Oh, it felt so good outside this morning.  It was 64 degrees.  My DS#2, who runs cross country, should enjoy his 6:30am run this morning.  It feels really good.  Fall is my favorite time of the year.  The cool is so refreshing after the Texas heat of July and August.  This morning was a blessing to my spirit.

Why was I outside so early this morning?  Well, little Miss Lily Mae is quite the prima donna, and doesn't like to walk outside when it is wet, so I had to carry her outside when I got up.

My washer has been broken for over a week.  I've become a fixture at the neighborhood washateria.  The repairman is to come first thing this morning to fix it.  Yippee!  My washer is old and worn out.  We're having to repair it about every 3 or 4 months, and this current problem was fixed back in February.  DH will not even discuss getting a new one.  Oh well, as long as it gets fixed today, I'll be a happy woman!

Today's job is the pears.  I gave away some yesterday, but still have a lot.  I'm going to take some to Miss Ruby, an elderly lady at my church who is just a sweetheart.  She'll want me to stay and visit when I take them to her, so I'll block out some time this afternoon for to call on her. 

I just really like older ladies.  I always have, since I was a child.  I always liked to speak to the older ladies at church when I was a child.  There was Miss Anna, who to me was 100 years old (not literally) and lived in a shack, but she always had a kind word for me.  Her little shack was so dark and was heated by a warm morning wood stove.  She liked to quilt.  Every young lady in the church got a quilt top when they got married.  I so looked forward to getting a quilt top from Miss Anna when I married, but she had gone to heaven by then.  Some of my fondest memories are of me and my friend Malinda baking Christmas cookies and delivering them to the older ladies in our church and we sand Christmas carols to them while we were there.  Then there was Miss Flossie.  Everyone loved Miss Flossie.  No Sunday was complete without a hug from Miss Flossie.  There was Mrs. Steelman who was always graceful and dressed meticulously.  She always joyfully welcomed our Christmas cookies and singing.  There was my neighbor, Mrs. Bledsoe.  She had quite the social life, and I loved seeing her sparkly dresses.  I was always welcome in her home, and went and "hung out" there frequently.  Mrs. Bledsoe was very thin, and she always talked about wearing her "falsies" with her evening dresses.  I always thought that was funny.  It took me a while to figure out what "falsies" were.  Mrs. Bledsoe always had a tea cart in her living room with a silver tea service on it.  I thought it was the most elegant thing I'd ever seen.

I hope that I can be as graceful and loving in my advancing years as these ladies were to me.

Blessings to you,

Karmann

My father gave me a big tub of pears.  I guess it is time to make some pear butter....and perhaps give some away, too.  I need to find a recipe for pear butter.  I'd really rather make jelly.  Oh well, I'll let you know what I did with all those pears.  I'm not going to tackle them until Tuesday.

Winston is improving just a bit.  Week before last he was so pitiful.  I cried all week.  Wednesday of that week he met me at the door when I got home from church.  He also barked at my husband when he came in.  These were things he hadn't been able to do in about 2 weeks.  This past week he seemed much more like his old self.  I took the dogs out to my dad's place, and he was trying SO hard to run in the field.  It was more like a loping limp, but he was trying.  He is getting better.  Yesterday was a rough day-he was in a lot of pain, but he seems to be pain free today.

Speaking of dogs, we have a new one at our house.  I found a sweet little dog on petfinder.com.  I took a road  trip to Brownwood, Texas to pick her up from the Brown County Humane Society.  She is a sable & white parti-color American Cocker Spaniel.  She is skin and bones, but she's eating all the time.  She won't be so skinny in a couple of weeks.  She is the sweetest little dog.  She is about 3 years old and was abandoned at the humane society.  She had just had puppies, but they were not left with her.  She had been someone's pet, I'm sure.  Well, she has a home with us now.  Beauregard and Winston just ignore her.  She is friendly, sweet and quiet.  She is a cuddly little dog.    Here she is after a grooming session and a bath.  she also has on her party collar!

She was spayed the day before I picked her up.  She also has her own health insurance and a microchip for identification.

