Wednesday, September 14, 2011

PROJECT MANIA!

I love to work on little projects, especially anything that has to do with wood. I worked for a lady several years back who taught me how to do the distressed look on furniture and ever since then I love to do anything like that.

At the beginning of summer I had quite a lot of small projects to do so I thought I would share some before and after pictures of what we did. Jonathan helped me with parts of it. As he says...his honey-do list just keeps growing. ;)

I recently got into wood burning and so I decided to make this sign for the quilt that we have that Jonathan's Granny made years ago. It has always been my favorite, but it has become VERY worn and so to try to preserve what is left of it I decided to put it on display where we can enjoy it that way. Here is a picture of me burning the sign and then the finished product hanging on the wall in our den!



~Before~
~After~
This small parlor set belonged to my Grandparents for many years and it was passed down to me. My Daddy says he remembers the day his Dad brought this home to his Mom. He said he was just a very little boy, he told me it is at least 40 yrs old. I think it's special that I got to have it after so many years. We put a good fresh coat of paint on it, and re-upholstered the chairs. I think it turned out pretty good! Especially considering its the first thing we have ever re-upholstered. ;)



~Before~

~After~
Last year Jonathan bought this double rocking chair for me for my birthday! When we got it, it did not have any kind of stain or polyurethane on it so over the winter it ended up looking very worn and rough. This spring I cleaned it up with bleach water, and to my surprise that bleach cleaned it up so well that it made it look like it had just come off the assembly line. I knew though that if I didn't put something on it that the same thing would happen all over again so I found a dark stain to put on it and then put a good coat of polyurethane over it to seal it. I think it turned out to be really pretty! I enjoy sitting on my front porch early in the morning or late in the evening...though I don't get to near as much as I would really like!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures. :)

Thursday, September 8, 2011

My Pretty Flowers

Jonathan built this flower bed for me a few years ago for my birthday. I planted one of my favorite flowers in it. Daffodils! But the only sad part about those flowers is that they don't last all summer so after they have bloomed and died back, I pull up all the dead leaves and replant some type of annual flower in their place to last for the rest of summer. This year I chose Impatients. I have always loved Impatients. They start out so small and by the end of summer never cease to amaze me at how big they have grown!

Here it is empty, but just wait and see!

A picture Jonathan took a few years ago when it was bursting with daffodils! I always love it because it looks like a sea of yellow. :)

See how much they grew! Call me partial, but I think they are beautiful!

I just thought I would share one of my favorite things of summer with y'all. Hope you enjoy as much as I do! :)

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Garden Blessings!

The Lord has really blessed our garden this year with so much. We were able to get started a little earlier this spring than we normally do. I do not have pictures of everything, but I did try to get picture of most everything we had to come in. We have been so happy that things have gone as well as they have. Last year our garden didn't do so well, mainly due to harsh weather. However, I just have to tell the Lord thank you for the beautiful harvest He blessed us with this year! I put up a total of 60 cups of squash, 13 quarts plus we have a total of 30 ears of corn, 8 pints of cushaw, about 4 quarts of green bell peppers, and we had SO many tomatoes. I put up pasta sauce, pizza sauce, diced tomatoes, tomato juice, and salsa. I'm not sure how much of each one, but I know it ended up being about 60 jars total! What a blessing. :)

Here are a few pictures from our harvest~

Check out all that corn! oh! btw..I also ended up being stung by a packsaddle while picking the corn. I have never been stung by one and in fact was not even 100% sure of what it looked like. I remember right before it happened, I was thinking how happy I was to almost be finished picking all the corn without anyone being stung, and then BAM! I got it good. :) There were actually two of them and they both managed to get me pretty good. By the time I got inside the house my hand was already swollen and had two very big red welts.

Anyway, back to the corn..Here is a picture of the 13 quarts we put in the freezer!
Just in case you have never seen a packsaddle and wonder what it looks like, here ya go. Now that I look at it, I think it's kinda pretty, but at the time I got stung that was not at all the thought going through by mind!

A friend of mine said it right..."how can something so small and quite pretty, do something so awful?"

Chopped green bell peppers ready for the freezer. It's hard to tell it from the picture, but this ended up being about 2 quarts with by the time I got it all chopped up. I LOVE to cook with peppers so the fact that I have so much put up is awesome!
A few of the watermelon we grew! The two smaller ones were not as ripe as the rest, but it was OHHHH so good! Jonathan and I both love watermelon so we have grown it every year in our garden. I think it is a perfect sweet and cool treat on a hot summer day. :)
An over-flowing veggie basket!

Just one picture from the many times that my kitchen sink was this full of tomatoes!

Again I have to say, Thank you, Lord for your bountiful supply!


Wednesday, July 6, 2011

I Don't Know God's Way, But He Knows Mine!



