Celebrated what would have been Misters 53rd birthday yesterday. We had a yellow cake with scrumptious chocolate icing that my Lanie made. Decorated it with Hersheys kisses, mini candy bars and peanut butter cups. Right up Misters alley!
Celebrated with the G family and watched the next two episodes of Dr. Who that we were on. Life is good.
Today the G family get the boy they hope to adopt as a foster child for now. We’re very excited for all of them. Family is good.
The girls and I are color washing their new wood loft bed, hope to get it put together today so we can finnish getting their room sorted out. Tonight is book study, we’re currently on the book of Joshua.
Hope you’re all heaving a good week so far.
Blessings,
Kate

Mister was welcomed into the arms of Jesus. Thanks for his life Lord. We sure do miss him. Can’t wait to see him at the heavenly party.

Having trouble motivating Lazy, Sleepy and Dopey. I sure hope Grumpy doesn’t show. We’re pretty worn out. Church sponsored a fantastic missions conference. Great stuff. Lots to chew on and implement.
We have an overloaded schedule and stuff that needs fixing including our computer, washing machine and vacuum. I can’t wait to see how God is going to work all that out!
Well, off to have coffee. Have a great Monday ya’ll.
-Kate

Today is such a gorgeous day. I’m loving doing the laundry. The girls have been doing chores and school. I’m about to drop Hoppy off with Miss Amanda for her lessons, pick up Holly to help Lanie train Seth and grab milk from our milk farm. I hope you’re all having as delightful a day as I am. We’re currently studying Joshua and memorizing Psalm 111. Praise the Lord! I will praise Him with my whole heart!
Blessings,
Kate

Mondays usually are slow movers for us. Sunday is usually so involved what with congregational meals our visiting with each other that by the time you get home you’re worn out. Mondays are therefore more of a recoup day than a catch up day. Tuesday is our catch up day.
Church was very spare what with the chicken pox getting several families and other illnesses and people traveling and so forth. Can’t wait for the post pox party!
Well today we’ll be slowly straightening and doing school. Tonight is the last of the David Tennant Dr. Who’s that we’ve been watching with the G. family. Not sure if they’ll like the Matt Smith ones. I like his acting alright, but I don’t care for Moffets writing style. And other than the assistant, Amy, being pretty and having a great accent, her character is so messed up she’s hard to like. Oh well. Off to finish coffee and get us moovin’. Should probably do my best to make it a Numa Numa Yay Monday…
Have a blessed day ya’ll,
Kate

Okay, this is my third attempt at an entry, clearly I need to get used to this doohicky.
Quick updating: we’ve been battling various illnesses since the new year from plague-ish stomach viruses to the chicken pox. We’re finally better and are rarin’ to go! Can’t wait to go to church as we’ve missed a few weeks under pox quarantine.
On the homestead front we lost a few chickens to an ornery critter, so we had to scramble to shore things up. Elena and her friend Holly are training her horse with the goal of hooking him up to a cart. We’ll be working on the garden soon and are already working on clearing a bit of land to move the goats and give the horse more room. Busy times. Hope you’re all well, I’d better get off before this whatsit kicks me out again. Have a great weekend!
Blessings,
Kate

The droid had to be put down and has been replaced by a tablet. I’m checking to see if it will let me post, as the droid wouldn’t. Here goes!

Okay, December came and went like a bullet train on greased rails. We were baking up a storm, and still didn’t finish our goodie baskets for all our peoples, so we’ll be giving happy January baskets. This year our dear friends Becky and Danielle K. came up from Florida right after Christmas to stay for a bit and we brought them up to MD on the 4th on our way out of town to visit Randy and Marla in IN. We drove a good bit through the night.

It was beautiful through WV at night with snow dusted mountains and moonlight glowing all around. We went over Haystack Mountain, and I wondered if there was a town on it called “Needle” but Nan said not to bother going there as we were sure not to find it.

Here in IN it warmed up to 60 today, good bonfire weather. We’ll be going, hopefully, to Connor Prairie at some point and the Creation Museum. On a side note there, the welcome center in Oh is hiding the Creation Museum brochures behind the front desk, you have to request one in order to get it. Mom said the lady at the counter hinted strongly that they are not encouraged to display them publicly….yeah we’re all about freedom of speech here….not. And now I”m off my mini- soap box.

Marla is spoiling the girls outrageously already. Choc. Milk, anything for breakfast, teaching them how to make Kiglies, Snow cones and playing Tastes Like Chicken, all before Noon. Elenas been down to visit and feed the draught horses with Uncle Randy, then fed the cows and mini-horse named Chloe. The girls are spoiling Aunt Marla’s siamese cats: Hop-Sing and Chin-Chin; her Great Dane, Baby, and Yorkie mom-to-be, Jessica. We’re in quite the menagerie.

Not sure how long we’ll be hanging out here, life is wonderfully ideallic wth Randy & Marla.  Our wonderful friends, the G family, are taking care of our farm while we’re gone. Big hugs to them and thank you’s.

Well, that’s it for now, gonna do a couple more things before signing off.

Hope you’re all having a blessed day! 

~Kate

Elena’s cat, George, came home yesterday. We are very happy. He doesn’t look bad or underfed, so he’s either been scrounging pretty well in the woods, or he’s mooching off of some neighbors somewhere. At any rate, Elena was so happy and we praise God for answered prayer there.

It was a swell Thanksgiving with family and friends from church- a wonderful feast. My honorary nephew, David A., got big nephew points by declaring my rolls the best thing and plugging for my apple pie as well. I told him he’s in the will. My sis warned him not to be too happy about that as it’ll probably mean he’d inherit a goat! I told him, if I die, I could always leave the girls to him….. that’s enough to scare a single guy huh?! After playing in a pile of leaves with them all squealing and laughing, he told me as we were leaving that he hopes I live a long, really long and happy life! ha!

