Today's to do list

I had planned on painting my hallway , part of the living room that I never finished the first ime I started painting, and my bedroom today. I never did get to the bedroom....I'm too tired to do that today....it will have to wait until tomorrow.

I have a chicken in the crockpot that smells wonderful. I have to shred it and add some bq sauce to make sandwiches. I'll have some veggies for the side dish.

Today when I was painting, my 15 year old son and I had a conversation about a young lady on his softball team. He had the opportunity to share his faith in Jesus with her. I am so proud of him for doing that but it didn't go so well. She told him he was stupid because he believed what he did. She said she follwed the 10 commandments....that was her salvation. He said if we tried to follow the 10 commandments none of us would get to heaven because it not humanly possible. She said a few more things and then changed the subject. That's okay though, my son planted the seed and God will do the rest.

Well that's it for today...gotta get dinner ready.

Around the House

These past few weeks I've gotten a terrible itch to paint and spruce up the house. I posted pictures of my bathroom already which is almost finished except for the floor. Next week I'm hoping to work on painting my bedroom and the hallway leading up to the bedroom....the paint I need is going on sale next week....so I'm waiting patiently.

I bought some curtains for my bedroom, I'm anxious to get those hung up but the painting needs to be done first. When that's all done I am hoping to paint my kitchen. I ordered some new curtains for that and I can't wait until they come. They are really nice curtains(just what I've been looking for) but I spent way more then I wanted to on them. I was so focused on the curtains being on sale & was in such a hurry to order them before the sale ended that I wasn't really paying attention to what I was ordering. When I looked at the picture online it showed the windows with valances, swags, and tiers. It stated it was sold as a set. So I thought I was getting those three things in a set for one widow. Well, that was not the case....I was getting a set of tiers for one window....valances and swags were not included. My order for the tiers had already been shipped & I was looking forward to hanging these curtains so much, I broke down and ordered just the valances...doubling the cost of the curtains...ugh!

On another note...Four of our 15 chickens died. It wasn't the most pleasant death for them I'm sure. We have 3 huskies that live outside in their dog pen....well they found a break in their fence and found their way to the chicken coop. The door to the chicken coop was open and the inside wire wasn't strong enough to keep them out. Poor chickens didn't even see what was coming : (

Well that's it for today. If I ever finish my projects...I will try to post pictures.

Summertime Craft for Kids

Looking through some kid's crafts magazines (Pack-o-Fun) I borrowed from the library, I found this adorable craft. You use sculpting clay that hardens when it's baked. The magazine had the pattern to cut out to make the frog. I don't know if we follwed the directions just so because I think the frog is supposed to sit on the edge of the flower pot. I just used a hot glue gun to stick them to the edge.
My daughter made the middle frog and my son made the frog on the end.

I'm not very artistic but this is my attempt at making a snake : ) We gave the middle frog flower pot away to our neighbor and the other frog my kids are giving to their dad for Father's day. We hid it away in a little corner outside so that it could get sunshine and rain, we just hope dad doesn't find it before Father's Day.

That's Just Life

Last week and the weekend were a bit of a bummer. Not huge things but just enough to cause discouragement. In my real life (opposed to my anonymous blogging life) I struggle in connecting with a good many Christians in my church. I seem to connect better with Christians outside of my church. It doesn't seem it should be this way....this is my church family for crying out loud! Church often just feels like high school, with the cattiness and clicks. It really just turns me off to having any real Christian fellowship within my church.

There is one woman that I know that just really rubs me the wrong way, I just can't get to know her, nor do I really desire to. She's always appears to be friendly to others ,including me, but it seems only to be on the surface friendliness, at least this is the way I have seen it. It got back to me this week , that she had some pretty harsh things to say about my family....it hurt and reinforced my feelings about keeping certain others from church at arms length. I know I need to forgive her and overlook her offense. I feel I have...I'm not angry anymore and don't feel I'm holding it against her but in all honesty I just don't have any desire to have any real meaningful Christian fellowship with her. She's not knocking down my door either...actually from what she had to say...I get the impression she doesn't want much to do with us. Life is a struggle.....I wish I was better at seeing day to day life from an eternal perspective.

