Odds and Ends

I just had to show you a picture of these frames for the pictures of the bride and groom. It was old barn wood frames with chicken wire. I love the look so much I might have to make some. It looked really nice like this on the gift tables.
Here is another picture.

Sorry it isn't a good picture but I was leaning over the gift table and it was a long reach. Not to mention I felt kind of odd taking pictures like that.

My husband got to do some Bonsai work this weekend. You know you just don't want to experiment on your trees that you are growing so in order to get better at it he goes to Lowes, and finds specimens on the mark down rack. He bought these, darn I can't remember the variety of pine, Moogo I think. He found these for a dollar. It was root bound and over grown.

One of the things that I found so interesting, is you take it out of the pot. and you have a tool like a comb. You comb through the roots removing lots and lots of roots. Then you put it back in the pot. If you have lots of roots it makes the tree grow lots of limbs. Since you want the tree to stay small, you don't want lots of limbs.

Don't you just love the twist in the trunk? I thought it was so cool looking. He needs to get it in a Bonsai pot and then he had to find the kind of soil it would grow in and he has to sift and mix to get the best kind. He also needs to wire it to get some more movement in the limbs. That is what makes Bonsai look so neat is the movement in the trunk and limbs, your eye is drawn to that movement.

This morning I planted sunflowers. It got so hot yesterday I couldn't stand being out in the sun. I went out early and planted great long rows of them. I still have lots of seeds left so I might need some more rows.

We managed to get some tomatoes and peppers planted.

Not a very good shot of the tomatoes. They are in the ground is about all I can say. The didn't go into shock or anything which is good. We have more to put in but like I said, it just got to hot to be out there yesterday.

I was getting ready to go out in the garden and I thought I would let the girls out so they could come out with me. They took off up the hill towards the pool so happy to be out of the pen. They did come out in the garden. I love listening to their voices and watching them scratch. I get my new silkie chicks next week. I can't wait.
Have a lovely Monday, thank you for all of the nice comments about our family. I enjoyed every single one.

~Kim~

A Fun Night

We had to go to a wedding last night. Some of you follow my DIL Meg at her blog Little Bit of Life.
Her little sister was getting married, Meg and my daughter, Emilie were in the wedding party so we hung out together.
I thought I would share the pictures today.

Emilie was getting ready to leave to go to the place for pictures. The wedding was in a old building downtown, where the Junior League meets now.

Me and my hubby, you can't even tell we were in the garden most of the day and he even put a screen door on our front door before this was taken.

Me and one of my grandsons. I brought my chicken purse because it carries in it all sort of things to keep little kids occupied. They love my purse.

Silly boys, our Son William  and of course, Nik.

Isn't she cute? This is Meg, can you believe she just had a baby?

Nik and Em's she is so silly.

I told the bride I was going to post this, she was just having fun.

I loved the look on my daughter's face.

Do you think by this picture I might be having a wedding in our future? I hope she doesn't read this post. :)
Meg called him " soon to be Uncle Nik to the boys" :)

This is our table with all of the root beer and coke bottles. My two youngest sons are in this picture and the kids friends.

This is our oldest son with three of his little boys. He is Meg's husband. The baby is with Mom.

Thanks for stopping by today. It is just a bit of our day. Sometimes we do leave the Field of Dreams and go out in public. :)

Have a lovely Sunday,
~Kim~

Flowers for Leontien

Hugs and prayers.

Quail and Chickens

Remember a couple of days ago when this guy was first spotted in our yard? I have watched him now a couple of days. He wanders around the yard trying so hard to be friends with the birds and they really don't like him. He has a plaintive cry that just breaks my heart.

Yesterday I let my chickens out in the back yard not really thinking to much about the quail. Late in the afternoon the kids came in and said that the quail was hanging out with my chickens.

My little bantams. The quail is about the same size. I had a bag of bread to take out to my chickens today for a snack. They get snacks around 4:00 O'clock each day. You know something to tide them over during the night. I always feed my big hens first because they get a little offended if they have to wait for these guys. Since they are not friends at all but I try to keep things calm.
I glanced over at my little coop, of course, I didn't notice a extra chicken in there. I fed the big girls  most of the bread and opened the little coop door when all heck broke loose. The quail started flying which scared the little hens who started flying. I opened the door as fast as I could for him to fly out. I was so afraid of him getting hurt or breaking his neck.

