Growing Pains Even When Losing Weight

Today after work, I went to a nearby town to check out a favorite thrift store and Goodwill. I have decided that I am going to try to incorporate my trips to the thrift stores and Goodwill to after I work because when I am at work I am half way to those anyway. Any way to save gas, with them being so high right now.
Anyway I only found a nice pair of Wrangler jeans for my son $4.00 and a nice Ralph Lauren Chaps shirt for my husband - also $4.00.
It seems to me that a whole lot more people are shopping at Goodwill these days. I guess that is a sure fire way to tell that the economy is doing poorly. And I don't know if it is the amount of people shopping there or if it is just harder to fit myself right now. I have gone down about 4 sizes. It was so easy to find clothes before I lost weight. I knew exactly what to look for. Now I am not sure - I have tried on some things in sizes that I was sure did not fit me and low and behold it did. So I am at a point that I have to try more things on just to see if they will fit me or not.
So I am guessing that I will just have to make a trip every week to check and see if I can find anything that fits me. Right now I have hardly any clothes for summer. I get hot easily and so I wear a lot of sleeveless shirts and right now I have just a couple and one of those I don't think quite fits me. I need to get a shirt under it and see if that will fix the problem if not I will have to wait a while before I wear it. There are growing pains even when you are losing weight.

The Garden is Coming Along

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a good week-end. Ours is going pretty good. Last night my sister and I went to 2 Goodwill stores for the Midnight Madness Sale they had going on- it is a 50% off from 8pm - midnight. Lately since we are being more selective of what we buy and going down several sizes - we were in need of some clothes. I was blessed with 1 pair of jeans, 2 capri's, a tee-shirt for my husband, and about 6 tops or so for me. Two of those are for church - I am so thankful since I was getting pretty low. I think I spent about $26.00 or less for all the stuff I got.

Last night my husband went and bought us a rototiller. Today he has been tilling our garden area. I am working at getting our garden boxes cleared out and ready to plant things. We are taking a lunch break right now and will go back out and work after a bit. I am so excited to see the garden take shape. I am praying that God will bless our efforts. With gas prices going up - it is very important for us to be good stewards of our land and this is a way that we can do that. Here is our new toy:
Here is our new garden area. This is after the first tilling!

And I just had to share few photos of my Chickie's enjoying the grass that we would throw to them. I am going though the garden area and trying to pull out a lot of the grass with root systems. As you can tell we are having a bit of an over cast day. The sun peaks out ever so often.



Ok- I better get back to work. :o)

Made in the Image of the Creator

"The Cross tells us that no matter what others think of us, or what our society thinks of us, we are of infinite value to the Creator of the universe"

This quote comes from my Sabbath School quarterly - here is a link so you can check it out. This Quarterly is entitled "Jesus Wept: The Bible and Human Emotions." The last lesson was about self-esteem. That is the lesson that I got the above quote from and the one below as well.

I have struggled with my self-esteem quite a bit through my life. I have allowed the world's view on what makes me important have too big of an impact on who I am. And it was such a blessing to have this lesson and study it and to realize that the list of things that God values are SO much different than what the world's list is. In fact they are in opposition to one another many times. As I was thinking about this lesson, I thought you know what - it is OK that I don't measure up to the world's standards - because it is not the world that I want to be like - it is God. The one who Created me in His image.

"And considering how fleeting and transitory and contingent society and its values are, in the end how much should the view of others and of society as a whole really matter to us anyway?"

"Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:" Philippians 1:6

This and That Friday

Last Sunday, my husband and I got gas for $2.93 - I was not very happy about having to pay that since just days before it had been $2.89 - not that much better but lower. Well yesterday I heard that the price for gas in the same town had jumped to $3.21. That is so depressing to me. And then the economist wonder why so many people are having a hard time..? Hello!? We budget for gas and then when the price is double that and continues to rise it is hard to change your budget to match.


Just a week or two ago I heard a segment on the news talking about more people planning on going on vacation this year - well I think that just changed - more staycations will be going on with gas prices as high as they are.

