My latest project

I’ve been wanting to get this verse up on our wall for some time now. We’ve had this bare wall over the piano that I felt would be the perfect spot. I have this great tool that my family gave me years ago called a Silhouette that can cut just about any design. So I purchased some black vinyl adhesive paper and some “transfer paper” and went to work. After all of the designing, cutting, and reformatting I THOUGHT the hard part was over. I mean c’mon, according to the directions you just position the transfer paper on the wall where you want it and peel it off and voila, your letters stick to the wall! Sounds easy right? Well it did to me…until Joe and I started putting it up. Let’s put it this way, we weren’t working on it 10 minutes before all of the kids were banished to play in the basement for making too much noise…it was a little tedious and frustrating.

I think it would have been similar to using duct tape to transfer the letters. The transfer paper was sooooo sticky that it stuck to everything, itself included (somehow Harrison got stuck in it, not sure how that happened), and didn’t seem to want to give up the letters to my wall! I persisted nonetheless and 4 hours later…this was the result. Funny how I assumed it would be such an easy task when I started, quickly got frustrated, but once I changed my expectations it didn’t seem that bad. Tedious, yes, frustrating, no. So if you come to my house in the near future, be sure to compliment the hard work:)

Visiting Friends

John 15:17 “This is my command:  Love each other.”

I’m never quite sure how I do it, but somehow I happen upon unique people.  I think I get this tendency from my father, but regardless, it happens.   This past winter I came across an Amish organic dairy farmer.  At that time I began buying milk from them.  Through my weekly visits I have become good friends with the Mrs., Loretta.  She is a dear sweet Amish women, mother of 7 children expecting #8 in the fall.  I have so enjoyed my conversations during each visit.  She has sent me away with Amish peanut butter, homemade bread, and homemade pickles.  I have had the privilege of meeting each of her children, one who is now married and has moved “far away” (45 minutes by car).  I do think if I had a large passenger van I would take her to see her daughter when I had the chance!  I asked if I could take her picture, as expected she said that was not allowed for fear of it becoming an idol.  So instead I took a picture of her home and all of the buggies lined up visiting her Grandma who lives beside their house.  Each time I go it is apparent that she longs for company, someone to talk with about anything and everything.  Through my visits with her she introduced me many months ago to my next visit for the day, Miriam.  Miriam makes butter and sells it to me for a mere $2/lb!  Yes, that’s extremely cheap.  Needless to say, I agreed to buy from Miriam any extra butter that she had.  When I arrived at Miriam’s I was greeted by 6 wide-eyed children.  They never said a word, unless spoken to, but stared at me as if they’d never seen anything like me before.  She invited me to stay and talk, as she is much farther away from people, and when all you have for transportation is a horse and buggy you don’t get out much.  Unfortunately I happened to squeeze my milk and butter run into my day not leaving a lot of time for chit chat.  But I made a note to myself of their need for friendship and visitors, and promise to stay and visit next time.

The above picture is 30 sweet potato plants that Miriam gave me at no charge to plant in my garden!  She offered me more from her supply but I think I’ve got my work cut out for me in planting 30! 

As I left my friends I realize that these are 2 of the many Divine appointments in my life.  God has placed them in my life and me in theirs.  I am still not sure why, and I may never know. 

For now I will seek to be a true friend and love them as Christ commanded.

Queen for a day

“Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips.”  Proverbs 27:2 

  Yesterday, Mother’s Day, I was officially queen, of our house, for the day.  A fabulous meal was made by Joe, Sydney, and Holland.  This included BBQ ribs with homemade sauce, the sauce was outstanding, ginger-glazed carrots, salted and seasoned grilled baked potatoes (even the kids ate the skins), marinated grilled shrimp, and marinated grilled pineapple with ice cream for dessert!  I wasn’t even allowed to help, or clean up!  It was odd at first as I kept checking to make sure they knew what they were doing:)  Then I couldn’t resist walking around the kitchen cleaning up this or that.  I was quickly, but kindly, kicked out and told that I was not to be doing any work.  And so it was, I did not.  They created it, cooked it, and even cleaned it up.  It was delicious!  As you can see from the above pic, I was even worthy of the red plate.  The red plate was a tradition in the Blossom household growing up.  Whether it was your birthday, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, or whatever the special occasion might be, you got the red plate.  My kids thankfully have helped to carry this on in our house as I often forget about it.  It warmed my heart when I walked into the dining room and saw the red plate.    I was definitely made to feel like “queen” for the day!

 

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As you can see, I wasn’t the only one enjoying the day!  While it was a little cold, too cold in my opinion for my kids to be wearing shorts (kids are resilient, right?) it’s never too cold for the trampoline or swing!  Definitely a day enjoyed by all!

Preparing for frost

 

   The weather forecasts predicted frost for last night and tonight.  In an attempt to save our fragile garden plants the kids went out yesterday with canning jars and covered each plant.  Each of the “older” ones (all of them except for London:)) has a garden plot on which they have planted a variety of vegetables in hopes of selling the produce this summer.  Harrison, London, and I are teaming up on his little garden plot.  So far they are taking their little business seriously….we’ll see how that goes when it comes time to weed!