My Blog

Will be back up and running next week!

 

Cannot wait to show you all that I have

been up too!!

 

Have a superb weekend!

Prayer Request...

There is a lovely little family living in

Nags Head (OBX) North Carolina.

Tricia, wife and mother of their daughter Gweneth,  needs a double lung transplant.

Nathan, husband and father, is a Pastor at Nags Head Baptist Church.

Here is a link to his blog.

http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/2012/11/prayfortricia.html

#PrayForTricia 

Issues....

I am currently having a couple of issues with my blog.

Storage issues, etc.

I will update tomorrow and I will have it all

(hopefully) figured out and will be good to go!

In the mean time.....

a picture of our Thanksgiving dessert table!

Wait, nooooo, that is one of my problems...

no pictures will upload!

S-I-G-H!!



Thankful

I am thankful for this season!

I am thankful for my family,

I am thankful for my friends,

I am thankful for my neighbors,

I am thankful for my church family,

but most of all I am thankful for my salvation.

 I am a blessed woman

with a wonderful husband

amazing children and in-law children

the most beautiful grandchildren ever created

and all because God wanted to bless me.

I am so un-worthy and yet so thankful.

 

Have a superb Thanksgiving.

Getting Ready!!!!!

One of the ways I am getting ready for our

big Thanksgiving Feast is to have enough

chairs for all to sit!

My In-Laws gave us 4 old wooden chairs,

all needed to be re-glued and structurally

re-worked. One chair actually had a string

tied on it, I cut the string and the entire

spindle on the back fell on the floor!

I guess string is ONE way to fix it!

I glued and clamped and left them sit for a couple of days in our basement work shop.

 

Next, I sanded and began the painting process.

After all were painted, my sweet husband took

them to the garage (heated of course) and

sprayed 2 coats of poly on them.

I love the color and am thrilled to have 4 more

chairs that will definatly "stand out" at our

Thanksgiving table!!

And Again...Bragging Day....Simply Joy!!!

There is this wonderful agency named
Operation Christmas Child

The goal is to fill shoe boxes (or rather stuff) to

be sent into third world countries and then

distributed to children, ages 2-14 for Christmas Gifts.

Now, they reach children who have nothing but the rags

on their backs. Many are orphans, many cannot go

to school unless they have school supplies

which they have no money to purchase.

Our church takes on this challenge each year

and many, many of our people joyfully fill

shoe boxes to over-flowing.

This year we filled a trailer from front to back,

bottom to top with shoe box gifts.

 

 

Also 3 seats of a van and much of the van floor

 

with 711 shoe boxes!!!

Simply Amazing!

Bragging Day...A Simple Joy!

Each year in our Awana Program at our church,

we have a night called "line em' up".

It is a night in which all of the children who come

to this program bring non-perishable foods to

be donated to a local homeless shelter.

Last night, the clubbers brought in over 300 items!

How sweet is that!!!!

 

 

 

I know it shocks you that I brought my camera and snapped a couple of shots of the bounty, but as a co-commander, I could not be more proud of the children and their parents for their giving hearts!

 



A Sweet Find!!

Last week while spending some time with my Mom

we found this special little jewel at an antique store.

I love it when you find something special

at a superb price.

Ten Bucks.....yes, that is right ten dollars!

LOVE IT!!!

 

Guess what will be used on our Thanksgiving Table!!

It's the little things that make me happy!!!

Pet Photos

My Aunt has a dog named Buster.

Earth shaking news? NO??

 I thought not. However, there is a cool story

behind her getting Buster Brown

(real name, not makin that one up!)

 

Remember a few years back, there was this crazy storm

named Katrina? Still makes my heart hurt every time

I am in New Orleans to see the "left overs" of that awful event.

Well, there were animals rescued from that tragedy

and a little dog was rescued and brought up north.

That dog was excepting puppies,

you guessed it! Buster is one of those puppies...

now a northerner and loved by his owner, my Aunt!

 

I took my camera with me last weekend as my youngest daughter and I treated

my Mommy and Auntie to a day out and lunch.

