Exciting Photo Opportunity!

Just Sharing a great photo of Crystal and Joey that Grandma and her good friend Jane took today. Some of which may be used for an advertisement in the Tampa FL area. We shall see!!

Abigail eagerly waiting and listening to help

Sunday Inspirations

Good Morning or early Afternoon!

We are truly being Lazy today, Richard is in his office cleaning/organizing/puttering, the kids are playing Animal jam together and Crystal is finishing up mowing the back pasture- a true 2 day job but she likes to help out and is part of her chore since we bought the Horse for her. I'm starting to read a new book ( The Newcomer by Robyn Carr) and finish up the never ending laundry.

We are trying something new on Sundays~ Not leaving the house, total jammie day. So far, so good but I know this afternoon someone is going to get bored and want to go somewhere.

Whatever your Doing today, Make it a Good One!

Horse Ownership, Take 2

Today was a very busy but delightful day!

It started with a little horse show that Crystal, our oldest was in.

She did real good, won 3 Ribbons and $2.00!

The other 2 stayed busy daydreaming or playing with whatever they could find,

Then to end the day We went to go visit our New Purchase,

Meet "Joey"

You will be seeing lots of him in the future. We are working on boarding right now so he is staying with his old Mommy for awhile.

This new Mommy (me) has to get used to nightly stall cleanings again!

I'm joining these fun parties~

Between Naps on the Porch

Relaxing Sunday!

Sons Lego Minecraft Dude. He built it today. 

Did you Relax today? I did nothing important, fast trip to Wal-Mart with the Hubby/kids then home for a nice nap and now finishing up some laundry to get Hubby out the door tomorrow. The kids have Monday off for a Teacher Duty Work Day. 

Sunday Daydreams 2

Today finds us just laying around the house, Richard is sick and I'm coming down with it..fever,chills,cough and a sore throat, so far I just have a sore throat. While he takes a nap I'm folding laundry and sitting here watching Youtube while Crystal is off at the Stables helping with a big Birthday Party and the other 2 are playing games on their computer and watching silly shows on Disney. 

I'm going to try to join in on the Youtube "Vlogtober" where we film some sort of video every day in the month of October. Today is my 2nd day of filming and the vlog will be up later this evening. Here is our first one

You might need to go to my channel to view it, link is top right.

Today I'm Daydreaming about re-decorating our whole house. I'm just not getting very excited when I see pics of Country/Prim anymore. I find my eye really lights up when I see Cottage pics. I don't want a whole house full of Pottery Barn but this quilt is a Dream..

I just love this and it's top of my list and just keeps on growing! 

Do you have anything on your lists that your saving for? 

Daddy's Ham Shack!

Today Abigail and Richard helped Daddy build a Coax Tester!

You can read more about my Husband's New hobby, Ham Radio here...Adventures in Ham Radio

Richard is having so much fun since he earned his Call Sign..the kids are learning and meeting new people from all over, as long and as far  as the air bands allow!

He would like me to take the test and I'm thinking about it! Just think I could be talking to ya'll via Ham  Radio one day!

The Keeper~ Book Review

A family. A farm. A heart. All in need of repair.
Life on Windmill Farm hasn't been the same since Julia Lapp's father has had trouble with his heart. But that doesn't stop Julia from hoping for a bright future. She has planned on marrying Paul Fisher since she was a girl. Now twenty-one, she looks forward to their wedding with giddy anticipation. But when Paul tells her he wants to postpone the wedding--again--she is determined to change his mind. She knows who is to blame for Paul's sudden reluctance to wed: the Bee Man.

Roman Troyer, the Bee Man, travels through the Amish communities of Ohio and Pennsylvania with his hives full of bees, renting them out to farmers in need of pollinators. A mysterious man who relishes his nomadic life, Roman especially enjoys bringing his bees to Stoney Ridge each year. But with Julia seriously at odds with him, Windmill Farm is looking decidedly less appealing.

Can Julia secure the future she's always dreamed of? Or does God have something else in mind?

This is just a fun book that I read with no real review due on it. I really enjoyed this book and give it 5 stars, I will be eagerly awaiting the next one! Such an easy, simple plot to follow and lively characters.

I read this on my Kindle Touch..still haven't found a cover for it though.

Yankee Candle! The First in About 3 Years!

Today was a Wonderful day! The best that we have had in quite some time. We drove to Mount Dora and let the kids play on the huge playground there and then walked to the lake's edge and even saw a rare sighting of a Bold Eagle flying right over our heads, swirling in the high winds.

