A day in the life of a lady seeking guidance from the Lord in the pursuit of being a godly wife, mother, and a Keeper at Home. The views and opinions of a lady who is a follower of Christ and a Bible believer. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:29:00 -0500 Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:29:00 -0500 Getting A Cast Exactly one month after turning 40, I had a cast put on my foot. This is the first cast I have had in 40 years of life. Almost 3 weeks ago, I turned my foot over walking up to my parents' house. This is a common occurence for me, so I didn't think anything about it. I turn my feet all the time. 2 days late my foot began to hurt and swell. I stayed off of it most of the weekend and by Monday it felt better. I repeated the same process the next weekend, but this weekend things changed. I was on my feet more this weekend getting ready for DD's birthday dinner. The pain started getting a little more noticeable. By Sunday morning, it still hurt a great deal. I didn't get much relief from the pain as I slept either. So, DH decided it was time for me to go to the doctor. I agreed because it was starting to get to me. I went to a foot doctor Monday morning at 11:00. They took x-rays of my foot. They believe I cracked a bone in the arch of my foot. He told me I could go for a MRI to confirm it, but the treatment he would recommend would be the same regardless. Since I dislike being in enclosed spaces and am scared of the MRI machine, I told him to go ahead and treat it. He put me in a soft cast which I have to wear for 2 weeks, which will make bathtime interesting. I also have to wear a soft boot which comes up to my knee when I am up on it, however he told me to stay off of it as much as possible. So needless to say things will be very interesting around here for the next few weeks. This isn't the first bone I have cracked. I cracked on on my ribs when I had bronchitis real bad. I have never completely broken a bone or required a cast before. Now that I am 40 it happens. LOL! I hate being immoblie. It isn't going to be fun. I hope I won't be to big or a burden on DH or DD. I hope I don't turn into a shrew. I need your prayers added to mine during this time. Lord, I pray for patience and courage. I pray that I can face this time of healing with dignity and grace. I pray that I can let the housework go for while I heal. I pray that I heal quickly so I won't have to another cast put on for an additional 2 weeks. I pray that I let my family know how much I appreciate what they are doing for me. I ask these things in Your Son's name. Amen!       http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/730056/ Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:29:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/730056/ Taking A Birthday Break DD's birthday is this coming Tuesday. She will be 20 years old. We are having a family dinner here tomorrow night. So I won't be posting again until Monday. I will be using all of my time doing cooking, baking, and cleaning prep. So until Monday! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/727872/ Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:08:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/727872/ A Recipe from the Farmhouse Cookbook This is one of my daddy's favorite desserts. It is another easy, simple recipe that is perfect for a hot summer day. It is just as good any time of the year. Cherry Yum-Yum ♦The Crust 12 graham crackers, finely ground 6 tsbp. butter, melted 1/4 c. of sugar 1/8 tsp. of salt Preheat oven to 350°. Combine cracker crumbs, sugar, and salt together. Stir in melted butter. Firmly press mixture into a pie dish or a small shallow casserole dish. Bake in oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Cool completely. ♦The Filling 1 - 8oz. package of cream cheese (softened) 1 - 12oz. container of Cool Whip 1 cup of sugar 1 teaspoon of vanilla flavoring Combine the sugar, the Cool Whip, and the vanilla flavoring in a mixing bowl. Cream them together until it is a stiff mixture. Cut up cream cheese and add it to the bowl. beat until smooth (until there are no lumps of cream cheese to be seen.) Pour into pie dish or casserole dish with the prepared crust in it. ♦The Topping 1 can of cherry pie filling Pour pie filling on top of the cream cheese mixture. This recipe can be easily adjusted to anyone's taste. We happened to like cherry. I have tried strawberry pie filling before. It was alright but there is just something about the taste of strawberries coming out of a can...well, they just don't taste right. I am sure peach or blueberry would be good as well as apple. Pumpkin not so sure about, LOL! Cherry Yum-Yum is also one of those dishes that go over real well at a covered dish dinner. Last time I made it for Chapel it was gone within 15 minutes time. Try it and enjoy!