I'm a Crazy Lady!!!

I'm a Crazy Lady and I even have the hat to prove it. Here's yer hat! kinda like when Jeff Foxworthy used to say........Here's yer sign...hehehe

Even here in the mountains of Utah where I live at 7000 ft above sea level it is spring!!! :o)

The snow has melted off early this year. We didn't get nearly as much snow as would be normal for our area and it has been warmer than normal so the snow is gone (all but the higher mountain elevations) and the ground is drying up fast which means that theres tons of work to do!

Why I'm a Crazy Lady!

SPRING CLEANING

you know I look just like this when I'm cleaning don't you?

Spring cleaning is almost done on the inside, most of It I do in the winter months because I am home bound a lot of the time.  I don't like to go out and about if the roads are bad and I am not a winter sports person. I really do not like the cold so I stay indoors quit a bit in the winter months. This is when I will do my spring cleaning and indoor projects like painting, decorating or refinishing furniture. I have a set of bookshelves in the garage that I'm going to start this week for Paris's room.

Once the warm weather gets here I DO NOT WANT TO BE INDOORS!  When it is warm you will find me out at the barn clipping and bathing a horse, riding or giving lessons to the kids, working in the garden or in a flowerbed, chicken watching *grin*. Now that the girls are getting older they want to be doing the same things as me. :o) (happy Grammy) Here's yer hat!

Why I'm a Crazy Lady!

                                                               GARDEN PLANNING

We will be garden planning, preparing the garden area and getting it all planted. Last year we tripled our garden area. I have some new ideas for the new areas but it will probably evolve over time. Some of the ideas that I have take $$$$ others take time. Things like a cottage looking garden shed (with a porch) ;o) $$$, a fence $$$, stone pathways (time), and fruit bushes/trees will be added, more $$$ and time.

I have this huge bronze looking rooster that is about three ft tall that I want to use out in the garden somehow, maybe at the entrance $$$ or as an ornament alongside the garden shed. There is a lot of clean up to do outside, everything looks dirty after winter and before everything greens up. Also depending on the year we can get a pretty bad muddy season. (I hope we don't this year)

I have asked my hubby to install a clothes line out in the yard (I have asked this for the last two years ;o) so that when weather permits I can hang out our clothes to cut cost on our utilities and just because I love the smell of line dried laundry and bedding. Also I need it for our big blankets and comforters, we have a king size bed and that comforter won't even fit in our dryer. Also I usually have a few horse blankets and sheets to hang out. DH says OK! he gets it.....the clothes line will go in this spring! :o) He likes to eat.....Heres yer hat!

Why I'm a Crazy Lady!
  I need to finish a couple of books I have started. This one is tough I have two I am reading now, oh wait.... make that four that I need to finish so I can get to some of the others I bought that I want really to read. I also have a few I want to reread because I read them while going through a stressful time in my life and I don't even remember what they were about. :o)

My book list:

Reading now; Fool Proofing Your Life (how to deal effectively with impossible people in your life) by Jan Silvious 
The Scarlet Cord, nothing but the blood of Jesus (a concise call to world missions) by Jon & Ann Dunagan of Harvest Ministry 
As Silver Refined (what if your circumstances are actually the flames of God's grace, intended to burn away all that is undesirable in your life, leaving you pure, like refined silver?) by Kay Arthur
The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer

Next in line;

The Mission Minded Family by Ann Dunagan
The Mission Minded Child by Ann Dunagan
Make Your Place (affordable, sustainable nesting skills) by Raleigh Briggs
The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency used by the Mormon Pioneers (I do live in Utah :o)
Forgotten God by Francis Chan (reread)
Radical by David Platt (reread)
Crazy Love by Francis Chan (reread)
Indescribable by Louie Giglio and Matt Redman
Revolution in World Missions by K. P. Yohannan
Redeeming The Time by Chuck D. Pierce
A Beautiful Offering by Angela Thomas
Because He Loves Me by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick (reread, I only got half way through it and don't remember what I read)

Heres yer hat!


I totally look like this when I read! :o) Don't you read in pantyhose?

Why I'm a Crazy Lady!
 It seems like I have a hard time reading the books that I want to read. I read to and with the girls every night for about an hour before bed time.  We just finished reading The Horse and His Boy by C.S.Lewis and now we are reading Cheaper By The Dozen and will watch the movie when we are done. (sometimes I like to order the movies if there has been one made of the books we are reading, it makes for a fun movie night and makes for some fun conversations about the books/stories/people/lifestyles/choices etc. ) It also helps to build a better visual picture in the kids minds of there story and they just remember the stories better. (me too ;o) I have a whole other list of books we will be reading together.....Heres yer Hat!

