Good Day Today

So far today in Gmaws Preschool Academy:

 Home Ec: we made breakfast with rainbow pancakes, sprinkles and whipped cream. 

Then we learned the basics of canning peas. Last in this class we dusted and vacuumed. 

Agri Science: we are scouting for deer and practicing on our goose and deer calls. 

Then it was  lunch break and rest time.  

 ❤👩‍👧‍👧👍🥞🍱🏡🧹

After nap, we went for a walk and the girls were spotting deer tracks.  🦌

Happy Grandparents Day 2020

 Today is Grandparents day  (yes, you can google it) and I’m dedicating this to my MaMa and PaPa Oliver. Words cannot express how much I love them and miss them. They were a soul staple of my life. I learned so much from them and they didn’t even know it. I spent every summer with them and then some. Besides my Momma they were my parents too. My Momma says I am her mommas child. I idolized her. I have to say my life has become hers and I’d like to carry out her legacy gracefully. My Papa was a dedicated man to God and ministry and his family. Mama was the Proverbs 31 woman who stood by her man and lifted him up. I also miss Mama Flanagin. She use to come by mommas house every day just to watch Dakota sleep or play. She was precious. God…please tell them I love and miss them and Happy Grandparents day.

Another post f0r Grandparents day:

I am so glad my kids have these people in their lives as Grandparents. They have helped us teach our boys and always gave them wise words to live by. I always said when we had children that they would be just as close to their grandparents as I was mine and we made sure of it. They have had time spent with both sets. They love them dearly and also helps take care if them.

I’m Still Here, Trust Me

 Yes, I am still here, but hanging on by a thread. We have been so busy the past few weeks. 

The garden is coming to a slow close. All I have left is peppers, a few watermelons, and in a while we will be digging sweet potatoes. I thought I was going to get a small harvest of tomatoes before frost but horn worms got in and ate all the greenery off of the plants and ate the green tomatoes. So all I have is sticks. Sticks, I tell ya. 

We have gotten all the squash and zucchini we are going to get, and my freezer is so full. I’m very pleased with the harvest this year. I can’t wait to see how our sweet potatoes turn out. 

We celebrated our second granddaughters birthday. This girl is so goofy and sassy. She is tiny but fierce. And she is ours. Lol

 The day before her bday she was asked where she wanted to go for her bday and she said to Gmaws house. I felt so proud. So we had supper here for her and had her other set of grandparents for supper. 

The next day we had her bday party here. She loves Trolls 

Me and Poppie have been having so much fun with these grandbabies.  We have played, swam,  cooked, baked, rode tractors, taken naps, had picnics  and helped in the garden. 

Me and my momma have only gotten together a few times this summer which upsets me. This Covid thing messed everything up and still messed up. I don’t know about everyone else but I am so over it. However,  my parents are older and they worry about their health.  I respect that. The last time we got together, we grabbed Brylee,  which is Dallas girlfriend  and we went and grabbed our granny and went to town. I despise having to wear a mask but we respected my momma and wore one where required. I had to steal Brylee away from Dallas because he likes to hoard her and want share her with the rest of the family. Lol. I wanted to have a one on one day with her to get to know her better and kind of warn her of what she was getting herself into with this family.  Lol

Yes, her and Dallas have discussed their future  after they graduate and he goes into the service. They have discussed getting married although there has been no official proposal yet. Time slow down. 

Right now both are adjusting to virtual learning through our school. Students are not happy about the arrangements at school. They can’t sit next to their friends. They can’t eat lunch with them in the lunch room. These kids need normalcy again and so does everyone. The Elementary grades and Jr High grades are having so much trouble with their kids with internet connection trying to do virtual learning.  All cell phone companies are experiencing slow connection all over the state. Parents are so frustrated. High Schoolers seem to be doing better, especially Jrs and Srs because they have an easier schedule because they almost have all their credits so their classes are easier. Dallas and Brylee only have to go to the campus one or two days a week for their hands on classes or dual enrolled classes. Dallas has Ag  Mechanics and Welding. 

