Thursday, November 25, 2010

Enjoyment

Today I am enjoying cooking for the family. I LOVE to cook. It enjoy it more when I have time to do all the little extras. I look forward to watching them enjoy it tonight. (or at least I hope they enjoy it) I have tried to create something special for everyone.

This is another year of sharing our kids with others. Our son has gone to his girlfriend's grandmothers. Our daughter is on her way to her future in-laws. I am just thankful it should work out that they will return tonight for us all to enjoy our Thanksgiving with my husband's parents.

There are so many things I am thankful for this year! I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.

Now, back to cooking......

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Where's the.......

At our house Thanksgiving wouldn't be the same without....

  1. Fried Turkey
  2. Dressing
  3. Dumplings
  4. Sweet Potatoes
  5. "Pink" Salad
  6. Yeast Rolls
  7. Pies

There will be other goodies too - but those will be the must haves of the day.

What about your family? What are your must haves?

Christmas Spirit

Nothing like a little shopping to put you in the Christmas spirit. I have made my list (in my head) and no since in checking it twice (I might change my mind). I love Christmas - mainly because we take time to do for others and spend time with family.

Christmas was always a big occasion growing up, not about big gifts - but time spent together. My dad was always off from work between Christmas and New Years so we spent a great deal of time together. Our entire family might spend an entire day in the woods cutting firewood. Those were some of my favorite memories, watching my dad, mom, sister and I working together. Me being the youngest, I probably didn't do a lot of work, but I hauled my share of brush to the woods.

We had wood heat growing up and I still love the smell of a wood fire. We always cut dead trees off our land. I can remember watching my dad split logs with sweat dripping off his nose. This often seemed odd since he usually did it when it was below freezing outside. That never made much sense - but I guess if you were going to get hot, might as well do it while it was cold outside.

I am thankful for all the great Christmas memories and look forward to new ones this year.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Christmas Card Time

A few years ago I took a great picture of our home during one of our abundant snowfalls. I knew then it would make a great Christmas Card. Thinking I was crafty - I decided to 'make' all of our cards that year, and make them I did. I ordered the photos, special paper, stamp pads, stamp rollers, verse stamps, brads, more paper, tape runners, special tools, foam spacers - for that 3-D feel, ok - you get the picture. For those of you who don't really know me - I am NOT crafty, nor do I have the time to be crafty.

I did make all 100 of those cards that year - vowing to never do all that again. They were beautiful cards - but boy did they wind up being pricey! I had probably $2.00 each in a card and envelope. Once delivering them to the post office, I learned they were a little heavy - requiring extra postage!!! I have learned from my experience. I have made cards since then, but just haven't found the next "perfect photo" I wanted to spend that much time on.

I do have a good family photo from our vacation this year I thought would make a great card for 2010. It was just simple a joy to click right over to Shuttterfly and click my way to a great photo card this year.

I loved browsing through all the great designs they have for Holiday Cards. Now, to just pick one that will go with our photo from the beach. I think I have found one that I like and will run it by the rest of the family and then I am just a few clicks away from some quick and simple cards - that require no cutting, stamping, gluing, pasting......

They even have some cute Thanksgiving Cards too!

Thanks to Shutterfly.....Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly, follow the arrow à http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Sunday, November 7, 2010

A Whole Grain Treat

We may have experienced severe flooding in Middle Tennessee in May, but the summer and fall have been dry. With few rains and the hot summer sun, our pastures have taken a beating.

With some spring born calves and some bread cows - nutrition is the key to a profitable beef heard. All year we supplement hay and grass with grain and a mineral based beef block. But as cooler weather begins to roll in they enjoy eating hay. In digesting the forage the cattle create body heat to stay warm.




She seems to really enjoy the treat of hay! Not all happy cows are from California some live right here in rural Tennessee.

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