I snapped a couple of pics of Buster.....

I am not an animal photographer....they just won't

pose! Crazy! Sigh.

 

Well, I got about 4 pictures of him actually being still.

I will share them with you.

 

 

 



I Am Teaching...

My youngest daughter to make ricotta cheese

tonight! I am excited that she will have this

easy recipe to fall back on for get togethers.

 

Here is a link to the blog article I posted when I made ricotta the first time.

 

http://inpayne-paula.blogspot.com/2011/12/you-too-can-be-hit-of-new-years-party.html

 

 

 

And a recipe for the finished cheese that my family LOVES!

 

 

Baked Ricotta Spread…..
2 Cups Freshly Made Ricotta
2 cloves garlic, that you will shave on a zester
2 Tble Heavy Cream
¼ Cup fresh herbs….I use Basil, or Thyme or Parsley, or a combo or any.
1 ½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Put the olive oil in the bottom of an oven proof ceramic dish suitable for a 2 cup volume. In a separate bowl, mix all the remaining ingredients, making sure to chop the fresh herbs finely….place in the baking dish. Bake at 325* for a20minutes. [I then transferred to a fondue dish to enable keeping it really warm throughout the meal] and serve with a crusty bread, or whole wheat crackers….it will be a huge hit!!!!!!!



Mercury Glass Maniac

I LOVE mercury glass.

I mean, I really, really, really LOVE mercury glass.

 

Glorious silvery LOVE.

 

Shiney silver LOVE.

 

Pottery Barn has a new catalog.

It has lots to LOVE.

 

Feast your eyes upon a few of my favorites.

 

 Thank you so much Potter Barn for being a stumbling block in my life

and causing me the sin or lust in my heart.

Ok, Ok....I know, but did I mention how much I LOVE mercury glass????



Family

Family is so important.

I love my family, near and far.

I have a cute couple, my Aunt & Uncle who

live about an hour away from us, and sadly,

we do not get to see them often enough.

We got an opportunity to spend a bit of time with them this past Sunday, and I snapped a couple

of pictures.

Pictures with my Mom, Aunt Dotty and of course

Uncle Neil & Aunt Jan.

My Mom, Neil and Dotty are brother and sisters.

 

How cute are the four of these wonderful people!!

 

I Love Family!

 

Hug yours extra tight today!



Are You Ready????

For your big Thanksgiving Feast?

I am!

I have my trusty meal book filled, invitations sent,

grocery list made, all my "turkeys in a row".

 

I make a book each year,

a menu is planned and is NON Negotiable

once it is made,

all the recipes that I need are pulled from my other

books and put in the organizational book,

all the recipes that our guest will be making

and bringing to our table have been printed off

and sent to them in their invitations.

 

Is that OCD'ish? Naaaaa, I didn't think so!

 

I took a couple of quick pictures so that you could see what I am speaking of.

It is quick, simple and keeps me from ever fretting

over where recipes are, what others will be bringing

and what I still need to make!

 

Ahhhhh, now that's better!!

Long Life?

I heard a great quote yesterday while watching

an old movie. (old as in 2005)

It went as such:

"We are such ego driven people, so constantly denying or trying to defy our age, that we miss out on the extreme privilege of growing old with the one we truly love."

 

Oh, my....how very true that statement is.

We focus constantly on our outward appearance

as is so evident from the never ending barrage of commercials for

this cream or that lotion that will take away, prevent or hide our every wrinkle....that pill,

workout program or food that will make us as thin and good looking as a we looked in our teens,

that we forget about the BLESSING of growing older!

 

And it IS a blessing.

Take this couple for instance.

They are the Grandparents of our Daughter In Law.

They just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary!

 

Life is so precious. If you are one who is blessed to be living that life with the one you completely love,

count it a blessing every time you see a new wrinkle.

Count it a blessing each time you see your body changing, drooping, heading south.

You see, HOW you look in this life is so much less

important than LIVING this life and having such an amazing God given blessing of living a long amazing life next to the one in whom you love.