Oh a little funny - well not really but the last time that the gas prices were going towards the $3.00 mark my MIL was getting worried because our old gas pumps did not allow for that - it only went to $2.00 a gallon - well $2.99 of course!

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So earlier in the week I shared how we were going to have to burn a pile of branches and such in order to bring in a load of dirt to fill the pool space for a garden. Well yesterday my husband was starting to look into how much it was going to cost us to do it all and ended up finding out that our county is under a burn ban for a few months unless we get a good rain. So there went that plan - we could not wait that long to get moving on our plans - it would be past planting time.
So Plan B - we looked around the back yard and picked another spot. I think it will end up being a good spot and maybe once the burn ban is lifted we can move forward with getting that spot ready and then we could have 2 good sized gardens or just move over to the spot we wanted. We will see.

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Oh and one more thing - this week I found a great addition for my sewing room.

I had wanted more plants in our house. Well our problem is that my cats like to eat plants. I have a couple of plants that they don't eat and those are in the kitchen window. But this plant was another story - as soon as I put it on the table I had a cat up there sniffing around and then a second cat and not too long before I had a 3rd on up there - no I am not the cat lady but I do love cats and have 5 of them!

I have not decided if this is where I want the plant to say. I love it there but then it covers the really pretty hardware on the curtains at the top so I may end up moving it to the living room - or just buy another one for the living room. Plants are great - they help keep a lot of oxygen in your home - which is pretty important!

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And I can not end this post without sharing the deal I got this week. While I was out running errands earlier this week - I found this adorable Little Tyke picnic table at Goodwill:
I need to clean it up, but for $6.00 - I could not pass it up. And it even folds down!! I am sure that our grandchildren will get a lot of use out of it!!

I hope you all have a great week-end!!:o)

Legitimate Needs

We all have needs - need for love, security, acceptance, and many more. Sometimes we learn at a young age that we have to depend on our selves because there is no one else to depend on. And this is where we get into trouble - because we find ways to fill those needs - what ever will work. And because we live in a sinful world we try so many ways like with food, sex, drugs, alcohol, and the list goes on. All of these are illegitimate ways of filling the needs in our lives. But many times it takes us years and years to figure that out. But Oh the Freedom that comes when we turn our dependence from these things and turn it to God. God is the ONLY person/thing that can fill that void in our lives. Yes - I said ONLY thing. Inside of each of us is a void that ONLY God can fill - we were created that way.

This is something that I have struggled with. I have a problem with emotional eating. And lately it has started to creep back up. That is why I am writing this post. I need the reminder and felt that maybe if I needed the reminder maybe someone else would as well.

That spot that only God can fill - can not be filled with other things no matter how hard we try.

We have legitimate needs, let's not try to fulfill them with illegitimate ways. Let's turn to the one who created us - who loves us most to fill those needs. I hope you all have a great day! :o)

Redecorating the Sewing

About a year and a half ago, our oldest son moved out. After getting everything out of his old room - we decided to make it into our sewing room. Things fell right into place as we already had some cabinets and a counter top that had no real home. So we put them on one wall and we had some track lighting we were not using so my husband installed those right over the cabinets so we would have a lot of great light in that area of the room. I have loved this feature.

Well after we have moved into this house we wanted to let the boys make their rooms - more their rooms. So we had them pick out comforter sets and let them pick out a border that would match. Well my oldest son did not like very many of the choices and so he ended up with a comforter set about Coke. And so of course got a border that was Coke as well. I found some fabric and made him some curtains for his room.

This top shelf in the room had Coke stuff all the way across it. These are the things that I kept- The bottle of Coke was a 25th year anniversary 0f Walmart - which is where we met and the same time period that we were working there. And I just could not let go of the vintage looking tin and the can - well it is a much older can because of how it was made - we don't know for sure when it was from - maybe we will find out sometime.

Anyway this past week-end JoAnn's Fabric had a 50% off their home decor fabrics so we went to check stuff out. And we found some great fabric for new curtains for the sewing room. And they also had a 40% off sale on the hardware. And when I saw this hardware - I was instantly in love with it!!
So yesterday I worked on making these curtains and my husband put the hardware up. And we were both very pleased with the results.