If you want a loving pet, check with your local shelter, humane society or breed specific rescue group.  There are lots of wonderful dogs who would love a "furever" home.  All three of mine have come from a shelter or rescue.  We have turned into a cocker spaniel haven!

Blessings to you,

Karmann

Last week, my sweet little cocker spaniel, named Winston, began acting strangely.  Now, I got Winston two years ago from the local Cocker Spaniel rescue group.  He was one year old at the time and quite neurotic.  He shook all the time.  After a month or so in our house, he had stopped the shaking bit, but remained somewhat neurotic, and we discovered he was actually quite stupid.  Nope, he isn't the brightest bulb in the fixture, but he sure is cute, he loves me, and that is all I need from him.

Anyway, last week, Winston was back to shaking all the time, and sleeping by the door, not in his bed on the end of the couch.  Saturday I asked DH to take him to the vet, but DH said he was fine and didn't need to see the vet.  Well, Sunday morning, my sweet little Winston couldn't walk.  He was stumbling and dragging his hind legs.  We got in to see the vet on Monday afternoon.  They determined that Winston had hurt his back quite badly-probably from jumping.  Yes, he loves to jump over things instead of going around them.  They prescribed pain killers, muscle relaxers and steroids.  Then the vet said he needed to go to a chiropractor.  I was thinking "I didn't know they had canine chiropractors" as the vet proceeded to tell me to see Dr. Wright, who I happen to know is a people chiropractor.  I looked at him rather puzzled, and he said "yes, she sees animals, too". 

Tuesday morning off we go to the Chiropractor.  She was very sweet and Winston didn't mind what she did to him.  Wednesday, he seemed to be getting around a little better-at least he wasn't shaking and he actually barked at something.  (Not only is he a jumper, he is a barker.)  Thursday he was much worse-his hind feet were folding under and he was just dragging his hind legs.  Yesterday the chiro said it wasn't looking good.  Perhaps he has a spinal cord compression and we could be looking at a permanent condition.  She said as long as he can manage to get around, his bowel movements aren't affected and he's not in pain, he could stay like this.

I lay in bed last night and cried and cried for hours.  I'm so very sad.  My sweet little bouncy dog is now such a sad and pitiful little guy.  He can't even bend his head over to eat or he will fall over.

These little guys sure do get in our hearts!

Blessings to you,

Karmann

Well, the apples never made it past the applesauce stage, which is fine because the kids scarfed it down.  They have been having applesauce with breakfast.

It sure did take a long time to cook that pumpkin.  I got enough cooked pumpkin for at least 6 pumpkin pies, or batches of pumpkin bread, muffins, etc.  I did get sick of the pumpkin smell.....my whole house smelled like cooking pumpkin (not pumpkin pie smell, cooking pumpkin smell) for a day or so.  Not an unpleasant smell, just one I got really tired of.

This week, I think we will be trying to can some hot sauce.  The boys eat it constantly, so I told them if they would help me, we could make some and can it this week.  I'm running out of storage space for the canned stuff.  Oh well, I'll find somewhere to stash it, I'm sure.

My daughter decided to do some gardening yesterday.  She was telling me what needed to be done to our empty flower beds on the back of the house.  I told her "by all means, do it yourself".  She researched shade loving plants that can tolerate 100+ temps and made a list.  We went to the nursery and bought a few plants.  When we got home, I showed her some plants that she could move into that area.  I explained that this is preferrable approach, as we know they will grow here and tolerate the heat.  She worked all evening planting and transplanting and putting down a brick border.  I was quite proud of her, as she has never been one for much gardening.

Hope you are all having a blessed Lord's Day.

Blessings to you,

Karmann

Today I need to deal with the apples and pumpkin that are on my kitchen counter.  I'm hoping the apples will become apple butter (with a lot of help from me) and the pumpkin needs to be cooked and frozen for pumpkin pies later this year.  I've never done either one, so here goes......I'll let you know how it all turned out.

Blessings to you,

Karmann

Do you wear aprons when you're working around the house?  I have many aprons.  I almost always wear one in the kitchen.  I have some "pretty" aprons for when company is coming, and then I have the big, California Culinary Academy (no, I didn't go there, I bought it at a resale shop) apron.  That is the messy job apron-jelly making, canning, bread making apron.

