Happy fabulous Friday All!

Such a beautiful day here in middle TN!  Sunny and 85, what more could you ask for?  Glad you asked - LOL  Time for 'Good 'ole Days' here in Cannon County.  It's a southern version of all the festivals we have up north.  This year my middle dd will be manning the library booth, as her new (or not so new) thing is volunteering at the local library.  Our whole family has been pretty heavily involved with our local library, I am proud to say!  They are a home school mom's best friend : )  B works tomorrow, so she and her brother Z, plus friends are off to enjoy the festivities tonight.  Mom and Dad will stay home and save there money and count their blessings that the twins still haven't figured out what it is yet.

This Sunday is oldest son's graduation party, and I am freaking out.  I might be more excited than him.  All he has to do is show up and bask in the glory. (I remember doing that, and loved it!)  I hope this is a special day for him and he has many found memories in the future. 

Following week-end is the twins 7th birthday, graduation, party's, and Memorial Day.  What was I thinking by having them then?  Oh yea, they were five weeks early, they were Due July 2nd.  We still don't know how we are going to handle the crush and I know there is only a week to figure it out.  Kung Fu Panda 2 is coming to the drive in that week-end as well.  We are considering taking the twins Friday night for their b-day, as they won't sit still through an entire graduation ceremony. Although I would really like to be there as there are several other friends participating, including Z's girl, whom he calls 'the one'. (yikes)

And finely, I just wanted share this quick pic I snapped today from my driveway.  We utterly have a sea of sunflowers growing under our kitchen window and around the bird feeder.  Here is the first to open to the sun!  I know how he feels, when I open to the son.

Blessings, Beth Ann

what's up Wed.

I haven't done a What's up Wednesday in quite a while, so thought I would share some pic's .

These are are my cool new knives that I received for Mother's Day, yes they are stainless steel. I really love them, yet oddly enough I am having a hard time giving up my old set.  Odd right?

Here is a shot of our dinning room, looking into our kitchen.  This is what our finished paint job looks like, ferret cage and all.

Another shot of the finished paint job, this one from the living room, looking into the hallway/bathroom area.

And here is our front entryway.

Z did a great job, as well as the rest of the kids who helped him!  K and I are both thrilled and think it looks great.  Next year, the upstairs!  LOL

Blessings, Beth Ann

Back in the camping saddle again

Here we are in a new month, OK half way through, and I haven't blogged yet!  I swear I will do better!  LOL  We took off May 4th for our first, maybe only, camping trip of the year.  We love to go over Mothers day week-end, weather is always mild then.  Hubby took a weeks vacation and off we went!  We started the trip with our heater at night, and ended it running the air : )  Every night was better than the one before it, sigh, so hard to return home.  We staked out our usual spot up in Carthage, at Defeated Creek.

Here is a shot of our site, right on the lake.

Each day hubby would lay a blanket out on the grass and take an afternoon nap.

Here twin dd has nabbed the blanket for herself and is having a snack 'picnic'.

Everyone except oldest son came along, he had to work.  Actually we had to two other church families join us as well.  Many children, friends and good times.  Son was able to take care of his ever growing menagerie, but I had to bring Howard the handicapped doxin with me.   

Here is Howard in his play pen, enjoying the lake view and breeze, while I knitted : )  We also brought the twins old stroller, and pushed him around the camp site.  He can walk in very small amounts, and gets tired quickly when pulling his wheel chair. 

This is Howard after a hard day of doing nothing.   This pic kind of says's it all!

We had a safe trip and are glad to be back with our friends and family once again.
Blessings, Beth Ann

We are still here : )

Once again I am not blogging as much as I used too, but on this rainy, stormy day I thought I would share some odds and ends with you.  As a family not much per say is happening here.  Two weeks from today we will go on our first camping trip of the summer : )  But hubby still needs to do the breaks on the RV and put on a new front wheel.  That however will have to take a back seat to fixing our Durango.  A week a go today it quit running, needs a new fuel pump.  Well he got one Sunday, but since then it has been raining, and I don't mean a little!  I am praying to have it up and running by Friday, shopping day.  Then we will take care of the RV.