We also bought some spray stuff that we will use to take the border down with. Don't know if we will find another border to put up or not. Only if we find a border that is as pretty as these curtains. I love the fact that this fabric is like a burgundy but also looks black half the time - depending on how you look at it.

We also got fabric for my husband to reupholster the chairs with in that room a well - to match the color of the curtains.

We also bought some fabric and the hardware to make curtains for our bathroom. It feels good to be creative and to get projects done. Hope you all have a great day!! :o)

My 30's Quilt Blocks..to..Quilt

While I was going through my post - editing things - I came across this post. I don't know how I missed it but I don't think it ever got posted so - even though I have already shown the finished quilt, I thought it might be fun to post it.

So these are the blocks from Block of the Month that I participate in at a Quilt Shop in my area.
I will be making block number 11 this month. In October - I will start my new year at Block of the Month. Our choices this coming year are - Fall colors and Red, White and Blue(not particularly patriotic) and brights.

Sorry - the coloring in this photo to the left is not good.

I have not made a quilt using 30's fabrics before so this is all new to me. They were not like my favorites to begin with, but they sure are growing on me though.

For any of you that may be interested in quilting. See if you can find a quilting store in your area. If you have one - check and see if they offer a Block of the Month or maybe some classes. It is really a fun hobby to get into.

I like to sew and used to try to make clothes for myself. But it was so hard to make something that would fit - I am not like a common size and build that they make patterns for. Anyway so quilting is so much easier to me than sewing clothes. And you get a beautiful quilt or wall hanging when you are done.

If you do not have a quilting store in your area that offers classes - there are a lot of really good videos on quilting and that would be a good investment. I will see if I can do a post of supplies that would be great to have - to start quilting. That may be helpful to some of you .

Well I hope you have enjoyed the blocks. It is a lot of fun and enjoyment!

So here is a photo of the finished project.

Have a wonderful day! :O)

What I Have Been Up To...

Good Morning everyone! The past 2 days I have spent some of my free time editing my blog. I really hated to do so, but if you had seen the content of the blog that I did - you would totally understand.

I had always thought that basically those that made it to my blog would come here from a blog that I enjoyed going to - and if so they would be the kind of people I would not mind sharing my personal information with, but for some reason - and I have not figured it out yet - there are people that have blog lists or websites in general that have blogs listed on them for no rhyme or reason. Anyway I will still try to be as transparent as I can - as long as I can keep my family and myself safe.

It was a blessing reading through some of my old blogs. I was really encouraged and inspired by it. So maybe all of this happened for a reason.

The past week we have been having some really pretty weather. I was able to get my rose bushes in the back yard pruned and the flower bed weeded. And I have been working on weeding out my garden boxes. My husband and I have been talking about and looking into what we will need to do to get our garden area ready.

I don't know if you can tell from this photo but it is where we had a 24 foot round swimming pool and so it is anywhere from 12 - 20 inches deep. And right now has a lot of stuff in it that needs to be burned. This photo does not do the area justice at all. So now we are waiting for a day that there is not much wind and somewhat rainy.

So as you can tell in the photo that the sun is shining - it is a chilly 39 degrees out there though. It has not been getting that cold at night lately, but yesterday afternoon when I went on a walk it was like about 74 degrees but I felt the cold air coming through. And it did not take long at all for the temps to fall.

So I will be doing some research on things that we will want to plant. Making lists of seeds and such that we will need. I sure hope we can pull everything together and be able to have a good garden soon. It will cost some money - to get dirt hauled in - but it will be a good investment.

We are going to have to buy a rototiller also and a few other handy garden tools. I am praying that God will work it out.