Job 23:8-10 “Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”

Job has gone from the wealthiest, most influential person in his land to a man who is broke, humbled, and despised. He is a at a point where he cannot understand or figure out what God is doing.

He says that he goes forward but God is not there. He goes backward, but God is not there. He looks to the left and to the right, but he cannot find him or see Him there.

Maybe you find yourself in the same situation as Job. Things are happening that don’t make sense. It feels like God has abandoned you. You feel alone. You cannot make head or tails of what is going on!

You can rest in this truth, “…I cannot see him: but he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold!” You may not know God’s way, but the important thing is that He knows your way. He is in control, and when he is done you will come forth as gold. God is going to bring you through this trial and produce great things from your life.

Our responsibility is not so much to understand but to trust. We may not know all the details and reasons of God’s plan, but we can see from His Word that He can be trusted, so we should give Him our lives and trust Him to work everything out according to His plan.

(I saw this on a blog that I follow of a missionary family that my husband and I know. I enjoyed reading it and wanted to share it as well. Much of what is said above describes perfectly how I have felt lately. I do know that God is in control. He has a big plan, but I just can't see it all yet...so in the mean time, I'm learning to trust Him). -Becky

Monday, June 27, 2011

Be Still

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46:10
My Pastor preached yesterday from Psalm 46. He did a wonderful job, but what seem to be my favorite part was when he was talking about this verse. He said that sometimes we need to just be still, we get to busy with other things, and we forget about God when HE alone is the one we need the most. He made 2 comments that have stuck with me.

1. If we could really get ahold of this verse, reflect on it, and realize that God has ALL power in Heaven and earth, and realize what all HE has done.

2. He asked the question "How long has it been since God has made Himself known in your life?"

He also talked about in verse 1 where it says "a very present help." Very Present means abundantly accessible! so we will never go to Him for help that He will not be there for us! Sometimes we may feel that He is not there, but this verse proves that He is always by our side.

There is so much I need to learn from these verses. Imagine the amount of growing one could do if we could really get ahold of what it's really saying. I hope this has been a help to you as it was to me, and my prayer is that for my own life as well as all who read this that we could find help in our Savior. Even if it takes some negligence from other things in our life that would keep us from being still before Him, and then maybe we could really see that He IS a very present help in our time of trouble.




Saturday, June 25, 2011

A Sight To See

My Mother and Father-in-law raise honey bees, and today they were gonna be extracting some of the honey from the hives, and since I have never seen this done before I was excited to get to watch. Below is a video that Jonathan did of each step you go through as the whole process takes place. It was very interesting to watch as it all happened and might I add very tasty too! ;) Got to enjoy a few tastes of the honey as we did it all. Hope you will enjoy watching the video below!




Wednesday, June 22, 2011

SQUASH!!!

First squash from our garden! Can't wait for supper tonight! :)



Monday, May 16, 2011

One Scarred Hand


He is the fountain for a thirsty soul
He is the healer and so much more
When my heart is broken by this world's demands
The pieces are mended through one scarred hand


And when I can't stand, I have to lean
And when I can't see, I must believe
The Great Physician's touch is a balm that can
Mend broken hearts with one scarred hand


It's a hand that holds this whole world in place
It's a hand that was scarred just to give me grace
And to think a hand that holds the stars
Is small enough to mend one broken heart


And when I can't stand, I have to lean
And when I can't see, I must believe
The Great Physician's touch is a balm that can
Mend broken hearts with one scarred hand


My Pastor and his family sung this song at church yesterday. It was such a blessing to me so I wanted to share it!



Friday, February 18, 2011

The Lost Sea

I have always wanted to go to The Lost Sea but had never gotten the chance until yesterday. I help plan trips for the homeschool group that is through our church so yesterday a small group of us got to go. I know everyone had a good time and I got to see something I had never seen before. It was interesting to me to learn some of the history that is there and how The Lost Sea was very first discovered. We enjoyed it so much that I got some other information on other caves that are in our area. Jonathan and I may plan a trip to some of those places very soon but for now here are a few pictures from our trip to The Lost Sea!

There is some vegetation that grows in the cave due to things that humans bring in on their own bodies and because of what small amount of light that is in the cave these things can grow. Most of what is seen in the cave is moss and ferns. In this picture you can see one of the ferns as well as some of the cave in the background.
Some more pictures of the cave.

The Front Entrance


Thursday, February 10, 2011

A New Look!

Sheeezzz!!! How far can one woman get behind with her blog?! Apparently I'm pretty good at it cause I still had PUMPKINS for my background! So where to start? I guess an apology would be a good place for not keeping up with it better. Nothing really new to post, but I do promise to TRY to do better. I do hope y'all will keep coming back to visit from time to time!