Our Day to Celebrate

Aren't these two little guys just the cutest you have ever seen? Okay, I know that is a Grandma's opinion. Maybe I'm slightly prejudiced to say the least. Let me begin by saying that we are so fortunate to have each and every boy that the Lord has blessed our family with for the past 20 years. I love boys! They are energetic, creative, adventurous, and protective of their mother : ) An added bonus in raising boys is the way they handle a disagreement. It is usually over with in just a couple of minutes with someone getting a shove or punch. An apology quickly follows and just like that, all is fine! They are best friends once more!

However, our arms have been longing to hold a precious baby girl. Brooke had her sonogram appointment today and the Lord has answered our prayers; our wait is finally over!! Yes....IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!! Isn't she gorgeous!! Okay, I'll admit she looks like all the other sonogram pix I have ever seen. But that's okay, we will be holding her soon and I just know she will be gorgeous!

There has been celebrating all day long around our house! Brooke has been craving crab legs during this pregnancy so tonight we feasted on crab legs, sushi, and grilled shrimp. I was so excited I forgot to grab my camera to get a few shots for you to see! Now the fun begins! We get to go shopping for all those adorable baby girl clothes we have drooled over all these years.

I'll keep you posted on the due date and birth.

My Sunflowers Aren't Smiling Like They Use To

Don't they look happy!! Just smiling and lovin life!

I planted sunflower seeds late summer/early fall. I was taking a risk with their survival, I know but we usually have such mild winters I thought they may have a chance. Boy was I wrong! We have had below freezing temps the past three nights. Now for all my family and friends enduring below freezing temperatures, burst water pipes, no power and snow, snow, snow please know I am not complaining ; ) My heart goes out to you all! I know you are looking forward to spring!!

However, here are my lovely sunflowers now:

A sad bunch to say the least! If I had thought about it I would have cut them and had their smiling faces inside the house for a few more days anyway. This little garden is just out my kitchen window and I really enjoyed the beauty of these sunflowers as I was about my daily chores in the kitchen. Oh well, spring is on the way and my seed order is placed. I will try again in a couple of months!

Sausage Making Time

We recently butchered our second hog ourselves. Our first attempt was pretty much unrecognizable chunks of pork by the time we got through with it! I just made a lot of BBQ pork sandwiches, soups and such with the meat. It was still delicious, so much better than any you might buy in the grocery store!


Thankfully, this time went so much better. We actually have boneless pork chops, tenderloin and ribs. Monroe de-boned everything, except the ribs, of course. Then we decided to try our hand at making breakfast sausage. We had some fresh venison and we added pork ham in with it to give the venison a little more fat since it is such a lean meat. We also used Leggs seasoning mix. The results were definitely worth all the effort. We made about 35 lbs. of sausage. If you look closely in the picture you can see the difference in the texture of the two piles of sausage. The meat coming out of the grinder is the second time through. The other pile is much coarser and still needs another time through the grinder.


This sausage won't last long around here. My boys would eat it everyday if I would cook it for them. We didn't make link sausage. Instead we decided to leave it ground . I think it will be more versatile this way. For example, I needed a quick lunch Friday so I cooked the sausage with chopped potatoes and onions. It was a snap to fix! Most importantly, it was a hit! I can also mix the sausage with ground beef for certain dishes. I think I will try that with chili.

It is so rewarding to sit down to a meal and realize that we know where everything on the table is from. The fresh vegetables from our garden, the bread baked from our kitchen and the meat hunted by the guys or homegrown. No worries about tainted vegetable fields or diseased meats. Then when we bow our heads to give thanks to our Heavenly Father for His goodness, we truly know how dependent we are on Him!

Alafia River Rendezvouz

This past Friday was our annual field trip to Homeland for the Alafia River Rendezvous. This day is always a highlight in our school year. The setting is a pre-1840's encampment of fur trappers and Indians. The participants actually live on the grounds in either tents or tee-pees for one week. They dress in period costume. The last two days of the event are open to the public. Doesn't this beef roast look tasty?


Here we have an Indian and a fur trapper having a pow-wow. Sure hope they come to a peaceful agreement on their trading! There are lots of innocent people around that may get hurt if a fight breaks out!!

My two younger ones save their money for this event. There are always lots of things they would like to buy like knives, tomahawks, bows, arrows, furs, arrowheads...well you get the idea. Definitely a "mall" for guys!! This year Brandon purchased a bowie knife and Bryce decided on a tomahawk.

How about a fresh, warm loaf of brick-oven baked sourdough bread?

This lovely couple kindly posed for a picture with the boys. See the bow Brandon is holding? He picked it out last year on this field trip and it was his birthday present from his Dad and me. However, he didn't have it but maybe a month and the string came off. Well, this is a REAL longbow and we couldn't find anyone around that knew how to restring it so it hung in his room for the rest of the year. Torture! He was so happy when we found a gentleman that fixed it for him at the rendezvous. Needless to say, these two boys have been shooting arrows every day since.

