Monday, May 5, 2014

Best Girls, Sunday Church, Errands


It was an uneventful weekend here at my house.  

My WONDERFUL husband had to work.  My best girls came over for a beauty parlor day and lunch.  I cut and highlighted Tonya's hair.  She cut both of her girls hair.  I then straightened out Sammie's hair and Mommy trimmed up the uneven ends after it was straightened.  I fixed a huge chicken and lettuce salad for lunch and burnt the garlic toast.  I love my little smoke detector..."FIRE*FIRE*FIRE*" she says along with that annoying BEEP-BEEP-BEEP.  Why are smoke detectors ALWAYS in such close proximity to the kitchen anyway?

I had nursery duty on Sunday.  When you have nursery on Sunday morning you have duty for both Sunday school and main service.  Over 2 hours with the same children.  Thankfully, I only had one charmer, Summer who is about 18 months old.  Her Mom says she talks.  You know, one word at a time.  Eat. Please. Thank You. Sister. Mommy. Daddy.

When Summer is with me, she sticks her binky in her mouth and every word she speaks is a grunt.  For added emphasis on her part she grunts louder or longer or in a different tone.  Almost like musical grunting.  She was grumpy.  She was tired.  It was a long morning.

After church we headed east to a little town called Alpine.  They have a great burger restaurant there called 'Fred's Old Fashioned Burgers'  they make a great bacon cheeseburger and awesome peanut butter milkshake.  Can you guess what I ordered? 
After we ate we ran into Wal Mart so I could pick up the stuffing I need for sewing my homemade sleeping bags. I bought four packages.  We also picked up some Mother's Day cards to stick in the mail.

Then we headed over to my favorite garden center, Armstrong's to purchase seeds for the garden.  I am blessed that I have a location so near to my house.  I am about 4 weeks late getting my melon seeds planted.  I needed to have them planted at the first of April to have melon by July 4th.  Oh well.  Now I have the seeds.   I need three more old tires for this project.

We then took a little drive into the country to a road we had seen before that had discarded tires on it.  No tires. . .and a hose came off the power steering pump.  It was a very bad and bumpy road.  Tonight I will try to find more tires on another road . . .
The final stop for errands was Home Depot where we need to purchase hardware cloth for the underside of the tires.  This cloth keeps out the gophers.  We have it on the bottom of the garden boxes and it works great.
That was my weekend.  How was yours?




Friday, May 2, 2014

I'm a Bad Blogger



I have no excuse.  Really.  I am just busy.  Sitting down to write on my blog, doesn't get done.  Life has been going on around here. 
 
 I have written several blog posts in my head.  Such as~
 
Another Marriage Attacked, Will Satan Get the Victory?

Godliness With Contentment IS GREAT GAIN

Camping, Good Husband, Garden

Lazy Cats, Bad Dogs

Sewing, Toyota, Car Shows
 
Eye Doctor and Glasses
 
--------------------------------------------------
 
I present an update with pictures!
 
 The above picture was my garden at the beginning of April.  Later on down the page there is a not so good picture of the garden now.  It is producing collard greens, rainbow chard, lettuce, spinach, bok choy, green onions, and we enjoyed broccoli rabe.

The next picture is my Sully's Ninja Smoothie maker.  It makes a mighty FINE peanut butter milkshake...

 The last week of March, we drove to Encinitas, California, just a bit north of here, to catch a free lunch concert at the library of my FAVORITE piano player, David Nevue.  ((big sigh))

 It must have been a warmer day.  Life here on the Lizard Farm picks up on warm days.  This guy was waiting to greet us on the patio when we returned home from somewhere.

Craving a bit of sweetness.  I made a "Zucchini Apple Pie" and managed to snap a picture of it before it was totally consumed.  It was very tasty!
 My WONDERFUL husband, (he gave me permission to call him that on this blog..) bought me a fishing license for my birthday and took me to the Colorado River with the camp trailer, #2 son, dog and canoe.  We went camping, fishing and hiking.  It was a lovely trip.  Not too hot.  Hardly any mosquitos yet.  Peaceful and relaxing.
 My canoe buddies.  It had been two years since we canoed and had to remember how to balance and get along with each other and NOT hook Mom in the face with our casting methods.
 Our Sully...did you know?  One of the games he plays with Dad, his nickname is "Commander Demander"  we think it fits him very well.
 My favorite part of my birthday trip was the hike up in the mountains we took to find the wild burros.
 We found them.  They even had a little baby burro with them.
 This was the view I saw during my afternoon quiet time.  Gorgeous!
 Toward middle April,  I went with my best girls to the San Diego Wild Animal Park.  It was over 90 degrees that day AND the beginning of spring break.  But Ienjoyed my companions.

