Awesome Sunrise Photos

  Good morning Saturday,

The warm up begins, we were just below freezing yesterday with sunshine-so I made it up to my mailbox-Wow a lot of mail. The mail person placed a lot of it in a large bag and tied it to my garbage container handle. Good thing the garbage pick up did not come this week-smiles. I do not blame anyone for not walking mail down-most of the steps were totally wind blown over with snow.

I will wait til tomorrow when it will be even warmer to tackle the shoveling. I got ill from this cold, and perhaps from the last big shoveling job. Asthma really bad, chest so tight I could not breath well. I looked on line and found a breathing technique that has worked for me, plus using the heating pad over my chest.  I have not been this bad since the late '80's

We have Directv streaming and my set up for my tv finally quit. It has been acting up for awhile now-I could not change the volume and no channel numbers. I got the replacement in the mail yesterday.  We had to replace Larry's setup a  couple months ago. Mine must be the newest version as it loaded more stuff, and a clearer picture as well.  I love the streaming for all the apps that are available We only look for the free apps-Tubi, You Tube, and others-it amazes me how much is available now days. Our tv's are going on 20 years or more old now too. I think the newer ones may be set up for streaming tv-it is really a huge upgrade in my opinion. One can get a basic streaming package and then shop for free movie apps etc.  I asked the Directv customer service how long their streaming devices should work and he said around 3 year  Ours made it to around two years. These have a small rental fee so easy to upgrade.

Now for the photos-the other day the sky was magical so I grabbed my camera. It was still negative temperatures so I took these from indoors out one of the large windows. You can still see the ice on the lake too. We got more ice coverage a couple days ago, but that will melting away next week for sure. On day will be in the 60's Looking forward to that for sure.

Happy weekend-hoping you are all getting a warm up soon as well

A little Ice Forming on Lake

   We have been in the negatives at night several days this week-so we were bound for ice forming on the lake.

Have enjoyed watching the geese and ducks too along with the sea gulls.

The neighbor's dock to the right of us has a lot of ice around it-we just have a little. Tonight we will be 0 degrees F instead of being in the negative degrees. We only made it to the low teens today for a high.

    The UPS driver was brave and brought down a package to our door-that was nice of him especially with the steps being drifted with snow. Saturday I am hoping to be able to work on the steps.

  I baked oatmeal cookies this morning. I tried out a new recipe that I found on Pinterest link here  I will make it again they were really good even with my changes of ingredients. Here is a photo from the link I used yellow raisins but my cookies look like the photo. These are soft cookies

Stay warm and safe

Hoping All Is Good After the Wintry Storm

  A lot of our nation has either been hit with massive flooding or wintry storms with snow and ice.

All things considered not too bad here-we didn't get the 14 inches of snow-thank goodness-but we got at least 6-8 with strong winds so my steps are drifted over. We are also in the negative temperature and single digits during the day still for a few more days. We are to get to just above freezing on friday and then the warm up.

The deck has drifts as well-and got the screen door open enough to throw out some seed and suet chunks to the birds.  The front door which is glass is solid ice at the moment-I have packages coming in but not thinking they will make it here-don't think our gravel road has been plowed out as of yet, I know the garbage truck did not attempt the drive here.

Could be worse-we did not lose our electric-so thankful as this entire house is electric-first time we ever lived in a house with a woodstove not set up for back up heat and cooking.

This morning we are watching lots of sea gulls fishing for food and flying around  I am thinking my friends on the east coast have gotten hit much harder. I took a few photos from indoors-a couple of them show my camera.

  Hoping you are all warm and safe

Those of You Affected--Ready For The Next Wintry Storm??

 Good morning Monday and President's Day-a no  mail day today.

   Much of our country is getting blasted with wintry storms and/or flooding.  I checked in on our friends that live rural in Kentucky-and he says they are fine as they live on high ground. A few states got major flooding over the weekend. My friend that lives outside of Yellowstone Park beneath mountains has gotten Lots and Lots of snow the last few days with strong winds-ugh. They are constantly plowing themselves out.

  I just checked on our weather again as I thought this storm was going north of us in Missouri-Not

Here is the weather report   We are considered Southwest Missouri which is affected.

    "Heavy snow expected Totals between 6-10 inches with some areas 6-14 inches starts midnight tonight til 6 am" 

  This sounds more like the winters we experienced in Northern Illinois.  