Dallas goes to school and works for a guy trying to set up an Aquaponics system. Then he goes to PT  for the military program. 

One day at PT they got a big surprise.  One of his school buddies that went through the same program and went off to bootcamp showed up and worked out with them. This was the first time that he got to come home since he graduated bootcamp because of Covid. Dallas said he worked them out so hard that he met Jesus a few times cause he about died. Lol. I’m glad he had fun. His friend had alot of stories to tell. 

Jossie has started her next semester and has changed her major to EMT and paramedic. She loves it. She wanted something high in adrenaline and, well, she will get it. She also got a job at a local hospital to at least get her foot in the door into the medical field. She will work part time but twelve hr shifts. I am going to have some full days ahead of me. Whew. 

I try to plan mine and the girls days so we are not doing the same thing everyday and get burnt out and so I can also keep up with my house. I try to do a little school with them too. We read, work on workbook pages with shapes, numbers and letters, crafts, and some days just have fun.

 They love helping in the kitchen. One day I got out recipe books and I let them pick out meals that looked good in the pics since they cant read yet. And we meal planned. Win win situation for me. I will be cooking alot again now for everyone.  There is no reason for Dakota to go home and cook when they can just eat with us and we can fix Jossie a plate and he can take it home to her. After we did some meal planning, we grabbed our grocery cart and I let them grocery shop for our ingredients from the pantries and freezers. They had fun. 

I’ve been trying to keep make ahead breakfasts on hand for people to grab and go for school. The girls still love their rainbow pancakes with whip cream and sprinkles every morning. So when we run out they help me make another batch to go into the freezer for quick mornings. This makes mornings so much easier. I make breakfast burritos,  egg bites, and muffins for grownups. 

One day the girls helped me make supper and I made a video of the girls preparing rolls and green bean casserole.  It was like they had their own cooking show. It was so cute.  I love doing these things with my little buddies.  They tell me all the time that I am their best fwiend….lol.

I am so in love with my Aero Garden.  I am growing so many things and playing with them. I love to just go over and snip anything I want fresh. I am even trying to grow a cherry tomato plant and see how it goes. My sweetheart bought me two more grow lights and some self watering pots. 

The girls love to help me pick out stuff to plant too. I have spinach and arugula too. 

We didn’t really do anything over Labor Day weekend except just rest and relax. There was some days I was just tired. Toddlers will exhaust you. Lol. 

Well, I hope this catches everyone up. Sorry I have been AWOL.  Lol. 

Last First Day of School

Well, its official. This is his Last First Day of School. Let’s do this. Dallas Dixon C/O 2021.

Good Supper

I don’t know what I just created, but I’ll just say it was delicious.  We’ll just call it cream cheese stuffed bacon wrapped chicken. Along with scalloped zucchini and squash.  🥒🍗🍽

 

I thought I’d go back and show y’all some pics of my Aero Garden from when I first planted my herbs to now.

Just a quote to ponder on:

Good Day

Gmaws Preschool Academy.

Science: watched a Cicada molt.🦗🐞🐛🦋 Poppie picked girls flowers. 🌹🥀🌺🌻🌼🌷

Drivers Ed: teaching them how to keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. 🚘🚙🚦🛑👀👀

Home Ec.: checked mail and played house. 🏡🏡🏡📬📬📬

Reading time: 📚📖📔📕📘

Lunch time: 🍌🍓🧀🥪🥤🍭

PE: playtime with Poppie..🤼‍♂️🤼‍♂️🤼‍♀️

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They LOVED their playhouse by the way.

 

 

Turn left over steaks into fajitas and make your own refried beans with canned pinto beans. 🥩🥩🥩🌶🌶🌶

I love my Aero Garden that my sweetheart got me for my bday. I love fresh herbs. We’re gonna see what we can grow during the winter too. 🍅🥑🥕🥬

Happy Birthday To My Sweet Hubby

The 7th was my sweet hubby’s birthday.