 Tonya is trying to console baby Alex.  She didn't like the butterflies landing on her.

 My husband recruited me, I was selected, I was voleen'told' to sew seat covers for the 'TOY'ota.  It is hard sewing for things that you have to make your own pattern for.  My customer had grand visions of the finished project in his mind also.
I think the sewing job turned out rather well.  The seat covers have been installed and inspected by the general public at the Grand Opening of El Cajon Classic Car Show April 23.
 We had a busy Easter weekend.  Our Pastor and his little family came and stayed three nights with us while their house was being tented for termites.  We practiced  Resurrection songs to sing with a small ensemble group to perform at Easter services.  Our church does Easter in the Park every year. It is a big service with coffee, egg hunt, games, special music, a potluck and set up and clean up of such a service.  We were ALL tired after that weekend.
 This last weekend we again left home to go camping before the weather turns too hot around here.  We went to the mud caves and camped in the Anza-Borrego Desert.  We had NO facilities folks.  We took a bright orange Home Depot bucket and pretended we had all the comforts of home...ha-ha!

 While hiking, we almost stepped on this little guy, a Horny Toad.  It's a bit hard to see, but his head reminded me of pictures of dragons.
 Under the blog title Lazy Cats, I have photographed the perfect example.  Shadow cat loves to sit on the dining table and look out at the yard through the big picture window.  She gets a birds eye view, literally.  She sees the Hummmingbirds at the feeder and other little birds flitting around the palm tree.  She can just turn her head the other way and watch us come and go out the back door.  But watch out, she may try to dart outside to be with her people!

And Bad Dogs...well must we talk about the dog who eats poo?  All kinds?  He has no poo preference and treats them all like fine chocolates.  If he can't easily access the aforementioned articles, he will try to eat the cat food.  The cat food that is kept 36 inches off the ground because said Bad Dog would never let the poor cat eat her own food if it was on the floor like his.  His redeeming quality?  He takes good pictures.







 This is a marigold from the garden.
 These tall yellow flowers are actually the bok choy, going to seed.  I need to get out there and whak the plants back.  They are regrowing from the stalks!  It's very amazing.
 I've got a bit of wildflower seed planted back in the garden this year and the flowers are just starting to bloom.  I don't know what they are except for the California Poppy.  Everyday, it seems a new flower blooms AND it's a different color.
 We are having weird weather.  Last week we enjoyed seasonal 70 degree temperatures.  This week we've been in the high 90's.  We just ended April.  What's up with that?

One thing we talked about last summer was installing shades on the eaves to help cool off our bedrooms in the afternoons.  I installed the shades Wednesday morning.  It's only been two days, so I am undecided, how much this is helping.
 I think I may have to add one more hook and move them to the left one more eave.
 Oh yes, another sewing project.  I ordered enough Toyota seat cover fabric to also cover the foam pad my WONDERFUL husband purchased for the camper.  I also had no pattern to sew this.  It turned out very well.  We slept on it this past weekend.  I felt no difference but it sure was attractive looking...


 AND... I was noticing how far away I was holding things to read.  My WONDERFUL husband wanted me to make an Ophthalmologist appointment just to make sure things were okay with my eyes.  My  doctor questioned me as to why I was there.  He chuckled and said "You are getting old, like me.  You probably need readers."  My eye exam was perfect.  Not other problems with my eyes.  Now I had permission to go out and by magnifying readers.  I'm a little vain.  I had a certain color I wanted, purple.  I couldn't find anything locally, so I ordered 2 pair of purple readers.

My WONDERFUL husband likes this pair, delicate with little daisies on the sides and no frame around the lenses but all the metal is purple!





  I like the bling-bling pair.  They have rhinestones and etchings of flowers.

 
As for the other things I thought I may write about, I'll save those for another day.  My marriage is safe and secure, 25 years strong.  We are getting ready to purchase tickets for our second cruise, also a 25th wedding Anniversary Celebration.  We are taking a two week cruise through the Panama Canal sometime in the fall.  You must, must, must, be committed to stick and stay.  Be centered around Jesus Christ, both of you.  Surround yourself with Godly things, Godly Friends, good encouragement.  Satan is trying and succeeding through the pornography industry to break up many marriages.  I am praying soo very hard for a dear friend who is going through this trail right now.

On contentment.  I've got 5 journal pages full of bible verses and thoughts on contentment.  That will be a good bible study to add on here, when my time allows.
 
Stay tuned friends for more updates.  
 
