Welcome Spring

As much as we are looking forward to spring, it brings such devastating storms. It is almost as if, we spend so much time just wishing spring would come and go quickly. Prayers go out to all of the folks west and to the north of us that has been tragically affected by the spring storms. I so hope we all transition easily into spring and summer. Many of blog posts I have read,  folks are worried that in many places, spring seems to be coming somewhat early. I know many folks are concerned about their plants and fruit trees that are already budding. I have heard so many folks in our area talk about the weather this year reminding them of the weather in 1993, when there was a blizzard. As much as I do think that may be fun, I do hope that does not happen this year. We are  looking forward to spring and have been enjoying beautiful, sun shiny days. I am already looking forward to weeding flower beds and getting ready to spruce things up around here.

I think we are turning the curve with the family health issues. I feel so blessed, Papaw's mom is doing so well and quickly recovering from her surgery. Papaw too, is getting better by the day. This past week has been trying, busy and even a bit nervy just waiting for his body to heal. Today was the first day that he has been showing signs of getting back to his old self, joking around and seemly feeling better. It is like we all had a deep sigh of relief today, when he started with his jokes and seeing him smile again. It has been a long trying winter with illness. I, in the past usually enjoy winter. I can honestly say, I am looking forward to spring and summer, even if it means endless hours on the tractor.

We are excited about plowing and planting a garden this year. We are also in hopes that we will be able to sure up and add some new fencing and build a shed so that we will be able to get a couple of goats before long. I do hope fencing prices do not continue to climb and we can afford the poles and fencing material at least to get a good start.

I do hope you all are enjoying your early days of spring. I wish you all blessings for a calm, storm free spring.

Many blessings!

Devotion

The dictionary defines devotion as "profound dedication; consecration." 

The word "devotion" kept popping into my mind, over and over this past weekend, as I watched my husband's family, "my" family band together as his mom went through heart surgery. 

I wonder at times, how can some families come together in such stressful times with a love and concern; at the same time be so positive for each other, while silently holding their breaths because of the seriousness of the moment.  Being with the family over the weekend, gave me an opportunity to see the very best come out in most people. I know stress for some families can tear them apart. I am amazed at how some/most come together and the situation makes them grow even closer. I think this is where devotion and a deep abiding love for each other has a chance to shine.

When most of us think about the word devotion, immediately the word "love" pops in our minds. It does seem like the words just naturally flow together, love and devotion. I do not think either could exist without the other. Think about it, devotion without love? Or, love without devotion?
  

At church last Sunday, the pastor was speaking on marriage and he said, "when it comes to marriage, we all need to remember 1+1=1." It is so easy to see that equation in the lives of my husband's parents. We have been blessed over the years to witness love and devotion in their actions with one another. They are truly devoted to each other. After 31 years of marriage for Papaw and I too, we feel blessed that this equates to our marriage as well.

My mother-in-law is doing so very well. She is amazing. The doctors and nurses at the hospital said, they had never witnessed a quicker recovery for someone that had the procedures Grammie had. She is still continuing to do well and has not even needed pain medicine. We believe she will be coming home from the hospital this evening or tomorrow. Her success through this whole ordeal, I do believe can only be attributed to the grace of God and prayer and also through love, devotion and the support of her family. We give thanks to God for our answered prayers and for all that He has blessed our lives with. 

So, with Grammie's surgery behind us, we have Papaw's coming up on Friday. Please remember him in your prayers as well. He says, now that his mom has upstaged him, he won't be able to whine. I told him of course he could if he needed to and I don't mind. 

Thanks for your prayers for our family! Blessings to you all! 

Nothing Beats A Good Blog Hop

 

Check out the Grow Your Blog series at Live Laugh Rowe and  join in on the blog hop. Your going to run across so many different gals out there blogging with wonderful ideas. I can see my favorites list growing by the moment. Be sure to join in on the hop that started today. I am a bit late joining in due to family illness' but I am so excited to do a bit of blog surfing.

For some reason, my links do not seem to be working this evening. Please visit, http://livelaughrowe.blogspot.com for the blog hop details.

Blessings!!

A Bit Under The Weather...