I hope you all have a great day. :o)

Rethinking Things

Today I have been reminded that you have to be careful while on your computer. I was typing some very innocent things in the google images to see if maybe more of my photos were floating around and I was very disturbed with what I saw.
And as I was looking at where traffic was coming from to my blog - I was disturbed by one of the links. I mean seriously - people that go to that site will NOT be interested in what I have to share. It really makes me second think what I want to share on here. When I first began - I wanted to be open share my heart - hoping that by doing so that I could help others that may be going through the same things that I have been going through. And I still want to be open and be truly who I am but I am going to need to pray about how I am going to go about it.
I would really appreciate hearing what others of you on here think about all of this. :o)

I need information

Ok - today I thought I would check out my site meter to find out where all my visitors are coming from and how they are getting here. Well I discovered that at least one of them got here through google images. I noticed several of my photos there- just under one search. So my question is- is this normal? And what can I do about it? I don't take that great of photo's but I really would rather people not use my photos without letting me know they are going to use them. Anyway - any help would be appreciated. Thanks :O)

Enjoying Springlike Weather

The weather here lately has been just gorgeous! This is just one of the reasons why I love living in Texas!!! Today I am actually wearing Capri's and it feels so good. Yesterday we stopped by TSC and bought some bird seed and some black oil sunflower seeds. I have a special feeder out for my squirrels and they love the black oil sunflower seeds. Here is a photo from last year.
And he is not a snob when it comes to food - he is perfectly content to go to a bird feeder and find what he would like. (again- photo from last year)
This morning when I went out to let my chickens out and to feed them - I was greeted by many birds singing. I love to hear them singing. What a treat to start my day!

I am hoping to be able to get out and do some work in the yard. I have some rose bushes that need to be pruned. And in fact, the rose bushes that are in my flower bed in the back yard are going to have to be transplanted to the front yard. There is a tree that blocks a lot of the sunlight so the vines are like stretching in a weird position to get sunlight. So we will move them to the flower bed in the front yard. With gardening - many time you have to just try things and when they don't work - try something different.

I am hoping to be able to use the flower bed in the back yard for an herb garden. We have had other flowers planted there that did quite well - so we will see. I just need to pick herbs that do not have to have full sunlight.

Well I hope you all have a great day! Hoping you have some sunshine in your day as well. :o)

God Has a Plan for Your Life

Lately I have talked to a friend who was sharing how she wished she were more like someone that she knew. Well I don't think she really wanted to be like this person but this person had some of the things that she really would like to have in her life. This person means a lot to me and so this morning - when I was awake but not yet awake enough to want to get out of bed, I got to thinking about all of this. And what I am about to share is what came to my mind (first thing in the morning my mind seems so clear and many times God uses this time to speak to me. I know it is God speaking to me because what he shares with me is so clear and I get it.)

So First of all I will share the first 3 steps of the 12 steps. These steps are very important and if you do not implement any of the rest of the steps into your life - these 3 are very important and will do you a lot of good.

Step 1 - We admitted we were powerless over our addiction - that our lives had become unmanageable
Step 2 - Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity
Step 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.

Now, first of all, please remember the word addiction here does not just mean drugs or alcohol - it can mean so much more - here are just a few examples - self-centeredness, fear, food, sex, shopping ... I could go on.
So here is what I was reminded of this morning:
One of the most important things that we need to learn to do is to turn our will and our lives over to God and learn to depend on Him. (These are lesson's I have been learning) When we turn them over to Him and allow Him to lead us, then we can become more accepting of where we are in life. Because if God is in control, then we are right where we need to be. True, we make mistakes but just like with Samson - God can still work out His ultimate purpose for our life - even when we make mistakes. I hope that this makes sense. When I thought of it - I thought that I really needed to pass this on to you too. I know it has helped me. Because I think that many times we have high expectations and when our lives don't measure up to those expectations we can become discouraged, but when we realize that God is in Control - then we can let go of our disappointments and those high expectations. And we can look at our situation with acceptance and even learn to be content at where we are.

God has a plan for your life. And although that does not mean that everything will be hunky dory all the time - it does mean that God will work everything out for His glory. That promise is in Romans :
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

So I share all of this because not only will it help my friend but it helped me and I am hoping that it will help you as well. God loves you and has a plan for your life. :O)

A Beautiful "New" Tablecloth(edited)

Today I had an appointment in town and stopped at one of my favorite thrift stores. And I found a treasure. I have not found a treasure in a long time, so today I was SO excited to find a great treasure:
A beautiful table cloth. And this photo does not do this table cloth justice at all. The design is at each corner of the table as well. And there are also a few little designs on each side of it as well. I love to find treasures like this. :o)

Edited: By the way - it cost me $5.00. I thought that was an awesome deal for what I got! :O)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sorry I have not posted for a few days. Things have been going pretty good. Our weather has been gorgeous!! Sabbath afternoon I went on a walk, after I had walked about 30 minutes a friend came by and we continued to walk for another hour. I sure wish she lived closer cause it would be easy to get that kind of a walk in - if I have a walking partner to talk to. Anyway the sunshine, fresh air and exercise did me a lot of good. Those things really are important to us, and don't always realize it till we got get them.

