Update on Monroe

What a bumpy, unpredictable time we have had lately! After Monroe was released from the hospital for his back surgery he was having extreme pain in his right knee and thigh. The doctors did many tests before releasing him and came to the conclusion that the pain was due to inflammation from the surgery that was pressing on a nerve. The only cure was time and pain medication. My husband can tolerate a great deal of pain but this pain was unbearable!

After being home 4 days he ended up back in the hospital with blood clots in both lungs! This was such a scary time for us!! But the Lord was with us and many prayers were being sent on his behalf. Three days later he as back home. He is slowly recovering and getting stronger every day.

He sits on the front porch a lot enjoying the gorgeous weather we have been having here in Florida. It has become a regular habit for the two of us to sit out front and have our morning coffee. I am really enjoying that because Monroe was never one to sit still very long. I believe the slow days and solitude has been good for him. He has time to reflect on life and the Lord.

We bought a couple of bird feeders to hang out in the front yard. He likes to sit and watch all of the different varieties of birds come and eat.
And this past weekend our church provided a huge barbeque for the children of Upward Soccer, which our church sponsors, and their families. This is a great opportunity for outreach in the community and it has been a great success. So, of course we were glad to help out and cook the chicken for the event. Now Monroe did NOT cook. The lids to this smoker/grill are so very heavy. He was given the position of supervisor and Brent and Brandon were the chefs this time! I did get his picture wearing his "Old Guys Rule" Grill Master shirt-a Christmas gift from Brooke & Ricky. It is perfect for him. I love the saying on it...."well done and rare"!

We had both smokers going and they were packed with chicken. We cooked 7 cases of chicken!!

Here they are loading the cooler to take the meat to the church for the meal.

Mmmm...it was so tender it just fell off the bone.

I know my hubby can't wait to get on his feet again. It is so hard for him to sit back and let others do the work. He is such a go-getter. This has been a very difficult season for him but I think he is learning a few things so in that way it has been good for him.

Please keep him in your prayers for no more complications and a full recovery.

God is Good!!

Prayer Needs and God's Faithfulness

Wow, my life has been anything but boring these past few months. I wanted to be more diligent about blogging but I never seem to get that far on my "to do" list for the day. Geez! I feel like I am more busy now than when I had sleepless, nursing babies to take care of and energetic toddlers to chase!! At any rate, the purpose of today's blog is just an update of the happenings around our home.



At the moment, I am sitting in yet another hospital room with Monroe. Sorry, no pictures for today and many thanks to my dear sister-in-law, Sandi, for the use of her laptop!! As many of you may know but some may not, Monroe opted for a second back surgery. The first surgery was in October and at that time the Dr. gave Monroe the choice of a one level fusion knowing that in the future he would eventually have to have two more fusions or the choice of having a three level fusion in the first surgery. Because he has many more years to work and be active we chose to fuse only one level. Everything was going great for the first three weeks but then he had some setbacks. The pain and tingling/burning in his back and legs returned. Through many tests the Dr. concluded that the two levels above the first fusion would need surgery to bring relief. He gave Monroe the option of when to have the second surgery and Monroe chose to go ahead with it. Poor guy. He is just tired of lying around with the recovery of the first surgery but he is not able to go back to work due to the pain he still has. So this past Friday he went ahead with the second surgery. He is doing okay today. Having bouts of nausea which he didn't have with the last surgery but he was under anesthesia much longer this time so that accounts for some of the nausea not to mention the pain medications. Please keep him in your prayers for a speedy recovery with no complications.

Please keep my family in prayer as well. We are dealing with a variety of issues that I am not at liberty to share. Our family is going through many trials right now but oh how we can see the Lord's hand and His provision every day. We are not alone and our faith is growing as we see Him carrying us through. God Is Good All The Time!

As for things on the home front, my spring garden is a little behind. I had planned to have my seeds trays started by now....oh well, I may be late getting them transplanted but it will all work out fine in the end. We left onions, carrots and cauliflower in the ground from the winter garden. Brandon tilled the rest of the garden last week and we added wettable sulphur to the soil because our soil test showed a high ph. After applying this amendment we can plant in two weeks. By then I should be able to get out there and get busy planting. I miss gardening.

We were also able to process one of our hogs before Monroe's surgery. When we get back home and back to some sense of normalcy, we plan to make sausage with the pork and venison from this year's butchering and hunting. Actually, there wasn't much hunting going on around our place this year but God once again showed His faithfulness and the past two weekends we got a call from a friend of ours that he had been hunting and got a deer but didn't want the meat! I'm telling you that is the kind of thing the Lord has been doing in our family lately. I could tell you of many, many more instances such as this! I am writing down all the blessings we have been receiving for my children to remind them of what they are seeing happen in our lives. I want them to never forget the love and goodness of Jesus.

