Followers!!

You may have noticed that I have added a Followers link on the sidebar. If you read my blog often I would love for you to become a follower. It's always nice to know who reads and if you have a blog I can check it out. Thanks for allowing me to have a place to express my views and opinions and I hope that I never offend anyone.

Let's Pray for our Country

We all need to pray for our country and economy. It's really starting to hit around our area. I just watched the local news and they told about four companies in our area that are laying off. The Volvo truck plant is one of the largest employers in our area and they laid off hundreds last year, I know several people that lost their jobs and they just announced they are laying off 650 more people, permanently.

It's getting really scary. I really don't know what people will do. Every job around here is affected and no one is hiring. I just pray that Travis' job does not get affected. He works for Yokohama Tire Corp. So far they are doing good. They have been asking people if they want to leave work a couple hours early and limiting overtime. I just pray that works. His job is really good. He makes more money there than any other job around, without a college degree and has great benefits. But we are lucky because he works two jobs. He does construction for a local restaurant chain. He works for them two days a week and is very blessed that they would take him back full time if he was laid off. So far this restaurant is still doing great, I hope that continues.

The one thing that I do know during this tough economy is that no man can fix it. I know a lot of people think that President Obama is going to make everything better. Like he can wave some magic wand and things will be back to booming like before. I think we got ourselves into this mess by always being a society that wants more, more and more. When gas prices and expenses started going up people cut back, which has a domino effect on everything. From the auto industry to Starbucks. Plus the banking industry that always gave credit to everyone, until they ran out of money. Now they are going to pass another economic stimulus bill, which could possibly help. I just wonder where are they getting this money from. I'm afraid we are just digging a bigger hole that we will still be in when my future grandchildren are grown ups.

The only thing we can do is PRAY and trust the Lord. He will get us through it. He is in control, not Barack Obama.

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord is my strength and my song he has become my salvation. Isaiah 12:2 (NIV)

Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Isaiah 12:4-5 (NIV)

NOTE TO SELF....ALWAYS CHECK PANTS POCKETS!!!

I am so bad to never check pants pockets when I do laundry. I have washed Travis' wallet (not a good thing, but nothing was damaged, that was one time that it was good to have no money in the wallet), I have also washed pocket knives and various toys, chap stick and tissues. But most recently I washed an entire pack of bubble gum. The outcome gum stuck all over the inside of the washing machine and Emma's once long sleeve pajama shirt is now a short sleeve pajama shirt.

When will I ever learn...or when will my family learn that mom doesn't check pockets, so they better!!!!

Do you ever have those evenings when its already after 6:00 and you haven't even began to think about supper? Well I did today. We got a late start on homework and it took awhile and time got away from me. At 6:15 I had both kids whining, "Mommy, whats for supper?" I had no clue what to make and I even went to the grocery store this morning, so I had plenty of food just no ideas.

Travis has started this new diet, he's lifting weights and working out more. Trying to get in better shape. The diet he's on he has to eat 6 meals a day with lots of protein and fruits and veggies, less carbs, and sweets. I'm not on a diet, because I have decided not to say the word diet because I feel to restricted, but I'm just eating less, more healthy stuff, and exercising more. I'm also drinking tons of water.

Anyway, Travis was at work, so I didn't have to cook so healthy. I went to one of my quick, easy, and cheap go to meals. I think the recipe came from sister when she was in home ec. We have cooked it for years and its good and easy.

Mexican Straw Hats:
Bologna
Mashed Potatoes
cheese slices

These are so simple. Just put out bologna on a cookie sheet, how many pieces you need. I used 6 pieces. Mix up some instant mashed potatoes, I made 1 1/2 cups or you could use leftover mashed potatoes. Put a scoop of mashed potatoes on top of bologna, then cheese on top of potatoes. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 5 minutes or until the cheese melts.

Okay this is not the healthiest meal, but its actually really good. It doesn't really sound it but it is. It didn't take but 15 minutes from start to finish to get this meal on the table. I added green beans and canned peaches for dessert and iced tea for drink. Quick, easy, and frugal!!!

Thank God for a Warm Home!!!!

Well the frigid temps have reached Southwest VA. This morning I left to go to the grocery store at 8:30, the temp in my car was 22 degrees. When I got back home from the store it was around 9:30, the temp in my car was 18 degrees. Yucky, yuck, yuck!! Too cold for comfort. At least its not as cold here as it is further up North.

I was just Thanking the Lord for having a nice warm home to come home too. Also for the fact that our wood stove is back to working order and no longer smoking the house up. Now I feel like curling up in the recliner with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book or maybe crocheting. My mom gave me a book on learning to crochet for Christmas. I'm trying, not so good yet. But I'll keep practicing.

Hope you all stay warm and remember to Thank God for your warm homes!!

Wood Heat!

We heat our home almost exclusively with wood heat. We have baseboard heaters in a few rooms that we turn on occassionaly and we also have a propane heater on our wall in the living room. We have not used it much this year because we need more propane.

I have never really minded wood heat. I mean its so much cheaper than running electric heat and the heat seems to be warmer. But it is a lot of work. You have to cut and haul wood, split it, carry it inside and then get a fire started (I have trouble with this) and then maintain it so it doesn't go out. Even though it is a lot of work I've always kind of enjoyed it.