Friday, we had family game night with the G. family and some of the F. family and T. family from church. We played Settlers of Catan and my Lizzy won. Little stinker beat me out of the longest road!! . Sunday was small group meals and since the G family were the only ones to publicly host this time, we of course went there again and wouldn’t you know it….the F. and T. families were the only ones there again! At least this time more of the F.’s came and all of the T.’s came and mom was with us. Awesome food. The G’s made a leg of goat and it was perfect, yum! We brought….pasta! What else do Italians bring?! (okay, technically I’m not Italian, but the girls are half and I married in, so that counts in my book) We had dessert duty too, but the chocolate cupcakes weren’t enough to feed that group, so we also brought the Kiglies I made on Sat. *Kiglies are a cinnamon doughnut that is a “secret” family recipe from my Dad’s side*. Elena’s been asking for them for ages. It was a bit challenging to fry them as I’m not used to doing that, but all in all, with chocolate buttercream icing they were good!

Well, what else? I’ve broken with Misters tradition, again. Normally he got the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, but I’m just not ready yet. Still working on cleaning up things, have to make room for the thing at any rate, and that means moving furniture to another place, only, we don’t have another place to put any! Maybe I’ll put the desk back in the girls room and the small bookshelf where the desk is and the…..well, you know. The girls have found a small tree in our woods that will work well, and it’s supposed to be bigger than last years Charlie Brown tree.   Still haven’t gotten any gifts going, trying to organize my room and all of my sewing stuff that’s crammed in.

Feelin’ kinda off today, you know. Cloudy days do that to me. But, the sun has popped out and the sky is blue. I think I will take my 3 mile walk and cheer myself up some. Tomorrow’s forcast says 100 % chance of rain, pretty gutsy of the weather service I must say, only time I’ve seen that is when a hurricane is due….there’s no hurricane I don’t know about is there?

Well today is Carolyn G.’s birthday. She’ll be older than me for a whole few weeks! Woot! She’s a great friend and a real jewel, greater than rubies..;)

Hope you all have a great week. Monday is moooooooooooving along. 1/2 of our chores are done and I’ve given the girls an hour of play time. Hope I can get them back in the swing of things. Have to go check the chickens night light, I may have to re-set the timing on it, it looked like the chickens were up partying into the wee hours! . Hope we get more eggs soon. They’ve just finished (I hope) molting and should pick up again soon, especially with a light. Well, I’m off to do more….

Make a joyful shout to the Lord all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with singing! Know that the Lord, He is God. It is He who has made us and not we ourselves. ~Ps. 100

~Kate

So I get on facebook this morning to see the G. family update that our friend Susan had killed a 6 point buck this morning! Go Susan! The downside is, she did it with her car. So, the G. family are processing the dear, don’t judge us ;0), we don’t waste good meat. Tim G. went and helped and called the Sheriff so Susan would have the accident report to turn in to her insurance and hopefully they will cover the damage to her car. A bit frustrating for her as she was on her way to Florida for a bit and now has to hang out in the mechanic shop till a verdict can be given. We have an awesome church family though, several people have offered to help, one at least with the loan of a vehicle. Tim G. happens to be our Deacon, and we certainly keep him in practice! Aren’t we sweet?!

On other country related news…I did not find my keys in the ditch or surrounding areas, I had pulled off there yesterday after we got home from church and was going through the dry leaves, grass and scanning the ditch water when another truck pulled up and the driver got out and asked if I needed help. (His truck was dirty, so I knew he was from the country, ha!) This nice man got out with a flashlight as it was getting to dusk and helped me scan the whole area. He was so very kind. I got his name and thanked God for his kindness and pray for blessing on him and his family. Isn’t it cool how God just takes care of the widow in so many little ways? He’s sent more kind strangers at odd times and in very low traffic areas to help just boost up my spirits. Though I did not find my keys, I was just so thankful for the kindness of neighbors.

Pray for Elena if you think of it, her cat, George, has been missing for about a week- and being in the country, odds are not good that he’ll make it home, but she’s hoping.

And now for something completely different….

We went contra-dancing on Saturday night. The getting there was so crazy I couldn’t even begin to do justice to it. Between having to go through a tunnel to get to Norfolk from here and having that tunnel at a complete several mile shut down because of debris in it- so we re-route and head to the next tunnel some miles away to get at the same area from another direction. Turns out at that tunnel, there’s a major back up, though slowly moving, because of an earlier, cleared accident, and a parade!!! The parade route forced closed several streets and people just can’t handle not going the way they want without deep consternation- which backs traffic up even more. So we were quite late to the dance, but thankfully only missed the teaching time and a couple dances. We did get a very brief intro to waltzing which my young friend, Jonah, did with me. We realized that it was a perfectly modest dance when done holding hands in front of us and just concentrating on the right feet and direction. Sunday at church I told several ladies about it and what with one thing and another the consensus was made that I should look into hiring a waltzing instructor for anyone interested in participating and should have a dessert party in February with said instructor teaching to get us ready for our Church’s spring ball in March.  Stop me before I volunteer again!

So, now to look up dance instructors in Newport News…..hmmmmmmmm….

What we’re doing today:

Chores, school, bedrooms (yes, still), electrifying poultry fence and shopping list for Tuesday made up. Lastly, our weekly Monday night dinner and Dr. Who with the G. family. We start on Smith & Jones tonight! Woot!

This week is working on finishing fall cleaning and getting holiday things rolling. We’re having Thanksgiving with family. I’m bringing dill carrots, Dally stuffing, rolls, and caramel-pecan-upside-down-apple pie…..om nom .

Well, have to go get it in gear! Revving up! Have a great Movin’ Monday!

Blessings, 

~Kate