How has your day been and what's for dinner...................

We take dd2 to camp today, so we'll have tacos for lunch and dinner will be a "grab and go" deal.

Someone at work gave dh some squash and I'd like to fry it later. YUM!

Hi everyone I hope you all are surviving this record breaking summer we are experiencing.

We went to church and worked in the food pantry afterwards. One of the grocery stores has a loss leader sale going so we went there for the tuna~~~Chicken of the Sea 5 oz. cans for $.59 each limit 6. I got 6 cans and 2 boxes of Fiber One bars to replace the ones my DS ate from one of the other teen's last week at the Mission Project. The register spit me out a $2 off next purchase coupon so I had DS use it on his 6 cans of tuna. His grand total was $1.60 for the 6 cans......can't beat that deal. So far we've picked up 18 cans and I'll probably go get at least another 24 more before the sale goes off on Wednesday evening. You can't beat a cheap protein source like that for fattening up the pantry.

Tomorrow morning I'm going with one of the ladies from church to take her daughter to camp. My son didn't want to go this year but I'm making the trip with her so she isn't traveling alone with just her son on the way back. It is a 2 hour in each direction trip so we have plenty of time for fellowshipping. We stop and have lunch together so it turns into an all day affair. Then on Saturday morning we'll go back and pick her up again. Her son will go down in 2 weeks because of the age/grade divisions the camp has set up so we'll be making the trip again.

I can't believe how quickly summer is passing by. My garden isn't producing too well, it's just been too hot and dry to get anything from it. I did get 1 zucchini so far and there is a good amount of tomatoes on the vines but none are ripe yet.

I'm starting to plan for our Christmas gifts already. I want to find a few new recipe in a jar type things for this season's gifts. I've done my hearty hotcakes and fudgey brownie mixes for the past 2 years and want to change it up this year. I want something that the recipient can prepare at a later time because I make cookie/candy boxes to go with the mixes.

Oh well, I hope you all have a blessed week ahead and I'll check back in when I can.

Patrice in IL-I can't believe how fast this whole year has gone! I too am beginning to get ideas for Christmas gifts. Our children are 16,18 & 22 (22 yr old son-n-law). Sometimes I think it's just easier to give them money or gift cards but that's not very personal I don't think. I know that's what they all can use but I still like to give them something homemade.
I also am wanting to make gifts for my brothers & their wives & my sister. Honestly, other than my sister, I think friends of mine would appreciate something handmade more than my brothers would.
Back to this year. My garden isn't producing much either. I lost all my corn, I don't think the green beans are going to do as well, I have a couple squash on and that's about it. My garden is overtaken with weeds again, and I had been really trying this year to keep up with it. But that heat knocked me down. I don't know if I'm even going to attempt a garden next year.

Kerrig, how about a gift basket with an inexpensive fleece throw, popcorn, hot cocoa and a classic Christmas DVD for your brothers & their wives? I'm thinking of doing these for my adult step children this year.

The grandkids, all out of high school, "LOVE" their traditional goodies boxes as well as the body washes I get them. Sometimes I make ornaments to give with their gifts so they have a keepsake for their own Christmas trees.

Kerrig for your own children how about a coupon book with coupons for a favorite home cooked meal for them and a few friends, a batch of their favorite cookies that they don't have to share with anyone and some $$ for an activity like the movies?

It's been another rainy day here. Not that I'm complaining about the rain. We still need more rain. We had been dry for a little over a month if I'm not wrong so it's going to take a lot of rain to get us out of this dry spell.

Today is my baby girl's birthday. She is on her weekend shift so all she did was sleep. She works 7p-7a. But she's off tomorrow so they will celebrate then. She turned 45 and guess what her husband bought her....a kayak. I think they;re going middle age crazy. LOL He will be 48 on July 30th. They're planning a trip to North Carolina to see his mom in the next couple of weeks and they're probably planning to kayak while they're up there.

We're planning to go to Meridian to get the Zipper Cream pea seed in the morning. Also need to make a trip to Sam's Club for some things we usually buy in bulk and are less expensive.

When we get back I want to work in the garden. According to the weather channel we're supposed to have a sunny day tomorrow. We need to clean out the beds and get them ready to plant.