Other than that, a little over three weeks to son's graduation celebration.  He deserves a party, he has been working 45+ hours a week.  Speaking of a celebration, Easter was pretty darn awesome here.  The weather was magnificent and the fellowship uncomparable.  We ended up with about 15 people here.  There were two dissapointments, one being a friend couldn't make it due to a toe infection, and the other being our . . . neighbors.  We have had a few run in's with these folks before, but nothing like on Easter Sunday.  They have twin 10 year old boys, who were behaving inapropriatly with their body parts twoards all the teen-age girls at my house.  When one of the girls mothers went to talk the boys mother, lets just say the apple doesn't fall from the tree and I thought the Navy was in town.  I will try to cut the family a little slack though, as the mother had run over their own dog the day before and had another Navy type melt down then too.  Unfortunatly that happened right in front of my mail box, while all the neighbor childern were in my yard running through the sprinkler.  So lets keep that private well drilling, illeagle chicken keeping, family in our prayers.

Well it is tornado season again in middle TN.  Our town is in a 'hallor, and is protected by Short Mt.  It is scary though when it's raining cats and dogs (we don't need any more), and hearing all the warnings around us.  But we have lived here nine years now, our house is over 60 years old and still standing! I am begining to be a real trooper, I don't even run to the basement anymore.  Heck, I didn't even get out of bed this morning - LOL 

Here are some random pictures to help pass the time, and show you the animals around our house.

This is Chester, aka Pester, our newest cat.  He is taking a nap in the new fuzzy blue recliner/rocker, and stretching.

How far can he stretch?

Looks like pretty far!  LOL

This is Waylon, the only puppy we have left from the nine Z rescued last Fathers day.  His girl friend keeps saying she is taking him, her dad keeps disagreeing.  No, he is not suppose to be on the deck table.  Guess he is just trying to get to higher ground with all this rain, notice the mud in our yard behind him.

This is Tina.  Tina is sleeping on our corn hole game, which we can't use due to the rain.  The corn hole game is on out air conditioner for the dinning room, which we can't use because hubby won't put it in yet - LOL

And this is E, missing teeth and all, showing you the art project she did in school today.  Her big sister B is her art teacher : )  Lots of cutting and pasting today.  Come on, admit it, you miss cutting and pasting too!

OK, it is still raining, the children are running and screaming, and I don't have any gopher wood.  Sigh, I still feel blessed.  Beth Ann

Back from Cincy

Actually I returned home late Sunday evening from Cincinnati, and the weather was wonderful!  We were running late because we stopped in Lexington, KY for lunch and some antiquing : )  Over all I would rate the trip a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.  I feel incredibly blessed to have been given this opportunity to attend the Great Home School Conference of the Midwest, and with such an awesome group of ladies who share my faith and are filled with grace.  We had two suites in a hotel about 5 blocks from the Dukes Convention Center.    Many times it was faster to walk than to wait for the hotel shuttle, except when it was raining or the morning we had to be at a lecture at 8:30 a.m. : )  My poor legs and back were tired from wandering among the 300+ vendors in the exhibit hall.  Many ladies had those plastic egg crate thing's with wheels and a telescoping handle.  A couple of vendors sold them for around $25 - yikes!  I had all my worldly possessions in a back-pack/purse and then I carried a tote bag, and just sucked it up.  The only bad thing to mention were food prices  on the premises (of course).  Bottled water was going for $3!    I had my own bottle and just repeatedly filled it from one of the many water fountains, as they have filtered water.  Again, it was an amazing time, shared with amazing people.

Here is our group on the day we left.  We are standing in front of the fountain at the public library, which was across the street from our hotel, The Garfield Arms.

The grand finale for the conference was The Duggar family (they have 19 children and home school).  I don't want to talk about how long the line was or the wait to be seated, but it was a nice evening.  I had read their book, so not much new information.  However I did not know they had a show on TLC (we don't watch tv).  Since then I have rented one of their disc's from Netflix and really enjoyed it.  I mostly enjoyed it because my 14 year old dd did, and it had some great info on courtship vs. dating.  They make it look 'cool' and because of the size of their family, dd appreciates ours a bit more : )

Of course I brought my knitting!  I took it with me everywhere I went and was delighted to find one of the vendors was selling a fiber art curriculum.  It contained knitting, weaving, carding and dying your own wool.  So cool to see these things make a come back.  I managed to knit a hat on the way up there, and on the way home.  It is a 5 hour trip after all (gain an hour going east).

