Spare Time

In my spare time I like to keep my hands busy. In the summertime I find myself knitting new wash cloths for my kitchen. Bright colors seem to jump into my basket when yarn shopping. I save them for when the weather turns gray and dreary (usually end of October or November). Then when I bring them out I remember sitting out in the backyard on sunny days watching the little ones play in the pool. I feel like I've knitted summer into my life somehow.

A few done - I may do a few more before baby arrives

Have a wonderful day - off to do chores so that I can enjoy spare time this afternoon.

Happy Birthday!!

Today is my sweet hubby's birthday. He has been such a blessing to my life. He is an incredible, Godly man and he impresses me daily with his commitment to God and his family. He works two jobs so that I can stay home with the kids and I can never thank him enough for that gift.





Happy Birthday Sweetheart. I love you!!

P.S. We really do have seven children - the older ones just always seem to escape when the camera comes out (teenagers!!!)

Berry Fun

They were finally ripe - the berries we had been waiting for. It was now time! This Saturday we went berry picking. Raspberry jam is one of the important staples around our home in the winter time (according to all the kids!) So our morning was spend in the raspberry field.

The little ones helped.
The big ones helped (my sweet hubby picked LOTS)

And all the ones in between helped

We ended up with several boxes of these:
Which soon ended up looking like this:

That was cooked down (MMM smells good):

And ladled into jars:

Oops, shoulda worn an apron!! And the final product - 45 pints of yummy jam.

Saturday was a busy day but it feels so good to know that those jars are waiting to be opened this winter - ready to spread summer berries on warm biscuits and scones.

Beauty

This is why it is called a Butterfly Bush!! This bush is outside my bedroom window and I love watching all the beautiful butterflies flock to it every summer to sip it's sweet nectar.

Garden joy

One of my very favorite things to do is garden. This year I had to choose which gardens to concentrate on as morning sickness and my oldest son's graduation events sapped too much of my energy to work on both flower and veggie gardens. So I picked my veggie gardens to work on. I love providing good food for my family!!! I won't be showing any pictures of my flower beds (WAY to many weeds!!!) but I will give you a tour of my veggie garden.

This is where my garden gloves almost always end up.
Dirt feels so good!!!
Weed free after a long winter

Helping Mommy plant good things to eat.

One of the best things about gardening!!!

Waiting for things to grow!!

Yeah, things are comming up!!

Another fun thing about gardens!!!

My garden now!! Summer is here! Peas almost ready for harvest. Can't wait!!

Lettuce about to be picked for a yummy salad!!

One of the reasons I love to work in the garden so much is that my mind seems to go directly to God. It's a great time to meditate on Him - the beauty He made, His plan to provide for us from the beginning, how He carefully tends to me and my family like I carefully tend to my garden. He is so faithful and I feel very blessed to have this little patch of land to grow wonderful things!!

Blessings,

Mom of lots

New Blogger

I am a brand new baby blogger. My friends Simply Stork and Ross' Cottage inspired me to start this venture. I am rather computer backward so it may take me time to get the hang of things. I love my job as a Mom and homemaker so I hope this will be fun for me and anyone who stumbles across this blog.