Why I'm a Crazy Lady!

Then by the time I can take a breath from all the outdoor clean up and garden planting and maybe go for a few rides on my horse it will be summer and what comes next? Canning Season!!!

Here's yer hat! :o)

Just in case you were wondering ..........Why I'm a Crazy Lady!

Blessings and Happy Spring!!!

*Susan*

*Frugal Ways * Fixing things Up* Using what you have*

I think most people are feeling the pinch of this downed economy our country is in and many of us are finding ways to fix up what we have in order to cut our costs whatever way we can.
I know we sure do feel the crunch, our income is down about 40% all the while the cost of food, fuel, & health care skyrocket.


I have gone to great lengths the past couple of years to learn how to
substantially cut our expenses. We have expanded our garden and I have started canning a lot more of our own food. I have joined a food co-op where I purchase a basket of fresh fruits and veggies each week for only $15 a week and I have refinished some beat up furniture to take care of some of the girls needs and fix up their rooms.


I even  refinished our dinning room table, it is made of pine and over the years all the kids had beat it up pretty bad. We had a friend cover the top with a crackle look formica for $150 then I painted the legs and sanded them to create a distressed finish. I had  done this several years ago to my coffee table and end table in the family room so now they all match :o)


I just brought home a beat up bookshelf unit for Paris. I am going to refinish it and put it in her room to hold all her books (because of home school curriculum she has a lot) one tall unit and a shorter unit that will sit next to it to hold her tv and dvd player. (only dvd's in the girls rooms, no connection to regular tv) :o) best part is.....It was FREE!!!........thanks mom! Now I can move her books out of her closet and have more room in there for her other junk toys that are stuffed under her bed. I love it when I can find inexpensive and simple solutions to make things function around here a little bit better. :o) I will post some before and after photos soon.

 we also had two leafs done to match so that on
holidays we can expand the table. There are two more of the side chairs that go and a bench that matches....when it is all put together we can sit 10.

 can you believe this top is formica? The best part of this is the kids can't hurt it now! LOL
Not a bad looking table for $150

I don't have to have the best and I love to take old things and fix them up and re purpose them for a new use or just to fix them up and keep going with them but I hate it when my things get tore up. It's funny, I love the distressed look but it has to have been meant to have looked that way LOL

 This is my bag from Bountiful Baskets last weekend.....this is quite a bit of produce for $15

 Saturday morning after returning from picking up my basket I came home and made this breakfast casserole....with my hens laying between 12 and 16 eggs a day I do look for recipes that will use up eggs quick and this recipe used 10 eggs :o)

Breakfast Casserole

3 slices of bread diced

10 eggs

2 cups milk

1 onion diced

1 bell pepper diced

1 1/2 cups shredded cheese

1 lb ground sausage cooked

a little salt and pepper

Saute peppers and onions with a bit of olive oil

brown and crumble sausage

Butter a 13x9 in baking dish

place diced bread on bottom and spread with the shredded cheese

whisk eggs and milk and pour over the cheese

top with sauteed peppers and onions and the crumbled cooked sausage

salt and pepper then bake @350 for 45-55 min until set

That's what Iv been up to

Blessings!

*Susan*

Autumn Blessings

Happy Harvest ~ Autumn Blessings ~ Give Thanks ~

These are all little sayings that you will find all over my house this time of year.
I love fall, I love the color of the trees in the canyons all around me, I love the coolness in the air, I love the feeling that even though I am still busy now harvesting the garden and canning and working on my winter food storage I know that things are about to slow down. I love the smells in my house and the warm feeling that you get when you walk in the door. Everyone else loves it too.

I put cinnamon scented pine cones in the basket on the floor, this is the foyer table.

 My loyal companion, Quinny......where ever I go, there he is :o)
see him in the mirror

do you see Paris's sweet little face? she was running around me and kept hiding under what ever I was taking pictures of, she wanted to get her face in one...:o)



Then....Paris says  "Grammy, there is smoke out back in the bottom of the canyon, Grammy there is fire!"