Well today is my first day back at work at the bakery and guess what? My nephew - called in sick. This means that my son had to go in at about 5:45am and he will work till 8pm - with maybe a 2 hour break later this afternoon. This also means that I will go do my work and then I will also work from 10:30am-2:30pm on the grill helping my MIL - what my son usually does. So I will end up getting a full day - to welcome me back. That is OK because we need the money.

There has been some meetings being put on at my church about the 8 Health laws. And I will probably write a post or two sharing some of what I have learned. A lot of it is stuff that I have heard before but it is good to get a refresher every now and then. It helps re-enforce the information. If you would like to see what these 8 Health Laws are you can go to a post I wrote that tells about them Here.

Well I hope that you all have a Happy Valentine's Day! :o)

Of Lessons Learned..

I learned another lesson today. And maybe I did not learn the lesson I was suppose to learn - I don't know. I learned today that you are not always successful when you step out of your comfort zone. See - I had thought that when I stepped out of my comfort zone with putting in the applications for a job - that God would bless and that I would get the job. I had really felt like God was leading me to this job. I had put the application in and I had prayed and believed that if God wanted me to have this job that I would get the job. And that is where I went off track - I just assumed that because I felt like I was being led - that this was the job for me. I don't know what it was all about but today I got an e-mail letting me know that the job that I had applied for was already filled. AKA - You did not get the job. I was disappointed. God had prepared me for this fact- yesterday I had decided that working at the bakery my 6-10 hours a week - was better than nothing at all. And I had decided to go back - at that point it was till I heard something on a new job. But then today I got the e-mail letting me know that I did not get the job. And our budget needs the help of the money that I was bringing in. I know that the environment is not the best but I am hoping that if it is where God wants me to be -that he will take care of me. I know this all sounds jumbled up but that is because the thoughts are kind of jumbled up in my mind right now. I just don't know for sure what God wanted me to learn - but I have learned that you will not always be successful when you step out of your comfort zone - but that does not mean that you should not follow God's leading when he asks you to step out. Because one way or another I am learning the lessons that God has for me to learn.

I have also learned that with the economy being the way it is - I need to be thankful for the fact that I have a way to make money and contribute to our families budget. I will continue to try to save us money where I can and I will continue to follow God's leading.

I hope you all have a great week end! :O)

My Over Due Project

So yesterday I said that I would probably be working on an over due project. Well here it is! About a year and a half ago or so, my oldest son bought some fat quarters for a quilt for his room. He really likes red and black so these were the fabrics that he picked out. Well I traded out a fabric or two. He had picked out a black fabric that had some other colors in it and I just thought it would be bringing in too many other colors. So I put the white back ground with the outline of roses and a black fabric with little hearts in it.

So with the above 20 fat quarters and this quilting book, I got started.
Oh by the way, this book has a great pattern for making quilts using 20 fat quarter- which you cut into 4 different sized pieces. And my husband was sweet enough to make me some templates for these pieces need.

Here is one of the fat quarters - laid out with the templates on top.

And here is my pile of fabrics after I got them all cut up.

Last night I did get a lot of them sewn together- the only problem is that you make 4 blocks one way and the other 16 blocks another way - and guess what - I guess because I had a movie going - I got distracted and I accidentally did it opposite. So I am having to unsew one seam in 12 of the blocks and switch the long piece over to the other side. Then I can make some forward progress. That is always fun. :o)

My 30's Quilt - A Better View

I think it is funny how sometimes it is hard to take a picture of somethings and actually capture the colors of it. Here are two photos of the quilt top that I am working on. The first photo is the one take with my cell phone:

Now here is a photo of it using my camera. And with my camera - it seems like it made the yellow seem a bit more vivid in some of the photo - but the colors are brighter than this photo above for sure. So I wanted to share them both and that way you would get an idea of what the photo actually looks like. I don't think I have enough of the floral fabric on hand to get the border done this week but I might try and at least see how far I get.