I try to wear one when I clean.  I do use bleach at times when cleaning, so I try to wear the above mentioned messy job apron, as it is white.  I'd rather have bleach spots on the white apron than on my clothes, which has happened far too often of late.

You can sign up here for an apron give away.

Apron Give away

  If you don't wear an apron, enter this give away and maybe you'll get one!  Try it, you might like having an apron.  They are quite handy and really do protect your clothes from red stuff (kool-aid, tomato anything), grease and bleach.  Not to mention the pockets are quite handy, especially when you're putting clothes on the clothes line-I load the pockets with clothes pins.

The weather here is very warm this week.  I put all the laundry on the clothesline yesterday.  Each load was dry in about 30 minutes, and the laundry smells SO good after being on the clothesline.

Blessings to you,

Karmann

Well, I got this entry all typed up and zapped it into space.  I hate it when I do that!   I'll try this again!

July was a busy month here at our house.  The second week of July took us to Louisiana to visit my in-laws.  The visit with my DH's immediate family was the usual tension filled, basically unpleasant, visit.  I did enjoy the time I spent with my new MIL.  She is such a sweetheart!

We had a wonderful visit with DH's grandfather.  He is 84 and was disabled by a stroke 10 years ago.  He still manages to live independently.  He has been such an example of Christ in my DH's life.  He is a wonderful man.

Granddaddy was in the U.S. Navy in World War II.  He was on a submarine tender in the Pacific.  We got him talking about his time in the navy.  I wanted to kids to hear him tell about the history he had witnessed, hopefully to make this history more real to them.  He was in Tokyo Bay when Japan surrendered.  He went ashore at Hiroshima shortly after the atomic bomb was dropped.  He was in many other hot spots in the Pacific.  The kids were most enthralled when he told them about swimming in the middle of the Pacific ocean while some of the seaman stood on deck with their rifles to shoot sharks if necessary.  Here is a picture of my DH, DC and my dear Grandfather-in-law.

Last week, while driving out to my Tuesday morning bible study, I noticed that the wild grapes were ripe.  Thursday afternoon, I took the boys out there to pick wild grapes.  I'm allergic to touching the grapes, so I sent them to pick the grapes.  They were moving a bit slowly, so against my better judgement, I got out and picked some.  We quickly got 3 grocery bags full.  I went home, scrubbed down my arms really well and rubbed in benadryl.  Then I donned my latex gloves to pull the grapes off the stems and wash them.  Soon, my finger was itching.  Of course, I had ripped my latex glove.  I went a scrubbed down again, rubbed in hydrocortisone cream, then donned the big rubber dishwashing gloves.  It was a bit difficult to pull those little grapes off the stems with those bulky gloves on.

The grapes cooked down to slightly more than a gallon of juice.  Out of this, I got three batches of jelly.  16.5 pints of jelly.  I had enough to share with each of the ladies at my Tuesday morning bible study.  My dad will get some, and there will be plenty for us.

So far this year I've made peach jam, peach jelly, plum jelly and wild grape jelly.  I will probably make some blackberry jelly, too.  It is my favorite.  I have a recipe for mint jelly.  I've got a lot of mint in my backyard, so I may make some mint jelly, too.  I'll let you know how that turns out.

With all the rain this year, my flowers have been so pretty.  I have one lone spider flower (cleome is the Latin name).  My granny always had spider flowers in her yard.  The gardening books say it should grow well in this area, but I've not had much luck.  I have one this year, and it is beautiful.  Here it is:

The abundant rain has certainly been a blessing this year (except those who have been flooded out of their homes).  It is nice to see green in the summer instead of the usual brown landscape of a N. Texas summer.

I have a house full of boys this week.  My daughter cares for two school age boys four days a week.  This week she is having to teach the incoming freshmen in the band how to march.  She does this in the morning.  My sons are watching the boys she keeps while she is doing her marching band bit each morning.  The funniest thing is, the young boys carry on just like my teenagers still do, and my boys get on to them for fighting and making noise-but they do the very same thing.  I think I can get a lot of mileage out of this when my guys start carrying on with one another!