We also took a day to visit the Creation Museum and meet Ken Ham.  He is the founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis, a christian home school curriculum (to put it mildly).  He is a celebrity in the world of home school and maybe even a modern hero.  I encourage you to check him out at http://www.answersingenesis.com/  These are the same folks you might of heard of, who are building a life size ARK.  I so can not wait for that!  This was my second time to the museum and my first with no kids.  There is also a planetarium, but I did that the first time, not the second.  I was able to really talk more of it in and it was so much more . . . vivid, 3D for me.  It made may faith stronger and affirmed that we were on the path that God had placed our family.  I would love to go aging with a group from our church or even take the hubby and twins.  Sigh, guess I just want to go again - LOL

Well, I enjoyed the weather, the fellowship, the faith and the affirmation on home schooling, right before graduating my first from home.  I can't believe the big day is only 4 weeks away!  There have been many ups and downs in the 6 years I have been home schooling, but it is so well worth it!  Not only is it biblical correct, but it turns out kids to be proud of.  We are living our life for God and we are not afraid to live it out loud.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Just checking in

Thought I would check in before I leave tomorrow for Cinncinatti  and the Great Home School Convention.  I will be gone 4 days, but K will be here with the kids and doing some much needed car/RV maintence.  I went to this same convention 3 years ago, but now it is twice the size as before with a grand finale of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar (TLC fame).  There has been some controversey over speakers as this perpertrated to be a christian event.  The convention un-invited Ken Ham, founder and CEO of Answers in Genisis).  You can find out more about this at http://www.answersingenisis.com/    AIG also runs the Creation Museum, right outside of Cincy, so he will be speaking there and offer addional items for all registered coventiont attendees, including a free day pass to the museum and if you never been, you should.  They are currently in the processes of building a replica of the ark!  Again, check these folks out : )

I am still knitting away.  I just finished a scarf for an April b-day and will make the hat when I return.

Here is the scarf and it matches the fingerless gloves I made her for last years b-day : )

I am still big into hats and am making this tourquoise, sequenced one for myself : )

This is the book I take many of my patterns from.  They are easy and basic.  If your not a Harry Potter fan just sub any color you wish, as I do with my beannie hats!  So far I only made one HP hat and the rest are just reg. w/specialty yarn for flair.  Same goes for scarves and socks. 

I had a friend ask me yesterday to share a craft booth with her at an upcoming event ~ EEK!  Do I have enough items?  Guess I need to get on a hat binge.  How many hats can I knit on the 5 hour trip to and from Cincy?  Can I knit during the covention workshops?  Should I knit into the night?  What else should I make besides hats?  B said she would make some rice bags to sell, those are always popular as gifts and for boo-boos : )  I think it will be fun.  I just feel so darned blessed to live here and have such an aray of friends to do things with and share my faith as well.  I thank God everyday for leading me and my family down here.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Knits and that's

It's been awhile since I blogged and thought I would pop in and update everyone.  Not much to tell.  Still raining here most the time, so our garden isn't ready to put in yet.  Our oldest son now has two jobs, which is a good thing since his car blew it's transmission only a week after he started driving it.  He spent over a week patching and replacing the lines himself (we are calling this auto shop in school), but no dice, need a new tranny.  He is soooooooooooo frustrated.  Hubby and him are going Sat. to a junk yard to see if they can find one to rebuild.  Poor kid. 

Let's see . . . Hubby still needs to replace my ball joints and put a new tire on the RV.  Oldest dd and twins are mostly into school right now and a home school group me and few other church friends are trying to get off the ground.  As for me?  Well . . . I guess I have just been knitting my butt off in my free time (snort).  I am head to Cincinnati at the end of the month for the largest home school conference in the mid-west, guess I will take my knitting along for the ride too!  LOL  I have been making hats of late, and it seems everyone wants one (they are cool, like a hug for your head).  Lucky for me they only take about 8 hours to make, not that I have 8 straight hours to knit.  So more like spread over 3 days, er nights I mean, since I do most my knitting after the twins are in bed and waiting for hubby to come home from work.   I made Z's double fast because I felt so bad for him and wanted to cheer him up.