I expect Monroe will be in the hospital a couple more days. This hospital is 1 1/2 hours away from home so I am staying with him. Thankfully I have older boys to hold down the fort till we can get back home!!

Thanks to all for your prayers!

I Miss Them!

Our two youngest boys were invited to go with Brooke and Ricky and family last Thursday to the Smokey Mountains to see SNOW!! Monroe and I had planned to take a short family trip up to Tennessee to see some snow this winter but Monroe's back is not doing too well since his back surgery in October. It is just too painful for him to sit more than 30 minutes at a time. So, to say the boys were elated with this invitation would be putting in mildly!

Brent and Bradley are not home much with school and jobs so our house has been extremely quiet the past 4 days and I hate it! I miss the antics of the two younger ones, like this for example:

I even miss the gross surprises when I turn around to see this:

And the times when they are so bored that they get creative and make paper clothes....LOL!

And I do so miss these 3 lovies!!!

Oh. I miss Brooke and Ricky too ;-)

My dear family is on the way home. They had such adventures! I can't wait to hear all their stories. Most importantly they got to see SNOW and lots of it! They got to spend every day playing in the snow. I let Brandon take my camera so I will have pictures to show soon. I will keep you posted....

The "Fire Camp"

Our grandsons, Parker and Luke, are growing up so fast. One of their very favorite things to do is to come over to Nonna and Poppa's house. Brooke says the boys get so excited when they find out they are coming for a visit. She will not even stop by to drop something off to me if she can not stay because they will cry all the way home. Of course this just makes Nonna and Poppa over-joyed!
Lately we have been enjoying the cold (not freezing!) nights outdoors by having a cookout/campfire. Parker and Luke unintentionally have named this outing a firecamp! They absolutely love to have their firecamp in the evenings whenever they possibly can.

Even little Reese gets in on the fun. This is the rare occasion that she is not dressed in something girly! Don't tell her mother but she kinda likes getting dirty too (tee...heee...heee!)

Monroe and the boys have built an open fire stove pit for us to cook on. We have tried stew and chili and both were delicious. Love that cast iron!! Why is it that food tastes so much better when it is cooked outdoors?

Tonight as Poppa and Parker were putting out the "fire camp" with the water hose Parker told Poppa he wanted to make a wish before they put it out. After they finished dousing the fire Parker told Poppa what he wished for. Would you like to know his wish? Because I was dying to know what my four year old grandson would make a wish for. This is so cute. He wished that Parker, Poppa and Daddy could all go hunting and get a deer. Ain't that just precious!

A Trip To The Farmer's Market

Every Wednesday our city has a Farmer's Market downtown where I love to go and purchase fresh produce. This week I asked my dear hubby if he would like to come along with me. He has been pretty much home bound since his back surgery the end of October and I knew he was ready to get out of the house. It is very painful for him if he has to sit or stand for very long so this quick trip seemed like the perfect opportunity.

While visiting one of the farmer's booths we found the most beautiful green tomatoes! Now my boys-everyone of them-LOVE fried green tomatoes. Monroe and I had to have a basket of these beauties. We could taste fried tomatoes just looking at them! Happy with our purchase, we went on to the other produce stands and finished our shopping.

On our way to the truck we both realized that just one basket (4 tomatoes) would not be enough to feed our family. But at $3.50 per basket I was not ready to buy any more. However, my husband was not going to leave without another basket of tomatoes. Now you must understand how our grocery budget works. Basically, Monroe has NO idea how to stretch our money when it comes to food. I have always bought the groceries and he never. ever. goes with me to the grocery store. I didn't argue with him though and we went right back over to the booth with the green tomatoes and bought yet another basket. $7.00 for a side dish people!! I would never pay that much for a vegetable for one meal. I glanced over at my business partner. Humpf-he wasn't worried about it one bit. "Do you realize we just paid $7.00 for one meal of tomatoes?" I asked. "Oh well, they(our boys) are worth it." was his reply. And that was the end of it.

We went home and had fried green tomatoes for lunch and they were just as delicious as we thought they would be!!

I decided to show how I make mine in case this blog has inspired someone out there to give fried green tomatoes a try. First of all, start with very hard and green tomatoes otherwise they get all soft and mushy when frying. Wash and slice them. Then salt and pepper.