He flew out to the top of my roof of my chicken house and then flew off to a tree. I have no idea how he got into my chicken coop with my little hens. I have thought that he must be someones bird that escaped and to see the way it acts with my hens makes me just more sure of that.

I just had one thing I made this week. It is terrible to be so busy that it took me three days to make something that should have taken a hour or so. One of the things I am terrible at is dropping my sewing needles and not being able to find them. On the other hand my husband is great at finding them...with his bare feet...in the dark...at night.
So I made this little needle wallet to keep my needles in. You ask why I don't use a pin cushion? I was reminded this week, no one can keep their hands off of it. They make pictures out of the pins and designs.
Even Sasha will get up on her hind legs and steal my pin cushion and go hide and pull them out one by one dropping them on the floor.
So I made this.

It is nice to have something to put my needles in that no one knows what it is for so I think I am safe for awhile.
I am so glad tomorrow is Friday. It feels like this has been a long week.
I hope you have a very nice weekend,
~Kim~

I Almost Quit Blogging Today

This morning started like any other morning. I poured my self a cup of coffee. I had a hour before school. I had gone out earlier and took pictures so I had new ones for my blog post. I thought this picture was so pretty that  I was going to put it as my picture at the top of the blog. I went to upload and I had a message that I had exceeded my room for uploads.

Being pretty sure I knew what I was doing I clicked on the message. I don't think I read very well or follow directions when I am panicked but what I thought I read was if I changed to a new template it would fix my problem. So I did. My life then became a nightmare for 4 hours.

 I know now that a few of you clicked on my blog and saw the mess I had made. It makes me laugh because I was blowing it big time for all of the world to see. I clicked here and I clicked there, I clicked on blogger everywhere...My daughter walked in to tell me bye and she asked me what I was doing. " I said, in a very stressed out voice, I was getting ready to delete my whole blog and quit this whole thing, I was sick and tired of blogger messing with my life." She said, " Nooooo Mom, don't do it." I snapped back to my senses, she said to go get my son he could help. Which a few minutes later he came in with a cup of coffee and sat down and very calmly told me what to do and where to go and in just a few minutes got my blog looking normal. My youngest son came in and said, " Are we going to do school today?" Then I said, Yes, of course, I was only two hours late."

Later after my blood pressure returned to normal, I came in and tweaked and got things looking okay but not the same as it was before. The good thing about this is if forced me to use the new blogger, it made me work inside the confines and  it made me learn new things. I did feel shaky though for a long time. It made me see how much I really do love writing a blog. It made me realize how much I have become involved in
people's lives and to be without that would be terribly hard. More than I thought, I always think that I could some how just stop. Today I found myself saying, I don't know if I could. Not in a weird addicted way, but being thankful I have made so many friends and I love sharing your lives. 

It was funny after I had got my blog back to looking normal, my son said, " Now I am going to sit right here and you are going to show me from start to finish how to fix your blog again, you are going to do it just like you did and I am going to watch you." So I did I went back through all of the steps. I think now, I could not break it so bad now and I could get it back to normal. I just don't want to for a very long time.

That was my day today, I am so glad I am back. I did have to buy more space but that is okay, it will be a long, long time before I fill that much space up.

So if you stopped by today and saw my strange blog, It really looked like Pinterest. 4 years of blog posts were in a mosaic. It looked pretty but it would take years to load on computer screens. I do like normal.

Have a nice Thursday,
~Kim~

Chats on the Farmhouse Porch

It is time to visit with Patrice. She has had a busy week, so I just wanted to tell her thank you for doing this
today.

Here are this weeks questions:

1.    Do you prefer wallpaper or paint?
Paint, I love the smell of fresh paint. The house we lived in before this one had wall paper in every room. It was crazy, but I had little kids and the two year old was a great wall paper stripper. I would give them the tools and they would work all day if I had let them. We stripped and stripped wall paper and I swore never again would I have wall paper.

