and years so I didn't change thread colors after one
stitch. So the turkey is what keeps me from moving on.



Here is the December Word Play. It is sitting in my workbasket.
I pick it up and stare at it and put it back. I know that I have to finish
November first before I can start this one as if I don't I will just shove
it away until next year. I just can't wait to do the little Santa.



The other thing I want to do is this one. I just loved this pillow.
I think it would make a cute rug too. I love this and I am hoping that
tonight I will get my quilt top finished, my turkey finished and the December
Word Play started and this pillow too. That is the plan.

In the mean time life beckons. I have errands to run, lessons to take people too,
a house to clean and a trip to the feed store so the animals can have feed.
I need to sit and write a grocery list and plan for next weeks menu and
plan the food for Thanksgiving. I cleaned my flowerbeds yesterday but
I still need to wash the rest of my porch railings so I can decorate next Friday.
I have to get tonight's dinner in the crock-pot.

Not to mention I have to go walk now. I hope you have a lovely weekend,
we are supposed to have a stormy evening and weekend. Oh, and a guy is
delivering fire wood today, so I will need to get the back porch cleaned and
get it ready to stack firewood. Yes, I stack firewood. I love stacking firewood
with my boys. It just makes me feel like life is good when the firewood is
stacked.

Off to get this day started,
~Kim~

Oh and the Patterns all came from( except the quilt) the stitchery's are from
Brenda Gervais and Country Stitches. The quilt pattern is from
the old, old book Quilt in a day class I took in the 80s. On the link Eleanor Burns
has free patterns on this site.

Just Walking Around

Yesterday, it warmed up outside. I opened my doors and a couple
of windows, just to air out the house. I was cleaning and rearranging.
My eyes kept being drawn outside so I would stop my work, go outside, wander
around and looking at the sky and smelling the air.

Have you ever noticed the smell of November? Here it smells,
of wet leaves, and the faint smell of wood smoke, of fires long ago,
the air smells brown. As I was walking around I could hear the sound
of crows.
I looked and looked finally I saw them swooping and yelling at something
in a old palm tree. I thought to myself, there must be an owl up there trying
to get her nest ready. The crows just get beside themselves because they
hate owls so much.



I walked out in the pasture to see if I could see better when
those crows spotted me.

Next thing I know I have four crows flying over my head, they are shouting
and laughing and doing tricks. They fly above my head and they keep trying to
show me how they can catch wind currents and drift with the wind. Then they
start fighting just like kids showing off. They fly around and around me,
laughing and chattering.

I kept walking and they flew above my head, they watched me and
just kept diving and finally I went in the yard. I went back in the house, and
they flew a bit more as if waiting for me to come back and watch them fly.

I walked out later and they were on a electric pole but they were busy telling jokes
and laughing and making big plans about what they were going to do that night.
I left them alone. I stayed hidden in the trees.



When I was a little kid, I spent so much time outside just watching. I would tell
my grandparents things I saw and they never believed me. How was it that
things went on in nature and it seemed like I was the only one who noticed.
I am glad I have my family now and my husband who listens to the things
I tell him and he believes me. I always think of the little dramas that are being lived
out around us, if we just but open our eyes and really see.

I always feel like I have been given such a gift and I know today, I am
thankful for that.

Have a great day,
~Kim~

Chats on the Farmhouse Porch

It is time again for Chats on the Farmhouse Porch.
I like porches but mine is a bit of a mess. I need to get it
cleaned before Thanksgiving.
I hope you are having a great week.
If you get a chance to get by visit with Patrice and
she has a picture of her real porch this week.


Questions

1. Where would you take the blogger group for a chat, if they came to your house?

Well, let me see, my living room? I would have tons of food in the kitchen, a fire in the stove, and lots of comfy places
to sit an we could just sit and chat and talk about what ever we wanted to talk about.



2. How do you handle "toxic people"? They're the ones that are very difficult to be around and generally don't bring out the best in us.