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/723878/ Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:32:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/723878/ Part 3: The Living Room Our living room is a very large open area. Its length goes from the front of our house to the back. We have made 2 different areas in it by using our sofa as a room divider. This is a view of our conversation area from the kitchen. The sofa is on the media side of the room. DH's preferred spot to sit is on the sofa. He is on his feet all day long at work. He likes to come home and put his feet up. DH works in a furniture factory. He reupholstered the sofa for us on a discontinued frame.The trunk beside the sofa was made by my daddy as another Christmas present. Here is a closer view. The next picture is a view of our front door. You can see part of our hugh picture window. The white chair was once DH's granmother's. The green chair belonged to my great-granddaddy. DH reupholstered both of those as well. The side table was given to us by DH's parents. The next picture is a view of my desk and our bookshelf. You get another look at the green chair and our picture window, too. I bought the desk from Walmart using the money I got for Christmas from my in-laws. DH is upholstering a desk chair for me. When he gets it finished, I will share a picture of the finished product. The bookshelf was built by daddy for a remodeling job he was doing. The client called him back a few months later to remodel again. He tore all he had built out. He brought all of it home with him. When we moved in he said we could pick out what we wanted. The next picture is the view from my desk. As you can see, I can still see the tv and I have plenty of room to spread out my scrapbook materials when I scrapbook. The ottoman behind the sofa is one of two DH upholstered. The ottomans are the companies to his and hers chairs DH upholstered as well. I will show those toyou in a minute. Here are the 2 chairs I was talking about early. They are positioned in front of our bar. I hope eventually to build bookshelves underneath the bar. The chair on the left DH built to fit his body frame. The one on the right he built for me. It has more padding in the back so I sit up more allowing my feet to touch the floor. For you see I am only 5 foot 1 inch tall. My chair is where I put my feet up and rest. The little table in between the chairs was built by, you guessed it, my daddy. You can see the sliding glass doors to the left that lead out on to our deck.   Opposite our chairs is our entertainment system. We have had it for along time. I believe we bought it at Lowes Hardware. It houses all of our tv viewing equipment; tv, vcr, dvr player, converter boxes (we don't have cable or satellite), dvds, etc.  We postioned it here so I could view tv while cooking or baking, if I so desired. To the right is DD's telescope, with all of our pillows in front of it. You can see the second ottoman. Here is this view. If you look closely, you will see one thing is missing from this room. Any guesses?..... There is nothing on my walls. I don't know what to hang on them. Family pictures, landscapes, mirrors,I just don't know. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them. We don't want to put any holes in the wall until we decide what we want on them. So that completes the living room tour. Stay tuned for  Part 4: The Master Bed and Bath.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/723875/ Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:28:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/723875/ God's Creatures On Our Farm I love animals. I believe I inheirted this love for animals from my daddy. I would have a farm full of animals if we had the room and money to care for them. DH loves them too and indulges me in this area. Right now, we have 10 chickens and 3 dogs. We have talked about getting a pig to raise for meat but DH is hesitant. He knows I get easily attached. We have also toyed with the idea of goats. Anyway, lets get to the few animals we do. As I said we have 9 chickens; 1 rooster and 8 hens. Our rooster's name is Cornflake. You will see why we named him that when you see his picture. He used to roam free in our yard with a hen. When the hen was killed, we put him back in the hen house with our other hens.     Cornflake is a dandy. He likes being the center attention. Can you tell? He is a beautiful bird. If I knew more about showing chickens, I believe I could have won with him. We like the looks of the Buff Orpington and hope to raise more in the future.   Our other 8 chickens are Barred Rocks. They are all hens and live in the chicken house. We raised them from peeps. They don't have individual names. We refer to them as the pee-pees. Our chickens provide us with 8 eggs a day . I use as many as I can and sell the rest.     We have  dogs; 1 outside dog and 1 inside dog. Our outside dog is a lab mix. She was set out beside our mailbox on a cold winter day. Her name comes from the fact we found her on a snowy morning. We named her Snowflake. Her name surprises everyone. You will know why when you see her picture. We have to keep her on a runner because she won't stay out of the road. She is our alarm dog. Her runner is near our garden beds. That has kept alot of critters out of our garden beds, including rabbits and groundhogs. She is great to have around. She keeps the opossums and racoons from coming in our yard. She has also kept the coyotes from coming to close.  Her doghouse use to be an old well pump-house.     Our inside dog is our my spoiled child. Her name is Annie Oakley. We call her Oakley. She has bought alot of joy to our lives. (I know alot of people don't understand how people can become so attached to a dog or any other animal for that matter. All I can say is that she fills a void in our life that because of certain circumstances couldn't be filled any other way. I will explain that fully one day.) She is a very intelligent dog and can do several tricks. Here is our Annie Oakley. I love the first picture. It really looks like she is talking to her toys. She can identify each one of them. We can tell her to go get her puppy and she will return with her puppy. The same with the bunny. The second picture is her begging trick which usually insures that she will get what she wants, especially if she sticks her tongue out too. The third picture she is waiting for her daddy to get home. I don't know how animals do it but they can tell time. She knows what time he will be home and if he is a little late she will stare at the door until he comes home. Well, that is our very small collection of farm amimals. If we add to our collection any time soon I will let you know.