Love Ya!
Beth
 
 


Monday, February 24, 2014

Making Jam


I had friends over today and we made jam together.  Two kinds, one Carrot Cake Jam and the other, Kumquat Marmalade.


One Friend
 Two Friend

 The Jam



We all had a wonderful day!


Wednesday, February 19, 2014

February- Almost a Catch Up Post!


FOR TODAY
Outside my window...Do I get bragging rights because I live here and not the snowy, windier parts of the United States?  Well I do live in beautiful southern California.  The weather has been gorgeous.  We were in the 80's last week and the 70's this week.  We badly need some rain.  I fear what fire season will be like this year.  We haven't seen devastating fires since at least 2007.
I am thinking...Thinking about a to-do list.  Thinking about going cruising.  Thinking about clothes,  thinking about juicing.  Thinking about walking.  Thinking about camping.
I am thankful...  I am thankful that the Lord continues to meet our needs.  He answers prayer.  The Lord is good.
In the kitchen...  I've got several leftover baked potatoes.  They are being worked into the menu until they are all gone.  Tonight we're having fried potatoes with pepper and onion, Chicken and Apple Sausages, fried apples, wilted kale.
I am wearing... I am wearing a purple skirt, white top and gray sweater.  My hair is pulled back and I am NOT wearing makeup.  I'm not sure that I will put any make-up on, but this is a church night.
I am creating...I'm kind of taking a break from creating this week.  Last week I hosted our church Sweetheart Banquet.  I've got a list of sewing projects that I will start on in March.  I am hosting a game night for our church's single people and calling it a Single Mingle.


You’re invited to attend a Single Mingle!
A game night for single teens and adults.

Hosted by the Ledford’s

 March 1, 2013
5:30-9:00 p.m.

Menu~
Barbecue Ribs
Macaroni and Cheese
Baked Beans
Cole Slaw
Chocolate Twinkie Cake

Please bring your favorite board game. 
We will have a fun time of food, fellowship, devotion and games.


please r.s.v.p.
I am going...  My husband is frustrated with his work schedule and needs some down time.  We're going camping Monday and will return Thursday so I can prepare for my party.  The first Tuesday of March we are going on a home school field trip to Museum of Natural History to see a pirate exhibit.
I am wondering...  When is Easter again?  I think not until the end of April.  I'd like a new outfit.  I want to sing a special at church for that day as well.  Out church tries to have services in the park.  Not sure about this year.
I am reading...  I am between books.  Tonight I will start one by Lisa Scottoline.  I've not read her books before, it will be a surprise to see if they are decent.
I am praying... I am praying for the desires of my heart.  I am praying for far away family peace, contentment, wisdom, healing.  Some family are going through some major issues.
I am looking forward to...I am looking forward to Rib Dinner, a new dress, camping, unrestricted star access, toasted marshmallows,  rock hunting, metal detecting, peace in the countryside.
From the learning rooms...  My student is halfway through.  Roughly 18 weeks left to go, depending on when I get tired of teaching.  He will be learning some new things next week.  We took a week off last week.  It was nice.
(After growing out his hair for almost two months, to learn how to comb it, we both were ready for a high and tight.  He said long hair was itchy)
I started again with my Bachelor of Christian Education studies.  I am almost done with the course New Testament Survey.  The only difficulty with the end of course is making a 'Proposed Reading Schedule' for the New Testament.  My goal is to be complete with all studies by December.  I want to do another degree after this one, the subject of the degree I will announce at a later time.  It will be from the same college and also a correspondence class.
Around the house...  Because I hosted the Sweetheart Banquet, my house if very clean.  If you don't count the rug in the kitchen.  I spilled sour cream on it the night of my party and let Banjo the dog lick it up. His clean up job is not quite the same as a a pressure wash cleaning.
 Sweetheart Banquet
 Dessert Table- Brownie Sundaes
 Food Table= Steak, baked potatoes, salad, asparagus, bread sticks
A favorite quote for today...
"Be grateful for the home you have, knowing that at this moment, all you have is all you need."  
Sarah Ban Breathnach
One of my favorite things...  I could say one of my NEW favorite things is Pandora.  We can listen to it on our t.v. through the same box we receive Netflix.  It's nice.  I also am listening to it on the lap top while I type this blog.  My son's favorite station is The Piano Guys...mine is David Nevue!
A few plans for the rest of the week:  We'll be taking it easy the rest of the week.  We have piano lesson tomorrow.  Sunday afternoon we'll probably pack the truck for camping.
A peek into the garden...



Thank You Simple Woman for helping with my update!