horse loving sisters

{ This Moment } 

A Friday ritual. 

A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. 

A simple, special, extraordinary moment. 

A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

More moments over here: SouleMama

Finding treasures

  Zack recently found this antique ice cream maker in the workshop of our new home.

The girls had a blast making ice cream.

 Do you know that ice cream tastes the best when you wear your very own eye mask when making it?

It just realized that most of my posts lately are about food. 

Hehehe

Putting things by

 It's storming outside and I am sitting in a warm house reflecting on our first year of being in this home during the Autumn Season. It's so beautiful out here. I was telling the kids the other day that when we lived in town we weren't even aware of how beautiful fall was. There just wasn't enough trees together to show off the splendor of it like out here. 
Now we see the fall array of colors daily. My very favorite thing is to drive down the road with trees of all the colors all along the sides and leaves lining the road...ahhhh.


Part of this season for us is also preparing for the colder months...putting things by as they used to say back in the day.
As a single mama this can cause some anxiety as I am the only adult ensuring the safety and warmth of my children --along with them helping. God has shown over and over again that He is in this with me though.

This summer we brought our wood from a half hour away in the van...every Saturday morning. We sure are thankful we did now!

  (while we were still filling the woodshed)

We all know that even when a body is warm we still need to eat! We do and our animals do too...sooo, this year was our first year filling the barn up with hay. 
I love going out to the barn and smelling the hay!

 

 We have such great neighbors here. The other day one stopped by to tell us that there is a corn field to go picking in....we hopped in the van and were off! the first batch of blanching and freezing is done = 45 ears. There is still more to do and we blessed the neighbors with some too.I love being able to surprise others with unexpected gifts...even if it is a vegetable!
 

YUM!

Putting things by sure is a lot of work, but what a pay off!

This moment :: Gluten free chicken pizza

{ This Moment } 

A Friday ritual. 

A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. 

A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

More moments over here: SouleMama

Cooking = Caring

Chocolate chip cookies and blackberry-cherry cobbler topped with creamy vanilla ice cream dripping down the sides....yummy. Now, I am hungry! Should have eaten breakfast before writing to you. hehe


I haven't baked twice in a week's time for-e-ver. It sure has felt good and good in the tummy too. It's funny that thinking about others is what brings out the baking girl in me. Not wanting the sweets (initially anyway), but wanting to show others how much I care. When my Dad and Debbie came out for the 4th of July a few years back for a visit from the east coast dad remarked about how he was so well fed. When my Mom and Everett came down from Alaska for my college graduation this past summer there was a lot of cooking and a special breakfast tray in bed.


When the kiddos are sick what do I do? Put the chicken in the pot and start the chicken soup. Sometimes I even get the chance to bless friends who are sick in this way, I think it blesses me more.


Baking a blackberry cobbler with fruit that my children and picked in our own pasture while talking and laughing this past summer is so satisfying. Baking cookies for people who have helped us when we couldn't help ourselves (flat tires and lawnmowers) is so satisfying. I think today we are making another blackberry cobbler...what are you cooking?

cooking = caring

here's a cookie for you too! xo

slowing down

 I love how when a person really takes a look around there is beauty everywhere. Sometimes it's old things not used anymore....to see it sitting amidst the fall leaves and waiting for another child...this is what I mean by looking past the hurry. Taking a moment to be really present where we are right at this moment. 

We all know how fast the time goes by--days just slip by.

So because I care about you~ I will share with  you some slow-down photos just for you from around my farm.

Enjoy!

 This beauty was the sole one of her kind. Isn't she gorgeous? 

Yes, I liken her to a her because of her delicateness. 

~ stripes . paper thin petals . frilly and pink tipped center ~

beautiful

Hope you all enjoy your Wednesday. Are you breathing slower? If not---take a second dose :o)

xo

corn pickin'

Corn stalks as far as the eye can see! Yesterday when we were starting school we heard a knock at the front door and it was a neighbor stopping by to tell us of a farm that was allowing people to come pick sweet corn. We were right behind her!