2.    What qualities make a good friend?
I thought about this question as I walked this morning. I think in the beginning of my life, a good friend, was having tons and tons of them and being very popular. ( I wasn't I was too shy.) Then the stage of having one best friend who I could tell my secrets to, (I lived in the country so it was my horse.) Then I got married and had a family and I didn't have time for the kind of friends to go out shopping with or go to lunch with, besides I was homeschooling, You can't take 6 kids along on a lunch date. Since most of those years I was pregnant or nursing so my pretty clothes always smelled like baby barf.
So now, you would think I would have time for that, but still I don't, my children I would say are my friends because, I think that is the relationship I have put the most work into. I never look at someone that way to be my friend, a friend to me is the person I spend time with and pray for and share our lives with, even if it is in an email or a comment. So for me, I guess, a friend is whomever God sends that needs a hug, or a note or a prayer. Now it is not what they give me but what I can give to them.

 3.   Are you planning a summer vacation?
Okay, when I first started blogging, it was in the summer. I kept reading blogs with people taking pictures of lakes and the beaches and all kinds of places. I kept thinking why are these people going to this place or that place, then it dawned on me, it is summer, people go on vacation in summer. Does that tell you? We never go on vacation and haven't in years and years. We did when the kids were small but now, it really never even crosses our minds to even put that in planning a year. So nope, never plan a summer vacation.

4.    Do you have a garage, carport, park on the street or park in your driveway?
We have a garage, and yes we park in it. The kids have to park in the driveway.

5.    Tell me something interesting about your week. (oops- please)
Well, it has cooled off and we should have rain today and tomorrow. It is beautiful. I am really thankful to be alive on days like today.
School is coming down to a close. Which means I have to get in the doom closet to get next year and my final year of homeschooling.
But, I will be passing the baton off to my girls, so that when I get into the doom closet this year, I will also be getting pre school and kindergarten materials for my grand children. To me that is exciting. To have the joy of that is beyond my wildest dreams.

Gambal Quail

For the last few days, I could hear a new bird sound. I have spent so much time trying to see where it was coming from and what kind of bird it was. Today my son looked out the window and he said, " What the heck kind of bird is that? He was walking around the yard. My other son grabbed my camera and took off outside.

The Gambal quail was sitting on the fence. He makes such a funny sound that I thought we had a Grackle visiting. It sort of sounds like that, but the grackles around here prefer to live at Wal Mart and Target. They love fast food, and french fries best of all. We will get a visitor this time of year but the Mocking birds are really territorial.  So are the Scrub Jays.

Here is a better picture. What I found when I was trying to tell what kind he was, at first I thought he was a California Quail, but he had that red Mohawk looking do on top of his head so I had to keep looking. Then I found that, I don't think I have ever seen one of these here before. He is in the tree next to my office in the morning. Talking to himself. He isn't afraid at all and I might try and get some more pictures.

I love this time of year and seeing birds fly through. We have a couple of new kinds of doves I haven't heard before. I was watching the Woo-hoo bird that is what he says, Woo-hoo  woo-hoo, over and over very fast. He is very graceful and does this little graceful thing when he lands almost like a pirouette. The regular kind of doves we have say, Woo-hoo  hoo  hoo, so my husband and I have decided that Mr.Woo-hoo is a newly married bird. He is happy about his lot in life.

Okay just some bird watching that I have been doing. I still get mad at dumb sparrows this time of year, I can't tell you how many times I will be minding my own business when a group goes flying past and I have to duck and dodge and sometimes hit the dirt so I don't get hit in the head by crazed sparrows. I enjoy watching birds.
If you say those sounds out loud, you can hear it better, I know I was practicing in here writing this post.

I hope you have a great Wednesday!
~Kim~

Small Treasures

My sister lives in my parents house. In Oklahoma. We live in California. We haven't cleaned out the house. My sister decided she would do it since she is going to stay back there. She sent me some things she thought I would like and today I got the box. One of the things I will admit to you, is I am a very emotional person. I am a crier. A Hallmark ad or a something sad, it doesn't even have to be sad, I cry over happy things too. I hate it about myself more than you can possibly know. Today I got the box, I stared at it. I didn't want to open it. My daughter came in and we opened it together.

Here are some things that were in it.

 Little tiny medicine bottles. She wanted to send things to put on the shelf that my husband made for me.

A little tiny salt and pepper shaker. I thought it was really cute.

A little tiny oil lamp that hangs on the wall. I love that it is cobalt blue. I wish I used oil lamps sometime. I love to watch them flicker.

