The fields are alive!

Well it is that most lovely and beautiful of seasons when everything is in bloom.
The season where I fight the daily headaches and other allergy "aches" that I live with!
But I do adore this time of year, I love the sights and smells of everything turning green after a long cold winter! The flowers coming into their best display.....who could not love it!

So of course it does slow me down a bit, does not stop me......I still love to work in the garden and be as active as ever only it does slow down a lil bit for me. Gives me more time to reflect on the things I want to do : )

Saturday again!

I got off work this morning and thought I would join hubby in the yard, or garden as my lovely daughter-in-love calls the yard. while hubby was cutting the grass I set my goal on the lil flower garden I have in front. My goal one day is to see it in it's full glory as a full English garden!
Our neighbors were working on their yard as well, it was a lovely morning. They informed us that their two trees are coming down due to the fact that a family of squirrels have taken residence in their attic! I am sad to hear the trees are coming down as I love to watch them sprout every spring.

Hubby and I spent some time together just enjoying the weather and each others company before I took a nap. when I woke up the kids meaning Dan and Tracy were in high gear getting ready for their road trip. The kids are going to Az to visit my parents and sister and brother and their families! I sure hope they have fun out there! Of course being a mom I asked them to make sure to keep me posted while they were on the road.

For dinner tonight I am making some ribs on the grill and pasta salad. I hope to enjoy the rest of the day stitching and relaxing : )

Busy Days

Today we started to get our budget in order. I read a book by the Economides and I really liked what they wrote about, so much so that I shared it with hubby and he also liked it so now we are following suit and making our own budget book. We hope to see an improvement in our savings in a few months!
I did my daily chores and also put our menu in order, what made that easier was asking each of the kids what they would have liked seeing on the menu for the week! So we are having
today- baked fish and chipolte rice with veggies
Wed- ribs and tator salad
Thurs- pepper steak and rice
Fri- shepherds pie
Sat- grilled chicken and pasta salad
Sun- roasted chicken and veggies
Tomorrow is another day when I check the sales ads and get my shopping list in order. I don't really shop the "normal" way, I bulk buy sales items and stock my pantry that way. I have run low on a few things so I need to recheck my pantry and update my list.

I have found out that getting organized takes a lot of time! I updated my "brain" which is my big binder, changed some of the things in there and added a few others that are needed. Today I also clipped a few weeks worth of coupons and put them in my coupon folder.

Finally now I can relax and maybe stitch a bit!

Wedding Anniversary Getaway!

For our getaway we picked Tennessee! Pigeon Forge to be exact, we wanted to see the mountains! Even tho' it was still early in the year the views were amazing!
We ate at Lineberger's restaurant, great seafood! Hubby had oysters which to be honest I am not a fan of but boy did he enjoy it.
I opted for bacon wrapped scallops with a lil bit of pineapple salsa on top. It was sooooooo gooooood!
Best sweet tea can be found in your local McAllisters! We ended up taking 5 gallons home with us since we are not fortunate to have one of these great places in our area.
Taken at one of the lookouts in Gatlinburg.
We took a lil back roads tour and they treated us to sites like this! We had a fun tour and saw things that most folks don't get a chance too. We even came home with moonshine jelly and each of us got a buckeye.

On one of our walks we found this! a Paw Paw tree! I thought this was neat, my kids call my Dad Paw Paw!
Hubby and I at one of the lil waterfalls.
Hubby treated me to this wonderful, wonderful place!
This is the front of the house, I love this place!
because it is a bird sanctuary! My favorite creatures are parrots! isn't he glorious?
I love the lil parrots too! I called the yellow ones sunshine with wings.
After playing with all the birds, there must have been at least a hundred of them! We walked the garden trail and found the prayer garden! We sat and prayed for a few minutes before we left. This parrot place has scripture plaques everywhere along the garden walk. Loved it!
So many flowers growing everywhere!
The Smith Family dinner show was great! A lot of talent here! Dinner was fabulous as well.
Hubby was picked to take part in the hoola hoop contest! he was a great sport bout it! I kind of worried about his back, but he did great! Of course the women won! But the men were great to laugh at!
Yup! We had a wonderful time in the mountains!

I pray everyone has a wonderfully blessed Easter!

Time Flies!

I am always amazed at how fast time goes by and how much little time I do have to get things done! I am learning to not jump into the day and get task oriented until I have spent time with God! The temptation to just dive into a day is large as I think on what needs to be done! I am at the point now where I crave my alone time with Him : )

We celebrated my oldest son's birthday last week, we had to reschedule his birthday dinner to another day as everyone was working and everyone was getting off work at such odd times. Since they were little it has been the birthday persons choice for their dinner and cake choice.....well even though he is married and living in his own home with my daughter-in-love he did not want to let go of the family dinner! That made hubby and I feel good!!!!
He chose a traditional Mexican barbeque with a homemade German chocolate cake. So in spite of the rainy cold weather we geared up the grill for some hot flames and marinated the meat in some yummy spices and herbs......no chilies were involved.....not all Mexican food is spicy! I got the black beans simmering with a smoked turkey leg and garlic and onion, had the Spanish rice made and the tortillas and salsa were ready to go......the meat was seared in very hot flames....oh it smelled so yummy! Scents of summer on a cold wet day.....loved it! My daughter-in-love being from England was not too sure of this food until she took a few bites and fell in love with it.
After we filled our bellies with food we spent some time watching movies relaxing in the family room and catching up with each other....dreaming laughing.... until they started to grumble about dessert, they loved the cake!
German chocolate cake has been our official family birthday cake since my dad was a child! We cannot imagine having a birthday without one! whenever I make mine I always have memories of my mom and also of my "Grandma" I esp love how we use my parents pecans from their orchard for this special cake! It was a good day! So good to spend time with my family! Does my heart good.

I have also worked on my "brain" this past week and have fine tuned the scheduling and different lists that are in it. I think it will work! I am hoping it will make things go smoother around here. Hubby and I have so many to do projects in the making......it will be a very busy spring and summer!

Well I must get into the day as I have finished my coffee and bread.... time to get chores done! I would like to get done early enough to start making my Love Quilt squares.

tests! oh the pressure!

I have been taking some classes that are in the pre-req list of my journey into my future nursing career, my gov't class is one of them and boy oh boy is my head spinning with information overload!
So my plans for taking tons of pics and posting on a gregular basis and actually getting to know some of you......ok all of you : ) is on hold....kind of. I am trying to get my life in order.....making a home management planner, menu schedule, I do work part time so that is a big part of my life, making a walk the doggies schedule, basically I am trying to squeeze alot into my days!
Well back to the books for me!