Here is Z's Harry Potter hat to match his scarf I made last fall.  You can also see the new dinning room color on the wall behind him, "Carmel sauce".

See, matches and everything ~ LOL  I am always so thrilled when things turn out the way they look in the book!

Here is the one I made for Bre, wish the pic was better as the colors are so much more bright than this.  The yarn is a soft baby boucle'.  Oh, and check out her $5000 smile.  Thank goodness at least the ortho is paid off!  LOL

And here I am in the hat that started it all.  I made this crazy eyelash yarn hat over a period of 4 Wed. nights. during bible study (shhh, don't tell ). 

Right now I am trying to finish B's HP scarf and my knit cargo pants.  I am also making a hat/scarf for an April b-day and a hat for a May b-day for friends.  Also, have about 5 more people requesting hats, 2 more scarf orders and a sock order.  Free time, snort.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Look at that bootie!

Another busy week has come to an end, and even though I was under the weather for a great deal of it, it was fabulous.  We didn't wash away in the rain, son got a job, hubby did a couple of car jobs, had tea with a friend, and the sun came out as so did my magnolia blossoms.  See, always half full.  I also finished those booties for my friend who is a new grandma, take a gander;

I love baby booties, they are soooooo cute.  It makes me want to knit a ton of baby stuff (bet you thought I was going to say, want another baby, no way Jose' - LOL).

This year we are doing a full Home Ec. course for B.  It will count for a full credit in her 9th grade curriculum.  Think traditional Home Ec., but with my kitchen and my sewing machine.  There is also the added bonus of time spent with my daughter as taught in the book of Titus.  We are half way done, finishing the food/nutrition/cooking portion and are onto sewing.  We took her to Hobby Lobby to pick out fabric for a quilt she is to make.  It is harder than she thought, but she is loving it.

Here is the crafty girl now.  I have no idea why fabric is so expensive and cost prohibitive, but this will help her learn how to re-purpose old cloths before donating them.  Tomorrow is fill a bag for $15 at the Bargain Center (resale shop) and I will take her and look for some cute fabric (I can get like 30 items in a bag), also son needs jeans for work.

Most likely it will just be me and the 3 youngest tomorrow as son is hoping to finish fixing his car tomorrow.  Poor kid had been driving it for only 3 days when it blew a transmission seal.  It has been a lesson in money, patience's and respect trying to get that thing fixed.  But now not only does he have a car, a reg. drivers license and a voters card, but he has a job and bills.  Good times, good times.  My little man grew up.  How did that happen?

Blessings, Beth Ann

Frugal and Fashion

Good Sat. morning all, hope your enjoying your week-end.  A beautiful day here.  I wanted to share a couple of things with you today.  First is a great buy I stumbled upon during my Friday shopping.  I had been making my own toothpaste, to avoid the fluoride (google fluoride health dangers), but the kids weren't that keen on it.  That's the background story.  Next, Rite-aide has a scan card now (all stores do) and I have received a couple good coupons, the last being a $5 off coupon.  I knew they carried the Tom brand of health care products (that is were we buy our aluminum free deodorant), so went in looking for fluoride free toothpaste.  Found it, at $5.47.  That's right, you know where this is going . . .

After the coupon in was .47 cents, plus tax.  So .97 cents total, the same amount I would pay at the dollar store for reg. fluoride toothpaste.  So that didn't hurt at all to compromise for the kids.  Hubby and I are still using the home made, so maybe it will string it out and make it last longer.

Sorry this is so grainy, but you can see were the total is and that I gave them $1 to pay.  So, if you have a Rite -aide near you it is worth it to sigh up for just one more card : )

Next on the agenda, I have finished two projects this week!   Man it feels sooooooooo good to finish stuff.  I usually have 4 or 5 things going, so it seems to take awhile for all of it.  Not to mention I also seem to always stop and make gifts for people.  But I love it : )  This week I finished my first pair of socks ever (excellent for sleeping in and keeping my toes super cozy) and last night I finished my knit funky hat.