We are prepared with food and bottled water, hoping we don't get the 30-40 mile an hour wind gusts that are also predicted with this storm-that will mess with boats and docks. The negative temps at night this week will  have the lake freezing too.

  Can't beat mother nature just need to go with it. I don't go out of the house any more during storms like this.  This storm will effect many along with those of you on the east coast.  Stay safe everyone-this is when I wish we would have fixed the woodstove set up for this lake home. I want to do that this summer-our friend that helps us would split the wood for us. Nothing cozier than a woodstove I miss that.

  I think this will be a baking week, not sure what just yet. Perhaps oatmeal cookies this time, or an apple crisp. I will be slow stitching too on my second bag.

  When I went shopping at Wal mart a few days ago I found organic free range large brown eggs for $6.00 I grabbed a dozen as that sounded like a good price-the local grocery store had that same price too.

  Stay warm and safe everyone.

Surprise from our Realtor

   Good morning Saturday,

      Thursday we had a surprise visit from our Realtor-He hands me a package and says Happy Valentine's Day.  Inside was a frozen crab shrimp boil-Wow amazing gift.

     I got a photo of it still frozen-but couldn't get a good photo while it was in the boiling water-then I forgot to take a photo when I plated it. I had heard of this new fish store a year ago and everyone we know that has tried it loves the food.  This one had two pieces of corn on the cob, lots of little potatoes, spicy sausages, shrimp and crab. Also whipped butter with a little spice added

This was soooo delicious and an amazing thoughtful gift.  We are getting serious now about getting our woods property sold.

   Today we have a break in the weather so I can do a bit of food shopping and get in more distilled water-I use it in our commercial coffee maker and I just recently bought two small humidifiers to get some moisture in the air here.  Easier to keep them cleaner using distilled water.  After today we are plunging down to the  minus numbers with wind-not good.

Happy weekend

Brrrrrr It's Cold Outside

   Good Morning Thursday,

Hoping none of my readers got snowed in from these wintry storms coming through our nation this week

. We got one of those pretty snows yesterday, just enough to make everything pretty. It even warmed up enough for me to shovel off the slushy ice and snow to make a path to the top. 

   I order a lot of foods in so was thinking I would get it before the snow,  my packages were delayed-our circle and steep gravel road is a bit difficult to navigate for trucks-so should get them today.  We are bitter cold though for a few day-10 degrees F early this morning.

 The squirrels and racoon (racoon visits at night) have destroyed my feeders and suet holders so have been tossing seed and broken up suet on to the deck floor.  Being so cold yesterday we had a lot of bird visitors-along with too many squirrels I am learning to toss some seed out-let the squirrels have their way-and when they leave I toss out more for the birds-that has been working-so far at least.

   I was able to capture a bluebird and cardinal in my photos  We also had a  pileated and downy woodpecker visit-fun, and lots of small birds  We have always loved watching the birds.

When the birds see me they all fly off This area has been covered with many different small birds Being so cold now-I throw out more seed in the afternoons too. We are one of the few year round residents here-so thinking that is why we get so many squirrels.

  I was wanting to make something different for us for our main meal at 2 pm yesterday  I decided on spaghetti which I have not made in ages. Turned out really good-I served it with a small salad and grilled bread with garlic(gluten free for me whole grain for Larry) and olive oil. I still had some gluten free pasta for me and angel hair pasta for Larry in the pantry.

  Happy Thursday

Happy Weekend-Super Bowl Food & Slow Stitching Site

Good Morning and Happy Weekend Friends,

  Those of you that watch the Super Bowl-do you go to a party to watch the game and eat good foods, or stay home?   My husband is the "football Widow" here in my home-smiles.  I have always enjoyed watching sports-not golf or soccer though. My Mom only watched golf which I always thought was interesting being brought up on the farm with a woodstove and no electricity in the home. She first experienced electricity and more accessible running water when she went to college.

  I don't go overboard with the food but I did pick up salsa,  pico de gallo and corn chips, and I am making peperoncini beef sandwiches tomorrow.  I learned about this sandwich from a friend years ago that came down to visit us from Wisconsin one weekend and brought fixings for meals.  I have not made this in years so thinking Larry will love it. It has been over a year since I have eaten snack foods-so a treat for sure. 