Then we drove to grab some lunch at the Sanford Mall, it was good but not as great as we remembered it. 

As a total surprise to me Husband let me pick out my first Yankee Candle in about 3 years! After about 1/2 hour of all 5 of us sniffing the jars we picked "Sweet Strawberries". I lite it as soon as we arrived home, it gives off a wonderful scent throw that I even smelled upstairs while folding laundry, A plus in my book since this house is huge! I gave it a good time to form a nice wax pool so hopefully it will burn evenly from now on.

I haven't bought a Yankee Candle in forever so I was surprised at how many more scents there are on the shelves now but was not happy that the price had gone up so much. We love that they are made in the USA though!

What is your favorite Yankee Candle scent? Do you change your scents month to month or by seasons?

Courageous: The Movie

Four men, one calling: To serve and protect. As law enforcement officers, Adam Mitchell, Nathan Hayes, David Thomson, and Shane Fuller are confident and focused. Yet at the end of the day, they face a challenge that none of them are truly prepared to tackle: fatherhood.

While they consistently give their best on the job, good enough seems to be all they can muster as dads. But they're quickly discovering that their standard is missing the mark.

When tragedy hits home, these men are left wrestling with their hopes, their fears, their faith, and their fathering. Can a newfound urgency help these dads draw closer to God ... and to their children?

Filled with action-packed police drama, COURAGEOUS is the fourth film from Sherwood Pictures, the moviemaking ministry of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. Viewers will once again find themselves laughing, crying, and cheering as they are challenged and inspired by everyday heroes who long to be the kinds of dads that make a lifelong impact on their children.

Protecting the streets is second nature to these men. Raising their children in a God-honoring way? That's courageous.

My Husband and I watched this the other night, We haven't been able to buy it yet but it sure is on the list of things to buy in the near future, he was able to borrow it form a co-worker . I had heard and seen the episode where "The Duggar's" had a small role in this film during a funeral scene so I was aware that a child had passed in the movie and I wasn't sure if we would like watching this because of how sensitive we are but even though it still had both of us in tears it was nicely done and did not focus on the child as much as other movies have done/do. In our opinion this is one of their strongest more emotional movies yet! We both warn you to have a box of tissues next to you while watching this movie. We have all 3 of the Sherwood movies, Flywheel, Facing The Giants and FireProof and now very soon this one. I was glad to see that they had added a few comedy scenes to lighten the movie. I'm not sure if I will let the kids watch this one, maybe our 13 year old but not the 2 youngest. 

Have you seen it yet and what are your thoughts?

Little Econ Trail

On Sunday we loaded up all 5 bikes on our new bike mount (lil guy's bike had to ride in the trunk), It was our first time loading 4 bikes on the new bike mount for my car so it was a rather long and stressful 1/2 hour but at last we were off. The weather was beautiful!

We rode for about 3 hours and only had 1 mishap...Lil guy and I collided and we fell and somehow I jumped over him inorder to not land on him, then Crystal looked back to find out what was going on and hit the wooded fence and went over the fence...Surprisingly no blood was shed by all 3 of us!

Experimenting and No Training Wheels!

So today my Husband Richard experimented with my Flip camera, he took it and mounted it to his bike after making a trip to Home Depot for the parts.

We tested it today while our lil guy road his bike with no training wheels for the first time today, we took the training wheels off before dinner last night and today he rode with only 3 falls. Thank goodness they were not bad falls!

This will be so fun for when we go on long nature rides. We wish we had thought of this while on our ride on Friday!

You can see the video of todays ride on my Youtube channel.

Linking up with Kristen's Creations

Sunday Daydreams

A nice road bike so I  can keep up with Hubby. I just finished riding 20 miles (slowly but I'm getting faster)

The new Kristen Coach bag, just because I love Coach..haha..

Okay, so every Sunday I'm going to share with you a couple of my Wants, just for fun.

I'm off to the grocery store with my Husband, it was a deal that if I finished 20 miles with him this morning he would go grocery shopping with me...He HATES grocery shopping!

Sunday Dreams

We are missing our first snow fall and our lovely fireplace, today I'm reminiscing.

Mother's Day 2011

I woke up this morning to a Pancake breakfast and homemade cards and gifts from my little ones. 

We are going to have an easy day today puttering around the house. What are your plans for the day?

Enjoy the day with your Mom and tell her how much you Love her, Each day is a gift!

