Weather or Not

Whether you talk about it or not, the weather is unusually cold.  The news says it is due to a polar vortex.  Our forecast last night was for much worse than this so I can live with cold temps because our roads are clear!  As you can see, we got a very little bit of snow.

 The temperature has not gotten out of the teens but still the sun was able to melt some of the icicles on the back of the house.  Isn't the sky unbelievably gorgeous? 

With it that cold outside, we played with pretend snow inside.  It went below freezing last night and will not be above 32 until early afternoon on Wednesday.

 Today was Benjamin's first day back since Christmas break.  We had LOTS of fun playing!

We hope you are enjoying time indoors until it warms up outside.

Where's the Turkey?

Most of us are dealing with some colder temperatures this week so thought we might enjoy a visit to the beach - - - Panama City Beach in Florida.  That's where we went for most of Thanksgiving week.

We stayed at the Wyndham Timeshare.

Our goal was to rest and relax and we did that well.

As you can see, my sister was having fun.

We could have sat and stared at the ocean all day.

God's creation is beautiful.

The weather was COLD but tolerable.  We never went in the water but walked the beach each day.  Some people actually ventured into the ocean on Friday.  It was not that warm!

My sweet husband helped me collect some small shells to put inside a Christmas ornament.

 

 This was definitely a good week to be there because it was not crowded at all.

It was quite serene and gave us peace. 

Happy New Year

Today seemed like a good day to resume blogging.   Life has been VERY busy but lots of fun!  Perhaps I will be able to post some of the end of 2013 in the next few weeks.

Since it is the first day of the new year, I had to cook what is expected of a good Southern woman - - - even if I was raised in upstate NY.  However, my precious mother-in-law would come back from the grave to haunt me if I didn't cook the traditional meal.  Since I don't like greens at all, she conceded that boiled cabbage was an acceptable substitute.  You notice we added carrots.

 

Here are Bill's black-eyed peas cooked from scratch.

 

And since I don't appreciate the taste of B-E peas, I make Great Northern Beans for me and my older daughter.  They have ketchup, a bit of brown sugar, some onion, ham and other seasonings.  I found a small package of cubed ham at Publix - - - just the right amount for both beans.

 

 For additional protein, we made baked Macaroni and Cheese with Barilla Plus Pasta.  Here is the recipe from Taste of Home if you want it.  It's delicious!

Praying and wishing you all HEALTH and prosperity in this New Year!

Make Hay While the Sun Shines!

My husband has been repainting our house while the weather is still good and I have been working in the yard - - - when not watching sweet Benjamin.  Bill and I are both VERY busy for two or three more weeks.
 
This week and part of next has our contractors replacing windows.  The house is upside down but it's all good.  We have all winter to be inside to rearrange it again.
 
Right now it is time for bed and I just finished painting some trim work before it is cut and nailed up tomorrow.  Bill is taking down brackets from inside the window frames that will be worked on tomorrow.  We didn't leave it until this hour but could not get to it before now due to other things we were doing.  I said I felt like we were on a decorating show and this was our homework!

I AM reading most of your posts but do not know when I will get to comment again.

The next update (in a couple of weeks?) will have some pictures.

Better Weekend

I was taking Benjamin back to his mom's school on Friday and saw this on the side of the road in front of the BP Convenience Store at Durkee Rd & Waterlevel Hwy.  There was a sign out front but when you are going 45 mph and building to 55, it's best to watch the road rather than gaze on the side of it.  Since I had time on the way home, I stopped and took a picture.  Someone was obviously trying to catch our attention - - which they did.  I pulled into the parking lot that was bumper to bumper.  I never saw the sign for the event but they were selling grilled sandwiches and also Nascar tickets?!!!  Not the usual scenery we see everyday though.

 

 These came in the mail for me yesterday from Sweet Buttercup.

They are beautiful and make me smile when I look at them.  I am sorry about the shadow - - should have retaken the picture but knew I wouldn't get this posted until maybe later if I did.

 

Does anyone eat at Subway?  We go there about every 10 days.  We met our older daughter for supper there one night.  The picture doesn't do the produce justice.  It really looked beautiful and fresh as they had just refilled the bins.