We had turkey burgers and chips for dinner tonight.

I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead. May God bless you all.

Thanks, those are both good ideas.

We got to Meridian today and bought the pea seed. I thought we would never get started this morning. Before we could get ready I got a phone call from one of William's nieces. She is the one Mamaw Roberson raised. She gets so down and out some times and she calls me to talk. I finally had to tell her that we were going to Meridian. While we were getting dressed my Mom called. My Stepfather was sick and one of the sons-in-law had taken him to the doctor but the chickens needed feeding and watered. We stopped by their house and got that done. After we left I tried to call my Mom but couldn't get through. She's 87 and in a wheelchair. So we turn around and go back to check on her and her phone was off the hook. LOL Thank goodness that was all. She's prone to falling if she tries to get out of the chair to walk and that is what I was afraid had happened.

I made the niece who called happy. I carried her several eggplants. Her favorite vegetable. She's a smart girl. They don't have a place for a garden yet but she has tomatoes, eggplants and squash planted in flower pots. They've bought three acres of land just outside of Meridian city limits and are clearing off to build a house. She told her hubby that the first thing she wants is a garden. That's my girl.

We finally got to Meridian at 12:30. It takes about 45 minutes to drive it and we left home at 9:00. Anyway, we have our pea seed and made a trip to Sam's club to get some things we buy in bulk. When we got back home it was four o'clock.

We did eat lunch while we were in Meridian so if we have anything for dinner tonight it will be sandwiches.

William has an appointment with a doctor in the morning to get his knee checked out. He hurt it almost six weeks ago and has refused to go see the doctor about it. He's not resting at night because of the pain so today I called and made him an appointment for in the morning. If he sits for any length of time his knee gets so stiff that he can hardly walk when he tries to stand up.

That's our day. I hope you all have had a great day. Ours was great just hectic but any day we have is great to us. I hope you all have a blessed Tuesday.

William saw the doctor today for his knee. The doc had his knee x-rayed and told William that he has Osteoarthritis in it. He put a shot in his knee and right now it's not hurting but I've had those shots before and mine didn't last but a couple of days. I hope William can get some rest tonight.

We've about got the beds ready to plant. We need to get the seeds in the ground since there's rain in the forecast again for a few days. Maybe the seed would come on up and get started growing. We're going to be on the edge of frost time before they make anyway.

For dinner we had tomato sandwiches. We got the first two pods of Cayenne pepper today and it is HOT! Very small pods but they carry a wallop.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday.

I hope everyone is doing good.

Our garden work got rained out today. We had a couple of thunderstorms and heavy rain. According to the forecast there's rain predicted through Sunday.

I got part of the watermelon rinds peeled and the green part of the watermelon and a small part of the red sliced. I have it the frig with sugar on it. I will cook it tomorrow for watermelon preserves. I have another whole melon and a half one to peel for more preserves. Those rinds are hard to get off. LOL My son loves watermelon preserves as does one of his friends. Everytime I see Pepper he asks me about watermelon preserves. So Mark and Pepper are the first on the list for a jar of preserves.

We have a skunk moved in under our storage building. He has taken over (or she). I'm afraid to go outside because I'm afraid it will decide to come out and I'll get sprayed. William was outside this morning before the rain moved in and the skunk came walking by. Thank goodness William didn't move and get perfumed up real good.

All our children are supposed to be here this weekend for William's 65th birthday party. This is a rare occurence for all of them to be together. Seems one of them always has to work. I'm looking forward to this. I was going to cook steak, baked potatoes, salad and make a banana pudding but William wants to go out to eat. Homecooking is better but I'll be a lot less tired afterward if we go out. Either way just having all the children and most of the in-laws and grands together will be wonderful.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday.

Been getting afternoon thunderstorms here lately. We need the rain, but I'm afraid it may be a little too late to save much of our garden. We did can some salsa today. Joe and I are going to put in a fall garden this year. Hopefully it'll fair better than this one. This garden started out wonderful, but when we started hitting temps in the triple digit it really took a toll. Then, to top it all off, we checked on the corn and it has corn smut. Our animal garden seems to be doing better than our vegetable garden, although the dent corn we planted was beaten down with yesterday's thunderstorm. The sunflowers are getting ready to open up though, so I'm happy about that. We are still getting some pink hull peas. It's the one crop that seems to be thriving. The rest, although we're getting enough to eat, we aren't getting much to can. Hopefully our fall garden will do better.

