February Ten Things

Ten things I know I am blessed with....

My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and a loving and caring Heavenly Father.

My wonderful husband

My children

Having been raised by two very wise parents who I know are with the Lord now

My 7 siblings

A healthy, happy family and extended family.

Feeling young for my age

A job that is enjoyable and wonderful ladies to work with

Having been able to travel extensively in the last few years

My "Apple" toys ;)

10 Things

I'm a late joiner to the "Ten Things" posting group over at Shimelles so here goes:

Ten things I am working on this year

1. Closer walk with my Heavenly Father

2. Develop healthy habits that I do without thinking

3. Get all of my VHS tapes, dvd's and books, papers and patterns all digital

4. Simplify my belongings

5. Start learning Italian

6. Become a home-based entrepreneur

7. Work in my journals and art techniques more

8. Get all my UFO's done (unfinished sewing projects)

9. Get my 3 miles of walking in daily

10. Become skilled in Pilates

Seeking my Heavenly Father

In this new year, rather than the regular new year resolutions, even though reading thru the bible has been one many a year.  I want more than the regular.  I want to seek my Father's face more fully.  I want to be in His presence.  All my other attempts in my own strength have not produced very much.  This year though, I plan on moving forward in my Father's strength and not mine.

Mary Ann Moss is going to have a new class soon.....

I found these two great little cabinet albums on ebay for Mary Ann's new class, but I think I am going with another book I already have.  So I am selling these two.

On My Mind...

Over at Down To Earth Rhonda is having her blog readers post what is "On Their Mind" today.  Well, this is what is on mine....

Yesterday I went to one of our local libraries and took out a few Organic Gardening magazines and got out my folder of pages I've torn out of other magazines.  I really want to concentrate on the landscaping in the front of our house this year.  We removed almost everything from our landscape in front of the house last fall and I want to give it a flowing, draping look with different kinds of shrubbery.  Please check back at Down to Earth to see all the comments and visit all the blogs!

Wow, its been awhile!

I haven't posted in quite awhile, so following the previous post from months ago, I thought I would give an update photo.  Here is Hunter almost a year old now.....

VERY ornery!!!  Can you tell?  My iPhoto needs updated.  I am still using iPhoto 06 and it is sooo slow which makes me put off downloading pictures to use for the blog.  I just updated my computer from Tiger to Snow Leopard and they just came out with iPhoto 11 which is what I was kind of waiting for, and its only $79 for the family, that used to be the price just for a single computer.  So will have to be getting that update along with some memory to keep this lovely computer going till next year, when I am planning to get a new one.

It has been some time since I have posted!  Even at that, not a whole lot has really gone on.  Went through the holidays, went through some blizzards.... But the one fun thing that has happened is that we got a lab puppy!  We named him Hunter.  My daughter adopted his brother and named him Brady.  They have their bad moments, but then they turn around and are so good....Ahhh, puppyhood!  He is almost 15 weeks old now and is getting bigger every day.  He will probably be at least 85 pounds at adulthood.  His paws are huge.  Its fun watching him experiencing new things.  That was of the things that I loved with my children.  Its almost like you get to experience every thing with them.

Well, today my dear hubby and I have been married for 25 years. My wedding ring is gold and I wanted a white gold ring for our 25th. When I was a little girl, my brother went to the "service" and ended up living down south. He came across this jewelry artisan, James Avery, in Texas and over the years had bought me a few things. On our tenth anniversary I asked my husband for the ring of two hands coming together and looking like they are holding a diamond chip that was made in James Avery's workshop. Now on our 25th, there is another ring that has caught my eye once more and I have just not gotten around to ordering it. I'm not too much of a jewelry person, so that's part of the procrastination, but I really did want to have it for today, but, alas, I don't. When I do get it I will take a picture and post it. Right now, here is a picture of the ring from our 10th.

I just love my Hug Mug swap sister, Barb Graham! Here is a picture of the mug hug and mug mat that I received on Monday. We were participants in the Hug Swap ran by Jenny and Vicki. She did an absolutely beautiful job. My daughter's loved them! My quiltin' mommas group loved them. The cup is actually a gift from my friend Lynn, who is in our little group along with my sister. She brought it back from England for me. Oh, Barb, I just love them! Thank you soo much.

We had a pretty good harvest for the small little garden we had this year. We haven't had a garden for a couple of years because it fought us so much. We have a clay based dirt around here and we have put mushroom compost, topsoil, and some other kind of good soil, but it just didn't want to grow good for us. This year, a friend gave us two different types of tomato plants and some green pepper plants and they grew wonderful. I make this family dish called "potato and tomatoes." It tastes its absolute best when tomatoes are in season. I've never tried it with home canned tomatoes but I'm sure that would taste good too. Would have to adjust how you put it together, but it would still taste good. I just spread some oil on the bottom of a baking dish and layer thinly sliced potatoes on the bottom. Then you put seasoning on them. I used McCormick's Italian Seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper, and grated parmegian or romano cheese. This particular time I poured a little olive oil on each layer, but I think that was too much. From now on I just put the oil on the potato layers and it works better. Then you layer sliced tomatoes on and season them the same way, and just keep layering the potatoes, tomatoes and seasoning till you get to the top of the baking dish and make the potatoes the last layer, or the tomatoes, whichever you want to do, season the same, cover with foil and bake for an hour on 375 degrees until potatoes are done. I make it a day ahead, put it in the fridge and let the seasonings do their thing overnight. My husband can't get enough of this. Have a look.....