The Gathering Apron

We have been growing a garden this summer. Lots of squash, some cucumbers and a couple of watermelon to name a few. We are now looking to enjoy some okra. My little gardener is sporting her "gathering apron." I saw this post a few months back and fell in love with this adorable apron. It made me want to be out in the garden barefoot harvesting some of the fruits of our labor. Of course I've learned that barefoot in the garden doesn't always make good sense. You tend to discover some ants who get really mad and take it out on your piggies, especially the one who ran all the way home. We've enjoyed the experience and plan to have another one next year.

June 29, 1985

Can't believe it. I have been married for 24 years. That's more than half my life, I think... We spent the first 8 just the two of us. What a life we had. And we knew we were living the good life. Then came along surprise #1. What changes he brought to us. Good changes though. Another 8 years later and surprise #2. And she brought us more change. And it has been good change too. Well it has been another 8 years and there is no surprise #3. I don't think we'd be up to the challenge. Well that's not true. God would get us through it. He always had and always will. I think back to the day we got married and remember thinking I didn't really know what I was doing, but I did know that Mike was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I had never lived away from home and he moved me 600 miles away from home. God has truly blessed us through the years. He has carried us through times that I never thought we would have to handle. Mike and I have done a lot of growing up too. Well I've done most of the growing up - boys will be boys ;) Now I'm sure I have made him so mad he couldn't see straight and he has managed to get on my last nerve a time to two, but he still is my very best friend.

We now have a teenager on the verge of getting his driver's license. There's only two years of high school left for him. His summers off from school have kept him busy the last couple of years. I guess this is getting us prepared for him leaving the nest one day. Our little darling will be a cheerleader for the first time this year. She looks so grown for an 8-1/2 year old. How the time flies and yet it only seems a short time ago when we were starting out - just the two of us. We were young and happy and in love. We may not be so young anymore but we are happy and still in love.

Beverly Hills Granny!?

My sweet girl and I have been tending a garden the past few months thanks for the sweat of my wonderful father-n-law who set everything up and helped us plant. I saw this cute pattern for a "gathering apron" and thought we are going to need that once the garden get going good. So I sewed up one for Mandy and will eventually get around to finishing mine. Anyway, I was recently reading one of my favorite site "Southern Plate". Christy had a recipe for making your own laundry soap. I was talking to my husband about trying this recipe. Now I started feeling pretty good about myself - I'm growing a garden and doing pretty well (see pictures below), doing some sewing and wanting to do some more sewing and now I'm thinking about making my own soap. I told my husband I felt like Laura Wilder on Little House of the Prairie. My adorable 16 year old son who is a man of few words piped in and said "No mom, you're more like Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies! All I have to say to that boy now is - possum vittles for you!

Time flyng by...

I thought I'd be better at this blogging thing. I mean I get on the computer most days and thought I would have time to jot down those funny little things that happen in my day so I could go back some day and try to remember. Does that make sense - look back and try to remember. Well anyway, my children just won't listen to me. I don't want them to grow up and yet they seem to be doing it at lightening speed. My precious little boy is now a handsome 16 year old young man who I could not be more proud. For instance, this past weekend we went to Jackson for a baseball tournament - boy was it hot. Anyway, the team played two games on Friday and two games on Saturday. We went undefeated in the tournament - Go Admirals! We drove home Saturday night pulling in the driveway around 10:30pm. After getting sweet baby girl to bed I had decided "we" wouldn't make Sunday School in the morning. When I broke the news to Jake he was not happy. So I told him I would not be setting my alarm but if I happen to wake up in time to make it we would go. Well I heard him in the shower around 8:30 the next morning and grunted under my sheets. His daddy took him to church and came home. The three of us lazy bums slept the rest of the morning. Now Jake was the one who played four games in the heat - we just were in the stands drinking water, enjoying snowballs, etc. And he got up to make church. What an awesome testimony. He has continued to make good grades in school, stay out of trouble and is the best big brother any little sister could hope for. His little sister will realize it one day - I promise. Speaking of that little sister she's is quite a young lady. She has the sweetest heart. She's only eight-n-half and still wants to spend as much time as I will give to her. We (meaning Papa who did the hard labor and Mandy and me being the watering girls) have been enjoying our little garden. We have had a great crop of squash, some cucumbers and a load of tomatoes waiting to ripen on the vine. The most exciting part of the garden though is the watermelon patch. We have started a chart to keep up with the growth. Tomorrow we take our 2nd set of measurements. We have about 12 melons growing on the vine. I made gathering aprons for us to wear out to the garden as we gather the fruits of our labor. We have had a lot of fun with it. Mandy is also taking a sewing class this week at Lynn Meadows Discovery Center. Her first day was pretty good even though she has not mastered tying a knot. She made a pin cushion today and started a pocket to keep her scissors and other notions. Other items she will complete this week are a bandana shirt and apron. Hopefully this will be a start to some fun sewing for the two of us. Tonight I told her as we finished up the kitchen how thankful I was that God gave me a daughter. I prayed silently that I would also be thankful hoping we will always be close as we are now. I know that we will not see eye to eye on everything, but I keep telling her that she can always talk to me about anything. My wedding anniversary is a fews weeks away. Can't believe it will be 24 years. Some days I remember things when we first got married and it feels like it was not that long ago. But when I say 24 years it makes we stop. My husband has been so wonderful all these years. Thank God neither one of us is perfect or we would not have made it this long. We love each other in spite of our imperfections and yet I think we are so perfect together. Well it's been 5 months since I last posted. I'll try to do better. And next time I'll post pictures to help me remember.