   I am one of those people that prefer eating snack foods over real meals    haha

Here is a photo I found online from here

  When I went to the local grocery store I didn't like any of the buns they had. I did find a gluten free bun for me though. So I bought a whole grain thick bread instead-I will need to toast if first for this sandwich. I do have some quality hot dog buns in the freezer-I may just use those instead for Larry's sandwich

  I baked us a cheesecake this week-one of Larry's favorite desserts-It turned out really good.

I always keep a lot of eggs in the frig-just so I have them on hand when I want to bake. The local grocery store had mostly empty egg cases, but they did have a decent assortment to choose from I only buy brown eggs. I was so happy to find a new brand of eggs what were from local farmers from Missouri in cardboard containers-that I prefer and large brown eggs and were free range. The price was $6.00 not too bad for these eggs.  

  

  The other day I searched on the You Tube channel for Slow stitching tutorials. I found  Jo Mo link here to her channel    

     I am enjoying streaming tv service as I add the free app You Tube and all my subscriptions that I follow now are on my big screen tv to watch-much nicer.

 The Jo Mo site has so many different ideas and little projects to try. She has beginner as well. Here is  a  too fun one-a scroll-I love this idea-and in one of her scroll tutorials she uses a wooden plain clothes pin to close it.. This looks like a fun project after my bags project is completed-or perhaps mid way for a break from the bags.  Her site will give  me stitching ideas for my bags too.

Happy Weekend and if you watch-Enjoy Super Bowl Sunday

A Couple Photos

 Yesterday we viewed a lovely pre sunrise. Love that baby blue to the right

(For better viewing click to enlarge the photos)

I dug out my Mom's hooked rug. I place this n the bedroom near my desk where it doesn't get any foot traffic. I put it out for a few months to enjoy and then roll it back up for a bit. She dyed all of her wool and cut it all into very very thin strips-I have her cutter. This was made in the early 1960's  My brother got her vintage dining room table with the chairs that she had hooked all the seats for . I also inherited her amazing staircase runner. I gave that piece to one of our cousins as he has children to pass it down to. I may have shared this in the past. My Mom did amazing rug hooking pieces

 A surprise tonight, the person across from us on the lake did a half hour fireworks show. He has not done that in very long time.

I made a Delicious Soup & Slow Stitching

Happy first day of February-I am so pleased to have January in the past now-what a rough month that was for us.

   It has been foggy here with the change in temperatures-lake water colder than the air right now. It does make for pretty views. Today is cooler than they said it would be, but it did make it up to 50 degrees F Will not complain about that at all. Much warmer tomorrow.

  Started cleaning house this morning-it needs it. Only two days left of the steroids-thank goodness 

 I decided to make up a chicken soup today. I found a large container in the freezer of my own chicken stock along with lots of the white meat. Last fall when I was stocking up on some foods I picked up a new to me dried soup mix. Found it on Vitacost's online site. It is by Frontier, was gluten free, and no added anything like salt etc.  This was sooo delicious. As the dried veggies came to life in the stock there were nice slices of carrots-that tasted like they came right out of the garden, lots of herbs and rice etc. The dried corn was so delicious too-sweet and tender. At that time I also picked up their bean soup mix to try as well.

                                                     

 As this cooked up the broth was really thick so I added in salt free chicken stock in addition to what I had of my own.  I added in frozen peas and lots of chicken. This was a delicious hearty soup. It made a big pot so may freeze some of it so we don't get tired of it.

  I have started working on the second slow stitch bag-I am just making it up as I sew  along. Am liking it so far I have lots of embroidery threads in my stash-I inherited some from both of my Grandmas, my Mom, even some from my late sister's stash. I have picked up a few variegated colors recently Also friend Deb in Texas shared some of her threads with me as well. 

(oops ignore the time stamps-they don't seem to show up til I post them)

This fabric that I began stitching on first is the sun dyed piece from Pebeco sun dyes along with coarse salt thrown on top as it dries in the sun.

I have picked up a few templates. Each set goes from very small to large. I wish I knew about these when I was quilting.  Here is one of the sets-I bought a couple different shapes

Photo is from Amazon. these are packaged into a thick plastic bag with zipper, all pieces on a ring and includes a little bear charm I love this product

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. We have our workers coming to tomorrow to help Larry get the lift's motor figured out to work right.