An Amish Love~ Book Review

Two of today's most popular genres--Romance and Amish fiction--together in one volume.
"Healing Hearts" by Beth Wiseman: Levina Lapp and her husband Naaman are alone for the first time in 30 years. When Naaman left to visit cousins in Ohio, Levina wasn't expecting him to be gone a year. Now that he's back, will they be able to move beyond this estrangement and fall in love again?
"What the Heart Sees" by Kathleen Fuller: A tragic accident rocks a peaceful Amish community, leaving Ellie Chupp blinded and Christopher Bender's future shattered. But they find love and forgiveness in a place they least expect.
"A Marriage of the Heart" by Kelly Long: Rachel Yoder is tired of her Amish lifestyle and her domineering father's ways. When handsome Joseph Lambert comes back from the Englisch, she lies to force a marriage of convenience, providing the perfect means to escape her father's rule. But Rachel never imagined she'd fall in love with Joseph so quickly or irrevocably.

I enjoyed reading about the simple things in life..Amish dating, cooking, cleaning, going to Church every Sunday. This was an easy story line to follow as all 3 stories connected in some way by a character or 2. In each story there was a small problem or mystery to be solved and only in the Amish way can it be solved. I think I'll always enjoy reading and learning about the Amish!

This book was given to me by BookSneeze to Review, all opinions are my own.

Some Summertime Catch-up and Blog Renewal...

Summer time is all about family trips!! We drove to G'mas house in Huntsville Alabama to see family and watch fireworks.

We stopped at the L&N Train Depot and took the tour of the old cars and listened to videos. Lil guy loved this and was so excited.

We stopped at The Lost River Boat Tours in Kentucky but the wait for a tour was 2 hours and by this time we were all tired and opted not to wait, we def. want to try to get back there when it's not a Holiday weekend.

We stopped at a fireworks store called "Nervous Charlies" where we grabbed the fun stuff and the kids had to have a fast pic with the ape in front of the store, I think at one time he was powered because there was an electrical cord coming out of his foot. If this guy could talk huh....

It was so nice to build lasting memories with our kids and to see family! Now it's time to catch up on the laundry and get back into the ole routine.

P.S. these pics were taken on my Husbands phone and I'm not sure how to turn the pics, I'll see if I can fix them later. I have also placed a new Summertime background and pic, I wanted to refresh my page for those of you that visit me.

My Awesome $0.67 CVS Trip Today!

Today while DH and Oldest were away I ran with the other 2 kiddos to Walgreens and CVS, more on Walgreens later. These 2 trips were very fast ones, I had only a few coupons to go along with the sales that started today and I needed to buy some Sunday papers. I bought 4 papers and I'm glad I did, some awesome coupons here.

Here is a breakdown of what I grabbed:

2 Stayfree Pads Buy 1 Get 1 free $3.99
used 2 $1/1 coupons

Betty Crocker Warm Delights $0.88 sale
used 2 $1/2 coupons plus
1 $.75/2 coupon

2 Skittles Buy1 Get 1 $0.89

I also used a $5.00 ECB from last week along with my coupons

Total came to $0.67!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm going back for more after I clip my coupons, great week at CVS.

Now on to Walgreens, not a good trip. Kids were acting up and the young cashier didn't understand my coupons and how to ring them up and all I wanted was that awesome Dentyne gum deal this week so for now I'm slowing down on Walgreens . My receipt is so messed up I can't understand it and I'm very dissapointed I was not able to get some gum..

Which one do you shop at Walgreens or CVS, ever have a bad shopping trip at either one?

What Did We Do On Father's Day?

We rented a pontoon boat and jetski and spent the day out on Deer Creek of course!!

It was so fun and now I'm peeling and so is Hubby but we made such great family memories!

Some Wed. Tweaking and a Sunday Drive

I have had this picture for awhile now and today was the day to hang it in our bedroom next too our closet, I'm going with a English/Equastian? theme..more pics coming soon.

I'm slowly finishing this kit, the button was missing in the kit but I have a cute one in my stash.

This past Sunday was a fairly nice day, meaning no snow/rain, so we went for a drive with really no destination in mind. We ended up in West Virginia at the Henderson Hall and took a tour of the plantation. I'm in love with the clothes and DH took a pic of my fav. dress and the table setting was so delicate! Here are some random pics that I'll leave you drooling over.

 

  

  

  

  

 

Hope your enjoying your Wednesday!