I've got lots to do around the house.  The yard was the focus last week.  The inside was neglected, so I'm having to make up for it this week.  I also have some new curtains to hang in the living room. 

I'm working on some new piano and flute pieces.  I've been making myself sit down and practice for about an hour a day.  My hands were really hurting last night.  I've neglected my flute playing for about 3 or 4 months.

My bible study was on forgiveness.  We went through Nancy Lee DeMoss's book "Choosing Forgiveness".  Forgiveness is a difficult thing to live out each and every day.  I must always remind myself that Christ has freely forgiven me, and I am to freely give forgiveness to those who have offended me, as Christ as done for each of us.  Sometimes I struggle.......

I hope you are having a productive and fun summer!

Blessings to you all,

Karmann in Texas

I combined the many suggestions I received regarding my peach jelly.  I cooked the peaches with the skins on, didn't add any water, made sure there were some not so ripe peaches in the pot, and then I threw in a handfull of strawberries.  It worked! I actually had some peach jelly that jelled!  Yippee!

Coming soon..........blackberry jelly and wild grape jelly.

Blessings to you all,

Karmann

Two weeks ago it was plums.  This week it is peaches.  My dad is blessing me with peaches this week.  I've put peaches in the freezer-no more freezer space, though.  I've made peach jam for my step-mom.  Of course, it didn't jell, so she has some "gourmet peach sauce" for ice cream and pancakes.  I've got some cooked up for jelly that I will make this evening.

I've never, ever had peach jelly or jam set up.  It always stays runny.  I had some people make a couple of suggestions, so we will see how that turns out.  One was to cook the peaches with the skins on them.  I did that.  I didn't add any water.  I also threw a handfull of strawberries in with the peaches for good measure.  Should be some tasty jelly, I hope, instead of ice cream sauce.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

I've also made some peach cobbler and my DH has been getting peach smoothies every morning this week.  Smoothies with three or four peaches in them.  Very peachy smoothies. 

I started attending a ladies' summer bible study yesterday.  It is a study on forgiveness.  This week's assignment is to read Romans 12 each day.  I've done that today.  We also have a memory verse, which is:

Ephesians 4:32: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Blessings to you,

Karmann in Texas

My father keeps "blessing" me with plums.  So far, I've made 35 pints of plum jelly, and I have enough prepared juice for at least another 10 pints of jelly. 

My fingers are an orangy-red.  What a busy week!

Off to make more jelly........

Blessings to you,

Karmann in Texas

Oh, the plums are ripe!  My dad keeps bringing me plums off his tree.  I love plum jelly.  I was hoping to make some jelly this summer.  Here in N. Texas there are wild plums and wild mustang grapes that make good jelly.  I haven't made any jelly in about 8 years.  Well, I do believe this week I will be making jelly.  Unfortunately, I'll be home alone this week, and it is easier to make jelly if you have some helping hands.  I'll cook up the juice tomorrow after church, then I guess I'll make the jelly on Tuesday.  I've got to remember where I've stashed all my mason jars-I know I've got to have a hundred or so.  The question is, where did I put them to get them out of the way???

The peaches will be ripe soon.  I always freeze peaches.  I live in an area that is ideal for peaches.  If the year is good for peaches, it is not unusual to drive down the street and see bags of peaches on the side of the road, free for the taking.  Some years, there are so many, people can't use them all before they spoil and they put them out for others to enjoy the bounty.  I think this year may be one of those years.  My neighbor's peach tree is covered in peaches, and they are just turning yellow.  The tree is loaded.  I love making peach cobbler in the dead of winter with yummy peaches I have frozen.  It is such a treat for the cold, dreary days of winter.

I've got a call in to my friend to see if she would like to come make jelly with me.  I'm awaiting her return call.  I'm off to drag out the water bath canner, the thing I smash the fruit in (I forget what that cone thing is called), the mason jars and the lids.  I've sent my daughter off to grandpa's to pick up the plums.  I'm off to jelly-land!