Oh I don't know if I would ever label anyone like that. I always figure that no one is a lost cause and I think I would just want to see if there was some way I could help. I think that for me, I always think if I could just be a better person I could love them and see them and their hurts without first thinking of my own. I always wish I loved more and always unconditional. I don't though, my feelings get involved. I wish I could always say, " My life for theirs." I wish I could say all of the time that I thought of- Jesus- Others- Yourself=JOY



3. In high school, were you the athlete, the cheerleader (actual or just your personality), the geek, the social butterfly, or lost?

Gee, I wasn't any of those things. I was just me. I had friends in every group and I don't think I was lost, I was too busy.

4. What's your favorite thing made from apples?

It has to be apple pie. But I like apple slices and peanut butter pretty well too.

5. Do you do most of your shopping in stores or online?

My husband does the shopping online. I rarely shop online now nor do I go into a store unless I have to have something.
After he changed jobs and our lives changed so drastically I made myself stop spending money. I still can't do it. I get sick to my stomach.
So he does it now. I don't think he minds. :)

Thanks to Patrice for this weeks questions.
I hope you have a great Wednesday!
~Kim~

Monday Chatter.

I hope your Monday is off to a good week. We have a really
pretty day today. Lots of clear, blue sky.
We had a busy weekend. I watched my grand children.
They make me laugh, but boy am I tired after they go
home and then there is the struggle of the quiet house.
The quiet threatens to crush me after they are gone.
I love the sound of the voices and the sound of laughter.



I don't ever watch television when I am here during the day.
I don't watch it at night very much either. When we do watch it
I am not the one in control with the remote.

It was cold on wet on Saturday morning and I broke out
the Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers. The last time the kids
were here, I had the hardest time finding how to get the DVD off
of the menu screen. My grandson after he has sat quietly and patiently
waiting for Gama to get to the movie. He looked at me and said, " What the
heck, Gama?" So this time, when I picked up the remote, " He gave me this
stare like, is she going to do that again. He even told me that I needed to show
him, he thought he could learn the remote. He is four. I bet he could.



My house right now is really Grand Central Station.
I think I should just put on revolving doors. My older
kids??? Young adults?? Had their friends over for
game night. The yelling going on is so funny to hear.
I have learned to sleep through it.

I am still being very thankful though. I am thankful that
my house is not quiet all of the time. I am glad that there are
little kids who treat you like you are the most special person
in the world when you come in the door.

I will close with this verse that says it best I think.

"What You give them they gather in;
You open Your hand, they are filled with good."
(Psalm 104:28)

It is a good day.

~Kim~

Just a short post today. I have been browsing my photos again. I was going

to enter into a photo contest and then I chickened out. Maybe another time. 

I went out to check my chickens and make sure they had enough food and water

before the rain comes. 

We have had lots of wind. I noticed that I had a hen who was just sitting in

the yard. I thought that was odd so when I went over to look at her and picked

her up, I noticed that a string from a feed bag was wrapped around and around

her feet and toes. It had been pulled really tight so I was afraid it might have

cut off the circulation in her feet. 

It took me ten minutes to unwind it and then I rubbed and rubbed her feet.

I don't keep my feed close to the chicken pen but somehow the string

got in the yard. I imagine from the wind. As I was thinking how 

little things like a string could have maimed my hen. It made me think

of other things that I have laying around my animals that could be 

dangerous.

I hope you all have a very nice weekend. I will be away from the computer

this weekend. See you next week.

~Kim~

Thoughts on Thursday

I have been looking through magazines this week, trying to find
ideas of craft projects for December. I like making new things
for my house in December and I have been looking at things
a person like me who is challenged and who knows
I am no Martha Stewart.



Every Christmas since I can remember I have tried to make things.
Even the first year we married I made the ornaments for the tree
and tied them with red ribbon.