 The weather has been cooler which I enjoy a lot more than summer heat.  We are thankful it has not been the typical high temperatures.  No Global Warming in our state this year!

And we are about to leave to go back to church for an evening class taught by Jon Reese.  He does an excellent job of preparing, making you think, and including the class in discussion to begin to draw conclusions.  He was a new teacher to us this summer and we enjoy his teaching style and the challenge to our spiritual growth.

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.   2 Timothy 2:15

And then there were three . . . .

This was taken in January of this year when the four of us siblings were together at my sister's home.    We don't see each other as a group very often since Kevin (far right) lives in NY State.  Rick (far left) and Sandie (second from right) lived 13 miles apart at this time.  I live five hours from them in TN.  We had a great visit that weekend but did not know it would be the last picture of the four of us.

 Our brother, Rick, age 59, died this past weekend.  It was a terrible shock to us because it was very unexpected.  It was a horrible few days for us.

Rick was proficient in many things.  You wished he was your gardener because he had a "green thumb" that was evidenced in the many beautiful flower gardens at his home.  His favorite hobby - - a passion - - was meteorology.  He wasn't a storm chaser in a vehicle but you could count on a text from him if weather was bad in your area.  Of course he was checking on our welfare and safety but he also wanted to know some of the details of the severity of the wind and precipitation.  We still have the weather station on our wall that he gave to us years ago.  It gives good readings on the barometric pressure, temperature, and humidity.

Rick,

You should know the sunshine left us this weekend and lots of precipitation fell - - - from our eyes.  You were loved and will be greatly missed.  I am anticipating our reunion in heaven where we will have all eternity together.

 Love,
Lynn

A time to be born , and a time to die . . .  Ecclesiastes 3:2a

Catch-Up

Benjamin is back!!!  His mom had to report for work on July 24.  Her agency had to be back a week and a half earlier than the other county teachers in her school.  She and Benjamin spent the night with us four nights while our SIL was in Haiti on a mission trip.

In the pic below, Benjamin is eating out of a reusable food pouch.  He does not want anyone to feed him but will eat well with these.  Foods that can be picked up with his fingers make him happy.  He can get a toddler spoon and fork to his mouth but the food falls off about half the time.

 

We are going to have lots of fun this year because he is capable of doing so much more - - - like learning to draw with markers!  You can see he got some on the paper but he also thought they looked good enough to taste - - which I discouraged immediately.  (Paint smock was found at Michael's Craft Store.)

In addition to regular indoor play with musical instruments, blocks, bouncing balls, etc., other great fun has included going to the playground, walking inside the mall on the hottest day, going to the public library and enjoying visits to Smoothie King.

 Instead of baby seats and exersaucers, this year we have added this set from Step 2.  I am so very thankful my daughter was here to assemble it when it arrived.  Working with pre-K, she knew the puzzle of putting the chairs together as well as having the strength to stretch the back supports apart in order to snap the backrest in place.

 Our covered screened back deck is on the second floor.  To make it safer, we stapled plastic fencing around the bottom today.  It probably would have been easier with an electric staple gun but we strengthened our muscles and bones using the manual one (trying to put the positive spin on this labor of love in the heat and humidity).

Our carpets needed cleaning, too, before "school" started back.  Our previous machine had said, "Enough," so we got another from the same company - - a better machine for less money than we paid years ago.  We were very pleased at how well it extracted the water.  We shampooed over a couple of weekends.  The carpets were completely dry within 1 - 2 hours.

In the midst of everything else, my windshield got a small "ping" with cracks.  It was down in the lower left of the windshield - - not in my line of vision.  Safelite was a great company to work with on this.  They were here - - at my house - - I didn't have to go to a shop - - within two days, confirmed appointments times, and even sent a picture of the man who would do the work.

 I did not know that cleaning all the windows was included as well as vacuuming my front carpets.  He told me that I would probably still see the small cracks but they wouldn't spread - - - but they are barely, barely visible.   It was one of the easiest repairs ever to our car.

And that about catches you up with our life.  We are all adjusting to and enjoying our schedule - - and maybe - - I might have time to catch up with many of your posts from this past week!!!

Show me how you work, God; School me in your ways.  Psalm 25:4