Next I mix one part cornmeal and one part flour. Then coat each tomato in this mixture.

Get your grease, I use peanut oil or homemade lard, nice and hot and gently lay the slices into the grease. If you get your oil too hot the flour that settles in the bottom of the pan tends to burn and that causes the tomatoes to taste burnt. Lightly brown on each side and that's all there is to it! Oh, if you have cast iron ware this is one of the foods you just have to cook in cast iron! There is no comparison to the end result.....really!

And here they are crispy, hot and oh so delicious!
How do you cook your fried green tomatoes?

Hmmm....it is almost time to make a trip to the grocery store. Note to self: Do not ask hubby to come along ;-)

Quail Anyone?

Of all the many different kinds of animals we have raised/taken in here at our farm we have never had any experience with quail. A friend of ours started the hobby of raising quail. He became too busy to care for them so we took over and here we are with a quail pen in our yard!
The pen was set up to encourage the hens to lay. They were doing a great job too. Now that the days are shorter they have stopped laying altogether. When they were laying we would gather the eggs daily and put them in the incubator.

As they hatched we put them in this smaller pen that was kept in my LAUNDRY ROOM! We learned an important lesson in a terrible way. We put the younger quail in with the adult quail too early. They looked almost the same size so we thought they would be safe. We kept a check on them for a couple of hours and all was fine. However, the next morning when we went in to feed them the older quail had pecked the younger ones in the head and they ended up dying. We knew to watch for this because chickens will do the same thing to the young chicks unless a mother is there to protect her little ones. We felt just awful about our mistake.

Now you may be wondering what we are going to do with all these quail. Trust me, I wondered the same thing ;-) However, my guys had a plan all along. They are raising the quail to release them in the field behind our house. Then they want to go quail hunting. We will, of course, be eating the quail. Our boys have been taught by their father to treat all animals humanely and with respect. Also, they know that when they go hunting to kill an animal it is to provide food for the family.

I remember a time when Brandon killed a squirrel without asking his Dad. Guess what Brandon ate? Yep. He had squirrel for supper. He didn't mind though. He thought it was pretty cool because he cleaned it and cooked it over an open fire outside.

Have you ever eaten quail?

Boys Becoming Men

Lately all of the boys have had to pitch in and do more than their fair share of the work around out little farm. With their Dad's back being out, many projects have been put on hold. However, some things just can't wait. Most days the older guys are either at school or work which puts a lot of responsibility on Brandon and Bryce. They have been great about it and Monroe and I are very proud of them.

On this particular day, we had two rolls of hay that needed to be put out in the field. The two youngest had to hook up to the trailer, pull it out in the field and unload the hay. I decided to grab my camera and watch.

Bryce helped Bran hook up to the trailer. Brandon is in the truck

That didn't work very well so Bryce backed the truck up to the trailer while Brandon guided him.

With the trailer hooked up to the truck Brandon drove out to the field. The next problem....how to unload two rolls of hay with no dad or big brothers to help. I watched and waited to see how these two would solve this problem.

Now when I saw them attempting this maneuver I thought to myself, "There's no way that will work. Those rolls of hay are way too heavy." I'm glad they couldn't read my thoughts because I probably would have discouraged them. After a couple of minutes of pushing and rocking that hay actually began to move!

Later on that day, after Bradley (the artistic one) got home he gave our rolls of hay a happy face to welcome our family and friends.

Mission accomplished!!

Cold Fall Weather.....Finally!!

Okay, maybe not THIS cold but our lows will be in the mid forties tonight. That is pretty chilly for us down here in central Florida!! I am so happy to see the cooler temperatures finally coming our way!!! I have been trying to get into the fall mood by decorating around my home with pumpkins, fall flower arrangements, burning my "Harvest" scented Yankee Candle, has anyone smelled that one?....love it!!....while running the air conditioner and sweating! It just isn't working!


Now I am feeling it! We have had a gorgeous day today and I can't wait for the cold weather to be here to stay. My guys already have a bonfire planned for tonight. I made our favorite hot cocoa mix today. We are using our fireplace tonight. We are ready. Can you tell? I am going to have to keep an eye out on my husband. You know where he will want to be-right out there with those boys around the fire!

I am going to enjoy this cooler weather while I can. Our temps are going to climb right back up into the 80's by Monday :-( I realize the warmer winters is what attracts the "snowbirds" to our state but being a Florida native, I long for more seasonal changes. Oh well, I am going to take the good along with the not so good and go pick myself a fresh Florida orange tonight. They will be so sweet after this cold snap. I think I will sit in front of my fireplace to eat it and I will reflect on the blessings and goodness of my Lord!