There are also competitions for all ages. This picture is of the younger guys in a tomahawk/knife throwing competition.

There is also a shooting range for black powder guns.

We had a great time enjoying our day of living history. Our entire family loves history-any time period! I remember hating history in school but since we have been homeschooling it has really been a fascinating subject for everyone. We use "living books" to study with and add awesome field trips such as this one. It is the icing on the cake!

By the end of the day we were all exhausted but happy. On the drive back home Brandon thanked me several times for great field trip and said that it was as much fun as a day at Disney. Wow, can you believe that?! And at a fraction of the price!! I love boys!!

Our Florida "Snow"

Finally the mercury dropped low enough for our boys to enjoy an icicle tree! They look forward to this every winter and most winters we only get one shot because it rarely gets cold enough. So, we watch the weather very closely to make sure we don't miss our chance. This is something we have been doing for our children for the last 20-something years and they all have loved it!

Brandon is tasting an icicle. He ate so much ice he came inside with a stomachache. Bryce is still asleep I think : )

Today, I let the boys play outside in the ice before it melted so we got a really late start on school. We had a short school day as I have found my little ones get really sluggish in the afternoons. That is the great part about home schooling. We make it work with our schedule.

I hope my sunflowers make it. They got the mist off of the water we hooked up in the oak tree.

After listening to the weather report tonight we may be able to have our icicle tree again tomorrow morning. It is as close as we are going to get to snow here in Florida. We better get out there and get the water going!

Garden Bounty

I have been very busy in the garden this winter! In fact, I have had a hard time keeping up with the wonderful vegetables that need to be either eaten or put in the freezer. If it weren't for my dear friend, Kay, I would STILL be washing and blanching greens!! Thank you, Kay!! The above picture is just a sampling of a day in the garden. We have broccoli, several varieties of greens, rutabagas, beets, carrots, cauliflower and my first attempt at lettuces. I was inspired by a new friend. I love reading her blogs and she has inspired me by sharing about her lettuces and how to store them. I am amazed at how delicious my fresh lettuces have been. What a difference in the taste compared to the grocery store-even when I buy organic. They were very easy to grow too-which is always a plus for me ; )

Here is the red romaine.

This one is called oakleaf.

And this one is a head lettuce called butter-bow-head. Isn't it pretty.

And this, of course, is broccoli. I expected one large head, like I buy in the grocery store but instead I got several shoots per plant like the one shown here. Maybe it is the variety of broccoli that I bought?

The Lord has been gracious and my freezer is filling up with this winter's garden surplus. I love to just go open the freezer door (don't tell my boys I held the door open!) and see how good He has been to provide for my family. I also love knowing where our food is coming from. We are slowly growing or hunting our own meats too. So far we have our own pork, beef and venison. I am anxious to grow our own chickens for meat but Monroe isn't so enthusiastic about that project. He remembers the job of cleaning them when he was a child and has some bad memories/smells to overcome. Oh well, maybe one day. Until then, we will keep our chickens for their yummy eggs! After eating "homegrown" eggs it is hard to eat store bought eggs-even the expensive free range ones.

I would love to have my sisters, brother and their families come for a visit. My freezer is stocked and ready!! Ya'll come on!

Be Blessed,
Pam

Boys and Their Toys

My dear hubby is always on the look out for a good deal. He also always has his boys in mind. Imagine their surprise when he came home one day with a new (to them) 4-wheeler. Dad came across this "toy" and struck up a deal with the owner. My guys were on cloud-9!!

Know what this is? Read on and find out!

After riding around in our front pasture, which isn't very big, they asked to go out in the back pasture to ride. The back pasture is not our land. However, we are blessed with a wonderful neighbor that has told the boys that they could use his pasture anytime. They weren't out back very long when we noticed we didn't hear the 4-wheeler anymore. Sure enough, they were stuck in the mud! Bryce was the driver and he doesn't have the experience to navigate through the muddy spots...yet!

Luckily for the boys, Dad was home for lunch and came to the rescue with the tractor. I am sure in the back of his mind he must have been wondering if this gift was going to be more trouble than good. He was not a happy Dad at that moment.

Let's just say they haven't asked to go out in the back pasture again. I am sure they will be out there one day though. Actually, I think they enjoy that kind of adventure as long as it doesn't require Dad to come to their aid.

They have blazed a trail and left their mark!

I love to use opportunities like this to remind my children of the Lord and His goodness. Our family, like so many others, is feeling the economic pinch in our budget and we could never afford to buy something like this. However, we serve an infinite God and His economy has NO limit. Only because of His perfect love and care for us do we receive anything good-even 4-wheelers.

Thank Him for His goodness,

Pam