Hot summer day!

It's hot in NC and this is what two poor country girls do to stay cool! I have decided not to go to tanning beds anymore, but I have not vowed not to tan at all..... so we are tanning, just a little. So my dear daughter and I bought kiddie pools and this is how we tan. It's pretty silly looking, but we sure have had some good "mother daughter bonding" while sitting in these pools together. So refreshing!

My garden is outside this little gate. Just a short walk down the hill to get to the garden. As I walked toward the garden, I saw something RED in the distance....

Oh yes! Yummy German Johnson tomatoes... almost ripe... almost ready for a fresh, home grown tomato sandwich. There is nothing like the taste of a fresh home grown tomato... maybe in a day or two????

These sunflowers are planted in the edge of our vegetable garden. They were planted for the birds and for our viewing pleasure. I love sunflowers, always have, but I love them even more since I met a new friend from Kansas. I rarely see a pretty sunflower now, without thinking of her! Hello, Trish!

I would love to visit Kansas one day and see the miles and miles of sunflower fields when the flowers are blooming. I'm sure it is just breath taking! I wonder if the people from Kansas take this gorgeous view for granted, just like I used to take the ocean for granted, when I lived there. Oh, I would love to live closer to the ocean again... just to enjoy its beauty.... I would paint my cottage blue and plant sunflowers all around. LOL Do sunflowers even grow near the ocean???

Patriotic Porch

I did a little decorating for July 4th this past week. I don't think I've ever used "red" on my porch before, but really like how it shows up. Red just may be my "new" color. I got the idea for the wreath from a Country Sampler Magazine. I had an old nylon flag that I used to hang on my wooden flag pole. It didn't look good enough to hang any longer, so I decided to use it to make my wreath. I bought cheap bows from Dollar General to complete it with.... reworked them the best I could, so they wouldn't be so flat. I hate flat bows!!! (click on pic. to enlarge)

The red flowers in the fern are $1 red carnations, also from Dollar General. I am going to look for a small flag to use in the fern today, as well as possibly changing out the doormat... it needs to be red or blue. I really wish I had a white farm house.... I would love to have a "bright" front porch to decorate. Maybe one day....

Easy Butterflies

Today I want to share with you the easiest craft, ever! It's a lot of fun and makes the cutest little butterflies. I actually saw one of the these in a patient's room at the nursing home. The patient told me his granddaughter had made it for him. Upon further inspection, I realized it was a painted coffee filter and a pipe cleaner. How easy is that??? and cheap, too! So my daughter and I got busy last night, making some for our Sunday School class bulletin board.

The supplies are easy and very inexpensive. Coffee filters, pipe cleaners, (on sale... half price at Hobby Lobby this week), and paint.

I'm sure our little girls in Sunday school would love to make these, so maybe we'll put this out as a future project at one of our "get togethers". Just thought I would share, since so many of you have kids home for the summer, who are probably "bored" already. :o)

Sour Cream Dishes

I've been getting some great deals on sour cream lately, now that I'm playing the "grocery game". But what does one do with so much sour cream? Well, I made a whole meal around this fattening stuff, and boy, was it good!
My friend, Mike, used to bring cucumbers into the office covered in sour cream and fresh dill. When Debbie J. at Homemaking Dreams blogged about her fresh basil, I immediately went outside to pick some fresh dill. I planted my dill from seeds this year and this is the first time I've ever grown any... boy, was it yummy chopped up in the cucumber salad. (let your cukes sit in salt for awhile before you mix the sour cream and dill together) We had cucumber salad left over, and my daughter made some awesome greek pitas with the leftovers. Cubed chicken breasts, lettuce, and chopped up cukes from the salad, all stuffed inside pita bread (left over from the Noah's Ark sandwiches mentioned in a recent post). YUMMY!

Next I mixed together this squash casserole from fresh home grown squash. I don't really follow a recipe, but use squash, onion, stuffing mix, sour cream, and cream of chicken soup. Love this stuff!

And believe it or not, I made the biscuits!! And yes, I used sour cream in my biscuit recipe. I found this recipe in a recent thrift store cookbook find. I've used the recipe several times, and so far, it's been a winner everytime. They are so easy to make and I'll be glad to share the recipe if anyone wants it. I didn't put any sour cream on the ham, but the ham sure did round out this meal. So easy, so quick, and so inexpensive!!

It's BIBLE TIME!

I've been missing in action, but having FUN for the past week or so. My daughter and I spent most of last week decorating our classroom for this week's Neighborhood Bible Time. (similar to Vacation Bible School) She and I are teaching two classes each night... lots of work... lots of fun! My daughter designed the hut, as it goes along with her missionary story about Mary, a missionary in Africa. The kids have really enjoyed sitting inside the hut for this activity.

One night we studied King David and Mephibosheth and ended with a cupcake feast in Mephibosheth's honor. Each cupcake had a "king's ring" as decoration. Even the boys enjoyed licking the frosting off their rings and wearing their "king's rings".

We made Noah's Ark sandwiches from pita bread, peanut butter, jelly, and animal crackers. It all looked pretty "gross" to me, but most of the kids ate every bite of theirs.

And of course, we studied Zaccheus and how God turned his life around. Can you see him hiding in the tree? This is our 6th grade group. It has been a fun week, but this ol' girl is tired! One more night and then Friday is awards night... woo hoo... then it's back to work at the nursing home! I hope you guys are having a great summer!

My week.. this and that...

It's been a busy week at my house, but I didn't have to work at the nursing home this week, so it was a "good" busy! Below, from my garden, is the first harvest of the season. The birds and I have to share the cherries, but I got enough for a couple of cobblers this year. I made one cherry cobbler earlier in the week already... yum. Here's the veggies once I washed them up.... can you tell what we are having for supper tonight? I have vidalia onions in the fridge to cook with my squash... and of course, bacon drippings! The cherries are pitted and covered with sugar. I will make another cherry cobbler for dessert. Cubed steak and gravy, creamed potatoes will complete the meal. Hubby is coming home tonight... we get to cook big when he is home! :o)

I picked up this little Holly Hobby to embroider on Monday. This is as far as I got, as the week got busy and I never got back around to finishing her. This was actually a vintage crewel kit that I purchased sometime back, with all the nice "70's" colors of thread. I decided to make her and her friend (can you see the other one?) in redwork.

My daughter and I are teaching 3rd and 6th graders in our Neighborhood Bible Time this year. We went to our first meeting last night and received our materials and basic training. We have now got to get busy decorating our classroom! I worked a little in my flower beds this week; planted some lantana......and killed my first TWO snakes! Yes, two in one day. They were babies, but they were snakes.... about a foot long and as big around as my pinkie finger. I felt kind of sad after I killed them, but I didn't want to share my flower beds with them. :o( The picture below shows what I've really been doing all week.......

My three dogs, plus my niece's dog, Charlie. Charlie is the cute red dachshund with his head tilted in the photo. They have had fun playing all week, but I think my dogs are a little bit jealous. Charlie "demands" all the attention and won't let me out of his sight. My dogs have had to adjust to less attention this week, but I'll make it up to them next week..... I promise!