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/723636/ Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:38:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/723636/ How We Named Our Farm Our farm isn't a working farm. Right now, it is only a hobby farm. One day, with the knowledge I hope to gain and improvements we hope to make, I would like it to become a part of a home-based business of sorts. With that in mind, I thought it was only appropriate that we name our farm. First, let me give you a little history of our land. Most of our land was once part of the land owned by my great-grandfather. He bought 2 homesteads and  combined them into a working dairy farm, in the 1920s. My grandfather was his youngest child and inheirted the farm.  He took over the dairy operations. My father grew up working on the farm. When he married, he bought some of the land from my grandfather and built a house. My grandfather got out of the dairy farming business and went into the landscaping business. Eventually, my uncle bought some of the land and built a house. Now, several of us grandkids live on some of the land. The land we own was once part of my father's land and my grandfather's land. My father or daddy (that is what I call him, although I am almost 40 years old) gave us the land our old trailer sit on and we bought the land our new home sits on from my grandmother. The land our new farmhouse and buildings sit on once housed the pig pens and then a mulch pile area for the landscaping business. I love blackberries and they grew abundantly around this area.  Behind our old trailer we had a bank area that I made into a large flower bed. I kept this area weeded and cleaned out. I kept trying to kill what I thought was wild rose bushes. When I asked my daddy for advice on how to get rid of this pesky plant, he looked at them and said they were blackberry briars. Since then we have left them along and let them take over the bank area.The exsistence of those blackberries is where the Blackberry part of the name comes from. We live very near the road and part of our land was once part of a state road before they straightened out a sharp curve and changed the road. Our old trailer actually sit on the old road bed so that is where the Lane part of the name comes from. A working Farm is what I hope our 1.3 acres will eventaully become. I already sale eggs from our few chickens. I hope to expand on that idea some how and start selling produce at a roadside vegetable stand. That is why I am here at Homesteadblogger. I look forward to meeting and making new friends.  I want to learn new ways and  get advice on how we can become more self-sufficent. I want to learn from more experienced farmers and homesteaders. So any help or advice I can get will be greatly appreciated.  Stayed tuned for an introduction to our farm animals. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/723634/ Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:35:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/723634/ Strawberry Frozen Delight Cake I found this recipe in a little book called Simple Mealtime Ideas from KRAFT that I picked up for free at Walmart. I tweaked the recipe to suit my family's taste and gave it a different name. The original name was Strawberry Whipped Sensation with OREO. The recipe called for an oreo bottom and the use of Cool Whip. I changed the bottom to a graham cracker bottom. (I am not a big fan of chocolate and strawberries together. As a matter of fact, I think DD is allergic to the combination of the 2.) I replaced the Cool Whip with real whipped cream. So here is my tweaked recipe. Strawberry Frozen Delight Cake 2 cups of fresh strawberries (can use frozen, may need to thaw a little) 1 - 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk 1/4 c. of lemon juice 2 cups of whipped cream (I c. of heavy cream, whipped w/ a little sugar & vanilla flavoring added, to taste, or use 2 cups of Cool Whip.) 1 c. of graham cracker crumbs 2 tbsp. butter, melted Line a loaf pan with foil. Mash 2 cups of strawberries in large bowl. Stir in condensed milk, lemon juice, and 2 cups off whipped cream. Pour mixture into lined pan. Cover with foil and place in freezer while you prepare graham cracker crust. Combine graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Take pan out of freezer and press the crumb mixture on top of the strawberry mixture. Recover with foil and place in the freezer over night. To serve invert pan onto a plate.Remove foil. Let it thaw some before you serve it, around an hour or so. We cut it with a bread knife. Be sure to put any leftovers back in the freezer as soon as possible after serving it. This cake tastes like strawberry ice cream. It is very delicious. I took this to my in-laws for a cookout the first time I fixed it. It was a big hit. My FIL asked for seconds which is a rare thing for him, because he is very picky. The original recipe calls for 2 cups Cool Whip to be put on the cake as frosting when you take it out of the pan and remove the foil. I haven't tried that yet, but when I do it will be real whipped cream. It also calls for strawberries to garnish the top. If you want to make the OREO bottom; the recipe calls for 8 oreos, finely chopped combined with 1 tbsp of butter, melted. So whichever recipe you decided to make, I am sure you will like this dessert. It is a perfect dessert for a hot, humid, summer day. However, it will be a delightful way to bring back summer on a cold winter day. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/723631/ Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:30:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/723631/ Welcome to Blackberry Lane Farm, where the Sills family live on their 1.3 acres of God's green earth. The 1.3 acres He has given dominion over. The 1.3 acres He has given us to till, plow, tend, and protect. Join me as I give you a photo tour.  Here is a picture of our farm house, our home.   Our home is a double-wide mobile home the Lord has graciously provided for us. For the first 19 years of our marriage, we lived in a 1968 single-wide trailer. It was strudy and comfy. It provided us with shelter and a place to call home. With a change in DH's job situation and a steady, secure income the job change bought; we were able to afford our new home. Here is a view of the front of our home and our front porch.   We have plans to build a bigger porch, but that will have to wait until the funds become avaiable. I have 2 window box planters hanging from the rail. A chair is sitting in the corner by the front door. I have a flower pot full flowers and small decorative items sitting in the opposite corner. We live in a rural county and in a community that is slowly losing its farm land to housing developements.  We are still blessed to be surrounded by farm land and have beautiful views surrounding us. Here is 2 views from our front porch.   DH spent one of his July 4th vacation weeks to build our beautiful back deck. I helped him stain it one weekend. We eat out on the deck in the spring and fall when the weather permits it. We used the deck to hold our DD's homeschool graduation ceremony. Here is our back deck.   Over his Christmas vacation week 2008, DH constructed our firepit area. I gave him a firepit as his Christmas present. He used salvaged paving brick from a walkway at our old trailer to make a brick patio. He used landscape timbers to lay off a flower bed area around the patio. This spring and summer, I have been adding flowers to the area. We have built several fires and enjoyed the evenings and nights around the fire. Here is our firepit area.   Here is a view of the deck and firepit area.   Here are some views from our back deck.   We have several out buildings. We have a chicken house, a camper shed, and a building made out of 2 buildings we put together. DH built our chicken house out of rough cut lumber, again over one of his July 4th vacations. Here it is,(and if you look real close you can see one of our Barred Rock chickens sitting in the window.)   Here is our camper shed which usually holds our pop-up camper. (DH is storing our lawnmowers in it right now, because he is using the lawnmower shed to store engine parts in from a motor he is taking apart.)   Here is the building we made by putting 2 buildings together. The half with the white door used to be a laundry room that was built onto the back of our old trailer. The other half with the bigger door was a storage building. We moved both of the buildings and married them to each other to make one big building. Both halfs are still separate, in other words you can't get from one side to the other. The half with the white door in now my garden shed and hoilday storage area, as well as a tool shed for DH. The other half is our lawnmower shed/project work area. We painted the building to match our home.   Beside this building is my clothes line. I enjoy going out and hanging up the laundry. It makes me smile to see clothes flapping in the wind. It is also a great way to help reduce the power bill. You can see our rain barrel in the picture, too. We use this water to water my flower pots and our flowers and trees in our yard.   I garden in raised garden beds. I have found it is easier for me to manage and I can grow enough for the 3 of us to eat and perserve. I hope to build a few more beds in the future. Here are our current 3 beds. (These pictures were taken in the early summer. The beds don't look as pretty in the late summer.)   We compost as much material as we can. We have to compost bins. Here they are. The bigger, fuller looking one is the one we are letting rot down to put on our garden beds next spring. The smaller, empiter one is the one we will fill this spring, summer, fall, and winter.   Since we have a firepit, we have started a wood pile. Here it is. Well, that ends my tour of our little farm. I hope you enjoyed it. Stay tuned to learn how we came up with the name for our little farm.         http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/723627/ Wed, 9 Sep 2009 14:25:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/723627/ Hello, this is user strs. I started this blog way back in the summer of 2007. I have enjoyed blogging and getting to know people here, especially a few very special people. I had a hard time blogging though. I tried to blog the way other people blogged here, instead of following my own path. I tried to do and keep up with memes. I tried to run a weekly meme of sorts, but I couldn't keep it up. I tried to blog daily and felt pressured to do so. That is when bloggers' block set in. Blogging wasn't fun anymore. So, I took a step back, took a 3 month break, did some editing to this blog, and came up with a new plan. I now feel ready and energized to blog again.   