Celebrating National Pie Day

I found this website recently. Some sweet little girl insisted we have pie so husband and I headed to the store to buy her favorite Edward's Oreo pie, because I didn't have time to bake one from scratch - maybe next year. Anyway, the first store we went to had every pie but that one. The next stop we made we had to dig to the bottom of the freezer before we found one - Daddy did not want to disappoint his little princess.

Love those Edward's pies!!

Trying a new thing

My previous post didn't work out just as I had hoped. I got a tip to try another way to upload my pictures so they would be where I wanted them and not at the top of the page. Trying to get a little more professional look - however, as you can see it didn't quite work out. It was a little humorous when I checked it out after the post and half of each pictures was missing. It didn't show that in the draft form so I didn't know until I posted it. Anyway, I'm trying out this new thing - so here goes.

Not too bad, but I'll keep working on it.

Recapping the holidays

Well I looked to see when I last posted and am so ashamed! Christmas has come and gone - we did not see any snow. As a matter of fact you could have been in a t-shirt. Obviously Santa and Rudolph were on their game Christmas Eve - the foggy night was no challenge for them. And I'm sure the reindeer food we spread out across the front yard helped them find us as well.

It's already January 2nd and I have so many pictures to post so here we go!

First stop is the Saenger theater where we enjoy our favorite Christmas tradition 3 years running. That's right it's The Nutcracker. This year we played one of the toys - an adorable Gingerbread girl. Some of our friends were clowns and mice. What a special treat on opening night when a very handsome "friend-boy" came to see the girls perform. He even brought flowers!!



We enjoyed a couple of Christmas parties with some special friends. We made gingerbread houses at Millie's and baked and decorated cookies and cupcakes with Analiese. These girls know how to have a good time!!


We threw in two Christmas musicals at church, caroling and progressive dinner/camping trip the weekend before Christmas..

Finally it's Christmas Eve/Day. We enjoyed lots of great food on Christmas day thanks to Granny's wonderful cooking. We followed up with a couple of leftover meals that were just as delicious. On Saturday, we had another wonderful belated Christmas celebration with more family and enjoyed more great food thanks to my awesome husband who cooks as good as his mother!

We celebrated birthday #8 for a special little girl with lunch leftovers from the day before - the jambalya was even better the next day - and also had some yummy Red Velvet cake. We continued to celebrate over the next few days leading up to New Year's Eve where we have our annual Mexican Bowling night (we eat at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants - they are all our favorites but the birthday girl chose Los Tres Amigos this year - and as a special treat our cousins spent the night. We shot off some fireworks early. We wanted to make sure the girls enjoyed some in case they didn't make it to midnight. We were in a PJs at midnight but went out and blew our horns and shot off our party popper streamers and then we went to bed. The next morning we enjoyed yet another fine meal - thanks again honey - your pancakes are the best!! The weather was beautiful and I got a few shots of the girls outside playing on the tireswing. What a wonderful way to end the year and begin a new one.


Well I think this may have caught me up for now. I hope to join a new project for this year - it will be a first for me. 365 Project to take a photo everyday of the year. I love this idea and since I have a new camera I should put it to good use.