  I went out on my back deck and this is what I saw.....My neighbors beautiful 110 year old barn was a blazing inferno.....I took her some warm banana nut bread and we shared a warm hug and a some tears....no one knows what happened and no one was hurt and there were no animals in the barn, just stuff. I will miss this barn from my view! I so loved it.

 Whinnnnny!!! I then hear my beautiful Boogie calling me and I go to my front door and this is what I saw....these beautiful faces looking at me and wondering why I was late feeding them.

 Hellooooo......mom...are you going to come out and give me some hay?  This is my beautiful Boogie

 Tazzy

 Honeypie

 Bella

 Old Kidderman

 Sassy, she likes to pretend she doesn't care but she is the biggest pig of them all

Give Thanks to God for all your blessings, he meant for us to enjoy our lives.....Give Thanks for your trials too....they change us and help us to grow.
Happy Harvest

The Gathering of Friends my favorite cookbooks

I was so excited last weekend when DeWayne and I were invited over to some friends house for dinner, Mike and Debbie Jones are great friends of ours and we try to get together once in awhile. Some times we meet at a restaurant or at each others home. This time we went to their home.   Their home is beautiful, it looks like something out of a magazine. They don't have grandkids yet and their kids are all grown so their house is immaculate! Debbie and I have been friends for nearly 30 years and our tastes and interests are very much alike so we have fun inspiring each other.

Well was I surprised to find out when we got there that she was making dinner with her new volume #3 of
The Gathering of Friends cookbook.......I didn't even know it was out yet.

I'm the one who showed her my cookbooks (volume #1 and #2) and she fell in love with them.....she ordered hers and since then we have both given them for birthday gifts and wedding gifts......everyone loves these cookbooks!!!

Michelle Huckstable, the woman that wrote them is also and interior decorator and the photos in her books of beautiful rooms and beautiful tablescapes are very inspiring. She also has the same taste in decorating as me and Debbie do so we get tons of ideas for our homes from these cookbooks. (who would have ever thought you could get decorating ideas from a cookbook?)
Thanks Michelle!!!


I just ordered volume #3  of my favorite cookbooks of all time....:o)

I have quiet a collection of cookbooks and I love to cook, set a pretty table and have family gatherings.
I started doing dinner parties a few years ago for adult birthdays....I set the table with all the pretty stuff I have collected, tall stemmed cut glass water goblets, colorful place mats, cloth napkins, candles and my red toile dishes that I bought at TJ Maxx (love that store). My mother has even gotten in on the fun and picked up some nice pieces she has come across at yard sales.  SO FUN!!  I also do a nice table for Holidays. Its a great creative outlet for me. The birthday person gets to go through my "The Gathering of Friends" cookbooks and select their menu. With all the grandkids there are 10 of us so I set two tables, one for the adults and one for the kids. I think I have tried most of the recipes in volumes 1&2 and I can't wait to get #3.

So if you like to cook like cookbooks and pretty tablescapes go check out these cookbooks and buy one...... I bet you will love them too!  warning though you'll want to collect them all :o)


Blessings!
*Susan*

Happy 4th of July

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.” Psalm 33:12 NKJV

Isaiah 40:31

But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.


Today Im jogging then later its a  BBQ and tonight its off to the rodeo and fireworks with my sons and my five grand kids.........not sure if my hubby will be able to go or not......He has been very sick........please pray for him.

TODAY HAS NOT BEEN MY DAY

First my sourdough whole wheat bread fell...grrrrr

 So I thought Id make good with too many apples and put up some apple pie filling......yummy!

 4 quarts :o) I like canning better than baking... smile

 Then woooooooops............OH DANG!!!!!

 Nice mess!

tomorrow WILL be better..please

Some Days

I'm usually pretty good about keeping on top of things but sometimes we have unexpected distractions, some welcome some not so much or even business, could be a little too much play oooorrrr it could be that I'm spending too much time on the computer. hummmhmm :o)



This is one very messy laundry room!
Living in a two story house I find that if I do not make my bed as soon as I get up in the morning that I have a hard time getting back to it.

Of course this is the center of the house and is an on going chore.

This room I love and do not allow it to get too messed up very often. (sorry kids, Grammy has to have some sanity).

This is what things look like when the girls have a sleep over at Aunt Jana's

AHHHHH........much better, a clean kitchen.

Bed made.

Even the laundry room looks 10 x's better. This was work!

Now I'm off to play! Riding my horse in the beautiful Uinta Mountains.

I earned it! :o)