Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing? It's time to bring out my fall coffee cup, the soybeans are turning yellow on the way to Granny's house, another sign of fall. The begonias are really putting on a show. We went to Kevin's side of the family's get together. School started back & I assisted Daughter with a Meet Up at the Park. Kevin hauled gravel, pushed dirt & burned brush. He butchered 2 roosters, I cooked them up in the crockpot for supper, maybe the best ones I've done yet. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you what we were making with the aluminum foil last week & show you how my tie dye turned out from the Meet Up.

My tie dye t-shirt was supposed to
have blasts designs. Let's see
how it turned out.

One of Grand's guinea pigs had babies. The babies are called pups. They start eating hay & food their 1st day. Come to find out, guinea pigs like peppers about the same as they do lettuce.

Picking peppers for the
guinea pigs. We had
plenty of extra.

  

The guinea pigs eating a
couple of the cut up peppers
 I gave them. They can't
have too much at a time.

One of the baby guinea pigs.
She had 2.

  

Both baby guinea pigs fit in my hand.
They are so cute.

What secret method do you
use to peel eggs?

I took meatballs & deviled eggs to the family get together. I read a blog last week asking what food would you hope to be remembered for. Back when the oldest Grands were little, they said I made the best grilled cheese sandwiches. My Mother-in-Law used to always tell me I could bring macaroni & cheese to our family get togethers, if that meant anything. I have always enjoyed cooking when I had time & still do. Thinking back, I had a career & not a lot of extra time to perfect my cooking skills through the years as much as I would probably have liked too. I've told this story lots of times & it's still funny to me... I had made a peach pie. In conversation with Daughter talking about having pie with supper, she asked, "What kind of pie did Dad make". We currently like my meatballs & gravy. I'm perfecting my deviled egg skills since we have plenty of eggs on hand to work with. 

We started back our Homeschool Day at Granny's. A couple of the things we did was play a card game & do a craft. We've started out this year playing a card game that seemed to go over very good, "Who Knows Geography Better". It involves things like reading, vocabulary, concentration, communication, critical thinking & doing research while learning about all kinds of stuff about the United States & around the world. We did one round & the kids wanted to keep going. I'll plan to do 2 rounds next week & see how it goes. We finished up the balloons we started last week. The balloons were made using aluminum foil & a laminator. It was a fun interesting project that involved lots of different skills such as creativity, following directions, measurements, fine motor skills, hand & eye coordination, problem solving, cause & effect, so many learning things we don't even realize we're learning about. The kindergartener got some one-on-one time for writing, reading, letter recognition & counting.  

My balloon, "Wooooo's ready for school".

Happy 12th Birthday
to Grand Tripp.

 

We hosted to celebrate Grand's birthday at our place. There were burgers, a family kickball game & the bouncy water slide. We had a cookie cake to celebrate during school for snack.

Grand had a friend over for his birthday party.
They worked on a Lego set together. 

The results of my tie dye 

Daughter's Meet Up at the Park for Daycare & Homeschool was a success. Daughter had activities planned for read alouds, games & tie dye along with free play on the playground & a picnic. It was hot & we had plenty of water. It was fun!

Investigating a cricket. 

These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods, how has your week been? Go out & have a wonderful weekend.

Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

 

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing? We did pretty much nothing this week, just hung out. We had breakfast for supper one night, the hens are laying good. It was the last week of summer since school officially starts back next week. I watched the kittens play for a while, walked around the yard discovering spider webs everywhere & picked up a few sticks. Kevin got the mowing done & put up some more okra in the freezer. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & as I think back, I realize we actually did plenty. What does doing nothing look like around your place?

Daycare Kids gave me a surprise
 treasure, what could it be...
A granddaddy long legs???

Me in the afternoon sitting in the blazing hot sun
underneath an umbrella watching Grand cheer at
the football game. They had a canopy with fans
 to help them cool down from time to time.

Me wearing my new fall sweatshirt
 cause it was a crisp 55 degree morning.

Me letting Grands try on
masks at the dollar store.

Walking around in the yard.

The young Rose of Sharon bushes
are still blooming. There are several
white ones to. So pretty!

Iris & her kittens.

  

  

The okra is still putting out &
it's taller than me.

The little poinsettia is putting on
some new growth. Wondering if
 it survives till Christmas?

Rose wanting me to throw
her a stick to fetch.

There is 1 ornamental gourd growing.

The knockout roses are making
another round of blooms.

Spiders on the fridge made by Grands.

Another spider web at
the chicken house.

I changed out the seasonal decorations to fall.

Granny having a popsicle
during last week's End
of Summer Water Party.

I asked Grands what they wanted to do for their last week of summer before we start back to homeschooling. I heard one of them say "play bingo with prizes".  So that's what we did, played states bingo along with some very competitive games of Trouble & kick ball. There were root beer & coke floats with biscuits & Granny's freshly made grape jelly. Grands visited with Granny about how life was when she was growing up a little girl.  Some of their take-a-ways - They didn't have a car & her daddy rode a horse to the store. All their farm animals were their pets. She was across the street from Woolworth's historical lunch counter sit-in when it happened. She talked about seeing a commotion, riding the bus that day when the seats were no longer segregated, how it seemed different, being asked to sit in her seat, she said "sure" & had simple conversation. Granny said she didn't think anything much about the situation at the time being only about 16 years old herself. 