My cats crack me up - they really believe that I make these quilts for them. I put this quilt top on my bed and Dewie was on it within seconds.

Well we have yucky weather here in Texas again today. Ice/Snow and schools closed. I am so glad that I do not have anywhere that I have to go. And I am glad that we had a few really good days in between the last bad weather. I was able to get groceries and chicken feed. And I was even able to get a trip to two of my favorite thrift stores in the area - only found a slip and a brand new long john top for my son - both for 2.00 a piece.

I have a project in the sewing room that I think I will work on today. It is a long over due project and I might just take some photos and share with you all later today. If nothing else - at least a teaser on the project. :o)

Consequences

Even though I know that it is best to let resentments go, lately I have been dealing with some resentments. Some people in my life have made choices(some recently and some a few years ago) and I am having to live with the consequences. You know -it is bad enough when you make poor choices and then you have to deal with what happens due to those choices but it is super hard to deal with the consequences of other peoples choices. As I was thinking about this and wondering what God would want to teach me from this experience, all of a sudden it dawned on me- Jesus died on the cross - NOT for His own sins. NO - it was for our sins. He had to die because of the consequences of our choices. This, of course, has made it easier for me to deal with what I am going through - but I am sure there is more for me to learn. May my heart be open to hearing the voice of the Lord. :o)

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16

Caught Up/ Quilting Update

Alright - so the good news is my washer finally got thawed out and I was able to get my laundry caught up and I even pulled the sheets off of the bed and washed. The last two days we have had the sun out and about 90% of the snow/ice stuff has melted. We were so thankful for some pretty weather. It looks like we will be getting another round of sleet/ice/snow on Wed.

Oh and of course ~ I got out and got groceries today. I was a bit worried because a friend of mine went to a Wal-mart and was talking about how wild it was and that a lot of the shelves were empty. Well I planned out what I wanted to get from Krogers. I was so pleased with a lot of great deals. Then went across the street to Wal-mart and got the rest of the things that we needed. I was able to get everything that I wanted and the only thing I did not get was the BBQ Pringles for my husband - but I got a great deal on Chex mix so he will be taken care of for a while. Oh and I am not sure if everyone has the same sale but I was able to get Del Monte canned corn, peas and green beans for 26 cents a can! Now I know that Frozen is better for you and fresh is even better, but - it is good to have some of these things just in case we have another round of wild weather - if nothing else it would be good food for my chickens.

So I told ya'll a while back that I was working on my 30's quilt blocks from a Block of the Month - I think from last year. Well I am sorry that I was not able to get better photos and more photos but I did the best I could -with my cell phone.

So first I had to add these extra pieces to each block to make the blocks bigger and set it up for another pattern on the quilt. Just wait - you will see it.

Here is when I had 3 of the strips together.
And I was able to finish it this afternoon.

I think I will probably use the floral fabric for a border and then use the blue for the binding. These photos do not do the colors justice but it does give you an idea of what it looks like. Don't look too closely, because I am not a perfect quilter - I like to say that the flaws on my quilts make them uniquely mine. :O)

Update

I am back. On Wednesday, Papa went over to pick up our granddaughter. Her Mom and Dad were sick, so we took care of her most of the day. And believe it or not we were able to get her to take a nap! When she was a baby we were able to get her to sleep here a couple of times but it had been a while since we had been able to get her to nap here.

Then Thursday night, Papa started throwing up and diarrhea - the same thing that our Son and his wife had been sick with. Friday morning - I woke up not feeling very well. I ended up laying down for a few hours Friday afternoon - hoping that if I stayed still that I would not throw up. And Praise the Lord - I never did. Had a little bit of problems with stomach cramps, a little diarrhea and headache - and being sore. I am feeling better today - I think the fact that the sun is out and we are above freezing has ALOT to do with that.