She sent me a hen on the nest. This one is made of Carnival Glass. My Mom had three, so she asked which one I wanted and I told her to pick one for me. I think it is so cute.

 

Then she sent this too. Just a tiny little house for my shelf. She found in the things she was going through a letter sent to me in January 1969 It seems that I sent my Grandpa a thank you letter for the Christmas presents he sent that year and he wrote me back and sent a picture. Why my parents kept it I don't know but I was so thankful to receive it today. It made me remember that I was living a normal happy life and nine months later, my Mom would be gone and my life as I knew it would be forever changed. My sister also sent a notebook filled with my birth Mom's handwriting. Do you know that since she died when I was eleven I have wanted something with her handwriting. Anything at all. I opened today, and to see her handwriting. It was like receiving a gift I have longed for all of my life. So deep has been the longing even after all of these years, for one more touch. To see her handwriting helped me just a bit. To put back a missing piece in my life.
I think this poems says it the best of how I feel when God allows things I don't understand.


~Kim~ 
   

---

The Weaver

My life is but a weaving Between my Lord and me;
I cannot choose the colours, He worketh steadily.
Oft-times He weaveth sorrow,
And I, in foolish pride
forget He sees the upper,
And I the under side.
Not till the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful,
In the Weaver's skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern he has planned.
He knows, He loves, He cares -
Nothing this truth can dim;
He gives the very best to those
Who leave the choice with Him.

Today In The Garden

This morning I found a baby artichoke in the middle of the plant. It is really about the size of a 50 cent piece.
I didn't think we would get any off of the two plants we planted in January. I am so happy to see this one.

We worked in the garden until about 11:30 this morning. It feels like July instead of April 22. The kids are swimming in the pool that is how warm it is right now. We will have snow in the mountains by Wednesday.

I wanted to show you some pictures of how the Field of Dreams changes bit by bit.

My husband started plowing between the berry vines first. He planted them far enough apart this year so that he could get the plow between the rows. While he drives the tractor I hula-hoe all of the weeds that he can't get to with his tractor.

He had got this much done when I remembered to take the picture. After the rain from last weekend, you can't believe the weeds that were coming up. My husband was reading a Bonsai book this week and the author said that when you are getting dirt for your Bonsai to make sure weeds are growing in it. If weeds aren't growing, then neither will your Bonsai. I liked that so much it made me happy to know something nice about weeds.

This is part of the berries and the artichoke plants. Way at the back is his Bonsai trees that he had growing in the ground. It was starting to get really hot out there so we had to stop.

I have to say this is my favorite row. Do you know why? It will be my sunflower rows. It will have some corn and potatoes in it too, but lots and lots of sunflowers. I have some more rows for sunflowers but for some reason this one is my favorite. Well, of coarse  the place were my pumpkin patch will be.

 I love standing and looking at this and taking pictures of it,  because to me it is blank canvas waiting to be painted on, what ever I dream out here can become a reality. I have loved this land since I was 4 years old. All of it is filled with dreams, past and present. Not many people get to go back to the place that when they were children and dreamed of putting white fences around it and planting trees and taking care of it. I am glad I married a man who shared the same dreams. Today we were looking at it after he finished and he said, "Dreams really do come true." They do, it might take awhile as in our case 20 years, but I am so thankful.

Thank you letting me share my field of dreams with you.
~Kim~

Working in The Garden

It is a beautiful Saturday morning here. We are having our first taste of summer. It might get to 91 today. I went out this morning before the sun was up. I could smell that hot warm toasty air but still with a hint of orange blossoms. My roses are all blooming like crazy. Today is the day I get out my seeds like miser and count them and read the packets and stare at my garden plan.

My husband is getting the hoses all laid out. With all of the other things he already has in this year he had to go buy more. Today on the list is he has to plow. and get the rows for the sunflowers, and the pumpkins, and the potatoes and corn. We won't plant pumpkins yet, just get the rows ready.

I had a idea for a new arch. I am going to see if I can make one using tree limbs from the cotton woods. I was reading about how the Indians that lived around here, used cottonwood branches to make the tents they lived in as the trees were numerous and the limbs stayed pliable yet would dry and keep the shape. I thought I would try that. If it turns out like I see it in my head, I will show you. I think using limbs from the trees would be better for the morning glories to climb on.