The sad part of it all is that to pick the corn means that the farmers weren't able to sell the corn. Western Washington had a terribly cold and wet spring this year which caused a lot of hardship for farmers of many forms, peas, corn, etc. Many were granted federal aid because of the magnitude of it.

Most farmers turn it into silage for nearby cow farms, but this farmer thought of the ordinary Jo (or in our case-Joettes) and offered for families to come pick.

 

 The girls had A BLAST running through the corn field..

Sophie even found other treasures xo

 There was some creative corn storage fashions happening...

more free hands = more corn!

 We are up to our ears (wink,wink) in husking, blanching and freezing ears of corn. T-bone and Frank (the steer) are loving the very tips of the corn. Watching them chew on one reminds me of a kid with a bubblegum jaw breaker. very cute!

keyboards, muscles and handbags

Good Monday morning! The weekend is over and the new one starts. Recently I blubbered about how wonderful it feels to my heart to watch Sophie take her first piano lesson. She really was a reluctant student...not for her teacher, but just in not thinking she needed lessons. Already knows everything that she will ever need to know to play the piano. Granted for an 8 year old she probably is right, BUT I think she  could find so much enjoyment out of it if she took lessons. So she humored her Mama.

 I know you must be noticing the absence of a piano. One of the wood and ivory variety instead of construction paper. Very thankful that I remembered that when I was a girl and taking lessons my mom made me a construction paper keyboard to use for practice....it has filled in the gap.

It is in the works for the real piano to be reunited with us though! We will be dancing the jig for certain when it enters this house. We have missed it since the move almost a year ago. It had to stay behind because of the lack of my being able to find help to move it. There really aren't people coming running when someone asks them to move an upright grand piano. So, Andy (the kids dad) went and got it for me and will be bringing it within the week. 

OH THE JOY there will be and endless practicing I am sure!

On a side note (chuckle, chuckle) I put these bags I made up on my Facebook page to sell over the weekend. Much interest, but no sales. Does anyone sell on Facebook or stick to Etsy or Artfire? I am thinking of adding them to my Etsy shop and having a weekly update here of new creations being added over there. What do you think?

This moment ::7 year old pancake maker

{ This Moment } 

A Friday ritual. 

A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. 

A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

More moments over here: SouleMama

dewy morning continued

 A couple of days ago I mentioned having clothespin photos. I love how the dew covers everything. Even though they are covered in spider webs I think they are beautiful. There job for the summer is done and now they are bedazzled. I just figured out how to use the setting on my camera that makes the foreground focus and the background fuzzy. I love photos that are taken this way.

 

 

My first experience with sharing my personal photos online was back when I first started selling things in my Etsy Shop. It was trying to figure out just how to lay something out and I quickly figured out that I LOVED having greenery in the background of my photos. At the time I was mostly making Giddy-Up skirts and had the bonus of my 2 little girls being the size to model them. Everything was vibrant and colorful and perfect layed out.
It has been a few years since I started shooting those first photos and life has had enough bumps and bruises in that time.  I have also learned that amidst the hardships and ugliness there is always beauty if we look for it.  

The apples above are so beautiful to me...glistening in the morning mist and unashamed to be seen even with all of the crackling and mis-shapen-ness (is that really a word?) of themselves.


This is how life is at times isn't it? We feel all crackled and deformed, but we must continue on just as the apple does with growing even in our present state. I am learning so much about times when I feel so broken and others are still seeing the beauty within...

We are a wonderful bunch to each other aren't we? Encouraging and loving each other even in the ugliness of it all...

misty morning pasture

 My photos are back, my photos are back! A BIG thank you to the Blogger team for making it possible to share my world with you again through photos.

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This is for all of you who are Pride & Prejudice fans

 is that you Mr. Darcy? sigh....

ummm, no...I guess not!

Just a little too beefy for Mr. Darcy I suppose

Black hair (ahem, fur), the right stagger when walking , but a little too wide and wet nose.

Surely not Mr. Darcy 

xo