And since I did not feel very good yesterday I did not eat much - and good news - I finally hit the 40 pounds lost! Yay! I had been in a plateau for about 2 weeks or so and was a bit discouraged but determined not to give up. So now I will get back into my healthier lifestyle.

Oh and a bit of an update on the job situation - I have not heard a word - am I surprised? No - it has been nasty weather here all week. But I went to their website and realized that the job that my friend had told me about did not actually get posted till Feb. 3rd. So tonight I will be applying for it. And then again - I will pray and ask God to lead. :o)

Being Prepared

So today I will share somethings that we have learned during this cold spell we have had - where we have been below freezing temperatures since about Tuesday morning sometime and it does not look like we will be above freezing till about noon or later on Saturday.

I am so thankful that I have a blog that I follow that has shared many ideas on stocking your pantry. Brenda over at Coffee Tea Books and Me has so many great ones that I will not go into a lot of details, but I wanted to share a few things.

We had a decent amount of warning about the bad weather coming to our area. But because of the fact that just a week or two ago - there was talk of bad weather- that we did not get, I am sure that a lot of people thought that maybe this weather system would not be as serious as they said. I know I have lived in Texas for many years and we get at least one ice day a year and sometimes a couple more but as long as I can remember - I can not remember the weather being below freezing and icy for this long of a time period. Schools have been shut down since Tuesday and I do not expect them to be opened back up till Monday. It is frozen out there and the temperatures have not even come close to 32 degrees since Monday.

So what have I learned - no matter who you are or where you live - it is a very WISE idea to have a stocked pantry. Try to make sure you have foods to make at least a weeks worth of meals before bad weather starts. Once the weather hits - your chances of running somewhere for some take out - are very slim. And while you are at it - make sure that you have enough good for your pets. I have been so thankful that I have picked up a decent amount of the cheap HEB canned veggies - that were 3/1.00. Twice a day - I am taking a can of peas and a can of corn plus some hamburger buns and also some spaghetti cooked up out for my chickens. I also have a big bag of some white rice that I had bought or a crafting project I did a year or so ago. SO I have the rice left over -with some bugs in it.That is not a problem when you are making it up for your chickens though. It will give the chickens some food and not go to waste.

I am so very thankful that I had enough food on hand to carry us over till the weather clears up. The one area that I really did not do good is that when I was getting rid of my clothes that were too big - I ended up with 3 long sleeved tops. During the winter many times I am ok with a 3/4 sleeved shirt. But how cold it has been I am wearing long sleeved for sure. Last night I found a warm pj top - made of fleece. That is what I will be wearing today. It is too big - but who care - it is warm and clean.

So just remember when you are shopping and find good deals - you may want to buy a few extras to have on hand - just in case. It is so much better to be safe than sorry. :o)

There is a Reason I am a Texas Girl

I know many of you live in areas that your weather is as bad as what we are going through this week, but please understand that for us- this is the coldest that it has been since like 1993 - or maybe even longer ago - I have not been able to watch a recent weather report.

And also remember that our houses are not winterized like you would living in a much colder climate. So when the temperatures get this frigid - there are many people that have their pipes freeze. Our cold water in our kitchen is frozen now. I am thankful that - that is all.

This morning I woke up to the sounds of chickens clucking- that was really weird cause we sleep with a fan on low for the noise. Anyway I looked over to the clock to see what time it was and saw nothing. Oh no - Power is off. So I get up and check to see what the temperature was at. I looked for an electric bill so I could call the power failure in. After 10-15 minutes of trying I finally got through. And come to find out are area was part of a rolling black out that was going on. Because it is SO cold here in Texas we are using SO much more electricity than we usually do. Anyway they are trying to lower the amount of electricity used and do controlled power outages - to try to prevent uncontrolled power outages. Our electricity was off about 3o minutes +. We were lucky there were some people that had been without electricity for several hours.

I was so thankful for the power when it came on.

Here is a photo out the front of the house. See the white stuff - it looks like snow but nope - it is sleet and hard - in fact the sleet that we have in the back yard is so hard that when I walk on it - it does not break.

