Goodies

Tonight while I was waiting on dinner I cut up a pineapple that I picked up at the store the other day. I don't do very well picking out fruit, but this pineapple is very sweet.

Here is part of the garbage from the pineapple~




And here is the yummy part! Tastes so much better than canned ~




We also picked up some apricots, they aren't quite in season yet here, probably another week or so but these are pretty good~





Our Fruit basket is also full with delicious apples and bannanas~




Of course our dessert for tonight was sundaes!! Can you believe that you can have all of this~










For only 2 or 3 points! Depends on how much ice cream you want. You can have a half cup of ice cream, I waffle bowl, Hershey syrup, and whipped cream for only 2 points and if you want more ice cream then having a cup would make it 3 points...WHOOOOHOOO!!

Hope everyone has a Wonderful Monday...

Busy Week..

I have been keeping myself busy this past week. With my mind on other things you would think I wouldn't keep thinking about Matthew leaving. Well you would be wrong!! I have spent many hours of my day just in prayer for him and this next step in the journey of his life. Some days I have just spent hours crying...this is my youngest child and he is all grown up, that's hard for a Mom to accept. I know for me I wish both of my children would have stayed young forever, always needing me and always wanting to be around. I remember when my kids where little and so many times during the days they would seem to be in the way. Oh how I wish they were in my way now instead of hardly hearing from them since they now have their own lives to live.

Some of the things I did this past week where to finish up the prim stitcheries~



I also worked on the BOM's Christmas Wish from Gail Pan. I hadn't even started them before this week and yet they were so easy and quick to get done, I finished them in two evenings.

Here are the blocks 1-5~




Here they are on the fabric I will be using for the borders~



I also had the joy of watching my grandchildren for a few hours on Wednesday morning.They both came in their jamies and they were just too cute. Dylan's is a regular superman pj but Kaitlyn's was a pink superman with a little cape velcroed on the back,you can kind of see it in her picture.

Here is Dylan with Molly watching something on TV~




Here is Kaitlyn sitting at our table~



This was also Roger's first full week of work, so that means getting up early for us. We got up at 5:30AM and he left around 6:15AM. I did find out that you can sure get a lot of things done by noon when you get up early. I put laundry in as soon as he leaves and by noon every thing was washed, dried and put away. That to me is a wonderful feeling. My cleaning has gotten so much better and I feel so much better about our home. There wasn't a day this past week that I would have cared if someone stopped by unannounced, that is something new for me. Roger's commute is a story all it's own. Good days it's only about 1 and a half hours, bad days it could be up to 3 hours. Starting tomorrow he is going to be working 11 hours a day so that means getting up even earlier, 3:30AM and he won't be getting home till around 7-8PM depending on traffic. They will be long and very hard days for Roger.

Tomorrow I am also starting a new type of chore schedule, based mainly on information I received from Candy's blog
I will be posting my new charts this week, I am hoping they will work for me. I seemed before to have way to many things on my list of daily and weekly cleaning which set me up for not getting anything done because it seemed too much. By the end of this week I will know if I need to make any adjustments.

Today I worked on the prim stitcheries, trying to get them put together so I can make a wall hanging out of them. I am going to try and quilt the wall hanging, through trial and error as I have never done anything like this before. Here is what I have gotten done so far **and yes I know it's not perfect looking, but not too bad for my first try at this type of thing**


Here they all are, I had a hard time chosing which two to put together~




First I sewed fabric between the two stitcheries~



Then I sewed a border around it~




Now it is sitting on top of the cotton batting (100% cotton???is this a good choice all you quiliters out there??) and the backing fabric~





I haven't done anything else to it yet because, well I'm not sure what the next step is, I will figure it out but if there is anyone who can explain it to me please leave a comment. It would be greatly appreciated. Hope I won't have to call my friend in Illinois to ask for help!!!!

Finally I wanted to post a picture of our backyard, it's been 6 weeks since Roger planted the grass and this is what it looked like this past week~




Blessings to you all, may we all have a very wonderful week, Joann

One week till Matthew leaves....

One week from Monday my youngest child Matthew will be off to the Army. This is going to be both a sad and wonderful time for me. I will be very sad not knowing when I will see him next and of course that dreadful wondering if he will be sent somewhere like Iraq...Wonderful in the fact that my young son made a very grown up decision to join the Army where he will receive excellent schooling and on the job training in a field that will help him be a productive person in society. Please keep my son in your prayers.

This week I am taking off from Blogging but I will return. Have a very pleasant and blessed week.

Blessings,Joann

A tour of our home

Welcome to our home tour, this will be part one.



After you come in the front door, there is a wall on the right side with all kinds of pictures, I love pictures!




The first door on the right in the hallway is our front bathroom~






The doorway at the end of the hallway is for our bedroom.

This is looking into the master bedroom from the hallway~I love the way the sun comes through in the morning.



This picture is taken looking toward the closet doors~






Our headboard and the pictures above it~



Here are some pictures of the master bathroom~ I have some great plans for decorating in here just haven't gotten it done yet.










The last door in the hallway on the left is Roger's office~




That is all for today, tomorrow I will post some pictures of the living room, and my craft room.

Embroidery on wall hanging for Kitchen....

I have finished the two sections for a wall hanging that I want to hang in the dining area. I have two more sections that will be hung up under the cabinets in the kitchen seperately but I haven't even started on those yet.





The top section~



This is the sheep section~





This part that I am working on right now is going to be put together and hang from my wooden shelf on the wall in the dining area. I love the prim/country look and just fell in love with these little iron on transfers when I seen them.