Blessings to you,

Karmann in Texas

I went to a graduation party last night for a certain step-family member.  She has had a rough time of it.  Her parents are dysfunctional at best, although I will credit her father with keeping food on the table, a roof over her head and looking after her physical well being.  Her mom gave up the children when she and her husband divorced.  She now lives with a man who is married to someone else, and he lives with her part of the time, and his wife part of the time.

Anyway, the young lady has been in trouble with the law, and came to live with her grandparents.  Her mother soon followed-in an attempt to play "mother", which basically consisted of telling the young woman she didn't have to go to church while living under her grandparents' roof, even though they told her that was one condition of her living there.  Her mother also told her just to quit school and go to work at McDonald's.

My heart has ached for this young lady.  She has been shuffled from home to home her whole life-dad, mom, grandparents, dad, grandparents, etc.  She was at the point of suicide before she went to live with her grandparents.  Her brother was leaving for college, and was terrified for her safety-he was afraid his dad's live-in girlfriend would kill her (she had already tried to pay some kids at school to beat her up badly).  He wasn't going to go to college-he wanted to stay home and look after his sister's safety.  This is when she went to her grandparents' house, and her brother went off to college, secure in the knowledge of sister's physical well being.  I had tried to help the grandmother find a good Christian girl's home where she could be in an atmosphere of love, structure and encouragement, but the mother would have none of that.  I had thought about taking her in myself, but when it came out about the drug problem, I could no longer consider that-I could not have that potential problem in my house of teenagers.  We did include her in church youth activites, etc, until her mother put a stop to that.

The young lady went back to her father's house last summer, and when she returned to her grandparent's house in time for school to start, she also had to report to her parole officer.  She failed her drug test again-she had been doing drugs over the summer, and had brought some home with her.  She was put into an alternative school at this point. 

She worked hard this last year, and finished school a year early with a basic high school diploma.  Last night was her graduation.  We didn't make it to the graduation, but we made it to her party to celebrate her graduation.  All of her family was there-cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, brother, grandparents and friends.  It was a great time. 

I watched her last night, and I was filled with trepidation.  This poor young woman has not really had a mother.  She doesn't know lots of things.  Her mother considers her job finished, and is for all intents and purposes, turning her loose in the world.   I looked at her last night-she had on the cutest little white gauzy dress for graduation-with a black bra and a green thong on underneath.  Yep, everybody in the world could see right through that dress-no slip, no non-descript white undies to disappear under the white dress.  Her mother didn't even get her a slip to wear under it or tell her not to wear colored underwear under a white gauzy dress.  There were teenage boys at this party.......  The white dress bit isn't earth shattering, and is rather trivial, but it did cause me to wonder-what other things should this young woman know that her mother hasn't taught her?  It made me very sad.  First and foremost, this young woman doesn't know Christ.  Beyond that, there are so many basic day to day things that have not been modeled for her or taught to her.  Her grandmother and I have tried to do some of this, but her mother has stopped us in every way she could. 

Ladies-teach your children about Christ.  Teach them the day to day trivialities that make life a little easier.  Love them and spend time with them.  Model things for your daughter, so she will want to do it "like mama did it".  Model love, tenderness, compassion, steadfastness and honor before all your children.  So many children rarely see these qualities in action.

Blessings to you,

Karmann in Texas

One of the older gentlemen at my church died sometime early Monday morning.  He was 84 years old, but had been at church Sunday morning and Sunday evening, so we were surprised to hear that he had gone to heaven when his wife woke up on Monday morning.  Memorial Day.  Brother Jess died on Memorial Day. 

Bro. Jess was a veteran of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.  He made a career of the Air Force.  He was a faithful fixture at our church-rain or shine, he and his wife were always there, always in their spot.  He will be missed by his wife, children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and his church family.

Today was the memorial service for Bro. Jess.  The service was with full military honors-the flag service, 21 gun salute and a bugler playing Taps.  There was not a dry eye in the church when the Air Force Sargent presented his wife with the flag as a token of thanks from a grateful country.

He will be missed, but his family is comforted with the knowledge that Bro. Jess now can see his Savior face to face.

So long, Bro. Jess!  Until we meet again in heaven........

Blessings to you all,

Karmann in Texas