One year on the cover of a magazine was this beautiful wreath. It was
one of the most incredible things I had ever seen before. I stared and stared
and read the directions over and over.
Finally I thought I can do this. Now I call having toddlers, life in reality.
I knew I couldn't make this beautiful wreath until they were all in bed.
When the babies were little they were not good sleepers.

I put all of the things I needed in a bag and then planned where my workspace
was going to be. I got the babies in bed and asleep and I was so tired by then,
but I was excited too.
This wreath used a Styrofoam base and fresh cranberries. Each cranberry was
individually pinned with small pins to the Styrofoam. Until the whole thing was
filled and then you took a great big satin ribbon and used that to hang it on your
door.

I worked and the cranberries were sticky, and juicy. Every time I stuck a pin
in juice went every where. The pins would stick to my fingers and juice
was running down my elbows. It was taking so long that the smell
of warm cranberries was starting to smell too ripe. Then the gnats started
arriving.
I was not going to be defeated, but the baby was waking up every hour
and it was very late so I thought, " I would go to bed and get up early in
the morning and finish and clean up the mess. I turned off the light
and went to bed.

I over slept the next morning and when my husband went in to where I had
been working he yelled (he never yells, ever) "What the heck is that
horrible smell!!!! "
I jumped out of bed, bleary eyed and ran in the laundry room where everything
had been, there was the smell of rotting fruit, molded cranberries and a room full
of gnats.

I just picked up the whole thing and took it to the trash. Even today I do not decorate
with real fruit, ever, well pumpkins but that is it.

Later I picked up the magazine and stared at the photograph. Then it dawned on
me, this wreath is somewhere it snows. Where it is cold. That was why it looks so
pretty the red against the white of the snow.

A very smart blogger has the directions over at her place and good instructions
if you want to try it. http://themagiconions.blogspot.com/2009/12/how-to-make-cranberry-wreath.html

I was thinking about it as I was planning my decorating this year. I still love
that wreath but I ain't gonna make it.

Have a wonderful Thursday,
~Kim~

Chats on the Farmhouse Porch

It is that time to visit with Patrice again. It is fun learning things
about all of the people who play along. Not to mention making new friends.
I enjoyed this weeks questions. I hope you do too.

Questions

1. Dreaming asks: What accomplishments make you the most proud?

Two I suppose, One that I am amazed is that I have been married for 31 years. When we got married, the people who worked with me placed bets that I would not stay married after the first week. They only told me this after we had made it to a year. The next thing I am very proud of was that I home schooled six children. From Kindergarten through high school 5 of them. There now are 3 of them are in college and two have graduated and are married with children. When my last son graduates in 2013 I will have home schooled 25 years. Not bad for someone who the school counselor said to me my senior year, I was too dumb for college. All of them function in society. I did not destroy them as my extended family predicted.



2. Suzanne asks: When did your family first come to the country which you now live?

They were already here. My family part of them traveled the Trail of Tears when the federal government wanted their land in Kentucky.
Some of them came from England and one of my greats was born on the hold of a ship when her family fled Scotland. Some of them were from Spain and went to Mexico. So I am really just a mutt.


3. Wendell asks: What's your favorite way to serve carrots?

Well, in soups I guess Wendell.

4. Do you decorate with anything that has Santa or Father Christmas when you prepare for Christmas?

You know I thought about this question, I don't have a single Santa or Father Christmas. We used to attend a pretty legalistic church and I had made a very cute Santa wreath for my front door and the pastor called me to take it down because some of the ladies that attended a Bible Study at my house were offended. I guess I never got any more.



5. Do you prefer big dogs or small dogs? Something in between, maybe?

I like all kinds of dogs, Big or small. I think I prefer dogs the size of Sasha though. I like the working kind of dogs. I have had Queensland Heelers and Shetland Sheepdogs but my favorite has been Border Collies. I think I will always have this kind until the end of my days.

I will be around to visit on your porch too. Have a great Wednesday!

~Kim~