Happy Fall Ya'll!!

Thankful For Big Brothers

It's nice to have big brothers that remember their little brothers when they find an unexpected treasure. That is what happened one afternoon last week as Brent was coming home from college. He passed this prized possession that someone put out by the road for trash pickup! Imagine that! Disposing of this perfectly good volkswagen car! This family obviously didn't have boys or they would know that when the battery operated cars break is when the real fun begins! So naturally Brent stopped and threw the broken car into his truck. Never mind that it is pink. A little blue and white spray paint will fix that problem.
Now to rig up this fun ride. See the yellow car beside the pink one? Our neighbor saw what a great time the boys were having and donated his granddaughter's broken car to add to the fun.

Off they go!

Bryce would rather drive than be pulled. He is my ONLY child that will not throw caution to the wind and do anything too risky (smart boy).

Bryce does not have to live life on the edge like my other child that is being pulled behind the four-wheeler. By the way, the helmet is mandatory. Dad's rule!

I wasn't able to get a picture of the crashes but according to Brandon (the sometimes not so smart child) that is the best part. He would lean to one side to make the little car flip. Of course that always seemed to happen when Mom wasn't looking....hmmmm.

You know, as I sit here remembering, dare devil Brandon is the son that slightly fractured his toe doing a cartwheel on my carpeted bedroom floor (he was so excited to finally get a cast-remember he is the sometimes not so smart child) while poor Bryce severely broke his wrist a few months ago while carefully swinging on a rope in the back yard. Go figure!

Preparing For Winter

My husband is just about the most handy, creative guy I know. Really. He never ceases to amaze me. When things are broken or in need of repair in and around our home it seems he can always fix it. There are very few times we ever have to call a repairman out. You know how much money that saves us?

So, I decided to brag on him a little today. Can you tell what this invention is? I looked out my front window one morning and saw my man outside with this "thing" behind his truck. Out the door we came to see what he had created. This, my dear friends, is a log splitter!

Last winter Monroe borrowed a store bought log splitter from a friend. We use a lot of wood during the winter. It is our main source of heat for our home. We have a large fireplace in our living room that keeps us nice and warm but it surely likes to devour wood. So, using that borrowed log splitter set my hubby's imagination spinning. He had been pondering about building one for a few days because we talked about it several times. Work has been very slow over at the shop so that gave him some extra time to put his thoughts into action.

He used all scrap pieces of metal, parts from a wrecked truck and a lawn mower motor that were of no use at the shop and TAAAH...DAAAH....a log splitter!!

The axe or blade thingy that splits the wood is just a flat piece of metal that he bent and welded together. Then he used a grinder to put the edge on the blade. Pretty nifty don't you think?

The trailer was an old road sign trailer that is used on the highway to hold the flashing signs.

I looked in the Tractor Supply flyer that came this week and they were advertising what else but log splitters! Guess how much they cost???? They cost from $1,000 to $1,800!! Talk about a savings!

It makes me happy to know that my boys can learn from their Dad. They are watching and learning. One day when they are in charge of their own household I hope they will look back and remember all the things their Dad made and repaired at our home. I have a feeling he will be getting some phone calls in the future for some advice which he will not mind at all :-)

They are already excited about the new log splitter because splitting logs is a chore they must take a turn doing during the winter months. Now they just have to stack, stack, stack!

Date Night

Lately every evening just before dusk, when it cools off outside a little, my hubby and I have been slipping off to a blackberry patch in the pasture behind our house. It has been a nice and quiet time together as we pick and talk. Sometimes, okay most of the time, it is NOT nice and quiet around our home. I love the noise and busyness in our home but if Monroe and I want to have a private conversation it must be planned. I think that is what we found so enjoyable about the blackberry picking. Of course, the extra reward was all the delicious blackberries we got to take home! It wasn't long before our secret getaway was discovered, however. Each evening we would be gone about 30 minutes and then in the distance we could hear a motor getting closer and closer. We would just laugh. It was usually Bryce coming out on the four-wheeler to "help pick".

Notice the beekeeper's gloves. A dear friend told me to use them when blackberry picking and they work perfectly for keeping your arms and hands from being scratched. So, even if you don't keep bees but you go blackberry picking, get yourself a pair of these gloves!

On this particular evening we looked up to find the boys coming out to us on the swamp buggy. This is about how far they got when they bogged down in the mud. It had been raining every day which caused it to get really mucky out back.