After our power got back on - I worked on getting stuff together to take out to the chickens. I boil water in a tea kettle and carry that along with food for them. I pour the hot water into where their water is. And what is so sad is that we have 2 red lights for heat and on the ground it is still sitting at 30 degrees - which means that that water freezes right back pretty quick. So I am going out there twice a day (at least) to make sure they are ok. They are spending most of their days in that shed - venturing out just for a bit now and then.

Please do pray for people in our area - if you would. Because like I said there are a lot of people that have pipes frozen and some without electricity and don't forget about the homeless. It is brutally cold out there. - It is cold in here. We have a fire place put we do not have a blower in it - so the heat stays in that part of the house and then other places in the house are chilly. And don't get me started on stepping out from a shower. Anyway prayers would be appreciated - it looks like we will be below freezing till Friday afternoon at the earliest maybe even Sabbath afternoon. :o)

Snow and Cold Here in Texas

Yesterday was a pretty nice day - kind of overcast but the temps were in the mid to upper 50's. My son and I spent some time getting wood brought into the house and also on our wood wagon that is in the garage - ready for when we need more wood. We also put some wood outside the back door. As the evening progressed it really seemed like the calm before the storm. It was so nice and quiet. It was still about 48 degrees when when I went to bed.

But all of that changed in the middle of the night. By about 3:30am - I could hear it raining big time plus lightning and thunder. I got up and checked the temperature -it was 33 degrees. Well I knew that the lights needed to be turned on for the chickens. But I was so glad that I looked out the window to see if I could see the red glow of the light coming out of the coop. I would not have to go into the cold sun room to turn the light on. I got back into my warm bed and went back to bed.

This morning when I got up, it was 19 degrees. I looked outside and we already had sleet and snow all over the ground - not 100% coverage but I would say about 85% coverage. I looked out the front window and saw that the road out front had a nice thick layer of sleet/snow. And NO traffic - which is very unusual since we live on a pretty popular road that leads straight out to a major hi-way. I was so thankful that no one in my house had to go to work. This is one of those days that you just do not get out unless you HAVE to.

I looked out towards my chicken coop and even though it was very close to the time that I normally let the chickens out every morning - there were hardly any chickens in the dog run.

So I knew that I needed to get water and food into the chicken coop(a small shed). So I started boiling some water - the water would be frozen solid. I cooked up some spaghetti for my chickens.

So I headed out to take care of my girls. I got to the first gate and the latch was frozen. I poured water over it and was able to get it to move. Then I tried to get the door to open and it was stuck at the bottom. I tried to get the snow moved from in front of the door with a shovel. And finally decided to ask my son to help me. So he helped me get that door open plus the gate to the dog run. I put the food inside the dog run(usually I spread it out in their yard to either side of the door to the dog run). But I knew that they would not be wanting out of the dog run since they were hardly wanting to come out of the coop. I got the water and food moved to inside the shed. My poor girls - the shed is not very big but it has heat lamps going and hopefully they will not freeze.

The sun has come out and the temp has come up some saying it is about 24 degrees out there but the wind chill is sitting at 8.6 - That is cold.

The weather guys are saying that it will get to about 9 degrees tonight and 10 tomorrow night. Wow- we are not used to this kind of weather here in Texas. But we are dealing the best we can. I am finding some things that we will need to do to keep some drafts out of our house - once we get out of this freezing weather.

Oh and they are also saying that we will not even get out of the freezing temperatures till Friday. And then they are only saying that it will get to 34 degrees.

And I think that I have shared with you all before that my washer and dryer are out in the garage that faces the NORTH. This means our garages is COLD. And so I don't get to do laundry till it is above freezing. And I am not sure if that 34 degree will be warm enough to make it safe to do laundry. So I may have to wait till Sunday to do laundry. That will be hard on me. I do not like to let my laundry pile up. And I like clean clothes. I like to wash my towels and night gown after just a couple of uses. But you do what you have to do.

So I hope that you guys are all staying warm. Apparently it is Cold and yucky in a big part of the country today. Keep warm and home if at all possible. :o)