This week-end we're taking the kids from children's church to rock ranch, that is, if we don't get rained out. Rock ranch is owned by the owner of Chick Fil A. It's pretty rustic, but Ty loves going there, and to be honest, I enjoy it too. They always have Gospel groups singing, which I really enjoy and they have some old fashioned entertainment, like corn mazes, tractor races (using the old pedal car type tractors) they have a pond and paddle boats, and so much more. I guess if we get rained out we'll end up taking the group to Chuck E Cheese.

For supper tonight we had saurkraut with hotdogs, fried potatoes and pink hull peas.

Mississippi Momma if that skunk was out and about in the day light call the state people to come get it. It is probably sick. They will come and get it and have it tested to make sure it is not spreading stuff to your animals.

We went to nashville today and stayed all day. I got the answer to my stomach problem from a doctor with out a test. It will have to be confirmed by a test but they said it was Gastroparesis. There is a cure for it thru diet and meds.

We are finally getting vegetables out of the garden. We just have to keep the dogs out of it. They are chasing rabbits out of it but I think they are doing more damage.

For dinner we had ham sandwiches.

Amy, I was thinking that skunks are noturnal. I will tell William and we will contact the game wardens. We didn't "Smell" it last night nor did we see it today. I'm wondering if our pens are secure enough that it couldn't get in so it wondered off.

I hope the skunk doesn't have anything wrong with it because our cat has been under the building with it. That's scarey.

I got some of the watermelon rind preserves canned today. I have another boiler of rind and sugar in the frig to set overnight. If nothing happens I plan to get up and get them done early in the morning. I'm hoping that I'll have at least six pints from this batch. Today turned out to be three pints and a small bowl for William to eat.

We aren't getting the work done in the garden. It is raining every day and a big part of the day. I wouldn't mind working in the rain but it's also thundering and lightning.

Amy I'm glad that your stomach problem can be treated. I hope that you begin to feel better soon.

For dinner we had hot dogs and fries.

We had one but he was out at night after the dog food in the auto feeder. I had all the windows open one spring and my dog ran it around the house. It took weeks for that smell to go away even after I washed the curtains.

Hubby said they can come out during the day some but not often and since it is not scared of people it needs to be caught. If it doesnt have any thing they will probably release it some where else.

Amy, we haven't seen it nor smelled it the last two days. I think since it couldn't get into our bird pens that it moved on. I'm hoping so anyway. Thank you for the information.

I canned five pints and three half pints of the watermelon preserves today. There was a little leftover yesterday so I cooked bicuits this morning and we had the leftover preserves. William bragged on them so they must taste alright. The small jars I'm going to make baskets and put one in the baskets for our friends for Christmas (If the Good Lord's willing for me to have a Christmas).

We went this afternoon and had our "beauty struck". One of the churches in our community was selling coupons for portraits and since it's been ten years or more since we had a picture taken of the two of us we went.

We have the beds ready to plant. Maybe we can get that done in the morning if it's not raining. It'd be nice to get the seeds in the ground while the soil is damp.

We are looking forward to tomorrow. If everything goes as planned we'll have all four of our children together. I told William I'd love to get a snapshot of us and the four of them. It's been a long time since we've had a family picture taken. The last time was 2003 before the son-in-law (ex SIL now) left for Iraq.

I pray you all have a blessed weekend. May God bless each one of you.

Hey all, sorry I haven't been on much lately. My in-laws came for a visit. We had a great time with them. I'm also trying to get ready for a 3 day kids krusade for the week after next. Seems I get so tied up it's hard to focus on other things. Our garden is about played out, but we're planning our fall garden now. This will be our first year of doing a fall garden, but with the excessive heat and lack of rain in our area our garden didn't do as well as we had hoped. We separated the baby goats from their mom's yesterday and Joe started milking again. It'll be so nice to have fresh goat milk again. We also sold a couple of kids on Saturday. Still have 3 for sale, but if they don't sell, that's ok too.