Dad to the rescue! They can't fool me though. I know every one of those males love getting stuck and having to get pulled out. I hear them talk of it later. Oh, the excitement in their voices as they relate the story to some other male. It must be a guy-thing! In my opinion, as my boys would say,...."whatev....!" And this is what they got stuck in.

We were also being watched by a small gator. Can you see his head? It is the little dot right in the middle of the picture. We estimated him to be approximately 4 or 5 feet long.

Back to business! Monroe found a clever way to get the berries that were too high to reach. He let down the tailgate of the jeep and backed up into the bushes. This was a great idea and I got a lot of nice, big berries. However, the next evening we went back to the same spot and just before he backed the jeep up into the bushes he spotted a black snake...a big black snake!!...curled around some branches way up high....right where we had been picking!! I thought I was safe being up in the back of a vehicle but noooo! I always watched for snakes down on the ground but never up high until now!!

We have been enjoying blackberry buckle. It is so good with a cup of coffee!

And this blackberry cobbler didn't last long. I almost didn't get a picture of it in time.

I was able to put several bags of berries in the freezer as well. Last summer I made blackberry jam. We still had a few jars left so I decided to just freeze this year's picking. My boys don't like the seeds in the jam so next time I will make jelly with them.

I have had such a busy summer! I have so much more to blog but I always run out of hours in my day. I will try to be more diligent.

To Lighten Your Day

How to know when your 14 year-old son has skinned out too many deer: He walks into the kitchen pointing to his torso and says, "Mom, my tenderloins are hurting!"

Boys! You just gotta love 'em!
Have a great day!

Guess Who Turned One Year Old?

I'll give you one clue: All I saw in my house was Pink! Yes, our Little Reesie Pie is one year old. I can hardly believe it has already been a year since I held the first little girl to be born in our family in 27 years. And she has definitely been worth the wait! She is such a girly-girl already, however she gets pretty feisty with her brothers and can hold her own ground!

This little darling has been such a blessing to our entire family. But she holds a special place in my heart. Not just because I finally get to have my little girl to enjoy. You see, Reese has always looked just like her mommy did. I mean from the moment she was born I told Brooke, "Oh my goodness, she looks JUST LIKE you!" Not only does Reese look like Brooke but she feels like Brooke felt when I hold her. I made that comment to someone the other day and they looked at me funny and told me all babies feel the same. Oh, no they do not. All of my babies felt different in my arms. Do any of you other mothers out there know what I mean?

Well, I of course have to share the pictures from Reese's first birthday party. Doesn't she look like she is "Queen For A Day?"
I love this shot. There hasn't been a baby doll in our house in years. Parker and Luke look as if they are not sure what to do with this baby!

Here Reese, you take care of this baby!

Having two photographers in the family can be a bit trying at times. While we were decorating for the party Brooke kept saying she wanted the food table here, the gift table there, etc. Then she would say, "I know you are going to roll your eyes at me Mom but the lighting is going to be so much better here (or there) for pictures."

Well. I didn't let her see me roll my eyes, I just smiled and moved stuff from here to there...but maybe I was rolling my eyes in my mind...just a little bit ;-)

As it turned out, though, she was right. The pictures look like they are straight from "Martha Stewart Living".

By the way, all the pictures in this blog were taken by Brent. Brooke did all of the decorating. They work pretty good together. They have done photography for a few weddings together. Who knew?

The ice cream cones you see in the background here are actually pieces of paper twisted into the shape of a cone and filled with cotton candy. The stand for the cones is simply a cardboard box wrapped in gift wrap with holes cut in it for the cones. It was so pretty and Brooke said it cost approximately $3.00! Note to self (and anyone interested): Do not put cotton candy in cones until ready to eat...it evaporates!!

Reese is a natural born mommy already. That amazes me! God puts those instincts in little girls to be nurturing but at one year old? Brooke told me that Reese now has about six baby dolls and she tries to carry them around throughout the day, keeping them all together and feeding them with her little bottle.

She also called me one day to say that Reese was so mad she was screaming/growling! Her brothers had taken her baby dolls, stripped them of their clothes and wouldn't give them back to her. They were playing pirates. Brooke-please do not share the rest of this story. It is too gruesome!

Finally, the pirates...errr...brothers get a turn to open a gift.

Time for some birthday cake!!
A girl doesn't have to eat like a lady on her birthday does she?

This picture says it all!
End of the party and time to get cleaned up! Did I mention that Reese looks like Brooke? This picture is a perfect example! Spittin' image!

Happy Birthday Reesie-pie, Cuppy, Reesie Cup, Cupcake, Princess...