It is simple but the eyelash yarn makes it look so . . .  ooh - la - la - LOL  I worked on this predominantly in Wed. night bible study (shh. don't tell anybody), so took me about 4 weeks of 45 minutes each.  I love it and will wear it everywhere!  I wore it to the library today and the librarian asked if he could touch it.  Of course he could!  : )

I still have a H. P. scarf for B and a pair of pants for me on the stix's, but first I have been asked by a friend to make some baby booties for her new grandson.  How can I say no to that?

Blessings, Beth Ann

Painting ~

After 9 years of living in our home, we are painting the downstairs!  To be fair, it is the last on our list of home fix uppers.  Since her purchase in July of '02 we have resided the house, put in all new windows, added a carport and an RV port.  We also added a screened in back deck, pool and deck.  Only a year after our arrival we were notified of the impeding arrival of twins, so the upstairs had to be redone, good-bye home office.  We also have painted Z's room, the bath room and the kitchen.   Bre's room will be next, but that's for her b-day, so maybe we shouldn't discusses that.  I love, love, love this house.  When we bought it the downstairs looked like it was permanently stuck in the early 80's (think sky blue, light mauve and white country geese) and the upstairs was left in the 50's  (think bad, peeling wallpaper with green leafs and vines)  I am proud to say we have given the old girl (1949) a face lift, two new doors, the yard fenced in and some outside wiring helped too.   So to help document this, here are some pic's of living room being painted:

Here is our handyman, Z, hard at work.

We are equal opportunity employers, so here are the girls working too.

The twins seem to be having a bit . . . to much fun : )

Here is E doing a self portrait.

Here is our newest cat, Chester Pester, wondering if he can help.  Right after this, he DID get into the paint and coated the top third of his tail.  Before we could catch him, he zipped into the bathroom and decorated the toilet seat.  Now you know why he has his name.

Z is still at it he knows there is a paycheck in his future when he finishes.

Here is the boss surveying the job, and he looks pleased, whooh - LOL

I am sooooo thrilled.  I look around and feel like I have a real adult home now, not like I am still living in Holly Hobbies house.  Come visit real soon and see for yourself.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Eat cake

Most families have a bunch of silly little traditions, mostly associated with holidays; ours is no different.  Every year for Valentines day I bake a hart shaped cake, and how can you not love that?!  Here is the easy peasy recipe:

Start with your favorite cake mix, we always choose Pillsbury valentine fun-fetti w/matching frosting, but and flavor will do.  Next, follow directions on box for mixing and pour half of batter into a 9" round and half into a 9" square cake pan.  Make sure to grease and flour well, since cakes must come out of pan.

Follow box for baking directions.  Let cool, then refrigerate for a couple of hours before frosting.

Next, empty cakes from pans onto a serving tray and slice round cake in half.

Turn square cake sideways, as to make a diamond.  Then place one half of round cake on either side, to look like a hart.

Now you may begin to frost with your choice of frosting.

You can fill in any cracks or unevenness with the frosting; no one will mind a little extra!

Now you have a frosted hart to share with your Valentine : )

You can use this as a clean slate to decorate any way you choose, sprinkles, candy or even write a message with gel frosting.

Our frosting came with candy sprinkles for the holiday.

This yummy treat was a special dessert for 8 people with leftovers.

I bought the mix and frosting at our Dollar General Market for $3.  When is the last time you did that?  Stay tuned:  this Sat. is another $5 coupon day at the $GM!

Blessings, Beth Ann

Menu Monday's

Greetings and Happy Valentines day all.  Hubby and I celebrated last night.  Dinner out, money from a different account than groceries.  This morning I put one of those little heart shaped boxes of chocolate next to each childes bowl of oatmeal, with a box of conversation hearts (money from grocery account).  That's it, the big hurrah, oh; except for a hart shaped cake I baked this morning, for dessert tonight : )

I wanted to post a new menu for this week and update the great grocery receipt challenge.  To recap, $125 a week and that includes pretty much everything but our utilities.  Last month I went a hundred over, but the difference came from oldest son who helps pay the animal food bill (he has an animal ministry).  We ate out 3 times, two were covered by husbands car jobs, one was a birthday dinner/gift.  This month I have was over by $50 the first week and $25 the second week.  This past week I was right on target and made up the difference when ds paid me some money he owed me : )  A friend from church gifted us some 'gourment' items that she said she would never use, so that will help finish out the month.  It included such items as a beef brisket, lamb tips, holendaise sauce and whole grain pizza dough - 12/1lb. balls.  I am planning on making some calzones with the pizza dough and the holendaise sauce will be great in home made Alfredo sauce! 