So, how's everyone doing? What's going on on your homesteads?

I'm glad you all had a good visit with your in-laws. It does sound like you're staying busy.

I hope everyone is doing good. It's really hot here so we're staying inside most of the day. Just making sure the garden has water and all the animals as well. The heat index was supposed to be 112 today. I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't reach that. It sure was hot getting in and out of the car while we were in Meridian.

We got our late summer garden planted last week. It's all coming up. we got a nice shower last Thursday. I guess the shower hit it just right. According to the forecast we are in for some more rain this week. We could sure use it. The last tomatoes we set out is bearing and it would help if they got some good water.

We went to Meridian today. William had to get his Coumadin level checked and then had a appointment with Internal Medicinie doc this afternoon. He's schedule for a Colonoscopy for August 28th and an endoscopy for the nest morning. He'll feel like he's been through the ringer when they're through with him. I just pray both test results are clear.

We had a wonderful time with the children. We had all four of the children, the three sons-in-law, three of the grandchildren and one grandson's girlfriend. That was on Saturday then on Monday I made William a birthday dinner. So he celebrated twice. LOL

Lots of rain and heat here. We might get hailstorms tonight, but we're hoping for the best. I had company over the weekend and this week our church is having a tent revival along with another church.

My poor dh. Every time he tries to cut the grass, he gets stung by yellow jackets and/or it starts to rain. It has taken him a week to mow the yard and now it's time to do it again. LOL!

Dinner tonight will be BBQ ribs.

I did household chores today and that's all. No outside work for me today. William did get outside around eight-thirty and fed the animals and did a little work outside but he came in to stay for most of the day. He did transplant some tomato plants this afternoon that he bought yesterday. I bought a six pack but there was one extra in the pack and the nursery owner gave him another plant so we have eight new tomato plants out. He put four in our front flower garden and two each in the pepper beds. They should have time to mature and produce some tomatoes before frost.

I've heard thunder all around us in the last couple of hours. We're also under a thunderstorm watch until ten tonight. Rain is in the forecast through next Tuesday. I sure hope and pray we get some in the next few days so we don't have to water the garden again.

My mother isn't doing too well. She has neuropathy in both her legs and her hands. Her feet and legs are sweeling terribly. I talked to her late yesterday afternoon and she said she didn't think she'd be around much longer. She's said that for years but now I'm afraid she may be right. I would appreciate your prayers for her and for us. Thank you all for being prayers.

I've had some of our rabbits listed on a local buy, sell and trade. I've gotten several phone calls and two fb messages but so far messages are all I've gotten. A woman is supposed to come out tomorrow and bring her 11 year old daughter to look at the rabbits to see if she wants one of ours. It would be nice to sell them.

My blood sugar dropped this afternoon and I really felt awful. After we ate dinner I'm feeling better but I still feel sort of drained.

We had tuna salad for dinner. We're trying to eat lighter to lose some weight and because it's so hot.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday. May God bless each and every one of you.

MM, praying for your Mom, and for you. I know how bad neuropathy can be unfortunately. Although it hasn't rained here, it rains close enough that it affects me. Yesterday my in-laws stopped by for the night on their way back to Florida. When they come to visit us they usually stay for a few days then go up to Tennessee to visit her Aunt, then stop here for one night on the way back home. After they left I really didn't do much except work on things for the upcoming Krusade. Joe brought home Chick Fil A sandwiches for supper. It was really crowded, I'm glad to report.

We had chili for supper, as I made it to can. I'm up late waiting on the canner to finish.

We keep having thunderstorms, so my arthritis was too painful to get to Chick-Fil-A today, but everything I've heard says they got LOTS of business.

MM, I hope you feel better. It's frustrating to have sugar problems. Mine was high today and I was soooooo sleepy.

Sorry I have been MIA. They decided I had gastrophersis.They took me off the Meds they had me on because of the side effects. I am now on a diet and I have been doing better.

We have been getting squash okra and green beans from the garden. We have had several meals off of them just not enough to put away yet.

Fir dinner we had garden vegetables.