I know it has been a bit since I have blogged. It seems I came down with quiet the cold along with the rest of the family. Then as it turns out, Papaw is a bit further under the weather than a cold. He is scheduled to have surgery next week. I won't go into details but we will be will be glad when this month is over. Papaw's mother is also scheduled for surgery tomorrow and a serious one. Please if you will, remember our family in prayer right now.

We are all keeping very positive thoughts and doing quiet well in spite of it all. I guess it seems like we have been blessed with a peaceful, calm feeling that all will be well soon. I am sure with all the signs of spring around us, I will have plenty to blog about before long.

Blessings to you all!

Back On The Smoothie Kick...

I am not sure why I ever stopped making my morning and lunch smoothies. I always loved them. I do think I backed off because of not wanting to wake up the house in the mornings, with my blender doing it's thing but I am back on the smoothie wagon.

Everyone I know practically, has been making their morning goodness and posting photos of their concoctions and recipes on Facebook. It has inspired me to get back in the game. I started making smoothies a few days ago and after my first smoothie, I wondered why I ever stopped. All I can say is, "Papaw get ready to have your alarm clock replaced with the whine of my Blendtec."

This morning's smoothie was made using,
1 Granny Smith apple
4 Kale leaves and stems
1/2 of a very large carrot
1 beet
1/2 of an English cucumber
1 Myer's lemon juiced and a
small amount of Cilantro


It is really yummy. I would love to hear your smoothie recipes. Please share them with me if you will.

Blessings!

Giving Up Shampoo...

OK, I know you must be thinking, is she nuts? Your next thought may be, yuck. I must admit, when I first ran across a couple of articles that spoke about giving all those “luxurious” shampoos and conditioners, I thought it was a crazy idea. Especially since, I have very fine, long curly hair. I must admit, I didn’t consider this a possibility, until I read the Crunchy Betty’s blog titled” No Poo To You Too” and the posts of others who took up the challenge. I ask myself, what did I really have to lose? Most people have bad hair days from time to time. I have bad hair days most days. I have for years thought that, in order to control my curly mop, I needed to wash and condition my hair daily to keep it manageable. I never gave over processing a second thought. 

I have spent so much money on deep moisturizing treatments and expensive shampoo. The answer may have been very simple all along, stop using those cleansers and chemical moisturizers all together. I have tried the sulfate free shampoos and conditioners. Those seemed to help my dried out, curly locks but my hair still looks frizzy on most days. Heaven forbid if I brushed my hair after letting it dry naturally. When I do brush out my hair, Papaw calls me Roseanna. I am not sure your age but if you watched Saturday Night Live back in the 80’s, I am sure you know who Roseanna, RoseannaDanna is. 

So, I have decided to take the Crunchy Betty challenge and stop using shampoos all together. The Crunchy Betty’s blog features articles to encourage folks to seek out and use all natural, herbal ingredients and to work toward living a more chemical free life. The blog issued a challenge to its’ readers about giving up shampoo and using a cleansing method for your hair of baking soda and an apple vinegar rinse. I thought, after all these years of struggling to get my hair to a desirable condition, what did I have to lose? I finally decided, I was going to give it a go. The Crunchy Betty blog suggested it was wonderful for gals with the naturally curly hair that tended to be frizzy, which seem to describe my hair completely.

So, tonight, I gave it a go. I mixed up the 1 Tbsp of baking soda to one cup of water  and washed my hair in it. I thoroughly massaged my scalp with the mixture but not rubbing much of it into the ends of my hair. I didn’t have apple cider vinegar make the rinse with for the ends of my hair, as the blog suggested. Papaw was going to pick me up a bottle when he ran out to the store this evening. Even without having the vinegar mixture to rinse the ends of my hair in, I was so surprised at how clean my hair felt. It was even more of a surprise when it it wasn’t that difficult to get a comb through it. Normally, I would use about ¼ of a cup a heavy moisturizing conditioner after a shampoo and leaving a small amount in my hair after my final rinse. Combing out would still never be easy, even after leaving in a good amount of conditioner. My hair tangles so easily that I have so much breakage and damage.

I allowed my hair to air dry as the blog suggested; however, I never could put a blow dryer to it anyway. It felt very stiff as it was drying and felt very clean. After it was completely dry, it did feel a bit softer.  My hair needs to be trimmed to get rid of some split ends and I will be getting Papaw to trim my hair this weekend.