That is until the past few days. This whole winter we have noticed that it hasn't been drawing as good as it used too. We really didn't think anything about it until this week. Everytime we tried to build a fire it wouldn't burn and smoke would come into the house everytime we opened the door. Travis took the pipe off and there was some creosote build up in there so we removed it and cleaned the trap from the chimney outside. It still didn't work. I told him maybe something was blocking in the chimney, he seemed to think the weather had a lot to do with it, because it had been really rainy and windy. Well today we tried building a fire and it started smoking even more. I went to town for a little bit and when I came back Travis said it had smoke rolling out of the whole thing. Our house was so smokey. So he went on the roof and had a long pole that he ran down in the chimney and discovered the problem. A tree limb had feel into the chimney and then creosote build up around it causing a blockage in the chimney. This is why it wasn't drawing and smoke was entering the house. He was able to knock it all down and remove it from the trap on the chimney.

We are so thankful that we didn't have a flu fire. I know we could have very easily had one. Now we are going to make sure the chimney is clean every year before fire season. By the way I don't mind the wood heat again, until I have to build a fire again.

Snow Day and Monkey Bread!!

Today we have a little bit of snow. Right now its just a little dusting, but its still snowing a little bit so we may get some more. Colton was so excited because they closed school. Emma was mad because she loves school and didn't want to miss. She kept saying I can still go, Colton doesn't have too. She couldn't understand that everyone will not be going to school today. She finally got over it once she seen the monkey bread.

I thought monkey bread would be really good for breakfast today since the kids were home from school. I had never made it for them before but knew they would love it because they love cinnamon rolls. I was right they did and it was so quick and easy to make. It was a really good treat.

Monkey Bread:

1/2 c. chopped pecans (I didn't have any of these)
3 cans refrigerated biscuits, quartered
3/4 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. melted margarine

Sprinkle pecans over the bottom of a greased bundt pan. Roll biscuits in mixture of sugar and cinnamon to coat. Arrange in pan. Mix brown sugar with margarine. Pour over biscuits. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until golden brown. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn onto a plate. Enjoy!!

TGIM-Thank God It's Monday

Bet you never heard anyone say that before! But today my kids went back to school after Christmas break. I love when my kids are home, but after being off for two weeks, I was more than ready to have them go back to school. Christmas break is different than summer break, because they don't get to go outside and play as much, because its too cold. They got on each others nerves so bad all they did was fight and fuss. They defiantly needed to get back into their normal routine. Me too.

Last week Travis was home and we started painting our dining room. We painted over the dark paneling that was in there. We painted bone white and it looks so much better it made it so much brighter. I am planning on finishing the other walls today. They shouldn't be as hard to paint as the paneling was. It was a real job. We have plans to paint most of the walls in our home. We are going to paint our dark kitchen cabinets white and put new knobs and hinges on them to brighten up our kitchen. We also want to paint our living room walls, not sure what color yet.

We have been married for nine years and I have never really took any initative to decorate and make our house nicer and more homey. I guess I've always thought I didn't want to put too much into it, because we want to add on sometime. I thought we would have been able to add on sooner, but now I am content with not being able to have a bigger home. Our home is very small. Two bedrooms and one bathroom, living room, kitchen, dining room, and laundry room. I would love to have a larger home. But I am learning to be content and thankful for what we have. We are lucky to have a home and 10 acres of land. There are many people out there that would love to own their own home. So we might get on each others nerves, and we may not have too much privacy, but at least we have a home. You know what they say- Love grows in small houses.

I know that eventually we will either be able to add on to this home or build a new home. But now I'm trying to make this home a better place for us. We will have what we want in time, but for now we will make do with what we do have. So I'm going to start decorating. I'm wanting a primitive country theme. We remodeled our bathroom a few years ago and did it in a primitive americana theme and I really love it. I'm getting excited about decorating our whole house and know that I will have to do it one step at a time to not spend to much money. So enough babbling on I need to get busy painting. Wish me luck on my decorating.

Save Handmade Toys!

You will notice the cute little teddy bear on the side of the screen. Please click on this and read the story. I'm sure most of you have heard about the government trying to pass a law to make toy manufacturers do more testing on toys. This is a good thing to prevent toys with lead paint like from China entering the US. But it will also have bad affects on small toy makers that make handmade toys. So the little man that makes a few hundred stick horses a year to sale at craft fairs, or the old lady that knits handmade booties to supplement her social security, or the stay at home that makes homemade hair bows for little girls will be out of business. They are making the testing so expensive that these small businesses and everyday people trying to make extra money will no longer be able to do this.

If you care about this matter click on the teddy bear button and follow the directions on the site. We all need to let our voices be heard. They are also not going to allow children toys and clothes to be sold at thrift stores. This is going to hurt lots of people, including me. I get lots of my kids clothes at the goodwill and thrift stores. Please do something. We can't let this pass. Thank you.

Way to go HOKIES!!

We were so excited last night VA Tech Hokies won the Orange Bowl against Cincinatti. It was a very exciting game. This was one of the only games that Travis got to watch this year because of his work schedule, so we were very happy it was a good one. We live only 45 minutes from Blacksburg were VA Tech is and we love Hokies football. What a great way to ring in the new year. GO HOKIES!!!

The picture is of Darren Evans the game MVP. He had a really great night.

Happy New Years!!

I hope everyone has a very happy New Year. I pray that you have a safe, healthy, happy, and prosperous 2009. May all your dreams and goals for the coming year come true. Happy New Years and God Bless!!