This was my tribute post of Facebook:

On this day 49 years ago, a very special person was born. All of his family knew he was very unique and and one of a kind.

I am so glad God saw fit to bring him into my life. I can be the first to tell you he is my angel sent to me from Heaven. He was born just for me I think. We could have met 6 yrs before we actually did but it was not Gods timing yet. When we finally did meet, we have never looked back.

I can personally tell you this man has so many qualities about him that make him so unique an special just like his family said he was, just because I have experienced every single one.

He has a heart, mind, passion,  dedication and loyalty for family.

Some of these things were not taught to him by example, it’s like he was born with instincts that you cant teach someone. Nanny says she does not know where he learned some of these qualities,  he was just born with them. If you truly know him, you know exactly what I’m talking about and know I’m not making this stuff up.

He is driven by a passion of providing for his family. He is not happy if he cannot take care of his family financially. That’s why he made a vow to better himself and work his way up to where he is today. He has always provided for our needs and then some. We have never wanted for anything. If I did, I never noticed because he was always a step ahead.

He is very nurturing in taking care of his family. He will take care of us when we are sick and wait on us hand and foot  and deny his own rest to make sure we are comfortable. He takes care of his momma and brothers and sisters and will do anything for them. He even takes care of my momma and daddy.

He is very loyal in his relationships.  If you are a friend of his, you have a friend.

He is and always has been loyal to me. His coworkers say all he talks about is his wife and family. He is always very upset when he has to go but lives for the day when the job is done so he can come home to me. The man had worked 12 hrs before and drove 18 hrs just to prove this to me. He always says some things are just not worth screwing up and loosing. I’m so glad. ❤❤ He said I can never leave because he would just pack up and follow me anyway. 😁

This man has more endurance and perseverance that I cant explain it. It’s like hes our personal Superman. It’s like he just swoops down and takes care of it. He does not like for me to stress or worry about anything. He just takes care of it all and how he does it, I have no clue.

He has a rough exterior because once a Marine, always a Marine. But dont let that fool ya. I know the sensitive teddybear too. 🐻

He is very serious about making men out of our boys. He is dedicated to making sure they turn out to be fine, responsible men who can hold their own and take care of their families. He knows their gonna mess up sometimes but he sure hates to see it but hes always there.

He loves to put smiles on little children’s faces especially at Christmas time. It’s what he thrives on and lives for.

And now we get to do this all over again with the next generation through our grandchildren.  They are going to be very blessed too and loved and taken care of. That’s just what he does.

We are so blessed to have him in our lives. I am not joking when I say he is a great brother,  son, husband and father and poppie all in one big bundle. And he is ours. We want to wish a very special person a very happy birthday and we love him very much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our oldest son cooked steaks for all of us and we spoiled him a little. Nothing compared to what he does for us.

The other night I created the ultimate pizza. Double decker pizza. It was so delicious.

We got up this morning and checked the last three row of corn. We got about 8 more dinners worth.  The corn is fading out but I am real pleased with what we harvested this year. We are still getting squash and zucchini andpeppers. The next batch of peppers we are going to try our hand at canning roasted peppers and Preserving them in olive oil. If you have tons of squash and zucchini that you don’t know what to do with, go to:allrecipes.com and all you have to do is type in your ingredient you have and tons of recipes will come up. It is pretty awesome. 

Good Week

It has been a good week. We’ve worked and played.

I’m still getting squash, zucchini and peppers out of the garden.

We have three corn rows left to harvest and we get some a little at a time. The tomatoes are fizzling out at the moment. I am going to try to see if I can get a second little harvest out of them. Sometimes I can, sometimes not. But I have done good this year. I am very pleased. Nothing makes me feel more secure than a full freezer and pantry. Dear hubby has helped alot. He knows when I need a rest and he takes over.

I’ve been cooking some good meals too with our fresh vegetables.

One night we had Italian meatloaf, fresh corn, squash and zucchini fritters, my homemade fermented and canned sauerkraut,  and pinto beans.