I am posting this before photo. I must admit this photo was taken on a better hair day for me, bah hahahaha, this is what I considered a good hair day. I will post a few photos and update the progress again here in a few weeks.

I am going to stick to this, if I have to break out all of my bad hair day caps and roll my hair up into the dreaded bun, until my hair adjusts to this change.. From all that I have read, it could take 6 to 8 weeks before a notable and desirable change of my hair takes place. I just hope I truly can stick it out. 

Check out the Crunchy Betty blog. She has wonderful, herbal natural beauty tips, treatments and remedies on her blog. She also has many followers that have put her concoctions and formulas to the test and share their results. She also seems to really research her blog content before posting and gives good information.With all my dabbling with herbs and oils over the years, I love it when I run across a blog that is so into creating herbal and natural solutions for our health as well as our home. I am an avid stalker of the Crunch Betty blog. On the No More Poo post, she gives the measurements of baking soda to water and the acv to water ratio. If you take up the challenge and give it a try, please send me an email. I would love to hear about your experience.

Hope you all are having a great week. Many blessings to you all!

A Bit of Baking for The Four Legged Grandchild...

The past few days, I have had the pleasure of hanging out and baby sitting my four legged grandchild. I ran out of milk bones and I am sure he was grateful. Especially, when I baked him up a batch of homemade treats. Milk bones are not his favorite treat.

I didn't take photos as I made the dough and I just kind winged it and used ingredients that I knew he would like. The recipe basically it is as follows.

3 cups of whole wheat flour

2 cups of rolled oats

3 eggs

1 ½ cups of peanut butter

1 cup applesauce

2 Tablespoons of molasses

First I blended the eggs, peanut butter and applesauce in the mixer on low speed. I then added the flour a cup at a time. Once the flour was incorporated, I then added the oats. I tossed an extra tablespoon or two of flour and oats into the mix because the dough was still a bit too damp. I then added the molasses and let the dough mix for a good minute or so. I then rolled the dough in balls.

Here you can see our fellow is a big guy so, I rolled them about ping pong ball size then flattened them a bit with a fork. I baked them in the oven for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. The recipe yield will vary to the size of treats you make. Making them as I did, it made about 2 dozen treats.

I sent some home with him, when it was time for him to go. When he came back to visit the next day, he went straight to his cookie jar on the counter. I do believe he really liked them and I enjoy baking them for him too. He is such a great dog!

Many Blessings!

Combating the Gloomy Days…

 During the summer, I arranged all of our home school books and supplies in our den. I even added a table to serve as a workspace area for Doodlebug. I was proud of the little space and was looking forward to many cozy hours spent there working together on lessons. As the winter progressed and we have had so many gloomy and rainy days, we had to move to the living room in front of the big windows for more light to help wake us up some.  We would spend our mornings on the sofa in the living room reading and completing a few workbook pages. Finally, we have moved to the dining room table for more space and windows.  

This morning Doodles has been fighting with the rain lulling her to sleep so, I pulled out my craft lamp and sat it in a chair above her. I think this helped a bit. The lamp has the same type of bulb that the seasonal disorder lamps have.  Days like today are tough on an outdoorsy kid that loves sunshine. She even did a few pushups and jumping jacks to help wake her up. 

Working more independently is a goal that we are aiming for with her now. She loves me sitting beside her while she works. I have to tell you, I love spending every moment there beside her. I have decided, it is time to clearly go over the directions and walk away and only pop back in when she has a question. I have found too, that setting a timer for her to see how long an assignment is taking her, helps her stay on task. She loves to play beat the clock. I am fine with beat the clock, as long as her work is correct and neat. It gives her a chance to compete against the clock and she is a competitive kid. She also seems to work well under pressure some too. I noticed that in the challenge rounds on her math software, she would always seemed to pay attention closer when she was being timed. I wished I had that quality. I never did well on timed assignments.

I must say though, the sunshine that we have had the last few of days was wonderful. As much as I am not looking forward to the real start of spring with all the mowing and yard work, I am looking forward to more sunshiny days. It is good to see the spunk in Doodles on those days. We are looking forward to longer days of spring and summer so that we can play basketball after dinner without using the flood lights. Last night we played till we just really couldn't see to play anymore.

The Chinese lunar calendar said we would have a mild winter and an early spring and for us, I think it was right. I think spring is about to get underway.

Hope you all are having a blessed week!