Time to be out in the garden. It will be too hot by noon. I felt so guilty because my poor blog has gone postless, for a few days. I am having a hard time navigating the new pages and stuff and I get frustrated and by the time I find where things are then I can't think of anything nice to say, and you know if you can't say anything nice at all it is better to be quiet. :) 

Have a lovely Saturday,
~Kim~

Just Life

I thought I would show you my flowerbed before the heat gets here, because after Friday when it hits 90 degrees these irises will be but a memory. They really multiplied, I couldn't believe how many came up this year. I never planted that many about 10 is all if I remember right and each year I divide them and plant some in a new place and this year my flowerbed looked like this.

  I wanted to show you my hydrangea bed. I have this part of the whole bed filled with them. I hope someday they will just take over. I do need to put some nails around them so I can get some blue ones.

Today I took my son to buy some new shoes. We were standing at the counter waiting when I looked up. You know how sometimes it just hits you that your baby is grown up. He is a good foot taller than me or more. " I said, " Gosh Peter, you are so much taller than me now." He said, " Well Mom, I better be you aren't that tall."
We drove home and I said, " You are going to be eighteen next year." He said, " Yep, I am a man." I said that is true, you are a very nice man."  He said, " I am glad I am a man I have always wanted to be one, he said I don't think I ever felt like a boy."  I said, " You are right, you have always been pretty old."

Then as we drove home, it hit me. They may all still live at home, but my parenting days are almost over and it will be time to put on a new hat. I don't know what this one will be yet. I know it will be a new one and it will look different. Have you read or heard about that lady who talks about how beautiful she is?

I have thought about beauty since she started telling the world about herself. God says that beauty is this " For this is the way the holy woman of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master."

Beauty comes not by talking about it but it is a quiet place in your heart. I once met the most beautiful woman in the world. She was my friend. We would share our lives each week for a hour  or so as we sat at piano lessons. She was from Burma. She was kind and gentle and was good through and through. She didn't have the kind of beauty that you see flaunted in magazines. Her beauty spoke of the gentle and quiet spirit of her heart. Her whole manner was that of gentle submission and kindness.
I think that living your life, quietly serving, can be the best kind of beauty.

So as I get ready to take my school teacher hat off and put it away, in a box on the shelf, I hope that someday when the time comes and all my hats are put away, I will have done a good job and I may enter into that rest with a crown to lay at my Master's feet.

Have a very lovely Thursday,
~Kim~

Chats on The Farm House Porch

It is time again to link up with Patrice and have a chat on her farmhouse porch. I know I have been busy trying to get mine back to spend most of our time on it. We spend more time on our porches than we do in the house.

So do the cats.

 

Now on to this weeks questions:
1.    What's the last big gathering you attended? (wedding, funeral, graduation, party, riot,etc)

We had to go to a really big wedding shower. My daughter is a bridesmaid in a couple of weeks. It was the largest thing I have been to in awhile.

2.    Do you switch over your seasonal wardrobe, wear the same things year round, have a huge closet to put it all in, or throw everything out and buy new each season(I threw the last one in there to see if you're paying attention;)?

Haha, buy new each season, I caught that. I really hate shopping so I keep things until it just falls apart. I rotate my clothes out every spring and fall. I like to keep my closet as empty as possible. I try to keep the colors in families. I am still working on getting my closet very empty of my clothes. Since I have been the same size since I was 30 I have clothes that are that old. I finally decided it was time to start getting rid of them. I even had satin pajamas my husband bought me when we had our son, our son is 26 now.  I have a goal of only having a few shirts a skirt and a dress and a couple pair of jeans and shorts and capris. Ever since I read the 80/20 principle I keep trying to live that. Then like Corrie Ten Boom had just a suitcase, that is my goal after my kids are all married and in their own houses, to be free of my "stuff".
After cleaning out houses for the people I loved I don't want my children to have to do that after I am gone.

3.    What sweetener do you use most often?

I use honey. My very favorite.

4.    Slippers, socks, or barefoot?
None of the above. Shoes always, I am always taking off outside and it would be a pain to have to change.

5.    What questions would you like me to ask the group over the next few weeks?

I don't know if I have any this time.

Thanks to Patrice for having a chat this week. I hope you are all having a very nice week.

~Kim~