These are the fabrics ~





I am choosing from to go with the sections. I like them all so it will be a hard decision to make.


Blessings,Joann

Weigh in Wednesday's

Today being a Wednesday means a weigh in day. I was kind of worried, thinking I may have gained but I am very happy to report a 1.0 pound loss. So now my total lost is 43.8 pounds. I still would like to meet my personal goal of 50 pounds lots before Matthew leaves but I don't know if I will make it or not. He leaves on June 1st. I don't want to give up though so I will still strive to make it.

I want to thank the many people who either through this blog or personal e-mail have been such an encouragement to me. My husband who is my biggest encourager always know just the right thing to say when I am feeling discouraged. I thank God for him every day!!

Blessings,Joann

Home Management Binder revisions

Today was Roger's first day of work at his new job. The commute was brutal, but we kind of expected that. I was home all day, no errands outside of the house and I was very pleased with what I got done. I had two loads of laundry washed, dried, folded and put away by 8AM. I got all of my Morning and Evening chores done, I felt real good about myself and my accomplishments. Of course this is just the first day and I was so tired, as I am not used to getting up that early.

I read some more in the book I mentioned in my last post. What a good book so far. I really understood what she meant when she felt like she was putting food above everything else even GOD. I sometimes feel the same way. So many things she mentions in her book I have done. It's kind of nice to see that someone out there has struggled like I am struggling.




I worked today on my Home Management Binder.I only did a few of the parts. My HMB is different than most people's as I don't have any children living in the house and don't homeschool. So instead of having children sections or homeschooling sections I have a section for devotionals that I have printed from e-mails that I get. I receive e-mails from Revive our hearts, At the Well...In pursuit of Titus 2 and Proverbs 31 Ministries. I also have a group of things I printed off the Revive our hearts website that go with a radio show that I liked and I downloaded all of the shows onto CD's so I can listen to them when I have time and follow along with the pages I printed out. It's called "God's beautiful design for Women: Living out Titus 2:1-5". Very enjoyable program.

Here are the changes I made so far with my HMB~

The spine~




The front cover (I typed up Proverbs 31 verses 10-31)~




The cleaning chores pages~





The pages from Proverbs 31 ministries~






The pages from At the well Titus 2 ~




I have some more changes but didn't get to them today, maybe later this week.


Blessings,Joann

I got my new library book!!

I have been waiting very paitently for this book~






that I put on hold. It is the book written by the person Tracy told me about. The book is called Finally thin it's written by Kim Bensen and she has lost over 200 pounds. I have already read about 20 pages and it's great so far.

I also got some stitching in on my wall hanging that I am making for the kitchen.
Here is some of my progress~

This is the right side of the scene, the left side is the same~



These sheep are in the middle, I just love sheep and crows~





In the next few days I will be working/re-doing some of my home management binder. Hopefully I will have it all done and put together by the end of the week. I will post pictures when it is finished.

Blessings,Joann

Matthew's going away party!!

Two weeks ago Saturday we had Matthew's birthday party and we were so cold we ended up eating inside. Yesterday we had Matthew's going away party and it was over 100' luckily there was a light breeze and we changed the time to a little later in the evening so it wasn't too miserable. I don't like hot weather at all, so this time of year I am not too happy. Everything went okay though and we had a wonderful time with friends and family. This party was mainly for family and family friends. Next week Matthew is having another party just with his friends.

Of course I have pictures of everything (did anyone happen to notice that I love pictures!!)

The food for the party~ (nothing fancy- hot dogs, chips and baked beans)








Everyone seemed to enjoy the food and the conversation~




Dylan and Kaitlyn even sat together on the couch for me to get this picture~




Here they are with Matthew's cake~




This is the cake~ I had the scripture Jeremiah 29:11 put on it, this is the verse that I pray for Matthew always.






Here is Matthew with his cake~



My daughter Jennifer's 28th birthday is Monday so we couldn't leave her out~(she got a chocolate chip cheesecake, her favorite)



Here is Roger and Jennifer~




Here is Matthew and Me~


Roger and Matthew~



My Mom and Matthew~



Jennifer, Roger and Matthew~



Jennifer, Me and Matthew~



Roger and Me ~



This is our entire family~

Chris, Jennifer, Kaitlyn, Me, Matthew, Dylan and Roger~ (sadly we don't see Roger's daughter very often or the grandkids)



We all had a wonderful time, but it was still a sad time for me. Two weeks from Monday Matthew will be leaving and I really don't know when I will see him again. First he goes to Ft. Jackson in South Carolina to take his GED testing and then he is off to boot camp in Ft. Knox in Kentucky. If he stays on schedule he will be graduating from boot camp sometime in September.

I have been reading and praying for him, here are some of the verses I have been focusing on~

For protection~ (I know this verse is about Job's house and possessions, but figured the hedge around him part is what I wanted to pray for Matthew.)

"Have you not made a hedge around him, around his household and around all that he has on every side?" Job 1:10

Godly Influence~

"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful." Psalms 1:1


Hunger for God~

Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart!" Psalms 119:2


Consecration to the Lord~

"Pour out your heart like water before the Lord. Lift your hands toward Him for the life of your young child." Lamentations 2:19



Here is my Young man, doesn't look too much like a soldier to me. But he is ready and excited to start his new journey to become a soldier in the Army and to represent and defend our country to the best of his ability.






I would appreciate any and all prayers for My son as he starts his grown up life.

May God bless you all!!