STRS are my intials, which stand for Shannan Tafy Richey Sills. I go by my middle name, Tafy. An unusual name I know. I really don't know how my parents came up with the name. There was something about them being at Myrtle Beach and seeing a Saltwater Taffy sign, but who knows. And yes, saltwater has been a nickname of mine over the years. Anyhoo! I am a country girl born and raised. I am a proud southern whose family goes back in this area for more than a 150 years. I love my God, my family, my country, and my roots. I have been married to my high school sweetheart for 21 years, going on 22. We have 2 daughters; one in heaven and one here on earth. Both were born prematurely.  Our oldest was 18 weeks early and lived only 3 days. Our youngest was 14 weeks early and spent the first 3 months of her life in the hospital. Through many answered prayers and by the grace of God, she lived and has grown into a beautiful, healthy young lady of 19 years of age. We are striving to walk closely with the Lord. We want our lives to reflect to love and glory of God. We want to lead a godly life and not be conformed to the things and the ways of this world. In our pursuit, we realized that learning to live more simply and learning how to provide for ourselves should become part of our lives. An Amish lifestyle is not the goal, but we do realize there are material things we can do without. Although DH does work outside the home to provide us with income, we do all we can to ease the finanical burden the world tries to put on us. We garden and raise chickens for eggs. We try to live as frugally as possible, but DH never deprives us simple pleasures; such as trip to the beach,  to the mountians, to the movies, to a resturant, or to an ice cream store. We go to a little non-denominational church having left a major denomination over their  refusal to identify the struggle of homosexual behavior as a sin, along with other issues.  (The hierachy of the denomination was under attack from the Gay agenda activist and refused to take a stand.) Our little church stands firmly on the Bible and the adherence of its truths. Not legalistic, mind you, but the truths and guidance it gives. They made all of us feel very welcomed and loved. After attending for a little over a year, DH was voted in as a deacon. We homeschooled our DD from 7th grade through graduation. Her first years of school were spent at a local public school. I went to college and have a degree in elementary education. I wanted to teach full time, but the Lord had other plans for me. Little did I know at the time no job offers came, He was preparing the way andmaking it possible for us to homeschool. DD graduated last summer with a lovely ceremony held here at our farm. I love to read, especially books about the Amish and  Mennonites. Beverly Lewis being a favorite author. I like to cross-stitch and embrodier. I like to scrapbook and have many albums planned or in the works. I like visiting historic sites. The Biltmore Estate is a special favorite of mine. Disney World is  our number one family vacation spot. We have a Disney cruise planned for our 25th wedding anniversary. We enjoy going to the mountains and the beach. I like to swim and am  given  unrestricted use of my in-laws pool. Flowers bring a smile to my face and I enjoy growing them. Dogs are my favorite among the animals. Well, that is a little info about myself. More than probably some of you wanted to know. Ready or not, I am back in the Homeschool Blogging World! I am looking forward to getting to know to old friends again and making new ones! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/723622/ Tue, 8 Sep 2009 14:09:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/723622/ Starting Over, Kinda Of Hello, again, everyone! I am just about ready to start posting again. I plan on putting up the first post, next Tuesday, Sept., 8th. I have a plan and an idea of how to run my blog now. I think my reworked plan will make it easier on me to post and keep up with comments. I had almost decided to close this blog and delete all of my posts. I just didn't feel like I was reaching anyone or that anyone really cared that I was absent. If it weren't for a few loyal, faithfully, caring friends; I would have ready done so. I want to thank those fews wonderful dear friends for letting me know that you missed me and were excited to know I was coming back soon. I have been blogging at another blogging site since June. I have found the bloggers there to be very caring, warm, welcoming people with whom I share alot in calm with. In the past 3 months I have had almost 1/3 of the people that have visited this blog visit my other blog just since June. I have been left comments on almost every post I have put up. I am not blaming or pointing fingers at anyone. I know how busy homeschoolers are. I also am no longer homeschooling, because DD is now in her second year of college. Maybe that has something to with why I wasn't getting much traffic. Maybe it was because I was sharing things that were unpopular or views not shared by most. Maybe, there are just too many bloggers here to keep up with. I don't know. I won't be sharing my other blog address, yet. If traffic here doesn't pick up in the next few months, I will probably delete this blog and share my other address with my few loyal, faithful friends, because I don't want to lose those sweet connections. Please don't take any of this as if I was eating sour grapes. That isn't it. I share no ill feelings toward anyone. I started this blog as a way to carry on the Titus 2 mandate. If I am not reaching anyone here than I need to move on to where it is helping someone. Until September 8th! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/723617/ Thu, 3 Sep 2009 13:25:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/STRS/723617/