Tonight I did the ultimate. I made a double decker pizza. Yummy. 🍕🍕🍕🍕

IT’S JUST THE LITTLE THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY.  I told my momma years ago, about 15, to NEVER EVER get rid of this little house. She got it at a yard sale and it was Dakota and Dallas play fort for cowboys and Indians. She held onto it. Now it’s ours. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤🏚🏚🏚🏚🏚🏚🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠

Got handsome man to put me some pallets together and make them safe.

This has been a year long project. Took apart, pressure washed, painted, put back together and fixed up. Complete with lights and mailbox.

 I’m so proud,  my eyes are misty.

We’ve got to play some too.

 

 

Sunday Reflection

While all the world seems to be falling down around us and we are wondering what in the world is wrong with people, I just have to sit back and recompose myself and just pray and think.

Today is a day of relaxing, rejuvenating  and reflecting.

Whirlwind

It has been a whirlwind around here. Harvesting, canning and Preserving is upon us. We have been getting corn, squash, zucchini and peppers. I’m loving filling up my freezers and pantries again.

My sweetheart said he was here to make my life easier. Well, he did. He got me a food mill attachment for my Kitchen Aid so my process goes a little faster.

We are turning tomatoes into sauce.  🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅

This attachment is the bomb. It cuts my time down drastically.  I prefer running tomatoes that have been frozen and thawed out through it rather than fresh ones. I get more puree that way and they don’t have to cook down as long.

This stuff is liquid gold

One night I put my pressure cooker to work and made sweet and sour meatballs with fried rice and sauteed veggies. The sauteed veggies was all from our garden.

My Aero Garden is doing great. I think I’m going to put it to use during the winter and see what else I can grow inside.

We had a chance to have the girls over a weekend but we split them up to give them a break and they could have alone time with each of us. The first night we had Atleigh. However, she had fun with us but she cried for sissy. The next night we had Caroline. Atleigh did not want to leave. We had fun one on one time with each but they didn’t like being without one another so we want do that again. We’ve done it before and they didn’t mind and didn’t do that. We did it because you know how siblings fuss and fight. But this time was different. So next time, they will both be here. 😁 Gmaw want let them fuss and fight. 😁  The girls did a switcharoonie on us though.  Atleigh who is usually my buddy, was a Poppies girl this time. And Caroline, which is a Poppies buddy, was attached to me this time. Lol.

Just a girl and her Poppie.

 I had the best little helper in the kitchen. And when it was bedtime, we of course had to watch a movie with “nacks and juice”.

Cannot believe we have a Senior this year. My where has the time gone. Just yesterday he was my clingy, donut eating, kitchen baking, taste testing, football yelling, ride or die partner. Now, he’s daddys buddy. After 9 mths and painful labor he ditches me. 😥

Oh well, he will miss me when he leaves here next year.

Got a whole year ahead of us. Let’s do this Cool Terminator Cowboy Senior co 2021. 👨‍🎓👨‍🎓🕶🎓📚📒📃

He has to go two days during the grade rotation to get with all of his teachers and receive instructions for virtual learning. It will be called ReConnect. They will have access to their teachers should they have any questions or concerns or problems. They will set them up with emails, apps, links to websites and video calling so they can be a part of the class too. Some days he will be required to go to the school for his classes that requires hands on or dual enrollment like Welding. He is also signed up for a general medical class that will help him when he goes into the military. It’s pretty much what they did at the end of the school year when this all started but they have worked out alot of kinks and revised issues and I think its going to work great. There will be ways the teachers can contact me too if there is ever any questions I have or any problems arise. Also, if they want to transition back into traditional school which means going to the classroom, it will be easy for them. They will have to rearrange some of his classes so that the days he does have to go onto campus that his classes will be back to back so he only has to make one trip to school and when he is done, he can leave.

Jossie does not start school until the end of August and she is still learning how her classes will go. Some classes she will do online and some they will have to attend the classroom. They will do this on a rotating manner to keep class size down. It will be hard at first until they get a routine going and work out some kinks.

Well, I have to go pick some more veggies. Have a great day.