God is good though...yesterdays sermon was so touching and God spoke to my heart through it & I pray it spoke to hers. God really is a personal & living God, aware of our hurts. It's hard to imagine going through life without Jesus. I know life is not going to be easy, but difficult if you are a follower of Christ, but to know that you can count on Him and come to him whenever you want...brings such a peace. There are many times when I don't spend the personal time with the Lord, when I know I should. When will I learn that I'm only hurting myself....I'm missing out on much. Yet there are other times that I have an overwhelming desire, that comes out of nowhere, that I just can't wait for a quiet time to run to Him and be with only Him. It is such a secure and loving place to be.....like a little child wrapped up in the loving , strong, and secure arms of their daddy.

Summertime Menus

Summer is my favorite time of the year; however, I find it very difficult to know what to make for dinner because we don't like to eat warm food during warm weather. Yesterday all I ate was some tortilla chips and salsa. I wasn't really hungry because I couldn't think of anything to eat that sounded appealing.

We do eat grilled food but to me that's different then standing over a hot stove or even having a meal from a crock pot.Below I will share this weeks menu (you will see most of the meat dishes are grilled) I would love if some of you shared some of your summertime favorites. I need some ideas : )

Main Dish (meat)
Grilled Turkey Burgers
Hick Chicks (grilled chicken breasts with bq sauce , slice of cheddar cheese, bacon, lettuce & tomato on an onion bun. I don't eat the bun becuase of my gluten free diet but my family does)
Tacos
Grilled pizza....never tried it...hoping it works
Grilled Italian Sausage subs with green peppers, onion ,and muchrooms
Sandwiches
leftovers....I hope

Side Dishes
Dill Potato Salad
Pasta Salad
Side Salad of Baby Romaine Lettuce
Watermelon
Green Bean and Pea Salad

Please share with me your dinner menu for the summer months. You can leave a comment or post it on your blog.

Bathroom Makeover

Awhile ago I told you about trying to redo my bathroom on a budget. It's not completely finished. The flooring still needs to be replaced and the trim hung back up. I don't have before pictures...just picture bare white walls.
The butter fly picture above is an Anne Gedde picture that I boought at Aldi years ago. I had it hung in a different room but moved into the bathroom because I thought I looked better in here.

I got the floating shelf for $6 at a closeout store. The picture frame was $3...I bought two. the other one is hung on the other side of the roon. I printed out black and white photos that I took of my kids and put them in those frames.

Weekend

The past several days have been busy around here. We've just been getting ready for summer. You know despite the heat....I really love summer! I would say it's my favorite time of the year. There is so much to do and see throughout the season. Some of the things we've been doing to get ready for it are:

Friday I took my daughter to get a new bathing suit. It was tough finding something modest but after trying many on she found "the suit" at Kohl's. Saturday I did alot of running around...went shopping for our Memorial day picnic, bought veggie plants and seeds for our garden, planted the garden (my husband and kids helped). My husband also worked on getting our pool opened. It's filled and chemicals have been added....it's still looking cloudy though. I haven't been outside to look at it this morning yet, maybe the chemicals have kicked in.

Saturday night we went to the drive- in to see "Night at the Museum 2". It was okay...the first one was much better..it was still a fun time though and something different to do with the family. The drive-in shows 2 movies but we didn't stay for the second one. My 3 year old daughter was funny because she kept saying she wanted to go inside to watch the movie. I guess she just couldn't grasp the idea of watching TV outside : )

Yesterday after church I planted a few perennials that I bought...I hope they survive...besides a veggie garden...I just don't seem to do too well with plants : )

My husband started working on the chicken coop area....fencing the run area off. We still have to put some more ventilation in the garden shed (being converted to a coop) and make a little door for the chickens before we can put them out there. So for now they are still in a big box (that they are outgrowing fast) in our basement. I know nothing about chickens...just kind of jumped into it head first...asking questions to people that I know have them. I've been reading info on the internet and got a few books from the library. I have to admit reading these books and the abundance of info they have has left we a little overwhelmed. I was reading about how the eggs can get stuck in the hens vent and you will have to get it out. It involved sticking a finger in there and rubbing the hens stomach to work the egg out. Okay where's the hen's stomach and vent? Oh boy...do you see what I mean. Well, Rome wasn't built in a day.....I'm working on it and learning : )

Last night I made some bacon ranch potato salad to have today. It sure is yummy...I can't wait to eat it. We will also be having grilled burgers, hot dogs, watermelon and chips.

Well I'm going to get going. I hope you all have a great Memorial Day. Remember to pray for our troops and thank a veteran if you see one.