My turn.

Find out next week what this is going to be...

    

Grand yellow won.

  

My surprise was........

 A piece of play kitchen toast. It was
 pretend yum yummm good &
I ate it all up. 

   

Daycare Kids made a beautiful
sandbox flower garden.

Time to reset & organize in
anticipation for Grands
to come again. 

These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods, how has your week been? Go out & have a wonderful weekend.

 


 

   

Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing? It's pumpkin everything season again here around our place. I made pumpkin muffins with the help of 2 of the littlest grandboys. There may have been more mix on the counter at one point than in the mixing bowl. The muffins turned out delicious anyway, maybe because of the almost full bag of chocolate chips we dumped in. I helped host the End of Summer Water Party for Grands & Daycare at Granny's house. She has the perfect backyard for such things. Grands went to the community Back-to-School Bash & got lots of school supplies. I've been watching some of that Lindsay Clancy trail this week & looking to watch the new season of Leanne that's coming out next week. Me & Kevin went on a good little trail ride & saw some fresh hog sign. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you about something else we saw that I didn't know even existed.

Daughter, Me & Sister being superheroes
of our own stories. The End of Summer
Water Party theme was Superheroes &
 Dinosaurs. Roarrrrrrrrrrrr!

Did you know there was yellow jewelweed? I guess I thought there was just the orange like we have growing along the creek. I don't recall ever seeing any yellow. I've been calling them nasturtiums. I don't know where I got that from.

Fresh hog sign.

As far as we could go on
this road. There were lots
of downed trees, most had 
already been cut out of
the roads.

Jewelweed

Grands were so excited to show me all the stuff they got at the Back-to-School Bash.

Grands have pen pals from
Michigan & Arizona so far.
We've been learning lots of
fun facts about other states for
this summer's 250th year
 celebrations.

These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods, how has your week been. Go out & have a wonderful weekend.

Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing? Goldenrods & blackeyed Susans are blooming, that means it's officially fall by my standards. August is flying by, so I guess that means we've been having lots of fun. We went on a couple trail rides. I helped host Cousin Camp & assisted daughter more with daycare & at her home. Kevin has been putting up okra from out of the garden & he went back to work. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you how many more kittens we got & how many wild blackberries we picked.

Son-in-Law has a nice spice
collection. I enjoy his 
grilling & taste tests.

When our kids grow up & become adults, things change that nobody really ever warned us about or talks about. We don't stop being Mom, we don't stop loving each other, we just stop being around each other. Everybody has jobs, their own lifestyle, their own home, their own schedules, their own responsibilities, their own people that need them. Time together becomes something we have to plan. We Moms may not be needed in the same ways we used to be, but there are still moments when we can step in, lend a hand & simply be there. Son-in-Law's Mother was hospitalized with serious ongoing heart problems. When something like that happens to the one's we love, everything else seems to take a back seat. While Daughter's Family focused on Mawmaw's care & recovery solutions, I was grateful to be able to help & assist Daughter with the little everyday things that needed to be done around her home - prepare meals, wash dishes, tidy up, fold laundry, take Grands to practice & help them with their pets, give the little one's baths, sub for daycare & simply just being there. I may have got on Daughter's nerves a time or 2 & that's all part of motherhood too, I know I couldn't take away the family's worry or the difficult circumstances, but I could lighten the load in small ways. Sometimes being Mom to adult children means showing up, rolling up our sleeves & doing whatever needs to be done with love & gratitude, giving them a little room to breathe. 

Walking tacos, meatballs & roasting
 hotdogs for supper.

Cousin Camp was a 5-generation celebration - a reminder of where we came from & the family we are now. Everything was about having a good time together laughing, playing & learning. We watched the movie The Mighty Macs on a big screen under the stars near the campfire. Sister provided unlimited popcorn.

Everyone ended up getting wet
either from the bouncy house water
slide or from Sister's idea of
 "wouldn't it be fun to have squirt guns". 

Reminiscing around the campfire.
 "Remember this" & Sister's very scary
ghost stories that everyone looks
forward to. 

Most of the birdies ended up 
on top of the house. 

Party time with July & August birthdays.

Happy 21st Birthday to Grand Austin &
 his wife Jessi. Happy 2nd Birthday to
Greatgrand Ash.

Greatgrand had a Mario 
birthday party at the pool.

Daughter made this adorable
Luigi & Mario fruit dish.

Our cat had 4 more kittens. I 
thought it was a bit too soon 
since she just had kittens
back in April.

These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods these last few weeks, how has your week been? Go out & have a wonderful weekend.

Kevin took a bowl on one
of our trail rides being eager
to pick enough wild blackberries
 to make a cobbler. We picked 0
berries. They were very
small & not many ripe ones
so, no wild blackberry
cobbler or jelly or anything
this year.