Here is a look at our menu this week:

Monday ~  Shepherds pie w/green beans

Tuesday ~  Chicken Verde and Spanish rice w/ broccoli

Wednesday ~  church pot luck/Beef minestrone soup

Thursday ~  Taco's with home made guacamole' and chips

Friday ~  Tortellini in Alfredo sauce w/ tossed salad

Saturday ~  Fish stew over salt and vinegar mashed potatoes w/veggie sticks

Sunday ~  Pimiento mac & cheese w/ grilled chicken and green beans

Other cooking around the house: Heart shaped cake for Valentines day, home made chicken broth made from leftover bones in my slow cooker and home made croutons made from the left over bread from last Wed. when I made crust less round cheese sandwiches for church.  I am sure other things will pop up and I will keep you posted with new ideas and recipes. 

Blessings, Beth Ann

Happy President's Day!

I know I am a bit early with my glad tidings, but our home school group decided to tackle this early.  I am proud to say that after much prayer and effort that our county is just now in the processes of uniting a new group of home school families and this was our first function.  It was a huge success!   There was plenty of food, friends, fellowship and kids!  LOL I am proud to say our church sponsored this worthy group and we were blesses with an absolutely gorgeous day! (all the better to send the kids out to play in)

Z didn't do a presentation, but he was in charge of video and sound, something he does for the church on Sundays already.  B did do a pres. and she picked Teddy Roosevelt.  Dig her board and the use of all my metallic blue paint on her flag!  Guess it add panach'.

She was a bit nervous getting up in front of a large, mostly unknown group, but I told her we had paid $5K for her smile . . . so . . .  Once she was up there it was fine and she did a great job on her research.  Also good experience for public speaking.

Twin son E didn't get the whole big deal, and twin daughter E just wanted to make a pretty flag like her big sister : )   Oh to be six again with no pressure to be in the know politically.

Here is the flag I helped E make, she picked the stick out herself.  When she saw people were going up front to give little presentations she wasn't sure she was in to that, but when the mic came out . . . LOL  Anyone who knows E, knows that she has never met a mic she didn't like!  Matter of fact, she received a stage mic complete with flashing strobe light and clapping sound for Christmas and a matching guitar.  She was also a smash the Sunday before, at the super bowl party.  The kids did some karaoke, and once E got a hold of the mic that was it. 

There was lots of good eats as well.  Most brought cookies and desserts.  I didn't want to go that route and wanted something more high protein, lo-carb/healthy.  I came up with these tasty little kabobs.

These are pepperoni, string cheese and bologna.

Then I mad a dessert kabob:

These are seedless green grapes, mini marshmallows and cantaloupe.

They were a huge hit and not one was left, much to my husbands disappointment.  I think I only ate one of each, for a taste test : )

Next month we are having an ice cream social and there will be more photo's.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Just checking in ~

So, it's been a bit since I blogged.  Wish I could say it was because nothing is going on, but it's been C - R -A - Z - Y here!  The weather is insane  ( worse anyone has seen in 100 years), trying to get a home school group started with some friends and church members, and re-painting the down stairs.    I have been wanting to do the downstairs for like . . . I don't know, since we bought the joint, but other things (marriage, twins, life) happened.  We did get the upstairs done when i was expecting the twins.  The twins will be 7 in May, and the upstairs needs an over haul again - LOL  Such is life!  So, just thought I would pop in and let everyone know we are not dead or hibernating (like snakes Eli would say).  Ah contrare, we are busier than ever.  We spent all of last week helping a friend move from the country into town, only 6 houses from us (lucky them).  Tomorrow the kids have a home school group meeting for Presidents Day, food and presentations a plenty!  So the train just keeps on rolling.    In the mean time I still have four knitting projects on the sticks, finished one for a gift, and two I need to start and finish ASAP : s

For some comic relief I thought I would share some new random pet pics.  Can you identify this?

Good guess!

Man does she have some junk in her trunk or what?

Yes!  It's Tina, B's cat : )

Catch ya all latter, maybe when I have some free time?  LOL

Blessings, Beth Ann