For lunch we're going to have chili and crackers and melon. I might make some green beans and potatoes for dinner.

Amy, glad you are doing better.

I've had an interesting weekend. Yesterday we scheduled an all day practice in an effort to work out whatever kinks we have in our upcoming kids crusade. We started at 9 am, and it was going pretty well. I was actually surprised at how well I was holding up physically. Then we were working on the last day (it's a 3 day crusade) and were half way through the program when all of a sudden I fell, flat on my back. Not really sure what happened. Joe saw it and he can't explain what happened either. We were rehearsing a clown skit where all I do is tell a story out of the Bible and two other clowns are acting it out in typical clown fashion. The story is when Jesus and the disciples were in the boat and the storms came up, and Jesus stood up and said Peace, be still. I was talking about waves getting higher and the other two clowns are suppose to wave to the congregation. I'm suppose to kick them in the seat of their pants and tell them not that kind of waves, but when I started to, all of a sudden both feet went out from under me and down I went. The floor was carpetted and I was barefoot. It was like someone did a leg sweep on me. Anyway, I couldn't move for quite some time, so just layed there on the floor. Joe wanted to call the ambulance, but I was afraid it would scare the kids we're training. Fortunately, we were almost done with practice, so some of the parents were already there and they stayed with the kids so Joe could get me home. I took my pain meds, my muscle relaxers and put a tiger balm patch on, but am still pretty sore today. I don't think I messed up any of the hardware in my back, but am really stiff today. On top of that, it started raining yesterday and is still raining today. Talk about a double whammy!

Please, if you think about it, keep me in your prayers. I have 2 more rehearsals for the crusade and then the crusade in Friday through Sunday. There's still so much to get down and I'm barely able to move. I would also like to ask for prayers for my team. I don't know if what happened yesterday was an attack from Satan or not, but it wouldn't surprise me, and if it was, he won't stop with just attacking me. On a good note, in the past when we've done crusades, it always seemed that the more Satan fought us, the more souls we saw saved, so I'm praying we'll see a lot of results from the altar calls.

For supper I'm not real sure what we're having, since Joe will have to fix it. Probably hamburgers and fries.

Hi everyone

Sorry to hear of your fall Sonshine, do try and take it easy this week. I would also suggest icing your back for the next few days and stretch as much as you possibly can so that your muscles don't tighten up. Been there, did that, and it wasn't fun....had to go to physical therapy for months afterwards.

Amy I'm glad they figured out what was wrong and you are starting to feel better.

MM and mm I'm sorry you both have been having difficulty with your health, I'm praying for all of you.

Some of you may remember me asking for prayers for Judie, the lady from church that helps me run the food pantry last year for her brain tumor. Well, we need prayers again because she has a 2 cm mass in her brain again. They have her in the hospital trying to get her kidney function back up enough to do a scan with some type of infusion but they are afraid that the infusion will shut down her kidneys for good this time. Once they get the kidneys back up they want to transfer her to the other hospital to see the neurosurgeon to determine whether they can do surgery or if they'll have to do cyber-knife surgery. They want to do traditional surgery so that they can remove the tumor and test it to see what type it is. They said this time that she'll have to have whole head radiation after either surgery to help prevent the return of more tumors.

My health hasn't been the greatest, mostly my arthritis and back giving me trouble. My doctor is sending me to an endocrinologist to try and get my blood sugars under better control. I have an appointment on the 30th of August. Both Judie and I are stepping down from running the food pantry effective September 1st due to health issues. I will be doing training for the couple that is taking it over for the entire month of August and will assist them whenever I am up to it in the future. Please keep all of us in your prayers.

My garden is pretty much devistated from the heat. My fruit crops are pretty much non-existant this year. I have 13 peaches on the tree and no apples to speak of. My berry bushes haven't been in long enough to provide anything other than a tastey morsel while watering them. I managed to get a whole 2, yes I said 2 zucchinis this year from my plant and a few tomatoes. The tomatoes are being attacked by critters so I am planning on pulling everything and starting my fall garden this week. I'll need my son's help before he starts back to school next Thursday. I can't believe that Summer is gone and school is starting already. Where has this year gone?

Well, I pray you all have a good week and improved health.